Video Game Reviews: What Are You Playing?

[UndertheHalo]

https://kotaku.com/game-about-being-an-asshole-goose-looks-hilarious-1819138767

Edited October 5, 2017 by UndertheHalo

[cez]

grinding my alt account on iron banner for destiny. 

hit me up if you want to play on xbox. 

gamertag: RacistTrump

[Blarg]

Sorry but I'm on the Conservative platform PS4 with the gamer tag: SuicideByHillary

[cez]

 nice, blarg

I've taken a bunch of people off of block, and as long as I stay clear of the political forum, it's pretty good. Should never have gone there in the first place.

I get a lot of messages on the alt account, btw. lol. 

[Blarg]

Joking with the screenname but regardless we cant play across platforms, which kind of sucks. My Titan is level 283 but I don't do Crucible and haven't done the clan thing even though my son signed up on my account to run a Warlock. I really suck at PVP and my son is really good so he ramps up the ranking so if I do play the team is seriously handicapped. It's like reverse sandbagging.

[cez]

i'm not great at PVP either.  i use my nephew and his friend to help me with crucible.

too bad we can't play. hoping some other noob has an xbox like me. 

[Blarg]

Yeah, I would like to hit a few nightfalls but it requires three people and it doesn't do matchmaking. My youngest son has his own account but we rarely have a third and some of the mechanics require three people. 

Right now I have nothing but time off and no place I can go after ankle surgery. I just can't hook up with the random friends requests and I'm playing with a bunch of college kids that freak when they find out I'm older than their dad.

[UndertheHalo]

11 hours ago, Blarg said:

Yeah, I would like to hit a few nightfalls but it requires three people and it doesn't do matchmaking. My youngest son has his own account but we rarely have a third and some of the mechanics require three people. 

Right now I have nothing but time off and no place I can go after ankle surgery. I just can't hook up with the random friends requests and I'm playing with a bunch of college kids that freak when they find out I'm older than their dad.

Blarg, i'd be happy to run some nightfalls with you.  

[mulwin444]

Picked up "Wolfenstein II" and will be diving into that middle of the week.  It has been literally decades since I played a "Wolfenstein" title, the last being the "Castle Wolfenstein" and "Beyond Castle Wolfenstein" games that came out in the 80's.  It's got some great reviews, though, so I gave it shot.  Also, Best Buy has "Wolfenstein: The New Order"/"The Old Blood" combo pack on sale right now for $15.

Another game that is getting some good reviews is the new "Assassin's Creed" game.  I've never really been hyped for this series, although I liked "Black Flag" a lot, but the Egyptian theme has me intrigued.  Anyone here pick that up? 

[Make Angels Great Again]

Blizzard just announced that a server (or servers) that will have Vanilla WoW is in development.

 

Pretty big news in the gaming world.

[Blarg]

On 10/13/2017 at 7:44 AM, UndertheHalo said:

Blarg, i'd be happy to run some nightfalls with you.  

Just saw the thread updated. Send me a PM with your PSN ID. 

[nate]

how I know I am totally over wow, had no interest in what they announced today.  When I think of wow I think of shitty work.

With that said, other than some Gran Turismo I haven't played anything lately

[Make Angels Great Again]

16 minutes ago, nate said:

how I know I am totally over wow, had no interest in what they announced today.  When I think of wow I think of shitty work.

With that said, other than some Gran Turismo I haven't played anything lately

 

Well maybe it was a product of the times, but when it launched it was the greatest thing since sliced bread for a reason. I jumped on the wagon around when the AQ raid got released.

The Burning Crusade expansion was probably some of the best times I've ever had gaming (Star Wars Galaxies pre-NGE takes the cake for me).

I haven't played WoW in years, but I might check it out for old times sake.

[nate]

I played off and on since the release but the last two xpacs were way too grindy in order to stay on top.  I was spending 20 hours a week on it, it was awful.  Haven't played since March.

[Jobu]

On 10/31/2017 at 8:45 AM, mulwin444 said:

Picked up "Wolfenstein II" and will be diving into that middle of the week.  It has been literally decades since I played a "Wolfenstein" title, the last being the "Castle Wolfenstein" and "Beyond Castle Wolfenstein" games that came out in the 80's.  It's got some great reviews, though, so I gave it shot.  Also, Best Buy has "Wolfenstein: The New Order"/"The Old Blood" combo pack on sale right now for $15.

Another game that is getting some good reviews is the new "Assassin's Creed" game.  I've never really been hyped for this series, although I liked "Black Flag" a lot, but the Egyptian theme has me intrigued.  Anyone here pick that up? 

Return to Castle Wolfenstein that came out in 2001 is a classic of that era of 3D shooters. Obviously, it looks pretty dated now, but the gameplay is still solid and I go back to it almost as much as Half Life 2.

[mulwin444]

Tomorrow is Nov 7th which is, for Mass Effect fans, called "N7 Day".  It's a bit of a celebration of the series and, since it's the 10th anniversary of the first game in the franchise, they are supposedly having some surprises in store for tomorrow.  It's my favorite series so I'll be doing a series run ("Mass Effect" through  "Andromeda") in recognition just to revisit the series one more time before we both get too dated to try it again...unless there is some HD remaster of the series down the line.

Out of curiosity, any "Mass Effect" fans here?  

[Make Angels Great Again]

I played the first 3 and loved them. One of my favorite series ever. Haven't gotten a chance to try Andromeda yet though.

 

I thought they were going to be doing a mass effect movie? It seems ripe for the big screen.

[mulwin444]

21 minutes ago, Make Angels Great Again said:

I played the first 3 and loved them. One of my favorite series ever. Haven't gotten a chance to try Andromeda yet though.

 

I thought they were going to be doing a mass effect movie? It seems ripe for the big screen.

I think there's some issues with where they want to go with the series as a movie.  Do they do the first game as the starting point?  Do you lay the foundation with the finding the Charon relay near Pluto and detail the "First Contact War"?  I think it might work even as a series on Netflix/Hulu/Amazon.  The money and interest is there but I just don't think they know which way to take it just yet.

As for "Andromeda", I've put about 600hrs total into it the past 8 months and obviously enjoyed myself.  It's a bit of a departure from the original trilogy as they move from the Unity engine to the Frostbite 3 engine from DICE so one of the first things you'd notice is a difference in the combat and animations but you'd recognize the story telling and character narrative presentation from past BioWare games.  Its pretty cheap to pick up now and they patched everything so you'd be looking at the "best" version.  One of my favorites new additions to the series is the jet pack - totally changes how you experience the world they've built.

[Tank]

On 10/13/2017 at 7:44 AM, UndertheHalo said:

Blarg, i'd be happy to run some nightfalls with you.  

 

On 11/3/2017 at 1:44 PM, Blarg said:

Just saw the thread updated. Send me a PM with your PSN ID. 

i thought for sure this was a pickup line from UTH. 

[nate]

My 970 took a dump so I ordered a 1080.  Going to just sell the 970 I get back from RMA.

[Blarg]

Evidently EA was told to stick it with their grinding or ransom for unlocking addons like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Star Wars Battlefront II game. It garnered the most downvoting in Reddit history as players protested either having to pay for unlocking the characters or playing 40 hours or more to unlock each.

EA made some excuse that they did a lot of research as to what the pride of accomplishment hours would entail. What they really did is try to increase microtrasnactions by making the requirements so punitive more gamers would just buy the characters rather than grind out the same repetitive missions.

Destiny 2 has the same features but can some only be purchased by buying silver dust and using that for in game transactions. 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41981979

[mulwin444]

On 11/14/2017 at 3:11 PM, Blarg said:

Evidently EA was told to stick it with their grinding or ransom for unlocking addons like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Star Wars Battlefront II game. It garnered the most downvoting in Reddit history as players protested either having to pay for unlocking the characters or playing 40 hours or more to unlock each.

EA made some excuse that they did a lot of research as to what the pride of accomplishment hours would entail. What they really did is try to increase microtrasnactions by making the requirements so punitive more gamers would just buy the characters rather than grind out the same repetitive missions.

Destiny 2 has the same features but can some only be purchased by buying silver dust and using that for in game transactions. 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41981979

EA is having a heck of a year in terms of game releases.  First, "Mass Effect Andromeda", which I really enjoyed, had a rough reception, leading to BioWare Montreal being absorbed into EA Motive, who was assisting DICE with "Star Wards Battlefront II" and is currently working on a game headed by Jade Raymond, the producer behind Assassin's Creed I and II.  Next, "Visceral Games", who working on a "Uncharted" like Star Wars game, get's shut down which is appears was partially motivated by their need to free up funds to purchase Repawn Games (Titanfall) who is also reportedly working on a Star Wars property.  Then, "Need For Speed: Payback", "The Sims 4", and "Star Wars Battlefront II" all were met with controversy over loot boxes, microtransactions, poor game reviews and a hostile fan base...

 

Oh, and their stock is up something like 40% from last year so...

[Blarg]

Macroeconomics in a microtransactions world.

[Blarg]

I just read another article that to unlock all add-ons it would take over 4,000 hours of gameplay or $2,100. I think it's about time to boycott these companies to reset what is considered fair gaming.

[mulwin444]

6 hours ago, Blarg said:

I just read another article that to unlock all add-ons it would take over 4,000 hours of gameplay or $2,100. I think it's about time to boycott these companies to reset what is considered fair gaming.

Yeah, that may have to happen.  EA is trying to turn their console games into money-churning mobile-like apps.  With "Battlefront II, it felt like they jacked up the cost of everything to see if anyone would notice.  After a 75% reduction in cost how can that not be the case?  It's not like they didn't have an idea of the economy and leveling of their own game.  They waited for a reaction and reduced it to what they felt might "seem" like a huge reduction to make it seem like they were listening when, most likely, even a 85%-90% reduction is generating a shit-ton of cash. "Games as a service" is what it's called...creating pointless grindfests with a skeleton-like narratives and little momentum towards an ending.  They talk about a "10 year journey" which actually means new DLC every few months to drag you back in.  BioWare is favorite developer but even they are getting pushed into that direction by EA with their new IP "Anthem".  I cancelled my Battlefront II preorder last month and will probably wait instead of buying a game new.