Coelacanth

Coelacanth, 6 miesięcy temu

I haven’t gotten around to them myself yet (they’re on the docket this year) but I’ve heard this said about Yakuza 1&2 since the release of Kiwami 1&2.

Coelacanth, 6 miesięcy temu

I’ve personally gotten a lot out of all the AI enhanced graphics technologies, and pretty much consider these applications the absolute perfect use case for the AI we have today. Yes, they shouldn’t be a substitute for optimisation, but overcorrecting the other way and attempting to claim that DLSS is garbage that ruins everything and looks like shit is also bad (and untrue).

Even frame generation has its uses, as long as you don’t play something fast paced where there is a lot of camera movement and/or you’ll feel the added input lag too much.

A special shout-out to the redheaded stepchild of the family too: DLDSR is a fantastic technology and once you’ve tried it you’ll never want to go back.

Coelacanth, 6 miesięcy temu

The F1 season kicked off, so I played around a bit with F1 Manager 2024 since it was free on Epic a few weeks ago. It’s much like the previous iterations of the series - great presentation but vapid and shallow underneath. It’s a real shame, because there are things about it that are compelling. Having all those real team radios and proper circuits and gorgeous cockpit views during races and all the official branding does make a difference. In-race management is also pretty damn fun.

The problem is that it was designed by a team that don’t understand management games. Everything about it starts falling apart the more seasons you play, which is the complete antithesis of what management players are after. The great things like team radios disappear as you replace your drivers and staff members with youngsters or generated people who don’t have voice clips. Nobody has a personality, there are no off-track events that make you invested. The greatness of the perfectly replicated race calendar fades as tracks aren’t added or removed between seasons. There are no interesting regulation changes over time that change fundamental aspects of the car or the rules. The power ranking and properties of the engines never change.

There is no soul or depth here to hook you for years upon years and make you want to build a dynasty. It basically only works if you pick a top or midfield team and try to manage a championship win during the first or second season, beyond that it loses its shine. Still, it’ll be a decent distraction this week as there is no race to watch.

Coelacanth, 6 miesięcy temu

I’m taking this topic to be less of “what’s the most important video game” (which we already had a long discussion post about recently re: the BAFTA award thing) and more of “what’s the best game to just sit down and play right now”. In which case, probably Portal 2? I can’t think of a much better candidate in terms of being a perfect execution of what it sets out to do with an appeal that can be compelling for absolutely everyone regardless of taste.

Coelacanth, 6 miesięcy temu

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is basically just more BG3 (though with less production quality) so that should be right up your RPG-loving friend’s alley. Turn based combat and click-to-move lets you play the whole thing with just your mouse I’m pretty sure.

Coelacanth, 6 miesięcy temu

I’m in the minority that says the newest games don’t need to get 60fps 4k ultra on the newest GPUs

This is a great take tbh and I agree. Future proofing is a thing and we’ve seen old benchmark games hold up remarkably well thanks to it - hell, look at Crysis! I also think a lot of people underestimate just how demanding 4k is. We’re still not at the point where 4k is the new 1080p imo.

Coelacanth, 6 miesięcy temu

I’m kind of in the same boat. SS2 will always be there if I wanted to play it, and a remaster isn’t really making me more or less likely to. But a full remake would be very interesting especially since the studio was so successful with the SS1 remake and it turned out so well.

Coelacanth, 6 miesięcy temu

Graphically it looks awesome too. At the native settings it would have had around 2012 it didn’t look to great, but after raising it to the max it looks really good. It can be crazy how future proofed older games are with graphic options.

One of the best things I’ve found for cleaning up older games is DLDSR. Hell, I try to use it on any game I can get away with, but on older games especially it’s great because you have so much excess FPS to play with that it’s basically free. The anti-aliasing effect of it is especially nice on older games and typically much better than the native AA solution.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Intent is critical for my enjoyment of art. What makes art wonderful is that it lets you connect with another human being, get a glimpse into their mind, see their perspective, feel their feelings.

Gen AI as it exists today has no intent, so I have no interest in it.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I have a good PC but not top-of-the-line and I was getting playable frames at launch already. The only way 40 FPS on a top PC makes sense to me is something like playing in 4k and with DLSS turned off.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

It’s a difficult question to answer. I personally barely consider Disco Elysium to be a game, more like an interactive story that uses certain game mechanics as grammar elements and punctuation in its storytelling. It’s a novel masquerading as a game. It’s three novels in a trenchcoat. But if we do count it then it is my pick, by a landslide.

Otherwise it’s probably Baldur’s Gate 2. It’s the story game I’ve replayed the most over the years and it was absolutely fundamental in my journey as a gamer, the definition of a formative experience. Even though parts of it are dated now (some clunk is to be expected from a 25-year-old game) I still prefer it to BG3. It’s got a great story, great companions and an all-time great villain. David Warner put in an incredible performance and even all these years later there aren’t many video game villains who have surpassed Irenicus in sheer aura.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Like I said, the game itself on its store page claims to be a “detective game RPG” while in reality I would argue it’s barely any of those things. So a lot of people probably come into it with the wrong expectations. It’s more like a novel about love and loss, about addiction, depression and the past looming over the present like a grey ghost. It’s a story about finding hope in the midst of overwhelming nihilism. As someone who has struggled with all those things it hit incredibly close to home, and was the most meaningful experience I’ve ever had playing a video game.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Fallout 2 is absolutely stellar. I get the arguments some old-heads levy against in when they prefer Fallout 1, but I think I just played FO2 at the perfect time. The wackiness and pop culture references and humour hit with me when I first played it. It is sprawly, but it is also amazing for how big it is and how much there is to do in it.

Did you ever play it modded? The Restoration Project, Updated has two amazing addons that add more talking heads and more voice acting and they’re both of phenomenal, basically seamless quality. It’s really like putting on a fresh coat of paint on the old thing.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I agree that the original is tighter, but I love the free-form adventure of 2.

While that is also true, what I hear most about is the tone. Fallout 1 is really rather dark, grim and gritty. It leans more into the heavy side of a post-apocalyptic setting and some people really liked that, and were disappointed when FO2 came out and leaned noticeably more into the wacky side of things.

Played it? I voiced a talking dog in it!

Wait, really? That’s so cool! Do you know the current status of the project? The last update was over two years ago…

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I think that’s another thing as well, a lot of people go in with the idea that you can to some extent “play as yourself” like you do in many RPGs. And they get frustrated when they’re only given stupid or horrible dialogue options like “why would I ever say any of these things?!”. Because the game is actually rather restrictive in terms of roleplay: yes you can choose your flavour and variety of crazy but at the end of the day you’re always Harry, you’re always insane and damaged and you can’t change that.

For me personally, I’m also an utter failure and I hate myself deeply, so maybe that’s why I easily resonated with the protagonist. And in the end, much of the actual story is about dealing with failure, about finding hope amidst despair and about overcoming and letting go of the past.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I honestly wish Larian had just left the IP alone and done a standalone D&D game. There is absolutely no narrative reason for any of the tie-ins and callbacks, it was literally just a case of wanting the brand recognition for better marketing and then shoehorning in some old fan favourites and calling it a day. Seeing Sarevok and Viconia as they were in BG3 just makes me sad.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I don’t know how far you got, but you might have gotten unlucky with who you spoke to in game. Lena, Anette, Tommy, Mañana and Roy are all immediately accessible for example and are all rather lovely people, providing some soft contrast to other more abrasive characters.

Can’t say anything about the delivery of the content though. It’s certainly extremely info dumpy and text heavy - part of why I was saying to start with that it’s less than a game and more of a novel.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I love Woolsey but have never played Chrono Trigger. Is there a mashup “best of both worlds” version out there that adds the best Woolsey-isms to the longer script version, like the Woolsey Uncensored for FF VI?

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Reading this makes me feel slightly better about my obsessive and paranoid habit of keeping unnecessarily extensive backup save slots at milestones through any game I play, despite basically never using them.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Every time a live service game flops, an angel gets her wings.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Damn Martin Luiga is involved with Longdue now? I’ve only heard negative things about that studio before and I also thought he was already a part of Red Info with Kurvitz and Rostov. The Disco Elysium drama vortex just keeps on churning it seems.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Everyone is a little in the wrong, I think. But Argo is one of the good guys, and for me one of the biggest takeaways I was left with after deep diving onto this whole mess is a deep sadness over the friendship between Kurvitz and Argo falling apart.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Finished Skald: Against the Black Priory, and it was a lovely experience overall. It’s one of those games that knows exactly what it attempts to do, and is very good at limiting its scope and not biting off more than it can chew. I might have liked a bit more agency and player choice - it is very linear for an RPG - but I can see how that would have been a challenge for a small studio and could well have ended up hurting the quality of the experience. As is it’s a very enjoyable ride, full of retro charm, nostalgic music and pretty pixel art but without retro clunk like memory limitations or poor controls and UX. I liked the story and found the writing solid, with a great gloomy atmosphere and some nice cosmic horror touches. The combat and character customization could have been a touch more elaborate, but at around 20 hours the game isn’t long enough that it really becomes a problem.

I’d give it somewhere around an 8 to 8.5/10 and definitely recommend it, especially to anyone who enjoys retro RPGs. It’s quite cheap too, even at full price.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

How have I gone this long without knowing Josef Fares was directing these games?

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I’ve said before that I genuinely think FarmVille is in with a shout. The trends it started in terms of monetisation, user retention mechanics and analytics driven intrusive big data player behaviour analysis and behaviour prediction was extremely far-reaching, not just in the context of gaming. Not to mention how it got a whole new demographic into video games and showed corporations that games are not necessarily only for gamers. It is very much possible to reach your grandma’s wallet too. It heralded things like Candy Crush.

Here is a good article about it.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

That’s a classic negotiation technique abusing the psychological anchoring effect.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

It’s as if two completely different studios made these games, and the one behind Syndicate had no idea what made Unity great.

Funny you say that. Unity was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the primary Ubisoft studio who are responsible for much of the good work they’ve done (think Splinter Cell, Far Cry and AC: Black Flag). Syndicate was developed by Ubisoft Quebec, and it was also that developer’s first AC game.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I’ll get through the RDR2 story one day. I played it for two stints last year but I just space out and lose immersion every time the main story forces you to kill one hundred lawmen in the middle of a town. For a game that put so much effort into making the open world vibrant, alive and dynamic you face very little consequences for committing what can only be classified as genocide in the main story.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

It might well be a me-problem. I had the same issue with Sleeping Dogs that I just finished last week. So I might just have a fundamental problem with the type of gameplay design these kinds of games go for and the fundamental ludonarrative dissonance you have to be able to look past to enjoy them. I just have a hard time squaring off war crime levels of mass murder as “getting into a little too much trouble”. Killing a lawman or two as things get out of hand in Valentine? That’s getting into a bit too much trouble. But Arthur Morgan literally kills hundreds upon hundreds of people and that just breaks my immersion.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I don’t really disagree with you about the nature of the story, and I don’t have anything against the overall narrative. I just personally think the story could have been told with fewer bloodbaths and outright massacres and still be compelling. In fact, for me every innocent you kill would feel more impactful morally and narratively if there were fewer of them.

But maybe I’m out of touch with the attention span of the modern mind.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I’m sorry. The attention span comment wasn’t directed at you personally, it was reflecting on your point that people would find it too slow and boring with fewer kills. It wasn’t meant as a jab at all.

I think it sounds like we’re mostly in agreement. And yeah, the O’Driscolls spawning in and popping up like whack-a-moles is another great example!

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I decided to push through and finish the Sleeping Dogs DLCs - not really out of a desire for more but rather so I could feel I’ve truly completed it and could uninstall it and move on in peace. This probably coloured my opinion on them a bit as the main story had already almost outstayed its welcome at around 35h.

Nightmare in North Point is an obviously Halloween themed DLC, so maybe I’d have liked it better if I played it in season. There are one or two funny moments, but overall the new mechanics get old quickly and the gameplay is too repetitive to be interesting. It’s also an obviously non-canon experience with all the supernatural events, which makes it even harder to get invested in. Highly mediocre, honestly don’t waste your time on this.

Year of the Snake is also holiday-themed, this time around the Chinese New Year. Taking place after the main story, Wei Shen has been temporarily demoted to a beat cop as punishment for the carnage he caused during the events of the main story. I do like this acknowledgement, though seeing him tried for domestic terrorism would probably have been more appropriate. The first half of the DLC is alright, but unfortunately the latter part focuses on the biggest weakness of the game: gunfights. In particular, there is an absurdly long boat chase where you have to shoot down probably 50 pursuing boats, most of which spawn in plain sight. Maybe it would feel better on mouse and keyboard, but on controller the gunplay was painfully atrocious. The plot wasn’t satisfying either, so I would recommend just starting it to see the cutscene of Wei as a beat cop and leaving it there.

The Zodiac Tournament is actually integrated into the main story, but I didn’t play it until now. I’m glad I saved it for last, because this was finally a good DLC. Clearly inspired by Bruce Lee type movies, it’s a very simple plot about martial arts tournament on an island. Even with its very predictable twists this was an enjoyable (but short) ride, no doubt partially because it focuses on the good part of Sleeping Dogs combat: melee. Since it is integrated into the main story you also have access to all your character upgrades - unlike the other DLCs - which also made it more enjoyable. This one gets a thumbs up.

Up next, for a change of pace, will probably be Skald: Against the Black Priory. Picked it up on sale recently and looks really neat.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

The base game felt fine, it’s got a fairly brisk pace and it’s not too long. I think as long as you don’t try going for 100%-ing the game you should be finishing the main story just about when you’re starting to get tired of the game.

I will also say, for a 13-year-old game it looks really great. Granted I played it with DLDSR 1.78x and RTX HDR, but it’s hard to believe this was made for the PS3.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I have my issues with the game, but it was still a solid 7.5/10 for me in the end. Just the kind of brain-off entertainment I needed after playing two lengthy CRPGs, and a very good deal at 80% off like it was recently.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Does the definitive edition still have the music of the original? I know it’s technically anachronistic, but those Django Reinhardt tunes were so iconic.

Otherwise I agree, though I only played Mafia 1. I remember it came out the same year as GTA 3, and it was very much the sort of mature and serious option. I personally always preferred it.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Did you get XIII classic or the remake? I played classic just recently as a fun retro game that I missed back in the day. It’s got so much style, even though some levels felt a little clunky. It’s a shame no other game went for the same art style, they really nailed that look of “play in the panels of a comic book”.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Since you have a 3DS and love Pokémon I would suggest HeartGold/SoulSilver, I will always hold those games in high regard (even though it’s maybe partly nostalgia as Gen 2 was the peak of the Pokémon craze during my childhood). But I still think Gen 2 was great and still not yet filled with complete trash designs (figuratively and literally).

Though if you plan on procuring it the seafaring fashion you’d miss out on the Pokewalker!

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I will back up HeartGold/SoulSilver as well. Just a perfect modernized adaption of a classic generation, lots (and I mean lots) of content, lots of catchable Pokémon, lots of legendaries, two regions… I think they really hit it out of the park with it. I also personally enjoyed using the Pokewalker to get access to exotic Pokémon.

It’s not completely free of issues (the level curve isn’t the best and - being based on an older game - it’s much less story oriented than later titles). However, I still hold it as one of the best games they ever put out, and a great entry point.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Great writeup. In retrospect it’s absolutely insane how many series-defining features were introduced in Gen 2. That kind of generational leap is mindboggling.

I love your username btw, brings me back to the schoolyard, to Kangaskhans with Fly and rumours of finding Mew under the truck in Vermilion.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

After the System Shock 1 Remake getting such rave reviews I was hoping the second game would get the same treatment. Are they not remaking the sequel?

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Yeah I’m buying any game I can on GOG these days. Between being DRM-free and being pre-patched (sometimes with community patches) it’s definitely the best platform, particularly if you like to buy older games/retro games occasionally.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Funny, for me it’s the other way around. I probably played a couple hundred hours of Oblivion back in the day: modding, exploring and restarting. Never once finished the main quest. I’m thinking Skyblivion might be my chance to finally do it.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Been playing Sleeping Dogs for the first time after picking it up for cheap on a GOG sale. I never played it back in the day and never heard much about it, but man, even 13 years later this is a good looking game. I guess I’m giving it a leg up by using DLDSR and RTX HDR, but still. It looks very impressive for its age. I can’t believe this was a PS3 game! The streets are crowded and the city looks great. Though I will say, playing something like this hammers home even more what a marvellous piece of architecture and level design Night City is in Cyberpunk 2077. Hong Kong looks nice and all in Sleeping Dogs, but it doesn’t have near the same character, the same variety and the same distinct but different districts as NC does.

The game has been very enjoyable, though. To a certain extent you might call it slop. And yes, it might not be Disco Elysium or Bioshock or Alan Wake 2, but not every game needs to be. You can’t eat salad every day. Sometimes you need a pizza. And this is a pretty fucking good pizza. It’s got all the trappings of a GTA clone you might expect, with a chinese flavour that adds some kung-fu to the mix and a boilerplate undercover cop story to make the tension tick along and let it at least pretend it’s somewhat different. The pacing has been very snappy so far as well. Almost no downtime, as far as I can tell. After playing some lengthy CRPGs lately that really tested my patience it’s been the perfect antidote - ideal brain-off gameplay, whether racing cars or beating up thugs (or singing karaoke).

I’m only about halfway so far, but from what I’ve seen so far I thoroughly recommend it if you like these kinds of games, especially if you can pick it up at a big discount - it was 80% off recently and at that price it’s a no-brainer.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I want to highlight two mod makers, instead of single mods. lStewieAl and WallSoGB for their efforts unfucking New Vegas. Being forced to pick a single effort, the engine optimizations is probably the most impressive. Honorable mention to all the various script extenders that make so many fantastic mods possible in the first place.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

I can’t believe I blanked on them in my own reply, but to piggyback off your Restoration Project nomination: the Talking Heads Addon and Talking Heads Actually Talk Mod for Fallout 2 Restoration Project (updated) are both absolutely insane, and breath some new life into the game while seamlessly slotting in next to the existing art and voice acting.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu (edited 7 miesięcy temu)

The first couple games are really good stealth games, highly recommended. There is not really an overarching story between games, so if you’re just looking to dip your toes into the series I’d start with Chaos Theory. Honestly, if you’re into stealth games you should really play it like, right now. I consider it an all-time great.

After Double Agent the series started going into a more bland action style as Ubisoft felt stealth games were too niche I guess. Never played Conviction or Blacklist but as I said, I heard good things about the co-op in the latter so it’s on my list to try. I don’t really have a good candidate to play co-op with at the moment though, so it’s on indefinite hold.

Coelacanth, 7 miesięcy temu

Splinter Cell was primarily an Xbox franchise, so if you’ve got an Xbox of any kind that’s probably your best bet, assuming they’re still for sale. I believe they were all developed for Xbox and ported to other platforms. For Chaos Theory in specific though the PC port was pretty good, so if you don’t it’s not a big problem. Possibly some controller issues that need a fan fix? Though on the plus side you can find a wide-screen fix mod for modern resolutions. The first two games had worse ports, if I remember right. And the Playstation and GameCube ports were pretty universally bad I think, for all the games.

The one where the console version is really important is Double Agent, but that is a whole other can of complicated worms, because then it wasn’t just the matter of bad ports - they released two completely different games with different mechanics, levels and story executions (albeit the same overall plot).