Jimmer-jammer

Hooray! Looking forward to finally jumping in on this.

An incredible game with my only gripes being that the upgrade and progression system were a step in the wrong direction and the map drove me nuts on numerous occasions while I was platinuming it. Everything else was a cut above though. I thought the script in particular was absolutely stellar.

I imagine one of these dug up three thousand years from now. An incredible archeological find, the people of the day surmise all manner of cultural, spiritual and political ideas of how we live, never to know that nerds just wanted warm toes. I think the designs are very nice, I’ll take one of each!

@nomither6 Hard to have a discussion if you don’t tag me 😂 I have nothing against multiplayer and regularly play Fall Guys. I was commenting on the advertisement, nothing more. Selling a deeply personal experience rather than a communal one is a markedly different marketing strategy from what I’ve seen over the last few years. Also, I find the correlation between social climate and marketing fascinating. I don’t find the ad pompous, rather it reflects a current social climate in which real violence is particularly visible, and a campaign focused on how much fun it is to shoot your friends in the face likely resonates less than one of escape.

It’s a beautifully produced promo. The focus is on escapism and emotion, leaning hard into narrative heavy, single player adventure rather than the typical battle royale multiplayer slugfest. I like it, even if it almost feels it needs a disclaimer warning that PlayStation can’t, in fact, cure depression.

The fact that he includes the impenetrable Nintendo here makes this read as PR hot air. That said, by buying up as many studios and I.P. as possible along the way, the endgame is absolutely to have Gamepass available on any and every available platform. An effective way of skirting anti-competition attention and turning any slow adopters into the bad guy. Shrewd. I simply won’t support it.

@AndyKazama I somewhat recently played through ‘Tormented Souls’ and thought it captured the old school survival horror genre brilliantly. If you haven’t played it already, I’d highly recommend it if you’re craving that authentic experience.

Sounds incredible! Definitely interested in getting to this. Have to play through the first still. As the physical/digital debate rages on, all I can offer is a truth: if this launched physically, I would have purchased it at full price tomorrow.

I absolutely loved Control and survival horror is my favourite genre, I should be far more excited for this. Really hope there’s a physical release at some point. In the meantime, I’ll have to play through the first. Glad to hear it’s turned out great.

Hopefully going to finish up the excellent Phantom Liberty and my second full play through of Cyberpunk 2077 before starting Spider-Man 2. Also fired up Cocoon on a whim and it’s just fantastic. Happy gaming!

@Hooder Perfect! Having to play a whole lot of catch up would definitely be a barrier of entry for me here, so I’m glad to hear it!

Looks unsurprisingly amazing. Can’t wait!

Edit: I’ll say it again. Spoilers gonna spoil. And it always sucks.

I’m not familiar in the slightest with this series but the review genuinely piqued my interest. Putting it in the memory bank, thanks!

@Godot25 Good points all around though to be clear, I’m not arguing entirely against acquisition or licensing, only against the assertion that building a studio from the ground up and delivering a high quality product in a timely manner is not realistic.

Concerning commercial failure, both of the aforementioned games were brand new I.P., which is always a tough sell. Disney obviously wouldn’t have this particular mountain to climb. Striking Distance may have had help but cross pollination of tech and resources during development is largely quite normal, isn’t it?

Acquisition, building a new team or any combination therein, however you slice it there are always pros and cons to every strategy, any of which can be made viable under the right circumstances. I’d just generally like to see an industry thriving with entrepreneurship, innovation and independent wealth over one creatively stifled by corporate growth. The ‘It can’t be done’ mentality adds fuel to that fire.

@Godot25 For just two recent examples, both Ascendant Studios and Striking Distance Studios were formed within the last five years, 2018 and 2019 respectively. Both developed and delivered brand new I.P. within that time frame. It’s not impossible. In fact, with the amount of layoffs currently rippling through the industry, I’d argue it’s an excellent time to start a studio from the ground up, independent or otherwise.

Folks were going through lineups on release night for the Half Blood Prince, shouting significant spoilers into the crowd. One can only do so much to avoid it. Spoilers gonna spoil. And it always sucks.

I was gonna mainline the story on a fresh play through of Cyberpunk 2077 to get to Phantom Liberty but Night City’s magic has washed over me all over again, 23 hours later and I haven’t hit the expansion. I absolutely love what they’ve done with 2.0. What a fantastic year for games!

Hope they bundle in whatever Factions 2 currently is.

I’m very excited! Spider-Man and Insomniac are a dynamic duo and I can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with.

@zupertramp Fair enough! Your last point is one we can both agree on. Their next launch is absolutely critical.

It’s so hard to say what they should lean into without the foggiest notion of the story they wish to tell. At a glance, I’d love to pilot flying cars. I’m hoping the move to Unreal will help facilitate that. Also, the Relic was done brilliantly but I’m really hoping to see a different mechanism in the next game. Too much of a good thing and all that. I’m excited to see what direction they take this in.

@zupertramp Sony pulling Cyberpunk from its store because of its quality is, in my opinion, highly debatable. Curiously, Sony was more than happy to sell it until CDPR began offering refunds, opening a can of worms that Sony decidedly didn’t want opened.

I’ll be there day one if so.

CDPR should absolutely be commended for sticking with this game. Mistakes were undoubtedly made and have been extensively recorded, reported and documented. They could have taken the money and ran. They could have cut their losses and moved on. They could have bled Mike Pondsmith’s baby dry and tossed it aside for a couple of bucks. But they didn’t. Instead they offered refunds on an admittedly sub-par product. They completed the mammoth and costly undertaking of restoring trust with with their customer base by reworking, rebuilding, scrapping and/or adding entire systems, all while choking on a heaping helping of crow. They restored Mike Pondsmith’s legacy among the halls of history. None of this was the easy way, so I do unabashedly applaud CDPR’s efforts. Especially the developers, who have shouldered the brunt of it all. There are those of us who appreciate your efforts. Thank you.

20 hours on a fresh play through and no issues yet, though I haven’t made it to Phantom Liberty. Hopefully this patch sorts things out for those that are having problems!

The one-two punch of consolidation and the games as a service business model lands a knockout yet again. I have little doubt these bright minds will land on their feet and create something awesome. I have even less doubt their brilliant creation will be gobbled up and the bones spit out yet again.

Sounds brilliant! I’ll be keeping my eye on this one for sure.

Time for a rest. I wish him well.

@number1024 To keep things very simple, when budgeting for a large scale project such as a video game, costs are usually broken down into a per person catch all. This includes salary, rent, utilities, insurance etc. These are not individually fixed and can easily increase, meaning that per person number can change significantly over just the development period alone, let alone over the natural inflationary spectrum. This is also one of the reasons layoffs happen. The easy answer to saving $30,000 per month on a project that costs $15,000 per person per month is to lay off two people. There is a far, far more detailed conversation to be had here but this might help clear some things up a bit.

Looks very cool! I need to go back and actually finish Remake as I fell off of it at the end despite thoroughly enjoying my time with it.

@MasterChiefWiggum Yeah, I’m about 4 hours into a new play through now and it’s apparent that the systems have indeed been entirely reworked. Gunplay still feels incredible 😄

Hopefully I’ll finish up my first play through of the excellent Armoured Core VI, but the pull of Night City is strong!

@Th3solution Hope you can find your way into it this time! It’s a bit of a slow burn but has become one of my favourite games in recent memory. I’d love to hear about your progress in the thread if you feel up to it. Enjoy the ride!

Belongs in the hall of shame beside Henry Cavill’s lip.

@rusty82 Shooting and control in general feels significantly tighter than something like Fallout and leans much closer to a general FPS though it still has RPG elements under the hood. Builds are weapon specific so you could be a deadly assassin with a handgun but might as well be holding a wet noodle when you pick up a shotgun etc. There are damage numbers flying about but the way the perk system works allows you to funnel points into increasing the damage percentage of, say, headshots so accuracy is still rewarded. With that said, I haven’t had much time with 2.0 so I can’t confirm everything works exactly the same as it did.

@MattBoothDev There are some obvious similarities but in my opinion, they are very different games. Tonally, Mankind Divided employs an overall more cynical and conspiratorial vibe where technology has rendered humanity ultimately powerless, directly manipulated and exploited by shadowy forces with a surgical focus on class conflict and the resultant discrimination and political subterfuge. 2077 is a more anarchistic, broad view satirical exploration of unfettered capitalistic ideals, where humanity’s inherent greed has allowed powerful corporations to prey opportunistically on every facet of daily life and the resultant power struggle of that powder keg.

Mechanically, MD is a far more focused, tactical and methodical stealth action game. It’s cold, cool and calculated. The environment is a tightly designed, highly interactive sandbox. 2077 plays more often than not like a cinematic action movie. It’s loud, bombastic and chaotic. What the environment lacks in interactivity, it makes up for in atmosphere. There is a far greater focus on relationships and player expression. I think they are both very interesting and valuable takes on the genre.

I rarely play massive games like this twice but I love the game and the changes sound substantial so I’ll be starting a new play through integrating Phantom Liberty.

Dare I say I’m proud of CDPR for sticking with this thing. All things considered, it’s best case scenario for players both old and new, Mike Pondsmith and the developers who get to see their passion come to fruition in a manner fitting of their hard work and determination. Congrats to the team, can’t wait to dive back in!

Not quite sure when but I’ll absolutely be getting to it.

@TabulaRasa No worries! Without getting into it, I’ve been there (especially the unregulated bouts of crying). Take care.

@TabulaRasa Fair enough. I’ve had similar bouts to what it sounds like you’re going through. I suppose we all have at one point or another. I only asked because, as long as you weren’t vehemently against platformers, I was going to suggest Psychonauts 2. Oddly enough, it’s a game that reignited…something in me back when I played it and thought it might be worth a try. The story touches on a lot of psychological subject matter in very creative ways, plus it’s pretty fun. Cheers!

@TabulaRasa If you don’t mind me asking, what types of games do you generally gravitate towards?

These changes sound very astute to me. From the beginning I always viewed this as more of a stealth/action sandbox with light RPG elements. I never understood the want for the police system nor felt it was necessary but I can see now how much it will add to the world and I’ll definitely play around with it. I’m really excited to dive back into this!

I’ve had a curious eye on this for some time but I’d say it just leapfrogged up my list of must plays. I wasn’t completely sold on the Pinocchio inspiration but it sounds like the development team have executed their vision in all the right ways. Thanks for the review!

@ear_wig I had my best luck with Balteus using a lightweight build, the bubble shooter in RH, Shotgun in LH and missiles on the shoulders. The shotgun has been a complete game changer for me! It reloads so fast, it’s devastating.

I recently reinstalled the game in preparation! I’ve decided to do a new play through, probably as a street kid. I’ve put off Baldur’s Gate 3 for this, Armoured Core and Spider-Man 2 so here’s hoping it’s worth it as BG looks incredible.

Been playing for the last few days in performance mode. If it’s dropping frames, it’s completely negligible. Rock solid experience so far.

Sounds very special! I’ve made the extremely difficult decision to hold off on this until I can give it the time and dedication it deserves. Sounds like the closest attempt yet at translating the tabletop experience to the digital medium. It’s so rare to get a true RPG of this depth, quality and intelligence in this medium, I couldn’t be more thrilled! Excellent review, though it certainly hasn’t helped my patience.

@Shepherd_Tallon The combat system really shines in NG+ FF mode, it’s fantastic. Hope you enjoy your second play through when you get to it!

@HonestHick Been a fan of the series for a long time but this has become my favourite one. The combat is great. If you’re not a big fan of turn based systems, this is probably the best iteration to jump in. If you do, hope you have fun!

I’m super excited for this! Absolutely loved the game, warts and all. Now I just need to decide whether to start a new play through or not.

Well this was about as inevitable as snow in Antarctica. Hope everyone that myopically supports these models have enjoyed their cake while they had it. Going forward, I’d very much like to see Sony provide a bare bones online connectivity package at a rational price or I too will be keeping my eye on the exit.