I’ve been a fan of thatgamecompany since playing the free Flash version of Flow online and reading Jenova Chen’s thesis on how to implement the flow state into gaming.
The original Metroid on NES was so freaking good back in the day. I’m in my late 40s at this point and I still hear songs or themes that make me go “that reminds me of Metroid”. The music was iconic.
And it’s gotta be said, the original reveal that the hero of the game was a (gasp) girl! I am sure it had an effect on my young impressionable mind. And the good kind of effect, the kind that makes you realize girls can be bad ass too. So awesome!
I remember being so insanely jazzed and proud that I got into the closed beta for SWTOR like VERY early. Wasn’t so fun when the game launched and I was already burnt out on it. lol
To be fair, they didn’t address a lot of the main criticisms from beta so the game predictably sunk into “Free to play” hell not too long after. Shame, it had a lot of potential.
Point is, I specifically did not sign up for this beta for the same reason as you. I think this one is worth waiting for.
The DLC’s add a ton to the game. New storylines, new sectors (more space), new ships and buildings, new mechanics (in some), etc.
Do I think you need them all at the start? Probably not? I don’t know how much things cost at this point since I’ve gotten all the DLC’s when they came out since I got the game so it’s hard for me to say whether it’s “worth it” price wise. But just from a content and fun standpoint? They add a LOT to the game and are worth having for sure.
IMHO, the Split ships are the ones I prefer flying generally, so I would recommend that DLC if nothing else. But every faction has one or two ships that are best in class, it’s balanced nicely that way. I just know that if I had to start the game from scratch without Split ships, I would be sad. :-D
This game scratches an itch for me that very few games do. Starting from nothing but a single scout ship and building and empire with fleets of capital ships and miners and traders… and not just owning stations, but building them module by module. There are so many different ways to play this game, from pirate lord to corporate shill to business mogul. You can follow one of the many story lines or strike out on your own from day one. sigh I really enjoy this game.
And I thought they were done updating it two updates and one DLC ago. Yet here we are with more improvements. How lucky are we?!!
It’s a janky game for sure, but in a charming way. I love it. You get used to all the oddities and they fade into the background. And there is a pretty solid modding community too… lots of mods to help with things you might not like about the game.
IMHO, Xbox is a better console than PS this gen. I was a PS guy all the way but I got both XSX and PS5 when they came out and I barely touch my PS5 compared to the Xbox.
To be fair, most of the reasons I prefer the Xbox are just user experience things. The biggest one is that I think the PS5 controller is horrible. The ergonomics are all weird for me (yeah I realize that everyone’s hands are different) and the fancy trigger buttons are real cool in the one or two games that make use of them but they’re squishy and vague feeling in the other 99% of games. The Xbox controller has better ergonomics, and better feel in the hand with its materials and button feel. Yes, ergonomics and feel preference will vary from person to person but it’s worth mentioning since I never had an issue with PS controllers until the PS5.
The other reasons I prefer the Xbox are things like how much better it is for things on your TV that aren’t gaming (streaming shows, watching movies, etc.), I think Gamepass is WAY better than the Sony version, it has more exclusives I am interested in, etc.
Anyhow, you do you, but you might look into the Xbox a little before blindly just going with the PS5 on the strength of the older consoles. I was surprised by how much I didn’t want to use the PS5. And a little bummed if I’m honest. It was a lot of effort to get one at launch and a lot of money and it mostly just gathers dust.
And to answer your specific question, if you do decide to go with a PS5, just get whatever is available when you are ready to get one. When it comes to tech, there’s always something better coming so you can wait forever because they will never say “okay, all done!”.
Seemed to me you called the console version unplayable. You said they didn’t work. I was just correcting that statement for anyone who wasn’t aware that your were bending the truth to make a point.
I don’t know what to tell you, I played it on Xbox just fine. Played the whole game through from start to finish and had fun. I believe the issue was with last gen consoles specifically.
And again, I think a lot of the criticism was reasonable. But my point is that the game itself was and is fun, but suffers because of the bad reputation it got at launch thanks to some ill-advised (intentional understatement alert!) decisions by CDPR.
Yes, NMS was overhyped and completely failed to meet expectations. But it was also complete garbage on release. 7/10? Not even close. It’s one of the only games I ever bought on physical disk that I returned because it was so bad when it wasn’t unplayable. That wasn’t a problem with expectations, that was a terrible fucking game.