The Video Game Thread

[PokerPacker]

1 hour ago, purbeast said:

Putting out "patches" does not make a game incomplete because they are fixing QOL issues and bugs.  I am in the software industry and can tell you that there is no such thing as bug free software.

Of course in the past, developers would have more stringent QA practices to make sure that the game they shipped was working to the best of their ability because there was no second chance at a launch.  Nowadays, it's "ship it and we'll fix it in a patch... maybe".

 

1 hour ago, purbeast said:

DLC coming later on also doesn't make a game incomplete.  I have purchased song tracks for Beat Saber.  I also chose NOT to purchase some of them because I don't like some of the songs.  

Depends on the DLC.  There's the on-disk "DLC", or the DLC that used to be the type of things that came with a game that were unlocked by doing certain things within the game.  Now they're $4.99 per skin.  Or even better, lottery loot-boxes so you have to keep giving them money until you have the good fortune of fishing your wish.

 

I really hate what has become of the video game industry.  Which big developers these days are actually run by video game people rather than MBAs? R.I.P., Iwata-san

[dfitzo53]

2 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

Of course in the past, developers would have more stringent QA practices to make sure that the game they shipped was working to the best of their ability because there was no second chance at a launch.  Nowadays, it's "ship it and we'll fix it in a patch... maybe".

Anybody else here have Ultimate Football '95 for the PC? Reasonably fun pro football sim, but it came on CD and yet shipped with a fatal error and had to be patched straight out of the box. (The instructions might even have mentioned it?)

[purbeast]

2 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

Of course in the past, developers would have more stringent QA practices to make sure that the game they shipped was working to the best of their ability because there was no second chance at a launch.  Nowadays, it's "ship it and we'll fix it in a patch... maybe".

 

Depends on the DLC.  There's the on-disk "DLC", or the DLC that used to be the type of things that came with a game that were unlocked by doing certain things within the game.  Now they're $4.99 per skin.  Or even better, lottery loot-boxes so you have to keep giving them money until you have the good fortune of fishing your wish.

 

I really hate what has become of the video game industry.  Which big developers these days are actually run by video game people rather than MBAs? R.I.P., Iwata-san

You also have to realize how much more complex games now a days are compared to the "past".  I mean there are like more people involved in video games now than blockbuster movies.  The budgets are hundreds of millions of dollars for AAA titles.  I am 100% positive that the QA practices now a days are much more stringent than back in the day and that the QA teams are much bigger in size too.  

 

But you are right they do now have the ability to "ship now fix later" and it's happened quite a bit.  Games definitely went through delays more in the past because they didn't have that option.  They also didn't have as many share holders to please.  Nintendo still will delay games no matter how long it takes to put out a quality product.  I mean they scraped Metroid Prime 4 development completely after 2 years of it, to start from scratch again, because they weren't happy with how it was going.  That's impressive in today's industry.

 

As for loot boxes and that kinda DLC, yeah I don't partake in that.  I've never bought a skin or anything like that.  I don't really care for cosmetic stuff like that in games and definitely won't pay for it.

[The Evil Genius]

If you are still looking for that PS5, PS Direct is likely your best option. Playstation has had them in stock most days.

 

https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/

Edited December 7, 2022 by The Evil Genius

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

 

[purbeast]

I am pretty disappointed with Forspoken.  I planned on buying it but after playing the demo, I'm most likely going to pass.  I'm also disappointed at how bad the graphics are (relatively speaking). I play games in performance mode and it's not even close to looking as good as Elden ring, which is a multiplatform game also on last gen.  The gameplay though is what I just didn't really like and celt clunky.

[Simmsy]

On 12/5/2022 at 4:05 PM, The Evil Genius said:

 

The argument I was (clumsily) trying to make is that games are now too often rushed out early and are broken and seem to always need patches and/or are incomplete (and thus DLC was sold later). But perhaps it's solely a money grab on the DLC...and the ability to fix bugs (that somehow weren't caught in the many many years of game creation). 

 

Also, you just get a game and a case now (if you buy a physical copy), I miss game manuals. I miss getting a new game, opening it up, smelling the manual and reading it on the toilet before I play. Now, you're lucky to get a leaflet inside your game case.

[Fan since a Fetus]

3 hours ago, Simmsy said:

 

Also, you just get a game and a case now (if you buy a physical copy), I miss game manuals. I miss getting a new game, opening it up, smelling the manual and reading it on the toilet before I play. Now, you're lucky to get a leaflet inside your game case.

My wife has always considered it really weird that I enjoy smelling the video games and cds I’ve bought. I love that smell. Doesn’t happen as much anymore.

[The Evil Genius]

 

[Simmsy]

9 hours ago, Fan since a Fetus said:

My wife has always considered it really weird that I enjoy smelling the video games and cds I’ve bought. I love that smell. Doesn’t happen as much anymore.

 

Thats one of those things that you have to smell when you buy it.

[PokerPacker]

I miss the smell of instruction manuals.  Opening the box in the car ride home from Best Buy and pouring over the manuals with all their delightful artwork in anticipation of getting home and popping the cartridge into the console.

[purbeast]

I finished God of War last night.  Man oh man what an incredible awesome ride it was.  Even the way the credits are done after you finish the main mission you can just tell the love that is poured into the game.  And then after you beat it there are new missions that open up and after you complete one of em, you get the "real" credits with some awesome music.  The climax of the game is like one of the best I can remember and lasts a long time.  The last like 4-5 hours of the game are just non-stop action and the battles you encounter as well as the scenery and environments are just unreal.  This and Elden Ring are definitely my favorite games of this past year.  It's hard to say which I enjoyed more since they are just so different.  One has this incredible story with very cinematic story telling, and one I couldn't tell you wtf the story is even about or anyone's name lol.

 

I would say I did have a few gripes with the game.

 

1.  The Atreus parts were just tedius for the most part.  I get that the point of them are mainly just to move the story along, but they dragged on a lot IMO, especially the first "long" one where you are basically doing chores and moving at a snails pace.  It just dragged on way too long.  Then when you get to Asgard for the first time I thought again it dragged on way too long, but I get that it was for story purposes.

 

2.  The damn map.  I hate the damn map in this game.  I have how the circle with the direction isn't where you are - you are the dot BELOW it.  It's just so confusing and I never got used to it, and the map just didn't feel to scale or something.  I found it very hard to use the map and navigate how to get to some places based on trying to follow the map.  I also wish you could drop way points or something to help you know where you have already been.  It also is completely useless when you are underground or inside a mountain for instance.

 

3. Mystic gates - I just wish there were more of them on some realms.  In some realms there just aren't enough of them and wasting time back tracking to spots when the map isn't very helpful, is just tedious and wasn't fun.  For example there is an area east of Freyr's Camp that I was missing some stuff so I had to go back there and it just took forever to get there.  Last night when I cut it off I am stuck inside one of the mountains on one of the realms and basically lost and not sure how the hell to get where I'm going.  I know where I'm going I've been before since I see some stuff on the map, but I don't even remember going there since it was earlier in the game.  

 

Again though, overall I loved the whole game and those are just some little gripes I had after putting 40+ hours into the game.  Amazing experience.

[PleaseBlitz]

On 12/8/2022 at 10:56 PM, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

 

 

I'm sure nobody cares about how the video game sausage gets made, but it's hard to understate how much impact this will have on the video game industry.  The numbers involved are also crazy.  Activision is valued at $69 billion.  For a reference point, the ENTIRE US MOVIE INDUSTRY makes about $26 billion in a year.  Video games make more than movies and TV combined.  The highest grossing video game of 2021, as far as I can tell with 30 seconds of research, (Dungeon Fighter Online) made about 6 times what the highest grossing movie of all time (Avatar) made. 

[bearrock]

I would take Sony's opposition more seriously if they themselves didn't rely on so much exclusivity in the past and even now.  

[purbeast]

1 hour ago, bearrock said:

I would take Sony's opposition more seriously if they themselves didn't rely on so much exclusivity in the past and even now.  

The huge difference (in my opinion at least) is all of the Sony exclusives started out that way.

 

All of the games that Activision has a hold of like Call of Duty have pretty much always been multiplatform.

 

You never saw games like God of War, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, etc, on any other platform.  You've seen Call of Duty on everything almost as far back as it's been a franchise.  And even when it was exclusive to Xbox 360 back in the day, it wasn't MS that controlled that.  It was Activision.  

 

To me that is a huge difference between them.

[PleaseBlitz]

3 hours ago, bearrock said:

I would take Sony's opposition more seriously if they themselves didn't rely on so much exclusivity in the past and even now.  

Thats exactly why the FTC decision matters. If Microsoft is allowed to do this, then Sony is sure as **** going to aggressively pursue the same strategies (way moreso than now), and then everything will be exclusive to one or the other. 

[bearrock]

2 hours ago, purbeast said:

The huge difference (in my opinion at least) is all of the Sony exclusives started out that way.

 

All of the games that Activision has a hold of like Call of Duty have pretty much always been multiplatform.

 

You never saw games like God of War, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, etc, on any other platform.  You've seen Call of Duty on everything almost as far back as it's been a franchise.  And even when it was exclusive to Xbox 360 back in the day, it wasn't MS that controlled that.  It was Activision.  

 

To me that is a huge difference between them.

 

I'm not advocating for MS being able to acquire Activision to gain exclusive titles, I'm saying that exclusive titles should receive far more scrutiny then they do now as anticompetitive behavior even when the deal is with 3rd party developers.  Not all exclusive dealings contracts are per se antitrust, but not all exclusive dealings contracts are per se legal either.  Like @PleaseBlitz pointed out, video games are now a major industry and legislators and regulators need to treat it like a major industry instead things that kids are into.  Loot boxes are gambling, lot of console/platform exclusive deals would face hard scrutiny on rule of reason.  Regulate them as such.  

[Momma There Goes That Man]

9 hours ago, purbeast said:

 

I finished God of War last night.  Man oh man what an incredible awesome ride it was. 

 

Finished last night too 

 

I was really upset when they said they were going to do Ragnarok in game 2 and it wouldn't be a trilogy. I just didn't see how they could pull it off. They completely nailed it. 

Beautiful, powerful, emotional, jaw dropping from beginning to end. It surpasses the first game in pretty much every way for me. I would have been happy with half of what this game gave me but it ever settled. 

 

Better combat, better settings,  even better writing, better side missions where nearly every single one adds some additional nuance or layer or context  to a character. I think someone would miss quite a bit of impersonate character information if they skipped the side missions. Everything has a purpose and it all fits together extremely well to tell an insane story about love, loss, coming of age, identity, the choices we make and the consequences of our actions, justice, family, vengeance, and one's nature. I cried multiple times in the game including several times just in the final 5-7 hours. 

the only part I felt dragged was the Ironwood section because you spend so much time doing chores and still not really getting a ton of great information. The rest of the Atreus sections were fine and had interesting story elements.

 

[Mufumonk]

https://youtu.be/Xvgk3JJrpIg

[purbeast]

18 hours ago, bearrock said:

 

I'm not advocating for MS being able to acquire Activision to gain exclusive titles, I'm saying that exclusive titles should receive far more scrutiny then they do now as anticompetitive behavior even when the deal is with 3rd party developers.  Not all exclusive dealings contracts are per se antitrust, but not all exclusive dealings contracts are per se legal either.  Like @PleaseBlitz pointed out, video games are now a major industry and legislators and regulators need to treat it like a major industry instead things that kids are into.  Loot boxes are gambling, lot of console/platform exclusive deals would face hard scrutiny on rule of reason.  Regulate them as such.  

Yeah I dunno, exclusives don't bother me at all.  It helps create competition IMO.  Like Sonic may never have existed if Mario was cross platform.  Crash Bandicoot may never have existed.  Forza may not have existed.  The list could go on.  

 

Maybe it's just because I grew up with it and buy every console so I'm never limited to playing a game.

 

I personally have no problem with MS buying Activision either though as I don't really play any of their games, and I have an Xbox anyways if I did want to purchase one.  Again, just me personally though and I know not everyone is in the same boat.  I do think it's weak AF on their part though to do that because they don't have any exclusive IPs that are actually attractive to me anymore so they are buying companies to get exclusivity.  I'm over Halo, Forza, and Gears of War is cool but I don't get too excited for it.  Gears 5 was good and I'd get part 6 when it comes out, but maybe not at launch.  I paid $5 for Gears 5 lol.  I did enjoy it though.  MS really needs some new IP's to get me back.

[Simmsy]

Sorry, guys. Sony is acting like a little ****. Not all of their exclusives started out that way and they seem to love to threaten developers to stay away from GamePass. MS has extended every olive branch to Sony to let them have a more than fair share of CoD...even on Playstation Plus.

 

All this does is encourage Microsoft to just pay the companies individually for each exclusive, now Sony gets nothing and they can't outbid Microsoft.

[purbeast]

The last Berserker in God of War is a **** holy ****.  I changed difficulty to the easiest and still can barely get him down half his health.  F me.

[Llevron]

I haven't beat GOWR yet....and I just knew I would be done with this joint in a week. Way more to do than I thought there would be. It seems to be wayyyy bigger than the first game. 

 

I want to complete all the side missions I can before I finish....im right where I assume the very end of the game starts. I was pretty upset at how they did my mans.....

 

Game is so legit. You can tell they really loved what they made. I do too. I want to ****ing kill Odin though. MF'er has to go now.

 

 

Also the one time he called Atreus boy in this game gave me ****ing chills.   

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Llevron

[bearrock]

4 hours ago, Simmsy said:

Sorry, guys. Sony is acting like a little ****. Not all of their exclusives started out that way and they seem to love to threaten developers to stay away from GamePass. MS has extended every olive branch to Sony to let them have a more than fair share of CoD...even on Playstation Plus.

 

All this does is encourage Microsoft to just pay the companies individually for each exclusive, now Sony gets nothing and they can't outbid Microsoft.

 

Yeah, I'm sure MS and Activision have a back up deal in place in case the sale is blocked.  As long as gov'ts around the world don't block third party exclusive deals, consumers will eventually lose out.  

[Fan since a Fetus]

I missed a lot when I played God of War (2018). Playing on New Game+. I’m finding hidden areas that I didn’t know existed. I think with my mind frame in 2018, I just ran through it and didn’t sit back and really enjoy the game. I’m definitely finding it more fulfilling now.

 

 

 

also, for those of you with kids or adults that want a more relaxing game experience, try out Bee Simulator. Its on PS+, or it’s pretty cheap everywhere. Its also on all systems. It’s a fun little game. Nothing crazy. You’re just a bee needing to survive. I love bees, so I may be biased. Don’t expect too much though.