marelooke

Don't think this one was posted already (but half the embeds are dead by now so...). I always, always listened to this in full: The Lament of the Highborne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXhx40DcU6Y While I'm doing MMO soundtracks: Guild Wars 2 ending credits (heard after beating the final boss in the Personal Story) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVnPiLi8vOo&index=79&list=PL9u7rbRjJmqD_qh-WXX7zSftvxOL5nUhI/ Not strictly video game soundtrack, but this bit with Kirill Pokrovsky has been burned into my memory ever since I saw it live back then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dStHe6h_Xg&t=1366 EDIt: OK, can't get that last embed working, giving up.

I spent most of my time staring at loading screens. All the other stuff I could get over, but the loading times were the final straw...

Meow! This is just so...fitting, lore wise (Exalted Bastion with Crystalline Wings)

I don't know in general, but that's certainly not what happened with Bioware. The obligatory MP mode started with ME3, and the multiplayer component in that game was handled by a completely different studio (Montreal, while the main game was developed in Edmonton), and it was a stripped down version of what seems to have been initially prototyped as a standalone Battlefield-esque FPS. It was also such an unexpected success that its monetization model was copied and has more or less become standard. Their focus on multiplayer can be said to have begun with the choice to make SWTOR an MMO instead of another single player installment in the franchise, and whose development begun before the company was acquired by EA. EA basically appears to be a cliché American "enterprise" with everything that entails (I expect to walk straight into a Dilbert cartoon should I go to work there). So yeah, the company culture is likely a big part of the reason why big names have been quitting (if not for what I wroter earlier). Those that stay either do so out of convenience or because they can't afford to leave for some reason. (1) the problem here being the "low wage" part, not the "country" part, as my girlfriend always says: "If you pay peanuts you get monkeys". I would disagree here. It's not a matter of pure cost cutting, it's a matter of a corporate culture at your destination. For example in Poland you'd often get as good programmers on average if not better than your average in high cost locations. Just look at various global contests in this field and what these guys can do on technical universities with funding of 0.01% of what US top schools get (might exaggerate the cost part a bit, but the disparity is huge) Then look also at the studios, which bring on average similar quality products to the high cost locations in terms of games and sometimes they can produce a real gem (see the Witcher franchise for example) Same goes to other technically low cost countries. if these countries have good education, they can easily compete with their work force. however the problem often lies with mentality and corporate culture. For example, if in India employees get financially punished even for minor errors and are thought to adhere the procedure to the letter, then do not be surprised that your email with a problem will bounce 20 times, including three times telling that you should raise an error ticket. If the culture pushes for cheap drones, then you will get those. If the culture pushes for problem solvers, you will get those as well, as long as you pay competitively in relation to the local market and purchase power of a dollar. That way you can still save 60% and get similar if not better quality. I don't think we disagree, I think I just wasn't clear enough, so let me try to clarify and hopefully not make the misunderstanding worse... Since you were talking about Poland (not the country that comes to my mind first when talking about low cost countries, but hey ) The reason why they outsource is *cost*, *what* they outsource is generally "the boring stuff". That Polish employees are relatively cheaper than, say US employees (and I don't think the difference is quite as big as you'd think at first if you factor in social security, retirement funds and all that). Generally these companies pay decent wages by local standards (not high, possibly slightly above average) but the work they have is usually, well, boring. So they get an influx of average, at best, programmers. The good ones can simply get better jobs elsewhere (better, or at least equally well paid; more intellectually stimulating,...) Simply put: you get paid the same to go work on The Witcher, where you likely have some creative freedom or at least input in the process. Or you can type out code to exact specifications for, say, EA for the same wage. Where are the good programmers going do you think? (and in practice I think that the first job would actually pay better too since they actually *want* you to think, the second just requires drones). That's not to mention that I somehow suspect the atmosphere at CDPR is, errr, different from the one at EA companies. Now if EA was willing to pay top money (again, by local standards) they might be able to snatch some real talent and they'd still get it cheaper than having to find an equally skilled programmer (or artist, or w/e) in the US. But that's not what they want and it's not what they do... (however, that is very much what Google, for one, does) And this is assuming it's the company (eg. EA) itself that does the outsourcing, if they are using a dedicated "outsourcing" firm then you usually get the bottom of the barrel (they get programmers as cheap as possible as long as they are still competent enough to get the job done somewhat satisfactorily so as to not lose a customer), regardless of the country you're dealing with (though I guess one could argue that some barrels might be deeper than others...). Not sure if there are of those firms for Poland tbh, I think that the wages in Poland just aren't low enough for two companies to profit off of it (the outsourcing firm + the firm hiring the "resource"(1)) Of course there are companies that open entire branches somewhere to get entire projects done at location, that's an entirely different discussion though (we have an office in Eastern Europe and those guys are great, but they're not *so* much cheaper that I need to fear for my job or maybe I'm just underpaid by my country's standards ) (1) ugh, how I hate that term, I think I need to vomit now

I don't know in general, but that's certainly not what happened with Bioware. The obligatory MP mode started with ME3, and the multiplayer component in that game was handled by a completely different studio (Montreal, while the main game was developed in Edmonton), and it was a stripped down version of what seems to have been initially prototyped as a standalone Battlefield-esque FPS. It was also such an unexpected success that its monetization model was copied and has more or less become standard. Their focus on multiplayer can be said to have begun with the choice to make SWTOR an MMO instead of another single player installment in the franchise, and whose development begun before the company was acquired by EA. You touch on another point though. These types of enterprises see games as products to be made and assembled, hence why they attempt to have parts developed in low wage countries(1). This is challenging in the best of cases (I get to deal with this kind of stuff daily) but for something that's at least in part an artistic endeavour I don't see how this can work out in an environment where most employees lack passion for what they're doing. And how can you expect people that have passion when they have no input in what they're doing? Then of course there's the typical shoehorning of things into products because some manager's read some article somewhere or has been to some congress where they told him something's the next big thing... (I still remember one of ours coming into the office proclaiming we needed to "do something with big data", me and my colleague nearly got our eyes stuck staring at our brain...) Occasionally you'll find someone (or some holdover) of passionate people that get something decent done despite the environment they're in, but that's an exception and it usually takes so much energy out of them fighting the "establishment" that they'll either burn out and stop caring or quit eventually anyway. (or both) EA basically appears to be a cliché American "enterprise" with everything that entails (I expect to walk straight into a Dilbert cartoon should I go to work there). So yeah, the company culture is likely a big part of the reason why big names have been quitting (if not for what I wroter earlier). Those that stay either do so out of convenience or because they can't afford to leave for some reason. (1) the problem here being the "low wage" part, not the "country" part, as my girlfriend always says: "If you pay peanuts you get monkeys".

Funny video. They're working on a semi-MMO, kinda like DA:I? Also EA being dedicated to "quality and innovation". Good lord, they're killing me. I mean, I'm willing to buy the first bit, maybe, but "innovation" and EA :lol: :lol:

So this is why most players call them "drivatards"... (in case it's not entirely clear, that's a bunch of cars taking up the entire width of the road...)

The Phoenix Point kickstarter reminded me that I hadn't completed XCOM 2 yet. Two missions later I get one of those annoying DLC "ruler" aliens in a "Very Difficult" mission and get squaddies killed. Alt+F4. Yeah, now I remember why I stopped playing that (it' s the 3rd and final one, so yeah, I know they can be beaten, they're just not fun, at all).

Yeah, not sure how I feel about mounts, though looks like they're tied into certain zones. We'll see how it turns out I guess, thankfully no flying mounts yet... On the subject of GW2: new Living World episode released yesterday While the incessant crying for mounts on the forums ticked me off, I don't mind them actually being implemented. The core maps and the expansion maps especially were not designed for mounts, but the Elonan screenshots look like the maps will be huge and relatively flat, so using mounts there makes sense. Sure if the maps are designed for it it'll work. I'm just worried there'll be crying to retrofit them in the old maps, which would be disastrous imho (and ArenaNet doesn't really seem to have the funds to redesign all of them, Cataclysm style...).

Yeah, not sure how I feel about mounts, though looks like they're tied into certain zones. We'll see how it turns out I guess, thankfully no flying mounts yet... On the subject of GW2: new Living World episode released yesterday

Hmm, why does this remind me of Dragon's Dogma...?

Out of curiosity, what's wrong with Assetto Corsa? I had been eyeing it a bit lately... Shame Horizon 2 is console only, hear it's still better than 3 (which is starting to get kinda old, bigger map and more road tracks would've been nice) As to the op there is super Superhot, which I think falls into this category. As does Consortium, I think.

Totally did not!

It's a terrible game, but the combat is addictive. I still have no clue what the story is even about considering dialogue & voice over are so cheesy I am forced to click through all of it quickly. Fwiw, I've played a little bit of the DOS2 beta/alpha and dialogues seemed much much better.

Not strictly game news I guess, but just got an update of Gog Galaxy today. Holy batman, great feature list... If they keep this up they'll be wiping the floor with the Steam client soon. Seems I can't link directly to the version 1.2 patchnotes due to excessive use of JavaScript but you can find them on the Galaxy site: https://www.gog.com/galaxy (slightly realted: is it just me that fears the Steam codebase is a mess given at how glacial a pace it evolves even now that they have some actual competition?) Oh, and I had to read through pages upon pages of talking about Stalker 2 to catch up to this point. STOP TWISTING THE KNIFE, IT HURTS! The pain. *cries in a corner* Sorry, emotional breakdown mode disengaged. But seriously if I *had* to pick a top 3 of favourite games *ever* Stalker: SoC would be in it (CoP is better mechanically, but the atmosphere of the world and especially the labs in SoC wipes the floor with CoP imho). Oh yeah, two others I'd pick, just off the top of my head would probably be Dungeon Keeper 1 and BG2:SoA

The glow on Sylvari characters is kinda nice, maybe I should figure out how to make a gif... Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure! Quietly docked airship outside of Orr A bossfight, and it's not a dragon! Baby dragon! Squeeeeee!

Pretty awesome that companies outsource **** overseas to reduce costs, but if the end user tries circumventing regional pricing, that's a big no-no. That's globalization for ya. Except that outsourcing seldom never reduces costs in practice.

Never played the first ME or any for tha matter, I'm going to be startinf ME2 on pc (soon). It's the only one I have of the series, atm. Perfect choice, I'd say overall it's the best of the 3 since it has aged well and the story is not tied to the first game that much, but playing the first game and transfering your saves to second game can be its own reward. ME 3 can feel a bit disappointing especially if you play the games in order but it isn't bad by any means. Playing ME2 first will ruin the revelations from ME1 though. Which were kind of part of the appeal. I wouldn't recommend playing them out of order, personally.

And you picked the least epic boss to show off? In my defense, the last screenshot is the Mouth of Mordremoth. That one's pretty epic in my book! Buuuut, suggestions welcome (Tequatl is in an earlier instalment of the screenshot thread)

Tbh, I got it free as a gift from a friend on Steam last year but your point still stands as I have bought other games based on appealing graphics/art styles. How do they go backwards? I don't understand how devs cause their games/franchises to devolve! Why try to change what the fans love so much??? Kinda weird nobody brought up that they were forced to change engines. As far as I can tell facial animations and the latter have been relatively bad on all BioWare's Frostbite (I think?) games. Forcing all your developers to use a single engine might seem like a nice cost saving for management, but it clearly doesn't work properly. Not to say that it couldn't be made to work, but clearly nobody considered it worth freeing up the budget for it. It also, likely, means that BioWare has much less control over the engine and can't fix issues they see on their own terms without having to jump through a bunch of corporate hoops to get things approved so the engine team can work on it,... I thought that most of the ME3 plot arc wrapups felt rushed and often shallow (the Asari one was especially bad, so much so that I only remember the obnoxious Kay Leng "fight") and were thrown at you in way too rapid succession. Tuchanka was clearly a high-point (and the best part of ME3, by far, imho). And while I can't say I "hated" the Quarian/Geth thing too much it felt too way predictable and after all the hubub about that sun in ME2 I'm pretty sure they scrapped their initial idea and went for something more vanilla. (come on: zealots attack machines, machines get desperate and call upon bad powers to save them. Things predictably go haywire and you get to fix it. Does it get any more cliché than that?). Given the buildup in the previous games it was a minor disappointment. The Turian arc was decent, though nothing particularly special, I'd hoped for some family solving problems with Garrus as him having issues with his father is often hinted at in the previous games (isn't solving personal issues the thing Shepard does best? I mean, ME2 was a fix-personal-issues simulator), but alas. Basically ME3 should have been split into multiple games imho (and ME2 scrapped if they really didn't want to go over their 3 game "limit", since most companions from 2 only make cameo's in 3 anyway and Cerberus was already set-up as villain in ME1, so there...)

*sings* In the circle of life. It's the wheel of fortune... So, plant dragons. Did we already agree those are boss? Sexy locations galore I like the combination of painted backgrounds with in-game models, like this: Meet the twins Epic bossfights? Check! Ever wanted to buzz around a dragon's head like a little insect? Well, that's one I can scrap from the bucket list...

This is what always frustrates me with MMOs or even ARPGs that there's always a OP way to do a class or race and all I want to do is play games and have fun. I don't have the time nor want to spend the time to be the king of the leaderboards, I just want to enjoy myself. Heh, most of the people hung up on this aren't "top" players anyway, they're just aping what they hear elsewhere without understanding (and understanding that for the content most people care about it doesn't matter one bit). Personally been mostly playing Guild Wars 2, though I've also started in Guild Wars 1. There's a load of references from 2 to 1 so yeah, couldn't help myself It's really surprising how different the games are from each other though, I'd have expected the class system of GW2 to be an evolution of GW1's but it's a total overhaul: the games have absolutely nothing in common (combat)mechanics wise. Still the GW1 intro was fun, hiking through pre-Searing Ascalon and getting to see the "other" side of the conflict (in GW2 you mostly get to hear the Charr, aka the GW1 "bad guys", side). Actually needing corpses for a Necromancer was also kinda nice (until you get to fight elementals and undead. Ugh )

Just save some for the drought that will undoubtedly come (or the disappointment when a bunch of them turn out to suck) Yeah, my interest in ME: Andromeda started at around 0 due to ME3 (and no, not because of the ending) and DA:I (I like my MMOs with other people in it) but it's dipping into the negatives now... Will be interesting to see what people (= you folks) have to say about it after release...might be more entertaining than the game itself to boot

F2P is misleading though since unless you don't want to craft you basically *need* a subscription for the crafting bag, otherwise your inventory will *always* be full. There' s so many crafting mats that *not* having it is just not an option imho and unlike in many other MMOs crafting is actually viable so ignoring it would be kinda suboptimal... And when I last played at least there was nothing short of a subscription that could get you access to this thing. Speaking of MMOs, still playing Guild Wars 2, stalled on the second big dragon battle (Mordremoth) due to the just plain frustrating mechanics (boss specific gimmick that is a 1 hit KO mechanic which makes you restart the whole, long, bossfight over from the start each time you get hit). Guess the devs played too much Dark Souls (and I don't consider that a good thing, at all). So I just went alt hopping, got my Guardian to lvl80, nearly done with the main "Personal Story" on that one (which is killing big dragon no1: Zhaitan). The nice thing is that due to the mastery system my older Thief still benefits when I'm playing a max-level alt since mastery experience is account wide so I don't feel "guilty" about letting my altaholic side loose

Yeah, I had Ghost on every mission after the prologue. I recently started over trying to remedy that but the playthrough kinda fizzled after taking out the first "boss" as I know I can do the rest of the game (since I did it before...)