What are you Playing Now? Volume XIX: The New Beginning of the End of the Middle

[marelooke]

On 9/25/2025 at 1:06 AM, Theonlygarby said:

I kinda get it from a creative standpoint.  It would be like making a movie and then having people want an option to remove parts they don't like.  Not a perfect example but i could see people wanting their creation to be experienced as intended.

You can already pick a specific crisis to happen, so I doubt that's much of a concern, I just want the inverse option: the ability to exclude certain crises without turning off the entire DLC they are in.

Cetana is also very different from every other crisis. Most crises shake up the galaxy with their rampages, as generally by the time they spawn borders are kinda entrenched, and the crisis forces the galaxy to take action, shaking up borders and the political landscape. As far as I can tell that's their whole point.

Cetana is just "there", and unless you, as the player, do a bunch of stuff, and set up very specific fleet compositions to deal with her insane difficulty (compared to every other crisis out there) there's really nothing happening until she presses her "I win"-button. The AI won't lift a finger, not even when she declares war on the entire galaxy (not that, given her power levels, they'd be much help anyway), and until she does it's pretty much business as usual. 

She may be fun once, or for some challenge run, but by and large I'd call her boring, as there's a whole lot of nothing, then a single massive fleet battle that you hopefully win, and...that's kinda it... If you beat her the game is basically over as there's probably not a whole lot left to do until the victory year as I'd be rather surprised that anyone able to beat Cetana would be having any issues beating up the rest of the galaxy after, if need be.

Honestly, design-wise she really feels more like an elaborate event-chain than an endgame crisis.

Maybe in a game with multiple crises having her mixed in, I can see that being more engaging, but on default settings with only the single major crisis? I'd rather not have it be her.

[melkathi]

 

On 9/25/2025 at 9:45 AM, Lexx said:

Damn man, doesn't that just mean the kid is too young for it? They don't even grasp the story, just watch flickering images. 

Nope, it just means that Disney are lazy. They think they need to add one very scary scene into almost every movie because it is their shortcut for emotional responses.

Just as they so often kill off a family member to make the audience bond with the protagonist - they use shortcuts.

 

The Lion King is not so complex a story that a five year old can't understand it. But a lot of five year olds get scared at that one scene. 

[Hawke64]

Finished Hollow Knight and strongly disliked it. Thus, I can safely skip Silksong. 

Currently playing Promise Mascot Agency. The game is incredibly enjoyable in both story and gameplay and feels like Saints Row without combat (the car can climb like a Tamriel horse and glide) and with every gang member having their own sub-plot. The main character is not customisable, but having an ace vegan who can and does beat the **** out of everything on his way while talking about the joys of the chosen family is quite welcome. 

Also this:

Spoiler

 

[melkathi]

I finished the main plot in Hogwarts Legacy.

 

Overall I think it is a good game. A bit too Elder Scrolls like perhaps and a bit too collection focused. I think every bit of content overstays its welcome just a tad. 

The good thing is, for the bonuses you don't need to do everything. Just over half the Merlin Trials unlock max inventory. You can ignore the other forty something trials. The game doesn't force you to do every repetitive thing.

The writing works. The plot works. The endless hordes of enemies do not work for a game that is focused on such a small area. The hundreds of poachers you kill mean you basically depopulated the wider area around Hogwarts and Hogsmead.  

Some comments the characters make are very on point. When your character wonders why nobody has looted the chests in the dungeon, even though you known it has been explored before. When you wonder why your professor has very specific ingredients for a potion on hand. Whoever wrote the story has felt those plot quibbles themselves and isn't above some self irony when they find themselves in that situation. It's the exact type of little thing that wins me over. 

 

The combat is fun. It is far more involved than a lot of action rpgs. The different spell combos and the way different spells may uniquely interact with different enemies are great. I still need to figure out how to hit a troll with their club.

 

I don't like all the voice actors.

 

I understand criticism that it is less a game about going to wizarding school and more a run around kill stuff game. I don't know how a school simulator would have been fun though.