Coelacanth
@Coelacanth@feddit.nu
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 23rd 4 days ago:
I’ve been mainlining Esports Godfather, which is the surprise hit of the year for me so far. The title is nonsensical and on the surface it looks like it can’t be good, but it’s been so much fun.
It’s a MOBA-themed sort deckbuilder/autobattler/management game - which sounds like a hot mess but plays so much better than you’d think. I wish the AI was a little smarter, but even with the game being a touch too easy it’s incredible how much fun it is. Loads of cards and heroes to build synergies with and rotating version rulesets keeping things fresh even within a single run.
At just €16 on Steam I’d easily recommend it to anyone with an interest in the genre, and there is even a free demo that covers the first couple hours of a run.
- Comment on Elden Ring – Patch Notes Version 1.12 1 week ago:
I suspect uncapping FPS would break physics and damage calculations. FromSoft are fond of tying those to FPS.
I’m not surprised about the rest either, though they really should start getting criticized for it in my opinion. No DLSS in 2024 is especially hard to excuse.
- Comment on favorite gaming medium? 1 week ago:
For sheer versatility you can’t beat PC, so that is going to have to be my choice. Having flexibility between KB+M and controller, having access to mods and tweaks and (typically) having a wider array of graphics/performance options to tailor to your preferences makes for an unbeatable package.
That being said (and it pains me to say this given my distaste for Nintendo), I absolutely loved the 3DS. The dual screens were cool, it had good ergonomics for me and a nice weight in your hands and there was something very satisfying in the mechanics of flipping it open or listening to the click as you slam it shut. It’s just a really nice device to use.
- Comment on $843 million lawsuit against Valve already has its own website: "The Steam Claim" accuses the biggest store in PC gaming of "overcharging" players 1 week ago:
Can we not go after one of the few good guys in gaming? Please? If you want to hound someone Nintendo is right over there.
- Comment on FINAL FANTASY XIV: DAWNTRAIL Launch Trailer 1 week ago:
This is why the game lost me to be completely honest. I felt like the type of storytelling changed into more of a Sunday morning cartoon type vibe where the gang always wins and nobody ever dies.
There was a point during the story (probably Post-ARR through the beginning of post-Stormblood patch quests?) where it felt like there were actual stakes and risks of consequences and the lives of beloved characters were actually in danger and I loved that.
But instead more people seemed to come back from the dead than actually die.
- Comment on Hidetaka Miyazaki 'knows for a fact' other FromSoftware devs want a Bloodborne PC port: 'If I say I want one, I'll get in trouble, but it's nothing I'm opposed to' 2 weeks ago:
For sure. Will probably be even more likely if the Elden Ring DLC does really well and further propels FromSoft into a true mainstream household name.
- Comment on Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Official Gameplay Reveal 2 weeks ago:
I’ve played only Origins but this trailer is not doing a whole lot for me. Even visually I don’t like it (which is bizarre because I think Origins looks like shit and still I somehow prefer it). Don’t really like this art direction, personally.
- Comment on Starfield's latest update draws player ire by sticking a bounty hunting quest behind the Creation Club paywall 2 weeks ago:
Impressive that enough people still care for there to be a backlash.
- Comment on Sid Meier’s Civilization VII - Official Teaser Trailer 2 weeks ago:
That really is one of the biggest flaws of Civ. It’s so hard to find a breakpoint where the gameplay “feels good” but still is challenging. If you’re at a difficulty level where the gameplay is mostly intact, the AI is just too dumb, and if you bump it up it becomes a meta game of playing around the AI bonuses.
- Comment on Galacticare Has Got That Old Bullfrog Spirit 3 weeks ago:
I don’t know, I never saw it as a meme but rather just shorthand in cases where no other term existed that efficiently communicated the genre or style of a game.
Do you have a replacement term available for Souls-like that sums up what you can expect of a game within that genre using two words or less?
- Comment on Dragon Age 4's New Name Is 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard,' First Gameplay Look Next Week 3 weeks ago:
I haven’t played 2 or 3, but calling DA:O bad is a bit of a hot take. What did you not like about it?
While the overall plot is fairly standard issue fantasy save-the-world fare, I think the execution and the RPG aspects were excellent. How the game really made your choice of origin matter was incredible to me, and I enjoyed several of the characters too.
It does look like shit though, I’ll give you that. I wish it was less depressingly brown-grey washed out looking.
- Comment on Trending Communities for Thursday 6th June 2024 3 weeks ago:
Seeing Disco Elysium near the top of Active User Growth warms my heart.
- Comment on Team Fortress 2 3 weeks ago:
Nothing compares to getting into the flow when you’re playing Spy, I love some psychological warfare. Stringing together long sequences of backstabs and hide-and-seeks with the enemy team is so much fun.
The knife that hides backstabbed corpses and instantly disguises you as them is also super fun to use.
- Comment on Is Disco Elysium playable in short bursts? 3 weeks ago:
I think my favourite low-int detail was in Fallout 2. You come across the tribal Torr early on in Klamath and he speaks in grunts and broken sentences just like that if you talk to him with normal INT or above. However, if you talk to him with low INT the conversation completely changes into long eloquent sentences with advanced vocabulary for both him and you, matching the dialogue options unlocked at 10 INT. Amazing.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 2nd 3 weeks ago:
Played a lot of Wuthering Waves since it launched. It’s a tricky one because it has a lot of flaws and weaknesses, but at the same time the core is actually really solid.
The combat feels amazing, and that really is the big selling point here. Parries and perfect dodges feel great, the bosses have fun movesets and the pace is fast and fluid with lots of tech like animation cancelling and character swapping. The character gameplay design is also excellent, with each character having a unique feel and playstyle, and a unique way of building and using the Forte gauge.
I wish the main story wasn’t complete garbage, but hey ho. At least there is a skip button. Even the good characters (like Aalto and Encore) feel out of place and too goofy in a supposedly post-apocalyptic setting. Funny enough some unvoiced side quests have been better than the main story by a long shot (I’m thinking of Eternal Concert, for example).
Also the localisation is insultingly bad and it definitely seems like Kuro actually disregards the importance of non-chinese regions to the point of not employing a single foreign language speaker even to their localisation team. Even their announcements are worse translations than Google translate, and it’s the same for all languages. You’d think they’d at least care about the JP translation. Puzzling and almost offensive.
Still, the game is mechanically satisfying enough to have me hooked for now. And it’s free (and very F2P friendly at the moment).
- Comment on Is Disco Elysium playable in short bursts? 3 weeks ago:
I’m not sure if the above comment played on launch or after the Final Cut update, but there isn’t all that much reading in the game anymore. Almost all text is fully voice acted now. You still have to mentally absorb it of course, but I find it less taxing than reading, personally.
The book-like nature of it is spot on though; it’s better to treat it like an interactive novel where you choose the order in which you read its pages than as a traditional RPG.
Don’t be afraid to pick wild and weird dialogue options, and especially don’t be afraid to fail at things. The game pioneered a “fail-forward” design philosophy
- Comment on Senua's Saga: Hellblade II - Review Thread 5 weeks ago:
I do agree that a lot of the find-the-symbols puzzles felt like an afterthought, but overall they didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the game. The story and presentation were fantastic and I thought the blind trial was extremely well done and one of my favourite video game levels.
- Comment on Images leak of Valve's next game, and it's an Overwatch-style hero shooter 5 weeks ago:
I could be mistaken, as I don’t really play competitive games anymore. I thought between Overwatch, Valorant, Apex, The Finals and what have you there was lots of stiff competition.
- Comment on Images leak of Valve's next game, and it's an Overwatch-style hero shooter 1 month ago:
I had a lot of good times and even more bad times with DotA over the years, until I finally freed myself from it years ago.
IceFrog being behind this backed by Valve bodes well, and I think the premise of an FPS/MOBA hybrid has promise, despite the market being insanely oversaturated already.
I’m not really interested in competitive games these days, but I hope it’ll be good to watch at least. Following The International was fun even after I quit DotA.
- Comment on Dragon Age Inquisition free on Epic right now 1 month ago:
Thank you for the extremely comprehensive run-down! I don’t think I’ve ever had it laid out so clearly before.
I think I’ll keep them on my tentative “to-do” list, but maybe not at the highest priority. I loved Origins but with how it ends I don’t have a super pressing need to continue the story immediately. There are so many good games out there, and more keep being released. It’s hard to find time for all of them. I’m really looking forward to Hellblade 2 next.
I think I will get around to them at some point, though. Exporting my save through all three games and seeing callbacks and consequences does sound interesting, and I’ve heard that is something that does happen.
- Comment on Dragon Age Inquisition free on Epic right now 1 month ago:
Interesting. So the side content is mostly uninteresting, I take it?
I still have only played DA:O, which I really liked. I still haven’t played the sequels, would you say they’re still worthwhile or is it for the best to leave the story at the end of Origins?
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 12th 1 month ago:
I think DS3 is great in its own way and has some awesome areas, but it’s hard to compare anything to the first half of Dark Souls. That level design is just something else.
What I like about DS3 compared to ER is there are a lot less delayed attacks and fakeouts. I get that FromSoft needs to constantly up the challenge but it makes it harder to get the same kind of enjoyable combat flow, at least for me. DS3 has some bosses that are just so enjoyable, even though they’re not super hard.
Oh and, don’t know if you’ve done them yet but the DLCs should be more challenging than the main game, if that’s what you’re after.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 5th 1 month ago:
Having the exact same experience, though I’ve only barely started the PL storyline. The rebalance and revamped perk tree has created so many cool builds and so many fun ways to play. The game is just a joy to play honestly.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 5th 1 month ago:
I think OWB is many people’s favourite, and Honest Hearts is certainly the weakest DLC. It does have some cool lore and story bits to it though, and the environmental storytelling with the survivalist is very neat. And I think Joshua Graham is a great character.
I hope you come back and do Lonesome Road too, I absolutely love it and think the level design and environments are outstanding.
- Comment on Hellblade II Official System Requirements 1 month ago:
I’m so excited for this game. I thought the first game was really interesting and did really well with a limited budget, and really showed a lot of potential.
Hopefully a bigger budget, bigger scope and expanded combat can have this game really blossom.
- Comment on Half Life 3 1 month ago:
This is the correct answer I think. They’re also not interested in releasing sub-par games, and again like you say they don’t need to release games at all to make money anymore. So if they’re not that interested and haven’t come up with anything conceptually/mechanically that reaches the high bar they’ve set for themselves, it makes more sense to scrap/postpone.
Their reputation is much more important, and they’re just not going to half-ass Half Life 3. It will come out when they feel they have something truly extraordinary, or it won’t come out at all.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 28th 1 month ago:
Started playing Phantom Liberty today after having finally finalized my modlist. Still hunting down the source of some crashing, but still.
Haven’t played Cyberpunk since 1.63, and I am loving the changes so far. Very cool builds available with the perk tree changes, I can already tell I will probably do another full playthrough with a different build once I’ve ran through Phantom Liberty. Right now I’m playing a Tech/Body/Reflexes spec going full into explosives, combined with Sandevistan, Kerenzikov and all the dashing/mid-air stuff. It’s definitely a lot of fun, bouncing around the battlefield like a Gummi Bear on speed while everyone around you explodes and burns.
- Comment on Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut PC cross-play and system requirements revealed 2 months ago:
I think this has to be in the contention for most overrated game of all time.
Before you grab your pitchfork, I’m not saying it’s a bad game. It’s fine. The combat is solid, the boss fights are fun and it’s very pretty. Was very well optimised too, ran like a dream on an old, fat first gen PS4.
It’s not the greatest game of all time though, or anything close to it. The open world is your garden variety UbiSoft style, the tone and the writing is all in a stoic monotone with only crumbs of Kenji to break it up, and the quest design is uninspiring at best and awful at worst. On top of it all the game is way too long considering those flaws.
I know it’s been hyped up, but I still recommend waiting for a sale.
- Comment on Baldur's Gate 3 actors reveal the darker side of success fuelled by AI voice cloning 2 months ago:
Don’t know if just me, but this spoiler tag doesn’t work on either Sync nor Boost.
- Comment on The Fallout Bible: a collection of lore documents compiled for use in the development of the original (cancelled) Fallout 3 2 months ago:
I’m actually happy to hear that. I was afraid it would take too much inspiration from the Bethesda games, but sounds like maybe they looked more at Fallout 1 and 2, which would be just what I hoped they would.
I’m excited to give it a chance now.