Video Game Chat Thread - Pre-Alpha Experimental Version

[ZMOT]

While it may have just been DeAngelis riding out this project and making sure it shipped before taking a previously-planned leave, I wouldn't be surprised if he was privy to some writing on the wall after the reception and sales of XCOM: Chimera Squad and then Midnight Suns and with 2K's increasingly money-grubbing nature. I won't be too alarmist and say XCOM is dead, but I would keep an eye out to see if Jake Solomon suddenly jumps ship. Not a great start to the year for Firaxis, it feels like.

unless you're really married to xcom for some reason, there should be plenty of games to fill it's role if you're itching for something turn-based.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

unless you're really married to xcom for some reason, there should be plenty of games to fill it's role if you're itching for something turn-based.

Oh, I agree with you there, the post was mostly just me speculating on something which could turn out to be totally innocuous. I've just gotten more interested in what might be going on with the studio over the past few years, given they went from a well-received game and expansion in 2016/2018, into a disappointing budget spin-off, and then a Marvel IP game which might wind up as a total flop. The Civ side of things is also pretty quiet, other than the Leader Pass last year which didn't go over well, either. It's just one of those times I wish I was an "insider" type and had a better idea what's going on in the studio, if there's some drama or chaos or just a bad gamble on developing a game.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Played Choo Choo Charles after being interested from the coverage. Fittingly for meme game it sucks 95% of the way through and I finished it in less than two hours. Don't know if I'll refund it, but it definitely was underwhelming in it's design.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

Played Choo Choo Charles after being interested from the coverage. Fittingly for meme game it sucks 95% of the way through and I finished it in less than two hours. Don't know if I'll refund it, but it definitely was underwhelming in it's design.

I would say it's impressive for one guy to make a game on his own, but these days, when you can just throw a bunch of prefab models, textures, and animations into Unreal or Unity and call it a day, it's lost that impressiveness. Cave Story it is not. Hell, even Five Nights at Freddy's was all made from scratch, outside of the Clickteam software.

 

[ZMOT]

I would say it's impressive for one guy to make a game on his own, but these days, when you can just throw a bunch of prefab models, textures, and animations into Unreal or Unity and call it a day, it's lost that impressiveness. Cave Story it is not. Hell, even Five Nights at Freddy's was all made from scratch, outside of the Clickteam software.

to be fair there's not much difference than commissioning some art, a storefront is just a middlemen. in the end what counts how it all fits together. lot of artists, even the wagie ones don't really create from scratch (like running around taking pictures of nature and architecture and polishing them up), so at some step of the way assets are bought and then more or less adapted.
that's why I'm not a fan of the "muh assetflip" argument, if it looks good and proper most people wouldn't even know if and how much is bought, nor would they care.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

to be fair there's not much difference than commissioning some art, a storefront is just a middlemen. in the end what counts how it all fits together. lot of artists, even the wagie ones don't really create from scratch (like running around taking pictures of nature and architecture and polishing them up), so at some step of the way assets are bought and then more or less adapted.
that's why I'm not a fan of the "muh assetflip" argument, if it looks good and proper most people wouldn't even know if and how much is bought, nor would they care.

You're right, I don't want to be too dismissive of people using purchased assets in all circumstances. I remember playing Inscryption and was quite surprised at how many pieces of the game were bought from the Unity storefront and similar places and listed in the game's credits. As you said, how it fits together is the big thing, and Inscryption did that really well with the particular aesthetic(s) it had. I guess the bigger issue with stuff like Choo Choo Charles is that it doesn't have much of a substantial or unique visual style that makes it feel cohesive in the same way, so it just has that particular Unreal Engine plasticine-mushiness.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I would say it's impressive for one guy to make a game on his own, but these days, when you can just throw a bunch of prefab models, textures, and animations into Unreal or Unity and call it a day, it's lost that impressiveness. Cave Story it is not. Hell, even Five Nights at Freddy's was all made from scratch, outside of the Clickteam software.

The technological aspect is alright, but the main problem is that it's boring. I got attacked like four times over the 2 hour playtime, and the cost of dying was negligible. By the second encounter I had enough upgrades to ward Charles off, so at worst I would lose some scrap. The side quests are either insufferable references or basic bitch delivery quests, and none of them have any event triggering to make them interesting, so as long as you don't start wondering off you are unlikely to see Charles (and if you do you are likely to die anyways unless you are close to the train).

The dev could at least put music like Thomas the Tank Engine theme before every attack..

 

[Back me up!]

Didn't the dev basically youtube his whole development process over the year? I can see people just buying it cause they had fun watching him struggle on youtube and wanted to join in that he actually made it.

God I'm so old I almost typed "LiveJournal" instead of youtubed.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

You're right, I don't want to be too dismissive of people using purchased assets in all circumstances. I remember playing Inscryption and was quite surprised at how many pieces of the game were bought from the Unity storefront and similar places and listed in the game's credits. As you said, how it fits together is the big thing, and Inscryption did that really well with the particular aesthetic(s) it had. I guess the bigger issue with stuff like Choo Choo Charles is that it doesn't have much of a substantial or unique visual style that makes it feel cohesive in the same way, so it just has that particular Unreal Engine plasticine-mushiness.

There's also stock sounds and textures that have been bought and used in tons of games. What surprised me was a couple of game composers telling me that a similar thing is done with music, especially for trailers where the deadline can be very tight if I remember it right. They might buy something suitable and use that as a jumping off point.

 

[Korpon]

There's also stock sounds and textures that have been bought and used in tons of games.

It's honestly surprising how many games have did this since way back then, I'm reminded of this video I seen a week ago that covers some:

Definitely makes it funny to see people complain about Unity asset flips when this has been a thing for decades.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

It's honestly surprising how many games have did this since way back then, I'm reminded of this video I seen a week ago that covers some:

Definitely makes it funny to see people complain about Unity asset flips when this has been a thing for decades.

Oh, I remember another minor thing and this is pretty funny. There was a spiritual successor to clock tower called "Nightcry", most people know that, what people might not know is that Donte/Dante from the DmC reboot is in that game.

Some time after DmC Capcom apparently put up an unknown number of DmC assets for sale in an asset store somewhere. The Nightcry devs bought the model/rig for a minor character. He gets killed by a vending machine early on.

 

[Zaryiu2]

Any opinions on the Disciples series, especially the post Rise of the Elves games (Renaissance, Resurrection and Liberation? I liked what I played in the series (Rise of the Elves being the last one i played)

Oh, I remember another minor thing and this is pretty funny. There was a spiritual successor to clock tower called "Nightcry", most people know that, what people might not know is that Donte/Dante from the DmC reboot is in that game.
View attachment 4265058
Some time after DmC Capcom apparently put up an unknown number of DmC assets for sale in an asset store somewhere. The Nightcry devs bought the model/rig for a minor character. He gets killed by a vending machine early on.

I watched some gameplay of Nightcry, it looked pretty decent and i don't know ifit's as good as Haunting Ground but definitely also looked close to the real Clock Tower games than 2 or 3

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

I’ve wanted to play Persona 4 Golden for the PS Vita, but never had the time to do so. Maybe this year might be the time to stop slacking and just do it.

 

[The Real Fizzicist]

I recently got back into Skyrim and added close to 80 mods the past 2 weeks. For some reason my follower keeps standing still and makes it a game of where did I see her last. God I love modding

 

[BigFanOfTheKillstream]

Playing RDR2 and just came across the "incest / cuckold / cannibal" random encounter. This game isn't as whacky as GTA but these wtf moments stand out much more by comparison.

https://youtu.be/3xpDjADmVSA

 

[DeadwastePrime]

Playing RDR2 and just came across the "incest / cuckold / cannibal" random encounter. This game isn't as whacky as GTA but these wtf moments stand out much more by comparison.

https://youtu.be/3xpDjADmVSA

Spoiler: spoilers for late game rdr2

i used the hillbillies as a bank to store arthur's money after a certain event happens that leads us to playing john later on

 

[BigFanOfTheKillstream]

Spoiler: spoilers for late game rdr2

i used the hillbillies as a bank to store arthur's money after a certain event happens that leads us to playing john later on

Damn. Figured the money would disappear if I walked away from it. Oh well.

 

[BigFanOfTheKillstream]

Beat "High On Life" a few weeks ago. Had excellent gameplay and writing, lots of detail was put into world (random shit like shows on TV, posters, etc), but it felt really rushed. There's like 4 enemy types, disregarding the bosses. Mobs were almost unforgivably unvaried but would still love to see a sequel one day.

Edit: Apologies for the double posting. Didn't look to see if the thread had moved

 

[EmpGulcasa]

In the home stretch of Tales of Xillia and holy hell does every character in this game suck. It was a little dumb at first but the longer I've played the more I've come to hate them all. The other JRPGs I've been playing have spoiled me for good writing, but I usually enjoy Tales games as sort of generic fun JRPGs and this game has just dropped the ball at every opportunity. I'm forcing myself to finish it but man, I don't know what they were thinking.

 

[Zaryiu2]

In the home stretch of Tales of Xillia and holy hell does every character in this game suck. It was a little dumb at first but the longer I've played the more I've come to hate them all. The other JRPGs I've been playing have spoiled me for good writing, but I usually enjoy Tales games as sort of generic fun JRPGs and this game has just dropped the ball at every opportunity. I'm forcing myself to finish it but man, I don't know what they were thinking.

I have never played that game, can you go more in detail why they suck?