Couple other things to add to this beautiful list others have: meta gaming and chat.
They barely added achievements and only for a couple games, while steam has that, guides, community art, and even a newish notes feature in case you’re playing an OG game that makes you track stuff. Guides have kind of been better than more traditional sources.
Chat is… better on steam, although discord kind of supplanted it. Game based emoji, stickers, etc. It’s actually very good, though, with support for couch coop stream gaming, etc, with voice comms.
One could also point to the generous family sharing function, but I’m not sure what Epic does in that regard. DRM is DRM though. Do keep in mind, though, the philosophy behind Steam is to make DRM palatable by adding features. Epic philosophy (on paper) is to give devs a higher cut, although I’ve heard devs feel more supported by steam-- especially since they aren’t afraid to throw obscure indie games into a users discovery queue.
It was great when it had its niche, and I still buy games there occasionally, but it has poorer integration with pretty much anything, Galaxy is bloated as hell, and it has explicitly no linux/deck support.
Eta: apparently GOG actively funds Heroic launcher, didn’t know that, thanks for pointing it out to me.
So I learned recently that GOG actively funds Heroic. Which really takes some weight off of Heroic's support for GOG game autopatching and cloud saves, meaning it may be a bit hacky and officially in "beta", but it's very unlikely for GOG to object to its presence.
They may not "officially" support Linux, but they don't "explicitly" lack support.
Also, tip of the hat to Heroic, it works extremely well and very reliably. I was frustrated with Lutris and I am bummed out by how Galaxy didn't quite get there as the one universal support launcher to handle all your libraries, but Heroic is good enough as a replacement I don't mind nearly as much anymore. Even on Windows I'd consider it over Galaxy.
Yep. As I understand it it's via affiliate links, so if you buy GOG games through the storefront in the Heroic UI they get a small cut, but the Heroic devs say they have spoken to GOG reps and they are broadly supportive, so unless that changes I don't think their ability to support GOG features would be compromised any time soon.
I’m currently playing the game, got like a handful of levels left. It’s a good game, but with the way the Doom games have evolved and changed over the time, I don’t think you can really say “if you like that Doom, you’ll like this Doom.”
I definitely enjoy the gameplay of Eternal more, but Dark Ages is really good.
The feel of running around is great. You sound massive, your jumps create shockwaves and kill enemies. If you’ve played Boltgun, it’s like that.
The shield is feels great. The charge is awesome, just like the Meathook was in Eternal to get right next to your enemy, and fodder demons just explode on impact.
Parries feel good, but are extremely easy. The timing is super forgiving and the range is massive.
I think a big thing, that not many people are talking about, are the difficulty sliders. You can change so many things, but ID just ignores 90% of them with their presets. You can change so much stuff, and make it feel like a completely different game. Crank up the game speed and just zoom around. Increase your and the enemies damage, so it’s all about dodging, or you get one-shot. Make the projectiles slow, but a lot more deadly.
There’s still some ammo management, but it’s not like Eternal, not even like 2016. Your melee attack, that you can use for the execute drops ammo, just like the Chainsaw, but you’re using it regularly anyway. Some guns also have upgrades that shooting demons with it also drops ammo for the weapon.
The game is a lot more story heavy, but just like in Eternal you can just skip it and not read the Codex entries.
The mech stuff is alright, but pretty basic, but also really short segments. The dragon is cool in theory, but I really hate these parts, and they just drag on for far too long. Flying around just isn’t fun.
Weapons are pretty good, and I have some favorites. The normal Combat Shotgun with upgrades is great this time and not just outshined by the Super Shotgun immediately. That Ball-on-a-Chain gun is also really nice, with some cool upgrades. Because you don’t really have any ammo issues if you use the melee regularly, I’ve just used one gun for long stretches of time, because there’s just no reason real reason to switch, and you can just use what you want.
The devs always said in Dark Ages you’re like a tank, but with default settings on Nightmare difficulty, you’re made out of paper. Projectiles are extremely dangerous, and enemies like to spawn behind you and shoot you in the back. The game is actually not great on telling you where you’re getting attacked from, and there’s just always tons of enemies around and some deaths can be kinda frustrating.
Then there are also some minor UI/UX issues. You get small icons in the middle for your melee charges, but they don’t show the progress like in Eternal with the Blood Punch. There’s no dedicated Map button, just open your Dossier, which remembers your last screen, which is annoying, because you want that map 99% of the time. Sprinting has this terrible vignette effect around your screen, and you want to sprint all the time, but you can only disable all screen effects, which includes some stuff I’d like to see.
For some dumb reason, the Fast Travel option, at the end of a level has been removed, so if you miss a secret, you’ll have to play the level again. There’s also tons of points-of-no-return, so you’ll have to stare at the map constantly, to make sure you haven’t missed anything, which makes the lack of a map button so terrible.
After I’m done with my Nightmare run, I want to do another one, where I play around with the sliders a bit. I want to turn up the game speed, but will probably lower the damage and projectile speed to compensate.
Yes, but it would still be nice to have in the middle.
I went back to check in Eternal, and I was wrong about that game showing the progress on the icons in the middle of the screen. Just like Dark Ages it just shows charges that are ready to use, and the progress in the full HUD on the edges of the screen. Seems like I just need to get good and look at the full HUD, like I did in Eternal.
We don’t own our games anymore, so I need to know my library’s going to stick around if I’m going to invest in it. Last I heard, EGS hasn’t made a profit, so that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in me that it’ll still be around in five years.
I think competition is the answer to a lot of problems consumers face, but unfortunately the “are you going to be there tomorrow?” problem is going to be a major disadvantage for any storefront that competes with Steam. It’s why my most preferred shop is GOG, because I still have all my games with them if they close up.
I’m loving Doom Dark ages, I’m on about level 8 out of 22. I like that there’s enough room in levels to move around. Movement is awesome, you can just run everywhere. The weapons are extremely effective and your toolkit is reduced so you have shield-block shield-slam shield-throw melee and then guns. It’s pretty easy to remember everything you have and then select an appropriate attack for the situation.
I really love it. Hopefully there aren’t any more Mech-pilot missions because that one sucked. The dragon wasn’t my favorite either but you can make it through without much difficulty and it didn’t take forever.
Console gamer here as well, though with a PC and redeeming my weekly Epic Games since a few years back. I sometimes play on my PC, but mostly games I don’t have on my console.
Most of what I hear I believe it’s mostly due to the Epic Launcher being quite a bit behind standard, and the store not having great costumer service policies. I think Epic’s games with timed exclusivity don’t garner a lot of respect from the gaming community either, as they rather have freedom of choice to purchase their games on their main storefront.
Now, I think it’ll be obvious, but all of what I mentioned is further impacted by the comparison between Epic (or most other launchers, really) and Steam. Steam might as well be called the “default launcher” at this point, and naturally not everyone can compete (or they don’t want to) with the numerous and consistently good business decisions Steam tends to have, which keeps it in the top.
Not only that, and even though I still benefit from it, I’d say Epic’s strategy of offering weekly free games might feel like a sort of ‘obvious bribe’ to some, a cheap way to try and vainly make gamers turn on their main competitor. Which isn’t really moving the needle that much, because gamers preference for Steam isn’t due to free games, but good and consumer-oriented business practices.
I’m sure from gamer to gamer there’s more depth to this, but I’d say that’s the gist of it.
Oh, it’s way different from Elden Ring, if you played that one. It’s a lot more linear. But it’s so fun tbh. Highly recommend. I keep getting my ass kicked and having a blast lol I’m super excited for the other games.
I forgot bloodborne is a fromsoft. I played the hell outta that one but never beat it. The world building in that is wild. Like a Van Helsing horror show. Like a werewolf filled Victorian era. It’s wild and hard AF because of the mechanics of the game. Using the weird gun to stop attacks and the style of attacks with melee are timed really weird. But the aesthetic is on point. Horror, instead of fantasy like demons/dark souls/Elden Ring.
Im not a fan of Elden Ring. Something about it is off for me. But i absolutely love dark souls 1&3. Sekiro seems good to, but i haven’t played it enough to get into it yet.
I love the clunkyness and slow paced fighting in DS1 tho, that’s easily my favorite so far. A slow ass tacticful medieval metroidvania? Yes please and thank you lol
I don’t have PlayStation though, so some games are off limits unfortunately
Maybe it’s the open world, idk. I also wasnt able to run it full speed in the outside area without looking down. That kinda ruins things. I do plan on playing it again on my steamdeck.
Without looking down? I’m not sure what that means.
I will say the controls are irksome with sprint being circle. I tend to half-claw my controller. Like, left hand is regular grip, but right hand is thumb on the R3 stick, middle finger for the triggers, and index finger for the circle button. While using thumb for the X, triangle, square buttons.
In GTA, I tend to push the camera forward to look a little down while driving. Helps me see stuff a little better but drives people nuts when they watch me play lol
I know a lot of people hate on ds2 but it’s honestly a good game. It has its faults. It’s definitely the weakest title, but it’s still a banger if you think of it in a vacuum instead of comparing it to other FromSouls games. If you like the genre, I highly recommend ds3. It is (imo) the most polished by far. I like it better than Elden Ring but that might be a hotter take.
Oh yeah, that’s me for sure. I try not to compare games or listen to the recommended meta or even listen to the hate for not playing a certain way. There’s just not enough wizard media that’s epic. Like Harry Potter was mid until Dumbledore lit up a fire tornado. But that was before J.K. became a J.O.K.E.
I just love it when I can be a knight running castles and throwing massive spells. It might make the game slightly easier, I guess? And people hate that, I guess? But I’m like, my dudes, where else can you cast a spell that calls meteorites to smash a dragon?? Or a freakin’ mana laser beam that melts a god?? Just because I suck at rolling and dodging doesn’t mean I’m not having the time of my freakin’ life!
I keep saying we need more of two types of media:
Epic spells from wizards, witches, warlocks (without a kid friendly setting like HP) that has huge, realistic storylines.
And solid, horrifying mummy films. The two 00s mummy films are fun, but a family-friendly type of fun. The 3rd and Tom Cruise’s version can go to hell. There needs to be an amazing horror version, or at least more of the mummy theme, imo.
The first two mummy movies are OK. I saw them in the cinema as a kid. Not all that great movies, but entertaining. The Scorpion King spinoff was fine too. 3rd mummy was not very entertaining.
The Tom Cruise one was forgettable. It wasn’t directly related to the OG trilogy, iirc. It has a lady mummy and was mid AF. The 3rd Mummy was awful with the recast of the main actress.ever since, I’ve been craving a solid mummy horror. Watching the 1st as a kid, when that guy gets his eyeballs taken, I was freaked. I can still hear the character sayin, “my eyes!” Without a tongue lol. Need a good mummy film!
Honestly, you get a solid challenge out of these games no matter how you build. Different bosses/ enemies will challenge different builds. I also enjoy the everything-bagel battle-mages. I try to stack enough mental stats to cast every spell in a game, enough strength and dex to wield whatever weapon I pick up for that run, and enough attunement to learn 3-5 spells at a time. My health, stamina, and equip-load are whatever I have left within the arbitrary level cap I set for myself (usually 201)
Anyway, my point is there’s no better / worse way to build. All that matters is what you like and what you don’t.
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