Videogames: The Sequeling

[Werthead]

Not sure why, but replaying XCOM didn't work with me. Went through a number of other games - gave Supreme Commander another whirl but never really liked the gameplay style, and completed a whole bunch of Tropico 3 scenarios before realising that the game is pretty pointless once you've completed Tropico 4 (I picked up the other games in the series for peanuts a while back, but I'm probably better off moving onto Tropico 4's expansion or up to Tropico 5).

What seems to be sticking is a Deus Ex: Human Revolution playthrough, especially after accidentally triggering a quest completion bug early on (still not fixed after eight years, sigh) and having to reload about two hours' worth of gameplay. Damn, this is a smart, fun and occasionally bone-breakingly tough game.

[Corvinus85]

I picked up the newest stand-alone expansion for Spellforce III, called Fallen God, where you can play with the Troll race. The game has been gorgeous from that start, and the franchise is one of the first to blend CRPG with RTS, but I hate how the game demands so much fast clicking and constant attention. I like to take the time to admire scenery, but seldom can. It does have well written stories and interesting characters. 

I've gotten bored with The Outer Worlds. The game initially grabbed me because of the world building, but then it became clear it was another RPG with the same loot gaining, character evolution system as so many RPG games. And it's annoying that once you give a companion an item, at least on the armor side, you can't simply take it away.

[aceluby]

Played both Demon's Souls and Returnal over the weekend.  Demon's Souls is pretty much the same as I remember, but the graphics are damn good.  Beat 1-1, 2-1, & 4-1 with a battle mage build.  Really wish they would have made more QOL improvements though, because the upgrade path for weapons gets ridiculous, fast.  I forgot how much I like the way the levels are, it's really nice to just pick one, finish it, and then put it down for a bit.

Returnal is an absolute gem of a game.  It's a 3D roguelite shooter that is captivating, right from the get-go.  Spin it up and you are greeted by a crash-landed space ship in a harrowing environment.  Eventually you are met by death that greets you with the exact same crash-landing, but a differently generated world progression.  It reminds me a lot of Dead Cells, where you unlock stuff during runs that allow you to get them earlier in subsequent runs.  It's a game that is addicting, has great combat, and is incredibly difficult.  So far I've reached the first boss once in about 10 hours of play.  Out of the 3 games I have on the PS5, this is by-far my favorite.

[polishgenius]

I got back into playing Blue Fire on Switch. Still a bit frustrating coz some of the quality-of-life stuff is just badly thought out - like how if you die in a dungeon you'll respawn at the dungeon entrance, normal stuff, but if you actually want to save you have to leave the dungeon and trek back to the checkpoint proper, and also there are so far no warp points within dungeons so if you die facing a boss you have to schlep back to it every time- but get past those issues and it really is a fun game - 3D precision platforming is a risky game but they've done it well and married it with a decent 3D Metroidvania with clear Hollow Knight inspiration.


Also started Into the Breach. Cool. 

[Derfel Cadarn]

Got a PS5, so natirally playing remastered Resident Evil 0 (to be followed by Resident Evil Remake and then the newer 2 and 3 remakes). Also just about to start Mass Effect Legendary edition, which sre remasters of games from two gens back...

[john]

Hollow Knight mentioned a few times upthread. I started it last weekend and am now obsessed. I’ve got a great cheat for generating wealth, you just die on bosses over and over again and keep building up those coins when you kill your soul shade. I just met the banker too, she seems like a suspicious character, I take it she’s going to steal my money.

[A True Kaniggit]

1 hour ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Got a PS5, so natirally playing remastered Resident Evil 0 (to be followed by Resident Evil Remake and then the newer 2 and 3 remakes). Also just about to start Mass Effect Legendary edition, which sre remasters of games from two gens back...

Grumble….grumble….grumble….

I’m happy for you!

[polishgenius]

2 minutes ago, john MCG said:

she seems like a suspicious character, I take it she’s going to steal my money.

 

 

Yes but make sure she steals as much of it as you can give her.

I fucking love Hollow Knight.

[Caligula_K3]

Hollow Knight is great. I replayed it a couple months ago and it really held up on the second time through. Though this time I tried to get to the "true ending" and after about 40 tries against the true final boss I gave up. And that was after the very very frustrating platforming section you need to do to get to that true boss. Oh well. Still a great game.

I've been on a Metroidvania binge in general. I replayed Metroid Prime 1, which is still one of my favourite games of all time. I also played through all of Super Metroid for the first time, which I'm very proud of! I'd tried it a few times in the past but never made it far. There are parts of it that haven't aged super gracefully, and I needed to check a guide a few times, but it holds up as a fun game, and I see why it has the classic status.

I recently played Jedi Fallen Order, which I was surprised to see was also a Metroidvania in some ways (not to mention a Dark Souls-lite). It's not the best game ever - playing it right after Metroid Prime, it was hard not to notice some weaknesses in the level design and pacing, not to mention the fact that three quarters of the time exploration rewards you with a new poncho - but it was very enjoyable, all in all. The lightsaber combat was especially fun, especially once you unlock most of the skill tree. I probably haven't felt this immersed in a Star Wars game since Jedi Outcast back in the day. But why are there so many slide sections? And so many chests with ponchos?

 

[john]

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Yes but make sure she steals as much of it as you can give her.

I fucking love Hollow Knight.

lol, I had to look that up. Yeah, I was a bit hesitant when I saw her suspicious chat but gave it up anyway. I don’t like to miss out on content even if it’s possibly screwing me over.

[Fez]

Hollow Knight really is great, though I hated the Deepnest area, and not in a fun way. I'm really excited for whenever the sequel comes out.

Mass Effect 3 remains pretty great overall; it's like 75% one of the best story-driven games ever, 20% very average, and 4% actually bad, and 1% narrative suicide (everything with Kai Leng also goes here). Which is just enough to get me excited for the next Mass Effect as I play through this, despite the disappointment of Bioware's last 2 games, which is presumably one of the goals of the LE edition. Although it seems like the next game is at least 18 months out (and that assumes there's a full time already on it, and it's not in pre-production only until Dragon Age 4 releases), since Bioware isn't having a presence at EA's upcoming PR event and didn't have anything at E3 either.

I also picked up Scarlet Nexus as an alternate game to play and am about 8 hours in. It is extremely anime, but, at least for the Yasane playthrough, it's the kind of anime I'm on board for. Very stylish action, good English VA, and some solid combat. And it's got Persona style bonding events in between chapters.

[IlyaP]

8 hours ago, Werthead said:

What seems to be sticking is a Deus Ex: Human Revolution playthrough, especially after accidentally triggering a quest completion bug early on (still not fixed after eight years, sigh) and having to reload about two hours' worth of gameplay. Damn, this is a smart, fun and occasionally bone-breakingly tough game.

If the ending doesn't make you scream, I will be amazed. Fuck I hated the ending. 

[IlyaP]

2 hours ago, Caligula_K3 said:

But why are there so many slide sections? And so many chests with ponchos?

It's....an EA game?

[Gorn]

9 hours ago, IlyaP said:

If the ending doesn't make you scream, I will be amazed. Fuck I hated the ending. 

I actually would have preferred it if the ending offered you no choice whatsoever. Not every game needs to have a all-powerful protagonist who decides the fate of the world. It would have fit with the overall themes of the rest of the game, and the players already knew that it was a prequel, and that the events would eventually lead to the world state of the first Deus Ex.

[Werthead]

12 hours ago, IlyaP said:

If the ending doesn't make you scream, I will be amazed. Fuck I hated the ending. 

This is the third complete playthrough I've done, so I know about the problems with the ending. It's not really that bad.

Quote

I actually would have preferred it if the ending offered you no choice whatsoever. Not every game needs to have a all-powerful protagonist who decides the fate of the world. It would have fit with the overall themes of the rest of the game, and the players already knew that it was a prequel, and that the events would eventually lead to the world state of the first Deus Ex.

Shanghai has got to get a move on. They've only got six years to roof over Hengsha Island.

[aceluby]

Beat the first boss in Returnal last night, moved on to the second area, and got curb stomped about half way through by a new enemy.  Have only made it back to the 2nd zone one other time because I kept getting really unlucky and thrown into areas with 3+ mini-bosses in them.  Such is the nature of hard-ass procedurally generated roguelites.  I'm usually not a huge fan of shooters, but this one is very good.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 7/3/2021 at 9:04 AM, Fez said:

The hero we needed, but not the hero we deserved.

I'll also say, playing through these silly dream sequences again, it would've been so cool if the indoctrination theory had actually been true (so long as the real ending was a free update down the road, making it a paid DLC would've been an even worse trend in microtransactions than what we've seen). It's the kind of thing that might've happened if Yoko Taro was the creative lead.

Indoctrination theory was really great, and, in retrospect, would've been a way to get a direct sequel to the franchise as opposed to Andromeda, tho I guess Biowares B Team would've ruined the original stories and cast in that case, so never mind.

[Rhom]

3 hours ago, Centrist Simon Steele said:

Indoctrination theory was really great, and, in retrospect, would've been a way to get a direct sequel to the franchise as opposed to Andromeda, tho I guess Biowares B Team would've ruined the original stories and cast in that case, so never mind.

I just finished Mass Effect 1 on the LE.  Been several years since I played.  Honestly, it makes any criticism of Andromeda piss me off even more.  Everyone says the squadmates aren't developed in ME:A... playing ME1 reminds me that there is almost no development in any of the original squad.  You learn a little bit about Liara's mom.  You learn that Garrus was a cop who wanted to push the limits a little bit.  Tali was on a pilgrimage and her daddy was a big shot.  Wrecks got probably the most real development with the family armor bit, but even that was minimal compared to Dracks in ME:A.  Every single one of the squadmates in ME:A had superior backstories for an initial entry.  It wasn't until ME2 and 3 that those squadmates developed any real personality. 

There were bugs in ME:A?  Well I can't tell you how many times I got stuck in a wall while playing the Re-Master of a game released 14 years ago.

And of course the exploration part of Andromeda was basically what they wanted to do in ME but were limited by available tech.

Decisions didn't matter in ME:A?  What decisions made any real difference in ME1?  I saved the Rachni Queen.  I saved the Council.  I recommended Anderson.  None of that has any effect inside of the first game.  There were plenty of things in Andromeda that could ahve been the same.  What to do with the AI you encounter?  Who did you put on the council at the end of the game?  What kind of colony did you first establish?  Did you save the Salarians or the Krogan?

Just wish the game had been given room to breathe and get a chance for a real sequel.  Think it could have been looked back on much more favorably.

 

[Mexal]

Man... Path of Exile is complicated as fuck. This is gonna be interesting.

[Fez]

4 hours ago, Centrist Simon Steele said:

Indoctrination theory was really great, and, in retrospect, would've been a way to get a direct sequel to the franchise as opposed to Andromeda, tho I guess Biowares B Team would've ruined the original stories and cast in that case, so never mind.

Agreed. And, in spite of fully understanding that Bioware is an empty shell of what it once was (except that the lead writer for Dragon Age 4 is the one great original trilogy Mass Effect writer still with the company), I'm still very curious what the next Mass effect ends up being. That short teaser trailer suggests it is a direct sequel, but whether it's 5 days after the end of ME3 or 500 years after ME3 I couldn't say. Though either way I don't know how they square a sequel with the different ME3 endings, unless they just canonize one of them.

53 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I just finished Mass Effect 1 on the LE.  Been several years since I played.  Honestly, it makes any criticism of Andromeda piss me off even more.  Everyone says the squadmates aren't developed in ME:A... playing ME1 reminds me that there is almost no development in any of the original squad.  You learn a little bit about Liara's mom.  You learn that Garrus was a cop who wanted to push the limits a little bit.  Tali was on a pilgrimage and her daddy was a big shot.  Wrecks got probably the most real development with the family armor bit, but even that was minimal compared to Dracks in ME:A.  Every single one of the squadmates in ME:A had superior backstories for an initial entry.  It wasn't until ME2 and 3 that those squadmates developed any real personality. 

There were bugs in ME:A?  Well I can't tell you how many times I got stuck in a wall while playing the Re-Master of a game released 14 years ago.

And of course the exploration part of Andromeda was basically what they wanted to do in ME but were limited by available tech.

Decisions didn't matter in ME:A?  What decisions made any real difference in ME1?  I saved the Rachni Queen.  I saved the Council.  I recommended Anderson.  None of that has any effect inside of the first game.  There were plenty of things in Andromeda that could ahve been the same.  What to do with the AI you encounter?  Who did you put on the council at the end of the game?  What kind of colony did you first establish?  Did you save the Salarians or the Krogan?

Just wish the game had been given room to breathe and get a chance for a real sequel.  Think it could have been looked back on much more favorably.

 

I've said for years that ME1 has significant flaws that too many of its fans overlook. That said, Andromeda's flaws extend beyond the similar issues that you identify. The biggest one being that it did a really bad job at telling the story it had; I remember being legitimately angry (which I almost never am with video games) at how poorly it presented a first contact scenario. Also, in a story- and character-driven game I think visual bugs are usually much more problematic than gameplay bugs, because they can ruin the emotional and plot beats that are pretty much the reason the game exists. And, at release, ME:A was riddled with visual bugs. It wasn't just the faces either, I had all sorts of problems with characters not showing up in cutscenes at all and sliding all over the floor

Also, ME:A came out 10 years of ME1, so it shouldn't have picked back up flaws that the series had rid itself of in ME2 and ME3. 

I do agree that Bioware should've given ME:A a sequel and see what happens, but Bioware was (and maybe still is) incredibly poorly managed and I think they just didn't have an available development team they could trust with it. Also, after poor reception of ME3's ending and all of ME:A, it probably was for the best to let the franchise cool for a few years. Now the legendary edition is out, to rekindle good will towards the franchise and in interest in a new game, and hopefully it won't be too many years until the next game is out too.