Videogames: All Valves on Deck

[Arakasi]

Just now, Ramsay B. said:

No shit. But before I owned a steam deck I only had a ps5. I don’t have a pc.

Same. At least not one I use for gaming. I have my work pc but that’s for work.

[l2 0 5 5]

8 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

Starfield bored the shit out of me, and I purchased a Xbox just for it(before I got my steam deck). Yup I’m a sucker, but what a fucking disappointment.

Loved Dragon’s Dogma, but it was such an odd game. Intrigued by the second one and have it but just haven’t played it yet.

RE: Starfield - that seems to be the consensus 

DD2 - For the time you have to invest in the game it doesn't give me enough back in return. 

[Werthead]

New Vegas is better story-wise and RPG mechanics-wise than Skyrim, but the open world isn't as good. Fallout 4 has better gameplay and accessibility, but rows back on the RPG mechanics to below Skyrim (and Skyrim isn't a powerhouse as an RPG; a lot of the criticisms Fallout 4 get for that can be applied to Skyrim as well).

Skyrim I think does thread a path between those points quite well in a way that mega-appealed to the masses, and the open world is quite tasty.

Wrapping up Horizon Forbidden West Colon The Burning Shores, not sure what to pick up next. Not another open world megagame, with Homeworld 3 only a week and a bit away. Maybe back to the next BSG Deadlock DLC, don't want to lose too much momentum on that one.

[WATDUDEYEET]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

New Vegas is better story-wise and RPG mechanics-wise than Skyrim, but the open world isn't as good. Fallout 4 has better gameplay and accessibility, but rows back on the RPG mechanics to below Skyrim (and Skyrim isn't a powerhouse as an RPG; a lot of the criticisms Fallout 4 get for that can be applied to Skyrim as well).

Skyrim I think does thread a path between those points quite well in a way that mega-appealed to the masses, and the open world is quite tasty.

Joseph Anderson got it right that Skyrim and Fallout 4 aren't really RPGs but rather offline looter shooters with their open worlds designed more around a core gameplay loop that boils down to "explore, shoot, loot, repeat" that makes them way more addicting and popular compared to New Vegas despite that game being more critically praised.

I suspect a major reason why Starfield felt like a bummer compared to previous Bethesda games was that its open world design distrupted the core gameplay loop, with exploration and navigating being a major hassle in a space enviroment where you have to load through your ship and various planets just to get to other locations.

[polishgenius]

The year of the Metroidvania continues, just been trying Tales of Kenderia: Zau. Sadly, despite coming with a bit of hype and a story behind it that made me positively inclined, early signs just... aren't great. I don't mind checkpoint-chasing Metroidvanias, some are very very good, but I do mind when I'm just rushed through areas without any time or reason to appreciate them. Sense of place is the most important thing to me in a Metroidvania (beyond basics like movement being undistracting as a minimum), and this doesn't have any. I've been in I think four or five areas and I could not tell you what any of them are. I'm also not actually sure it's a true Metroidvania at all- which isn't an inherent negative but is kind of weird given how strongly it's pretending to be one. 

It's also just a little ropey in its level design. Not as extreme as something like the otherwise much more appealing-to-me Ghost Song (the jump arc didn't match the level structure in that, an unforgiveable mistake tbqh), but a little clunky, and visually it's messy. That last might be an effect of playing on Switch handheld though.

I wouldn't entirely warn people off it- I feel like its closest inspiration in terms of its design and style is Ori, and I didn't love Ori either, so fans of that might like it more. But... well, it's not as good as Ori. 

It also seems to have reasonably decent combat, though having played Prince of Persia a couple months ago the bar there is high right now for Metroidvanias and it's not up to that standard. 

 

Ah well. I'll give it a bit more, see if a point comes where it opens up and improves, but mostly it looks like it's on to Animal Well in a few days. That seems like it's definitely going to slap - huge hype from journos who've played advance builds. 

[mcbigski]

So what actually is a JPRG? 

I've played the Souls games and Elden Ring.  Never played any of the Final Fantasy games.  (Presumably that title makes more sense in Japanese, or we're in Lionel Hutz suing the makers of The Never Ending Story territory.)

Played a bit of Zelda as a kid, but I was mostly playing Ultima III/IV/V, Phantasie, Rogue, Sundiver etc on the PC/ST while my younger brother was playing Nintendo.

Never understood the distinction.

 

[Heartofice]

The new Fallout 4 next gen update seems to have slowed loading times between locations to a crawl. Basically unplayable at the moment for me.

[Rhom]

7 hours ago, mcbigski said:

So what actually is a JPRG? 

I've played the Souls games and Elden Ring.  Never played any of the Final Fantasy games.  (Presumably that title makes more sense in Japanese, or we're in Lionel Hutz suing the makers of The Never Ending Story territory.)

Played a bit of Zelda as a kid, but I was mostly playing Ultima III/IV/V, Phantasie, Rogue, Sundiver etc on the PC/ST while my younger brother was playing Nintendo.

Never understood the distinction.

 

According to legend… Final Fantasy got its name because Square was going out of business and they were going to make one last game.  Final Fantasy was a hit and saved the company.

As to what makes a JRPG… eh, it’s a little bit of a know it when you see it sort of thing.  Story heavy. Not necessarily turn based gameplay, but turn adjacent is an important factor. Generally it’s party based gameplay, but not always.

Zelda is most definitely NOT a JRPG.  In my book, I never would call it a RPG at all.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

5 minutes ago, Rhom said:

According to legend… Final Fantasy got its name because Square was going out of business and they were going to make one last game.  Final Fantasy was a hit and saved the company.

As to what makes a JRPG… eh, it’s a little bit of a know it when you see it sort of thing.  Story heavy. Not necessarily turn based gameplay, but turn adjacent is an important factor. Generally it’s party based gameplay, but not always.

Zelda is most definitely NOT a JRPG.  In my book, I never would call it a RPG at all.

Careful man, these guys freak out if you call an open world shooter with light RPG elements like Cyberpunk 2077 barely an RPG. They’ll be triggered if you claim that about Zelda  

[Kalbear]

2 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Careful man, these guys freak out if you call an open world shooter with light RPG elements like Cyberpunk 2077 barely an RPG. They’ll be triggered if you claim that about Zelda  

It's especially funny when you say it

[TheLastWolf]

Minecraft is THE "W"

[polishgenius]

Has anyone ever claimed Zelda is an RPG?

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Has anyone ever claimed Zelda is an RPG?

I've seen it claimed.

[Werthead]

16 hours ago, mcbigski said:

So what actually is a JPRG? 

I've played the Souls games and Elden Ring.  Never played any of the Final Fantasy games.  (Presumably that title makes more sense in Japanese, or we're in Lionel Hutz suing the makers of The Never Ending Story territory.)

Played a bit of Zelda as a kid, but I was mostly playing Ultima III/IV/V, Phantasie, Rogue, Sundiver etc on the PC/ST while my younger brother was playing Nintendo.

Never understood the distinction.

A Japanese roleplaying game.

The distinction I think is more of a game that has turn-based combat, party management, going up levels etc.

So recent games like Octopath Traveller or older games like Final Fantasy I-IX.

As with a lot of western RPGs, there's some controversy involved when you see the switch to having twitch, realtime gameplay, a heavy action focus, less character development etc, to the point where everyone agrees that Final Fantasy VII is a JRPG but it's blood on the carpet over whether Final Fantasy VII Remake is still one.

[IlyaP]

20 hours ago, Heartofice said:

The new Fallout 4 next gen update seems to have slowed loading times between locations to a crawl. Basically unplayable at the moment for me.

I'm experiencing something similar to this, but with the Witcher 3, where the next gen update has *seriously* borked something, and has caused me to have audio lock-ups that lock my system, random CTDs, and extreme levels of jerkiness. Apparently there's been a considerable amount of kvetching from the fan community about the update, and many users are reporting that the game has become nigh-unplayable to them. So I've given up the ghost on revisiting the game for the moment (the next gen update reportedly added new quests, which intrigued me).

[IlyaP]

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

As with a lot of western RPGs, there's some controversy involved when you see the switch to having twitch, realtime gameplay, a heavy action focus, less character development etc, to the point where everyone agrees that Final Fantasy VII is a JRPG but it's blood on the carpet over whether Final Fantasy VII Remake is still one.

And then there's Anachronox, which is a mix of the two, and it's delightfully out of this world and a sight to behold.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

56 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

I'm experiencing something similar to this, but with the Witcher 3, where the next gen update has *seriously* borked something, and has caused me to have audio lock-ups that lock my system, random CTDs, and extreme levels of jerkiness. Apparently there's been a considerable amount of kvetching from the fan community about the update, and many users are reporting that the game has become nigh-unplayable to them. So I've given up the ghost on revisiting the game for the moment (the next gen update reportedly added new quests, which intrigued me).

When you launch the game play on the Directx 11 version and switch off Ray tracing if you had it on. I have a fairly high end system and even I struggled with the maxed out Ray tracing version. Directx 12 is what’s causing the instability.

im looking forward to revisiting Witcher 3 once the the modding community has created new quests with the new quest editor. 
There is one new quest in the Witcher update and it’s really good, you can load into any Velen save and explore the area around the hanged man tree to find it.

Edited May 1 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Durckad]

All this talk about what is and isn't an RPG has made me realise that BG3 is most definitely NOT a real RPG because I can't tell the DM to fuck off with their stupid story and spend the session beating the shit out of patrons at the local tavern while the other players quickly get tired of my presence. THAT is the apex of the true RPG experience.

[IlyaP]

25 minutes ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

When you launch the game play on the Directx 11 version and switch off Ray tracing if you had it on. I have a fairly high end system and even I struggled with the maxed out Ray tracing version. Directx 12 is what’s causing the instability.

My card doesn't support RTX, so that was easily eliminated as a potential culprit. 

 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

6 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

My card doesn't support RTX, so that was easily eliminated as a potential culprit. 

 

Ahh then just play on the directx 11, it’s essentially then the same game with higher textures which you can optionally turn down in the graphics menu. The new quality of life changes like the new camera angle , UI changes, quests etc will all be there.

Edited May 1 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II