I bought Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X/X2 and Zodiac Age for Switch. I will get no writing done. Anyone have a favourite FF?
I watched a play through of The Last of Us II and found it to be sorely lacking in terms of gameplay elements and storytelling. The gameplay was exactly the same as the first game in terms of stealth animations and so on, and the story was entirely predictable with the exception of one aspect Spoiler Joel's death I guessed the motivation for Abby's character immediately once I knew she was from the Fireflies and they definitely didn't make her appealing after playing through ten hours of game as Ellie, only to switch to Abby's perspective at the very beginning of the game again. And then you play for another ten hours. The only time the story was really compelling to me was at the end of it when Spoiler Ellie finds Abby at the Scars island and goes to take her out, but doesn't. In the end she lets Abby save the kid and go off to be traumatized forever now because of what she'd experienced Neither Ellie nor Abby were truly sympathetic characters, although I leaned more toward Ellie because of how much time we'd spent with her before. There were other elements I felt were forced interactions such as her relationship with Dina. I didn't get it because they had the chemistry of cooked pasta and a puddle. There were some moments where I was emotionally invested in the story they were telling, but overall I found it to be a disappointing game, and I disagree 100% that it was the game of the year last year. I did, however, absolutely love Death Stranding. Setting aside the fact Sam Porter Bridges is a delivery boy for the better part of 24+ hours of gameplay, the story is devastatingly beautiful to me. I legitimately wept over this game several times when trying to explain it to others. I don't want to go too far into it because it'd all be wrapped in a spoiler, but in my opinion, this game should have won game of the year in 2019. I think I tend to gravitate toward more story based games these days than anything, and I think other types are all right, but I've never really found it interesting to sit and watch someone go through a metroidvania (notable exception will always be Hollow Knight, yes, thank you) or a game with more shoot 'em up action than anything else.
The Last of Us Part 2 Never in the history of my time gaming have I encountered anything like this. In the past I’ve laughed at people discussing getting ‘emotionally involved’ in games, and forum threads with titles like ‘What was the last game to make you cry?’ but despite the fact I’ve only been playing this for approx 3 hrs over two days, I’ve already done both of these things. I’ve actually had to stop playing on occasion because of how strongly it was affecting me. Never have I cared more about a bunch of characters in a computer game. TLoU 2 should be held up as a prime example to all developers. This is what the PS4 is truly capable of producing when the time, skill and passion is there. An absolutely phenomenal game in every respect!
I thought that of the first one, but not so much in the second. Too much shock value attempts. Critically, the game did great, but from players the reviews are mixed and I think pretty rightly so. The game did a disservice to the growth and ominous ending of the first. Personal opinion though.
Games like that are too difficult for me to play. I can't even watch sad films or shows. About the only deep emotional investment I can handle in a game is horror or suspense. I admire anyone who can play a mentally devastating game without being adversely affected by it.
Firstly, thanks for avoiding spoilers, but for me the exact opposite is true. I enjoyed the first but couldn’t help but wonder what the fuss was about.
Well I have to question whether I do have that ability, considering the affect some of the scenes in this game have had on me. 9 times out of 10 the reason I’m not affected in other games of this ilk is because none of it (animation, voice acting etc) is done particularly well, but in this case all of those things are executed to a level I’ve never experienced before. Apparently it’s a BAFTA award winning game, and for once I think it’s utterly deserved.
I think the big difference for me is in tone. There was a lot of bleak images in the environment and life in the world of the first, but there were undercurrents of a hopeful nature in them. Like the giraffes just before a particularly horrifying fight when you fall into a school. There was a sense of moving forward. 2 is essentially a revenge story. It's unrelentingly dark, which can be good, but you'll see. I just don't think it had the underlying depth that the first did. The world was moving more forward in the first, albeit in uncomfortable direction often. The second seemed a bit backwards. Just living miserably and violently in a miserable and violent world. That's my take on it. I can understand why you like it. Many do. I think it's alright, but I feel it breaks the characters and the tone lacks former depth.
I think a massive part of why I prefer this sequel over the first is down to the graphics and quality of acting. Not once in a game have I looked forward to cut-scenes, but in the case of this game they’re almost as spell-binding as the gameplay itself.
On The Last of Us Part II: I played it towards the end of last year, and found it a rewarding experience. It's not perfect, but it's a great game that I think it gets a lot of undeserved flak. Looks fantastic for a PS4 game. The set design and everything is just top notch. I liked the story, with all its emotional turbulence. It's not the ending I would have wanted for this saga, but... Sometimes it's better to get what you weren't hoping for, I guess. In this case I'm not sure. What a ride, though. Some of the individual scenes and chapters are among the most tense, immersive gaming moments or episodes I've had in years. On PC gaming: Damn, but it feels good to have a real computer again. I matched it with a good 1440p, high-refresh monitor, and now I'm getting image quality like I never have before. Been playing DOOM Eternal, which is great fun even though I don't really have the reflexes for it. It looks super crisp with everything maxed out, and runs at a silky-smooth 150+ frames per second. I've also been playing Three Kingdoms: Total War, the latest main entry in one of my favorite series of all time. I was sceptical after not enjoying TW: Troy at all, but this is pretty good. The performance in battles is better than I've ever seen, and I can do battles of 20.000 men or so at a very comfortable framerate. They've also done some interesting things with the campaign map and the diplomacy. Everything feels much less constrictive than in, say, TW: Warhammer. I am missing the faction variety, though, and very much looking forward to the third entry in the Warhammer trilogy, set to drop later this year. Metro: Exodus is another cool game that looks amazing, but I've failed to properly get into it for some reason. Now let's just have Elden Ring and I'll be happy.
Been making progress in Ion Fury. I get lost a lot and don't find many secrets. But it's a fun neo retro FPS.
I've been playing x4 Foundations recently, pretty fun, but very clunky, especially the AI, it will make you pull out your hair at times. So nice to build a fleet and stand on the bridge of a ship, watching the fireworks from a battle waging outside.
Ah crap! I thought I was on the Movies thread! Feel free to move it Mods. I need to pick some brains, I just can't remember what this movie was. Made in the 70's or maybe late 60's, it was a war game. Can't remember any actors, but they were the usual tough guys for the period, actors like Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson etc. It was a comedy, but had good serious action. All I remember is there were a few guys who had both red and blue armbands (to identify the teams in the war games) and would switch from side to side. Anybody know it?
Picked up Just Cause 3 for my PS4 over the weekend - it’s silly and OTT but an absolute blast all the same. There’s these gas canisters littering the map that when you shoot them take off like a rocket and explode at about 800 feet in the air, but me and my mate discovered you can topple them over my walking into them, so we developed a game of chicken which requires you to stand directly in their line at a distance of about 50 feet before putting a bullet in them, and waiting till the last second before you move!
Thanks, but I looked at a trailer and that's not it. That looks like a serious war drama. The one I'm thinking about isn't actually war, just war games. I might have thrown things off by mentioning actors—to be clear I don't know who was in it, just seems like it must have been some of those guys. But it was a light-hearted comedy for the most part.
Picked up Project Cars 2 over the weekend and I’d forgotten how good it was! As soon as I’m hooked up to the net I’ll be buying the Fun Pack DLC as it includes American muscle from the 60s and 70s. Project Cars was brilliant, 2 improved on that brilliance, and 3 - as I discovered recently - is beyond awful!
If you want a good example of how gaming (in this case the driving simulator genre) has come along, look no further than this. This is so incredible (if you ignore the poor pedestrian models) that I’m not altogether convinced I’m not being trolled. If this is for real, then wow!! Although you really need to see it on a big screen to appreciate it.
Why is buying a gaming PC so damn complicated? I just want something off the shelf that can handle driving sims like Euro Truck Simulator / American Truck Simulator, etc. In fact driving sims is where my interest begins and ends when it comes to PC gaming. I’m not interested in shooters or multi-player gaming, but all the advice seems to be don’t buy pre-built, which is no help to me at all. I know nothing about building PCs and there’s a serious chip famine right now, meaning pre-built is probably my only option for the next couple of years. And yet whenever I ask all I get is vague shit like ‘it depends’ and ‘avoid this’. I’ve explained what type of game I want to play, millions of PC gamers already play these games, so why the hell can’t someone just post a link to a PC and say ‘Buy this one. It will easily be able to handle the type of games you’re talking about’ ???
The reason you get the "avoid this" conversation boils down to pre-built PCs usually using discount parts. In my experience this is usually very true of the power supply being some off-name China special with no certification rating (prone to burn out). They also often make things proprietary so even if you want to upgrade something later, you can't. Building computers is almost as easy as legos now, just plug this into that. You can YouTube the whole process. However, I understand the sentiment of wanting something ready to go. I know people who have gotten pre-builts from Amazon, Ibuypower, NZXT, and so on that are completely happy with their purchase. Just keep in mind the limitations I noted above.
Thanks. I’ve just searched ‘Best gaming PC 2021’ and even sites like PCGamer don’t help simplify the process. Yes, they’ll list a PC, but then in the pros and cons say things like ‘Base model is a little low on memory’ What? What’s that supposed to mean to someone like me? How do I go to amazon and know if I’m buying the base model or not??
For a driving sim I would think 16 gigs of RAM should be sufficient. If it has 8 gigs I would definitely pass on it. For some super serious gamers who want the latest AAA titles with everything cranked to ultra settings 32-64 gigs is going to be preferable, which is the audience PCGamer is probably writing to. I have 16 gigs in my PC and I play World of Tanks and Dungeons and Dragons Online. My wife, ironically, uses more memory (32 gigs in the PC I built her) because she does graphic design and loading those programs takes much more memory than most games I play.
Eh, there's a fair bit of snobbishness among PC enthusiasts. I built my previous two PCs with my own bare hands, but with the current one I went prefab. Couldn't be happier, apart from the limited storage, which can and will be remedied by an external drive. My rig is an MSI Infinite (MAG INFINITE 10SC-1052MYS). Its i5 10400, RTX 2060 Super, and 16 GB of RAM can run any modern game comfortably. It's not an absolute beast, and the specs may not have all that much longevity, but something similar should more than suffice for a semi-casual gamer in the shortish term. I don't know what your budget's like, or what prices are where you're at, but this one retailed at around 1300 pounds in Norway.
