Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN MARCH 2024?

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

What Have You Been Playing... IN MARCH 2024?

Only Horizon Forbidden West. Streaming the Playstation version with PS
Plus.

I have now about 100 hours in it. I guess I'm hopelessly enamored with
the game since I'm nowhere near finishing it, I think. And the reason is
clear, HFW is exactly what I want from games these days. Exploration,
entertaining little stories in the side missions and a main story that
isn't complete crap. And action that doesn't suck either. I'm not really
sure the last is true, the game's limitations are starting to show. In
some ways it feels like a PS2 game, step out of the local little bubble
and back in and almost everything resets. Convenient for farming to be
sure but meh otherwise.

The tech issues with PS Plus streaming have pretty much stabilized. I
don't mind the occasional video glitches and drops in
quality. Controller disconnects usually just mean I need to restart the
gamepad emulator (DualSenseX) and PS Plus patiently waits through that.

As a gaming platform PS Plus seems a little poor in information, for
example I have no idea if I'm playing the PS4 or PS5 version of HFW or
if there's any way to choose that. Also the DLC doesn't seem to be
available. So it looks like a meh effort by Sony. They also "helpfully"
recommend you save your game if the connection quality goes down but not
all games have save anywhere, anytime.

Controller delays are a bigger issue especially when I fail an easy jump
five times in a row. I've come to the conclusion it's not that I suck,
it's the streaming that sucks, at least some of the time. This likely
affects combat also but it's harder to see there, I have no way to
compare.

The PC version of HFW was released in March but as there seems to be no
way to transfer a save from the PS version, I don't think I'll get that
until later, in a sale. I'm not sure I want to replay the whole thing,
maybe a speed run of sorts.