This a pretty thorough, well-thought-out guide. Importantly, it seems to avoid any spoilers. I've no need for such a guide myself, but I'll be recommending this to anyone thinking of trying the old-school games for the first time after enjoying Bethesda's games.

Tom Cruise is an enigma. He's not a great actor (I think he's decent) but he's perhaps the most dedicated actor out there. He's so likeable that it's easy to forget that he's a whacko cultist. Though to be fair to him, he's not any more of a whacko than the average evangelical IMO.

Diablo Immortal sounds awful. Heavy PvP focus... no thanks, I'm not angsty teenager that gets my rocks off by ganking others. Sadly, Diablo Immortal will probably be the most successful Diablo game ever. I can only hope they keep this MMO crap out of Diablo 4.

Bodolza wrote on May 27, 2022, 13:33:
I'm not sure what they can do with this without making it more-of-the-same. Unlike between 1-3, neither technology or gameplay has advanced much since Witcher 3 came out, unless they decide to make it a rogue-like (please don't). I guess if they're using UE5 it will look nicer.

I think they're going to do a more open world sandbox game where you don't play a preset character, like Cyberpunk. Like a create your own Witcher type of thing.

Mr. Tact wrote on May 26, 2022, 17:34:

jdreyer wrote on May 26, 2022, 16:09:

RedEye9 wrote on May 26, 2022, 15:25:

The Half Elf wrote on May 26, 2022, 15:03:
Ray Liotta has passed

67, Goddammit
RIP

Sheesh, that's young to pass. That said, I had no idea he was that old. I always thought he was a decade younger than that. Wow, he was in the middle of a shoot too.

I always figure you should deduct a few years off the life expectancy of anyone who is "famous". Even if they aren't doing illicit drugs, which most are, just the stress of "being famous" is problematic....

You have a point but then I think you can add a few years back for just being wealthy and having easy access to top-notch health care, so it mostly balances out. Depends on the individual though. Some handle fame much better than others, so yea.

Bill Borre wrote on May 26, 2022, 13:30:
Does anybody know if they've patched some of their offerings to get them verified? For example I found it annoying that the store sells versions of games that the buyer needs to download patches from the internet in order to get them playable such as Manhunt whose steam copy map triggers don't work and Thief Deadly Shadows whose steam copy lock picking needs a fix.

Manhunt? That game is nearly 20 years old. I wouldn't expect it to work on a modern computer, much less the Steam Deck. But yes I have noticed that some games released patches specifically for Steam Deck compatibility. To be honest, I wouldn't hope or expect any older game that is not actively being supported or updated to be compatible right out of the box.

Bill Borre wrote on May 26, 2022, 13:15:
Okay I'm too lazy to read the article. To anybody who did read it does it mean their entire catalog or releases going forward?

It's not clear. There's a lot of marketing speak in there. I understood it to mean that PC releases will become the norm and not the exception, but probably only after some period of exclusivity on PS5. Not same-day PC/PS5 release. I also suspect (it's not mentioned in the article) that this is for future titles, although some major past releases might see PC ports, like Last of Us 1/2.

RedEye9 wrote on May 24, 2022, 20:50:
Any "man" who thinks a good looking woman, with a twitch stream who is nice to him, also wants to hook up with him is probably a few screws short of a six-pack. And then the loser follows up with threats and harassment. Hope he gets convicted.
Reminds me of Selena's fan club manager.

You mean when I donated $1000 to a hot tub streamer and she wrote my name on her body for one stream, that doesn't mean we're in love? My dreams have been shattered!

Hey I recognize that chick from Death Stranding. She's cute. Anyway, I think the last Cronenberg movie I saw was Eastern Promises, which was good but definitely not a gory sci-fi/horror film like his earlier stuff. It did have a fight great scene involving naked men slapping their meat together, though.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on May 17, 2022, 03:38:
Is every actor going to do a John Wick/Taken/Nobody/Equalizer/Atomic Blond phase? I mean, I still watch these, but lol, I don't know how believable it will be for 75 year old Jeff Bridges to win martial arts fights against trained killers.

I agree with that. I can buy it when Keanu does it (in his 50s), and to some extent Denzel because he's such a great actor, but I have a feeling with this movie we're gonna see a lot of quick cuts and body doubles (Liam Neeson style) to hide The Dude's age and lack of athletic prowess. But hey, Jeff Bridges is a fantastic actor so maybe he can pull it off as well. I'll watch it.

Edit: I'll also say that it looks like he's lost weight since I saw him last, though that may be a side effect of his cancer (in remission). He got chubbier in his old age but he's looking better now. Hope he stays healthy.

This comment was edited on May 17, 2022, 07:16.

Yea they tout 'remastered visuals, characters, game modes, game zones and more' but the only upgrade I noticed is widescreen support. Sounds like they're overstating the amount of rework done but still... if you want to play these games again it's nice to have them all in one place I suppose. Also, Sonic CD is a underappreciated classic IMO.

I wish they'd have gone all-in on the medieval fantasy theme and ditched guns entirely. I haven't played the game yet but from what I've seen, it doesn't seem to bring anything new to the franchise. This might be the first BL game that I skip entirely.

Hardline Mike wrote on Apr 14, 2022, 16:19:

Jim wrote on Apr 14, 2022, 14:38:
I played it some at launch, will look forward to the new release. Not sure what leftist agenda is being referred to, it has the usual corporate slave theme, which is fairly standard, unless much more was added.

I must've missed the "ultra leftist agenda" too. It's a pretty standard tale of comically evil corpos vs. some workers who want to unionize.

They must have added a black character or something. That's more than enough to set these weirdos off. Anyway I'm looking forward to playing this. I bought it a long time ago but shelved it until it launched. It seemed pretty chill.

GaianElite wrote on Apr 12, 2022, 16:29:
I got the platinum for this game on Playstation when it was on PS Plus, but man, this game is not for kids. The game has quite a bit of LGBTQ+ themes, as there is a straight couple, an odd couple, a lesbian couple, a nonbinary character, gay dudebros, a bisexual character, and an asexual character who's dumb as rocks. The gameplay is alright, reminded me of Pokemon, and it was fun catching all the creatures. I don't recommend it.

Why on earth would the inclusion of non-straight characters mean the game is not for kids? That's so bizarre that someone would think that. Pretty sussy wussy.

Anyway, the game itself was surprisingly enjoyable for me and is fine for kids. My 8 year old nephew really enjoyed it and has completed it several times. Lots of great characters and a neat little story. I got it for free on PS5 with PS Plus and had no expectations, but decided to try it and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I'll definitely be trying the expansion.

Jim wrote on Apr 12, 2022, 01:54:
I was playing elex today, I want to finish it, so I can play elex 2. And I went to some buildings, but I knew not to go in them because I remembered them to be radioactive. And I realized, that is the difference between custom maps for open world games and the copy paste ubi stuff they put out. The big open worlds are just small amounts of content with slightly different variations copy/pasted everywhere. And games like AC:Odyssey are even worse, where the content is so spread out it takes minutes of travelling to reach interest points. So they can claim "biggest open world" but its BS. Not to say elden ring does everything right, the areas are fairly unique, but the questing system is more convoluted then all the other dark souls combined.

Yep you nailed it with the "copy/paste" nature of UBI games in particular. In FarCry, an outpost will have a bunch of enemies that, if killed, will change the alignment from red to blue. It will have one or two snipers on roofs. It will probably have a wild animal in a cage that can I set free to let it wreak some havok. It will have an alarm that I can disable. I can say with confidence that all of these things exist in FarCry 6, yet I've never played FarCry 6. There is zero sense of wonder or exploration in those games. Elden ring wasn't perfect but it sure as hell wasn't a copy/paste job, even though there were some repeated boss fights and some of the dungeons felt a wee bit samey.

Speaking of ELEX though, I assume you wouldn't lump that in with the UBI games? I'm thinking of jumping right in to ELEX 2 because I love me some Euro jank, but I never played the first.

Simon Says wrote on Apr 11, 2022, 15:17:

Bodolza wrote on Apr 11, 2022, 13:24:
That speedrun is considerably less impressive when most of it is repeatedly trying to trigger the teleport glitch to traverse the map.

Any % glitch allowed speedruns are just boring.

Glitchless is where the skills of the speedrunners really shine.

Yep. Glitchless speedruns are far more fun to watch because they're largely using the same tools and techniques that I know and used if I've played the game, except they're a fuckton better at it than I am. It's amazing to watch.

It will be interesting to see how, if at all, this affects open world game design as a whole going forward. My guess, and hope, is that it won't affect things too much. Elden Ring does a lot of things right, but there is still a huge market out there for sandbox open world games (Skyrim) and narrative-driven open world games (Horizon) and that won't change. Elden Ring doesn't scratch the same itch as either of those but can exist just fine alongside those sub-genres as an open world boss simulator.

This comment was edited on Apr 12, 2022, 01:54.

jdreyer wrote on Apr 7, 2022, 21:49:
Rogue Legacy is a lot of fun. I have many hours in that game, and I hate platformers. That said, it is brutally difficult, even with the upgrades you get.

Have you tried the sequel at all? It's coming out of early access on April 28 and I'm thinking of picking it up, even though I haven't played the first at all. I like Dead Cells and these games seem similar.

I think the gameplay and narrative style still hold up ok, so this will be interesting. Hopefully these will turn out better than the GTA remasters.

The Half Elf wrote on Apr 6, 2022, 14:42:
Wow 10 more seconds of actual in game video along with animated concept art they already released!

True, it's not much, but it does look like they're getting ready to ramp up marketing for the game, which is great. We're 7 months from release so I'm hoping to see some actual gameplay pretty soon.