I’m always surprised Ubisoft gets so much flak when other developers are doing much the same thing.
That said, my main annoyance with Tsushima is: You’re not a hero. 99% of side quests end with the people you were helping ending up dead, and possibly some other nameless NPCs rescued. It just feels tragic.
It’s a perpetual issue where it’s easier to code in 20 more enemies than 2 or 3 more innocent, living people to have conversations with.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana for PS Vita. Fishing edition. Some random fishing pics I grabbed. I liked the fishing part of the game. It even slightly contributes to the story and progress if you catch them all....
I feel like the anime art style can make women of any age look pretty cute - which makes it hard for me to understand why they choose to make all of their combat-experienced, leader-professionals just entering high school or even earlier.
Dana is some sort of friggin leader-priest, and hasn’t even hit puberty. Japan is so weird sometimes.
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection, Volume 1. Mostly played streaming to my TV via Steam Link, but also played a bit on Steam Deck. I think this is an English dub of the MSX version. This isn’t the NES version. It was an excellent game for its time....
If you like the random irrelevant conversations of Metal Gear, you might like Tales of Berseria. It’s basically a band of pirates, lead by an edgelord but with many people that are very world-traveled, so you get a lot of encyclopedic explanations of why the world is the way it is, or what kind of pet they’d prefer. Certainly much less happy-go-lucky conversation than the rest of the Tales games.
If nothing else, it is kind of fun that they’ve merged universes a bit.
In Watch Dogs Legion, DedSec is contacted by the Assassin Order who needs their help taking down Templars that are working with Albion - basically merging protagonists/villains of both series.
Ghost Recon has also previously guest starred Sam Fisher and operators from Siege.
The Lutris launcher has helped me successfully play purchased Ubisoft games well. It sucks to rely on third party tools, but that’s much of what Linux is based around.
Easy to forget both Sony and Microsoft had nothing to do with gaming previously. Even MS had terrible inroads in spite of games for PC being written in DirectX.
I felt like Amazon and Google had pretty good chances. It was only due to terrible direction both managed to screw it up.
Same for me. I enjoy the Hitman games, but they have a bit more guidance towards suggesting possibilities for you.
I’d almost like it if I could investigate just as a master hacker that can skip the breaking in portion to try checking XYZ company’s records while sitting at the crime scene, instead of going down a 2 hour rabbit hole at risk of being caught to realize “Oh, that was the victim’s ID, not the killer’s, so nothing I’m investigating has anything to do with the case.”
I am curious if the games community has anything positive to say about major publishers at this point.
It’s fun to laugh at one failure, and it’s nice we still get occasional great indie hits. But when most major publishers fail to turn out anything of interest, and even Sony is kind of reaching vanishing expectations amid remasters of remasters, it becomes hard to even suggest what to buy an unknowledgeable kid for Christmas.
The point is that it’s not just them paying the price, though. With continuous years of NO publishers putting out anything interesting, we’re at a point where people are just less interested in anything that’s coming out.
It’s a carrot and stick problem to some degree. They know now we hate microtransaction-laden live service games, but it’s harder to define what players would enjoy. Keep in mind, there’s many cases of simply letting the developers cook that haven’t worked out either.
I agree when it comes to taste-specific stuff. I’m playing Steamworld Heist 2 and have Tactical Breach Wizards in my wishlist, so indie tactics games have been satisfying me - they’re certainly good and interesting, as you say.
But, those aren’t games I’d recommend to everyone. It does mean not much water cooler discussion since no one is playing the “same” games in most social circles. It used to be, a big release like Halo came out and everyone was talking about it, playing it, and discovering things together.
I don’t think there’s that many big-budget releases you can invest in if you care about Denuvo. Even the Ace Attorney games, re-releases of old DS visual novels, have been getting Denuvo’d.
I think I remember Just Cause 2 had it so the top achievement in the game was only for 70% completion because they knew they had such a ridiculously huge map.
Breath of the Wild aims the same way - they like having you come across a bunch of Korok seeds while traveling, but not scouring the land with a magnifying glass looking for them.
Ideally, Sony would handle the legal hurdles needed to allow PSN in multiple countries. But I imagine, as the publishers have invested tons of money into producing those singleplayer games, part of what they want in return is investment into the “PlayStation ecosystem”. Much like how Microsoft doesn’t care if people play their games on an Xbox, they just want an account.
Basically, I don’t think Sony is really in the business of putting down huge financial risks just to get the $60 entry tag of the rare singleplayer game they put out. Those games are meant to get you buying other Sony content as well.
I’ll admit, I’ve kept no interest in the game or its sequel because the concept just sounds depressing. Similar to Dark Souls’ plot; “Life sucks, you accomplish nothing more than survival, and innocent people die anyway.”
Give me two months in Unity, and I can make a game that’s “harder” than every game on any one of these lists. It would also be unplayable trash, that would prompt hundreds of “How the fuck are you supposed to XXX” responses due to obscurity. Part of what makes those listed games enjoyable is having a decent difficulty curve, compelling progression of skill demonstration, and a good feeling of reward. They’re getting difficulty right.
I’m torn about them. On the one hand they free up the combat design to be as wildly different from the exploration as it wants. Which can result in really creative stuff. Favorite examples are Undertale, MegaMan Battle Network series, and Tales series....
I think there’s better patterns RPGs can use for them.
A lot of games now just put them wandering the world, and touching/attacking them prompts combat. Then, the game needs to invent various motivations for you to actually want to attack the enemy.
In a lot of games, they’re just genuinely in the way through tight corridors to a destination. A better approach can be to associate some kind of minor quest reward to directly pursuing the enemies.
But, then you get the problem that a lot of RPGs just have no interesting decisions to make in combat. And, participating in combat can lead to a slow wearing down of the party’s mana points, or the game’s equivalent. In many games, you only want to use the basic cure spell and auto-attack because you’ll survive fewer fights without mana rationing. It becomes counter-intuitive and less fun.
Some games resolve this well. Cosmic Star Heroine for instance, a short indie JRPG, heals you after every fight, and each combat is uniquely scripted in for pacing much like Chrono Triggwr.
$200M before the Sony acquisition and $200M after. It’s a little hard to believe. The story seems to only be coming from Colin Moriarty right now, but I trust Jordan Middler to consider it at least reasonably plausible if he wrote it up for VGC....
This is probably the biggest lesson against the gamer mindset of “Give the developers time to work, and they’ll polish it to a shine.” Sometimes, even time doesn’t improve the end product if the idea wasn’t great. It might even indicate that on some instances where publishers scrapped a ‘cool’ project that was in the works, it was actually the right call. It might have been a Concord waiting to happen.
So i kinda want to buy FFXVI but looking through the opinions and reviews it stands somewhere between the worst final fantasy game ever made and second coming of jesus wit plot ranging from infantile dark fantasy to great story with deep engaging dark themes....
FF14 has sort of an unwritten rule, that you should ignore all side quests that are represented with the plain gold circle. They’re not even worth the time for XP and rarely have anything interesting happen in them. It’d be interesting if the same rule applies for FF16.
It’s one of those series that has expanded so far, with favoritism towards its characters, that they even decided to drop the name “Yakuza” in favor of the Japanese title, since so much of it has little to do with being a Yakuza anymore. Honestly, I can’t remember any game in which you’ve done actual Yakuza-like actions such as shaking down businesses, running loan shark scams, or executing hits. When you do end up making money, it’s through perfectly legitimate businesses whose biggest problem is “thugs keep attacking us!”
Hi guys, I have the hunger for more history games. I have to say that usually I’m not a huge AC fan, but last summer I played Odyssey and I’m a huge ancient history nerd and I think that the game and the period were represented very well. (The Story was kinda meh, but serviceable). What other AC game would you recommend for...
I totally get disinterest, but I get rubbed the wrong way when people “want games to fail”. I want the world to have more games that are good - and yes, occasionally those would come from publishers we traditionally grumble about.
I had no interest in Concord, but I’m not making video content laughing at its failure. I think that practice is a bit weird sometimes, and even victimizes some of the game devs that didn’t do anything wrong. I would guess at least 80% of Concord’a devs did their job well - just based around a bad concept.
I sort of picture this happening more often at the graphical plateau. It used to be that these franchises needed big face lifts to stay relevant, but even that can sometimes happen with a lighting update.
The other reason might be if they want to do subtractive redesigns of the core concept but I’m still not sure what that should be for The Sims.
I honestly tried to get back into it with an old account. Apparently, the entire world went up in power level with no exceptions, but not my character - meaning there was literally not a single enemy I could kill across the PVE environment to gain better gear/levels to contend with enemies.
I did not feel like making a new character or redoing the tutorial so I decided to not even bother, taking it as a sign the game was poorly thought out.
As someone who grew up playing games like World of Warcraft and other AAA titles, I’ve seen how the gaming industry has evolved over the years—and not always for the better. One of the most disturbing trends is the rise of gacha games, which are, at their core, thinly veiled gambling systems targeting younger players. And I...
It’s a small measure, but I’d really like to see a law where gacha games need to publicly advertise their odds and allow independent verification.
The biggest effect it would have is, the odds would need to be static. Many gacha systems have been accused of putting a hand on the wheel, assuring someone “so close to their needed item” must keep going through a series of failures.
The article author honestly made a very valid point, but wrapped it up with a terrible headline.
I even feel like the PS4 and Xbox One currently serve the use case of being “the cheap consoles”. There are a number of games they cannot run or would run poorly - but for their price point they’re much more of an option for the non-wealthy, primarily in other countries. It’s like it’s all one console generation with no signs of ending, and a varying range of specs.
I mostly play new games, but I respect admiration for old games. It’s fun to see people speedrun old SNES games - but it’s disturbing to think an entire generation will just become inaccessible to history, even if a lot of the games in question were kind of bad.
I actually agree with you in the case of online multiplayer games - I don’t think the devs can keep them available forever. But when a game is singleplayer, like The Crew, it feels like planned obsolescence.
I’m going to agree with you, but only in the sense they hired more people than they should’ve, not that they should be firing people.
I really blame Telltale Games as one studio that demonstrated this issue in a microcosm. They had some successful games. Then they hired enough extra hands that they MUST make excellent games. Their next few games were not excellent. Then, everybody gets fired.
It’s hard to tell if this would have been the case in past generations. I think this only became true once we crested the graphical plateau where all games look “good enough” in HD.
I was very close to getting a digital PS5, but I still need the drive for my old PS4 games and movies. If I were just getting into Sony now though, I imagine the story would be different.
They can still kind of kill physical games with good service. The whole “honey rather than vinegar” argument.
That’s what happened with the PSVita. While overpriced game cartridges existed, most of its lifespan people were buying its games digitally which worked great for indie developers that didn’t have a budget for physical releases.
If a PC GPU is only slightly better than a console counterpart, typically its games will run slightly worse - since it loses the benefit of devs spending time optimizing for that profile.
Myself, I count the catalog of PS+ as an “exclusive feature”, plus it’s nice to play some of the PS4 games that struggled on a better machine. I loaded my God of War save and went from 30 to 60fps, which was great (sad that it was one of few games to offer PS5 enhancements in the PS4 version)
They do exist; but also constantly debate with stores like Steam about what can be allowed since Steam is ultimately much more visible. They make it murky with the occasional VN that’s “90% cryptic folk mystery, 5% romance, 5% visuals of non-consenting animated minors in the nude being victimized by a tentacle”.
Steam, for very understandable reasons, has waffled back and forth on whether to allow those games.
Much as I’ve come to hate Xbox, this could be the beginning of signs of monopoly - they don’t have so much competition anymore, so they can do what they want. Certainly doesn’t help that unofficial controllers have never been good.
There have definitely been times that copying other people worked out well.
Fortnite and Apex copied the BR trend when PUBG wasn’t satisfying everyone’s needs. The former even lazily reskinned a zombie defense game for the battle royale approach. Lots of games reskin the theme of Dark Souls and do okay.
Even if it’s lazy or uninventive, once in a while one of those reskins has a particular element of the concept it reinvents in a much better way. Seems Concord never came up with any such ideas, which could have been great since many people are currently tired of Overwatch specifically.
Marketers actually place these into different categories of advertising goal. One kind might just exist to make people aware of a product and its role (eg, vacuum cleaner attachment) whereas others spend longer convincing customers it’s something they want/need. There’s yet another category that I think relates more to direct advertising and isn’t as common for mass products like games.
To the people that worked on it, even when the result kinda sucks, there’s some level of attachment. They spent literal years of their life investing into it. That might be where the tone is coming from.
It is September now which means my wife has decided it is fall and time to celebrate 2 months of Halloween. Anyone have and spooky game recommendations?
After the massive blunder of Starfield, I cannot see how Elder scrolls 6 could possibly be successful. Everything points to the fact that they knew that the game was not even half finished, in my opinion, with major glaring issues, and they decided to just send it off anyway. The difference between this game and Oblivion is that...
It feels like new games are just more of the same, with no real meaning. However I recently started playing “Return of the Obra Dihn” and love open ended deduction in it. It feels like I’m actually figuring things out by myself without being handheld through it. Are there any other games that don’t coddle the player that...
I remember distinctly Danganronpa’s problem with shock value.
I finished the first case of the third game, and thought “Wow! That was incredible! I hadn’t anticipated that ending at all!”
And then, once the dust on the case had settled, because of the effects of that change in circumstance, I had no interest in playing the rest of the game.
I want to paint easy villains into the world as much as anyone, but I didn’t see anything especially “evil” about Concord; just poorly planned and uninteresting. It’s more of a tragic failure of incompetence than anyone being greedy or hurtful.
Free-to-play is often a lazy comment from social media that represents an incomplete business plan. Developers have to get paid, and you need a plan for how players will be pushed into that.
The assumption is often on a vague “skins and charms” type of thing but it depends on whether the game was built for that expectation. They likely knew they wouldn’t be putting out compelling reskins of their characters.
Ghost of Yotei Will Feature a Less Repetitive Open World (wccftech.com) angielski
Good stuff. I didn’t get far in Ghosts of Tsushima because the open world felt very samey, but if they work on that I could probably try the sequel.
Day -10 of posting a screenshot from a game I've been playing until I also forget to post screenshots angielski
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana for PS Vita. Fishing edition. Some random fishing pics I grabbed. I liked the fishing part of the game. It even slightly contributes to the story and progress if you catch them all....
Day 1 of someone finally posting screenshots from a screenshot-worthy game, until I forget to post screenshots (lemmy.world) angielski
Day -8 of posting a screenshot from a game I've been playing until I also forget to post screenshots angielski
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection, Volume 1. Mostly played streaming to my TV via Steam Link, but also played a bit on Steam Deck. I think this is an English dub of the MSX version. This isn’t the NES version. It was an excellent game for its time....
Ubisoft Says That XDefiant Has Fallen Behind Expectations (insider-gaming.com) angielski
"The father of PlayStation" says everyone at Sony thought the PS1 would fail when it was first pitched (www.gamesradar.com) angielski
Shadows of Doubt v1.0 is Out Now! (steamcommunity.com) angielski
Ubisofts stock tanked this morning ahead of the markets opening angielski
Ubisoft's Board is Launching an Investigation Into The Company Struggles (insider-gaming.com) angielski
This is going to be one of those “Ubisoft investigates Ubisoft and found that Ubisoft did nothing wrong at Ubisoft”-situations, isn’t it?
God of War Ragnarok Mod Removes PSN Requirement and Creator Vows to Maintain It (questalerts.com) angielski
'Melts our frozen-solid hearts': Frostpunk 2 devs celebrate 350,000 copies sold—covering the production and marketing costs (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
The winner of every difficulty comparison (lemmy.world) angielski
What do you think about random encounters? angielski
I’m torn about them. On the one hand they free up the combat design to be as wildly different from the exploration as it wants. Which can result in really creative stuff. Favorite examples are Undertale, MegaMan Battle Network series, and Tales series....
Day -1 of posting a screenshot from a game I've been playing until I also forget to post screenshots angielski
PS Vita game Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. This is early into the game when you find your first castaway. Adol stumbled on her bathing in the stream....
Sony’s Concord reportedly cost $400M to develop | VGC (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
$200M before the Sony acquisition and $200M after. It’s a little hard to believe. The story seems to only be coming from Colin Moriarty right now, but I trust Jordan Middler to consider it at least reasonably plausible if he wrote it up for VGC....
how is final fantasy XVI angielski
So i kinda want to buy FFXVI but looking through the opinions and reviews it stands somewhere between the worst final fantasy game ever made and second coming of jesus wit plot ranging from infantile dark fantasy to great story with deep engaging dark themes....
Majima-Focused Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Announced at RGG Summit as Next Yakuza Game (www.ign.com) angielski
What is your favorite Assassin's Creed game? angielski
Hi guys, I have the hunger for more history games. I have to say that usually I’m not a huge AC fan, but last summer I played Odyssey and I’m a huge ancient history nerd and I think that the game and the period were represented very well. (The Story was kinda meh, but serviceable). What other AC game would you recommend for...
Concord Director Steps Down As Studio Behind Historic PlayStation Flop Waits For Sony's Decision (kotaku.com) angielski
No 'Sims 5' Coming as EA Updates Franchise With Multiplayer (variety.com) angielski
People seem to really dislike Destiny 2. Why haven't they ended it yet? (lemmy.world) angielski
Gacha games are out of control. Gambling shouldn't be so widespread angielski
As someone who grew up playing games like World of Warcraft and other AAA titles, I’ve seen how the gaming industry has evolved over the years—and not always for the better. One of the most disturbing trends is the rise of gacha games, which are, at their core, thinly veiled gambling systems targeting younger players. And I...
Baby Blues Nightmares is a horror game I created alone inspired by The Shining where you play as a Baby On A Tricycle which you can customize, paint and upgrade while evading monsters! (www.youtube.com) angielski
Game consoles are now smartphones, and that's okay (www.spacebar.news) angielski
After 350,000 signatures in an EU consumer rights campaign, Ubisoft is adding offline modes to The Crew games - but not the now-dead original (www.gamesradar.com) angielski
Video Game Developers Are Leaving The Industry And Doing Something, Anything Else (aftermath.site) angielski
75% of all PS5 owners prefer Performance Mode according to PlayStation (www.kitguru.net) angielski
Demystifying the rumors that most console players only care about graphics.
Sony announces the PS5 Pro with a larger GPU, advanced ray tracing, and AI upscaling (www.theverge.com) angielski
$700, and the side by sides look barely different, from my perspective. The chat seemed to have the same opinion.
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Sony Increases PS5 Controller Prices in US, Europe, and More (www.pushsquare.com) angielski
archive link
"Concord servers are now offline. Thank you to all the freegunners who have joined us in the Concord galaxy" angielski
Is this the fastest video game death of all time? Not even Lawbreakers died this fast.
Spooky Games angielski
It is September now which means my wife has decided it is fall and time to celebrate 2 months of Halloween. Anyone have and spooky game recommendations?
Is Elder Scrolls 6 doomed to fail? I can't see how it will work angielski
After the massive blunder of Starfield, I cannot see how Elder scrolls 6 could possibly be successful. Everything points to the fact that they knew that the game was not even half finished, in my opinion, with major glaring issues, and they decided to just send it off anyway. The difference between this game and Oblivion is that...
Any good games that break the mold angielski
It feels like new games are just more of the same, with no real meaning. However I recently started playing “Return of the Obra Dihn” and love open ended deduction in it. It feels like I’m actually figuring things out by myself without being handheld through it. Are there any other games that don’t coddle the player that...
An important update on Concord - Being taken offline September 6th, refunds to be issued (blog.playstation.com) angielski