What Video Games Are You Currently Playing

As much as I seem to piss on this game, the visual spectacle is worth it - and the story, while typical Kojima weirdness, it intriguing so far.

Audio-wise the game is interesting too - very good use of ambient sounds and effects.

^yes!

i bet kojima was trying to think of dynamics not involving guns and that's how he arrived at the BTs. it reminds me of sneaking by guards but no gun fights. 

he said somewhere he doesn't know what kind of game this is, he moved forward without really knowing what he was doing. that helps me understand it.

really digging the sci fi setting and story. it's like a good sci fi series that you play sometimes. 

Good news for Pokémon fans; Sprite data dump shows a lot more unannounced Pokes in SwSh, especially Gen 1.  Bad news; if you redeemed your Pokeball Plus Mew from last year, you can't bring him over to SwSh, you have to buy ANOTHER $50 useless plastic ball.  *cough return fraud*

http://www.stolidus-simulations.com/our-impact

  On 11/13/2019 at 4:27 AM, Rubin Farr said:

Good news for Pokémon fans; Sprite data dump shows a lot more unannounced Pokes in SwSh, especially Gen 1.  Bad news; if you redeemed your Pokeball Plus Mew from last year, you can't bring him over to SwSh, you have to buy ANOTHER $50 useless plastic ball.  *cough return fraud*

 

Yikes, the early streams for this game aren't good, it's unfinished.  But they're gonna release it anyway.  There's a litany of problems; 90s era stiff animations, no music in some battles!?  Some backgrounds and trainers just disappear during battles, poorly rendered textures (some of it literally looks N64), besides the list of removed features, and what's being called Dexit (no National Dex), they also removed a ton of Pokémon moves, and the Pokémon Home subscription fee in addition to a Switch Online subscription, makes this a dubious buy at launch.

  On 11/12/2019 at 11:46 PM, very honest said:

^yes!

 

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you have to incinerate the president who is also your mother. where do i know this from

 

i bet kojima was trying to think of dynamics not involving guns and that's how he arrived at the BTs. it reminds me of sneaking by guards but no gun fights. 

 

he said somewhere he doesn't know what kind of game this is, he moved forward without really knowing what he was doing. that helps me understand it.

 

really digging the sci fi setting and story. it's like a good sci fi series that you play sometimes. 

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LOL, he actually said that? I'm not surprised (and it shows in the game).

That's a really good way to describe the game - "Like a good sci-fi series you play sometimes"

I have spoken.

  On 11/13/2019 at 9:41 AM, iococoi said:

http://www.stolidus-simulations.com/our-impact

 

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I do this at home with my robovac already.

I have spoken.

  On 11/13/2019 at 3:38 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Yikes, the early streams for this game aren't good, it's unfinished.  But they're gonna release it anyway.  There's a litany of problems; 90s era stiff animations, no music in some battles!?  Some backgrounds and trainers just disappear during battles, poorly rendered textures (some of it literally looks N64), besides the list of removed features, and what's being called Dexit (no National Dex), they also removed a ton of Pokémon moves, and the Pokémon Home subscription fee in addition to a Switch Online subscription, makes this a dubious buy at launch.

This explains why it came out in such a short period of time (for a mainline Pokemon game). Hopefully post-patches will address these issues.

I have spoken.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/11/leaked-goldeneye-007-documentary-suggests-it-nearly-launched-on-xbox-after-all/

Makes me die a little every time I hear more about this. 

In other nostalgia tinged news: Currently playing Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. This was released on games for gold so easily worth the price of admission (i.e. 0). Not so brief review:

Ninja Gaiden 3 (NG3) was the first (numbered) NG launched without series creator Itagaki at the helm (NG2 Sigma was technically the first, and was a sign of the times to come - blood replaced by wisps of purple smoke, shoehorned bosses, and technical issues plagued that release). NG3 was a dog turd that had been eaten by a turtle, vomited back up, and placed into the shambling corpse of an excellent game series. The amount of pandering done to try and cater to a western market made this one of most horrifying spectacles of video gaming I have ever played. Ryu becomes cocky generic Ninja #1, he has some sort of weird, M15 like group of sidekicks, there were an assload of QTE's because that was fashionable at the time, there's some shit where a little girl needs Ryu's help because feelings. At any moment, I expected vanilla ice to jump out and Ryu to join in to a synchronized, MC Hammer dance routine while singing "Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!" The sword on bone technique was. . . haphazard, useless, and pointless. The games narrative was idiotic, it was a technical mess, de-limbing was gone and. . . no need to go on. It was awful.

NG3:Razor's Edge somehow managed to reach deep into the corpse of the NG3 and deliver just enough juice to jump start things back into the semblance of an actual, living thing, much like Neo did to Trinity in the Matrix part whatever. Like that moment of cinematic forgetableness, it makes no sense whatsoever that it worked, but somehow it did, and after a while you stop to question how. Back are the de-limbed enemies and all the mechanics that accompany them, UT's are now available without bloody rage, the SOB mechanic now works as a risk/reward chain that also has the bonus of increasing health. Gone are the enemies begging for their lives, the kunai climb taking 15 minutes. Basically, it's like someone went through every combat complaint and systematically tweaked or wholesale replaced mechanics to make this a Ninja Gaiden game that actually ... plays like a Ninja Gaiden game? 

In the end sum, the framing of the game, and all the negatives associated with that portion are still there. I have 0 idea wtf the plot is, because I have made it as far as 10 seconds into any bit and then skipped (and one has to wonder if this ability was added after the fact to RE because someone knew how awful the plot is). Ryu sometimes makes snarky comments sound like they were dialogue leftover from a foreign remake of the american remake of an imitation of the Expendable. Areas are somewhat generic and lifeless, and there is none of Itagaki's design sensibilities at play (some of which are just rehashes of earlier NG games). However, the combat itself is thoroughly enjoyable and accomplishes the herculean task of lifting this game from one of the greatest missteps in franchise history to something that is, in general, a fun game to play. Minor quibbles with combat remain, with input lag in certain scenarios, and a feel that is a little less "crisp" than OG ninja gaiden games. However, some genuinely interesting new mechanics are introduced: the SOB chaining, management of Ki meter, which can be spent on various things such as healing between battles, teleporting, focused arrow shots at the expense of the buildup towards Ninpo release, revised movesets for some weapons, the dash slide that can stagger opponents. In addition, there are a lot of QOL improvement across the board, such as slightly easier weapon and ninpo switching, and an upgrade tree for skills weapons (some may argue only having this available at shops is more traditional Ninja Gaiden design, but I'd argue this isn't actually a Ninja Gaiden game so there).  

This is a game that I'm glad to boot up after a long day of work, after mom and baby have gone to bed, and I have 30 minutes to kill. In a world where I no longer have hours upon hours to throw at a Death Stranding/GTA/etc., it's a comfort to have something that is immediate and visceral, reasonably challenging but not punitive, and that cost absolutely nothing. It is by no means actually a Ninja Gaiden game (I reserve that for OG NG's, and any Itagaki release), but it's a pretty great imitation of one. And as, perhaps, the most important marker of any game: I genuinely am having fun with it. 

  On 11/13/2019 at 5:08 PM, Joyrex said:

LOL, he actually said that? I'm not surprised (and it shows in the game).

That's a really good way to describe the game - "Like a good sci-fi series you play sometimes"

I have spoken.

I do this at home with my robovac already.

I have spoken.

This explains why it came out in such a short period of time (for a mainline Pokemon game). Hopefully post-patches will address these issues.

I have spoken.

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Even Newsweek picked up this story already:

https://www.newsweek.com/gamefreaklied-trend-twitter-pokemon-sword-shield-data-leak-reused-models-1471515?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

  On 11/14/2019 at 10:37 AM, oscillik said:

 

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Now that's a BB I will protec and attac for

I have spoken.

Company of Heroes 2 is free to add again until Sunday.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/231430/Company_of_Heroes_2/

Crusader Kings 2 DLC Sword of Islam is free to add until Monday (base game is also free).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/203778/Expansion__Crusader_Kings_II_Sword_of_Islam/

I beat GRIS, which was a pretty cool, short platformer/puzzle game. I fired up A Plague Tale: Innocence, and I like it so far.

Haha Google Stadia

With Destiny 2, it’s even more obvious that the game isn’t running at the highest settings. On a Chromecast Ultra, a “4K” stream looked closer to 1080p, and my colleague Tom Warren and I swore that the 1080p streams we were getting in the Chrome web browser looked more like 720p.

Initially, Google told us that it was using the highest-resolution, highest-fidelity build of Destiny 2 available. But Bungie later confirmed that our eyes weren’t deceiving us. “When streaming at 4K, we render at a native 1080p and then upsample and apply a variety of techniques to increase the overall quality of effect,” a Bungie rep said, adding that D2 runs at the PC equivalent of medium settings. That explains why the Xbox One X build, which runs at a native 4K and with higher-res assets, looks so much better than Stadia.

  On 11/18/2019 at 8:07 PM, oscillik said:

Haha Google Stadia

With Destiny 2, it’s even more obvious that the game isn’t running at the highest settings. On a Chromecast Ultra, a “4K” stream looked closer to 1080p, and my colleague Tom Warren and I swore that the 1080p streams we were getting in the Chrome web browser looked more like 720p.

Initially, Google told us that it was using the highest-resolution, highest-fidelity build of Destiny 2 available. But Bungie later confirmed that our eyes weren’t deceiving us. “When streaming at 4K, we render at a native 1080p and then upsample and apply a variety of techniques to increase the overall quality of effect,” a Bungie rep said, adding that D2 runs at the PC equivalent of medium settings. That explains why the Xbox One X build, which runs at a native 4K and with higher-res assets, looks so much better than Stadia.

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Off to a rough start... not surprising

Microsoft and less so Sony will kill Google when it comes to a game streaming service

  On 11/18/2019 at 8:55 PM, Joyrex said:

Off to a rough start... not surprising

More than just a rough start — they're outright lying about the capabilities of the system.

  On 11/18/2019 at 8:57 PM, oscillik said:

More than just a rough start — they're outright lying about the capabilities of the system.

All they have to do is get one game running in native 4K/60 and they can claim they didn't mislead anyone...

  On 11/18/2019 at 8:59 PM, Joyrex said:

All they have to do is get one game running in native 4K/60 and they can claim they didn't mislead anyone...

I won't hold my breath on that, or believe it now.

That's ridiculous. Google stadia seems destined to fail, it's literally got nothing going for it.

Apologies if posted elsewhere, but the crazy cunts actually did it... 

Very disappointed in Valve. This is probably one of the biggest troll moves in gaming history — want more Half-Life? Oh, well you’ve gotta have a VR setup. Sucks to be you if you don’t have one!

Yeah, but this isn't Half-Life 3. It doesn't say that anywhere. They're probably still tinkering away on that somewhere in a basement in Seattle.

Anyway, Control was fucking amazing. Best single player action game in a loooong time!

Hahaha, Jesus Christ, people's response to the new Half-Life game being VR exclusive is baffling .
"You better announce Half-Life 3 along side this". 
Entitled little assholes.

I wish I could find the article, but it basically detailed the people who made the Half Life series and how the visionaries have now all fucked off, working for other game companies. Even if the third game happened it won’t be the same. Knowing it’ll never happen helped me grieve. 

  On 11/19/2019 at 5:48 PM, tec said:

I wish I could find the article, but it basically detailed the people who made the Half Life series and how the visionaries have now all fucked off, working for other game companies. Even if the third game happened it won’t be the same. Knowing it’ll never happen helped me grieve. 

True, but  https://www.pcmag.com/news/365746/half-life-2-writer-erik-wolpaw-returns-to-valve

Damn it Squee I have buried that body and made my peace, put your spade away. I became far too obsessed with Gordon Freeman's world, I even read a fan's Half-Life webcomic thing. Fond memories http://www.screencuisine.net/hlcomic/.