Highlights of the PS4/Xbone

As mentioned elsewhere I've found this current console generation pretty lackluster, but maybe I've just not been paying attention. So tell me what have been your high points of the last few years?

Nothing too left-field from me, but, in no particular order:

• Sea of Thieves;
• Horizon Zero Dawn;
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy;
• Untitled Goose Game;
• The Witcher III;
• Titanfall 2;
• Hitman.

I’ve enjoyed a lot, but a lot of it has been stuff that wasn’t much of a step forward from what was on the PS3.

Some of my highlights from the generation (that haven’t already been mentioned):

Bloodborne
God of War
Tetris Effect
Celeste
Dead Cells
Slay the Spire
Darkest Dungeon
DOOM 2016
Dishonored 2

…and then a bunch of stuff that was decent enough but I probably wouldn’t put on the list, because it doesn’t feel worthy of being a standard-bearer, or that I just haven’t played enough.

The Witcher 3
Final Fantasy XIV
All the Fighting Games
Devil May Cry V

Good topic. Off the top of my head I’d go for:

Yakuza Zero
Final Fantasy XIV
Hitman 2
Bloodborne
Slay the Spire
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Beat Saber

Another for FFXIV here,
Also Yakuza 0
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Sayonara Wild Hearts
Monster Hunter World
Persona 5

I thought of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (and Firewatch) after I replied. Both games I think about regularly (to be fair, so are all the games I listed).

I nearly put Hitman 2 down, but for all the technical improvements, I think the levels in the first one are better.

Ah yeah, Monster Hunter World should have been in my list too - thanks Wev.

Also probably Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, but most people know how they feel about that series by now.

I'd say rather than games I'd highlight themes.

The rise of the Battle Royale shooter: Fortnite, Apex legends, PUBG, COD Warfare. I don't like them all, but I do adore Apex Legends and I don't think I could discount the importance of Fortnite and how it has dominated the industry. I'd say it's your genere defining title - from user generated content, streaming integration, loot box model and cultural significance.

The appearance of good games in VR: Astrobot, Tetris Effect, Beat Saber etc. PSVR in particular is technically stunning, considering it's still not been really generationally eclipsed yet by the next phase of VR devices.

Although we had Morrowind on Xbox, and Oblivion/Skyrim on 360, there's been at least a semi-generational step in open world stuff like Witcher 3 or Death Stranding in terms of fidelity. Though Witcher 3 on the Switch is a worrying sign that maybe we've not quite had the generational leap we thought we'd had.

Multiplayer diversification: I think we've reached a stage where the glory days of Xbox and early 360 are long gone. Your friends probably are no longer playing what you're playing online unless you've made a special effort to arrange something. Multiplayer is now entirely niche based. Like shooters? What flavour of shooter? This generation offers a bewildering choice. It's generationally defining (and probably reflective of society) that you don't need to consume anything that's shit if you don't want to.

I think this all ties in with the actual best "game" this generation - which is streaming culture and the ubiquity of videogames as entertainment - whether consuming them yourselves or watching someone else play them in a semi-interactive environment.

Small thing but I've really really enjoyed the 'Share' function of the PS4.

If we’re talking themes, I’d add the increasing desire on the part of particular games to be the only thing you play. We’ve always had this a bit with MMOs but increasingly you’ve got games like Destiny and other stuff with daily, weekly challenges and ever-evolving environments that really don’t want you to ever play anything else. I do sometimes wonder how many gamers simply play one game exclusively. I suspect more than most people think.

I've quite liked that aspect of this generation, there's less pressure to hoover everything up

What is fascinating is how what we might've considered a "patch" is now marketed as a "Season" with associated marketing blitz, battle pass and streamer-led promotion. Apex's Season 5 is out on Tuesday and ultimately it's some gameplay tweaks, a new map and a new character - but the fanfare is astonishing (and it clearly works as my middle-child who plays Apex is hyped to the max).

One other thing I wanted to highlight as a major thing this gen is contextual ping. First, again, developed in Apex but now nearly ubiquitous. We were playing Borderlands 2 the other night and the lack of it was infuriating. There used to be the old anecdote that Japanese gamers hated to chat online with strangers (so Monster Hunter and other titles had means of comms in them to avoid it) but with the fractured gaming environment and the fact that quite often younger players don't want to play open mike (as they're chatting to their mates on Discord playing other games, or just consuming other media at the same time) I think how far we've come in these intelligent, language independent, comms systems is pretty impressive.

I do sometimes wonder how many gamers simply play one game exclusively. I suspect more than most people think.

There are two people on my friends list who seem to be always online, and always playing the same game - one on Destiny 2, the other in one of the Calls of Duty.

If we’re talking themes, I’d add the increasing desire on the part of particular games to be the only thing you play. We’ve always had this a bit with MMOs but increasingly you’ve got games like Destiny and other stuff with daily, weekly challenges and ever-evolving environments that really don’t want you to ever play anything else. I do sometimes wonder how many gamers simply play one game exclusively. I suspect more than most people think.

FFXIV wise I simply realised it was worth more of my time than other games.

Literally almost 50% of the time you were awake for 3 years in fact.

There's an MMO out there in future for all of us, get ready!

My MMO is firmly in my past, thank you very much. :P

Destiny 3? ;)

One other thing I wanted to highlight as a major thing this gen is contextual ping.

What is this? Not heard the term before but then I rarely play online so I'm probably just betraying my age.

In Apex it has a system where you can basically communicate things of interest to your team mates. It's entirely contextual, so if you "ping" a particular item it will tell your team mates it's there (so a type of weapon upgrade or shield or whatever…). It can be used to ping locations, to tell your team to go a particular place, or warn of areas to avoid. It can ping enemies you've spotted, tell teammates which bits of equipment you're looking for, tell them you're healing etc. it totally negates the need for in game comms, without removing the benefits of tight teamworking in coop shooters. It becomes so fluid and natural, living without it in games becomes a bit of a nightmare. Even with full voice comms it vastly improves the quality of information that can flow between team mates.

It was no surprise that Fortnite ripped it off almost immediately, and now it's totally ubiquitous in most multiplayer shooters.

I remember when people really thought Apex had killed Fortnite.

That does sound good. I really can’t be bothered with voice comms at all these days, and it sounds like I’m not alone. I remember back in the early days of Xbox Live (pre parties) when joining a room full of chattering randoms was all part of the experience.

I remember when people really thought Apex had killed Fortnite.

Fortnite has proved itself to be so agile I don't think anything can take it down in the near term. Apex's best features were just lifted by Fortnite and repurposed within weeks. Fortnite always has the advantage as well that its cartoony graphics push it harder in the tweenagers market.

Apex is by far the better game though. Which you'd expect as a Respawn title.

Destiny 3? ;)

I was a big WoW player back in the day, but ever since I left Blizzard, nothing's really had much of a draw for me. I played Destiny as an occasionally-multiplayer campaign, and didn't really stick around for endgame in the original of the sequel.

First time I saw something like that ping was in Portal 2, and it was great there.

Thanks everyone for replying to my OP. I haven't had time to respond but I'm enjoying reading. So far I'm thinking that there aren't that many great games for a generation, and half of those would have been just as good on the previous generation. But, we probably said the same five years ago looking at the 360 and PS3.

I think that's true, really. I've enjoyed a few of the games listed above, but I'd be hard-pressed to argue that any of them weren't possible on the last generation. OK, so maybe the VR stuff is dependant on current-gen hardware or better, but a lot of this generation's key titles have been like older stuff but shinier / faster / etc.

That being said… isn't that all we ever wanted anyway, going way back to the jump from, say, Commodore 64 to Amiga? Sure, innovation us always nice, but we're always going to be happy our favourite franchise moved onto the new shiny hardware.

Oh, also! No Overwatch as a standout of this generation? Probably the best shooter of this generation, for me. The only reason I stopped playing it is because trying to juggle gaming sessions and baby raising means that I now have to play stuff that I can just pause and go back to after a few hours if need be.

Overwatch is great, but that form of shooter (3D MOBA?) has sort of been squeezed out by actual MOBAs on one side and Battle Royales on the other. The pay-to-play barrier has stunted it a bit too - possibly why it still sits fairly high in the stream viewing charts, but not so much in the actual people playing it charts any more.

The core strength of Overwatch apart from the gameplay (no leaderboards, just play of the game) I think is something we could see a lot more of. Fortnite's core experience was brutal so to keep people playing they added a myriad of other less dispiriting modes. Overwatch was maybe the first major title that offered a competitive environment where the only thing that really mattered was if your team won (and having fun?), not the statistical breakdown of your contribution to it?

They did backtrack on that last point to some extent though as you'll be given a page of who did what: damage dealt, health recovered etc and then everyone can vote on who they thought was the best/themselves

They did backtrack on that last point to some extent though as you'll be given a page of who did what: damage dealt, health recovered etc and then everyone can vote on who they thought was the best/themselves

That's a shame, been a while since I played it :(

I thought it was incredibly refreshing that it was all about fun and playing your part, not a screen of stats.

I miss Overwatch, my favourite online shooter type game this gen as well.

I think the thing I've enjoyed most is the availability of indies on console. With the PS3 it felt like you either waited ages or the game didn't appear and you needed a flatmate with a 360 (e.g. Torchlight). Or… It was confined to the PC. The 360 also got indies waaaaay earlier. This generation has been great for everything coming at the same time (pretty much). Not a massive thing but having things like Invisible Inc., Darkest Dungeon etc. available has been my highlight. I felt like, in the last generation, that these things seemed like they should be possible on the console but just weren't coming.

Saying that, if you look at Shadow of Mordor which released on the current gen and the PS3/360; those versions got massively slated because they couldn't handle the nemesis system. So… to say that a lot of what we've seen this gen could have been done last gen might seem legitimate I'd guess that developers were using processing power in more interesting ways than was possible on the PS3/360. The proliferation of remasters & remakes along with… Would you call it 'versions' of games for new platforms (thinking GTA 5 which clearly has much improved performance)? The low cost of these titles just makes all of those last gen games easier to access and play which isn't a bad thing.

I mean, probably the best thing about this gen is the lack of load times – the suspend feature & not having to sit through booting up a game again is a big plus.

It's not just indies (though that's been great) - it's that pretty much every genre you can think of now comes to console by default. Turn-based strategy fans get a full version of Civ 6. City-builders can play Surviving Mars or Cities Skylines. Even the Infinity Engine games like Pillars of Eternity are on the consoles, and play really well.

There aren't that many noteworthy PC exclusives any more, and that's been a definite change. I mean you'll still get the best performance on PC and lots of other options but if all you want to do is play all the games, you can do that on console perfectly well.

you'll still get the best performance on PC

If you're willing to pay for it. And do the research, which can be utterly fucking bewildering, given the alphabet spaghetti of component names and the huge differences in price with apparently minimal impact on performance (and vice versa). And don't get me started on the fucking cases, which mostly look like someone turned a cyberpunk anime nightclub inside out and decorated it with alien sex toys.

(I just bought a new PC; I haven't felt that stupid and out of my depth with technology since I bought the last one.)

I think I need to add Marvel's Spider-Man to this list. It really is Amazing1 (Ha!)

At the point of the game where I'm at (this game's version of the Sinister Six has broken out of The Raft, map is now littered with icons), I don't see how Insomniac could have improved on this in any way.

Unless the third act is a complete disaster, you're all in for a treat next month. If the PS+ games rumour is true, that is.

I really liked it, all the way to the finish line, and the ending was great, too. It's a great version of the character.

I didn't get along with it.

None of the side missions were any fun; I ended up ignoring them all. And the combat started off fun, but got overwhelming fast. Considering I was a superhero, I felt so weak. There were so many mechanics to remember, so many enemy types, that I could never get a good flow going.

But the biggest misstep for me was the stealth. For some reason, it gives you the tools to take down every enemy in stealth, but if you succeed you then have to face another three waves of enemies in full combat mode.

Yeah I’m with MPH. I’m normally a big fan of open-world iconathons but Spider-Man left me a little cold. Repetitive side-missions and over-complicated combat meant I eventually just put it aside and didn’t come back to it. And those bloody MJ sections are terrible. Lovely-looking game though.

I wasn't a fan of the combat initially, but that was because I was trying to fight like I was playing one of the Batman / Arkham games. Then I realised that, actually, Spider-Man is quite different to Batman and just really leaned into that. With Batman, you have the tools you need to stand in the middle of a mass of goons and just meet them head on; with Spider-Man, you need to be moving quickly, using his agility and mostly airborne. The range of moves, and the ability to combo isn't something you have to lend Alastor-levels of focus to. (I'll never get as much out of a Devil May Cry or Bayonetta game as Alastor does, for example.) With Spider-Man, the ease with which you can get airborne, stay airborne, and eventually pull other guys up to you to get a pasting just feels right. It wasn't instant, but it was worth the little adjustment I had to make.

Side missions haven't felt samey to me yet, but as previously noted I've only just got to the stage where Manhattan has become infested with icons. Perhaps it's helped that I have been really easily distracted by in-game activity? Like, I might make a backpack my next target, but get distracted by crimes on the way then find myself in another district altogether. I can then swing back to my original destination (always a joy!), or just choose something else that's nearby. I'm playing it more chaotically then I did when playing the last open-world game I rinsed. I suspect that the game is designed to encourage that, as opposed to just ticking off a list of stuff to do.

Also, never once had a problem with stealth-based stuff. Then again, I guess I'm not bothered if a base moves from stealthily taking out snipers to a full-on brawl. It's been years since I read the comics, but I guess that I still have a soft spot for Spidey, and while I do remember reading Spectacular Spider-Man, I don't remember Stealthy Spider-Man and I'm really happy with the spectacular stuff that this game provides.

I’d echo most of the positive statements above, and agree entirely on the combat improving once you realise you’re not playing an Arkham game, and you shouldn’t be trying to play like you are.

(I think I still prefer the Arkham games, incidentally. I’m going to start going through them again at some point, I think.)

I do still think that Spidey is a little underpowered (nothing without superpowers should be taking multiple hits from Spider-Man and not falling over), and that can be a little distracting, but you have to allow for the fact they had to make the game challenging,, I suppose.