Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

@redd214 Yeah, it's been a pretty generous few months for PS+ fans. Too bad I already most of them, but then again, I've been surprisingly caught up with PS4 games that actually want to play, so...guess I shouldn't be surprised.

@Ralizah I really don't get Bethesda's crafting and building and such. Why do they push that in Fallout? TES always had crafting but it was an optional side thing if you want another way to get goods. Fallout, they turned a story driven turn based isometric RPG into a Minecraft apocalypse thing. I do love the TES series. Morrowind was great for it's time (but very empty.) Oblivion really got almost everything absolutely right. I adore that game entirely. One of my favorite games I've ever played, top to bottom. Skyrim....it keeps growing on me. It's not the magic sauce Oblivion was, but it's solid for sure.

Bethesda has destroyed Fallout for me though. I was a huge Interplay/Black Isle fan. I bought almost every game they made as religiously as Nintendo games. Fallout 1 and 2 are masterpieces. I was so hyped for 3. I was still on PC at the time. I got the collectors edition, the limited run hardback strat guide, the bobblehead, everything. I started playing it and hated it within the first few hours. It wasn't Fallout at all. It was an empty apocalyptic DC wasteland, not the snarky tongue in cheek Wild West reborn through nukes that the series was supposed to be. It missed the point entirely. And gunplay was bad. (Obsidian (the real Black Isle, or half of it) apparently made good on that with New Vegas but I was so turned off i never bothered.) I haven't delved into 4 yet. I have it, but havnen't gone too deep. It seems ok...arguably better than 3 in a lot of ways. 3 was a mess with the linear DC subway maze. But 76.....good gawd. I've never owned a worse "game." Even if it worked 100% it would still be awful. There's no game. There's no anything...there's just an empty survival sim in a Fallout skin. With the same bad combat from 4.

76 is so bad it encouraged me to fire up Elder Scrolls: Online and sort out my account. Despite being an MMO I was shocked to discover TESO is actually good. I ended up buying all the DLC. It's the best thing out of Zenimax/Bethesda since 2011....maybe 2006. It actually has stuff to do, constantly. Not empty barren wastelands. It's more Oblivion than Skyrim, just with other people roaming around.

Interestingly I was playing with Mad Max the other week and something occurred to me. That's a much better Fallout game than any Bethesda Fallout. It feels like the originals in spirit. I can't put a finger on it, but it has the personality and attitude that Bethesda's Fallout lacks. Of course it makes some sense, Fallout 1 is Wasteland 2, and Wasteland was actually inspired by the original Mad Max......so it's the source material of Fallout to begin with. And that also explains the problem with Bethesda Fallout. If Fallout is supposed to be a alternate Mad Max.....what about any Bethesda Fallout is very Mad Max at all? If you've never played Fallout 1 and especially 2 and you don't hate ancient graphics, just find them , play them, do whatever it takes. They are masterpieces. Fallout is supposed to be about a kind of wild west giant ghetto civilization built around the ruins of the dead civilization. Bethesda Fallout is just living among the ashes of lost civilization. I don't know if Todd Howard misses the point, or just never cared. Why has he not been making more Tamriel for the last decade? Of course Zenimax, the parent company, has been doing that job for the MMO, apparently.

Edit: I'm hoping that now that MS bought Obsidian and inExile, even though they said they will be keeping them separate, I'd love for them to be made to collaborate on a Fable game. Putting Brian and Feargus back together on an epic RPG would be the Western RPG to beat.

I beat Astro Bot: Rescue Mission. Brilliant little game. If there's one game worth getting VR for, it's this one I think. I'd like them to make a sequel, or do something else on PSVR.

The more footage of Onrush I watch, the more fun it looks. I think I'm going to enjoy it.

Wasn't a fan of Onrush when I played the beta but will certainly play through it for free. Perfect game to plow thru over a weekend get some easy trophies and be done with it!

@Ralizah On the contrary, I found R2s much better in Bloodborne than DS1. R2s in DS1 typically didn't work all that well and were mainly for PvP, like the Black Knight sword's R2 was literal hot garbage for PvE. In Bloodborne, on the other hand, they are much quicker and you can even charge them while enemies approach you so they get destroyed by a really strong hit.

Also, the weapons are sexy as hell.

@EvilLucario I only really liked strong attacks with the axe weapon, to be honest. Which is the only weapon I really took to in the entire game. My least favorite was probably the threaded cane... it just didn't feel good to use.

Also hate how guns feel kind of pointless in this game outside of parrying.

@Ralizah I actually started with the cane lmao. The trick functionality is ok, but I just love how it looks and functions. It's effectively just a sword, but conceptually it's just way too cool.

I am using the saw spear atm though, and I absolutely adore that weapon like nothing else. Enormous range, amazing design, and hits like a truck. Mm.

As for guns, putting aside my distaste for shooters here... :^] I'm not too annoyed since old guns are unreliable and kinda bad compared to modern day guns. It's authentic, but I can see why people don't like that.

Having gone back to Fallout 3 several times and liking it less each time...I think it's more that there weren't a lot of games that did what it and Elder Scrolls were trying to do. The way it handled its open world seemed novel at the time, but has been slowly refined in more modern games. Their writing and especially the lore are really the strongest point, and in Fallout 3's case, it really added this sense of wonder and mystery, getting me curious to see what was out there hidden in the wastelands.

Honestly, though, by now they need to refine it - better gameplay, better graphics, and stop with putting us to work as junk collectors. It's just not exciting anymore, and it's problems haven't been getting better. Fallout 4 is just Fallout 3 with a new coat of paint and worse writing, New Vegas felt like it was extremely held back by it's engine, and Fallout 76 is an utter joke. Even Skyrim is showing its age...if Bethesda doesn't want to keep up, then it really is time to move on, I think.

Worse writing, worse dialogue options, less intriguing world design (for whatever reason, Fallout 4's Boston is just plain boring to explore), an irritating crafting minigame, etc. And most of the things they changed, they changed for the worse.

I'm inclined to agree that Fallout 3 would probably do a lot less for me today, but it was undoubtedly pretty cool at the time. Moreover, it was my first Bethesda game, and also my first truly open world game. I'm not surprised I lost so many hours to it as a youth.

@CanisWolfred the junk collector bit really summarized it. Even fo 1 and 2 didn't do that. Loot typically had value. Crafting wasnt a thing. it was an rpg, not a "world".

I'd say what works in tes, including Skyrim though, is that it's a pleasant wold to be in and feels Alive and inhabited work tons of people doing their thing. And any of them may be important. Fallout they focus on being empty. It's the opposite of what makes the same design work for tes. The whole world is one big aylid ruin. That's why 1 and two had one or three hubs and keep you returning often for commerce. It was a systems driven game but each locale had significance. There weren't empty wasted spaces.

Interesting !

https://www.gtplanet.net/stunning-gran-turismo-8k-120fps-foot...

@Cobalt at this point I doubt the PS5 specs are even finalized, so I'm guessing it's PC rendering. At this point, even top end PCs would massively struggle with 8k 120fps at high quality....high end PCs often choke on 4k60 with full settings. I wouldn't doubt it was pure FMV fully pre-rendered a frame at a time.

Tech demos are just that, tech demos.

Sony's announcements at The Game Awards may say a lot about when the PS5 is coming.

Put in some more time in Bloodborne today. Just beat the my third boss who went down pretty easily. And yeah, you are much better off staying within melee range to hack away at the boss and dodging sideways instead of backwards. Only dodge backwards and retreat if you need to heal, but otherwise just stay within range and beat them up.

Honestly with Souls and Bayonetta, I'm getting my fill of real-time action combat pretty really damn well. I love the combat way more than in DS1, and DS1's combat was already really good.

@EvilLucario have you gone back to DS1 since starting/playing Bloodborne (appreciate that right now, probably not)?

Only asking ‘cos I know you’ve already played DS1 to death so know the placement/tells/enemies, but curious to see what you think after BB - some of the DS1 enemies almost felt like they’re stuck in ‘bullet time’ after playing BB, was nice to feel - for once - strangely powerful!

I really disliked Bloodborne to start with because the world feels really samey for the first 5 hours or so. So it felt like a less interesting place than a lot of the Dark Souls worlds.
But then it opens up so much and gets more interesting in the second half. Some of the areas like Cainhurst Castle and Nightmare of Mensis are brilliant.
I think FromSoft is just good at designing castle areas to be honest.

@BrainOfGrimlock I have, and I never really considered DS1 a hard game even before playing BB. But yeah, the enemies in DS1 are much slower and much easier to parry than in BB.

There's also a lot more cheese in DS1 like with backstabs and crap. BB is a lot more balanced from what I can tell.

@Grumblevolcano What did they do last year? They showed a Death Stranding trailer and some new Dreams gameplay. I expect pretty much the same for this year.