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2020 VIDEO GAME CATCH-ALL THREAD


SirSmUgly

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4 hours ago, Custos said:

This may be old news now being a week later, but definitely get stuck into The Outer Worlds. The first 10 hours or so is some of the best gaming experiences I had last year. The criticism of it being front loaded are valid but overblown, I had a blast until the very end. Parvati’s story arc in particular is such a poignant and deftly written journey.

Witcher 3 is a singular experience but I got the most out of it because I was itching to play that kind of game. Also, the Gwent music is etched indelibly into my brain. I never even knew what a Hurdy Gurdy sounded like before and now it plays in my head at random moments.

Ive been out of the wrestling bubble somewhat the past few weeks (barring Wrestle Kingdom and Dynamite) as I have a new obsession involving sharing intimate feelings with school kids and exploring corrupted desires...

it’s Persona 5 you perverts!

I know I’m late to the party but everything about the game from the music to the art and character design is top notch. It’s also the only game in my post-uni life that I am prepared to grind/farm, and actually enjoy doing it!

I finished Persona 5 a while ago, and I fucking LOVE it. My kids dressed up as character from the game for Halloween. It's one of my  fave rpg experiences ever. I think the only frustration I had was that I really wanted to free roam around the city but that as reserved for a specific amount of time for  a reason. I can't really hate on it for that because mechanically it makes sense.

My whole family still breaks out into "You'll never see it cominnnnng!"

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I found a modded Sega Genesis Mini on eBay from a trusted member and I'm totally pulling the trigger. Might do the same with the modded SNES Classic Mini I found too. I'll just use my actual (dual region) SNES to play the Japanese wrestling games I have. Both the minis have, like, over 200 games on them, so that's nice. I'm sure there's some overlap in the titles, but I've been eyeing that SNES Classic for a few weeks now since it comes with Earthbound pre-installed right out of the box.

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Dad dropped by a few days ago to give me Mom's new insurance cards and also a late holiday present of a $25 gift card. So I bought Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor premium/GOTY edition. I remembering buying it for PS3 when it came out and liking it, but not being able to get past an early point because I couldn't get the combat. We'll see what happens here. ? 

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I played through Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition again on a whim for the first time in four years. 

Tomb Raider is basically great when you're solving puzzles, free platforming, and exploring for hidden trinkets, and it sucks when you're in a kill room or one of those shitty set pieces.

I blame Uncharted for this. Those games fucking blow, but they've popularized the "kill room in a game with mediocre shooting" and "overblown shitty set pieces with one way to complete them" tropes for these sorts of games. 

I am reticent to try to play Rise of the Tomb Raider, which I tried a couple years ago and did not enjoy.

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5 minutes ago, Death From Above said:

I don't feel Uncharted started that because when I replayed the remake of OG Tomb Raider that's on Steam, it was exactly that. The exploration and puzzles were fine but all the shooting parts (especially the boss fights) were absolute, complete ass.

OG Tomb Raider didn't have the elaborate set pieces or kill rooms like Uncharted or TR: DE has, though. I just played through the original on my Sega Saturn a year ago. It's heavily weighted toward exploration, puzzles, and platforming with minimal combat. 

I'm going to have to disagree: Uncharted is where you first see the climbing on a predetermined route --> kill area --> climbing ---> set piece where a bunch of wild shit happens around you while you take a path to the next kill area or climbing path. 

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Rise has just as many set pieces and kill rooms, but a LOT more free roaming stuff.  Shadow, however, was pretty much a perfect throwback to the old series.  Yeah, it still has combat heavy sections, but is pretty open (even more so with all the DLC tombs.)  You just have to get through the first hourish to get to the open map.

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I liked the idea of finding artifacts to help you translate other artifacts and limited crafting, but yeah, I think I hit my first kill room and then a set piece, and I put it down. Maybe I should just skip to Shadow. 

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Don't get me wrong.  First hour or so of Shadow is a long set piece. But once you hit the jungle proper, you're pretty much open to do  whatever you want so long as you have the gear for it.  It's the most open and least combat heavy of the Trilogy.

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Got very frustrated with Fire Pro's mission mode*, so I started playing Spider-Man. Not very far in, but it seems like it's going to be really good.

I also started in on Fire Promoter. I was having a hard time having good shows, so I switched to a slower counting, slower moving referee. Suddenly every match was going 25 minutes and getting 90%+ ratings, and the next show sold out and so on. 

* There's a trophy for passing all 55 missions at S Rank. I've got 54 at S rank, and one is stuck at A. It's the one where you're playing as a ringside manager, and you have to make sure the guy you manage wins. But also have it be a great, long competitive match. And it seems like no matter who wins, it ends up with a match score of 76% or lower (and the one time I got a 91% rating, the wrong guy won), which is an A or B rating. Very frustrating that the one mission I can't pass is the one where I'm not playing either guy in the match.

The only other trophies I don't have are for having 500 matches, and having 1000 matches. That could take some time, because I know I've had over 100, but not how close I am to 500. And once I get there, it's still 5 matches a day for more than three months.

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3 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

OG Tomb Raider didn't have the elaborate set pieces or kill rooms like Uncharted or TR: DE has, though. I just played through the original on my Sega Saturn a year ago. It's heavily weighted toward exploration, puzzles, and platforming with minimal combat. 

I'm going to have to disagree: Uncharted is where you first see the climbing on a predetermined route --> kill area --> climbing ---> set piece where a bunch of wild shit happens around you while you take a path to the next kill area or climbing path. 

but Tomb Raider Anniversary, which is where Crystal Dynamics took over, and where the "kill room setpiece" combat model became a part of TR, came out about five months before Uncharted 1.

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Uncharted One is so old, it features balance beam sections where you have to tilt the controller and use it's motion trackers to not fall off. Remember those? Everyone hated them, so developers stopped putting them in, but for a second they were supposed to be the future of gaming. In GTA 4, you could pilot helicopters (really badly) by tilted the joypad. I blame Nintendo.

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2 hours ago, Cliff Hanger said:

but Tomb Raider Anniversary, which is where Crystal Dynamics took over, and where the "kill room setpiece" combat model became a part of TR, came out about five months before Uncharted 1.

Fair enough. They were developed simultaneously, so I blame both Naughty Dog and Crystal Dynamics. 

If Shadow is more open-ended and more focused on puzzles (which I looked at a few quick reviews after Raziel posted to see about, and they basically back up his post), I find it interesting that it's the game that Crystal Dynamics didn't make in this reboot trilogy. Maybe CD can stick to making Avengers content for the next few years and let Eidos Montreal take TR over now that Deus Ex is basically dead. 

No hate to Crystal Dynamics, who did a bunch of Sega Saturn games that I really enjoy (especially Blazing Dragons), but I'm not a fan of that style of action-adventure game. 

Edited by Smelly McUgly
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On 1/18/2020 at 3:00 PM, jaedmc said:

My whole family still breaks out into "You'll never see it cominnnnng!"

Yeah, the song that plays when you are making the final run through to the heart on each dungeon (I think it’s ‘life will change’) is great too and really gets your blood pumping.

I never had a PS3 so Uncharted Collection was top of my list when I got the PS4 (after Horizon Zero Dawn and Bloodborne which sold me on the console) a couple of years back to see what all the fuss was about. Playing them all back to back you could see the evolution in gameplay and mechanics, like AxB said, the stuff that worked and what they thought better of in later instalments. 

For a while I had Uncharted and Just Cause on the go at the same time. When I got bored of the open world mayhem I went to the more scripted story and then back again.

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15 hours ago, AxB said:

Uncharted One is so old, it features balance beam sections where you have to tilt the controller and use it's motion trackers to not fall off. Remember those? Everyone hated them, ...

Heavenly Sword used it a lot, which is why that game is not worth replaying. ? 

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In my quest to play all of the top hits of 2015 (or whatever) on my PS4, I have started playing Borderlands 2 and Grand Theft Auto V.  Thoughts:

 

Borderlands 2 - I loved the first game.  So far, I do not like the sequel.  I'm not very far in, basically up to the first boss, but it's just "off" for me.  For one thing, for whatever reason, I don't like ice-scape settings and that's what this is.  Yuck.  After I died fighting the boss, getting shot by stuff I never saw and could not dodge, I quit playing.  I'll probably pick it back up, not sure.

 

GTA 5 - After watching the guys at Game Sack on Youtube (HIGHLY recommend their channel) raving about GTA 5, I decided to give it a go.  Got a used copy for $4 thanks to some Amazon GCs and off we go.  The opening bank robbery sequence is awesome with great music.  Then we're switched to controlling Franklin and I'm soon reminded what I disliked intensely about Vice City - the godawful driving.  Seriously, WTF.  I've driven a car 90-100mph before - it's not even remotely difficult to drive it straight.  Why the heck is it so flipping hard to do that in this game?  It's a freaking game guys - it really is OK if you make it easy to drive straight.  Unless I'm missing some other way, having to go back to your house to save the game is very dumb.  The controls are also laid out kinda dumb and different from other games but I'll get used to it eventually.  So far, though, I'm enjoying myself and will definitely be playing a lot more.  One gripe - really small on-screen text.  Dear Developers - I am not sitting 2 feet away from my TV.  Yes, I have a 65" TV but 12-point font is still going to be incredibly tiny sitting 10 feet away.  Do better!

 

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14 hours ago, Tabe said:

GTA 5 - After watching the guys at Game Sack on Youtube (HIGHLY recommend their channel) raving about GTA 5, I decided to give it a go.  Got a used copy for $4 thanks to some Amazon GCs and off we go.  The opening bank robbery sequence is awesome with great music.  Then we're switched to controlling Franklin and I'm soon reminded what I disliked intensely about Vice City - the godawful driving.  Seriously, WTF.  I've driven a car 90-100mph before - it's not even remotely difficult to drive it straight.  Why the heck is it so flipping hard to do that in this game?  It's a freaking game guys - it really is OK if you make it easy to drive straight.  Unless I'm missing some other way, having to go back to your house to save the game is very dumb.  The controls are also laid out kinda dumb and different from other games but I'll get used to it eventually.  So far, though, I'm enjoying myself and will definitely be playing a lot more.  One gripe - really small on-screen text.  Dear Developers - I am not sitting 2 feet away from my TV.  Yes, I have a 65" TV but 12-point font is still going to be incredibly tiny sitting 10 feet away.  Do better!

There are kind of RPG lite aspects to the game.  You have several skills such as driving that will improve as you go through the game.  Also Franklin has a special ability where he can do bullet time and slow down.  It's necessary to use at least for the first part of the game until your skill goes up.

The game autosaves before/after missions and IIRC you can quick save using the phone or it autosaves if you quit to the main menu.

On ‎1‎/‎18‎/‎2020 at 3:40 AM, Casey said:

I found a modded Sega Genesis Mini on eBay from a trusted member and I'm totally pulling the trigger. Might do the same with the modded SNES Classic Mini I found too. I'll just use my actual (dual region) SNES to play the Japanese wrestling games I have. Both the minis have, like, over 200 games on them, so that's nice. I'm sure there's some overlap in the titles, but I've been eyeing that SNES Classic for a few weeks now since it comes with Earthbound pre-installed right out of the box.

200 games isn't a whole lot for a modded SNES Classic.  I have ones with 800 - 1100 games on them from multiple systems. Check out Patton Plays on YouTube if you want to learn how to add more.

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I know there's a Retroarch build for the Mini's that has pretty much all the cores the hardware can handle (at least up to PSX).  I know I've seen a SNES Mini playing SotN out there.  Aside from that, adding games to it is pretty easy if you have the legally obtained files and such.

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Yeah, I've done the NES, SNES, and PSX minis myself, but I'm only running software intended for each system on each one.  

Nintendo ones - easy as fuck

PSX Mini - pain in the ass to the point that it only has Bushido Blade added to it

I need to get to work on the Genesis mini and get that going.  It was my go-to system growing up so I can think of a lot of notable games that didn't make the official release that are personal must-haves.

Edited by Tromatagon
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1 hour ago, Raziel said:

I know there's a Retroarch build for the Mini's that has pretty much all the cores the hardware can handle (at least up to PSX).  I know I've seen a SNES Mini playing SotN out there.  Aside from that, adding games to it is pretty easy if you have the legally obtained files and such.

I have a modded SNES with PS1, PSP, Sega CD, and Turbo CD games on it.  It takes more work than cartridge based games because you have to get an adapter that you can plug in the back so you can use a USB thumb drive (the default storage) is only about 250 - 300 MB depending what cores you are adding) and you have to edit the bin files.  But it works pretty well once you learn how to do it.

 

43 minutes ago, Tromatagon said:

PSX Mini - pain in the ass to the point that it only has Bushido Blade added to it

I found the PS Mini even easier than the NES/SNES Classics.  I have about 200 games on mine (just PS1 games -haven't done RetroArch on it yet).  A lot of it comes to what USB thumb drive you're using.  Sandisk works the best by far and it seems to crap out if you go past 128 GB.

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