Full playthrough of Mass Effect Legendary Edition. My goodness, time has been good to this game. Even now, a full playthrough of the trilogy reveals how ahead of its time it was. I was not someone who was particularly bothered by the ME3 ending to begin with, particularly when you consider that literally everything in ME3 is payoff resulting from your choices in 1 and 2, but now in 2022, I am particularly convinced that this game has weathered the storm. This was my first time playing the citadel DLC as well which really is the sendoff that I think everyone had been hoping for. Crazy to think how it was post-release DLC that probably only a fraction of players experienced. The writing, music, characters across all three games was groundbreaking, even for Bioware's formally lofty standards. It makes me sad to think that we are not likely to get a Bioware experience like this ever again. Anyway, I cannot recommend a full playthrough of Legendary edition enough, for both first time players or old veterans.

@damiendada I was content with my PS4 pro until recently when Horizon came out and clearly looked superior on PS5. I think its perfectly reasonable to stick with PS4 for now if you just cant find a PS5 but sometime in the next year, I think the gap is going to widen. Whenever God of War comes out, I think the visual fidelity, detail and performance are going to start actually result in better response time, gameplay etc. I was playing Elden Ring on PS4 Pro until I landed the PS5 and I was loving it...but once I played on PS5 the framerate is so superior that I dont think I could go back in retrospect. But again, theres so much to play on PS4 still that its not a tragedy not to have one...yet.

@bam541 @DIPSET wow, I had not heard about those issues. Thanks so much for enlightening me in because, yes, I am playing Elden Ring and, yes I have been using rest mode.

Went to buy Returnal the other day and had my suckerpunch to the face when I saw the next-gen $69 price tag. Decided to wait on it until I clear the backlog of Elden Ring and Horizon, at the minimum.

@bam541 I felt like a kid in a candy shop but after the obligatory few hours marveling at the improved frame rate on Elden Ring, the first PS5 exclusive thing I did was finally download the Yuffie episode for FF7R Intergrade which was, for unclear reasons, not available on PS4. I have Horizon installed and waiting for me to move on from Elden Ring, which may be some time coming...

Excuse my outburst, I just had to share.

@Sentinel-Beach Thanks for the explanation! I also have Psychonauts 2 in progress and that may be the next game I care enough about to go for. But with so many collectables and so little time, not to mention so much else on my backlog, it may not happen. I am playing through Life is Strange True Colors and I imagine that one will be nigh-automatic, as these games tend to be. I look forward to following your future endeavors!

@Sentinel-Beach I have to say, I am absolutely fascinated by you lol. I consider myself a pretty avid gamer but have maybe 8 platinums to my name. I generally only go for platinums in games I deeply love or care about. For a while now I have just been impressed with the effort you put in! And the time!

My take is precisely the opposite. I was enamored with DS's meditative gameplay and kept playing well beyond platinuming the game. I found those lonely treks up snowy peaks overburdened with cargo to be one of the most meaningful and novel gameplay experiences I have ever had. I think DS is one of my favorite games of the last decade, maybe more, but I could not stand the presentation outside of gameplay. Kojima's inclination towards frequent cinematics overflowing with nonsensical exposition conveyed by actors who clearly had no idea what they were talking about just made my teeth grind. My jaw was agape in the final sequence on the beach where waves and waves of middle school caliber plot is just thrown at you at the 11th hour. At no point does this game's presentation show rather than tell. Kojima is clearly a genius but he is badly in need of an editor who tells him that you dont need 20 pages of dialogue to convey something that can be said in a paragraph. The final acts of DS were written like Hideo Kojima got bitten by a radioactive Hideo Kojima and everything I felt for the characters at that point was just numb. Once the game ended and I could return to the world, interrupted only by the occasional email from a grateful porter, I was so much more engaged.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the game here. I would also follow Kojima to the end of the earth just to play one more game from him. I just really think he needs to reign himself in because his directorial largess often gets in the way of his incredibly novel games.

Animal Crossing?

Jk. Maybe Destroy All Humans?

Speaking of Lords of Shadow, I effin' love Lords of Shadow. DIdn't hate the sequel either, although I seem to be in the minority on that one.