Not always. Remember starwars battlefront? What ruined it wasn’t because of it being starwars related, but because ea gave up on it. Even in a broken state, people were still having fun.
“Originality” is overvalued. Yes, it’s an important aspect, but even near-clones can be great. Just look at Stardew Valley vs Harvest Moon.
Imo, the real key to making a great game (along with skill) is heart/care. If a dev is only making a game to make bank, it’s going to come through. And when a game is made with care and attention, that comes through in spades. All of these games have creators that clearly care about the game itself and, while they are being rewarded for their efforts, that wasn’t and isn’t their primary drive in developing or maintaining the games.
Counterpoint, “originality” almost never really refers to something that has never been done before. Instead it refers to something that the intended consumer has no, or little, reference for. Prime example is stardew valley and Helldivers.
Harvest moon has existed for awhile but few potential consumers have reference for it when playing stardew. So it succeeds. Helldivers is an alt version of many games but earth defense force is one of the genres it’s in. They’re very similar games at the core. Yet most people have no reference for it so it can still be “original” to them.
While I agree these games have heart and care, the success is largely to do with having a genre that already works with some audiences and then polishing it up and adding that heart factor to reskin it and try a new audience.
This is what indie games are great for. Take core ideas from big studios that work. Then don’t skip the part where the heart is ripped out for profit. And bam it’s a good game.
Instead it refers to something that the intended consumer has no, or little, reference for.
I’d argue that’s novelty, not originality, though you may be right in that it’s what was meant. I’d still say that’s not the critical piece in a successful game. Passion and care matter much more, imo.
Yep, it’s usually passion that drives a game (or any art) to greatness. If you’re passionate about it then you’ll see the flaws. If you’re just doing a job then you only care about completing goals and getting it done.
The launch trailer is pretty good, though I honestly feel like the actual graphics at launch turned out better than the trailer showed.
In short, on one side of the war it’s Starship Troopers. On the other side, it’s the Terminator Wars. There is a developer assigned to act as a DM of sorts, and they influence the way the war unfolds while the entire community fights to achieve the goals of said war.
The game is both very fun and very challenging. It has a good balance of making you feel completely badass one moment, and then absolutely humbling you moments later. The missions can get very intense at a moment’s notice. I’ve also had a pretty good time playing with randoms, and toxicity is incredibly rare (I have yet to encounter any, myself).
Yes, though the devs have stated that replacing it is something that they’re considering as there’s still been issues with cheaters and I think they said 2 out of every 150 players were having gameplay problems directly related to the anticheat. I don’t expect to see kernel level anticheat go away completely, but I hope that they’ll at least replace it with something less nasty like Easy Anti-Cheat.
Everyone compares the game to starship troopers and Terminator but I haven’t seen anyone mention that the game loop is literally left4dead. I guess everyone forgot about those games.
I could see that, with the horde shooter aspect; but you can’t call in airstrikes and orbital bombardments on top of the horde (and your friends). The missions in L4D are also linear, compared to the open area/extract method of HD2.
Helldivers is a game where you play in a squad of 1-4 (solo, friends, or it’ll pair you with randoms) to drop down to planets and try to survive against bugs or automatons while completing some objectives.
The galaxy map is dynamic, with aliens pushing from multiple directions toward “Super Earth”, and the more the entire community fights on planets, the more they’re pushed back. Planets can be liberated, or we can lose them (RIP Malevelon Creek). It’s chaotic and fun, and basically “Starship Troopers the video game”.
I love PvE of small teams against monsters way more than PvP. (Mostly because I get railed in PvP because there’s not enough time in my day to get that good).
It’s a “glorious chaos” kind of game. The developers made a wide variety of explosive weapons on purpose so that things got chaotic. There is no (and never will be) PvP mode strictly speaking, but friendly fire is always on and cannot be turned off. Teammates will kill each other accidentally all the time, but there’s little penalty for dying, they just call you right back in. Seems kinda grindy to me to get to level 10 where you start to unlock much better weapons.
If you enjoy the game, it doesn’t feel too grindy. I highly recommend playing with friends if possible. Killing each other on “accident” is incredibly fun.
You don’t ever have to deal with the bugs if you don’t want to. There’s an entire second war going on with the Automatons, and the devs have clearly left themselves room for at least 2 more factions. I guess the first game had another faction of aliens that isn’t in the game yet.
But I get it if the bugs are enough to put you off getting it, I had to essentially solo part of Elden Ring in co-op for a buddy because the hands in that game trigger his arachnophobia.
Helldivers is a game where you play in a squad of 1-4 (solo, friends, or it’ll pair you with randoms) to drop down to planets and try to survive against bugs or automatons while completing some objectives.
DRG can be hard but you can basically control every important combat variable. Helldivers gets super chaotic which makes for some really funny/awesome/desperate moments
Yeah, same here. I love both games but DRG satisfies my need to execute/show off with perfect maneuvers and optimize the hell out of every movement or action (both as an individual inside a team, and as a team when everyone coordinates on more “important” stuff).
Whereas helldivers is basically designed so you can definitely “play well” and have more impact, but also, unless you’re some god gamer, some stuff is gonna go completely sideways sometimes. Which also means that impactful suicidal plays can absolutely be valid !
Thanks. I looked into it to see if it’s playable on the Steam Deck, since a lot of online games aren’t due to anti cheat software. Looks like it is playable, so I’ll see how people like playing it on the steam deck and see about picking it up.
I didn’t finish the first act of baldurs gate 3 due to life removing me for a couple months and I can’t get myself to come back to that save. Besides not really liking the elf bard I made. Is it worth coming and trying another class? I wanted barbarian but I want that fire demon chick on my team because she’s awesome but she’s also a barbarian and I heard class stacking your party is a bad idea…
Hell yeah! Each class plays pretty differently, and you can respec any of your companions to different classes by taking to Withers 😁 I’d definitely give it another try, it’s a great time sink
Honestly this happens to me in every grand RPG. If I go more than a month without playing, I’m starting over. Too difficult to pick up where I left off what with understanding my character, my skills, the quests I was doing, etc.
I’ve done it multiple times with Elder Scrolls games, with Mount & Blade, and most recently with Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Lmao skyrim. I put in maybe 1000 hours into the game over half a dozen saves, countless hours modding and a couple years before I ever beat the main quest.
With menu games like Paradox make, you gotta learn by playing the game. And by playing the game, I of course mean pausing the game every minute or two to spend way more minutes reading the tooltips, the tooltips within those tooltips, and then finding your way to a new menu you didn’t know existed referenced by those tooltips so you can read more tooltips!
It’s a beautiful cycle, and Victoria 3 has sucked me in as much as Stellaris did 7 years ago. If you have any questions or thoughts, I’d love to hear them!
I think it would be tough to nail down one thing. There are the clear comparisons to Victoria 2, which I haven’t played, but my understanding is that 2 is more “detailed” in it’s simulation of some things. There will always be people who don’t like changes from the last game. The military aspect is a lot less engaging than something like Hearts of Iron, but I think the intent there was to keep the focus on the economic and political sides of things. Warfare received a minor overhaul when I first tried the game that I’ve heard made things better, but it can still be a little frustrating at times.
Most of the complaints about the economic side that’s meant to take center stage is that your economy’s success boils down to how many construction points you can have going at once. That’s true, but I do like that you can’t pour everything into that without balancing the foundation needed to support the increase of construction, and just doing that could limit growth in other areas, like improving citizen lives, which could complicate your political affairs.
I feel like I’ve gotten a little lost in the weeds here. Overall, I think it has mixed reviews because Victoria 3 is still a work in progress. It’s a work in progress that I enjoy very much, but there is still room for improvement. I kind of fell off Stellaris between the Nemesis and Overlord expansions because it felt kind of bloated and repetitive, and I wasn’t wondering what kind of civilization I could play anymore. Victoria 3 has been successful at making me contemplate how I can manipulate the mechanics to achieve a specific outcome, even when I’m not playing.
With menu games like Paradox make, you gotta learn by playing the game. And by playing the game, I of course mean pausing the game every minute or two to spend way more minutes reading the tooltips, the tooltips within those tooltips, and then finding your way to a new menu you didn’t know existed referenced by those tooltips so you can read more tooltips!
It’s a beautiful cycle, and Victoria 3 has sucked me in as much as Stellaris did 7 years ago. If you have any questions or thoughts, I’d love to hear them!
I tend to fall back on games that have a setting and possibly a story, but have the main gameplay available as repetitive things to do.
Fighting games
Racing games that don’t have a defined ending
Games like Battletech 2019 which has a story mode and also a never ending campaign mode.
Open world games like Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto, but mostly side quests and doing random non-story things.
My main reluctance for playing new games is learning new mechanics and story with all the interruptions of adulthood. I keep buying them and just planning on playing them later.
I’ve been eyeing the signal for when I actually know i’m working with my hands. I always carry a sog powerpint, and I use the heck out of it. It’s the smallest tool that can actually do real work, so if you want something smaller, check them out. Oh, and you could get them on aliexpress for like 30 bucks last time I checked.
@constantokra@SendMePhotos Oh and of course if you're looking for something without pliers, a 91mm or 93mm(alox) Victorinox is very good. The cons are no locking tools, one handed blade, or pocket clip
Climber gives you blades, scissors, screwdrivers, can and bottle opener, Huntsman adds a wood saw, Mountaineer adds the metal file/precision screwdriver/metal saw, Ranger adds both. The Huntsman is super cheap from victorinox themselves and the Mountaineer is the most expensive.
I have a champ from the 90s, and the tools are all great, but I mostly find myself needing pliers and a blade. It’s great for.outdoors though.
I actually just finished cleaning up a Swiss army knife I found in a house I was cleaning out. I had the scales off, because it was super nasty, and they were solid in the back, so i’m guessing it’s oldish, which might explain why I can’t figure out which model it is. Everything sizeable I find has the hook, and mine, unfortunately, does not.
You seem to know a lot about them. Any idea what it is, or where I could look to figure it out?
@constantokra That's interesting. I'd check SAK Wiki or field it with the folks on r/victorinox (they also have a discord server).
The main tools are identical to the swiss champ, but the back tools are a bit different. There's also no sewing eye on the reamer/awl. So maybe it's an older version of the swiss champ. The newer one also has plus scales so it has a pen included which you would see the slot for on this side of the scales.
Thanks! I checked the wiki, which I didn’t.know existed, and it’s a 7 layer champion, from between 1977 and 1985. Apparently that model had a lot of changes in its lineup, the older models did not have hooks, and the even older models only had 6 layers.
@FlashZordon@tkk13909 Definitely check out CalyxOS. There's been a lot of drama between the graphene and calyx communities, but mostly attacks and misinformation from the graphene side. The Calyx foundation is really cool and they provide good support. Graphene enhances the android security model (this is useful perhaps but extreme for most people) while Calyx maintains it - most custom ROMs weaken the security model by not relocking the bootloader.
See, I like the skill, physical endurance or patience to properly speedrun a game.
But I will play a game on autopilot over and over again. Call it... I don't know, speedjogging a game? Speedstrutting? Power speedwalking?
In any case, there are many situations where I will gladly play through Streets of Rage in half an hour instead of barely making it through the tutorial of whatever the current epic is. I feel at peace with that.
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