The Video Game Thread - anything and everything...

[dascoyne]

The bad news is that, after 5 years of faithful service, my PC gave me a processor error, and I just found out it was my video card.
The good news is I convinced my wife I had to swap out the RTX 2080 for an RTX 4080 Super just in time for Ghost of Tsushima to come out on PC.
The game looks gorgeous!

 

[cboath]

The bad news is that, after 5 years of faithful service, my PC gave me a processor error, and I just found out it was my video card.
The good news is I convinced my wife I had to swap out the RTX 2080 for an RTX 4080 Super just in time for Ghost of Tsushima to come out on PC.
The game looks gorgeous!

Sure, it just died when you wanted to get a fancy new one.....uh huh, we believe you

 

[dascoyne]

Sure, it just died when you wanted to get a fancy new one.....uh huh, we believe you

The timing is sus, for sure, but I swear it was all a coincidence.

Really.

Honest.







Don't say anything to my wife.

 

[Strikerkc]

Space Marine 2 new features trailer

I'll just say it; I don't like the radically different accents on the different ultramarines.

A lot of the 40K gamers are lore nerds (or become lore nerds) and there are a few easy outs they could have taken if they wanted that sort of thing, especially in a game vs bugs.

That said, as long as the controls and gameplay is solid, the rest of everything I see looks awesome. Looking forward to this a ton.

 

[Ron]

I agree he didnt like the game but just that reason for it was different. I know there are directors and authors who look down on video games as not art (like GRRM) and Miller doesnt seem to be like that. He seems to see video games as legitimate art so likely would have been happy with a Mad Max game if done well which is probably why he cited Kojima as someone he wants to work with. Miller seemed to have wanted the game to be more vibrant with different towns and different clans given he mentions giving alot of material so in that regard, the final product is pretty lacking in that regard. Its a serviceable game but do think its overrated when compared to Days Gone (for the Walking Dead experience) or Red Dead Redemption.

I think it depends on how Kojima goes about it but I do think he has toned down the excessive cinematics. As Kojima productions, he also doesnt have the budget to go as ham as he did on MGS4. He would also likely want to collaborate with Miller so may not go crazy in the process. But even if not Kojima, I think if given some direction but also some freedom to be creative and trading ideas with Miller could have resulted in a more interesting game that Miller would have approved as well. Ofcourse, I do think other devs would do a great job with Miller to possibly bring his vision to life too and agree Kojima may not necessarily be the best. He would likely make a good Max for melee combat but not too sure about the vehicle combat sections.

Im not saying Mad Max needed to have the weapons of Twisted Metal but needed more variety and customization. The magnum opus innately gets spikes, sniper, harpoon, and the thunderpoon (and to be honest, only the thunderpoon as a good offensive weapon while driving combined with Max shooting his shotgun). I think being able to add or remove weapons, a greater variety so the player can choose to fight going close up to enemies or far away and snipe would have made the game more engaging. Maybe they wanted to be true to the weapons shown in Mad Max films but bouncing ideas with Miller on possible new weapons would have resulted in a more fun game imo.

Ah gotcha. Yeah that would be a nice variety.

My biggest criticism of the game was the scaling of the upgrades as it made game play too easy. For example the spikes...the spikes are meant to keep war boys from jumping on your car. One of the funnest things to do in the game is to be in a chase and blast war boys off your car with the shotgun. I didn't want to lose that facet of combat. Then there's the fuel...fuel should be the most important "currency" in the game in that it's the most needed and hardest to come by. When you start out, you anticipate it's going to be exactly that but it's never an issue. Even without fuel upgrades to the Magnum Opus and Max's gathering ability, fuel is always easy to find and lasts a long enough time. The only time it gets drained is with the sideburners which again, I opted not to use as I felt it made things too easy. Same with Max. I fully upgraded his gear but eventually downgraded him because it made fighting too easy. And I hated the way it looked with the camo.

Perhaps the biggest misstep is how the most important upgrade comes at the last leg of the story. Your main objective is obtain a V8 and once you do, the story winds down and finishes. The problem is there isn't much reason to keep upgrading it like you do the V6. You spend so much time in the lower half of the map upgrading your V6 and naturally, you expect to spend an equal amount of time in the upper half of the map upgrading the V8 but no. It didn't bother me too much as I prefer the look of the basic V8 but still, it would've been better if they figured out a way to stretch the story out a bit.

 

[NathanM]

Marvel's Midnight Sons is free on the Epic Store.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Thanks for posting or I might have missed it! I've been waiting for the price to go down a little before I buy. So the price is right now!

 

[Nth]

Sequel to The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa and Arrest of a Stone Buddha finally released on Switch today.

 

[HeartBlade]

Ah gotcha. Yeah that would be a nice variety.

My biggest criticism of the game was the scaling of the upgrades as it made game play too easy. For example the spikes...the spikes are meant to keep war boys from jumping on your car. One of the funnest things to do in the game is to be in a chase and blast war boys off your car with the shotgun. I didn't want to lose that facet of combat. Then there's the fuel...fuel should be the most important "currency" in the game in that it's the most needed and hardest to come by. When you start out, you anticipate it's going to be exactly that but it's never an issue. Even without fuel upgrades to the Magnum Opus and Max's gathering ability, fuel is always easy to find and lasts a long enough time. The only time it gets drained is with the sideburners which again, I opted not to use as I felt it made things too easy. Same with Max. I fully upgraded his gear but eventually downgraded him because it made fighting too easy. And I hated the way it looked with the camo.

Perhaps the biggest misstep is how the most important upgrade comes at the last leg of the story. Your main objective is obtain a V8 and once you do, the story winds down and finishes. The problem is there isn't much reason to keep upgrading it like you do the V6. You spend so much time in the lower half of the map upgrading your V6 and naturally, you expect to spend an equal amount of time in the upper half of the map upgrading the V8 but no. It didn't bother me too much as I prefer the look of the basic V8 but still, it would've been better if they figured out a way to stretch the story out a bit.

Definitely. Mad Max does feel like a game that you arnt supposed to 100% to get a more authentic experience to be honest. Its supposed to be a world where survival is difficult but every camp you can completely refill your health, water, ammo, and fuel once you collect the parts. What did you find OP about the spikes? I suppose them instantly impaling and killing war boys may have been cheap (although it wasnt 100% and Im still thankful for the one hit KOs given the need to kill a number of war boys with spikes for one of the challenges).

I suppose it could be an issue of difficulty (and the goal may have been make an "easier" game to get a wider audience) but upgrading all camps does make survival moot (although very necessary to complete all challenges and achievements tbh). The game is more fun if not everything is upgraded though (and might be more lore accurate tbh since Max is supposed to be a loner that comes in to save the day from a crisis and leave rather than a more constant figure to solve everything for a camp).

True although I wonder how much was a development issue. Looking at the wiki page, the game's development is pretty half-hazard so Miller may have been expecting something great that just didnt work out. There was also apparently going to be a tie in animated film that was delayed so Miller could have been upset at that as well.

Mad Max (2015 video game) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Contacting Barlog was a good idea (GoW fame) on paper although I dont think he has much experience with vehicle combat and Max doesnt fight like Kratos. Barlog was also jumping around studios which likely hurt the project. Im guessing Max's "rage mechanic" was inspired by GoW while the Arkham combat was thanks to Warner Bros getting involved and vehicle combat was not great due to Avalanche not having much experience with it. Releasing it close to Fury Road (which made it seem like a movie tie in which are usually bad cash grabs) and Phantom Pain (one of the most anticipated games for PS4) also didnt help although I do think the combat needed more fine-tuning (I felt the counters came out kind of slow for Max and would sometimes still get hit despite hitting triangle).

 

[dascoyne]

This is how I know I've been playing too much Ghost of Tsushima.

I was walking by this gap in a fence and my first thought was if I could squeeze through there.

 

[Nth]

The Thing Remastered confirmed

 

[Ron]

Definitely. Mad Max does feel like a game that you arnt supposed to 100% to get a more authentic experience to be honest. Its supposed to be a world where survival is difficult but every camp you can completely refill your health, water, ammo, and fuel once you collect the parts. What did you find OP about the spikes? I suppose them instantly impaling and killing war boys may have been cheap (although it wasnt 100% and Im still thankful for the one hit KOs given the need to kill a number of war boys with spikes for one of the challenges).

I suppose it could be an issue of difficulty (and the goal may have been make an "easier" game to get a wider audience) but upgrading all camps does make survival moot (although very necessary to complete all challenges and achievements tbh). The game is more fun if not everything is upgraded though (and might be more lore accurate tbh since Max is supposed to be a loner that comes in to save the day from a crisis and leave rather than a more constant figure to solve everything for a camp).

True although I wonder how much was a development issue. Looking at the wiki page, the game's development is pretty half-hazard so Miller may have been expecting something great that just didnt work out. There was also apparently going to be a tie in animated film that was delayed so Miller could have been upset at that as well.

Mad Max (2015 video game) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Contacting Barlog was a good idea (GoW fame) on paper although I dont think he has much experience with vehicle combat and Max doesnt fight like Kratos. Barlog was also jumping around studios which likely hurt the project. Im guessing Max's "rage mechanic" was inspired by GoW while the Arkham combat was thanks to Warner Bros getting involved and vehicle combat was not great due to Avalanche not having much experience with it. Releasing it close to Fury Road (which made it seem like a movie tie in which are usually bad cash grabs) and Phantom Pain (one of the most anticipated games for PS4) also didnt help although I do think the combat needed more fine-tuning (I felt the counters came out kind of slow for Max and would sometimes still get hit despite hitting triangle).

To be honest, I never even equipped the spikes after I read the description of how they impede war boys from jumping on your car because I want them jumping on so I can 'shotgun' them off lol. And even if I was out of ammo, I liked the challenge of trying to knock them off the car. I'll also say I didn't like how they looked. I mean it looked cool but for my first run of the game, I used the Wild Hunt body and tried to keep it movie accurate. So, no cow catcher grill, spikes, side bars, extended exhaust tips, V8 upgrades, etc. I also wanted to keep the car fast and not weighted down. Once I unlocked the original Interceptor, then I went back and threw everything on the MO.

The shotgun is very satisfying to use but once again, it brings up the same issue we're discussing. Guns, in keeping with the Mad Max world, should be rare and devastating. Their ammo should be rare as well, forcing you to use one sparingly. However, you reach a point where, as you said, ammo is abundant thanks to your camps constantly supplying you. At a certain point, you shoot liberally without care. I'll admit it made clearing camps less tedious as I could just blast away half the occupants instead of punching them.

Thinking about it more, I think you're right in that a little more variety and depth like that of Red Dead would've greatly elevated the game. Doesn't sound like the developer was afforded that freedom. If you look at the details, like how the environment was designed, it seems like Avalanche was putting thought into capturing the Mad Max feel. I was really hoping we would've gotten another game. For a first attempt at driving, I thought they did a good job. You got a good sense of speed in the game and the controls worked well (to me anyway).

 

[ghostryder]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1799516830693818392

 

[HeartBlade]

To be honest, I never even equipped the spikes after I read the description of how they impede war boys from jumping on your car because I want them jumping on so I can 'shotgun' them off lol. And even if I was out of ammo, I liked the challenge of trying to knock them off the car. I'll also say I didn't like how they looked. I mean it looked cool but for my first run of the game, I used the Wild Hunt body and tried to keep it movie accurate. So, no cow catcher grill, spikes, side bars, extended exhaust tips, V8 upgrades, etc. I also wanted to keep the car fast and not weighted down. Once I unlocked the original Interceptor, then I went back and threw everything on the MO.

I see. The the shotgun is fun and war boys really stick on your car so knocking them off can be kind of tough. They have a great adherence to the car so drifting and even purposefully crashing is necessary lol.

The shotgun is very satisfying to use but once again, it brings up the same issue we're discussing. Guns, in keeping with the Mad Max world, should be rare and devastating. Their ammo should be rare as well, forcing you to use one sparingly. However, you reach a point where, as you said, ammo is abundant thanks to your camps constantly supplying you. At a certain point, you shoot liberally without care. I'll admit it made clearing camps less tedious as I could just blast away half the occupants instead of punching them.

Thinking about it more, I think you're right in that a little more variety and depth like that of Red Dead would've greatly elevated the game. Doesn't sound like the developer was afforded that freedom. If you look at the details, like how the environment was designed, it seems like Avalanche was putting thought into capturing the Mad Max feel. I was really hoping we would've gotten another game. For a first attempt at driving, I thought they did a good job. You got a good sense of speed in the game and the controls worked well (to me anyway).

The shotgun is devastating as basically a one shot kill although making ammo rare would make taking down the seals within the various camps a chore as well since some seals need to be shot down. Again, an issue of balancing. Maybe could have solved it by having the gun able to shoot trash as well or sand which only stuns the enemy but can break those seals, making actual ammo rare. Thats an issue of vision however.

Yeah, its not a bad entry nor a bad game although I do think it is being overhyped as a hidden gem when there are alot of flaws with its vision and execution imo. A 7/10 rating does make sense for it but I do think another iteration or sequel attempting to fix those bugs would have resulted in a great game series, especially if Miller remains involved in the storytelling. Given how WB games is also running things into the ground now though (I think Avalanche is bankrupt now and Rocksteady which is honestly WB's best game studio, might close down thanks to suicide squad), I would much rather have another studio take a shot at the Mad Max verse (as long as its not Ubisoft, EA, or Microsoft/Bethesda).

 

[dascoyne]

 

[JediMichael]

I see they released the look of, The Boss, from this new MGS: Delta.

Her original look.

And the new look. I know she's suppose to look rough and hardcore, but I feel this did not quite capture the look that she is suppose to have, or did have on the PS2.

There was also the MGS3 pachinko machine redesign. It was like a mix of being alright, but maybe not rough enough.

I bet if Hideo was still there, it would look better....but that's not happening.
I'll still play this new game, and hope the final product is really great, but these character models are just missing something I think.

 

[janglesworthy]

Some new Outlaws gameplay

 

[CB2001]

So, just finished playing Cyberpunk 2077. Got The Sun ending. Tried to do the (Don’t Fear) The Reaper assault on Arasaka Tower, but even though I did the missions that were suppose to unlock it, the game wouldn't give that option to me. So, I had to sacrifice Rogue (which sucks because I really didn't want to. And the other option was going with Panam, which might have lead to her dying instead. I really didn't read that bit). It was okay. Not sure if I'll start the game from scratch (I've already played all the sidequests and such).

Started playing Mad Max a short while ago. It's kinda okay so far. Not sure how far into the game I'll play.

 

[HeartBlade]

I see they released the look of, The Boss, from this new MGS: Delta.

Her original look.
View attachment 1828808
And the new look. I know she's suppose to look rough and hardcore, but I feel this did not quite capture the look that she is suppose to have, or did have on the PS2.
View attachment 1828813
There was also the MGS3 pachinko machine redesign. It was like a mix of being alright, but maybe not rough enough.
View attachment 1828848
I bet if Hideo was still there, it would look better....but that's not happening.
I'll still play this new game, and hope the final product is really great, but these character models are just missing something I think.

I just hope they dont mess with the story and do a straight one to one remake. MGS3's story is already classic and one of the best game stories with great characters. Has my favorite fictional female character with the Boss and a bunch of other characters who are iconic and mechanics that put modern games to shame.

 

[JediMichael]

I just hope they dont mess with the story and do a straight one to one remake. MGS3's story is already classic and one of the best game stories with great characters. Has my favorite fictional female character with the Boss and a bunch of other characters who are iconic and mechanics that put modern games to shame.

Its looking like the story won't change, and that there will be a few modes to pick from, while playing.
Meant to post the trailer, and totally forgot.
Here it is.