R(ob)’s Comments (group member since Jun 21, 2021)

R(ob)’s comments from the The Video Game Forum group.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows delayed to February next year. I wasn’t going to get it on release but I’ll probably get it eventually.

Glassmoon - The Benny Hill of Plats wrote: "haha. We live for THE LISTS!!!
i tihnk including in-progress is cheating. We need to revise this point. lol

9/10 for Terminator Resistance? Thats great.
I played a couple of hours and was really e..."

Yea I liked the Scottishness of it and the atmosphere was great. Only very slightly lacking in the ending game play wise and follow the yellow path which broke the immersion a bit. Otherwise yea pretty good.

Ooo - like a list. Mine so far including a couple of in-progress.

Astro Bot - 9/10 (in progress but close to the end)
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 - 7/10 (loved it but needed more polish)
The light in the Darkness - 5/10 (but don't let the low score put you off. Free and an easy plat)
Dredge - 8/10
Terminator Resistance - 9/10
The Entropy Centre - 9/10
Evil West - 7/10
Alan Wake 2 - 8/10
RoboCop Rogue City - 9/10
XDefiant - 8/10 (multiplayer but played a lot)
Warhammer Space Marine 2 - too early to say (campaign in progress. Multiplayer though I played several hours 7/10 for the MP)
Still Wakes the Deep - 8/10
Dead Space Remake - 9/10

I've also played TLOU pt 1 remaster relatively recently too. I need to stop buying games :-). Actually it was a present - not so bad. I'm holding out on Spiderman 2 for sure.

Anyone watch the State of Play last night? Not a huge amount for me. The new Ghosts game (Yotei) looks good but the first albeit good wasn't something that really got me excited (very AC like) - something I'll definitely play, but maybe not on release. The Horizon Zero Dawn remake is not for me. Played the first, the sequel was much the better game, and I have no intention of replaying Zero Dawn - too recent for a start. Hell in Us caught my attention but need to know more - could be a bit Dark Souls like, as in, rock hard. I'll get the Alan Wake 2 DLC in a sale. Other than that, and the games we already knew about, not much caught my eye. And the free PS+ games in October - nothing there either. I've just played the Dead Space remake.

I at least need a sharp-ish image. I don’t care about ray tracing if the image is actually blurry but yea I can’t do 30fps any more.

If ps5 pro is 60fps default with much sharper images I’ll be very tempted. I’m tired of having the option of 4k 30fps (not an option for me) or blurry sub 1080p at ropey 60fps. This gen has been quite disappointing in that sense.

I'm fighting with myself over getting a PS5 Pro. My head is saying don't be stupid - the improvements look minimal, it's £700 without a disc drive, and PS6 will be out in 3 years and I'll buy PS6 day one. The little devil on my shoulder is telling me "I need it and must have it!". Seriously though I bought both PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and they were both great but 3 years soon passes and it's then next gen and they felt short lived for a lot of money.

The rumour mill has started on next gen and some insider (could be entirely bogus and often is) says there are two SoCs (system on chips) for PS6 and that could either mean a weaker but affordable PS6 and a more powerful expensive PS6, or perhaps instead a PS6 home console and a handheld. My bet would be the former. PS6 could easily be £700+ so to have a cheaper option would make sense.

My mate has been complaining of the same problem. You could try the charging dock pins on the controller instead - obviously you'll need a charging dock and it may not work, if the problem is common to the two charging ports.

Decided to focus on Astro Bot over the weekend rather than play Space Marine 2 (I'll leave that for another time). I completed the serpent region and the Lizard (Geko/Chameleon) region. Both boss fights weren't too bad and I only needed 3-4 attempts tops for each. And the levels for each region weren't too frustrating and when that's the case they are a lot more enjoyable for me. I especially liked the Ghoul/Ghost level with the slow time power. I think I have one more region to go - the one with the bird. I'm not sure if the Lost Galaxy levels are part of the main campaign or not so if they are I need to do all of those too. I'm only going to complete the campaign of Astro Bot - those other rock hard single life levels can do one :-). I'm really enjoying Astro Bot, it's one of those Playstation games a lot of love and polish have gone into, but it's just the difficulty spikes which are not my cup of tea. Glad I bought it but I think my time is done with it when I rebuild the PS5 space ship which I expect is the end of the campaign.

No it’s not plausible nonsense. I’ve had a hdmi cable cause interference with an RF input on a set-top box causing intermittent loss of TV reception. Changing the HDMI cable to a decent well shielded cable solved the problem. For you I’m guessing you’re using the out of the box hdmi that came with the ps5 so doubt that’s the issue.

I’ve had connection issues with PS5. On WiFi it would disconnect every so often, maybe once a gaming session. Good strong signal, no issues with router or anything else connected to it. Tried everything- fixing the IP address etc but it didn’t help. Changed to hard wired Ethernet cable and it would disconnect, just as frequently, giving me an error message. Upgraded the Ethernet cable to something newer than cat5 and it’s solid now and has been since I changed the cable several months ago. My Series X is solid on WiFi or Ethernet cat5, whichever I use.

Played some more Space Marine 2 multiplayer early. Defo got some more 5 kill streaks. I’m getting quite good now with 20+ kills regularly and MVP.

For me on games pass it's the usual COD release, and then Stalker 2 and Indiana Jones. Then Assassin's Creed Shadows and the Metal Gear Solid remake (whenever that's out). These two I can buy/play on subscription whenever. Dragon Age also looks interesting but also depends on whether it's rock hard.

I think for any game mode in SM2 you can sit back and not do the objective and aim for a killstreak instead. Sniper seems quite effective - couple of shots mostly depending on the enemy class.

So looks like a bit of a gaming weekend for me considering the weather. Not sure whether to focus on SM2 campaign or Astro Bot, or a bit of both. It might be worth waiting for a SM2 patch, considering the awful performance on speed mode on PS5. In a way I wish I waited on buying one of them as with the new release season upon us there will be too much to play soon.

Played a bit more Space Marine 2 MP earlier. Got the trophy for winning a game with each class. Now I’ve had a bit of time with all classes I still think the heavy class is the best. Sniper might be ok for the 5 kill streak if you keep your distance. The best mode is Seize Ground which is Domination in any other game. In Annihilation (team deathmatch) the maps are too big for the mode.

I played some more Space Marine 2 MP last night. I didn't win one game and the other team got a lot more kills. The MP is fun but it's definitely lacking something - perhaps number and variety of maps, and a bit more balance between the classes. And map design leaves a lot to be desired - you can go minutes without seeing an enemy even on a full server. Long gone are my days of getting 5 kill streaks :-(.

I'm really not looking forward to some of these difficulty spikes in Astro bot's campaign levels :-(.

I have played a little bit more Space Marine 2 multiplayer. I must admit I'd struggle to get a 5 kill streak now as most people have 'git gud' since. As I played MP on official release day I think as everyone was running around like headless chickens that played to my advantage and I got the five kill streak easily. The only advice I could give is play as heavy (the loadout with the shield and mini-gun). Use the shield as you engage (shoot and throw grenade as a combined attack) and at any other time hide behind corners recharging your shield ability for the next engagement. And of course if you can play alongside others then strength in numbers - the teams that stick together do well.

Yea those triangle levels in Astro Bot are insanely difficult. I have two left to do but no chance I’m going to bother now. Just the main levels for me - the challenge levels I’ve binned off. The boss fights in the main game are testing enough. They’ve added too many difficulty spikes for my taste. What's the saying, “Git Gud”. No thanks. I’d like to keep my sanity intact.

Deckard. You need to “Git Gud” for the 5 kill streak. I literally did it in less than two minutes of playing my first game. Or do they call that beginner’s luck. It can’t be, it has to be my skillz, surely 😉

I knew my eyes weren't deceiving me on Space Marine 2:

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoun...

"In testing Space Marine 2 on PC, it's clear that the game's encounters with alien swarms pushes the CPU hard - and at least as of patch 1.02, that results in lop-sided performance on consoles in the 60fps speed mode. Series X typically outperforms PS5 by around 10 to 15fps, despite both machines using the same settings and resolution targets. The lowest drops come when taking a flamethrower to the encroaching horde, where PS5 drops to the mid-30s while Xbox Series X is in the mid-40s."

I think I'm gonna wait a few weeks before I play more and hope for a performance patch. It was literally chugging along in some parts on the first mission for me. And VRR wasn't doing much.