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Helldivers 2

Tutorial done.

The two frontier planets infested by the Terminids are active.

Heeth is 48% Liberated, but I've been deploying at Angel's Venture which is lagging behind at 24% liberated.

Will probably stay dealing with the bugs for awhile, at least until Heeth and Angel's Venture are at 50% liberated, just to build up my character some more. Still a Level 3 Cadet. But Of the 3 missions I did, I did by myself without a team. You can definitely stealth play, but game is super hard solo. Earned the "Nick of time" trophy by making it to the dropship with only seconds to go.

Realized you can't waste time. My ship 'Leviathan of the Stars' will leave if you surpass the time limit. A good method to keep team mates from wasting time now. Get in and get out. I don't want to stand around and listen to you talking about the wife and kids.

Extraction dropships now have a nose gun and will provide fire support as they drop in. Nice touch.

With crossplay you can find you friends by generating a friend code in your ship and giving it to people you want to play with so you can find each other.

So far Helldivers 2 takes everything great about the first one and multiples it by 100.
 
Solo4114 said:
If I had to guess, I'd say that probably two major things are at work behind those numbers.

1. There was a real bottleneck in, I believe, microprocessor production that screwed PS5 production lines for years. Put simply, they couldn't make them fast enough to meet demand. That seems to have alleviated somewhat and now PS5s are simply more available. In that sense, demand may not have actually changed as much, but availability did, so the pent-up demand is now being met. I likewise wouldn't be surprised if you see a bit of a dip in those numbers in the next year or two as pent-up demand alleviates and you settle into a more normal level of demand.

2. MS' shift is almost certainly due to their GamePass service, which they've heavily promoted and used to sell both console and PC games. "Software" could be a broad category there encompassing both, but with GamePass nominally under the Xbox aegis, sales -- even of PC games thru it -- would maybe be credited to "Xbox" generally.

I've heard Gamepass is actually a really good deal, but because I play next to nothing on the console, and I tend to buy games relatively infrequently and almost always on sale anyway...eh...it doesn't matter a ton to me. I might check it out at some point if there's a bunch of stuff on there that I want to play, but don't want to pay even $10 per copy for, but for anything that I KNOW I want, I'm just buying it.
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Gamepass is a great deal. Probably the best on the market. Honestly surprised that MS claims its already profitable and kind of doubt it. Releasing brand new games day one also honestly doesnt make sense and what PS Plus does seems more realistic.

I would say the problem with Gamepass and PS Plus though is no DLC, no mods even on PC, and I doubt the truly amazing best third party games will be released there. Larian has already stated they dont plan to release Balders Gate 3 on Gamepass and I doubt they will for several years since it will cut into their sales. Subscription is great to really expand your taste in games and try out games you thought you would never try for cheap. Having used PS Plus for one year, I did enjoy a ton of games (mostly indies) that I wouldnt want to shell out money to play but still enjoyed playing if that makes sense.

I would say the big advantage console has over PC though is the existence of physical media. Thanks to steam, physical PC games are dead. The closest thing you have is GOG with offline installers and DRM free but as a result, they rarely get any AAA games. While the general public embraces digital only, I know there are several users on the RPF that already know the issues with only digital media with film and the exact same issues have occurred with video games.

Games no longer purchasable from the digital front due to licensing issues (publishing, music)? Game is gone and unless you have a physical copy.
You get banned from Steam/Sony/Microsoft and lose access to your account? Bye bye games.
Live in a certain region where a game isnt available for you? Well too bad, you cant buy it (Metal Gear series in Japan for example).
Mods are nice but given most players dont even finish a single playthrough, not sure how valuable mods are to the majority of gamers tbh.
 
That's why I really will never use Gamepass, since the vast majority of games there I have no interest in playing and I want a physical copy of my game that nobody can take away. My wife will download a couple of digital games here and there, but I never will. There was only one exception, where it was only released digitally, but I backed it up so that I have access forever, no matter what Microsoft does.
 
Sluis Van Shipyards said:
My nephew uses Gamepass all the time to play games with his friends because I guess they can share games. I also prefer physical copies, but the last one I got was Fallout 4. At least half the game still had to be downloaded through Steam.
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When I got Starfield, the whole game on disc was about 40 gigs. The day one download was over 100gb. It's just stupid.
 
Cephus said:
When I got Starfield, the whole game on disc was about 40 gigs. The day one download was over 100gb. It's just stupid.
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Thats why people dont like these broken games on release. Even though these games get fixed with "patches," there could be a time were the patches are gone and you are left with a broken mess on disc.

We have larger storage for physical media and its not like digital versions are cheaper so there isnt any reason for gamers to not go physical except convenience. Unfortunately, thats only an option for console since PC physical games have been dead since the early 2000s (near the end, buying a PC game in a store only gave you a steam code).

Companies like Limited Run Games are taking advantage of this by releasing "limited copies" of mostly digital only games with a physical release but this is obviously not a solution.
 
Strikerkc said:
I've been loving the hell out of Helldivers 2. If anyone is on the fence, I'd recommend diving in.
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Every time I settle in to just do a few drops in Helldivers, I always end up playing 5 or 6 hours and not even realize it.
Community has Heeth 100% Liberated and Angel's Venture is at 96% and climbing in the Terminid sector. Definitely getting liberated in a day or two.

Decided to head over to the Automaton sector where progress is going much slower. Totally different fighting style you have to deal with. Automatons use guns, grenades, dropships, artillery and some heavy machinery. The Terminids you can strike hard and push in assault style. Automatons are heavily fortified and battles are pitched long range gun fights and often times the Helldivers will need to fall back as the terrain they are using for protection gets whittled down. Definitely have to rely on stratagems and stealth even more against the Automatons to keep them back. The Terminids basically just see you and rush at you. The Automatons seem to try and encircle and trap you and if you let it happen you have to punch your way out and run. And I'm only up to Medium difficulty on them.
Recoiless rifles are pretty much a must against the Automatons, to knock their reinforcement dropships out of the sky before they can deploy entire squads, although it's fun shooting squaddies out of the dropship and watching them tumble.

Linked my Discord to my PS5 which according to the people I was playing with only worked halfassed. Everyone I was playing with was on PC while I was on PS5. I would keep cutting out, but it was nice being able to use the controller as a mic. And speaking of the controller, the Haptic feedback for Helldivers is insane. Guns have their own unique responses and going full auto with a heavy MG literally has the triggers jumping. Also if you unload long enough your Helldiver will start doing insane Rambo yelling or shout something hilarious.

Also ended up getting the PC version, but unfortunately accounts don't crossover (yet). That might still be getting worked on, because if I play on PC, I literally have to start fresh with a new character.

EDIT: I'm generally not an intentional team killer, but I was playing with my brothers last night and one of them is fairly new to the game. He wanted to go across the map to check out a point of interest so I was watching him through the fully zoomed scope of an anti-matter sniper rifle. He came across some of those random red exploding barrels that you can pick up and carry around. Anyway he picked one up and was asking on the mic what these things were for. I couldn't resist. I put a round into the one he was carrying and as you know it has a couple seconds of leaking fire before it explodes. He asked what was happening because the barrel was making a hissing noise and shooting out sparks, then it exploded him into pieces. He must have known I shot it because I laughed hysterically for the next five minutes. If I had thought about it I could have recorded the whole thing on PS5 Share so I was kicking myself afterward I didn't think of it so I could send him the video. I completely tried to play it off that I didn't know what had happened but I had mentioned to him on mic that I was watching him across the map through my sniper scope.
 
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Im actually finally going through Witcher 3. Yeah it is good although I can see why the combat is disappointing. Not terrible compared to other open world games but "lacking" may be the better word.

Still need to finish the DLC Blood and Wine though.
 
I didn't have much of a problem with combat, but I get the complaints. Hopefully the next game will flesh out combat a little more. I've said it before, but the first time I played Witcher 3 with all the DLCs, I really felt like I went on a journey. I'm someone who starts a game and then plays it until finished or I'm just done, so it took probably three months or more for that one.
 
I broke down and downloaded the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo, since its free, and some things carry over to the real game. Although, I'll have to wait, as I surely won't have the money by the 29th.
I still have a mixed love/hate feeling towards how they did the first part.
 
cboath said:
Blood and Wine was like an entirely new game - story/time wise. Especially compared to the first DLC.
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Kind of realized I might not be a huge Witcher fan lol since I love Toussaint for not being Witcher lol.

Toussaint is very noble and more "black and white" in terms of morality. Really beautiful place but I do think its less morally ambiguous than the base game.

Sluis Van Shipyards said:
I didn't have much of a problem with combat, but I get the complaints. Hopefully the next game will flesh out combat a little more. I've said it before, but the first time I played Witcher 3 with all the DLCs, I really felt like I went on a journey. I'm someone who starts a game and then plays it until finished or I'm just done, so it took probably three months or more for that one.
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Yeah, I understand the issues with the combat. I think the criticism is overblown in that I have played other "beloved" games with worse combat systems (Red Dead Redemption 2, Last of Us, GTA) but Witcher 3 is "lacking" to put it better.

I think there are several problems:
- Strong attack is kinda useless - quick attacks are pretty much always superior and benefit from synergy with cat school techniques + cat school armor compared to strong which is slower, doesnt synergize with bear school, and is too risky with not enough benefit compared to quick.

- Signs are pretty OP - the signs are all pretty balanced which I like. Yes, quen + dodge is standard but using aard to push enemies off cliffs, axii to open shield enemies to an attack or get some distance and puppet to have enemies kill each other, yrden for certain enemies are all useful. Igni is relatively useless in comparison but has some uses.

- while being able to dodge infinitely is "bad" by making combat too easy, its hard to fix. Some enemies require constant dodging (pack of wolves or nekkers or facing a strong enemy like bruxia) so tying it to limited stamina is not really the answer imo. Not sure how to address this properly.

To praise Witcher 3's combat, it has some peak bosses with fair attacks. Imlerith with his warp spam is pretty easy to deal with by dodging right has he appears until he ends his combo but hits like a truck. Caranthir is much harder and you need to learn to dodge his ice spells and ignore his summons. Eredin can be hard if you nerf yourself (no upgrades to alchemy) and is a fun boss with fair learnable attacks. Caretaker and Olgierd from the DLC are also fun fights as is Dettlaff tbh (I think I can no damage if Quen is allowed his first two phases. His third phase gets quite annoying). CDPR can make some great bosses so more like them in a future entry would be great.

Yeah, it also seems highly likely Witcher 4 is in the works. If it is a sequel (would prefer a prequel set in the early witcher era pre-Geralt, maybe when witchers were first being made and tons of monsters roamed the land), I dont mind Ciri has the main character but she would have to be nerfed. Ciri with her warp powers is too OP (her right trigger warp spam one shots groups of enemies, her charge has pretty insane range and tracking, and her dodge is a bit too long distance for my liking). Maybe something like her Elder blood powers and warping have been weakened following the events of 3 and since Ciri didnt go through the trial of the grasses, she cant handle as strong alchemic potions as Geralt but may be able to cast stronger sign variants from her training with Yen and her Elder blood.
 
I wonder, after the 3rd part of the FF7 remake trilogy is out....probably by 2028 or so.....do you think they will ever make some way to have it as one HUGE game, where there are no credits like when you leave Midgar, and it just actually continues on with the story?
How would they do that, and also include the DLC Intragrade....not sure. Maybe not possible....would be interesting if they could pull it off.
It would be like a minimum 600gb.
Maybe that will end up being a PlayStation 6 game with a full terabyte needed.....yikes.
 

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