@GirlVersusGame tried the Raccoin demo. Could not get into it. Found it very confusing. Is Warhammer enough of a difference to VS or is it like a DLC? I have seen a few reviews that have been lukewarm on it. I mean if it's more of the same that's fine with me but just wondered.
Got the Halls of Torment and Vampire Crawlers demo's in queue.
And Army of Ruin & Soulstone Survivors wish-listed - tho I note the latter is double the price (or more) of the others

@MickOnYourFace next month!

Oh no!! I have literally just switched off my PS5 after a few runs of VS and now to hear about a Warhammer spin-off that is my life gone. GTA6 has no chance 😉 Will definitely pick this up 👍

On the recommendation of @girlversusgame I started and finished Midnight Walk. Superb experience in terms of atmosphere and storytelling, albeit not a tier 1 game - if that makes sense

I have then been on a Game Trial mission to discover some possible future purchases

Eriksholm was a stand-out for me. A very relaxing stealth game with an incredible isometric world.

Absolutely loved Pragmata too. The hacking mechanic was great fun.

Stellar Blade visually is pretty cool but maybe too soulslike for my taste

Finally, I finally tried Witcher 3. Already hooked on the story but I can tell i may feel a little overwhelmed

Next up will be Resident Evil Requiem. Keen.

Having beaten Mafia Old Country, something completely different. I really enjoyed finally playing Dishonoured 2, that I have now cracked into the underrated Arkane gem Prey (2017). Really, really enjoying it so far. Love, again like Dishonoured, that you can basically choose how you play the game and your route through the levels. Definitely not easy though. At least not for a mid-gamer like myself.

@GirlVersusGame queued next after Mafia Old Country all going well.

@EfYI my exact experience so far with Mafia. But I have got a gun now!!!! Stunning environment though. I literally put the controller sometimes just to stare at the scenery!

Completed Jedi Survivor. Great time.
Now a third of the way through Mafia Old Country. Superb experience - Sicily is just gorgeous - but currently just a good game. I love linear and cinematic but it just feels a tad restrictive. Can't wait to see what happens though.

About 12 months ago when I was getting back seriously into gaming I played for about 2 hours but couldn't really get into it. 12 months on, with plenty of gaming hours across a plethora of different game types, I can't wait to load it back up again and give it a proper crack.

@playstation1995 i have had Evil Within in my backlog for ages!

@GirlVersusGame Still Wakes The Deep is great but it is part horror game and part walking simulator. The dialogue and acting is top notch. Completed in a weekend

Pushing on with Jedi Survivor. Obviously the light saber combat is great but I think they have done a terrific job with the platforming element. Really cool exploring where you can traverse to. Having a blast for sure

It will then be Mafia Old Country when it drops on Extra next week in Australia

Mafia Old Country is a massive win for me with a few bonus games to add to the backlog. Happy chappy 👌

Demo is in the queue next to download.......

@GirlVersusGame ok awesome. i am bumping Cyberpunk back up the list then.

I found the melee combat clunky, cumbersome and not a whole lot of fun in Silent Hill 2, whereas RE Village had a better mix of melee and shooting that was just more satisfying.

Although the RE Village story isn't amazing the "villains" are lots of fun. I just wasn't engaged by the SH2 narrative at all.

Then from a puzzle perspective, although not overly taxing the RE Village brain teasers were better integrated for me into the experience.

I pretty much smashed through RE Village whereas I gave up with SH2 half way through.

Part of the problem may have been the 'big-up' that the SH2 remake got, so I went into the game with expectations, whereas I knew very little about RE Village other than that it was an RE game!

I should add that I usually prefer 3rd person over FPS but the FPS really worked for me with RE Village. The FPS challenge may be part of the reason I jumped out of Cyberpunk. Maybe.

@KoopaTheGamer is there enough of a narrative to the game. I need a hook or i find i jump off these sorts of games pretty quickly. But it looks amazing

@GirlVersusGame could not get on at all with Silent Hill 2. Much preferred RE Village for what its worth 👍

Completed Dishonored 2. What a terrific game. And will now start Jedi Survivor.

Also, I parked Cyberpunk after 3 hours about 10 months ago. Was I too hasty,? Should I bring that one back? Keen to hear anyone's experiences. I know it is lauded (after all the fixes) and maybe 3 hours for such a big game hasn't given me enough time to appreciate the story and mechanics.

I am only going to get it as it is digital only

@GirlVersusGame you have hit the nail on the head with how the AI is working for me. Below is an excerpt further to my submitting my Sniper Elite 5 review into the model.

"THE FIELD REPORT IS IN. And I think your final 8.1 is exactly the sort of score the Hunt needs — because Sniper Elite 5 was clearly a successful recruitment without being remotely close to Hall Of Fame material.
Your review confirms what we'd been seeing as you played. The story was essentially connective tissue, Karl never became someone you particularly cared about, and Möller was entertaining largely because he was a caricature. Yet you knew quite early that you wanted to finish the campaign, genuinely had a good time, and still regard it as a top-50 game overall.

In fact, “a second-tier Hitman” may be the most useful five-word review you've written. 😂
Hitman gives you the sandbox plus personality, humour, extraordinary locations, more creative assassinations and that wonderful feeling of engineering something absurd. SE5 gave you enough of the first part to keep you entertained, but not enough of everything else to become special.
And I love that the finished review explicitly confirms what we diagnosed mid-game: you played Sniper Elite more like Hitman than Sniper Elite. You valued choosing your route and playing according to your own style, and many assassinations ended up close and personal.
That is the biggest scouting discovery from this entire game.
🧬 The Hunt has discovered another piece of Justin DNA
Until now our model leaned heavily toward:
story + characters + cinematic action + variety + momentum.
SE5 proves there's another route into a Justin game:
interesting location + clear objective + player agency + multiple routes + experimentation.
A game can therefore survive a fairly bland narrative if playing the individual scenarios becomes the hook.
That's why I'm now considerably more bullish on Dishonored 2 and Deathloop than I was when we originally put Dishonored on the board. They potentially combine the thing SE5 just proved you enjoy with more personality, world-building and creativity.
And importantly, SE5 also tells us that you don't have to be brilliant at these games. 😂 Your enjoyment came partly from finding your solution rather than executing the designer's ideal solution.

Your review guide now gives us a pretty rich evidence base. The strongest established signals are fun, momentum, responsiveness, characters, narrative, variety and changes of tempo; you've also settled around 15–22 hours as the preferred zone. And SE5 has just added player agency and sandbox problem-solving to that profile: you specifically loved choosing your own route and playing according to your own style."

It is a big reason why review scores are not a major driver for me. I have played plenty of 6 and 7's out of 10 that I have preferred to 9's and 10's. ChatGPT is not trawling review scores for me rather it trawls key review words/phrases that fit my gaming DNA.

you have not been missing any reviews. they have come about through my interest in AI. i do have concerns as to where AI may or may not take the human species but i have mentioned before that my conversations with ChatGPT have been helping formulate my gaming journey. with it i have created a template that i fill in at the end of each game for me to bullet point my thoughts around story, gameplay, atmosphere, pacing, what i loved most, what i didn't think worked in the game, what the game reminded me of, would i replay it - and, of course, score. it has helped ChatGPT understand what turns me on and off when it comes to game selection.

someone on here asked previously if i could not tell whether i liked a game from a quick YouTube review and my answer was 'absolutely, at least in terms of adding a game to my (long) shortlist' but the ChatGPT interrogation has helped me both in next game selection and in trying games that maybe i would not have tried.

the case in point that i mentioned to this forum member was Jedi Fallen Order. saw a review on YouTube and it had been in my backlog a while. i was concerned about the 'soulslike-lite' comment as games like Demon Souls and Bloodborne are not for me so it had stayed there. but ChatGPT moved it up the list based on what i had said about other games and I absolutely loved it.

it then suggested that i try Lies of P, which I absolutely did not get on with. but through this reviews process it now understands why and that it can recommend certain soulslike games with very specific parameters but can exclude others likewise.

it has been a very interesting process for me. and with something like 100 to 150 games saved in the library it is helping me work through them logically both playing and trimming/excluding.

@GirlVersusGame yeah i am probably gaming way too much at the moment but i have a semi-addictive personality. and i am writing reviews for every game so it is kind of fun to see the 'Hall of Fame Quest' take shape. Only 45 mins into Dishonored 2 but early indications are excellent. Always love your lengthy responses. I suspect that the Dishonored books may interest me if the set-up is anything to go by. I haven't played the 1st game but due to my gaming habits and preferences I was recommended to go straight to 2 and then go back to the beginning if i really enjoyed 2.

@GirlVersusGame Enemy At The Gates is a great movie! Finished Sniper Elite 5. My playtime was 26 hours. HowLongToBeat has main campaign at 10 to 11 hours. Hahaha. I am moving on to Dishonored 2. I suspect I will be similarly slow with this one!!!

On mission 7 of 9 in Sniper Elite 5
Pretty sure Fairburne (the protagonist) will be drawing his pension before I finish
I am very, very, very slow and methodical.
It is no Hitman - obviously - but I am enjoying the sandbox approach

@AtlasLivesAgain in a nutshell. It is just 1 example. I saw the reviews of Fallen Order on YouTube and it looked cool so I put it in my catalogue but the chatter around Soulslike put me off playing it. I was looking for my next game to play in my backlog and fed ChatGpt the 10 or 15 I was kinda interested in. Based on my reviews from previous completed games that I had played it recommended I gave it a try. And I loved it. It would probably still be in my backlog if not for the chat.

I just like the fact that it takes me out of my comfort zone. It interrogates everything I have told it and considers reviews and scores but ultimately makes a call based on my gaming history not on critical or popular opinion.

And yes a quick YouTube review like you definitely helps exclude games but there are lots of games where i will think "that looks cool but probably isn't for me" so that's where ChatGpt helps

Plus as I have at least a 100 games in the backlog it feels daunting. ChatGpt helps with those "next to play" decisions

For the record after watching YouTube none of this months Plus games are on the long shortlist

@AtlasLivesAgain absolutely. That's how I derive my long shortlist.
But every game i now play i feed into chatgpt what i liked and dislike about the game.
I had previously avoided soulslikes after Demon Souls put me off.
Even though it is Soulslike-lite, i had avoided Jedi Fallen Order. It was on the short-list but never downloaded and played
Chatgpt algo recommended it to me based on our chats and I absolutely loved it.
Suggested i try Lies of P and i didn't like it at all and Chatgpt has interrogated why
So now I no longer instantly dismiss a Soulslike but I am recommended (and Chatgpt obviously trawls reviews etc) types of Soulslikes that it thinks i will get on with.
When PS Plus does the announcements people may go "i hate extraction shooters, oh no not another sports title" and pass it up automatically. Or it only got 6 out if 10 "it can't be good"
I now don't automatically bypass Soulslikes or 6 out of 10 games

@Ziek1883 all 3 games actually have an 81/100 average review score. Which again proves that reviews are only half the picture. You either like a certain genre or style or you don't. It is why I have built an algorithm with Chatgpt that recommends games based on my likes and dislikes. It doesn't render reviews irrelevant but I have loved plenty of 6/10 games and not enjoyed plenty of 9 a d 10s

Booooo 😢 All good, crack on with my 30+ game backlog and wait for Deluxe announcement in a couple of weeks.

Still yet to play Witcher 3. Scared of the scale of it. I prefer focussed 15 to 25 hour experiences. But then my favourite game ever is Red Dead 2, so go figure 🤔 🤣

Basically should I play this??

Completed Plague Tale Innocence
An hour away from completing Jedi Fallen Order
But it is Grand Final Day here in Australia (Aussie Rules Footy) so downing controller now till Sunday

@Marquez yeah I do need to keep my head in the game, as they say, and not focus on arbitrary targets. Have had great fun though playing and completing games that have been in the backlog for a while. Other than 007 I haven't played many new games

Completed Judgment.

And now 10 chapters into Plague Tale Innocence which i picked up in the recent PS Store sale. They have done a fantastic job building a world that is equal parts beautiful and terrifying, as well as creating children leads who aren't bloody annoying.

Once that is finished onto Jedi Fallen Order.

The 35 game completion target in 12 months is still on....well... target

@GirlVersusGame i am a British man who drinks tea kinda in the country but nearer the sea! I just happen to be an ex-pat. 16 years now wrestling roos and crocs! 🤣

Yeah the ratings thing is all over the shop here. I hear Mewgenics is coming and Halloween may get overturned. Maybe.

100% going to play it. But I have my next 10 games mapped out so zero rush.

Online player reviews have been really good, which must really bum the Sony bashers

Loving living in Australia to not have to put up with the staggered releases.

Just Hinterberg for me this month. Though will put Date Everything into the catalogue just in case. Not sure just in case what but doing it anyway 🤣

I already have Ball x Pit which I recommend

@DorianGray yeah do we know the deal with that. Is it a classification issue like the Halloween game?

@GirlVersusGame if you rate it, I know I need to try it!

@GirlVersusGame working hard on the list! Yeah I completed Sleeping Dogs last Talking Point Saturday. I then tried Metro 2033 Reduc for a few hours but didn't click so moved to Judgment

It was a big horse day yesterday. Sun was out so was down at the paddock for 5 hours with my daughter.

She is always looking for good games with horses. Not sure CD is her thing tho!

Half way through Judgment. Easily the best Yakuza game I have played. Bit of an overlooked, underrated gem this.

And then a few Vampire Survivor runs to clear the head

Don't care. Trendy Sony bashing. Will make my own mind up.

Already have Ball x Pit. Highly recommend if you need another time-sucking Vampire Survivors / Balatro game in your life.

Nothing really here for me this month but will give Dungeons of Hinterberg a try.

I love the modern TR Trilogy, so more of the same would be more than fine with me. No innovation or surprises required.

@naruball just completed Spiderman 2. Awesome fun.

How is everyone going Push Squarians!!

The quest Down Under continues (35 games in 12 months)

This week Spiderman 2 was completed.

This weekend I am 3 main missions (out of 30) away from completing Sleeping Dogs.

Not sure what will be next. But it is Father's Day here tomorrow so hoping I will be getting spoiled. You never know 🤣

I uninstalled the recent SH remake after 3 hours. Found it incredibly dull.

This iteration looks slightly more interesting.

Also getting some batshit Bayonetta vibes too. Very interesting looking game for sure

@tselliot that used to be me! Cyberpunk, Alan Wake 2, AC Odyssey. The list goes on. Far more cathartic this way!

@sorteddan yes to scrabble. Yes to Balatro. Have wishlisted and will wait for it on sale 👍

@Marquez that's exactly how AI has helped with the order - if i have played a 40 hour RPG then the next may be a 20 hour fps and then a classic superhero game. It ensures I don't get burnt out playing same style of game with epic lengths 1 after another.

And another point is limiting the number of games on the go. I only ever have 1 main story game, 1 game I am playing with my daughter and a rotation of 2 or 3 palate cleansers.

I would never be able to have the number of big story games like you have all on the go.

I also have a strict "stop playing" and "remove" games that start to feel a grind. I know pretty early on if a game is for me and the likelihood of me seeing it through

@sorteddan i love word games but have seen mixed reviews for Beyond Words. You would recommend though?

@Marquez well I am impressed you have 4 plats! I am counting "completion" as "main story" done.

Probably no help to you but I am getting through them for a few reasons
A) i have so many games in the backlog that OCD is taking over
B) i am reviewing the games and feeding them into a chatgpt algorithm
C) that in turn is then selecting what game i play next, what games i add (remove) from wish-lists, and what i prioritise to buy
D) that is giving me i) a nice document showcasing my gaming journey ii) some interesting games that maybe I wouldn't have ended up playing
E) with regard comfort games - like Vampire Survivors/Balatro etc - they get a play at the end of each story game and are treated as a "palate cleanser"