What is the last video game you played?

[Positivatee 327]

14 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Been playing a lot of Bloodborne lately.

 

I prefer Blackthorne. 

[Jay 37,364]

[Positivatee 327]

Fuckin A. 

[Quintus 5,399]

Talking about Bloodborne has made me look and think about at it again, I wish they'd bring it to PC at long last. 

 

 

 

 

For me it is a visual masterpiece, one of the most eerily evocative worlds I've had the pleasure to explore in games. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

My only visual complaint is the capped 30fps frame rate and aliasing on the base PS4.  There are no stutters thankfully

[Quintus 5,399]

The game has notoriously bad frame pacing actually, which I had to get over. 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I am still unable to wrap my brain around how to play a From Soft game. I can beat the toughest FPS campaigns, but can barely get passed the first boss in these games.

 

Wish I could enjoy them, as the art direction and enemy designs are always superb.

[Edmilson 7,456]

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

 

 

I just saved the galaxy - and it was one of the best experiences I ever had with videogames.

 

This new Legendary Edition includes all 3 Mass Effect games plus their DLCs in a nice, tidy package that makes a lot easier to go through the epic galaxy-wide story of the trilogy.

 

You're put in the role of Commander Shepard who, in my case, was a red-headed female with the Paragon alignment. You need to save the galaxy from the threat of the Reapers, and to do that you'll need to make various races who spent thousands of years in war with each other to come together to face this existential threat.

 

Sure, the gameplay is a little repetitive (in most missions, you and your two squadmates need to infiltrate enemy areas and shoot hordes of killer robots/aliens/soldiers), but that isn't the highlight of the experience. The best part is to control Shepard's dialogues and choices, that sometimes can affect the fate of entire races.

 

You'll need to do hard choices, sometimes you have the power to condemn a race to extinction to save another, and that's the best part of the game. The game makes you really feel like your actions have weight and consequences that will be felt throughout the whole trilogy. 

 

Yeah, it can be heartbreaking sometimes, and that makes it all the more rewarding when you can save a squadmate or broke peace between two enemies through a right choice of actions.

 

During the gameplay, I kept thinking: "You know, an adaptation of this could be an awesome TV show!". But then I realized this story was specifically formated for a videogame because it depends entirely of your choices. One player's Commander Shepard won't be like other player's, because there's so many possibilities to tell his/her story.

 

Also, the worldbuilding is utterly fascinating (you can easily spend a lot of time just researching for the game's complex lore in the Codex) and the side characters are all well written. It's like the best parts of Star Wars, Star Trek, BSG and Lovecraftian horror put together. You can be more friendly with them or more antagonistic, and you can even date them. And it's mesmerizing how your choices with all characters span all three games.

 

The first game was released in 2007, so despite the improvements BioWare made on it, it still looks and feels a little dated, with some poor user experience sometimes. However, it's great to see the gameplay, the UX, the graphics and the mo-cap getting improved upon each game.

 

I really liked this, and if you're a fan of Role Playing Games, you should give this one a chance.

[Jay 37,364]

Sounds great, it's on my list to grab and finally check out, been interested in it for a while

[SilverTrumpet 638]

The graphics looked photorealistic in 2007.

[Edmilson 7,456]

Yeah, I can see that, in 2007, the first ME looked and felt absolutely astounding. It was a great game then and it is pretty good now, even though some of its mechanics haven't aged well.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I never played the first Mass Effect, as it was an Xbox exclusive at the time 2 came to PS3.

 

I replayed both 1 and 2 in the Legendary Edition last year and they’re both superb games. I started 3 but got burned out from 80 straight hours of the same formula. 
 

Still need to go back to finish 3 and then play Andromeda for the first time. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

11 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

I am still unable to wrap my brain around how to play a From Soft game. I can beat the toughest FPS campaigns, but can barely get passed the first boss in these games.

It's like Groundhogs Day.  You die over and over and learn from your mistakes.  The enemies are in the same place every time and they usually do the same thing.

I also mainly got by by grinding.

[Edmilson 7,456]

14 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Still need to go back to finish 3 and then play Andromeda for the first time. 

I never played Andromeda either. Bought it right after I finished the third ME, firstly because it had a nice discount and also because I want to know why it is considered the "black sheep" of the Mass Effect franchise.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

On 25/3/2022 at 10:15 PM, Not Mr. Big said:

It's like Groundhogs Day.  You die over and over and learn from your mistakes.  The enemies are in the same place every time and they usually do the same thing.

I also mainly got by by grinding.

Feels like beating your head against a wall. Not a gameplay loop I’m particularly fond of.

 

On 26/3/2022 at 11:56 AM, Edmilson said:

I never played Andromeda either. Bought it right after I finished the third ME, firstly because it had a nice discount and also because I want to know why it is considered the "black sheep" of the Mass Effect franchise.

It was broken at launch, but I believe shorty thereafter everything was fixed. That first reputation stuck with it. Apparently it has the best combat and gameplay out of all of them. 

[Jay 37,364]

 

[Jay 37,364]

E3 2022 has been completely canceled, both online and in-person

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Emperor Keighley today

 

 

 

[Jay 37,364]

I don't know who that is

[Disco Stu 15,495]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

I don't know who that is

 

Geoff Keighley, the producer/host of The Game Awards every December, it's been clear since 2020 that he wants to own both ends of the calendar for video game marketing hype cycles when he introduced Summer Game Fest.  So my joke was that he orchestrated the pandemic to muscle his way to power by eliminating E3, like Palpatine orchestrating the Clone Wars.

 

Like see how within minutes of the ESA making their announcement today, Keighley posted this

[SilverTrumpet 638]

[Jay 37,364]

Two posts in a row over my head

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Keighley used to produce/host the video game awards on Spike TV which were always sponsored by stereotypical “gamer dude” brands like Doritos and Mountain Dew.  Resulting in cringe like this

 

 

And most notoriously this:

 

 

 

[Jay 37,364]

Oof

[Jay 37,364]

[SilverTrumpet 638]

The Monkey Island announcement came at the exact same time all of the Lego Skywalker reviews were coming out. Really took the air out of the good reviews. 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Geoff Keighley’s a nice guy, but goddamn did The Game Awards turn into the Oscars. Bloated, overlong, drivel with more ads and sponsorships than actual content. 

[SilverTrumpet 638]

 

 

[Jay 37,364]

New Tomb Raider game announced today - Crystal Dynamics returns

 

 

[Faleel 5,348]

Nice.

[SilverTrumpet 638]

I'll never get used to "Crystal Dynamics: A Square-Enix Company" 

[Edmilson 7,456]

Will the next TR movie be set on the same timeline of the 2013 reboot?

[SilverTrumpet 638]

I don't see why it would. Most video game movies don't seem to care about following a game timeline. Detective Pikachu, Sonic, Uncharted, etc. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

My number is up! I've finally officially ordered the Steam Deck.

[Jay 37,364]

Huh.  Didn't see that coming from you!

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

What?

[Jay 37,364]

I thought I remembered you strongly preferring TV gaming and watching things over portable. Maybe I'm thinking of someone else

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

10 hours ago, Jay said:

I thought I remembered you strongly preferring TV gaming and watching things over portable. Maybe I'm thinking of someone else

 

I may have well made a comment like that. But it also very much depends on the game, of course. For example, I've been meaning to play Baba Is You for years, but never bought it until recently, because it's exactly the type of game I'd probably want to play sometimes on the desktop and sometimes on mobile.

 

It's true that I've used my Switch almost exclusively on the TV so far (but then, I've mostly been at home during the pandemic). And I've used it about as much as most of the consoles I get - quite a bit in the beginning, and then less and less often. I have yet to finish a game on it.

But the Steam Deck is pretty much the portable console I've been wanting for 20+ years. It runs the main stream stuff, it has tons of indie stuff, it has older games, it has all the emulators, and it runs my own stuff (which hopefully also acts as a motivation boost). It can be hooked up to a TV (if not as conveniently as the Switch; there's a Dock coming but seems to be little more than a glorified USB hub), it should work with pretty much all the standard external devices (controllers, headsets, etc.) out of the box, and it runs my Steam backlog. And if I want to switch to the desktop, I can run the same games there - i.e. it's the first device that allows me to play a game on mobile, on TV, and on the desktop, without buying at least two different versions of it. If a game doesn't sync over the cloud, I can even sync the save games manually.

 

And most (if not all) of the cross platform repertoire is better priced (or gets better deals) on Steam than on consoles.

 

For me, that easily trumps any teething problems it still has. Plus I've been (aside from consoles) exclusively a Linux user at home for 15+ years, so while there will always be some games that don't run on it (which for a console is normal anyway), I'm already used to it.

 

I'll even try to set it up as a media player as well. I like to set up trailer shows and classical commercial playlists when I've got friends over for a film night, and it would be nice to be able to test them without having to fire up the projector.

[Jay 37,364]

Pretty cool!

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

I’m such a colossal dork that I grabbed a second copy of R&C1 just because the copy I’ve had was missing the manual.

[Edmilson 7,456]

On 05/04/2022 at 10:33 PM, Edmilson said:

Will the next TR movie be set on the same timeline of the 2013 reboot?

 

On 06/04/2022 at 12:40 PM, SilverTrumpet said:

I don't see why it would. Most video game movies don't seem to care about following a game timeline. Detective Pikachu, Sonic, Uncharted, etc. 

 

Lol, only now I saw what I wrote and your response. My mistake 

 

What I meant was that I was wondering if the recently announced Tomb Raider game (not movie) will or will not be set in the same timeline as the 2013 reboot, which also includes the sequels Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

[SilverTrumpet 638]

OH! 

 

Well, according to who you ask, they can argue you were trying to be funny.

 

I don't think we know anything about this new game yet. They just needed to promise any new game to show support for UE5. I'm sure they barely got started on the game. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

[SilverTrumpet 638]

Is it fun?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Think I've only played the NES version of Bubble Bobble.  Fun little game.  I enjoy those old puzzle platformers.  I loved discovering Fire n' Ice via the NES online app on Switch.

[Jay 37,364]

Puzzle Bobble > Bubble Bobble

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

26 minutes ago, Jay said:

Puzzle Bobble > Bubble Bobble

 

No! Puzzle Bobble/Bust a Move and whatever the various incarnations were called (I don't remember which one I played, but as far as I know they're all similar) was fun enough. But Bubble Bobble, especially in 2 player mode, is absolutely one of the All-Time Great Games[tm].

[Jay 37,364]

They both are!

[Faleel 5,348]

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2022/04/lucasfilm-announces-new-star-wars-game-from-uncharted-creator

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

Sounds intriguing! But Fallen Order was pretty heavily inspired by Uncharted anyway, I wonder what will set this one apart?

 

Either way I'm glad to see another single-player action/adventure SW game in the works. Never been a multiplayer gamer myself and FPS games don't do much for me either.

 

It appears as if there's three such games in the works at the moment. This one, the sequel to Fallen Order and that Eclipse one which is most likely an action RPG, successor to the wonderful Knights of the Old Republic games.