2017 VIDEO GAME CATCH-ALL THREAD

[Craig H]

I'm surprised people still have trouble finding the Nintendo Switch. Every time I go to the store and the few times I've wandered into Best Buy, it's always in stock. I could go to Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Meijer, or Gamestop and be able to find one.

I will say that it's always the charcoal version and never the blue and red version. 

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

I'm having to downgrade my Persona 5 rating to a 3. The finishing stretch of that game is just so, so brutal that it's almost completely sunk my will to see it through. I'm gonna try knocking the difficulty down to easy to see if I can push through, but MAN, the last dungeon and this current situation are just a big heaping pile of bullshit.

Elsewhere,

THE TURING TEST [2] - An attempt to make Dramatic Portal that is not nearly as clever as it thinks it is. An example: I found a secret corridor. At the end of it, there was a computer terminal. I then, very actually, performed the Turing Test, but the perspective presented is that the player are the robot. A neat trick. No matter what the answers are, the "professor" remains unphased and the player keeps getting called a robot, and then soon enough no matter what keys get pressed the sentences fill in automatically. I lost control over what I was saying, so, naturally, I hit escape, which caused the keyboard to keep typing this really desperate sounding plea to be freed from inside the machine. Then the computer short circuited. Pretty nice little mood piece!

Then I went into the next testing chamber, and Obviously The Bad Guy AI Voiceover pipes in and asks my main character if i know what the Turing Test is. I shut the game off right there.

METRICO [3] It's neat but there's not enough happening to recommend it. It sells itself as a platformer where the scenery is like running through this hellscape of powerpoint presentations, where all kinds of bar charts and line graphs come to life and form the terrain, but most of the time it's not overt enough about where the scenery is coming from and so it just becomes a puzzle platformer. REALLY cool idea, kind of a bummer that it doesn't stick with it.

HIDDEN FOLKS [4] - hidden object game. The twist- the developer made all the sound effects with his mouth. i'm a simple man. that shit is always going to make me smile.

EDIT: I also bought and then refunded STRAFE. I'm just not into roguelikes like that. Or at least, not into them to the extent I'd have to be to get far into that game.

[Death From Above]

I recently played and loved The Stanley Parable, but the problem is it's one of these game-art things where I literally can't tell you anything about it without spoiling part of why it is good. I think it's worth playing but it's also imperative people not seek out video of the game or talk too much to friends that have played it first. Which basically kills probably 90% of the interest I suppose. 

 

But yeah, it was extremely clever and I thought did what it wanted to do well, even if it's a short one afternoon kind of game.

[BurningBeard]

I've played it through about 10 times and I still get the urge every now and again to revisit it five(?) years later

[Michael Sweetser]

It's weird but I'm kinda becoming meh as I go through Uncharted 4.  It's fun but I think the lack of side mission stuff is boring me a bit, especially after finishing up Yakuza 0.  At some point I need to go back and finish Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, but Persona 5 is calling me with its sultry siren song and I don't know how long I can resist.

Meanwhile, there's MLB 17: The Show, which is awesome as always.  My RTTS player, Tiny Tulego, is batting in the .300s with the Mets after a trade from the Yankees and stints all over the field.  He was up for winning pretty much every batting title in 2019 until he made a beautiful diving catch and popped his shoulder out.  Grade one shoulder sprain, put on the 60-day DL, missed the All Star Game and ended up without enough at-bats to qualify for the battling title.  *grumble*   And the Mets lost to the Dodgers in the NLDS.  

[RIPPA]

I am going put this here

Alan Wake is being removed from Steam and XBOX Live on Monday because the music licenses are expiring

The Developers are offering it - at least on Steam - this weekend for 90% off so as many people as possible can get it before its gone

(Once you own it it will be yours - you just won't be able to redownload it)

[Andrew POE!]

17 hours ago, RIPPA said:

I am going put this here

Alan Wake is being removed from Steam and XBOX Live on Monday because the music licenses are expiring

The Developers are offering it - at least on Steam - this weekend for 90% off so as many people as possible can get it before its gone

(Once you own it it will be yours - you just won't be able to redownload it)

OK, great -- I need to download Alan Wake's American Nightmare on my 360. Time to break it out of the mothballs.

EDIT: I already had it installed, so it's all good. Although Remedy said on Twitter if you own the game, you can still download the game. They won't pull a P.T. on people.

[CSC]

Sim Airport is out on steam in beta and looks pretty fantastic.  Might be time to replace Stardew Valley as my logistical sim/work time waster.  

[Jiji]

Looks like a clone of Prison Architect.

[JLSigman]

I've used a little of my mad money to pre-order the Final Fantasy XII re-release. Now to put all of Hitoshi Sakimoto's Ivalice soundtracks on repeat. ;-)

Which reminds me, they've never talked about re-releasing Vagrant Story, have they?

[Death From Above]

I wish there was a proper version of Final Fantasy VI out there. The one on Steam is a very lazy mobile port, and has some-but-not-most sprites changed. Basically it's a crime against nature and should burn. A proper remaster would be the easiest buying choice on those old games redone in forever.

 

I say that as someone that still owns the FF III SNES cart box and manual, as well as the wonderful Nintendo Power guide they did for the game, but those are now so valuable that people are no longer permitted to touch it without paying insurance for potential theft and damages to my VALUABLE ANTIQUES.

[Eivion]

PSN should have a version.

[Andrew POE!]

For the one or two people who care, WWE 2K16's online will shut down at the end of the month.

[Red is Dead]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm hooked on sidemissionmania in FFXV

bye bye main quest.

[Chaos]

15 minutes ago, Red is Dead said:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm hooked on sidemissionmania in FFXV

bye bye main quest.

I need to pick this back up, but the airship drops apparently get much higher in level and tougher after chapter 3, so it's probably smart to do a great bit of sidequesting.

Plus, the monster hunter stuff is fairly fun in this one.

[Red is Dead]

am at chapter three at the moment. so i've been running from the drop ships.

[Chaos]

20 hours ago, Red is Dead said:

am at chapter three at the moment. so i've been running from the drop ships.

Yeah, I'm somewhere in Chapter 3 trying to get to at least level 30 before advancing story.

I think the dropships jump to level 40 in chapter 4.

[Red is Dead]

19 hours ago, Chaos said:

Yeah, I'm somewhere in Chapter 3 trying to get to at least level 30 before advancing story.

I think the dropships jump to level 40 in chapter 4.

HIGHER!

At least I can hire chocobos now...

[Chaos]

5 hours ago, Red is Dead said:

HIGHER!

At least I can hire chocobos now...

I stumbled into like a level 75 dropship roaming the desert in the first area of the game during chapter 3. At that level, you're dead even if you try to escape. I was like "this must be a weird bug."

[Cliff Hanger]

Preliminary Injustice 2 thoughts after about 90 minutes:

It's the same basic rock-solid fighting engine that Netherrealm have been using since MK9. It doesn't feel like there've been major changes or additions since Injustice 1, aside from gear (more later).

The facial modeling and "acting" in the cutscenes is amazing, as lots of others are saying. Voice cast is pretty stellar, none of the changes from the prior game feel wrong (well, MORE wrong. I understand why they did it in both games, but I'm always disappointed when Damien Wayne doesn't have the posh Britishness Morrison's writing always exuded). Richard Epcar has really grown into the Joker over the last decade, and C. Thomas Howell as Captain Cold is fun.

"Normal" Story Mode feels somewhat harder than it did in IJ1 or MK9-10. I'm not sure if I'm just rusty or if the AI has been ramped up to accommodate old timers with better skills than me.

I'm not a huge fan of the gear system; I don't really like fighters having stat-boosting equipment, I'm not crazy about having to give the Flash a silly fin on his head to get extra defense and I HATE Overwatch-style lootbox rolls as a way of unlocking things that affect gameplay.

Much like Street Fighter V, the absence of a 10-fight Arcade Ladder with individual character endings feels like a massive screwup. At least this game has more single-player content than just Survival Mode.

 

[Andrew POE!]

Challenge #7 in Challenge of the Titans for God of War II is some of the most infuriating shit I've ever seen. You can't get hit by an enemies but the hit detection sucks and even if you roll away or do an attack, it counts for a hit and you have to start over.

EDIT: Got my 78th Platinum trophy with God of War II.

[Andrew POE!]

Earned my 79th Platinum trophy with Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves. The game isn't as good as Sly 1 and there's some sections that are frustrating. Surprisingly easy Platinum though.

[Jiji]

Unsurprisingly a lot of server issues with the Friday the 13th game. 

[Raziel]

If you're expecting the servers to work 100% on Day 1 on a multiplayer game, you know nothing about games.

 

That said, it did roll along pretty well considering it's a kickstarter game that got a big following.

[Andrew POE!]

6 hours ago, Oyaji said:

Unsurprisingly a lot of server issues with the Friday the 13th game. 

The trophy/achievement list is ridiculous. You need to play 1000 matches as Jason and 1000 as the counselors.