Essence_of_Meh

Essence_of_Meh, 4 miesiące temu

This is a genuine question and not me trying to be snarky or anything: how’s that possible? Was there any meaningful role playing in Skyrim at all?

To me the system simplification of Skyrim went so far that the only real role you could play was the dragonborn - not your specific one but a generic dragonborn who could be anyone and everything at the same time. Maybe my definition of role playing is outdated as I feel it should include choices and consequences (like blocking or limiting access to some content) so I’d be grateful if you could expand on that.

Again, I’m not trying to suggest you’re wrong or anything, I’m just curious about your perspective (or something more about what you’ve read).

Essence_of_Meh, 4 miesiące temu

Change from Oblivion to Skyrim would definitely affect my question. I do think the former had more “my kind” of role playing so the initial thought would be more understandable for me.

Thanks for the answer. I get what you mean about playing as more defined main characters, it definitely has it’s benefits over more open-ended approach.

Essence_of_Meh, 4 miesiące temu

Guild exclusivity is actually what I had in mind. Sure, there’s nothing that significantly changes the main quest in TES games (and I think I misremembered how much blocking is there in previous titles) but that still counts for me personally. Self-imposed role play is fine in general (I do it all the time in games in fact) but I still think that lack of reasonable requirements for some (optional?) content makes the world feel more generic and player-focused than I’d like.

Thanks for the reminder though.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

It managed to fly under the radar for 2 year so far (it was uploaded in 2023) so that depends on how much this info spreads, I guess.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

EA App does work through Wine so that itself isn’t a death sentence. Dunno about it mixed with Denuvo though.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

Yup, apparently so.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

Good to know, so these might be playable as well.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

I wasn’t trying to imply anything else to be clear, just wanted to mention that their app on its own doesn’t mean it won’t work. I completely agree otherwise.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

Both games did get some compatibility fixes but for the most part yeah.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

Here’s what EA has to say about this.

The Sims:

• The Sims Livin’ Large
• The Sims House Party
• The Sims Hot Date
• The Sims Vacation
• The Sims Unleashed
• The Sims Superstar
• The Sims Makin’ Magic

The Sims 2:

• The Sims 2: University
• The Sims 2: Nightlife
• The Sims 2: Open for Business
• The Sims 2: Pets
• The Sims 2: Bon Voyage
• The Sims 2: Seasons
• The Sims 2: FreeTime
• The Sims 2: Apartment Life
• The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack
• The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff
• The Sims 2: Glamour Life Stuff
• The Sims 2: Happy Holiday Stuff
• The Sims 2: Celebration! Stuff
• The Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff
• The Sims 2: Teen Style Stuff
• The Sims 2: Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff
• The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

It’s all good, I didn’t take your reply as a negative. It would be awesome if we could play anything with zero issues but we can’t always be this lucky I’m afraid (though I’m all for heckling big corps about DRM).

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

That’s a fair point. I should’ve gone with the “packs” wording EA used, I guess.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

I don’t think they’ll remove the Ultimate Collection from people’s libraries. The main incentive to buy is… well, the ability to buy the games and the improved compatibility with modern systems - UC doesn’t really affect the main demographic, i.e. people who aren’t interested or knowledgeable enough to fix those issues on their own.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

If we’re making requests I’d like to add some of my own wishes as well:

• American McGee’s Alice
• Claw
• Oni
• The Neverhood
• Theme Park World
• Trespasser

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

I just started playing the original game two weeks ago or so and time management is pretty much my main complaint right now. It feels a little too close to (or even more punishing than) real life, where there’s barely any time to keep up with my character’s needs after coming back from work.
It can be done though - I’m slowly getting used to how things work again and my sim has been leaving in a slightly better mood then before. Just need to get into a proper Sims mindset, I guess.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

I don’t think there were much if any attempts to make a petition in the US. If I recall correctly, Ross spoke with a lawyer who told him the chances for a positive outcome are close to null which is why he decided to focus on other markets - mainly: Australia, Brazil, Canada, EU, France and UK.

The failed petition mentioned was in UK, just like this one, but was canceled due to early elections. EU petition is still going, with a little bit over 6 months left, while Australian and Canadian ones closed last year. There was also a push to contact the local consumer protection agencies in Australia, France and Germany since they seem to have the tools to look into the issue as well.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

These petitions are limited in scope for a reason - this is a small initiative and the goal is to focus on one part of the market which started the whole thing (the initiative, not the software killing issue), as well as to limit the number of big companies that could be affected (the potential opposition).

Sure, ideally this would expand on all software but you have to start somewhere, especially when you’re just a bunch of randos with little knowledge about law and no funds to turn it into a serious lobbying movement - one that could both get the political attention and was able to defend its stance from corporations.

Essence_of_Meh, 5 miesięcy temu

Lets hope the slowly expanding union movement within the industry reaches more countries in the future (yes, I’m aware this isn’t a game dev only problem in Indonesia but hey, change needs to start somwhere).

Essence_of_Meh, 6 miesięcy temu

It might be related to the recently announced move to make Ubisoft Connect completely optional for Steam games.
I’m just speculating since they only mentioned it in regards to The Rogue Prince of Persia (bottom of the page) but they might roll out it to everything else as well? Maybe? Possibly.

Essence_of_Meh, 6 miesięcy temu

I hope they will but it wouldn’t hurt to nag them about it, just in case.

Essence_of_Meh, 6 miesięcy temu

Nice to finally have a date. I played the demo a good few months ago and it was pretty great, can’t wait for the full release.

Essence_of_Meh, 6 miesięcy temu

Here are a few that stuck in my mind throughout the years:

• FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn - End of an Era - even for someone completely uninterested in FFXIV this thing went hard. Heck, re-watching it now still gives me chills.
• Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days - War Junkie - I love the contrast between the rough and shitty situation of a dude who can’t let go of criminal life compared to a psychopath who managed to get his life together.
• Leviathan: Warships Jazzy Trailer with Jazz Boatman - smooth and sultry, like a boat (I don’t know what this suppose to mean but the trailer is great).

Essence_of_Meh, 6 miesięcy temu

（ ﾟДﾟ）But no one said we can’t cheat!

Essence_of_Meh, 6 miesięcy temu

GoG does, dunno about Epic.

Essence_of_Meh, 7 miesięcy temu

Mostly Spyro (the PSX one) and both versions of Cyberpunk 2077. Alternatively Muse Dash if I don’t have much time (or will) to go for a longer session.

Essence_of_Meh, 7 miesięcy temu

I really like checking out oldies in their original form, even if there’s a “better” remake/remaster available. It’s fun to see what those games had to offer in their prime.

As for Cyberpunk, I’m playing both the most up to date version (2.13 with Phantom Liberty + mods) and the legacy one (version 1.16).

There were a lot of gameplay and design changes in the 2.0 release. Since I played the game before that, I had a constant reaction of some things being… off. I wasn’t sure whether my mixed feelings had to do with nostalgia or if I really liked some of the old gameplay more, so I decided to reinstall the legacy version to confirm (thanks CDPR for keeping it available).

Long story short, while I do like some of the things they did with the game and genuinely believe it’s a better product overall, I’d be lying if I said I prefer the new version. I still have fun and all the technical improvements, free content and access to mods make for an easy choice but boy do I wish there was a way to port those to the legacy version. There are a few mods that restore some of the old design choices which gives me a sliver of hope for a potential larger restoration in the future. For now though, I’ll just keep enjoying what’s there.

Essence_of_Meh, 7 miesięcy temu

Does NMS allow you to play the older patches at least? It really sucks whenever games change significantly without an ability to stick with what you like.

Essence_of_Meh, 7 miesięcy temu

Praise be to Yevon! Now do the other ones.

Essence_of_Meh, 7 miesięcy temu

Nooooooo!

Essence_of_Meh, 7 miesięcy temu

Huh, didn’t even realize that. Guess it’s time to party! ヽ(✧ω✧)ノ

Essence_of_Meh, 8 miesięcy temu

I currently doing a playthrough funnily enough, didn’t realize it was so close to an anniversary.

I’ve been spending more time exploring and doing side activities this time around, just driving around and taking photos. It ended up being quite a surprising experience. I was surprised with how easy the game is, how fast the story moves or how empty some parts of the world are (makes sense considering when it released). Taking the world in a more touristy way was an interesting change compared to how I experienced those games before. It’s also a way of playing I’ve been trying to move towards more and more recently (doing the same with Cyberpunk as well).

I still think it’s a great game but IV and, to lesser extent, Vice City are probably my favorites as far as mainline games are concerned. IV especially as it had a nice grounded approach to gameplay with weighty movement, interactions and driving, as well as the story - it sucks most people hated this as GTAV ended up being a rather mid experience for me.

Essence_of_Meh, 8 miesięcy temu

Rockstar showed their thoughts on IV clearly in GTAV, I don’t think you have to worry about it anymore.

Essence_of_Meh, 9 miesięcy temu

I only properly played 1, 2 and a bit of Black Flag but based on that and what I’ve seen from all the other games I’m gonna stick with the first one.

Investigations were… well actual investigation, gameplay mechanics while simple and satisfying weren’t overly automated and the game wasn’t burdened with all the bloat that came afterwards. Simplified movement system from later games, one that’s fighting you whenever you try to do something even a little out of game’s comfort zone, is probably my major sticking point with the series.

That said, I’m not sure if that would be the best choice for you. If you want to try the classic approach I’d suggest going with the Ezio trilogy (II, Brotherhood, Revelations) as these games are more polished, if a little bloated, compared to the first game. They should still hold up well enough to have fun.

Essence_of_Meh, 9 miesięcy temu

Ubisoft also announced both The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest will have an offline mode (twitter post, screenshot). Looks like the Stop Killing Games campaign is working.

Speaking of, if you’re in EU make sure to sign the The European Citizens’ Initiative petition - we’re already over 30% required signatures!

Essence_of_Meh, 9 miesięcy temu

I think an important step would be to not be afraid of creating characters with actual… well, character. It was somewhat mentioned in the video but it seems like devs are unwilling to make NPCs with their own likes and dislikes, ones that might disagree with players instead of being all over them no matter what. This might be a slight exaggeration but boy do I wish we had more “real” feeling NPCs in games. I’m sure I’m not the only one who couldn’t care less about being the most important being in the universe and would rather be treated as an equal part of the world.

From a mechanical standpoint, relationship system in Scarlet Hollow feels like a good step into making interactions more natural (here is a detailed look by one of the devs) but I realize it’s a lot of work for something a good chunk of players won’t care about. I understand why this isn’t something many (especially bigger) devs would be interested in using but it’s still a disappointment.

Maybe AI will be able to help somewhat with this problem in the future but I’m not going to hold my breath on that.

Essence_of_Meh, 10 miesięcy temu

I’ve seen a lot of comments about the controls and I don’t really get it. I’ve played through both games about two years ago, I think, and didn’t have any problems with either of them. Maybe I’m just used to the jank due to playing a lot of older games but I remember both titles playing fine.

I’m curious how they’ll modernize the controls. The little gameplay present in this teaser looks pretty close to the original and I don’t think they talked about this in detail. Whatever they’ll do I just hope it’ll allow people to play and enjoy this little gem. It deserves it.

Essence_of_Meh, 10 miesięcy temu

As much as I like this idea I don’t think many publishers would look at it and said anything other than “yeah, not worth the money”. We probably have a higher chance for the classic versions landing on GoG than being added as a freebie to a remake - they want you to play the new shiny thing, not the old one after all (that and no need to provide support to the old version).

Essence_of_Meh, 10 miesięcy temu

I totally agree. I just don’t have much expectations towards big publishers anymore, I guess. Not many approach the topic of remakes/remasters from the point of view of celebrating their history unfortunately. Heck, we had multiple instances of publishers removing the old versions from sale just to push people to the new one.

Low effort or not, companies (and many players to be honest) rarely care about their legacy.

Essence_of_Meh, 10 miesięcy temu (edited 10 miesięcy temu)

Ah, I thought people had some specific issues besides the game having tank controls. Fair enough.

I’m not going to begrudge someone for not liking a control scheme (unless their only reason is not wanting to learn how to play differently) but I do think some people dislike it without even giving it a fair shake. The thing is, these games were designed with this control scheme in mind and switching to a modern one can be detrimental to the experience (compare playing REmake with and without tank controls, the latter makes navigation and avoiding enemies much easier).

Oh well, everyone has their own dislikes.

Edit: I read a bit more and apparently the game always had an option to play with some kind of “modern” controls when using a controller with sticks? I’m guessing they’ll probably polish those.

Essence_of_Meh, 10 miesięcy temu

Can’t say I share your experience with either game but I can understand it doesn’t work for everyone. Personally, I can’t really imaging playing this, Kao the Kangaroo or old Tomb Raider titles without tank controls for example.

To be clear, your comment is exactly what I meant - you tried and don’t like it, that’s absolutely fine. There’s plenty of games I couldn’t get into due to controls or mechanics so I feel you. On the other hand, I met people who refuse to even try to engage with certain mechanics and that’s what I’m not a fan of. I’m all for remakes/remasters/rereleases updating things to let more people enjoy the old thing and hope this will be the case with Croc. And hey, even if they change something in a way I don’t like, there’s always* the classic version.

• Though not always an official way to get it.

Essence_of_Meh, 10 miesięcy temu

I feel like that should be the default stance. One thing that gives me hope is the early access release - there’s a chance they’re approaching the game seriously and will use it to make something great.