The Gamer Thread Vol. 5 (General Gaming News & Discussion)

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Saw an article on GameSpot that Jack Carver and The Jackal from Far Cry 2 have been confirmed to be the same person, a fan theory that was never before explicitly confirmed (in-game anyway).

I watched ACG's review of Far Cry 6 and maybe one day I'll bother with it, many patches and a heavy discount sale later (and probably on PS5 instead of 4).

Even though I want to play Trials of Osiris all weekend, on Sunday I might actually be doing a raid or two. My one friend is planning to do both Deep Stone Crypt and Garden of Salvation (I don't want to even try for Divinity, certainly not first run) and I'm praying we pull it off because I would love to get a well-rolled Reckless Oracle (and the shaders from each raid).

I'm slowly, slowly getting after the various pinnacles so that I can perhaps do Grandmaster Nightfalls one day and earn the Conqueror title. With the reduced power level grind I actually have a snowball's chance in Hell of reaching the 1330 base/1345 max to enter the mode, and although I know I'm going to struggle with a lot of the content it is a title I would love to earn and never remove (at least one character would always wear it). A pipe dream for now but maybe one day.

And hey, Bungie finally gave a modest update on the Content Vault. Might get Leviathan back in the near future, which means I might actually be able to earn the Calus's Selected shader. Might also have a small chance at the Luxurious Toast emote.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Finished the Beyond Light story yesterday since I missed the damn raid cutoff, and just finished earning Shatterdive for my Hunter. Also grabbed all the dead Exos and penguins (since I decided I might as well try to get the Splintered title while I still can and there will gradually be less and less to do this prolonged season).

Festival of the Lost starts tomorrow. I still wish the monster costumes had won but maybe they'll appear down the road.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Really gotta hand it to Bungie: instead of a repeating haunted forest, we have a trio of haunted bunkers and hilarious spooky dialog while fighting a new enemy that's basically a pumpkin-headed lumbering giant. Love it.

We also get reprised old weapons, robotic dinosaur armor, and some other assorted goodies.

Going to be an enjoyable three weeks, although I still need to decide if I should get the new event armor or not (I'm liking it but not thrilled, and getting all three will be a sizable chunk of my bright dust).

PSN has a couple sales right now with some gems on offer, and at absurdly-good prices. Hell, I might even buy the Warmastered edition of Darksiders even though I have it already on original PS3 release because it's forwards-compatible with PS5 and has appealing upgrades.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Freelance Trials was much better than I thought: I actually managed to get to six wins before running into sweat lords who absolutely destroyed my chance of going flawless for the first time. I also managed to make some small progress in reaching the Deadeye title (I also plan to get Splintered before I lose my chance).

Overall a better weekend, and now that I don't need to really try at Festival of the Lost (aside from doing the weekly bounties to restore some small amount of bright dust that I lost buying the dino armor), I can invest more time into other aspects of the game (need just a few more triumphs for Ruins of Wrath and then Shattered Realm will be thoroughly explored; not sure if I can convince clanmates to help with the legendary Astral/SR so that I can get the Realmwalker title but we'll see).

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Been watching deep dives and interviews about the 4v1 horror game VHS from developer Hellbent. The whole thing is themed around 1980s horror flicks, and unlike Dead by Daylight actually gives survivors the ability to fight back against the monster. I'm not sure how they plan to deal with hackers because it'll be free-to-play, which just invites assholes, but I'm cautiously optimistic for the game (and I hope it's not a PC exclusive, because all the footage I've seen so far has been on PC).

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

VHS might not be out in full for another year. Disappointing but hopefully it is indeed amazing.

I actually got around to cleaning my PS4, but only a bit. I don't have the right tools myself so I asked a coworker in maintenance and he loaned me a few things, but that only got me halfway. I was able to get some of the heavy dust out of my console but couldn't remove the power supply so a bunch is still in there until at least tomorrow evening.

New World is a dangerous game. I mean that literally. Amazon can't figure out fucking HTML, which is why people can completely obscure your screen by uploading an image into the chat service or even cause your computer to outright crash by typing in a certain code and then if you simply hover your cursor over it, you will crash and need to restart your system. ACG has a brief video on how fucked the game is on many levels.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

So I took the time today to empty out my entertainment center and unplug, clean, and set aside unused electronics. My PS3, DVD player, and my launch-edition Xbox 360 are no longer in front of me. I need to get thumbstick covers for the two PS controllers I have since those are feeling as sticky as ever and scrubbing them made no difference, and I decided I really should take the plunge and find out how to disassemble and clean the inside of my PS3 and possibly 360.

One thing that felt really strange was unplugging the power brick of the Xbox 360 because I have had that lit for several years even without actively using it or barely using it (but that's also because the disc tray is faulty).

Gonna have to get bags and boxes for the old sets so that everything stays together and I don't lose any of it.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Decided to take a chance today to do a solo Master difficulty Lost Sector on Europa, died maybe half a dozen times but at least the game lets you self-revive if you have extra lives. Needed it for the Splintered title and this was probably the easiest of the three, what with the NPCs that can help. Didn't get any good loot and I'm not eager to try again so I'll just steadily move on with the other challenges I need to complete.

[Parrylakks Neko Samurai Find all posts View Profile Close Parrylakks]

On Monday, I got an invite to the PS Direct queue for Tuesday.
On Tuesday, I accessed the queue early to ensure I got a spot.
On Wednesday, I was notified that UPS would deliver it soon.
On Thursday, I finally got to enjoy some true 4K gaming.
I have entered the new generation. I now own a PS5!

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

^Very cool. What will be your first game?

[Parrylakks Neko Samurai Find all posts View Profile Close Parrylakks]

^Very cool. What will be your first game?

I've got the PS5 versions of Ghost of Tsushima, Jedi Fallen Order, Destiny 2, Outriders, The Avengers, and Skyrim. I haven't played Jedi Fallen Order or The Avengers (save for the beta), so those will both be new. Ghost of Tsushima already looked beautiful, but now it's just insane (you can see people and animals from a literal kilometer away from high enough vantage points). I was honestly shocked by how great Destiny 2 looks in 4K with 60fps -- it genuinely looks and almost even feels like a different game. I haven't looked at Outriders, yet, but it was down ported to PS4, so being at the level it's supposed to be should make it infinitely better, as well. Skyrim is Skyrim, but the Anniversary Edition has so much new stuff it's crazy.

The real shock to the system has been the load times, though. As in they aren't a thing anymore. Destiny 2's notoriously long load times have been changed from minutes to seconds, even with my crappy internet. Meanwhile, neither Tsushima or Skyrim even have loading screens anymore. Seriously, I played Skyrim for a good two hours tonight and didn't see a single loading screen. Same with Tsushima -- I could literally fast travel across the entire island without even a second of load time. It's crazy.

I don't have any of the PS5/next gen exclusives, yet, but I've got my eye on a few. Final Fantasy XVI doesn't have a release date yet, but a remake of the original called Stranger in Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is due out in February and looks great. And of course I'm super stoked for Dragon Age 4 (it's my favorite video game franchise), but it doesn't have a release date yet, either.

Aside from that, I've got 40 PS4 games on my External HDD that I can play with faster load speeds and up-scaled 4K, which isn't as good as the real thing, obviously, but still noticeably better than normal. To top it off, it has all the steaming apps, so now I can use HBOmax and Disney+ in 4K UHD without HDR (as my UHD player, doesn't have those apps), and that makes the cinephile in me very happy. Oh, and I also got a new 3D surround sound gaming headset that is amazing.

All in all, it's a pretty great use of $500. I'm super happy with it.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Saw my dad for his birthday yesterday, brought him dinner I'd preordered from a good place. Later on I wanted to buy my dad The Outer Worlds but he refused, so we watched a bit of SkillUp's review and dad said he'd think it over. I also mentioned Wasteland 3. Maybe for Christmas but right now he insists on Skyrim Special Edition or whatever it is this time.

Also loaded up Destiny 1 again. I mostly just wanted to take pics of my old armor and weapons, maybe finish a bounty or two for rare rewards. Oh god, the movement even in the Tower is uncomfortable, and in Crucible makes it obvious as hell that having boosted sprint and turning is imperative. Gunplay is also not as crisp as in 2, so getting the bounties done is going to be a grind. I'm afraid to even ask my clan to help me through any raids even though I still need Outbreak Prime and haven't done King's Fall or Wrath of the Machine on my Warlock and Titan.

Bought The Messenger indie game and the City That Never Sleeps bundle for Spider-Man on the recent PS4 sale, and there are a couple of discounted items I'm looking at in a current sale but otherwise light offerings; but hey, AVGN Adventures I and II bundle is on sale so I'm definitely getting that!

I deleted Return to Arkham Asylum from my external to save space for other games and because the only things left for me were the more difficult challenge maps, and given how sluggish combat is in that game then I'm just gonna save myself the trouble of attempting to platinum the game. Once I get the Calendar Man trophy I might do some more challenge maps but otherwise I might just delete Arkham City as well and go back to actually move past the beginning in Knight.

[Parrylakks Neko Samurai Find all posts View Profile Close Parrylakks]

I got Spider-Man: Miles Morales and the Nioh Complete Remastered Collection on PS5 this week. Haven't started Miles Morales yet, but I am looking forward to it. Some of my friends play the Nioh games, so I'll be playing both of them slowly as we're not always on at the same time.

Meanwhile, I've been enjoying Skyrim and all the new little things that have been added for the Anniversary Edition. I'm amused that I'm 29 hours into this new playthrough but I still haven't talked to the Jarl of Whiterun to start the main quest, lol.