Baldur's Gate 3.
I can probably count the number of games I've paid full price for in the past 15 years on one hand, and this is one of them. No regrets whatsoever.
Looking back on Steam, last time was GTA V. Prior to that Skyrim, and prior to that Portal 2.
In those places, the games are differently priced. Regional pricing is on Steam, epic, and a few other stores. Also, I only buy games, I don’t pirate and I rarely buy games for 60 dollars. I typically just wait a bit and pick them up for 30 or less. That said I understand, pirating is easier and for AAA games it might truly not matter if you do or not. Indie games are certainly a different story and each purchase, even extremely discounted, gives the developer that little bit more which can mean a lot.
I live in one of those places and we don’t have regional pricing. When Steam starts offering competitive pricing in Africa I’ll start buying games at full price but for the moment I’ll stick to buying games on sale and piracy.
Ah, okay. Yeah, looking at Steam’s pricing it doesn’t give me the option to regionally price for shillings of any kind. The most I can regionally price is the South African Rand. Do prices on Steam then just show in USD for you or do they actually sell stuff in shillings?
I play with a friend. If it works out anything like Divinity: Original Sin 2 we'll be finished maybe around April or something.
We usually play about 1 hour at a time, almost never more than 1.5 hour... and about 2-4 times a week. So it'll take a long while, but it's a lot of fun.
As a new dad I don’t have the time for games that I used to, but I’ve been playing BG2 for a few hours every week, and now BG3 has taken over, it’s actually a perfect game to play whenever you just have a short time on your hand.
It’s one of those game experiences where I think of my character all the time when not playing. Can’t wait to get back, when the little one is sleeping again.
I hate when games are open world just cause. I only ever enjoy an open world when there’s an insane amount of lore like in Skyrim or Fallout, but in most games I prefer a linear gameplay or semi-open (Mass effect, Dragon Age)
At some point something happened and literally every game has to be open world now 😭
A Plague Tale is an incredible example of what can be done with a linear design. Both Innocence and Requiem were amazing.
Open world games like the Witcher 3 leave the player with this really weird interaction with plot urgency. I’m looking for someone but just barely missed them? Hurry to the next town so I don’t miss them again? But then zero consequences when I ignore that quest for twenty levels.
And that Halo game I can’t remember what it’s called, but there’s an open world Halo game and it’s awful.
The biggest problem in that game, and in general, is the fact that, yeah it’s an open world game, but there isn’t really a lot to do, so you have to run around through the level, which is usually boring, to get to the actual next bit of the game.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they just teleported you to the next bit. Then the open world aspect could be played around with on your terms, but you could also just ignore it if you wanted. But they never do that because they’ve made an open world, and they want you to look at it.
While I don’t mind openworld games, they definitely feel off, esp. with regards to the main quest. Can’t save the world, gotta get this granny laid.
One of the only games with a open world that actually REQUIRED it for the game to make sense is Paradise Killers. It’s a detective open world game on an island. The open world makes a lot of sense, because a detective has to find their clues. It’s not a detective game if there’s a counter of “clues found” or there’s a linear progression. The game never tells you that you’re done finding clues. Like a real detective in a real open world, you have to decide whether you’ve seen enough.
I mostly dislike open-world games because of the lazy travel systems. Either you have to run everywhere or you free fast-travel from any point, too any point.
There is no middelground.
I miss games like Morrowind, where you not only had to pay for fast-travel, but it functioned more like an actual transportation system. Like, you had to go to this city and take a Strider to that town and then a boat ride to get to your destination.
Giving the world some infrastructur and natural money drainers helps with immersion and facilitates the need to go do some side-quests every now then. You get fast-travel, but you also get to see the world that was build for you. And you don’t run around as the richest douche in the world by level 10 with the best gear available because nothing costs anything.
Bethesda skipped this aspect entirely back in Oblivion and never looked back. Making your characters golden gods from the get-go, with no reason to interact with anyone or do anything except screwing around and collecting trinkets.
There’s more to it, ofcause, but this is the biggest pet-peeve I have.
Here’s one I genuinely love and hate at the same time. In Dark Souls and Elden Ring, you drop your souls/runes (currency) on the spot where you last died, and if you die again before recovering them, they’re lost forever. You get souls and runes by killing enemies and generally progressing, so this leads to some interesting scenarios.
One one hand, it incentivizes you to spend your currency (to minimize risk of losing it) instead of just sitting on it, forcing you to make decisions on how you spend it, and whether to take the risk to save up to get more expensive items or level ups. It also forces you to play very deliberately, since there’s a penalty, but only if you die twice.
But… it makes me scared to progress, because I don’t know what to expect, and I don’t want to risk losing my souls/runes. Unless I have just recently lost everything and I have nothing to lose, I feel pressured to play overly carefully and never take risks and play the game in the most fun way possible, out of fear of loss. And even when I DO die and lose my currency, the freedom to play in risky ways only lasts for a short time, because as I kill enemies I start to build up my souls or runes again, and then I’m back in the same situation of not wanting to lose them.
I think that’s the main reason why I haven’t finished Elden Ring despite getting so close to the end. That overly careful playstyle is not very fun, but I can’t get over that fear of losing my runes in order to enjoy the game more.
The run back to your body helps you build up runes too, where a game where you’re loading a save it reverts progress. The souls style allows death to create progress for people struggling. If you’re dying then you’ll be forced to build runes up and can then go level or upgrade gear.
Usually you shouldn’t be too worried about losing souls though because they’re fairly easy to come by. It’s a bit of a trap in souls games to value your souls too much. There are many ways to farm them that don’t take much time or effort, including just going exploring side content and finding new equipment. Once you level up yourself or your gear a few times, the part you were struggling with will be easier. That’s how Elden Ring especially, but even Dakr Souls, is supposed to be played. If you’re struggling and don’t want to be, just go somewhere else. There’s plenty of content to do.
This is definitely one of the things I originally didn’t like about Souls games that have come to realize is a pretty cleverly designed mechanic. Earning enough souls to purchase something shouldn’t take very long and it if is, then it means you already have what you need to be succeeding in your current area. The ‘git gud’ joke is worn out, but genuinely you just need to learn how to face off with enemies (or run past them) until they stop being scary.
The game will not let you progress without learning how to engage with the systems it presents to you. There are typically several or many viable strategies, you just have to figure out what works for you.
By the time you’re dragging yourself through a toxic poison swamp you’ll realize that your level is just a number and nothing lasts forever.
I have several hundred hours across the 3 souls games and ER, and I totally get that it’s a well designed mechanic, which is why I love it. and yeah, I know that valuing souls too much is a mental trap that prevents me from enjoying the game, but I just can’t shake it in Elden Ring for some reason, despite doing so more easily in souls games. (though, it especially sucks in DS2 because of soul memory but that’s a whole can of worms)
The souls series is one of my favorite game series of all time, and I would definitely not change the blood stain mechanic whatsoever because I think it’s about perfect. Especially with rings of sacrifice (or the weird twigs) and homeward bones to give you chances to mitigate the penalty when you really think you need to. It’s excellently designed and forces you to improve at the game.
Despite that, it still causes me hesitation and demotivates me from playing the games sometimes. I have to be in a specific mood to want to improve at a game, and I’m in that mood less often as I have more things I need to spend my time on, and usually play games just to relax and have an easier time nowadays. I still love Elden Ring to death and it’s genuinely one of the best games ever made (in my opinion), and yet I have a love/hate relationship with death mechanics in these games.
I would like a language learning video game which is set up as a MMO, and you “reverse” level. You start with massive equipment because you need it to be able to fight the learning monsters, but as you get more proficient you get hit less(fewer mistakes) and do more damage (faster language entry) so you can start dropping equipment. So the monk running around in a loin cloth is the goal. All sorts of multi-player interactions are possible around setting up conversations, handling larger readings, etc.
this sounds awesome. I don't know if it's on your radar but there's a game coming out called Newcomer that looks like a half decent language learning video game.
That's the one I was trying to remember, I'd heard about it back when it was just starting out! Unfortunately, it still doesn't support türkçe, and I'm not exactly in the position as a learner to help add it or I'd be all over that :(
Honestly if the mods aren’t drag drop play I don’t even fuck with them. I’ve spent too much time modding games that weren’t made to be modded, and steam workshop has truly spoiled me.
How is it a scam? It’s $30 for the game and all DLCs of $40 for both games and all DLCs. No one said it was remaster or a remake. No one said it would have extra content. It’s a 25th anniversary sale. That’s all. Everyone knew that ahead of time. If you own the games no one is like “oh well you have to buy this version actually, your old game won’t work”
And sims 2 is still a better deal than sims 4, even being free.
I think you’re just mad at EA just to be mad at EA. Like on of those forced Ubisoft haters. Doing it for clout.
There are a lot of bugs that crash the game. It’s barely functional for most. Just look at the Steam reviews.
These games were free before, and with a community patch were still playable. This rerelease somehow got a worse patch than the community patch and costs 40 bucks.
But I also lose out on fake reviews like “👍 game” or “👎 ea” which is A LOT of fucking people. I also skip out on “no one will see this so I’m gay” or whatever. People use steam reviews as a social media app now to get likes and awards. It’s fucking trash
The release is broken. There are several complaints that folks aren’t even able to get the game to launch. Considering that it isn’t a remaster or remake, just the same game with a copyright update, that’s ridiculous.
The Sims 2 + all expansions was available for free on Origin for years until it was removed. Most fans already have that version, and most modding guides are going to assume that version. One wonders if the community launcher will even work with the new releases - or mod compatibility. The Sims 1 has been considered abandonware for a while and I imagine most who want to play it already acquired a copy online.
The issue is probably denuvo related. Or people can’t get it to run because they pirated it not know it has denuvo and are trying to playing off as a bad launch lmao.
Funnily enough, the Sims 2 shipped with SecureROM which really pissed the community off then. A literal root kit which could interfere with legitimate software. I get a desire for anti piracy measures - but the game was offered for free officially for like 5+ years.
I distantly remember a guy who was dying of cancer, but kept up an absolute tirade against EA. There was so much ill will then, it would be funny if they made the same mistake.
The Sims series is itself a story of how fucking shit EA is. Killing Maxis, driving off the original creators… even in Sims 2 days you had the IKEA and H&M expansion packs - ads that you paid for (even if tbh the furniture and clothes are good). Sims 3 had features stripped and added back in expansion packs. Getting all of the expansions is ridiculously expensive and running all of them at the same time will wreck your game. Sims 3 also started putting micro transaction ads into your fucking build/buy mode.
Sims 4 shipped without toddlers and every expansion pack seems to have made the game actively worse. The base game is so bare that it isn’t worth playing, but the expansions and stuff are often released entirely broken, and then never fixed. “Wedding Stories” was so disastrous even the Pollyanna YouTubers were pissed.
And now - folks realizing that there is nothing to be had in the new garbage game, that the Sims 5/Project Renee is never going to come out (or be some kind of mobile shit) - they try an easy cash grab of rereleasing two games with zero improvements and even more broken. When the Sims 2 had been legally available for free for the better part of a decade and you could download and install a Sims 1 iso in less time than I’ve spent writing this comment.
I distantly remember a guy who was dying of cancer, but kept up an absolute tirade against EA. There was so much ill will then, it would be funny if they made the same mistake.
I don’t know if you are talking about Total Biscuit, but you’ve reminded me of Total Biscuit.
I do this for a lot of games, but definitely for the Civ games. I play one generation behind because I can get the entire package for a reasonable price. And let’s be honest, I have shitloads of other games to play in the meantime. I’m not missing anything.
I’ve stared from Black flag up until Odyssey, then I went back the Ezio Trilogy.
At firt the Ezio games seemed janky and unpolished, but boy was I wrong. The percieved “jankiness” was due to the fact that you have actual control over the character, which can be difficult at first but extremely rewarding later in the game(s), with tombs and catacombs that feel like actual puzzles to traverse, nothing like the “parkour on rails” of ACIV. Unity’s parkour really felt like a step in the right direction, but players complained about it being a broken and rushed game and somehow Ubi understood that they needed to turn AC into The Witcher.
As for the present time story arc I think they really nailed it with Desmond. I love games that take real world history as a base and add a fictional twists to it, and the sense of uncovering an actual, worldwide conspiracy and the origins of humankind itself was there.
I understand they’ve acknowledged the fact that people don’t play AC for the present time story arc, but there was no reason to let it die in irrelevance from ACIII onwards. Layla’s arc might be a slight step towards the right direction, but we’re still far, far away.
This is all to say that yes, I agree with you. This series had (and still has) so much potential, but it was unfortunately hijacked by corporate greed time and time again, straying further from the original concept as time goes on.
I’m currently playing valhalla and plan on tackling ACIII next, and then Mirage.
I think this was an Atari 2600 on a chip though, not emulation, although I’m not 100% sure. Wikipedia states that the successor from 2005 used such a design, but surely this must have been the only way of creating this kind of low-cost device in 2002. I doubt there was anything cheap enough that could emulate even a system as basic as the 2600 in software back then.
The 2600 used a MOS 6507, which is a cut-down 6502, which had ~3500 logic transistors (not counting the ones necessary because NMOS), running at a max of 3MHz. Add very primitive graphics and 8k RAM.
Can’t be arsed to slog through suitable processors but ARM cores back then could kill that thing dead. 2002 is six years after the Palm Pilot while Moore’s law was still in full effect. The 2600 is from 1977, two decades more ancient.
There should even be more than enough cycles left over to generate the video signal in software.
Sure, but 2002 was a bit too early for ARM chips in what was essentially a cheap children’s toy. They were still too complex and expensive for this kind of thing at the time - not to mention, there were few emulators that ran on this architecture available, so it would have to be specifically developed.
Baldur’s Gate 3. The default party size is 4. In single player it’s filled with NPCs. Might be a long commitment, but it’s a bloody good game. If you are more than 4 you can increase the party size with mods that can be installed from within the game. You could increase the difficulty to compensate.
Incidentally the first two games can be played in multiplayer as well, with up to 6 people. But although they are awesome as well they might be a little bit dated.
If you’re looking for F2P Path of Exile is one of the best. It’s an action RPG like Diablo (which is also great in multiplayer).
We did try BG3 when it came out, but were disappointed in how the coop interacted with dialogues and story events so we ended up dropping it. I kept playing it alone up to the start of act 2, but didn’t enjoy it so we never tried coop again. We are playing an actual DnD campaign tho.
I haven’t played PoE, but one issue I have with coop in action RPGs is that everyone is mostly doing their own thing independently of the other players and the classes are all damage dealers (which, side note, I feel like is the same in BG3 and DnD too). Does PoE have any options to play support roles? It does look fun tho so I might still try it, even if it’s not exactly what I’m looking for.
Divinity original sin is from the same developers as Baldurs Gate and is an absolute banger. Given that the coop Aspekt in dialogues is the absolute same. But the games main focus is IMO the combat which is purely incredible and the build diversity is superb. Also synergies between different players and build is highly encouraged since classes differ greatly in their abilities.
Only one character does the talking and you have to actively listen in to hear any of it.
I just remembered Star Wars: The Old Republic. There everyone could participate and it would select randomly who would say the next line. That was nice.
To add to what the other commenter has added. All characters in dialogue are frozen in place and poeple not in dialogue can manipulate them or their surrounding and they can’t react to any of it.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is great with dialogues. All players choose an answer and it randomly selects who actually gets to say what they want. And the Sith Warrior and Sith Magician (can’t remember the actual class names) synergise great in terms of story and quest locations. The corresponding Jedi classes might as well.
Used to play it with my wife, until some small human took up all our time. We got lucky with the classes. We had a lot of fun. Other classes all seem to have separate starting locations. But with all the subclasses available to Warrior and Magician you should be able to get a good spread.
AFAIK, there are three different possibilities to play multiplayer:
You and your friend play through the official campaign and/or and the first expansion Shadows of Undrentide, or a user-made adventure that specifically allows for multiplayer (not all of them do). The second expansion Hordes of the Underdark might be possible to play through in multiplayer, too, but I heard there are some issues. Of the DLC, I think only Pirates of the Sword Coast and Infinite Dungeons officially support multiplayer.
You and your friend log onto a so called Persistant World (PW), which is like a mini MMO, an online world created and hosted by users which is usually accessible to everyone, so you might run into and interact with other players. Some of these are more action-oriented with pre-scripted quests, others are strictly roleplay, meaning you are meant to stay in character and not talk about meta stuff while playing. Sometimes administrators may take on the role of NPCs or monsters and entertain you.
You and your friend either join another group or run your own game in which one of the users assumes the role of a dungeon master, taking control of NPCs and monsters and creating an adventure for the other player(s).
The more common options would be 1. and 2. In those case, you will both control your own character and you can form a party and fight together, but theoretically you can also split up whenever you want to (even while remaining in the same party) and explore on your own. In case 1. one of you will open an online game and host it for the other player to join (anyone who owns NWN can do this, you don’t need anything else or any particular knowledge), in case 2. you will both join the server of the according PW team. Note that in case 1. the pre-written adventures will often assume that the NPCs are always talking to the same character as the hero of the story; it’s not perfect but it works if you agree that one of you is the main character doing most of the talking for the main quests, or if you can live with the occasional confusion now and then. ;)
I bet you’ve been cursed at in every living language. At 600 hours I called it quits. That was maybe 8 years ago. Couldn’t hack it. But, godspeed to you, great creep slayer.
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