This is a great video that breaks down why Helldivers shits all over most AAA microtransaction riddled games that only cares about shareholders.

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Anyone else looking forward to FF7 Rebirth?

Picking it up right now.

Nice. Let me know what you think. I recently picked up a PS5. Never finished FF7 Remake on PS4 so starting over on PS5 and hoping to finish it before i pick up Rebirth.

Is it on PC? I got into FF1 and FF7 but the others I played never really pulled me in. I was a lot younger back then and played only single player games though, is Rebirth turn based? If so and it's on PC I might give it a go, but in general they weren't really my thing.

Not for 3 months. I believe there's a way to make it turn based but it's way more action oriented this time around. Still got the same abilities as far as Limit Breaks and timed bars for Special Attacks but in the meantime you're constantly attacking, dodging, and blocking as well. This game has refined it even more from what I've seen. It's a pretty damn good gameplay loop.

I have no idea how you wouldn't like this one unless you just absolutely despise the new gameplay. It's quintessential Final Fantasy, both good and bad.

I just remember the super over powered fun limit breaks, it felt like a movie when I used them. :)

I prefer turn based in these games though.

Might not be for you then. Especially once you get into the late game, there's some difficulty spikes on par with Dark Souls (**** YOU HELL HOUSE)

I'm definitely not a fan of Dark Souls but if it's too hard I have Cheat engine for single player and can self adjust the difficulty to what I like. Ya I don't play for achievements or any of that garbage, that was an xbox thing I never paid attention to. If you can select turn based then I might try it otherwise ya it's not for me.

I couldn't get into it. Probably too burned out from the last one, that seems like it's pretty much the same game. I do plan on giving it another go, but not right now.

I actually started another Starfield run. I just don't feel like figuring out new shit right now. :D

I feel ya man, I only do survival games when I'm in the mood. Palworld kinda spoiled me on survival games because it's light and I can mod out things I hate. I increased resource drops like x5 and turned off carry weight crap. I also modded in fast travel from anywhere and other annoying "features" of survival. Something like Valheim can be fun a month every year or two but for the most part survival games are just annoyance simulators.

Like you said gaming is me time, do whatever you have fun with. I still plan to play Starfield but I want a ton of mods to get rid of annoying parts for me.

Oh, it's not on par with Dark Souls unless you're going for Super Bosses. It just had a couple rough spikes in difficulty.

And in fairness, it was only hard because I was ignorant to what the game was trying to teach me. Once I cooled off and came back it was quite a bit more manageable.

The Important part to me is that you can make it turn based, that's what I remember loving the strategy of for these games for me. As long as I can do that it's cool, and I'll give it a shot.

Just went and watched a video of classic mode. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's certainly not turn based. So no, you can't.

I was reading that early reviews are giving FF7 Rebirth Game of the Year vibes.

We’ll see. I still have to play FF7 Remake after I finish Days Gone.

They really expanded the open world aspect in Rebirth. Now I see where the 100+ hour playtime comes into effect.

Yeah these last few nights ive been putting hours into FF7 Remake in anticipation of picking up Rebirth in a few weeks. Really starting to love the hybrid turn based/live action combat system. Each character is unique and fun to play with. And obviously its hitting all the nostalgy buttons.

I want to play them consecutively. I want to finish the story (for old time's sake) and get good at the systems before diving into Rebirth.

Same, I'm in Chapter 13 atm, I beat FF7 Remake when it first came out but haven't played it since. No better time to finish it up and go into the next one.

Lots of stuff going around that a video game crash is coming...

What does this mean?

Basically the industry is in a shitty place, there are going to be less games made.

Look at all the studios firing people and closing, it's getting a little out of hand.

Also all of their obsessions with making games like fortnight is killing the market too, like that god awful justice league game.

Smaller devs are thriving and taking over, I'm here for it. Palworld, Enshrouded, Last Epoch and Helldivers are all major recent successes.

The AAA industry is definitely in a bad spot. The insane budgets have required games to monetize to the point where players have begun to reject these practices with their wallets. The steam charts indicate that indies and AA studios are feasting.

What I'm seeing is a bunch of studio closures (mostly) from projects that were highly unprofitable or they just plain delivered the opposite or what gamers asked for (hello Saints Row).

The industry and customers will reset it just fine, have to adapt and stop making shitty microtransaction online only garbage. Great games have all started with a passion to make them, if you don't have that it will be obvious and the suckers are less likely to buy in.

Yessir, I think you are seeing a pasture burn of the bloat. The remaining soil is going to be nice and ripe since gaming has never been more prolific than it is now.

ill just add some other titles like valheim, terraria, core keeper,lethal company, factorio, the dwarf mining game (foprgot the title) etc... that set the stage for those guys to succeed


and also to Steam, the platform that allows us to find these great independent games

I haven’t played games in years, typically RE games only. Just came across the Ready or Not trailer, that shit looks awesome.

if you avoid the big names like EA, Activision/Blizzard and Ubisoft. You'll be a lot better off. There might be a couple of decent games those ones would put out but it's rare. Basically avoid publicly traded companies with games, they are there for their shareholders, not to make a great game. I would be surprised if those companies even allow creativity in their workplace. They are probably only allowed to stick to a 'proven forumula' where indy's are working on passion projects and encourage creativity.

I played for 4 hours today and it's very good. Basically played through the demo again and a little bit more. Can't wait to get through this game although dreading one scene that I am sure is coming in this one.

The World Intel really adds to the runtime of the game if you do it. Every region I've done has been 5+ hours to 100% and they seem to come every other chapter or so.

Good Lord LMAO. I guess they heard all the complaining about Tifa and took heed. The fan service is ridiculous at points. I will say they've done an absolutely phenomenal job of building the relationships between the characters in a believable way. Red XIII may be the funniest character so far for one scene in particular.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">So what is unique about an &quot;inverse decay curve&quot; and why do I use that term instead of &quot;growth&quot;? Well, internet, it&#39;s not because I&#39;m being &quot;obnoxious&quot; (but thanks for that) - but because it&#39;s a real thing. This is what a typical sales decay curve can look like for a Q1 release: <a href="https://t.co/T7uP2M0b7v">pic.twitter.com/T7uP2M0b7v</a></p>&mdash; Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) <a href="https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1764721470343962651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

https://i.imgflip.com/8hyq0d.jpg

I'm in, who knows when it comes out though

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What is the issue? Not sure I heard anything, or I am out of the loop.

It was a relatively small issue, but they've been going out of their way to censor younger Tifa at Nibelheim recently. Makes sense to me but someone's always gotta complain. To contrast that, they crammed the game with quite a bit of fan service of her in particular.

As for the game itself, the only real complaints I have is the side content isn't QUITE engaging enough for how much of it there is, and even though it's technically "optional" you're putting yourself at a severe disadvantage in multiple ways by not doing it. Also, as characters get added they (understandably) hog the screentime for quite a while and other characters are pretty much left to the back burner for LARGE swaths of game time.

I gotcha. I guess no matter what someone will not be happy.

I agree with this. They basically replaced the level grinding in the old game with a bunch of little side quests, but they added TONS of them and it kind of ruins the flow of the game. These little inconsequential side stories shouldn't take away the focus in the main story.

So like an MMORPG then.

Unfortunately the more I play the more my minor complaints become major ones. There have been a couple of story beats that were necessary to advance the plot but were incredibly poorly executed. Also **** whoever designed the Gongaga open world map. That one area has all but killed any interest I'd ever have of doing a repeat playthrough.

Eh, it's not THAT bad. And for the most part each side quest usually focuses on a party member that Cloud interacts with throughout the mission.

Ditto. We have Dragon Quest 11 (also great) but that's about it.

I haven't finished "Remake" yet (but i finished the original game back in '97) and my wife badly wants me to buy Rebirth so she can play it. She of course has never played any FF game ever.

I'm like, "NO! You have to to finish the story in order! You don't get it! You can't just skip the first installment!"

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Alright, I finally finished the story of Days Gone. It was far better than I thought it would be given the rough release. I even made it a point to go through and defeat all of the hordes on the map because I was enjoying it so much.

The bike mechanics were pretty annoying early on, though realistic. Thankfully by the end of the game, once you’ve upgraded your bike to max gas tank and have hella guns, stopping for gas out “in the shit” wasn’t too big of a deal.

Other than that, it had a decent story, good characters, good voice acting, graphics were good, fun gameplay.

I’d recommend this one.

I am still in chapter 2 and it’s feeling more Skyrim-esque from an exploration standpoint. I find myself wandering around looking for towers, intel battles, those places of discovery that the red owls lead you towards etc…. Also I find myself wanting to smash that stupid music thing next to Chadley every time I get near him.

I'd like to just smash Chadley. I hate that nerd.

LMAO Oh dude, if you're only in chapter two and already losing patience with Chadley you ain't seen nothing yet.

Yay! Can’t wait. LMAO

I had my controller speaker on silent and just now put together that was why I couldn't ever hear Chadley speaking during those missions. I've played so many RPGs over the years where nobody spoke out loud or only during certain scenes that the silence didn't really bother me.

You talked me into it. It's fun, no doubt. The chaos is like having several small heart attacks over 40 minutes straight.

I get killed by teammates as much if not more than bugs

Awesome, be happy to play sometime.

Downloaded Hell Let Loose on Gamepass after seeing some videos on it and holy shit, this game is ****ing awesome.

Getting my ass handed to me as a noob lol but slowly getting the hang on it…

Anyone that’s into tactical, milsim squad games or WWII should check this out…

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Helldivers is amazing btw

Also great game

Helldivers 2 has entered the political zeitgeist.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Take back the creek.</p>&mdash; Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMikeCollins/status/1764050957950677466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Honestly it’s refreshing, the gaming industry is going to take a blood bath with these indie studios putting out great complete games.

PalWorld
HellDivers2
He’ll Let loose

Just ****ing so much better in every way from these huge studios

And let's not forget the greatest game ever made (IMO), Path of Exile. Started out in a garage with a bald reerun with a strong vision. Path of Exile 2 will be pretty awesome too

Last Epoch as well, so many different builds and the features are 2nd to none in this style of game.

hope Last Epoch comes to console someday, would love to play it.

I am very disappointed in Suicide Squad

Hell Let Loose is looking very tempting. Any insights?

Yeah, just play Helldivers for your 4 person looter shooter fix.

Seems like that game was getting scathing reviews even before its release.

I watched the Angry Joe review of it. It's a total piece of shit that embodies everything wrong in the AAA space.

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Probably my 2nd fave ARPG build ever behind only the D2 Javazon! :)

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Anyone playing Lords of the Fallen or Nightingale?

Kind of interested in both but not 100% on either one.

Been playing some Enshrouded and enjoying it.

HLL is the closest game you will ever play to a PTSD simulator. Its by far the best WWII shooter I've ever played.

Incredible game, the immersion and feeling of actually being in WWII is top notch.

It has a learning curve like a mofo though, do not discouraged starting out...you will die a lot lol.

Communication and sound is paramount, for sure play with headphones and mic when possible...at least headphones.

You have to know the maps and play the terrain...chokepoints, flanking opportunities, danger zones, etc.

It's really good though.

Dragon's Dogma 2 reviews hit today, sounds incredible...cannot wait for tomorrow night, I'm hyped!

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Diablo 4 now copying features from Last Epoch very similar crafting system coming in season 4. Oh and you can trade Legendaries as well, Capitalism FTW! ;)

I’m about to infiltrate Shinra HQ in Final Fantasy VII Remake so I’m approaching the end. I will say that I am enjoying the game quite a bit. I’m loving the fresh depiction of the characters and really spending time with each of them. The combat is cool and I’ve always loved the Materia system as well.

THAT SAID, I was doing some research on Rebirth since I’ll be playing that one soon only to find out that your weapons and materia won’t transfer from Remake to Rebirth and that really chaps my ass.

Also, I know Tifa vs Aerith is the age old battle, but I’m team “knock down Jesse before you settle with one of the others”.

BTW Dragon's Dogma 2 ****ing rules...having such a blast with it.

It's batshit bonkers in all the right way, esp. the combat and emergent moments that can happen at any time.

LMAO I'm baffled why this is even a thing still. Cloud has already ****ed and started a family with one of them, and knew the other for a span of 6 weeks. This 'debate' was ended 25 years ago yet people STILL go nuts over it.

I’m on Chapter 13 of Rebirth.

Man, I’ve been skipping most of the dialog. I’m sure the plot points are interesting but the conversations are shit.