Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

Yay....!
Ankora + Deiland will get physical release on both PS4 & Switch according to play-asia. 😃
But I will get the PS4 version instead.

Also...

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life will get physical version on PS5. 😄

Used the Miles Morales upgrade to get Spider-Man remastered on PS5. Boy howdy, when using that Raytracing Performance mode, it looks more "next gen" than many big games that came out this year. And my PC certainly can't produce visuals that strong while staying so smooth. Really makes you wonder how Miles Morales and Spider-Man can both look and feel so good, while games are coming out this year that don't look nearly as good and offer only 30 fps modes with no raytracing. I guess both Spider-Man games are just running on an incredible engine, with really well optimised code.

I hope it is like the old Wolverine Origins tie in game, that game was unironically excellent (unlike the movie it was based on).

After I tweeted that I actually thought about grabbing it myself to replay it again and found out what you said above about it being delisted. Sad.

I somehow managed to 99% percent Miles Morales, rather than 100% it, but either way, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I'd happily put it up there as amongst my favourite games ever.

It seems like it is basically just a glorified tech demo to show off the "Next-Gen" power of the PS5, and if that was all this was doing, then not only did it nail the assignment, but it also absolutely exceeded all expectations in that regard. The performance raytracing mode is just insanity, really putting people to shame who release checkboard 4k 30fps games for consoles in 2022, when this exists. But it goes beyond just the performance, the animations, the facial capture, the virtual tourism aspect, the attention to detail. Just pure mind blowing madness at times.

But then on top of that you just have a really excellent story, told with wonderful characters. I remember the original Spider-Man's story being really unfocused and poorly paced, which robbed some of the biggest moments of their impact, but I thought every beat here was tuned to near perfection. Emotionally resonate character exchanges, grand set piece moments and quiet moments of peace and reflection all structured together to create a really refined flow through the narrative beats. Plus, if you include the post card hunt at the end, I cried multiple times during this game and I can count the number of games that moved me that much on my hands.

I do wish the game wasn't quite as difficult as it was as I do think that spoils some things and robs some momentum from the otherwise near pitch perfect story. I played on the amazing difficulty, and it was nuts like how quickly Miles would just be absolutely disintegrated if you engaged in open combat. Like you had all these incredibly animated moves, but you were kinda forced in every engagement to try and stealth takedown as many enemies as you could first and I think that was a shame.

I guess this is somewhat on me, as I could have just turned the difficulty down, but the Amazing difficulty felt like it was in a really good place when it came to bosses or set pieces, it was more like taking out enemy bases and stuff which had me wanting to snap my controller in frustration.

But yeah, given I didn't really love the original, I was amazed (sorta half pun) at how much this one really blew me away.

@Pizzamorg, congrats on finishing Miles! Just cleared it myself last week and it was an amazing experience, as you state.

BTW, I can almost guarantee that the thing locking you out from 100% is one of those tech caches. Each of the 6 enemy bases has one hidden away somewhere, and they can only be accessed while the mission is active, even the ones that take place on those open construction sites.

The Roxxon ones are always before the room with the enemies, hidden somewhere during the section where you have to unlock the door. Once you're in the enemy room you can't go back, so you'll have to start the base over again if you miss it.

The Underground ones are a bit more varied. I know I found one in the hidden room after you cleared all the enemies, but another one was just hidden behind a breakable wall out in the open (it still won't spawn unless the mission is active though, I believe).

Damn @RR529 you are right, looking at the map I'm missing two and one is locked behind each activity. I really don't want to do them again they are so frustrating 😭 😆

Weirdly, there are challenges set by Peter and they weren't so bad because they basically had no fail state. You couldn't score lower than bronze, so as long as you didn't like get caught during a stealth challenge or whatever, you could go as slow as you wanted, and you still get the new move or suit locked behind them just fine at the end.

I think the only thing you get less of is currency? But I had all of the suits unlocked and all of the gadgets I actively used maxed out as far as they can go outside of New Game plus, so that extra currency for sweating out gold doesn't seem worth it.

These cache things I missed, meaning I missed the 100 percent, however, are locked behind what would be like your bandit camps in an Ubisoft game, and they aren't like horrible or anything, but Miles is so fragile, it just leads to so much unnecessary frustration. They also use the really lazy AI design where the CPU is generally really stupid, like you can stealth takedown someone next to someone else and they possibly won't even notice. But then when you are spotted, every enemy within like a five mile radius can now hit scan you with 100% accuracy, seemingly sending attacks through walls and all sorts and you are dead before you can even say 'Miles' (at least on the Amazing difficulty) and if you spend however long meticulously clearing a camp, only to get spotted right towards the end and then immediately disintegrated, you have to start clearing that camp all over again. Maddening.

@Eagly It will arrive any minute now, I'll post first impressions later today.

I have played about three hours so far, just wanted to get a proper taste before I really put in a proper session tomorrow. So far, I am very happy. I am still effectively in the glorified tutorial section I think, as the true adventure hasn't yet begun, but so far it basically feels like 2018's God of War, only filled with refinements and quality of life improvements which make it feel like the game all the critics told me the 2018 version apparently was.

Speaking firstly of combat, while it is functionally the same and sadly the camera is still climbing into Kratos crack, it feels like it has been completely redesigned in terms of philosophy. Fights take place in smaller arenas, and there are less enemies spamming you off screen with attacks while stuff blocks your view in your face. Enemies just generally feel less aggressive, and slower, it feels far easier to get some space in combat to be able to actually charge up your moves.

Both dodging, and blocking/parrying feel far more generous and forgiving, you still can't block in a 360 radius, but there seems to be so much iframe forgiveness on the dodge now, stuff attacking you from behind or offscreen doesn't feel nearly as much of a nuisance.

Plus, just generally, everything feels retuned. I remembered in 2018 getting interrupted by enemy animations CONSTANTLY feeling like I was being stunlocked in a fighting game. It was like... am I the NPC or are the enemies? This seems to be almost gone entirely now, almost everything Kratos does staggers the enemy (even the act of charging that new forst awakening thing) and the game actively encourages - even during bosses - to fight your way through enemy animations to interupt them with stagger, rather than the other way around.

Likewise, whereas Kratos was a wet sheet of paper in 2018, it feels like he both takes and deals significantly more damage, so you aren't hacking away for what feels like hours on redbars that can for some reason kill Kratos in like two hits. It never made any sense and clashed with the cutscenes, so I really hope this is remains the balance philosophy of the entire game to be honest.

They've also created systems which give Kratos' weapons more of a purpose and identity. In the first game, I never understood why we really needed three forms of attack, but there are now enemies who are more susceptible to one element or another, and you can spec into bonus damage for fighting them, some also have element matching shields you need to break first. Again, I obviously have no idea if this will change, but in the first game you only changed weapons really when they introduced an enemy who was just immune to that weapon for some reason and it absolutely sucked, but so far they haven't done that once. There are enemies who are weaker to one element or another, but so far no enemies that are just immune to one weapon and force me to change to another.

I also just feel like they've added things to really make the two weapons feel unique from one another, like they did in 2018 too, but I dunno, the Blades just felt like a firery way to deal extra damage without the recall gimmick, but now I feel like both weapons play with a very distinct personality from one another.

Hand to hand still has a bit of an identity problem, but you combo it with Atreus and it is a shortcut to the very brutal, very awesome, finishing moves, so it can be fun to mess around with.

Oh, and there is also these new environment moves where you can like swing tree branches and stuff, it is kinda nothing, but still kinda fun to do.

In terms of everything else, I guess they assumed they couldn't outdo the magic of the original Stranger moment, so the opening three hours just launch set piece moment after set piece moment at you and all of them are absolutely excellent.

Interestingly outside of a little traversal (which is also massively improved now Kratos can just jump off ledges or use the Blades to vault up things. Never understood why the dude could just into space in cutscenes but wouldn't drop a couple of feet or just jump to the top of a climb, rather than slowly shimmying around) there are almost no puzzles during the opening hours at all. It is just set pieces, bosses and action. I did feel there was maybe a little too much focus on puzzles in the first game, they got really repetitive and really slowed the game down for me at points, so I wouldn't be against a lower portion of puzzles. But maybe they'll do balances differently in different realms.

I didn't even realize this game was already mentioned from play-asia.

Gotta say, I love it when other devs do this! Positivity is, er, idk what to rhyme with that.

@Eagly God of war is another series I have never played, but even I’m hype/happy, everyone is just so positive about it, I love being apart of that.

If you have PS Plus mid-tier or above, I think God of War 2018 is included, that is how I replayed it.

Feel like I've got my money's worth already to be honest between Ghost of Tsushima, Miles and God of War 2018. Plus, I got Spider-Man remastered through that 20 quid PS Plus upgrade thing. Really offsets the steep entry price for all of the retail releases Sony puts out.

@Eagly I will definitely get to it at some point, when I get the games I want to finish finished, gonna take some time lol.

Honestly, I'd try the new God of War, but I heard both 2018 and Ragnarok are extremely gory. The extent that I can deal with considering gore is mostly like NieR Replicant or Persona 5 levels of it. I can't really deal with characters having their limbs severed, or guts pulled out of their body.

It's odd since the original God of War games were games I grew up on, and they don't really feel that brutal to me, despite it being pretty brutal. I guess it's because the graphics were more dated on those games, where as the blood and gore here is more graphic and detailed.

@VoidofLight We all have limits bud, it’s good! I honestly can’t play a horror game for he life of me no matter how cheesy it is, difference with me is that It doesn’t stop me per say.

Oh I re played 2nd son, my god is that game underrated, you hear no one bring it up anymore, but I love it so much, I need another one!

Two things I totally forgot to mention in my above post:

1) the boss checkpointing feature you can enable is a quality of life game changer. So much frustration and tedium is circumvented by enabling this. I know some love it, so you don't need to use it, but i hate succumbing to attrition and having to do a boss all over again from the start. My efforts not being wasted here just makes things a joy.

2) the general tone and chemistry between the cast somehow feels even better than the first game. It manages to be somehow funnier, yet a grander, darker, story too. The more mellow Kratos, creates an excellent straightman for a lot of genuine laugh out loud moments.

No spoilers of course, but the first realm you visit outside of the one you start in has a bunch of side quests which deliver some incredible stuff for Mimir, and some really incredible interactions between the three of them. Some of the most heartfelt, and also funniest, stuff yet. Which is almost impressive, as this game has made me laugh out loud more in 4ish hours than the entire first game did, and it has brought me closer to tears than the first one ever did too (outside of that ending).

And older Atreus is really excellent. Such an odd sense of pride just seeing him out doing his own thing, he is less of a brat than before and I dunno, something about a more independent Atreus and a more mellow Kratos creates such a rewarding dynamic for those who experienced their adventures in the first game.

Just little moments like Kratos bringing Atreus in for a hug, or giving him compliments, or just smiling to himself as a proud Dad at something his Son has accomplished - like all of these moments mean nothing I don't think without the context of the first game, but they feel so powerful when you have the context. And likewise, Atreus responses don't truly mean anything without the context of the first game, either, as he is no longer a frail little boy chasing his Dad's approval. He gets compliments he would have once grovelled for and now bounces them off with a wink and sarcasm. I just love it.

Yeah exactly, it is contrasts of moments like that! Kratos openly embracing his son probably seems normal to anyone on the outside, but anyone who has played the first game has seen how far we have come to get to those otherwise seemingly throwaway moments.

Also the reintroduction to Brok and Sindri, honestly especially Sindri, is really great and very funny. I honestly always liked Sindri more, I dunno why, that germaphobe joke is kinda one note but it just always gets me for some reason.

Oh and both Mimir and Atreus shoutout when you are getting attacked now, I don't remember Mimir doing that before? But it is very helpful. I also have a new type of shield that doesn't require you to nail parries, just requires you to block and allows you to block extra things the parry shield can't, and when it is charged it lets out like a shockwave that stuns everything (and can do quite a lot of damage if overcharged). Just makes the shield feel more core to my gameplay than the shield did in the first game.