A PS4 Thread: Because You Had to Play "Knack"

How are the Tomb Raider reboots? I've never played any of the Tomb Raiders, but they seem OK. Definitely another gather-and-craft sort of game, though, or so it seems.

I only played the first one but it was fun

if you like the on-rails, cinematic bombast and spectacle type of action game, GoW and Uncharted are fun and great. that said, the appeal obviously will wane with time since the graphics look shittier with each passing year

there aren't many (in the 3D era) like Metal Gear Solid that hold up, and those are mostly due to its bonkers story and characters

The cut scenes in Dark Souls definitely add something, but part of the reason why they're effective is that they happen so rarely, and they never last long enough to make you forget you're playing a game.

Similarly there's only one non-boss area in the game that has background music, and so it's really striking when you hear it.

The lack of music is indeed pretty cool and/or unnerving!

xpost I don't know, all these AAA games seem pretty broadly generic to me, or at the least rooted to some pretty clear antecedents and inspirations. Something like Celeste seemed pretty original to me (but too hard). But gameplay aside, Dark Souls is still dude with sword fights the dragon. Doom (again, as a relatively renewed gamer who hadn't done much in years) had some pretty novel gameplay - you are rewarded for being aggressive, which is the opposite of hide-and-snipe trends - but the game itself is just an action movie. I haven't played it yet, but Bloodborne seems like a more original sort of idea built out of the DS template.

I should say, from my perspective, all these graphics, even older games, look cool to me, since I've never played anything more advanced than the Wii.

i'm playing god of war on the ps4 pro on a 4k tv and the graphics are probably the best thing it has going for it

it's probably the best looking game (better than red dead 2 in some ways)

better looking than red dead 2 in some ways*

But I imagine stuff like Last of Us and Uncharted are very talky.

uncharted is the answer to What if Indiana Jones wasn't charming at all, but everyone around him still treated him like he was charming for some reason

like Indiana Jones

however you would rate indiana jones on the charm scale, nathan drake is 1/100th as charming

I haven't played it yet, but Bloodborne seems like a more original sort of idea built out of the DS template.

I haven't played any DS games, but currently working through BB, and gameplay-wise, it's not a break from convention IMO. It's a rogue-like hack/slash/ROLLGODDAMMIT game.

I found Drake charming, I am a bad ilxor. ._.

roguelike means you start the game over from the beginning every time you die, it's not one of those

Heh, Dark Souls is like the opposite: you die, you still have all your stuff, you know where all your other stuff is and can get it back, but ... sometimes you just don't want to.

Bloodborne does have a rogue-like mode though (the chalice dungeons, which can be randomly generated and don't have much in the way of checkpoints iirc).

I'M SORRY GUYS I DON'T KNOW WHAT MEANS A ROGUE-LIKE.

I feel like the core feature of a rogue-like is what ciderpress said - no saves. There are other aspects people sometimes mean when they say roguelike like procedurally generated maps or ascii or tile graphics but they seem less core to the genre. i wouldn't consider daggerfall a roguelike even tho huge swaths of it are procedurally generated bc basically unlimited saves. otoh i do kinda consider super hexagon a roguelike bc it resets every time you lose and requires you to develop skills over countless plays in order to progress through it. wasn't there a new term tho for the current crop of roguelikes bc the original roguelikes were like actually like rogue like they were nethack or whatever? roguelite maybe?

the two elements that define a roguelike imo are:
1) permanent death - when you die you start over from the beginning
2) randomly generated content - you're not playing the exact same game each time you start over

roguelite is what people use for the ones that let you carry certain abilities or traits or whatever to your next run so there's a small amount of permanent progress

so, roguelike = buddhism

lol

Ten minutes of Kratos Jr in the new GoW had me trying to lop his head off.

hah yeah I can see that. There's a section later on where he gets super-bratty, that's really irksome. The story is actually pretty good, by the standards of blockbuster console games, I think.

so much qualification in this thread, sad sigh
genre/"trash" is ok! love it!

i admit, i probably did it myself

most videogames are extremely bad on any number of levels tho tbf

The recent Tomb Raider reboot is interesting to play, with a lot of modern traits (hope you enjoy ducking behind cover), but there are long sections where it's an amazing simulation of a young woman terrified for her life or in serious injury.

Add that to the lovingly-detailed "you have died" animations (and yeah, I know they were in the originals, but Lara is no longer 24 polygons) and I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a hidden commentary track of the developers fapping to it.

I understand the next two are better in this regard.

Before I got back into games, I thought the Conan video on this was pretty shocking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCe8-1dbXZc

Funny, I heard the most recent Tomb Raider - Shadow of the Tomb Raider - was among the most problematic, with the lead almost the antagonist. Certainly damaged and destructive.

you guys are nuts! God of War is great at what it is trying to be not I'm not sure how it could be much better . plus it was on sale for $21

when you can pay $21 you just gotta

Kratos’s pathos never hit home for me, so that’s one thing it could’ve been better at. It is fun to play, but I’ve had no desire to go back to it after beating it.

My Nier finally arrived!

Backlog growing again, since some places have talked up Gravity Rush 2 and it is on sale for a whopping $6.

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP9000-CUSA03694_00-GRAVITYRUSH20000

ive never played that game or watched any actual footage of it but it looks incredible in gifs

that's pretty cheap!

This is the part that sold me: "2017’s first (and potentially only) big-budget video game about the income gap, the ethical and personal complexities of salvaging modern capitalist societies.."

Polygon writers can get a little loopy

ok guys -

ps4 gets opened in 4 days. two kids, 10 and 7. i am not into them playing SHOOTING games so fortnite is out. i am definitely getting them fifa 19. but.. what else? a driving game a bit more arcadey than GT maybe? they love super mega baseball. the littlest actually really loves Stacking. they both like Beyond Good and Evil though it is a bit complex for them. they like action. and they like competition, particularly if it can be calibrated/handicapped - super mega baseball is great for this.

I play Dirt4 and Driveclub and both are fairly arcadey especially with some of the driver assists but still quite tough for an under 10 I think. Maybe a karting game would suit more?

PS4 is crying out for something like Modnation Racers. Maybe give TrackMania Turbo a whirl? Rocket League is good fun too.

My kids absolutely love the Ratchet & Clank games. Platforming and shooting (but in a completely cartoony way). Same with the various Lego games.

I was watching broadcasts of combat racer Onrush this morning as it's a PS+ freebie this month.

Everything on screen looks so BUSY with bright colours and flashing things and a dozens of cars all crashing and racing at once and arrows and weird scoring and pick ups and a billion things to see. I think I'm getting too old to play online.

Tracer do your kids know the lego games?

oh xp right

My family got me Spiderman. Haven't played yet but looks cool, though not sure how violent the violence is. that is, hitting but no killing, maybe? I'm sure bad guys have guns.

xpost Oh, maybe nu Tetris?

trackmania turbo is rad

they do know the Lego games yes but not well - they've played a bit of Lego star wars on my phone

they both LOVE real cars, talking about cars difft models etc - so I'm thinking Drive Club might be a more accessible alternative to GT for them

ok the birthday game lineup is:

- fifa
- driveclub
- super mega baseball TWO (omg!)

if i were 10 or 7 i would love that combo

i would still love that combo