What Are you Playing Now & General Game Discussions

[XenoMorph]

MS has won its case vs the FTC for ABK

Deal likely closes Monday 1 day ahead of the final deadline in its contract.

(overally this likely doesnt change much for console/pc gaming other than CoD and other games coming to more places and streaming services. most ABK games in gamepass. and maybe another round of back compat titles

And we will see if Xbox takes on Google and Apple with a mobile store.)


Looking forward to the potential of games like Hexen, Heretic, Guitar hero, Starcraft... Seeing the light of day again And this finally solves the rights issue over the Quake games.


*******
Anything from the Activision Blizzard Back catalog you want to see come back?

here is a list of their IPs
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/list-heres-every-activision-blizzard-ip-xbox-now-owns-including-crash-bandicoot-and-guitar-hero/

[basballguy]

So in D4, I have a Sorcerer to 70, a Barbarian to 60, and a rogue to 30. Kinda just messing around waiting for Season 1 to start so I don't end up with any burnout.

The game is harder than it has been in the past (I find myself dying a lot more) so that'll end up being a challenge when I switch to Hardcore (no deaths allowed).

I'm a little dumbfounded how they make the same mistakes from D3 to D4 as they did with D2 to D3. It's like they don't even listen to the community and ignore the decade of feedback they've received.

Now I know they don't want to release every feature at the start because they want the game to be a service, but there's some nitpicky shit in here that just makes you roll your eyes.

Still a great game, will still keep playing it. It's up to Diablo to hold me over until Starfield.

[XenoMorph]

(07-13-2023, 08:16 PM)basballguy Wrote: So in D4, I have a Sorcerer to 70, a Barbarian to 60, and a rogue to 30.  Kinda just messing around waiting for Season 1 to start so I don't end up with any burnout.  

The game is harder than it has been in the past (I find myself dying a lot more) so that'll end up being a challenge when I switch to Hardcore (no deaths allowed).  

I'm a little dumbfounded how they make the same mistakes from D3 to D4 as they did with D2 to D3.  It's like they don't even listen to the community and ignore the decade of feedback they've received.  

Now I know they don't want to release every feature at the start because they want the game to be a service, but there's some nitpicky shit in here that just makes you roll your eyes.  

Still a great game, will still keep playing it.  It's up to Diablo to hold me over until Starfield.

Nice my Necromancer is 52   and the Druid im cooping with my buddy is near 30 now.  (we have been slacking but timing has been off)  
Barb close to 20 so ive not put in the time like you yet but having a good time overall...    I like a lot of the little quality of life improvements.      One thing im slightly concerned about is the lack of RNG elements it seems  im not sure how that will effect things long term.    but ive also not explored much end game so maybe that changes there.

But outside of Diablo 4 ill be playing Remnant 2 and Aliens dark descent till starfield   and hopefully clear a few more smaller titles as i need to clear space on the hard drive lol 130gigs


*****

in other news Xbox big ultimate sale is live...
https://www.trueachievements.com/n54420/xbox-ultimate-game-sale-2023

Which i might actually not get anything this time lol

[basballguy]

(07-14-2023, 09:59 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: Nice my Necromancer is 52   and the Druid im cooping with my buddy is near 30 now.  (we have been slacking but timing has been off)  
Barb close to 20 so ive not put in the time like you yet but having a good time overall...    I like a lot of the little quality of life improvements.      One thing im slightly concerned about is the lack of RNG elements it seems  im not sure how that will effect things long term.    but ive also not explored much end game so maybe that changes there.

There are some fine QoL things they have in there.  I seem to be overlooking them because the nonsensical things...like...why did they cap gem stacks at 50?  They also capped other gathering supplies.  

I also can't tell yet what's random and what's not.  The open world isn't...the location of "random event" spawns doesn't seem to be random...just the actual event (from a predetermined list of random events)

I honestly wonder if i really care how much of it is random.  The monsters still get harder and the loot still gets better....my minor gripes:

There's no cow level (yet)....

Treasure Goblins have been dramatically scaled back....I haven't even seen any of the exotic TGs yet, but I might just be too low a level.

Too many in game currencies...they're really gearing up for micro transactions

PvP is awful.  They thought D3 players wanted it (we didn't, and told them and they never put it into D3) but here they are again trying to force it on players.  

It's still a great game for a launch title but it's got Activision written all over it.  Hopefully Microsoft can step in before it goes off the rails.  

[XenoMorph]

(07-14-2023, 03:30 PM)basballguy Wrote: I also can't tell yet what's random and what's not.  The open world isn't...the location of "random event" spawns doesn't seem to be random...just the actual event (from a predetermined list of random events)

I honestly wonder if i really care how much of it is random.  The monsters still get harder and the loot still gets better....my minor gripes:

True with the game world as big as it is it doesn't really need the RNG elements it had before i guess.  that was likely a way to help save memory used.

And now you don't have to reroll your game 100 times to find that 1 dungeon.  


It really reminds me of Sacred 2 with how its set up now Large open world. World Bosses. Mounts. (no class specific mounts yet that i know off) and that was one of my favorite ARPGs ever. (outside of diablo's lol)

[WildfireMicro]

Right now I'm mostly playing Cyberpunk and the new SpongeBob game. I'm also playing Mario 64 remake on the DS, but rn I'm too tired to play anything at the moment

[basballguy]

(07-14-2023, 04:41 PM)WildfireMicro Wrote: Right now I'm mostly playing Cyberpunk and the new SpongeBob game. I'm also playing Mario 64 remake on the DS, but rn I'm too tired to play anything at the moment

Welcome to the board!

I wish I had the time for Cyberpunk...I honestly don't even know how I'm gonna play Starfield lol...


I can only play D4 because it's so easy to play for 10-15 minutes here and there.   I just leave it running on my desktop and when I get free time, run a quick dungeon or something.  

[WildfireMicro]

(07-14-2023, 05:08 PM)basballguy Wrote: Welcome to the board!

I wish I had the time for Cyberpunk...I honestly don't even know how I'm gonna play Starfield lol...


I can only play D4 because it's so easy to play for 10-15 minutes here and there.   I just leave it running on my desktop and when I get free time, run a quick dungeon or something.  

I thought about playing Diablo 4 but I really don't like Blizzard since the Overwatch 2 stuff

[Stewy]

Serious Question:

Why do diehard Bethesda fanboys call New Vegas a Bethesda game?  It's an Obsidian game, that's published by Bethesda.  Same as DooM is an id game published by Bethesda.  It's clearly something different than the other Fallout Games and Bethesda was to my understanding almost completely hands off.  It's like calling Mass Effect 3 an EA game and ignoring that Bioware developed it mostly hands off from their publisher.

Why?

Some context:  I am a member of two fantastic Facebook groups for DA and ME, so with Starfield coming I joined a SF/Beth group, and it is complete trash.  Console vs. PC elitists', (Real Fan) Gatekeeping, every other post is a smack on PS5 players being left out in the cold.  My gawd it's pathetic.  It makes me embarrassed to call myself a gamer.  I left the group.

[The D.O.Z.]

I traded in my copy of D4. Couldn’t deal w the rubberbanding and constant lag anymore. Played just fine, for the most part, up until patch 1.0.4 for me. I know my yeehaw internet (out in the sticks, T Mobile 5g home internet) isn’t the greatest but all my other multiplayer games play just fine. Add this to the hard time they gave me about recovering my Bnet account, and the shitty OW2, and the shitty “remastered” lazy copy n paste version of RTS Warcraft and shitty WoW expansions since Legion, and I am done w anything MicroActiBlizz. Those three deserve each other, in my opinion. One can’t make GOOD original games, one can’t come up w anything but rehashing old CoDs, and the last sells broken games at AAA prices. Three peas in a pod! (Just my opinion, not trying to rile up my PC / XB fan board members w my rant!)

Aaaaanyway..I traded in D4 for Jedi Survivor. And while I feel almost as much apathy towards EA as I do MicroActiBlizz, this game is incredible and I applaud EA for this effort. Its much better than Fallen Order was. I’m getting a GoW meets Elden Ring feel playing it. I was wracking my brain trying to think where I have seen Dagan’s actor’s face before and after IMDB-ing him, I remembered he played the “visitor” on American Horror Story Apocalypse.

PSN just had another sale where I found the second DLC pack on sale to complete my Borderlands 3 game. So now, when I’m not chuckling at droid-chatter and force-pushing Imperial troopers off cliff edges, I’m usually slaughtering my way around BLands3 on my capped out Siren. I love the Borderlands series, I hope 4 is on the way soon!

[XenoMorph]

(07-15-2023, 06:48 PM)Stewy Wrote: Serious Question:

Why do diehard Bethesda fanboys call New Vegas a Bethesda game?  It's an Obsidian game, that's published by Bethesda.  Same as DooM is an id game published by Bethesda.  It's clearly something different than the other Fallout Games and Bethesda was to my understanding almost completely hands off.  It's like calling Mass Effect 3 an EA game and ignoring that Bioware developed it mostly hands off from their publisher.

Why?

Some context:  I am a member of two fantastic Facebook groups for DA and ME, so with Starfield coming I joined a SF/Beth group, and it is complete trash.  Console vs. PC elitists', (Real Fan) Gatekeeping, every other post is a smack on PS5 players being left out in the cold.  My gawd it's pathetic.  It makes me embarrassed to call myself a gamer.  I left the group.

The console wars are weird lol...

I dont know if ive ever lumped New Vegas as a Bethesda Game   but just a Fallout game in general.  (i might have lumped it in with other bethesda titles for the Creation engine at some point im sure ) NV tracks a little better with FO1 and 2 imo as its endings are a bit more open ended with more options.

I do know a lot of people confuse Bethesda the Game Devs with Bethesda the Publisher lol...  (understandable i guess)  


Now ME3 you can see some EA influence on the series by that point...   Some publishers do have an effect on their devs... Like when Blizzard was purchased by Activision.    Bioware has had less hints under EA than before.  (i think EA purchased right after ME1 launched)


I do see people trying to use Baldurs Gate 3 on PS to fight Starfield on Xbox.  And while its silly if it helps Baldurs gate 3 sales then im okay with it lol.   I want both games to do well. and will be buying both myself.

[XenoMorph]

Played thru Somerville its a good singleplayer platformer adventure type game... Pretty quick to play thru only about 4 or 5 hours. I enjoyed it.

Started Deliver us the Moon.. (pretty good so far. Just made it to the moon though)

My buddy and I started It Takes Two.. (Coop only game) this game is fun. Story line will having you yelling at these parents. lol But the gameplay is excellent. and the coop elements are really well done. If you have a friend to play with check it out.. (comes with a friend pass)

***

Saw news that Xbox Gold will be sunsetted in September and replaced with Gamepass Core.. (same price as gold is now. 9.99/m or 59.99/y And comes with a Core selection of Xbox games but not day and date...) This will also end Games with Gold. I believe any games you have claimed you will keep. Not sure if GP Core membership will be required going forward will have to find out.

So basically its just changing name to try and make it less confusing. and ending the games with gold

[Stewy]

(07-17-2023, 09:58 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: The console wars are weird lol...

I dont know if ive ever lumped New Vegas as a Bethesda Game   but just a Fallout game in general.  (i might have lumped it in with other bethesda titles for the Creation engine at some point im sure )   NV tracks a little better with FO1 and 2 imo as its endings are a bit more open ended with more options.

I do know a lot of people confuse Bethesda the Game Devs with Bethesda the Publisher lol...  (understandable i guess)  


Now ME3 you can see some EA influence on the series by that point...   Some publishers do have an effect on their devs... Like when Blizzard was purchased by Activision.    Bioware has had less hints under EA than before.  (i think EA purchased right after ME1 launched)


I do see people trying to use Baldurs Gate 3 on PS to fight Starfield on Xbox.  And while its silly if it helps Baldurs gate 3 sales then im okay with it lol.   I want both games to do well. and will be buying both myself.

You were not the type of person I was referring to, but I was figuring you might have seen those i was referring to.

I will describe these fanboy individuals based upon some repeated behaviors I saw in the Starfield group.
---100% Guaranteeing it will be great
-Already anointing it the GOTY and saying "Zelda who?"
---Waxing not so poetically about how they don't care about the launch bugs, but love them, and that they add charm to the games.
---Taking 7-14 days off from work to play
-Speaking proudly of the damage this will do to their relationships, especially significant others


These were not isolated references but entire and repeated posts within the group.

As for ME and EA, I wasn't meaning that EA had no influence at all, but until Andromeda EA wasn't inserting management from other studios into the Bioware culture.  There's a big difference having some influence on timing and direction and being directly responsible for development, which is what I was referring to when individual were saying that NV is a Bethesda game and not even acknowledging Obsidian.

[XenoMorph]

(07-17-2023, 11:31 AM)Stewy Wrote: You were not the type of person I was referring to, but I was figuring you might have seen those i was referring to.

I will describe these fanboy individuals based upon some repeated behaviors I saw in the Starfield group.
---100% Guaranteeing it will be great
-Already anointing it the GOTY and saying "Zelda who?"
---Waxing not so poetically about how they don't care about the launch bugs, but love them, and that they add charm to the games.
---Taking 7-14 days off from work to play
-Speaking proudly of the damage this will do to their relationships, especially significant others


These were not isolated references but entire and repeated posts within the group.

As for ME and EA, I wasn't meaning that EA had no influence at all, but until Andromeda EA wasn't inserting management from other studios into the Bioware culture.  There's a big difference having some influence on timing and direction and being directly responsible for development, which is what I was referring to when individual were saying that NV is a Bethesda game and not even acknowledging Obsidian.

I think starfield will be a GOTY nominee   But who wins this year especially is to hard to call way to many big well received games already and more to come.

I seriously cant even get my list down to 6  (normally 1 is an indie title)
Diablo 4
Hogwarts
Baldurs Gate 3
Starfield
Zelda
FF16 
Spiderman 2
Starwars Jedi Survivor
Indie Title*

Then you got some new Mario/Sonic games coming lol 



Maybe this is the year we get a Remake/Remaster of the Year catagory lol as there is a lot of those too


As for Starfield... nothing is gaurenteed lol..   Based on my experiences with their past titles im sure Ill love it. and spend many hours with it.   it would be hard to compare it to a Zelda or BG3 1 for 1 as they are all very different.    

Obsidian is one of those sneaky good studios lol   cant wait to see what they got cooking next....  After outerworlds 2 and avowed.   
I can see people that dont do any research not knowing.  They just know Bethesda owns Fallout now so they think its all bethesda.   But studios send out for sequels all the time and Obsidian was usually that studio lol.


***

As far as starfield the weirdest console war part right now is them saying BG3 is their answer to starfield. (which like i said let it drive up sales) but these games are nothing alike besides from being RPGs they just happen to launch on the same date on the opposite consoles. i just hope those folks buying BG3 to somehow spite Xbox realize what they are buying and dont negatively review it cause its not what they expected.

[basballguy]

So the D4 season 1 patch notes seem to be rubbing some people raw. Personally, I'm not sure they impact my play at all.

The changes seem like a correction (or over correction by some people) on how they implemented scaling...which honestly I think is the worst part about the game...for those reading this but haven't played, D4 took scaling to a whole new level and made EVERYTHING scale with your level...so you never really feel like you're progressing.

[*PhilHos*]

(07-19-2023, 12:11 AM)basballguy Wrote: So the D4 season 1 patch notes seem to be rubbing some people raw.  Personally, I'm not sure they impact my play at all.  

I noticed a difference. After going back and forth between Rogue and Druid, I've finally settled on Druid (AND finally just made him an all Werewolf Druid) to just complete the campaign with. Anyway, normally, I don't find myself coming close to death or dying unless I'm in a boss fight or a huge mob with multiple elites or I'm just not paying attention. Certainly no real issues outside of dungeons. AFTER the patch, even traversing normally if I get certain enemies in a mob (not elites but tough "normal" enemies like remnants or those tree things), I find myself constantly needing to heal.

I'm assuming I'll adjust (taking the change as like I switched from World Tier II to III) but the patch HAS impacted my play.

[*Synric*]

(06-30-2023, 08:26 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: Baldurs Gate 3 Release date has changed...

(Previously was 8/31)
Now  
PC  =  8/3/23
PS5 = 9/6/23
Xbox (no date but they hope by years end)

I'm doing the PC version so I can get a solid month of BG3 in before Starfield comes out in Spetember... My new GF is kinda mad at me because I dont wanna go to the Outerbanks this year and shes never been... I would rather play Starfield. I was hoping to cancel my reservation lol. 

[basballguy]

(07-19-2023, 05:52 PM)Synric Wrote:  My new GF is kinda mad at me because I dont wanna go to the Outerbanks this year and shes never been... I would rather play Starfield. I was hoping to cancel my reservation lol. 

I used to date a girl that would make sure I knew it was abbreviated OBX and would just go on and on about how she would have so much fun vacationing there every year.

That relationship didn't last real long.

However, I do think it looks like a cool spot.  You should go and take your PC with you

[basballguy]

(07-19-2023, 11:18 AM)PhilHos Wrote: I noticed a difference. After going back and forth between Rogue and Druid, I've finally settled on Druid (AND finally just made him an all Werewolf Druid) to just complete the campaign with. Anyway, normally, I don't find myself coming close to death or dying unless I'm in a boss fight or a huge mob with multiple elites or I'm just not paying attention. Certainly no real issues outside of dungeons. AFTER the patch, even traversing normally if I get certain enemies in a mob (not elites but tough "normal" enemies like remnants or those tree things), I find myself constantly needing to heal.

I'm assuming I'll adjust (taking the change as like I switched from World Tier II to III) but the patch HAS impacted my play.

I haven't played since the patch installed on tuesday.  I saw Blizzard put out some sort of comment that was like "we hear you and we'll look into it" with all the negative feedback they got.  

I'm currently 73 on my sorc and I was struggling to beat NM Level 21 last week.  I doubt I can even clear it now with the changes.  Sorc was already incredibly squishy before.  

I decided i'm going with Necro for Season 1 normal and Druid for HC....though...I'm not sure it'll be enough to keep me playing for 3 months until the real changes come in season 2.  

[Stewy]

(07-19-2023, 08:14 PM)basballguy Wrote: I haven't played since the patch installed on tuesday.  I saw Blizzard put out some sort of comment that was like "we hear you and we'll look into it" with all the negative feedback they got.  

I'm currently 73 on my sorc and I was struggling to beat NM Level 21 last week.  I doubt I can even clear it now with the changes.  Sorc was already incredibly squishy before.  

I decided i'm going with Necro for Season 1 normal and Druid for HC....though...I'm not sure it'll be enough to keep me playing for 3 months until the real changes come in season 2.  

Man you guys make D4 sound like a friggin job, not a game.