Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@Th3solution PWS sounds like a great relaxing game, like Papers Please, I want to play that one, have you ever played it? Also I don't think I would like to do a different build as, like I was saying, the enjoyable nature of the GiantDad build is what makes me want to do another run with the same build, the Chaos Zweihander is just so OP in a NG run. Let me know about your adventures in DkS 3 if/when you get around to playing that one, completed it twice, best game in the series after DkS 1 imo. And, yeah ,maybe try a dex build in your next Souls adventure!

@TheBrandedSwordsman I did play Papers, please a few years ago. It was good, not great, imo. It is a more chill experience, but it takes some strategizing and is stressful at times trying to filter through people’s documents and decide if they should get through the border. It can be a little depressing too, with its political implications. It’s definitely a very unique game, unlike any other I’ve played.

@Th3solution Well if it's only good and not great I'll probably give it a miss. I was just quite interested by the moral aspect of the game, deciding whose future gets a positive or negative impact - the power is in your hands, haha.

@Jimmer-jammer How is Lies of P going man? I was going to ask you as well, do you have any Souls or Soulslike plats? I was going to attempt a LotF (2023) plat, as, based on the opening level it seems like the best Soulslike I have played and it would be nice to have at least one plat besides My Name is Mayo as a long-time PS player. 🤣

@Th3solution Oh! And sorry I just saw your question about DkS II again - I haven't played much of it but I didn't really enjoy what I played of it, got the Greatsword for a Str build as usual but it took many tries for me to get it and I just didn't like the lack of Miyazaki's influence on the game.

@Jimmer-jammer Congratulations on beating Lies of P, as I said before, to you or others on here - the combat with the Greatsword just didn't click for me compared to the Souls games, far too clunky, unresponsive and unwieldy in my opinion. But, hey! glad you had a great time with it, I assume you went for something far more nimble and dexterous in terms of your build. Thanks for the encouragement for LotF, that plat will be mine one day hopefully! haha.

I've actually taken some time off from gaming to watch the cricket (England are currently playing India in India) and prepare for an induction for a new voluntary role, not psychology this time, more community support related (I'm not working for the police though!) to put it in vague terms as I obviously can't disclose too much on here!

Edit - I'm still doing the psychology volunteer role too.

Hope you are well and can catch some Canadian cricket sometime! Join the fold!

I’m guessing the info online about the Granblue Fantasy: Relink review embargo being 28/01/2024 was incorrect, as I ain’t seeing any reviews anywhere.

@Jimmer-jammer Haha, speaking of all things Canadian, check this guy out. My favourite guitarist right now. Really love his work. This is his most recent and imo greatest accomplishment thus far, but if you are looking for something on electric guitar try Preverbal (also on Spotify) and Woodwork. Preverbal is better than Woodwork (his first album) and he said in interviews it's the album where he started to feel more comfortable taking risks. I don't know how often he tours the land that you have both called home, though.

I’m actually quite excited to see what’s coming during this State of Play. It’s sounds like it might be a big one. And as I said over on the article, if even one or two of the games that are rumored get a deep dive then it will be a huge surprise after the months of silence from Sony.

@Korra @Jimmer-jammer Absolutely. I don’t think I’ll be able to watch live, but if not I am stoked to see information and trailers. Rise of the Ronin is one that I’m lukewarm about, but I think it’s mostly because we don’t really know much about it and there’s been comparatively very little hype, considering how close it is to release. Same for Stellar Blade. We’ve seen a lot more of Dragon’s Dogma, for example.

I’m hoping they don’t kick things off with a big surprise reveal as the Liverpool game won’t be finished before it starts.
I’ll have to have it on my phone for a few minutes.

@Jimmer-jammer I have had to be at work, so I get to watch it now. I looked at the articles and it does look like it was a really good one! All the rumored games showed up!

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks man, and the same to you. I watched the Rise of the Ronin State of Play showcase and got excited, the graphics weren't all that, but the gameplay looked tight, and I liked the fact that they had "peopled" towns & villages in what they showed of the game. They have clearly drawn a lot of inspiration from Elden Ring, but maybe that is a good thing, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all.

It definitely also reminded me of Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro, borrowing rather liberally from the latter in terms of mechanics ,haha. But hey, it looks like they have combined all those influences to create their own unique beast. Excited to play it next after I complete DeS. Level 79 of 99 Vit now, then just 20-30ish levels each for End & Str. Should take about a month, considering how much I am playing nowadays with the Cricket being on, to level up and take out Allant, then maybe two to three months to complete the remaining areas in the game. Then it's on to Rise of the Ronin, then I'll be eyeing that plat for LotF like we said before.

How is life? Work and family treating you well? I am glad you enjoyed Matthew Stevens work and I just thought I'd mention that he is currently my main influence for my next musical project.

@Th3solution Hope you are well, my friend, did your impressions of Rise of the Ronin during state of play change your feeling of 'luke-warm' to a raging inferno of anticipation by any chance? Lol.

@TheBrandedSwordsman I don’t know… maybe it’s gone from lukewarm now to toasty. 😅

I liked the traversal. I haven’t played Elden Ring or Horizon Forbidden West yet, which are games that I think have inspired that dynamic and seamless glider / grappling / horseback transitioning. It looks fun though. Spider-Man 2 also has that mechanic too, so it’s really become popular to fly and swing from place to place.

The combat was the other highlight, because yes, it does look tighter than the comparative open world games like the Assassin’s Creed games that inspired this genre. I haven’t played Sekiro or Nioh, so also can’t comment on how the combat compares, but RotR looks to rely a lot on parry / blocking. I did notice there’s a lot of bar and icons on the HUD and so I hope it isn’t too complicated.

The part that didn’t excite me was the setting. I don’t mind the samurai and classic Japanese backdrop, but it has been done a lot lately. This one taking place in the late 1800’s (if I recall correctly) is a nice diversion from the medieval setting these games usually take. In fact, I’m curious why it’s called “Rise of the Ronin” if it takes place in the 1800’s when the ronin essentially disappear with the disbanding of the samurai class. Perhaps that’s the narrative hook — a last ditch “rise” of a wandering ronin protagonist fighting off some enemy as a last hurrah. It has potential. For me, that will be key — a strong narrative. There’s lots of open world fun action games with strong combat, but this could really set itself apart if it couples a compelling story.

What did you think?

As far as other games from the SoP, I liked Desth Stranding 2. Crazy Kojima nonsense, like the first game. 😂 But despite the weirdness of the trailers, I ended up loving the first game and it did some really, really unique things. So I expect DS2 not to disappoint.

The other game I was watching closely was Stellar Blade. It felt a little too much like NieR Automata. And NieR Automata was a game I also adored from last gen, but I wasn’t expecting Stellar Blade to be a knockoff of that. Again, NA’s strength for me was in the crazy, non-traditional and experimental storyline. If SB is just a copy of the setting, character tropes, and combat, then it will be a disappointment for me. Hopefully it sets itself apart with some unique elements, either narratively or gameplay-wise.

I liked the Dragon’s Dogma 2 footage. I know what to expect there. And Silent Hill 2 looked so disturbing that I think I’ll leave that game alone for now. 😅 I really liked what I saw from Judas. I expect it to blow my mind like BioShock and BioShock Infinite did.

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@Jimmer-jammer Tagging Jimmer with these thoughts, and anyone else who wants to chime in about what they liked or didn’t like yesterday 😄

I can't believe I didn't know about the Sonic Generations remake. I think I wrote something in a thread here years ago about how much Sonic Generations means to me. Very excited for this. Probably my most anticipated behind Project 007. But Stellar Blade and whatever the new Kojima thing will be are pretty high on my list.

@Th3solution

I think I had the opposite reaction to the Silent Hill 2 trailer, brought back lost memories (not quite traumatic but definitely disturbing) of running away from those weird leg things and scary nurses and really looking forward to getting back to it.

Same with Stellar Blade, my first impression was that they'd combined Nier Automata with Final Fantasy in a way that could be interesting. Really looking forward to seeing how that Judas thing works out as the BioShock games were brilliant in their time. Actually tempted me to go back to the remastered ones I've got - I only did the first one but still have them installed on my PS4.

To be honest though the reveal that pleased me most (I even did a little cheer) was seeing that Dave the Diver was getting a playstation port. That's the kind of little indie adventure that really gels with me.

@sorteddan I have no context for Dave the Diver but I know a lot of people are excited about it. I do think it’s great to bring indies and smaller games to the PlayStation and give them some love in these press releases.

I’m just a middling fan of horror, so we’ll see how Silent Hill 2 ends up as to whether it will tempt me. I think I played the first game years ago and I thought I played SH2 also but nothing in the trailer seemed familiar. I’ve probably blocked out the disturbing memories in order to minimize the nightmares! 😅 Every now and then a horror / thriller game is something I really crave, but I have to be in the right mood.

I’m realizing more and more that my lasting impressions from games often end up being the story. Both NieR Automata and BioShock delivered in spades there. So these “inspired by” new IP’s will need to do more than mimic the setting, tone, or gameplay in order to affect me. I have little doubt in Judas in that front since it’s Levine. It’s Stellar Blade that is the biggest question mark. I like the post-apocalyptic setup that we know so far.

As far as the BioShock games, I stalled out on BS2 when I tried to play it through the remastered collection (I had skipped it on PS3 and only played the first and Infinite) I need to go back and try to finish it. I also tried to replay Infinite once and didn’t maintain it. I think it’s partly because I’ve already experienced the story and its big reveals, and the first person shooting gameplay and graphics weren’t anything spectacular for me personally.

@Th3solution @sorteddan I too cheered when Dave the diver was announced, I like underwater games and have seen quite a bit of positivity around this title. I thought it would hit PS at some point after launching on Switch but you can never tell these days.
I wasn't overly impressed with Stellar Blade trailer, it looks good and all but that trailer was bogged down with minor aspects of the game that weren't interesting, for me at least.
Both of the VR titles interest me and both were new which is a good sign for these shows, still yet to buy a headset as I want to see a commitment from Sony internal studios plus the lack of backward compatibility and ports really annoyed me.

As for Bioshock, I didn't think much of 2 and Infinite when I played them on PS3 but I recently complete the collection which was on PS Plus and really enjoyed them this time around. I struggled with both games on PS3 but not so on PS4.

As a footnote, there was talk before the show about Sony first party (internal studios) and I didn't expect anything from them except perhaps a "coming to PC" announcement or possibly dlc. The big stuff will be at a Showcase which I expect to happen sooner rather than later although I thought the same last year.

@CaptD Yes, clearly the focus for this SoP was second and third party. People were bummed that Concord didn’t show up, but you’re right, i think they’ll save it for the eventual first party blow out at a Showcase. Maybe.

I won’t hold my breath. With all the second and third party activity at the first half of the year, I don’t think Sony has immediate plans to tip their hand on the first party projects. In fact, since Concord seems to be the only one that seems to be targeting 2024, it might just get its own little SoP when it gets close to release. Meanwhile Bend, BluePoint, Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Santa Monica, Asobi, and Media Molecule labor away in the shadows…

As someone who unironically loves the Shadow The Hedgehog game @RogerRoger I was utterly gobsmacked seeing Black Doom make an appearance! Holy Moly I never thought in a million years I'd see him ever again!