Agreed. I already own the “thanks for buying a PS5” games in that collection that I want, but for someone who doesn’t, it’s a fantastic offering. Plus the offerings on PS+ in 2021 so far seem pretty fantastic. I was underwhelmed with them during the PS4 era, but they’re doing a lot better this year.
Microsoft doesn’t care about GWG anymore though. They should really just kill it off since what they want is for everyone to sign up for Game Pass.
FF7R is a nice offering… and then they immediately undercut it by saying it won’t get the free upgrade that was the highlight of Sony’s big presentation earlier in the day. Which I can completely understand but the timing and overall messaging left a lot to be desired.
Wow, FF7 Remake. Glad I didn’t spring for that one over Christmas! I don’t have a PS5 and no plans to get one, so the no upgrade thing is no skin off my nose.
I’m looking forward to getting around to that. It really was a pleasant surprise. I mean with the Astro game and those, someone starting with zero in their library wound up with a lot to play right out the gate. Assuming someone could actually get a console, this is a great launch for someone completely new.
The controversy is pretty overblown. There are nearly 50 million PS Plus users. Even it every ps5 owner subscribes that’s only like 10% of subscribers. It’s a great get for the vast majority of users.
My mission continues. Since I’ve finished Days Gone, I have plunged in the the March Offerings starting with:
Maquette.
Oh dear. I wanted to like this, but it misses the mark in so many ways. The premise of the puzzles is sound and there are some good ideas here. There was only one puzzle I would categorize as total bullshit (the “Key Size” puzzle if you’re wondering). The rest is fine, but since it’s such a short game, I don’t feel like they explored their puzzle design in any meaningful way.
But the main problem is in the controls. I’m not one to slag on the Unity game engine. There are some really good games that use Unity. But with Maquette the controls feel almost like they are using the stock FPS controls which are functional but don’t feel polished.
Object manipulation is a mess. I can’t count the number of times I was trying to place an object only for the game to just not do it for reasons. Sometimes an object will drop and behave like a rigidbody. Sometimes not. Sometimes you’ll try to pick something up and it won’t work. But it you move a little bit to the left or right, suddenly it will. It got to a point where I wasn’t sure if I was trying to solve the puzzle incorrectly or if it was just glitchy.
I had one instance in the third level where I was working on the last puzzle. I knew what to do so I was just plugging away at it. All of a sudden, the who screen started jittering, I was launched into the air (I think). I must have hit a trigger because the cutscene for the end of the level started playing. I guess I’ll take the win?
The final level isn’t very difficult, but I spent a ton of time wandering around because the thing you are supposed to manipulate just wouldn’t. After trying many times to pick it up and failing to do so, I wandered all over the level looking for something else to interact with. Nothing. I went back to the object in question and tried again. Lo and behold I could pick it up.
The story? Christ. I guess I would describe it as “Two annoying Millennials try adulting and learn that relationships take work”.
The game took only a few hours to beat. Would have taken longer had I not looked up the answer to that one bullshit puzzle. Some interesting ideas. Mostly a mess.
Thanks for this. I’ve been curious, and seeing raves online–but I think that’s because I follow Annapurna on Twitter. Part of me was like “A surreal puzzle game about a relationship…? Is this really a profound masterpiece, or is it just an indie cliche?”
And on to Remnant: From the Ashes.
I gave this a few hours. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but it’s clearly designed as a co-op experience.
I did run into a frustrating bug. Upon completing the tutorial I go to the big teleport gem thingie to get to the first real mission and… nothing. There’s no location to teleport to. So I figured I was missing something. I wandered all over the main base looking for a hint and couldn’t find anything. Finally, I looked it up online. Turns out if you start playing the game while it’s still installing, once you finish the tutorial area, you’re locked out of the main missions even if the install finishes up while you’ve been playing. You need to shut the game down and restart in order for the first mission to appear.
There are a lot of things that aren’t really explained at all. There’s a Campaign Mode and Adventure Mode. Clearly going for the Diablo 3 vibe, I guess. But the game does a shit job explaining what these mode do. I think the tooltip for one of them was something like: “This is cool. You should try it.”
I played Campaign Mode up to the first boss (I think) and was pummeled back to the stone age. After checking online, conventional wisdom suggests the thing you want to do is go level up your character in Adventure Mode and then do the Campaign. I’m supposed to know this how? Maybe they are doing the Dark Souls thing. A smooth challenge curve this does not have.
Core combat mechanics seem fine but I don’t think I have the patience for a grind right now.
Moving on to FFVII: Remake.
Part of this is because you are coming to the game late. Adventure Mode was a free addition added months after release.
FWIW I didn’t mess with adventure mode until I finished the campaign. The parallel with Diablo III is applicable. Adventure mode is a solid way to re-do sections of the game to try to find particular world content.
Like Bloodborne, Remnant has the first boss fight as a sudden “the game starts here” difficulty jump. I don’t think you need to level up before finishing that encounter, nor go to adventure mode. Either of those options will let you sidestep learning the boss attack patterns as you will be strong enough that you will have an advantage. Be careful doing that though as the game levels content based off of your weapons levels too.
I too remember frustration at the first boss fight. When I eventually went back to fight him again (after many hours with the game) he seemed pretty easy. It was not that I was stronger either (I was at weapon level cap and on a higher difficulty so he was technically much harder). However, he rarely even landed a hit on me. By then I was very familiar with both his attack patterns and also how to approach boss encounters in the game. In that sense, it was sort of a Monster Hunter feeling.
That explains a lot. Thanks!
Have you played the original FFVII? Just curious.
After watching Tim Roger’s epic Action Button review of FFVII Remake, I even watched his spoiler section and came to the conclusion that it’s probably best experienced if I play through the original first.
Weird, why? I did play FF7 back in the day but I would not call my memories of it “fresh”.
Basically because the new one diverges quite significantly in the story. So in one sense, it’s a remake, but in other ways it’s a follow-up/sequel/alternate story.
I played the original when it first came out, long ago. I remember enjoying it and I recall the basic plot points but not much else. I was thinking of waited for them to finish development on the rest of the game but who knows when that will happen. So here I am.
So far, so good. I like the changes to the combat system even though it can be really hectic at times.
Story still seems pretty goofy and Barrett is cringeworthy.
But I’ll SOLDIER on. Hahahhahhahahahahahahahahaahahhah!
I only got a bit past where the remake ends in the original years and years ago. Honestly, I don’t think it’s worth the time to go back and suffer through those early 3D graphics. Consider this version a modern retelling and look up any differences after you’ve beat it if you want.
Has anyone put together a good refresher with hindsight from the remake? I don’t really want to replay the original, or even sit through an exhaustive plot recap, but would appreciate a quick “here are some things you should remember about the original in order to appreciate the ways that they got changed or subverted in the remake” type of thing.
Haven’t found a good one, I was looking for an article about that too but the ones I came across were by super weird fans. An early biggie is in the original Avalanche destroys the reactor. Haven’t got much farther than that.
Next up
Days gone
Zombie army 4
Oddworld soulstorm ps5 only
Woo! I don’t have to buy Days Gone.
Still not done embarrassing MS’s monthly selections. AAA releases versus whatever didn’t sell well around 8 months ago or what Konami had lying around from last-gen.