I liked how Breath of the Wild handled the scope thing. You're told straight off the bat that you're the hero who needs to save the world... and then Impa literally asks you* if you're ready to face that responsibility. And if you say no, she tells you that's ok; come back when you are. I loved that moment because it's Impa showing her faith in Link - that once he sees more of the world, he'll come around - but it's also the developers showing their faith in the game they made: "Not onboard this story train yet? Go explore for a while; we think you'll like our world."
Also, very few people know who you are, so they don't have any reason to give you special treatment.
*assuming you follow the game's gentle nudging in the direction of plot, which you don't actually have to do
I just picked up BotW a couple days ago and literally reached this point {checks watch} about an hour before you posted this.
I can't blame them for hoping another game might land similarly along folks, because damn do I miss the days when that game was tremendously popular and you could just walk down the block with your pals on a summer night and catch a Gyrados or whatever
I would love for another popular social game to click the way Go did, it was just so nice
i remember back when it was big I could go for a walk around the lake and there'd be tons of people out. At one point I found a blastoise and like everyone I passed I would tell them they could find it by the dog park and they'd all hoof it over.
+4
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Has anyone here played Gordian Quest since it was properly released? It's been a neat looking game for a while, but I heard occasionally mixed early access things about it (issues which seem to have now evaporated).
Has anyone here played Gordian Quest since it was properly released? It's been a neat looking game for a while, but I heard occasionally mixed early access things about it (issues which seem to have now evaporated).
Latest Waypoint Radio has some conversation on it, Renata seemed really high on it. The talk got me curious to check it out.
If I'm reading that correctly Matt was still sleeping under his desk when Bethesda were fixing up FO76... *checks watch*
Until this year, if not still? Gotta hand it to him, that's dedication.
I'm not sure where you got that from "Early in my career" This guy used to run Midway; he's been around for awhile.
The guy said he slept under his desk ~when crunch still existed~, and now does not since it's been eliminated (to his knowledge). I was pointing out that there was an article literally this month about crunch at Bethesda, the very company he's whitewashing.
He never says crunch doesn't exist anymore period, he's says it's not a thing at Microsoft, and that the crunch mentioned in that Kotaku article is a thing of the past from prior to the Bethesda aquistion.
Obviously he could be full of shit, but I don't think anything he said was contradictory.
I'm not sure why you're playing devil's advocate for an obvious shithead, over a joke no less, but you do you I guess.
0
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I think even starting with small stakes is notably different. So many games make you out to be the True Hero in the first hour. If it starts out "Save your town" and snowballs, even that is better.
I'm not sure I agree?
I mean I guess at the end of the day it depends on how well it's done, but I've absolutely had it feel like a bait and switch for me
Whereas if you go in knowing you're going to be playing a demigod, the stakes feel consistent all the way through
Edit: What I'm saying is that Baldur's Gate II is a better game than the first one
I mean it is, but I don't think the escalation in BG1 is very steep at all. You go from a naive youth running from the mysterious big guy who murdered your mentor, to the dizzying heights of...stopping a regional cartel from cornering the market on an important resource. Trade out the swords for guns and that's the plot of lots of hardboiled detective books and movies.
I mean yeah of course you find out in passing that the main bad guy behind the trade conspiracy is your demigod half-brother but that happens like three hours before the end of the game and you don't really engage with it much as part of the story. I actually really like that about the game; it does the table-setting for the big escalations of the sequel, but BG1's story is complete unto itself. You could take out the Bhaal stuff and just have it be a game about a random level 1 fighter who, after miraculously being born with all 18s, saves the big regional city from a conspiracy and 95% of the game would remain exactly the same.
Jacobkosh on
+10
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
~so sayeth the Wise Alaundoooooo~
+7
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Like, he would have made a pretty good God of Murder if he'd managed to get there. Isn't called the God of Doing Things The Nice Way.
I used to find Sarevok very very boring but you know I think I like this interpretation that I might even replay Baldur's Gate 1 again!
Personally I feel like you were right the first time; Sarevok is kinda boring - the game doesn't have a way to spend enough time with him for we the players to really get a sense of, like, his inner life, or invest much in him except as a source of problems for our hero - but that doesn't make him bad; or rather, it doesn't take away anything from the game. It's totally okay for Sarevok to be whatever, because he's not really the point of the story.
Lots of games suffer mightily from bending over backwards trying to make their antagonist somehow sympathetic or relatable or cool when that isn't what would best serve the story (like the joke about anime/JRPGs having Lord Genocidicus confess his tearful backstory and suddenly everyone's weirdly okay with him). BG1, for all that it's not deathless prose (I was kinda dismayed on a replay four or five years ago at the sheer number of sidequests that are literally just 90s pop culture references with no other purpose), does avoid that pitfall, and instead tries to invest you in your party members, your character's own journey, and the setting, rather than making Sarevok the centerpiece.
Anyway, as Kuzelman touches on in the article, there's a lot of extremely prescriptive conventional wisdom out there about how villains and antagonists "should" be and I feel like it's mostly bunkum, or rather, should never be taken as some kind of absolute. "Villains should be sympathetic and relatable and even heroic in their own minds, but they should also be realistic, but they should also be cool, but they should also have a rich inner life, but they should also be reflective of or a commentary upon the protagonist," et cetera et cetera, and a poor novice writer trying to follow all of this advice at once would go fucking bonkers. Darth Vader and Marlo Stanfield and Lex Luthor and Stanley Kowalski are all great villains but all for almost entirely different and frequently contradictory reasons - and that's not even getting into all the extremely good stories who don't have some notable, iconic centerpiece character as a villain because they're stories about systemic, impersonal problems. Like, The Grapes of Wrath doesn't need some kind of evil doppelganger or rival or ideological foil to pursue Tom Joad to California.
I also feel like in particular, the idea that villains should always be extremely sympathetic and relatable and maybe even right??? who can say??? whoa mind blown, boom - I feel like that bit of advice is the start, or a start, of the mental breadcrumb trail that leads to political bothsidesism. Sometimes people do bad things and it's not because they're misguided, or suffering heartbreaking trauma, or whatever, they just want some fuckin' money and aren't particular about what they do to get it. And sometimes the people who do these things don't even do us the courtesy of having an interesting personality or a cool iconic costume. Some of the worst crimes in the world are committed by bland sacks of ham.
Anyway, this isn't really a reply to your post so much as me thinking out loud (at length )
Jacobkosh on
+5
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
man, what a trip. i absolutely gotta find a way to watch this
+7
BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
edited June 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHdlhzTc-mc
Another helping of classic Cuphead action awaits you in Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course! Brothers Cuphead and Mugman are joined by the clever, adventurous Ms. Chalice for a rollicking adventure on a previously undiscovered Inkwell Isle! With the aid of new weapons, magical charms, and Ms. Chalice’s unique abilities, players will take on a new cast of fearsome, larger than life bosses to assist the jolly Chef Saltbaker in Cuphead’s final challenging quest! For all those with an appetite for adventure, be ready to set sail for D.L.C. Isle when The Delicious Last Course launches on June 30, 2022. 20220630 Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course (Indie Action Cartoon Difficult Platformer 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuCuTikxAfQ
Learn to become a farmer and renovate your own environmentally-friendly farm! 20220630 My Universe - Green Adventure - Farmer Friends (Casual Education Life Sim 3D Cute)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrcrocIUNHY
Set in a vibrant fantasy world, Alaloth offers fast-paced action with a deep narrative, bringing ARPG dynamics to a new level with a skill-based gameplay inspired by great classics and modern masterpieces. 20220630 Alaloth EA (RPG Adventure Indie Violent Isometric)
I would love to play Cuphead because I love that old Fleischer rubber hose animation style and good God they did such a wonderful job of capturing that.
But also it is a punishing bullet hell and I do not have the fast twitch G4m3r reflexes or patience to get past the first level probably.
Like, he would have made a pretty good God of Murder if he'd managed to get there. Isn't called the God of Doing Things The Nice Way.
I used to find Sarevok very very boring but you know I think I like this interpretation that I might even replay Baldur's Gate 1 again!
Personally I feel like you were right the first time; Sarevok is kinda boring - the game doesn't have a way to spend enough time with him for we the players to really get a sense of, like, his inner life, or invest much in him except as a source of problems for our hero - but that doesn't make him bad; or rather, it doesn't take away anything from the game. It's totally okay for Sarevok to be whatever, because he's not really the point of the story.
Lots of games suffer mightily from bending over backwards trying to make their antagonist somehow sympathetic or relatable or cool when that isn't what would best serve the story (like the joke about anime/JRPGs having Lord Genocidicus confess his tearful backstory and suddenly everyone's weirdly okay with him). BG1, for all that it's not deathless prose (I was kinda dismayed on a replay four or five years ago at the sheer number of sidequests that are literally just 90s pop culture references with no other purpose), does avoid that pitfall, and instead tries to invest you in your party members, your character's own journey, and the setting, rather than making Sarevok the centerpiece.
Anyway, as Kuzelman touches on in the article, there's a lot of extremely prescriptive conventional wisdom out there about how villains and antagonists "should" be and I feel like it's mostly bunkum, or rather, should never be taken as some kind of absolute. "Villains should be sympathetic and relatable and even heroic in their own minds, but they should also be realistic, but they should also be cool, but they should also have a rich inner life, but they should also be reflective of or a commentary upon the protagonist," et cetera et cetera, and a poor novice writer trying to follow all of this advice at once would go fucking bonkers. Darth Vader and Marlo Stanfield and Lex Luthor and Stanley Kowalski are all great villains but all for almost entirely different and frequently contradictory reasons - and that's not even getting into all the extremely good stories who don't have some notable, iconic centerpiece character as a villain because they're stories about systemic, impersonal problems. Like, The Grapes of Wrath doesn't need some kind of evil doppelganger or rival or ideological foil to pursue Tom Joad to California.
I also feel like in particular, the idea that villains should always be extremely sympathetic and relatable and maybe even right??? who can say??? whoa mind blown, boom - I feel like that bit of advice is the start, or a start, of the mental breadcrumb trail that leads to political bothsidesism. Sometimes people do bad things and it's not because they're misguided, or suffering heartbreaking trauma, or whatever, they just want some fuckin' money and aren't particular about what they do to get it. And sometimes the people who do these things don't even do us the courtesy of having an interesting personality or a cool iconic costume. Some of the worst crimes in the world are committed by bland sacks of ham.
Anyway, this isn't really a reply to your post so much as me thinking out loud (at length )
Kind feel like that's getting too deep and thinking too hard about it. That's just a rule for an interesting antagonist in fiction, which is not meant to necessarily be realistic but idealistic, and doesn't have to have anything to do with politics or the real world at all. You can quite cleanly segregate that away, very easily. In the same way people segregate away violence, which has been pretty clearly shown not to influence real life behavior, despite all the fear mongering. I see no reason why this would not be the same. Not that I'm against a story where a boring sack of ham does something awful, that's got its place too.
And yeah, I wasn't saying he isn't boring anymore. I'm just saying I think I appreciate him being boring and one note in that game now.
Irenicus is still superior of course for many reasons not the least of which is David Warner.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
0
BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
Ball Torture is a 2d puzzle game where you control a bowling ball, and once again you get into the recycling compartment and try to get out. The ball will follow your cursor, click where and when it rolls and overcome sharp saws and other obstacles to survive, bringing the ball to the checkpoint. there are 30 checkpoints in the game, by overcoming them all and beating your personal best you will become the winner among the balls in the recycling compartment! Also, do not forget to accumulate stars to prove to everyone that you are the best!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrcrocIUNHY
Set in a vibrant fantasy world, Alaloth offers fast-paced action with a deep narrative, bringing ARPG dynamics to a new level with a skill-based gameplay inspired by great classics and modern masterpieces. 20220630 Alaloth EA (RPG Adventure Indie Violent Isometric)
One of these days we're going to run out of random sound arrangements for fantasy worlds
I would love to play Cuphead because I love that old Fleischer rubber hose animation style and good God they did such a wonderful job of capturing that.
But also it is a punishing bullet hell and I do not have the fast twitch G4m3r reflexes or patience to get past the first level probably.
Luckily it's not really that. It's just a memory test mostly. It is hard, but it's one of those games where once you've beaten a boss once you can beat it every time. It's more...dare I say it? Soulslike.
I think Cuphead should delete "Simple" mode and add assist options that give you as many HP as you would like to have. Achievements/ scored rank turns off when you use these, but if you would like 20 HP to learn how to play (or just to see what every boss is like), go for it. My thinking on this has changed since the game's initial release.
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Cuphead has an amazing sense of style but I was honestly bored in like, 5 minutes when I tried it. It doesn't really have its own spin on shmup mechanics or any added flair so if you've played any 90's bullet hell you've pretty much experienced what Cuphead has on offer. Which may work for you! But I found the gameplay very stale, personally.
I think even starting with small stakes is notably different. So many games make you out to be the True Hero in the first hour. If it starts out "Save your town" and snowballs, even that is better.
I'm not sure I agree?
I mean I guess at the end of the day it depends on how well it's done, but I've absolutely had it feel like a bait and switch for me
Whereas if you go in knowing you're going to be playing a demigod, the stakes feel consistent all the way through
Edit: What I'm saying is that Baldur's Gate II is a better game than the first one
I mean it is, but I don't think the escalation in BG1 is very steep at all. You go from a naive youth running from the mysterious big guy who murdered your mentor, to the dizzying heights of...stopping a regional cartel from cornering the market on an important resource. Trade out the swords for guns and that's the plot of lots of hardboiled detective books and movies.
I mean yeah of course you find out in passing that the main bad guy behind the trade conspiracy is your demigod half-brother but that happens like three hours before the end of the game and you don't really engage with it much as part of the story. I actually really like that about the game; it does the table-setting for the big escalations of the sequel, but BG1's story is complete unto itself. You could take out the Bhaal stuff and just have it be a game about a random level 1 fighter who, after miraculously being born with all 18s, saves the big regional city from a conspiracy and 95% of the game would remain exactly the same.
Honestly that part was mostly a joke, and I do like Baldur's Gate quite a bit actually
I just realized after I'd made the post that it technically described the Baldur's Gate games
+1
BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
Geneforge 1 - Mutagen, Hood: Outlaws & Legends, and Iratus: Lord of the Dead are free on Epic Games Store. Ancient Enemy and Killing Floor 2 are the next free titles http://bit.ly/3qQwIr3
Cuphead has an amazing sense of style but I was honestly bored in like, 5 minutes when I tried it. It doesn't really have its own spin on shmup mechanics or any added flair so if you've played any 90's bullet hell you've pretty much experienced what Cuphead has on offer. Which may work for you! But I found the gameplay very stale, personally.
Saying that the incredible animation and music doesn't count as "added flair" is completely incoherent to me. I also don't know of other Contra style shmups with parry mechanics, at least I can't think of any.
Geneforge 1 - Mutagen, Hood: Outlaws & Legends, and Iratus: Lord of the Dead are free on Epic Games Store. Ancient Enemy and Killing Floor 2 are the next free titles http://bit.ly/3qQwIr3
Posts
I just picked up BotW a couple days ago and literally reached this point {checks watch} about an hour before you posted this.
i remember back when it was big I could go for a walk around the lake and there'd be tons of people out. At one point I found a blastoise and like everyone I passed I would tell them they could find it by the dog park and they'd all hoof it over.
I wonder if there's a poll- or voting-themed pokémon...
Latest Waypoint Radio has some conversation on it, Renata seemed really high on it. The talk got me curious to check it out.
I mean it is, but I don't think the escalation in BG1 is very steep at all. You go from a naive youth running from the mysterious big guy who murdered your mentor, to the dizzying heights of...stopping a regional cartel from cornering the market on an important resource. Trade out the swords for guns and that's the plot of lots of hardboiled detective books and movies.
I mean yeah of course you find out in passing that the main bad guy behind the trade conspiracy is your demigod half-brother but that happens like three hours before the end of the game and you don't really engage with it much as part of the story. I actually really like that about the game; it does the table-setting for the big escalations of the sequel, but BG1's story is complete unto itself. You could take out the Bhaal stuff and just have it be a game about a random level 1 fighter who, after miraculously being born with all 18s, saves the big regional city from a conspiracy and 95% of the game would remain exactly the same.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/mgd4qa/fighting-a-refreshingly-honest-evil-in-baldurs-gate
Like, he would have made a pretty good God of Murder if he'd managed to get there. Isn't called the God of Doing Things The Nice Way.
I used to find Sarevok very very boring but you know I think I like this interpretation that I might even replay Baldur's Gate 1 again!
I
Love
Fallen London
Personally I feel like you were right the first time; Sarevok is kinda boring - the game doesn't have a way to spend enough time with him for we the players to really get a sense of, like, his inner life, or invest much in him except as a source of problems for our hero - but that doesn't make him bad; or rather, it doesn't take away anything from the game. It's totally okay for Sarevok to be whatever, because he's not really the point of the story.
Lots of games suffer mightily from bending over backwards trying to make their antagonist somehow sympathetic or relatable or cool when that isn't what would best serve the story (like the joke about anime/JRPGs having Lord Genocidicus confess his tearful backstory and suddenly everyone's weirdly okay with him). BG1, for all that it's not deathless prose (I was kinda dismayed on a replay four or five years ago at the sheer number of sidequests that are literally just 90s pop culture references with no other purpose), does avoid that pitfall, and instead tries to invest you in your party members, your character's own journey, and the setting, rather than making Sarevok the centerpiece.
Anyway, as Kuzelman touches on in the article, there's a lot of extremely prescriptive conventional wisdom out there about how villains and antagonists "should" be and I feel like it's mostly bunkum, or rather, should never be taken as some kind of absolute. "Villains should be sympathetic and relatable and even heroic in their own minds, but they should also be realistic, but they should also be cool, but they should also have a rich inner life, but they should also be reflective of or a commentary upon the protagonist," et cetera et cetera, and a poor novice writer trying to follow all of this advice at once would go fucking bonkers. Darth Vader and Marlo Stanfield and Lex Luthor and Stanley Kowalski are all great villains but all for almost entirely different and frequently contradictory reasons - and that's not even getting into all the extremely good stories who don't have some notable, iconic centerpiece character as a villain because they're stories about systemic, impersonal problems. Like, The Grapes of Wrath doesn't need some kind of evil doppelganger or rival or ideological foil to pursue Tom Joad to California.
I also feel like in particular, the idea that villains should always be extremely sympathetic and relatable and maybe even right??? who can say??? whoa mind blown, boom - I feel like that bit of advice is the start, or a start, of the mental breadcrumb trail that leads to political bothsidesism. Sometimes people do bad things and it's not because they're misguided, or suffering heartbreaking trauma, or whatever, they just want some fuckin' money and aren't particular about what they do to get it. And sometimes the people who do these things don't even do us the courtesy of having an interesting personality or a cool iconic costume. Some of the worst crimes in the world are committed by bland sacks of ham.
Anyway, this isn't really a reply to your post so much as me thinking out loud (at length
man, what a trip. i absolutely gotta find a way to watch this
But also it is a punishing bullet hell and I do not have the fast twitch G4m3r reflexes or patience to get past the first level probably.
oh god I LOVE WADJET EYE'S GAMES
This is amazing
Kind feel like that's getting too deep and thinking too hard about it. That's just a rule for an interesting antagonist in fiction, which is not meant to necessarily be realistic but idealistic, and doesn't have to have anything to do with politics or the real world at all. You can quite cleanly segregate that away, very easily. In the same way people segregate away violence, which has been pretty clearly shown not to influence real life behavior, despite all the fear mongering. I see no reason why this would not be the same. Not that I'm against a story where a boring sack of ham does something awful, that's got its place too.
And yeah, I wasn't saying he isn't boring anymore. I'm just saying I think I appreciate him being boring and one note in that game now.
Irenicus is still superior of course for many reasons not the least of which is David Warner.
One of these days we're going to run out of random sound arrangements for fantasy worlds
pretty sure the woman and the sheep are from a royalty free assets pack, but with some tweaking to the face/eyes
it's been a slow week so uh... get ready for more titles like this over the summer
Luckily it's not really that. It's just a memory test mostly. It is hard, but it's one of those games where once you've beaten a boss once you can beat it every time. It's more...dare I say it? Soulslike.
Good job, gamers.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Honestly that part was mostly a joke, and I do like Baldur's Gate quite a bit actually
I just realized after I'd made the post that it technically described the Baldur's Gate games
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Saying that the incredible animation and music doesn't count as "added flair" is completely incoherent to me. I also don't know of other Contra style shmups with parry mechanics, at least I can't think of any.
And hey, it's free.
https://www.polygon.com/22660534/tripwire-ceo-steps-down-anti-abortion-statement-maneater-killing-floor
but he's gone now
I think the weird song the CEO's song performed is still in the game though: