Gaming 2023

[Beany]

A Bethesda game? With bugs?

*has an attack of the vapours, collapses into chaise lounge*

[Matty]

Started Starfield this evening and put a few hours into it. Good enough so far but I'm a bit upset it's not more open like No Mans Sky. Having to wait for loading screens for every single environment change is all a bit last decade.

I'm suprised that everyone is surprised about that - I thought everyone knew it would be like that (but just secretly hoped it wouldn't be). Thing is that NMS is far more basic, and just does a better job of hiding the loading screens. I mean, they have no ship interiors, so no loading there, and planet -> space is loading, just hidden. Admittedly, Starfield should have done the same.

Thing is removing loading screens is a massive undertaking. Star Citizen has been working on that tech for 10 years and still hasn't got it right....I mean, what they've got is incredibly impressive as it's completely seemless, but no content and still tons of bugs.

[Mito Man]

It's just more than expected, spaceship interior to cockpit - loading screen. The cockpit isn't even functional!
Moving into/out of building - loading screen.
Moving from a close location on a planet to another close location - loading screen. It's clear that each zone is only say 500 metres x 500 metres but the planets are not even detailed particularly well.
Same with space, it's very sparse. Odd juxtaposition of an near infinite world with very finite boundaries.
They've implemented the scanning tool from NMS but just made it much more frustrating to use as you have to find 5 different examples of the same thing so you can scan it 100%.
Core game is good but they always have to fuck something for no reason.

[ZedLeg]

I've been liking it, classic bethesda. Same mechanics as they've been using for decades with some padding from popular recent games. I'm about 50 hours in, been through the Unity once and I'm currently working undercover with the pirates.

It's ben keeping me entertained.

[Mito Man]

Please don’t be shit.
Please.

[RobYob]

For what should be an polished trailer past the surface shiney it didn't do much for me.
Rear brake discs glowing and instantly fading rubber trails were a couple of less than promising details.

[Brannen]

I remember really enjoying the first TDU, but no idea if that was just nostalgia/being young when I played it. I'm pretty sure I also remember TDU2 being rubbish and giving up on it. Forza Horizon has spoilt some of these more open world racing games, as I don't like the driving mechanics in comparison.

[Sundayjumper]

My 2023 gaming is - I've just started Red Dead Redemption 2 (on PS4) I only seem to play games at Christmas time. I'm somewhat behind the times.

[Jobbo]

My 2023 gaming is - I've just started Red Dead Redemption 2 (on PS4) I only seem to play games at Christmas time. I'm somewhat behind the times.

I haven't played RDR or RDR2 but I always assume it's like GTA crossed with this:

[Ascender]

My 2023 gaming is - I've just started Red Dead Redemption 2 (on PS4) I only seem to play games at Christmas time. I'm somewhat behind the times.

I set this to download last night on the Xbox, I've still not played it for any more than an hour or so! I've got that and the Spiderman games to play this festive period.

[mik]

My 2023 gaming has consisted of:

Project Cars 2 (roughly 97%)
This game is pretty dated now, which means a limited choice of online lobbies, and often only 4-8 car races when you do find one. The upside to that is that most of the lobbies are drivers who have stuck to the game because of the level of accuracy in the physics model, and the way in which setup changes impact the handling, so (whilst there are always exceptions of course) driving standards are generally high. Some of them (particularly guys/gals who have been playing the game since it's release) are feckin' fast.

GT7 (roughly 3%)
Purchased to complement the above as it's a "current" game, and online lobbies are therefore very well subscribed. You'll get a race any time you log on, and it's generally a full (or nearly full) grid. Whilst it's probably a great idea for total noobs, I found it a total PITA to go through all of the licences in order to unlock online mode, and the lower-end lobbies you initially find yourself in are full of poor racecraft and intentional ramming. I lost interest before reaching the any higher-end lobbies as - whilst the game is far from easy - it's very much a simcade. Being fast requires real skill, but not the skill set you need to drive a sim. (Braking in particular is utterly unrealistic, and the fast guys adjust the front to rear balance in order to influence tyre wear as opposed to tweaking how the cars respond under heavy retardation). It's a great game, but not really what I am looking for.

[Rich B]

My 2023 gaming consisted of the same as it has for about the last 10 years.

100% Call of Duty

I've enjoyed the addition of DMZ to Warzone, giving a bit more purpose to gameplay other than just "kill everyone", but sadly they've now dropped it.

Hopefully it'll come back, but we'll carry on trying to be last team standing in various resurgence modes.

[Mito Man]

Hmm % wise it would be
50% Starfield - it’s the only thing I’ve played since its release.

10% Marvel Spiderman - It was good but I don’t think Spider-Man 2 is worth £70 or whatever crazy price so I’ll wait for it to be £15 like this one.

10% GT7

30% AMS2

[Beany]

About 90% Talos Principle 2, 10% BeamNG with a bit of emulated Metroid Prime and some Dusk in there too.

Need to try Dusk HD, too.

I don't game that much.

[Zonda_]

It's been a split between Project Cars 2 and Halo Infinite for me. I'm hoping a new driving game comes out soon.

[RobYob]

Still shedloads of Elite Dangerous (and dragging in a few friends too)
Too much Fortnite.
Vampire Survivors when on the road.

Did manage to lower the pile of shame to the tune of;
Control - Ace Xfiles vibe
Alien Isolation - bloody amazing and best Alien story in decades.
Stanley Parable - misread @Beany 's post on The Talos Principle, I think we had different experiences

Clearing the decks for whenever Baldurs Gate 3 goes on special in 2024.

[Matty]

10% Vermintide 2
10% Cyberpunk 2077 Replay (PT looks great)
90% Baldurs Gate 3.

Can't continue to stress how impressive it is. It's not to everyone's taste, but the level of work, detail, the VA and music....it's truly a generational game.

This is still a brilliant clip that shows how varied it is, especially things like smearing shit on your face to bypass a speech check, that barely anyone - anyone - would ever see or do, yet they've built reactions to it.

https://x.com/momo_obrien/status/173393 ... 33113?s=20

[Beany]

BG3 is one of those games where the only criticism I've heard of it (and it's one of mine too) is where someone isn't interested in the actual structure of the game itself (in the same way that some people just aren't interested in racing games or first person shooters). And that's not really a criticism, per se.

Otherwise it's just been universal praise across the board.

[mik]

10% Vermintide 2
10% Cyberpunk 2077 Replay (PT looks great)
90% Baldurs Gate 3.

Erm

[simon_g]

My 2023 gaming is - I've just started Red Dead Redemption 2 (on PS4) I only seem to play games at Christmas time. I'm somewhat behind the times.

Only got around to playing it earlier this year, loved it. Want to plough through the first RDR now but hoping it gets a bit cheaper, full price is bonkers for a re-release of a 13 year old game.

I've owned every generation of Playstation up to the PS4 but still not feeling the need to get a PS5. Going to go back through my psplus library over Christmas into January and play anything worthwhile before I let the subscription lapse. After that, have some of the big PS4 games like Last Of Us, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn etc to play and lots more I can pick up cheap after. And a massive Steam backlog to play on my steamdeck.

Bought a Switch "for the kids" but my wife and I have been having a brilliant time playing Mario Wonder together, we probably have several more evenings to complete that.