Video Game Chat Thread - Pre-Alpha Experimental Version

[I Know 孤独のせい]

It was a good decision not to watch the game awards. Ace Combat 8 and a new Mega Man are certainly good news, but apart from that it seemed to be a pretty boring and uneventful show.

 

[Jace on ice]

The only thing that actually surprised me was a new Mega Man game.

I thought that was one of those long dead IPs that would never see the light of day again like Starfox or Jak & Daxter.

 

[long waters]

This is giving me some kind of Soy vibes, something like this:


Here's an attempt:


Edit: Someone should post this fella on the Steam fanart page it would be so funny haha
Edit2: Wait, nevermind, they disabled the artwork page for the game. Lmao.

 

[Jace on ice]

I like how Diablo is all about fighting demons but it's current year so in Diablo 4 there are priests praying but they refuse to say who they're praying too and there are churches everywhere but you can't show crosses so they all have weird circles with a line through them instead.

 

[long waters]

I like how Diablo is all about fighting demons but it's current year so in Diablo 4 there are priests praying but they refuse to say who they're praying too and there are churches everywhere but you can't show crosses so they all have weird circles with a line through them instead.

It's rather ironic, when the series started demons and satanic imagery were considered controversial topics (although Doom took the flack more than Diablo). Now holy symbols like crosses have become "controversial" and you can't depict them in video games, but NOT because depicting them would be blasphemous to the religion; rather the opposite, it's become too anathema to certain non-believers and we can't offend anyone, oh no!

 

[Google.com]

Random bit of information I ran across that I found interesting. Apparently Rockstar rented a Crown Vic from a British youtuber who drives around the UK in a retired US Crown Vic to get audio for GTA 6.


"We were approached by a party representing a large game developer based in Scotland, asking if they could use our V8-powered American police interceptor for audio recording. We agreed and so they used the car at Millbrook Testing Grounds, with stunt driver Niki Faulkner behind the wheel for the duration of the day. Heavy-duty microphones were attached to the car, inside and outside. Sounds like revs, brakes, doors, tyre rolling, airhorns and sirens were recorded and saved. Following the event, we later found out that the big game developer in question was Rockstar North, the large devlopment studio for Rockstar Games, based in Scotland. Upon discovering this, there was much excitement. When GTA VI releases, you can be sure that our car's sounds will be featured in the game - a game which will be played by hundreds of millions of players across the globe!"

Source Archive

And the guys channel is here. Was not aware you could just drive around in a fully marked US police car in the UK legally.

 

[Jace on ice]

 

[I Know 孤独のせい]

Sat down and played the Pragmata Sketchbook demo. I was pleasantly surprised by it. It's your typical TPS gameplay and depending on how much the combat opens up, this could be pretty great. You have a pistol with unlimited ammo, but the ammunition only slowly recharges. Enemies take little initial damage, and that is where Diana becomes important. When you aim at an enemy, a small window pops up that serves as a hacking minigame. You move a cursor with your face buttons to a certain square to finish the hack and make an enemy vulnerable. There are other weapons to be found, either more damage or crowd control, but those have limited ammo. You can also find hacking nodes in limited quantity that either amplify your damage or hack multiple enemies at once. There seem to be more mechanics that only play a small role in the demo during a boss battle.

Traversal option are spilt between Hugh and Diana. You find resources, audio logs, emails and your typical video game stuff during exploration. There are hints at a hub in the full version where you probably will be able to upgrade your suit, weapons, hacking and whatnot.

Finishing the demo yields you a funny costume for Hugh, a new weapon and hacking node that can be found on subsequent walkthroughs.

They clearly put some extra stuff into the demo. Your time is recorded and depending on it, you get a new drawing from Diana, which she was working on in the initial cutscene, which is a really nice touch. They also recorded extra voice lines for the demo, which surprised me.

It also ran quite well on my aging hardware, despite most settings being tuned high. But as long as it doesn't turn into an open world, I expect it to run quite decent even on older hardware.

Looking forward to the game. The quality and success I think will depend on three things. How much the combat opens up with options and embraces its tactical puzzle and resource management design. The overall plot. And most importantly, the pretty obvious father-daughter relationship that will develop.

 

[Jace on ice]

That Pragmata game is going to have some absolutely horrifying mods.

 

[Spaced Outside Cargo]

Feels like the general tone of Arc Raiders is changing now that the voluntary wipe is coming up. Literally everyone just using free loadouts because they dont want to lose anything. Lots of people saying they won’t wipe because the rewards aren’t worth losing your virtual garbage that you’ve been collecting for like a month.
I wonder how many people actually won’t do the wipe for this reason and if people in general will start being more confident about using guns in their stash after this first wipe.

 

[The Ugly One]

I like how Diablo is all about fighting demons but it's current year so in Diablo 4 there are priests praying but they refuse to say who they're praying too and there are churches everywhere but you can't show crosses so they all have weird circles with a line through them instead.

I think Diablo III is when they formally established that the Diablo cosmology isn't the Christian cosmology.

EDIT: They have completely overhauled Diablo IV's core mechanics again. I cannot think of a clearer way to admit that open-world Diablo was a giant mistake without coming out and saying so in writing.

Feels like the general tone of Arc Raiders is changing now that the voluntary wipe is coming up. Literally everyone just using free loadouts because they dont want to lose anything. Lots of people saying they won’t wipe because the rewards aren’t worth losing your virtual garbage that you’ve been collecting for like a month.
I wonder how many people actually won’t do the wipe for this reason and if people in general will start being more confident about using guns in their stash after this first wipe.

Marauders died in part because they did too many wipes. Didn't matter that it was a "public beta" you paid $20 for.

 

[Spaced Outside Cargo]

Marauders died in part because they did too many wipes. Didn't matter that it was a "public beta" you paid $20 for.

I have no idea how frequent theyre going to be for arc. All i know is you can just choose to not do it to keep all your virtual junk and some people won’t be able to do it at all due to the requirements.
I think arc’s longevity will rely on their ability to put out new maps and interesting enemies and honestly i think they should cycle out maps like Spaceport, Stella Montis, and Blue Gate entirely for like a season because at the same time having any more than 5 maps available will fuck up the dynamic.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

I got invited to the playtest of a game called METAMORPHOSIS this morning, but I think it might be public now.

It's Hollow Knight-lite with guns, and an Analog Horror aesthetic that takes heavily from Mandela Catalog . The main character is a moody anime Nun who's fallen from grace. At the moment, this game is insanely barebones, almost entirely carried by the aesthetic and mood. Combat is meh, but platforming is quite good.

Spoiler: Gameplay details, criticisms, good bits

- Combat feels bad. You have very few attack options and they all feel awkward with no weight or impactful sound to them. How to fight isn't explained. No idea if there's I-frames on the dodge. Some enemies have only 1-2 frames of windup on their attack. I've seen only one enemy with more than one attack. Not sure if you can hitstun enemies, or if their AI just has random behaviour beyond getting as close to you as possible. There appears to be literally no reason to fight enemies, other than that they never stop chasing you, and one common enemy type can respawn infinitely.
- There is no map to help you, and META uses Bonfire saves. Saving doesn't respawn enemies, but they do if you heal, or you die. Rather than refilling Estus, resting restores Candles, which are for placing one-off respawn points. The entire world reverts on death, so all Loot and Key Items since your last save have to be recollected and enemies or traps on your Candle spawns will have come back.
- Your menu interface is this cool device that's part WH40K servoskull and part analog horror Ebook reader. It actually has a text parser built into it, which is a really cool idea, but all it does is let you swap between Inventory/Journal/etc by typing in those words. It seems like the commands "ASK" and "REMEMBER" will be for teasing out lore and for making custom Journal Notes like oldschool CRPGs.
- Don't use a controller. Lots of things are bound weirdly if they even work at all, and the menus are a nightmare: 'B' is both Back  and Interact, and the Options menu can overlay the Inventory menus, sometimes borking the whole game.
- Mobility is really good, and platforming feels fun and quite forgiving. You get a double jump, a dash that works on ground and in air and can go in all 8 directions, and you get wall sliding/latching/jumping from the start. Attacking also gives a tiny bit of propulsion and taking damage gives a big boost. Lots of speedrunner exploit potential.

Spoiler: Cool screenshots

If you like Analog Horror, Metroid-adjacent stuff, and don't mind an out of place anime nun protagonist, it might be worth keeping an eye on. Just keep in mind it definitely feels like a v0.2.7, and the creators are almost certainly massive spergs.

 

[Namekian George Floyd]

I just started Mother 3, this game had better be the 10/10 masterpiece everyone says it is.
I don't even mean that as an, "I'm tired of hearing people glaze this game", I mean I actually hope it's a 10/10 masterpiece because I absolutely love GBA sprite art and animation.

 

[Bob's Fuckass Head]

Having family around for Christmas has given me an opportunity to introduce some of the younger cousins to the wonders of console emulation. We've been screwing around with NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, and we created our racer by committee. I think he came out pretty good:



We're having a good time with it. The AI seems to like randomly dumping your ass, which is infuriating but also feels like the authentic racing experience.

 

[Gondolindrim]

Buddy, nothing worth reading is over in 15 hours.

Nah, they are fun. It's just hell to try and rush through something so dense.

 

[Cpt. Stud Beefpile]

Looks interesting; lore makes me wonder if zero gravity does actually screw up pregnancy?
Major update dropping on the 18th.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

Niche Gamer:
Cult of the Lamb expansion “Woolhaven” announced
Divinity: Original Sin 2 gets surprise release on current-gen consoles
Atmospheric sheepdog game The Free Shepherd announced
Laysara: Summit Kingdom leaves early access in February 2026
Japanese psychological thriller game UN:Me announced
Winx Club: The Magic is Back announced

Wccftech:
Bethesda Speaks on The Elder Scrolls VI Development, Can Confirm That “It’s Going!”
Larian Studios CEO Responds to Backlash Over GenAI Use, Says Its Use Is To Try and Make “Everyone’s Working Day Better, Not Worse”

 

[EmpGulcasa]

Kinda feel like Halo is a sort of "you need to have been there" franchise. I've been slowly chipping away at the campaigns and dabbling in multiplayer and they've all been pretty lame to me. I only have 4, 5 and Infinite left to play and so far Reach was the only one I can say I really liked.

 

[CIS White Droid]

Kinda feel like Halo is a sort of "you need to have been there" franchise. I've been slowly chipping away at the campaigns and dabbling in multiplayer and they've all been pretty lame to me. I only have 4, 5 and Infinite left to play and so far Reach was the only one I can say I really liked.

As someone who was a huge Halo fan and was introduced to the series in 2004: it very much is. Halo was genre defining at the time but, as I noticed in my recent replays, is really showing it's age. I personally hated the 343 produced games; the writing took a very steep dive with 4 and I abandoned 5 midway through. I haven't played Infinite but I've heard it's better than 4 and 5. If you're still interesting in trying to "get into" Halo I would suggest checking out the novelizations penned by Eric Nylund and William C. Dietz; they really expand the universe and add some neat background and context to the original trilogy.