Malf on 4/6/2024 at 08:31
My enthusiasm for Ghost of Tsushima has petered out, for as with many of these Ubi-alikes, it's faaaar too long. You've pretty much seen everything the game has to offer after the first 10 hours, and then it just repeats the same sort of content over and over again.
I do appreciate the combat on Lethal difficulty, where both you and the enemies die within 1-2 hits, and since locking the framerate to 60fps and turning on v-sync, the stand-off bug has disappeared, meaning with the right gear, I can quickly dispatch 5 enemies at the start of a fight (which is often enough to end the fight outright).
But ye gods, I'm struggling to finish it.
Instead, I've been heading back to Cyberpunk 2077, which is still a delight to play, with enough freedom to the way you can approach things to make even bog-standard encounters with random groups of gangoons interesting, and an expresision of your build.
I have also delved into Troubleshooter after Mortismal highlighted it as his current favourite TRPG. But I kinda bounced off of it, as it bombards you with complex gear and buffs shortly after starting.
I think my tolerance for TRPGs without procedural campaigns is also quite low, as I also lost interest in Showgunners (a very similar game).
Dwarf Fortress continues to be a mainstay for me however, and I'm currently enjoying refining my fortress, making sure all furnishings are Masterwork or higher, as well as giving it a more consistent look, replacing engraved natural stone walls with block walls of obsidian, slate and even gold.
Once you understand how to make a functioning fortress, the Steam version of the game is actually pretty easy. The thrill for me comes from the stories that emerge from running a functioning fortress, and building up a real sense of history, especially when that history is very much on view, in the form of statues and engravings telling the story of past events.
I did also pick up Selaco now that it's entered early access. It's an excellent homage to stuff like FEAR, and is an absolutely mind-boggling implementation of GZDoom. But I do find it has pacing issues, especially if you get distracted looking for secrets, which unfortunately do tend to err on the side of old skool, obscure ones. It's especially annoying when there are things like upgrades locked away in these secrets, meaning you feel you're missing out if you don't get them all. This results in a lot of traipsing through empty maps frobbing everything and jumping into obscure locations in the hopes of finding a secret, which kills all sense of momentum.
Turbo Overkill had similar issues, albeit to a much lesser extent. That game's problem for me was how formulaic it became towards the end, turning into just a series of arena encounters. Selaco doesn't suffer from that yet at least.
But I am certainly beginning to realise that I don't really miss this old way of designing secrets.
A shame, because it has one of the best shotguns I've played with in a LONG time.
Thirith on 4/6/2024 at 09:11
For me, Ubi-style open-world games are in a somewhat impossible position these days: one of the attractions is definitely the size and variety of the world, but the vast majority of these games is simply not interesting enough to stay interesting and engaging for more than 10-20 hours - but no one is going to create such a big world for a 20-hour game. It's a very rare case where the game remains interesting for much longer than that. It's also why I wish there was a strand of open-world games that stuck to a more moderate map size, more along the lines of the cities of GTA IV, the early Assassin's Creed games, or Sleeping Dogs.
Malf on 4/6/2024 at 09:53
I think that's part of why Cyberpunk works for me. Apart from being on the verge of being an Imm Sim, its world is also compact enough to digest, and incredibly interesting to explore, even if you don't necessarily find loot. The various movement abilities on offer also make the urban landscape an interesting obstacle to overcome, and I can spend 10 minutes trying to get to a location by scaling buildings when it would only take me a minute to go around, because there will always be something interesting to see. And the very act itself is fun, with no scripted climbing routes.
I just don't get that with Ubi-alikes, as everything feels sterile and scripted with no opportunity for interesting reactivity or exploration.
I saw Sulphur briefly playing Baldur's Gate 3 at the weekend, and am curious to see what he thinks of it. I'm champing at the bit to play it in co-op with someone, but would rather they've had a chance to experience the campaign solo first.
Starker on 4/6/2024 at 11:01
Quote Posted by Thirith
It's also why I wish there was a strand of open-world games that stuck to a more moderate map size, more along the lines of the cities of
GTA IV, the early
Assassin's Creed games, or
Sleeping Dogs.
You might want to check out the Yakuza games in that case.
Thirith on 4/6/2024 at 12:42
@Malf: Have you played the London-based Watch Dogs, or did you resist the lure of an Ubified London? That one seemed like it both had a smaller open world and was more systems-based than, say, the Assassin's Creed games. Other than putting the kind of care into the world that CD Project Red did (definitely with Witcher 3; I've yet to play Cyberpunk), I think it's really more systems-based gameplay that's needed, so that the same kind of mission or situation will feel different based on which corner of the map it occurs in. With Ubisoft's games, that's so rarely the case these days: most of the time, an assassination mission or a base infiltration or an all-out attack will feel exactly the same wherever it happens.
Malf on 4/6/2024 at 13:30
I did play a bit of WatchDogs London, but being pretty familiar with the areas of London it takes place in, some of the scaling decisions and excisions of entire streets broke my brain, in possibly the strongest example of the Uncanny Valley I've experienced to date.
It also didn't help that, with me being intimately familiar with exactly what sort of companies exist in certain areas of the London portrayed in the game, it was jarring to see next to no thought put in to that kind of thing. In place of world-famous post production companies like Sony BMG, Technicolor, Deluxe, MPC and Framestore there were generic newsagents.
Like, Walker's Court is in the game. It's a tiny alley that's a throwback to Soho's Red Light District days, and hosts the infamous Box club.
But the north entrance in reality leads on to Berwick Street, made famous by the cover of the Oasis album (What's the story?) Morning Glory. And it's simply chopped out, with Walker's Court leading directly to Oxford Street (which isn't even signposted as such; such a weird decision to not name these famous streets so people knew where they were in the game.)
In addition, the roads have all been widened to accommodate gamified driving, which is most noticeable when coming out of Charing Cross Station. In reality, the road's probably no more than 10 meters wide, but in the game it feels like a goddamned 6-lane highway.
Even when I was able to power through that and just play the game, while yes, it was pretty systems-based, I still thought it was just the same set of activities copy/pasted many times over.
I may get back to it at some point, partly because I haven't played it since getting my 4090, and I'm curious to see how it looks. And I did enjoy pratting around with the spider drone, as well as flying places I shouldn't be with the construciton drone.
I highly recommend Cyberpunk if you haven't played it Thirith; especially with the Phantom Liberty expansion, it's as good as, if not better than Witcher 3 in my opinion. The number of endings available and the ways they make you feel are certainly more varied and thought-provoking.
It's also interesting to play in our current climate, what with AI being the current zeitgeist.
And one set-piece in Phantom Liberty in particular is the most visually stunning thing I've seen in games.
Thirith on 4/6/2024 at 13:52
Cyberpunk's definitely on my list (literally - I've bought the main game, and I may even have bought Phantom Liberty already), but I'll probably wait until I've upgraded to a new PC, which should be at some point in the next 6-12 months.
Malf on 4/6/2024 at 14:05
Fair enough; I first played it on my 2080 Super which couldn't really handle the RTX, but one thing that doesn't get mentioned enough is that the game's still a stunner without ray-tracing.
And without RT, you realise how incredibly well-optimised the RED Engine is. It's slicker than a greased-pig on a water-slide.
Renault on 4/6/2024 at 16:56
I'm playing Far Cry 6 at the moment - almost felt obligated to play it because I've played all the others. Its pretty much typical Far Cry, which is not a bad thing, I'm having a lot of fun with it. I can't say any of the core gameplay has changed too much (there's a few things but nothing drastic), but it's a whole new beautiful game world to play with, and it's huge. I've felt guilty thinking this, but it's creeped into my mind several times - is Far Cry an immersive sim? It almost seems blasphemous to compare to any of the great LGS games, but it does have a lot of the same characteristics that define ImmSims. No point in debating it I suppose. Anyway, I'm 20 hours in, and I don't see stopping until I've at least doubled or even tripled that I'm sure.
More in the "what will I be playing" category, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Riven remake will be out in 3 weeks. I am very much going to enjoy playing it in VR. Between that and Shadow of the Erdtree, it's going to be a busy end of June.
henke on 4/6/2024 at 17:17
shhhh! when I said FC6 had some imm simmy elements Sulphur got mad at me :((((((((((((((((
