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Re: Video Games

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:52 am
by AmareIsGod
Mori Chu wrote:
Wed Jun 22, 2022 7:37 am
AmareIsGod wrote:
Tue Jun 21, 2022 8:11 am
Indy wrote:
Tue Jun 21, 2022 8:03 am
If anyone likes retro games, Shovel Knight is fantastic. Kind of a Super Mario Brothers meets Castlevania meets MegaMan. Despite it being seemingly simple, it is one of my favorite games of the last few years.
Shovel Knight is fantastic! If you're looking for another great platform that is more modern, the Ori games are fantastic and usually are on Xbox Gamepass. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the latest. Hollow Knight is really good too.

Of course, my favorite game is Dead Cells. Once you get good at it, there's nothing like it. The game becomes an extension of your hands and reflexes when you are dealing methodic death to everything. Last I checked, I've logged about 800 hours into that game.
I never did get into Hollow Knight; I don't like the dark unsaturated art style, and the way every character is drawn with basically the same "white head with black eyes" look. It's just too drab for me. Also something about how the game feels is just off to me where I didn't like the feel of playing it.
I definitely get what you're saying regarding Hollow Knight. I played it for maybe 15 hours or so and got stuck. And many of the environments felt just as you described. Drab, dark. It's truly more of a 'dark souls' type of 2D game. Punishing and dark. I haven't returned in a few years. I shared because it gets tons of love and kudos everywhere but I agree that it's just not my kind of game. Dead Cells is far better!

Re: Video Games

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:56 am
by Indy
AmareIsGod wrote:
Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:50 am
Don't be upset early on in Dead Cells if you die.. A lot. You are working towards unlocking some of the better weapons and powerups along the way which makes subsequent runs better and easier (a combination of you just getting better and having better tools at your disposal). It's a game where the controls become an extension of your hands. The mistakes you make are totally your own. When I finally decided to try using the shields and learned about parrying, which negates the attack you receive 100% and even deflects ranged attacks, it was an entirely new game for me trying combinations of shields and weapons. That was after about 200 hours of play avoiding shields.
LOL, most of that makes me not want to play it. I want my skill at playing the game to determine if I progress, not if I grind long enough to earn better weapons/defenses.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 9:15 am
by AmareIsGod
Indy wrote:
Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:56 am
AmareIsGod wrote:
Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:50 am
Don't be upset early on in Dead Cells if you die.. A lot. You are working towards unlocking some of the better weapons and powerups along the way which makes subsequent runs better and easier (a combination of you just getting better and having better tools at your disposal). It's a game where the controls become an extension of your hands. The mistakes you make are totally your own. When I finally decided to try using the shields and learned about parrying, which negates the attack you receive 100% and even deflects ranged attacks, it was an entirely new game for me trying combinations of shields and weapons. That was after about 200 hours of play avoiding shields.
LOL, most of that makes me not want to play it. I want my skill at playing the game to determine if I progress, not if I grind long enough to earn better weapons/defenses.
That was just me not being good at 2D games initially. I'm sure that if I were to start a new game today, with no unlocks, I'd do far better. I should try that. I rather enjoy it because if it gave you the world to start, you'd be overwhelmed by the number of weapons and powerups. I feel like getting something new every now and then is exciting and incentivizes my next play getting to explore just that one unlockable instead of looking at 25 unlockables and skipping learning 20 or so of them. It kind of allows you the ability to learn and get good at that one new sword. That one new bow and arrow. It's hard to explain but it's really very satisfying to feel like you've started to master something and wreak havoc.

Also, if you enjoy Metroidvania games, it's not really much different. "Damn, I can't go this way yet until I have this ability?". Even modern Zelda games do this to an extent.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 9:33 am
by AmareIsGod
Decided to create a new save so I had nothing to start with. Nothing unlocked. 1st tier of difficulty. I just beat the first 3 levels and took one hit worth of damage thus far. You can definitely get far without unlocking things. I've already got blueprints for 5 unlockable items through 3 levels so they've opened up rewarding those quicker from when I first played the game several years ago.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2022 10:47 pm
by Flagrant Fowl
With no NBA games and ridiculous travel costs this summer, I'm kinda bored and considering buying a next gen console. The digital PS5 is the best value over here, but I don't have any experience with the PSN store or subscription services. Anything I should consider?

I usually don't play a wide variety of games, but I'm tempted to emulate my gaming hero Deandre Ayton and put a bunch of time into NBA2K.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2022 11:19 pm
by Superbone
Flagrant Fowl wrote:
Sat Jul 16, 2022 10:47 pm
With no NBA games and ridiculous travel costs this summer, I'm kinda bored and considering buying a next gen console. The digital PS5 is the best value over here, but I don't have any experience with the PSN store or subscription services. Anything I should consider?

I usually don't play a wide variety of games, but I'm tempted to emulate my gaming hero Deandre Ayton and put a bunch of time into NBA2K.
Well, since I work for the company, I recommend the PS5 but yeah, you'd probably want PS+ which is I believe is $50 a year. PSN store is easy to use. I prefer my games digitally anyway. Much easier to play. I preordered the Championship version of NBA 2K23 for $150 because it includes a year of NBA League pass too which I normally pay more for on DirecTV.

One thing to know is that your hard drive space fills up quickly. I added a 1 TB internal drive to mine. But you can always delete games and download them again later and your save games stay on the cloud when you have PS+.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2022 11:52 pm
by Flagrant Fowl
I've been with Xbox for basically the past 20 years. I last bought a console about 10 years ago, the original Xbox One which feels like gaming with an abacus today. The Series X is about $100 more expensive than the digital PS5 here, but I've found the player base to be much smaller with my XB1 than what I've read from PS users in Asia. I know a lot of games are cross-platform now, but the NBA2K series is still a notable omission from that group.

I have a PC with about 1TB of space on a second drive. Is it possible to store PS games on a PC? I doubt it'll really matter because I could always uninstall to make space if needed like you said.

That deal for 2K23 with League Pass seems good to me as well, but I haven't had issues with using the bootleg streams so I'm not too incentivized to buy League Pass. I mostly try to spend as little as possible on sports titles due to their emphasis on game modes that are predatory and less interesting to me. I bought both 2K21 and 2K22 in the Spring for $10 each, but I knew the single player stuff I enjoy would be full of annoying bugs and the smaller XB player base made online gaming even less appealing.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:59 am
by Superbone
I haven't put games onto a PC but there's probably a way. You can attach an external drive to the PS5. Too bad NBA2K still doesn't support cross-platform play. The Show does though. :) And yeah, unfortunately 2K has a bad rep for micro transactions. We have them too but at least you can earn them in our game via play.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2022 3:36 pm
by AmareIsGod
Build a new gaming PC. GPU's are only about $1,000 for a good one. Gaming monitors can range from $400 for a 27" to $1500 for a 34" ultrawide with HDR and 175hz refresh rate.

Case, $100. CPU and motherboard with RAM, $600. PSU, $120. SSD, $150. Good keyboard and mouse, $150. Won't even have to buy a gaming controller since you can pair a Playstation and Xbox controller to it.

Total bargain being a PC gamer. Fuck. What's wrong with me. I've opted for the better version of almost everything above when I look at my setup so those costs aren't even what I've spent. The PC is also used for work with the 34" ultrawide as the primary and a 27" stacked vertically to the right as the 2nd display. Dropped $700 on a Steelcase Gesture chair for the office with the leather upgrade a month ago (had I bought direct from Steelcase without the work discount, it would have been $2,000 for a freaking chair). The big bucket gaming chair with bright orange I had been using the past 5 years looked ridiculous on work calls with clients.

Moral of the story: consoles are far more economical.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2022 4:38 pm
by Indy
AmareIsGod wrote:
Sun Jul 17, 2022 3:36 pm
Build a new gaming PC. GPU's are only about $1,000 for a good one. Gaming monitors can range from $400 for a 27" to $1500 for a 34" ultrawide with HDR and 175hz refresh rate.

Case, $100. CPU and motherboard with RAM, $600. PSU, $120. SSD, $150. Good keyboard and mouse, $150. Won't even have to buy a gaming controller since you can pair a Playstation and Xbox controller to it.

Total bargain being a PC gamer. Fuck. What's wrong with me. I've opted for the better version of almost everything above when I look at my setup so those costs aren't even what I've spent. The PC is also used for work with the 34" ultrawide as the primary and a 27" stacked vertically to the right as the 2nd display. Dropped $700 on a Steelcase Gesture chair for the office with the leather upgrade a month ago (had I bought direct from Steelcase without the work discount, it would have been $2,000 for a freaking chair). The big bucket gaming chair with bright orange I had been using the past 5 years looked ridiculous on work calls with clients.

Moral of the story: consoles are far more economical.
If human eyes can't see much beyond 60Hz refresh rates, why would you need a 175Hz? I have a 34" LG curved ultrawide monitor for my work desk and it is HDR with 100Hz and it was only $350.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2022 7:13 pm
by AmareIsGod
Indy wrote:
Tue Jul 19, 2022 4:38 pm
AmareIsGod wrote:
Sun Jul 17, 2022 3:36 pm
Build a new gaming PC. GPU's are only about $1,000 for a good one. Gaming monitors can range from $400 for a 27" to $1500 for a 34" ultrawide with HDR and 175hz refresh rate.

Case, $100. CPU and motherboard with RAM, $600. PSU, $120. SSD, $150. Good keyboard and mouse, $150. Won't even have to buy a gaming controller since you can pair a Playstation and Xbox controller to it.

Total bargain being a PC gamer. Fuck. What's wrong with me. I've opted for the better version of almost everything above when I look at my setup so those costs aren't even what I've spent. The PC is also used for work with the 34" ultrawide as the primary and a 27" stacked vertically to the right as the 2nd display. Dropped $700 on a Steelcase Gesture chair for the office with the leather upgrade a month ago (had I bought direct from Steelcase without the work discount, it would have been $2,000 for a freaking chair). The big bucket gaming chair with bright orange I had been using the past 5 years looked ridiculous on work calls with clients.

Moral of the story: consoles are far more economical.
If human eyes can't see much beyond 60Hz refresh rates, why would you need a 175Hz? I have a 34" LG curved ultrawide monitor for my work desk and it is HDR with 100Hz and it was only $350.
It's a new QD-OLED display (quantum dot). It's incredible. The HDR is literally next level and the panel has zero ghosting. With G-Sync (and adaptive sync) the extra hz makes a big difference. The eye can actually see a good amount with fast motion up to about 120 to 144hz, and then it's diminished returns I've found

Here's my monitor, FYI.

https://www.theverge.com/23011794/alien ... pc-monitor

Re: Video Games

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:50 am
by Superbone
Finally! It's about damn time!



:D

This thing has gone viral and for good reason. It is hilarious.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2022 4:37 pm
by Superbone
Expensive but funny star-powered commercial.


Re: Video Games

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:19 am
by Mori Chu
There are so many good video games and systems right now, it can be overwhelming. I recently got a Steam Deck, which has been great fun. Really unlocks my backlog of Steam games that I couldn't find time to play on the big TV. Here are some of the games I've been enjoying lately:

Rocket League: my staple game. I have played this for thousands of hours. Finally made it to the Champion league.

Stray: -Beautiful- indie game about a cat navigating through a post-apocalyptic world. Kind of a mix of story-driven, light puzzle-solving, some platforming. Just phenomenal.

Vampire Survivors: Simple game about fighting off an endless horde of monsters on an infinite 2D field. Very simple but fun and addictive. Can just jump in and play for 5-10 minutes easily.

Chained Echoes: JRPG-inspired with a retro pixely look. If you loved Square JRPGs on the SNES, this is a love letter to those games. Enjoying this one.

Coromon: Blatant Pokemon ripoff in the old (GBA era) style. Fun and cute. My wife loved this one.

Chicory, A Colorful Tale: Cute game about a dog with a paintbrush trying to restore color to the world. You use the left stick to move and the right stick to paint things in the environment. Creative and fun. Made my some of the same people as Celeste, a personal fave.

What are you all playing?

Re: Video Games

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:39 am
by AmareIsGod
Can't stop playing RDR 2 on PC. Decided to finally give it some attention. The attention to detail and believable world really sucks you in for hours and hours. Have spent a lot of time exploring plant and animal species and hunting.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 11:40 am
by Superbone
AmareIsGod wrote:
Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:39 am
Can't stop playing RDR 2 on PC. Decided to finally give it some attention. The attention to detail and believable world really sucks you in for hours and hours. Have spent a lot of time exploring plant and animal species and hunting.
Gotta get back to that one of these days on PS5. I'll have nothing but time after April. :D

Re: Video Games

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 11:48 am
by AmareIsGod
Superbone wrote:
Thu Jan 12, 2023 11:40 am
AmareIsGod wrote:
Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:39 am
Can't stop playing RDR 2 on PC. Decided to finally give it some attention. The attention to detail and believable world really sucks you in for hours and hours. Have spent a lot of time exploring plant and animal species and hunting.
Gotta get back to that one of these days on PS5. I'll have nothing but time after April. :D
Congrats on the upcoming deserved retirement!

Re: Video Games

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 4:26 pm
by Kryptonic
There was a recent article talking about the composer for the N64 Goldeneye game and how it took 20 minutes to write the music for the pause menu... thought ya'll would appreciate this:


Re: Video Games

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:22 am
by Kryptonic
Superbone wrote:
Thu Jan 12, 2023 11:40 am
AmareIsGod wrote:
Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:39 am
Can't stop playing RDR 2 on PC. Decided to finally give it some attention. The attention to detail and believable world really sucks you in for hours and hours. Have spent a lot of time exploring plant and animal species and hunting.
Gotta get back to that one of these days on PS5. I'll have nothing but time after April. :D
I was hoping Rockstar would release a PS5 patch to update to a locked 60fps... Such a fantastic game. I bought it on PC and been replaying it there. Just so crisp and clean.

Anyone playing Destiny 2 or getting the new expansion? I think I've seen before where some of you played this.

Re: Video Games

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2023 4:11 pm
by TOO
Kryptonic wrote:
Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:22 am
Superbone wrote:
Thu Jan 12, 2023 11:40 am
AmareIsGod wrote:
Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:39 am
Can't stop playing RDR 2 on PC. Decided to finally give it some attention. The attention to detail and believable world really sucks you in for hours and hours. Have spent a lot of time exploring plant and animal species and hunting.
Gotta get back to that one of these days on PS5. I'll have nothing but time after April. :D
I was hoping Rockstar would release a PS5 patch to update to a locked 60fps... Such a fantastic game. I bought it on PC and been replaying it there. Just so crisp and clean.

Anyone playing Destiny 2 or getting the new expansion? I think I've seen before where some of you played this.
Yep. Usually make it though about half the season passes before i get bored.