PYF Things Dragging Games Down: finding a mullet in a treasure chest

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Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

I was hoping someone had made an edit of the No Man's Sky boxart to turn it into "Nor Man's Reedus" but I can't find one so just imagine I posted it and it was funny

# ¿ Oct 22, 2020 14:06

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 13:10

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

The plot is like Mario, the game explains this very clearly.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2020 13:41

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Inspector Gesicht posted:

Death Stranding

There's a bit just after the halfway-point where Mads Mikkelson ambushes you in a Great War trench while flanked by a gang of skeleton soldiers.

Up until now the game was balanced on Hard, since difficulty only affected damage numbers while the actual challenge was about logistics and traversal. You only get a Game Over if your cargo gets destroyed. The regular obstacles like the ghosts, acid-rain, and psychotic postmen can be easily navigated around or neutralised.

But when Mads and the skeleton lads come along the game turns into a clumsy third-person shooter. If you die you don't lose your way for a bit, you get sent back to a checkpoint. It feels like a very typical setpiece in a very atypical game. Dropping the difficulty to Easy for this segment feels like a bandaid, it could have been better handled since there where no gunfiights before this point.

That's easily the hardest part of the game and the worst of those odd setpiece fights - without spoiling anything there are two more and they're significantly easier. I died 10-20 times on the first one and 0 times on the next two.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2020 13:14

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Nosgoth lol

# ¿ Nov 2, 2020 15:58

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Triarii posted:

That really highlights how dumb they are as loot in a Zelda game, though. If I completed a dungeon and opened the big chest at the end and got a bunch of bullets, I'd be like uhh wtf

Also typically when you empty your gun in a game, you don't have to pause the game, open a menu, and select the next magazine of ammo you want to load.

You can select your weapons with uh the d pad I think

# ¿ Nov 5, 2020 00:07

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

The Moon Monster posted:

No, they 100% said it was coming out on PC during an early announcement. It came as a big surprise to me, it's not the kind of thing I would make up for myself.

Yeah I can back this up, they definitely said this then backtracked. Wouldn't be surprised if it comes to PC eventually since Sony have said they want to bring more of their games to PC anyway, but I get the impression someone was off message

# ¿ Nov 15, 2020 16:17

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

RenegadeStyle1 posted:

I like having to play inside Xcom 2s weird dumb rules. It makes it like a puzzle and a RTS.

I enjoyed the XCOM reboot series more when I realised it's basically an abstract board game rather than a normal tactical strategy game. It probably shouldn't have set the template for tactical RPGs for the following decade though.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2020 13:12

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Cleretic posted:

I love XCOM, but it is a bit of a shame that there isn't really such a thing as 'turn-based strategy' outside of XCOM and XCOM-likes right now. There's 4x and grand strategy, which is totally legitimate and I love it for what it is, but the last thing that could legitimately be called 'turn-based strategy' outside of those molds was... what, the last Heroes of Might and Magic, in 2015? And that wasn't a good HoMM game.

I can think of a few, mostly indies and games that lean further towards tactical RPG than strategy - Battle Brothers, Battletech, Fell Seal, Into the Breach off the top of my head. It's hard to fully escape the ubiquity of the XCOM influence completely though, I'm sure even a couple of those I'm thinking of use e.g. the XCOM two-action system

I mean, XCOM played a huge part in turn based becoming cool again so we probably wouldn't have half the options we do without it. I just miss action points and more granular, simulation style mechanics. My kingdom for a new Silent Storm

Lunchmeat Larry has a new favorite as of 13:36 on Nov 19, 2020

# ¿ Nov 19, 2020 13:33

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

RGX posted:

Lots of great suggestions here, will definitely check out everything recommended, thanks!

Yeah I've been thinking about this a lot. I certainly see the problem Star Citizen has where if you were to truly attempt to hand-craft the be all and end all of space universes you quickly spiral into so many systems and mechanics that the project is unworkable, a proper jack of all trades and master of none. As for Elite and NMS, procedural generation just doesn't seem ready for the big time yet and thats fair enough given the mind blowing problems the tech has to solve. Interestingly, Stellaris scratches the itch somewhat with all its nice bits of flavour text, artifacts to scan etc and I'm definitely not opposed to grand strategy, I just wish it was on a more personal scale rather than the whole take over the galaxy from above format.

I guess what I'm looking for really is a halfway house, and no-one seems to be making those. I think in an ideal world you could have the ship management of FTL (a 3d version would be nice), the open universe "gosh its big out here" atmosphere of Elite, and crucially, a procedurally generated universe peppered with developer created exploration opportunities. I think the tendency is for developers to go "well obviously we can't create a huge universe by hand, so pass it off to the procedural tech and be done with it" and we are nowhere near making that compelling or workable. I don't want the moon on a stick, but how about every tenth planet/space station/anomaly or something has an element of hands on developer work with it? 40 hours or so of actual developer created content, the rest is handled by the algorithm and may or may not suck.

In all honesty, I'd take everything hand created and a relatively short game if it was interesting enough, but I think you could blend the two concepts to really give it that sense of scale which is so important to the feel of a space game. I begrudge X4 massively for having so many of the elements I'm looking for while being so over-complicated and menu based that it sucks all the fun out of it, it's like they've put all the work into handcrafting a huge universe and then made it as obtuse as possible to spoil any enjoyment gained by actually exploring it.

Also while I'm wishing for things I don't have and being an entitled little bitch, a gold plated Lamborghini and a few million in my bank account would be great. If everyone could get on these ideas quick as they can, I'll wait here and complain.

Again, thanks for the suggestions all, I knew this thread would throw up some good ideas.

As you say I don't think there's anything which will quite hit all the points you're after, but have you given Star Traders: Frontiers a shot?

# ¿ Nov 23, 2020 16:19

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Inspector Gesicht posted:

I thought the depiction of Koreans was strange in Kiwami 2. They're victims of a massacre, but also a syndicate of terminators who infiltrate every echelon. The main antagonist is Korean but also sympathetic because he doesn't give a poo poo about conspiracies and just wants to punch you.

Yeah the stuff with the Chinese mafia in 0 is weird but easy enough to mostly ignore, the Koreans in Kiwami 2 are downright bizarrely depicted, it's just constantly jarring

# ¿ Dec 9, 2020 20:49

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Inspector Gesicht posted:

Players have found the lifepath/origins in Cyberpunk fairly underwhelming. The main quest is 30 missions long and only the very first mission differs based on your background, before you are quickly being booted into the universal main plot.

well, of course - Cyberpunk presents a true free market where anyone can make it through hard work, so it doesn't matter where your character comes from. I salute CDPR's realistic portrayal of a capitalist utopia.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2020 16:05

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

I got to the first Darkest Dungeon mission and kind of stopped. The game is fine but it is just too luck-reliant to stay interesting for me, and a few cheap deaths/failure cascades later - including my Jester being one hit killed by a crit/poison attack - I decided there just wasn't really enough interesting content to grind up a decent new four-man team that would suit the mission.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2020 19:47

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

The Moon Monster posted:

I don't really mind it in games like Xenoblade that have way more RPG DNA than something like Asscreed or Mordor.

Yeah the problem isn't that RPGs have enemies which are stronger than you, the problem is that action games have decided to be a half-arsed mix of both to justify having 100 hours of playtime and microtransaction XP boosts.

One of my favourite things about games like Morrowind and Gothic is that you can take the calculated risk of sneaking into a high level area you have no business being in, and get absurdly powerful rewards ahead of schedule. It's an interest high stakes high reward challenge which there's no pressure to take on, but you can do it if you feel up to it. The way the likes of Mordor and AC (probably the two biggest offenders I can think of offhand) are structured this isn't something that can really happen and the loot and enemies are procedural and level scaled to a point that would make Oblivion blush and it's just overall a Skinner box substitute for good game design.

Edit VVV yeah NV is a recent example of a game that gets the balance down quite well (though I uh think it's now older than Morrowind was when NV came out?? Hm don't like that)

There are a few exceptions in both games, but usually in the first ten hours, and even then half the time it turns out the cool reward has a level requirement anyway so you can't use it. Which would seem to defeat the purpose. If the point is that I should be at level 35 to fight the level 35 orc in order to get his level 35 axe, and if I manage to beat him at level 20 through skill and cunning, the game's response is "no you were supposed to wait to level 35 to do that, gently caress you" please just make a normal action game with no level system and maybe even a series of missions instead of an open world with nothing worth visiting out of order.

Lunchmeat Larry has a new favorite as of 19:09 on Jan 20, 2021

# ¿ Jan 20, 2021 18:40

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

BioEnchanted posted:

With the "level matching in open world games" problem, , Immortals: Fenyx Rising has a clever way of doing it - the more chests/ambrosia/lightnings you collect the harder enemies get everywhere, because the game knows you have a ton of upgrade materials and will be able to keep up with the increasing difficulty.

In that case I would simply not collect that stuff.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2021 18:04

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Shai-Hulud posted:

They were doing that weren't they? It was called Skulls & Bones or something like that? Ubisoft announced it a couple of years ago at E3 with the usual "Popsong but slow and orchestral" trailer and then never spoke of it again. I wonder if it has been quietly shelved or if someone is still working on that...

When I played Odyssey I had the firm conviction that the ship combat had deliberately been neutered so that it wasn't seen as competing with Skull and Bones, which felt insane but also like the sort of thing Ubi might do. I have only become more sure of this as time has gone on and it makes it even funnier that the game clearly isn't coming out lol

# ¿ Jan 25, 2021 14:56

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Honestly the reason that I just don't play dmc5 on a constant loop is V. He was fun the first time through but on replays his moveset has the depth of a puddle and his missions drag. It was a cool idea but doesn't hold up past the first playthrough imo

# ¿ Jan 25, 2021 15:49

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

2B's reaction in ending A doesn't really make that much sense, best I can think of is that we know murder makes androids horny (or the equivalent of horny) and it freaks her out a bit in the circumstances

# ¿ May 15, 2021 22:27

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

1stGear posted:

In every thread that tangentially mentions Resident Evil, Len will barge in and shout "DO YOU KNOW GOONS THOUGHT RESIDENT EVIL 7 WASN'T GOING TO HAVE COMBAT HAHA HOW STUPID". It's a gimmick they've been keeping up for years. Please do not engage with them.

You can distract them by saying something nice about Breath of the Wild

# ¿ May 16, 2021 21:09

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Captain Hygiene posted:

I'm giving Outer Wilds (not Worlds) another try and something I didn't remember is how happy the autopilot is to kill you. I engaged it to get to a distant planet and it tried to go straight there even though my home planet was blocking the way. Then I remaneuvered myself after bouncing off it and reengaged the autopilot....only for it to send me straight through a tiny lava planet that popped up in the way

I love that this unlocks a dialogue option to complain about it flying you into the sun and the guy at camp is just like "'yeah lol that happens"

# ¿ May 24, 2021 21:53

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Captain Hygiene posted:

I couldn't figure out a way to take off the helmet in space but I may be dumb.

I was going to, but I saw folks complaining online that it erased mission progress. If that's not the case, then no big deal at all.

I mean it ends your "run" but there's no way to lose ship's log entries and those are the only things that carry over from death to death

# ¿ May 24, 2021 22:40

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Stexils posted:

it's easy to forget how much previous knowledge you have about games until you try to teach your parents or one of your friends who has never touched a game in your favorite genre

Yeah it's a tricky balancing act. I think with controls becoming more standardised and kids playing more complex games from a young age we'll see the issue largely go away with younger audiences but there's always going to be someone who just doesn't get what they've been sat in front of

I'm reminded of the Lego Star Wars developers talking about their upcoming Skywalker Saga game having more complex gameplay than previous ones and being like "it's still aimed at the same kid audience as Lego Star Wars 1 was, but that was 2005 and your average five year old now is playing Minecraft and Zelda, it's a totally different level of acquired knowledge". Thought that was v interesting

# ¿ May 26, 2021 13:48

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Doctor Spaceman posted:

I've been playing a bunch of Lego games with my now 5 year old over the past few years. The early ones are quite frustrating to play with her and one of the reason is that they don't have on-screen button prompts for most things.

Another is that they are really inconsistent about what buttons actually do things, with B (on XBox) often being the basic action button but also being cancel. It makes (more) sense to me but is understandably confusing for her.

I think they're still all built on the original engine and it's been creaking under the weight for years now, as I understand the big deal with the new SW one is that it's a totally new engine which is extremely overdue and hopefully will be a bit less janky

# ¿ May 26, 2021 15:03

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Ugly In The Morning posted:

Oh my god the way the AI worked for the guest party members in SMTIV made that Minotaur fight a nightmare. They basically just keep buffing the poo poo out of him by hitting him with things he’s resistant to.

One of the big reasons that SMT4: Apocalypse is the much much better game. It's a shame it got a bit overlooked because it's a pleasure to play all the way through

# ¿ May 29, 2021 22:19

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 13:10

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Things dragging down the fun game of punching myself in the head over and over; the weird uncomfortable "ringing" feeling in that side of my head and the fact that I know I'm capable of hitting harder than that

# ¿ May 30, 2021 02:01

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