Videogames: New Year, New Thread

[Kalbear]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

I'm not sure it really matters that much. The Japanese companies will never consolidate very much because the government there won't allow it, and they remain a huge part of the games world. There may only end up being a handful of AAA developers outside that; but it'll still be enough for competition. And the beauty of games is that there will always be new studios popping up in the indie space. Plus, any of the big tech companies not really in gaming right now could make a big investment in the future.

Sorry, Sony- who just bought bungie - won't be allowed to consolidate companies?

Uh

[Ran]

1 hour ago, Kalibuster said:

Sorry, Sony- who just bought bungie - won't be allowed to consolidate companies?

Fez is talking about the Japanese gaming industry specifically, and the resistance to foreign ownership of major corporations and government regulators wanting to prevent over-consolidation in the domestic market. No doubt referring in part to joking references to Microsoft buying Sony or Nintendo, which -- lets be serious -- would never happen so long as Japanese stakeholders have control of those corporations. 

There's been slow consolidation happening in Japan as well, but once a corporation hits a certain size it gets a lot harder for them. I would not expect Sony to buy Bandai-Namco or Square Enix any time soon, either, or Nintendo buying Kadakawa or Konami.

[polishgenius]

I've never seen anything concrete but there's been chatter for a while that no other Japanese company will work with or buy Konami because they're tied with the Yakuza. I'm not sure there's any reason to believe that beyond them turning everything into Pachinko machines, but hey.  Their apparent unwillingness to let ex-employees ever work for another game developer certainly isn't the sign of a healthy business mindset. But then that also means that they don't necessarily need to be Yakuza for everyone else to not want to work with them.

[Inkdaub]

I got Miles Morales but I didn't know it was a direct sequel and I haven't finished the other Spider-Man game. So I went back to it and played some more. I love the Spider-Man game and that video game NYC puts it over the top. I can log in to that game and just climb a tall building and look around.

I went to the Steam sale and got Dragon Age Origins and II, Ori and Will of the Wisps, Disco Elysium and Grim Dawn for $48. The sale is only on for another couple days so I am glad I saw it. Hit it up while you can.

[Darryk]

16 hours ago, Werthead said:

I have to say at over $3 billion, Bungie feels really overvalued. They have one property and Sony aren't getting dibs on it. Bungie have indicated they won't release a new game until at least 2025, since the Destiny 2 DLC cycle is planned to run through the end of 2024.

Bethesda, on the other hand, have two absolutely massive AAA-megatier franchises (Elder Scrolls and Fallout) and then a whole host of very solid-performing, name-recognition franchises (Doom, Wolfenstein) and a bunch of highly-regarded franchises which are more niche, but generate discussion (Dishonored, Prey). And the first game to really capitalise on that deal (Starfield) will be out in less than ten months.

It feels like Bethesda should be valued at 3-5 times what Bungie is, not barely twice.

This feels rather hyperbolic. EA have had some iffy working and monetisation practices, but from what we now know, it sounds like they're a better place to work than Activision Blizzard ever were.

I think anyone swallowing EA is tough. They'd be more expensive than Activision, though how expensive depends on the type of buyout. It might cost $80 billion, but it might cost over $100 billion, and even Microsoft might blink at doing that having just shelled out $77 billion on Activision and Bethesda.

For Sony to buy EA they'd need a really crazy financing package. It'd be tough going and would probably stretch the company more than they'd be willing to go. That's why I think it's much more likely they'll go for Take Two.

My issue with EA is more the number of companies they've ruined, not so much the working conditions. However, they did get a lot of bad PR regarding that awhile ago, which is probably why they had to change things up.

I was mostly joking really, I don't think anyone can buy EA.

11 hours ago, briantw said:

The argument against EA seems to be more based on the way they would buy up popular studios, run them into the ground, and eventually shutter them more so than their working conditions.  People dislike EA because they ruined studios like BioWare and a dozen others, not because they are a terrible place to work.

Agreed.

[Fez]

7 hours ago, Ran said:

Fez is talking about the Japanese gaming industry specifically, and the resistance to foreign ownership of major corporations and government regulators wanting to prevent over-consolidation in the domestic market. No doubt referring in part to joking references to Microsoft buying Sony or Nintendo, which -- lets be serious -- would never happen so long as Japanese stakeholders have control of those corporations. 

There's been slow consolidation happening in Japan as well, but once a corporation hits a certain size it gets a lot harder for them. I would not expect Sony to buy Bandai-Namco or Square Enix any time soon, either, or Nintendo buying Kadakawa or Konami.

Exactly. They're free to buy foreign companies, but it's basically impossible for a foreign company to buy a Japanese company. And Japanese companies generally aren't allowed to buy too many of each other either.

So if we end up with "just" Sony, Nintendo, Bandai-Namco, Sega, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Microsoft, Tencent, and Embracer Group in the AAA space that's still a lot of competition. And in all likelihood, there will always be at least a couple South Korean companies that remain independent as well. Plus there's NetEase, they're not as involved in AAA gaming but they're the 5th largest video game publisher in the world. And Facebook/META is actually a big player these days as well thanks to their VR gaming. Lastly, there's always Valve.

Also, Activision was a special case because of the issues they were facing; there's no indication that Ubisoft, Take-Two, or EA have any interest in being acquired. 

There are certainly big challenges facing AAA games, like the spiraling development costs, continuing push for live service games and further monetization, horrendous working conditions, and so on. But none of those are being driven by consolidation trends; which all-in-all is not an issue I'm that concerned about. 

[briantw]

14 hours ago, Arakasi said:

That’s an old tired narrative too as seen by acquisitions like Respawn. Sure there was good arguments against things when Richitello ran things but that stuff has all changed since Wilson took over.

It being an old narrative doesn’t change the fact that EA ruined countless beloved studios over the past three decades.  They may be a little better now but that doesn’t reopen all the great studios they’ve closed. 

[karaddin]

Maybe it will stop it being too big an issue but "Japan has functioning anti trust laws" doesn't make me think we don't need to worry about the fact that ours aren't functioning very well any more. That's obviously a much bigger conversation than just the gaming industry though.

And I know comments have been made to the effect that this Bungie acquisition isn't going to result in PS exclusives, but the Activision one certainly is and the gaming industry regressing on that front is frustrating as hell.

[Poobah]

Continuing Pokemon Legends: Arceus and I'm still having an absolute blast with this game. I've seen some people criticising the graphics but frankly I don't give a fuck and I feel like those are really shallow criticisms that reflect badly on the critic, and tend to come from people who haven't actually played the damn game. I think it looks fine, it's a Pokemon game and it's on a tiny console that I can play on the bus or toilet. It looks about three generations better than the disappointing-in-multiple-areas Sword and Shield whose graphics were actually worthy of criticism since they looked like Gamefreak had just used the models and textures from the 3DS games and done no further work.

The gameplay itself is incredibly fun. I love that everything takes place in the overworld with no transitions and for the first time what you might think of as the main experience of a Pokemon game: catching Pokemon is an engaging and compelling experience, and one that's central to the game as you're rewarded for catching lots of them, and you need to do so if you want to completely research the various species for your pokedex. I love the stealth aspect, not to mention the role-reversal of having my character sneaking through the long grass ambushing the pokemon, and there's a surprising amount of depth there as different pokemon have different detection AI and reactions to your presence, and you can improve your chances of capturing pokemon by feeding them foods they like (or even further with crafted food made with their favourite ingredient) and by hitting them with your pokeballs when they're unsuspecting and from behind. The combat has quite a bit more depth now with the strong and agile styles for using your moves to affect the combat order, and with wild (and especially alpha) Pokemon having actually good movesets and stats that aren't far inferior to your own the combat is often actually challenging.

There's also a ton of quality of life in this game: you can swap out your pokemon's moves for any they've learned so far at any time out of combat, the hidden EV/IV system has been transformed into Effort Levels and is now visible and explained to the player and you're able to work them up as you progress through the game, and of course there's the crafting system that allows you craft your potions/revives/pokeballs on the go with materials you've gathered/foraged for. Nothing is locked to real life time either unlike some games, instead the game time passes

That said I do have a few gripes. Camera control is better with a real controller (I got a doodad to pair my xbone controller to the switch) but still not great and I dunno why there's not an option to just lock the camera behind the character's head like in most third person games. Also while I understand the concept of having a limited inventory capacity in a more survival orientated game with the sheer number of things you can get as loot, forage up, and craft in this game it can become really irritating how often your bags are full - there is a way to expand your inventory in the game but it's one slot at a time and serves as the game's primary money sink, rapidly becoming more and more expensive, and I'm not convinced I'll ever really have enough inventory space to hold all the things I want. Finally the bar you use to select what you want to throw also could use a setting or additional bar that only displays items you want it to rather than your whole inventory of throwables because as mentioned there's a ton of items in this game and especially with all the types of berry typical to the Pokemon franchise it can become a real mess to scroll all the way through/around to find your balls or the item you actually want.

Still I'm increasingly certain that this is my favourite Pokemon game by a long way, cutting through all nostalgia with good, engaging, fun gameplay. I don't think I could ever go back to the way things used to be after playing this game.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Finally finished A Realm Reborn in FFXIV (x3 mandatory 24-player raids one after the other to progress was a pain) and started Heavensward.

In Elite Dangerous, got promoted to Marquess in the Imperial Navy. The promotion assassination mission was tough, as another ship almost killed me before I could kill my target. Luckily a system enforcement ship helped me out.

Remaining three ranks are Duke, Prince and King.

[Corvinus85]

So I guess Expeditions: Rome does have a bit of fantasy in it. If one chooses to interpret it that way.

Spoiler

Giant cat and being to kill yourself to just end the game there. 

 

[Fez]

1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said:

So I guess Expeditions: Rome does have a bit of fantasy in it. If one chooses to interpret it that way.

  Hide contents

Giant cat and being to kill yourself to just end the game there. 

 

Spoiler

I was wondering what would happen there. I assumed it was a non-standard game over. But I was boring and just went straight back to the land of the living.

I like to think of it as a bit of fantasy rather than a drug-induced haze, but YMMV. 

 

[polishgenius]

9 hours ago, Poobah said:

Still I'm increasingly certain that this is my favourite Pokemon game by a long way, cutting through all nostalgia with good, engaging, fun gameplay. I don't think I could ever go back to the way things used to be after playing this game.

Yeah this is great fun. Like yeah, there are definite refinements that can be made- I think at some stage in the future either they need to integrate this sort of gameplay into the 'main' series or in any potential sequel add a little more focus on player-to-player battling and especially re-add a multiplayer online element, but it'd need a slightly different focus than the wild battles here which are way more chaotic than usual, so I can see why they didn't first go round, and I think more could be added in terms of going back to explore earlier areas with later abilities and finding rare Pokes there- but overall it's just a joy to play. 
 

Spoiler

The space time distortions are a nice touch. In conception I think they're mostly an excuse to add certain Pokemon that it wouldn't make sense to exist at this point in time,  so things like fossil Pokemon and Porygon/Porygon 2, and they do feel kind of contrived, but in practice they totally add a new level of tension with how busy and chaotic things are in there.

My once annoyance is that Gengar doesn't learn Dream Eater in this. BOOO! 

[Arakasi]

Well I had gotten up to about 20 heat on bow and shield and a little behind on rail and spear and saw rewards stopped happening post 20. The only thing was to take a jump to heat 32 to finish off the statue. So did the cheese thing and went Zeus on Zeus. It worked first time (not by much as I was at 140 health on no defiances) as I got the necessary goods. (Flourish, double strike, static discharge, high voltage, splitting bolt, Zeus’s call, billowing strength with 3 poms on most of the important ones. Flourish/discharge/double strike/billowing)

Got a good set of defence stuff with epic extra dashes, divine dash, dying lament, revenge chill. Even had a nourishing roots and that might have helped if the final battle had gone longer. Surprisingly it was first fight with Asterius that wrecked me as he killed me twice. I died quite a few times. Once in Asphodel on some bomb guys, twice to Asterius round one, once to him round two, once to miniboss in Styx who throws poison and twice to Hades. I ended up taking both of Athena’s extra defiances. But I did get the luck in the Zeus stuff. It’s possible I’d have done better with Rama and the same boons since it does similar damage but it’s easier to direct the damage. 

Also perhaps could have had better choices for heat, as this is what I did. Hard Labor 3, Lasting Consequences 2, Convenience Fee 2, Jury Summons 3, Extreme Measures 3, Calisthenics 2, Benefits Package 2, Middle Management, Underworld Customs, Forced Overtime 1, Damage Control 2. I just don’t want to do EM4 with shield or forced overtime 2 or heck even tight deadline or approval package 1. I figured getting the build I want and having the luxury to kite would make up for more enemies. By midway through Elysium it did as the mix of Zeus boons and his call/strength just wrecked all packs as I dashed all around the place.

But yeah I think I’ll just finish off getting to 20 with the other weapons and get the last weapons unlocked and then will move on to something else. It’s kind of hit that replayability annoyance where I don’t want to play at high heat and I’m more playing to try out combos. And then getting annoyed when I don’t get the specific boon for said combo. I’m thinking heat 16 is a good spot for most runs with some good added difficulty but it won’t make me hate it.

[IlyaP]

Waylanders is out and I'm quite looking forward to hearing what people here have to say about it before I drop some dollaridoos on it. 

[RumHam]

Minor new update for Vampire Survivors:

Quote

- 3 new achievements. Check their description to see what they unlock.
- 2 new characters, Dommario and Suor Clerici.
- 1 new special, challenge stage that is just like the classic Mad Forest, but has no new enemies nor layout. Comes with a minor new feature that will expand with every new future stage. Enter/exit a run if you've already satisfied the requirements to unlock it.
- rework of the Mad Forest layout in preparation of a future feature
- new "streamer friendly" soundtrack for the Inlaid Library stage
- option to play the old sountrack by disabling "Streamer Safe Music" from the Options menu (affects the Library Stage only for now)
- new animations for mudmen, mummies, ghost witches, and Library bosses

 

[Fez]

43 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

Waylanders is out and I'm quite looking forward to hearing what people here have to say about it before I drop some dollaridoos on it. 

I had not heard of it before. But it appears to be one of the rare games to hit "mostly negative" on the Steam reviews. Sometimes that can be a sign of review bombing, but much more often it means a game's real bad.

[Toth]

In Rimworld I just had three social fights in two days and in every single freaking one of them someone lost a finger or a toe!

What the fuck is going on? At the third one I straight up rage-loaded my last savefile. This is ridiculous...

[RumHam]

28 minutes ago, Toth said:

In Rimworld I just had three social fights in two days and in every single freaking one of them someone lost a finger or a toe!

What the fuck is going on? At the third one I straight up rage-loaded my last savefile. This is ridiculous...

Maybe expectations? Like your pawns start out with low expectations because they just survived a crash and are happy to be alive. As your wealth increases so do their expectations, and suddenly their tiny closet rooms aren't good enough. 

[Toth]

24 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Maybe expectations? Like your pawns start out with low expectations because they just survived a crash and are happy to be alive. As your wealth increases so do their expectations, and suddenly their tiny closet rooms aren't good enough. 

Well, they are already at high expectations, but that's not the problem, they are generally very happy and still keep getting inspirations. It's just that they hate each others guts. Then again, two of the three fights were started by my relatively new drug addicted bloodthirsty cleaner (and she was the one loosing extremities both times). The third fight however was completely out of the blue between my cook and the father of the mad scientist dude (who is somehow half his age and joined my colony through a quest, saving him from pirates).

I guess I can prepare myself for another round of hatred now. I just cleared out a bandit camp to pacify one of the factions that had been at war with me and it turns out one of the guys among them was the husband of one of my starting colonists. I never knew she had one. It's especially hilarious when you consider that she's a misandrist and her husband is a misogynist and they hated each others guts. Except that she still got the -20 'Death of Husband' modifier and will probably hate the guy who fired the last bullet.