Videogame Discussion Thread

I really want to, had a ton of fun with the beta, but this just isnt a good week, plus Wolfenstein II is friday? Ill probably be playing that first

 

I agree! I played destiny 2 for about 4 hours today, great game so far. They did a great job with the pc controls coming from a console game. The graphics are amazing as well. I first played it on my work computer that only has a gtx 760 and ryzen 1600 with 1080p monitor, and even on that it looked fantastic. On my home machine with gtx 1080 ti and 4790k with 1440p monitor, everything cranked up its one of the best looking games I've ever played.

 

Looks like someone came out with a plug and play solution: Pandora Box

 

Yep, shiny as hell on a G-Sync monitor with stuff cranked. Of course, lv 1-20 are the tutorial, so we'll see how the full game is (I have been getting advance reports from a Destiny player who has been playing D2 on an XBone since release, it's a mixed picture). So far so fun, though, other than some incredibly ill-judged first person platforming.

Meanwhile:

 

Yeah hopefully the end game is good, I used some old wow gold to buy the deluxe edition, so I'm banking on those expansions! I've enjoyed the platforming sections so far, nowhere near as hard as the "jumping puzzles" in guild wars 2, which were some of the most frustrating platforming ever.

 

Weirdly, I didn't mind the jumping puzzles in GW2, even as someone who hates jumping puzzles in games. I think the difference is mostly that platforming in first-person stuff is often awful- even when tuned and honed with care, it's dodgy. Doom 2016 is about the closest to making it tolerable- it was great for the arena-scale levels where you were leaping on and off obstacles as part of the flow of combat. The "floating platforms over fatal drops" stuff was still terrible for the flow of the game. Those always feel like an admission of defeat in game design terms- "we're out of ideas, so now the floor is lava".

The weird floaty and insubstantial jumping in D2girls doesn't help, mind you. Even on that short bit on the legs of the buildings on Titan got on my nerves, and I swapped jump types on my Warlock to make it less fiddly. I swapped back for more air control afterwards, though, as I do love to do the odd leaping melee attack

 

I know that following up your own post is a bit odd, but eh...

One other thing I worked out on the verge of rage-uninstallng last night (it really did cause epic grumpiness) is that half of the problem is that the warlock's jump mechanic is just more stupid than the other two's options. Once I nailed the "falling upwards on Mogadon" thing, it became a lot less stressful, both for me and my space bar.

That said, the game does a poor job of explaining this mechanic. The whole thing is short on affordances and explanations for a lot of things- which given that it's not really that complex, is a poor show. Hell, I am a Path Of Exile player, I eat obscure mechanics and crap strategems. A console port mans shooter with far fewer moving parts should be a piece of piss to grasp, in comparison.

I guess that my relationship with D2Girls is a bit odd; I didn't pay for the license, so maybe don't have as much ego invested in not pointing out ways in which it may be a turkey. On the other hand, it's so lavish and shiny that it's hard to look away

 

Anyone else picking up Mario tomorrow? I had a feeling it would be good, but the reviews are calling it one of the best Mario games and perhaps Nintendo games ever made. One publication actually gave it a 6/5 defying basic math.

Between this and Zelda, Nintendo hit it out of the park with two goty contenders in one year on the same platform.

 

I preordered it on Amazon. Haven't played a proper Mario in years so I am excited. I really hope Nintendo brings out a good party game soon, like Mario Party or even Smash. Mario Kart 8 can only take a group of my friends so far before we get bored.

 

I'm picking it up first thing tomorrow morning. Can't wait!

 

Yes, Definitely picking up Mario. I haven't read any reviews so if it's a home run really have no choice if you have a Switch.

 

Super Mario Odyssey arriving tomorrow. Still haven't opened South Park: Fractured But Whole. Contemplating getting Wolfenstein II and Assassin's Creed Origins tomorrow too. And then COD WWII comes out in a week. And Star Wars Battlefront II in 3 weeks. It's a good time to be a gamer.

 

Super Mario Odyssey is really, really good you guys. It's not gonna replace my GOTY but it oozes charm and literally the first 3D Mario game that isn't insufferable for some reason.

 

Oh shiiiiiiiit...

 

Other than when you have to go back to the Farm to pick up your Drang. Once you finally get in, you see why it takes so long to connect. The constant human waterfall at the spawn point is actually kinda inspiring as an art object.

I got around to doing my first nightfall, on the night before reset. It was a strike I'd never seen before. It went pretty well, despite a death due to my failure to make an easy jump.

I'm not looking forward to having to slog through the story on a Titan and a Hunter though. Apparently you can stick Sparrows in the bank for new characters, however, so that will take the edge off.

(Also, something has a resource leak or similar. I discovered that if you have the client open for enough hours, the framerate drops off a cliff. A quick client restart fixes that, though.)

 

OK, has anyone here tried Wolfenstein: The New Colossus? Geez, what a ride this one was. Usually I skip all the cutscenes. But in this game each was highly anticipated. Great Game.

 

Ah, at peak time in Europe, it can take five minutes on the loading screen to get into The Farm. At least you can go into your inventory and dick about with mods and shard some of the trash loot while you wait. Once you get in, it's obvious why- there's a constant sparkling "waterfall" of guardians raining down on the spawn point.

I did notice a few framerate dips here and there, outside of the terrible drops due to leaks that I mentioned above- but it mostly runs really well. If you have it open for a good few hours, it drops off a cliff, to console rates, before it gets bounced. Things generally stay above 100 for me, though, which is fine.

It's quite impressive, the PBR stuff they're using in the engine makes it look great. Some of the very generic corridors end up being good enough that they could have passed for pre-rendered not that long ago. Really cool.

Incidentally, there's a nice interview with one of Bungo's senior graphics wonks here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-destiny-2-tech-interview