I know to use the focus on enemies to find their weaknesses but there are some weaknesses I've seen that I still never even got a weapon for and I'm in the end game. Granted, I've just been focusing on the story, but this kind of thing needs to be something the game presents to you as you play the story. It shouldn't be something you discover.
I hear you. I played it a few months ago and there was a class of weapon that I never bought because I didn't know what it was useful for and I didn't want to waste currency on it without being sure. I also never bothered with a few arrow and trap types because I didn't really understand their usefulness. On the other hand, the lack of hand holding was also a little refreshing. A lot of other games present you with every type of weapon and pause the game to tell you how to use it or even require you to use it. That can sometimes get annoying for me. I kind of liked that I was largely left to discover the usefulness of items on my own. That said, the game really could've used more descriptions in the menus to help me to learn about them. I found the menus a little lacking and frustrating.
That being said, I didn't even realize until yesterday that you could pretty much rapid fire the fire arrows. I've been pulling back the string the whole way every time making the fire effect take forever to stack. lol
There are also abilities that you can unlock to string multiple arrows at once. I waited too long into the game to unlock them and then realized that they're especially handy against boss enemies. I know that you've finished the game, but I'm just mentioning it in case you've moved onto the DLC.
I think that was my main problem. I'm not a fan of open world games because they just feel so tedious with so much busy work so I generally skip a lot of the side content in them. I miss the days when open worlds were smaller but more focused. A game like Terminator Resistance comes to mind for that where each area is kind of open world but every corner is detailed and it never feels overwhelming to explore.
I just focused on the story, I did a couple side quests but in reality, it was less than 5. After that, I probably still had 50% of the map left to discover and a lot of things to do in what I had discovered because I just couldn't be bothered.
That's where I think more important things need to be presented and unlocked in the main story. I don't need my hand held, but good game design is giving you a need weapon, putting you in a situation where you need to use it, and then let you off to do your thing. If you choose not to use it again, that's on you, but I shouldn't see an icon in the weakness category and think, "I have no clue what that icon even is or how I deal that kind of damage."
I think that was my main problem. I'm not a fan of open world games because they just feel so tedious with so much busy work so I generally skip a lot of the side content in them. I miss the days when open worlds were smaller but more focused. A game like Terminator Resistance comes to mind for that where each area is kind of open world but every corner is detailed and it never feels overwhelming to explore.
I just focused on the story, I did a couple side quests but in reality, it was less than 5. After that, I probably still had 50% of the map left to discover and a lot of things to do in what I had discovered because I just couldn't be bothered.
That's where I think more important things need to be presented and unlocked in the main story. I don't need my hand held, but good game design is giving you a need weapon, putting you in a situation where you need to use it, and then let you off to do your thing. If you choose not to use it again, that's on you, but I shouldn't see an icon in the weakness category and think, "I have no clue what that icon even is or how I deal that kind of damage."
I agree with you. I avoid most AAA titles because too many of them have gone open world. But i also understand why developers are sort of abusing the formula: it sells.
An old series like Zelda never had the sales it got before Breath of the Wild. Same thing with FromSoftware and Elden Ring. I prefer a tight experience like Sekiro that used a different system than another Dark Souls but going open world.
I got addicted to the Shredder's Revenge TMNT game especially when it was free on Amazon Prime. It's a good throwback to the nostalgia TMNT games with hidden tidbits all around maps to collect. Also you can level up the turtles and even play as April which is fun. Great game so far.
Shredder's Revenge is awesome. I love the fact that you can dodge in it, that's not something you can typically do in beat em ups. It's a welcome change since it was usually just trading punches.
I did get TMNT Cowabunga Collection during the summer sale and played through them all with a friend in remote play. They are a ton of fun.
I'm 25 hours into the original route of SMT V: Vengeance. Not much going on story wise but the combat is exceptional, definitely better than any of the Persona games. I'm liking this game a lot.
I'm also giving No Man's Sky another shot after the recent update.
I was going to hold off because I plan on playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 when it releases but it just got delayed 2 months so I started Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I played like 4-5 hours of Yakuza 0 and didn't like that there were no English dubs. I found some of the subtitles went too quickly and I missed some lines. I have been wanting to try the series again, especially hearing so many people talk about Like a Dragon and Infinite Wealth and seeing it with a full English dub now has made me want to give it a go.
I'm only an hour in and I can definitely see why it's so praised. While the story is interesting enough from the short introduction I've had, there's also a lot of fun humor. I'm sure the main story will get really interesting as I progress too. I remember really loving the story in chapter one of Yakuza 0, it just had other issues that made me stop playing.
I liked Horizon Zero Dawn because it's the sort of story I like and I was interested in the world enough to want to find out what had happened. I think enjoyed exploring the world more than I did actually interacting with people. Just finding scraps of stuff and piecing things together was more rewarding and informative than the all weirdly similarly robotic people dotted around the landscape. There was enough variety in the gameplay to stop it being boring, while the core stuff was relatively simple and just... fun to do. I think most or all of these big Sony releases are deliberately quite similar, but then I hated the new God of War.
Anyway, I need help. I realised the other day that it felt like it's been a long time since I actually enjoyed playing a game. So I checked and I discovered that yes, I have actually played very few games in the past year that I've enjoyed. Here's the list starting from last August:
Alan Wake - boring, stupid, a pain to play Transistor - good, enjoyed Endling: Extinction is Forever - cute but boring Hotline Miami 1/2 - technically good, but frustrating by its nature and I never finished them WRC 9 - not as good as 8 which I'd played recently Trials of the Blood Dragon - didn't finish it and Trials seems like something I like the idea of more than the thing itself Dishonored - felt too familiar despite it being several years since I played the PS3 version, recognise that it's objectively good but didn't connect with it and also didn't finish it Disney Speedstorm - enjoyed playing this every day for several months before I eventually stopped myself because it was being ruined by its devs and making me unhappy and no amount of Kermit could fix that Super Woden GP - very frustrating arcade racing experience Lego 2K Drive - not only a bad game, an insult to the first PlayStation game I ever played that shaped my opinion on everything since Shadow of the Tomb Raider - boring generic garbage that made me long for the boring generic smug garbage of Uncharted Dirt 5 - boring Kentucky Route Zero - pretentious and boring Anthem - I will take the blame for this The Witness - I did enjoy most of this but I couldn't finish the last challenge and couldn't make myself try to finish it Trackmania - technically not finished but repetitive and frustrating when it doesn't go well RiMS Racing - motorbike racing but very tedious and unrefined and just a grind eventually Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier - good CastleStorm - cheap version of Angry Birds Death's Door - fine, but not for me Metro Exodus - boring, unengaging and dumber that it should be Borderlands 2 - finished a grind that felt like it lasted years Daxter - good NHL 24 - trying to win a Ones tournament actually gave me a sense of purpose, but my forays into Be a Pro and Franchise mode have told me that the 15 year wait since my last game may have been a bit too long Gone Home - good, I liked it
My big problem seems like the games that I've spent the most time on have done nothing for me - Tomb Raider, Anthem, RiMS, Metro Exodus, all taking up huge amounts of time while being completely unrewarding. I think this has made me reluctant to start anything because... am I going to go through the same thing? Can I just find something that I can enjoy that isn't a walking sim or a PSP game?
The help I need is I don't know what to play next that I might actually enjoy, so here's a list of everything that I can play. What do you recommend?
Alien: Isolation
Batman: Arkham City
Bayonetta
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Bound
Downwell
GTA Vice City
GTA San Andreas
Iconoclasts
Rollerdrome
Axiom Verge 2
Biomutant
Code Vein
Control
Crash Bandicoot trilogy
Curse of the Dead Gods
Days Gone
Enter the Gungeon
Evil West
Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion
Fallout 76
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Generation Zero
Granblue Fantasy: Versus
Heavenly Bodies
Hello Neighbour 2
Hitman 2
Hollow Knight
Just Cause 4
Kingdoms of Amalur
Lego Harry Potter
Middle-earth Shadow of War
Neon Chrome
Nioh
Nobody Saves the World
Rainbow Moon
Remnant: From the Ashes
Rogue Legacy
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Saints Row
Sifu
Skul
Slay the Spire
Subnautica
Superhot
Tails of Iron
Team Sonic Racing
The Surge
Thumper
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
Trek to Yomi
Tribes of Midgard
Tunic
Vampyr
Vanquish
Weird West
Yakuza Kiwami
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
I just want something that's going to be fun mechanically, have an engaging world and characters if there are any and for it to not feel as if it's taking years to finish it. If there's anything in that list you can recommend or anything else you think is worthwhile that's relatively cheap, please share. I'm at the point where I really need it.
Anyway, I need help. I realised the other day that it felt like it's been a long time since I actually enjoyed playing a game. So I checked and I discovered that yes, I have actually played very few games in the past year that I've enjoyed. Here's the list starting from last August:
Alan Wake - boring, stupid, a pain to play Transistor - good, enjoyed Endling: Extinction is Forever - cute but boring Hotline Miami 1/2 - technically good, but frustrating by its nature and I never finished them WRC 9 - not as good as 8 which I'd played recently Trials of the Blood Dragon - didn't finish it and Trials seems like something I like the idea of more than the thing itself Dishonored - felt too familiar despite it being several years since I played the PS3 version, recognise that it's objectively good but didn't connect with it and also didn't finish it Disney Speedstorm - enjoyed playing this every day for several months before I eventually stopped myself because it was being ruined by its devs and making me unhappy and no amount of Kermit could fix that Super Woden GP - very frustrating arcade racing experience Lego 2K Drive - not only a bad game, an insult to the first PlayStation game I ever played that shaped my opinion on everything since Shadow of the Tomb Raider - boring generic garbage that made me long for the boring generic smug garbage of Uncharted Dirt 5 - boring Kentucky Route Zero - pretentious and boring Anthem - I will take the blame for this The Witness - I did enjoy most of this but I couldn't finish the last challenge and couldn't make myself try to finish it Trackmania - technically not finished but repetitive and frustrating when it doesn't go well RiMS Racing - motorbike racing but very tedious and unrefined and just a grind eventually Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier - good CastleStorm - cheap version of Angry Birds Death's Door - fine, but not for me Metro Exodus - boring, unengaging and dumber that it should be Borderlands 2 - finished a grind that felt like it lasted years Daxter - good NHL 24 - trying to win a Ones tournament actually gave me a sense of purpose, but my forays into Be a Pro and Franchise mode have told me that the 15 year wait since my last game may have been a bit too long Gone Home - good, I liked it
My big problem seems like the games that I've spent the most time on have done nothing for me - Tomb Raider, Anthem, RiMS, Metro Exodus, all taking up huge amounts of time while being completely unrewarding. I think this has made me reluctant to start anything because... am I going to go through the same thing? Can I just find something that I can enjoy that isn't a walking sim or a PSP game?
The help I need is I don't know what to play next that I might actually enjoy, so here's a list of everything that I can play. What do you recommend?
Alien: Isolation
Batman: Arkham City
Bayonetta
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Bound
Downwell
GTA Vice City
GTA San Andreas
Iconoclasts
Rollerdrome
Axiom Verge 2
Biomutant
Code Vein
Control
Crash Bandicoot trilogy
Curse of the Dead Gods
Days Gone
Enter the Gungeon
Evil West
Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion
Fallout 76
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Generation Zero
Granblue Fantasy: Versus
Heavenly Bodies
Hello Neighbour 2
Hitman 2
Hollow Knight
Just Cause 4
Kingdoms of Amalur
Lego Harry Potter
Middle-earth Shadow of War
Neon Chrome
Nioh
Nobody Saves the World
Rainbow Moon
Remnant: From the Ashes
Rogue Legacy
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Saints Row
Sifu
Skul
Slay the Spire
Subnautica
Superhot
Tails of Iron
Team Sonic Racing
The Surge
Thumper
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
Trek to Yomi
Tribes of Midgard
Tunic
Vampyr
Vanquish
Weird West
Yakuza Kiwami
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
I just want something that's going to be fun mechanically, have an engaging world and characters if there are any and for it to not feel as if it's taking years to finish it. If there's anything in that list you can recommend or anything else you think is worthwhile that's relatively cheap, please share. I'm at the point where I really need it.
I've long since gone with the less-is-more approach where I find a few games I really enjoy playing and that have high replayability. Quality over quantity for me.
I know these aren't on your list, but my two go-to games are Baldur's Gate 3 and XCOM 2. Both, to me, have no fluff, no pointless grind (at least not in my view), highly addictive game loop, and high replayability. I've probably done a dozen XCOM 2 campaigns so far, and I simply don't get bored. I'm on my third BG3 playthrough and (first was solo, the next two are co-op) and same thing, I am not bored at all.
From your list, I haven't played many of them, but Slay the Spire is a fun deck builder that I keep returning to every so often. Evil West I thought was repetitive when playing solo, but pretty fun in co-op.
I've long since gone with the less-is-more approach where I find a few games I really enjoy playing and that have high replayability. Quality over quantity for me.
I know these aren't on your list, but my two go-to games are Baldur's Gate 3 and XCOM 2. Both, to me, have no fluff, no pointless grind (at least not in my view), highly addictive game loop, and high replayability. I've probably done a dozen XCOM 2 campaigns so far, and I simply don't get bored. I'm on my third BG3 playthrough and (first was solo, the next two are co-op) and same thing, I am not bored at all.
From your list, I haven't played many of them, but Slay the Spire is a fun deck builder that I keep returning to every so often. Evil West I thought was repetitive when playing solo, but pretty fun in co-op.
Yeah. Not RPGs. I actually can play XCOM 2 but I never really got into the first one.
The only thing I'd definitely not play is a Soulslike. That list of games is stuff I've bought and stuff I have on PS+. Ove the years there's a bunch of stuff from different genres I played via PS+ that I would never have even heard of without it never mind played, so I'm not really fussed about what it is as long as it's good.
Yeah. Not RPGs. I actually can play XCOM 2 but I never really got into the first one.
The only thing I'd definitely not play is a Soulslike. That list of games is stuff I've bought and stuff I have on PS+. Ove the years there's a bunch of stuff from different genres I played via PS+ that I would never have even heard of without it never mind played, so I'm not really fussed about what it is as long as it's good.
No worries if RPGs are not your jam. My point was more just to say I've figured out what I really enjoy about games, and honed in on the best examples of games with those features. For me, it's games like BG and XCOM. I've tried a bunch of other RPG/turn-based/strategic games, but to me, these are the benchmarks of the genre, so I don't waste a bunch of time with (in my view) subpar derivatives.
Same for me on Soulslike. Just find them completely tedious and boring. I typically don't like games-on-rails either (Uncharted, God of War, A Plague Tale, Last of Us).
Have you ever played Rimworld? Cities Skylines? Those are both open ended (to an extent), have a lot of replayability, fun mechanics, and you can play as long or as little as you want without feeling like it's "incomplete."
What about 4X games like Civ or Crusader Kings?
Survival crafting games like Subnautica, Green Hell, Grounded?
No worries if RPGs are not your jam. My point was more just to say I've figured out what I really enjoy about games, and honed in on the best examples of games with those features. For me, it's games like BG and XCOM. I've tried a bunch of other RPG/turn-based/strategic games, but to me, these are the benchmarks of the genre, so I don't waste a bunch of time with (in my view) subpar derivatives.
Same for me on Soulslike. Just find them completely tedious and boring. I typically don't like games-on-rails either (Uncharted, God of War, A Plague Tale, Last of Us).
Have you ever played Rimworld? Cities Skylines? Those are both open ended (to an extent), have a lot of replayability, fun mechanics, and you can play as long or as little as you want without feeling like it's "incomplete."
What about 4X games like Civ or Crusader Kings?
Survival crafting games like Subnautica, Green Hell, Grounded?
I have one of the Cities games in my library but I tend to struggle to get to grips with all of the mechanics and then start to lose patience. Subnautica is on the list and something I don't think I've ever seen a bad word about.
Anyway, I need help. I realised the other day that it felt like it's been a long time since I actually enjoyed playing a game. So I checked and I discovered that yes, I have actually played very few games in the past year that I've enjoyed. Here's the list starting from last August:
Alan Wake - boring, stupid, a pain to play Transistor - good, enjoyed Endling: Extinction is Forever - cute but boring Hotline Miami 1/2 - technically good, but frustrating by its nature and I never finished them WRC 9 - not as good as 8 which I'd played recently Trials of the Blood Dragon - didn't finish it and Trials seems like something I like the idea of more than the thing itself Dishonored - felt too familiar despite it being several years since I played the PS3 version, recognise that it's objectively good but didn't connect with it and also didn't finish it Disney Speedstorm - enjoyed playing this every day for several months before I eventually stopped myself because it was being ruined by its devs and making me unhappy and no amount of Kermit could fix that Super Woden GP - very frustrating arcade racing experience Lego 2K Drive - not only a bad game, an insult to the first PlayStation game I ever played that shaped my opinion on everything since Shadow of the Tomb Raider - boring generic garbage that made me long for the boring generic smug garbage of Uncharted Dirt 5 - boring Kentucky Route Zero - pretentious and boring Anthem - I will take the blame for this The Witness - I did enjoy most of this but I couldn't finish the last challenge and couldn't make myself try to finish it Trackmania - technically not finished but repetitive and frustrating when it doesn't go well RiMS Racing - motorbike racing but very tedious and unrefined and just a grind eventually Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier - good CastleStorm - cheap version of Angry Birds Death's Door - fine, but not for me Metro Exodus - boring, unengaging and dumber that it should be Borderlands 2 - finished a grind that felt like it lasted years Daxter - good NHL 24 - trying to win a Ones tournament actually gave me a sense of purpose, but my forays into Be a Pro and Franchise mode have told me that the 15 year wait since my last game may have been a bit too long Gone Home - good, I liked it
My big problem seems like the games that I've spent the most time on have done nothing for me - Tomb Raider, Anthem, RiMS, Metro Exodus, all taking up huge amounts of time while being completely unrewarding. I think this has made me reluctant to start anything because... am I going to go through the same thing? Can I just find something that I can enjoy that isn't a walking sim or a PSP game?
The help I need is I don't know what to play next that I might actually enjoy, so here's a list of everything that I can play. What do you recommend?
Alien: Isolation
Batman: Arkham City
Bayonetta
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Bound
Downwell
GTA Vice City
GTA San Andreas
Iconoclasts
Rollerdrome
Axiom Verge 2
Biomutant
Code Vein
Control
Crash Bandicoot trilogy
Curse of the Dead Gods
Days Gone
Enter the Gungeon
Evil West
Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion
Fallout 76
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Generation Zero
Granblue Fantasy: Versus
Heavenly Bodies
Hello Neighbour 2
Hitman 2
Hollow Knight
Just Cause 4
Kingdoms of Amalur
Lego Harry Potter
Middle-earth Shadow of War
Neon Chrome
Nioh
Nobody Saves the World
Rainbow Moon
Remnant: From the Ashes
Rogue Legacy
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Saints Row
Sifu
Skul
Slay the Spire
Subnautica
Superhot
Tails of Iron
Team Sonic Racing
The Surge
Thumper
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
Trek to Yomi
Tribes of Midgard
Tunic
Vampyr
Vanquish
Weird West
Yakuza Kiwami
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
I just want something that's going to be fun mechanically, have an engaging world and characters if there are any and for it to not feel as if it's taking years to finish it. If there's anything in that list you can recommend or anything else you think is worthwhile that's relatively cheap, please share. I'm at the point where I really need it.
From the games you listed, I'd recommend Crash N-Sane Trilogy (the first game in particular), THPS 1+2, and Superhot.
I'd also suggest that if you aren't enjoying a game after a few hours, just drop it. I can't imagine the time I would have wasted had I not dropped games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Hogwarts Legacy, Zelda TOTK, Witcher 3, etc.
From the games you listed, I'd recommend Crash N-Sane Trilogy (the first game in particular), THPS 1+2, and Superhot.
I'd also suggest that if you aren't enjoying a game after a few hours, just drop it. I can't imagine the time I would have wasted had I not dropped games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Hogwarts Legacy, Zelda TOTK, Witcher 3, etc.
Crash is one I've been hovering over for a while. I'd definitely go for THPS if it was going to remind me of the PS2 era, but I've been burned before with expectations like that. Superhot is a concept I'm interested in but I don't know how accessible the difficulty would be - I suppose downloading it and giving it a try wouldn't take too long.
I am a bit of a completionist which is a problem, but I have and do try games a bit and then bin them if I can quickly see they're not for me. The problem with a lot of those games listed is that I went in expecting to like them, or had played previous games like them or previous games in the series and liked them, and then found them unbearable. Or even basic stuff that should be impossible to get wrong like Dirt 5 and Lego 2K Drive.
Both of these seem like stuff I'd either get really into or just loathe. For PS4 exclusives I really enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn but hated God of War. I get the impression a lot of these games are quite similar in terms of their structure and how they look and feel so it could go either way. For Subnautica I'm not really into strategy or resource management but the setting is appealing.
There isn't any strategy in Subnautica. It's a survival game. There's resource management, but if you enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn, which also has some of it, you may not mind it.
Both of these seem like stuff I'd either get really into or just loathe. For PS4 exclusives I really enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn but hated God of War. I get the impression a lot of these games are quite similar in terms of their structure and how they look and feel so it could go either way. For Subnautica I'm not really into strategy or resource management but the setting is appealing.
Days Gone is different from the other Sony offerings in that there's zombies and you have a motorcycle to get around in. The gameplay loop gets stale but the characters and setting aren't bad.
Subnaticia is more survival and exploration. Both games are worth a two or three hour trial to see if you like it or not. You don't need to complete every game you start.
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I actually can play XCOM 2 but I never really got into the first one.
