mattharbinger

@DennisReynolds Same. I normally don't bother with Platinum trophies much, but this one kinda happens naturally if you want to try everything in the game.

Dispatch was great - played through it with my wife. I drove the controls and she made story choices. Just wish it had a NG+ mode so we can make different choices to see different outcomes without having to replay all the hacking mini games and such.

• Getting closer to the platinum on Ball X Pit
• Weekly challenges / rewards on Forza Horizon 5
• Starting my second play through of Dispatch. Probably three total? Want to see how different choices play out. Wish it had a New Game+ that let you skip stuff like the hacking mini games...

My wife recently played through Frog Detective on Game Pass and thought it was great. Very funny and charming, with each of the three mysteries easy to knock out in a single sitting.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but FF7 Remake Intergrade REALLY soured me.

I never played the original (FFX was my first, and I loved it). After I got my PS5, I was looking for games to play and FF7RI was well-reviewed, and I'd heard over the years how great the original was, so I bought it and hopped in.

I loved it at first and was excited to play through the epic story for the first time. Only I got what felt like a lot of filler. And a story that didn't make much progress toward a resolution. And a whimper of an ending. And barely any Sephiroth? WTF?

Come to find out it's a freaking TRILOGY of $70 games to tell the story of what used to be a single game. That would be understandable if there was so much story and worldbuilding and awesome content in FF7RI that it was impossible to include all that in a single release, but that's certainly not applicable here. So much fat could have been cut to make way for meaningful content.

Rant aside, I am about 14 hours into FF16 and really enjoying it. I get the sense it will tell me a full story in exchange for the price of a full game.

I had a lot of fun with the Diablo III seasons/endgame. Eventually I'd run out of interesting goals for my seasonal characters, and I'd pivot to power-leveling random players in public lobbies. Never got tired of seeing hundreds of paragon levels added at once haha.

Looking forward to IV!

I'd be curious to see what Microsoft and Sony are capable of with a larger hardware budget. I do get a little annoyed that my choices today are "low settings with 60 FPS" or "high settings with 30 FPS." Would be worth it to me for a box that could do "high settings at 60 FPS" but with less cost/complexity than a PC.

I have no interest in the back catalog of old PS1/PS2/PS3 games. I prefer modern graphics and quality-of-life improvements.

That said, I think Extra is the tier for me. I like the big assortment of PS4 and PS5 games available, especially when Ubisoft+ is factored in. I already own some of the titles they listed, but there are enough that I haven't purchased and would try out to justify the price bump over the Essential tier.

Thanks for the detailed guide. Excited for the game!

Thank you! Very helpful.