BoOzak

@bigsocrates: I didnt read the spoiler tag because I havent finished the game but I agree with everything else you've said.

I'm about 20 hours in and I just dont care at this point. It's not the things that happen or even the characters being dislikable it's the pacing, it's fucking awful. It doesnt help that the structure of the plot is even worse. (i'm in flashback hell at the moment)

As has been said, the game reviewed very well so it's not just you. I'm about 7 hours in and it's what I expected, more of the same but prettier with a few new mechanics (like most sequels) story wise the game isnt as interesting to me but I never thought they should have made a sequel to begin with from a narrative stand point.

All that being said I just played through Kingom Hearts III (because it's on gamepass and I hate myself) and the story in this game is a fucking masterpiece compared to that. It's very clear the creators/directors of both games care about their work though, which is nice. (even if they both suffer from Hideo Kojima levels of egotism)

Thanks for the info, i'm past that area but now I know that this game might not be as polished as it seems i'll be a bit more liberal with the the manaul saves.

I always have at least one manual save (if given the option) since autosaves in every game can be liable to screw you regardless of glitches but a few more couldnt hurt.

@shorap: Agreed. I really wasnt a fan of Ethan, without going into spoilers I was glad to be done with him. (and i'm sad thats hes back) I also find it harder to care about a character I cant/never see.

I thought Condemned did it better (having third person cutscenes) and had the superior Ethan. (despite things getting really wacky and the character being overhauled in 2) Resident Evil 7 is the better game though.

I also find third person (from a gameplay perspective) seems to work better for survival horror games in my experience. Less shit is shoved in your face and there arent as many hide and seek sequences which devolve into trial and error for me. (especially in games like Outlast and the like)

I have faith in Capcom though, and we're (apparently) getting an RE4 remake and seemingly more third person remakes coming in the future so I cant complain. It will probably help prevent fatigue the more they mix things up between the games.

My arguement is that it felt needless not that it made the game harder. I actually found Demon's Souls to be easier than the other games and it was also my first. (granted I abused the hell out of consumables and magic)

My problem is more of a personal annoyance and less of a design critique. I hate debuffs and it bothers me whenever I have a meter slashed and shoved in my face. I know its dumb. I would honestly have less of a problem with it if it just didnt show how much health I would have if not for me being in 'soul form'.

(and yes Dark Souls II also drove me crazy with how it handled death and a number of other things)

I get the 'keep it as it is' crowds arguement and I dont envy Bluepoint for having to deal with souls fans. (myself included)

I dont think it's too crazy for them to be adding a new area, they added some stuff to Shadow of the Colossus if i'm not mistaken. (I've only played the new version so i'm not sure what they added)

I'm glad they're shaking some things up and that the game has a framerate option (which should be an option in all modern console action games) I hope they get rid of inventory (not equip) burden and other tedious features the original game had. Maybe have it so a third of your health isnt lost in ghost form? Or do people like that?

If it sounds like i'm down on Demon's Souls i'm not, I like the game quite a bit but the (spiritual) sequels made some obvious improvements some of which wouldnt make sense (like estus flasks) but most would.

Certain double jumps in Destiny (1&2) are worse in my opinion. Mainly because platforming is a bigger part of that game (especially in the raids) so when you have a dodgy double jump its much worse than an optional thing thats easy to ignore. Personally I thought it was so ridiculous in Shadow of War that it was funny to me, which kind of sums up my opinion of Monolith's Middle-Earth series in general.

I'm curious what the new content is but not enough to buy this version. Also i'm not a big fan of the new look of the characters, the graphics are better obviously but the new style is bit too anime for me.

(just to illustrate what I mean. It isnt bad by any means though. It kind of reminds me of Aria of Sorrow compared to Dawn of Sorrow)

I also enjoyed Death Stranding, I wasnt a big fan of the licenced music but I loved the OST. (i'm a sucker for synthy sci-fi music)

I would say it's better than anything i've played this year (I played DS at launch) even if it pales in comparison to MGS at it's best. I agree that the story sucks but you could argue the overall plot of MGS kind of sucks (convoluted doesnt mean deep) so it isnt a huge surprise that it fails in that regard.

Ultimately i'm just happy that a AAA developer got to make such a weird thing.

I agree with most of you that this looks like another by the numbers AC style game with a bit more polish since it's Sucker Punch and Sony and not Ubisoft but i've wanted a feudal japan AC for awhile so i'll probably get it at some point.

One thing that I fucking hate with a passion is the question marks scattered all over the map. I love exploration in games, stumbling across something cool in the middle of nowhere is great. So when you have everything already marked what you're basically telling me is theres nothing elsewhere so dont bother exploring. In Ubisoft games I dont really give a damn because it's just the same series of side quests and stongholds. But if it were put in a game like Breath of the Wild for example it would have ruined it. It's one of the reasons I wasnt the biggest fan of The Witcher 3 despite thinking the story and characters were great.

Anyway, Ghost of Tsushima looks fine.