randoM vidEo gAme News

[Zoraptor]

"Not only will America go to your country and kill all your people. But they'll come back 20 years later and make a movie game about how killing your people made their soldiers feel sad"

Be interesting to see if the game starts with some neanderthal from the 82nd using a .50 cal for crowd control, somehow I doubt it.

[Lexx]

I could swear this Fallujah game got canned once before?

[Malcador]

5 minutes ago, Lexx said:

I could swear this Fallujah game got canned once before?

It did

[Malcador]

2 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

"Not only will America go to your country and kill all your people. But they'll come back 20 years later and make a movie game about how killing your people made their soldiers feel sad"

Be interesting to see if the game starts with some neanderthal from the 82nd using a .50 cal for crowd control, somehow I doubt it.

Probably start with the mercs getting killed, if anything, in some COD-esque "play a character waiting to die" then the screen fades to black with some pithy quote.

[Keyrock]

6 hours ago, Malcador said:

Probably BHD tier of propaganda

It probably will fall into the jingoist propaganda category rather than try to address the madness and horror of war. Only one shooter that I've ever played managed to do the latter justice, that of course was Spec Ops: The Line.

[BruceVC]

7 hours ago, Keyrock said:

It probably will fall into the jingoist propaganda category rather than try to address the madness and horror of war. Only one shooter that I've ever played managed to do the latter justice, that of course was Spec Ops: The Line.

I enjoyed Spec Ops. I thought the setting, you know this game was banned in the UAE,  and narrative was compelling. I know it was failure around overall sales but I did enjoy it

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by BruceVC

[BruceVC]

7 hours ago, Malcador said:

Probably start with the mercs getting killed, if anything, in some COD-esque "play a character waiting to die" then the screen fades to black with some pithy quote.

I dont mean to be deliberately controversial but their were  2 main battles for the control of Fallujah and these were absolutely legitimate battles to ensure the stabilization of Iraq and to free Iraq from  various sects and groups linked to Islamic extremism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Fallujah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah

I watched the marketing video and its accurate. Even if the Blackwater contractors hadnt been killed Fallujah would still have become a battleground because it had become  a city where sectarian groups had invested resources and people into it and were prepared to make a stand 

So the purpose of this game is not what Zora said, he is mischaracterizing the reasons for the battles of Fallujah and how we should reflect on them 

Their are not enough games about the Iraq invasion and years that came afterwards. I will definitely consider buying this game once I have read reviews and peoples comments because it is no different to other FPS based on historical events and battles 

 

[Oner]

 

[pmp10]

On 2/10/2021 at 9:12 PM, Malcador said:

Apparently Gwent code is up for auction -https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/cdpr-breach-leaked-data

$1MM as a start bid, hah.

And all code got sold.

Wonder how long until Chinese take on Cyberpunk and Witcher emerges.

 

On 2/10/2021 at 5:00 PM, Malcador said:

Company men are odd things to see.

They could be just passionate about gaming you know. 

[Totally not Gorgon]

Warhammer will giver their IP to anyone though. 

[Mamoulian War]

 looks like there is a small chance, that Kotaku might be going back to it’s roots and start doing game journalism again.

 

[Lexx]

Is anyone still caring about game journalism? I haven't checked out game reviews in years.

[Mamoulian War]

59 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Is anyone still caring about game journalism? I haven't checked out game reviews in years.

I always preferred reading about games, than watching videos about games, sooo websites going bat****crazy about whatever politics really was big letdown for me You know, I still rather read review from you guys here on OBS board, than to go watch something

Edited February 13, 2021 by Mamoulian War

[Melusina]

12 hours ago, Lexx said:

Is anyone still caring about game journalism? I haven't checked out game reviews in years.

I think many of us care about game reviews, but loathe on misusing politics in these reviews. Some of us, gamers, prefer video reviews, but I got to say, as non native English speaker, I prefer English text over English sound, because I don't hear much - on youtube I need subtitles.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Melusina

[Keyrock]

A new version of The Dark Mod is out for your old skool Thief needs:

https://www.thedarkmod.com/posts/the-dark-mod-2-09-has-been-released/

[marelooke]

On 2/11/2021 at 11:11 AM, Wormerine said:

 

 

Eh, if CDPR actually fixes Cyberpunk then it will be fixed. For now it's on my list of games to keep and eye on but not to buy. Never was really - have been around for long enough to smell bullcrap - with that exception that Witcher3 smelled the same but turned out rather well (even if I remember wild promises being made pre-release as well).

Whenever Cyberpunk if fixable remains to be seen - from what I am hearing it's issues run deeper then just optimisation. 

If you go into the game with no expectations it's a pretty good game with a lot of technical issues. Won't argue with anyone who wants to wait things out because of the technical issues/bugs though.

As for "deeper running problems" without specifics that's not saying much. I do take issues with some of the stuff in the game, but it's generally not what most people/media keep hammering on.

 

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, marelooke said:

As for "deeper running problems" without specifics that's not saying much. I do take issues with some of the stuff in the game, but it's generally not what most people/media keep hammering on.

Well, RPG systems being aparently pretty bad. What I heard of it was: "ok open world action game, with weak RPG elements". The same would apply to Witcher3, but W3 had killer main character and story. All I heard from Cyb was "meh". 

Personally, of course, I can't have an opinion, as I didn't play the game. Just nothing I have seen in the promotional materials or review made me want to play it. And interesting stuff like wall climbing quite predictably didn't make it into the game. 

[marelooke]

1 hour ago, Wormerine said:

Well, RPG systems being aparently pretty bad. What I heard of it was: "ok open world action game, with weak RPG elements". The same would apply to Witcher3, but W3 had killer main character and story. All I heard from Cyb was "meh". 

Personally, of course, I can't have an opinion, as I didn't play the game. Just nothing I have seen in the promotional materials or review made me want to play it. And interesting stuff like wall climbing quite predictably didn't make it into the game. 

Well, story is a big case of "your mileage may vary". I thought the main story was pretty darn good, just frayed a bit at the endings (imho) because they really wanted to set it up for continuation in a certain way instead of taking it to its logical conclusion. Most of the characters are also very well done, and believable, with motivations that make sense based on what you know about them.

An example is the way Jackie, which presents like a typical "mr cool", handles the stress when you're on The Heist. Annoyed the hell out of me, but it was very ... human in a way I feel most characters in The Witcher lack.

I'm not generally a fan of having a voiced character, but I have to admit that in this case the voiced main character really helps to put some emotion in some moments that would likely lack such otherwise (at least with the female voice). Will be interesting to see how the male voice does (wasn't too fond of it at first, hence why I started with the female one)

The way the game handles choice & consequence is also very well executed, in the sense that it is, in the majority of  circumstances, unnoticeable. Many quests have consequences based on how, or even if you do them, but in many cases you'll never notice unless you happen to do something differently (or in a different order) on another playthrough (or because you redo things differently because...bugs ) as many of these consequences can be subtle, and only visible a long way down the road. Many of the side jobs, for example, lead to different results in other side jobs based simply on whether you go non-lethal or lethal (eg.  murder everyone, and their friends in a future job won't be amenable to talking, while otherwise you wouldn't have had to fight in said future job, for example. Of course, you could be doing them in a different order, and not even notice the possible interaction at all)

There are of course choices that have obvious repercussions, but then again, some things that would seem like they'd obviously have repercussions, don't. Like ...

Spoiler

helping Panam take her revenge. It doesn't matter at all, just gets you more fighting, and some pretty good loot, but it has no impact on anything, not even on your ability to start a romance with her.

The majority of quests also don't have an obvious good/best outcome. There's quite a few (most?) where you get to pick between bad, and worse. But which is which is then often debatable. Hell, in some of them arguably not getting involved is the better outcome.

The main story is fairly linear, but in a way that didn't feel forced. The circumstances are just created in such a way that you don't really have a choice (which I prefer over artificially taking choice away). Though depending on your actions you will only have access to a subset of endings and there will be variations in how you actually get there (and how they play out). It's also well shorter, but a lot more focused than Witcher 3's story. If you really rush it you can probably be done with CP2077 in a very short amount of time.

I wouldn't have minded the main quest chain being longer, as long as it didn't meander like Witcher 3's. Think I'd honestly have preferred more substantial (optional) side content (and more interaction between blocks, see later) over a longer main questline for CP2077.

And yeah, they didn't want to lock people out of any endings, so you can basically pick whichever one you want as long as you meet the conditions (I think there's only 2 endings, out of five, that are not missable though). I didn't particularly mind this approach (but, as mentioned, I do have reservations about how some of them play out)

Where I do take some issue with the game is how there's basically three "content blocks": there's the main story (intertwined with Johnny's), there's the love interests, and there's "the city" (side quests, NCPD call signs, etc). A fourth is, imho, missing for "V's friends", most of which have really nothing to say, or do, after their "part" is played (since there's only really 2 people, outside of the ones already mentioned, that know "what's up", that's a bit of a shame, but I digress). And fwiw I'm referring to:

Spoiler

Misty and Viktor. Well, Misty has Tarot the quest, at least.

The problem I have with these "blocks" is that they don't really interact , they feel like entirely separate entities, that are very well done in their own right, but only overlap at very well defined points (if at all). The further into the game I got the more noticeable this became. There's not really any points where helping someone in a side quest ("city"-block) impacts how the main quest goes (not even in minor ways), and vice-versa: for the main quest "the city" feels like just a backdrop.

Moreover none of the (possible) LIs ever comment on any of the (major) side quests either (for some of them, like Johnny's, that's a serious bummer), or hell most barely even comment on your "situation".

As for gameplay, there's still ways to get around, I got double jump rather late and am seriously regretting that choice. Managed to get into some interesting places with it.

But yes, combat is extremely unbalanced, especially hacking ends up being killer since there's not really any level scaling, so if you are level capped before starting the final quests there's not really any challenge to be found (the only reason I didn't one shot the "big bad" was because he has an invulnerability phase). Only way you can die is if some enemy sniper gets lucky with a critical head shot, and that probably wouldn't even happen if some of the attributes actually worked (some of the defensive attributes apparently just don't work).
Crafting is also broken as hell in a few ways, on one end you can create stupendously overpowered gear (especially weapons), on the other hand it's ridiculously expensive to upgrade early game gear to keep it relevant in the endgame. So you're sometimes better of trying to do certain things as late as possible, just to avoid the upgrade costs. Not exactly desirable imho (not that you need any of that gear to get by, at least on normal)

Another thing that's brought up constantly is the "police system". I played as a mercenary, not a petty thief or a lunatic, and I triggered it not even 5 times in 130hours. There honestly is no reason to ever steal vehicles from innocents at all, aside from "because I can", since you can summon yours whenever, and wherever, and if you can't, there's gangs all over with vehicles that you can grab without repercussions. The focus on this system by gamers, and reviewers alike is a bit baffling (well, CDPR promised, but still), game's not GTA and at this point I feel they would have been better off not adding a police system at all just to get rid of all the GTA comparisons.

Now, granted, if actually using cars you'll probably end up killing innocents all over since driving (which is only sort of tolerable with a controller), and traffic AI, suck. The simplest workaround I found is to just use a motorcycle. You get one of the best ones in the game for free early on anyway and it bypasses the majority of the issues with traffic.

Stealth, well, I put 3 points in "Cool" (aka Stealth) and managed to sneak my way through pretty much everything with that and a high hacking skill. Can't say I minded, but wouldn't call it balanced

Still, the technical, and gameplay, issues are likely to get worked out, the story related stuff, much less likely.

Welp, that became a tad longer than I intended (and there's a load more I could cover, but, err, let's not ).
Imho the game's nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be, and in a lot better shape (at least on PC) than many prior games games that didn't receive this level of flak (looking at you, Fallout: New Vegas), if nothing else I do hope CDPR continues down this road, fixing up the obvious issues (bugs, broken mechanics, balacing) but leaving the things that do work alone (c&c, storytelling,...)

[uuuhhii]

3 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Well, RPG systems being aparently pretty bad. What I heard of it was: "ok open world action game, with weak RPG elements". The same would apply to Witcher3, but W3 had killer main character and story. All I heard from Cyb was "meh". 

Personally, of course, I can't have an opinion, as I didn't play the game. Just nothing I have seen in the promotional materials or review made me want to play it. And interesting stuff like wall climbing quite predictably didn't make it into the game. 

it is obvious cyberpunk are making many same mistake witcher 3 did

but this time with super hardware draining heavily populated city

[Spider]

6 hours ago, marelooke said:

snip

I agree almost word for word with what was written here. The game really is not as bad as it's made out to be. I enjoyed a fair amount despite it's flaws.

Some of the side missions are amazing pieces of storytelling, more so than the main story (although I liked main story as well).

[Chilloutman]

Main issue with CP was that its not RPG at all. Otherwise its decent city shooter. And I was expecting RPG

[ComradeYellow]

Metro Exodus | THE METRO EXODUS PC ENHANCED EDITION ANNOUNCED (metrothegame.com)

Great news!

17 hours ago, Chilloutman said:

Main issue with CP was that its not RPG at all. Otherwise its decent city shooter. And I was expecting RPG

Yeah when I first heard they were making a Cyberpunk game I imagined that they would keep it well scaled and focused but also have great mechanics, the final product was miles off than my original non-developer imagination.

[HoonDing]

It's just a boring setting. At least Shadowrun has dragons.

[Wormerine]

3 hours ago, ComradeMaster said:

Metro Exodus | THE METRO EXODUS PC ENHANCED EDITION ANNOUNCED (metrothegame.com)

I literally just bought it. It will go into backlog then, together with 2nd playthrough of Witcher3

[Malcador]