(06-01-2023, 02:49 PM)CKwi88 Wrote: I think the only game that really got flak for linearity was FFXIII. Their attempt at open world with XV was kind of a mixed bag. I hope they return to a FFXII style in that while the story is fairly linear, there is plenty of opportunity for backtracking and some side questing, as well as a robust endgame. JRPGs lend themselves to linearity but between XV, 7R and XVI it looks like Squeenix is trying to transition to a more ARPG and open-world style, which is "in" nowadays. 

Some developers and games make the transition more smoothly to an open-world variant of their respective genres. God of War and Zelda come to mind.

DA: Inquisition - mixed bag from an OW POV, but was definitely the critics darling in 2014.

ME: Andromeda - not so much

Bioware's entire fanbase is hoping they go away from OW in all future games.

(06-01-2023, 08:20 PM)Stewy Wrote: DA: Inquisition - mixed bag from an OW POV, but was definitely the critics darling in 2014.

ME: Andromeda - not so much

Bioware's entire fanbase is hoping they go away from OW in all future games.

When it is done well it is great. When it is done poorly it suuuuuuucks. 

(06-01-2023, 10:31 PM)CKwi88 Wrote: When it is done well it is great. When it is done poorly it suuuuuuucks. 

I concur sir.  The new Zelda game is one of the best games I've ever played.  it smokes the original and that's saying something.

(06-01-2023, 02:49 PM)CKwi88 Wrote: I think the only game that really got flak for linearity was FFXIII. Their attempt at open world with XV was kind of a mixed bag. I hope they return to a FFXII style in that while the story is fairly linear, there is plenty of opportunity for backtracking and some side questing, as well as a robust endgame. JRPGs lend themselves to linearity but between XV, 7R and XVI it looks like Squeenix is trying to transition to a more ARPG and open-world style, which is "in" nowadays. 

Some developers and games make the transition more smoothly to an open-world variant of their respective genres. God of War and Zelda come to mind.

It took me a while to open up to FF XV's open world but I did end up liking it in the end. Though I never did beat that game. I need to sit down and finish it.

I did not experience a single issue with D4 early access. No errors, no login queues….no um….jumpy running (where it looks like you are teleporting small distances)

Only put in a few hours but I got no complaints so far…..seems like the kinks are worked out

(06-02-2023, 05:18 AM)basballguy Wrote: I did not experience a single issue with D4 early access.  No errors, no login queues….no um….jumpy running (where it looks like you are teleporting small distances)

Only put in a few hours but I got no complaints so far…..seems like the kinks are worked out

There was some login issues reported on some systems... But i believe a quick reboot fixed it as there was an update for the authenticator...    (depending on when you downloaded i guess)

I think its all resolved now.       (i gotta wait till the 5th lol as i bought the normal edition)

But thats excellent news.

What class did you start as.

(06-01-2023, 08:20 PM)Stewy Wrote: DA: Inquisition - mixed bag from an OW POV, but was definitely the critics darling in 2014.

ME: Andromeda - not so much

Bioware's entire fanbase is hoping they go away from OW in all future games.

idk i liked Andromeda's open world area's...  The story was just weak   / incomplete.

But if i had to choose between 10 planets i can land on with smaller areas instead of 4 with big areas id probably go with more planets

(06-02-2023, 10:32 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: There was some login issues reported on some systems... But i believe a quick reboot fixed it as there was an update for the authenticator...    (depending on when you downloaded i guess)

I think its all resolved now.       (i gotta wait till the 5th lol as i bought the normal edition)

But thats excellent news.

What class did you start as.

Haha so....

I played Barbarian in the open beta because I expected to start Necro.  So i didn't touch any of the other classes in the open beta.  I just leveled to 20, learned some features, and called it a day (over the course of 2 days due to the outages)

So yesterday I loaded up Necro and 5 minutes in became incredibly disappointed.....why?  

Back in the beta while playing Barbarian, I saw they added a cool new feature where you could keep a weapon slotted for each supported weapon type (2H Weap, Dual Wield, and something else) and I thought "Wow what a great quality of life improvement" and was pretty pumped about it.

Alas.....it's only on barbarian.  So i abandoned the necro and am back to barbarian again because damn it's a nice feature.  

(06-01-2023, 10:39 PM)Stewy Wrote: I concur sir.  The new Zelda game is one of the best games I've ever played.  it smokes the original and that's saying something.

While I had my initial concerns about it and some still hold, I've largely come to agree. It is very much Diddy's Kong Quest to BotW's Donkey Kong Country. It is amazing what Nintendo has done with essentially a 5 year old cell phone. 

(06-02-2023, 05:04 AM)CarolinaBengalFanGuy Wrote: It took me a while to open up to FF XV's open world but I did end up liking it in the end. Though I never did beat that game. I need to sit down and finish it.

I've heard that all of XV's DLC really did help round out the game and turn it into a very respectable entry in the series. 

Unfortunately for me I played and finished the vanilla version, and have little to no desire to revisit. 

Can’t stand FF15. The open world is fine, the combat SUCKS in my opinion. They did REALLY well on 7R’s action RPG combat, but 15 felt clunky and confusing at times.

Finally get to log into Diablo 4 in 6 hours.......

Outside of that have been working on Forza Horizon 4, Battlefield 5, Star Wars Rogue Squadron.

No other plans for new games this month outside Aliens Dark Descent.

But never know whats gonna get announce this week at SGF (6/8) or the Xbox show (6/11) or PC show i believe is also (6/11)

(06-05-2023, 02:10 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: Finally get to log into Diablo 4 in 6 hours.......

Outside of that have been working on Forza Horizon 4, Battlefield 5, Star Wars Rogue Squadron.

No other plans for new games this month outside Aliens Dark Descent.

But never know whats gonna get announce this week at SGF (6/8) or the Xbox show (6/11) or PC show i believe is also (6/11)

I'm still on the fence about D4. Watched a few streams over the weekend. Is it just me or does the game seem kinda.....slow?

Maybe it's because I'm used to endgame D3 where you're zipping around clearing rifts in sub 2:00, but the game seemed to just crawl. 

And the Druid looked pretty underwhelming. Still 100% sure I'll eventually buy it, but looking less and less urgent is all.

(06-05-2023, 02:50 PM)CKwi88 Wrote: I'm still on the fence about D4. Watched a few streams over the weekend. Is it just me or does the game seem kinda.....slow?

Maybe it's because I'm used to endgame D3 where you're zipping around clearing rifts in sub 2:00, but the game seemed to just crawl. 

And the Druid looked pretty underwhelming. Still 100% sure I'll eventually buy it, but looking less and less urgent is all.

Areas are bigger... Which may make it look slower at the beginning..  I've played a Sorcerer and Necro in the Beta but it didn't feel slow so much as Large to me.

But ill get a better feel as i play thru the actual release.    They did add Mounts that you get later to help with that.       They went more Open world like Sacred 2 this time around. (i really need a scared/scared 2 remaster)


This game will be around a long time so no urgency.  Seasons wont even start for a little while. (if thats your thing)  
Diablo is just one of those Franchise ive played since its inception  and have loved them all.  so I grab at launch.

But ill say with Any game... If you dont plan to play it DAY 1 dont pay day 1 prices.   (this applies even more so now that they want 70 per game)

(06-02-2023, 03:02 PM)basballguy Wrote: Haha so....

I played Barbarian in the open beta because I expected to start Necro.  So i didn't touch any of the other classes in the open beta.  I just leveled to 20, learned some features, and called it a day (over the course of 2 days due to the outages)

So yesterday I loaded up Necro and 5 minutes in became incredibly disappointed.....why?  

Back in the beta while playing Barbarian, I saw they added a cool new feature where you could keep a weapon slotted for each supported weapon type (2H Weap, Dual Wield, and something else) and I thought "Wow what a great quality of life improvement" and was pretty pumped about it.

Alas.....it's only on barbarian.  So i abandoned the necro and am back to barbarian again because damn it's a nice feature.  

i love that the barbarian carries 4 weapons took me a minute to figure out which one you used is just based on the attack your using.


But it fits the Barb so much to be a walking arsenal

Still in Act 1 But ill fix that soon

Pure Pool
Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Plus a bunch of GameCube games I put on an SD Gecko, running on a Swiss modded GameCube with a Carby HDMI converter.

PS5 arriving this week.

Probably the best way for me to buy the new generation. Lots of (older) games that I wanted to play but didn't want to shell out $60+ for.

Getting it mostly for Final Fantasy (XVI and VIIR) but will put Devil May Cry 5, Doom Eternal and others on my list.

(06-11-2023, 01:06 AM)CKwi88 Wrote: PS5 arriving this week.

Probably the best way for me to buy the new generation. Lots of (older) games that I wanted to play but didn't want to shell out $60+ for.

Getting it mostly for Final Fantasy (XVI and VIIR) but will put Devil May Cry 5, Doom Eternal and others on my list.

Congrats on getting a PS5

Lots of amazing games coming this generation for all platforms but if you are a Final Fantasy fan you need a PS5 lol

***

This week i will be trying to finish
Battlefield 5 Multiplayer... (just gotta play for xp)
Diablo 4 Act 1 for at least 1 or 2 characters MY Barb is struggling atm so im gonna go clear some dungeons for aspects with other classes
Forza Horizon 4 Seasonal content

And Aliens Dark Descent arrives on the 20th.

Xbox showcase was amazing
Ubisoft and Capcom today
Xbox Extended showcase tomorrow.

T- Minus 4 days..... (hopefully amazon is on time...)

Played through the FFXVI demo. About 2.5 hours of exposition, mechanic tutorials and an intro to combat.

A definite tone shift for FF. Seems to go after the Game of Thrones crowd.