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I brought it up in the Random Thought thread, and now it has its own thread to call home! If you own a Playstation 4, subscribe to PS+, and are reading this in July, congratulations you may already be a winner and own this game! Also available on this "Steam" thing on PC for $20.

 

Rocket League is a futuristic competitive car acrobatics soccer game with hats. I mean, that's what it is. Don't look at me funny.

 

It has been lauded from all sections of the internet, and in addition to being a surprise breakout hit, people are speculating that it could be the next real innovator to hit the competitive gaming scene. Over the past week it has seen nearly 100k concurrent views on Twitch, and has garnered audiences larger than those watching DOTA, Hearthstone, and Counter-Strike, sometimes combined.

 

Talk about cars wearing sombreros doing barrel rolls and bicycle kicks here.

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I didn't think I was going to buy the game, but I watched the quick look on Giant Bomb, saw that I was doing pretty well in terms of not spending this month, and decided to plop down the 20 bucks on PC. The servers have been down when I've tried to play it so far, but I played through a single-player season and had a great time. The single-player reminds me of a Mario sports game in its simplicity. Every real sports game has a complicated season mode where most of your time is spent not actually playing the game, when really a standings board and cool team names is all I need, sometimes.

 

In terms of the actual game, I find it really cool how it's actually fun to be a single part of a team sport. The EA Sports games have tried this, and it's always super boring, has a janky camera, etc. But it's a really cool idea! I guess all you needed to was abstract it and create an environment where just moving your character is really fun. It's really satisfying to pull back at the right moment during a battle for the ball and loop around with a boost to take that perfect shot. It reminds me of when I used to play minor league ice hockey. There's a strong feeling that even the little things you do, like pushing the ball away from an opponent or towards their side of the arena, are important and are helping your team. Basically, I like when games make you feel like you don't need to be the one getting all the goals/kills/captures to be a helpful part of the team. 

 

I'm excited for the servers to go back up and see what it's like to play with real people, but honestly I think if all I had was the single player I'd still be quite satisfied for the price. It just feels cool to play. 

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I've got this via ps+ and its pretty legit. I like how all the doodads you unlock are basically cosmetic (I think there maybe some variance in hitbox with the different car models, but not enough that anyone can reliably turn it to their advantage I don't think).

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I am proud to announce that I own this game and will proceed to play the shit out of it in the next few weeks. It looks great.

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I decided to try this out after the Giant Bomb Quicklook, and was positively surprised. I rarely play sports games and almost never play online games, but this game is super fun!

 

Ball control and especially dribbling are really hard at first. Reminds me of playing football back in school in a much less unpleasant way than I would have thought.

 

In terms of the actual game, I find it really cool how it's actually fun to be a single part of a team sport. The EA Sports games have tried this, and it's always super boring, has a janky camera, etc. But it's a really cool idea! I guess all you needed to was abstract it and create an environment where just moving your character is really fun. It's really satisfying to pull back at the right moment during a battle for the ball and loop around with a boost to take that perfect shot. It reminds me of when I used to play minor league ice hockey.

 

You might be interested in 2K Sports NBA series. At least in NBA 2K15 the career mode is excellent. I enjoy playing as a single individual much more than playing as whoever has the ball at that moment. Contributing to your team's effort by playing solid point guard (or whatever) game feels really satisfying.

 

However, I can see how playing as a single part of the team would be much less interesting in a sport with different pacing and less specialization, e.g. football or ice hockey. Plus, EA Sports' NBA efforts have been abysmal in recent years.

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If I had slightly more money or a guaranteed team to play with, I would be all over this. Every video I've seen of it everyone has been having a great time. The East Coast vs West Coast Giant Bomb games were hilarious and tense and exciting.

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Funny enough I made the thread without owning the game. I own the game now. It makes me care mad, which is how I know it's good. I need to be sure to do the additional training tutorials. It's a good game, play the game.

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If I had slightly more money or a guaranteed team to play with, I would be all over this. Every video I've seen of it everyone has been having a great time. The East Coast vs West Coast Giant Bomb games were hilarious and tense and exciting.

 

I thought the same thing before I picked it up. Then, I had a really rough day and just needed some mindless fun, so I picked a copy up. I've been really surprised how non-awful playing online with strangers has been. I think chat is text only and limited to a few preset phrases, so the number of jerks you have to deal with is pretty limited. Or maybe the number of jerks that are identifiable as jerks is what limited. 

 

Either way, I have a fez for my creepy van, so that's all I need. 

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One thing that's neat is apparently servers are shared across PC and PS4, but I don't think you can intentionally play with a friend on a different platform.

 

On PS4 you can type using the onscreen keyboard but obviously that isn't very convenient. I'd assume you can also use a USB keyboard. I've seen people send messages that definitely weren't the preset messages, but for the most part, it's either silence or preset messages. Another nice thing is voice chat defaults to push to talk (on PS4 at least) and I guess people haven't figured that out, so the game is blissfully free of screaming children.

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After I heard this had cross-play between the PS4 and PC versions, I knew I had to have it.

But, I've no money. Might set up a patreon

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It has splitscreen co-op and versus. The splitscreen co-op works online as well.

 

 

I was really into the Carball mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 back in the day, so Rocket League was an instant-purchase as soon as I heard about it. It's the first game I've bought for full price in a long time, and I have no regrets. :D

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One thing that's neat is apparently servers are shared across PC and PS4, but I don't think you can intentionally play with a friend on a different platform.

 

I believe that is currently the case, but they're trying to find a way to make it possible.

 

I snapped and bought it. Had a couple good games with AndyB earlier on, and am up for more teaming up with Thumbs if you drop me a line on Steam.

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I've been playing the season mode here and there, and I've been surprised how fun that can be. The only thing is that it is way too easy to win by just taking long shots at kickoff.

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I've been playing the season mode here and there, and I've been surprised how fun that can be. The only thing is that it is way too easy to win by just taking long shots at kickoff.

 

Yup. I noticed that as well. Rarely happens online, though, as everyone is boosting towards the ball to get the first hit.

 

I'm enjoying this game quite a lot, even though I'm still not very good at it. I'm gradually getting better at judging the height of the ball, but I still spectacularly miss a high percentage "easy" jump shots.

 

Also, great shot EwanSuttie!

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Someone posted this in the GB subreddit, apparently it's the #1 player.  :o

 

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I had some friends over on Friday night because season 2 of Bojack Horseman dropped and we marathoned it together. A buddy lived pretty far away, and so crashed on my couch. When he woke up yesterday morning, I installed Rocket League and the two of us played for about 4 hours straight, including going through an entire co-op season. This game is super fucking fun. The fact that it has 4 player split-screen has motivated me to finally take the plunge and controller up. Now that there's this, Towerfall, Sportsfriends, Starwhal, and probably a bunch of other shit that I'm forgetting, the PS4 has found a spot as a dedicated couch party game machine. Awesome.

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Yup. I noticed that as well. Rarely happens online, though, as everyone is boosting towards the ball to get the first hit.

It's pretty rare for it to work against pro bots 3v3; allstar ones I've never had it work.

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Help I'm addicted to Rocket League.

 

SO damn good. I put in 10 hours this weekend, and I rarely if ever do that with a game. I think the quick matches and how easy it is to get into the next match make this the perfect time burner. I find myself going "Well, I'll have a quick match" and 6 or 7 matches later I'll remember I am actually in the middle of something. 

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Oh man, I'm amazed at how good this is.  Like the balance of speed, physics, contact, verticality, etc., is all just sublime.  Like, I haven't cared about a sports type game in forever, and we spent 2 hours tonight messing around with it.

 

That said, I don't honestly know that I'll play a bunch more of it.  I'm glad it was on PS+ for free.  I still don't have a big interest in playing through an entire season or something, I'm just really glad I did take the time to download and try it.  But I'll for sure keep it in mind for when we have people over for game days and stuff.  If I was still in college with dormmates or something, this thing would be played all the time. 

 

Plus, I'd love to see these folks take their design and do something besides soccer.  Give me some sort of weird, objective based racing game or something and I don't know how much time I'd sink into it. 

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Plus, I'd love to see these folks take their design and do something besides soccer. Give me some sort of weird, objective based racing game or something and I don't know how much time I'd sink into it.

Weirdly, Psyonix is also the named dev on Nosgoth. That Legacy of Kain multiplayer spinoff.

It's objective based racing in that your objective might be to join a race of vampires?

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