Forums

Topic: The everything Xbox thread

Posts 3,661 to 3,680 of 11,919

NEStalgia

@ThanosReXXX I'm still debating if a cash pack for an F2P really counts as a free game at all But either way that's really with the June batch.

Wow I didn't even look at VF DLC. That said it comes with a big roster. You've got to be hardcore into FG to feel the need to buy specific other characters. OTOH there's not too much of a single player game...just bot matches. I do fear that the publishers caught on and free games (and even Game Pass) are being used to push DLC more. I can't imagine why those characters are so huge though, even if they come with a stage.

As for Cage's games like I said, he's the most polarizing man in games....Heavy Rain never interested me. Beyond didn't either, but I played the first part of it when it was free a few months ago....it was actually more fun than I expected but the broken timeline was just....broken (the fact they had to fix it in the remaster with a "play it as intended" or "play it chronologically" option says a lot...though I opted for the original layout.) It was more interesting than I thought with serious timer based gameplay suspense....but it was also a QTE fest. I wouldn't pay money for it, but I feel like for free it was higher value than many free games. Detroit (haven't started it yet) but I was hooked at the first showing of it before I really understood the whole Cage thing. The whole Blade Runner environment mixed with a "choose your own adventure" dialog tree system was really appealing. We'll see once I play it (I have about 70 XBox games to get through first ) With Heavy Rain I think scores were inflated because it was so art house and advanced in presentation everyone ignored the fact that it had no gameplay. (Not that I don't think there's room for interactive movies as its own entertainment, I do. It's more like a Western graphic novel like Zero Escape, Psychopass, etc.)

I do also agree that Sony gets a pass on mediocrity in games for some unknown reason among critics. So does Nintendo, but not to the extent Sony does. I mentioned it before but in judged sports there's a trend that athletes with a reputation for not messing up don't get scrutinized and get away with minor errors, while athletes with a reputation for frequent errors always get scrutinized so all those same flaws are found and deducted. I think that's part of it. Sony has a reputation for so many high quality games they just get a pass assuming it's all high quality and no scrutiny. MS has a spotty history for games so everything they do is put under a microscope and criticized even if it's as good or better than Sony's output. Nintendo is Nintendo. Main franchises get that same pass as Sony. Minor franchises are held to the standard of the main franchises and ripped apart. Plus critic's in film and gaming loooove arthouse.....for some odd reason it makes them feel refined and culturally superior heaping praise on anything presenting itself as arthouse, probably in fear that if they critisize it it's because they don't understand it's intellectual merits, it can't possibly be simply flawed. (Babel is a terrible move. There, I said it. It's disjointed, broken, disorienting, and often incoherent. And it's the very kind of arthouse and the trend in arthouse presentation that was popular in creative circles right around when Cage was doing Heavy Rain. Even pretentiousness is just derivative in modern art entertainment. Heck then Sony even hired Gustavo Santaolalla..... Well, not hired.....it's Sony every recording artist ever already owes them their soul and spleen.... they just point the lawyer finger at where to go like the Ghost of Christmas Future.)

Still, may Sony remain dominant so XBox remains the quality underdog

NEStalgia

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia Ha, I never take movie critics seriously. They continue to pan, bash and burn every multi-million dollar earning movie into the ground, so you should think that by now, they ought to be "a bit" more informed on what people actually like, instead of trying to make them go see those heavy, dystopian Eastern European dramas that reflect on the futility of life and heavily lay on the guilt trip for us Westerners, so that we'll shamefully realize that we really aren't having such a bad life at all...

I go to the movies to be entertained, not to be tortured. If I want to see something heavy or emotional, then I'll watch it on my TV, so I can cry in the comfort of my own home, thank you...

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

NEStalgia

@ThanosReXXX Ahh but they're so sophisticated and refined, that they realize that those popular films are just circuses for the peasant rabble, not true art to be admidred, interpereted, and deconstructed like the fine film they critique. Popular films are like hot dogs to make uncivilized people content at a bawdry sporting event, while their films are a refined merlot only the sophisticated, worldly, and intellectually accomplished could appreciate. But they do their best to bring such knowledge to the poor, feckless masses.

The Academy Awards are a 5 hour back patting session among which of the noble houses has demonstrated their erudite experience to the fullest (as well as who paid off the judges, and/or who did or didn't sleep with the producer.) And Cannes just takes it to a whole other level. Meanwhile said films still lose money for any of the "select theaters" showing them.

Your summary of the heavy dystopian dramas is poetry. Dare I say, arthouse? Bravo, good show (golf clap)

Meanwhile we look at E3 and it's starting to look like Cannes. Dystopian wasteland A, dystopian wasteland B, dystopian wasteland C (now with zombies), dystopian wasteland D (now without zombies and with unexplained romance stories that seem really out of context), and indie games clearly made by those same dystopian producers, all reminding us how fragile and hopeless we are, while video games originally appealed by making one feel stronger or more significant than they are. And "torture porn" as someone, maybe you, called it in another thread is becoming a thing.

Speaking of dystopian wastelands I fired up Recore......not exactly the modern wasteland game It's actually really cool. It has some issues...but I wasn't expecting a kind of action game like that...it's really cool actually.

NEStalgia

JaxonH

Xbox One X for $399 at Ratuken with code: ALT80X

Xbox One X $399

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia Thanks for the compliment.
For some reason, if I think of Eastern European Art House movies, I always see a black & white movie in my mind, featuring some peasants using hovels, rakes or pitchforks, digging into the mud on a field in the middle of nowhere, and they'll be living the simple life, wearing mostly the same worn clothes every day, and staying in some clay and straw building or tiny farm, and they're all SO very happy about the single potato and carrot that they get to eat each day, thanks to communism...

Of course, this isn't the reality, but the combination of Eastern Europe and Art House does invoke those kinds of visions in my mind.

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia But getting back to the topic of gaming: I bought the Forza Horizon 3 Blizzard Mountain expansion (yes, I didn't have that yet, although me marketing the hell out of it towards others might have made you suspect otherwise) because of the current discount. I hope to be able to try it out some time this week or in the weekend.

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

NEStalgia

@ThanosReXXX LOL....actually the first half of that actually sounded kind of dreamy until the Red Potatoes part I think those East European films are more common over there but don't make their way over here. The arthouse ones here usually come from some holier than thou director either from South America or the US, on rare occasion Europe, and is similarly designed to touch upon every "social issue" of the year and make everyone feel guilty to have flushing toilets while so much of the world does not. Not so different from the Red Potatoes though

LOL, you didn't have Blizzard Mountain yet? That's too funny. I'd have pointed out the sale day 1 if I thought that! I still haven't unlocked the expansions. I turned off auto braking, steer assist, and one of the other settings and now can't finish better than 11th in a race and spend most of it fishtailing, spinning out, and flying wildly off course

NEStalgia

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia Later today, I'll have a look see into what settings I have switched on or off, and what cars I have been using. Right now, watching the Soccer World Cup in Putin Paradise again...

Well, just be patient, and keep at it. You already have one festival unlocked, so that's two in total, seeing as you already begin at the first one, if I remember correctly. But if not, then there's two more to go, and not all experience points come from winning races. You also need to scour the map for barn finds, and complete the objectives that these give you.

The benefit, besides experience points, that this gives you, is that you also get instant access to much better cars than the ones you've started with, because most of the barn finds are already tuned up.

The only "annoying" thing about barn finds as opposed to other objectives, such as races and other way points, is that the game only gives you a ball park direction of where the barn find is supposed to be, so it'll drop you in the vicinity of it, but you'll have to do some smart and slow driving around to actually find them.

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

NEStalgia

Not that spinning 190 degrees non-stop in a race and swerving back and forth like a sailing ship in a monsoon isn't fun.....but I would like to actually be able to turn a corner and end up at least near the road, pointing the right way

I love the barn finds system. What is this game teaching children. If you go find a Porche in a barn you can keep it? Well, I guess that's how NY works already so it makes sense....

NEStalgia

DarkRula

Is it just me who finds the snow tires on Blizzard Mountain pointless? I'm able to get around a lot better without them, and when I have to go back to them it feels as though I've been limited in movement again.

DarkRula

3DS Friend Code: 4253-3513-2745 | Nintendo Network ID: DarkRula

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia Well, the big difference is, that in real life, these cars aren't perfectly tuned, much less in good driving conditions to begin with. I've watched enough "car find" programs on History and Discovery Channel to be able to make that distinction. I would dare to wager a bet that most children or even teenagers wouldn't have the cash on hand to restore these real life barn finds to their former glory...

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

NEStalgia

@ThanosReXXX Isn't that the system in NFS (reboot?) I haven't got that far into it yet, just the intro stuff, but I remember when they E3 show spent way too much time on that between FIFA and BF1 that you find rusted out buckets of junk on the road have have to have parts to rebuild them into something usable (probably with money from microtrans.....because EA.) but that sounds kind of cool and way more like real life.

NEStalgia

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia To be honest, I don't know anymore. Perhaps in the later games, but not in the first one. Or maybe it is. It's been many years since I played a Need for Speed game to such an extent, that I would be able to make any sensible comment on that. Perhaps someone else can chime in to give you an answer. Maybe @DarthNocturnal or @redd214?

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

ThanosReXXX

@NEStalgia But cool? Nah... semi-automatically buying new parts or simply sending your digital car to the digital garage isn't really a substitute for doing the work properly, as in real life. Parts just don't magically pop up and get placed by a pointer...

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

ThanosReXXX

@redd214 It was the question he posted directly above the comment I made in which I mentioned you and @DarthNocturnal. But I'll save you having to scroll back three comments...

He wanted to know, if there was an option in one of the rebooted NFS games on last or current gen systems, that had some kind of option in it, to find and/or buy old, worn down cars, and fix them up in a garage.

Not to be confused with a function to simply repair your own car in a garage....

The question came about because we had a discussion about barn finds in Forza Horizon 3 and how these feature all kinds of prime model cars, which are completely tuned by default. That turned into a real life comparison, in which I simply mentioned that cars found in barns in real life, are mostly rust buckets, that are hardly in any driving condition, much less a good one.

And that ended up in the question that we now have: did or didn't one of the NFS games have some sort of garage function where you could find (or buy) and fix up such broken down and neglected rust buckets?

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

NEStalgia

@ThanosReXXX " Parts just don't magically pop up and get placed by a pointer" #-@;$+@;, now you tell me....

NEStalgia

redd214

@ThanosReXXX ah gotcha. Yes NFS payback has "Derelicts" which are basically barn finds. You find the chassis then have to find 4 parts scattered throughout the world. Then can be tuned up to the maxed level. I don't believe the 2015 release had anything like that from what I recall, been a few years.

redd214

ThanosReXXX

@redd214 Thanks for clearing that up.
@NEStalgia Well, there's your answer, then. Curse-o-matic...

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

Grumblevolcano

What's nice about Horizon 3 is you don't have to go too far into the main game to play the expansions. Like I'm around 20% done with the main game and just finished the Hot Wheels expansion, I don't remember the unlock requirements though.

Grumblevolcano

Switch Friend Code: SW-2595-6790-2897 | 3DS Friend Code: 3926-6300-7087 | Nintendo Network ID: GrumbleVolcano

Please login or sign up to reply to this topic