The General Videogame Thread

[volsung]

I think adding extra modes or whatever to a game like that is a relatively cheap alternative to extend the life of a poor product.

AAA games/companies have a huge overhead and huge production costs that are of course transferred to the buyer. Games that short shouldn't be so expensive, period.

Indie games have been mentioned several times but often that's where true innovations come from. Large companies want a safe investment which translates to selling the same old shit and having YOU pay their marketing team to make that shit appealing.

Many games are not worth 60 bucks. If you want this to stop, simply stop supporting those companies. Same with day one DLC, preorder bonuses, etc.

 

[Doctalen]

Games like The Order should be cheaper. The Witcher 3 is $47.99 if you own the two previous games (Which were given out free or for a few dollars) and has a AAA tier budget. I don't know if it really will be 100 hours long, but I have no doubt it will at least be 30-40 hours going by previous games. Meanwhile The Order is $60 and you seem to be able to finish it in one sitting. You don't even have anything but the main campaign. Even if it had an arena mode it still shouldn't be $60.

I personally like arena modes though. It gives me a way to have pure gameplay without being interrupted by scripted events or cut scenes.

 

[shinobi2u]

Phew, didn't mean to stir up such a hornet's nest. @Arvuti you're completely correct with your points, the biggest being MGO (which I had completely forgotten about). I actually like MGS4, though when I went back to play it again about a year ago, more of it's flaws definitely stood out to me. Still love it for what it did and brought to the table when it did.

I get why many people don't like QTEs. I'm not always crazy about them, and yet they have their place and they've been in many good and great games. Shenmue, God of War, Indigo Prophesy (minus the just bad story at the end), etc. They've also been in plenty of average, so-so, and bad games.

The price of games has stayed largely unaffected when you look at the history of video game pricing and the cost those games would bear with inflation, yet the cost of creating them has definitely gone up. The Order is up against the odds from a studio that originally made a few PSP games. They created a whole new world and story, a brand new engine, on a system that's been struggling to get many of it's titles out on time. IPs are dangerous territory in the AAA market because you can win big or lose big, especially on a single platform, and it's why indies get to take more creative risks. And yes, that sucks that it causes the big boys to play it safe. On the other hand, risking a company of hundreds or thousands or people isn't exactly an appealing thought either. THQ is a good example of this.

Honestly I play a ton of games - some good, some great, some bad, and some are just guilty pleasures. Even in the bad games, I feel there is still value in playing them. Whether it's to help appreciate truly great games, discover an inspiring game mechanic, or awesome art direction, a killer soundtrack, etc. In the end, the main thing I care about is enjoying the game. I get as much out of the gameplay as I do the technical and artistic elements of games, which is why The Order still appeals to me personally.

And I totally understand that that doesn't mean jack to others or that some people have a tighter budget and would want to wait until there is a discount. Or it's just not some people's cup of tea. I do hope that it does well enough that they could consider a sequel and make a 'better' game the next time around. I'd prefer a franchise to start solid and build up to greatness instead of starting strong and descending into mediocrity.

Anyways, enough of my musings and rantings.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

You've got to wonder to yourself when you kickstart a game for a few million and it has dozens of hours of content while the AAAA+ game is just a few hours long for a budget of many dozens of millions, what the fuck is happening? Less content for more bucks, and more content for less.

AAA status is overrated. Some make a false assumption that big budget size equals guaranteed good result. That's not true. Big budget can be wasted by a project directed by tasteless execs who demand mass market appeal. That's why I strongly dislike this whole AAA / not AAA categorization. That's not what you should care about when you evaluate whether something is good and interesting for you or not.

 

[volsung]

When someone brings up AAA I normally think of an overpriced, hyped up, graphical engine demo with some gameplay, usually with lots of add on content for sale and heavily restricted use. Rarely, or never, do I think of "good" first.

I suppose tastes are different for adults but I haven't seen more than one or two somewhat interesting AAA games per year recently.

---------- Updated at 08:15 AM ----------

And yes I also dislike the A-classification for games. It's arbitrary and ambiguous. Like other things, it responds to corporate interests, not game classification.

 

[eskiMoe]

https://www.humblebundle.com/

That's quite a nice deal!

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

https://www.humblebundle.com/

That's quite a nice deal!

All Steam only. Lately I don't really buy anything on Humble Bundle anymore. They are increasingly more and more a Steam reseller. With GOG providing Linux games it's not a major problem, though it's a pity they deviated so far from their early roots.

 

[Glaroug.531]

I've discovered a strange, incredible new world. Apparently, there are more games than Pokemon for the 3DS.

Fire Emblem Awakening is freaking AWESOME--and mean :yes I've never played FE before, or a JRPG, so I'm not entirely sure if it is considered one, but its basically a tactical strategy game with a great story and very solid companions. There are quite a bit of possible companions, all of which are unique and offer a fair amount of interactivity with the PC and other NPCs which is pretty impressive. And if one of your companions should die, that's it. They are gone for good

The melee combat follows a very simple rock (axe), paper (sword), scissor (lance) system. I'm not sure about magic yet. In edition to permanent character death, there is also permanent weapon "death" Once a weapons breaks, its gone for good. As far as I can tell, they cannot be repaired either. I blew a lot of gold improving some weapons only to have them break. I guess special weapons are only designed to be used for special occasions like fine silverware.

The enemies are very well done in my opinion. I was worried they would be heavily attracted towards my character, but instead they are extremely attracted to the character they have the greatest advantage against. Even if the overall system seems simple, position and planning is sooooo crucial and combat is tense and thrilling. A very cool feature is being able to pair up character to fight together. Doing so grants defensive and offensive bonuses. For example, my Pegasus Knight can carry around my my tanky slow character to provide him with much needed mobility. Fighting together builds character relationships, which lead to story instances and greater combat bonuses. I've having such a great time pairing up different characters for story options I'm more or less ignoring the "optimum" pairings for the time being

Its been an excellent game so far. I think mister tactical @.Volsung. might enjoy commanding troops on the mighty 3DS.

 

[Engagerade]

Im calling it, The Order 1886 will be the PS4 equivalent of Ryse.

It seems that i was right.

http://kotaku.com/the-order-1886-the-kotaku-review-1686595338
[video=youtube;B_y7f-yFFc8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_y7f-yFFc8[/video]
Cinematic 30 FPS,2.40.1 Aspect ratio,Excessive depth of field,Film grain,Excessive moshon blur.
"Headache the game"

Bonus video that was fucking funny.

Spoiler

[video=youtube;FV-u5tvQC34]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV-u5tvQC34[/video]

 

[Garrison72]

It seems that i was right.

http://kotaku.com/the-order-1886-the-kotaku-review-1686595338

Cinematic 30 FPS,2.40.1 Aspect ratio,Excessive depth of field,Film grain,Excessive moshon blur.
"Headache the game"

Yep. Sony's tech demo.

 

[volsung]

I've discovered a strange, incredible new world. Apparently, there are more games than Pokemon for the 3DS.

Fire Emblem Awakening is freaking AWESOME--and mean :yes I've never played FE before, or a JRPG, so I'm not entirely sure if it is considered one, but its basically a tactical strategy game with a great story and very solid companions. There are quite a bit of possible companions, all of which are unique and offer a fair amount of interactivity with the PC and other NPCs which is pretty impressive. And if one of your companions should die, that's it. They are gone for good

The melee combat follows a very simple rock (axe), paper (sword), scissor (lance) system. I'm not sure about magic yet. In edition to permanent character death, there is also permanent weapon "death" Once a weapons breaks, its gone for good. As far as I can tell, they cannot be repaired either. I blew a lot of gold improving some weapons only to have them break. I guess special weapons are only designed to be used for special occasions like fine silverware.

The enemies are very well done in my opinion. I was worried they would be heavily attracted towards my character, but instead they are extremely attracted to the character they have the greatest advantage against. Even if the overall system seems simple, position and planning is sooooo crucial and combat is tense and thrilling. A very cool feature is being able to pair up character to fight together. Doing so grants defensive and offensive bonuses. For example, my Pegasus Knight can carry around my my tanky slow character to provide him with much needed mobility. Fighting together builds character relationships, which lead to story instances and greater combat bonuses. I've having such a great time pairing up different characters for story options I'm more or less ignoring the "optimum" pairings for the time being

Its been an excellent game so far. I think mister tactical @.Volsung. might enjoy commanding troops on the mighty 3DS.

That game is one of the reasons I might consider getting a 3DS. I think it looks awesome.

But at the moment I have my hands full with research, teaching and PC games!

By the way did you know hands and games are spelled with the same sequence on a numerical phone keyboard? (yeah I like the old school layout, it's faster)

 

[eskiMoe]

Just watched some screenshots from the upcoming FFXV.

Whoever designs the hairstyles went complete bananas. Even monsters have them now.

 

[Alan989]

Just watched some screenshots from the upcoming FFXV.

Whoever designs the hairstyles went complete bananas. Even monsters have them now.

:wat:

 

[shinobi2u]

Just watched some screenshots from the upcoming FFXV.

Whoever designs the hairstyles went complete bananas. Even monsters have them now.

Or it could just be how the Behemoth has always been designed in FF games.....

 

[eskiMoe]

Or it could just be how the Behemoth has always been designed in FF games.....

lol. Okay. So they went bananas long time ago

 

[shinobi2u]

lol. Okay. So they went bananas long time ago

Hahahaha, well, think about the character designs from back then as well. They probably wanted crazy designs that could work well for low polygon models. And Tetsuya Nomura, definitely the Nomura factor.

 

[alexanderros]

Was Deus Ex considered AAA game during it's time? Why games now days don't try to achieve something similar to Deus Ex in terms of gameplay and story?

 

[soldiergeralt]

so you think having hair modeled would produce less polygons?

ok

Was Deus Ex considered AAA game during it's time? Why games now days don't try to achieve something similar to Deus Ex in terms of gameplay and story?

they do. they're just terrible at it.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

I just discovered this project, strangely I've never heard of it before - Shroud of the Avatar:

* https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0
* https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/

---------- Updated at 06:24 AM ----------

Was Deus Ex considered AAA game during it's time? Why games now days don't try to achieve something similar to Deus Ex in terms of gameplay and story?

I think it was, and it was a very influential game, one of those key milestones that influence other games for years to come. Your question really boils down to asking why more authors aren't creating masterpieces

 

[Dona.794]

Dreamfall Chapters Book 2 announced for March 10th! I'm exciteeeeed.