Katana314

Katana314, rok temu

Aw, I was waiting for The Last of Us Part I Remastered Remastered.

Katana314, rok temu

The only thing I wanted for the corruptor or was just to slightly reduce its giga giga armor so it doesn’t take a whole supply drop’s worth of ammo to whittle down. I know it’s meant to have a weak point system after you’ve foamed it off, but it didn’t seem to work for me, especially with the many low-accuracy weapons you tend to use and other enemies around.

Katana314, rok temu

I think I’ve been told that AAC uses just enough CPU to decode that developers don’t want it. Even that assessment could be wrong.

Katana314, rok temu

I wish not all content was voice acted.

The eight main heroes are receiving an alert about the empire starting its invasion, and the hero’s cousin is leading the charge? That scene deserves good VA. It’s dramatic, plot important, and can get you invested in characters.

A farmer is giving you a radiant quest to kill an optional boss? That kind of thing absolutely doesn’t need VA. It even means that people cycling through content can speed-read his introduction, and aren’t forced to listen to horrendous voice acting.

Katana314, rok temu

I get the impression any more urgent gaps will be covered by the community.

I’ve used my Deck in its desktop mode, plugged in a dock, for extended periods when I didn’t have access to my PC, and it was a decent enough experience for the most part.

Katana314, rok temu

People have floated this idea of “dockable devices” for decades. Microsoft even made a Windows Phone that did it. The only time it worked was the Nintendo Switch, where they sold the dock together - and even then, I think their studies showed that a majority of players only play in one mode.

So it comes down to consumer friction. What do they get in one box, and how likely are they to buy a second?

Katana314, rok temu

I peg this on Minimum Wage.

It’s great that the well-paid gamers have their options of exciting, linear singleplayer games. Realistically, if we want AAA gaming to be defined by that, it needs to be profitable enough, which means people buying those games on release consistently, and even maybe accepting the $70 price tags.

Some people do so - but many others are only buying one or two games a year due to shrinking personal budget. And those games need to fill the hundreds of spare hours they’ll have during that year.

The situation could be reversed if more people had a generously-sized personal budget; if they weren’t fearful of managing their rent each month, or debating whether to save a few pennies from their paycheck for retirement. $40 or even $70 for the hot new 10-hour singleplayer game of the month shouldn’t be a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it’s everything in a world with so much income disparity.

Katana314, rok temu

Any chance of this being a flop? Years ago, we would have said no way, but we’ve seen some high-profile screwups before. It’s certainly at the time period where Rockstar might have brain drain on its better developers.

Katana314, rok temu

A little while back, Netflix started putting out some games through its app. No further microtransactions, just a game (I think). It gets some good-hearted efforts like Valiant Hearts: Coming Home and Oxenfree. I feel like the best thing for genuine mobile games could be some kind of App Store that curates just to things like that, and disconnects from the past of cheap crap.

Imagine a popular subscription service like Game Pass tying into well-built story-based games, for instance. I think it could work out well.

Katana314, rok temu

The solution is slow depletion of title power in order to drive competition. Basically, encourage each others and yourself to explore other games that aim for the same goals as the original property, ideally expanded with some vision of innovation.

For Pokémon, players could likely try out Casette Beasts. For Silent Hill, there are other survival horror properties examining psychological properties of their heroes, like Cry of Fear and The Park.

Katana314, rok temu

I’m curious; are they gonna aim for splitscreen play? Could make for a lot of fun party moments.

Katana314, rok temu

I’ve got so many Like a Dragon games in my queue I don’t even know which to go for yet. I still didn’t finish Yakuza 6, bought Judgment 2, and now game pass has Isshin and MWEHN.

Katana314, rok temu

Much as I love abridged series and mods, I sometimes feel like there are people too invested in existing franchises that could have made something substantial if they ventured their creativity out of fan works. I’m sort of one of them - I made a lot of TF2 animations back in the day, and past a point realized for all my work I had nothing I could claim to have truly been made “from scratch”.

Not to disparage parody makers, just that I understand the sentiment.

Katana314, rok temu

The act is very important in the event of an SEC investigation. Since I don’t hold stock in the company, I’m safe to say this, but basically if they wrote “Yeah, I don’t have any faith in the company itself, I just caught Wall Street tycoons making an insane short sell” then that comment could become a major exhibit in an exchange fraud case that makes them forfeit their shares.

Katana314, rok temu

Definitely hated their use of universal ammo to cater to their weird weapon system. Maybe I’m not quite into this kind of horror, but I also didn’t care much for the direction the story took right at its ending.

Katana314, rok temu

That link is chillingly hilarious.

Makes me think of a simple job like garbage man; they drive up the pay to encourage people into it. So what’s the incentive without capital?

Katana314, rok temu

Don’t trust the software company to do what they have made legally sound claims to doing, and that hundreds of thousands of people have said they’ve done.

But do trust the script kiddies writing crackers not to install invisible keyloggers and ad trackers.

Katana314, rok temu

They’re often forced to equalize global prices because of sites like G2A. Even if they want to sell a game for the price of a Zimbabwean loaf of bread, G2A picks up a thousand copies of that and resells them in America, driving the global revenue down.

So, now no one in Zimbabwe gets cheap local prices because there’s no such thing as a “local” price. And the defenders of G2A use their own mental gymnastics to justify it.

Katana314, rok temu

Given the unremarkable difference in appearance I’ve seen on the “ultra modern” Unreal Engine 5 demos, I’m all for it. We can’t get the new generation right yet, let’s stay on the old where we can manage a consistent framerate.

Katana314, rok temu

The one thing that pulls me away from JRPGs is when their story is too generic. All the best ones I’ve enjoyed had some truly unpredictable, or even just highly dramatic, elements to their story.

Katana314, rok temu

I understand you have a lot of demos to cover, though I can’t help but feel there’s some dishonesty about the Robocop demo. First mission gets you used to killing gangsters in simple corridors, though after that the demo actually gives a lot of focus on side quests, and very traditional “community policing”, including detective work, and many occasions of trying to find the best balance between community lenience and upholding justice. I even managed to avoid a gunfight in one case by finding clues and negotiating some of the gangsters down.

Maybe you played all that part and it just didn’t feel significant. I admit, it just felt pleasantly unexpected to me.

Katana314, rok temu

Hoping for fun times, but I guess I’m a little worried that the story for this expansion might lose appeal without a good conflict.

It’s very possible to make a well-written, region-localized storyline with lowered stakes than “potential end of all life”, I’m just uncertain how well they’ll do that given what the Warrior of Light has been through.

Katana314, rok temu

Reverse 1999 is a new RPG title that introduces a fresh concept. It’s based on the 20th Century.

Truly we are breaching untapped ground.

Katana314, rok temu

2030: Microsoft sends mercenaries to burn down the offices of Valve Corporation. The act is legalized under the 2026 Monopoly Militarism Act.

Katana314, rok temu

I can understand this comment for something like an abusive mineral miner in Africa selling electronics parts, or a food corporation that makes shared ingredients. Video games, though, are much more of a finished product, and easy to find competition for.

Katana314, rok temu

I was disappointed to hear allegations of toxic work environments in Moon Studios, the people who made indie darling Ori and the Blind Forest. So while abusive employers are certainly an important issue, it doesn’t appear to be one that’s specific to large companies. Furthermore, it was never going to get solved under the supervision of Bobby Kotick - a man who was never going to leave unless something like the Microsoft deal happened.

There’s lots of horrible companies in the world, and I salute anyone’s efforts to boycott the ones doing horrible shit. Part of the reason I’m ambivalent about the merger is, I don’t even buy (or care about the success of) Activision games. But I don’t see that as a topic directly relevant to corporate merging/growth. Two publishers merge, that hasn’t added to the amount of employee abuse going on in each of their studios.

Katana314, rok temu

Steam Deck has put a small thorn in their OS side. It used to be ridiculous to have a Linux gaming computer, but it’s become much more viable thanks to the Deck’s existence.

Basically to say Microsoft wouldn’t be able to pull a massive move like requiring Windows subscription prices without a lot of gamers going to Linux.

Katana314, rok temu

Wait so if 90% of the Earth’s population was killed in the last one…and we’re up to 6 now…wouldn’t there barely be anyone left at the end of this?

I mean ultimately the bugs and monsters are slowly winning.

Katana314, rok temu

It’s definitely nicer if there’s far less visual emphasis to it, like having the score be in small font rather than slammed in the middle of the result screen.

Katana314, rok temu

Prices have mostly been decided by minimum wage. If you want a million people to buy your game, you need a million people to have $60 they can spare.

Katana314, rok temu

That’s just it; the first-time experience is so critical in every game, and often every console.

The systems that needed users to follow 30 steps to set them up, or try them 8 times until they could avoid nausea, often failed.

Convenience is important.

Katana314, rok temu

The Legend of Legacy of Age of Record of Prophecy of Guardian of Warrior of Journal of Lemons.

Katana314, rok temu

Since there’s no functional upgrades from collecting gold, this kind of works out. A lot of time, I collected tons of gold and just never spent it.

I also wonder if matchmaking will go better. Solo queueing seems to find a lot of people instantly leaving parties, and I suspect they’re trying to find a particular “sea” with their friends to perform group invasions.

Katana314, rok temu

Didn’t Cyberpunk launch to positive reviews as well? At this point it’s meaningless.

Katana314, rok temu

All true - and yet somehow, it still released to positive reviews. The consumer outcry came after release, the reviewers having gotten a tightly curated experience.

Katana314, rok temu

Self-reports:

Yeah, it’s strange. Our game has ballooned in popularity on stores - but as far as our reporting tools are showing, not a single person has installed it, ever.

Katana314, rok temu

The funniest thing about Apollo was, I hated his game - because of everyone apart from the man himself. Then, his name was disassociated from the two following games, but I really enjoyed his storyline in each.

There are accusations that new backstory for him was forcibly shoved into Spirit of Justice, but I disagree; when you’re playing a game in isolation, I think it just doesn’t work well to have too many lingering plot points to be resolved in future - it made sense to only feature story beats that will reach some resolution.

Katana314, rok temu

They’re going to send games back in time.

Katana314, rok temu

“Until you consciously decide to buy an Xbox game instead of rent it, causing those weird arguments on the internet to sputter out.”

Katana314, rok temu

The Series S and Game Pass have shown that people like discounts; so either competing console is going to run into issues attracting customers if they never offer them in any form. That’s currently an issue for the Nintendo eShop.

Katana314, rok temu

Can’t believe the remake of Final Fantasy 7 is almost 2/6ths finished! (Going off of the Disc 1/2/3 look)

Katana314, rok temu

Something I think people miss is, at any point in the future anyone can make any inane pricing decision, and people are screwed in lieu of response.

The one apple seller in a town that sells all kinds of baked goods jacks up prices of apples to $100 each. There will be an outcry, people will scramble to get another apple supplier, and in the meantime they will have a hard time putting out products.

This is basically what we’re seeing now: Inane pricing hurts everyone, we just need to make sure overall it hurts Unity more. I can only imagine we ever see this type of thing from crazed MBAs that are increasingly out of touch with reality and consequence.

Katana314, rok temu

I’ve felt this same way about content creators complaining about YouTube. It’s far too risky to develop your life plan around a particular company continuing their service.

Katana314, rok temu

The marketing really seemed to focus on the story, which definitely seemed like a bad idea.

“We came here to stop Sandrak from winning the Everwar.”

That line got blasted at me a thousand times. Who’s Sandrak, and who cares? Why are teen fiction writers taking charge of the war’s name?

Katana314, rok temu

Oh man; I just bought this game not even knowing if it would have more DLC. Mercenaries is always welcome.

Katana314, rok temu

Given current events, it seems very plausible to me they got at least one - but let’s not pretend it means the backlash is all wrong and we should start giving up all indie revenue to the great lord engine provider.

Katana314, rok temu

That doesn’t match with what I know; they make lots of individual expansion bundles, each with a fair amount of content.

The metric of “How to buy EVERY scrap of content for the game” is generally disingenuous, since most of its expansions are best enjoyed on their own, and you’d likely get tired of them after a few unless you really enjoy The Sims.

Katana314, rok temu

They claim that repeated installs will not be counted. How do they define repeated installs?

It’s worth clarifying - because it’s easy to imagine some script kiddy that hates a certain dev or just wants to mess around, who does whatever they can to make a botnet of false accounts repeatedly installing some free game or demo.