The Bill's Now Playing Video Game Thread (Now with Bames)

[spacehamster]

I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 since launch day, and I'm having an inordinate amount of fun. It's kind of taken me a while to warm up to, but now it really sucks me in.

Which makes it exactly like every CDPR game. Buggy at launch, kind of crappy at the start, becomes really fun once you unlock some cool abilities and get a handle on how everything works.

This is on PC, of course. The console releases are pretty laughable, apparently.

[Eight Bit Alien]

I really wonder if everyone will be singing your song in a year, or if this botched launch will stain its perception so badly that it never recovers.

There's ALWAYS some small community of contrarians who apologize for mangled games, but at this point I can't tell if this game is like Daikatana level shit, or if it just needs the bugs ironed out.

[spacehamster]

There's ALWAYS some small community of contrarians who apologize for mangled games, but at this point I can't tell if this game is like Daikatana level shit, or if it just needs the bugs ironed out.

It doesn't live up to its own hype and it has a lot of bugs, but I'm really not trying to be contrarian. I don't play videogames that much anymore unless something really grabs me, and this does.

I also think people would have torn this game to shreds no matter what. Too much hype, too many expectations, too many fucking morons online. And again, it's funny how everyone forgets that every single CDPR game so far had a difficult launch and later needed to be fixed. Those "enhanced editions" exist for a reason. This just had a particularly bad launch on consoles, that's really the only difference.

I'm not saying it's as good as TW3, but the actual problems it has other than bugs are very similar. Confusing map, character progression not properly explained, janky starting hours until you figure out how everything works, etc.

[doomeddisciple]

I’m playing it on PS5, I have a system crashing bug about once an hour.

It had major fallout vibes minus the vats, the games plot is actually quite compelling in spite of Keanu playing another character named Johnny and being a kinda punk rock cliche.

I’m having a pretty good time, I don’t notice that much crappy was of the bugs say over Fallout 3 / but driving is DOGSHIT.

[spacehamster]

Keanu playing another character named Johnny

Being in a William Gibson adaptation is about as much mad cyberpunk cred as you can have, though. Even if said movie was terrible. I mean, assuming you're talking about Johnny Mnemonic.

Anyway, Keanu is actually probably my biggest complaint about this game. The character could have been fine, but Keanu's performance is so phoned in about 60% of the time that it's really jarring, and it also sounds like they recorded it with a shitty mic for some reason. Maybe he literally phoned it in? Plus I really don't need to see his likeness. I've kind of gotten used to it now, but the first few hours, it's always like, hey look, it's Keanu.

What kind of struck me the last two days is how well the game manages to keep that 80s sci-fi aesthetic (especially the cars, god I love the cars) and every cyberpunk trope you could possibly cram into it and still be a somewhat believable future. The art direction and the world building are off the scale.

[The Bill]

I see that they have planned patches for Cyberpunk into February. So, I’m definitely waiting till at least then. I have so many games, it’s not an issue to wait.

Ass Creed Vikings has been great and nastily addictive thus far.

[FVBTVS]

i feel like witcher 3 was a VERY VERY unfinished and rickety product for at least a year after release (thought not as bad as cyberpunk on old consoles)

so no none of this stuff about cyberpunk being a disaster really moves me anywhere

[spacehamster]

Also the nerds were out in full force with torches and pitforks because the graphics had been "downgraded". Nobody seems to remember that either.

[Chad]

World of Warcraft shadowlands expansion...way more fun than anything else recently

I saw a guy playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla...it was like Vikings: The Show: THE GAME

so unfun-looking, and even the story sucks...all this anachronistic fucking lame shit

one Graveland song more authentic than this unfun, scripted dickpunching

[The Bill]

Wrong! Game rules.

[spacehamster]

So I finished Cyberpunk 2077 last night. Takes about 50 hours if you do all of the story sidequests, but... well, without spoiling anything, I'll just say there's a lot of branching path stuff that means there's actually a couple more hours of content in this thing that I haven't seen yet.

Anyway, if you play it on PC, it runs fine, it looks absolutely gorgeous and the writing, as usual, is top notch. Combat is probably the best it's ever been in a CDPR game, but it's sadly hampered by the buggy AI.

In its current state it's an 8/10, once all the fixes are done, I'm guessing more like 9/10. I'm also already playing more and I really can't wait for the expansions.

[The Bill]

Looks like I’m ending the year and starting the next with a gallant last hurrah with the PS4, and finishing off all unfinished business:

Ghost of Tsushima
Last of Us 2
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
Battlefield: Hardline
Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil
Until Dawn
The Order 1688

Not in that order, though.

[godofdeadlydeath]

Got our eldest child who is a boy (fucking autistic son thing scared me again) few new Switch games for Christmas. Started up Link's Awakening last night, that's really fun and great looking. I never played the original, I don't think, so it's fun to discover more stuff. We also got Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Mario 64 is really frustrating because of the camera. Sunshine is fucking great. Galaxy is still amazing.

[Eight Bit Alien]

Been thinking about Galaxy a lot lately. Loved that game so much.
Started up Odyssey recently, and I can't get myself to enjoy it at all. Really confused by that, since it seems to be very well loved.

[The Bill]

Fist of the North Star rules. 80’s metal as fuck!

[Eight Bit Alien]

A video game adaptation or the series?? never played or saw any of it, but if its some dope NES bame you've dusted off I'll check it out

[The Bill]

A video game adaptation or the series?? never played or saw any of it, but if its some dope NES bame you've dusted off I'll check it out

PS4 only, I’m afraid. There was a game for the Sega Master System and another for the Genesis, though. Not called Fist of the North Star in America. Black Belt and Last Battle.

[Hunter]

A video game adaptation or the series?? never played or saw any of it, but if its some dope NES bame you've dusted off I'll check it out

PS4 only, I’m afraid. There was a game for the Sega Master System and another for the Genesis, though. Not called Fist of the North Star in America. Black Belt and Last Battle.

Fuck, thanks for reminding me that this game exists - I wanted to play it when I saw a trailer a while ago, but it was on PS, so I never got the chance. Now for $10 on sale, I'm all in. I'll get to it as soon as I finish some works in progress.

I wrapped up Spider-man: Miles Morales, and I could replay both S-M games based on the city traversal alone.

My favorite game of 2020 was Spiritfarer, I think. I never would have guessed that inventory management aboard a hospice houseboat for elderly anthropomorphic animals would affect me as deeply as it did. By the middle of the game, I thought to myself, "ok, when it comes time to take this guy to the death portal, I couldn't possibly get sad --- they were a real pain in my ass." Lo and behold, as they reflected on their life before being summoned into the beyond, tears welled up in my eyes and I said aloud: "Just fucking die already."

[Spooky Apparition]

I played through to the Phallanx demon in the first level of Demon's SOuls on PS5 without dying and then fell off some stairs and died back in the Nexus.

Then I fired up Valhalla and I'm 19 hours in.

PS5 is delish.

I'm about halfway done with Demon's Souls and jesus christ, Valley of Defilement is still absolutely annoying as hell. I jumped ahead to try to get them out of the way and 5-2 in particular is so brutal. I either had a lot more patience back then or just less to do.

overall though, it's a trip to play this version and I'm loving it. It's basically how I remember the game in my head, but then when I go back and look at PS3 videos I'm reminded of how rough DS really was visually (not to mention the camera). Sometimes the flashy lighting and effects make the game less.... mystical (?) than the original, but other times the better production value works to its benefit. Ex. 3-1 is creepier than ever and the sound design and more dynamic yet subtle lighting in that level actually create more atmosphere than the original.

so yeah, DS remake rules, as if anyone needed that confirmation.

[The Bill]

Finally beat Fist of the North Star. That ending is Megadeth. Game 8/10 Personal 10/10x

Oh, no it’s not. After credits. Love story type ways. Um, sure fine. Love!

[The Bill]

Been playing Sleeping Dogs. If you like that Grand Theft Auto shit, then this is one of the better ones.

Also, restarted Black Mesa now that they truly finished it. Magnificent now that they ironed some of that shit out. Although, I do use the Steam workshop to tweak things to make it more like original Half-Life like ammo capacity, blood stay, and original soundtrack.

[Hunter]

I've been working through Death Stranding and I love it. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone - it's batshit insane. I thought it looked terrible when I first heard about it, and I really don't like long unskippable cutscenes which is a Kojima staple - but I gave it a shot anyway. Turns out: I like walking, delivering packages, giving people's structures & signs likes, avoiding tar ghosts, and submitting crazed delivery men who want to take your cargo to deliver it themselves (to get likes). I get a real kick out of the cast too - Mads Mikkelsen, Guillermo del Toro, Junji Ito, Conan O'Brien, Geoff Keighley, Edgar Wright, Nicholas Winding Refn (doesn't do his voice though?). There's no other game that is similar that I've played.

[Eight Bit Alien]

Your description sounds wonderful but I'm still so skeptical.

[The Bill]

Your description sounds wonderful but I'm still so skeptical.

Yeah, for a second I was all about checking Steam for a sale on it then remembered watching actual footage of it and seeing what seemed like massive tedium and frustration. Very dubious about this one.

[Eight Bit Alien]

At some point I hit an irrational level of frustration and rage at being railroaded in a game, or being forced to absorb exposition or character stuff for anything I didn't already care about. The writing in video games is typically awful... about as well thought out and cared-for as fan fiction written by middle schoolers. Stuff I absolutely have zero respect for, and don't understand how it's gone uncommented on culturally. The Japanese stuff in particular has an incoherent, meaningless quality that I know from experience will never pay off so why are you wasting my time?

Absolute and total disrespect to me and my time. Symptoms of people who've long since taken their audience for granted, and assume participation and interest. PRESUMTUOUS FUCKING ANIME TRASH.

Kojima is a fucking genius, and I respect him and his design and his brain. I just wish it was possible to get one of these big AAA games that didn't feel the need for full-on cinematic pretension in terms of plot. I just want to play the fucking game.... anything you have to tell me about these characters has to be an emergent property of that process, not the other way around.

/shut-in millennial grandpa rant