2024 VIDEO GAMES CATCH ALL THREAD

[dragonzombie]

Fangame Maria Renard's Revenge for Amiga 1200, developed in the Scorpion Engine.

https://youtu.be/WkSCZX270x8?si=Fny13fWmcCHVRp2t

There is a port that exists for the Sega Saturn, but it is incomplete for now...

[SirSmUgly]

Alright, with almost everything collected and only the final boss stuff left to play, I think it's safe for me to rank my favorite PS-game-themed levels from Astro Bot.

I'll spoil them just in case you're planning to play and you want to be surprised.

Spoiler

1. Horizon: Zero Dawn - Machine Learning is maybe the best level in this game straight up (it has competition from Downsize Surprise, Balloon Breeze, and the second game/level represented in this ranking) and has the best boss fight (against a Thunderjaw) in any Horizon or Horizon-themed game, possibly. And I generally enjoyed the boss fights in Zero Dawn and Frozen Wilds, so that's not me being snarky! I would pay sixty dollars for a whole Horizon game except in Astro Bot's style, but hopefully Lego Horizon will do.

2. Ape Escape - This was my working number one in these rankings until I played the Horizon level. It's an Ape Escape level! In Astro Bot! Make more Ape Escape, Sony! I'm begging you!

3. Loco Roco - The best thing I can say about this is that it made me not dislike playing a platformer with motion control for movement, unlike every bad motion control level in the Mario Galaxy games that I suffered through to get every star. This was good enough to make me think I should take the Vita on my next trip and play some Loco Roco. Sony could produce another one of these as a shorter-length budget game, and I'd purchase it.

4. God of War - I do not like the God of War reboot, especially the third-person combat, and tossing an axe around definitely felt better in this game than in either of the recent GoW games. I was hoping for a Ghost of Tsushima level, which I would have preferred replace this one when it comes to third-person action-adventure homages in my Astro Bot games. 

5. Uncharted - Even Astro couldn't make Uncharted not suck. I don't hold it against the little guy. This game is great, but Uncharted sucks. I'd rather play this level than any of the Uncharted games, though, for what that's worth. 

 

[odessasteps]

I was amused by my friend posting an Astro Bot screenshot homaging 

Spoiler

Metal Gear Solid

It’s still meta for me. 

Edited September 9 by odessasteps

[SirSmUgly]

I finished Astro. The final boss takes a lot from Sega, both very specifically from an older Sega game in one way and more generally from a more recent Sega game in another way.

There's one post-game challenge left to do, but I'll tackle it later in the week. 

Edit: Finished the

Spoiler

Great Master Challenge

early this morning over coffee, found the

Spoiler

final 305th secret bot,

swept up the last few achievements in a few minutes, and popped the platinum in about 22 hours. It's been seven years since Super Mario Odyssey, and this and Bowser's Fury really helped me with that gap. I'm interested to see what EAD comes back with (probably?) next year or 2026 at the absolute latest. 

Edited September 9 by SirSmUgly

[Death From Above]

12 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

I finished Astro. The final boss takes a lot from Sega, both very specifically from an older Sega game in one way and more generally from a more recent Sega game in another way.

There's one post-game challenge left to do, but I'll tackle it later in the week. 

You might be interested in this, an interview with the game's Studio Director. https://youtu.be/NlM5SuiHR0A?si=0RNBBi5z7hmpQHf-&t=3238

[AxB]

Here we have the voice actor for Astrobot, being very normal:

https://x.com/The_Ben_Starr/status/1832784072700989503

[odessasteps]

 

[dragonzombie]

40 years of NES next year. 

[Casey]

On 9/8/2024 at 12:44 PM, Death From Above said:

I am sad to report I'm enjoying the start of The First Descendant despite it being by Nexon, a company that was once fined $9 million for lying about item drop rates. It's basically Korean Warframe. That's it, that's all you need to know.

I have 250 hours in this game, despite it only releasing in July. If that tells you anything.

[dragonzombie]

N64 was the last Nintendo console system to use cartridges  The GBA and its Micro were the last for portables, there is this grey area if you add the Game Boy Player to the GameCube.

The N64 add on for Japan, the 64DD used magnetic disks.

The DS and 3DS used game cards, which is different. And so does the Switch
 

[dogwelder]

Um....$700 for the PS5 Pro???

[Casey]

3 minutes ago, dogwelder said:

Um....$700 for the PS5 Pro???

Don’t forget the extra money for the disc drive and the vertical stand!

I’m fine with my launch versions of the Series X and PS5, especially for an upgrade that’ll be $700+ for one console. That’s a no from me, dawg.

[dragonzombie]

Mortal Kombat 1

Noob Saibot

https://youtu.be/cCmPEL_l1v0?si=4ud9xKqFAdy_Bmf_

[Travis Sheldon]

I don't feel I've scratched the surface with what the regular PS5 can do with the games I play regularly, before I consider a Pro model.

[Raziel]

Yeah, I don't give enough of a fuck about the extra resolutions and fps to get a Pro, especially since I play 80% of the time via Remote Play on my laptop.  If I want super high frame rates and ray tracing, I'll just get full gaming PC rig.

[Ramo2653]

4 hours ago, Casey said:

I have 250 hours in this game, despite it only releasing in July. If that tells you anything.

There's a streamer I watch occasionally and he says this has been his "offline" game of choice lately and he's got something like that numbers wise.

[Casey]

4 minutes ago, Ramo2653 said:

There's a streamer I watch occasionally and he says this has been his "offline" game of choice lately and he's got something like that numbers wise.

I know it’s Nexon, but the RNG for the drops are fine to me. Sometimes I’ll get stuff I’m grinding for in a day or less, sometimes it takes a few weeks of trying (which is usually me trying for an hour or two, and then giving up for the rest of the day). That’s mainly for the 3-6% drop rate stuff, though.

The new season is kind of hot garbage, though. They’ve made it to be endgame content, which I’ve got two fully built characters, but it requires different builds for the seasonal stuff which is just insane to me. Seasonal content shouldn’t be endgame content in any game, full stop. Credit to the devs though, they’ve already changed the mechanics of the seasonal stuff to make it “easier” and are introducing co-op for it soon (which is another thing - as of now, it’s SOLO ONLY in a game that’s primarily multiplayer).

For all the flack Nexon gets, the devs of this game have listened to player feedback more than a lot of games I’ve played in the past. Haven’t nerfed guns or characters, or removed or nerfed popular farming spots, etc.

[Travis Sheldon]

IF the PS5 Pro can have Minecraft Ray Tracing, then that might be enough for me to upgrade. (When it gets into the $500 range.)

[Craig H]

I saw the price for the PS5 Pro and laughed. They're still releasing games on the fucking PS4/PS4 Pro. The fuck would I want to spend $700 when shit looks perfectly fine already?

[Contentious C]

1 hour ago, Raziel said:

Yeah, I don't give enough of a fuck about the extra resolutions and fps to get a Pro, especially since I play 80% of the time via Remote Play on my laptop.  If I want super high frame rates and ray tracing, I'll just get full gaming PC rig.

And pay >$700 just for the video card, if you can get it.

[COLETTI]

I never got a PS4 Pro and I was just fucking fine. 

ANYWAY... I know the hype around Astro Bot is that it is an immensely beautiful and joyous experience, and hearing that over and over again might be a little redundant but the fact of the matter is it's absolutely true. 

[Chaos]

19 hours ago, COLETTI said:

ANYWAY... I know the hype around Astro Bot is that it is an immensely beautiful and joyous experience, and hearing that over and over again might be a little redundant but the fact of the matter is it's absolutely true. 

I have a dumb smile on my face as I play it, and I've only just gotten through the first world. I've seen some other stuff streamed, and it's amazing the creativity and niche qualities Team Asobi brought to every level. 

[RIPPA]

 

[madl]

PS5 Pro price and specs are close to what was rumored, so price doesn’t faze me. Companies have taken a loss on console sales for decades, reasoning that they would make it up on software sales, but component prices are extremely high right now and Sony is allegedly under fire internally for slim profit margins There will be a lot of grumbling, but I will be surprised if Pro 5 doesn’t sell respectably well. Of course, if it does, it will set the precedent for PS6 to be even more expensive. Worth noting that PS4 Pro only accounted for 15% of PS4 sales.

I’ve barely touched my PS5 or Series X this year, so rather looking forward to getting a 5 Pro and firing up Stellar Blade and Black Myth Wukong.

Edited September 12 by madl

[JLSigman]

Been replaying the Diablo series in story mode, and it's really surprising how good it the first two actually were. The first: yeah, OK, dungeon crawl to kill the big bad WHAT WAIT WHAT ARE YOU DOING --- And the second one really neatly wrapped that up and left you with a world state that had completely changed, but you didn't know how until the third one. Unfortunately the third one sort of petered out at the end, because it didn't seem to be willing to admit your character just became the most powerful thing ever and what that would mean for you.

I read a recap of the story of the 4th game and very little of it made sense, and nothing felt compelling (partly because my pal Tyriel was nowhere to be seen). There seems to be no connection to the previous one. Definitely will not be getting it any time soon.