Video Games - Storage Space Blues

[Spockydog]

Woooo! My new chair arrived. Ordered yesterday about 4pm, the van rolled up just before 1pm today.

Brilliant service.

[Darryk]

5 hours ago, IlyaP said:

What's the general consensus on Arkham City? 

That was my favourite one, although I know a lot of people prefer Arkham Asylum because of the atmosphere.

[Corvinus85]

On 4/19/2022 at 2:23 PM, Werthead said:

Something I meant to check out is if they licensed any of the music from Expeditions: Rome from Rome: Total War. They are very similar, though of course drawing on the same source material.

hmm. After you mentioned this, I looked for the Rome: TW soundtrack, which is great, too. But I cannot say they are that similar. TW has a lot more drum-action and more vocals, too, while Expeditions relies more on string instruments. And the beats are different enough, too. But I'm no music expert. Maybe they sound much closer to you.

[Werthead]

Wow. The Homeworld 3 collector's edition looks amazing. Glad I paid up for that two years ago.

[IlyaP]

4 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

hmm. After you mentioned this, I looked for the Rome: TW soundtrack, which is great, too. But I cannot say they are that similar. TW has a lot more drum-action and more vocals, too, while Expeditions relies more on string instruments. And the beats are different enough, too. But I'm no music expert. Maybe they sound much closer to you.

Damn, the score isn't on Spotify. Curses, foiled again!

[Fez]

I'm nearing the end of Triangle Strategy. It's been a fun time, and the closest any JRPG I've played has gotten to replicating the grittiness and intrigue of Final Fantasy Tactics. But it hasn't quite hit the mark, and the story hasn't ended up being quite as epic/complex as the endless setup at the start made it seem. Also, combat eventually started feeling a bit stale. The lack of skill or equipment customization made it all a bit too straightforward; even though the battles themselves were all nicely designed and varied. But I am 35 hours in, and its hard for any game systems to maintain my interest that far in.

Except Stellaris. I've gotten sucked back in after not playing for a couple years. The AI seems majorly improved. I had to drop the difficulty after getting wiped several times early on.

I also started playing 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim now that it's on Switch. What a mind trip that's been so far. I did get spoiled on one later game reveal, but even knowing the thing I do, the sheer density of insane sci-fi plot points has been overwhelming in a really good way. I don't know if it would be nearly as good if the story was told chronologically, but I don't think that matters. The movie Memento isn't as good when shown chronologically either, but that isn't the way it's intended to be seen.

My only complaint is that I don't think the writing holds up equally across all 13 character stories. Maybe things change, but I'm up to 42% on 'Remembrance' so I've seen a fair amount of cutscenes. I don't know how the game was written, but I assume there were different writers in charge of different character stories. Because some of them fall deep into the trap of having the character just passively observe stuff happening around them, which isn't that interesting. Whereas others are extremely active and have agency, which is much better. Also, a couple characters have arcs that feel repetitive already and it feels like the authors couldn't think of enough for them to do. But the character stories that slap really slap. Overall I'd say 6 have been excellent, top-tier sci-fi; 3 have been decent; 1 has been 'meh'; 2 have been outright bad; and 1 I can't judge because after doing the first chapter I won't unlock another until everyone is at 80% completion.

[Werthead]

Private equity firms circling Ubisoft.

[polishgenius]

On 4/15/2022 at 1:20 PM, Maia said:

 thanks for the detailed answer. I guess that I was somewhat misleading in my request - I wanted to head off the platforming and racing recommendations because I am both bad at them and also dislike them!  I can take some platforming and racing in great adventure games - I did finish Mafia 1 on PC through sheer determination and fully intend to give my all to Zelda: Ocarina of Time and maybe other 3DS Zeldas, but the pure platformers aren't for me. Though I'll be sure to try my niece on Kirby. I also dislike shmups and side-scrollers, so probably not Metroidivania.

Now to see about Ever Oasis and Fantasy Life... and surprisingly my library system has both! Perfect. The last post-game level in Etrian Odyssey Untold 1 is kicking my posterior, so I'd want a change of pace after I am finally finished with it.

Did you try Theatrythm and/or Rythm Thief? How difficult are they for somebody with bad ear/bad musical memory (me) or low frustration theshold (my niece)? Can you say anything about Yokai Watch? The Fire Emblems in general and Echoes in Valentia in particular? Awakening is supposed to be the best, right?

If you have any more recs, now that we cleared the misunderstanding, please keep them coming! And everybody else, too!

I already intend to try the Zeldas, Code Word: Steam, SMT: Strange Journey, Etrian Odyssey 4, Layton vs Phoenix Wright and Pokemon, as well as eventually get some Atlus games and maybe Zero Escape, despite the art, from the eshop. I'd like to snag Dragon Quest 8 - it is supposed to be the best, right? but it costs an arm and a leg. I am also unsure if the Bravely games are good enough to track down.  TIA.

 

 

I meant to come back to this but I got distracted by life and then, well, forgot... my bad. 

Anyway. 

On the rhythm games, I can't say anything because I don't play them as a rule - rhythm and dyspraxia are a bad combination. 

I liked what I played of Fire Emblem Awakening but I didn't get too far coz what I was looking for at the time was less intensive and I somehow never went back. It's clearly very good at what it does.

I've not played DQ8, but I did enjoy DQ9 - Sentinels of the Starry Skies - a lot. I feel like the general reputation is you can't really go wrong with any of them though. Bravely Default wasn't really my bag, but I guess it depends how much a lot of random battling really puts you off.  I have an odd relationship with JRPGs... I really enjoy the way they present their stories and that, but... ugh. Grinding. And BD didn't offer enough to draw me in past that, but mileage may and indeed does vary, since it was incredibly popular.  

On Pokemon: of the 3DS ones, definitely go Sun/Moon over X/Y, it's vastly better. If you fancy the idea of something like Pokemon, but with actual story, Monster Hunter Stories might be worth a go - the caveat being that I never played the full thing, because it came out just about when my 3DS started to break down, but the demo was good.


You might enjoy Luigi's Mansion? Fun ghost-adventure game, no actual platforming if you've never played another version.


Anyway I just discovered another urgent reason to secure a 3DS  - my one is now so busted it won't read original DS games, and I have a huge pile of them that I don't wanna lose access to...
 

[Werthead]

Replaying Arkham City and having a fun time with it, but I'm not moved to 100% it as I (almost) did with Arkham Asylum this time out. I forgot that the Riddler puzzles are much more all over the place and there's a lot more of them.

I'm feeling very undermotivated to play new (to me, anyway) games at the moment, so most of my unplayed backlog is not getting cleaned up, although I'm halfway tempted to try a vaguely more recent Assassin's Creed. I bounced hard off the original and never got back to the series. I have got Black Flag floating around on Steam from some offer years ago, and Unity on UPlay.

[IlyaP]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

Replaying Arkham City and having a fun time with it, but I'm not moved to 100% it as I (almost) did with Arkham Asylum this time out. I forgot that the Riddler puzzles are much more all over the place and there's a lot more of them.

Does Arkham City almost feel like an Assassin's Creed game to you, in how spread out everything is?

[briantw]

2 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Does Arkham City almost feel like an Assassin's Creed game to you, in how spread out everything is?

The map is nowhere near the size of most open world games.  It's not super spread out either, and since most of your traversal is through the air, you get from point to point more like Spider-Man than in any Assassin's Creed game.

[Werthead]

7 hours ago, briantw said:

The map is nowhere near the size of most open world games.  It's not super spread out either, and since most of your traversal is through the air, you get from point to point more like Spider-Man than in any Assassin's Creed game.

Yeah, Arkham City is huge compared to Arkham Asylum but not compared to any other open world games. Even Arkham Knight, where the map I think is two or three times the size of City, feels slight compared to a GTA or Ubisoft game. This isn't a bad thing, as it allows them to mix scale and density of stuff to do, and cutting out too much boring travel.

[polishgenius]

It is definitely a flaw in the thinking of some developers that just because some great open-world games are huge, all of them have to be. Two of my favourites are tiny little indie games - A Short Hike obviously, and Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (which is basically open-world Pokemon Snap with real animals and anyone interested in that idea should give it a try) - and I'm pretty sure both of them are smaller than just the Great Plateau in BotW. 


Mind you, even the small ones have to be considered. I just the other day got something called Haven Park, which I was hesitant about getting coz it's such an obvious Short Hike ripoff (with Animal Crossing elements) but it got good reviews so hey I'll give it a go. I'll play it some more but immediately the world design was not as good as Short Hike. The OG uses the shape of the mountain to guide your path and hide secrets which makes it engaging whereas Haven Park so far is... just a bunch of parky stuff.    

I've started to find the mechanics of gameworld design interesting. Guess it feeds into the map obsession I've had since I was little...

[briantw]

On 4/25/2022 at 6:10 AM, Werthead said:

Yeah, Arkham City is huge compared to Arkham Asylum but not compared to any other open world games. Even Arkham Knight, where the map I think is two or three times the size of City, feels slight compared to a GTA or Ubisoft game. This isn't a bad thing, as it allows them to mix scale and density of stuff to do, and cutting out too much boring travel.

100% agree.  There is more than enough content in Arkham City.  The map is plenty big for what the game is supposed to be.  If anything, I’d argue Arkham Knight is where the series really goes overboard and becomes too big, busy, and cluttered.  It loses so many of the tightly designed interior “dungeons” the first two games were so good at delivering in favor of boring vehicular combat, and the Batmobile never really seems to add much to the experience.

[IlyaP]

9 hours ago, briantw said:

100% agree.  There is more than enough content in Arkham City.  The map is plenty big for what the game is supposed to be.  If anything, I’d argue Arkham Knight is where the series really goes overboard and becomes too big, busy, and cluttered.  It loses so many of the tightly designed interior “dungeons” the first two games were so good at delivering in favor of boring vehicular combat, and the Batmobile never really seems to add much to the experience.

And thankfully there is an in-game secret code that lets me access a Batman who doesn't wear his underwear on the outside.

[Werthead]

On 4/26/2022 at 7:37 AM, polishgenius said:

It is definitely a flaw in the thinking of some developers that just because some great open-world games are huge, all of them have to be. Two of my favourites are tiny little indie games - A Short Hike obviously, and Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (which is basically open-world Pokemon Snap with real animals and anyone interested in that idea should give it a try) - and I'm pretty sure both of them are smaller than just the Great Plateau in BotW. 

Firewatch is technically an open world, just a very small and very well-designed one.

[Werthead]

Excellent long look at Skyblivion. They are getting closer to it being done, though I suspect it's still ~18 months away at the soonest. But it looks very impressive.

 

[Caligula_K3]

On 4/24/2022 at 3:55 PM, Werthead said:

Replaying Arkham City 

I'm feeling very undermotivated to play new (to me, anyway) games at the moment, so most of my unplayed backlog is not getting cleaned up, although I'm halfway tempted to try a vaguely more recent Assassin's Creed. I bounced hard off the original and never got back to the series. I have got Black Flag floating around on Steam from some offer years ago, and Unity on UPlay.

Black Flag is my favourite Assassin's Creed by far, mainly because once you get your ship, 80% of the game doesn't feel like an Assassin's Creed game. The protagonist is a pirate who doesn't care about Templar vs. Assassin nonsense. The naval combat is very satisfying, and all in all it's an immersive pirate simulator, as you spend your time taking on ships of different sizes, fighting forts, harpooning whales, etc... And unlike the AC games from Origins onward, it's perfectly sized and paced: 35-40 hours to beat the game and do many side missions, with a world that feels big but is not overwhelming.

I don't even like most Assassin's Creed games. But this one I love.

[polishgenius]

11 hours ago, Werthead said:

Firewatch is technically an open world, just a very small and very well-designed one.

 

I own that maybe someday I should play it.

[IlyaP]

9 hours ago, Caligula_K3 said:

And unlike the AC games from Origins onward, it's perfectly sized and paced: 35-40 hours to beat the game and do many side missions, with a world that feels big but is not overwhelming.

Origins is the only AC game I've not actively loathed upon playing. I played AC 3 like an absolute addict exclusively because it featured my home town, but every other one has frustrated me with its excess side missions, maddening control schemes, forced gameplay requirements ("hide yourself in the crowd! If you fail and we'll make you redo this section 1,800 times!"), and extremely console-y UIs. The constant SWOOSHING OF THE SCREEN (wheeeee!!) every time I pressed the Escape button drove me bonkers.