The Video Game Thread v3

[Sainters7]

Just caught up in this thread, nice seeing all the RDR2 talk the previous few weeks. Since beating AC Mirage, I've gone back to trying to 100% my old RDR2 completed game, I forgot how awesome and immersive this game is.

Anyone know where to find a perfect moose (or tricks to spawn one)? I only need to craft 2 more outfits to have them all, but it requires a perfect moose pelt. Been to all the spots the internet says, it's not happening. Finally got one to spawn, but it was just 2 stars. I've been trying forever, and using potent herbivore bait / cover scent lotion.

I really need that Mr. Burns-style vest that requires a moose!

[KelVarnsen]

They are really rare.

I’ve seen some at Lake Owanjila, Willard’s Rest and in the area near the loft.

[Sainters7]

Thanks! On closer inspection I actually need 3 for various outfits, which may take the rest of my life. I swear they do that on purpose so you never stop playing the game lol

[Kybosh]

So, with Dragon's Dogma 2 coming out soon, I bought the original for a few bucks on Steam to check out what it was like. I'm honestly not sure what to think. I want to like it but the zero hand holding, zero fast travel or horse, minimal quest markers, etc. is making me want to bounce off it. Combat and exploration is fun when I finally figure out where I should be however I don't have time or desire to just wander around and explore (or back track on foot for 20 minutes because I forgot to do some stupid thing). Not sure if the sequel will be changing any of these things.

[devo22]

my moose spot is near Charlotte's cabin up north. Fast travel to Annesburg and take a ride from there ... usually spawns after Brandywine Drop, near the waterfall where the road takes a left, next to the train tracks. It's very rare, but it's where I've had most luck.

[photon]

Finished up Starfield (well the major quests that I had found anyway). After I hacked my character to get rid of the weight limit to carry stuff (sorry I'm playing a space game not an inventory management simulator) I'd say overall I enjoyed it.

Lots of quirks and annoyances to detract from the experience, and seems like a bunch of stuff was unfinished or half baked. It isn't a great game, but it had some moments and was fun overall.

I really like how they incorporated the New Game + mode into the narrative, if I was motivated to replay it it'd be cool. However I don't really feel any need to, too many other games out there.

[Mazrim]

Last night I finished playing through Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster, wrapping up my playthrough the of the 3 SNES Pixel Remasters. I was a little unsure what to make of the remasters at first but now I feel like they're the best way to experience the games today. They smooth out so many of the rough edges, especially in IV and V. The graphics updates are nice without being radically different from the original.

There are still some things I still don't like about the games (Tower of Zot and Babil in IV, long stretches of boring story and gameplay in V, and the constant esper-swapping needed in VI) but things like auto-battle and automatic saving entering any room can make frustrating parts far less annoying. I didn't use any XP, AP or Gil boosts since the games flow just fine without them. I took advantage of Quick Save and Encounters Off in the final dungeons of IV and V, both which have very long stretches with no save points.

The remastered music was better than I expected. I have some strong nostalgia for these 3 games so expectations were high. There are some songs that work way better with some modern help. Sometimes though I feel like they missed the depth of the original song (FFVI boss music comes to mind). Anyway, here's my favorite remastered tracks from each game (surprised me most):
- FFIV: Within the Giant
- FFV: Beyond the Deep Blue Sea
- FFVI: The Veldt (second half the of the remastered song is awesome)

I beat IV in 20 hours, V in 30 hours and VI in 40 hours. Zeromus gave me the most trouble of the 3 final bosses. I beat Kefka on my first try - the Ultima spell kinda breaks the final fights.

[Erick Estrada]

I guess I will be that guy and say that I feel Baldur's Gate 3 is a little overrated. Don't get me wrong it's a really good game and maybe worthy of GOTY this year but I was led to believe by many it was in a discussion as best game ever. To me it's one of those games that once I finished I moved on and have no inclination to play again nor romanticize about it. Although the cinematics and voice acting in BG3 are amazing, I personally thought Divinity 2 was a more fun turn based game in this universe. I can see the love for BG3 if you are a total D&D nerd and are willing to spend hours in combat picking the perfect spells and actions for each turn but as an average gamer I just had a hard time enjoying myself all the way through the game.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Well DOS2 is not in the same universe but I get what you mean, in the same vein. I think people who got the impression that BG3 is a "greatest game ever" contender were misunderstanding the hype - the hype was less about how good the game is and more about the fact that it was made in the way that people wish all games were made now, sort of a "F you Activision, EA, Bethesda, why can't you do it like this you greedy f***s" kind of hype.

[Erick Estrada]

Yeah I get that it's a game where decisions have real consequences which everyone seems to want but I found it a bit of a double edged sword. There are story branches when you make certain decisions as you can end up having to kill a member of your party based on story decisions which is very cool in regards to real consequences but annoying at the same time if one of those members was one of the more useful members of your party in combat.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Less about "real consequences", more about "properly play tested for years to balance, minimal bugs, no microtransactions, no incomplete content, no corners cut to meet deadlines, no trying to squeeze more money out of the player, no pay to win, no promotional skins / aesthetic rewards, just a complete game for a fixed price that isn't busted".

[chemgear]

EDIT:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1755020170215522809

[Huntingwhale]

Brotato is pretty fun. Definitely scratches that Vampire Saviors/Army of Ruin itch.

World War Z Aftermath is pretty damn fun too.

[Mazrim]

I love all the little minigames from FFVII they're including in Rebirth. Barrett in his sailor outfit at Costa Del Sol and Red XIII standing in the uniform at Junon is hilarious. This seriously looks more exciting than Remake, which wore me out on Midgar pretty quickly.

Did they show the end of the original game in that last part of the trailer? Interesting...

[gallione11]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Last night I finished playing through Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster, wrapping up my playthrough the of the 3 SNES Pixel Remasters. I was a little unsure what to make of the remasters at first but now I feel like they're the best way to experience the games today. They smooth out so many of the rough edges, especially in IV and V. The graphics updates are nice without being radically different from the original.

There are still some things I still don't like about the games (Tower of Zot and Babil in IV, long stretches of boring story and gameplay in V, and the constant esper-swapping needed in VI) but things like auto-battle and automatic saving entering any room can make frustrating parts far less annoying. I didn't use any XP, AP or Gil boosts since the games flow just fine without them. I took advantage of Quick Save and Encounters Off in the final dungeons of IV and V, both which have very long stretches with no save points.

The remastered music was better than I expected. I have some strong nostalgia for these 3 games so expectations were high. There are some songs that work way better with some modern help. Sometimes though I feel like they missed the depth of the original song (FFVI boss music comes to mind). Anyway, here's my favorite remastered tracks from each game (surprised me most):
- FFIV: Within the Giant
- FFV: Beyond the Deep Blue Sea
- FFVI: The Veldt (second half the of the remastered song is awesome)

I beat IV in 20 hours, V in 30 hours and VI in 40 hours. Zeromus gave me the most trouble of the 3 final bosses. I beat Kefka on my first try - the Ultima spell kinda breaks the final fights.

I'm working on these now, since they were on sale on Steam this week. I'm done 4 (all achievements) and just starting VI. I didn't notice the auto-saving thing, but I don't really need it either. The faster Auto battle is nice when grinding though. I have to say, the arranged soundtrack is just bad. I gave both games a sample through the extras option and I've liked exactly none of them. Part of it is because I've heard many better rearranged versions both via fans and through some of their official arranged versions from the 90s.

Otherwise, though, I agree. Great way to replay these classics. The DS/3D remake of IV I just couldn't enjoy. Too many "extras". Sometimes you just want to replay something you played a 100 times as a kid with maybe just a few QoL improvements.

Debating whether to do I or not. I enjoy I, but I played the crap out of the Randomizer, so it may seem kind of stale. This might be the time I finally play through II and III though.


EDIT: Also, still occasionally find something new. I played 1000s of hours of the original SNES IV and I never knew you could get the two chests in the Baron Weapon/Armor shop until reaching the end of the game and being at 340/342 treasures found.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by gallione11

I'm working on these now, since they were on sale on Steam this week. I'm done 4 (all achievements) and just starting VI. I didn't notice the auto-saving thing, but I don't really need it either. The faster Auto battle is nice when grinding though. I have to say, the arranged soundtrack is just bad. I gave both games a sample through the extras option and I've liked exactly none of them. Part of it is because I've heard many better rearranged versions both via fans and through some of their official arranged versions from the 90s.

Otherwise, though, I agree. Great way to replay these classics. The DS/3D remake of IV I just couldn't enjoy. Too many "extras". Sometimes you just want to replay something you played a 100 times as a kid with maybe just a few QoL improvements.

Debating whether to do I or not. I enjoy I, but I played the crap out of the Randomizer, so it may seem kind of stale. This might be the time I finally play through II and III though.


EDIT: Also, still occasionally find something new. I played 1000s of hours of the original SNES IV and I never knew you could get the two chests in the Baron Weapon/Armor shop until reaching the end of the game and being at 340/342 treasures found.

I made a concious effort to play the games with the arranged tracks since they're far more likely to stick with you if you play with the context behind them. If you went straight to your favorites, listened to 30 seconds and noped out, then yeah I can see why you might feel that way.

There's always going to be fan mixes of FF songs I love more than any others (I was a backer of OC Remix's Balance and Ruin kickstarter which turned out really well!) but it's nearly an impossible task to "modernize" these tracks without some of them being duds. I think they used the right amount of "retro" sounding stuff mixed in with clean modern instruments to update the songs.

Searching For Friends is a perfect example since you can hear some of the sounds from the original in there combined with a flute doing the melody during the first half. The second half of the arranged track swells with strings and brass and it's awesome. The songs I felt were dead-on to the originals were the FFVI battle theme and victory theme. On the flipside, I think songs like The Decisive Battle (in both FFV and FFVI) and Dancing Mad (Phase 1) are missing some of the intensity or instrumentation the original versions had and that was disappointing.

The credits music for FFVI (specifically the part after leaving the tower) still hits me hard. The arranged version was fantastic.

I'll have to reload the games and find out how many chests I found in each. With the hidden paths being easier to see I gotta think I managed to do most of them!

[chemgear]

Did you play Theatrhythm? I really enjoyed them myself.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Did you play Theatrhythm? I really enjoyed them myself.

I've got both 3DS games and I bought Final Bar Line on the Switch with the DLC. Playing with a controller instead of the touch screen and face buttons is a bit weird so I haven't gotten as deep into Final Bar Line as I would've liked. I also wish there a was lot more recent FFXIV music in it!

[gallione11]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I made a concious effort to play the games with the arranged tracks since they're far more likely to stick with you if you play with the context behind them. If you went straight to your favorites, listened to 30 seconds and noped out, then yeah I can see why you might feel that way.

There's always going to be fan mixes of FF songs I love more than any others (I was a backer of OC Remix's Balance and Ruin kickstarter which turned out really well!) but it's nearly an impossible task to "modernize" these tracks without some of them being duds. I think they used the right amount of "retro" sounding stuff mixed in with clean modern instruments to update the songs.

Searching For Friends is a perfect example since you can hear some of the sounds from the original in there combined with a flute doing the melody during the first half. The second half of the arranged track swells with strings and brass and it's awesome. The songs I felt were dead-on to the originals were the FFVI battle theme and victory theme. On the flipside, I think songs like The Decisive Battle (in both FFV and FFVI) and Dancing Mad (Phase 1) are missing some of the intensity or instrumentation the original versions had and that was disappointing.

The credits music for FFVI (specifically the part after leaving the tower) still hits me hard. The arranged version was fantastic.

I'll have to reload the games and find out how many chests I found in each. With the hidden paths being easier to see I gotta think I managed to do most of them!

Fair points -- I actually imported the OSTs years ago (actually, the VI soundtrack WAS released in NA), so the original versions also have a soft spot. I think since I've only really spent time with IV so far, the other thing that the arranged music didn't hit was the numerous great remixes in XIV (Troia, Battle 2, Zeromus).



Searching for Friends is actually my one exception so far. I loved the original, and the arranged is pretty good as well.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I've got both 3DS games and I bought Final Bar Line on the Switch with the DLC. Playing with a controller instead of the touch screen and face buttons is a bit weird so I haven't gotten as deep into Final Bar Line as I would've liked. I also wish there a was lot more recent FFXIV music in it!

Cool. I picked up the Dragon Quest one as it never came to North America.