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I agree the first two cases of the first dlc were excellent and the third was a let down. In the second, I thought the first case was good. On the second, I liked the case a lot (best of the dlc) but thought the gifts panel was dumb. I had solved the entire case but was sitting there unsure what that panel wanted from me. And, the third case once again fell flat -- was no real mystery.
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Sep 1, 2023 15:44
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The gifts panel was fine for me, personally, once I realized the full goings on and why the accepted box colors were split. But I do agree that the third case was a let-down as a puzzle with pretty much everything directly laid out at that point and the only bit that even really needed some extra checking around was noticing one item being carried in the earlier scene. A lot of reused words in so many spaces, too. Overall I enjoyed my hours with The Lemurian Vampire, a bit bittersweet that the Case is fully over now but I'm looking forward to whatever the devs do next. Would recommend the full package to anybody who likes this kind of deductive game.
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Sep 1, 2023 15:53
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As long as both DLCs go out of their way to make Peter Battley look like a total dingus again, I'm sold
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Sep 1, 2023 16:25
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Professor Moriarty posted:As long as both DLCs go out of their way to make Peter Battley look like a total dingus again, I'm sold
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Sep 1, 2023 18:21
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Another big post, this time about September releases. A very big month:  The developer of ZeroRanger is back with Void Stranger (Today), bringing their unique storytelling and design style to the Sokoban genre. Girl Genius: Adventures in Castle Heterodyne (9/5) is a 3D platformer with Zelda influence by the makers of Teslagrad, based on Phil Foglio's long-running comic.   Chants of Senaar (9/5) is a mix of stealth puzzling and language deciphering. Rune Factory 3 Special (9/5) brings the DS classic to the PC with new content for married characters.   Enchanted Portals (9/5) is a Cuphead knockoff that isn't even subtle about it. Starfield (9/6) is the serious version of The Outer Worlds.   The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo (9/7) is a gorgeously hand-animated point and click adventure. Escape Simulator: Portal Escape Chamber (9/7) is Portal-themed DLC for the current top escape room game on Steam (at least if you include community-made rooms).   Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX (9/7) is a remaster of the arcade classic. Dokapon Kingdom: Connect (9/7) brings the PS2 board game/RPG hybrid to PC with online multiplayer.   Next up: Two life sim games, Sprout Valley (9/8) and Fae Farm (9/8).   Hauma (9/11) is a deduction visual novel with motion comic presentation (yes there is a 'mindboard'), while Eternights looks to be a slightly cringy indie Persona wannabe.   The Isle Tide Hotel (9/12) is the one thousandth Wales Interactive FMV game (surely one of these is good??), while NOUR (9/12) is an interactive toy about messing with different foods.   Mythforce (9/12) is a co-op FPS inspired by 80s fantasy cartoons like He-Man. Mary Skelter Finale (9/12) brings Compile Heart's horror DRPG trilogy to a close.   Super Bomberman R 2 (9/13) exists to keep the lights on for Konami, while Land Above Sea Below (9/13) is a tile puzzler in the vein of Dorfromantik about keeping your island afloat.   Solace State (9/14) is a cyberpunk visual novel combining hand-painted art with 3D environments and camera work. Thunder Ray (9/14) is Punch Out for the 2020s.   Pathfinders: Gallowspire Survivors (9/14) merges the Pathfinder setting with Vampire Survivor gameplay, by the dev of Sunday Gold. AK-xolotl (9/14) is a more conventional twin-stick bullet hell roguelite with lots of guns.   Ugly (9/14) is a puzzle platformer with mirror mechanics. Fading Afternoon is the latest narrative beat-em-up by the developer of The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa.   Wandering Sword (9/15) is a wuxia RPG with combat partially inspired by Live-a-Live, complete with HD-2D visuals. Boti: Byteland Overclocked (9/15) is a 3D platformer set inside a computer, and it's co-op capable.   Dungeon Golf (9/18) finally brings us the one thing we've been missing since Dark Cloud 2 on the PS2. Kellax (9/18) is an Overcooked/Moving Out-style co-op game about building IKEA furniture.   In the absence of a true Souls game this year, Lies of P (9/19) will have to make do, and some say it does the job fairly decently. In Spirited Thief (9/19) you scout ahead with a ghost before pulling off your capers.   Mortal Kombat 1 (9/19) reboots the universe but otherwise seems to be the same usual gameplay. Party Animals (9/20) is a Gang Beasts knockoff not made by the Gang Beasts team.   Men of War II (9/20) is an RTS I include purely so the genre doesn't go uncovered. Moonstone Island (9/20) combines life simming with creature collecting and battling.   Payday 3 (9/21), no idea what makes this worth buying for owners of 2. These Doomed Isles (9/25) mixes deckbuilding with city building as you attempt to keep your civilization alive.   RoboDunk (9/25) is an NBA Jam roguelite with robots (am I crazy? did this not come out already?). LunarLux (9/25) is a sci-fi RPG with a Gameboy Advance aesthetic and slightly Megaman Battle Network inspired combat.   Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (9/25) is the long awaited first expansion to CD Projekt Red's beleaguered but still relatively appreciated immersive sim. WitchSpring R (9/25) is sort of a "we have Atelier at home" situation.   El Paso, Elsewhere (9/26) is a revival of Max Payne style bullet time shooting. Paleo Pines (9/26) is a life sim where you own and ride your own lil dinosaur.   Mineko's Night Market (9/26) is a life sim that has been in the works for a long, long time so I probably don't need to go over it. Fortune's Run (9/27) is a very high-octane retro FPS/immsim with a lot of shooting and punching.   Pizza Possum (9/28) is basically Pac-Man if you ate a bunch of human food instead of pellets. Dragon Quest: Infinity Strash (9/28) is an ARPG based on the Adventures of Dai manga, and I have no idea if it will be any good.   Wildmender (9/28) I literally mentioned in my previous big post yesterday. I Expect You to Die 3 (9/28) brings even more VR bomb defusing antics.   Cocoon (9/29) is a recursive puzzle game by the designer of INSIDE. Fate/Samurai Remnant (9/28) is a JRPG that will probably be impenetrable to anyone other than Fate fans.   SaleBlazers (9/29) combines open world survival with shopkeeping. From what I remember you can use any foraged resource as a weapon which seems neat. Super Adventure Hand (September TBA) proves that we don't need Glover after all.
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Sep 1, 2023 19:19
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While I liked them well enough, I think the main issue in both 3rd cases in the DLCs for Golden Idol is that a good part of it is recounting the overall plot of the DLC, which mostly means going through what you already know. They did this in the epilogue segment of the base game, but it is weaker here since it means you only get 2.5 cases, effectively. If they had like a full sized case then made a mini epilogue case for the recap stuff, I think it would have done down better.
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Sep 1, 2023 19:59
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Oh nice, Mineko's is finally coming out
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Sep 1, 2023 20:04
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The 7th Guest posted:
This was apparently made largely by one person.
Jae (Fkkcloud) is StudioSai's only FTE until August 2023, now, several people are joining Studio Sai for the 2nd game.
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Sep 1, 2023 20:25
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Describing Mary Skelter series as horror always seemed weird to me because it's the goofiest anime poo poo.
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Sep 1, 2023 20:29
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Professor Moriarty posted:As long as both DLCs go out of their way to make Peter Battley look like a total dingus again, I'm sold
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Sep 1, 2023 20:33
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the seeds of dingusness are sown
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Sep 1, 2023 20:33
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Does Rune Factory 3 need spoilered for what happens to your character that might make it uneasy for some people? I would prefer more RF games on Steam, though the earlier titles might as well put both up for one price.
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Sep 1, 2023 20:33
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Scalding Coffee posted:Does Rune Factory 3 need spoilered for what happens to your character that might make it uneasy for some people? I would prefer more RF games on Steam, though the earlier titles might as well put both up for one price. You become a farmer 
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Sep 1, 2023 21:14
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Feels like a less stellar month to me than others, but I think everybody's gonna have at least one thing that looks exciting to them and it's really more a reflection on how cool the rest of the year has been.
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Sep 1, 2023 21:36
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I'm dying to play more Men of War 2. I do think there was a drop in quality from the second to last beta to the final one but the game is still the best MoW in the franchise.
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Sep 1, 2023 22:50
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They're finally putting Alien Hominid HD on Steam over sixteen years after the 360 version.
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Sep 1, 2023 22:54
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TheOneAndOnlyT posted:Sadly both DLCs take place shortly before the events of the base game, which I think is possibly before Peter Battley is even born? But he's still a total dingus.
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Sep 1, 2023 23:31
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The 7th Guest posted:
Psyched about this, ZeroRanger was awesome https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256967300/movie480_vp9.webm?t=1693587263
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Sep 2, 2023 00:03
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Mzbundifund posted:You become a farmer Khmer Rouge Factory
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Sep 2, 2023 00:27
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Weird, i pre-orderd the standard version of starfield, (downloaded it a few days ago) and it's currently unpacking. I thought the early access was only for those who bought the premium edition or whatever? edit: it's taking a loving age to unpack though, i'd have been quicker just downloading it and letting it unpack on the fly.
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Sep 2, 2023 00:52
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Bad Seafood posted:Just finished it myself, and while I enjoyed it, it ended up being the first time I had to use a guide due to getting tunnel vision over a very specific word choice that wasn't strictly incorrect but wasn't the answer the game wanted.
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Sep 2, 2023 01:03
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Ghostlight posted:Yeah that "wanted" really clashes with each character complaining that they have to do it. Third chapter spoilers, I actually figured that one out; for me it was the bit where you have to spell out Mata's deal "A long time ago," and since I'd already used [villagers] "After the arrival of the ship," it kinda fell out of mind as I was convinced [speakers] was the right phrase and spent a long time swapping around every word except that one, thinking maybe I had the wrong order of operations, which had briefly tripped me up with the tower instructions, [targeting] the [speaker] of the [voice] [command] versus [targeting] the [voice] of the [command] [speaker]. In retrospect, it was a little thing to get stuck on, but sometimes that's how it goes. I got stuck on La-Mulana 2 for like twenty hours because of a single puzzle with a pitifully easy solution.
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Sep 2, 2023 03:06
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Oh yeah, speaking of, finally beat La-Mulana 2. My dream of a guide-less playthrough ended up being thwarted by four puzzles in specific, but considering I ended up using a guide for like 30% of the original, "Only" four puzzles ain't too bad. Haven't tackled the DLC yet. Needed a break after all that archeology.
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Sep 2, 2023 03:09
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lets hang out posted:Psyched about this, ZeroRanger was awesome This is awesome so far. Definitely need to pick up if you enjoyed Zero Ranger. It's not quite the same thing, but recommended if you like, uh, maybe Inscryption? It's not a card game or anything but it's a cool genre bender with lots of style and atmosphere. edit: Like it's a Sokoban game in the same way Inscryption is a card game
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Sep 2, 2023 03:23
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Rinkles posted:Reportedly the game cost over $100 million, I think without accounting for marketing. I just heard about that the other day, and that just blows my mind. Like, how did Saint's Row Reboot have that big of a budget and turn out as badly as it did? I remember seeing some gameplay of the reboot, and there was a section where the player character jumps into a car, and I realized that it was the same animation they used in SR3 and SR4, which came out over ten years ago. I know Agents of Mayhem flopped (though I don't know the particulars of that game, other than it was heavily disliked), and they were trying to recover from that, and SR3 and SR4 were the way there were because THQ went under, but it's like the studio just fell off when it came to making games.
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Sep 2, 2023 05:35
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I'm guessing ballooning dev costs across the industry (even a not quite AAA game is gonna cost a lot nowadays), studio mismanagement, and/or lack of oversight from Embracer.
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Sep 2, 2023 06:09
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Rinkles posted:I'm guessing ballooning dev costs across the industry (even a not quite AAA game is gonna cost a lot nowadays), studio mismanagement, and/or lack of oversight from Embracer. Yeah, that could be it. I thought maybe it was a 'Ship of Thesus' issue, where maybe most of the original Volition/Parallax Software staff had left, and it was all new people, but looking at the credits for SR2022 on Mobygames, a lot of the staff seem to have been people who have been with the company for a long time, albeit with different roles. The big contention with the game is obviously that they ditched the old SR setting and characters for new characters that nobody liked. My theory was that maybe they had a smaller budget, and they couldn't afford to have the celebrity cast they did for the older games (i.e. they couldn't afford to bring Daniel Dae Kim back to voice Johnny Gat), so they went with a new setting and cast to try and sidestep the issue.
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Sep 2, 2023 06:39
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https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198011055790 just actual literal nazis lol everyone report him, I have a morbid curiosity
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Sep 2, 2023 06:58
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Max Wilco posted:Yeah, that could be it. I thought maybe it was a 'Ship of Thesus' issue, where maybe most of the original Volition/Parallax Software staff had left, and it was all new people, but looking at the credits for SR2022 on Mobygames, a lot of the staff seem to have been people who have been with the company for a long time, albeit with different roles. Agents of Mayhem had the same issue, I remember looking it up at the time and going "This writing staff is 90% identical to the last few games" (and from memory, the only change was adding someone). As I keep working my way through, I've determined two things: 1. the main story sucks. Your roommates universally suck. Hell, I keep finding myself empathizing with the main character's "horrible" boss, who is actually a rational person making the decisions of a veteran mercenary trying to keep her team alive and punishing a hothead who nearly dies repeatedly (you). I definitely want to know what in the hell the actual, in-our-world story behind it being like this was, because I cannot imagine some of the creative staff didn't realize this was a clunker. 2. There are a variety of very good, familiar stupid pop culture jokes and offbeat humor all around the world itself, and some of my biggest laughs come from things like the variety of weird shopkeepers in the world (my favorite so far is a stall simply named "SELLING MY EX'S poo poo" with a bunch of terrible band tees and baseball caps), or the "history of Santo Ileso" optional tours around the city talking about some of the work an art team or creatives put into this place, broken down by "Here is a chunk about the graffiti artists we were inspired by or in-world characters we set up", or outside of town, you get more tourist-trap descriptions. I actually laughed out loud when I reached a lovely roadside diner beside an old west model town that was used in filming westerns and then the whole thing caps off with "This is where the remains of the first Tacosaurus were discovered, a steak-filled dinosaur who could be purchased regularly for the nutritional benefit of all other dinosaurs!", and all my character could say in response to this was a blurted out "I'm learning so much!" I feel like with nobody having a stake in the company anymore what with the company not existing suddenly, we might get answers to #1 soon and I am morbidly curious what the gently caress happened behind the scenes on this project. Has there just been one incredibly shite manager who pulled rank somewhere along the way? What the actual hell?
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Sep 2, 2023 07:11
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Agents of Mayhem seemed a hell of a lot like a service game with all the service parts ripped out. That and you can see the hard divergence where the main team (used in all the marketing, natch) is lazy, unfunny "what if GI Joe was naughty" parodies...then everyone else is just a superhero of some kind played more or less straight. It reminded me a lot of SR3's total inability to pick a tone. I'm like one of the three people that liked AoM. My desperate hope was that they'd get to try again and make AoM2 a banger. 
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Sep 2, 2023 07:45
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  Gunbrella (Doinksoft, Devolver) surprise release date! September 13th! Pre-orders ($15) will get Gato Roboto for free
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Sep 2, 2023 08:19
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nearing the end of turbo overkill and it's going to place high on my GOTY list. took forever to come out but you can tell the devs used all of that time wisely
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Sep 2, 2023 15:49
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Bad Seafood posted:Oh yeah, speaking of, finally beat La-Mulana 2. My dream of a guide-less playthrough ended up being thwarted by four puzzles in specific, but considering I ended up using a guide for like 30% of the original, "Only" four puzzles ain't too bad. dang, congrats. I think by the rules you have to be a mod now.
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Sep 2, 2023 16:05
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HopperUK posted:dang, congrats. I think by the rules you have to be a mod now. they beat a La-Mulana without a guide, mostly they've suffered enough
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Sep 2, 2023 16:10
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Bad Seafood posted:Oh yeah, speaking of, finally beat La-Mulana 2. My dream of a guide-less playthrough ended up being thwarted by four puzzles in specific, but considering I ended up using a guide for like 30% of the original, "Only" four puzzles ain't too bad. Big congrats! How did it compare to the first one?
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Sep 2, 2023 17:05
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John Murdoch posted:Agents of Mayhem seemed a hell of a lot like a service game with all the service parts ripped out. Yeah, I actually liked what I played of AoM but something felt just missing. Mostly I think it desperately needed multiplayer, because having a buddy around would have made the constant escalation of the street fights go from borderline unmanageable to lots of happy chaos. I know there's always the "of course it's better with a friend, everything is" argument, but there are some things that are deliberately made to be played with others and going solo just feels bad, and I think AoM was somehow one of them despite being single-player.
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Sep 2, 2023 17:24
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Oxxidation posted:nearing the end of turbo overkill and it's going to place high on my GOTY list. took forever to come out but you can tell the devs used all of that time wisely Legit. This definitely belongs amongst one of the best shooters of the decade.
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Sep 2, 2023 19:07
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disposablewords posted:Yeah, I actually liked what I played of AoM but something felt just missing. Mostly I think it desperately needed multiplayer, because having a buddy around would have made the constant escalation of the street fights go from borderline unmanageable to lots of happy chaos. I know there's always the "of course it's better with a friend, everything is" argument, but there are some things that are deliberately made to be played with others and going solo just feels bad, and I think AoM was somehow one of them despite being single-player.
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Sep 2, 2023 19:39
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Assepoester posted:Yeah, Agents of Mayhem felt like the most "designed for coop" game to ever exist without actual coop One of the most baffling game design decisions ever. Even the marketing was a bit misleading with regards to that.
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Sep 2, 2023 20:21
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claw game handjob posted:Agents of Mayhem had the same issue, I remember looking it up at the time and going "This writing staff is 90% identical to the last few games" (and from memory, the only change was adding someone). John Murdoch posted:That and you can see the hard divergence where the main team (used in all the marketing, natch) is lazy, unfunny "what if GI Joe was naughty" parodies...then everyone else is just a superhero of some kind played more or less straight. It reminded me a lot of SR3's total inability to pick a tone. I remember with one of the reviews I watched, they talked about one of the missions where one of your roommates has a mission where you go to get some drive-through toy he wanted as a child, and you have to fight past a bunch of guards or a rival gang or something, and once you're driving back, he says something along the lines of, 'Man, I want to give these toys to orphans' or something like that. Meanwhile, you just killed like thirty people, some of who might've had children who would now be orphans (I mean, they don't, because they're enemies in a video game, but you get what I'm saying). It's an issue of trying to eat your cake and still have it, where it seems they wanted the protagonists to be 'good guys' but that doesn't really mesh with an open-world crime game. I think SR3 started that trend by making the Saints into celebrities, and then it was amplified in SR4 where you become a superhero trying to stop an alien who destroys the Earth. I think it worked moreso in SR3/4 because those games were so over-the-top, that aspect was kind of obfuscated. However, I've seen a sentiment regarding Saints Row 3 and onward that it wasn't like by a good portion of fans because it leaned way to heavily into the zaniness. That's not to say that SR2 wasn't over-the-top, and that it wasn't advertised on that basis, but it was still largely grounded. I recall with one video I watched, they said that when they first teased the reboot, they thought maybe it was going to be a return to the days of SR1/SR2, and that they thought a good setting for a new game would have been a prequel to SR1 detailing the friendship and fallout between Julius and Benjamin King. I think that would have worked well.
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Sep 2, 2023 20:49
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