[The video game thread]

[Sades]

I also got a Steam card, so I picked up Conan Exiles. Looks like fun, I love those building/survival types of games.

Hound got me a giant Snorlax, he is automatically made of the win.

[HeavyArms]

Wolfenstein 2: Collectors Edition - Bought for myself as a Christmas present.

Call Of Duty: WW2 Steelbook Edition.

Basically done with Dead Nation although I am trying to knock through the game on Morbid difficulty for the hell of it, but I'll be starting on Dragon's Dogma in a couple of days and will on it for a few weeks, I reckon.

[ganon578]

In order to fill some time between Skyrim sessions, I managed to pick up a copy of Super Mario Odyssey.

I had put myself on a 'waiting list' at my local game shop, fully not expecting a copy to pass through anytime soon. Luckily, I had plenty of trade credit to cover the whole thing, so I didn't pay a dime when I got a call that one had arrived. SUPER fun game, though I haven't gotten too far. The only gripe I have is that you can't pull off all the hat-tossing moves without using split Joy-Cons and using motion controls. It's not a deal-breaker, as the basics can do nearly all you need to do, it's just disappointing. I thought we had moved on from needing to waggle my arms about just to fully enjoy a game. Otherwise, it's all Mario, and it's totally fun.

[Hound]

I just realized I've played like 5 games in the last half a year and haven't really talked about it.

I finished Pokemon White, and it was good but it was the first one I'd not played via emulator. When I'd played through all of the previous games I would complete the game having caught and evolved all the Pokemon that were available to get but then I would use cheat codes to acquire the rest so that when I stopped playing the Pokedex would be complete. That said, we have the rest of the series aside from the Ultra versions of Sun and Moon, so Sadie has Pokemon Black and so the means for me to acquire a handful more of Pokemon I couldn't get in White version. She's just too preoccupied playing Ark and not accompanying me on my Pokemon Journey.

So after that I managed to pick up a Wii U on the cheap and decided that I was going to make my way through as much of the Legend of Zelda series as I can before I get bored with it. I've got via emulator or physical copy just about the entire series.

I'd played the NES games a couple years ago so I started with LoZ: Link's Awakening DX and it was sooooo good. It was challenging enough for me but not so hard that I got at all frustrated with the game. I also liked that towards the end of the dungeons there would be a mini-boss that once defeated would open a warp between the entrance of the dungeon and the room with the mini-boss so if you died sometime after that fight you could just warp back to that min-boss room and continue from there. For a Gameboy game this thing is remarkably well designed. This has been my favourite Zelda game yet. Possibly because it's been the easiest I've played yet.

I played and just completed last night Link to the Past and it was really good too. I see why this is a lot of people's favourite Zelda game. It's probably the most beautiful 2D game I've ever played. It was hard as balls though. Maybe I'm just not good but I have this game on Wii U virtual console and I exploited the hell out of being able to create a save point at any time I was playing, especially the last 4 dungeons. There's no way I would've been able to beat this thing without that advantage. Well, at least not without it taking twice as long.

Which, for me, is time I really don't have. I'm making my way through a backlog of games that I've spent the last 4 years building up. I've got a family and a full-time job and other hobbies too, I take shortcuts where I have to.

After that we managed to get a SNES Classic, so I've dabbled in Super Metroid. While I've not played a lot of the game I'm just enjoying the hell out of what I have played. I got to a point where I can't figure out where to go next though so I'm probably going to glance at a walkthrough periodically as I get lost in this huge map.

I also started in on LoZ: Ocarina of Time for the 3DS which has been a lot of fun, I'm maybe a third of the way through the game and I'm getting fairly comfortable with the controls. I'm so glad I got the 3DS version as it looks so much better graphically than the original version.

I'm gonna start playing Breath of the Wild next though as I'm dying to start playing our Switch. I've seen a let's play of the game on Youtube so the story's been completely spoiled for me but, really, it's a Zelda game, if I didn't know the plot by now I'd have to be an idiot.

I have a wish list of Switch games I want to pick up now and add to the backlog. Rocket League, Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Arms and possibly Splatoon 2 but it's a bummer that me and Sadie can't play Splatoon 2 split screen together without getting a second Switch and 2 copies of the game. So that one might not be a must have.

[Hound]

Nice! Get ready to dump in some hours - I think I'm at ~120, and I'm still going. Distractions, distractions!

Are you playing it primarily docked and if so are you using the joycons, w/ grip or the pro-controller?

I'm just wondering how much nicer the pro-controller really is.

[Warcry]

I've played a couple more PS4 games over the last few weeks.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was a bit of a disappointment. It looked great, and the gameplay was a nice evolution on what we got in Human Revolution, but the story wasn't up to the franchise's usual standards. The typical Deus Ex game is all about unravelling conspiracies and finding answers to questions, but most of the game's big questions are left unanswered when Mankind Divided wraps up. Obviously that's to bait you into playing the sequel, but Deus Ex isn't a perennial AAA franchise that pumps out a new game every year. We probably won't see another instalment until 2020 at the soonest, and by then how many people are going to remember or care about all the loose ends from this game?

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, on the other hand, was a really pleasant surprise. The first Dishonored on the Xbox 360 was one of my favourite games of all time, but I wasn't sure what to expect out of this one. It actually began life as a DLC for Dishonored 2 (which I've yet to play), but during development it just got so far out of hand that they decided to release it as it's own "B" game for about half the price of a regular release. With that sort of a lineage I wasn't sure how well it would stand up on its own, but honestly the only way to tell that it's not a "full" game is that it's shorter than usual. There are fewer missions, but each mission offers just as much depth, as many areas to explore and as many ways to tackle a challenge as you could possibly ask for. And while the magical powers aren't quite as developed as the first game, they still open the game up to a huge variety of play styles that the designers probably didn't intend (for example, I've currently made "teleporting inside of people to make them explode" a key part of my combat strategy, and compensated for the damage that it does to my own character by crafting a charm that lets me cure around 1/4 of my health bar by eating any random bits of food lying around, letting me spam what is supposed to be a desperation move).

I'd played the NES games a couple years ago so I started with LoZ: Link's Awakening DX and it was sooooo good. It was challenging enough for me but not so hard that I got at all frustrated with the game. I also liked that towards the end of the dungeons there would be a mini-boss that once defeated would open a warp between the entrance of the dungeon and the room with the mini-boss so if you died sometime after that fight you could just warp back to that min-boss room and continue from there. For a Gameboy game this thing is remarkably well designed. This has been my favourite Zelda game yet. Possibly because it's been the easiest I've played yet.

Link's Awakening really doesn't get the respect that it deserves. Not sure why. The dungeon design is neat, the story is easily the best out of the pre-3D Zeldas, and the gameplay is fun. The only real flaw with the thing is that there were only two "action" buttons available on the old Gameboy, so you're constantly pausing to switch items.

I played and just completed last night Link to the Past and it was really good too. I see why this is a lot of people's favourite Zelda game. It's probably the most beautiful 2D game I've ever played. It was hard as balls though. Maybe I'm just not good but I have this game on Wii U virtual console and I exploited the hell out of being able to create a save point at any time I was playing, especially the last 4 dungeons. There's no way I would've been able to beat this thing without that advantage. Well, at least not without it taking twice as long.

It is definitely not easy, but I'm surprised that this is the one you'd single out as being especially hard after having played the NES games. Those are the ones that have always kicked my butt.

When I replayed Twilight Princess a few months ago, I honestly found myself wishing that the modern games were as punishing as ALTTP was. I never felt like I was in danger of being killed, not once, no matter how badly I screwed up or how many enemies I managed to find myself surrounded by.

[ganon578]

Are you playing it primarily docked and if so are you using the joycons, w/ grip or the pro-controller?

I'm just wondering how much nicer the pro-controller really is.

I've actually played it a fair amount in all three ways.

I enjoy the docked mode for big moments that feature story sections, though you can't always tell when those are about to happen. I just like seeing them on a bigger screen - for instance, I waited to tackle Ganon until I knew for sure I had some time on my TV.

That said, I was forced to play with the Joy-Cons in the grip because I didn't own a Pro controller at the time. It works just fine in that scenario, even if it isn't the most comfortable setup out there. I understand the Pro controller is absolutely fantastic if you have the cash to get one. The main bonus with either the Joy-Con/Grip or Pro is that when you take aim with a bow, you can get a rough and quick aim with the stick, then fine-tune with tilt positioning. I find this works really well when lining up headshots. Playing in this style also really works well when you hit a shrine that involves tilt sensing to finish (see below).

I now have something like a Pro controller, which my wife got me as a birthday gift: a Zelda-themed wired controller by Power A. It's got a contour like the Pro controller, but it's strictly wired and doesn't feature any tilt sensing or amiibo scanning, but it's lightweight and works very well. It's also $25 USD compared to $70 USD for the Pro. In my opinion, it's a great cost-effective option, even though it doesn't carry all the bells and whistles.

As for portable mode, this is pretty comfortable too, and you can get away with some tilt controlling. The aforementioned bow aiming works well, but the shrine tilt control in portable mode stinks. There were a few times I was nearly turning the system upside down to make it work, which isn't ideal. Otherwise, I felt like the portable mode was great, and I was able to pump a bunch of hours into BOTW that otherwise would have required me to be chained to my basement (a big reason I didn't get too far into Skyrim on my 360).

In the end, I think all three control options work just fine, though each has their downside (very minor). I think using the JC/Grip setup will work just fine if you don't have the funds for a Pro.

[Hound]

Link's Awakening really doesn't get the respect that it deserves. Not sure why. The dungeon design is neat, the story is easily the best out of the pre-3D Zeldas, and the gameplay is fun. The only real flaw with the thing is that there were only two "action" buttons available on the old Gameboy, so you're constantly pausing to switch items.

That bothered me at first but I got used to it pretty early on and it stopped being annoying.

It is definitely not easy, but I'm surprised that this is the one you'd single out as being especially hard after having played the NES games. Those are the ones that have always kicked my butt.

Oh trust me those first two Zeldas are difficult too, They're just very simple also. Once you know where to attack an enemy it's just a matter of practice but LttP has way more to a lot of the rooms in those dungeons and they aren't all about killing or dodging enemies.

That said, I was forced to play with the Joy-Cons in the grip because I didn't own a Pro controller at the time. It works just fine in that scenario, even if it isn't the most comfortable setup out there. I understand the Pro controller is absolutely fantastic if you have the cash to get one. The main bonus with either the Joy-Con/Grip or Pro is that when you take aim with a bow, you can get a rough and quick aim with the stick, then fine-tune with tilt positioning. I find this works really well when lining up headshots. Playing in this style also really works well when you hit a shrine that involves tilt sensing to finish (see below).

I now have something like a Pro controller, which my wife got me as a birthday gift: a Zelda-themed wired controller by Power A. It's got a contour like the Pro controller, but it's strictly wired and doesn't feature any tilt sensing or amiibo scanning, but it's lightweight and works very well. It's also $25 USD compared to $70 USD for the Pro. In my opinion, it's a great cost-effective option, even though it doesn't carry all the bells and whistles.

That said I think I'm gonna skip the pro controller, at least for now. There are other accessories I want to get, like a dock cover and a travel case most importantly.

[ganon578]

Oh trust me those first two Zeldas are difficult too, They're just very simple also. Once you know where to attack an enemy it's just a matter of practice but LttP has way more to a lot of the rooms in those dungeons and they aren't all about killing or dodging enemies.

The first Zelda isn't too bad if you have a good game guide by your side - I still have the NES Game Atlas from Nintendo Power that I got in the early 90's. It's been taped up quite a bit, but the darn thing is still useful!!! Zelda II is especially brutal, in my opinion. I've never finished it, even with my trusty Atlas!

The other two Zeldas you mentioned (ALttP & Link's Awakening) are right at the top of my favorite Zelda games, probably my top two. Most people choose OoT as their #1, but to me there's something charming about the 2D Zeldas. ALttP truly got me hooked into the series; I can remember being at my sister's apartment and being in complete awe as her boyfriend played it on the SNES. An absolute classic! And LA was one of the few GameBoy games I had early on. As you mentioned, it's not too difficult, the puzzles are really fun, and the trading sequence is a hoot. It's one of those titles you can pick up and play once a year, and it doesn't take too long to finish. That game is full of charm, even with the limited color palette.

That said I think I'm gonna skip the pro controller, at least for now. There are other accessories I want to get, like a dock cover and a travel case most importantly.

Yep, I think that's a good choice. I picked up a case by RDS, which is black and red/white, with semi-hard plastic sides coated in woven fabric. It's pretty solid, and I've used it when we've traveled. It's kept the system in good shape. This past weekend I picked up some screen protectors too; I didn't initially think I would need them, but over time the dock seemed to have cause a very slight scuff on the far side of the glass (not on the viewing screen). I think they're from amFilm and they go on very nicely with fantastic transparency. They were also only $8 for a pair.

[Warcry]

Oh trust me those first two Zeldas are difficult too, They're just very simple also. Once you know where to attack an enemy it's just a matter of practice but LttP has way more to a lot of the rooms in those dungeons and they aren't all about killing or dodging enemies.

True enough. The difficulty level of the SNES game is as much to do with its puzzles as with the hard-hitting enemies. But I think I've just played it so much that I don't really need to think through them anymore, since I know most of them by heart, so it's nowhere near as tough as it would be for someone playing it through for the first time in a long time.

The first Zelda isn't too bad if you have a good game guide by your side - I still have the NES Game Atlas from Nintendo Power that I got in the early 90's. It's been taped up quite a bit, but the darn thing is still useful!!! Zelda II is especially brutal, in my opinion. I've never finished it, even with my trusty Atlas!

I find the first game to be more frustrating than truly difficult. The combat is really tough in the later dungeons, for sure, but more than that I'm put off by how the game gives you almost zero clues about where to go or what to do. That didn't bother me as much when I was a kid, but I guess modern games have spoiled me.

Zelda II on the other hand just consistently kicks my ass. I've been playing it off and on since I was 5, but I've never felt like I was any good at it. I think I may have made it to the final dungeon when I was a kid, but I never made it very far in. I remember my dad making it all the way to Dark Link, once, but that's the closest I've ever seen to anyone beating it.

The other two Zeldas you mentioned (ALttP & Link's Awakening) are right at the top of my favorite Zelda games, probably my top two. Most people choose OoT as their #1, but to me there's something charming about the 2D Zeldas.

Ocarina of Time was amazing for what it did to advance the concept of 3D gaming at a time when it was in its infancy, but if we're being honest I don't even think it's the best Zelda game on the N64. The story is a straight rehash of ALTTP, and Majora's Mask outdoes it in every way possible -- better plot, better characters, better gameplay, better graphics and better (albeit fewer) dungeons. Of course, a lot of people who love OoT never even played Majora's Mask because it came out when the N64 was already pretty much obsolete.

Which isn't to say that Ocarina of Time is a bad game, because it's not. If I was rating all the Zeldas that I've played, it would probably fall somewhere around the middle of the pack, but a "middle of the pack" Zelda game is still a really good game by any other standard.

I'm not sure if I could choose between ALTTP and MM for my #1. Usually I'd just settle for saying that one is my favourite 2D Zelda and the other is my favourite 3D Zelda. Link's Awakening wouldn't be too far behind them though, and I should really see if my old copy still works so that I can play it again! It's probably been a decade since I've fired that one up.

[Hound]

OMFG Breath of the Wild is so much fun! I've just been going around trying to get all the towers and going into shrines as I see them. Every time I sit down to play this game I end up playing for hours at a time. When I'm not playing I'm thinking about when I will have time to play again.

The thing with this game is that while it's very beautiful, and it really is gorgeous, the game play is even more awesome. I loved sneaking up on and catching my horse, I love finding korok seeds, most of the shrines are such a joy to figure out. How can anyone not immediately fall in love with this game?

[ganon578]

I'm not sure if I could choose between ALTTP and MM for my #1. Usually I'd just settle for saying that one is my favourite 2D Zelda and the other is my favourite 3D Zelda. Link's Awakening wouldn't be too far behind them though, and I should really see if my old copy still works so that I can play it again! It's probably been a decade since I've fired that one up.

That's a good way to put it. ALTTP or LA would be my favorites in the 2D world, but I think BOTW might be my new favorite of the 3D series...

OMFG Breath of the Wild is so much fun! I've just been going around trying to get all the towers and going into shrines as I see them. Every time I sit down to play this game I end up playing for hours at a time. When I'm not playing I'm thinking about when I will have time to play again.

The thing with this game is that while it's very beautiful, and it really is gorgeous, the game play is even more awesome. I loved sneaking up on and catching my horse, I love finding korok seeds, most of the shrines are such a joy to figure out. How can anyone not immediately fall in love with this game?

That game is such a time-sink. It's ridiculous how simple the world itself is, yet so complex and engaging. I looked at my game clock the other day, which says I've played for over 130 hours. 130 hours!!! I didn't even know I had that much time to game!!!

Did you start cooking yet? That's always a fun diversion - if you're looking for more things to distract you from the main quest. I also have the DLC with the little Korok mask that makes finding seeds that much easier to do.

I also don't understand how people cannot enjoy the game either. I think the complaints that I have heard (a vocal few) seem to come from gamers who are eyeball deep in really epic & bloody games for the PS4/XB1 and don't seem to appreciate other games for what they are. Or they just don't pay attention to it because they claim Nintendo makes 'kids games'. Very short-sighted.

And I beat Bowser in Super Mario Odyssey. All in all it wasn't over-the-top challenging, but it was incredibly enjoyable. Plus, a couple more spots open up afterwards, and it appears that I can still collect something like a bazillion more power moons.

Alternatively I've been playing Skyrim and finding out where my deficiencies are (Master Vampire slaying, for instance), then beefing up and coming back later to lay waste. I've only absorbed a handful of dragon souls, but it's still fun.

You know, I love my PS4, but I find myself diving into the Switch a lot. My PS4 has served as a Bluray player these past few months, at least.

[Sades]

I've been playing Final Fantasy whatever it is a bit lately. The one that's online.

I'm enjoying the FFness of it, and I also enjoy that it doesn't strain the capabilities of my computer. Boo subscription based, but it's not a lot and if you don't want to play and let your sub lapse, you can pick right up where you left off again (unlike Ark, which you have to log in to at least once a week to renew timers/feed your dinos. Bleh), so whatever.

I bought Rock of Ages 2 over the weekend, and I love it so I bought it for Hound so we could play together, but he hates it. Just my luck! But we'll find something. We usually do.

[ganon578]

Mostly plugging through Skyrim, with occasional moon hunting in Mario Odyssey. Just finished up the Companions questline, married Aela the Huntress, and moved into Breezehome. Probably going to buy the big house in Solitude and adopt a kid or two. Sounds ridiculous to be doing all that in the midst of dragon slaying. I suppose that keeps it interesting!

I also downloaded Blossom Tales on the Switch. I couldn't resist for $15, as it's a 2D Zelda clone that's somewhere in between 8- and 16-bit graphically and musically. I haven't played it yet, but it looks really fantastic from the trailers I have seen.

[Auntie Slag]

I'm playing Zelda: A Link Between Worlds on the 2DS. Its the SNES Zelda map with spruced up graphics, sound, gameplay and animation and its really beautiful. Full of little touches. I'm also playing Pocket Card Jockey, by Gamefreak, the makers of Pokemon. Its hideously addictive; a mix of horse racing and solitaire, and is the game I've put the most time into on this system.

The 2DS is so awesome, the problem is it makes me crave for a Switch. I'd be all over the indie games on that!

[Hound]

I finished Breath of the Wild last night. I'm a little sad it's over. I didn't do every thing but I did about half the shrines and got about 30 korok seeds but I got the master sword and I got all the memories and the divine beasts. This game was so much fun. I had a few frustrating moments but there was never anything I wasn't able to figure out eventually. I would like to get some of the Amibos and get the cool costumes and Epona but other than that I think I'm about done with it for awhile at least until I can get a DLC pack. I'll probably come back to it and try and get to more of the shrines or something at some point but for now I'm gonna try and finish Ocarina of Time.

[Warcry]

I've played Mass Effect Andromeda now. It really is a startlingly mediocre game. The graphics are higher-res, but still manage to look worse than ME2 and ME3 on the last-gen consoles. Your player character is a dope no matter how you choose to RP them, none of the NPCs have the same level of likeability as the ones from the first trilogy and the antagonists never really feel like much of a threat. The sidequests are shallow as hell and clearly designed as nothing more than a time sink, and a bunch of them are impossible to complete because they don't pop up on your map. And then on top of that the game is really, really buggy, with gems such as invisible enemies, your player character randomly not showing up in cutscenes when they're supposed to, missions not triggering properly, totally locking up after the end of some missions and forcing you to reload, etc. There's a lot of really good ideas floating around, and a lot of really good moments scattered throughout the main quest, but the whole product is just shoddy. I honestly think it deserves most of the negative buzz that surrounds it, even if the stuff that they're complaining about isn't always what's actually wrong with the game.

Now I'm playing Dishonored 2, which is so much better that it's hard to even put into words. Everything looks great, everything works great. The game world feels so much more polished, NPCs feel like real people, and in general it just feels way more "finished" than Andromeda did. The first Dishonored was one of my favourite games ever, and so far this one is shaping up to be even better.

It's a first-person stealthy action game where your character has a skill tree of supernatural powers at their command, which is probably my favourite genre. I can already tell that game will have lots of replay value just from going through it in different ways after learning different abilities, because each of the powers opens up so many different ways to tackle problems. I'm pretty sure the two different characters you choose from at the start have different skill trees too, so there's an extra layer of depth there as well. And of course the game world reacts and changes quite a bit based on how you act, the choices you make and how many bodies you pile up.

And if you play the game honestly and don't reload every time you make a mistake, then there will be some bodies even if you're trying to be quiet and nonlethal. The challenge level is quite high even on the middle difficulties because the AI is very smart and your character is only a little more durable than a real person would be. Sometimes I just get stuck and have to blast a guard in the face to survive, and I love that the game is able to trap me in a corner like that.

[Hound]

Well I started playing Ocarina of Time, but I played for about 3 hours and then my 3DS died and I lost all of that progress and I haven't turned it on since then.

However I did finally start playing War for Cybertron and after a week or so of playing I finished it. Not a very long or difficult game but it was a lot of fun. I feel like personal bias had a lot to do with why I enjoyed the game so much because if pressed I would have to say that I disliked the controls a great deal and that on just about any other game I would have said no thanks but because it was Transformers and because Peter Cullen and Frank Welker's voices were all over this game it was a joy.

[ganon578]

I finished Breath of the Wild last night. I'm a little sad it's over. I didn't do every thing but I did about half the shrines and got about 30 korok seeds but I got the master sword and I got all the memories and the divine beasts. This game was so much fun. I had a few frustrating moments but there was never anything I wasn't able to figure out eventually. I would like to get some of the Amibos and get the cool costumes and Epona but other than that I think I'm about done with it for awhile at least until I can get a DLC pack. I'll probably come back to it and try and get to more of the shrines or something at some point but for now I'm gonna try and finish Ocarina of Time.

Well, you only have about 870 korok seeds to go before you're done.

BotW is a great game to come back to every now and then, since it's such a fluid and easy to play game. All in all I've done all 120 shrines and found all the armor (with help from Google - don't judge, I don't have the time to search for it all by myself). I have no idea how many korok seeds I have, but the DLC korok mask makes finding them so much easier. I've done a bit of the DLC, but made it to the Waterblight Ganon challenge and got my butt kicked. Might need a bit of practice.

At any rate, since we traveled I was able to keep plugging away at a bit of the Power Moons in Odyssey, and just last night I wrapped up the final boss in Blossom Tales. There's more map to complete, which I may do at some point. A very enjoyable game, if a bit short. I think it's probably worth the $15, but would be even sweeter at $10.

With Lego on my mind from our recent trip, I may try picking up Lego Worlds or Lego City Undercover on the Switch, since they both run ~$20. Seems like they both reviewed about the same, but offer different gameplay. Might go with Worlds since you can build whatever you want.

[ganon578]

Well, I didn't have to end up getting a physical copy of any of the Switch Lego games, since they recently went on sale on the eShop. I snagged Lego City Undercover for half off (which also nicely adds to my Switch Rewards points!). It's a charming, Lego GTA-style game that seems to have tons to offer and explore. Should be fun to pick up and play every so often.

Also got Steamworld Dig for 50% off on sale - at $5, that's hard to pass up. It's one of my favorites from when I had my 3DS, and the randomly generated worlds keep things fresh on each playthrough.