Videogames: All Valves on Deck

[Argonath Diver]

I hit 100 tonight and got a couple more glyphs to 15. I'm playing probably the most OP class in the game - I didn't actually realize that went I went barb! - and it's pretty silly. I two shot Duriel just as I went to bed. Zero interest in AoZ. I don't think I have the energy to grind Duriel runs til I get a Shako or Grandfather. All in all I'm probably done with the season with no regrets.

I hope eventually the game has enough content, item chase, and effing storage space to encourage class rerolls. I'm an alt-oholic in ARGs, seeding new characters is a major part of my fun and this game completely eliminates that with its drop tables and zone scaling. 

[IlyaP]

Wild question: Is there a way to import data about my playtime for a game from EA Origins or EA App or whatever the hell it's called this week? In particular - Dragon Age: Inquisition. The amount of time spent playing it as logged by the EA App vs Steam aren't the same, yet I *finally* can run the game through Steam. 

It's a very minor thing, but I'd like to have that data at least be consistent, if possible.

[Mexal]

2 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

I hit 100 tonight and got a couple more glyphs to 15. I'm playing probably the most OP class in the game - I didn't actually realize that went I went barb! - and it's pretty silly. I two shot Duriel just as I went to bed. Zero interest in AoZ. I don't think I have the energy to grind Duriel runs til I get a Shako or Grandfather. All in all I'm probably done with the season with no regrets.

I hope eventually the game has enough content, item chase, and effing storage space to encourage class rerolls. I'm an alt-oholic in ARGs, seeding new characters is a major part of my fun and this game completely eliminates that with its drop tables and zone scaling. 

I have a lot of time over Xmas at the in-laws, I was thinking of rolling a Barb. By then my Rogue will be 100 and hopefully have most of what I want to complete my build. Which Barb build did you go with?

[Mexal]

6 hours ago, Arakasi said:

My son and I got to 100 and have farmed most of the content. They apparently have a huge itemization overhaul that will come with season four. It is a lot of fun to play but they need more things to do.

They have also yet to find the balance between difficulty and reward. The bosses like Duriel are great rewards but a joke to beat. The new Abbotair is brutally difficult but has little rewards and is an impossible grind. They need to find better balance.

Yea agreed on balance. Think over time, the game will be quite good and super happy to hear about the overhaul on itemization.

[Werthead]

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader has come out. It's a massive 100+ hour RPG from Owlcat, the studio behind Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous.

Reviews seem okay-ish, with praise for the story and setting, but criticism of janky graphics, bugs, overlong battles and obtuse systems.

[Gorn]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader has come out. It's a massive 100+ hour RPG from Owlcat, the studio behind Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous.

Reviews seem okay-ish, with praise for the story and setting, but criticism of janky graphics, bugs, overlong battles and obtuse systems.

So, a typical Owlcat game then? I'm not too worried about the bugs and the jank - much like wine and classic Obsidian games, Owlcat games get better with age.

[Arakasi]

Yeah seems more like a feature than a bug. I just bought it today and will play tonight. I like the turn based space battles with facing on shields that I’ve seen in YouTube vids. You also have to use your entire movement every turn which makes it more like naval combat in space. Instead of the unrealistic games like MoO where you zip across the screen to a stop and unload and then can zip right back. Game is fully turn based which is fine and seems plenty of options for builds.

[Arakasi]

To elaborate more on the combats taking long I think this is part the average player not understanding the game mechanics. Basically various classes have ultimate abilities called heroic acts or desperate measures. Think huge attacks or things that can turn the tide of battle. These can change the flow of battle fast. So you get them if you’re way up or way down. However if you play cautious and normal you’ll end up in the middle and this not optimal as you won’t be able to access these abilities. I assume that draws out the battles for normal players.

[polishgenius]

Outer Wilds finally dropped on Switch. Enjoying it so far, despite or perhaps because I have no fricking idea what is going on. 

[polishgenius]

This looks banging. Between this and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, fans of Metroid: Dread style action are going to be eating well next year. 

[polishgenius]

Okay three in a row but I've been browsing Game Awards trailers and you might have thought that Hello Games would row back on the ambition at least a bit with the struggle it took for them to get No Man's Sky to where they'd said it would be.

Admittedly they don't seem to be promising anything beyond what they're showing this time, but, err, yeah, they're not stepping back at all. This looks mental. 

 

 

[Werthead]

The Game Awards were apparently a bit of a shitshow. Not the actual awards, which all seemed pretty decent (very good split between Baldur's Gate III and Alan Wake II for the big prizes), but the fact they kept blasting people accepting awards offstage just a few seconds after they got up there, in one case when an acceptee was talking about the game helping survivors of trauma and another when trying to dedicate the award to a colleague who died during production. A lot of people fuming about that, and things being rushed so more no-gameplay trailers could be put out, often completely pointlessly (audible laughs during an "accolade trailer" for Starfield, and Todd Howard looking pissed off in the audience, especially when it lost the only category it was nominated in to Baldur's Gate III).

However, it did give us this bit of insanity (which manages to honour both the actor and the voice artist playing Alan Wake). I can only assume afterwards Sam Lake told Kojima he wants to see him dancing in DS2. Gauntlet dispatched.

[IlyaP]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

The Game Awards were apparently a bit of a shitshow.

Josh Sawyer didn't have nice things to say about the show either: 

 

[Poobah]

Yep it's pretty much a thinly veiled excuse to play lots of adverts and for Geoff Keighley to touch a few stars.

[IlyaP]

We're currently in the middle of the worst heatwave I've ever experienced, with temperatures of 113F (45C) outside, so I'm indoors with cider and an industrial strength fan, playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, as when it's this hot, the brain needs a game that doesn't impose many demands upon it. 

[Darryk]

I have to admit I wasn't a fan of the Larian Studios guy going up in LARP armour. Isn't the Game Awards an attempt to make people take games seriously?

[Werthead]

5 minutes ago, Darryk said:

I have to admit I wasn't a fan of the Larian Studios guy going up in LARP armour. Isn't the Game Awards an attempt to make people take games seriously?

I think that ship sailed two decades ago when video games started making money in amounts that buried the film industry.

The musical number and Swen accepting the award in full plate were moments of levity in a far too po-faced ceremony, to be honest.

[Poobah]

I think Swen's great. He's the CEO and owner of Larian by the way, not just some rando, and I'd far rather a great big nerd be in charge of the place than some soulless ghoul in an expensive suit. 

 

[Werthead]

Digital Foundry made a great point the nVidia 3080 and higher (so 3090, 4070, 4080, 4090 and associated ti-classes) have sold a combined ~14 million units, possibly more, and that's not including AMD alternatives. That compares to around 21 million sales of the Xbox Series X/S (with more S sold than X). And it's probable, from simple hardware comparisons, that 3070s and maybe 3060s will be able to run GTA6 without too much problem (assuming even half-competent PC optimisation, granted that is not a given these days).

So why the fuck is Rockstar not releasing GTA6 on PC at release? The excuses for why they did during GTA4 and 5 were already thin, but the commercial arguments for not doing it are very bizarre. There's literally more RTX3080+ PC gaming systems out there than Xbox Series X.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Werthead

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Digital Foundry made a great point the nVidia 3080 and higher (so 3090, 4070, 4080, 4090 and associated ti-classes) have sold a combined ~14 million units, possibly more, and that's not including AMD alternatives. That compares to around 21 million sales of the Xbox Series X/S (with more S sold than X). And it's probable, from simple hardware comparisons, that 3070s and maybe 3060s will be able to run GTA6 without too much problem (assuming even half-competent PC optimisation, granted that is not a given these days).

So why the fuck is Rockstar not releasing GTA6 on PC at release? The excuses for why they did during GTA4 and 5 were already thin, but the commercial arguments for not doing it are very bizarre. There's literally more RTX3080+ PC gaming systems out there than Xbox Series X.

1) They look down on PC gaming and think pure PC gamers are only pirates so they wont lose sales by not selling there at launch. 

2) They want console owners to buy their games twice, so PC release one year later to sell double the copies