Computer Games

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I've not been keeping up with E3- worse, I've not found a site, to my taste, that has comprehensive summaries of it. The impression I'm getting is that it's a lot of duds and "wait three more years for this to be ready!". I read that Sony took a 15 minute break in the middle of their press conference. So I looked it up, and it was painful. They also had long segments of music that I don't get outside of it being filler for not having enough to show off. Square/Enix had it's first conference in several years, and (again from what I read) they had nothing to show off- as Tomb Raider was already revealed and Octopath Traveller will probably show up more in Nintendo's conference. Bethesda, even Doom, was a lot of "wait&see"- the Fallout 76 thing isn't for me. Don't know anything about anything on Rage and so on...EA- thanks, but no thanks. Ubisoft lost me at the very beginning with the dancing Panda. Microsoft wants the customers to know that they are busy with the next system- haven't seen the Halo thing, don't know a thing about it.

Altogether:

Doom definitely stands out.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider- will keep an eye on once it hits discount racks.

That feudal Japanese game Sony showed off piqued my interest but I had no clue what I was looking at. Don't even know the name. And it wasn't clear what actual gameplay was like to me- at least in the clips I've seen.

Okay, I caught Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and the minute they said "...sail across the Aegean..." showing that naval battles are back, I figure I'll be playing that in two or three years, like a sucker.

and I think that's it. I saw Spiderman which will probably be a trillion-dollar seller but it's not for me.

So much of it just doesn't look fun. The cinematic trailers are boring.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

oh! Resident Evil 2 remake. At least I know what we're getting. Capcom says they'll be more of it too, but who knows? And I lean to the more towards the "Who cares" camp.

To pilfer someone else's reaction, which I think sums up E3, "Why are we watching lesbians sniff each other on a dance floor? What happened to video games?"

Nintendo is the last to go. I've no clue what they're up to but I'm not sure if it'll have anything I'm all that interested in either. That being said, they'll probably have

-The New 3d Metroid -- which I think they'll be giving the Mario Odyssey/Breathe of the Wild "Game of E3" treatment.
-Smash Brothers
-I bet they'll be a Mario Odyssey 2, like they did with Galaxy/Galaxy 2, using the same engine/assets and mostly cut content from the 1st.

I'd love it if they released something close to that 2d Zelda demo they made for Breath of the Wild or a new Mario Maker for the switch.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

oh! Resident Evil 2 remake. At least I know what we're getting. Capcom says they'll be more of it too, but who knows? And I lean to the more towards the "Who cares" camp.

To pilfer someone else's reaction, which I think sums up E3, "Why are we watching lesbians sniff each other on a dance floor? What happened to video games?"

Nintendo is the last to go. I've no clue what they're up to but I'm not sure if it'll have anything I'm all that interested in either. That being said, they'll probably have

-The New 3d Metroid -- which I think they'll be giving the Mario Odyssey/Breathe of the Wild "Game of E3" treatment.
-Smash Brothers
-I bet they'll be a Mario Odyssey 2, like they did with Galaxy/Galaxy 2, using the same engine/assets and mostly cut content from the 1st.

I'd love it if they released something close to that 2d Zelda demo they made for Breath of the Wild or a new Mario Maker for the switch.

Welp, it was a lot of Smash Brothers (almost thirty minutes of the 45 minute presentation) and nothing else. I'll give them this though, they showed off gameplay and, with one exception, they limited the show to only things coming out within the next 6 months.

-I'm already on board with Octopath Traveller. I'm not the biggest fan of old JRPG games but the demo they released last year was fantastic.

Other than that. Nothing.

I thought the Mario Party game looked clever; but only if you have multiple switches.

Ubisoft's fighter pilot game (like the old LucasGames Rogue Squadron games or Star Fox) is a toy-to-life nonstarter.

They have the first Pokemon adventure games for the system. With the business hat on, I thought it is an awful idea- who is this game supposed to appeal to? They are simplifying an already simple game- I suppose to try to snag even more children- but they are also basing it off the original [though not a remake] and making it look like the 1990 kids cartoon to pull in [now] adult fans. I think that while it'll sell to the usual crowds, it's not going to do what it seems like they are aiming at: expand their market. So it's a waste.

Other than that? A mech suit game which looks dead on arrival. A bunch of dlc, third-party games (indie and major- though a lot of the major ones are the free-to-play on every electronic device in existence variety), and more cannibalizing of the Wii U.

Yoshi has been delayed. None of their second-party studios (outside the Pokemon company and Monolithsoft) had anything to show off. No Metroid; no quick turnaround/cash grab on the very successful Mario+Zelda from last year....Retro Studios hasn't been heard from in 5 years. Do they still exist?

I get that they are launching their online subscription levy later this year. So almost every game they highlighted have online components- that's the focus. But 30 dollars a year for this? This and their 8-bit NES library being slowly rolled out, so you can play Balloon Fight. Meh.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

And the missing studios goes for Nintendo's in-house, first parties too.

They've restructured their divisions several times in the last 6 years, so it's hard to keep track. I think, right now, they've reduced everything to a hardware team/software team. The hardware side has its own software division- they are the ones making Mario Party.

Zelda&Mario have their own, small permanent teams within software which only expand on demand. Metroid is probably an all-hands on deck situation- so that may be a big chunk. And the people making Yoshi are obviously busy- but I don't think that's a huge personnel sink.

Smash Brothers isn't in house. The same team which made the last one is working on this one and it consists of a selected group under Sakari who hasn't technically been a Hal Laboratory/Nintendo employee in ~15 years. Most of that team is now Bandai/Namco with talent taken from Hal/Nintendo, Konami, Square/Enix, Sega and Capcom.

The point of simplifying to two teams/having only one hardware to develop for, was to avoid software droughts. It's not going to plan. So where is the rest of Nintendo? Of Intelligence Systems? Of Hal? Next Level Games? Camelot? Retro?

[noddy]

another retro console no doubt! they must be up to n64 by now.

on reflection - cybepunk 2077 looks vaguely interesting but as you said their isnt much to worry about spending money on.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

hah! The sad thing is that's probably the case. They are probably hard at work figuring out how to keep the costs down enough on needing multiple controllers for most of the games. It'll come with two, or for an additional 40 bucks, all four.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

From the desk of the incomparable Sean Malstrom

The big reason why many people bought the Nintendo Switch was because of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In other words, adventure games. What does Nintendo show? A bizarre mecha flight game, Mario Party, a party fighting game, and Fire Emblem. No adventure games were shown. No wonder Switch’s audience is so disappointed.

Octopath is adventure game-like. But that is already coming out soon and known about for over a year.

Xenoblade 2 expansion fits the adventure game. But it is an expansion.

So if you bought a Switch for Zelda: BoW “Wow!”, Nintendo literally had nothing to show to you. This signals the Switch is in serious trouble for this consumer.

The reason why people are upset of the lack of Metroid is more because of lack of adventure games in general. There is nothing shown for Switch’s largest audience!

If Nintendo made the NES today, they would have seen the success of Super Mario Brothers and gone, “We need to check those boxes,” and made a party game, a RPG game, a mecha game, and anything else but another platformer. To the STUPID executives, this seems ‘brilliant business sense’ but it is suicide. You have a platform of people who love Super Mario Brothers and no other games for them to play. What Nintendo did do was make Super Mario Brothers 2, Zelda 1 and 2, Metroid, then Super Mario Brothers 3, then Kirby, then Startropics, etc. etc. etc. Nintendo even published Mega Man 6 because they knew their audience wanted more Mega Man.

We’re seeing this type of EA form of Nintendo where they just ‘check boxes’ and let people who bought the system just rot. What are these Zelda gamers supposed to play? Mario Party? Smash Brothers? No.

...[t]he purpose of the conference is not to ‘show some games’. The purpose is to show the future of the platform. “Here’s some games coming out in the next few months. Bye.” It’s so lame. We invested into this platform. Where is it going? “Well, we don’t feel like showing that now…” F--- you. You showed parts of it already last year. Why did you change? The reason THEN was because you wanted to sell the Switch. Today, you are just ‘selling some games’.

No, you are selling the Switch TODAY. And you are not giving anyone reason to invest into the Switch today. Smash Brothers is an old game. A new version is not going to light up the world. If you got rid of all the sequels and expansions and DLCs, the only new game Nintendo announced was a strange mecha game.

“Why are the Nintendo decision makers so stupid?” It is the constant cycle. Nintendo cannot handle success. When Nintendo has success, they do not attempt to understand it, they just chalk it up to their own genius (of course). Then they push harder with their own ‘genius’ and ride the future into a Gamecube or Wii U gutter.

I see a very weak, paint-by-numbers, Nintendo here. This is not a company interested in competing against disinterest. This is not a company interested in actually working. What the hell is this company doing? Why can they not get online right after all these years? It’s not a mystery!

Now with the lack of any Retro Studio news, everyone is figuring out that Retro is in serious trouble and must be in some decline. This, of course, is not news to this page. Retro has been in decline for quite some time. Half a decade with no new announcement of a game? You’re dead in this industry after that long. You become a ‘has been’ at that point.

Nintendo is putting so many marbles into Smash that they are not seeing the unhappy Zelda gamers. “After Breath of the Wild, there are no good games for the Switch,” I heard someone say. With the exception of maybe Xenoblade 2 or Octopath, what other games would there be for this gamer?

Nintendo E3 2018

[noddy]

harsh, skyrim it is then heh.

ive got another rogue like shooter (for free) to check out now - https://store.steampowered.com/app/308420/Ziggurat/

GOG giveaway are very cool, so far ive got that, crysis 1 and witcher 1 and havent bought a game at all yet

maybe ill end up throwing em some dosh for cyberpunk when it comes off the early adopter pricing.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

harsh, skyrim it is then heh.

ive got another rogue like shooter (for free) to check out now - https://store.steampowered.com/app/308420/Ziggurat/

GOG giveaway are very cool, so far ive got that, crysis 1 and witcher 1 and havent bought a game at all yet

maybe ill end up throwing em some dosh for cyberpunk when it comes off the early adopter pricing.

okay, just checked out cyberpunk- that's goin' on the 'keep-an' eye on it'

Ziggaurat looks good, how does it feel, control-wise?

[noddy]

harsh, skyrim it is then heh.

ive got another rogue like shooter (for free) to check out now - https://store.steampowered.com/app/308420/Ziggurat/

GOG giveaway are very cool, so far ive got that, crysis 1 and witcher 1 and havent bought a game at all yet

maybe ill end up throwing em some dosh for cyberpunk when it comes off the early adopter pricing.

okay, just checked out cyberpunk- that's goin' on the 'keep-an' eye on it'

Ziggaurat looks good, how does it feel, control-wise?

not sure yet - ill try a few times over next few days - its not grabbing me so far.

despite the good reviews my usual concerns with rogue like FPS are apparent in first few levels - the genre really does benefit from careful placements.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I can see that.

I was all about the rogue craze a few years back for adventure/rpg games.

The appeal for shooters seems, to me, like a misplaced desire- substituting for better enemy AI.

[noddy]

forests and mazes can handle random baddies and loot - the rpg thing isnt about the mechanics so much .

games which live and die on the mechanics and the inherit fun in applying those mechanics (like shooters and platformers) need the levels to be designed by someone with a sense of how to get the most out of it.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

You are most certainly right, but my gut tells me to take that as a challenge!

That has to be a way to do it.

edit: yet. daydreaming about it keeps bringing me to more adventure-oriented solutions. I'm not the person to figure this one out! Someone is out there with the answer!

[noddy]

lego blocks of working subsets is the only compromise approach that has worked - but its just as boring as a fixed level so hardly worth the effort.

----

sony is pulling out all the stops on revolutionary new content.

Mr8fVT_Ds4Q

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Tetris Effect will probably be great in VR. But only 30 levels? And taking 6 years to make?

Maybe I'm missing something to it.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Do people still play space fight simulators/shooters?

Don't know what they're called...basically those games where you pilot a ship and dogfight?

[noddy]

the only one im properly aware of is the descent reboot - it is getting alot of buzz.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/de ... nderground

the old star wars based ones are all free on humblebundle at the moment, it seems to be a genre on the verge of a comeback.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Never played a whole lot of them, but I always enjoyed what I tried out. I'd love to see a comeback and curious to see what can be done with the genre, as it's one of those where the limitations dampen the ambitions somewhat.

I've had this idea floating around in the back of my mind of a arcade-y game with aerial assault/ground forces over futuristic urban maps. The POV/ objectives would be different if you choose to be a fighter/bomber pilot or one of the infantry on the ground. It's a bit more fleshed out but that's the gist of it.

I went so far as to make a diorama of two of the maps but abandoned the whole thing because the project was just too much for my limited skills.

[noddy]

i think lots of people have wanted variations on that - i know i have

the trick is that high granularity and responsive fps shooters start struggling > 20 players and the mmo thing with hundreds only works with the simplest of network protocols - combat is pretty much a dice roll on them.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

My ambitions in that regard were much more modest. Being arcade, unrealistic where everything is laser guns and ground troops could take down aeroplanes, I figured at aiming for maybe 6-8 human players at a time, max. I envisioned a lot of one-on-one/one-on-two mode-play when it came to multi player. And I decided that it would have to be a third-person shooter, but I can't remember my exact reasoning behind that- I think it comes down to ground players needing more environmental awareness and all those old air combat games are in third-person view.

There were to be 4 types each of ground/air characters:

- a fighter: the air standard. a very small set of missiles (to go with the guns).
- a bomber: weaker guns than fighter pilot, slower than the fighter pilot, able to drop bombs to destroy buildings/bunkers/tunnels. Able to use a small set of lock on missiles on air/ground opponents.
- a helicopter: tighter, quicker ascending/descending movement, faster shooting but no missiles, able to toss a rope and have a ground player latch on for movement/shooting purposes.
- a spy plane: quickest moving, can scan buildings/tunnels for troop locations and temporarily track, able to set up portals to warp through, no guns but able to deploy npc drones to fight& plant mines as booby traps.

-an infantryman: the ground standard unit, standard guns, able to control special turrets.
-a marine: stronger/faster than the infantryman but no special weapons. Able to dig tunnels/unlock and access buildings.
-a builder/medic type: very slow, very weak gun, able to minimally heal team mates, able to rebuild damaged roads/buildings/tunnels and temporarily disguise location of themselves/teammates.
-an anti-aircraft hover tank: just a very strong tank roaming the streets. High health, stronger gun; can quickly transport teammates across the map either through temporary portal or through streets. Some protection against spy plane booby traps/ able to deploy temporary air obstacles. Can briefly hover to ascend building levels.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

So, Assassin's Creed was...okay, overall. Maybe my second favorite in the series; though, I didn't play a whole lot of it myself. I'd probably grow to despise it if given the chance. And that was sorta the consensus verdict: it wears out it's welcome because all of its improvements kinda stink in the large scheme of things.

The game is now combat focused and the improved combat isn't that much greater.
The RPG system doesn't really work all that well. It seems to make no difference if you upgrade your weapons or not. The type of weapon isn't all that important either, outside broad strokes around the type. Outside of aesthetics, hoarding or the odd mission where people ask for an item (and we don't think anyone asks for a weapon) there is zero reason to explore and collect.
The game isn't grinding; but we did the right thing in focusing on side quests at the beginning before we were sick of them. It kept us at a higher level at all times, making areas really easy. Seems like as long as you were at or 1 over whatever level the mission called or, you could walk in and wreck havoc. The converse was that less than a level underpowered for a mission made it nearly impossible.
Oh! And experience points are minimal on anything not tied to a side mission. So no sneaking around forts and shivving people to gain meaningful experience.

So combine all of that and Ubisoft took their open world, sandbox sneaking game and turned it into a bad button masher where most of map is locked away and there is no ability to progress in the main game or map without doing their silly side missions step-by-step.

And to be fair, they weren't all silly. Some of them were thoughtful, but from what I hear most of them turned into this:

-Talk to character and listen to sob story
-Characters asks you to investigate
-You run around the room looking for "investigation prompts" like in Batman or the Witcher III (from what I'm told) which lead you somewhere else.
-Character then asks you to take a long stroll with them. You have to walk 3000 meters with character as they yap; no sprinting forward; the character model will collide with objects, get caught up with crowds, decide to stop walking for no reason.
-Then you finally get to the gameplay which is to raid the generic Greek/Roman camp that you've raided a million times before and get 'X'
-Take X back to character and listen to more story.

One mission I did do went as follows:

a group of sibling-farmers wish to defend their homestead from the Greeks.
talk to the brothers who tell you to talk to the sister who's the real brawns/brains/perfect rebel.
She asks you to take her to a mountain perch to prepare for the invaders.
It takes about 5-7 minutes to get there- the minute you do she merely says, "looks like we're all set, why don't you head back and talk to my brothers for me?"

The game wastes 15 minutes of life. I bolted at that point.

[noddy]

hah - not much has changed then, i doubt ill revist the one i have.

im finding all gaming a grind of late - no pleasure to be found in any of it, perhaps a sympton of realworld stresses adding up.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I tried out Bloodborne for a few minutes last weekend.

I've never played the From Software Dark Souls series. As Bloodborne is supposed to be the easiest and most straight-forward of the From-type....I made it about ten feet in 20 minutes.

The difficulty was fun and if I get the chance, I'd probably enjoy it- so it's going on the list.

There were two downsides...much too agro-dark for my tastes, I don't have the patience to learn all the "grim dark lore names for the weapons and areas"

The loading times aren't bad but I can see myself getting really tired of needing to sit through the loading screens over and over on a game which is built around lots of trial-and-error deaths. Not much to be done about this I suppose, but it would probably be nicer a little faster.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

nah, it was definitely different (Origins) but it didn't do much good.

The investigation system these action games are adopting might sound good on paper, but I don't know how anyone can like most examples of it in practice.

Unlike a point and click adventure or a puzzle game or a completely narrative driven one like LA Noire...why are they wasting my time faffing about a room for "clues" that I might have to button prompt but do nothing else with?

I'll hafta give Batman this, though. At least it made some sense, in context of the game&character, for him to look at crime scenes, plus they have that rhythm-game combat system to fall back on.

If you're gonna down this road, you better have something good to show for it. Or maybe really go for broke and put in actual clues for the player to piece together.

Of course, that will kill completion ratings and probably get the whole division fired and kill the company.

Looking at the "trophies", I was surprised that just 80% of people who played the game completed the "prologue" section. It said only thirty-something % actually complete the main game.

[noddy]

.