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Werthead

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Spent some time going through Phantom Doctrine and it feels like a ton of great ideas that really haven't come together to make a good game. It looks and plays a lot like XCOM, but it's based more around stealth than combat. Remaining undetected, taking out enemies with ambushes etc is the name of the game and the game's systems make sustained slug-fights a really bad idea (particularly the infinite number of reinforcements that stream into the map which you can flee from, but not fight very effectively). However, the game is far too luck-dependent for this to really work, and when fights do break out the game's line-of-sight systems are almost completely unfathomable (with enemies able to see and shoot you but you can't see or shoot them back, for no discernible reason).

Pressing on with it but it's turning into a bit of a slog. Disappointing, and actually a step-down from the same developers previous XCOM-alike, Hard West.

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9 hours ago, Werthead said:

Spent some time going through Phantom Doctrine and it feels like a ton of great ideas that really haven't come together to make a good game. It looks and plays a lot like XCOM, but it's based more around stealth than combat. Remaining undetected, taking out enemies with ambushes etc is the name of the game and the game's systems make sustained slug-fights a really bad idea (particularly the infinite number of reinforcements that stream into the map which you can flee from, but not fight very effectively). However, the game is far too luck-dependent for this to really work, and when fights do break out the game's line-of-sight systems are almost completely unfathomable (with enemies able to see and shoot you but you can't see or shoot them back, for no discernible reason).

Pressing on with it but it's turning into a bit of a slog. Disappointing, and actually a step-down from the same developers previous XCOM-alike, Hard West.

 

I liked the last two X-Com but even they became a slog by the end. The interesting parts were the decisions between battles.  

Has anyone tried making an X-Com type game where like 2/3 of they way through just as the missions become boring you switch from manually commanding your troops in battle to just managing teams of soldiers who go on the missions?  Maybe with some basic programming for each unit like the gambit system from Final Fantasy XII. 

Larger question: can anyone think of a game that unexpectedly changes genre partway through? 

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2 hours ago, RumHam said:

Larger question: can anyone think of a game that unexpectedly changes genre partway through?

Well, I could certainly think of some where the genre of the narrative unexpectedly change, but a change of game mechanics is something I can't say too many really attempted, given that it's basically like programming two games at once.

Though admittedly, when I recently played Shadow of Mordor, the last quarter of the game did indeed feel vastly different, going from a stealth RPG with one character fighting against overwhelming odds to an outright action RPG where you battle alongside an increasing number of minions. The core mechanics didn't change much, but the added branding mechanics completely changed how you approach situations.

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10 hours ago, Inigima said:

Is no one else playing Control? Third person shooter with paranormal stuff and a Twin Peaks vibe.

I am going to play it for sure.  I'm still totally into Arkham Asylum, though, so it'll likely be a couple weeks. 

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Quote

Larger question: can anyone think of a game that unexpectedly changes genre partway through?

Brutal Legend? Starts off as a third-person action game and around the 35% mark it suddenly turns into an RTS. That was very unexpected.

 

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Is no one else playing Control? Third person shooter with paranormal stuff and a Twin Peaks vibe.

 

I just bought it. I play everything Remedy releases, one of the most interesting devs in the business (just finished a replay of Max Payne 1 and 2, and man those games still hold up, whilst Max Payne 3 from Rockstar is just crap). Intriguingly, Control is set in the Alan Wake universe, so if you've played those two games you'll pick up on a bunch of things others might miss (but they are completely non-essential).

If you haven't played the Alan Wake games, you should, they're pretty damn good.

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Started playing Control and it's everything I expect from a Remedy game: great action, a good-but-weird plot and an intriguing protagonist. Also a distinct lack of obnoxious cutscenes taking over the game, which is good news.

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On 9/7/2019 at 11:56 PM, Werthead said:

 

Brutal Legend? Starts off as a third-person action game and around the 35% mark it suddenly turns into an RTS. That was very unexpected.

Which is a pity. It had the potential to be a really good action game too. It simply did not work as a RTS, and I say this as a fan of RTS genre.

Surprisingly, the developers stand by their decision and claim that the RTS is what they always wanted to make, and that the publisher misleadingly advertised it as an action game and pushed for more action game elements. That's pretty much the only situation where I side with the publisher instead of developers.

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On 9/7/2019 at 12:54 PM, Inigima said:

Is no one else playing Control? Third person shooter with paranormal stuff and a Twin Peaks vibe.

Got a free copy, so I'll give it a try at some point. Currently playing Frostpunk.

On 9/7/2019 at 3:20 PM, RumHam said:

Larger question: can anyone think of a game that unexpectedly changes genre partway through? 

Frog Fractions? :D

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I need to vent a bit about racism specifically as it pertains to video games, and more specifically esports players.

I follow the Rocket League pro-scene pretty closely and I've been hugely disappointed to learn of the racist language some of them have used. A couple of guys have been recorded online as using the N-word, and while there are some in the fandom who voice their disgust at the use of this language, there are others who say "Give him a break, he was only 14 years old (a year ago), who hasn't said this word in private?" and other kinds of defensive comments. And other prominent people in the community seem to simply ignore it and happily continue to associate with these guys. Honestly it deflates my enthusiam for the whole scene.

Sure you can say this is a self-inflicted injury because what can I expect from hyped up teens? But really I think I must be seriously naive in thinking that racism surely can't still be this pervasive. Makes me despair for humanity that kids are still growing up around the use of racist language as an exclamation, competitive banter and insults. I shouldn't be shocked and saddened by it, but I am.

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2 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I need to vent a bit about racism specifically as it pertains to video games, and more specifically esports players.

I follow the Rocket League pro-scene pretty closely and I've been hugely disappointed to learn of the racist language some of them have used. A couple of guys have been recorded online as using the N-word, and while there are some in the fandom who voice their disgust at the use of this language, there are others who say "Give him a break, he was only 14 years old (a year ago), who hasn't said this word in private?" and other kinds of defensive comments. And other prominent people in the community seem to simply ignore it and happily continue to associate with these guys. Honestly it deflates my enthusiam for the whole scene.

Sure you can say this is a self-inflicted injury because what can I expect from hyped up teens? But really I think I must be seriously naive in thinking that racism surely can't still be this pervasive. Makes me despair for humanity that kids are still growing up around the use of racist language as an exclamation, competitive banter and insults. I shouldn't be shocked and saddened by it, but I am.

This is pretty much why I stopped playing games online some 7 years back. Had enough of little squeaky voiced dbags running around shouting racial slurs and obscenities. Where the hell are the parents? 

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16 minutes ago, Relic said:

This is pretty much why I stopped playing games online some 7 years back. Had enough of little squeaky voiced dbags running around shouting racial slurs and obscenities. Where the hell are the parents? 

One parent of one of these guys allegedly stands behind his son while he's playing online yelling homophobic slurs at his opponents. I guess the apples don't fall far from the trees.

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3 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I need to vent a bit about racism specifically as it pertains to video games, and more specifically esports players.

I follow the Rocket League pro-scene pretty closely and I've been hugely disappointed to learn of the racist language some of them have used. A couple of guys have been recorded online as using the N-word, and while there are some in the fandom who voice their disgust at the use of this language, there are others who say "Give him a break, he was only 14 years old (a year ago), who hasn't said this word in private?" and other kinds of defensive comments. And other prominent people in the community seem to simply ignore it and happily continue to associate with these guys. Honestly it deflates my enthusiam for the whole scene.

Sure you can say this is a self-inflicted injury because what can I expect from hyped up teens? But really I think I must be seriously naive in thinking that racism surely can't still be this pervasive. Makes me despair for humanity that kids are still growing up around the use of racist language as an exclamation, competitive banter and insults. I shouldn't be shocked and saddened by it, but I am.

Are they Italian? If they're Italian, it's ok, they're not racist. (Heavy sarcasm intended. See Football thread for more)

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Ugh, as someone who was really into Rocket League and who followed the pro scene for a year or so (which I've never done for any other game), that's incredibly disappointing to hear. There's something truly awful at the heart of "video game culture." Can I ask which players have been implicated? Please not Gibbs...

 

 

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6 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I need to vent a bit about racism specifically as it pertains to video games, and more specifically esports players.

I follow the Rocket League pro-scene pretty closely and I've been hugely disappointed to learn of the racist language some of them have used. A couple of guys have been recorded online as using the N-word, and while there are some in the fandom who voice their disgust at the use of this language, there are others who say "Give him a break, he was only 14 years old (a year ago), who hasn't said this word in private?" and other kinds of defensive comments. And other prominent people in the community seem to simply ignore it and happily continue to associate with these guys. Honestly it deflates my enthusiam for the whole scene.

Sure you can say this is a self-inflicted injury because what can I expect from hyped up teens? But really I think I must be seriously naive in thinking that racism surely can't still be this pervasive. Makes me despair for humanity that kids are still growing up around the use of racist language as an exclamation, competitive banter and insults. I shouldn't be shocked and saddened by it, but I am.

Its not surprising. I don't know if they are actually racist or just thoughtless, but they do reflect their environment. Esports players aren't that different from regular sports player or just regular teenagers. People adapt to the lingo people around them use, adults are no different except that they (should) know better and oppose such use. Its basically an infectious disease. You try to vaccinate people but you never quite get to everyone so it can't be eliminated.

Its not just racist language either. Sexist language is prominent as well. Context is important, but without context I think its fair to give them the benefit of the doubt once if they show remorse. 

Also, to add to racist incidents in esports, in Overwatch, the top league has home cities like traditional sports. There are fans who are vocal about not supporting their home city because the roster is all Korean. "They don't represent the city" basically.

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I'm yet to see any remorse from anyone, or any prominent personalities around the scene calling these guys out or disassociating themselves from these people. A few other players who either have a personal axe to grind, or who want to not let racism be swept under the carpet have exposed the use of this language, but it's not really being addressed at an organisational level.

I agree that racism / racist language and sexism and homophobia in esports is probably no more or less prevalent than in other sports. The difference I think is that there is zero tolerance for it at an organisational level and close to zero tolerance for it among spots fans. This is what's missing from esports. there is too much apologia because of the young age of these people. 14 is no too young to know that you just don't say f@##&$ or the N word under any circumstance.

I hope the corporate (sponsorship) side might actually do some good. Esports orgs need to be sponsored by companies to be financial, and companies, like Redbull, don't want to be associated with bigoted behaviour. So even if these guys are racist shits in their private lives, hopefully they will be on behaviour bonds when they are signed up to orgs which will impose penalties on racist, sexist and homophobic language. But maybe the orgs don't care or haven't even thought about this stuff.

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13 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I agree that racism / racist language and sexism and homophobia in esports is probably no more or less prevalent than in other sports. The difference I think is that there is zero tolerance for it at an organisational level and close to zero tolerance for it among spots fans. This is what's missing from esports. there is too much apologia because of the young age of these people.

I doubt it. Even in regular sports, tolerance is directly related to how good you are. 

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A little while back, in the previous thread, I posted

Quote

 

So I'm having a PC tech issue I'm hoping the collective minds here can help with. My PC has an SSD (which has my OS), a 4TB HDD and a 1TB HDD. I've started having the issue where I can't launch games that are stored on the 4TB HDD, no matter which launcher or through Windows Explorer. Games installed on the SDD or the 1TB HDD are fine.

I assume the problem is with the 4TB drive itself, but Windows keeps saying there are no disc errors. And I can download files onto the drive, look at all the files on the drive, and open things like text documents saved on it. But using any .exe just causes a crash. Any thoughts on what this is, or even just how I could figure out what this is?

 

and Kalbear suggested that it might be a security issue and that I should try running a game as an executable from the command line. Some things came up and I didn't have a chance to try it a while for a while. But I finally did try to launch a game (in this case, Catherine), and here's what happened:

At first, nothing happened, except that Windows Explorer (which I had open to confirm the filepath) crashed. Around a minute later, the game launched, very slowly. There was just a black screen for at least 30 seconds, and after all the game logos appeared, there was another wait for around a minute before the main menu loaded. When tried to load a saved game, it took almost three minutes before the game loaded. Once I was in the game, everything ran as it always did, except that when I tried to load into a new area, there was a black screen for over a minute and then the game just crashed.

Any thoughts?

I continue to suspect a hardware issue, but I'm not sure how to test whether its the drive, the motherboard port, or the SATA cable. Windows continues to say that everything about the drive is working as intended, and games sorted on the SSD and the 1TB HDD continue to work great.

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