2024 VIDEO GAMES CATCH ALL THREAD

[John E. Dynamite]

Ah, but that's when I dig out the deep cuts. Games that got remade but are still best on Wii, like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Sakura Wars and Mercury Meltdown and de Blob and House of the Dead: Overkill and Little King's Story and Bit Trip Complete. Games that got weirdly superior Wii remakes like Bully and the first Trauma Center. Really good arcade rail shooters like Dead Space: Extraction and the two Resident Evil joints. Weird originals that never got ported like Endless Ocean: Blue World and Zack & Wiki and Lost in Shadow and Rhythm Heaven. Compilations like that Kirby one with everything on it and the Data East collection the heinously slept on Namco Megamix. It's a deep bench. 

[Ramo2653]

Yeah, the Wii is the best console for rail shooters ever and I still fire up HotD: Overkill when I stop by my mom's house (Wii is hooked up to the basement TV).

[Zimbra]

My wife and I got really hooked on Power Wash Simulator for a while and once that ran dry we switched to House Flipper and it's been...illuminating.

Turns out the two of us don't really have the patience to tackle a design project together, which I guess is better to figure out in a video game than when we finally redo our bathrooms.

[SirSmUgly]

Power Wash Simluator feels really good to play, but I didn't need that much game. Once I cleaned a van and then a muddy backyard, I got most of what I wanted out of the game at that point. 

Re: Designing a house, my wife swears that I should design our home when we finally purchase one based on my house design in Animal Crossing. I thought she was kidding at first, but she seems serious. 

In that case, I hope she likes rattan furniture.

Edited February 13 by SirSmUgly

[Zimbra]

We liked doing the Animal Crossing DLC together but I think having fewer options and a defined theme to work with helped us focus.  Apparently she is way less interested in me than trying six different paints to get the exact right shade in a pretend kitchen.

[odessasteps]

Finished Midnight Suns. Final mission wasn’t too bad since I was slightly OP. 
 

Will start the DLC missions tomorrow. 

[Casey]

I am addicted to Helldivers 2. Goddamnit. I’m never gonna get through Robocop and Immortals over on Xbox at this point.

[Cliff Hanger]

Like a Dragon update:

 

The resort management game may prove to be a Problem; Sunday I played it for 3 hrs solid in what I thought was 30 minutes. I worry that as I open up systems and zones it'll get too complicated for me to keep up with.

 

Story-wise I'm still in Chapter 6, because between Dondoko eating all my alloted play time and dumping my first big cash reward from it into buying every job, I've just been grinding different jobs to rank 10 while avoiding my next story appointment, just as always happens to me at some point in job-based RPGs.

[Technico Support]

21 hours ago, Zimbra said:

My wife and I got really hooked on Power Wash Simulator for a while and once that ran dry we switched to House Flipper and it's been...illuminating.

Turns out the two of us don't really have the patience to tackle a design project together, which I guess is better to figure out in a video game than when we finally redo our bathrooms.

Power Wash Simulator was a fun way to just veg out and maybe listen to a pod while passing the time.  It actually does have a storyline tying it all together, which is kind of hilarious.

I tapped out on House Flipper after maybe one or two trie, but I can't remember what my specific issue with it was.

Unpacking is another pretty fun one in the chill games genre.

[Zimbra]

10 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Power Wash Simulator was a fun way to just veg out and maybe listen to a pod while passing the time.  It actually does have a storyline tying it all together, which is kind of hilarious.

I tapped out on House Flipper after maybe one or two trie, but I can't remember what my specific issue with it was.

Unpacking is another pretty fun one in the chill games genre.

Yeah, Power Wash Simulator was great because we could just chill and shoot the shit while we played.  I enjoyed the goofy storyline but I wish they would have explained what happened to the cats!

My big beef with House Flipper is that placing furniture is a pain and there's no "snap to grid" option.  Just janky as hell.

We played Unpacking together, too, and it was incredibly satisfying.  I would play a million Unpacking-likes.

We also just finished blowing through A Little to the Left, which is so insanely Our Type Of Thing that it's a little off-putting.

[Technico Support]

1 hour ago, Zimbra said:

Yeah, Power Wash Simulator was great because we could just chill and shoot the shit while we played.  I enjoyed the goofy storyline but I wish they would have explained what happened to the cats!

Spoiler

The cats were attracted to the fishy smell of the underwater palace rising to the surface!  I think Power Wash Person takes the mayor's cat in the end because the mayor is a dick.

 

Edited February 14 by Technico Support

[Casey]

I don’t know if anyone else is playing Helldivers 2, but hey… fuck them robots. Holy shit. Challenging difficulty with the bugs is one thing, but you go down to even just Medium on the robot planets and you get your shit stomped in. It’s great. I hate it but I love it.

I’m also playing Madden ‘24 on Gamepass and I’m shockingly learning football through that game. It took me like an hour to figure out what rushing meant

[RIPPA]

Hope everyone is sitting down for this shocking news - the internet over reacted to something

So all the XBOX news

First Activision Blizzard game to Gamepass is Diablo IV (this is March 28)

There are "No fundamental change to exclusivity" - so everyone who thought that Starfield was coming to PS5.... nope (to be fair - the possibility that a game will eventually go onto other systems remains)

Example - 4 games will be coming to Switch/PS5. (I think they are: Hi fi rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded)

Games Pass remains XBOX and PC only

 

[odessasteps]

For people wondering about Mario v DK, I saw that someone streamed the whole game in under 5 hours today. 

[Andrew POE!]

15 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Hope everyone is sitting down for this shocking news - the internet over reacted to something

So all the XBOX news

First Activision Blizzard game to Gamepass is Diablo IV (this is March 28)

There are "No fundamental change to exclusivity" - so everyone who thought that Starfield was coming to PS5.... nope (to be fair - the possibility that a game will eventually go onto other systems remains)

Example - 4 games will be coming to Switch/PS5. (I think they are: Hi fi rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded)

Games Pass remains XBOX and PC only

 

Some of the other sources (Tom Warren, Jeff Grubb) had other information that Starfield, Gears, Indiana Jones and a new Doom were going to be multiplatform. I guess Phil Spencer put a stop to that for  now.

[Villanova Grad]

17 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Hope everyone is sitting down for this shocking news - the internet over reacted to something

Maybe? I’m not convinced that the rumors were entirely fake.  Maybe they pivoted their strategy a second time after seeing the reaction to the rumors.  Or… they are going third-party but want to ease into it slowly?  The podcast was pretty much what I expected.  Veery reassuring, very friendly, nothing to spook the hardcores.  Honestly, it was so inoffensive & contained so little news that there wasn’t much reason to do it.  I used to be in public relations & Phil and co. seemed to be very much in damage control mode.  I could be wrong though.  We’ll see.  The door is open to take other titles third-party.

i’m more interested in what the play is here.  Growth doesn’t seem likely to come from console sales this generation and while 34 million GamePass subscribers sounds impressive, that figure includes the XBL Gold members who were folded into GamePass.  GamePass has apparently missed its last two growth benchmarks.  There doesn’t seem to be a lot of growth.  Maybe none at all?  I think GamePass had about 25 mil subscribers two years ago & Gold had around 14 mil.  So..maybe they lost 4 or 5 million?  In any case, at one one point, they forecast almost 50 million subscribers by 2024.  They’re not selling as many consoles as they’d hoped, so that makes it hard to grow GamePass without getting it on other consoles.  So where is the growth going to come from?  They’re in a position to make a sizable turnaround with the Activision deal and they seem to have a good number of exclusives in the pipeline, so…?. Going to be interesting to see where they are in a couple years.

Good to know that the next console will be the most powerful ever.  I was afraid next Xbox was basically going to be Colecovision 2.  Ok, I am being snarky here but that was the sort of empty promise Xbox has specialized in over the past ten years or so.  What else are you going to say?  That your next console will be less powerful than this one?  That the PlayStation 6 will eat its lunch?  Raw power has never been Xbox’s  problem. All of their consoles have edged out Sony in computing power and three of the four have still lost the market to Sony by a fair margin.

Edited February 16 by Villanova Grad

[Casey]

if I was Microsoft, it would take a lot more than the success of two smaller games and two live service games on PS5 for me to release my big tentpole exclusive in Starfield on the competition’s platform.

That would be like Sony releasing Gravity Rush 1+2 on the Xbox, it doing well, then they immediately start plans to port God of War or Horizon to Xbox.

[Technico Support]

I just hope they're on track for Crackdown 4.

[Craig H]

Helldivers 2 is my game of the year and it's not even close. It's going to be really tough to come out with another game that has drawn me and 3 other close friends like this game has and one of us doesn't even like shooters. Sadly though, he's all about the Automatons missions, which I fucking hate because it's just a nonstop onslaught of Terminators. 

What a cool, badass, motherfucker of a game. And again, ONLY 40 BUCKS. If it weren't for my daughter asking for FF7 Rebirth, I probably would have skipped out on getting that at launch just because I'm so heavily invested in this game.

I'M DOING MY PART AND SPREADING DEMOCRACY!

EDIT: Actually, the thing that would really solidify this as my game of the year this early in the year is if they can get cross platform progression fixed. As it is, I'm sticking with my PC for now, but playing this on my big tv was cool as fuck and I'm dying to get back to doing that.

Edited February 16 by Craig H

[tbarrie]

On 2/14/2024 at 12:20 PM, Zimbra said:

My big beef with House Flipper is that placing furniture is a pain and there's no "snap to grid" option.  Just janky as hell.

My big beef with House Flipper is that every time I see the name I have to remember it's a game about flipping houses, not about the scions of the famous dolphin vying for power with the other noble houses of the sea.

You can imagine my constant disappointment.

[John E. Dynamite]

1 hour ago, tbarrie said:

My big beef with House Flipper is that every time I see the name I have to remember it's a game about flipping houses, not about the scions of the famous dolphin vying for power with the other noble houses of the sea.

You can imagine my constant disappointment.

"Tell them the Snorks remember"

[odessasteps]

I can’t blame them for watching to recoup something on Starfield to let people get it on the ps5. Maybe the modders will have fixed a lot of the issues by then.

[Casey]

5 hours ago, Craig H said:

Helldivers 2 is my game of the year and it's not even close. It's going to be really tough to come out with another game that has drawn me and 3 other close friends like this game has and one of us doesn't even like shooters. Sadly though, he's all about the Automatons missions, which I fucking hate because it's just a nonstop onslaught of Terminators. 

What a cool, badass, motherfucker of a game. And again, ONLY 40 BUCKS. If it weren't for my daughter asking for FF7 Rebirth, I probably would have skipped out on getting that at launch just because I'm so heavily invested in this game.

I'M DOING MY PART AND SPREADING DEMOCRACY!

EDIT: Actually, the thing that would really solidify this as my game of the year this early in the year is if they can get cross platform progression fixed. As it is, I'm sticking with my PC for now, but playing this on my big tv was cool as fuck and I'm dying to get back to doing that.

Democracy has been spread and Ubanea has been liberated of the communist automatons.

[Kevin Wilson]

5 hours ago, Craig H said:

Helldivers 2 is my game of the year and it's not even close. It's going to be really tough to come out with another game that has drawn me and 3 other close friends like this game has and one of us doesn't even like shooters. Sadly though, he's all about the Automatons missions, which I fucking hate because it's just a nonstop onslaught of Terminators. 

What a cool, badass, motherfucker of a game. And again, ONLY 40 BUCKS. If it weren't for my daughter asking for FF7 Rebirth, I probably would have skipped out on getting that at launch just because I'm so heavily invested in this game.

I'M DOING MY PART AND SPREADING DEMOCRACY!

EDIT: Actually, the thing that would really solidify this as my game of the year this early in the year is if they can get cross platform progression fixed. As it is, I'm sticking with my PC for now, but playing this on my big tv was cool as fuck and I'm dying to get back to doing that.

My main concern with it is simply that I don't have three friends. I mean I do have three friends! Honest! But I don't have three friends I game with, I have exactly one friend I game with and I haven't read enough about it yet (probably my fault) to see if its fun with just two people. I hate playing with randos so that's not an option for me. But the gameplay does look like fun.

[Casey]

I’m down to play with anyone that wants to get into some Helldivers next week.