Wormerine

Virtua Fighter6, Pragmata, Avowed, Elder Scrolls6.

I must say, I don't love ZCOM as much as others so far (16 hours in, just recruited Jedi and Bounty Hunter). Lack of strategy layer really drags the game for me - lack of goals, decision making, barebone upgrade system, the game just lack context to make what is fairly simply and repetitive combat rewarding. XCOMs always thrived on this constant loop of tactical combat and strategy layer, and I don't think ZCOM changed design enough for the combat alone to carry the experience. That said I like it. It's alright. It feels authentically Star Wars which is not something one can take for granted these days. They translated familiar units into tactical combat very well. Characters are well defined, even if the plot haven't gone anywhere just yet. I watched a bit of Clone Wars way back, but I didn't care for it, and don't know what Bad Batch is so maybe I am also missing some connection there. To completely bury my reputation I also thought Republic Commando was pretty mid 😅

I was wondering about it. I thought Diablo4 did fairly well. The question was: was it too live-servicey, or not live-servicey enough?

I honestly have no clue what it is. All I can find is "open-word shooter". Is it singleplayer? Planetside-like? Do I even care, if it is not RTS? I don't, at least until I see something I would actually want to play. That they call it simply "Starcraft" is more worrying to me. I didn't expect Blizzard to actually make Starcraft3, but if they reboot the franchise using it's original branding, that means to me they don't even foresee an RTS sequel as a very distant possibility. Or maybe the game is in such early stages that they don't even know what to call it yet.

This is not starcraft3. It’s a shooter.

From what I understand they argument is "it won't affect many players as barely anyone uses it". Which begs a question why create universally bad PR by limiting their play time 🫠. It seems to me like XBOX's leadership is scrambling for a way to squeeze extra $ out of the service. Aggressive price hike didn't work out, now they try different avenues. steamDB is a database, tracking price changes, concurrent players, updates etc. https://steamdb.info/

Yeah, ended up rebuying the game. Enjoying it so far. With some tweaks I managed to squeeze 60FPS+ performance. Still looks great. I don't have high hopes for ZCOMs future. If staff was furloughed that means they don't have stuff to work on - that to me indicates no next project, be it further work on ZCOM, or something else. Unless the game did well enough to change EA's mind, but I suspect at this point it is one and done deal. As to what happened at Firaxis - Midnight Suns under performed but it was still a really solid title. ZCOM reminds me more of it, than XCOM (albeit with far, far better writing). I suppose 2k just didn't want to fund another project like that. What happened with JA3?

Star Wars: Zero Company successful launch is a bit marred by behind the scenes troubles: Eurogamer.net"Most" of the developers behind critically acclaimed Star...Legal documents reveal that developers behind Star Wars Zero Company were furloughed ahead of the game's successful launch.Allegedly 80% of stuff were furloughed shortly before game's launch, though that is not what shocks me. It is a newly founded studio, I doubt they have much of a war chest. It seems to me that the game went over budget and run out of funding shortly before launch - would also explain some of it's troubles. Hopefully, game did well enough for money to flow into the studio and the stuff be paid. The reports of disagreement and lawsuit between the owners is a bit more worrying to me.

I mean they are mainly third person shooters and I am pretty sure there is auto-aim feature to make it really easy. Personally, I didn't care much for GTA5 (the only one I played except for the original way back when). Story didn't do much for me. RDR2 though, that's a great western game.

Yeah, with framegen I was able to get 100-120FPS, and I thought that will make the game feel great, but I still found it janky. It might be UX rather then just performance itself, but I must say I just didn't enjoy interacting with the game. Though, to be fair, I endured far worse with XCOM2. I think the main issue for me is, that from what I understand X-COM3 it is not. I picked up the game more of fondness of some of the dev's team previous work, then my own interest in ZC, but opening mission made me regret spending £40. I still have Jagged Allience3 in my library that I haven't touched and Phoenix Point to return to, and those to seem far more up my alley.

So, with 32GB of ram and 5070Ti the game still doesn’t run great. On high settings in 4k using balanced DLSS, I get very unstable 60FPS - bouncing between 50-80. And just the whole thing feels like it hitches every once in a while. Didn’t get too far into it, just first couple tutorial encounters. Decided to refund it for now.

I enjoyed Witcher books as a teen, so I am not objective here. Geralt is fantasy Clint Eastwood, and I think he makes for great protagonist for the game. Opinionated enough to be a character, removed from society and conflicted enough to support a light RPG. I love Geralt as a character - I find him snarky in a very relatable and adorable way. Then again, it is difficult for me when my adoration for the character from books ends and game's Geralt begins. CDPR take on the character certainly isn't 100% to my liking, but it is faithful enough for me to embrace him. I should also say that I always played Witcher with polish VO. To me polish actor's take on Geralt sounds a bit less artificial. I honestly, loved all three games, but third one is the one I played only once so far. I replayed the first one countless times. 2nd just a few times. The third one - I think it is the best one, but it is also too big? I remember every bit of W1&2, both good and bad - Witcher3 is a bit of a blur. I also struggle these days to get into games with little player agency. I had this issue with Cyberpunk. I can still enjoy those games, but need an adjustment period to be more passive and enjoy the ride. Back when my main diet was Bioware, Witcher was far easier to slip into.

Higher minimum requirements? I dunno, it's been too long since I played W3 to know differences. I suppose I might finally be getting around to doing 2nd playthrough at some point in the future. Also:

Rainbow Six Tactics. Cool

Recommended, minimum is 16GB and GTX 1080. So the question is how scalable it is, not what the game requires for high settings.

2XKO’s dead. I mean you can still play it for now, and there are still few updates and characters left but active development is ceasing. Rock Paper ShotgunActive development on League of Legends fighting game spi..."Over time it became clear it would be impossible for us to continue actively developing the game as we are today."

Warren Spector of Epic Mickey and more recently Thick as Thieves fame is retiring from game development. Probably... likely... for now at least. Rock Paper ShotgunDeus Ex director and immersive sim legend Warren Spector...Deus Ex director Warren Spector has announced his retirement from game development. Harvey Smith, studio director of the smash hit Redfall announced his new studio Black Pony Immersive. Immersive Horse Simulator incoming? https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/through-the-looking-glass-as-arkane-fight-for-their-future-dishonored-veteran-harvey-smith-reveals-new-studio-dedicated-to-immersive-sims Apologize for my playfulness with the choice of game titles, but I assume all here know these folks. All the best to both of them, and I hope Harvey and Co. is able to continue Looking Glass and Arcane's legacy.

I used to do it a lot, especially for shorter, snappier titles. I replayed Mafia1, Jedi Outcast, Max Payne, Batman, Arkham Asylum, Mass Effect 1&2, Thief1&2 countless of times. Big RPGs also got replays (Fallout1, Baldur's Gate1&2, Planescape Torment) but those are rarer due to time commitment. I think I tend to do it less today because I have income so I can buy something new easier and I have beefier rig with 4k resolution as as such older titles aged the way they haven't even just few years ago, when I was gaming through a laptop. I also find modern titles to be often padded. I do like an idea of replaying certain games, but they often come with hours of not so fun gametime. For example, I can't imagine replaying Jedi: Fallen Order/Survivor as much as I did Outcast/Jedi Academy. I would like to return to bits of those games but there is too much downtime in them. Then there are games I tend to return to, because there is so much depth to them. Arcane's games demand a new playthrough everyones in a while. Good RPGs often benefit from repeated runs. Games with excellent combat systems like DMC5 feel like an endless sandbox of demon killing fun. But overall - I do it much less these days.

I will be curious to hear what you think of it and changes Mimimi made compared to Shadow Tactics and Desp3.

and

Interesting info about co-development I didn’t know about:

yeah, coming back to Van Buren style Fallout could be cool, or… anything really. I am not sure if creativity is something current XBOX leadership puts much faith in.

That’s the first thing that comes to mind. How would Obsidian achieve that? Borrowing Bethesda Elderscrolls6 engine would make it happen? I can’t imagine it will be if they use Unreal. And I doubt they will create their proprietary engine. The grimmest vision I have is Microsoft having Obsidian pump out Outer Worlds-like experience with Fallout IP, without thinking what playerbase wanting a new fallout game from Obsidian actually wants and expects.

Congratulations. XBOX managed to make “Obsidian makes Fallout” like not a good thing somehow. it sounds risky. I am not sure Obsidian can pull of something of the scale of New Vegas without solid base to build on. And if they build something less, a new IP would bring less ire. Sucks if Avowed2 and whatever JS is as working on before was scrapped. Rock Paper ShotgunNew Vegas devs Obsidian are reportedly working on a new F...Obsidian are reportedly working on a new Fallout game, following Microsoft's latest round of mass layoffs.

The ID news did caught me by surprise. They release three amazing games within ten years. Supported Machine games and others. They are industry leading team. squeeze a bit more buck out of their work? Sure. Turn ID Tech in their version of RE Engine… sure. But kill the department? It seems that once again they are trying to fix the numbers on a spreadsheet with no practical strategy or vision for the future.