As has been mentioned already, Disco Elysium should be right up your alley. Not exactly Sci-Fi but has very interesting alternative reality world building and suits your wishes perfectly otherwise.
Don’t be afraid to be wild and weird in dialogues and remember that failure is often just as good or better as success in this game (they pioneered a fail-forward type design). Basically, treat it like an interactive book and you won’t be disappointed.
It we’re judging them as RPGs then I think it is absolutely fair to say New Vegas is miles better. If we’re judging writing and world building likewise.
I think an argument could be made for Fallout 3 having more interesting environments to aimlessly roam due to the signature Bethesda world design and clutter. But that’s more or less it, in my opinion.
Whether that makes it a better game is up to individual preferences. I definitely have heard of people who prefer FO3, but I also know the modding scene of New Vegas is magnitudes stronger (though that doesn’t necessarily have to mean it’s the more popular game, granted).
I think I do agree with him about questions versus answers, though it is a careful balance. It can easily backfire, but a mystery laid out for the reader/player to uncover and piece together themselves is more engaging than a neat bow type finish. You just have to make sure to not only provide sufficient clues, but also actually have an underlying structure to uncover. I think JJ Abrams style empty mystery box stuff is garbage, but I don’t think that is what Sam Lake is advocating here.
Outer Wilds. I played this game through PS Plus, and it is the best game I have ever played in my life. The gameplay, the puzzles, the music (!!!), the characters, the story, the ending. Just a masterpiece. I’m not even sure if it was this year or last year that I finished it, but the soundtrack was number 4 in my Spotify...
The first 20 hours of Ghost of Tsushima. This game is absolutely amazing on all fronts. It’s just way too long with not enough variation. 9/10
I’m glad to hear someone else say this. I’m currently on a push to finish the game after having it on hiatus for over a year and I have to mentally force myself to keep going.
It’s strange because it’s a beautiful game and the combat is satisfying enough, but something about the story and the pacing just wore me out somewhere in the third act
I can’t say exactly why but after watching the trailer I got the impression this game will end up being atrociously bad. I’d be surprised if the story mode ends up being finished before the game is permanently shelved due to poor sales.
They’re finally adding a functioning Metro system in patch 2.1, along with repeatable car races. It’s been improved a bit, but don’t expect a Rockstar level open world.
That’s more or less true. NVIDIA knows they’re holding aces with DLSS+Frame Gen which is just strictly superior to FSR and so they’ll probably try to bully the market into accepting current pricing. Better Ray Tracing performance for NVIDIA cards might also be a factor if we’ll start seeing more and more games where it really makes a difference, like Alan Wake 2.
What they end up doing with the rumoured Super series coming next year will be a good indication of where we’re at I think.
I have no idea how I feel about this, to be honest. Nolan being behind it gives me some optimism, but Amazon being involved more or less cancels that out. The setting being back in the west makes me hopeful it will look more towards the classics for inspiration, but then again a lot of the visuals and aesthetics in the trailer look a bit too modern rather than 1950s retro-futuristic.
Using MO2 really does spoil you. Every time I mod an unsupported game I miss the simple load order management and conflict identification. At least CP2077 is supported now, so I can set up an organised mod list for it whenever I reinstall it to play Phantom Liberty.
Not thrilled with the brand being called “Second Wind” and feeling pretty indifferent towards the name “Fully Ramblomatic” too (though I get that it’s a callback to the pre-Escapist prototype show Yahtzee made).
That being said, content-wise it’s impressive how seamlessly they managed to transition from Escapist IP (music and the cartoon imps) into something that is legally different but looks and feels (and sounds!) exactly the same.
And the real victory is getting out from under the corporate censorship boot, of course.
I don’t mind it per se but “Second Wind” reads much weaker and less related to its content than The Escapist. But they had to whip up something over a weekend so it’s understandable they haven’t had time to brainstorm branding extensively.
I just hope it takes off properly and they find success with it.
Comments like this are what are keeping me off the game. I’ve heard so much good about it and I think I’d really enjoy the gameplay (I loved Obra Dinn), but I really don’t think I’m in a good mental state to deal with existential dread. I have a hard enough time with that as it is.
That’s the kind of catharsis I experienced at the end of Disco Elysium, so it’s definitely possible. I’m just wary of a more cosmic scale perspective since that’s the kind of dread I have a harder time dealing with. If it leans more heavily into the futility of existence, ultimate meaninglessness of being, final end of all things (heat death of the universe type beat) then that’s not the type of concepts I cope well with. Hell, just typing that out is putting more emphasis on those thoughts than I’m typically comfortable with.
For me, it’s the vast expanses of procedurally generated nothingness in Starfield that turns me off the most, especially combined with the menu-based fast travel heavy way you get around.
The magic of Bethesda games comes from their handcrafted open worlds, always full of things to see and explore and get sidetracked by. Its the feeling that kicks in when the horizon first opens up after you exit the sewer/vault/customs office and you realize that you can just pick a direction and start walking and you’ll come across something interesting.
Starfield doesn’t do that. You can’t just pick a direction and go, it’s all fast travel. And if you’re down on a planet you can, but there is no magic to be found because it’s all procedurally generated emptiness between copy-pasted points of interest.
In their ambitions to have a bigger scope than ever they sacrificed the very thing that made their games so compelling to begin with.
I know he said he’ll show up in another place (and will keep doing largely the same stuff there, presumably) but this is such an impactful end of an era for me. I’ve been watching ZP my whole adult life, pretty much. I can’t believe his next video won’t have the iconic music or animated imps. I don’t know why this affects me so much but ZP has been such a constant I suppose, that it feels empty with it gone.
Still, huge props to the team for resigning in solidarity, absolutely love seeing that and I’ll definitely follow whatever site they end up on next.
The Chinese Room’s Bloodlines 2 might well turn out alright in its own way, but I’m sad we’ll never get the full Brian Mitsoda-led sequel. The first game had such a distinct and charming style, writing and atmosphere and I doubt this studio will be able (or even interested in trying to) replicate that. It’s especially a shame that Rik Schaffer came back to do music for the sequel for Hardsuit Labs, but I’m guessing they’ll go in another direction there as well. His Bloodlines OST is so iconic and was a huge part of the atmosphere.
I bought that on the GOG Anniversary Sale pretty much because I finished BG3 and was in the mood for something new but similar. Hadn’t paid any attention to the Dragon Age franchise before.
I’m amazed at not only how well it holds up, but how much inspiration BG3 seems to have taken from it.
As long as the main character in the sequel is someone other than V then they could do that for sure. It would be awesome, too, with how different the end can go. I’d like that a lot.
If they want to make another game with V they’re just going to have to pick an ending as canon, due to how some of them pan out.
Was it planned originally to be playable but cut down due to time? Just watching the montage definitely feels lacking and actually playing it out would make your bond with Jackie stronger too, which definitely would play into where they were going with the story.
I always just assumed the “year with Jackie” was one of the things they had to cut.
I don’t think I agree with you entirely about V being a blank slate. In fact, wasn’t this one of the criticisms people had of the game? Many were hoping for a blank slate and an immersive open world where you could be anyone you wanted in Night City, but what was delivered was a linear narrative and a fairly pre-defined character.
Whatever you pick and decide, V will end up being a Merc that was hardened by previous failure and personal loss, and whose personality was shaped by the year with Jackie. You have some wiggle room occasionally, but by and large all the dialogue options and decisions fall under that same umbrella; they’re all just different flavours of V, not really options to portray vastly differing characterizations.
I was too young for this at the time, but I have fond memories of Dark Forces II and its FMV cutscenes, which blew my mind at the time. I hope they remaster that one too (though I’d love a full-on remake, if allowed to dream).
I bought Dragon Age: Origins on the recent GOG sale, and after spending a week or so assembling mods, setting up a load order and creating and fine-tuning a ReShade preset finally got to start playing it.
I’ve only done the prelude so far, but I’m really enjoying it. I’m hoping this series can keep me busy until some more content patches are released for BG3 for a second playthrough. It’s definitely scratching the same itch right now, with the added benefit of being unfamiliar to me. I’m actually quite impressed at how it holds up, though the difference in voice acting quality is definitely noticeable.
Here is our regular update that explains what we have been working on for the past two weeks. This should allow average users to keep up with development, without reading Github comments or knowing how to program....
It’s not just the seriousness but the amount of content that really sets 2 apart from 1. While the first one had a bigger and more diverse cast (and I miss certain characters in the sequel, like Xan), they had very little to say overall. They rarely interjected into dialogues, they rarely bantered with each other and very few of them had personal quests or character development.
In 2, the cast is cut down in size from 26 to 16, but those who are available all have plenty of input, with most of them having both a personal quest as well as some sort of character development over the course of the game. They might seem less interesting and unique at first glance, but after a playthrough they feel more fully realized as characters.
I like watching Let’s Plays for the same reason as you, and while it isn’t a group channel I heartily recommend Welonz. She is very thorough and approaches every game with great respect, usually giving a summary of her overall thoughts at the end.
I found her because of her VTM: Bloodlines LP, but her Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk ones are also fantastic.
I run a server calckey.world , which used to be CalcKey, but the software was re-branded to Firefish. Unfortunately, firefish.world is taken. What domain should I use for my new Firefish instance? Preferably a .world domain....
I might be mistaken, but I think the recipes become available once you have the extract necessary. So if you extract all you should simultaneously unlock a bunch of new recipes. The extracts also go into the alchemy ingredient pouch, so it’s not that much clutter either.
The system is definitely not intuitive. I stumbled onto it since I didn’t find any reason not to extract, but a tutorial tooltip when you loot your first ingredient telling you to extract it to discover what recipes it can be used for would not go amiss.
I’m also a little sad that REDengine is getting scrapped after seemingly finally getting to a pretty decent spot, and I definitely wish there was more competition for Unreal.
That being said, it’s a very understandable decision given not just the capabilities and ease-of-use of UE5 but also its popularity, which means finding new developers competent with it is easier and onboarding is faster.
And as you say, it lets them focus on actually making games.
It took me two hours to read through that thing but it was well worth it. Fascinating article with some great insights into Chris Roberts, and seemingly as relevant now as it was in 2016.
If this was written by the Devs it would seem to confirm that Deepened Pact stacking with Extra Attack is intended. Seems absolutely insane to me but what do I know.
I frequently find myself losing momentum at the end of things that I enjoy. For instance, I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 and loving it. I recently got into the last act (Act 3) of the game, and I’m finding myself a bit burned out on it and gravitating towards other games. I’m also in the last episode of Dimension...
Yes all the time! Books and TV series are the worst culprits, but games too, especially long ones.
I don’t know if it’s poor object permanence or just a lacking working memory, but it’s not just that I burn out on things/move to another interest but how quickly it can happen.
If I don’t actively engage with something almost daily my interest in it starts slipping almost immediately, and if I go four days without watching an episode of a show for example I typically find my motivation or drive for finishing it almost gone already. It’s as if only the current moment exists and anything I’m not doing right now might as well not exist, or at least feels very intangible and unimportant.
Same goes for other hobbies and projects, and games of course.
Apart from who you can romance it’s only down to preference. Many people say Fem V is the better voice actor, but having experienced both I would say they shine in different moments. I probably like Masc V better as Streetkid/Nomad and Fem V better as Corpo. Also, for some of the most charged moments during the ending(s) I liked Masc V’s delivery better.
I’d say to Masc V this time to see the differences.
Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!...
Oh man, I had such a great time with Greedfall a couple of years ago. It has a lot of jank, but you can see the heart beneath it all and I really enjoyed the world building. The fact they consulted with linguists for their invented language and created a custom accent they made sure all the VAs for natives use was a great touch.
It’s not a AAA game, but if you take it for what it is you can have a great time. I’m really looking forward to the sequel.
I played through the game as a good-aligned Dark Urge trying to resist the urges and thought the experience overall was great. As far as I remember the Alfira incident is the only time where you have no agency, and it’s done that way to set the tone of the story. While heavy on shock-value, I felt it worked and was effective.
From that point on, you’ll have full control over whether to succumb to your urges or try to resist them (though there are consequences for both and resisting usually had dice tolls involved).
I agree completely. I’m even very forgiving when it comes to bugs and performance - especially when it’s a studio I trust will address them - but the huge swaths of obviously cut content combined with the way the story wraps up really gets to me and left me massively disappointed. I too still love the game for the gameplay and Act 1 and 2, but it really didn’t stick the landing in my opinion.
Even just things like the reactivity of your companions stands out; in Act 1 you could barely sneeze without everyone at camp chiming in with a comment about what just happened while in Act 3 you’ll do massively impactful things in both main story and companion quests and be greeted by the standard “Well met” or “hello soldier” at camp.
And that’s not getting into whatever scraps of the stated 17k different endings actually ended up not getting cut or the sorry state or the epilogues. Not even all companions get one!
Some years ago we used to post weekly development updates to let the community know what we are working on. For some reason we stopped posting these updates, but now we want to continue giving you information every two weeks about the recent development progress. This should allow average users to keep up with development,...
Completely agree. I can think of many examples of an instance whose content I don’t want on my frontpage (foreign language instances for example) but whose users I still want to interact with in communities on other instances.
While true, if you’re just looking to steal something once you probably have to roll a 1 to become revealed.
If you want to get deep into the shenanigans, have someone cast Pass Without A Trace on your character before you apply Greater Invis (with someone else, since both are Concentration) and make sure your sneak thief has advantage on Stealth checks from somewhere (there is a Leather Armor that grants this for example).
You can probably kill off a couple of enemies in a group before breaking Invis (and thus never entering combat) with that setup, especially if you also have Expertise.
Over the weekend, Starfield players began to share reports of a strange paranormal infestation. There are asteroids in the game that, for reasons known only to gods and/or programmers, follow you from orbit to orbit, flying eerily in formation with your ship, and sometimes even accompanying you to a planet's surface. "In one of...
Looking for a rec: story oriented RPG with minimal focus on combat
Preferably in the high fantasy or sci fi genre....
Chris Avellone: This is true. One of the Elder Scrolls proposals (which I pitched) was intended to serve the same function as FNV did between F3 and F4 to provide more adventures in the in the setting (twitter.com)
NItter link: nitter.net/ChrisAvellone/…/1736609878133850431
The Finnish director behind ‘Alan Wake 2’ is warping the boundaries of games as art (web.archive.org)
Knokelmaat's Top 10 Patient Games of the Year 2023
Outer Wilds. I played this game through PS Plus, and it is the best game I have ever played in my life. The gameplay, the puzzles, the music (!!!), the characters, the story, the ending. Just a masterpiece. I’m not even sure if it was this year or last year that I finished it, but the soundtrack was number 4 in my Spotify...
Suicide Squad Will Get An Offline Story Mode, Eventually (kotaku.com)
yesyesyesno - videos that start good and end badly
I’ve missed video content on Lemmy so I created one. I hope video content and video support in clients will increase in Lemmy....
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition — Official Launch Trailer (www.youtube.com)
After a chaotic three years, GPU sales are starting to look normal-ish again (arstechnica.com)
Fallout - Teaser Trailer | Prime Video (www.youtube.com)
What game company from your childhood do you remember with fondness?
I was thinking about how I remember Maxis fondly, and I got to wondering what other people’s experiences were like!...
Starfield mods just got a lot better, thanks to a huge Bethesda fan project hat also overhauls Fallout, Skyrim, and New Vegas. (www.pcgamesn.com)
F1 Las Vegas GP: FP1 cut short for circuit repairs after Sainz hits drain (www.autosport.com)
[Second Wind] Alan Wake 2 | Fully Ramblomatic (www.youtube.com)
Outer Wilds finally launches on Switch next month (www.eurogamer.net)
Here Are The Nominees For The Game Awards 2023 - Game Informer (www.gameinformer.com)
Larian founder Swen Vincke wants more studios to make CRPGs after Baldur's Gate 3's success (www.gamesradar.com)
Samwise Didier, who 'helped build Blizzard's signature art style,' is retiring after more than 30 years at the company (www.pcgamer.com)
Yahtzee Croshaw: Today, I formally resigned from The Escapist and Gamurs. I don't have the rights to Zero Punctuation, but whatever happens you'll be hearing my voice again soon, in a new place. (twitter.com)
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 will have a voiced main character: 'it draws the player in that much more', says the game's ex-Bioware narrative designer (www.pcgamer.com)
Baldur's Gate 3 Caused A 40 Percent Rise In Digital Revenue For Hasbro (www.thegamer.com)
Baldur's Gate 3 has made bank for Hasbro, significantly contributing to a 40 percent increase in digital revenue for the company.
CD Projekt never considered a Cyberpunk expansion set after the main game's endings: 'No need to water them down. Sometimes less is more' (www.pcgamer.com)
One of Star Wars’ best FPS games is getting remastered in February | VGC (www.videogameschronicle.com)
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of October 22nd
Hey all! Whatcha been playing. I am recovering from surgery and have been playing a ton of Mario wonder. Loving it so far 😊
Lemmy 0.19.0-rc.3 and Development Update 2023-10-20
Here is our regular update that explains what we have been working on for the past two weeks. This should allow average users to keep up with development, without reading Github comments or knowing how to program....
Your favourite Baldur's Gate 2 companions were 'a bunch of cardboard cutouts' until the game's director played Final Fantasy 7 and felt the heat of competition (www.pcgamer.com)
Can anyone recommend let's play channels or streamers wherein a group of multiple people play single player games together?
Examples include: Scary Game Squad, Gamegrumps, Team Double Dragon, and the like....
18+ Assassin's Creed Mirage Players Frustrated With Chromatic Aberration That Can't Be Turned Off (www.ign.com)
Favorite minor/side character?
The main cast aren’t the only great characters in this game, who are your favorites?...
What should I name my Firefish instance
I run a server calckey.world , which used to be CalcKey, but the software was re-branded to Firefish. Unfortunately, firefish.world is taken. What domain should I use for my new Firefish instance? Preferably a .world domain....
I'm nearing the end of Act 2, and I just figured out that I can unlock alchemy recipes by right-clicking base ingredients to make their extracts.
All this time, I’ve been hauling around the Sword Coast seed bank, wondering when I’ll get to use this stuff.
Cyberpunk 2077 director says studio's switch from REDengine to Unreal Engine 5 'isn't starting from scratch' (www.pcgamer.com)
$600 Million And A Decade Later, Where Is Star Citizen (exputer.com)
Baldur’s Gate 3 – Devs share most popular, powerful, and unconventional multiclass builds (blog.playstation.com)
Losing momentum at the end of things
I frequently find myself losing momentum at the end of things that I enjoy. For instance, I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 and loving it. I recently got into the last act (Act 3) of the game, and I’m finding myself a bit burned out on it and gravitating towards other games. I’m also in the last episode of Dimension...
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty — Official Launch Trailer (www.youtube.com)
The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion - 25-09-2023 (lemmy.world)
Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!...
deleted_by_author
I'm so glad I waited nearly 3 years to play Cyberpunk 2077, but I dread the fact that this is our new normal (www.pcgamer.com)
How did we get here?
Lemmy Development Update 2023-09-22
Some years ago we used to post weekly development updates to let the community know what we are working on. For some reason we stopped posting these updates, but now we want to continue giving you information every two weeks about the recent development progress. This should allow average users to keep up with development,...
[ACT 2 SPOILERS] Completely avoided a boss fight
So I love a bit of exploring areas I’m not necessarily meant to be in, but broke the end of act 2 a little bit....
Starfield players are being haunted by asteroids (www.rockpapershotgun.com)
Over the weekend, Starfield players began to share reports of a strange paranormal infestation. There are asteroids in the game that, for reasons known only to gods and/or programmers, follow you from orbit to orbit, flying eerily in formation with your ship, and sometimes even accompanying you to a planet's surface. "In one of...
60 hours in as Baldur's Gate 3's nasty Dark Urge and I'm kicking myself for missing a load-bearing early cutscene with unique dialogue for every race and class (www.pcgamer.com)
It only triggers if you rest on the starting beach before recruiting too many companions.