I loved these stupid binds. I was part of an RP server and each time I saw one my stomach churned. Lots of newbies talking up the big bad red in mystic armor, and the dude just ignores them, yells at the banker and fucks off with a Kal Ort Por. Better yet, a random blue casting a portal for a friend into the heart of Britt, the guy that’s running gets in and starts yelling his banker binds while standing on the other side of the portal. Baddies go through, suddenly lots of shit on the floor that you can grab since yoinking reds didn’t set crim.
Honestly I don’t even know what was modded / added in and what was in the actual game. Them going open source with Modain’s Legacy was such a boss move.
I think this says just as much about the relatively poor release sales of Dragonflight as it does their successes with retention and attracting former (and possibly new) players.
Dragonflight’s generally positive word-of-mouth and what they’ve done with Classic has also contributed, I’m sure.
I picked it up for a little bit during Dragonflight. Mechanically, playing your character is the best its been in years as they got rid of a lot of the restrictive and boring spec building. Everything else is an passable meh.
The community is 1 dungeon or raid wipe from more being toxic than a League match making all endgame content not fun. Feels like they started going in the right direction, but I had this hope crushed too many times.
Yeah, I didn’t comment on the quality of the expansion itself because I’m actually the lowest on the game I’ve been in years. I’m in full tourist mode and have been since Legion. I’ll come in for a month or two for expansion launch (three for Legion, I really liked that one), and then again in the last patch for one more month, and that’s it. Now that I’ve been playing different games over the past few years, WoW is really starting to show its age and I’m less willing to let its flaws slide, such as the extremely toxic community you mentioned. There’s a global community called WoW Made Easy that started up at Dragonflight launch with a mission statement of being patient in pick-up groups. Considering how massive it got, clearly the playerbase is fed up with the traditional PUG experience.
What’s really soured me on the game is Blizzard’s continuing divestment in customer service. Toxicity itself is a customer service problem and it takes actual eyeballs to fix it. And they aren’t hiring. Meanwhile, enjoy your 30-day ticket times when major issues develop. Just as bad is their newest approach to overcrowding, especially on Classic. Last I checked, their solution to crowded servers is “nothing we can do about it, it’ll sort itself out when enough of you give up. no refunds btw.”
I’m going to need some convincing to pickup The War Within.
Being a social game you can't solo, the community actually makes it impossible for me to progress. I don't know if I even want to go back if they get everything else perfect. It just feels lonely and unwelcoming.
Knowing how blizzard managed to ruin every other franchise they own, I can see the reaper at WoWs door as soon as the money gets tight again. I was holding out hope Microsoft would have saved them from themselves but seems there happy to milk wow subs till they drive everyone out.
Feels like forever since I heard Ken Levine ramble on about narrative LEGOs and game design. It's an interesting concept and hopefully the game lives up to expectations. I'm still cautious that it might all end up being pre-release hype, but he certainly seems passionate about the idea and I'm certainly curious to see what narrative LEGOs actually looks like in execution.
I’m really excited to hear that the narrative Lego concept is working. It makes a lot of sense on paper, but there are a lot of ways it could go wrong. We won’t really know until the game is out, but this could potentially be revolutionary for the medium, both from the customer’s side and the business side of things.
Yeah, very cautiously optimistic. It’s making me a bit anxious though that it sounds similar to what We Happy Few tried to do with the whole non-linear story thing.
I haven’t played in years. Hopped on again when they brought wow classic in just to try it bcz I started around the time of the cataclysm expansion. But once they banned that Hong Kong player from a tournament back in 2019 over the protest crap, I haven’t been back.
I can’t believe the game is still going. The expansions just got worse as time went on. How they’re still churning out content people want to play is beyond me.
There seems to have been a major righting of the ship with Dragonflight. The live retail game is in a very strong place right now, and players are now actually anticipating an upcoming expansion rather than dreading it. Season of Discovery was also an especially inspired idea, injecting a lot of new life into vanilla. Assuming there isn’t too large a shake-up with the team after the Microsoft acquisition, this might be a new golden era for World of Warcraft.
Who could have foreseen that a $550 peripheral stuck to a $500 console, with no backwards compatibility and bad first party support wouldn’t sell well?
Don’t forget their history of just dropping products, or stopping support.
Atleast if it was usable on PC people would be willing to buy it as they know development isn’t going to just stop one day and they have an expensive brick.
It’s was the lack of backwards compatibility that killed it for me. I’d had niggling considerations of PSVR1 for some time, then PSVR2 was announced and I was all ready to hand over my money. Until it became clear there was no backward compatibility. So I own neither.
Maybe one day PS4+PSVR emulation will viable, and when that happens you should play Astrobot. It’s my favorite VR game and possibly the best platformer of last gen.
Yup. It was similar case to me. Especialy since i had the ocasion to play ps vr 1 and it was dope even if motion controls were a litle janky. And then ps vr2 came and all my hopes and dream were crushed. Honestly until Nintendo decides to ship full vr only console/hybrid i dont expect anyone to provide apropriate support to vr. For all their faults they do support their consoles with games to the death.
Being limited by the DnD system makes sense. DOS2 had a lot of cool mechanics not present in BG3. I do hope we see another DnD game from them eventually.
Yeah the DnD mevhanics are weird for me coming from DOS2..
I really miss elements mixing and having to focus on elements in general. And those weird 'Long Rest' things.. kinda annoying for me.
Yeah I felt like DOS2 had really improved on the already good formula that was DOS, and BG3 using the DnD system felt like a big step back. It’s still a great game, but I feel like it is in spite of the DND systems (not the setting), not because of it. DND doesn’t feel suited for the computer, it really fits better on the tabletop.
As someone who’s played their fair share of assorted DnD systems, 5E has a number of issues that really hold it back. For instance, you’re not really supposed to long rest between every fight, but how do you tell players that without a proper DM? It’s a very weak mechanic that’s apparently too iconic to have just axed.
Don’t get me wrong, 5E works better at what it’s supposed to - easily accessible and relatively low math tabletop roleplay. But a computer can do so much more.
Lots of RPGs allow rest cheesing. Even if you don’t let players rest in random locations like BG3 does, the players can always hoof it back to town to rest. Attempts to prevent this kind of cheesing often end up feeling unduly punishing and un-fun. It’s not a tabletop vs computer issue.
D&D 5e is kind of bad system. It’s “good” in that it’s hard to make a bad character, and it’s popular, but that’s most of what it has going for it. It’s missing a lot of rules you’d want for a general purpose RPG. Centering it on rests only works in rather specific kinds of games. The magic system is very bespoke and thus clunky. The dice math if 1d20+stuff gives you a flat probability, which is often unsatisfying.
Pathfinder 2e is widely considered better than 5e in every way, unless you actually specifically want the simple+shallowness of 5e. Which is a fine thing to want, but that is a pretty big trade off. If you were just playing with friends, you’d probably be better off with Fate or maybe a PbtA game if you want simple narrative stuff, or Gloomhaven if you just want a board game.
I find Pathfinder 2e (and D&D 3e before it) way clunkier. Maintaining a level-appropriate power level requires stacking buffs like the Overlord meme, and if you decline to do so, you’re just crippling your character. It’s bad enough that auto-buffing mods are considered mandatory for the Pathfinder CRPGs.
I don’t like of the dices but BG3 sucked my way more in than DOS2 so I how they really manage to combine the best of both in their next game. Let’s hope the expectations don’t get too high.
I think making something on par with BG3 will be incredibly tough. Wouldn’t mind seeing them branch out and try something new again. Larian has done a bunch of different stuff before. A modern take on Ego Draconis would be really cool.
I won’t fight you over that, I think they were good too. I’d love a modern third-person ARPG in the Divinity universe. The “build your own ghoul” mechanic was really fun, and obviously turning into a fucking dragon was epic too.
DOS2 fights felt much more like a slog than BG3. Especially in higher difficulties, every battlefield ended up a nightmarish soup of elemental surfaces, which got old after awhile. I also found whittling down enemy toughness bars un-fun.
Personally, I liked both the BG3 and DOS1 systems better than DOS2.
Well yeah, but the surfaces were DOS2 “thing”. They are present in BG3 too, just not as important to the overall gameplay. It doesn’t reflect badly on any future Divinity games, since they have proven they can use surfaces and have it not be overwhelming.
I actually want them to step away from 5e/DnD in general. I loved DOS2, but I agree with another commenter that the vast swaths of elements made things challenging in a frustrating way at times. Not that that shouldn’t be a tactic to be used, but it definitely was egregious in DOS2.
5E is just… A fuckin mess when it comes to balancing the game - said as a long time DM and player. There are so many things that just irritate the heck out of me with the system that can’t necessarily be balanced with a video game slapped overtop of it. (Not to say Larian didn’t do a good job with what they were given, but still)
That being said, I am a total fanboy of Pathfinder 2e and the way things are balanced there, and I would love love love to see a CRPG under those rules. Especially if it was Larian-levels.
Cancellation like this aren’t always bad. Especially given BG3 as a whole, sometimes it’s good to just ship a complete product, and move onto newer things. They earned a break
Yeah I don’t think so – Sequels are the thing you’re supposed to have I think. Everyone drooling over having subscriptions since MMOs sucks and it really looks like the whole culture of the industry is pretty shitty in a lot of ways
E: I guess expansions can be good so you don’t have to be an EA sports franchise if you’re not changing the engine a bunch. Other than EUIV though, whose expansions are a money grab way to make the game cost 150 bucks, I haven’t ever played DLC I can think of.
Unless the sequel is using way better tech and requires a new engine or massive engine tweaks, a sequel that comes shortly after the original release could be done better, faster and cheaper as an expansion pack.
Other than EUIV though, whose expansions are a money grab way to make the game cost 150 bucks, I haven’t ever played DLC I can think of.
Well there ya go. Paradox DLC is just bullshit. Most of them just add like 1-2 units or characters or factions which mostly boil down to an aesthetic change. Most big games get real additions via DLC that can add up to 50% more game.
The non cosmetic Paradox DLCs fundamentally change the games so if you want to actually play the latest version of the game with all the mechanics you have to get them all. You can get them on steam sale usually for like 50 bucks a couple times a year.
I’m not defending it – It is what colors me most against DLCs.
I still just don’t like the idea of it – Why not do a DLC for movies and paintings and books? It feels wrong to fork a work of art or say “Oh sorry I didn’t actually make it all here’s the other 20%”
Come to think of it – Movie sequels are kind of like that these days where it’s just one story broken up instead of multiple separate stories. I wish we just did 4 hour movies with intermission but I’m sure I’m alone there.
Just a few dlc/expansion packs that were totally worth their money
All Rimworld expansions. Diablo 3 reaper of souls/ D2 lord of destruction The witcher Ballad of gay tony Star craft ones Red alert yuris revenge Horizon zero dawn frozen wilds
Etc… There are good expansions that are totally worth their money and add to the overall game.
That being said, I’m not a huge dlc fan and rarely spend money on them if they don’t really add to the game. More partial to spend on dlc for smaller studio games rather than large ones.
I didn’t even buy the Rimworld DLCs and I have 500+ hours! I did look at them but didn’t buy. Now that DF is graphical I mostly just play that now tbh.
DF is a great example – 15+ years updates no DLCs unless you count the steam release.
In what world is paying 40usd for a game and 3x 30usd for 500h of entertainment not a good deal? (not particularly aimed at you, but at dlc haters in general)
I am glad when they release a dlc. I get more great content. They get some more financial support.
I am 100% against cheap cash grabs. I am 100% pro multiple well made extentions for a game that allow me to support the studio.
They didn’t add all that many units, two per race. But they did have a great impact on the game (mostly).
Also, new campaigns for each race was awesome. The level editor not only brought many fun custom maps (I still think about that weird 300 map I played when I was 16), but ensured longevity of the game until this day by enabling new maps to be played in regular games.
I miss getting all this stuff with a game or expansion too.
Larian is somehow an independent enough to tell Hasbro to go fuck themselves but not independent enough that Hasbro told them to layoff people, and they said ‘okay’.
Larian worked with Hasbro to make BG3. Hasbro lays off people who helped them (from Hasbro). Larian doesn’t have much say about it other than “it sucks dude”.
Nobody at Larion got laid off. Larion worked closely with some people at Wizards of the Coast to make Baldurs Gate 3, and those people got laid off.
Larion could make a game entirely on their own with no involvement with Hasbro or WotC (and they have), but they can’t make anything related to Dungeons and Dragons or the Forgotten Realms without Hasbro and WotC’s cooperation.
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Aktywne