Essence_of_Meh

Essence_of_Meh, 17 dni temu

I currently doing a playthrough funnily enough, didn’t realize it was so close to an anniversary.

I’ve been spending more time exploring and doing side activities this time around, just driving around and taking photos. It ended up being quite a surprising experience. I was surprised with how easy the game is, how fast the story moves or how empty some parts of the world are (makes sense considering when it released). Taking the world in a more touristy way was an interesting change compared to how I experienced those games before. It’s also a way of playing I’ve been trying to move towards more and more recently (doing the same with Cyberpunk as well).

I still think it’s a great game but IV and, to lesser extent, Vice City are probably my favorites as far as mainline games are concerned. IV especially as it had a nice grounded approach to gameplay with weighty movement, interactions and driving, as well as the story - it sucks most people hated this as GTAV ended up being a rather mid experience for me.

Essence_of_Meh, 17 dni temu

Rockstar showed their thoughts on IV clearly in GTAV, I don’t think you have to worry about it anymore.

Essence_of_Meh, miesiąc temu

I only properly played 1, 2 and a bit of Black Flag but based on that and what I’ve seen from all the other games I’m gonna stick with the first one.

Investigations were… well actual investigation, gameplay mechanics while simple and satisfying weren’t overly automated and the game wasn’t burdened with all the bloat that came afterwards. Simplified movement system from later games, one that’s fighting you whenever you try to do something even a little out of game’s comfort zone, is probably my major sticking point with the series.

That said, I’m not sure if that would be the best choice for you. If you want to try the classic approach I’d suggest going with the Ezio trilogy (II, Brotherhood, Revelations) as these games are more polished, if a little bloated, compared to the first game. They should still hold up well enough to have fun.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

Ubisoft also announced both The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest will have an offline mode (twitter post, screenshot). Looks like the Stop Killing Games campaign is working.

Speaking of, if you’re in EU make sure to sign the The European Citizens’ Initiative petition - we’re already over 30% required signatures!

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

I think an important step would be to not be afraid of creating characters with actual… well, character. It was somewhat mentioned in the video but it seems like devs are unwilling to make NPCs with their own likes and dislikes, ones that might disagree with players instead of being all over them no matter what. This might be a slight exaggeration but boy do I wish we had more “real” feeling NPCs in games. I’m sure I’m not the only one who couldn’t care less about being the most important being in the universe and would rather be treated as an equal part of the world.

From a mechanical standpoint, relationship system in Scarlet Hollow feels like a good step into making interactions more natural (here is a detailed look by one of the devs) but I realize it’s a lot of work for something a good chunk of players won’t care about. I understand why this isn’t something many (especially bigger) devs would be interested in using but it’s still a disappointment.

Maybe AI will be able to help somewhat with this problem in the future but I’m not going to hold my breath on that.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

I’ve seen a lot of comments about the controls and I don’t really get it. I’ve played through both games about two years ago, I think, and didn’t have any problems with either of them. Maybe I’m just used to the jank due to playing a lot of older games but I remember both titles playing fine.

I’m curious how they’ll modernize the controls. The little gameplay present in this teaser looks pretty close to the original and I don’t think they talked about this in detail. Whatever they’ll do I just hope it’ll allow people to play and enjoy this little gem. It deserves it.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

As much as I like this idea I don’t think many publishers would look at it and said anything other than “yeah, not worth the money”. We probably have a higher chance for the classic versions landing on GoG than being added as a freebie to a remake - they want you to play the new shiny thing, not the old one after all (that and no need to provide support to the old version).

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

I totally agree. I just don’t have much expectations towards big publishers anymore, I guess. Not many approach the topic of remakes/remasters from the point of view of celebrating their history unfortunately. Heck, we had multiple instances of publishers removing the old versions from sale just to push people to the new one.

Low effort or not, companies (and many players to be honest) rarely care about their legacy.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu (edited 2 miesiące temu)

Ah, I thought people had some specific issues besides the game having tank controls. Fair enough.

I’m not going to begrudge someone for not liking a control scheme (unless their only reason is not wanting to learn how to play differently) but I do think some people dislike it without even giving it a fair shake. The thing is, these games were designed with this control scheme in mind and switching to a modern one can be detrimental to the experience (compare playing REmake with and without tank controls, the latter makes navigation and avoiding enemies much easier).

Oh well, everyone has their own dislikes.

Edit: I read a bit more and apparently the game always had an option to play with some kind of “modern” controls when using a controller with sticks? I’m guessing they’ll probably polish those.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

Can’t say I share your experience with either game but I can understand it doesn’t work for everyone. Personally, I can’t really imaging playing this, Kao the Kangaroo or old Tomb Raider titles without tank controls for example.

To be clear, your comment is exactly what I meant - you tried and don’t like it, that’s absolutely fine. There’s plenty of games I couldn’t get into due to controls or mechanics so I feel you. On the other hand, I met people who refuse to even try to engage with certain mechanics and that’s what I’m not a fan of. I’m all for remakes/remasters/rereleases updating things to let more people enjoy the old thing and hope this will be the case with Croc. And hey, even if they change something in a way I don’t like, there’s always* the classic version.

• Though not always an official way to get it.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

I feel like that should be the default stance. One thing that gives me hope is the early access release - there’s a chance they’re approaching the game seriously and will use it to make something great.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

Same here. While I’m very critical of Microsoft and tend to avoid a lot of things they’re involved in their continuous work on improving accessibility is one thing I’ve been really impressed with. I hope this approach will become more and more prevalent in both the gaming industry and in general as well.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

I haven’t used Windows in a while now so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but it always felt like PCs were a bit of an afterthought for Microsoft. I know it changed somehow but have no idea how much so my random guess would be: it’s simply be a case of “lets market these with our main gaming product: consoles”.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

They could also not do anything at all and leave those players on their own. Sure, it would be great if all of those options were available from the start but most of MS’s work on accessibility wasn’t developed back then. At least they can be used with PCs and should be compatible with their future consoles.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

Maybe so. Also, I reread the article and there are more mentions of PC than I initially thought. I just kind of glanced over them between all the talk about Xbox, a term that’s also used in regards to Windows gaming (something I forgot when I posted this).

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu (edited 2 miesiące temu)

This looks really cool. I hope they can pull this off since I’m really itching to play a sims-like again. It’ll probably fry my PC but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Edit: There’s a free character studio available on Steam to play around with.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

Sometimes I forget how unprofessional the game industry still is or how little respect people have for well being of others. I’d like to say I’m surprised but that would require having some expectations towards those companies.

I hope more VAs speak up about stuff like this so we can have some real changes.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

I focused on game companies since that’s what’s this article is about but yeah, that’s true.

Essence_of_Meh, 2 miesiące temu

It’s a retribution by the mob because of what he did in the first game. I’ll put it in spoilers just in case:

Mafia 1 spoilersThe whole premise of the first game is that Tommy talks to the police to get out of crime life. He ends up testifying against the Salieri family, receives lower sentence and enters witness protection program with his family.

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu

That depends. If an MMO is well written (as FFXIV and ESO are for many) then it doesn’t make much of a difference. Additionally, all to other people running around make the world feel a bit more alive compared to scripted NPCs, even if one doesn’t participate in the actual group content.

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu

So are a lot of single-player games. Players running around in the background just add some semblance of “dynamic life” to the world. There’s also the possibility of “well, I’m not playing with people right now but I could if I really wanted to”.

I’m not saying that your perspective is wrong on that (I tend to bounce between the two views for example) but for some people just being in the same world as other players provides enough dynamism to make it feel more interesting than playing completely on your own.

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu

I’m not saying whether it is or isn’t well written, I haven’t played enough to have an informed opinion on the game. All I’m saying is, some people like it well enough they have no problem treating it as a fun single-player experience with real people running in the background.

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu

Hell yeah, Starbound!

I tend to go back to one of the beta versions from time to time so it’s interesting to see the final one - it’s both extremely familiar and pretty different at the same time. It might not be as good of a product as Terraria but I always had a soft spot for this game.

I doubt I can provide any tips for this version but I hope you have fun with it.

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu

I can’t say much about the final version since I didn’t play much of it yet but I do remember some fun ideas being lost during the development. I also remember not vibing much with the new lore & introduction but that could possibly change whenever I take some time to finally experience the game.

I guess I could ask since you’ve mentioned Frackin’ Universe. I’ve seen some mods trying to bring various parts of the old features back, do you know if any of them managed a decent mix of old and new vision of the project?

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

Short version: it’s a campaign to force publishers to provide some way to play online only games after they decide to shut down the servers. That or letting us know, by law, that games can be killed without repercussion. It’s not about forcing publishers to keep the servers alive forever if that’s what you’re wondering.

Long version: check out the official website for the Stop Killing Games campaign. It has FAQ with all the important info.

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu

Unfortunately not, initiatives can only be signed by EU citizens. For this specific campaign you can help by spreading the word, besides that you can also check the “Take Action” tab on the site I linked previously - there are multiple campaigns started in various countries so you might be able to help with one of those.

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu

Please do! We need as many eyes on this as possible.

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu

There are some technical issues with the whole portal, can’t open any other initiatives either.

Essence_of_Meh, 3 miesiące temu

Not really. This isn’t about completely preventing publishers from adding account systems etc. (even if that would be ideal), it’s about publishers removing your ability to play games after they the shut down the servers. The former would hopefully be a side effect of a potential law change/ruling but the main point is keeping games playable after the official support ends.

In your example it could be removal of the sign in requirement once the account system is down but not necessarily preventing them from existing in the first place.

Essence_of_Meh, 4 miesiące temu

TL;DW:

• Patrick Breyer and Niklas Nienaß submitted questions to the European Commission on the topic of killing games (the latter in contact with Ross and two EU based lawyers).
• EU won’t commit to answering whether games are goods or services.
• EULA are probably unfair due to imbalance of rights and obligations between the parties.
• Such terminations should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis (preferably by countries rather than EU).
• Existing laws don’t seem to cover this issue.
• Campaign in France seems to be gaining some traction. Case went to “the highest level where most commercial disputes submitted to DGCCRF never go”.
• UK petition was suppose to get a revised response after the initial one was found lacking. Due to upcoming elections all petitions were closed and it might have to be resubmitted.
• Also in UK, there’s a plan to report games killed in the last few years to the Competition and Markets Authority starting in August (CMA will get some additional power by then apparently).
• No real news from Germany, Canada or Brazil.
• Australian petition is over and waiting for a reply. Ross also hired a law firm to represent the issue.

This is a simplified version of simplified version, watch the video for more info.

Essence_of_Meh, 4 miesiące temu

This has be kindasortagenerally known already, it just doesn’t really matter if nothing is done about it.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

I might be missing something since I’m not completely dialed in with TD lore but didn’t we kill Keener? Are they bringing him back or will this just be more of his usual gloating through audio logs? I’m not sure how I feel about either of those options.

Guess I’ll wait for a full detail breakdown before thinking about coming back.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

Yeah, I just watched the Ubisoft Forward stream with some additional details on the new update. Can’t say I’m a fan but whatever - guess they still can’t let go of their obsession with him.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu (edited 5 miesięcy temu)

Release date: 2024.10.08

• Extended gameplay
• Game versions
• Deluxe Edition goodies
  • Game
  • 48h Early Access
  • Digital Artbook
  • Digital Soundtrack (supposedly an app rather than music download?)
  • Masks:
    • Pyramid Head (Pizza Box)
    • Mira the Dog
    • Robbie the Rabbit (PS5 exclusive)

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

That’s positively surprising, I expected them to leave it at that until petition reaches the second milestone (if that even happens). Let’s see if anything new comes out of this.