The Video Game Thread v3

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

No, they haven't. They teased an upgraded version earlier in the month.

[chemgear]

The lore/story of Elden lore is pretty wild. I can't decide if it is good, bad, inconsistent or subtly coherent all at the same time.

It's a pretty deep dive into youtube videos if that's your thing.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

No, they haven't. They teased an upgraded version earlier in the month.

Hmm, fair enough. I wonder why it looks so much better on my PS5 than my PS4 then. It's a noticeable difference and its a PS4 copy.

[TorqueDog]

Epic Games Store has Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on sale for ~29% off until June 16th. Even for how much of a hot mess the game was (is?), I'm seriously considering grabbing it as apparently there are a lot of community mods to fix the stuttering and graphics settings issues.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Can't fix Nomura's bull#### though.

[TorqueDog]

Eh? Enlighten me, I haven't followed the ongoings of the game that closely, holding out for an Xbox Series X release that might never come.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Basically just me griping about the massive changes made to the original story towards the end of the game that are all, in my opinion, typical stupid BS that Nomura does. I was pretty annoyed when I played it, and I was someone who, if it had been a true remake, would have paid triple retail for it with a smile on my face. Now I'm not even sure I'm going to bother with subsequent chapters.

Some people liked it though, for whatever reason, so views obviously vary.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

if it had been a true remake, would have paid triple retail for it with a smile on my face. Now I'm not even sure I'm going to bother with subsequent chapters.

It sounds like you wanted a remaster more than a remake.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

No, a remake with minor tweaks and occasional additions to various storylines that expanded on the story without overhauling it would have been great.

Anyway you know my opinion, I posted it at length in the thread dedicated to the remake. I was mostly fine with it, despite some reservations, until the last third or so. Then it just pissed me off.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Finally got around to playing The Last of Us 2, and man what a letdown. I had to force myself to sit down and finish it just to see if there was any payoff or satisfaction, but there wasn't. The game is a joyless slog, more concerned with one-upping itself with each new brutally violent set piece than telling a remotely interesting story. The gameplay is decent, but gets very repetitive and the artificial difficulty constraints are so dumb (I'm wearing a backpack, but for some reason can't hold more than a few bullets for each gun)

This is a game more than any other I can think of that skated by on reputation alone to the GOTY awards, because I cannot see how this is better than a 7/10

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Finally got around to playing The Last of Us 2, and man what a letdown. I had to force myself to sit down and finish it just to see if there was any payoff or satisfaction, but there wasn't. The game is a joyless slog, more concerned with one-upping itself with each new brutally violent set piece than telling a remotely interesting story. The gameplay is decent, but gets very repetitive and the artificial difficulty constraints are so dumb (I'm wearing a backpack, but for some reason can't hold more than a few bullets for each gun)

This is a game more than any other I can think of that skated by on reputation alone to the GOTY awards, because I cannot see how this is better than a 7/10

That's a good way to put it as it's easily the most joyless game I have ever played. It's like they gathered a group of the most misanthropic people in the world, asked them to make a story for a video game, throw in a couple of woke elements for good measure to gain brownie points with reviewers and you have easily the most divisive game in the history of the industry.

[DownInFlames]

I didn’t play TLOU2 because I didn’t like the first one (not my type of game), but Heather Anne Campbell on the Get Played podcast said she loved it, and cried while playing because, as a lesbian, it was the first time she felt represented in a video game. So maybe throwing in “woke” elements isn’t such a bad thing.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

I didn’t play TLOU2 because I didn’t like the first one (not my type of game), but Heather Anne Campbell on the Get Played podcast said she loved it, and cried while playing because, as a lesbian, it was the first time she felt represented in a video game. So maybe throwing in “woke” elements isn’t such a bad thing.

I have zero issues with any of that. My issues are a story that doesn't go anywhere, world building that's completely nonsensical, and the game just isn't any fun

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

I have zero issues with any of that. My issues are a story that doesn't go anywhere, world building that's completely nonsensical, and the game just isn't any fun

I was replying to EE directly. I probably wouldn’t like it either.

[devo22]

as I've said before, I absolutely loved it. But I understand why some people hated it.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by devo22

as I've said before, I absolutely loved it. But I understand why some people hated it.

It's a good piece of dramatic story telling and a character study...but there is no joy in TLOU2. It's all about hatred and violence on both sides. Both main characters you play are nothing but vessels of hate and anger based on their own actions. I don't want to go home and spend my leisure time dealing with such dark themes. The first game was about fatherly love and hope in a hopeless world. The second one is about vendettas and the only hope is you get a sliver of humanity at the end after all loved ones have already been lost due to callous violence and selfishness.

[DoubleF]

TLOU2 had all the necessary components to be amazing. The first few hours were awesome and I thought the bad reviews were overblown... until I began to agree with those reviews. It's just the way that Druckmann and Gross packaged and unveiled the game that made it poor and did a major disservice to the developers.

I honestly feel like TLOU2 game might feel a bit less garbled if you literally played all chapters in reverse order starting at the resort and steadily moving back towards the small snowy town. Heck, even swapping the order of two character playthrough would easily improve the whole game at least a full point if not more IMO. The latter half of the game wasn't even experiencing it from a different point of view IMO. It just felt like filler to justify an extremely poorly contrived story exposition.

Druckmann claims TLOU1 was about what you'd do for love. TLOU2 was was what you'd do for justice. The game constantly goes back and forth with inexplicable and completely uneven blows of vindictiveness and retribution. However, if the game was slightly tweaked to go in reverse, then Joel would be the perfect climax vs a completely effect up exposition.

The "woke" elements were fine. I had no issues with that and I'm fine if they add more of that in future games. My frustration was that everything was there and the most minor ordering tweak could have wiped out all the controversy.

[CroFlames]

Well you guys have just inspired me not to get TLOU2. I beat TLOU but never got platinum because I refuse to pay for PSN because I believe online gaming should be a human right.

[photon]

Diablo Immortal is out today on mobile, tomorrow on PC.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I don't want to go home and spend my leisure time dealing with such dark themes.

that's what I meant with "I understand why people hated it". Personally, I felt it was a unique experience because it was a completely different challenge from what you usually see in video games. It puts you into situations where you have to do things that you don't want to do. It's a game that hurts. I fully understand that people don't want that, and heck, I don't want that 99% of the time either. But the game worked for me.

I despise the toxicity around the discussions surrounding this game though. It really brought out the worst in gamers on both sides of the aisle, and it's been pretty tedious online. You don't like a video game? You don't like that other people didn't like a video game? So what. Grow up.