2022 VIDEO GAME CATCH ALL THREAD

[Kang]

[SirFozzie]

F-Zero X returns to video gaming for the first time in many years, as Nintendo Switch Online owners will be able to play it as of Friday

[JLSigman]

Now we can link (most of) Squeenix's greatest hits here.

[NikoBaltimore]

On top of that while YT is YT at least it's not Spotify which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently.  So I know for one my wife will be happy to check this without having to go through Spotify.

Edited March 10, 2022 by NikoBaltimore

[SirSmUgly]

GT7 is so good. 

I'm not typically a car sim guy and I don't give a fuck about car culture, but souping up a Mini from the '60s and then having some NPC tell you about its production history is enjoyable and charming and fun. 

[Craig H]

Does GT7 have car damage or is it still the same old bumper cars stuff with the awkward sounding thud when you hit another car?

[Tabe]

Sony has decided Blizzard and Ubisoft shouldn't have all the toxic workplace fun:

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/nine-women-accuse-sony-of-systemic-sexism-in-a-potential-class-action-lawsuit/ar-AAURoL1?li=BBnb7Kz

[SirSmUgly]

On 3/10/2022 at 9:28 AM, Craig H said:

Does GT7 have car damage or is it still the same old bumper cars stuff with the awkward sounding thud when you hit another car?

Still no car damage. These car brands still don't want their shit all crumpled up in-game, unfortunately.

[Craig H]

See, I don't get that. How does Forza get away with that stuff then?

[Coletti]

Disco Elysium. This rules. I'm not normally an RPG player but lots of folks I respect have been raving about it so I grabbed it and it's absolutely gonna be something I play through several times. Just GREAT. 

[Death From Above]

I've really played nothing like Disco Elysium. The description that "It's the fallout system but without combat" is true but does nothing to prepare you for this script. It's really an impossible game to describe adequately to people that haven't played it.

[supremebve]

1 hour ago, Death From Above said:

I've really played nothing like Disco Elysium. The description that "It's the fallout system but without combat" is true but does nothing to prepare you for this script. It's really an impossible game to describe adequately to people that haven't played it.

Based on my character build, I got to a point where I couldn't progress unless I helped out a racist, and quite frankly I'm not built like that so I stopped playing.

[Death From Above]

I think I know the guy you mean and seriously, fuck that guy.

[odessasteps]

Saw someone posted pictures of the Xbox Fridge. Looks neat. 

[Death From Above]

You know what phone game I totally don't hate? The Mortal Kombat mobile game. It's honestly a fine time waster if you're into MK's style and aesthetic but also suck ass at fighting games. Basically, that's me.

[John E. Dynamite]

I don't have a main game right now, bouncing around too many little distractions. I started Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky and put a good four hours into before I had to save. The pre-game personality test told me I was a Chimchar, so I spent ten minutes thinking "what do you name a hot monkey?" before naming myself Vindalouie. I was proud of this!, until I learned there's a terrible game-breaking glitch if you give anyone a ten-character name. So fuck that game for a little while. In my grief I remembered I picked up a cheapo copy of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon ages ago and sunk five hours into that. Those Mystery Dungeon joints have a good formula and have been severely underrated by critics since day one, they always end up emerging as the frontrunners of a console's "hidden gem" lineup once you stop demanding innovation and big-budget graphics from your fuckin' 2007 Wii RPGs. The story is dippy anime dum-dum fare on the surface but there's this melodramatic "town that chose to forget it's memories" hook that's deceptively engaging and occasionally very funny. And, much like the story, the gameplay seemed to be a totally dumbed-down version of the Rogue formula until I started getting bonus dungeons with brutal rulesets (everyone has 1 HP) + realizing I hadn't spec'd up for the proper job classes. So this one's gonna take some work.

Thought I'd try to play the second BlazBlue game on the Vita cause I thought the first one made for a compelling VN/fighter on the PSP. Wrong call - any time I need to do a double QFC on the D-Pad I end up nicking the analog stick. I have an OLED Vita, no idea if this is better on the other model. I bought a bunch of Kirby games because the new one looks good and I want to nab 'em in case the prices jump - my gut tells me DS and 3DS stuff is gonna skyrocket in a year when the eShops close. I guess Kirby: Triple Deluxe is the one I'm gonna start with and I'm blown away by the depth of each copy ability's moveset, and let down by the trivial difficulty level. I know it's a problem with those games but 50+% of my interaction with the series has been through Super Star & Pinball Land and those were no joke when I was 8.

I played one level of Maximo: Army of Zin this morning and it was a really good time. I'm trying to continue on from an old save file from damn near 20 years ago, and I'm still not at 50%. They never made a third game after Zin, so I assume that nobody bought it. That's bullshit. It reminds me of DOOM. Like, 1993 DOOM because there's a bunch of secrets in each level and I could probably beat the levels easier if I didn't look for them and if I fuck around too much I absolutely will die. Also I played the port of DOOM (1993) for like two levels on my Switch before it fucking crashed. Bethesda cannot make a stable DOOM port in the 2020s. If the list of games I play seem terribly out of step with modern Western tastes, there's the fucking reason. Much different experience with DOOM 64, which is a fuckin' trip because it takes the DOOM-but-harder approach of DOOM 2 and then just makes it DOOM 2-but-harder. Level 6 whooped my ass a little bit, I'm gonna bite down and get through it though. The level design is really clever and asks a lot from the player. Lord knows I could fill a pool with great games that were underrated by critics due to their then-tired engines - I played We Love Katamari and Tony Hawk Project 8 last year and just like DOOM 64 they hit real good if you haven't played anything from those series in over a decade.

I bought a Wii U last year so I could get Xenoblade X before it doubled in price (it did) and still have yet to beat a game for it. Pushmo should be a main Nintendo franchise and a Pushmo Collection shoulda came out when the Switch launched. The Wii U version is the best one and I'm gonna chip away at it as long as I can. Everybody told me Dragon Quest VI is a series black sheep - bullshit, so far, it's completely great and magical and perfect, but I keep playing Etrian Odyssey Untold in bed in lieu of a fourth beer downstairs. I have never progressed through a game slower. But it's good! I've tried to enjoy the series in the past but I always hit snags - this one has some semblance of a story and lacks any mid-game character class shifts that make me give up, plus there's no reprehensible character designs! It's still entirely crawl through the dungeon, draw your own maps, build your party in a sensible manner and fight like a motherfucker.

Edited March 13, 2022 by John E. Dynamite

[Salads]

Don't know if it's related but when playing Darkstalkers Chronicle The Chaos Tower (PSP) I frequently found certain special moves to be either undoable or unreliable. Not sure if hardware or software to blame, or in this case whether I misread which move commands applied to the particular ruleset I was playing as. At least there are other Darkstalkers ports out there.

Come to think of it Kirby's Dreamland wasn't as easy as I remembered when I went back to it, though it was originally supposed to be as forgiving as possible - 'There are still bottomless pits but you can fly'. Haven't played Triple Deluxe but from Planet Robobot I'd say it's best played as one of the opening levels in a beat em up where the conclusion is a given and the entertainment is drawn from your ability to amuse yourself by mixing up your moves from the options available. Disclaimer: I really liked Epic Yarn so maybe I'm no Kirby expert.

I'm the kind of person who rates most games they play and Army of Zin was a struggle for me to put a number to. Can't remember much standing out in my memory about it be it levels, bosses or whatever (couldn't even tell you if there were bosses in fact), but I remember having a bloody good time with it which is the important bit. Maybe in another dimension it's considered an unremarkable example of the 3D slash and jump genre, but because it didn't sell much in this one that genre doesn't exist here so the game is a gem on its own.

I rented Doom 64 back in the day and it was the perfect rental because the difficulty ramped up to the point where I didn't have much interest in trying to overcome it but great atmosphere before that point hit. Having seen an increase in 'people only think GoldenEye was innovative because they were on console and couldn't play Half Life' takes over the years it's a pleasant susprise to see Doom 64 of all things getting good press. It's the real Doom 3!

Thanks for reminding me about Project 8. After Tony Hawks 3 there aren't as many 'more of the same' options as you'd think considering how many releases there are in the series.

I had the same plan about Xenoblade X, but got cold feet because there's a chunky patch you can download which improves loading times which I would consider a must for this type of game but my Wii U storage is full and I didn't want to be in a position of having to juggle what I have on there considering that one day they might pull the plug on the servers. With Elden Ring out I'm seeing the game being mentioned alongside that and BOTW on the subject of best open worlds and now I'm full of regret and hoping for a re-release.

Think I've said it before on this board but Pushmo is a proper Rubik's Cube of a puzzler. You rarely get discouraged by being stuck because you can just play around until something comes up. Which makes it sound like a picross-style 'process' puzzler where you inevitably crawl towards the end, but there's still an actual solution to find so you get your eureka moment. I have the Wii U game in my backlog but am surprised that it could be considered the best because it attracted almost zero press in contrast to the first game. Pushmo and BoxBoy are two top end puzzlers that uncharacteristically for Nintendo went the route of a new PS3/360 IP by burning through a whole trilogy in quick succession so they're played out by the time the next gen hits.

Picked up a couple of Etrian games in one of the recent Atlus 3DS fire sales. Can't say I've enjoyed anything similar so no hype at all but was fearful of later finding out I liked them and being up against physical pricing as it seems the DS/3DS format is ideal. I've just looked at prices for the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series and looks like a similar thing there. I can only remember complaints about virtual console pricing but they all look decent from a 2022 angle. PS1/2 classics also. Club Nintendo did half price offers on a lot of them also, which I wisely turned down at the time so that I can get them at full price today because I didn't anticipate the selling of games to become such an outdated business model for companies that sell games.

[matt925]

Anyone into the home arcade cabinets? I didn’t see a thread and I rarely venture down here so don’t want to start one unless there’s interest. I have the nba jam Arcade1up cab I got on clearance that I’m currently trying to mod, but getting stuck with raspberrypi stuff even when I have everything ready to go. I’m not computer savvy at all when it comes to that stuff. So that’s frustrating, I’m currently downloading a new torrent that will hopefully solve my original software problem, but it’s finicky. 
 

I also have the atgames legends ultimate which is way higher quality cabinet than the  arcade1ups, and it’s the easiest mod because you just plug a flash usb drive and spend 5 minutes setting it up. Got all the games at my fingertips and it’s a way better cabinet, but it doesn’t look as cool as the arcade1ups with the official graphics. I ended up buying a premade flash on Etsy for $50 and it was all super easy, but if you’re good with computer stuff there’s tons of YouTube videos and it’s supposed to be easy. The people who make and update it put in all the work and think it should be free, they don’t like the Etsy and eBay sellers. 
 

Overall love the cabs but I’ve soured on the arcade1ups and I’d suggest people just get legends ultimate with coinopsx, unless you have a bunch of space and want the look of an old school arcade. They do look cool. 

[twiztor]

7 hours ago, matt925 said:

Anyone into the home arcade cabinets?

i think they're awesome but have no firsthand experience with them. i dig the arcade1up releases they've done as far as game selection, but they're too small. I'm a fairly tall dude, and even with the additional riser, i'd have a sore neck after a short time of playing. 

haven't looked into the atgames legends ultimate cab, but a quick Google search makes it look promising. 

[matt925]

43 minutes ago, twiztor said:

i think they're awesome but have no firsthand experience with them. i dig the arcade1up releases they've done as far as game selection, but they're too small. I'm a fairly tall dude, and even with the additional riser, i'd have a sore neck after a short time of playing. 

haven't looked into the atgames legends ultimate cab, but a quick Google search makes it look promising. 

I’ve seen tall dudes post their fixes. I think the most common is mini fridge risers. People also use furniture risers from Amazon which fit on any 90 degree corner and add another 5-6 inches. But then you’re messing with the uniform look. 
 

To me, the biggest size problem is the width of the control panels. The 2p a1ups are 19” wide, the 4p are 25”. By comparison, the 2p legends ultimate is 25” wide. There is no way four dudes can play nba jam at the same time, but that width makes it perfect for two. On the 2p cabs, each person can stand to the side, but the 1p buttons and 2p joystick are so close to each other you’re definitely going to be sharing a moment with your buddy. 
 

The legends ultimate is perfect width for two adults. 

Edited March 16, 2022 by matt925

[Contentious C]

The Fallout thread has dropped off the main page and I'm too lazy to click back, so...

Hey, New Vegas is a pretty good game! 

I played through most of this maybe 3 years ago, and once I got to the big assassination quest, I put it down, since I hadn't touched Lonesome Road at all and didn't want to breakneck to the end yet anyway.  But I'm enjoying it again thus far.

I think my biggest problem with it is one I just chose to mod around; I liked the fact that Fallout 3 lets you get massively OP, what with how easy it is to max out skills and attributes.  So, I just figured the best thing to do was be a weenie and add the "Perk Every Level" mod.   Plus, there are just so many more perks in FNV compared to 3 that I don't think I've ever *really* had a good opportunity to dig through them and see what I could do with some of the stuff.

I also didn't realize this was the first game where you could move people around effectively; I think I spent so much time either alone or with Boone as my companion that I never noticed you could send everyone to hang out at the Lucky 38, like a bad game engine version of the advertisement for Gwent.  I still mostly use Boone because he's an absolute unit, but at least this way I can still nab as many followers as possible and dither around with a few quests of theirs when it suits me.  Cass' quest in particular was fun for that, since I broke into the Van Graff establishment and robbed them blind.  Thanks for helping me murder Deathclaws and Lakelurks with that five-finger discount, Gloria!

Haven't touched the DLCs yet (soon, I'm only 18 or 19 right now), but already looking forward to going back to Old World Blues & Dead Money.

[Coletti]

Disco Elysium: finished playthrough number one, ending up a Sorry/Boring Cop and a Moralist. I started with the Sensitive build. Immediately started playthrough number two with the Physical build and am currently a total Communist and somewhere between Apocalypse Cop and Superstar Cop. Also, I got to knock out that fucking race supremacist. 

This game is phenomenal, easily jumped into my top ten of all time. 

[Jiji]

Tunic is a beautiful game, super meticulous and trains players to explore every last inch of the game. I loved it. Doesn't overstay its welcome either. Some of the secrets are ridiculously obscure and hidden that I'm surprised people had even figured them out by this stage. Ain't no way in hell I was finding the majority of secret treasures or fairies. It's on game pass and I can't recommend it enough.

[Raziel]

So, if you dig Metroidvania's that are Ancient Archeological themed with a fuckton of puzzles that's challenging hard and not hand holding with huge maps, and looks and feels like an old MSX game, then I'd strongly recommend La-Mulana.  I'm digging it so far and it's fun figuring out all the stuff (since the game has hints all over the place, just not always right in the same area).  I'd recommend the PC version though since the console version make some changes that loosens stuff up.

Soundtrack is amazing too.

[J.T.]

Bloomberg is reporting that Sony has just bought Jade Raymond's Haven Studios.

Edited March 21, 2022 by J.T.