Been fine for me pal.

Antway for @oli and anyone else with lightbar problems, comes these tiny looking pads wirh no lightbar, rumble and stuff.
https://blog.us.playstation.com/2017/10/18/introducing-the-mini-wired-gamepad-for-ps4/

PSN sales watch.  Rez Infinite is £14.99 at the mo, and the Zero Escape thing is £19.49 rather than £54.99.  Not seen either of those at reduced prices before.  Alien Isolation £5.79.  Edith Finch a tempting £10.39.  

Mr. Shifty's down to a fiver. Birdorf's Infinifactory is £4ish.  The intriguing Punch Club is down to £3.29.

Tempted for Rez...

Shame, I liked the idea, but it's the sort of thing I'd probably only play for 45 minutes anyway.

I buy quite a lot in sales, as does Andy I believe.  Are you looking for any genre in particular?

Nex Machina?
Thumper?

Resogun

Some of these may be on Xbox, not sure:

Blue Estate if you fancy rails shooter that mimics a lightgun game with a slightly cringey v/o.  Uses the pad as a pointer.  £3ish at the moment.  

Downwell for a dirt cheap git-gud-or-die arcade shooter.
Aqua Kitty for a throwback Resogun. 

10 Second Ninja DX for Meatboy insta-restarts/room clearance route planning yet twitch puzzle platform shooting.

Titan Souls for an almost excellent near miss that should be experienced.

Hotline Miami if you've never Hotline Miami'd, best game on this list.

Thumper, cracking game.  Second best game on this list.  

Assault Android Cactus for a superb twin stick shooter that's 3-5hrs long (I got stuck on the final boss for 90 minutes).

Rive for pure gold.

Andy wrote:

Just buy everything by Housemarque.

Are they that consistent? Thought Alienation wasn't supposed to be great. And Matterfall looks a bit poor TBH.

I couldn't stand Dead Nation, but I like everything else of theirs I've played.  Not tried Alienation though, still sulking about buying it in a sale a week before it arrived on PS+, and so are the two mates I badgered to join me.

JonB wrote:

Are they that consistent? Thought Alienation wasn't supposed to be great. And Matterfall looks a bit poor TBH.

I thought Matterfall looked good. Not as great as Stardust, Reso, and Nex, but even their sub-par is better than most. I’m enjoying Alienation, but I like that style of game. I’m also known to have different tastes to most others. Probably bear that in mind for the rest of this post.

Andy wrote:

I’ll have a look through my library...

I have no idea what is and isn’t on Xbox, sorry. I’ll break them up by the folders I have them in...

Racing
• Absolute Drift is less a racer, more an infuriating skid mark, but it has fans in these parts.
• Mantis Burn Racing is good once you a) get past the fact that it’s not an instant restart MotorStorm RC replacement; and b) get used to it’s unusual upgrade system.
• RaceTheSun is an into-the-screen infinity (maybe not, but it might as well be with my skills) flier with an I’ll-get-further-this-time, up-til-3am-trying hook.
• SpeedRunners I’ve only played the demo, but the Access guys have showcased it a few times. I’m probably going to bite this weekend, unless I find out it’s coming to Switch.
• Table Top Racing: World Tour is a daft miniature car racer, plays more like a franchise-kart than Micro Machines, someone here hates it.
Top pick: Hmmm. Possibly SpeedRunners.
Just don’t: Velocity2X.

Arcade Shooters
I already mentioned Housemarque. I’ve got Resogun, Nex Machina, Super Stardust Ultra, Dead Nation and Alienation. The last two are less revered, but I like them.
• BroForce wasn’t my cup of tea, but loads love it.
• Butcher is pretty tough (also I’m really bad, despite my love of the genre) but has a great aesthetic, and a good insta-restart rhythm.
• CounterSpy is a 60s TV style sneaky shooter.
• Futuridium EP Deluxe would make you think of a PS1-era gone HD, Starfighter 3000 versus Assault Rigs.
• Helldivers is like an isometric Starship Troopers. Big online element, not sure how many are still playing, but I enjoyed just doing single player.
• Lichtspeer is a disco-Norse projectile frenzy, like the Thor Ragnarok trailer with Steve Backley.
• Mercenary Kings is another retro-styled 2D shooter, probably more in the Metal Slug vein than the others. Kinda.
• Neon Chrome is a perfectly functional twin stick.
• Not a Hero is tremendous.
• Rebel Galaxy is a space western with a combat mechanic closer to the sailing sections in Black Flag than other shooters. I’ve only scratched the surface, I think there’s a lot of game in there.
• Rive is a frantic shooter with a familiar space-junk vibe. Ignore the haters.
I would like to recommend Secret Ponchos, a PvP twin-stick in the Dead Nation / Alienation / Helldivers / Neon Chrome vein, with a western aesthetic, but the last I looked the servers had less people than I have friends.
• Song of the Deep possibly isn’t indie, in that it’s Insomniac, but it’s a neat underwater Metroidvania.
Top picks: Housemarque stuff, Not a Hero.
Just don’t: Laser Disco Defenders gave me an acute headache in under a minute.

Sports
• Active Soccer 2 DX is great. It’s got features that FIFA should have (like individually changing the colour of the shirt, shorts, and socks to avoid clashes) and gameplay that Dino Dini’s Kick Off Revival should have (it has some... loads, actually). It’s how you think you remember those 16 bit football games played, not how they actually played.
• OlliOlli / OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood Skateboarding, but frantic, button combo, mesmerising level memorising, rhythm challenges rather than TH.
• Pumped BMX + I bounced off this a couple of times, I simply could not find the rhythm, but once you find it, it’s a rewarding trickster.
• Sportsfriends is a weird collection of mini games, but great in two player, and there’s amazing hidden stuff. Again, the Access guys have showcased this more than once.
• Stikbold! Dodgeball. Borders on being a twin-stick shooter. Amazing.
• Super Mega Baseball The best pitching and batting mechanics I’ve seen in a baseball game. Great as the after dinner mint to any long gaming session.
Top picks:  AS2DX for sport, OlliOlli2 for button combo, but overall probably Stikbold!
Just don’t: Disc Jam.

RPG / Brawler
• Furi Afro Neon samurai faces a progression of (insanely hard) boss battles.
• Gauntlet It’s Gauntlet. Well, it’s a little bit Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, but mostly it’s Gauntlet.
• Salt & Sanctuary 2D souls-like.
• Stories: The Path Of Destinies Branching narrative with Arkham-light combat, requiring repeated plays through to find all the story arcs.
• Super Dungeon Bros I assume this was free with PS+. I’ve only briefly played, seemed serviceable.
• Titan Souls I have no idea how people beat this with a guide to how to kill the bosses, let alone how they work that out in the first place.
Top pick: S&S
Just don’t: Curses ‘N Chaos.

First/Third Person Shooters
• The Deadly Tower Of Monsters Possibly belongs more in the Arcade shooters folder, I dunno. It’s a fun shooter with a sci-fi B-movie theme, presented as the DVD commentary of said movie.
• Strike Vector Ex The closest I’ll get to Colony Wars on PS4, it’s a spaceship dogfighter, in near-earth orbit, with ships akin to modern war fps classes.
Top Pick: SVE.
Just don’t: Drawn to Death.

Experiences / Stories
• ABZÛ Relaxing subaquatic adventure. It frustrates by not allowing you to explore its most interesting environments, which whizz by in on rails sections leaving you the less interesting basins to explore, but it’s soothing and pretty.
• ADR1FT One day, I will load this up and actually play it.
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons A favourite of mine, an environmental puzzler, controlling one brother with each stick, and better than average storytelling.
• Firewatch Not faultless, but not far off. Play it for the unique opening, and masterful handling of the relationship between the two leads, and not for the mismanaged story.
• flOw / Flower / Journey Because everyone should have an opinion on these.
• Outlast Scares the living shit out of me. One day I’d like to play for any length of time without having to switch on all the lights and ‘nope’ around the living room.
Top pick: Tough one. Firewatch, I reckon.
Just don’t: Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Virginia, The Walking Dead, unless you’re some kind of cunt. (winky smiley)

Platformers / Rhythm
• 10 Second Ninja X Complete Super Meat Boy style levels in under ten seconds. I’m amazed this isn’t a bigger hit around here.
• Child of Light Another one I’ve hardly touched but really want to get back to.
• Contrast I hope this has been patched since I played it, because it’s a neat idea. Shadow/perspective puzzler with a decent-enough story.
• Grow Home I bounced off this hard when I first played it. I was wrong.
• Hohokum If there’s a point to this, I’m not sure what it is. Snake / bounce around multicoloured environments to change the nature of their multicolouredness.
• Never Alone Inuit platform adventure. Mediocre gameplay, but great tone and atmosphere, and you can probably see it through in one sitting.
• Ninja Senki DX Platformer with early 16-bit look and early 16-bit sympathy for your repeated failures.
• Snake Pass I’m not as keen on this as others, but it’s a neat idea. I probably just need to practice.
• Sound Shapes Audio platformer. Worth a playthrough just to play something a bit different.
• Stick it to the Man Coherent paper-world aesthetic, I’m trying to remember the hook. I’m sure Reg knows, wherever he is.
• Styx Mordor Gear Solid.
• The Swindle Again, I’ve barely touched it, but what I saw was great.
• Tearaway Unfolded I’ve only actually played the original Vita version, but this is a charming, magical, joyous game.
• Unravel Nostalgic puzzle platformer.
Top picks: 10 Second Ninja X, Sound Shapes, Tearaway Unfolded.
Just don’t: Submerged. I wish it was.

Puzzles / Strategy
• The Bridge is an MC Escher puzzler.
• Ronin is a sort of turn-based combat, sword assassin puzzler.
• Skulls of the Shogun A samurai afterlife turn-based strategy fighter, because obviously.
• Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones I’ve only played the original, A Clone in the Dark, on Vita, but it’s great. A light/shadow stealth platformer.
• The Swapper Another clone puzzler, but using projected clones to solve the puzzles.
• TorqueL Manoeuvre a square by projecting light beams out of its faces by pressing the corresponding buttons. Ties your fingers in knots.
• Trick Towers Inspired by Tetris. Not as good as Tetris.
• Unmechanical: Extended Somebody here loves this.
• Volume Totally not just MGS VR Missions by the Thomas Was Alone guy, no sir-ee.
• The Witness If you don’t like line puzzles, you won’t like this.
Top pick: The Bridge or Ronin.
Just don’t: Entwined, Flame Over, or Hue. Or Oxenfree, but that probably belongs in a different folder.

Party
• Push Me Pull You Control expanding and retracting sausage people in various sumo-style battles.
• STARWHAL Barely control frenetic, neon space narwhals in a battle to stab each other in the weak spot.
Top picks: Both of them, obviously.
Just don’t: Think you can live without either of them.

In case anyone’s thinking I’ve got too many games, a) you’re right, and b) this isn’t even half of what I’ve got on my PS4, let alone other platforms.

Basement comment: Despite having shit like Virginia installed, the only full games in my library that I don’t have installed are Dino Dini’s Kick Off Revival, Let It Die and Madden 16, and the last one is because I’ve got Madden 17 installed.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Blue Estate

My nom for Worst Title of the Year.



Undercooked toonchick protag aside, I really like the look of that Super Cloudbuilt. My only other criticism — from the video — is that its materials look like chipboard and lack any real sense of weight in its world. But then it's hard to generate that alongside its anti-grav nature. Great speed, though, and I'm down with its soundtrack.

About Jumper Lostman, Moot: that's obviously its appeal, no? Willed on by the urgency of its music, making those leaps of faith before you've fully surveyed is the heart of its agency-con thrill. Without such a synaesthetic cadence you'd spy right under the curtain of its routeplanner apparatus, realising that you're just platforming by numbers again. Hotcoaling the player's its imperative.

But it's not reskinned as Ulysses 31, else I'd have no choice but to pay full Grover.

Escape wrote:

I really like the look of that Super Cloudbuilt

I played it so that nobody else here has to. It will not live up to your expectations.

You kinda sold it to me.

Also, jesus christ @Andy

That is an awesome resource of recommendations! 

Anyone else tried Shadow Tactics? Apparently its an indie take on the old Commandos formula. Heard good things, there's a demo, but havent had time to try it.