Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@Kidfried Yeah, Disco can be a bit heavy going and probably benefits from dedicating a bit of time to it so I can see why you’d find sitting and chilling with Chicory more relaxing.

@Kidfried Yeah I can totally relate Kido! After a hard days slog, sometimes I find it difficult to concentrate on anything too demanding. So it is good to a game you can just chill with. I can't think of anything specific at the moment as things have been pretty easy going since working from, but that should change shortly, so I might need one soon.

@JohnnyShoulder Yup, moving back to the office has been a huge change for me. Beware!

@Kidfried Yeah, I can relate.
For me, it seems like the barrier to entry back into some games is just the time and mental energy investment to get back “up to speed” with the game. So after a few long work days and time away, would I rather just pop in Returnal and churn out 30-60 minutes of mindless shooting and grinding, even though I can’t save my place in the game, or do I want to try to get back into A Plague Tale which I have adored but still need to finish yet would have to invest the first 30 minutes relearning how to play and where I am in the game….😅… I usually go with the path of least resistance and choose the game that requires the least amount of mental energy at the time. Although Returnal isn’t a “chill” game in the sense that Chicory seems to be, it is uncomplicated and automatic arcadey fun — muscle memory has kicked in and so I just turn my brain off and destroy villainous creatures in Biome 4 for an hour, then shut it off. 😄

Of course lately I end up just turning on the prime time Olympic coverage and watch the fastest, strongest, and most acrobatic people on earth display near super-human feats.

@Kidfried Without wanting to do Chicory a disservice, I think we've all got a couple of "mindless" games in our collections, for just such occasions. Whether it's a multiplayer shooter or a retro classic, or even just collectathon busywork in an open world sandbox, it's a support mechanism unique to gaming in that you're being occupied, you're getting a sense of achievement, but you're not having to think. Just one of the many ways gaming is superior to other art forms, at least in my opinion.

Here's hoping your project is coming together / comes together soon!

I have just finished Ghost of Tsushima. One of the best games I have ever played. Probably my favourite PlayStation game. So well done and executed. Felt engaged with the story throughout. So so glad I prioritised it over other stuff.

I'm in the mood for a complete change of pace from a game like that, so I am moving onto Returnal and will interchange with the Uncharted series.

@NedStarksGhost Ghost truly is great, isn’t it. Reckon you’ll get the director’s cut and play the added content?

@Th3solution I am definitely getting it. I won't be going for the PS5 upgrade personally, I feel it's too high a price to justify for the DLC.

How about you?

@NedStarksGhost I haven’t decided yet, but if the added island has as much content as it sounds, I’ll probably jump back into it eventually. I just have such a backlog and I’ve moved on from it so it’s hard to know whether it will coax me back in. Death Stranding Director’s Ed is going to be the same dilemma. I love these games, but it’s hard to reset your mind back. I’m having similar hesitation to playing Miles Morales too, since it feels like Spider-Man DLC, but I know I’ll eventually get around to it.
…And I can’t seem to make myself stop playing Returnal. So there’s that problem to deal with too 😅

@Th3solution yeah I can understand that! I've finished Ghost at probably the perfect time. I know when I've finished other games, such as some old Bethesda titles, I had no desire to return and do the DLC.

I do have the backlog but personally think it's the right time to just go straight into it. Hopefully I feel the same after two weeks on Returnal!

@NedStarksGhost Returnal’s a blast, so when you get around to it, be sure to drop your thoughts on the dedicated thread.

I forget — have you started any Uncharted games yet?

@Th3solution Yep I will do! I'll be starting it later today I think.

Not yet, I've just been focussed on finishing Ghost. I will be playing them at the same time as Returnal, I'll let you know my thoughts on them too as I go through them!

I had some time last night but I'm at a point on Demon's Souls where I need a bit more concentration than I could give it at that moment. Thought I'd check out A Plague Tale and was pleasantly surprised. I got a reasonable way into it and enjoyed most of the gameplay. I've not read too much about it before but guess a lot of people found it the same way as me in that it's very much like the TLoU but with less zombies and more rats.

@NedStarksGhost Glad to see someone else who has recently enjoyed Ghost!

I completely get what you said about DLC above though; Witcher 3 is the only time I’ve gone back to a game ages after finishing it to play DLC. Having only finished Ghost recently though I’m keen to play the expansion. I’ll pick up the FF7R intermission episode too at some point but I also intend to replay the game on PS5 too.

@Th3solution Miles Morales is great fun so you should get round to it! The new abilities he has makes it feel different enough to the main game and the different cast plus NYC in winter makes it feel quite fresh too.

@velio84 I'm surprised you found the side quests mediocre. I didn't doo all of them, only the ones invovling your allies. I found all of them to be rather compelling and served as great character building.

But hey we all have opinions, even if some of them are wrong (only joking). It's a shame you didn't enjoy it much!

@NedStarksGhost I'm not saying either person is right or wrong, but the character specific side quests were definitely better than the "regular" ones. I agree that those ones were definitely pretty good.

I'm kind of in between, where I did enjoy it, but I wouldn't call it one of the best open world games like some people declared it was last year. Some of the game was indeed great though, like the main story and especially the end of it. Without really spoiling anything for anybody who still hasn't played it yet, they really nailed the final duel.

I look forward to the PS5 version coming out, and I am considering playing it again to see if I enjoy it even more the second time around instead of just the DLC.

@KilloWertz I got bored of the regular ones as well, some I did were quite good but for the most part they were just filler.

I think one great thing about Ghost is that it knows when to be a video game and when not to be. Picking up resources is a breeze, fast travel can be used everywhere, the horse controls are fantastic. Some game designers restrict these things for "immersion" but to me it becomes tedious and I lose interest.

My comment about being wrong was in honestly just a joke. Some games just don't string the right notes for others. For me The Witcher 3 is that, I played it for half an hour to an hour and I just did not like the combat. Couldn't get into it at all, which some would consider blasphemy!

@KilloWertz @NedStarksGhost I’m with you on Witcher 3. And I even played it for about 4-5 hours or so. Still, I think it’s probably not sufficient to fully pass judgment on a 100+ hour game, but I didn’t feel compelled to continue it at the time. I think the combat and controls haven’t aged as well as the narrative aspects have. Perhaps I was expecting too much from it too. And the copious map markers and question marks dotting the map were very intimidating.

As far as open world games, it’s tough to beat Ghost of Tsushima; the wind mechanic alone makes riding around from objective to objective much more enjoyable.
I think pretty much all open world games have some tedium and can get bogged down in filler content. Both GoT and Horizon Zero Dawn had some lulls in the middle that I had to push through to get to the epic final acts where things really came together. Same with Red Dead Redemption 2, same with Assassin’s Creed Origins (and I assume more so in Odyssey and Valhalla, which I’ve not played yet), same with the open world Arkham games, etc, etc.
I think that an open world game does resonate more with some players’ style and preferences over others. Personally I enjoy both open world and linear games, but there is a certain mood one has to be in to really get the most enjoyment out of open world — you have to like the exploration aspects to click with the genre. If a player is more about moving a story forward and being fed constant narrative or gameplay excitement, then the time spent in travel or exploring around can feel tedious.

I still remember a really good soapbox article by the Push Square staff (I think it was Rob) a few years ago which used Dragon Age Inquisition as the example, but he made the argument that playing the game while ignoring the side quests made the game so much better.

@Th3solution I think the mood thing is important with open world games, personally. That's why I'm moving onto Returnal and Uncharted. Ghost is one of the best open world games for me as it just gives you the tools to make the mechanics easier. I loved that I could ride past bamboo and just press R2 to collect.

Can't believe I forgot to mention the wind mechanic. That's an excellent point. I loved Red Dead Redemption 2, but one isssue is you need to look at the radar to know the path to go, so you miss out on all this scenery and travelling. The wind mechanic was, excuse me for this but..... A breath of fresh air. It allowed me to immerse myself in the world, scenery and just enjoy this artistical beauty of a game!

Having side quests that the game told you were importat, the chracter centric ones, was a clever move. I get fed up of doing side quests that add nothing but a bit of fun for some. But sometimes you read that side quests are important. GoT found a great way to achieve that.

I do think as far as open world game design goes, they've achieved a fantastic formula between quality of life and immersion/story telling.

@NedStarksGhost I spent about 130 hours in Ghost of Tsushima's world and loved almost every minute of it. Glad you enjoyed it too. The thing I hold against it was there were too many of those tracking missions for me. Everything thing else though I thought was top knotch.