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I finally gave The Division 2 another shot. I played through... most of one story mission and then the game softlocked. Meh.
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Feb 16, 2020 09:16
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Mass Effect 2 characters having daddy issues isn't a crutch, it's a theme of the game (that didn't get picked up on in 3). Crappy parents is the theme of most of the crew in the same way that the Reapers seeded the galaxy. Shepard has a surrogate father in the form of the Illusive Man and you can tell him NO YOU SHUT THE gently caress UP DAD Tali has dad issues. Thane has issues being a lovely dad. Jacob has a bad dad who abdicated responsibility and decided to be a rapist. Miranda has dad issues with trying to make a 'perfect successor'. Grunt is an artificially created krogan with memories implanted from his scientist-dad. Garrus... is fine actually. Jack is delusional because she thinks she was a problem child and then found out that as lovely as her childhood was, her classmates had it even worse. Samara has issues with her problem child. Mordin is responsible for a lot of stillborns. At the end of the game you fight a new reaper core, a literal 'baby reaper', made by the reapers out of humanity. Yeah you can say that for any given character it was poorly done but it's very intentional, not a 'crutch'.
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Feb 16, 2020 12:34
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bewilderment posted:Mass Effect 2 characters having daddy issues isn't a crutch, it's a theme of the game (that didn't get picked up on in 3). Crappy parents is the theme of most of the crew in the same way that the Reapers seeded the galaxy. Mass effect 2 is definitely daddy issues, the game. It was the last great game of yelling at your dad, before the current crop of games where you become the dad and must yell at your lovely offspring so maybe they won't quite be so lovely.
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Feb 16, 2020 12:36
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Finally played some E.V.O for the SNES and holy hell are the hitboxes wonky and the slowdown a problem, which is a shame because the game is 100% "Spore, but for the SNES."
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Feb 16, 2020 15:35
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Tiggum posted:I think it's a bit wasted in SR2 anyway though, since there's an obviously correct way to do it. Maero's offer in the first Brotherhood mission makes no sense if you've already taken down either of the other two gangs and the Ronin storyline leads directly into the Ultor one, so it's obviously got to be Brotherhood first, Samedi second, Ronin third. You could do them simultaneously but then that causes more Pushbacks to occur, which is a nuisance. Being able to pick seems neat but I don't think it really end up adding any value. I think Maero’s offer works even if you’ve taken over more than 20% of the city, being a cocky bastard who’s convinced that he’s invincible and can wipe you out no matter how successful you’ve been against the other gangs is 100% in line with his character. If anything I think it works better that way, otherwise he’s offering 20% of the whole city to a gang of about 10 people that just barely survived being wiped out a few years prior.
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Feb 16, 2020 17:30
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Olaf The Stout posted:Mass effect 2 is definitely daddy issues, the game. It was the last great game of yelling at your dad, before the current crop of games where you become the dad and must yell at your lovely offspring so maybe they won't quite be so lovely. I dunno about that, every single one of these Dad Games in the past 10 years or so have had utterly despicable dads and totally chill son/daughter surrogates being completely reasonable. I'm still baffled at how Neil Druckman called The Last of Us a "story about love" after watching Joel do. All that. Except for Dishonored 2. Corvo is a great dad and Emily is wonderful and they care for each other very much. 
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Feb 16, 2020 19:48
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Tiggum posted:I think it's a bit wasted in SR2 anyway though, since there's an obviously correct way to do it. Maero's offer in the first Brotherhood mission makes no sense if you've already taken down either of the other two gangs and the Ronin storyline leads directly into the Ultor one, so it's obviously got to be Brotherhood first, Samedi second, Ronin third. You could do them simultaneously but then that causes more Pushbacks to occur, which is a nuisance. Being able to pick seems neat but I don't think it really end up adding any value. See, it's funny you say that because i played through samedi > Ronin > brotherhood cos I kinda figured, traffic lights, right? Green > yellow > red. And it makes perfect sense and works really well that way because the ending to the Ronin and brotherhood quest lines are a lot more personal and nasty, especially Brotherhood, so it felt like an escalation of violence and extremity that culminates in Ultor and open warfare in the streets. I would actually recommend people to do the questlines in that order, or to do Samedi first and then interleave the other two so they happen in tandem, for the most satisfying escalation. If you can pull it off so it goes Carlos mission (you know the one) > Aisha mission, it works exceptionally well, narratively speaking. Also I think it works better if you're well established by the time Maero makes the offer, because it plays into his cockiness and over confidence, like he just totally fails to understand how intense and ambitious the Saints are and thinks he can treat you with contempt. small ghost has a new favorite as of 20:14 on Feb 16, 2020 |
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Feb 16, 2020 20:02
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Mass Effect 2 sucks because they traded in guns that infinite ammo but overheated to a boring ammo system and they stripped away most of the RPG mechanics. It's still a fun game but man it was jarring going from ME1 to ME2 with all the dumbed down changes.
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Feb 16, 2020 20:03
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Al Cu Ad Solte posted:I dunno about that, every single one of these Dad Games in the past 10 years or so have had utterly despicable dads and totally chill son/daughter surrogates being completely reasonable. I'm still baffled at how Neil Druckman called The Last of Us a "story about love" after watching Joel do. All that. Neil Druckman is just Ken Levine Part 2 and I have no idea why the games industry keeps lionizing these self-important writers who would get laughed out of film school.
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Feb 16, 2020 20:05
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wafflemoose posted:Mass Effect 2 sucks because they traded in guns that infinite ammo but overheated to a boring ammo system and they stripped away most of the RPG mechanics. It's still a fun game but man it was jarring going from ME1 to ME2 with all the dumbed down changes. Also because very nearly every single combat encounter is: Enter room, kill constantly spawning enemies for an arbitrary amount of time until they stop spawning then move on. Whereas ME1 usually it was: Enter the room, kill everyone, move on. The ME1 way makes combat way more fun because there's a sense of progression. You feel like you're getting somewhere in the combat. In ME2 combat just feels like a slog of the same poo poo going on over and over until it just kind of stops. There's 4 enemies. You kill one, there's still 4 loving enemies. There will be 4 enemies until there suddenly isn't without any meaningful sense of why. ME1 had a handful of segments like that too, sure, but they were the exception. In ME2 they were nearly every encounter. Dragon Age 2 made basically the same change in combat. Both sequels were such huge disappointments and ample evidence that the EA had killed Bioware and it was just not worth paying attention to any more. Also weapon mods were really neat and made ME1 the most fun shooter I've played(not that I play many shooters admittedly). It was like all the benefits of a looter shooter's millions of weapon types without the bullshit of just hoping one you actually like using drops cuz you can just pick your affixes. Also ME:2's story line was idiotic. The companion quests were well enough written to almost make up for it, but the main plot line was just too dumb. Which is a drat shame because I don't normally care much about the plot of games but ME1's story actually managed to catch and keep my interest. Also the weird mission end screens made it feel like an arcade game and destroyed whatever smidgen of verisimilitude that survived the terrible writing.
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Feb 16, 2020 21:07
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Spek posted:
Haha, what the gently caress Of all things, the gameplay of ME1 is by far the worst part of the series, especially the garbage inventory system it had. 2 was a smash hit and is still the high point of the series.
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Feb 16, 2020 21:46
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On the other hand, Harbinger was awesome, his voice was awesome, and his possession of Collectors was a great way to keep a villain present in the game without having him(or you) escape by magic after every showdown. "RELEASING CONTROL. WE WILL FIND ANOTHER WAY" is probably one of my favourite moments in the trilogy.
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Feb 16, 2020 23:16
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Why won't Steep stop telling me how totally sick and awesome I am for bungling my way through simple runs and railroading me into the next one? Can I not just practice on something easy for a bit so I can get used to the controls? e: Also why the gently caress doesn't this game have a speedometer? Walton Simons has a new favorite as of 23:40 on Feb 16, 2020 |
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Feb 16, 2020 23:32
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Crowetron posted:Neil Druckman is just Ken Levine Part 2 and I have no idea why the games industry keeps lionizing these self-important writers who would get laughed out of film school. Because Gamers as a general collective whole are obsessed with the medium of video games being deep, artistic and important but at the same time absolutely can not handle the thought of it being subjected to any kind of scrutiny or criticism - so you get a lot of people demanding games be treated as art, while also sending death threats to anyone who takes a piece of art seriously. It's like how something like Dark Souls gets called, without a hint of irony, the "Citizen Kane of Gaming" every so often, usually by people who not only have probably never seen Citizen Kane, but fundamentally don't understand what made it important and so without any context and just knowing that Citizen Kane was "important" they want a Citizen Kane of their own, only for that "Citizen Kane of Gaming" to be forgotten after a few months and replaced with a new one because your average Gamer doesn't has less capacity for attention or critical thought and object permanence than a parrot and all that matters is praising the newest release and saying it's good. For an act of this in motion just look at poo poo like Bioshock Infinite, when it first came out people would not shut up about it being the deepest, most revolutionary game ever. But a few months later those same people were saying it was poo poo, and by now most people who wind up discussing it on sites like reddit, or other popular gaming forums, swear they never liked it and it's the most overrated game ever. There's probably a proper term for this kind of consumerist mentality that demands recent trash be taken as seriously as classics that have stood the test of time, but I don't know what it is. My whole point is just that Gamers - the people who self identify solely on their consumption of games - don't usually genuinely give a poo poo about the quality of writing, or usually even understand basic narrative structures or anything which is why anyone who can write a story more involved than "go rescue the princess from the turtle" gets praised as the second coming, still. Anyway, I'm still playing Kenshi. This game has a hold on me and I can't stop playing it, but another little thing that's pestering me about it is that there's no way to manually kill dudes. You have to just hope you get lucky, or depending on the enemy type, remove an item (like their head) from their inventory that kills them. For most dudes you fight, you just have to do enough lethal damage which can be harder than it sounds. Last night I got into a scrap with a huge squad of high level guys and after knocking them all out I took their armor and weapons. But they kept getting back up, running up to my dudes and punching them in the face before getting knocked out again - and this went on for like ten minutes before they finally started dying off. It's not like game breaking or anything, especially since you can abuse the same thing to escape or survive hard fights, but it's kind of annoying when dudes just won't stay down.
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Feb 16, 2020 23:57
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Walton Simons posted:Why won't Steep stop telling me how totally sick and awesome I am for bungling my way through simple runs and railroading me into the next one? Can I not just practice on something easy for a bit so I can get used to the controls? Doesn’t the GoPro mode replay have a speedometer? I think you can at least see your speed there.
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Feb 16, 2020 23:58
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Oh, cool, I'll check that out, didn't even know it had a replay mode.
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Feb 17, 2020 00:02
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Nuebot posted:Because Gamers as a general collective whole are obsessed with the medium of video games being deep, artistic and important but at the same time absolutely can not handle the thought of it being subjected to any kind of scrutiny or criticism - so you get a lot of people demanding games be treated as art, while also sending death threats to anyone who takes a piece of art seriously. It's like how something like Dark Souls gets called, without a hint of irony, the "Citizen Kane of Gaming" every so often, usually by people who not only have probably never seen Citizen Kane, but fundamentally don't understand what made it important and so without any context and just knowing that Citizen Kane was "important" they want a Citizen Kane of their own, only for that "Citizen Kane of Gaming" to be forgotten after a few months and replaced with a new one because your average Gamer doesn't has less capacity for attention or critical thought and object permanence than a parrot and all that matters is praising the newest release and saying it's good. For an act of this in motion just look at poo poo like Bioshock Infinite, when it first came out people would not shut up about it being the deepest, most revolutionary game ever. But a few months later those same people were saying it was poo poo, and by now most people who wind up discussing it on sites like reddit, or other popular gaming forums, swear they never liked it and it's the most overrated game ever. There's probably a proper term for this kind of consumerist mentality that demands recent trash be taken as seriously as classics that have stood the test of time, but I don't know what it is. My whole point is just that Gamers - the people who self identify solely on their consumption of games - don't usually genuinely give a poo poo about the quality of writing, or usually even understand basic narrative structures or anything which is why anyone who can write a story more involved than "go rescue the princess from the turtle" gets praised as the second coming, still. This reads like a polygon review for Bubsy 3D
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Feb 17, 2020 00:03
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Vic posted:This reads like a polygon review for Bubsy 3D But is Bubsy art?
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Feb 17, 2020 00:06
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Nuebot posted:Because Gamers as a general collective whole are obsessed with the medium of video games being deep, artistic and important but at the same time absolutely can not handle the thought of it being subjected to any kind of scrutiny or criticism - so you get a lot of people demanding games be treated as art, while also sending death threats to anyone who takes a piece of art seriously. It's like how something like Dark Souls gets called, without a hint of irony, the "Citizen Kane of Gaming" every so often, usually by people who not only have probably never seen Citizen Kane, but fundamentally don't understand what made it important and so without any context and just knowing that Citizen Kane was "important" they want a Citizen Kane of their own, only for that "Citizen Kane of Gaming" to be forgotten after a few months and replaced with a new one because your average Gamer doesn't has less capacity for attention or critical thought and object permanence than a parrot and all that matters is praising the newest release and saying it's good. For an act of this in motion just look at poo poo like Bioshock Infinite, when it first came out people would not shut up about it being the deepest, most revolutionary game ever. But a few months later those same people were saying it was poo poo, and by now most people who wind up discussing it on sites like reddit, or other popular gaming forums, swear they never liked it and it's the most overrated game ever. There's probably a proper term for this kind of consumerist mentality that demands recent trash be taken as seriously as classics that have stood the test of time, but I don't know what it is. My whole point is just that Gamers - the people who self identify solely on their consumption of games - don't usually genuinely give a poo poo about the quality of writing, or usually even understand basic narrative structures or anything which is why anyone who can write a story more involved than "go rescue the princess from the turtle" gets praised as the second coming, still. Something I always remember about Citizen Kane is that the main reason it's so well-regarded isn't because it's an especially deep or strong story, but because it invented so many new ways to tell that story. It's one of the first films that really tried to use camera tricks to make an experience that could only exist in film, rather than basically just being filmed stage plays. It's more about its technical achievements than anything else. So the 'Citizen Kane of Gaming' is probably something like Wizardry or Tower of Druaga rather than anything even remotely modern.
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Feb 17, 2020 00:12
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Walton Simons posted:Oh, cool, I'll check that out, didn't even know it had a replay mode. The replay mode is awesome and it’s one of the things that makes me wish Steep supported VR, even on a regular screen you get a great sense of speed and movement in first person. Steep itself isn’t a great game, the objectives and progression are barely there, but it’s fantastic for relaxing.
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Feb 17, 2020 00:14
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i have replayed kentucky route zero so many times and it has so much missable content that there are several setpieces that i remember experiencing but can no longer tell if they were real or just weird daydreams that blended into the game's fabric i remember a series of voice messages, one of which was a furtive-sounding man saying that he's never restful around the lights of gas stations. gently caress if i know where it is, though
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Feb 17, 2020 00:30
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Cleretic posted:Something I always remember about Citizen Kane is that the main reason it's so well-regarded isn't because it's an especially deep or strong story, but because it invented so many new ways to tell that story. It's one of the first films that really tried to use camera tricks to make an experience that could only exist in film, rather than basically just being filmed stage plays. It's more about its technical achievements than anything else. Gamers really just want vindication that their hobby isn't seen as a time-waster and that they're "cool." That's why they ape cinema fetishism without really understanding it, because they mistake Tarantino's vanity as the reason he gets respect. Oxxidation posted:i have replayed kentucky route zero so many times and it has so much missable content that there are several setpieces that i remember experiencing but can no longer tell if they were real or just weird daydreams that blended into the game's fabric
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Feb 17, 2020 00:45
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Spek posted:Also weapon mods were really neat and made ME1 the most fun shooter I've played(not that I play many shooters admittedly). It was like all the benefits of a looter shooter's millions of weapon types without the bullshit of just hoping one you actually like using drops cuz you can just pick your affixes. I agree. Not "most fun shooter I've played", but it was certainly more fun than what I played of ME2.
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Feb 17, 2020 00:47
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mind the walrus posted:I want to like KR0 so bad but every time I try to play it, it really does seem to fit the stereotype of "it's not any fun and it's clearly designed that way therefore it is art." I'm sure there's value to it, I do love its style and presentation, but it's not actually any fun to try and get through. it's a magical-realism point-and-click novel based heavily in the southern-gothic tradition alongside writers like gabriel garcia marquez and installation artists like lula chamberlain (to the point where the latter is literally a semi-major character in the game itself) it's not that it's meant to be "unfun" so much that it is what it is, and it's uncompromising in its execution it's also one of the few games that i would unreservedly consider to be art, because it would be impossible to make something like KR0 in any other medium and it owes and builds so much on the works and sentiments of more classical artists e: apparently chamberlain being one of the original IRL installation artists might be apocryphal, though the artform's presence in KR0 is definitely pervasive Oxxidation has a new favorite as of 01:10 on Feb 17, 2020 |
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Feb 17, 2020 00:50
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if i had to make one actual "gameplay" critique of KR0 it's that driving around the Zero itself can be frustratingly finicky because the entire highway is a mobius strip and often mis-reads your mouse clicks the Zero's also not a very pleasant experience audio-visually compared to the interstate, so exploring it can be a chore with the aforementioned mouseclick issue
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Feb 17, 2020 00:53
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Oxxidation posted:it's a magical-realism point-and-click novel based heavily in the southern-gothic tradition alongside writers like gabriel garcia marquez and installation artists like lula chamberlain (to the point where the latter is literally a semi-major character in the game itself) Don't mistake "didn't enjoy it" for "didn't get it." I've tried to power through the first few hours of KR0 for years and every time get bored because there is frankly no real driving engine to it beyond "I bet you really love how pretty this is, don't you?" And while it is pretty, I can't say I love it that much to have the patience it demands. I'm sure it is rewarding if you dig its lack of compromise, but I don't think compromise would have been the worst thing in this case.
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Feb 17, 2020 01:33
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I dunno I think if they added collecting guns or jumping on goombas or some other "fun" video game thing it actually would make the game worse. It's a good walking simulator. If you don't like them in general you won't like this one and that's fine.
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Feb 17, 2020 02:39
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A walking simulator quality is solely based upon how realistic the head bob of your character is. If it’s like a camera with no sway or movement, miss me with that garbage
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Feb 17, 2020 02:43
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Cleretic posted:Something I always remember about Citizen Kane is that the main reason it's so well-regarded isn't because it's an especially deep or strong story, but because it invented so many new ways to tell that story. It's one of the first films that really tried to use camera tricks to make an experience that could only exist in film, rather than basically just being filmed stage plays. It's more about its technical achievements than anything else. Even then, Citizen Kane probably wouldn't be as notable as it would be if Hearst didn't throw his tantrum and try to tank it before it was even wholly released. Chances are it would have been remembered as a well made, well told film but the controversy around it ensured that people would remember it and pay attention to it years later. oldpainless posted:A walking simulator quality is solely based upon how realistic the head bob of your character is. If it’s like a camera with no sway or movement, miss me with that garbage Personally, if a walking simulator can engross me in the world or narrative I'm there. But if something about it keeps constantly reminding me that this is just a game and there's no reason for me to really care then I can't get into it. It's why I couldn't really enjoy Stanley Parable. But I'm just not a huge fan of meta humor in games.
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Feb 17, 2020 04:07
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i enjoyed stanley parable's meta humor because it leaned so hard into the concept and most of the "jokes" were pitch-black, which you don't often see in meta stuff, but you're right that it's used as a crutch more often than not there's this free steam walking sim "where the darkness comes" that had to be one of the most obnoxious uses of it i've seen in a while
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Feb 17, 2020 04:11
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oldpainless posted:A walking simulator quality is solely based upon how realistic the head bob of your character is. If it’s like a camera with no sway or movement, miss me with that garbage What a dumb thing to say. A walking simulator's quality is obviously based on how good the walking is.
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Feb 17, 2020 06:09
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oldpainless posted:A walking simulator quality is solely based upon how realistic the head bob of your character is. If it’s like a camera with no sway or movement, miss me with that garbage reminds me of the old game Amulets and Armor, where the head bob was a compromise between an extremely short and an extremely tall developer, which meant there were sections of the game where you could sequence break by hitting them at the right point of your walk cycle and being short enough to clip through map geometry
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Feb 17, 2020 06:13
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Tunicate posted:reminds me of the old game Amulets and Armor, where the head bob was a compromise between an extremely short and an extremely tall developer, which meant there were sections of the game where you could sequence break by hitting them at the right point of your walk cycle and being short enough to clip through map geometry
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Feb 17, 2020 07:23
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Tunicate posted:reminds me of the old game Amulets and Armor, where the head bob was a compromise between an extremely short and an extremely tall developer, which meant there were sections of the game where you could sequence break by hitting them at the right point of your walk cycle and being short enough to clip through map geometry Lunchmeat Larry posted:having no knowledge of the game, I am genuinely pleased by how insane this reads without context and will not be investigating further You absolutely should because it's a wonderful journey into the minds of some of the first people to try and make D&D into a 2.5D shooter full of elf murder and jerk-wizards.
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Feb 17, 2020 08:24
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My main issue with Steep is my progress is kept on Ubisoft's servers so I can't reset it. Half the fun of that game for me was exploring but now my map is forever covered in a billion markers. And paragliding stinks.
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Feb 17, 2020 09:02
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Samuringa posted:Haha, what the gently caress Also ME1 had a better structured main plot, as ME2's was very "middle filler story in a trilogy" and totally disconnected from most of the game, but your ME2 team was far more interesting and likable (even with some clunkers) and the Suicide Mission was tops, so eh. All your squad mates in ME1 except Wrex were forgettable lame-os, including Tali and Garrus who became cool in ME2.
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Feb 17, 2020 09:35
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Garrus was good in ME1 because he had the best banter with Wrex.
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Feb 17, 2020 12:05
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One thing that ME2 definitely improved was making the various classes feel more distinct and interesting. In ME1 you had basically shooty powers, techy powers, and biotic powers, and your class just determined what selection you get. It worked decently, but had the issue that the various hybrid classes (e.g. the shooty/biotic vanguard) felt a little bland compared to those that went all-in on one aspect. Why take the class that gets two biotic powers and some uninteresting shooty passives when I could instead have one that has a full array of all biotic powers, after all? ME2 made a point of giving each class something wholly unique (like invisibility for the Infiltrator, or the absolutely hilarious charge attack for the Vanguard) and felt more tightly designed and replayable in that regard.
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Feb 17, 2020 12:47
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NonzeroCircle posted:My main issue with Steep is my progress is kept on Ubisoft's servers so I can't reset it. Half the fun of that game for me was exploring but now my map is forever covered in a billion markers. I had that problem with Hitman 2 as well. It’s a really great game but you can’t reset your account level or anything.
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Feb 17, 2020 18:09
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If you weren't a vanguard in ME2 you were doing it wrong. Also ME2 is vastly superior to ME1 wtf. The amount of times i've heard people say they prefer ME1 because of the ammo is insane. That games combat is boring as poo poo, the enemies are braindead as gently caress and just stand around waiting to be killed, and you move so slow. In ME2 they use tactics, and you can vanguard sonic boom them in the face using your own body and immediately followup with a pointblank shotgun.
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Feb 17, 2020 20:58
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