Wormerine
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Posts posted by Wormerine
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3 hours ago, kanisatha said:
But it amazes me how enjoyable it still is to play these now-ancient games.
Pathfinding aside they hold up very well, even on an iPad.
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I retrieved my heart in Dragon's Dogma. What happened next surprised me, and I don't quite know what to make of it.
I think there is something fundamentally unsatisfying when a game puts you against enemies you defeated before many times, but now with heavily inflated stats. It is especially harsh, as so far DD offered very little resistance. And it is doubly unenjoyable to me because of the numerical power curve that game has - I suspect what I am expected to do is grind, level up, upgrade and get even better equipment to bring the difficulty curve down. And to me it just feels like a waste of time, especially as I already experienced the other side of the curve before. I just had a lengthy and epic fight with a hydra - and it would probably feel more satisfying if I didn't kill one easily within a first hour of my playtime already.
On a flip side, the game became somewhat interesting again. Actually worrying about enemies weaknesses became a non issue after about 10h of playing, so overall it is the best the game has been.
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7 hours ago, Hawke64 said:
@WormerineThe thing with pawns is that their AI should handle encounters on their own (I could not find the video, but the pawns absolutely can solo drakes) or assist you (e.g. a Fighter can launch you to reach hydra's heads). The intended way is for your pawn to learn from your application of the available commands (e.g. "Attack", "To me", etc.) and witnessing monsters' weaknesses.
Ah! If I knew at some point that you can give orders to your pawns at some point, than I completely forgot about it after the tutorial. Might give it a go, next time.
I must admit, I am liking DD more and more. Started encountering more large monsters, and while rather gimmicky they are fun. The game has issues, but it sells the idea of party adventuring like few other games. In a way it feels like playing classic RPG, and I like it.
I even grew to like UI. It was a nightmare to start with, but once I got used to it, it became fairly efficient to use. Unlike, let’s say Baldur’s Gate3, in which the more time I spent the more issues an inefficiencies I found in the UI.
speaking of BG3, I wonder if Dragon’s Dogma was one of Larian’s inspiration. Grabbing&throwing enemies, exploding barrels, mayhem and fire everywhere, pawns hurting themselves while autofollwing you, gimmicky boss fights. It seems curiously similar.
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16 hours ago, Keyrock said:
I mean, I have to assume that somebody is spending money in these shops. Otherwise why would they keep shoehorning them into games? I just cannot figure out who the **** buys stuff from a Capcom online shop? And for what? You never ever need anything from those shops.
Well, that's unfortunately not the case in Street Fighter6, but otherwise I see your point. Still, difficulty for me to not be apprehensive about every Capcom release, as they tend to come with a lot of red flags. It's like Bethesda not sending out review codes for Doom2016. Just... why?
Maybe Capcom is playing a long game - releasing years of quality releases, making us complacent and make us stop worrying about microtransactions. And when we do: BAM, mictrotransaction driven Resident Evil live service.
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5 hours ago, Keyrock said:
IMaybe these businesses should look at Capcom who is selling games like gangbusters, their stock value has something like quadrupled over the last 5 years. How did Capcom do it?
(…)
WB had the biggest hit of the year in 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy (coincidentally a single player game) and by a WIDE margin. That game has sold well over 20 million copies so far and was well received, a HUMONGOUS success by any measure. An yet, the entire rest of 2023 was such a disaster for WB that they STILL are bleeding money and needing to restructure their business.
I remember seeing a quote of one of the higher up suggesting that all WB learned from that was: “dang, we should have monetized Hogward’s legacy more”.
I don’t hope that Capcom will stay its current awesome self forever. Line must go up and at some point continuing to release great games will stop doing a trick and they will start cashing in. Really, a line between good and bad Capcom is them being more forceful about current monetisation.
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2 hours ago, Keyrock said:
For example, would you consider The Witcher 3 to be live service? I wouldn't, but it has multiple expansions, the game was sort of a living thing for a few years.
Well, no. Live-service doesn't equal post launch content/support. Live-service model sees games and platform, rather than a title. It's a game meant to be played endlessly and continuasly with a regular trickle of limited time content.
There are of course games that blur the lines. Are new Hitman's live services? I would say they definitely try, but there is a great, selfcontained game there with live-service stink all over it. For a while now even non-live service games implement live-service like monatizations (Street Fighter6 battlepass for example).
I can't speak of Conan Exiles, but I am pretty sure MMO was were a lot of live-service concepts were first born - than publishers became interesting in having same long term "engagement" through habit and ongoing revenue through microtransactions in other titles.
I think that if a game releases post release content, and you are not pressure to log in play it/buy it right now, it is not following live-service design. It has less to do with how much post launch content it gets (god knows, a lot of services tend to die rather quickly) and more with how it tries to "engage" its players.
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So far my fondest encounter in DD1 was a free roaming cyclops. Hired pawn mounted the monster and rode him off the cliff. Too bad I couldn’t sent the pawn back with a generous gift for his service.
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Easily the think I have been looking forward most since Suicide Squad release
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Ok I haven't made my gaming updater in a while, and I am sure you are all dying to know of my gaming habits.
Dragon's Dogma
I am commiting to finishing this one as my highest priority. I pushed beyond opening and the game became quite playable. There is originality to it, I appreciate, but so far I am still not convinced it is a "good game". I think it was a cult classic for a reason. But perhaps, it will get better as it goes on.
I find quest design frustratingly uneven. So far they seem like excuses to get you our into the wild more than anything else, but them seem to range from handholdy to frustratingly obtuse. So far it more seems like uneven standard an inconsistant design, rather than intentional creative choice.
More importantly, I am not sold on combat, and overal systems. UI is horrendous, that the first thing. But to me the game seems to land in the awkard spot for action-RPG where it is neither decent action game nor an RPG. I am not seeing much possible variation in builds so far, and gameplay seems to revolve around spamming attack and abilities with final result mostly coming down to stats (do I do enough damage and stagger, and can enemy kill me in a single chain of attacks). Of course, the most novel and interesting bit so far are enemy weaknesses - but while capturing imagination, I wasn't particularly blown away gameplay wise. So far it seems simply that certain enemies need to be attacked certain way to made the encounter more managable, but that's about all the depth it has. You either know or you don't. Climbing enemies is cool, though, at least from visual perspective. Still, games like Dark Souls also had optional limb removal/weak spots mechanics, and overall I think their system is far more competent and intricate in both halfs of action-RPG genre.
I like thought, that it is an action-RPG focused on a party - but again, without controlling the party members it's not particularly deep experience.
Edit. Oh, unprofeshional, out of tune singing in the main menu really, really irritates me /edit
Prince of Persia: Lost Crown
It's good, but I wasn't blown away by it. Being done by same devs as excellent latest Rayman games platforming is great. Combat is also more complex than your usual metroidvania experience (a bit of side scrolling DMC there), but I also wasn't particularly impressed by it. Yes, there are more attacks, and you can create basic combos, but I just didn't think the combat was deliberate enough to be rewarding. Yes, Hollownight had very basic attacks, but all upgrades, modifiers and player in combat decisions felt very impactful. Not so much in Prince of Persia, and in spite of fairly decent enemy variety, I didn't find enemies particularly memorable. Bosses were fairly challenging, but in what I found to be rather annoying way. In a dark souls fashion, you kinda need to memorise their moves and timing. At least on highest difficulty parrying and dodging isn't very forgiving, so reacting on what you see isn't really possible in my opinion. It's all about dying few times, learning of proper timings and responses to each attack sequence.
As for the motroidvania bit - it felt quite handholdy. It took the game a long time before it actually allowed you to explore a bit, but every area felt to be designed more like a Dark Souls level - a maze that you explore in linear fashion and unlock shortcut, rather than genuine exploration. I was surprised, as with game giving you new ways of marking the map (with in game screenshots) and option at the start between guided and non-guided experience, I expected something a bit more freeform. Most things you need to get back to, are collectibles that you can see but can't get to due to power X, Y and Z being missing (think Arkham series) but personally I find this design more frustrating that rewarding.
Still, overall a good game, though it feels a bit derivativede. It mostly just seems to adapt well tested designsed (a lot of Hollow Knight in there), which I think is a bit of a shame - I would prefer if there was more Prince of Persia in there.
Diablo 4
Not much to say. With it coming to GamePass I gave it ago, played for two evenings and got bored. It's not really a criticism of the title, that's how my adventure ends with all hack'n slashes so far. Numbers going up just doesn't excite me much, which is good considering the state of my bank account.
Street Fighter 6
150h in and still going. I exhausted single player content, and am deep in online play and getting my butt kicked, and occasionally kicking butt of even bigger noob. I am getting better, but the progress is gradually slowing. Looking at skill ranking I am still a below average player (and by a fair margin). I am still enjoying myself, though, and that's what's important.
So yeah, after years of dipping into fighting games I can recommend SF6 for its onboarding experience. Lengthy singleplayer campaign is a good way of familiarising one self with controls, roster and various mechanics. There is also a fairly gentle transition into online play, where game keeps you in the noob section for a while, before allowing you to get pummeled. I double down on my commitment by buying an arcade stick in an impulse purchase:
For one, I am a bit angry at myself that I bought it instead of a Flight Stick, as it would be a more versatile purchase. I am also not sure of how good of a purchase it was, but I am getting around to it. I am still getting proficient with it, and I had to dose my playtime as between it and violin playing I started to strain my wrist. By either my hand got stronger, or spring weaker, and I didn't encounter any issues lately. I am also getting more and more competent with using it, with less wrong imputs and quicker response time.
It's this funny thing, where a stick definitely didn't make me a better player, but the game makes more intuitive sense. Chaining command inputs is far easier for me to wrap my head around, than with buttons.
It being a Capcom game, one also needs to mention monatization. Game has been very stingy with cosmetics costing extra and new character not being earnable in game - now, the game isn't designed as annoyingly as other titles. Shop button is decreet enough, and the game doesn't bombard you with microtransactions like other games do. But the truth is, everything extra will cost you. Unfortuantely, that means that game will be pricey to continue playing as further character passes are released. It's definitely a financial commitment.
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10 hours ago, the_dog_days said:
I didn't like Aloy.
Cute socially awkward gingers though
4 hours ago, Raithe said:With H:ZD it was the layered reveal of the history as it went. It had that start-up that was possibly a bit too long before the serious hooks kicked in, but was nicely structured. The reveals, the half twists of the story as it led you through it all.
Yeah, you see my memories are completely opposite. It is the opening that I remember fodly as far as narrative is concerned (Alloy being shunned by her local tribe and longing to become), and after the intro I remember being somewhat bored by the story. Yeah, it was generic and predictable (humans created AI, bla bla bla) but it is a game about hunting robot dinasours.
As I am trying to recall it I think my issue might have been that story missions weren't particulalrly interesting, rather than the plot itself.
Anyway, I can't recall story well enough to provide strong opinion piece. Mostly what I remember is beautiful visuals and killing robo-dinasour with its own minigun. AH, I also absolutely hated "RPG" systems. There was some kind of inventory management, I think.
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On 3/30/2024 at 9:40 AM, Raithe said:
Pretty good all in all, though possibly not quite as emotionally engaging or as deep a story as the first one.
Hmm, I must say, I don’t remember H:ZD story to be much more than serviceable. I cool visual design though. Alloy was likeable, if a bit too one note.
I am tempted to pick it up at some point. While Open World checklist simulators aren’t my cup of tea, Sony ones (Spiderman, Horizon) have been fairly pleasant time wasters, when I wasn’t in a mood to play anything demanding attention.-
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4 hours ago, Hawke64 said:
There have been small levels of DRM in some of the released games, e.g., Twitch drops, online functionality/multiplayer, one (?) game "can be started but can't be played without creating a player profile and save game online. It is fully DRM-ed!".
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/drm_on_gog_list_of_singleplayer_games_with_drm/page1
Meh. It’s a mixed bag. Obviously, if a game has some form of multiplayer functionality, it will require internet connection, and it will better have build in security features so I can enjoy multiplayer with minimal amount of cheaters. As long as non-online functionality works fine, I would call it less of a DRM, and more “realities of life”.
I also dont mind minor, meaningless rewards like in BG3, but we are entering a slippery slope of devs incentivising connecting online by unique content (and how disposable such content is will depend player to player).
I have been mostly happy with GOG releases I bought, but they did relax their policy in recent years somewhat.
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On 3/20/2024 at 1:11 PM, sorophx said:
hot take: well done RTWP is miles above the best turn-based system, because it's happening on a computer, and we don't need every game to be a "tabletop-like". the computer can calculate everything very fast and just show me how the state changed, and it can do it continuously. I don't need to wait for the "enemy" to take its turn. it's a user experience issue rather than a fundamental combat design issue.
It's perfectly fine to not like certain mechanic, but your post suggests that RTWP and turn-based are one and the same. "Turns" is a ruleset and has an impact on gameplay decisionmaking. Chess wouldn't be "better" if everyone moved at the same time - it would be fundamentally broken as the game is build around players taking turns with one move at the time.
I think the issue with RPGs is that they don't have particularly great combat loop to begin with - so speeding through encounters tends to be more desirable. In general, though, I do find turn-based RPGs to have better designed combat - not every turn based game, but outside Pillars of Eternity, I can think of only turn-based RPGs in which combat does suck (ignoring action-RPGs systems, like Dark Souls). But yeah, if combat requires little decisionmaking, and it is resolved based on your character build, that it would be desirable for combat to be over as soon as possible - or not be there in the first place.
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In case over 2hour long podcast/interview is too much here is a bit more concise Judas pre-preview impression.
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9 hours ago, melkathi said:
So, the moral of the story: both Raithe and I ignore Wormy
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1 hour ago, melkathi said:
Posted that yesterday in the GOG discussion. Let's see if people are more interested when you post it.
We can make it a popularity contest!
Pretty sure I posted it earlier in this thread as well. Oh well, no one said life is fair.
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That sound more interesting than I expected. Narrative rogue-lite?
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18 minutes ago, BruceVC said:
Maybe we will see D:OS3 because I assume they want to have control of what IP they create
Possibly, or something Divinity (there is more to the IP than Original Sin games) related. When asked about it (according to IGN):
When asked if the next game would be Divinity: Original Sin 3, Vincke could neither confirm nor deny. He did, however, say it will be "different than what you think it is" but that it's "still familiar." Elsewhere, Vincke said that the new project will "dwarf" the scope of Baldur's Gate 3, which would be quite impressive given the scope of that game.
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3 hours ago, BruceVC said:
It was a surprise for me because BG3 was an overwhelming sales success, over 15 million copies sold and still on the top 10 for ongoing Steam sales
Sven explains his reasoning in the video I posted earlier.
Chasing trends was never Larian’s MO. It seems Sven has a vision that he wants to reach one day and BG3 was just a stepping stone toward it. They took BG3 IP as they needed money and profile to evolve beyond D:OS2. Now they have both and they can do the next thing.
it seems BG success did give them pause and they started thinking about continuing with BG. But they decided against it.
That’s good. Milking same IP until it runs dry has been business staple for a long time. But it wasn’t always so, and I don’t think it is a good way to do things. Sure BG3 sold well, BG4 would sell well as well - but is there more for Larian to do there? Gaming (and not only gaming) is stagnating due to risk averse strategies.
They did BG3 and seems they achieved what they wanted with it. Cool, let’s move to something new.
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1 hour ago, HoonDing said:
There are no performance issues. Get a better pc.
Well, there are. Seems the game runs fine, aside from the city, and issues there seem mostly be related to CPU. A powerhouse of a CPU seems to be able to pump out about 60FPS with dips, but frametimes are all over the place.
Edit. Soo, with all this talk about Dragon's Dogma, I booted up DD1. As PC port is crap and can't even display prompts correctly, I guessed wrong and attacked NPC instead of talking to him. Now I am in jail....
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Returning to BG3, there is a lovely interview with Sven at gamespot. While no BG4 is a great clickbait, I think there is much more interesting stuff in there.
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2 hours ago, Lexx said:
They are a big company with lots of employees - they surely have enough ideas on their own. Realistically they probably would not even read your ideas.
Reminds me of Tim's video where he mentions companies and publishers tend to not look at other peoples ideas as to not open themselves for a potenial lawsuit.
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2 hours ago, Keyrock said:
That's not entirely true. In order to change your appearance or that of your main pawn you need an item called the Art of Metamorphosis and you need to visit a barber. While you can buy the Art of Metamorphosis for real money, I don't know why you would when you can also get the item in the game with in-game currency.
RC is the currency you use to summon pawns but it's also used in shops, mostly for items related to the pawn system. 500 RC is no problem to get, you won't need to do much grinding, if any. This vendor that sells the Art of Metamorphosis is next to a rift stone in a city. I don't know how many other vendors sell the item.
As I said:
It seems nothing that you can buy can’t be earned in game
, but thank you for the clarification nonetheless. It seems it's similar to SF6 (they also charge premium currency for editing your avatar, while at the same time allowing to do the same for next to nothing in WT mode).
Random video game news... Games are Randomly News Worthy
in Computer and Console
Posted
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/whatever-the-fallout-tv-show-does-with-new-vegas-lore-josh-sawyer-doesnt-care-it-was-never-mine
bla bla bla, Fallout, bla bla bla
No new info regarding PoE2 production, but quite a bit of flavour from JS point of view: