
Sven_
Members-
Posts
401 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
6
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Everything posted by Sven_
-
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
Gaming's Last Action Hero chimes in. Arkane Studios Founder Brands Game Pass 'Unsustainable' and 'Damaging' - Insider Gaming I think Gamepass is an unsustainable model that has been increasingly damaging the industry for a decade, subsidized by MS’s “infinite money”, but at some point reality has to hit. I don’t think GP can co-exist with other models, they’ll either kill everyone else, or give up. -
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
Watching your opinions getting reaffirmed on Youtube is one helluva drug. -
Still Arcanum... The dungeons here are really bad, they make even Owlcat's look almost lovingly handcrafted pieces of tunnel crawling art. But yeah, one does not simply play Arcanum for the combats. It's for the setting, the concepts (both in systems and world design) and that unique soundtrack, though it gets a bit repetitive due to its lack in tracks.
-
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
“Not every game is for every single person. Sometimes you have to pick a lane” - The Outer Worlds 2’s director on meaningful role-playing consequence and banning respec https://www.rpgsite.net/interview/1...ctor-interview-respec-rpg-choice-consequences# https://www.gamesradar.com/games/rp...e-can-stealth-properly-through-each-location/ Obsidian learning a lesson here? What's omitted of course is that respecing et all wasn't necessary in the first game either way. It was too Vanilla RPG: Can't Do No Harm (or Interesting) Edition for that. And it was certainly one of those games that tried to please (almost) every single person. Aka being scared of chosing a lane and committing to that. However, with even big IPs such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Age underperforming by going that "scared cat" kinda route of not committing to anything (including their respective IP's legacy), there may be a shift in strategy. One even approved of by upper management. May be wishful thinking on my part, of course. -
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
This just in: How Warhorse tricked the system -- the full story of how Czech Mates managed to successfully pitch Dungeons&No Dragons to them releasing KCD2... In a digital space of following trends and chasing larger audiences at ANY cost, Kingdom Come is the kind of project that is giving me gaming hope. -
Considering that New Vegas has (in the long-run) turned out to be the no.1 fan favourite, even amongst those who started with FO3, I'm actually somewhat hopeful. So many games doing spectacularly well that according to industry wisdom shouldn't have, helps -- whereas vice versa, those that went with perceived wisdom often times struggled. Or at least: failed to set the world on fire even if they set out to do so. Generally, a lot of industry people still seem to act as if it was 2005, and young males playing plenty Gears Of War and Call Of Duty on Xbox was the only big crowd to convince and go after. Speaking of which: The Outer Worlds 2 hands-on preview: There's a chance this is Obsidian's greatest game, and the best shooter of 2025 | GamesRadar+
-
Minus the benefit of a rewarding character system and costumization of course (par for the course for Bethesda since). The "seamless" exploration (like a fantasy themed Elite). The lovely bunch of 320x200 pixels. And the dungeon complexity -- to be fair, as everything in Daggerfall was RNG, any seemingly simple "fetch my slippers" quest to get 10xp could lead to a multi-level hellhole putting POE's Endless Paths, Ultima's entire Underworlds plus Skyrim's Blackreach combined to shame. Like: "All I wanted to do is fetch the slippers and now I can't find the exit no more." @Lexx Yeah, and the lack of consequence is actually by design... Raw size and scale is all what matters to them. FO3 still tried SOME of it. But overall, it's one of the big tragedies of the 21th century that Bethesda landed Fallout. An IP once reknown for coining the term "choice&consequence", right from character creation to technically being able to walk right to the big bad and talk him out of it -- THE END. No more.
-
This is a stance clearly taken by Bethesda games, which consequently have well earned their "wide as an ocean, deep as a p*ss pot" tagline. (And as Starfield had replaced the distractingly beautiful work of their world and art team for procedurally generated specks of dust and greys at the arse of the universe: Everybody got to finally see it.)
-
Arcanum. Never actually finished it. This time, I might -- with a Necromancer Elf that made a pact with the devil. And is as beloved throughout Arcanum (or most of it) as hemorrhoids. PS: I don't want to crap on The Outer Worlds too much. It's not a "crap game". Still: How do you go from this to The Outer Worlds, where perks as exciting and game changing as "+10% to damage" or "+5lbs to carry weight" rule? I have a few suspicious. But still, it's one thing to try to make something more accessible, widespread industry process and no. 1 priority since ca. 2001. It's another to turn it into something as bland and vanilla as frozen burger patties sold en masse at Walmart.
-
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
That was me and Bioware, like ca. post NWN. One of the reasons I didn't buy into Avowed... I may one day, but it has a very Bioware feel to it. And that's not a route I'd want. From its production chasing market trends (Phase 1 -> Phase 2 -> reboot) to where it eventually seemed to have ended up. "Moar action" had been Bioware's answer to everything for two decades, after all: "When you press a button, something awesome has to happen." Germany's GameStar liked it, but they described the game's strengths as rather atypical for Obsidian as well. I understand that Obs were unsure where to go with Eora after Deadfire. But I'd hoped for something bigger into RPG, and be it say a Vegas or Bloodlines-Like. Or a Skyrim with actual depth to it, like systems proper and consequences to your actions (and a more condensed game world that would have been manageable). Of course, the push for multiplayer during the mid to late 2010s had poisoned many a well, see also Arkane and Redfall... I think it's a good thing that some of the bigger successes in recent years have shown to have some system depth to them (like KCD2, BG3, et all). Like them or hate them, these are projects that weren't scared to carry their RPG tag proud and loud. That doesn't mean that every game needs to be super indepth. But the vice versa applies also. I have a feeling the super compressed action/adventure/RPG-Like space may solve a few things here all by itself. Even Ubisoft can't do without some looting and leveling anymore, after all. You're walking into a super crowded room here. Meanwhile a Belgian dude in armor can walk right in, and turn heads simply because there's nobody quite like him in there. -
Finally put some ca$h into purchasing The White March, my final piece of the puzzle. (Bought both PoE 1+2 immediately upon release each.) A choice made for capitalism by capitalism.
-
About to have my first rendezvous with lovely Ravel in PS: Torment since.... 15, 20 years? Any tipps on what I should get her? Chocolates? Flowers? My heart ripped out and put on a silver plate? May continue with another run of Fallout 2 next. Records of this Pip-Boys orgy inspired me to think about it.
-
Well it's a horror game (and a well done remake, should have added it). Personally I was getting aquainted early (the Amiga version had so much better music tho). Well, it did have one. But at times you got the feeling they first started out with a Best Of horror (kinda like Waxworks from above!) and the rest came after. I think the second game actually lost a bit when it went into more of a typical (thriller) story. In the first game, you never knew what would happen next ... or where you would be taken to. That was messed up, but in a good way.
-
Resident Evil has effectively been a corporate mascot, a brand name, a branding under which a corporation gathers and sells whatever it sees as the most profitable. Zombies, werewolves, presidential daughters, 10 feet booby women, explosions, cheesy dialogue, quick time events and pushing rocks — under this corporate Umbrella, anything goes. Because as long as all that nonsense is being sold with a Resident Evil™ tag on it, someone's gonna bite. The only really legitly good entries from my end were 1+2 and 7. I can accept 4 though, although it was a really big departure from the rest until that point and all its tonal cheese. Still, if Capcom would be in the Hollywood business rather than gaming, half of those games+spin-offs would have been trashed the same way as a Michael Bay movie -- or the dumb sequels to Jaws or The Terminator. They aren't in Hollywood though, but gaming. And in gaming, professional critics like or at least tolerate everything, for as long as it's not bugged to crap (proof: count the major releases with a Metascore below 50 or even 60). Still curious for the 9th entry, as every once in a while, Capcom still seems to find something (see RE7, first half of it anyway). PS: I quite liked The Evil Within also, if that counts.
-
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
Biggest flaw of the first game. You have this premise -- and then you play it this safe and family friendly that quests basically solve themselves, perks are mostly fairly uninteresting (+10kg to carry weight, +20% to melee damage, wow), the capitalism=bad joke is fairly light and on repeat -- and one planet was basically Chinese MMO central (Monarch, with tons of fetch jobs and copypaste mobs of enemies, ADVICE: invest in running speed and just run past the ****ers, they're tedious). I chuckled at the board computer though, there's a few decent places and from the raw elements, it's 100% my type of game. The execution was just fairly vanilla overall by Obsi standards... Almost like a proof of concept. Still have to try the DLC admittedly, which are said to have improved a few things already. Still, Pentiment was the actually passion project that had been bubbling in the mind of someone for years. Whereas legend has it that for TOW Feargus tasked Tim with pitching game ideas -- and kept rejecting all of them until Tim called him to suggest what Feargus had been waiting for all along: "Fallout.. in space!" And the difference shows either way. Watching the full direct on TOW2 now, as with a sequel and more money, there's a chance it's all evolved beyond that. -
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
80 bloody bucks for TOW2!!!!!!!!!1 The push for Game Pass gets harder still. edit: Just wanted to create an opportunity to bring in Tim Curry, mind. I think the price rages regarding games are pure first world luxury, as there's an abundance of offers and choices everywhere, every day of the week, month, year. Mount Everests Of Shame exist for reason, after all. Hooray for the capitalism... I guess. -
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
The two million (or hopefully 20) bucks question: Did they fix the camera? Or rather: cameras? Thief is also back... again. This time, it's VR. Thing is: VR would be actually one possible sensible evolution of Thief. Looking Glass tried to approach VR way back right with Ultima Underworld -- just not via clunky headgear of that time. But via the software. The minimalist HUD by the time of Thief. The zero cutscenes during gameplay policy. The incomplete in-universe maps Garrett would aquire from associates rather than blindly following markers gameloop. The mostly open sandbox type of levels, with AI and players able to roam. The quite advanced physics and sound for that era. And the movement, including being able to freely lean, to crouch, to jump, to swim -- that wasn't a mistake. That was by design. "We were trying to build the holodeck". https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/system-shock-the-oral-history-of-a-forward-thinking-pc-classic However, as the reboot missed literally *all* of that before, consider me doubtful for now. I'd be more confident if this gig went to Wolfeye Studios or Arkane -- studios that "get" the basics, as they're partly consisting of Looking Glass, Origin and Ion Storm alumni. -
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
An opportunity to show that you can do all of this without being scared to show that you're actually still in the business of making RPGs. See also Warhorse and Bethesda more recent. Or BG3 and Veilguard. Will it be taken? In terms of studio size, Owlcat could do it... they're now consisting of hundreds of people all the same, even though their growth so far seems stemming from a favorable economical safe space (Eastern Europe is something else than Western California, say). And being a bit of a "quantity over quality" studio -- just take a look at how many releases they've pumped out since 2018, 2019... there's not been a year in this without anything new to ship to customers. Imagine they'd announce they'd nicked Chris Avellone and/or Brian Mitsoda as the narrative lead/s ... permanently. -
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
Interesting that there seems other stuff in the works apart from standard triple-A action adventure™ fare -- the direction to go to for decades, becuz: "If you press a button, something awesome has to happen!" A survival kind of thing set in The Realms? Sure, survival has been done to death... but in a way, the start of BG1 arguably was pretty close already, still making it kind of unique, at least upon first playing it. Think about it: You're dropped into forests with no gear, money or hitpoints to brag in front of the girls about. Your foster father has just been killed. There's wolves and bears able to one-shot you. True to the game's lore of iron and crisis, the joke of a weapon you hold in your hands can actually BREAK at ANY POINT. And you're on your own (that is, provided you gave that annoying lass the hard pass, as the game strongly encouraged you to do...) Will this signal the comeback of 1990s era D&D games? I mean you had Beat em Level Ups ! Horror Crawlers! And Command Faerun & Conquers! -
Good idea, actually, hm..... currently replaying Torment for the first time in years, so thereafter, who knows. Thing is, I actually like combat. So it's not strictly that. It's that Owlcat's copypaste encounter design makes Icewind Dale II look like grandmaster chess. And they're so proud of it that it's EVERYWHERE. It's literally like: "Ok, here's two gargoyles. Now move two feet. Here's the same two gargoyles. Keep moving! Oh, hello you two again." Then comes the super mobs, and they only ever differ in armor class and buffs, like: "Cool, they switched that super mob with AC 50 for one with an AC of 80, now I'm gonna need to really buff up or else..." Kingmaker at least had the advantage of switching threats every chapter or so. But WOTR is naturally a crusade against demons... so horned beasts is all you're gonna get, start to finish, hour 1 to hour 250 or so. It's Demon Burnout Incarnate. It's not like they're receiving no feedback on that.... people start BEGGING on their Reddit knees.
-
Random video game news... RNG is your friend!
Sven_ replied to Frak_the_2nd's topic in Computer and Console
Dungeon Siege 4. And Uwe Boll is gonna direct the TV spots premiering during Superbowl TV piss break. -
Well, I took a six to eight months timeout with Kingmaker. WOTR I bought upon release and had three time-outs total over the span of September 2021 to end of 2023... still not finished. Probably won't. I jokingly view it as this: Owlcat took the opposite lesson from Planescape:Torment and its development than the Disco Elysium boys did. Disco got rid of combat entirelly after experiencing Torment's copypaste trash encounters replacing quality content and questing in later areas such as Curst Prison (a result of crunch and rush). Owlcat based their entire business modell around that. I mean, these guys are about to release their fourth 150-200 hours longest CRPG ever opus in the span of like 7 years, plus DLCs plus Enhanced Editions... that's insane. It would have been insane in the 1990s, when production was simpler. Mind you, I'm more frustrated than anything. For one, their type of game is right up my alley. Then I also like the better parts. I just wish half of it wouldn't be such a filler slog.
-
Every single time (mind you, haven't yet tried Rogue Trader). You could cut like 40% of both Pathfinder games -- and they'd be improved 400%. Finished Kingdom Come 2 yesterday. Noticed a few Owlcats when the credits rolled. Seems they didn't leave a sour aftertaste on this one -- the latter chapters actually offer some of the highlights of the game. Not wanna spoil, but in every other AAAA RPG, "mundane" stuff that occurs here would have been a two minutes cutscene. And that would have been a loss, as turning it all into a bit of questing and interacting with characters makes the final all the more emotionally engaging.
-
Nintendo disagrees, they still don't quite as mindlessly let you follow markers for reason. However, KCD isn't actually like that. You have a map and you have some guidance (Hardcore Mode is a bit "trickier"). Additionally, simulation is awesome. It's what allows for emergent behavior and solutions rather than simply ticking off a list of tasks. The game even suggests you watch where NPCs are going should you feel the desire to rob them / break into their homes (crime is still too simple, mind). That said, you know what's actually like work? Game developers thinking you need a gaming nanny (or a control freak of a boss) guiding your every move as apparently you can't be trusted to even start the game. Where's the escapism in that? Like seriously: Push X to open door. Push Y to accept quest. Move precisely over here to talk to character Z. Now move to place A, then to B, activate your witcher senses, follow the yellow paint and DO IT DO IT NOW, WELL DONE GOOD BOY. I never got into World Of Warcraft by the way as that kind of loop alongside to MMO fetch and grind quests is the definition of completing a laundry list of "busywork" (markers or not). The poor sod who used to put the caps onto Cola bottles by hand actually had it good: His task wasn't near as mundane and he was left alone as his boss trusted he was capable of doing it all on his own. On topic: The Evil Within 2. Undecided if the first game or the second game had the better structures. The first tossed you into new scenarios every chapter, kind of like a best of Horror -- the second is more hub-based. I prefer them both over the original RE4 though, just a silly game after THAT start.