Topic: Hot Takes Thread (Gaming and Non-gaming)

@Elodin I finished Immortals of Aveum a couple months ago and found it to be enjoyable. It does start to fall apart in the latter half, in my opinion, and is mainly hampered by the dialogue that you mention and the awkward storytelling. Pacing was a problem and for me it dragged toward the end and I think part of that is because I spent too much time and effort backtracking in the first half after I would get a new ability, going back to visit the areas and do the puzzles that you have to skip until you get certain abilities. Mainlining the game and then going back at the end to mop up those areas might be a more efficient and less tedious approach.

I posted my final impressions of the game over on the GameClub thread, post #798 , if you’re interested. I didn’t link it here because, although there aren’t overt spoilers in the post, it’s got enough broad discussion of the late game that you may want to steer clear of it until you’re done.

@Th3solution nice! I'll check it out. I do wish there was a a bit more explanation of "can you" or "can't you" do certain puzzles until later. I try for about 15 min. on a puzzle, get frustrated and look it up online to discover I don't have a certain ability yet. Still having fun though and I'll check out what you wrote!

I’ve finished the metaphor demo. Normally I’d drop this in user impressions but it’s more appropriate to say it here. I’ve felt nothing. Didn’t really find anything about it interesting or attractive. Atlus games might actually be not for me anymore.

@Elodin I’ll be curious to hear what you think of the game when it’s all done.

This remaster looks s***

Look how awful that looks. Just smooth it all over 'airbrush' style 😂 I'm sure the whole gameworld overall will look nicer, but at what cost, the cost of our souls, that's what.

Maybe that's why I didn't gel with Horizon FW, if they made all characters look like that. DF mentioned how they added Hero Lighting, but to me it just looks like airbrushing out any facial detail while making some blue string brighter 😅

@Ravix looks like a beard dye 👍 😂 😂
Looks like he hired his cousin to do his role for him like brub what is that 😬😬🫠
You won’t have to “gel” 😂 with horizon cuz everyone already looks covered in gel 😂 😂 😝
Too much time in the sun that’s for sure 🫨

@Yousef- image one: a real person in front of you. Image 2: someone using 6 different filters on a crap phone before posting it to Instagram 😪 I'm genuinely surprised he isn't doing the duckface pose in the remaster 😂😂

I hope when this releases it becomes a massive meme of a game. Terrible 😅

@Ravix when games reach peak with graphics all there is left is to regress i guess . i’ve seen it happen a few times now that i think about it . COD doesn’t even look all that good anymore

People about AC Shadows: everything is wrong. Wrooooong. Historical accuracy blaaaaaaargh! They just hate Japan.

People about Ghost of Yotei: well, a scholar has said they probably got the name of the game wrong on purpose for satire reasons in a non satirical game, because they are so very wise and much clever people 🤪 It doesn't matter that it wasn't called Yotei in the time period the game is set for we like the Ghost series. Yay.

The world is a funny place

@Ravix I must admit, I don’t remember as much angst over historical accuracy with most of the other historical fiction games. Even other AC games. They all take liberties with facts. I understand some people take offense when those artistic liberties are done with the intent to mislead, coerce, or manipulate, but I’m not sure there’s always a fair judgement toward some games. Reading that AC Shadows is being delayed partially because the team is cleaning up the historical aspects makes me wonder why now? Is there really that many more issues than those portrayed about Renaissance Italy, Colonial America, the Caribbean, ancient Egypt, Greece, or the Vikings? And like you mention, Sucker Punch have gone above and beyond to be historically grounded but there’s still going to be little issues. I’m sure the same applies to Rise of the Ronin, Red Dead Redemption, A Plague Tale, KCD, Mafia, etc, etc. I don’t envy these developers with trying to walk that fine line of fiction vs accuracy. Ubisoft has always had a disclaimer that displays at the beginning about it being a work of fiction, but I know that only goes so far.

Honestly, I think often the people who are upset about how a culture is portrayed in a game are people who have not ever played the game. I’m not saying misrepresentation doesn’t happen and isn’t at times offensive, but speaking from experience things often seem worse until one actually plays the game and realizes it’s all clearly fiction and not as egregious as previously imagined.

@Th3solution I just love the polar differences between two sets of assumptions about games. People assume AC made mistakes because of some hateful agenda against Japan, and yet assume Yotei has been named that way for a higher purpose.

I also wonder how reactions will be if the Japanese are the big bads in the game this time, that could be another interesting thread to pull. That will have people doing all kinds of mental gymnastics to work out whether they hate it because it's woke now, or if mentioning all of Japanese history is actually better or worse, because it could paint them in a bad light, or if it glosses over the fact Japan was on the conquest and expansion trail itself, but people still love it because it's Ghost anyway, even if it misses out some serious stuff.

I doubt they will gloss over anything, at least, I hope they won't, but it will be interesting how it all lands with people. I myself will just embrace it, like I will AC Shadows, suspend disbelief and make my own mind up.

This is again why I'm looking forward to Shadows, to see an insular culture from an outsiders persepctive, but a perspective that has fully bought in to living within that culture, before potentially questioning whether all of it is actually for the good of the people is very much the most interesting AC has ever seemed.

@Ravix I only played the demo, but I did spend some time with COD: World at War, I think it was called. And the demo had you running through a Pacific jungle fighting off the Japanese troops. I don’t engage with COD but I think I’ve read that they do have the option to play as either side in a conflict, maybe? With as international as gaming is now, it’s more and more difficult to only tell stories through a limited unilateral lens. I think in Rise of the Ronin you fight Matthew Perry (the 1800’s version not the Friends version) and I’m sure other “blue eyed devils” as well. There’s definitely some value in seeing historical figures from the perspective of the conquered and not always as the invader. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to set aside prejudices to try and experience something differently.

@Th3solution Ghost of Tsushima fully makes up so much. Jin is essentially a time traveller, using armour and weapons that were more commonly used in the 1600s when firearms were around. They changed the leader of the Mongol invasion of Tsushima to be a made up Khan when it should really be a Korean general. To be blunt, I’m pretty sure that they changed this due to the optics of having a Korean bad guy in a Japanese game, due to both the widespread abuses of the Japanese army towards the Koreans during WW2 and the subsequent denial of wrongdoing that the current government are deeply entrenched in. In all honesty, Ghost of Tsushima is probably much much more inaccurate than Assassin’s Creed Shadows will ever be, as it gets the very biggest of points wrong. But there was no backlash because of very obvious reasons.

@Ralizah "The Last Jedi is the best mainline SW film outside of the OT. It derailed the trilogy, but JJ Abrams "vision" was embarrassingly bad and deserved to be trashed."

My first time in this thread. This is my take as well! It was good and then followed up by ROS. Or, as I call it, Star Wars: Written by reddit.

@AhmadSumadi RoS's only redeeming quality is that, in retrospect, it makes you realize how much worse TFA could've been.

@nessisonett I had read about the armor and weapon anachronism with the era, but I didn’t know that info about the invading commander. I did look up Khotun Khan character when I was playing GoT and realized there was no such person, but I didn’t look much further into it. I was honestly a little worried about an American developer making a Japanese historical game because it did have potential to be disrespectful or offensive.

@Th3solution The reason GoT didn’t have an outcry despite the historical inaccuracies and being made by Westerners is because it ties into Japanese nationalism by using one of their most famous military successes as a basis for the game, constantly making reference to Japan’s resilience against the invading ‘savages’. The game’s themes of the ends justifying the means also aligns with modern Japanese fascism. Of course, that’s a basic reading of the game but it’s a very… American game and I’m fairly certain it was accidental that they aligned themselves with those people. It’s funny really that Yakuza of all series has vastly more liberal leanings than a western series given how much the chuds point to Japan as the last bastion of anti-woke, 6 in particular addresses the push for rearmament from certain quarters of Japan and 3 addresses American military interests on Okinawa.

I did like how Ghost did address how incredibly awful the samurai were though, basically state police with zero oversight who treated the populace like their property as they were local gentry given jurisdiction! And yet the game has you run around robbing supplies from houses to upgrade your own equipment 😂

My man looks like a plastic action figure in the Remastered screenshot!

This year, Geoff Keighly should host the gaming razzies instead of the game awards.

@Ravix truuuuuu