Playstation 5 Catch-All

I also turned off the video a few seconds into the Ragnarok trailer. I don't need to see any more to be sold.

This was another State of Play on the low-key side, but there were several thing that looked appealing to me.

I was interested in Project Eve (Now called Stellar Blade) after the last State of Play that featured it. I thought the action gameplay shown looked quite good. Definitely keeping it on my radar.

Synduality looked interesting, and I'm hopeful for Rise of the Ronin since it's Team Ninja's next game. As a recent Yakuza convert, Like a Dragon: Isshin was also exciting to see announced.

A lot of it didn’t appeal to me. I’m definitely someone who likes more grounded fantasy games. Rise of the Ronin just looks that little too flashy/anime compared to Sekiro and Ghost of Sushima. It’s a weird dividing line but it’s there for me. I did get into Nioh in the end so it’s possible that Rise of the Ronin could grab me when I give it a try.

I thought Pacific Drive really looked like a VR game even though it isn’t one. I think it’s the lack of textures. I’m not sure how it would work but, as Skillup said in his coverage, driving through the countryside in the dark can get scary, so there’s potential there for a horror driving game.

Synduality is another one that looks suspiciously anime but, depending on what the gameplay loop is, I can see me getting into it.

The God of War trailer has me really excited to try GoW(2018) again.

I played it immediately after a long love affair with one of the Dark Souls games. Having the controls be so similar really threw me off, it was like a clumsier Souls game. I do understand they are going for a cinematic approach and flashy attacks, but it was a weird clash with my muscle memory I guess?

I fell off after the cool dragon fight and never went back. I think it was far me "me" than "the game", so I'm extra excited to try it all over again on the PS5!

As a side-note, I typically don't enjoy Sony's narrative game design. I much prefer more intricate, player-centric games with room for player skill expression and creativity. The last few Sony games; Uncharted, Spider-Man, Last of Us etc. have all left me feeling pretty flat. Simple, flashy, and relatively little sense of mastery over the game mechanics. Amazing stories, but I'd rather watch a movie than be tethered to a 15-hour game where I'm not really engaged.

I was starting to feel God of War (2018) falling into that design mentality, but the more I think about it, it really was the clash of Dark Souls to God of War that made me feel weird.

Anyway, might fire it up tonight to see how it feels at 4k 60FPS

A_Unicycle wrote:

...I typically don't enjoy Sony's narrative game design. I much prefer more intricate, player-centric games with room for player skill expression and creativity. The last few Sony games; Uncharted, Spider-Man, Last of Us etc. have all left me feeling pretty flat. Simple, flashy, and relatively little sense of mastery over the game mechanics. Amazing stories, but I'd rather watch a movie than be tethered to a 15-hour game where I'm not really engaged. I was starting to feel God of War (2018) falling into that design mentality, but the more I think about it, it really was the clash of Dark Souls to God of War that made me feel weird.

Lower your expectations - God Of War is very much telling a single story, rather than letting you craft a story about how you learned to play a game. It does play and look better on a PS5, but based on your preferences I don't think you're going to like it unless you accept it for the game it is rather than the game you want it to be.

On the other hand, that's exactly what I want from a game, so when I fired it up on the PS5 just to see how much better it looked, I quickly wound up playing through the whole thing again and enjoying it even more. The fact that I was playing it on New Game+ and had all the gear and upgrades from the end of the first playthrough helped; I'm not playing it for the challenge.

Noted.

At the end of the day, it may just not be a game for me. Despite that, I want to give it a good honest try. I'm trying to slow down and appreciate this style of game. Part of my problems with "narrative games" (for lack of a better term) stems from 30 years of undiagnosed ADHD. I've always needed the challenge and player-guided fun to keep me engaged. I so often fall off when I have to slow down and walk alongside a game as it tells its story.

On a slight tangent, I hated what I played of Guardians of the Galaxy when it was on Gamepass. Since then, I've started ADHD medication and have been having a great time blasting through it on the PS5 with my fiancee. The story really does carry the simple gameplay.

So that's probably a good sign that I'm getting better with these things

For what it's worth, I did finish God of War but also left it feeling rather flat. It's an impressive spectacle but I won't be rushing out to buy Ragnarok on day 1. I have the same feeling towards the Uncharted games. I liked Guardians of the Galaxy more because it wasn't pretending to be an open world game, which strangely enough feels quite liberating these days!

I loved the crap out of GoW'18. Partially, it's flat out the father son stuff and where I am in my own life.
But overall I liked the game play too. There's some issues with open worldness, but I've wasted more time with worse games (see my odd love of Days Gone).

I need to retry Guardians, but I immediately fell off when I was still scanning EVERYTHING to make sure I didn't miss something. Kind of the same issue I had with the Telltale game.

lunchbox12682 wrote:

I need to retry Guardians, but I immediately fell off when I was still scanning EVERYTHING to make sure I didn't miss something. Kind of the same issue I had with the Telltale game.

Yeah this is hard to completely do away with, but there is an upgrade you can unlock that will tell you when something collectible is in your immediate area, which helps some.

My manager (who is also a good friend) is a filthy enabler. I am now part of the cult.

Filthy, I say!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/LZ9hknr.png)

-BEP

I actually saw three of those just sitting on shelves at my local Best Buy last week. I assumed I was having some kind of episode.

Gratz!

Thanks! Sony has them in stock. I ordered from the Playstation Store. Free 2-day (for me) shipping if you are a PS+ member at any level.

-BEP

Sony announces Dualsense Edge. Back buttons, exchangeable thumb sticks, etc.

Just wanted to "cross-post" my thoughts on GoW2018 since I was chatting about it here a lot

Continuing my playthrough of God of War 2018.

I fired this up 2 years ago and just couldn't get into it. I don't know what was wrong with me! Either I really wanted to play the fresh new hotness or I was burned out on fantasy/melee stuff from binging Dark Souls? Who knows! All I know now is that I made a big mistake writing this one off, because I'm 10 hours deep and it might be one of the best games I've ever played.

Gameplay-wise, sure, it's a bit of a standard Sony 1st party narrative game. A little exploration, a lot of exposition blablabla, but the combat is meaty enough and well-paced. The challenge is higher than I expected which is keeping me far more engaged than its peers (Spider-Man, Uncharted, Last of Us etc. which never resonated with me).

The story is just superb. I don't need to harp on about the specifics, I'm sure I'd be treading old ground. My fiancee and I are just in awe of all the little details and mannerisms between Kratos and Atreus.

And on PS5 it finally has the 60FPS it always deserved. It's a gorgeous game in 4K with all the bells and whistles. I don't want to say it was entirely the console and TV upgrade that made me enjoy it, but it was definitely the impetus I needed to give it a second try!

Can't wait to see what they do with the sequel!

I’m starting to get the impression the sequel might be quite good.

Glad you finally got into it. It’s so nice when you finally get into a game you wanted to play and it exceeds your expectations.

So having a weird remote play issue. On vacation, there's a PS4 at the house. So I have used PS5 remote play on my phone before and it's saved. But I figure I'll login to this PS4 and try. Remote app is installed, system is up to date, etc. I try to connect and it finds my PS5 but then asks me for some kind of code. Like what? It's REMOTE play. I'm not in the same room as my PS5.

Fine I think I'll just login from my phone and maybe I can get to that link menu it mentions and approve the PS4 to connect. But then my phone won't connect. It keeps claiming can't find PS5. I try the PS4 again, same asking for code I don't have. Shut the PS4 down, still can't get on with phone. Wait an hour so in case the connect attempt woke up my PS5 at home it's surely back to sleep now. Still the phone app won't connect, can't find system.

Any ideas? Tonight wasted but if I could fix it tomorrow, still could have a couple days of play.

Well I think I figured out the remote play problem. Power must have blinked at my house while I was gone. PS5 was not in rest mode when I returned home but off instead. So that would do it.

Not sure why the interface popped up that asking for code stuff instead of saying it couldn't find the system but whatever.

1) Hmmm, I wonder why they’d put out VC!?

2) DQ XI and AC:O occupy almost the exact same place for me. I don’t know which I will get into. Which probably means I won’t get into either.

The DualSense Edge controller launches on January 26
Preorders start October 25th
$199.99 USD - way way waaaaay to much for me

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/igfcco6tbku91.jpg)

Yeah that's way too much for a single controller. I was never their target audience though, I really like the original Dualsense and don't see a need for more bells and whistles. Kudos to Sony for putting together a solid controller with the system so I don't feel the need for something "pro".

mrwynd wrote:

Yeah that's way too much for a single controller. I was never their target audience though, I really like the original Dualsense and don't see a need for more bells and whistles. Kudos to Sony for putting together a solid controller with the system so I don't feel the need for something "pro".

For reference, the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller is $180, and the Scuf Pro controllers start at $200, so this is in line with current luxury controller pricing.

It looks really nice, but I'm not sure if I'm up to drop $200 on it at the moment. Replaceable stick modules is an awesome feature though. You can address stick drift for $20 instead of needing to buy a new controller.

I picked up an Elite 2 late last year and had to have it replaced because my A button stopped registering presses half the time, so I'll probably wait to hear about the build quality before deciding if it's something I want to splurge for.

For anyone that just wants the back buttons, I've read great things about this back button kit for $45.

Yeah back buttons on the Hori split pad for Switch were really nice

When I wanted different color shells for my Switch I went to Etsy to see if someone did it because the fine detail work was tough!

I have gone and looked for back buttons on the PS5 and found

this

That price is a lot more what I am willing to pay

farley3k wrote:

this

That price is a lot more what I am willing to pay

Having modified both my DualSense controllers with eXtremerate parts, that is a very low price! Even without the sale, it is less that it would cost to buy a (newish) DualSense controller and the button kit, to say nothing of the time and effort it takes to install them (this would be at least one DS version old since eXtremerate has not released kits for the latest DS revision)

I didn't expect the Edge to be quite so pricey, £210 here in the UK is a hell of a lot of money for a controller. I'm still stupidly tempted though so I'll have to wait & see. The Dualsense itself is easily the best controller I've ever played with, to have something that's even more premium with removable stick modules is something I'd at least like to try.

I do wonder if there's any improvement to battery or minor improvements to the haptics or if their just identical?

If anything, I'm just wanting a slightly slimmed down controller!

It's been a few months and my hands still hurt after extended play sessions. I thought it was the adaptive triggers, but it's occuring on games without the added resistance. It's just a chunky, heavy controller. I fear the new one will be even heavier...

Let me share with you a secret shame: I've started putting a pillow on my lap to support my wrists when using the Dual Sense controller.

ComfortZone wrote:

Let me share with you a secret shame: I've started putting a pillow on my lap to support my wrists when using the Dual Sense controller.

User name checks out

Mantid wrote:
ComfortZone wrote:

Let me share with you a secret shame: I've started putting a pillow on my lap to support my wrists when using the Dual Sense controller.

User name checks out

Remember that for tagging later.