The Video Game Thread - anything and everything...

[firesprite]

Games I've been playing lately:

- Almost done with Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Great game, especially in turn-based mode. (Although I used the mod, not the officially supported version, which I haven't yet tried.)

- Been enjoying Ghost Recon: Wildlands. It's pretty thin on story, but the action is fun.

- Been enjoying Rage 2. It's really pretty and a big improvement over the first game, but still relatively shallow story-wise. There's an element to the design of games that emanate from id properties that just seems....mired in the past, really. Dunno what it is, but it's like they're just all about kinda basic gunplay, AMAZING graphics, and the thinnest veneer of a story.

Thinking after this I might do some of the Witcher games, although I've never been able to get into the first two, and the combat in the second one is especially irritating (or at least, that's how I found it while i played the tutorial). I'm holding off on playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance until I get the Witcher stuff out of the way.

I've only played the 2nd and 3rd. You can skip the second. It's totally playable, but you can pretty much get the gist of what happened while playing Witcher 3. I got Kingdom Come: Deliverance free and played it for about an hour, uninstalled it, and started playing Skyrim again. It just felt like a really wonky mod to an existing game. The player movement just made me feel like I was drunk.

I've played all three because after my first playthrough of Witcher 3, I wanted to know more about the world and the story.

The first is going to be an exercise in aggravation if you go back that far. The game play is janky as hell and the voice acting and animation are... no bueno. The second is better, but not necessary.

If you want to know the lore of the world, I recommend hitting up the wiki, but for the most part, it's not going to be that much of an impact on your W3 playthrough.

I'll be playing the new Avengers game on PC this weekend, myself.

 

[The Brahma Bull]

I'll be playing the new Avengers game on PC this weekend, myself.

I hope your expectations are below zero. Played the beta and it's awful.

Looking forward to the Mafia remake.

 

[Solo4114]

I hope your expectations are below zero. Played the beta and it's awful.

Looking forward to the Mafia remake.

What's the gameplay like, and what's so bad about it?


I was kinda hoping for a spiritual sequel to Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

 

[The Brahma Bull]

What's the gameplay like, and what's so bad about it?


I was kinda hoping for a spiritual sequel to Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

It just feels clunky, not well balanced and boring. I've some expectations to superhero games, thanks to the Arkham games. I was disappointed with the cheap ripoff of Arkham they did with Spider-Man. But at least it was kinda fun playing and looked quite ok.

Avengers does not reach any level, not even of the Spider-Man game. The heroes feel slow, less powerful, it's repetetive but with no challenge or fun.

 

[Ron]

I wasn't that impressed with the Avengers beta either. Fun gameplay in the beginning but it gets repetitive quickly. The graphics and presentation could be better and the maps and skins so far were uninspired IMO. It's a beat 'em up which is totally fine but it needs more variety. Right now it feels like a paint by numbers game. Basically if it wasn't about the Marvel universe, I doubt anyone would be very interested in it. I actually canceled my pre-order (which I only did to get beta access). If I hear good things, maybe I'll pick it up on sale.

Doesn't seem like Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal were as passionate about making this game as Rocksteady was about making the Arkham games or as Insomniac was about making Spider-Man. Or maybe Square Enix didn't give them enough of a development budget. Don't know if this is true but I heard that one of Insomniac's goals with Spider-Man was for it to be a proof of concept for a Marvel gaming universe. I think that could've been amazing.

 

[The Brahma Bull]

What sets the Arkham games apart, besides the great gameplay, are the characters and how much effort they put in them. It's a general Marvel problem for me. They have none character like Batman, neither like some of his Rogue Gallery. So the game doesn't get that vibe of being the Hero. It's more a class system. Hulk ist big, green and slow. Widow and Iron-Man are faster but deal less damage, Captain is something between. And even you've all the Avengers, it doesn't feel that way. You could Change character design and it wouldn't change the actual game. It's generic

 

[firesprite]

We both played in the beta and enjoyed it. They skipped over HUGE swaths of storyline from what I understand, to make the coop gameplay accessible during beta.

I'm a huge fan of Ms. Marvel, so your mileage may vary, I suppose. I can deal with a few instances of clunky gameplay (I got really frustrated during the Black Widow/Taskmaster fight, for instance), because the writing of the characters is delightful for the most part.

 

[Ron]

Yeah the single player campaign is definitely the make or break for me. I'm not a big multiplayer guy. That's what concerned me about the beta. It didn't seem like the single player had much depth to it. Granted it is a beta.

If the campaign ends up being good, I'll definitely pick the game back up but if it's more of a multiplayer grind fest, I'll probably pass.

 

[firesprite]

Yeah the single player campaign is definitely the make or break for me. I'm not a big multiplayer guy. That's what concerned me about the beta. It didn't seem like the single player had much depth to it. Granted it is a beta.

If the campaign ends up being good, I'll definitely pick the game back up but if it's more of a multiplayer grind fest, I'll probably pass.

The article I read on Kotaku indicates that the writer was like 6 hours into the campaign before he unlocked Black Widow, and didn't even fully realize it was that long because he was enjoying the story and the game.

Avengers’ Story Campaign Is Bigger And Better Than I Expected

When you start Marvel’s Avengers, the in-game menu suggests you complete the single-player campaign before diving into online multiplayer. Now I’m over six hours into the campaign and only just unlocked Black Widow, my fourth of the game’s six playable launch characters. This might take a while...

kotaku.com

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

There aren't a lot of my favorite games that I actually get tired of. Until now. I've been playing Skyrim for the past week and while I still love the game, and though I haven't played it in 2 years, it feels like I had just played it a month ago. It's still really fun, but I think I've played it too much. Steam says I have about 1,057 hours in that game! And HOLY CRAP I have 1,772 in Fallout 4! No wonder I don't finish many props or models!

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Okay so somehow I got stuck playing Skyrim still! Anyway I wish they would make NPCs in games a little brighter to what is going on around them. I killed a dragon and absorbed its soul. About the time that finished, a random encounter triggered and some bandits or something attacked me. What part of your NPC brain thinks "Okay that guy just killed a dragon, it would be a great idea to attack him!"?

 

[Strikerkc]

... Anyway I wish they would make NPCs in games a little brighter to what is going on around them...

In the ES4, a buddy of mine had a town guard swim through a river of lava, after following him onto the plane of oblivion, to collect a couple coin bounty over an erant piece of cheese.

 

[Aliaz]

Been catching up on games that I have missed due to real life and a bit of a gaming slump.
Finished RDR2 during the summer, now I am deeply addicted to The Witcher 3 and getting hyped for Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[firesprite]

So, I started playing the new Avengers game at about 5 on Friday. I've got about 17 hours into it and I'm only about 40% done with the campaign. I have unlocked Hulk, Iron Man and Black Widow, so far out of the playable characters.

I absolutely love it. The writing on the story is top-notch, which definitely has made me persevere when some of the fights were a bit insane.

 

[Nth]

First teaser for Blade Runner Enhanced Edition just released

 

[JediMichael]

After buying Streets of Rage 4 in April, finally actually downloaded it and have been playing it. Its a pretty hard game. Haven't quite beaten it yet, but i'm close. Only playing on normal mode. Can't even imagine trying mania mode.
Over all, I like it, but theres some stuff disappointing.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

THE ultimate gaming chair. No price, so yeah most of us should just be happy with what we have... All New Cluvens Scorpion Computer Cockpit

 

[Solo4114]

So, I finished Rage 2. It was fun, but also kinda thin. WAY better than the original, but still got kinda dull after a bit. It's kind of like how Homefront and Homefront 2 were very different, with the 2nd game being way better than the first, but the new game still isn't especially robust (even if it's an open world game). That said, I got it on deep discount, and got my money's worth.

I still have to finish Pathfinder: Kingmaker, which has also been great, and which I may go back and replay at some point.

Off and on I've also been playing Ghost Recon: Wildlands, which I enjoy a lot, and have Breakpoint or whatever it's called to follow up with after. There's one Splinter Cell mission that I hate because I suck at stealth games (and also because the engine isn't really cut out for it), but otherwise, the game is a lot of fun. Also got that one cheap.

I tried Call of Duty Blackops 4, but after playing through the training/campaign, I got bored and moved on.

Soooo, I decided to grab a copy of Gold Box Companion and fire up some old classics, and have been thoroughly enjoying those. I'm doing a playthru of Pool of Radiance through the Unlimited Adventures engine, and am simultaneously playing Champions of Krynn, which I never played back in the day. Lots of fun, and I really, really wish someone would do a modern version of those games. They were as close to tabletop D&D as I've come in computer form, way moreso than Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale or any of the other "real time with pause" games. Turn-based only for me, baby!

And, of course, it's not a video game but I am continuing to run my mostly-weekly 5th Edition D&D game over Roll20. Maybe I'll post a campaign diary about that, since we almost never discuss tabletop RPGs on this forum...

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I have Splinter Cell Blacklist I got in 2014 free with my video card and I never played it. In any stealth game I usually get found and then insta killed because they usually make the enemies super strong to force you to play stealth. I've got a bunch of stuff on Steam, Epic, Uplay that I haven't played, but nothing sounds fun. So I keep just playing Skyrim... Deus Ex (Human Revolution/Mankind Divided) keeps whispering to me so I might reinstall those.

 

[Solo4114]

Human Revolution, at least, highly rewards stealth, but also gives you options for loud gameplay if you prefer that. I enjoyed it overall, although I still haven't finished that one either. (My graveyard of unfinished games is....large. Like, Arlington large.)