randoM vidEo gAme News

[Keyrock]

41 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

That's an odd combo. Though I suppose people liked Nier, though I thought combat in that game was rather broken thanks to jRPG mechanics. 
I thought, the most interesting thing Gothic did, is changing animations as your learned to weild weapons. The only game that sort of did that was Dark Souls, when wielding weapons we don't have right stats for. 

In terms of combat I was thinking more along the lines of Bayonetta. I'm not sure how that would meld with RPG mechanics, hence the potential for disaster, but let Platinum handle the combat, PB builds the world, and they can collaborate on the writing since Platinum's tongue in cheek dialogue works well with their flashy combat, plus they're way better at humor than PB, but PB is good at reactivity and melding narrative and environment organically.

I mean, it probably wouldn't work, but I'd like to see them try. 

[Zoraptor]

5 hours ago, Lexx said:

Yes, Gothic 3 also wasn't that great. However, Gothic 4 is topping it in every area and if I remember right, the G3 addon wasn't even finished.

The common factor with all the bad Gothics was JoWood's publishing. Neither G3 nor its add on was in close to a finished state but got pushed out the door anyway. Gothic 4 was a pretty abject attempt to hijack/ rebadge the IP to ArcaniA since they were going to lose it back to PB.

Quote

I never connected Gothic with a Bethsoft game. The gameplay is just way too different.

Sure, but we're game players and not managerial MBA types. If you wrote a shorthand list of the attributes of the typical Gothic game and the typical TES game on a piece of paper they'd appear almost identical, to someone who hasn't actually played them.

They're both open world single person non party RPGs, how dissimilar could they be...

 

[Lexx]

3 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

They're both open world single person non party RPGs, how dissimilar could they be...

Well, now that is a very shallow comparison.

[ComradeYellow]

Gothic 3 was actually pretty great when you factor in the multiple endings and all the neat tricks you can do with leveling and magic.

Too bad the game was rushed out the door and needed at least 1 more year of development or it could have made quite the splash.

What kind of killed Elex for me was that it felt unbalanced and janky, despite being well polished.

PB just can't catch a break, it seems they're eternally lumped into the "special ed kind of genius" tier of studio.

[Wormerine]

7 hours ago, Keyrock said:

In terms of combat I was thinking more along the lines of Bayonetta. I'm not sure how that would meld with RPG mechanics, 

Yeah, Bayonetta is amazing partially due to stable player/enemy balance. I also don't think a spectacle fighter combat like Bayonetta or DMC would be a good fit. Platinum knows how to do a punchy action game, but needs of an immersive RPG are different. 

[kanisatha]

21 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I have mentioned this before but the Forgotten Realms  (FR )is my favorite fantasy world of all time followed by the Elder Scrolls world 

Its because I use to be a DM  for the pen and paper game and we played mostly in that world. I did love the Greyhawk AD&D world but it wasnt as established and not supported like the Forgotten Realms

So I basically always buy games set in the Forgotten Realms so you can imagine my excitement about BG3 

Dark Alliance actually looks really good for what it is intended, which is a Diablo-style hack n' slash game. Sadly that is just not my thing (too much and hard combat). BG3's announcement excited me a lot, but the game itself has turned out to be a bitter disappointment because of ridiculous stuff Larian has chosen to do with it. So now my excitement is for the Hidden Path Entertainment D&D game, open world in third-person. I can't imagine Wizards' first AAA open world game won't be set in the Realms as their current flagship setting, so I am hopeful, though unfortunately it is probably going to be a solo game and not party-based. The OtherSide Entertainment D&D game OTOH is probably going to be first-person horror set in Ravenloft. And then at least three more D&D games after that through 2025.

[Gfted1]

31 minutes ago, kanisatha said:

BG3's announcement excited me a lot, but the game itself has turned out to be a bitter disappointment because of ridiculous stuff Larian has chosen to do with it.

Can you elaborate on this?

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Gfted1 said:

Can you elaborate on this?

I don't know what @kanisatha has exact problem with but from myself:

1) technical issues: UI is tedious and not fit for purpose. It's the same how they shipped two previous games, and DnD makes it worse. I refunded EA purchase on this base alone. 

2) I dislike some of DnD designs in cRPG setting so I am all for modifications, but I found Larian's changes to be detrimental - it's far too easy to gain high chances to hit thanks to how easy it is to gain advantage via hight or backstab. That paired with riddiculus movement and being able to effortlesly bypass engagements through bonus actions jump&push, means I use spells sporadically, fights tended to be very repetitive, as same tools dominated every encounter. The only one fight I had to do extra was a hag fight, as it had scripted boss stages - not necessarly bad, but I must say - playing BG3 didn't feel like DnD - and while I am not familiar with 5e, the short Solasta demo I played... did. Larian seems to try to impliment their D:OS2 design philosophy into DnD systems, which I find problematic - not because DnD>D:OS2, but because both are quite different. I think they are in danger of doing neither good DnD nor a good D:OS3 game. It is not about game being too easy - it's about making core DnD systems irrelevant due to easily accessible solutions. 

3) I am not terribly interested in characters, story and tone Larian is doing. On one hand it's better then I expected after D:OS1&2 - on the other... it's still not engaging IMO. I don't mind playing more of BG3 once it releases and seeing where it goes, but I have little interest in replaying the content I went through already. It's both very grim and serious, and also very stupid and immature. Like an edgy teenage fantasy, and the use of 18 rating that I greatly dislike.

4) I don't think Larian knows how to design reactivity - or maybe I just don't like how they do it. There are definitely different outcomes, and things you can miss or mess up, but I felt BG3 liked to undermine character choices. As impressive as their stealth system, spreaking to dead/animals is, they go out of their way to make it available to everyone. I never felt rewarded for investing points in something.

5) spending money in all the wrong places - let's spend money into production values without really knowing how to take advantage of it. They will really need to step up their game in cinematic department to make it worthwhile. I personally, already disliked Dragon Age: Origins stiff conversations, but I find it worse here as the camera shifts from top down view to close up for no real benefit. Some early dev comments suggest that they plan to impliment full VO for our protagonist, which just sounds like a horrible idea IMO. We will see if it will happen, and how it will work.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Wormerine

[Gfted1]

Thanks, I appreciate the detailed reply. 

[Azdeus]

43 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

I don't know what @kanisatha has exact problem with but from myself:

2) I dislike some of DnD designs in cRPG setting so I am all for modifications, but I found Larian's changes to be detrimental - it's far too easy to gain high chances to hit thanks to how easy it is to gain advantage via hight or backstab. That paired with riddiculus movement and being able to effortlesly bypass engagements through bonus actions jump&push, means I use spells sporadically, fights tended to be very repetitive, as same tools dominated every encounter. The only one fight I had to do extra was a hag fight, as it had scripted boss stages - not necessarly bad, but I must say - playing BG3 didn't feel like DnD - and while I am not familiar with 5e, the short Solasta demo I played... did. Larian seems to try to impliment their D:OS2 design philosophy into DnD systems, which I find problematic - not because DnD>D:OS2, but because both are quite different. I think they are in danger of doing neither good DnD nor a good D:OS3 game. It is not about game being too easy - it's about making core DnD systems irrelevant due to easily accessible solutions.

This sounds like plain 5e issues to me. Source; Played a monk that demolished Tomb of Annihilations end boss, because I could move further than the size of the room as a bonus action. Edit;Oh, and run on walls.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Azdeus

[Keyrock]

I just had the realization that it's been a little over a decade since Microsoft introduced the Kinect. What followed was several years of the most god-awful games ever. Microsoft even tried to shove Kinect down our throats by bundling it with the Xbox One. Kinect was thankfully silently abandoned shortly after that. Good riddance.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Keyrock

[Malcador]

14 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

I just had the realization that it's been a little over a decade since Microsoft introduced the Kinect. What followed was several years of the most god-awful games ever. Microsoft even tried to shove Kinect down our throats by bundling it with the Xbox One. Kinect was thankfully silently abandoned shortly after that. Good riddance.

Heresy. It gave us this :

 

[Lexx]

That's for reminding me that I'm Han Solo.

[Azdeus]

50 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Heresy. It gave us this :

 

Best usage of the Star Wars licence since KOTOR

[Keyrock]

Kinect did deliver some quality unintentional comedy:

So, I guess it wasn't all bad.

[Keyrock]

I'll wait for the inevitable 4.01 hotfix coming in a few days before downloading the new expansion and jumping back into X4. 

[Lexx]

Damn, I really wouldn't mind playing this .... but I just don't have the time to sink into it.

[Hurlshort]

I started my Terran Cadet, but I'm getting terrible performance.

[Raithe]

'Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2' All But Confirmed Via Respawn Job Listing (gamingbible.co.uk)

 

[kanisatha]

23 hours ago, Wormerine said:

I don't know what @kanisatha has exact problem with but from myself:

1) technical issues: UI is tedious and not fit for purpose. It's the same how they shipped two previous games, and DnD makes it worse. I refunded EA purchase on this base alone. 

2) I dislike some of DnD designs in cRPG setting so I am all for modifications, but I found Larian's changes to be detrimental - it's far too easy to gain high chances to hit thanks to how easy it is to gain advantage via hight or backstab. That paired with riddiculus movement and being able to effortlesly bypass engagements through bonus actions jump&push, means I use spells sporadically, fights tended to be very repetitive, as same tools dominated every encounter. The only one fight I had to do extra was a hag fight, as it had scripted boss stages - not necessarly bad, but I must say - playing BG3 didn't feel like DnD - and while I am not familiar with 5e, the short Solasta demo I played... did. Larian seems to try to impliment their D:OS2 design philosophy into DnD systems, which I find problematic - not because DnD>D:OS2, but because both are quite different. I think they are in danger of doing neither good DnD nor a good D:OS3 game. It is not about game being too easy - it's about making core DnD systems irrelevant due to easily accessible solutions. 

3) I am not terribly interested in characters, story and tone Larian is doing. On one hand it's better then I expected after D:OS1&2 - on the other... it's still not engaging IMO. I don't mind playing more of BG3 once it releases and seeing where it goes, but I have little interest in replaying the content I went through already. It's both very grim and serious, and also very stupid and immature. Like an edgy teenage fantasy, and the use of 18 rating that I greatly dislike.

4) I don't think Larian knows how to design reactivity - or maybe I just don't like how they do it. There are definitely different outcomes, and things you can miss or mess up, but I felt BG3 liked to undermine character choices. As impressive as their stealth system, spreaking to dead/animals is, they go out of their way to make it available to everyone. I never felt rewarded for investing points in something.

5) spending money in all the wrong places - let's spend money into production values without really knowing how to take advantage of it. They will really need to step up their game in cinematic department to make it worthwhile. I personally, already disliked Dragon Age: Origins stiff conversations, but I find it worse here as the camera shifts from top down view to close up for no real benefit. Some early dev comments suggest that they plan to impliment full VO for our protagonist, which just sounds like a horrible idea IMO. We will see if it will happen, and how it will work.

Thanks @Wormerine. These are pretty much all things I would have said as well. I would add: The current crop of companions is very limited in multiple ways, and to me they're universally unpleasant and aggravating characters (edgy primadonnas with attitudes) I wouldn't want in my party. Not a single likeable one in the bunch. Furthermore, I utterly dislike Larian's 'origin' system and would only play a PC I entirely made myself. But such a PC is currently relatively bland (story-wise) in comparison with an 'origin' PC (i.e. playing one of the companions as your PC). In fact, in a current party, your PC is by far the least important/relevant person in the group. Larian also currently intends to 'close off' in some manner any and all companions you don't have in your active party at the end of Act 1, essentially party-locking you.

Combat is also really tedious and aggravating. Bad enough having to deal with TB combat, although I've been willing to suck that up. But the only way to get through combat encounters in a normal way is to engage heavily in Larian cheese: abusing height advantage, backstab advantage, barrel bombs galore, overpowered consumables, shoving, jumping, elemental environmental surfaces, etc. If you refuse to engage in cheese abuse, then combat becomes exceedingly difficult and frustrating, and you have to reload a lot.

Game seems to be made to be fun if you like playing the evil side, and goes out of its way to screw over playing a good-aligned PC.

The Larian party movement system is painful.

Probably could think of a few more issues if I have the time for it.

[ComradeYellow]

The Outer Worlds 'Murder on Eridanos' expansion is released!

[Oner]

 

 

[Lexx]

Uhh, Remaster of LiS1? That's weird, especially because the material shown in the trailer doesn't look that different to how the game looks like right now?

 

I bought LiS2, but never actually played it... first I was waiting for all episodes to be out, then I heard enough of the game over the years that it killed all my motivation to even try it. LiS3 looks interesting, but dunno yet ... seems to be set in some hippie town. Just hope they won't go overboard with their morals or whatever again.

[Keyrock]

It's pretty sad that we've reached the point that the games industry is remastering 5 year old games. 

[Lexx]

Yeah, I was thinking as a free update, sure, but if you have to buy it again ... ehhh.

 

Also, that town in LiS3 ... is that really how small american towns look like? It feels completely unbelievable to me. More like a cult-site or something.