Westernwolf4

I am here to trumpet the virtues of an indie gem called I Was a Teenage Exocolonist for the second week in a row. I just finished my second playthrough this morning, and got my second ending out of a possible 29. What a game. If you like games where your choices impact the story and deck building games, I urge you to try this. I bought it during a sale on a whim, and it is great. I love finding a game I wasn’t anticipating that ends up being a favorite!

For the rest of the weekend, I am starting Rise of the Ronin. I am a little apprehensive because I hear the game starts rough before getting good, and the controls for combat are awkward. But I am intrigued by the game and going to give it a shot. Happy gaming all!

I don't think it will happen, but if there WERE a Bioshock 4 announcement with a 2024 release window, I would be over the moon.

Gollum is on sale you guys! IT’S HAPPENING! 😃

After finishing Jedi Survivor, I am staying in space with I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. It is a really fantastic game, but hard to describe: a sci-fi setting lifestyle sim with a card game/deck builder for challenges and another mechanic too story related to spoil. That is the best I can do. I highly recommend, especially if you like games about building connections with people, or time management, or sci-fi or card games in your games. I am very impressed with this gem.

I get why Sony et al are tempted by this kind of game. Hook people in for a long time and watch the money flow.

But by their very nature, only a few games like this succeed. There is a limited pool of gamers with limited time. A few games hook the majority of them, and the rest crash and burn with the investment wasted.

I guess the chance of hitting on a lottery ticket is worth it to them, but I don’t get it. Does not seem like a winning strategy long term.

@Atreus97 People cycle through hobbies all the time, which is great. But age has very little to do with liking games or not. We are in the age of The Last of Us, not Atari. Saying a person is too old for games is just like saying they are too old for movies or music or books. They are all just hobbies.

I hope that you find some games or another hobby that inspires you!

This PS presentation didn’t inspire me. I thought it was pretty poor.

I always wonder-after an announcement like this, is the excellent Push Square staff as excited as we are, or is there a part of them that is like "Man, tomorrow is going to be a long, writing filled day?"

Either way, thanks in advance for the always great coverage. We may like what is shown, we may hate what is shown, but we will certainly have the information we need to make the conclusion. Thanks PS!

@get2sammyb Not to quibble, but the reviews on this very site awarded the Essential tier games scores of 6, 5, and 7 respectively. I agree that the other tiers have some great stuff (All who have not need to play Dredge!), and mileage may vary on the Essential games among all, even Push Square staff.

But the post you were responding to was about the Essential tier this month, and the scores for these games here show why a bunch of folks would find it underwhelming.

Thanks for the great content here-this is the best place for PS news!

@Americansamurai1 And it appears that the Plus discount for members who want to upgrade is only for the remainder of the sub, not a fresh year at a new tier-at least if I am reading the Days of Play website correctly. That would get me a slightly discounted upgrade for a whopping few weeks.

As a Plus member from the start, I was hoping for more, especially after a significant price increase with no new added features. I may let my sub lapse after all.

The game discounts don’t look great either.

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET DICEY!!!!

I was concerned about how the cards and battle would fit together in that game, but I shouldn’t have worried: It was great. The cards put a really fun spin on a fantastic battle system.

Midnight Suns was superb, and most Importantly really fun. If trepidation over the cards kept people away, that is a real shame.

@Titntin I feel like one of the few, but I really enjoyed GW Tokyo. And I loved Evil Within and Hi-Fi just like everyone else.

Going to miss Tango…….😭

@Marquez This guy right here gets it! 😃

I am playing Jedi Survivor and having a GREAT time. I feel about it exactly as I do about God of War Ragnarok: I liked the first entry in the series, but didn’t love it. The second drastically improved the game in every way: Combat is better. Story is better. Characters are better. And yes, navigation is better (which was the worst part of Fallen Order).

A little early to say (I am about half way done), but this could be my favorite Star Wars game yet. And, because I am old, I have played a LOT of Star Wars games!

@UntilRespawn Respectfully-what you are describing is not a monopoly. You can buy digital games elsewhere-it is just another brand or type of game. Sony has every right to have their own storefront to sell their own merchandise. When Target has Martha Stewart Sheets as an exclusive brand, I don't expect to find that brand at Walmart, nor does Target have a monopoly on sheets. You can still get sheets elsewhere. They just might not be your favorite ones.

Just because a company restricts access to the brand you prefer doesn't mean they have a monopoly if you can get similar items elsewhere. Monopoly is a term with a specific legal meaning, and the PS storefront is not it.

@colonelkilgore this happened to me too!

@SometimesGhost I hate to say it, but you are going to be even more sad once you play Hi-Fi. That game is freaking great.

I played Ghostwire in February, and it was also a pleasant surprise. Tango closing is a big loss for gamers.

I get a vibe of Cult of the Lamb with orcs. Cool.

Such a shame. I hope all impacted find their next chapter soon. Prey, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Hi-Fi Rush are all amazing games. It would be better for all of us if those teams were together and making games for years to come.

I will absolutely check out Ghost Runner 2 and Tunic for no additional charge!

I enjoyed FO4 when it released, but was disappointed in it compared to FO3 and New Vegas because of this: " It also doesn't help that side quests are, by and large, pretty forgettable."

3 and Vegas had such zany cool quests, and most of the ones in 4 are just utterly pedestrian. However, if you are playing this game for the first time in 2024, do yourself a favor and make sure to play the Silver Shroud and USS Constitution quests. These are two of my favorite quests in all of Fallout, and almost worth the price of admission by themselves.

FO4 is a decent game, but I wish there had been more side quests like those two.........

I just finished Immortals of Aveum. A fun, solid 7/10.

I am struggling with what what to play the rest of the weekend. Do I continue to work through my massive backlog like a good boy (Yakuza 5? Jedi Survivor?). Or do I give in to temptation and buy Rise of the Ronin or Stellar Blade even though I have plenty to play? 😬

@mac_da_man Robocop giving citations in that game is some of my favorite funny dialogue in some time. Great game, and Peter Weller is awesome.

I finished Open Roads last night, and it is very disappointing. I thought Push Square and Pure Xbox did an excellent job reviewing it and I agree: Keri Russell and Kaitlyn Dever did really excellent voice work. Everything else was really mediocre, including a central “mystery” that was very easy to solve half way through the three hour run time. What a shame.

I am going to try out Immortals of Aveum for no additional charge to see how that goes!

I wanted to play Immortals but not enough to pay. So yes.

There are too many good games to play. I officially give up. I am going to add this outstanding sounding adventure to the pile and then spend eternity imprisoned within my backlog never to return. I will be like Sisyphus, except with games instead of boulders.

I am happy for folks who want the option, but I see little reason to shell out for one unless my original PS5 stops running (knocks on wood furiously).

I liked the first game and got the Platinum-a relatively rare event for me. But I am not sure I liked it enough to be eager for a sequel. Good game, I was just ready to be done when it was over.

I recently finished Arcade Paradise, which also featured narration by Doug Cockle!

This looks so bleeping cool.

@Ralizah This was my exact thought at that exact paragraph of this well written pre-review: “Oh, man, ANOTHER great game I have to get to??!!”

It says something about the quality of games out there right now that I am almost hoping for bad reviews at this point so I don’t feel like adding another game to the backlog. I guess DD2 is going on the pile……..😃

Dredge without the monsters? With a Minecraft art style. Ok…

@Ravix Isn’t cheesy exactly what they are going for? It seems like they are trying to do a Max Payne plus cyber punk walking simulator type thing-where the over the top dialogue is part of the point. If so, I am here for it.

I just started playing this game this past Sunday, and I am loving it.

@Darude84 I finished Ghostwire last week and I also really liked it. Atmosphere was great! I am really surprised this one didn’t make more of a splash. I thought it was very fun.

I’m playing the Stellar Blade demo!

Just kidding.

I am finishing Arcade Paradise, which is fun, but in a relentlessly adequate kind of way.

Very excited for this. The first game was fantastic.

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET DICEY!!!!!!!!

I had a lot of fun with Greedfall, so I am absolutely looking forward to this.

As always, I will claim all. But Sifu is the only one I will actually play.

It is a great game-I highly recommend it.

And you don’t need to be good at rhythm games to get through it. That was my fear, but I had a blast when I finally took the plunge.

@Darude84 I am also playing Ghostwire Tokyo. I am 20 hours in and really enjoying it. A lot more than I thought I would. The gameplay and story are passable but fun, but the atmosphere makes the game. It is really great.

PlayStation. It helps PlayStation. Omg, I solved it!

I want gamers to be able to play as much as possible, but I don’t think the reasoning behind exclusives is hard to parse.

Xbox took all that time to say that? Wow.

I have no dog in this fight, and I know Xbox is dealing with leaks they weren’t expecting. But waiting this long to say anything definitive seems like really bad strategy to me. Why let rumors run wild and everyone else control the narrative for almost another full week?

Great review, and I am so glad to hear the game is good. I really like DONTNOD games. And I really wanted them to take what they did in Vampyr up a notch. While Vampyr is absolutely worth playing, it is also one of the games I am most frustrated with, because it seems like that game was ALMOST THERE. The atmosphere and NPC stories were top notch (sounds a lot like the side stories here), but the main story pacing was all wrong, navigation was abysmal (a powerful vampire really can't get through a locked gate?) and combat was really boring.

Banishers sounds like a similar game in terms of the good from Vampyr, that has taken some steps forward from the bad. Exactly what I was hoping for. I don't know when my backlog will let me get to this, but get to it eventually I shall.

I have all the major consoles because I spend way too much time on this hobby and I don't want to miss any games. But I will tell you one thing for sure-If the rumors are close to true (and I think they are otherwise they would have been promptly denied), then there will certainly be no reason for me to purchase an Xbox next generation if they make one.

Playstation has been my favorite ecosystem since PS1. If Microsoft releases games in that ecosystem, then I will have purchased my last Xbox/Gamepass machine.

I have both consoles so I don’t really care, but more choice is always better for players. Things that are good for players make me happy.

I don’t think this says much for Xbox confidence in their own ecosystem, but that is hardly news. And like I said: I just want people to have access to games.

@ApostateMage Me too! My PS wrap up says that Greedfall was my third most played game in 2023. I did not see that coming, but I know I really enjoyed it. So I am looking forward to Steel Rising.

Great month for me-I have been wanting to try Rollerdrome and Steel Rising!

I’ll stick to Foamst……..I mean Splatoon, on my Switch. 😃

This morning I finished Lost In Random. What an awesome game. If you like exploration/adventure games and card battlers, you should check this out. Random just oozes charm and atmosphere.

Tonight: Dead Space Remake. I haven’t played Dead Space since it was released, so I can’t wait. I made the mistake of starting the original when I was home sick with the flu, and a few times my heart was racing so fast I thought the game was actually going to kill me. 😃

I want to play Infinite Wealth, but I promised myself I would finish the main series entries first. And I am only on Yakuza 5.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

I would play the hell out of this. I don’t even think of it as an Assassin’s Creed game, just the most fun pirate sim out there.