Carnelian

Carnelian, miesiąc temu

I genuinely hate it lol, as do all of my friends IRL.

We’re all huge into 14, which was produced by the same team. I mention it because there’s a ton of overlap with 14. The cinematography in the cutscenes and even the emotes the characters use feel lifted straight from the older game. The structure of the combat segments is also uncannily similar, they feel a lot like 14 dungeons. So, my group generally felt like the game got stale really quickly, which colored our impression as a whole.

The moment-to-moment gameplay also feels like a hyper simplified version of the “rotation” system in 14. You have a basic filler combo, and larger more powerful moves that can only be used again after a long cooldown timer. I found it to be under-stimulating, even after unlocking a few more things.

The story was awesome in the segments covered by the free trial, but then everything after that just kind of slipped off my brain. More than anything, I remember side quests in particular were really boring to the point where it felt like a joke.

We were really hyped and really really wanted to like the game when we first heard about it, and we were super hyped after playing the demo, but in the end it just felt like a really unpleasant slog to actually play.

At the same time however I can totally see why people do really enjoy the game. I think it’s a divisive release, and often the people who love/hate it will cite the exact same things but paint them in a different light. I ultimately wouldn’t not recommend the game, I think $50 is a really fair price for it too for what you’re getting

Carnelian, miesiąc temu

Sorry, I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking. The games being too similar is an issue, not something I wanted

Carnelian, miesiąc temu

Honestly I’ve done just about everything over the years except ultimates (I play with IRL friends and I’m happy if we can clear a savage tier lol)

If I had to pick a “main” activity I think it would be parsing tbh, I really enjoy chasing the numbers. I level up all jobs and also try to perfect at least the basic rotation for all of them. I’ll hang out on party finder and jump into extreme farms on off jobs to practice.

But there’s also been months where I’ve done nothing but like, ocean fishing, diadem, pvp (I love crystal conflict, best part about endwalker to me) and so on. That’s been one of my favorite things about the game; you can get totally wrapped up in a huge project. Almost like you can play the game to take a break from playing the game. Just recently we’ve gotten into treasure maps, super chill

Carnelian, 6 miesięcy temu

This is “announcing I will be stepping down” material for sure, dear lord. Never seen a more ridiculous or predictable disaster

Carnelian, 7 miesięcy temu

Well I mean, it’s not really like that in this case. Every story expansion just requires you to have cleared the previous parts of the game.

The base game/before the first expansion isn’t bad per se, I had a fun time with the game at that point. But there happens to be a remarkable step up in quality starting with the first expansion, and the game pretty much keeps getting better from there.

Also during the last few years they have been revamping the early-game extensively, adding modern visuals and refreshing the design of the dungeons and boss fights. But having played before these changes, I still wouldn’t call the beginning of the game “filler”. I found it quite charming, and the multiplayer aspect is also fun in its own respect at that point.

Just my 2c, I’m not one to defend large corporations but I don’t think the trope really applies to XIV

Carnelian, 7 miesięcy temu

Not a big fan of nuance, I presume?

Carnelian, 7 miesięcy temu (edited 7 miesięcy temu)

Perhaps the confusion is my fault for acknowledging that the game did indeed improve over the course of its ten year run, which is…obviously…the best possible case scenario.

But if you read my comment again, you may notice that my point is the exact opposite of what you’re joking about. I don’t believe there really is a multi hundred hour “rite of passage” to get to “the good part”. Not only is the beginning already pretty good, but, as I said, they are actively modernizing it to bring it more in line with the later parts (which are even better).

Is there a subtlety here that I have simply failed to convey? Is the idea of a decent game becoming a masterpiece really indistinguishable from the idea of a fundamentally worthless game dangling the hope of a better game out in front of you like a carrot on a stick? Really help me out here

Carnelian, 7 miesięcy temu

Yes I can see how funny it would be were it directed at somebody who embodied in any way the sentiment of the original meme. It seems to me that I have repeatedly argued the opposite, care to share any insight as to why you so easily imagine otherwise?

Carnelian, 7 miesięcy temu

If someone says to you that they tried playing the game for a couple hours, but it was kind of boring and the quests have a lot of filler, what would your response be?

At the end of the day we are talking about like a 600 hour story driven RPG, the actual structure of the game doesn’t change much as it goes on so you can tell pretty quickly if you’ll like the game in general (hey, that kind of sounds like, the opposite of what the meme is saying, right?).

With that in mind I would say if you aren’t thrilled with the story straight off but you otherwise enjoy the game, you may as well keep playing, and if things pick up later then hey, bonus. If you don’t like the moment-to-moment gameplay I am here to tell you that it does not get better lol. So no worries, the free trial is the way it is for a reason.

In summary, I understand what the meme is saying, but have I said that? Let’s step away from such massive games for a second. I believe the best part of Horizon Zero Dawn is the ending few hours, by far. Story just really hits for me then, as it should, because we want things to get better as we play them. Is this perspective, “the best is yet to come”, the same as, “it’s worth slogging through the boring part until then?” Have I called the beginning boring, actually? Have I suggested anyone should slog through it?

Carnelian, 7 miesięcy temu

Oh, well, as long as that’s just how you feel, no worries. The heart wants what the heart wants. Others have read and engaged with the actual words that I said, which is normally why I comment, so it seems like everyone gets to walk away with something today

Carnelian, 7 miesięcy temu

That’s my personal estimate for the game if you simply sit down at the beginning, and progress the single-player* storyline from start to finish, up to the end of the current expansion (a new one is coming out in a few months actually lol). Reading the dialogue and cutscenes, playing through the required quests, dungeons, and trials, and also playing through some of the optional (but also story driven and highly recommended) content.

So I guess it depends on what you mean by “story”, there’s dialogue and important story content happening during the actual fights most of the time. But in general I would say the vast majority of that time is pure story, to the point where I wouldn’t recommend the game to someone who didn’t like visual novels. Some players probably could do it in like 300 hours if they skim or even just read really fast, and I know many players who have taken well over 1000 hours as they took their time and did lots of side content.

*the vast majority of the game has optional multiplayer. I think the best way to play is with others but many people feel the opposite lol

Carnelian, 9 miesięcy temu

Crosscode! To me it’s the ultimate hidden gem, as I hardly see people talking about it but most of the people who do play it go on to rate it as one of their favorite games. Especially if you like story focussed action-rpgs, I bet you’ll dig it. It’s also got somewhat of a zelda element with puzzles and dungeons

Carnelian, 11 miesięcy temu

My squad has been addicted to Phasmophobia since Halloween, no microtransactions in sight!

Carnelian, 11 miesięcy temu

It builds character! Lol but, yeah phasmo is too intense for many of my adult friends, even.

Out of curiosity, do you generally know what he was doing on Roblox? I’ve heard of several horror games being remade within Roblox, such as Iron Lung. I’ve wondered what the limitations are. I definitely remember stumbling into some intense things when I was around that age, but the landscape is so different now

Carnelian, 11 miesięcy temu

FPS, and also just anything in general where the camera is panning quickly, such as character-centered 2d games

Carnelian, 11 miesięcy temu

The game itself is also a ps5 exclusive currently I believe, with plans to eventually come to other platforms. So maybe just some weird technical disclaimer?

Carnelian, 11 miesięcy temu (edited 11 miesięcy temu)

That’s because it actually is the exact same image

Whoever wrote this article messed up and pasted the same image twice for the Au Ra race, which is the first one shown here. The actual before and after shots are pretty obvious

Edit: this is not true, I was recalling a different event. Links are down the thread

Carnelian, 11 miesięcy temu

Ah, I do see what you mean upon closer inspection. You have a keen eye

However, this is most likely due to the author grabbing the two images from a different source which subjected them to different compression artifacts. They definitely both are the same model, even if the actual image files are not 1:1

I play the game and have followed these updates as they came out, so I was able to tell very quickly from looking at the hair and eyes. But don’t take my word for it: I quickly tracked down the actual before/after shots. Sorry for reddit link

Carnelian, 11 miesięcy temu

Well I’ll be darned, they are different.

I found the original keynote from the event, relevant slide is toward the bottom

It’s all a bit tangled up now, but the second set of pictures in the article shows the current in-game models and then the remade models, where you can clearly see the difference in the hair. The first set (the one in question here) shows the remade one, and then the remade-remade one with the muted horn texture.

I remembered this particular Au Ra from the slideshow about 4 months ago, so when I noticed the distinct hair being the same in both and found the original slides I tunnel visioned on that. But in truth, what we are seeing is a second pass after player feedback from the event I incorrectly believed the shots were from.

I apologize for not being as in-tune with the game’s news as I had assumed. I do not play an Au Ra myself so I had been kind of tuning out the drama around the scales and their luster. But it (and the changing of the glowing eye rings) has been an ongoing pain point for many. People get really attached to their look

Carnelian, rok temu

This is Stryker on Crash FM, covering all things Burnout. It’s about causing as much damage as possible. SMASH into the crash junction, grab whatever pickups you can, and watch the greatest crashing chain-reaction ever. Want Rock? Crash!

Carnelian, rok temu

The weapons breaking and stuff is whatever, eventually you just tune it out. They shower you with new stuff constantly, so the idea is to use a little of everything. No comment on whether that’s a good or bad thing, it’s probably the most divisive part of the game. Just is what it is.

You do get permanent loot in the form of clothing (which can have interesting special properties) and powers and such

Carnelian, rok temu

Well, it kind of is, but in a roundabout way.

It doubles in strength and I think is unbreakable inside the final dungeon and possibly against guardians as well. Can tell for sure because it starts glowing

Carnelian, rok temu

Is that really how it works? That seems like a pretty egregious oversight if so, couldn’t groups of people bankrupt devs, especially small ones with small file size games that are easy to reinstall over and over?

Carnelian, rok temu

I agree, I’m glad games like this (and baldur’s gate!) are enjoying so much success and attention right now. It’s better for everyone if we have a variety of polished experiences in different genres.

That being said I don’t often find myself enjoying turn based games lol. Even going back to the super nintendo, I massively preferred Secret of Mana (with it’s real time combat system) to Final Fantasy. There’s just something extremely satisfying to me about a well done action-oriented RPG, where you feel like your skills are improving alongside your character’s.

“Well done” is not to be overlooked, of course. I was quite disappointed with final fantasy 16, as it truly did just feel like mashing buttons

Carnelian, rok temu

This is my first one as well, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything

Carnelian, rok temu

Sooooooo good. You could spend hours just in the paint/decal creator, but even aside from that, the actual parts you choose have a huge impact on your gameplay.

The missions have a lot of variety, so, especially if you replay missions for the best rank, you can’t really rely on a single build for every mission. The game actively encourages you to experiment and try new things constantly.

Gamefeel is so on point. Fast zippy mechs with quick weapons make you feel like a speed demon. Heavy builds like OP pictured make you feel like the iron giant lol. Absolutely amazing game, they knocked it out of the park