What Are you Playing Now & General Game Discussions

[Stewy]

(08-18-2023, 01:07 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: early returns im hearing from starfield is it is exceeding expectations.  So take that as you will...  

BG3 is defiantly gonna win over the PC crowd.. Not sure about the PS crowd who had called DoS2  Top down garbage   lol... But its getting hyped cause its releasing there first.

Starfield unlike previous bethesda titles was allowed to sit and get polished for an extra year.    Will it have bug sure.. But your lying if you say BG3 is flawless..  it just had patch to fix over 400 bugs  and then had to role it back and redo it again lol..

76 was a multiplayer title and not in the same level of Bethesda;s normal RPGs.



Right now i expect BG3 to win GOTY   But that can change in 2 weeks.

Never said BG3 was flawless or anything of the kind.  Only kind of evaluation I shared was that PCGamer gave it it's highest rating in two decades.

And I don't what you're talking about in regard to D2 on PS - It rated 95/8.9 on PC and 92/8.0 on PS and 92/7.8 on XBOX at metacritic.  Guessing the port had some issues, but 8.0 is hardly plyers thinking it's garbage.

Make excuses for Bethesda all you want but FO76 was a complete disaster at launch and they are responsible for it, no one and nothing else.  MP or not it's still their responsibility.

[Stewy]

(08-18-2023, 01:02 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: Yeah Respawn's success with Fallen order.. Has made EA rethink single-player games a bit.  and allowed respawn to do what they want.

I am worried about Bioware changing to a GoW/ff16 style combat im sure some will like it though...  but that will be a big change.

Whatever Bioware releases next i do hope is successful for their sake it or it could be the last.   (unless the Remaster trilogy put them back in good graces)

Well I was annoyed with combat change in the leaked video but it was a year ago and we're about a year away from release, so things could definitely change.  The good news is they've had 4 years to polish the story, narrative and characters and the lead writer wrote some of the best characters from ME1 & ME2 so he is absolutely solid.  The gameplay is always secondary in a good Bioware game, so I'm not too concerned about the combat.  Example:  The best thing you can say about Andromeda is that the gameplay is the best part of it, which makes it a bad Bioware game right by that definition - lol.

[XenoMorph]

(08-18-2023, 07:18 PM)Stewy Wrote: Well I was annoyed with combat change in the leaked video but it was a year ago and we're about a year away from release, so things could definitely change.  The good news is they've had 4 years to polish the story, narrative and characters and the lead writer wrote some of the best characters from ME1 & ME2 so he is absolutely solid.  The gameplay is always secondary in a good Bioware game, so I'm not too concerned about the combat.  Example:  The best thing you can say about Andromeda is that the gameplay is the best part of it, which makes it a bad Bioware game right by that definition - lol.

oh yeah.. Andromeda has/had the smoothest combat and gameplay overall of the series.     And to be honest by time i played i had very little issues.  (but i didnt play it till 2021 or 22 lol )   But the characters themselves just didn't seem as well written as previous games.  Which bioware is definitely a victim of their own success in that regard. 


****

Rolled credits on Remnant 2.     The amount of secrets one can find on a single playthru is amazing.   Now in my friends playthru we made a slightly different choice and are getting all new stuff to do.     The random dungeons you find are some of the best parts of the game.

I will say that the Final boss  well IT will take a few tries lol that was insane  we managed to barely beat it last night... My partner was dead, I was out of Hearts but my Sentry gun got the final shot in...      

Id say this final boss is harder than remnant 1 as in remnant 1 once you figure out what to do it was pretty easy...    This one is just hold onto your butts. lol

Still a ton to do in the game will need at least 2-3 playthrus to get all items just based on choices.

***

Rise of the Triad console edition looks to be dropping 8.25 for anyone that likes old shooters like me 

And Gamescon Tomorrow... (should get a lot of updates on upcoming games including stalker 2)

[Stewy]

(08-21-2023, 04:39 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: oh yeah.. Andromeda has/had the smoothest combat and gameplay overall of the series.     And to be honest by time i played i had very little issues.  (but i didnt play it till 2021 or 22 lol )   But the characters themselves just didn't seem as well written as previous games.  Which bioware is definitely a victim of their own success in that regard. 

NOTE that Andromeda was never supposed to be a RPG.  It was supposed to be a space exploration game with action adventure style combat in the ME universe, akin to NMS (before NMS was born).   They got the procedurally generated world to work and build, but they could not get the worlds into the Frostbite engine.  They spent 3.5 years in pre-production going down the Space Adventure path, when the Producer left Bioware/EA completely and left Bioware with essentially no game.  Bioware usually builds out 80-90% of their story, characters, narrative in Pre-Production, then builds the rest of the game around the story.  However, because Andromeda was never supposed to be a RPG, there was no story written for it in Pre-Production.

Fast forward 3.5 years and with 18 months till release there is no game.  Bioware comes in sees nothing of the previous game salvageable except the gameplay, and starts from scratch making a RPG.  Everything was written while the worlds were being built by hand.  Instead of having time to flesh things out and see if they work, they had to be in CRUNCH for 18 straight months.  That's why there were so many bugs, things felt unfinished, the story shaky at best.  No time for polish, testing, uniformity.  No class system, no reputation system, not as features, but because there was no time for implementation and balance.

Then Bioware showed they learned nothing and repeated the exact same errors with Anthem.  They only get one more shot.  If DAD isn't a hit, they're going to be done I'm afraid.

[XenoMorph]

(08-21-2023, 06:19 PM)Stewy Wrote: NOTE that Andromeda was never supposed to be a RPG.  It was supposed to be a space exploration game with action adventure style combat in the ME universe, akin to NMS (before NMS was born).   They got the procedurally generated world to work and build, but they could not get the worlds into the Frostbite engine.  They spent 3.5 years in pre-production going down the Space Adventure path, when the Producer left Bioware/EA completely and left Bioware with essentially no game.  Bioware usually builds out 80-90% of their story, characters, narrative in Pre-Production, then builds the rest of the game around the story.  However, because Andromeda was never supposed to be a RPG, there was no story written for it in Pre-Production.

Fast forward 3.5 years and with 18 months till release there is no game.  Bioware comes in sees nothing of the previous game salvageable except the gameplay, and starts from scratch making a RPG.  Everything was written while the worlds were being built by hand.  Instead of having time to flesh things out and see if they work, they had to be in CRUNCH for 18 straight months.  That's why there were so many bugs, things felt unfinished, the story shaky at best.  No time for polish, testing, uniformity.  No class system, no reputation system, not as features, but because there was no time for implementation and balance.

Then Bioware showed they learned nothing and repeated the exact same errors with Anthem.  They only get one more shot.  If DAD isn't a hit, they're going to be done I'm afraid.

The guys that used to make that Bioware magic have all left the company by now i believe.  its a shame with the catalog of IPs they have worked on

If they end up folding i hope EA sells the IPs to someone that can still make RPGs  instead of just putting them on a "shelf" somewhere

[XenoMorph]

Atari 2600 is back on the Market for 130$ comes with 10 games on 1 cart and will play any games you still have (or find at a yard sale/museum)

and here is a link for Gamescon opening night ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzPpL6GL-RQ
^Starts 2 EST


***

In an attempt to Appease the UK microsoft is selling its rights to cloud gaming for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft for 15 years... (they will still be available on gamepass/xcloud)

[XenoMorph]

Nightdive Studios (behind the quake remasters and doom 64, blade runner and system shock remake)

Has announced 2 more games for 2023...

Dark Forces Remaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b9TTurkH4c

Turok 3 Remaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdCaj5ZRp-A

This would be 5 games this year?
Quake 2
System Shock
Rise of the Triad
Dark Forces
Turok 3

***

Some of there older games are on sale now too if you remember this era of gaming NightDive is a studio to watch

[XenoMorph]

(08-21-2023, 06:19 PM)Stewy Wrote: Then Bioware showed they learned nothing and repeated the exact same errors with Anthem.  They only get one more shot.  If DAD isn't a hit, they're going to be done I'm afraid.

It seems this is a most accurate statement.... Mass Effect 4 (or whatever name it will have) is still in Pre-Dev  and today  EA announced layoffs at Bioware...

https://venturebeat.com/games/eas-bioware-will-lay-off-50-and-cut-ties-with-unionized-keywords-playtesting-group/

[Stewy]

(08-23-2023, 04:14 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: It seems this is a most accurate statement.... Mass Effect 4 (or whatever name it will have) is still in Pre-Dev  and today  EA announced layoffs at Bioware...

https://venturebeat.com/games/eas-bioware-will-lay-off-50-and-cut-ties-with-unionized-keywords-playtesting-group/

Not worried about ME Next being in Pre-Dev.  Their pre-dev period lasts 3-4 years and it is when they write their story and characters.  So I don't see that as a negative.

In regard ot the layoffs:
Well you never want to see this.  On a side note, it did say in the article that the layoffs come with the opportunity to transition to other roles in other EA studios, which runs in parallel with EA recently posting openings for positions in other studios for which the laid off Bioware employees will have hte opportunity to apply for.

Odd stuff.  Sounds like EA wanted to shift some Bioware staff, they refused and thus layoffs.  Also they just lost access to their professional playtesters.  Sheesh.

[XenoMorph]

(08-23-2023, 07:56 PM)Stewy Wrote: Not worried about ME Next being in Pre-Dev.  Their pre-dev period lasts 3-4 years and it is when they write their story and characters.  So I don't see that as a negative.

In regard ot the layoffs:
Well you never want to see this.  On a side note, it did say in the article that the layoffs come with the opportunity to transition to other roles in other EA studios, which runs in parallel with EA recently posting openings for positions in other studios for which the laid off Bioware employees will have hte opportunity to apply for.

Odd stuff.  Sounds like EA wanted to shift some Bioware staff, they refused and thus layoffs.  Also they just lost access to their professional playtesters.  Sheesh.

Yeah the good news for the devs at least is many other Gaming companies are hiring. if they don't find a job at EA.   

This might have been staff left over from SW:TOR game which they outsourced now.        


***

in other news

A remake of Oregon trail is now on consoles... lol..  I keep mentioning this to my gaming friends and they have no idea what it is  and im feeling old now. (maybe cause they arent americans idk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=eIKuMbuFYMk

AoE 4 is also out on Xbox now.

And Rise of the Triad hits consoles tomorrow i believe.

Warhammer 40k Darktide finally has a console date of 10.4

[The D.O.Z.]

I am having a lot of fun w the new Madden, but I do have one major complaint that I hope they fix asap.
I play franchise mode. I love the team building aspect as much as I do actually playing a game. I went undefeated (man wouldn’t THAT be crazy), won the SB (against the rookie-led 9-win Panthers, and did an offseason where I stacked my lines in the draft. A new RT, a RG to groom behind Cappa, a new 3T, and a back up DE. Stoked for my draft! Well, theres a bug that doesn’t change players’ scale / sizes. So my drafted linemen all look like small TEs with skinny arms and fat heads. It doesn’t affect the gameplay, they aren’t getting pancaked by their opposition but just this small graphical error is enough to set my OCD into overdrive. Hope they fix it soon!

[XenoMorph]

Baldur's Gate 3 is now confirmed to be releasing on Xbox Series systems this later this year. (no exact date atm) As they are going to drop the split screen from Series S.

[basballguy]

(08-25-2023, 08:23 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: Baldur's Gate 3 is now confirmed to be releasing on Xbox Series systems this later this year. (no exact date atm) As they are going to drop the split screen from Series S.

I guess I haven’t been paying close attention..I thought the release was lagging behind PC by like a month?

[XenoMorph]

(08-25-2023, 11:56 AM)basballguy Wrote: I guess I haven’t been paying close attention..I thought the release was lagging behind PC by like a month?

General timeline of events

Originally PC was Aug 29th i think then moved up to Aug 3

PS5 Baldurs Gate 3 was announced for 9.6  (Starfield launch day)

but Xbox versions were not given a date as they were working out issues with the Split screen on the Series S.   and had decided to turn focus to launch.

But now after meeting with head of Xbox they are dropping split screen from the Series S version which will allow them to get it released this year on the Xbox platform.

Just happy ill get to play it...   now i wonder how far ill be into starfield by this point lol   (after starfield by buying for 2023 was done unless  BG3 hits and it looks like it will)     i will be set well into 2024 now

[basballguy]

(08-25-2023, 12:24 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: General timeline of events

Originally PC was Aug 29th i think then moved up to Aug 3

PS5 Baldurs Gate 3 was announced for 9.6  (Starfield launch day)

but Xbox versions were not given a date as they were working out issues with the Split screen on the Series S.   and had decided to turn focus to launch.

But now after meeting with head of Xbox they are dropping split screen from the Series S version which will allow them to get it released this year on the Xbox platform.

Just happy ill get to play it...   now i wonder how far ill be into starfield by this point lol   (after starfield by buying for 2023 was done unless  BG3 hits and it looks like it will)     i will be set well into 2024 now

So i think what threw me off is I mixed up PS5 release with XBOX release.  I recall only one console getting it at the time but I guess I assumed it was Xbox.  Now what supported it as me thinking it was Xbox is in the PC version, the "X" to close out windows and dialog boxes was an xbox shaped fat X....so I guess I just assumed it was Xbox that was getting the delayed release and not PS5.

[Stewy]

(08-25-2023, 12:24 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: General timeline of events

Originally PC was Aug 29th i think then moved up to Aug 3

PS5 Baldurs Gate 3 was announced for 9.6  (Starfield launch day)

but Xbox versions were not given a date as they were working out issues with the Split screen on the Series S.   and had decided to turn focus to launch.

But now after meeting with head of Xbox they are dropping split screen from the Series S version which will allow them to get it released this year on the Xbox platform.

Just happy ill get to play it...   now i wonder how far ill be into starfield by this point lol   (after starfield by buying for 2023 was done unless  BG3 hits and it looks like it will)     i will be set well into 2024 now

(08-25-2023, 11:04 PM)basballguy Wrote: So i think what threw me off is I mixed up PS5 release with XBOX release.  I recall only one console getting it at the time but I guess I assumed it was Xbox.  Now what supported it as me thinking it was Xbox is in the PC version, the "X" to close out windows and dialog boxes was an xbox shaped fat X....so I guess I just assumed it was Xbox that was getting the delayed release and not PS5.

It should also be noted that the PS5 release date was also the original PC release date for PC and PS5.  The PC version was moved UP so as to not compete with Starfield.  Obviously the PC version was and has been ready to go, though they did have a significant patch, but I haven't heard many complaints about it.  They XBOX version hadn't gotten a release date due to the split screen issues on the S as mentioned by Xeno.  I like their solution to the problem (F it - the S folks can do without for now - lol)

[basballguy]

So I went down the rabbit hole of cloud gaming today since I saw Starfield would be available via it and learned about GeForce Now. Anyone have any experience with it (Geforce Now)?

[XenoMorph]

(08-26-2023, 11:55 AM)Stewy Wrote: It should also be noted that the PS5 release date was also the original PC release date for PC and PS5.  The PC version was moved UP so as to not compete with Starfield.  Obviously the PC version was and has been ready to go, though they did have a significant patch, but I haven't heard many complaints about it.  They XBOX version hadn't gotten a release date due to the split screen issues on the S as mentioned by Xeno.  I like their solution to the problem (F it - the S folks can do without for now - lol)

it does look like the will continue to explore the option of adding the split screen later for Series. S  but yes dont make us all wait lol

[XenoMorph]

PS+ has announce its sub services will increase in price starting 9/6

new prices in link below
https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-raises-price-of-playstation-plus-12-month-subscriptions-across-all-tiers

so if you wanna preload a few years (if they allow that) id do it soon

[CKwi88]

Got Baulder's Gate 3.

Game has me wishing I was 10 years younger and had two fewer kids. Definitely a game that requires a heavy time investment that I just don't have right now.