Random video game news... renewed!

[Sven_]

On 2/18/2025 at 2:31 PM, Wormerine said:

Also what is fashionable and what isn't is in constant flux - that's why chasing trends with a multiyear production cycle is dangerous in itself.

I remember when it was difficult to come by a game that offered any challenge to the player. Console manufacturers were aiming at "casual audience" (aka. newcomers) and titles were designed to not dare to challenge your progress. Than stuff like Demon/Dark Souls and Super Meat Boy came out, and it turns out there was a sizable audience hungry for such titles, and the taste for it spread.

Oh yeah, definitely a lack of skill games way back. By the way, I don't consider KCD as such. Warhorse claimed they attracted totally non-gamers with the first game already. And those adapted far better to the unusual design decisions than the gamers: E.g. the saving system, eating, drinking, sleeping, fighting... It's all about conditioning. I mean, back in the day, we used to play games without markers, auto-maps and with actual puzzles when we were kids. And had no problem whatsoever with that. Every game was kinda like that.

But since a large part of it is simply conditioning: There's market opportunity for (almost) anything. With so many games in that space playing increasingly alike, perhaps moreso than ever. It needs to be packaged properly, naturally... Plus, if you're not fully committing to something, you risk making completely bland product that may try hard to please everyone, but doesn't really wow anybody. Eventually, you're going to alienate a few people anyhow no matter what you're doing. For all the talk about how much of a hardcore sim KCD would be, at the core it's actually quite a cinematic Hollywood type of affair full of drama and even genuine laughs -- the survival/sim elements are fairly light. Think Mafia, Vavra's first gig as a writer / director.  There's quite a lot of that in there still. I was actually underwhelmed initially when I went into the first game kinda blind back then. I expected something way different. Only when I'd finished the long prologue and the game opened up, did I start to really warm up to it.  

Edited Wednesday at 05:35 PM by Sven_

[Wormerine]

8 hours ago, Sven_ said:

Think Mafia, Vavra's first gig as a writer / director.

OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That's all one had to say to sell me on KCD, and you are first to do so. I think that is the last push that I needed to launch the game (after Avowed that is).

[Sven_]

10 hours ago, Wormerine said:

OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That's all one had to say to sell me on KCD, and you are first to do so. I think that is the last push that I needed to launch the game (after Avowed that is).

Mind you, Mafia has a lot more violence. And guns. Meanwhile, my last quest in KCD had me investigating the biggest pile of literally sh*t I'd ever seen in a game... Whilst the locals weren't amused by Henry's stench thereafter, they didn't take out tommy guns or anything. Not even pitchforks. And the first game tasks you with learning how to read. The pen can be mightier than the gun, after all. If that's what you're after. Or aren't.   


 

Edited Thursday at 11:51 AM by Sven_

[LadyCrimson]

I guess this counts as a gameplay trailer these days.
---I don't like the song that much (subjective) so trailer doesn't pump me up at all
---some of the scenes look like arenas vs. campaign play.
---I'm not sure if a chr is shown swimming or is shoulder-high water gliding. If swimming becomes an actual true traversal mechanic - vs. cutscene falling into water and then jesus-gliding out - that could be interesting.
---it looks like more Borderlands 3 style. eg, "eh."

 

Edited Thursday at 03:45 PM by LadyCrimson

[Wormerine]

12 hours ago, Sven_ said:

Mind you, Mafia has a lot more violence. And guns. Meanwhile, my last quest in KCD had me investigating the biggest pile of literally sh*t I'd ever seen in a game... Whilst the locals weren't amused by Henry's stench thereafter, they didn't take out tommy guns or anything. Not even pitchforks. And the first game tasks you with learning how to read. The pen can be mightier than the gun, after all. If that's what you're after. Or aren't.   

That's all good. My favourite part of Mafia were the calm bits. Driving in town from and to jobs, having a train ride with Paulie and scauting bank before robbery. Combined with Untouchables it's been a bit thing in my teenage age.

Also public service announcement:

SOLASTA2 DEMO IS OUT. Download on steam and play!

Edit. Solasta2 - hmm... much, much prettier, not sure about everything else. It feels like a lot of small things that made Solasta interesting and unique to me have been shaved off. My worry that vertical design has been greatly simplified seems correct, and there are some major options missing. I hope that it is pre-alpha problem, and not Solasta2 problem. While far prettier, it also feels more generic than the original.

Edited Thursday at 11:46 PM by Wormerine

[Sven_]

11 hours ago, Wormerine said:

That's all good. My favourite part of Mafia were the calm bits. Driving in town from and to jobs, having a train ride with Paulie and scauting bank before robbery. Combined with Untouchables it's been a bit thing in my teenage age.

 

Mine as well. Well, the action was nice too mind. But the pacing was far better than in GTA et all where you're just going from one action setpiece to the next. Still remember the mission where you took that girl out for a walk. Nothing initially happened, just you walking down the streets with her, chatting. Only then would the mob show up and the action start... 

KCD has many similar moments. Only that the "action" MAY never start -- or may turn out to be you "just" getting absolutely drunk with a priest. People used to sensory action overload in your typical video game may even find it boring (which Warhorse were well aware of).   But in KCD2 too, there was an (optional) side quest where I just went picking flowers with a girl... Also, these are my save stats from 60 hours now... A dozen bad guys I only (stealth) killed because I wanted revenge for something (didn't have to). 3 were from the intro. The first game has an achievement for finishing the game's main quest without killing anyone but one mandatory bad guy (not sure if the 2nd has -- lots of situations already solved by my sneak and conversation skills... plus my Henry can run from em bandits. And fast.  ).








How big's that Solasta demo (file size)? Gotta try it.

Edited yesterday at 06:19 AM by Sven_

[Wormerine]

43 minutes ago, Sven_ said:

How big's that Solasta demo (file size)? Gotta try it.

 Not too big. I think a bit over 10GB

[kanisatha]

On 2/20/2025 at 1:43 PM, Wormerine said:

SOLASTA2 DEMO IS OUT. Download on steam and play!

Edit. Solasta2 - hmm... much, much prettier, not sure about everything else. It feels like a lot of small things that made Solasta interesting and unique to me have been shaved off. My worry that vertical design has been greatly simplified seems correct, and there are some major options missing. I hope that it is pre-alpha problem, and not Solasta2 problem. While far prettier, it also feels more generic than the original.

FYI, from the Solasta II Steam forum "Known Issues, Bugs & Feedback" thread (see especially his last point):

Myzzrym  [developer] 40 minutes ago 
Quick note for the common issues we saw here:

Bluriness: Make sure you have your video settings => Render Scale => Slider up to 100%

Performance issues: If you have a good configuration, make sure you lower the resolution to 1920x1080 in your video settings. As this is a demo we haven't had a lot of time to work on optimization, so anything above 1080p might have your computer struggle a bit.

Steam Deck: Same as above, game not optimized for Steam Deck quite yet!

Languages: Only English is available in the Demo, even though there are already language options in the game settings (they just don't work).

Missing features from Solasta I like Shove, Ready Action, Fly, Hide in Combat (etc): This is only a demo, we haven't implemented those yet but we do plan on having them in the final game.

[Sven_]

Re: Solasta II.

I have the bluriness too (1080p), putting the rendering scale slider to 100% was the first thing I did.

Otherwise, it controls and plays pretty nicely already. I wish the UI stuff would be smaller or you could turn it off (you can't, can you?) The log alone takes a big amount of screen space.  Then there's quest objectives always on display, taking screen space as well..

Performance-wise, it's pre alpha. With everything on low I'm getting maybe 60fps average with a Ryzen 5600 / 3060. On medium it isn't much lower however... and everything on Epic is down to ~40, so it all scales by 50%ish. Now Solasta feels very responsive even at lower fps (and isn't an action game anyway). But the official minimum is a Ryzen 1600 and a GTX 1060, and the GTX 1060 is roughly half the card. I played Solasta 1 with a 1050Ti, not much above the minimum requirements, and had a good deal more than just 30fps -- even at settings above low.  

As said though, pre-alpha still. See also kanisatha's post!

Edited 22 hours ago by Sven_

[Mamoulian War]

https://www.gog.com/en/game/neverwinter_nights_doom_of_icewind_dale
 

Neverwinter 1 received one more module, which follows the story of Neverwinter Hero.

[Serrano]

5 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

https://www.gog.com/en/game/neverwinter_nights_doom_of_icewind_dale
 

Neverwinter 1 received one more module, which follows the story of Neverwinter Hero.

According to ChatGPT NWN still has a small but active community with "an average daily peak of around 1,159 concurrent players", so good for them I guess and it is sincerely nice that those players are being catered to. I'm not super enthusiastic about a NWN expansion personally (I know it's the easiest to make new content for but I think the Aurora Engine has aged horribly) but I'd love for publishers to be encouraged to dust off old classics like Baldur's Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2 and make expansions in those engines.

 

Edited 17 hours ago by Serrano