This is well treaded ground and I agree with pretty much everything. I tried to get through RDR2 twice last year but whenever I was doing main story missions I would get frustrated. Partly because of your points, but also for another reason: how the hell can you maintain immersion in the story when the protagonist effectively commits genocide? Seriously the kill count in the missions is so ludicrously high I want to quit every time I do a couple of main story missions. Like I get it, you want to sprinkle some action sequences in there to keep up the tempo, but I can’t take killing a hundred lawmen in some town in a main mission and then have the world go on as if nothing happened.
I finished Arcanum for the first time. It was… okay, I suppose. It really hasn’t aged super well, and has some pretty big flaws. The combat is atrocious, and the followers are extremely bare bones. The setting is really enjoyable though, and the character customization options are broad and fun (although the inventory management required to make a technologist work makes it ill advised in practice sadly). In the end I’m glad to have played it but I can’t really recommend it without some huge caveats.
For a change of pace I tackled Weird West, which I picked up for cheap on a GOG sale. I’m almost through with it - it’s not that long - and it’s been enjoyable. I really like the art style and the setting. It perhaps doesn’t clear the lofty bar its Dishonored and Prey pedigree sets for it but it’s got some pleasant twin-sticks shooter gameplay and some fun imsim elements and choices-matter type decisions. The stealth is pretty bad though. Not sure I’d want to pay full price for it, but definitely do recommend it if you want a shorter game and can find it on sale.
I too grew up on machines that were mid-low range and was constantly asking more of them than they could handle, so I learned to stomach pretty miserable FPS. In the end though it’s highly context sensitive - the less movement (and in particular camera movement) the game has the lower the frame rate you can get away with.
As a general rule I would say 25 FPS is the absolute lower limit, but around 40 is probably more in line with your “this is fine and I’m going to have a great time” definition. However, for something like a fast paced shooter it’s more like 60 FPS minimum.
I don’t really care enough to actively hate Ubisoft - I save those sentiments for companies like Nintendo and Disney. However, they did influence about a decade of horrible game design trends with the popularisation of the dreadful checklist-filled Ubisoft Open World^TM, and that is worth at least a mild dislike.
I’m so torn on the subject of a VI remake. On the one hand, it tickles my brain to think of what it would be like if given the full treatment à la VII Remake, but on the other hand I consider the game pretty much perfect as-is and don’t want it sullied.
That was my biggest gripe watching the Luke Stephens video on it as well. The announcement trailer looked great, why the hard pivot into an oversaturated mushroom kingdom aesthetic? Especially since it sounds like the actual game is pretty solid, beyond technical issues (that may or maybe fixed by now with a day 1 patch).
2 is a very solid game and well worth playing, but it doesn’t have anything on the original in terms of story execution in my opinion. But that’s a tall order since Bioshock 1 is one of the best games of all time.
I’ve still yet to play Infinite, but it’s on my list for this year.
The best way to play Disco is to just approach it as a good book. Explore as much as you can, exhaust dialogue options and submerge yourself in the world. Don’t be afraid to fail checks, don’t be afraid to pick wacky dialogue options.
The game is pure art and it’s the most meaningful, thought provoking and emotional experience I’ve had while playing any video game. Granted the themes really resonated with me personally.
I don’t think low INT is for a first playthrough so I haven’t, but I know it’s an option. And given a lot of the people behind Fallout 1&2 went on to work for Troika I’d expect nothing less. I might check it out some day, the low INT run in the first two Fallouts are great. I rarely feel like I have time to replay games these days though, with the length of my backlog.
Been playing Arcanum, hopefully through to the end for the first time this time. Only begun it before, never got far. The game has a lot of charms, but also a lot of frustrations. Typical Troika, I guess. When it’s firing on all cylinders and the pieces of a quest puzzle happen to click into place it can be great, but oftentimes imbecilic design decisions get in the way of having fun. And it doesn’t help that combat is horrible and the animations are ugly, even for its time.
I’m towards the end of the game now so I’ll try to push through since I’d like to have finished it at least once. I do enjoy the world building, at least parts of it. It’s a little disappointing that the races are derivative sort of boilerplate fantasy Tolkienesque Dwarves and Elves and Halflings etc, but the Victorian era inspired steampunk setting is well executed and the tension and conflict between magic and technology feels fully fleshed out and very grounded in the game world. I also really appreciate the again very Victorian flavored racism towards Orcs and Half-Orcs, including an explicit reference to The Jewish Question.
In my opinion, the reward for “doing the homework” is worth it. The Remedy games have become somewhat incestuous with their interconnected universe, but AW2 is - in my opinion - good enough that playing the preceding games first is worth the payoff. The only Remedy game I didn’t play was Quantum Break, but that one is only tangentially referenced as they don’t own the rights to the IP. Max Payne is explicitly referenced (though under a different name as Rockstar owns that IP) and having played Max Payne 1 heightened the enjoyment of AW 1&2 in my opinion.
Beyond that, the story of AW2 is a direct sequel to AW1 and while it’s possible to play it standalone it will be somewhat confusing and a lesser experience I would say. The story also directly connects to Control, and having played that one first will again enrich your enjoyment of AW2. Plus Control is just a great game anyway.
Alongside Cyberpunk, AW2 is probably the best showcase for ray tracing I think. Truly a gorgeous game.
Excited to hear what you think about the DLCs! I also have been avoiding spoilers and putting them off, and I’ve built up towards doing a full playthrough plus the DLCs sometime soon myself. Really looking forward to it.
Ahh, the nostalgia of hearing about those old titles again. Takes me back to the days of being a kid reading PC Gamer monthly with ravenous wonder and excitement. That period of '94 to '06-09 or so really was the golden age of PC gaming. I’ve been thinking about starting up a sub specifically about that era actually, retro gaming subs often tend to focus more about old consoles and arcade games.
Similarly, Desperados 2 (2006) made the first game feel a century old. From the same camera distance as the first game, it both looked far better than the original and had the advantage of dynamic lighting, more fluidity and a freely rotatable camera. Up close it was a bit blocky, but this was to be expected back then.
Interesting! I’ll take a look at the graphics, but I was otherwise set to skip it as it didn’t look like it was particularly well received.
I can confirm that these looked magnificent on a high quality CRT.
I’ve been on a bit of a retro game kick lately and have been wishing I had a really good one. It’s a shame they’re so damn bulky.
I never heard of it back in the day, but I did see it suggested on GOG when I looked at Desperados. I might consider grabbing it the next time it’s really cheap if it’s really that good. Better than Desperados/Commandos you reckon?
some of the most beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds I’ve ever seen in an isometric game.
The old isometric games have really aged so gracefully. Desperados looks absolutely fantastic still imo and Baldur’s Gate 2 also has some fantastic isometric art (sprites not so much). I bet they’d look even better on a good CRT, too.