precision posted:

Obsidian hired the woman who wrote The Outer Wilds

After The Outer Worlds, I am not entirely sure I should be happy about that news

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

rope kid has talked about how the narrative design in New Vegas was rooted in material struggle and realpolitik (different factions fighting for real tangible resources), and how they built the game geography and quest progression all around this central conflict

This might have been a good strategy to bring to the "corporate capitalism sci-fi" game!

Rinkles posted:

We'll see. This is a new chapter for MS games. New business model might mean changes in how studios are treated. And I certainly hope so. They bought out some great devs.

bushisms.txt posted:

That's the thing, before Disco Elysium, even the 'best'writing in games was cribbed from something better or just fantasy blah blah you grow to deal. Obsidian is great at naturalistic dialogue but the scope of outer worlds, corporations are bad?, has them start in a well worn corner they just roll around in.


I think this is the main issue. Compared to the games they're lauded for, kotor2 and alpha protocol, splashing around in a boring dystopia with few choices really hurts.

Cuntellectual posted:

I wish the new animal crossings had little minigames or something like the NES emulators in the second one.


I always find it funny when I see people saying this stuff because the other side always complains about facebook, twitter, youtube, etc are obviously left biased and only deplatform right wing celebrities like alex jones.

Corporations don't care about politics beyond how they think it hits the bottom line.

grieving for Gandalf posted:

lol Microsoft Teams

grieving for Gandalf posted:

it's trash, don't lie to me like that

Gripweed posted:

Which races are the good ones?

Rinkles posted:

first time i was allowed to use the internet my parents gave me an awkward speech about the ills of looking at bad things on the internet. little old naive and sheltered me had no idea what they were talking about.

Relax Or DIE posted:

GoW has great art and really great voice acting performances, my favorite parts were Kratos/kid/and sometimes the head having little conversations and telling stories while paddling around

Moving from diet devil may cry to diet dark souls didn't make actually playing the game much more compelling that it's predecessors though

stev posted:

I'd make an exception for Witcher 3 because the crazy number of really good sidequests would be pretty difficult to do in a non-open world.

Luckily you can very easily ignore 90% of the open world stuff.

Cowcaster posted:

i'm willing to accept that you don't like open world games andrast but turning it into a destiny hub with mission boards would loving ruin that game, that sounds absolutely hideous

Cowcaster posted:

one npc that gives you all the quests, whatever. that sounds loving lovely dude

Weedle posted:

if the map was empty it would suck but fortunately the witcher 3 has worthwhile stuff to find and do all over the place

stev posted:

Yes and the content of those quests took place on the open world map. If the game didn't have open world game design there would only be a handful of areas that quests could happen in, and they'd have to be far smaller in scope.

Weedle posted:

personally i'm very glad that the witcher 3 is the type of game that it is because i really enjoyed it and found the game world very rewarding to explore and experience. sorry you were bored

Stux posted:

witcher 3 is actually the game that i finally burned out completely on open world games because of and it really isnt, its the same as every single open world game theres stuff around to do but in between the stuff there is just nothing but walking forward its anti-fun and its just padding. theres no point to it.


i like exploring too but wandering around a big map isnt really exploring when so much of it is completely pointless. smaller open world games that actually have a dense and purposeful map design instead of being insanely sprawling are much better at exploring, stuff like hollow knight. the only time i think just a giant open world is justified is mostly in sandbox games because its about making your own fun not specifically interacting with things like npcs or quests or missions and you want space build stuff or whatever.

Cowcaster posted:

hollow knight is the metroidvania with the biggest loving map i've ever played

Cowcaster posted:

man it's a good thing people who hate open world games don't typically get to design open world games

Cowcaster posted:

you like morrowind and breath of the wild and you think witcher 3 has a lot of pointless filler walking

Stux posted:

i love exploring in games, i love walking sims and proteus and noctis iv and whatever else.


i like open world games, i dont like games that are open world without purpose or reason, much like how i can love asuras wrath while disliking the trend a few years ago when every game under the sun had QTEs constantly for no reason.

Rinkles posted:

isn't this what breath of the wild is? that's the 2nd hand impression i got

Stux posted:

I said come in! posted:

The new Paper Mario game looks great. I've never played any of the others, but really should.

I said come in! posted:

Coming from Wario64 helps with this rumor, but there have been so many Pikman rumors over the years that all proved to be fake.

Looper posted:

lotta probes going around lately, stay safe gamers

Jay Rust posted:

How do I get promoted to turbonerd?

Volte posted:

I finished The Surge 2 (which is on Game Pass right now) and it was very good. Miles better than the first Surge which I petered out of after a couple of bosses. The Surge 1 felt like it wanted to be a Soulslike through and through but while it had an intriguing combat system, the world felt like it was an endless maze of nondescript junkyards and industrial corridors. It was punishing like Dark Souls, but it lacked the charm that made me want to come back for more.

The Surge 2 still retains the same basic Souls-like combat system, but the game loop itself is less Souls and more Metroidvania, with a dash of Bloodborne. It's a segmented open-ish world with large areas that have transitions between them, requiring you to move between them fairly regularly. As you progress through the game, you unlock abilities that let you access new areas in places you've already been, as well as shortcuts between areas that were previously laborious to move between. Halfway through the game, there's a major turning point event that alters the world significantly.

The biggest change that kept me hooked is that unlike the Estus Flask type system of The Surge 1 where you get a limited number of heals that recharge primarily at Med-Bay checkpoints, in The Surge 2 you can recharge them via combat. As you land hits, your battery meter generates charges and for every full charge, you can refill one use of injectable items (there are a ton of equippable injectables but I mainly just used the healing one), which brings it closer to Bloodborne's rally mechanic and lets you be a lot more aggressive. You can even spec into battery charge speed alongside health and stamina, which I did, so that a single combo worth of hits can be enough to generate a healing charge.

My one complaint is that a few enemy types and one recurring boss in particular have a few fake-out animations that seem designed only to throw off your parry timing, but for the most part I managed to learn all the attack animations fairly easily. Parrying is also not strictly required, but it is pretty satisfying once it clicks, and you can get some fairly substantial damage buffs that are activated by parrying successfully. The ability to generate unlimited amounts of health through combat means that parrying isn't the gamble it is in Dark Souls.

I tend to burn out on games fairly easily, but this is one of the only games I've gotten all the way through in the last few months without having to drag myself over the finish line. I can see myself replaying it again.

grieving for Gandalf posted:

that's a shame, you don't love to see it

Persona 5 is a very fun and stylish game but by hour 60 or 70 out of 100 you will begin to notice the flaws in the writing and tone of the game as it presents itself to you as compared to what it promised itself to be in the beginning

but that doesn't happen until hour 60/70, so that's a pretty good amount of game where you're being enchanted by slick UI design and fantastic music where you're thinking you're playing the best JRPG that there ever was

I could see myself going back to play P5 Royal in the next year or two but I can't believe they didn't put in an option for using your old save data to begin a NG+. seems like the most obvious thing in the world to do

Stux posted:

p5 is the only 100 hour game ive played thats actually a 100 hour game and i wouldnt change the pacing at all honestly

Looper posted:

for the record, i don't like the persona battle system either