OT: General Video Game Discussion VIII

[TaLoN]

Mass Effect Andromeda Review

The characters and story getting praise, technical quirks are distracting at times but it's the story and characters that are memorable.

My concerns are gone. Never really had fully formed concerns as the early criticisms I took with a grain of salt since the story wasn't yet in question until full reviews were available today.

 

[Minnesota]

I hate Sudoku. Will I hate Mass Effect Andromeda?

*announcer voice* Stay tuned to find out!

 

[tomgilbertfan]

I'll have to check out Giant Bomb. Are these Brad/Dan/Alex people like writers on that site?

I think their technical title is "Editor".

Giantbomb is made up of (currently):
Jeff Gerstmann
Brad Shoemaker
Vinny Caravella
Alex Navarro
Dan Rykert
Jason Oestricher
(Matt Rorie)

(Formerly: Ryan Davis (RIP), Patrick Klepek, Austin Walker, Drew Scanlon )

Giant Bomb was formed by Jeff Gerstmann after he was fired from Gamespot for not changing a review score after the publisher put pressure on the higher-ups to change it (they were running ads on the site). Jeff has been in the video game journalism business since he was 17 (he's 41 now). I don't always agree with his taste in games but his integrity has never been in question. So anyway, Jeff started up his own thing after being fired and brought some former Gamespot employees with him (Brad, Ryan Davis, Vinny).

Giant Bomb is video/audio focused. They write reviews as they want (i.e. rarely), and don't try to 'review' that many games. The opinions come from their 2 audio podcasts (Giant Bombcast, Giant Beastcast (one for their west coast office, one for the east)) and their Quick looks (videos). Giant Bomb is a personality based website that you can subscribe to for 50$/year (or 5/month) to get access to a ton of additional videos/features, but their 2 main podcasts and all quick looks are free.

Here's a link to a good "best of" on Giant Bomb (they put these out every 2 weeks or so now). Linked, not embedded because of NSFW language.


I have gone through periods where I don't play any games for months but I still listen/watch most of GB's stuff because it's entertaining beyond video game discussion. Been a subscriber for I think 4 or 5 years now, most bang for my buck in any entertainment money I spend.

 

[Vashanesh]

I think their technical title is "Editor".

Giantbomb is made up of (currently):
Jeff Gerstmann
Brad Shoemaker
Vinny Caravella
Alex Navarro
Dan Rykert
Jason Oestricher
(Matt Rorie)

(Formerly: Ryan Davis (RIP), Patrick Klepek, Austin Walker, Drew Scanlon )

Giant Bomb was formed by Jeff Gerstmann after he was fired from Gamespot for not changing a review score after the publisher put pressure on the higher-ups to change it (they were running ads on the site). Jeff has been in the video game journalism business since he was 17 (he's 41 now). I don't always agree with his taste in games but his integrity has never been in question. So anyway, Jeff started up his own thing after being fired and brought some former Gamespot employees with him (Brad, Ryan Davis, Vinny).

Giant Bomb is video/audio focused. They write reviews as they want (i.e. rarely), and don't try to 'review' that many games. The opinions come from their 2 audio podcasts (Giant Bombcast, Giant Beastcast (one for their west coast office, one for the east)) and their Quick looks (videos). Giant Bomb is a personality based website that you can subscribe to for 50$/year (or 5/month) to get access to a ton of additional videos/features, but their 2 main podcasts and all quick looks are free.

Here's a link to a good "best of" on Giant Bomb (they put these out every 2 weeks or so now). Linked, not embedded because of NSFW language.


I have gone through periods where I don't play any games for months but I still listen/watch most of GB's stuff because it's entertaining beyond video game discussion. Been a subscriber for I think 4 or 5 years now, most bang for my buck in any entertainment money I spend.

Very well summed up, I'd echo all of this.

My enjoyment of GB is purely because of their passion. These guys live and breathe games, and it shows, constantly.

They have their kinda dumb/kinda funny inside gags (seriously guys, is this ska?), they have their quirks, but at the end of the day, they just want to produce good **** that people want to watch. They do that by trying new stuff, keeping what works, and constantly refining. They just started doing live video of their main podcast recording a couple months back, as an example. It's become my go-to way to watch what I used to listen to.

Hearing guys like Dan talk about Nintendo (or wrestling), Jeff talk about the wiki or some quirky game mechanic that has grabbed his attention, Drew talk about the cool stuff he was doing on the side (and now he'll be doing full time ), Brad talking about Bloodborne or Dark Souls, Vinny talking about literally anything, these guys have an uncanny ability to get me to pay attention to stuff I normally wouldn't give a second thought. I've found so many games I wouldn't have otherwise played because of them, it's nuts.

 

[Minnesota]

China don't care.

 

[Vashanesh]

China don't care.

I should've bought one of those when I had the chance.

 

[TaLoN]

Have Mass Effect Andromeda in hand! Loading it up on the PS4 Pro now... wow, huge game update right off the bat... 1.984gb update!

Getting it all installed etc now so when I get home from the game tonight I can jump right in!

 

[Soldier13Fox]

Have Mass Effect Andromeda in hand! Loading it up on the PS4 Pro now... wow, huge game update right off the bat... 1.984gb update!

Getting it all installed etc now so when I get home from the game tonight I can jump right in!

I've been debating upgrading to a pro (and a 4k TV). Do you think it makes a big difference?

 

[TaLoN]

I've been debating upgrading to a pro (and a 4k TV). Do you think it makes a big difference?

Depends on your screen size and viewing distance for resolution purposes, but the HDR is pretty cool.

I wouldn't get it for HDR alone though. I got a 4k tv because the board died on my previous tv, and got the ps4 pro because I didn't have a next gen console yet when that came out so I wasn't going from a ps4 to ps4 pro, I was going from ps3 to ps4 pro.

I Have a 65 inch tv, I'll be honest I can't really see a resolution difference from my old hd tv to this one even on 4k, but my tv is about 8 feet away, they say it should only be 5-6 feet away to notice the difference.

 

[Soldier13Fox]

So, gentlemen, what's the initial impressions on ME. I really want to play tonight, but wonder if maybe I ought to keep plugging away at H:ZD.

 

[Dee Oh Cee]

I'm going to start it tonight most likely. Will report back.

 

[gphr513]

Roommate bought a PS4, just got delivered today. Going to pick up Horizon Zero Dawn after lunch!!

 

[TaLoN]

So, gentlemen, what's the initial impressions on ME. I really want to play tonight, but wonder if maybe I ought to keep plugging away at H:ZD.

BIG! This thing is huge! I am having a blast!

 

[gphr513]

I love modern gaming, but I also hate it.

Sitting here while this PS4 updates like

 

[tomgilbertfan]

I love modern gaming, but I also hate it.

Sitting here while this PS4 updates like

PSN download speeds are insanely slow. They tend to download faster if the PS4 is in rest mode.

 

[gphr513]

Loving H:ZD so far! Only a couple hours in, but it's one of the most graphically advanced games I've ever played. It's really enjoyable just walking around the map (which I've only discovered like 5% of) to see what there is to see!

 

[Soldier13Fox]

Lol. Kumail nanjiani is a salarian, love it!

 

[Dee Oh Cee]

Yeah, I played for about, 6 hours or so tonight? And I'm all in so far. Never watched any of the early plays, but I don't get what people were talking about with starting out slow/weird animations. Seems like it's going to be a long game wiht a ton of stuff to do though. Love that.

 

[TaLoN]

I've played about 14 hours of the game...i think the slow comments are from people who are used to a more linear Mass Effect story. If you try to do every single quest in your journal, it can take a really long time to move the primary story.

I don't think you can go into this aiming for a contortionist style of play. You're going to have to be more selective on what quests you want to do before going back to the priority missions to move things along, and go back for some quests later and even after finishing the main story if you plan on doing absolutely everything.

As I said before, this game is HUGE!

All the side quests feel more involved though than other open world type games, so I'm liking this more than say... Skyrim for example, where many side quests were just something like a fetch quest or something simple.

It feels like the side quests actually effect people's lives in the world etc, and have real dialogue.

 

[Avder]

Alright, so, my 1080ti will be coming in in the next week or so. What are the must-play eye candy games with good game play that would appeal to someone who grew up on Doom, Diablo 2, and Descent?

This new computer boots insanely fast. Loving this 960 evo. Took me a while to get the bios and windows to cooperate with booting directly from it, but its rocking now.

 

[Sharppi]

Alright, so, my 1080ti will be coming in in the next week or so. What are the must-play eye candy games with good game play that would appeal to someone who grew up on Doom, Diablo 2, and Descent?

This new computer boots insanely fast. Loving this 960 evo. Took me a while to get the bios and windows to cooperate with booting directly from it, but its rocking now.

Witcher 3 looks quite good and is an awesome game, new Doom too. You'll love it. Just don't play multiplayer, play the singleplayer campaign and be happy.

Battlefield 1, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Dishonored 2.

 

[TaLoN]

Here are my Ryder twins I created... when you create your characters you can upload them to The Mass Effect Archives

Scott Ryder
Sara Ryder

 

[Vashanesh]

Witcher 3 looks quite good and is an awesome game, new Doom too. You'll love it. Just don't play multiplayer, play the singleplayer campaign and be happy.

Battlefield 1, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Dishonored 2.

Good list. I would specifically second Witcher 3 and DOOM.

I would add Titanfall 2 to the list with the caveat that the single player AND multiplayer are better than new DOOM -- though the single player in new DOOM was awesome.

MP in Titanfall 2, while not heavily populated, is extremely fun. I felt the campaign was trying to tell a cohesive story, where DOOM was just trying to give you reasons to go to the next arena to blow **** up. Not to downplay blowing **** up, because it was real fun, but I like a bit of a plot along the way.

 

[Soldier13Fox]

Titanfall 2 campaign is a TON of fun, great suggestion. So is Doom, but for completely different reason (IE story is pretty lame)

 

[Vashanesh]

Titanfall 2 campaign is a TON of fun, great suggestion. So is Doom, but for completely different reason (IE story is pretty lame)

That's probably a better way to put it.

Their both great, for very different reasons.