Videogames: All Valves on Deck

[The Anti-Targ]

5 hours ago, IlyaP said:

ME leak? Do you mean this, or something else? 

 

Yes, that's the so-called leak. Likely not a credible leak. People are interpreting Michael Gamble's 2 word, 2 question reply as  a denial. But that kind of response could mean anything. I think it's probable they won't make Leviathan the major villain, but I have a hard time accepting they won't feature in some way. That response suggests to me Gamble didn't want to unambiguously say Leviathan won't be in ME4/5, whether that means they will be or not is another matter. They are a huge lore reveal and hugely powerful in ME3...so long as you bought the DLC or played the legendary edition, though they are revealed to a degree by the star child for everyone who played through to the end of ME3, just not in much detail. Not being in the next ME at all would be worse than making them the main villain.

The leak also claims garrus will be in the game, but does not mention Tali. Most credible sources say there is a couple of centuries at least time jump from ME3 which means Garrus is dead from old age as turian's have about the same lifespan as humans. And saying there is a Dragon Age Origins remake in the works makes no sense whatsoever unless EA farmed it out to a third party studio. Bioware can't be working on 2 major games and a remake at the same time.

[The Anti-Targ]

4 hours ago, mcbigski said:

Played ME 1 -3, with some but not all of the dlc.  Didn't play Andromeda.  Where did the Leviathan first appear?  

And I guess there's a ME additional sequel coming out?

What IlyaP said.

[Mexal]

On 1/9/2024 at 10:27 PM, The Anti-Targ said:

Point of order, God of War has boobies (at least the early games have). It also has booby ladies impaled on spikes so Kratos can keep a door open.

Video games are not unique in this moral hypocrisy that sees sex as a greater evil than violence. But it is what it is, and companies need to manage parental moral outrage.

I guess its safe to post here: Kaitlyn Dever has been cast as Abby in HBO's The Last of Us season 2. Personally I'm not totally on board. Abby's physicality is part of her character, as much as it is for characters like Thor and Capt America. Unless she's going to 'roid up and get real buff it will be a bit of a let down. She's a good acting talent though, I've liked her in the things she's been in previously. It's not like such people don't exist. I have a colleague who pretty much has exactly the same musculature as Abby, she's a retired international power lifter and hammer thrower. It does seem, though, that there are basically no ripped female actors under 30. Natalie Portman has shown that women can bulk up somewhat for a part though. I hope Dever is method enough to make the same effort.

I think it'll be fine. Dever is an incredible actress who can have a commanding presence. Physicality is part of what she looked like but honestly, in the game, it wasn't a massive part of what he did. She was a soldier and a leader, Dever can play that role. She can be hard as fuck.

On 1/9/2024 at 11:43 PM, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

I’ve not played the last of us games but I understand the fandom really hated part 2 and where Neil Druckmann has taken the story? Do you guys who’ve played it hold similiar thoughts ? I’m a fan of the tv series and hope S2 is as good ! 

If I look at WJ's post on 3 main issues, I fell into the structural issues (it was an absolute mess but can easily be fixed in a tv show) and plot issues categories which was exacerbated by the structure issues. I get what they were going for and I think it could have worked but the narrative structure made it hard for me to get behind it. Still a great game, just not as good a story as the first game imo (there are those who disagree).

[Werthead]

12 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Since most of the original BioWare has left or been fired from the studio , do you guys think ME and DA can be resurrected to their original greatness by these new games ? 

As a brief answer, no.

As a more in-depth answer, fuck no.

[The Anti-Targ]

I enjoyed Dragon Age Inquisition, played it multiple times. So IMO DA doesn't need to be resurrected. Dreadwolf is also a completely natural and expected follow up to Inquisition, same as Inquisition flowed directly from DA 2. It could still be a mediocre game or worse, but Inquisition sets things up for a potentially great game.

This next Mass Effect game is going to have to be somewhat contrived, because the Reaper saga is done, esp if they canonise the destroy ending, to whit canonising any ending is one of the possible problems with making a milky way sequel. If they'd done a better job with Andromeda they could have left the milky way completely in the rear view.

[Werthead]

According to that leak from last year, Dreadwolf apparently looks and plays like a party-based version of neo-God of War, with more of an open world. That doesn't sound atrocious, and would probably be superior to Inquisition, but it does sound like EA's constant "chasing the last big thing," approach to game design is still intact.

What would be hilarious would be if an EA exec came in and said, "Hey, can we make Dragon Age 5 like Baldur's Gate 3? Isometric, party-based combat, campsite romances? Do you guys know how to do that? What are you doing? Put down the cudgel!"

Edited January 11 by Werthead

[The Anti-Targ]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

What would be hilarious would be if an EA exec came in and said, "Hey, can we make Dragon Age 5 like Baldur's Gate 3? Isometric, party-based combat, campsite romances? Do you guys know how to do that? What are you doing? Put down the cudgel!"

That would be priceless.

Though one might assume that there are probably few left at Bioware who have actually done that. Who's left from those glory days?

[The Anti-Targ]

9 hours ago, Mexal said:

I think it'll be fine. Dever is an incredible actress who can have a commanding presence. Physicality is part of what she looked like but honestly, in the game, it wasn't a massive part of what he did. She was a soldier and a leader, Dever can play that role. She can be hard as fuck.

I dunno about that.

Spoiler

She beats the snot out of Ellie the one time they come face to face in CQC when she's fully healthy, and Ellie barely wins when Abby is a shadow of herself. That's down to her physicality, since they are both very skilled scrappers. Those are pivotal story moments.

To me, it really comes down to the fact that the acting talent pool severely lacks for young women who look like Abby. There is a reasonable talent pool for almost every other look but somehow not the under-30 power lifter type. Is it because young women who look like Abby all have sporting aspirations and only pick up an interest in acting once they have retired from sport? My Abby look-alike colleague is quite a bit younger than me but she got her vet degree four years after me because of her sporting career focus in her teens and early twenties.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

5 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I enjoyed Dragon Age Inquisition, played it multiple times. So IMO DA doesn't need to be resurrected. Dreadwolf is also a completely natural and expected follow up to Inquisition, same as Inquisition flowed directly from DA 2. It could still be a mediocre game or worse, but Inquisition sets things up for a potentially great game.

This next Mass Effect game is going to have to be somewhat contrived, because the Reaper saga is done, esp if they canonise the destroy ending, to whit canonising any ending is one of the possible problems with making a milky way sequel. If they'd done a better job with Andromeda they could have left the milky way completely in the rear view.

I remember playing inquisition way back in 2014 and thinking it was alright until Witcher 3 came out a few months later and then I realised just how much of a turd DAI is in comparison.

No man, BioWare’s last great game was Mass Effect 3. 

Edited January 12 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

I remember playing inquisition way back in 2014 and thinking it was alright until Witcher 3 came out a few months later and then I realised just how much of a turd DAI is in comparison.

No man, BioWare’s last great game was Mass Effect 3. 

Those are such different games it could be argued it comes down to a matter of taste as opposed to objective measures of quality. All I can say is I've played DAI more times than I've played The Witcher 3. And I still haven't played the version where the Hero of Ferelden marries Anora, becomes king, keeps Logain alive and makes him do the dark ritual with Morrigan, Hawke romances Anders and the brother is a templar, and the Tal-Vashoth mage inquisitor sides with the templars.

[Jace, Extat]

2 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

I remember playing inquisition way back in 2014 and thinking it was alright until Witcher 3 came out a few months later and then I realised just how much of a turd DAI is in comparison.

No man, BioWare’s last great game was Mass Effect 3. 

I have on no less than 4 occassions reinstalled DA:I, got a few hours in, and then uninstalled. It's just so fucking... 

1 hour ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Those are such different games it could be argued it comes down to a matter of taste as opposed to objective measures of quality. All I can say is I've played DAI more times than I've played The Witcher 3. And I still haven't played the version where the Hero of Ferelden marries Anora, becomes king, keeps Logain alive and makes him do the dark ritual with Morrigan, Hawke romances Anders and the brother is a templar, and the Tal-Vashoth mage inquisitor sides with the templars.

Man DA:O was the best. I'll never forget my first playthrough as a mage, realizing that I was getting a Dune ending because I'd romanced that derp Alistair. He married Anora, but I owned that D.

 

Of course in all subsequent playthroughs I was of correct stature to become the Queen and hero of Ferelden 

 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

51 minutes ago, Jace, Extat said:

I have on no less than 4 occassions reinstalled DA:I, got a few hours in, and then uninstalled. It's just so fucking... 

Man DA:O was the best. I'll never forget my first playthrough as a mage, realizing that I was getting a Dune ending because I'd romanced that derp Alistair. He married Anora, but I owned that D.

 

Of course in all subsequent playthroughs I was of correct stature to become the Queen and hero of Ferelden 

 

Man what I would give to experience a BioWare game at its prime..I’ve literally played Kotor, Jade Empire and the Mass Effect trilogy multiple times…why EA allotted Respawn a brand new single player SW game instead of just letting BioWare make Kotor 3 which already had a strong fan base in place and huge demand, is one of life’s greatest mystery… 

BioWare’s founders really should’ve stayed independent instead of selling out to EA. Or atleast found a better buyer like Microsoft who had already funded their previous games as Xbox exclusives in the past at that point.
 

The way Obsidian has managed their company’s path has been way better even though they’ve had much less success than BioWare.

[The Anti-Targ]

3 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Man what I would give to experience a BioWare game at its prime..I’ve literally played Kotor, Jade Empire and the Mass Effect trilogy multiple times…why EA allotted Respawn a brand new single player SW game instead of just letting BioWare make Kotor 3 which already had a strong fan base in place and huge demand, is one of life’s greatest mystery… 

BioWare’s founders really should’ve stayed independent instead of selling out to EA. Or atleast found a better buyer like Microsoft who had already funded their previous games as Xbox exclusives in the past at that point.
 

The way Obsidian has managed their company’s path has been way better even though they’ve had much less success than BioWare.

The one thing that makes me not 100% mad that Bioware sold to EA was that when I was too poor to own more than one  gaming platform I only had a PS3 and when EA bought out Bioware they put ME2 on PS3. That almost certainly wouldn't have happened otherwise, so I am grateful for that. Now that I have a decent gaming PC EA controlling Bioware is nothing but bad.

4 hours ago, Jace, Extat said:

I have on no less than 4 occassions reinstalled DA:I, got a few hours in, and then uninstalled. It's just so fucking... 

 

No game should ever force you to push through the opening hours, but IMO it gets better and is worth it in the end. But if you've tried that many times and not found the motivation to carry on there are clearly better ways to spend your time.

[Caligula_K3]

Count me as another who enjoyed Inquisition. I'm hoping to replay it this year. Will DA4 be the greatest game of all time? Probably not, but I see no reason why it can't be a very good game.

I'm in a really fun stretch of Elden Ring. 

Spoiler

I did the Radahn battle, which was pretty cool and unique. Then I headed down to the underground city, which might be my favourite area so far in the game. Since then, have been exploring Altus Plateau, Mt. Gelmir, and the Volcano Manor*- all very well designed. I think I'm getting to the point where I feel ready to take on the capital, especially now that I have my Mimic Tear Ash and a very high level weapon.

*though I deeply hate that part of Volcano Manor where you have to drop down from hanging cage to hanging cage while a magic dude shoots you, and then you get to the bottom floor and are swarmed by enemies that eat you. Many runes were lost...

My only real complaint at this point is that I'm pretty over From Software's approach to storytelling, aka "let's just be as obtuse as possible, have all characters talk both cryptically and in either a terrible imitation of Shakespeare or a stream of pure jargon and call it a day." I never loved it in Dark Souls, but at least those were short enough that you felt like you had some direction. Here I'm doing stuff... to get to the capitol... to repair a ring... for reasons. And I have been for 40+ hours. And then don't get me started on the side quests...

Also, where's the dung eater?? I was promised dung eater.

 

 

Edited January 12 by Caligula_K3

[Slurktan]

44 minutes ago, Caligula_K3 said:

Count me as another who enjoyed Inquisition. I'm hoping to replay it this year. Will DA4 be the greatest game of all time? Probably not, but I see no reason why it can't be a very good game.

I'm in a really fun stretch of Elden Ring. 

  Reveal hidden contents

I did the Radahn battle, which was pretty cool and unique. Then I headed down to the underground city, which might be my favourite area so far in the game. Since then, have been exploring Altus Plateau, Mt. Gelmir, and the Volcano Manor*- all very well designed. I think I'm getting to the point where I feel ready to take on the capital, especially now that I have my Mimic Tear Ash and a very high level weapon.

*though I deeply hate that part of Volcano Manor where you have to drop down from hanging cage to hanging cage while a magic dude shoots you, and then you get to the bottom floor and are swarmed by enemies that eat you. Many runes were lost...

My only real complaint at this point is that I'm pretty over From Software's approach to storytelling, aka "let's just be as obtuse as possible, have all characters talk both cryptically and in either a terrible imitation of Shakespeare or a stream of pure jargon and call it a day." I never loved it in Dark Souls, but at least those were short enough that you felt like you had some direction. Here I'm doing stuff... to get to the capitol... to repair a ring... for reasons. And I have been for 40+ hours. And then don't get me started on the side quests...

Also, where's the dung eater?? I was promised dung eater.

 

 

Coming although he is just a piddly side quest. If you do it right though for my money he is the best spirit ash in the game. Requires doing specific things though.

[Rhom]

I finished Inquisition... once.  It was terrible.  The gameplay was awful.  And the game was big for the sake of being big.  I am one of the rare few that liked Andromeda, and I liked it despite correctly feeling that it was just Inquisition in space.  The difference was that Andromeda's gameplay was actually fun.

DA:Origins I played multiple times with different origins for the Warden.  Just a completely totally different style of game.  Heck, I even enjoyed DA2.  I have zero excitement for Dreadwolf.  

[Darryk]

EA ruined Bioware but I still really enjoyed Dragon Age Inquisition. I dunno if I could play it again though (so many inane side quests and collectibles), whereas I could replay Mass Effect multiple times.

I agree DA:I was also unlucky to come out around the same time as Witcher 3. I could play Witcher 3 multiple times despite it being immense.

[Mexal]

13 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I dunno about that.

  Hide contents

She beats the snot out of Ellie the one time they come face to face in CQC when she's fully healthy, and Ellie barely wins when Abby is a shadow of herself. That's down to her physicality, since they are both very skilled scrappers. Those are pivotal story moments.

To me, it really comes down to the fact that the acting talent pool severely lacks for young women who look like Abby. There is a reasonable talent pool for almost every other look but somehow not the under-30 power lifter type. Is it because young women who look like Abby all have sporting aspirations and only pick up an interest in acting once they have retired from sport? My Abby look-alike colleague is quite a bit younger than me but she got her vet degree four years after me because of her sporting career focus in her teens and early twenties.

You can win those fights without being so much more physical. You can be more determined. You can be better trained. You can be more strategic / deliberate in your actions. Ellie isn't exactly the strongest woman in the world so it won't take a ton for her to do it. My point is more that unlike a Jack Reacher type of character where his entire being is his physicality, I think Abby can be less insanely strong and still fulfill the core of the character. And Kaitlyn Dever is a fantastic actress who has shown she can be smart, determined, hard as nails and a strong leader who people want to follow in previous roles which so important to Abby's character. I'm thrilled honestly.

[Gorn]

13 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I dunno about that.

  Reveal hidden contents

She beats the snot out of Ellie the one time they come face to face in CQC when she's fully healthy, and Ellie barely wins when Abby is a shadow of herself. That's down to her physicality, since they are both very skilled scrappers. Those are pivotal story moments.

To me, it really comes down to the fact that the acting talent pool severely lacks for young women who look like Abby. There is a reasonable talent pool for almost every other look but somehow not the under-30 power lifter type. Is it because young women who look like Abby all have sporting aspirations and only pick up an interest in acting once they have retired from sport? My Abby look-alike colleague is quite a bit younger than me but she got her vet degree four years after me because of her sporting career focus in her teens and early twenties.

For any actress, that's sort of an chicken-and-egg situation. Putting on significant amount of muscle would lock them out of other future roles, which causes a lack of athletic-looking actresses, which causes casting directors not to seek out athletic-looking actresses due to lack of options.

[polishgenius]

The new 2D Prince of Persia game is getting glowing reviews. Nice.