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[Mamoulian War]

To quote Keyrock:

“I'm honestly getting pretty burned out on open world in general. Maybe it's not so much open world but instead how every AAA game has to check every single check box: Open world, RPG, action adventure, looter, survival, narrative, exploration with crafting, building, collecting, and multi-player.”

And that is a reason, why I spent 10x money on Indie games than on AAA games (If you consider Dishonored and Tales of franchise as AAA) in the last 5-7 years. Worth every single cent...

Edited January 13, 2021 by Mamoulian War

[Malcador]

1 hour ago, ShadySands said:

I'm just glad EA isn't the only one making Star Wars games anymore even though I have no interest in an open world Ubi game. 

Climbing towers will be easier with Force Jump.

[BruceVC]

On 1/13/2021 at 10:37 PM, Keyrock said:

I'm honestly getting pretty burned out on open world in general. Maybe it's not so much open world but instead how every AAA game has to check every single check box: Open world, RPG, action adventure, looter, survival, narrative, exploration with crafting, building, collecting, and multi-player.

I am interested in these debates especially from experienced gamers who I also consider reasonable and normal  around their gaming interests and views like you

I love open world and would love to see even more where feasible and realistic so I never really understand  the view " burned out on open world "

Can you give some examples of games where you feel the open world objective has been overdone and also how it impacted your normal gaming experience? I just want to understand the core criticism 

[Boeroer]

Have you seen Loop Hero? It looks and sounds awesome (if you're intro retro stuff).

Here's a video about it:

 

[Keyrock]

@BruceVCThere is nothing wrong with open world per se, the problem is oversaturation. This issue isn't exclusive to video games either. Once super hero movies became popular then very quickly the market became oversaturated with super hero movies. When a particular style of music becomes popular very quickly the market gets flooded with other artists that sound extremely similar.

Any media that becomes a big time business invariably becomes directed less and less by artists and more and more by committees and focus groups. When there's a lot of money at stake, companies will follow trends rather than artistic vision. 

I like to play open world games from time to time, particularly of the Eurojank type, but I also like a more linear game too. There are advantages to linear games, especially when it comes to the pacing of the story. I like variety in my gaming, but at the AAA level gaming has become increasingly homogenized. Thankfully, there are indies.

[ComradeYellow]

Glorious victory.  Hitman fans are ecstatic on social media.

The backstory:  There was a great deal of controversy regarding Hitman 3 being an Epic Exclusive (What else is new!?) but not because it was and Epic exclusive, but because it was stated that you wouldn't get access to the previous games with updated content from Hitman 3 if you had them on Steam (Or elsewhere) by buying it on Epic.  Each game in the "World of Assassination" Trilogy is a single chapter and all games are connected together every time a new one releases it augments the prequal with updated GFX and weapons/equipment/etc.

IOI servers are now implementing it so every version you own is going to be connected and you won't have to do any rebuying.

[Wormerine]

3 hours ago, ComradeMaster said:

IOI servers are now implementing it so every version you own is going to be connected and you won't have to do any rebuying.

They also are supposed to allow to import H2 progress into H3 engine, unlike H2, were I had to do all H1 content from scratch to unlock the items, correct?
Eh, it would be nice, if one were able to take advantage of engine upgrades and smaller install size on steam too, though I guess that, again we need to have access to hitman 3 to do so. Still, I don't mind having an extra year to play some more of H2, while waiting for Epic-free release of H3. 

[Majek]

On 1/17/2021 at 11:29 AM, Boeroer said:

Have you seen Loop Hero? It looks and sounds awesome (if you're intro retro stuff).

Here's a video about it:

video

I want to play that. NOW!
 

[Gfted1]

Get Two Years of PlayStation Plus for $56 With This Eneba Coupon Code.

[Melusina]

I thought Eneba is GMG alternative?

[Oner]

The metroidvania lovers in here will likely be interested in this one.

[LadyCrimson]

On 1/17/2021 at 4:51 AM, Keyrock said:

Any media that becomes a big time business invariably becomes directed less and less by artists and more and more by committees and focus groups. When there's a lot of money at stake, companies will follow trends rather than artistic vision. 

My problem for a while now has been multiplayer/online focus. Even if a game can be played single, the online focus design still intrudes way too much in one way or another, far as I'm concerned.

I like big open world-ish games for exploration/discovery and inventory management aspects (and I remember how few such games there were, once) but yeah, the way many do them now has become too generic or hodge-podge for the moment.  Trying to hit all the demographics or whatever.

[Keyrock]

The most important random video game news you will read today:

Edited January 21, 2021 by Keyrock

[Wormerine]

You might not be able to buy RTX3080, but you can buy shoes with it.

[ComradeYellow]

On 1/19/2021 at 3:18 PM, LadyCrimson said:

My problem for a while now has been multiplayer/online focus. Even if a game can be played single, the online focus design still intrudes way too much in one way or another, far as I'm concerned.

I like big open world-ish games for exploration/discovery and inventory management aspects (and I remember how few such games there were, once) but yeah, the way many do them now has become too generic or hodge-podge for the moment.  Trying to hit all the demographics or whatever.

Soulsborne games are a perfect middle ground, where online play and single player are kinda molded together.

[LadyCrimson]

On 1/21/2021 at 12:18 PM, ComradeMaster said:

Soulsborne games

Assuming my google-fu wasn't astray ... I don't like those kind of games either.  Not my thing in my "old age."  One vs one/small groups combat finesse or whatever one wants to call it was never one of my desires from games (that's another game aspect that has become too "common" for me). Hence my past love for stuff like Diablo clones, 3+ party rpg's, and RTwP over turn-based etc. I'd rather play original Doom and just run around hallways shooting people with my double-barreled shotgun.

RTS battles I used to like - but more for figuring out the layout and unit strategies that can rofl-stomp everything.

I'd still like to see more games where combat is extremely optional most of the time and only mandatory in certain story bits.  Kind of like Death Stranding maybe. The older I get, the more combat bores me no matter what the mechanics.  Killed one demon/ogre/knight/peasant, killed them all.

Edited January 23, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Keyrock]

 

[Sarex]

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-kotor-remake-new-game-rumor/

[Malcador]

 

[Wormerine]

IO's James Bond project will not star a film James Bond, but rather IO's own. Studio director hopes for it to be a start of another IO trilogy

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/io-interactives-project-007-could-be-the-beginning-of-a-bond-trilogy

[Hurlshort]

7 hours ago, Wormerine said:

IO's James Bond project will not star a film James Bond, but rather IO's own. Studio director hopes for it to be a start of another IO trilogy

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/io-interactives-project-007-could-be-the-beginning-of-a-bond-trilogy

I'd say that is for the best. Trying to impersonate one of the previous actors just sounds cheesy. 

[ComradeYellow]

20 minutes ago, Hurlshot said:

I'd say that is for the best. Trying to impersonate one of the previous actors just sounds cheesy. 

Yeah the Hitman WOA trilogy does seem more "bondesque" than Hitman.  If iOi ever reboots 'Hitman' I hope they can recapture the mood of the older games.

After playing the WOA trilogy I am confident iOi will be able to do 'Bond' quite well.

[Keyrock]

 

[melkathi]

Hmm, while I will of course play that game, there is a character in the game I currently play who would have a very predictable opinion about that.

 

[ComradeYellow]

Epic Games Store 2020 Year in Review

1.28.2021

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2021!

We’re only a few weeks into the New Year and what better way to kick things off than to confirm that weekly free games are going to continue on the Epic Games Store in 2021! It’s been an incredible year of growth for us on many levels so we’re excited to share details about 2020.

As we look back at 2020 on the Epic Games Store, we wanted to take a moment to thank all of our partners who helped us bring joy to so many gamers around the world over the past year. Adapting to constantly changing challenges is no easy feat and we're grateful for this community of developers, publishers, players and creators.

Thanks to this community, the Epic Games Store saw historic growth in engagement across the board. There are now over 160 million Epic Games Store PC users. Daily active users are up 192% to 31.3 million daily active players, with a peak CCU 13 million concurrent players this year (up from 7M in 2019). Monthly active users in December rose from 32 million in 2019 to 56 million.

This surge in player growth has also led to an increase in purchasing and play time! In 2020, PC customers on the Epic Games Store spent over $700M of which third party games represented 37% at $265M. Last year, the Epic Games Store community played 70% more hours with a total playtime of 5.70 billion hours in 2020 compared to 3.35 billion hours in 2019.

We're making strides to offer more titles on the store by onboarding more developers and introducing their titles to the Epic Games ecosystem. The Epic Games Store grew from 190 games in 2019 to 471 in 2020.  We released 103 weekly free games which were a big part of the titles that made their way to the store. In 2021, we’re going to rapidly expand the catalog of new titles available on the Epic Games Store even further by providing developers with self-publishing tools for the EGS Platform and we’ll be releasing details on those specific plans soon.

 

We're growing stronger!  (No, I'm not on the Epic payroll but I wish I was!)

Edited January 30, 2021 by ComradeMaster