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BAD

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,565
USA
Killzone Shadowfall is so forgettable. I just remember thinking it lost the focus on busted, grimy, visceral future firefights. Killzone 2 was incredible. It had infamously heavy controls to make the camera a soldier of its own you were pulling with you, incredible hit reactions and blood from the enemies, and stellar motion blur and post processing for a signature CGI pre-rendered emulation style (pay no mind to that oopsie when the Sony team commented to the press that the target render done in CGI was actually what the game looks like for real). It had flashes of hot colors in the fire or ship lighting, with swathes of grey lost city territory. It felt like a war happened and you were wrestling to see it through.

Killzone 3 was ok but made less splash. It lost some of the pre-rendered look with its toned down effects and worse aliasing. It went to some more fantastical looking scenes with weird plants and icy locales. It tried very hard to call upon Nazi iconography.

Then we got Shadowfall. Largely set in a sparkling generic city of the future, it didn't really look like the war focused predecessors on PS3. It was pretty and it's darker atmosphere often just came from some more industrial stuff rather than any battlegrounds . It had a weird concept where we were to believe the enemy civilizations were just on opposite sides of a big wall if I recall? It was meh. We moved on.

We oddly got another spinoff from a PS3 giant in Infamous Second Son, technically coming a few months after PS4 itself. I remember the game had good global illumination, but a dreadful cast of edgy street hipsters in a cheesy comic book plot with some very bad writing. But worst of all it has the very worst AAA main character design I've ever seen after 6 years. Why did they take Troy Baker and give him a different complexion and darker hair and eyes and say he's Native American??? I have to scream.

This is so horrible
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And there was Knack! I didn't play that after it bombed in reviews

To be fair, the Xbox One launch titles are largely forgotten too. A tragically low res Dead Rising sequel, a Forza entry, and Crytek's dying showcase breath Ryse were the big three there. Ryse is quite pretty still.

Here's to a better PS5 lineup.
 

tusk

Banned
Apr 25, 2018
321
Chicago, IL
very little substance from sony's first party offerings this gen, especially if you don't want to play as an angry dad with a weapon and shallow gameplay. hoping we see more weird stuff like parappa the rapper next gen.
 

Ready2Rokk

Member
Oct 29, 2017
614
For what it's worth, I thoroughly enjoyed Killzone: SF and Infamous: Second Son (which I'm not sure is really a launch title as it came out 4 months later). Even Knack is okay. They aren't amazing and we got a lot better later on, but terrible? I don't think so.
 

Transistor

The Walnut King
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,107
Washington, D.C.
Second Son was great and Shadow Fall, while bland, wasn't near as bad as people make it out to be. Knack was enjoyable enough for an all-ages platformer.

In other words, it was a bog standard console launch lineup.
 

Rowsdower

Prophet of Truth - The Wise Ones
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,541
Canada
I really liked Infamous: Second Son. It's what made me buy the PS4; well that and Last of Us Remastered.

I want anther Infamous one day.
 

Sub Boss

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
13,441
The first years of PS4 were boring until Bloodborne and Arkham Knight imo, if you don't count cross gen ports.
 

Acquiescence

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,257
Lake Titicaca
Resogun was great and Second Son (if it counts as a launch exclusive) was well worth playing. It just needed a bit more meat on its bones is all.

But yeah, Knack was trash and Shadow Fall didn't live up to the hype.
 

In Amber Clad

static and disarray
Moderator
Aug 26, 2018
5,500
London
I'm not a fan of the Killzone series, but I appreciated Shadowfall more than the others because it actually looked like a sci-fi game, rather than a brown-grey WWII game with Jin Roh helmets and one lightning gun.
 

Askherserenity

Prophet of Truth - Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,043
Shit was so awful I had to buy Battlefield as a launch game.

I eventually sold my launch PS4 and bought it again later.
 

Cerulean_skylark

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account.
Banned
Oct 31, 2017
6,408
Infamous Second Son was pretty good. it's only issue is the really really mute sound design. But it was a perfect showcase for the console at the time.
Killzone shadowfall had the same problem. The sound lacked any oomph or atmosphere. (Especially since killzone 2 and 3 sounded really good)
 

Macca

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,173
Knack and Killzone was whatever.

But Infamous: Second Son was a fun game, story was a bit of a letdown compared to the predecessors.
 

Weebos

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,060
The first year of PS4 was pretty rough. I picked one up in September (2014) and still felt like I had nothing to pay for months.
 

Camwi

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,375
Funny, I'd say Killzone 2 was forgettable too. The whole series is really, outside of maybe the Vita game.

And Second Son was fucking great.
 

Violet

Alt account
Banned
Feb 7, 2019
3,263
dc
I think if you actually look at launch titles for consoles, they're actually more bad than good across all consoles this century. Sure you have exceptions like the Switch coming out with Odyssey and BOTW back to back or the Xbox launching with Halo and Dead or Alive, but more often, you get situations like the PS4 launch where you don't really have a killer app until Bloodborne. The PS3 obviously took forever to get there, but even launches that people look fondly back on like the 360 were actually rocky (I mean Condemned ruled but is anyone really revisiting KAMEO nowadays?)
 

Mafro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,364
Killzone Shadow Fall was fine (it was better than Killzone 2). Battlefield was the star of the show for me.

Infamous was okay, would have been better if it wasn't just Infamous starring tanned Troy Baker.
 

Altera

Banned
Nov 1, 2017
1,963
I'll always disagree with people who say Shadowfall was bad. I had a great time with the campaign and loved that they continued with the story where KZ3 left off.

The story was interesting and it had some really cool setpieces and locations.

It's a better game than KZ2.
 

Psychotron

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,682
I don't want to say they were bad, but their last gen counterparts were better games. Infamous 1 and 2 were better than SS in my opinion, and Killzone 2 & 3 were miles better than SF. Graphically, they did great things, but as an overall game they were a step back. I enjoyed Knack for what it was, and I'm tempted to pick up the sequel since it's only $5. Resogun was the shit!
 

Cipherr

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,416
I hated Knack, and didnt understand the memes about something so average being "great". Its usually the exact type of mediocre game you tell folks to avoid if they can.
 

bbq of doom

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,606
The stories/overall experiences of Infamous and Shadowfall were forgettable for me, although I did like the rain effects in Shadowfall.
 

Mendrox

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
9,439
Second Sun was great imo. Still haven't played the DLC episode yet hmmm Killzone never grabbed me, but I heard it was good and I still have it on my shelf.
 
Nov 3, 2017
4,393
very little substance from sony's first party offerings this gen, especially if you don't want to play as an angry dad with a weapon and shallow gameplay. hoping we see more weird stuff like parappa the rapper next gen.

epic troll post bro


Second Sun was great imo. Still haven't played the DLC episode yet hmmm Killzone never grabbed me, but I heard it was good and I still have it on my shelf.

I preferred the DLC's story tbh it was a lot tighter
 

werezompire

Zeboyd Games
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
11,303
I really liked Resogun & infamous. The NFS game was also decent. And Knack was a moderately amusing rental.
 

GART9000

Member
Feb 23, 2019
80
Loved Infamous and I actually enjoyed Killzone and and playing the multiplayer on it and seeing how smooth the frame rate on it really made me think "This is the next generation."
 

Deleted member 20297

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,943
Sony gave a good reason to move on the next console by making great looking games. The actual quality is subjective but that's how you sell new hardware.
 

Xiofire

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,130
I really liked Infamous Second Son, I hope another studio has a swing at the franchise while Suckerpunch are making Tsushima. Feels like there is a lot of room for fresh ideas/powers given the right talent behind it I think.

Outside of meme status, Knack is actually a pretty decent platformer when all is said and done, especially on harder difficulties. While I might have played for jokes to begin with, I actually enjoyed my time with it and even stuck out the platinum.

I never did play Shadowfall, does it hold up? I think I picked it up digitally in a sale one year and never installed it.
 
Oct 28, 2017
2,625
very little substance from sony's first party offerings this gen, especially if you don't want to play as an angry dad with a weapon and shallow gameplay. hoping we see more weird stuff like parappa the rapper next gen.

What a take. What's your opinion on astrobot VR or gravity Rush then?
 

NediarPT88

Member
Oct 29, 2017
15,065
inFamous SS wasn't a launch title, and it certainly wasn't terrible. Neon and video powers were incredible, only thing that was somewhat lacking was content but tbh can't really complain too much about it since I ended up playing the game twice with good/bad powers.
 

Deleted member 22750

Oct 28, 2017
13,267
I hated infamous second son

The characters and writing were bad...imo
 

NeverWas

Member
Feb 28, 2019
2,597
Second Son sucked because of the lack of missions and mission variety coming off of Infamous 2. Not for the reasons you mentioned.

Also, 6 years later and I'm STILL playing Warframe.