Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

2020 VIDEO GAME CATCH-ALL THREAD


SirSmUgly

Recommended Posts

16 hours ago, Casey said:

Am I the only one that's fine with a nice single player game that is just a set narrative that you're experiencing? As much as I like branching story choices and stuff, sometimes it's nice to just sit for like 15 hours or whatever and just experience a straightforward story. I don't know that GoT would have been better if you could have different outcomes for these stories.

Nope.  I'm right there with you.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Gonzo said:

Still pushing through Ghost of Tsushima myself. Still in Act 2, but I did all of the Ishikawa/Masako/Norio stories and the other side quests and am now to the point where the only three things remaining in my journal are the three "main story" parts.

Gotten the Gosaku armor and done all the duels with the Straw Hats, including the one in the cave with the guy whose name escapes me right now that gives you another new set of armor.

Was not prepared for Masako to try to fucking kill me (and she succeeded a couple of times. . .that duel is hard).

Oddly enough the duel wasn't much of an issue for me.  But I love how once it was time for the main quest they asked if I was ready to be here awhile.  I intended to go somewhere at 2 and ended up working on this until 4 to get through the main story and ease my way into Act III.  I'm hoping after finishing things up I don't have too much more side stuff go to through.  Been trying to knock them all out and at least have the side quests that I know of done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Completed four chapters of Life is Strange 2. So much more ambitious than the first game. So much more varied... there's a long time lapse between chapters and they're on the road, so chapter two was December in Oregon, three was Spring in Northern California, and then four is Summer in Arizona. Doing the final bit tomorrow, but if you played the first one and are ignoring the second, you're really missing out.

Also, on Fall Guys I'm up to level 35 (I think; The one that gives you the Hunter upper). Unbelievable that some people reached level 40 weeks ago. It's a frustrating game to play at the best of times. Doing more than a half hour session in one go drives me up the wall, level 40 must have been more than four hours a day, every day (and more at weekends). You must have been driving yourselves insane with the shit.

Edited by AxB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

i beat the game Axiom Verge today and it is an excellent game. Heavily inspired by Super Metroid. SNES style graphics, lots of cool weapons and abilities, and coolest of all it was developed by ONE GUY!  it came out in 2015, so it should be relatively cheap on whatever console you have.

here's a preview video if you're not familiar with it:

 

edit: i finished it in about 16 hours. 77% of items found, 96% of the map visited, 26 deaths.

Edited by twiztor
more info
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, AxB said:

Completed four chapters of Life is Strange 2. So much more ambitious than the first game. So much more varied... there's a long time lapse between chapters and they're on the road, so chapter two was December in Oregon, three was Spring in Northern California, and then four is Summer in Arizona. Doing the final bit tomorrow, but if you played the first one and are ignoring the second, you're really missing out.

 

Did you play the the prologue chapter before you started 2? I heard it wasn't just a stand alone and affected the game. I've been wanting to do Life is Strange 2 again for a while because I enjoyed the original so much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't do the prologue initially. But when I went to start Chapter 2 of the second game it said there was no prologue data detected and did I want to download and play that first? So I thought yeah, might as well. You completely don't need to, but it does add a little to the game if you do. The character you play as, and the people he interacts with in the prologue are people you also meet in the main game.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I started out with Ghost of Tsushima in Kurosawa Mode because I thought it was kind of cool. Tonight I switched it back over to normal colors.

I can't believe what I've allowed myself to miss out on all this time. Man alive is this game frickin' gorgeous.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Gonzo said:

So I started out with Ghost of Tsushima in Kurosawa Mode because I thought it was kind of cool. Tonight I switched it back over to normal colors.

I can't believe what I've allowed myself to miss out on all this time. Man alive is this game frickin' gorgeous.

The mode will definitely get used on my second playthrough but I am enjoying all the colors and scenery so much right now. I'm actively digging around as much as possible just so I can see more of this beautiful game. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, AxB said:

Also, on Fall Guys I'm up to level 35 (I think; The one that gives you the Hunter upper). Unbelievable that some people reached level 40 weeks ago. It's a frustrating game to play at the best of times. Doing more than a half hour session in one go drives me up the wall, level 40 must have been more than four hours a day, every day (and more at weekends). You must have been driving yourselves insane with the shit.

I know in the first week or so - people I watch on streams would have high levels and people were like "how?" and the answer was "oh I played for 8 hours straight last night"

So yes... insane

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/8/2020 at 8:33 PM, Casey said:

Am I the only one that's fine with a nice single player game that is just a set narrative that you're experiencing? As much as I like branching story choices and stuff, sometimes it's nice to just sit for like 15 hours or whatever and just experience a straightforward story. I don't know that GoT would have been better if you could have different outcomes for these stories.

Nope.  I like a good open-world game just fine, but I'm fine with more linear gameplay.  I feel like I miss out on more in open-world games since I generally try to keep the narrative moving forward and don't want to bog down too much with side quests and talking to every single person in town.  I'll take a strong linear narrative over an open-world over seeing every bit of content and getting trophies most any time.

It all really comes down to game design.  I mean, Red Dead Redemption or Breath of the Wild would be good games regardless of which console they were designed for or if they're open-world or not.  I feel like that, as processing power increases, we're going to get more poorly designed open-world games that are too big and  feature huge worlds you wander around endlessly for no other reason than the console could accommodate that kind of world design.  I really don't want to spend 110 hours on Bubsy's Red Dead 3D Redemption on the PS5.  I feel like we got too many open-world games on the PS4 but fortunately it was fairly easy to figure out which ones were worth our time.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do love open world games, but not when you feel lost from the get go. I've never felt "lost" playing GTA or Red Dead. Skyrim and the Witcher do a good job of making you not feel lost, but that's also because if you stray from where you're supposed to be then you're going to get ethered by monsters.

I felt incredibly lost starting Breath of the Wild, but after about 5 or so hours it started making sense. I also felt pretty lost starting out Fallout 4.

And that doesn't even speak to MMO or MMO style games like WoW, FF14, and Destiny 2. I bought Destiny 2 day 1, played it, stopped, and at that time it all made sense. When I hopped back in when Stadia launched I was completely lost and was overwhelmed by what to actually do. WoW and FF14 give you an overwhelming amount of stuff to do and places to go at first, but the onboarding experience is at least somewhat linear so they don't frighten you away.

WoW...I hopped back in to play the 20 level trial and yep, it's still WoW as hell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have now finished Life Is Strange 2. Apparently there's Seven endings, which is actually only 4 endings but one or two have multiple variations in terms of who shows up. I got the worst one.

EDIT: OK, have now watched a YT compilation of every ending. They're all heartbreaking in their own individual ways. Some more than others... seems like the level of evil to level of punishment for being evil thing is not proportionate at all.

Edited by AxB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was debating today if I want to buy a next gen console this year, and if so, which one?  Am I the only person who feels like we don't really need next gen consoles yet?  I mean, I can't imagine I'm going to enjoy games any more on the PS5 than i do on the PS4.  And the PS4 has had a rather good year.  The triple-A output has been great.  Dreams, FF VII Remake, TLOU II, Ghost of Tsushima, Doom Eternal, etc.  And the system still gets good support.  There are at least a couple indie games virtually every week that interest me.  Same with Switch.  Nintendo's been kinda quiet, though they're allegedly gearing up for a big push in 2021.  I feel like PS4 and Switch both still have legs.  And it's not like anyone is going to run out of games to play in this gen.  It's not an exaggerating to say there are hundreds, maybe even a 1,000, of games from this gen that I'd still like to find the time to play.  For that matter, there are a lot of games from last gen that I'm still hoping to play or replay.  

I will admit that the Xbox One probably doesn't have legs, but, eh, it was running on stumps by the end of year one to begin with.

Beyond that, I started wondering if I'm actually going to get any more enjoyment out of a next gen console than I do the PS4, Switch, or even my PS3 and Xbox 360.  i very rarely turn on my PS4 (or even Switch) and think "that game doesn't look stunning."  For that matter, I almost never play the PS3 or X360 and think that I'd enjoy the game more on PS4.  Lol, it's a real shame Rockstar couldn't build out that world in Red Dead Redemption like they wanted.  I feel like we hit a point with the PS3/X360 where developers weren't that limited by hardware.  Most everyone could do what they wanted in terms of graphics and size of environments and complexity without having to make a lot of concessions to the hardware.  Budget and skill became bigger obstacles than hardware.

Then there's the whole issue of the pandemic and economic recession/depression.  Can you successfully launch new games in this climate?  Will developers be able to get enough new games in the next year or two or three to support the new consoles?

Anyone else feel this way?  I'm starting to feel like i'm going to spend money on a next gen console just to spend money.  I look at the trailers we've seen for next gen games and think "You honestly couldn't have this on a PS4?  Really?" 

Edited by Eoae
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Eoae said:

Then there's the whole issue of the pandemic and economic recession/depression.  Can you successfully launch new games in this climate?  Will developers be able to get enough new games in the next year or two or three to support the new consoles?

That's why you're seeing GameStop say they're going to offer financing for both PS5 and the new Xboxes and why Microsoft themselves are doing something similar with their $25/month idea. Anecdotal and super small sample size but two of my gaming buddies who weren't planning on getting a system for a while both have interest in getting machines with the monthly installments. It really is fucked up when you take a step back but here we are. There have been some slowdowns due to the pandemic but I think most big studios have transitioned to working from home or are up and going by now. 

I just read Amusing Ourselves To Death and I am even more pessimistic about where we're going now than I was before. I would have loved to hear Postman's thoughts on the cell phone and social media. He was already pointing to the problems in '85 even if he seemed an eternal pessimist and a crusty and rigid old white guy, but man... O_O Technopoly is next up I suppose and I think likely calls out the above hilarity from my understanding, at least in part.

(yeah, i'm gonna get a launch ps5 probably ???)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you can afford a gaming PC I don't see the point in a digital only console. Having said that the base XBOX price is pretty fucking great. Get that and Gamepass and that's honestly all you need there.

I really don't understand the economics of Gamepass and how they make any money on this. But hey, great time to be a gamer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me, a lot of what I'm feeling about PS5 and Xbox Series X  is that they are incremental leaps rather than a big leap from PS3 to PS4 and Xbox 360 to Xbox One. What I'm really seeing with it is an excuse for publishers to charge more on their games -- I strongly suspect that $70 USD will be the price for a retail physical game and a lot of smaller developers/publishers are feeling pressured to "increase their production values" hence their prices. For example, Daedelic is making Lord of the Rings: Gollum and it looks like something WB Games would publish; their biggest games previously were AER: Memories of Old and Deponia series.

Not only that but the backlog from PS3/360/Wii U generation to current gen PS4/XB1/Switch and to next-gen PS5/XBSX/Switch Pro will be immense for a lot of people. I'm STILL trying to play games from PS3 generation that I never played the first time around like Resistance 3. I'm really not ready for another console and it will likely be years if at all that I get a PS5.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Andrew POE! said:

I'm STILL trying to play games from PS3 generation that I never played the first time around like Resistance 3. 

Same.  

Also, PS3 had great shooters.  I'm not even a huge fan of the genre, but Resistance trilogy, Killzone 2 & 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Vanquish, Spec Ops.  There are probably a bunch of good ones from that gen that I've never played because I don't dive into the genre enough (if anyone wants to make some recommendations, feel free).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That new Ratchet and Clank with the near-immediate loading from one area/dimension into another has been the coolest thing so far that probably does need the next-gen tech, IMO. 

Honestly, I get consoles at launch now because I can do it financially, for which I am thankful, and it's fun to get the new tech. It's a small joy in life, and you gotta find them where you can. I totally get why someone would stick with their current-gen console for awhile longer, though. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Completed CoD: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered on Veteran Difficulty. It was a pain in the arse. I've never been an FPS guy, which means I was really not much of a gamer in that era when CoD was THE franchise in gaming. So I never got into it. Now I've played one (and I think the Modern Warfare series is supposed to be the one that people who like Cod think is the definitive one), it's given me a certain insight into things. Like how if a generation of gamers grew up thinking that this is what computer games were, no wonder they turned into a load of toxic 'no girls allowed' gamergate incel alt-right shit for brains. Every time you die, you get to see some inspirational quote about patriotism or how soldiers are better than everyone else. Load of bullshit. And the plot of the game really does suggest that The West Is Under Threat, and We Cannot Trust Our Allies. It's a great primer for neofascism.

Now, I'm not saying videogames make people into racists or serial killers or anything. I'm saying that these games are basically designed to attract people of macho meathead tendencies and drive away everyone else, and also had online modes and online communities (clans and shit). So young kids playing this game could encourage or allow a suggestible people falling into toxic online communities situation. ISIS recruiters used to hang out on CoD boards, like their friends in the English Defence League.

So as a palate cleanser, I played this indie game called One Night Stand. It's very short, I completed it three times in like half an hour (there's 9 endings).

Edited by AxB
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

That new Ratchet and Clank with the near-immediate loading from one area/dimension into another has been the coolest thing so far that probably does need the next-gen tech, IMO. 

 

Ghost of Tsushima was a nice surprise with the loading times. I don't think I've had a loading screen last longer than five seconds. I recently finished Horizon Zero Dawn, and loved it, but it was usually a two minute wait every time I fast traveled or loaded a save.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got my 185th Platinum trophy with Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon. Compared to Spyro 1 & 2, the Platinum is a lot easier and strangely, doesn't require a total completion. For it to be complete, you need to find 147 Dragon Eggs but to get the Platinum you only need 100.

I'm surprised that Activision doesn't make a Spyro 4 after Crash Bandicoot 4 comes out, but I guess Spyro Reignited Trilogy wasn't that successful for them.

EDIT: Actually there was one with Enter The Dragonfly and A Hero's Tail. I guess they could remasters of those.

Edited by Andrew POE!
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I opened my first walkthrough to find the crystal hearts in Celeste, got them, fired up the Chapter 8 b-side and just thought, nope. I think Chapter 6 b-side broke me. Great game but I'm done with it.

Did start the Ace Attorney Trilogy and enjoying it a lot so far. I've tried a couple of the text-based Japanese games, like AI Somnium Files and a horror game I'm completely blanking on the name of. This one's hooked in a lot faster though and could be the first one I actually see to completion.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...