Michael Corvin

Damn. Just realized this is the 17th. I was hoping it would be in my mailbox when I got home from work today.

faust69

8.5 from Easy Allies. A very fair and balanced review, imho.

Noonan

Kotaku wasn't as favorable. It came down to once you get past the amazing visuals, it's just another open world game with boring side/fetch quests. I'll probably hold out for a sale.

slop101

IOW, Assassin's Creed: Samurai Edition

Noonan

Pretty much. They also mentioned that by the end you're so strong that tactics/stealth don't even matter.

Michael Corvin

Nothing wrong with being a complete and total badass by the end of a game.

Dan

^ Yep, I'm ok with that aspect. It's not a Nioh 1 & 2 or Sekiro level of difficulty, and I'm ok with that. Less enthused about some of the open world elements, but I'm still down for this.

K&AJones

Already have said there's like a 8-10gb patch day one...which all these reviewers got the game like 2-3 weeks ago....it'll be fixes and tweaks no doubt. Game will be fine and better later on....

Two more review scores up....

Gamezone....8.5/10.......https://www.gamezone.com/reviews/rev...its-bloodshed/

PSU...............9/10.........https://www.psu.com/reviews/ghost-of...ma-ps4-review/

RichC2

Yeah, I get why people love open world, but most of the time it just means more slow walking and me falling asleep.

The Questyen

Paper Mario will be getting my attention first but I'm really looking forward to playing this.

Noonan

From what I understand, this game at least has a decent fast travel system, unlike some other recent open world game that got absurd high scores from reviewers...

mugwump

Well crap, guess I'll have to blow the dust off the PS4. Had no idea this game was even in development I'm so far out of the PlayStation loop but it looks to be right up my alley. Just bought the Samurai Trilogy on blu-ray too so I can really go nuts.

K&AJones

Add another huge achievement to Ghost of Tsushima and Sucker Punch......

Ghost of Tsushima Is The Third Western Game To Earn A Famitsu Perfect Score ......https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020..._perfect_score

Dan

Neat.

K&AJones

Add another high praise...this time from IGN....Ghost of Tsushima's Photo Mode Is The Best In Any Game Ever.... https://www.ign.com/articles/ghost-o...-any-game-ever

LorenzoL

Amazon Canada needs to ship this game to me tomorrow!

Dan

Well, I was going to wait, but I still had some credit in my PSN account so I went ahead and bought this. Played about an hour and a half last night.
For better or worse, in sticking with Kurosawa Mode on my first playthrough. I love the look.
Overall, I'm enjoying the game. The controls aren't great, so I might change the settings (I hate things like pressing R3 to crouch).
After about 20 min, I changed the game performance setting to have a better frame rate instead of higher resolution. That helped quite a bit IMO, and makes sense when using Kurosawa Mode.

LorenzoL

F this! Amazon Canada has Tuesday as a delivery day.

starseed1981

I’m really enjoying this one. It’s basically the Assassins Creed Japan we are never going to get.

lopper

I'm maybe a couple hours in and I think I like it, but I'm not sure yet. Controls are a little dodgy, a little loose and squishy, and right now combat is really just button mashing. I had to laugh because the game makes a point to say that you "Tap" triangle to break someones block, but they what they mean is mash triangle.

On an unrelated note, I think today is the last time I'll ever go into a Gamestop. I went in today to pick this up (no I did not preorder), and the cashier told me the store had literally zero copies to sell that weren't preorders. I just cannot believe that Gamestop, whose primary function is to sell, ya know, games, wouldn't have enough copies to fulfill preorders and to sell to people coming in off the street. Their business model just does not compute with me at all.

The Questyen

Getting enough to only cover preorders has been their business model for like 20 years. They want their customers to get in the habit of pre-ordering so they don't go anywhere else.

mhg83

Went to the video store an hour before closing. Didnt think they'd have any copies left. Ended up getting the last copy!

This is why I plan to stick with physical over digital. When you can rent a brand new game for five days for $10. Awesome

Michael Corvin

Played about an hour. Kurosawa mode is awesome. I'm definitely going to play the whole game like that. Plus the direction and cinematography is phenomenal so far. I gave the Japanese soundtrack about 10 minutes before reverting to English. It was too hard to run around and perform while reading subtitles. Plus the Japanese voice actor for Patrick Gallagher's character just didn't sound right. Once you see a recognizable face you expect a certain voice. It just didn't work for me.

The action is fine to me. As mentioned above, I don't like ridiculously deep or complex combo systems so it works for me. It took me a couple tries to get the 'one strike' thing down. I kept screwing up the timing in that up somehow.

So so far. I love it already.

Any idea how long this game is?

K&AJones

Been playing close to 12 hours.....I'll bet the House & Farm it's in the GotY contention....

Art Direction & Design....to this day I still say AC: Origins is one of the best looking while capturing Egypt in it finest time period and Odyssey is no slouch. However what Sucker Punch has done capturing "Old Japan" is simply breathless and amazing

Soundtrack & Musical Score....no words to describe it....it's inline with what you would hear from some epic Japanese Film. And the timing between the score to sometimes just hearing leaves is sensational....

Story....I'm still in middle of two characters trying to recruit them....I tried a third....one way down along West...I got my Butt seriously kicked...but so far it's engrossing and compelling. I am reading subtitles with Japanese Language. It's slower and time wise but considering everything else about the game, it fits and completes the overall experience and tone. It's more...involved...than Origins and Odyssey.

Gameplay....well, if you liked Origins and Odyssey....You'll Love This Even Better.... Sword Play comes in many games and forms but welding a Katana while being a Samurai is something special. What Sucker Punch has done getting the combat and action down is really amazing. Pulling off the perfect timed parry slows down action with a stunned enemy that results in a classic one swing-and-he's-dead move that's very satisfying. The Challenge Mode....well that small brief combat when pulled off is one of the best combat moves in gaming history going with blink of and eye speed to slow down time is unlike anything done before. I've barely opened up a lot in terms of combat options in Evasion, Deflection let alone Ghost Abilities and Stances (I have Stone and Water) but not a lot of the modes tied in...but there is a lot of moves which I wouldn't say complex to Mortal Combat but are far more than what I saw in Origins and Odyssey. I just got the Bombs along with Throwing Knives...plus you get a Bow with different arrows....then Four Stances depending on who is coming at you; Sword, Shield, Spear....so yea off the bat it can be overwhelming.

Overall, I can see why all the High Scores...except from Gamespot that gave it a 7/10 which is the same score they gave The Last of Us Pt.2....I have a feeling it's they don't like Violence in Games or maybe the PS4....The Story of Jin and basically being the Lone Samurai trying to peace a " Magnificent Seven" group to save the island from the Mongol Invaders feels more personal than other games...except Last of Us which I view that as one of the best character wise. Like Origins and Odyssey, you sometimes feel like just riding around and seeing the sights which are a visual feast. From clashing of Sword and Blood flying to a quite time on a mountain edge playing a flute, the pace can change in an instance and is really refreshing....solid game game so far, one of the bests period...

lopper

Oh I know, and I've been very tolerant of Gamestops shenanigans, but I'm just done with the hassle of it all. I don't have time for it anymore. Too many other options now.

I'm enjoying the game a lot more now after I've put another couple hours into it. I initially planned on playing mostly stealth through these outpost encounters, but I think the sword combat is super satisfying, so I'm going that route for now.

This game is gorgeous 90% of the time, but there are some environments, particularly the north part of the lower island area, that I didn't think looked good at all. Muddy and washed out, and where some of the lower res textures are really noticeable. TLOU 2 had similar issues, but looked 10x better. But I realize that's a very different kind of game, so it's not at all a 1:1 comparison.

However, when it's daytime and you're in a bamboo forest or surrounded by really vibrant tress, I'm very impressed.