Running video games (and consoles) thread

Show him Willy Beamish if they have it.

 

Re Cyberpunk 2077. This game was right up my alley. I read a lot of William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Phillip K. Dick, Rudy Rucker, all those guys. I also liked films like Blade Runner, The Matrix, as well as some failed films like Johnny Mnemonic. It's largely a shooter with some puzzle solving and some hacking. It's decently done, with a very dense tree of possible gigs and encounters. Tons of stuff to do, side quests and quick gigs and killing off thug criminals on bounty contracts for the cops.

I'm playing on an older gaming PC, so I had none of the issues that people on the older consoles did. It was a little wonky at first, but the first patch and updating my drivers largely cured that. The occasional hang up can generally be put right by saving, logging out and back in.

I've done two playthroughs now, and while it becomes somewhat repetitive it remained enjoyable. The length of some of the cutscenes involving the main plot wears on repetition, but overall I enjoyed it and while I'm pretty well burned out on it at the moment, once they release a DLC I'll be right back into it. There are a lot of options on building your character, from playing a literal trouble shooter to cyber samurai to netrunner to physical basher with cyber enhanced gorilla arms, etc. You can mix and match skills and talents as you choose, putting max points here and cherry picking from there as they seem useful to you.

I don't think it lives up to the years and years of hype, but I'm not sure how it could. While there is a patch for console viability coming this month and a major bug fix pass coming in February it isn't as bad as it's made out to be unless you are on an old console.

 

Wow, thanks for that. A first-hand review from a trusted source!

Yeah, I don't think it could have ever lived up to the hype (much of which was generated from promises made by CDPR coupled with what we now know to be faux demo gameplay). It really does mirror No Man's Sky in many ways. Let's hope they are able to complete the redemption arc. I held off on getting it for my OG Xbox and PS4 because, from what I saw in the demos, I had some questions about how it would run. I didn't think it would be 20 FPS upon release, though. I'm not that pessimistic or clairvoyant.

Imma probably wait until late summer to get a copy for the PS5 or (hopefully) the XBSX. I'm looking for something new to play and I've pretty much relegated Borderlands 3 to a beer coaster.

 

There’s no blood or gore. It’s punching, kicking and webbing. Even when you throw someone off a building, they end up webbed to the wall. Enemies will shoot at you, but again, it’s not graphic violence.

My 5-year old likes to swing around the city, but the fights are a little intense for her. She’s just not good enough yet. She loves the chance to be her favorite super hero, though.

 

Tried The Outer Worlds yet? That's the last AAA game I went through, thanks to the pandemic, ha. (Really tough to basically commandeer the good TV for myself for 100+ hours, after all.) I'm with you on Cyberpunk, though - I'm a bit interested, once its cheap and they fix all the shit, but otherwise I got a bunch of stuff to get through on Steam.

 

One thing I left out about 2077. It's freaking beautiful. The art, the work that went into building the city, the depth and contrast of the shining neon skyscrapers and piles of garbage bags... there are places where you just pull up beside the road and gawk at the view. This has no effect on the gameplay, but it really is impressive.

The down side is that the soundtrack for the various NPCs is so limited that you come to know exactly what they will say as you go through places you travel frequently, and that can really pull you out of immersion.

 

To start, we're getting Miles Morales and NBA 2K21.

 

Genshin? Oh, dear. Might be time to sit her down and have the talk about microtransactions if you haven't already. That shit is insidious.

 

That's what has ruined video games, in my mind. It is making some of these games unplayable.

My own bugs me now and then for the add-ons, which I'll occasionally indulge, but it's just another bullcrap money maw I don't need to be throwing cash down into.

 

I'm playing Final Fantasy IX on PS4 right now. Game is 20-plus years old but is stupid fun and dumb.

 

Purchases are something that’s been part of gaming for her forever. Fucking fairies and their gems. Just kidding. She’s been cool about purchases and is used to them.

 

It has really crushed Madden, because development has actually been taken out of franchise mode and put into microtransactions.

Madden has become such a joke it recently self-listed a new option to play the Pro Bowl as an improvement to the game.

EA is the swamp of the video-game world.