thecubsfan
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|  #1 Posted on 4.8.16 1126.52
Reposted on: 4.8.23 1127.14 | The new PS+ games are up.
I've said strong and have not pre-ordered No Man's Sky. There definitely is stuff about it on the internets, but I'm holding off for reviews.
PSN Store Update
PS4 Games
Abzu $19.99
APE ESCAPE 2 (PS2) $9.99
Cannon Brawl $9.99
GAL*GUN: DOUBLE PEACE $59.99
NIGHTMARES FROM THE DEEP: THE CURSED HEART $9.99
OVERCOOKED $16.99
RISK URBAN ASSAULT $14.99
TRICKY TOWERS $14.99
PS3 Games
RISK URBAN ASSAULT $14.99
PS Vita Games
GAL*GUN: DOUBLE PEACE $59.99
LASER DISCO DEFENDERS $9.99
Bundles
Console Bundle Price
PS4 GAL*GUN: DOUBLE PEACE DLC SET 1 $14.99
PS4 GAL*GUN: DOUBLE PEACE SPECIAL EDITION DLC SET $14.99
PS4 LAYERS OF FEAR: MASTERPIECE EDITION $22.99
PS4 TOM CLANCY’S THE DIVISION STREETS OF NEW YORK OUTFIT BUNDLE $14.99 | Promote this thread! |             | EddieBurkett
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| #2 Posted on 4.8.16 2119.22
Reposted on: 4.8.23 2119.40 | Originally posted by thecubsfan
I've said strong and have not pre-ordered No Man's Sky. There definitely is stuff about it on the internets, but I'm holding off for reviews.
I couldn't wait. Its the first game I've pre-ordered in I can't remember how long that isn't a WoW expansion. To be fair, the Amazon Prime discount on pre-orders was very much part of my decision making. (I'll probably also pre-order Horizon: Zero Dawn at some point because of the same discount.) I'll be sure to let everyone know what my brother-in-law thinks about it since he's going to have way more time to play it than I will over the next few weeks. | thecubsfan
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| #3 Posted on 5.8.16 1036.36
Reposted on: 5.8.23 1038.17 | Over on Polygon, you can watch the first hour of No Man's Sky. I thought this meant we were getting reviews today and I could maybe still decide to buy or not buy this week. Not so much.
Over on Kotaku, they explain Polygon and others bought copies of the game from a store who's (illegally? unethically?) selling copies early, since Sony hasn't sent out review copies/download codes as of yet.
Sony's story is apparently that they're waiting on a day 0 patch before releasing the preview copies. | Hobbes
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|  #4 Posted on 9.8.16 0337.17
Reposted on: 9.8.23 0341.14 | Hey, maybe I should start a thread for this or not post this at all, but this is probably the best place to talk about No Man's Sky to Cubs and James I guess?
I was going to wait for the reviews to buy this game, but then ended up buying the digital version on launch night like a crazy person and played it for a few hours tonight as soon as it unlocked. Do I regret it so far? Eh, somewhat. I rarely buy games until they've been discounted a couple of times because in Canada video games currently cost eleventy billion dollars when they're brand new. In the first few hours I had some fun and one or two "Wow" moments, but I've also had some tedious stretches. In fact, I can't recall a game that has had me shifting between thinking "This is pretty fun" and "This is kind of boring" so often.
Going in, the main questions about this game were "What do you actually do and is there a lot of variety"? Well, there's a fair bit of variety of things you can do but the problem is pretty much everything you can do in the game is just funneled towards you doing one thing: Getting crafting materials so you can craft upgrades to your ship and gear, so you can use your ship and gear to get more materials easier, so you can upgrade your stuff some more, so you can use that stuff to get more materials even easier, etc, until maybe you get to the center of the universe where the ending happens.
You want to dogfight other spaceships, attack big freighters or kill a planet's local robot space police? You can, and your reward will be crafting materials to upgrade your stuff, or money, which you can use to buy upgrades or crafting materials.
You want to be non-violent and just discover and name new planets, animals, outposts and plants? You can do that, and your reward will be money which you can use to buy crafting materials and upgrades.
You want to be a space trucker, mining or buying materials from one place and selling them for a little bit of a profit somewhere else? You can do that, and your reward will be money you can use to buy crafting materials and upgrades.
You want to just travel to a million planets and moons mining materials? You can and your reward will be, you guessed it, crafting materials.
So you can do a variety of things, and do it at whatever pace you want, but it all serves the same one goal. In addition, the game also has not one, not two but THREE limited inventory systems, meaning that you very carefully have to decide what stuff you want to craft. Your ship has an inventory, you personally have an inventory, and your multi-tool (which functions as both your mining tool and your guns) has an inventory.
The problem is that so many features take an inventory spot. In the first few hours, I've found your multi-tool, in addition to be a mining laser, can be an assault riffle, a shotgun and a grenade launcher, changing between functions at the touch of a button. Cool, right? Except the multi-tool has very few inventory slots, at least the early one, and every gun takes an inventory slot. This would be fine, but every upgrade to your mining laser and each separate gun takes up their own inventory slot. If you want a mining laser that is more powerful or gathers materials quicker, you can have one, but each of those features takes an inventory spot. You want a gun that fires faster or does more damage or reloads quicker, you can have it, but each of those things take a inventory spot.
What this means is that at least in the first few hours of the game, I am constantly discovering new upgrades I'd kind of like to have, but passing them up because my inventory space is so precious. The early hours of this game is just full of moments of me going "It'd be nice to have a longer sprint or a better spaceship fire rate, but I can't spare the slots".
The other thing about this game is there is a LOT of bar management. There's a bar that goes down when the environment is too cold/hot/toxic (which is often). There's a "life support" system bar that always drains. Your mining laser needs fuel and so do your guns, as does your ship and some of it's systems. Now, most of these bars are fueled by plutonium, which is the one resource on every planet in plentiful supply, so refueling them is hardly ever a pain in the ass, but it's never fun either. Needing to stop every five to ten minutes and shoot some red rocks, and then go into a menu and manually refuel my gun or laser or ship or life support systems just feels like busy work.
There is good about the game. The sense of scale means you can spend thirty minutes walking on a planet that seems never ending, only to jump into your spaceship and in 15 seconds be flying over the surface, looking for outposts, or be flying around the giant planet itself looking for moons, and you can fly back in just as easily. A couple of the warp system boosts are obviously ways to cover up brief loading times, but overall, it's most often very seamless and impressive. It is awesome to see a marker and have the game tell you it's going to take you 30 minutes of real time to walk there, and then you jump into your ship, hit a boost, and it tells you you're now going to arrive in five seconds.
It's only been a few hours and so far it's not a bad game at all, and in some ways has felt like a great achievement in terms of scope, but at the end of your day your enjoyment of this game is going to come down to how novel you find seeing moderately different looking plants and animals and doing moderately different activities of your choosing as you peruse minerals to upgrade your stuff. | thecubsfan
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| #5 Posted on 9.8.16 2328.39
Reposted on: 9.8.23 2329.01 | Thanks for writing about No Man's Sky. That's some stuff I expected and some stuff I didn't. And maybe nothing that's going to get me to play the game in a hurry, but eventually? Assuming all the planets don't have funny names by then.
I actually bought "I am Setsuna" and almost beat it over a week. I guess I still can, all I've got to do is face the last boss, but I'm going back and trying to figure out the sidequests. (Which is mostly me getting throttled by surprise enemies on the sidequests, but there are a few good twists.) It's a solid RPG, if a bit unambitious at times and kind of very linear until the late stages. The main characters are all very stereotypical RPG characters - it almost feels like a Kickstarter game based on how it's playing to the comfort of it's fanbase. In a lot of ways, it feels like it's meant to fit in among those RPGs of era gone by, rather than build on them. I do, though, really love not having to deal with random encounters and happily take that as a trade for some weak points. If the game studio is building off this to another game - not a sequel, but something a bit more adventurous - then it'd probably be pretty good and I'd check it out. (Though, the note about No Man's Sky having "moderately different animals and plants" remains me a lot about this game; it's a little over priced at $40.)
Sony will have a Playstation Meeting on September 7, which will be the PS4.5 (code named Neo) announcement. Like the XBox1.5, it doesn't seem like there's any reason to buy it unless you're an 4K early adopter, but maybe we find out something important.
This weke's PSN update
PS4 Games
Arcade Archives Soldier Girl Amazon $7.99
Blade Ballet $14.99
Brutal $14.99
Caladrius Blaze $29.99
Emily Wants to Play $4.99
Indigo Prophecy $14.99
No Man's Sky $59.99
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron $49.99 | thecubsfan
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| #6 Posted on 13.8.16 1225.33
Reposted on: 13.8.23 1228.07 | and now some spoiler thoughts about I am Setsuna to get it out my system
Spoiler Below: Highlight text to read
At the end, I choose not to kill Setsuna. That choice, like seemingly every other choice you make in the game, has no apparent influence on the events. It's frustrating and a little bit infuriating that the only result of the choices only one or two lines different of dialogue to get you back to the script. It's as though the game wants you to play the lead only as an tough unfeeling mercenary, and pulls you back to that character any time you break script.
It's a JRPG game, so it's possible that if someone played all the *right* lines of dialogue, something else happens along the way. But 99.99% people are just going to experience as a nagging irrelevance.
I was entertained by the 'sacrifice' trope actually being the right thing to do all along. The plot felt a lot like Final Fantasy X, where the sacrifice rite had been the wrong decision all along. Here, the sacrifices were absolutely working, and maybe would've kept working if previous ones hadn't been messed up. Ultimately, like in every other story of this type, the big bad had to be killed for the world to finally move out of it's eternal winter, but I appreciated the slight twist on usual bit.
You really have to at least attempt the sidequests right before the final battle to get the full story, and it's a shame there's not a dialogue conversation at least pointing you in that direction before the finale. (I've got 5 of 7, struggling on the solo battles but at least getting the plot points.) The Kir battle reminded me of another three sister battle from a Final Fantasy game, but these three's story is pretty dark.
Not sure how to trigger any plot points on the outer island stuff. Maybe might go mess with that, eat the recipes I was meant to eat for trophies, and maybe give the ship battle another try. I could see trying the full powered up end boss for that trophy, but I don't imagine I'll go for all the trophies - tracking down and facing all the powered up normal enemies is too much of a pain when you have to deal with all the normal ones.
|
| thecubsfan
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| #7 Posted on 15.8.16 1145.23
Reposted on: 15.8.23 1146.07 | Details on the new beta which is firmware 4.00. No big new features, mostly UI improvements.
| thecubsfan
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| #8 Posted on 17.8.16 1553.35
Reposted on: 17.8.23 1554.48 | I liked this part of the Watch Dogs 2 multiplayer preview
While it’s blended with the single-player experience, tackling the multiplayer isn’t necessary to play through the campaign — in fact, Watch Dogs 2 can be played entirely offline.
- a game about hacking a connected world noting you don't have to be connected to play it
- they're really sorry about Watch Dogs 1, they're not going to even impose new things on you
- I bet their wording of offline doesn't mean mine
- I'm still somehow going to buy this and not No Man Sky because I need easily definable goals and tasks as a lame person
store update
PS4 Games
ADVENTURE CAPITALIST FREE
BATTLESHIP $14.99
BOUND $19.99
DOODLE DEVIL $5.99
GROW UP! $9.99
INVERSUS $14.99
OLLIOLLI: EPIC COMBO EDITION $29.99
SOLBRAIN KNIGHT OF DARKNESS $13.99
THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S CURSE $14.99
UNO $9.99 - UNO!
PS Vita Games
DUNGEON PUNKS $14.99
(edited by thecubsfan on 17.8.16 1553)
(edited by thecubsfan on 17.8.16 1554) | thecubsfan
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| #9 Posted on 22.8.16 1043.03
Reposted on: 22.8.23 1044.08 | PS+ is rising from $50/year to $60/year. starting 09/22. I don't think I've paid the full $50 in years via finding card on sale, but I guess regular $50 is now sale. The length of your subscription stacks - it'll extend your membership a year if you add another card - so you may want to buy one or two soon to save money if you're using it.
On the other hand, the September games are
- Tricky Towers, PS4
- Rebel Galaxy, PS4
- Yakuza 5, PS3
- Retro/Grade, PS3
- Patapon 3, PS Vita
- Ultratron, PS Vita, PS3, PS4
and nothing jumps out as something I'm going to spend a lot of time playing. | KJames199
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| #10 Posted on 22.8.16 1701.00
Reposted on: 22.8.23 1701.22 | | Those are the August games, no? Not that I'll likely play them either way. | thecubsfan
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| #11 Posted on 22.8.16 1730.39
Reposted on: 22.8.23 1730.50 | | They are! I don't think I played them. Assumed they would put a new post up. | thecubsfan
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| #12 Posted on 26.8.16 1258.24
Reposted on: 26.8.23 1259.01 | Playstation now has 2 step Verification, a security method I'm encouraged to use on multiple devices but rarely actually do. This hasn't been announced and probably is supposed to be part of the version update that's coming.
Playstation Now is now available on PC. If you want to play the Playstation library without playing the games, you can get a USB stick for $25. This USB also works for remote play on a PC. No Mac support. A controller is extra, and it's still $20/month or $45/3 months.
This week's update
PS4 Games
ABSOLUTE DRIFT: ZEN EDITION $11.99
ALONE WITH YOU $9.99
ARMIKROG $9.99
BIG CITY STORIES FREE
DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED $59.99
INSIDE $19.99
MADDEN NFL 17 $59.99
METRICO+ $13.99 ($6.99 for owners of Metrico on PS Vita)
PROMINENCE POKER FREE
THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIV $59.99
VALLEY $19.99
WORMS W.M.D $29.99
PS3 Games
MADDEN NFL 17 $59.99
PS Vita Games
ALONE WITH YOU $9.99 | thecubsfan
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| #13 Posted on 31.8.16 0025.44
Reposted on: 31.8.23 0028.55 | Gran Turismo Sport (PS4) is delayed to 2016. Has every Gran Turismo game been delayed?
PSN Store Update
PS4 Games
140 $7.99
Assetto Corsa $49.99
Attack on Titan $59.99
Bears Can't Drift $9.99
Binaries $9.99
BLACK & WHITE BUSHIDO $9.99
Claire Extended Cut $14.99
Four Sided Fantasy $9.99
God Eater 2 (no price listed)
Hatsune Miku Project Diva X $49.99
Hue $14.99
Livelock $19.99
Nebulous $14.99
One Way Trip $14.99
Resident Evil 4 $19.99
RocketsRocketsRockets $9.99
Strike Vector EX $14.99
Final Station $14.99
Verdun $19.99
PS3 Games
Attack on Titan $59.99
Mafia II Remaster $29.99
PS Vita Games
Attack on Titan $49.99
Claire Extended Cut $14.99
Hatsune Miku Project Diva X $39.99
Bundles
Console Bundle Price
PS Vita GOD EATER 2 RAGE BURST LAUNCH BUNDLE $39.99 | thecubsfan
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| #14 Posted on 31.8.16 1233.20
Reposted on: 31.8.23 1233.45 | September PS+ games
Full Lineup
- Lords of the Fallen, PS4
- Journey, PS4, PS3
- Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, PS3
- Datura, PS3
- Badland, PS Vita, PS4, PS3
- Amnesia: Memories, PS Vita
(I guess there are people who haven't played Journey who still will play Journey? You should play Journey. Maybe I'll finish playing it again.) | EddieBurkett
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| #15 Posted on 31.8.16 1300.28
Reposted on: 31.8.23 1300.51 | Originally posted by thecubsfan
(I guess there are people who haven't played Journey who still will play Journey? You should play Journey. Maybe I'll finish playing it again.)
The only people I know who haven't played Journey are those who are adamantly against playing Journey because it isn't a "game." That said, for free, I'd advocate picking it up and burning through it in like four hours. You'll know soon enough in whether or not its your cup of tea. | Guru Zim
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| #16 Posted on 12.9.16 2015.19
Reposted on: 12.9.23 2018.03 | | I will play Journey. I tend to not buy games, I can't play all of the Gold and plus games I get already. | | ALL ORIGINAL POSTS IN THIS THREAD ARE NOW AVAILABLE |
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