TheArt

Sat with a priest at a tavern hoping he'd tell about a confession from a criminal but he won't budge. It was late so had to sleep in some attic at the tavern, could hear echoes of people drinking and chatting downstairs. The next step was to seek advice from my lord across town, on the way met this stubborn soon to be lord who asked to go party at a bathhouse. Graphics got sharper from the effects of alcohol, woke up hungry had to get some soup from the next tavern - this is Kingdom Come Deliverance, and it's £4.99. And all that is made even better in KCDII. Going to be playing these 2 for a long time.

Raw graphics: Horizon Forbidden West. I mean it was Digital Foundry's best graphics of 2022. BG3 also looks really good!

Art Direction: Elden Ring.

PC- First devs can't really be relied upon to deliver a seamless experience on console. If your game is multiplat, start with console, CDPR learnt this the hard way and now developing Witcher 4 on console first.

Kingdom Come Deliverance at £4.99 is a steal!

Nah got the more expensive N64 instead from my Dad, later I felt I wanted The PS1 seeing games like RE, MGS, TR and Tekken, never got it. At least game changers like GoldenEye 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Mario64, DK64 & Mario Party didn't make me regret. After that it was straight to the PS2 no thinking twice - one of the best ever.

I remember how most readers on here were vocal about Old Country being linear a good thing yet see the votes pfft. I'm still enjoying the Mafia Trilogy especially the openess of 2&3.

@Max_the_German "Look at the 2025 GotM list, always the standard AAA stuff. Even a Silksong will have no chance against a Silent Hill f in September."

I mean let's not downplay the efforts of AAA devs, they could just as easily make indie games if they wanted to. And then what, the market is flooded with indies and just a few AAA, naah.

Here I am with a PS5 disc version and yet to buy a single PS5 disc. I ony have 4 physical PS4 games right now.

Wow the KCD1 is really good, heard it was buggy at launch that's why it was under most people's radar. Just love that sketch look of the Inventory and of course the whole immersion. I'll be playing alongside KCD2. Will continue my ACValhalla playthrough which I still haven't finished in over a billion years 😁. Plus some ER, EAWRC.

I see Daniel Vavra of Kingdom Come Deliverance was involved in Mafia 1 & 2. Got a feeling if he was still involved, he wouldn't have greenlit this linear Old Country. You wanna do linear at least make it look like 007 Firstlight. 😁

Low-key that's one of the reasons GTA6 is still delaying. They want as many consoles in homes as possible so they can break records on sales. I mean that's why there are a lot of crossgen games.

@Ravix I've always tried to play GTA V or RDR2 in first person but it's quite hard to stay in that perspective cause the 3rd person is just so good.

Got KCD for that attractive $5.99 just so I can understand where KCD2 is coming from. Such immersive lovely games. Plus some EAWRC and continuing my 4th run of Elden Ring.

@Flaming_Kaiser I think is Battlefield 6 shaking them up and not consumers.

It's coming up, it's coming up, it's dare!

This might just be the first free to play I'll download in a long while. Played the heck out of Skate. back in the day. It was a bit hardcore trying to pull off the moves but as satisfying as beating a FromSoft enemy when you were successful.

The game doesn't look like some graphical showcase or fast paced with a lot of things going on simultaneously yet it's struggling. Well I guess the studio is inexperienced, they'd have to take notes from Guerrilla.

Beat Clair Obscur after taking my sweet time and exploring almost everywhere, was quite overpowered the final fight was a walk in a park. Such an adorable, unique game overall. Missing the lovely music, weird enemies, everything already. Still on KCD2, one of the most immersive games out there but whose idea was with the lock picking design - too hardcore but a lovely game nonetheless. Playing Burning Shores, HFW is just too gorgeous and plays like a dream. Plus some EAWRC also, been a while what with all these RPGs I keep piling up.

@Kidfunkadelic83 @Czar_Khastik Yes yes correct! Thanks guys.

Great. I might just try it out. This is confusing me with some other series that looks like this, except it's strategy with tanks or something, can't remember the name...

£29.99 getting its own anime, cool. Sekiro is a unique game tho.

@LifeGirl Don't think I've seen anyone complaining about lack of trophies unless you're talking to the article's author.

@Ricky-Spanish Missing those weird enemies already, plus the fantastic music and so much swag during battle.

Yeah a shame Kepler isn't sharing data for Clairrr. What a game, beat it yesterday after taking my sweetest time. It's really not just some FF or Persona, it's just SO different.

I always thought Snake sounded like someone who was on a chokehold being forced to talk.

Seems FF12 is to 19.99 as Sekiro is to 29.99. They ain't budging.

I stopped checking for this when they announced the linear approach, because playing through the Trilogy, their combat is fine but not the greatest, I knew it would be hard to top story focused linear devs like ND - these guys have years of experience in this field. Mafia's strong point was about the "only old school GTA with old school cars” available with some realistic details you don't even find in GTA - like brake lights staying on when you stop or tyres staying turned in the direction you left them when parked. I expected them to build on that strong point, instead you throw that out and go against critically acclaimed linear games that would be hard to top.

Edit: Well maybe that's why it's not called Mafia 4, this just some spinoff.

Still on the ever so immersive, side quest interesting, well written KCDII. The so stylish Clairrr Obscurrr - taking on the difficult optional bosses. Plus the outstanding HFW, trying to take on The Enduring.

This was always looking like a 70s on MC type game. You go linear and think you can beat the likes of TLOU, Uncharted or RE4... pfft. I was looking forward to them building on their open world yet they decide to go backwards. We have a not too popular dev like Warhorse daring to create something as close to RDR2 with KCD2. And Hangar13 who's been around for some time making this look like their first ever game.

Still Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, the immersion is incredible. I like how the combat isn't just straight forward hack and slash and go, the enemy has an equal chance just as you. The world is just beautiful, don't really think I've talked about a game's map being lovely, this is one of them along with the entire menu and UI. It has all the mechanics needed for a realistic open world. Can't stop playing.

Watched some gameplay vids, melee animations didn't look smooth...hmph...if you're going oh so linear and not reaching TLOU2 gameplay level then I dunno...

If this is true, I called this soon as Xbox started putting their games on PS. I predicted it's a move by Xbox to make PS look bad keeping their games exclusive and lure them to follow suit.

@B0udoir Yep some QoL mechanics just ruins games. I liked the tracking in World and was disappointed I could just find my target monster just by looking at the map in Rise. And in other games, things like items being sent automatically to your stash is just unrealistic. Fast Travel I still find somewhat questionable. QoL overall sometimes makes things cheap I feel.

This was my most anticipated game for early 2025 yet I've gone on to spend my money on Clair Obscur & KCD2. After MHWorld set the bar at 90 MC, Wilds being at 88 right now makes it a "ooh I can wait a bit", 88 is far from a bad score and I know I'll definitely get it one day and enjoy it immensely. But Capcom doing this drip feeding and releasing the usual "massive expansion" later is making critics treat it like some live service game that would keep growing.

KCD is just so so immersive. This is how you do open worlds.

Yeah right. More like Bethesda is the biggest publisher on any platform. I remember looking at my physical PS4 games and seeing a lot of Bethesdas - from Dishonored 1, 2, DoTO, Prey, Fallout 4, Skyrim, Doom 2016...and then all of a sudden someone wants to claim all the glory. Bethesda would still have a lot of games with or without MS.

I'm on the final battle but really want to explore the continent and get all powerful items, however I've been sidetracked by another masterpiece - KCD2. No rush to the credits rolling on gems like these.

@Bamila Lol if you were waiting for games to be in their absolute best state, you'd be playing The Witcher 3 in 2025 or better still wait for a remake on PS7. 😉

Only actual MS game is FH5.

Horizon is just superb. Graphics, gameplay, everything. Analyzing a machine, tagging particular parts you want, shooting then off with a high tear arrow or shooting an elemental arrow to a matching element to trigger a chain reaction...what unique and satisfying combat. Fighting a Thunderjaw or Stormbird is always memorable.

@Oram77 the dust has settled, and y'all are really appreciating this gem of a series now eh.

Bought KCD2, at a camp, fed the mutt, horses looking as realistic as RDR2's, oooooohhh I know I'm in for a good time, this is my kind of game!

Lol I see the novelty has worn off for some people but let's try to remember the first time we played it. Honestly it's the most stylish turn based game right now especially during battle, not even Metaphor comes close. Such memorable characters with all kinds of realistic hairstyles and interesting wardrobe. Great music. I'm a bit on a break, still exploring The Continent making sure I'm so powerful for the final battle, no rush.

Time and money man, time and money.

Horizon Forbidden West was very varied compared to Zero Dawn, we àll forgot and slept on it because Elden Ring. The approach to getting Cauldron overrides was different for each, and then when you got them some where corrupted. You have deserts, marshlands, snowy mountains, underwater, the skies and others. Ghost of Yotei would have go all out because to me Horizon has the title for best PS Studios' open world.

Yet anytime I said GT needed some open world arcade mode, some PS fans would go all out on defense that GT doesn't need that...but here they are. 🙄

Deep in the jungle hunting for Stalker Stealth Generators, so quiet I can only hear birds chirping, waiting patiently to ironically ambush my targets. Like a scene from the Predator, and that's the beauty of a series that keeps releasing alongside other equally monumental games it gets somewhat overshadowed. Horizon Forbidden West. Got the Burning Shores DLC, so it's mainly that.

I think I'm liking it more on 2nd run. Pretty sure at the time I couldn't help but to compare everything to RDR2 - which I was still heavily playing - and probably was still enjoying TLOU2 which came out in June 2020. After 5 years, I'm just appreciating GoT for what it is. Sometimes playing certain games at the wrong time can give you the wrong impression.

@Oram77 I heard MGS4 had the longest of cutscenes, I beat the game and don't really remember but yeah I remember Kojima's cutscenes being very long. I kinda liked his cutscenes even more than his gameplay, Snake's animations were janky.

@Nepp67 Which line? There's no mini map even let alone a line showing. Unless you're talking the Pause Map which I don't think I've seen any line on, it's just the small whirlwind showing on your target.

Doing a 2nd run of GoT, liking it better this time but damn the navigation is horrible. Hoping they drop the wind thing in Yotei because it got me going off the beaten path, roaming on difficult terrain ending up in someone's room. Aside, I love the unique art style, they don't need to change it for Yotei and of course the great engaging combat. I'm glad there's a camp system in Yotei too because what's an open world without some form of camp, inn or house...