PS5 thread 2.0

I haven't played it but sounds like that's the point ala Dark Souls although it seems a bit harsher losing 2-3 hours. My problem would be the real world calling me in the middle of a run which a save and quit option would work but then, maybe it's not too much fun dying and losing 2 hours worth of progress. I suppose thinking of it, like if Dark Souls had no bonfires or shortcuts, that could be fairly tedious.

Losing 2 hours I can live with. Playing the same level 40 times I can't be arsed with 🙂. The game gets very boring very quickly.

I'm not good at these types of games so it straight up excludes players like me. There is no valid reason not to have a respawn or save state as an alternative mode.

There is no online that needs balancing. You are just playing against yourself. Who cares if I saved and reloaded or if someone else ran right through as long as we enjoyed ourselves doing it.

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Plus the Rogue-ness of it means each run still does feel different. Even though you come across a lot of the same rooms, enemies etc in almost every run, the rng means each run will throw different things at you that can either really work in your favour or completely f*ck you over. You're never really starting from square one or the last bonfire like with Dark Souls, where enemies are always in the same locations and you're trying to go in the same direction. Every door and chest in Returnal is a flip of the coin.

The full length of a run can definitely be too long, and the suspend feature really helps with that. There are other features designed into the game to help with deaths, which can bring you back to life on the spot or the regenerator (if you can find one). But if you could roll back saves, you're less likely to use those, meaning you're less likely to use your currency on them (meaning you use them on damage or something instead), and takes out part of the risk/reward of the game design. You could save abuse before opening malignant chests too.

I disagreed with the lack of a save feature at the start, and it was only because I enjoyed the gameplay so much that I ended up just powering through and spending those hours on often wasted runs. But having played the game, a full save feature would just go against the overall design of the game. The suspend feature (6 months too late for a lot of people) is a decent compromise.

"I suppose thinking of it, like if Dark Souls had no bonfires or shortcuts, that could be fairly tedious."

Ahem, it already is even with those...

I think a suspend is a fair compromise in Returnal. I look forward to getting it again, preferably through Plus or Now. Might be able to finish it if it has this.

I think Sekiro had far more checkpoints than most Souls games, though because the gameplay is a bit more tied to stealth it can take longer to go between checkpoints.

Be worth waiting for Black Friday/Cyber Weekend as it's only around the corner. Got a few games in Smyths last year for good prices, a few euro cheaper than everywhere else.

Got one in Smyths this afternoon, guy told me they had none in stock but then after abit of a chat he went back and surprised me with a PS5 disc edition from the store room.. They obviously do have them and are sitting on them but saying nothing for the moment.

I thought I update on this. They didn't get back in contact with me until 5 days later to say they couldn't replace it and it would need to go to the screening centre and the turnaround time was 15 working days. I had already got in contact with the them again in the meantime and had organised a return. It was picked up on Friday from work, arrived in Dublin monday morning and a replacement seems to be on its way from France - it was shipped yesterday and hoping to have it back for the weekend.

wait for Black Friday deals at the end of this month. FIFA is always discounted- keep an eye on Smyths or Amazon

I'd be very surprised if you manage to get both of them for €100.

Fifa 21 went down to 34.29 on 22nd December on the PS Store but only for a few days so its a good idea to sign up for the discount alert.

Astro's Playroom

Racthet and Clank is fun and looks amazing too. Also uses the trigger function.