Games to play: PlayStation edition

[requiems]

A, "this might be easier to navigate than a note on my phone" type of entry. I'm slowly working on a full replay of XIV again, and I reached Stormblood! But having played a few other games this year already (Lost Records, Caravan Sandwitch) I think I'm itching for a few brand new narratives and experiences, so here's what I have on hand.

This doesn't include games I want to play that I've already beaten once and have the platinum for. I've noted the amount of trophies, estimated difficulty and time to platinum on those I'm most interested in trying/know something about, courtesy of psnprofiles - I might eventually link the trophy guides if I start playing them. Games with a ⭐️ are those I would play regardless of length or difficulty.

Games with a strikethrough I have veto'd. If you want to enable me into anything on this list, feel free, I'm listening!

Games I have downloaded on my external hardrive

Bound 27, 8/10, 40hrs
Child of Light⭐️
Haven 31, 3/10, 14hrs
Horizon: Forbidden West⭐️
Infamous: Second Son 48, 3/10, 20hrs
Kena: Bridge of Spirits 42, 5/10, 25hrs. Has a difficulty trophy
LEGO The Incredibles 52, 2/10, 20hrs
Life is Strange: Before the Storm⭐️
Outer Wilds, 32, 4/10, 20hrs. Has a speedrun trophy
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, 100, 5/10, 30hrs. Has a difficulty trophy
Twin Mirror, 25, 2/10, 20hrs

PLAYSTATION PLUS

Free monthly games I've added to my library, of which I only don't tend to bother if it's sports related, so I don't know much about most of them.

Alan Wake Remedy I love you but I absolutely cannot handle this.
Arcadegeddon
Axiom Verge 2
Balatro
Biomutant
Bioshock
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
The Callisto Protocol
Code Vein, 43, 5/10, 70hrs
Concrete Genie⭐️, 56, 3/10, 8hrs
Curse of the Dead Gods
Days Gone
Dead Space
Death's Door
Dragon Age: Veilguard, 53, 3/10, 70hrs
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights, 39, 7/10, 25hrs
Erica
Fallout 4
Fallout 76
Generation Zero
Ghost of Tsushima, 77, 3/10, 50hrs
Ghostrunner
Ghostrunner 2
Ghostwire Tokyo
Godfall
Heavenly Bodies
High on Life
Hollow Knight Voidheart Edition
Immortals of Aveum
It Takes Two
Knack
Little Nightmares
Little Nightmares II
Mafia
Man of Medan
Mortal Shell
Nioh 2
Pac-Man World: Re-Pac
Payday 3
Persona 5 Strikers⭐️, 47, 4/10, 50hrs
Saint's Row (the remake)
Sifu
Skul
Sonic Colors: Ultimate
The Stanley Parable
Slay the Spire
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Steelrising, 56, 5/10, 25hrs
Trek to Yomi
Tribes of Midgard
Tunic
Weird West
The Witness
Yakuza: Kiwami
Yakuza: Like A Dragon

Other games I own

Either from buying them, or the essentials they gave away for free at the launch of PS5.

Bloodborne
Borderlands 1⭐️
God of War
The Last Guardian
Nier Replicant⭐️, 47, 4/10, 50hrs
Once Again
Pyre
Resonance of Fate Remaster⭐️
Spiritfarer
Tales of Berseria
Witcher 3

Comments

[larissa]

alan wake 1 is terrible, you are correct to strike it out. (i watched a friend play through it. it is... not good. alan wake 2 is much better, but i'm not sure it's your style.)

of this list i'd actually recomend Pyre the most; it's really weird in terms of gameplay but it's excellently designed and is one of Supergiant's best games. it's one of those games i played once and was like, that was fantastic, i don't need to play it again anytime soon. also, it's a game where failure is part of the narrative, so if you don't vibe with the gameplay you can still progress.

i got a little ways into ender lilies, and while the vibes are excellent, i was fucking terrible at it...

i have only heard good things about outer wilds; a friend gifted me a copy of it but i've not played it yet.

i don't know if fallout 4 is your style, but i do think it's worth playing; the story is not my favorite but the worldbuilding and environment is so, so good. an easy game to get lost in. when it came out i put like 200+ hours into it in the span of a month.

you should play resonance of fate because i've always been curious about it and i want the Rems Opinion. :)

lastly, balatro is really good to play in short bursts when you don't want to think very hard. strong recommend, it's excellent if you like poker-type games at all.

[requiems]

AWE dlc for Control is an Alan Wake enticement hook, and I knew then that it was unfortunately very much not for me as it's too far past my comfort zone. Control is on the line of creepy weird I can tolerate, Alan Wake was just 😭😭 ok pls stop making me more afraid of the dark.

Unfortunately for me Remedy did do a Control crossover in 2 and Jesse is there so one day I might have to seek it out and watch it for her if nothing else, lol.

Pyre is a perpetual I'm thinking about itTM, but I don't particularly enjoy failure at things (it's why I could never play Hades or other roguelikes, or Souls games. Which is unfortunate because I've watched a Bloodborne LP some years ago and aside from a spider boss, really dug it). I'll have to watch some trailers for it and read more what it's about, I've honestly forgotten.

I have only ever heard good things about Fallout 4! It was always like, an adjacent game/series; but generally I know nothing about the setting or the lore for Fallout at all other than emerging from a vault into a wasteland. That's pretty much it.

RESONANCE OF FATE IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE GAMES EVER, it's so bizarre but in a fun JRPG 2010 sort of way (it reminds me a lot of Gravity Rush with some of its worldbuilding). The combat is almost turn based if you get an advantage and you have time to see your squad up then all hell breaks loose. It's kind of hit or miss on if people like it, but Leanne is one of my favourites, and I love Zephyr a lot (he's doing his best). Vashyron is voiced by Nolan North and he is so like, goofy silly. I haven't played it since like 2012 and I want to again sometime to see if it holds up.

I do not like any sort of card games, alas. 😭 if I still played anything in handheld I'd consider Balatro, but, probably not in this case.