2023 VIDEO GAME CATCH ALL THREAD

[SirSmUgly]

This might be the first year that a mobile game is my personal GotY because Pocket City 2 absolutely rules. It's the modern Sim City game I've been waiting for. Someone was smart enough to add Civ-style tech/research trees to this already excellent city simulator, and bless them for it. 

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Boxed up my current Gen consoles and hooked up my PS3 and Wii.  PS3 library is probably my favorite library ever and Wii/GameCube isn’t far behind.  I don’t think games have gotten much better since the seventh generation.  Bigger and prettier, yes.  Better?  Probably not.  

[Casey]

I love the 360 personally, but wooooow do I disagree with that opinion.

[Zimbra]

I bought myself Elden Ring for my birthday just to remember that I suck shit at soulslike games.  It's really pretty, though.

[John E. Dynamite]

On 4/22/2023 at 11:26 PM, Casey said:

I love the 360 personally, but wooooow do I disagree with that opinion.

There's a talking point I hear over and over again from every comments section, professional game review, Reddit mini-manifesto, YouTube retrospectiv, talking shit about games with strangers... "Why don't big studios make 'B' games anymore?". Or "Single A" if that's yr preferred word. The Seventh Gen was the last time that practice was normal. Xbox 360 had early versions of franchises before they became painfully iterative or micro-milked for every unpasteurized penny. PS3 had a catalogue of phenomenally-valued (then and now) HD remaster compilations and deeply interesting Japanese games when that side of the world was sorely underrated (like, compare Yakuza 4 and GTA 4 in 2023).

Anyways Fourth and Sixth gen wreck everything and there's undoubtedly myriad technological, economic and social reasons as to why this is the case. Eighth Gen might actually be remembered to be on that level, like we're on some even-numbered Star Trek Movies pattern. But gun to my head I think handheld consoles are superior to everything and I will die with the loudest whisper of GBA/PSP/VITA/Switch superiority on my dumb dead lips.

Edited April 25, 2023 by John E. Dynamite

[SirSmUgly]

I mean, you still get A/AA games today, even from big studios. Capcom put out Mega Man 11. Cheap-ass Squeenix gave money to Yuji Naka to make shitty NiGHTS (Balan, just in case you're unsure what I mean). Nintendo makes A/AA-level stuff all the time, and not just remakes. They're the only major company still making arcade sports games until EA publishes the next Super Mega Baseball game. 2D Metroid is alive and glorious and is the perfect example of an AA-level game. 

Microsoft published Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment and State of Decay. Sony published Astro's Playroom and Sackboy. There are fewer of those games, but they still exist, and I'm not sure that the 360/PS3 era had more of those to a significant degree. That's because the shift into HD development during that era is what made games longer to develop and more expensive to produce.  

The Wii specifically has more of those games because Nintendo prefers the withered technology approach with their consoles, so they ignored HD and got all sorts of weird little A/AA games on the console. 

[cwoy2j]

On 4/24/2023 at 11:36 AM, Zimbra said:

I bought myself Elden Ring for my birthday just to remember that I suck shit at soulslike games.  It's really pretty, though.

Yeah I played Elden Ring, beat it and promptly traded it in. I decided that Souls type games aren't for me. Once was enough.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

3 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

Cheap-ass Squeenix gave money to Yuji Naka to make shitty NiGHTS (Balan, just in case you're unsure what I mean).

DON'T REMIND ME.

[Craig H]

6 hours ago, cwoy2j said:

Yeah I played Elden Ring, beat it and promptly traded it in. I decided that Souls type games aren't for me. Once was enough.

I didn't beat it, but I did kill every boss, including Malenia (after 200 to 300 tries), got the Elden Beast and tried to kill him at least 10 times and was like, you know what, I'm good. I beat the absolute hardest boss in the game. I didn't really feel like fucking around with killing two end game bosses in a row. I wound up watching the endings on YouTube and based on my path, I would have received the super cool and super dark ending where everything is in flames.

Still, it was a fucking awesome game that I don't regret playing. It felt like a test of all of my skills as a gamer, like Celeste. At the same time, unless there's some super compelling DLC, I'm not going back for more.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

On 4/22/2023 at 11:26 PM, Casey said:

I love the 360 personally, but wooooow do I disagree with that opinion.

To each their own.  I’ve probably written before about why I think game design peaked with the X360 generation, but ultimately it’s a matter of personal preference.  What I will say is that far more of my favorite games came from that generation and since then we’ve seen less experimentation, more sequels, more remasters, fewer new IPs.  I really enjoyed my PS4 just fine and I find a lot to like from the current generation.  But, if I put my 200 favorite Xbox 360/PS3 games against my 200 favorites from the last two gens, it’d be no contest.

I still go back regularly to my PS3 and X360.  I don’t know how many PS4 or PS5 games I will be coming back to in ten years.  Far fewer, I would guess.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Tarheel Moneghetti

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Ok, I’ll do Rippa’s job for him.  But just this once.

 

[RIPPA]

Per all the reports - the reason it is getting blocked is because the UK CMA believes it gives Microsoft an unfair advantage in "cloud gaming"

I use the quotes because what they are really talking about is Game Pass.

While I am not sure I agree with this 100% I saw one person describe it this way

"It's like if the FTC blocked the sale of the original iPhone at the behest of mobile phone makers because no one else had a competing product."

[Zimbra]

20 hours ago, cwoy2j said:

Yeah I played Elden Ring, beat it and promptly traded it in. I decided that Souls type games aren't for me. Once was enough.

lmao, I have tried Demon's souls Dark Souls (even bought it twice), Bloodborne, and now Elden Ring and have sucked ass at all of them. 

But for some reason I care about being good at them so I keep trying.

[Kevin Wilson]

I just finished God of War: Ragnarok. Solid experience, clocked in right at 36 hours even with doing a fair amount of side missions. I played the post-game content for a bit and found some fun easter eggs/surprises, which made me glad I didn't read anything about it before playing. But I did reach two optional post-game bosses and decided that was enough. I have no issue with games putting in really hard bosses post-game but I did the entire end-game without dying, finished off all the beserkers, and the two final "bosses" were so much harder than anything else so I tapped out. Really good game though.

[SirSmUgly]

22 hours ago, cwoy2j said:

Yeah I played Elden Ring, beat it and promptly traded it in. I decided that Souls type games aren't for me. Once was enough.

I did this with Bloodborne. It's not the gameplay that turns me off, but a) the Western fantasy settings and b) the fact that these games love obscure secrets in the irritating NES-era form. These games are straight up as irritating as Zelda II, another game I beat just to finally say I did and then resolved never to play again. 

[Kevin Wilson]

47 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said:

I did this with Bloodborne. It's not the gameplay that turns me off, but a) the Western fantasy settings and b) the fact that these games love obscure secrets in the irritating NES-era form. These games are straight up as irritating as Zelda II, another game I beat just to finally say I did and then resolved never to play again. 

whoa whoa whoa, eight year old me loved Zelda II, probably played it 100 times. Course we were poor so I only got two video games a year and had to play them to death, but still. A classic from my youth, I refuse to think child-me was wrong about a game.

[SirSmUgly]

4 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

whoa whoa whoa, eight year old me loved Zelda II, probably played it 100 times. Course we were poor so I only got two video games a year and had to play them to death, but still. A classic from my youth, I refuse to think child-me was wrong about a game.

Yeah, same here. It was one of my two games for the year. I also played it to death, but unlike you, I was mostly annoyed. There was a point at which I had to find a single square of forest in the middle of a giant forest, and the cryptic clues weren't enough for me, so I eventually stumbled on it through what felt like (might have been?) hours and hours of trial-and-error. I never beat that game, but I always thought it was annoying. Then I played more traditional 2D Zelda games later on in my childhood, specifically Link's Awakening and A Link to the Past, and I was certain that Zelda II stunk.

It actually is a forward-thinking game. It's pretty much Dark Souls, but in 2D on an 8-bit console. It's definitely a good game! It just annoys me and will forever annoy me. 

[Kevin Wilson]

4 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said:

Yeah, same here. It was one of my two games for the year. I also played it to death, but unlike you, I was mostly annoyed. There was a point at which I had to find a single square of forest in the middle of a giant forest, and the cryptic clues weren't enough for me, so I eventually stumbled on it through what felt like (might have been?) hours and hours of trial-and-error. I never beat that game, but I always thought it was annoying. Then I played more traditional 2D Zelda games later on in my childhood, specifically Link's Awakening and A Link to the Past, and I was certain that Zelda II stunk.

It actually is a forward-thinking game. It's pretty much Dark Souls, but in 2D on an 8-bit console. It's definitely a good game! It just annoys me and will forever annoy me. 

My brother and I were obsessed with leveling up so we'd fight bits and bots for LITERAL HOURS for a tiny bit of experience or whatever it was, just going back and forth to fight them over and over. It was my first "grinding" video game experience, I'll never forget it. Doing that cave area without the light on, getting hit randomly and trying to learn where the enemies were. So many memories. Most of them bad. But a fond memory nonetheless. I bet the game is a lot easier with The Internet to help along.

[SirSmUgly]

2 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

My brother and I were obsessed with leveling up so we'd fight bits and bots for LITERAL HOURS for a tiny bit of experience or whatever it was, just going back and forth to fight them over and over. It was my first "grinding" video game experience, I'll never forget it. Doing that cave area without the light on, getting hit randomly and trying to learn where the enemies were. So many memories. Most of them bad. But a fond memory nonetheless. I bet the game is a lot easier with The Internet to help along.

Yup, that's how I ended up beating it, finally. A few years ago, on the mini-NES, using a guide at IGN. 

 

[Death From Above]

People will just post any shit at all on the internet, including Zelda 2 slander. The unbelievable courage of anonymity.

[odessasteps]

Watching the Zelda QA stream on Gamexplain, it's amazing how people can obsess over the most minute details of a game and repeatedly ask stuff about the horses or shield surfing. 

[SirSmUgly]

1 hour ago, Death From Above said:

People will just post any shit at all on the internet, including Zelda 2 slander. The unbelievable courage of anonymity.

In print, it's libel. 

[Contentious C]

I believe the full, legal terminology is "libeldorf", but OK, have it your way.

[Zimbra]

Looks like Waypoint is a victim of the Vice layoffs.

[Craig H]

22 hours ago, Zimbra said:

Looks like Waypoint is a victim of the Vice layoffs.

Fuuuuuck. On the one hand I'm not surprised, but on the other, Patrick is a solid duder and I feel bad for him. There's been so many good reporters that have been let go over the past year that I have no idea how any of them land on their feet. Going back to Giant Bomb isn't really an option because they keep shedding staff. Patreon and his own podcast or Twitch stream probably isn't an option either because everyone that isn't Nextlander or Jeff Gerstman just aren't pulling in that many numbers. 

Like everyone else, I hope he manages to land on his feet.