OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread

[ReasonablySober]

Ended up not picking up Telling Lies this weekend because I got back into Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. I hadn't played it much since it came out and I was pretty lost. It took me a bit of time to figure out what I needed to do and acquire, but once I did and finally dive into its various systems, the game opened way the hell up and became almost overwhelming.

I'm having a complete blast. Around 85% map completion (about 30 hours), and there are only two back to back bosses left. I'm putting them off now for a while because I know I have some undiscovered and important optional areas to go to. I also want to grind for a handful more specific skills and shards. I need a ton of money and mats for the gear I want to craft.

After that I'm starting right over in NG+. Can't wait.

[ReasonablySober]

Astral Chain and Control are both getting rave reviews. Control definitely seems like a rental someday. Astral Chain I'll pick up used down the line.

[MikeIsGood]

Astral Chain and Control are both getting rave reviews. Control definitely seems like a rental someday. Astral Chain I'll pick up used down the line.

Patinum-style games have never done it for me, so will pass on Astral Chain. I'd like to get Control down the line for PC. It was hyped as a GPU-selling game, like Crysis back in the day (though can also be played on modest machines, it sounds like). So maybe once I upgrade my PC.

EDIT: I ditched FE for a while and am back to DQ Builders 2. **** it's such a fun game.

[jschligs]

For a game I wasn't sure if I'd like, FE: Three Houses is tickling all the right spots for me.

Most sports games I play I do franchise/association mode. I sim most of the games and do all of the management stuff. Practice, training, coach game plan/lineups, scouting, etc. and I'll play the occasional important game as needed. Three Houses is basically that, but instead of sports, it's being a professor/warrior. And instead of games, it's battles that require strategy. I'm on Chapter 6 I believe and I'm loving it. I can get about an hour of play time in before bed each night and it's perfect. Could see this holding me over until this falls games come out.

Speaking of fall games, I know most are waiting for BL3, but what else are folks looking forward to? For me it's the following in no particular order:

- NBA 2k20 (9/6)
- LoZ: Link's Awakening (9/20)
- CoD: MW (9/12) - I can't believe it, but this one does look good. Won't get it until much later though
- The Outer Worlds (10/25) - I'm really excited for this one
- Pokemon Sword/Shield (11/15) - Haven't decided one way or another, but I'm pretty stoked

Going to be an awesome fall for gaming and it's perfect timing as I'll have way more free time for the first time in 15 months.

[MikeIsGood]

BL3, Outer Worlds, and my current backlog of games (FE, DQB2, SMM2) will very easily take me through the end of the year, probably and then some. I also never finished DQ11 before new releases hit. FF8 Remastered comes out next month, too - won't pick that up at launch, but definitely will be playing it. I beg for a reprieve from releases I want

[ReasonablySober]

I'm gonna finish Ritual of the Night and probably start NG+ up until BL3 comes out, then it'll be that for a month or more.

I ditched FE before I got to the finish line. I told myself I'd blow through the story the first time through. Problem is I didn't really love the story at all. An underrated problem I have with the game is in FE: Awakening, the game let you do two things that made partnerships between characters worth building: kids, and pairing up on the battlefield. Without those two elements, I really don't care a whole lot about exploring the relationships between anyone, even if the dialogue is generally great.

I'm gonna try and rent Gears of War 5 on the 6th and play through it in the week leading up to BL3.

Others I'll play eventually but definitely not all this fall/winter: Control, Astral Chain, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Code Vein, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, The Outer Worlds, Death Stranding, Need For Speed Heat, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Shenmue III, and Doom Eternal.

[Siefer]

We picked up a Switch over the weekend, and my wife dove head-first into BotW. I put a couple of hours into FE just to get a feel for it (and love what I've seen so far), but I'm going to finish my current play-through of Tales of Vesperia before diving into that. I've heard good things about Astral Chain, and Remnant, the later being a potentially great co-op pickup. The backlog is getting a bit ridiculous, though - there's FF8 Remastered on the horizon, and I still haven't touched Ni No Kuni II, Return of the Obra Dinn, or Slay the Spire.

[ReasonablySober]

Oh yea, forgot about Remnant. Really want to play that one soon.

[MikeIsGood]

I need some more info on Star Wars Fallen Order before I get hyped. Is it Action Adventure like Uncharted or Tomb Raider, or is it also RPG-ish like God of War? Open world?

I mean, I guess I like both kinds of games, but I'd hope for the latter. I still just want another KOTOR.

[Ron Swanson]

Modern Warfare might be the game that gets me back into the CoD franchise. Black Ops 2 was probably the last game I played extensively/competitively, and it seems like every iteration since then has gradually morphed into a cartoony Halo/Fortnite hybrid. This one looks like it's going back to its roots though. Gunplay looks satisfying (there's actually recoil!) and the animations and overall engine look entirely overhauled. Saw some Alpha footage on Twitch though and looks like head-glitching is gonna be a major problem.

[ReasonablySober]

If Modern Warfare has those awesome Spec Ops missions I'll almost assuredly pick the game up. That mode is probably the most fun I've had with my brother playing games.

[StickeeFingaz]

As someone who has soured on COD in recent years, I played the COD MW 2v2 Alpha this weekend and had a really good time.

I just need some TDM and the rumored large player count game modes. This game could be great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[StickeeFingaz]

Question for fans of Borderlands, what draws you guys to these games? I'm only about 5 hours into Borderlands 2 and nothing about the game is really grabbing me.

All the different crazy guns, shoot and loot aspect. The world is interesting and unique and definitely a major step above other shooter games story wise. But the game honestly doesn’t even start til you’ve played through the entire game twice and gotten to the max level. The end game is unparalleled and being able to do raids and missions with your decked out character. The multiplayer should be even better on BL3 too.

Agreed with all of this. On my first couple play throughs I usually do just enough to maintain main story appropriate levels, skip a ton of side stuff, and grind where I can (Slappy, BNK3R, The Destroyer). Only very early on do I do all the missions.

Real game starts with the 3rd play through. Enemies regenerate health, the baddest versions come out and play.

One tip: early in the game, I always farm Knuckledragger (the first boss) for at least one Hornet, and if I'm playing as Salvador I get two because he can dual wield. That gun whips ass a long while early on.

As for what I generally like about the game has a lot to do with the customization. I've spent over 1000 hours in it and no one play through is ever the same. A great great shield or relic will fall into my hands, giving a certain type of weapon some insane bonus, and I'll tailor my gameplay around it. Or I'm cruising along with one weapon as my main like an SMG, when a great sniper or pistol or shotgun pops up and I'm completely changing my playstyle. There's also the skill trees which inevitably dictate your play style too. But the cool thing about that is if you suddenly catch a Legendary that doesn't mesh, you can just respec to get the most out of it.

How long on average is a play through?

I just beat the Captain Flynt(?) guy last night and I just feel like I haven’t come across any interesting guns yet, maybe I’m not playing the game correctly or I just need to give it more time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ReasonablySober]

All the different crazy guns, shoot and loot aspect. The world is interesting and unique and definitely a major step above other shooter games story wise. But the game honestly doesn’t even start til you’ve played through the entire game twice and gotten to the max level. The end game is unparalleled and being able to do raids and missions with your decked out character. The multiplayer should be even better on BL3 too.

Agreed with all of this. On my first couple play throughs I usually do just enough to maintain main story appropriate levels, skip a ton of side stuff, and grind where I can (Slappy, BNK3R, The Destroyer). Only very early on do I do all the missions.

Real game starts with the 3rd play through. Enemies regenerate health, the baddest versions come out and play.

One tip: early in the game, I always farm Knuckledragger (the first boss) for at least one Hornet, and if I'm playing as Salvador I get two because he can dual wield. That gun whips ass a long while early on.

As for what I generally like about the game has a lot to do with the customization. I've spent over 1000 hours in it and no one play through is ever the same. A great great shield or relic will fall into my hands, giving a certain type of weapon some insane bonus, and I'll tailor my gameplay around it. Or I'm cruising along with one weapon as my main like an SMG, when a great sniper or pistol or shotgun pops up and I'm completely changing my playstyle. There's also the skill trees which inevitably dictate your play style too. But the cool thing about that is if you suddenly catch a Legendary that doesn't mesh, you can just respec to get the most out of it.

How long on average is a play through?

I just beat the Captain Flynt(?) guy last night and I just feel like I haven’t come across any interesting guns yet, maybe I’m not playing the game correctly or I just need to give it more time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Your play through is gonna be hugely different than a vet like mine. I can reasonably go from start to finish in under a weekend, 9-12 hours.

Another tip: if you're kinda stuck and want to get through a level with some help, fire up the multiplayer match making. You'll get a list of people around your level and the various missions they're on. Hop in and play along as they complete missions. Then you'll have the option of skipping them in single player. I do this on a handful of missions usually, like Wildlife Preservation, The Man who Would be Jack, and Data Mining. Those can be difficult slogs. If you're well leveled up, there's no reason not to hop into multiplayer.

And yea, where's you're currently at, go back and farm Knuckle Dragger. You'll get an awesome acid based Legendary that should work well until you get to Sanctuary. From the wiki:

A farming tactic for the Hornet is to enter the Southern Shelf, then re-enter Windshear Waste, allowing players to save and quit and always spawn next to Knuckle Dragger when entering the game. She can also be lured into the drop barge at this point, thus confining her loot drop to a smaller area.

OH! Speaking of Sanctuary, once you're there you'll find a chest that only opens via Golden Keys. These are codes given out by Gearbox online. If you search for Borderlands 2 Golden Keys, you might find over a hundred. Just enter the keys on the Extras menu at the tile screen. They give the keys out like candy. Every time you use one of the keys you'll get appropriate leveled weapons and shields, usually Epic but very rarely Legendary.

[mattg]

It honestly depends how good you are at the game. You can fly through things with some experience, but first time through it’s hard not to take longer to really explore and open everything and take it all in. If I’m playing now I literally will not do a single side quest until I’m max leveled.

As far as where you’re at in the game, you’re soooooo early in the game its still basically in tutorial mode. You’re extremely close to where it really opens up though once you arrive in sanctuary.

[Ayt]

Remnant is one of my favorite games of the year so far and I hadn't ever heard of it before release. It is a blast to play solo or co-op.

[tydett]

Finished Remnant - as a trophy hunter, the game is beyond frustrating to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now waiting for September 28, when all my friends will still be busy with Borderlands 3 so I can play Trails of Cold Steel 3 uninterrupted In the meanwhile, grinding away at Teamfight Tactics and Apex as needed.

[humanrefutation]

Spiderman is legitimately fun. Just a joy all around. Even the side missions are enjoyable.

Anyway, my game shopping list as of right now:

For Sure:
1. FIFA 20 - Wasn't planning to buy this, as I usually try to skip a year. But they've apparently done some work to revamp Career Mode, which is pretty much all I play, and Volta Football was fun to play in their demo.
2. Cuphead for Switch - For $20, it seems worth it just to look at the trippy levels.
3, The Last of Us II - Looks like it won't come out until sometime in 2020, but on the off chance it gets dropped this year, it's a must buy.

Maybe:
Borderlands 3 - didn't play the previous iterations, so I'm not sure...depends on the reviews.
Madden 2020 - The last version of Madden I bought was in 2015, I think. Might pick up the latest version, depending on how much down time I find myself having.
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order - depends on reviews
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - probably should finish BOTW before buying another Zelda game, tbh.

[ReasonablySober]

Remnant is one of my favorite games of the year so far and I hadn't ever heard of it before release. It is a blast to play solo or co-op.

Just starting it. Chose the up close and personal class, even though I typically gravitate towards long range combat. This seems like a game where you wanna do a lot of damage up close.

[MikeIsGood]

Remnant is one of my favorite games of the year so far and I hadn't ever heard of it before release. It is a blast to play solo or co-op.

Just starting it. Chose the up close and personal class, even though I typically gravitate towards long range combat. This seems like a game where you wanna do a lot of damage up close.

I feel like you've flip-flopped on your plans pre-BL3 about a half dozen times in the past 2 days

Sounds like me; I only kid.