The Video Game Thread

[Crazed Liotta Eyes]

I am okay with open world games, but it seems like I spend so much of my time traveling from one destination to another to get stuff done. I will give up real quick if I just aimlessly wander around with no clear direction until I find what I need to do. I also much prefer games where I can save where I want to. Why don't game developers do that anymore? It seemed back in the day I was able to save whenever I wanted. Now there are checkpoints you have to go through and if you die you have to start all over again. So annoying.

The fast travel feature becomes a big deal in open world games. Some do it very well and some don't in my opinion. I do almost feel like there is a 3rd option missing for the person working a job or someone who's impatient. It's like, hey I want them all unlocked from the beginning. I think that could be cool. I wouldn't do it personally, but I have friends who just don't have the time who might. I would keep it separate from the combat difficulty setting.

My assumption for the limited save option is because it extends the playthrough life of the product. It's a way to make up for a lack of actual content. I hate to admit it, but it's totally some BS we would pull at the studios I have worked at. Creativity takes a back seat to trying to get your money. Directed by the people in charge.

 

[SlammedZero]

I have yet to really dive into any of the games I have downloaded on the VR2 as I've been incredibly busy lately. I'm currently on hiatus from working so you would think I would have all the time in the world, but it just gives me the time to catch up on all the needed home projects I've needed to do over the years, and my daughter just bought a house in Dallas so I spent the last 10 days "personalizing" her brand new home for her.

From all the reviews Gran Turismo 7 was a must have, so I downloaded. I haven't played it yet. Is the game really playable using the PS5 controller? Getting a steering wheel might be a stretch with my wife.

I still have RE Village, Gran Turismo 7, Kayak, a few demos, and I have Switchback waiting to download when it's released. One of the demos downloaded was Puzzling Places. It's a 3D puzzle game that is really cool, and pretty hard as it's 3D puzzles. When I'm doing a puzzle I can almost "feel" the puzzle in my hand as I rotate it around trying to figure it out. I went ahead and purchased the game to get the other puzzles. It's relaxing. It's really the only time I've been able to dabble with the VR2 and I was so excited to get it on day one.

Sometimes life gets in the way! Understandable. Funny enough, I couldn't wait to get mine, and then I only played it like 2 times that first week. Ha! I have really sat down this week and put some time in it. I'm having fun with it.

I've been mostly playing Moss 1 and 2 (more on these in a bit). Absolutely fantastic games. I highly recommend. I bought a game called Pavlov the other night. Think of Call of Duty multiplayer, but your inside the map. It's kind of cheesy, but at the same time, pretty fun. The first night gave me some motion sickness though. I had to stop after a bit. I tried it again tonight and did a ton better. I guess I'm getting my "VR legs" under me. I did play that 3D Puzzle game. It was fun! I could see that being enjoyable. I also tried the demo for Drum Rock. That was actually a lot of fun too. I might consider buying that sometime. I still have Call of the Mountain to play, but I've hardly touched it. No reason why I haven't. Just haven't put time into yet. I've heard it's good though.

I'm super curious about Kayak VR. You'll have to let me know. I've heard good things.

Ok, back to Moss. So, I own both Moss 1 and 2 on PS4 Pro/PSVR1. They ported both those games over to PS5/PSVR2. Unfortunately, there was no free upgrade. They made you buy them over again, which sucks, but I enjoy them so much that I just repurchased them. As I was playing Moss 2 last night, I started to think to myself, "Does this really look that much better than the PSVR1? Was it really worth buying over again? I remember these games looking great in the PSVR1 too." Well, since I still have that PSVR1 setup in my mancave, I decided to go experiment for myself. I went into the mancave, fired up the PS4 Pro, the VR headset, and loaded up Moss 2. My first thoughts? WOW!! Yes, there is a significant difference. The game looked dark, fuzzy, and had overall less color and 3D pop. I turned it off and went back out and hopped back in the PSVR2. Wow!! The resolution was better. The color was better. The lighting was way better. The 3D popped better. I was stoked to actually see the difference. It really validated spending the money on the new VR for me.

If I had one complaint about the new PSVR2, it would be that the tracking has felt underwhelming. I was really looking forward to some improved tracking over the PSVR1. So far, meh, I think it could use some work. The good news is that the system is brand new and I'm sure they can improve it over time with data and software updates. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I just expected a little better than what I've experienced.

 

[mattjames2010]

Man, your review matches my take punch for punch. The general progression is usually a bit clearer due to the "mini-open" world nature of the levels in Dark Souls, but that wasn't the case in Elden Ring. I rarely knew what I was doing and fell backwards into things but not in the "awe inspiring" discovery vibe; more of, now what do I do with this item, and did I ruin some other quest, etc.

This did remind me of Demon Souls where the world tendency aspect isn't really explained, so you have to rely on the internet to walk you through it. I wasn't immersed in the setting, I was wondering where I was supposed to be going 90% of the time and felt like a lot of wasted time wandering.

I had to resort to FightinCowboy to walk me through the story progression. You're hopping back and forth to these obscure locations with NPCs that are spotted in the middle of nowhere that are essential for quest progression. I could do away with that whole schtick bc that got really old.

Was the easiest of the souls games by far outside of Malenia as well which wouldn't be terrible by itself, but coupled with the lack of direction I wasn't vibing with it. I could tell they nerfed the difficulty to welcome newcomers but I was a bit later (fall 2022) and heard that wasn't the case out of the gate

I feel as though other open world games have conditioned people to think they need to run down a checklist for side content rather than just generally exploring and discovering on their own. Elden Ring was never meant to have a world like Skyrim - even Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 had obscure quest lines that you wouldn't know about unless you stumbled across them or read a wiki on them.

As for the sense of direction, I never felt anything was wasted wandering and think the game does a pretty good job with "There is a big or unique structure there, that is probably important" - if you stick to the main story, the path is even easier. The world of Elden Ring really isn't that big, it's more of an illusion of big. The biggest quest line in the game, Ranni's, is pretty straight forward enough for you to open up the major secret areas - it only gets vague once the doll aspect comes in, and after that it's mainly just for the optional ending.

 

[BigStar]

I feel as though other open world games have conditioned people to think they need to run down a checklist for side content rather than just generally exploring and discovering on their own. Elden Ring was never meant to have a world like Skyrim - even Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 had obscure quest lines that you wouldn't know about unless you stumbled across them or read a wiki on them.

As for the sense of direction, I never felt anything was wasted wandering and think the game does a pretty good job with "There is a big or unique structure there, that is probably important" - if you stick to the main story, the path is even easier. The world of Elden Ring really isn't that big, it's more of an illusion of big. The biggest quest line in the game, Ranni's, is pretty straight forward enough for you to open up the major secret areas - it only gets vague once the doll aspect comes in, and after that it's mainly just for the optional ending.

I think I was overthinking more than allowing myself to go with the flow wo w/fomo taking over like you mentioned on the side content. I liked it, just not on the DS3 and Bloodborne smaller more linear worlds. It's a very well made game don't get me wrong, just coming in later after initial release, i heard 6 months of hype prior so wanted to hit that checklist like you mentioned.

 

[Crazed Liotta Eyes]

I think I was overthinking more than allowing myself to go with the flow wo w/fomo taking over like you mentioned on the side content. I liked it, just not on the DS3 and Bloodborne smaller more linear worlds. It's a very well made game don't get me wrong, just coming in later after initial release, i heard 6 months of hype prior so wanted to hit that checklist like you mentioned.

I totally find myself with some fomo on the open world games. I tend to blow through the main story a little too fast and then when I realize I'm near the end, I get obsessed with seeing as many of the side quests as possible. I'm not really a completionist, but probably in that 90% range. I'm fascinated by the amount of work that goes into some of these games.

 

[Juggernaut]

GIVEAWAY: puzzle/adventure PC game Call of the Sea from Epic 'til Thursday 10 am.

 

[Doomsday]

I feel as though other open world games have conditioned people to think they need to run down a checklist for side content rather than just generally exploring and discovering on their own. Elden Ring was never meant to have a world like Skyrim - even Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 had obscure quest lines that you wouldn't know about unless you stumbled across them or read a wiki on them.

As for the sense of direction, I never felt anything was wasted wandering and think the game does a pretty good job with "There is a big or unique structure there, that is probably important" - if you stick to the main story, the path is even easier. The world of Elden Ring really isn't that big, it's more of an illusion of big. The biggest quest line in the game, Ranni's, is pretty straight forward enough for you to open up the major secret areas - it only gets vague once the doll aspect comes in, and after that it's mainly just for the optional ending.

It feels a lot bigger than it is because there are so many elevation changes that you can spend 15 minutes going up a dead end. It got a lot better as you got more sites of grace but man I spend a ton of time on Torrent running around in circles.

Some of the side quests are fairly straightforward, Varre, Volcano Manner, etc but when it comes to Alexander, Ranni, Nepheli, and some of the others you are left scratching your head for an hour or on google watching walkthroughs for an area. I did 1/2 of Rogier's quest then was pulled in other directions and came back to the round table he was just gone but left his gear behind.

 

[mattjames2010]

It feels a lot bigger than it is because there are so many elevation changes that you can spend 15 minutes going up a dead end. It got a lot better as you got more sites of grace but man I spend a ton of time on Torrent running around in circles.

Some of the side quests are fairly straightforward, Varre, Volcano Manner, etc but when it comes to Alexander, Ranni, Nepheli, and some of the others you are left scratching your head for an hour or on google watching walkthroughs for an area. I did 1/2 of Rogier's quest then was pulled in other directions and came back to the round table he was just gone but left his gear behind.

Yeah, that's just how Fromsoftware is. Basically "If you stumble across the quest. Cool! If you miss it, no biggie". They really use this as a way to 1. Get the community involved and talking among themselves 2. Adding incentives for repeated playthroughs.

 

[The Ominous]

Playing the Resident Evil 4 remake demo. The best survival horror game ever bout to be even better. Hell yeah!

 

[darthseinfeld]

Playing the Resident Evil 4 remake demo. The best survival horror game ever bout to be even better. Hell yeah!

Im looking forward to this. RE4 is why I bought a GameCube lol

 

[Shinaoi]

So Metroid prime remaster, can’t say I’m feeling this one. I’ve never played it before and I know it’s held as an all time classic, but I keep getting lost. Not sure I’ll stick with it.

 

[BigStar]

So Metroid prime remaster, can’t say I’m feeling this one. I’ve never played it before and I know it’s held as an all time classic, but I keep getting lost. Not sure I’ll stick with it.

Those metroid "type" games do that to me in general with all the smaller enter/exit points at differing horizontal heights. Gets me all claustrophobic when playing them.

 

[Juggernaut]

GIVEAWAY: Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War from Epic 'til Thurs. 10 am.

 

[SlammedZero]

Got NBA2K23 from Gamefly. Figured it would be another cookie-cutter basketball game, and in many ways it is, but they put some nice touches on this one. I'm having a lot of fun with it. The Eras section is fantastic. You can play as one of the older eras in NBA history: 1983, 1992, 2002. It was awesome to play as my 90s Seattle Supersonics team. Also, (and this was a fantastic touch IMO) as you select the older eras, they make the picture look like the fuzzy grainy broadcasts of the 80s/90s. I loved that. They also have the Jordan Challenge. You start with his NCAA championship game in 1982, and work your way up through his career completing games and challenges.

I'm really enjoying this one. It's on sale right now for $23 on PS5/Xbox. I may have to pick this one up.

The biggest downfall to this game? It's 172.5GB!!! That's insane. lol

 

[dsturgeon]

i came across some music for this, has anyone played it?

 

[mattjames2010]

i came across some music for this, has anyone played it?

Yeah and it's pretty great.

 

[dsturgeon]

Yeah and it's pretty great.

I am going to have to play it. I listened to this whole thing, and it made me want to play the game. At 10:00 it starts getting good

 

[Reality]

I am going to have to play it. I listened to this whole thing, and it made me want to play the game. At 10:00 it starts getting good

It's funny how game music can make you like a game before you ever play it.

These days so many high quality composers are hired for games that it's more common now for games to have good or even great soundtracks, but there's something about the non-mainstream classical, non-epic/trailer, etc. game music like the one you posted that brings back memories of the days of MIDI and .MOD/XM/S3M/etc. mod files.

While not the same type of music exactly, it made me think of this soundtrack that I listened to a lot while working in the 1990s.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

i came across some music for this, has anyone played it?

Have it wishlisted on Steam. Looks interesting and has good reviews.

 

[DasTex]

Just started playing Returnal for the first time - I know it's been out for awhile but dang it's a fun and very frustrating game all at the same time.
I hear there is a way to save your progress mid play but you have to leave the system running?
If not and it has to be one run through - that's gonna be a hard task for me given how little time I have to play games these days.