Video Games: No Man's Pie

[The Anti-Targ]

8 hours ago, Werthead said:

I would not be surprised at all if Hello Games stripped a lot of stuff out to make it work on the PS4, and they were not allowed to reinstate it for the PC version because Sony don't want their version of the game showed up. That's happened quite a few times now.

If that's true, that's pretty despicable, but for a company without much money whose offices had just been destroyed, I can see why they would have been driven to take that deal.

I believe there's an exclusivity period on the PS4 version of the game, and when that expires Hello Games can also make an XB1 version and at that point can also expand the PC version. By which time the damage will have been done.

What do you think wouldn't work on PS4? Or rather in what way do you think PS4 is technically constrained that it couldn't run some of the elements people thought would be in the game?

 

[Slurktan]

11 hours ago, Werthead said:

I would not be surprised at all if Hello Games stripped a lot of stuff out to make it work on the PS4, and they were not allowed to reinstate it for the PC version because Sony don't want their version of the game showed up. That's happened quite a few times now.

Such as when? I'm curious.

[Jasta11]

On 30/08/2016 at 4:35 AM, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Fallout 4 has released another DLC. This time Nuka World, which technically allows you to become a Raider! The idea of that sounds very cool, especially after having made a load of settlements. I did have a cool idea of creating a drug addicted psycho character and that would fit nicely. 

However it seems you have to go through hours of tedium to get to that point

http://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-4-nuka-world-review/

 

Since tedium is the one word that perfectly describes Fallout 4 to me, I'll definitely pass on yet another (this one literal!) theme park DLC from Bethesda.

Personally, if I'm gonna play an MMO, I'd rather play an online one. Such as WoW, for instance. Legion was probably the most butter smooth launch in the game's history, and I made good progress leveling my Fury warrior. The Class Halls look pretty but aren't that important besides upgrading your Artifact, but I assume this was deliberate since Garrisons allowed you to play half the game within your own confined instance which isn't fun.

The leveling is fine, at this point it's going through the motions really, albeit there are a couple of cool sequences and I like that the questlines of each zones end in a dungeon.

WoW doesn't really begin to be fun until endgame anyway, and I heard very good things about Legion's.

[Fez]

8 minutes ago, Jasta11 said:

Personally, if I'm gonna play an MMO, I'd rather play an online one. Such as WoW, for instance. Legion was probably the most butter smooth launch in the game's history, and I made good progress leveling my Fury warrior. The Class Halls look pretty but aren't that important besides upgrading your Artifact, but I assume this was deliberate since Garrisons allowed you to play half the game within your own confined instance which isn't fun.

The leveling is fine, at this point it's going through the motions really, albeit there are a couple of cool sequences and I like that the questlines of each zones end in a dungeon.

WoW doesn't really begin to be fun until endgame anyway, and I heard very good things about Legion's.

My "main" since returning to WoW a couple weeks ago has been a Death Knight, she's level 96 now, so no Legion for her quite yet. I did make a Demon Hunter though, and she did play through the introductory quests, artifact and class hall quests, and the first few Stormheim quests. 

I like a lot of what Blizzard is doing with the expansion, especially the artifact system. The forced PVP areas seem like probably a bad idea, but I play on a PVP server anyway, so it doesn't affect me. Only part I'm not thrilled about has been a lot of the writing; obviously plot isn't the main purpose of most MMOs, and no Blizzard game has strong writing anymore anyway, but it'd still be nice if the story made some degree of sense (specifically the way the Alliance and Horde interact).

[Ferrum Aeternum]

Shit, everyone's getting back into WoW, it's giving me the urge. My sister hadn't played in 3 years and even she resubscribed and is pestering me to do the same now. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.

 

[GallowKnight]

Damn, apparently Titan Quest has received a big anniversary update.

[Werthead]

13 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Such as when? I'm curious.

The most famous example is Watch_Dogs. The trailer looked absolutely amazing but the final version of the game looked a lot less impressive. Then someone found if you go into the PC game files you can switch all the high-end graphics option from the trailer back on. The developers had been forced to hide them.

Quote

What do you think wouldn't work on PS4? Or rather in what way do you think PS4 is technically constrained that it couldn't run some of the elements people thought would be in the game?

The PS4's memory architecture is pretty shitty by modern standards (the XB1 isn't much better, it has to be said). It forced Bethesda to keep area loading transitions in for Fallout 4, rather embarassingly, as they'd announced they'd be gone, and the technical issues that created meant it was time and cost-prohibitive to create an alternate PC version with seamless area transitions.

For NMS the memory issues would limit the draw distance, the number of ships and creatures on screen.

[Jasta11]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

My "main" since returning to WoW a couple weeks ago has been a Death Knight, she's level 96 now, so no Legion for her quite yet. I did make a Demon Hunter though, and she did play through the introductory quests, artifact and class hall quests, and the first few Stormheim quests. 

I like a lot of what Blizzard is doing with the expansion, especially the artifact system. The forced PVP areas seem like probably a bad idea, but I play on a PVP server anyway, so it doesn't affect me. Only part I'm not thrilled about has been a lot of the writing; obviously plot isn't the main purpose of most MMOs, and no Blizzard game has strong writing anymore anyway, but it'd still be nice if the story made some degree of sense (specifically the way the Alliance and Horde interact).

 

Oh, the Horde vs Alliance storyline has always been painfully forced and contrived ever since Cata. Even among Blizzard's usually mediocre writing, it stands out as particularily abysmal. Always some bone-headed leader doing something stupid, which then provokes retribution from the other side, which leads to someone doing something stupid, etc. Greymane deciding to attack the Horde out of nowhere is just the latest in an endless comedy of errors, to say nothing of all the pure stupidity surrounding the Broken Shore.

You just roll with it at some point since Blizzard got into their heads that they need to implement PvP storylines that, by definition, will go nowhere because no faction will ever triumph over the other in a permanent fashion because of gameplay mechanics. It's like reading a bastardized version of ASoIaF where you know nobody will ever die. There's no stakes, no tensions, just an endless streak of people being jerks to each other for no real reasons and with no real outcomes.

[Rhom]

I've done three of the starting areas for Legion with my Prot Warrior, Prot Pally, and Frost DK.  I like how they all have different "home bases" and such.  The pally and warrior quests for a shield were both VERY similar.  However, the DK one was tons different.  What I alluded to yesterday was the tough time I was having with completing hers.  At that time, I had only done my prot warrior and while I came close to dying a couple of times; I never did and just sort of assumed you couldn't die there for some reason.  They utilized some unique class mechanics in there, had to use the leap ability to jump over some rushing water and my throw ability to shut down a lightning thing.  Had a helpful NPC with me to remind me that I could do that sort of thing if I stood around too long.  Similar with the pally.  Had a beam of light that came down and was scorching me and the NPC told me to bubble basically.  Then in both scenarios, I had to face off with some big baddies; but had the help of the NPCs.

The DK goes in solo.  All my leveling with her to this point has been pretty easy and then I finished out the last 25 ish levels during the invasions.  So my knowledge of her mechanics were not the best.  I died over and over as I struggled through her area with no NPC help.  Had to use a pull ability to get a mage to shut down a wind barrier.  Used interrupts on pally type warriors.  Finally had a "you idiot" moment when I realized I could "control undead" and use one of them to tank a bit for me.  Even with that, I died enough times that when I got to the final boss there and died one more time my gear was all red.  Had to zone out, repair, and start all over.  When I ran through it today I did much better and got through with only one or two deaths.

I dont' claim to be the best WoW player ever by any means, but I know I'm more versed in it than many others out there wandering in Azeroth.  That DK area will be a steep learning curve for some.

I have a cow pally on another server that is retribution, plan on getting on him and going after that artifact weapon later today or tomorrow.  Expect that to be totally different than the shield quest.  I like the direction they've taken the game.

 

[RumHam]

3 hours ago, Jasta11 said:

Personally, if I'm gonna play an MMO, I'd rather play an online one.

You don't really have a choice. That's what the O stands for. 

 

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

The PS4's memory architecture is pretty shitty by modern standards (the XB1 isn't much better, it has to be said). It forced Bethesda to keep area loading transitions in for Fallout 4, rather embarassingly, as they'd announced they'd be gone, and the technical issues that created meant it was time and cost-prohibitive to create an alternate PC version with seamless area transitions.

For NMS the memory issues would limit the draw distance, the number of ships and creatures on screen.

That's awful. But I thought the PS4 was slightly more powerful than the Xbox one? With these updated faster iterations of the consoles coming out I really wish they'd just waited. Even though the last generation went on pretty long. Cause now they'll have this more powerful hardware but be unable to use it to it's full potential because half the install base has the original model.

I still don't think I've played an Xbox One game and thought "damn, they couldn't have made this work on the 360" They're prettier don't get me wrong, and the framerates tend to be more consistent. I hope when I get to try the Battlefield 1 beta tonight the destructible terrain is better than in 4, but I doubt it's going to be that much of a leap. 

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

You don't really have a choice. That's what the O stands for. 

 

That's awful. But I thought the PS4 was slightly more powerful than the Xbox one? With these updated faster iterations of the consoles coming out I really wish they'd just waited. Even though the last generation went on pretty long. Cause now they'll have this more powerful hardware but be unable to use it to it's full potential because half the install base has the original model.

I still don't think I've played an Xbox One game and thought "damn, they couldn't have made this work on the 360" They're prettier don't get me wrong, and the framerates tend to be more consistent. I hope when I get to try the Battlefield 1 beta tonight the destructible terrain is better than in 4, but I doubt it's going to be that much of a leap. 

I think Uncharted 4 might be the only game I've played on my PS4 that isn't also available on PS3.

[Corvinus85]

If at first you don't succeed, try, try... try, try, try..........

I am nearing completion of my XCOM2 campaign on Ironman mode. I am at the last mission, and have failed already once to finish it. I got to the last chamber quite effectively, but then all hell broke loose. I managed to kill 2 of the 3 avatars, but then I got overwhelmed. And that little bastard kept running away from me and mind controlling my people. My own avatar got killed by one of my own.

Overall I ran a pretty good campaign. I had only a few small setbacks, mainly in missions requiring me to rescue or escort a VIP (lost the VIP); but these got balanced by a few flawless missions, including the Shen mission. I only lost 1 or 2 guys in the early stages of the game, and that first SPARK you get I lost it further down the road (it lasted 7 missions, and I didn't bother building a new one). I had a pretty good roster - 8 colonels so when 3 of them got injured in the preceding mission to this last one, I still had the right number to pick from. Unfortunately no sharpshooters for the last mission and only one ranger. I think this is where my problem is concerning taking down those avatars.

Now to the bullshit - the game has a few.

Thanks to the AWC, healing time was halved, because without it, you're screwed. I think this is making the game a bit too challenging.

Those VIPs I mentioned I lost, it was because they were hunkering near vehicles that ended up exploding. One time, the respective vehicle apparently caught fire due to a grenade I launched, but the destruction diameter was still several tiles away from the vehicle, so I don't know what the fuck happened. On another mission, I accidentally triggered the reveal of a Faceless with the VIP who took shelter near a vehicle. That Faceless then came to the other side of the vehicle, and THROUGH the the fucking cabin of the vehicle it smashed the VIP, injuring him; then the vehicle caught fire and exploded. Seriously, are all the vehicles doused with gasoline that even melee attacks will cause them to combust?

But the biggest bullshit was a bug I encountered; when you a cross a bridge, and you see that there are platforms on the exterior of said bridge with good cover, DO NOT SEND YOUR SOLDIER THERE. That soldier may not be able to move again, especially if you have a heavy bastard like an Andromedon smashing through the place; it messes up the game somehow. I found that out in the Advent Tower mission, where you only get 4 guys, and thus I had to finish the mission with 3 guys. Luckily (sort of), I got completely overwhelmed in the early stage of that mission, to the point that I thought I was done for, so that 4th guy did participate some.

I really like the game, but damn if it's not hard. One more attempt at finishing the last mission!!!

[Durckad]

10 hours ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

Shit, everyone's getting back into WoW, it's giving me the urge. My sister hadn't played in 3 years and even she resubscribed and is pestering me to do the same now. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.

 

Don't do it! You know you'll regret it when it starts eating up all of your time!

I've been toying with the idea of getting back into WoW for a few months now, but I just can't bite the bullet. My roommate has been salivating over Legion since it was announced and he actually started playing again in anticipation, but... ugh, I just really don't want to get drawn in to that shit again. Maybe after Legion has been out for a couple of months because I really have no desire fighting over doing quests with a bunch of other noobs.

Still, I decided to take advantage of the free trial that Blizzard now offers and rolled a Pandaren monk. It was... okay I guess. The game has really simplified a bunch of stuff. I spent 10 levels using the same 3 attacks over and over again. Are talent points really not a thing anymore? I didn't see any option to invest points into anything so I'm not sure.

[Slurktan]

I also had been thinking of trying out WoW again but I can't bear to go through Panderia again levelling (I got one character through and it made me quit).  Such a shitty, shitty, mindless, boring, expansion.

[Rhom]

7 hours ago, Slurktan said:

I also had been thinking of trying out WoW again but I can't bear to go through Panderia again levelling (I got one character through and it made me quit).  Such a shitty, shitty, mindless, boring, expansion.

FWIW when I started back up a couple months ago, the leveling was so condensed that after finishing Cataclysm content I was already 87 and then I hit 90 before I even finished the first zone in Pandaria.  Then I was on to Draenor.

[Ferrum Aeternum]

8 hours ago, Durckad said:

Don't do it! You know you'll regret it when it starts eating up all of your time!

Too late!  I resubbed and picked up Legion last night.   Believe me, if it weren't this it would be something else just as non-constructive eating all my time.

Demon Hunter is serious fun. Maybe the most fun I've had with character mechanics in this game. I believe the hype.

[Fez]

18 hours ago, Jasta11 said:

 

Oh, the Horde vs Alliance storyline has always been painfully forced and contrived ever since Cata. Even among Blizzard's usually mediocre writing, it stands out as particularily abysmal. Always some bone-headed leader doing something stupid, which then provokes retribution from the other side, which leads to someone doing something stupid, etc. Greymane deciding to attack the Horde out of nowhere is just the latest in an endless comedy of errors, to say nothing of all the pure stupidity surrounding the Broken Shore.

You just roll with it at some point since Blizzard got into their heads that they need to implement PvP storylines that, by definition, will go nowhere because no faction will ever triumph over the other in a permanent fashion because of gameplay mechanics. It's like reading a bastardized version of ASoIaF where you know nobody will ever die. There's no stakes, no tensions, just an endless streak of people being jerks to each other for no real reasons and with no real outcomes.

It really is so dumb, dumber even than the writing in Diablo 3. And its completely unnecessary too. They don't really need a justification for PvP at all, but if they really want one, they could easily come up with something that doesn't affect the main story in any way.

A good example is The Secret World, which remains my favorite MMO despite the outdated combat mechanics. There's three player factions there and the PvP was justified by saying that the factions are all secretly trying to weaken each other but publicly remain united against the eldritch horrors. And that's the end of it. In fact, that even supports the main story, since it provides more evidence that the Council of Venice (the UN/League of Nations of the secret world) is completely ineffective.

Blizzard could easily do something like that instead of shoehorning in these big plot elements that make no sense. Its especially galling since the rest of the lore, while not the greatest by any criteria, i

9 hours ago, Durckad said:

Are talent points really not a thing anymore? I didn't see any option to invest points into anything so I'm not sure.

Not as such. Every 5/10/15 levels (it varies), starting at level 10, you do pick 1 of 3 talents to have; which you can swap anytime you are in a rest area. And each spec has its own talents. So there's a lot less talents, but the talents are all pretty unique. Some classes/specs definitely have cookie cutter builds, but it seems like some actually aren't so clear cut. Part of that is that Blizzard apparently made an effort to take all the "must have" talents and just give them automatically to characters; likewise a lot of buff spells seem to have become built-in to the stats.

There's definitely less actions than before as well. It seems like a lot of the more situational ones got removed, and a lot of the debuff and DoT spells became built in to the primary attacks. I've heard that a lot of the characters play pretty similar to each other too at this point; which I imagine reduces the incentive have alts (other than stuff like bank and crafting alts).

 

9 hours ago, Slurktan said:

I also had been thinking of trying out WoW again but I can't bear to go through Panderia again levelling (I got one character through and it made me quit).  Such a shitty, shitty, mindless, boring, expansion.

Leveling is super fast at this point. I hit level 90 after going through only one and a half Panderia zones, and immediately moved on to Draenor since I wasn't really feeling the story (also, apparently the legendary cloak quest line, which ties everything in Panderia together is no longer in the game; so what's the point? Likewise, the legendary ring quest line in Draenor is gone now).

Also, I'm only leveling the old fashioned way since I hadn't seen any of the post-BC content before. Buying Legion gives you one free Level 100 boost, so you can skip everything and jump straight into Legion. I believe boosted characters don't have any professions (except maybe First Aid?) or reputation gains, but they do start with level-appropriate gear.

[Werthead]

19 hours ago, RumHam said:

That's awful. But I thought the PS4 was slightly more powerful than the Xbox one? With these updated faster iterations of the consoles coming out I really wish they'd just waited. Even though the last generation went on pretty long. Cause now they'll have this more powerful hardware but be unable to use it to it's full potential because half the install base has the original model.

I still don't think I've played an Xbox One game and thought "damn, they couldn't have made this work on the 360" They're prettier don't get me wrong, and the framerates tend to be more consistent. I hope when I get to try the Battlefield 1 beta tonight the destructible terrain is better than in 4, but I doubt it's going to be that much of a leap. 

The PS4 is more powerful overall than the XB1, but consoles always throw in crappy amounts of memory (mainly because they don't have the massive overhead of Windows chugging away in the background of games). Both have in-theory 8GB, although only about 4-5 GB are reserved for games usage. A limitation is that they don't have dedicated VRAM, instead sharing memory between all game-related tasks. A typical modern PC will have 8 GB of RAM (although 16 GB is now quite common) and 1-2 GB of VRAM as a minimum, and higher-end gamers trying to hit 4K quality are now going for 32 GB of RAM and 4 GB+ of VRAM.

It's that problem - PCs capable of hitting 4K but the consoles not able to come close - which is again holding back graphics technology this generation and the issue of memory which means that game loading areas are still too small (as we are currently seeing on Mankind Divided).

[Jace, Extat]

Anyone know about a game called Life is Feudal? The BF keeps talking about it but I'm not sure. It sounds cool, but I'm no good ate those survival games.

[Corvinus85]

HA! Success!!! Managed to beat XCOM2 with Ironman mode. Lost only one squad member in the final mission.