Video Games - Sequels of Dread and Anticipation

[Week]

2 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

So you measure a game's quality based on the copies it sells and whether the publisher made profit. 

I would measure their criminality and incompetence against that as a factor.

I didn't get Dragon Age 2 (was still mostly a PC gamer at the time -- loved DA: Origins) -- but I did sink an unconscionable number of stoned hours playing DA: Inquisition. 

... I think that was during the pandemic? No, wait, it was before ... I think that was during my (luckily) brief unemployment that I, at times, leaned into. I thank Bioware for that. Well that and the literal weeks of my life I spent on BG, BGII, Mass Effect I-III, Planescape Torment, and KotOR (some Black Isle in there ... but the Infinity Engine. Yeah.).

Eta- this ramble is about ongoing affection for bioware even though they've dropped some turds.

[IlyaP]

This is fascinating and crazy: 
https://www.pcgamer.com/hackers-release-reverse-engineered-versions-of-gta-iii-and-vice-city-rockstar-busts-them/

[Proudfeet]

Boasting of Star Wars sales isn't much considering that you can do a limited run of Star Wars cereal or something and do just as well. Its profiting off the IP, not the product. And they almost failed at even that considering the flak Battlefront got for their progression system.

Anyway, EA is what it is. Everyone knows what to expect from them at this point. Its the same with Koei in Japan. You might have some small hope for the studios under them, but they are generally going to be releasing the same games over and over, preferably with microtransactions and DLC packs.

[briantw]

Added a tower / lighthouse to my Valheim village:

https://i.ibb.co/941X3MG/valheim3.jpg

[Toth]

So my HoI4 Brazil playthrough ended yesterday with me turning fully fascist in 1939 and annexing Uruguy with the USA not even bothering with a sternly worded letter in response. This time my armies made short work of them without any hickups (in the tutorial my armies at some point just froze for no apparent reason with full organization and shit and I had to take Ethiopia ordering devisions around by hand). My next target is Paraguay. We'll see how much I can do without the USA bearing down on me. I find it funny how just a single factory producing close air support planes churns out such a ridiculous number of them. Good thing I beat Uruguay so fast because my oil stockpile would have been drained in just 5 months or so.

Now I'm reluctant about the question of whether I should join the Axis. I'm thinking that would have no real advantage and only the downside of getting dragged into their messes.

Speaking of messes... Franco is kinda getting pushed back in the Spanish Civil War right now. Is it possible for the republic to actually prevail?

[Werthead]

10 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

So you measure a game's quality based on the copies it sells and whether the publisher made profit. Congratulations, Wert, you're no longer a real gamer. You're a suit. You have achieved minor villain status. Someone on this board will win the big game tournament at the end of the movie and remind you what real video games are and why gamers play them. At that point the camera will linger on you as you disgustedly throw away your tie and make plans to join a radical Super Mario Cult based out of Santa Barbara, reestablishing why you ever picked up a controller in the first place. Excellent spin off opportunity if we can get the studio on board.

I mean, you asked why they're still going and they still get to make games despite turning out multiple turds in a row and that's the reason: dollar, dollar, dollar bills y'all.

Quote

Boasting of Star Wars sales isn't much considering that you can do a limited run of Star Wars cereal or something and do just as well. Its profiting off the IP, not the product. And they almost failed at even that considering the flak Battlefront got for their progression system.

That's not really true. The current novels and comics are doing nothing like the volume they did during the EU days, Solo bombed at the box office and Rise of Skywalker massively underperformed to expectations. The days of Star Wars being an automatic giga-money-spinner are behind us.

Also, all four EA Star Wars games have been at least okay; Battlefront II's problems were more around the loot crate horseshit than the actual gameplay, and Squadrons and Fallen Order have been very well-received.

[Werthead]

Henry Cavill teasing he's involved in a new Mass Effect project.

I think it's most likely that he'll be voicing a character in Mass Effect 5, but a TV show/movie can't be ruled out. I hope he's not playing Shepard though, they should honour the games by auditioning both male and female actors (or, if they wanted to be expensive, film the show with both and let viewers pick which one to watch).

[Mexal]

6 hours ago, briantw said:

Added a tower / lighthouse to my Valheim village:

https://i.ibb.co/941X3MG/valheim3.jpg

Looking good. We just set up a dedicated server and are basically starting fresh so did a lot of exploring last night to start unlocking the map. Found a nice farm area near the water to start leveling off for base building and built a log cabin near the swamp to give us an easy access point. We've been sinking a consistent few hours a night into the game on discord and it's been a blast.

[Rhom]

11 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Henry Cavill teasing he's involved in a new Mass Effect project.

I think it's most likely that he'll be voicing a character in Mass Effect 5, but a TV show/movie can't be ruled out. I hope he's not playing Shepard though, they should honour the games by auditioning both male and female actors (or, if they wanted to be expensive, film the show with both and let viewers pick which one to watch).

I can’t find Mark Meet’ sage online with IMDB or Wikipedia, but Jennifer Hale is almost 60 and I figure he has to be near that old.

Cavill as Shepherd would give star power to the role of true.

And while filming both would be bold, another option might be to go the Andromeda route and make them twins.

[briantw]

28 minutes ago, Mexal said:

Looking good. We just set up a dedicated server and are basically starting fresh so did a lot of exploring last night to start unlocking the map. Found a nice farm area near the water to start leveling off for base building and built a log cabin near the swamp to give us an easy access point. We've been sinking a consistent few hours a night into the game on discord and it's been a blast.

Pretty much the same for us.  We've got a few guys who are pretty active and then a couple more who are more casual players that are still working on previous bosses. 

Getting your own server in this game is definitely the way to go if you've got a group of friends.  It's nice to know that no one is going to mess with my shit when I'm offline.

[Mexal]

37 minutes ago, briantw said:

Pretty much the same for us.  We've got a few guys who are pretty active and then a couple more who are more casual players that are still working on previous bosses. 

Getting your own server in this game is definitely the way to go if you've got a group of friends.  It's nice to know that no one is going to mess with my shit when I'm offline.

It's just so much easier. The issue we were running into previously was one of the guys had hosted the shared server but when he was offline, the server was down so if I wanted to do anything, I'd go to my world and just mess around. Now the server is up perpetually, no randos can find it (not that it matters too much cause we passworded it) and if I have an hour to kill and want to build a massive brewery (my goal and why I wanted a new base location), then I can without having to wait on my mate to get home from work. I just need to farm all the shit now...

[Fez]

I started playing Torment: Tides of Numenera on Gamepass. It seems alright so far, if a bit over written. I remember it was considered a bit of a disappointment when it released a few years ago though. Has anyone else played it? Is it worth sticking with?

[Caligula_K3]

19 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

At what point does incompetence end and criminality begin?

I guess I could understand someone pinning all their hopes on the next pile of dog piss they're gonna preorder, but it is unending funlariousness that they get MULTIPLE strikes after having struck out for a decade straight.

Keep on Keep'n on, Wert. You're good people, no matter what Other Jace says.

They didn't commit murder or storm the Capitol. They produced two mediocre (Andromeda) to bad (Anthem, though I've never played it) video games, aka luxury entertainment products. I bought Andromeda at launch for full price; I regret spending that much money, but nobody held a gun to my head and forced me to do it. I'll buy Dragon Age 4 if it gets good reviews, just like I'll buy a new book by an author if it gets good reviews despite their last couple of books not being great. I'm not sure why this is worthy of so much anger.

[Werthead]

17 minutes ago, Fez said:

I started playing Torment: Tides of Numenera on Gamepass. It seems alright so far, if a bit over written. I remember it was considered a bit of a disappointment when it released a few years ago though. Has anyone else played it? Is it worth sticking with?

I found it mind-bogglingly boring. I played about 5 hours, stopped, and had zero inclination to go back to it again. I restarted it a few months later, got an hour in, and the same thing happened.

The setting is great, but the writing and hook in the game didn't really get me interested in it at all. It's wasn't helped by Planescape: Torment getting an Enhanced Edition around the same time, rendering most of the reasons for Tides of Numenera existing moot (the two Pillars of Eternity games had the same problem with the Baldur's Gate remasters coming out at the same time).

I mean, I didn't hate it and I probably would have cracked on with it if I hadn't had dozens of better games to be getting on with in the meantime.

[Lin Meili]

I've been playing Hearthstone for  a few years but it's hard to keep up with all the new stuff. I'm glad I discovered Battlegrounds mode. I only play that now.

[Plessiez]

41 minutes ago, Fez said:

I started playing Torment: Tides of Numenera on Gamepass. It seems alright so far, if a bit over written. I remember it was considered a bit of a disappointment when it released a few years ago though. Has anyone else played it? Is it worth sticking with?

I played this early last year and thought it was okay, but definitely a bit of a disappointment compared to Planescape Torment.  I liked the setting but the writing is pretty uneven (and I think the combat is a bit underwhelming, but I basically avoided fighting as much as possible anyway).

The game is also very short (I think much shorter than it was originally intended to be?) and the ending is pretty lacklustre.

Spoiler

It's basically a Mass Effect 3 style "talk to the final boss and decide what ending you want" affair; none of the choices you've made in the game so far have much if any impact on what ending you can get.

If you like it so far, I'd stick with it, but don't expect it to get much better than it is so far.

[aceluby]

Playing Ghosts of Tsushima and am really enjoying it.  It reminds me of RDR2 without the slowness.  I probably should have chosen a more difficult setting though, because after ~10 hours of side quests and 3 main missions I can already take down entire villages without stealth.  @Tywin et al.If you're looking for a different open world game a la RDR2 or GTAV, this one is pretty good so far.

[Mexal]

21 hours ago, Week said:

Always had an interest in GoW -- will be definitely this or FO. Well, probably both -- and will just decide which first.

ETA - GoW and Bloodbourne are downloading ... GoW was on sale. Self-control is not one of my strengths during the panini.

God of War is one of my favorite games. Might be due for a replay.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

13 minutes ago, aceluby said:

Playing Ghosts of Tsushima and am really enjoying it.  It reminds me of RDR2 without the slowness.  I probably should have chosen a more difficult setting though, because after ~10 hours of side quests and 3 main missions I can already take down entire villages without stealth.  @Tywin et al.If you're looking for a different open world game a la RDR2 or GTAV, this one is pretty good so far.

Appreciate it. 

[Fez]

Guess I'll stick with Torment for at least a bit longer. I'm kinda facing a dearth of interesting RPGs recently. But I'll drop it pretty quick if I get bored and there's nothing great to power through to.

In other news, 

Seems like a good news, bad news kinda thing. The good news is, Dragon Age and live service just don't mesh so maybe there's a chance at success now; the bad news is, this may mean even more delays and a whole new set of feature creep.