OT: Video Games/Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos

[jmuelly]

I'm enjoying CFB a ton right now. It's not perfect, never will be but it plays pretty darn good on heisman. The CPU not getting speed boosts and the in game adjustements they've made in early release just makes for a more fun and realistic experience. Blocking at times can be not good, and at times jump balls seem OP but make more sense when looking at height and ratings, some of the times.

I'm playing default heisman settings, penalties are a bit low but Im hesitant to change anything because it oftens affects something else as well. I did increase transfers from 20 max to 30 max, transfers are a bit crazy expecially at small schools. May need to tweak some settings here but have not yet simply becaue the portal IRL is crazy and unpredictable.

I'm enjoying it so far, hope future patches dont break it. Madden always falls victim of catering to casuals and MUT that it ruins solo players franchise experience. I've disliked Madden for years.

If your on the fence spend the $5 for a month of EA play to get a 10 hour trial. Within that same month you'll also get 10 hours early access to Madden to check that out.

I'm still tweaking with the gameplay sliders here and there, but yeah, definitely enjoying it so far. The soundtrack is also one of my favorite sports soundtracks ever and the presentation has been given a nice face-lift between the updated team runouts, commentary mentioning that I'm returning home to my former school, better transitions for instant replays and stuff, etc.

Making the transfer portal actually feel significant is such a huge improvement from last year. If I have a complaint about that aspect so far, it would probably be that recruiting might be too easy? Granted that my team had back to back great seasons (like 10-3 and then 11-2 or something including a win in the CFP), but I was able to get a top 25 recruiting class in my 2nd season at Buffalo and was able to pull in two safety transfers after my first year that ended up being over 90 overall after offseason training. I seem poised to land a 5 star LB in my first season at Maryland too, and I was not in his top 10 to start the season (should mention though that he's in a level 5 pipeline so that probably helps a lot). Should also mention I have zero invested in the Recruiter archetype so this is all working off the default 50 hour max stuff.

I'm playing as Delaware, so nobody wants to play for me. It does seem pipelines do play a larger role as do player wants. If a player has minimal interest you can climb his list it seems, at least until other teams finall do offer or show interest. At least at Delaware, you quickly fall of their board when that happens. I chose motivator, so I have 0 invested in recruiting either. I ramped transfer max to 30, as it's the wild west anyway. So I'm probably only recruiting for guys to leave, and am likely to hit the portal myself to fill gaps (which will be many).

[jmuelly]

I'm enjoying CFB a ton right now. It's not perfect, never will be but it plays pretty darn good on heisman. The CPU not getting speed boosts and the in game adjustements they've made in early release just makes for a more fun and realistic experience. Blocking at times can be not good, and at times jump balls seem OP but make more sense when looking at height and ratings, some of the times.

I'm playing default heisman settings, penalties are a bit low but Im hesitant to change anything because it oftens affects something else as well. I did increase transfers from 20 max to 30 max, transfers are a bit crazy expecially at small schools. May need to tweak some settings here but have not yet simply becaue the portal IRL is crazy and unpredictable.

I'm enjoying it so far, hope future patches dont break it. Madden always falls victim of catering to casuals and MUT that it ruins solo players franchise experience. I've disliked Madden for years.

If your on the fence spend the $5 for a month of EA play to get a 10 hour trial. Within that same month you'll also get 10 hours early access to Madden to check that out.

How is defensive tackling/pursuit angles? I played 25 with some buddies this weekend and it was basically big play after big play because tackling sucks and pursuit angles are nearly impossible to do properly. I've been watching some streems/social videos and it doesn't seem like a big enough jump for me to buy right now. Especially because I've been super busy. It just doesn't seem like Dynasty got much deeper and there are still some really glaring issues from 25.

There's definitely still some wonky pursuit angles from time to time. The physics around tackling feels like a decent improvement (gang tackling, Player A initially hitting the ball carrier and having the animations blend nicely when Player B comes in and hits him mid-tackle, you feel the hit stick tackles more, etc.) Succcessful hurdles, spins, jukes, etc. feel more believable than 25 IMO and the AI has juked me out a few times from what I thought was about to be a big hit.

Gameplay wise, my main complaints at the moment would be (in no particular order):

1. Feels like if you throw up a jumpball type of pass, defensive players really struggle to turn around and make a play on the ball. Still oftentimes results in an incomplete pass as they end up hitting the WR and knock the ball out, but it doesn't look right as it's happening.

2. AI run game feels way too weak to me, even on Heisman difficulty. I'm going to play my next game with AI run blocking turned up significantly, but so far, it's pretty common for the AI to finish the game with negative rushing yards when you factor in sack yards, which brings me to my next point.

3. I think there's a QB ability that allows the AI QB to quickly diagnose blitzes, call hot routes, and attack the defense before the blitz can get home, but if they don't have that ability, they take way too many sacks IMO. Fairly easy to rack up 10+ sacks in a game; even had one game where my defensive end finished with a school record 5.5 sacks.

4. Flicking the right stick up attempts to truck the defensive player (no different from past years) but pushing the right stick up (not even really holding it, but simply not being a quick flick) triggers the ball carrier to "fight for yardage" aka absorb the contact and then extend their arm out to try to reach for the first down marker, pylon, etc. It's supposed to be a high risk maneuver since you're exposing the ball to the defense but I haven't had it result in a fumble yet, so it hasn't hurt me yet. But I'm having a really hard time attempting to truck anyone and as a result, I'm more likely to just try to stiff arm them instead.

The run game is tough to figure out. The CPU at times finds ways to break off a chunk play it usually requires a broken tackle, nice juke or spin (nice to see they actually try to avoid tackles). It seems much success is on options though when dont have defense to defend against.

My lone concern on heisman always is my pass d (but my delaware secondary is really awful) I think the pass d remains hard though large in part because like you said qb play while improved it a bit wierd. Qbs tend to go complete very high %, but I dont think it's fair to say "robo qb" because like you said they take so many sacks that proably would otherwise just be thrown away.

The right stick seems to have confused many because of the reach for yardage. I have seens fumbles holding it, the animation usually results in my ball carrier with the ball above his head as he's being hit or spun down. I tend to just spin, juke or stiff arm now unless I have a larger bodied player then I'll flick forward but it seems to be a low success rate.

I'm really hesitant to begin adjusting sliders because I feel I just end up chasing sliders all year and each update impacts them in some way. Trying to take the approach that, I just need to beat the game as it is I guess. Far from perfect, but I'm having alot of fun with it. Right now though, I need to figure out how to stop letting 2 score games late 3rd/early 4th become close games. Guessing large part of it is Delaware just isnt very good, and when the CPU throws more out of need I can't get my defense off the field. My cbs are straight up terrible. Offensively I rely on alot of rpos, bubbles and mesh plays. I lost my rb (2nd highest rated player on team) in week 2 for season. With several small backs behind him it has led to some major wear and tear. I redshirted the injured rb, he at this time is at no risk of transferring, unlike everyone else on my team. So I wonder if the game doesnt allow srs to transfer as it sees no elgibility. Fingers crossed I he returns to my backfield next year.

[Licensed to Il]

CFB has the best and most expansive playbooks ever. I love some of the 4WR bunch, gate, and motion orbit stuff. The RPOs are great. Overall gameplay is more realistic than last year. Pass defense and user pass defense is very difficult. Weirdly the computer makes sucky teams too good and powerhouse teams too sucky.

[ReasonablySober]

Watch on YouTube

Sure looks pretty.

[jschligs]

Got a Logitech G Cloud for free. Little handheld streaming device. What I love is that it's incredibly lightweight and has a crazy good battery life. What I don't like is that streaming games from the cloud is basically worthless 20% of the time because it lags out. We're still not there IMO and I have 1GB internet and a strong wifi system. However, playing off my Xbox or my Steam account on my PC is great. Minimal lag, great quality. Probably wouldn't pay full price for it though.

[tydett]

Well, nearly 70 hours later and finished with the main story of Death Stranding 2 - though with lots of backtracking and a few hours of AFK. What a ride.

[StickeeFingaz]

Anyone play Donkey Kong?

[MickeyDavis]

Anyone play Donkey Kong?

A buddy of mine, pretty hard core gamer, bought Bananza and loves it. He's still exploring the levels, sublevels and easter eggs but so far he's having a blast. I'm going over there sometime this weekend to have a look.

[ReasonablySober]

In one Odyssey mission you have to escort this big dumb idiot named TESTIKLES to the Olympics and he just yells SPARTA, WOO!! randomly and I lose it every time.

Watch on YouTube

[Prez]

Replaying Lies of P now that I got the DLC. It's so freaking good man, I feel like now that I've gotten used to the mechanics I like it considerably more than I did on my first couple play throughs. Might be my favorite non Fromsoft soulslike game

[MikeIsGood]

Not what I expected to drop from the harbinger mobs (dropped from a minion, not the boss obviously).

[ReasonablySober]

I've somehow spent the last two months playing AC: Odyssey exclusively and I'm not even kind of sick of it. Honestly shocked by how much I've enjoyed my time. I'm just about to hit the original level cap of 50 and I from what I can tell there are still dozens and dozens of missions left and they've almost all been really great. This game is seven years old but it has to be the Ubisoft formula peak. They just nailed absolutely everything.

I say all that because Wuchang comes out in two days and it looks good. Like maybe the Nioh successor I've been waiting for.

[Nightfall]

They just nailed absolutely everything.

As someone who knows greek history and mythology really well,I can also agree on that and not just from the gaming experience.

And since our kids were practically raised in Germany (they were 2 and 0.5 when we came here), I used the Discovery Tour mode to show and explain many things way better than books. The research they did was phenomenal.

There are many links and videos discussing the research or showing reactions from historians
example: https://www.ashmolean.org/article/the-story-of-assassins-creed-odyssey.

[Ryan5UW]

I've somehow spent the last two months playing AC: Odyssey exclusively and I'm not even kind of sick of it. Honestly shocked by how much I've enjoyed my time. I'm just about to hit the original level cap of 50 and I from what I can tell there are still dozens and dozens of missions left and they've almost all been really great. This game is seven years old but it has to be the Ubisoft formula peak. They just nailed absolutely everything.

I say all that because Wuchang comes out in two days and it looks good. Like maybe the Nioh successor I've been waiting for.

I haven't played an AC game in well over a decade. If I was going to pick one up - what would you recommend and/or is there a general consensus on which are the best ones? From a setting prospective Odyssey, Black Flag or Valhalla seem like the ones I might enjoy the most, but if any of those games suck I don't want to waste money on them.

[ReasonablySober]

I've somehow spent the last two months playing AC: Odyssey exclusively and I'm not even kind of sick of it. Honestly shocked by how much I've enjoyed my time. I'm just about to hit the original level cap of 50 and I from what I can tell there are still dozens and dozens of missions left and they've almost all been really great. This game is seven years old but it has to be the Ubisoft formula peak. They just nailed absolutely everything.

I say all that because Wuchang comes out in two days and it looks good. Like maybe the Nioh successor I've been waiting for.

I haven't played an AC game in well over a decade. If I was going to pick one up - what would you recommend and/or is there a general consensus on which are the best ones? From a setting prospective Odyssey, Black Flag or Valhalla seem like the ones I might enjoy the most, but if any of those games suck I don't want to waste money on them.

Black Flag has always been my favorite because I have a soft spot for the Golden Age of Piracy, and I love playing a game with a bunch of characters and stories I'm familiar with.

But honestly, AC: Odyssey blows it away in every way. It's got all the best gameplay elements of Black Flag, none of the bad ones, great characters, fun missions, cool locations, a never ending amount of assassination options, hundreds of pieces of gear with interesting options, a nice skill tree, and a massive map.

It honestly might be one of the best open world games ever.

[Prez]

I've somehow spent the last two months playing AC: Odyssey exclusively and I'm not even kind of sick of it. Honestly shocked by how much I've enjoyed my time. I'm just about to hit the original level cap of 50 and I from what I can tell there are still dozens and dozens of missions left and they've almost all been really great. This game is seven years old but it has to be the Ubisoft formula peak. They just nailed absolutely everything.

I say all that because Wuchang comes out in two days and it looks good. Like maybe the Nioh successor I've been waiting for.

I haven't played an AC game in well over a decade. If I was going to pick one up - what would you recommend and/or is there a general consensus on which are the best ones? From a setting prospective Odyssey, Black Flag or Valhalla seem like the ones I might enjoy the most, but if any of those games suck I don't want to waste money on them.

This is just my opinion and you might feel differently, but personally I loved Black Flag (although it’s a bit older and I haven’t played it in a long time, so tough for me to comment on how well it’s aged) and had a great time with Odyssey as well.

I think Valhalla was a colossal **** bore though, like I found myself 15-20 hours into the game asking myself why I’m still playing it. If Odyssey was the Ubisoft open world formula at its best (or close to it), Valhalla was that formula at its worst for me personally. I just found it so boring and repetitive.

I will note I enjoyed Origins as well.

[Ron Swanson]

I've heard that both Valhalla and Odyssey are good. I've tapped out of the AC games since Black Flag because that's when it really stopped being "Assassin's Creed" lol. 1&2 are still great games if you can get past the now dated graphics. Brotherhood felt like it was DLC for the 2nd game honestly, but they rebounded well enough with Revelations that I got back into it and enjoyed AC3 well enough. Keep in mind, the story is actually kinda cool/interesting until it starts to completely fall apart in AC3. Syndicate and whatever the French Revolution one was were apparently so bad it almost killed the series. So my recommendation based on the ones that I've played would probably be:

AC1
Revelations
AC2

-gap-

AC3
Brotherhood
Black Flag

[ReasonablySober]

I've somehow spent the last two months playing AC: Odyssey exclusively and I'm not even kind of sick of it. Honestly shocked by how much I've enjoyed my time. I'm just about to hit the original level cap of 50 and I from what I can tell there are still dozens and dozens of missions left and they've almost all been really great. This game is seven years old but it has to be the Ubisoft formula peak. They just nailed absolutely everything.

I say all that because Wuchang comes out in two days and it looks good. Like maybe the Nioh successor I've been waiting for.

I haven't played an AC game in well over a decade. If I was going to pick one up - what would you recommend and/or is there a general consensus on which are the best ones? From a setting prospective Odyssey, Black Flag or Valhalla seem like the ones I might enjoy the most, but if any of those games suck I don't want to waste money on them.

This is just my opinion and you might feel differently, but personally I loved Black Flag (although it’s a bit older and I haven’t played it in a long time, so tough for me to comment on how well it’s aged) and had a great time with Odyssey as well.

I think Valhalla was a colossal **** bore though, like I found myself 15-20 hours into the game asking myself why I’m still playing it. If Odyssey was the Ubisoft open world formula at its best (or close to it), Valhalla was that formula at its worst for me personally. I just found it so boring and repetitive.

I will note I enjoyed Origins as well.

Agree with all this, including the bore of Valhalla.

[Ryan5UW]

Very cool, thanks guys! I appreciate the feedback.

[jschligs]

Maybe I should give more AC’s a chance. Played the first two then didn’t until Valhalla and got bored after 15 hours.

I’ve been so bored I’ve been playing Madden 25 and I don’t even like the game but it’s a time waster.