Videogames Killed the TV Star

[aceluby]

1 hour ago, Rhom said:

I’m wondering what the long term effect of this chip/console shortage will be on this generation.  Will developers even really embrace this generation for games?  Someone told me today that they now plan to also release Horizon Forbidden West on the PS4 as well due to the low install base of PS5 so far.

Im sure in retrospect, Sony and MS would prefer to have just spent the year in more development.

Horizon Forbidden West was always going to be released on the PS4 and PS5.  That was announced before the PS5 launch and was one of the reasons I wasn't worried about getting one (though I did get lucky and jumped at the opportunity).

Also, the PS5 is the fastest selling Playstation of all time.  Its demand is sky high, but it has a better install base than any other system they've ever had at the same time of its lifecycle.

[RumHam]

I read somewhere that demand for all consoles shot up a lot because people were stuck at home last year. 

[Werthead]

20 hours ago, briantw said:

The main problem I had with Dishonored 2 was that the PS4 version had the most absurdly awful FOV setting and, as far as I could tell, no way to change it.  I swear it must be 60.

Wish it were on Geforce Now, as I have the PC version but my PC crapped out while I was midway through the game and I just don't have enough time to dedicate to video games these days to justify spending another fifteen hundred on a new gaming rig.  But I remember everything up the Clockwork Mansion (right were my PC died) being awesome. 

Yeah, I usually play at 90 and find anything much below 80 to be uncomfortable and frustrating.

Console games are very reluctant to offer FOV adjustments because rendering more of the game world is obviously a hit on the hardware, and with console games they so heavily optimise them to work on the hardware that even the moderate changes from FOV adjustments can throw things off, leading to possible performance losses.

I do wonder why they don't set their targets for a higher FOV value and allow gamers to downgrade the value (which would increase performance). One of my friends decided a decade ago they couldn't play FPS because they just got nauseous playing PS2 and PS3 games, and then they saw the difference in playing on PC with a higher FOV value and they never had a single problem, so it would probably benefit a lot of people.

[Rhom]

3 hours ago, aceluby said:

Horizon Forbidden West was always going to be released on the PS4 and PS5.  That was announced before the PS5 launch and was one of the reasons I wasn't worried about getting one (though I did get lucky and jumped at the opportunity).

Also, the PS5 is the fastest selling Playstation of all time.  Its demand is sky high, but it has a better install base than any other system they've ever had at the same time of its lifecycle.

It may be the fastest selling from retailers… but I’d love to know what the actual consumer usage is to this point

[briantw]

11 hours ago, Slurktan said:

I actually quite like Griftlands.  Is it as good as Slay the Spire? Probably not but it's pretty close.  I really like how you build two different decks and how each of the characters has a different way of utilizing them.

My review may have sounded more negative than how I actually feel about the game.  I only have one character right now, so I don't know about the other decks.  My point was basically that the deck building just isn't nearly as good and the combat nearly as tight as Slay the Spire which, to be fair, is about as perfect as it gets for a deck building game.

I think Slay the Spire works as well as it does because it's so tightly balanced.  Enemies are consistent from run to run.  They have patterns that, as far as I can tell, they mostly follow.  This means that, when you step into a fight, you know what to expect and how to strategize.  Sometimes you have a deck that just doesn't work for the fight, or RNG fucks you and you get the wrong cards to counter the enemy, but I rarely feel like Slay the Spire is unfair.  I'm often unlucky when playing it, or I play my cards in the wrong order, but the game itself is consistent.

With Griftlands, I played the exact same fight back to back and got wildly different results.  The first time, the enemies were consistent with what I'd expect from an early game fight in a game such as this.  They were punishing but not unfair.  If I played smart, I was able to beat them while taking only about 25% damage.  The second time, they attacked me every single turn, and I was absolutely helpless to stop it.  

All that being said, I appreciate the concept of turning Slay the Spire into a story-based RPG, and I look forward to seeing where Griftlands takes me.  I just don't think the deck-building combat will successfully stack up to Slay the Spire based on my experience so far.  But the overall game is offering a different experience, so the combat isn't necessarily the end all, be all like it has to be in Slay the Spire where it's all there is.

[Lightning Lord]

On 8/2/2021 at 6:39 PM, IlyaP said:

Resuming from where we left off in the last thread, it looks like we've got people playing Dishonored, Mass Effect, Horizon Dawn, and more. 

So, tell us what you're playing. 

I just started up Horizon Zero Dawn. I think I completed what might be the prologue? Or the first act... hard to know which part of the narrative I am in when just beginning.

I want to straight-up murder a guy and a war chief. That's the part I am at right now. Pity that's not allowed.

It's less climby than Assassin's Creed? Or am I just playing badly//not advanced enough to climb everything.

[Week]

7 hours ago, Lightning Lord said:

I just started up Horizon Zero Dawn. I think I completed what might be the prologue? Or the first act... hard to know which part of the narrative I am in when just beginning.

I want to straight-up murder a guy and a war chief. That's the part I am at right now. Pity that's not allowed.

It's less climby than Assassin's Creed? Or am I just playing badly//not advanced enough to climb everything.

Ha, I just started it last night. I don't think I'm even that far yet - wandered around too much.

I beat Hollow Knight - 83% - I would typically go back for more but the repetition of retrying bosses isn't really the gaming experience that I think I want. I'm sure I'll go back at some point though - the controls are pretty easy to pick back up.

[Fez]

I started a replay of Dragon Age Origins for the first time in years, but dropped it right when I got to Redcliff. I'm in the mood to play an evil character, and I don't think the game does a good job with that path. I prefer pragmatic evil, but most of the evil choices are just stupid; and in many cases lock you out of a lot of stuff.

So instead I started a fresh play of Pathfinder Kingmaker. I never actually beat the game either, the furthest I got was chapter 5 of 7; and then got sick of some of the mechanics. But there's a turn-based mode now, which is great. And I'm having fun as a Lawful Evil half-elf. It's been fun so far. And there's the added bonus that the game's so long there's no way I'll be done by the time to sequel comes out in a month. Which I won't be tempted to buy it at release, before it gets some bug patches.

[aceluby]

9 hours ago, Lightning Lord said:

I just started up Horizon Zero Dawn. I think I completed what might be the prologue? Or the first act... hard to know which part of the narrative I am in when just beginning.

I want to straight-up murder a guy and a war chief. That's the part I am at right now. Pity that's not allowed.

It's less climby than Assassin's Creed? Or am I just playing badly//not advanced enough to climb everything.

Definitely less climby than AC.  The first few missions after the one's where you're a kid are still very tutorial heavy, but it opens up quite a bit from there.  I would definitely recommend not skipping any of the missions as occasionally the lower missions (I'm forgetting the type) turn into actual side quests that have good story.  Sneaking around will be your main go-to in the beginning, but as you start unlocking traits the combat system is ridiculously fun.  I didn't get the multiple arrows or either slow-down time traits (jumping & sliding) until the end, but I wish I would have prioritized those.  I think it was my favorite game of the last generation, and one of my favorites all-time.

15 hours ago, Rhom said:

It may be the fastest selling from retailers… but I’d love to know what the actual consumer usage is to this point

The point I was making is that developers of games aren't going to "skip this generation".  Games getting released on both the older generation and the newer one isn't a new phenomenon.  Having very few decent games at launch isn't a new phenomenon.  Both my launch PS2 and PS3s largely played upscaled games from the previous generations for the first year.  Hell, I beat AC on the PS3 because there was nothing else to play besides a few online shooters.  The PS4 had so few games I was interested in the first year (with no BC) that I didn't get one until the LoU remastered bundle was released a year after launch.  And really, I only got it so I could play Bloodborne a few months later.

So regardless of the consumer usage, developers aren't going to ignore a generation of consoles that is selling faster than any previous generation before - but for at least 2 years you can expect companies like EA to milk the consumer base of both generations to maximize profits - and you should see a trickle of 1st & 2nd party developers focus on the new generation.

[Lightning Lord]

I've actually been sorta aiming at the double arrow thing. It seemed like a good idea. I've not been stealthing very well and should probably practice.

There is something pleasing about shooting the turkeys. I don't know what it is.

[Denvek]

13 hours ago, Lightning Lord said:

I just started up Horizon Zero Dawn. I think I completed what might be the prologue? Or the first act... hard to know which part of the narrative I am in when just beginning.

I want to straight-up murder a guy and a war chief. That's the part I am at right now. Pity that's not allowed.

It's less climby than Assassin's Creed? Or am I just playing badly//not advanced enough to climb everything.

You can't climb everything in HZD, only where there's an actual climb route. Look for yellow markers.

[Lightning Lord]

8 hours ago, Denvek said:

You can't climb everything in HZD, only where there's an actual climb route. Look for yellow markers.

Thanks  I don't know yet what yellow markers you mean but perhaps it will be more clear in the open world outside the Nora lands.

[Werthead]

17 hours ago, Lightning Lord said:

Thanks  I don't know yet what yellow markers you mean but perhaps it will be more clear in the open world outside the Nora lands.

You can climb up or jump to any rock or mountain area with yellow markings, or sometimes obvious outcroppings (i.e. the bars sticking out of the heads of the tallnecks). I think there's also white paint indicating areas which are climbable.

If you're in jumping/climbing range you usually get a prompt telling you you can climb there.

[Kalbear]

Good handson preview of the steam deck here:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/steam-deck-valve-hands-on

[Werthead]

 

Quote

 

One summer day in 2018, employees of the video game maker Blizzard Entertainment opened their email to find a brusque message from the chief executive officer, Mike Morhaime. It said the company parted ways with Ben Kilgore, the chief technology officer and Morhaime’s heir apparent. The email didn’t give a reason, but employees immediately began to gossip. Kilgore presided over the most notorious group of sexist drinkers at the Irvine, California, headquarters, where sexism and drinking were rampant, current and former employees said.

Shortly afterward, they got a supposed explanation during a large staff meeting. Derek Ingalls, now head of the technology department, was asked why his former boss had left. Ingalls told a brief story that concluded with a strange piece of advice: “Don’t sleep with your assistant. But if you’re going to sleep with your assistant, don’t stop.”

The fallout of the story is that Blizzard was something of an unpleasant developer to work for even back in their 1990s first burst of success heyday, but post-WoW things went to shit and, when people thought they couldn't get worse, they really went to shit when and since Activision took over.

[Corvinus85]

Haven's played a Blizzard game since my one playthrough of Diablo III. I didn't like the game that much, the story was mediocre, and I no longer care for that type of gameplay. Unless Activision/Blizzard get totally nuked and their culture is rebuilt from the ground up, I won't be playing another game.

[Poobah]

I was really surprised to not see any discussion of the disgusting shit coming out that's happened at Activision-Blizzard in this thread but didn't really have the energy to gather news links and whatnot, glad to see that rectified @Werthead

[Werthead]

Carrier Command 2 comes out this week and I'm very intrigued by it. So far the multiplayer mode - where you and your allies man different command stations on the carrier - and the VR mode (and the two work together) look absolutely outstanding.

I do want to see what the singleplayer mode is like, and if it's as good an experience.

Don't worry about Carrier Command 1, which came out in 1988 (!) and the links between the games look fairly limited.

 

[Toth]

2 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

Haven's played a Blizzard game since my one playthrough of Diablo III. I didn't like the game that much, the story was mediocre, and I no longer care for that type of gameplay. Unless Activision/Blizzard get totally nuked and their culture is rebuilt from the ground up, I won't be playing another game.

I choked up a bit about the story of a woman who killed herself after the harassment during a company trip. This company is insane.

Thankfully I haven't played a Blizzard game since Warcraft III and hated what they did to the world with WOW. I don't think I ever played an Activision game at all. Then again, given that I'm still having some Ubisoft games installed, I'm not in any position to use my taste in videogames as an argument for moral grandstanding.

[Werthead]

My last Blizzard game was StarCraft II and wow was that a torturously extended release schedule for no reason: five years and Legacy of the Void in particular felt like it had been thought up and executed in ten minutes. Also one of the most appallingly-written stories in a video game series for quite some time. The actual mission design could be quite good, but the story was poor and the overall trilogy way too long for what was basically a retread of WarCraft III's storyline (which in itself was a bit of a retread of StarCraft I). Yeah, I'm not weeping for Blizzard's misfortunes now.

I did finish Dishonored 2 today and my feeling overall is that the level design, writing and visual design are all much stronger than Dishonored 1, which in itself was a masterpiece. By giving you more optional objectives and putting the Bone Charms/Runes in different places all over the map, it made exploration far more important and rewarding in the original game, whilst also allowing you to just say fuck it and carve your way to the destination through a sea of blood. Karnaca is also a more vivid and interesting city than Dunwall, and Dunwall was fantastic. I do think the story only really makes sense playing as Emily, with Corvo's POV not as personally involved in the story (plus Emily being imprisoned is just a retread of DH1). I'm also not in love with how they locked in "canonical" endings for both DH1 and its expansions (Billie Lurk and Daud surviving, for example, and Delilah being locked in the painting) after making a lot of noise about the freedom of choice, but I guess they had no choice but to make some rulings in order to make the sequel work.

The two standout maps, Clockwork Mansion and a Crack in the Slab, really are genius and both supreme examples of video game design.

I was going to play something else, but then decided to put the franchise to bed with the divisive Death of the Outsider.