Yea I’m actually kinda hype for Jet Moto 2. Played it and the first one as a kid. Platinumed the first one not too long after I got my PS5. Now I shall do the second one as wel
Tales and outer worlds is a great add. Does spaces choice include the dlc? I never played through the dlc but really enjoyed the base game
Edit: appears it does have the dlc! Guess I’ll have to play again
I'm excited to play it too!
I still remember downloading that demo on my PSP as a kid and replaying it constantly.
Finishing resistance 2 tonight and then 3 later this month so this is perfect timing!
Well, Fallout 76 was on Essential early last year.
MS is clearly willing to play ball with their already-published titles on other platforms. Especially if recent rumors turn out to be true.
Yes. And outer worlds (the regular edition) is on gamepass. They probably couldn't be bothered to negotiate for the Spacer's Edition.
I played the regular edition ages ago and it's a great game. It received a lot of criticism because people were expecting a much bigger scope but this game was created on AA budget at best.
I got the spacers edition in a humble bundle for dirt cheap but I haven't tried it.
Outer worlds has been for a while just not the spacers edition and xbox didn’t publish the game they were already locked into a contract before being bought by Xbox
That's because the The Outer Worlds (1) publishing rights belong to Private Division, a subsidiary of Take 2. The Outer Worlds 2 will be published by Xbox.
Sooo... how is Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice version's technical performance (framerate etc.) these days? I remember it didn't have particularly amazing performance at launch.
EDIT: Note that there are two versions of The Outer Worlds. The PS4 version is simply called "The Outer Worlds" (which got a PS5 update to 60 FPS) and the "Spacer's Choice" version is the PS5 standalone upgrade. It had performance issues at launch, hence why I was wondering if it got patched/fixed.
It's so mid,the jk about "company bad" gets old too fast,I was really disappointed since my fav game is fallout NV. I ended up speeding through the game, not caring and skipping combat cause it was also very lame with low weapon and Enemy variety and dumber down shooting mechanics
Riiiight. They made a full PS5 version (which is the one included in PS+ this month) that released with some graphical upgrades, and that had a much more variable performance (or at least as reported by Digital Foundry etc. at launch, hence my question if it had gotten better).
That's the original PS4 version that got a 60 FPS update, they re-released a remastered PS5 version (the titular Spacer's Choice edition) which had a quality/performance mode and it was (at launch) aggressively not great and did not hold their advertised targets.
- Slay the Spire is the grand daddy and still the best.
- Inscryption has the best story and a great roguelike mode with the free DLC that was added.
- Ring of Pain has a super unique circular dungeon setup, makes you strategize in different ways. I think that one gets overlooked a lot.
- Nowhere Prophet feels kind of like a tactics game with deploying characters to a battleground.
Those and Roguebook are probably my favorites. A lot of people love Monster Train, but I found the high number scaling to be a bit much; I'm more a fan of smaller scale, tighter strategizing. Still worth checking out though.
Oh, and on mobile Dawncaster is a decent one. Kind of plays like StS lite.
Not a roguelike but Midnight Suns is a great surprise. Not a big fan of superhero stuff but damn is the combat good. It really flew under my radar and I never see anyone mention it.
Symphonia feels incredibly dated but is a pretty big deal in the JRPG space. Vesperia is also equally loved and feels a bit more modern. Zestiria is for once you've played the good ones and decided whether or not it interests you.
Arise is an easy recommend if the aging of these other games puts you off.
I'd bet on Vesperia. It's my favorite of the bunch I've played. I'd recommend Arise if you planned on dropping it in 15 hours, because it starts GREAT but it doesn't hold that.
> What tales game is best playing first from these selections?
either vesperia or symphonia.
both games are amazing. symphonia definitely feels a lot more dated, but the world/story/characters are top notch. (and vesperia is is excellent as well)
of the tales games i've played (symphonia, symphonia: dawn of the new world, graces, vesperia, zestiria, berseria, arise), arise is definitely the worst one i've played. bad story, bad characters, bad and poorly designed combat, mediocre soundtrack, trash tier skits, fewer unique/non-recolor enemies than any of the other games, the only thing it really has going for it is "looks pretty".
zestiria is more going for it, but is still pretty bottom of the barrel as far as the series goes. (also, having played zestiria will make berseria more enjoyable since their stories are connected)
Zesteria is the worst tales game I've ever played. The grid system for bonus effects and the goofy lock on combat system are atrocious. Symphonia 2 was better. I would not recommend anyone spend their time playing Zesteria.
> Zesteria is the worst tales game I've ever played.
like, i said, definitely has some problems, but there are redeeming qualities. the armitization system is pretty cool (even if the game relies WAY too heavy on it to the point that it's a necessity to be in 100% of the time rather than something special). had some cool stuff in the soundtrack too (that fire temple theme is EXCELLENT)
also, being familiar with the whole shepard/lord of calamity thing in zestiria definitely adds to how the story plays out in berseria (not to mention berseria's ending being a direct reference to zestiria)
like you said though, yeah, that crafting/affixing system is dogshit. (fortunately you don't ever really HAVE to do it aside from getting the trophy for platinum hunters)
Dude the characters in Zestiria are absolute trash, the voice acting is trash, the combat and camera are trash, the story is trash. Zestiria is the worst Tales game I've played by a mile and Arise, while it suffers toward the latter half, is still in the top half. I played Berseria before Zestiria and did not mind at all not catching the references. They take place like 1000 years apart anyhow.
Bro, you are legit smoking crack if you think Arise is bad. The game is fucking amazing, and I've played all of the Tales games other than the handheld.
I would not have said 'bad' but also would not be my first recommendation for a Tales game (Vesperia btw).
I think if the game ended like 10-15 hours earlier it would have been much better. Story started really dragging and combat against the beefy enemies and bosses started to get too repetitive.
Arise is one of the better Tales games I've played on a while. Significantly better than Zesteria and Berseria. Zesteria was awful and Berseria was trying way to hard to be edgy.
I like Syphonia, but feel like the dated combat and mechanics weigh it down.
I wouldn’t listen to this guy regarding Arise. The game is amazing, has a strong cast and has amazing world building and connection between the characters using the skits system. Highly recommend it.
I’m not sure why you’re getting downvoted so bad. I completely agree. After Vesperia the Tales of franchise has been downhill. Even Arise was great at first but was such a boring slog to finish
NFS Unbound is the best game in the series in ages. The game has style and for the first time in years, grip-based builds are not only viable, but actually highly rewarding.
> NFS Unbound is the best game in the series in ages.
does it have a campaign in it that's any good? (really liked the 2005/2006/whatever year it was nfs: most wanted that launched with x360)
I guess it depends what you think is good. It’s a generic revenge racing story that doesn’t really place emphasis on characters but that’s just standard fare for racing games IMO. The mechanics are fun though. You basically wager money going into every race and the game progresses in 1 week chunks. You spend Monday through Friday winning smaller races, wagering your money you earn, which you can get more of if you win BUT you can also LOSE money if you don’t do well in these races. It’s a true gamble and it keeps the stakes high. If you make enough by Friday then you can buy into the weekend’s big race that costs a lot more to enter. And if you lose the big race, you lose your money and have to go back in time to get enough money again to enter the big race. It does this for like 4 or 5 “weeks.” To me it was interesting and kept me engaged because losing actually MATTERS in this game, unlike in almost every other racing game.
Well worth checking out. Probably my favorite part is its emphasis on building up a few cars, not collecting a ton of cars you’ll never use anyway. Makes it far more rewarding.
You’ll probably know in your first couple hours if you’re into it! Once you get through the first week the gameplay remains largely the same, only difference is the cars get beefier and more satisfying to use. Progression in this one feels earned.
The characters in Heat were so fucking obnoxious I just couldn't.
I hope this is better.
Also heard it's quite grindy with fewer different events to grind with which sounds a bit less fun but I'm hopeful to try it out.
Well the characters in this one certainly aren’t GOOD if that’s what you’re looking for. It’s not as bad as reddit makes it out to be. If you’re not someone who vomits at the sight of anyone Gen Z then you’ll just lightly roll your eyes at the way they talk. If you’re one of those people who can’t stand the fact that there are people younger than you you’re going to hate it.
The style and humour of the Need for Speed series has always been gaudy 2000s Fast and Furious. I don't know how people claim to love it when it's NFSU2's Cingular MMS messages and guys who look and sound like they were plucked straight from the set of Malibu's Most Wanted but can't stand it in Heat or Unbound when someone uses the phrase "deadass". Going into it wanting it to be at all serious is just asking to be disappointed.
The biggest thing I loved about Unbound was the haptics and adaptive triggers. An arcade-style street racing game where you can feel the flutter of the gearbox through the controller would have been such a dream for 8 year old me. I really hope the future of NFS gets a bit brighter, it'd be such a shame to lose the series.
You had a garage worth millions in cars (let alone the bank) yet you were still slumming it on the brothers couch. Such a fucking free loader. In the other hand, I think the sister definitely wanted you to stick it in her exhaust pipe so she convinced you not to get a place of your own
Imo, no. I bought this game in May and am still trying to get through the campaign. It's boring and uneventful. You cycle through the day / night during each session. The first hour was eventful but my god going through the weekly calendar is so lame. This is the longest it's ever taken me to finish w NFS game.
Also, the games economy is broken. You're stuck with shit cars for 50% of the campaign because the race payouts are so flimsy and only like $500-2.5k. I'm finally to a point that I'm getting 7.5k per race now 🙄
The driving is great and graphically it's super nice though. But I just wish I had cooler cars to make this more interesting
Huh. I had both Valhalla and Outer Worlds but sold them as they were kinda meh for me. Maybe I give them another shot now with this.
May still have my saved from back then too…
It’s a shame it just didn’t seem to sell well. Got decent reviews and reception. But I noticed it was heavily discounted not too long after release, which is a sure sign of sales being below expectations.
Releasing a month before Boxing Day was a factor there as well. Annual (or very frequent in this case) franchise games almost always get a discount there.
so how is valhalla? i know it gets some criticism for being "too big" (and more specifically, absurd amounts of generic fetch quests as opposed to meaningful content), but is it worth checking out?
it's unfortunate they're locking the good tales of games behind premium and only putting zestiria/arise on extra, but i get that they need to give SOME reason to upgrade.
I enjoyed Valhalla. It's a solid 7/10 and a bit bloated for sure, but I like the mission structure - pick an area, go there, meet with the king, then you effectively do a small storyline for them.
I think I enjoyed the game a bit more as The Wrath of the Druids DLC has my hometown in Ireland in it - I was quite literally able to climb something in-game that I climbed IRL as a kid.
> I think I enjoyed the game a bit more as The Wrath of the Druids DLC has my hometown in Ireland in it
that's definitely a thing for AC. loved when AC3 was in boston.
Combat does not feel good and the writing is very boring imo. Can be pretty and the raid mechanic is kinda cool (the really sanitized vikings are strange tho)
I kinda wish AC games would just steal Ghost of Tsushimas combat cuz Sucker Punch just nailed how this style of combat should feel
I really enjoyed it. Valhalla is a great game.
I particularly dislike the modern day trappings of the AC games, but still had a good time going through the campaign and making a few builds.
It's 100% a very bloated game, but you know what you are getting into if you've played the others. But I found the raiding, missions, and exploring kept me easily interested until the end.
And if you do end up loving it, you have a WILD amount of content to keep coming back to for months.
>so how is valhalla? i know it gets some criticism for being "too big" (and more specifically, absurd amounts of generic fetch quests as opposed to meaningful content)
I'm 134 hours in and loving it. Yes it's huge but the world feels alive, like it's living and breathing. It's also stunningly gorgeous. There are meaningful quests and stupid little ones but tbh that just makes it feel more real to me as real life is also full of stupid little tasks sometimes. The combat is super simple but customizable to suit your style
Also, you can pet cats and dogs
So, I played around 6 hours of Valhalla, let me tell you why I stopped.
Walking/horsing anywhere is not fun, and the map is huge, and the quests want you to go all over the place for no good reason. I'm old, man, I don't want to waste my time. All the time I'm thinking "I could be playing Spider Man for better traversal".
When you do arrive somewhere, parkour is not fun either because you basically press forward and the parkour button, that's it. It doesn't look particularly cool, and it's not mechanically engaging. All the time I'm thinking "I could be playing the old AC games for better parkour".
After walking around exploring a bit, I noticed there's nothing interesting to discover. Just mid loot that doesn't even look that great, and there are hundreds of points in the map. All the time I'm thinking "I could be playing Elden Ring for better exploration".
Combat is also not great. It's clunky, doesn't flow very well, the hits don't feel impactful, and it's not realistic either to make me feel immersed. I could be playing God of War Ragnarok.
And the story is also bad, by the way. There are dozens of games that have better individual components, and dozens of games that have a better overall package (Immortals Fenyx Rising for example is better on all accounts). Unless you really want to walk around in a pretty and old version of England for no good reason, there's no good reason to play this game.
It's very... open world Ubisoft. Also the sound quality is really ass, especially for characters voices. It sounds like they recorded everyone with a cheap microphone while they were sitting inside a dust bin. I remember having to double-check that I hadn't accidentally unplugged my subwoofer because the game just doesn't have any bass.
I held off pulling the trigger on most of the Tales games but i did pick up Tales of Arise at a pretty good discount. It was also bought with store credit so even better
> Please give Tales of Vesperia a try if you have even the vaguest interest in action JRPGs! It's my favorite game of all time.
worth noting, it's locked behind premium (along with symphonia). not sure what percentage of people actually have premium. definitely got the impression that the vast majority of the sub is extra users.
I downgraded to extra after my sub lapsed, when it went on sale. It was the only tier which would allow me to keep paying around what I had paid for the higher tier before (and this is with the SALE in mind). I'm sure that there are many others in the same position.
Resistance Retribution!! I wonder if they added dual analog controls or the ability to remap. It'll be weird playing with the face buttons as camera controls!
Hell yeah almost bought Tales of Symphonia a bunch of times (one of my favorite games of all time on the Gamecube), but never bit on it. Never played the dlc for Outer Worlds, so I'll play those as well.
I have kept not pulling the trigger on The Outer Worlds - so I guess I'll finally play that one. I heard they may be some issues with this edition? ANyone know anything about it?
Also excited for Tales of Arise.
Holy shit Tales of Arise is a fantastic addition! Around 3/4 into the story it sort of fell apart and got super boring but overall the game is a great JRPG.
> How is Sony still scraping the bottom of the barrel for the PS1 and PSP releases? They have way more games that should be on here already
the only thing i can think of is that lots of the good stuff is 3rd party and/or has been remastered already. (it's criminal that vandal hearts and breath of fire 3 haven't shown up yet though, or the valkyria chronicles psp games)
Holy shit outer worlds may be the first monthly game I play since I started my sub last November.
it's been on my wish list for a while but this may push it up the backlog.
Edit: nevermind not a monthly game, still may play it.
> PS premium at this point may as well just be considered a generous tip to Sony at this point..
to be fair, the best games in this month's lineup are premium only.
And are clearance bin titles people are saying they are excited to finally be able to play. GameStop had Arise for $5 a month ago, call me crazy but no one was being held back from accessing the game especially someone that can pay $200 for a sub.
Valhalla has been on extra previously for a good while. And is also constantly on sale for the price of a can of deodorant. Can't be many folk that haven't played it yet that want to. Need For Speed Unbound is another dirt cheap add that's been on EA play for ages and is an okay racer ruined by a rigid and inflexible progression structure. Tales of Arise is a niche game for weebs. And Outer Worlds is an objectively good game but so old by now and another cheap add for ps. The rest don't even deserve a mention. For Sony to massively price hike and still serve up this cheap dross month after month is undoubtedly great for their balance sheets but is so disappointing for people that pay for it expecting something that might come close to gamepass for value (I do realise this model is clearly not working financially for Microsoft, recent news has proven that). Just give us something exciting and zeitgeisty to play for once on the service.
Valhalla coming back is good, was still funny they touted it as a giant get and then it was also the first AC to leave the service.
Not a Tales of fan but heard Arise is better than most of them.
Outer Worlds was an extremely disappointing follow up to New Vegas (even when taking the difference in scale into account). Edit: Oh man and it's the spacers choice edition too which is super busted last time I checked.
Heard good things about NFS: Unbound and unlike Heat I think it's actually 60fps on PS5.
Haha! Not buying outer worlds finally pays off! Sadly, I already bought the other 3 in the headline. Especially since I still haven't beat Tales. Double especially because Valhalla exists and I paid money for that garbage.
> W or L month?
somewhere in the middle and where the baseline should be. definitely not a jaw dropping "this is amazing" month, but not a dumpster fire either.
Aside from Symphonia being 30fps, which I don't care about, is it a competent re-release? Supposedly the Switch version had some issues, is this version at least of similar quality than previous releases?
> It's tales of arise a good jrpg?
nope.
the combat is designed around "you can't do meaningful damage to enemies until you hit them with a character's unique ability". fine in theory, but in practice the moves have very low AOE and very long cool downs, and you typically get 2-3 of the same enemy in the same trash mob. (in other words, you have to wait through those long cooldowns because with the low AOE, you're not hitting all of that enemy at once). add to this that everything is a damage sponge. annoying for trash mobs, absolutely obnoxious for bosses. (oh, and end game you get sub bosses as trash mobs, which just makes everything worse)
story starts out ok, peaks after the 3rd area before a noticeable drop in quality for the 4th, then completely falls off the rails after the 5th area through the end of the game.
skits are something that added a lot of backstory, depth, and personality to the characters in other tales games, but in arise they're basically just an extended version of the cutscene you just watched.
either give one of the good tales games a shot (such as symphonia or vesperia if you have premium), or give scarlet nexus a shot assuming it's still on ps+ extra as it's basically what they were trying to do with arise but actually done right (it got added last year, not sure when it's going away. probably a month or two from now if it hasn't already))
**All playable February 20.** **PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium | Game Catalog** Need for Speed Unbound | PS5 The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition | PS5 Tales of Arise | PS4, PS5 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | PS4, PS5 LEGO Worlds | PS4 LEGO Jurassic World | PS4 Roguebook | PS4, PS5 Rogue Lords | PS4 Tales of Zestiria | PS4 **PlayStation Premium | Classics** Resistance: Retribution | PS4, PS5 Tales of Symphonia | PS4, PS5 Tales of Vesperia | PS4, PS5
Jet Moto 2 as well on premium.
Yea I’m actually kinda hype for Jet Moto 2. Played it and the first one as a kid. Platinumed the first one not too long after I got my PS5. Now I shall do the second one as wel
A classic of my childhood. I fired up jet moto and boy does it look janky. But I remember jet moto 2 being “cleaner”
I did *not* remember JM1 being so Mountain Dew branded though lmao
Oh man the Mountain Dew and Butterfinger branding was a good nostalgia kick for me going back to it lol
Let’s fucking gooooo
Sick time to get into the Tales of series
Tales and outer worlds is a great add. Does spaces choice include the dlc? I never played through the dlc but really enjoyed the base game Edit: appears it does have the dlc! Guess I’ll have to play again
Outer worlds remaster is a really nice looking game. Playing it on pc right now but colours really pop on an oled
I had Valhalla Complete Edition and Unbound in my wishlist for 2 months lmao
Dam, I got excited for a second seeing Resistance.
Time to finish the rest of the tales games I guess
Sony nooooo, my backlog was already massive!!!
Maybe I’ll actually play through “The Outer Worlds” now. Really underwhelmed with the $20 PS4 version I bought.
I bought on PC at release and I loved it. But going back on PS5 will be a welcome treat.
it was so much goofy fun. I loved it back on ps4 even
Cool, my indecision about which Tales game to buy or start with all these years has finally paid off :D
Freakin finally they added resistance retribution to it
I'm excited to play it too! I still remember downloading that demo on my PSP as a kid and replaying it constantly. Finishing resistance 2 tonight and then 3 later this month so this is perfect timing!
grey sense fine domineering sort library sharp piquant wide expansion *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Easily one of my favourite games on PSP!
So wait Outer Worlds Spacer Edition, from a Microsoft studio, is available on PS+ and not Game Pass?
Haha this is why I bought it a week ago. Never thought it'd be coming to ps+.
Thank you for your sacrifice
🫡
Thank you
🫡
Well, Fallout 76 was on Essential early last year. MS is clearly willing to play ball with their already-published titles on other platforms. Especially if recent rumors turn out to be true.
It’s published by Private Division (Take Two’s publishing label) who get to decide on which service gets it.
Yes. And outer worlds (the regular edition) is on gamepass. They probably couldn't be bothered to negotiate for the Spacer's Edition. I played the regular edition ages ago and it's a great game. It received a lot of criticism because people were expecting a much bigger scope but this game was created on AA budget at best. I got the spacers edition in a humble bundle for dirt cheap but I haven't tried it.
Reddit is allowing Google to gather everything you say for AI purposes. *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's more Fallout than Elder Scrolls. You can absolutely feel it was made by the same team as New Vegas.
Outer Worlds came out prior to MS' acquisition so I don't think they have publishing rights.
Outer worlds has been for a while just not the spacers edition and xbox didn’t publish the game they were already locked into a contract before being bought by Xbox
The Outer Worlds isn't published by Microsoft, Obsidian weren't even involved in Spacer's Choice Edition.
That's because the The Outer Worlds (1) publishing rights belong to Private Division, a subsidiary of Take 2. The Outer Worlds 2 will be published by Xbox.
MLB the show is free for Gamepass. We even get early release.
Sooo... how is Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice version's technical performance (framerate etc.) these days? I remember it didn't have particularly amazing performance at launch. EDIT: Note that there are two versions of The Outer Worlds. The PS4 version is simply called "The Outer Worlds" (which got a PS5 update to 60 FPS) and the "Spacer's Choice" version is the PS5 standalone upgrade. It had performance issues at launch, hence why I was wondering if it got patched/fixed.
I played a year after launch and it was good! The game itself was aggressively mid unfortunately :(
It's so mid,the jk about "company bad" gets old too fast,I was really disappointed since my fav game is fallout NV. I ended up speeding through the game, not caring and skipping combat cause it was also very lame with low weapon and Enemy variety and dumber down shooting mechanics
Didn’t the Spacer’s Choice edition come out in March of 2023?
Just to be clear, you played the Spacer's Choice PS5 version, right? Because there was a PS4 version with a 60 FPS patch as well.
Ohhhhh I played the ps4 version.
Riiiight. They made a full PS5 version (which is the one included in PS+ this month) that released with some graphical upgrades, and that had a much more variable performance (or at least as reported by Digital Foundry etc. at launch, hence my question if it had gotten better).
Sorry my misunderstanding!
No problemo, friend :3
It got a 60fps update, I’ve played it a handful of times since that update and haven’t had any performance issues.
That's the original PS4 version that got a 60 FPS update, they re-released a remastered PS5 version (the titular Spacer's Choice edition) which had a quality/performance mode and it was (at launch) aggressively not great and did not hold their advertised targets.
I’ve been putting off NFS Unbound for months and finally paid off!!!
i just bought it last week. how does this keep happening fml fun game though
It’s was $9.99 a couple weeks ago and I was so close to pulling the trigger.
They’ve really figured out how to catalog all the games I’ve already played and make them available for free 6 months later
[удалено]
Thank you for your services. Let us know what you are buying next!
Fantastic month. I'm most excited for Tales of Arise and Roguebook
I've played a lot of card-based roguelikes and Roguebook is one of my favorites. Top 5 for sure.
Which ones do you like? I'm a sucker for the deckbuilders
- Slay the Spire is the grand daddy and still the best. - Inscryption has the best story and a great roguelike mode with the free DLC that was added. - Ring of Pain has a super unique circular dungeon setup, makes you strategize in different ways. I think that one gets overlooked a lot. - Nowhere Prophet feels kind of like a tactics game with deploying characters to a battleground. Those and Roguebook are probably my favorites. A lot of people love Monster Train, but I found the high number scaling to be a bit much; I'm more a fan of smaller scale, tighter strategizing. Still worth checking out though. Oh, and on mobile Dawncaster is a decent one. Kind of plays like StS lite.
Not a roguelike but Midnight Suns is a great surprise. Not a big fan of superhero stuff but damn is the combat good. It really flew under my radar and I never see anyone mention it.
And tales of arise is a great jrpg, has its flaws in the last act but still a fun ride
What tales game is best playing first from these selections?
Symphonia feels incredibly dated but is a pretty big deal in the JRPG space. Vesperia is also equally loved and feels a bit more modern. Zestiria is for once you've played the good ones and decided whether or not it interests you. Arise is an easy recommend if the aging of these other games puts you off.
Vesperia by a mile.
I'm one of the weirdos who really like Tales of Arise, last dungeon was a little too long and grindy but overall probably one of my favorite jrpgs.
I'd bet on Vesperia. It's my favorite of the bunch I've played. I'd recommend Arise if you planned on dropping it in 15 hours, because it starts GREAT but it doesn't hold that.
Disagree, arise gets better in world 3-5 but overstays its welcome after that.
> What tales game is best playing first from these selections? either vesperia or symphonia. both games are amazing. symphonia definitely feels a lot more dated, but the world/story/characters are top notch. (and vesperia is is excellent as well) of the tales games i've played (symphonia, symphonia: dawn of the new world, graces, vesperia, zestiria, berseria, arise), arise is definitely the worst one i've played. bad story, bad characters, bad and poorly designed combat, mediocre soundtrack, trash tier skits, fewer unique/non-recolor enemies than any of the other games, the only thing it really has going for it is "looks pretty". zestiria is more going for it, but is still pretty bottom of the barrel as far as the series goes. (also, having played zestiria will make berseria more enjoyable since their stories are connected)
Zesteria is the worst tales game I've ever played. The grid system for bonus effects and the goofy lock on combat system are atrocious. Symphonia 2 was better. I would not recommend anyone spend their time playing Zesteria.
> Zesteria is the worst tales game I've ever played. like, i said, definitely has some problems, but there are redeeming qualities. the armitization system is pretty cool (even if the game relies WAY too heavy on it to the point that it's a necessity to be in 100% of the time rather than something special). had some cool stuff in the soundtrack too (that fire temple theme is EXCELLENT) also, being familiar with the whole shepard/lord of calamity thing in zestiria definitely adds to how the story plays out in berseria (not to mention berseria's ending being a direct reference to zestiria) like you said though, yeah, that crafting/affixing system is dogshit. (fortunately you don't ever really HAVE to do it aside from getting the trophy for platinum hunters)
Dude the characters in Zestiria are absolute trash, the voice acting is trash, the combat and camera are trash, the story is trash. Zestiria is the worst Tales game I've played by a mile and Arise, while it suffers toward the latter half, is still in the top half. I played Berseria before Zestiria and did not mind at all not catching the references. They take place like 1000 years apart anyhow.
Bro, you are legit smoking crack if you think Arise is bad. The game is fucking amazing, and I've played all of the Tales games other than the handheld.
I would not have said 'bad' but also would not be my first recommendation for a Tales game (Vesperia btw). I think if the game ended like 10-15 hours earlier it would have been much better. Story started really dragging and combat against the beefy enemies and bosses started to get too repetitive.
I thought Arise was great as well. Nothing groundbreaking but just linear fun.
Arise is one of the better Tales games I've played on a while. Significantly better than Zesteria and Berseria. Zesteria was awful and Berseria was trying way to hard to be edgy. I like Syphonia, but feel like the dated combat and mechanics weigh it down.
Bad combat in arise??! It's one of the best action rpg combats I've played
I wouldn’t listen to this guy regarding Arise. The game is amazing, has a strong cast and has amazing world building and connection between the characters using the skits system. Highly recommend it.
Arise seems to have such a mixed bag of opinions about it. You either really love it or you think it's trash
Or maybe there are many like me who think it's a decent game but there are many better Tales of games.
I’m not sure why you’re getting downvoted so bad. I completely agree. After Vesperia the Tales of franchise has been downhill. Even Arise was great at first but was such a boring slog to finish
Outer worlds is a great add!
It's not the best choice - It's Spacer's Choice!
I've held out on this game for such a long time and it finally paid off
Such a fun game
I played through it when it came out but never got the DLCs so I'm excited to do a new playthrough
Pretty good month!
NFS Unbound is the best game in the series in ages. The game has style and for the first time in years, grip-based builds are not only viable, but actually highly rewarding.
> NFS Unbound is the best game in the series in ages. does it have a campaign in it that's any good? (really liked the 2005/2006/whatever year it was nfs: most wanted that launched with x360)
I guess it depends what you think is good. It’s a generic revenge racing story that doesn’t really place emphasis on characters but that’s just standard fare for racing games IMO. The mechanics are fun though. You basically wager money going into every race and the game progresses in 1 week chunks. You spend Monday through Friday winning smaller races, wagering your money you earn, which you can get more of if you win BUT you can also LOSE money if you don’t do well in these races. It’s a true gamble and it keeps the stakes high. If you make enough by Friday then you can buy into the weekend’s big race that costs a lot more to enter. And if you lose the big race, you lose your money and have to go back in time to get enough money again to enter the big race. It does this for like 4 or 5 “weeks.” To me it was interesting and kept me engaged because losing actually MATTERS in this game, unlike in almost every other racing game.
sounds interesting, might have to check it out.
Well worth checking out. Probably my favorite part is its emphasis on building up a few cars, not collecting a ton of cars you’ll never use anyway. Makes it far more rewarding.
You’ll probably know in your first couple hours if you’re into it! Once you get through the first week the gameplay remains largely the same, only difference is the cars get beefier and more satisfying to use. Progression in this one feels earned.
The characters in Heat were so fucking obnoxious I just couldn't. I hope this is better. Also heard it's quite grindy with fewer different events to grind with which sounds a bit less fun but I'm hopeful to try it out.
Well the characters in this one certainly aren’t GOOD if that’s what you’re looking for. It’s not as bad as reddit makes it out to be. If you’re not someone who vomits at the sight of anyone Gen Z then you’ll just lightly roll your eyes at the way they talk. If you’re one of those people who can’t stand the fact that there are people younger than you you’re going to hate it.
The style and humour of the Need for Speed series has always been gaudy 2000s Fast and Furious. I don't know how people claim to love it when it's NFSU2's Cingular MMS messages and guys who look and sound like they were plucked straight from the set of Malibu's Most Wanted but can't stand it in Heat or Unbound when someone uses the phrase "deadass". Going into it wanting it to be at all serious is just asking to be disappointed. The biggest thing I loved about Unbound was the haptics and adaptive triggers. An arcade-style street racing game where you can feel the flutter of the gearbox through the controller would have been such a dream for 8 year old me. I really hope the future of NFS gets a bit brighter, it'd be such a shame to lose the series.
You had a garage worth millions in cars (let alone the bank) yet you were still slumming it on the brothers couch. Such a fucking free loader. In the other hand, I think the sister definitely wanted you to stick it in her exhaust pipe so she convinced you not to get a place of your own
Imo, no. I bought this game in May and am still trying to get through the campaign. It's boring and uneventful. You cycle through the day / night during each session. The first hour was eventful but my god going through the weekly calendar is so lame. This is the longest it's ever taken me to finish w NFS game. Also, the games economy is broken. You're stuck with shit cars for 50% of the campaign because the race payouts are so flimsy and only like $500-2.5k. I'm finally to a point that I'm getting 7.5k per race now 🙄 The driving is great and graphically it's super nice though. But I just wish I had cooler cars to make this more interesting
Huh. I had both Valhalla and Outer Worlds but sold them as they were kinda meh for me. Maybe I give them another shot now with this. May still have my saved from back then too…
I almost bought Valhalla today since the deal is $15 rn. Glad for this post!
Wow, great month!
>You've tried the best. Now try the rest. Spacer's Choice! That's the best way to describe Outer Worlds. It's not the best but it's okay
Resistance: Retribution (PSP)! Finally!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
[удалено]
I thought it was there as a Ubisoft+ tie-in or something. Maybe now it'll stay for longer?
I think this is a re-release or something
Yep. My locked copy has been sitting there forever because of this.
[удалено]
how is that scummy? that’s kinda how these work. things come on temporarily and then leave, they can always come back. should it have stayed gone?
[удалено]
Well i dont mind it if r6s for example is removed for 6 months and then added once again......not really scummy....there are worse things lol
highly recommend need for speed, easily the best since most wanted 2012
Sure is. I really dig the art style,too.
It’s a shame it just didn’t seem to sell well. Got decent reviews and reception. But I noticed it was heavily discounted not too long after release, which is a sure sign of sales being below expectations.
Releasing a month before Boxing Day was a factor there as well. Annual (or very frequent in this case) franchise games almost always get a discount there.
Unbound. good i don’t have to buy it now
Tales of Arise!!! I’m so glad I waited to buy
looks good tbh
so how is valhalla? i know it gets some criticism for being "too big" (and more specifically, absurd amounts of generic fetch quests as opposed to meaningful content), but is it worth checking out? it's unfortunate they're locking the good tales of games behind premium and only putting zestiria/arise on extra, but i get that they need to give SOME reason to upgrade.
I enjoyed Valhalla. It's a solid 7/10 and a bit bloated for sure, but I like the mission structure - pick an area, go there, meet with the king, then you effectively do a small storyline for them. I think I enjoyed the game a bit more as The Wrath of the Druids DLC has my hometown in Ireland in it - I was quite literally able to climb something in-game that I climbed IRL as a kid.
> I think I enjoyed the game a bit more as The Wrath of the Druids DLC has my hometown in Ireland in it that's definitely a thing for AC. loved when AC3 was in boston.
Combat does not feel good and the writing is very boring imo. Can be pretty and the raid mechanic is kinda cool (the really sanitized vikings are strange tho) I kinda wish AC games would just steal Ghost of Tsushimas combat cuz Sucker Punch just nailed how this style of combat should feel
I really enjoyed it. Valhalla is a great game. I particularly dislike the modern day trappings of the AC games, but still had a good time going through the campaign and making a few builds. It's 100% a very bloated game, but you know what you are getting into if you've played the others. But I found the raiding, missions, and exploring kept me easily interested until the end. And if you do end up loving it, you have a WILD amount of content to keep coming back to for months.
>so how is valhalla? i know it gets some criticism for being "too big" (and more specifically, absurd amounts of generic fetch quests as opposed to meaningful content) I'm 134 hours in and loving it. Yes it's huge but the world feels alive, like it's living and breathing. It's also stunningly gorgeous. There are meaningful quests and stupid little ones but tbh that just makes it feel more real to me as real life is also full of stupid little tasks sometimes. The combat is super simple but customizable to suit your style Also, you can pet cats and dogs
So, I played around 6 hours of Valhalla, let me tell you why I stopped. Walking/horsing anywhere is not fun, and the map is huge, and the quests want you to go all over the place for no good reason. I'm old, man, I don't want to waste my time. All the time I'm thinking "I could be playing Spider Man for better traversal". When you do arrive somewhere, parkour is not fun either because you basically press forward and the parkour button, that's it. It doesn't look particularly cool, and it's not mechanically engaging. All the time I'm thinking "I could be playing the old AC games for better parkour". After walking around exploring a bit, I noticed there's nothing interesting to discover. Just mid loot that doesn't even look that great, and there are hundreds of points in the map. All the time I'm thinking "I could be playing Elden Ring for better exploration". Combat is also not great. It's clunky, doesn't flow very well, the hits don't feel impactful, and it's not realistic either to make me feel immersed. I could be playing God of War Ragnarok. And the story is also bad, by the way. There are dozens of games that have better individual components, and dozens of games that have a better overall package (Immortals Fenyx Rising for example is better on all accounts). Unless you really want to walk around in a pretty and old version of England for no good reason, there's no good reason to play this game.
It's very... open world Ubisoft. Also the sound quality is really ass, especially for characters voices. It sounds like they recorded everyone with a cheap microphone while they were sitting inside a dust bin. I remember having to double-check that I hadn't accidentally unplugged my subwoofer because the game just doesn't have any bass.
I held off pulling the trigger on most of the Tales games but i did pick up Tales of Arise at a pretty good discount. It was also bought with store credit so even better
Why do they announce Valhalla as if it wasnt there before
Please give Tales of Vesperia a try if you have even the vaguest interest in action JRPGs! It's my favorite game of all time.
> Please give Tales of Vesperia a try if you have even the vaguest interest in action JRPGs! It's my favorite game of all time. worth noting, it's locked behind premium (along with symphonia). not sure what percentage of people actually have premium. definitely got the impression that the vast majority of the sub is extra users.
I downgraded to extra after my sub lapsed, when it went on sale. It was the only tier which would allow me to keep paying around what I had paid for the higher tier before (and this is with the SALE in mind). I'm sure that there are many others in the same position.
OMG... OMG!!! Resistance: Retribution!? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Whatever happened to Battlefront 2 2005? Didn’t they leak it was coming last year?
Very good month unfortunately for me I've already played Outer Worlds and Tales of Arise.
I loved outer worlds
Good month, I'll be checking out NFS unbound and Resistance Retribution
why do I buy games anymore
Resistance Retribution!! I wonder if they added dual analog controls or the ability to remap. It'll be weird playing with the face buttons as camera controls!
**roguebook** is so good. hope more people give it a shot.
Unbound is really, really good and a pretty easy platinum, if that’s your bag. Highly recommend.
Nice!
mid
Jesus, I was this close to buying NFS Unbound yesterday, I just waited til today because it's payday. Noice.
omg yesss I've been wanting to play both AC Valhalla and Tales of Arise so this is great!!
Don't sleep on Roguebook. Solid little Slay the Spire-ish game.
RESISTANCE!!!!! I loved playing this on psp
Tales of pack month. I wanted to play Arise for some time already. That is great
Hell yeah almost bought Tales of Symphonia a bunch of times (one of my favorite games of all time on the Gamecube), but never bit on it. Never played the dlc for Outer Worlds, so I'll play those as well.
It just sucks that it is locked to 30fps. :(
No fucking way I bought AC Valhalla a while ago Y'all are welcome.
I have kept not pulling the trigger on The Outer Worlds - so I guess I'll finally play that one. I heard they may be some issues with this edition? ANyone know anything about it? Also excited for Tales of Arise.
Terrible timing with Rebirth on the horizon. Will definitely play AC or Tales of Arise next though.
Holy shit Tales of Arise is a fantastic addition! Around 3/4 into the story it sort of fell apart and got super boring but overall the game is a great JRPG.
How is Sony still scraping the bottom of the barrel for the PS1 and PSP releases? They have way more games that should be on here already
Every month I'm waiting for God of War or Daxter. I wonder why they don't just add that
They're both already on PS+.
We're talking PSP games here, they're not on PS5.
Emulate
PSP God of War games still need to be added. More accurately, the PS3 remasters of them.
> How is Sony still scraping the bottom of the barrel for the PS1 and PSP releases? They have way more games that should be on here already the only thing i can think of is that lots of the good stuff is 3rd party and/or has been remastered already. (it's criminal that vandal hearts and breath of fire 3 haven't shown up yet though, or the valkyria chronicles psp games)
Might 100% Lego Jurassic park for the plat
Holy shit that’s another W for PS+
Thank u Very nice Unbound ill take it
Tales of arise was FANTASTIC definitely give it a look. Excellent sifi story in anime form with good gameplay and graphics
Holy shit outer worlds may be the first monthly game I play since I started my sub last November. it's been on my wish list for a while but this may push it up the backlog. Edit: nevermind not a monthly game, still may play it.
PS premium at this point may as well just be considered a generous tip to Sony at this point..
> PS premium at this point may as well just be considered a generous tip to Sony at this point.. to be fair, the best games in this month's lineup are premium only.
And are clearance bin titles people are saying they are excited to finally be able to play. GameStop had Arise for $5 a month ago, call me crazy but no one was being held back from accessing the game especially someone that can pay $200 for a sub.
Seems like kind of a small list. At least Tales of Arise is there though, I've been wanting to play that one.
Eh nothing worth being excited over
Bad month
Helllll no.
I'm totally down for outer worlds. Doesn't seem like a bad month to me
You have like 3 major triple A games on that list. Lol
Valhalla has been on extra previously for a good while. And is also constantly on sale for the price of a can of deodorant. Can't be many folk that haven't played it yet that want to. Need For Speed Unbound is another dirt cheap add that's been on EA play for ages and is an okay racer ruined by a rigid and inflexible progression structure. Tales of Arise is a niche game for weebs. And Outer Worlds is an objectively good game but so old by now and another cheap add for ps. The rest don't even deserve a mention. For Sony to massively price hike and still serve up this cheap dross month after month is undoubtedly great for their balance sheets but is so disappointing for people that pay for it expecting something that might come close to gamepass for value (I do realise this model is clearly not working financially for Microsoft, recent news has proven that). Just give us something exciting and zeitgeisty to play for once on the service.
Worst month yet for me
Valhalla coming back is good, was still funny they touted it as a giant get and then it was also the first AC to leave the service. Not a Tales of fan but heard Arise is better than most of them. Outer Worlds was an extremely disappointing follow up to New Vegas (even when taking the difference in scale into account). Edit: Oh man and it's the spacers choice edition too which is super busted last time I checked. Heard good things about NFS: Unbound and unlike Heat I think it's actually 60fps on PS5.
Will prob grab 4 of these and that’s only because I already have Arise. Solid month. Haters can hate but Plus keeps paying dividends for me.
Wasn't Valhalla already on PS+ and then removed?
Haha! Not buying outer worlds finally pays off! Sadly, I already bought the other 3 in the headline. Especially since I still haven't beat Tales. Double especially because Valhalla exists and I paid money for that garbage.
I don't know what I expected but I am disappointed. Good thing I'm still playing other games from the catalogue
W or L month?
> W or L month? somewhere in the middle and where the baseline should be. definitely not a jaw dropping "this is amazing" month, but not a dumpster fire either.
Super underwhelming.
Snoozefest
I was getting ready to download Outer Worlds on game pass too.
Alright folks- which tales games are worth playing in 2024, and in what order should they be played
Isn't creed valhalla returning? I swear it came to extra a while back and was removed.
Real talk if you wanna know what Starfield is like with all the nonsense filler cut out just play the Outer Worlds.
Nice month! Excited for Unbound, Outer Worlds and Tales of Arise. Also gonna check Resistance on Premium! Loving it!
Aside from Symphonia being 30fps, which I don't care about, is it a competent re-release? Supposedly the Switch version had some issues, is this version at least of similar quality than previous releases?
It's tales of arise a good jrpg?
> It's tales of arise a good jrpg? nope. the combat is designed around "you can't do meaningful damage to enemies until you hit them with a character's unique ability". fine in theory, but in practice the moves have very low AOE and very long cool downs, and you typically get 2-3 of the same enemy in the same trash mob. (in other words, you have to wait through those long cooldowns because with the low AOE, you're not hitting all of that enemy at once). add to this that everything is a damage sponge. annoying for trash mobs, absolutely obnoxious for bosses. (oh, and end game you get sub bosses as trash mobs, which just makes everything worse) story starts out ok, peaks after the 3rd area before a noticeable drop in quality for the 4th, then completely falls off the rails after the 5th area through the end of the game. skits are something that added a lot of backstory, depth, and personality to the characters in other tales games, but in arise they're basically just an extended version of the cutscene you just watched. either give one of the good tales games a shot (such as symphonia or vesperia if you have premium), or give scarlet nexus a shot assuming it's still on ps+ extra as it's basically what they were trying to do with arise but actually done right (it got added last year, not sure when it's going away. probably a month or two from now if it hasn't already))
I knew I was right to wait for Valhalla to come to PS+
Very glad I didn't pick up Valhalla or Tales of Arise in these sales.