Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I think is a neat idea, but not for me. My history with roguelites/likes are mixed at best and I rarely play in co-op. I realise that you can ias a single player, but in most cases in my experiance with these types if games you put yourself at a disadvantage by doing so.

With it being a standalone spin off from Elden Ring, I doubt it will damage the game too much if turns out to be off poor quality. Not that care a great deal about that kind of thing.

As Witcher 4 was only a cinematic trailer, it didn't do much for me. I imagine it is a still a ways out too.

@nessisonett @LN78 Indiana Jones and the great circle is the best Xbox exclusive since Forza Horizon 5. It's amazing. Imo it's a spiritual follow up to Escape from Butcher Bay. It's brilliant. The 6/10 over on pure Xbox is baffling at best. Most of the people who frequent these sites WANT brilliant novel single player games, which it certainly is.

I don't like Witcher 3 or BoTW as I had played MGS5 and HZD prior to both, they both ran like rubbish in comparison. Which put me off. I still know they are good games and would defer an imaginary review to someone with more insight and less cynicism.

I understand that reviews are opinions. But when the opinions are contradictory to the audience experience and the lack of nuance surrounding the graphics tech, level layout, additional activities and overall quality from start to finish. It's frustrating. A base understanding of the films would also help. I wouldn't review Harry Potter as Ive only fleetingly watched snippets of films. Why shouldn't Indiana Jones command that same respect from a review. It's like reviewing a car when you have only ever taken the bus.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Nightreign looks cool! I’d like to learn a bit more about it as on the surface it seems a little redundant. I’ll keep an open mind for now though! As for The Witcher, well, I’m naturally hyped but it feels very far out. Surely when the time comes , I’ll be bouncing off the walls 😄

@themcnoisy I 100% agree with you. I'm really pleased you've enjoyed it as much as me - I've been very effusive with my praise over in the Xbox topic. That you're also completely scoobed by that 6/10 is a bonus. 🤣.

@themcnoisy @LN78 I’m just waiting here for the PS version, it looks so so good. Technically I have a beefy enough PC (cobbled together from secondhand parts off uncles) to play it but it’s definitely a TV game for me. Plus my mum keeps saying she wants it 😂

@nessisonett Try to keep away from story spoilers. I finished the main campaign last night (still tons of side content to mop up) and it's seriously good. I'm almost certainly going to double dip on PS5 and go for the Platinum which is something I hardly ever do - the last time was for "Sekiro" however long ago that was.

@LN78 Fortunately I’ve not been exposed to any spoilers which is how I intent to keep it! This is gonna be a long wait though 😂

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Both look really awesome. I don’t think the Nightreign looks like a ‘jump the shark moment’, but it’s definitely an experimental project. I don’t know that it will be a runaway success, but I respect the effort.

As for W4, since I haven’t played W3 in its entirety, I don’t really have a feeling one way or another about Ciri. I do need to get back and retry W3 though. This is a good incentive to do so.

How about the Intetgalact reveal? I have high confidence in Naughty Dog, but I’m probably most worried about that one. It looks good, but I wonder if their narrative chops and character development talent is going to translate over into what appears to be a game that is a lonely adventure with more limited character interaction. It’s really hard to tell from a trailer though, so we’ll see.

@Th3solution pardon my interjection… and excuse me while I exercise some much un-deserved negativity aimed towards Intergalactic online. I hope you don’t take this as targeted towards you but it’s just that you made mention of the project and I’ve taken this opportunity to address the instant online negativity (aimed towards this in particular… but also just generally prevalent about big stuff these days).

I must be the only person on the interwebz totally psyched for Intergalactic. For all the negativity The Last of Us part 2 and Druckmann gets… as someone who considers himself extremely cynical and…just generally grumpy about a lot of ‘modern’ **** these days, I think the guy is genuinely top-tier… and The Last of Us sequel… phenomenal.

People just love to hate these days and quote-unquote big AAA projects receive the most disdain. I’ll give you an example… I can 99.999% guarantee you that if Project Robot had been announced as Druckmann’s next Naughty Dog opus, the whole internet would be like wtf?!?! but as it’s Ueda’s next game everybody’s positively gushing (myself included ☺️). My point is that Druckmann is so scarred rn (as a result of how a certain swathe of gamers reacted to TLoU2) that there is pretty much no possible thing that could be revealed with him attached as director that wouldn’t be received with that vitriolic reaction.

Maybe I’m an easy mark, wouldn’t be the first time… but I rate the guy. I say that as someone who doesn’t even go for the more linear-narrative focussed games that ND has produced. The thought that Druckmann is not only producing a new ip… but also that it’s more open-world than anything ND has ever done (and Miyazaki ((via Elden Ring)) is maybe the gameplay-loop muse)… well… I couldn’t be more psyched!

Again… please don’t take this as me aiming any of this at you specifically, you’re someone I have a lot of time for and respect but this is more about the general reaction that (as per) just never fails to disappoint. Rant over 😁

@colonelkilgore People refuse to separate the art from the artist.
I, like your good self, revel in a bit of cynicism and grumpiness, but I consider myself pretty reasonable and level-headed, not going off the deep end or hating on things.
I'm not a big ND fan, but they produce an immensely high level of quality. Most of all, I'm just excited to get a new IP! I thought that's what we all wanted, and sci-fi, too ... right? RIGHT? But no, at least half of what I've read is Druckmann this, Concord that, product placement something something, and derogatory comments about the appearance of the main character. It's just disappointing and says more about the commenters than anything else.

@PorkChopExpress damn right… as per 🍻

@themcnoisy But the Pure Xbox review was actually praising its faithfulness to the source material. It was the gameplay they took an issue with. The reviewer is a fan of Indiana Jones and played all of MachineGames' games. I don't think that part of your criticism is fair.

Can't judge on the quality of the game. But I don't think there's any need for you to be frustrated because one reviewer loved the game less than you did. I never like the idea that there's something wrong with a review because it deviates from the "collective thought". It's intoxicating to live like that.

@Herculean That particular review is a good advertisement for not ending with a score. The written review was largely positive I thought, or at least positive for the type of experience I would enjoy.

I trust some reviewers more than others in relation to what my own interests are and respect them as an honest opinion. The same as I would with any forum member or Joe Bloggs next door. For example I jive pretty well with the general opinion of ShogunRok here at PS, whereas one or two others perhaps not so much. Doesn't necessarily mean he's a better reviewer, just that our interests align. People seem to struggle with the plain fact that people are simply offering a subjective opinion and can't handle that it isn't what they wanted it to be. "No, they don't share my opinion so that makes it null and void." First of all, show them respect. Secondly, read and listen to other opinions so you yourself can make an informed choice. Thirdly, play it and then you can justifiably agree or disagree. The Internet is the wild west.

Edit. I should express this isn't aimed at anyone in particular, just the way of the world wide web!

@colonelkilgore @Th3solution @PorkChopExpress

I’m another who is deeply intrigued by Intergalactic. Honestly, I couldn’t really be any more excited by a teaser! It looks awesome. I appreciate Druckmann’s work and he strikes me as an incredibly compassionate human being. As for the lonely journey, the game is said to have an ensemble cast and the synopsis specifically mentions that people have gone to the planet but not returned, so I expect there may be a lot more characters at play than first impressions might suggest. I theorize that they’re all stuck down there, slaving away in a facility breeding giant slugs for their machine overlords to use as the equivalent of a La-Z-Boy. Of course, this tyranny extends far beyond the minutiae of living furniture, and in a shock twist, the protagonist’s objective is to free all biological organisms of their servitude through the power of Product RE-Placement.

@Jimmer-jammer 🤣 if there is anything anywhere near a slithering-reclining-chair-like-leaf-eating-gelatinous creature… I’m done and you’re officially the gaming-Nostradamus!

@colonelkilgore Hard to tell if I’m having a flashforward or a flashback 😂

First off, when I re-read my post there I realized how horribly my thumbs butchered the title. 🤣
“Intetgalact” isn’t even close.

@colonelkilgore No worries, mate. I know you aren’t targeting me or any one in particular, and that it’s important to push back against some of the ridiculous prejudice against the studio. But regarding my reticence, I should clarify — I really loved TLoU2 (and all of the studios games, honestly), and I do think Druckmann is one of gaming’s best creatives. I actually didn’t know that there was a lot of hate being spewed already about this new game. I’m not surprised there is though, and I definitely saw it coming, like you say, no matter what the game was. It could’ve been GTA6 and people would still hate on it because of ND and Druckmann.

Like @PorkChopExpress says, the very thing most fans were clamoring for was a new IP from ND and so now we have it and it absolutely creates a level of excitement. And for sure it needs to NOT be Uncharted in space. So the studio is definitely caught in an interesting predicament — they have set the standard of cinematic narrative driven third person action-adventure games so going back to that well is what one would expect. But they absolutely would be criticized if they didn’t innovate and try something new from a gameplay and story perspective. And like I say, what I enjoyed the most about TLoU, and to a lesser extent Uncharted, was the character development, which leaned into character interactions mainly.

But like @Jimmer-jammer says, just because it intros the narrative basis of the game as the story of a protagonist going to a galactic system that no one has ever returned from, doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t other humans she’ll come in contact with I suppose. I originally was thinking narratively it could turn out to be like Returnal, which was awesome, even from a weird storyline standpoint, but that’s not the kind of story I envision ND making.

Or perhaps the character part of it could be told via flashbacks and video recordings as a lot of these lonely Sci Fi tales do. Either way, I’m here for it and do feel confident in ND. My worry is mainly that people won’t give it a chance because either it’s A) not TLoU in space, or B) they don’t like Druckmann or C) they don’t like the way the protagonist looks.

Here’s hoping that straying from prior strength yields a great game, like From/Miyazaki with ER, Guerrilla with HZD, CDPR with Cyberpunk, etc. and not like Rocksteady with Suicide Squad, or BioWare with Anthem, or Yuji Naka with Balan Wonderworld, etc. 😄

@Herculean I agree with you actually on your last point.

However my issue with that and other similar reviews is he wanted uncharted 5.

Escape from butcher bay was widely acclaimed due to it's immersion, intertwined levels and story. One of the best Xbox exclusives at the time. This is a spiritual successor to that blueprint. If the reviewer actually engaged with the gameplay of indie (which isn't shoehorned to be first person as he claims) which requires mooching around to find upgrade books and levelling up their skills and abilities, then they would have had a significantly better experience. Rather than rushing the game, which is clearly evident within the review.

You have a significant amount of options in how you take on objectives and in which order you perform them. You are meant to engage with fieldwork and mysteries within the areas, concurrently working towards the main story. Any normal person would. Which as noted, he did not. This then opens up additional pathways, unlocks and skills to get around groups of fascists. Indiana Jones is a professor and archeologist, not Rambo.

The effort put into the graphics is sublime. You can't replicate that level of meticulous detail over 25 hours of gung ho action. So having numerous encounters within a smaller area is inevitable. The hand to hand fighting is adept and it's unnecessary to hide away all game as is wrongfully disclosed. You can take out small groups in quick succession using the correct moves.

It all boils down to a lack of effort whilst playing the game. Playing fully immersed, for the full experience makes all of the listed negatives moot. The developers have given you the option to mainline the story without the faff, which is commendable. But the faff is a significant amount of worthwhile story, adventure and treasure. So if you miss that. You aren't being Indiana Jones.

@Th3solution @colonelkilgore @PorkChopExpress General online gaming comments are juvenile spurred on by influencers. I was intrigued by naughty dogs trailer and was excited to see the reception.

It's all 'woke this' 'dei that'. It's flagrant self aggrandising of the lowest common denominator. Gaming was once an escape from mainstream attitudes and whims, settling in to a world far away from our own. Apparently now gaming is mainstream we want politicised dog whistles, popularity contests and most importantly boobs.

I was always a big advocate of gaming news. But with money chasing influencers, the hate and unnecessary negativity garners more support from groups of closed minded yobs, who years prior would be directing their ire at perceivably weaker people on the street, in work or in school.

We don't actually know anything about the main character. Other than she seemed pretty boss to me. And the trainers were sick!

@Th3solution With regard to the Naughty Dog game, I am a bit dubious about what is implied to be the main weapon in the game - it looks rather Cal Kestis-y, if you get my drift. Very light saber-ish, so maybe somewhat derivative, which wouldn't be too good.

But then I guess there's nothing wrong with a little extra light saber-ish action if you like that kinda thing and don't wanna think about it too much - so there's that.