General gaming discussion

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123052843#Comment_123052843

Burnout 3 Takedown is when arcade racing games peaked (I know Burnout 2 purists will disagree). Such a great game.

recyclops

I regularly play takedown on my steam deck it's near arcade perfection.

CatInABox

There's been talk of an Elder Scrolls: Oblivion remaster for a while now, but the latest rumours are kind of astonishing (if true), to be honest.

Apparently it's not a remaster, but a remake, with the game swapping to Unreal Engine 5. Perhaps gamebryo will still manage the "simulation" part of it, but swapping engines would be an amazing opportunity to fix some of the long standing bugs.

Also makes sense to do a remake with an engine swap, rather than also have the pressure off creating a brand new game and deal with the engine swap issues at the same time.

https://www.eurogamer.net/elder-scrolls-4-oblivion-remake-details-surface-as-leaker-suggests-its-coming-in-june

Hopefully we hear more at the Xbox show later this month.

Zero-Cool

Atomfall is out in March on, day 1 on gamepass and also pc and playstation. Looks cool, a Skyrim/Fallout/Far Cry set in England but I saw an IGN gameplay clip and the enemy AI looks so bad, it could ruin the combat. Will keep an eye on it to see how it plays out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCGyfXGPSvc

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123053670#Comment_123053670

If true I'm glad they are changing to a modern engine.

On the other hand Unreal Engine 5 has been awful for open world games.

SuperBowserWorld

Does Unreal Engine 5 need more horsepower or does it have fundamental flaws running complex open world games ?

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123053742#Comment_123053742

Seems to be flaws at the fundamental game engine level. It's worse on PC as there's shader compilation issues although that's more the fault of developers using the engines stopgap implementation instead of writing their own micro code for it.

It has pretty bad traversal stutter and performance issues where it puts far too much load on the CPU.

Retr0gamer

Im on my way to the true boss of the last bit of story content (currently) in Wizardry Variants Daphne and I think I'm qualified enough to say that it's the secret best game of 2024.

Grumpypants

Finished Resistance I enjoyed it, there was a lot of ambition in there that I feel got deprioritized in a push to be ready for launch. Nice weapon, enemy and mission variety with some great set pieces available, but it still felt like it missed the execution. I've no doubt that trying to develop that early in the PS3 life cycle was challenging.

Started Resistance 2. And the difference is very noticeable. Graphically it is much more impressive. And the quality of life improvements to sprinting and zooming etc. makes it nicer to play.

The opening is exactly what you want, you are thrown into a massive exciting invasion sequence and even though it's a tutorial and introduces lots of new ideas, it never feels slow.

Only thing I miss is the change to how the health nar was handled.

In 1 you had 4 segments to your health bar, your health would regen if you took cover for a 3-4 seconds, but only within the section you are on. If you health dropped below a marker the only way to get it back was to find a health pack.

It meant you had a lot of risk reward and additional tension when you were on your last bit of health and frantically trying to find a pack.

In 2, you don't have any bar, you simply get the red screen effect when you get shot and regen it all once you stop getting shot.

Mr.Saturn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123053378#Comment_123053378

Everything before 3 was a developer slowly realising what they had on their hands. Tried the original Burnout on the GCN recently and it is as a barebones a game propped up by a germ of an idea if I ever saw one. Currently playing through Paradise again on my Switch wondering just how this series got shelved and Criterion condemned to Need for Speed duty.

Penn

Burnout 2 & 3, and NFS Underground 1 & 2 and NFS Most Wanted… those were the days of the arcade racer. Such a terrific run of games in the early 2000's which were just pure fun from start to finish.

McFly85

There’s a big a leap from burnout 1 to 2 as there is from 2 to 3, after that they had nailed the formula and it sort of stagnated.

I really didn’t like Paradise when it came out, I didn’t think the open world suited high speed racing(especially when it was incredibly easy to miss a turn) but played through the remaster a couple of years back and enjoyed it. Wasn’t quite the high point of 3 but good nonetheless.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123055202#Comment_123055202

Yeah the open world had some wow factor at the time but it was a step back for gameplay, forced you to think too much about navigation and not enough about racing. It's a shame they got EAed, I think the majority of their talent have long since moved on now.

Potential-Monke

I've put about 5 hours into Space Marine 2, and I'm wondering, is this it? It's a straight forward level by level game with simple shooting and melee, but no upgrades or skills or anything like that, yet anyway? The guns are basically the standard pistol, smg, ar, lmg, sniper and 4 melee weapons that have simple combos... is that the entire game?

There's indications that there are armour unlocks, but possibly only with paid dlc? I dunno, kinda underwhelmed by it. Initially it was cool, but its the same thing over and over. Story is... there. No idea why or what we're doing, and they're throwing Warhammer lore references all around but no explanation...

Does something change or am I missing something here. I get it's probably better with 2 other humans, another example of a game saying single player but obviously aimed at co-op. Every level starts and ends with black loading screens followed by animated loading screens that go on for 30+ seconds while it loads resources and creates an online session even though I'm offline... its not long but is very long compared to other recent games with instant fast travel and no loading at all. All the weapons are unlocked, just killed some Chaos Sorcerer... feels like it's missing content. The armor master is a glorified weapon selection screen.

A very meh game so far tbh. Very repetitive.

Mr.Saturn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123055202#Comment_123055202

Burnout Revenge tends to fly under the radar as well, as it sits between 3 and Paradise, but played through the not too long ago and it's an absolute banger, especially the 360 version.

I kinda hated racing in Paradise initially and would literally do any other event to avoid them, but got familiar with the map quick enough to eventually twig what's the best way to get to one of few landmarks where the races end. The only real stickler is the one that ends in the mountains, not because it's hard to get to as much as it leaves you stranded in the wilderness at the end and you're left just driving back into the city to get into events again.

Grumpypants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123056003#Comment_123056003

I had heard good things. It's nothing new but does what it does well. I played the PS+ Trial, I think it was 2 hours. I kinda felt like I'd seen everything at that point. It reminds me of Evil West, in that it is essentially the same gameplay loop over and over just in new locations.

It was on sale for €40 so I picked it up but it sits on the shelf for now.

johnny_ultimate

Everything I’ve heard is that Space Marine 2 excels in co-op. I’m always dubious about that claim because a lot of games work in co-op when you’re just playing with friends or family, but I think a lot of the praise for SM2 definitely comes due to its smart co-op campaign.

Luna84

Indiana Jones. I arrived at Giza earlier and it just doesn't have the charm of the Vatican. Like in the Vatican you could climb up to get to places and in windows but in this you are sneaking out in the open.(as if someone couldn't see you in real life) even if you were in the distance. I know it's nice to get to a new location so it may grow on me the more I play.

johnny_ultimate

Quite a bit deeper into Nine Sols now, and it’s really something special. When your parries land perfectly and you stagger an enemy, it’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a combat-focused game outside of character action classics. The way the game teaches you to play it cool and collected (albeit easier said than done when a flurry of attacks are coming your way) also feels really apt given the main character’s philosophy and training.

There’s a secondary parry you unlock a good few hours in that really adds an extra layer of style to your arsenal. Immensely rewarding to land it.

There is some great level design too, with plenty of bonus goodies to find. It’s a combat game first and a Metroidvania second for sure, and likely won’t appeal to those who dislike the relentless difficulty of the Souls genre. But it’s definitely one of 2024’s best IMO, and delighted to finally play a post Sekiro game that actually gets parry windows and consequences down perfect (third times a charm, eh Respawn?).

awec

Was Burnout the game where you could try force the other cars into huge crashes? And built up a boost meter or something?

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123057570#Comment_123057570

Yep

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123057570#Comment_123057570

Yeah. There was also a crash mode where you'd speed up to a big intersection and have to cause as much damage as possible. That was my favourite mode in Burnout 2.

RedXIV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123057570#Comment_123057570

This is where it excels really, this mode is simple enough that when I plugged it in, my 13yr son and 7yr daughter were competing on the first crash focused level to get the most cars totalled. Stupid, simple fun, just fantastic to see

awec

Yea I loved that game. You would think that sort of racer would be popular these days now that online gaming is more ubiquitous.

The soundtrack was good too if I remember right.

PopePalpatine

Wreckfest is a great spiritual successor if you don't mind the lack of an open world mode or iconic soundtrack.

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123057863#Comment_123057863

The lack of open world mode would be a plus point for most, to be honest.

EoinMcLovin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123056346#Comment_123056346

Yeah I played the 2 hour trial too and just don't think I could justify paying full price for it especially since I'd probably be playing it solo. World War z which is under the same publisher is a great laugh in coop but not great as solo

Jordan 199

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123057863#Comment_123057863

Great game. Myself, Zero Cool and Jim Burnley played it in multiplayer and had a smashing time.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123057937#Comment_123057937

The open world in Burnout was fairly pointless if I remember right, you just had to drive between locations to start events. It wasn't really open world since there wasn't really much to do outside of the events.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123058345#Comment_123058345

Burnout Paradise is fascinating as an open world game IMO, as the races themselves are pretty open. It forces you to adapt on the fly when you miss a turn, which could completely turn the tide of a race.

It’s not a perfect game by any stretch, and even in action most of the time missing a key turn is unrecoverable unless you really know the map. But I think it’s a pretty bold and forward-thinking take on an open world racer, and arguably Criterion’s NFS games refined at least some of the ideas - albeit while losing some of the spectacle that is missed outside Burnout.