Andee

Fired it up late last night — switched to performance mode just to see how it fared; tbh I never found framerates that much of a dealbreaker, but it's decent. What really felt like a gamechanger though was the loadtimes. While they're not as instantaneous as I'd expected for a game from 2015, they're noticeable enough to make fast travel much less of a slog.

Figured I'd give it another whirl as I never finished it the first time around

@Onearmbandit I was hoping I could feed it and, over time, domesticate it. Dogmeat 2.0

@Onearmbandit my deathclaw got trapped in a small hole in the tarmac, so it didn't pose much of a challenge. Kinda felt sorry for it.

@sorteddan yeah, ditto! The base building always sounded great on paper but I always found it a bit unwieldy and more faff than it was worth. Still, fired it up again the other day to get a head start with a fresh save, and to better appreciate the (hopefully) upgrade in graphics and performance!

@ShogunRok Yeah from what I gleamed, there were individual character-focused DLC episodes, but I believe they were inserted into the flow of the main game's plot, which I found really off-putting, like the base game wasn't completely finished on release, and by the time everything was out (or at least when they announced that there wasn't going to be any more), my enthusiasm to play the thing had all-but fizzled.

@ShogunRok Thanks — I still never got around to playing FFXV because of the frankly ludicrous way that they drip-fed the DLC out — and apparently they never completely finished it, did they?

@ShogunRok Having not played the original yet, it is worth nabbing the DLC and playing it as it becomes available in the flow of the story, or just nail the base game first and play the DLC after?

I really tried to give Fallout 4 a fair go, must have played about 30-40 hours of it, but it just didn't click for me — it just felt very shallow and bland, and the base-building element (which on paper sounded awesome), just had a unsatisfyingly floaty, imprecise feeling to it.

@Czar_Khastik don't forget Brexit

@Terra_Custodes Yeah, I do miss the days of magazines like Games TM who actually went out of their way to address that a "5" meant "average" in their scoring criteria — it's one of the reasons I think aggregate sites like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes are fundamentally flawed.

I was relatively into this game until I saw who was publishing it, and then this. Unless it's getting unanimous 9s and 10s across the board, I'll probably wait til it's half price and/or a GOTY edition.

@Terra_Custodes yeah, I've definitely listened to the FF soundtracks more than I've actually played the games! Are you talking about Dear Friends from FFV? That tune is an absolute banger — if you can track down the "20020220" album by the Tokyo Philharmonic it's quintessential FF.

Oh and I can attest that DQXI is ace! It's absolutely nothing new, but for pure unfiltered JRPG goodness it's like putting on a comfy oversized hoodie

@Terra_Custodes Yeah for me I think it's the random encounters that are the biggest hurdles — it makes exploration/thoroughness an absolute chore — FF2 was downright sadistic in the amount of dead-end dungeon rooms (the maps are a godsend). I'm working my way through them sequentially, and I'm really looking forward to 4-6 — I loved 4 on PS1 and DS and I never finished 5 or 6! The 7 remakes I'm really enjoying them for what they are (just on chapter 4 of Rebirth), but overall I prefer the brevity/efficiency and just the overall vibe/charm of the original.

@Terra_Custodes yeah, in the past year I've had to drop Mother, Star Ocean 1, and came close to dropping FF2 because they simply haven't aged well at all (I only managed to power through FF2 because of the Boosts) — I know it's sort of a middle ground, but I've just started Mario RPG which has rejuvenated my faith in JRPGs!

As long as they're consistent — a juddery, inconsistent frame rate can be nausea-inducing.

@Terra_Custodes Yeah I tried 2 briefly (on PC of all things — I didn't know it even came to PlayStation 2), but it just didn't grab me the same way that 1 did.

And yeah, thanks for the heads up — it's popped up on sale numerous times, but I've become a bit disenchanted with how badly some of that era's JRPGs have been treated in their rereleases, and/or aged in general.

@AK4tywill yup — I'd much rather spend time on games that I've decided to play rather than being funnelled into a curated selection for a limited rotational period.

@ATaco it's "GTA, plus some other games"

Ah, so that explains the recent drop to £13 on the PSN store.

I did try this briefly after being way out of the loop since the 04-06 "trilogy", where I felt the series really peaked, but it demanded I create an EA account to play the majority of the modes (even the single player/"offline" ones), which put me right off

@Rgeneb1 I was considering that — saw it pop up the other week and thought that it was odd timing, even more so now that they've just released this collection.

Do we know if the Switch version's issues were ever addressed? I've been waiting to pull the trigger on it for a while, but I might just end up getting the digital PS1 version.

Graphically, Grandia is in an awkward place, a product of that strange time when games would use character sprites in a 3D game world.

Which seems to have received a renaissance of sorts with the whole HD-2D aesthetic. Personally I don't really see the appeal, and Grandia 1 (albeit a game I have fond memories of) was always my go-to comparison for the style.

@twitchtvpat Yeah I should definitely give at least the demo a go — it's just that that was like the third JRPG I've dropped in the past year, and I'm trying to be a bit more discerning with them. Apparently Second Story is brimming with QoL improvements that First Departure lacks

Personally I'm fine with my "base" PS5, but if the Pro keeps the frame/pixel-counters happy, then great.

I've got Second Story R sitting on my shelf, still sealed, waiting to be played. I made the mistake of playing First Departure R first, which was a heartbreakingly underwhelming experience, and never did finish, and has now made me question whether or not I even want to play Second Story now.

@NEStalgia Heh, "caRPG" still makes me smile — and yeah, if I wanted "Crrraaazy money" there's a whole separate game I can play for that...

@NEStalgia Thanks — yeah I've zero interest in "collecting" or trophies, but I always enjoyed the RPG-style upgrading of old bangers that they had in the first game.

@NEStalgia Yeah, I haven't played a GT game since the very first one, and was interested in jumping back in for 7, but reading about the MTs just put me off completely. Outside of post-game stuff, can the game be realistically enjoyed without them?

I don't want tat, just let me give you money for a standard disc edition, how is that so unappealing?

@JohntheRaptor I was gonna say the exact same thing — and I really enjoy FFVII Remake for what it is, but I felt that MGS was already narratively perfect as it was — please don't make it an overly-padded out meta commentary on the notion of storytelling or something. I think the recent Resident Evil remakes strike the right balance of updating the original without departing too drastically to what made the original so appealing

@Olskeezy yeah, same — I borrowed P5R on PS4, and with these rereleases I was pretty interested in getting into the series,, but with so many non-definitive versions floating around it's completely killed my enthusiasm.

Gonna snag it on the weekend

Maybe there are potholes in some of Vice City's more rundown area's road crossings — hence Mister Q's helpful advice to not even trip.

"This sky are sick."

@ShogunRok the Hobbit analogy is bang on — I tried giving those a fair rewatch a year or so ago and I could make it through the second one, it was worse than I remember.

As for FVIIR, the bloat and padding was definitely a nitpick I had with the first game, so I'm glad you highlighted it here.

I picked up a cheap eBay copy of SFV last year just so I could get up to speed with the story and characters in time for SF6, plus to see what all the hubbub was about... Yeah I needn't have bothered

@Gaia093 I had that spoiled to me by Homer Simpson, in the episode that spoils it to a queue of moviegoers (I didn't see Star Wars til quite late!)

But yeah, something this big and formative, you'd think that NYT would at least use a bit of caution, especially considering that the Remake trilogy isn't up to that point yet. Hell I still speak vaguely around The Sixth Sense just in case people haven't seen it yet.

@DrVenture69 yeah, same — I don't play online/MP anyway, but even if I did - unless there was a dearth of other players to engage with, the amount of people playing something is neither here nor there

Was the 2013 reboot trilogy really that badly received? I didn't find the story in the second and the third game that engaging, but I found the gameplay in all three immense fun — much more puzzle-oriented than the Uncharted games.

I still love the original Tomb Raider, rigid tank controls and all — been itching for a modern remaster for ages! Glad they seem to have done them justice

@Darylb88 Yeah I don't have an XBox either, so if it's a choice between Switch and PS5, I'll generally gauge it on how the Switch version of a game holds up — like I say, big AAA games like Resident Evil 7/8 it's not even a question!

@DylanT @Americansamurai1 I din't do f***in' sh*t!

@Darylb88 Yeah, I love my Switch, but I've no real interest in playing big AAA games on it (I use it mainly for first party Nintendo games and smaller indies) — if I'm playing on my TV and need a console with crazy horsepower i'll usually nab the PS5 version of the game.

I mean, it's one less console taking up space, but I've no interest in a Gamepass-style subscription.

I'm genuinely curious — why isn't New Game+ a day one feature?

To echo a few who already beat me to it — if they could pleeeease re-release the Monkey Island series (or at the very least, the first two) on modern consoles, that would make my week.

Never really understood the appeal of trophies myself, but reading the comments here I'm clearly in the minority!

@Steel76 I feel like the PS3 was the last generation where Sony were still trying weird experimental games — remember oddities like Super Rub a Dub and Trash Panic? You don't really see stuff like that from them anymore.

If they can pull their finger out and stop cranking out remakes and remasters, I'd go for one more round of fungal fun with Ellie and her merry band of mischief makers.

I'm curious to see what Nintendo bring us with the successor to the Switch, but if the technology then gets to at a point where we can realistically get a dockable device that has the power of whatever the PS6 ends up being, that would be pretty special.