What game are you playing?

[DavidW]

It is funny to see that everytime I post about Starfield my opinion has dropped.  I'm now definitely tired of it. It is hard to excuse the bad UI, frequent loading screens, meaningless decisions, wading through hours of tedious dialogue delivered by dead eye characters. 

I'm in the late game now.  I think it is better than Fallout 4, but yeah this game is too soulless.  There is no creativity, imagination, passion to be found anywhere.  Bethesda has fallen so far.  It is absolutely wild that Todd Howard thought this would be a forever game like Skyrim.  I think most gamers will not replay it, I certainly won't.

[DavidW]

I find the entire concept of evergreen gaming a strange one, and I'm a patient gamer - all games wear off, and some never wear on.

It is so easy to just reissue the same game over and over instead of develop a new one.  Case in point: Skyrim and GTA V.  It is wild to think that we had three Elder Scrolls games over a period of a few years and now we've had 12 years of Skyrim.  And it will probably still be five years before we have a new Elder Scrolls game.

[relm1]

I'm still playing Starfield.  I completed Ryujin Industries and the Freestar Rangers faction storylines.  I'm part way through Constellation (the main plot) and put it aside.  I want to complete all the side quests, the UC Vanguard and the Crimson Fleet factions before I go back to the main plot.

I think that the common criticism that the game doesn't do exploration well and there are too many loading scenes is spot on.  I also don't like how the NPCs don't have their own schedules to keep, something that was done back in Oblivion which is a 17 year old game!!

Anyway I'm more than 40 hours into it and I'm still enjoying it.  It is too bad that the discussion on social media has been polarized into haters and fanboys.

How is the music?

[DavidW]

How is the music?

Generic and forgettable unfortunately.  Too bad.  I can still instantly recall in my mind music from Oblivion and Skyrim.

[DavidW]

I beat Starfield.  I'm done!  It took me 80 hours to do all the quests.  I didn't really touch most of the worlds which is just filler content.  I also didn't dive into ship and outpost building.  Starfield has probably the best setup for NG+ I've ever seen.  And the main quest was actually good (but doesn't reach the same heights as the Crimson Guard nor the UNC Vanguard factions).

The stories were definitely a big step up from previous titles, but the engine is too old and this is a solid 7/10.  Good but not great.  Judging by the overall reception of the game, it is time to retire the creation engine.  If Elder Scrolls 6 comes out using that engine it might actually flop or at least not meet sales expectations.  I can tell that gamers have become tired of it. The bugs, janky animations and bad inventory management no longer amuse.

[DavidW]

I was playing Alan Wake 2 but I got bored of it.  I'm now replaying Cyberpunk since the game mechanics received a big overhaul.  Once I get to the right place I'll jump into Phantom Liberty. 

[DavidW]

In Cyberpunk there is a guy that is a depressed mess because his only friend in the world passed... it turned out it was his pet turtle.  In 2023 it is not much of a stretch that some people have that life, and on Thanksgiving I'm thankful for the friends I have.

[LKB]

In Cyberpunk there is a guy that is a depressed mess because his only friend in the world passed... it turned out it was his pet turtle.  In 2023 it is not much of a stretch that some people have that life, and on Thanksgiving I'm thankful for the friends I have.

Well, at least he might have enjoyed a rather specific silver lining ( if a human friend dies, it usually won't result in culinary opportunities ... ) .

Here's hoping everyone had a fulfilling holiday. 

[DavidW]

Just purchased all the Deus Ex games on GoG (plus Throne of Darkeness) for a bit over 15 bucks.

Going to be playing through DX:HR, as it is the Director's Cut, and it has a bunch of stuff I've not done or played through, specifically the 2 DLCs.

I loved Mankind Divided.  It also setup a sequel that... well never happened.  I remember playing Human Revolution... that was so long ago!

I loved my hacker build in Mankind Divided.  I'm reminded of it now because I'm doing that (netrunner) and heavy on cybernetics in my Cyberpunk replay.  I'm trying to be like the major in Ghost in the Shell.  Especially since I know in Phantom Liberty you have to fight a spider tank that seems like it was lifted right from Ghost.

[Opus131]

At the end of DX:HR, and it is just as good as I remember - love the music, but I must say that The Missing Link, the larger of the two DLCs, is easily the best part of the game, and I will definitely go back and replay that 1 or 2 more times. It was also the first time that "choice" mattered, by which I mean it affected gameplay (Dishonored might be the game that did this best).

Deus Ex (the first one) did it better than any of the sequels.

[LKB]

My adventures in Diablo IV continue. I finally decided that the Sorcerer wasn't for me and maxed out a Rogue... and then decided he wasn't for me, either. 

Yesterday l maxed out a Barbarian, and he's been a blast. So I've achieved a measure of satisfaction, especially since he consistently ranks among the top DPS stats in PVE encounters with other players. Happy times! 

[DavidW]

I took a break from Cyberpunk to play The Complex: Found Footage which is a horror game inspired by Kane Pixels.  It was free on Steam.  Takes 1-2 hours to beat.  Mostly just eerie, atmospheric.  No jump scares or anything like that.

[greg]

I took a break from Cyberpunk to play The Complex: Found Footage which is a horror game inspired by Kane Pixels.  It was free on Steam.  Takes 1-2 hours to beat.  Mostly just eerie, atmospheric.  No jump scares or anything like that.

Ohhh. I didn't know about this, I might have to check it out.

I played Anemoiaopolis on Steam recently, which is a similar type of liminal space game- and another one called Pools is on my wishlist.

Also slowly getting around to watching more of Kane Pixels stuff. And regarding him- have watched some interviews of him, to know more about him, and also is one of the people I've been typing lately (spoiler: won't get too specific, but almost predictably, enneagram 5...)

currently:
Just started playing Half Life: Alyx today for the first time, finally, after 3 years. Finally set up my Vive again.

[Opus131]

On that point, we will disagree.

I found the new Deus Ex to be too centered into its mechanics.

I noticed this is a common trend among many modern games. A recent example is a game i just completed, Styx: Master of Shadows, which compared to the original Thief series (Thief 1 & 2 being among my top 10 games of all times), is a bit too on nose with its mechanics. Every corner has several hiding spots, holes you can crawl into, grappling points on top etc. Everywhere its the same. There's nothing organic or natural about the level design, it's all tailored to the game's mechanics.

The new Deus Ex is similar. Every area has numerous cover points, you press a button to perform such and such an action (like a take down), you get better xp for certain actions which compels to always do the same actions etc. Everything is about the mechanics.

The original Deus Ex had a more "emergent" feel to it, and the game didn't steer you towards any particular way of doing things. I remember getting the demo off some magazine's CD-Rom as a kid and replaying the libery island level over and over, each time trying different things (stealth, hacking, all out combat), or following different paths, and that was just the first level in the game!

I also liked the story better in the first game, even if it was delivered with hilariously terrible voice acting:

JC Denton was also the most brutal bad ass person in the series:

 

[Opus131]

Generic and forgettable unfortunately.  Too bad.  I can still instantly recall in my mind music from Oblivion and Skyrim.

They ditched Jeremy Soule didn't they?

The guy used to be great. Before he became known for atmospheric tracks in games like Morrowing or Icewind Dale he used to make amazing bombast:

The soundtrack didn't even fit the game which was kinda of slow and contemplative but it was still great. I guess the idea was to ape the success of Warcraft 2 which also had a great bombastic score:

[Opus131]

Anyway, recently i did an entire playthrough of Sekiro, which i uploaded on youtube to share with my friends you can see some of that if you like:

I think FromSoft is my favored modern gaming company at this point and this game was among the best of theirs i've ever played.

[greg]

I actually ended up playing The Complex: Found Footage last night, since it's only a 40 minute game.
Lovely tour. Hopefully people keep pumping out new environments for future games.

What you gotta do, though, is find music to your taste that combines with the atmosphere.


This is what I had on my second monitor, Rei from Evangelion playing an acoustic version of Sinatra's Fly Me to the Moon (performed by Julianna Chahayed):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biy4NbuFu4c

(even better, just remembered this one- I'll Never Smile Again, played similarly- with Backrooms video footage playing on old CRTs in the background)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSRFeAg_u_4


Something about this combination of atmospheric dread and bittersweet timeless longing fuse together into something really really fascinating and moving to me. Very relevant and speaks to me a lot.

The original Deus Ex had a more "emergent" feel to it, and the game didn't steer you towards any particular way of doing things. I remember getting the demo off some magazine's CD-Rom as a kid and replaying the libery island level over and over, each time trying different things (stealth, hacking, all out combat), or following different paths, and that was just the first level in the game!

Interesting. I haven't played the original yet, although I own it. Will keep in mind as a comparison to the other games.

[DavidW]

@greg I didn't even have to click on the link!  Evangelion's version of Fly Me to the Moon is engraved in my brain!  I'm glad you liked The Complex.  They made a sequel.  I haven't played it yet.

[greg]

@greg I didn't even have to click on the link!  Evangelion's version of Fly Me to the Moon is engraved in my brain!

Haha nice!

They made a sequel.  I haven't played it yet.

Ohhh sweet. I will check it out.

[DavidW]

My hot take is that I'm not really into gaming laptops.  They are expensive, hard to upgrade, and have inferior performance and cooling to desktops.  If you really want something portable then a Steak deck or the Asus equivalent is an option.  If you really want something powerful, build or buy a desktop.  A laptop does neither well.