I've read great things about the Nintendo Switch, especially as a handheld. What's your experience as a console on a TV for multiple players?

This is the only way that I've experienced the Switch - 4 player Mario Kart on a TV. It was a blast.

It looks like a new Dragon Age will be announced sometime next month. I can't wait to see how Bioware disappoints me this time.

I bought it just after release to use as a console on my TV...and I hardly ever do that. It's almost constantly undocked, in my hands, and traveling with me. This is more a combination of lack of opportunity for multiplayer and convenience than a disparagement of it as a console on a TV.

Yeah, I preferred the first two, I think they really stumbled and got away from a winning formula for them.

If I owned it, that would probably be true for me too I'd say. The portability of it has meant that the only time I play it is when we have family over and the brother-in-law brings his for multiplayer. I've thought about buying one mainly because I need a Zelda and/or Mario fix every once in a while.

you are describing fallout and resident evil as well

The release of Smash Bros is really tempting me to buy a Switch

I've been lusting after a switch for a while but I think the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 news is gonna end up sealing the deal.

Wow.. Madden, NHL, Far Cry 5, RDR 2, Shadow of the TR look like different games on the XB1 in 4k (and HDR on some of them that have it)


Regular HDTV looks about the same, maybe a bit brighter, but I watched a 4k movie on Netflix and it's hard to watch HD now.. HAHA!


Think I'll pickup AC Odyssey with Christmas money.

Sadly, I might be most excited about the release of Katamari Damacy on PC.

Is Diablo 3 suitable for a 13 year old boy?

it's not suitable for human comsumption

Yes. No sex or anything other than some video game violence and even that is not as bad as many games that actually deserve a mature rating.

Path of Exile is free and just like it :)

Yeah, I actually enjoyed Diablo 3 plenty, unlike lots of folks, but I'd still probably recommend Path of Exile or Grim Dawn as much better values of the same model, for whatever that's worth.

I think D3 is probably a better entry level ARPG for most 13 year olds.

That's probably fair. PoE's skill tree and constantly shifting leagues/modes aren't exactly intuitive.

Great. Thanks for the advice everybody!

Torchlight might also be a good start for a 13 year old. And its just about to get a new online version Torchlight Frontiers

Grim Dawn is great.

And it will be very cheap at the Christmas Sale.

+1

My son and I played the heck out of this when he was 12.

The Nintendo Switch must be selling like bonkers this season because it seems that any good deal on it is gone in minutes.

I've enjoyed Diablo 3. Pretty streamlined gameplay and I'm going to try it out on the Switch this weekend. I'd highly recommend it - especially with the season setup. You start from scratch, go through a "season journey" where you level a character and complete some task items. Then, you get a set of character-based armor that you can use to create a pretty powerful starting point.

Happened to see/notice that Black Ops 4 (at least on XB1) is down to $39.99 right now.

Having screwed around with it a bit over the past week or so, I can probably get the hours out of it at that price.

It is what it is, but if you enjoy that sort of diversion (I'm good with level grinding in the middle of the night) then that's probably a fair price.

Or, maybe not. I'm seeing the first gameplay with the new Zero character tonight.

If they don't nerf this significantly, multi-player may be dead.

This is perhaps the most absurdly OP character I've ever seen.

Tentatively aiming to get a Switch in the early part of the new year. How soon that comes together depends on stuff, but the better half has signed off, so it's mainly a question of finding a worthy deal and pulling the trigger at some point.

I already know Marvel UA 3 is going to be on the "get" list. Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild eventually, too.

There are a bunch of other games I want but don't necessarily intend to get right away - Disgaea, Civ VI, etc.

I suspect it's going to be largely a single-player machine (I don't think she's going to be super into it except maybe Mario Kart if/when I get that), so those are the sort of experiences I'm going to be looking for.

Any of our resident Switch owners have opinions on 1P titles?

I pulled the trigger on Octopath Traveler on the Switch yesterday. I haven't played it yet but everything I have read about it says its really good. I haven't sought too much information about it.

There are 8 main characters and I think at the start of the game you pick 1 of them and eventually you end up picking up all 8. They each have their own story that takes place along with the overall story.

That's about all I know.

Breath of the Wild is an amazing game.

The Civ VI port is excellent, and being able to play while on the go is amazing.

Has anyone played the new Just Cause? Love their old games but probably going to hold off till it drops in price since I haven't even finished RDR2.

The ooooooonly thing that's got me holding off a bit on Civ VI when I get a Switch is wondering whether they'll bother to do a 'GOTY' type edition with the Gathering Storm additions down the line.

I have almost 9 hours into Octopath Traveller and I am really enjoying it.

If you have a Switch and you're looking for a FF3/6 vibe, you should definitely give it a shot.

I'm about 3 hours in right now, and I agree that it is quite good. The visuals are awesome, with the pixel look mixed with 3D environments, excellent lighting effects, and phenomenal sound / music so far. The story...is less than amazing to this point, though it is pretty early yet to be making judgement on that.

I had a really hard time at first because I started with H'aanit (the Hunter), and her dialogue is extraordinarily hard to take seriously. Not sure if it's the localization or that they just went way too far with the dialect, but a hunter who lives in a small village out in the woods with a super pronounced Shakespearean mode of speech is just...laughable, to me. Which was extra frustrating, because the voice acting seems top-notch so far. Getting a little away from her story has been nice, because it seems like most everyone else speaks much more normally.

That being said, the combat system is intriguing, offering enough tactical decisions that the random encounters haven't gotten boring yet. And so far the boss fights have been magnificent - challenging without being unforgiving is a nice change of pace for the typical JRPG fare where the combat is either laughably easy or damnably frustrating. Combine it with what looks to be a Tactics-like job system and skill learning path, and I am pleased with character development and combat so far.

The out of combat special actions each of the characters can use seems cool, but I worry that it will be tiresome once I have more people in my party; so far I'm up to three, and I am already tempted to skip things because there is a lot to do.

So far I give it a solid 7/10 with room to grow.

First time I havent bought the new FM right away. Worth getting?

Can anyone tell me which version of FIFA on the current console generation includes World Cup qualifying?

Heads up: GOG is offering two free games with purchase as part of their Winter Sale. Fantasy General (if you spend at least 1 cent) and Everspace if you spend $15.

Also, if you have Amazon Prime (and thus twitch Prime), there's a bunch of free games available via the twitch app, as well as in some cases an extra ciopy of the game to gift to friends who do not have twitch prime)

Have you gotten your free copy of Subnautica from Epic Games Launcher yet?

Thanks for the reminder.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has been fantastic so far. Probably the best looking 4k/hdr game as well.

I'm curious, so I'll ask: has anyone tried Kingdom Come:Deliverance on XB1?

I know the initial reaction seemed to be that it was a hot mess when released but does anyone know how it is now after some time has passed?

I can give you half-an-answer: it's been improved on PC.

I'm still not sure whether I'd give it a full thumbs-up, as I think it's desire to be a "realistic RPG" make it occasionally toe-the-line of making me feel like I'm doing actual work. That said, I believe you're intimately familiar with similar kind of inventory & skills micro-management from Fallout & Skyrim.

The combat is harder than most similar RPGs to learn, both on a purely mechanical basis, and because you have to essentially re-learn how to approach a fight, adjusting for the "realism" that makes it truly difficult to engage any more than one opponent at a time (and the lack of any fantasy monsters).

All that said, I think the increased busy work and tougher combat actually do serve to make it a more rewarding experience when you actually do or find something of significance, and the increased threat makes even just wandering around the world aimlessly a more exciting proposition that requires some preparation and forethought.

Getting decent at sword fighting in that game felt so rewarding to me. Early on you'll fight some bandits that equally as bad as you with a sword and you'll think you're getting the hang of things, but when you run into a guy that legitimately knows what the hell he's doing and it's frustrating because you won't land a single blow. This isn't a game where he has X amount of armor so I'm not doing damage. It's a game where I'm not doing damage because he parries everything, counters, everything, and generally makes me feel like the blacksmith's son that I am.

I really enjoyed the game overall, but as I've mentioned on here before, it's very difficult to recommend to people because it's in no way shape or form for everyone. You're either going to like it for it's brutal realism or hate it because it's difficult and boring.

I think they did a good job creating an engaging storyline and an interesting world without the use of magic, dragons, or orcs. A few quests are truly memorable (Father Godwin, the Witches) and at no point did I feel like the most bad ass person in the kingdom.

Hmmm, shouldn't we have a 2019 thread?

For me, Kingdom Come felt like the gameplay just got in the way of the story, which I was pretty interested in. Felt like a Bernard Cornwell book, but I found the game itself a bit bland and overly difficult - I probably would have loved it 15-20 years ago when I had a lot more time to dick around with how to hit someone with a sword vs. fatigue myself by swinging into the wind over and over again.

I admire what they tried to do though and I'm glad I gave them my money to be honest, because hopefully they try again and refine their engine.

The combat difficulty also makes it pretty difficult to set aside for a couple weeks and come back to, for whatever that's worth. You can learn combos to make yourself a bit more powerful, but ultimately your reflexes are going to determine whether you win or lose every fight, and trying to come back to it after those reflexes have gone a little stale can make for a frustrating couple of hours, trying to get comfortable again.

Anyone playing BO2 on ps4? Add me waldorfsalad

via Kotaku (and everybody else basically)

Developer Bungie and publisher Activision are splitting up, an industry-shaking divorce that will see the shared world shooter series Destiny enter fully into Bungie’s control.

My only problem with Kingdom Come is it can be tedious at times and takes a lot of work to get good at combat. I'm more of a casual player who just wants to get into a game and start doing shit. Not learn for hours and hours. It's all personal preference though.

I'm absolutely loving RDR2. Rockstar has its issues but they sure put a lot into their games.

Saw a YT "speed run" of FO:NV, one that was extremely glitch heavy.

And it kinda hit me: what does it say about the state of gaming in the past year or two that there are people who would rather figure out a number of crazy glitches to shorten their speed run than play new games that have been released?

Not a thing. Speed runs have been a thing forever, and glitches have been a part of it (although the record books are typically split between 'clean' runs and runs that rely on glitches).

Jump 20 years into the future with the concomitant tech advances, and there will still be people doing speed runs of "classic" games, and using glitches to try to set those records, no matter how amazeballs contemporary tech and games are then.