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Kirby having weird poo poo is precedented, but horrible slime chimera monster wall was out there even for the franchise where the final boss of two games was an eyeball monster that bleeds when you attack it.
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Apr 22, 2024 01:43
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CJacobs posted:Here is an actual spoiler, this time for for 3: you're correct, Aurelia was created for PreSequel! So she was brought back as a main villain in 3. She is just as much of a queen on the other side of the conflict. The handsome doppelganger was also retconned back to life because the writers liked him so much! IIRC the doppelganger didn't actually die anyway, in 2 there's a mission where you kill Handsome Jack body doubles but they're just wearing holograms, not the full cosmetic surgery treatment like he got. I got the impression there's some pretty interesting story stuff in the game trying to get past Anthony Burch's bullshit.
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Apr 22, 2024 02:09
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BioEnchanted posted:The worst part of it was the final boss's final QTE where you have to both wiggle the analog stick WHILE mashing one of the face buttons. That was the most stressful QTE I've ever had to do, although what it resulted in was pretty rad. I'm going back through MGSV, and that type of QTE happens when you get to close to sleep grenade gas and have to force yourself to stay awake. No, I didn't do it three times in the first encounter I used those   But speaking of MGSV, I just ran into my favorite little thing: https://i.imgur.com/z6RetQ5.mp4 He's gonna help me fulton so many guys 
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Apr 22, 2024 02:15
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Captain Hygiene posted:I'm going back through MGSV, and that type of QTE happens when you get to close to sleep grenade gas and have to force yourself to stay awake. No, I didn't do it three times in the first encounter I used those Its wild to me that this game is like a hundred years old and still looks hella good
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Apr 22, 2024 03:06
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Leal posted:Its wild to me that this game is like a hundred years old and still looks hella good Battlefield 1 came out in 2016 and it still looks insanely good 
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Apr 22, 2024 03:11
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Yeah, it feels like we've been in a state of more incremental graphics upgrades for a long time now, but MGSV regularly has me consciously thinking about how good it looks every time I play. Especially all the bloomy lighting effects at night, they did a great job there.
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Apr 22, 2024 03:17
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Looking good is a lot more about the art design and what procedural generation tools you used for the greebles than it is about digital horsepower. Any zero-effort asset-flip can have high-res graphics these days, it takes more than that to impress people.
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Apr 22, 2024 03:20
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Arkham Knight still looks fantastic and Bioshocks art direction will always look superb to me
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Apr 22, 2024 03:24
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Art direction, design and aesthetics have always been the actual important part of graphics.
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Apr 22, 2024 05:56
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oldpainless posted:Arkham Knight still looks fantastic and Bioshocks art direction will always look superb to me Arkham Knight, which I believe was released in the before times, the long long ago, looks almost suspiciously good, especially compared to Gotham Knights which was released like last year and looks like poo poo.
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Apr 22, 2024 06:07
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I love Dishonored's art style and tone.
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Apr 22, 2024 06:26
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I can never imagine a point when the Witcher 3 will ever be truly ugly, it just works. Even things like infinity engine games will always work due to the strength of the style and direction.
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Apr 22, 2024 07:20
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:I love Dishonored's art style and tone. For all the gameplay critiques one can lay against it (rightfully so), it is so strong in style and setting that I still think on it very favourably.
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Apr 22, 2024 08:37
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TGG posted:I can never imagine a point when the Witcher 3 will ever be truly ugly, it just works. Even things like infinity engine games will always work due to the strength of the style and direction. I unironically love the way bg1 and 2 look. They just take me back to a time and place in my life other old pc games dont
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Apr 22, 2024 17:05
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The people of Dishonored have such gigantic hands.
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Apr 22, 2024 18:50
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Big hands, triangular faces. A species of moles.
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Apr 22, 2024 19:05
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I like the dramatic irony in Arc: Twilight of the Spirits. Darc is currently in the area that his brother started in and has no idea that his mother is just about half a mile thataway.
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Apr 22, 2024 20:08
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TGG posted:I can never imagine a point when the Witcher 3 will ever be truly ugly, it just works. Even things like infinity engine games will always work due to the strength of the style and direction. Witcher 3 is extremely ugly imo, the NPCs especially
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Apr 22, 2024 20:39
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Most of the NPCs in Witcher 3 being ugly fits my worldview of that place. As long as Geralt is smouldering and my magical waifus are gorg then that's all that matters.
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Apr 22, 2024 20:51
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Yep, that's how the Witcher should look.
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Apr 22, 2024 21:22
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Philippe posted:Big hands, triangular faces. The artists actually were making each social caste conform to a particular set of facial and body builds. The Nobles, the Soldiers, the Commoners, and the Thugs all have their own visual morphic style. I thought that was pretty cool.
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Apr 22, 2024 21:24
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Inspector Gesicht posted:There's a list of games that got spinoffs nobody wanted because they came at the expense of an actual installment. - Spyro after 3 - Crash Bandicoot on PS2 - Halo 4 And all of the original creators of these franchises moved on to wildly successful new shores (Infamous/Spider-Man, Uncharted, Destiny). Conversely, there's a trend of original creators (single people or team) making spiritual sequels to their beloved sequels - again, with the same gameplay - and often that also doesn't work out: - Yooka-Laylee (Banjo-Kazooie) - Hellgate: London (Diablo 2) - Mighty No. 9 (Mega Man) Perhaps the best of those efforts is Bloodstained (Castlevania), though that has its flaws too. But that's not a law or anything. It really just depends on who's making the game, and you can find plenty of examples where they assembled a new team, gave them the license to continue/revive an old series, and the resulting game is excellent: - Mega Man 11 - Crash 4 - the new Resident Evils In conclusion, talented people make good games and a game's name is just that.
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Apr 23, 2024 09:28
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Nostradingus posted:Witcher 3 is extremely ugly imo, the NPCs especially this tracks very much with rural central europe, so points for realism imo.
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Apr 23, 2024 11:46
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 this guy's cool as gently caress
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Apr 23, 2024 12:00
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Leal posted:Its wild to me that this game is like a hundred years old and still looks hella good Also the engine was crazy optimized, my shitbox computer from 2010 ran it at 60 fps. Sad that the engine was never really used for more.
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Apr 23, 2024 13:02
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Geralt is supposed to be ugly, gross and mostly hairless. I can't believe they didn't follow the books that definitely more than 4 people read.
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Apr 23, 2024 14:11
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Simply Simon posted:In conclusion, talented people make good games and a game's name is just that. I expect games to have a change in staff between titles, but there's still a need to retain the spirit and appeal of the work despite the changing of the guard. Resident Evil Village came out 25 years after the first game, and put side to side you can see the same DNA present despite the advancements in technology and presentation (Setting aside that Chris "Boulder Puncher" Redfield appears in both). A game like Federation Force was simply a terrible idea. Metroid was regarded for letting you explore lonely and alien worlds as badass bounty hunter Samus Aran. It had been six years since the maligned Other M, and what was offered was a cartoony multiplayer spinoff about a squad of red shirts playing football. Samus Aran appears and acts as the shittiest final boss possible. Had the game come out a decade prior when the franchise was prolific, nobody would have cared. But after a dry spell it was a fatal misreading of the market. It would have been less offensive had they just tooled it into a new IP. This example has happened many times, where an average or even good game is weighed down by a highly regarded yet dormant IP with a different set of expectations: XCOM, Syndicate, Alone in the Dark... Inspector Gesicht has a new favorite as of 14:36 on Apr 23, 2024 |
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Apr 23, 2024 14:33
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Aphrodite posted:I can't believe they didn't follow the books that definitely more than 4 people read.
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Apr 23, 2024 14:51
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And gamers rightly see it as lose-lose, because if the wild genre and/or tonal shift is successful than the publisher nearly always abandons the original genre to focus entirely on the new one (see Rayman and Raving Rabbids for a decade at least, Warcraft), and if it's unsuccessful they nearly always abandon the entire franchise blaming it for no longer having appeal. (Banjo-Kazooie, Syndicate) XCOM was a very lucky one where the publisher delayed the shooter and buried it (apparently the publisher was completely blindsided by the reaction while the devs were oblivious to it as they had their own problems with a disastrous production) following the positive response to the announcement of the remake and apparently realising people can and do want games other than shooters. Ghost Leviathan has a new favorite as of 15:20 on Apr 23, 2024 |
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Apr 23, 2024 15:17
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I was fully onboard with Fallout's shift to FPS, because the actual gameplay of the first two titles wasnt terribly good. New Vegas was the perfect meld of old school role-playing with modern design trends and sensibilities. The real downturn was Fallout 4 shifting towards a poor man's Borderlands model. There are remarkably few quests of substance, and a good chunk of the game is disconnected player-built content. Not helping was Bethesda choosing to lean on the same old iconography instead of developing any new ideas. The IP has become as stagnant as Star Wars. I would sacrifice god know's how many jelly babies if the Arkane who made Prey and Dishonored (and not the Arkane who made Deathloop, Youngblood, and Redfall) got a shot at Fallout.
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Apr 23, 2024 15:38
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Ghost Leviathan posted:And gamers rightly see it as lose-lose, because if the wild genre and/or tonal shift is successful than the publisher nearly always abandons the original genre to focus entirely on the new one (see Rayman and Raving Rabbids for a decade at least, Warcraft), and if it's unsuccessful they nearly always abandon the entire franchise blaming it for no longer having appeal. (Banjo-Kazooie, Syndicate) On the other hand the Final Fantasy franchise hasn't use the same world, characters, gameplay mechanics, tone or even art style for more than like 2 games at a time and is better for it.
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Apr 23, 2024 15:44
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https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/1736609878133850431?lang=en We could have had an Obsidian flavoured Elder Scrolls between Oblivion and Skyrim, and it's bullshit that it didn't happen
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Apr 23, 2024 16:33
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Idiootti posted:Also the engine was crazy optimized, my shitbox computer from 2010 ran it at 60 fps. Sad that the engine was never really used for more. Eight soccer games wasn't enough? Greedy much??
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Apr 23, 2024 16:34
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DMorbid posted:The books have apparently sold 15 million copies, so I'd imagine at least eight of those people might've read them It was like 5mil copies before the games, which means 2 and then some guy who was in an industrial accident.
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Apr 23, 2024 16:41
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I've never been able to cleanly articulate this, but I feel like people get way too hung up on IPs and brands and ultimately end up giving publishers even more power by being weirdly deferential to their ownership of those IPs and brands. People go "well EA should just make a new Command and Conquer game already" and it's like...do you actually want that? The same publisher that already treats its IPs as disposable, that will readily slap their name on lovely mobile games or worse (Dungeon Keeper mobile, anyone?), do you actually want those same dipshits anywhere near your dream game? Meanwhile, I wonder how many C&C fans even know who Petroglyph are. Maybe a few more nowadays thanks to the C&C Remaster, I guess. To be clear, I'm not saying people can't be unhappy that their favorite game series died out or whatever, I just think it's weird to pretend that yelling at publishers to get what you want is some big win for Gamers Rights rather than playing into their hands. I'm infinitely more offended that companies get to gobble up and keep a warchest of IPs and then disregard them in the first place. Because at the end of the day making a lovely reboot that nobody likes and continuing to ignore the franchise for another decade might as well be the same thing. Inspector Gesicht posted:This example has happened many times, where an average or even good game is weighed down by a highly regarded yet dormant IP with a different set of expectations: XCOM, Syndicate, Alone in the Dark... It's frustrating because people will project all their dislike of the situation onto the games themselves. Thief 4 is mediocre at best, but it did not irreparably harm anything just by existing. All of the harm came from its lovely publisher doing the usual lovely publisher stuff. Alone in the Dark is a really funny example because it has exactly one game that was significant...and it aged like crap. The franchise contains literally nothing else worth speaking of unless you're nuts like me and actually kinda like the 2009 one or enjoy really tepid RE knockoffs. Even the new one which is apparently okay made zero splash and got shrugged off immediately. I think another fascinating example is Prey. A game that had that title enforced by the publisher (that allegedly otherwise gives Arkane free reign to do whatever). Meanwhile the developers wanted to call it Psychoshock. What do the fans like to call it instead? System Shock 3.
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Apr 23, 2024 16:46
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people generally mean it as shorthand for "made by the original teams" even if that barely ever is true these days
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Apr 23, 2024 17:02
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flatluigi posted:people generally mean it as shorthand for "made by the original teams" even if that barely ever is true these days That just circles back to Simply Simon's point. Honestly these days "by the original developers of <nostalgic game>!!!" has stopped being a selling point for me. Though on that topic I did want to mention the dual example of Cyan, where they made the flawed but well-received Obduction followed by the full of AI crap shitshow that was Firmament.
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Apr 23, 2024 17:07
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I'm going to assume you just argued that game Firmament into existence because I never heard of it. What stinks about it?
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Apr 23, 2024 17:17
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Inspector Gesicht posted:I'm going to assume you just argued that game Firmament into existence because I never heard of it. What stinks about it? Well as per what I said, you know how the entire Myst style is by and large defined by journals, documents, in-universe books and lore and fiction, etc. etc.? Yeah they didn't have the time and money and effort to put into any of that this go around so they used AI instead. Instead of hiring voice actors, the sound engineer(s) used AI to manipulate their own voice(s) to fill out the cast. None of this was disclosed to their Kickstarter backers. The game is also really, really rough on a technical level. Lots of bugs. Despite them going all-in on VR lately, the VR implementation may have gotten even less work put into it than the desktop version. Edit: A good example from personal experience, the very first puzzle in the game, one encountered about five minutes in, can bug out in multiple different ways. In my case, a mechanism got hard stuck inside terrain, creating a soft lock. But let's say you can brush past those glaring issues, are the puzzles fun? No, they're awful. Endless fiddly procedural puzzles that exist to put arbitrary roadblocks in your way that you can intuit the basic mechanics of in minutes but struggle for an hour to implement the solution, which was the same problem with Obduction's most infamous puzzle. The core mechanic of the game is poorly thought out and feels like a regression towards overly simplified VR control gimmicks - you have a magic glove that shoots a plug into sockets, which then lets you manipulate mechanisms. Usually in a very basic "elevator go up/elevator go down" binary sort of way. This makes every puzzle (at least the handful I saw) feel very samey and adds additional overhead to doing basic things like opening doors. There's also upgrades to find for your magic glove, which means it's very possible to blunder into puzzles you feel like you should be able to solve but actually can't because you lack a required upgrade, with no clear sign that that's the case. And while I wouldn't normally point it out because it's not unusual in a vacuum, the final product doesn't really resemble the years of tech demos they showed off. The original concept had you working together with, in essence, one of those floating drone buddies from Destiny to solve puzzles. Meanwhile in the final game you do all of the puzzle solving yourself with the glove while a disembodied voice (represented by a glowing ghost cloud in the bottom corner of your screen) goes on random monologues when you stumble over arbitrarily placed triggers. Many of which are missable if you happen to not walk over that specific spot, and on the other hand many others go on and on and on without contributing much to the experience or conveying any relevant information. Probably because it's all AI-generated philosophical babble. The theory I saw going around is that the game had been in development too long and the KS money ran out so they just said gently caress it and shoved it out the door. John Murdoch has a new favorite as of 17:54 on Apr 23, 2024 |
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Apr 23, 2024 17:48
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Also all the tech demo/KS update stuff made it sound like they were super duper excited to be messing around with UE5, so I get a "yay we get to play with a new toy, oops it's not fun anymore" vibe from it.
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Apr 23, 2024 18:02
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