RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS - NOW IN 5$ LOOT BOXES

[Katphood]

Can you really play with that big thing?

NSFW. ban plz.

[redneckdevil]

Mmmm I loved the original Xbox controller. It was big black and beefy and stopped me from throwing my controllers because it would break whatever I threw it at lmao.

[injurai]

That's clearly an original duke controller.

[Agiel]

Lest we forget:

 

 

And...

 

[the_dog_days]

I liked the duke more than any iteration of the duel shock, and both of those are better than the joycon (which is poorly designed).

[Katphood]

Well I'll be damned, this sounds even more fun than State of Decay:

 

 

EDIT: 

 

World to the West looks amazing:

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Katphood

[Blodhemn]

The duke is probably the most comfortable controller there is to me. I preferred it over the "controller S'mall" for all genres except FPS, as the analogue sticks felt slightly out of position for precision movement/aiming. Those controllers were well made and the long cords were nice.

[SonicMage117]

Nintendo has always had the worst controllers over the years, well... after SNES anyways. They should just stop trying to be so innovative with controllers. The Wavebird Pro on the other hand is like a cheap hybrid knockoff which takes and mixes from a couple controllers.

 

Xbox controllers seem to have been the most comfortable and better performing of any controller. Even Logitech controllers.

 

I always preferred the Duke over the S controller personally so I wouldn't mind picking one up for pc. The fact that is was bigger and yet ergonomically than smaller more "molded" controllers is impressive to say the least.

[injurai]

I'm still a fan of the Dualshock 2 / Sixaxis controller. Duke was also a favorite, but I was young at the time so I ended up switching to an S. Both Xbox controllers I thought were much better than the 360, not sure what happened there. Their Dpad is still awful.

 

I like the GC controller for Smash, probably my favorite fighting game controller in general.

[Humanoid]

OG Sidewinder gamepad for mine.

 

[Keyrock]

Steam Controller Master Race.  I particularly like the dual-stage triggers and the track pad.  The gyro on it is pretty good too.  The "D-Pad" is garbage, though, and the thumbstick feels a bit sloppier than what I'd ideally like (the thumbsticks on the PS4's dualshock 4 are the ideal for me in terms of how they move and spring back).

 

Edited January 16, 2018 by Keyrock

[Katphood]

OG Sidewinder gamepad for mine.

 

 

Say what?!

 

[Malcador]

Some rumour that Cyberpunk 2077 will be at E3 with a closed doors playable https://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp?ID=107410

 

(Google Translated for all that is worth - https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=https://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp%3FID%3D107410&prev=search)

[Gorgon]

I just bought a Dual Shock 4 for use with my PC. The difference from an xbox controller is minimal really, but since I have to use software to get it to emulate an Xbox controller that also means that I can independently remap all the keys and even store macros.

 

It suffers greatly from the 'put LEDs everywhere syndrome' though, if you are playing with the lights low it's like an epileptic disco ball. Blink yellow now because you are holding down the run button, blink red now because the controller is rumbling, blue now because you are breathing air...

 

But hey, now I have two controllers, so fighting game time. 

[injurai]

Some rumour that Cyberpunk 2077 will be at E3 with a closed doors playable https://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp?ID=107410

 

(Google Translated for all that is worth - https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=https://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp%3FID%3D107410&prev=search)

 

I suppose its possible. Still seems a bit early to me.

 

I'm anticipating a late 2019 or early 2020 release. They mentioned recently it's still over a year out, and they want to do a strong 4 month media push after the reveal to conclude in the game's release. Much like Fallout 4.

[Mamoulian War]

I just bought a Dual Shock 4 for use with my PC. The difference from an xbox controller is minimal really, but since I have to use software to get it to emulate an Xbox controller that also means that I can independently remap all the keys and even store macros.

 

It suffers greatly from the 'put LEDs everywhere syndrome' though, if you are playing with the lights low it's like an epileptic disco ball. Blink yellow now because you are holding down the run button, blink red now because the controller is rumbling, blue now because you are breathing air...

 

But hey, now I have two controllers, so fighting game time.

As far as I know, the blinking thingies should be programmable as well.

[Malcador]

Stuff coming in Stellaris patch/expansion

 

Borders

 

• Borders are now simply a reflection of system ownership rather than a cause for it to change.
• Who owns a system is almost always based on the owner of the Starbase in said system.
• Home systems will now start surveyed, with a only slightly randomized amount of resources, and mining/research stations for some of those resources already in place.
• Pic of Borders/Hyperlanes as of 2018/1/15. Note Hyperlanes you have access to are blue while ones you cannot access are red.

 

Starbases/Spaceports

 

• Starbase - upgradeable/downgradeable/specializable space station orbiting star ranging from outpost (level 0) to citadel (level 5)
• Starbase replacing spaceports for military ship construction with multiple modules to choose from
• Starbases cannot be destroyed through conventional means. They can, however be disabled and even captured by enemies.

FTL

 

• Games will start as a primarily hyperlane-based, with more advanced forms of FTL unlocked through technology. (ie no more warp or wormhole)
• By default, hyperlane generation is going to be changed to create more 'islands' and 'choke points', to make for more interesting galactic geography.
• They are going to add a slider that controls the general frequency and connectivity of hyperlanes.
• Ships will now need to actually travel to the entry point to a particular hyperlane (the arrow inside a system) to enter it. To compensate, sublight travel has been sped up.
• Sensors will now detect a certain distance in FTL connections. (ie everything within 2 jumps, etc)
• Wormholes are now a natural formation that can be encountered while exploring the galaxy that come in pairs, essentially functioning as very long hyperlanes that can potentially take a ship across the entire galaxy near-instantly.
• New advanced FLT gateways, similar to current wormhole FTL, that can be found and reactivated. Can travel to any other activated gateway and can be closed by controlling empire. (Think Ori Supergate)
• Jump/Psi Jump Drives now mix Hyperdrive with some functionality from the old Warp FTL.
• New feature Galactic Terrain, or systems with environmental effects and hazards that have profound tactical and strategic effects on ships on empires. (eg Nebulas, Pulsars, Neutron Stars, Black Holes, etc)

War

 

• You now need a Casus Belli (justification for war ie Subjugation) in order to declare war with different war goals.
• War goals is addition to claims made for that war.
• Claims now require Influence, can claim a system multiple times to get a stronger claim on it (helpful when going to war with ally).
• War score gone, replaced by War Exhaustion scaling from 0-100%.
• System only considered occupied if the Starbase and all planets (excluding potentially neutral ones like primitives) are under enemy control. This gives owner control of the mining/research stations and ability to use the starbase.

Ascension Perks

 

• Basic Ascension Perks now included in base game, no DLC required. (Mastery of Nature, Defender of the Galaxy and so on)

Surveying

 

• In Cherryh, any system inside the borders of an empire you have communications with will automatically be considered surveyed. (Some exceptions such as Fallen Empires)
• Star Chart trading and purchasing from curators now removed. Replaced with option to trade Communications which will automatically put you in comms with any empires they have comms with that you do not.
• Terra Incognita no longer based on which physical pixels on the map your ships have 'seen', it is now based on which systems are considered visited (you have been to the system with a ship, or that the system is inside the borders of an empire that you have communications with).

Exploration changes - only a science ship with a scientist can enter an unexplored system (Source - YouTube)

Doomstacks/Weapons

 

• Introducing Force Disparity Combat Bonus applied when a smaller force is engaged with a larger one in battle with the goal of making casualties on both sides more proportionate.
• Introducing Ship Disengagement where ships can now flee battle with ships below 50% health will have a chance to disengage from battle, depending primarily on the amount of damage inflicted, and secondarily on the ship class.
• Introducing concept of Command Limit - limit on how large an individual fleet can be in order to encourage more usage of admirals.
• Ship reactors replaced with ships now simply have a reactor with a certain power output depending on ship class and technology.
• Each point of Armor is now effectively one extra hit point for the ship, forming a new health bar between Hull and Shields and will not repair itself under normal circumstances until returning to a Starbase.
• All missiles now similar to Torpedoes, with the Torpedo slot being the only one they are able to be put in. Missiles now bypass shields entirely.
• Damaged ships will have their speed and combat ability reduced, all the way down to a ~50% reduction when they are nearly dead.
• Ship computers now reworked to 4 different options: Swarm, Picket, Line, and Artillery.
• New Policy - War Doctrines which allows you to pick an overall strategic military doctrine for your fleets based on how you intend to fight.
• All empires start with all basic weapons in Cherryh.

Tech

•  
• Number of techs you start with has been expanded. (Mostly basic weapons and defense)
• The number of tech tiers has been increased (5 currently planned)
• A 6th tier will include Fallen Empire techs that can only be started via salvage.
• A large number of new techs have been added to the game.
• Each ship component upgrade should now be more significant.
• Tech and Unity penalties now based on the number of owned planets and systems, with each owned system and colonized planet adding to your tech and unity costs, and planets overall having less on an impact on tech costs than before.

Fleet Manager

• New fleet manager interface!
• Each fleet has a fleet template that keeps track of ship sizes and individual designs.
• Reinforce command will fill in any ships missing from the template (ie after a battle)
• Each fleet will now have a home base which gets slight priority for actions such as reinforcing.

Ground Combat/Armies

• Defense armies are now created from certain buildings.
• Armies on planets no longer reduce Unrest directly.
• Assault armies now based in space but can be directed to garrison a planet to help with defense (via twitter).
• New mechanic - Combat Width, determined by size of planet that dictates how many troops can be engaged at once.
• New concept - Collateral Damage, civilians and civilian infrastructure now damaged as fighting goes on (randomly dealt every time an army does damage). Different troop types cause different amounts of damage.
• Morale damage now affects both sides and more gradually causing a drop in combat efficiency once they are <50% morale, and then another, sharper drop when they are broken (0% morale).
• Damage-dealing algorithm tweaked so that damage is less evenly spread among combatants.
• Retreats now have significant chance of causing retreated regiment to be destroyed.
• Orbital Bombardment changes - fortifications entirely cut, planets cannot be invaded if there is a hostile Starbase in the system.
• Bombardment now deals Planetary Damage, damaging armies not protected by a Fortress, ruining buildings, and killing Pops.
• Armageddon Bombardment (only avail to certain empires such as Purifiers) can now turn a planet into a depopulated Tomb World given enough time.
• Attachments entirely cut from the game.

Planet Destroyers (Apocalypse Feature)

• Colossus Project Ascension Perk available after researching how to build Titans
• Colossus ship has a single World Devastator-class weapon (5 potential options that can be researched as rare techs depending on your empire/ethics). The first type comes with the initial research
• Each Colossus is its own fleet and cannot be merged with other fleets, with only one available at at time
• Weapon takes awhile to charge up and Colossus can be attacked and destroyed during this time

Titans (Apocalypse Feature)

 

• New ship type researchable through a regular tier 5 tech, requires Titan Assembly yards building.
• Front section has 1 Titanic-size slot that can fit weapons even stronger than XL weapons (eg Perdition Beam)
• Perdition Beam - weapon that can fire across a whole system and potentially destroy a battle ship in a single shot.
• Titans have a aura slot that can fit a single offensive or defensive aura
• Titans limited in number, can always field at least 1 plus an additional amount depending on your overall naval capacity.

Ion Cannons (Apocalypse Feature)

 

• Ion Cannons are station modules that can be built as part of the defense platform fleet of a starbase.
• Provides a single Titanic slot weapon.

Marauders (Apocalypse Feature)

 

• Pirates of the Constellation: Watch out for Marauders – space nomads who raid settled empires and carve out their lives on the fringe of civilization. Hire them as mercenaries in your own conflicts, but take care that they don’t unify and trigger a new mid-game crisis! - source

 

Civics (Apocalypse Feature?)

 

• New Civic: Life-Seeded - Size 25 world Gaia start, habitability preference set to Gaia (0% Habitability otherwise)
• New Civic: Tomb World Start - Bonus to Tomb World habitability
• New Civic: Barbaric Despoilers - Has despoliation casi beli on all neighboring empires, unlocks raiding bombardment stance.

 

 

From https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/7o34yh/summary_of_dev_diaries_and_changes_coming_in/

Edited January 16, 2018 by Malcador

[LadyCrimson]

Re: controllers - not being a major console player I have little experience with a ton of variety, but I will say that the PS4 controller is much less harsh on someone with small hands and hand/thumb arthritis than the xbox controller. Xbox's taller profile and more rounded shape puts a lot more stress on the large connecting rotating thumb/hand joint, something about it makes you grip it harder or something. I'm definitely glad I bought a PS4 and not an Xbox, for that reason alone.

Edited January 16, 2018 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

SE announces the FFXV Royal Edition with trailer. Essentially game of the year edition I guess, with some additional tweaks/content added. $50 includes base game, all the 1st Season Pass episodes, and all patched in features/new content. Or, if you already have the game/dlc's etc, $20 for just the new RE features. $20 seems a little steep but oh well, guess I'll be buying it anyway. This does not include the upcoming 3 new DLC coming in 2018.

 

Also, for PC version, apparently a 1st person perspective will be added. Which I have no idea how that'll work with the game's crazy camera, frantic paced combat, but ok.

 

By the year 2019, XV might feel more like a "complete" game than it did upon release. Maybe.

 

[Bartimaeus]

I like Xbox controllers when I'm predominantly using the analogue stick, but I prefer dualshock-style controllers when I'm predominantly using the d-pad. The strain of using whatever's in the middle of the controller tends to wear on me after a couple of hours regardless of what controller I'm using, so I prefer to just switch out depending on what I'm playing.

[LadyCrimson]

^ Guess it does really depend on the game one is playing. I rarely use the giant "menu" pad in the middle of the ps4 controller in the few games I have for example. I didn't even realize that was a button, originally, just thought it was decorative empty space, lol. I do wish the Options and Share buttons weren't quite so tiny, it's easy to not press them hard enough to trigger, but other than that. And yeah...for me, any 3+ hour sessions, no controller is going to not cause me a little joint pain. :D I have to take breaks and make sure I exercise the hands and such. (edit-I also never have vibration on, talk about annoying to arthritis...)

 

Hubby started having similar hand/thumb joint issues and has stopped playing/using the xbox controller at all and his hands are much larger than mine. He tends to get overly excited and grip very tightly tho. heh.

Edited January 16, 2018 by LadyCrimson

[majestic]

Regarding controllers I'm the odd one out. I hated every PS controller so far, no matter which one, and I also didn't like the Duke - even though I have really big hands (I also use a small mouse for all my gaming needs, currently a Logitech LS1).

 

The Switch Joy Cons are okay as long as I don't use the clip-on controller pad. The Nintendo Pro controller is pretty good, the XBox S-controllers are also nice except for the terrible D-pad. What I really liked so far is the nVidia Shield controller, except for the start button placement.

 

If I could freely choose I'd play everything on my GameCube controller. *sigh*

[injurai]

SE announces the FFXV Royal Edition with trailer. Essentially game of the year edition I guess, with some additional tweaks/content added. $50 includes base game, all the 1st Season Pass episodes, and all patched in features/new content. Or, if you already have the game/dlc's etc, $20 for just the new RE features. $20 seems a little steep but oh well, guess I'll be buying it anyway. This does not include the upcoming 3 new DLC coming in 2018.

 

Also, for PC version, apparently a 1st person perspective will be added. Which I have no idea how that'll work with the game's crazy camera, frantic paced combat, but ok.

 

By the year 2019, XV might feel more like a "complete" game than it did upon release. Maybe.

 

 

I really want Prompto's coat.

[the_dog_days]

 

Some rumour that Cyberpunk 2077 will be at E3 with a closed doors playable https://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp?ID=107410

 

(Google Translated for all that is worth - https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=https://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp%3FID%3D107410&prev=search)

I suppose its possible. Still seems a bit early to me.

 

I'm anticipating a late 2019 or early 2020 release. They mentioned recently it's still over a year out, and they want to do a strong 4 month media push after the reveal to conclude in the game's release. Much like Fallout 4.

I will buy a hat and eat it (because I don't own one) if Cyberpunk 2077 is released before 2020.

[injurai]

 

 

Some rumour that Cyberpunk 2077 will be at E3 with a closed doors playable https://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp?ID=107410

 

(Google Translated for all that is worth - https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=https://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp%3FID%3D107410&prev=search)

I suppose its possible. Still seems a bit early to me.

 

I'm anticipating a late 2019 or early 2020 release. They mentioned recently it's still over a year out, and they want to do a strong 4 month media push after the reveal to conclude in the game's release. Much like Fallout 4.

I will buy a hat and eat it (because I don't own one) if Cyberpunk 2077 is released before 2020.

 

 

I'm tempted to avatar quote, but won't since this place doesn't seem to stoop to such acts.

 

Other than some preliminary work, and long term financial planning. Most of the actual rigging of the game started after TW3 wrapped up, so it's not like they've been working on it since that pitch trailer. While RDR2 on the other hand really has had a dedicated studio working on it for almost 8 years now. CDPR apparently have two teams and wanted to launch two titles by 2021. Which placed the releases roughly at late 2019 and late 2021. 2077 being that first mark, but I think they are going to miss it half a year. I don't even think running up against the big marketing campaigns of the annual giants is prudent either. They'll find a comfortable release window in early 2020.