MattyP

So... Just because I don't own a PS5 console at the moment I cannot comment on a showcase.. .right... whatever... For reference I owned a PS5 for a while and I'm still interested in what Sony do as they are part of gaming. So... 😛

It will be interesting to see what the two AAA game per year titles will be (mooted further up thread if that is indeed their plan!). We are nearly half way through the year already... A new Killzone? Motorstorm? Be interesting if they did resurrect some of their old IPs. It would be also nice to get some more titles exclusive to PS5 - designed around the hardware. I mean we are heading into year three of the hardware and only a handful of fully exclusive PS5 games have been released. I know pandemic and all that but even some smaller more niche titles would be nice. EDIT: Updated for the sensitive ones.

Yep... It'll be odd playing his work native on a PC! Although not holding my breath for a release date...

Looking forward to seeing what Sony are up to! It would be nice if there were updates on what Team Asobi have been up to - announcement of a fully fleshed out Astro game would be great. Hope they bring some more innovative games to the table that use lovely Dual Sense controller more - leverage some of the PS5's unique platform defining features. Feel they have lost a bit of what made Sony a bit different since the PS4. Also and finally I hope they announce things that are to be released in the near future - say next six months. It gets tiring waiting for things these days... here is what you can play... in a year or two. And "in development" stuff. Its good to know the direction they are going but to me it should be about what you can play soon. I expect and hope this will be more of the focus.

I don't think it does personally? What do you mean be "catch up" to what? TotK is an example of a game using multiple tried and tested ideas to form part of a Zelda game. Other games are designed around elements of what TotK does or indeed has copied into Zelda. Not dissing Nintendo's effort here because everything is highly polished and well designed - which is what makes the difference. Personally think Crackdown for example was great game in terms of innovation brought to an open world game. Here are some objectives and now go out and achieve them in any way you want. Great physics model etc. For me that was a breath of fresh air to open world games. A playground to play in and superpowers to boot! Felt very fresh at the time. It was released in 2007.

Personally think TotK has taken its influences from the rest of the industry and brought them to the Zelda franchise. Everything in there has been done before - the difference is Nintendo have packaged it all extremely well and built a story around it. I really don't think the industry as a whole doesn't need to add what Zelda has put in? Its context sensitive. For example why would you want to build things in a fairly fast action GTA game with its mission structures etc? I think TotK is a showcase for Nintendos mastery of game design once again.

Regarding combat. Trying to figure out the best approach to this as I am struggling a bit. Currently have seven heart containers so getting stronger. I am guessing I really need to make use of the fuse capability? Things seem to break often during fights and at the moment I'm doing mostly long distance attacks as anytime I get close to anything its game over - despite using my shield etc. Think as mentioned when fusing things it kind of feels a bit unintuitive to keep bringing menus up all the time to do things - breaks the flow if you know what I mean? Is this something (fusing) that is just something that needs to be done all the time in combat?

This looks great... but... Zelda... Perhaps something to play during Zelda downtime?

Looks and sounds pretty. Yes it seems like yet another platform based 2D story game but I kind of like these as they are nice to play between bigger titles. https://www.eurogamer.net/a-highland-song-captures-the-joys-and-dangers-of-being-lost-in-nature https://store.steampowered.com/app/1240060/A_Highland_Song/

Generally just grabbing gems and selling them to merchants. You can mine these in the caves etc by smashing up the shining stones in there. Only have around 500 myself.

Indeed... Only have a couple of things on the go at the moment. Atari 50 (specifically Tempest 2000) and this. Probably me for the rest of the year TBH. Glad I didn't resub to GamePass back in March TBH it would have been a complete waste of money. I expect my Series S will see some serious neglect going forward for the foreseeable future. Spent more time on the Switch this past month than the past six months or so on the Series S.

Great for playing in between meetings.... It's been out what 10 days... average of 3.5 hours a day for me... I don't think I need any more games in my life a the moment.

Yeah thinking the same thing.... Suppose you could go one step further and just watch YouTube of the game and bypass the game bit. Joking aside I guess its however people want to play so not judging anyone...

Checked my timer earlier 35 hours... Quite shocked actually didn't realise I'd spent so long on the game! Not even really scratched the surface either. I don't think I've spent this long on (or in?) a game for years. Especially not an RPG type game. Thing is usually like games that I can finish complete a story or whatever with this I know there is a story there but not really fussed about doing it for some reason just enjoy pottering about exploring! Don't even really like fighting stuff in here although it is part of the game I avoid combat where possible because I seem to get killed pretty quickly one or two jabs from an enemy seems to remove most of my health. Anyway probably something I need to work on....

Oh... Decided to mount an attack to get to a sky tower guarded by critters. It was stormy weather, thunder and lightning and all. So some of the creatures got struck by lightening so that took them out... Proceeded to climb to wooden structure to the gate took out my current weapon to ready myself for the onslaught. Problem is my weapon was metal and I got nuked by lightening as it conducted it straight down to me. Nice little details..just shows how the environment really does interact with everything.

Amazing what people are building...

Went with the log ramp too... Think I just usually go with the cheapest way of achieving what I need to do and rarely over engineer things!

Know what you mean.. seem to be having a bit of trouble coming back over to Switch with the A button where the B button is on the Xbox controller! However being using the Switch more than anything at the moment I expect now it will be the other way around when I eventually go back to the Xbox. Just got another heart... feeling a bit more powerful I'm upto six now... Think I might do a shrine session next to bolster this up a bit more. Then try a bit more combat...

Have a Google around they have been doing the rounds recently. I've personally ignored them as well what's the point of playing a game really if exploiting a bug? Sense of accomplishment goes out of the window TBH. But people like to play things differently I guess.

Indeed the combat is something you have to learn in this. Its not really a case of just bruteforcing your way in and some thought has to be given on how to approach a situation.. keeps making you think on your feet! I think this is why the menu system seems frustrating at time because you are being attacked you have to respond quickly to a situation so the panic sets in making you fudge button presses etc... its frustrating at first but as time goes on it will become second nature. Think they have done onpar a fantastic job of doing what could become a very difficult and unintuitative process. Above this is a game that makes you think too so not only is it a test of dexterity as much as creative thinking etc. Takes a bit of time when it seems you've been spoon-fed a lot in many games. I like that there is more than one way to approach things and it allows experimentation to solve various situations. So if you have a crazy idea you can give it a try.. and most of the time it works!

I recently played Project Gotham Racing 4 on the 360* and it still looks and plays great. Certainly doesn't feel like a game released in 2007! The trackside crowds are all there with photo flashes etc, dynamic weather in races, realistic looking city centres. I still don't think I've played a circuit based driving game since that has impressed so much both in gameplay and visuals. * Also they have almost cracked near perfect emulation of the is on the PC which is great as I might finally be able to pack up the 360.

Indeed. I think its not just the concept of the ability its the implementation of it and how the game world has been designed/crafted to make use of it. Then the rest of the abilities and as mentioned the sheer scale of the game itself. Nothing particularly new as such but the sum of its parts leads to something quite brilliant. I was never a fan of open world games however this has sucked me completely in.

Indeed this is the Nintendo way. Not sure many companies have such a luxury though of this. IIRC Nintendo even delayed the release of the N64 to get Mario polished up! Frustrating as the wait is sometimes better to have something released in its best state than how so many games seem to get released. Get tired of the multi GB patches. Think I've downloaded the original game size + some for the Last Of Us Part 1 on the PC for example. It does get a bit silly. What are they patching with the size of these patches? Crazy. Anyway... Saying all that 6 years between games is a fair bit of time although I fully expect that I might still be playing TotK when the next mainline Zelda gets a release though - and indeed perhaps Nintendo's next piece of hardware!

Think I might be on a quest up there again to retrieve said item...

Indeed! I used to chase the graphics card / PC update cycle but its very shallow when the novelty of the visual effects wear off a bit. Also finding most of the time I care less about FPS / resolutions too. All this "realism" is kind of negated when you have the game world behaving in unrealistic ways - invisible walls etc etc. Tedious mission structures etc. I fire up Half Life 2 now and again and still find it hard to believe this was made nearly 20 years ago!