The General Videogame Thread

[Sild]

To be fair, Ubisoft had some quality releases recently. Anno 1800 (shaping up to be the best in the series), Odyssey (high critic/user score), The Division 2 (arguably the best looter-shooter on the market right now), Rainbow Six Siege (one of the best and the few tactical ops MP shooters), Far Cry 5 was a bit meh for me but not a bad game really, Beyond Good and Evil 2 as well which I'm personally looking forward to.

I think they're like one of, if not the only OG developers that are still around and actually make good games, if a bit mainstream, but the odd ones like Anno are there.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

To be fair, Ubisoft had some quality releases recently. Anno 1800 (shaping up to be the best in the series), Odyssey (high critic/user score), The Division 2 (arguably the best looter-shooter on the market right now), Rainbow Six Siege (one of the best and the few tactical ops MP shooters), Far Cry 5 was a bit meh for me but not a bad game really, Beyond Good and Evil 2 as well which I'm personally looking forward to.

Yeah, but for several reasons I don't like any of those games, at all (I hate looter shooters mechanics and TD2, AC:O and FC5 all use such system, hard gating everything with levels; anno and RSS are genre I don't like). Except for BG&E2 that looks very interesting, but since it's going to be a multiplayer game (they said connection to the internet will be required), probably I won't be interested in that as well.
Never said ubisoft makes bad games, they're just not making games I like anymore.

 

[Shavod]

Ubisoft settled on mediocrity with most of their current games, true, but at least they seem to get much better with their approach toward consumers, so I do respect them a lot more then other big publishers like Activision, Bethesda or EA. As long as they don't do anything as stupid as those other guys and keep chumming out formulaic, but decent titles, they are okay in my book. Plus from time to time they will release something exceptional (like Valiant Hearts) that is clearly a product of passion, not just marketability.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

Ubisoft settled on mediocrity with most of their current games, true, but at least they seem to get much better with their approach toward consumers, so I do respect them a lot more then other big publishers like Activision, Bethesda or EA.

100% agree on this, but I still don't like the idea of forcing farming in order to sell the exp booster in AC odyssey and origins together with the fact that the shop is a little too present in their games' menus. You can start AC origins before the full download is complete, but together with the first couple of hours of story you get a full operating shop. Not a good sign of their intentions, in particular in a single player full price game.
But as I said, the main reason I don't buy their games anymore is mediocrity and overuse of the same (lame IMHO) mechanics. And multiplayer. I don't play online, I like singleplayers. My limit, true, but these are my tastes.

 

[Sild]

Mediocrity is a relative term. I know people that say Odyssey is among their favorite games, and for good reasons. I'm fairly certain an in game shop isn't one of them. Oh, and you don't need to grind in Odyssey, it's basically the entirety of Ancient Greece in the game, so form of gating is needed, if only for directional, progression reasons. Truth is their games, while they have a repetitive formula to them, are among some of the most polished games around and they do seem to care about their franchises and consumers. Ofc as much as a giant as them can. At least they try different things.. For Honor, The Crew, STEEP. Yea, microtransactions aplenty but in the recent trends of the industry there have been many others with much more obnoxious micro payment systems.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

Mediocrity is a relative term.

Absolutely, no doubt about that. I'm not here to talk shit about ubisoft, I actually said that ghost recon breakpoint looks very good, in particular for animations and attention to details, that's why I posted the video.
Unfortunately FOR ME, I don't like their games anymore, after I played something like 7 AC, for example.

 

[Sild]

Absolutely, no doubt about that. I'm not here to talk shit about ubisoft, I actually said that ghost recon breakpoint looks very good, in particular for animations and attention to details, that's why I posted the video.
Unfortunately FOR ME, I don't like their games anymore, after I played something like 7 AC, for example.

Yea, I'm also bothered with their apparent fixation for MP.

If only the Black Flag pirate spinoff game was single player.. Uff

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

Oh, and you don't need to grind in Odyssey, it's basically the entirety of Ancient Greece in the game, so form of gating is needed, if only for directional, progression reasons.

I don't agree, there's no need to level gate everything. There's plenty of games with huge maps which don't use such systems. Anyway, ubisoft is one of the best at world-building: I'm forcing myself to finish origins and ancient egypt is done magnificently, with attention to a lot of details. Unlukily I don't like everything else of the game so I just selected the lowest difficulty and trying to rush missions while I enjoy the setting. I'm not proud of this, but that's the only way I can enjoy the game. I'l definetely try the tourist mode at the end of the game, it's such a brilliant idea (and as a child I was a huge fan of ancient egypt, pharaoh is the first videogame I've ever played!)

 

[Sild]

I don't agree, there's no need to level gate everything. There's plenty of games with huge maps which don't use such systems. Anyway, ubisoft is one of the best at world-building: I'm forcing myself to finish origins and ancient egypt is done magnificently, with attention to a lot of details. Unlukily I don't like everything else of the game so I just selected the lowest difficulty and trying to rush missions while I enjoy the setting. I'm not proud of this, but that's the only way I can enjoy the game. I'l definetely try the tourist mode at the end of the game, it's such a brilliant idea (and as a child I was a huge fan of ancient egypt, pharaoh is the first videogame I've ever played!)

Origins Was grindy, no doubt about that, but they fixed that to a degree in Odyssey.

If you're going to base you progression system on levels, level gated areas are nothing new. And just playing AC (especially post-Origins AC) solely for the story or main quest is a bad approach and bound to feel grindy. But take your time, sink some ships, clear some camps, hunt for some nice gear and the game will need to scale to your level just to keep up. They do Try to reward those kinds of activity's, through gear and xp for abilities (which is one way of doing it when choosing to go this route of levels and gear) . So nope, not grindy. You want grind? Play Aion.

Although I would've liked AC to.. Stay AC.. Which means more Action Adventure less RPG.. But what can you do..

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

The point is I don't like clearing camps and looking for loot. Never liked in any games. I do side quests when I like the narrative, which is not the case for origins. Level gated areas are not a new concept, sure, but I never liked it. It can be fine in a pure fantasy jrpg (or a game that has its core narrative in the idea of travelling and growing stronger), but when you're playing a game based on a realistic approach (AC has some fantasy elements but uses those as part of history, not gameplay), I think it's a mistake and completely breaks immersion. I didn't like it in TW3 as well, but that's a way better game in almost every aspect.

 

[Sild]

Well, that's the thing. It's more fantasy (mythology) now than before. Minotaur, Medusa etc etc. It's also implied the Odyssey protag is a demi-god (don't know yet, haven't finished it). So they probably thought the same thing :d

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

I think this is a good documentary for whoever is curious to see how videogames are made and the type of problems devs go through (not from a coding point of view).

One of my favourite videogames btw.

 

[Sild]

Something else to look forward to.

https://www.pcgamer.com/amp/werewolf-the-apocalypse-videogame-will-be-at-e3/?__twitter_impression=true

 

[RedKong]

Well, well, well, sounds promising, especially the connection to Vampire: The Masquerade (I have high hopes for the next one)

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

Are you serious about Rage 2? I just bought it. I may have to cancel that before it takes effect (I only pre-order games a couple hours before launch to get the bonuses and still avoid the pre-order hype).

I don't mind crazy shooters like that, but I hope a slower, more tactical approach is viable in 2077 as well.

@Snowflakez Yes, or at least that's what all the press says in my country (quite useless to link you those reviews, not in english). You can read other reviews, I'm pretty sure they'll confirm this since are quite objective statements:
shooting: excellent, same as doom
skill you unlock: lots of fun, crazy
lenght: 15 hours to do everything, paid DLC already announced https://gamerant.com/rage-2-how-long-to-beat/
story: very basic
variety: none, always the same stuff

they also says it's very easy and suggest to play it at the highest difficulties.

It's the usual avalanche studio's game (think mad max) but with a great shooting. metacritic of 75% (which we all know what it means).

 

[Snowflakez]

@Snowflakez Yes, or at least that's what all the press says in my country (quite useless to link you those reviews, not in english). You can read other reviews, I'm pretty sure they'll confirm this since are quite objective statements:
shooting: excellent, same as doom
skill you unlock: lots of fun, crazy
lenght: 15 hours to do everything, paid DLC already announced https://gamerant.com/rage-2-how-long-to-beat/
story: very basic
variety: none, always the same stuff

they also says it's very easy and suggest to play it at the highest difficulties.

It's the usual avalanche studio's game (think mad max) but with a great shooting. metacritic of 75% (which we all know what it means).

It was too late to return the pre-order because Bethesda moved up the release by 3 hours, so I said screw it and played it anyway.

TL;DR: I think I'll get my money's worth out of it, but it's not amazing. The environments are VERY cool, the combat is absolutely fantastic (better than Doom, in my opinion), but the story sucks, characters suck, voice acting is OK, and its a lot of open world busywork.

The combat, though, actually reminded me a lot of what I saw in 2077.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I only "pre-ordered" it about 6 hours before launch for the goodies. I stopped actually pre-ordering Bethesda-published games after Dishonored 2's horrible initial performance on PC.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

The combat, though, actually reminded me a lot of what I saw in 2077.

if weapon's feeling in 2077 will be half good as doom 2018 it'll be already something great!

Sorry that you couldn't cancel pre-order in time, at least it's not a shitty game. I canceled mine about 1 month ago when I started hearing of some issues (and the DLCs)(I started pre-ordering a lot of games since I came back in my country and have amazon again, prices are better than in other shops and you can cancel pre-orders whenever you want, I know it's not convnient for PC games, though)
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I just finished what remains of edith finch and I warmly warmly WARMLY reccommend it. Extremely short (3 hours-ish) but absolutely worth it if you want a very good narrative experience.

(I also finished AC origins today, I do not reccommend it even for few bucks)

 

[Sild]

https://www.pcgamer.com/total-war-three-kingdoms-review/

"the best Total War yet?"

After Anno 1800 having been called "the best one yet" which having played most in the series i tend to agree with, are these signs that the industry is actually changing for the better? Is quality a priority for the big publishers now? Probably not.. yet, but the signs are pointing in the right direction for once.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

Cyberpunk 2077, but with a very small development budget:

 

[Draconifors]

I decided to grab Stardew Valley (heartily recommended to me, both directly and indirectly) and Kerbal Space Program on GOG. The latter happened to be on a -50% sale so it's definitely going to be worth more than its price.

I know from watching videos and streams, and from friend recommendations, that both games are incredibly fun and I look forward to sinking dozens upon dozens of hours into them.