Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@Ravix I prefer 1, but I think that's still because I got used to it and then it was adjusted in 2 so everyone had to "relearn". I think they made the arrow drop a bit less punishing but now I'm wondering. I should fire them both up and do a comparison!

@Metonymy How is your playthrough of Nioh 3 coming along, my friend? I am currently working through Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, really enjoying it. Have you played that one also?

Yeah 😬 pretty grim. 'War is a nasty business'. (I think that was from the KCD2 trailer, and it became like their version of 'War. War never changes' in the community) I think it does a good job of not shying away from that, but then it will bring the tone back up with hours of silly questing and interactions and you can make your own fun again 😄 it is part of the Czech mentality, I think. Things are bad but we must find time to laugh and live (and steal cheeses)

Anyway, i'll say once more, I enjoyed those little tales from KCD where you are making your own story. So keep those coming and i'll happily read through them.

Bohemia won't know what has hit it if you are already liberating all vegetables and selling them back to their captors.

I'd ask some specifics but I think I will have to wait until you advance a little more. I take it you have met Miller Peshek by now? He will be very pleased to meet your Henry, I think.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN It’s going very well, thanks! The game is amazing. I see it as the ultimate ‘Nioh’ experience. They’ve successfully translated the Nioh formula into a more open ended structure and the stance switching is a legitimate game changer that has kept things fresh. Even simple additions, such as a jump button, transform the feel of how you interact with the world. It looks great (I really do think the game’s visual presentation is unfairly criticized - it’s a sharp looking game), and plays amazing, with a breadth of customization that really compliments the new found freedom. Nioh’s combat is a great vehicle for expression, and that has now been extended into the other aspects of its design in a way that’s really working for me.

My only real sticking points are an underwhelming addition of truly new enemy types (though the roster is still impressive) and that it contains the weakest story of the three. It certainly does its job, but barely. I hope they support this thing for a long time with some high quality DLC. I won’t be uninstalling it any time soon, if ever.

I have ‘Jedi: Survivor’, and might actually fire it up after I finish ‘Indiana Jones’, thanks for the reminder! At this point I’m basically just waiting for ‘Saros’ to release but forgot about Star Wars. I’ve been eyeing ‘Crimson Desert’ but still don’t know what to make of it so I think the answer will be ‘Star Wars.’ I’ll let you know when I start it, we can compare light sabres or something 😂

@Ravix I take it you have met Miller Peshek by now? He will be very pleased to meet your Henry, I think.

• I have, he has the white cap like Shoe-Hat man from Crimson Desert, that's what I instantly thought of. I finished before bed the prologue then I was given a shovel and told to go do some bad things. Instead it was bedtime, later I'll do those bad things. I have the puppy too, he made short work of all the meats I'd collected. I'm not sure what to do weapon-wise when I do play again. The sword is gone and I have two (I was x250 encumbered, I took everything) swords but not the agility, also a small axe? (hatchet? I'm not sure of the difference) and two bows. The small axe meets all of my current requirements, should I use that to un-alive people? It's a little ungraceful, I'd prefer to poke them with a sword, I have one called a Needle. Or can I use my swords with the risk of a hit to stats? Also armor seems to really affect encumbrance, should I wear light armor/leather like in the Elder Scrolls? I have also sneaking boots.

He really likes salami but he drinks from puddles.

Bohemia won't know what has hit it if you are already liberating all vegetables and selling them back to their captors.

• I must take all of the things, does encumbrance limit increase? Like if he keeps carrying heavy things can he eventually carry yet even more? Or is a horse/saddlebags kind of thing?

I'm sure I had other questions then forgot.

Yeah 😬 pretty grim. 'War is a nasty business'.

• Da yes very, but I think they did it respectfully, they didn't glamorize it, and honestly after I saw that little village destroyed, I'm not sure. It was like seeing my little early safe-haven destroyed and I didn't like that at all. The horses, sheeps, everything and everyone was laid to waste, and conflict is something I really shouldn't focus on for obvious reasons. Which probably added to me getting to the Mill and turning the game off. Sleep was the better choice or I'd probably have dwelled on it. In a way it helped to understand why Henry might now be so bent on revenge, they destroyed my little village too. And they will pay.

it is part of the Czech mentality, I think

• Czech people are really good people but we brought them Communism and not everyone wanted it, every Czech person I know experienced Communism in some form, and I think the attitude of the Czech is resilience and strength. Now they can milk English boys on their shady weekends in Prague, but they definitely struggled to get to where they are. Even today we have a very strong presence there but they do a very good job at resisting foreign influence, which I really respect. I think resilience is in their blood, if Kingdom Come Deliverance turns out of be a tale of revenge? I certainly see that from a Czech perspective.

Do you have any tips? I don't like looking at those 'I wish I knew this before starting the game' on Youtube, they don't know how to balance helpful information with outright spoilers.

@Ravix Post more KCD stuff later in 'what you're currently playing' as I think I will probably have a bunch more specific KCD things to ask you about at some point. I'll actually shoot a quick reply there now.

• More adventures happened in the wee hours of the morning and all I can say is that Henry sure is on a journey, so here goes.

I woke up, checked on MrPuddles and we headed off to dig up a corpse and grab that ring, on the way we found a lovely little cottage. While running around outside we attracted the attention of a man, things happened and my inner Agent 47 said 'kat choke that man out he will have things for you and perhaps more salami for MrPuddles' so I did what was needed to be done and sure enough he had things. Then I heard a noise and a lady came out of the same house, I did yet even more choking out and again yet more shiny things were looted. I spent my time in their home looting all of the vegetables and cooking them. There was a noise outside, I looked and saw the man in his underpants sprinting for the castle in the near distance. I was encumbered so I tried arrows, no luck. I watched him vanish over the hill and maybe two minutes later an icon appeared (he'd reported me for banditry) An important lesson was learned. I reloaded, went back there, choked them both out but this time used L2 afterwards and you know what that does. Henry decided there can be no witnesses, and now there aren't. The look on his face when he does that, it's so cold and disturbing.

I continued through some trees towards the marker for the ring/corpse and once again saw a little house. I snuck in, found a man sleeping, choked him out in his sleep and ravaged his pockets, found the ring (he had it all along, but didn't L2 him because he had a name which tells me important for quests) found a key and proceeded to unlock every chest in his home then promptly left again and returned to Sleeping-Hat man. He was impressed, opened up as a fence and I instantly made one thousand gold (from all my stored loot) He then offered to teach me lock-picking, it was described badly and all of the Youtube comments were '500hrs in the game and I haven't managed to pick even one lock' and 'this is hardest part of any game please remove it' so naturally I'm anxious, but I got it on my third try. I think the key is small steady hands.

He then offered to teach me pick-pocketing but the game allowed me to re-do the quest maybe twenty times which means I took advantage of the offer and got maybe five levels in pick-pocketing, it boosted stealth too. It was then that I realized what those numbers beside a skill meant (un-used perk points) After that I ventured out again, found some woodsmen having some stew, waited for them to go to sleep, choked them out, took their stews. Went into many houses, choked them out, filled my pockets. Found a castle, choked many guards out, borrowed so many things. I decided I couldn't risk getting searched at the gate, but it turned out there was a little side-door and when I opened it I saw the mill/home below. I started to Skyrim side-ways walk down the hill and fudging tripped. Broke both legs and bled to death on the side of the hill as I watched Peschek go about his day completely oblivious to the fact that I was right there full of loot and dying slowly.

I died. Loaded my save up again, did it all again, got down the hill, had some more stew and went to real life bed. Also I'm all dressed in black now, is that why people are so suspicious of me? or does the A.I. know I've been doing naughty things but it needs proof?

• The hill I died on.

Some of the things I found on the people who lost them. Those two men were guards. It turns out the little door on the hill can also be used to hide bodies. My method now is to hide behind a wall and watch as guards pass, do my thing, bring them behind the magic door and rinse and repeat. Then carefully Skyrim side-ways walk down the hill and store/sell it all without risking being searched as I leave.

@GirlVersusGame awesome read 😁 this reminds me of my recent messing about on the PS5 patch, and some parts of my second full playthrough where I did stuff like buy a butchers blade with Pa's money in the prologue so I could butcher some meat (Kunesh), and just did more random stuff, but you have really fast-tracked those nefarious deeds to your first playthrough 😁

Only thing is, you said "lesson learned" but you reloaded rather than live with the consequences 😛 so Henry technically didn't learn his lesson, so I do fear for his poor, now murderous, soul.

The guards will be wary by default, as they will know there's been a severe increase in crime, but they don't technically know why, so you will get randomly spot-checked, but, unless caught, you won't personally suffer repercussions forbyour crimes, only your eternal soul is at risk from the almighty or your own conscience, but that can be drowned out with a good deal of booze, i'm sure. You can probably get advice on that front from Father Godwin when you eventually meet him 😁

I know that hill well, subtle game design to have both the logical checkpoint guard station, but also a thiefs passage option with mild dangers to one's leg structure so they don't completely rule out night the fun of nighttime dubious activities in the town. The game balancing risk and reward nicely and creating a fun emergent story for you too 😄

I don't know if you remember the guy who is shovelling hay in the prologue near your home, on the way out of the inter gate? One of my stories was Henry took in on himself to bully that guy. At first I just wanted his straw hat - so I fought him for it - and then every time I walked past he'd run away scared of me. One time I followed him to stop him being such a baby and fought him again. Later on when fighting Kunesh (no blade being used that time) Hay-scooper got involved and then got the guards on me and made the rest of the prologue a living nightmare as anywhere I went the guardsmen would chase me and try to throw me in jail (there's a specific cutscene for that in the prologue, and if you can imagine the events of that hallowed day, it probably isn't best to be in jail when it all goes down)

I think you asked for some tips earlier, weapon-wise I think just make sure you use what you want to use most as then you will improve faster in that skill.

Strength is the one thing that improves carry weight, logically, but also if you eventually get a horsey then they can be used as a pack-mule so you have horse strength and saddle bags etc, so your loot potential can be like 600/700kgs (random educated guess) without encumberance, something like that.

Later there comes helpful traits too, like having armour fit so it feels lighter adding more carry weight/mobility, and specific strength boosting traits (pack mule) and even strength tonic stuff for temp boosts if you need to make a getaway (better to not get caught though)

Advancing the story a little will also help set you up for more exploration, and survivability (Bernard is important for training sessions) but at the moment it seems you are still recovering and learning to be a grade-A thief with Peshek and aren't in any great danger from the world at large. And it sounds like a fun playthrough, tbh so keep it up 😄 But if there comes a point where you want to set out further afield, a few main quests should sort you out enough to be able to master the combat arts and let you start to explore more safely, take out camps etc. (Nap first. Always nap in owned beds) the map is semi-littered with save beds, too, usually at 'interesting sites', and also Inns, but also you could just do a bunch of alchemy and have saviour schnapps stuffed in all of your pockets too.

Just finished up Resident Evil Requiem, trying to decide what to play next.

Since today is the 11th anniversary of Bloodborne — the best game on PS4 — that means the Return to Yharnam event starts today, so I’ll be, uhh, returning to Yharnam from tonight!

I am still plodding away through Granblue Fantasy Relink, chapter 6 of the campaign, think there is 9 in total and then I will do some end game grinding and see how far it takes me, the games really fun, combat is great and being able to main any character means combat can feel however you want it too. Boss fights are really good as well, simple enough to understand the mechanics but still challenging enough to feel like you have to work for it.

I needed a main story game though so I went with Star Wars Outlaws after randomly seeing a review video for it which made me really want to give it a try. I picked up the ultimate edition in the winter sales for £30 and for the amount of content there is I think its worth it and hope it keeps me busy for a while.

@Kairuuu Oh yes Return to Yharnam! I still think the game holds up so well, I only played the DLC a few years back and it felt as good as anything I played. But I just so hope we get a remake. I would love to just get a ps5 version Platinum all over again

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I went to install ‘Jedi’ and was scared off by the 150 something gigabyte download 😬

@Metonymy I am glad that you are enjoying your time with Nioh 3 so much, it really sounds like a fantastic game. That's a shame about Survivor, can't you just uninstall some games that you don't play any more? It'd certainly be a shame if we can't compare lightsabres (Hint: Mine is bigger 😉😁).

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN 😂 I’m glad you took that in jest… I deleted a few things and still didn’t quite have enough room so I downloaded ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ on a whim. I might still go and clear some more room but that’s the progress I made last night anyway.

@MaulTsir Yeah, it holds up well. I know a lot of people think it being 30fps makes it unplayable but honestly after playing for a while I barely notice it. Just helped a few folks beat Father Gascoigne. So much fun!

@Metonymy How is Beyond Good and Evil going then, my friend? I also saw you had started up Crimson Desert. I was tempted by that one, due to the alleged inclusion of a Samurai 'Katana'' like-weapon that can be obtained from the 'Reed Devil' boss, but was put off by the also alleged inclusion of various 'wrestling moves' in the game - that certainly doesn't feel like a Samurai Build type-of-thing to me!. What do you think, can you go full Samurai build on this game's a** ? based on your experience with the game so far?

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I haven’t fired up ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ yet but it’s one I know I’ll enjoy. It was one of my favourite games back in the day. I’m looking forward to going through it with the kids, especially with a much smoother frame rate!

Yeah, I took the plunge on ‘Crimson Desert’. I’ve only played a couple of hours so I can’t say too much about what builds are viable or not yet. What I can say is that the game appears to offer a lot of flexibility so I wouldn’t be surprised if you could but yeah, too early to say definitively. What I can say is the game is a somewhat wild and unwieldy beast of a thing at this early stage. There’s a lot to grasp and I’m still just kind of stumbling and bumbling my way through things but I’m having fun doing it. I can tell this is not a game to rush through, it really is a bit like ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ in that sense. I’ll let you know what I find as I continue on as far as builds go!

@Ravix I think notifications might be a little discombobulated again or I had too many but I did reply on 4,851 I almost missed one on the music thread. There were some adventures since then, I'll try to add some later tonight. It's impressive how the game sends you to one place, introduces you to something else along the way and before you know it you are headed the opposite direction to do something completely different. I've seen other games try to do that, the reasons never felt as fluid. More like busy work for the sake of it, these side activities feel more genuine.

@GirlVersusGame I had read that, and I thought i'd actually replied, but I can't find it now, and I don't have an unposted comment on an open tab anywhere like I sometimes do. I must have closed it and forgotten and assumed i'd sent it.

I think you are doing great, and it is still fun reading through all of your adventures. Those are some good stats, but we can get those numbers up, i'm sure. Take everything, remove all threats, and justify it with reasons 😁

Which are the Vagabonds quests? The pickle bit has thrown me, as there's a specific pickle based pun later on and I can't think who the vagabonds are right now.

Yeah, on my second playthrough I bought a butchers blade before visiting Kunesh for fun times 💀

Look forward to hearing of more of your Henry mania, though.