Video Games

[Superbone]

Everybody knows in fighting games that the most important thing is story.

[Kryptonic]

This games been blowing up lately…. Anyone try it yet? I’m on the fence, leaning towards trying it out.

[Mori Chu]

Interesting controversy about that Palworld game Kryptonic posted about above. It is clearly heavily "inspired" by Pokemon. Some folks are upset about the pretty blatant copying in the game. Some even think it is literally copied, like as in, they copied the 3D models from Pokemon and made minor changes to them. I'm seeing various tweets on either side of that issue; I don't know the answer, but it's a real brouhaha in the gaming community.

[Superbone]

From this morning's Morning Brew:

The only thing better than success is success years after everyone made you a meme. The video game Palworld, which has been mockingly referred to as “Pokémon with guns” since its announcement in 2021, sold over 6 million copies in its first four days and has broken at least one record on the platform Steam.

Developed by Japanese company Pocket Pair, the open-world survival game allows players to build settlements, farm, and spend hours smashing rocks. You also fight and trap little monsters that closely resemble Pokémon. But in Palworld, you can violently fire machine guns at them.

It’s a hit. Whether because recent (actual) Pokémon games have kinda flopped, or because gamers just appreciate that Pocket Pair created a hodgepodge of their favorite games, Palworld has taken the internet by storm. As of last night, it was the top-selling game—and the most played game—on Steam, with over 1.8 million concurrent users.

Are Pikachu lookalikes legal? Some observers have pointed out that some of the creatures in Palworld are so similar to Pokémon that their 3D models fit perfectly together. Pocket Pair’s CEO has vehemently denied copying anything, while Pokémon-owner Nintendo has declined to comment so far. Legal experts say the games and creatures are just different enough for Palworld to get away with it.

[Kryptonic]

Was funny…. Someone releases a Pokémon mod for palworld that reskinned the the game to Pokémon.. needless to say it got DMCA’d fast and is gone.

I’m still on the fence about it…. Looks pretty fun but since it requires a dedicated server to play multiplayer on which is where it loses me. I don’t want to rent a server unless I could get enough people who’d want to play.

[Kryptonic]

Bought it launch day. Solid game. Progression could by a little easier but still a great game. 8/10

Been playing helldivers 2 lately…. Really good game too, especially with 3 other friends.

[AmareIsGod]

Bought it launch day. Solid game. Progression could by a little easier but still a great game. 8/10

Been playing helldivers 2 lately…. Really good game too, especially with 3 other friends.

I bought it too! Very enjoyable, especially after unlocking the 2nd class!

[Kryptonic]

Bought it launch day. Solid game. Progression could by a little easier but still a great game. 8/10

Been playing helldivers 2 lately…. Really good game too, especially with 3 other friends.

I bought it too! Very enjoyable, especially after unlocking the 2nd class!

Engineer and driller are probably my favorite. Pretty fun game!

[Kryptonic]

This is a really good time… if you can get past the server login issues (they’re fixing it).

Has cross play between pc and ps5

[AmareIsGod]

I've been meaning to checkout Helldivers 2!

[Kryptonic]

I've been meaning to checkout Helldivers 2!

Ugh... don't feel compelled to rush. They still need to iron out server issues... If you don't have a lot of time to play, it can be irritating to finally get to play and the server crashes, you game crashes or you can't login to servers. The good news is, they're very proactive in making fixes.

Also, avoid Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League until you can pick it up for $20 or less. I feel that's an adequate value for that game. It's not exactly horrible but it's gameplay loop is super repetitive and the endgame grind is just more of that.

[Superbone]

I sure see a ton of advertisements for SSKtJL and Tekken 8 while watching basketball!

[Kryptonic]

SSKTJL has some amazing cut scenes and loved the story... It's just the gameplay loop is lacking. For $20, it's a great game... For $80, not so much.

[Mori Chu]

I love Tekken and bought Tekken 8 hoping to get back into the series. But I have so many screaming little kids that I just haven't found the time. I hope to give it a look in the next week or two. Meanwhile my wife and I are playing Octopath Traveler II and enjoying it a lot. The combat in those games is wonderful.

[AmareIsGod]

I recently upgraded about 3 weeks ago to a 4080 Super GPU. At 3440x1440, even with pathtracing and ultra everything + HDR on a QD-OLED gaming ultrawide monitor, this thing spits out 100+ FPS.

[AmareIsGod]

Bought it launch day. Solid game. Progression could by a little easier but still a great game. 8/10

Been playing helldivers 2 lately…. Really good game too, especially with 3 other friends.

I bought it too! Very enjoyable, especially after unlocking the 2nd class!

Engineer and driller are probably my favorite. Pretty fun game!

Agree now that I'm further! Engineer is amazing, especially with his electric bullet gun and his turrets that follow him when you upgrade your weapon to a certain point!

[Kryptonic]

Bought it launch day. Solid game. Progression could by a little easier but still a great game. 8/10

Been playing helldivers 2 lately…. Really good game too, especially with 3 other friends.

I bought it too! Very enjoyable, especially after unlocking the 2nd class!

Engineer and driller are probably my favorite. Pretty fun game!

Agree now that I'm further! Engineer is amazing, especially with his electric bullet gun and his turrets that follow him when you upgrade your weapon to a certain point!

I do like how it basically forces you to play the other classes in order to unlock other things. For $9, the game is a steal... I just wish you could quit anytime and come back instead of having to complete the whole run in one playthrough, which could take about 30-45 min.

Then again, most games now days want you to commit a minimum of 30 min Looking at you Helldivers 2! That game you get going, and all of the sudden it's 2am. No respect for your time lol

[Superbone]

Glad you're enjoying Helldivers 2. Sony just had large scale layoffs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/ ... nd-others/

[Kryptonic]

Glad you're enjoying Helldivers 2. Sony just had large scale layoffs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/ ... nd-others/

That's unfortunate and seems to be a trend the last 2 months or so with game developers.


Looks like you retired at the right time 'Bone.

[Superbone]

Glad you're enjoying Helldivers 2. Sony just had large scale layoffs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/ ... nd-others/

That's unfortunate and seems to be a trend the last 2 months or so with game developers.


Looks like you retired at the right time 'Bone.

That was an interesting conversation. Yeah, looks like my timing is pretty good although the game I worked on for the last 20 years seems safe. I was talking to former co-workers earlier and we're actually getting lunch tomorrow. I realize how lucky I was to work at only two companies for the majority of my career. Especially the last 23 years at Sony and 20+ of that just on The Show. I was very lucky to get on that project and it seems to have real staying power and may be unaffected by this current round of layoffs.