Videogames - The definitive Edition, remastered

[Werthead]

16 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

BG2 was only 4 CD’s compared to BG1’s 7.

BG1 was 5, 6 with Tales of the Sword Coast.

BG2 was 4 (5 with Throne of Bhaal). The difference is because BG1 wasn't compressed, at all, whilst BG2 was heavily compressed (BG2 is vastly larger than BG1).

The adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky was 15 floppy disks. Monkey Island II and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis were 11 apiece. Those were fun.

[Derfel Cadarn]

So it was, not sure where I got 7 from.

[Werthead]

Mafia: Definitive Edition has kept the race in Mission 5, also known as "probably the hardest level in the history of video gaming," and ejected all of the quality-of-life improvements from the original game's patches (allowing you to just skip it if you fail it 3 times in a row). For hardcore players trying to complete it on Classic difficulty, they're having a miserable time of it, and it's pretty tough even on Normal.

It's not a complete roadblock as in the original game, as you can drop difficulty to Easy just for this one mission and curbstomp it, but of course "hardcore" players are determined to beat it on their difficulty level of choice and, er, good luck with that.

[Red Tiger]

Welp, giving up on Ghost of Tsushima. I feel like I am doing nothing other than systematically murdering time. The repetitiveness got to me and im not looking forward to the rest of the story. Refund time.

[Werthead]

The Mafia revised edition is fine, but rather shorter than I thought it was (at 12 hours to completion). Even at half the price of a brand-new release, it still feels a bit expensive for that amount of investment, given there's virtually no side-content to do. Hmm.

Moved onto XCOM: Chimera Squad. Fun so far, but oddly limited. It feels like a brand new entry point to the XCOM franchise, but it explains very little (so non-XCOM veterans are going to be a bit confused) and it's set five years after XCOM2 so it inherently spoils all of the games so far. Entertaining and diverting, but I'm not entirely sure what audience they're going for.

[Guy Kilmore]

On 9/26/2020 at 8:49 PM, Red Tiger said:

Welp, giving up on Ghost of Tsushima. I feel like I am doing nothing other than systematically murdering time. The repetitiveness got to me and im not looking forward to the rest of the story. Refund time.

That is a bummer.  The final boss fight was pretty great, but I am a fan of the old westerns and samurai movies, so that might have been my draw to it.

[Guy Kilmore]

So how hurt is Sony with Microsoft basically buying Bethesda?

[Inkdaub]

Since my headphones started working I plan to play WoW for a while tonight. 

Shadowlands next month.

[Werthead]

7 hours ago, Guy Kilmore said:

So how hurt is Sony with Microsoft basically buying Bethesda?

Not critically, but it's certainly a concern. Microsoft's slate of exclusive franchises has always been a bit thin: Halo and Forza are all very well, but they're not system-sellers, certainly not any more. Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are, but they obviously need to get them out a hell of a lot more quickly and they need to get their mojo back after Fallout 76 damaged their reputation. The other Bethesda IPs like Doom being XBX-exclusive wouldn't be a gamechanger, but it would be a nice addition.

Starfield being a whole new IP in that sense is not ideal and they need it to be good and a big hit. The leaked images today look solid though.

[Fez]

7 hours ago, Guy Kilmore said:

So how hurt is Sony with Microsoft basically buying Bethesda?

Still unknown. A big question is whether Microsoft will allow any new Bethesda games (besides the two contracted ones) onto PS5, and, if so, at what price. Also a question is whether Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 are system sellers the way Skyrim was, or if interest has waned in that type of game. I think it was a smart purchase by Microsoft, and they'll get their money back relatively quickly, but we'll have to wait and see how much it actually boosts their standing versus Sony.

[Fez]

Seriously massive 1.1 patch dropping tomorrow for Crusader Kings 3. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/ck3-dev-diary-42-1-1-patch-notes.1428193/

Looks like it addresses pretty much all of my balance issues; though no idea yet if it goes far enough of course. Guess its times to start up another game tomorrow (or more likely, on Wednesday, after the inevitable immediate hotfixes drop)

[Guy Kilmore]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Not critically, but it's certainly a concern. Microsoft's slate of exclusive franchises has always been a bit thin: Halo and Forza are all very well, but they're not system-sellers, certainly not any more. Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are, but they obviously need to get them out a hell of a lot more quickly and they need to get their mojo back after Fallout 76 damaged their reputation. The other Bethesda IPs like Doom being XBX-exclusive wouldn't be a gamechanger, but it would be a nice addition.

Starfield being a whole new IP in that sense is not ideal and they need it to be good and a big hit. The leaked images today look solid though.

 

2 hours ago, Fez said:

Still unknown. A big question is whether Microsoft will allow any new Bethesda games (besides the two contracted ones) onto PS5, and, if so, at what price. Also a question is whether Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 are system sellers the way Skyrim was, or if interest has waned in that type of game. I think it was a smart purchase by Microsoft, and they'll get their money back relatively quickly, but we'll have to wait and see how much it actually boosts their standing versus Sony.

I figured the Fallout games and the Elder Scroll games would be the big ones.  Maybe Starfield as well.  I was also reading that this brings the Fallout franchise back within the realm of the people who made New Vegas, so that is some odd bit of news.  And it looks like the answer is No, Sony won't be getting access to those games.  Things could change though.

On my own, I still will get a PS5, because I splurged and got a nice gaming laptop during a black friday sale, so I figure that would still give me options for any of those games

[mcbigski]

Any Rogue Legacy fans around?  Just picked up RL2.  It's still in pre-release but you can at least play through the first area, and a get a small sampling of another.  Not everything is implemented yet, but it looks prettier than the original, and also has some interesting sub-level quests built in.  As well, the story line seems a little more developed than in the original.  Looking forward to the next update release.  I want my Sanguine Armor to function!

[RumHam]

I see this Star Wars Squadrons game is coming out real soon, holding my breath that it gets good reviews. 

[Werthead]

3 hours ago, Fez said:

Still unknown. A big question is whether Microsoft will allow any new Bethesda games (besides the two contracted ones) onto PS5, and, if so, at what price. Also a question is whether Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 are system sellers the way Skyrim was, or if interest has waned in that type of game. I think it was a smart purchase by Microsoft, and they'll get their money back relatively quickly, but we'll have to wait and see how much it actually boosts their standing versus Sony.

Open-world games are still a big deal and the amount of content a game gives you seems to still be a selling point. On that level Bethesda games which reliably give 100+ hours of content are always going to have an audience. Skyrim was an absolute monster seller, but it's also nine years old and a lot of younger gamers weren't really around for it when it came out, so it's not a given that its sequel will be a huge seller as well (Fallout 4 has also sold only around 70% of the number of copies of Skyrim, but Skyrim was available on literally twice as many formats and has five years on it, so that's not altogether surprising, and FO4 is still one of the individually biggest-selling games of the last generation).

Quote

I figured the Fallout games and the Elder Scroll games would be the big ones.  Maybe Starfield as well.  I was also reading that this brings the Fallout franchise back within the realm of the people who made New Vegas, so that is some odd bit of news.  And it looks like the answer is No, Sony won't be getting access to those games.  Things could change though.

It's worth noting that guy left Bethesda - and games development - almost 20 years ago, so whilst his viewpoint is interesting, it's not necessarily relevant. I think both Microsoft and Sony have developed huge headaches over how to make back the insane development costs of next-generation video games with only an initially small player base and that's why both are courting the PC format so heavily (because the install base of PC gamers worldwide isn't as large as either console market, but will be much bigger than both combined until ~12 months after the next generation launches) to help break even.

The longer term is interesting because I'd be surprised if this model remains viable beyond this generation. It may ultimately end with Microsoft outright buying Sony or perhaps the two companies joining forces, with the Xbox Game Pass being available on the PS6 or whatever, especially since the last two generations have seen two virtually identical but both loss-making consoles competing with one another, which is really weird.

I believe Microsoft is also allowing Zenimax/Bethesda to run independently for the time being, so whilst them collaborating with Obsidian is much easier now, it's not necessarily a given it will happen unless Microsoft starts interfering with editorial decisions.

[Kalbear]

58 minutes ago, Guy Kilmore said:

I figured the Fallout games and the Elder Scroll games would be the big ones.  Maybe Starfield as well.  I was also reading that this brings the Fallout franchise back within the realm of the people who made New Vegas, so that is some odd bit of news.  And it looks like the answer is No, Sony won't be getting access to those games.  Things could change though.

Just to be clear, that founder that's quoted left Bethesda in 2002. That's his opinion, not particularly stated policy. 

[Fez]

17 minutes ago, Werthead said:

The longer term is interesting because I'd be surprised if this model remains viable beyond this generation.

I dunno. That's what folks were saying back in 2013/14 about the current generation, and then Sony and Nintendo had incredibly successful console generations. Meanwhile, Stadia, which is an alternative model, has been a big flop. My assumption is that the current model stays in place until I see evidence of it actually falling apart.

Even Gamepass, which is a software paradigm shift, still relies on the consumer having hardware that Microsoft profits from; either Xbox or PC.

[Werthead]

6 minutes ago, Fez said:

I dunno. That's what folks were saying back in 2013/14 about the current generation, and then Sony and Nintendo had incredibly successful console generations. Meanwhile, Stadia, which is an alternative model, has been a big flop. My assumption is that the current model stays in place until I see evidence of it actually falling apart.

Even Gamepass, which is a software paradigm shift, still relies on the consumer having hardware that Microsoft profits from; either Xbox or PC.

I think the evidence is there from Microsoft pushing everything onto PC - a format they seemed to forget existed for the first half of last generation and certainly during the 360 days - and even Sony (Sony!) starting to push games out onto PC as well. That's them saying they can't make money just using their closed ecosystem any more.

Streaming I think is the ultimate way forwards but it is compromised by the USA's pretty shit internet infrastructure (on average, across the whole country), which is holding that back. The Game Pass is a way forward that embraces the Netflix model (subscription) without requiring you to play in a streaming manner (although it does mean you might take three days to download a game, but there we go).

Sony doesn't seem to be on board with the Game Pass model, presumably because they've been focusing more on the streaming idea (propelled by Asia's vastly superior internect connectivity), but they've run into the problem of their biggest single market not being compatible with it. I suspect we'll see them pivot more to a Game Pass model in the near future.

[Kalbear]

5 minutes ago, Fez said:

Even Gamepass, which is a software paradigm shift, still relies on the consumer having hardware that Microsoft profits from; either Xbox or PC.

This isn't actually necessarily accurate. Per the docs, you can do this all on an android phone without a single pc or xbox owned. (though you do really need an xbox-compatible controller)

[Corvinus85]

GET TO THE CHOPPA'!!!