J2theEzzo

So, it's a more budget monster hunter game, for mobile only, with a horizon skin?

@Medic_alert Yeah, that's fair. Quite right about Ellie, too! I suppose that's the twist, that she goes from the more sympathetic role, to being the aggressor/ agitator, as you say, but fair enough if you don't identify or can't get into that perspective. Clearly, you aren't so vindictive! 😉

@Medic_alert I think that whole Jin character flaws, as you see it, really was just a hugely ingrained mental attitude for the samurai class. "Death before dishonour" and all that... I mean, I get where you're coming from, because I sure wouldn't slice my own guts out for upsetting any lord, but back then, people really were kinda crazy. 🤷

@windxtravelerx I also downloaded the demo, with the intention to try it... and promptly deleted it to make space for something else. 🤷

@DogPark Think you're basically hitting on the head with that.

Because then no one would bother to pay and play Bungie's new ill-fated shooter when it (eventually) releases to a middling reception.

No matter which way you put it, it's totally unnecessary to have forced players to activate a bunch of towers to clear the map. That's never been the case in any previous FF title, and while it may work for some open world games, I felt it was a real step back for this series and hindered, more than encouraged, my desire to explore.

On my way to getting the plat, and have enjoyed my time with it immensely. Such satisfying combat! 1 secret boss to go, and I'll have scoured the whole map!

@Rich33 The story is already pretty convoluted, with time skips, unreliable memories, mixed identities and so much other stuff - and it works and holds up reasonably well, nevertheless. When you then add a layer of multiversal antics and extraneous characters who control fate, it just seems a bit messy.

I'd love it a whole lot more if they cut all the crap with the whispers out.

In fact, give me an abridged version, that gets rid of all the faff, and runs closer to the story of the original, and I'd be immensely happier.

@Afroducc For sure. I imagine (hope) they'll realise something didn't go as planned and we'll get a quick fix. It wasnt enough to put me off playing, but it's been more noticeable to me, all the visual stutter, compared to previously.

That said, my inputs seem to not be missed, and I'll take that as a win, because thinking you've healed and getting killed to a boss is way worse than some screen flickering (unless it's the distracting flicker that kills you!) 😉

@Afroducc I'm on base ps5, and think the performance might actually be worse now, with quite frequent screen tear and some occasional visual stutter. The input lag was a nightmare before, but the resolution was mostly clear, and now it's kinda the opposite.

@ThomasHL I was just joking really. Those are valid points, but I dont think the designers care so much about consistency, as just making them characterful.
That said, if you take the more stripped back look of some characters, they are wearing gi's, or whatever else at least!

Just recently picked this up, and I definitely noticed some inputs not registering, or a bit of latency on some button presses, which was boggling my mind at first. Nice to see it's getting fixed, as I'm right at the endgame. Should make the new game plus run all the better!

@ThomasHL Well, that's not entirely true; they all have, and represent, their personal story as a character archetype.
Eg, Kazuya is the authoritarian businessman, who also happens to be a devil... Jin is the typical mysterious loner with a dark past... who also happens to be a devil. Kuma is a bear, come bodyguard, trained by a maniacal man with electric hands. All very clearly reflected 😉

How to take one of the most brutal martial arts, and make it look lame. Probably a reason why they dropped this character for so long. Sagat is the best example of a muay thai fighter done right. (With a shout out to Bruce from Tekken!)

Oversaturation, combined with the overwhelming push towards digital only preferences and subscription models (including live service trends), taken up by hordes of casual gamers = the death of the market as we know it.

There was a time when you'd get a year with a lot of high quality games, but it never felt like too much. Now, there's literally not time, space, or funds to keep up with what's coming out, across all platforms and genres. And all the shovelware and sub-par releases amongst that too!

If all the free players just gave up on Genshin and Fortnite, and bought a game every so often, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess... 😉

Will they limit the powers, maybe, or items across all players (similar with couch coop)?

Because otherwise that's gonna be absolutely mental to look at. 😂

@Dom_31 I was thinking, surely the primary player would be doing most of the work, while player 2 just dodges/ stays clear of enemies and puzzles them up. Spose there's a few asynchronous 2 player games like that on PS already, so not so far removed from reality!

@Yozora146_ For sure, and in pokemon I feel it's a bit less egregious... as was pointed out, they're entirely silent protagonists. I also havent played any beyond handheld consoles, and I guess I didn't mind it so much as a kind of retro throwback.

Baldur's Gate 3 also has a mute protag, (edit: mostly mute!) but the narration does so much good work, and you actually get to choose your responses, so I feel it still works well. In the case of digimon, I felt it just made all the dialogue a bit of a chore to sit through. A more vocal character with sone personality, or else the option to choose a response and influence things would have made those segments more enjoyable for me, but it's all subjective, of course!

@Slayer25c I somewhat enjoyed the demo, but while the gameplay and graphics were solid, I couldn't wait to get through all the stilted dialogue and cutscenes.

@Dalamar For sure, there's really no justification for it. Forgiveable on a pixel adventure on a handheld console; not so much on a modern home setup on the big screen!

The presentation was fantastic, but the delivery of the story and the voiceless protagonist really made it feel like a slog. The game would definitely have benefited from focussing more on time in player hands, with bigger areas to just battle and raise your 'mon

@JB_Whiting For sure, would completely agree.

Absolum is out 9th October, which should be good, (also has a very good demo on steam!) and I got eyes on the new Scott Pilgrim, whenever that's out... They seem like they'll have a bit more nuance to get involved and lost in.

Just to say, there's currently a (multiplayer) playable demo you can download for free on steam. Gives you a fair chance to play a couple of levels as most of the unveiled cast.
In short: it's quite tricky, the coop abilities work nicely and lend it some freshness, but to be honest, playing it solo (and after seeing everyone's moves), it's a bit dull. The novelty/ nostalgia wore off fairly quick, but I think it'd be more fun with a full team.

Rocket racoon was a bit *****, but she hulk was cool!

@Smackosynthesis Yeah, on PS4 it was. But they tried to make it play like God of War, not like the old ones, so I left it.

@Smackosynthesis War in the north was great. Felt like an updated/ ps3 version of the old hack and slash Baldur's Gate games.
Would like to see more games of that ilk this gen, but seems it's of an age never to be revisited.

Give them EA, and all the sports games, for all I care. Let them put their favourite djs in every team as a cameo, till they progressively lose money and are forced to sell at a loss. 😈

People didn't seem to care much when PS stars were ending (with a few exceptions, and I among them), but now we're being offered this tat in return, everyone's up in arms. Well, should have fought harder for what little good stuff we had, before it was gone!

@PuppetMaster I'd like to hope it rewards you with a good cinematic still. Like seeing a tooth get knocked out, or maybe some changes to the character's model, (like limping on the bad leg) aside from tears to clothing, or bruises. Something that mixes in the kind of X-ray attack from MK, but in a natural way, without interrupting the flow of combat too much would be cool.

@PuppetMaster I assume it's going to be similar to Soul Calibur, where repeated damage to certain body parts would break the armour, allowing for increased damage to targeted areas (eg. High, mid, low).

Likely won't result in the fighters losing their clothes and fighting in their pants, as with the former, but who knows.

The one that started it all... (for me!) 😍

It's unashamedly awful, and yet... the more I hear it, the more it grows on me! 😅

@Ricky-Spanish It's about the closest you'll get to Left 4 Dead on PS. Much better than that tripe Back 4 Blood.

It's almost like lots of games aren't being optimised to run on base consoles properly this gen, so why the next (half) step was believed to be a complete savior remains a mystery... with some exceptions, of course.

Been talking about this one for a while, since playing the demo on steam. It's good fun. Mentioned plenty of times, but I really feel the rogue-lite progression elevates it above the typical beat-em-up, where nothing much changes from run to run. Good to have a meta-game.

Er... who?

Yeah, Barbarians was so-so, let's be honest. Started strong and ended in overly done and cliché territory. Weapons was alright. Again- started better than it finished.

I'm just not feeling the aesthetics of this... and where is he keeping all those weapons?

Prefer the simplicity of 1 or 2 weapons, with extensive move lists and utility, to perfect over time. Old NG forced you to pick your load out at checkpoints and run with it - this is just feeling a bit too 'everything at once' for my tastes.

@PuppetMaster They had the 'new' ghost rider in Midnight Suns. Robbie Reys, or something... he drives a car, instead of a bike, but is essentially just a lamer version. Far as I'm aware, in terms of comic lore, there's loads of Ghost Riders, including a cowboy with a flaming horse.

Edit- realised someone already replied! Whoops!

Makes sense, after some purportedly lacklustre sales. Sure it's not going to make much of a difference for them, though.

I'd rather they she'd all the 'whisper' stuff from the story, before any exclusivity! 🤭

@themightyant And I passed on the first Hollow Knight for similar reasons. It seemed a little too 'simple, but hard' and I couldnt find the balance, or what made it fun, so just put it down and never bothered to try again!

@themightyant I have to say, I'm a gamer that likes to do my 1st run (on just about most/ any) on hard, and if I really enjoy the title, would then do new game plus, or up the difficulty for a 2nd run with unlocks.

And while you still eventually get the sense of a power climb/ creep by the endgame, it really does force you to have to cement all the basics as a foundation to build on, because the greatest challenge generally comes in the first few hours, before you get more powerful. Once you get a few skills and levels in, the game gently eases up (with the exception of skill check bosses perhaps!).

God of War 2018 would be a great example of this, where mobs can annihilate you on the 'give me god of war' setting, but consequently, it kinda forces you to play like kratos would 'in real life': with patience, skill, and only throwing your axe when you know you're gonna hit your target. By the end of the game, some of the fights looked purely cinematic, because my reflexes and muscle memory were firing on all cylinders, and it felt great to be able to finally relax after a hard boss or fight, and appreciate the skill it took to succeed.

@DennisReynolds Hmm, that's kinda what I gathered, but I didn't realise the 'monster catching/ raising' part would be so secondary. Sounds like digimon is more what I'm after!

I've always been curious to play a SMT game as well, since I saw as a teen that in 3, you could get Dante from DMC.

@DennisReynolds I've yet to play a Persona game, either- though P5 was also released on plus!

I've heard they're also quite good poké replacements, though quite different in a lot of ways?

I've been tempted to jump into the Cyber Sleuth title that got released with Plus, but some of the overworld zones' design and general presentation put me off. Have to say, this is looking much nicer!

Not like I've followed Digimon since I was a kid, but it's nice to get a worthy pokemon rival on a non-nintendo console.

I remember hearing people were getting refunds, and I just automatically assumed the game had been shut down. My mistake... but sounds like that's a mistake on their behalf, too!

@KoopaTheGamer I guess combat felt a bit bland to start? A basic swipe, a simple jump and that's your lot. I know the genre is all about a power creep, but it was just not enough to keep me interested in playing.

@PuppetMaster Ironic she's on a yacht... I thought she was the first rat to flee a sinking ship!

@Ravix Don't quote me on this, but I think it got put out to pasture, and the directors owned up that they were too ambitious for what they hoped it would 'eventually' become, so they pulled the plug? Could be wrong though!

Sony so determined not to cancel another serving of live service tripe, despite the fact it's bleeding cash.