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From a little earlier in the thread, but I don't really have an issue with the Isu stuff in general, personally. I consider it fairly integral to the franchise's identity, and unlocking the full scene of your cave man ancestors climbing their way onto a goddamn sci-fi hub in 1 remains the coolest and most breathtaking moment in the entire series. The problem in Valhalla is the way they did it is so loving boring. The entire fun of a game like this is getting distracted, going towards your destination when suddenly "ooh shiny" and then you run off into a random cave to check if there's something behind this waterfall. But then you get to Valhalla and you're stuck in the most boring kind of fantasy setting you've ever seen, the map is a pain in the rear end to traverse, and there's no reason to get distracted or run in a random direction. The only treasure to find are these rocks and you need all 30 of them to do anything with and once you realize that every single one is behind a tedious puzzle your interest in finding them plummets. And then apparently remembering being an Isu makes Basim some unstoppable war god because despite the fact I spent the entire fight stomping a mudhole in his rear end he was so powerful that we needed to stick him on the matrix stick instead of just...continuing to kick the poo poo out of him. Or like, stabbing him when he's unconscious on the matrix stick. It all could have been told so much better and led somewhere more interesting. The only time it's cool is when you solve the jumping light puzzles and see what really happened as opposed to the mythologized version. That bit where I watch the technoversion of drinking the mead and getting to compare it to the Valhalla version was cool as poo poo! It's such a shame that everything getting to that point was just poo poo!
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May 17, 2024 01:43
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Mantis42 posted:anyways im upset that they put a black guy in japan and ruined the historical accuracy. i wont be playing until i can fix it with a 'white yasuke' mod The mysterious samurai turns around. He is a white man with freckles and curly red hair.
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May 17, 2024 01:59
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Kosume Shezaki posted:That's roughly it to be honest outside of Akechi handing him back to the Jesuits and some potential physical depictions in art. After that, he disappears (it's not even certain what the Jesuits did with him after) so while Yasuke is historical, I would say more blank slate than not. He was only in Nobunaga's service fora bit over a year. Yeah, Yasuke is basically notable for existing. Whether he did anything notable is unknown.
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May 17, 2024 02:49
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Well, we're about to find out that he saved the world from the Isu or something
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May 17, 2024 03:03
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Ytlaya posted:The mysterious samurai turns around. He is a white man with freckles and curly red hair. It saddens me that there is one guy whoose whole thing is de-diversifying games. I think he's been banned from nexus but he still keeps going. Anyway, there's a part of me that hopes they unwittingly implement gaijin smash as game mechanic. Yes Yasuke won't be the stealthiest, but maybe get the enemies to ask themselves "Do I really want to tussle with this 6 foot man armed to teeth" and just so happen to remember things they have to do far out of sword point. Kosume Shezaki fucked around with this message at 03:17 on May 17, 2024 |
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May 17, 2024 03:11
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Mantis42 posted:anyways im upset that they put a black guy in japan and ruined the historical accuracy. i wont be playing until i can fix it with a 'white yasuke' mod Currently fans of very specific historical accuracy have an idea that actually technically sources do not say he was a samurai. He was "merely" an African man who managed to become a member of Oda Nobunaga retinue. From what I understand historians have little doubt he got a status of samurai.
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May 17, 2024 07:07
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Dapper_Swindler posted:would japane even care. there are like animes and poo poo that potray him as an utter fucker or as UFO chibi girl. they wont give a gently caress probably. that being said most of the chatter so far is chuds bitching and moaning. Probably not, which is sad. More countries should complain about ubisoft through formal diplomatic channels like Bolivia did with Ghost Recon: Wildlands, simply because it is funny. ilitarist posted:Currently fans of very specific historical accuracy have an idea that actually technically sources do not say he was a samurai. He was "merely" an African man who managed to become a member of Oda Nobunaga retinue. From what I understand historians have little doubt he got a status of samurai. I thought the official position generally was "who knows? <shrug>" and that everyone thought it was cool except for now it's not because we exist in a living nightmare. Cutedge fucked around with this message at 07:59 on May 17, 2024 |
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May 17, 2024 07:56
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Cutedge posted:I thought the official position generally was "who knows? <shrug>" and that everyone thought it was cool except for now it's not because we exist in a living nightmare. It is always amusing to see how a selective love for historical truth works. AskHistorians reddit is a good well-moderated place where mostly real historians answer questions and they suffer from waves of questions and having to delete hundreds of comments. AC as a game series made its impact here too.
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May 17, 2024 08:08
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I mean I guess social stealth isn't coming back. The last time collectibles were good in a AC game was Black Flag. Edward has to to traditional piratey things to get them like dig up buried treasure, rob guys, and use his sixth sense to detect alien artefacts. The challenges were appropriate and fun and the reward at the end was clearly telegraphed.
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May 17, 2024 08:24
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https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1css0ye/comment/l4bghbu/ Huh, I learned something. I had seen people discussing this elsewhere with regards to the texts about him, but the context of "stipend" really does some footwork here. Plus I guess this: quote:At this point in time a samurai was basically anyone who 1) went to war armed and ready to fight and 2) either a) awarded/inherited an estate with enough income capable of supporting at least a family plus hire follower(s) for war, b) paid a stipend which was "permanent" (as in not just for the duration of the task) of about that value, or c) had enough property to be some sort of community leader so could be called upon for war often with follower(s). I suppose this is one of those cases where modern media has kind of made samurai into this legendary formalized thing when earlier in history it is much more fluid. Makes sense. I do appreciate the nudge in the right direction here 
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May 17, 2024 08:36
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ilitarist posted:Currently fans of very specific historical accuracy have an idea that actually technically sources do not say he was a samurai. neither does the game so far  them, drooling: "he was just a guy running around fighting!" me, perking up: "oh?"
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May 17, 2024 08:43
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Cutedge posted:I suppose this is one of those cases where modern media has kind of made samurai into this legendary formalized thing when earlier in history it is much more fluid. Makes sense. Technically Samurai are produced in the province of Samurai, everything else is a sparkling professional warrior. I saw this exact thread and I've seen a lot of threads about other cases like that where people go "but we don't have a trustworthy source spelling out that X existed/happened". And when you put it like that you can throw out all of history textbooks cause we don't have solid evidence that Alexander the Great existed. Alchenar posted:I mean I guess social stealth isn't coming back. We'll see. Perhaps the switch between characters will work like outfit switching in that Liberation game. The guy presumably will be instantly recognized by anyone who looks at him, at the gal could pose as a simple peasant. I don't remember if these were in Black Flag, but I played Rogue much later and I enjoyed getting Animus Fragments much more than I thought. The parkour in these games is simplified but the environments are complex enough so that a little star just hanging somewhere made me look around to find out how can I get there. The collectible itself was pointless (I think it unlocked some cheats or something) but it never felt like a chore to get it so I collected something like 75% of them without conciously concentrating on it, and I'm not the kind of person to collect collectibles in games. Treasures were cool too, yeah.
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May 17, 2024 08:52
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I have to say, Rogue was so good. It's criminally underrated because people were too busy talking about what a (technical) trainwreck Unity was. I probably prefer the older pathway style parkour than the more modern "you can just climb up anything" tbh. It definitely can be kind of a puzzle game to get to things like the collectibles. Cutedge fucked around with this message at 08:59 on May 17, 2024 |
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May 17, 2024 08:54
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It was fun, but with modern graphics complex environments it would be very hard to see what you can or can't climb. Maybe a good designer team can do it but it's not feasible in a big game. Mirage again convinced me of this cause it had to be very obvious with its level design to a point of feeling artificial. I expect Red to work like Odyssey and Valhalla, allowing you to climb everything except for obvious unclimeable things. In Origins and Odyssey it looked like fort walls were supposed to be unclimeable and it changed a minute before release, perhaps in Shadows it will be like that and you'll have to use rope which is probably loud and visible.
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May 17, 2024 09:05
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Yeah in Origins the forts are all clearly designed with "there are 3 ways to get in, one obvious and two non obvious" and then they just made it so that you can climb the walls.
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May 17, 2024 09:23
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Heh, I have always wondered why they bothered to create all those concealed underground entrances when it was easier and faster to just scale a random wall. Now I know.
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May 17, 2024 09:55
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switching on the fly between them could be really fun, curious how they handle it
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May 17, 2024 11:01
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Mr. Neutron posted:Heh, I have always wondered why they bothered to create all those concealed underground entrances when it was easier and faster to just scale a random wall. Now I know. Not that I've seen any developer confirm it, but it looks like an obvious explanation that they decided everything can be climbed only late in the development. I bet playtesters were very frustrated with readability of these huge environments and also with the need to run around mountains for minutes.
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May 17, 2024 11:16
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I remember the first time I ran into a mountainside in Siwa and instead of bouncing off Bayek just started going up this sheer flat vertical face and I realise 'oh, this is what has happened to the climbing puzzle'. I presume that was a surprise to a lot of people which is why Odyssey's tutorial has you climbing up a statue's cock.
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May 17, 2024 11:41
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Cutedge posted:https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1css0ye/comment/l4bghbu/ yeah, its the difference between knight and knight kinda thing and when in time it was. alot of the romantic and formalized imagery while sorta of around then was written long after the forever wars stopped when knights and samurai were basicaly rich guys whos great great great great grandfathers actually did stuff and they are nepos.
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May 17, 2024 13:07
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I went ahead and pre-ordered the gold edition of Shadows from Green Man Gaming with close to a 20% discount. I've always felt I get my money's worth from the games.
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May 18, 2024 17:02
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Even if you won't regret the purchase pre ordering is in any case giving corporation's even more bad lessons than they already learned.
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May 18, 2024 18:24
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Burns posted:Im going to have a blast watching the internet today. You weren't kidding. And it's still raging. I bet Wikipedia didn't expect, out of nowhere, to have to lock the Yasuke page, and that was one of the more benign things. Anyway
However, The Premium Consumer Remains Strong In The Face Of The Moral Hazard Of Giving Ubisoft Money. e.g. me, mulling on Valhalla if I can get a good coupon - even though I won't get round to playing it till like 2027! Guess I'll still keep drinking that garbage.
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May 19, 2024 06:13
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Rattlehead posted:I went ahead and pre-ordered the gold edition of Shadows from Green Man Gaming with close to a 20% discount. I've always felt I get my money's worth from the games. that's cool, i'll probably pirate it because ubisoft is a lovely company that hates consumers
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May 19, 2024 06:18
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Let's be fair, they also hate their employees.
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May 19, 2024 06:20
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Not relevant to Shadows but I'm playing AC Odyssey again and I love that I can't talk to anybody in Sparta because they're constantly under attack by wolves. I wonder if Herodotus wrote about this.
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May 20, 2024 02:10
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MinistryofLard posted:Not relevant to Shadows but I'm playing AC Odyssey again and I love that I can't talk to anybody in Sparta because they're constantly under attack by wolves. i like that if you get into fights, civilians might just pick something up and try to fight you, greece is more armed the texas.
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May 20, 2024 16:45
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You can really see why the Wolf of Sparta was so feared by his own countrymen.
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May 20, 2024 16:56
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Dapper_Swindler posted:i like that if you get into fights, civilians might just pick something up and try to fight you, greece is more armed the texas. Iirc you can prevent this by destroying the weapon stands ahead of time.
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May 20, 2024 17:00
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Rinkles posted:Iirc you can prevent this by destroying the weapon stands ahead of time. yeah but i dont want too. i find it funny.
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May 20, 2024 17:45
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I was noting that as a cool emergent system, not trying to give civilian fighting tips
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May 20, 2024 17:48
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In enemy camps there are lightly armed enemies and they will also run to the weapon racks when they are alarmed. Breaking those also brings down the leader power in the region. It's not immersive sim, but it's as close as it's ever been to this genre on a scale like that.
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May 20, 2024 18:28
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Rinkles posted:I was noting that as a cool emergent system, not trying to give civilian fighting tips lol i know. I will give ubisoft games credit and say that have dope rear end emergent systems for the most part. like you can just board any random ship in oddssey if you can swim or catch it.
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May 20, 2024 18:49
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Rinkles posted:Iirc you can prevent this by destroying the weapon stands ahead of time. Then they attack you with brooms. Or punch your face.
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May 20, 2024 21:45
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MinistryofLard posted:Not relevant to Shadows but I'm playing AC Odyssey again and I love that I can't talk to anybody in Sparta because they're constantly under attack by wolves. I am also replaying Odyssey now that I got a beefy new PC and man is the game a looker maxed out on an HDR capable OLED. I thought Origins was already a good looking game but Odyssey is on yet another level. Mr. Neutron fucked around with this message at 07:54 on May 24, 2024 |
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May 24, 2024 07:45
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Is there anything I should know before playing Mirage?
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May 24, 2024 07:51
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If you played Valhalla you probably know more than you should. If you want the game to keep interesting do not take smoke bombs, at least till the late game. The game works fine if you just follow the critical path, don't sweat about side stories. Try to collect all the discovery tour trivia collectibles. They explain a lot about what developers ocncentrated on and why they portrayed this or that historical reality in a specific way. I think it enriches the experience. It wasn't obvious to me, but in the first mission where you can use opportunities (Caravan sarai) you *must* use opportunities. Other missions are not as railroading but in this one you can clear out the whole location and then wonder what are you supposed to do.
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May 24, 2024 08:42
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The Lone Badger posted:Is there anything I should know before playing Mirage? you are playing as the deuterantagonist from Valhalla
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May 24, 2024 08:42
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Mr. Neutron posted:I am also replaying Odyssey now that I got a beefy new PC and man is the game a looker maxed out on an HDR capable OLED. I thought Origins was already a good looking game but Odyssey is on yet another level. The recently released (on PC) Ghost of Tsushima is an absolute top-tier OLED game. Highly recommended if you want eye candy on an OLED (and in general, but the way the game uses colors benefits immensely from an OLED display). Cyberpunk also looks amazing on an OLED display (and is probably the straight-up best looking game I've ever played - nothing is really on the same level of as Cyberpunk at night with ray-traced reflections enabled).
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May 24, 2024 09:02
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I've upgraded to Steam Deck OLED for several reasons and curiosity about HDR was one of them. It didn't impress me as much as I hoped it would. Granted, it's a small screen which probably has not the greatest quality (and also mura effect looking horrible). My mistake was expecting more natural colors but in the end when HDR works right you don't notice it till you get some very shiny high contrast colors. Like looking at the sun or fire in the dark. The effect is most noticeable in Valhalla which is moody and foggy and then you look at the sunbeams in the fog and it is cool. This high contrast sometimes made my eyes hurt and in many games it looked unnatural. Ubisoft games did the best HDR I tried with their realistic graphics. In games like Mass Effect Legendary Edition where the graphics are more stylized it felt like it's there to just make lens flare more pronounced. In other games it just looked weird, and from the discussions on the internet I understand a lot of people share the sentiment that HDR implementation in games is often lacking. What I'm saying is while it is nice be sure to check out how it looks before investing in costly HDR solutions. Also it's a little bit sad that nowadays everything is converting to OLED. Depending on the quality of it you can get very pronounced mura effect, and depending on your eyes you can get eyestrain and headache from it. SD implementation has issues with brightness (there's very little leeway between the image looking artificially dimmed/oversaturated) among other things. I really hope that next generation of portable consoles keeps LCD screen as an option.
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May 24, 2024 10:38
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