The Video Game Thread

[Cowboys5217]

I've been playing the remastered Tomb Raider games lately.

 

[SlammedZero]

I've been stuck on Forza Horizon 6. Absolutely loving it. Japan map is

 

[Juggernaut]

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

I've been playing the remastered Tomb Raider games lately.

Those first two Tomb Raider games were awesome, the remastered versions are pretty good

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

Hyped to play Assasins Creed Black Flag Resync tonight! Which imo is the best AC game.

Going to pick this up, from the reviews I've seen is pretty good. And that is not including the DLC which is not surprising given its Ubisoft

 

[YosemiteSam]

Finished Fatekeeper (early access) This game need polish and balancing, but this game is the nuts! Can't wait till the final release!

Switched to God of War - Ragnarok

I played the first God of War and that is an awesome game. The game play, the storyline, and like the movie Tombstone, the quotes!

Ragnarok is starting out on the same plane!

 

[Cowboys5217]

Those first two Tomb Raider games were awesome, the remastered versions are pretty good

The first three are just like one long game to me. I've got hundreds of hours of play time with the originals on the PS1. Tomb Raiders 4 through 6 I didn't play all that much.

 

[SlammedZero]

The first three are just like one long game to me. I've got hundreds of hours of play time with the originals on the PS1. Tomb Raiders 4 through 6 I didn't play all that much.

If you haven't played them yet, I'd definitely recommend Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I didn't play a ton of the older Tomb Raider games back in the day, but I played through both of these and thought they were a lot of fun. Great mix of exploration, puzzles, combat, and adventure.

 

[Reality]

I now have 540 free games in my Epic Games Store library ..

 

[Juggernaut]

If you enjoy indie surrealist games and indie rock, then I highly recommend picking up the free music game The New Flesh on Steam...

 

[YosemiteSam]

DOOM the Dark Ages has new DLC called Revelations!

 

[Reality]

DOOM the Dark Ages has new DLC called Revelations!

Doom: The Dark Ages DLC Development Team Was Fired A Day Before Its Successful Launch
https://tech4gamers.com/doom-dev-team-fired-before-launch/

 

[YosemiteSam]

Doom: The Dark Ages DLC Development Team Was Fired A Day Before Its Successful Launch
https://tech4gamers.com/doom-dev-team-fired-before-launch/

Yes, I saw that. We are going to end up losing such a great franchise due to these greedy mega corporations.

Down with Microsoft.

 

[darthseinfeld]

Yes, I saw that. We are going to end up losing such a great franchise due to these greedy mega corporations.

Down with Microsoft.

Ya they laid off half the ESO staff that has been bring in billions in revenue

 

[SlammedZero]

Doom: The Dark Ages DLC Development Team Was Fired A Day Before Its Successful Launch
https://tech4gamers.com/doom-dev-team-fired-before-launch/

Yes, I saw that. We are going to end up losing such a great franchise due to these greedy mega corporations.

Down with Microsoft.

It feels like gaming as a whole is in a really bad spot right now. Microsoft spent billions buying Activision Blizzard and all of its studios, only to turn around and start laying people off, which just seems crazy to me, especially ID. Then there's their biggest IP, Call of Duty. It feels like they've been losing players over the last few years (I think Black Ops 7 especially failed to connect with a lot of people), yet they seem absolutely unwilling to listen to community feedback about what players actually want.

On the other side, Sony has alienated a lot of its fanbase with its shift away from physical games. I've even seen some of their biggest fanboys criticize the direction they're taking. What's ironic is that when Xbox nearly shot itself in the foot with the Xbox One's original always-online and digital-focused plans, Sony hammered them over it. They even made that famous commercial where one person simply handed a physical game to another to show how game sharing should work. Now it feels like Sony has gone back on what it stood for.

Games are creeping toward $100, physical ownership is disappearing, and players have less to show for what they're spending. Consoles are getting closer to $1,000, games keep getting more expensive, and companies increasingly dictate how people can access what they buy. It just feels like the industry is pushing its customers too far, and it doesn't surprise me that so many people are talking about going back to older games instead.

 

[SlammedZero]

With all that said above, I really enjoyed Doom: The Dark Ages. I may have to pony up for the expansion.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Its like with Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast and then brought in Cynthia Williams (from Microsoft - XBOX) as the CEO. Clearly Hasbro and of course Cynthia Williams clearly did not understand that while you can definitely make videos games out of Dungeons and Dragons, the actual game itself is NOT a video game and players do not engage in it in the same way video game players play games.

That was easily the most destructive thing that ever happened to D&D and it's fanbase's trust in the game's ownership. So many players ditched D&D and moved to other games and many of the players started creating their own competing games.

I wish I could snatch ID Software, Wizards of the Coast and the Star Trek franchise away from their corporate overlords and try to save them.

 

[Reality]

It feels like gaming as a whole is in a really bad spot right now. Microsoft spent billions buying Activision Blizzard and all of its studios, only to turn around and start laying people off, which just seems crazy to me, especially ID. Then there's their biggest IP, Call of Duty. It feels like they've been losing players over the last few years (I think Black Ops 7 especially failed to connect with a lot of people), yet they seem absolutely unwilling to listen to community feedback about what players actually want.

On the other side, Sony has alienated a lot of its fanbase with its shift away from physical games. I've even seen some of their biggest fanboys criticize the direction they're taking. What's ironic is that when Xbox nearly shot itself in the foot with the Xbox One's original always-online and digital-focused plans, Sony hammered them over it. They even made that famous commercial where one person simply handed a physical game to another to show how game sharing should work. Now it feels like Sony has gone back on what it stood for.

Games are creeping toward $100, physical ownership is disappearing, and players have less to show for what they're spending. Consoles are getting closer to $1,000, games keep getting more expensive, and companies increasingly dictate how people can access what they buy. It just feels like the industry is pushing its customers too far, and it doesn't surprise me that so many people are talking about going back to older games instead.

I think what happened was both Sony and Microsoft freaked out over potential for exclusive games and once one started buying game development studios, the other felt compelled to do it until it became a race not out of greed or chasing revenue but simply out of fear of being locked out of top gaming IP franchises either permanently or at least for a year after release.

The truth is the gaming platforms should have done what they both appear to be doing now, especially Microsoft, which is focusing on their best performing past game IPs and shutting down the rest that they should have never acquired.

One thing about Microsoft, if what I've read is true, is that unlike Sony, Microsoft is letting studios go and allowing them to take their IP and company names with them while Sony just gets rid of the people and keeps everything else.

Too often a company becomes one of the best at the one thing they do because they do that one thing so well, then they decide to do a second thing and a third thing, and now that one thing they did so well starts to suffer.

They ignore what they have while chasing dreams that will never replicate what they already have in most cases.

While it sucks so many game industry people are losing their jobs, for gamers it will hopefully mean more established gaming franchises will see a rebirth along with much shorter game development cycles.

They are finally starting to do what I have been saying for years .. they are re-creating their successful games of the past.

Not sequels, prequels or modern reimaginging of those games .. but recreating old games with modern technology on modern platforms.

Assassins Creed: Black Flag Resynced (the recreated version of their old game) for example has already outsold their recent completely new Assassins Creed: Shadows at launch and will likely outsell it completely before its over.

There are so many great games from the 2000s and 2010s that could be recreated from scratch and then expanded on.

While its great new games come out, most of the gamers I know talk more often about the best games they played years ago than they do about new releases.