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

[El Barto]

So I've spent a fair amount of time setting up a crafting build in Starfield, mostly out of morbid curiosity. I've been trying to see if there's ever a point where crafting and outpost building actually accomplishes anything. After a few days I think I might be closer, but I really doubt it. Frankly, this game's a mess. There are things I really like about it. The universe really does feel alive. Anytime I'm on a planet and a ship lands somewhere I head over to check it out. Maybe it's a farmer in town to check on his stuff. Maybe it's Spacers I can murder and take their ship (which is a massive waste of time, honestly, one of Beth's major blunders). I like the combat well enough. I actually like doing planet surveys, though that's also quite hobbled out of the box. A lot of the quests have been good. In the end, though, it's probably time to put it away for a year and see what the modders can do with it. I could probably limit it to ten mods that would make it a great game, but right now it's honestly pretty awful. Surprisingly so.

Here's what I don't get. Todd's a gamer. Always has been. Did he not bother playing this? There's no way he thought this is how a good Beth game should behave.

[Herrick]

The first trailer for GTA 6 will be revealed in early december.

Where's it set? I don't care about it, but as an old school fan of the franchise I'm still curious.

Word around the campfire is that VI has been finished for quite some time. R* has simply had no reason to release it as so many people are still playing V, and giving R* boatloads of money to do so. Revenue decreased in 2022, and it still made them 800m.

How long has it been supposedly finished?

This was mostly speculation, as there was simply no reason for them to release it yet. There's really no reason to release it now given how much money V continues to bring in, and they run the risk of screwing that up. That said, it was far more than source code that was leaked. There was quite a bit of gameplay footage leaked last year. That doesn't mean that it was finished, but it was clearly a functional game.

I was reading a little about that leak last night. Some 17-year-old kid from somewhere in the UK ended up going to trial. I don't remember hearing about that last year and I usually check a couple of game sites every day. Did anyone here get to see any of the game footage?

I like GTA but I'm not really hyped about the 6th. I'm sure I'll play it eventually but damn, it takes a long time for those games to go on sale for cheap. For the longest time, 50% off was the best I saw for GTA 5.

I could be wrong, but as far as I know any actual gameplay footage you see online from more than a week ago is the leaked footage from last year. About the best I can say about it is that since you're forced to play in 3P, making one of the PCs a chick with a nice ass was an inspired move on their part.

I bought V the day it was released (my birthday, as I recall, so it was Bday money, and I got RDR for free with it (which I never played)). It also helped that I was laid up after the kidney business, so I was a captive audience. When I wrapped it up I was pretty much done with it forever, and that pretty much extends to the franchise. It stopped being the GTA I wanted a long time ago. My hunch is that VI is simply V in a different setting and a little better polished. Gameplay will the same since it's such a good model for them. The story will be different, but does anybody actually play GTA for the stories anymore? In the end it'll still be geared towards spending 10 years doing heists, I guess.

I thought the story was all right. However, I didn't really like any of the characters nor did I like switching between them. I couldn't give less of a shit about online modes.

[Herrick]

So I've spent a fair amount of time setting up a crafting build in Starfield, mostly out of morbid curiosity. I've been trying to see if there's ever a point where crafting and outpost building actually accomplishes anything. After a few days I think I might be closer, but I really doubt it. Frankly, this game's a mess. There are things I really like about it. The universe really does feel alive. Anytime I'm on a planet and a ship lands somewhere I head over to check it out. Maybe it's a farmer in town to check on his stuff. Maybe it's Spacers I can murder and take their ship (which is a massive waste of time, honestly, one of Beth's major blunders). I like the combat well enough. I actually like doing planet surveys, though that's also quite hobbled out of the box. A lot of the quests have been good. In the end, though, it's probably time to put it away for a year and see what the modders can do with it. I could probably limit it to ten mods that would make it a great game, but right now it's honestly pretty awful. Surprisingly so.

Here's what I don't get. Todd's a gamer. Always has been. Did he not bother playing this? There's no way he thought this is how a good Beth game should behave.

Is crafting/building completely useless in Starfield? A lot of gamers are into building shit. I've never really been a fan of that kind of stuff. That was one of the things in Fallout 4 & No Mang's Sky I completely ignored. And at least for No Man's Sky, crafting seems to be the only feasible way of making lots of money in a decent amount of time so maybe I shouldn't ignore it anymore...cause I never make any money in that game and end up just giving up then going back when a big update comes out...and quitting again.

[El Barto]

So I've spent a fair amount of time setting up a crafting build in Starfield, mostly out of morbid curiosity. I've been trying to see if there's ever a point where crafting and outpost building actually accomplishes anything. After a few days I think I might be closer, but I really doubt it. Frankly, this game's a mess. There are things I really like about it. The universe really does feel alive. Anytime I'm on a planet and a ship lands somewhere I head over to check it out. Maybe it's a farmer in town to check on his stuff. Maybe it's Spacers I can murder and take their ship (which is a massive waste of time, honestly, one of Beth's major blunders). I like the combat well enough. I actually like doing planet surveys, though that's also quite hobbled out of the box. A lot of the quests have been good. In the end, though, it's probably time to put it away for a year and see what the modders can do with it. I could probably limit it to ten mods that would make it a great game, but right now it's honestly pretty awful. Surprisingly so.

Here's what I don't get. Todd's a gamer. Always has been. Did he not bother playing this? There's no way he thought this is how a good Beth game should behave.

Is crafting/building completely useless in Starfield? A lot of gamers are into building shit. I've never really been a fan of that kind of stuff. That was one of the things in Fallout 4 & No Mang's Sky I completely ignored. And at least for No Man's Sky, crafting seems to be the only feasible way of making lots of money in a decent amount of time so maybe I shouldn't ignore it anymore...cause I never make any money in that game and end up just giving up then going back when a big update comes out...and quitting again.

So I spent some more time this weekend working on it, and yeah, I've gotta call it completely worthless. And this after I've finally gotten to a point where I can craft a lot of stuff, and I've got resources consolidated at an outpost bringing in lots of other resources. I've got greenhouses growing adhesive and polymer. I've got abundant Ti, Al, and FE. More than enough He3 to move it all. And despite all of this I'm still 10 perks from being able to actually make a gun more powerful. The investment in time/perks/resources/and insurmountable frustration is just beyond belief. Not to mention that a few of Beth's shortcomings really require some cheating to get around. I crafted 1 of each kind of outpost storage and set the capacity to 200,000, just because linking 50 different containers doesn't actually work. Like, having containers link when they're nested together was too much to ask?

Personally, crafting and building outposts is one of the my favourite things in Beth's games. And they've really done a helluva job of screwing it all up with this. I think there probably is the capability of putting it altogether so that it'll work alright, once you're sixty levels in, completed all of the quests, have 20 perk points with nothing to blow them on, just want to do something different in the game, and modders have fixed the various flaws. It's will always be entirely secondary component of the game, though. No part of outpost building and crafting will make you stronger or make the game any easier. Or even more enjoyable, really.

Shipbuilding actually is alright, though. That's something they did that worked.

[Herrick]

That's too bad. Sounds like a big waste of time.

[cramx3]

That's too bad. Sounds like a big waste of time.

I feel like a lot of the stuff built into the game is a big waste of time.  They didn't give you a reason to do it other than curiosity.  I feel like that's probably a big negative to the game.  There's so much baked into the game, but most of it is meaningless to the bigger picture. 

I'm kind of shocked I didn't buy the latest COD game.  It doesn't really look worth $70 but I know I got the addiction because I'm really tempted to buy it and jump into the multiplayer and new zombies mode. 

[Chino]

Farming Simulator 22 has completely consumed me. As far as I can tell, there isn't even a point to the game, yet I can't get enough.

[El Barto]

That's too bad. Sounds like a big waste of time.

I feel like a lot of the stuff built into the game is a big waste of time.  They didn't give you a reason to do it other than curiosity.  I feel like that's probably a big negative to the game.  There's so much baked into the game, but most of it is meaningless to the bigger picture. 

Yep. In Skyrim crafting was vital for a couple of reasons. You could always make a better weapon than that which you'd find in the game. It also helped you to level, and it was profitable. In FO4 crafting your weapons and armour was something that helped you all they way from day one, and the settlements offered you benefits, as well as simply being interesting. In Starfield it essentially requires a specific build to work, and you might as well just devote your player to being a farmer rather than an explorer/fighter/ship captain. It's what you do when your player retires.

[The Great Ape]

My men, it is time to take Final Fantasy XVI for another ride around the block

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary

This is a treat.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

My men, it is time to take Final Fantasy XVI for another ride around the block

Definitely one of my favorite games of the year. The way quests are designed can be a bit exhausting, but the combat, narrative, presentation, and sound are just too good. I'm glad they're working on a DLC for it!

[nobloodyname]

So I did something a bit bloody mental at the weekend. Ordered the Logitech Pro Wheel, and the load cell pedals, as a replacement for my very old G27. And bloody hell, the feeling in F1 23 and Forza Motorsport is really rather something. As it should be for the money. But anyway, really looking forward to using the set more.

In other news, not surprised by peoples' more recent comments on Starfield. It didn't feel that fun to me from the outset and it hasn't improved with time. It's unlikely I'll bother adding to the 50 hours I've spent with it just to finish the main campaign. Perhaps I should have completed that first. So many of the game's systems feel redundant to me, not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that per se but when combined with the dated graphics, creaky engine (yes, there really are far too many loading screens, which I understand the technical requirement for), lifeless NPCs and world, and subpar writing, it's just not something I can be bothered to play further. Not currently, anyway. And regarding the writing, shame the writers/Howard didn't appear to play Disco Elysium for more than ten minutes.

I've been quite enjoying Cities Skylines 2, despite itself. And I've been playing Tiny Tina's Wonderlands a little bit, too. At some point I'll return to Aliens: Dark Descent. And Baldur's Gate 3. I'm still only about two hours into Act II.

[SwedishGoose]

I'm about 98 hours into Baldur's Gate 3 and I am still addicted.
I'm quite some ways into Act 3 but there is still soo much to do that the main quests do not proceed at any speed.
So much interresting happening in the side quests though.

I almost wish it had another Act yet....

When is BG4 coming out?

[El Barto]

In other news, not surprised by peoples' more recent comments on Starfield. It didn't feel that fun to me from the outset and it hasn't improved with time. It's unlikely I'll bother adding to the 50 hours I've spent with it just to finish the main campaign. Perhaps I should have completed that first. So many of the game's systems feel redundant to me, not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that per se but when combined with the dated graphics, creaky engine (yes, there really are far too many loading screens, which I understand the technical requirement for), lifeless NPCs and world, and subpar writing, it's just not something I can be bothered to play further. Not currently, anyway. And regarding the writing, shame the writers/Howard didn't appear to play Disco Elysium for more than ten minutes.

I'm in a weird place with it right now. Part of me wants to restart it without wasting all of the energy/skill points I did in crafting and outpost building. That's what I enjoy most about these games and I wanted to see if it was actually doable (it is, but just barely). At the same time I just couldn't stomach starting over with it, and I haven't even done much of the questing parts. It's also the case that I'm not even sure what I'd do with those perk points anyway. It's not like you can slap one here and one there, because any direction you want to go requires a significant investment. Gone are the days of being pretty good at a lot of things. This game wants you to master one thing at a time at the expense of all else.

It seems like I'd be better off waiting for modders to do their thing with it. However, now I'm starting to doubt that'll ever happen. Despite Todd's remarks that it's incredibly mod friendly, it's not. There are technical issues that will struggle to be able to get around. A bigger hurdle is that it's just not that popular. I'm not sure how much effort modders will be willing to throw at it when they'd probably rather keep working on Skyrim.

I ran into a thing last night where I had to use one bug to fix a different bug.    I give a great deal of leeway to these guys for bugginess. There are just so many variables that you're never going to account for all possibilities until you've got 300k people playing vs 300 Beth employees. At the same time there are issues that a pretty much universal with Starfield. Again I have to wonder if Todd ever even played the thing as a whole, rather than occasional tests here and there.

As for the wriring, it's not great as a whole, and stories aren't really my bag anyway, but last night they threw in a great twist. The game killed off my closest companion, and my choice was to save my friend or let some other random comrade die. That was well done. The bad news is that I wasn't heavily vested enough in my friend to even reload an older save and let her survive. That's pretty bad.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

It was one of the last (if not the last) missions in the Ryujin questline that broke me. They ask you to complete the quest without taking casualties, but I wasn't able to stealth through it because I didn't have enough points invested in that skill (plus I don't think the game is designed well for stealth). So I decided to just go in guns blazing with my non-lethal weapon... And then I remembered I'd sold it by mistake. So then I tried loading an earlier save, but found I didn't have an autosave early enough.

Half of those issues were totally on me, but they did make me realize that I was kind of blasting through the game and not taking the time to really learn its systems. I wasn't actually enjoying myself. I think some other people have kind of come to that realization after dozens upon dozens of hours, hence the nosedive of Steam reviews. I don't think Starfield is a bad game, and there is absolutely a big audience for it, but I do think that Bethesda needs to evolve for their next game.

[nobloodyname]

Playing Starfield made me wonder what Skyrim was really like. I'd not played it since, well, I don't know when. A decade, maybe. I had 160 hours in it so I'd spent a decent amount of time in the world. Anyway, modded up the Special Edition that I got free a few years ago, started a new game, and... it's a much better game than Starfield. Exploration is more organic and it has game systems that mostly make sense without artificial gating. I'm enjoying it.

[El Barto]

Playing Starfield made me wonder what Skyrim was really like. I'd not played it since, well, I don't know when. A decade, maybe. I had 160 hours in it so I'd spent a decent amount of time in the world. Anyway, modded up the Special Edition that I got free a few years ago, started a new game, and... it's a much better game than Starfield. Exploration is more organic and it has game systems that mostly make sense without artificial gating. I'm enjoying it.

Skyrim's a masterpiece with or without comparing it to Starfield.

I'm still digging into Starfield off and on. Some evenings I'll play and others I won't. I think the greatest difference they put into it is that in Skyrim by the time you reach level 35 or so you're a god. From there on you're just waltzing through the story killing anybody that gets in your way, occasionally making QOL improvements. Also finding new, fun ways to do your killing. That's around the point you start investing in illusion or conjuration, for example. I'm very much of the opinion that Starfield is simply designed to keep you from reaching that point until much, much further down the line. Sadly, it's not a great deal of fun from the player standpoint to be a weakling for that long, and the game itself isn't fun enough to encourage that sort of investment.

[ReaperKK]

Playing Starfield made me wonder what Skyrim was really like. I'd not played it since, well, I don't know when. A decade, maybe. I had 160 hours in it so I'd spent a decent amount of time in the world. Anyway, modded up the Special Edition that I got free a few years ago, started a new game, and... it's a much better game than Starfield. Exploration is more organic and it has game systems that mostly make sense without artificial gating. I'm enjoying it.

Skyrim still holds up, I'm doing a playthrough in VR now and it's fantastic.

I saw some fantastic news and that is that there is a Tribes 3 in the works. Tribes 1 + Tribes 2 were two of my favorite games growing up so seeing this news made me estatic. I got into the alpha and while it definitely needs some polish the game play is fantastic. I really hope the game gets a solid fanbase

[TheOutlawXanadu]

I finished Phantom Liberty last night and... hot damn... They knocked it completely out of the park. It's been a long time since a game confronted me with moral dilemmas that made me literally pause and walk around the room for a minute while I thought about what to do. By the time I rolled credits, I was genuinely moved emotionally and my mind was racing as I tried to think about what I should have done differently and how I felt about the fates of the main characters. On top of that, they even fleshed out the Gig missions, so not only are the main and secondary stories good, but the side missions are also good (which was not the case in the base game).

If you've been waiting to play Cyberpunk 2077 or even just debating whether or not to... You won't regret it (but just make sure to play Phantom Liberty as well). This game is pretty phenomenal now. The only question left in my mind is whether it cracks my personal top-ten games. It's definitely in the running.

[cramx3]

COD shared their plans for season 1 yesterday and also officially confirmed they will no longer support the new DMZ mode from last year that I only just started to enjoy the last couple months.  Sucks.  But they clearly used what they built for DMZ to make the new zombies mode and stated what they've learned will be used for future projects which may make me thing DMZ will come back in a couple years.  Oh well, but the Warzone update for next week is a big one that will change the game completely so I'm excited.  Here's my latest DMZ trolling video, even my gf was cracking up at the "sexual assault" scene  Trolling DMZ Nerds in Call of Duty Warzone 2 - Volume 5 *cramx3 style*

I've got one full game of DMZ video ready for youtube and I have saved enough content from the Halloween event to make one more trolling DMZ video before moving on. Sad day for DMZ, but the future is there for me.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Yea I could swear there was a rumour about them going back to Vice City or in the area a few years back.

[Sacul]

Ok it took me a while but finally got the time and energy these last few days to beat Omori. Damn, what a powerful experience.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

GTA VI Trailer

[cramx3]

GTA VI Trailer

Looks incredible, the gator from RDR! 

[Phoenix87x]

Looks pretty sweet

and vice city was always my favorite setting

[faizoff]

GTA VI Trailer

Holy shit that looks incredible, had no idea it was coming out in 2025, thought it would be sometime next year.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

It really looks amazing and it's weird seeing GTA content not looking like GTA V.

Also something must've been breewing at R* making them releasing it 15 hours early.

Here's a great breakdown, the attention to detail and depth in the game is unmatched as usual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcJF-R1DGQ8&ab_channel=TmarTn2

R* is havin a field day capturing everything Florida. 

[ReaperKK]

The trailer leaked so R* said fuck it and watch the official video. 62 million views last I checked which is wild.

I read the press release and no mention of PC release so I'm going to assume PC will come later, not sure if I'll buy a console just to play gta6 like I did with RDR2.

[nobloodyname]

I'm lucky enough to have a PC that's so much better than a PS5 or whatever the most powerful Xbox is, I just can't justify buying less powerful hardware only to play one game. Guess I'll have to pay the usual two-year Rockstar PC tax. They need to remember who gave them their bloody start

[ReaperKK]

Hopefully by the time GTA does hit PC I'll be rocking a 5090

[cramx3]

When GTA5 came out, I borrowed a co-worker's PS so I could play it on release, then I eventually bought it from him, and then eventually sold it so someone else 

I won't be doing that this time around.  I will just wait until PC release.  I have no desire to give in to Rockstar tactics of trying to get me to buy the same game multiple times.

Trailer looks great, but I'll see ya in 2026 or 2027 likely

[XJDenton]

Definitely looks like they're continuing momentum we saw in RDR2 in making some of the most sublimely realised open worlds. Just hope the mission design starts to make use of it.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Oh damn I forgot about R* always using a late PC release to milk the product further.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

The trailer leaked so R* said fuck it and watch the official video. 62 million views last I checked which is wild.

I read the press release and no mention of PC release so I'm going to assume PC will come later, not sure if I'll buy a console just to play gta6 like I did with RDR2.

It's almost unfathomable how successful GTA is as a franchise. I remember telling my wife that it was the most successful piece of entertainment media ever in anything, and she couldn't believe it lol. It's a money printing machine.

[cramx3]

The trailer leaked so R* said fuck it and watch the official video. 62 million views last I checked which is wild.

I read the press release and no mention of PC release so I'm going to assume PC will come later, not sure if I'll buy a console just to play gta6 like I did with RDR2.

It's almost unfathomable how successful GTA is as a franchise. I remember telling my wife that it was the most successful piece of entertainment media ever in anything, and she couldn't believe it lol. It's a money printing machine.

That's wild, and I know you are right, I recall that statistic.