Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

I'll be perfectly honest I lasted about maybe an hour at most (Including restarting after it bugged out and wouldn't let me change the difficulty) before deleting it so I can't give a very nuanced or detailed take on it @Ravix

It plays VERY much like an Elder Scrolls title with you even starting in a jail cell. Though unlike the modern ES games you can only play Tainted Grail in first person (I think? Maybe? I dunno and I don't really care to find out to be honest).

There was a dash move felt rather awkward to use for me as well in the first person perspective. There's also a push move which... Didn't seem terribly useful.

So yeah I dunno... Maybe you and others will really enjoy it but it's not for me in the slightest.

Playing Hitman in VR which is just brilliant, sure it has a little jank but nothing that can’t be fixed with patches (ie adding a holster position offset etc..).
I haven’t played any of the trilogy except for a little of Paris (first real level of Hitman 1) in PSVR1 but have just finished level 20 Paris mastery.

They have done a great job with this port and I just hope they add Freelancer support at some point.

Defeated Corrupted Monk in Sekiro. Quite the hard boss fight, but appreciated getting the victory, at last.

@Kraven How does the gameplay of The First Berseker: Khazan compare to Sekiro? Would you say it's similar mechanically? Is it harder or about on the same level? Thanks in advance, man.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Glad that you’re continuing to make good progress. Do you know how close you are to the end?

@Th3solution Two bosses away from the ending I am going for. I took the easy option ending-wise, there are more/harder bosses for the other endings, I can give you some tips on making your own playthrough easier if you ask me at the time/I remember how I did it by the time you get round to it. 😅😉

How is your playthrough of Outlaws going?

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Yeah, it’ll be a while but I do sometimes consider the easy road in these games, depending.

Are you interested in trying Lies of P by any chance? Since you’ve learned (mastered?) the parrying in Sekiro, perhaps you’d try your luck with it? I have heard more than once that it’s the closest to a From game of all the imitators.

By the way - So far Outlaws is going well. The game hasn’t risen to elite level or anything, but it’s a decent game. There’s a lot more stealth in it than I prefer. The game is balanced such that stealth is the way it’s designed for encounters to be handled. It’s fine, but sometimes I grow weary of the slow and calculated sneaking around and decide to just start shooting. The problem is that it gets out of control pretty quickly when you do that in the wrong spot.

@Th3solution I am not very keen on Lies of P, I must be honest, although my interest may change, right now I think it looks too similar to Bloodborne in terms of the level design, but if you are interested in it feel free to go ahead and potentially prove me wrong! I've heard the gameplay, is, as you say, a mix of Bloodborne and Sekiro.

It's a shame that there's more stealth in Outlaws than you prefer, and all the slow and calculated encounters are trying your patience, but it's good that you are persevering with it, shows a level of commitment in your personality, perhaps. Is that generally how you approach games? Even if they're not perfect, if you're enjoying them, to a certain extent, you're keen on seeing them through to the end?

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I think that I waver in my commitment with a game, but in general I try to persevere. I’ve abandoned many games over the years, but I either try to revisit them later, or if there’s an inkling of interest I give them plenty of chance to win me over. I’m better about finishing games now than I used to be, being more patient as I get older. Also, it’s a lot easier to know what you’re getting into before playing a game now, with all the reviews and YouTube playthroughs that can be consulted before starting a game. I glanced through my list of the last 20 games I’ve played, there’s only 3 that I didn’t finish and don’t have plans to go back to them.

When I look back on my favorite gaming experiences, many of them were with games that didn’t click for me right away. And I feel like a really solid ending does a lot to elevate a games overall effect. The games that stick with you usually have some dramatic narrative conclusion or an epic boss fight or other gameplay element, so I do try to make it to that point. Usually the payoff is worth it, but not always.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN It plays really similar to Sekiro in terms of parrying and blocking, but it flows like Bloodborne and NiOh in terms of movement and dodging. For me personally, I found Sekiro to be much more difficult, but that isn’t saying much - both games I’d say are equal in difficulty.

@GirlVersusGame Thanks for your long and detailed reply with regard to your experiences with the Souls games and Sekiro. Yeah, I totally loved Dark Souls 3, primarily for the reasons you outlined, hopefully they will make another non-multiplayer Souls game soon, but Idk if I will play it, if I can beat Sekiro. Toying with the idea of going out on a high, with regard to their output potentially waning somewhat and potential life changes occurring before 2026/7 ,which is when I reckon Miyazaki's next possible masterpiece should be out. On reddit ,they say, "if you've played one, you've played them all" plus Idk why but I didn't feel I enjoyed Elden Ring as much as their previous games,I didn't enable online play, except towards the end, but, the boss design towards the end, particularly due to bosses like Godfrey and Radagon having the ability to one-shot you regardless of how high your vigor was, was something I found that spoiled the game for me up to a point. This was because I found you couldn't get one-shot, even by very powerful bosses if you're HP was high enough, in the previous Souls games.

Anyway, Good luck with Robocop! Sounds like you're enjoying it a lot, and it sounds like a great game.

I feel like I have a viable strategy for Guardian Ape now. Now it's just a case of executing it and mastering the second phase. I'm trying to savour the experience, potentially my last FromSoft game for a while, I don't want it to end too early, whilst simultaneously not wanting it to drag on too long, either, hope that makes sense. I want it to take the perfect amount of time, for me, to complete, anyway.

@Jimmer-jammer The Mandragora game looks quite good, from what I've seen YouTube. Added it to my list. Have you ever played any of those other Soulsvanias ,like Salt and Sanctuary or the legendary Hollow Knight?

I am quite interested in playing the, for want of a better description, 'Sekirovania' , Nine Sols, at some point, myself.

Also, have you seen this? (Game called 'Post Trauma' , Survival Horror game for PS5) Apologies if I have already drawn your attention to it. Looks awesome for SH2 Fans, though!

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Salt & Sanctuary is ace, I was surprised how deep the rpg systems were. Ender Lillies and Blasphemous I can also recommend. They are not as deep as Salt & Sanctuary, but still have decent combat. I think Blasphemous has the better designed enemies and Ender Lillies has a cracking musical score behind it.

@JohnnyShoulder Thanks for the recommendations, man. I may add Salt & Sanctuary to my Backloggery and Most Wanted Games List then!

@JohnnyShoulder Also, Blasphemous 2 is already on my list, and I've heard that that's the superior game of the two. With the Mea Culpa DLC. How is Lords of the Fallen treating you?

Accidentally played a bit of Crusader Kings 3 last night.

Long story short-ish (edit. Or long): I set up a created character, a measly Count in Bohemia, Plzen to be precise, nothing special just a regular Jan, with the intention of playing tall, not trying to expand much at all, focusing on stewardship and diplomacy. No offensive wars of my own making, just building and investing, cosying up to the Dukes, and King of Bohemia...

But within a few years of minding his own business, and creating jobs for the people, poor Jan was hit on the head with a pot whilst riding through Plzen and got brain damage 😅 he thus could no longer administer his affairs so his wife became regent, thankfully he'd had a couple of kids already. After a few years of struggling to deal with his infirmity, Jan died at age 30, sad and confused, barely recognising his children who he had been trying to teach the lessons of humility and good rule.

I read a lot of people restart when they get the infirm trait, as it is basically a game over. But I wanted to see what happened. Jan's son, Janosh (naming pattern detected) who was only about 7 when he became the new Count of a reduced Plzen as his brother inherited the neighboring county, is now raking in more money than King's Prague and the mines of Kutna Hora. And has since taken over his devious neighbors county, whilst ignoring his brother for now, and moved his capital to a lovely new defensible castle where he can continue to ignore real expansion and focus on making Bohemia rich more effectively than the King himself.

Will the line of Jan eventually become the biggest counts in the land? 😛 Perhaps even Kings of Bohemia, making it the richest kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire? We shall have to see. There are no plans to offensively overthrow any kings, just to gather money and improve our own home and build a focused defensive force in case anyone comes a-knocking. Who knows if Janosh's children or grandchildren will see it that way, though.

Power is a fickle mistress.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I've heard some people rate the first Blasphemous game higher than the sequel, but I've yet to play it. I also hear it is recommended to play the first game as the sequel directly carries on from the end of the first game.

Yeah I'm still playing Lords of The Fallen, its all good.

@JohnnyShoulder Thanks, man. I'll add the first Blasphemous as well.

So I've been playing Hogwarts Legacy the past few days. Sorted into Hufflepuff (The yellow house that everyone forgets) and mostly been exploring with some dips into the actual questline. (Seriously I'm level 20 and yet the main quest is only level 9!)

It's been enjoyable walking around Hogwarts and the surrounding Scottish Highlands in the late 1800's.

I would say that the ip and the setting does a lot of heavy lifting for what would otherwise be a pretty bog-standard open world RPG but I'm having fun with it.

Also helps I'm only... 10 hours in and it shouldn't be that long if I really wanted to mainline it compared to my last forray into open worlds with Elden Ring well over a month ago (I still don't know how I should tackle getting back to that... I may even restart it).

Anyway learning and casting spells has been rather fun.

If I did have to say 1 negative thing about the game so far it's the rather small voice cast.

Usually I don't mind actors taking on multiple roles in a piece of work but... They reuse them a LOT. Especially J.B.Blanc I've noticed.

He's a fantastic voice actor and has a good range (The default Narrator in Dragon's Crown, Ryotaro Dojima in Persona 4, Zinyak in Saints Row IV to name a few) but they make him use the same/slightly varied Scottish accent for like 6 npcs (Including the potions seller in Hogsmeade) and a lot of enemies too and he barely gets to change it up at all.

Also I would say some of the voice acting is a bit rough in general... Both the Male and Female protagonist (I tried both) are a bit... Lacklustre.

Hopefully with a sequel they can actually get some more voice talent.

But other then that... It's good fun!