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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   1975 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 13, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Been playing through the mass effect trilogy, and wow is it good. The first one actually impressed me more than the second so far, but I'm playing vanguard and finally getting to the point where I can charge into enemies without immediately dying. It's fun as hell.

I bought Elden Ring, but I'm the type of person that won't go back to games after finishing a lot of the time, so I'm working to finish the ME trilogy before I crack that one open. I am just so grateful for how many damn good games there are out there. Honestly if we stopped making games tomorrow I would likely be set for the rest of my life, although of course I'm greedy to see what happens in the next 5-10 years in gaming, heh.

The coolest thing IMO would be AR/VR and seeing how that develops. I'd adore a truly immersive TES game like Oblivion with great story in a VR setting. Any other thoughts on the future of gaming?

I played through it recently, but I found myself quitting halfway through ME3. Mechanically it was fine, if unimpressive. Aesthetically it did nothing for me, but didn't offend me either. I had stuck with it so far mostly because of the extensive appreciation the trilogy gets from others, but here I had to stop because the game just kept becoming sillier. And I don't mean the Citadel Add-On, which is comedic throughout but honestly so, but the rest of it, including highlights of stupidity like Shepard's completely nonsensical speech to Earth's high command in the beginning or The Rannoch Reaper fight.

Not sure what I expected, but in the end I just lost all interest.

As for gaming in general, hm. The future I see is dominated by lots of rehashed trash, marketed to eager and uncritical buyers, on AAA and indie levels both, and increasingly more games-as-service and, above all, mobile games ported to PC.

I'm keeping an eye on the publishers Hooded Horse and Microprose, who both seem to cater somewhat to older-school players.

The future I see is dominated by lots of rehashed trash, marketed to eager and uncritical buyers, on AAA and indie levels both, and increasingly more games-as-service and, above all, mobile games ported to PC.

Really? Even with things like Elden Ring, Cyberpunk, Red Dead, etc coming out recently?

The mobile games take is a bit scary I'll admit. Haven't looked into it too much but I do see kids gaming on their phones in public, which horrifies me for some reason.

I readily admit that Cyberpunk is a rare gem, rough as it is. Elden Ring I never played, but from what I gather it's mostly a continuation of the Dark Souls series under a different name, so while it may not be trash, I would say it's squarely a rehash of a well-established formula. As for Red Dead, again I didn't play it, but as far as I can tell it dazzles with scale and AAA production value but doesn't exactly do anything new, either. My judgement may be off in either case.

But even with those three, how much further does your etc go? Other than them, the biggest sellers on steam are still counter-strike, call of duty, battlefield, EA sports, GTA, DOTA, Starfield, Total War, various MMOs...all extremely formulaic by now. Trash by my snobbish taste, and certainly rehashes.

There are innovative games, of course, but I'd go so far as to say that they're universally indie productions. And with the games market as it is, most of those seem to fail financially, at best subsisting on developer passion and small but dedicated niche audiences. The few that break out and become successful, say Factorio or Vampire Survivors, are immediately followed by an unceasing deluge of copycats.

Really, at present my only hope for gaming remaining at all interesting rather than a form of wireheading is specialized publishers like Hooded Horse. Can't praise them enough. See for yourself: https://hoodedhorse.com/games/

Elden Ring I never played, but from what I gather it's mostly a continuation of the Dark Souls series under a different name, so while it may not be trash, I would say it's squarely a rehash of a well-established formula. As for Red Dead, again I didn't play it, but as far as I can tell it dazzles with scale and AAA production value but doesn't exactly do anything new, either. My judgement may be off in either case.

I think we've talked about souls games before and agreed to disagree, but I'm a complete simp for both of those games so I a) will take any opportunity to talk about them and b) can't let that statement stand unchallenged. As far as video games go, I used to consider Metal Gear Solid 5 the pinnacle of immersive video game design until rdr2 came out, and I considered rdr2 the pinnacle of immersive video game design until I played Elden Ring, although they are immersive in very different ways.

Rdr2 is the perfect balance of immersive sim and action adventure. Whereas immersive sims usually model everything, but 95% of it is pointless, in rdr2 95%of what you can interact with has a point, but because it covers so many different experiences it feels pointless at the start. Like, to mount a horse in rdr you just got close to it and tapped Y, so when you play rdr2 and you have to get close to your horse, highlight it with LT and then mount it with Y (instead of leading it or brushing it or feeding it) it just feels unnecessarily convoluted. But it soon becomes second nature, and when it does you realise it allows you to connect and interact with the world in a much deeper way. Then on top of that you get absolutely pitch perfect gunslinger gun play, with just enough bullet time to make you feel like The Man With No Name, capable of dropping a room full of strangers between blinks, or of humiliating an opponent by disarming him and shooting his hat off. Throw in a story that works great as a Western but also beautifully tells the tale of generation x - torn between the depravity of freedom and the suffocation of modernity - an old cowboy trying to save the people who worship him from the life he simultaneously loathes and glorifies - and rdr2's greatest flaw is that it didn't get a single player expansion.

And Elden Ring is genius. While it is true that it follows the souls formula, it is a pure disservice to call it a rehash, it expands and refines the formula in every way possible, and unlike the souls games it can be made incredibly easy right from the start - go magic build. I have platinumed Elden Ring on the playstation and pc, and the reason I did it a second time was because once the melee combat clicked with me I felt like I'd cheated myself a bit doing it as a mage. The story telling is pretty similar to the souls games - gleaned through archaeology and parsing the subtext in conversations, but in a universe steeped in cosmic horror as much as Elden Ring it works so well! I don't need to know exactly why I have stumbled across the stone bodies of hundreds of people petrified while clawing their eyes out to know I'm approaching a being of incredible power. And the world itself, the environment, is awesome. And I have to say awesome, because it fills you with awe - I want to say beautiful, because it is beautiful at times, but at other times it is purely grotesque, a nightmare brought to life, the very thought of turning another corner filling you with dread.

My theory (which I've probably explained here before, but for others reading) is that it's almost impossible to explain soulsborne games to people who aren't fans of the genre in a way that will hook them, because the real hook of soulsborne games comes when they finally click. When you finally understand how to spot the tells, how to time and lead them, and how to throw them back in your enemies face. Because when that happens the game changes completely. Number One starts playing in your head, you start grinning with half your mouth and saying '-tt-' a lot, all that shit.

But Elden Ring has more than just the soulsborne hook, I swear. It worms its way into your heart and mind so you never want to leave the lands between. It has two best waifus, buff santa, and a blind girl you can trick into eating eyeballs for laughs. I'm gonna go play it again now.

Yeah man I just started playing Elden Ring, and it's amazing. First time going down a well, I was blown away!!!

Oh yeah, I knew it was a special game when I realised the underground levels could be as beautiful as above ground.

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