Dalek_Thal

Dalek_Thal, 4 miesiące temu

Please don’t be Bioware, please don’t be Bioware…

Dalek_Thal, 4 miesiące temu

Sure, if Splatoon 3 were actually good. It’s a game designed from the ground up to be frustrating, between terrible matchmaking, peer-to-peer multiplayer, and stage design that forces players into very lopsided combat.

Play something good with your family, not Splatoon 3.

Dalek_Thal, 5 miesięcy temu

Quite a lot honestly, but the trailers are really awful in terms of advertising what the game actually is. It’s a survival game with management sim elements, using creature collection as its core gameplay loop. It feels weirdly cohesive in terms of mashing together these styles - kinda like Dave the Diver in that regard.

Far as I’ve been able to tell, it was first announced in 2021, so it’s been in development since then, at latest.

There’s no evidence whatsoever of AI use (lot of accusations, but actual devs have spoken out and challenged them). Really strikes me that there’s a non-zero number of people who feel somewhat threatened by this game’s existence, considering the death threats the dev team has reportedly been receiving.

Dalek_Thal, 5 miesięcy temu

That’s fair, I apologise for being as defensive as I was.

Honestly that’s 100% the right way to play it - it is such a laugh, the writing is really tongue in cheek, and the gameplay is really, simply fun, so I really think you and your mate will love it!

Dalek_Thal, 5 miesięcy temu

Really? How? I’ve been wanting to play World of Goo again but the only version available is the netflix one

Dalek_Thal, 5 miesięcy temu

Link doesn’t work in Australia I’m afraid - lots of corporations have a big thing for giving us the shitty end of the stick.

Dalek_Thal, 5 miesięcy temu

Far as I can tell, the original port’s apk isn’t region locked, so much as the play store page is. Either that, or people who didn’t buy it before the netflix port went up can no longer view the page.

Dalek_Thal, 6 miesięcy temu

Categorically disagree. I am a grown arse adult. Splatoon 3 tilts me like no other game, due to some very deliberate FOMO game design decisions and a very poor matchmaking algorithm. Whilst there’s no real money store in the game, it has a lot of other problems that make it just as bad as Roblox imo

Dalek_Thal, 6 miesięcy temu

Honestly it’s a combination of the battlepass system and the stage design causing constant, very fast-paced combat. The stages are too small, so players are funnelled into the middle of the stage. This also causes spawncamping if the matchmaking is even slightly unbalanced (which it is most of the time), as one wipe will allow a team to push all the way into spawn.

Previous Splatoon games were very good about this - most stages were abstract shapes, with a lot of terrain, meaning combat was rare, and the game encouraged painting over fighting as painting would net the most points on a per-match basis. Splatoon 3’s new maps are all thin, straight lines, which forces players into that central killzone.

The battlepass, along with some very poor decision making around the results screen, which shows the winning team celebrating, means that losses feel bad. The matchmaking similarly punishes winstreaks by forcing losestreaks, usually matching you against people above your skill level, but on a team with players below your skill level. Whilst this is very addictive, it makes losing feel genuinely awful, and a losing streak causes tilting due to the FOMO of the battlepass.

Hope this writeup makes sense. I view Splatoon 3 as a genuinely bad game because of these factors, and greatly prefer Splatoon 2.

Dalek_Thal, 6 miesięcy temu

Any recommendations for mods? I’m putting together a new build for it ahead of my semi-annual replay of the trilogy

Dalek_Thal, 7 miesięcy temu

Is it an appeal? That would explain it

Dalek_Thal, 7 miesięcy temu

As a fellow Steam user/gamer, I’m in this picture and I do not like it whatsoever

Dalek_Thal, 7 miesięcy temu

Cooooool, so they’re gonna release it in Australia to stop the scalping here, right?

Right?

Dalek_Thal, 7 miesięcy temu

Cool, does this mean they’ll actually fucking sell the thing in Australia, or is it just forever going to be dodgy resellers?

Dalek_Thal, 8 miesięcy temu

YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF MICROSOFT; YOU MUST BE DESTROYED

Dalek_Thal, 9 miesięcy temu

OFF TOPIC:

Speaking from a feminstic but also Australian position, I think it’s kinda problematic to outright ban language internationally when the connotation of concern is specific to one culture. We use that word pretty liberally here, and it isn’t done so with remotely the same definition; instead, it is typically used interchangeably with “dickhead” and “arsehole”. Whilst I definitely support your efforts, I don’t think this is the right way to go about it, as it’s a very clear use of American exceptionalism when Americans, taken as a part of the world, make up a minority of people on the Internet.

ON TOPIC:

Yeahhhh, Elon both frightens and disgusts me. What a selfish twat.

Dalek_Thal, 9 miesięcy temu

Yeah, ultimately this article reads as if it is questioning the quality of a work on the basis of how the audience engages (or doesn’t engage) with it. Ultimately there is one case where the character dies due to a bad dialogue choice, and that response is very clearly a joke one for if you’re not roleplaying.

I dunno, it just seems as if the article is clickbait, and if this game dev would prefer playing a game 90% ludonarrative dissonance and 10% no meaningful player choice.

Dalek_Thal, 9 miesięcy temu

I’m gonna piss a lot of people off, and say that I really, really cannot stand Halo - the whole franchise, not just the 343 stuff.

The way I see it, my problem with the series is twofold: storytelling and gunplay. The storytelling is weak at best: whilst I’m usually a huge fan of environmental storytelling, there’s just so little information in game for me to go off! It wasn’t until I read the Reach novel that I figured out who the Covenant were beyond just “evil aliens”. I questioned this issue on the site we don’t talk about and was told to read the books, but put simply, if I have to read a book to understand your plot, then you haven’t told your plot well enough. Chief is presented in the game as this incredible figure (as are the Spartans), but the games never really tell you why, and as such I never really care about Chief or his bullshit.

Regarding the gunplay, I find it (and movement) simply too floaty to be enjoyable. There isn’t enough recoil from a lot of the weapons, and the SFX on most of the guns don’t give a great sense of power.

I understand that it’s a massive series of nostalgia for a massive number of people. I understand that it redefined FPSes, and I respect the games for this. They deserve every bit of praise people give them. They aren’t bad games, but I just do not enjoy them.

Dalek_Thal, 9 miesięcy temu

Great question! Really loved the Bioshock series, along with Bethesda FPSs (although they’re not great, I rather enjoy the open worlds). Cyberpunk was great fun, although disappointing in a lot of ways. The Doom series is a personal favourite, although Eternal wasn’t perfect, I really loved how the stories were handled in the previous two games.

For me, I like to seek a balance between story and gameplay. My big thing though is immersion, and being able to really understand the Universe the game takes place in.

Whilst not FPSs, the closest thing to Halo that I loved (Space-Opera shooters), the Mass Effect trilogy tops the list.

Dalek_Thal, 9 miesięcy temu

I’ve been meaning to; I own it, along with the rest of the Metro series, but just haven’t had the time

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Not remotely microtransactions at all. The purchase you’re referring to is the deluxe edition upgrade, which came free to anyone who played the game during the beta, and costs $10 USD for:

• The Soundtrack
• An Artbook
• An ingame dice skin
• Some completely cosmetic items that are outclassed by literally every other thing in the game.

Honestly? To call this a microtransaction is making a pretty big and unjustified claim. This is a bonus to chuck the devs a little extra money for the soundtrack and artbook. The additional stuff is moreso a bonus for purchasing the first two. By comparison, CoD charges $18USD for a gun skin.

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Lot of people insistent on rewriting history regarding Inquisition. It won GOTY when it came out, and honestly, with very good reason.

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Mate, you have no idea what you’re on about. Larian is one of the most transparent studios there is, and they have not once released a game with microtransactions or DLC. Similarly, every game they made has had a free “definitive edition” within twelve months of release.

Research before you make claims like this, Larian are not a AAA studio.

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Gets even more painful as an Australian - base game alone costs $120, but with the expansion? Fucking $170. Insanity.

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Honestly mate? Not at all. I’m concerned about Starfield because of Bethesda’s track record since Fallout 4, and in particular, their constant attempts to introduce paid ‘mods’ to their games through the creation club (which are always overpriced for tiny amounts of content) as well as how broken their games have been at launch since Morrowind. When my PC, which can run Baldur’s Gate 3 on max settings, can’t run Oblivion without mods without regular crashes, then there’s a big problem.

I want Starfield to be good. But Bethesda do not make good games. They make broad games, but there’s no depth, and what is there is fairly consistently buggy. They have the Pokemon problem though, where people are willing to give them a pass because of the big name. I guarantee you, if a smaller developer released games in the state that Bethesda does, their games would be (rightfully) panned.

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Successful and good are completely different and unrelated metrics. Fifty Shades of Grey was extremely successful, but no one in their right mind would ever call it good. Psychonauts was met with universal acclaim, and is widely considered to be one of the best games of all time, and yet it was a complete flop and needed more than a decade to get a sequel.

Bethesda games are extremely successful. They are not good games, and their success is not a good thing. Bethesda kicked off microtransactions in 2007 with Horse Armour. This decision completely fucked the wider industry. Not a fan.

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Been checking nearly daily, still none. Please do set it up, Dragon Age is one ot my all time favourite series!

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Still got that one burned into my brain. Not to mention the joke Gale made there. Christ on a bike…

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Paraphrasing, as I don’t remember his wording: “Crap, a half-ogre in the making!”

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Honestly mate? Buy it. This isn’t a AAA game; this is a AA game made completely independently, without microtransactions or lootboxes or any of the many bullshit practices of modern gaming. The studio deserves your support.

It does have a multiplayer component, but it’s co-op. The game can be played in its entirety either way, and indeed, the single player experience is fantastic. So’s the multiplayer experience. The former is similar to Dragon Age Origins, and the latter is literally Dungeons and Dragons. Both are fantastic, and both are worth playing.

Don’t skip it. This is a deeply special game, and if you’re sick of the AAA bullshit, a great way to show the greater industry is by supporting it. Vote with your wallet.

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

FWIW, AAA is not typically defined by budget, but instead by the presence of a publisher and methods of release. If you go by standard definitions, as a completely independent developer who crowdfunded the game at the start, Larian’s actually indie.

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Boo comes with every build, whether you want him to or not

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

Been a fan since the start, so here’s my two cents:

Dragon Age Origins is amazing. Buy each of the expansions. Save files transfer from expansion to expansion, and there are also a few DLCs for the base game. Usually everything is sold in one package - either the Ultimate Edition on Steam (which can also be modded), or GoG. GamePass only has the basegame.

Once you’ve completed the final DAO expansion (Witch Hunt), DA2 is worth playing at least once for its story. It has two expansions (Mark of the Assassin and Legacy) both of which are improvements on the base game. Don’t bother with any other DLC unless you get it all in a package deal. Save file transfers directly into DA2 from DAO.

Once you’ve completed DA2, DAI is also worth playing (I personally liked it more than 2, but YMMV). Mainline it if you start getting bored, as the main quest is worth the playthrough. It had three expansions, the first two played during the main campaign (both endgame) and one postgame expansion. All are worth playing, but The Descent and Trespasser are the most important for the overall world. DAI saves are a bit weird, as they don’t come from DA2. Instead, you fill in your choices in the Dragon Age Keep (should be first result on Google) and export them to DAI. I suggest jotting down major choices as you go.

Outside of the three games, there’s also a series of novels and a Netflix series, as well as a series of comics. The first five and following three comics are available in collections, generally pretty cheaply. Novels are printed to order. If you enjoy the stories in the games, I strongly recommend Asunder by David Gaider and The Masked Empire by Patrick Weekes. Tevinter Nights was great, but it may lose relevance when the new game comes out in the coming couple of years, as it was written as a kind of preview for what’s coming up. The Netflix series was good, but likely of little relevance to the greater narrative.

Honestly, all three games are worth playing in order. There’s nothing atrocious about any of them (DAI won game of the year in 2014), although none have aged super well. In the case of DA2, it may be worth mainlining if the environments bother you (game was made in 18 months, so most maps were recycled several times). If you do mod DAO, just do texture mods for now; there’s some great stuff out there, but only really worthwhile for later playthroughs.

If you find yourself really loving DAO, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a spiritual successor to it and a direct sequel to the games that were DAO’s original inspiration. Do check that out when it comes out at the end of the week if DAO is your jam.

Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions!

Dalek_Thal, 10 miesięcy temu

True, although combat is only one aspect of BG3, I’m mostly referring to storytelling and depth of decision making. Tbh I typically avoid combat in EA if I can’t one-shot everything (playing a very squishy Elder One Warlock for whom constitution is his dump stat). There are similarities though (DAO is largely turn-based RTP combat, whereas BG3 is totally turn-based. If you pause enough, DAO slows down enough to become pure turn-based).

Dalek_Thal, 11 miesięcy temu

As an Isabella romancer, I approve this message