Video Games: Devils Die Twice

[Mexal]

22 minutes ago, briantw said:

You should check out Lost Legacy.  It's pretty short (about eight hours I think), but it's more of the same Uncharted fun.  

Planning on it. Going to play 2 and 3 first I think. I want to get to know Chloe before I take on Lost Legacy.

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, Mexal said:

Planning on it. Going to play 2 and 3 first I think. I want to get to know Chloe before I take on Lost Legacy.

I’ve got Lost Legacy and just have not taken time to play it yet.

[The Anti-Targ]

6 hours ago, briantw said:

You should check out Lost Legacy.  It's pretty short (about eight hours I think), but it's more of the same Uncharted fun.  

It took me a while to get into it, but I ended up really enjoying it. And now I want a full game of Chloe and Nadine. I really enjoyed their dialogue and how their relationship developed, I was even pretty happy with how the other person fit into the game. I assume the other person is a spoiler because I had no idea until they showed up.

22 hours ago, Mexal said:

Finished Uncharted 4. Loved it. Good blend of action, stealth, puzzles and parkour, all with a good story and good acting. Liked it a lot. Planning on going back and playing the others next. Naughty Dog just makes the kind of games I love to play. Wish there was more like them.

I really like The Last of Us and am looking forward to TLOU 2. But I also think Naughty Dog does popcorn flick games well so I hope they keep up with that style, even if they leave the Uncharted universe behind.

Now that Bioware has seriously dropped the ball on space adventures, I'm feeling like there's the potential for a space adventure kind of game in Naughty Dog that brings a Guardians of the Galaxy kind of vibe. Or maybe keep the Uncharted universe, but fast forward 1-200 years. Not unlike the theory that Days Gone is in fact a dystopian future of the Siphon Filter universe; which if true perhaps gives hope for an official Siphon Filter 3.

[Gorn]

8 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Now that Bioware has seriously dropped the ball on space adventures, I'm feeling like there's the potential for a space adventure kind of game in Naughty Dog that brings a Guardians of the Galaxy kind of vibe. Or maybe keep the Uncharted universe, but fast forward 1-200 years. Not unlike the theory that Days Gone is in fact a dystopian future of the Siphon Filter universe; which if true perhaps gives hope for an official Siphon Filter 3.

You mean something like this?

The Outer Worlds is currently my most-expected game in 2019.

[The Anti-Targ]

2 hours ago, Gorn said:

You mean something like this?

The Outer Worlds is currently my most-expected game in 2019.

FPS. No thanks even if it is Obsidian. I want Uncharted in Space, which includes the 3rd person camera.

[Rhom]

4 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

FPS. No thanks even if it is Obsidian. I want Uncharted in Space, which includes the 3rd person camera.

I'd play that in a heartbeat.

[The Anti-Targ]

And while Space RPGs are great, if Naughty Dog did venture into non-dystopian (is the opposite of dystopian just topian?) sci-fi I wouldn't really want any more RPG elements than what we got in TLOU. At a stretch God of War (PS4) RPG elements could work, though that skill tree is more than what I would want to see in an Uncharted in Space adventure. Naughty Dog's wheelhouse, at the moment, is tight narrative and movie-like pacing and too much RPG content detracts from that. Because no matter what, if there are skill trees and character levels people want to level grind. We all like a challenge in our video games, but most of us also like to be a little bit over-levelled for the place we are in a game, and that means some amount of grinding. Sticking with a fairly linear progression is what I'd like to see with Naughty Dog.

I can hopefully still get my grindy, side-questy fix from other game houses. I'm still holding out hope for Dragon Age 4 in that regard, but I am a bit worried.

[Rhom]

Word is that Anthem is getting ready to go Free to Play.  What a damn shame.  Oh how the mighty BioWare has fallen.

[Jace, Extat]

3 hours ago, Rhom said:

Word is that Anthem is getting ready to go Free to Play.  What a damn shame.  Oh how the mighty BioWare has fallen.

I'm not saying i enjoy dancing on the grave of BioWare. But damn is it addictive.

[briantw]

5 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I'm not saying i enjoy dancing on the grave of BioWare. But damn is it addictive.

I mean, hard to disagree given what pricks they've been to the fans every time the fans weren't willing to eat their shit.

[Gorn]

After watching the GoT finale, I have a strong urge to reinstall Crusader Kings II.  The last expansion I played was Monks and Mystics, which was meh. Did anyone play Jade Dragon and Holy Fury, and are they any good? 

Minor spoilers for the GoT finale, but I'll tag them just in case.

Spoiler

I liked the introduction of elective monarchy to Westeros, and it reminded me that it was always my favorite succession method in CKII. That way, I didn't have to worry about children or incompetent idiots inheriting, and the new king was always someone competent, popular and in physical and mental prime. The only risk was losing control to another house, but I would always cheat by handing out elector titles to as many dynasty members as possible.

I saw a bunch of total conversion modes based on Elder Scrolls, Middle Earth, Witcher, etc. - are any of them as good as the Game of Thrones mod, or at least near it?

[Centrist Simon Steele]

So Epic Stores is having their version of the summer sale. I'm not against Epic at all, so I thought I'd try it. Wow. This store is not ready at all. You can't search by genre, by items on sale? You have to just scroll through pages of what they show you, most of it isn't on sale, and you have to click on an image to get more info--no mouse hover to preview screenshots/genre/whatever.

The more I think about it, the more I don't want to deal with another game launcher. I already hate trying to remember which game I want to play is installed on Steam, GOG, EA Origin, or Uplay. I hate it.

[Ferrum Aeternum]

7 hours ago, Gorn said:

I saw a bunch of total conversion modes based on Elder Scrolls, Middle Earth, Witcher, etc. - are any of them as good as the Game of Thrones mod, or at least near it?

A related question for the board - aside from the CK2 mod (which is amazing) what are the best ASOIAF/GOT PC gaming mods out there today?  I have tried to ascertain the answer for myself, but Google gives me conflicting reports. 

[Leofric]

7 minutes ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

A related question for the board - aside from the CK2 mod (which is amazing) what are the best ASOIAF/GOT PC gaming mods out there today?  I have tried to ascertain the answer for myself, but Google gives me conflicting reports. 

I love the CK2 GOT mod.  Have also played the two different ASOIAF mods for Mount&Blade Warband,  both are good.

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

A related question for the board - aside from the CK2 mod (which is amazing) what are the best ASOIAF/GOT PC gaming mods out there today?  I have tried to ascertain the answer for myself, but Google gives me conflicting reports. 

The Total War one is pretty good, although it's based on Medieval II so a somewhat older game. Still excellent.

[The Anti-Targ]

18 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I'm not saying i enjoy dancing on the grave of BioWare. But damn is it addictive.

There has to be some grief though. Before they became a vestigial limb of the evil empire EA they had a deserved reputation as a maker of fine games. They were Luke Skywalker turned to the dark side. I morn the Luke Skywalker who was, not the Luke Skywalker who is.

[The Anti-Targ]

8 hours ago, Mr. Fancy Pants said:

So Epic Stores is having their version of the summer sale. I'm not against Epic at all, so I thought I'd try it. Wow. This store is not ready at all. You can't search by genre, by items on sale? You have to just scroll through pages of what they show you, most of it isn't on sale, and you have to click on an image to get more info--no mouse hover to preview screenshots/genre/whatever.

The more I think about it, the more I don't want to deal with another game launcher. I already hate trying to remember which game I want to play is installed on Steam, GOG, EA Origin, or Uplay. I hate it.

Don't forget no shopping cart, so you have to buy games one at a time, so I've heard. And no refunds.

The launcher / store front is as undercooked as a 30s boiled egg, and I wish they'd got it at least half-baked before taking it to market. However ultimately, assuming they keep adding the core features that should be part of a digital game store/launcher, the Epic store should be solid competition for Steam in a way that GoG and the others have not been. Its tactics are par for the course shitty capitalism, but what big game house isn't guilty of that, albeit in varying manifestations. The only thing that keeps capitalism from absolute consumer servitude to corporate overlords is competition, and it's not even very good at that even with regulation in place to facilitate competition. So I cautiously Welcome Epic into the digital storefront marketplace.

It's ironic that Epic is using some of the most egregious capitalist tactics, with it being 40% owned by a Chinese company, and that company is the only reason Epic seems to have a bottomless well of money to throw around. I just hope that at some point a decent amount of that Chinese money is put to good use, like massively raising the profile of Rocket League as an Esport. They can't have bought Psyonix for shits and giggles, they must have big plans for Rocket League in the Esport scene.

[Jace, Extat]

49 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

There has to be some grief though. Before they became a vestigial limb of the evil empire EA they had a deserved reputation as a maker of fine games. They were Luke Skywalker turned to the dark side. I morn the Luke Skywalker who was, not the Luke Skywalker who is.

Certainly, loads of grief. I'm not a monster. But I'm just smart enough to have done my grieving after Andromeda. Any jackass who bought Anthem deserves their shit sandwich.

[The Anti-Targ]

34 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

Certainly, loads of grief. I'm not a monster. But I'm just smart enough to have done my grieving after Andromeda. Any jackass who bought Anthem deserves their shit sandwich.

Well, yes, Anthem seemed like an EA corporate mandate rather than the product of an organic creative process at Bioware right from the start. Dare I hold out one last hope for Dragon Age 4, or is that a fool's errand? It does seem that creative comebacks and redemption in pretty much every mass entertainment industry are rare, and if you remain under the yoke of the same corporate overlord it seems unheard of.

[The Anti-Targ]

So, news just(?) in. Sony is setting up a subsidiary TV and movie studio dedicated to adapting video games to movies and TV. The execution, especially with the first few projects will be vital to whether this is a success or it goes down in flames and big financial losses for Sony.

Video games are a massive source of revenue and profit for Sony, potentially its most important source of revenue and profits. It makes sense on paper that they leverage their move and TV making to increase the profile of video games. The problem is video games have almost never made for good movies or TV. Det Pikachu is the only video game movie to get a fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, but with a $150M budget it hasn't hit break even yet. So it's still going to only be a modest success. Though it is guaranteed to break even. I think Castlevania is the only good non-children's video game TV adaptation. For the kids I think the Pokemon TV show was both successful and good.

I'd love for this to succeed, but history is not on Sony's side.