WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[RedTwoster]

23 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I'll always be excited for a Naughty Dog game but that was very underwhelming. Looks like the most generic edge lord sci fi button basher I could imagine. The absolutely shameless product placement and ridiculous title certainly didn't help.

I'm sure it'll end up being good though.

Yeah, it was a little bit Guardians of the Galaxy and that tone/format feels a bit overdone. But as you say, I imagine it’ll be excellent, it’s been a while since I’ve felt let down by a Naughty Dog game (the game in question being Jak 2 - I didn’t want a gritty reboot of the fantastic original game!) 

27 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

The return of Onimusha at last. As soon as I saw that it was coming back, I got the urge to play them. Onimusha Warlords is on PS Plus, but not the sequels. Lesson learnt. Never sell old games or consoles.

I’ve been caught out so many times in that way!! The one benefit of an all-digital future, I suppose, is that trade-in regrets won’t happen anymore. Digital storefronts switching off will become a huge problem, but that’s a separate issue I suppose.

 

[Merzbow]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

Okami sequel

While I don't care too much for Okami the big news there is that Kamiya is working for Capcom again after so many years away at Platinum Games. That's almost like if Kojima went back to Konami.

[FLips]

I'm not going to sit and complain about the space adventure genre being overdone (even though it is) in regards to Naughty Dog's new game, when in the same breath I got excited about Outer Worlds 2. That being said, I haven't considered myself a Naughty Dog fan since the original Crash Bandicoots and I don't think this game will change that. The Youtube comments this morning were an exciting read though, as for every 1 valid comment about the disgusting product placement there were obviously 10 about the POC female skinhead protagonist.
I will say though even though I'm not a fan of the genre typically, I'd sooner play a button mashing hack and slash by them than yet another 3rd person stealth shooter.

Elden Ring procedurally generated Co-op sounds great on paper as a concept but rest on it a bit and think, was fighting bosses in Elden Ring with summons much easier? Not really. I'll probably give it a miss in the end, the same as I did the DLC. Loved Elden Ring as a one-time experience but I just don't have the patience for it any more.

I think there was a lot of decent or at least interesting stuff shown, but outside of a few titles nothing I got too excited about. Outer Worlds 2 was the game of the show for me, I really enjoyed the first one and this one looked fun too. The first one was just the right length to play through and not feel like you were committing too much time or energy to it. Funny dialogue, enjoyable characters and fair gameplay. It's never going to be a GOTY contender but it's enough for me.
Ninja Gaiden looks fab, really liked the art style and look of the gameplay. Being made by the team that made Blasphemous should go a long way for it too. Other than that my only other game of interest was the new Sonic Racing. I remember when the first one came out and I believe me, @Chest Rockwell and @JLM possibly competed with the time trials on here, alongside playing Street Fighter IV. Transformed was a cracking sequel too but I didn't think much of the last one. That being said, it has enough good faith with me I can look forward to seeing more.

I'll tell you what though, the Game Awards seems lacklustre for me since they stopped adding DLC to Smash Bros because for a couple of years it was a guaranteed trailer. All in all though, decent show.

 

Edited December 13, 2024 by FLips

[Dr. Alan Grant]

41 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

But as you say, I imagine it’ll be excellent, it’s been a while since I’ve felt let down by a Naughty Dog game (the game in question being Jak 2 - I didn’t want a gritty reboot of the fantastic original game!)

 

That was such a strange direction to take the game. From traditional brightly coloured platformer to giving the main character guns and cars and turning it into GTA 3. That first game though is up there with Crash and Mario 64 for 3D platformers. 

[BomberPat]

Playstation Wrap-Up is working again, so here's my stats for the year:

Played: 45 Games

Top 5 Games:
Monster Hunter Rise (127 hours)
Two Point Campus (95 hours)
WWE 2k24 (43 hours)
Assassin's Creed Unity (38 hours)
Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core Reunion (26 hours)

Most Played Per Month:
January: Assassin's Creed Unity
February: Rollerdrome
March: Secret Of Mana
April, May & June: Two Point Campus
July, August & September: Monster Hunter Rise
October: WWE 2k24
November & December: Crisis Core

Total Play Time: 415 hours, across 45 games and 398 "play sessions"

Trophies: 226 - 19 Gold, 49 Silver, 158 Bronze, 0 Platinum

[DavidB6937]

8 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Two Point Campus (95 hours)

Going to de-rail slightly, but I've always been curious - how does a game like that play on console compared to a PC? I always imagined it'd be a pain to play stuff like that and rollercoasters etc on a console.

[BomberPat]

Just now, DavidB6937 said:

Going to de-rail slightly, but I've always been curious - how does a game like that play on console compared to a PC? I always imagined it'd be a pain to play stuff like that and rollercoasters etc on a console.

the Two Point games work really well on console, they've done a good job of mapping menus to button presses in a way that never feels "less than" a PC experience. 

Other strategy and building games don't tend to work too well; flashbacks to trying to play Red Alert or Civilisation on the PS1 and having a horrible time. Something like Planet Coaster I found difficult on PS4, as I just felt I needed a mouse for some of the more precise work of lining bits of track up, or getting things just where I wanted them. Generally, the more involved the game, the better it is to just play it on PC instead, because you don't want to be digging through a ton of menus on console.

Two Point gets the balance right for me - it would still probably be better on PC, but as I don't have a desktop, only the aging laptop I use for work, I found console a better fit personally.

[DavidB6937]

10 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Two Point gets the balance right for me - it would still probably be better on PC, but as I don't have a desktop, only the aging laptop I use for work, I found console a better fit personally.

That's exactly where I'm at - no desktop, just a laptop for work (and belongs to work) so my gaming is fairly limited in that aspect. I'll definitely give this a go now - especially before the museum one comes out.

[SuperBacon]

24 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

belongs to work

Sorry to go off topic but this reminds me that because my Samsung TV doesn't run NOW TV (despite not being that old) and I only have a Chromebook, I was running NOW on my work laptop to watch football, and I got a very polite but stern email from IT telling me to knock it off ? I bought a firestick the next day.

To steet back on topic, both my ex and the kids absolutely love the Two Point games, and while I see no value in it for me personally (never been in to that type of game) I'm pleased to see it get some love elsewhere.

[Chest Rockwell]

 

Basically looks like more of the same tbh, but I'm fine with that! I'm sure I'll sink hundreds of hours into it and buy it on at least two different platforms again.

[JLM]

Yeah it’s something of a STS director’s cut/reboot, allowing them to do all the things they wanted to do with the first game but couldn’t because of how it was built. I cannot wait, will be there day one of early access on steam and expect to lose another 2000 hours of my life to it. 

Statement from the developers when the first teaser came out in September: 

Spoiler

Why a Sequel?

This is a question we get often and I'm happy to answer! Why are you working on a sequel? Why not expand Slay the Spire instead? Let's get into it!

For those not in the know, the first Slay the Spire was developed over 2.5 years before we hit Early Access. Myself (Casey Yano) and Anthony were programming, designing, and arting (this is the official term for making art in video games). We enlisted the help from a handful of contractors to polish up the rough edges and hide some of our shortcomings. This was done by various illustrators, animators, trailer editors, and of course our composer, Clark Aboud who's been with us the whole way and now Slay the Spire 2!

It's difficult to fully explain how quickly and chaotically we scrapped together Slay the Spire. There's no guarantee that any indie game with no reputation will sell more than 10,000 copies. Spending time writing clean. editable, and maintainable code for such a project seemed foolish. Commented code was sparse, issues were hastily patched, systems were cut or completely redone often. This happens in games with exploratory game mechanics. Big shocker!

On top of this, only about half of my time was spent programming the game, with the rest spent in technical art. QA (my former job!), UX design., and writing things like this. Strangely, writing blogs comes the most naturally to me. It's not beautiful prose but I enjoy the process.

With this in mind, r'il fire off some quick bullet points to the "Why a Sequel?" question:

• Undoing many of my sins in the codebase

 

• Improving the game's performance so we can add more stuff
• Migrated to a higher compatibility game engine
• Forming and growing a team to avoid working 60+ hours for 5 years straight
• Giving the game a visual refresh (Art and UI)
• Experimenting with various mechanics we always wanted to
• New Stuff

This last point. New Stuff is really important. Games aren't a list of game mechanics and features. The design of content, pacing. balance, story beats, unique characters, and various things come together to make a one of a kind experience! Otherwise, there would be no reason to play any sequel ever. I think we all know this intrinsically, yet a lot of players can't seem to accept this. I think skepticism is healthy, but I abhor the cynicism. It's too much. Get a hold of yourselves, cynics.

The visual refresh is also really important! We're still filling out the backgrounds and haven't incorporated ambient effects but... I would feel remiss not including something...

The insane number (and astonishingly high quality) of mods and add-ins for the original that are still coming out today shows that they could have released endless DLC for STS1, so hoping they’ll do tonnes of extra content for the new one. At the very least I want The Defect back! 
 

Also I dunno if I ever posted this on here, but someone bought me these for Christmas a few years ago and I had to frame them: 

 

Edited December 15, 2024 by JLM

[Merzbow]

The Black Myth: Wukong devs are seemingly pissed at the game awards and feel like it was a waste of time them being invited, at least they now know these things are just a paid for circle jerk between billionaire publishers to advertise more games to stockholders.

[RedTwoster]

11 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

The Black Myth: Wukong devs are seemingly pissed at the game awards and feel like it was a waste of time them being invited, at least they now know these things are just a paid for circle jerk between billionaire publishers to advertise more games to stockholders.

But they won two awards.

Unless they were joking (and it’s hard to tell - here’s an article from Eurogamer on their comments, for those who are unaware), they seem to be annoyed because they didn’t win Game of the Year, which is astonishingly entitled of them. 

The people who decide are a panel of industry experts (mainly journalists) alongside a fan vote which is taken into account - and honestly, I think they got it right. Even if you eliminate Afro from the running, I don’t personally think Wuking should have won. It’s a good game, but it’s not as if an obvious injustice has taken place here.

[TildeGuy~!]

I’ve wanted to buy Wukong for ages and now it has a physical edition I think I’ve decided too, but before I do is it actually Souls like? I’m terrible at those games.

[Jazzy G]

I actually shed tears when I saw that Okami Sequel trailer, especially when I saw Kamiya was back directing it, and that it was being developed by the newly founded Clovers studio.

Even though I own it on Wii, XBox One and Switch my fondest memories of the first game are when I was living alone in Stockport with practically no money playing the PS2 original with every spare hour I had. One of my favourite games of all time. I actually spoke so passionately about it to one of my coworkers at the time that he bought a PS2 and a copy of Okami from Gamestation so he could play it himself. The ex's dad dismissed it out of hand based on the graphical style, though. Still the best Zelda game. 

I may have to play through it again, then see whether I brought Okamiden back with me and commandeer my mum's pink DS for a few days/weeks so I can trot through that again.