I know some people have their issues with the UI and figuring out if they're installing PS4 or PS5 versions, but I don't have many dual entitlement games and the ones I do have seemed easy enough. Mostly, I just love how smooth it makes older games run. I don't need to go on any more in this thread about MLB The Show or Civilization VI, only to say it's weird to see a game I've put thousands of hours into over the past four years suddenly running at 60/4K and actual HDR, or in the case of Civ having a new game loaded and launched in less than a minute (it takes about five I wager on PS4). Anyway!


PSYCHONAUTS 2 has been the big one. I fell off a bit playing on PS4 just because the load times could be a real drag, and it can be hard for me to play such well produced games with a ton of dialogue when I'm falling behind on podcasts. That being said, insanely clever level design, super thoughtful and funny writing/vocal performances (especially a lot of the incidental dialogue!) and once I got it running on PS5, everything literally looked a generation better and the load times were nearly zero. I don't even think they put out a performance patch for this machine? A pretty clear contender for GotY for me so far, even with some quibbles about iffy platforming and fairly weak endgame combat.

RATCHET & CLANK: RIFT APART was always going to be the test case for PS5, and it mostly didn't let me down. It's not hamstrung by a movie tie-in like 2016, but the writing is still VERY for kids and didn't always charm me as much this time. Or more to the point, I found I could ignore the performances, throw on subtitles and not worry too much about the plot. Guns also aren't as inventive as past games, and I thought the environments got more bland as the game went along while enemies reach their variety limit about halfway through the game - honestly, I thought the game was OVER just as it was getting started. I goofed around on a harder difficulty in a NG+ and the Omega level weapon upgrades are already way cooler than anything in the base game - I can never decide exactly how I feel about that...I guess I sound kind of down on it, but goddamn were the haptics in the controller great and R&C games have such a baseline fun factor to them I guess I just wanted to be WOWED more than I was.

NBA 2K22 I bought because, despite despising the franchise for most of the PS4 run, it's tradition to break in a new console with 2K. I really like the way the game feels on the court for the first time in years, though I'm struggling with all the new systems and animation priorities. I also still REALLY want to like MyTeam considering how much more I like basketball than baseball and how much Diamond Dynasty I play, but it just feels too much like a casino. I also can't get over how embarrassing 2K's online performance is at this point - I played an online game with a fantasy draft squad and the final score was fucking 12-23 with five minute quarters, with a 2-3 1st quarter, because clearly neither of us were expecting the shot meter to be so dramatically different from offline. It was comedy. Sounds like the Franchise mode is pretty fucked up right now too, but hopefully that's fixed by opening night so I can play along with the season like I used to on PS3. I wish this franchise would get good again.

DESTINY 2 is absolutely overwhelming and I don't think I'll put much time into it, but I just had to see how it ran compared to hours and hours (and hours) of time on PS4 and, yup, this game hums now. Almost makes me wish it was my first hours with the game rather than several hundred in so I wouldn't be so confused by all the new stuff and could take it in stride. Oh well.

I gave up on SCARLET NEXUS, COFFEE TALK and WHERE THE WATER TASTES LIKE WINE. The former just got too tedious and far, far too animé trope-laden for my tastes, though it had some of my favorite enemy designs of the past several years, not just this year. The latter two just, I dunno, aren't any good despite one or two aspects deserving high praise.

Getting back into RED DEAD REDEMPTION II's story mode, it's wild to play this at such a high framerate with true HDR. I think I'd mentioned giving Red Dead Online another shot once or twice in this thread, it's nice to have the hardware incentive to finally start chugging through the main storyline again and not have to worry about all the microtransaction, vacant open world sadness that is RDO and I can just reappreciate the stellar writing, performances and in my honest IMO gameplay of the base game.

I think I've been talked down from the DEATHLOOP hype for now (especially with all those other Arkane games suddenly lingering in my backlog) as the player base seems considerably less hyped than the critics. I'm really crossing my fingers I can resist DEATH STRANDING DC this weekend, I really hated that game's story but there is something oddly relaxing about its sound effects and delivery management systems, and of course it's a graphical juggernaut. I'm really curious about this KENA BRIDGE OF SPIRITS game dropping in a couple hours, but I did also just play two platformers side by side so IDK about another...

Monthly gaming data dump over!




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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
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