Personal Gaming Thread

[Jason]

My last race was at Talladega where I was up and down in the top 10 for the entire race. Bump drafting is a necessity on the super speedways as the lead changed at least 30 times during the race. I got a little help on the last lap to take the lead and had to fight off the CPU to hold it around the last bend and across the finish line. What a thrilling race. I'm loving this game.

[Jason]

Mafia: The Definitive Edition is getting a free PS5/Xbox Series X/S update today. I've been holding off on replaying this game in the hopes of a 60fps update and the wait has finally paid off. Red Dead Redemption 2 and the Arkham series are last games I'm waiting on 60fps updates for.

[Ted]

You've never played RDR2? Oh boy...

[Jason]

You've never played RDR2? Oh boy...

I completed it two years ago, but I'm waiting for a 60fps patch before playing it again.

[Ted]

Ahhhh.  You bringing it up makes me want to start another playthrough.  I've never finished it.  Never even got to

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.

[Jason]

Arthur Morgan is one of the greatest video game (and fictional) characters of all time. I had my doubts about the game when I heard it was a prequel and that John Marston wouldn't be the main character, but I was wrong.

You really should finish it. I've watched my younger son complete it twice too. You haven't even seen the best scenes in the game.

[Ted]

Been playing with the emulator again trying to recapture some feelings from a couple decades ago with Fight Night Round 2 and NCAA Baseball 06.  I had a save so long ago with a heavyweight named Zehnder (that I posted on an earlier version of these forums) but I can't remember if it was with Round 2 or 2004 or some other version.  I think it was prob round 2 because of the cutman in the corner mingame.  Was round 2 the only version that had that?  I also remember there was extensive workouts between fights with weights and other training minigames you could do.

[Jason]

Both Round 2 and Round 3 had the cutman mini-games. I'm assuming we played against each other in Round 2 (see below) because I can't find Round 3 with my other PS2 games.

[Jason]

Another AAA game I'm looking forward to is the new Gears of War game. I watched the GTA VI reveal and thought it looked good, but I wasn't blown away by it.

I've also started buying games on Xbox again. The Series S and X were my first consoles this generation, so naturally I bought current gen games for them. Even after I bought my PS5 I still bought third-party games for Xbox since I preferred the controller and console user interface, but about a year ago I made the switch to buying everything on PS5. Xbox looked like it was dead in the water and I had my doubts about them releasing a next-gen console, and even if they did it would be expensive and all of their popular games would be ported to the PS5/6.

Microsoft has seemed to turn things around since Asha Sharma took over. I doubt I'm going to buy a next-gen console, but if I did it would probably be an Xbox at this point. Two big factors are the disc-to-digital program Xbox is going to roll out soon and its compatibility with PCs. I've been completely digital for over a decade, but the disc-to-digital program might get me to buy some physical games again.

I can live without another Last of Us remake and don't have much interest in anything new Naughty Dog is working on. Most PS6 games will be available on the PS5 for the foreseeable future anyway. I can live with 1440 @ 60fps instead of full 4K @ 120fps. The Neo Geo retro games I've been buying lately will work fine on my PS4.

[Ted]

Been thinking of purchasing Crimson Desert.  The only thing holding me back is do I really want to play another open world game?

Since I got back from my trip helping my dad I've been rotating with Run8 (train sim), playing that online on The Hiball server.  Also, Ostranauts, Dwarf Fortress, Proto Boxing (I really like this title and am excited to see what the dev does with it), Railroader, and a bit of Belwright and Total War Medieval II with the M2EX mod.  A little of a lot I guess.  Nothing has been holding my attention very long, hence the thought of grabbing Crimson Desert.

I need to get back into Full Stride, but am sort of waiting for the next update which is supposed to add harder difficulty levels.

[Ted]

Went ahead and purchased Crimson Desert.  It's a little slow at the start, but interesting enough that I'm continuing on.  My initial quick impressions is that it's open world type gaming most similar to RDR2 but it's fantasy hack and slash. The combat so far is not impressive, but it's apparently skill based so that more moves and combos open up as you level.

[Jason]

It's a good looking game from the videos I've seen and the reviews are mostly positive for it.

[Jason]

I'm so tempted to get NASCAR 26 when it releases next week. I love 25 and 26 looks like a huge improvement over it.

[Ted]

Going in at full price, eh?

[Jason]

LOL. Probably not, but I am tempted. I'll probably get it during its first sale, no matter how small the discount is. That'll allow time for any major bugs to get fixed too.