February 2024 General Gaming Discussion Thread

[neogunhero]

I committed a major sin over this weekend. I played my Xbox all weekend long with a buddy of mine, but for good reason. We played Saints Row 2, which is sadly completely borked on the PC so this is one of the only ways to play it these days. I must say, it was a blast. So many cool game design choices that I wish we saw today. Makes some modern open world games look empty when compared to this 2008 console classic.

I miss the era of games where you had real character customization options apart from choosing which piece of clothing the game artists chose to include in the game. Back then and in SR2 you could create custom logos or choose from a major list of logos, then change how they look by their color, skew, position, everything. Such a small thing but completely nonexistent in modern games.

I also love the major variety of open world activity and side missions there are. Even in games like Cyberpunk there just isn’t much to do that isn’t a mission. I miss when open world games let you go bowling, play darts, cards, race friends, and more. The worst offender of this was Watch Dogs Legion where there are a total of 3 very poorly made minigames: darts, parcel delivery and soccer ball juggle. They were so boring, made with no passion at all, total wastes of times. I miss when games were stuffed full to the gills with minigames and side activities.

Saints Row 2 reminded me of a paradoxically simpler yet more complicated time in gaming. When games were simpler but had more stuff to do. Perhaps priorities in game development has changed since then.

 

[Brian Boru]

Older Games With Better Features Than Modern Games

Gameranx video where a few things caught my eye—each link below is from a diff time in the video, if you only want to dip in:

Next objective marker—Dead Space

Light play for stealth—Splinter Cell

Gravity gun—Half Life 2

Environment destruction—Red faction Guerrilla

'Swoop' dart in stealth—Thief 4

I prefer the round mini-map for Next objective marker—don't like the compass bars at top of screen—but Dead Space's is a neat idea.

I completely agree re the Light play for stealth, it brings an interesting mechanic into play for those who want big stealth. It's like disabling alarms in bases, a nice option which enhances tactical choice.

Was there a tactical element to the Environment destruction in Red faction Guerrilla, or was it just eye candy? Destroying bridges was an integral part of RTS 30 years ago, which had both strategic and tactical implications, but I don't recall seeing it affect gameplay in other genres. Crysis had a lot of destructible environment, but I can't recall it being of significance.

'Swoop' dart in stealth is nice indeed, I guess it's been replaced by misdirection and crouching more recently? Throw a rock and crouch across the road works.

 

[Zloth]

I committed a major sin over this weekend. I played my Xbox all weekend long with a buddy of mine, but for good reason. We played Saints Row 2, which is sadly completely borked on the PC ...

Gentlemen of the Row mod fixes all the bork'edness. (It was converted by CD ProjektBLACK, which we've never heard from again.) And it was, indeed, a particularly terrible port. If your CPU didn't run at the expected speed, the game would run faster/slower!

Back then and in SR2 you could create custom logos or choose from a major list of logos, then change how they look by their color, skew, position, everything. Such a small thing but completely nonexistent in modern games.

Rare to be sure, but nonexistent? Here's my company logo from my last X4 playthrough...

United Aerospace Corp is from Doom. Every Doom. I snagged it off a screenshot and put it in as a custom logo. I'm using Aperture Science's logo in my current game.

 

[D10S]

I just finished replaying Control with both expansions, gotta say they're both just as amazing as the base game.

 

[Pvt.Vegemite]

I just finished replaying Control with both expansions, gotta say they're both just as amazing as the base game.

Thanks for the heads-up. I have this on PS4 and don't think I ever finished it. Other games took precedence. I didn't know it had expansions. Only $15 for console, so I'll pick them up and start from the beginning. I do remember it was different from my usual games and not being a good player I had to look at walk-throughs for tips

 

[BeardyHat]

I just finished replaying Control with both expansions, gotta say they're both just as amazing as the base game.

I should try this. I don't think I've played a Remedy game since Max Payne (though, was 3 them?) and I got this one for free on Epic.

 

[neogunhero]

Been playing Dead Island 2 on Xbox Cloud. I’ve been wanting to check it out, but it’s only currently on console Game Pass, so this is my only way to try it out. So far… it’s okay, about what you’d expect. Great melee action, awesome zombie body part gibs and gore, but dialogue and story are massively subpar. It’s got that Marvel kind of writing (“errrmm… he’s right behind me isn’t he?” “Okay, THAT was epic.”), but thankfully it’s not as bad as Marvel Midnight Suns. It’s mostly tolerable.

I’m very surprised how well it works on streaming and hosting 2 random people in co-op. Video quality is a little grainy, and I found out if you cloud stream via Edge you get an extra option to enable “clarity boost” which makes the game look better when you are moving and playing but looks a bit worse if you stop moving the camera. It won’t be spot on perfect and it’s good enough not to be distracting while playing.

It’s a solid 6/10, if it weren’t for the fun melee combat I would have dropped it by now.

Maneater also appeared in Game Pass today and that seems to be more highly regarded than Dead Island 2. Steam reviews sit at 89% positive overall. These are the kinds of games I need right now, easy mindless fun that can be played with a controller. Looking forward to trying Maneater🦈

 

[Frindis]

I tried out Dead Island 2 on Steam last weekend. Looked nice and had some lovely gore, but the way you had to HOLD a button to open some containers, a door, or whatnot was extremely irritating to the point of me just uninstalling the bloody game. I'd rather play Dead Island because at least in that game they treat you as a player with opposable thumbs.

 

[neogunhero]

I tried out Dead Island 2 on Steam last weekend. Looked nice and had some lovely gore, but the way you had to HOLD a button to open some containers, a door, or whatnot was extremely irritating to the point of me just uninstalling the bloody game. I'd rather play Dead Island because at least in that game they treat you as a player with opposable thumbs.

Maybe it’s different on controller or but as far as I can tell most things open with a single press, especially random loot containers. Doors you do have to hold but from my experience it’s kinda rare to find doors, most times there is a window broken or your need to hop the fence of safe areas.

 

[Brian Boru]

HOLD a button to open some containers, a door, or whatnot was extremely irritating

I get that all the time in Far Cry, to open safes & some doors, unpick locks, disable alarms etc—there's even a perk to speed it up a lot. Never bothered me, and you know I don't suffer fools gladly when it comes to design

Did you check settings & bindings? For some actions—typically Aim, Sprint, Crouch—there's a toggle setting between Hold and Press.

 

[Frindis]

Did you check settings & bindings? For some actions—typically Aim, Sprint, Crouch—there's a toggle setting between Hold and Press.

Didn't see anything and I should not have to be looking either.