No single player stuff? That’s too bad. I’m out.

That being said, the AI in the first two games was terrible.

its even WORSE than BB2.

Wow, my gaming group was talking about getting BB3 because we've played in leagues in the previous two versions, but this whole monetization thing is terrible. I don't support games that continually nickel and dime me.

So if you fully customized your BB team, it would cost something like $50 per team (and while they're using it, you can't use those customizations on other team players). That's just using base "Common" customizations.

Sons of the Forest is out on PC for Early Access. Priced pretty fair too. Guessing consoles come along later in the year.

Reviews are very good. I loved the first game and it seems like they improved all the mechanics that people liked and got rid of some thing people hated. The AI is supposedly drastically improved. A lot more randomness.

We had a blast with the first game. We’ll probably let this one marinate a bit in early access - as we have a few co-op games in the queue and are still playing Grounded - but we’ll definitely be getting involved.

I've started playing Midnight Suns, just finished Venom fight.

TBH I'm not feeling the love. All the cut scenes is kinda boring and slows (?) down the game.

It's not really an action game. I started playing it as a palate cleanser after finishing Persona 5 Royal and, well...lol.

They're decently close cousins to one another. If you don't like games heavy in dialogue and exposition, if you're not a fan of Persona's "hey go hang out fuck around and do random shit outside of the core gameplay" schtick, this isn't gonna be your cup of tea.

If you're looking for something more fast paced with the Marvel brand, there's Marvel's Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the upcoming Wolverine. Any of those are likely to scratch that itch for you in a way that Midnight Suns just isn't ever gonna. It's not trying to be an action game.

It's a self-insert fanfic with deckbuilder gameplay, and if you approach it for what it is, it's easy to lose hours to it.

Kinda like KOTOR back in the day. Seems like most people thought it was going to be, like, Jedi Knight + RPG, and a lot of people got turned off when it ended up being more of a turn-based (or ATB if you didn't let auto-pause between moves kick in) d20-style RPG. The expectations you bring to the table for what you think it's gonna be are gonna have a lot to say about whether it's enjoyable to you.

Glad you enjoyed it.

I was looking forward to Age of Wonders 4 but then I read this article:

si.com

I've always been a fan of the series. I even still have my cd of the original AoW. However this game isn't being released for two more months and you're already talking expansions and DLC? That is becoming one of my biggest pet peeves in gaming. It makes me feel that just getting the base game is going to be an incomplete experience.

In the end I'll probably just wait a few years until the game and it's DLCs are in some Humble Bundle for $15.

Octopath Traveler II is an absolutely stunning game and I love the combat system. Still very early, just starting the second individual story, and the individual stories are the slower part of the game, but very enjoyable so far.

Yeah, I really hate this trend too. Also the "if you pay us $30 more for a premium version, you'll get the DLC whenever we decide to release it".

I don't mind paying for an expansion pack if a game is good down the road. But these companies are just releasing stripped down games and nickle and diming you to get the rest.

Glad to see the good review, I'll certainly grab it if I ever get around to beating the first one.

Yup, a delay.

But Sep 6 doesn't sound too bad.

Happy MAR10 day to all you Nintendo fans out there.

Is there any place not named Ebay where I can sell some old video games?

Diablo 4 open beta is this weekend. I played the preorder beta last weekend and it's looking solid. The atmosphere is far more Diablo 1 and 2-like. It's dark, it's bleak, and it doesn't have the corny companions repeating dumb lines.

You can play act 1, which obviously isn't going to give you a picture of how the end game will look, but the first act's combat is slower and more tactical than most ARPG/Diablo Clones are now.

The skill trees don't have the overwhelming depth of POE, but they're still much deeper than D3. Kind of like a happy middle ground there in terms of depth.

The open world aspect of game feels well done and the pseudo-MMO nature of the game isn't as bad as I thought it may be. World bosses can spawn that require as large group to kill and there are zone events that are kind of like the open world events from Guild Wars 2 or Warhammer online where the event is there and anyone can jump in, help out, and get rewards when the event's boss is killed. Outside of that you rarely see people outside of towns.

Where blizzard really shines is their combat engines feel great. POE took a long time to get combat to feel good and most ARPGs just can't match Blizzard in terms of making attacks feel weighty, smooth, and like you're actually hitting something and doing damage. Diablo 4 is there on day 1.

There are queues since it's a stress test weekend. They range from shitty (1 hour plus) to not a big deal (10 minutes or less). Overall it's a big step in the right direction and I'm interested to see the rest of the game when it launches.

GOG is probably the best if you're wanting digital copies of older games that are designed to work on a newer OS.

I should've been more specific.

I want to sell some of my old physical copies of games.

Try Half Price Books if you have a store near you (I don't know if you can sell stuff to them online or not).

So, May 2nd two games I'm looking forward to:

Age of Wonders 4 (4x, but really like the videos I've seen)
Showgunners (used to be called Homicidal All-Stars) (Tactical X-Com meets Smash TV)

Over/under on number of these games disappointing me is 1.5

no. do not at ALL do this. YOu may as well take them to a thrift store.

Take them to a local used game store.

YOu will get the most for it. Period. ANd they always give you more in credit
so you can exchange a lot of old things for new things

Both sound great!

I hadn't played Diablo since the first one, but jumped in on the beta, very much enjoying it so far.

So I do not want to play OOTP but I want a baseball career sim management fix, which game is the best one for this? Mogul, Puresim, etc?

Anyone own a Steam Deck? Heard some good things and just wondering if it's worth it. While handheld is a plus, I'd like to hook it up to my TV to play games like Valheim. I'm just too old to play at my PC these days for hours.

Love it and worth every penny as far as I'm concerned. I don't have a dock to play on TV, but a friend does and that's how he uses it 90% of the time.

If you're playing as a handheld and it's an officially approved game by valve it will automatically apply recommended control settings, but everything is remappable. For one game that was giving me a few problems I remapped the touch pad to act as a mouse and it fixed the issues I was having.

I haven't dabbled in installing anything other than the base OS, but I'm really intrigued by the nintendo emulators and how Breath of the Wild reportedly runs better on Steam Deck than the Switch.

I'd say the only choice would be Baseball Mogul at this point. Most of the other baseball games still around are replay games.

As a purely career sim management game, I'd still recommend OOTP though. Baseball Mogul is also good, but as a more casual GM sim.

Despite some flaws, I still think OOTP is better than anything else I've tried over the years.

You sold me. Was just going to ask if emulating is an option. I've been playing a lot of NES games on a Raspberry Pi I setup. Would be cool to make it handheld.

Casual Gamers should check out Plantera 2

WHAT????

How can the steamdeck play a game that isn't on Steam?

:confused:

It's not locked down. You can install windows on it, other gaming platforms like epic, and really do whatever you want with it. Valve has actually encouraged it.

I have a Deck and love it. I also have a Dock, but I don't use it that often other than as a glorified charging station. Not because it doesn't work (it works great), but just because half the point of the Deck is so I can game on the couch while my wife watches a show or whatever.


I also have EmuDeck installed and have used it to emulate some games. Most of the time I don't get very far into them, though. Most recently I've started playing Fire Emblem Engage.


The only other tweak I've made beyond the base OS is to install CryoUtilities (see announcement video here). It helped me to get Midnight Suns running like a dream despite not being verified.


Speaking of not-verified games, you can check out ProtonDB to see reviews on how any game plays on the deck and what recommended settings people suggest.

a deck with a dock? MADNESS!

A little more news on Starfield.

This has to be a first ... right?

IGN Error 403 - Unavailable (IFW-U02)
Unfortunately, my guess it's just one of those scripted text replies and no actually functionality.

I feel like the new Zelda could cause explosive diarrhea in gamers and it would still get all 10s from gaming sites.

Man, glad I don't play it then :)

I'm guessing that's it for Midnight Suns and Firaxis will put all their focus on Civ 7.

With the volume of forum activity, mods and hardcore followers, they should really also focus on X-Com DLCs. But pretty sure they're done with X-Com (maybe after Civ 7).

Just a moment...

It's too bad, but I feel like I'm just as guilty as any on the poor sales. This game has been on my list to play since it released and I just haven't gotten around to buying it yet.

My son has it and from what I played with him (helped with a few boss fights) it seemed like a really good game. I just don't have videogame time anymore and when I do sit down and play 80% of that time is playing co-op with my kids.

I just bought it, you can get it for about $24 at Epic Games Store right now.

From my ever-ongoing quest to get out of Bronze 5 (better than 70% of the players in my division!)..

Have you ever got a game (in QuickPlay) where not only are you outclassed, but so outclassed that the opponent can show off while outclassing you?

That just happened to me.

Doing my Dailies (I main sigma, but can play Moira/Mercy on supports) and the other team had a Doomfist that quite possibly could 1 v 5 my team. I know he 1v2'd vs me (Moira) and our Mercy flawlessly. I thought that this must be how a pinball feels. Just smacked all over the place. But the coup de grace was the end of the game, where he legitimately hit something I thought was impossible.. a 360 no-scope doomfist punch.

Watching the replay, the instant before the Rocket Punch fired, he spun in place.

Needless to say, we lost, but my reaction was straight out of Ron Burgundy "I'm not even upset. That's amazing"

I know juuuuust enough about the game to be able to mostly follow what you typed, but my son said "Nothing like finding a smurf lol"

Or someone just flat out cheating. I haven’t played the game but 360 no scope headshots aren’t a skill you learn in these types of games.

well, it's not quite a headshot, doomfist punches are just straightline punches with a charge up beforehand, but yeah, tell your son that it was definitely Smurflicious. So much so, I wanted to ask him where their hidden village was.

And one other OW2 note that more folks here will get because of age: One of the new maps takes place in a mountainside monastery (The Shambali Monastary).

My quip when starting this level is "Let's see who washes away their pain on the road to Shambala, er Shambali" (ie, the Three Dog Night Song lyrics reference).

About 15% of the players in those games get the reference. But then again, See also: "kids, lawn, get off, etcetera"

Solid.

My hats off to you for being able to play that one at all. I know my limitations, hence never firing it up. I can follow (some) of it strategically but my hand/eye doesn't stand a chance of executing it.

Mostly, it's positioning and tunnel vision that I have to work on. I've had games where I've been awesome (51 eliminations vs 12 deaths), but it's a matter of learning the sense of.. for lack of a better word, battlesense. Sometimes I get hyperfocused on taking out the tank who's almost dead, when the DPS is pushing on my team's squishies.

Trying to keep an agile mind, but something like, say Total War 3's Domination battles which take part over a large area and you haveto manage movement, army special abilities, and reinforcements is beyond me. So much so that it actually sent me into a brain lock/overload migraine when I tried MP

I'm enjoying Diablo IV so far. I played III entirely in single player, but I enjoyed some randoms jumping in and helping out with some of those impromptu events.
I did my first dungeon, you get a special upgrade that can be attached to items for completing it. I actually had quite a hard time with my first one, I ended up leaving and levelling up 1-2 more times and it was pretty easy coming back. As a Druid, unlocking the wolves is what made it easier for me.
If you like Diablo, it's definitely still Diablo. Looks great, definitely a lot of fun so far.

Also enjoying D4 a bit. It's not my game really, but it passes the time well, and I've got some gaming time to kill right now. It's infinitely better out of the gate than Diablo 3.

I'm also having a surprisingly good time with NBA 2K, playing in the Magic/Bird era and just grabbing all of the non-Jordan Tar Heels.

D4 is outstanding so far. I'm really liking the slower time to kill along with encouraging you to use all of your abilities rather than spam 1-2 like most aarpgs.

The story isn't brilliant or anything, but much better than D3. They also removed the corny shit and keep things dark and feeling like Diablo. There's also an absolutely massive amount of content. Too many dungeons to count, strongholds, an absurd number of quests, reasons to explore, ect. That's all before endgame, which I've read already has more content than D3. There's also 2 expansions already in the works.

Not a huge fan of blizzard, and this game isn't perfection or anything, but feels like Diablo and it's fun.

I haven't played Diablo since right after Diablo 2 came out. Y'all are tempting me, but I really just the hang of Wartales.

Speaking of which:

The perfect ad doesn’t exist… pic.twitter.com/TBofT0VdjR

— Douglas A. Boneparth (@dougboneparth) June 7, 2023

British Museum on YT is entertaining. They have interesting stuff on Curator's Corner.

I caught the episode on the "Royal Game of Ur". I can see some backgammon in it. Yes, there are some version on Steam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I

Also enjoying Diablo4 a lot, great to jump in, kill some monsters and disconnect until next day. The amount of content, world, gear, side missions etc is amazing.

Well, the XBox Showcase presentation today was interesting.

Starfield deep dive was also interesting.

But, with pretty much every single thing I saw in those two hours, I have serrrrious trust issues

Like "will they actually deliver it" trust issues? Or "will it actually be playable" issues? Or something else?

I suspect Starfield specifically will drop in September as currently planned but whether it's playable (with Bethesda what does that even mean? "Bethesda normal bugs?" "Fallout 76 level bugs?") is a legitimate question.

The deep dive was useful, our sense of it here was basically "okay, they've pretty much included everything they've ever put in the ES series and everything the Fallout series into one game" ... and throw in the first real vehicular combat Bethesda has done to my recollection on top.

IF it delivered what it promised, it could be a good start to a new IP. But that's a LOT of moving parts to break ... and if any of them break then there's a decent chance it breaks many other elements at the same time.

Starfield looks fantastic, but as you're alluding to, is whether the September release date is too ambitious.

Star Wars Outlaws look fun and Massive Entertainment has a solid track record.

It was great to see Fable, even though it was just a trailer, the trailer was entertaining.

I love Obsidian's games, but The Outer Worlds felt kind of shallow to me. Hopefully Avowed fills the role of the Elder Scrolls game that we aren't going to see for several years well enough.

Microsoft just announced that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be released next year. This caused quite a meltdown on the various forums and discord servers from flight sim enthusiasts who currently have MSFS 2020 (and who have spent considerable money purchasing various add-ons). I've purchased quite a few payware airports and aircraft like the Fenix A320. When MSFS 2020 was released, Microsoft and Asobo said it would have a 10-year life span with full support. Microsoft just released a clarification to quell some of the unrest. With few exceptions, almost all of the addons for MSFS 2020 will be compatible with MSFS 2024.

Uh oh. I've got the CPU but don't have the GPU.

I'm betting it'll still run as low graphics on my AMD 6850u.

Bethesda has been directly responsible for almost every PC upgrade/purchase I've made over the last 17 years (starting with Oblivion).

Looks like Starfield will keep that streak going.

https://youtu.be/c7K2TA0bBpY

Hook this up to my veins right now

Not a single Jedi in sight, and this could be the best Star Wars game EVER.

Anyone else a little surprised that Starfield is 30 FPS locked on XBox when PS5 exclusives have all had a 60 FPS option?

That looks really good.

It does look really good, very much a Fallout in space vibe and that's a good thing

Just watched the frv video on Starfield. That game foes look impressive. I'm just so bad at first person shooter style games, I really feel like unless there is a non-combat style of play for it then I'm probably out. Beyond that, the fact that BG3 comes out right at the same time means I can wait for it to patch up before I would even need to consider it.
I also watched the latest dev trailer for BG3. The game looks so crazy good. I'm ready for it to break my heart.

I have the same dilemma with BG3 and Starfield.

With BG3 early access and strong participation in the forums, I can't help but believe BG3 will be much more polished than Starfield. Bethesda will get there eventually but thinking I'll play BG3 first.

Hell in Overwatch is real. Not ELO Hell, but actual torment Hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-8A6RlsKV0

One of my favorite Overwatch streamers breaks down a Rialto game that goes nearly an hour because both teams can't overtime defend to save their life. It goes.. a very long time. 15-13 score before the stream replayer breaks.

That does look good. It's definitely on my radar.

Am I the only one seeing reports of Starfield getting a review of 0 complete with legitimate websites reporting about it on social media. Yea….I wonder who is paying for all that coverage. I mean, even if it’s an obvious joke or whatever you want to call it a quick click on the comments shows that the masses are not getting the joke.

Bethesda.

If you look at Fallout 3/4 and Skyrim, those are games where, perhaps literally, every object in the game is persistent and location-tracked. And that's a single map; the Capitol Wasteland, Boston/Greater Boston, or Skyrim.

It sounds like Starfield is going to much the same thing, but with lots and lots of *planets*. Unless those planets are gonna be the same size each as, like, Whiterun, that's just going to be exponentially more objects to keep track of.

Locking it to 30 FPS allows them to do that with the level of visual fidelity they're going for instead of something that's a stuttering mess.

And that's even before accounting for the fact that they have to make the game run on Series S as well.

I'm not surprised. I expect they would have had to lock it to 30 FPS on PS5 also. Ambition sometimes requires tradeoffs.

EA splitting off EA Sports from the non sports division. Some part of me wonders if this is Microsoft’s pivot off the Activision deal by buying the non sports side of EA.

Final fantasy 16 releases tomorrow and looks really good. They're taking a more western approach to story telling with this one and it's obviously heavily influenced by Game of Thrones. It also has a new combat system. Demo is available on PS5 for those interested.

It really sucks that they bought exclusivity from even PC. Game looks amazing, but this exclusive crap is getting annoying both ways, but doubly so when the contract cuts out PC as well.

Aliens Dark Descent looks interesting. Over 1,100 Very Positive so far on Steam.

It's only a timed exclusive. I personally have plenty of games to get to in the meantime. Even then I'll wait until it is at least $30 or less.

That looks good. I'm not great at real time things, but that looks like something I might can play. Going on the wish list.
Edit: And only $39. That might not stay on the wish list very long.

I’m at the point where I don’t understand why the need for consoles at this point in time even exists. Everything should be PC based including the consoles. Sony and Microsoft should have storefronts like Epic and Steam that work on their console of choice as well as PCs at large. The entire concept seems out of date especially when these companies are losing money by selling them.

But with that being said the point remains about cutting PC out of exclusive deals with third party publishers. It’s really crappy business for the consumers.

Console games outsell PC games.

Of course. Both major console combined sales outsold PC by 27%. I’m not sure the point here. A console running on windows would be no different than a console running on whatever crappy OS they currently run on from a user perspective, but would open the entire ecosystems up to more exposure as the games could be purchased by many more users.

EDIT: Nintendo doesn’t report revenue so that console number is just Xbox and PlayStation combined.

PC is still the niche ... because most people can't/won't spend thousands for a PC rig that's obsolete five minutes after its built.

I would argue that PC probably has more game sale revenue than either Xbox or PlayStation. If those two combined sold 51 billion in games but PC was at 38 billion in 2022 it would take a massive market share advantage for Sony to have sold more than PC.

I really don’t care though. My only point was that all the proprietary consoles I believe have served their purpose.

And really mine is mostly that their purpose is still extremely valid for the majority of the gaming population. My console time is down but certainly not out entirely.

On the bright side, I likely only live through one more new-gen console era so if they get through that then whatever happens afterwards is somebody else's problem.

I guess my question is how would your experience be different if Sony launched a console that ran on the same ecosystem as everything else but was limited to just having Sony’s store on it? I’m not saying consoles don’t serve a point, my kids play on them in my house. I’m just saying that them being proprietary systems is just creating more work for the developers and limiting their potential sales figures in the case of “exclusives.”

Reading the Steam discussions, looks like its still pretty buggy but (most) everyone is pretty high on it. Devs are responding so a good sign.

Yeah, think I'm going to have to buy this soon.

I already don't care for crossplatforming (with regard to play), I already don't care for the existing integration of XBox stuff and Windows stuff ... I can't imagine a whole lot I'd want less than an identical experience.

I prefer things to work to & enhance their strengths instead of attempting to be a unitool.

There are things that fare better on p.c., there are things that fare better on console ... this isn't a reality that I'm particularly bothered by.

I 1000% respect your opinion, but I would counter with that there are ALREADY ways to, for example, have your PC boot directly to steam big picture (the controller only mode.) I would also add that windows already detects controllers better than consoles do.

Ever try to synch a new controller to your Xbox? It involves hitting buttons on both the console and the controller. The same is done on a PC just by turning on the controller and putting it in detect mode. The PC auto detects it and it’s available for use (assuming you have Bluetooth, which any gaming PC would.)

I just really can’t see what a console adds to the equation. I mean even 5-10 years ago I didn’t feel like this, but things have just come so far that consoles to me feel like a DVD player.

DEFINITELY contrary to my experience. I've never successfully connected a controller to my PC via any method. (my child has, to his pc but even he can't get mine to)

I think we really just come down to this: I have considerably more confidence in my console working consistently and as intended than I've had in any computer in years (that'd cover at least my last ... 4 computers, so 15 years if not 20). That's across 3 different OS and at least 3 pc brands.

I'm consistently surprised when something works properly related to a pc (other than the simplest plug n play peripherals), I'm surprised with a console only when something doesn't work right. (true since we got past the red ring of death fiasco)

These are about to more points in your favor (overcomplication), but I would ask if you have windows 11 and Bluetooth because I just connected a controller less than a week ago this way. You get a pop up in the bottom right of your screen letting you know a controller has been detected.

Like 2/3rds of Windows customers (as of May 2023) I'm on Win 10, not Win 11.

As a minor sidebar, with no prep, I asked my child which device he had more confidence in working properly: console or computer

Zero hesitation in saying console. And that's someone who is probably past 50/50 on their pc gaming vs console gaming

I finished Outlast 2....then the world ended. It was messy.

Honestly that is a no brainer. Everything works on console. That is the entire point of a console. You could make a PlayStation or Xbox with windows as an OS that had similar guarantees is my point. You could easily have a little sticker that says “PlayStation certified” and so forth. I guess my other thing I would add is has your sim actually had something just not work on PC? I mean there are games with bugs that may not but that goes both ways as Cyberpunk didn’t work on consoles. In this instance we are talking certified peripherals.

I'm going to second the fact that I never can get a controller to work correctly (at least for long) on Bluetooth through Windows. I just straight connect it through USB.

I don't have the confidence in the O/S "guarantees", simple as that I guess.

Playing some BG3 early access. Enjoying it so far, got through initial tutorial and now in the Ruins. I like that I'm learning some D&D mechanics (it's been a while) guided by the game.

FWIW, playing it fine on my laptop Radeon 680M. It seem to lag some on Windows "balance" mode but no issues with "performance" mode.

The graphics is predictably pretty sad on low quality but happy I'm able to play it half-way decently.

Because of our discussion here, I have been playing around with it again as well. I'm really having a hard time settling in on a PC class to play. Every time I feel like I have decided on one, I change my mind.

Same, I keep restarting, it's almost overwhelming LOL