When the game pitch is a cinematic trailer, then a whole bunch of name drops Directed By X, Starring Y, Soundtrack by Z, and not a single mention of what the heck the player is even gonna do in the game, when will AAA studios drop the pretenses and do what they actually wanna do and just make movies
I recently played uncharted 4, can confirm there is a lot of interesting gameplay mixed with the mastercrafted, often interactive, cut scenes. It was an excellent experience by any measure and the game is nearing 10 years old.
I swear people are confusing naughty dog with another dev or something, their worst game is still more fun than 90% of other studio’s best.
It's all relative. Mediocre is still better than garbage, but not necessarily interesting or innovative. It's just "fine" because the whole point of the gameplay in these games is to progress the narrative forward. Mastery is rarely, if ever, required and gameplay depth is of no interest to players or developers.
You ignore all of that and start comparing their catalog to Ubisoft pumping out generic trash for years (NGL that Prince of Persia game is sick though) and you get a much brighter picture that doesn't necessarily take all factors into account.
Personally, I play games for the hyper engagement they offer, which I expect from hobbies and cannot get from film or literature. Stories, on the other hand, I can find elsewhere, so I don't necessarily care for them that much in games.
If narrative driven games aren’t your cup of tea there’s nothing wrong saying that, but writing off the extensive gameplay provided in naughty dog games is silly. I think your take would be better directed at something like Metal Gear Solid, that actually locks you in for hour long non-interactive cut scenes.
You may wanna re-read my comment—I did not bring up cut scenes, or claim Naughty Dog games don't have enough gameplay sections.
My point was Naughty Dog's gameplay sections are uninspired, non innovative, and passable at best because they're more interested in telling a story than innovative gameplay.
Whether I like narrative-driven games or not is of no relevance.
I really enjoyed the first one. I missed some side quests due to shooting npcs in the head when they gave me attitude, but it was worth it. It had some long sought freedom compared to most new open world sandbox rpgs.
Heh. The moment chat figured out it was Naughty Dog I lost most of my interest. Don’t get me wrong, I liked TLOU1 a lot and mostly liked TLOU2 (even if I wish it was like 60% as long). But I am REAL tired of Sony’s “prestige telivision” gaming bullshit.
Then we got like 5 seconds of gameplay and it is bright action game fun and I am all for it.
It looks interesting, though it does feel a little slimy just how obvious they were about making sure all the sponsor logos were visible on screen. Like, it gave me Wayne's World flashbacks with how long they were holding on the logos, it almost felt like a parody.
Big, chunky logos are part of this specific vibe, though I can understand why it’s a turn-off (with a couple of the fictional ones being out of focus).
I wouldn’t mind if they were all fictional, but the massive Porsche logo? Come on, I’m not paying for a game just to see product placements. It’s like Death Stranding with the energy drinks again.
I read it in this particular cinematic as a choice that this is OUR world, dominated by brands and massive companies. And it’s still the same ones even in this future.
Kinda like how it’s a different feeling when you see a Coke ad and an Atari ad in Blade Runner rather than seeing a generic in-universe copyright free brand.
That and this feels like something that could easily change in the main game
REALLY annoyed that Ciri is quaffing potions since I thought a big deal was that she never had the witcher mutations since Triss (?) realized it was a really bad idea to give a menstruating young girl all those mutagens. So those should basically leave her in horrific pain on the ground after she chugs them.
One of the things that made her segments Work so well in TW3 was that she very clearly was NOT Geralt… she was something simultaneously less and massively more powerful. Which is why her wandering off to become a Witcher in all the good endings was so powerful. She is not a Witcher but she IS someone who can fight like one and who can do some good in the world.
But very excited. I think there is a LOT of room for Ciri to call out the misogynistic bullshit of the average medieval-ish fantasy culture (and we saw shades of that). Not entirely sure I trust CDPR for this though. Sometimes they do real good and sometimes it feels like the joke is that that woman has a dick. Time will tell.
But a few people noticed that Bluesky has Austin Walker listed as part of CDPR Boston (?). I suspect that is just an anomaly or maybe some contract work but… I trust Austin to speak Truth and convince people just how much power they have to write a ridiculously powerful female character in medieval-ish Europe.
Also, I assume CDPR is reading this because of course they are. So here is something free. Ciri is not the Butcher of Blavikan like her father. She is the “Butcher of whatever fucking town this is” if people don’t get out of her way and let her help people.
We’ll just have to see what explanation they give. Did she get herself mutated eventually? Are the potions diluted/weaker? (I remember a quest where Geralt feeds a normal human a small dose of one of his potions.)
Would it be more interesting to have a Ciri that specifically doesn’t have most of the Witcher powers? Maybe, but I can understand them wanting to keep most of the gameplay staples. It looks like they are trying to keep most of Geralt’s moves and then adding some new ones.
Whatever happens, it should be interesting! I think what I’m most excited about is Ciri has a slightly different morality and worldview - I’m excited to see how that ends up affecting the writing.
Of course I’m not taking it for granted it will be good, but I am hopeful.
Sadly, none of this denoted a happy ending. Though the wounds on Lena’s body healed, the toxins in the witcher’s brew had melted her mind. This was not the first time a cure had proven worse than the disease
Regarding the potions, I haven’t read the books, but the wiki alludes to “Children of Destiny” not needing the trials, of which Ciri is part of. Even if that’s not it, I don’t think a grown woman choosing to undergo the trials is comparable to forcing it on a child. Pretty badass, tbh.
Not sure if it was optional (I THINK I missed it my first playthrough at launch?) but as part of TW3 you put someone through the trials as an adult. And it basically liquifies their body and causes immense suffering so that magic can be used to turn a pile of Clarence Boddicker back into the person’s real form.
It wouldn’t be the first retcon or outright ignoring of lore in the CDPR series (or the author’s books for that matter…) but it just feels particularly egregious because Ciri very specifically is NOT a Witcher and her choosing to live that life was her rejecting destiny and taking control of herself. But also? She can never truly escape that destiny.
As I remember, the liquification was more so part of the curse than the trials. The immense pain and risk of death is true either way, though.
And I don’t see any conflict with Ciri here. That would be her continuing to fight to make her own life, no? The destiny she’s running from isn’t about her being a witcher. More so the opposite, as I understand it.
I always imagined a Ciri game as a more action-oriented and somewhat more over-the-top spin-off based on how she played in Witcher 3. But honestly I’ll be content as long as it’s a good game
I think they’re Witcher potions. Based on her eyes, I’d guess she underwent the mutations.
I agree the “women cannot be witchers” thing always seemed sexist, but making her a witcher is a nerf more than anything. She didn’t teleport once in the teaser. A weird but welcome flip from ‘the female character didn’t earn it’ to ‘they took away everything she earned’ that we’re seeing in the social media reactions.
Somebody pointed out to me that the witcher medallion that Ciri is wearing is feline, so possibly from the School of the Cat, which according to the wiki was known to train women as witchers. I wonder if they had a different trial than that of the grasses. She might be a full fledged mutant, like Geralt.
Yeah, my sticking point isn’t the female witchers. It’s how much less powerful she is now. She was damn near a god last game.
I remember crashing my ps4 my piling up a ridiculous number of corpses during her escape scene. Just such a badass. Hurt my heart to watch her struggle in the fight in this teaser.
Or they wanted to play off that kneejerk reaction to get you engaged. Ciri studied under Triss, Yen, and Avala’ch and knows actual magic. They could just be the more powerful actual versions of what witchers try and emulate.
I’m a huge OG Mafia fan as well (I even ran the “official” Subreddit). I thought the sequels and the remake were pretty good with the exception of Mafia 3. It was a solid game by itself but not really as part of this series IMO.
Didn’t the remake rip out all the amazing period songs from the original OST? I remember vibing to Django Reinhardt as you’re driving was a huge part of it for me.
Mafia 3 was my favorite. It’s definitely a departure from the first two, but it was a good melange of mafia and blaxploitation genre tropes. It also continued the tradition with a killer soundtrack. I never got tired of the radio.
With 3, I felt like my time was being wasted every time I played. The dumb collectible things are spread just far enough apart that it makes them a pain in the ass to collect them on foot, but not so far that a car is convenient (because the animation to get in and out of vehicles takes too damn long imo) either. The weird “lock picking” mini game where you just wait for the two bars to meet then press a button was stupid imo. I only ever got so far to do one of the ally’s side missions, and it was just “drive a boat all the way through the city and bayou to pick up some drugs or whatever, then drive the boat all the way back.”
youtube.com
Najstarsze