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[Giallo Corsa]

Hello my beautiful lads and lasses.

OK, here's the thing :
After getting my PS5 about 2 months ago, and after finishing the (excellent to me) TLOU2 (this will be a topic for another day), I'm having a really, REALLY hard time choosing what to play from the friggin' Ps plus extra catalogue...
You see, I never had much love for open-world games, plus, gaming time is nowadays limited so i really don't have the luxury to be playing all those 60-70 hours "epics" anymore.

I mean, heck, I still don't know how I managed to finish TLOU2 in its 40+hour bloated glory (grounded difficulty), I don't know how long it took other people to finish it but, those 40+hours I mentioned ? Shit, it took me about 2 months to be able to watch the ending credits.

I also managed to finish stray with my girlfriend (we loved it) and part of the reason we managed to do so is because it was a short (but sweet) experience clocking at about 8-9 hours.

Returnal is mighty good and right up my alley atmosphere/aesthetically wise and I fire it up every now and then, same thing with Demon's souls.

After these 4 games though...well, fook me :

- Days gone : I really wanted to like it since word of mouth has been pretty good after all the bug patching and 60fps on the PS5 but, for fuck's sake, this is an Ubisoft game in all but name, side quest this, side quest that, collectibles, craft mats collecting, 647583 icons on the map, quests that make you ride to the other side of the map and....AAARrghhh, couldn't do it anymore, back to the back burner it went .
Also : After finishing TLOU2, man, this game just can't compare when it comes to attention to detail, animations, sound production etc etc.

- FF7REi :
Listen, I never was a Square enix fan (nor a FF one) but after finishing the mediocre FF15 a couple of years back i thought "why not".Anyway, when there's actual gameplay it's actually kinda fun ? The thing is though - you guessed it - it's another 50-60-70 hours "epic" and I bailed out as soon as I saw the map after meeting Tifa (cutscene with hooded dude after getting to your room).
I keep reading in here that the game is padded to hell and back and...I just don't know if I could do it.
Back to the back burner it went.

- Ghost of Tsushima :
I expected more from the graphics to be honest (those faces and lip-sync aren't great) but the problem is - YOU GUESSED IT AGAIN - that it's another open world Ubi-like game with everything it entails.Combat is simple yet fun but I just don't know if I can muster the strength to continue playing.

- Horizon forbidden west:
Finished the 1st game back in the day and while I find the basic "google became Skynet and the whole world got fucked®" story intriguing, the rest is - sweet mother of god - just...shite ? Who the fuck are these uninteresting characters and why won't they just shut the fuck up ? Shit boys, I keep skipping dialogue lines constantly and I never do that in games, it's just that everything feels boring, plus, game is another - YOU GUESSED IT MADAFAKAS - Ubi-clone with infiniiiiite icons on the map, a gazillion side quests etc etc, fuck me, people were right in here saying that it was a bloated mess...
Shame, since I'd really like to know how the story goes with the Ted Faro guy and any upcoming twists but, again, bloating too stronK.

Bonus : I also have GOW Ragnarok since it came with the console and...yep, another 50 hour epic apparently, keep reading in here that it's also a bloated mess with more cutscenes than actual gameplay but, tbh, after 3 hours of gameplay I still prefer it to Horizon FW.

And here lies the real problem : it's not me being tired of games, it's the fact that developers nowadays think that everything has to be a 70 hour game/epic otherwise their game(s) won't sell , thing is, this kind of homogenization isn't good since - obviously - everything starts to feel so similar/familiar to the point where most games feel like re-skins of other ones if I'm to be (kind of) hyperbolic.

So let me ask you this :
Which games of those that I mentioned you enjoyed the most and why ? Which one should i choose to play when held at gunpoint and why ?

Love you all

 

[feynoob]

God of war and spiderman miles morales.


P.s. ignore my bias.

 

[Nankatsu]

All those games are kind of time consuming, but if I had to pick one I would go for FFVIIR. But then again, I clocked 150+ hours into that.

You know OP, I honestly think what you're looking for is called Resident Evil 4 Remake - perfect length, pacing and gameplay, all in one package.

 

[diffusionx]

Spiderman and Ghost of Tsushima

 

[Giallo Corsa]

All those games are kind of time consuming, but if I had to pick one I would go for FFVIIR. But then again, I clocked 150+ hours into that.

You know OP, I honestly think what you're looking for is called Resident Evil 4 Remake - perfect length, pacing and gameplay, all in one package.

Hey friend, got Re4RE the other day and I'm enjoying it a lot

The "problem" is that I payed for PS plus extra and my OCD (or is that "FOMO"?) is kicking in since i have to actually finish at least a couple of games that I paid for.

Cheers

 

[Drizzlehell]

So you're gonna sit there pretending that Knack doesn't exist?

 

[Neolombax]

I really enjoyed GoW ragnarok.sure it can be a long game but you can mostly focus on the main mission and still be fine. The gameplay really hooked me, exploration and sidequests were quite fun too. I also enjoyed Tsushima but thats because I have a huge bias towards the Japanese culture and yes its mostly ubisoft checkpoint things.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Ghost of Tsushima didn’t do it for me as well - played the beginning and it’s just so tiring, there is barely any story or gameplay in the first hour, it’s just tutorial after tutorial. I cannot believe almost 20 years later Hears of War exposition is still the standard.

 

[Ar¢tos]

You picked a list of 40h+ games so you could complain that they are too long?

You can always play something like Concrete Genie...

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Probably Ghost of Tsushima. Play the original FF VII.

 

[Aenima]

So let me ask you this :
Which games of those that I mentioned you enjoyed the most and why ? Which one should i choose to play when held at gunpoint and why ?

Love you all

Ill give you a hint of what you should play next.



And if you havent played yet, Miles Morales is great and not too long, around 10-15h.

 

[Nankatsu]

Hey friend, got Re4RE the other day and I'm enjoying it a lot

The "problem" is that I payed for PS plus extra and my OCD (or is that "FOMO"?) is kicking in since i have to actually finish at least a couple of games that I paid for.

Cheers

Oh nice then!

If you're afraid of missing out I would say to just go with the one that clicks more with you.

All those games are long. Just embrace the fact that you will probably miss out on one or two, there's nothing wrong with that.

Actually, while those games are big AAA titles, you have other really cool games on PS Plus Extra besides those, like Judgement, Control, Guardians of the Galaxy, and so on.

 

[SlimySnake]

Why the fuck are you playing TLOU2 on grounded on your first run?

Its a 24-30 hour game max.

How long is The Last of Us Part II? | HowLongToBeat

How long is The Last of Us Part II? HowLongToBeat has the answer. Create a backlog, submit your game times and compete with your friends!

howlongtobeat.com

God of war and Ghost can all be beaten in under 25 hours. You dont need to do the side content. Even FF7 is under 35 hours if you dont bother with the side content.

 

[Saber]

I would say Ghost and Days Gone.

 

[Kvally]

You really can't go wrong with Ghost of Tsushima, GOW R, or Days Gone. It took me two tries to finally get into Ghost of Tsushima. Once I did, I was addicted. FFVIIR was meh IMO. HFW is good, but not as good as Days Gone, Ghost and GOW R, that is IMO.

 

[rofif]

Final Fantasy 7 is amazing.
Days gone is borefest... I wouldn't prioritize it. It's a fun game worth playing but not over other games here.
TLOU2 you already finished. Good. It's excellent.
Death Stranding is a must play. There is directors cut.
Returnal for sure for shorter experience.
Dude... Uncharted 4 is incredible. Play it. There is a ps5 version that's 60fps. Trilogy too.

Horizon games are worth playing for graphics alone. Game can be a bit of a borefest.
I've not played Ghost of tsushima yet myself either. And never played spider man games also

 

[Giallo Corsa]

You picked a list of 40h+ games so you could complain that they are too long?

You can always play something like Concrete Genie...

I knew I reply like this was coming

You know what Arctos ? You're kinda right man, thing is, i didn't expect all of them to be 50+ hours.
"Well, you could have taken a look on the Internet" is what you'll probably say but, again, while I expected them to be long, I didn't expect them to be that long.

Anyway, I'm not hating on the games, they are what they are and I suppose that most users get their money's worth out of them, it's just that I don't personally have the time nor luxury anymore to dedicate the required amount of hours for each game.
Cheers

PS : OK, maybe I'm hatin' a little bit on Horizon FW, the world, characters and the whole "tribal" aesthetics are just "nope" for me, everything feels over-produced with no real motivation or drive behind it besides padding the game's length.

 

[Kvally]

Dude... Uncharted 4 is incredible. Play it.

 

[hemo memo]

Ghost of Tsushima, easily. I mean I don’t know why you included average and below average games like Days Gone and Forbidden West. FF7REi is Square. So the choice only really comes to Ragnarok or Ghost which again Ghost win that easily.

 

[hemo memo]

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Why the fuck are you playing TLOU2 on grounded on your first run?

Its a 24-30 hour game max.

How long is The Last of Us Part II? | HowLongToBeat

How long is The Last of Us Part II? HowLongToBeat has the answer. Create a backlog, submit your game times and compete with your friends!

howlongtobeat.com

God of war and Ghost can all be beaten in under 25 hours. You dont need to do the side content. Even FF7 is under 35 hours if you dont bother with the side content.

Snake, I found TLOU2 to be kinda easy man since you have silencers, the bow and arrow etc etc, everything started to feel kinda trivial after a little while so I ramped up the difficulty mid-game and I felt like it was a better game/experience for it.
I really, really enjoyed it, impeccable attention to detail to the point most games feel like "lesser" experiences after it - the combat, brutality, animations, sound, lighting, gameplay loop... everything was...chef's kiss®
The only con ? It needed to be way shorter, the last 2 chapters were kinda unneeded, anyway...

Glad to hear that those games.you mentioned can be completed in 25-30 hours, cheers

 

[Mahavastu]

GOW Ragnarok and Returnal i guess...

 

[MikeM]

Stick to linear games man. Clearly you hate anything open world.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

I think it's at the very least intriguing how the OP spends most of his post complaining about bloat in open world games (dude even complains about talking NPCs as "bloat"), but then gives us a choice of almost exclusively open-world games to help him choose from.

OP if you don't want any of the bloat (i.e. content?) that is normal in open world adventures/RPGs then why not just stick to corridor shooters and racing simulators?
Why would you play any open world game at all if you manage to find faults in all things that constitute an open world game?

The good news here is you don't have to play any of those games.

 

[John Bilbo]

Play more indie games. They tend to be on the shorter side.

Have you played A Short Hike?

 

[Roman Empire]

Why the fuck are you playing TLOU2 on grounded on your first run?

Its a 24-30 hour game max.

How long is The Last of Us Part II? | HowLongToBeat

How long is The Last of Us Part II? HowLongToBeat has the answer. Create a backlog, submit your game times and compete with your friends!

howlongtobeat.com

God of war and Ghost can all be beaten in under 25 hours. You dont need to do the side content. Even FF7 is under 35 hours if you dont bother with the side content.

I think here lies the problem of OP. They have the need/urge to "complete" the games. A bunch of times in the thread they say like having OCD/FOMO so I guess it is hard for them to simply "let it go" of games they started. The problem I have with it is that it seems their attention span is quite short if they can't simply focus on one single game before moving to the next one. With all this jumping between games, they could have finished at least 2 of those. It lacks true commitment.

 

[Fafalada]

You see, I never had much love for open-world games, plus, gaming time is nowadays limited so i really don't have the luxury to be playing all those 60-70 hours "epics" anymore.

I generally have a similar problem with most large open-world games (it's not even the time itself - I am ok to spread out the game over multiple months and play it in very small increments - it's just that most of them don't have the appeal to keep going) - but if you haven't played it yet Spiderman MM strikes the right balance there that doesn't get dull and prodding - I believe that's on PS+ too.
For what's worth - HZ:FW is also relatively straightforward/shorter if you just want to get through the main-storyline (10-20hr range), but I personally get through them because I found the combat fun, not so much grinding the plotlines (basically like Bethesda games - if Fallout4 didn't have settlement building I'd have never gotten even 10% into it).

The other thing is that you may just want to let go of the whole 'must finish games' and treat them as experiences (if they stick enough to keep going, fine, but don't do it because of completionism). I know it's easier said than done though.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Returnal and Spiderman

 

[Mibu no ookami]

definitely ghost of tsushima

 

[crunchyBiscuits]

Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-man
Even if you decide to do the side quests in those games, they're pretty quick. Everything feels streamlined (to me, at least) in both of those games

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Days Gone, Ghost of Sushi, Returnal ftw

 

[Dr. Claus]

Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Ghost of Tsushima was just another Asassins' Creed game and not even all that much better than the drek that Ubisoft releases.
God of War 2018 is good, but Ragnarok shit the bed.
Horizon is the most bland open world game imagineable. Days Gone is right behind it.

 

[AlexxKidd]

I'm not considering FFVIIR. That's an outlier. For me that will always come first if I hadn't finished it twice already, but FFVII is my favorite game of all time. So taking that out of it...

It's a toss up (from the games you mentioned) between Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Forbidden West. Ultimately, I think Ghost is the better game, but I love Horizon as well. Since YOU say you didn't enjoy the first Horizon, that makes this an easy call in your case for Ghost of Tsushima.

Also both games will run you at least twice as long as the 40 hours you complained about with LOU2, so if you thought that was too much you might wanna think again on the entire list except for GOWR, which can be 40 hours but can also be 80 depending on how deep into completing shit you wanna be.

 

[semiconscious]

op: were i you, i'd bail on all of them, & on gaming itself, & simply get involved in this style of creative writing full time. you've got the smarm...

 

[StereoVsn]

I would go with Ghost. Don't get distracted by every icon or smoke stack, you don't have to finish everything.

I thought Atmosphere, Story, Combat and overall environmental art were very good. Definitely would take that over Horizons.

Haven't played GoW Ragnarok yet, but first GoW was excellent so it's probably quite good.

Days Gone - forget it. Worst game of the bunch. It's ok by itself but everything else available is better.

Spiderman/ Miles Morales - lived both. Miles is pretty short as well. Again, don't have to do all Open World quests.

FFVIIR - love the hell out of it. Then again FFVII is pure nostalgia for me. Still, if you dig JRPGs and have appreciation for SE's FF franchise, this is a must play.

To summarize, I would play FFVIIR if I was into JRPGs. Otherwise would start with Ghost of Tsushima and then play Spider-Man/Miles Morales. Reverse is fine as well.

 

[Warablo]

Ghost of Tsushima out of that list.

I'd probably pick up Dishonored 2 or Prey on games outside that list.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Returnal, Spider man, Final Fantasy VII REi

 

[phil_t98]

Has to be god of war or Spider-Man. Both top tier games

 

[Kvally]

Returnal, Spider man, Final Fantasy VII REi

 

[adamsapple]

Out of the list in OP.

Ragnarok or Tsushima.

 

[Fatmanp]

Of those Ff7r. Horizon, Days Gone and Ghost are very similar open world action/combat/crafting experiences. Ragnarok is a more focused version of the three but has very poor pacing. FF7r feels the most unique.

 

[Hohenheim]

Ghost of T. Easy.
That was a 9/10 experience for me. Great combat, amazing visuals and atmosphere. And I actually bothered to do some side missions because of exciting side stories.
I didn't bother with side missions in the other two of these that I have played and finished, because they didn't give me any motivation to do so.

Ragnarok had good moments, but it's 15 hours to long,and the boring parts is incredibly boring.
FF 7 remake is was a big snorefest for me (I adore the original FF7)

Haven't tried Days Gone and Forbidden West yet. I liked the original Horizon, so will probably play the sequel at some point.

 

[TastyPastry]

i had the most fun with ghost of tsushima and i'm not even into the whole samurai thing

 

[StereoVsn]

Ghost of T. Easy.
That was a 9/10 experience for me. Great combat, amazing visuals and atmosphere. And I actually bothered to do some side missions because of exciting side stories.
I didn't bother with side missions in the other two of these that I have played and finished, because they didn't give me any motivation to do so.

Ragnarok had good moments, but it's 15 hours to long,and the boring parts is incredibly boring.
FF 7 remake is was a big snorefest for me (I adore the original FF7)

Haven't tried Days Gone and Forbidden West yet. I liked the original Horizon, so will probably play the sequel at some point.

Hard agree on Ghost. Hard disagree on FFVIIR. .

That one really depends if you are a fan of FF, IMO, and especially FFVII. It's basically a different story told with same characters. Not really a Remake in broad sense.

 

[NewYork214]

Ghost of tsushima. One of those games that hit me so good that I was fully immersed. 100% platinum and all and it never felt like a grind. Oddly never went back for the dlc tho.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Stick to linear games man. Clearly you hate anything open world.

Except i don't Mike, in fact, Red dead redemption1 and 2, two of my favourite games of all time are in fact open-world.
Add the witcher 3 with both expansions to the list

I think it's at the very least intriguing how the OP spends most of his post complaining about bloat in open world games (dude even complains about talking NPCs as "bloat"), but then gives us a choice of almost exclusively open-world games to help him choose from.

OP if you don't want any of the bloat (i.e. content?) that is normal in open world adventures/RPGs then why not just stick to corridor shooters and racing simulators?
Why would you play any open world game at all if you manage to find faults in all things that constitute an open world game?

The good news here is you don't have to play any of those games.

Except i'm not complaining about "open-world" games in general, i'm "complaining" about the fact that, unfortunately for me, i don't have all that free time anymore as to be able to enjoy a (good) open-world game.Sure, it's not my favorite genre (hence the " i don't have much love" part), but, RDR2 for example was one of my favorite games of last gen (if not my favorite one).The Witcher 3 was also really good and it took me about 200+ hours to finish with both DLCs.
Having said that, i do stand by the opinion that nowadays everything has to be open-world which isn't always necessarily a good thing, take MGS5 for example , or, Horizon forbidden west which while the prequel was open-world, they doubled down for the sequel introducing a gazillion side-quets and speech/dialogue-trees.
it's all about the context friend.

Play more indie games. They tend to be on the shorter side.

Have you played A Short Hike?

John, i had an XSX for 2 years and trust me, the only games i played were indie ones since, well, xbox wasn't exactly known for its blockbuster exclusives these past 2 years
Will give a short hike a look, cheers man !

I think here lies the problem of OP. They have the need/urge to "complete" the games. A bunch of times in the thread they say like having OCD/FOMO so I guess it is hard for them to simply "let it go" of games they started. The problem I have with it is that it seems their attention span is quite short if they can't simply focus on one single game before moving to the next one. With all this jumping between games, they could have finished at least 2 of those. It lacks true commitment.

Roman, there's no need nor urge to tick a checklist, nor do i have a "lack of commitment" or short attention span ffs, i'm not 18 years old man, it's just that - again - i've been getting picky due to having limited time nowadays and i have to be selective with what i'm going to play next as to avoid the notorious " i'm not enjoying anything, everything is shit" mantra due to choosing the wrong media at the wrong time.

In hindsight, it's solely MY fault for subscribing to ps plus extra as soon as i got the PS5, i could have beat TLOU2 and RE4 Remake first and then actually subscribe, hence the "FOMO/OCD" tongue in cheek comment.

 

[LakeOf9]

Ghost of Tsushima and God of War Ragnarok are awesome.

Days Gone and Horizon are trash.

FF7R is great.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Buy resident evil 4 remake and or Dead space.

If youre 100% limited to the extra catalogue then play Uncharted 4 and lost legacy, shorter and linear while being incredibly fun.

 

[Danjin44]

Out of those, FFVIIR is my favourite.

 

[Hunnybun]

I haven't played Ghost yet but for Horizon FW I'd just say why not mainline the story? That's basically what I did, other than a few hours spent upgrading weapons.

It's long but not THAT long if you just do that.

I do think the bloating is a valid complaint though. I constantly hear how 'games take so much longer to make these days' with their amazing graphics, but surely the fact that all those games you mentioned are AT LEAST twice as big as their counterparts from 10 years ago has something to do with it?!