General gaming discussion

The Raging Bile Duct · 29-09-2023 6:05pm

Got to admit, I was too busy clubbing and going to house parties during that era for that to ever appeal to me.

01-10-2023 12:36pm

I'm loving Cocoon. I didn't think I'd be playing anything other than Starfield until Forza comes out but this has taken my attention away. I'm playing it on PC but I'd say its a good match for the Switch. I'll probably stream it to my phone with Moonshine for some lazy lying on the couch gameplay.

01-10-2023 4:07pm

I feel so damn smart when I solve a puzzle in Cocoon. Until now.... I'm at a part that's making me feel really dumb 😁

Jordan 199 · 02-10-2023 12:53am

Read Dead Redemption 2 will be five years old on the 26th of October.

johnny_ultimate · 02-10-2023 1:17am

Felt like it took five years to reach the bloody credits of that thing 😅

marcbrophy · 02-10-2023 12:20pm

Been playing Gris on gamepass for daily achievements, but that game is a trip :)

Not made it to the end yet, but I can't even guess at where it's going haha!

Retr0gamer · 04-10-2023 11:50pm

Anyone playing horror games for October? I'm still playing Resi 4 remake but Ive also started an old From Software horror game Echo Night. It's an interesting game. Seems to be built on the king's field engine. The only way to tackle the ghosts is to turn the lights on in an area which is a pretty interesting mechanic.

J. Marston · 05-10-2023 12:50am

If I can get Baldur's Gate finished this month (unlikely because I'm only in the Blighted Village and I play games at a snail's pace) then I'll play Dead Space remake for some spooks.

RedXIV · 05-10-2023 10:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121195803#Comment_121195803

The only game I'm willing to play as a coward these days for Halloween is the classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJcVECLkHvg&ab_channel=IGN

Retr0gamer · 05-10-2023 11:47am

I was a little disappointed by costume quest. It's just a little two basic and as a result despite being a short game it still feels twice as long as it should have been.

I got my PS2 back so once I get through echo night I'll try some PS2 horror.

SuperBowserWorld · 05-10-2023 11:59am

Does Luigi's Mansion count as a horror game or the ghost house levels in Super Mario ? 🤔

Retr0gamer · 05-10-2023 12:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121196858#Comment_121196858

Luigi's mansion does. There's some genuine scares in it. Which makes Luigi's mansion 3 the best selling horror game of all time.

Kingp35 · 06-10-2023 12:24pm

I'm playing through the Amnesia collection, I'm nearing the end of A Machine for Pigs. Never played them before. Great atmosphere in them and just the right amount of stealth as I'm not a fan of stealth usually. A Machine for Pigs is much more linear than Dark Descent which I don't mind as I got stuck a few times during Descent and had to look up what to do. Headphones are a must while playing them although I recommend keeping your dogs locked out of the room your playing in as they scared the sh1te out of me a few times!

Retr0gamer · 06-10-2023 12:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121200908#Comment_121200908

Give Soma a go if you haven't played it yet. It's a bit of a sci fi horror masterpiece. The ending is incredible.

Zero-Cool · 07-10-2023 9:52pm

Interesting, whatever you think of Cyberpunk, it was made to be 1st person to be as immersive as possible. I know they couldn't make a post at one point without people saying there should be a 3rd person option but it would have made the game a lot more shallow imo. So many interactions with Johnny, Judy etc felt a lot more personal up close, don't think they'd have the impact on 3rd person.

https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1709999668434817142?t=1r4TwOjvVnCdDE4aGM1oXQ&s=19

Varik · 07-10-2023 9:58pm

All the artifact glitchs and coughing blood up would have been as bit less striking if in 3rd person.

08-10-2023 7:53am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121207418#Comment_121207418

I think an option to switch between 3rd and 1st person would have been better. A big part of the game is modding your character which you can't even see unless you look in a mirror.

Starfield has shown how well this can work. I don't feel it has taken away from the immersion in any way at all.

pixelburp · 08-10-2023 8:02am

Yeah never quite got the point of a character creator for FPS games. All that effort and time spent on something you can't ever see in practical terms. At the start I spent lots of time making sure (say) my Skyrim character looked how I wanted them - then never got to see them lol (I know Skyrim has a 3rd person mode but the animations were so janky to look at).

Penn · 08-10-2023 8:52am

Plus I hate 1st person story scenes, where characters talk and move around staring directly at you, but at the same time you can look all around the place or move around freely, making the other characters twist their necks around or shuffle to turn around to face you.

At the very least, if you have a 1st person game with a character creator, go 3rd person and have actual cutscenes for story.

08-10-2023 8:52am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121195803#Comment_121195803

No idea how scary it is (don't tell me) but I'm itching to play Dredge as my Halloween game. Hoping to finish up Starfield today first.

Zero-Cool · 08-10-2023 10:09am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121208290#Comment_121208290

Dredge is fantastic, one of my games of the year. Relaxing and tense at the same time, one more fish or will just check what's over there before i call it a night... "2 hours later"..

CastorTroy · 08-10-2023 10:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121208288#Comment_121208288

Didn't the recent Wolfenstein games have third person cutscenes even though they were FPSs?

I remember watching a video before showing how it can be a challenge to make it switch between views due to factors that need to be considered.

johnny_ultimate · 08-10-2023 11:04am

I don’t think either Cyberpunk or Bethesda games are great examples of their chosen perspective.

Cyberpunk prioritised graphical fidelity above all, and first person was likely the right choice for that particular game. While it certainly still stands as one of the great technical feats of the medium, it comes at the expense of interactivity and reactivity. It may feel cool aesthetically to stroll around Night City, but it’s an unusually shallow world despite all the neon ray-tracing goodness. That said, there’s room for improvement there in a sequel - 2.0 doesn’t sound totally transformative in anything other than combat, but it at least hints at some of the things that could be done to improve things in the future.

Bethesda’s third person options are terrible, because they haven’t really properly adapted it. You’re still playing a first person game with first person controls, just from a different perspective. It’s weird and janky - just look at those Starfield videos of people trying to swim in third person. Compare that to something like Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, where the option to shift between first and third person transforms the game’s feel and indeed mechanics to each perspective.

The two best and most immersive RPGs IMO of the last five years are Disco Elysium and Baldur’s Gate 3. Both told from isometric perspectives, mainly (BG3 is a bit more dynamic with conversations etc). I don’t think there’s a ‘correct’ perspective, but just goes to show immersion in a gameworld is definitely not solely dependent on the perspective from which the game is shown.

Retr0gamer · 08-10-2023 11:17am

I think a lot of games change controls and physics whether in third or first person just so they feel right. Halo is a game that changes from first to third person but only does so when there's a complete change in controls, either riding a vehicle or carrying a heavy weapon.

johnny_ultimate · 08-10-2023 11:23am

Cyberpunk does that too as well to be fair, when in a vehicle (although with the option for first person IIRC).

Retr0gamer · 08-10-2023 11:26am

I think a lot of people expect a change from first to third person on games is as easy as changing the camera but there's a lot that needs to change. It's not just controls it's animations as well. The janky ass animations in third person of you hack mirrors edge are a good example. I think that's why most developers pick one or the other, there's a lot of duplication of work if you can switch between them.

CastorTroy · 08-10-2023 11:49am

The Metroid Prime games use the switch between first and third person well.

Penn · 08-10-2023 12:05pm

GTAV also managed the transition between first and third person well, especially since it was only designed for third person and then they added in first person afterwards.

My issue, particularly when it came to talking to NPCs etc in Bethesda games, is that the immersion of being in first person instantly breaks when you're able to run around, jump on furniture, crouch behind an npc etc, all while they stand there turning or twisting their head around and I've long since stopped listening to them. Even Cyberpunk where you could be sitting down as part of the cutscene but just able to look all around the place while characters are staring directly at you talking.

Unless there's a reason for why I should be able to look/move around, just lock it in place and take the interactivity away, and let me watch the cutscene. I don't want to have to manually track NPCs as they pace back and forth, or if they point to something, or wondering if there's something in the area I should be trying to find.

But I also think if that was the case, switching to third person for cutscenes so you can see your own character would be a good balance with regards the customisation of your own character that you end up never seeing during normal gameplay.

Retr0gamer · 08-10-2023 12:28pm

The developers said they had to totally change the controls for first person in gtaV.

I get what you mean about moving about in first person cutscenes. I think half life 2 did it well although you could always mess and break immersion. And then there's my big bear with the badly designed surgery scene in last of us. I really think mgs3 handled that type of scene much better and in that they restricted control other than the execution of the action.

08-10-2023 4:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121208430#Comment_121208430

Played a few hours today. Anxiety inducing, the worst (as in good) kind of horror 😄

recyclops · 08-10-2023 7:15pm

It's brilliant, I love when ya try to stay out for that extra hour. Nerve shredding

recyclops · 09-10-2023 9:59pm

Are many playing Lies of P, absolute gamepass gem, much better than I thought it was going to be and a great little soulsborne like. Made slightly more enjoyable as its on gamepass and isn't costing anything

Penn · 09-10-2023 10:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121216145#Comment_121216145

I've played a little so far (and paid full price on PS5). Feels about as Souls-like as you can get, but with puppets. Only thing I'm sort of struggling with is the perfect parry, I don't think I've even nearly managed to time one right yet.

recyclops · 09-10-2023 10:53pm

Yeah it's getting better and better and seems to have robbed all the good bits from the from games.

Currently stuck on a boss in the 8th area and looking forward to continuing after

Retr0gamer · 10-10-2023 8:40am

Ive heard there's no i-frames on dodging and it's catching a lot of from fans out.

10-10-2023 7:39pm

I tried Celeste for the first and final time in my life.

Do you reckon that game was created by the same people who sell game controllers?

J. Marston · 11-10-2023 1:37pm

I haven't been properly engrossed in a game for years but Baldur's Gate is something else. Love it.

On my lunch break at work now and just looking forward to going home to play it, not even because there is a big battle coming up but because I'm back at camp with a rake of new loot so I'll spend the guts of an hour kitting everyone out, bring some new characters out (Karlach, holy moly...), level up and then actually play the game! The exploration is the best thing about it, feels like a proper adventure game.

One of the best games I've played, I think, and I'm still in Act 1.

CatInABox · 12-10-2023 5:43am

Not really gaming related, but OOF. MS hit with a 30 billion dollar tax bill from the IRS. Ah well, I'm always happy to see companies that have undoubtably done their best to avoid tax, being hit with tax.

https://twitter.com/WindowsCentral/status/1712306619453690126

Zero-Cool · 12-10-2023 7:57am

I know usually when money like this gets thrown around, it's usually pennies to a mega corporation but 30 billion sounds game changing.

The Raging Bile Duct · 12-10-2023 8:19am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226765#Comment_121226765

When your company is worth more than 2 trillion, I'd imagine it's a manageable sum.

Penn · 12-10-2023 8:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226810#Comment_121226810

They'd probably still be more inclined to pay $35bn to lawyers to fight against it if it meant they won and didn't set a precedent for paying that much tax going forward.

pixelburp · 12-10-2023 8:36am

I wonder if there is any Appeals process for these cases, where they say they're owed $30 billion, but once it goes into, I dunno, arbitration or somesuch it'll become a miserly sum by the end. It is a nice reminder that Corporations are the enemy, and would fúck us over & have us working for scrip again, first chance they had.

TitianGerm · 12-10-2023 8:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226819#Comment_121226819

Companies like would have teams of the very best tax accountants and tax lawyers who know the tax legislation inside out and usually know every single available loophole to minimise tax payable. I'd be very surprised if they are 35bn out though.

Penn · 12-10-2023 8:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226843#Comment_121226843

The article says once the audit is fully complete, MS will likely appeal both through the IRS system and also through the courts if necessary, and it'll likely take several years to resolve. Definitely possible some sort of "agreement" is reached somewhere along the line.

J. Marston · 12-10-2023 9:21am

I presume the IRS go with a mega number like that knowing they'll never get it but hoping they will get $5/10 billion as a make good.

Penn · 12-10-2023 9:30am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226850#Comment_121226850

Ah yeah, I just meant more about the principle of the thing. Regardless of the amount the IRS say they owe, they'll fight it as much as possible, even if that cost them more, just to try and ensure they don't set a precedent for how much they're supposed to pay.

Even if MS could easily pay the £30bn, paying it would mean accepting that's what they're supposed to pay, which would mean they'd have no argument to prevent having to pay those charges going forward.