The Video Game thread

[foomanfat]

[Andrew]

I don't know... Animation bugs in Bioware games is just like technical bugs in Bethesda games as well as pretentious made up words in Squareenix games.

[codetocontra]

I have been waiting to be let down about Mass Effect Andromeda, hoping to be wrong. Loved the trilogy too much.

So much Gamecube love. Funny that most of those games we listed were 1st party. We should never really expect anything less on a Nintendo system as history has proven.

I have my own Smash Bros shark moment. At our nephew's graduation party his friends set up Smash Bros in the corner. I pulled myself away from the mixed bowl of M&Ms and Skittles (equally amused and disgusted) and inched closer to the TV to ask if they were playing Call of Duty. They offerred me a controller after a few matchs, and I was like "What the fuck is a Pikachu?" and I asked which button shoots and which jumps. So I chose Pikachu and won that round, mostly jumped around a lot and made a few hits, claimed I was just smashing all the buttons. Next match I chose Kirby and they caught on to me when I sucked one of them up and jumped off the edge, a true troll move. Next round they all picked their best characters and laid into me. Was great.

[Andrew]

I got suckered and joined Origin Access for $6, so I could play Andromeda for 10 hours.

It's genuinely really awesome, so far it isn't quite as good as any of the games from the original Trilogy but it feels like it's still shaping up to be a solid Space Opera in the Mass Effect universe. It does feel a little less linear to the originals, but the art and sound direction is spot on. If you want to see Sci-fi glowing lights, Alienworlds and hear a rad synth OST then you shouldn't be disappointed. Already the game is making tiny nods to how to play, doing or not doing minor side tasks which gives an incentive to explore locations. I liked the opening few hours, and people have said that it gets even better past the 4 hour mark.

Don't let the negativity deter you from playing the game, I honestly haven't seen any wonky animations with my default Sara Ryder and the voice acting is pretty good. Yeah, it doesn't look like Horizon: Zero Dawn or Witcher 3 but that should not be considered a bad thing and aesthetics always trumps graphical horsepower. Enjoying it so far, going to play a few more hours and pick it up day one. Though I don't know if I should stick to PC or try it on PS4.

Plus more Asari is always a good thing


As for the Character face debacle, I did spend 20 minutes in character creation and you can totally make a good looking character. But I've always preferred default characters.

[Iommic Pope]

Briefly:
Kirby rules.
I like lights and synths.
And Primal is now actually kicking off into a pretty rad game, it seems.
Got pissed on by a cazy guy last night, im digging the psuedo levelling/crafting system, but more because im really digging the brutality of the combat and the stress of being out in the world, which is so pretty, but so fucking dangerous.
I can see hiw youd be pissed if youd played all the Farcry games and this was mostly 4 in a different skin, but its probably the only one im gonna hit and i didnt pay more than $30 for it so fuck it.

Also, the soundtrack had some epic, haunting, very 80s low budget sci-horror/ambient tripper synth them going on at some point. Was fucking awesome.

[Invisible Man]

Kirby FTW. The 'suck and jump' move was my bread and butter when playing against superior opponents.

Context, &c.

[odontophobia]

Forgot I was in the video game thread for the briefest second (just got up and only now have I brewed my coffee) and when i read "got pissed in by a crazy guy" I just assumed some bogan had it out for ya, pope.

[Invisible Man]

Me too.

[GAS KING]

I got suckered and joined Origin Access for $6, so I could play Andromeda for 10 hours.

It's genuinely really awesome, so far it isn't quite as good as any of the games from the original Trilogy but it feels like it's still shaping up to be a solid Space Opera in the Mass Effect universe. It does feel a little less linear to the originals, but the art and sound direction is spot on. If you want to see Sci-fi glowing lights, Alienworlds and hear a rad synth OST then you shouldn't be disappointed. Already the game is making tiny nods to how to play, doing or not doing minor side tasks which gives an incentive to explore locations. I liked the opening few hours, and people have said that it gets even better past the 4 hour mark.

Don't let the negativity deter you from playing the game, I honestly haven't seen any wonky animations with my default Sara Ryder and the voice acting is pretty good. Yeah, it doesn't look like Horizon: Zero Dawn or Witcher 3 but that should not be considered a bad thing and aesthetics always trumps graphical horsepower. Enjoying it so far, going to play a few more hours and pick it up day one. Though I don't know if I should stick to PC or try it on PS4.

Plus more Asari is always a good thing


As for the Character face debacle, I did spend 20 minutes in character creation and you can totally make a good looking character. But I've always preferred default characters.

That is good to hear!
I did start to get a little nervous when the rabid dogpile of haters started to speak up (mostly about the bugs).........but seems like the the good reviews have come from people that have managed they're expectations realistically.

It looks really good.

I never did end up making it through ME2 & ME3. I'm about 1/4 into ME2 and just lost interest. Still excited for MEA though.

[codetocontra]

Briefly:
Kirby rules.
I like lights and synths.
And Primal is now actually kicking off into a pretty rad game, it seems.
Got pissed on by a cazy guy last night, im digging the psuedo levelling/crafting system, but more because im really digging the brutality of the combat and the stress of being out in the world, which is so pretty, but so fucking dangerous.
I can see hiw youd be pissed if youd played all the Farcry games and this was mostly 4 in a different skin, but its probably the only one im gonna hit and i didnt pay more than $30 for it so fuck it.

Also, the soundtrack had some epic, haunting, very 80s low budget sci-horror/ambient tripper synth them going on at some point. Was fucking awesome.

I just bought FC4 last night on sale. Your gushing over Primal makes me think I made the wrong choice. I thought Primal was more like a DLC type thing that morphed into its own proper game, not just a FC4 reskin. Guns vs arrows, animals vs gun wielding dudes. Sorta. FC4 is so far just more FC3, which is not a bad thing. The world is fun to explore and the randomness lends itself to allow creativity in how to deal with each situation.

[Iommic Pope]

I think youre right about the DLC gone full scale thing, but ive read stuff like the map is basically the same etc.
I'm gushing because i guess I just really love to play total escapist games.
And im sure 4 is fine, but I really wouldnt know. Am digging Primal hard though, mostly because its like playing a caveman fantasy novel.

Found out that Jason Graves was the composer. Am digging his minimalist arrangements.

[Andrew]

Oh no the reviews for Mass Effect are coming out...

I haven't been able to talk about my passionate love for Mass Effect in 5 years, (the 3rd being my favourite) and now the new one is pretty much going to get slaughtered. I just want nice things.

[UglyCasanova]

I've enjoyed plenty of games that got bad scores. Sure, it has shitty animations, bugs and some cringy dialogue. Doesn't mean you won't enjoy playing it. They will probably patch animations and bugs too. I wouldn't be too worried.

I'm on my third try trying to play LoZ: Twilight Princess. The two previous times I tried I got bored before I finished the first forest temple. Everyone keeps telling me it gets really good after that, so I'm going to keep at it. I do not enjoy playing as Wolf Link though, that's for sure.

[Eivind August]

I do not enjoy playing as Wolf Link though, that's for sure.

Yeah, that whole schtick seems sort of tacked on and gets a bit repetitive. It's a pretty good game all in all, though.

[MechaGodzilla]

Nah Twilight Princess has ok dungeons (the last couple are pretty memorable) but is mostly shit. The art style is a weird mixture of nice (Link w/ chain mail and stuff, the twilight baddies) and absolute dogshit (every other character). I've played it a couple of times and really don't care to again.

The wolf stuff is definitely tacked on. With Majora's mask and wind waker, you know they came up with the core idea (the clock, sailing) and built a zelda game around it instead of making a zelda game and saying "this needs a wolf gimmick"