2023 VIDEO GAME CATCH ALL THREAD

[Death From Above]

Sifu isn't super long.

[Casey]

It is if you suck at it, like I do.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Played God Hand and Kller7 recently.  Hoping to complete Super Mario World 2 tonight.  Planning to play either Wo Long or Ninja Gaiden Black over the weekend.

I think I could make an argument that games haven’t gotten better over the past 40 years.  Sure, graphics have improved and technological advances allow for more complexity in game design, but I’m not convinced game design has advanced all that much.  PS3/Xbox 360/Wii years are still my favorite era for video games.  Even with the proliferation of indy games, I feel like we get a lot less experimentation than we did during the late 90’s and early 2000’s.  Development cycles are too long, costs are too high, etc.

That said, God Hand would probably really benefit from a remake.  Graphics are not particularly good, even for a PS2 game.  Some of the bugs and glitches are really distracting.  The transparent walls (if you stand too close to them) really disorient me.

Killer7 still looks great.  Cartoony cel-shaded graphics generally hold up much better than “realistic-looking” games from the early 2000’s, imo. 
 

Speaking of experimental games, I really like the Humanity demo, so hopefully it sells well.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Tarheel Moneghetti

[Ramo2653]

God Hand is one of those games I didn't notice when it came out and whenever I see a stream of it, I think "that looks cool, I'd like to play that" but it's either find a used copy and fire up the PS2 or I think it's available on the PS3 store or it was at one point. It could probably use a remaster but I don't know what the market is for that.

Count me in for thinking the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube through PS3/Xbox360/Wii era being the best between variety and quality, that was also when the used market was great so you could spend a Saturday at a Gamestop or local version and grab 3-4 games for not a lot of money and just try some stuff. That's' how I found Demon's Souls, a used copy was sitting there for $15.

[Craig H]

Welp, I got a decent bonus from work and decided to upgrade my TV to a 65" LG OLED Evo C2. I haven't had a 120hz TV before, but my current TV (50" TCL) does run in 4K. So how much of a different will this make for playing games? For instance, I didn't notice any difference while playing Elden Ring in performance mode or fidelity mode and I wonder if that had to do with playing it on a 4K 60hz TV. Same goes for basically every PS5 and Series X game I've played.

In any event, I'm looking forward to at least getting to experience an OLED TV.

[RIPPA]

Luminous Productions, the studio that had just released Forspoken, is being absorbed back into its parent company... Square Enix

 

[SirSmUgly]

After about 27 hours, I finished Paper Mario Sticker Star. I still think it's better than Color Splash or Origami King just based off the battle and map systems, but it's pretty dang flawed in a lot of ways. 

• Bosses are meant to be beaten efficiently, using specific Thing Stickers at specific times. Of course, you'll not know which Thing Stickers to even bring with you to a boss level unless a) you read a guide or b) you trek all the way to the boss, can't grind your way through, and exit out to go get the Thing Stickers that you think you need (sometimes it's obvious, as with the World 2 Boss, other times not so much), and then re-run the level again. 
• This also goes for Thing Sticker-related puzzles that you need to solve in some of the regular levels. Better hope you have one of the stickers needed to solve the puzzle, or you're going to have to leave and come back. 
• Some of the things you need to do to generally advance through the levels are somewhat obtuse - like what to do after you initially activate the door in 6-1. That, or I totally forgot that Wiggler was going to wrap himself up in a cocoon to germinate after I got his parts back together. 
• Some of the parts of the world that are stickers that you need to rip off are obvious, and some are not so obvious. I'm not sure that this is a good thing, honestly. I learned to just immediately hit the button to stickerize the world whenever I got stuck, which I'm not sure is the intended design. 
• Battles are tedious. The system isn't bad, but it's not going to make you think very much, at least outside of boss battles. 
• Some of those Thing Stickers are hidden in ways that are also obtuse enough that I don't mind having used a guide for the last five (it's a pretty good lame gag that you go back to the spot that you found the Bowling Ball Thing after you've used it to clear a level's secondary comet and find the Bowling Trophy Thing, but I'm guessing most people wouldn't have thought of doing that straightaway, or even without a player's guide). 

I think this reasserts my belief that Paper Mario could die tomorrow and nothing of value would be lost. I don't know why Nintendo decided that it didn't need to be a quirky, story-driven RPG series anymore, but they done fucked up. The only thing this game keeps are the JRPG-style obtuse secrets, which is the worst thing about JRPGs (IMO, your mileage may well vary). 

But I did enjoy it enough to go through and finish out the battle sticker part of the museum before putting it back into its case and never playing it again! 

[Casey]

EDIT: Maybe this is better suited for the Deals thread. Whoops!

Edited March 2, 2023 by Casey

[dragonzombie]

The older I get the more I hate unlocking stuff and paid DLC for video games. The content should be available from the start. Patches are good though. 

[Craig H]

So I got my fancy new OLED all hooked up last night, watched Dynamite, watched the Mandalorian, and played a couple games. It's a 120 hz TV. The weird thing is, it's not behaving like a 120 hz TV? Like, when I've seen movies or TV shows played on other 120 hz TVs it has a distinct look to it that's hard to explain. Watching stuff last night felt like watching anything else I've watched, except with really bright, vibrant colors and true black coloring that doesn't look chunky. I don't want my shit to look like a soap opera, but I also want to make sure this thing is working right before I fill my recycling bin up with a ton of cardboard.

[SirSmUgly]

I totally forgot that the Series S doesn't have a disc drive. Welp. Since I'm looking at a bunch of 360 games I own on disc that I was hoping to play, that is a bummer. On the other hand, I should be able to re-sell and make a small profit. 

EDIT: But thanks to Casey for the tip anyway. It's not his fault I'm old and out of touch, expecting disc drives in my consoles and chargers packed in with my phones and electric toothbrushes. 

Edited March 2, 2023 by SirSmellingtonofCascadia

[dogwelder]

4 hours ago, Craig H said:

So I got my fancy new OLED all hooked up last night, watched Dynamite, watched the Mandalorian, and played a couple games. It's a 120 hz TV. The weird thing is, it's not behaving like a 120 hz TV? Like, when I've seen movies or TV shows played on other 120 hz TVs it has a distinct look to it that's hard to explain. Watching stuff last night felt like watching anything else I've watched, except with really bright, vibrant colors and true black coloring that doesn't look chunky. I don't want my shit to look like a soap opera, but I also want to make sure this thing is working right before I fill my recycling bin up with a ton of cardboard.

You might want to take a look at rtings.com.  They probably have calibration settings for the C2 to make it look better.  I use their settings for the C1 I bought early last year.

[JLSigman]

This is the dude who was an NFT fan, so this is a good move.

[Craig H]

16 hours ago, dogwelder said:

You might want to take a look at rtings.com.  They probably have calibration settings for the C2 to make it look better.  I use their settings for the C1 I bought early last year.

Yeah, I did that. Seems like the AI just automatically puts in the best mode based on what I'm watching. Everything is still in 120 hz, but it just doesn't do that overly smoothing effect.

I think my only other issue based on Rtings calibration settings is that for whatever reason, TV/movie watching is really dark and games are insanely bright to the point where my eyes were watering. I may just dig out my own calibration disc and try that instead.

It is the most beautiful picture I've ever seen though. Holy shit. People aren't joking when they say OLEDs are amazing. I don't think I've ever seen truer black coloring on a set before.

[Kevin Wilson]

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty totally looks like My Shit but my backlog is so big. Damn you, GamePass. I'm currently trying to play PSVR 2 games, Mario Rabbids, Midnight Suns, and Atomic Heart all at the same time as it is, then Wo Long arrives. I need to clear out my situation before Zelda releases.

This doesn't even take into account I'm ignoring the new GoW exists and Octopath Traveler II, two games I fully intend on playing this year.

[Andrew POE!]

4 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty totally looks like My Shit but my backlog is so big. Damn you, GamePass. I'm currently trying to play PSVR 2 games, Mario Rabbids, Midnight Suns, and Atomic Heart all at the same time as it is, then Wo Long arrives. I need to clear out my situation before Zelda releases.

This doesn't even take into account I'm ignoring the new GoW exists and Octopath Traveler II, two games I fully intend on playing this year.

My copy of Wo Long just arrived and my backlog can be seen from space. I still got PS3 games from 2012 I haven't played.

Edited March 3, 2023 by Andrew POE!

[Chaos]

5 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty totally looks like My Shit but my backlog is so big. Damn you, GamePass. I'm currently trying to play PSVR 2 games, Mario Rabbids, Midnight Suns, and Atomic Heart all at the same time as it is, then Wo Long arrives. I need to clear out my situation before Zelda releases.

This doesn't even take into account I'm ignoring the new GoW exists and Octopath Traveler II, two games I fully intend on playing this year.

Imagine being a not smart person like me and continually adding to it when you're lucky to get 2-3 hours in of gaming a week. 

[odessasteps]

Happy 6th birthday to the Switch

[odessasteps]

give me toilet paper only $5 on the switch

[Casey]

so Knights of the Old Republic is a game I'm literally JUST now playing and it's everything I've ever wanted in a Star Wars game. The graphics aren't even that bad for something that came out on the original Xbox. Voice acting is surprisingly good, too. The combat system is... eh, it's decent. Not what I was expecting, but it's cool.

I look forward to turning my female Han Solo into a Sith eventually.

[tbarrie]

I finished Pentiment this morning. It's pretty awesome. I kind of wish finishing it unlocked the ability to use saves other than the autosave, though. I'd like to go back and experiment to see how much influence you actually have on how the story plays out, but having to start from the beginning for every decision would be time-consuming.

[odessasteps]

I keep meaning to start that, since it looks cool..

[Robert S]

On 2/10/2023 at 10:33 PM, Robert S said:

I was playing a bunch of Chained Echoes recently. 20+ hours in the fucker deleted ALL my save games. It got an update today on Gamepass. Afterwards I could still start it and load save games just fine. But after closing it and opening it again (a couple of hours later), everything is gone. There don't seem to be any local save files (the folder where I would expect the save files looks to be pretty "clean"), so I guess the save files should be located in the cloud. I can only hope that there is some kind of sync issue with the latest version which will be fixed (ergo the saves were not cleared). I definitely won't replay those 20 hours.

I probably should give an update: this turned out to be a temporary issue, the day after the syncing of the cloud saves worked again. I finished the game and this most the stuff you can do (I think I skipped two optional bosses and don't really feel motivated to go back to beat them). Some random thoughts:

• the story starts out relatively flat but picks up big in the second and third act
• the battle mechanics are relatively shallow, besides one of the side (post game) bosses I beat, I never really had to tinker with the setup and I almost always used the same line up and strategy no matter which boss I faced
• in principle I liked the (I suppose Chrono Cross inspired) leveling system that makes grinding more or less useless, though the "tech tree" is too flat that you really have options how to build your characters, that's even more true for the mech fights
• there are some mechanics (especially the fast travel points help a lot, that you don't need to think about healing between battles is a plus as well) that really speed up the gameplay compared to 90ies JRPGs to put more focus on the story

[Contentious C]

I just added to my Backlog of Shame by buying Death Stranding & God of War 2018 for my PS5.  Of course I'm still dicking around on Skyrim for the billionth time instead of playing the things I paid for.

Also, the PS5 Media Remote is basically garbage compared to the XBox One remote.  I almost wish I hadn't bothered with it (except that I wouldn't want to run down my controller battery playing movies).  Stuff looks...weird on the PS5's blu-ray/4K anyway - I think it's trying so hard to provide sharpness and clarity, and the upscaling is different enough, that it looks more 3-dimensional than what I'm used to or expecting.  It's a bit much.

[Casey]

Outer Worlds' next gen upgrade is gonna need a patch, because the Performance Mode option still feels like 30-40 fps. Noticeable slow downs when you enter the "open world" areas, like at the beginning of the game. It's fine in contained cities, like Emerald Vale.

You also can't transfer PS4 saves to the PS5 version. So a separate, but exactly the same, trophy list for PS4 and PS5. Wack.