Godfall

Looks interesting and it one of the PS5 launch games that is under the radar. Could be a surprise.

it looks to me like a live service games

As in it will have daily weekly missions new additions etc.

Or am i confused as to what a live service is

I'll be getting it, but probably not until the 25th (payday). I seems right up my street, but I'll have more than enough to be playing until I get it. I got God of War combat vibes from what I've watched, and that's a good thing. As long as it's not a die-repeat simulator, I'm confident I'll enjoy it.

Reviews coming in:
https://opencritic.com/game/10488/godfall

and

https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/godfall

Scores are not great.

Niska wrote: »

takeaways - looks beautiful, fun combat (if a not too deep), repetitive enemies, good bosses, end game loot not meaningful. Repetitive, and poor story).

Averaging 6's -so probably one I'll get on sale.

Not great, not terrible.

So Anthem again?

I just picked it up on PC - yes I know I may regret it but I'm just really in the mood for something light and action oriented this weekend, as long as the combat is solid (which it appears to be) it should do the job.

So is 'Anthem' the new overly used 'Demon souls of...' but for semi-suck? After a couple of hours this evening I can say it's nothing like Anthem at release, much more polished and cohesive and combat is not the only thing it has going for it. It looks gorgeous with some beautiful design backed up by excellent lighting and high resolution textures, performance is good for what's on display - On Epic I'd say 3/4 running at my 60hz cap @4k, the rest probably dropping down into the 40s. Audio wise the soundtrack is good but not memorable, sound effects similar, the voice acting is solid but again not great enough to really move you, the main character does often sound bored. Combat is great with a lot of options for different attack types and combos mixed in with the usual fast attack/heavy attack/parry/dodge mechanisms (though looking at the skill tree some of the later combos look to over-complicate things with the amount of sequencing needed to trigger them, more of a problem on a keyboard I think than controller as from the layout of a controller the sequence might make sense but not logically when you pair the keys you may have mapped for some functions you never thought would tie into a combat key-combo). The biggest weakness I found so far was the tutorial levels went on too long. The initial expected one ends and you are sent to the first real world but that is basically empty save for some resources you can scour for, so if you don't immediately follow the quest marker you'll be bored ****less as there's almost nothing to fight. Kill the first boss though and then it opens up properly, so don't judge until then at least.
I'm still just getting used to it and have enjoyed what I've played so far, with hopes that as I get more used to the combat it will improve even more. My main gripe is that there's nothing really drawing you into the story or the world, even something as story sparse as Dark Souls had a way of making you feel like you were part of a unique and doomed world (and not just walking through a map) here there are story beats but no emotional anchors. It very much is just a game where you are at best having fun beating things to death in the hopes they're a good loot pinata.

Oh and for fun you change gender with your Armour....seriously...some of those plates that look feminine? Put them on and now you're a chick, voice acting and all. One of the weirdest design decisions I've ever seen.

I've given this a week and in that time probably put in about 7 or 8 hours. It really is a missed opportunity, so disappointing that with such excellent visuals, performance and super-tuned combat it's just boring. It's like the gameplay designers (as in those writing the story and the game events to express it) were handed a Lambourghini and figured it should just be used for 2-minute milk-runs to Tesco. If I was in any of the technical teams assigned to this I'd want to murder them for wasting what they were given with trivial/random/forgettable combat bubbles. It's more of a tech-demo than fleshed out game imho. Every time I think of going back to it and exploring some cool maps or enjoying the evolving and satisfying combat it always comes back to 'Why', zero motivation to beyond popping a few pretty pixels.

Going straight to CEX on Monday, it's an insult to generic games.

Played a good bit more of this, and I'm starting to enjoy it. There's a lot to the combat with multiple different power up options. I still don't have my head fully around it, but it gives you ample options as to how to approach combat, and sometimes things happen and I'm not sure why as I try to replicate but can't. Think it has something to do with the Rampage.

It is very much a 3rd person Diablo but with only 2 ranged attacks (and both with a crazy long reload period). Plenty o'loot and enough upgrade collectibles to allow you to keep weapons you like for longer. Good distinction between the 5 types, find myself sticking to a combo of Greatsword and Longsword. Enemies are a bit repetitive, but give plenty of challenge if you wanted to up the difficulty. Reminds me of God of War at times, and at other times when I combo too long and get hit and see my life bar nearly disappear, it reminds me of the few times I tried the Souls games, but far more forgiving.

Story is, well, there. Don't think it's spurring me on, but more something to do if I get bored of general looting and slashing. Also required to get to the other realms, so will probably power through it just to unlock them all and then see if it can hold my attention after that. The Tower of Trials seems interesting, but I tried it at level 17 and it took me a good half hour to get to (and die at) floor 9. No idea how far it goes, but I think I saw that a trophy is level 50 on a harder version of the tower, so seems like it could take a good long session to finish.

Saying that, there are some things that are really annoying me. No map, and paths look way too similar to be able to figure out where you're actually going. On top of this is sometimes the map failing to load the end reward or the "vision" type thingy not showing where the 3rd hidden chest is. The loading in and out is very basic, while some events, ie: you pick a hunt, and it shows a cool cinematic of the targets, and then goes back to the hub and black screen to a loading screen. Just seems rushed. Even finishing an area and deciding to go back, it just black screens. Maybe I just expected too much, but a simple disappearing animation or something would have been nice. Would mind if the cut to black made things quicker, but it doesn't seem to. Plus being able to literally jump walls twice your height, but only if the game says you can, while other times you can't get over a knee high obstacle. The warp jumps in the arenas can be picky, you need to have the in game aim dot on it for it to work and is finnicky.

Small niggles too keep annoying me, such as the ground foliage. Some of it moves when you walk through it, usually the small leaves, but anything that is higher than your shin doesn't move when walked through, especially anything that has a part of the plant sticking into the air. Inconsistent and unexpected in a "next gen" game. And the Valour armour not being customisable is a bit much, can't even change colours, so I can see that coming down the line.

They're small issues, but together detract from the game overall. No idea what it would be like as a party though. Only playing single player.