It's mostly the initial load from the start screen which may lead you to worry if your Switch has crashed.

But they're still pretty bad and too regular.

TLOU2:

That last section was seriously tense. I may hate the direction they went in with the characters but there's no denying that this is a still a finely crafted experience. Especially visually, it's probably the most impressive game I've yet seen.

A reluctant - dem bad feels - 8

I fninished Miles Morales on the PS5 last night, a few days after Demon’s Souls. That’s the end of my PS5 games for now, unless I suddenly get the urge to play Bugsnax.

I think I may have enjoyed Miles more than the original Spider-Man. It’s definitely a more compact experience, but I think the length was about right and I found the side stuff interesting enough to do most of it. My completion percentage was 89%, which is pretty rare for me in an open world game.

Demon’s is Demon’s, but a very good version of Demon’s. It’s pretty as hell and runs super smooth. As a 10 year old game, I’d forgotten lots of it, so the experience was largely a fresh one. I started NG+, but then decided I have enough new stuff to play and 30+ hours was enough for now.

Both games, I believe, show the PS5 in a really good light. Ray tracing at 60FPS in MM and the quality of visuals at 60 in Demon’s bode well - especially as the developers will just be getting to grips with the hardware.

Not sure what my next PS5 game will be though? Maybe Deathloop? I’m knee-deep in Game Pass stuff, so I doubt I’ll be using it again for a while.

I'm a ways into Miles, courtesy of Muzzy thanks mate. It's great, although it's not quite holding my attention due to the fact that I've not long ago played the main game and it's all very familiar.

I do prefer Peter Parker over Miles (he's a little bit annoying) but he's still a decent character. The story is the usual marvel bobbins - young folk bumbling about in masks doing silly things it's all a bit played out but it's a wonderful game nonetheless.

The new 60fps is great but it suffers from that look 60fps games have where it just seems too clean and polished for me. The fidelity mode in this looks a lot better when you're standing still, but the minute you move that camera - yuk. There's just no going back to it. I'm not sure how I feel about that tbh.

Happy to pass this on to anyone on here if that's okay with you Muzz?

Astro Boy Omega Factor, finally.

Must have started this soon after I bought it from Gav (thanks again for that!) and I've played it in bursts since then.
I've done Birth, Rebirth and the final world, so that's probably only hard mode that I've missed (which is the true way to play according to some people with better reaction skills). Enjoyed every second of it, I've always had a soft spot for Astro Boy ever since B took me to see it at an animation festival years ago. Then Tempy triggered that again by talking about the Pluto manga a few years ago, which I also really enjoyed.
There's a childlike positive feel to the whole story / universe that I really enjoy, while there's plenty of darker moments throughout it.

The game looks great, some really nice pixel art, gameplay is fun having on foot and flying sections switching things up, and nailing a boss's pattern feels really good. You either die real quick or absolutely boss it (still had plenty of close calls), but that might be expected from a Treasure game? This is my first one, so can't say for sure.

Doom Eternal PS4

I know quite a few people on this forum really like this game. Its as Tempy said on the Doom thread you really cant compare this and the 2016 release as they are rwo different beasts, but its hard not to. I loved the simplicity and the rock-paper-siccsors gunplay of the 2016 game. Really loved it. Alot.

Which is why i found it difficult to appreciate Eternal. The system they have implemented feels too busy and is trying to so too many things without excelling at any.
"Hey have these 9 runes you can swap in and out". Well i used the same 3 most useful ones throughout my run (for reference i got to the last level and traded it in).

The "swap your gun mods on the fly". Well for each gun i picked the most useful mod and stuck with it throughout as it was the most useful mod.

The rune dial i found only a few unlockables i actually wanted or needed. The rest were meh and i unlocked them as i went just to use up the runes.

There were times when on certain arenas within a level where it hit on the same highs as 2016 but they were fleeting. Arc Complex was the most enjoyable mission.

I didnt enjoy the parkour jumping stuff which was put in to break up the run and gun sections of the game. I think i would have preferred to find audio logs in the quieter moments between the death and destruction as you walked around the map to your next encounter.

The shielded minibosses felt more like another step away from the rock-paper-sicssors gameplay of 2016.

The game had its moments but for me personally it is far far away from the awesome experience i had with Doom 2016.

This is the biggest disappointment of the year for me. A controversial view in here no doubt.

6

Tempy wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

"Hey have these 9 runes you can swap in and out". Well i used the same 3 most useful ones throughout my run (for reference i got to the last level and traded it in). The "swap your gun mods on the fly". Well for each gun i picked the most useful mod and stuck with it throughout as it was the most useful mod.

FWIW those are both features of 2016 carried over to Eternal

Lol. I'm old tempy, with a toddler at home. I can't remeber what i did yesterday nevermind the system in detail within Doom 2016.

Yeah I really enjoyed 2016 Doom but bounced hard off Eternal. It made just shooting shit hard to enjoy what with having to change it up and think about what you're running low on ammo wise constantly. Just ended up getting in the way of things. I'm so bored of this finisher style animation every game seems to have lately too. It's just repetitive.

Death Stranding - [10] - 70+hrs

Well this came as a surprise. A purchase made simply because it was cheap and a few people in the thread made it sound great. But I have never enjoyed an MGS game. I’ve bounced off 4 of them and when I heard about more stealth in this I was prepared to do the same. But boy what a game.

Firstly, it’s beautiful. Not just technically, but artistically. This Icelandic landscapes, combined with the various weather patterns (have different types of rain ever been modelled as well), are breathtaking in places and there is a consistency and solidity to the visuals that is rare outside of an ND game. And then the cut scenes and character models are very well realised. On top of that it is technically very good. Yes some minor pop-in on the landscapes is present if you are moving quickly, but that is about it.

Secondly, sound. Discovered a new artist in the Icelandic Low Roar and the music fits perfectly with the cold barren landscapes you traverse. Initially, I wanted music of some kind available throughout the game, but developers obviously know better than myself, as it was the right call to use it sporadically. Letting the environmental sound effects do their thing is a much more involving soundtrack than any musical score.

So the game then. What makes it worth the time? For me it was initially the challenge of finding that route through the landscape, avoiding confrontation and getting the delivery done on time and in good condition. As I’ve developed through the game I realised either it made me, or I wanted to, bring some order to this chaotic world. I have spent most of my 60+ hours setting up infrastructure to smooth my traversal (and those of other porters) across the map. Case in point, I’ve probably spend 20 hours just gather enough resources to build as much road as possible. This then makes my future deliveries much much easier.

This approach can apply to combat. Outside the main story I tend to avoid combat as it is a waste of time unless you want to gather resources (materials and gear from MULE camps, and crystals from BTs). As both eventually respawn it is often worth simply avoiding the combat. However, even in combat the game gives you choices in how you approach it as you progress with lots of different gadgets and weapons to achieve your goal. Much like building roads if I get deliveries that involve going into MULE camps I tend to go in first and take em out before risking the time or gear fighting while doing the delivery at the same time. So like travel I like to prepare first then make the delivery as efficient as possible.

I have just completed right on Christmas Day and watching the titles roll. There’s more to do obviously but the main story was a solid enough ending and very much in the context of the overall game. Still a 10

Welcome aboard the Death Stranding love train.

So that ending then...

Feeling the love

.

Seems to be and some free DLC that the PlayStation doesn’t get. Definitely do it. It’s wonderful.

Forgot to add in my write up that it’s also a genuinely positive game. Some may say it’s corny and obvious but I think it’s good the game lacks cynicism and it doesn’t need humour to sell its positive vision of humanity. Genuinely touching end too.

One for 2021 at some point maybe. Or 2022 depending on how fast I can get through some of my backlog.

I think the only thing that’s grated with me so far is the character names.

I understand that Mama’s real name is Målinga or something to that effect, so you could call her Ma but . Likewise, to find out that Deadman is compared to is another thing that feels weird to me.

I know Kojima has previous with this and his stories are hardly grounded affairs, but I keep thinking the main characters are hyper banter merchants, basically calling each other something awful that relates to their past.