All Things Videogame Related: EXTREME VS!!

[JB0]

 

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I know hearing "AtGames" immediately gets noses turning up, but I think I might buy a Legends Ultimate cabinet and put my own ROMS on it.

I actually saw a review of that recently. Apparently @Games has done a lot to make up for their previous mistakes in the Legends cabinet.

[mikeszekely]

39 minutes ago, JB0 said:

 

I actually saw a review of that recently. Apparently @Games has done a lot to make up for their previous mistakes in the Legends cabinet.

Yeah, the software is supposed to be a reasonably competent front end but basically retroarch. It's fairly easy to add games, cores, and front ends. And the hardware is mostly fine, although they recommend replacing the gates on the joysticks.

[mikeszekely]

So... is anyone else doing VR?  I decided to try the Oculus Quest 2.  Yeah, I'm not a fan of the mandatory Facebook thing and I totally get why that'd be a dealbreaker for some (many?), but honestly I didn't have a Facebook account so creating one for the sole purpose of using the Quest 2 isn't a world of difference from creating an Oculus account. Plus it's one of the more affordable options, and I love that I can use it as a standalone device (which is all I've done so far, since it just came today) or as a PC VR headset.

Any recommendations?  I think my first purchases are going to be Vader Immortal, Beat Saber, and Superhot VR.

[Chronocidal]

I can't say much in the way of recommendations for what I'd call "traditional" VR titles, since I got my Reverb purely for flight sims (mostly DCS and X-Plane).  I would say Star Wars; Squadrons might be worth a try as well, because while I haven't done any of the online play, just being able to play a modern take on the old X-Wing/Tie Fighter games has been pretty refreshing.  Should work pretty well with a gamepad as well, I think you can pull off what amounts to Ace Combat controls with a little remapping from the default.

I don't know if the sale is still on, but I grabbed it for $25 on Steam near New Years.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Chronocidal

[JB0]

I've got a Quest 1. Haven't been doing a lot with it lately, but I'm a big fan of Synth Riders for my music game. I prefer its music selection and visual style to Beat Saber.

 

Space Pirate Trainer is a pretty fun "single-screen" shooter. It is an older VR game, but still fun.

 

For PC-tethered games...

I've had a lot of fun with randomized-map shooter Compound. Great way to get your Wolfenstein on.

Redout is a hovercar-racing game in the same vein as Wipeout and F-Zero. Also has a flatscreen mode, but why would you want to?

[mikeszekely]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.  I got the Oculus app and SteamVR setup just need to get some games (and get over the fact that Superhot VR and Beat Saber aren't cross buy [although apparently the song packs for Beat Saber are).

@JB0 I think Synth Riders (which I will check out) is on the Quest Store now, with Cross Buy support.

Redout sounds up my alley.  I love WipEout.

[Tking22]

I got to try the Resident Evil 8 Village demo on my buddies PS5, pretty creepy, but if you didn't like 7 I highly doubt you'll be interested in 8. I find it funny almost nobody is talking about the actual demo, the internet and everyone on it seems to just be obsessed with the sexy eight foot tall vampire lady lol.

[azrael]

10 minutes ago, Tking22 said:

I got to try the Resident Evil 8 Village demo on my buddies PS5, pretty creepy, but if you didn't like 7 I highly doubt you'll be interested in 8. I find it funny almost nobody is talking about the actual demo, the internet and everyone on it seems to just be obsessed with the sexy eight foot tall vampire lady lol.

Is that why the YouTube algorithm is flooding me with creepy-sexy-vampire-chick that grabs my player and shoves foot long claws nails into my chest videos?

[Tking22]

10 minutes ago, azrael said:

Is that why the YouTube algorithm is flooding me with creepy-sexy-vampire-chick that grabs my player and shoves foot long claws nails into my chest videos?

It most certainly is, she's the internet's new gaming obsession right now. 

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, azrael said:

Is that why the YouTube algorithm is flooding me with creepy-sexy-vampire-chick that grabs my player and shoves foot long claws nails into my chest videos?

Really? Because all Youtube seems to suggest to me anymore are videos I've already watched.

[Scyla]

After 40 more hours of Cyberpunk 2077 I can give a few more impressions of the game but first things first:

We are now in a patch 1.11 world and somehow the last two patches made the performance much worse on my PS4Pro Now the frame rate is choppy at places it wasn’t before but none of the bugs seem to be fixed.

You still cannot buy a PS5 in my country and I have the feeling that will be the case for quite some time. So nothing can be done about that.

Now back to the game. It is still fun but it is frustrating that none of the games systems (with the exception of the combat) seem to be working properly.

Few examples:

Looting doesn’t work. It is sometimes impossible to loot an item directly in front of you.

The dialog seems to be broken. The different options in dialog seems to cause massive mood swings in my female Vs voice going from jolly and playful to depressed and sad to cynic in the same situation which makes you character sound like a schizophrenic maniac at times. On top of that most of the choices lead to the same result and dialog options are sparse.

In general it doesn‘t feel like you are playing as yourself but rather accompanying someone else and give him notches for her trajectory in life. For example Bioware did a much better job making me feel like I’m Shepard 10 years ago and in 3rd person.

I think you could strip out all the RPG systems and make Cyberpunk a (mediocre) first person clone of GTA and it wouldn’t feel any difference.

There are many more examples of this and none of the are impacted by a poor performance and I find it odd that none of the reviews mentioned that.

No matter what CDPR says this game is unfinished and should be released in 2020 maybe not even in 2021. Even if you subtract all the visual bugs and performance issues it would still be a heavily flawed game that wouldn’t deserve a rating higher than 6 or 7 out of 10.

While still fun it is frustrating to play because you can see that with more care this could be the masterpiece that we made up in our minds and CDPR advertised.

For my next update I hope to finish the game till than and maybe can articulate my feelings why this game is only Cyberpunk by name.

Night City is still gorgeous though.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Finally coming in April:

 

[Scyla]

5 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Finally coming in April:

 

Thanks, ordered. Now I need an Arrow Head toy for my childhood video game shelf, even if it always reminded me of an RV when I was a kid and looked at the box art.

Ideally the ship from Super R-Type but I would be up for an reissue of the A-Label Arrow Head.

Does anyone knows more about the A-Label one, is it any good?

Edited January 30, 2021 by Scyla

[Gerli]

Amazing event in Star Citizen

 

 

[Gerli]

-Mom, Can we get Itano Circus
-We already have Itano Circus at Home
The Itano Circus at Home:
 

Spoiler

https://i.redd.it/fpguyyp2gag61.gif

 

 

Edited February 8, 2021 by Gerli

[Gerli]

Cyberpunk 2077 looks AMAZING with the last Patch.

 

[no3Ljm]

 

[no3Ljm]

 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

 

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Deedlit + Symphony of the Night = instabuy for me:

Gonna buy it on Steam shortly.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Nostalgia hit me hard with this one:

 

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Streets of Rage 4 DLC coming our way:

 

[Tking22]

10 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Streets of Rage 4 DLC coming our way:

Holy crap really? This is totally awesome! I had no idea this was coming, this announcement just made my day! SoR4 is hands down, one of my favorite brawlers of all time, it's such a fantastic game that carried the legacy of the previous games very well, it was magnificent! I'm so in, I've got 80+ hours on my Switch, and another 50+ on Xbox, I'll definitely be grabbing this on both, the hype is real. 

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

1 hour ago, Tking22 said:

Holy crap really? This is totally awesome! I had no idea this was coming, this announcement just made my day! SoR4 is hands down, one of my favorite brawlers of all time, it's such a fantastic game that carried the legacy of the previous games very well, it was magnificent! I'm so in, I've got 80+ hours on my Switch, and another 50+ on Xbox, I'll definitely be grabbing this on both, the hype is real. 

Yep, I'm stoked as well.  The next new character will probably be Max ver 2.0.  I can't make out the third silhouette.

[azrael]

On 1/28/2021 at 7:01 PM, Tking22 said:

It most certainly is, she's the internet's new gaming obsession right now. 

Large creepily sexy-vampire chick is showing up in my feed again. I assume the Resident Evil 8's release is eminent?

[Tking22]

10 minutes ago, azrael said:

Large creepily sexy-vampire chick is showing up in my feed again. I assume the Resident Evil 8's release is eminent?

Yup, there's a new demo out so giant vampire waifu hype is back at full steam.

[Radd]

 

I picked up the early access for SubNautica and absolutely love it. The first SubNautica is easily my favourite game in like a decade. And I'm normally not interested in survival/crafting games. So far the sequel feels less mysterious, but I'm still loving my time with it.

[mikeszekely]

So for the last generation I had both an Xbox One (and later a One X) and a PS4.  I'm mostly a PC gamer, but I used my PS4 a fair bit, while I hardly touched my Xbox One.  In fact, the only reason why I didn't get rid of it is because my friends and I like to play Rock Band, which I'd had for my Xbox 360 (which saw more use in my house than the PS3 did), and I could only migrate the DLC from 360 to XB1.  Now, I'd been following the new console hype- I figured I'd want a PS5, as I'm sure there'd be some PlayStation-exclusive 1st-party games or JRPGs I'd want to play, but I'd totally missed the preorders.  Meanwhile, I'd kind of written off the Xbox Series X/S.  Well, a month or so ago I finally managed to get my hands on a PS5.  And as I was moving things around in my entertainment center I noticed my XB1 had stopped outputting video.  Rather than waste money on another XB1 or trying to get this one fixed I bit the bullet and tracked down an Xbox Series X, too.  And I gotta say, while the two consoles share a number of similarities there are some important differences, too.

Let's start with the PlayStation.  On the hardware side, everything is new.  The DualSense is an ergonomic improvement over the DualShock 4.  It retains many of the same features like the gyroscopes, the touchpad, the speaker, and the terrible battery life.  It does add a built-in mic, though, but the biggest new feature are the adaptive feedback triggers and more advanced haptics.  I'm not a fan of the design of the console itself; it's huge, bigger than the launch-model PS3s, and looks a bit like an oversized router.  Thing is, even if you don't like it you have to admit that it has a presence.  It's eye-catching, instantly recognizable, and totally unforgettable.  And yes, the PS5's much-ballyhooed SSD makes booting the console up and getting into games so much faster.

Things start to go downhill a bit as we get into the software.  At first, the interface seems brand new and it does make some important improvements like seamlessly integrating the PlayStation Store into the main UI vs loading an (often slow) app on the PS3 and PS4.  It also does away with the old TV and Video app you'd have to launch to subsequently launch apps like Netflix or Hulu, instead dividing your apps into Games and Media, and you toggle between them with the L1 and R1 buttons (BTW, if you start the console with the DualSense it'll start on Games, but if you start it with the official media remote it'll start on Media, which is a nice touch).  After you mess with it for a bit, though, you start to realize that the OS is actually a like like the PS4's, but worse.  I mean, you have a small row of your most recently-used games at the upper left of the screen that's basically the Content area from the PS4's OS, but smaller.  See, on the PS4 once you highlighted something you could press down on the d-pad to see more info; the PS5 moved the Content area to a smaller space so that the extra info is always present.  The thing is, while the PS4 started with with the last game or inserted disc highlighted the PS5 starts on Explore.  Explore is similar to What's Now, except rather than focusing on what your actual friends are doing it's filling your screen with some PlayStation news and a ton of Twitch or Youtube videos for games you follow.  Here's were things really go off the rails- see, if you've ever bought a game digitally, played a demo, or started a disc while connected to the PlayStation Network (including any freebies you grabbed on PS Plus) you're following it.  Fortunately, a recent system update allows you to more easily unfollow games, but as of writing there is no option to simply not follow in the first place.

Then there are the more minor irritations.  For 14 years and two consoles Sony has trained us to hold down the home button to turn the console off or put it to sleep, but now you just tap it.  The content area only shows a handful of items, far fewer than the PS4 did.  You get into your library by scrolling to the end of the row and clicking on it, same as before, but now your library is always sorted by "most recent."  Most recent doesn't mean "most recently played," either.  A game you might not have touched in months could have an update and jump to the top of the list.  While you can change the sorting to A-Z it won't retain that setting once you leave the library.

And then we come to the games themselves.  There's lots of fun games you can play on PS5.  It's just that you can play most (all?) of them on PS4.  In fact, a lot of them are PS4 games.  The first thing I played on my PS5 was Persona 5 Royal, which I'd already started on PS4.  If you're a PS Plus member Sony even gives you a "PlayStation Essentials" bundle of PS4 games to download, and I've grabbed a few more PS4 games in recent PlayStation Store sales.  .Even games that come in PS5 boxes because there are dedicated PS5 versions are still mostly available on PS4- my library of actual PS5 software consists of Immortals: Fenyx Rising, Watchdogs: Legions, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Control: Ultimate Edition, and every one of those is available for PS4 (and in one case, the Nintendo Switch).  4K and 60fps are nice but ultimately minor upgrades, it's a bit disappointing that I'm often forced to choose one or the other.  Control, for example, runs natively at 1440 upscaled to 4k, and then you can either choose graphics mode and get a 30fps lock with ray tracing on, or a performance mode that that lets you play at 60fps but turns ray tracing off.  Between you and me, go for the graphics mode, as ray tracing does more than the increased resolution to actually make the game look noticeably better than the PS4 version.

Anyway, I'm sure that there will be great must-play games exclusive to the PS5- I'm personally really looking forward to Horizon: Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarok.  For now, though, you're not really missing out on anything if you stick with the PS4.

On the other side of things is the Xbox Series X (or S).  A friend of mine complained that it didn't feel very next-gen to him.  I can see where he's coming from.  The console is black and non-descript, looking like a generic mini PC tower.  The controller looks almost identical to the Xbox One's.  It has a new d-pad that I thought I'd hate when I first saw it but in hand like it better than the old one, better textured grips, and a new share button, but that's about it.  No fancy haptics.  It still even uses AA batteries (although I'm actually glad for that, because the battery life is a lot better than the DualSense's and when it does run out I just swap in another pair of Eneloops).  As a matter of fact, the Series X/S Controller is so similar to the XB1 that you can actually sync and use XB1 controllers on the Series X (technically you can sync the DualShock 4 with a PS5, too, but only to play PS4 software).

The similarities don't stop there, though.  Once you've booted up the Xbox Series X you're taken to pretty much the exact same modified Windows OS that the Xbox One uses.  On the one hand, if you're coming from an XB1 that means there's no learning curve.  On the other hand, like my buddy said, it hardly feels new, though.  That said, there are some handy new features, the best of which is Quick Resume.  Quick Resume basically makes a save state of whatever you're playing whenever you stop, and it retains the states for the last three games you've played.  You might have heard about how it lets you play one game, jump into another, then go back to the first and pick up exactly where you left off, and that's true, but perhaps even better (for me at least) is that it'll keep the state saved when the power is off.  Since the Series X/S have SSDs like the PS5 and also benefit from quicker load times that makes getting back to a game super quick since you can cold boot the system, click on your game, then skip the the title screen and just go right back to where you left off.

The real game changer, though, is Microsoft's approach to games.  Aside from Halo and Forza (and, arguably, Gears of War) Microsoft hasn't traditionally had the must-have exclusives.  As a PC gamer this has been doubly true, since Microsoft started releasing their first-party games on Windows, too.  That might change in the future with Microsoft's purchase of Bethesda, but no, Microsoft doesn't seem to be using the old "system seller" games to push their consoles.  Instead, their secret weapon is Game Pass.  For $10 a month you simply have access to a library of games reaching all the way back to the original Xbox, kind of like a Netflix of gaming.  Or, for $5 more, you can get Game Pass Ultimate, which is Game Pass for Xbox, plus Game Pass for PC, plus Xbox Live Gold, plus EA Access.  And these aren't all old musty titles, either.  Brand new games like Outriders and MLB The Show 21 are on there.  Big hits like GTA V and Doom Eternal are on there.  Smaller games like Torchlight III and River City Girls are on there.  While I wish there was more (anything from Ubisoft's catalog was noticeably absent) there's enough variety to keep you entertained, and like Netflix new content cycles in and out every month.  What's more, Game Pass has a few other benefits.  Cloud saves mean you can start a game on the Xbox but pick up where you left off on PC.  And Project xCloud lets you stream games to Android phones, with streaming support rolling out to iOS and Windows even as I type this.

That said, whether you're going with Game Pass or buying your games outright, while some games are "Optimized for X/S" the Series X/S suffers from the same problem that the PS5's library does, namely that you can enjoy pretty much all the same games without upgrading to the new console.  As a matter of fact, Game Pass (regular or Ultimate) has already been available for Xbox One.  Indeed, I'd argue that at this point the hardware is secondary to Microsoft.  The entire point is the service.  It's like Microsoft knows that they can't beat Sony in the traditional sense, so they started playing an entirely different game.

And really, if you're going in on a subscription, why not buy the whole thing on monthly installments?  $500 is a lot of cash to put down for a new console, especially in the middle of a pandemic where a lot of people have lost their jobs.  Microsoft has worked with a number of partners to create a program called All Access where you basically get an Xbox Series X and two years of pre-paid Game Pass Ultimate for no money down on a 0% interest loan, which you then pay back at $35/mo over that two-year period ($25/mo if you go with the Series S).  Bad, if you don't want to commit to monthly payments, I guess, but good if you're like me and planned on getting Game Pass anyway, as it's actually slightly cheaper than buying the console outright and paying for Game Pass Ultimate for 24 months.

So that's everything in a long-winded nutshell.  I think both consoles have strong libraries, just mostly from the previous generation, but both have promising futures.  Because of the backwards compatibility with the last gen I'd say you should get whichever one has the ecosystem you're most-invested in (especially digitally).  Have of ton of PS4 games?  Go for the PS5.  Big Xbox One library?  Get a Series X.  Or, y'know, keep waiting for new games that you can't buy on PS4/Xbox One.

However, if you haven't been much into console gaming but you're thinking now's the time, then definitely go with the Xbox.  Game Pass isn't just a good value, it's quite likely a game-changer, a disruptive force set to do for gaming what Netflix and streaming video have done for movies and TV.

[Gerli]

Star Citizen is having a Free-Flight Event right now. You can Download the Alpha and explore the first Star System with a couple of free ships.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/download

(If you like the game and want to pledge, you can msg me and ask for a referral code to get some goodies in-game)

[Scyla]

Yay, finally an Arrow Head figure for my video game shelf that I can buy: https://www.hlj.com/1-120-scale-r-type-r-9a-arrow-head-qsq84243

I hoe it is good and if so hopefully they will make more, like ships from Gradius/Nemesis, Parodius, Axelay, Super R-Type… 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Scyla

[Chronocidal]

Nice looking, but yikes.. that looks really tiny.  They say the base is 21 cm long.. which part of the base are they referring to?  I have to assume they mean the blue part, and not the clear platform, but that's still a really small model.

[JB0]

Wait, the R-9 is a two-seater? 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

https://www.limitedrungames.com/collections/in-stock/products/switch-limited-run-106-castlevania-anniversary-collection-ultimate-edition

 

[mikeszekely]

7 hours ago, Black Valkyrie said:

 

https://www.limitedrungames.com/collections/in-stock/products/switch-limited-run-106-castlevania-anniversary-collection-ultimate-edition

 

Amusingly enough, this (the digital version, anyway) is actually what I'm playing right now.  Abusing the save feature let me get through the first Castlevania (although I played it a ton when I was a kid, couldn't get past the mummies then), and this will be the first time I've seriously played Castlevania II.  I'm determined to finish all the games in the collection.

Really wish Konami would do more Castlevania collections.  While I'd most love for them to do one with the six GBA and DS Metroidvanias, I think another collection with some of the other missing and occasionally more obscure games in the series would be good, too.  Say, Castlevania Legends, Castlevania: Dracula X, the MSX2 version of Vampire Killer, the PlayStation Castlevania Chronicles (which itself was basically a port of the Sharp X68000 game), the Famicom version of Kid Dracula, the arcade Haunted Castle, maybe even the mobile game Order of Shadows.

Oh, and bring Requiem to the Switch.  Or Steam.  I did pick it up for PS4, but I'd rather have all the Castlevanias on Switch (for portability) or PC (for posterity).