General Video Game Thread

Testament

Did a couple of purchases this past week. Two thoughts.

Pillars of Eternity: Haven't played a CRPG since Baldur's Gate. And boy, do I suck at it. It's like party-based Dark Souls. The game is not gentle and i have too much pride to lower the difficulty to 'Story Time'.

A Plague Tale: Innoence: Fuck you if you're not playing this right now. A well made stealth-based game with an engrossing story and 'HOLY FUCK ALL THE RATS' makes my bitter black heart happy.

Tempest

Pillars of Eternity is great. The sequel is also awesome. Would highly recommend . It's even got 'pick an adventure/storybook' style naval battles and a ship you can upgrade and a world map you can actually sail around, with lots of random side islands/dungeons.

IMO the difficulty (in both) falls off /hard/ once you understand the system better and/or pick a better class for your character.

Idly, on the topic of CRPGs. Divinity 2 is supposed to be amazing, but I just couldn't get into it. The story starts off so weak that it honestly feels like there isn't even one and the initial 'roam around the island and find party members' is so...so, SO bad and uninteresting.

Tempest

Double post, for more important matters.

WHERE IS CYBERPUNK 2077! I WANT IT!

Auspice

@Tempest said in General Video Game Thread:

Double post, for more important matters.

WHERE IS CYBERPUNK 2077! I WANT IT!

I try to forget about the game for as long a period of time as possible (so thanks a lot, bitch) otherwise I get really depressed I don't have it in my grubby hands right the fuck now.

Jaded

@Tempest
I understand your impatience. I'm waiting for the pre-order to hit Steam and I'm watching for the collector's edition.

Thenomain

@Jaded said in General Video Game Thread:

@Tempest
I understand your impatience. I'm waiting for the pre-order to hit Steam and I'm watching for the collector's edition.

Here's one of those cases where you should go to Good Ol' Games first, considering it's owned by CD Projekt and so the most money will go into their pockets. Plus you can probably get the Steam key there, and if you want a stand-alone install with no DRM, unlocked from anyone's servers, yours forever, then you can.

Testament

@Tempest I'm doing a long range Cipher build, which I guess I lucked out on since they tend to be on the OP end of things. Mostly, I just wanted a mage type class that wasn't restricted by 'per rest' number of spells. I don't mind building up damage and then doing crowd control. Or making enemies turn on each other. That's why more effective than I thought it would be.

Speaking of other games I want to be released but haven't been.

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Where is Doom Eternal.

Ghost

Me, while playing 7 Days to Die while approaching what seems to be a military bunker: I should probably be careful. This place probably has a minefield.

0.2 seconds later...: Boom.

Jaded

Free for now:

Free at Humble, Jalopy

Ghost

RUMOR HAS IT... That 'From Software' (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro) is going to unveil a new game in a few weeks at E3.

From what I'm reading, the likelihood (least likely to most likely) is as follows:

Sekiro 2 (yeaaaah prolly not. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice just came out in March)
Bloodborne 2 (While this is #1 on my wishlist as a FromSoftware fan, Sony actually owns this IP and is stated to not be present at E3. Presumably they are working on PS5, but it is unlikely that they wouldn't be there for a Bloodborne 2 reveal)
Dark Souls IV (it's been a while and DS3 killed it in sales)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice DLC reveal
Entirely new IP reveal (Sekiro is a new IP, but in the same vein as some of their older games. Could this be a trend or a one-off?)
OLD IP reveal (Armored Core, Tenchu, Otogi, King's Field)

Who are we kidding, though? If frickin Borderlands doesn't own E3, then it's because they didn't even try to.

Jaded

Just two things:

Gris is on sale, 33% off. Now it may drop further during the summer sale but $11.50 is a good price for an excellent game.
Bloodstained is now up for pre-order. If you love Castlevania style games and you specifically enjoyed Symphony of the Night, I highly recommend checking this out.

Ghost

Anyone playing Dauntless?

Someone recommended it to me because it's cross-platform. It's...not bad, but TBH it's coming across to me as a "highly repetitive Fortnite-styled overgrown microtransaction cell phone game version of Monster Hunter: World".

I mean...does Dauntless currently go anywhere beyond running around a town then queueing up for a hunt (on a small map) and then returning to town? Wash, rinse, repeat?

Ganymede

@Ghost said in General Video Game Thread:

Someone recommended it to me because it's cross-platform. It's...not bad, but TBH it's coming across to me as a "highly repetitive Fortnite-styled overgrown microtransaction cell phone game version of Monster Hunter: World".

You lost me at "Fortnite."

Auspice

@Ghost said in General Video Game Thread:

Anyone playing Dauntless?

Someone recommended it to me because it's cross-platform. It's...not bad, but TBH it's coming across to me as a "highly repetitive Fortnite-styled overgrown microtransaction cell phone game version of Monster Hunter: World".

I mean...does Dauntless currently go anywhere beyond running around a town then queueing up for a hunt (on a small map) and then returning to town? Wash, rinse, repeat?

I had it recommended to me also. I was gonna check it out last night but I got in the door and just sort of fell into bed to stare at Netflix until I fell asleep.

Ghost

@Auspice @Ganymede I mean, it's pretty and whimsical, but it just feels like an over-hyped cell phone game to me:

Seasonal progression "subscription" for 1,000 microtransaction currency that works as a secondary progress bar filled with cosmetics.
Loot boxes
No environment to explore independently. In Monster Hunter you could roam the maps to farm mats, etc. In this one you cannot simply decide to explore.
Gameplay is: You queue for a 4 person PvE dungeon that is a small map to explore and 1 bad monster. No real PvE little monsters. Just the one. When that monster is dead, you get your rewards and are returned to town. (Estimated play time: 10 minutes or so)
Where you can turn in quests and open loot boxes, upgrade items, and...not much else at this time, and then...
...queue up again to fight another 4-vs-1 monster on a smallish map to get XP and mats...then return to town.

It just feels small to me, and it feels like a microtransaction trap; like a cell phone game that has been ported to PC/console.

Afterthought: I'm kinda starting to feel that unless it's a Japanese game company or CD Projekt Red (maybe Bethesda and some indies) that pricing plan > quality.

Jaded

@Ghost said in General Video Game Thread:

"highly repetitive Fortnite-styled overgrown microtransaction cell phone game version of Monster Hunter: World".

That is pretty much exactly what it is. But I would say the microtransactions are not as predatory as they could be since it is mostly for cosmetics. The Ace Chips are the one item that is not purely cosmetic and can seriously tilt the game in your favor in terms of assisting loot crafting. Whales paying into the game through this particular microtransaction will be a step above those who do not.

The game developers deserve a lot of credit, as a free to play it is cross-platform across Playstation, Xbox, and through the Epic Games platform for PC.

BobGoblin

Dauntless is Fort nite meets any other rpg. If you like games such as vindictus or any other nexon game then it's up your alley. I have enjoyed it due to the cross platform nature that lets me play with friends.

It has a bit more depth than one might expect and there's variety there. Their season pass runs 5 bucks and I've easily spent more time than 5 bucks worth in it so that's a gain imo.

Not for everyone but if you like button mashing and progression it's a good fix. If you don't like those things you'll hate it.

Note: ARPG in an FPS is how my friend described it and that's pretty close. Loot doesn't drop that way but you upgrade gear. Again vindictus without the trash mobs. Just all boss fight.

Thenomain

Why haven't people been crowing about Divinity more? I've been playing this with @EmmahSue and the level of consideration and interaction of bits of plot and environment is amazing, and chasing one plot can get anyone involved in five others.

I can't wait to start Divinity 2 with friends.

Auspice

@Thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

Why haven't people been crowing about Divinity more? I've been playing this with @EmmahSue and the level of consideration and interaction of bits of plot and environment is amazing, and chasing one plot can get anyone involved in five others.

I can't wait to start Divinity 2 with friends.

Because it's almost never on sale?

Thenomain

@Auspice said in General Video Game Thread:

@Thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

Why haven't people been crowing about Divinity more? I've been playing this with @EmmahSue and the level of consideration and interaction of bits of plot and environment is amazing, and chasing one plot can get anyone involved in five others.

I can't wait to start Divinity 2 with friends.

Because it's almost never on sale?

But when it is, it's the best isometric CRPG I've played since Planescape:Torment. No joke.