Vidya Games Thread

[yuckyyaki]

Oh, they are planning something again

It's just the Winter Steam sale

 

[Doyoulike4]

The early years of the Xbox 360 were very packed with a lot of great games.

Yeah rewatching that video, I do feel like around the turning point of going from PS360 to PS4/Xbox One is when it got really noticeable that single and double A games just seemed to slow down some. Most of seventh gen was better for that than I remember, I do think 5th and 6th gen was really the peak because I just remember so many weird mid-budget games on the PS2/Xbox and especially the PS1. There have been some fairly recent games I do think feel or are single or double A but during the 6th and a decent portion of the 7th gen it really did feel like there were probably 2 or 3 mid-budget games dropping monthly if not weekly.

 

[PleaseCheckYourReceipts]

Yeah rewatching that video, I do feel like around the turning point of going from PS360 to PS4/Xbox One is when it got really noticeable that single and double A games just seemed to slow down some. Most of seventh gen was better for that than I remember, I do think 5th and 6th gen was really the peak because I just remember so many weird mid-budget games on the PS2/Xbox and especially the PS1. There have been some fairly recent games I do think feel or are single or double A but during the 6th and a decent portion of the 7th gen it really did feel like there were probably 2 or 3 mid-budget games dropping monthly if not weekly.

Live Service Games did most of the damage. The point of most of them is to eat up play time, so you never finish them. Who do you think bought those mid-budget games? Also, the loss of game stores meant you were only exposed to something either via advertising or by word of mouth. Which is how you end up with the AAA vs super cheap Indie game dynamic from about 2015 onward.

That said, after The Day Before hilariousness, they spent like 20k USD for basically a full game via the Unreal Store. And apparently a bunch of those sets were free in Humble Bundle. 4 Devs, a year and a small budget could easily put out a really solid game via Unreal right now.

 

[Panko Enjoyer]

Live Service Games did most of the damage. The point of most of them is to eat up play time, so you never finish them. Who do you think bought those mid-budget games? Also, the loss of game stores meant you were only exposed to something either via advertising or by word of mouth. Which is how you end up with the AAA vs super cheap Indie game dynamic from about 2015 onward.

That said, after The Day Before hilariousness, they spent like 20k USD for basically a full game via the Unreal Store. And apparently a bunch of those sets were free in Humble Bundle. 4 Devs, a year and a small budget could easily put out a really solid game via Unreal right now.

The death of video game rental stores like Blockbuster really fucked over smaller devs. They'd have no worry trying to sell 1 copy to a store because the store will recoup their investment after like 12 rentals (assuming no late fees) and the lifespan of consoles being 4+ years meant that it wasn't a risky investment at all for the store. So if you could get your marketing team to call up a regional manager, you could end up selling dozens of copies with 1 phone call. Considering there was likely 50-200k stores they could make that sale to (averaging out with the stores that might just buy "2 whole copies of your AA game!"), that's a good amount of change to lessen the blow of development costs. Suddenly these small devs have a cushion to help out with development costs before they ever have to worry about selling to the player/customer.

 

[MrProcessor]

Steam year in review is up on Steam now...

 

[Banana Hammock]

For those who have played it, did you enjoy Etrian Odyssey? The HD trilogy is on sale right now, and I'm thinking of picking it up.

 

[Kalion]

For those who have played it, did you enjoy Etrian Odyssey? The HD trilogy is on sale right now, and I'm thinking of picking it up.

I have not played the HD trilogy, but I do own all six on DS/3DS. If you like DRPGs or "Blobbers", they're good ones. They take heavy inspiration from Wizardy, feeling like the early games are straight up aiming to be "Wizardy: Anime edition". One unique fun thing about them is they sort of force you to make unconventional class set ups. Sure, you can try to make the classic "Tank/DPS/Healer" party but there's a good chance you won't be anywhere near effective than if you were playing into the game's and classes' unique mechanics. The games are also brutal especially in the early game, so expect a lot of grinding and then frantically running back to town to heal.

If you're into DRPGs I'd also recommend checking out Labyrinth of Refrain and Labyrinth of Galleria. They often go on sale on Steam and the eshop for like $10, have fun if dark stories, and the only games I've played where you can drag around 30 party members with you. Be warned however if you want to go for the true ending in both those games, you've got an easy 100 hours ahead of you.

 

[PleaseCheckYourReceipts]

The death of video game rental stores like Blockbuster really fucked over smaller devs. They'd have no worry trying to sell 1 copy to a store because the store will recoup their investment after like 12 rentals (assuming no late fees) and the lifespan of consoles being 4+ years meant that it wasn't a risky investment at all for the store. So if you could get your marketing team to call up a regional manager, you could end up selling dozens of copies with 1 phone call. Considering there was likely 50-200k stores they could make that sale to (averaging out with the stores that might just buy "2 whole copies of your AA game!"), that's a good amount of change to lessen the blow of development costs. Suddenly these small devs have a cushion to help out with development costs before they ever have to worry about selling to the player/customer.

The Direct to DVD model existed because of this as well. Quite a lot of the wild, hyper-violent OVAs of the 80s and 90s only exist because of this as well (from the Japanese market). Granted, the games were called Shovelware for a reason, but there's wild gems all over that era that we'd have never gotten otherwise. But the High-Low market is currently stuck in the space it's at, at least for a little while.

 

[Thomas Talus]

Anything notable in the Steam sale? I haven't been good about following those for the past few years.

 

[UberSoldat]

Anything notable in the Steam sale? I haven't been good about following those for the past few years.

You'll need to be more specific than that. What are you into?

 

[Brosnan Pierce Brosnan]

I'm looking at the sale and unfortunately I can't help on recs without knowing what you are into (just like UberSoldat said). However I will use this post to bitch about games I've been interested in, but not interested enough to spur of the moment buy them.

Rimworld is only 20 percent off despite coming out in 2018

Payday 2 is only a buck but its fucking DLC isn't! Thanks Overkill

Stardew Valley only has a 33% sale despite being out since what, 2015? 2016?

Hitman is on sale but you wouldn't know it unless you clicked on it since the storefront says it isn't on sale.

There are really good deals on tournament fighters at least.

Starfield and Diablo 4 have pretty big discounts for being how new they are. However they are at base 70 bucks which is some shit. Thank GOD the Last of Us 1 also has the same discount too because I was itching at playing a shitty port of a game I have twice that I don't even like.

The Square Enix sales suck too, the ports of the old Final Fantasies aren't even on sale

 

[Topo Chico]

Very late to RDR2, bought it on sale, been told it's very good by my normie friends. 30 minutes in it hits you with the half-black half-indian mutt with MC praising him and shit. 1.5-2h in there's a fun discussion about how the union treated the natives in the 1860s with the mutt piping up and shit. I hope optimistic: ) this game doesn't shove the woke native circle jerk down my throat the whole game. Off to a rough start at any rate. Very pretty at least

GTA6 is going to blow chunks.

 

[Tubedude]

Rimworld is only 20 percent off despite coming out in 2018

The guy behind Rimworld is rather stingy with sales if memory serves. He's more likely to hike the price by a few $ or something a few more major updates down the line, than ever doing a deeper sale.

 

[Panko Enjoyer]

Anything notable in the Steam sale? I haven't been good about following those for the past few years.

Spoiler: 90% range

Need For Speed Heat | 95% off

Need For Speed: Most Wanted | 90% off

Mass Effect Legendary Edition | 90% off | Historic Low

Sid Meier's Civilization 6 | 90% off

XCOM2 | 90% off

Mortal Shell | 90% off

Spoiler: 80% range

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order | 85% off

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen | 84% off

Kingdom Come Deliverance | 80% off | Second lowest historically, lowest was free on EGS

Yakuza: Like a Dragon | 80% off

Batman: Arkham Knight | 80% off | 85% off if you buy the bundle with GOTY versions of Asylum, City, and Knight

Spoiler: 70% range

Days Gone | 75% off

Divinity Original Sin 2 | 70% off | Historic Low

Master Chief Collection | 70% off | Historic Low

I hope optimistic: ) this game doesn't shove the woke native circle jerk down my throat the whole game.

There's a whole bit about sucking Indian cock and there's some woke stranger interactions in the New Orleans stand-in city.

 

[agility_]

For those who have played it, did you enjoy Etrian Odyssey? The HD trilogy is on sale right now, and I'm thinking of picking it up.

I liked the DS games but like Kalion said, these are highly nichey games. Watching someone play it on pootube is one thing, I would advice you find a rom and play it on an emulator first. EO Nexus was a small addiction I had back in the day.

 

[Doyoulike4]

XCOM 2 might actually be cheaper on the GOG christmas sale right now. Which in general, I'd recommend checking out GOG's sale right now, they have some unique boomer PC games not on steam and others that are on steam but the GOG versions come pre-patched to run better on windows 10/11.
Steam sale it really just depends what you're into, for me personally there's some really good fighting game sales right now, a lot of good deals on racing games, and a lot of discounted JRPGs.

 

[Brosnan Pierce Brosnan]

Very late to RDR2, bought it on sale, been told it's very good by my normie friends. 30 minutes in it hits you with the half-black half-indian mutt with MC praising him and shit. 1.5-2h in there's a fun discussion about how the union treated the natives in the 1860s with the mutt piping up and shit. I hope optimistic: ) this game doesn't shove the woke native circle jerk down my throat the whole game. Off to a rough start at any rate. Very pretty at least

GTA6 is going to blow chunks.

Rockstar started in with that shit before it was in vogue like Bioware. GTA 5 was mostly ok but even Max Payne 3 has a bunch political shit that is inconsistent with the character and his actions. Hell in that he keeps batching about rich versus poor when the first antagonist has hundreds of people under his command which shows you that Houser doesn't understand true sociological power.

Example, at the beginning they are having a party and Max Payne complains about the rich looking over the city and the poors as they are oblivious partying all the time.

Then he goes to a hood party and is all like "this is something Americans would pay to see". It's like Houser was trying to show the same side of the coin but in post fucked up Max Payne's monologs.

But yeah RDR2 has a lot of that shit in it

 

[Todd's Strongest Howard]

For those who have played it, did you enjoy Etrian Odyssey? The HD trilogy is on sale right now, and I'm thinking of picking it up.

The EO games are all pretty good though in the first 3, I'd say 2 is kind of the weakest. They can be pretty hard and grindy what with needing certain drops to sell in town to unlock new gear, and sometimes those drops are only gained by specific methods of killing enemies. i.e. Killing a target with fire damage when they're fire damage resistant. The HD releases also seem to have included some difficulty settings so you can decide whether or not you want the classic experience (getting balltapped every 20 minutes), a more casual game (you are wearing a cup) or an even harder difficulty (straight CBT). They also include some new portraits for the characters and some wildly tonally inconsistent DLC portrait addons from other games. My favourite feature is that the controls are entirely possible to play with one hand either navigating with keyboard shortcuts or with the mouse, which makes it easy to play as something taking up one monitor while I piss around doing something else, right up until my lack of attention of what I've been doing gets me jumped by a floor boss and I didn't stock meds in town.

I'm looking at the sale and unfortunately I can't help on recs without knowing what you are into (just like UberSoldat said). However I will use this post to bitch about games I've been interested in, but not interested enough to spur of the moment buy them.

Rimworld is only 20 percent off despite coming out in 2018

Payday 2 is only a buck but its fucking DLC isn't! Thanks Overkill

Stardew Valley only has a 33% sale despite being out since what, 2015? 2016?

Hitman is on sale but you wouldn't know it unless you clicked on it since the storefront says it isn't on sale.

There are really good deals on tournament fighters at least.

Starfield and Diablo 4 have pretty big discounts for being how new they are. However they are at base 70 bucks which is some shit. Thank GOD the Last of Us 1 also has the same discount too because I was itching at playing a shitty port of a game I have twice that I don't even like.

The Square Enix sales suck too, the ports of the old Final Fantasies aren't even on sale

At least Rimworld goes on sale now, it used to not go on sale at all. I can't recall any specific quote but I faintly recall Tynan saying some shit about it not going on sale or at least not going below a certain price. The dude's a fucking mega jew that thinks he's way better than he actually is. That aside though if Rimworld is a game you're into it's safe to say that you'll get your playtime out of it for the price tag, especially if you start throwing in mods.

The pixel remaster games never seem to go on sale. Even on humblebundle where I have the 20% off for being subbed to Choice for over a year, they cap the discount at 15%. Some pretty dumb shit if you ask me, as if they're worried about not making their money back on them if they lower too much, but the average modern age zoomer would probably take one look at sprites and be too confused about how primitive the game looks to consider buying it.

Very late to RDR2, bought it on sale, been told it's very good by my normie friends. 30 minutes in it hits you with the half-black half-indian mutt with MC praising him and shit. 1.5-2h in there's a fun discussion about how the union treated the natives in the 1860s with the mutt piping up and shit. I hope optimistic: ) this game doesn't shove the woke native circle jerk down my throat the whole game. Off to a rough start at any rate. Very pretty at least

GTA6 is going to blow chunks.

I've played through most of RDR2 and it took me a good 5 minutes to even remember who you're talking about, which I suppose goes to show how important it is overall.

---

Anyone got some good recs for FPS games? I've been having an itch for some new shooting game lately and don't really know of anything outside of COD shit which I'm not interested in that I don't already have. Not really looking for anything multiplayer centric, also not looking for anything that's more of a boomer shooter. Tactical is fine, open world-ish is fine. I already have all the numbered Far Cry games, Ready or Not, Bioshock, Crysis, Metro, Stalker, Tarkov, Doom, Titanfall 2, Sniper Elite, The Division, Prey and a number of other first/third person shooters and MP (Squad, Insurgency, Hunt, etc), so it's understandable I feel I've pretty much tapped most of what's worth playing. Only 'major' series I don't have any part of is the Wolfenstein series, so looking for opinions if it's decent or not along with anything else that might be a lesser known title.

Also looking for any other suggestions if you've got something you want to shill, preferably <$20, that would fall under;

1. Strategy RTS, TBT, Colonybuilders (Civ, CK, JA3, SupCom, AoE, Total War, Rimworld, DF)
2. (S)RPG (Dark Arisen, TES#, isometric cRPGs, Disgaea/NIS, SMT/Persona)
3. zombie shit (Dead Island, Dying Light, B4B, Dead Rising, State of Decay, Zomboid)
4. Metroidvanias (Bloodstained, Chasm, Dead Cells, Blasphemous, MMZ/X)

I have 1251 games in my steam account so fair chance if you recommend something that is mainstream or even top list of featured or top sellers I probably own it if it's in one of these genres. Only things I don't really care about are sports games or deckbuilders.

 

[Panko Enjoyer]

Spoiler: Tropico Series

You can't go wrong with the Tropico series for city builders. I only played Tropico 4 and Tropico 6 as those are supposedly the best in the series (4 is supposedly better than 6 but very dated graphically)
Shill Pitch:
Imagine a citybuilder but you're a tropical nation during the Cold War (potentially earlier) and you have to build an economy while balancing food, food diversity, cash crops, and then you have industrial processing like "Canned Fruits" or a cigar factory to turn tobacco cash crops into cigars. There's varying prices you have to track and you have to navigate a political system with factions. Factions can do uprisings, you can run secret police, you can abduct people, all sorts of fun stuff.

Tropico 6 is under 20 and Tropico 4 is under 10.

Spoiler: Control

Control kind of falls in the Metroidvania loop and has shooter elements. It's pretty much an SCP game and very weird in all the right ways. There is unfortunately not a lot of enemy variety but the gameplay loop is very strong as you have psychic powers and a weird SCP gun that can swap between different shooting styles (like pistol, shotgun, SMG, sniper). You can't run out of ammo, your gun just needs to recharge. One of the premier psychic powers is to grab stuff and to throw it at enemies, which is incredibly satisfying and remains pretty strong throughout the game. What really tips it over the edge is the world reactivity is pretty great, like you can throw a desk at an enemy near some cubicles and you'll see papers going flying. You'll see parts of concrete blast away, it's all pretty great. The main draw though is the weird SCP stuff and it is full of weird shit. There's also live-action recordings that will play on projectors where Lab Technicians will explain shit.

Control is at 10 right now

 

[Schockwellenreiter]

Also looking for any other suggestions if you've got something you want to shill, preferably <$20, that would fall under;

• (S)RPG (Dark Arisen, TES#, isometric cRPGs, Disgaea/NIS, SMT/Persona)

Shadowrun: Dragonfall (Directors Cut) and Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Skip Returns, it's only okay but if you finish those two and want more you can also get Returns as a UGC import into Dragonfall for a better experience.
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Any Spiderweb software games.
I've heard good things about Weird West but I've not played it myself yet so I can't 100% recommend it might be up your alley.