2019 VIDEO GAME CATCH-ALL THREAD

[Jiji]

Finally playing Spider-Mang and while it's great and all, I want to cut a motherfucker who made up the Greenwich and Financial district drone challenges. 

[jaedmc]

If you spend your tokens wisely, you can get all the trophies without having to get gold on those stupid fucking drone challenges.

[Andrew POE!]

Today is the last full day before the servers on Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, and The Last Of Us for PS3 shut down. Play them while you can and deal with the cheaters online.

[NikoBaltimore]

14 hours ago, Oyaji said:

Finally playing Spider-Mang and while it's great and all, I want to cut a motherfucker who made up the Greenwich and Financial district drone challenges. 

I think I did one drone challenge before holding off on them altogether.  And there's one where you have to chase doves that I refuse to do for the time being.  I'm cool with other side elements like backpacks and whatnot but shit like drone and dove challenges will have to wait until I beat the main story.

[Jiji]

I am a psycho and have all but one gold drone challenge done. It's not nearly as hard as the others so it'll get finished in time. 

[Raziel]

I really want to enjoy Witcher 3, as the story is neat, but gameplay wise, it has that grinding Souls' style equipment degrading too quick/not enough money given to keep it any kind of fixed and new stronger kit not showing up with levels that I really don't like.

[supremebve]

22 minutes ago, Raziel said:

I really want to enjoy Witcher 3, as the story is neat, but gameplay wise, it has that grinding Souls' style equipment degrading too quick/not enough money given to keep it any kind of fixed and new stronger kit not showing up with levels that I really don't like.

It is a game that I really like anytime I'm not fighting.  I feel like I have to go do 25 missions I don't want to do in order to not be under powered in the next story mission.  I've tried multiple times and just can't get past the fact that the story and missions seem to be way out of balance.

[Eivion]

I've had Witcher 3 for nearly two years and still can't find the interest to go out and actually play it, and comment like that are kind of why.

[Contentious C]

The first time I fell off a 10-foot wall and died, I hung up on Witcher 3.

Here's something to toss out to the group: one of my favorite games of all-time is Morrowind, which I guess I've discussed here and there with a couple of people, but, as anyone who's actually played it would know, it's a damned awful *game*, and what makes it legitimately great is the supporting material that weaves together the TES lore into something like a believable world.  That Oblivion and Skyrim jettisoned so much of that material in the sheer weirdness department is to their detriment.

But, what I'm wondering is, what else is out there that taps into a similar "good/weird" kind of vibe without being a frustrating game to try to play?  Is there something else that's as legitimately rewarding in terms of lore and supporting material? 

Bioware stuff, I would imagine, might be someone's default answer.  I've played the KOTOR games quite a bit, and I think I tried Dragon Age & Mass Effect for a whopping 20 minutes each, but I'm a little apprehensive that Bioware is gonna Bioware, and that KOTOR already told me what I needed to know about how those games *feel* (no matter how many people applaud the characters or dialogue or plot).  That all of those are ultimately their own breed, where you're grinding through quest lines to get closer to the latest MacGuffin that's on your journal; there's a little less just sitting around, picking up a random book, and then going, "What the fuck did I just read?"  I could go for more of that. 

[Jiji]

Witcher 3, despite its floaty combat, is the best game of this generation I reckon. Don't quests have indicators for levels? Once you start to get going, that becomes less and less of a problem. The dlc, I believe, with all of the fantasy figures is one of the coolest things I've experienced in a game. Story and setting are top shelf, I just wish the combat had more weight to it. 

[supremebve]

26 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Witcher 3, despite its floaty combat, is the best game of this generation I reckon. Don't quests have indicators for levels? Once you start to get going, that becomes less and less of a problem. The dlc, I believe, with all of the fantasy figures is one of the coolest things I've experienced in a game. Story and setting are top shelf, I just wish the combat had more weight to it. 

Yes, the quests have indicators, my issue is that in order to actually play story levels/monster hunts you have to do 234324 fetch quests and random side missions to reach those levels.  It is like a job offering you $100K, but you realize that your base pay is $25K and you have to work 80 hours of overtime to ever get that $100K.  I want to work my 40 hours and move on with my life, but the game insists I put in the overtime.

[Death From Above]

Morrowind was really one of the last of a dying breed of games before people decided every single thing should be voice acted so you have literally a few thousand pages of books that added so much to the experience.

Skyrim, with mods at least, is technically a better game in almost every way, but despite the fact I got so obsessed with Skyrim I eventually self-banned from ever playing it again, my heart's forever in Morrowind. 

Under sun and sky, Outlander, we greet you warmly.

[Guest The Magnificent 7]

Witcher 3 is one off the best games of all-time. Some of the stuff you just have to wait on until you are powerful enough, but one of the enduring things about the game is that there aren’t random side missions with zero thought behind them. Everything feels rewarding even if it’s not essential to the overall main story. And the combat is excellent and suitably challenging.  It’s not a game you want to blow through.

Skyrim is a joke compared to Witcher 3. 

[assfax]

It's not a good 15-30 hour game.  I was playing that fucker for about 6 months before I beat the last boss.  It's got all the good wanderlust shit that Breath of the Wild did 3 years later.

Fuck that boss on top of that mountain though.  Bullshit boss.

Y'know what else stunk about Witcher 3?  Any time I had to do the fistfighting bullshit.  It sucked in #2 and it sucks even more in #3.

[Gonzo]

5 hours ago, Eivion said:

I've had Witcher 3 for nearly two years and still can't find the interest to go out and actually play it, and comment like that are kind of why.

Yeah, I bought a "Game of the Year" edition of it a couple of years ago.

I've gotten as far as taking the shrink wrap off of it.

[Andrew POE!]

Well, it's over. Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3 and The Last Of Us PS3 servers have been shut down forever.

I managed to get the 100% of the trophies on Uncharted 2 last year and on Uncharted 3 in July. Did The Last Of Us's online in 2014.

Uncharted 2 1.04 4 Life.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

I think I’m the only one here who liked the side-quests of the Witcher 3, more than the main story. It was like playing an episodic TV procedural. I think I ended all of them, with violent conflict, like a cheesy 80’s action show. Ending the missions any other way felt boring.

Yes, the DLC(especially the first one with bootleg David Beckham) was excellent.

Edited September 4, 2019 by LoneWolf&Subs

[JLSigman]

16 hours ago, supremebve said:

Yes, the quests have indicators, my issue is that in order to actually play story levels/monster hunts you have to do 234324 fetch quests and random side missions to reach those levels.  It is like a job offering you $100K, but you realize that your base pay is $25K and you have to work 80 hours of overtime to ever get that $100K.  I want to work my 40 hours and move on with my life, but the game insists I put in the overtime.

Yeah. I got through the base game and "Hearts of Stone" once, on the easiest setting, and never felt like a powerful Witcher. I kept thinking about re-starting or New Game Plus-ing to do the other DLC and just noped out of the grind I'd have to do to get anywhere.

[Matt D]

I went through the AGD King's Quest remake with the 7 year old over the long weekend. Now we're fairly deep into II and she's definitely into it. I don't think I ever played their remake of III (I may have?). I'm a little worried how IV-VII will hold up without remakes, but I'm pretty sure I've played VI six or seven times in the last twenty years (though not in the last five) so I'm sure it'll work out okay. After that, we can move on to Monkey Island. 

[Craig H]

My main complaint about Skyrim is that the story is pretty bland, it's too wide open, and the combat feels like you're forced into playing a melee character. I've tried playing as a caster and you just run around a bunch trying to not die while you cast spells. 

The Witcher 3 feels tighter in all of those areas so I tend to think that's the better game, but I wish the Witcher 3 let you do some of the nuttier or weirder things you could do in Skyrim.

That's the main strength of Skyrim and Fallout, the ability to just do some off the wall shit. Ultimately though, you can only fuck around for so long and when it's time to return to the story, it's just not very engaging. At least in Skyrim and Oblivion anyway.

Morrowind I only remember being blown away by because it was like playing an MMO, but without the hassle of finding people to do instances. That was so long ago though and that shine has worn off by now.

[The Man Known as Dan]

Just now, Craig H said:

My main complaint about Skyrim is that the story is pretty bland, it's too wide open, and the combat feels like you're forced into playing a melee character. I've tried playing as a caster and you just run around a bunch trying to not die while you cast spells.

Huh? The first complaint is fine, though I never paid attention to the main story. The top wide open is a plus not a negative to me. But... forced to playing a melee character? Really? The running joke on Skyrim is that every character you play as always ends up becoming a stealth archer because how easy and op it feels. Hell, the most common Perks pack you can add on the Skyrim intentionally makes ranged combat harder and do less damage.

[Craig H]

In my experience, and this is just on consoles, but combat always winds up being noticed by an enemy and then the enemy charges right into you. They don't try to take cover, they don't try to evade, they don't flee if they're hurt, they'll stand right in front of you soaking up damage until they're dead, and they just charge right into you, which is what winds up forcing you to backpedal or run away to gain some distance and then attack if you're not a melee. That gets annoying after awhile and it makes melee combat more comfortable because the enemies, even ranged ones, just run right into you. It's like little kids playing soccer and you're the ball. 

Also, I have no idea what "running joke" you're referring to with Skyrim and ranged attacks. I don't read up on Skyrim strategies and this is about the only place I come to for any game discussion.

And if the experience in the PC version of Skyrim is better, then that's great, but again, I've only played the 360 or Switch versions.

[supremebve]

In my Skyrim playthroughs, and by playthrough I mean times I've spent 60+ hours wandering around not doing story missions, I'm generally pretty well rounded.  I'm generally a battlemage who uses a one-handed weapon and destruction magic in close combat and I supplement it with some stealth archery when I get a drop on someone.  I don't see how anyone just uses archery, because every dungeon is filled with a bunch of skeletons and/or draugrs that can swarm you if you try to use a bow.  I'm much more of a Skyrim gamer than a Witcher player.  In Skyrim, I felt like I was just dropped off in the world and could kind of do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.  In the Witcher I feel like I have to slowly figure out what I can do, and do that until I get strong enough to do what I want to do.  

[Craig H]

That's actually what I'm doing now in Skyrim where I stick to one handed maces and axes and then I use my other hand for magic attacks.

[Eivion]

My main form of combat in Skyrim is sniping via archery. I mean I do some melee and use a pinch of magic beyond healing, but archery was my general goto.