Interesting that you call out story and visuals, I’d say those are the two elements that actually do rise above standard fare. Not necessarily the graphical fidelity (it’s great, but not ground breaking), but the art and production design, use of colors, they’re all magnificently cohesive and create some really stunning environments. Story’s more subjective but the performances were commendable, the theme of honor and victory was consistent and tragic, pacing was nicely balanced.
It’s the actual gameplay that I’d say was…fine. Combat is tight and varied, but eventually repetitive, and the open world loop is exhaustingly uninventive.
Finished Paradise Killer early last week. I liked it a lot, it got to be pretty addicting uncovering new pieces of the mystery. Whenever I had to put the game down, I’d come back to it thinking “Oh shit, I discovered x last time I played, can’t wait to see how that pans out.” The one negative thing I’ll say is that there’s not a lot of actual detective work on the player’s part. The actual mechanics of the game are pretty much just running back and forth over the island, talking to the same characters, and chasing collectibles. But I enjoyed the loop, so it worked out.
Started up Moonlighter for a low-commitment game. I’ve played about 10 hours and enjoyed it so far. It’s got a pretty well-balanced progression loop (explore the dungeon, sell your stuff, afford a small upgrade, get a little further in the dungeon, sell your stuff…) which is a big draw for me. Not sure it’ll keep my interest to the end but I’m fond of the time I’ve spent.
Spent some time with The Ascent, wish I liked it more than I did. I was looking for a good pick-up-and-play game, but the save mechanics in The Ascent are…not clear. If it supported a save anywhere/anytime feature I probably would have gone a lot further.
But never being quite certain where I’d pick back up killed my motivation to play too many times.
An honest-to-goodness single-player Arkane game, with Dishonored 2’s caliber of level design, would probably be the catalyst that finally convinced me to get an Xbox.
I was almost relieved that Redfall arrived as such a dud because I didn’t have to make this decision on that game’s behalf. Still boggles my mind Bethesda took the minds behind the greatest modern immersive sims and assigned them a live service game. What a waste.
Weird trailer. Not really sure what they were going for with mashing up highlights of the movie but with…unknown custom character in place of the movie characters.
Haha ok, just curious. You said pleasantly surprised on both counts, which I took to mean you were happy it didn’t win any awards.
I’m super excited about playing Spider-Man 2 (as well as Alan Wake 2), but I’m also a patient gamer so just keeping an eye out for even a little bit of a sale.
One of my favorite YouTube game critics explores every single Fallout game and their place within a collective idea of what the franchise has been and currently is.
I’m not terribly familiar with the franchise personally. I had twice tried and failed to get into Fallout 3 back when it was released, and I’ve seen a video or two elsewhere (I think Hbomberguy did a video on a couple of the games a while back).
This video goes through every single game in the series (including Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel) sequentially, starting with the main game and then each expansion/DLC. He talks about story and gameplay, but also about the stories of their productions, the various influences that inspired the general feel of the universe, successes and failures, and how the identity of the series shifted as it changed hands.
So to answer your question, the highlight is that I feel like a certified expert without ever having really played any of the games. It’s also just ultimately 9.5 hours (7.5 confirmed) of high quality critical content.
Yeah, I feel like I gave the impression this is just a full gameplay video or something. It’s not, it’s a critical analysis.
He does essentially review each game, but he also talks about stuff like the different paradigms of art in games: narrative, gameplay, choice, environmental design and storytelling, as well as their intersections (or their lack). For this series especially, he highlights those elements in contrast between the Interplay/Obsidian games and the Bethesda games.
I’m not actually interested in playing the games, but I love this kind of critique.
Well, there’s an audience for it. I love long-form critiques, to the point where I’m generally less inclined to bother with anything less than around 45 minutes because it’s just not enough time to explore anything with the kind of depth that interests me the most (that’s a pretty loose rule though, some topics can be incredibly interesting but just don’t need a long-form analysis).
This essay actually covers about…9 games in the series I think? (1, 2, Tactics, Brotherhood of Steel, 3, New Vegas, a mobile game, 4, and 76). That includes all DLC as well, so it averages about 1-1.5 hours per game (variably, BoS and the mobile game both get significantly less time). And it is split into chapters with the YouTube feature.
I do know that’s still not appealing for everyone. I appreciate the top comment on the video: “Sweet baby Jesus.”
Ready to learn more about the world of RESISTOR? Introducing our first look at the character creator and some on foot content from the RPG side of the game, ...
Still playing the field since finishing my second BG3 playthrough a few weeks ago:
Sniper Elite 5: I wish I’d known about this series 10 years ago. SE5 is a surprisingly fun stealth action game, with enormous sandbox levels that encourage varied approaches, styles, and paths. Lots of unlockables and customizations (and unlike the new Hitman games, those unlockables can be used across all levels once you get them). Unfortunately I’m just not super into this kind of experience anymore, but I still had a lot of fun for the time I did spend on it before getting worn out. I’m keeping it on my system because I’m sure it will scratch another itch soon.
Bus Simulator 21: I wanted something I could zone out with, just kind of dive into mundanity and focus on little details. The game does meet that criteria conceptually, but the gameplay just doesn’t feel super well-tuned, and you get these little penalties for everything that goes wrong. I didn’t play it long enough to deal with the business management aspect, which I think is a significant part of the appeal, but it really just didn’t click like I wanted it to.
Firewatch: Skipped this when it released and was a huge deal. I didn’t know anything going into it and really liked the format of the game, exploring the woods, pulling up the map and compass to navigate and all that. Characters and performances were exceptional. But ultimately I was kind of disappointed because …
spoilerit makes you think it’s building to some fascinating conspiracy but ultimately reveals it was just one nutjob playing games. I guess I was more invested in the superficial potential of the high-concept narrative than the actual story the game was probably knocking me over the head trying to tell.
Concrete Genie: Really stellar artistic achievement. The quasi-stop-motion style of the in-engine game, the animations of the genies, and the sketchbook style cutscenes all looked phenomenal in their individual styles. The story was touching and I loved the idea of a hero whose value is his artistic drive, but I was a little bothered by what I felt was a fairly reductive approach to bullying. But the biggest problem was that the game feels really incomplete. Exploration is competent, but the drawing mechanics are not nearly robust enough to tap into the creativity it’s trying to celebrate, and the final act of the game introduces a whole new set of mechanics that, again, are really shallow. By the halfway point, the game felt more like a really, really sophisticated proof of concept than a completed game.
Two Point Hospital: This game is doing a much better job with what I was hoping to get out of Bus Simulator 21. Love the art style and UI. No complaints, just something easy to dip into from time to time.
Paradise Killer: I just started this and it is fucking nuts in a very sincere way. Opening lines: “The Syndicate created the first Paradise Island to worship their dead alien gods. Guided by Leader Monserrat, the Syndicate attempt to resurrect the gods by forcing Citizens into psychic worship rituals. However, the worship invites demonic corruption from beyond the stars. The islands always fail. The islands die and a new Paradise Island is born. The cycle repeats.” Really unique art style and game world. Time will tell if the investigative core lives up to the rest.
This doesn’t strike me as a bad move on their part. From the way the responses are worded, this feels very much like it’s intended to counterbalance negative impressions specifically for potential buyers who might otherwise be swayed by negative comments.
If I’m on the fence about something, I can be pretty easily swayed by a negative review that enumerates things that I’m specifically on the lookout for. Like if I saw one of those reviews that said bad story and boring gameplay, I would find myself think “sounds like the Bethesda formula hasn’t updated enough for me,” but I could be swayed back then other way by a dev response that enthusiastically mentions the exploration and crafting. “Maybe there’s enough here for me that I don’t need to bother with the story.”
Is it underhanded? Maybe. But it seems like a no-lose scenario either way for Bethesda.
I played maybe half or more of PoE and still do not get RTwP at all. I was playing on normal difficulty but started getting absolutely trounced frequently, so I gave up. If I’d thought about it at the time, I would have just dropped the difficulty, but it didn’t occur to me until so late I’d forgotten too much to pick it back up.
Can you tell me how it compares to Subnautica if you’ve played it? I’ve been looking for something that scratches that very particular itch that Subnautica hit so well, and so far I just don’t like the aimlessness of the other survival/crafting games I’ve played. Subnautica’s purposeful progression really hit the sweet spot.
I keep trying No Man’s Sky, but after 2 years I finally figured out why it never clicks for more than a few hours at a time: it’s essentially a live service game, which for some reason I never recognized. It throws all its updates at you immediately, which destroys any real sense of earned progression in some ways, and its economy is designed for frequent and persistent play and multiplayer, so if you’re just playing casually, progress is sloggy as hell in other ways. And there’s just a thousand discovered things to do at all times, it’s overwhelming. It’s my fault for misunderstanding, but I’ve been trying to play it like I played Subnautica, and that’s just not what this is.
The closest I’ve come so far to recreating the Subnautica magic was Dysmantled, which is a totally different game in a lot of ways but really terrific in its own right. Looking forward to their next game, Dysplaced, next year.
Anyway, I’ve had my eye on The Forest lately. Waiting for a sale, wondering if it will fit the bill.
Haha, yeah I get what it is and what’s happening, but I could never wrap my head around tracking it all. It was too chaotic in fights with more than a few enemies, and I guess what I really meant is that I do not get how the system is realistically meant to facilitate the kind of participation and strategy it seems to expect of me.
I read a lot of forums around that time about it, and I do recognize that a lot of people not only like it but prefer it over turn based, but it just doesn’t work for me.
I personally think TLOU2 is one of the most effective works of art in the entire medium and I love the game top to bottom, but I’m also overjoyed to hear they’re working on something else now.
I too hope it’s more cheerful, for the exact same reasons.
Crucially, the creator allows players to make modifications that aren’t always possible in other RPGs, letting them modify a characters genitals (choosing between preset options), identity (male, female, non-binary/other), and voice. [Lead character artist Alena] Dubrovina says including those options was about giving players...
I finally finished my second run of BG3 myself for a grand total of about 200 hours. I haven’t played a single game that much probably since Oblivion 15 years ago, and I racked those hours up over a much longer period of time. It’s difficult to comprehend, no less express, how monumental an achievement this game is. The only thing that stopped me immediately rolling another character is the memory of the final gauntlet of major battles in act 3 (including the one who sings their own boss theme, which I didn’t do the first time). I’m not following any build guides or anything, so it’s been a pretty stressful week of game time and I’m ready to relax a bit.
On that note, I started playing Omno. It’s fine. Nothing really stands out: not a big fan of the art style, the score is pleasant but not as noteworthy or impactful as something like the score in Gris, and the gameplay is simple and tight. I think I’d have lost interest if I wasn’t playing immediately after 200 hours of BG3. But since I am, it happens to be hitting the right notes.
It’s definitely my favorite game in recent memory, it might even be one of my favorite games or single most favorite game ever.
I just began act 3 of my second playthrough, which has amounted to an obscene amount of playtime for me. I play single player games exclusively, and these days am often eagerly thinking of my next game anytime I hit the 30-hour mark of whatever I’m currently playing.
BG3 is a truly monumental achievement. Plus Karlach is indisputably one of the best characters ever created for a game.
I’ve been thinking about making this thread for a few days. Sometimes, I play a game and it has some very basic features that are just not in every other game and I think to myself: Why is this not standard?! and I wanted to know what were yours....
I don’t know who Spike Laurie is, but I don’t trust him.
Hiro Capital partner Spike Laurie believes you can trace the current wave(s) of layoffs to one in particular: Elon Musk cutting 50% of Twitter’s workforce in November 2022.
“[Elon Musk] had figured out from people’s electronic passes that there were more people serving food in the cafeteria than actually there to eat it,” he says. “This was the impetus other business leaders needed in order to start looking carefully at the size of their companies and start making judicious cuts.”
This sounded suspect so I looked it up. The claim was posted to Twitter by Musk himself, completely unsubstantiated, and directly contested by Twitter’s former VP of real estate. If I had to choose between this being the actual impetus for other businesses making judicious cuts or the empty claims of a Musk fanboy, I’m betting fanboy.
By the time Assassin’s Creed 2 came out, I was calling this my favorite series ever. The Ezio games made you feel like an expertly skilled badass with unprecedented success, and the stealthy, agile archetype is my favorite to inhabit. Even the gameplay loop was fresh and borderline revolutionary, and so successful it became the basis for what would soon be tarnished as the Ubisoft blueprint.
Last game I played was Odyssey, and though I spent…a lot of time on it, I’ve never felt more bitter at the end of the game. Seems you only get half the conclusion by completing the story missions, with the other half locked away behind the assassination list. And since any enemies 3 or more levels higher than you are always essentially indestructible, and the assassination targets climb very high in levels, it’s essentially a driver for bottomless grinding. By that point I’d already had far more than my fill.
I was casually interested in Mirage, but I learned from Skillup’s video that it’s essentially an upscaled Valhalla DLC, which is a red flag. With other reviewers pointing out that it, well, feels like upscaled DLC, I’ve no interest personally.
You know one of the reasons I jump to 2, and I didn’t think of it until now, is because of aerial assassinations. If I remember right, there wasn’t an actual mechanic for it in 1, and the addition in 2 and beyond tied things up nicely.
Pillars of Eternity is the only real-time-with-pause game I’ve played, and honestly I don’t get it. It’s too chaotic for me to absorb everything that’s happening. If I play another I’m just going to drop the difficulty.
Good Ness, I was going to express concern for you for spending that much time on character creation, but then I watched the Mortismal new player guide and…that looks overwhelming in a possibly good way.
This is such a absurd statement I’m inclined to agree about the trolling.
Maybe you love the characters, maybe you love the world, or maybe you love the character creator. That’s all well and good, but the fact of the matter is that all of those things—and a good many other aspects that Baldur’s Gate 3 has been praised for—are poor measurements of evaluating a game. If these subjectivities were the most important aspects of games, then we could say that chess or soccer are bad games. And I don’t think I need to explain how absurd that statement would be.
What I mean by this, is instead of when you fail and are met with a game over, the game finds some way to keep it going. Instead of being forced to reset to a previous save or an autosave checkpoint, the game’s story continues in an interesting path. Are there any games like this?...
Is there any scaled/linear progress in it? For example, I loved Subnautica because I loved the gameplay loop of finding a new resource, which let me craft a new item, which let me explore a new area and find new resources to craft more powerful items.
I wanted to like No Man’s Sky for similar reasons, but it’s too sandboxy, and there’s no sense of purposeful progress and growth.
Nice, I was looking at this a while back but got turned off by references in reviews to poor combat and general lack of polish. Sounds like the definitive edition may have smoothed the edges enough to push it across the line. I’ll add it to my list!
I’m requesting for recommendations for games that stand out from the rest in their genre, and not in the sense of being the best game in that niche but actually bringing something new and innovative to the table. I’ve not had much experience in gaming, but I have a few games to give you a hint on what I am talking about:...
I strongly object to the characterization of Death Stranding as a walking simulator. Walking place to place is core to the experience for maybe one quarter of the game. Once you get to the largest area and continue unlocking new tools and features, you spend very little time walking. It also dismisses combat, which I felt was considerably more prevalent than I expected.
Yeah, that’s fair. The first time you go to any new site there is walking involved along with everything else, but I still think calling it a walking simulator is reductive, since it just one tool in an ever-expanding toolbox.
Maybe it’s better to call it a scifi delivery simulator (including factions of delivery addicts you have to fight because they keep trying to take your things).
I started playing Children of Morta with my son yesterday and I’m pretty impressed with it. I e tried playing Diablo 3 a couple times and found it really boring, so I assumed dungeon crawlers just weren’t really my thing. But I started to find some depth in the combat after a couple runs in CoM, and I quite like the roguelite cycle and progress. We’re making pretty slow progress because my son is young and kinda sucks at it, but I’m enjoying it more with him than many other games we’ve tried.
I also started Baldur’s Gate 3 with my partner with it yesterday and am pretty much in love so far. I had similar experiences with both Divinity games but they both were just a liiiitle too long and we would lose steam around the end. Hoping that’s not the case with this one.
Nice, thanks for the write-up! I will definitely bump this up the list then. Honestly it looks so appealing I think I’ve just been looking for an excuse to give it a shot that outweighed my wariness from the reviews.
Silent Hill 2 Remake developer teams up with The Walking Dead's Skybound Entertainment (www.eurogamer.net)
All of Insomniac's upcoming titles have leaked (www.resetera.com) angielski
I believe Insomniac were hacked / ransomwared last week or something. Apparently here’s the leak of all their upcoming titles....
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 17th
What have you all been playing!...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 10th
What have you all been playing!...
New single planet fantasy game from Hello Games (www.youtube.com) angielski
Marvel’s Blade | Announcement Trailer | The Game Awards 2023 (youtu.be) angielski
Jurassic Park: Survival | Announcement Trailer (youtu.be) angielski
The Game Awards 2023 Discussion Thread
Hey y’all. Figured I’d make a thread for this. Discuss anything about the game awards and it’s announcements here!...
A Thorough (9.5 hours!) Look at Fallout from Noah Caldwell-Gervais (youtu.be)
One of my favorite YouTube game critics explores every single Fallout game and their place within a collective idea of what the franchise has been and currently is.
RESISTOR Introduction Trailer (youtu.be) angielski
Ready to learn more about the world of RESISTOR? Introducing our first look at the character creator and some on foot content from the RPG side of the game, ...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 3rd
What have you all been playing! I’ve been playing… Not much! I’m moving states and haven’t had a lot of time to game 😢
Bethesda responding to negative Starfield reviews on Steam (www.eurogamer.net)
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of November 26th
What have you all been playing? I’ve been playing more dicey dungeons and cross code! Want to really commit to finishing cross code this time
The Last of Us 2 PS5 Remaster Announced, Has a Brand New Survival Mode, $10 Upgrade Path (www.pushsquare.com)
How the Baldur's Gate 3 character creator brings modern flair to old school fantasy (www.gamedeveloper.com)
Crucially, the creator allows players to make modifications that aren’t always possible in other RPGs, letting them modify a characters genitals (choosing between preset options), identity (male, female, non-binary/other), and voice. [Lead character artist Alena] Dubrovina says including those options was about giving players...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of November 12th
I definitely didn’t forget to do a new thread yesterday 👀...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of October 29th
Whatcha all been playing?...
Crow Country - PS1-style survival horror (youtu.be)
What is something (feature, modes, settings...) you would like to see become a standard in video games? angielski
I’ve been thinking about making this thread for a few days. Sometimes, I play a game and it has some very basic features that are just not in every other game and I think to myself: Why is this not standard?! and I wanted to know what were yours....
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of October 15th
Whatcha playing!...
What the current wave of layoffs means for the games industry (www.gamesindustry.biz)
Assassin's Creed Mirage - Review Thread
Game Information...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of September 24th
New thread!...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of September 17th
New thread!...
'The Game Just Fundamentally Undermines Itself': Game Designer Breaks Down 'Baldur's Gate 3's Most Fatal Flaws (www.themarysue.com) angielski
‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ can be a fantastic experience and a bad game at the same time.
Lies of P - Metacritic (www.metacritic.com)
Reviews currently trending positively in the low-80s....
What are some games that "spin" failure states? angielski
What I mean by this, is instead of when you fail and are met with a game over, the game finds some way to keep it going. Instead of being forced to reset to a previous save or an autosave checkpoint, the game’s story continues in an interesting path. Are there any games like this?...
Looking for games with unique core mechanics
I’m requesting for recommendations for games that stand out from the rest in their genre, and not in the sense of being the best game in that niche but actually bringing something new and innovative to the table. I’ve not had much experience in gaming, but I have a few games to give you a hint on what I am talking about:...
Stray movie based on video game, Ice Age director's next film a go at Annapurna (ew.com) angielski
Following the success of its debut feature, Nimona, Annapurna Animation is ready to launch its next phase of movies....
CD Projekt reveals which new Cyberpunk 2077 features are available for free and which are related to the game's expansion (www.gamescensor.com) angielski
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of September 3rd
New thread! Whatcha all playing! I’ve been playing more blasphemous 2. Really really into it 🙏