Saturday Morning Gaming: Anticipation
So one of the things I got for my birthday was an Amazon gift card. I said “Oh! Thank you! I know exactly what I will get with this! The Outer Worlds!” and, though it exceeded the amount on the card, we shelled out extra for same-day delivery. Because, dang it, I wanted to play it as soon as it came out.
When it was announced that the game was going to be released on Thursday night after 5PM for Microsoft, I even had a small amount of hope that Amazon would deliver the game on Thursday night. Well, I got it for the PS4, and so I did NOT get it on Thursday night. Nor on Friday morning. Not a HUGE problem, Maribou and I had to do some stuff downtown anyway so we went and did that. We checked Amazon and they said that it was still “in transit” so we went out to lunch and then went home and, still, it had not yet arrived. She went to work. Still, it had not yet arrived. Around 6 PM I checked and it STILL wasn’t here. I figured, heck, I’ll just wander down to the little college diner and get a Rueben and listen to the kids behind the counter tell stories about who is dating whom and, after I got my jacket out and my boots on, FINALLY the mail arrived.
And, of course, it had about 6 gigs of stuff to download and we’re still on DSL so… anyway, the patch is still downloading on Friday night and it’s time for bed and so I’m not going to play it until the morning.
So if you get “Amazon Same Day”, you’re probably not going to get the game as quickly as if you just went to Gamestop or Target or Wally World.
BUT! My bud who has 40 up and 40 down high speed internet has told me this: The game is awesome, he can’t believe how in depth it is, he played it for about 4 hours and now realizes that he needs to start over because he had been playing incorrectly (and he said that he hadn’t beaten the first Real Storyline Quest… I don’t know if that’s because of all of the side-quests that distracted him or because the game is pulling the old “There’s a hole in the bucket, Dear Liza, Dear Liza” trick on him).
So here’s what I got from that: he cares about the story and he wants to interact with the world in a certain way. He is ENGAGED.
And since he’s one of the guys who tells me stories about how awesome he thought Halo was and how awesome he thought Battlefield 3 was and how Battlefield 4 messed everything up… I’m guessing that the story is REALLY good because he’s not really an RPG guy and I am.
Anyway, I’m so excited to play, I’m writing this before bed (while the patches are downloading) and looking forward to playing as soon as I wake up in the morning. (It’s almost like Christmas!)
So… what are you playing?
(Featured image is “Waiting…” by BPPrice. Used under a creative commons license.)
First impressions after about an hour: OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS THE GAME I HAVE BEEN WAITING FORReport
Damn it. I’m probably going to have to get this. Maybe after Thanksgiving.
When games released on Tuesdays, I would buy them in town because I could get them early and play all day if I didn’t teach that day–our amazon always arrives after six pm or so, especially in the fall.Report
If you are one of the folks who has said something to the effect of “I liked New Vegas better than 3, and I really liked 3”, then run, don’t walk, to your local establishment where finer video games are sold and push people out of the way in order to get your copy. Rip it out of someone’s hands and yell “THAT’S MINE!” and run to the checkout counter.Report
Okay, you’ve sold me. I’ll tell ’em Jaybird sent me.Report
I’m really looking forward to playing this game on PC (checks Steam) sometime in 2020! 🙂 🙂Report
The Outer Worlds is free, free, free*!
*With purchase of a Double Chalupa box at Taco Bell for only $5, you get a 14-day free trial of the Microsoft Game Pass for PC which includes The Outer Worlds.Report
Ten bucks a month…I’ll wait.Report
First month is only a buck!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VaXlMvAvk&feature=youtu.be&t=123Report
You also have the option of the Epic Game Store.
I mean, theoretically.Report
Yeah, I wishlisted it on Steam, and then realized it was actually out elsewhere, and then…you know what, I’ll just leave it wishlisted so I can just buy it next year when it’s on sale.Report
I hope the Outer Worlds does well. If it does well enough they may put a 3rd-person mode in so I can actually play it.Report
You may have to hope for the modding community.Report
3rd person is a hard thing to mod in, but we’ll see.Report
This is probably just the crew I’m looking for… out of curiosity, I downloaded the new *mobile* Call of Duty (not the new fullscale game)… and kinda got a kick out of it… I tried it on an emulator to use KB/Mouse and liked it more. I’m wondering if there’s a PC game that I might like, since I’ve skipped the entire FPS genre forever. But, here are the parameters:
1. I’m terrible at FPS
2. #1 is not false modesty.
* PVE focused… did you read #1 & #2?
* I like progression games… hate linear pvp games… if I can level my pants, I’ll level them.
* I’m totally and completely immune to Stories… in fact, if there’s a story that I’m supposed to follow, I’ll find whatever bug the devs overlooked thinking the story would never go there… but more often, its just the end of content, and me wondering where the game went [hint: it went over there, where the story was pointing].
* I’m ok with repetitive maps, like POE and Diablo… in fact, that’s what I’m looking for 1st person progressive solo FPS diablo … does that exist? That is, I don’t want to have to riddle my way to the next area of bad guys.
* Bonus, no Z axis, no parkour… I want 2D (more or less) ranged shooty shoots with loots.
Anything?Report
I’m re-trying Destiny2… and man is there a lot of dead space… like tons and tons of deadspace… coupled with really really long dead space cut-scenes to land me in mostly dead space where I have to run to try to find something to do… and finding something to do isn’t really clear to me.
I read somewhere that its an FPS MMORPG… but its like MMORPG in 2002 where I’m constantly riding my horse to get somewhere to kill some stuff, only to get obliterated by some supper baddie that wanders in assuming that there will be 20 other people in the game to take it out. Nope… just me.
So amazingly dated. Or am I doing it wrong? Or both?Report
Yeah, I thought about recommending that one to you, but it doesn’t quite hit those buttons. You can solo it, but it’s better if you play with some friends. And the random events are meant for a group of players. Whichever planet is the weeks hot zone (I can’t remember what it’s called) will typically have more folks running around. And while Destiny 2 was better than the first, I stopped playing a while back. It’s fun but the grind gets old, and yup, there are lots of empty places. And the strikes and stuff have to be done with others.Report
Thanks… yeah, there are some things that look like I could sink into it. But I think I’ve outgrown MMO’s… I’m not really interested in the open world. Just want the fun.
I mean, the intro is such a disaster of drawn out “Not Playing-ed-ness” like literally not doing anything other than walking around as a wounded unarmed soldier – for what feels like a near eternity in Game Playing Time Dimensions.
And then after finally getting to “the game” after the long intro, I thought maybe I’d try a different class.
And. The. Intro. Was. EXACTLY. the. same. for. the. other. class.
Still, I’ve suffered worse in 35-years of gaming… so I’ll probably give it a whirl for another few days and see if I ever push through to the fun.Report
Have you played Fallout 3 and/or Fallout New Vegas?
It’s true that they look like FPS *BUT* there is a thing called “VATS” that turns the game into a dice roller. (Like, you’re being attacked, go into VATS and now the game tells you that you have a 85% chance to shoot your opponent in the chest, 65% chance to shoot in either leg, 55% chance to shoot in the right arm, 45% chance to shoot in the left arm, or a 58% chance to get a head shot. Then you pick and then it tells you if you hit successfully. There are skills you can get to level up your abilities which are not limited to VATS.)
Warning: It has a story and it’s a pretty good one.Report
Thanks… yeah, I tried Fallout 3. I agree that it had some pretty cool mechanics and VATS was nice for an anti-twitch guy like me… but ultimately the aesthetic depressed me. I stopped playing after some mission had me kill a few folks sleeping in an old road underpass. Moved from post apocalyptic “game” to homeless person murder sim.
But that’s probably just me ignoring the story and merely looking at the pictures and my actions. I’m sure the people sleeping on a road in corrugated tin huts needed killing if I immersed myself in the story. 🙂
I’ve dabbled in Borderlands and that had the right jaunty attitude to cover the bad aesthetics… I can’t remember why I quit… either it got too repetitive without enough progression… or the scripted next encounter exposed my incredible lack of skill? I want to be able to out-level/gear my ineptitude dang it. And heck, these days I’ve got the cash to smooth out a few humps too. I am not ashamed.Report
They totally did. (For my part, I prefer Fallout 3 and New Vegas because you can easily operate under a NAP. And, of course, a presumed NAP once you establish that anybody with “RAIDER” in their name is just going to shoot at you anyway.)
Now you’re really taxing my knowledge. You want an FPS RPG where the emphasis is on tactics and story/dialog is secondary but you can tweak and modify all of your equipment and it’s sandboxy but not depressing.
I’ve got games where it’s a bird’s eye view RPG where the emphasis is on tactics and story/dialog is secondary but you can tweak and modify all of your equipment and it’s sandboxy… it’s XCom and XCom2.
Deus Ex, maybe? (Mankind Divided, probably…)
Jeez! I dunno!Report
I prefer to think of it as a business opportunity for some gaming company to address the dozens of people just like me and our under served need.
How about this:
15 Minute “map” just a bunch of bad guys… some sort of boss/objective… clear the map, get a foozle.
If map is too hard, do Map -1, get foozle. Save enough foozles for better gun. Try Map +1 again.
Some maps are run/gun, some favor sniping, some are cloak/dagger.
Can be co-op… just increases bad guys #s and power… more foozles… dynamically scales.
That’s it… Path of Exile with assault rifles.Report