[Mentalist]

Oh wow, Darksiders III has a new patch that adds a "classic" combat option- gives Fury ability to cancel her dodge, rebalances damage. Also included are extra checkpoints, ability to refill the "estus" at checkpoints, increased level cap, and buffs some of the enhancements. Oh, and it eliminates cooldown on shard use, meaning it's now totally legit to spam Havok shards and just kill bosses by non-stop use of Havok form until boss is dead.

I feel that classic would make the normal/balanced difficulty too easy. I'll probably check it out for my Apocalyptic run, though once the DLC comes out. Might actually consider the Crucible now, too.

[Traveller]

Oh man I got a Switch.

[Aptorian]

What games did you get or plan on getting?

[Traveller]

My wife n kids are very much into Pokemon Go, so I have Lets Go and a Pokeball controller.

I'm just surprised to have one, I was so close to buying one anyway. I've only ever played Pokemon on the DS, to have a version on the big screen and on the portable is nice.

Question is, what games are a must? Is Zelda really worth it just because it's Zelda, or will I already have played similar open world on ps4, like HZD?

I've always liked Mario Partys/Kart for the group games, haven't really played any since the GameCube versions though and none with the kids. Am I going to need more controllers?

What would you recommend, that will make the most of it?

This post has been edited by Santa's Sleigh: 26 December 2018 - 08:15 AM

[Serenity]

Depends on your personal tastes, I guess, but my favourites on Switch so far are Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Octopath Traveler. Both JRPGs of one sort or another, so YMMV.

Zelda is fantastic. It's got an otherworldly atmosphere about it that is really hard to describe, but it makes it feel quite different to other open world games I've played (including HZD), and it's a joy to play.

I only got Mario Odyssey yesterday as a Christmas present, played about an hour and love it already. There's something about Nintendo's games where as soon as I start playing them I can feel a grin spreading over my face.

There are quite a lot of great games on sale in the eshop at the moment, too. I heartily recommend Dead Cells and Battle Chasers: Nightwar, although I'd always say to check out some reviews and see if they're your kind of thing first (if you haven't already). I'm being greatly tempted by Starlink Battle for Atlus at the moment - the deluxe version is 50% off in the eshop sale.

[Mentalist]

Epic continues to take potshots at Steam- now Division 2 will launch only on the Epic Store (or from Ubisoft directly thru Uplay).

Can't say I'm affected, but it was to be one of the bigger "games as a service" of 2019, so that could hurt Valve a bit.

[Silencer]

Mentalist, on 09 January 2019 - 05:43 PM, said:

Epic continues to take potshots at Steam- now Division 2 will launch only on the Epic Store (or from Ubisoft directly thru Uplay).

Can't say I'm affected, but it was to be one of the bigger "games as a service" of 2019, so that could hurt Valve a bit.

Honestly, if Epic thinks taking one of the worst AAA games on the market as an exclusive is a win, they might want to stick to making games instead of selling them.
Now, I have no doubt the sequel is going to sell well enough that this is technically a 'win', unfortunately, but the first game was dull, repetitive, missed the story and tone mark, and their solution was to make it MORE of a grind fest. There should never have been a sequel. And no one should be paying for exclusives with it, especially when they are literally paying their direct competitor!!!!

[Mentalist]

Silencer, on 09 January 2019 - 10:28 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 09 January 2019 - 05:43 PM, said:

Epic continues to take potshots at Steam- now Division 2 will launch only on the Epic Store (or from Ubisoft directly thru Uplay).

Can't say I'm affected, but it was to be one of the bigger "games as a service" of 2019, so that could hurt Valve a bit.

Honestly, if Epic thinks taking one of the worst AAA games on the market as an exclusive is a win, they might want to stick to making games instead of selling them.
Now, I have no doubt the sequel is going to sell well enough that this is technically a 'win', unfortunately, but the first game was dull, repetitive, missed the story and tone mark, and their solution was to make it MORE of a grind fest. There should never have been a sequel. And no one should be paying for exclusives with it, especially when they are literally paying their direct competitor!!!!

It might not be a good game (I wouldn't know, not my thing at all), but it generates a lot of talk. Ubisoft will pour marketing dollars into it, and they'll basically end up marketing the Epic Store in the process.

I checked the storefront yesterday (to grab my free copy of Super Meat Boy- cuz hey, free's free, right?) and I noticed they added a few more games by Annapurna Interactive (Donut County and What remains of Edith Finch). That seems to be a dev Epic's been courting quite a bit.

I don't think it'll be much of an issue until a lot more mid-tier and AAA devs start jumping ship from Valve. There are a few publishers who are pretty staunchly Steam-only (mostly Japanese). A bunch of Western mid-tier devs actually offer their games on Origin, oddly enough. And then ofc you have someone like THQ Nordic who (quite rightly) wants their game sold basically everywhere (which I personally feel is the smartest move- and good on them for embracing GOG!)

It'll be interesting to see if this spurs Valve to do anything, or if they'll just ride it out hoping their massive user base will eclipse Epic once the Fortnite sun sets.

Still, sucks that Beth is pulling this crap with Rage 2.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 09 January 2019 - 10:40 PM

[Aptorian]

I loved the division. It was the first game that got me to grind out daily and weekly challenges got months after I finished it. I thought it was a very solid third person shooter and Manhattan was really pretty.

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 09 January 2019 - 10:40 PM, said:

There are a few publishers who are pretty staunchly Steam-only (mostly Japanese).

H-Games.

[Silencer]

Alternative Goose, on 10 January 2019 - 04:28 AM, said:

I loved the division. It was the first game that got me to grind out daily and weekly challenges got months after I finished it. I thought it was a very solid third person shooter and Manhattan was really pretty.

See, I wanted to like it. I really did. Its literally right up my alley, though I would have preferred first person.
But not only was the grind transparently pointless (at least most try to mask the waste of time), the missions and story were boring. There was no suspense as to whether people on the street were enemies or not. There was no sense of progress in the world relative to your story successes. No consequences of any kind, really. The guns all felt like crap because enemies were basically human shaped tanks. And the environment? Apparently they thought because it was third person, they could get away with last gen textures. And it almost worked. But once you notice one shitty flat texture that should be properly detailed, you quickly see the entire thing is an illusion (this is on console, mind you, PC might have got proper high res texture options).
The controls were clunky and the dialogue was mostly contrived and forced.

It had almost no redeeming value for me after the first month except for the initial concept and the fading remnant of hope that patches would fix it.
Even once they actually deployed a proper end game I never went back. It was broken at its core and I was too disappointed with what it should have been to try and drown that in a slightly improved grind fest.
Division 2 looks like it had learned no lessons from the first and might even have doubled down on the negatives.

[Mentalist]

Here's a bit of news mostly for BK:

Bungie is parting way with Activision and taking the publishing rights to more Destiny with them.

I wonder how this'll work for any further expansions for Destiny 2 since currently the game's only sold through battle.net?

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 10 January 2019 - 11:20 PM

[Khellendros]

Mentalist, on 10 January 2019 - 11:19 PM, said:

Here's a bit of news mostly for BK:

Bungie is parting way with Activision and taking the publishing rights to more Destiny with them.

I wonder how this'll work for any further expansions for Destiny 2 since currently the game's only sold through battle.net?

That’s super interesting. I suspected they were parting ways, what with Bungie getting like a hundred million dollars investment from another source, but I figured they would abandon Destiny with Activision, considering how it’s increasingly being developed by other studios. If Acti are willing to let it go, that suggests to me that Destiny has not been as successful as they hoped and they’re washing their hands of it.

[Mentalist]

Khellendros, on 11 January 2019 - 12:03 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 10 January 2019 - 11:19 PM, said:

Here's a bit of news mostly for BK:

Bungie is parting way with Activision and taking the publishing rights to more Destiny with them.

I wonder how this'll work for any further expansions for Destiny 2 since currently the game's only sold through battle.net?

That’s super interesting. I suspected they were parting ways, what with Bungie getting like a hundred million dollars investment from another source, but I figured they would abandon Destiny with Activision, considering how it’s increasingly being developed by other studios. If Acti are willing to let it go, that suggests to me that Destiny has not been as successful as they hoped and they’re washing their hands of it.

Well, Activision DID say last year they were dissapointed with how Forsaken was selling. To which bungie dev commented "we made what the community wanted us to make and we're pleased with it"

It feels like Acti-Blizz hit its peak earnings already, and now as franchise fatigue sets in across its properties it can't repeat those recurrent spending anymore.

[Malankazooie]

Any you guys anticipating Metro Exodus? I so wanted to get into Metro: Last Light and had it in my cross hairs as a game to pick up from Blockbuster Video before it collapsed into nonexistence. Anyway, Metro Exodus looks pretty nice. Any you guys gonna have a go? I guess it is coming soon (next month?)

[Mentalist]

Malankazooie, on 16 January 2019 - 06:42 PM, said:

Any you guys anticipating Metro Exodus? I so wanted to get into Metro: Last Light and had it in my cross hairs as a game to pick up from Blockbuster Video before it collapsed into nonexistence. Anyway, Metro Exodus looks pretty nice. Any you guys gonna have a go? I guess it is coming soon (next month?)

I'm playing through 2033 right now, with Last Light next on the list, so yes, I'm totally looking forward to it.

Dunno if I'll grab it at launch, though, b/c I'd like to have the entire series on GOG, and right now it's only listed for Steam.

Edit: having finished 2033, it felt underwhelming. My feelings on Exodus will depend on how Last Light goes.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 17 January 2019 - 04:40 PM

[Aptorian]

I'll play Exodus eventually but unless reviews are glowing I'll wait for a sale or borrow it from the library.

[Serenity]

[Maark Abbott]

I hated 2033 so I'm very wary of this. Will wait and see...

[Cause]

Last light was amazing