Squadron 42 is the single player campaign of Star Citizen, that is supposed to launch as a separate game. It's basically a small portion of Star Citizen, but with a story and ending. I'm still not confident; waited too long for that.
No, 10 years since the announcement of their intent to build the game. Then they had to build the company, the engine, and they are building 2 games at once (SQ42 and StarCitizen).
Developing a AAA single player game + an MMO at the same time, with the components working across the 2, and now being at the point where they are feature complete on SQ42, is pretty impressive.
I’ve been playing it with my wife for years, so it rankles me when people show up with the “will it ever release!?” takes. Go play it and see for yourself; they have free-fly events every quarter, so you don’t even have to buy anything.
“Will Eve Online ever release? They haven’t shown us any progress on Walk In Stations in years!” /s
They didn’t start pre-production in 2010, that’s when they started building the Kickstarter video, unless you’re counting the broad story strokes in CR’s head as “pre-production”, in which case Starfield was in pre-production for 25+ years. :P
Development on SQ42 started in 2013, and 10 years to not only build a game, but the engine tech and the studios as well, is not at all crazy given the game. Major games like RDR2 and GTAV take 8+ years, and they are working with already-established teams, and not doing anything crazy tech-wise.
And yes, MMOs have extremely long lives, both pre- and post-release. Eve is over 20 now. WoW is who knows how old. Maple Story devs have literally had kids and watched them go off to college.
You are basically throwing out the existence of bad AAA games to discredit the idea that people can pull off AAA games. Here’s a secret; in software development, money and experience cannot overcome bad management. Lots of publisher-driven games release as crap because the publishers have them pegged to a certain financial quarter they want to show a revenue pull in, irregardless of where the game is at.
But for the rest of us, these games need to materialize as functional and fully featured releases for us to care.
I think it’s fair to hold early access games with skepticism, but plenty of people do play early access games (and SC).
But also, CitCon is first and foremost an event for current players, not a marketing one for new players. It’s a bunch of dev panels on nitty-gritty details of things like UI design, flight model physics changes, npc AI design, backend economy simulations, sound and lighting, etc. The SQ42 video was them throwing current players a live-view bone about the state of SQ42 development, rather than just the usual Jira-derived sprint status reports and development milestone updates that we get every 2 weeks.
All large scope games should be considered to be nonexistent until they hit reviewers hands at this point.
This is just cynicism about publisher-driven game-dev. It may be justified for those, but SC is not one of those, it’s quite literally an “indie” (publisher-independent) game. Plenty of independent game developers create “large-scope” games (Grim Dawn, Kenshi, Rimworld, Project Zomboid, etc) that have scope and depth (e.g. in number and complexity of mechanics) comparable to what AAA games do.
If people had not been actually playing SC (since what, 2016 for PU release iirc?) then I’d understand the idea of its potential “non-existence”, but it’s hard for me to take that stance seriously when it’s sitting on my harddrive right now.
Last night I did 2 ‘bunker missions’ (infiltrate facility, kill bad guys, loot), and salvaged 3 derelict ships. Night before that I was doing bounties on NPCs and running bomber support for some guys who had gotten pinned down by another group of players at a planet-side wreck site (Ghost Hollow). I don’t do mining, or cargo hauling, or drug running, or ship or ground pvp, or player-rescue medical missions, or racing, or investigations, but those are also in there.
I swear sometimes it’s like the people who talk about SC ‘not releasing’ seem to have no clue about what has literally already been released.
Yet I suspect that if SC released now as a 1.0, and then continued to add stuff for 20 more years in order to reach a comparable number of game systems as Eve has now, you’d be critical of it.
I doubt you played Eve back then (if at all), but it had fewer game systems than SC has now.
Does SC feel like a $70 game ready for release and formal critical/audience review?
Compared to plenty of other AAA games? In terms of game loops, yeah absolutely.
Eve was a complete game with a complete gameloop.
What gameloop was that? There was no endgame back then. There was mining, manufacturing, and combat. That was about it. But I’m sure you in all your infinite knowledge and totally-not-just-talking-out-your-bum experience with Eve know that, right?
I’ll copy from another of my comments:
“Last night I did 2 ‘bunker missions’ (infiltrate facility, kill bad guys, loot), and salvaged 3 derelict ships. Night before that I was doing bounties on NPCs and running bomber support for some guys who had gotten pinned down by another group of players at a planet-side wreck site (Ghost Hollow). I don’t do mining, or cargo hauling, or drug running, or ship or ground pvp, or player-rescue medical missions, or racing, or investigations, but those are also in there.”
A game is either a full release or it isn’t.
This is an absolute gas. Other people in here talking about how AAA games all release incomplete nowadays, so they don’t trust that SC will be complete on release, and you in here going, “no guys, games that are releasedARE complete, and ones that aren’t released aren’t.” I’m not claiming SC is complete, but claiming that a game saying it’s released is the arbiter of it having a complete experience is just hilarious.
It’s more about time. I’ve been here since the beginning, and back in 2016 it made sense for people to be like, “this is way over-scoped and they don’t have a lot to show for it”, but 7 years later there is a ton to show for it (I’ve spent far more time playing it than Starfield, and I sank 120 hours into that in a little over a week, to give you some idea of how much I play games), but people gonna bandwagon just to feel smart I guess…
Personal note: in that last linked article, they compared BG3 vs SF to Disco Elysium vs Outer Worlds, and I think this is hilariously just showing how much this is about their predilection for narrative-core games.
I like Disco Elysium. I like BG3. They are much better narrative RPGs. I also feel absolutely no desire to go back and replay them.
I go back to Outer Worlds and Starfield. They are much better open world RPGs.
Like, chill PCG. It’s a good game, enjoyed by lots of people. If your staff is more into narrative-core RPGs with linear progression, that’s cool, but you don’t need to demonize Starfield to enjoy BG3. The worst Bethesda game? Worse than '76? Come on.
Personally, hard disagree. I don’t find FO76 fun at all. The world feels small, the characters are boring, and finding zany houses sprinkled around breaks any versimility of the world, which is the cornerstone of Bethesda’s games.
To be fair, ESO shouldn’t really be on this list. ESO was developed by Zenimax Online, not Bethesda Game Studios (Todd Howard’s team). It’s as close to Fallout or Starfield as Prey or Doom are (same publisher, different devs).
Morrowind is imo the best from a gameplay mechanics perspective. The utility magic alone was such a huge loss for future games.
I could cast levitation, walk up to the moon prison, magically open the lock, use chameleon to sneak inside, steal stuff from 30 feet away with telekinesis, and if the guards find me, jump down with slowfall and then escape underwater with waterbreathing.
I don’t doubt it has new events, new ways that things can pan out, etc… but it’s the same characters, the same goblin camp, etc.I am very big on exploration, and without a world large enough to find places I haven’t seen, or at least places that it’s been so long since I saw that I don’t remember it, I bounce off games very fast.
You start with an area that was destroyed by humans (and capitalism), and have to basically revive the ecosystem, and then remove all your buildings and leave.
There are also games like Stranded: Alien Dawn (which is sort of a mashup of Kenshi and Rimworld) where you are not supposed to be growing, you are supposed to either reach an equilibrium and live there sustainably, or escape/ leave.
I have a mental hangup with the very real dread of when hosted multiplayer games die, that all the time and effort I have spent, and all the things I’ve built, will just suddenly disappear. It’s why I run a private G17 Mabinogi server on my pc, rather than playing online.
Note that ToS are not legally binding in any way, it just means they reserve the right to deny you use of their service for doing so. They probably cannot (and have not tried) to sue anyone for commercial training use of their models.
Make sure to also give the Freestar Rangers and UC Vanguard mission lines a try; they are both long and excellent: FSC Rangers is a love-letter to Spaghetti Westerns, and Vanguards line is a mini-Starship Troopers.
A new Nintendo Switch 2 rumor has surfaced claiming that the next-generation hybrid console could actually arrive with more memory than a powerful rival like the Microsoft Xbox Series S. The same source has also offered an update in regard to the Switch 2’s potential DLSS support and ray-tracing capabilities.
don’t know where you got that idea, but 16gb of ddr3 can be gotten easily for $30, as where 16gb of ddr5 is going to run you $100 minimum (talking retail prices, obv)
As a very committed SC backer, I do not think that quote was directed at SC, I think that was just an honest assessment of the amount of work that handcrafted planets would have taken.
I played from 5 pm yesterday at release until 5 am today, and I literally encountered one single bug, which was that I managed to get a big enemy’s pathing hung up on a rock, so I could kill it.
Man, in 2023, it's really hard to get heard through all of the macho "git gud" guff but as a fan of Armored Core since its inception: this game is not what I was expecting. I am disappointed....
I agree 10000%. This is Souls with robots, not Armored Core.
What’s even more upsetting is that the reviews I read claim exactly the opposite, but you jump into mission 1 and there’s a giant gunship that will 2-shot you, and you have no ability to customize your mech, so you’re right from the outset being told that build means nothing about outcome.
I’m not surprised the Souls fans love this game since they don’t know any better, but I am very disappointed in FROM.
It’s funny how you turned, “this is not AC” into “[this is] unreasonably difficult”. Despite what the Souls crowd seem to keep responding with, this is not a complaint about difficulty, it’s a complaint about where the difficulty lies.
Souls-like games place their difficulty in adapting your movement and timing. That’s what this game does.
AC used to place it’s difficulty in planning. You had thousands of combinations of weapons, movement styles, distances, etc, so you could find many different ways to beat a boss, not just one. “Just fly up and hit it with the melee weapon while you dodge around” is the dumbed-down version of AC.
Yes, and that is not AC. There is not one correct weapon for the job, there should be many different combinations of tactics, weapons, movement styles, etc. The build didn’t matter, because “the sword can kill everything” is not a “build”, but it’s true in AC6.
Want to one-shot the giant mechs at the expense of agility to handle small ones? Turn your AC into a massive lumbering build with a stupid-big cannon. Want to snipe stuff from halfway across the map, in exchange for a 20-second reload? Or make your AC able to fly for minutes on end, at the expense of only having a lightweight shotgun and blade, and barely any armor? No problem.
You could do those and tons more, and they all have trade-offs, and none of them work for every mission. That is AC.
There is no variance here, it’s all just Dark Souls-like dodge-fighting. You could keep the same build from mission 1 and beat the game, and that’s not “difficulty” in the AC sense.
You misunderstood OP; there should not be one correct build to beat a given boss, there should be many possible viable builds, that all require different strategies and tactics because they have tangible trade-offs and don’t all work for different enemies or maps.
“Use a gun and dodge well” or “use the sword and dodge well” is removing that planning and adaptation towards your own AC’s requirements.
You can use “fly up and hit it with a sword” for 95% of AC6.
That is not “AC” in the traditional sense, and while obviously FROM can make whatever game they want, it’s disappointing to me that they turned it into Sekirobot, but with shorter and less interesting maps, and basically no lore.
As to why I thought it was a return to OG form, as I mentioned in my response to OP, I read multiple reviews which said it did exactly that. That’s not FROM’s fault, but it does suck.
Just thought I’d share something I thought was pretty interesting. I have a mother in law who is… well let’s just say she’s a stereotypical older mom who doesn’t own a computer, just an iPad. During the pandemic, she started getting into Nintendo games and bought herself a Switch. Fast forward a few years later and...
You’d have to say all 3 of those, and then you’d still be missing a ton of the other groups that also fall under “normies”, even in just this specific instance. “Non-hardcore gamers” would work in this context, but the whole point is to have jargon for it as a concept (“someone who is not a member of your specialized in-group”), rather than saying the specific in-group being discussed each time. “Non-Supernatural fandom-nerds”, “non-/a/ lurkers”, “non-r/SocialistRA lurkers”… or just “normies”.
While Baldur's Gate 3 is being widely celebrated by fans and developers alike, some are panicking that this could set new expectations from fans. Good.
a series of games that are low budget, relatively short, and easy to pump out very quickly, but with a distinct series identity and maybe a consistent writer/artist across games
If you know what Todd makes, you can be hyped for that, and not for what YouTubers are trying to sell it as.
Same for Starfield; I’m incredibly excited for it, moreso than any game in years, but I know what it won’t be (amazing story, complex characters, systemic and emergent gameplay loops, etc), and can be hyped for what it will be (fallout 4 in space).
Space sim Squadron 42 is "feature-complete" and gunning for Starfield's lunch with massive new video (www.rockpapershotgun.com) angielski
Squadron 42 is the single player campaign of Star Citizen, that is supposed to launch as a separate game. It's basically a small portion of Star Citizen, but with a story and ending. I'm still not confident; waited too long for that.
Every Bethesda RPG, ranked from worst to best (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
What type of game you want to see that doesn't fully exist yet?
Terraforming Mars team defends AI use as Kickstarter hits $1.3 million (www.polygon.com) angielski
‘It’s too powerful a technology’
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of September 10th
New thread!...
Consumer Nintendo Switch 2 rumored to have more RAM than the Xbox Series S (www.notebookcheck.net) angielski
A new Nintendo Switch 2 rumor has surfaced claiming that the next-generation hybrid console could actually arrive with more memory than a powerful rival like the Microsoft Xbox Series S. The same source has also offered an update in regard to the Switch 2’s potential DLSS support and ray-tracing capabilities.
Starfield's planets aren't all interesting, but they're not all "supposed to be Disney World" (www.vg247.com) angielski
You'll probably find that a lot of planets in Starfield are pretty boring, but Bethesda says that's kind of the point.
Starfield Review Thread
Game InformationGame Title: Starfield...
As a long time Armored Core fan, I am disappointed with Armored Core VI. (kbin.social) angielski
Man, in 2023, it's really hard to get heard through all of the macho "git gud" guff but as a fan of Armored Core since its inception: this game is not what I was expecting. I am disappointed....
Shoddy PC ports aside, 2023 has already been an amazing year for gaming. angielski
Can’t wait for all that’s in store next.
The Steam Deck is changing how normies think of gaming PCs.
Just thought I’d share something I thought was pretty interesting. I have a mother in law who is… well let’s just say she’s a stereotypical older mom who doesn’t own a computer, just an iPad. During the pandemic, she started getting into Nintendo games and bought herself a Switch. Fast forward a few years later and...
Baldur’s Gate 3 is Causing Some Developers to Panic (youtube.com) angielski
While Baldur's Gate 3 is being widely celebrated by fans and developers alike, some are panicking that this could set new expectations from fans. Good.
Remember the hype around Fallout 4? (lemmynsfw.com) angielski
Still like the game, even if it did not live up to expectations.