Gaming Thread

[PAC MAN]

Anyone keeping up with E3 this week?  Going to be very curious to see what Nintendo has to offer after ordering the Switch and getting it last Thursday.  I was going to wait a little longer but given Nintendo's history of keeping consoles in stock plus two new Pokemon games for this year and one more rumored for next year, I decided I had to pull the trigger.  I'll do a quick recap:

• EA's presser was boring overall but Madden 19 is going to be on the PC while the Switch version is probably coming out next year.  Will also be part of Origin Access Premier which is similar to XBox Game Pass for the PC and that will include Madden 19, Battlefield V, Anthem, etc along with the Origin Access catalog.  EA also demonstrated behind doors their streaming service which should be coming within the next few years.  Very significant since I recall one of the reasons for the demise of the SEGA Dreamcast could have been due to lack of EA support for that console.  I no longer have the need to purchase a XB1 or PS4 since Madden will be on the PC and college football (not made by EA Sports) will be on the PC in addition to the consoles in 2020.
• Microsoft had a good presser.  The announced the purchase of five game studios including Ninja Theory, Playground (who created Forza Horizon 3 AND 4 (announced)) to spruce up their first party offerings which will come with time.  Phil Spencer also said that there will be a next generation XBox which will have backwards compatibility.  The XBox really took a beating the last few months from EA reporting how many XBoxes have been sold versus the PS4 and its sparse first party offerings didn't help matters as well but they announced a new Halo game, Gears of War 5, and Forza Horizon 4 in additon to a new Battletoads game.
• Bethesda went into more detail about Fallout 76 (map is four times bigger than 4), a Doom sequel, and Elder Scrolls 6.
• Square Enix will have their presser this morning and Sony's will be tonight.  Nintendo's E3 Nintendo Direct will be tomorrow morning.

[PAC MAN]

Didn't bother to provide some recaps of the Sony and Nintendo pressers:

• Sony showed some solid games but the violence and gore was excessive in The Last Of Us 2 and Resident Evil 2 remake.  Ghosts of T is a very promising game and Spider Man should be a huge hit since it's similar to the Batman Arkham games which were very good but Spider Man moves much more smoothly due to it being a PS4 exclusive.
• Nintendo showed off Super Smash Bros Ultimate and some new Pokemon games but some notable games were absent such as Metroid Prime 4.

If I haven't bought my Nintendo Switch just recently, I would have held off on buying one for now but I'm still fired up to play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe when I download it to the Switch after work today.  Going on a road trip to visit my parents soon and this would be just awesome to play with others using both joy-con gamepads.

[PAC MAN]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/22/17771412/microsoft-xbox-all-access-xbox-one-x-services-subscription

https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-all-access

BIG TIME LEAK!

I have believed that the next generation of game systems would have a subscription system available...much like phone plans.  Looks like it's happening real soon with the current XBox One consoles and also the Nintendo Switch to a degree.  A lot of people mistakenly pair the Switch with the PS4 and XB1 when it comes to the eighth generation of game consoles.  The Switch is actually part of the ninth generation of game consoles which Playstation & XBox have yet to unveil those such consoles.  Based on that big time leak and talk of XBox Scarlett (yes that is the code name for the next gen XBox), it looks like Microsoft is going to beat Sony to the next generation.

The Nintendo Switch Online service is launching in the second half of next month.  You will have to have an online service to play Mario Kart 8 online in addition to others but it's the other part that has me excited for my Switch: 20 NES games at launch and the online service is said to be the new Virtual Console.  There is a trail in Japan with Resident Evil 7 as a service as in the tweet below:

Those things really does solidify the argument that the Switch is not in the same generation as the XB1 and PS4.

At the E3 XBox presentation, Phil Spencer, the XBox head honcho, mentioned "XBox Family" of consoles.  XBox Scarlett will have a new traditional XBox console that should play games in native 4K and there is also one more XBox that is like an Apple TV or Fire TV...a streaming only device.  The two year subscription that includes the XBox One X will cost $840, the XBox One S will cost $600, and the XBox stream box could be given away for free which would make the two year cost closer to $300 over two years.

Games a service isn't a new thing to me.  I subscribed to OnLive back in the early 2010s and IT WORKED.  Also when Playstation Now was still on the Vita (I think it still is) and Playstation TV, it worked but I balked at the $20.00 monthly subscription plan.  The XBox Stream Box would cost $12.99 per month if you split the $300.00 payment (two years of Game Pass and XBL Gold).  XBox All Access could end up on the Windows 10 family of devices as well.

Google is about to dip its toes into gaming with Yeti.  Don't be shocked if Amazon isn't far behind as well.  Nvidia also offers a subscription plan on their Shield TVs.

I think the next gen of video games will be defined by ACCESS.

[Quack 12]

I think a lot of this will depend on where game developers go with micro transactions. I don't mind spending $60 a year on PS-Plus for online access, and another $60 per game, but i don't want have buy "GTA dollars" to purchase in-game extras. The developers are going to have to get a cut of the subscription service.

[PAC MAN]

On 8/24/2018 at 4:14 PM, Quack 12 said:

I think a lot of this will depend on where game developers go with micro transactions. I don't mind spending $60 a year on PS-Plus for online access, and another $60 per game, but i don't want have buy "GTA dollars" to purchase in-game extras. The developers are going to have to get a cut of the subscription service.

Sorry I didn't respond earlier and yes I do miss the days of buying a full game but keeping games going is another thing.

I think I have the same attitude towards those so-called "GTA dollars" as you do but the devs would have to work much harder to get me to let go with my hard earned dollars.

[MrBug708]

Picked up Red Dead Redemption 2 last night. Have a few daya until I can play sadly

[Quack 12]

6 hours ago, MrBug708 said:

Picked up Red Dead Redemption 2 last night. Have a few daya until I can play sadly

I Downloaded it last night, but only got about 15 minutes playing it this morning. We're going to the coast tonight until Monday, and the PS4 is coming along!

[PAC MAN]

The CEO of Take Two said that it was a good thing that they just released RDR2 instead of GTA 6 due to the political environment we are in right now.  I think Trump's presidency will still end up in the next GTA game anyway.  GTA Online is still going strong as well.

Seems like streaming videogames are on the way and Google really did lay down the challenge by including Doom Eternal since that is a fast moving FPS which will test the service.  I had onlive for a few months and it worked since it was in 720p at the time and a data center wasn't far from me.

After five years of resisting the urge to buy the XB1 or PS4, I got a PS4 Pro a couple of months ago & that is hooked up to a 4K TV.  Been playing Doom on that thing since I love that series and I'm really planning on getting Doom Eternal.  That game could be ground breaking since anyone can jump into your single player campaign and play as any of those demons against you.  That's why it's an excellent title for Stadia's launch if it can run smoothly.  I thought the Doom reboot was awesome and it looks like Doom Eternal could dwarf that game.  Even the people working on the game said that it's difficult to go back to Doom due to that jumping into someone's campaign.

[Quack 12]

RDR2 online (Beta) is a hot mess. I'm on my second play through of the story line, but online just crashes every time I try to load it.

I went back to No Man's Sky yesterday. It's received another big (FREE!) upgrade and there are a couple more coming this summer, including VR, although I don't have that set-up. It's amazing that Hello Games is still adding tons of content to that game as it approaches it's third anniversary.

[PAC MAN]

When I replaced my laptop drive on a now 8 year old laptop, it really gave the laptop new life and I still use that laptop quite a bit although it's a little heavy to put in the backpack.  Having a M.2 SSD (as it appears and has been rumored for next gen consoles) would be a very welcome addition to consoles.

I recently ordered a 120GB SSD for just $20 on Amazon to become the new boot drive of my gaming PC.  If that doesn't pan out due to the motherboard, I'm going to put that SSD in the PS3 since it would be the same capacity as the HDD already in the PS3.

One TB SSDs are starting to hit $99.99 on Amazon or MicroCenter.  Given how fast my PS4 Pro's HDD has been filling up...2 TB or even 4TB SSDs would be great when they go down in price.

[PAC MAN]

E3 is up and running.  One game for the Xbox/Windows 10 caught my attention:

As for the next Xbox:

 

[PAC MAN]

Xbox killed it at E3 so hard that Sony had to nudge Square Enix to provide this nugget last night (Square Enix's E3 presser is at 6 PM PT tonight):

 

[PAC MAN]

The E3 pressers came and went.  Square Enix really killed it it this year with their new games and the FF VII Remake + Avengers game unveiling.  Xbox & Nintendo had very good shows as well.  Playstation played it smart by not being at E3 since they had nothing to show...something that EA and Ubisoft should have done.

PS4: Going to get FF7 Remake and Doom Eternal.  I'm even getting the deluxe versions of those two games.  I'm considering FIFA 2020 since they have that cool Volta (more like FIFA Street) stuff in there but I can hold off for a year until it comes on EA Access for the PS4.

PC: If you order Cyberpunk 2077 on GOG, 100% of your money goes to the dev who happens to own GOG.

Xbox: Flight Simulator is going to be epic.  I usually don't get geeked up for games like that but after watching the trailer, this could be freaking awesome on the Xbox One X.  I'm hoping I don't need to buy an Xbox One X for that game but I'm prepared for that.

Switch: Lots of new games but I'm going for Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo Olympic games.  BoTW sequel is under active development.

Google Stadia had a rocky start but they might finish on a good note.  Uplay+ (PC subscription from UbiSoft) will be on Stadia and The Verge said Doom Eternal was running well on Stadia.  xCloud streaming with your own Xbox One console will launch in October...just like PS4 Link.  Early responses to live xCloud at E3 have been positive too.  Once 5G is out in full force, videogame streaming should really take off.

Given that the PS4 and Xbox One can stream the games to the mobile devices, I don't see the point in getting the next gen games unless they really kick ass.  If I decided to go with just one company, PS5 will be that console.

[PAC MAN]

Been enjoying Super Mega Baseball 2 on the PS4 so much that I don't think I'm getting another baseball game on the PS4 for a long time.  And for sports gamers on the PS4, times are about to get even better with the launch of EA Access on July 24th.  I'm definitely getting that yearly sub for $30 and I had Origin Access which was great for the PC but not enough sports games plus I prefer the gamepads over the keyboard & mouse which was an issue with the PC version of Mass Effect.  It seems like gaming subscriptions are going to be the future of games with the likes of EA Access, PS Now, Xbox Game Pass, UPlay+, etc.

Uplay+: https://store.ubi.com/us/uplayplus/?maltcode=ubisoftstore_convst_intlnk_ubisoft.com_vg_cat_STORE__pulpt_E3_&ncid=2265-1367---1-intlnk-62-82-uplayplus_web_landingpage--17-2-7-0619-4-5--4-ID_77264-1-2---&lang=en_US&addinfo=UbiCom News article uplay plus LP

EA Access: https://www.ea.com/ea-access

EA Origin Access for PC: https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/origin-access

Xbox Game Pass: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass?&OCID=AID644966_SEM_vVoNG4t0

XBox Game Pass PC: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/pc-games

Nintendo Switch Online (includes NES games): https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/?cid=N1001-01:ch=pdpd&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI27fltauF4wIVD9RkCh31bAn2EAAYASAAEgKKpfD_BwE

Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly?hmb_source=humble_home&hmb_medium=takeover&hmb_campaign=not_sub

I also took advantage of the Days of Play sale for the PS4 and got a year of PS+ for $39.99.  I got Borderlands 2 & Pre-Sequel for the PS4 free in addition to Sonic Mania...not bad!  I would recommend the Humble Bundle subscription (for PC) since you get to keep the game even if your membership expires.  I got Black Ops IV as part of my sub last month which I stopped because I wanted to figure out what subscriptions I really wanted.  And they have the Trove which is 60+ games you can play on the PC.

UPlay+ for the PC looks very appealing.  It's coming out to Google Stadia next year and I think I'm going to hold off until Stadia comes out so I can take advantage of that subscription if I only have to pay the Uplay+ subscription.

 

And there's the Steam summer sale.