They specify that to retain the damage output you have to target headshots and "other specific weakpoint shots to maintain maximum damage efficiency". That's a bit vague, but it's not quite a full range damage debuff
The railgun is still effective, you just have to use the overcharge mode and be precise, they specifically left the overcharge mode at the same damage potential.
They also buffed other weapons, including the flamethrower and the laser Cannon's wieldiness and armor penetration. This is also the very first balance patch, it's not gonna be perfect, it already wasn't perfect, try out some other options and strategies and see how they seesaw the balance. I think if they keep it up they'll get it right.
I feel like you're technically right, but it's funny, I don't like SMT because I play Persona for that dialogue, so I'd replay a Persona game once every few years and pick all different S-Links, but I feel like desiring pure gameplay goodness and thinking about Persona at all is sort of antithetical to what makes Persona different from other games.
in that Persona feels more like it has dungeons and battling strictly to provide contrast and variety from the dialogue and not because it's worth it in its own right.
4 took place in a completely different sort of environment, with a whole different story, with an online co-op mode for the entire story that 3 didn't have. There are also smaller mechanical differences, but I mean Ubisoft does run formulaic franchises, so maybe it's not enough of a difference to please somebody who's just not as interested in the open world FPS setup from the ground up, but saying it was "an exact copy of 3 with slightly changed graphics" is such a biased and reductive take that it gives the impression that you've already made up your mind before you asked the question and that nuance isn't something you're looking for.
I suppose the answer is, that premise is interesting enough to some that they didn't require as much of a drastic change to still play more, it's more core to what they might enjoy, whereas Far Cry for you is more tertiarily enjoyable and you'd need more differences between them (such as from 2 to 3) to try a new installment, compared to a core fan that likes whats already there and wants minor improvements and tweaks to the formula to freshen up the experience they already fundementally enjoy and want more of. To that fan a drastic change in setting and scenery with some mechanical changes to increase immersion and mix it up would be enough.
Makes a lot of sense, though I'd say that implementing a "save on exit, delete upon resuming" should be a higher priority than it usually is in games that like to restrict saving. Having to stop and do something else might mean a lot of wasted time, and I think that not being able to drop an anchor point to come back to would be a possible dealbreaker for some and really hamper enjoyment of the game for others.
There have been a good few games where I wanted to play them, but didn't because I wasn't sure I had the time to make real progress, or that I'd make real progress, but have to stop just before a save point, and lose it all. It can mean that an otherwise great game gets left on the shelf in favor or something that better respects my time.
This browser game/toy called Infinite Craft was doing that for me yesterday. It's very neat, you just take different words and combine them to create new things, and then use those to make more things, but its secret is that it uses a low level AI so that if you craft a combination that's never been crafted before it can accommodate that and attributes you as the first discoverer.
You start with the whole basic idea of combining elements like fire and water to make steam and such, but you can relatively quickly end up accidentally creating more complex things, and they dont even have to be objects, they can be named franchises or concepts like Star Wars or Creation.
Eventually I felt like a small kid ripping the limbs off action figures and seeing if the dinosaur head would fit on the Darth vader figure. I ended up first discovering some insane Eldritch shit like Barack Crabwich Vader-car, a part president, part crab, part sandwich, part sith lord cyborg, part car. Or Zombie Muppet Prince Kermie. Or the Jurassic Mecha-Deloreansaur.
It's free and is a ridiculously absurd hoot, I'd recommend it on a PC browser since you get a big space to drag out certain concepts you wanna keep and reuse.
Absolutely fantastic game. Extremely addicting, very satisfying gunplay, animation, sounds, everything looks and feels great.
Comparatively with the first game it is a bit more difficult, though a lot of skills, weapon, and enemy knowledge carry over. Only two factions currently compared to the first game's three.
Instead of doing piecemeal DLC to unlock other equipment like the first game this one opts for a battle pass style of using points attained through gameplay to unlock new items, with each tier of possible unlocks opening up once you hit thresholds of points spent. The battle pass acts as a separate, shorter unlock track that takes the same points. You can buy the battle pass track through the Super Citizen edition or for ten dollars, or by completing most of the free upgrade tracks and using the premium currency it provides to unlock the other track for free.
Compared to the first, which had no free option for unlocking premium equipment, I would consider this more fair, as it'd be a grind, but is totally doable, and it helps that equipment from either upgrade track seem decently balanced, you are not incentivized to get the battle pass equipment because they're better.
Lastly, the game is a technical mess at the moment. It runs very well and smoothly, everything feels great, nothing is awkward or overly wonky, but then the game just crashes or disconnects you, or you can't connect in the first place. There have been rapid patches, but it isn't clear if these are helping or worsening the issue, as after two or so patches I played for a few hours yesterday and between the four of us disconnected and crashed numerous times.
Still, it's a testament to how extremely thoroughly well designed and executed the game is that I'll still come back and play more. Arrowhead know how to make an excellent game, just seems they were not prepared for this level of success, I didn't see it coming either. I only pray they get it together and smoothen it out soon so people can just enjoy it. The first game ended up really smooth and problem free, so I expect HD2 to end up the same, the only question is how long it'll take.
I like to wander around the environments in the Hitman reboot games. Not really trying to kill anyone or achieve anything, just enjoying the environment.
Well, they failed to answer one more huge question when it comes to GaaS... Is it always online DRM?
On console platforms like the Switch, I can play Subnautica offline anywhere, and though the second game is likely far outside the switch's capabilities, I think DRM model is an important thing to clarify when it comes to GaaS definition.
Stating that all future content and expansions will be free even outside of early access is a powerful idea. I'm not sure how it'll pan out for them financially, but as long as the core game is good and runs well I think that the incredible wall of paid content in the Sims and that immediate feeling of "I'm not getting the whole thing" when considering only buying the base game is definitely something that's basically stopped me from moving on from Sims 3.
Why go to 4 if I have a content robust game already, and getting a similar amount of content there would cost a small fortune? If a well playing competitor arrives with one base game price and a promise that future content comes free, I think that could be a real foot in the door for this genre.
Difficulty is not the goal of any of the Souls games (not talking about soulslikes). The challenge is a means to get you to think methodically and strategically, and is a vessel to bring you catharsis and release when you overcome it.
Sometimes, but casting has a lot of run up in DD, and sometimes the pawn might know to cast the right thing, but not have the forethought to cast it at the right time, or they'd give you a buff that was good in a current fight, then weak against the next monster, but because you can't dismiss a buff you have, you'd just be stuck weak like that.
Little things like that compounded and because I could always just do all of it myself better, instead of incentivizing me to spend a lot of time retraining a pawn without very much feedback on where their tendencies were, it was far easier and immediately gratifying in so many ways to just become mage and do it myself.
I'm hoping DD 2 will have much more transparency in the pawn behaviors and personalities, and allow even more customization of what abilities they use and when, but I do still want it to retain some of that organic learning feel, I'm definitely not advocating for a Final Fantasy 12 programmed AI routine, as much as that's cool in its own right, the organic feeling that your pawn is learning is part of the charm of DDDA.
I fuckin love Dragon's Dogma. I love NPC companion systems in general in games, and DDDA was one of the only games I've seen where you can have a party of NPCs that autonomously interact with the world. They'll engage in fights of their own volition, buff or heal you on their own, will open chests, destroy boxes, and loot on their own, and the ways you can modify their behavior by teaching them is very interesting.
Granted, they were never smart enough about buffing or healing, which often made me want to go Mage because I could do the job far better than them, but playing a game where I can play support and healer for an NPC party is another thing I love about DDDA that you don't often see in other games.