redhorsejacket
@redhorsejacket@lemmy.world
- Comment on Being Difficult 1 week ago:
Sorry, best I can do is this Anthrobussy.
- Comment on The first new Heroes of Might and Magic strategy game in over 10 years will launch this month 1 week ago:
I tend to agree with you about the art style. While I know HoMM3 is the fan-favorite, HoMM2 was my jam growing up, and it’s distinctive “80s-fantasy-paperback-cover” style is firmly embedded in my mind as the essence of HoMM. While that definitely speaks more to my nostalgia than any rational critique, I do find the current direction to be lacking in character. It’s all fine, but it could belong to any modern fantasy IP.
My hangups about the art notwithstanding, the game seems to be rock solid. I spent 6+ hours in the demo in a single sitting. When I came to my senses, it was well into the wee hours of the morning. If that’s not the hallmark of a good HoMM experience, idk what else would be. Additionally, the actual game map tends to look pretty good, and there are graphical touches that I quite enjoy (like different troop variants having entirely different models, rather than simple pallete swaps). Finally, as a HoMM3 fan, you might even enjoy certain aspects more. When I wrote about this a few months back, someone in the comments mentioned that they felt like there was a fair amount of HoMM3 DNA in the art (which, as a HoMM2 head, I wouldn’t have clocked).
All of which is to say, give the demo a shot if you haven’t. While my bugaboos with the art style never entirely went away, they were easily relegated to the background by the rest of the game’s strengths.
- Comment on The first new Heroes of Might and Magic strategy game in over 10 years will launch this month 2 weeks ago:
They’ve got a demo available! Worth checking out if you want to whet your appetite.
- Comment on Nacon faces existential crisis: Cyanide, Spiders and Kylotonn slide into insolvency. 3 weeks ago:
A shame to see a AA publisher go down in today’s market. I know indie dev is touted as the panacea for modern gaming, but the projects that come from that space are often a little more slight or niche than I’m interested in. I’ve enjoyed games from all three of the named dev studios.
- Comment on COMPUTER WORLDS - A New Showcase Celebrating Strange & Distinctive Games 5 weeks ago:
Ultimate Drummer looks like the best kind of high-effort shitpost.
- Comment on whos your favorite borg? mine is localhost 1 month ago:
Seven of Nine channeling this Barbie
- Comment on Political leaning 1 month ago:
Feels like that could be a minor villain from Captain America’s Silver Age rogues gallery.
- Comment on The kid is inventive 1 month ago:
The desperate helplessness in that man’s voice during that call never fails to make me laugh.
- Comment on Take-Two CEO Responds to Stock Price Drop Following Google Genie Announcement: 'I Think People Are Confusing Tools With Hits' - IGN 2 months ago:
Idk man, could be I’m just projecting on you conversations I’ve had with myself, but fondly remembering the sense of discovery you had with the Infinity Engine games while being sour on BG3 because it was “spoiled” for you seems like it has a lot more to do with your sense of nostalgia than any rational critique. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the sorta person who will break out my soapbox to yell about Morrowind’s virtues vs Oblivion or Skyrim, and I’ve also attempted to cajole several friends into giving BG1 a shot in the lead up to and wake of BG3’s release, so I’m sympathetic to your broader point. I just think, unless you’ve been out here reading reviews, watching Let’s Plays, opening discussion threads, and sucking down all in-house marketing Larian did, you vastly overestimate how much of the game is spoiled for you. And, frankly, if you’ve been doing all of those things, then the real culprit is how you spend your time online, not being online in and of itself.
Besides, the game is massive. Even watching multiple Let’s Plays of Act 1 would still leave room for discovery, simply because there are so many paths to pursue, many of them mutually exclusive. Hell, my big critique of the game is that I find the plethora of choices to be overwhelming, as I’m the sort that likes to consume all content in a single playthrough, and that’s literally impossible.
- Comment on lightbulbs 2 months ago:
There’s practically no chance this knowledge will ever benefit me, but I’m happy to learn something new regardless. Thanks for sharing!
- Submitted 3 months ago to games@lemmy.world | 4 comments
- Comment on First Impressions: Heroes of Might and Magic: The Olden Era is an excellent franchise revival, with an unfortunate art style that belies its quality. 3 months ago:
I agree. That’s why I felt compelled to write this post. The gameplay is far better than its wrapper makes it appear.
- Comment on First Impressions: Heroes of Might and Magic: The Olden Era is an excellent franchise revival, with an unfortunate art style that belies its quality. 3 months ago:
Was Xeen the M&M setting with the explicit science-fantasy inclination? I’ve never played any of the straight RPGs, but I’ve trundled through enough wikis to discover some bonkers concepts in those games. Like, one ends with your party fighting through a dungeon only to discover that the dungeon is actually a buried space ship or something like that?
- Submitted 3 months ago to games@lemmy.world | 8 comments
- Comment on Sorry guys 4 months ago:
I bet Ron started it.
- Comment on Last Epoch players turn on the action RPG for announcing a paid DLC class, tanking its Steam reviews: 'go play Path of Exile instead' 4 months ago:
Mmos and arpgs are intrinsically linked by their gameplay loops. Admittedly, this can vary to a greater or lesser degree depending on the specific games being compared, but Diablo 2 was, in many ways, proto-WoW.
- Comment on March 2026 releases from Umbrella Entertainment 4 months ago:
Oh boy, another boutique home video shop to pore over while desperately trying to justify costs to myself. I’m unfamiliar with this outfit, though I gather they’re Australian from their website. Anyone have experience ordering from them? Good, bad, or indifferent?
- Comment on An Update on Cities: Skylines II - Development moved to Iceflake Studios 4 months ago:
After VtM 1’s tumultuous release, not to mention the drama surrounding the sequel’s development, that makes sense to me.
That being said, I don’t think it’s quite as big a leap as the person above is making it sound. To use their words, The Chinese Room are known for “strong art direction, atmosphere, and story, [and] weak gameplay”. They also suggest that the games TCR make are “the exact opposite” of Bloodlines 1. Which is kinda boggling my mind, cause I’m pretty sure the critical and user consensus of that game is that it excelled in its art direction, atmosphere, and story, and fell comparatively short in its gameplay. In fairness, I think he was referring to the limited open world nature of VtM 1 vs the straight linearity of the “walking sim” genre, but still. I’d argue the most memorable section of VtM is the Ocean House Hotel, which is, basically, a linear walking sim level, and it’s not as though the og game did a ton with its open world.
Now there’s an argument to be made that Paradox made the wrong call by doubling down on the peripheral elements of the game, rather than hiring a team that has ARPG gameplay bonafides, but I think that’s only an argument that can be made with the benefit of hindsight. Additionally, is it true that the gameplay/combat of VtM2 is glaringly bad? I can’t speak for myself, but the handful of reviews I read characterize it as serviceable at worst. Which, again, seems right in line with the first game.
I’m very much on the outside looking in though.
- Comment on Cities: Skylines upheaval: Developer and publisher announce “mutual” breakup 4 months ago:
Apropos of nothing more than my idle speculation, I’d guess they will return to the transport tycoon genre if they are able to do so. Before Skylines took the crown from SimCity as the preeminent example of the genre, they made the Cities in Motion games, which were narrowly focused on improving the mass transit of existing cities (as opposed to building the city itself). I know the second CiM game had some interaction between the city and your efforts as transportation czar (in the same way you could indirectly influence a citiy’s development in, say Railroad Tycoon), but the emphasis was always on transit. I imagine the newly independent team will want to keep their focus narrow, unless another publisher swoops in to replace the safety net.
- Comment on 5 months ago:
Tyl what til means!
- Comment on I finished all (current) main quest content for Death Trash 5 months ago:
Man, if they aren’t putting “It’s David Cronenberg’s Kenshi, more or less” on the metaphorical box, they’re making a mistake.
- Comment on For those of you who enjoy open-world games, how big of a world is too big? 5 months ago:
Are you insane, or have you achieved CHIM?
Not that there’s an appreciable difference…looking at you, Michael Kirkbride.
- Comment on Shout! Factory shuts down physical media website; will now be moving to GRUV 5 months ago:
The few that I’ve collected have not, however I guess I’m not in the habit of exposing them to the elements, so I couldn’t say for sure.
- Comment on Shout Factory's Physical Forever Club Membership is shutting down in November 5 months ago:
Presumably related to the news today that GRUV Entertainment is taking over distribution of Shout Factory releases?
- Comment on Shout! Factory shuts down physical media website; will now be moving to GRUV 5 months ago:
Was very concerned they were shuttering their home video department entirely there for a second. Not while I have so many more 4K steelbooks to acquire, like a really nerdy dragon.
- Comment on What's your favorite case of a game making fun of you? 5 months ago:
Try these cool moves, like, playing the game!
- Comment on [UnReal World] has been in continual development for 33 years, and its creator doesn't think he'll ever stop updating it: 'When I accomplish one feature, I always have two more waiting' 5 months ago:
…God I miss forum-based let’s plays. I was never a SA member (Something Awful, not Sturmabteilung, though there’s probably some degree of overlap there), but I did browse the lparchive website once upon a time. Some folks put so much effort into their presentation, I want sure where the game ended and the LP narrative began.
There was one in particular that was an LP of the Blade Runner adventure game. That’s a game I had watched my dad play on our family Compaq back in the day, so I thought I knew what I was getting into, but the combination of the game having secret narrative branches (that change based on a random seed when you start a new game, I think) and the posts being written in a first person, hard-boiled noir style, made me think that we had played different games.
- Comment on "The King" (Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon) 5 months ago:
For sure! You’ve convinced me to give it another look after unfairly writing it off. It sounds much more interesting than I originally anticipated.
- Comment on "The King" (Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon) 5 months ago:
Could be that I’m a product of a country which produced Kevin Costner as Robin Hood, and therefore don’t have the best grip on the culture cross the pond, but I feel like suggesting “Arthurian”=“Irish” might get you in trouble in certain pubs.
- Comment on "The King" (Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon) 5 months ago:
Interesting. I remember taking a look at the previous game from a couple of years ago because, in spite of myself, edgelord dark fantasy is still appealing to me if it’s done knowingly (which is different, I’ll hasten to add, from not taking it seriously). However, one glance at the screenshots told me it was a deck-building game and I immediately disregarded it. It’s just not a mechanic or loop that I enjoy.
However, given that this appears to be to Skyrim what, say, The Outer Worlds is to Starfield (narrative tone notwithstanding), my interest is piqued.
Are you enjoying the game?
