Ubisoft are the kings of doing just enough to make you feel conflicted about a game.
The make or break for me is really just how good it feels to walk around the cities. Does it feel like you're part of an alien world, or does it feel like set dressing?
I was worried after they changed the name that they were going to squander the Dreadwolf' plot hook, and this trailer makes me even more worried about that.
We didn't need other villains. Dreadwolf was set up to be one of the great Bioware villains by himself.
We've been so used to the benefits of Moore's law, we're not ready for a world where the law is ending. Tech won't get cheaper at the rate we're used to anymore
As soon as I saw that restoring health in Stellar Blade respawned enemies, I switched the demo off and never came back.
I've never liked them, and I'm frustrated that all these action games with interesting (but far too gloomy) characters and worlds go down the same path again and again.
It's a very lacking game, even without thinking about the monetisation.
The lack of a proper world map to explore, the repetitive environments - there's just not a lot of things to do.
The things that are there are copying Persona without copying any of the things that make Persona work - choosing to interact with particular characters, managing time because you have a strict deadline etc.
The combat is fun, but compare it to any other action game - God of War, Devil May Cry, Warframe, even Dynasty Warriors - it's like they've preserved the combat and stripped out every other element of that game.
Yes it's free. But it's bogs down the action with all this F2P stats and grinding that don't make sense, and at the end of the day there are better things to do with your time. I kept waiting for it to click, and it didn't.
If you ignore monetisation, Genshin has 10x more to it than ZZZ, as does Honkai Star Rail
Someone posted to Reddit about how they'd tried Days Gone after hearing the hype, and found it only to be decent.
The top response by far was "What hype?"
The game found a niche, and its been really loved and appreciated by they people in that niche. But that doesn't mean Days Gone 2 would have sold like gangbusters.
@Matthewnh what I'm saying is, I was excited for the game because I wanted a game focused on Solas, and this is them saying they changed the name because they felt Solas wasn't the focus of the game.
Hopefully they've still done it well, but it does give me reason to hesitate
Twitch aren't allowed to kick someone out if they don't have something on them. But it's probably not full law breaking otherwise they'd have escalated it to the police.
I tried to pick up Destiny 2 this year, and unfortunately the new player experience is a total mess. Every time I logged in it would show me a new cutscene of characters and events I'd never heard of, and even dump me straight into missions on planets I'd never been to.
Dragon Age has a history of trailers whose tones don't match the actual game - including the original DA: O trailer - so I'll wait to see the actual game
@AK4tywill Directors cut has always been a meaningless term. Very few things released as a director's cut were actually the original vision of the director. It was a marketing gimmick to double dip on DVD sales for die hard fans.
The director is the person who cuts the original version of the film too (usually). And there's zero guarantee that the director has more freedom in the "directors cut" than the original. Often execs just want extra scenes included that they can market on the back of the box. Sometimes directors cuts even involved filming extra scenes - they aren't even cuts!
When Villeneuve was asked about directors cuts he replied "Arrival is the directors cut".
There are directors cuts which are genuinely the director getting the chance to undo some meddling that prevented them from presenting their original vision. But that's not what studios are considering when they stick the directors cut label on something.
Rebel Moon is a perfect example of how stupid the term is and has always been. Zack Snyder was in total control of the original cut for Rebel Moon. The "director's cut" was planned by the Netflix executives before the original cut had even been released.
I tried to get into The Finals, but to me it lacked some of the sheer complexity of other live service games. In Overwatch there's always a new character to learn, a new way of holding off an ability until another ability has been used.
The gap between where you are and the top is full of obvious steps, and some of them are just chunks of knowledge, not 'reflexes' or 'aim'.
The finals felt too short, too ephemeral. One round plays a lot like another round, any one moment is a lot like another moment.
I can see cards not having the same visceral appeal, but it played well.
Mechanically the games biggest problem IMO was the wider game loop was built around all these finite resources - do you do a mission to get currency, get ability points or get upgrade materials? Yet there was no limit to the number of missions you can do, so it was all faff.
I think they built an iteration of the game that had more of a hardcore Xcom feel, but late in the day tore that bit out.
This is exactly why, during the Bethesda merger, I said I was afraid of MS shutting studios down.
Because MS isn't primarily a gaming company, they have constant shifts in the direction and targets of their executive. When the wind blows a different way, studios get closed.
It's been that way right from the start. Ensemble studios made great PC games, but the executive direction shifted to console and they were shuttered
It takes a long time to make a great studio. Games are too difficult for it all to come together the first time. BG3 was a result of a decade of foundations laid by Larian.
My worry is execs don't understand this, and the money and patience it will take.
This is a poisoned chalice for any developer. They need some kind of small / different genre game to reset expectations before someone else tries a full Baldurs Gate RPG.
I heavily dislike the type of murder mystery structure Pentiment uses, similar to LA Noire, where you spend most of the game 'solving' crimes knowing that the real perpetrator has got away.
The real perpetrator was guessable by the start of act two but the games makes you play on for hours before letting you do anything about it.
The stuff Japan did to Korea is horrific. It's understandable they'd be sensitive to something like this.
And a section of Korean gamers have the twitchiest trigger fingers in the world at any controversy. There have been much much much less real issues than this which have got people fired and games censored
The production pipeline of Square Enix has been dodgy for a decade now, and badly needs fixing.
Even in their good games, there's a strong sense of asset outsourcing where games don't have a consistent art style and objects don't fit the tone/environment.
The whole way Overwatch 1 was shut down to force the switch to Overwatch 2 was a self-inflicted handicap from the start. When you start on such a negative note, fans aren't going to give you the benefit of the doubt.
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Re: Turn-Based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Gets 7 Minutes of Gorgeous New PS5 Gameplay
I'm excited for this game, but I don't like timing based prompts in turn-based systems.
If it's turn-based let the outcome be the result of my decision making, not my reflexes.
Re: Round Up: Star Wars Outlaws PS5 Reviews Are Hit and Miss
Ubisoft are the kings of doing just enough to make you feel conflicted about a game.
The make or break for me is really just how good it feels to walk around the cities. Does it feel like you're part of an alien world, or does it feel like set dressing?
Re: Okay, Max's Powers in the New PS5 Life Is Strange Game Look Awesome
I miss the time rewind powers still - it was such a chill experience picking one choice and then rewinding to see how it could have gone
Re: PS5 Open World Crimson Desert Gets 7 Minutes of Raw Gameplay, and It Looks Ridiculous
Someone on the dev team watches a lot of wrestling
Re: Fashion Fantasy RPG Infinity Nikki Nabs a Musical PS5 Trailer
Somehow we live in a world where I'm more hyped by this than a new Indiana Jones game
Re: Xbox's Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Comes to PS5 in Spring 2025
I figured they'd be making an OG take on Uncharted but this looks more inspired by the Indie games made around the millennium.
1st person isn't for me, pass. Someone make a new Uncharted!
Re: PS5 RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Stuns in Short Gameplay Trailer
@NoCode23 it's not likely, the first game was very designed around first person. Even the PC mods struggled to get 3rd person to work.
I love so much about the first game - except the camera and the combat and in the end, despite loving it, I didn't complete it because of that.
Re: Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Charms with First Gameplay Trailer, Release Split into Two Parts
I show up for Dont Nod, they have a special sauce
Re: Rumour: Xbox's Indiana Jones Game Coming to PS5 in First Half 2025
I assumed they'd at least wait a year.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Confirms October PS5 Release Date in a Much Better Trailer
I was worried after they changed the name that they were going to squander the Dreadwolf' plot hook, and this trailer makes me even more worried about that.
We didn't need other villains. Dreadwolf was set up to be one of the great Bioware villains by himself.
Re: Reaction: PS5 Needs a Price Cut
We've been so used to the benefits of Moore's law, we're not ready for a world where the law is ending. Tech won't get cheaper at the rate we're used to anymore
Re: It Doesn't Sound Like Braid: Anniversary Edition Quite Set the World on Fire
The indie market of 2024 is so much more brutal than it was in 2008. There are so many good games coming out all the time
Re: Poll: Are You Sick of Soulslike Games?
As soon as I saw that restoring health in Stellar Blade respawned enemies, I switched the demo off and never came back.
I've never liked them, and I'm frustrated that all these action games with interesting (but far too gloomy) characters and worlds go down the same path again and again.
Re: Ubisoft Responds to Assassin's Creed Shadows Criticism, Apologises to Japanese Players
@Ravix also Ezio (an Italian) was the protagonist for the AC game set in Turkey.
Far from the first time, Ubisoft did this decades ago.
Re: Ubisoft Responds to Assassin's Creed Shadows Criticism, Apologises to Japanese Players
The people complaining about historical inaccuracies have never played an Assassin's Creed game in their life.
If this is bad, they should see what Ubisoft did to Greek, Italian, Egyptian, British and American history!
Re: UK Sales Charts: Prince of Persia, Cyberpunk Jump Back into Top 10
If you can go from top 40 to number 9 without any big event, it tells you that even the lower end of the top represents a tiny number of sales.
Re: WWE Wrestlers Team Up in Warzone, Modern Warfare 3 Season 5 Update
What happened to COD?
Re: Neverness to Everness Makes GTA an Anime Open World on PS5
Looks like what I wanted from Zenless Zone
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Zenless Zone Zero?
It's a very lacking game, even without thinking about the monetisation.
The lack of a proper world map to explore, the repetitive environments - there's just not a lot of things to do.
The things that are there are copying Persona without copying any of the things that make Persona work - choosing to interact with particular characters, managing time because you have a strict deadline etc.
The combat is fun, but compare it to any other action game - God of War, Devil May Cry, Warframe, even Dynasty Warriors - it's like they've preserved the combat and stripped out every other element of that game.
Yes it's free. But it's bogs down the action with all this F2P stats and grinding that don't make sense, and at the end of the day there are better things to do with your time. I kept waiting for it to click, and it didn't.
If you ignore monetisation, Genshin has 10x more to it than ZZZ, as does Honkai Star Rail
Re: Days Gone Team Apologises for 'False Hope' of PS5 Sequel After Misleading Headlines, Comments
Someone posted to Reddit about how they'd tried Days Gone after hearing the hype, and found it only to be decent.
The top response by far was "What hype?"
The game found a niche, and its been really loved and appreciated by they people in that niche. But that doesn't mean Days Gone 2 would have sold like gangbusters.
Re: Concord Dev Confirms Monetisation Through Cosmetics Only
I mean it would be truly outrageous if they didn't, as other games are free and only do that.
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for July 2024 Announced
Not a great month for me, I wouldn't try any of these.
Re: Dragon Age Name Change Reflects Game's Focus on Your Party Rather Than Solas
@Matthewnh what I'm saying is, I was excited for the game because I wanted a game focused on Solas, and this is them saying they changed the name because they felt Solas wasn't the focus of the game.
Hopefully they've still done it well, but it does give me reason to hesitate
Re: Dragon Age Name Change Reflects Game's Focus on Your Party Rather Than Solas
I'm a bit cautious because I thought the Solas hook was amazing, but I can understand the decision
Re: Midnight Society Drops Co-Founder, Streamer Dr Disrespect Following Twitch Ban Allegations
Twitch aren't allowed to kick someone out if they don't have something on them. But it's probably not full law breaking otherwise they'd have escalated it to the police.
Re: Destiny 2: The Final Shape (PS5) - Bungie's Promise Fulfilled
I tried to pick up Destiny 2 this year, and unfortunately the new player experience is a total mess. Every time I logged in it would show me a new cutscene of characters and events I'd never heard of, and even dump me straight into missions on planets I'd never been to.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Reveal Has Utterly Torn Fan Opinion as Trailer Gets Slaughtered
Dragon Age has a history of trailers whose tones don't match the actual game - including the original DA: O trailer - so I'll wait to see the actual game
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Shifts to 'Real-Time Action Combat'
Better than DA:I's worst-of-both-worlds system
Re: Reaction: Summer Game Fest 2024 Showcases AAA's Endless Winter
This is the comedown from the superb 2023
Re: Afterlove EP, from the Late Creator of Coffee Talk, Targeting October Release on PS5, PS4
Coffee talk was fun, so I'll check this out
Re: Batman: Arkham Dev Allegedly Enlisted to Work on Hogwarts Legacy After Suicide Squad Flop
@AK4tywill Directors cut has always been a meaningless term. Very few things released as a director's cut were actually the original vision of the director. It was a marketing gimmick to double dip on DVD sales for die hard fans.
The director is the person who cuts the original version of the film too (usually). And there's zero guarantee that the director has more freedom in the "directors cut" than the original. Often execs just want extra scenes included that they can market on the back of the box. Sometimes directors cuts even involved filming extra scenes - they aren't even cuts!
When Villeneuve was asked about directors cuts he replied "Arrival is the directors cut".
There are directors cuts which are genuinely the director getting the chance to undo some meddling that prevented them from presenting their original vision. But that's not what studios are considering when they stick the directors cut label on something.
Rebel Moon is a perfect example of how stupid the term is and has always been. Zack Snyder was in total control of the original cut for Rebel Moon. The "director's cut" was planned by the Netflix executives before the original cut had even been released.
Re: PS5, PC Shooter Concord Appears to Be a $40 Game
@ChrisDeku That's review bombing though. It's player count on steam is healthy and has actually been growing the last couple of months
Re: PS5, PC Shooter Concord Appears to Be a $40 Game
As an Overwatch player, I was thinking about at least giving it a go, even if I had doubts it would be worth playing over OW.
$40 kills that completely for me. Why risk all that money for something I've already got and enjoy?
Re: Marvel Rivals Officially Confirmed for PS5, Closed Beta Test in July
Was the gameplay captured from mobile? Why is everyone moving so stiffly?
Re: Square Enix Bestows New Name on Creative Business Unit 3
The fact it still beats out the old name by a mile tells you a lot about the old name
Re: Publisher Nexon Investigating Cause of The Finals' 'Lower-Than-Expected' Performance
I tried to get into The Finals, but to me it lacked some of the sheer complexity of other live service games. In Overwatch there's always a new character to learn, a new way of holding off an ability until another ability has been used.
The gap between where you are and the top is full of obvious steps, and some of them are just chunks of knowledge, not 'reflexes' or 'aim'.
The finals felt too short, too ephemeral. One round plays a lot like another round, any one moment is a lot like another moment.
Re: Strategy Legend Jake Solomon Explains Where Marvel's Midnight Suns Went Wrong
I can see cards not having the same visceral appeal, but it played well.
Mechanically the games biggest problem IMO was the wider game loop was built around all these finite resources - do you do a mission to get currency, get ability points or get upgrade materials? Yet there was no limit to the number of missions you can do, so it was all faff.
I think they built an iteration of the game that had more of a hardcore Xcom feel, but late in the day tore that bit out.
Re: Poll: Years Later, How Do You Feel About PlayStation's PC Strategy?
It's not caused any harm to me as a PS owner, but I have started to think I might get a steam deck or similar instead of the PS6.
Re: Founders, Long-Time Employees Reportedly Say Xbox Now Effectively Microsoft Gaming
This is exactly why, during the Bethesda merger, I said I was afraid of MS shutting studios down.
Because MS isn't primarily a gaming company, they have constant shifts in the direction and targets of their executive. When the wind blows a different way, studios get closed.
It's been that way right from the start. Ensemble studios made great PC games, but the executive direction shifted to console and they were shuttered
Re: Encouraged by Baldur's Gate 3, Hasbro Bets $1 Billion on Internal Game Development
It takes a long time to make a great studio. Games are too difficult for it all to come together the first time. BG3 was a result of a decade of foundations laid by Larian.
My worry is execs don't understand this, and the money and patience it will take.
Re: Wizards of the Coast Already Courting Multiple Studios to Develop Next Baldur's Gate
This is a poisoned chalice for any developer. They need some kind of small / different genre game to reset expectations before someone else tries a full Baldurs Gate RPG.
Re: Amazon's Fallout Adaptation Seemingly Retcons Climactic Events of Fan-Favourite Game
Fallout 3 reckons that a hundred years after Fallout 1 people still haven't even picked up all the pre-war Nuka Cola bottles lying around the floor.
This was never a series for people who took timelines seriously.
Re: Dune: Awakening Takes Place in Alternate Timeline, Devs 'Sort of Sidestep Religion'
So the Bene Gesserit don't exist in their version of the universe?
Re: Mini Review: Pentiment (PS5) - A Slow-Burning 16th-Century Murder Mystery
I heavily dislike the type of murder mystery structure Pentiment uses, similar to LA Noire, where you spend most of the game 'solving' crimes knowing that the real perpetrator has got away.
The real perpetrator was guessable by the start of act two but the games makes you play on for hours before letting you do anything about it.
Re: Sony Refutes Rise of the Ronin Korean Cancellation Claims, Says It Was Never Announced
The stuff Japan did to Korea is horrific. It's understandable they'd be sensitive to something like this.
And a section of Korean gamers have the twitchiest trigger fingers in the world at any controversy. There have been much much much less real issues than this which have got people fired and games censored
Re: Poll: Which Xbox Franchises Would You Buy on PS5?
Looking through the list, there's nothing I would actually buy ahead of games already on my wishlist.
Microsoft started strong, but they've only gone backwards with time.
Re: Square Enix President Orders Development Review to Improve Quality of Future Games
The production pipeline of Square Enix has been dodgy for a decade now, and badly needs fixing.
Even in their good games, there's a strong sense of asset outsourcing where games don't have a consistent art style and objects don't fit the tone/environment.
Re: Microsoft Has Apparently Been Stocking Up on PS5 Devkits as Xbox Pivots
We need Valve to take the next step with Steam decks now. They don't need to replace Xbox, but we need lounge friendly PCs to keep Sony honest
Re: Shuhei Yoshida Eyes 'Pokemon with Guns' Phenomena Palworld for PS5
I have never seen this game before, I haven't played Pokémon in a decade, but these are just Pokémon. Not Pokémon inspired, straight off Pokémon.
I can name specific names and I'm far away from a Pokémon super fan
Re: Overwatch 2 Dev Admits 'Mistake' in Talking Spicy Self-Healing Changes 'Out of Context'
The whole way Overwatch 1 was shut down to force the switch to Overwatch 2 was a self-inflicted handicap from the start. When you start on such a negative note, fans aren't going to give you the benefit of the doubt.