Video Games: Devils Die Twice

[Proudfeet]

1 hour ago, KiDisaster said:

I kinda hope this happens just because the gamer salt will be glorious to behold. 

What are they so upset about anyway? Its just another avenue to buy games isn't it?

[Corvinus85]

Yeah, now you have to make another account, and go through all that crap. 

And speaking of game buying avenues, it looks like Gamestop is in major trouble. It's not surprising anyone, but I'm just wondering what kind of morons or assholes have been running this company. They've only had movie rental and bookstores as examples to what's been happening to the brick & mortar industry, and somehow they thought that they could continue doing business the same way in the video game world. 

[Jon AS]

1 hour ago, Corvinus said:

The latest DLC for Total War: Warhammer II has a most glorious trailer due to the homage it makes.

That is indeed great.

I think with Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre I'll finally get over myself and properly try playing Skaven instead of getting bored and going back to one of my usual factions after twenty turns.

[Red Tiger]

On 4/3/2019 at 3:28 PM, Inkdaub said:

I was glancing at the thread and saw this and almost fainted.

Oh, it's coming, it sold like gangbusters. Im just waiting for a trailer.

[Red Tiger]

On 4/2/2019 at 9:32 PM, Inigima said:

You might be right, I don't have a PS4 so I didn't play Bloodborne. I had problems adapting from "training" to the real deal -- Hanbei will let you practice the Mikiri counter, for example, but he's super easy to read. Literally every other thrusting enemy is much harder to read, and often delays or stutter-steps the thrust, and it's very difficult to tell what you're doing wrong -- are you too early? Too late? Who knows also now you're dead because most enemies can take you from full health to dead in a couple hits so now you also have to do a bunch of work to get back there to try to learn the fight. That's how most of the game was for me, a few minutes of prep work for 15 seconds of boss fight before dying. It's tough to learn the fight when you can't stay alive long enough to experiment and the game doesn't give you much feedback other than killing you.

I tried to be aggressive because I read that that's the way to go, and that works on a lot of grunt type enemies, but on bosses of course you can't just go ham all the time, and it can be hard to tell when you need to stop the onslaught and prepare to defend.

Funny thing is you can actually fight many of the bosses the way you would fight a Dark Souls boss. I didn't always like using the Mikiri counter, because like you said, it's sometimes hard to read an opponent, so I would simply block, block and then parry (or Mikiri counter for thrusts) against several bosses. Lady Butterly is another example. I continuously tried to parry all her hits, but then I switched to blocking most and only occasionally parrying, then wait until she's done to go on on the attack.

Inigima, im not about to tell you what games you should play, but please, give it another shot.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, Proudfeet said:

What are they so upset about anyway? Its just another avenue to buy games isn't it?

Some are arguing on the basis that exclusivity is poisonous, that you should be able to choose whether to buy the game on Steam, Epic, GoG or whatever on launch. That seems reasonable.

Others are arguing that Epic is 40% owned by Tencent, a dodgy-as-fuck Chinese company that has a history of downloading spyware onto people's computers. That's a much more serious concern, although technical assessments of the Epic software seem to be suggesting it's monitoring what people are doing on their systems less than Steam does (which collects vastly more data and stats).

Others are whining about "having to use another launcher," although it should be noted that with Epic - unlike Steam, you can launch the game straight from the .exe and it doesn't even load up Epic at all. You can also add Epic games to your Steam launcher without any problem.

[Maithanet]

2 hours ago, Corvinus said:

And speaking of game buying avenues, it looks like Gamestop is in major trouble. It's not surprising anyone, but I'm just wondering what kind of morons or assholes have been running this company. They've only had movie rental and bookstores as examples to what's been happening to the brick & mortar industry, and somehow they thought that they could continue doing business the same way in the video game world. 

And unlike bookstores, they also treat their customers like crap.  Good riddance, I have been hoping that company went out of business for years.  The last time I dealt with them was possibly the worst customer service experience I've ever had*.

* I know I bitched about this on the forum at the time, but the short version is they sold me a used game that didn't work, they admitted that they don't test their used games to confirm that they do indeed work, they wouldn't let me return it and they wouldn't let me sell it back to them because I'd already admitted it didn't work.  And when I asked to speak to the manager, this very rude 20 year old kid said he was the manager (I suspect he was lying, but I've never been back). 

This is in stark contrast to my recent experience with Steam, where returning a game that didn't work went quite smoothly. Not surprisingly, I immediately bought a different game with that money, so Steam didn't really lose anything. 

[briantw]

3 hours ago, Proudfeet said:

What are they so upset about anyway? Its just another avenue to buy games isn't it?

It's the exclusivity that's the issue.  A lot of people have hundreds of games in their Steam library and would likely prefer to keep all their PC games there.  

We already have to juggle Steam, GOG, Origin, and for some reason Uplay is still fucking around too despite offering no redeeming qualities.  

[KiDisaster]

I have no issue with the Epic store. It lacks a lot of Steam features, sure but I can add Epic games to Steam and use a lot of them that way (I added Ashen to Steam to use Steam's built in PS4 controller support, no issues). Exclusivity is never good but it's a downside I'm kinda willing to overlook to see Steam's borderline monopoly on PC distribution challenged. Not to mention the far better deal they are giving devs/publishers. 

I can't blame any developer, indie or otherwise, for choosing the up front money Epic is offering for timed deals PLUS the much more generous revenue split for sales and waived engine fees if it's an Unreal game. 

I hope the service itself improves over time, and I'm sure it will. 

[Fez]

This exclusivity outrage seems to be limited to video games too. I don't hear people getting upset that Netflix has exclusive rights to a movie or TV show, or that Hulu does, or Amazon Prime, or HBO, or whoever. It's just understood that different companies have different products. But Steam has had such a near-monopoly for so long that people are offended just by the idea of competition. 

And the real strange part to me is that Steam kinda sucks too. It is impossible to browse new releases and find anything interesting, user reviews have been weaponized, and the 30% share they take from sales is wildly out of proportion to their expenses (it comes from the brick-and-mortar economy). 

[briantw]

58 minutes ago, Fez said:

This exclusivity outrage seems to be limited to video games too. I don't hear people getting upset that Netflix has exclusive rights to a movie or TV show, or that Hulu does, or Amazon Prime, or HBO, or whoever. It's just understood that different companies have different products. But Steam has had such a near-monopoly for so long that people are offended just by the idea of competition. 

And the real strange part to me is that Steam kinda sucks too. It is impossible to browse new releases and find anything interesting, user reviews have been weaponized, and the 30% share they take from sales is wildly out of proportion to their expenses (it comes from the brick-and-mortar economy). 

Personally, I don't really care if a company has exclusives if they make them themselves.  Like, I wouldn't expect a game made by Valve (lol, right?) to appear on non-Steam PC platforms, nor would I expect Epic to put their games on Steam now that they have their own storefront.

It's a bit more annoying when third-party games start going platform-exclusive on PC, though.  I'd prefer if they were available everywhere so I could choose my platform of choice, much like I was able to do with third-party console games back when I owned more than one console.  

But I also haven't bought a PC game in months (bought a PS4 and have mostly been playing around with that), so I guess it doesn't really matter much to me at the moment.

I do get why they're doing it, though.  I hope Valve changes the share they take of sales so we can move on from this crap.

[Proudfeet]

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

Some are arguing on the basis that exclusivity is poisonous, that you should be able to choose whether to buy the game on Steam, Epic, GoG or whatever on launch. That seems reasonable.

Others are arguing that Epic is 40% owned by Tencent, a dodgy-as-fuck Chinese company that has a history of downloading spyware onto people's computers. That's a much more serious concern, although technical assessments of the Epic software seem to be suggesting it's monitoring what people are doing on their systems less than Steam does (which collects vastly more data and stats).

Others are whining about "having to use another launcher," although it should be noted that with Epic - unlike Steam, you can launch the game straight from the .exe and it doesn't even load up Epic at all. You can also add Epic games to your Steam launcher without any problem.

I see, thanks. I'd think being able to launch the game without signing in to a launcher is a major plus though.

5 hours ago, briantw said:

It's the exclusivity that's the issue.  A lot of people have hundreds of games in their Steam library and would likely prefer to keep all their PC games there.  

We already have to juggle Steam, GOG, Origin, and for some reason Uplay is still fucking around too despite offering no redeeming qualities.  

Yeah, but people don't complain when games are exclusive to Steam by default. I get that its annoying, but the status quo of having Steam be in what is practically a monopoly position sucks. Besides, as Wert has informed us, we don't even need the launcher so there is no actual juggling involved. Its not like Steam prevents developers from putting their own DRM on even. "Requires 3rd party account" and such.

[KingintheNorth4]

I went and bought a birthday gift for myself by getting $50.00 PS store gift card. I used it to purchase Spider-Man, which is currently downloading.

[Gorn]

11 hours ago, Fez said:

This exclusivity outrage seems to be limited to video games too. I don't hear people getting upset that Netflix has exclusive rights to a movie or TV show, or that Hulu does, or Amazon Prime, or HBO, or whoever. It's just understood that different companies have different products. But Steam has had such a near-monopoly for so long that people are offended just by the idea of competition. 

And the real strange part to me is that Steam kinda sucks too. It is impossible to browse new releases and find anything interesting, user reviews have been weaponized, and the 30% share they take from sales is wildly out of proportion to their expenses (it comes from the brick-and-mortar economy). 

Actually, the exclusivity issue is far worse when it comes to movies and TV shows. Epic doesn't require people to pay a monthly subscription to access anything. If Epic and Steam were both subscription-based services with mutually exclusive content, that would be a problem. If the only thing I need to do is to install another launcher, my reaction is meh. I'm buying the same product either way and paying the same price.

While I will always appreciate Steam for single-handedly keeping PC gaming alive in the dark period of 2005-2010, they really need to have a major competitor. If increased competition actually forces Valve to improve their customer support, increase the developer's share of profits and start dealing with the shovelware which is currently drowning out legitimately interesting games, all the better. However, I worry their conclusion will be "We need to bribe the publishers with more money than Epic is offering!"

[Werthead]

15 hours ago, briantw said:

It's the exclusivity that's the issue.  A lot of people have hundreds of games in their Steam library and would likely prefer to keep all their PC games there.  

We already have to juggle Steam, GOG, Origin, and for some reason Uplay is still fucking around too despite offering no redeeming qualities.  

You can add Epic games to your Steam library. You only ever have to fire up the Epic launcher to actually buy and download them, then you never need to use it again (the games should auto-updated by themselves, although some devs rely on launchers to do that for them, so that may be another issue).

 

Quote

 

This exclusivity outrage seems to be limited to video games too. I don't hear people getting upset that Netflix has exclusive rights to a movie or TV show, or that Hulu does, or Amazon Prime, or HBO, or whoever. It's just understood that different companies have different products. But Steam has had such a near-monopoly for so long that people are offended just by the idea of competition. 

As said above, that's fair enough when Netflix actually makes the show, or Hulu makes it or Amazon Prime. 3rd party products are a different matter and I have seen people get really enraged when a 3rd party show is only available on a platform they don't use. The lines do get blurred thought: Netflix don't make Star Trek: Discovery, but their deal for the international rights put the show in the red before they shot a frame of footage, and guarantees the show's success. Without that, making the show might not have been viable.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Two quick questions.

First, I'm replaying RDR2 because I really didn't get the full experience. I basically just ran through the missions without doing the side stuff. What's the best way to find the random stuff, like for instance the KKK? Do you just have to accept that it will require a lot of time wandering around or is there a quicker way? Also, is there an easier way to read the side quests, like for gold hunting and fishing and what not?

Second, are there any good wrestling games out these days? I haven't watched the WWE in over a decade plus, but I do remember that they used to put out some of the funnest games you could play.

[Kalbear]

Complaining about epic exclusivity is like complaining that you have to go to Starbucks to buy Starbucks coffee. 

[briantw]

6 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Two quick questions.

First, I'm replaying RDR2 because I really didn't get the full experience. I basically just ran through the missions without doing the side stuff. What's the best way to find the random stuff, like for instance the KKK? Do you just have to accept that it will require a lot of time wandering around or is there a quicker way? Also, is there an easier way to read the side quests, like for gold hunting and fishing and what not?

Second, are there any good wrestling games out these days? I haven't watched the WWE in over a decade plus, but I do remember that they used to put out some of the funnest games you could play.

I think if you hit one of the directions on the d-pad it brings up a menu that shows your side quests.  It's not as in-depth as the main menu option but it does tell you what you have and haven't done for each side quest.  

As for the random stuff, you just gotta ride around.  If you're doing a lot of the side stuff in this playthrough, it should honestly take care of itself.  You'll inevitably encounter a lot of random events riding around doing the more involved side quests, like hunting and fishing.  That's true even if you fast travel, as you can only get so close to most things.

To your second question, Fire Pro Wrestling is probably the title to take a look at.  It's got a NJPW expansion pack I think that gives you a bunch of their wrestlers, and I'm sure you can download a ton of real wrestlers online that fans have created.  Not sure if it's on anything other than PC, though.  Note that I haven't played this game, but it's got fantastic reviews and is supposed to be the wrestling game to beat.  Not that WWE has really been giving any competition since the N64 era.  Their games have been largely trash since then.

4 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Complaining about epic exclusivity is like complaining that you have to go to Starbucks to buy Starbucks coffee. 

You don't, though.  You can buy Starbucks coffee at just about any grocery store or online.  

[Kalbear]

Not their newest products, though. Those have (gasp) exclusivity at their stores for a while. 

 

[briantw]

1 minute ago, Kalbear said:

Not their newest products, though. Those have (gasp) exclusivity at their stores for a while. 

 

Well, the comparison still makes zero sense, because no one is complaining about Epic's in-house games being exclusive to their storefront.  Just games from third-party companies.

So it'd be like complaining that you could only buy Dunkin' Donuts coffee at Starbucks.