Also: Assetto Corsa 5/10, RIDE2 6/10, TT Isle of Man Racing 5/10, V-Rally4 6/10, NASCAR Heat2 6/10, Sébastien Loeb Rally 6/10.
Of all possibly genres, it's just odd to me that a racing game with apparently rather serious technical issues can easily outscore or be equal to racing games that have no significant technical issues. If this was any other genre it wouldn't really bother me, to each his own and all that, but with racing games the technical performance is especially important, you need a game that runs smoothly.
If the combat or gameplay mechanics in a game is not fun for you, it doesn't really matter if there's an Easy mode. I did not enjoy the combat in God of War 2018, even on Easy. It was the mechanics I did not enjoy, not the difficulty.
The priority of an action-based game should be on making the combat reasonably diverse, with options that alllow for a broad capture of gameplay styles. In Dark Souls for example, being a sorcerer or pyromancer was definitely easier for me than going melee, because it suited my personal gameplay style much better.
There's a notion today in the gaming community that "we must all like and play the same games", that if X is really popular you "have to" play it as well. I'm perfectly fine with not liking Bloodborne or God of War, ... my 30 year gaming history is filled with liking and not-liking games.
So racing games that are "technically rough" on the vanilla PS4 gets 6/10 while games that actually run well get scores like 3/5 ...
The only concern for me is the technical issues, if they can fix it somehow I might just be interested. I saw GiantBomb test it out on the PS4 and it looked fine as far as framerates go, but they probably ran it on the Pro.
On my PS4 it will be an assortment of Indie games: Shift Quantum, Road to Ballhalla, X-Morph Defense, Slime-san, Horizon Chase Turbo and more. Tonnes of fun in small packages.
I upgraded my PC today, and I'm eager to discover the improvements to my racing and driving games. So I´ll be testing out a whole bunch of games this weekend: American Truck Sim, Bus Simulator 18, RaceRoom, Dirt Rally 2, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Grip, rFactor 2, Euro Truck 2, and probably a few more.
About time I think, but I find myself really missing the old Assassin style, the melee action focus of Odyssey was not fun at all for me. 'Vikings' and 'stealth' sounds like a really odd match, so I think this one too will be completely focused on melee combat. So 'no', I don't think this AC is for me either. I would rather replay one of the older games.
Really liked the games, a great mix of humor and old-school action. I will probably play through the entire series again before I buy Borderlands 3 though.
@LuckyErika You can also get Zweihander or some other JRPG-like weapon and just one-shot everything in these games As with any game really, if you know how to play a game (how to level up correctly, beat the bosses etc), they don't become as difficult as perceived.
People wanting a greater challenge have always had that option, so I think it's fair it should go in the other direction as well.
The games my generation grew up playing where made difficult for business reasons: it was the cheapest and easiest way in which the developers could make a game last longer, given limited technology, and thus charge a higher price for it. The original Nintendo is a fine example of this. Very few people would pay $60-70 for game that can be beaten in just two hours, with moderate effort.
It's usually impressive to see others succeed at things that are difficult, but to demand or force that ambition on regular people is wrong. We have this worship of 'difficulty' in gaming right now, since Dark Souls. Lots of vocal people have the crazy idea that the best way to truly enjoy a game is to be frustrated and angry. Challenge can be great, but with the wrong person or game, it can also become tedious and unrewarding.
The vast majority of modern games do have an Easy mode though, even niches like 4X games, hidden object games and sim-racing games. Even many rogue-likes have more lenient modes these days. So this discussion is in practicality limited to a comparatively small set of titles; the Souls-like games.
Also, adding an Easy mode does not necessarily make a game more attractive. It's not the challenge that makes Bloodborne or Dark Souls uninteresting to me, it's the other parts. I really like some Souls-like games, like The Surge for example, and I would still have played that game regardless of the difficulty level.
When it comes to sim racing I always play on harder difficulties, since you learn the tracks and vehicles really well before a race. Other genres I usually play on Normal. Some genres I typically play on Easy; I really like 4X games, but I'm terrible at them and don't like resorting to guides or similar. So for me, it really depends on the genre.
How many RPGs have a 'game over' screen though? I mean, you are comparing an RPG with some old Assassin's Creed, i.e. a stealth-action game ... games where stealth was a big part of the challenge, similar to Hitman or Splinter Cell. Stealth is sort of the point with these games. You might as well have used 'Unlike an old Burnout or Mario game, you won't get a Game Over screen if you play this RPG if you fail something'. I get the point, but still ...
It's easy to criticize the prescriptive approach, but these are usually there to tell a specific story. The possible issue with these more open structures is that you won't get a deeper story, but something more shallow and comparatively empty, at least that has been my general experience. It depends in the developer's crafting of-course.
Driveclub only got 71 on Metacritic, userscore 6.2, yet it's Pushsquares' #1 racing game, ... just sayin' [maybe a Meta-score is not the best measure of 'fun'?].
@ultraviolet I only touch the single-player stuff. For sure, it doesn't have the same large number of cars as the previous Turismo games, and games like Forza Motorsport. However the cars you do get are wonderfully detailed and fun to drive around in. There's enough cars and tracks to be worth the price in my opinion. Also, the cockpit experience in this game is the most luxurious one I've experienced, and I have played most racing sims on the market.
What I would criticize is the lack of different racing events, not that the previous GT games offered a tonne of variety, but I do wish there was more variety in the types of races that you do. It feels very much like a typical GT game in this respect.
It's great of-course, how they keep adding to the title. For myself, who wanted a single-player experience, it's getting increasingly closer to the game I initially hoped to get. What's actually in the game is very good in my opinion.
This also makes me realize ta new Gran Turismo game is far, far away, and probably won't be released anywhere near a PS5 launch.
On the PS4, some F1 2018. Maybe it's just me, but I think the game has considerably more rainy races than the real thing has. I could be just imagining things though. Anyway, I discovered I still 100% suck at city-circuits, it's simply impossible for me to keep the same pace as even the worst of the AI. Also, some Dakar 18 and Nascar Heat 3 on the PS4.
On PC, Endless Space 2, a Master of Orion type game, Cossacks 3, a really good traditional RTS, and continuing a second playthrough of Unavowed, a wonderful old-school point & click adventure game. Hopefully, a race or two in Dirt Rally 2.
Paradox won't even mention the Holocaust in their Hearts of Iron games, it didn't happen as far as these games are concerned, yet here they want to show a moral and political stance?! It's just a tad hypocritical to me.
As for Vampire 2, I think they should have left this stuff unmentioned and allowed gamers themselves to discover these things, I think that would have been more effective as far as their political goals are concerned.
By them mentioning this stuff now, before I've seen proper gameplay, makes me feel that I'm buying a political product first and foremost, that I'm sort of supporting a political movement, that I'm making a statement by buying it. That doesn't sit well with me; I left GOG, the PC games store, because I felt it was more or less just a political front, not a proper games' store.
That's good. Exclusives are unfair to the developers, any decent game deserves to reach as wide an audience as possible, that's my opinion on this matter.
I didn't really buy a PS4 for the exclusives, I bought it to escape some of the hassles that come with PC gaming as it concerns triple-A games. That said, I do know many people buy consoles for the exclusives, in the same way many PC gamers will pick a PC over a console, because of its exclusives. Exclusives are system sellers.
Most exclusives getting released on other systems, whether console to PC or PC to console, are released after they have reached a maximum on the initial platform, when they are not really selling much anymore.
The thing is though, can streaming quality even be equalized? These services will have to focus on countries, or consumers, who have the latest and best "internet quality", as well as the supporting hardware. The technology is not static however, it's an evolving thing, where a few countries will always be ahead and most will play catch-up.
I don't think established platforms like Playstation and Steam can afford to ignore the huge group of consumers who don't have excellent streaming options. I feel they would loose far more consumers than they would gain. Streaming services for gaming does not open up the gaming market, instead I think it restricts it.
Google claiming this as the best solution for gaming is not surprising, they have no gaming consumer base to loose, so of-course they have a very limited view of this.
Well, people either really like or really dislike Piranha games, it's usuallly one or the other. They are divisive in the same way as Dynasty Warriors, Assassin's Creed, Need For Speed and others.
When it comes to RPGs I will always prefer old-school RPGs over modern ones. My idea of a good RPG is stuff like Fallout 1-2, Ultima, Baldur's Gate, Gothic, Might & Magic, Secret of Mana and so on.
So if I have to choose between games like Witcher 3, Mass Effect 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, ... or something like Pillars of Eternity, Lost Sphear, and Wasteland 3, I'm naturally gonna pick the latter group.
And Elex is very much designed like these older RPGs, especially Gothic, Soulbringer and Return to Krondor. So that's the big appeal for me with Elex, and Piranha games in general.
If games like No Man's Sky, Rainbow Six Siege, GTA Online, and others, can make a comeback, I'm sure Anthem could as well. They just need to (re-)focus on the right things, which admittedly was their problem from the start.
On the PS4, The Grand Tour Game, and probably some F1 2018 as well, I feel inspired by the real F1 having started again.
On PC some Elex (I'm a big fan of Piranha's rpg-s, despite their imperfections), Oriental Empires (Total War meets Civilization), and Star Control Origins.
Something slow-paced and immersive on the PS4: theHunter: Call of the Wild, and Hunting Simulator. Two excellent chill-out games. I have zero experience of hunting in real-life, but thoroughly enjoy the gameplay in games like this. On PC, some Pure Farming 2018 and Bus Simulator 18. So only sims this weekend.
Monster Energy Supercross 2 or Dirt Rally 2. I can't choose between them, they each offer a completely different kind of experience. They both have great parts, and some not-so-great parts.
Looks great. FPS games were much more fun 20+ years ago. There's been a few old-school FPS games released in recent years, similar to Wrath, but nothing as ambitious as this I think (to my knowledge).
@Jake3103 That seems to be the case. From their blogpost: 'Monte Carlo Rally and other returning classic rally environments Germany and Sweden benefit from a significant visual uplift since the first DiRT Rally®. The new lighting system combined with improvements to the track materials, foliage and character models bring the locations to life even more' (http://blog.codemasters.com/community/02/seasonone-dr2/)
So while it's mainly a visual remake, the post does mention "improvements to the track material". So racing on them should feel somewhat different form the first game.
I'm only after the "new" locations and tracks. I mean the cars are great and all, but in this series you spend more time with each car, so I don't really need a huge selection of vehicles.
Season One will focus on rally, and will add three locations: Monte Carlo, Sweden, and Germany. All expected, more or less.
Man, the console versions seem utterly broken. My brother plays it on PC and he says it's working OK, but a friend of mine is too afraid to even start the game on his PS4.
Depends on the game prices, a full-priced console game is typically more expensive digitally (considerably so) than its disc version. The exception being Indie games. A BluRay player is not that expensive. So I would be OK with it.
It might however give Sony an excuse to increase the digital prices and raise the price of its online (multiplayer) fees. And while a disc-less Playstation might be cheap-ish in the States, it will still be rather expensive in other parts of the world.
Having your brand name be associated with a forum where kiddie porn, neo-nazism, and every posible level of harassment exists, is probably not a good idea .... yet, THQ must have known what kind of forum that is, they can't be that stupid.
If THQ can respect that forum enough to have an AMA there, I don't have much respect for them. They might as well have had their AMA at the Daily Stormer, Stormfront or similar.
Lots of interesting games, but no new games for me this month, need to watch my wallet. Otherwise I might have bought the Sinking City this month, or One Piece.
A special shout-out to Car Mechanic Simulator if you want something very different and unique, ... and are interested in cars. I've played the latest one on my PC quite a bit. It's a bit heavy with the DLCs, but otherwise it's good chill game.
More of the The Grand Tour game and Nascar heat 3 on the PS4. I'm making consistent progress in the latter, with the dirt racing. It's really cool and impressive how they have managed to make the dirt feel different between so many of the tracks. It really hits home how different each oval is from the others. The more I play of the Tour game the more I enjoy it; you watch some fun videos, then do the stuff they do. It's just a very nice thing to chill out with on a weekend.
Age of Wonders III and The Bard's Tale IV on my PC. I've played Age of Wonders before but haven't played this latest one. In case you don't know; it's like Civilization but with a Fantasy setting, and where the only real winning condition is 'conquest'. I played Bard's Tale 3 a long time ago, but don't remember that much from it. This new one is great though, the combat is old-school dungeon crawling stuff, which I really enjoy. It suits the game better than being in 3rd-person. It's rumored to arrive on consoles as well, but I couldn't really wait for that, I hope it does though.
All really good games there. I would easily recommend Spintires if you like offroad driving and technical driving games. It's a nice game to relax with. Jurassic World is awesome, it plays really well with a controller. Elite Dangerous is great ... if you are willing to dedicate lots of hours on it, it´s a very immersive game.
Dishonored is the perfect stealth game for me, with a superb storyline and settings. It´s the best franchise Bethesda has ever made or published, in my opinion.
I´ve tested Wolfenstein and it played really well, but it´s just not my type of FPS.
I'm in the 'Not bad' category, i.e. 6/10 (and 7/10 when fixed some more). I get the same thing from this game that I got from Destiny, it's similar but in 3rd person. I do enjoy the combat more in Anthem than in Destiny. So for me Anthem is more fun to play in a technical sense. I never expected Destiny or Anthem to offer me a great storyline or a deeply fascinating game-world, so my focus has been on how fun the combat was.
I've only played Anthem on PC though, and it worked quite well when I played it. The console versions seem the worst off by the sound of things, as it ran more or less smoothly for me.
However, if I had to pick one game to play from this narrow genre (mmo shooter thingy), it would be The Division. Not only does it have [for me] very satisfying combat, it also has a rather immersive game-world (for these types of games).
It´s a pre-order for me. The game worlds these devs have made are the best ones I´ve experienced in all my years of gaming. It´s just right up my alley. Do I want more of it? Obviously.
It was the first Western triple-A game to really wow me as far as the current gen is concerned. I would have enjoyed the game more without the crafting, I didn´t like that part of it. I mainly played it for the story and robo-dinos.
Bought it today (on PC). It's really good so far. In my first impression I feel like it has a very good balance: it's challenging yet rewards you enough to make progress in a decent way, as long as you drive cleanly enough. It plays really well with a controller too, there's a pleasant weight to the physics and the triggers. It has good selection of content, however I do miss some Sweden, Monaco and Germany stuff (future DLCs).
Overall it feels like a more thought-out product than the first Dirt Rally game, and so far it's up there with F1 2018 as one of CM's best games. For me this will be an excellent year for rally racing, with this and [the less hardcore] WRC 8 (September).
This weekend was all about my PC, played some Pillars of Eternity, Conarium,Technobabylon, Raceroom, and Eurotruck. I also bought some new and really nice-looking adventure games, including the beautifully designed Iris.Falls, which I hope will land on consoles as well some day, it deserves a big reach.
So we live in a world where 7/10 is considered 'bad' or even 'terrible' ... ugh.
Hitman 2 just got 8/10 in most places, so by this article's criteria it must be slightly better than crap at best. Not to mention PushSquare's darling Driveclub, which got ratings as low as 2/5 and 5/10, from respectable gaming sites.
Action + skill tree = action rpg. The concept is not much different from Nioh, Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne, Yakuza, ... which PushSquare all listed as RPGs. I mean, if Bloodborne is an RPG or action RPG, Sekiro should qualify as well in the same category.
Using Metacritic ratings as a measure for success is wrong: a game can rate 60% and still sell a huge number of copies, likewise a game rated 90% might still end-up selling just 20-50k copies. Metacritic is a reflection of 'taste', of a very specific type of gamer.
Microsoft's target has to be the PS5, not the PS4. It's too late for them to challenge the latter.
Microsoft have been expanding their combined PC-and-Xbox platform efforts, in this respect they have been much more successful than Sony's PC efforts. As a platform for joint gaming systems (PC, Xbox, ... other?), Microsoft could have an advantage in the future.
I don't really care about the Sony vs. Microsoft battle that much though, as I'm more of a PC gamer these days, and the majority of the console exclusives I care about are (or will be) available on PC as well (Forza, Yakuza, ...). Just as I can't stand the PC Masterrace bullcrap, I don't really care for this anti-x console behaviour.
I have their previous bus game, Bus Simulator 16, on PC. That one was quite fun; more accessible than OMSI and with a fun management mode, which adds more scope to the game. I will buy Bus Simulator 18 for my PC though. As with other sim games I wonder if it will actually sell anything on consoles, if it is worth their efforts, since console gamers are more or less only interested in AAA games.
@R1spam The first Mass Effect is still the best in series, savor the moment. It's what I hoped the sequels would be like, but for me the series only went downhill after the first game. However, there are things to like about each game, even Andromeda, which I enjoyed overall.
Ride 3 on the PS4. I don't like the Career mode though: the difference between the competing bikes taking part in an event is just too large. The game really wants to force you to buy the über-bikes or upgrade everything as much as possible. It would have been much better if everyone in a race used the same bike, as with their Ducati game. That and the blatant rubber-banding really annoys me, because it makes the difficulty is so uneven. So I put the game on 'easy' and harvest the money to buy new bikes, which I then use in what has become my main gameplay event: the Time Trials. It's a shame they can't learn from Forza or Gran Turismo, which they obviously borrowed this Career design from. Neither of these really forced you to upgrade or buy the best possible car, the games adjusted and matched the AI's selection really well to whatever you were using. The Ride games simply don't do that (well enough).
What else?! I'm split between doing more racing/driving (MXGP Pro, Dakar 18, RaceRoom, Euro/US Truck, Spintires, Grip) or some Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2 (both on PC), Jurassic World Evolution and Aven Colony (both on PS4).
Comments 788
Re: Dangerous Driving - As Close as You'll Get to Classic Burnout on PS4
@get2sammyb
Specifically: MXGP Pro 3/10.
Also: Assetto Corsa 5/10, RIDE2 6/10, TT Isle of Man Racing 5/10, V-Rally4 6/10, NASCAR Heat2 6/10, Sébastien Loeb Rally 6/10.
Of all possibly genres, it's just odd to me that a racing game with apparently rather serious technical issues can easily outscore or be equal to racing games that have no significant technical issues. If this was any other genre it wouldn't really bother me, to each his own and all that, but with racing games the technical performance is especially important, you need a game that runs smoothly.
Re: God of War PS4 Director Says Accessibility Will Never Compromise His Vision
If the combat or gameplay mechanics in a game is not fun for you, it doesn't really matter if there's an Easy mode. I did not enjoy the combat in God of War 2018, even on Easy. It was the mechanics I did not enjoy, not the difficulty.
The priority of an action-based game should be on making the combat reasonably diverse, with options that alllow for a broad capture of gameplay styles. In Dark Souls for example, being a sorcerer or pyromancer was definitely easier for me than going melee, because it suited my personal gameplay style much better.
There's a notion today in the gaming community that "we must all like and play the same games", that if X is really popular you "have to" play it as well. I'm perfectly fine with not liking Bloodborne or God of War, ... my 30 year gaming history is filled with liking and not-liking games.
Re: Dangerous Driving - As Close as You'll Get to Classic Burnout on PS4
So racing games that are "technically rough" on the vanilla PS4 gets 6/10 while games that actually run well get scores like 3/5 ...
The only concern for me is the technical issues, if they can fix it somehow I might just be interested. I saw GiantBomb test it out on the PS4 and it looked fine as far as framerates go, but they probably ran it on the Pro.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 266
@Link41 Wow, awesome, thanks for telling me ! downloading and installing as I write this
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 266
On my PS4 it will be an assortment of Indie games: Shift Quantum, Road to Ballhalla, X-Morph Defense, Slime-san, Horizon Chase Turbo and more. Tonnes of fun in small packages.
I upgraded my PC today, and I'm eager to discover the improvements to my racing and driving games. So I´ll be testing out a whole bunch of games this weekend: American Truck Sim, Bus Simulator 18, RaceRoom, Dirt Rally 2, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Grip, rFactor 2, Euro Truck 2, and probably a few more.
Re: It Sounds Like the Next Assassin's Creed Will Be All About Vikings
About time I think, but I find myself really missing the old Assassin style, the melee action focus of Odyssey was not fun at all for me. 'Vikings' and 'stealth' sounds like a really odd match, so I think this one too will be completely focused on melee combat. So 'no', I don't think this AC is for me either. I would rather replay one of the older games.
Re: Poll: Are You a Big Borderlands Fan, and Are You Hyped for Borderlands 3?
Really liked the games, a great mix of humor and old-school action.
I will probably play through the entire series again before I buy Borderlands 3 though.
Re: Talking Point: Should All Games Have an Easy Mode?
@LuckyErika You can also get Zweihander or some other JRPG-like weapon and just one-shot everything in these games As with any game really, if you know how to play a game (how to level up correctly, beat the bosses etc), they don't become as difficult as perceived.
Re: Talking Point: Should All Games Have an Easy Mode?
People wanting a greater challenge have always had that option, so I think it's fair it should go in the other direction as well.
The games my generation grew up playing where made difficult for business reasons: it was the cheapest and easiest way in which the developers could make a game last longer, given limited technology, and thus charge a higher price for it. The original Nintendo is a fine example of this. Very few people would pay $60-70 for game that can be beaten in just two hours, with moderate effort.
It's usually impressive to see others succeed at things that are difficult, but to demand or force that ambition on regular people is wrong. We have this worship of 'difficulty' in gaming right now, since Dark Souls. Lots of vocal people have the crazy idea that the best way to truly enjoy a game is to be frustrated and angry. Challenge can be great, but with the wrong person or game, it can also become tedious and unrewarding.
The vast majority of modern games do have an Easy mode though, even niches like 4X games, hidden object games and sim-racing games. Even many rogue-likes have more lenient modes these days. So this discussion is in practicality limited to a comparatively small set of titles; the Souls-like games.
Also, adding an Easy mode does not necessarily make a game more attractive. It's not the challenge that makes Bloodborne or Dark Souls uninteresting to me, it's the other parts. I really like some Souls-like games, like The Surge for example, and I would still have played that game regardless of the difficulty level.
When it comes to sim racing I always play on harder difficulties, since you learn the tracks and vehicles really well before a race. Other genres I usually play on Normal. Some genres I typically play on Easy; I really like 4X games, but I'm terrible at them and don't like resorting to guides or similar. So for me, it really depends on the genre.
Re: You Won't Get a Game Over for Failing Missions in Cyberpunk 2077
How many RPGs have a 'game over' screen though? I mean, you are comparing an RPG with some old Assassin's Creed, i.e. a stealth-action game ... games where stealth was a big part of the challenge, similar to Hitman or Splinter Cell. Stealth is sort of the point with these games. You might as well have used 'Unlike an old Burnout or Mario game, you won't get a Game Over screen if you play this RPG if you fail something'. I get the point, but still ...
It's easy to criticize the prescriptive approach, but these are usually there to tell a specific story. The possible issue with these more open structures is that you won't get a deeper story, but something more shallow and comparatively empty, at least that has been my general experience. It depends in the developer's crafting of-course.
Re: Outward - An Unremarkable Yet Charming Nod to Old School RPGs
Definitely on my rader. Old-school is still the best for RPGs as far as I'm concerned.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 265
Some MotoGP 17 and MXGP Pro on my PS4, just Career progression stuff. Some RaceRoom, Battletech and Endless Space 2 on PC. A nice mix of things.
Tried some Division 2 at my brother's place. A nice game overall, but I don't like enemies spawning out of nowhere in games like this.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Games for April 2019?
Driveclub only got 71 on Metacritic, userscore 6.2, yet it's Pushsquares' #1 racing game, ... just sayin' [maybe a Meta-score is not the best measure of 'fun'?].
Re: GT Sport's Free Updates Will Continue, More Cars Teased
@ultraviolet I only touch the single-player stuff. For sure, it doesn't have the same large number of cars as the previous Turismo games, and games like Forza Motorsport. However the cars you do get are wonderfully detailed and fun to drive around in. There's enough cars and tracks to be worth the price in my opinion. Also, the cockpit experience in this game is the most luxurious one I've experienced, and I have played most racing sims on the market.
What I would criticize is the lack of different racing events, not that the previous GT games offered a tonne of variety, but I do wish there was more variety in the types of races that you do. It feels very much like a typical GT game in this respect.
Re: GT Sport's Free Updates Will Continue, More Cars Teased
It's great of-course, how they keep adding to the title. For myself, who wanted a single-player experience, it's getting increasingly closer to the game I initially hoped to get. What's actually in the game is very good in my opinion.
This also makes me realize ta new Gran Turismo game is far, far away, and probably won't be released anywhere near a PS5 launch.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 264
On the PS4, some F1 2018. Maybe it's just me, but I think the game has considerably more rainy races than the real thing has. I could be just imagining things though. Anyway, I discovered I still 100% suck at city-circuits, it's simply impossible for me to keep the same pace as even the worst of the AI. Also, some Dakar 18 and Nascar Heat 3 on the PS4.
On PC, Endless Space 2, a Master of Orion type game, Cossacks 3, a really good traditional RTS, and continuing a second playthrough of Unavowed, a wonderful old-school point & click adventure game. Hopefully, a race or two in Dirt Rally 2.
Re: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Takes a Firm Political Stance, LGBT & Mental Illness Representation
Paradox won't even mention the Holocaust in their Hearts of Iron games, it didn't happen as far as these games are concerned, yet here they want to show a moral and political stance?! It's just a tad hypocritical to me.
As for Vampire 2, I think they should have left this stuff unmentioned and allowed gamers themselves to discover these things, I think that would have been more effective as far as their political goals are concerned.
By them mentioning this stuff now, before I've seen proper gameplay, makes me feel that I'm buying a political product first and foremost, that I'm sort of supporting a political movement, that I'm making a statement by buying it. That doesn't sit well with me; I left GOG, the PC games store, because I felt it was more or less just a political front, not a proper games' store.
Re: Quantic Dream's Detroit: Become Human Heading to PC
That's good. Exclusives are unfair to the developers, any decent game deserves to reach as wide an audience as possible, that's my opinion on this matter.
I didn't really buy a PS4 for the exclusives, I bought it to escape some of the hassles that come with PC gaming as it concerns triple-A games. That said, I do know many people buy consoles for the exclusives, in the same way many PC gamers will pick a PC over a console, because of its exclusives. Exclusives are system sellers.
Most exclusives getting released on other systems, whether console to PC or PC to console, are released after they have reached a maximum on the initial platform, when they are not really selling much anymore.
Re: Poll: Do You Think Google Stadia and Streaming Are the Future of Video Games?
The thing is though, can streaming quality even be equalized? These services will have to focus on countries, or consumers, who have the latest and best "internet quality", as well as the supporting hardware. The technology is not static however, it's an evolving thing, where a few countries will always be ahead and most will play catch-up.
I don't think established platforms like Playstation and Steam can afford to ignore the huge group of consumers who don't have excellent streaming options. I feel they would loose far more consumers than they would gain. Streaming services for gaming does not open up the gaming market, instead I think it restricts it.
Google claiming this as the best solution for gaming is not surprising, they have no gaming consumer base to loose, so of-course they have a very limited view of this.
Re: Bethesda Dates E3 2019 Showcase, Teases DOOM Eternal and 'Much, Much More'
'Hope to see?´' how about a Daggerfall remaster or remake, that and Morrowind are the only Scrolls game I care about.
Other than that, more Prey, Dishonored, and Evil Within.
Re: Days Gone Details Its Seriously Impressive Photo Mode
I only use photomode in racing games, like GT Sport and Forza. If you could do more things with the pics I'd be more interested.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 263
@ellsworth004
Well, people either really like or really dislike Piranha games, it's usuallly one or the other. They are divisive in the same way as Dynasty Warriors, Assassin's Creed, Need For Speed and others.
When it comes to RPGs I will always prefer old-school RPGs over modern ones. My idea of a good RPG is stuff like Fallout 1-2, Ultima, Baldur's Gate, Gothic, Might & Magic, Secret of Mana and so on.
So if I have to choose between games like Witcher 3, Mass Effect 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, ... or something like Pillars of Eternity, Lost Sphear, and Wasteland 3, I'm naturally gonna pick the latter group.
And Elex is very much designed like these older RPGs, especially Gothic, Soulbringer and Return to Krondor. So that's the big appeal for me with Elex, and Piranha games in general.
Re: ANTHEM's Latest Update Has Broken the Game on a Fundamental Level
If games like No Man's Sky, Rainbow Six Siege, GTA Online, and others, can make a comeback, I'm sure Anthem could as well. They just need to (re-)focus on the right things, which admittedly was their problem from the start.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 263
On the PS4, The Grand Tour Game, and probably some F1 2018 as well, I feel inspired by the real F1 having started again.
On PC some Elex (I'm a big fan of Piranha's rpg-s, despite their imperfections), Oriental Empires (Total War meets Civilization), and Star Control Origins.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 262
Something slow-paced and immersive on the PS4: theHunter: Call of the Wild, and Hunting Simulator. Two excellent chill-out games. I have zero experience of hunting in real-life, but thoroughly enjoy the gameplay in games like this. On PC, some Pure Farming 2018 and Bus Simulator 18. So only sims this weekend.
Re: Poll: Have You Bought Devil May Cry 5?
Never had an interest in this franchise, can't find anything interesting about it.
Re: CD Projekt Red Thanks Fans for Their Cyberpunk 2077 Support
Judging by the media's pandering to this company you'd think the game has been rated 10/10 already.
Re: Game of the Month: Best PS4 Games of February 2019
Monster Energy Supercross 2 or Dirt Rally 2. I can't choose between them, they each offer a completely different kind of experience. They both have great parts, and some not-so-great parts.
Re: 3D Realms Returns to Its Roots with Wrath: Aeon of Ruin
Looks great. FPS games were much more fun 20+ years ago. There's been a few old-school FPS games released in recent years, similar to Wrath, but nothing as ambitious as this I think (to my knowledge).
Re: DiRT Rally 2.0 Season One Starts on 12th March, Adds New Cars and Locations
@Jake3103 That seems to be the case. From their blogpost:
'Monte Carlo Rally and other returning classic rally environments Germany and Sweden benefit from a significant visual uplift since the first DiRT Rally®. The new lighting system combined with improvements to the track materials, foliage and character models bring the locations to life even more' (http://blog.codemasters.com/community/02/seasonone-dr2/)
So while it's mainly a visual remake, the post does mention "improvements to the track material". So racing on them should feel somewhat different form the first game.
Re: DiRT Rally 2.0 Season One Starts on 12th March, Adds New Cars and Locations
I'm only after the "new" locations and tracks. I mean the cars are great and all, but in this series you spend more time with each car, so I don't really need a huge selection of vehicles.
Season One will focus on rally, and will add three locations: Monte Carlo, Sweden, and Germany. All expected, more or less.
Re: Yakuza Studio Has Gone the Extra Mile for Judgment's Localisation
Thanks, but I like the way it's been before (with Yakuza games).
Re: BioWare 'Working Closely' with Sony to Fix ANTHEM's Unacceptable PS4 Shutdown Crashes
Man, the console versions seem utterly broken. My brother plays it on PC and he says it's working OK, but a friend of mine is too afraid to even start the game on his PS4.
Re: Talking Point: Would You Buy a Disc-Less PS4 Console?
Depends on the game prices, a full-priced console game is typically more expensive digitally (considerably so) than its disc version. The exception being Indie games. A BluRay player is not that expensive. So I would be OK with it.
It might however give Sony an excuse to increase the digital prices and raise the price of its online (multiplayer) fees. And while a disc-less Playstation might be cheap-ish in the States, it will still be rather expensive in other parts of the world.
Re: THQ Nordic Issues Apology for Asinine AMA with 8chan
Having your brand name be associated with a forum where kiddie porn, neo-nazism, and every posible level of harassment exists, is probably not a good idea .... yet, THQ must have known what kind of forum that is, they can't be that stupid.
If THQ can respect that forum enough to have an AMA there, I don't have much respect for them. They might as well have had their AMA at the Daily Stormer, Stormfront or similar.
Re: Guide: New PS4 Games Releasing in March 2019
Lots of interesting games, but no new games for me this month, need to watch my wallet. Otherwise I might have bought the Sinking City this month, or One Piece.
A special shout-out to Car Mechanic Simulator if you want something very different and unique, ... and are interested in cars. I've played the latest one on my PC quite a bit. It's a bit heavy with the DLCs, but otherwise it's good chill game.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 261
More of the The Grand Tour game and Nascar heat 3 on the PS4. I'm making consistent progress in the latter, with the dirt racing. It's really cool and impressive how they have managed to make the dirt feel different between so many of the tracks. It really hits home how different each oval is from the others. The more I play of the Tour game the more I enjoy it; you watch some fun videos, then do the stuff they do. It's just a very nice thing to chill out with on a weekend.
Age of Wonders III and The Bard's Tale IV on my PC. I've played Age of Wonders before but haven't played this latest one. In case you don't know; it's like Civilization but with a Fantasy setting, and where the only real winning condition is 'conquest'. I played Bard's Tale 3 a long time ago, but don't remember that much from it. This new one is great though, the combat is old-school dungeon crawling stuff, which I really enjoy. It suits the game better than being in 3rd-person. It's rumored to arrive on consoles as well, but I couldn't really wait for that, I hope it does though.
Re: Much Like Dead or Alive 5, Dead or Alive 6 Has $93 Season Passes
Seems like Tecmo want their franchise to be the Apple of fighting games.
Re: Sony Returns with Another PS4 Weekend Flash Sale on EU PlayStation Store
All really good games there. I would easily recommend Spintires if you like offroad driving and technical driving games. It's a nice game to relax with. Jurassic World is awesome, it plays really well with a controller. Elite Dangerous is great ... if you are willing to dedicate lots of hours on it, it´s a very immersive game.
Dishonored is the perfect stealth game for me, with a superb storyline and settings. It´s the best franchise Bethesda has ever made or published, in my opinion.
I´ve tested Wolfenstein and it played really well, but it´s just not my type of FPS.
Re: Poll: One Week Later, Were the Reviews Right About ANTHEM?
I'm in the 'Not bad' category, i.e. 6/10 (and 7/10 when fixed some more). I get the same thing from this game that I got from Destiny, it's similar but in 3rd person. I do enjoy the combat more in Anthem than in Destiny. So for me Anthem is more fun to play in a technical sense. I never expected Destiny or Anthem to offer me a great storyline or a deeply fascinating game-world, so my focus has been on how fun the combat was.
I've only played Anthem on PC though, and it worked quite well when I played it. The console versions seem the worst off by the sound of things, as it ran more or less smoothly for me.
However, if I had to pick one game to play from this narrow genre (mmo shooter thingy), it would be The Division. Not only does it have [for me] very satisfying combat, it also has a rather immersive game-world (for these types of games).
Re: Judgment Sounds Like a Superb Return to Kamurocho, According to First English Previews
It´s a pre-order for me. The game worlds these devs have made are the best ones I´ve experienced in all my years of gaming. It´s just right up my alley. Do I want more of it? Obviously.
Re: Horizon: Zero Dawn Sells Over 10 Million Copies Worldwide in Two Years
It was the first Western triple-A game to really wow me as far as the current gen is concerned. I would have enjoyed the game more without the crafting, I didn´t like that part of it. I mainly played it for the story and robo-dinos.
Re: DiRT Rally 2.0 - The Lean Mean Rally Sim Makes a Triumphant Return
Bought it today (on PC). It's really good so far. In my first impression I feel like it has a very good balance: it's challenging yet rewards you enough to make progress in a decent way, as long as you drive cleanly enough. It plays really well with a controller too, there's a pleasant weight to the physics and the triggers. It has good selection of content, however I do miss some Sweden, Monaco and Germany stuff (future DLCs).
Overall it feels like a more thought-out product than the first Dirt Rally game, and so far it's up there with F1 2018 as one of CM's best games. For me this will be an excellent year for rally racing, with this and [the less hardcore] WRC 8 (September).
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 260
This weekend was all about my PC, played some Pillars of Eternity, Conarium,Technobabylon, Raceroom, and Eurotruck. I also bought some new and really nice-looking adventure games, including the beautifully designed Iris.Falls, which I hope will land on consoles as well some day, it deserves a big reach.
Re: Round Up: ANTHEM PS4 Reviews Go Down Like a Lead Balloon
So we live in a world where 7/10 is considered 'bad' or even 'terrible' ... ugh.
Hitman 2 just got 8/10 in most places, so by this article's criteria it must be slightly better than crap at best. Not to mention PushSquare's darling Driveclub, which got ratings as low as 2/5 and 5/10, from respectable gaming sites.
Re: Guide: Is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Like Dark Souls?
Action + skill tree = action rpg. The concept is not much different from Nioh, Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne, Yakuza, ... which PushSquare all listed as RPGs. I mean, if Bloodborne is an RPG or action RPG, Sekiro should qualify as well in the same category.
Re: Soapbox: Crackdown 3 Is Proof That Microsoft Is Still Playing Catch-Up to Sony
Using Metacritic ratings as a measure for success is wrong: a game can rate 60% and still sell a huge number of copies, likewise a game rated 90% might still end-up selling just 20-50k copies. Metacritic is a reflection of 'taste', of a very specific type of gamer.
Microsoft's target has to be the PS5, not the PS4. It's too late for them to challenge the latter.
Microsoft have been expanding their combined PC-and-Xbox platform efforts, in this respect they have been much more successful than Sony's PC efforts. As a platform for joint gaming systems (PC, Xbox, ... other?), Microsoft could have an advantage in the future.
I don't really care about the Sony vs. Microsoft battle that much though, as I'm more of a PC gamer these days, and the majority of the console exclusives I care about are (or will be) available on PC as well (Forza, Yakuza, ...). Just as I can't stand the PC Masterrace bullcrap, I don't really care for this anti-x console behaviour.
Re: Hands On: Bus Simulator Blends Crazy Taxi, SimCity, and Train Sim World to Addictive Effect
I have their previous bus game, Bus Simulator 16, on PC. That one was quite fun; more accessible than OMSI and with a fun management mode, which adds more scope to the game. I will buy Bus Simulator 18 for my PC though. As with other sim games I wonder if it will actually sell anything on consoles, if it is worth their efforts, since console gamers are more or less only interested in AAA games.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 259
@R1spam The first Mass Effect is still the best in series, savor the moment. It's what I hoped the sequels would be like, but for me the series only went downhill after the first game. However, there are things to like about each game, even Andromeda, which I enjoyed overall.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 259
Ride 3 on the PS4. I don't like the Career mode though: the difference between the competing bikes taking part in an event is just too large. The game really wants to force you to buy the über-bikes or upgrade everything as much as possible. It would have been much better if everyone in a race used the same bike, as with their Ducati game. That and the blatant rubber-banding really annoys me, because it makes the difficulty is so uneven. So I put the game on 'easy' and harvest the money to buy new bikes, which I then use in what has become my main gameplay event: the Time Trials. It's a shame they can't learn from Forza or Gran Turismo, which they obviously borrowed this Career design from. Neither of these really forced you to upgrade or buy the best possible car, the games adjusted and matched the AI's selection really well to whatever you were using. The Ride games simply don't do that (well enough).
What else?! I'm split between doing more racing/driving (MXGP Pro, Dakar 18, RaceRoom, Euro/US Truck, Spintires, Grip) or some Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2 (both on PC), Jurassic World Evolution and Aven Colony (both on PS4).