LoamImprovement

LoamImprovement, miesiąc temu

Yeah. I think there’s a problem with the modern development cycle that a fuckton of the budget goes into marketing and marketable assets (i.e. all them graphics that look great in the trailers but nobody’s computer can actually handle, and then the rest of the team’s on the hook to make a game on a shoestring that can actually use all of that content - The only way you can possibly accomplish that with a fraction of a fraction of the budget is if it’s super simplistic and repetitive gameplay that’s stretched over 40+ hours like a peasant on a torture rack.

Think about how many games you’ve played over the last decade, and how many of them were still fun to play after the first five hours, either because the primary gameplay loops were satisfying enough to keep you engaged, or because the game was keeping it fresh with new mechanics that didn’t bungle clumsily atop one another like a raspberry and beef trifle. Making great games is difficult and expensive, and most studios would rather put out something with a guaranteed return than anything that’s fun to play.

LoamImprovement, 3 miesiące temu

To be fair, that is exactly what I do some days after work because this shit is needlessly exhausting. I think I need like a year of sickly Victorian style bedrest because I have been so burned out for so long that I don’t really have much of a sense of self at this point.

LoamImprovement, 4 miesiące temu

People could avoid paying $70 for bad games by not preordering. Like seriously, it takes maybe two hours after release for the criticism to start pouring in.

LoamImprovement, 4 miesiące temu

I got one and I’ve been watching old DVDs on my puter

LoamImprovement, 5 miesięcy temu

Yeah, the silver lining of the whole gaming industry fallout is that the indie game scene has never been better. I was lamenting the fact that we hadn’t had a good top-down zeldalike in a long time, echoes of wisdom notwithstanding even though the formula is pretty altered. Someone pointed me in the direction of Master Key and it was an incredibly satisfying time. Almost like it would have fit in perfectly between LoZ 1 and Link’s Awakening.

LoamImprovement, 5 miesięcy temu

I kind of feel that - I think the issue for me is that there’s a lot going on in each of these games that is tangential to the primary gameplay loop that on the surface isn’t obligatory, so if you find it not to your liking you can choose not to engage, but avoiding the secondary activities locks you out of some rewards for the PGL often and severely enough that you do feel obligated to engage to the point you can get these rewards. Especially in the gambling minigames, I often feel relieved when the points you buy end up being the same points you exchange for said rewards because it means I can just engage in the fighting a little more instead of having to gamble.

Case in point, I’m playing Infinite wealth right now and it feels like a big step up from the first Like a Dragon, but I’m still finding myself pulled into the Sujimon quests even though I personally don’t like monster tamer games. I don’t even know what the rewards are but half of the map icons are raids and trainers, so I feel like I should at least be putting time into maintaining a team with the ones I can catch just from grinding out fights for Job XP.

LoamImprovement, 5 miesięcy temu

Any of the fallout/elder scrolls series. I remember whiling so many hours away in them as a kid and having a great time, and now any time I pick them up it just feels like a second job, looting and managing inventory ad nauseum.

LoamImprovement, 7 miesięcy temu

I think you mean “Straight” person

LoamImprovement, 8 miesięcy temu

SAY IT!

LoamImprovement, 8 miesięcy temu

I like it more, but I’m a fan of the more classic Zeldas. It’s good, but it’s marred by the same technical issues that plagued the LA remake, and the lack of some basic QoL features like a Quick Select or Favorites wheel is bringing it from ‘great’ to ‘good.’

LoamImprovement, 8 miesięcy temu

It’s funny, I own a switch and I would have bought the game (and I probably will still if the technical and QoL issues get resolved) but I’m emulating it better than the hardware can run it right now.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I actually really like the SNES game, it is objectively not great though. You can’t even save, so emulation is a must unless you can dedicate an 8-10 hour sitting to it.

Particularly that it switches between top-down outdoors and a pseudo-FPS indoors, and the claustrophobic interiors and darker music give it a lot of charm.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Fucking ghoulish.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

It was slim, but I had hoped that we might get an Arx Fatalis 2 what with the Fatal Fortress easter egg. No more, I guess.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

And they’re probably carving themselves a nice bonus out of the tax write-off for the studio closure.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I mean, let’s not forget that the early consoles had their own pitfalls, a period of gaming that spawned tropes like ‘Nintendo Hard’ and ‘Guide Dang It’ in order to, among other things, pad out the length of what we would consider an otherwise barebones game, and to sell time on their hints and tips hotline. I do feel like there was less bullshit in the past, but it definitely still existed.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I preferred the switch lite with a protective case that gave the grips a little more body, made it way more comfortable to hold. At least until I picked up a Steam Deck, which ended up being pretty much everything I wanted out of portable gaming, and waaaay easier to emulate on.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I wonder what happens when the last whale has been milked dry. With the number of shitty cash grab games out there with heinous monetization, surely the ecosystem reaches a tipping point where there literally just isn’t enough money to go around, both because the whales themselves run out and the remaining number gets spread too thin among too many Clash of Clans, FIFAs and Diablo Immortals. Do you think we’re going to start seeing real effort in those spaces to appeal to players again, or do they just implode because nobody wants to serve a declining market?

LoamImprovement, rok temu

You’re only allowed to have fun if we can monetize it

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Redfall also flopped last year

Feels like an understatement - this was the game that killed Arkane, because a majority of the team decided they’d rather fuck off than work on whale chasing live-service nonsense. And like, good on them, but it means no more Dishonored, no sequels to Prey, no chance of Arx Fatalis II, and it fucking sucks to see enshittification strangling good talent. I hope they’ll find success outside of MS’ looming shadow.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I don’t know if I could call it good, exactly, but one unique concept that I haven’t really seen captured anywhere else was the Dungeon Maker series on PSP, that allowed you to build dungeons that you would then explore/fight/loot, to give yourself funds to build out further/deeper, ad infinitum. It was clunky, controlled pretty stiffly and basic as ARPGs go, and after a certain point you kind of went on autopilot, but there’s a certain je ne sais quoi to it that I really quite enjoyed, especially if you planned out your builds. I think a similar title was released on the DS but it was turn-based and not particularly well-executed.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Seconding the Dark Clouds, god I wish that series had continued.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Volatile

Read: We don’t want to put the time and resources into making quality games when we can prey on whales in shitty Skinner box mobile apps.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I got a Serta Lautner executive chair as a gift, normally runs about $300 off sale. It has adjustable air-bladder lumbar support and is so soft I’ve taken naps in it.

I recently accidentally sheared a bolt holding one of the arms on because I failed to check it every 6 months, I called the support group and the lady on the other end was kind enough to waive the cost of the replacement kit and shipping. Cannot recommend enough.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Nothing of value was lost. Any content worth having couldn’t have existed without Kurvitz’ writing.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I don’t think they would want to deal with this shit again, and I wouldn’t blame them. I’m just going to be content with the fact we got one good game.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Crow Country looks and feels really good. It’s by the same folks that did a whole bunch of flash games back in the day, notably Detective Grimoire, which is getting iterations today.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

The Looker

🤔

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Oh I know, I’ve played it, I like it, but I’m a chronic shitpost enjoyer. I suppose you can’t beat the price, but I think I’d hesitate to call it a puzzle game, exactly?

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Admittedly, I’m guilty of buying EA because there have been dry periods in the GameDev pipeline and I was desperate for something new, but I’m okay with it for smaller devs that don’t have the budget for the kind of QA that bigger devs do. That said, the fact that some of these games have been in EA for over a decade (putting aside whether or not they’re effectively a functional product at this point) is a pretty egregious abuse of the community goodwill, and bigger developers shouldn’t be using it at all because it’s encouraging the trend of pushing out buggy messes with 60GB day-1 patches that still don’t make a game playable.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

There’s also the AA scene to consider. Nacon did a fantastic job with the RoboCop game - it doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s a simple, solid game that captures the tone of the RoboCop franchise well.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Doesn’t it literally use stolen pokemon assets?

LoamImprovement, rok temu

There are artists who disagree. They’re saying the proportions are identical to models used in Pokemon Violet/Scarlet.

videogameschronicle.com/…/palworld-pokemon-plagia…

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I mean, the problematic part here is that they take the model in the first place, or at least that all signs point to that being the case. Sure, you can coldsteel the hell out of an existing character, but if you’re using an asset you didn’t develop and didn’t license to make a product that you then sell for money, no matter how different the end result looks from the original, that is absolutely infringement. It’s infringement that might have gone unnoticed had the models been more sufficiently edited, but at the end of the day it’s the theft of someone else’s labor.

I don’t know if that’s what happened here, but when the industry professionals say it’s hard to get model proportions that close even moving the same asset into a different engine, and the whole roster is uncannily similar? If it looks like a duck…

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Imagine a company telling you that you should get used to not owning the things you buy when arguably the most popular game in their most popular franchise is about being a literal fucking pirate.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

The link’s broken for me but I assume it’s the RE8 Dimitrescu flyswatter thing?

LoamImprovement, rok temu

It’s true.

Source: I’m the uncle who works for him.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I take my Deck with me when I travel. The case is a little on the larger side, but it fits in a backpack under a plane seat. I do tend to have the opposite problem with the switch though, my hands cramp up because the joycon grips are so small. Battery life is an issue though, I can get maybe 3 hours out of it if the plane doesn’t have an outlet.

It is a little hard to call the Deck a platform on its own because the library is all borrowed from an existing client and Valve doesn’t really make games anymore, but for people who have a PC library or are looking to start one and don’t necessarily have the money to throw at a whole gaming PC, the Deck is a solid choice for something portable-yet-powerful - it’s good enough to run Elden Ring pretty stable. It’s also really good for gen 6 and older emulation, both because the hardware is capable and because Valve doesn’t give a fuck what you do with it.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Well I don’t know how to make a game, but I do know how to write interesting characters and stories, and Emil clearly doesn’t, so something something glass houses, Bethesda.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Christ Almighty, they used to have to give the first hour of a completed game to us for free, now people are paying to betatest the most dogshit asset flips. How did we get here?

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Sponsored by Monster Energy and Ride with Norman Reedus?

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Of the OWSC-type games that I’ve played, the one I’ve enjoyed most is Raft, and even then I get burnt out on it pretty quickly. I think it’s because, at least until you get your raft surrounded with metal plated platforms, there’s a very direct relationship between the materials you pick up and the amount of ‘base’ you can build, and so you’re pretty constantly engaged with collecting, refining, and using most of your supplies in a very straightforward and immediately gratifying manner.

The thing in these games that burns me out is, it seems to be a neverending parade of collecting materials and recipes to get better materials and recipes, to the point that you’re thumbing through like eight different pages or tabs of schematics looking for what you need to make, then digging through some arcane storage system to get the shit you need to make the shit you need. After a certain point, it feels like having a second job.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Maybe it’s just me getting older, but since Skyrim, Bethesda games have failed to capture that magic for me. They’ve been leaning on the creation engine for too long, to the point that so many of the features, not the least of which being the goddamn shouts, are all carbon copies of one another, the base building is literally just a fucking resource sink, the gunplay sucks and the enemies are all bullet sponges unless you dip into late game planets and filch a late game gun, the jobs are 90% basic bitch fetch quests, and the core gameplay loop of “go place --> grab shit --> sell shit” has not evolved since Morrowind.

I stop playing games when they start feeling like a second job, and for me that point in Starfield was about three hours in when I was trying to complete survey data for the homesteading program and I was wandering around this deserted planet, looking for samples of flora and fauna, and I scoot back from my desk as I realize, for 20 minutes, I have done absolutely nothing meaningful or engaging. The closest I’ve come is, I’ve pointed a scanner at a bunch of procedurally generated animals hoping they don’t land a hit on me because they’re too spongy for me to kill, so I can fill a meter, so that when I’m done filling meters I can go back to BDG and tell him this place is suitable for people to live. That’s not fun. It barely qualifies as gameplay, and it is an aggressive waste of time.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

"The game’s actually really good! Trust me guys!"

• Average everyday game player Hodd Toward

LoamImprovement, rok temu

I really want to see more games like Might & Magic 6-8 or Wizardry 8, in that vein of open world dungeon crawler, but not locked to a grid like M&M 1-5 or Dungeon Master 1&2 (although I do like those games, they’re more well represented in the contemporary space with titles like M&M 10 or Legend of Grimrock.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Eh, not very well - there’s a certain je ne sais quoi that these games capture, revolving around skill allocation and character development that Skyrim doesn’t have. It’s exciting to become a water master in MM6 because it means being able to teleport freely between towns, or expert level spirit being able to bless the whole party at once.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Bloodstained is a top contender, I can’t say I first discovered it on the Deck, but it just feels right on a handheld, in a way that it didn’t with controller on desktop, and the Switch just isn’t good enough to run it at a passable framerate.

LoamImprovement, rok temu

Lol whoops, did not see the OP next to your name. My bad.