Yeah, I'm playing Spider-Man Remastered on PS5, and I'm liking it more than I originally did when I tried it in 2018. It's solid for what it is, but every time a game tries to do these cinematic details or have a bunch of animations for combat in a "AAA" high budget sort of way, even a game as high quality as Spider-Man just does cure that itch for detail like Naughty Dog does.

Like when Peter is walking through the FEST community center and chatting up the locals or staff, I can't help but think, "yeah... Naughty Dog would've done this better"

@el-shmiablo said in Your Top 5 Favorite Games... That You Still Have Installed:

@dipset Did he upload his save to the cloud and then download it to the system?

Good call, we didn't try that. Just to confirm, if I go onto his account and download his cloud save of RE5, will that overwrite my own save that's on my system? I don't have any experience futzing with save files on PS4/PS5.

@dmcmaster

I can definitely agree that the series can be split up into smaller trilogies or thematic trilogies as you put it, but without digging into Patrice's brain—I am fairly certain he was going for something between a psychological "mindfuck" piece of fiction mixed with a historical thriller.

Then the feedback from Assassin's Creed came in and Patrice kinda split the difference between the modern day thriller plot, and the Renaissance storyline with a more typical open world game design. The action focus in AC2 is prevalent as opposed to the ancient-espionage vision that AC1 had. Those changes were especially noticeable in a post-Arkham world, so they needed to up the pace and smooth out the combat.

All this to say, I think the "vision" of the series was one thing (thriller, mindfuck, espionage, stealth), but Ubisoft and Patrice switched gears really quickly into something that works better as an open world video game.

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So I guess the question on Game Thrasher was: Has Assassins Creed Betrayed its Roots?

I guess I am arguing Ubisoft abandoned it's roots waaaaaaay before AC Origins. I don't think they "betrayed" it, but by having all of these smaller trilogies they definitely don't make this series trademarks easily identifiable other than climbing towers and haystacks.

I appreciate the debate about Assassin's Creed. I definitely think there is a Ship of Theseus thought experiment to be had with that series and I'm in the camp that it isn't the same boat as it originally was.

I definitely think so much of what was intended to be in the original trilogy was diluted and lost very quickly. I'd even argue Assassin's Creed 2 started to lose the focus and I loved that game. Mainly, I'd argue that this was supposed to be a historical thriller fiction with stealth assassinations as the climax. Like Hitman in Jerusalem. I can't really cite any of this without doing some pretty extensive research but I did watch a lot of pre-release Assassin's Creed interviews as read about AC in magazines back in 2006-2007, and I'm pretty confident when I say the more action focused AC2 was a result of following player and critic feedback to make a better game, but in terms of following that auteur "vision" for a historical thriller; I think that vision is LONG LOST.

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Maybe if there is time, you can submit Game Thrashers for "Community Showcase" this month. I think the Assassin's Creed debate would be a good piece to share. I bet Jonsey would have an opinion to share if he has time.

@el-shmiablo

Speaking of RE5, I've been playing it co-op with my friend and we haven't played in 2 weeks only to return to find out that the network isn't working anymore. People online are saying the same thing over the past few days, but Capcom isn't showing any network problems.

PlayStation Server Status is showing "Gaming and Social" issues: https://status.playstation.com/

But this description is so vague, why would it be specific to RE5?

Does anybody know who I should harass to get to the bottom of this so we can finish our playthrough? He can just come over to my house, but he won't have any of his guns our upgrades saved cause the co-op system is kinda jank like that. We tried it the other day. He even tried signing in to his PSN at my house but it still doesn't save his weapons or upgrades. So annoying.

I guess harass PlayStation on Twitter?

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Good question @bam541 but I just installed specific games to my PS5 so I have very limited options here.

1. Demon's Souls (PS5)
2. GT Sport
3. COD4 Remastered
4. Astro Bot's Playroom
5. Resident Evil 5 (still haven't finished)

The hype in my mind is usually tempered by how divergent from Souls games the leaked footage looks. Project Beast was like 2-3 seconds of a guy holding a gun while walking through a boss gate and our collective minds went: SOULS WITH GUNS HOLY SHIT!!!!

@bam541

Something wonderful about 3 seconds of leaked footage from From Software games that gets my hype levels through the roof. I remember that 2 seconds of "Project Beast" that was being shared on Twitter in like 2014; that shit got me way more hype than any official release would've.

Screwed for my Fantasy Critic though...

@el-shmiablo

For sure and I watched some Halo 5 campaign videos and it looks like a complete dumpster fire. I just mean the MP has a lot of solid elements so I know they are capable of doing Halo justice but I have yet to see anything the artistically looks like something I can physically stare at for more than 10 minutes.

Those games just look so blah so I’m happy Infinite already looks better.

Honestly, art direction was a tip top concern of mine. Probably higher up than some gameplay things. Halo 4 and 5's art direction was just "gloss" and "make it shiny" and it had virtually no identity outside of the already iconic red and blue UNSC suit of armour. I've only played a limited amount of Halo 5 but it did have some fun gameplay elements and the game wasn't complete shit, so I have faith somebody there knows what they are doing gameplay wise.

That's why art and aesthetic is really important to me. I couldn't stomach another glossy Halo game that has less in common with what made the series great and more in common with COD Black Ops.

Oh man those screen shots already look waaaaay better than the video from last year. My main takeaway is that I don’t see any of that weird metal bullshit in the backdrops. Those blocky metal structures in the mountains or whatever looked so weird.

I have hope still. Looking good.