Quetzalcutlass

@Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is a game that you know is bad but really enjoy(ed)?⁩ ⁨⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Alpha Protocol is one of the great tragedies of Obsidian’s contract work days, back when they were never given enough time or money but still put out brilliant but flawed games like AP, New Vegas, and Knights of the Old Republic 2. I would do terrible things for a remake of any of those games where Obsidian was given the resources to do things properly.

  (Though IMO I think AP might work better as a Telltale-style game in the vein of Dispatch or the Walking Dead. The dialog is the star and all the other gameplay only detracted from it.)

  Alpha Protocol being rushed was especially tragic because there’s no other game that changes the plot to such an extreme degree based on your actions. It really felt like your story. It also avoided an obvious “best” route by having every choice be a tradeoff, where helping one contact could alienate or even endanger another. It’s not like a Bioware game where you can pick the top option in every dialog and cruise your way to an ideal ending for everyone. You had to pick a side eventually, pitting you against former allies who you genuinely liked.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is a game that you know is bad but really enjoy(ed)?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Alpha Protocol, a spy-themed RPG by Obsidian and probably their worst game. The gameplay was absolute garbage, but it had some of the best writing in games and your dialog choices actually affected the plot in dozens of ways. It was the first time I can remember since the old Sierra days where a minor choice you made ten hours ago could come back and screw you over.

  In some ways it was the game that Mass Effect claimed to be, one that reshaped itself around your choices and let you lead the plot where you desired. It just sucks that in all other ways it was a buggy piece of crap, where everything from combat to stealth to hacking were miserable chores that weren’t fun even when they did function properly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kingdom Hearts IV - Reveal Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  That’ll be the tie-in interquel that’s critical to understanding the plot, but will only be available in Japan and… let’s go with Bolivia this time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox pulls Gears video featuring a PS5 logo, 24 hours after announcing it as an exclusive⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You can’t spell ‘fun’ without ‘eff you’!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spyro™: A Realm Beyond | Cinematic Announce Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ll never hear their name without being upset that they were relegated to work in the Skylander mines for a decade instead of being allowed to make another Star Control.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Halo: Campaign Evolved | New Missions Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The new Sergeant Johnson voice isn’t giving me a great impression. They should have hired the guy who did Johnson’s voice in the Cursed Halo mod.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there any such thing as "edutainment" shows for adults?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks, ants.

  Thants.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unknown Worlds Earns $250M Performance Bonus After Stellar Subnautica 2 Launch⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m worried he’ll recoup the shortfall by screwing over Krafton’s other owned studios, Embracer-style.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amount of paper I used in one school year⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Paper doesn’t compress well after it’s been used. That might look like a lot, but the curling of the pages forces them apart and adds a ton of empty space. If it were fresh it’d probably be shorter than that battery.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a feeling Steam Support is suffering a deluge of requests for Steam Controller repairs citing “accidental” drop damage after it went viral that they let out a Wilhelm scream when falling.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Oh that is BRUTAL⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re not called “line” cooks for nothing!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨007 First Light – Official Launch Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Please be good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Embracer Intends to 'Activate' Deus Ex, Saints Row, TimeSplitters, and Red Faction⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, but that was so last quarter. Now they need to look good for investors again!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Aren’t the book rights a tangled mess and future productions are only allowed to use things from the trilogy plus appendices? I remember that being the excuse for the show not following the Silmarillion canon, but it’ll suck if there’s this big open-world game but it’s limited to the stuff we’ve seen a hundred times already.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Boop Snoots⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Every few years I think “this is true photorealism; we can’t go further”. And every few years they introduce some new technology that upheaves everything and requires a new generation of graphic engines and tech to properly show off.

  Though maybe it’s just my eyesight getting worse, but I think the first Star Wars: Battlefront reboot was close enough to reality that they could have stopped there. That or the FOX Engine - the tech demos from before Kojima killed it would show a real video side-by-side with a render and they were nearly indistinguishable.

  Skin and facial animations are what’s really holding us back. Forget yet another lighting revolution, focus on the basics!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Two Twilight Princess PC Ports in the making⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Nintendo haven’t killed any of the other decompilation projects yet, which includes mainline Mario games. It seems to be legally in the clear so they can’t issue a takedown.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Traffic cameras have caught a white RAM 1500 pickup truck driving above the speed limit or running red lights more than 547 times since 2022. It belongs to an NYPD cop.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Civil asset forfeiture is one of those things where when you hear about it your first reaction is that it must be some fringe conspiracy theory because there’s no way the police could get away with something like that, right? But no, it’s really that bad and done completely in the open. Cops can just steal your shit out of “suspicion” and the process of getting it back is deliberately labyrinthine and difficult.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AAA Dominance Is Eroding: 56% of PC Gaming Revenue Now Goes to Games Outside the Top 20⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Those still doing 1080p/1440p gaming get the best of both worlds: high framerates with all the fancy graphics turned on, without needing to rely on frame gen or spend a thousand bucks on a graphics card.

  IMO 4k isn’t enough of a qualitative leap to justify all the hacks needed to make it run acceptably on current hardware, let alone the sky-high VRAM costs for that resolution. I’d rather run a game in Ultra quality at 1080p than Medium in 4k.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨real⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  “Humans are the greatest polluters, so those death squads we hired in Colombia to kill union leaders were just us contributing to the environment!”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Krafton still supporting Subnautica 2 launch despite Steam page change⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Gill doesn’t have to launch the game until September 15 to be eligible for the $250 million bonus at the center of the lawsuit.

  Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier reported last year that, should Subnautica 2 meet the necessary revenue targets to trigger the bonus, a portion of it will be shared among some of Unknown Worlds’ staff.

  I’m half-expecting the share given to employees to be a couple million tops and fans to turn on both sides, just to put the cherry on this crap sundae of a scandal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game franchises you like, but wish were anothet genre of video game?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you pick it up, know that it has a huge modding scene that make an already great game even better. I can recommend a few basic QoL mods if you want, though the 9.0 update is coming soon and will probably break most of them for a while.

  Also, the base game has some arbitrary mechanics meant purely to punish the player so an experienced X veteran can’t eclipse and steamroll the in-game factions too quickly. There’s a list of these mechanics (and links to mods that reduce/remove them) here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game franchises you like, but wish were anothet genre of video game?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Admittedly I’m in the middle of a playthrough and currently deeply enamored with the game, but I’ve enjoyed Enshrouded much more than Valheim (which I also loved, to be clear). I’ll probably start noticing all the flaws I’ve been ignoring soon, but right now it feels like Valheim, but more. More recipes, more enemies, more options for farming and better animal tames, much better combat, a building system that doesn’t drive me crazy, and a hand-built world that is vastly superior to the samey procgen of Valheim.

  The comparison to the Elder Scrolls is much less flattering, admittedly. It’s only in the world design and exploration that I’d put Enshrouded ahead, and even then I bet many players would be annoyed by just how much Enshrouded uses verticality in its map (which I love, but I’ll admit it makes overland travel a pain).

  The entire world being one map so a hole in the internal walls of a dungeon could lead directly outside is a massive step up from Bethesda’s engine where dungeons are basically their own separate universe. I just completed the Blackmire tower the other day, a dungeon that had the branches of a giant tree punching through its sides and forcing you to take alternate routes. I fell all the way to ground level several times but still had a blast exploring the place.

  I’m not super far in. I have three characters* that are all around the same point, at or just after the boss fight at the end of Pike’s Reach. It’s possible the rest of the game lacks the same polish the early areas have.

  * One created when the game first entered Early Access, one for co-op, one newly created to see all they changed in the opening hours.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AAA Dominance Is Eroding: 56% of PC Gaming Revenue Now Goes to Games Outside the Top 20⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s fair. Though, by that logic would you consider something like that one Final Fantasy MMO F2P or not? I believe it lets you play all the old content for free and only charges for the last (few?) expansions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AAA Dominance Is Eroding: 56% of PC Gaming Revenue Now Goes to Games Outside the Top 20⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  One minor correction, I believe The Sims 4 went F2P at some point. They’re funded entirely by expansion packs now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AAA Dominance Is Eroding: 56% of PC Gaming Revenue Now Goes to Games Outside the Top 20⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Wow z most of them were even older than I’d thought. And even some of the new ones like Tarkov were in Early Access for years before their official release date.

  (You flipped the date and country for 16 and 17, btw)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AAA Dominance Is Eroding: 56% of PC Gaming Revenue Now Goes to Games Outside the Top 20⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  True. I know Dean Hall (DayZ, Stationeers, Kitten Space Agency) destroyed any hope of his survival game Icarus becoming a major success by releasing hundreds of dollars of expensive DLC during Early Access, then later revealed it was because the money from his previous projects had slowed to a trickle and splitting his current project into a bunch of paid packs was the only way he could stay solvent. Even the megahits of the past all die out at some point.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AAA Dominance Is Eroding: 56% of PC Gaming Revenue Now Goes to Games Outside the Top 20⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  F2P games are subsidized by a small minority who will throw a hundred dollars a month into the game to obtain and max out whatever FOMO event or item/character is on rotation, and by an even smaller group of obscenely wealthy (or mentally ill) players who will spend tens of thousands of dollars just to say they own everything.

  I’d honestly be fine with this model if the ones funding it were treated like patrons of the arts or something, but instead the industry hired a bunch of psychologists to run incredibly unethical experiments to create literally addictive design patterns encouraging the weak-willed or mentally ill to spend more.

  Modern F2P game design is predatory and downright evil in the way it’s carefully cultivated to be just fun enough to continue playing, while constantly dangling the promise of more enjoyment if you’d only spend a tiny bit more (with that ‘bit more’ often only granting a small chance at getting what you want, with ‘pity’ systems only guaranteeing the desired drop if you spend the equivalent of around a hundred bucks in premium currency). But since it’s obscenely profitable, I don’t foresee it going away without legislation banning those practices.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AAA Dominance Is Eroding: 56% of PC Gaming Revenue Now Goes to Games Outside the Top 20⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Nearly every every on that list is also a live service game that has been released for years. It’s almost like supporting your product post-launch builds a dedicated userbase or something.

  (And yeah, I know it’s actually because of the profitability of addictive design patterns combined with microtransactions. Let me dream, please.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game franchises you like, but wish were anothet genre of video game?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Both one and two were good fun. They recently tried to revive the series, but it was such a miserable flop that they delisted it last year.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game franchises you like, but wish were anothet genre of video game?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Enshrouded is kind of close. The third-person combat and limited NPCs detract from the comparison, but the exploration and setpieces match or exceed anything Bethesda has ever put out.