Oddworld Soulstorm releases today - free for PSN+ members

[Twinblade★ 3,889]

https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2021/03/31/Oddworld-Soulstorm-Days-Gone-PlayStation-Plus/2351617209503/

 

Interesting. I don't have much experience with Oddworld but I might check this out.

[-GD-X★ 7,728]

yup. getting it tonight! i love these games! 

[Remij 4,666]

I've been playing it since last night, along with some Binding of Isaac: Repentance.  It's pretty good.  There's some things that I'm finding kinda annoying with regards to some design decisions. 

 

Not really so much a spoiler at all but rather an early mechanic right from the very beginning of the game.

 

Spoiler

The game asks you to put out fire with water bottles to pass sections on fire.  Ok, fine... Then it asks you to spread fires already there to burn something down using a different type of bottle which is flammable.  Ok... but immediately after that, you actually have to put out the fires you JUST started again.  So you have to go menu for the flammable bottles, start the fire... and then menu to the water bottles and put out the fires to pass...  And even that's fine... but you have to be very precise with your throws otherwise it wont put out the fires and then you'll have to find more.

 

It's just kind of annoying.. but not the end of the world or anything.

[-GD-X★ 7,728]

Just now, Remij said:

I've been playing it since last night, along with some Binding of Isaac: Repentance.  It's pretty good.  There's some things that I'm finding kinda annoying with regards to some design decisions. 

 

Not really so much a spoiler at all but rather an early mechanic right from the very beginning of the game.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The game asks you to put out fire with water bottles to pass sections on fire.  Ok, fine... Then it asks you to spread fires already there to burn something down using a different type of bottle which is flammable.  Ok... but immediately after that, you actually have to put out the fires you JUST started again.  So you have to go menu for the flammable bottles, start the fire... and then menu to the water bottles and put out the fires to pass...  And even that's fine... but you have to be very precise with your throws otherwise it wont put out the fires and then you'll have to find more.

 

It's just kind of annoying.. but not the end of the world or anything.

ya, i read some minor gripes like that. at least it's now 60 fps and the platforming is supposedly snappy af now (unlike the originals). i will post my impressions later. 

[Remij 4,666]

5 minutes ago, -GD-X said:

ya, i read some minor gripes like that. at least it's now 60 fps and the platforming is supposedly snappy af now (unlike the originals). i will post my impressions later. 

Oh yes, Abe controls REALLY tight now compared to before... and the game is absolutely beautiful and smooth.

[-GD-X★ 7,728]

Finished downloading. About to play it  

[madmaltese★ 2,548]

So good! Love that PS Plus is focusing on new games 

[Twinblade★ 3,889]

Game seems alright. Way more story focused than I expected though, these cutscenes go on for quite a while  

[Remij 4,666]

Just now, Twinblade said:

Game seems alright. Way more story focused than I expected though, these cutscenes go on for quite a while  

And you can't skip them  lol

[Twinblade★ 3,889]

Just now, Remij said:

And you can't skip them  lol

 

The cartoony facial animations are pretty good though.

[Remij 4,666]

1 minute ago, Twinblade said:

 

The cartoony facial animations are pretty good though.

Yea, it's got high quality to it.

 

One thing that sucks though is that the FMVs are 30fps and not 60+.  Ideally, they would be rendered in real-time and run like the game does, but having 30fps cutscenes and then switching to 60fps, or in my case 144fps gameplay is a bit jarring.  Hopefully as cross gen games fade out, and the next gen consoles can handle 60fps games, hopefully developers keep FMVs either to a minimum and render everything in real-time, or they at least render the FMVs at 60fps so that everything feels more consistent.  I think with the new compression and decompression technologies, they can include 60fps movies at higher resolutions, so that it more closely matches gameplay.. if they're designing games to be seamless like this.

 

Not the end of the world though.

[Twinblade★ 3,889]

1 minute ago, Remij said:

Yea, it's got high quality to it.

 

One thing that sucks though is that the FMVs are 30fps and not 60+.  Ideally, they would be rendered in real-time and run like the game does, but having 30fps cutscenes and then switching to 60fps, or in my case 144fps gameplay is a bit jarring.  Hopefully as cross gen games fade out, and the next gen consoles can handle 60fps games, hopefully developers keep FMVs either to a minimum and render everything in real-time, or they at least render the FMVs at 60fps so that everything feels more consistent.  I think with the new compression and decompression technologies, they can include 60fps movies at higher resolutions, so that it more closely matches gameplay.. if they're designing games to be seamless like this.

 

Not the end of the world though.

 

I mean I was pretty surprised when I saw the unity logo pop up. Thats probably why its got these technical limitations.

[Remij 4,666]

7 minutes ago, Twinblade said:

 

I mean I was pretty surprised when I saw the unity logo pop up. Thats probably why its got these technical limitations.

Nah man.  Unity is just as capable as any other engine.  Unity has come a long way...  This is simply a choice of the developer to render out their cinematics as FMVs, and likely to save on storage space they've opted for 30fps videos instead of 60.

 

I had RTSS running while playing the game, and the game doesn't even load during the cutscenes... so it's not like they're masking the loading with them.  The loading happens right before the cutscene starts and right after it finishes for a split second lol.  I will say the game loads extremely fast.

 

It's possible though that it actually is loading during the cutscenes on the last gen consoles and so that's why they require it.

 

Who knows... but I'm 100% sure it's not any limitation of Unity.  Unity can do some of the sickest real-time cutscenes if you know what you're doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ike★ 2,906]

57 minutes ago, madmaltese said:

So good! Love that PS Plus is focusing on new games 

Seriously, the PS5 games for PS Plus so far have been great.

[-GD-X★ 7,728]

Damn, this game owns! 

[Remij 4,666]

40 minutes ago, Ike said:

Seriously, the PS5 games for PS Plus so far have been great.

Sadly most of the great PSPlus games have been PS4 versions of said games.  Sucks you're not getting the next gen updated versions for a lot of them.

 

[Ike★ 2,906]

5 minutes ago, Remij said:

Sadly most of the great PSPlus games have been PS4 versions of said games.  Sucks you're not getting the next gen updated versions for a lot of them.

 

I’ve got Bugsnax, Maneater, and now this all PS5 versions for free plus the pack-in Astro Bot game owns. Not bad for $35 for a year of PS Plus. Plus just got a ton of free PSVR games too. Sony’s been giving away of lot of free games within the last month. Giving everyone FFVIIR only a year after release is nice too. 

[Remij 4,666]

Just now, Ike said:

I’ve got Bugsnax, Maneater, and now this all PS5 versions for free plus the pack-in Astro Bot game owns. Not bad for $35 for a year of PS Plus. Plus just got a ton of free PSVR games too. Sony’s been giving away of lot of free games within the last month. Giving everyone FFVIIR only a year after release is nice too. 

Oh no doubt.  It's much better now than it ever was before, with regards to them giving bigger titles away.

 

FF7R is crazy..regardless of PS4 version on PS5 update... considering none of the other platforms even have it yet lmao.

 

Honestly... us gamers get tons of free shit these days.  PC you have constant free game giveaways on Steam, Epic Game Store, and Ubisoft Connect.  Xbox you get free games as well with GWG and in a different sense Game Pass.  Sony now too are giving higher end titles away.

 

Good shit all around  

 

(except Nintendo lmao)

[Ike★ 2,906]

Just now, Remij said:

Oh no doubt.  It's much better now than it ever was before, with regards to them giving bigger titles away.

 

FF7R is crazy..regardless of PS4 version on PS5 update... considering none of the other platforms even have it yet lmao.

 

Honestly... us gamers get tons of free shit these days.  PC you have constant free game giveaways on Steam, Epic Game Store, and Ubisoft Connect.  Xbox you get free games as well with GWG and in a different sense Game Pass.  Sony now too are giving higher end titles away.

 

Good shit all around  

 

(except Nintendo lmao)

PAC-Man 99 

[kaz 2,439]

cutscenes?   that's the last thing I'd expect from it