A losing fight

At this point, it’s obvious this is the second game in a trilogy, and it’s very much the Empire Strikes Back to Fallen Order’s A New Hope. The five years since we last saw Jedi Knight Cal Kestis have been hard on him, and he’s had to face facts that, despite his efforts to curtail its expansion, the Empire is growing ever stronger.

We join Cal in Coruscant on a mission to obtain crucial information from a senator’s yacht. With him is a new crew. Cere, Greez, and Merrin have all left to follow their own paths, leaving only BD-1 as a familiar face.

Like in The Empire Strikes Back, the galactic stakes are lower in Survivor. There’s no Death Star or holocron that could dox force-sensitive children throughout the galaxy here. Instead, the story primarily focuses on Cal’s dilemma and the fate of two worlds, Koboh and Jedha.

Jedivania

Koboh is a forested frontier world, largely still wild. However, it harbors a hundred-year-old secret left behind by the High Republic, which might mean peace for the remaining Jedi in the galaxy. It’s the largest map and where you’ll spend much of your time during the game.

You’ll also explore Jedha, a desert planet where the esoteric Anchorite monks tend the last vestiges of Jedi knowledge. They’ve built a cult that seeks to attain enlightenment by academically studying the Force and are wholeheartedly dedicated to helping the survivors of the Purge.

You’ll visit several other locations during Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, but this journey is more intimate than we saw in Fallen Order. In contrast, Cal isn’t just scouring lonely, forgotten worlds for Zeffo ruins. These worlds are inhabited, and you’ll meet characters who you’ll grow to love and want to protect.

Even though most of the action takes place on two planets, that doesn’t mean this is a smaller game. On the contrary, these two maps are expansive, dwarfing Zeffo, the original game’s largest location. If anything, concentrating on Koboh and Jedha led to tighter environmental design and an even bigger emphasis on Metroidvania elements.

It’s incredibly satisfying to slowly uncover more and more of each map throughout the game. You’re unequipped to fully explore most areas you encounter your first time through, and you’ll take note of impassible forcefields or doors that won’t open. Once you finally get the ability to get past these, you’ll discover new branches leading to more areas that require further abilities.

Each map is like a spiderweb, with paths flowing into one another, and it’s only at the end of the game that you realize how interconnected the whole thing is. However, this isn’t for everyone. It requires a lot of backtracking and patience. You’ll revisit some places three or more times before you finally have everything it takes to explore them fully.

Some players might also find traversal frustrating in general. I consider myself an excellent navigator, but this is one of the few games I’ve played that had me scratching my head about how to move past certain points. Survivor features more verticality than Fallen Order, which can sometimes make things even more frustrating. Fortunately, the game is pretty forgiving if you take a tumble. However, unlike with the combat, there’s no easy mode for exploration.

Use the Force

Surprisingly, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor doesn’t strip Cal of all his powers at the beginning of the game. He starts off with the skills and equipment he had after Fallen Order and grows from there.

One of the big changes coming from the previous game is that there are now five lightsaber stances, two of which you can have equipped at a time. Carrying over from Fallen Order are the standard single-saber stance and the flashy Double-Bladed form made famous by Darth Maul.

The three new stances are more technical forms. First, there’s the fast and powerful Dual-Wield stance, which existed as a single move in the previous game. Cal also gains access to the Blaster Stance, which, as the name suggests, pairs a lightsaber and a blaster for long-range combat. Finally, the Crossguard Stance allows Cal to wield a lightsaber (more like a lightclaymore) that allows for slow but devastating hits.

The catch with the new stance system is that you can only equip two of them at a time. At first, I thought this was kind of dumb, but I found it forced me to stick with stances that complement my playstyle. I usually go with strength builds in Souls games, so choosing the Crossguard was a no-brainer for me. However, I’m also a sneaky little bow spammer, so I reserved the Blaster stance for when I felt cheeky.

Fortunately, you’re free to switch these out stances at every meditation circle, so you can stick with your two favorites for the whole game or constantly switch them out. However, since each stance has its own skill tree, which takes quite a few points to max out, I feel most players will go with the former.

A Jedi craves not this swag

One facet of the game that’s been majorly expanded in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the cosmetics. In Fallen Order, you could swap Cal’s poncho to another color and cut, change BD-1 and the Mantis’s colors, and choose from a limited selection of lightsaber parts and finishes. It was okay, but there was room for improvement.

Starting with Cal, in Survivor, you can change his hair and facial hair style and pick between jackets, shirts, and pants, all with different color options. Your lightsaber and blaster are also highly customizable, with many color palettes and parts available for you to discover. Also, this time around, you can choose your weapon’s condition, so it can either look pristine or like you found it in some ancient ruins.

BD-1 also gets a lot more customization options this time around. You don’t have to go with a premade color scheme for him, and he’s just as modifiable as Cal’s weaponry. You can change out his eyes, head, legs, body, and audio sensors, and he gets the same vast array of palette options.

Strangely, you can no longer change the color of the Mantis. It’s stuck with its default paint scheme throughout the game. That’s not a huge deal since you’ll be boarding it significantly less in Survivor than you did in Fallen Order. However, it struck me as odd that this option was removed when the other cosmetic choices were expanded.

Even though Cal’s performance doesn’t change with the cosmetics you pick, the wide variety allows you to fill in some of the five years between games with some headcanon. For a big chunk of the game, I played as “Dirtbag Cal” and rocked a mullet, goatee, muscle shirt, vest, and beat-up denim-looking pants with boots. I gave him a rusty, ramshackle lightsaber and pistol and imagined he’d turned a bit space redneck.

However, I will warn you that during a first playthrough, you might want to go with a more serious look for Cal. Your outfit carries over into cutscenes, and some poignant scenes came off a bit flat because I could only imagine Cal sighing out a “whatever” and putting a dip in.

A disturbance in the Force

Unfortunately, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is just as buggy as Fallen Order. In my playthrough, I experienced issues with collision, enemies vanishing from existence while I was fighting them, misfiring triggers, and a handful of crashes. I have to dock it a bit for all that, but none of the glitches really bothered me that much.

It’s a big game that gives you a lot of freedom of movement, which inevitably means you will find somewhere in the level collision you can fall through. I’d much rather be able to jump around and feel like a Jedi and risk losing 30 seconds or so of progress than it being like God of War, where a knee-high wall can defeat your powerful hero.

However, there is one new mechanic that caused me some frustration. In Fallen Order, you can rarely die from fall damage. Instead, if you fall into a bottomless pit or off a cliff, you pass through a kill zone and die no matter how high up you were.

Since Survivor has more verticality to its level design, the devs added deaths from falling. When you drop a certain distance, the screen will start to vignette, and you’ll die if you go too far. Double jumping and air dashing can somewhat negate this effect, but it’s inconsistent. Sometimes you’ll end up dying from a seemingly small fall and survive lengthy tumbles. The inconsistency can make it tough to navigate at times, especially when it seems like a jump is the right way to get through an area.

There were also graphical issues on the PS5. Pop-in and Level of Detail issues abounded. I will assume these problems can be patched because we saw similar behavior in Fallen Order on last-gen consoles.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor review: The final verdict

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a game that, despite a few launch bugs and inconsistent jumps, genuinely delivers an engaging experience for fans. The level design and personalization options for both combat and character appearances are definite highlights. It’s an adventure that lets you explore new corners of the Star Wars universe while building on the foundations laid by Fallen Order and tells another excellent tale of a galaxy far, far away.

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Ubisoft says it needed to work on Avatar and Star Wars at the time

Specifically, Banchereau says in an interview with MP1st that The Division 2 updates were planned to end due to the studio’s obligations with other projects at the time:

Yes, the plan was after Update 12, at the end of 2020, the plan was to stop supporting the game… We started working on the Star Wars game, we have the Avatar game. Everybody’s very busy at Massive and the idea was that we just need the people on those projects.

He clarifies that this isn’t because Ubisoft thought “The Division was bad,” though after the release of the Warlords of New York DLC, the game was “probably more successful” than the publisher had anticipated.

Since Ubisoft didn’t want to pull people already assigned to other projects, it decided to team up with Ubisoft Bucharest. It took a while for the studio to learn everything about The Division 2, but he believes Year 5 content will impress fans.

Accordingly, The Division 3 is apparently not in development, though that’s not too much of a surprise considering that they have plenty of work to do with The Division Heartland and The Division Resurgence.

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Getting the Platinum Trophy will still require a lot of effort

The full list of trophies for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor can be found at PSN Profiles, which reveals the names and descriptions for all of the hidden trophies (so fair warning, some minor spoilers could be there).

Among all of the trophies, it looks like the most difficult or the most effort will be ones that require you to collect or complete every last particular thing. For instance, the “Blood, Sweat, and Tears” trophy requires you to complete all Force Tears. These transport Cal to special challenges where there can be enemies or platforming puzzles.

A few more examples are the “Gambler” trophy that requires you win every holotactics match and the “Reconnaissance” trophy that has you scan every type of enemy to fill out the Tactical Guide. Last but not least is the “I’m a Living Legend” trophy that forces Cal to defeat every legendary foe in the game.

As previously reported, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has a massive download size on PS5 and physical copies will still require an internet download.

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When does the Golden Week sale begin on the PlayStation Store?

Sony is yet to make an official announcement about the Golden Week sale but the discounts are expected to go live on the Playstation Store later today, April 25. The sale traditionally covers the Golden Week event in Japan, which runs between April 29 and May 5 this year.

The Golden Week sale, as spotted by Reddit, currently includes 425 games, bundles, and DLC items, although this list could grow by the time the sale goes live. Just some of the games and franchises included in the sale are:

• Ace Attorney
• Atelier
• Bloodborne
• Danganronpa
• Dead Rising
• Devil May Cry
• Dragon Ball
• Dragon Quest
• Dynasty Warriors
• Final Fantasy
• Kingdom Hearts
• Lost Judgment
• Mega Man
• Monster Hunter
• Naruto
• NieR
• Ni No Kuni
• Nioh
• One Piece
• Persona
• Resident Evil
• Star Ocean
• Street Fighter
• Yakuza

With the Spring Sale due to end soon, Sony is expected to reveal a full list of discounts later today.

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Horizon: Burning Shores Metacritic review bombing continues

At the time of writing, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores currently has a User Score of 3.2 based on 1,374 ratings.

Many of the negative reviews target Aloy’s “sexual orientation” and a “political agenda.” One comment claims that the game has been “ruined by the gay agenda.” Another comment states that “the love storyline is there just to push LGTB agenda in your face.”

Very few of the outright “0” scores talk about anything other than the small moment shared by Aloy and Seyka. There’s no mention of any performance, visual presentation, or gameplay.

In contrast to the User Scores, the expansion’s actual Metacritic score (based on verified critics) sits at a very healthy 82.

Hopefully the war being raged between review bombers and Metacritic will end sooner rather than later. For now, though, it seems that naysayers are determined to continue the barrage of zeroes. In the 15 minutes spent writing this post, 14 more ratings have been added.

The post Horizon: Burning Shores Review Bomb Rages On, Metacritic Score Lowered to 3.2 appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Tools of the trade

Dead Island 2 keeps things simple. Zombies are infesting Los Angeles and it’s up to the resistant player to go around killing them, all the while helping locals with their own survival efforts. The story does enough to move things forward and justify traversing to and from the 10 districts, but I didn’t find myself invested in the characters or caring much about their survival.

This horror game leans more on comedy than on exploring the bonds of remaining humans. Think more Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, than 28 Days Later or The Last of Us. Dead Island 2’s characters are funny, but pretty stupid, as are the errands they task players with.

Missions are fairly basic in structure and players get to do a bunch of fetching. Thankfully, the foundation of the gameplay, an extremely satisfying combat system, helps give Dead Island 2 a huge boost.

Powered by the “FLESH” system, combat is easily the best thing about Dead Island 2. Weapons hit hard, with blunt instruments slamming into zombies and sending them flying. Sharpened blades cut through enemies just as brilliantly, causing blood to gush out. And these are just the standard weapons, as the action only gets more entertaining when elemental damage is introduced.

Pick a card, any card

There are six characters to choose from, all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses. While there are differences between them, it quickly became clear to me that there are only two things you really need to worry about when making your selection. First, whether they Dodge or Block, as each character can only do one of these actions. Second, how they sound, as some characters are voiced better than others. I landed on Jacob as my favorite, both for his dodging and British accent.

Dead Island 2’s skill tree takes the form of cards that players choose from. There’s no deck-building or anything like that, it’s just a U.I. shift that functions in much the same way as traditional perk and ability trees.

Some skill cards are better than others, though my favorites enhance the player’s dodge/block abilities. As Jacob, I can weave and dodge a series of incoming attacks, recovering some health, before going on the counter-attack and enjoying increased damage with each subsequent hit I land.

Looks to die for

Visually, Dead Island 2 looks remarkable. The LA environments are beautifully rendered and the devs have clearly worked hard to add subtle details to each space. It’s hard not to explore each new room, as handcrafted scenarios hide in wait. An influencer’s bedroom, for example, features a whiteboard with a script for a not-so-sincere apology video, which I found especially hilarious.

The game runs well, too, with PS5 hitting the 60 FPS mark with very few hiccups. Perhaps the smaller levels help keep gameplay smooth? Whatever magic is going on here, Dead Island 2 achieves 60 FPS and looks good doing it, which really helps to sell those brutal melee swings.

What works well as a single-player game works even better in co-op. Up to two other players can be brought in to assist with the zombie slaying. Finding other players or having them join has worked flawlessly in my experience. It’s just unfortunate that you need to get through an hour or so of gameplay before you can invite your buddies in, which is always annoying.

Dead Island 2 Review: The final verdict

The odds were stacked against Dead Island 2, and yet here stands a solid zombie game with a compelling combat system that delivers exactly what I’m looking for when it comes to hitting the undead with a big stick. It’s gory, gruesome, and a ton of fun with friends.

Aside from the winning combat formula, however, Dead Island 2 doesn’t push the envelope in any other noteworthy ways. It’s a very safe game, which was perhaps the wisest decision made by Dambuster Studios and Deep Silver, given the development hell that the game has been through since its 2014 reveal. I’d count that a win, all things considered!

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Burnings Shores average user score is now much higher than 4.8

As noted by a PushSquare article published at about 6 am today, the average user score for Burning Shores was “at 4.8 and dropping” on Metacritic. Some time after that, the site has removed enough user reviews so that the score is now back up in the green at 8.0 out of 10.

Earlier in the day, there were “significantly more negative reviews than positive ones,” but at the time of this writing, it has around 7,500 positive user reviews and about 1,600 negative ones.

Most of the remaining negative reviews complain that its gameplay is too boring, its graphics are not optimized for PS5’s performance mode, and its world feels too empty. Meanwhile, the Metascore for the game is at a solid 88 with 118 positive critic’s reviews, 8 mixed reviews, and no negative ones.

Horizon Forbidden West was also review-bombed on Metacritic during its release back in February 2022, while the Resident Evil 4 Remake was also review-bombed for being “woke.”

The post Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores Gets Review-Bombed, But Metacritic Fights Back appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

The game’s 4K texture files likely can’t fit on the disc

As noted on a Star Wars Jedi Reddit, photos from retailer Mighty Ape show that the very small words “Download Required” are on the PS5 cover above the age rating. Since a Ultra-HD Blu-ray disc can only hold about 100 GB of data, it’s no surprise that players will need to download the rest of the game off of EA’s download servers. That said, it’s unclear if the disc even holds a part of the game at all or whether the disc just has a download key.

Either way, this means that if the servers for the game ever go down, players who haven’t installed the game already can’t play it off the disc. (If you want to sell the disc, you’ll probably need to do so before then.) Of course at that point no one else can download the game either.

At any rate, all of this trouble with physical copies for games over the last few console generations have made many players, by force or not, become more comfortable with digital downloads. The vast majority of players will want the day one patch anyway and access to future updates for any game, so an internet connection is mainly assumed at this point.

PS5 players will be able to start pre-loading the game on April 25-26, about two days before the game’s full launch.

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Older gamers feel like an afterthought to the games industry

As noted near the end of the AARP study, about 66% of older gamers say that games aren’t designed with any thought to their age group. They believe some games are at times “too complicated to understand” and that many “need tutorials to play effectively.”

They also think that they are not reflected in game marketing (69%) or within the games themselves (64%). Certain features like having a range of difficulty settings are important to them, and they are particularly annoyed with forced ads and push notifications in games.

Meanwhile, older gamers say that games have been beneficial to their lives, whether it’s helping them to relax or stay mentally sharp. As such, their top preferred genres are puzzle and logic games, card and tile games, and word games. Overall, they view gaming as “an important aspect of healthy aging.”

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Horizon: Burning Shores Toy Bow Easter egg

The Horizon: Burning Shores Toy Bow Easter egg seems to have first been discovered by Reddit user AlbusDumbldor, who shared images of Aloy wielding the pink and purple bow, as well as helpful screenshots of the map displaying the location.

For those that have played through The Last of Us 2, the Toy Bow will be recognized from a fun downtime sequence taking place at the aquarium. It stands out with its garish colorway in both TLOU2 and Burning Shores.

While the Toy Bow isn’t very powerful, I imagine some players will be trying to use it to take down some of Horizon’s most vicious enemies. Hopefully we’ll see some gameplay videos of that over the next week or so!

As for what’s next for Horizon, the future isn’t yet clear. The biggest question revolves around Sylens, as the actor who portrayed him, Lance Reddick, has sadly passed away. It’s clear that Horizon 3 had big plans for the character, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

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