Coelacanth

I suspect uncapping FPS would break physics and damage calculations. FromSoft are fond of tying those to FPS.

I’m not surprised about the rest either, though they really should start getting criticized for it in my opinion. No DLSS in 2024 is especially hard to excuse.

Can we not go after one of the few good guys in gaming? Please? If you want to hound someone Nintendo is right over there.

This is why the game lost me to be completely honest. I felt like the type of storytelling changed into more of a Sunday morning cartoon type vibe where the gang always wins and nobody ever dies.

There was a point during the story (probably Post-ARR through the beginning of post-Stormblood patch quests?) where it felt like there were actual stakes and risks of consequences and the lives of beloved characters were actually in danger and I loved that.

But instead more people seemed to come back from the dead than actually die.

I’ve played only Origins but this trailer is not doing a whole lot for me. Even visually I don’t like it (which is bizarre because I think Origins looks like shit and still I somehow prefer it). Don’t really like this art direction, personally.

Impressive that enough people still care for there to be a backlash.

Sync is phenomenal, imo. It gets less traction here because it’s not FOSS and the price to remove ads is pretty high, but in terms of features and visuals it’s by far my favourite. Great customisation too.

I’ve tried probably a dozen apps, but can’t get anything else to look and feel as nice as Sync.

That really is one of the biggest flaws of Civ. It’s so hard to find a breakpoint where the gameplay “feels good” but still is challenging. If you’re at a difficulty level where the gameplay is mostly intact, the AI is just too dumb, and if you bump it up it becomes a meta game of playing around the AI bonuses.

I don’t know, I never saw it as a meme but rather just shorthand in cases where no other term existed that efficiently communicated the genre or style of a game.

Do you have a replacement term available for Souls-like that sums up what you can expect of a game within that genre using two words or less?

I haven’t played 2 or 3, but calling DA:O bad is a bit of a hot take. What did you not like about it?

While the overall plot is fairly standard issue fantasy save-the-world fare, I think the execution and the RPG aspects were excellent. How the game really made your choice of origin matter was incredible to me, and I enjoyed several of the characters too.

It does look like shit though, I’ll give you that. I wish it was less depressingly brown-grey washed out looking.

Nothing compares to getting into the flow when you’re playing Spy, I love some psychological warfare. Stringing together long sequences of backstabs and hide-and-seeks with the enemy team is so much fun.

The knife that hides backstabbed corpses and instantly disguises you as them is also super fun to use.

I do agree that a lot of the find-the-symbols puzzles felt like an afterthought, but overall they didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the game. The story and presentation were fantastic and I thought the blind trial was extremely well done and one of my favourite video game levels.

I could be mistaken, as I don’t really play competitive games anymore. I thought between Overwatch, Valorant, Apex, The Finals and what have you there was lots of stiff competition.

I had a lot of good times and even more bad times with DotA over the years, until I finally freed myself from it years ago.

IceFrog being behind this backed by Valve bodes well, and I think the premise of an FPS/MOBA hybrid has promise, despite the market being insanely oversaturated already.

I’m not really interested in competitive games these days, but I hope it’ll be good to watch at least. Following The International was fun even after I quit DotA.

I’m so excited for this game. I thought the first game was really interesting and did really well with a limited budget, and really showed a lot of potential.

Hopefully a bigger budget, bigger scope and expanded combat can have this game really blossom.

This is the correct answer I think. They’re also not interested in releasing sub-par games, and again like you say they don’t need to release games at all to make money anymore. So if they’re not that interested and haven’t come up with anything conceptually/mechanically that reaches the high bar they’ve set for themselves, it makes more sense to scrap/postpone.

Their reputation is much more important, and they’re just not going to half-ass Half Life 3. It will come out when they feel they have something truly extraordinary, or it won’t come out at all.

Mood.

I think this has to be in the contention for most overrated game of all time.

Before you grab your pitchfork, I’m not saying it’s a bad game. It’s fine. The combat is solid, the boss fights are fun and it’s very pretty. Was very well optimised too, ran like a dream on an old, fat first gen PS4.

It’s not the greatest game of all time though, or anything close to it. The open world is your garden variety UbiSoft style, the tone and the writing is all in a stoic monotone with only crumbs of Kenji to break it up, and the quest design is uninspiring at best and awful at worst. On top of it all the game is way too long considering those flaws.

I know it’s been hyped up, but I still recommend waiting for a sale.

I’m actually happy to hear that. I was afraid it would take too much inspiration from the Bethesda games, but sounds like maybe they looked more at Fallout 1 and 2, which would be just what I hoped they would.

I’m excited to give it a chance now.

I think Uematsu is the absolute GOAT, but XV had a great soundtrack. Not on Uematsu level of memorable, but still very good.

The leitmotif work with Valse di Fantastica/Sunset Waltz/Dewdrops at Dawn always was my favourite, but Ardyn has a nice theme too. Loved when the second version of his theme came in towards the end of the game.

Definitely will check out this round of testing. I’ve had my eye on this project for a while. Great to see the progress made despite switching engine.