2022-2024 Video Games Thread

[NobodyHere]

Hopefully it's a worthy successor to the X-Wing/Tie Fighter games.

Unfortunately it's EA so probably not.

It looks to be multiplayer focused with a single player campaign from what I know so far.

[JonInMiddleGA]

So Fortnite finally did their season ending event today ... and damned near broke the internet apparently

2.3 million concurrent views on Twitch shatters their record. YouTube said the audience on the direct feed peaked at 6.1 million. That's 8.4 million watching the primary streams but that doesn't include those watching elsewhere, nor however many players were in-game for the event.

For some perspective on that number: just the 8.4m is about 1m more than any recent primetime TV season winner averaged. It would be good for about 30th place in the most-watched shows of the 2019-20 season ... at 2pm, on a Monday.

edit to add: Perhaps not coincidentally, late this afternoon parent company Epic Games was reportedly raising another $75 million in financing from investors, backed by an updated company valuation of $17 BILLION dollars.

double edit to add: I saw where they released the number of users in-game during the event: 12 million. That means 20.4m viewers, which would made it a larger audience than any regular TV show, broadcast or cable, in the 2019-20 season.

[SackAttack]

If you have GOG Galaxy 2.0 and own Witcher 3 in one of its sundry forms on one of the connectable platforms, you can claim a PC copy of the same edition from GOG.

Like, if you own it on Steam/Epic (is it on Epic?) the allure there is probably 'woo DRM-free, assuming they DRM CD Projekt games on other storefronts.

But if you own it on PS4 or Xbox One, you can get the equivalent edition on PC. Which is actually kinda neat for someone like me who couldn't run it on PC now, but hopes to upgrade his rig in the near future.

[korme]

Does THE LAST OF US PART II need its own thread?

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by korme

Does THE LAST OF US PART II need its own thread?

9.5 Metacritic critic score

3.4 Metacritic user score - ouch.

They pissed off at least a portion of the fanbase with this one.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

9.5 Metacritic critic score

3.4 Metacritic user score - ouch.

They pissed off at least a portion of the fanbase with this one.

female lead character
probably female side characters too
gets em every time

[NobodyHere]

Or maybe they just didn't find the game satisfying?

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Or maybe they just didn't find the game satisfying?

Nope, pretty much: Ellie LGBT BAD SJW RAWR

"The game does not tell about the adventures of the protagonist, she is trying to impose ideas of different minorities on me."

"Poor writing and politics don't belong in video games. "

"they destroyed my favorite story game, im so sad tbh all this social justice horror should be erased from human mind its destroying everything"

"This is a political statement, not a video game"

"Let me break this down for you quickly: PANDERING has negatively infected gaming culture and the Last of Us 2 is the quintessential example of it"

"This is a middle finger to all the fans. The creators don’t care about us. This simply pushes their woke narrative."

All found within the first minute of searching metacritic reviews.

It's the latest edition of the culture war from right wingers

[NobodyHere]

So their opinions are wrong or something?

[MizzouRah]

Gears 5 is $10 at Best Buy. Any good?

[bob]

I think it would be a struggle to call Wired right wing. So:

The Last of Us Part II tries to be profound. It fails | WIRED UK

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Gears 5 is $10 at Best Buy. Any good?

It's really good, but you could play that plus Gears Tactics and other Xbox games via game pass for $1 for the first month and $5 for each month after if not owning doesn't bother you.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

So their opinions are wrong or something?

Nailed it.

Their opinions are wrong.

Glad we cleared it up

(or to put another way, if you have to use woke/SJW to describe why you don't like a game, it's not the game's fault. It's yours.)

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Or maybe they just didn't find the game satisfying?

The Last Of Us, released 7 years ago, has 9,765 user reviews
The Last Of Us II, released 1 day ago, has 30,568 user reviews

And some other releases for comparison

Red Dead Redemption 2 has 11k user reviews (2 years old)
Grand Theft Auto 5 has nearly 5k user reviews (6 years old)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake has almost 5k user reviews (a few months old)
God of War has almost 13k user reviews (2 years old)
Desperados III has 46 user ratings (released 3 days ago)


There's obviously vote manipulation going on there.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Nailed it.

Their opinions are wrong.

Glad we cleared it up

(or to put another way, if you have to use woke/SJW to describe why you don't like a game, it's not the game's fault. It's yours.)

So if you don't like a game with conservative messaging, it's your fault and not the game's?

Personally I'm not liking the narrative being pushed recently that not liking something is the fault of the consumer and not the producer. Corporate America must love you.

[SirFozzie]

No, but you don't see folks review bombing, say Bioshock Infinite over its libertarian ideals.

A lot of this is follow up from the attempted meta-critic bombing of films like Captain Marvel. It's really a reflex spasm of Gamergate.

(note, I am not saying that The Last of Us 2 is as game of the year candidate. Just that a lot of people are upset that the game has LGBT characters.)

(Honestly, after reading the plotline, I don't understand why people would WANT to play this. Video Games are supposed to be fun/escapism, and this is grimdark to ludicrous amounts)

[SirFozzie]

Anyone who relies on metacritic user score to determine their game purchase solely is not smart.

Kunai becomes the latest title review bombed on Metacritic by a single person | GamesIndustry.biz

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Atocep

It's really good, but you could play that plus Gears Tactics and other Xbox games via game pass for $1 for the first month and $5 for each month after if not owning doesn't bother you.

Thanks, I need to get in on that.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Atocep

It's really good, but you could play that plus Gears Tactics and other Xbox games via game pass for $1 for the first month and $5 for each month after if not owning doesn't bother you.

One of my backburner notions for a while now had been to make use of gamepass trial & short term it, to kinda keep me & Will both occupied for the summer. I mean, it kinda made sense.

As it's turned out, him adding The Show via PS4 and me picking up Fortnite for the first time (plus still having a Stellaris game going, plus being literally only one game into the Civ6 console DLC that added the weather stuff; i.e. still being one full DLC behind I think) ... we haven't really needed more games at the moment.

Hell, we both have credits to cover the next COD season pass sitting there and neither of us has bothered to touch it, and honestly may not.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Coined a possibly useful phrase in a separate discussion about me & Fortnite (which is really just a placeholder for a variety of games for me):

It engages the "don't actually give a fuck" parts of my brain ... and apparently does so fully enough that it lets the give a fuck parts of my brain rest

[rjolley]

The basic EA Access Pass is a good deal as well. Instead of picking up Madden (didn't like) and FIFA (liked) separately, I picked up the pass and can play both, plus a ton of other games for $29/year or something crazy like that.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Anyone who relies on metacritic user score to determine their game purchase solely is not smart.

Kunai becomes the latest title review bombed on Metacritic by a single person | GamesIndustry.biz

I daresay the same could be said about critic score too.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by rjolley

The basic EA Access Pass is a good deal as well. Instead of picking up Madden (didn't like) and FIFA (liked) separately, I picked up the pass and can play both, plus a ton of other games for $29/year or something crazy like that.

I have long had the EA pass (got it last year mainly for OOTP). I have played around with many games on it, and well worth the price. Just got the Xbox Ultimate pass. Made my son very excited about the Xbox portion. I was just looking through the PC games, and it is not really great for me right now. Every game on there I am interested in I already own. Hopefully that means I won't have to buy FM2021 or some other games comes on.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I have long had the EA pass (got it last year mainly for OOTP). I have played around with many games on it, and well worth the price. Just got the Xbox Ultimate pass. Made my son very excited about the Xbox portion. I was just looking through the PC games, and it is not really great for me right now. Every game on there I am interested in I already own. Hopefully that means I won't have to buy FM2021 or some other games comes on.

FM19 and FM20 have both been on, so I'd say it's a safe bet FM21 will be also.

[SirFozzie]

not on release though, several months after release. Unlike OOTP which was a release day release I think

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I don't understand why people would WANT to play this. Video Games are supposed to be fun/escapism, and this is grimdark to ludicrous amounts

I'm not familiar with the specific game being discussed here, but I think fun/escapism doesn't always have to be the point. For example, This War Of Mine made a lot of people - including me - think about the horrors of war from a civilian standpoint in different ways than they had before.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I'm not familiar with the specific game being discussed here, but I think fun/escapism doesn't always have to be the point. For example, This War Of Mine made a lot of people - including me - think about the horrors of war from a civilian standpoint in different ways than they had before.

To add to this

I play games for a variety of reasons. Sometimes I want something to pass time or relax, sometimes I want an engaging story, sometimes I just want something fun.

The Last of Us, Read Dead, Detroit: Become Human, Life is Strange and quite a few other games fall into the engaging story category. They make you think, they bring emotion, and they're fun from a gameplay perspective. To me, not playing Last of Us 2 because the story is too dark or violent is similar to avoiding Saving Private Ryan, Se7en, The Boy in the Striped pajamas, or any movie that can be dark, brutal, or sad because movies should be for escapism.

Different games are for different moods. Movies are the same. I'm not watching Marley and Me after I've put an animal down and I'm not recommending Schindler's List for a fun date night movie. That doesn't mean they're not good movies in other situations or unwatchable overall.

[RainMaker]

I've been playing a lot of video games lately with no sports or places to go to. Bought Far Cry 5 which is on sale for $15 on the PS4. Having some fun with it although it's a lot like every other Far Cry game I've played.

Also bought Last of Us 2. I don't know what to say. Enjoyed the first one a bit and probably got caught up in the hype over this. It just isn't that fun. Slow and really depressing. I get they're trying to tell some deep meaningful story, but I don't want to feel like shit playing a video game all the time. And the writing is really bad.

My biggest gripe is I wish I could make decisions in the game. It forces you to do something shitty that you wouldn't want to do and then beats you over the head about how shitty you should feel for doing it. Like fuck you, give me choices. It's like watching a movie while the director berates you for watching the movie.

[RainMaker]

Speaking of games like Far Cry 5, does anyone have any suggestions for some older cheaper games on the PS4? Was looking at The Forest which I heard was good. I like those kind of games like The Witcher 3, Red Dead 2, etc. Games over 2 years old are usually $20 or less.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Was looking at The Forest which I heard was good.

For the life of me I can't recall who the YT'er is that played a metric ton of co-op The Forest but I've watched a helluva lot of it due to the kid running those as background noise. In the right hands, it looks to be pretty entertaining.

But I don't think I've ever once seen anyone play it truly straight (i.e. dealing with the storyline, as opposed to trying to do more of a build-y sandbox-y focus) but it looks like a fairly challenging game, with the build options as the most interesting part of the game, along with figuring out the exact mechanics of dealing with enemies.

[RainMaker]

Yeah I was looking at it for the survival stuff and not any storyline. Friend of mine and I like to co-op on games and this seems like a fun one to do together.

So in the sandbox stuff, do you just build a base and fend off enemies? Haven't played one of those games in awhile.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I've been playing a lot of video games lately with no sports or places to go to. Bought Far Cry 5 which is on sale for $15 on the PS4. Having some fun with it although it's a lot like every other Far Cry game I've played.

I enjoyed Far Cry 5, but don't bother with New Dawn. It's pretty bad.

Without knowing what you have/haven't played I'll list some of the games I've played:

Horizon: Zero Dawn - Really great game all around
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - The best AC game overall IMO
God of War - Probably one of the 5 best PS4 games
Detroit: Become Human - Quantic Dream isn't for everyone, but this was a 9/10 type game for me
Spiderman - A good game, but I felt it was a bit overrated. More like a 7/10 rather than the 9/10 that most were giving it.
The Long Dark - Tough survival game with a story. The survival elements are outstanding. The story is ok.
No Man's Sky - If it launched in the shape it's in now it probably would have pulled some GOTY talk. It's morphed into a really strong game.
Control - Cool setting, interesting story. So-so and repetitive gameplay.

As far as survival games I haven't played yet, but have been on my radar. Green Hell has a terrible name, but may be something worth checking out.

[MizzouRah]

Far Cry 5 is one of my favorite games of all time.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is probably my favorite non sports console game ever, what a fantastic game.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by sabotai

The Last Of Us, released 7 years ago, has 9,765 user reviews
The Last Of Us II, released 1 day ago, has 30,568 user reviews

And some other releases for comparison

Red Dead Redemption 2 has 11k user reviews (2 years old)
Grand Theft Auto 5 has nearly 5k user reviews (6 years old)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake has almost 5k user reviews (a few months old)
God of War has almost 13k user reviews (2 years old)
Desperados III has 46 user ratings (released 3 days ago)


There's obviously vote manipulation going on there.

Also people seem more eager to give reviews nowadays I think
But yes the hackers and their 17000 bots smh

[CrimsonFox]

I mean I don't think Last of Us 2 has a chance of being as good as the original. THe original didn't have a ton of eyes on it, it just told a simple story of loss and recovery and ...bad choices in an apocalypse.

WHen you hit a home run it's tough to follow unless you're pixar.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - The best AC game overall IMO

Do you have to have played the previous versions to understand it? I remember playing the first few and then stopping.

[Atocep]

I don't think so at all. As long as you know the very basics of how the modern and past stories work you'll be fine. You don't really even need to know those, it just helps.

It's more hack and slash with RPG elements than previous games and combat is far better. You're not going to take on 50 people because they come at you 1 at a time so as long as you don't fuck up a button press you kill all 50 one by one.

I found the Ancient Greece setting fascinating. It blew colonial america and Egypt away and those were probably the strongest settings prior to Odyssey.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Yeah I was looking at it for the survival stuff and not any storyline. Friend of mine and I like to co-op on games and this seems like a fun one to do together.

So in the sandbox stuff, do you just build a base and fend off enemies? Haven't played one of those games in awhile.

fwiw, I'm not sure if it's truly sandbox OR if those guys just played it that way (and dodged the story stuff mostly).

I'll get him to tell me who that is & post it back in this thread later & you can skim to get an idea for yourself but, yeah, that's basically what I've seen them do for hours on end. Pick something they wanted to build or try, then do whatever needs doing / collect whatever, etc and do it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Rainmaker -- here's the start of what I was remembering, though I'd definitely dive into videos farther along to get a better feel of how they played (or played with) it.

Turned out it was Gopher and a buddy of his
YouTube

[Abe Sargent]

Im really enjoying the recent expansion, Freshwater Frenzy, for Megaquarium

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Rainmaker -- here's the start of what I was remembering, though I'd definitely dive into videos farther along to get a better feel of how they played (or played with) it.

Turned out it was Gopher and a buddy of his
YouTube

This looks great. Thank you!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

This looks great. Thank you!

I'm reminded that there were at least two distinct runs they made with the game. That one I linked is, I think, is the start of their first playthrough which was straighter ("they played it") whereas the second run was more sandbox-y ("they played with it").

The second is more what I remember honestly

[dubb93]

Anyone else following along with the Dr Disrespect drama?

Hxxps://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/27/why-was-dr-disrespect-banned-on-twitch-everything-known-so-far/amp/

Basically he was banned for a completely unknown reason(Even to him he says). There are a ton of wild theories out there everything from tax evasion, sexual assault, copyright violation, publicity stunt(unlikely since Twitch refunded roughly 80k in monthly subs).

It’s also interesting that yesterday his sponsors distanced themselves from him by removing him from their websites and ads before reversing and putting his ads back up just a few hours later.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Anyone else following along with the Dr Disrespect drama?

Hxxps://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/27/why-was-dr-disrespect-banned-on-twitch-everything-known-so-far/amp/

Basically he was banned for a completely unknown reason(Even to him he says). There are a ton of wild theories out there everything from tax evasion, sexual assault, copyright violation, publicity stunt(unlikely since Twitch refunded roughly 80k in monthly subs).

It’s also interesting that yesterday his sponsors distanced themselves from him by removing him from their websites and ads before reversing and putting his ads back up just a few hours later.

I don't follow him but looked into the story. Sounds like something very bad. Twitch has been clamping down on sexual discrimination/racism in recent weeks. The Yogscast had their past sexual discriminators from a few years ago brought up again this week by new stories about them. The PC/Video game publishers/makers have been hit by a whole lot of racism and sexual discrimination accusations this month too. Not the end of it either.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Anyone else following along with the Dr Disrespect drama?

To the extent that I don't recall ever hearing his name once prior to last week,
whenever whatever is eventually alleged is revealed I'll likely be aware of that happening. In that sense I guess I'm "following it".

[RainMaker]

All I remember is he was the guy who filmed inside a bathroom and got in some trouble for that. I'm guessing it is something really bad this time if they just banned him outright, refunded subscribers, right after signing him to an exclusive deal for a lot of money.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Anyone else following along with the Dr Disrespect drama?

Hxxps://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/27/why-was-dr-disrespect-banned-on-twitch-everything-known-so-far/amp/

Basically he was banned for a completely unknown reason(Even to him he says). There are a ton of wild theories out there everything from tax evasion, sexual assault, copyright violation, publicity stunt(unlikely since Twitch refunded roughly 80k in monthly subs).

It’s also interesting that yesterday his sponsors distanced themselves from him by removing him from their websites and ads before reversing and putting his ads back up just a few hours later.

He apparently still does not know why he was banned and Twitch isn't saying:

Popular Streamer Dr. Disrespect Opens Up About His Random Twitch Permaban | HotHardware

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

All I remember is he was the guy who filmed inside a bathroom and got in some trouble for that. I'm guessing it is something really bad this time if they just banned him outright, refunded subscribers, right after signing him to an exclusive deal for a lot of money.

That fits into one of the speculative narratives tho: that Twitch wants to get out of most (all?) of their big dollar deals now that Mixer has bitten the dust.

[miked]

Ok, so I decided to check here first but have no idea. My kids are wanting an Xbox these days. We currently have a Nintendo Wii from like 12 years ago that everyone has grown out of. Right now it appears that every single console has sold out and I have no idea how much these should normally cost. I do not mind buying a used one on eBay, but am I looking for a 1 TB Xbox One X? I would imagine a new one is around $399 or something, but do these have high resale (ie should I not expect a big discount from the base price)? I really have no idea, always been a computer gamer.

[ISiddiqui]

So I'm actually getting really excited about getting an Xbox Series X. My last 'big' console was the Xbox 360. I skipped the current gen, up until the Switch came out. And I was immediately drawn to its docked + portable nature. And the Breath of the Wild made me love gaming again. So I'm getting a new console, and the Series X seems to look much better and has a ton of backwards compatibility - meaning I can play all the previous gen titles I missed out on (starting with Witcher III).