Oner

So, I finished Coteries. Since melkathi asked for my impressions I wrote notes about the game as I played. After I reached what the writers considered an endgame, I realize I shouldn't have bothered. The ending is so singularly, mind-boggingly bad and weird and pointless that almost every other smaller problem the game had feels irrelevant to discuss. That said, I've read once that you can only do two companions to still have time to wrap up every side story, which was untrue. And there's no 'co' in coterie. One more thing I think is worth mentioning is the fact that the game has 3 pre-defined-ish characters to choose from but all that does is change your character sprite, what disciplines you get to use (which doesn't amount to as much as it sounds), a tiny vignette scene... ...and what racial slur you get thrown in your face. If the devs are going to go for cheap woke points, you'd think they wouldn't make that one of the biggest affects on the script at the least.

Will do.

It's the next project after I wrap up Yakuza 0, which should happen today.

Lasombra are one of my fav clans, so I hope it'll deliver. Wish I'd get to play a proper Transylvanian dickwad Tzimisce in a videogame. >.>

After playing Cabaret Club Czar as Majima for what feels like 3 whole days, I unlocked the secret legendary fighting style ...of Kiryu. I'm kinda missing a few substories on both guys but I really don't feel like bothering with them and Club Moon still needs to have it's butt kicked.

The second one looks really good!

I saw this on the internets and seems like a useful link to have: https://gamerefundpolicies.com/ As the name suggests, it's a listing of refund policies for digital game stores.

(Yakuza 0 and context is for people with no imagination!)

But does your slav deal toilet paper? I thought not.

I mean sure, he may survive it, but the game doesn't care. I think I did it with an aoe CC discipline once, but he'll say one line then disappear from the game? Of course, mods might have an influence on that scene.

No, he's supposed to die.

Everyone who takes a measure of pride in their work and strives to improve their skill at their craft - and by extension, the end result - wants to deliver a good product. Just because you don't see the point of it because it's "beyond x, y and z" doesn't make it a wasted effort, sorry. Not every proposed solution to a given problem is going to be golden (or every problem be an issue that actually needs to be tackled), but that doesn't mean working to improve upon it is a bad thing. As you have pointed out, some games only let you save when you quit, others put consequences to your actions behind several hours of gameplay, others heal you up between encounters, or they learn to clearly label conversation options so you don't accidentally continue a dialogue instead of going through all the questions. The problem isn't that people save-scum, the problem is that they have a reason to do it and again, figuring out how to sidestep that is part of your job as a game maker, or at least, game makers seem to agree, since it's something that comes up again and again.

If I made a game I'd combat it in the sense of not including design that makes people feel forced to use it or overly rely on it. I remember more than one game where I had to save-scum conversations to figure out the labyrinthine logic of how dialogue nodes were connected, and again, I'm fine if in a PnP game I fail a roll because things don't end there, but in a CRPG if I invest in persuasion then I expect it to actually do it's job, especially because failing a roll in an inherently more rigid situation/medium is a much more explicit failure state. Also I'd argue watching the loading screen instead of playing the game isn't what you payed money for, that's what is really beyond pointless. Meanwhile, figuring out how to make your game work well is literally what your job is as a developer, the exact opposite of time wasting.

I have to agree. Going for the "TTRPG experience" is cute and all but a video game won't turn your failed roll into a story beat. On the tabletop If you fail a charm roll against a hostage taker, the situation won't automatically escalate, you can try a few different approaches until the GM says you've hit a breaking point (or rolled a 1). In a CRPG, you failed the roll, the hostage dies. Have fun reloading.

Nonetheless, if challenge is balanced around the point buy stats, that means they're perfectly adequate for the job and going in with higher stats means you have an "unintended" advantage.

A video game might allow you to reroll indefinitely, but in PnP you're more liable to get a subpar roll, and while the point buy version won't net you broken stats, you will likely start with 16-17 in your most favored stat and 13-14 in your secondary ones, which is perfectly reasonable? You'd have to be a filthy powergamer to call it **** for not letting you start with 17 in everything.

If the limited pool is the 27 points you get to distribute between ability scores (all starting at 8 ) like in the PnP game (which also has rolling btw), then you can get a pretty decent stat spread.

Has anyone read the Their Bright Ascendancy trilogy? Aka The Tiger's Daughter, The Phoenix Empress, The Warrior Moon. Supposedly they're really good but I'd like confirmation that they're worth getting.

Played and finished Doom Eternal, fun times. There's a bunch of changes compared to the 2016 game, like the platforming, smaller ammo pools and free-ish chainsaw to change up the gunplay. I found secrets easier to find thanks to better map design and a fast travel system unlocked near the end of each mission. On a slightly souring note, marauders can eat sh-awarma. The final boss was a pain too, but that's what I get for playing on Ultra-violence. There's a post-credts scene, so if you play it, don't skip the credits. Or watch it on youtube I guess.

I'd rather play the 2012 movie and make controller noises with my mouth.

One can dislike one extreme without symphatizing with the other extreme. Spectrums, political or otherwise, have this nice feature where there's sections inbetween the two ends.