Random video game news... Games are Randomly News Worthy

[Mamoulian War]

An alternative for Game Awards run by “corporate suits” has been announced by a founder of Screw Attack.

 

https://www.takegamesback.com

[Humanoid]

52 minutes ago, MrBrown said:

having to pay for stupid stuff like starting a new character.

It's wild to think that you need to abuse a workaround to do so without paying $2.

-Set Steam to OFFLINE mode (Steam > Go Offline...)

-Navigate to \Steam\userdata\NUMBER\2054970\remote\win64_save\
-Delete ONLY Data000.bin and Data001Slot.bin (should be the two largest files)
-Launch Dragons Dogma 2 -> Start Game -> Create your character and wait for the Autosave symbol afterwards
-Close the game
-WAIT for steam to recognize the game is closed and give you a "Steam Cloud Error"
-Set Steam to ONLINE mode (Steam > Go Online...)
-You should now see a "File conflict" error next to the play button in Steam, Click on that
-A window should open up allowing you to choose "Local Save" to overwrite the cloud save

[Mamoulian War]

Wow. I would expect something like that from Ubisoft. Not from Capcom...

[Humanoid]

To be fair, it seems this is mostly an artifact of Steam Cloud integration messing with the one-save-per-account system (which obviously is in-itself questionable). You're supposed to be easily delete your save and start fresh, from what I understand.

The microtransaction being sold is meant to be for editing your existing character. You buy an item, whether for $2 real money or whatever in-game currency it costs to buy it from a regular vendor, and it allows you to modify your character once per purchase.

I feel the more egregious thing though is that the game's auteur was yapping on about how fast travel is bad for games, then immediately undermines the semi-valid point he was trying to make by selling consumable tokens that allow fast travel from anywhere.

17 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

Not from Capcom...

This is exactly the behaviour that one would expect from Capcom, actually. The latest Street Fighter is a huge offender, as are recent Monster Hunter games. Apparently the first Dragon's Dogma also had some cynical nickel-and-diming, but they were mostly removed by the Dark Arisen re-release/expansion which was sort of a "Definitive Edition" of that game.

Maybe the smart thing to do would be to wait for Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen...

[HoonDing]

So much for Game of the Millennium

[Mamoulian War]

3 hours ago, Humanoid said:

This is exactly the behaviour that one would expect from Capcom, actually. The latest Street Fighter is a huge offender, as are recent Monster Hunter games. Apparently the first Dragon's Dogma also had some cynical nickel-and-diming, but they were mostly removed by the Dark Arisen re-release/expansion which was sort of a "Definitive Edition" of that game.

Maybe the smart thing to do would be to wait for Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen...

Hmm interesting, didn't knew that. So for a foreseeable future, a new entry into my blacklist has been made. Thank you.

[Wormerine]

6 hours ago, MrBrown said:

So apparently Dragon's Dogma 2 is getting bad reviews. There seems to be some performance issues, but I also see lots of claims about having to pay for stupid stuff like starting a new character.

Performance issues are widely reported. The also launched with in-game store. It seems there is no way to create more than one character, and game charges you if you want to change the appearance of your PC or your pawn. Also bunch of currency and items available for purchase. 

it seems nothing that you can buy can’t be earned in game, but it does bring concerns about game’s balance integrity.

still I was thinking about buying DD2 but between me struggling with the original, poor performance and microtransactions makes it a pass for me. 

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Mamoulian War said:

Hmm interesting, didn't knew that. So for a foreseeable future, a new entry into my blacklist has been made. Thank you.

Yeah, I am playing SF6 right now. I don’t find it too offensive as most of purchasable content doesn’t interest me, but there is some dodgy stuff in there. Not nearly as bad as OW2, but also SF6 is a full price game with chunky expansions. They really could allow players to buy skins for in-game currency….

[kanisatha]

17 hours ago, Raithe said:

https://www.ign.com/articles/larian-studios-wont-make-baldurs-gate-3-dlc-expansions-or-baldurs-gate-4

It's good for Larian, good for the BG franchise, good for D&D, and good for me personally. This is the best news I've heard involving Larian since BG3 was announced. I'm actually finding myself curious and interested in what those two new projects Swen talks about may be. I hope at least one of them turns out to be a Larian game I will like, finally!

And yeah, it is also my take that Larian learned the same lesson everyone else who's ever had the misfortune of trying to do business with WotC learned: WotC (and Hasbro) are the worst! I don't see too many studios, and especially small studios, risking their fortunes by hooking up with WotC.

[Keyrock]

3 hours ago, Wormerine said:

and game charges you if you want to change the appearance of your PC or your pawn.

That's not entirely true. In order to change your appearance or that of your main pawn you need an item called the Art of Metamorphosis and you need to visit a barber. While you can buy the Art of Metamorphosis for real money, I don't know why you would when you can also get the item in the game with in-game currency.

RC is the currency you use to summon pawns but it's also used in shops, mostly for items related to the pawn system. 500 RC is no problem to get, you won't need to do much grinding, if any. This vendor that sells the Art of Metamorphosis is next to a rift stone in a city. I don't know how many other vendors sell the item.

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, Keyrock said:

That's not entirely true. In order to change your appearance or that of your main pawn you need an item called the Art of Metamorphosis and you need to visit a barber. While you can buy the Art of Metamorphosis for real money, I don't know why you would when you can also get the item in the game with in-game currency.

RC is the currency you use to summon pawns but it's also used in shops, mostly for items related to the pawn system. 500 RC is no problem to get, you won't need to do much grinding, if any. This vendor that sells the Art of Metamorphosis is next to a rift stone in a city. I don't know how many other vendors sell the item.

As I said:

It seems nothing that you can buy can’t be earned in game

, but thank you for the clarification nonetheless. It seems it's similar to SF6 (they also charge premium currency for editing your avatar, while at the same time allowing to do the same for next to nothing in WT mode).

[uuuhhii]

11 hours ago, kanisatha said:

It's good for Larian, good for the BG franchise, good for D&D, and good for me personally. This is the best news I've heard involving Larian since BG3 was announced. I'm actually finding myself curious and interested in what those two new projects Swen talks about may be. I hope at least one of them turns out to be a Larian game I will like, finally!

And yeah, it is also my take that Larian learned the same lesson everyone else who's ever had the misfortune of trying to do business with WotC learned: WotC (and Hasbro) are the worst! I don't see too many studios, and especially small studios, risking their fortunes by hooking up with WotC.

heard about wotc stop translate book to portuguese

when was the last good news come out of wotc since ogl mess

 

[Hawke64]

22 hours ago, Humanoid said:

To be fair, it seems this is mostly an artifact of Steam Cloud integration messing with the one-save-per-account system (which obviously is in-itself questionable). You're supposed to be easily delete your save and start fresh, from what I understand.

The microtransaction being sold is meant to be for editing your existing character. You buy an item, whether for $2 real money or whatever in-game currency it costs to buy it from a regular vendor, and it allows you to modify your character once per purchase.

I feel the more egregious thing though is that the game's auteur was yapping on about how fast travel is bad for games, then immediately undermines the semi-valid point he was trying to make by selling consumable tokens that allow fast travel from anywhere.

This is exactly the behaviour that one would expect from Capcom, actually. The latest Street Fighter is a huge offender, as are recent Monster Hunter games. Apparently the first Dragon's Dogma also had some cynical nickel-and-diming, but they were mostly removed by the Dark Arisen re-release/expansion which was sort of a "Definitive Edition" of that game.

Maybe the smart thing to do would be to wait for Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen...

Regarding DD2, the saving system seems to be (not going to get it, so comparing to the experience) the same as in DDDA - one save file per PC/account. As mentioned, can be easily bypassed with Windows Explorer and creating your whole party can be done with Steam Family Sharing (but one would have to go online with each account to upload and download the AI companions). Though, it is really inconvenient that the game lacks such a basic thing as manual saving with several characters. I suppose, it is tied to the online system, which, unlike saving, is a gimmick.

Regarding MTX in Capcom games, I can remember the MTX being in their games for quite some time. They definitely were added post-release to DMCV and were present in Monster Hunter (which I refunded).

---

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/no-more-heroes-and-resident-evil-devs-cult-shooter-shadows-of-the-damned-finally-gets-a-pc-release-this-year

Quote

The original Shadows of the Damned never went further than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, potentially one reason behind reportedly small sales despite a generally warm consensus about its engaging gameplay and charmingly rompy road-movie feel. This year’s remaster - the title of which will probably tell you whether you’ll get along with it, as it’s called Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered - will inspire a proper PC release for the first time, landing on Steam later in 2024.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/if-working-overtime-on-aaa-games-with-giant-budgets-is-the-only-way-to-succeed-then-maybe-the-industry-deserves-to-die-says-rpg-veteran-david-gaider-there-is-another-way-to-be

Quote

"There's this fear that exists—if we don't have everybody working overtime and we don't make AAA games that have $200 million budgets and the focus is on photorealistic graphics and 1,000-hour playtimes, we need to pack all that in and work everyone to death making it and that's the only way to make games.

"If that's true then maybe the industry deserves to die. If that's true. The thing is that I just don't think it's true."

I definitely would not object to lower system requirements, no DRM, and no MTX.

[Mamoulian War]

8 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

heard about wotc stop translate book to portuguese

when was the last good news come out of wotc since ogl mess

 

When Paizo announced ORC license

[MrBrown]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2054970/view/4106792732433556918?l=english

Quote

To Dragon's Dogma 2 players on Steam

To all Dragon's Dogma 2 players

We would like to update you on the status of the following items, about which we have received numerous comments from the community. To all those looking forward to this game, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

■Crashes and bug fixes
We are investigating/fixing critical problems such as crashes and freezing.
We will be addressing crashes and bug fixes starting from those with the highest priority in patches in the near future.

■The option of starting a new game
We are looking at adding a feature to the Steam version of the game that will allow players that are already playing to restart the game. We will announce more details as soon as we can.

■Paid DLC
All the items listed below can be obtained in-game or as paid DLC items.
Art of Metamorphosis - Character Editor
Ambivalent Rift Incense - Change Pawn Inclinations
Portcrystal - Warp Location Marker
Wakestone - Restore the dead to life!
500 Rift Crystals / 1500 Rift Crystals / 2500 Rift Crystals - Points to Spend Beyond the Rift
Makeshift Gaol Key - Escape from gaol!
Harpysnare Smoke Beacons - Harpy Lure Item

■Regarding Frame Rate
A large amount of CPU usage is allocated to each character and calculating the impact of their physical presence in various areas. In certain situations where numerous characters appear simultaneously, the CPU usage can be very high and may affect the frame rate. We are aware that in such situations, settings that reduce GPU load may currently have a limited effect; however, we are looking into ways to improve performance in the future.

The Dragon's Dogma 2 Team

 

Edited March 23 by MrBrown

[Wormerine]

Returning to BG3, there is a lovely interview with Sven at gamespot. While no BG4 is a great clickbait, I think there is much more interesting stuff in there.

 

[HoonDing]

They should jump on the Dragon's Dogma 2 bandwagon and make sequel to Ego Draconis.

[uuuhhii]

 

suzerain dlc finally come out

[BruceVC]

On 3/22/2024 at 4:48 PM, kanisatha said:

It's good for Larian, good for the BG franchise, good for D&D, and good for me personally. This is the best news I've heard involving Larian since BG3 was announced. I'm actually finding myself curious and interested in what those two new projects Swen talks about may be. I hope at least one of them turns out to be a Larian game I will like, finally!

And yeah, it is also my take that Larian learned the same lesson everyone else who's ever had the misfortune of trying to do business with WotC learned: WotC (and Hasbro) are the worst! I don't see too many studios, and especially small studios, risking their fortunes by hooking up with WotC.

It was a surprise for me because BG3 was an overwhelming sales success, over 15 million copies sold and still on the top 10 for ongoing Steam sales

https://dotesports.com/baldurs-gate/news/baldurs-gate-3-reportedly-passes-15-million-copies-sold-as-larian-prepares-to-move-on

 

To quote " Vincke revealed BG3 sales were “almost double” that of Divinity: Original Sin 2 in an interview with GameSpot on March 21. Vincke also remarked that BG3 was more successful than the studio anticipated it to be, which tracks given both the speed of the sales figures and the game’s reception. Seeing as Divinity: Original Sin 2 shipped approximately 7.5 million copies according to Vincke’s interview with Eurogamer in 2023, that would put BG3‘s sales at over the 15 million mark and make it one of the best-selling modern RPGs of all time" 

So this one of those unusual outcomes where its not just the sales success that is the reason for a studio to make another game and I assume as you mentioned that working with WotC is arduous 

 

 

[Wormerine]

3 hours ago, BruceVC said:

It was a surprise for me because BG3 was an overwhelming sales success, over 15 million copies sold and still on the top 10 for ongoing Steam sales

Sven explains his reasoning in the video I posted earlier. 

Chasing trends was never Larian’s MO. It seems Sven has a vision that he wants to reach one day and BG3 was just a stepping stone toward it. They took BG3 IP as they needed money and profile to evolve beyond D:OS2. Now they have both and they can do the next thing. 
it seems BG success did give them pause and they started thinking about continuing with BG. But they decided against it. 
 

That’s good. Milking same IP until it runs dry has been business staple for a long time. But it wasn’t always so, and I don’t think it is a good way to do things. Sure BG3 sold well, BG4 would sell well as well - but is there more for Larian to do there? Gaming (and not only gaming) is stagnating due to risk averse strategies. 
 

They did BG3 and seems they achieved what they wanted with it. Cool, let’s move to something new. 

[BruceVC]

8 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Sven explains his reasoning in the video I posted earlier. 

Chasing trends was never Larian’s MO. It seems Sven has a vision that he wants to reach one day and BG3 was just a stepping stone toward it. They took BG3 IP as they needed money and profile to evolve beyond D:OS2. Now they have both and they can do the next thing. 
it seems BG success did give them pause and they started thinking about continuing with BG. But they decided against it. 
 

That’s good. Milking same IP until it runs dry has been business staple for a long time. But it wasn’t always so, and I don’t think it is a good way to do things. Sure BG3 sold well, BG4 would sell well as well - but is there more for Larian to do there? Gaming (and not only gaming) is stagnating due to risk averse strategies. 
 

They did BG3 and seems they achieved what they wanted with it. Cool, let’s move to something new. 

You make some good points here Wormie, especially " It seems Sven has a vision that he wants to reach one day and BG3 was just a stepping stone toward it. They took BG3 IP as they needed money and profile to evolve beyond D:OS2. Now they have both and they can do the next thing. "

Maybe we will see D:OS3 because I assume they want to have control of what IP they create

The risk with creating your own IP is it doesnt have the same global footprint as an established IP like D&D but look at games like Dark Souls or other JRPG, they have there own IP and they do very well 

 

 

[Wormerine]

18 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Maybe we will see D:OS3 because I assume they want to have control of what IP they create

Possibly, or something Divinity (there is more to the IP than Original Sin games) related. When asked about it (according to IGN):

When asked if the next game would be Divinity: Original Sin 3, Vincke could neither confirm nor deny. He did, however, say it will be "different than what you think it is" but that it's "still familiar." Elsewhere, Vincke said that the new project will "dwarf" the scope of Baldur's Gate 3, which would be quite impressive given the scope of that game.

[Wormerine]

That sound more interesting than I expected. Narrative rogue-lite?

Edited March 26 by Wormerine

[Hawke64]

https://www.ign.com/articles/dragons-dogma-2-mods-undercut-capcoms-controversial-microtransactions-dish-out-infinite-save-slots

Quote

Now, modders have provided all of these [MTX] items for free on the PC version of Dragon’s Dogma 2. At the time of publication, the second most-popular Dragon’s Dogma 2 mod on NexusMods is Crazy’s Shop, by Crazy Potato. This mod, essentially a fast travel pack, adds hundreds of each of these key items, including Elite and Explorer’s Camp Kits, Wakestones, Rift Crystals, Portcrystals, and Ferrystones to the first shop in Vernworth. It’s been downloaded nearly 35,000 times.

...

Because Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t allow for multiple save slots, autosaves replace your manual save. The save manager mod keeps track of your saves and lets you set them as active as you play the game, virtually giving you infinite save slots.

Somehow a modder adding essential functionality to a $70 game seems rather odd. Just how hard it was for Capcom to implement manual saving with several characters and into several slots if Bioware managed to do it 25 years ago with BG1 and 10 years ago with an engine for multiplayer FPS?

 

On 3/25/2024 at 7:19 PM, HoonDing said:

They should jump on the Dragon's Dogma 2 bandwagon and make sequel to Ego Draconis.

To Dragon Commander.

[rjshae]

9 hours ago, BruceVC said:

You make some good points here Wormie, especially " It seems Sven has a vision that he wants to reach one day and BG3 was just a stepping stone toward it. They took BG3 IP as they needed money and profile to evolve beyond D:OS2. Now they have both and they can do the next thing. "

Maybe we will see D:OS3 because I assume they want to have control of what IP they create

The risk with creating your own IP is it doesnt have the same global footprint as an established IP like D&D but look at games like Dark Souls or other JRPG, they have there own IP and they do very well 

I can only hope they learned a few things about more realistic character level advancement, because spending points on attributes every level seems like a poor way to do it. You end up with very asymmetrical characters.