Vote with your wallet! You already did but do it again! X9 is probably their next adventure since MM11 did really well.

Has anyone tried the Call of Cthulhu game yet? Just curious.

I picked it up yesterday. But haven't played it yet. Will let you know when I do. I'm on red dead 2 right meow.

Bamco really killing it with these guest characters this year. Even with the goofiness of Negan I can't say that I wasn't hype af when I saw 2B or Geese.

I am laughing my head off at some of the Fallout 76 news coming out.

https://kotaku.com/fallout-76-betas-...ate-1830140345

I expected to hear bad things about this game. Mostly bad, opinions. But the ratio of “this is technically broken” that is being SHOUTED about the game is.... Troubling. I feel like Bethesda just wanted a source of that loot box/micro transaction money and said, “Let’s make a zero effort Fallout 4 Multiplayer” Instead of taking the time to build a new system from the ground up for the game to actually be good.

I’m saddened that this is where Fallout 1&2/ New Vegas has come. I’m saddened that this is the result of games like Oblivion/Morrowwind gaining popularity.

I’ll be pouting in a corner drinking scotch now.

I've only played the Fallout 76 BETA for about five hours so far but its actually pretty fun. I have high hopes for it. It hasn't been too buggy yet, the mechanics are a good mix of familiar and new. The lore is really cool, you pick up bits and pieces of holotapes that tell different peoples' stories of the bombs dropping and surviving life afterward. Having to listen other players on their mics is kind of annoying, ran into a few annoying idiots. I'm sure there is an option to silence it.

But I'm only five hours in... so we'll see.

Bethesda is known for buggy games. It's one of their things. I mean, Morrowind was a buggy mess, although we have a hard time remembering that because of patching and mods (and because it was ages ago in the gaming industry). Same with Oblivion and Skyrim.

Part of this is a direct result of how big their games are, and not having nearly enough testers to get the worst of it, nor giving themselves enough time to do so. I'm actually really glad that they put 76 into public beta testing, because that's a cheap and easy way to find the worst bugs of all - you stress test the heck outta it. And it gives the rest of a good look into what the game will be like.

I did a lot of beta testing when I was younger. Mostly MMOs, mind you, like Ragnarok Online (actually, I was in the alpha at one point, before they even released class skills LOL), WoW, City of Villians, and so many other games I've forgotten it all. I did it mostly to check out the games and if I'd want to buy the full game later. Of course, back then, beta's were often free, not a 'pre-order bonus' like they are today, so I was fine with wasting some time to bug test and check out whatever new game was coming out.

Well, it is a beta, bugs are to be expected. It seems like a lot of people seem to forget that and just see betas as some sort of free preview, then whine about the bugs they encounter. Hopefully they're at least reporting them in the proper way in addition to whatever social media rants/complaints they're making, but I suspect a lot of them don't even bother to do that.

That being said, I have almost no interest in online-only games these days, so while I'm a fan of Fallout and I hope it's successful for it's own sake, I don't have much at stake in this one, and in some ways I sort of hope it's not too successful lest they be tempted to spend more development time/effort on online games and less on single-player.

Before I address this. I wish to address the above comment on hoping the Fallout online game fails or doesn't succeed to well. I'm not quite sure what the poster meant by this.

Why?

If Bethesda doesn't make a return on their investment for what is to date, their biggest game yet and a change in fallout as big as fallout 3. Then they wont bother making new games. ESO is a huge hit, despite me disliking almost every aspect of it. The future is sadly in MMO's. As more people prefer them then don't. I kind of miss the old fallout 3 storyline which I thought was the best. New Vegas had a decent one too as far as I'm concerned. Four kind of shit the bed, but I wasn't expecting a game to be so EASY and have a luke-warm storyline. The 76 beta is fun and challenging. With a new way on SPECIALS never seen before.

No micro-transactions or lootboxes effect gameplay. You can only use the ATOMS on cosmetic items like clothing, masks, or things that effect your C.A.M.P. in game. But they're minor and you can build them with supplies anyways. So in that way yes C.A.M.P. items do effect gameplay.

It's relatively bug free and the forced pvp is annoying but manageable. So far I've found a good group of 2-3 people to play with on small 24 person servers and everyone just kind of does their own thing.

Do I wish for a fallout not MMO with the same style of graphics and game mechanics? You bet I do.

Am I happy with what I got? You bet I am. It's all with how you play the game.

COC
So I have mixed feelings about this game. Shadows over Inssmouth for the XBOX was a garbage game with a great storyline and terrible tuorial. It's controls made it almost unplayable however. For those of you who don't remember it. You basically are a cop or detective or something in the 1920's in Innsmouth fighting different things. Then you go into the mountains of madness type storylines.

I never beat the game so have no idea how it ends.

This new game feels like an almost carbon copy of that game with "slightly" improved graphics. And muddled controls. I only rate it on fair. Because aside from the voice acting and storyline. The game really has nothing else going for it. I haven't gotten into any combat yet. I've only played it for a little over an hour, not quite 2 hours. Am on Chapter 3. I don't know how many chapters there are.

A major displeasure for me is how horrible the graphics are. It's a 2010 game and the lips don't match the voice actor. And ever person has this 3d layered look to them that I can only describe as "clay like" or "putty". It's like someone painted this elaborate painting with details and background features. Then someone else came along years later and drew a stick figure in the middle of the canvas. Every person feels out of place.

Facial hair, something rarely done right in any video game. Is the worst here. Your main character Edward Pierce has a beard. And every cutscene you see his face, the beard likes to shift so it looks like some prop costume beard from a middle school play, someone glued on.

In short I'll do a short list of pros and cons and hopes this helps people decide on this game for themselves.

Pros
Opening Prologue/Turoial is well woven into the storyline.

Immersive investigative story telling with light touches to rpgs in which you have numerous choices and dialogue options.

Character advancement leveling on skills on percentile based. Reminiscent of Chaiosiums call of cthulhu rpg. Dating back to 3rd edition (first one I player) up to 7th. Each character point raises a skill by 2%. You start out with 8 CP and get more by completing objectives and going through the game. The skills are Eloquence, Spot Hidden, Investigation, Strength, Psychology, Occultism, Medicine.

Cons
Terrible Graphics. Worse on people then environment

Stealth mechanic that is a waste of time. Sometimes people see you when they're back is to you. Others they're looking right at you and you crouch 10 ft away and they can't seem to see you at all.

Puzzles in early game are fun. But later game just become tedious and less tied to the storyline and just there because someone said "we need more puzzles".

While the skills are great. There is no real guide telling you what you need more of or any recommendation for leveling. You kind of just need to do google research or figure it out on your own. Two of the skills also can't be leveled past character creation except by in game items you find. Those are Occultism and Medicine. I'm not sure if I agree with that or not. But I do find it to be annoying.

The sanity system serves no purpose. It simply exists and as the game progresses you get more mental issues regardless of what you do. They're just given to you because "story". And you can choose to drink more alcohol which says it will effect your destiny. I don't know what that means yet. Maybe there is a good and bad ending for the game.

Story Driven Dialogue choices. These are vague as all hell. You don't seem to know you're making a choice that effects the ending of the game, until you've already made it.

Final Thoughts
All in all the game is rather lackluster an outdated. As many critics online probably already say. I think it's a fun horror game with a good storyline. But I'm not happy I paid 60 dollars for it. I feel like within months it will be going down hard to 50% off as a digital copy on xbox marketplace or whatever sony does for their systems. Again I'm on xbox.

As I have not tried combat yet, I can't attest to the level of competence the game has in that regard. But from what I've read online. The first person action shooting part of the game is terrible.

This may be the best call of cthulhu game we have, or are ever going to get. But it's a far cry from being a good game. The controls and gameplay mechanic keep on frustrating me to the point I put the game down and walk away to do something else. And while I enjoy the storyline and skills selection. It makes me just wish I was playing call of cthulhu around a table with some friends.

It's unfair to compare video games to their tabletop counterparts. But when Cyanide (company that made the game). Announced they were making a video game based on the 1980's CoC Roleplaying game. They opened the door for this kind of comparison.

Bioware proved to us that you can make a good game based off a tabletop roleplaying game. Knights of the Old Republic I and II (or KOTOR), was based off the d20 revised star wars tabeltop game of the early 2000's. And it was a smashing success that people still play almost 20 years later. But this CoC: The Official videogame. Is one once I beat Ill probably never pick up again. Which is sad, because I was looking so forward to this game. Survival Horror and Roleplaying Games are my 2 favorite genres.