Video Game Thread v. Series Xbox One X Series Switch S 5

[Chino]

Quick circleback to Helldivers 2.... Absolutely incredible. The launch was way bigger than anticipated and the servers are struggling to match make (devs are working on it and it has been improving), but if you have a couple friends you can squad up with, you can play to your heart's content.

This is most fun I've had on this gen so far.


Different topic: Televisions

The wife and I are looking to swap out our 55" in the living room for a 70"-75". I haven't TV shopped in a while. What are important things to look for as far as gaming goes?

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Quick circleback to Helldivers 2.... Absolutely incredible. The launch was way bigger than anticipated and the servers are struggling to match make (devs are working on it and it has been improving), but if you have a couple friends you can squad up with, you can play to your heart's content.

This is most fun I've had on this gen so far.


Different topic: Televisions

The wife and I are looking to swap out our 55" in the living room for a 70"-75". I haven't TV shopped in a while. What are important things to look for as far as gaming goes?

VRR (variable refresh rate) and latency/input lag.

[Sacul]

Yeah you probably want something with more than 60hz of refresh rate for gaming. 4k is more than enough for vidya, maybe too much even.

[Cool Chris]

I am just about 100% through Super Mario Wonder. This is a fantastic game, showing the brilliance of Nintendo's game design. My only complaint is that I wish there was 10x more content because I don't want to stop playing it.

[ErHaO]

I am just about 100% through Super Mario Wonder. This is a fantastic game, showing the brilliance of Nintendo's game design. My only complaint is that I wish there was 10x more content because I don't want to stop playing it.

It is indeed a really good game. To be honest I often felt Nintendo didn't really compete anymore with indie studios with their 2D stuff in terms of price:content (games like Hollow Knight, Celeste, Deaths Door, The Messenger, Tunic, Shovel Knight etc.). But for Mario Wonder they went above and beyond and almost each level brings something new and exciting, along with just being very well designed.

And on the Switch I think Pikmin 4 and especially Tears of the Kingdom were absolutely amazing games too.

Quick circleback to Helldivers 2.... Absolutely incredible. The launch was way bigger than anticipated and the servers are struggling to match make (devs are working on it and it has been improving), but if you have a couple friends you can squad up with, you can play to your heart's content.

This is most fun I've had on this gen so far.


Different topic: Televisions

The wife and I are looking to swap out our 55" in the living room for a 70"-75". I haven't TV shopped in a while. What are important things to look for as far as gaming goes?

If you can afford it, good HDR is a game changer on some titles. But it comes along with meddling with settings / variability. But good HDR with a good game mode is reserved for higher midrange TVs and up (I have an LG C3 now, though for a regular family I do not recommend OLED probably). But since pricing goes up very steeply for large screens, that can be rough

The HDR400 without dimming zones on those midrange gaming monitors (300-700 euro range here) in my opinion is kinda pointless and is confusing the market.

And even on consoles VRR/120hz is a good thing. There have been quite a few games that support it. And especially Sony makes good 40fs modes which can be close to the resolution mode in terms of visuals but 40 fps oddly feels a lot closer to 60 than 30 (ha ze to do with frame timing I believe).

[Polarbear]

https://youtu.be/qLZenOn7WUo?feature=shared

ELDEN RING: Shadow of the Erdtree Trailer!

I'm just now playing through the game for the first time. I hope I can finish it by summer when this lands, but it seems like an impossible task as of now. I just made it to Lakes of Liurnia, after I took down Godrick.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

https://youtu.be/qLZenOn7WUo?feature=shared

ELDEN RING: Shadow of the Erdtree Trailer!

I'm just now playing through the game for the first time. I hope I can finish it by summer when this lands, but it seems like an impossible task as of now. I just made it to Lakes of Liurnia, after I took down Godrick.

very cool. speaking of elder ring, has anyone here beat it with a banana controller? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoMsm543W9Y

[chknptpie]

Speaking of controllers.... I prefer to play everything on my switch because the xbox controller is just so big for my hands. However, there are several games out that aren't/will never be on switch. Any suggestions for a smaller, wireless xbox1 controller? All the searches I've done result it wired.

[Sacul]

If your computer has Bluetooth, you can pair the Switch controllers and use them in some games. I haven't been able to, but I attribute that to using Linux . If you're playing on the xbox1, no clue then.

[Bolsters]

I know the Pro controller is recognised by Steam, not sure about the Joy-Con though. But there's quite a few programs that will convert the Switch controller input into Xinput, essentially making it be recognised as an Xbox controller, and then you can use it with anything. BetterJoy is a popular (and free) example.

[chknptpie]

Was any of that English? *confused old lady look*

[Cool Chris]

Was any of that English? *confused old lady look*

 

[TheOutlawXanadu]

https://youtu.be/qLZenOn7WUo?feature=shared

ELDEN RING: Shadow of the Erdtree Trailer!

I'm just now playing through the game for the first time. I hope I can finish it by summer when this lands, but it seems like an impossible task as of now. I just made it to Lakes of Liurnia, after I took down Godrick.

I love Elden Ring (probably a top five game for me) but I find it very hard to play outside of short sports. I'll rocket through 10 hours over the course of a week or so and then just be completely burnt out by it and take a two week break.

I will say, once you find the Mimic Tear, you start mowing through the game at a blistering pace.

[cramx3]

LOL at COD having to confirm publicly that their anti-cheat is ON because one of the cheat providers apparently advertised it as being off and free reign to cheat which lead to a crazy amount of cheaters playing COD the last week.  COD then says well, it's working, we banned 6000 accounts! Uh dude, you likely have closer to 600000 cheaters in that game. Pathetic for such a money maker game.  Funny enough though, I haven't experienced any out of the normal, but the clips I keep seeing on reddit are all I need to know it's legit bad right now.  It's likely because I don't play ranked, since that's just asking to get shit on by cheaters.

[ReaperKK]

Damn, where there ever a point they were able to get a handle on the CoD cheaters?

[cramx3]

Damn, where there ever a point they were able to get a handle on the CoD cheaters?

Depends on how you describe a handle.  It seems when they make major updates to the game, including the ricochet anti-cheat, it gets things put in a better place.  But it's a cat and mouse game.  Every time COD makes the update to prevent the current cheats, the cheat providers then work and provide a way to circumvent the new changes and then it gets worse until COD makes a change again.  It usually happens closer to the end of the games yearly life cycle though.  So typically late summer, the cheating gets really bad until the new game releases.  But this is only season 2 and it's maybe worse than ever or at least just as bad as it can get. 

I think engineowning (major cheat provider) has been able to circumvent some legal stuff due to being overseas company too. 

I feel like fortnite doesn't have this problem though.  I feel like COD needs to be stricter and is choosing not to be.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

have you ever played CS? it's pointless to even try to play that game online, there is nothing but cheaters. that's why i only play CS in single player mode

[cramx3]

have you ever played CS? it's pointless to even try to play that game online, there is nothing but cheaters. that's why i only play CS in single player mode

Not in like 10+ years.  I didn't know they had a bad cheating problem.  I'm sure it's an issue in every online competitive games, just some worse than others. PUBG is pretty bad too right now.  The one thing you notice for sure that it's a cheater is not just that they kill you easily, but they sometimes are using camos/skins that aren't available in the game normally, they turn single rate fire guns into automatic fire, or they do other movement hacks to move faster.  That's how it's become so noticeable lately.  Because really good players exist too and aim assist on controller can make players look like they have aimbot.  It's just become so open and obvious with a lot of the recent cheats.

[ReaperKK]

have you ever played CS? it's pointless to even try to play that game online, there is nothing but cheaters. that's why i only play CS in single player mode

I play ranked cs2 almost every night and it's extremely rare to see cheaters imo. Valve has a really robust system for capturing cheaters these days including committee review.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

ooh i played unranked, maybe that's why. it was just hordes of people 1 shotting me and shooting me from nowhere

[cramx3]

ooh i played unranked, maybe that's why. it was just hordes of people 1 shotting me and shooting me from nowhere

That's how that game is played though and a reason I don't like it, people just holding tight angles for the one shot snipe.

[ReaperKK]

ooh i played unranked, maybe that's why. it was just hordes of people 1 shotting me and shooting me from nowhere

That's how that game is played though and a reason I don't like it, people just holding tight angles for the one shot snipe.

Yea, it's especially common in unranked games. Honestly I think CS shines in the ranked lobbies. Their matchmaking is fantastic and lot of one shot stuff is often mitigated by players knowing where people maybe camped. I'd say the biggest hurdle for CS is becoming familiar with the maps. If you ever want to play shoot me a pm.

[cramx3]

ooh i played unranked, maybe that's why. it was just hordes of people 1 shotting me and shooting me from nowhere

That's how that game is played though and a reason I don't like it, people just holding tight angles for the one shot snipe.

Yea, it's especially common in unranked games. Honestly I think CS shines in the ranked lobbies. Their matchmaking is fantastic and lot of one shot stuff is often mitigated by players knowing where people maybe camped. I'd say the biggest hurdle for CS is becoming familiar with the maps. If you ever want to play shoot me a pm.

I have no desire to play CS.  It's just too old, even with the new version out.  The gameplay is pretty stale to me since it's been basically the same game since I first ever played PC games.  HAving said that, I know it's a really competitive game and because of that, I'm sure that's why it's still so popular. I'd be so bad playing that right now too 

[Stadler]

have you ever played CS? it's pointless to even try to play that game online, there is nothing but cheaters. that's why i only play CS in single player mode

"CS"?  Help out a brother...

[ReaperKK]

Counter Strike, you can download on steam for free

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

ooh i played unranked, maybe that's why. it was just hordes of people 1 shotting me and shooting me from nowhere

That's how that game is played though and a reason I don't like it, people just holding tight angles for the one shot snipe.

Yea, it's especially common in unranked games. Honestly I think CS shines in the ranked lobbies. Their matchmaking is fantastic and lot of one shot stuff is often mitigated by players knowing where people maybe camped. I'd say the biggest hurdle for CS is becoming familiar with the maps. If you ever want to play shoot me a pm.

Yeah I was going to say Counterstrike probably has the fewest cheaters of any competitive shooter out there.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

is it only a problem in unranked? i swear every time i go into an unranked (i'm not even close to good enough for ranked) it's filled with people who are obviously wall hacking, using aim assist, etc.

[ReaperKK]

I'd bet a large portion of the unranked lobbies are filled with smurf accounts, there are some exceptionally good CS players. Hell I've never gotten better than a gold rank and I can go into unranked lobbies and lay waste to players.

You are good enough to play ranked. Hop into a premier game and you'll be sorted with other plays of low/no rank, after you get some games under your belt the matchmaming will be better. If premier isn't your thing hop into competitive map lobby, I almost always play a game of dust2 ranked and it's a blast.

[cramx3]

there are some exceptionally good CS players.

I think this may be the reality.  The games been around so long and people have played it so much that the average player is likely really good at the game.  COD has the same problem.  It's almost impossible to compete in game if you aren't regularly playing to get better.

[ReaperKK]

That's part of the reason I drop off new games. I love getting into soemthing new but then the community will get way better than me, and if the matchmaking isn't great then I'll lose motivation to keep playing. As for counter strike I've been playing cs since 2000 so I've been able to hang with the community.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

there are some exceptionally good CS players.

I think this may be the reality.  The games been around so long and people have played it so much that the average player is likely really good at the game.  COD has the same problem.  It's almost impossible to compete in game if you aren't regularly playing to get better.

Years ago, I was in the top 5 or 10% in CS before I totally lost interest in it. There are indeed some really good CS players out there. I've been accused of hacking numerous times. It's all about knowing the maps and where the choke points are and how to exploit enemy choke points. Also being quick, learning accuracy, and using your ears to your advantage. A good pair of headphones can go a long way.

[Herrick]

Herrick has been playing various games but nothing that great. I have so many games installed but I don't really feel like playing them.

There is one game coming out soon that I'm interested in though. It is a sequel to an old game called Outcast. It is called Outcast: A New Beginning. I beat the original a couple times only in the last few years. The second time I beat it was when a couple weeks ago when I played through the remastered version. Good game.

The main game I'm playing now is Shadowrun Returns. It's one of the many games I bought on sale years ago but never finished.

[Cool Chris]

Started Death's Door a little bit ago. Haven't played much but have been enjoying so far.

A few hours in to this now, and I must say that this is a fantastic game!

[OpenYourEyes311]

Since Christmas, I've been keeping tabs of the games I've finished and the ones on the shortlist for me to play. So far, I've about 8 games deep. All of them are available on the newest PlayStation or Switch. These are games that are new to me (though I played BMZ like 7 years ago), I'm not counting games I've played recently or many many times, like Slay the Spire or Super Mario Bros.

Castlevania: Dracula X
An old SNES game that is supposedly really bad, at least compared to the previous game in the series it's based on. Either way, I had a great time with this. It was tough, but doable with some practice. While the Advance Collection I played it on allows for rewinding, I refused to do and played as if I was playing on original console. Made for a better experience, IMO. Grade: B+

Metroid Prime Remastered
A remake of the classic GameCube game, this version is just as amazing as the original. Controls and visuals are updated. I was a bit disappointed there wasn't much in the way of bonuses or extras. I guess Hard Mode unlocks after you win, but I wanted to move on. Grade: A

Castlevania Legends
An old Game Boy game that's on Switch's NSO. It scratched the CV itch I wanted at that time. Nothing mind-blowing. Grade: C+

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
This game is the latest entry of the Wonder Boy/Monster World series. It's a really good platformer/Metroidvania style game, like most of the MW games. There's about 15-20% of the game towards the end that kinds gets derailed, though. At least one dungeon is so confusing, it was even difficult to understand what to do once I looked up a guide. It almost made me quit, but I'm glad I stuck with it because the ending was great. If you are a fan of the series, it's a must-play. Grade: B+

198X
A very good concept of a game that ended up with a very MEH execution. The whole thing is about an hour and a half. A meh story based on playing '80s arcade games, none of the game are particularly amazing, and all are very short, almost demos of something better. Grade: D+

The Messenger
An amazing Metroidvania in the style of Ninja Gaiden and Strider. Incredibly fun, just difficult enough to always want to try once more, amazing boss fights, and the story is very cool. It doesn't take itself too seriously, which I really enjoyed as well. 100% recommended to platformer lovers. Grade: A+

Blaster Master Zero
A remake of an old NES game. Fairly faithful to the original, but with lots of added features. Not bad at all, but it did not compel me to continue towards getting all the trophies, which I am still doing for The Messenger. Grade: B

Roguebook
A great roguelike-deck-builder in the vein of Slay the Spire, which has been my most played game since 2020. I find it much easier than Spire, but also has a lot of depth in the characters you play as. Very fun, and I've already done many runs of this. Will continue to play this and go towards the platinum trophy. Grade: A


On the shortlist of games to be played:
Super Mario Wonder
Blaster Master Zero 2
The Last Guardian
Sea of Stars
Final Fantasy XVI

[ganpondorodf]

At the moment I've been replaying:

Assassin's Creed II
Metroid Prime
Dark Souls
Shenmue

And been half-assedly playing Hogwarts Legacy, at my wife's behest admittedly. Hopefully I can get through 'em all by the time Shadow of the Erdtree comes out, because everything's getting dropped for that one.