Black Ops IIII is great for multiplayer and Zombies, especially zombies if you’re into that. That’s where the story is.
It’s a weak month though, and it’s summer, so I kinda don’t care.
Plague Tale is outstanding if you’ve never played it.
I’ve been meaning to check out Plague Tale for a long time, so getting the PS5 version will be sweet.
The WWE game makes me uncomfortable with how they made all the wrestlers look like little people.
Plagues Tale is very good, I’m curious how they’ve updated it. It’s well worth a play if you haven’t.
I haven’t played Plagues Tale yet, so that should be a good one once I’m done with Rachet and Clank.
I forgot up write up my thoughts about the June games. A little underwhelming for me:
Star Wars: Squadrons
I played quite a bit of this, but ditched the single-player campaign after a bit. The missions were cool, but there’s so much chatting before and after the missions. I know it’s mostly optional but I can’t help but think that they could have cut the chit-chat by two-thirds and it would have been fine. Liked the dogfighting though.
Operation Tango
I didn’t end up playing this as I had no one to try it with. I heard it was crossplay with PC and that you didn’t need both people to have it. We couldn’t immediately figure out how to make that work and didn’t care enough to spend time trying.
Virtua Fighter 5
I played a lot of fighting games back in the 90s. I don’t care if I ever play one again. Just not my thing anymore.
I have it for pc and it kinda blows
Next month, probably:
PS4 & 5: Hunter Arena Legends
PvZ Battle for Neighbourville
Tennis World Tour 2
Someone at playstation accidently posted it early.
Star Wars Squadrons is 60 fps on PS5. It’s also 120 fps on Xbox Series X if you have an HDMI 2.1 setup.
On the PS4/5 side, however, it’s also in VR through PSVR, which could be cool. Anyone tried it that way?
So this month’s games are probably the worst of the year.
PvZ is pretty good though. I recommend giving that a try, but I liked GW2 more.
But that’s not the reason for this bump. Sony is sending out offers to a lot of unsubscribed users, 50% off PS+. Check your consoles if you’re interested. Not sure if it’s NA only. Ends august 30th if you qualify.
August has often been a crummy month for PS Plus. It makes sense. People aren’t playing games in this month like they do in probably any other month of the year. Back to school. Summer vacations. It’s just not a time for games.
The Humble Monthly is similarly lousy this month. Doesn’t make sense for these giveaways (which cost money) to be costly in August.
I have played Star Wars Squadrons with HOTAS on both PS4 PSVR and PC VR. I personally found it to be a top tier experience that stands tall upon all the gaming memories of my life. Some won’t offer it such praise. However, the intersection of nostalgia and modern technology that was beyond what I could have ever dared to dream of while weaving Kenner toys around the living room decades ago. It was (and is) a pure smile summoning joy. It will never leave my hard drive and I still seriously consider upgrading my amateur flight setup to enjoy it further.
It was on PSVR first so that was my first experience. I then got a HP Reverb G2 for it and it was so crisp and even more amazing. If it gets PSVR2 support, then playing it there on the PS5 may be a solid choice down the line. The HOTAS combined with the VR really brings it all together. I have a HOTAS that works on both PS4 and PC. That said, because of Squadrons, I keep peeking at the big boy, ultra high end HOTAS options for PC.
I have that HOTAS as well, and also keep looking at the big boy ultra high end HOTAS options like the Warthog for the PC. I don’t currently have a PC VR option (just the PSVR) but have such fond memories of space sims and flight sims that I’m sure I’ll eventually get both, maybe in connection with my next meaningful PC upgrade.
Very happy to hear that you had such a great experience! I’ve only dabbled with Squadrons on the Xbox Series X - the 120 fps is very nice (more than I expected) but I have to admit that I actually found it relatively difficult to jump into the gameplay (using default controller, was getting wiped by the first Star Destroyer, and having difficulty with situational awareness and attacking generally).
From what I understand, Warthog was in the big boy price range, but other companies offer better product for the same (crazy) tier of spending. The flight sim thread has some information and I have watched several Youtube comparisons. Older recommendations offer glowing praise of Warthog, but the newer offerings from Vipril or VKB seem preferred once you are in that tier of spending especially for space games. Some key problems of Warhog are gimble issues and lack of rudder (forcing another purchase/ software support).
I have played Squadrons in just about every configuration. I too really didn’t enjoy controller use for it. The game is not an open space sim, but rather a smaller arena battler. Still, the Hotas was much preferred. TV/Monitor play looked much better than PSVR as a lot of effects were missing or muted. The Empire cockpits are generally very constrained so VR is less there, but it is still there and really a cool experience even if just bobbing your head around to adjust the view out of the octagonal window, around the giant control column, or towards the few windows awkwardly placed in the cramped “eyeball”. The Rebel cockpits really open things up though. Zipping around in the A-Wing or watching your ship rotate around the B-Wing is pretty awesome. Regardless of cockpit type, the added VR immersion of head turning, directional sound and direct light flashing on the eyes for lasers or explosions really kick up the experience. Thus the HP Reverb G2 was the king for the experience for me. I gained the details and crispness of TV/Monitor while also having all of the VR goodies including the EXCELLENT audio provided by the Index style off the ear speakers.
Coming up:
- Overcooked / PS5 only
- Hitman 2
- Predator Hunting Grounds
Wow, I’m glad I finally have a console that can fully realize the vision of Overcooked. Let me go make sure 120Hz 4K is enabled.
Sadly it’s 4K 60Hz on current gen versions, not 4K 120Hz.
I think I need to work on getting my sarcastic tone across more effectively.
Oh I got it. I was playing the humorless straight man in return. Which, come to think of it, doesn’t work well.
It’s okay. We can spend the time we’d normally spend playing a state-of-the-art PS5 game workshopping our online banter together.
It’s not the best month, but Predator: Hunting Grounds looked pretty cool when I watched someone play it awhile back. Certainly a nice “free” game.