August Games & Pizza Chat: Chug my dumptruck

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > August Games & Pizza Chat: Chug my dumptruck

Haha what do you think Bowsette smells like LOL This poll is closed.
Lilac	12	3.96%
Gooseberries	8	2.64%
Turtle soup	11	3.63%
Your favourite Doritos flavor (please specify)	14	4.62%
Gamer girl bath water	54	17.82%
Stop it	158	52.15%
A Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizza (Pepperoni)	33	10.89%
get stick bugged lol	12	3.96%
tomato pizza	1	0.33%
Total:	303 votes

[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

stev: Jan 22, 2013; Please be excited.

fridge corn posted:

Haha pc gamers get owned

WoW players SPECIFICALLY.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 10:40

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 20:58

VideoGames: Aug 18, 2003

SSdese install sizes are nuts

# ? Aug 28, 2020 10:48

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

stev posted:

WoW players SPECIFICALLY.

Don't @ me ITT

# ? Aug 28, 2020 11:06

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

But seriously Battle for Azeroth was an absolute dogs breakfast of an expansion, so hoping Shadowlands is going to hold to the "every 2nd expansion is the really good one" format.

Not holding my breath atm.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 11:10

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

Khanstant posted:

Started Control today. Went in completely blind, didn't even know what genre or player perspective it was. At first I was digging it, really liked the story, atmosphere, little details, the mystery, etc so far. Love how much stuff they let me ragdoll around on desks and such, really had my hopes up the second I jumped on a table and so much stuff went flying and each desk and object seemed to be able to be messed with. Heck, you can even shoot individual papers off of corkboards and there are sometimes hidden sticky notes behind.

Now I'm getting pretty annoyed, I'm maybe a couple of combat encounters in and I've died once so far in each one (annoying load time to get back into the room we already had loaded, very cool) and idk just seems really jarring, like in Death Stranding when you have to do a call of duty and it sucks and you just wanna get back to the good stuff. I just went over the 2 hour limit anyway so I'm committed now I suppose. Game very quickly introducing leveled up enemies in this little arena room and now I'm thinking maybe I was foolish to give this game so much spoiler cloaking because I don't think I would've bought it if I knew it was going to be all Gears of War shoot em ups. Without spoiling anything, just to temper my expectations next time playing it, is this an X-Files game with some shooting crap because it's AAA game and they gotta have it, or is this a Shooting Game With A Cool Story For A Shooting Game At Least?

just wait until you have to grind conceptual non-Euclidean bear asses for the chance of another +1% to some totally useless weapon stat

# ? Aug 28, 2020 11:13

stev: Jan 22, 2013; Please be excited.

Infinitum posted:

But seriously Battle for Azeroth was an absolute dogs breakfast of an expansion, so hoping Shadowlands is going to hold to the "every 2nd expansion is the really good one" format.

Not holding my breath atm.

I really hope it doesn't because I don't want anything to tempt me back to that dogshit game that I've cumulatively spent 100 of my real days on earth playing.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 11:15

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyNC_e_7rws

Absolutely waiting to hear reviews on this on, particularly with all the GaaS addon on nonsense.

Or just wait 6 months and buy it for :10bux:

# ? Aug 28, 2020 11:26

Arrrthritis: May 31, 2007; I don't care if you're a star, the moon, or the whole damn sky, you need to come back down to earth and remember where you came from

Infinitum posted:

But seriously Battle for Azeroth was an absolute dogs breakfast of an expansion, so hoping Shadowlands is going to hold to the "every 2nd expansion is the really good one" format.

Not holding my breath atm.

What do you have to go on that Shadowlands will be good aside from superstition?

# ? Aug 28, 2020 11:50

goblin week: Jan 26, 2019; Absolute clown.

Hwurmp posted:

just wait until you have to grind conceptual non-Euclidean bear asses for the chance of another +1% to some totally useless weapon stat

My solution for that problem was to never do that. You should try jt

# ? Aug 28, 2020 11:54

stev: Jan 22, 2013; Please be excited.

Arrrthritis posted:

What do you have to go on that Shadowlands will be good aside from superstition?

I don't think it's ever been explicitly stated but I'm pretty sure WoW expansions are developed on an A team > B team cycle.

Of course the vast majority of talented people at Blizzard have quit or been laid off in the last four years so it'll probably still be bad.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 12:02

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

VideoGames posted:

SSdese install sizes are nuts

only if your motherboard doesn't have enough LIGMA

# ? Aug 28, 2020 12:15

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Finished the Control DLC, it was fun. So far in 2020 I have completed:

- Eliza
- Bloodborne
- Wolcen
- Doom Eternal
- Control: Foundation DLC
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Streets of Rage 4
- Final Fantasy X
- Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
- Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath DLC
- Maneater
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Horizon Zero Dawn (PC)
- Control: AWE DLC

Next Up: Tell Me Why, or Wasteland 3, or Spiritfarer.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 12:30

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

Arrrthritis posted:

What do you have to go on that Shadowlands will be good aside from superstition?

Not much tbh.

You can sort of see the broadstrokes between expansions where it seems like not as much 'effort' is put into the 'off-cycle' expansion, so they can release a mega-hit. Legion in particular was The Good poo poo.
Unfortunately there are very very few of the original or early devs in key positions, so while I have nothing but glowing praise for the Cinematics + Environment Teams, the Systems teams constantly felt like they were struggling for solutions to a problem they created with BfA's Heart of Azeroth/Neck system. Very much trying to recapture lightning in a bottle that was Legion artifact weapons.

And I know it's disengenous to all the developers who work extremely hard on expansions, and are excellent at their craft, but it seems like the heart and soul is gone from those key producer/director/lead roles, and WoW is now Design By Committee instead of doing something truly truly bold (Like merging the loving factions or allowing cross-faction grouping [LOL FACTION WAR!~ FOR DA HORDE!])

# ? Aug 28, 2020 12:37

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

Remember that time Bobby Kotick announced record profits and fired 800 people?

As he takes homes tens of millions a year?

Dude deserves a punch in his loving face.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 12:38

Arrrthritis: May 31, 2007; I don't care if you're a star, the moon, or the whole damn sky, you need to come back down to earth and remember where you came from

Infinitum posted:

Not much tbh.

You can sort of see the broadstrokes between expansions where it seems like not as much 'effort' is put into the 'off-cycle' expansion, so they can release a mega-hit. Legion in particular was The Good poo poo.
Unfortunately there are very very few of the original or early devs in key positions, so while I have nothing but glowing praise for the Cinematics + Environment Teams, the Systems teams constantly felt like they were struggling for solutions to a problem they created with BfA's Heart of Azeroth/Neck system. Very much trying to recapture lightning in a bottle that was Legion artifact weapons.

And I know it's disengenous to all the developers who work extremely hard on expansions, and are excellent at their craft, but it seems like the heart and soul is gone from those key producer/director/lead roles, and WoW is now Design By Committee instead of doing something truly truly bold (Like merging the loving factions or allowing cross-faction grouping [LOL FACTION WAR!~ FOR DA HORDE!])

Legion was really good, but imo I think that's only because they sacrificed half of Warlords to work on it. I wish Acti-Blizz wouldn't shy away from longer dev cycles (or listening to feedback from beta), because they keep running into this problem time and time again. BfA had a ton of half-baked features that could have been pretty good if they didn't have to keep a forward momentum of "crunch always and never iterate on failed designs." I hope Shadowlands doesn't end up being a victim of the same design process!

# ? Aug 28, 2020 13:00

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

(Like I'm still gonna play it :v:

)

# ? Aug 28, 2020 13:04

UrbicaMortis: Feb 16, 2012; Hmm, how shall I post today?

exquisite tea posted:

Finished the Control DLC, it was fun. So far in 2020 I have completed:

Next Up: Tell Me Why, or Wasteland 3, or Spiritfarer.

The only one of these I've played is Spiritfarer, which was OK but I ended up not bothering to finish it. The loop of getting resources and using those to craft things that get you better resources is satisfying, but there are a lot of times where the game is really bad at telling you where to find the next thing you need. The writing is fine - the characters are generally quite charming - but I found most of the attempts to tug the heartstrings or explore about how people deal with death didn't really land. A lot of reviewers seem to disagree with me on that so YMMV.

I dunno, I got pretty far into the game but looking back on it, I wish I'd played less of it tbh.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 13:15

Harrow: Jun 30, 2012

Arrrthritis posted:

What do you have to go on that Shadowlands will be good aside from superstition?

The big thing about Shadowlands that gives me hope it'll be better than BFA is that, from the beta, it seems significantly less grindy. There's no infinite artifact/azerite power (AP) grind, no multi-layered RNG for gear drops, etc. It's easy to hit the weekly cap for covenant progress, and if you don't, you can never actually fall behind, because if you're behind, the game just throws bonus covenant rank rewards at you until you catch up. Beta testers seem to think the actual content is better than BFA so far, too (dungeons, leveling, etc.).

The one glaring issue remaining--and to be clear it is potentially an issue that could ruin someone's play experience if it goes as badly as it could--is that Blizzard are utterly committed to having class abilities tied to covenants. It's going to be a balance nightmare. Everyone knows it. Players already dread being forced to pick a covenant that has the "right" ability for their main spec even if they don't like the aesthetic or story of that covenant, or even if that covenant's ability isn't great for their class's other specs. It's a bad system and I fully expect Blizzard is going to have to cook up some sort of workaround for it in like patch 9.1 or 9.2 or something.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:11

Harrow: Jun 30, 2012

also lmao the Game Maker's Toolkit youtube guy got Notch to delete his twitter account

https://twitter.com/gamemakerstk/status/1299323212401082370?s=20

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:13

stev: Jan 22, 2013; Please be excited.

I mean he'll re-open it in a few days/hours/minutes when GMTK doesn't stop talking about anything political (because it's a physical impossibility).

What a loving wanksock of a man.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:16

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Everybody loves to talk about video game tropes they hate, what about the ones you love?

One thing I hope never goes away is the principle of "beating the crap out of someone causes them to fully recognize the error of their ways." It's such an uplifting and optimistic outlook that, in spite of all our differences, beating someone up can turn even the most hardheaded villain into a hero.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:19

Grapplejack: Nov 27, 2007

Spring Break My Heart posted:

Also coupled with the longstanding rumour that OW1/the competitive multiplayer will be made F2P

It is so funny that Blizzard is doing tf2 decisions 10 years after it happened, with zero recognition of this and also with a game infinitely worse than tf2 in every way

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:23

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

My favourite trope is "hype music for hype battles with villains you've been absolutely waiting to beat the ever living poo poo out of all game."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpoOGq4jtVQ&t=110s
Linked at timestamp to avoid story spoilers

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:28

Barudak: May 7, 2007

exquisite tea posted:

Everybody loves to talk about video game tropes they hate, what about the ones you love?

One thing I hope never goes away is the principle of "beating the crap out of someone causes them to fully recognize the error of their ways." It's such an uplifting and optimistic outlook that, in spite of all our differences, beating someone up can turn even the most hardheaded villain into a hero.

Im the exact opposite, I like games where you actually kill the bad guy and theres no moralizing or some stupid attempt at a got ya about it. Double bonus points if you spare the henchmen on your way there.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:37

Weedle: May 31, 2006

yakuza 0 had a great cast. the performances were all fantastic and the quality of the motion capture really did everyone justice. there's a moment where sagawa is meeting with shimano and he intends to keep shimano in the dark about something he's done, but as soon as sagawa walks in shimano says something that makes it obvious that he knows everything. sagawa plays it off and only betrays his surprise with a quick darting glance at kiryu that seems to say "well our plan's hosed but be cool and maybe we'll still make it out of here." it's a nice little moment of non-verbal acting and i was really impressed with how well it was conveyed in the game. really the mocapped cutscenes in that game are all of astonishingly high quality and really thoughtfully directed. i always appreciate when cutscene directors get ambitious with the framing and presentation of their scenes instead of just having people talk at each other

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:38

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

That's not a trope! And also not what I said!

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:38

Rinkles: Oct 24, 2010; What I'm getting at is...
Do you feel the same way?

is it really that common?

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:39

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

I like when you're in a hopeless situation and the tables suddenly turn

Ace Combat 7 penultimate boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ki2FxApAGU&t=217s

see also: p much any moment from The Wonderful 101 or any EDF game

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:47

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Basically every fighting game story mode and CAG ever made is predicated on "beat up this dude until they join your cause." And there are many examples even beyond that such as beating Kenny's rear end in TWD Season 1.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:48

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

exquisite tea posted:

That's not a trope! And also not what I said!

"Bad guy gets his comeuppance by way of player brutally beating the poo poo out of them" is a pretty good trope my dude :colbert:

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:49

Rinkles: Oct 24, 2010; What I'm getting at is...
Do you feel the same way?

exquisite tea posted:

Basically every fighting game story mode and CAG ever made is predicated on "beat up this dude until they join your cause." And there are many examples even beyond that such as beating Kenny's rear end in TWD Season 1.

those are a bit of a blind spot for me

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:51

njsykora: Jan 23, 2012; Robots confuse squirrels.

I'm playing the first Yakuza Kiwami right now and enjoying the trope of it usually being measured in seconds the time between Kiryu meeting someone and caving their face in.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:52

stev: Jan 22, 2013; Please be excited.

I love when games let you talk your way out of combat, no matter how nonsensical it is.

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:53

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

njsykora posted:

I'm playing the first Yakuza Kiwami right now and enjoying the trope of it usually being measured in seconds the time between Kiryu meeting someone and caving their face in.

sometimes he gives them valuable life lessons instead

or additionally

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:53

Arrrthritis: May 31, 2007; I don't care if you're a star, the moon, or the whole damn sky, you need to come back down to earth and remember where you came from

exquisite tea posted:

Everybody loves to talk about video game tropes they hate, what about the ones you love?

One thing I hope never goes away is the principle of "beating the crap out of someone causes them to fully recognize the error of their ways." It's such an uplifting and optimistic outlook that, in spite of all our differences, beating someone up can turn even the most hardheaded villain into a hero.

I don't think this qualifies as a trope, but I really liked it in FF14 when someone who manipulated the rules and law to be their shield got their comeuppance by someone just saying "gently caress it" and stabbing them.

Yes, i'm talking about (ARR spoilers) Teledji Adeledji

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:55

Harrow: Jun 30, 2012

Arrrthritis posted:

I don't think this qualifies as a trope, but I really liked it in FF14 when someone who manipulated the rules and law to be their shield got their comeuppance by someone just saying "gently caress it" and stabbing them.

Yes, i'm talking about (ARR spoilers) Teledji Adeledji

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiXNUaSjXRY

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:57

Spring Break My Heart: Feb 15, 2012

exquisite tea posted:

Everybody loves to talk about video game tropes they hate, what about the ones you love?

One thing I hope never goes away is the principle of "beating the crap out of someone causes them to fully recognize the error of their ways." It's such an uplifting and optimistic outlook that, in spite of all our differences, beating someone up can turn even the most hardheaded villain into a hero.

The first dungeon also becoming the last/second last dungeon in a giant game

# ? Aug 28, 2020 14:57

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."