Steam Thread:It's easier to believe in myself with a +5 gargoyle tail axe in my hands

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Steam Thread:It's easier to believe in myself with a +5 gargoyle tail axe in my hands

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

I'm going to recommend Aliens: Dark Descent as my 'not worth it full price but def pick up at sale' nominee. It isn't brilliant and it has some jank to it, but it's an interesting game that dares to do something a bit different.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2023 14:38

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 08:54

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

Aliens has a definite 'we have the budget to make the game and then do *one* balance pass, hope everything works out' vibe. There's also oddness like the mission structure being very narrative driven and linear, while there's enormous randomness in the RPG mechanics that are almost trying to fit in with a roguelike mode.

I hope they get to make a game 2, maybe not even sticking with the aliens IP.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2023 15:22

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

State of Decay has the advantage of being the only thing that does what it does. Playercount on steamcharts is 1.5k so I presume a lot of the interest is via game pass.

SOD3 is presumably another iterative game so the devs might be getting some benefit from continuing to keep the lights on 2.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 16:35

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

DeadFatDuckFat posted:

So... is Manor lords good? Was thinking I might just pick it up with the discount now, even if its not very complete, and just play it later

Did you ever play Banished? https://store.steampowered.com/app/242920/Banished/

It's like banished but in Unreal and with combat.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 00:11

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

deep dish peat moss posted:

Is it possible to disable the combat in Manor Lords? Combat is the absolute last thing I want in my city builders but a new Banished sounds cool

e: I went ahead and bought it and to answer this question: yes you can

Also I'm sure it's historically accurate or something but umm this is quite an auto-generated player character name

Yeah you can just straight up turn off AI opponents and/or bandits.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 11:17

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

Oh no 3 dlc a year for 8 years at extremely reasonable prices, someone please save the video games industry

# ¿ Apr 30, 2024 16:18

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

Eediot Jedi posted:

Pretty shocked to try jagged alliance 3 and find out I hate the combat side of it. I played so much JA2 and 1.13 in the day, but to be fair, I reckon I'd hate them if I played them today too. It felt like nothing mattered. I don't mind chance to hit being hidden but hell I'd like someone to die after I go to the trouble of flanking and putting a close up burst into them. The bit that made me uninstall was seeing two dudes standing together, thinking great, I'll grenade them. Ok they both survived. Grenade again. Ok they both survived. Grenade again. Ok they both survived that to full auto hose down my squad, alt, f4, uninstall.

My game that bitterly disappointed me was Naval Action.

Such a brilliant battle arena game, then they decided to make it an mmo.

# ¿ May 1, 2024 14:16

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

Phlegmish posted:

Have they? That would be good, but all I've seen are some unofficial statements from Arrowhead devs on Discord.

I don't personally think requiring players to sign up for a PSN account is a huge deal, provided they're actually able to do so. Yes, I did remove Helldivers 2 from my wish list, but that's because I was pretty much exactly on the fence beforehand. I like co-op games, but don't care for shooters. If I had been enthusiastic about the game it wouldn't have stopped me for a second.

The reason I think this is interesting is because it's such an unforced error. Sony released a statement about requiring a PSN account, and then basically logged off for the weekend. It apparently didn't occur to them that legitimately registering for PSN is impossible in the majority of the world's countries. Realistically, you know that they're going to backtrack or allow loopholes on this, but they just didn't address it at all. It's like they're unfamiliar with the Internet. They allowed it to develop into a Controversy�, and now their game is getting review bombed into oblivion:

Most of this could have been avoided by adding just a single paragraph pre-emptively addressing the concerns that people would realistically have. It's always baffling to see how poor the communication from some of these mega-corporations can be.

Also just burning their professional relationship with a developer who's potentially a golden goose for them.

# ¿ May 4, 2024 16:42

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

kazil posted:

Is "please do not use a quote about the holocaust when talking about bad corporate gaming decisions" too long for a thread title?

Just 'Steam Thread: please do not use a quote about the holocaust'

# ¿ May 4, 2024 18:11

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

The funny thing is it is absolutely believable that Sony execs in Japan literally did not understand and foresee the behaviours of the international PC gaming market.

# ¿ May 6, 2024 08:55

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

Runa posted:

Sony's gaming subsidiaries were reconsolidated into Sony Interactive Entertainment, based in San Mateo, almost a decade ago. It's Americans making these decisions.

Huh, I learned a thing.

# ¿ May 6, 2024 10:06

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

Velocity Raptor posted:

Absolutely this. A game doesn't just have to be profitable, it needs to make up for all the other studio's failures. The announcements always say "Didn't meet sales expectations."

From the article (this was just after Hi-Fi Rush released and everyone was raving about it):

Not that it "wasn't profitable," but rather "it just didn't make enough money".

I almost wonder if it's actually worse to be a somewhat successful game? Like the CEO perception of a game like Hi-Fi is that "it did well, but why didn't it do better?" As opposed to a absolute flop where the CEOs are like, "Well, at least we get a tax writeoff."

It's just a weird juxtaposition when the devs say "this was a breakout success" and then the publisher says "we're shutting you down."

Video game publishing has always been a spread betting game. Sometimes huge projects flop, sometimes some one man's seven year passion project sells a bazillion copies. The wins have to overcome the losses - that's not unfair, that's just how literally any industry where you are selling multiple products that are based on whims of the public works.

At a very minimum, the win needs to be better than just sticking the development cash in the S&P 500 and watching number go up.

# ¿ May 7, 2024 19:39

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

Ghostlight posted:

I'm playing Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes!

It's a great JRPG throwback to one of my favourite Playstation titles, Suikoden (and sequels). If you're not familiar with the series, it has a kind of a kitchen-sink style philosophy, featuring both six-person party combat, two-person duels, and large-scale army combat while you manage both a resistance, the reconstruction of a castle base, and recruitment of dozens of playable characters, associated minigames, and resources. Yes, it also has a cooking competition, a card game, and even beyblades.

It also has a really nice blend of 2D sprites and 3D environments that I think they've absolutely nailed stylistically. My only complaint is that a majority of the English voices sound way too British.

I love the environments, tbh I'm struggling in the prologue with the 6 person party combat. It seems really difficult to set up a strategic set of moves given the number of moving pieces.

# ¿ May 8, 2024 08:50

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:

corporations suck and are not your friend but they�re also not always soul sucking evil creatures. sometimes they�re dumbasses that get stuck in the doorway and you can poke at them until they die. sometimes they�re even trying to be friendly but they walk off cliffs or bridges or into the path of your own shots and they die anyway.

Bear in mind that Square Enix basically shuttered IO Interactive as they finished Part 1 and the execs literally bought themselves out on faith that the game would be a success just to keep going. It's a miracle of success that they charted a path through the various crises and we got 3 fantastic games now rolled into one out of it.

# ¿ May 8, 2024 20:26

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 08:54

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

Randallteal posted:

The problem is CA's going to spend four years working on Total War: Middle Earth or Battletech or whatever and it's going to come out and get played for like two weeks before people go back to the old game with a million factions and unique units and mechanics added over a bunch of time. TW:Warhammer 1 didn't have those huge expectations to live up to so it didn't matter that it launched with five factions and like ten lords.

I don't think it's that bad, but I do agree that CA are going to struggle to make another successful game that looks and feels like 'a TW game'. It can be an RTS, it can have a grand strategy layer, but the time has come to make something we haven't seen before.

# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:38

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