Mythologue

@TheArt Most people are commenting beneath an article regarding a guy from South Korea, about a guy from South Korea. I think that's called relevancy.

We could also just talk about Bobby Kotick for no reason. But this article isn't about Bobby Kotick. It's about a guy from South Korea.

There seems to be a lot of furore over this article in particular. One way or the other, is it really worth the time and energy to argue over a subpar game like Stellar Blade when there are much better games to argue about?

@nessisonett Well, it's a good thing that the games industry doesn't have a proliferating issue with harassment and ab-

Oh.

Just returned to Sims 4 for no particular reason.

Stardew Valley is another that's drawn me in. It's one of those games where its complexity and intricacies aren't immediately obvious. It's deceptive that way, and quite surprising. A real stroke of genius in my view.

E33 will possibly be my next main thing. Still haven't bought it, but it's getting increasingly difficult to resist.

I've never, not once, seen AI employed in a legitimately impressive way.

I really feel like Sony have been riding the waves of an effective monopoly, at best an oligopoly, because of a lack of any serious competition.

If Valve decided to release a console, unlike those weird Steambox things, I'd probably move over for the next generation at least.

Sony isn't the best to me. They're just kinda the least worst.

I'd like to see them point to specific examples of this being the case. GP is still able to get day one releases. It's not even something I usually consider subscribing to, but at least they have that.

Can we just ban AI from the storefront? Or at least have an AI filter?

I haven't played it yet but it's on my radar. It's one of the only games released this year that I'm actually interested in playing. And from what I've heard, it's got GOTY written all over it.

Wreckreation is one that I'm cautiously optimistic for. Dangerous Driving felt like it had a vision, but the execution was utterly dire. Maybe with the backing of a serious publisher, they can finally get the polish they desperately need.

I just hope it's not simply Trackmania. And that there's a robust single player component beyond the obvious multiplayer appeal.

I haven't really properly played a Resident Evil since the remake of the first. I'd love to see what this is all about.

Modern battlefield is always fascinating to me. Not too fantastic, like theoretical futures. Not too antiquated, like world war settings. The ideal medium, somewhere between 2000 and 2025.

Battlefield 4 was also great fun in multilayer. Levolution was a silly thing, especially the travesty of that name, but it was actually phenomenal in action.

So I'm actually cautiously optimistic to see how this one turns out. I don't know how hopeful I am about the campaign, though.

I still need to play it. I'm looking forward to it, especially given that it seems like it's projected to be the year's most celebrated title.

It seems like it's an immovable derivative of the original, so I guess it's a hard pass for me.

Is this the games industry in its final form? Apologies about misleading about a remaster of a game that released late last generation?

Rust is a game I'd meant to play for a while but never got around to it. I'm looking forward to seeing how S&box turns out.

System Shock 2 also has me interested.

But not much besides those.

Valhalla. I think it might be a case of "locality bias," if you like. But I love the locations in the game. Wandering my hometown and stumbling over familiar places is always really surreal. Valhalla is also the best realisation of these places that I've yet seen in a game.

That being said, not including Lindisfarne in a viking game is a crime.

VR always seemed like a PC thing. A range of software and tools, rather than just games, is where the appeal probably comes in for the majority of the audience.

VR games are good, but I don't think VR is intended for games exclusively.

@zhoont They're some of the most creative horror games out there. 2 is especially resounding, but each is phenomenal in its own right.

It's a game that I never really bothered with for the sole reason that I didn't really think the original required a sequel. I liked the open-ended nature of the ending in the first.

Which is funny, because I actually own the game.

Is this more advanced than typical resource gathering, or are they really passing off a 360-era mechanic as revolutionary?

I always thought that Death Stranding would've made a much better film franchise or streaming series than a game franchise. The world building is fairly intriguing, but the game itself just feels like a slog.

Shadows is the only game I've played from this year. It's typical Ubi grind, but the combat is really quite entertaining. As is traversal. Looks phenomenal as well.

It looks like they're introducing the one thing I was hoping for; swapping out weapon components.

Locking these to individual weapons seemed like a waste. Mixing and matching parts seems like a vast improvement. I like holding onto weapons for longer than just an hour. This might be the way.

@Exerion76 I never thought of it that way, but that's a good point. The mainstream actors were one of the most off-putting things for me in the original. And this sequel also.

I was never really a fan to begin with, but I feel I would've been much more so had the actors been fresh talent, obscure and underrated. If you translate Kojima's words to something digestible and practicable then you'd think that's exactly what he'd do.

But no. Big name actors and high budget, cutting edge tech, yet...it's not supposed to be mainstream?

Can't believe people swallow this.

I guess if the game is good, then it won't really be a true Death Stranding sequel. We'd all feel robbed.

FFXVI is just weird, really. It's like an identity crisis from end to end. Pretty strong and fluid combat, non-existent RPG elements, poor story, stilted voice acting, forgettable characters, beautiful world, boring side quests, linear progression, far too easy...it's hard to know who it's aimed at.

I finished it, but it was a weird chimera type of thing. In the moment, in combat, it's brilliant. Looking back, besides the actual action itself, it's just sort of tedious.

I guess that might translate to purchases. Who is it for? No idea.

I've noticed a common trend in the games industry in general, which is that few seem intent on building something really unique.

A shooter doesn't have to have GTA style cover or weapon wheels. You don't need to have people yammering in your ear nonsense that you probably can't even process in the moment.

And a 3PS action-adventure doesn't have to play like GTA to begin with.

Derivation isn't creative. Try something else.

I returned to Minecraft for no particular reason. We all know about the game, so I'll just say that the PS5 version is weirdly clinical.

As far as I could tell, there wasn't an option to customise world options when launching. It sort of just boots you into it. No tutorial to speak of either, and I think they've done away with leaderboards.

I don't know why the game feels so stripped back.

Pretty dry for me. Maybe Little Nightmares 3 and Outer Worlds 2? Silent Hill F got my attention but I'm not sold on it yet.

Meh.

I just watched some brief gameplay. It looks worse than Watch_Dogs from a decade ago and the dialogue is weird, stilted, forced, reminds me of those subpar NFS games of late.

Hadn't really been following it and definitely won't even be considering it now.

I can't believe it. The developers of Bubsy 3D. Where did it all go wrong?

Underwhelming across the board, unfortunately. SOP, SGF and this reflect the sad reality that gaming just isn't as creative or exciting as it used to be.

I saw a fairly lengthy list of games, but when perusing them, I don't think I'm really sold on any. It seems like a whole lot of filler. RE9 is an interesting one, though. Can't say I'll play it, but I will keep an eye on it.

The one thing that seems to be consistently missing is racing games. I want some Burnout/Blur/Flatout/Spit/Second revival. What happened to that sort of thing?

Anyway, Silent Hill F looks intriguing. I think that's all I was really sold on, and even then, it was a little meh.

CDPR have released one really great game. Thronebreaker was good but rife with crashes. Cyberpunk was pretty decent with mediocre features.

I'm looking forward to this but the company is far from earning my trust.

UE5 is absolutely rife with technical issues. Baked in, if I'm not mistaken. I'll reserve judgement for the time being. CDPR and UE5 sounds like a recipe for disaster at this time.

Not that I'll be skipping this game, of course, once the reviews come in.

Now, if only they modded some substance into the game...

DS is so awash with celebrity cameos that they're now just inventing celebrities.

I find loyalty programs silly in general. Especially if you use multiple platforms.

The Steam points store is still the best implementation of this in my view (even if points are just for little icons and trinkets.)

Dark Souls 2: SOTFS on Steam. Tried some Skyrim modding but it's much more technical and finicky than I remember.

Returning to FFXVI soon. Good game. A bit too easy really. 25 hours in with no deaths.

The world building is great but the story itself is pretty weak.

I'd like to give it a try. I'm not expecting much but I'm used to the typical Bethesda crawl. If it's better than OK, I think I'll get quite into it.

CP77 had some of the best writing out of any game I've played, with some of the most lukewarm "Deus Ex but uninspired" gameplay I've experienced.

I hope they spend much more time on this. Even patched and ostensibly complete, the original game still feels like only half of what it was intended to be.

Give it a decade, if necessary.

I promise, Mr. Magic Trick, that I'll find every conceivable way to not spend that much money.

I've beaten it twice on Death March difficulty, including the Blood and Wine DLC. But it's one of those games which I don't think has aged all that well, and will more likely than not resonate with people who played it immediately following its release. Not so much those who played it a decade later.

I can't say that the Doom revival ever really clicked with me. I know I'm in the minority, but I found 2016 very sterile and dated for all the wrong reasons. Fun game in some ways (especially those little level design challenges) but mostly just meh.

If this is weaker even than that, it's probably a hard pass from me.

The problem I have with live service games is that they almost always seem to set devs up to fail. There'll always be probably no more than three domineering 'services' in a single ecosystem, because how can people have time enough to play ostensibly infinite games and share their hours between, say, half a dozen?

So it's worrying to me from a developer standpoint, because it seems like nine out of ten of these nascent IPs end up flagging. The surviving one ends up becoming some cynical, microtransaction-swamped vehicle for profiteering.

A couple things to consider;

First, there will be profiteering. This is a given.

Second, import taxes will naturally affect costs. Everyone already knows this. It's how taxes work.

The price hike is (probably) a combination of the two above. Arguments can be had over which is the more pressing. I'd argue import taxes, since they're universal and very difficult to unravel (I don't think just immediately dropping them will have any instant effect.)

Biometrics. Famously reliable.

It's just a coincidence that this has happened for the hundredth time under almost precisely the same conditions.