Been playing Star Wars Force Arena on mobile. It's a CCG/ Moba hybrid where you choose a hero, build a deck, and then face off another player in a small battle arena. Games are quick, 2-3 minutes, and your deck summons units and they advance on the battlefield towards the opposing players base and It has surprisingly good graphics and the UI is slick. There are 1v1 and 2v2 battle modes, and 2 sides, Rebels versus the Empire. The game is pretty good about handing out card packs so you can build a strong deck/army without having to open your wallet.
Back into MLB The Show for a few weeks until Horizon: ZD comes out. Also playing a lot of Civ 6, though I admit that I'm a little let down about it.
Three weeks and 53 hours of gameplay in, and I'm still digging into and exploring Horizon: Zero Dawn. Its a fantastic game. I've enjoyed it much more than I did FF15, and that has surprised me. Even though I'm also really looking forward to ME:A, I won't be buying it tomorrow, and not until I'm done with H:ZD. I've also decided not to buy MLB The Show this year, because they added almost nothing to Franchise/Owner mode, and thats all that I play. This will be the first time since 2007 that I haven't gotten a copy of the title.
http://www.eurogamer.net/amp/2017-03-22-how-zelda-and-horizon-fix-open-worlds-in-very-different-ways I thought that this was a good article concerning the overall genre of "open world' games, and it focuses on Horizon: Zero Dawn and the new Zelda game. Although I don't have the burnout and cynicism about open world titles that the author, and seemingly many in the game media do, I still thought that it was a good read.
I don't think the open world is something that needs "fixing". Open world isn't a genre, it's a design choice. You can have open world JRPGs (in fact, most NES JRPGs are open world), you can have open world action RPGs (NieR: Automata, for instance), you can have open world action games (GTA), you can have open world driving games (The Crew), etc. I think what people are really getting burned out on is the Ubisoft style of open world, wherein you climb a tower of some sort to activate activity beacons in an area. Their open world games are basically "do the same 5 activity types in adjacent areas." And if this guy thinks Assassin's Creed 3 has a Ben Hur length opening, he clearly has never played Suikoden V.
I just completed Horizon Zero Dawn, and give it my highest recomendation. Its an excellent game in almost every way. About 80 hours of game play, and 90% of that was focused on the quests. They've created an amazing world, and I hope there are more games to come later on. Also bought ME:A today. Gonna install it tonight, and then do all the updates in the morning before I jump into it.
Thanks to Madden 17's deeper editing abilities, I was able to move guys around, extend their contracts, and then sim through the 2016 season, and change my draftees to match our real life ones. After a little work, I have the Fins 2017 roster really close to accurate and ready to go! (and saved, at that point, so I can start over when I want to). I didn't put the effort into changing any other teams to match real life, but it will let me play out the 2017 season without waiting until August to buy the new game. We'll see what new features it offers at that point, or I may pass on getting it just like I did MLB The Show this year. Not actually really playing Madden right now though. 41 hours into ME:A, and I think that I have a long way to go. I also found it interesting that Mass Effect: Andromeda and Horizon: Zero Dawn, games that were released weeks apart, both apparently have an important location that has the exact same name. Weird coincidence? I'm not looking deeper into it right now though, since I don't want to spoil the rest of ME:A.
Been playing Quake Champions BETA.. Due the NDA I can't really discuss much but it's ****ing fantastic.. I've literally woken up in the middle of the night dreaming about it.. Brings me back to my old Quake 1 / Quake 2 days..
Playing NieR: Automata. It features a hallmark of Yoko Taro's games, or at least the NieR game: you have to replay it multiple times to get the full story and get context for a lot of the events. There are four playthroughs in total. Route A is what was marketed by Square-Enix: you play as 2B and go kill those damned machines who've taken over Earth. Route B shows the events of Route A from the perspective of 9S, your sidekick in Route A. Due to the perspective change, and their later separation, the narrative and gameplay diverges a lot from Route A and you get a lot of context as to what you did and why things happened. I just started Route C, and Route C and D are considered the "true" game. So basically… this game has a 2 part 20 hour prologue before you get to the 2 part 30 hour main game. Money's worth? Yep.
I don't think that I'm going to play it, but can you explain what Neir really is. The previews/reviews are really vague about it. Action RPG? Straight up action game?
Action RPG from the makers of Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising, etc. The combat is all real time, the RPG elements come in the form of quests, levels, stats, upgrades. etc.
Worth every cent as long as you are willing to invest yourself in it. Four playthroughs with all side quests is probably about 80 hours. A single playthrough with sidequests is about 15-18 hours. You don't need to know about Drakengard and the original NieR to play this game but some of the subplots and themes will carry more weight if you know at least about NieR.
Uh, I think I could have described Horizon Zero Dawn in similar terms, "The combat is all real time, the RPG elements come in the form of quests, levels, stats, upgrades. etc." Nier will be on my short list of games to grab on sale down the road when I need a new game to play. Speaking of, I'm the guy who only just got a copy of Uncharted 4 and I'm on chapter 12 or so of that. It was one of those games I meant to pick up sooner but never go around to it. Looks good, but after Horizon Zero Dawn I'm not as impressed as I would have been if I had purchased it last year. Fun game so far, but nothing all that new except the swinging on ropes.
I guess so. But HZD allows you to play cautious and methodical most of the time if you choose to. (and I always do!). Neir, unless I'm reading it wrong, demands that you're able to frequently handle fast paced action, and I'm crap at that. I also like a long, drawn out story that I can dig into in one playthrough. Not bashing Neir in any way. Glad that others enjoy it. But Desides, who I trust, basically confirmed what I was suspecting. I'm also going to have a change in my personal life where I'm not able to game much for a while in the near future. Hoping to get through ME:A before that happens, then I likely won't be buying any more games until the autumn. Even the FF12 remaster that I've been looking forward to for years.
Valid point, the gameplay style in Nier seems to be about fast combat and attacking not sneaking around. The Nier world looks much more gray than the bright colors of HZD and the game is kind of a sequel to another game I never played. This puts it on my "buy on sale" list, but if we see Spider-Man and Shenmue III late this year? I may not pick Nier up till next year. Too many good games to play is a GREAT problem to have. Like having too many good pass rushers!
Haha, no no no! We are absolutely done, my two are enough. We're building a new house, and will be spending several months living in my mother in law's basement while that one is being built and our current one is sold. The end result will be a lot of great things, and as far as gaming is concerned I'll have a semi-man cave and broadband internet for the first time since 2005, so thats great. But for a while, I'll be living with my wife and two small kids in one big open room, so even watching TV will be a challenge after they're supposed to be asleep, and gaming is likely almost totally out. Totally worth it though, to improve our situation in a lot of ways.
Still stuck on Dota 2 man. Nothing else interests me any more. Not BF1, not Arma 3, not Squad - although new update with Basrah map and vehicle update looks enticing. I am still keeping an eye on Escape from Tarkov but not too hyped after seeing the Beta and Alpha on twitch. Seems like the total map is segmented into smaller areas that you have to escape. Not sure of the dynamics yet, but still keeping an eye on it and when it hits steam I'll give it serious consideration. Player Unknowns Battleground looks fun too. Not playing Arma any more because I don't have room on my SSD to update lol. New Jet DLC look pretty slick too. I'm sure you'll have some nice ops involving the carrier Des.
Quake Champions is now in an open beta form.. For those of you harcore FPS gamers.. For anyone who is noob get ready to get slaughtered badly.
My group has kind of moved on from needing a carrier. But it might be nice for the aviation section, although its internal functionality is limited.
Finished up Uncharted 4 on Thursday, taking just over 20 hours to do so. Most of the same elements as the earlier games, but done very well and some great graphics too. I really liked the epilogue, as it gave closer to the series.
My favorite games are Missile Command, Splinter Cell and Need For Speed. Best Buy was giving away 4K TVs so I got one. Xbox had the best deal I could find on a 4K Blu-ray player. It came with Minecraft, Call of Duty Black OPS and Need for Speed Rivals. Where should I start?
Is that an Xbox 360 or an Xbox One? I'm assuming it's an Xbox One. Note that it won't play games at native 4K, it's just upscaled 1080p. As for the games, play whichever you want. I'm not a fan of any of those you listed, so I don't want to recommend something to you. You might enjoy Forza 6, but NFSR is supposed to be OK.
Forza Horizon 3. It's not as arcade-y as NFS but it's certainly not a pure race sim either. The DLC is great too.
Finished Mass Effect Andromeda today. Level 61, 92:35 hours. Despite its graphical lack of polish, its a fun, and very deep game. Tons, and tons to do. I'll do a deeper writeup soon in the thread for the game itself, but I recommend it. Without giving any plot points away, they do leave it wide open for more games in the series, so I really hope that EA & Bioware get their crap together and don't give up on the series. I'll cross my fingers for the typical three or so big batches of DLC over the next year, and then do another play through as Sara this time, instead of Scott. I did not enjoy the game quite as much as Horizon Zero Dawn, but I certainly liked it more than FF XV, and Im a lifetime FF guy.
Consoles really can't do 4K. Even the PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio will be running below 4K and upscaling. They make a nice effort but it'll be another full generation before they can really do native 4K. So you'll need to live with what they give you, for now anyway.