Video Games - Sequels of Dread and Anticipation

[IlyaP]

On 2/14/2021 at 5:37 AM, Poobah said:

I look forward to hearing how it goes. Let us know if you need any mod recommendations or advice or whatever to get in to it.

Achieved level 6. And having all sorts of weird dreams. 

Have gotten used to the navigation of the landscape and have a rough map of most of the west coast of Vvardenfall in my head at this point. The journal system is really quite terrible though. As are the instructions some people give. It's as though the NPCs imagine they live in a grid; "go straight, then take the first right, and then climb a purple balloon tree made of squiggles!" (Exaggerated for obvious effect.) I'm finding it far more engaging and interesting than Oblivion, which felt incredibly streamlined (with Skyrim being the most streamlined of them all). The stats variations and options available in Daggerfall have clearly been scaled down. 

 

[Gorn]

8 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

What counts as a luxury item?

Anything you don’t need to live?

We should all just be eating bland gruel containing the basic nutrients to exist. Any other food you eat is a luxury item. 
 

The weather has completely KO’d my internet. What’s the point of playing games on steam if you can’t get trophies?

Right now, there are practically no games that you can play on PS5 that you couldn't also play on a PS4 or a gaming PC, and I'm betting that more than 95% of early adopters own one of those.

The only value they get right now in return for paying the insane PS5 scalper price are the bragging rights. Which is the very definition of a luxury item.

[Werthead]

Demon's Souls - a remake of a more-than-a-decade-old-game - seems to be the sole title that really pushes the PS5. The next-gen versions of Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn and GTA5 (and the inevitable upgrade of RDR2) might do the same, but these are all games you can play with perfectly fine graphics right now.

There seems to be a lack of a killer app for the next gen consoles at the moment, probably because the technical progress they made over the PS4 Pro/XB1 Elite seems to be relatively restrained.

[The Anti-Targ]

My son got a PS5, but really only because he never got a PS4. The generation was half way through when he left home, and he caught up on playing PS4 games when he came home for the holidays. I'm certainly in no rush to get one. Oddly enough potentially the most fun exclusive thing on PS5 right now might be the tech demo game (which comes with trophies, so it's more than a tech demo) that comes pre-loaded on the PS5.

I'll get PS5 some time after the next Ratchet and Clank game releases.

Speaking of games from the PS3 era, I had a thought about TLOU TV series. I would quite like to see Ashley Johnson play Tess in the TV series. So long as she can change her voice to she doesn't sound like Ellie, I think that would be cool. And really, give Troy Baker black hair and he could be David.

[aceluby]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Demon's Souls - a remake of a more-than-a-decade-old-game - seems to be the sole title that really pushes the PS5. The next-gen versions of Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn and GTA5 (and the inevitable upgrade of RDR2) might do the same, but these are all games you can play with perfectly fine graphics right now.

There seems to be a lack of a killer app for the next gen consoles at the moment, probably because the technical progress they made over the PS4 Pro/XB1 Elite seems to be relatively restrained.

Yeah, I was excited about getting a PS5, but Demon's Souls is literally the only "exclusive" on it that I'd want to play, and I've played through the original for 100's of hours - so it's not exactly a huge push for me.  Then I hear that the next batch of "exclusives" are all going to be released on the PS4 as well (such as Horizon Forbidden West) for at least the next 6 months if not the full year.... I don't see myself straining to upgrade yet until later this year, or maybe even next year.

[Mexal]

Is Demon Souls one of those parry/slash games where you die and lose everything and have to do it all over again?

[Toth]

Lol, y'all talking about buying horribly expensive consoles and here I can't even be arsed to jump fast enough to get games I really want at a discount price to increase my pile of shame.

This weekend GOG sent out a coupon to get Imperator: Rome for 7€. I was thinking about taking it and Fallout New Vegas while at it (which is currently at 10 €). In the end I didn't get either. This is the exact same that happened when I had a coupon for Homeworld Deserts of Kharak for 4€ and didn't get it either.

Meanwhile I was preparing a ludicrously ambitious lesson about the WW2 conferences of the big three and had the itch to try out Hearts of Iron 4 (yes, being aware that I always gave up on the predecessor games). Later that same evening I learned that HoI 4 was the "deal of the day" at Instant-Gaming where I have an old account, for amazing 4€. Of course by the time I arrived they already ran out of keys. -.-

So yes... this is a post about the games I didn't buy. I also don't have anything new to tell about Fallout 4 or my Warhammer 2 campaign. I just... don't know where the time goes...

[Heartofice]

Isn’t the point with paradox games that they look super cheap until you spend £300 on all the DLCs?

Having said that, I’m not sure why I’d be interested in Imperator Rome now I have Crusader Kings 3. I will need all Paradox games to catch up visually to even consider it.

[Fez]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

There seems to be a lack of a killer app for the next gen consoles at the moment, probably because the technical progress they made over the PS4 Pro/XB1 Elite seems to be relatively restrained.

I think the supply constraints on getting a PS5/Series X are also taking a toll. The install bases aren't large enough yet for a AAA to make a profit off just them yet; especially if the game is an exclusive. There's always a bit of a dry spell at the start of a new generation, and I think this one was already going to be larger than usual because of COVID delays. But with the reports that there's going to be shortages of chipsets for at least another 6 months, and therefore shortages of consoles (and PC graphics cards) for probably at least another year, I bet there will continue to be a lack of "killer app" games for the consoles for a long while.

I'm sure there will be a few that get pushed out, but I suspect an awful lot of the big games will either get retrofitted ports to PS4/OneX consoles, or get delayed. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if most AAA games are still coming out also on last gen until well into 2022.

[Toth]

21 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Isn’t the point with paradox games that they look super cheap until you spend £300 on all the DLCs?

Yes, certainly, but the basegame in every sale usually never goes lower than 10€, which is kinda frustrating when you know how expensive they could get.

[aceluby]

34 minutes ago, Mexal said:

Is Demon Souls one of those parry/slash games where you die and lose everything and have to do it all over again?

In a far more reductive language than I'd use (it's not a hack & slash game and parrying is not required), but overall yes.  Demon's Souls is what started the 'souls' style that spawned Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Lords of the Fallen, Code Vein, Ashen, Darksiders, The Surge, Salt & Sanctuary, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, Nioh, etc...

[Soylent Brown]

I've been playing Death Stranding a fair bit recently, and whilst I'm enjoying it, I got the urge to mix things up a bit rather than just soldiering on through, so I started Luigi's Mansion 3, which is great and has much scarier goasts.

[Clueless Northman]

8 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Achieved level 6. And having all sorts of weird dreams. 

Have gotten used to the navigation of the landscape and have a rough map of most of the west coast of Vvardenfall in my head at this point. The journal system is really quite terrible though. As are the instructions some people give. It's as though the NPCs imagine they live in a grid; "go straight, then take the first right, and then climb a purple balloon tree made of squiggles!" (Exaggerated for obvious effect.) I'm finding it far more engaging and interesting than Oblivion, which felt incredibly streamlined (with Skyrim being the most streamlined of them all). The stats variations and options available in Daggerfall have clearly been scaled down. 

Oh streamlined is definitely not what Morrowind is. It's way more "open sandboxy game" than most open games around. In this regard, it's pretty much "WOW Classic" vs the Cataclysm and more recent expansions. I used to do all the quests around the place where the main quest led me, and then explored a bit for fun, then went to the later big area where main quest sent me. And usually some quests were too tough and I kept them for way later, when I'll be 10+ levels higher.

As for the mini-map, you can also dezoom it (right-click on it, irrc) and have a view of a large chunk of Vvardenfell - if not the whole island, if you expand the map over the whole screen. But an intermediate scale would've helped, maybe.

[Mexal]

3 hours ago, aceluby said:

In a far more reductive language than I'd use (it's not a hack & slash game and parrying is not required), but overall yes.  Demon's Souls is what started the 'souls' style that spawned Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Lords of the Fallen, Code Vein, Ashen, Darksiders, The Surge, Salt & Sanctuary, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, Nioh, etc...

I figured as much. I played a little Dark Souls 2 awhile back and bought Sekiro, which was beautiful, but I was so bad at getting the timing on my dodge/parrying to break the stance that I got annoyed. I might give it a go again though since so many people love these games and once you get it, you supposedly get it.

[Red Tiger]

3 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I figured as much. I played a little Dark Souls 2 awhile back and bought Sekiro, which was beautiful, but I was so bad at getting the timing on my dodge/parrying to break the stance that I got annoyed. I might give it a go again though since so many people love these games and once you get it, you supposedly get it.

I didn't learn how to parry in Sekiro until the final boss forced me to (and he fucking FORCED me to). Sekiro is far more dependant on parrying than the other From Soft games.

One thing I will say, I didn't start loving the Soulsborne games until I picked up Bloodborne and beat a few bosses. It didn't click with me from the start, but it did eventually.

It could be that you hadn't reached that clicking point yet.

[Slurktan]

25 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I figured as much. I played a little Dark Souls 2 awhile back and bought Sekiro, which was beautiful, but I was so bad at getting the timing on my dodge/parrying to break the stance that I got annoyed. I might give it a go again though since so many people love these games and once you get it, you supposedly get it.

Well should you go back to Dark Souls 2/Demon's Souls there is also the blocking option.  No need to parry anything and can just ank stuff. If you have a PS5 I'd just pick up Demon's Souls just to see an actual next gen game.  Wert says that there isn't a significant gap between say the PS4 - 5 but you can really tell on Demon's Souls that it objectively is not at all a last gen game(screenshots do not do it justice, you need to see and hear it in motion).  I don't know if there is a game like that on the XBox yet but I hope it gets one sooner rather than later.

[Mexal]

45 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

Well should you go back to Dark Souls 2/Demon's Souls there is also the blocking option.  No need to parry anything and can just ank stuff. If you have a PS5 I'd just pick up Demon's Souls just to see an actual next gen game.  Wert says that there isn't a significant gap between say the PS4 - 5 but you can really tell on Demon's Souls that it objectively is not at all a last gen game(screenshots do not do it justice, you need to see and hear it in motion).  I don't know if there is a game like that on the XBox yet but I hope it gets one sooner rather than later.

I do have a PS5 which is why I was considering it. I might give it a go.

[IlyaP]

On 2/16/2021 at 2:38 AM, Clueless Northman said:

Oh streamlined is definitely not what Morrowind is. It's way more "open sandboxy game" than most open games around.

Compared to Daggerfall, though...

[The Anti-Targ]

19 hours ago, Fez said:

I think the supply constraints on getting a PS5/Series X are also taking a toll. The install bases aren't large enough yet for a AAA to make a profit off just them yet; especially if the game is an exclusive. There's always a bit of a dry spell at the start of a new generation, and I think this one was already going to be larger than usual because of COVID delays. But with the reports that there's going to be shortages of chipsets for at least another 6 months, and therefore shortages of consoles (and PC graphics cards) for probably at least another year, I bet there will continue to be a lack of "killer app" games for the consoles for a long while.

I'm sure there will be a few that get pushed out, but I suspect an awful lot of the big games will either get retrofitted ports to PS4/OneX consoles, or get delayed. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if most AAA games are still coming out also on last gen until well into 2022.

I think, for Sony and Nintendo at least with substantial in-house studios, profitability on a game early in the generation is less important that that the game helps to push hardware out the door. So perhaps what is happening is that Sony is struggling to meet current demand, so why put a killer app not available on PS4 out there (assuming there is one) until Sony can start to readily meet the expected increase in demand. There seems to be a weird balance in the early years of a console generation. On the one hand the hardware normally sells for a loss, so games need to keep the bank balance looking decent, but games can only sell in profitable numbers if there are enough consoles out there to play them on, but poduction of consoles is often not sufficient to sell large amounts, not that you want to sell excessive amounts of hardware until you are at least breaking even on each console sold, though once you reach break even, there is a big enough install base that games are making good profits, and production is high enough that you can drop the hardware price to sell the console at a slight loss because game sales are doing so well that the loss is well and truly mitigated. Hmmmm time for another console generation. Did I say a weird balance in the early years?

[Toth]

10 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Compared to Daggerfall, though...

I'm curious to see how far you'll get. Especially compared to my myriad of attempts to get into Morrowind myself. Amusingly a while ago I found on my backup drive a few old Morrowind saves. Not sure from which I attempt it was. Later on I tried to play the game roleplaying to keep myself engaged. I at least knew that I played one time as "Sheo Tharog", Sheogorath pretending to be the Nerevarine, trying to approach every quest as chaotically as possible. Another attempt was me trying to play Lina Inverse from Slayers, a sorceress who only does shit when there is money involved and who has to be dragged to saving the world kicking and screaming. Both attempts were fairly miserable, with one getting as far as the sewers of Vivec before getting bored and the other one somehow ending up in some muddy coastal villages... somewhere... Couldn't be very far from Seyda Neen though.