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

HZD AKA the one where a cave girl fights robot dinosaurs.

i still haven't played the new DQ but that seems like a perfect recommendation for dog latin, as far as kind of old school ideas on a new platform. persona 5, too! more of an updated take but perfectly graspable and v stylish

Noob question: Can I save games to my PS4 so I don't need to swap discs whne I want to play a new game? Is it recommended on a 500GB?

yes you can! in fact, i'm not even sure how you save to anywhere except the ps4 (there's probably a USB stick option but i've never messed with it)

also, not sure if you know, but you don't need to buy discs (unless you want to) - you can buy games directly from the store and download them.
installing games to the hard drive also makes them run faster (?? i'm assuming this is true)

buy games directly from the ^online ps4^ store and download them, if that wasn't clear

the answer is actually the worst of both worlds i think, most big games automatically install to the hard drive because running it directly off the disc is too slow, but the disc acts as DRM so you still need it in.

oh dang, that blows - i am glad to have zero discs

the alternative is buying the games digitally from the PS store, obviously the downside there is you can't get the same type of discounts/sales as buying a disc copy at retail

btw, the "just buy games online and download them" strategy won't work as well if you're the kind of person who likes to have 30+ games accessible at any point. for me, i usually have 2-3 games i'm working on at any given moment, another handful for certain situations, and then the rest of them are ones that i've deleted to save space on my hard drive but can be re-downloaded at any point if i want to play them.

it's never created a situation for me, but not for everyone

I think my greatest axe to grind was that newest Final Fantasy game, which I probably spent more time installing than playing because I couldn't get into it.

Put disc in, it wants to install. I let it install. Then it immediately downloads a patch that's nearly the size of the entire game. Actually, thinking back, it might have just downloaded the entire game and the disc was useless.

The "day one patch" offenders for games released on discs are bad enough now that the downloaded version is superior

cool. what do i do to download? I haven't seen that option.

Also, are we sharing handles on here for multiplayer online purposes?

Many xps but I don't think you got any answers to this?

Wouldn't mind some recommendations of two-player or multi-player games that I can download and play with my S/O and housemate

I'd definitely look at Rocket League, Overcooked, and one or more of the Jackbox Party Packs (esp the one that includes Fibbage). But in all honesty if this was a key driver for you, you might have been better off with that Switch after all - couch multiplayer largely died out on other platforms when online play took off.

(Oh, also Nidhogg and maybe Towerfall Ascension, if you want competitive rather than co-op)

We had a lot of fun with Broforce too though it's hard to recommend because the performance is so bad on PS4 and I don't think it ever got fixed? But yeah 2d 16-bit style games shouldn't be seeing their frame rates drop to single figures on modern hardware)

Even on Switch I want to say many of their best multiplayer games are designed for online play. Thinking of stuff like Splatoon, though of course there is always Smash Brothers and Mario Kart, which are both also ideal for couch multiplayer. I don't think I've purchased a game for PS4 thus far that made me regret not having online access, though there are a few games in which said feature seems intriguing.

Overcooked ... I think we collectively played about 15 minutes of it as a family before we realized it was a really really bad idea.

Rcket League, Overcooked, and one or more of the Jackbox Party Packs

Towerfall Ascension, Broforce

yes to all of these, and also otm about couch multiplayer being garbage on ps4

haven't played Nidhogg! in fact i haven't even heard of it, i gotta check it out.

recently i was having a brodown with an old friend with a ps4, so we decided to get super-nostalgic and purchase the remastered tony hawk 2 so we could do multiplayer like we did a million times in the past. turns out the remastered game took out the split screen option so that the only way you can play with your friend is if they are in their own home, online.

there's plenty of couch multiplayer on ps4 especially if you include stuff like the entire fighting game genre or sports genre

thanks everyone!!

it's so sad that multiplayer couch style games aren't really a thing though.. I mean, that was half the fun of having a console back in the day, getting your mates round and playing rounds of Mortal Kombat or Mario Kart and stuff.. I get why you'd want to play online with loads of other people you've never met, but there's room for both right?

I think we collectively played about 15 minutes of it as a family before we realized it was a really really bad idea.

Hahaaa same here tbh but I assumed that just meant it was a bad idea for our family. I've enjoyed it more with peers, just a tricky one to play with your kids without finding yourself yelling at them.

i played overcooked with a friend who is a irl short order cook, and also exceptionally good at video games. i was kind of shocked at how poorly we performed as a team

it's so sad that multiplayer couch style games aren't really a thing though

Yeah definitely. Like, me and my son loved playing destiny together but to do it we needed to be in different rooms on different ps4s plugged into different tvs using headsets to communicate, it was pretty fucking dysfunctional really.

(ciderpress is right though, I was forgetting fighting and sport games, they still exist if you're into them).

I mean, that was half the fun of having a console back in the day, getting your mates round and playing rounds of Mortal Kombat or Mario Kart and stuff.. I get why you'd want to play online with loads of other people you've never met, but there's room for both right?

It's not an issue in my house, since my girls don't really play any of this shit, but I know plenty of parents of kids who do, and their kids apparently spend hours playing multiplayer games together online with friends as an activity seemingly preferable to interacting in real life, which is very much on generation trend (see also: less partying, drinking, drugs, sex, per studies). I wonder if any of it stems from the fact that in many cases these games make it, per the earlier comment, literally impossible to play together on the same screen, in the same room.

There's always LAN parties. :)

ciderpress otm. couch multiplayer is totally a thing.

every sports game
every fighting game
gt sport
minecraft
overcooked
but ESPECIALLY crash team racing

competitive competitive is a thing - cooperative, not so much. but i suppose that's always been true

tbh i may have a warped perspective because my coop partner doesn't like sports, fighting, or racing games.

oh - or FPS/shooting games

people still go nuts for Nintendo franchises like Smash Brothers and Mario Kart, right?

There are also all those Lego and Marvel games, right? Are they couch co-op?

there's also still lots of smaller/indie hack-and-slash type games with couch coop, in the tradition of gauntlet, though i don't play them so i can't name the good ones off the top of my head

There are also all those Lego and Marvel games, right? Are they couch co-op?

Sure but this was "offer recommendations" not "list all the ones that exist" and while I love playing the lego games with family I wasn't about to assume that DL and his adult friends would be into them (though maybe they would be! It's my wife's favourite game series, she's 100%ed them all).

Crash Team Racing is a PS1 game, c'mon.

Minecraft technically does split screen but from what I remember it makes the crafting menus unusably tiny (though I've not tried it for years, maybe they fixed that eventually).

they just put out a remake of crash team racing, its a ps4 game now

Yeah I'm aware it got a PS4 remake. But a remake of a PS1 game is still a PS1 game. Or at the very least isn't enough of a ps4 game to make a good answer to "what ps4 games should I get for me new ps4?"

it is an extremely good game that you can buy and play on your ps4 and it is the most fun if you have friends over to play it with. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Son would quite like Rocket League for Christmas.

Can you play this offline?

(Don't have any online subscriptions but would probably opt for the Switch version if you have to pay subs)

There are also all those Lego and Marvel games, right? Are they couch co-op?

Yes and quite fun too - there's even some mini levels that can only be completed in co-op mode.

The dynamic split screen takes a little bit of getting used to but is actually quite a neat idea

The Lego Star Wars games on the PS2 were awesome IIRC

I'm really enjoying Witcher 3, you guys! Just done killed a Griffin and now I'm running around in a towel. But yes, all this alchemy and runestones and swords and stats is way over my head. Oh well, it's a romp

Worms WMD is on PS4 and is a great couch multi-player, even more venerable than Crash.

the Divinity games can both be played couch co-op if you fancy something a bit meatier. feels a bit odd playing an rpg in split screen but works pretty well

I tried the second Divinity and have no idea how combat works (kind of a high learning curve to not dying in a battle).

Yeah Divinity’s got a pretty steep learning curve. Gave it a few hours but it didn’t really click at the time, hope to return to it at some point.

EDF games have couch co-op

oh what's the indie game where you run about inside a spaceship trying to pilot it while manning the cannons and sort out problems? that was fun twoplayer.

my memory, sorry. "Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime", that's it.

I think it's local 4p too

Son would quite like Rocket League for Christmas.

Can you play this offline?

You can play against the computer but the computer AI isn't very good.

Yeah Divinity’s got a pretty steep learning curve. Gave it a few hours but it didn’t really click at the time, hope to return to it at some point.

The writing is excellent, what I've seen of it! It eschews the "one of these options is the objective best option," which really confounded me when I ran up against a certain decision point.

Best local co-op on PS4 is Towerfall btw