Video Games

[DigitalGypsy66]

Battlefront are Star Wars games. The Finals is free to play and out now, and Valorant is out soon

[nocera]

Are the Battlefront games better now? I remember the second one (I think) getting a lot of hate for insanely difficult progressions and basically pay to win upgrades.

[DigitalGypsy66]

The second one removed the pay to win stuff early on and was a good game. They dropped support early though to help finish Battlefield V, which was a mistake on both ends.

The classic Battlefront from 20 years ago and Lucasgames studios has been remastered and released for consoles. That's a great game, not sure what it looks or plays like on consoles though.

[genoscoif]

Little over 100 hours into Dragon's Dogma 2 and finally decided to wrap up the main questline, which was extremely anticlimactic. Basically you fight the big baddie, kill him, and...cutscene to credits. Was very disappointed, but then noticed that I was still controlling my character even with the credits rolling. Started walking around and see there's another character I can talk to.

He's kind of a spirit person that's been there throughout the game. Talking to him twice while the credits roll triggers the choice to change the way everything ended. Eventually, you are teleported back to the scene just before you face the big baddie.
The game consistently doesn't expressly tell you what to do, but hints at something you should do. Doing that kills the big baddie before the showdown, and triggers the true ending. You wake up in the game world, but it's almost a post apocalyptic version.
The oceans are dried up, meaning there are new areas to explore. And thus begins the 'true' end game. Got my ass handed to me on one of my first encounters in this world, which is honestly awesome after 100 hours. It's cool that the world is a little dangerous again.

Just really enjoying my time in this game. It's one where you can play for an hour here and there, or jump in for several. I'm someone who almost never does a NG+ run, but this game may change that. Hoping there's some DLC in the works.

[the wicked child]

Super excited for Season 4 of Diablo 4. The codex of power update alone solves one of my major beefs with the game, but then you have all of the other updates.

Seems like it's going to be significantly easier to level up now... And with the improved Hellfire coming to earlier Tiers, I may finally be able to avoid getting bored trying to level my character in the early game.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I meant to say Xdefiant might be worth playing (not Valorant) and it will be free to play. I played a couple of alpha/betas of it, and it's a hero based shooter like Apex or CoD set in the Ubisoft "universe." You have factions from different Ubisoft properties fighting against each other. I got it confused with Valorant because it's another game that looks interesting, but I won't play it much or at all. It might be @NTP66's cup of tea though.

[MR25]

Super excited for Season 4 of Diablo 4. The codex of power update alone solves one of my major beefs with the game, but then you have all of the other updates.

Seems like it's going to be significantly easier to level up now... And with the improved Hellfire coming to earlier Tiers, I may finally be able to avoid getting bored trying to level my character in the early game.

I'm just disappointed all the QOL changes are happening after this season, because my Double Swing barb is probably the strongest character I've had, even if my aspects aren't optimal.

I've gotten around 14-15k on the gauntlet, which I feel good about but have no idea if that's actually "good".

[genoscoif]

Finished up DD2 yesterday and going to put it down for a while before jumping into NG+.

Just got Sea of Thieves on PS5. I knew it was coming but didn't realize it had released already. I've just honestly always wanted to try it, and reading that there is a Safer Seas mode to play solo til you learn the ropes hooked me. I'm not sure what to expect, but will be setting sail today!

[NTP66]

Get ****, EA.

[dodint]

NHL14 had board ads.

[NTP66]

NHL14 had board ads.

I can understand that, but watch them purposely slow down transition screens in games to display ads.

[MR25]

NHL14 had board ads.

All the sports games do. Even NCAA 11 had post-game highlights sponsored by Reese's and the Coca Cola final score. Battlefield games had billboards with real companies. Burnout Paradise had real ads.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Obama placed ads for the 2008 campaign in NFS based on geolocation. Honestly, I thought this would be more prevalent in gaming now.

[nocera]

Ads on billboards or the ice/boards don’t bother me at all. If anything it adds to the realism. That’s common already. It won’t stop there though. I’m sure there will be unskippable ads during loading, mobile gaming style ads in between rounds, and likely the ability to purchase “premium” versions of games for an “ad free” experience.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

Get ****, EA.

[NTP66]

lmao... the flag carrier should have been dead 2 trigger pulls ago, and I love the BK commercial songs.

[genoscoif]

The EA sports games could obviously integrate ads in pretty seamlessly, even making them part of the overall presentation and immersion. They'd be annoying, yes, but I don't really think they'd 'break' anything. The action games...yeah, not sure how they do that except on loading screens, and paying $$$ for a current gen system to reduce loading times only to have them artificially extended would be lame as hell.

But just think, with all the added ad revenue generated they can probably get rid of microtransactions and start selling new titles for $49.99!!!

[nocera]

Madden with unskippable ads after every drive, every kick off, every scoring play, 2 minute warning, time out, and injury would be extremely realistic.

[MR25]

Just remembered today is the S4 drop in D4. Think I'm going to try a werenado druid this time. I think after this the only class I haven't used is the sorc

[the wicked child]

I tried a Druid in S2 and got bored trying to level. If the new changes are as good as expected, perhaps that leveling process will suck a lot less.

My other big issue is that the entire build rests on finding that one unique helmet and RNG can basically decide if you are happy or just have a massive case of blue balls.

I am going Necro minions to start. I enjoyed using that back in the beta but then they got nerfed to hell and back. I suspect they may get nerfed again after the season, so it feels like now or never.

[the wicked child]

The only class I haven't played is Barb, once again due to leveling woes. It was so painful to get to 25 during the beta that I almost gave up. Dust Devils seems appealing, but I would rather start with a build I know will be fun and then circle back later.

I'm aware Barb is super strong once you get over the hump, but I'm not risking the season start on that.

[MR25]

I did double swing barb last season. IMO the real helpful move is to use charge and get a piece that has the ancients that charge with you. So easy to CC a room and pick off the stragglers, especially when you proc the shouts.

I considered necro but I just did the infinimist build in S2 and didn't want to do another necro so soon.

[eddy]

Thanks for the reminder, looking forward to getting back into this season. I'm going with a sorcerer again

[nocera]

My BiL was looking for a NES classic. I didn't realize that they stopped producing them and are somewhat rare now. The Exchange wanted $140 for one. That's wild. I ended up letting him borrow mine since I haven't played it in a while.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

Just get a Rasberry Pi dawg