PlayStation 4 Console Discussion

[Ganepark32]

Finished off Guacamelee 2 this afternoon with just under 9 and a half hours on the clock and while it's a good game, I think I enjoyed the original more.

This one does some great things with the platforming, especially making brilliant use of the light/dark switching mechanic and getting you to use your pollo powers more often, but I feel that the set pieces and the bosses were much better and more memorable in the original.

I did enjoy having specific mini-dungeons for your pollo form and like the challenge of most of the areas (though I do think at times it does border on being a bit too much especially with the exploding enemies that you have to hit in 5 seconds or you have to start a challenge again from the beginning, and these have to be hit with specials while doing some tricky platforming in places) but I think is just have liked a bit more of the humour and a bit more of a stronger story this time around to get me to care why I'm saving the Mexiverse and stopping the antagonist.

There are some great little easter eggs in there again though. Whether it's wall art or posters referencing other games and there characters or a specific area which takes the gameplay in a completely different way, they did a good job again on that side of things. I'm tagging my favourite bit below but it's worth discovering yourself so don't read if you're intending to play at some point.

Spoiler

The Grindiest Timeline was great. Loved that little conclusion and the little story wrapped around it. Was so confused when I entered it as I thought it was going to be some long drawn out platforming section but was pleasantly surprised it wasn't.

Still very much worth a go but for me, the original is hard to beat.

Edit: There is one thing that really irritates me about the game and that's that it makes use of the controller's speaker for when you are low on health, letting out a ringing beep that you can't turn off. It really didn't need to be there as it's pretty obvious when you're low on health by the blue bar in the top left of the screen and it's just ridiculous you can't turn it off at all.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Ganepark32

[drahkon]

Played another hour of Gucamaelee 2 just now.

Unlocked...

Spoiler

...Dimension Swap...

...and now the real game begins  Every platforming screen is basically a puzzle you have to solve and then execute your moves relatively precise to succeed. I'll say what I said about the first installment: this is 2D-platforming at its best. Beating Rayman, Mario, Donkey Kong and every thing else out there (maybe not Celeste, though ).

It's nice to play this and Celeste alternatively for one or two hours each day. Doesn't burn me out like the last two games I've finished and I enjoy these sessions immensely  

[Hero-of-Time]

This morning I picked up A Hat in Time and Poi in the PSN sale. I played Poi on the Switch at the end of last year and really enjoyed it. I was going to start AHIT first but I went with Poi.

The credits have just rolled and I loved playing through it again. It's such a love letter to the 3D Mario games. Some of the platforming is really satisfying, especially towards the end of the game. I've got one more trophy to nab to get the platinum but that requires me to beat the game again on New Game+. I may crack straight on with it just to get it out of the way.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just finished Poi again and nabbed the plat. The New Game+ mode was a surprise. The game goes into mirror mode ( this really screwed me up for a while ) and it removes all but one of your hearts. The game turns into a one hit kill platformer. It took some doing, especially the latter stages, but I really enjoyed the challenge that presented itself in this mode.

This game is another example why I enjoy trophies. The Switch version didn't encourage me to play through the game again and I was quite content with doing a 100% run and leaving it at that. This version pushed me to try out NG+ and in doing so I had blast playing through it.

Once again, this a great 3D platformer that is certainly worth the sale price of just over a fiver.

From one platformer to another, it's straight on to A Hat in Time.

[Hero-of-Time]

Not really feeling AHIT at the moment. The worlds feel very cluttered and filled with stuff just for the sake of it. The platforming doesn't feel that great, especially coming straight off of Poi which feels like Mario 64. I keep plugging on but it certainly has grabbed me.

[Ike]

How are the Gold Wireless Headsets, worth picking one up?

[Hero-of-Time]

 

[drahkon]

Anyone played Sunless Sea and could give me some impressions? It's out on the PSN store and I'm tempted.

[dwarf]

Can you make your way through the Destiny 2 campaign with randomers who drop in and out? Tempted to try it out seeing as it's free but I'd have no interest in doing it solo, if that's even an option.

[Hero-of-Time]

20 minutes ago, dwarf said:

Can you make your way through the Destiny 2 campaign with randomers who drop in and out? Tempted to try it out seeing as it's free but I'd have no interest in doing it solo, if that's even an option.

You can play it solo. I'm pretty sure that's how I went through the campaign.

[dwarf]

I played Borderlands in single-player and regretted it. If something's designed for co-op that's how I want to play it, but I don't have a core group of people to go through Destiny with me at the moment - so I was just wondering if you can plough through the game with strangers online.

[Hero-of-Time]

I cracked back on with AHIT this evening. I was playing Monster Hunter and then playing this while I waited for the people in town to ready up. Multitasking FTW!  

I ended up finishing and platinuming the game. It didn't completely wow me but it did leave a better impression than what my first one was.

Some good platforming sections did eventually pop up and I did enjoy the Mario Sunshine style bonus levels. The game does have a lot of charm to it but there are niggles that hold it back. Things like certain levels being far too large and boss fights lasting far too long  rubbed me the wrong way.

Still, I'm happy I got to finally play it and im relieved that I got it for a fraction of the full price. Had I paid top dollar for this I would have been very disappointed.

 

[drahkon]

Bought Yoku's Island Express and Super Cloudbuilt because I haven't finished neither Guacamelee 2 nor Celeste and I need more games... Ehem.

Anyways, Super Cloudbuilt is absolutely insane. Just watch the trailer:

I've seen a speed run of Cloudbuilt (apparently it's different to the Super version) at SDGQ this year. Looked amazing. Today I was browsing a sale on the PSN store and I've seen the PS4 version. I was a little worried that without mouse and keyboard the controls would be a little wonky but they work incredibly well. Very impressive.

Played a couple of levels and it's such a joy to play. Fast paced (if you want it to be), purely skill-based platforming action with a little shooting involved. There are also challenges which make you approach levels differently, e.g. you can't use your weapon and in turn can't open certain doors so you have to find a different way. Maximizing the efficiency of your moveset is key.

Also put some minutes into Yoku's Island Express. What a lovely game. Yoku is freaking adorable.

The combination of metroidvania and pinball is genius. Can't wait to put more time into it.

 

Well...after several games that left me dissatisfied I'm now in a dilemma: I have bought too many games recently that I enjoy  Damn sales...
Think I'll finish Guacamelee 2 first, as I've made the most progress with it.

Edited September 2, 2018 by drahkon

[drahkon]

Made some progress with Guacamelee 2 and it may end up on my list of fuck-off-with-that-shit-games.

Example:

1. enter a room; it's a "platforming puzzle" (which is usually handled very well; you observe the room, make a plan and can complete it on your first attempt)
2. bomb enemies spawn (they explode after a short time and you have to restart that room; no matter where you are...)
3. you have to follow a trail of spawning bomb enemies; kill one --> two more spawn --> get to them very quickly --> kill them --> more spawn --> ...
4. HERE'S THE FUCKING DEAL BREAKER: You don't know where they spawn at first and in order to get to them you must've perfectly executed your moves while killing the previous enemies; oh, you didn't? tough luck...can't reach the new ones and you fall down to your death; restart the room

There's almost no chance for you to finish these rooms first try as you have to be 100% perfect from the get go. Memorizing the patterns is key and this is not difficult. It's just a matter of trial and error. Stupid gameplay mechanic. 

Made me turn off the game just now.

This is why I love Celeste. Every piece of the "platforming puzzles" are available to take in. Plan your moves, execute them and boom, there you go: Success (yeah, executing the moves is fucking difficult in this game but hey, I take that over memorizing shit).

Rant over.

[Ganepark32]

20 hours ago, drahkon said:

Made some progress with Guacamelee 2 and it may end up on my list of fuck-off-with-that-shit-games.

Example:

1. enter a room; it's a "platforming puzzle" (which is usually handled very well; you observe the room, make a plan and can complete it on your first attempt)
2. bomb enemies spawn (they explode after a short time and you have to restart that room; no matter where you are...)
3. you have to follow a trail of spawning bomb enemies; kill one --> two more spawn --> get to them very quickly --> kill them --> more spawn --> ...
4. HERE'S THE FUCKING DEAL BREAKER: You don't know where they spawn at first and in order to get to them you must've perfectly executed your moves while killing the previous enemies; oh, you didn't? tough luck...can't reach the new ones and you fall down to your death; restart the room

There's almost no chance for you to finish these rooms first try as you have to be 100% perfect from the get go. Memorizing the patterns is key and this is not difficult. It's just a matter of trial and error. Stupid gameplay mechanic. 

Made me turn off the game just now.

This is why I love Celeste. Every piece of the "platforming puzzles" are available to take in. Plan your moves, execute them and boom, there you go: Success (yeah, executing the moves is fucking difficult in this game but hey, I take that over memorizing shit).

Rant over.

I really disliked this sections in Guacamelee 2 as well. They could simply have had it that it was normal enemies without the timer to kill them, just give them the shield that needs to be hit with the correct move to keep you moving through the sections. It just made things more fiddly than they should have been. It's partly why I'm not bothered for going for 100% because of those and some of the pollo ones that are hidden away (particularly the last bit pollo dungeon you need to do to get to that completion). It's a shame as the rest is great, they just needed to dial those sections back a bit.

Glad to see you're enjoying Celeste though. Loved every second of it, though I need to go back and grab the strawberries and tapes I'm missing. So far, it's my favourite game of the year.

You must be set for the rest of the year for indie games at this point though with all these purchases recently 

[drahkon]

9 minutes ago, Ganepark32 said:

It's partly why I'm not bothered for going for 100% because of those

Same here. It's a shame, though, as the rest of the game is awesome, as you said.

Quote

You must be set for the rest of the year for indie games at this point though with all these purchases recently 

Yeah...but my stupid brain probably won't think that when the next sale comes around.  

Well...there's actually only Dead Cells I want right now. Will get it once it's down to 15€.

[Ganepark32]

18 hours ago, drahkon said:

Same here. It's a shame, though, as the rest of the game is awesome, as you said.

Yeah...but my stupid brain probably won't think that when the next sale comes around.  

Well...there's actually only Dead Cells I want right now. Will get it once it's down to 15€.

Haha, yeah I'm in the same boat. There's a few things in the sale currently that I've been eyeing up, along with recent indie releases that are just calling out to me to be bought and played at some point. Dead Cells is certainly one of them; even though I said I wouldn't pick it up I'm getting more tempted. Same with things like Sunless Sea and Chasm. There's also the recently released Planet Alpha and The Gardens Between, which is out on the 20th. I've already got plenty to play yet I know I'll probably end up picking some of them up in the coming week cause I'm a sucker like that. September isn't being kind on the wallet so far.

[Ashley]

Whenever I play Spider-Man my PS4 sounds like it's about to take off. Should I be concerned?

[bob]

Whenever I play Spider-Man my PS4 sounds like it's about to take off. Should I be concerned?

Maybe that's just the hype train?

[S.C.G]

15 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Whenever I play Spider-Man my PS4 sounds like it's about to take off. Should I be concerned?

My PS4 seemed to get to that stage and then during the height of Summer when playing Monster Hunter World I thought that I heard a loud "beep" while playing.

Which then prompted me to open it up and clean the console out, this is what I posted in the Spider-Man thread...

On 04/09/2018 at 5:07 PM, S.C.G said:

I don't know how much of a difference there will be between playing on an original PS4 and a PS4 Pro but I'm still on my original console...

Just dusted it inside and out so it's ready to go - there actually wasn't that much dust in it as it happens - but better to be on the safe side.

Obviously the amount of dust inside each PS4 will vary, but it seems like a good idea to at least take the top of the casing off and dust the inside and the fan carefully.

When I did it, I didn't spray compressed air in it or anything like that as I didn't want to chance it and it didn't seem too dusty.

I did take some pictures when I perfomed the cleaning proceedure and I'm looking at doing the same with other consoles soon during my time off.

If it's of interest to you and others then I was considering making a console cleaning and repair thread in the Retro section as that might benefit our community.

For what it's worth, my PS4 does seem at least a bit quieter after the cleaning and I've made a new stand for it to improve the ventilation even further.

Edited September 9, 2018 by S.C.G

[Ashley]

I hadn't thought of that cheers. Having a look as I've got an original PS4 I'll need a special screwdriver I don't have. Cleaned the dust around the edges for now, hopefully that'll help. 

The screen keeps dimming as well, hoping it's related!

[Ike]

2 hours ago, Ashley said:

I hadn't thought of that cheers. Having a look as I've got an original PS4 I'll need a special screwdriver I don't have. Cleaned the dust around the edges for now, hopefully that'll help. 

The screen keeps dimming as well, hoping it's related!

I've read reapplying the thermal paste on the CPU helps, apparently the factory job is quite bad sometimes. YMMV but if you're opening your console then it might be worth a shot.

[Shorty]

On 9/9/2018 at 8:03 PM, Ashley said:

I hadn't thought of that cheers. Having a look as I've got an original PS4 I'll need a special screwdriver I don't have. Cleaned the dust around the edges for now, hopefully that'll help. 

The screen keeps dimming as well, hoping it's related!

Are you on a Pro? My PS4 fans also go kinda crazy playing any HDR game to be honest. I have not considered cleaning it, I'm just chalking it up to the intensive processes. I just put headphones on

Might just try swapping the hdmi cable to see if the dimming problem goes away?

[Daft]

I used compressed air to clear out my Pro when I got God of War, it sounded distressed. Afterward it would still rev up occasionally (usually during cutscenes) but it's so much quieter now.

[bob]

Whenever my PS4 is being noisey, I just make a similar noise at it, but louder. Eventually, it gets embarrassed at my superior fan noises, and stops.