Ultimately, the world is not a grid. So while grids may be great for pure strategy games like XCom (and I really enjoyed XCom, not knocking it at all), I think a lot of people would say that for more story-focused games like RPGs, they break the immersion. Thus, BG3 (which I’m also really enjoying) does not use one. Neither do any of the party-based RPGs that I can think of off the top of my head. For me personally, it depends on the game. I am perfectly happy without one in BG3. But I enjoyed having one for XCom, and more recently for Warhammer 40k Mechanicus. I would offer that as a suggestion if you are looking for a gridded turn-based strategy game.
I’m really confused as to why everybody’s saying BG3 doesn’t have a grid. It’s not visible, but it’s there. BG3 is obviously built around a grid of hexagonal prisms as its basic building block and it shows in everything, including combat and level design. They’ve done a great job with graphics and animations to make them smooth and make it seem like the grid is not there, but it is.
Of course the ground itself needs some kind of abstraction, there is no actual computing in the real numbers. Thats not the kind of grid OP is talking about though, they mean a grid where a character uses up a single tile.
As a customer, why would I ever shop at Epic if the game is also available on Steam and typically has more features? Epic doesn’t solve any problems for me and actively introduces others, like a lack of Linux support. Do I want to play Alan Wake II? Of course I do. Am I going to buy it when they could push an update tomorrow that breaks compatibility with my operating system and offers me no recourse as a customer since it was unsupported in the first place? No, I’m not.
There are things worth solving that Steam does poorly (if they also support Linux customers). Finding out if my multiplayer game will be playable without external servers is a nightmare; DRM sucks, and I want none of it; Steam’s multiplayer/friends network has more downtime than is acceptable; Steam Input should be a platform agnostic library; etc. Instead of solving those problems, they made the store enticing for suppliers (publishers) but not customers. If I’m shopping someplace other than Steam, it’s GOG and not Epic.
It’s a lot of cutting out for about a minute, but that’s just enough to interrupt a fighting game match. If it was once per week at a predictable time, that might be okay, but it’s been happening more and more lately when it used to only be on Tuesdays.
Typically, when Steam handles the matchmaking, it’s peer to peer. But in general, they also sort of broker the connection between you and the other player or server. Street Fighter 6 runs its own servers and matchmaking, but if Steam cuts out, I lose my connection to them.
Generally, yes. But Epic is not competitive in any way.
Their idea of being competitive is not to deliver an amazing product, it is to buy exclusivity for games so they can’t be sold on other platforms, which benefits no one except themselves.
Gog, then? Itch? I'm not even going to try with Microsoft or the publisher stores because people were so mad at them they effectively killed them.
Turns out nobody is competitive in any way against Steam, which seems to be the whole problem of lacking competition and having a single player dominating a market.
GOG is competitive for my dollar. DRM-free is a compelling proposition, and they’ve got an excellent refund program. There are a lot of things they could stand to do better, but those two things alone give me an actual reason to shop there over Steam.
Unless it’s infrastructure or something with a natural monopoly.
The main competition with steam is buying physical copies of things. If we want to support retailers selling physical copies of games and bricks and mortar shops, that’s a good thing.
Alas, I think the games industry is chosing to abandon them. And Steam has the ability to add games purchased outside of Steam to it for convenience. Unlike Epic it puts the user close to the top of priorities.
The fact N64 games are behind a subscription is what really irks me. I wouldn’t mind paying €5 for Harvest Moon 64 - the way you could buy retro games on the wii - but having to pay yearly, for a bunch of games (many of which I might not even be interested in) that you can’t play anymore once you stop paying? Fuck that
I dislike game subscription services on principle, but at least the other guys have new games on their subscription services, not just ancient ones. Nintendo being the first to charge $80 makes it an extra kick in the balls.
Devil’s advocate here, I subscribe to movie services that are much more expensive to watch movies I’ve already seen. If playing these old games is important to me, that doesn’t seem too bad. $80 for Mario kart on the other hand… never.
I have my issues with Nintendo recycling Mario Kart ad nauseam, but Mario Kart was $66 when it launched in 1996, which is like $130 today. The prices haven’t really kept up with inflation. It’s cheaper to buy Mario Kart today than it was back then.
Pioneer is a great remake of the original Elite Space Sim.
It simulates the entire galaxy (core systems are hand-built, everything else procedurally generated), allows landing on planets, trading, combat, etc.
It features the original game’s Newtonian physics, so actually arriving safely at your destination is a challenge in itself, similar to flying in Kerbal Space Program. But the HUD gives you all the info you need for that.
There may be more people watching Deadlock than there are watching and playing Concord today based on available data and reasonable extrapolation. Valve continues to market in a unique way that works.
Concord is dead on arrival. Kind of a shame, the game looked a bit interesting but being $40 and having very generic art this was bound to happen. Deadlock is in a whole other league.
It’s basically impossible to increase the price tag on a game like that, and if you go free, the design pivots to a lot of abusive monetization systems. People run into that at the 10th hour of any free game.
It might be failing for a lot of reasons - I don’t think that one is necessarily their mistake though.
Honestly, paying for a (primarily) multiplayer game isn’t a problem for me. I actually might prefer it when you look at Overwatch vs Overwatch 2. But I wasn’t about to sign up for a playstation account to play my Steam game.
I think that’s what makes it such a good point of comparison though. It’s titled differently and we were promised it would be different, but all that really happened was they changed their monetization tactics. And maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I remember liking Overwatch when it came out, but now I have almost zero interest in playing Overwatch 2, even though I’ve gone back to it a few times just to give it a try.
Yep. Gog is probably where we should all be getting our games tbf. Being mad that a game is available on one drm store instead of another drm store is kind of silly. In either case we’re only buying the license and not actually owning anything.
When I saw the post’s title I was hoping for a good, perhaps even balanced, critique of the remake’s choices, or the underlying engine’s shortcomings, or perhaps even the original designs.
BG3 is great and all but there are other games with at least equal voice acting quality. For all its qualities I never felt like “wow, I’ve never seen voice acting like this in a game!” when I played BG3. It’s really good and really consistent but nothing earth shattering.
I know I bring up Disco Elysium a lot, but that is one game where I got repeatedly shocked at the quality and diversity of the voice acting. With the exception of one single character I think it’s acted to absolute perfection.
I also didn’t really feel the same about Alan Wake 2 like, at all. I thought it had superb acting (both voice and full video segments) and probably hold the quality of its acting above BG3 personally. Alan Wake 1 less so.
mass effect and the first few dragon age games had great acting, Kingdom come has great acting, most of the Sony exclusives have great acting, it’s out there. It’s just rare.
I second Disco Elysium’s voice acting and also all of Supergiant Games catalogue, especially Bastion, Transistor, and Hades. Portal 2 is the most hilarious video game of all time, and a major part of that is its voice acting.
The Stanley Parable, Borderlands 1/2, Prey, System Shock 1/2, the Bioshock series, SOMA, the new Doom games, Path of Exile, all elevated by their voice acting.
right up until redacted and suddenly it’s reeeaaaal difficult to find a way to end the game, because dying isn’t an option if you didn’t prepare for it XD
I found one of those genies that multiply in someone’s multiplayer room.
I farmed the Valkyrie for wishes until I was broken, but I still could not reliably cast my own wish spell. Turns out, it gets harder to cast the more you level it up. You would need some ridicilous stuff to counter that.
Rimworld, way too much Rimworld. A big part of it is that I’ll often have it one a second computer during the workday just on pause to pop in during downtime but I guess that still counts as playtime just being loaded.
For me a lot of it is in trying to maximize efficiencies. Setting up task duties and resources where you have plenty enough but not overloading your storage. Defensive position designs to counter any possible situation. Layouts to the base to allow free movement.
Lot of others try for specific artistic ideas or scenario goals, but I’m something of engineer minded player.
It is a dedicated and organized team of modders that has output a stunning amount of content, all of it cohesive, and what many would consider required “base game” content.
They have literally put out dozens of mods that could be standalone DLC, all for free.
I will. Going to start playing again today. Trying to pull away from Hollow Knight which I committed to finally trying this holiday. That’s a fantastic game.
I’ve found that as I got older, my taste in games has narrowed significantly. I used to be able to play pretty much anything, or especially any popular or critically acclaimed games. But these days I just don’t give a shit about most of what’s out there. I do have certain genres and developers that interest me though, so I know there are occasionally going to be some new games that I really like. And every now and then I might get surprised by something too.
I suspect this is a natural result of having much more limited time as we become adults. I used to love all kinds of games too, but today if I feel like a game doesn’t respect my time it gets thrown right onto the “no thanks” pile.
It’s limited time, but also the selection these last few years has felt very uninspired. Everything is extremely derivative and been done to death.
There was a mass consolidation of developers/publishers recently, on top of further extended development cycles that has really limited any kind of variety we might have seen.
You can only play reskins of essentially the same game for so long. Not to mention recycling gameplay loops microtransaction hell toxic multiplayer experience (cheating griefing), makes for a minefield of unplesant game experiences. Sticking to what you like and know is how you get enjoyment out of playing.
Does it not feel weird sometimes to be disconnected from the gaming zeitgeist? Like, we can obviously still follow news and whatnot, but I'm particularly talking about having no significant emotional investment in contemporary releases—in other words: being disconnected from the hype of announcements and release cycles.
I know people consider this a blessing in this age of hyper-consumerism, but there's a communal aspect to it that I like, and it often feels odd to not be part of it.
Not weird for me. I don’t play anymore at all. Don’t even have a system to do so. But, I watch YouTube videos about games and game facts or speed running every night before bed. I know more about games now than when I actually played them. I just don’t have time for them anymore but that doesn’t mean they don’t interest me. I lost my passion for playing games years ago but not the idea of it. I don’t know or care about the hype but I just find it terribly interesting via others hype or interest in these games. If that makes sense.
Like, we can obviously still follow news and whatnot
I stopped following the news first, then largely lost interest in new games after that. After TotalBiscuit passed I haven’t seen a single thing about video game news or reviews. If there’s something I’m interested in I might skim through a review, but that’s the most I do.
If you’re not sure what StopKillingGames is about, the creator of the campaign, Ross Scott (of Freeman’s Mind fame) made this short video to give the rundown.
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