General gaming discussion

[Gray Fox]

I doubt very much it costs Sony as an example, the extra on top to host these servers. That said, even with a physical copy now, having somewhere to sell it that isn't facebook is becoming more and more difficult.

Shinners is right above though. Xbox users especially must be so used to that mindset of waiting for a game to hit gamepass, rather than getting it even when on sale, that it must be quite damaging to the devs. Now I know there will be some fee exchanged to get it onto gamepass unless it's first party, but surely they're losing out where they wouldn't have in say 2010.

I see also that Sony is mooching around the idea of copying supermarket brands. Charging you more for something doesnt go down well, but if you keep the price the same and make the thing smaller = more profit.
They're looking at the idea of splitting games down into parts and selling each for full price.

[Lofty]

I am fairly certain I spunked all £50 of my birthday money on Sonic 3 at John Menzies back in the day and it was wank.

[Ian]

Sonic 3 wasn't wank, you heathen.

[Shindig]

It's no Sonic 2.

[Ian]

Of course, but then most video games ever made are wank by that measure.

[Gray Fox]

Sonic 2 is on my Mount Rushmore of games.

[wullie]

EA WRC was just over £20 in the PS sale so I've gone for it and I'm not overly impressed, it's like they've packed loads in but not really finished it. I don't get hung up on graphics but a lot of the stages look last-gen and the worst part is that sometimes you get some really bad screen tearing that you can't ignore. Apparently they've patched that out but in the meantime it's back in the queue and I've got back into WRC Generations which just has a better feel to it. I did give up on Dirt Rally similarly so maybe it's Codemasters.

[Shindig]

Yeah, I really like the ones Kylotons did. I was kind of disappointed they lost the license.

[Mike]

Found out about afterplay.io over the weekemd. It seems very cool, I got a backbone control thing for my phone last Christmas that has mainly gone unused, but it might get some play time with this.

[Mike]

Sat playing Pokemon Emerald on my phone doing my daughter’s bedtime.

[Gray Fox]

You'll be shiny hunting and nuzlocking in no time.

[Dark Soldier]

Had a look at trade in prices for my PS5 on CEX as thinking of sellling it. £90 cash ahahaha fuck off. May as well keep the fucking thing.

[Shindig]

That's a disgrace. They'll give you £80 (in store credit) for a PS4. I went into CeX today and picked up a copy of Returnal for £20. I finally have a second physical PS5 game.

[phonics]

@Pepe pm me your Steam if you get it

[Pepe]

I got it. Playing tonight. Don't remember my Steam Id. What's yours?

[Shindig]

In a shock twist, I also have Tekken 8.

[phonics]

I've put a few games in and Alisa is even better than she was in 7

[Mike]

Had a look at trade in prices for my PS5 on CEX as thinking of sellling it. £90 cash ahahaha fuck off. May as well keep the fucking thing.

What firmware is it on? 3.00-4.51 has been jailbroken.

[Dark Soldier]

What firmware is it on? 3.00-4.51 has been jailbroken.

The latest as its permanently online.

[Gray Fox]

It seems Sony have handed Kojima a blank cheque and got him to work on a new action espionage game.

[Shindig]

Sony's had their latest State of Play thing. After Death Stranding 2, Kojima's getting back into TACTICAL ESPIONAGE ACTION. Wouldn't surprise me if Konami just farm Metal Gear out to him like they've farmed out Silent Hill.

Speaking of which, Silent Hill: The Short Message is apparently a free thing out today/tomorrow/now. Dragon's Dogma 2 is out in March, as is Rise of the Ronin which is Team Ninja's next thing. And Stellar Blade looks alright, if a little less Bayonetta than it first showed.

[Raoul Duke]

I've randomly got into DayZ (it's on GamePass) so I though I'd try it out.

It is absolutely brutal so far, and I've no idea what I'm doing. Had my best spawn just now but got murdered by some scumbags. My previous attempts saw me:

- Starve to death
- Get mauled by zombies
- Punch a chicken to death
- Get my shit kicked in by someone who stole my shoes within about 30 seconds of spawning in

Good times

[Adramelch]

I've been replaying Dragon's Dogma as it's been a hot minute since I last played it and I have to say I'm enjoying it much more this time around. The setting is rather unique as far as medieval fantasy goes (albeit with not the most exciting story) and the combat is top notch (you could see how it served as inspiration for the later Monster Hunter games and for good reason).

The one thing that left a sour taste on my mouth the first time around is still there of course, and that's to do with the limited fast travelling. I respect the concept of "if the game is interesting, you don't need fast travel", but you can't be putting quests that follow the exact same route, which covers half the map, 3-4 times and expect me to be amazed by the random encounters and the setting. It ends up feeling a bit Starfield-y at times in that respect. And as far as I know they'll be following the same formula for the second one (essentially you get a limited amount of fast-travelling crystals that you have to place around the map), so hopefully they've refined it a bit more. In a weird way the much bigger map will probably help in that respect as you'll still have to do the same amount of travelling, if not more, but it won't be the same locations over and over.

All that said, the game still holds up just fine, even 12 years after its release.

PS: A bit baffling that Forbidden West comes out on PC one day before Dragon's Dogma 2. If I recall correctly Zero Dawn launched on PC the same day/week as Elden Ring, so the people making those decisions over at Sony have some explaining to do.

[Shindig]

I need to play through Dragon's Dogma. Bought it ages ago and have yet to touch it. I can't use time as an excuse when I'm closing in on a 4th playthrough of Lies of P.

[Adramelch]

I'm thinking of going for Nier Replicant next (never played it), but I just know it will make me want to play Nier Automata for the umpteenth time so I'm not sure.

[Dark Soldier]

Zero Dawn launched on console same week as Breath of the Wild, too. They make mad decisions.

[Adramelch]

I need to play through Dragon's Dogma. Bought it ages ago and have yet to touch it. I can't use time as an excuse when I'm closing in on a 4th playthrough of Lies of P.

You could probably just go through the main story and not miss much since it takes you across the map. Side-quests are not bad as a whole, but it's not something you haven't seen before.

[Gray Fox]

I've randomly got into DayZ (it's on GamePass) so I though I'd try it out.

It is absolutely brutal so far, and I've no idea what I'm doing. Had my best spawn just now but got murdered by some scumbags. My previous attempts saw me:

- Starve to death
- Get mauled by zombies
- Punch a chicken to death
- Get my shit kicked in by someone who stole my shoes within about 30 seconds of spawning in

Good times

Hows it hold up?

I let the zombie survival and battle royale type games pass me by as they seem a bit worse without having a crew to fuck shit up with. I imagine you're going to run into mostly players with years worth of experience.

[Raoul Duke]

Hows it hold up?

I let the zombie survival and battle royale type games pass me by as they seem a bit worse without having a crew to fuck shit up with. I imagine you're going to run into mostly players with years worth of experience.

Yeah I'll get absolutely wrecked if I run into anyone vaguely competent at the moment. Still fumbling around with the menus.

The concept overall will these types of games is great though, so I'll stick with it a bit. Have been watching a load of these videos recently which got me interested.

I've joined a PVE server to start with to get to grips with things. Once I'm up to speed then I'll dabble with a bit of human-on-human action...

[Mike]

Me and Baz loved PUBG when it first game out, it was so much fun especially when everyone was rubbish.

[Shindig]

Finally popped on to online in Tekken. An optimistic 2 wins followed by 4 straight losses. Narrow losses though so I can feel pretty good about my mashy lack of combos.

[Baz]

Me and Baz loved PUBG when it first game out, it was so much fun especially when everyone was rubbish.

Indeed. We even made videos!

[Shindig]

Silent Hill: The Short Message is a little rough. It's about a young woman trapped in an abandoned villa. Young as in "I'm worried about high school bullying!" even though they're 18 and just about finished school. Also, it's a German town but the actors are all Asian. It's heavily dubbed.

You are chased by a post-it monster covered in nasty criticisms like "Weirdo" and "Creep". Given that there's content warnings all over the shop (complete with suicide hotline), they could've dropped in the odd cunt or told the protagonist to jump off a building or something.

Toggle Spoiler

People seem hung up on the protagonist. The story is she got jealous of another friend and started rumours that led to her being bullied and killing herself. So there's your guilt. She's got trauma as well because he mother locked her in a cupboard once. I guess some alcoholism is also implied. So there's the trauma. Anyway, she gets redeemed by finding out, "Oh, I really was noticed and loved. Anyway, I've got to have a conversation with my one other friend about how I killed her best mate."

Which err... is a thing. Lots of potential themes they just kind of touch on like cyberbullying. The Asian girl in a German town seems more a product of where it was made and doesn't impact the story in any way. Also, it's a 90 minute game cut into 30 minute acts. The main protagonist won't shut up verbalising everything so the game has zero tension. I feel like the people into it are just seeing it as a GAY GIRL STORY, YAY rather than seeing how the messaging of, "Hey, talk to people if you're feeling down" is kinda fumbled. The writing is such I'm not entirely sure the gay aspect is intentional.

[Gray Fox]

Phil Spencer has been on Twitter saying Xbox have a company update next week.

The main talk is that this will include one or both of the following:

Xbox will from now on, no longer support physical games. All consoles moving forwards will be digital only.
Gamepass will now be available on other platforms, such as PlayStation.

If it is the latter of those, we're looking at the beginning of the end of them making consoles I think.

[Raoul Duke]

I don't see how you get to them not making consoles from that - there's still a lot of value in them making them. The digital only thing was always going to happen.

GamePass is interesting. Guess the revenue is more valuable than the exclusivity.

[Shindig]

If they've been doing business like Epic, I'm not sure the revenue is that much. Subsidies to developers would eat through it. Offering it to Playstation is inevitable. Sony's userbase is three times the size and, something that surprises me is how many pay for PS+. 47 million compared to the 33m Gamepass/Live Gold subs. And Sony didn't have to give any of those away at $1 a month.

[Mike]

I imagine if it came to other platforms, it would be the cloud version of GamePass (which is pretty great on my iPhone)

[phonics]

I am 3 wins and 2 losses in Tekken.

Both losses were rematching the opponent I scraped a win against and them 3-0'ing me with a couple of Perfect Rounds thrown in.

[Pepe]

Do you just play against the CPU or what? I probably have about 100 ranked games already and I am complete shit.

[Shindig]

I've had maybe 9 matches but I've had other reviews to get on with. Plus I've been playing the character stories because Tekken endings are on another level. 3 wins.

[Ian]

Decided I'd seen enough of AssCreed Valhalla. Not having a bad time or bored as such but I know I'd just be seeing it out because I can sort of mindlessly have a good time in it though. At least I got to see the glamourous sites of Norfolk and Kent though. And I do genuinely like its London a lot.

Moving on to have a go at Lamplighters League. UI / controls aren't as streamlined as they could be so far and I know it didn't review brilliantly but that sort of turn based tactics thing is very much m'jam so we'll see how it goes.

[phonics]

The Tekken 8 single player is incredible fun. When it did the moment that went old school I couldn’t believe it.

[Shindig]

Well, I'm in a rut with the online anyway. I can't buy a win and now the matches are noticeably laggy. The Tekken prowess or whatever is just a useless number to gauge someone's ability.

[wullie]

I was obsessed with Tekken 2 and 3 but the last one I played properly was Tag. Very tempted to get back into it with the new one, hopefully the drunken fighting style guy is still in the series.

[Shindig]

Well, there's been an apparent DLC leak so let me just see if he's in there ....

As for the leaked characters, the first is Lidia, a character who made her debut in Tekken 7 as a DLC character. Within the game's universe, she is a karateka and the Prime Minister of Poland.

Go on ...

The second character mentioned is Fahkumram, another Tekken 7 DLC character. A Muay Thai fighter fighting under the Thai military, he fights for he and his family's freedom.

That sounds boring. Can we not have a man made of wood or a boxing kangaroo?

The third character mentioned is Marduk, a character that was introduced with Tekken 4. A former undefeated Vale Tudo champion who was disgraced due to a scandal. This, and other events, including serving prison time for his involvement in the death of Armor King, has left him motivated by rage and not much else.

You've lost your way, lads.

[Pepe]

Those three sound good to me.

[phonics]

I liked Lidia and Fack-your-mam

Marducks a bit of a bore though.

[phonics]

Baldurs Gate 3 finished. The best game ever made. The final sections an absolutely buggy mess but it doesn't matter.

[Adramelch]

I don't know if I'd say the best game ever (mostly because it's hard for me to choose one), but it's definitely up there. The even crazier thing is there's a real possibility of a definitive edition and based on their track record with DOS/DOS2 it will make it even better (mostly cleaning up Act 3 I'd imagine).

On a different note, I got my hands on Vampire Survivors and it's ridiculous how good that game is despite the very simple premise. There's been so many incredible indie games the last few years.

[Pepe]

I am back to 100% of my gaming time being absorbed by iRacing.