The General Videogame Thread

[GrimReaper801]

Oh yes, I saw it too. Maybe worth to try Lies Of P first

I'd highly recommend Lies of P to anyone.

LotF on the other hand... it wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. Story, gameplay, bosses, etc... Lies of P just wins it all except for looks.

I didn't expect the game to shine for its gameplay anyway, so I can't say I'm disappointed. Beside I can make the parallel with another recent Ubi game, Avatar. Nothing too great about gameplay (nor the story^^) in any way for me, but I had a great time playing it.
And for the price, I'll buy the "normal" game edition which is already pretty expansive... but well, outside of Avatar, I never bought any Ubi games full price (half price, at the very minimum) since years, since Black Flag if I remember correctly.

We will see in September if I regret my purchase it (which is possible^^) or not!

My problem with their pricing scheme isn't so much the actual price as it is the locking of a quest behind a paywall. That's just exploitative anti-consumer BS that I am not willing to support and encourage more of. It's cutting stuff from the game to sell at a premium made too obvious.

Putting an extra quest behind pre-ordering, like they did with the next AC, I am semi ok with. At least everyone who pre-orders gets the same content for the same price.

Note that I am not trying to convince you not to buy Outlaws or anything of the sort. You do you, it's your money. Merely explaining my reasoning.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Note that I am not trying to convince you not to buy Outlaws or anything of the sort. You do you, it's your money. Merely explaining my reasoning.

Don't worry
But I will buy the "base edition" day one (nothing more and no pre-order). No matter what is behind pre-ordered or what I could miss (or at least, I won't get), I don't care, I won't pay a cent more

 

[Spockprime]

I assume you're pretty hyped by E-DAY too?

I can't resist. Brothers to the End:

 

[Spockprime]

I just saw the new gameplay footage for Dragon Age 4 that EA showed last week. I wasn't expecting much from the game, but even with that low expectation, what I saw was disappointing. It's scheduled for release in the fall of this year (i.e., just a few months), which puts it in competition with several other games that do look really promising.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

It's scheduled for release in the fall of this year (i.e., just a few months), which puts it in competition with several other games that do look really promising.

Subjective and likely just for me, but end of 2024 and 2025 will be packed of great games. So finding a good "window" to release a game avoiding other (great) games will be pretty difficult

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Hum... I'm interested I guess

 

[Spockprime]

According to Paradox' website, it seems that they have now cancelled their previously delayed life sim, Life By You. Piling this on top of other recent debacles, the mismanagement at Paradox makes the slight stumble by CDPR a couple of years ago look like a graceful dance step.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

This very cool!

Legends of Adventure is an upcoming Sierra On-Line documentary on the rise of adventure games

Do the names Ken and Roberta Williams ring any bells for you? If so, you might want to keep an eye on Legends of Adventure: The Story of Sierra On-Line.

www.gamingonlinux.com

Legends of Adventure: The Story of Sierra On-Line

From the team behind the Prime Video docuseries Gamebreakers and award-winning game studio MidBoss, Legends of Adventure is the new feature documentary about video game pioneers Ken and Roberta Williams and the rise of Sierra On-Line.

www.backerkit.com

Post automatically merged: Jul 12, 2024

Lol, this is like a twisted version of Night City:

 

[FelineWitcher]

I just saw the new gameplay footage for Dragon Age 4 that EA showed last week. I wasn't expecting much from the game, but even with that low expectation, what I saw was disappointing. It's scheduled for release in the fall of this year (i.e., just a few months), which puts it in competition with several other games that do look really promising.

That game is definitely not made by the same Bioware that made KOTOR and the first 2 Mass Effects. We've been far better served by BG3, I don't understand why do they even bother at this point. They should strive to make videogames like those of their glory days but instead they make... that.

Post automatically merged: Jul 12, 2024

I'd highly recommend Lies of P to anyone.

LotF on the other hand... it wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. Story, gameplay, bosses, etc... Lies of P just wins it all except for looks.



My problem with their pricing scheme isn't so much the actual price as it is the locking of a quest behind a paywall. That's just exploitative anti-consumer BS that I am not willing to support and encourage more of. It's cutting stuff from the game to sell at a premium made too obvious.

Putting an extra quest behind pre-ordering, like they did with the next AC, I am semi ok with. At least everyone who pre-orders gets the same content for the same price.

Note that I am not trying to convince you not to buy Outlaws or anything of the sort. You do you, it's your money. Merely explaining my reasoning.

I agree that the paywalled quest is undeniable anti-consumer BS but my greatest concern about that game is if they do something like they did with Jedi Survivor: a massive 100 GB download to get the rest of the game not included in the physical version AFTER you paid for the game. I can even forgive the paywalled quest compared to that.

 

[GrimReaper801]

I agree that the paywalled quest is undeniable anti-consumer BS but my greatest concern about that game is if they do something like they did with Jedi Survivor: a massive 100 GB download to get the rest of the game not included in the physical version AFTER you paid for the game. I can even forgive the paywalled quest compared to that.

Outlaw is a Ubisoft game. They didn't make Jedi Survivor. That would be Respawn, an EA studio. With that said, I wouldn't hold my breath for anything different if I was you. It's been pretty common and is only going to get more common until it's always like this.

It's something that's been going on for a long time. We don't own games anymore, we own licenses to play. Licenses that can be revoked at any time (as Ubisoft recently showed - more reasons to not support this company!). Even physical copies with a complete game on them will typically release with the expectation that there will be a necessary download on release day that makes the game actually playable. That issue started over a decade ago and has only grown more common since and, as I already said, eventually it will be 100% of the time.

The time to stand against that is well past.

CDPR, and by extension GOG, is one of the only exceptions to this.

 

[FelineWitcher]

Outlaw is a Ubisoft game. They didn't make Jedi Survivor. That would be Respawn, an EA studio. With that said, I wouldn't hold my breath for anything different if I was you. It's been pretty common and is only going to get more common until it's always like this.

It's something that's been going on for a long time. We don't own games anymore, we own licenses to play. Licenses that can be revoked at any time (as Ubisoft recently showed - more reasons to not support this company!). Even physical copies with a complete game on them will typically release with the expectation that there will be a necessary download on release day that makes the game actually playable. That issue started over a decade ago and has only grown more common since and, as I already said, eventually it will be 100% of the time.

The time to stand against that is well past.

CDPR, and by extension GOG, is one of the only exceptions to this.

They're different studios but it's a practice that could be used all the same. Fallen Order didn't have it. There are even recent releases that don't use this fucking draconian measure, but a Star Wars game was the last one to do this to my knowledge, hence my worry.

You say "the time to stand against it is well past" but like you said immediately after that GOG is the exception, so I disagree with the earlier statement. If not bowing before DRM and bullshit massive updates wasn't an option, GOG wouldn't exist.

 

[GrimReaper801]

They're different studios but it's a practice that could be used all the same. Fallen Order didn't have it. There are even recent releases that don't use this fucking draconian measure, but a Star Wars game was the last one to do this to my knowledge, hence my worry.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. It's a situation that has only become more prevalent and will continue to increase in prevalency.

You say "the time to stand against it is well past" but like you said immediately after that GOG is the exception, so I disagree with the earlier statement. If not bowing before DRM and bullshit massive updates wasn't an option, GOG wouldn't exist.

I'm sure you've heard "exception that proves the rule" before. That's what GOG is.

Furthermore, as much as I love GOG for what it does, there is no denying that it is a far too small portion of the market to change anything.

Simply put, gamers, as a whole, have been fine with relinquishing much of what used to be standard in exchange for convenience, faster releases date, etc. Something like game ownership vs licenses we are granted is a ship that sailed a long time ago. Just like DLCs vs. expansions.

Things like locking a/multiple quests behind a paywall in single player game though... that's fairly new. Still time to stand against it. Although I expect that is also futile as too many people are fine with it.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Oh god, people really, really love to create drama... for nothing.
Knowing how their previous game looked (Avatar frontiers) which use the same game engine (Snowdrop), personally graphics are my probably my least concern about this game (Graphics in Avatar were quite stunning, even on my poor Series X).
So I'm pretty confident the game will look great, even on weak hardwares (not sure why it look bad on the video, but it doesn't matter^^).

 

[GrimReaper801]

Oh god, people really, really love to create drama... for nothing.
Knowing how their previous game looked (Avatar frontiers) which use the same game engine (Snowdrop), personally graphics are my probably my least concern about this game (Graphics in Avatar were quite stunning, even on my poor Series X).
So I'm pretty confident the game will look great, even on weak hardwares (not sure why it look bad on the video, but it doesn't matter^^).

I think Avatar is one of the reasons people are up in arms about the graphics actually.

Avatar, for all it's faults, looked absolutely stunning. The world itself was amazingly done but everything looked amazing and it ran surprisingly well. So far Outlaw seems to be offering graphics that are noticeably worse than Avatar despite using the same engine while also offering rather average gameplay. From what we've seen anyway. I mean that explosion at 6:21 looked straight out of the early 2010s and the gameplay generally seems just as dated. Considering all of that material is shown as marketing for the game, you'd expect them to show some of their best material. Hopefully, it's not because if it is, it will be a disappointing game.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

I think Avatar is one of the reasons people are up in arms about the graphics actually.

Avatar, for all it's faults, looked absolutely stunning. The world itself was amazingly done but everything looked amazing and it ran surprisingly well. So far Outlaw seems to be offering graphics that are noticeably worse than Avatar despite using the same engine while also offering rather average gameplay. From what we've seen anyway. I mean that explosion at 6:21 looked straight out of the early 2010s and the gameplay generally seems just as dated. Considering all of that material is shown as marketing for the game, you'd expect them to show some of their best material. Hopefully, it's not because if it is, it will be a disappointing game.

My point is, we don't know on which platform this gameplay video was captured on. I guess everything we saw before, was captured on high end PC with the best graphics possible. But here, it could be for exemple, captured on Series S on performance mode which is arguably, the "weakest" harware possible. It would have been a "mistake" to show such a "bad looking" gameplay video, but it won't represent what most people will see in game.
I can't even imagine the game would look like that bad on PC with a 4090... I would be blaffed if it's the case, knowing how good Avatar looked.

After, about the gameplay (or story or writing or characters or whatever...), it was expected and nothing wrong to complain about, but graphics... In my opinion, no need to worry that much (for now).

 

[Spockprime]

Oh god, people really, really love to create drama... for nothing.
Knowing how their previous game looked (Avatar frontiers) which use the same game engine (Snowdrop), personally graphics are my probably my least concern about this game (Graphics in Avatar were quite stunning, even on my poor Series X).
So I'm pretty confident the game will look great, even on weak hardwares (not sure why it look bad on the video, but it doesn't matter^^).

The graphics definitely could be crisper, but as you suggested, it's probably an artifact of how the video was created. Graphics are way down on my list of concerns about the game. I think that they will be fine. I'm more concerned about what looks like a lot of linear gameplay in a supposedly "open" world.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

I'm more concerned about what looks like a lot of linear gameplay in a supposedly "open" world.

Yeah, it should be the main concern... but apparently, for most people it is not

 

[GrimReaper801]

But here, it could be for exemple, captured on Series S on performance mode which is arguably, the "weakest" harware possible. It would have been a "mistake" to show such a "bad looking" gameplay video, but it won't represent what most people will see in game.
I can't even imagine the game would look like that bad on PC with a 4090... I would be blaffed if it's the case, knowing how good Avatar looked.

That's exactly my point.

This is authorized for release material. It's essentially marketing through gaming outlets. It's not unreasonable to expect them to put their best foot forward, it's the whole point after all. Yet, this trailer isn't that. Or at least I hope so because it did not look remotely good to me. It looked mediocre overall. Both in terms of gameplay and in terms of graphics. Obviously, I'm not making any comment on the story. It could be amazing but that's not something Ubisoft is known for these days.

Now, I want to be clear, I fully agree with you that graphics are not important compared to gameplay. I'd rather play a shoddy looking game that has amazing gameplay myself. But. When your game is mired in so much controversy already for various reasons, some valid, some being just people looking for drama, it's another bad notch against it when it shows such mediocre looking graphics on top. I mean, there is no way Ubisoft isn't keenly aware that the reception to the game has been rather lukewarm at best so far. The least they could do is select footage that shows the game under a better light, even if that better light is just amazing graphics.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

That's exactly my point.

This is authorized for release material. It's essentially marketing through gaming outlets. It's not unreasonable to expect them to put their best foot forward, it's the whole point after all. Yet, this trailer isn't that. Or at least I hope so because it did not look remotely good to me. It looked mediocre overall. Both in terms of gameplay and in terms of graphics. Obviously, I'm not making any comment on the story. It could be amazing but that's not something Ubisoft is known for these days.

Now, I want to be clear, I fully agree with you that graphics are not important compared to gameplay. I'd rather play a shoddy looking game that has amazing gameplay myself. But. When your game is mired in so much controversy already for various reasons, some valid, some being just people looking for drama, it's another bad notch against it when it shows such mediocre looking graphics on top. I mean, there is no way Ubisoft isn't keenly aware that the reception to the game has been rather lukewarm at best so far. The least they could do is select footage that shows the game under a better light, even if that better light is just amazing graphics.

From what I "see", apparently, some people (Youtubers and I guess streamers too) played the game themself and were able (or rather have been autorized^^) to captured videos by their own on their own hardware. So I guess that pretty soon, we won't know much more about story, maybe not much more about gameplay either, but we will be fixed if graphics are good or not

 

[SigilFey]

So I'm pretty confident the game will look great, even on weak hardwares (not sure why it look bad on the video, but it doesn't matter^^).

I think the reason is most likely that some of the textures are still very raw. It's still in production. Rather than doctoring up the graphics using placeholder mip-mapping, shaders, etc, they're just showing the game in its actual form right now. (Likely, they're trying to avoid claims of "downgrading" graphics later on.) I wouldn't worry one whit about the graphics. I'm sure they'll be slick when they're finished.

I mean, there is no way Ubisoft isn't keenly aware that the reception to the game has been rather lukewarm at best so far. The least they could do is select footage that shows the game under a better light, even if that better light is just amazing graphics.

I'm watching it, but I'm really not super excited with anything I'm seeing so far. I really liked Fallen Order. It was a very solid game, but it was not completely, outrageously amazing. Survivor looks to be basically more of the same. Outlaws looks like a very basic Assassin's Creed / FarCry romp in the Star Wars universe. Environments seem to be designed to draw out game time. That trip through the sarlac pit really didn't do anything except use up the player's time to move through a linear environment (that we've seen a hundred times before in other games) in order to pick up a thing.

From everything that I've personally watched about Outlaws so far (which is certainly not everything), the game feels very flat. It really doesn't seem to be doing anything novel. Hopefully, there's a surprise in here waiting to be revealed, but I agree that if so, Ubisoft really needs to throw something out there to spice up the pot. Maybe there's a branching story? Maybe Vess can become an engineer, tweaking out her bike and starship and such? Maybe she gets her hands on some Mandalorian armor and gear later on? Something, I hope.