All Things Videogame Related: EXTREME VS!!

[jvmacross]

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/05/macross-shooting-insight-adds-ps5-version-story-detailed

[Old_Nash_II]

Mortal Kombat 1 Reboot

 

the blood gushes with taste

 

[Tking22]

Hype on MK1, damn, that looks phenomenal! MK has always been and always will be my favorite fighting series ever, I reached top 100 on Xbox for MK9, I might try to get serious about this one too. 

[no3Ljm]

Playstation Showcase 2023 starts today (5/24) at 1pm PST.

 

 

[no3Ljm]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Duke Togo]

If David Hayter isn't voicing Snake in the MSG3 remake, I'm not interested.

[azrael]

So Sony is coming out with their own Nvidia Shield/Logitech Cloud device. Well, it ain't competing against the Switch/SteamDeck/Ayaneo-devices/ROG Ally...Even if Remote Play does support cellular...it's still a crappy connection vs Wifi.

[sh9000]

Here's a new video with Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2099 coming to Fortnite.  I'll see if my kid will like it.

[no3Ljm]

On 5/24/2023 at 4:06 PM, Duke Togo said:

If David Hayter isn't voicing Snake in the MSG3 remake, I'm not interested.

According to the IGN article below, additional info was released after the event confirming that the remake will feature the original VA's, 'presumably' including David Hayer.

https://www.ign.com/articles/metal-gear-solid-3-remake-announced-playstation-showcase

Let's hope he is.  

 

Edit: Saw this on the Official Metal Gear tweeter account.

'Remain the same' might probably mean that they're just going to enhance the old voice recordings instead? Making it a 'faithful recreation' based on the tweet below. But again, one can hope.  

Official MGS Delta Snake Eater site:

https://www.konami.com/mg/mgs3r/us/en/

Edited May 27, 2023 by no3Ljm

[Chronocidal]

I had no idea this sort of thing was possible this quickly.. and it's bringing back some great memories of modding the old Jedi Knight games.

 

 

[Tking22]

I bought D4 Digital Deluxe so I could play a bit early, absolutely loving it, but I'm a die-hard Diablo fanboy and have been playing since D1 on my crappy old first PC waaaaay back in the day.

Solid launch so far, nothing like D3, I got off at 5, home by 5:15, fired up D4 on Series X, expected a 30-45 minute queue time, got in in about three minutes, no hassle. Like I said I'm loving it, still one of my all time favorite ARPGs, it's just a winning formula, and this one is so accessible, looks great, lots of great quality of life features, plus coop with five buddies is a lot of fun. Crossplay with PC is awesome, I have Discord on Xbox so getting to play with my PC buddies is great. Highly recommended, it's a fun addictive experience, and lots of fun with friends in coop. 

[mikeszekely]

I was pretty much console-only back in the days of Diablo, and while I was aware of Diablo II as a major thing it sort of passed me by.  I loved Diablo III... on console.  I know a lot of PC Diablo fans complained that the skill trees were less trees and more like a straight line, and they have a hard time understanding why I preferred to play with a controller, but I think I was approaching Diablo III more like a twin-stick shooter than an ARPG.

I did try Diablo II Resurrected and... I dunno.  I think DII needed more than just a graphical overhaul.  I'm sure it was fine at the time, but the grid-based movement just seemed too archaic to me.  Couldn't get into it after playing games like DIII and Titan Quest.

I'm definitely interested in DIV, but I'm not really in a huge hurry for it.  I'm still working my way through Tears of the Kingdom, and my neighbor's been on me to play Jedi Survivor.  I hear you can use a controller on PC this time?  I think that'll be what I do... maybe pick up an ROG Ally and take it on vacation.

[Tking22]

39 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I hear you can use a controller on PC this time?  I think that'll be what I do... maybe pick up an ROG Ally and take it on vacation.

Definitely can, both of my buddies on PC are using Series X controllers. 

[Old_Nash_II]

New DLC and Usagi

 

[mikeszekely]

Usagi wouldn't be my first choice for a DLC character, but I'm 100% in.

[Old_Nash_II]

Mortal Kombat 1 Gameplay

 

[sh9000]

Star Wars Outlaws.

[Duke Togo]

3 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Star Wars Outlaws.

No gameplay + it's an open world Ubisoft game, so color me skeptical. But, it's Star Wars, so I'll be keeping an eye on it.

[mikeszekely]

I'm into open world Ubisoft, so I'll definitely keep Outlaws on my radar, along with the Phantom Liberty Cyberpunk expansion, Starfield, Avowed, Forza Motorsport, and Metaphor.

[azrael]

2 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

No gameplay + it's an open world Ubisoft game, so color me skeptical. But, it's Star Wars, so I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Showing a cinematic trailer with no gameplay footage for A GAME is about as useful as showing me a title card. In this day and age, game trailers need to show gameplay, not all cinematics. Until then, MEH. I can't even be skeptical because you've literally showed me NOTHING.

[Big s]

57 minutes ago, azrael said:

Showing a cinematic trailer with no gameplay footage for A GAME is about as useful as showing me a title card. In this day and age, game trailers need to show gameplay, not all cinematics. Until then, MEH. I can't even be skeptical because you've literally showed me NOTHING.

I have to agree here. Cinematically should be more of a part of the final trailer 

[Duke Togo]

And here's the gameplay trailer. Haven't gotten to watch yet as I'm in a meeting.

 

[azrael]

54 minutes ago, Duke Togo said:

And here's the gameplay trailer. Haven't gotten to watch yet as I'm in a meeting.

Star Wars: Assassin's Creed?

[Dynaman]

Not to knock this game in particular but I'm sure the "That was close" line will be said so often I'd be pulling my hair out before I'd played the game for an hour.

Gameplay looks decent but the RPG like damage model (direct hit from a blaster and all the happens is a grunt) doesn't often work for me, with the exception of Mass Effect which seemed to make it work without feeling like a cheat.  

[Duke Togo]

I thought that looked pretty promising.

[mikeszekely]

On 6/2/2023 at 4:39 PM, mikeszekely said:

I think that'll be what I do... maybe pick up an ROG Ally and take it on vacation.

Well, I'm not doing a vacation right now because I tore my meniscus.  But I did indeed buy an ROG Ally.  And I have to say, it's greatest strengths are also it's greatest weaknesses.

I mean, the big one is Windows 11.  With Steam Deck, you're limited to only compatible games from your Steam library (at least, without jumping through a bunch of hoops).  Don't get me wrong, Valve's been doing an amazing job with Proton and I've found that most untested and even some unsupported games actually do run well on the Steam Deck, but it's a known issue that some games use an anti-cheat software that just isn't compatible.  And while it is technically possible to boot your Steam Deck into desktop mode, grab the Battle.Net installer, add the installer to Steam as a non-Steam game, run it with Proton Experimental, install Diablo IV, then find the .exe and add that to Steam as a non-Steam game, it's a couple of hoops that the less tech-savvy might not feel comfortable with.

But since the ROG Ally is running Windows 11, you can install pretty much any game from Steam... or Battle.Net, or Epic Store, or EA, or Ubisoft Connect, or Xbox, or Amazon Games, or GoG Galaxy.  And yes, I do have all those installed on my desktop, and yes, I did install all those on the Ally.  And, wouldn't you know it, the two games I happen to be playing right now are Jedi Survivor and Diablo IV, the former of which I do own on Steam but still requires the EA app, and the latter of which isn't available on Steam.

So, compatibility is good!  But out of the box I was only able to install those games on the Ally after setting up Windows, then downloading a truck load of Windows updates, then updating the BIOS/Firmware on the Ally, then updating Armory Crate app, then removing a ton of bloatware, then removing normal PC apps that would be totally fine on a laptop but I promise I'm not going to use Office on this thing.  I unboxed the Ally at around 11:00am and I didn't test a game on it until close to 6:00pm.  And about that Armory Crate app... it's basically Asus' front end for launching your games (regardless of what service they're on) and managing certain settings like how many watts the APU can draw or setting a maximum frame rate.  And, it works... after you've updated it.  But IMHO it's a bit ugly and barebones, and I often found myself exiting Armory Crate and going to the Windows desktop because it was just easier to do what I wanted there, despite only having a 7" screen for my fat fingers to poke.  What SteamOS gives up in compatibility it makes up for in polish, the Steam Deck might in truth be a Linux PC, but unless you reboot into Desktop mode it behaves like a handheld console.

I think the other main selling point for the Ally is power.  Asus claims that the Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip in the Ally is twice as powerful as the custom APU in the Steam Deck.  Benchmarks have been inconsistent; generally, I've heard that the poor showing the review samples made in May has mostly been corrected through updates, but at least one user claimed those same updates actually made his Ally's performance worse.  Generally speaking, though, at 15 watts and the same game settings the Ally does indeed perform markedly better than the Steam Deck, plus you can even push the Ally's APU higher (though you'll probably want to be close to an outlet, as you'll run down the battery in under an hour that way).  But then ASUS went and packed a 1080p, 120hz display on the Ally (vs the Steam Deck's 800p 60hz).  But outside of lightweight indie games you're unlikely ever see that many fps.  Depending on the game, you might not even be able to run it at 1080p.

One final thing to note is the design itself.  Totally subjective, but while I wouldn't suggest the Steam Deck's utilitarian design is "sexy," I prefer it to the aggressively "gamer" aesthetic of the Ally.  The Ally does run quieter and is a little lighter, but I think the Steam Deck is actually more comfortable to hold and has better buttons.

If you're looking for the TL;DR, the Ally isn't bad, and I think Asus priced it fairly aggressively, plus you can just pop into your local Best Buy and see if they have any.  If you're a PC gamer with a large library of non-Steam games, or one of your favorite games isn't compatible with SteamOS, it's worth looking into.  However, I think the Steam Deck is probably a better choice for most people looking to play a little PC on the go.

[azrael]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

But IMHO it's a bit ugly and barebones, and I often found myself exiting Armory Crate and going to the Windows desktop because it was just easier to do what I wanted there, despite only having a 7" screen for my fat fingers to poke. 

Armory Crate seems to be a common complaint I recall from the Techtubers. Especially when Windows is the underlying OS.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

But then ASUS went and packed a 1080p, 120hz display on the Ally (vs the Steam Deck's 800p 60hz).  But outside of lightweight indie games you're unlikely ever see that many fps.  Depending on the game, you might not even be able to run it at 1080p.

I also wonder if it affects battery life. 1080p @ 120Hz... That's drivin' all those pixels hard...

[mikeszekely]

19 hours ago, azrael said:

I also wonder if it affects battery life. 1080p @ 120Hz... That's drivin' all those pixels hard...

Personally I haven't had enough time with it (after installing my games and making sure they ran, I went and played on my desktop).  Other people's testing suggests that when set to 720p, 60hz, 15w that battery life is comparable to the Steam Deck, but frankly I think the Steam Deck's battery life is pretty unspectacular.  I'd guess that running at 1080p 120hz would theoretically drain the battery faster, but I'd also imagine that to even think about hitting that kind of performance you'd need to crank up the wattage, and that's what's going to eat up the battery.  At 15w I had to set Jedi Survivor to 720p low with ray tracing off and FSR to performance to get "playable" frame rates in the upper 20s. Same settings in game, but plugged in and the APU at 25w i can get mid 40s.

EDIT: Actually, Jedi Survivor turned it to be pretty much unplayable. I kept getting an error about running out of VRAM and crashing to desktop. I don't think that's on the Ally, though, as I'm heading reports of people having that issue on high end PCs with RTX 4090s. But it runs ok on my 2080, so, whatever.

Diablo IV runs pretty good, though. 1080p Medium at 15 watts will get me into the high 30s to mid 40s, and if I plug in and crank it to 25 I'm in the high 50s.

EDIT 2: Tried Jedi Survivor on the Steam Deck, even though it's listed as unsupported.  I was able to log into EA's launcher and get into the game, and it ran about the same as on the ROG Ally- 720p low without ray tracing, FSR to performance, 15w, framerates in the upper 20s/low 30s.  Not ideal, but playabled... until it crashed.  I'm guessing it's the same VRAM leak, but I'm not sure because instead of crashing to desktop it locked up the Steam Deck so bad I had to hard reset.  I guess we wait for more patches?  I haven't had the issue on my desktop, and FWIW my desktop has an Intel CPU while the Steam Deck and ROG Ally both have AMD.

Edited June 15, 2023 by mikeszekely

[no3Ljm]

 

 

[TangledThorns]

I'm about done with FF7: Intergrade Remake and its a beautifully fun game. Though not sure I'd be interested in it if I never played the original FF7 decades ago.

[sh9000]

Batman:  Arkham Trilogy Nintendo Switch Trailer.

[TangledThorns]

Too early for game play and plot details but I like the look!

 

 

[davidwhangchoi]

[TangledThorns]

You'd think we'd get a more modern MACROSS/ROBOTECH mecha game by this decade...

[jvmacross]

26 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

You'd think we'd get a more modern MACROSS/ROBOTECH mecha game by this decade...

Yeah, but to be honest....if it did not include SDFM/DYRL mecha, it would be dissapointing

The upcoming Macross Shooting Insight seems that it was obviously developed as an International release as it does not appear to have any SDFM/DYRL VFs included, maybe the Japan-only release will?