ampersandrew @ ampersandrew @kbin.social

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2 yr. ago

Those layoffs were by no means only tied to the game industry.

I'm with you on Dark Souls 3. The invasion mechanic was a fun experiment, but in practice, it just kinda blows. It would be nice to have a game with the good combat and level design of Dark Souls, without the invasions, that just lets you summon people from a damn menu like a normal video game.

Thanks for the tip! I actually heard from some friends that the combat was pretty tough in this game, and so far it's manageable, but I will absolutely take a level advantage that I've earned if the game gives me that prompt, lol.

I just got an ergonomic mouse after struggling with wrist pain for most of the year, so I'm putting it through its paces in Pillars of Eternity. I'm loving it so far, but it gives you vague notions of "this is really tough, so come back later" for a few different areas, but I don't know how much later they mean. I'm nearly level 6, and I know the level cap for the game before the DLC was 12. Do they mean come back at level 8? Or level 12? Or 14? I've still got plenty of other areas to explore first, but I'd still like to know...you know? I've also only got 5 party members, so I'm on the lookout for a sixth.

I'm still trying to hit master rank in Street Fighter 6. Inching closer, in diamond 4 now.

I beat Wargroove 2. It's a solid iteration on the previous game, and I'd recommend it if you want more Advance Wars with the bonus of being able to play it on better hardware than a Switch.

Baldur's Gate 3 was my favorite for the year and one of my favorites ever. It was just too hard to top.

I get the sense whatever he does next will not be in video games. Riccitiello, on the other hand...

I'd personally recommend Shadow Tactics and Desperados III first, and Shadow Gambit only when you're still itching for more or if you just really love the ghost pirate setting. Shadow Gambit throws in some unnecessary repetition that I felt dragged the game down a bit compared to its predecessors.

Dread was great, but the EMMI sections were not fun at all. Especially since you could walk into the room and immediately die with no way to stop it.

I'm coming up on the end of Wargroove 2. It's a solid iteration on the first game, with a few new units and mechanics. It's some solid Advance Wars gameplay, and arguably better.

I started playing The Outer Worlds basically right after Starfield, and it's hard to come up with anything that Starfield did better, honestly. This is just a better version of that, for the most part, and with a good sense of humor on top of that.

I've been trying to get to Master rank in Street Fighter 6, and I'm in Diamond 3, inching closer. I'll get there in due time. This game is great for a first version, but it sure would be nice if the input reader was more consistent and if Zangief's lariat hit behind him.

I haven't played DA:O to know if it counted, but I do know it was at least trying to tap into that lineage a bit. I was mostly going from NWN/KOTOR-ish to the Kickstarter boom that birthed Shadowrun, Wasteland, and Torment successors, among others.

Plenty of people in their right minds are calling it the best year in gaming, or pondering the possibility because it's at least close.

Maybe in tone, but otherwise, I wouldn't compare them. Check out some footage. It's on Game Pass, and it's on sale. I loved it and would recommend it.

You're thinking of High On Life, the FPS metroidvania from last year. Hi-Fi Rush is the cel shaded character action game where you're essentially playing a Saturday morning cartoon version of Devil May Cry in time with music.

Real-time isn't an option at all in BG3, and RTWP always felt messy to me anyway, even as I'm now playing Pillars of Eternity. Especially in a lot of those old Infinity Engine games, it felt like it incentivized devs to add more trash mobs, as opposed to paying closer attention to pacing and encounter design.

I'd consider them a AAA studio, at least at this point. BG3 had a budget of $100M, a team of 400 people, and if I remember correctly, a 30% stake from Tencent. I think they count now.

As for antiquated, they added emergent design elements on top of a solid CRPG foundation and married that with a level of production value that we typically associate with RPGs that had to tone down their RPG systems, like Mass Effect or Cyberpunk, which is why I'm having a hard time meeting you on that word. If I was going to assign reasons to why CRPGs died off (only for about 10 years at that), I'd say it was because people were chasing that production value, but the audience still hungered for the depth that their predecessors offered. I had a ton of fun in the BG3 combat encounters with 20+ enemies. I love XCOM, and I thought BG3's combat encounters were more fun than anything I played in XCOM.

"Antiquated" is certainly not a word I've heard anyone describe BG3 with until now. Personally, this is the first year in a long time that AAA has spoken to me, because they haven't been catering to me much for the past number of years.

This past year started the show with a show stopper when Hi-Fi Rush came out. Then things started popping off in spring.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I feel like it's been a while since FPS games have been made for me.

No LAN is a no-go for me lately, for multiplayer games. I'm tired of games being designed with forced obsolescence. Sometimes you get lucky and the game has LAN but doesn't list it on the features, so I figured I'd ask.

Really? It advertises co-op on the store page.

Does Roboquest have LAN? Searches in the forums lead to dead links for answers.