Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut Review & Comments

Great review.
I’m waiting for it to download on ps5 as I never played it for time reasons. But after putting nearly 200 hours into assassins creed I’m chomping at the bit to get into this.
 
I had high hopes for Ghost Of Tsushima, having not owned a PS for years and catching up recently with exclusives on PS5. But... I didn't like it. Like Horizon Zero Dawn, for me, it is another generic open worlder, reskinned to make people think they're playing something new. Go here, defeat 'base', collect resources, play the odd story mission, kill endless identical enemies.

I think it comes down to how tired one is of that formula and I am very, very tired of it. If you love it, great! I did not.
 
I had high hopes for Ghost Of Tsushima, having not owned a PS for years and catching up recently with exclusives on PS5. But... I didn't like it. Like Horizon Zero Dawn, for me, it is another generic open worlder, reskinned to make people think they're playing something new. Go here, defeat 'base', collect resources, play the odd story mission, kill endless identical enemies.

I think it comes down to how tired one is of that formula and I am very, very tired of it. If you love it, great! I did not.
That's fair enough. If you're done with the genre there's not really enough in either of the games you mentioned to really change your mind. I loved both this and HZD but for different reasons.

What I liked about Tsushima was that, to me, it didn't feel like just another open world game.

Where I get tired of games like Assassin's Creed, and even Red Dead 2, is with the sheer volume of hours of gameplay there is. The moment you finish the prologue you get "here's a billion things to do and no indication of the importance of any of them."

The gameplay in Tsushima was hardly groundbreaking but it felt far more stripped back and actually directed. There was other stuff to do in it but it made crystal clear a) the worthiness of the side missions and fetch quests and b) how long each of those side quests were. It's the first open world game in years that didn't feel massively over-populated to me and I felt able to get the most out of the story and the art direction through the gameplay. I thought it was a real achievement.

HZD is a different animal. It IS a more standard open world game in its design and story, but in that case it was the intricate planning that was required in the gameplay in order to take any of the big robots down that I enjoyed. You couldn't just brute force it if you were playing on anything above story mode and I enjoyed the challenge of being made to set up a run of traps and vantage spots to herd the robots into.

If you're talking generic open world dullness, Days Gone has to be one of the worst culprits.
 
I have a PS5...I own the ps4 version of this game. I can see the upgrade to directors cut in ps store. But I can't see the ps4 to ps5 upgrade anywhere? Can anyone help with this?
 
I have a PS5...I own the ps4 version of this game. I can see the upgrade to directors cut in ps store. But I can't see the ps4 to ps5 upgrade anywhere? Can anyone help with this?
Let me take a look, hold on....

Hah! It's £24.99! I didn't realise that. Wow. I honestly find that incredible. Having already charged £70 for the game, asking for another £25 puts the price up to nearly £100! Just.... Wow. I had thought it was a free upgrade. What an absolute joke.

Anyway, in answer to your question, the PS5 'version' outside the director's cut is just a 60fps frame rate boost I believe (that's the one I've played) and will happen automatically when you boot the base game and it detects your PS5. There is no specific file to download. I may be wrong. It seems unnecessarily complex.
 
Let me take a look, hold on....

Hah! It's £24.99! I didn't realise that. Wow. I honestly find that incredible. Having already charged £70 for the game, asking for another £25 puts the price up to nearly £100! Just.... Wow. I had thought it was a free upgrade. What an absolute joke.

Anyway, in answer to your question, the PS5 'version' outside the director's cut is just a 60fps frame rate boost I believe (that's the one I've played) and will happen automatically when you boot the base game and it detects your PS5. There is no specific file to download. I may be wrong. It seems unnecessarily complex.
There is a 60fps free upgrade but the DC also comes with a paid upgrade which includes the haptics, graphical tweaks, lip sync, and other bits and pieces.

But yeah, it's not cheap. It is, however, pretty standard for an expansion now...
 
Absolutely loved this game on the ps4 and I didn't want it to finish.
I know it's similar to other games out there where your instructed where to go or what to do but the original was so slick and visually stunning, that I was drawn to it and played it to death.
This expansion is a must so thank you for the review Rik.
 
Just bought this. I used to be of the opinion 1800p CB to 4k was not much difference but this game really benefits from the increased resolution.
 
Thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to playing this when Sony release a PS5 slim. But in all honesty, Sony shouldn't be charging for the graphical upgrade.
 
The sublime swordplay, mix of stances and in particular when you obtain legendary status and could perform the slo-mo kick ass moves, made the game for me. As a Kurosawa movie fan, it was all I wanted in a samurai themed game.
Will be buying the expansion later.
 
Amazing game,I've got it on PS4 and just bought the physical PS5 copy,looking forward to New Game + after carrying over my save and exploring the new island.

Does anybody know where the Directors Commentary and Digital Artbook is? I can't find them in any of the menus.
 
Bought a cheap network card on shopto...and upgraded. Although I don't like the idea of ps4/ps5 upgrade payments. A game of this quality needs to be played at the best quality. And for those that aren't happy enough to pay it.i guess you can let your wallet do the talking by not buying it. All in all for me it's worth it
 
What I liked about Tsushima was that, to me, it didn't feel like just another open world game.

Agreed. Exploration feels so natural and organic compared to many other open world games. I could spot a fox that wants me to follow him down secret paths & passages to discover a hidden shrine. I could be riding my horse full speed & A bird could flutter past, leading me to a hot spring or hidden alter. I could even swipe up on the touchpad and have the wind blow through the grass & trees to direct me towards my location! Just wonderful. Both Ghost Of Tsushima & The Legend Of Zelda Ocarina Of Time are very special games to me.

It is also the only PS4 game I just Had to get the Platinum Trophy for.
 
Amazing game,I've got it on PS4 and just bought the physical PS5 copy,looking forward to New Game + after carrying over my save and exploring the new island.

Does anybody know where the Directors Commentary and Digital Artbook is? I can't find them in any of the menus.
I think that is called the bonus content, comes as a separate download. I’ve got it but not tried it yet.
 
Beautiful game of course. For me, the 'open world fatigue' did start to kick in during the last act, and the unskippable cutscenes were occasionally a nuisance. However, in terms of swansongs, the PS4 couldn't have asked for better....
 
Beautiful game of course. For me, the 'open world fatigue' did start to kick in during the last act, and the unskippable cutscenes were occasionally a nuisance. However, in terms of swansongs, the PS4 couldn't have asked for better....
I did get 'Open World Fatigue' at the 2nd act, when the 2nd area opened up. But it had gone for me by the third and final act, that area went like a non stop roller coaster once I'd reached full skill level and had become legend status.
 
Still waiting on a PC version of this. I'm glad Sony are finally releasing on Steam, but to say that they're slow would be something of an understatement. Day and date Sony. That's what everyone else does.
 
Picked this up on PS5, first time playing it (I held off from the PS4 version). I love an open world action game and this is delivering the goods and then some. I'm still early in my playthrough but I've finally got Jin to a level where I'm not dying every time I run into a group on Mongols!

Yes, it follows the standard formula for this type of game, but the setting and Sucker Punches implementation of the quests & side missions is amazing. There are some lovely touches on the PS5 too, haptic feedback gives you a "feel" to the blade being drawn on top of the sound. 3D audio is excellent too.

Fantastic job by SP, this will keep me busy for a while.

You're not going to get day and date releases for PS games. Why would anyone think Sony would do that? Ultimately they want you buying a PlayStation console, and these games are system sellers. You want to play it that much? Buy the console. Different kettle of fish for Microsoft, they no longer care about which system you play their games on, so long as you subscribe.

Ghost of Tsushima isn't likely to arrive on PC until next year.
 
You're not going to get day and date releases for PS games. Why would anyone think Sony would do that? Ultimately they want you buying a PlayStation console, and these games are system sellers. You want to play it that much? Buy the console. Different kettle of fish for Microsoft, they no longer care about which system you play their games on, so long as you subscribe.

Ghost of Tsushima isn't likely to arrive on PC until next year.

It's such an antiquated approach from Sony. Let people play on whichever platform they choose. Microsoft get it, Sony unfortunately don't. It isn't even about subscriptions either, as MS put all of their first party content on Steam as well as Game Pass.

Sony move slowly. Perhaps they'll join the modern world eventually.
 
It's hardly a surprise that Microsoft are okay with people playing games on PC's, you've heard of Windows?

I disagree that this is an antiquated approach to selling games; PlayStation is Sony's biggest earner. Why would they makes games for console and PC for same day release? They'd be cannibalising their own sales.

Sony sell consoles on the strength of their first party titles. If they opt to release a PC version a couple of years later, well, lucky PC gamers. Many would argue Sony shouldn't be releasing PC versions at all. Sony don't move slowly, they move logically.

Over the past decade or more they've turned their business from one that has been struggling to one that is now highly profitable, and much of that success is down to PlayStation. Like I say, if you're that keen to play Ghost of Tsushima, grab a PlayStation 4 or 5. It's less than the price of a new graphics card!
 
It's such an antiquated approach from Sony. Let people play on whichever platform they choose. Microsoft get it, Sony unfortunately don't. It isn't even about subscriptions either, as MS put all of their first party content on Steam as well as Game Pass.

Sony move slowly. Perhaps they'll join the modern world eventually.
It's funny how Microsoft are so keen on allowing their software anywhere to make it consumer friendly - yet we don't see the likes of Halo, Forza and so on over on the Playstation store.

Porting a game like this to PC wouldn't be a trivial matter - I suspect MS have a much simpler workflow for this as it's been their policy for a few years now to do everything cross platform and I suspect their dev tools are much more closely aligned between the console and windows.
 
But Microsoft have a vested interest in people buying a PC, Sony don't. This is simply a business decision by Sony to focus on their consoles first (makes sense to me) and release some of their games on PC further down the line.

Anyway, all of this has side tracked from the game discussion. I put my hands up to that.

Ghost of Tsushima is a top game, if you like this genre, this is a must buy. I hope there will be a sequel of sorts, perhaps another part of Japan focussing on another Samurai
 
It's funny how Microsoft are so keen on allowing their software anywhere to make it consumer friendly - yet we don't see the likes of Halo, Forza and so on over on the Playstation store.

Porting a game like this to PC wouldn't be a trivial matter - I suspect MS have a much simpler workflow for this as it's been their policy for a few years now to do everything cross platform and I suspect their dev tools are much more closely aligned between the console and windows.

We also don't see Sony first party stuff on Xbox.

PC is a neutral platform. MS make Windows but the profits from any Sony games sales would live in Gave Newell's bulging pockets. I'm not really convinced that PC sales would cannibalise Playstaion sales either, most people don't buy games multiple times. So far I've bought zero copies of Ghosts of Tsushima, so Sony have got nothing out of me.

It's up to them obviously, I just think they're leaving money on the table by being so pig headed.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom