2024 VIDEO GAMES CATCH ALL THREAD

[dragonzombie]

Street Fighter 2 Pocky Edition, one new playable character Eiko. 

https://game8.co/articles/latest/street-fighter-2-pocky-edition-is-a-weird-limited-time-free-to-play-browser-version-of-the-classic

You can play it here in your browser, https://pocky-ko-game.glico.com/

[Zimbra]

Oh shit, Warhammer 40K Power Wash Simulator DLC is an easy impulse purchase

[Death From Above]

I've made it to the 7th of the 9 Helldivers difficulties, "Suicide Mission".

This is the best game I've played in years for just popping in for an hour, getting adrenaline injected straight into my body, and then logging off for the day.

[odessasteps]

I watched Da Party play it the other day. I can see why people like it, but not my style. Watching them struggle at the Extraction Point gave me Mass Effect/ Destiny multiplayer flashbacks .

[Andrew POE!]

I also started on Helldivers II with playing with a buddy of mine last night. The game isn't easy at all.

I do want to go back and try to Platinum Helldivers on PS4 though.

[AxB]

So I think I've done everything there is to do in Red Dead Redemption online, and I've no great desire to try and 100% the offline mode, so I decided to try something new. So I plugged the PS3 back in and started Deus Ex:Human Revolution.

It's not very good. Well, it's a stealth-based game with controls that are very counter-intuitive, so you keep shooting the wall you're hiding behind instead of peeking over it. And then you get swarmed and killed. Very tempting to give up on it immediately.

[Death From Above]

I've never understood the love for the series. None of the games hold up to the slightest amount of critical eye.

[SirSmUgly]

On 3/2/2024 at 6:23 AM, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

Hasn't Nintendo also historically never done a mass layoff? I remember Satoru Iwata taking a massive pay cut after the Wii U took a bath in the market (can't remember if it was a third or a half) and said it was better for him to cut his own pay than release workers and damage morale, because that won't make good games.

The whole AA/AAA game thing confuses me too. I've seen those definitions change so much that it's not worth differentiating anymore. If a game looks fun, I'll try it, if it doesn't, I won't. That's my scale.

I don't believe Nintendo hasn't ever done a mass layoff. They have cash reserves and I think - I'm not a Japanese labor lawyer - are somewhat constrained from doing so at    their Japanese studios by Japanese law.

I agree about the definition of AA vs. AAA, but for me, I'm focused on games lower in budget and scope. I'll play anything that looks good, but trying to hit on big budget games with lots of scope creep is simply unsustainable financially. Sony lives off of those games and has multiple 10M+ and a few 20M+ sellers and can't even do it. 

[Andrew POE!]

5 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said:

I don't believe Nintendo hasn't ever done a mass layoff. They have cash reserves and I think - I'm not a Japanese labor lawyer - are somewhat constrained from doing so at    their Japanese studios by Japanese law.

I agree about the definition of AA vs. AAA, but for me, I'm focused on games lower in budget and scope. I'll play anything that looks good, but trying to hit on big budget games with lots of scope creep is simply unsustainable financially. Sony lives off of those games and has multiple 10M+ and a few 20M+ sellers and can't even do it. 

The closest Nintendo has done was reduce working hours and Iwata actually reduced his own salary so employees could keep getting paid during the last economic downturn. Some American CEOs would scoff at having to surrender their pay to help their employees and mumble about communism and refuse to do it.

[Death From Above]

9 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

I also started on Helldivers II with playing with a buddy of mine last night. The game isn't easy at all.

I do want to go back and try to Platinum Helldivers on PS4 though.

A few very general pointers:

- You have to play understanding your character is an expendable grunt. You're not Master Chief, you're one of the rando scrubs that gets dropped into an XCOM mission. Unless you are a genuinely exceptional player, running around like a solo hero tends to not do as much good for the team as sticking together and working as a unit. When in doubt just follow whoever you think is the strongest player and back them up.

- As you go up in difficulties it becomes more important to focus down bug holes and robot production facilities. Get in there and practice throwing your grenades because every hole you plug prevents a lot of spawns, on top of earning experience for clearing sub-objectives.

- Early on get the Expendable Anti-Tank weapon which will help with large targets until you can eventually upgrade to something like the Railgun or Autocannon or whatever down the line.

- Don't bother with the minefield upgrades, spend elsewhere.

- You don't have to engage everything you see, and in fact it becomes detrimental to do so on the higher difficulties. If a rando patrol seems to have not spotted you it's totally fine to let it be. Enemies get stronger in an area the closer the mission timer ticks towards 0 so eventually spending a ton of time fighting for no reason isn't actually helping you that much.

- If a mission timer is going to hit zero before you extract, make sure to throw out every stratagem you have since you're going to lose access to them anyway. Might as well spend your skills while you can even if it seems suboptimal or uneccessary at the moment.

[Craig H]

20 hours ago, Death From Above said:

I've made it to the 7th of the 9 Helldivers difficulties, "Suicide Mission".

This is the best game I've played in years for just popping in for an hour, getting adrenaline injected straight into my body, and then logging off for the day.

My group has made it to level 8. It’s doable, but we’ve dropped in on some areas that weren’t listed as dangerous and were immediately mobbed by chargers and bile titans. A couple of us having the orbital laser and orbital railcannon let us survive.

Of course, extraction missions on suicide and above are still impossible, especially against Automatons, are still bugged for where there’s and impossible amount of tanks and hulks and about 4 drop ships at one time.

[Cliff Hanger]

I am just starting to catch up on Evercade carts after not buying any since early 2022 (the Wolf Team/Renovation and Gremlin Graphics carts) with the second Intellivision and first C64 carts. It's really interesting that the C64 was a success both here and in the UK, but the Epyx games are the only ones that were hits in both countries and otherwise we had totally different experiences.

[blitzkrieg]

Taking apart and cleaning my PS3 controller ended up taking a whole lot longer than previously expected but boy do I have a great understanding of the PS3 controller now. I feel like I need to start hording controllers for 10-15 years in the future when suddenly I find myself needing them.

[Death From Above]

I managed to finally do a Kill Everyone run in Hitman on Colorado, master difficulty. I don't want to admit how much time I invested into that one.

[Casey]

On 3/3/2024 at 5:33 PM, Craig H said:

My group has made it to level 8. It’s doable, but we’ve dropped in on some areas that weren’t listed as dangerous and were immediately mobbed by chargers and bile titans. A couple of us having the orbital laser and orbital railcannon let us survive.

Of course, extraction missions on suicide and above are still impossible, especially against Automatons, are still bugged for where there’s and impossible amount of tanks and hulks and about 4 drop ships at one time.

Yeah, Suicide/Impossible aren’t that bad if you have the right loadout for what you’re doing.

But even the correct loadout doesn’t help you in the extraction missions. I did manage to do one today on Impossible - two let the bugs away/kept them distracted, and me and another guy just ran around opening the doors. Everyone met up at the colony when there was around 10-15 colonists left to extract and then all hell broke loose. Multiple Bile Titans and chargers at once, it was insane. But we managed to do it. Lost access to stratagems at the end while defending the extract point, but that’s whatever.

[Ramo2653]

17 hours ago, blitzkrieg said:

Taking apart and cleaning my PS3 controller ended up taking a whole lot longer than previously expected but boy do I have a great understanding of the PS3 controller now. I feel like I need to start hording controllers for 10-15 years in the future when suddenly I find myself needing them.

I need to take a look at my PS5 controller since I'm noting some drift on the left analog stick.

[odessasteps]

My Midnight Suns game keeps crashing more often and I have like 2 story missions left in the DLC. Every time I try to do the Morbius lab upgrades on someone, it crashes. 

[Travis Sheldon]

39 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

My Midnight Suns game keeps crashing more often and I have like 2 story missions left in the DLC. Every time I try to do the Morbius lab upgrades on someone, it crashes. 

Sad Morbin time.

[odessasteps]

It's not that big a deal but I know there's a trophy for, i think, giving everyone an upgrade.  

[StevieNippz]

I bit and bought Helldivers 2 last night since a bunch of my friends have it. I kinda hated it at first but after a few hours I'm coming around to it. I'm sure I'll enjoy playing with friends more than the random matches I've done. I'm still having trouble with the interface but I can definitely see why it's so popular

[Casey]

Once again I am telling anyone that I’m down to play Helldivers, with or without a mic (your choice). I’ve gotten pretty good at Impossible and lower (tho no group I’ve been in seems to want to complete an Impossible op for some reason).

Also, @Death From Above: on the automotons note, you don’t HAVE to aim for the vents. You can lob a grenade inside the doors when the bots come out, too. Also, the Autocannon into the vents - from far away -will do the job as well (so will a grenade launcher obviously but yeah).

[odessasteps]

Anything interest at the Xbox showcase? No Starfield news so I'm not sure I'm motivated to watch the whole thing. 

[Andrew POE!]

13 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Anything interest at the Xbox showcase? No Starfield news so I'm not sure I'm motivated to watch the whole thing. 

The Sinking City 2 got announced and Persona 3 Reload will get DLC.

[JLSigman]

Akira Toriyama passed away March 1 at the way too young age of 68. Time to go play Chrono Trigger and the DragonQuest games.

[AxB]

I have reached the first Boss Fight in Deus Ex: HR. It's fucking murderous.

Like, in a game with controls that make sense, it would be very difficult. But this game has controls that don't make sense. Allow me to explain.

It's a First Person Shooter, but you aren't a Bullet Sponge, so you have to use the cover mechanic. L1 makes you go into cover, which also shifts it from 1st person to 3rd person. R1 is shoot and R2 is throw a grenade. But just pressing them is blind firing from cover, so you have to use the movement stick to pop up or around from cover. 

It's just, the way games work, you expect L1 to be AIM, not cover. And if you need to run away from the cover (like if someone throws a grenade at you), it drops you from first person to third person as soon as you release L1, so you can't really tell... there's no way to run around the pillar in such a way as to interpose it between you and the enemy, because you can't see both the pillar and the enemy at the same time, or tell where your character is in relation to them. And you're getting shot the whole time, in a game where you can't absorb damage without dying.