2022-2024 Video Games Thread

[dubb93]

There is a 22 minute gameplay feature on IGN of the new Dragon Age and MY GOD.

First off it looks like the faces are missing textures. That's the first thing I noticed.

Second the dev was playing a mage and was getting focused by about 8 mobs each fight turning the game basically into a dodging simulator. No you really can't swap to other party members. I mean...swapping to a tanky character and pulling aggro would probably make the encounters more fun, but who the hell wants to do that when you just dodge. AND I MEAN FUCKING DODGE. Why the hell would you do this to Dragon Age? Even if it does end up being fun....it's not the game it says it is. Why not just make a new game series at that point? You wouldn't make or even play a civilization game where you actually drive the tanks. The troubled state of the industry is absolutely self-inflicted.

[Atocep]

Everyone wants to jump on the Souls-like gameplay without understanding what makes the Souls gameplay work. They just think of they add some rolling to dodge spells and abilities it's Souls gameplay and a success.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by dubb93

There is a 22 minute gameplay feature on IGN of the new Dragon Age and MY GOD.

First off it looks like the faces are missing textures. That's the first thing I noticed.

Second the dev was playing a mage and was getting focused by about 8 mobs each fight turning the game basically into a dodging simulator. No you really can't swap to other party members. I mean...swapping to a tanky character and pulling aggro would probably make the encounters more fun, but who the hell wants to do that when you just dodge. AND I MEAN FUCKING DODGE. Why the hell would you do this to Dragon Age? Even if it does end up being fun....it's not the game it says it is. Why not just make a new game series at that point? You wouldn't make or even play a civilization game where you actually drive the tanks. The troubled state of the industry is absolutely self-inflicted.

I largely felt this way about the last one, Dragon Age: Inquisition. I tried playing it three separate times and could just never get into it. The game play was just too different from what I wanted out of the series (see, DA1 and DA2).

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I largely felt this way about the last one, Dragon Age: Inquisition. I tried playing it three separate times and could just never get into it. The game play was just too different from what I wanted out of the series (see, DA1 and DA2).

This one looks further from Inquisition that Inquisition was from the first two games. It really does suck when your genre gets popular again but you are in the middle of developing a game for 9 year old trends (this game has been in development for 9 years) so you aren’t able to capitalize on it.

[Thomkal]

So No Man's Sky introduced fishing to the game today. Taking advantage of recent graphics changes that really make the landscapes/water/skies look very nice indeed you can now go anywhere in the galaxy and fish to your heart's content.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by dubb93

This one looks further from Inquisition that Inquisition was from the first two games. It really does suck when your genre gets popular again but you are in the middle of developing a game for 9 year old trends (this game has been in development for 9 years) so you aren’t able to capitalize on it.

ARK 2 is the same way. I don't know why. ARK was a fantastic game, and very unique in the market, why do they need to make ARK 2 a souls-like game? But honestly, I don't know if it will ever come out.

[Atocep]

$700 for a PS5 Pro is absolutely absurd.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

So No Man's Sky introduced fishing to the game today. Taking advantage of recent graphics changes that really make the landscapes/water/skies look very nice indeed you can now go anywhere in the galaxy and fish to your heart's content.

Is this game worth picking up on console? I just need something I can mindlessly play at night for an hour or two before bed.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Is this game worth picking up on console? I just need something I can mindlessly play at night for an hour or two before bed.

I don't have a console, but I've never seen any complaints about how it runs there. there is a creative mode where you can build and i guess fish now to your heart's content and not worry about the limited combat in space or land that might come up. You can these days probably get a good deal where its 60-65% off so certainly worth picking up at that price.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by Atocep

$700 for a PS5 Pro is absolutely absurd.

Every time Sony thinks they are ahead they do this. Lucky for them the blowback with be on the PS5 Pro and not the PS6. Maybe they will learn the lesson before then.

And $700 isn’t the most absurd part. It’s $700 with no disk drive. Disk Drive + Stand pushes it up to $800. That’s absurd.

[RainMaker]

For $700, you can build a better gaming PC.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

For $700, you can build a better gaming PC.

Maybe better specs, but with how shit optimized every “AAA” game seems to be nowadays they all run like crap on PC. I say that as someone that only plays on PC.

[dubb93]

Has anyone else just not been able to play Fortnite on PC for the last two seasons? It will work, but no matter how far I crank down the settings I can’t make the game stop disconnecting me, taking so long to load in I miss being able to jump and then being so laggy/choppy that I can’t shoot straight to save my life.

This is the only game I have this problem with. My CPU is older (aggressively over clocked I7 8700k with a Noctua cooler on it) and the weak spot of my rig, but is fine in every other game that has been made where I generally run them all at near max settings in 2k resolution (and is above average for what is being used out there according to the Steam hardware survey). I have a 3080ti and a M.2 hard drive. Used to be a game I played near daily with my kids. I leveled to level 12 last season and decided it just wasn’t fun playing the game anymore. I did, I think, 5 reinstalls. Nothing worked. Drivers are all updated constantly and were reinstalled multiple times during trouble shooting.

[sovereignstar v2]

I played on PC a couple of nights ago with my daughter and didn't have any issues. Of course we only play side games and not battle Royale. This time it was something not unlike Rock Band. I went from PUBG to this lol

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

I played on PC a couple of nights ago with my daughter and didn't have any issues. Of course we only play side games and not battle Royale. This time it was something not unlike Rock Band. I went from PUBG to this lol

Hmmmmm….well idk then. Guess I’ll go back to playing Diablo 4 for the night. Makes no sense.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

For $700, you can build a better gaming PC.

PC gaming such a better investment at this point. With the time it takes for AAA studios to put out a new title, there's little value in shelling $700 for something that limits your library considerably.

This console generation we've seen:

Naughty Dog - 0 new releases
Santa Monica Studio - 1 new release (God of War 2)
Insomniac Games - 1 new release (Spiderman 2)
Sucker Punch - 0 new releases (Ghost of Tsushima was ported over from PS4)
Guerrilla Games - 1 new release (Horizon Forbidden West)
Bend Studio - 0 new releases (hell, they've released 1 game in 12 years)
Quantic Dream - 0 new releases
Rockstar - 0 new releases
CD Projekt - 1 new release (Cyberpunk)
Bethesda Game Studios - 1 new release (Starfield)

Guerrilla announced they're remastering Horizon: Zero Dawn today. That's the last full game they released before Forbidden West. As far as the consoles go, this has been a pretty shitty generation IMO. It's mostly been cashing in on remasters.

It's not like any of these studios have anything new coming out soon either. CD Projekt has several games in development that haven't been revealed, Quantic Dream has 1 game in development that has been announced, Bethesda announced the next ES game but its' looking like 2027-2028 for release, and Rockstar does have GTA6 maybe coming sometime at the end of next year.

[RainMaker]

Don't forget you don't have to pay for online play like you do on console. That's at least saving $50+ a year.

[GrantDawg]

Ara: History Untold released today, and so did the latest Crusader Kings 3 DLC, which is probably the biggest one they ever released.

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[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Ara: History Untold released today, and so did the latest Crusader Kings 3 DLC, which is probably the biggest one they ever released.

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I've been watching Ara for a while now. Has some interesting twists on Civ.

[bhlloy]

Funny you mention those two together, the reviews I’ve read suggest Ara is very much going down the Paradox model - intriguing new take on some 4x principles but quite shallow at this point, expect it to be fleshed out over the next few years with DLC or patches.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Atocep

PC gaming such a better investment at this point. With the time it takes for AAA studios to put out a new title, there's little value in shelling $700 for something that limits your library considerably.

This console generation we've seen:

Naughty Dog - 0 new releases
Santa Monica Studio - 1 new release (God of War 2)
Insomniac Games - 1 new release (Spiderman 2)
Sucker Punch - 0 new releases (Ghost of Tsushima was ported over from PS4)
Guerrilla Games - 1 new release (Horizon Forbidden West)
Bend Studio - 0 new releases (hell, they've released 1 game in 12 years)
Quantic Dream - 0 new releases
Rockstar - 0 new releases
CD Projekt - 1 new release (Cyberpunk)
Bethesda Game Studios - 1 new release (Starfield)

Guerrilla announced they're remastering Horizon: Zero Dawn today. That's the last full game they released before Forbidden West. As far as the consoles go, this has been a pretty shitty generation IMO. It's mostly been cashing in on remasters.

It's not like any of these studios have anything new coming out soon either. CD Projekt has several games in development that haven't been revealed, Quantic Dream has 1 game in development that has been announced, Bethesda announced the next ES game but its' looking like 2027-2028 for release, and Rockstar does have GTA6 maybe coming sometime at the end of next year.

Did you miss the announcement that Ghost of Yotei is being published by Sucker Punch and coming out in 2025?

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Did you miss the announcement that Ghost of Yotei is being published by Sucker Punch and coming out in 2025?

This was posted around the same time as that announcement yesterday. It's sad that we're in a console generation where you generally see 1 major release per studio.

There's too much focus on massive open worlds ghst eat up development time IMO. Especially for first entries into a series. They spend 5-6 years plus working on these games and these first entries into open worlds seem to be empty and bland. Days Gone is a good example. That game would have been much better as a more focused title. The open world didn't really help it at all and then the developer blamed fans for not buying his game. Same for Star Wars Outlaws. It just wasn't an interesting world and it hurt the game in general. How much dev time was spent making empty planets that no one wants to visit?

I love a great open world. I think Witcher 3, Elden Ring, and RDR2 are the gold standards of the open world games that I've played. However, TLoU, Uncharted, God of War, and Alan Wake 2 are all great games that didn't have full open worlds and we're better for it. I'm happy that Avowed changed direction mid development and stopped trying to compete directly with Skyrim to make a more focused game.

BTW this isn't directed at you. Just a general rant about the state of gaming right now.

[dubb93]

Someone explain this to me. Frostpunk 2 launched and sold 350,000 copies in 5 days which is enough for the company to already break even on costs, advertising costs included. Yet despite this investors are disappointed with the peak playtime numbers on Steam and have sent the companies stock price into a nosedive 52% since launch.

We also know the game launched day 1 on Gamepass and that is going to take away from sales and Steam players, but despite that they have broken even on just sales figures alone so all Gamepass money is going to be profit. And this is all in like 5 days. How does this make any sense?

[RainMaker]

Expectations were higher and baked into the stock price. Apparently they expected to have around 100k players at peak time but it's only around 35k.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Expectations were higher and baked into the stock price. Apparently they expected to have around 100k players at peak time but it's only around 35k.

How does peak play time on Steam mean anything? They have sold 3.5x more copies than the expected peak players in 5 days. They also beat the peak play time of the original game. All this despite hitting Game Pass (and getting Game Pass money) on day 1.

It’s only going to lead to more laid off devs and for the stupidest of reasons. Anyway you slice it they had 350,000+ players. It’s silly that some guy in a boardroom is pissed because 100,000 of them didn’t all play at the same time on just one of the platforms they launched on.

[RainMaker]

I don't really know, that's just what I've read on the financial sites. Is the game supposed to be heavy in microtransactions and they are assuming less players at peak means less microtransactions? Or maybe there is historical data that shows games at this level don't have sustained success. I don't know.

[dubb93]

It doesn’t have any microtransactions. The first one had two expansions, but like I previously said this one has already outperformed the first one in the one metric that seems to matter here so I can’t really see where you would think this one would perform worse on that front than that one based on that one metric alone.

[dubb93]

And just to be clear, 100k is kind of absurd for this game. Games like Final Fantasy (the VII remakes and 16 peaked at like 30k and the new God of War this week peaked at 35k, the first frostpunk peaked at 29k 6+ years ago) The stock price has also not done a big spike prior to this game. It was fairly consistent for the last 5 years going up slowly over time like most of the rest of the market over that time.

[dubb93]

I see what they were going for to an extent. Cities 2 peaked at 100k but the first one peaked at 60k. By that standard the target for this game would have been around 48k. Post apocalyptic city builder is much more niche than modern day city builder. It’s barely the same genre.

I would also note that peak players had very little impact on sales. Cities 2 peaked at 100k and sold 1 million copies in 2 months. Cities 1 peaked at 60k and sold 1 million copies in its first month.

[GrantDawg]

They call Frostpunk a city builder, but it really is much more a puzzle game.

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[Atocep]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

They call Frostpunk a city builder, but it really is much more a puzzle game.

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It's also a game you really have to be a mood for because of the overall tone and decisions. It's an excellent game, but not one everyone is going to want to come home from work and jump into.

[NobodyHere]

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by dubb93

How does peak play time on Steam mean anything? They have sold 3.5x more copies than the expected peak players in 5 days. They also beat the peak play time of the original game. All this despite hitting Game Pass (and getting Game Pass money) on day 1.

Expectations were higher than for the first game, expenses also. For 11bit, Frostpunk likely doesn't pay for just Frostpunk, but for cashflow to fund other titles. The 100k peak was a figure that came from what they said they expected. There's always consequences from those kinds of things.

Peak time on Steam matters in a few ways; the first weekend of a game's launch most of the time determines how well the game sells due to how saturated the market is for gaming in general. Visibility and promotion on Steam are highly related to how many people are playing it - how many people buy it matters also ofc.

Player reviews have been much more tepid and that doesn't help either - combination of significant performance/stability issues at launch and a number of players not liking the change in direction from Frostpunk 1. That's just the age-old 'it's hard to make a good sequel' thing, 11bit went ambitious here and feedback has been mixed on whether it was a successful gambit. Personally I don't like a lot of what they changed but there's a sizable contingent in favor of the switch to something much closer to a grand strategy title.

[GrantDawg]

Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age is set to release on November 12th. I'm pretty excited about this game. It looks to be a modernized version of Harpoon, which I played the hell out of back in the day. The learning curve looks pretty deep, but not as bad as something like Command.

[dubb93]

I know I’ve been hard on the new Dragon Age, but the review embargo is up at 8A on Monday morning. Like I said I know I’ve been harsh because it isn’t the game I want, but I expect it to review well. If the game was bad the reviews wouldn’t be coming in before release and most of the people that have played it extensively have said they have enjoyed it. It just isn’t Dragon Age IMO.

I wish they would have developed a new DA game and then have this single player MMO style game start a new franchise. IDK. I’ll play it anyway so don’t listen to me.

[NobodyHere]

I've come to distrust any early reviews in general. How do I know that early review keys just weren't handed out to shills?

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I've come to distrust any early reviews in general. How do I know that early review keys just weren't handed out to shills?

They were. I just saw a reviewer that said he and other people that where invited to an early look in studio. The people that gave negative feedback weren't given early access keys.

[Atocep]

Generally positive reviews so far. Most seem to say it's a good RPG but doesn't feel like Dragon Age.

[dubb93]

No clue if it’s true or not but it is being reported that EA is doing DMCA takedowns of negative reviews that include videos or images from the game.

[GrantDawg]

Fextralife is confirming that EA shut out anyone that even slightly criticized the game after the studio invite. Wolfheart as well. Fexteralife is extra galling since they were who kept the original message board for Dragon Age alive after Bioware was going to shut them down. They weren't even that critical after the preview. EA is only looking for shills.

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[GrantDawg]

Dola: Man, Skill Up definitely didn't get the memo to love the game. He hated everything about it. Writing, gameplay, charcters, everything.

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[RainMaker]

Anyone play Dying Light 2? It's on sale and looks decent.

[GrantDawg]

I'm back to playing Midnight Suns. Man, that is such a fun game to not get more love than it did. It may be that it just hits me harder because the banter is such 80's comics nostalgia.