Penny Arcade - Comic - Boomer Tier

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Penny Arcade - Comic - Boomer Tier

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

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Lttlefoot

I'm seeing this complaint everywhere

I don't know why games don't just put a hint button that you can either hit immediately, or not hit at all, rather than using a delay timer

Overkillengine

I usually don't comment on the art, but this one came off a bit weird to me given that Atreus looks older than Kratos here. Probably the combination of head proportions and implied eye bags making him look like a middle aged accountant. Half expected the last panel to be a reminder that I need to claim all my exemptions on my taxes lol.

Djiem

Atreus is simply suffering from the Peanuts effect, where some characters (like Sally and Rerun) age much faster than the rest of the crew.

Lucascraft

I have heard that the backseating in this game is pretty bad. He gives you the solution before you really even have a chance to think about it.

Grendus

Yeah, that's my biggest complaint about the game (which says a lot about the quality, in all honesty). Atreus will be shouting out the answer before I've even had a chance to properly study the puzzle. And other companions (because there are a lot of other companions) will do the same, Brock and Sindri and others I won't spoil all have the same tendency to shout spoilers literally as soon as the fight is over and you're just realizing you reached a puzzle zone.

And of course, there are a few puzzles that are not well designed visually (there's one where the points you have to break are in shadow, for example), and some mechanics that aren't well explained (your targeting lines when throwing at the mirror rock things turn blue if they'll hit something either on the throw or the recall).

TychoCelchuuu

This game is designed to make people feel empathy for streamers who have to put up with backseaters in chat.

Preacher

Lucascraft wrote: »

I have heard that the backseating in this game is pretty bad. He gives you the solution before you really even have a chance to think about it.

Yeah I saw a dude get to an environment puzzle and like almost immediately his companion told him what to do. Like he got there and they said it. Also in combat the npcs constantly tell the player how to deal with literally everything.

It truely is twitch chat. Reminds me of Horizon zero dawn forbidden west. Where either a companion or alloy herself would tell the player what to do without like you getting a second to look at a puzzle.

captainclueless

Haven't played the game, but just wanted to point out a typo in the tag for today's comic. Unless "Gad of War Ragnarok" is a clever joke that I haven't figured out yet.

Shenl742

It's very egregious but it didn't bother me TOO much because believe me there were plenty of puzzles my dumbass took a while to figure out.

What I found legitimately annoying though is when you'd go off the path and your companion would be like "Where are you going!?"

I mean...devs you made this game with big areas and lots of secrets to find...so please don't literally nag at me when I want to explore!!!

dennis

captainclueless wrote: »

Haven't played the game, but just wanted to point out a typo in the tag for today's comic. Unless "Gad of War Ragnarok" is a clever joke that I haven't figured out yet.

It's a typo. It was supposed to be "Gab of War Ragnarok".

Preacher

Shenl742 wrote: »

It's very egregious but it didn't bother me TOO much because believe me there were plenty of puzzles my dumbass took a while to figure out.

What I found legitimately annoying though is when you'd go off the path and your companion would be like "Where are you going!?"

I mean...devs you made this game with big areas and lots of secrets to find...so please don't literally nag at me when I want to explore!!!

This happened to me with Guardians of the Galaxy, and it annoyed the dick out of me. Its funny the first time, its really annoying the next 10000 times.

Preacher

Other thing I noticed with the new god of war is side bosses had a really limited amount of voice lines and repeat themselves often.

Morninglord

I both hate this system and really like how perfectly it is characterised in this game in particular. Like the Kratos-Atresus dynamic is built for Atreus being an annoying know it all shit while Kratos lumberingly attempts to figure out puzzles and it is one of the funniest things to me.

But yeah it's really bad game design. If you are so worried people can't work out your puzzles, make better puzzles. Work on your visual signposting, your intuitive cues. Don't just spoil the whole thing, otherwise why the hell do you even have puzzles. You might as well just have a skip button for them.

Preacher

Morninglord wrote: »

I both hate this system and really like how perfectly it is characterised in this game in particular. Like the Kratos-Atresus dynamic is built for Atreus being an annoying know it all shit while Kratos lumberingly attempts to figure out puzzles and it is one of the funniest things to me.

But yeah it's really bad game design. If you are so worried people can't work out your puzzles, make better puzzles. Work on your visual signposting, your intuitive cues. Don't just spoil the whole thing, otherwise why the hell do you even have puzzles. You might as well just have a skip button for them.

Exactly precisely exactly.

Either the puzzle is fun so let me figure it out, or it sucks and is hard to understand in which case build a better puzzle.

RatherDashing

Djiem

People have shat on silent protagonists for a long time, but I prefer Link or the Tarnished to "I need to climb up there to activate the mechanism; there must be a rope somewhere" Aloy or Atreus.

Rhesus Positive

Shenl742 wrote: »

It's very egregious but it didn't bother me TOO much because believe me there were plenty of puzzles my dumbass took a while to figure out.

What I found legitimately annoying though is when you'd go off the path and your companion would be like "Where are you going!?"

I mean...devs you made this game with big areas and lots of secrets to find...so please don't literally nag at me when I want to explore!!!

I like it when they do that, because it confirms that I'm not following the critical path and I'm on the way to a chest I can punch

CrimeRobot

Rhesus Positive wrote: »

I like it when they do that, because it confirms that I'm not following the critical path and I'm on the way to a chest I can punch

Everyone knows that chests are most-properly kicked open, with bare feet.