Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

I praise you on your literary prowess, exemplified by your wordsmithery within the post above. No, seriously, you should listen to Jimmer and go on and write!

Anyway, the game sounds great, but I'm not one for turn-based combat personally. I hear Clair Obscur is a great game within that category though, and I think I've seen you posting in the corresponding thread, is that a game your planning on getting later?

I like anything reminiscent of Souls, and am already planning my build for a later run-through of the ER DLC, if I can get that Sekiro victory and Nine Sols under my belt first, still strategising and making slow but steady progress with the final boss of Sekiro for the easier ending.

Speaking of which, I want to do a fire katana build based around Sekiro's 'Flame Vent' ability whereby you can unlock the ability to set your sword alight in order to deal extra damage to foes, for the ER DLC. Wish me luck! (if I can finally get around to it!).

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Thanks, buddy! That’s nice of you to say.

On the subject of Clair Obscur, yes I am very interested in playing it soon. I already purchased it, actually. It was on sale before launch and once the glowing reviews came out I grabbed it for the 10% discount. However, it will stay in the library for a while longer until the schedule opens up to accommodate it. Also, I try to bounce back and forth between genres to avoid growing fatigued with any specific gameplay, so after completing Baldur’s Gate 3 I don’t think I’ll jump back into a turn based RPG for a while. After BG3, my main game will likely be something more action oriented. Candidates include Mafia 1, Horizon Forbidden West, or GoW Ragnarok. I also have my Uncharted series replay waiting in the wings. And somewhere in the mix, either before Clair Obscur or after, I will be playing Dark Souls 3. I’m starting to feel like I ready to go back to the Dark Souls Universe. Tentatively, I had DS3 on schedule for the autumn time period, but we’ll see.

I’ll be very intrigued to hear about your jaunt through the ER DLC when you get there. Allegedly it’s quite tough!

@Jimmer-jammer You were doing it WITHOUT the Mortal Blade?!?!?!? Man, it's practically essential for victory against any of the endgame bosses. It's an op story-related weapon, only op if used in the right way, however. You must have obtained it, but not observed that it was in your inventory, as it's necessary for story-progression. And, yeah, thanks for the sentiment, but I hope I don't need it!

Anyway, I forget, but did you play SOTE? I am on the fence about picking it up or going for a different ending in/playing different aspects of the base game. I think I will probably do the latter as I hear a)the bosses are harder and b)there are a lot of empty spaces/things the DLC doesn't do as well as or better than the base game. What do you think?

Edit: Also, after trawling through some old posts I can see we've discussed SOTE before, and you said you were enjoying it. I read one post elsewhere saying it is more like Dark Souls than the ER base game. What's your hypothesis on that?

Again, definitely still leaning towards base game replay as they are saying on other sites that if feels a bit unfinished due to a lack of voice-lines/cut-scenes for the bosses etc. ,but if it feels anything akin to DkS1 that would definitely sway me towards the opposite direction.

Been trying out Nightreign, and I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I’m enjoying it so far: reading the previews, I wasn’t sure if this would work for me, and even in the days prior, I wasn’t sure if I’d even pick it up. But considering it’s FromSoft (and the fact that it was something like half the usual RRP) I figured it was worth a try, and while I’ve only played for a couple of hours (enough to complete one expedition) so far, it’s been pretty fun.

Speaking of pleasant surprises, I’ve also been playing the new Indiana Jones game, and much like Nightreign, I wasn’t sure it would work (in this case, I wasn’t too sure First Person was the right choice) but it’s actually worked out much better than I expected, to the point where I now wonder if it could’ve worked any other way.

I reckon I’m going to be hooked on Elden Ring Nightreign for quite some time.

If anyone wants to play together, let me know.

I'm currently playing the Splitgate 2 beta and Nightreign.

I'm loving Splitgate 2. Genuinely surprised at how much fun I'm having. My front runner for GOTY so far, assuming the full release happens this year. .

As for Nightreign I'm enjoying a lot more than most of the reviewers. I don't have many complaints. I thought the tutorial was pretty good but I do keep getting matched up with players who seem to have no idea what to do. Is it possible to skip the tutorial? I didn't think so, but it certainly seems like some people are managing to get through it without taking in any information. 😂

@Hapless I can definitely see that being the case. I'm just not big on using my mic though, and with Helldivers II I felt like most games with randoms without communication went fairly well. Not all, of course. But with Elden Ring it tends to be 50% of my games resulting in disaster. I actually managed to carry my last trio to the first boss somehow, but during the fight I was taking all of the agro as the archer class while the other two seemed to be trying to protect themselves by running into the storm. I had to turn my mic on to tell someone how to do a revive at one point, but that's covered by the tutorial so I don't really get it. But you're totally right. This is a completely avoidable issue if I'd party up with people intentionally rather than relying on randoms

I gave Balatro a shot on Thursday. And played it Friday... And today too.

I've sunk over 9 hours into it and that's 8 hours more than I was honestly expecting. 😅

I don't see myself going crazy with it though. Maybe just one winning run and then I'll probably drop it.

I got really close on my third run actually... Only for the boss of Ante 7 to completely ruin my strat making it so I could only play one of each hand & my deck/jokers were built specifically around two pairs

Currently playing Ghost Wire Tokyo, enjoying the scenic route by trying to complete all side quests and cleanse all gates. Nice recreation of the Shibuya ward of Tokyo. Stark contrast between the absence of the entire population and all the electronic fixtures running as though nothing has changed. I like the atmosphere although the gameplay can get monotonous at times.

@Zazu (Moved the question over here to keep from derailing the TV thread) How are you liking SW Outlaws? Having just finished the game myself I’m wondering what your thoughts are. How far along are you?

@Zazu I think that’s all a fair assessment at that stage of the game. Although it sounds like I was a little bigger fan of Kay and she did grow on me more quickly. There’s some key moments later which might endear her to you.

The point you make about the graphics is true, in particular with the mocap and facial animations and fidelity. The world and environments look really fantastic at times, but the cutscenes sometimes feel like a downgrade and the in-game character interactions are nothing special graphically speaking, sometimes stiff and with little facial expression. It can at times look like a PS4 game, although at other times it does impress, like you mentioned with the starship transitions and walking through the various cantinas and towns. I would often feel like I could tell a different part of the team made a certain section or cutscene because the graphical quality would jump.

I played the first half in a full fidelity mode I think and then realized there was a fidelity+ mode (I forget what they actual call it in the menus) where it is like 40 fps while still trying to get all the graphical details and that mode was noticeably better, so you might experiment with what you like. Still, it was clear they didn’t spend a lot of resources on making the character close-ups of the highest quality. Like you say though, all serviceable.

Agree on Nyx, for sure. I’m glad you’ve come to appreciate him early because I didn’t realize how essential and useful he was until mid game. Like you, I’m usually not a huge fan of the ride along sidekick, but Nyx really does steal the show (no pun intended) and you honestly can’t function without him and the sooner you realize that the better.

Agree also on the story being a slight disjointed, as well as the semi-open nature being hit-or-miss for this attempt. There’s lush and interesting open world maps to explore, and yet you are hampered by the constant dealing with the various factions’ territories so you can’t freely roam unless you work hard to get in everyone’s good graces, and even then you still get stuck sometimes with the Empire at your heels or having to go into an area that the clan still will attack you even though you may have “excellent” status with them.

Interesting observation about the probable monetization that could have been planned. I appreciate that they didn’t make all the outfits, speeder skins, ship paint jobs, blaster cosmetics, etc. to be microtransactions, but they still were a bit much and I quickly felt it wasn’t worth my effort to spend 30 minutes exploring a cave on the map only to find the end reward was a new trinket to hang from my speeder. Even the different outfits don’t really have enough unique perks to make huge differences in gameplay. I ended up liking using the same outfit for the majority of the game which I got from maxing out reputation of one if the syndicates. All others after that didn’t help much more.
I do remember feeling very similarly about Jedi Survivor whereby the game was chock-full of all these collectible hairstyles, outfits, and lightsaber cosmetics that eventually became too trite to worry about.

30% is probably an accurate estimate of where you are. For what it’s worth, Tatooine was probably my favorite planet. It definitely hit the nostalgia the hardest. The implementation was overall really good, even though there were a few missed opportunities there too.

Have you engaged with Sabacc? It was a whole section of the game which they obviously put a lot of effort into, but I never really wanted to dive deep into. There was a major side quest surrounding it that I completely skipped because I wasn’t keen to play more of it than I had to. 😅

I’m in between PS5 games at the moment. After completing Clair Obscur and Doom The Dark Ages, and getting the platinum for both, I haven’t been able to find a game to hold my attention for the past several days. I woke up this morning, though, to a strong desire to replay Sea of Stars and its subsequent DLC, so I think I’ll do that. Hopefully, that will hold me over until Death Stranding 2 releases. Plus, I would like to get the platinum trophy for it.

Finishing up The Division 2 with some friends and then thinking about completing my second play through of Horizon Zero Dawn on PS5 Pro

Edit: After debating if I should finish it or not, I am trying to get through Death Stranding.

@Zazu I love taking deep dives and talking about the games I play (and the shows I watch) so thanks for reading!

But yeah, I can’t guarantee that Kay’s character growth will click for you, but for me it did. I know what you mean though — to have a character start off as annoying, angry, sarcastic, disgruntled, or miserable without knowing the context or motives of that character can be really off-putting. People on here probably remember that my oft used example is Geralt. Part of the reason I dropped Witcher 3 early was because I felt nothing but apathy and indifference for him as he did nothing to show me why I wanted to root for him or be interested in his plight. Of course the main reason I fell off the game after a few hours was the overwhelming avalanche of question marks on the map and some general malaise with the whole thing, but Geralt wasn’t doing anything to keep me engaged. However, I’ve been assured by many fans that he is a very interesting character and his gruffness and stoicism makes a lot of sense as you get to know him and understand his Witcher role in the world.

Another example I’ve always had was Kratos, where I just don’t like the character in the older games. He came off as one-note rage and I didn’t feel connected to him until he got (imho) a better characterization in the newer games and he became more relatable.

There’s lots of examples, but suffice it to say I completely understand that issue of a character’s first impression being a factor.

I saved Tatooine for the end too, and it worked out well. As a probably semi-obvious recommendation, get your Hutt clan reputation at least to “good” before getting there and it makes your life a little easier.

Sabacc is a very simple game, despite it looking confusing at first. You can cheat at it too, which I never quite figured out. It has a satisfying feeling when you win, but I never wanted to pour many hours into it. But then I didn’t care for Gwent either, but I barely gave it a chance, as I noted above.

@Jimmer-jammer Im just in the castle area now and Im still not sure what to make of the Samurai and Ninja modes. I get what they where going for but I am not fully convinced with half the weapons losing their stance forms and being ninja only. I like the idea that you recharge ninjitsu by attacking and don't mind that its only usable in that stance, but wish I could keep my weapon in that form. Maybe if it was something like all weapons use low stance in Ninja mode would be better. At present I much prefer using Samurai and only really use ninja for killing wasps because of the weapon choices.

Ki usage and regeneration also seems off at present but I am not sure if thats due to really low starting stats or the selection of armours available at present. I have dumped a decent amount of points into stamina and am still at high encumbrance as all the armour seems to be pretty heavy for Samurai, and lighter for ninja. Hopefully the full game will have more light sets for all weapons like the Red Demon set being a light spear set to improve on this.

I am also not fully convinced on the open world but hopefully the game will mix up the zones so not everything is open field. The zone itself looks nice and i am enjoying exploring but I am not keen on having to explore areas to level up and get the buffs so you can go back and kill some of the tougher enemies you went past. It kind of removes that feeling of a zone being well crafted so you hit everything at the right point.

Also I appreciate that you can prevent switching by changing it from tap to hold, but its also beyond stupid that its a skill you need to find and not just a toggle in the options.

Good so far, but needs some polish and we really need to see more about the missing weapons and if you will be able to expand weapons outside of their set class down the line. Also give me back my proper full access to Omnyo magic for buffs please.

I like the mode switching but, yeah, I’m not convinced that the weapons need to be gated by the modes. I can’t help but feel that this is still a pretty early build and/or missing features that will be in the final version. I need my switchglave! Even things like ki pulsing while switching stances is now just automatic? And I haven’t even seen omnyo magic yet 😂

Yeah, some interesting changes but I’m willing to be patient. It doesn’t feel right yet but it could. The thing is, I’m having a lot of fun with the demo as it is, it’s just definitely not Nioh 2. That said, after all this intense action combat, sometimes I really crave something more tactical and deliberate — like good old turn-based strategy. I found this article the other day that rounds up the best ones on PC: https://portal.sacralium.game/article/luchshie-poshagovye-str...
A solid list with classics like XCOM, Civ, and Disciples II. Great palate cleanser between all the dodging and countering
It just feels like something’s missing. In Nioh 2, everything felt tighter and more refined — this still feels a bit rough around the edges. But if it’s an early build, there’s definitely hope! Omnyo magic absolutely needs to come back — it’s part of the series’ DNA.

So I finished the Nioh 3 demo and some how I even 1 shot the end boss, which I am putting down to fluke and a well timed use of my living weapon. The Castle town area crucible area felt a lot more like old style Nioh with it being a fully routed zone on the open field map. If the game has more areas like that then I can liive with the addition of open field. I did find I was getting my build going a lot more towards the end also which helped.

Still not a fan of the weapons being locked to stances and barely used Ninja due to that. In combat I just find it very jarring if you swap and the moveset change can lead to you messing up and being hit. If you kept the same weapon it would mitigate that issue somewhat.

Overall its a really fun demo and pretty meaty with a few hours a of content if you fully explore

I decided to give Days Gone Remastered a go and I'd forgotten how good the original game was. I just enjoy exploring the world.

Started playing Alone in the Dark from the June monthly PS + Games, it's a good game, it reminds me of Resident Evil 1 alot

I restarted my playthrough of The Plucky Squire (PS5), missed some collectibles the first time around.

Unsure what the next PS5 game I'll be playing, will be going back to older PS4 games in my backlog.