Playstation Plus discussion thread - Part deux

Yeah - Diablo was an issue (couldn't add it yesterday - could today, but indirectly by 'purchasing' it for E0) - may be due to the pre release Beta - if you had that downloaded before the system had you flagged as owning the full game (at least for the monthly system of adding them to the library).

Good excuse to make very different choices and builds!

If ye in any way enjoy CP2077 after a few hours, get the Phantom Liberty DLC. It’s integrated into the main game (accessible once you reach a certain point in the story) and it's absolutely fantastic. Both the game and DLC were already worth every penny. With the base game for free, the DLC should be a no-brainer!

Lies of P is a great get, especially for anyone who likes the idea of Soulslikes but have been put off by difficulty. Lies of P introduced new options to reduce difficulty, so you could try it out, then drop the difficulty if you're really struggling. It's also as close to the quality of Fromsoft games as you'll get without it being a Fromsoft game.

Main things to remember with any Souls game are; every enemy (no matter how basic-b*tch grunt-level enemy they are) can and will kill you, and you will be punished for every mistake (including just running blindly into rooms or alleyways, as there could be enemies around every corner, or trying to go nuts on an enemy and running out of stamina).

You're not Kratos or Dante, able to withstand multiple hits from enemies and barely flinch or just lose maybe 25% of your health. You have to treat every encounter with care and with a sensible approach, or you will die (well, you will die a lot anyway, but you'll die more if you're just blasting in).

I think there are pros and cons to both approaches. I love the GoW & DMC games just as much as the next guy (well, I probably love the DMC games more than the next guy, because that next guy is an idiot who doesn't appreciate them like I do), but Souls games would suck with GoW/DMC-type combat, and vice versa.

Those action games give you a lot of actions/moves for combat, but really it's about style and power fantasy. If you get hit a few times, ah don't worry about it, probably only 20-40% of your regen health anyway. And you rarely die in the games unless you're really mashing and not paying attention. I replayed DMC3, 4 & 5 recently, and probably died less than 5 times between all three games, and likely 3 of those times were just during Vergil boss fights.

Souls games, you have a very limited moveset or set of abilities, because it's all on you. It's about being patient, moving with intent, reading/learning enemies, and taking the chances when they're there. You'll die after a few hits, but you'll have probably learned something about the enemy. And gradually things get easier and you can identify traps/ambushes/movesets. There's an element of reward to that, because if you survive encounters or defeat bosses, it's because you put the real effort in and got better, rather than just busting out super-moves.

Action games are generally more fun and relaxing. Souls games require that additional level of patience, focus and intent.

Lies of P, even on its easiest level, may still require that patience and focus (haven't played on any of the easier difficulties but enemy design and movesets are likely the same). You'll still be punished for making mistakes (but will likely just have scope to make more of them in each try), you won't be running into rooms and wrecking everything that moves, and you'll still have to take care to identify traps & ambushes. You do have some pretty cool weapons with special abilities, but you still won't be Kratos or Dante.

Absolutely worth trying it out, but it is a Souls game.

"Also, I dont quite believe you that its all on the player and their skills, because I too have seen the videos where someone chugs 15 potions and stabs themselves 4 times before waltzing in, glowing loads of different colours with sprites spiriting away from the character and weapon, only to 1 shot an alleged bastard boss."

There's often an element of player skill to that too, in that they've focused their build around collecting the items/weapons to allow them to do that, the armour which can buff those things, the spells etc. That's pretty much never a "first time playing the game" type of thing, and is more people showing off or doing that for fun. Activating that level of cheese requires advance knowledge of which items stack on each other in that way, which order to apply buffs etc.

The same happens in the likes of GoW; I've seen clips of people defeating the Valkyrie or Beserker King in one hit by activating buffs and abilities while the enemy is spawning in, but again, that's not something people tend to do their first time playing.

But hey, if that is how people want to play first-time and they look up how to become that sort of walking tank or power character, that's just a roundabout version of dropping the difficulty of the game to make it easier (where those games don't have difficulty options).