ampersandrew
@ampersandrew@lemmy.world
- Comment on Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Has Released on GOG! 10 minutes ago:
Some people like Avowed, dude. Let it go.
- Comment on Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Has Released on GOG! 34 minutes ago:
I’m playing through the first one right now, in the early hours, and for anyone who’s played this sequel, did they add any quality of life improvements? In theory, I like a lot of what the game’s doing, but when it tells me I need to find a way out of a castle, and it doesn’t let me jump over a short chain barrier, it can be frustrating. I talked to one NPC who I accidentally quickly buttoned through a dialogue with without clicking on the option that clearly would have given me a hint on what to do next, and without reloading a save, I couldn’t get that dialogue option back. There was also another NPC that I found the first time, before reloading a save, who gave me similar advice for how to progress, but due to the schedule system and the lack of any sort of notation built in to the map, I couldn’t find her again, because she wasn’t in the same spot. Things like that are why Avowed was built to be “static”, as much as it got criticism for it, despite most RPGs being built that way to avoid exactly this problem I had with KC:D. (I have since made my way out of the castle, after looking up a walkthrough and save scumming a chest that I had to lockpick, because the tutorial was very bad at teaching me how lockpicking actually worked.)
- Comment on The Half-Life Delusion 17 hours ago:
These are some strange criticisms. Yes, there was a focus on games being “cinematic”. Yes, there was also a counter-culture to that, because there’s a counter-culture for every popular culture. No, Half-Life didn’t invent it; it iterated on existing ideas. Yes, others copied it, because iteration is far easier and more likely to be financially sustainable than outright invention. Likewise, others in the counter-culture didn’t copy it. There are pros and cons to that sort of design. If my friends and I both play through a game like that, we can reminisce and “hell yeah” and high five over our favorite moments. A more immersive sim “lite” design like Indiana Jones can easily lead to me getting the intended experience where Indy has to improvise his way out of a blunder by punching Nazis and my friend ending up in what he perceived to be automatic fail states (true story). The “detour” through Half-Life inspired games came coupled with those same years being littered with games that didn’t stick to its ethos.
The one thing I’ll agree with the author on is that we’re definitely currently living through the stark aftermath of this peak FPS era. It’s so rare now that a new FPS is made for me anymore. Maybe it’ll be Mouse: P.I. for Hire, but it won’t come with a split-screen deathmatch like the good old days.
- Comment on Ubisoft Carves Out Top Games Unit; Tencent to Get 25% Stake 21 hours ago:
Ubisoft is largely run by one family, the Guillemots. What seems to be important to them, above and beyond everything else, is running a company called “Ubisoft”. Their company has a lot more value if someone else can run it, but they won’t budge on that, so their stock has tanked over the past number of years, as they keep making bad decisions. They tried to partner with Tencent to take Ubisoft private, which basically means buying out all of their investors, but Tencent also wanted the Guillemots gone, which wasn’t happening. So instead, they made this new company that Tencent can have more control over, which gets the best parts of Ubisoft’s portfolio as well as a lot of the debts, but Tencent has enough sway to flip off the Guillemots and make decisions they think are better. Meanwhile, the Guillemots still get to run a company called Ubisoft into the ground, but they get to start fresh with less (or zero?) debt, so they don’t have to dig themselves out of a hole first.
- Comment on Ubi, it's $70 and people are vary of your mile wide puddles that drop 75% in price after half a year 23 hours ago:
I think you missed the sarcasm in the rhetorical question, but yes. It’s one of at least three or four movies I’ve seen utilizing the Dances With Wolves trope, though I’ve never seen Dances With Wolves itself, and that’s okay. It was entertaining.
- Comment on Ubi, it's $70 and people are vary of your mile wide puddles that drop 75% in price after half a year 1 day ago:
Are you telling me The Last Samurai wasn’t skillfully made or imaginative? Nah, it was no masterpiece, but I liked it just fine. Having some westerners in Japan training their military on modern weaponry as the samurai are fading from relevance passes my threshold for “remotely historical”, and it’s definitely not a requirement for me that Tom Cruise’s character needs to have an American historical analog to meet that criteria. Any historical fiction will inherently have to change things about what actually happened in that era, after all.
- Comment on Nintendo Announce Virtual Game Cards (Digital Game Sharing) 1 day ago:
Hey, I’m sure it solves a problem for people, but the easier solution is still just the absence of DRM, as much as Nintendo would not like to do it, and it introduces exactly the kind of complexity that Sony mocked 12 years ago.
- Comment on Nintendo Announce Virtual Game Cards (Digital Game Sharing) 1 day ago:
You have to authenticate online on both ends, and it maxes out at two weeks, so no.
- Comment on Nintendo Announce Virtual Game Cards (Digital Game Sharing) 1 day ago:
Hooray, new DRM?
- Comment on Ubi, it's $70 and people are vary of your mile wide puddles that drop 75% in price after half a year 1 day ago:
Good thing I was expecting historical fiction then and not a documentary or even a dramatization of true events.
- Comment on Steam Deck / Gaming News #7 1 day ago:
I’ve been playing Borderlands 2 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance, both in preparation for their sequels this year. What I played tonight of the latter was a bit obtuse, and I’m hoping it picks up.
- Comment on Nintendo Direct Confirmed For Tomorrow, 27th March 2025 1 day ago:
Last we saw Silksong, it was part of an Xbox marketing deal; that’s all I’m basing my hunch on. I doubt that deal is easily broken, and Silksong can write its own ticket with any marketing partner.
- Comment on EXCLUSIVE - Nintendo Switch 2 Will Have a 3-Phase Launch Plan For Its Games 1 day ago:
Except for Smash Bros., yes, but they created a really shitty vicious cycle. I don’t care if it’s first or third party; I’m not giving Nintendo any more of my money.
- Comment on EXCLUSIVE - Nintendo Switch 2 Will Have a 3-Phase Launch Plan For Its Games 1 day ago:
They actively harm the emulation scene, despite themselves being responsible for making it necessary. They don’t want to make their old games available for sale where those potential customers are; they want you to buy their hardware and rent those old games from them in perpetuity. We’re also now at a point, at least temporarily, where their latest games often play better if you emulate them than play them in the only way Nintendo makes them available legally, so buying games and playing them “the right way” is worse. Then there’s the whole thing where they actively stand in the way of competitive Super Smash Bros.
- Comment on EXCLUSIVE - Nintendo Switch 2 Will Have a 3-Phase Launch Plan For Its Games 1 day ago:
You can, but I sure won’t.
- Comment on Nintendo Direct Confirmed For Tomorrow, 27th March 2025 2 days ago:
It’s real, and it’s happening, but I wouldn’t count on hearing about it again until the next Microsoft presentation. I’d like to see some Mina the Hollower at this Direct though.
- Comment on Ubi, it's $70 and people are vary of your mile wide puddles that drop 75% in price after half a year 2 days ago:
It’s also not pitched as being based on a true story. I take less issue with him becoming a samurai than surviving the last real samurai, lol.
- Comment on Ubi, it's $70 and people are vary of your mile wide puddles that drop 75% in price after half a year 2 days ago:
Say what you will about the white savior trope, but wasn’t there a historical reason for Tom Cruise’s character to be there? Japan was accepting foreign influence and modernization at that time, from what I know of history.
- Comment on What are some old games that are hard to revisit, because a more modern and superior version exists? 2 days ago:
Pelting the enemy with slings and arrows still works, but now and then they’ll still target me at range and land a hit. I don’t have a summoner in my party either, so I doubt I’d see a difference, especially at level 1.
- Comment on The struggle is real 2 days ago:
But maybe the meme loses its humor by having less of that kernel of truth that a good joke relies on? Like, if you don’t think the matchmaking is bullshit, it’s not going to be funny, you know?
- Comment on What are some old games that are hard to revisit, because a more modern and superior version exists? 2 days ago:
I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of 2e, but I think first level HP might be set in stone by class, and the Enhanced Editions of BG1 and 2 give you a max HP per level option, which doesn’t really help at level 1. Dynaheir keeps getting smoked with her mere 6HP, and she can’t get to level 2 fast enough.
- Comment on What are some old games that are hard to revisit, because a more modern and superior version exists? 2 days ago:
I’m trying to see some stuff in BG1 and 2 that I missed as I take another lap through the entire series, and I remember BG1 being a fairly easy, straight-forward game, but now that I’m replaying it, I remember that’s only the tail end of the game. Early in the game, when you’re stuck at level 1 for hours, lots of attacks just one-shot you, and it takes so long to get level 2.
- Comment on Civilization 7 Outlines Crucial 1.1.1 Update as It Struggles to Compete on Steam Against Civ 6 and Even the 15-Year-Old Civ 5 2 days ago:
On a technical level, it functioned better. On an artistic level, I liked the look a lot better. On a gameplay level, they were pretty similar, but I liked what they did with city tiles in 6.
- Comment on The struggle is real 2 days ago:
But I don’t think that’s the matchmaking system failing to accurately estimate player skill. It could have done it perfectly and still felt way off.
- Comment on The struggle is real 3 days ago:
Or, as a counter-point, perhaps they are nearly evenly matched, and the slight difference in skill between them is disproportionately reflected in the scoreboard. I’ve seen this happen in fighting games, but admittedly, I haven’t really played a matchmade team game in a long, long time, because they kind of stopped making those games for me.
- Comment on Civilization 7 Outlines Crucial 1.1.1 Update as It Struggles to Compete on Steam Against Civ 6 and Even the 15-Year-Old Civ 5 3 days ago:
As the article says, it’s history repeating itself. This one made more foundational changes to the formula than 6 did over 5, and once again, if you’re looking to play a Civ game, the old game is still going to be cheaper. I loved 6 when it came out, but when friends were curious about dipping their toes in, I just referred them to 5 because it was almost as good and far cheaper to try out. Civ 6 charts compared to 5 around the same time period are similar. I haven’t picked up 7 yet just because I’m still trying to get through other games, but I’m looking forward to it.
- Comment on EXCLUSIVE - Nintendo Switch 2 Will Have a 3-Phase Launch Plan For Its Games 3 days ago:
Set your alarm for April 2nd.
- Comment on EXCLUSIVE - Nintendo Switch 2 Will Have a 3-Phase Launch Plan For Its Games 3 days ago:
Agreed, but it is pretty important news for our hobby, and third party titles are tied up in its marketing campaign.
- Submitted 3 days ago to games@lemmy.world | 18 comments
- Comment on Best game ever? 3 days ago:
Mario 64 was the first use of the analog stick in a console game. Push it a little bit to walk, push it all the way to run, and several states in between. Maybe you can find a simulator that had analog control, but I’m sure you can see the difference.
Ocarina of Time was a solution to that type of game in 3D space that, as discussed above in things like Tomb Raider, was far more awkward in its predecessors as the industry was figuring out how to make games work in 3D. It’s very similar to how Halo wasn’t the first console FPS, but it was the first one smart enough to put guns, grenades, and melee all on their own buttons, among other innovations.