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Video Games - Legendary Edition


Rhom

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Yeah, instead  you do greater  rifts over, and over, and over again, and you have a choice of up to 6 skills and virtually no different gear options on any given build. 

D3 really isn't much better on repetition, and gives players a lot less flexibility from season to season. Sets are essentially your builds and you're very much wedded to what the set requires. 

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I wrote an article on the mods I've been using for MechWarrior 5.

I cannot emphasise enough how much better this combo of mods makes the game. Better Spawns makes enemy placement and arrivals makes sense, 3D HUD dramatically improves mid-battle information feedback, the two AI mods are essential and you'll probably speed up your game by 2-3 hours over the course of a single playthrough by getting rid of that goddamn jumpship animation.

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17 hours ago, Karlbear said:

Yeah, instead  you do greater  rifts over, and over, and over again, and you have a choice of up to 6 skills and virtually no different gear options on any given build. 

D3 really isn't much better on repetition, and gives players a lot less flexibility from season to season. Sets are essentially your builds and you're very much wedded to what the set requires. 

I reinstall D3 every few years to run a character up and see how bad it's gotten. I did it again this weekend just to see, since I've been on a D2 tear and mostly retiring from PoE addition. D3 is so hilariously stupid. I had some legitimate fun levelling to 70, which took about three hours. I gambled two pieces right away, my first easy-as-hell to receive seasonal gift gave me two more. The 4 piece bonus increases Sweep damage by 14,500%. Fourteen Thousand. The game is an absolute joke.

No other ARPG has gotten active combat to feel as good, though. Blizzard has that down. So it's fun to zoom around awhile. I think I'll play about 2 more hours before I move on, likely permanently this time. D2R will get either a few playthroughs of favorite character builds, or my full-time grinding gamer obsession depending on whether they try to make endgame more interesting. Again, my little D2 mod I'm on is absurdly fun, simply because they fleshed out crafting enough to make it viable, and added a very simple mapping system like PoE has. Just those two little tweaks make D2 so, so damn fun. 

If they stick with the WoW Classic concept and leave the mechanics as they were in the 2000s, people will figure out bots within two weeks, and the economy will be a joke again. Or, if they actively combat botting, they'll have to change the high rune drop rate - in my bazillions of hours of legit D2 gaming, I found like five actual high runes ever. 

D3 is still better than the atrocity that was Wolcen, though. About the angriest I've been lately as a gamer was paying the 30 bucks for that pile of shit, only to have all ~10 hours or so I got out of it to ruin my day every logon.

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17 hours ago, Werthead said:

I wrote an article on the mods I've been using for MechWarrior 5.

I cannot emphasise enough how much better this combo of mods makes the game. Better Spawns makes enemy placement and arrivals makes sense, 3D HUD dramatically improves mid-battle information feedback, the two AI mods are essential and you'll probably speed up your game by 2-3 hours over the course of a single playthrough by getting rid of that goddamn jumpship animation.

Good list! I hadn't tried most of these before and have now started a new campaign with them. It's impressive how much better this makes the game.

While I get that that developers need to prioritize certain aspects, something like AI behaviour should surely have been one of those priorities.

Then again it seems clear that the game was originally much more ambitious than what we got in the end, with things like the big, empty dropship you can walk around in and the extremely limited character interaction being the most visible vestiges of that.

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Unrest at various Sony-owned studios as numerous smaller projects and AAA projects from new studios have been cancelled and priority transferred to the big-name studios (with Naughty Dog and Guerrilla Games particularly benefiting). Some smaller studios, like the Days Gone guys, have seen the talent effectively walk out when being told what games they can and can't work on. Sony wishes to focus on AAA games and are no longer interested in "small games that only sell in Japan." Some indications that Sony are rattled by the success of Xbox Game Pass and the Bethesda acquisition and, rather than develop a competitive service, they are re-focusing on what they see as their strength, AAA exclusives.

Two key takeways: Naughty Dog are working on a very major, thorough The Last of Us remake for PlayStation 5, which will add game mechanics from the second game to the first to create a seamless, big game. There's a strong possibility a similarly thorough remake of the first Uncharted will follow. Uncharted 5 is also in the early stages of development.

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I had a sudden itch for it and got weak when I saw The Sims 4 currently being on sale for 4€...

...

...

I want my 4€ back.

No seriously, I've already dabbled with the refund option. It's that bad.

I was utterly startled when the game refused to let me look at the neighborhoods and forced me to make a Sim directly after booting the game. This in itself felt like a chore because there were far too many options and I grew really impatient, but was still too annoyed by the randomized sims being covered in accessories, make-up, ridiculous hairstyles and unwashed hipster clothes, so I gritted my teeth and spent half an hour to make a single completely normal person...

... and then got absolutely steamrolled with annoyance when I saw that you already have three premade neighborhoods with about 5 lots each which have fixed sizes and position. As someone who played The Sims 2 to build entire cities with several dozen lots from scratch to populate (and then grow immediately bored of actually playing with the sims themselves) this felt like a throwback to Sims 1 with its narrow selection houses.

Anyway I bought my sim a small lot and then started building. Apparently the big novelty here is premade quadratical rooms with included interior that you only need to click together, but I must also say I couldn't care less about that and instead tried to build from scratch. Which turned out a lot more tricky than anticipated. I had quite a lot of trouble navigating through the menu. Since the menu turned out to be a tiny 2D house in the corner where you are supposed to pixel hunt for the correct bits. I'm certain you get used to it, but I found that significantly more clunky than simple categories to navigate through. You know, like in the previous games.

I ran out of time halfway through the building process and abandoned the game... and now re-installed The Sims 2 with one of old save files where I had a custom neighborhood with 30 families and already managed to accompany one through 3 generations. It's baffling how dumbed down a modern Sims game is and am angry at myself I didn't look up its reception first because apparently the reviews were indeed quite scathing when it came out.

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2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Sony wishes to focus on AAA games and are no longer interested in "small games that only sell in Japan." Some indications that Sony are rattled by the success of Xbox Game Pass and the Bethesda acquisition and, rather than develop a competitive service, they are re-focusing on what they see as their strength, AAA exclusives.

Feels like they've already lost the domestic market to the Switch. Not that the Switch and their games aren't doing well overseas but I think that that market is further gone than AAA exclusives.

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5 minutes ago, Proudfeet said:

Feels like they've already lost the domestic market to the Switch. Not that the Switch and their games aren't doing well overseas but I think that that market is further gone than AAA exclusives.

With Microsoft heavily investing in popular Japanese vtubers to promote gamepass, I could see Xbox becoming the number 2 console there, behind Switch. It would be very far behind, but considering how anemic Xbox has been in the past in Japan, it seems like that'd be a pretty big embarrassment for Sony.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the AAA cinematic adventure genre, but very few of Sony's offerings have appealed to me. I loved Horizon: Zero Dawn when I finally got a chance to play it on PC, but I've got no interest in the ones that remain exclusive. Apart from that, I still really want to play Persona 5, but as Atlus slowly ports its games, I remain hopeful I'll get a chance on PC eventually (and that it'll be Royal, ideally).

By the same token though, I don't care about any current Microsoft exclusives. With all their recent acquisitions I expect that to change in the next year or two, but those games will all be on PC anyway. I think Xbox Gamepass is a better deal than PC Gamepass for third party games, but not enough for me to go out and buy an Xbox.

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59 minutes ago, Fez said:

Apart from that, I still really want to play Persona 5, but as Atlus slowly ports its games, I remain hopeful I'll get a chance on PC eventually (and that it'll be Royal, ideally).

That's the thing though. The shift started went the game companies started to port games to the PSP, then the Wii, then it became the PS4 and Vita simultaneous release or Vita exclusive and then the Switch came and gradually replaced the Vita. I've been putting off getting a PS4 forever and I think that I'll just get a Switch at this point if it comes to it. I think you should too. There is always a good argument for portability even if you are always at home.

Also, I don't think that Xbox will ever beat out PS in Japan. It's up against PC and PS and Switch. What exclusives are there to beat out PS that isn't also on PC?

Edit - The mobile market isn't to be underestimated either. It's not a direct competitor but its still taking up people's time and attention.

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5 minutes ago, Proudfeet said:

That's the thing though. The shift started went the game companies started to port games to the PSP, then the Wii, then it became the PS4 and Vita simultaneous release or Vita exclusive and then the Switch came and gradually replaced the Vita. I've been putting off getting a PS4 forever and I think that I'll just get a Switch at this point if it comes to it. I think you should too. There is always a good argument for portability even if you are always at home.

Also, I don't think that Xbox will ever beat out PS in Japan. It's up against PC and PS and Switch. What exclusives are there to beat out PS that isn't also on PC?

Edit - The mobile market isn't to be underestimated either. It's not a direct competitor but its still taking up people's time and attention.

I have a Switch. I'd happily play Persona 5 if it ended up there, though I'd be worried about the performance.

As for Xbox in Japan, the argument isn't exclusives, its gamepass, like everywhere else. That's why Microsoft is hiring vtubers like Shishiro Botan and Himemori Luna, to promote gamepass specifically.

And yeah, mobile is a whole other beast, no way would Xbox beat out mobile; but no one beats out mobile. Worldwide, the mobile market is bigger then Xbox+PS+Switch combined.

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2021 has been a great year for Goldeneye/Perfect Dark/Timesplitters fans. First the Goldeneye remaster leaked and now players have discovered that all of Timesplitters 2 is hidden in Homefront: The Revolution. Previously only the first two levels were available.  If you like the single player campaigns of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark this was made by a lot of the same people. The first level even has you infiltrating a dam.

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I got distracted from Ghost of Tsushima while playing Surviving Mars.  I enjoyed the free version enough that I bought the green planet expansion.

Been playing a colony as Church of the New Ark.  Didnt really know what I was getting myself in for.  There’s no additional sponsor money after the initial funding.  There’s only one rocket initially.  There’s no regular research.  So it was much harder than my USA run through of the core game.

I just got enough terraforming to open my domes today.  Still sitting at about 40% fire station though, so I’m deciding if I want to play through enough to make the map more green or if I feel I’m done. :dunno:

Going to finish GoT soon and the fan translation of Trails of Azure is supposed to release soon.  I really did love those Trails games quite a bit last year, so I will drop everything when Geofront releases that patch.

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9 hours ago, Fez said:

I have a Switch. I'd happily play Persona 5 if it ended up there, though I'd be worried about the performance.

As for Xbox in Japan, the argument isn't exclusives, its gamepass, like everywhere else. That's why Microsoft is hiring vtubers like Shishiro Botan and Himemori Luna, to promote gamepass specifically.

And yeah, mobile is a whole other beast, no way would Xbox beat out mobile; but no one beats out mobile. Worldwide, the mobile market is bigger then Xbox+PS+Switch combined.

Huh, didn't realise it was one of the few games still exclusive to the PS. I just assumed as it seemed like most games on the PS are also released on the Switch. Wonder how much of the additional processing power required from those games goes to the graphics and resolution. :bang:

Does the PS not have a similar service? Putting that aside, is it the PC gamepass or the Xbox gampass? It isn't quite the same. It doesn't necessarily lead to the other.

The thing about mobile is not beating it. Its not a direct competitor in the sense that people who only play games on the mobile aren't in the market for consoles anyway. They are two different markets that can coexist. Its just that a lot of those games are leaderboards (and lootboxes) that require a lot of grinding and if you are grinding leaderboards you aren't going to have much time for anything else.

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26 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Weird happenings in Crusader Kings 3 this morning. 
 

My character has the “Eunuch” trait, but his wife just became pregnant. 
 

You don’t think she’s cheating on him, do you?

I don't believe it! Surely she's a good Christian woman?

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Wow. Age of Empires IV looks poor.

Bearing in mind they've been working on this for over four years, the graphics are atrocious for a 2021 release. It looks like a mobile game rather than a high-budget PC release from Relic (who have previously been famous for graphical powerhouse games like Homeworld and Company of Heroes).

Some of the faction ideas, like factions being completely different to one another, are bold but have promise, but the conservative nature of the game - revisiting previous time periods rather than pushing forwards - and the weak graphics are not filling me with confidence, and the release date (this autumn) does not leave time for improvements.

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10 hours ago, Werthead said:

Wow. Age of Empires IV looks poor.

Bearing in mind they've been working on this for over four years, the graphics are atrocious for a 2021 release. It looks like a mobile game rather than a high-budget PC release from Relic (who have previously been famous for graphical powerhouse games like Homeworld and Company of Heroes).

Some of the faction ideas, like factions being completely different to one another, are bold but have promise, but the conservative nature of the game - revisiting previous time periods rather than pushing forwards - and the weak graphics are not filling me with confidence, and the release date (this autumn) does not leave time for improvements.

I'm the opposite. I'm indifferent to graphics and campaigns. I'm concerned about factions being more unique as that might lead to more pronounced balance issues in multiplayer and could also make things difficult for future civilisations. 

They are introducing limited multiplayer campaigns in the next expansion for II. I'm not particularly interested in it myself, but better multiplayer options should help improve the perception of the game and increase its longevity.  I've only ever played II (HD and DE) on recommendation and I might not make the switch to IV so anything that helps II is very welcome.

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