I've been getting back into playing The Finals lately. Kinda similar to Splitgate, in that the mechanics are easy to understand and mastering them will yield you a lot of fun and victory. The movement is very snappy, there's a lot of variety in how you can play, and matches are relatively quick.
It's an objective-based shooter, so you won't win just by getting kills; you have to complete a specific goal before your enemies to actually win. So it's a bit like Overwatch or TF2 in that regard (kinda dated references, I know) in terms of goals and a player's abilities. And the gunplay feels very much like Battlefield, which would make sense because ex-DICE devs worked on this game, I believe. It's also got crossplay.
It's got a seasonal/live service model for cosmetics. The battle pass and any other MTX are all only for cosmetics, though; unlocking weapons/abilities can only be done through gameplay, with no skip mechanics. So no weapons, abilities, maps, game modes, etc can be bought with real money at all. Figured I'd mention, since I know that's a turnoff for a lot of people, but I've been enjoying it as a free player.
I miss the arcade-y feel of older racing games. Everything these days tries too hard to be a simulator, that they end up stripping the fun out of it. I want sparks to fly out of my tires when I drift even though they're rubber and wouldn't actually do that, I want wacky announcers with color commentary, I don't want to shift gears.
I want games like Ridge Racer and Need for Speed to make a comeback.
Honestly, it's pretty far into the PS5's lifecycle at this point. I think a PS5 Pro this late into the current generation would be a bad move, because a PS6 is undoubtedly around the corner in just a few years and will effectively obsolesce a PS5 Pro, anyway.
If they released a Pro version last year, that'd make more sense. But unless Sony's expecting this generation to stretch out longer than normal, this just doesn't seem like a good idea.
I long for a moneyless, classless game in this genre where the incentives are community thriving, trust, pleasure, and all the other aspects that make life worth worth living outside of capitalism.
I think Sim Ant technically meets these conditions.
If we're talking Goldeneye, I believe the C-button aiming was an alternate control scheme. IIRC, the default controls had the stick control both your forward/backward motion, but also your left/right turning, instead of left/right strafing, so your aim was controlled horizontally by the stick, but vertically was pretty much locked on the horizon at all times. To do fine-tuned aiming, or to aim vertically at all, required holding R to bring up the crosshairs which you could then move with the stick, while standing still.
In hindsight, it's amazing that we ever tolerated that.
If the world exploration and character interactions in RDR2 are scratching your itch, then 2077 will definitely have you covered there; Night City is huge and has a lot of hidden spots and characters to find. I'd say that the combat is generally a bit more hectic in 2077, but not overwhelming. You can also freely adjust the difficulty whenever you want, so if you're not interested in mastering the buildcrafting aspects (since it leans more heavily into RPG aspects than RDR2) and just wanna get the story, that's also an option.
While it's definitely not required to have an amazing experience, I'd strongly recommend also picking up the Phantom Liberty expansion if you decide to give 2077 a shot. It adds a lot of additional content, including some new endings. And Idris Elba is fucking fantastic in it. He brings a very similar energy to Keanu, where you can tell that he really loves his character and the story he gets to tell. It honestly sets a ridiculously high bar for video game acting in general.
My recommendation for this will always be Cyberpunk 2077. There are SO many secrets and sub-plots to discover in the game, and every single one of them feels like an intricate, deliberate piece to the overall puzzle that makes up Night City.
To experience everything requires multiple playthroughs, which I normally dislike in long, narrative-driven games because I lack the attention span needed when it comes to repeating things in games. But CP2077 offers so many new ways to tackle every situation, and it's one of the few games I've played where it truly feels like a new experience on the second and all subsequent playthroughs. The writing and acting are spectacular, and going back and picking different options for various encounters will yield very different, yet authentic results.
I've 100%'d it and still went back and did at least 3 full playthroughs after. I can't sing this game's praises enough.
Agreed! The quality and quantity of the content in that DLC are enough to qualify for a standalone game. Not to mention all the wild new mechanics that the DLC introduces, and work seamlessly with the rest of the game. TTAODK was probably the best piece of content Gearbox will ever produce.
Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about some of the casting as I'm kinda tired of seeing Kevin Hart and Jack Black in everything lately (I'm surprised I didn't see The Rock in the trailer somewhere, to be honest), but the overall feel of the trailer seems to match the energy that the games had. I'm not saying it's 1:1 accurate by any means, but the trailer definitely manages to feel like Borderlands. I imagine the writers for the movie didn't want anybody from the main group to feel like a "downer" character, so Roland's probably being reworked a bit.
I'm okay with it so far, at least. It's generally pretty hard to make the "strong, quiet type" very interesting, especially for a movie format where you have limited screen time that has to be shared among a lot of characters. You can make that sort of character interesting, like in No Country For Old Men, but you have to dedicate a lot of time to it, and that's not easily done with a story that has so many characters with their own stories to tell.
I dunno, I'm just remaining optimistic. I want to like this movie.