ShreddieMercury

You guys rule, thanks so much. This is super helpful. I'm thinking about getting the Philips SHP9500S, but also wondering if there's a next tier up that I should go? I have a bit of money saved for this so I can go a bit more expensive, but if these are more than adequate I'll just go with that. I would also ideally use them for music, since I need to replace my old Sennheisers that I use for recording. Also, my TV does have a 3.5mm audio out, so I can probably just wire into that, but is that ideal or should I still get the Fosi Audio Box to improve the quality of the sound? I've never had any sort of real audio setup for games, sorry for all of the questions. @Bloodporne I didn't know you were into making music! What kind of stuff do/did you like to record?

I appreciate all of these suggestions. How do you route the sound? Right now I just use the controller, but in most games the audio sounds really compressed coming out of the dualshock. Should I get a converter so I can plug directly into the console?

I was thinking about that too. I'll likely try to get a PS5 at launch so maybe it's worth waiting.

I've been considering getting some nicer headphones for gaming and was curious what people here like to use. I would primarily use them with my PS4, so I was looking into the Sony Gold or Platinum headphones, but it would also be nice to be able to use them for general listening on other devices as well. Right now I use some Bose headphones connected to the controller's 3.5mm jack, and I know that's sub-optimal. What do you all recommend?

I don't think this is a spoiler per se, but I just go to: ...and I'm loving this game. I'm going slowly and soaking up all of the atmosphere that the game has to offer. It's astounding how much is suggested by the game's environmental design. Each time you walk into a new area, it feels like you can piece together what happened there. It's unlike any game I've played in this regard, except perhaps the first one. After being somewhat skeptical of The Last of Us but really warming to it upon replay, I'm completely blown away by the huge swings that this game is taking and how it's responding to the first game's story. I'm struggling to think of another sequel that feels this essential. I'm guessing that I've played about 15 or so hours so far but I can't be sure. Despite the oppressive atmosphere and dark tone, I'm already excited to replay the game.

Xbox Live Gold only lets you keep the 360 games, right? I know they used to let you keep the XB1 and 360 games, but I believe the XB1 games are now tied to your Live subscription.

Part II is so amazing that it makes me want to go back and play through Part I again, which I just did last week. I also loved playing The Last of Us and am incredibly invested in the story despite complaining about how I hated it for years. So I'm with you, and I don't know what's happening to me.

This is interesting. I might just be bad at games, but I keep finding myself unable to completely stealth areas, and things tend to break out into a brawl or a firefight more often than not. I'm playing on Hard and although it seems like I'm getting too many upgrades too early, I've had to survive really dynamic encounters that do not play out anything like the first game, where I felt like the enemy paths were more rigid and stealth was easier. While I've seen some AI missteps, my impression is that things are playing out more randomly and forcing me to use items that I otherwise would avoid. I wonder how Survivor changes this - I look forward to replaying at some point to see how much harder it is. Great point about the audio in your post too, it's brilliant. I love that you have the ability to change how dynamic it is. Playing with headphones, you can tell how much work went into it.

Yes, this seems to be the most common complaint about the game, and it definitely does get better pretty soon. The game should stop tutorializing pretty quickly based on where you are, so stick with it. Once you get to the first "dungeon", you've pretty much cleared the long intro part of the game. While it never really gets hard, the items and brush techniques that you unlock keep the combat fun throughout the length of the game imo. The levels and environments are also all pretty clever and interesting, so it's rewarding to push through the early tedium. Issun remains pretty annoying, but he stops bothering you incessantly once you are past the first couple sections of the game. I also think that despite its length, Okami is a game that gets better and better the further you get. There is some padding and some tedious stuff in there, but overall each act of the game is better than the last.

The Polygon one is a great example, because what they're failing to recognize is that humanity IS that bad in the world of this fictional game. It's a bizarre reading of the story that tries to transpose its themes onto what's currently happening in our world. The parallels are certainly alarming, but criticizing fiction for not representing reality is bonkers. Unless the game ends with text on the screen saying "only through the elimination of violence can we achieve world peace" (like in Miami Connection), I won't believe that it's trying to "say something" about humanity.

Great points, and I think you're getting to the heart of why "fandom" is such a toxic force - there is an entitlement that stories need to be "fan-driven" and meet the expectations of the audience, rather than adhere to the vision of the artist/creator. If I don't like something, it's not because I didn't get what I want. I want to consume things that artists want to make, not what they think their audience wants. However, as you point out, I realize that we are the in the minority in this regard. You're also correct about the critical reception, but the negative reviews I've read (notably Vice, Kotaku, Polygon) have been pretty scathing, without recognizing any of the game's achievements. Likewise, some of the positive reception is exaggerated to such a degree that it's difficult to take most of it seriously. If something is excellent, it's either a "masterpiece" or my personal least favorite, "masterclass". It just seems to have devolved into some sort of side-taking that makes no sense to me.

Okami is incredible, and it has one of my all-time favorite soundtracks. Enjoy! I can thank @Brick for my copy. Thanks again!!

The absolutely insane outrage over this game on all sides really just highlights how far video games still have to go, and how meaningless modern games (and to an extent film) criticism is. The internet, and the way that we consume media in particular seems to have rewired our brains to the point that people are completely incapable of thinking critically or understanding any sort of nuance. Someone told me once that wisdom is being able to hold in your mind two contradictory or paradoxical ideas. It's possible that The Last of Us II is a brilliant video game with a simple or underdeveloped story, or that it is a thoughtful depiction of queer romance in some respects but a poor one in others. Or that Neil Druckmann has good intentions but is a bad project manager, or is a bad writer but a good creative director, and on and on and on (these are random examples). But in the "take" economy, one aspect of a work must account for all other aspects, and it seems more and more that people are incapable of anything but the polar extremes of thought. I'm delighted that this game is selling so well, rendering the repulsive hate campaign meaningless. My early impression is that this is my favorite game from the past several years. But it's exhausting to love video games and realize that the culture surrounding them is for the most part just absolute and embarrassing garbage.

I have to say that I'm pretty blown away so far. I've played maybe 6 or 7 hours and this already seems to be Naughty Dog's crowning achievement. Everything that they do well is cranked to the max, and most all of my criticisms of the first have been addressed and then improved to the point that they've become the game's primary strengths. My first instinct while playing this was confusion, because I couldn't understand how everything was seemingly so dynamic. It's always been easy to see through Naughty Dog's smoke-and-mirrors and recognize their games as relatively flimsy and shallow, but this game has perhaps the best third person combat of any video game I can remember, on top of one of the most ambitious and well delivered narratives in any game I've played, wrapped up in environmental design that in my mind has no equal. My favorite thing about the first game is the level design, and how organic it feels to move from one location to another with an end goal in the distance (the courthouse, the yellow bridge, etc.). In this game they've mastered that to the point that it almost feels like a dissertation on why linear design is superior to open-world design. I have misgivings on how they're portraying violence, and the near pornographic way that you upgrade your guns, but this is a generational best without question.

Yes! Which I did not remember happening at all. If you use your guns a lot rather than stealthing, it happens much more frequently.

You're on the money. The lack of ammo that you pick up made me feel like stealth was the only option, until you realize that Ellie will find ammo for you and the game basically adjusts by giving you more ammo drops when you use it. I think it's really well balanced depending on how you approach the combat, which I did not experience the first time through because I was almost pure stealth. I have to add as well that I think by and and large rigorous stealth in games is just not fun at all. I do not understand the people who play games trying never to be seen once, because it seems like the most tedious and unfun way to play games.

I've been playing the first game this week and have to say that I'm appreciating it much more than I did initially. I think a big part of this is that I played it alongside the Uncharted games and the luster wears out quickly when you play multiple cinematic blockbuster games in succession. Taking my time with it now and I'm appreciating the story's execution, even though I still contend that the arc of the story itself is derivative nothing special. I didn't remember how well animated everything is - the fact that you have to switch weapons in real time makes every encounter feel like the scene in No Country For Old Men when Llewellyn has to frantically load and dry his pistol while the dog charges at him. I have to say that it's much more enjoyable to play using firearms and traps rather than stealth.

Obviously depends on your preference, but I found Doom Eternal kind of disappointing, and I would wait for a lower price on RE3 given how brisk it is. And I will continue to champion Outer Wilds every chance I get.

I'll never forget the moment in Gremlins 2 when the lead actress (I forget the character's name) goes off on a monologue that's satirizing and making fun of her very similar monologue in the first movie. I couldn't believe what a big and hilarious swing that was. Brilliant movie.

It's currently downloading for me now, so you can probably go into the store and start the install.

I don't think many games have used BotW's ideas so far, except for maybe a few exceptions. I also don't understand the soft backlash of people claiming that the game wasn't all that original. It's such a radical departure from the majority of modern game design that it, to me at least, feels like one of the only real markers of progress for games within the past console generation. The entire game is built around intrinsic rewards - there are armor sets and a few scant upgrades for your tools, but by and large the game relies on a pure sense of discovery and exploration to drive players forward. When I played the game, I wasn't drawn by the chance to upgrade my skill tree or grind for weapons. I was excited by the prospect of pure adventure, by feeling like you are really traversing and discovering this world. It's a systems-driven, physics-sandbox, open-world game with no map icons where you can climb nearly every surface. The game that I do think comes close, though I can't speak to how much it was influenced given the development timeline, is Outer Wilds. Similarly, everything in that game is open to you from the start, and the primary game mechanic is discovery and exploration. It also relies completely on creating your own adventures in the world rather than guiding you in a specific direction.

I agree, I really liked the seasonal structure.

I just want to highlight how bafflingly bad video game writing is, by and large. It is so, so rare in my experience to find well-written, thoughtful, articulate games criticism. Here are some examples from recent reviews I've read: The first sentence of the Kotaku Gears 5 review is: "Gears 5 has the longest and most ambitious campaign that Gears of War has ever done and, for the most part, that ambition pays off." Here's a great one from the Half Life: Alyx review at Vice: "For one, I did not anticipate Alyx is, essentially, Valve making a horror game. It’s scary as fuck. It is not a revolutionary game, but, again, it's definitely a very good one, and if Valve made games of this quality regularly again, we’d all be so lucky." Forget anybody making accurate comparisons between games and movies; games writers can't even seem to grasp basic grammatical guidelines. Are there any writers or journalists that you respond to? I usually really like Oli Welsh and Malindy Hatfeld at Eurogamer, but I don't really have a primary outlet for decent stuff about games. I actually find the breakdowns of games on D1P to be generally more helpful and interesting than most dedicated video game outlets. Edit - I should add that I loved reading Ellie Gibson when she was at Eurogamer. She's maybe my favorite games writer I've read.

Overall, I think the story in the TLoU is not nearly as deep or satisfying as many make it out to be. That said, the ending is really, really good. I'm excited to see how the second game evolves what was laid out by the first game's conclusion.

I will also throw Son of Saul into the mix, which I thought was fantastic and heart wrenching.