Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@nessisonett
There is article about AI looking cat game on Nintendolife.
It just look hideous.

@Anti-Matter Cute games are only cute if they’re made by real humans!

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I think is a neat idea, but not for me. My history with roguelites/likes are mixed at best and I rarely play in co-op. I realise that you can ias a single player, but in most cases in my experiance with these types if games you put yourself at a disadvantage by doing so.

With it being a standalone spin off from Elden Ring, I doubt it will damage the game too much if turns out to be off poor quality. Not that care a great deal about that kind of thing.

As Witcher 4 was only a cinematic trailer, it didn't do much for me. I imagine it is a still a ways out too.

@nessisonett @LN78 Indiana Jones and the great circle is the best Xbox exclusive since Forza Horizon 5. It's amazing. Imo it's a spiritual follow up to Escape from Butcher Bay. It's brilliant. The 6/10 over on pure Xbox is baffling at best. Most of the people who frequent these sites WANT brilliant novel single player games, which it certainly is.

I don't like Witcher 3 or BoTW as I had played MGS5 and HZD prior to both, they both ran like rubbish in comparison. Which put me off. I still know they are good games and would defer an imaginary review to someone with more insight and less cynicism.

I understand that reviews are opinions. But when the opinions are contradictory to the audience experience and the lack of nuance surrounding the graphics tech, level layout, additional activities and overall quality from start to finish. It's frustrating. A base understanding of the films would also help. I wouldn't review Harry Potter as Ive only fleetingly watched snippets of films. Why shouldn't Indiana Jones command that same respect from a review. It's like reviewing a car when you have only ever taken the bus.

@themcnoisy @LN78 I’m just waiting here for the PS version, it looks so so good. Technically I have a beefy enough PC (cobbled together from secondhand parts off uncles) to play it but it’s definitely a TV game for me. Plus my mum keeps saying she wants it 😂

@LN78 Fortunately I’ve not been exposed to any spoilers which is how I intent to keep it! This is gonna be a long wait though 😂

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Both look really awesome. I don’t think the Nightreign looks like a ‘jump the shark moment’, but it’s definitely an experimental project. I don’t know that it will be a runaway success, but I respect the effort.

As for W4, since I haven’t played W3 in its entirety, I don’t really have a feeling one way or another about Ciri. I do need to get back and retry W3 though. This is a good incentive to do so.

How about the Intetgalact reveal? I have high confidence in Naughty Dog, but I’m probably most worried about that one. It looks good, but I wonder if their narrative chops and character development talent is going to translate over into what appears to be a game that is a lonely adventure with more limited character interaction. It’s really hard to tell from a trailer though, so we’ll see.

@Th3solution pardon my interjection… and excuse me while I exercise some much un-deserved negativity aimed towards Intergalactic online. I hope you don’t take this as targeted towards you but it’s just that you made mention of the project and I’ve taken this opportunity to address the instant online negativity (aimed towards this in particular… but also just generally prevalent about big stuff these days).

I must be the only person on the interwebz totally psyched for Intergalactic. For all the negativity The Last of Us part 2 and Druckmann gets… as someone who considers himself extremely cynical and…just generally grumpy about a lot of ‘modern’ **** these days, I think the guy is genuinely top-tier… and The Last of Us sequel… phenomenal.

People just love to hate these days and quote-unquote big AAA projects receive the most disdain. I’ll give you an example… I can 99.999% guarantee you that if Project Robot had been announced as Druckmann’s next Naughty Dog opus, the whole internet would be like wtf?!?! but as it’s Ueda’s next game everybody’s positively gushing (myself included ☺️). My point is that Druckmann is so scarred rn (as a result of how a certain swathe of gamers reacted to TLoU2) that there is pretty much no possible thing that could be revealed with him attached as director that wouldn’t be received with that vitriolic reaction.

Maybe I’m an easy mark, wouldn’t be the first time… but I rate the guy. I say that as someone who doesn’t even go for the more linear-narrative focussed games that ND has produced. The thought that Druckmann is not only producing a new ip… but also that it’s more open-world than anything ND has ever done (and Miyazaki ((via Elden Ring)) is maybe the gameplay-loop muse)… well… I couldn’t be more psyched!

Again… please don’t take this as me aiming any of this at you specifically, you’re someone I have a lot of time for and respect but this is more about the general reaction that (as per) just never fails to disappoint. Rant over 😁

@PorkChopExpress damn right… as per 🍻

@Jimmer-jammer 🤣 if there is anything anywhere near a slithering-reclining-chair-like-leaf-eating-gelatinous creature… I’m done and you’re officially the gaming-Nostradamus!

First off, when I re-read my post there I realized how horribly my thumbs butchered the title. 🤣
“Intetgalact” isn’t even close.

@colonelkilgore No worries, mate. I know you aren’t targeting me or any one in particular, and that it’s important to push back against some of the ridiculous prejudice against the studio. But regarding my reticence, I should clarify — I really loved TLoU2 (and all of the studios games, honestly), and I do think Druckmann is one of gaming’s best creatives. I actually didn’t know that there was a lot of hate being spewed already about this new game. I’m not surprised there is though, and I definitely saw it coming, like you say, no matter what the game was. It could’ve been GTA6 and people would still hate on it because of ND and Druckmann.

Like @PorkChopExpress says, the very thing most fans were clamoring for was a new IP from ND and so now we have it and it absolutely creates a level of excitement. And for sure it needs to NOT be Uncharted in space. So the studio is definitely caught in an interesting predicament — they have set the standard of cinematic narrative driven third person action-adventure games so going back to that well is what one would expect. But they absolutely would be criticized if they didn’t innovate and try something new from a gameplay and story perspective. And like I say, what I enjoyed the most about TLoU, and to a lesser extent Uncharted, was the character development, which leaned into character interactions mainly.

But like @Jimmer-jammer says, just because it intros the narrative basis of the game as the story of a protagonist going to a galactic system that no one has ever returned from, doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t other humans she’ll come in contact with I suppose. I originally was thinking narratively it could turn out to be like Returnal, which was awesome, even from a weird storyline standpoint, but that’s not the kind of story I envision ND making.

Or perhaps the character part of it could be told via flashbacks and video recordings as a lot of these lonely Sci Fi tales do. Either way, I’m here for it and do feel confident in ND. My worry is mainly that people won’t give it a chance because either it’s A) not TLoU in space, or B) they don’t like Druckmann or C) they don’t like the way the protagonist looks.

Here’s hoping that straying from prior strength yields a great game, like From/Miyazaki with ER, Guerrilla with HZD, CDPR with Cyberpunk, etc. and not like Rocksteady with Suicide Squad, or BioWare with Anthem, or Yuji Naka with Balan Wonderworld, etc. 😄

@Herculean I agree with you actually on your last point.

However my issue with that and other similar reviews is he wanted uncharted 5.

Escape from butcher bay was widely acclaimed due to it's immersion, intertwined levels and story. One of the best Xbox exclusives at the time. This is a spiritual successor to that blueprint. If the reviewer actually engaged with the gameplay of indie (which isn't shoehorned to be first person as he claims) which requires mooching around to find upgrade books and levelling up their skills and abilities, then they would have had a significantly better experience. Rather than rushing the game, which is clearly evident within the review.

You have a significant amount of options in how you take on objectives and in which order you perform them. You are meant to engage with fieldwork and mysteries within the areas, concurrently working towards the main story. Any normal person would. Which as noted, he did not. This then opens up additional pathways, unlocks and skills to get around groups of fascists. Indiana Jones is a professor and archeologist, not Rambo.

The effort put into the graphics is sublime. You can't replicate that level of meticulous detail over 25 hours of gung ho action. So having numerous encounters within a smaller area is inevitable. The hand to hand fighting is adept and it's unnecessary to hide away all game as is wrongfully disclosed. You can take out small groups in quick succession using the correct moves.

It all boils down to a lack of effort whilst playing the game. Playing fully immersed, for the full experience makes all of the listed negatives moot. The developers have given you the option to mainline the story without the faff, which is commendable. But the faff is a significant amount of worthwhile story, adventure and treasure. So if you miss that. You aren't being Indiana Jones.

@Th3solution @colonelkilgore @PorkChopExpress General online gaming comments are juvenile spurred on by influencers. I was intrigued by naughty dogs trailer and was excited to see the reception.

It's all 'woke this' 'dei that'. It's flagrant self aggrandising of the lowest common denominator. Gaming was once an escape from mainstream attitudes and whims, settling in to a world far away from our own. Apparently now gaming is mainstream we want politicised dog whistles, popularity contests and most importantly boobs.

I was always a big advocate of gaming news. But with money chasing influencers, the hate and unnecessary negativity garners more support from groups of closed minded yobs, who years prior would be directing their ire at perceivably weaker people on the street, in work or in school.

We don't actually know anything about the main character. Other than she seemed pretty boss to me. And the trainers were sick!

@Th3solution With regard to the Naughty Dog game, I am a bit dubious about what is implied to be the main weapon in the game - it looks rather Cal Kestis-y, if you get my drift. Very light saber-ish, so maybe somewhat derivative, which wouldn't be too good.

But then I guess there's nothing wrong with a little extra light saber-ish action if you like that kinda thing and don't wanna think about it too much - so there's that.

It’s probably important to note that Druckmann has lost a lot of people who defended him around about TLOU2’s release due to his stance on Palestine. Intergalactic was always going to get sh*t on by the anti-woke lot regardless, it gained more hatred from the less militant but still fairly childish lot because of the protagonist looking like Tati Gabrielle, plus there’s a fairly large section of younger gamers who instantly switched off when Druckmann’s involvement was revealed due to the general negative attitude surrounding him in the years since TLOU2’s release. The difference is that there are much fewer people defending him because of the intersectionality of Palestine support with other causes like anti racism and LGBTQ+ advocacy, who would traditionally go to bat for people like him because of the sort of people that attack these projects. This time around, I’ve seen people calling out those who’re spouting rubbish about woke and such, without actually defending the project or Druckmann at all. Sort of a multi-pronged assault by different people for different reasons.

I love Uncharted 4 and I sort of actively disliked TLOU1’s story so it was always going to be a mixed bag personally but that trailer didn’t do much for me. The downright silly product placement and reliance on an A list cast reaffirmed my belief that Naughty Dog are caught in a trap where they’re having to push that it’s a ‘premium cinematic experience’ due to Druckmann clearly just wanting to do movies and Sony’s reliance on this particular brand of game to justify the whole £700 PS5 Pro approach, which I think was a testing ground for PS6’s inevitable Apple style brushed metal and >£1000 price tag approach. Premium product demands shiny cinematic game (and of course Sony sells TVs, speakers, headphones to make the cinematic experience even more expensive too). Unless Druckmann does a ‘subverts expectations’ and the game is actually a clever dig at nostalgia being a creative graveyard, with the brands and music being a metaphorical comfort blanket holding the main character back from the ‘new’ experience waiting down on the planet below. But I personally don’t think he’s clever enough to pull that off as Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us are both obviously patchworks of classic film tropes. I really do hope it turns out to be great, the whole Guardians of the Galaxy/Concord/Marathon/Arc Raiders retro-sci-fi thing desperately needs a breath of fresh air.

I’ll add that the product placement thing rankled mostly because for the first time you’re ever showing the game off, with a trailer in the pimp slot at The Game Awards, you choose to have the camera linger over a Porsche logo and pan up from Adidas trainers. It felt a bit gross. There’s an entire universe of things they could have shown off but the branded stuff was ready for the in-engine trailer which means it was modelled and polished by staff specifically to be shown off in this one trailer. The Sony stuff, yep absolutely fine as they’re the parent company, quite like that sort of thing with the Walkman in MGS V and such. But this felt like NBA 2K with the Sprite Play of the Game and Gatorade being everywhere, clearly money has exchanged hands. And this is coming from someone whose main takeaway from The Getaway was how incredible it was to have London satellite mapped for the game including the million shopfronts with real brands and dubious levels of consent from the companies, that’s cool and makes London feel like a crazy snapshot of a specific period of time.

@Th3solution well said bud… and glad you didn’t take my rant personally. I tried my best to ensure it didn’t come over that way but I’d had a fair few vodka-tonics by that point, so I had no idea if any of my ramblings made any sense least of all my assurances that my frustrations were general rather than pointed.

@themcnoisy agreed mate… on almost every level. I say ‘almost’ as… well… I still want boobs… lots of boobs 😉.

@nessisonett this guy’s perspective on the product placement fits more with my take on what Naughty Dog are trying to achieve with its use:

Skip to around 7:10

@PorkChopExpress @colonelkilgore

The "can sometimes be a bit grumpy in general, but actually generally fairly well rounded in terms of seeing things from all angles, giving things a chance, and not just jumping on the bandwagon club"

I don't think it's as rare as you think, it's just the internet is filled with the exact opposite in much greater numbers, and they are much, much louder 😅

I made my thoughts on Intergalactic known on the main article. And i'm happily going to ignore any of the vitriol that will come in it's waves until it releases and we can play the damn game for ourselves. Overall, I saw a cool trailer and want to learn more, eventually. I'm not sure how it can go much further than that right now, and yet people always find a way.

You should see The Witcher reaction comments from around fair internet way. Half of people are screaming at the character design for being ugly, half are screaming in retaliation, all are reduced to analysing a woman's face on the internet. At some point this sh** will get old, you'd hope.

I'm just there thinking, it'll be cool to carry on with a character I know well, even if they have to tweak some elements for game reasons.

And then there's the overreaction to the fact Ciri even underwent the trials of the grasses. With the main thought of shouty internet being "SHE CAN'T!"

But the reality is: She can if they write it that way. The same way they wrote monsters back into a world that didn't really have any, because in the books they'd all but gone, but in a game about a monster hunter that might be a bit boring for the general public. Or the same way they wrote Geralt back into existence as a Witcher on the continent. Changes can be made as it is following the events of the books, not bound by the events of the books. Especially by people that respect the source material to the level they do.

And eventually we will also get to see if CDPR succeed with it, once more, for ourselves.

There in lies the problem, I suppose. Being normal and waiting to see doesn't generate anger, hate and clicks. And people need that sh** to breathe.

From what little we know of Intergalactic, I'm not sure how anyone can be hyped or concerned about the game. I'm interested to see what Naughty Dog do with a new IP, and I guess we will see how it shapes out.

Maybe it just me, but I long ago grew fed up of knowing every little detail of the game before it was released. I think you lose a lot of the magic from playing a nee game by doing that. Great for those that want to do that, but I choose to ignore most of what developers/publishers spew out these days.