Demon's Souls (PS5) - Kinda torn on this. I'm a huge fan of Souls-likes and the series (I've put over 1000 hours into the Soulsborne games running multiple builds & challenge runs) and this remake is very true to the original. Unfortunately DeS is FromSoft's worst Souls-like. Absolutely fantastic visuals and atmosphere, but it's still clunky and rather unresponsive compared to Dark Souls. I welcome the few QOL enhancements the game has, but can't believe they didn't fix the grind for upgrade materials (more than they did) or get rid of World Tendency or item burden. A lot of the broken gear is still very broken. Fantastic game and remake, but would have preferred more mechanical improvements. Can't really fault BluePoint too much. They were screwed with this fanbase whether they "fixed" the game or didn't. Probably harder to justify changes if you're not the original developer.


Marvel's® Spiderman™: Miles Morales (PS5) - Fun, short game that's basically more Spiderman. Not amazing but worth playing once. Looks absolutely gorgeous with 60fps and ray-tracing.


Control Ultimate Edition (PS5) - I loved Control back when I played it on PS4 Pro, but frankly that game shouldn't been released on last gen. It was mired by terrible framerate dips bordering on slideshow-like at times. PS5 version is consistently 60fps on performance mode. Also got to play the DLC for the first time and it's excellent. Really fantastic story-based third person shooter with gorgeous atmosphere. Easily Remedy's finest game.


NieR Replicant Version 1.22... (PS4) - A really damn fine remaster (or "version upgrade" if you prefer). The original NieR had excellent story/characters/game world with a beautiful OST. Unfortunately it played like dogshit. Version 1.22 completely revamps the combat to something more playable. It's not quite Platnium's work in Automata and it didn't take me long to find exploits in the mechanics (dodge roll into hard attack with 2-handed swords sure is broken). But combat is much smoother and more refined overall. Textures have also gotten a significant enhancement to the point where you'd think this was a native PS4 game if not for the frequent load points and empty environments. The side quests unfortunately still suck mostly entailing fetch quests and grinding for materials. The lack of fast travel in Act I isn't great either. Still it has new content, and the original Brother-Sister story feels more natural (though I still see many Westerners saying they prefer Father-Daughter - the story as a whole fits better with Nier being a young boy).


Resident Evil Village (PS5) - About 5 hours in. Feels like Capcom really wants this to be RE4. Ethan's hands sure go through a lot of trauma.


THE BACKLOG:

Returnal - Hey Sony, thanks for releasing this between 2 games I'd rather play. Now tell Housemarque to patch suspend saves before I get to it.
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Bought this at release, but was busy playing P5 Royal. Then P5 Strikers came out. Then I finally found a PS5 to buy. Hope I can get to it this summer.
Immortals: Fenxy Rising (PS5) - Pretty much only own this because there are barely any games on PS5. Maybe I'll play it someday.

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Feedback
	honestgamer - May 09, 2021 (07:42 PM) You should make today the day you play Immortals: Fenyx Rising. It was one of my very favorite games of 2020.
	JoeTheDestroyer - May 12, 2021 (11:46 AM) Sounds like you're at least playing better stuff than I've been through recently. I'm mostly crossing off the quick and easy stuff on my backlog, and some of those hour-long titles require more motivation to get through than I thought they would.