Gaming thoughts, bite-size chewables - new orange flavor!

[PhantomLord]

tritriagain[/url]"xrc709b]I'm trying to avoid the sales. My backlog keeps getting bigger and my time to play keeps getting shorter. It doesn't help that there's some good console games coming out now too. I might have to break down and get a PS4 for FFXV. Or I can finish up the half dozen games in my Steam library. Oh yeah, I did just purchase the Kingdom Hearts Reboots too. I need a time machine.

But then again, now that I'm on injured reserves for another 3 weeks maybe I can get in some playing time. Anyone now some good hack'n'slash on sale?

If you haven't played it already, DeathSpank is a great series. Only the first game is on sale right now, but it is really worth it. I didn't think silly humor could carry a game, but the game is actually quite fun and the humor holds until the end without resorting to just references. The entire trilogy is worth playing through if you can find the others on sale too.

 

[PhantomLord]

bluesdrivemonster[/url]":farf83sz]35 hours into Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and I'm burned out. My quest log is huge, and I've beaten three faction storylines. I might just try to beat the main quest and call it good. Hopefully it's not too long and the sidequests if I choose to return to them would have appropriately leveled rewards and challenges. Playing on Hard and it's really easy.

That's exactly what happened to me. The game gets too easy and after so many hours I checked the map only to see I still had at least half the game to go. KoA is a wonderful game, but really hampered by the difficulty and large size of the non-MMO MMO world.

 

[PhantomLord]

neuromaster[/url]":3u7mqrcy]Not all content is created equal.
I haven't played Amalur, but I remember Dragon Age: Inquisition being filled to the brim with MMO-style filler quests & collectibles.
If you didn't have the good sense to say "enough is enough" and move on without trying to 100% the zone, you could probably burn 20+ hours in the starter area alone.

This was not a good thing.

When I started playing I had no idea how much content was in the game and did try to do all the missions. Fortunately the game has quest tiers and if I knew better I would have only done the top two tiers of quests and moved on. Also, your level when first entering a new zone determines the difficulty of the enemies, so it is best to not explore a new zone until you are ready for it.

Eventually I noticed everything being a blur and I wasn't even trying during fights and just plowed through everything, even large enemies and bosses.

 

[PhantomLord]

Valere[/url]":cazevqec]

krimhorn[/url]":cazevqec]

Genome[/url]":cazevqec]It's not likely that Dishonored 2 will go lower than this before spring, right?

One would expect not.

Yeah, games seem to take much longer to hit my $20 cheapskate price point (still waiting on XCOM2 forex) lately.

I've noticed this too. While the indie game crap flood is on a race to the bottom AAA games and games that are actually good don't get such deep discounts anymore. The AAA games that have the ridiculous discounts are aging fast and I've noticed its always the same ones. There are so many great games out there with more and more content that I don't mind. I just wait longer and make sure the complete edition is out before purchasing. Not caring about MP at all has its benefits.

I'm sure part of all this is that companies have found a good balance of discount and the number of sales that yields the most profit.

 

[PhantomLord]

LordDaMan[/url]":1gam67qu]

bluesdrivemonster[/url]":1gam67qu]Is Darksiders really like Zelda? My preconception of the game is it's in the vein of DMC or God of War.

It's in the vein of DMC.

I think the Zelda comparisons come from the fact that there are some similar abilities and the way certain area unlock after getting certain items. Plus the dungeon/overworld structure is very Zelda like. Combat is more like God of War though. You could also argue it has a Metroidvania feel as well.

The second game was good, but I got bored halfway through. A weak story, random weapon drops, and very little world building killed it for me. I loved how the first game was the modern world mixed with fantasy, while the second going full fantasy made it pretty bland.

 

[PhantomLord]

Genome[/url]":3quntki4]Bought Rise of the Tomb Raider, because it was on sale.

Two thoughts:

1) This is a very pretty game and I'm not even trying to max it out on my GTX970 because I don't think I can.
2) Childhood flashbacks? Really? Do we really have to do this?

Oh, and Lara is back on fine "that fall should have killed you"-form, as well. I've played for about two hours and she's already had six or seven really bad falls. The Goddess of Destruction-bit appears to have been toned down, though. I've only destroyed one rare historic location so far.

Recently played through this as well and enjoyed it more than the first one. I couldn't quite max it out on a GTX1070 either, but came pretty close and the game still looked ridiculously good. The flashbacks are pretty minimal and later on do make more sense for the story. The exploration aspects for this game were incredibly well done and I had a lot of fun finding everything which is not something I always do.

 

[PhantomLord]

krimhorn[/url]":smosd6x6]DF Retro's got a 48 ( ) minute retrospective on the original Halo up. Starting with about 8 minutes of Bungie history and then doing all of the gameplay and performance analysis that DF's known for across all of the versions of Halo.

What it really made me pine for, however, was Oni. Sadly, it doesn't appear to be purchasable on any digital platforms so I'm probably going to have to dig out my old disc and pick up a USB DVD drive to finally finish ripping all of my old games that I don't have a digital version (or option for) of.

I'll definitely have to watch that soon. As a side note, the entire DF Retro series is excellent and I highly recommend watching all of them for anyone who is interested in gaming history. Here is the complete series:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... bU9cND7U-A

 

[PhantomLord]

I'm in the same boat.

Were you really though?

 

[PhantomLord]

I've decided that I like Victor Vran.

My first impression was 'oh god, I'm Geralt'; moving behind the painfully one dimensional voice actor, the story isn't bad, and the Voice has gotten to be quite entertaining. I like the slightly different take on loot tiers, the apparently unlimited inventory, and the very limited scaling. Some of the transmutation stuff is a bit strange, and I'd like a few more weapon abilities, but... I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

I played Victor Vran for about 8 hours before getting bored. The game played great and the narration was fun, but after a while the story wanes and the conversations in between missions were too boring to keep me interested. I also got tired of the arena style levels. The game accomplishes what it sets out to do and the controller support was really nice, but it just bored me after a while and I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I need some kind of narrative and push to keep me going through a game.

 

[PhantomLord]

Prey runs just fun at the "High" preset plus 16x Anisotropic Filtering.

This isn't really in reaction to that post, other than it brought it up, but I'm not sure I've ever *not* used 16x since 1999. I'm not sure why [the world] keeps treating it as a luxury item just because consoles refuse to use it.

I never understood this either. So many console games reduce the AF when it increasing it actually produces a noticeable improvement in the majority of games. Unless consoles are somehow much different than desktop graphics, the performance impact should be almost nothing.

 

[PhantomLord]

Steam has CPUCores on "special" now, the first I'd heard of it -- I went to check for 3rd party reviews of this nonsense and found that keys for it are up on G2A. If only assholes buying it there could drive the company out of business. :eyebrow:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/c ... d_on_pcmr/

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/c ... _exposing/

At least the high price tag pushes away kids who fall for garbage like "change your battery icon from 5 pips to 10 pips and double your powah for $1" crap on mobile devices.

Favorite comment among those I saw, though

Is this developed by Buzzfeed?

WE RAN THIS NEW APP AND THEN PLAYED ARKHAM KNIGHT AND YOU WON"T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!

Steam bulked approved over 3400 games on Greenlight in prep for their new system, so yeah expect to see a lot more of this crap.

The number of games that are simply card farms is ridiculous. Someone will create a game using some default assets in Unity then give away hundreds of thousands of copies through various means. They would actually make pretty good money on the card sales even if it is one penny per card.

 

[PhantomLord]

Some people like to level up their accounts by completing card sets, others like you and me just earn them and sell them to use for future purchases. There is no legitimate way to get money out of Steam, but there are websites out there that allow real money trading for items.

 

[PhantomLord]

Is anyone else disappointed in Beyond Good and Evil 2? I've been waiting years like everyone else for a sequel and wrap up to the light hearted focused action adventure and now we get a create your own character No Man's Sky with swearing. The game was so great because of the comedic and light hearted exterior wrapped around a dark undertone. I want to play as Jade again.

I don't think I've ever been so upset after watching a trailer before.

 

[PhantomLord]

At this point, I basically consider "procedurally-generated" and "open-world" anti-features in any game with even a remote focus on characters or story.

Thank you! I seriously thought I was the only one who thought that. There aren't enough +'s for you.

 

[PhantomLord]

Speaking of GOG, I had 14 games to add through GOG Connect when I checked today.

 

[PhantomLord]

.Hack is coming back later this year as a remaster for the PC and PS4. That is a series I never thought I would hear about again. Although I only played the originally briefly I am looking forward to it. I think .Hack was one of the first major episodic releases back in the PS2 era.

 

[PhantomLord]

Anyone notice that with modern video cards, FMV stutters like crazy even when a game can run perfectly smooth?

 

[PhantomLord]

As much as I used to enjoy a wide variety of genre's, I could never get into diablo-style games. Especially on PC. My first was baldurs gate on PS2, and since then I have enjoyed Torchlight but it's not my cup of tea. Victor Vran sounds interesting with a roll button, maybe I should look into that.

If you couldn't get into Diablo style games, you should avoid Victor Vran. It is fun at first and full of action, but doesn't become more than a series of arenas with a very weak story to hold it together. VV really grabbed me at the beginning with narration and gameplay, but I quit halfway through. May be worth getting for really cheap and just playing until you get bored. It does have Geralt in it...

I understand the appeal of Diablo style games and enjoy them for a little while, but always get bored in the end. The last ones I really got into were the PS2 Baldur's Gate games and Titan Quest. The roguelike randomly generated levels are really what turn me off since I just prefer a fine tuned crafted experience for action games. Of course a big thing for me is that I don't like to spend too much time with one game, so I don't need the infinite content.

 

[PhantomLord]

Ok but actually though, Baldur's gate is not an ARPG.

The console Baldur's gate games absolutly were and had little to do with the PC Baldur's gate games besides the Forgotten Realms setting. They were also some of the best co-op ARGP games until Blizzard released the console Diablo 3. My wife and I love to play ARPGs together but they make so few of them for console and we burned out of Diablo 3, not even a new class could entice my wife to play again.

I tried Grim Dawn, just didn't scratch the itch as well as Diablo. Path Of Exile is fun but has soooo much flexibility that its at times overwhelming and I never really gelled with a specific build.

Not exactly new, but to scratch the PS2 Baldur's Gate itch, Lord of the Rings: War in the North is pretty good. I believe it was made by some of the same people and definitely feels like a BG: DA style game. Unfortunately the PC version doesn't support local co-op.

Probably will never happen, but it would be awesome is BG: Dark Alliance 1 and 2 would be remade. I'm sure that would be crazy licensing issues to deal with though. I remember being absolutely stunned at how barrels would smash differently each time based based on a simple physics model. The water looked awesome too.

The Bard's tale is available on Steam as well, although it doesn't look to have aged too well. I remember there was also a Dark Alliance style Fallout game on the PS2, but I don't remember much about it.

 

[PhantomLord]

I missed out on all the Uncharted games on ps3.

Also purchased the ps4 collection. 1 was solid, so was 2, then i lost interest on 3. Luckily the games arent that long, but i still felt i had to power through to get to the end. If they could have added a tiny bit of RPG element, it would be much better. like upgrade your guns or something. Otherwise I think a game like 2013 Tomb Raider is better in all regards. Still appreciate Uncharted for what it is, straight up action.

I felt the same way when I recently played through the Uncharted Collection and Uncharted 4. The games are great, but there is no feeling of progression which I was surprised I missed from other games.

 

[PhantomLord]

My only real gripe with the new doom is that it often feels like painkiller, not doom. It's the same mechanic as you enter an area, have to kill everything and the magic walls suddenly dissappaer and you can move to the next place and repeat. In the original doom you could play as a Pacifist and never kill anything

This always bothered me. I love Painkiller and the new Doom is great, but none of those games having the same feeling the original Doom or Duke Nukem had like so many people say they do. Locked arenas are not the same thing as working through a level fighting dozens and dozens of enemies.

Not really sure what modern games would be close to that old experience.

 

[PhantomLord]

Beat Inside today,

Spoiler

wtf kind of ending was that? Did I miss something?

I thought it was quite crazy, awesome, and a great wrap up to what happened to the boy during the game. Doubt many share the sentiment, but I liked Inside (along with the ending) much more than Limbo.

 

[PhantomLord]

Speaking of finishing games I just finished Doom (2016 version). Overall I really enjoyed it. Some of the difficulty spikes/drops were poor design, and unless you're into MP you'll never get the 100% cheevos. Getting back into run & gun FPS took a bit but you never really forget. Like riding a bike.

I did itch at some points for the all mighty F5 but checkpoints were intelligently placed and exploitable for challenges/cheevos so it cut both ways.

All in all, good fun. As long as they keep the franchise in this direction and not the horror-flashlight of a game I'd seriously consider buying the next one on day one.

I wish they would branch of the two styles of Doom games. Doom 2016 is much closer to the original Doom feel and an incredible game, but I really enjoyed the Doom 3 and how it struck a good balance between combat and exploration with horror overtones. I'm probably in a minority, but I enjoyed listening to the logs and developing story. I played through the remaster a few months ago and the flashlight changes really made it much less tedious to play.

 

[PhantomLord]

Been thinking about all the games out there like Fallout, Skyrim, Rage, Borderlands and the ratio of bandits to non-bandits. Joining the bandits may be the better option and how cool would it be to fight the adventures coming in to steal your stolen treasure.

 

[PhantomLord]

Just picked up the latest Spooky Humble Bundle mostly for Layers of Fear, but there is a game called Dead Age there that looks pretty fun. Anyone here played it? I'm usually not into roguelikes because I like completing stories and games, but this one actually sounds really fun and you get small bonuses when you have to start over.

 

[PhantomLord]

Not sure if it warrants its own thread yet, but THQ Nordic's Biomutant looks really good.

Eurogamer article
YouTube preview trailer

Made by developers from Avalanche it seems like a nice change for open world games with bright colors, cool rideable vehicles, and stars some kind of panda cat kung fu animal. I adored Mad Max, so if this game comes close to that with a bit less tedium I would be very happy.

 

[PhantomLord]

Hmm, didn't Quake 1 have a lot of melee enemies and a pretty sweet looking axe? Maybe iD will get around to making Quake 5 and bring the same 'old but new' approach they used for Doom to it.

They did a great job bringing Wolfenstein back and keeping it very different from Doom and Quake. I really hope a single player Quake is brought back in a way much different than Doom as mentioned above. Something melee focused would be really cool. Quake 4 was great, but I don't think it would differentiate enough from Doom and Wolfenstein at this point.

 

[PhantomLord]

I enjoyed Quake and Quake 2 SP but point taken. I doubt we'll ever see another Unreal SP game either (heck signs point to UT being dead as well).

There is a new version of UT in pre-alpha: https://www.epicgames.com/unrealtournament/

Although I think it's more of a tech demo for the engine and Epic Launcher

I've been waiting for a new Unreal SP game since Unreal 2 came out. Honestly though at this point I'm not sure what it would be. Unreal blew me away when it came out with its graphics, somewhat open levels, and log based story, but so much has changed since then. Unreal 2 tried to go further, but was somewhat weak. I enjoyed U2, but the cheesiness and attempts at so many different types of gameplay brought it down a bit. The campaign even had a tower defense type mode.

If Quake SP is out of the question, I wouldn't mind another Rage.

 

[PhantomLord]

Rage still holds up well and looks great. iD managed to create a great shooter with a fun pseudo-open world. Instead of boring world filled with collectibles and mundane tasks, there are well designed areas you can tackle in the order you wish. The driving and car combat in the game feels great too.

 

[PhantomLord]

Okami HD confirmed for PC, PS4, and XboxOne early next year! I am very excited about this since I haven't played Okami since I had it on the PS2. Playing on the PC will be glorious. Even with the PS2 controller, I remember the drawing worked very well.

 

[PhantomLord]

Okami HD confirmed for PC, PS4, and XboxOne early next year! I am very excited about this since I haven't played Okami since I had it on the PS2. Playing on the PC will be glorious. Even with the PS2 controller, I remember the drawing worked very well.

Whaaaaaaaat! That's an instabuy. Okami was the best game that nobody played. I don't know what it is about the game, but some people go nuts for it, and some are extremely put off by it. I tried to get some friends to play it once (who I knew were huge Zelda fans, so in theory it should be right up their alley), but when I showed it to them they just said "that looks weird" and wouldn't touch it.

Instabuy for me as well (and that is rare). It does look weird and the text intro is much too long winded, but the game itself is awesome.

 

[PhantomLord]

I don't know why but games that insist on using L/R to move the camera instead of the perfectly functional right stick with no option to change make me .

What games are you seeing this in? I haven't seen that since the PSOne era and some games on the PS2.

 

[PhantomLord]

I got an e-mail from GMG about Shadow of War yesterday and when logging in, get the following message:

GET AN EXTRA 35% OFF SHADOW OF WAR AND 30% OFF THE SILVER EDITION WITH CODES: 35SOW / 30SOWSILVER

I think if you log in to the site you will see this message with those codes to use on top of the 5% off. Not buying it, but entering the code after adding the game to my cart brings the $75.99 silver edition down to $53.19.

 

[PhantomLord]

I've never been interested in Steamworld Dig, but after watching a review of the second, the simple fact that the dungeons aren't randomly generated brings it up to a buy.

 

[PhantomLord]

Pinball FX3 has been released on Steam and previously purchased tables for FX2 are automatically transferred. I think there are a few tables that didn't get license transfers, but most are there.

 

[PhantomLord]

Ryan B.[/url]":7rkekedm]So I've been using an Xbox 360 controller with my PC for years. It works great if I don't need the D-pad. I don't much care for the D-pad on that controller; it feels mushy and imprecise. Games that require exact inputs (like Dustforce) suffer.

The Xbox 1 controller looks like it might be an improvement. Is it? Are there any other good controllers out there? Seems like most controllers optimize for cost over quality. I care more about quality than price, within reason. (This one from Razer is a little excessive at $160. I'd consider it if the quality is good, but it also has a bunch of features I don't need. I don't need rainbow LEDs or headset connections or swappable control sticks. I just want a durable, comfortable, precise controller without the frills.)

I've been using a PS4 controller for a few years now and absolutely love it. Much more comfortable than a 360/X1 controller for me and solidly built. Steam supports PS4 controllers directly and takes care of Xbox controller emulation, but I still prefer to use InputMapper. Not a great UI, but easy to set up and works great. Plus the pad on the controller can act as mouse.

I purchased a long USB cable and use the controller wired instead of Bluetooth so I don't have to worry about charging.

EDIT: Ninajed!

 

[PhantomLord]

Nekojin[/url]":3f0ydiyt]

Did the DS3 ever get native support? Last time I tried (IIRC, a couple years ago), it didn't, so I ended up just using my 360 controller instead (with attendant D-pad issues).

Wait, does the PS4 controller have native support? I'd be using those in a heartbeat if they are supported.

If you are talking about Steam, it does have native support for PS4 controllers and it works nicely. Even allows you to control the color and intensity of the light bar. Just go to Settings -> Controller and set it up. It pulls up a Big Picture window, but can be used just fine without Big Picture.

The reason I still use InputMapper instead is because games that have build in native support make the lightbar go to maximum brightness and sometimes specific functions or buttons don't seem to work. However, for most games Steam's built in support works just fine.

 

[PhantomLord]

Mentioned this a while back, but Okami HD is coming and the Steam page is up. The original PS4 Amazon listing had the game at $19.99, but the price has been removed now. If the port is decent, I'm going to be all over this game.

 

[PhantomLord]

TheGouldFish[/url]":ekww1hk3]

Mentioned this a while back, but Okami HD is coming and the Steam page is up. The original PS4 Amazon listing had the game at $19.99, but the price has been removed now. If the port is decent, I'm going to be all over this game.

I still find it funny that of any company a games company hasn't gotten the hang of doing string localisations.
On steam Okami: HD is called "ŌKAMI HD / 大神 絶景版" because I'm guessing they can only provide a single name for the game.
Or it seems to be Capcom have no idea seeing that the Resident evil games are all called "Resident Evil / Biohazard"

It really is odd. At the very least they should make the Ō a normal O. Typing "Okami" in the search box doesn't pop up the game like it should. Fortunately, clicking the search button does bring the game up.

 

[PhantomLord]

coconutboy[/url]":17a5hdzr]

Zero Dawn dlc coming soon! YES!!!!

Alternatively, you could also wait for the PC version and it's bundling of all dlc.

As much as so many people would kill for that, I don't think Zero Dawn will ever be released on the PC. It was created as a PS4 exclusive and was successful enough to actually sell systems, so there is no way Sony would give that up.