2023 VIDEO GAME CATCH ALL THREAD

[NikoBaltimore]

I think the rogue-like genre is close to becoming passe.  But sports-related rogue-like games has a lot of potential.  I can see an NBA Jam type game with this and same goes for NFL Street.  Obviously not from the same companies but if somebody nailed the gameplay style and went rogue-like it would be fun.

That said I just got this and am about to try it.  Thanks for letting us know.

EDIT:  Okay, this is really, really fun.  If you like rogue-like games this is worth getting.

Edited May 4, 2023 by NikoBaltimore

[SirSmUgly]

People liked Cursed to Golf a lot, speaking of roguelikes and sports. 

 

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Haven’t gamed lately, but i have been busy.  Refurbished  a Star Wars Xbox 360 console, a black slim PS3, and a red Wii (the limited edition that was released for Mario’s 25th anniversary, not the red/black model released near the end of the Wii’s lifespan that removed GameCube compatibility).  I’ve dabbled in refurbing old consoles before but this is the first time I’ve done a few comprehensive projects by myself.  

Results seem mostly positive.  PS3 looks great and runs well.  Upgraded the storage to 1 tb.  Tried to upgrade to 2 tb, but the console didn’t recognize it.  Wanted to refurbish a white import PS3, but then I wouldn’t be able to play US PS1 games on it (PS1 and PS2 games are still region-locked on the PS3).  Sadly, the Star Wars X360 won’t get any use.  My router does not like it and will not let me connect it to the internet without changing the security settings.  Not doing that, and anyway, most of the X360 games I particularly like are backwards compatible.  Almost all of the rest are available on PS3 and it makes more sense to play enhanced versions on the XSX anyways.

Currently loading retro games onto the various consoles and buying titles to fill some holes.  More enthusiastic about gaming than I’ve been since…. well, the last time I hooked up the PS3 a few years ago.

Does anyone know if you can use a wireless Xbox 360 console with XSX?  The XSX doesn’t support 360 controllers, but a quick Google search suggested you can buy an adapter, but maybe only with wired controllers?  Not really sure at this point.

[NikoBaltimore]

2 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

People liked Cursed to Golf a lot, speaking of roguelikes and sports. 

 

I literally forgot I bought that game until you mentioned it.  I barely played it at the time and maybe should try it again at some point.  Curse my ever-growing backlog!

[Craig H]

Picked up the TotK Switch OLED today and man it's gorgeous...except from a design perspective, the green on the left joycon is a little weird. Other than that, I think my daughter will be thrilled.

[odessasteps]

I heard someone say that about the green.

[Craig H]

20 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I heard someone say that about the green.

I really need to talk about anything else at this point. So yeah the green continues bugging me. It sticks out like a sore thumb and that's a shame because the rest of the design of the Switch is beautiful. I think if there were less of a green...blob...on the left joycon and they reused that same swatch anywhere else on the switch, even a little on the right joycon, it would be perfect. It's just so close to perfect.

[Kuetsar]

On 4/30/2023 at 5:32 PM, Zimbra said:

After trying it when I bought it and putting it down pretty quickly, AssCreed Valhalla has really clicked for me. The secret was turning the combat difficulty down to "dumbass" level and just running around Viking the shit out of everything.

Not sure if this is the same thing as you are talking about, but there is a feature that lets you keep enemies at their natural levels instead of being at most four levels under you, or somesuch. Its such a blast once you really start leveling up. . .

[Casey]

I bought the FF Pixel Remasters on Steam last night.

I know you don’t NEED to play them numerical order or anything, but I am anyway, so my question is: they’re all numbered correctly now, right? If my memory serves me right, a few (or just one?) was released in America as a number that already existed but never released here.

 

[Kevin Wilson]

8 minutes ago, Casey said:

I bought the FF Pixel Remasters on Steam last night.

I know you don’t NEED to play them numerical order or anything, but I am anyway, so my question is: they’re all numbered correctly now, right? If my memory serves me right, a few (or just one?) was released in America as a number that already existed but never released here.

 

The Pixel Remasters are in the right order now, they fixed the naming with US re-releases awhile ago.

[odessasteps]

Finished Return to Monkey Island. What an odd ending. A nice retro experience esp “for free” on game pass.

[J.T.]

Dear God.  The updated Star Wars Racer game is free with XBox Gold.  It is 1999 again and I am once again up at Midnight screaming at the television because I suck at tournament play.

Edited May 8, 2023 by J.T.

[Casey]

I’m just coming in here to say how gorgeous Bioshock Remastered looks on the SteamDeck. I played the PS4 version for a little bit on the PS5 and it… looked alright, I guess. But goddamn it’s crisp as fuck on the SteamDeck.

I love this little machine so much. Currently playing that, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster, Metal Unit, ReCore, Tomb Raider Legend, and Borderlands 2.

I’m giving this thing more love than my PS5 and Series S as of late.

[Contentious C]

How is ReCore? It looked neat and I downloaded it on Game Pass, but then I never played it before the subscription expired. I've never heard anyone talk about it.

Edited May 7, 2023 by Contentious C

[Casey]

51 minutes ago, Contentious C said:

How is ReCore? It looked neat and I downloaded it on Game Pass, but then I never played it before the subscription expired. I've never heard anyone talk about it.

I like it a lot! It’s pretty basic but breaking an enemy’s shield then pulling out their core is a fun mechanic. I’m not really sure what the story is, though. It kind of just dumps you into the game and you’ve got some narrator doing VO at times. No clue who it is or how it connects to the story or anything.

Has a cool gameplay idea, and it looks pretty,  but it’s not something I would have paid full price for at launch (Xbox One, I think). I got it for less than $2 on Green Man Gaming so it’s worth it.

[Robert S]

On 5/6/2023 at 4:42 AM, odessasteps said:

Finished Return to Monkey Island. What an odd ending. A nice retro experience esp “for free” on game pass.

I was pretty sure that I either hit a bad ending or that this was a fake ending and that somewhen during the credits the game would resume, but nope, that's what they came up with. They really doubled down on the Monkey Island 2 ending.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Learned this morning that Sandisk is releasing an official licensed 1 tb micro SD card for the Switch.  Card looks to hit stores on the 12th, in connection with the release of Tears of the Kingdom.

There are 1 tb cards out there that work with Switch, but this is the largest of the licensed micro sd card.  Previously, the largest official cars was 512 mb.  Great news for me, as I only buy third-party cards and drives if there isn’t a licensed alternative.  My 512 mb card is almost full.

 

edit: 

also, Microsoft and Seagate are permanently dropping the price of the Series X/S ssd expanion cards, if anyone is interested in those.  Going forward, the 512 mb card is $89, the 1 tb card is $149, and the 2 tb card is $279.  They’re cutting the price of each card 25-30%.

Edited May 7, 2023 by Tarheel Moneghetti

[odessasteps]

4 hours ago, Robert S said:

I was pretty sure that I either hit a bad ending or that this was a fake ending and that somewhen during the credits the game would resume, but nope, that's what they came up with. They really doubled down on the Monkey Island 2 ending.

It did make me want to go back and play the old games.

[SirSmUgly]

Ron Gilbert and games with endings that are too clever by half. Is there a more appropriate combination in games?

[Zimbra]

2 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

Ron Gilbert and games with endings that are too clever by half. Is there a more appropriate combination in games?

Peter Molyneux and lying?

[odessasteps]

Zelda streams using Australian copies of the game started at 1000 ET. Be aware if you want to be spoiler free. 

[Contentious C]

I've been binging through Metroid Prime in anticipation of TotK taking up all my gaming time, and...

I'm not terribly impressed with this in general.

I mean, it's good.  But that's basically all it is.  Other than RPGs, the genre I spend/spent the most time with over the years is undoubtedly Metroidvanias, mostly in the form of the Arkham games, and this one shows its age in comparison to those.  The Arkham games are quite good about progressing believably; the Metroid games, eh, not so much.  How many times can one space hunter have all their shit disabled before they build a better suit, or, FFS, a second one?  And this feels like a relatively obvious case of that: instead of feeling like the plot is actually taking you on a journey that you logically have to do because things are going sideways, you're schlepping back and forth across the map because you hit some gated content and then it beeps at you to tell you why it's gated.  And the routing leaves something to be desired, mostly because the backgrounds are not particularly well designed.  It's a little easy to get turned around; I don't know if that's the adjustment to 3D or if it's just generally poor level design to help provide meaningful, memorable landmarks.  And plus, the whole 'artifact' thing feels even more artificial than that - you find those almost entirely by accident, despite the fact that they're supposed to be so bloody germane to the plot.  Obviously, this is a much older game than the Arkhams, and lessons were learned, but if you're going to remaster something, some of these issues could have been dealt with more sensibly.

But at least it doesn't make me hate life the way Dread did.  That said, the Phazon Mines are a straight piece of shit, given their difficulty spike (though it helps to learn that the real problems in that zone are the Beam-specific Pirates, and you're better off getting up close and charge-shotting them with aim locked).

Edited May 12, 2023 by Contentious C

[Craig H]

Well, I managed to score a copy of the Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition through Amazon. It should arrive tomorrow, which wrecks my plans to play a shit load of the game today. Guess I'll just play more of the Diablo 4 beta today instead.

[odessasteps]

I watched like 10 hours of Zelda streams yesterday and played just enough today to get thru the introduction.

I can already tell the shrine puzzles will kill me. 

[Zimbra]

Trying very hard to convince myself not to buy Zelda even though I got paid today.