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

[DTA]

Anyone play Magic: The Gathering?

I haven't played actual paper magic in years but I've been using Magic Arena to scratch the itch.

I've been playing Magic: The Gathering Online off and on for about 10 years now. I tried Arena, but it's too limited.

It definitely is too limited and the current standard environment is pretty lame as well. But it’s pretty much free to play so that’s a big plus.

[Nick]

I don't know if anyone here has played it, but 51 hours into my first Factorio game I managed to launch and win. That game has, and will continue to suck up all my free time until I can dive into Night City.

[ReaperKK]

I love Factorio, I remember picking it up over a year ago and 40 hours just evaporated over the course of 2 weeks. The game is super addicting and a lot of fun.

[faizoff]

Epic games has a free game called ABZU right now till the 15th. It's an ocean underwater game with such calming and soothing visuals and music to go along, perfect game to decompress after a day of work. Just chill and explore some ocean species, ride on some whales or sharks or Manta Rays. I suffer from thalassophobia so it's difficult at times to play it but it's still such a treat.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Epic games has a free game called ABZU right now till the 15th. It's an ocean underwater game with such calming and soothing visuals and music to go along, perfect game to decompress after a day of work. Just chill and explore some ocean species, ride on some whales or sharks or Manta Rays. I suffer from thalassophobia so it's difficult at times to play it but it's still such a treat.

So I'm guessing Subnautica isn't a game for you.

[faizoff]

It would depend, it's not being able to see the depth of the ocean that freaks me out.

[Podaar]

Ghost of Tsushima 1.1 update is today! Wooohooo NG+ here I come.

[orcus116]

I recently replayed GTA V and then went back to GTA IV. Both games still hold up although playing IV you definitely get the feeling of what V added in terms in extras that Rockstar took away from the previous games like the properties, modifying cars, etc. Basically anything to do with what money you earned along the way. I think they knocked it out if the park with how unique and bombastic the story missions in V were after returning to the more arcade style of play but I still think some of most intense missions are in IV when you're doing ground cover work with carbine rifles running from the cops, mainly Three Leaf Clover which might be my favorite heist escape of the entire series outside of The Paletto Score. I'm so glad they ditched the more realistic car physics of IV because while I appreciate the attempt at realism the game gets frustrating real quick at times where you hit an obstacle in a chase and basically lose the mission since you have to do some crazy slow turnarounds to right the ship. I forgot how much more narrow focused the story in IV was but I saw someone say that Niko might be the protagonist they make you give a shit about the most. It's been so long since I played these but I'm glad I gave them a replay.

[ErHaO]

Playing Katana Zero, I love it thus far. It has more story and adventure-like elements than I expected. Core gameplay is great, though I am not very good at it. Thankfully you never have to do long stretches over.

[Bolsters]

I played through a game called Bastion this week. It wasn't bad but given the reception online for it, I had higher hopes.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe went on sale so I bought that. I played through SMB1 in All-Stars a few weeks ago when I got my new controller and realised that other than playing a few levels into World 2 in NSMB Wii many years ago, I had not played all the way through a 2D Mario platformer since the first NSMB on DS, all the way back in 2006. To say I'm a bit rusty would be an understatement.

[Herrick]

I played through a game called Bastion this week. It wasn't bad but given the reception online for it, I had higher hopes.

I've had this game for years but haven't played it yet. The same developer made Hades which has gotten great reviews but I'm not a rogue lite fan. Does anyone remember Greg Kasavin from Gamespot back in the early to mid 2000s? I always liked his reviews. He's a part of the development team behind those games.

[Sacul]

Bastion is fine, but I found Transistor to be a very superior game, from the same studio. I've also heard quite some praise for their latest, Hades. Need to get to it soon.

[Bolsters]

Bastion is fine, but I found Transistor to be a very superior game, from the same studio. I've also heard quite some praise for their latest, Hades. Need to get to it soon.

I've also been hearing good things about Hades, and was aware of Transistor, looking at it more closely earlier today actually. I did like Bastion enough to want to try these games as well, when they're on sale.

[Fiery Winds]

Hades is essentially my GOTY, and I don't like rogue-likes. The combat is solid, there's never a "wasted" run, and the characters, voice acting, and storytelling are fantastic.

[ReaperKK]

I played through a game called Bastion this week. It wasn't bad but given the reception online for it, I had higher hopes.

I really enjoyed Bastion. The game had great music and great style.

Hades is essentially my GOTY, and I don't like rogue-likes. The combat is solid, there's never a "wasted" run, and the characters, voice acting, and storytelling are fantastic.

I keep hearing everyone say how great Hades is, I never clicked with a rough-like game so I'm skeptical of trying it out but it's from the same studio that made Bastion so I don't know. Maybe I'll scoop it up to try with my upcoming PTO.

[The Walrus]

I don't understand what makes a roguelike a roguelike game. Does Diablo count? If so I guess I've played that, at least. I've heard nothing but extreme praise and hype around Hades but I'm just not sure if I'll like it. Looks gorgeous though.

[ReaperKK]

To me it's always been a dungeon crawling, single run, permadeath style game. Dead Cells was the last rougelike I played and I enjoyed it for about 10 minutes and then it became boring. The loop of trying to nail a great run has never been appealing to me.

[Herrick]

To me it's always been a dungeon crawling, single run, permadeath style game. Dead Cells was the last rougelike I played and I enjoyed it for about 10 minutes and then it became boring. The loop of trying to nail a great run has never been appealing to me.

Same here except for Road Redemption. I played that obsessively until I completed it...and I haven't played it since  I'm really not a fan of having to start all over again when you die but that game had fun gameplay.

[Herrick]

I'm currently playing The Legend of Zelda Breath of The Wild. I haven't played a Zelda game since The Twilight Princess. Never finished that one

I like and dislike the lack of hand holding in Breath of the Wild. It harkens back to the ancient Zelda games I played when I was a wee herrick long ago in the ancient 1980s. That's good for nostalgic purposes or for people who are good at remembering stuff, but I wish there was an in-game way to record the hints NPCs give about locations.

Some side quests give vague info: "You see that cliff over there? Looks like part of it was mang-made". I look at the distant area and it appears like all the other blurry rocks. I'm not gonna crawl around that area with limited stamina until I find it. Old Mang Herrick has no patience for that. It's ok. Don't vomit quest markers all over the map for the next Zelda games. I'll just go online and find out what to do when I get frustrated.

Not being able to fast travel with a horse is...painful. The DLC quest that allows one to summon a horse anywhere, should've been in the game from the beginning, methinks. Not being able to fast travel with a horse or summon the horse from any location makes the game much bigger than it really is...and it's already a good-sized game. I love traveling by horse or vehicles in open-world games but those modern games make it very clear where you have to go and what you have to do.

I'm not a fan of weapon durability but I can live with it.

Despite all the complaints I've made, I am really enjoying this game. It's graphically outdated yet still beautiful in a lot of ways. Combat can be challenging but there's not much punishment for dying. I'm a big fan of being able to save anywhere. I haven't played any other games since I started Breath of the Wild.

[ReaperKK]

Herrick you nailed exactly how I feel about Breath Of The Wild. I still have to finish it sometime. I go through bouts where I'll play it a lot over the course a few days and then put it back down.

[Phoenix87x]

I didn't finish Twilight princess either and skipped Skyward sword. Really loved the shake up that was Breath of the wild though. 

That being said, for the next release I don't really want another Breath of the wild. Real it back in a little, give me a balance of breath of the wild and the older games.

[ErHaO]

I have a looot of complaints about Breath of the Wild, especially when the copy/paste and limited amount of enemies becomes quite apparent. But the core gameplay loop and sense of freedom is so well designed that I agree with the high praise the game got. Looking forward to the sequel.

[The Walrus]

Yeah BOTW has plenty of areas it could be improved in, and yet its highs are so high it's still my favorite game ever 

[XJDenton]

I don't know if anyone here has played it, but 51 hours into my first Factorio game I managed to launch and win. That game has, and will continue to suck up all my free time until I can dive into Night City.

I got really into it for a while, but at some point, it just turned into work for me.

[Phoenix87x]

Cyberpunk delayed again. This time to December 10th

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/27/21536662/cyberpunk-2077-cd-projekt-red-delay-december

[Dublagent66]

Cyberpunk delayed again. This time to December 10th

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/27/21536662/cyberpunk-2077-cd-projekt-red-delay-december

[Polarbear]

Cyberpunk delayed again. This time to December 10th

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/27/21536662/cyberpunk-2077-cd-projekt-red-delay-december

What could a 21 day delay possibly accomplish? Then again, I'm not a game developer.

[The Walrus]

Cyberpunk delayed again. This time to December 10th

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/27/21536662/cyberpunk-2077-cd-projekt-red-delay-december

What could a 21 day delay possibly accomplish? Then again, I'm not a game developer.

Second paragraph of the article...

“The biggest challenge for us right now is shipping the game on current-gen, next-gen, and PC at the same time, which requires us to prepare and test nine versions of it,” the company said in a tweet. “We need to make sure everything works well and every version runs smoothly. We’re aware it might seem unrealistic when someone says 21 days can make any difference in such a massive and complex game, but they really do.”

21 days is a lot of time for devs to hone in on last minute issues, even with the inevitable post-release patches, this gives them time to sort out anything critical prior to launch

[Dublagent66]

This is actually the 3rd delay.  Original release date was 4/16.  Then it was delayed to 9/17.  Then delayed again to 11/19.  Now it's 12/4.  Hmmm...as much as I hate delays, if it helps to put out a better quality product then so be it.  I can wait.  I'm sure this is gonna be a great game, but CDPR grossly underestimated the project if the original date goes back nearly 8 months. 

[The Walrus]

It's to be expected with the higher level of AAA games like this, honestly. I'm not surprised by the delays stretching across multiple years, least of all a few weeks at the very end. Last of Us 2 was pushed back by just a few weeks at the 11th hour, too. I remember each lengthy delay for Breath of the Wild feeling like a gutpunch, too. Sucks, but that's the industry. Hell I'm still waiting for *any* news on Metroid Prime 4.... again.

[Chino]

RDR2 was pushed an entire year.

[Evermind]

Cyberpunk delayed again. This time to December 10th

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/27/21536662/cyberpunk-2077-cd-projekt-red-delay-december

What could a 21 day delay possibly accomplish? Then again, I'm not a game developer.

I mean, there's no excuse for CDPR really but this shit frequently happens in my line of work (aviation engineering). I mean sometimes even two days at the weekend may make a difference, three weeks is certainly enough to fix some stuff.

However, I do feel bad for the devs. Despite the news they had to work an additional day making it 48 hours a week, I bet you anything their actual weeks were like 70-80+ hours. And they were looking to finish that crunch and get back to the regular development schedule. Instead, and again that probably won't show up anywhere, but I bet you anything they're going to work those 70-80+ hour weeks until the game is out, so basically CDPR just added another three weeks of crunch for the devs.

I've been through that shit and it's demoralizing as hell. Just as you think you've got only a few days/weeks to go, your higher-ups let you know the schedule is extended for another month.

[The Walrus]

All I've read about the Polish work environment - at least for CDPR - indicates that the staff actually chose to take on the initial crunch, and that crunch to them is different than most of the rest of us see it. Yeah, it's still a lot of extra hours, but I've heard a lot over the last few weeks about the work environment at CDPR at apparently they handle it way better than other places (coughUbisoftcoughRockstarcough), so at least there's that. Doesn't feel like a RDR2 type of crunch where devs were just working themselves to the bone and hating their jobs.

[Evermind]

All I've read about the Polish work environment - at least for CDPR - indicates that the staff actually chose to take on the initial crunch, and that crunch to them is different than most of the rest of us see it. Yeah, it's still a lot of extra hours, but I've heard a lot over the last few weeks about the work environment at CDPR at apparently they handle it way better than other places (coughUbisoftcoughRockstarcough), so at least there's that. Doesn't feel like a RDR2 type of crunch where devs were just working themselves to the bone and hating their jobs.

You always "choose" crunch here in Russia, and while I can't speak for Poland, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same. You "choose" to work these hours, no one tells you that you have to work them (it's heavily implied and if you don't, you get bad rep with the company or actually get fired later down the line, or you bury all the chances of a promotion); and therefore people always take it. It's heavily emphasized that people volunteer to work those hours, and while your government prevents you to work more than 48 hours a week, there's always a loophole for that.

Once again, I can't speak for CDPR employees, and neither do I know Poland rules for working overtime, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

[Dublagent66]

Yeah, I can't even begin to imagine the kinds of pressures that game devs have to endure.  Even if they want to work those extra hours, it takes a toll after a while.  It's good to know that CDPR is handling it better than some other companies.  That goes a long way and usually shows up in the final product.