Recently Played #2

It’s been about a week and a half since I got my PS5. I’ve spent the majority of that time playing some of the next gen games that released along with it. I haven’t invested as much time into the PS5 as I would have wanted. The little time I have spent with it has been great though. I purchased four games for it at launch and have played two so far.

Astros Playroom

Astros was the game that came bundled with the PS5. Leading up the PS5 release Astros started to get a lot of traction as a must play game. Naturally as soon as I got the console hooked up I launched Astros Playroom. The game itself is not much to write home about. It’s a pretty basic and generic platformer. That being said the game is phenomenal. Not only does it serve as a perfect tech demo for the dual sense controller, it also has a lot of charm. The game is filled with Playstation easter eggs and history. It was very reminiscent of a Nintendo game. You could tell the developers really wanted to pay homage to the history of all Playstation console history. The DualSense controller is probably the most “next gen” thing about the PS5. It really needs to be felt and used to understand it. Astros Playroom is the best game to show it off. It took me about 6-7 hours to beat the game and get the platinum. It is definitely a short game but it was free and was really cute. Definitely a great appetizer for your brand new console.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Miles Morales was one of the four games I pre ordered for the PS5. I knew it would be the first game I would play when I got my console. I already knew it wasn’t a full game but more of a 1.5 version of Spider-Man from the PS4. I opted to buy the standalone Miles Morales game since I didn’t feel like Spider-Man Remastered was worth replaying. Miles Morales at 60fps on my couch was so satisfying. About 30 minutes in I tried to switch between “fidelity mode” and “performance mode”. I was curious how much better the game would look at 4k 30fps. The only thing I was able to notice was better lighting. Then swapping to 1080p 60fps I knew that was the way to go. I was willing to sacrifice some nice lighting for an extremely smooth frame rate. I was not able to notice much of a graphical difference and the game ran perfectly. Miles Morales itself was just an extension of Spider-Man. The map of New York City was the same. You fight a few new enemy types but the entirety of the game remains the same. Aside from a new story your are not really missing out on much. The game play gets repetitive real fast. For me personally, the story was very boring. I like Miles Morales as Spider-Man but the whole time the story just felt uninspired. Again, I wanted to get the platinum trophy and for that I had to do a New Game+ run. Luckily the main story can be beat in about three hours or so. All in all it was a great game to highlight a lot of the Playstation 5’s strengths. The game is totally worth it if you can get it for maybe $20-$30 but the $50 price tag for a partial sequel does not feel worthwhile.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure

I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting from Sackboy. I vaguely knew it was a platformer but that was about it. I played Little Big Planet 1 or 2 back in the day but I never really got into the series. Sackboy A Big Adventure is actually a great platformer. The game itself looks amazing. I believe it is running at 4k but I might be wrong. You have to collect orbs in each level to unlock the next level. There’s a boss you fight at the end of each world from what I understand. I’ve played maybe 3 hours of it and only cleared the first world of five. Each stage has lots of collectibles and outfits you can find to personalize Sackboys appearance. One of the few issues I have with the game is the fixed camera. There are sections where you try and jump over an enemy and you get hit by them. Since you can’t swing the camera around you just assume you are clear of any obstacles. My other problem is how you die in two hits. This again ties into the camera being fixed. There are times when I think I am clear to jump and get hit by an enemy and die. It is a little weird that a cute platformer would have such a penalty for playing. Aside from those things I am enjoying the game. I am nowhere near done and I look forward to chipping away at this cute game for weeks to come.

Other

I also started playing Assassins Creed Valhalla. But I mean barely started playing it. I put maybe less than an hour into it. I definitely want to give it a shot and really commit to it but I was just not in the mood for that type of game. I will get to it eventually along with Demon’s Soul.