Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

Got the Spectral Steed Whistle and Spirit Calling Bell, kicking off my second playthrough of ELDEN RING ,farming and becoming as op as I can before buffing up further with the scadutree blessings if and when I get to the DLC. Ultimate goal. Incoming.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I’m neck-deep into Baldur’s Gate 3, having spent 80 hours so far and still in Act 1. It’s really a fantastic game, and I’m having a great time with it. The turn-based D&D combat and narrative choice gameplay are different from what I usually play but it’s been a really nice experience.

By the time I finish BG3 (which I’m guessing will be many weeks hence) I’ll be back in the mood for some action combat. Dark Souls 3 was on the short list to play next, so we’ll see. The rumors of a possible remake or remaster do give me pause though. If they announce a remake then I’ll probably want to wait and play the best version of the game if it’s going to release anytime soon. In that case, it’s possible I skip straight to Sekiro, or even Elden Ring but it really has it in my mind to do DS3 first. I also have Lies of P in my backlog, as well as numerous other non-Souls action games so I have no shortage of options. I may want to go with something linear, or even a shooter, to keep some variety. But again, that’s going to be a while because BG3 is huge. I also played a smaller narrative game, Lost Records, on the side and I’ll continue to do that with another small less intense game when I complete that one. It’s just that BG3 is so engrossing that I rarely want to play anything else.

@Th3solution Just a penny of thought to offer here, Sol. Sekiro is really a non-souls action-adventure game, with a couple Souls mechanics thrown in to spice up the pot, as it were. You say you are interested in non-Souls action games, well then Sekiro meets the criteria, in addition to being FromSoftware and still an excellent game, but definitely not an RPG, like the Souls games are.

However, on the other hand, Sekiro is much harder than Elden Ring, with an initially steep learning curve that makes the game much easier once/if you can grasp the mechanics of the game to the fullest extent. On the other other hand, as it were, ELDEN RING is much longer than Sekiro or most of the games out there, and will likely delay your playthrough of the Dark Souls 3 remaster/remake or Sekiro even further, if you choose to play ER, first.

Bearing all that in mind, what are your thoughts now?

Edit: My advice, which you may choose to take or decline, depending on your whim, of course, would be to wait to see if they announce a DS3 Remake/Remaster, while you finish BG3, and if it isn't coming out 'till next year, you could play Sekiro in the meantime, see if it gels. And if the rumored game is something else, Armored Core or a new ip, then you could play OG DS3 and come back to Sekiro and ER later.

@JohnnyShoulder I think Two Point Hospital is still the best of the Two Point games so far. The humour is spot on and the game difficulty progresses nicely with each level having a really unique feature. The last level in particular is very clever and you really have to work for the niche trophy for that level. The game is fairly forgiving overall and that was the only level I had to restart to get the trophy.

But Hades isn’t a bad game to take its place 😁 It really is the pinnacle of that game type as it does such a good job of giving you the resources for slowly unlocking new items, gear etc. The first time you beat a boss is such a great feeling!

The range of weapons is also excellent so that almost everyone has a different favourite rather than there being one particularly overpowered.

The platinum for that is quite the challenge and if it’s one you’re thinking of going for be aware of the one that requires you to fully level up all keepsakes and don’t just use the same one the whole game!

I made a mistake. Such a bad, bad mistake.

Browsing a different gaming site and an article about the latest adjustment to Destiny 2 caught my attention. Reportedly they've added a feature called the "Portal" that allows you to do missions with modifiers of your choosing, to increase difficulty and rewards. This peaked my interest, so I downloaded Destiny 2 again... But before I did I found that the latest expansion, The Edge of Fate, was only $50, $40 after using store credits, so I purchased it.

Then I found articles lambasting the update and reporting that the player base is at the lowest it has ever been! Ha!

Shooting is still some of the best I've experienced though...

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Helpful thoughts and advice and I guess I’ll just have to see how I feel when the time comes. There’s Ghost of Yotei on the horizon and it’s possible that I might look at that to satiate any samurai appetite I might have. I even still have Rise of the Ronin in the back of my mind, and I’m surprised that it hasn’t been put on a steep discount yet. So many choices. 😄

On a whim, I re-downloaded and booted up Returnal. I’m embarrassed to say that it was done purely to complete the “Discover” PS Stars campaign that closes soon as I needed the 50 free PS Stars points to get over the top to be able to go from $5 to $10 PSN credit. I figured it’s worth $5 to just download and launch the game. I’ve already played and completed the game back shortly after its launch.

Well, what started as “I’ll just launch the game and get credit” turned into “Hmm… oh let’s see what this Tower of Sisyphus free expansion content is” and then into “dang, this game feels so great to play” and then a couple hours later I realized I had been sucked back into its world. 😅

I can’t afford to get distracted from my other games right now but I think I’ll leave Returnal on my console and dip into it from time to time. Such a good game.

@Th3solution No shame in that, I entered a PS Tournament in UFC 5 to get the last points in PS Stars for a fiver the other week.

Went up a few levels in ELDEN RING ,this morning, level 17 of 60 Vigor now, just have to get End to 60, Str to 80 and Dex to 80 as well, in addition to acquiring and upgrading the appropriate weaponry for my Sekiro build, as well as getting hold of the appropriate materia to aesthetically authenticate my build to 100% .

Just a couple of thoughts, though, I dunno about the DLC yet, obviously, but, man a Sekiro 'katana' build in ER seems very op, even early doors I'm absolutely wrecking the grunt style enemies. It seems very easy, but great fun. Just have to obtain those much-coveted Mimic Tear Ashes to mitigate the extra dps of those legendary ER & ER DLC bosses.

Maybe it's just 'cuz I love op builds, but I would personally say that ELDEN RING with a Sekiro build is better fun than playing Sekiro itself.

@Thrillho I will go back to Two Point Hospital after I'm done with Hades or the weather hots up again.

Yeah I can see there is a bit more to do in Hades in the hub than other games I've played on the genre.

The voice acting is ace too and I thought it was Ben Starr who played the main character, but was mistaken. He does apparently play someone in the sequel though. 👀

I beaten the first boss once after several attempts, but have failed to get past her since. Trying out the fists for my weapons at the mo. I did initially disregard the bow and arrows, but they are actually pretty good.

@JohnnyShoulder Just saw you played Sekiro on your profile, and remembered us having some discussion about it when I was initially interested in the game. What was the difficulty of the Guardian Ape boss like for you, and the boss your chose for the finale' ? , and which one was it?

@JohnnyShoulder All the weapons are pretty cool with some fun variations. I loved the shield with the ability to go all Capt America with the throwing ability.

And the amount of story in that type of game is insane with some great VA work. It’s another reason the platinum is such a mission though as characters have their own side stories to complete to get the “full” ending but the RNG nature of the game means you’re not guaranteed to find them on a run.

As I said before, with how you unlock stuff in this game it feels much less punishing to fail a run as you get something from pretty much every run to improve your character, plus you (hopefully) get better with each run too.

I can’t wait for the sequel and hopefully don’t injure my thumb like with this game from hammering the dash button so much 😁

@Th3solution I keep thinking about giving Returnal another go to see if I can get the collectibles for the platinum now but am also in the position that are too many other games still waiting for a first play!

@Thrillho Yeah, that’s my issue too. I’ve got a large backlog and would like to spend my time on first experiences. I am relatively close to the Returnal platinum also, but it would require a lot of grinding. The add-on content for it is easy to jump into though and I was surprised how quickly the muscle memory started to come back. I spent almost 90 hours on the game the first time around, so it’s ingrained into my central nervous system.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I loved the Guardian Ape fight, one of my favourites in my gaming life. Even when it was chucking it's poop at you. 😂

It was difficult, but not one of the hardest in the game for me. Those come later. 😉

I chose going through the full game, as I think that has some of the best content, especially boss fights. They are very difficult though. I did mean to go back to get the other ending, but never did.

@JohnnyShoulder Oh, I went for the shorter ending as I found Guardian Ape to be quite fatiguing, until I learned how to cheese the second phase, but even that required a fair amount of strategy and skill.

Edit: As you say, though, the longer route looked a lot more challenging, and I was quite happy to go for the "less" (open to interpretation, ofc) difficult route to completion.

I decided to go to the area with the trolls in The Lands Between, to accumulate more souls, early, and man, did it pay off, I was absolutely decimating those mofos! Went up about another 8 levels or so in Vig and Dex, plus upgraded my Uchigatana, as I've said before, man, build is op! .

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Pity you have no interest in Nightreign, you'd love the Executor.

@Kairuuu It does look good, but, yeah, prefer the base game and also the look of what I've seen of SOTE, really looking forward to it. But thank you for pointing that out to me, and if I ever do take an interest in Nightreign I'll give be sure to give that weapon a spin.

Around 11 hours into Cyberpunk 2077 but honestly feel like I haven't scratched the surface. It's pretty great and I see why it's so well received. Kinda like a first person GTA but set in world which for want of a better world is just so.. Cyberpunk.
It seems particularly well written, the missions and gameplay have a great variety on how you can go about them and characters and world are exceptionally well realised.
So yeah I'm enjoying what I've played so far even if I am mostly mainlining missions rather than attempting to explore every nook, cranny and corner.
I have just gotten access to Keanu's car which is preloaded with front machine guns... Very awesome!

Oh and I'm just randomly putting all my upgrade points into Cool because ... It says cool. Why wouldnt I want my V to be fully exceptionally cool?