Videogames: Perfect homies for the great indoors.

[Slurktan]

The Zombie RDR 1 is fun.  I love that the end mount is a unicorn that trails rainbows.

I may be in the minority and I also probably didn't time it right but I really didn't like Spiderman when playing it right after Arkham Knight.  Not only is the fighting Arkham esque there's just a ton in there that clearly is apeing the Arkham stuff (Most notably the Scarecrow/Scorpion).  Maybe I'll give it another shot to beat it later but it really turned me off.  Well that and I think the voice acting for Parker is atrocious lol.

[briantw]

56 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

The Zombie RDR 1 is fun.  I love that the end mount is a unicorn that trails rainbows.

I may be in the minority and I also probably didn't time it right but I really didn't like Spiderman when playing it right after Arkham Knight.  Not only is the fighting Arkham esque there's just a ton in there that clearly is apeing the Arkham stuff (Most notably the Scarecrow/Scorpion).  Maybe I'll give it another shot to beat it later but it really turned me off.  Well that and I think the voice acting for Parker is atrocious lol.

I feel like Spider-Man was way better than Arkham Knight, mostly because I don't buy Batman games to spend 75% of the time driving a tank.  Much of the rest of the game suffered because they felt the need to so heavily feature the Batmobile.

[Slurktan]

6 hours ago, briantw said:

I feel like Spider-Man was way better than Arkham Knight, mostly because I don't buy Batman games to spend 75% of the time driving a tank.  Much of the rest of the game suffered because they felt the need to so heavily feature the Batmobile.

I found the tank to be there not anywhere near that often when I wasn't going for 100%.  If im just playing the story it doesn't feature that much at all.  But hey your mile may vary; Arkham Knight is afterall a worse version of City and Asylum (and Origins).

[kuenjato]

 

see below, some issues with the formatting

[kuenjato]

Faint, uh, thematic spoilers for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Don't venture in if you're super invested in this game as an update on the 1997 classic (or maybe you should, so you're... prepared...)

 

 So, apparently the boys at Square decided to really go out and "remake" Final Fantasy 7, with this new take operating in an alternate version of reality, with dementor-like creatures that keep trying to keep the party "on track" of the original adventure, and Sephiroth breaking the fourth wall in an attempt to "defy fate" and so forth so that he can... change the ending of the '97 PS game. LMAO all day over this. I anticipate massive nerdrage to bubble over very soon. What's great is that the dementors could be seen as the ghosts of OG ffVII players, fighting to keep the beloved intact, while Nomura's like "nope, gonna go Kingdom Hearts all over this shit"~! It's a bit risky getting this meta over a beloved 20+ year classic, but what else do you expect from 2020?

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Is the Batman game also open world? I've come to discover that if it's not a sports game, I just mostly want it to be an open world GTA style game where I can kind of pick and choose what I do as I slowly progress through the story. Linear games aren't as much fun unless they're well done. I still want to give The Last of Us a second try though.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 minute ago, kuenjato said:

Faint, uhm, thematic spoilers for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Don't venture in if you're super invested in this game as a, uh, update on the 1997 version (or maybe you should, so you're... prepared...)

  Reveal hidden contents

 So, apparently the boys at Square decided to really go out and "remake" Final Fantasy 7, with this new take operating in an alternate version of reality, with dementor-like creatures that keep trying to keep the party "on track" of the original adventure, and Sephiroth breaking the fourth wall in an attempt to "defy fate" and so forth so that he can... change the ending of the 97 PS game. LAMO all day over this. I anticipate massive nerdrage to bubble over very soon. What's great is that the dementors could be seen as the ghosts of OG ffVII players, while Nomura's like "nope, gonna go Kingdom Hearts all over this shit, glitzy vomit ending included"~! Bit risky getting this meta over a beloved 20+ year classic, but what else do you expect from 2020?

 

Never played FF, outside for a minute on a friend's Gameboy. Is it fair to say it's like a way smarter, more advanced version of Pokemon? 

[RumHam]

12 minutes ago, kuenjato said:

Faint, uhm, thematic spoilers for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Don't venture in if you're super invested in this game as a, uh, update on the 1997 version (or maybe you should, so you're... prepared...)

  Hide contents

 So, apparently the boys at Square decided to really go out and "remake" Final Fantasy 7, with this new take operating in an alternate version of reality, with dementor-like creatures that keep trying to keep the party "on track" of the original adventure, and Sephiroth breaking the fourth wall in an attempt to "defy fate" and so forth so that he can... change the ending of the 97 PS game. LAMO all day over this. I anticipate massive nerdrage to bubble over very soon. What's great is that the dementors could be seen as the ghosts of OG ffVII players, while Nomura's like "nope, gonna go Kingdom Hearts all over this shit, glitzy vomit ending included"~! Bit risky getting this meta over a beloved 20+ year classic, but what else do you expect from 2020?

 

That sounds interesting at least. I'm a lot more curious about it now!

11 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Never played FF, outside for a minute on a friend's Gameboy. Is it fair to say it's like a way smarter, more advanced version of Pokemon? 

Sorta, but instead of capturing monsters you have a mixture of 3-5 party members (who you level up and customize and equip) fighting at the same time during battles. So the battles are way different. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Sorta, but instead of capturing monsters you have a mixture of 3-5 party members (who you level up and customize and equip) fighting at the same time during battles. So the battles are way different. 

I know that part, and modern Pokemon games are kind of like that anyways (I bought one a few years ago to play with my cousin's kids during a two week trip and needed something to kill time with ((have no idea why I even bought a DS3d, if that's what it's even called)). Multi battles are huge now, which is totally different from the games I played as a kid. But at the end of the day it's basically just a turn based fighting game that requires you to roam around and find things, right?

[RumHam]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

I know that part, and modern Pokemon games are kind of like that anyways (I bought one a few years ago to play with my cousin's kids during a two week trip and needed something to kill time with ((have no idea why I even bought a DS3d, if that's what it's even called)). Multi battles are huge now, which is totally different from the games I played as a kid. But at the end of the day it's basically just a turn based fighting game that requires you to roam around and find things, right?

Yeah, I guess. They're not all turn based anymore though. The last one was some hybrid action game combat system that never really clicked with me. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Yeah, I guess. They're not all turn based anymore though. The last one was some hybrid action game combat system that never really clicked with me. 

Without knowing the mechanics, I tend to think successful gaming franchises shouldn't make huge changes. I loved playing Madden as a kid, but one version had this weird aspect which allowed you to control how the ball you passed was placed. They ditched in quickly, and rightfully so. 

Now I'm trying to recall the name of the game I'd play with my step-bro and a few friends that was what I assume FF is like. It was multiplayer, I think for the original PS, and you'd just wonder a long a fixed path until you needed to battle shit. Have no idea what the name is, though. 

[kuenjato]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Never played FF, outside for a minute on a friend's Gameboy. Is it fair to say it's like a way smarter, more advanced version of Pokemon? 

It's a JRPG. I've not played Pokemon, but the formula from the 80's to today was a party-based group fighting monsters in a turn-based format, generally with weird and over-the-top storytelling in a fantasy or fantasy-sc-fi hybrid. Final Fantasy 7 is considered a classic not just of the genre, but of video games in general, as it pushed the boundaries of "cinematic" storytelling in ways not seen beforehand on the original playstation. FF7 was the sort of game that 'everyone' played in 1997--jocks as well as nerds, casuals as well as the hardcore--because of the hype and how it introduced a new form of presenting information in a game format. It's hugely dated, but was revolutionary at the time for the CGI graphics.

It was followed by a bunch of games that refined the formula, but after suffering near financial disaster in 1999, the company was restructured and many of key creative and managerial staff left in the ensuing fallout. The company has never recovered, creatively, and have pumped out mostly hollow shells of their glory years--a period roughly from IV through X, which marked the end of the original incarnation. It's telling that on this forum, there used to be dedicated threads to the release of games like IX and X that would hover on the main page for a year+ (this was like 20 years ago), and these days there is no mention of any of the latest games (for good reason, I might add). But there is a huge amount of nostalgia and 90's-era nerd cachet tied to this release, and what I wrote above in the spoilers section is sort of like a company tucking its balls in one hand and jumping out of airplane, unsure if the parachute will unfold or if it was stuffed with paper confetti or its the most brilliant concept to reorient expectations, etc, etc. Especially for a company on fairly shaky financial standing, this release being their big shot to make some bucks and keep going. But that's the whole thing with Square, it's called Final Fantasy because the company was almost insolvent in the mid 80's and launched the original game as its last-ditch effort, and managed to find success on the brink of collapse.

[kuenjato]

55 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Without knowing the mechanics, I tend to think successful gaming franchises shouldn't make huge changes. I loved playing Madden as a kid, but one version had this weird aspect which allowed you to control how the ball you passed was placed. They ditched in quickly, and rightfully so. 

Now I'm trying to recall the name of the game I'd play with my step-bro and a few friends that was what I assume FF is like. It was multiplayer, I think for the original PS, and you'd just wonder a long a fixed path until you needed to battle shit. Have no idea what the name is, though. 

I should add that FF7 was also hugely influential in that it was Sony's big flagship title for the Playstation, which at the time was trying to chip into Nintendo's market dominance with the N64. Being able to store more information on discs was attractive to Square, who jumped ship from Nintendo and developed 7 for Sony. Sony promoted the hell out of it; I recall seeing commercials for FF7 on late night television, which was simply not something that usually happened in the late 90's.

I mean, this stuff was mind-blowing in '97:

 

Keep in mind this was also around the time that Blockbuster started to rent anime in its stores, widely expanding the cultural awareness in the United States of Japanese-style storytelling. This release, along with Metal Gear Solid and a few others, cemented Sony's dominance in the console wars for that era, and beyond.

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Is the Batman game also open world? I've come to discover that if it's not a sports game, I just mostly want it to be an open world GTA style game where I can kind of pick and choose what I do as I slowly progress through the story. Linear games aren't as much fun unless they're well done. I still want to give The Last of Us a second try though.

Arkham Asylum (the original one) was sort of on rails as far as where you go.  However, Arkham City/Origins/Knight are all open world in Gotham.

[briantw]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Is the Batman game also open world? I've come to discover that if it's not a sports game, I just mostly want it to be an open world GTA style game where I can kind of pick and choose what I do as I slowly progress through the story. Linear games aren't as much fun unless they're well done. I still want to give The Last of Us a second try though.

Every Batman game after the original Arkham Asylum has been open world.  Basically there's a big open world with a handful of buildings you can enter that function as levels, usually with some fights, some stealth segments, some puzzles, and a boss fight at the end.  My main issue with Arkham Knight is that there were so few of those "levels" compared to City and Origins.  Much of the intricate interior level design was replaced with tank fights, which are fine but not exactly what I want to do in a Batman game.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Interesting, and I appreciate the advise. I'm sure RDR, RDR2 and GTA V will eat up a bunch of down time while I'm stuck at home now, but I'll have to look into others as time goes by.

Will probably feel a bit unethical in a month from now when a full on lock down is in place and I'm using my medical badge to shop for games when making an all important TP run. 

[The Grey Wolf]

@kuenjato

I loved FFXII but XIII I have mixed feelings about.

[Luzifer's right hand]

9 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Is the Batman game also open world? I've come to discover that if it's not a sports game, I just mostly want it to be an open world GTA style game where I can kind of pick and choose what I do as I slowly progress through the story. Linear games aren't as much fun unless they're well done. I still want to give The Last of Us a second try though.

Have you played Witcher 3? One of the best open-world fantasy games ever made. I would only rate Morrowind higher and that is probably because of the nostalgia.

[Inigima]

10 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Never played FF, outside for a minute on a friend's Gameboy. Is it fair to say it's like a way smarter, more advanced version of Pokemon? 

Mechanically, yes, or more accurately, Pokemon is an extremely stripped down,  take on the genre that FF is a member of, targeted at young kids, since FF and the genre existed long before Pokemon. Pokemon contains all the basic elements of a JRPG -- turn-based combat, magic/skills, enemies with specific weaknesses and immunities, that kind of thing. It's like Babby's First JRPG. FF games are usually longer, have more complex storylines with more serious themes, are typically about saving the world in some way, have characters fighting simultaneously, and have unique characters with their own backstories. But playing one is relatively similar.

 

[Ramsay B.]

1 hour ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Have you played Witcher 3? One of the best open-world fantasy games ever made. I would only rate Morrowind higher and that is probably because of the nostalgia.

I’m mad at myself for replaying TW3 a few months back. Now would’ve been the perfect time. I don’t know what to play lately so I’ve basically just been going through my library and hitting the stuff I’ve skipped for whatever reason. 

I played Doom, then bought Doom Eternal. Eternal was better and much harder, but also frustrating as hell at times. There are so many dumb jump puzzles. Ones where you have to jump blindly and die just to see what you have to do. Besides that annoying shit the game was surprisingly fun. Chaos most of the time.

I’m now switching gears and gonna play The Last of Us. I tried a few years back but didn’t get past the tutorial part. I’m gonna commit this time around though.