Videogames: All Valves on Deck

[IlyaP]

19 November 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Half-Life, way back in the wild west of 1998. 

Valve has apparently restored content cut from the original game, so I guess it's time to dive back into a game I've not touched since...2000? 2001? 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Why do people love this series so much? i tried playing it way back in 2013, i got bored within half an hour, the FOV also gave me nausea

Edited November 18 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[IlyaP]

What, Half-Life? It was a game-changer. The first half-hour was unlike anything that preceded it in 1998, and it completely changed the expectations people had for first-person shooters. It's worth checking out the Half-Life documentary released this morning, where the original developers explain how much it changed that people might not realise now - especially the opening act, with the train that *wasn't* a cutscene, or being able to walk around and play with microwaves, talk to NPCs, and later - have your actions result in visual changes on walls when a player shot at a wall, etc. 

A lot of modern games owe their designs/features to ideas explored and realised in Half-Life. A part of me thinks this might be one of those "you had to be there" kinda things. But if you know the history of games, you'll know this was as important to the development of first person shooters as Doom and Quake. Scripted sequences, interconnected levels, reactive gameplay, it all really came together with Half-Life. 

(Also, if you're struggling with the field of view, you can change that by pressing on the tilde key: https://steamcommunity.com/app/70/discussions/0/620713633859376599/)

[TheLastWolf]

Hogwarts legacy is good but I expected more tbh

[Kalbear]

7 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Why do people love this series so much? i tried playing it way back in 2013, i got bored within half an hour, the FOV also gave me nausea

You should probably take some drugs for that

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

12 hours ago, IlyaP said:

 

A lot of modern games owe their designs/features to ideas explored and realised in Half-Life. A part of me thinks this might be one of those "you had to be there" kinda things.  

Probably the reason, although I played older games like Kotor and Jedi outcast 2 way later than their release and still loved them. I still maintain the best game to come out with the original source engine was actually the non valve Vampire the masquerade bloodline. I don’t know but valve games have never really gripped me ,with the exception of the counter strike series. 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

17 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Hogwarts legacy is good but I expected more tbh

I avoided it cause I heard it has way too much filler in its open world and I’m sick to death of that collectethon type gaming that Ubisoft popularised. 

Edited November 19 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Whiskeyjack]

Quote

Anyone played the fire emblem series ? I started with Awakening which was an amazing experience and thinking I’ll finally get a switch 2 when it comes out just for this series and Pokémon if it gets good again.Hope the switch 2 will be backwards compatible though.

@Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II  Fire Emblem Three Houses is a great game.  I've played it three times with my kids - one for each house.  We've really enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, the most recent game in the series - Fire Emblem Engage - was a huge disappointment.  The battles are actually a small improvement, but everything else was a step back and we only played about 15 hours before giving up on it.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

5 hours ago, Whiskeyjack said:

@Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II  Fire Emblem Three Houses is a great game.  I've played it three times with my kids - one for each house.  We've really enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, the most recent game in the series - Fire Emblem Engage - was a huge disappointment.  The battles are actually a small improvement, but everything else was a step back and we only played about 15 hours before giving up on it.

Yes I plan to get three houses as I heard this only…but I’m waiting for the switch 2 because it’s almost here and the switch hardware is seriously underpowered at this point. 
 

I just hope Nintendo makes it backwards compatible….going by their previous track record though it’s not looking hopeful.  In which case I’ll wait for the new fire emblem, gonna skip engage entirely. For me the social sim and romance stuff was always more interesting than the combat and looks like engage prioritised the wrong stuff. 

[polishgenius]

3 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

going by their previous track record though it’s not looking hopeful.

 

Depends- their consoles typically haven't been but their handhelds were all back-compatible one generation from the GBC through to the 3DS. Not on the jump to Switch but I can understand that, there was a lot going on- but I can see them doing it here. 

[Caligula_K3]

The Wii was definitely backwards compatible with the Gamecube, and I thought the Wii U was backwards compatible with the Wii and Gamecube. If the Switch 2 is something like a more powerful Switch, then I'd expect backwards compatibility. But if Nintendo pulls a Nintendo and decides that their next console should be something completely different... Then all bets are off.

I've been playing Yakuza 0, my first time trying one of these Yakuza/Like a Dragon games. I love the minigames (especially karaoke and disco dancing), the overall weirdness, and the very funny sidequests. For the main quest... There's some fun in the combat, and the storyline has potential, even if it's a little rote. But oh my god this game will not shut up. At times you just get 30-45 minutes of cutscenes repeating the same thing over and over again. I will master the disco minigame. But I don't think I'll actually beat this game.

[Corvinus85]

Whenever CA release a new major patch for Total War: Warhammer, something always gets broken, sometimes with amusing effects. For example, Greasus Goldtooth has ungodly speed now. 

 

[AndrewJ]

11 hours ago, Caligula_K3 said:

I've been playing Yakuza 0, my first time trying one of these Yakuza/Like a Dragon games. I love the minigames (especially karaoke and disco dancing), the overall weirdness, and the very funny sidequests. For the main quest... There's some fun in the combat, and the storyline has potential, even if it's a little rote. But oh my god this game will not shut up. At times you just get 30-45 minutes of cutscenes repeating the same thing over and over again. I will master the disco minigame. But I don't think I'll actually beat this game.

I never played Zero. But my introduction to the series was watching a Giant Bomb East playthrough of it at release. I've played many of the subsequent games.

And the story of Zero has some really powerful stuff in it later on and it probably remains my favourite entry in the franchise for that reason. Later games (chronologically) are good, but they just don't hit quite as hard. So, it's possibly worth persevering with (or maybe not, if it's just not your thing).

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Btw guys, Steam is having a massive sale right now.Picking up Prey +All DLCs for 3.84 USD

[Martell Spy]

Quote

I've been playing Yakuza 0, my first time trying one of these Yakuza/Like a Dragon games. I love the minigames (especially karaoke and disco dancing), the overall weirdness, and the very funny sidequests

My boss suggested I play that series. I just had no idea where to jump in. I'll probably get to it at some point. Have a huge backlog right now, what with not even having played Cyberpunk 2.0 and BG3.

Edited November 22 by Martell Spy

[IlyaP]

The first 3/4ths of Diablo 4 are currently free to play on Steam for another week. It's a ridiculous 84 gig install, and oh lordy, I am not impressed so far. Have managed to hit level 11 within an hour of playing, and the world is clearly vaguely Pan-Slavic in inspiration and cheesy "RAAASHAN!" accents. 

And astonishingly, for a single player game, there's....lag. Because Diablo 4 can't just be a single player game, no no - it must be an isometric online-only version of Assassin's Creed, with dozens of bland fetch quests. 

How are other people who've played it finding it? 

 

[AndrewJ]

8 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

My boss suggested I play that series. I just had no idea where to jump in. I'll probably get to it at some point. Have a huge backlog right now, what with not even having played Cyberpunk 2.0 and BG3.

Yakuza 0 is where you jump in. It's the first game chronologically, one of the best and one of the more modern entries in the franchise.

 

[Arakasi]

4 hours ago, IlyaP said:

The first 3/4ths of Diablo 4 are currently free to play on Steam for another week. It's a ridiculous 84 gig install, and oh lordy, I am not impressed so far. Have managed to hit level 11 within an hour of playing, and the world is clearly vaguely Pan-Slavic in inspiration and cheesy "RAAASHAN!" accents. 

And astonishingly, for a single player game, there's....lag. Because Diablo 4 can't just be a single player game, no no - it must be an isometric online-only version of Assassin's Creed, with dozens of bland fetch quests. 

How are other people who've played it finding it? 

 

Enjoying it a ton. I play on ps5 with my eight year old son and we do it couch coop style. Haven’t noticed any lag. There were issues about 3-4 months ago with 2-3 crashes per week but haven’t seen it since. All the classes are viable with multiple builds. Not too complicated for my son like PoE is. (Not that Poe has couch coop which makes it a non starter)

There is definite issues with QoL features that are lacking (loot filter please) as well as a lack of endgame content. This season has improved it a lot but there needs to be more. I do agree many of the quests are bland vanilla fantasy stuff but the main quest line is good with memorable characters and moments. 
 

But to me the main core loop is fantastic. Game is fun to play and lots of different styles you can play as. I figure it won’t be a game I play fulltime but I’ll come back to it every other season and when expansions come out.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

11 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

My boss suggested I play that series. I just had no idea where to jump in. I'll probably get to it at some point. Have a huge backlog right now, what with not even having played Cyberpunk 2.0 and BG3.

Drop everything and play Cyberpunk,you can thank me later 

 

[Darryk]

15 hours ago, IlyaP said:

The first 3/4ths of Diablo 4 are currently free to play on Steam for another week. It's a ridiculous 84 gig install, and oh lordy, I am not impressed so far. Have managed to hit level 11 within an hour of playing, and the world is clearly vaguely Pan-Slavic in inspiration and cheesy "RAAASHAN!" accents. 

And astonishingly, for a single player game, there's....lag. Because Diablo 4 can't just be a single player game, no no - it must be an isometric online-only version of Assassin's Creed, with dozens of bland fetch quests. 

How are other people who've played it finding it? 

 

I was really enjoying it while I was playing it but in hindsight it's my least favourite Diablo.

Weak story, only two cinematics (most Blizzard games have at least 4 epic cinematics), and I didn't like the open-world map. Preferred to feeling of travelling from one land to another in Diablo II and III.

I did enjoy messing around with the skill tree though.