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2021 VIDEO GAME CATCH ALL THREAD


RIPPA

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So I've made it to level 20 on my first ever Star Wars: The Old Republic character. I have a few conclusions about a 10 year old MMO.

A couple things I don't like. I think it's terrible that you are locked out of general chat until level 25, because it shuts out noobs from asking "how the fuck do I do this" questions, which especially in a MMO where you are faced with a Fist of A Thousand Menus is going to happen. I get that it's almost certainly an anti-spam measure. It's not good. The combat is also pretty generic skillbar of doom stuff, and so far almost too easy. Genuinely don't think I've been below half health yet.

The game does have some interesting things I like. The f2p model feels very non-punishing overall, and overall this feels to me like a model you could copy in other games and it would work as an alternative to YOU MUST SUB EVERY MONTH FOREVER HAHAHA which I genuinely don't see working much in the future. You get individual housing at level 15, which is one place FF XIV falls right on their fucking face. I played that game for like 700 hours and never got even remotely close to owning my own house because there's an actual hard set number of the things per server. The Legacy System where not only are you levelling your own character, but also an account-wide unlock tree seems a really interesting way of rewarding long-term play though I'm really way, way too early to say more about it than that. The soundtrack is great, as you'd expect. The whole experience does very much feel like "Bioware doing Star Wars" which is all I really wanted. And it absolutely feels like a game you can just play solo for the main story and it is fine. I haven't been forced into multiplayer once yet.

I think I'll finish the main story on at least two characters, one light side and dark. If I still feel like playing after that, cool. If not, cool also.

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Jesus.  This probably isn't going to have a major impact for most people, but I'm very sad to see the studio go.

About six months ago, I was asked who my favorite developer was.  I kinda cycled through the usual suspects - PlatinumGames, From, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, etc. - then shrugged and I said "it's probably SIE Japan."

Japan Studio is mostly known for a couple monster hits - Shadow of the Colossus, Ape Escape - but they developed a lot of small games I really enjoyed and lent resources and acted as a support studio for numerous other studios.  People remember the studio for Shadow of the Colossus, Ape Escape, and Gravity Rush, but when I think about their output, I think about weirdo platformer LocoRoco and off-the-wall-Google-Maps-meets-Walking Dead action-adventure The Last Guy and echochrome, an inventive puzzle series no one played.  

Sony used Japan Studio as an incubator for other companies to develop games with Studio Japan's assistance and resources (a couple other SIE studios do the same, including Santa Monica studio).  So Japan Studio had a hand in Demon's Souls and Bloodborne, but they also had a lot to do with Tokyo Jungle and Patapon and Rain and probably a couple other dozen games I liked.  

It comes as no surprise.  SIE Japan worked on a lot of games during the PS3 era that didn't sell well.  They collaborated on quite a few Vita and PS3 games that are well-regarded, but probably didn't make back their development costs.   Afrika, Soul Sacrifice, Oreshika, etc.  They've been rather quiet the past 3 or 4 years, aside from Gravity Rush 2 and the Astro games.  And the Gravity Rush team recently left to found their own studio.  Sony hasn't even been using them as a support studio much lately.  

I'm trying to think of my favorite platformer of the past 10-20 years.  Answer might be Puppeteer.  And..... another title that didn't sell well.

Great studio, but it had it's day, I guess.  I'm not prone to getting maudlin over stuff like this, but this is going to stick with me for awhile.  

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3 hours ago, Death From Above said:

And it absolutely feels like a game you can just play solo for the main story and it is fine. I haven't been forced into multiplayer once yet.

I think I'll finish the main story on at least two characters, one light side and dark. If I still feel like playing after that, cool. If not, cool also.

I've been meaning to ask, what classes are you trying? If you want the best potential for "KOTOR 3" it's Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior, but if you want "best story" it's Jedi Knight and Sith Inquisitor. ?

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Spent the first few months of the pandemic playing my comfort food games, Skyrim and the Uncharted series, but the last couple months decided to get working on my pile of shame.

Finished Red Dead 2 and finally got around to playing GTA 5 (only been looking at that disc since 2013). Wanted to play Mafia 3 next, but had to give it up after about an hour of play. Coming from the Rockstar games, the controls are just so loose in Mafia. Driving I was all over the road, but the worst was the right stick camera. I'd barely graze it and it would zoom all over the place, usually stopping at the ceiling or floor. Not that Red Dead and GTA's controls are perfect, but at least their is a weight to everything you do.

Decided to restart Bioshock 2 instead. I had finished about 30% of it, but it had been long enough since I last played it (July 2019 apparently) that I just decided to start the whole thing over.  Of course I made the decision to start playing it in the middle of the night, while alone, and spooked the hell out of myself

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Had to call Xbox Live tech support about an issue with one of my Xbox 360 consoles (caused by the massive outage a couple days ago).  The customer service guy was great to deal with and spent almost an hour with me while we tried various things to resolve my issue, so I thought he was outstanding - up until the point where he said "Hold on.  I have to look something up.  Been a long time since I tried to solve an issue on a RETRO console" (emphasis is mine, not his).

Sigh.  That's it.  I can't live in this world anymore.  If we have to live in a dystopia, could we not at least live in one where people appreciate the greatness of the 7th generation?

Actually, I'm planning to buy another retro 360 today.  I set up a second game room for some of my older consoles (360/PS3/Wii and the backwards compatible games) and am going to buy another limited edition 360 for the room.  Prob going to buy a LE Halo: Reach 360 (the silver slim model) or the Star Wars 360.  Maybe both.  "Both" is the more likely answer, actually.

I have cooler stuff for the 360/PS3 generation.  The Wii hooked up right now is the limited edition red Super Mario Bros. anniversary edition.  The PS3 is one of the metallic red LE's they released in Japan.  I've got a lot of limited edition games box sets, fighting sticks, rare-ish X360 face plates, etc.  Didn't buy that sort of thing for the 8th generation.  Mostly just own the vanilla consoles and controllers, and most of the games are digital.    

Edited by Eoae
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while i don't really collect the Limited/Collector's Edition of games or systems, i agree that the 360/PS3 gen probably had the coolest of that sort of thing. the Star Wars 360 is probably my favorite version of the system, and i'm having a hard time thinking of a better LE system in general. 

all that said, i just can't go digital-only for games. Maybe it's the collector in me or maybe it's just that once i start going digital i feel like my stacks of cartridges and disc cases start looking like a real poor use of space. And i'm just not ready to confront that sort of thinking yet.

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I bought the gun metal PS3 with Metal Gear Solid 4 one time and walked out of Best Buy with it, then I had a slight panic attack over it and took it back. I sorta regret that I did that honestly.

PS3/360/Wii gen is probably one of the better generations -- it took what was started in PS2/Xbox/Gamecube gen but made it better. There's TONS of games in PS3/360/Wii that are simply hidden gems that are slept on way too much.

The only drawback is PS3/360/Wii gen had too many first person shooters that weren't that great and some of the games were painfully short due to a focus on cinematics.

 

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I still have PS3 games that I never played or finished because there were so many of them. Like just randomly going into a GameStop and checking out the used section and taking flyers on random games because they were super cheap was amazing. I'm having a friend resolder some connections on my fat PS3 so I can put it in the living room with my PS5 and I'll be able to play every PlayStation game. 

I have a slim PS3 that I just set up in my mom's basement in case I'm over there for a long period of time and bored.

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Our PS3 is still hooked up at all times, got plenty of good shit on there including a decent backlog (though nothing as intimidating as all the unplayed PS4 games). My kids still get a little time here and there in Castle Crashers or Skate3. 

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4 hours ago, twiztor said:

all that said, i just can't go digital-only for games. Maybe it's the collector in me or maybe it's just that once i start going digital i feel like my stacks of cartridges and disc cases start looking like a real poor use of space. And i'm just not ready to confront that sort of thinking yet.

I was a physical media guy until 2017 or so, to the point that I rarely downloaded a digital game.  Basically, one day I realized that I didn't really enjoy collecting games, for a variety of reasons.  I was burnt out dealing with companies like Limited Run Games, I was burnt out getting poorly packed and scratched up games in the mail, I was realizing that I still needed digital services for the increasing number of digital exclusives, dlc, patches, etc.  I just came to the conclusion that collecting physical discs was more time and money than it was worth for me.  I've never regretted it.  Honestly, I'm slowly replacing my retail collection with digital copies of the same games.  I like the convenience.

One minor thing that dimmed my enthusiasm is the quality of the cases.  I still enjoy collecting for GameCube/PS2/OG Xbox.  The presentation is much better than it was after that point.  Cases were better quality, the cover art was printed on better quality paper, you always got manuals in the box, etc..  

I haven't liked the cases and presentation since the PS2 era.  Since 2006-ish, cases are cheaper, smaller, usually don't come with manuals, etc.  It sounds ridiculous, but I prefer to pick up an OG xbox case and feel like it has some weight.  By comparison, PS3/4/5, & Xbox 360/One/Series cases feel like they're practically weightless.  Don't even get me started about the tiny Switch cases.

I still collect.  Hardware mostly.  Though I only bought one LE PS4 (one of the Days of Play editions) and didn't buy the Xbox One at all.  Have several LE 360's, PS3's, and a limited edition Wii.  Also have the Zelda edition Wii U in addition to the standard model.

I keep wanting to pick up the baby blue Wii (which was released in association with the Olympics, iirc), but they disabled GameCube backwards compatibility for that model, so I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

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The only system that I bought that I still do not own is my original XBOX and that is because I tried hooking it up a few months ago and it was a brick.

And yes - this includes my original Atari 2600 (which still sits in my Mom's basement. There is probably zero chance it still works.)

My 360 still sits under my One and I used to use it for the games that weren't backwards compatible but I think all the ones I still own are now BC. I am at the point I think I only have my 360 because I didn't want to part with the Mass Effect trilogy.

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I will mention this here (and over in the movie folder) as it is Video Game tangent

 

Come the end of August, you will no longer be able to rent or buy movies or TV shows via the PS Store

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Pretty sure if you're a PS5 owner this doesn't change anything, since if you search for, say, Breaking Bad, it only tells you that you can stream it on Netflix, or buy the series/seasons on, I dunno, Amazon or whatever. No option to buy it directly from the PS Store. Which was one of my complaints about the Media tab actually, and now that this news has come out... well, it all makes sense. They had good deals sometimes (like $10 for the complete Cowboy Bebop series), and randomly offered free seasons of shows sometimes too (I got S1 Pt. 1 of Attack on Titan that way).

Oh well ?

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2 hours ago, Casey said:

Pretty sure if you're a PS5 owner this doesn't change anything, since if you search for, say, Breaking Bad, it only tells you that you can stream it on Netflix, or buy the series/seasons on, I dunno, Amazon or whatever. No option to buy it directly from the PS Store. Which was one of my complaints about the Media tab actually, and now that this news has come out... well, it all makes sense. They had good deals sometimes (like $10 for the complete Cowboy Bebop series), and randomly offered free seasons of shows sometimes too (I got S1 Pt. 1 of Attack on Titan that way).

Oh well ?

I somehow have seasons 1 and 2 of Powers for being a PS+ member. I don't even know what that is. Not to mention some other shows I've never heard of.

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4 hours ago, RIPPA said:

The only system that I bought that I still do not own is my original XBOX and that is because I tried hooking it up a few months ago and it was a brick.

And yes - this includes my original Atari 2600 (which still sits in my Mom's basement. There is probably zero chance it still works.)

My 360 still sits under my One and I used to use it for the games that weren't backwards compatible but I think all the ones I still own are now BC. I am at the point I think I only have my 360 because I didn't want to part with the Mass Effect trilogy.

I'll prob. never be able to get rid of the PS3/X360.  Too many games I want easy access to.  I mean, unless they remaster El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, the 360 stays where it is (Note: I have no doubt that an El Shaddai remaster would sell poorly).

There's also the small matter of original Xbox backwards compatibility.   Only about 50 original Xbox games are b/c with the Xbox One.  About 450 original Xbox games are playable on the 360.  I mean, my og Xbox collection is down to about 25 games (many of which are available digitally) and I still wouldn't sell my Xbox because I really like the six or so I can't play on the 360.

My original Xbox collection isn't large anymore, but I really like the games I do still play and the OG console is still one of my favorites.

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4 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

I somehow have seasons 1 and 2 of Powers for being a PS+ member. I don't even know what that is. Not to mention some other shows I've never heard of.

Powers is based off of a Bendis superhero/detective comic. The comic is solid-good. The show less so.

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It was Sony's first (maybe only?) effort into making PS+ also a streaming service. Then they just kinda gave up on that and apparently just let everyone that had Plus own the series forever.

I'm pretty sure it's the only thing in my video library on PlayStation.

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