2023 VIDEO GAME CATCH ALL THREAD

[Tabe]

Activision was hacked back in December. The hackers got employee info, the DLC schedule for COD, and lots of other stuff. 

[Ramo2653]

Finished off Midnight Fight Express last night. Some parts of the last few levels were kinda BS (the combine section was awful since you have to be pretty perfect) but overall a pretty good beat em up with some depth to make you keep replaying levels (40 of them). 

Not sure what to play next since I have that really bad habit of getting games and then being frozen by choice so I ended up doing Fighting Road in FPW, I gravitate towards brawling power guys so I made another one. I've gotten better at making more balanced move sets though from my teenage years at least.

[Casey]

I bought a 360 Slim 250GB last week and got it today. Holy shit, what a nostalgia trip seeing the dashboard and whatnot.

Already have a few games - the console came bundled with Gears of War 1-4, and I bought Fallout 3 GOTY. And the other game I bought - I’ve only played about 10 minutes of Final Fantasy XIII so far, but man, that game is GORGEOUS. And I’m playing it on a little 720p TV, too. 

Surprisingly, movies are still added to that marketplace (obviously games aren’t). But the app list is something that is absolutely frozen in time. WWE Network is on there

I’m very happy. I have a PS2 and 360, my childhood and teenage/young adult consoles respectively.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Casey

[SirSmUgly]

I think I have the somewhat odd take that the Paper Mario games peaked at the first one on N64 and each one was not as good as the previous one. "Odd" because I think most people think the series:

• peaked at The Thousand Year Door 
• hit its nadir with Sticker Star

I'm more than open to the first point; it's objective truth that TTYD does all the mechanical and world design stuff Paper Mario does, but with refinement. I just have strong nostalgia for the first game, I think. 

I don't think the second point is right, though. I'm through the third world now, and Sticker Star has an idea at its core that I like - take the World Map of Super Mario RPG, but create alternate comets/exits in the tradition of Super Mario World's secret goals/locks-and-keys. I think the sticker doors are a good idea, too, and in general, this game handles discovery and exploration much better than Color Splash or Origami King.

I get why the game has such a negative reception, though. Minimal plotting or characterization; no cast of colorful partner characters; Kersti - the one partner character of sorts in the game - might be the worst side character in a Mario game ever; the game isn't an RPG anymore even though it has turn-based battles; etc. I don't have a problem with this series being an action-adventure game with light platforming now, as much as I think Mario RPGs need to be a thing. But the margin for error is thin with these games; if the overworld isn't engaging or the exploration and battle system aren't good, uh-oh. There's no story to save things.

On that note, Origami King is one of the worst Nintendo games I've ever spent 15+ hours with. It all fell apart there (except for the Musee Champignon music). Sticker Star at least has it's map system and some fun discovery stuff. Color Splash has a lot of annoying elements added to it, but it's basically Sticker Star except slightly worse. 

Anyway, I'd say that Paper Mario N64 and TTYD are great, Super Paper Mario is decent, Sticker Star and Color Splash are fine, and Origami King is poop, that's my argument. If Intelligent Systems stopped making Paper Mario games now, that'd be fine with me. They can just churn out a Fire Emblem game a year, I'll continue to ignore Fire Emblem, and it'll be all good. Instead, they'll make another Paper Mario and I'll remember the first two, get my hopes up, and then waste sixty seventy bucks. 

Now that AlphaDream is dead, I sure hope Nintendo starts a new Mario RPG series. There are only so many times I can play SMRPG or Paper Mario again. At least remake TTYD or something. 

[twiztor]

@SirSmellingtonofCascadiahow do you rate Mario RPG in your Paper Mario scale? RPGs in general are not my favorite genre, but i feel like i owe it to myself to play through that one

[SirSmUgly]

1 hour ago, twiztor said:

@SirSmellingtonofCascadiahow do you rate Mario RPG in your Paper Mario scale? RPGs in general are not my favorite genre, but i feel like i owe it to myself to play through that one

SMRPG is the king. I don't like most Eastern RPGs, especially turn-based ones, but SMRPG is my favorite one of those. Not too long (level caps at 30), fun story, memorable characters, and I like the timing-based attack mechanics in the battles.

If you end up playing and liking SMRPG, Paper Mario 64 and TTYD are definitely worth playing, and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story are also probably worth playing. 

[DreamBroken]

Paper Mario n64 is one of my all time fav games, loved the whole adventure and story. I liked Thousand Year Door a good bit, got to the final battle but never finished it. Fell off after that since I never had Wii or later Nintendo systems.

[Death From Above]

SMRPG is honestly shockingly good for what I assumed would be a silly gimmick game at the time. It's not an absolute top tier 16 bit RPG but it might be clubhouse leader on the tier below that, you know?

[SirSmUgly]

10 hours ago, DreamBroken said:

Paper Mario n64 is one of my all time fav games, loved the whole adventure and story. I liked Thousand Year Door a good bit, got to the final battle but never finished it. Fell off after that since I never had Wii or later Nintendo systems.

I played N64 Paper Mario for the first time in years and years on the Switch a few months ago, and it was just as charming as it was in 2001 or whenever I first played it. 

 

9 hours ago, Death From Above said:

SMRPG is honestly shockingly good for what I assumed would be a silly gimmick game at the time. It's not an absolute top tier 16 bit RPG but it might be clubhouse leader on the tier below that, you know?

I think it's the perfect Eastern RPG for people who don't really like Eastern RPGs, if that makes sense. It's not a game that makes me want to go back to FFIV or Lufia 2 or anything, but it has the basic trappings of those games presented in a way that's palatable to someone who's not the biggest fan of the genre. 

[Kevin Wilson]

I know there are plenty of people online posting their thoughts on PSVR 2 so I'll keep mine brief, but overall its been an enjoyable experience. Setup was easy but I discovered I needed two more things - a floor lamp (my game room is kinda dark) and some compatible headphones. The only "out of the box" option is earbuds but I really don't like earbuds so getting some Pulse 3D headphones.

As far as my motion sickness goes, I'm one of those types that if the games use "teleport" movement I'm fine, but locomotive movement does very slowly give me motion sickness. The Star Wars game has the teleport option so I've been playing that, its a pretty basic game but I've really been enjoying it. I still am not sure its worth $500 but as someone that has tried VR in the past and is a fan of the tech, I haven't regretted it or wanted to return it like I did the original Oculus and PSVR, so that's a positive step.

[Death From Above]

So I'd never played Blood Bowl and jumped in with the 3, launched just the other day. This was uhhhhhh not the right time to jump into this series, it's sitting at something like 25% positive reviews on Steam and I can't even argue with that. I'm really baffled by this launch. The game has a lot of busted or missing features, there's a ton of bugs, some genuinely baffling menu designs, there are large online stability issues... this is in an early access state, at best. This launch should have been delayed is the most polite thing I can say.

The sad thing is, as someone who has never played Blood Bowl before I think I kind of like the game underneath all that. I genuinely hope they get these issues sorted. But between all that and the absolutely predatory microtransactions which I am not even touching, it's very hard to see how this game recovers a playerbase.

[AxB]

I'm not sure why they made a videogame version of Blood Bowl, that apes the turn-based system of the figure-based game. Why not make in an RTS sports game?

[Death From Above]

Eh, I think Blood Bowl fans are just fine with it being a straight translation. I know I'd have no interest in it as a RTS.

[JLSigman]

On 2/19/2023 at 12:33 PM, JLSigman said:

Final Fantasy (I) Pixel Remaster is easier than I remember the original being (played it on my then brother-in-law's NES a million years ago), but will still let you get way far into the story before you realize that your party makeup is bad and you should feel bad. (Monk is awful squishy) (Red Mage is not an acceptable substitute for Black Mage)

Beat this, and I am not going back to look for those 3 missing bestiary entries (unless I get bored) (..... damnit OCD). Much shorter than I remember, barely 10 hours.

I've got a Final Fantasy II save right over the last dungeon, and I can probably wrap that up in an afternoon.

I'm getting an itch for killing things for loot, so I may have to fire up Grim Dawn soon.

[odessasteps]

 

[Casey]

The boss fights in Gotham Knights are insanely hard. I would break multiple controllers if I was doing this on anything but Medium/Normal difficulty, holy shit.

Besides the movement being a little clunky, not many complaints. This is basically an Arkham game.

[Death From Above]

I regret to inform people I am enjoying Blood Bowl 3 despite all the issues. I am part of the problem with why developers keep getting away with it.

[RIPPA]

I don't know when it happened but Hot Wheels Unleashed (the Game of the Year Edition) was added to Game Pass so now I know what I am playing when Destiny is offline today

[odessasteps]

Finished HZD main story today, with around 40% complete. May try and do the Frozen Wild stuff and get rest of collectibles before it goes back to the library.

[Andrew POE!]

After nearly a month without doing anything (other than Knockout City), got my 278th Platinum trophy with Crysis 2 for PS3. The servers were shut down in 2018 and I did the online trophies then. Just now finally did the rest of the game.

[Matt D]

I've got the last dungeon and a little bit of grinding to go in Fantasian Part 1. I read some comments on Part 2 and the difficulty spike sounds absolutely insane. I still have a couple of free months of Apple Arcade left so I think I'll dabble but it sounds like a crazy endeavor for a primarily mobile game 

[RIPPA]

While I did play Hot Wheels Unleashed a little (I really needed to figure out how to sort through all the available cars) I ended up firing up what is now Hitman World of Assassination since I hadn't touched Hitman 3 in 2 years and I was curious about the changes

I started doing the missions from the first Hitman since - that progress didn't transfer over. It is a good thing I am not an Achievement hunter since none of the original auto-popped

[NikoBaltimore]

After finishing up "High on Life" I figured why not see what the big deal is about "Dead Cells".  It's amazing how you can go from a lighthearted shooter to a game that is punishing if you don't know what you're doing.  It's not quite "Hades" in the addictive roguelike sense yet.  But man it's still pretty sweet seeing each run go a bit further and further.  I like it a lot so far.

On 2/26/2023 at 11:48 PM, Casey said:

The boss fights in Gotham Knights are insanely hard. I would break multiple controllers if I was doing this on anything but Medium/Normal difficulty, holy shit.

Besides the movement being a little clunky, not many complaints. This is basically an Arkham game.

They were hard but worked itself out in the end.  Don't know if you are on console or PC but after it crashing so much I tried a bit of New Game+ and uninstalled it.  I don't have much faith in the patch fixing the issue especially since people are still saying it crashes.  Despite all that it was a fun game though.

[Casey]

I haven’t had any crashes on the Series S for Gotham Knights. I’d say I’m about 10 or so hours into it maybe.

I’m only at my second boss fight, which is Harley Quinn. I remember reading pre-launch that it was one of the tougher fights (defuse bombs while fighting two mini bosses at the same time + henchmen). Definitely needs a thing like Elden Ring where you can send out the call for help and have either an AI teammate help or an actual player join your game.

[Ramo2653]

Finished off TMNT: Shredders Revenge tonight. If I had to rank the most recent beat em up released I'd go:

 

Streets of Rage 4

Midnight Fight Express

TMNT: Shredders Revenge (bonus points for the Raekwon and Ghostface Shredder song during the first fight tho)

The mechanics of Shredders Revenge were too sluggish for me compared to the much tighter controls of the other 2 games. I haven't touched Sifu yet since that seems like it might be a longer game with the aging mechanic. Anyone else played these or any other recent beat em ups? I'm a console guy for the most part although my laptop can run some stuff on Steam. It's probably my all time favorite genre along with fighting games since I have so many memories wrapped up of playing with my cousins when we would visit each other on the weekends growing up.