"So uh... after the stream... you wanna show me your Bionicles?"Noir Vesper

Vidya Games Thread

I Wanna Die

Don't do drugs, blow all your money on vtubers
Joined:  Nov 15, 2023
Tarkov is finally adding a PvE mode for everyone whose tired of cheaters. Only problem is it's locked behind a $250 version of the game and even EOD purchasers don't get it despite EOD saying future dlc/expacs would be included with the game.

 

John Vtuber👁️

Sentient Eyeball, Primarch of Hag Pride Worldwide
Certified Manwhore
Joined:  Oct 24, 2022
Tarkov is finally adding a PvE mode for everyone whose tired of cheaters. Only problem is it's locked behind a $250 version of the game and even EOD purchasers don't get it despite EOD saying future dlc/expacs would be included with the game.



wait then why did I get the "includes everything we release" edition if it doesn't contain everything they release, fucked up

PVE should be included in the base game, if they're not going to go hard on cheaters
 

Banana Hammock

Born to Sneed
Early Adopter
Joined:  Sep 9, 2022


This is the second time I've seen a mainline game released on both PCs and fucking phones. First Atelier Resleriana, and now SaGa Emerald Beyond. I hope this doesn't become a trend.
 

John Vtuber👁️

Sentient Eyeball, Primarch of Hag Pride Worldwide
Certified Manwhore
Joined:  Oct 24, 2022

God's Strongest Dragoon

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Joined:  Mar 20, 2023


This is the second time I've seen a mainline game released on both PCs and fucking phones. First Atelier Resleriana, and now SaGa Emerald Beyond. I hope this doesn't become a trend.

It very likely will become a trend. Games have been going full retard on 8k graphics running at 28fps for long ass dev times and minimal returns on their huge investments. As soon as execs realize that people largely don't give a fuck about graphics past the PS4 era, you're going to see a bunch of games focus less on that shit so they can co-release on phones as the mobile market is all paypiggies.
 

Bronze

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Joined:  Nov 2, 2023

John Vtuber👁️

Sentient Eyeball, Primarch of Hag Pride Worldwide
Certified Manwhore
Joined:  Oct 24, 2022
Currently writing up thoughts on Megaton Musashi W: Wired since impulse purchasing it after my post the other night, it'll take a few days so I'll save this draft to write on-and-off. This game has its hooks in me deep, hence the autistic essay in between running missions. Sourcing all of this information has been a bitch and a half, the current marketing team needs to step up their game because most of this I either found accidentally (like the sudden release) or after extensive digging.

The game's OP, in glorious Japanglish, absolute perfection - no notes:


The trailers released through the previous year:



Here is the only HoloLive promotion I can find so far, with the girls voicing over one of the anime sequences:


For all intents and purposes, it plays out like a Super Robot Anime aimed at Japanese Teenagers for the sake of selling toys and merchandise, and if that doesn't ignite the fire in your soul, nothing will. What else are you going to play to fuel your inner weeb, Super Robot Wars 30 for the billionth time? Armored Core VI? Near-endless indie games that never leave early access or are terminally mid? In a sub-genre practically starved for content in the West, it is borderline criminal that Level-5 isn't cleaning up with marketing!

Here are the first 25 minutes of gameplay, and it should show off how the non-combat gameplay and story segments play out:



There's a lot of story in this game, a lot of characters that go about their lives and commence war crimes against aliens (and each other), so much so that I'm surprised it isn't a selling point, because unlike other games or anime about mecha, this one is about the char- [MY LAWYERS HAVE INFORMED ME NOT TO FINISH THIS SENTENCE]

As for the combat, besides the trailers and promotional material, what should you expect?



Slaughter enemies and bosses for drops, either equipment or mats, in the vein of Diablo or Monster Hunter - co-op up to three players, PVP is also 3v3, cross-platform support enabled. The loot has color-tier rarity, vocal recognition from your navigator for Epic and Legendary tier drops, and you can churn unwanted drops into mats for motherboard development. I just fought a "treasure chest on legs" enemy that dropped multiple Legendaries on defeat, and the dopamine was real - I'm looking forward to what other "rare events" the stages could possibly have.

Motherboard development is a multi-tiered system, in which you pour resources into an expansive "tech tree" to put together chips that you tetris-slot into your mech's motherboard. This is where all of the loot comes into play - recycle unwanted loot to gain the resources needed to develop your motherboard, so even if you fail to get the drops you want in a run, you're still progressing in some fashion. Not only that, but each piece of mech equipment can be modded for additional effects, for hundreds of hours worth of autistic min-maxing mech builds ensuring complete synergy (or lack thereof) from each system.

The combat itself is an improved version of LBX, if anyone remembers that 3DS franchise from Level-5, even if they only ever brought over a single game. If you want to go even further, it's like if Nintendo didn't give up on Custom Robo entirely, and it spawned a multi-media franchise that collabs with other Super Robot Anime. I've been re-running the low level side missions for drops, and just because I enjoy the combat that much, it really hits every note I've been missing from Custom Robo decades ago.

You know what this game reminds me of? PSO2, before it turned into NGS, from the high-speed combat to the drops to the overall feel of the gameplay. If a future update brings a social hub that players can chill while matchmaking for various activities, or AFK Emote in lobby, that might just be the final nail in the coffin for PSO2 NGS - if Level-5's marketing weren't incompetent.

Now, onto the elephant in the room - the absolutely disgusting Day One DLC. I am trying to remain as neutral as possible when talking about this so I don't glow too hard. On one hand, it should not be acceptable for a game to have over $100 of Day One DLC, on top of a deluxe edition/upgrade that permanently unlocks the "premium" version of the game's monthly reward track (one time purchase that applies to each subsequent month or 45 day period, 30 levels per track, I got about 8 levels in my first "serious" day of play). What you get in this reward track are tickets to improve Legendary+ drop chances for a single mission, tokens/tickets that can be used to purchase from the in game shops, all of which you could otherwise earn by running missions and completing tasks. The same goes for the daily log-in bonuses, so you would get all of these things regardless by just playing the game. No FOMO, play at your own pace, unless you're a hardcore PVP player, in which case get some help. The DLC itself are purely customization based - decals, paint jobs, outfits for NPCs, skins for your hoverboard, emotes, Navi Voice Packs, that you would be unable to get by farming drops ("exclusive" to the DLC).

Since Level-5 want to support this game over the long-term with additional content, storylines, mecha, bosses, gameplay - and this is the second revision after Megaton Musashi X - this is probably the best way they could go about cosmetic DLC, while keeping the vast majority of customization options and Super Robo collabs earnable in-game. The only DLC that I consider "worth" buying, apart from the Korone Navi voice pack, is the Deluxe edition/upgrade - and that's only if you see yourself playing this game over the long-term. Otherwise, only get the DLC if you want to support the game, since Level-5 isn't going to market it themselves. Monster Hunter could get away with it because it's Monster Hunter, and it was a MASSIVE mistake on Level-5's part for a "new" (in the west) IP such as Megaton Musashi to have it all at the start instead of spreading them out over the year.


I'm cutting this essay short so that I can get back to playing the game without alt-tabbing back and forth writing a sentence or two at a time between missions. If Level-5 do not up their marketing presence in a timely manner, they will fumble this like they fumbled Yokai Watch and Inazuma Eleven in the West previously. The anime also began airing on Crunchyroll today, so perhaps they really are taking this seriously! Maybe! Please, I don't want this game to die out in the West and go Japan-Only for the next major revision like with LBX.

Any chuubas that are even remotely interested, please, give it a shot, I am begging you, this game needs all the visibility that it can get

EDIT: after unlocking more systems, it seems I was a bit off with the dismantling and recycling of parts. you earn the motherboard mats by mowing down anything that moves and clearing missions, dismantling and recycling unwanted loot yields mats that can be used in the Laboratory to create and enhance equipment. If I have to write a guide for this, I will! Give me a hundred or so hours to play beforehand, I want to make sure I get it right. Ideally, Level-5 would do a deep dive into the systems themselves, because that's a good selling point! Please! Advertise and market the game!
 
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UberSoldat

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Joined:  Oct 19, 2022

Stunned But Dumb

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Joined:  Jan 29, 2023
I was watching EVO JP, but now I can't stop watching this dude with an Eddy Bot in tekken 8 that will only press 3
 

kingcaid

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Joined:  Feb 8, 2023
I appreciate that Manor Lord tracks supply and demand for trading, but I have no clue what I'm going to do with the 100 or so tools I have surplus of after crashing the tools market. :annoyedpippa:
 

John Vtuber👁️

Sentient Eyeball, Primarch of Hag Pride Worldwide
Certified Manwhore
Joined:  Oct 24, 2022
...my "Megaton Musashi Part 2" essay draft was deleted and I'm currently malding, so give it some more time before I continue doing Level-5's work for them.

tl;dr: after finishing the "first game's" campaign, and going into "Megaton Musashi X's" campaign, both the quality of content and amount of content increases. if Level-5 lets this franchise die in the west like LBX, I will never forgive them. Any PSO2 addicts, recovering or otherwise, should seriously consider playing this game to relive the pre-NGS glory days. it's also been hit with "the localization stick", I've been taking screenshots, so at least those weren't deleted.

in other news, remember Class of Heroes, the PSP dungeon crawler? surprise PC remaster, get both games for $28 in the combo pack, bold of them to release during this busy period though:





Just released, Echoes of the Plum Grove is a Farming Sim/Life Sim in the vein of Stardew Valley, with the presentation of Paper Mario. In an endless ocean of indie farming sims trying to be the next Stardew Valley, this game stands out from the crowd by not only having a unique presentation and gameplay loop, but also being fully-released from the get-go. truly, a seemingly impossible feat for these sort of games, but they have somehow achieved it:

 

Banana Hammock

Born to Sneed
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Joined:  Sep 9, 2022

reinigen

Dang it
Ward Security
Joined:  Sep 16, 2022
Hell yeah, brother.
The big thing that I want to be confirmed is it's been rumored for a long time the next switch has got a custom nVidia chip its running off of and will be using DLSS to its fullest to run shit smoother. I expect we'll be having a big Nintendo presentation in the next 2 months announcing the console for either Holidays or or early 2025.
 

God's Strongest Dragoon

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Joined:  Mar 20, 2023
The big thing that I want to be confirmed is it's been rumored for a long time the next switch has got a custom nVidia chip its running off of and will be using DLSS to its fullest to run shit smoother. I expect we'll be having a big Nintendo presentation in the next 2 months announcing the console for either Holidays or or early 2025.
I fully expect it during early 2025 to coincide with the new pokemon game. They've been holding onto Mario Kart 9 for like 7 years and Mario Kart 8 sold 60 million copies. The fucking thing constantly appears on the top sales list in Japan all the time. So we're likely going to get a Pokemon, Mario Kart, and a new Mario game as big titles within the first few months of it launching.
 

Saturnus

haha it's unou
Joined:  Sep 10, 2022
They've been holding onto Mario Kart 9 for like 7 years
I feel like Mario Kart 9 is suffering through development hell. The fuckton of DLC 8DX got has to have been related to it in some way.
Also don't forget Metroid Prime 4. Remember that was at E3 2017 or so as a fucking jpg logo teaser and then they publically announced and apologized that they had to restart development like in 2019(?).
 

Superduper Samurai

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Joined:  Sep 10, 2022
All i want for christmas is Xenoblade X 2 like a fag
 

Shaken

Member
Joined:  May 3, 2023
I feel like Mario Kart 9 is suffering through development hell. The fuckton of DLC 8DX got has to have been related to it in some way.
Also don't forget Metroid Prime 4. Remember that was at E3 2017 or so as a fucking jpg logo teaser and then they publically announced and apologized that they had to restart development like in 2019(?).
Mario Kart Tour was Mario Kart 9, it had the MK team on it so likely after it launched they split the team and had one update the game while the other team started preparing the next MK. The 8DX dlc was pretty much just a clever reuse of assets for the more successful game and way for them to get Tour content on to a game that won't be unplayable in a few years. They literally ported all of Tours original tracks (except for 1) to 8DX and before the last wave hit announced that no new content was coming to tour which is a sign that it's all hands on deck for Mario Kart 10 or X or whatever it's called since mid 2023. This was likely always the plan or atleast since 2019.
 

God's Strongest Dragoon

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Joined:  Mar 20, 2023
Mario Kart Tour was Mario Kart 9, it had the MK team on it so likely after it launched they split the team and had one update the game while the other team started preparing the next MK. The 8DX dlc was pretty much just a clever reuse of assets for the more successful game and way for them to get Tour content on to a game that won't be unplayable in a few years. They literally ported all of Tours original tracks (except for 1) to 8DX and before the last wave hit announced that no new content was coming to tour which is a sign that it's all hands on deck for Mario Kart 10 or X or whatever it's called since mid 2023. This was likely always the plan or atleast since 2019.
Mario Kart Tour was not Mario Kart 9, Tour was a mobile game. The Mario Kart team is Nintendo EAD, which have developed every Mario Kart except Mario Kart Tour. Mario Kart Tour was made by Nintendo EPD and the only other Mario Kart they worked on was the Deluxe re-release on the Switch for Mario Kart 8.
 

Shaken

Member
Joined:  May 3, 2023
Mario Kart Tour was not Mario Kart 9, Tour was a mobile game. The Mario Kart team is Nintendo EAD, which have developed every Mario Kart except Mario Kart Tour. Mario Kart Tour was made by Nintendo EPD and the only other Mario Kart they worked on was the Deluxe re-release on the Switch for Mario Kart 8.
Nintendo EAD is apart of Nintendo EPD, they merged in 2015.

On September 16, 2015, EAD merged with Nintendo Software Planning & Development into a single game development division, Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD). The move followed an internal restructuring of Nintendo executives and departments after the death of former president Satoru Iwata in July 2015.

Production group 9 works on Mario Kart which the team that worked on Tour iirc, I don't know the full details but not everybody was on it but EPD9 was developing it.
 

Abomination

The abominable amalgamation known as "chyaaat!"
Joined:  Apr 1, 2023
:kroniiphone:
Screenshot-2024-04-30-213352.png


There you are. Playing your Old World 4X, and all of a sudden, your holy Egyptian lands have Jews. You didn't ask for this. You didn't choose this. And yet, there they are.
ididntchoosethis.png


Still, I've definitely been having fun with Old World.
:BijouBijou:
 
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