2017 VIDEO GAME CATCH-ALL THREAD

[ReiseReise]

13 hours ago, Oyaji said:

I have still yet to be in on a Jason kill. I'm starting to friend players who use mics and aren't assholes so hopefully it's something I can see soon enough. 

There are way too many people who don't use a mic. Kind of defeats the purpose of the game. 

The Jason kill achievement is indead quite something. Very rarely did I get to see the mask come off, even rarer with Jarvis and a girl character with Pamela's sweater on the scene. I'd have to rewatch the movies to get my Jason continuity back on track, but if you want to have a "kill Jason" option in the game, he is a good pick. If the game sparks interest in the original movies, especially those with Kane Hodder, I'm all for it. The game is pretty true to the style of those.

Because of a few server issues with Friday earlier in the evening yesterday, me and my afromentioned friend got around to play three Dead by Daylight matches. It's fun, but I'm finding play as survivor as pretty lackluster compared to Friday. You haven't got the slightest chance to outrun killers, most of those camp you once you're put on a hook. There's limited variety on how to play as a survivor, as in you only have one objective which is doing the generators. I haven't played as a killer yet, but I'll write a little as soon as I have done so.

 

[The Man Known as Dan]

I have played games were we killed Jason. The key to that is to set the gameplan for it as early as possible, but not before the game starts. And it requires a FAST call of Tommy, cause that can make or break it.

Important details:

1. Anyone entering Jasons cabin gets an immediate alert to Jason. Try to do that pretty late game if possible.

2. To pull it off, you are going fo need a bat and a machette. 2 machettes is probably advisable, as the first one will probably break before you get the mask off.

3. Good idea to try to get other objectives done, just in to keep Jason off the scent of "Those bastards are trying for the kill". A Jason who is already dealing with a police call being made is going to be distracted and likely caught off guard.

[Death From Above]

So, we're a week in, and I'm honestly stunned just how bad Darkest Dungeon: The Crimson Court DLC is. Like, I don't know if I've ever had a game I liked this much with a DLC I hated this much in the same game. It's full of really cool concepts (and I want to stress it could be salvaged with... a lot of work), but so many of them are executed so badly that it genuinely diminishes the game by a significant margin. I'll spare a lengthy rant about those specific problems, unless someone actually wants to hear it. But for now suffice to say, this content is a huge step backwards that has significantly altered the game and badly effected what was a well balanced game pre-launch.

 

My first run through Darkest Dungeon was a RPG joy. This content? Biggest video game disappointment of 2017 so far, for me.

[Jiji]

I just got Darkest Dungeon on a GOG sale, so I don't mind you going into detail if it's not a big deal. I probably won't be playing the main game for a while but it's nice to know what the main game got so right and what the DLC got so wrong.

Also, I will forever be broke because I can't help myself. After seeing the E3 footage of Mario Odyssey, I knew I was going to wind up getting a Switch eventually so I said fuck it and found one at The Source (Canada's hobo level version of Radio Shack, think about that for a second). It just came in and ARMS is such a fucking blast with the motion controls. The screen/console itself is way smaller than I thought, though I don't know what I was expecting seeing people lug it around in their advertisements like a slightly larger than normal handheld console.

[Death From Above]

1 hour ago, Oyaji said:

I just got Darkest Dungeon on a GOG sale, so I don't mind you going into detail if it's not a big deal. I probably won't be playing the main game for a while but it's nice to know what the main game got so right and what the DLC got so wrong.

 

At least right now, I think it's a DLC full of great ideas but it needs a lot of tweaking. Red Hook Studios has a good history of fixing stuff as they go, but there are things about how the DLC works I think are going to be tough for me to get past.

Pre-DLC I thought the game was in a really sweet spot balance-wise. Every character had a role, every region had its unique stuff, it all fit pretty well. They did a community survey on character balance a couple months before the DLC release. My biggest piece of advice? "Be careful about fiddling too much, leave it alone. It works." 

There are two big things the DLC changed. One is the Crimson Curse, which is more or less vampirism as a disease you can't cure for good without beating the DLC. For the most part it's a mechanic that adds a lot of punishment to no tangible reward, and I can't find anything fun it really adds. You're going to spend a lot of time with a lot of character being weaker than they should be, and generating extra stress on your party as you go.

The bigger problem for me though is the time-gating system the DLC uses. Once you start it you get this gimmick called Infestation Level. Do more dungeons, it rises. Eventally as it gets higher a specific enemy starts spawning that drops Invitations (you need these to advance the DLC dungeon). But when the infestation hits high, you'll start to see DLC enemies everywhere, all the time. At high infestation we're talking a third to a half of all enemies everywhere are DLC content. And you're going to see this, a lot. To me it fundamentally breaks the balance of the game because you really get into a long, long slog of basically needing to put together parties/gear specific to the DLC content everywhere, all the time. Certain classes simply aren't as useful now. And for me it makes the game less interesting because each region having unique enemies is part of what makes it fun. This is really my biggest core problem with it right now, and it's going to be very hard for them to fix without throwing out the Infestation system altogether.

The new DLC enemies still need some balancing, though that's kind of normal and I have no doubt that gets done eventually.

There are good things too. There's a new class, the Flagelant, who long story short basically has a gimmick where he gets stronger closer to death. He's interesting. There's a new system where you can build extra buildings in the town, though most of this is only for very late game. But it's fine. There's also new DLC specific gear which for the most part is very useful.

But at the end of the day, right now Crimson Court has made the game a LOT grindier, a lot more frustrating, in my opinion has severely unbalanced certain things, and has actually reduced the overall variety of gameplay. Will that improve later? Maybe, I hope so, but it is something I've struggled to enjoy during the first week, and I've actually started a new game with it turned off.

[JLSigman]

Starting today, you can purchase the ability to play as a Necromancer in Diablo III for $15. I'm going to wait a couple months before shelling out the money, I've seen several beta testers complain that it still needs work.

Also, the update today (2.6) adds two new areas, which you don't have to pay for.

[RIPPA]

Guys - I am gonna need y'all to stop talking about Horizon Zero Dawn because unless you are going to send me $300 to buy a PS4 I am going to be insanely jealous

[Michael Sweetser]

I've only put a few hours into Horizon Zero Dawn, and it's worth the cash.  Pull the trigger, Phil.

[Kevin Wilson]

9 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Guys - I am gonna need y'all to stop talking about Horizon Zero Dawn because unless you are going to send me $300 to buy a PS4 I am going to be insanely jealous

Maybe if you won in FFL you wouldn't have this issue.

[Andrew POE!]

14 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Guys - I am gonna need y'all to stop talking about Horizon Zero Dawn because unless you are going to send me $300 to buy a PS4 I am going to be insanely jealous

Horizon isn't that bad, but it's very Ubisoft. Go climb a f'n tower in the game to unlock stuff.

Although the story is great and Ashly Burch is perfect as Alloy.

[EVA]

Yeah, but the f'n towers are f'n dinosaurs.

[ReiseReise]

Had a more extensive Killer-session in Dead by Daylight. As a killer, I don't camp hooks to leave a chance for players to rescue each other. Didn't work too good for me, had a pretty big streak of going 0-4. The Doctor is my favourite killer so far, I failed miserably with the nurse and - despite liking the concept - the trapper.

Friday the 13th continues to get more playing time. It is great fun, but recently the bug exploiting has really gotten out of hand. Packanack Lodge especially needs fixing and a report function would be great. According to the devs, both are in the works. On the gaming side I'm having lots of fun, although I get more and more confused as to how the count for badges come to be. 

[SirSmUgly]

15 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

Horizon isn't that bad, but it's very Ubisoft. Go climb a f'n tower in the game to unlock stuff.

Although the story is great and Ashly Burch is perfect as Alloy.

 

Even Breath of the Wild has towers. 

Towers are a thing, man, I'm sorry.

HZD for real is worth the three hundred bucks, though. It's my favorite game of the year. 

[Kevin Wilson]

Yea and the towers were like.... 2% of the game, not nearly as much of a focus as they are in Far Cry. Course I love towers, first thing I do in most games with towers is go climb them all. I don't super love the main story methodology of Horizon but plenty of other stuff makes up for it.

[Kevin Wilson]

One of the things about Horizon that I love (mid game spoiler-ish)

Spoiler

Is that some parts you are just supposed to run. Normally I am all about stealth, setting up traps, etc. but so far I've done two scenarios that you really are just supposed to haul ass. One of the cauldrons for example, with the Eclipse if I recall and suddenly its overrun by robot monsters, including Stalkers. Yea I just ran while hearing pure chaos behind me as they fought each other/tried to get to me. It was just a cool moment, I probably could have tried to kill more of them but running was the logical thing to do, especially with Stalkers and limited hiding places.

 

[EVA]

That cauldron was awesome.

[Shane]

I also picked up Darkest Dungeons from the sale. I may be more stressed by it than any of my roster of characters are, though. I mean that in the best way possible. Haven't had anyone die after 2-ish hours of play, but I also has some characters who really aren't in the best of shape. Looking forward to getting back to it. 

[JLSigman]

I just realized in the last 48 hours that I could install Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius on my Kindle Fire. I am now doomed.

[Matt D]

2 minutes ago, JLSigman said:

I just realized in the last 48 hours that I could install Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius on my Kindle Fire. I am now doomed.

Record Keeper is so so much better (by that I mean fairer).

[dogwelder]

11 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Record Keeper is so so much better (by that I mean fairer).

FFBE is your typical gacha game, and to be fair Gumi's been giving out a lot of free stuff for the one year anniversary.  I got Tidus with a free 10+1 pull and Rikku with a free summon ticket, both of which are top tier.  It's really just depends on how the RNG works out.  The only parts that I would consider unfair is some of the harder challenges if you don't have a proper character/equipment layout and the arena.

And at least it's not a double gacha, like the Fire Emblem or SAO mobile games.

[Matt D]

37 minutes ago, dogwelder said:

FFBE is your typical gacha game, and to be fair Gumi's been giving out a lot of free stuff for the one year anniversary.  I got Tidus with a free 10+1 pull and Rikku with a free summon ticket, both of which are top tier.  It's really just depends on how the RNG works out.  The only parts that I would consider unfair is some of the harder challenges if you don't have a proper character/equipment layout and the arena.

And at least it's not a double gacha, like the Fire Emblem or SAO mobile games.

And FFRK is fairly better than your typical gacha game, especially for F2P. I guess that's part of the argument?

[Cliff Hanger]

Because of my long history of buying Ys games, getting halfway in and abandoning them (I've beaten Ys 1 on DS, Turbo-via-Wii, and PSP and III on SNES, but have bought every US release in the series), I have decided that I'm not allowed to preorder 8 unless I play and beat 1, 2 and Felghana on Steam and stream them all the way through. I'm sure I'll get back to P5 eventually, but probably start over because I made a lot of shitty choices early in my playthrough.

[odessasteps]

The new Futurama mobile game is now live.

[assfax]

I beat that Chronicles version of Ys 1 & 2.  1 is ok but tons of bullshit bosses and the progression just didn't flow naturally for me. Like, that bat boss is complete horseshit.  Last boss will take you 90 minutes of dying to beat.  Ys 2 is fucking amazing and didn't require me to look shit up every fifteen minutes.  Bosses kicked way more ass too. Napishtim, I played on Vita and found the lack of warping super tedious.  There's this extended part in a really dark cave that was just plain hard to see on the handheld. Felghana is amazing all the way through and kicks tons of ass on PC.  Ys 7 I played on my vita at work, then transferred the save onto my computer to play it on a PSP emulator.  It's the ultimate Dreamcast game.  Bullshit bit at the end where they have you use all your characters so make sure you keep your levels kind of balanced.  Celceta was kind of lame with a really weak end game stretch.  No huge boss.

 

Ys 2 is the one that really blew me away.

[Andrew POE!]

83rd Platinum trophy obtained with Persona 4: Dancing All Night. Probably one of the easier rhythm games I've ever played -- at some point, I need to Platinum Hatsune Miku games, Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5.