jrodrz

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

We finally decided to go with Telltale's The Walking Dead and Outlast 1. We'll see how it all goes.

Many thanks!

Hey guys:

Recently, my girlfriend decided to take a shot at playing video games with me, and so far, we've been having a great time playing co-op games. Now that Halloween's coming, we've been thinking about playing some horror/scary videogames.

What are some good horror games that can be engaging for both of us, even if they're only single player? What are the best in your opinion? Many games of this genre are on sale right now, so it'd be a good time to pick one up.

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated!

Cheers,

Hey guys:

I've been an Xbox-only player for 12 years now. I haven't owned any Nintendo or PlayStation since I bought my Xbox 360 back in 2007. I love my Xbox and can see myself buying a Scarlett if it includes and improves on all the features of the Xbox One, but most importantly, if it increases the number and quality of its exclusives.

Exclusives are what's making me open this thread, since for some weeks now I've been thinking about buying a PS4. I've been wanting to play all of the PS4's great exclusives (Spider-Man, TLoU, GoW, Uncharted Collection, Horizon Zero Dawn, the upcoming FF7 Remake, etc.), and I've been seeing some great deals on my local stores. I'm only planning to use the PS4 to play the exclusives, all other games that are multiplatform, I will play on my Xbox since I just hate the PS controllers, they feel really uncomfortable in my hands.

However, I've been hesitant to do it because of the following reasons:

• PS5 will presumably be launching less than a year and a half from now, but I have no idea if it will have backwards compatibility. Also its price and initial performance are complete mysteries.
• There's many PS3 games I want to play. PS Now seems like a good way to do so, but I've heard some negative reviews about the service in the past, and have no idea if it's better now and if Sony plans to continue and improve this service on the PS5.

Having said all that, does anybody recommend buying a PS4 right now? Would it be wiser to just wait how it all flushes out and save my money for next-gen?

All comments are welcome!

Cheers,

The most recent ones I can remember are:

The Division 2: didn't buy it, I was planning to, but I played the game during the free play days right after E3, and after 10 or so hours, I had played enough to assume that the rest of the game wouldn't be any different from what I played, so I kept from buying it and I'm grateful to Ubisoft from helping me avoid what would've been a horrible purchase.

Forza Horizon 3: I really wanted to finish this game, I even bought the $90 special edition at launch, which is something I rarely do when buying games (I usually wait for a sale, or if they are a sequel for some franchise, I play the first games in order to have a feel of the franchise and give the sequel some time to go on sale), but then FH4 released, and I started stacking up other new games I hadn't played yet, and the 60GB size of the game made me uninstall it to install other games.

Elite Dangerous: was planning to play more of it, but the travelling process got boring and then I realized it was a never ending space travel simulator with very repetitive missions, so I just shuttled the game out of my orbit.

Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising: horrible horrible game, hated every second of it, put it away after an hour.

Ghost Recon AW 1: hated it as well because of its dated graphics and elements, although I have to admit that I picked up the game a decade after it's release.

I'm currently struggling to get through Vampyr. While I've enjoyed the setting and the concept of the game, those tedious dialogues and repetitive combat have already started to make the game a drag for me in each subsequent sitting, I hope I can find the will to finish it soon though.

I'm currently playing Remedy's Quantum Break, which is presented as a series. After each act, a 20 minute TV episode of the game will play based on the choices you made. It's a nice touch and so far I've found the story quite interesting. Alan Wake uses this TV series-like formula as well.

I think any Metal Gear Solid game can also be in this category, since the amount of cutscene time in those games is insane.

Not really, I still have plenty of games I haven't played on my XBONE, and I'm still taking the time to go through those. Hell, I haven't even started playing Red Dead Redemption 2 or The Witcher 3, even though I've owned them for a while now.

Besides, I'm always skeptical about the performance of new consoles right after launch, I don't want to live another "Xbox 360" crisis with consoles breaking down because they are not optimized from the start. I'm also waiting to see the price point for these new consoles. If they go for anything around the $500 price tag at launch, then I definitely will be taking my time to see how they play out, how they perform and most of all, how much of an upgrade they really are over what we currently have.

I remember an interview with Phil Spencer where he said that he didn't need people to buy Scarlett because: "The business is around software and service growth. That is the profitable part of the business; selling the hardware is not the profitable part of the business." So it seems like if you don't buy a Scarlett right at launch, you won't be missing much, specially because a big game like Halo Infinite will also be available for Xbox One. So it seems like Microsoft is not giving much incentive to move soon to the next generation, it seems more like the transition to next generation will be a slow one. At least for me, I'm not that motivated to buy new hardware only for improved graphics.

Maybe my opinion is biased because I'm an Xbox-only gamer, but if Sony moves more aggressively, and announces great games for PS5 launch, then I might consider switching, specially if PS5 becomes backwards compatible with PS3 and PS4, then I guess it would be a no brainer to switch to PS5.

Back breaking jobs with high wages are not ideal either. Sure, you might end up with the cash in your bank account, but it usually comes at a high cost: lack of proper sleep/rest, lack of time to spend with loved ones, stress, illnesses and what not. It's all a question of balance.

When choosing a career, I think you should always choose something you're passionate about, but be aware that something as complex as video game design demands a high degree of capability of working under pressure and tight schedules.

This example raises an interesting question for managers: How to administer the work load so that it doesn't become "too much" that it demotivates your employees and starts hindering their performance?

"Throw the rules out the window, odds are you'll go that way too". - Max Payne 2

"Don't think I have any intention of caressing your cheek and saying I was wrong. I will not weep and wonder what might have been. I'm sure you understand. Still... I'm proud of you in a way. You've shown great conviction. Strength. Courage. All noble qualities. I should have killed you long ago." Haytham Kenway's last words to Connor before he died.

Connor: "You chose to side with men who would rob us of our humanity simply because it was more profitable?" Thomas Hickey: "Wot else is there? I'm not some blind fool who'd give up all I've got on principle. What IS principle anyway? Can ya bring it to the bank? Don't look at me like that. We're different, you and I! You're just some blind fool who's always chasin' butterflies. Where as I'm the type of guy who likes to have a beer in one hand and a titty in the other. Thing is, boy, I can have what I seek. Had it, even. You? Your hands will always be empty." I really liked this death speech because, unlike the other Templars, Hickey wasn't as dramatic and full of ideals, he was just in it for the $$$.

There's also plenty I like from John Marston:

• "It ain't no secret I didn't get these scars falling over in church."
• "Listen to your boss, Jonah. There's a good boy. Otherwise I'll put a hole in your hillbilly head and watch your tiny brain drain out."
• "You and West Dickens are so crooked, you could swallow nails and spit out corkscrews."
• "I'll give you a bad case of "someone just shot me in the head" if you don't hurry up."

Man, I could go on, maybe on some other time I'll post some more.

Have you played The Saboteur? Kind of a generic sandbox game, but it focuses on this part of WWII and I think it's the setting that makes the game attractive, besides having decent gameplay.

Actually, Battlefield 1 was kind of refreshing for me because I did miss that setting for some time. My concern is that developers might ride the WWII train again (seeing that Battlefield V will be set in that time again) and that we'll quickly get tired of it again. But I actually like playing a World War game from time to time.

For Xbox players, if you want to play a good Star Wars game, save the money you were gonna put on this and buy Knights of The Old Republic instead, which is backwards compatible on Xbox One. If you haven't played KOTOR yet, and don't mind playing with certain outdated elements, I strongly suggest getting it for only $10.