GeeEssEff

I’m spoilt for choice at the moment. This weekend I will be aiming to finish my first Nioh 3 playthrough, completing some contracts on marathon, bend over backwards to make Pokemon comfortable in Pokopia, breed some mutant cats in Mewgenics and get my second completion on Slay the Spire 2. Have a great weekend everyone!

@DoTheRoar Unfortunately it’s not just digital. Some UK retailers are already trialling dynamic pricing in brick and mortar stores using electronic shelf labelling rather than price tags and it will likely be rolled out across every major supermarket in the next couple of years.

It might come with some positives e.g if one store has a sale on an item other stores can quickly change the price to remain competitive but it will almost certainly be used to gouge based on supply and demand.

I buy games based on the value I think they will give to me so will happily buy a new game at £70 if I really want to or wait for a sale if not. It never crosses my mind that someone else might be paying more or less than me and tbh if a game is priced cheaper in a less affluent area to make it more accessible I wouldn’t be against it….I doubt this is how Sony is implementing it though

@DennisReynolds I get absolutely battered in solos but I have had hell of a lot of fun playing with randos even without mic. The server slam was a lot of people running around not knowing wtf is going on (me included) but now people are getting to grips with the loop it leads to some intense tactical fights. Tbh if you’re only intending to play solo it might be better just sticking with Arc Raiders but if you are open to the matchmaking definitely pull the trigger. Steep learning curve but once it clicks it’s brilliant.

Everyone has already made their minds up about Marathon and a Push Square score isn't going to change that. The comment history of some of the most vocal people on this thread suggests they have no intention of playing Marathon even if every site gives it a 10/10. They simply want a score so they can either berate Push Square for being biased if high or "Hooray Live Service flops again" if low. Genuinely sad the state of gamers these days.

@UltimateOtaku91 Other way round for me. I’m diving into Marathon tonight and playing loads of Pokopia over the weekend. Have fun!

Going for the only one I have played which is Nioh 3. I love the Nioh games and this one didn’t disappoint.

@DennisReynolds @IntrepidWombat Thanks for the responses! I tried Resi 7 in VR and lasted a grand total of ten minutes and Village took me months to complete playing it in very small doses. I will get Requiem at the first price drop and be sure to only play when the wife is home. I’m getting serious Fomo though as it sounds excellent.

How scary is it? Could it be played on a dark night when you’re home alone? Asking for a friend who completed Village and Resi 4 but tends to shy away from the horror genre and scares very easily.

As cool as it is I rarely use mine. Once every six months I will slap it on my head for a bit of Pistol Whip and Beat Saber before it gets tabled again. It’s great to see the excitement when someone comes round who hasn’t used VR before but aside from that it’s just not great for long gaming sessions for me. I don’t think more first party support would have changed my personal feelings on it, I never even bought the Horizon game…VR just won’t be a particularly comfortable experience for me until the headsets are feather light and more accommodating for glasses wearers.

I’m not going to have the time to give it a go but I look forward to seeing the response. I’ve seen a few people say that Arc Raiders being so good and coming first has destroyed alot of interest in Marathon but I think Arc’s popularity has actually turned a lot of people around on extraction shooters and drummed up much more excitement from the previously uninitiated. I certainly didn’t care 6 months ago but am now very keen.

@lazarus11 We both know I’m not saying they don’t take their job seriously but that was a top effort strawman nonetheless. You can take your job seriously without being glued to your desk 24 hours a day waiting for a headline to break so you can put out an article 15 minutes before other websites. It’s called work life balance and it’s all the rage these days.

As for your potato comment I say give it a go, sounds like a fun experiment. I’m going to bet the other way and guess that not only will you not get banned within ten minutes but literally no one will care you called Asha Sharma a potato.

@lazarus11 Man have a bit of compassion for the PX staff. They aren’t life saving paramedics on call, they are two dudes doing the best they can with the resources they have. I don’t know about you but the moment it hits 5pm on Friday my laptop is shut and I have a beer in my hand within 10 minutes. They could have rushed home from the pub to get the story out for all we know. Running a gaming website should not mean you need to be monitoring news 24/7 and have no life outside of gaming. This ain’t the BBC reporting on world changing geopolitical headlines….it’s a hobby that people tend to take way too seriously.

Genuinely speechless. What on earth are they doing?

@AverageGamer I disagree about Starfield. People fell of that quickly because it was a lackluster game. Day one modding might have helped but it wouldn’t have saved it. Particularly with the way Bethesda has implemented creation club paywalls.

Whilst I appreciate the point about the creation engine being better for modding it’s still a fraction of the overall community who make use of mods so I personally don’t think it should be a primary driver for engine choice. It used to be cute that Bethesda made a jank fest and then let modders run wild to improve it but games like BG3, Witcher 3 and KCD2 have shown that you can have a brilliant vanilla experience and a good modding community. BG3 especially has hundreds of mods, not locked behind a paywall and accessible on console. I don’t know the answer to this but I wonder if people would prefer a 10/10 vanilla ES6 that’s harder to mod or a 6/10 Starfield-esque experience that is very moddable. I’d rather than 10/10

@AverageGamer People are still playing Skyrim because it’s a brilliant game but also Mods, Nostalgia and the fact it was the last truly great Bethesda RPG are doing alot of the heavy lifting.

ES6 is going to be compared to modern RPG classics like BG3, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk and KCD2 so if it is a janky series of loading screens with terrible inventory management no one is going to care how many cheese sarnies you can stack because they will bounce off it within weeks just like they did with Starfield. It really needs to be more than a shiny Skyrim because games have moved on in the last 15 years but Bethesda didn’t seem to get the memo.

10/10 for me. I love it.

Any spare moment I get this weekend will be on the fantastic Nioh 3. Everytime I don't think they can add more depth it throws a new, interesting system/feature/area at me. Its probably the most customisable and adaptable soulslike I have ever played.

@cainhurst94 I had hundreds of hours in Geometry Wars 1, 2 and 3 back in the day so I was super keen to jump into Sektori the moment it released but I am just really really struggling to click with it. Maybe its that my reactions aren't the same nowadays as they were 20 years ago so your mileage may vary!

Nioh 3 and it’s going to be that way for a while!

Nioh 3 demo for me. I am surprised by how much content you actually get in it and as I'm not going to have much time for gaming over the next few weeks I am happy to get a bit of a head start on the full game.

I'm loving that its gone semi open world and was initially a bit put off by the extra complexities others have mentioned but they are growing on me the more I play. Graphics look like ass but they aren't majorly important to me as long as it runs well which it seems to. It feels like it might be a bit easier than the previous games so I wonder if Team Ninja are trying to make it more accessible to new players, although the many complex systems both in combat and skill management probably won't help. Its definitely going to be my next obsession but not entirely convinced it will be the 10/10 Nioh 2 was.

@Oram77 Me and the wife got a Switch 2 last year and every time we play Mario Kart I am basically screaming at her “Look at the 60fps! Look how much better it is than Switch 1!!! Appreciate the smoooothness dammit!”…..she claims to notice absolutely no difference and could not care less. Same thing when we switched from SD to HD tvs years ago. She thinks I’m a crazy idiot.

@J_e_f_f__D Hilarious…the person who gets triggered by a few letters in a video games talks about someone else being wound up. Every accusation is an admission with you folks isn’t it.

@J_e_f_f__D Don’t know the difference between sea and see I see.

@Scottyy Early access isn't about being good or bad developers. Its a great way to get feedback at the late stages of development. Especially with games as big and complex as Larian's. There may be bugs the testers have missed, features the devs may not have even thought of, optimisation issues on different setups, balancing recommendations and QoL stuff that might have seemed trivial during development but turns out tons of people are all asking for them. EA is basically like having thousands of testers and focus groups who you don't have to pay but actually pay you. I agree with @Deadhunter, while its not necessarily the correct move for every single game plenty of them have come out of an EA period much much better. Devs get a cash injection and feedback while the players who want to be involved can be or they can just wait for 1.0. Win Win in my books.

So I was looking through my steam wish list last night and when I organised by top selling Marathon jumped to the top. I thought it might be a glitch but just seen on Reddit it has indeed broken into top 10 selling games. https://steamdb.info/stats/globaltopsellers/

This might not be the DoA flop everyone seems to be praying for.

Waiting is not an issue for me. It could release tomorrow or in 2036…the issue for me is whether Bethesda has improved things like inventory management, the illusion of choice, jank, hammy writing and constant loading screens. Forgivable and somewhat charming in 2011, boring and frustrating in 20xx.

@J_e_f_f__D why do you angry culture war people always have such terrible spelling and grammar? It’s almost like you are terribly educated.

@themightyant 👏👏👏 If a game turns out to be crap after it releases then fair enough it may deserve criticism but nowadays a game’s fate is decided on a 2 minute reveal trailer before anyone has even played it.

Elden ring Nightreign which was a surprise Christmas gift.

@JDINCINERATOR For me Arise has some misses but plenty of hits in the playlist. I'm patiently waiting for the full soundtrack to be released in Feb because I adore some of the songs on it! I never played Electronic Symphony but will give the soundtrack a listen.

This is my number 1 this year and probably in my top 10 of all time. What an experience

@Scratchy_Seal Same it’s at least top 10 for me but probs top 5. I love the uneasiness of an extraction, especially with a backpack full of awesome loot and someone you’re not 100% sure you can trust. I haven’t really used my mic to speak to randoms in games since I was a teenager but the comradery and backstabbing in Arc Raiders drove me to get back into communicating and I’ve loved it. Top tier social experiment from Embark.

@Scratchy_Seal I definitely noticed a turning point around mid November at least in comparison to how friendly it all was at the start. I also don’t think I would be drawn into any negative behavioural matchmaking because I am crap at the game so will always go for the peaceful option knowing full well I would likely get destroyed in a 1 on 1. I tried the recorder thing for a laugh and went in with nothing but that dancing around and playing my tune and got mowed down by the first raider I bumped into 😂

I’m not complaining btw I understand PvP is part of the game and I don’t see it as toxic, just how someone else wants to play. It’s just got more brutal since launch in my experience.

Edit: wanted to add that I still do have positive interactions on Solo. My favourite recently being some dude playing German techno running around Stella Montis with a chain of dancing raiders after him.

@JustMyOpinion You got this! 💪

@JustMyOpinion It’s a rough time to join as a solo player TBH. The first few weeks were a utopian kumbaya love-in where everyone was helping each other out. Now it’s a brutal free for all as people are scrambling for the high level loot at all costs. However it’s still a fantastic game which creates some truly memorable moments! Deffo get on mic and start turning on the charm offensive with the randos, it makes a huge difference.

P.S I think the perfect imperfect refers to the sound design being excellent (effects, music etc) but a lot of the voice acting being created with AI.

I’ve picked up quite a few titles in the Steam Winter sale so will mainly be dipping in and out of those this weekend. I really need to get back into Yotei though otherwise I will never pick it up again so may give that a few hours as well.

@D6rkLordS6t6n this seems to be one of those occasions where British sarcasm has failed to hit the spot across the pond….I am a friend of the LGBTQ community and think anyone who refuses to play a game because it is inclusive of people they don’t understand is a pond dwelling moron.

@J_e_f_f__D Even worse, it forces you to play as a black post op transgender woman and the only items of clothing you can pick are a glitter crop top, tight denim shorts and a rainbow cape. Really ruined the character creation screen for me and then I couldn’t concentrate for the rest of my 60 hour playthrough because I was so triggered…I had to put it down when an NPC referred to me as “them”

1. Nioh 3
2. Wolverine
3. Tokon
4. GTA6
5. Monster Hunter Stories 3

I voted for those but I didn’t see Saros in the list when quickly scrolling through which would have been 5.

@sanderson72 No they lost the Knack when they closed Japan studio…sorry bad joke, that’s enough internet for today

I would rather a new Wipeout or F Zero game but this might fill the void.

Didn’t watch it live because I’m English and TGA don’t like my time zone but I have been pleasantly surprised catching up on the announcements this morning. Lots of new stuff that I am interested in and confirmation of a new Larian RPG alone makes it a great show.

RIP one of the all time great gaming characters 🫡

One of gaming’s great redemption stories! I bought it at launch and enjoyed it despite the jank (I am afterall a Bethesda veteran) but had to give up after hitting a game breaking bug.

I restarted after the 2.0 update, completed it and loved every second. It’s a 10/10 for me but I don’t have any desire to replay through it again.

I’m looking forward to trying Granblue Fantasy Relink and the wife will be thrilled about some Cat Quest 3 co op

Looks like I’m in the minority as someone who loves Tekken 8 and will be sad to see him go.

@themightyant blasting out Foo Fighters on Napster while mowing down peds on Carmageddon is one of my core childhood memories. It caused a hell of a lot of controversy but then GTA3 came along and said hold my beer.

Lumines Arise for me!

@Jrs1 It might be that I am well out of practice but it feels so much harder than Geometry Wars! I’m really enjoying it though.