PlayStation 4 Console Discussion

[Ike]

I think it's kinda ugly myself. 

Spoiler

Also doesn't have  a Liquid Metal Slime on it.

 

[drahkon]

Alright. Sundered got its much needed PS4 patch some time ago so I decided to give it another go. 

Started a new file and just reached the point where I last left off. This time without dying since the patch fixed the stutter problem. Those frame rate drops could really throw you off during fights. Now the game runs smoothly  

It's a Metroidvania alright. Certain points of the map are set in stone and provide new skills, throw you into a boss fight or open up shortcuts. However, the connecting areas are procedurally generated with each new attempt. So far it seems to be a great blend between linearity and randomness. 

I'm cautiously optimistic. 

[drahkon]

After my successful first run last night I decided to crack on with it.

The game rocks my balls. Sweet Jesus. The miniboss I need to fight owns me  And he's not even that difficult. He basically has one attack that should be easy to avoid but I'm a moron. It also doesn't help that at one point during the fight other enemies spawn.

I love this. Finally a game with a real challenge. Haven't had this experience in quite some time.

Edited August 13, 2018 by drahkon

[drahkon]

Just fought and beat the first real boss in Sundered. Holy shit what a great fight. 

I was immediately hit by a fucking barrage of attacks because I'm stupid, causing me to use both of my available Health Elixiers. I had to rely on no health regeneration for the remainder of the fight. Thankfully I managed to stay alive slowly chipping away at its health.

There are several things about this fight that makes it fucking amazing.

First of all: The boss is HUGE. Once you reach him the screen zooms way the fuck out. It really makes you feel like you're fighting something superior to you in every way.
Secondly: you have to use every tool at your disposal. Jumping, evading, shooting, attacking. Mindlessly pressing buttons doesn't work, you have to be observant and react according to what is thrown at you.
And lastly: Once the boss reaches critical health he goes nuts. It felt like he was going into panic mode. He was mindlessly pressing buttons  But it didn't work  

I have to say: One of the coolest and most fun fights I've ever experienced in a video game  

If you want to see the last 50 seconds of my fight, take a look. SPOILERS obviously.

Spoiler

Can I just say that I'm proud of that little drop at 45 seconds? That sealed the victory for me. If I got hit there I may have died. Not immediately but probably because I would've lost my shield and my position at the crystal which in turn would've opened me up for follow up attacks.

 

[Ganepark32]

I picked up Sundered last year when it was release and I've tried a few times to get into it but I don't like the horde wave mechanic that it uses and the procedural nature of the rooms. Backtracking was just made irritating because of that and the last time I played, I think it glitched on me as the horde wave of enemies was never ending despite me defeating however many of them that I did.

I may go back to it again later in the year or in the new year but I think it's more that that style of play doesn't work for me too well. It's why despite the glowing reviews for Dead Cells, I've not picked it up.

That being said, I did pick up Death's Gambit yesterday before the pre-order price disappeared. Downloading it now and hopefully get a go later this afternoon but really interested to see how it all comes together. I'm not the biggest fan of the Souls style gameplay but I do love a good Castlevania game so hoping it plays more like the latter. Also hoping I can turn perma-death off to start with to get to grips with things otherwise it may end up going a similar way to Sundered. I'm optimistic though as it looks great and will be a nice challenge before Guacamelee 2 hits next week.

Edited August 14, 2018 by Ganepark32

[drahkon]

Just now, Ganepark32 said:

 Backtracking was just made irritating because of that and the last time I played, I think it glitched on me as the horde wave of enemies was never ending despite me defeating however many of them that I did.

Well there are areas that give you a warning that "Endless Hordes" appear  

But yeah, if you don't like procedurally generated "levels" then this is not for you.

[Ganepark32]

10 hours ago, drahkon said:

Well there are areas that give you a warning that "Endless Hordes" appear  

But yeah, if you don't like procedurally generated "levels" then this is not for you.

The weird thing is, that warning didn't appear on screen. I just an onslaught of enemies for 20 minutes as I was trying to progress through the second area before they got me. Was playing it in the midst of a slight gaming funk so I'll probably go back to it at some point.

Anyways, managed to get a few hours in on Death's Gambit and although I wasn't sure if it'd click with me because of the similarities to the Souls games, I've found myself really enjoying it so far. Managed to take down 4 bosses, the last two of which were really close calls but strategic use of healing and letting the timers run down on some debuffs meant I prevailed.

There's a nice level of challenge; it's not too difficult to be off putting but gives a good enough push back to make you learn the enemies attacks and how to exploit them best, all the while conserving stamina.

You get to choose from 1 of 7 classes at the start, with each having a particular focus on their stats. I ended up going with the class known as Acolyte of Death, which gives you a scythe weapon and focuses more on finesse and your use of weapons like that. Don't do high amounts of damage but can combo well. You can, however, equip pretty much any type of weapon you come across, you might not be able to use your skills though as they look like they're attached to the class weapon of choice (in this case, my scythe).

I'm kinda undecided on whether the pixel art style is good or not. I think a bit more colour count would've helped to solidify the look but even then, some of the enemies and the locations look great. And the soundtrack is awesome too, really gets you pumped in those boss fights.

Really looking forward to digging into it more. Never thought I'd end up enjoying a Souls-esque game but I guess I just needed to find my one and this seems to be it. Well worth picking up for those who love that style of game.

[drahkon]

13 minutes ago, Ganepark32 said:

The weird thing is, that warning didn't appear on screen. I just an onslaught of enemies for 20 minutes as I was trying to progress through the second area before they got me. Was playing it in the midst of a slight gaming funk so I'll probably go back to it at some point.

Hm, maybe they added the note with a recent patch, who knows.

Made some progress. Managed to beat all three minibosses of the second area. Also had a go at the second large boss. Needless to say he wrecked me.  

 

Keep them posts about Death's Gambit coming @Ganepark32. Sounds like a game I'd enjoy. Too many indie games coming out these days...Dead Cells, Death's Gambit, Guacamelee 2...

[Shorty]

Dead Cells is absolutely awesome. Very addictive, "one more try" kinda game.

[drahkon]

Played one hour of Guacamelee 2.

Well, it's Guacamelee alright  Quirky humour, perfect platforming, cool combat, metroidvania style exploration. So far a very fun game  

[Hero-of-Time]

Looks like the PS Store search function is getting a much needed overhaul with the next system update.

 

[Shorty]

Yeah it's always been a bit of a mess, not sure what they were thinking with that old search function. Hope it gets much faster too!

[drahkon]

Been feeling a little down the past few days but the last three games I've started to play are bringing much needed joy back to me.

Sundered - a tough as nails Metroidvania with some rogue-like elements. Games like this are what I'm living for  

Guacamelee 2 - quirky humour, great platforming, Metroidvania at its best so far. 

Celeste - lovely little game but it rocks my balls from time to time (only two chapters in). The best part of it, though: It's always your own damn fault if you die  

 

Gonna be a little tough juggling all three but playing these games is just pure fun.  

[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.