2023 Video Games Thread

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Ultimate General: American Revolution is rumored to be about to hit Early Access. The Ultimate General series have been excellent battle simulators, and this game is going to add even more a 4X type game-play. It looks to be huge, with the combination of land and sea battles.

The EA is out, but they are only releasing it on Xsolla. No Steam release till it is in full release (they are saying summer of next year), and you will not get a Steam code if you buy early release. It is really too bad. I would have bought it on Steam right now. But I'm not paying full price for early access on a strange gaming distribution app. With the Holidays coming and time on my hands I might break down, but then I really don't want to deal with another app.

[dubb93]

Christmas is coming up and we got the boys a PS5 and are looking to obtain a PlayStation Portal as well. Our search has not gone well as they are sold out literally everywhere. In the past I was able to use tracker websites to send me SMS messages on restocks and they were accurate and successful(I used these around the time NVIDIA released the 30 series GPUs and AMD released a new gen of processor around the same time.)

This time my searches have come up empty. Do these services no longer exist or are they just harder for me to find this time around? Anyone know of a website or discord that offers this service for the Portal?

[SirFozzie]

Bunch of remakes/new games in classic series announced by SEGA:

Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage...

AND JET SET RAAADDIOOOOOOOOO....


POWER SURGE: SEGA REVEAL TRAILER - TGA 2023 - YouTube

(also, BG3 out on XBox. That's another $50 million or so in Larian's pocket (rememeber when Microsoft suggested offering $5-10 million to put it on Game Pass? )

[dubb93]

A last second Christmas Hail Mary was somehow successful today and I was able to snag a PS Portal from Best Buy.

[Ghost Econ]

If anyone needs a last minute gift, I saw some Costcos have a Series S for $150. It's a pretty great game pass machine, especially for the price.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by dubb93

A last second Christmas Hail Mary was somehow successful today and I was able to snag a PS Portal from Best Buy.

yay

[RainMaker]

Got Starfield on PC over the holidays. It's just not clicking for me like the Fallout games did. First few hours were interesting but it's now a drag and repetitive. Not sure I even will get around to finishing it.

[frnk55]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Got Starfield on PC over the holidays. It's just not clicking for me like the Fallout games did. First few hours were interesting but it's now a drag and repetitive. Not sure I even will get around to finishing it.

It seems like this game failed really bad. Lots of people mad

[GrantDawg]

Anybody play "Combat Mission"? I just picked up Combat Mission Normandy. It is one of the best war sims I have ever played. The only criticism might be it is too much of a sim. It is squad-level combat much like "Close Combat" but with simple 3d rendering and even deeper. My only complaint maybe there is very little "game" to it. Things like when you are fighting, your units have true line of sight and will only identify the enemy with a clear view. The challenge with that is your troops will leave "artifact" symbols where they think the enemy might be and the map gets pretty cluttered with maybe units. I guess that is realistic, but it gets a bit annoying.
What I do love is the "turn-based" mode. You give orders and then start the turn. Your units carry out the orders as the sane time as the opponents, reacting to the action by their own initiative. It helps me to keep up with everything going on much better than the standard real-time combat. It does make things go slowly, as everything counts out in real time with pauses every minute.
Anybody play this? Any mods I should be looking for?

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by frnk55

It seems like this game failed really bad. Lots of people mad

I can only assume they are mad at themselves for buying a hyped AAA title that overpromises and underproduces.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

A
Anybody play this? Any mods I should be looking for?

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

I played the OG Combat Mission what must be over-a-decade(?) ago now. It was fun, I liked the wego turn based stuff, but haven't given any of the new games a shot.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

I can only assume they are mad at themselves for buying a hyped AAA title that overpromises and underproduces.

Eh, I'm not sure how many of the vocal were going to be pleased if the game was the second coming of {insert your favorite Bethesda title ever here}

I'm not mad, I don't regret the purchase in the least ... I just wish they hadn't gone with the stupid NG+ mechanic that seems to make doing anything in the game except straight up story missions pretty much pointless. One of the worst design choices I can ever recall.

[dubb93]

I read an article that suggested Bethesda should license out a Fallout game and an Elder Scrolls game (like they did with New Vegas) while they work internally on creating a new engine. Honestly, that doesn’t seem like a bad idea unless they are will to switch to unreal.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

I can only assume they are mad at themselves for buying a hyped AAA title that overpromises and underproduces.

I am not surprised.

I played FO76 when it first came out. Yeah, there were some stuff that was clearly lacking like NPCs for immersion, imbalances etc. Over the next couple years, they dropped DLCs and patches and fixed most of the big problems and added new content.

(IMO the biggest flaw nowadays is the economy. Not enough good stuff to spend caps on. There needs to be some cap sink that players can buy/use).

So good odds that they'll continue to add immersion and stuff. It doesn't need to be 95% out the gate for me (e.g. perfection is the enemy of progress ... or see Star Citizen). I'm okay with it 75-80% there with a commitment to improve.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by dubb93

I read an article that suggested Bethesda should license out a Fallout game and an Elder Scrolls game (like they did with New Vegas) while they work internally on creating a new engine. Honestly, that doesn’t seem like a bad idea unless they are will to switch to unreal.

Camera zooms in on my face staring at you with black eyes, like a dolls eyes, my body stiff and unmoving...my lips eerily move to words that i'm not saying "Stop thief! You are under arrest for stealing a newspaper in the middle of the forest that I did not see you steal!"

[Ghost Econ]

So as someone who is slowly trying to make his way into mainstream gaming after a while off, is it just to be expected that a AAA game will be at best half finished when released and that I should just wait a year or 2 before playing?

Like FO76 and Cyberpunk, I won copies when they game out and played them. They were dog shit. But it seems like they turned out pretty good.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Anybody play "Combat Mission"? I just picked up Combat Mission Normandy. It is one of the best war sims I have ever played. The only criticism might be it is too much of a sim. It is squad-level combat much like "Close Combat" but with simple 3d rendering and even deeper. My only complaint maybe there is very little "game" to it. Things like when you are fighting, your units have true line of sight and will only identify the enemy with a clear view. The challenge with that is your troops will leave "artifact" symbols where they think the enemy might be and the map gets pretty cluttered with maybe units. I guess that is realistic, but it gets a bit annoying.
What I do love is the "turn-based" mode. You give orders and then start the turn. Your units carry out the orders as the sane time as the opponents, reacting to the action by their own initiative. It helps me to keep up with everything going on much better than the standard real-time combat. It does make things go slowly, as everything counts out in real time with pauses every minute.
Anybody play this? Any mods I should be looking for?

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

I only like turn based war games. I hadn't played any war games in years but was getting the itch when Normandy came up on a holiday sale at a great price. So I picked it up from Fanatical IIRC. Then Steam had the complete DLC on sale a week later at a good price and I bought that too.

I was having enough fun when Matrix had the complete Red Thunder (Russian Front) game on sale a week or two later I picked it up too. Matrix gives you a serial code and a Steam key too. Maybe overkill? One can spend a lot of time playing out a battle or campaign.

I agree the icons overhead become overwhelming but are necessary too. One can toggle them off to watch the turn play out, but it's already hard enough to keep up with what is going on with them there. I'd be totally lost with then turned off. Right now I'm playing the third tutorial, a "small" battle, defending a small town and it's a lot to keep up with. I watch a full field view and then follow by watching small sections of the map before moving on. I imagine with more play this will become easier.

The sim side of this seems insane when one considers every bullet fired is tracked I think of it as the FM or wargames.

Mods back in the CMx1 days were almost as much fun as playing the game, that hasn't changed. Still a pretty lively bunch of users that put out some great mods over the years. The first one I found was an all in one that really dresses up the game. The link is at the bottom of the first post in this thread.
The all in one also includes a lot of battles and a few campaigns. The only drawback is some may require some or all of the DLC.

https://community.battlefront.com/to...al-all-in-one/

Pretty active boards for an "old style" game with lots of good topics.

Here are some other mod/scenario sites I've run across..

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/

https://www.combatmission.lesliesoftware.com/#

Some links are old enough they are broke, but most seem to work.

These games can be such a time sink but, in a war game, it's just what I'm looking for. Right now I'm having fun, just not sure I won't burn out (like I tend to do with FM) with the investment of time required.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

So as someone who is slowly trying to make his way into mainstream gaming after a while off, is it just to be expected that a AAA game will be at best half finished when released and that I should just wait a year or 2 before playing?

Like FO76 and Cyberpunk, I won copies when they game out and played them. They were dog shit. But it seems like they turned out pretty good.

Most live service games are unfinished at launch so anything like FO76 will fall under that umbrella. Cyberpunk was unfinished because the publishing arm of CDProjekt wanted the game out the door and gave a deadline. Of the 2 I think FO76 improved to a playable state whereas Cyberpunk is really good right now.

Alan Wake 2 is a AAA game that was outstanding out the gate. Diablo 4 is one of the rare live service games that was in good shape at launch and ha sonly improved from there. Hogwarts and Jedi Survivor were great at release as well.

So it's a mixed bag but overall 2023 was probably the strongest year for gaming in 20+ years. There were probably half a dozen games that take game of the year any other year.

[GrantDawg]

Thanks for the info, Sweed.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Thanks for the info, Sweed.

Glad to help.

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Most live service games are unfinished at launch so anything like FO76 will fall under that umbrella. Cyberpunk was unfinished because the publishing arm of CDProjekt wanted the game out the door and gave a deadline. Of the 2 I think FO76 improved to a playable state whereas Cyberpunk is really good right now.

Alan Wake 2 is a AAA game that was outstanding out the gate. Diablo 4 is one of the rare live service games that was in good shape at launch and ha sonly improved from there. Hogwarts and Jedi Survivor were great at release as well.

So it's a mixed bag but overall 2023 was probably the strongest year for gaming in 20+ years. There were probably half a dozen games that take game of the year any other year.

Ok. Maybe just reddit and Twitter have made it seem like everything sucks balls for ages and then retroactively they're seen as fine.

Just catching up on Ghosts of Tsushima on the PS5. It's nice. Tried Starfield on game pass ultimate streaming the S/X version on an Xbox One, but the lines are so long now I don't want to wait 1/2 hour to play. Still have Elden Ring and Hogwarts purchased but haven't installed either for the PS5 yet.

[RainMaker]

Ghosts of Tsushima is next on my list of games.

[dubb93]

It’s hard to believe that Larian was able to make three games (Divinity, Divinity 2, and Baulder’s Gate 3) for about $150 million and yet Cloud Imperium Games hasn’t been able to complete Star Citizen with nearly $700 million. At some point someone really needs to jump in and investigate this “game” for the scam that it really is.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by dubb93

It’s hard to believe that Larian was able to make three games (Divinity, Divinity 2, and Baulder’s Gate 3) for about $150 million and yet Cloud Imperium Games hasn’t been able to complete Star Citizen with nearly $700 million. At some point someone really needs to jump in and investigate this “game” for the scam that it really is.

They also just released a $48,000 DLC pack for Star Citizen.

[Edward64]

Kinda chuckled at this. One game right now but I'm sure the library will expand.

I don't game seriously enough but can see the hardcore FPS players buying it.

At CES 2024, AI is everywhere, including inside monitors. At its demo suite, MSI showed off the upcoming MEG 321URX QD-OLED display. The monitor has an onboard AI accelerator that, among other things, will detect enemies in League of Legends and put an icon on the screen to show you where they are coming from.

I don't know enough about League of Legends to say whether this officially breaks the rules. But the feature, which MSI calls SkySight, does give the user an advantage that not everyone has, and it's completely undetectable because the AI processing and image generation is happening on the monitor's own hardware, independent of the computer's OS and software.

According to MSI, SkySight works by analyzing the on-screen mini-map to see where enemies are coming from, which is something you can do with your own eyes. But having an AI assistant that watches the map for you and then puts an icon on the screen to show where the threats are coming from is probably a huge help.

[Edward64]

Games for the Apple Vision Pro. Nothing that interests me but looking forward to the future.

Every Confirmed AR/VR Apple Vision Pro Game So Far


IMO if Apple really want a killer app game, my vote is for Mario Kart. I know there's an AR/VR version already but it's underwhelming. If they created one where someone could be in the "game" and can look left, right, back, up, down etc. then I could spend the $3,500 for the wife and call it an anniversary present.

[GrantDawg]

The rumor is EA Sports College Football is planned release is July 12th.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[Edward64]

I want to believe but odds are it’ll suck for a year or two.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

The rumor is EA Sports College Football is planned release is July 12th.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

Man, please make this happen

[Bortaz]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Ghosts of Tsushima is next on my list of games.

I am currently playing it because it's part of ps+. It's a great game, but honestly it's basically an assassin's creed game with better writing and better combat. If you played recent AC games and enjoyed them, you'll feel right at home.

[Edward64]

Don't know enough about the industry but as somewhat of a gamer, it does seem there is an excess of games out there (and probably a lot of them are not that profitable).

Electronic Arts, maker of Madden NFL, to lay off 5% of staff as gaming industry layoffs widen | CNN Business

Electronic Arts plans to lay off 5% of its employees, making it the latest company in the gaming and tech space to reduce its workforce.

The video game industry has been slashing jobs over the past year. EA itself laid off around 800 employees last year.

Epic Games cut 830 jobs in September. In January, Tencent’s Riot Games said it would lay off 11% of its workforce and Microsoft said it would cut 1,900 jobs from its Activision Blizzard and Xbox gaming divisions. And electronics giant Sony said on Tuesday it would cut 8% of its global workforce, amounting to around 900 jobs.

[Brian Swartz]

Yep, the market is oversaturated.

[dubb93]

I'm confused why they would cancel a Star Wars game and state they are going to back off licensed games at this time and focus on IPs they own.

The last Star Wars game they released was a "commercial success" that led to "a record Q1" and had "millions of players." EA's words here not mine.

I don't really play these Star Wars games, but I hate to see video game companies make stupid decisions (which they do repeatedly.) If EA releases a ton of Anthem's and such that bomb it will start to affect some of their games that I do play.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by dubb93

I'm confused why they would cancel a Star Wars game and state they are going to back off licensed games at this time and focus on IPs they own.

The last Star Wars game they released was a "commercial success" that led to "a record Q1" and had "millions of players." EA's words here not mine.

I don't really play these Star Wars games, but I hate to see video game companies make stupid decisions (which they do repeatedly.) If EA releases a ton of Anthem's and such that bomb it will start to affect some of their games that I do play.

Well, it's not entirely a shift away since .. [i]According to IGN, the team working on this now-cancelled Star Wars game will be moved to other projects including Apex Legends, Iron Man, Black Panther, and a third installment in the popular third-person action series, Star Wars: Jedi.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Well, it's not entirely a shift away since .. [i]According to IGN, the team working on this now-cancelled Star Wars game will be moved to other projects including Apex Legends, Iron Man, Black Panther, and a third installment in the popular third-person action series, Star Wars: Jedi.

I read that but there is also this:

According to Wilson, EA will double down on owned IP, sports, and "massive online communities."

Which is what I'm alluding to. It all comes across as EA not really knowing what they want to do. They want to double down on their own IPs while basically only having Marvel and Star Wars games in development.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Which is what I'm alluding to. It all comes across as EA not really knowing what they want to do. They want to double down on their own IPs while basically only having Marvel and Star Wars games in development.

I read it as "we'll double down on our own ... except for ones that we either figure to make a lot on OR can't get out of yet"

[JonInMiddleGA]

With The Show coming to Gamepass, maybe somebody here gives it -- or specifically Diamond Dynasty -- a shot for the first time, or first in a while.

Gonna hype the No Money Spent DD guy (Daddy Dimmu) here cause, honestly, without his videos a few years ago I doubt I would have ever given the DD mode a shot. And that's turned into hundreds of hours of past time for me over the past couple years, just grinding and grinding.

He explains as he goes what he's thinking, he does not play the market for cards, it's all about the grind and what you can get by grinding.
NO MONEY SPENT! MLB The Show 24 Diamond Dynasty #1 - YouTube

[dubb93]

I know we had some talk around here about Retro Bowl a few years ago so I thought I’d point out that the devs just released Retro Bowl College if anyone is interested.

[Racer]

Originally Posted by dubb93

I know we had some talk around here about Retro Bowl a few years ago so I thought I’d point out that the devs just released Retro Bowl College if anyone is interested.

I recently bought Retro Bowl on Nintendo Switch and have been really enjoying it. I hadn't ever played it before but was a big fan of Tecmo Super Bowl on the SNES when I was a kid. It kind of reminds me of that.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

With The Show coming to Gamepass, maybe somebody here gives it -- or specifically Diamond Dynasty -- a shot for the first time, or first in a while.

Gonna hype the No Money Spent DD guy (Daddy Dimmu) here cause, honestly, without his videos a few years ago I doubt I would have ever given the DD mode a shot. And that's turned into hundreds of hours of past time for me over the past couple years, just grinding and grinding.

He explains as he goes what he's thinking, he does not play the market for cards, it's all about the grind and what you can get by grinding.
NO MONEY SPENT! MLB The Show 24 Diamond Dynasty #1 - YouTube

I've always played RTTS as a pitcher, or played in GM mode in franchise where I'll let the CPU control both teams. I have a really hard time batting, I just can't recognize the pitches in time and strike out about 80% of the time.

So I have a hard time with DD because it's based on the twitch factor.

[GrantDawg]

With you, Mota. I have a blast playing as a pitcher. I made a female junkball pitcher with a submarine delivery this year.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mota

I've always played RTTS as a pitcher, or played in GM mode in franchise where I'll let the CPU control both teams. I have a really hard time batting, I just can't recognize the pitches in time and strike out about 80% of the time.

So I have a hard time with DD because it's based on the twitch factor.

My twitch factor is pretty lousy but I manage to grind DD well enough just by playing on low difficulties. I'm merely there for the challenge (which I finally completed last year) to collect all the base cards. I figure if I've done that, I've grinded my fair share of it.

There's plenty of programs I can't complete but I'm okay with that. Even more okay with having played 2-3 iterations without playing a single inning online vs humans, with no intention of changing that.

That's one of the things I like about the YTer I posted, he goes out of his way to drive home the idea of "no wrong way, no right way, as long as you're having fun"

Granted, what I described might not be fun for you, I'm jus sayin that if I can manage with my ancient reflexes then it might not be as bad some people might expect. Also, mess around with the different batting options (the different "eye" and button combos), I forget which one I used last year but I was to the point that pitch type didn't even matter much with most hitters, I probably got contact on first pitch 70% of the time, and on low levels the quality of contact is pretty forgiving.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

My twitch factor is pretty lousy but I manage to grind DD well enough just by playing on low difficulties. I'm merely there for the challenge (which I finally completed last year) to collect all the base cards. I figure if I've done that, I've grinded my fair share of it.

There's plenty of programs I can't complete but I'm okay with that. Even more okay with having played 2-3 iterations without playing a single inning online vs humans, with no intention of changing that.

That's one of the things I like about the YTer I posted, he goes out of his way to drive home the idea of "no wrong way, no right way, as long as you're having fun"

Granted, what I described might not be fun for you, I'm jus sayin that if I can manage with my ancient reflexes then it might not be as bad some people might expect. Also, mess around with the different batting options (the different "eye" and button combos), I forget which one I used last year but I was to the point that pitch type didn't even matter much with most hitters, I probably got contact on first pitch 70% of the time, and on low levels the quality of contact is pretty forgiving.

This will be my first PS5 version of The Show, so I'm looking forward to playing. I'll also be playing vs CPU only. One of the things that was a turnoff is that a lot of the challenges require you to play on Veteran difficulty, so there I go striking out again. But if you said there are challenges that can be played on lower difficulties, I'll give it a try.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mota

This will be my first PS5 version of The Show, so I'm looking forward to playing. I'll also be playing vs CPU only. One of the things that was a turnoff is that a lot of the challenges require you to play on Veteran difficulty, so there I go striking out again. But if you said there are challenges that can be played on lower difficulties, I'll give it a try.

When I say "challenges" I do mean to include things like Conquest mode and such. That's where I get a lot of both my individual player XP and my Season XP as well.

"Steal Fans" in Conquest can get you games on Rookie difficulty and while it's slow for the progress, it does allow you to level cards/players and such.

I got a new personal first this morning (after the game finally finished d'loading around 430a) ... I was the first person in the world to get to Parallel 1 with a player. I've been in the single digits on a few parallels before, but never literally #1 of 1. So RHP Cade Smith is now my favorite player I'd never heard of before this morning lol

[Icy]

I'm right now in San Francisco for the Games Developers Conference representing one of my companies.

Hope it will be productive after a 15 hours flight from Spain but also for sure it will be fun! Will tell you guys if there is anything interesting or some gossips.

Any of you here as well by chance?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay, from never doing it to getting two in less than 24 hours.

I paralleled catcher Arden Pabst, first person to do so this year.

Considering he was only in a lineup because he was literally THE lowest rated card I have gotten so far, and then I realized "okay, nobody has paralleled him yet ... let's see how far I can go" ... I'm stoked frankly.

[RainMaker]

Is there a bonus for paralleling a player? I don't think I've ever looked closely at that in the past.


My tactic in years past was to just clean up on Conquest maps. I'd throw on an audiobook or something and just grind on rookie for a few hours.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Is there a bonus for paralleling a player? I don't think I've ever looked closely at that in the past.

+1 to all skills per parallel

My tactic in years past was to just clean up on Conquest maps. I'd throw on an audiobook or something and just grind on rookie for a few hours.

Bingo.

[Atocep]

I picked up Dragon's Dogma 2, and without getting into the BS microtransaction stuff for a single player game, it's interesting.

It's very old school RPG in some of it's systems and feels a bit janky (it feels like a AA or 2.5 A game rather than a big budget AAA), but it really reminds me of something like Morrowind in all the best ways. The open world is dangerous, feels alive, and it doesn't really have fast travel. I guess it exists, but costs a resource I still don't have about 10 hours into the game. This makes travel dangerous, although the game isn't on the difficulty of a souls-like and the save system isn't all that punishing. Night time takes that to another level because you can't see shit.

Exploration and the random experiences you have are really what drives this and is what makes me think of Morrowind. Everything isn't just marked on the map, you have to explore. Some quests have a hidden timer once you accept them. Not a difficult timer or anything, but you're not going to accept a quest to go save someone and dick around for an in game week and go find them alive.

The first couple of hours I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get into it, but once I really got out into the open world and started to feel that sense of discovery and see the randomness you experience in a world that feels somewhat alive and lived in it pulled me in.

Overall, not for everyone. It's a 3rd person actiony RPG that has some old school systems and an old school feel to it while looking beautiful at times.

[RainMaker]

Agree with everything you said. Random isn't the right word but it doesn't feel as scripted as other RPGs. It really pushes you to explore and doesn't drive you down a specific path. Morrowind is a great example but I'd also say a little bit of early Fallout games too (at least how I played).

One thing the game does really well is not let you predict what's coming next. There are parts of the map where you're just waiting for something to happen like a big boss fight and nothing comes. Sometimes you're in an area you think is safe and you're thrown into a situation you're fully unprepared for.

Games a little buggy still so I get if people want to wait for patches to clean it up. But it's really fun and a nice throwback to older RPGs I loved.