So about 1 month ago I got a ps4 and am loving it, and so I thought I'd share my thoughts on the games I've been playing on my spare time between long shifts, memematic elections, and hours of crippling depression and gender dysphoria
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Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
So holy shit, this has to both my favorite game in the franchise as well as my favorite shooter, like, ever. The characters and environments look almost tangible, I mean it's honestly fucking insane how realistic everything is. There was seriously times when I'd just stop playing the game to marvel at how amazing a mountain, building, or character would look (
The epilogue with Nathan and Elena's daughter Cassie being a truly amazing surprise!). I love how seamless this game made the gameplay and cutscenes too; it truly felt like a cinematic experience that
you were in control of, making the steaks feel much more personal than they've ever been before.
The gameplay itself is pretty rock solid. One thing that irked me in the previous games was how much combat Drake did, which is a very ironic statement given that it's a video game. In this game thankfully (to me at least), the combat feels a bit reduced with stealth tactics being an option for those like me who aren't the best at shooters. There's also a looot more platforming in this game, which eventually gets to be a bit tedious toward the later chapters of the game. If it's any consolation though, the locals are as vibrant and varied as ever.
The stories really good too, I won't say too much in regards to spoilers, but I think this game shows us Nates character best, we see him laughing, regretting, feeling proud, smug, and betrayed. By a certain point of the game I wasn't sure if I liked or disliked Nate anymore, because I was as mad at him as he was himself, and I think that's a powerful thing, that we can feel and learn very real and human things through fictional people. Of course in true adventure genre style Nate and the other protagonists find ways to redeem themselves and we get a nice heartwarming ending. I couldn't recommend this game enough, although perhaps go buy the Uncharted collection if you haven't played the previous games, I think it will enhance the experience.
DOOM
Another shooter on the list. Now I actually wasn't planning on ever playing this game to be honest, but the brief playthrough the Game Grumps did won me over enough to borrow a friends copy to try out the campaign mode. And I find it to be good mindlessly violent fun! I tend to die fairly often (I said I was bad at shooters, lol), but the over the top nature of the game makes death feel like nothing here, you just sigh and go back to enjoying beating the Hell out of things (get it?)! I'm not too far in the game, only chapter 3, and I can't say I care much to listen to the narrative that feels kinda shoe horned in to make it feel more realistic, and the game is very aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I think it's worth borrowing or renting for a fun little romp through hell.
Assassin's Creed: Unity
Now I want to start off by saying I really like this game. Still with me? Cool. Now because I know a lot of people associate this game with its less than stellar release date (This game was $8 at Game Stop, that's far cheaper than most of the other games in the franchise), and it's notoriously buggy nature, but let me say that as of the last patch put out, I don't find the glitches to be particularly intrusive to the experience of the game (although I had a rather hilarious moment where Arno was spazing on the wedge of a tall building I was climbing.
)
I'm not too far into the campaign of this game either, but I mapped the entire game since it's placed in only 2 locales, Paris and Versailles. The graphics are... Okay? I mean they're really good,, don't get me wrong, but I think the aesthetic and atmosphere of the games up to AC4: Black Flag were always pushing the bar, feeling sharp and whimsical at the same time, this game feels a bit more unpolished and sterile in this regard, as it feels almost soulless during the cut-scenes and "animus" related stuff. I don't really like the more meta-immersive route this game has, as it's us the player in a "virtual reality" (which makes me feel weirdly naked holding a PS4 controller staring at an obvious screen, and no it's not cause I'm actually naked) controlling the assassin, instead of someone like Desmond Miles which, to me anyways was far more interesting.
The world and gameplay itself are still very good though. I think the parkour and climbing is still as fun as it was in AC2 and the combat is much more newcomer friendly than AC1 and 2, so I think this has been my favorite way to fight in the series.
TL;DR Play Uncharted 4, it's a masterpeice, DOOM is mindless fun, and AC: Unity while unpolished still offers something in my opinion, worth playing.
When emulating, you can just patch the US version to fix everything, even some bugs present in every version of the game.
