Some games fix this issue by making the player trigger the change they want and bring the fight to the big powerful threat themselves, on their terms.
In fact one of my favorite RPG has the player characters being the ones trying to end the world as they know it.
I do think the extreme example, the old RPG trope of the big bad looming over in the red-tinted sky and being just minutes from firing the world busting laser while you finish your quest list, is rather cringe. Maybe don’t invoke this in a game where time is basically irrelevent.
It’s not an RPG, but I think Owlboy handled it expertly.
Each level, Owlboy is out to handle some dangerous issue that is happening. By the end of the level, he succeeds.
The thing is, in the background, other things are happening. Almost every time you “succeed” the story moves forward to tell you, “oh, while you were doing that, THIS was happening that made all you just did basically pointless and we’re all even more screwed than before you started this level.”
So, it keenly points out the enemies aren’t waiting around, in fact, they’re doing dastardly things while you’re busy trying to save the day, so much so that your character continues to feel like a failure despite many successes. I think it’s a great way to present and write a story, to show that your character isn’t the only one in the wider world that things are happening to and can’t handle all problems at once. Things happen outside of their control and outside of their vision, just like in our real lives.
I feel like FromSoft's games have a nice solution to this in that generally speaking, the world has basically already ended and you're fighting through the wreckage to try to pick it up again. Not a viable option for every story, though, of course
I would quite like to see a game in which the events play out both without a completely fixed schedule and without being within the player's control. If we take Skyrim as an example, since everyone already knows how that one works, imagine if:
Civil war battles happen whether you are there or not. You get some notice about them or can maybe even ride in at the last moment to turn the tide, but they're happening with or without you.
Your sidequests to win over jarls and find powerful artifacts stack the odds in your chosen side's favour. Intercepting the messenger on that one mission allows you to avert an otherwise guaranteed loss for your side.
Alduin is also doing stuff on his own schedule. If you leave him unchecked, one of your allied jarls might have their army decimated trying to hold off a dragon attack without you.
If you leave Alduin unchallenged long enough, jarls start defecting to the Dragon Cult and directing dragons with armies as backup towards your side, knowing that you are fighting for them and are the biggest threat on the board.
Leaving your civil war side unsupported means that Balgruuf won't agree to help trap Odahving. You then have to track down info about the portal to Sovngarde in an ancient scroll and take the long and arduous journey up the mountainside yourself on foot, leaving your civil war side without you for days on end
You'd need to make sure that the player has control over when these events start, but it already does gate dragons behind that first quest to defend Whiterun. You want to just mess about in caves for the first twenty hours, sure, go ahead.
Obviously Skyrim was never going to do this because it isn't trying to be that kind of game. It wanted to be a do anything go anywhere power fantasy, and that's fine. But I would like more games to do this sort of thing. I think some of Paradox's strategy games actually do quite a good job of creating this feeling, but the gameplay is completely different (and it only works until you get good enough to just break the mechanics in half for most of them)
I feel like FromSoft’s games have a nice solution to this in that generally speaking, the world has basically already ended and you’re fighting through the wreckage to try to pick it up again. Not a viable option for every story, though, of course
It sounds like it could be so cool. Asymmetrical multiplayer has so many unexplored possibilities.
BUT
Arkane had never developed a co-op game before Microsoft got their hands on them and we all saw how Redfall did. I have to remain cautiously optimistic about this
That’s true, and fair. I am optimistic though since from what I understand Arkane didn’t want to develop a multiplayer game. Sounds like this has been something remedy wanted to do
I was just about to comment that it all makes sense now. Since Musk has no friends, he hasn’t unlocked empathy yet. Someone just needs to befriend the guy, somehow.
The biggest problem to me is, that they will shutdown the previous game. I think its different enough to keep it, but probably not many people play it. What is the current Don’t kill videogames campaign called again?
I guess they don’t want to a) split the user base of similar games, b) force people into buying new stuff from new game, c) can’t or don’t want to maintain multiple live service games at the same time. These are guesses by me, not saying its the case here or always the case, just giving a few ideas why this could happen.
It does, however, become very finite solution in the scenario that the new game flops. It’s having two baskets, putting all your eggs in one and burning the other. So now their entire income is dependent on that one metaphorical basket carrying the weight.
DO ISAAC YOU PUSSIES. MAKE AN ELEVEN MINUTE ANIMATION ABOUT A RELIGIOUS WACKJOB HEARING GOD TELL HER TO KILL HER SON, WHO FLEES TO THE BASEMENT AND FIGHTS AN ABORTION WITH HIS TEARS
I resolved to stop paying full price for anything Pitchford and his touch based on a number of factors. I did buy the latest BL game when it was on a big sale and thoroughly hated the main story and various plotholes (seemingly from cuts made by the company/directors rather than the writers). I bought Tiny Tina (again, on sale for over half off) and it was a game with all kinds of bugs that just never got fixed -- it's the first game I didn't immediately roll a new character to replay after beating it. At this point, I'm not sure I would buy anything else they put out.
I really wanted to like Wonderlands, but the intended demographic is apparently younger than me. The drop from M to T seems to have cut the writing down to kindergarten level.
Presequel is great, wonderlands is not. Tiny Tina’s dlc in 2 was absolutely perfect and MAYBE should’ve gotten a sequel dlc in 3, but there was never enough content for a stand alone title. Certainly not at a full game price point. I always look back to farcry 3 for the proper way to handle a stand alone dlc installment. Blood dragon was always a smaller spinoff and it worked well in that regards.
I don’t think Wonderlands had much replay value. Plus the DLCs were garbage, speed run dungeons and new items in the loot pool, no new story. I lost faith in gearbox after that.
I highly, highly recommend playing BL1 and BL2. They're fantastic games, and wonderfully written. Not all of the humor has aged really well (nothing offensive, just mostly very 2010's-specific humor), but the gameplay still holds up today, IMO. The DLCs for BL2 are particularly good, and among some of the best DLCs I've seen for any game.
Agreed! The quality and quantity of the content in that DLC are enough to qualify for a standalone game. Not to mention all the wild new mechanics that the DLC introduces, and work seamlessly with the rest of the game. TTAODK was probably the best piece of content Gearbox will ever produce.
Big random factor in the loot so you can go long stretches without any interesting upgrades if you’re unlucky.
There’s a lot of time wasting - go here, now go back there, now go to this place
Leveling is weird and is a big factor in damage. If you’re too low level you can’t do anything except die. If you’re too high level you can’t lose. Sometimes you do too many side quests or not enough
The games typically start slow. You go a long while before you unlock your cool powers, or even the ability to equip four guns.
The writing is meh except for Handsome Jack. He’s a great villain.
There was a mega bundle of all the games before 3 for like $5. Look for that kind of sale.
Play BL2. I didn’t really bother with 1. BL2 is such a great game, probably sunk more hours into it over the years than any other. Lots of replayability with different characters, TVHM and UVHM, DLCs etc.
Hmm. I wonder what the nature of Owlcat’s relationship with GW is? Was the recent Rogue Trader game part of an ongoing licensing deal or just a one-off?
Looks really promising but way too much in early access for me to risk that price tag, I'd rather try furthest frontier or the game from the settlers creator since they are further along iirc. I do look forward to trying it out one day tho, seems right up my valley if they manage to add some meaningful late game goals or challenges!
Oh fuck, I had no idea Warhorse studios was also part of the whole Embracer mess! They better not kill the studio off! Now that we got to see a glimpse of the new Kingdom Come game I don’t know how I could handle the game being canceled.
boasting monthly player numbers of over 200 million - close to double the entirety of Steam
No? It’s not the entirety of Steam, it’s also monthly active user on Steam to compare to. Last time Steam mentioned the monthly active user was 120 million in 2020 and 132 million in 2021. Steam reached milestones and records every year and broke them multiple times. So it’s fair to “assume” the monthly active users grew, not at last because of Steam Deck. The Roblox numbers (if they are correct at all), are nowhere the double of Steam monthly active users, let alone the entirety of Steam. The entirety of Steam is much bigger: “The billionth Steam account was made on April 28th, 2019.” I know that not every account is a human, but not every account is a bot either.
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