2022-2024 Video Games Thread

[NobodyHere]

Yeah it was a M.2 SSD to be more precise. I had never heard of it before. It had me worried when I opened the box because it wasn't what I was expecting and I had never seen that format before. Luckily Youtube showed me the way on how to install it.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Yeah it was a M.2 SSD to be more precise. I had never heard of it before. It had me worried when I opened the box because it wasn't what I was expecting and I had never seen that format before. Luckily Youtube showed me the way on how to install it.

I have one like that, it's 32GB for mainly my REALLY important stuff (as a backup), then I have a TB regular SSD.

You'll never go back to a normal HD again.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Yeah it was a M.2 SSD to be more precise. I had never heard of it before. It had me worried when I opened the box because it wasn't what I was expecting and I had never seen that format before. Luckily Youtube showed me the way on how to install it.

Splurged and put a 1tb Samsung 970 Evo in the computer I build last summer and there's a noticeable difference between that drive and the 960 I'm now using for storage.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by djsatu

Picked it up and loving it. Getting mixed reviews, but the game world is beautiful and alot of fun. My kind of game where I can take my time and just grind through. Ammo is really scarce so far in the beginning, but melee weapons are aplenty. Story isn't anything new, but it does it's job. Has a Last of Us feel to it which is one of my favorite PS4 games. Happy with my purchase.

I ended up grabbing it as well as agree. no earth shattering stuff here, but gorgeous game world and it is immersive for me. I do like the Sons of Anarchy meets The Walking Dead feel as well.

Ultimately I value a game on how much enjoyment it provides and this one definitely hits the spot as I had to tear myself away from it last night to get enough sleep. Totally happy with my purchase.

[djsatu]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

I ended up grabbing it as well as agree. no earth shattering stuff here, but gorgeous game world and it is immersive for me. I do like the Sons of Anarchy meets The Walking Dead feel as well.

Ultimately I value a game on how much enjoyment it provides and this one definitely hits the spot as I had to tear myself away from it last night to get enough sleep. Totally happy with my purchase.

I love looting in this game. Every house or building is accessible. Grab those boxes of nails and craft better melee weapons. Bats, boards and posts are "upgradable " and do immense damage. Utilize the gas pumps for your bike as well. Not looking for gas cans is nice. Just cleared my first camp which was awesome. Love the mood the music sets during combat and exploration. I'm totally hooked.

[bob]

Not directly related to 2019 video games but don't know where else to post.

My kids have Lego Dimensions on the Xbox 360. Suddenly, the 360 has stopped reading only this disc (other discs are just fine). The disc does not appear to be scratched at all and I can't find any other damage to it. Anyone with any idea on what I can try here? For all its flaws, my kids still liked this game, and I can't find it anywhere else to upgrade them to the PS4 since you can't just buy the digital version.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by djsatu

I love looting in this game. Every house or building is accessible. Grab those boxes of nails and craft better melee weapons. Bats, boards and posts are "upgradable " and do immense damage. Utilize the gas pumps for your bike as well. Not looking for gas cans is nice. Just cleared my first camp which was awesome. Love the mood the music sets during combat and exploration. I'm totally hooked.

Ooooh. Sounds like my next purchase after I'm done with RDR2.

[Lathum]

My 9 year old loves Harry Potter. Saved his money and bought Lego Harry Potter the complete collection. He started Sunday and loves it but gets frustrated at times. He turned to me at one point and says " I love and hate this game!"

Welcome to being a gamer kid.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Lathum

My 9 year old loves Harry Potter. Saved his money and bought Lego Harry Potter the complete collection. He started Sunday and loves it but gets frustrated at times. He turned to me at one point and says " I love and hate this game!"

Welcome to being a gamer kid.

Heh! So true.

Those LEGO games are a special kind of frustrating. I’ve played some with my stepson and I get frustrated at times and have had to consult the google to figure out how to get past something. For games targeted at kids, some of the puzzles and such aren’t at all intuitive.

[Thomkal]

LOL Lathum, good thing he learned this lesson early

[SirFozzie]

preload for Total War Three Kingdoms have begun

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

preload for Total War Three Kingdoms have begun

Yessssssss


now I need to finish my Thrones of Britannia campaign

[Ben E Lou]

Fixed

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Fixed

Thanks.

[whomario]

Plague Tale Innocense is pretty damn great, defintely recommended if you have any interest in adventure games. Solid story, good mechanics, great atmosphere

[Vince, Pt. II]

Shameful admission: AFK Arena is a pretty fun idle time waster on my phone.

[MizzouRah]

American Fugitive is a fun little game similar to GTA.

[Izulde]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses... holy crap. It's gone mainstream in its success. Snagged what is probably the last available physical copy in Vegas Thursday night and it's the first game in a good 15-20 years that has consumed me. I literally burnt my entire weekend playing.

What a phenomenal game - first one in the genre I've played capable of challenging FFT for the gold standard (and yes, I've played other FE games).

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Shameful admission: AFK Arena is a pretty fun idle time waster on my phone.

Dola.

[QuikSand]

(thread fixed, it appears)

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Fire Emblem: Three Houses... holy crap. It's gone mainstream in its success. Snagged what is probably the last available physical copy in Vegas Thursday night and it's the first game in a good 15-20 years that has consumed me. I literally burnt my entire weekend playing.

What a phenomenal game - first one in the genre I've played capable of challenging FFT for the gold standard (and yes, I've played other FE games).

Wow. That is high praise, especially from you. I might have to pick this one up.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Wow. That is high praise, especially from you. I might have to pick this one up.

Ditto, I'm going finally play through at least one story of FE: Fates first and then hope for a sale.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm hard pressed to think any player base has ever been trolled harder by a dev than the current Fortnite player base dealing with mechs.

Not like I'll be too upset if they end up killing their own game with that mess.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I'm hard pressed to think any player base has ever been trolled harder by a dev than the current Fortnite player base dealing with mechs.

Not like I'll be too upset if they end up killing their own game with that mess.

Can you explain this? I don't play Fortnite but hear constant complaints about "mechs".

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Can you explain this? I don't play Fortnite but hear constant complaints about "mechs".

Based on what I've read so far:

They've introduced Mechs which have made winning more about luck (getting a mech) and less about skill. There's a been a ton of pushback from the community but Epic has said there's no plans on making changes for now because they like the "anyone can win" element it brings to the matches.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Based on what I've read so far:

They've introduced Mechs which have made winning more about luck (getting a mech) and less about skill. There's a been a ton of pushback from the community but Epic has said there's no plans on making changes for now because they like the "anyone can win" element it brings to the matches.

Seems pretty close, best I can tell, though no mention of mechs is complete without referencing how comically o.p. they are. I mean, I don't even play the damned thing & I sit with my jaw dropped when seeing them in action.

It's some epic trolling by the devs, who clearly hold their fanbase in lower regard than the WWE.

[Izulde]

So The Council complete saga (1 season) is on sale on PSN for $15 now through September 2nd.

Bought it yesterday and am in the first chapter of Episode 4. Some cringingly bad writing, but it adds some interesting RPG elements to the TellTale-style narrative choice genre and overall is good enough that it's worth picking up for $15. Not something I'd buy full price, but for $15, it's good enough to snag.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I don't think I mentioned this here so I guess I will now.

I've played (I think) 13 of the 15 games in the Call of Duty, surely several thousand hours worth at this point. I'd never once managed to max out the prestige on any of them ... until Sunday night.

My K/D is still trash but there's something to be said for perseverance. It turned me into a Prestige Master.

The difference for me in BlOp4 was discovering Hardcore mode. Without that change (somewhere around the end of 4th prestige I think), zero chance I would have kept playing. That changed my success (such as it is) completely. I'm now a legit threat to win, or at least place, in any FFA match and that's been my preferred mode for years so it's a good fit.

Nobody may care, but I was pretty damned pleased to finally get that particular monkey off my back.

[JonInMiddleGA]

As much an idle thought as anything maybe but ...

For a relative novice, it takes all of maybe 5-10 minutes for thinking about streaming some sort of gameplay to make me dizzy.

I _think_ that it's probably easier than I'm making it in my head but, good grief, it gets overwhelming in a hurry.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

As much an idle thought as anything maybe but ...

For a relative novice, it takes all of maybe 5-10 minutes for thinking about streaming some sort of gameplay to make me dizzy.

I _think_ that it's probably easier than I'm making it in my head but, good grief, it gets overwhelming in a hurry.

What platform? It is 100% easier than you're making it, I guarantee it. Some services have integrated streaming tools but there is a free program called open broadcaster software (OBS for short). If you're streaming to twitch for example, download OBS Studio, create a twitch account, and you can find a 5 minute youtube tutorial on how to find your stream key and where to put it in OBS, how to set up a very basic monitor or game capture and how to get your game audio and a mic working and you're done.

Adding a webcam or a bunch of fancy overlay stuff gets a little more complicated, but the basics seem confusing for sure, but its not that bad.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Radii

What platform? It is 100% easier than you're making it, I guarantee it.

You started with one of the headspins: platform

I think - presuming internet suitability anyway - I could manage to get up on Mixer on XB1 without too much trouble. That'd suit my "noob stumbles through Stellaris console edition" temptation well enough.

Buuuuuut then we get to "noob stumbles through CDDA" on PC ... which brings us to OBS ... which brings me to "oh God, could my underwhelming laptop handle both" ... which runs to the frequent warnings about the learning curve for OBS ...

and then I start thinking, well, what about doing this game? or that game? and to which platform(s) for PC? And "can OBS stream AND record at the same time"? And would I figure out how to edit this stuff for multi-platform use? And ... well, you start to get the idea.

It's not a big deal in the grand scheme. I'm not going to unseat Ninja from his throne any time soon.

It's really mostly born from a combination of "since I talk to myself while gaming anyway ... " and "games are a big part of my life day to day, while not add that to the parts I share" and "maybe I could be a little more motivated to spend time with games I enjoy / enjoy the thought of at least, rather than staying on the app game treadmill".

Meanwhile, I don't even know if there's a working XB1 headset in the house so there's probably a number of things to sort before anything ever happens anyway lol

edit to add: I mostly posted about it here/in this thread because I felt like I probably wasn't the only person who'd ever had that general reaction to it

[Radii]

Ah yeah, all fair Console streaming I believe is easier but has more limited features. I would not care about that at all just to try it out, that only matters if you ever got more serious about it for any reason.

OBS is a resource hog. That does become an issue for lots of laptop users with older machines.

You can stream and record in OBS. there is a start stream and a separate start recording button. You can press both. Doing anything with a recording other than keeping it to archive is beyond me.


On the other stuff - if I stream things I enjoy doing anyway, then I just have fun and I don't care if anyone watches or not. If someone does watch and chat it adds to the fun. Easy win/win there. Most people do stream to zero viewers or at least very few.

And I get that its an idle thought, no worries! But I'd be happy to help most anyone here get pointed in the right direction if interested.

I'm only intimately families with Twitch. Streaming to mixer will be pretty much the same. I have less knowledge of facebook or youtube streams.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Radii

I'm only intimately families with Twitch. Streaming to mixer will be pretty much the same. I have less knowledge of facebook or youtube streams.

I think there's some part of me that wants to at least do occasional FB / YT -- something less gamer-centric, more mainstream -- as part of my hypothetical streaming.

My social media universe contains a relatively low percentage of gamers. Eh, who knows, maybe it's just an average number, whatever. But there's some notion in my head that if you don't have at least some idea what I do, how much do you really know me?

You don't have to dig it, you don't have to understand it even, there's just some odd thing in my head at the moment that has me wanting to put it out there in all its glory (more like glorious failures) for anybody who cares to take a gander.

[Izulde]

Picked up the FF8 remaster and am loving it. It's the kind of game where your experience when you play it at 40 is far different than when you're 20 - I'm noticing a lot more things, and there's just something oddly relaxing about Draw spamming for spells.

What I can't decide at the moment is whether to keep playing FF8 (still on Disk 1 20 hours in) or cave up and pick up Greedfall after work.

[Thomkal]

Greedfall does look interesting from what I've seen-a medieval fantasy with lots of lore to learn

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Greedfall does look interesting from what I've seen-a medieval fantasy with lots of lore to learn

Actually, it's Age of Exploration, not medieval (16th C) and it looks like the game I've finally been waiting for ever since Expedition: Conquistador was such a bland disappointment.

[NobodyHere]

I guess beware buying Greedall on XBox?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinmu.../#507fffe84ebc

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I guess beware buying Greedall on XBox?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinmu.../#507fffe84ebc

I picked it up on PC. Got a couple of hours in last night.

[Atocep]

Thoughts on Greedfall:

This isn't a AAA title so I'm not expecting AAA polish. With that said, it's like a combination of Vampyr's (lack of) polish and Dragon Age Origins.

*Combat is love it or hate it. It's deep and challenging, but nothing feels like it has weight. It does have drastically different playstyles between pure melee, range/melee, magic/ranged, magic/melee, and magic/ranged.

*I think the dialogue and story are very well done. A lot of depth in to the story. It's heavily politically driven and inspired by real world politics and wars. You're essentially playing as an adventuring diplomat so expect lots of dialogue, political intrigue, lying, and half truths.

*Quests are varied although, at least in the early going, it's a lot of A to B to C to A type stuff. No fetch quests or anything like that.

*Facial animations are Mass Effect 3 bad.

*The camera can be a bit wonky.

*The polish (lack of) and feel of character movements reminds me Vampyr. I really struggled to get into that game, but the story and dialogue here has kept me interested.

*It's not open world. Like Dragon Age Origins it's open area.

This is going to be a very polarizing game. It's a big step forward for Spiders as a studio, but it's a game with moderate flaws. How heavily you weigh those flaws against its strengths is going to be the difference between a game that's a 6 and a game that's an 8.

[Izulde]

I caved and played a few hours last night (about to leave the starting city).

Very much a Dragon Age in Age of Exploration colors feel.

Agreed that the camera can be wonky. Moving your player is inconsistent, too. It took me about 2 hours to get used to it - so be prepared for a learning curve while you deal with that technical hassle.

There's a *ton* of subtitling errors - wrong words, typos, etc. It's clear absolutely nobody did quality control, though frankly I'm just happy to have subtitles. This not being a AAA title, I checked before I purchased, because my hearing is getting worse and worse.

Quests, dialogue, and story are all great so far (subtitling issues aside), and it's going to be the thing that saves this game and keeps people going. Even folks initially harsh of it have admitted the meat of the narrative keeps sucking them back in.

Haven't done much combat - it feels just kinda there right now. I, too, get that weightless feeling. Doesn't really feel like true combat at all, and to me, it's where you see the starkest difference between this and a AAA title.

Based on the first 3 hours, I'd put it in the firm 7 camp, with upside to get to 7.5 or 8. I agree a lot with Atocep here and part of my agreement is that this game's range is 6-8. It's definitely better than average (hence the 6 floor), but its issues cap it out at great (8) max potential.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just wondering, so I'll ask

Anybody here spent much time with Surviving Mars?
And if so, anybody at all played it on XB1?

Just curious if there were any FOFC thoughts.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Just wondering, so I'll ask

Anybody here spent much time with Surviving Mars?
And if so, anybody at all played it on XB1?

Just curious if there were any FOFC thoughts.

When it first came out, I watched some streaming of it and it seemed to be pretty simple compared to other Paradox games. When it was on sale this summer, I bought it and found out it was much more complex than I thought. It is a cool spin on strategy type games.

[Izulde]

Atocep, how did you handle that bleeping tree when you go to leave the starter city in GF? I now hate trees more than Fozzie because no matter what strategy I try, I can't beat it. Reflexes are too slow.

[Atocep]

Guns

I ran around just shooting it. Every time I went in for melee I got hit pretty hard.

[bhlloy]

Holy shit NBA 2k20 is getting trashed... anyone have it on PC and can comment on it? Seems like they made myPlayer and myGM less accessible and more railroaded, but as I quit playing those modes a few years ago if myLeague is still customizable and playable I'll probably still pick it up eventually

[RendeR]

Just pulled up Stellaris for the first time in at least a year, was stunned to see they changed in layout. Took me awhile to get going again. Still seems much slower of a build up than before. Anyone got a good review of the changes?

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Holy shit NBA 2k20 is getting trashed... anyone have it on PC and can comment on it? Seems like they made myPlayer and myGM less accessible and more railroaded, but as I quit playing those modes a few years ago if myLeague is still customizable and playable I'll probably still pick it up eventually

I'm enjoying it, but I haven't started playing myGM yet. I usually wait a few patches in before starting. From what I've read, though, there are issues.

MyCareer is fun so far.I haven't hit anything major except the name bug where the name of your myplayer doesn't stick for whatever reason. Had to start a new build to fix that.

It plays well, but I haven't gotten into the part of the game I play the most (myGM) to know if it's better than 2K19.

[CrimsonFox]

ignore steam messages from me and don't click any links.
my account got hacked

[RainMaker]

Picked up Borderlands 3 over the weekend. If you like Borderlands 1 and 2, it's nearly identical. That's not a bad thing (despite some reviews bashing them for it). The company knows the formula fans want and repeats it. Unlike Fallout where they decided to completely upend what worked.

With that said, unless you absolutely love the old games, I think it's best to wait for a sale down to $40.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Picked up Borderlands 3 over the weekend. If you like Borderlands 1 and 2, it's nearly identical. That's not a bad thing (despite some reviews bashing them for it). The company knows the formula fans want and repeats it. Unlike Fallout where they decided to completely upend what worked.

With that said, unless you absolutely love the old games, I think it's best to wait for a sale down to $40.

I used a GMG coupon to Preorder it fairly cheap a few months ago and it took up most of my weekend. It's not groundbreaking, but I do think it's the best Borderlands game out of the box. The guns seem more balanced and interesting than in previous games. The humor is there. The story is par for the course for a borderlands game.

Hopefully the DLC is on par with what we saw from Borderlands 2.