julietOscarEcho
@julietOscarEcho@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Video games 5 days ago:
Oh shit dead space, yeah that definitely needs to go higher up my list.
Cinema/storytelling interesting point. For sure there’s a lot of personal taste at play. Maybe the other dimension is agency in the story. A branching narrative is obviously harder to write/produce but is what separates games from other media (which is a reasonable critique for e.g. TLOU, which works so well as just… a HBO series).
- Comment on Video games 5 days ago:
I need to find more time for walking sim stuff. Played “everybody’s gone to the rapture” and ejoyed it.
- Comment on Video games 5 days ago:
Ah interesting. I’m a big fan of the “what is a sport” pub chat, so this is fun too. “single player game” = oxymoron doesn’t hit common understanding of what constitutes a game, but I don’t think we have a word for the subset of games being singled out here.
Is there a level of capability for AI where you would consider them “agents” according to this schema? Obviously TLOU enemies don’t qualify, and multiplayer is generally more fun. Aah so many questions. I’m going to have to find someone who will put up with 2hrs of debate on this if I stand them pints.
- Comment on Video games 5 days ago:
The cut scenes are good, but the stealth bits are really exciting gameplay too. Genuinely scared my partner with the faces I pulled playing the left behind expansion.
- Comment on Video games 5 days ago:
Yeah, it’s worded stupidly, but there’s a point there. TLOU was emotive in a way I haven’t felt often in video game writing. Ref how well it adapted into TV.
I think what he’s getting at is that gaming has focused more on gameplay loop than storytelling, which is generally fair.
If anyone has recommendations for games they think have writing of comparable quality, lay them on me. For me so far the pantheon is bioshock, RDR2, TLOU, and I have high hopes for Bg3.
- Comment on Is this true? 2 weeks ago:
Killing redahn unlocks a new level and his entire army continues to stand in the same places and respond to you exactly as they did before. That’s exactly what I’m talking about with linearity. “can be easily missed without a guide” also exactly what I’m talking about, there’s generally one way of getting everywhere and when it’s hard to find that it’s very tempting to look it up or ask a friend, exploring is mostly frustrating.
To be clear I’m a fan of the game, but I have spent probably <10% of my playtime on unstructured exploration or side quests (if you can call 5 bits of loosely related dialog in fixed locations a side quest). Not everything has to be open world, and I probably would have had as much fun with ER if wasn’t. The most sandboxy bit I would say is the multiplayer, which I wish they had made a bit more flexible, but I do find very funny.
- Comment on Is this true? 2 weeks ago:
I dunno. I find them on average a bit ham fisted. I love those elements in their games for sure, but it never moved me like certain environments in the last of us, for example.
- Comment on Is this true? 2 weeks ago:
Elden ring is really more linear than it is open world, so much content being locked behind certain progress milestones (and difficulty curve unless you’re very good). You have no lasting impact on the game world, and the gameplay loop is heavily centered around dying and respawning at checkpoints. It has more in common with a Mario game than with, say, skyrim. Linking the “levels” together I guess has some aesthetic benefits, but honestly if you entered each area directly from the roundtable hold would the experience have been materially different?
- Comment on Boys will be boys 5 weeks ago:
Interesting hypothesis. I went down the rabbit hole on it but couldn’t find supporting evidence (not to discredit your anecdotal experience of course). Seems if anything slightly the opposite on average. See for example “Sexual dimorphism in body size occurs when … living standards are high, and health correlate positively with male/female height ratio” here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32793524/
- Comment on Anon makes games 2 months ago:
Fallout 2 slaps. One of my biggest annoyances of corporate game dev shenanigans is that we can’t have an enhanced edition for android.
- Comment on Anon finds a conspiracy 2 months ago:
Cool so let’s call a spade a spade. Replying “you’re doing it wrong” to people naturally pissed at the existence of these fuck wits is daft. Wanting to critically engage with noxious ideas isn’t “fragile”. Pushing critics out of your safe space is.
- Comment on Anon finds a conspiracy 2 months ago:
Yeah to be honest I’m not so bothered by the post, I’m interested in a “know thy enemy” sort of way. I’m bothered by people getting mad with people clapping back at critical responses to the post. Like obviously people are critical of it, look at it FFS.
- Comment on Anon finds a conspiracy 2 months ago:
"No you see you’re doing it wrong, you’re meant to uncriticically broadcast the toxic views so that scrollers can’t tell if you support them or are doing it ironically. No I’m pretty sure it’s fine, there’s a jokey disclaimer in the sidebar, I’m sure noone will see their own worst side reflected and feel it reinforced. Aren’t we soooo funny. "
- Comment on Anon tries to understand credit scores 8 months ago:
Cashback and protections paid out of higher transaction fees, merchant raises prices to cover those costs. It’s not just a magic money machine; the consumer is subsiding significant card company profits. If we all just agreed to forgo the rewards and protection there would be fewer middlemen to pay, but I don’t blame you for acting greedily (I do the same).
- Comment on It's nothing 8 months ago:
Obviously everyone knows there are costs. It’s free (at the point of use) but almost noone needs the brackets to be explicit. Also the whole point is that you continue to get it even if you have no “gross income” because we’re not monsters.
Also how many countries have a “fixed percentage” with literally no allowances or brackets. I can’t think of any.
- Comment on Anon hates dark fantasy 9 months ago:
I’m sure someone did that in a game already. Feel like we’ve moved away from the 4th wall breaking with modern (at least triple A) games sadly, they take themselves too seriously. 'Member when sonic used to tap his foot if you put your controller down for a snack?
- Comment on Anon hates dark fantasy 9 months ago:
Most games tackle it by making reincarnation a special trait of the protagonist, but yeah punishing difficult inherently kills story. You caobe immersed I a cut scene you’re being forced to skip through for the 14th time. What’s the motivation of any of your enemies? The stakes are so low, you’ll just be back again ad infinitum. They’d be better fleeing or negotiating.
- Comment on Anon hates dark fantasy 9 months ago:
You can have dark fantasy with actual characters and plot and world building though. I don’t know how you can ever believe anyone’s motivation or develop any emotional response to any of the characters in elden ring (jar bairn probably gets closest for me). It feels as if no two NPCs ever actually interact. A world where noone can die so they’re willing to eternally throw themselves at anything that moves isn’t very compelling/believable. It’s basically just grimdark skinned super Mario world: level, boss, onto the next one. Which is fine for what it is, but if you prefer story driven/RPG gaming you wouldn’t miss much by skipping it.
- Comment on Anon studies Organic Chemistry 10 months ago:
If the story was about peer review it would probably be more believable. No way a professor does that to a fee paying student less still admits it to them. But do it to a competing prof where they are anonymous… Much more tempting.
- Comment on They say remote working less productive 10 months ago:
Nah this is just whataboutism. We all agree that the highest severity issues are access to heathcare/nutrition/sanitation/education in developing countries or among the homeless etc. That doesn’t mean we are suddenly not allowed to talk about anything else.
Do you do this in real life? Colleague: “hey did you catch the game this weekend, boy I hate being a jets fan” Blarghly: “that’s rather gauche, don’t you know there’s major food insecurity in sudan”
It has the intellectual weight of a parent trying to cajole their toddler into eating.
- Comment on A conundrum 11 months ago:
It’s mad given that Scotland technically is quite pro-renter. You just can’t enforce anything so landlords have learned not to give a fuck. A friend viewed a tennament they were trying to let with no kitchen (as in no cooker fridge or sink). Like something out of trainspotting.
- Comment on Anon doesn't like AI 11 months ago:
We don’t really know yet just from an empirical standpoint. I theory it seems useful in the narrow areas that it’s good at (translation/summarization and any tasks analogous to those).
We have a running joke at work that any problem it can’t solve is a skill issue with prompt engineering. At least… I hope it’s a joke.
- Comment on Anon has a problem with Bioshock 1 year ago:
Difference is, everyone knows bioshock is entertainment. And no one bases their actual political philosophy on it.
- Comment on Anon likes a thing 1 year ago:
Oh wait, I was thinking of fallout tactics. BOS was like wasteland skinned diablo right?
- Comment on Anon likes a thing 1 year ago:
Eh, I remember enjoying it, though never played it again so 🤷 possibly nostalgia. It was just not an open world or rpg.
- Comment on Anon likes a thing 1 year ago:
Russerfrushenrushen kids and their first person fallout games. All my homes know best fallout is third person isometric turn based.
- Comment on Anon likes a thing 1 year ago:
I mean they are objectively poor in a lot of ways, but you’re spot on. At the time they were fricking mind blowing. Space opera/space cowboys on the big screen! Before that we had what? 2001 and star trek?
- Comment on Anon turns on raytracing 1 year ago:
There’s actually a decent analogy there I think. The hamburger won’t cost less, because the service of customization it itself less efficient: serving customers with their preference of with/without is more expensive than just pickles for all. Likewise I imagine making a game that looks OK with/out RT is extra work than just with.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
Yeah but there’s a subset of people who are both slightly humourless and who don’t know not to assume the antecedant who are going to be super offended.
- Comment on Bait or r*ta*d*ti*n. Call it. 1 year ago:
Sometimes Internet racism really confuses me. So Indians are in this case bad because they are… particularly likely to be Musk stans? Forgiving of rich people who fall from grace? Just generally not hateful people? I don’t get it.