Chaos Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 I started Yakuza: Like a Dragon over the weekend. I've only played a couple hours of Yakuza Zero, but the new story and change to a turn based RPG fasicnated me. I'm probably 7ish hours in so far and on Chapter 4, so the game is slowly starting to open up, but I really like it up to now. Given the frequency that studio puts out games, they do an incredible job of telling a story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 King Shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E. Dynamite Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 I beat two time-intensive RPGs in Xenogears & Yakuza 6 before the New Year, along with South Park: Stick of Truth. I decided to avoid any major time-sinks so now I'm more than halfway done with Shantae and the Seven Sirens, Clock Tower 3, SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash and PaRappa the Rapper 2. But I felt brave this morning and played the first few hours of Return of the Obra Dinn and I don't know how I'm gonna think about or play anything else for awhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 (edited) With Octopath Traveler, I am now about 35h in, somewhere halfway through chapters 3. Now I am in the grinding phase (to get all characters up to level to be able to finish their chapters) and think I have seen what there is to see mechanic-wise. Sadly, at least half of the stories are not that interesting (the merchant-one is nothing, a couple of them like the knight and the priest are very lazy). My favorites so far are the dark ones (the dancer and the thief). The concept of having eight main characters is interesting, though I am not sure that I dig the realization that much. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good nostalgia-play (otherwise, I would not put all that hours into it), but it feels that this could have been more if they managed to come up with better (and interconnected) stories. I mean this being a JRPG, I am still expecting some twist that will bring the characters closes together, but it would have been nice, if they would have done this from the very beginning (like, well FF VI). I fetched Yakuza: Like a Dragon a week or two ago and so far only played maybe two hours. So far, I have mostly been watching cutscenes (which, as far as I have heard about the Yakuza series, I will have to get used to). Edited January 17, 2022 by Robert s 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) I think I am about halfway through Mad Max. I am slowly chipping away at the Legend challenges by clearing all of the scavenging locations in different vehicles so that I can satisfy some of the stupid pet trick shit like kill a certain enemy while driving a certain vehicle or use the special weapon on a certain vehicle to score a kill. Speaking of the dumb get a kill while driving x vehicle challenge bullshit, after hours of unsuccessfully trying to capture a Kaboom Bug (an enemy vehicle for suicide car bomb runs) for my personal vehicle collection, I finally figured out how to score a kill with the Kaboom Bug without having one in my inventory. I beat the Valley of Dust death race in one of my Archangels (a version of your primary car with a certain configuration) which unlocked the Kaboom Bug as a vehicle useable for that particular race, and then I went back again to rerun the race and failed it on purpose by setting off the bomb in the Kaboom Bug at the starting line, killing the driver in the car beside me. After I am done with this game, I'll move on to Witcher 3 unless the 1.4 patch comes out for 2077. If it does, I'll fire up Cyberpunk to see how broken it is. If they have fixed the enemy aggro range shit and everything else seems stable, maybe I'll finally push through with finishing the game. Edited January 18, 2022 by J.T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted January 18, 2022 Author Share Posted January 18, 2022 18 hours ago, John E. Dynamite said: But I felt brave this morning and played the first few hours of Return of the Obra Dinn and I don't know how I'm gonna think about or play anything else for awhile. Legit my only complaint about Return of the Obra Dinn is that to 100% you have to play the game "wrong" a couple of times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogwelder Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted January 18, 2022 Author Share Posted January 18, 2022 And somehow Bobby Kotick is keeping his job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 It definitely feels like a "buy low" scenario for Microsoft even in this situation. However, you have to question how many more of these acquisitions can happen before Sony pulls out of the console making game altogether. Also, how many more of these acquisitions can happen before a monopoly investigation happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 I'm sure that if anything will fix Activision, it's the corporate culture of MicroSoft. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 I think it was 2 or 3 weeks ago on the Giant Bombcast that they were talking about how rumors were going around that Microsoft was going to purchase one last big publisher, but no one thought it would be Activision. That's bananas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 2 minutes ago, Chaos said: It definitely feels like a "buy low" scenario for Microsoft even in this situation. However, you have to question how many more of these acquisitions can happen before Sony pulls out of the console making game altogether. Also, how many more of these acquisitions can happen before a monopoly investigation happens. Monopoly investigation? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Just now, Raziel said: Monopoly investigation? I couldn't think of the right words. It's early. It's definitely getting into very big scenario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 OH, I remember what they were thinking now. Their thinking was that the only one that would maybe make sense was Valve, but the purchase price for Valve would probably be insane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted January 18, 2022 Author Share Posted January 18, 2022 In its email to staff - Activision said it expects the sale to be finalized "sometime" during Microsoft's FY2023 (which runs 7/1/22 - 6/30/23) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 I’d expect Kotick out of power by the end of 2023 then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 19 minutes ago, Casey said: I’d expect Kotick out of power by the end of 2023 then. With the largest of golden parachutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 2 minutes ago, Chaos said: With the largest of golden parachutes. First time in America? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E. Dynamite Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, RIPPA said: Legit my only complaint about Return of the Obra Dinn is that to 100% you have to play the game "wrong" a couple of times Well I wouldn't know because I mainlined the damn thing and completed the whole book at 3AM. No plot-specific spoilers, but there are a lot of little tricks I used. Very curious as to what avenues of deduction I missed, and how different the book is filled out if you complete certain people earlier or later. Spoiler Finding out names by abusing the rule of threes - bank two obvious entries, brute force the third. SHOES A semi-uncomfortable amount of race-based assuming? Although I was expecting it to bite me in the ass and it almost did late. I used the drawings a ton to make assumptions about people's jobs. They're often grouped together. Identifying the accents of the British Isles is in itself a pretty big cheat code. Not being able to play back dialogue from the book is my second-biggest complaint. My bicggest complaint is the difference between "speared" and "spiked". This was the only thing I had to Google. Edited January 18, 2022 by John E. Dynamite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted January 18, 2022 Author Share Posted January 18, 2022 Yeah - to 100% you have to intentionally enter the wrong info - like one time is to just leave asap and another time you have to accuse the same person for every single thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, Raziel said: Monopoly investigation? Probably not as the purchasing of the game studios is vertical integration. Technically, Microsoft isn't eliminating competition. It's buying producers to supply it with content in order to better compete with Sony's impressive arsenal of exclusive materiel. If Microsoft bought Stadia from Google or initiated a hostile takeover of Nintendo, then that would qualify as the horizontal integration that would draw antitrust attention. Phil Spencer is extremely gun shy when it comes to controversy so I'd imagine he'd boot Kotick at the earliest opportunity. Edited January 18, 2022 by J.T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew POE! Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Trophy hunters like me are wondering if Microsoft will shut down ALL the servers for Activision Blizzard games on PlayStation. Some of them are running on glue, gum, and tape at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 38 minutes ago, Chaos said: With the largest of golden parachutes. There's a clause he'd "only" get a quarter of a million versus a quarter of a billion if let go with just cause I think I saw on twitter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarheel Moneghetti Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) New York Times spoke with Kotick after news broke and he was vague about his future. Wouldn't confirm he'll remain as CEO, vaguely said he'd be around "as needed" after the close. Phil Spencer called Activision out publicly several weeks back and he certainly knew a deal had been in the works for awhile and was close to being announced. Kotick won't last much beyond the closing, if that long. I think he'll get whatever buyout his contract calls for. He could possibly be fired for cause and paid a lot less, but he'd most likely go to court to try to get his money. I'll be surprised if anyone at Activision or Microsoft wants to keep the Kotick story and the accompanying bad press in the public eye for years to come. Most companies seem to prefer to pay the individual and let the story die quickly and quietly. Same reason "for cause" clauses rarely get exercised in the world of collegiate and professional sports. I'm a little amused that Microsoft has made two giant acquisitions and still managed to affect me very little. I've bought very few Activision games over the past ten years or so. Not a moral stand. Just never been too interested in their big ip's. Not that it matters too much. I like console exclusives so I have no plans to choose one brand over another anytime soon. I've got a Switch, Series X, and PS5 and plan to buy keep buying consoles from all three. Edited January 18, 2022 by Tarheel Moneghetti 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) The purchases of 343, ZeniMax, Mojang, and ActiBlizzard only affect a couple of games I really give a shit about: Elder Scrolls and Starfield. I like Halo but it is not at the top of my must play list. It does not bug me that fucking Minecraft, Overwatch, Diablo, or Call of Duty may end up as MS exclusives and I'd guess that Sony doesn't care either. They can already privately publish exclusive content for PS like Ghost of Tsushima and other PS only titles. MS is playing catch-up at this point. The competition is healthy and good for customers. XBox players can maybe look forward to exclusives that don't suck and Sony is finally motivated to get its backwards compatibility shit together so that it can compete with GamePass. Edited January 18, 2022 by J.T. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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