Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

Thanks bud, I accepted it yesterday.

@NeonPizza yeah, the HDR is weird. One of the first things the PS5 got me to do was calibrate HDR, which I did, but it just makes my TV look really washed out? Like for ages I was like 'why is everything so grey?' and then remembered they made me set that HDR thing, once I turned that off, everything looked so much better. Colours are so much more vibrant and solid; everything has better balance and contrast. HDR seems worthless.

Also, I was hoping after more time I would feel better about the user experience of navigating my PS5, but I don't really. Thankfully searching around the internet would show that it is a pretty common complaint, outside of Sony Pony apologists, so maybe Sony will make a better user experience at some point? But with all their recent vaguely anti-consumer moves, maybe not.

https://www.play-asia.com/windstorm-an-unexpected-arrival/13/...

Looks great for peaceful horse riding game for kids.

Hotel simulator game on PS5 by NACON.

So after 15ish hours I finished Act 2 of Ghost of Tsushima, brining my total playtime to around 35ish hours. I am not sure how long or short Act 3 is but I guess we are on track for a 50ish hour playthrough by the end.

Act 2 was weird, because in an objective sense it was a vast improvement over Act 1. Much more varied locations and a combination of your skill at the game naturally increasing, plus the introduction of more interesting gear sets and charms leads to more engaging encounters. It probably sounds so odd with no context, but I got this charm that turns wind chimes into poison traps and my God is it fun. As is maxing out the family armour so I can now kill almost an entire camp with one stand off. Usually whoever is left runs away in fear or I can cut down with a Blade Dance. Plus, just generally this part of Tsushima has the most amount of resonance with Jin as a character, almost making it odd to sandwich it between two locations that Jin doesn't have as deep of a connection to.

However, I dunno whether it's just because of natural fatigue and the wearing off of some of that honeymoon shine but I feel like I had more wow moments during Act 1. I think maybe the biggest issue is the moment-to-moment gameplay doesn't really evolve nor do the activities change. I kinda wish there were activities unique to each area or something, so it doesn't just all feel the same. I think inherently the more you are asked to do the same thing over and over again the more tiresome it becomes and the more critical you become of those motions than you might have otherwise.

I thought the closing couple of missions in Act 2 might have been the low point of the whole game for me. I am so tired of the way of the Samurai honour debates at this point, the argument hasn't raised any new or interesting points for dozens of hours at this point. And while Ghost sings as a sandbox, every time a mission forces me to use a very specific approach with no deviation, I feel like I want to lob my controller at the wall. The mechanics just aren't robust enough to make these sections enjoyable.

https://www.play-asia.com/yum-yum-cookstar/13/70fr3z

Wait a minute.
This game also on PS4 ?! 🤯
I want the PS4 version !!! 😆😆😆

Also, some upcoming PS4 & PS5 games according to play-asia.
Ahoy !

Gran Turismo 7's had another update... good God we need more stuff. The base game has 34 tracks, three of which are new to the game. Every single track otherwise was taken from GT Sport. Since the game's release in March, 6 months ago, we've gotten 1 new track (Watkin's Glen)... and various layouts of existing tracks. And every now and then we'd get a few new cars. A few new menus here and there, and maybe a new mission if they feel like it.

The game's great and has massive replay value in terms of tracks, but more needs to be done.

@Anti-Matter

I really want that Shin-shan game. Hopefully it will have english text.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/a-horizon-zero-dawn-...

Yeah this is nonsense. Sony deserve to lose.

Have I not said repeatedly how much I hate it when AAA gaming companies try to put out as few new games as possible? Ok, let me say it again. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT.

This is almost like when Alphadream, instead of doing anything on Switch, remade a DS game for 3DS in 2019. And they went bankrupt from that shortsighted decision making, which was sad but wtf was even the point? I'd bet actual money they would've done way better doing a simple port of their 3DS games to Switch.

I get that Sony has often relied on 3rd party games, but this is just stupid.

With the Horizon tv series around the corner, Sony will want people who are familiar to the tv series (yet new to gaming) to buy a $70 version of the game. Just like The Last of Us. It's a cyclical business strategy.

@MrHonest If it's an €80 game, yes.

But to be fair, maybe it's just a 4K upgrade like many other games have received. We don't know yet.

I am finding myself getting a little burnt out on Ghost. I am about 40ish hours in. The final area is all just one single biome, and the wider map is locked off from you for a few missions during that act. I feel like that really killed a lot of momentum. I am now back to being able to access the full map again, but as said before, the gameplay hasn't really meaningfully evolved since those opening hours and so it just feels like tough going.

That said, whenever I go and play anything else, I am always just sorta reminded just how good Ghost is and how you sort of take it for granted when you play it for long stretches.

I am trying to replay 2018's God of War in prep for the new one as I played the game once around release and never again, but the whole time I can't just help but think about how much better Ghost's combat is. I know, apple and oranges you might say. But like why is God of War's FOV so tight, I am so constantly getting hit by stuff literally off screen. You could counter this with something like Jin's ability to parry at a full 360 degrees, but Kratos can only parry in the direction they are facing, and the use of that instant turn around thing on the D-Pad feels like a weird bandage they tossed in at the last minute as they knew the combat wasn't really working.

Plus, just like everything else, it feels so seamless as Jin to move through your different stances, or to use your various abilities or tools, but Kratos just never has that kind of flow, everything feels so stiff, awkward and clumsy. Jin has techniques that work on different types of enemies, but no enemy can just completely cancel out an approach. God of War is full of enemies that have to be fought in a super specific way, this is initially really overwhelming but the game as it goes on lacks enemy variety I suppose because they ask the player to have a mental index of every single solution each enemy type has. It is so boring.

And it is even stranger that you have this cutscene Kratos who is having like DBZ battles and can insta heal, but then you go into combat you control, and you are just getting shredded by stuff off screen or getting constantly interrupted as enemy attack animations seem to overrule your own (something that just doesn't ever happen in Ghost). I dunno, I just never feel cool as Kratos.

And maybe that would be fine if everything else picked up the slack, but the puzzles are tedious, the activities repetitive and while the story and characters are fine, I don't think they deserve the insane amount of praise they receive.

At the time when I played this, I remember saying to me it was a 7/10 rent over a weekend game you play and then never think about again and if anything, this replay has made me think I was too generous before.

So, after 45ish hours I have cleared the main campaign, the additional red camps and every question mark I could find in Ghost of Tsushima.

For those who have beaten it, some questions:

• Those things that become replayable once the campaign is finished. Is there any reward for doing so, or is it just something to do?
• Is there anything unique about New Game+ or is it just a chance to play the game on a higher difficulty because you go in with your Jin? I ask because I have basically fully upgraded everything on this playthrough.
• Is now the time to jump into the DLC, or should I be doing Legends first?

I went ahead and made a start on Iki Island. I am roughly five hours in.

They really weren't kidding about the difficulty jump. My Jin is like as upgraded as he can be, and I am still getting absolutely wrecked. Had to put the game on easy and even then, it is super easy to get overwhelmed and absolutely *****.

I don't inherently hate the shaman enemies on principle, but I do hate how it funnels your approach. The main game (outside of those opening hours) was a true sandbox, but here you are basically forced to use stealth and pick off the Shaman and really as many enemies as you can before you engage, or you'll just get absolutely ruined. I don't mind playing in a stealth way, but feel less good about it when bad difficulty design forces me to play that way.

Everything else though I would say actually feels like a step up from the main game. It is kinda weird that basically everything beat of Jin as a character is just exclusively in this DLC. Seems really baffling to design the game in this way. But whatever, I'll just take actually being able to care for Jin for the first time.

Playing your flute might be a wrist sprain risk, but the result of you getting to pet cute animals makes me feel this should have been in the main game.

The archery challenges are like whatever, but they aren't horrible.

Although it still maintains a lot of the core art design seen in the primary game, Iki island still manages to have some unique locations that are really breath taking. And given it is a smaller map, you build more familiarity with the geography which I always appreciate in an open world game. In an open world game you don't want to spend your whole-time fast travelling or stuck in a map screen, so when you can eventually just start to learn your way around, it is very satisfying feeling.

They expand on some of the traversal elements, I'll be honest, I don't really care for the traversal challenges much. Given they borrowed so much from the modern AC formula, I dunno why they only half committed to the parkour systems. Jin can barely jump higher than I can in moment-to-moment gameplay and slides off of things even I could climb. But then if there is a clearly marked ledge around chest height for me to mantle onto or a tree branch poking out he suddenly becomes spider-man for some reason. And the fall damage might be the worst thing in the whole game, given that land roll thing is so unreliable to pull off. Like I guess I should be glad it isn't true platforming, but then when it is up to the game to basically do it for you, and Jin just doesn't latch for some reason, my God that frustration is real. However, in moderation the new grappling hook pull merges together some descent problem solving and traversal for some nice micro diversions.

The new horse charge skill is very awesome, especially when you have the horse armour.

And there is just generally more organic discovery on the island it seems. I have found side missions and activities that aren't marked on the map, if I wasn't exploring and didn't bump into it organically, I would have never found this. I think this wouldn't have worked in the core game, but with a map this small I really appreciate this reward for going off that main path.

I found, especially in the second zone in the core game, they kinda overlaid too many things into single spots for me. Like every two steps that yellow bird was like 'HEY LOOK AT THIS' and I almost wanted to be able to turn them off. Especially when I was trying to solve like a shrine traversal challenge and really concentrating and that bird is like 'HEY LOOK AT THIS' over and over just never stopping because they put one of those pillars or a spa or something right next to it. I dunno how this didn't drive people crazy when testing the game.

But yeah, overall, I am having a great time right up until I go into a camp, do a showdown, and then get two tapped by the first enemy I fight outside of the showdown and just give up and do something else.

I used to love the Playstation (especially 1 and 2) but now that I have a proper gaming PC I have no need for a PS5 and don't plan on ever getting one. Nintendo + PC covers all the bases, really.

It pissed me off when they shuttered Japan Studio, and Sony's current strategy seems to be releasing the same kind of third-person open world games ad nauseum.

Every few months I get one of those invitations from Playstation to queue for a PS5 & I finally bit the bullet this time (my brother said he'll pay back half the cost as he wants to get the new Avatar game next year).

I've been contemplating it because of their occasional censorship of Japanese games in the last few years, however for better or worse I think most devs are going to work within their confines from the start so I don't think it's going to come up much in the future (that, & I still have a gaming laptop for the times those issues still pop up).

Ordered it with Miles Morales since my PS4 came bundled with the first *Spider-Man game.

OMG.
Dragon Quest X Offline looks so cute and great in PS5 version.
Wish for English version release.

@Anti-Matter

Are games in your country usually localised to your language or do you often get english versions?

@Jhena
Some of PS3 / PS4 / PS5 games that available in my country Indonesia are Asia English version (either from Singapore or Hong Kong).
The Asia version came with three different age rating label.
There is age rating like PAL version from 0+, 6+, 12+, 15+, 18+.
There is age rating with four different Chinese letters that tells the age rating, from General, Parental Guidance, Mature.
There is age rating from Singapore like Australia age rating from G, PG, PG13, 18+
There is Asia version with no age rating label at all, the same thing happened on certain Switch games Asia English version.
There is one game that have Indonesia language option, it was from Kitaria Fables since the developer was from my country Indonesia 🇮🇩