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Videogames: "No E3 for you!" edition.


Red Tiger

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Well, there have been several; in the past month or so I've tried Last of Us, Prey, Until Dawn, Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the latest God of War game, among others.

And it's hard to pin down exactly what I'm not enjoying about the single player games. I've enjoyed the story on most of them, at least as much of the stories as I made it to, and enjoyed the gameplay. But I just find myself to be unable to become invested in the game itself. Even old standbys that I always used to love replaying like BGII: SoA don't really hold much interest anymore. I'm wondering if that's because I'm just used to a more dynamic environment that relies a lot on having other people playing.

ETA: And I'm not really complaining about the games themselves. I have fun while I'm playing them. It's just that I don't have the urgency to finish the games after I set down the controller for the first time. 

ETA 2: Really I guess I'm saying that I really WANT to play all the good single players that are getting buzz, but I'm not finding the interest in following through. If this helps, I like how MMOs let you choose your level of involvement/interest. If I don't want to raid, I can craft, level alts, decorate my strongholds, etc. I like having a variety of gameplay options immediately available. With stuff like CoD I like being able to log in and run a couple of matches and log out while still getting my quick fix. I guess I'm not finding single players that provide much the same options.

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33 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

Well, there have been several; in the past month or so I've tried Last of Us, Prey, Until Dawn, Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the latest God of War game, among others.

And it's hard to pin down exactly what I'm not enjoying about the single player games. I've enjoyed the story on most of them, at least as much of the stories as I made it to, and enjoyed the gameplay. But I just find myself to be unable to become invested in the game itself. Even old standbys that I always used to love replaying like BGII: SoA don't really hold much interest anymore. I'm wondering if that's because I'm just used to a more dynamic environment that relies a lot on having other people playing.

ETA: And I'm not really complaining about the games themselves. I have fun while I'm playing them. It's just that I don't have the urgency to finish the games after I set down the controller for the first time. 

ETA 2: Really I guess I'm saying that I really WANT to play all the good single players that are getting buzz, but I'm not finding the interest in following through. If this helps, I like how MMOs let you choose your level of involvement/interest. If I don't want to raid, I can craft, level alts, decorate my strongholds, etc. I like having a variety of gameplay options immediately available. With stuff like CoD I like being able to log in and run a couple of matches and log out while still getting my quick fix. I guess I'm not finding single players that provide much the same options.

Maybe after spending so long in MMOs, you don't like being restricted to a set story line and forced on a single path. You might want to try more sandbox type games without story lines to follow, just open worlds where you choose where to explore and who to interact interact with.   This could be anything from GTA games, to Mount and Blade, SIMs, Minecraft, Kenshi, or even strategy games like the latest Civilization or Crusader Kings 2 (or Crusader Kings 3 that comes out in September).

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23 minutes ago, Leofric said:

Maybe after spending so long in MMOs, you don't like being restricted to a set story line and forced on a single path. You might want to try more sandbox type games without story lines to follow, just open worlds where you choose where to explore and who to interact interact with.   This could be anything from GTA games, to Mount and Blade, SIMs, Minecraft, Kenshi, or even strategy games like the latest Civilization or Crusader Kings 2 (or Crusader Kings 3 that comes out in September).

This has kind of been my line of thought as well, although I wonder if the social aspect plays a role also. I have played one of the Civ games a few times, but once I won with all the strategies it started to get boring again. I'm thinking it may just be a mental block that I need to force myself through, but I'll check out some of the titles you mention.

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33 minutes ago, Leofric said:

Maybe after spending so long in MMOs, you don't like being restricted to a set story line and forced on a single path. You might want to try more sandbox type games without story lines to follow, just open worlds where you choose where to explore and who to interact interact with.   This could be anything from GTA games, to Mount and Blade, SIMs, Minecraft, Kenshi, or even strategy games like the latest Civilization or Crusader Kings 2 (or Crusader Kings 3 that comes out in September).

Yeah, I second this advice. Games that give you a lot of options on what to do, something like Stardew Valley or My Time at Portia if you like crafting/sim games, may scratch that MMO "do whatever you want" itch. Or you could try a game that isn't about a story at all and is skill-based; puzzle games like Portal, The Witness, or The Talos Principle. Or a platformer/exploration/combat game like Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest, Mark of the Ninja, Steamworld Dig 2, etc.

If you did want to give an AAA story-driven game another shot, I might recommend the two latest Assassin Creed games, Orgins and Odyssey. You may still run into the problem of there not being enough different gameplay loops; but they give a decent facsimile, especially Odyssey, of that MMO feeling of it being a wide-open world full of places you can go.

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Enjoying last of us part 2. The opening couple of hours is very good at getting you up to speed with the controls and new abilities. The melee combat appears significantly improved. The game looks gorgeous and only complaint so far is the slightly frustrating thing where barriers can't be overcome because that's the game design despite clearly being able to climb/jump across much more difficult barriers. That and the auto save point of no return checkpoints that can cut your exploration if you don't have a manual save and are unlucky enough to cross the checkpoint scene on your first bit of exploration.

So far I'm pleased I've avoided spoilers as right from the get go things aren't as the trailers etc made it seem.

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11 hours ago, Rhom said:

Same here.

The only negative I've heard is that the violence is at times a bit much. :dunno:

 

12 hours ago, Nictarion said:

That was fast. 

Also, people are saying it’s bad? I’ve seen pretty much universal praise so far. 

I got my copy early thanks to a friend and his job ha.

 

11 hours ago, Werthead said:

It was the reaction to the story leaks last month and the publishing of screenshots from the game (both without a lot of context). I've seen a lot of complaints along the lines they turned the game into The Walking Dead-style misery porn.

Haven't played the first one yet, let alone the second, so no idea how true that it is.

So critics are praising it. Gamers, well, they're whining and calling it trash and are review bombing it. 

It's not a perfect by any means IMO. It looks great, it's acted great, and for the most part it hits upon what it's trying to do and say. I just think it fumbles a bit at times with getting to where it wants to eventually go. 

I played the last quarter of it again to see if the ending hit me this time given how drained I was when I first got through it.

It did hit a bit different this time. A second time a round I had a chance to kind a of think about everything without the fatigue from grinding through a really dark and bleak atmosphere that doesn't feel like there is hope at the end of the tunnel unlike the first game, that had some. Couple that with about 10 more hours of gameplay in a really bleak and depressive atmosphere, yea. It wore me down. 

 I cant go deeper into a mini review of my issues with it do to spoilers and how some people haven't played it let alone are near the end or finished. 

I'll just say, I have no issue with the end, but the lead up to the end was a bit of a mess execution wise for me. I like some of the themes they were touching upon. The short sightedness of characters enraged me, but it's a realistic thing that people have an issue with being and something that can piss people off, and I think it's apart of the themes it was touching upon in it's message. 

Just a heads up, if anyone is trans, they do dead name a character and talk about abuse they go through.
 

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7 hours ago, red snow said:

Enjoying last of us part 2. The opening couple of hours is very good at getting you up to speed with the controls and new abilities. The melee combat appears significantly improved. The game looks gorgeous and only complaint so far is the slightly frustrating thing where barriers can't be overcome because that's the game design despite clearly being able to climb/jump across much more difficult barriers. That and the auto save point of no return checkpoints that can cut your exploration if you don't have a manual save and are unlucky enough to cross the checkpoint scene on your first bit of exploration.

So far I'm pleased I've avoided spoilers as right from the get go things aren't as the trailers etc made it seem.

Yeah there was a part where I had to jump over a wall into a hotel courtyard.  Explored the hotel, opened a door, and got a cut scene that locked me out of the previous rooms in the hotel, and when I got back onto the street I was no longer able to jump over the wall because the crate or whatever that was next to it had magically disappeared even though the entire area was abandoned.

That's just bad game design, especially in a game with collectibles.  You walk in the wrong door and suddenly you can't 100% the game.  Fucking dumb.  How does that even make it past testing?  It happened in the first damn section of the game for me at the grocery store too.

Other than that I'm loving it, though.  

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1 hour ago, briantw said:

Yeah there was a part where I had to jump over a wall into a hotel courtyard.  Explored the hotel, opened a door, and got a cut scene that locked me out of the previous rooms in the hotel, and when I got back onto the street I was no longer able to jump over the wall because the crate or whatever that was next to it had magically disappeared even though the entire area was abandoned.

That's just bad game design, especially in a game with collectibles.  You walk in the wrong door and suddenly you can't 100% the game.  Fucking dumb.  How does that even make it past testing?  It happened in the first damn section of the game for me at the grocery store too.

Other than that I'm loving it, though.  

The one that bugged me was a door you could squeeze through but only in one direction! Fortunately there was a way to loop back in that scenario but only after clearing an alternative route. It's a common naughty dog problem and it's infuriating they've never addressed it. A simple "restart from before the last point of no return" option would alleviate the issue. Or better game design.

But it's usually a good sign when that's the biggest issue. For games like this I'd usually check guides but i don't want to risk any spoliers so I'm checking for scraps everywhere.

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TLOU2 spoilers 

 

 Playing as Abby has to be one of the worst gaming decisions made by a developer. Just so unenjoyable for me. As if there was a possible chance I could ever like her or even sympathize with her after the way she killed him. No matter how justified she thought she was he literally had just saved her life 5 minutes before that. Also felt well out of character for Joel and Tommy to be offering up their names 2 seconds after meeting a group of armed strangers chilling on their doorstep but I can suspend disbelief for that since they were running from a horde. Graphics are great, gameplay is marginally better than the first (but who plays TLOU for the gameplay), but idk the story just feels off to me. More of a late season Walking Dead vibe than TLOU1 

 
 

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20 hours ago, The Great Unwashed said:

This has kind of been my line of thought as well, although I wonder if the social aspect plays a role also. I have played one of the Civ games a few times, but once I won with all the strategies it started to get boring again. I'm thinking it may just be a mental block that I need to force myself through, but I'll check out some of the titles you mention.

In that case the Crusader Kings recommendation might be really up to your speed. The way diplomacy works there through the AI judging your behavior and traits through the lense of their own traits allows for an absurdly immersive role-playing experience, given that empires aren't being controlled, but rather coordinated thanks to essentially being a simulation of the fiefdom pyramid. And it has become free on Steam!

Meanwhile I am very listless as well about what to play next in my ridiculous archive. I keep downloading games and let them rot untouched. The last game I played was Civilization 6 after the giveaway. Managed to achieve a science victory with Germany before realizing that I accidentally must have grabbed the most ridiculously overpowered civ in the game. I was also very close to a culture victory after getting scared of Russia for a bit and ramping up on culture districts. Unfortunately Civ games never managed to grab my attention for long. I like the premise, but I dislike how every game in the series becomes smaller and smaller, both in terms of map sizes as well as in units and in features in general. It feels more and more like a board game and honestly, this makes the progression through the ages less a matter of advancement rather than an annoying step stone towards the endgame. Also I can't believe that the diplomacy after all these years still sucks that badly. So with all possible alliances and 5000 years of pacifism you can still get only +30 relationship at most with your closest allies, but the moment you annex the city of some asshole who attacked you, you get -200 warmonger penalty, all your allies turn on you and the whole world declares war? The only difference is that now they can only do it two nations at a time? What bullshit is this?

After that... well... I mentioned that I installed Assassin's Creed Unity. Haven't touched it since. I still have my Project Cars career to finish, but it seems my interest in motorsport was rather shortlived. Still with that I bought the current Codemasters humble bundle on the medium tier and installed F1 2018. Didn't play it yet though. I guess for the time being I am more happy with arcade racers. I installed Dirt Showdown and played through most of the (extremely short) campaign. It feels like a FlatOut stripped down to the core. It is brief mindless fun, but I keep thinking that it's lacking a lot. The way you can get money out of each race only once after winning it feels very much like grinding gems out of story quests in a mobile game and the extremely simplified car selection screen makes it very difficult to care for the cars as you are essentially getting a new one for every race. I'm a bit conflicted about that, because certainly grinding for money in FlatOut wasn't all that fun either, but at least it made every car a careful investment.

I also played a bit GRID 2. What I disliked in Dirt Showdown is doubled down here, you only unlock cars through winning special events and then aren't even allowed to upgrade them. It is significantly more difficult than Dirt Showdown though... but that mostly by virtue of having a truly ridiculous focus on drifting through every corner, a focus that is combined with always starting at the back of the pack and having so many slower cars block the racing line in all the bazillion 90° corners every tracke is made of while the race leader darts away with an overpowered car you can only unlock for yourself after beating him.

What else? Ah yes, I also bought City: Skylines in its bundle. Given how venerated it is, I wanted to try it out, even though the only city builder I played in living memory was Cities XL and that one I always grew bored of at the point where I reached its biggest selling point, having to build multiple specialized cities so that they can trade with each other. Having watched a few Youtube videos about Skylines I must admit I got a bit turned off by the complexity. I... guess I prefer smaller scale games like Tropico...

I also still have my The Witcher 1 playthrough sitting untouched since January... Or my Stellaris return with the United Colonies of Cobol. Or No Man's Sky where after having built a mining outpost for nearly every resource of the game, I grew bored and moved away without advancing further in the 'story'. Btw, Elite: Dangerous I uninstalled yesterday as I thought that if I got back to that, it would be just a rather pointless time burner.

However, yesterday I got back to reading Visual Novels instead. I fired up my old savefile from Higurashi after learning that the 07th Mod group has started translating the alternate final chapter from the console editions, which I am veeeery eager to read. But before that I have to go through all the remaining Natsumi and Detective Minai arcs. While I was at that I remembered I still have Steins;Gate half finished and Steins;Gate 0 untouched on my hard drive. Oh, and in just another reflex buy I got myself Psycho Pass: Mandatory Happiness on a Humble sale a while ago. Given how awesome the last season of the Anime was, I can't wait to dive into the official VN spinoff.

I... obviously have too short a summer break...

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5 hours ago, Bonnot OG said:

Last of us players here. How ya doing after the scene we all kinda knew deep down was gonna happen at some point this part?

I'm ok. I've read enough fantasy trilogies to prepare me for things. I didn't get much beyond this last night and now will play more today to see where it goes.

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On 6/19/2020 at 10:57 AM, The Great Unwashed said:

Well, there have been several; in the past month or so I've tried Last of Us, Prey, Until Dawn, Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the latest God of War game, among others.

And it's hard to pin down exactly what I'm not enjoying about the single player games. I've enjoyed the story on most of them, at least as much of the stories as I made it to, and enjoyed the gameplay. But I just find myself to be unable to become invested in the game itself. Even old standbys that I always used to love replaying like BGII: SoA don't really hold much interest anymore. I'm wondering if that's because I'm just used to a more dynamic environment that relies a lot on having other people playing.

ETA: And I'm not really complaining about the games themselves. I have fun while I'm playing them. It's just that I don't have the urgency to finish the games after I set down the controller for the first time. 

ETA 2: Really I guess I'm saying that I really WANT to play all the good single players that are getting buzz, but I'm not finding the interest in following through. If this helps, I like how MMOs let you choose your level of involvement/interest. If I don't want to raid, I can craft, level alts, decorate my strongholds, etc. I like having a variety of gameplay options immediately available. With stuff like CoD I like being able to log in and run a couple of matches and log out while still getting my quick fix. I guess I'm not finding single players that provide much the same options.

It sounds like you are playing a lot of AAA releases that take a huge number of hours to complete and have long load times and intensive graphics and lots of cutscenes. Try some of the smaller indie stuff that you can be in and out of quicker.

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8 hours ago, Bonnot OG said:

Last of us players here. How ya doing after the scene we all kinda knew deep down was gonna happen at some point this part?

Spoiler

Are you referring to Joel's death?  Because as someone who completely avoided spoilers, that was the one thing that didn't surprise me.  Basically all I knew about this game was that Ellie was on a quest for revenge and, well, I kind of figured Joel's death would be what she was avenging.  

Plus the second we found out the other group of characters were looking for someone I just assumed it would be Joel and that it would be to murder him.

Didn't expect it to be quite as brutal as it was, though.

Spoilers for the prologue of Last of Us 2.  If you haven't left Jackson at the beginning of the game, don't click. 

Nothing after leaving Jackson is referenced at all.  

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3 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

Part 2 is more ridiculous garbage torture porn, with the actions of the people involved making very little sense, so more of the same, really.

It looks really pretty, mind.

Wow, and it gets dumber and dumber as you progress. The story is genuinely terrible.

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3 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

Part 2 is more ridiculous garbage torture porn, with the actions of the people involved making very little sense, so more of the same, really.

It looks really pretty, mind.

Reminds me of that scene in Arrested Development where Michael opens that bag in the fridge that says "DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT."

"Well, I don't know what I expected."

Because this game so far is a whole hell of a lot like the previous one.

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23 hours ago, Toth said:

I also played a bit GRID 2. What I disliked in Dirt Showdown is doubled down here, you only unlock cars through winning special events and then aren't even allowed to upgrade them. It is significantly more difficult than Dirt Showdown though... but that mostly by virtue of having a truly ridiculous focus on drifting through every corner, a focus that is combined with always starting at the back of the pack and having so many slower cars block the racing line in all the bazillion 90° corners every tracke is made of while the race leader darts away with an overpowered car you can only unlock for yourself after beating him.

Steam's having a Bandai Namco sale right now and Project Cars 2 is 85% off if you're interested. I'm not into realistic racing games unfortunately. Wish they had something more like Mario Kart or Wipeout.

 

I'm thinking of getting either Soul Calibur or Tekken. Any suggestions?

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