[SilverEars]

So lately I gave Death Stranding director's cut another chance. Cutscenes and story seems phenominal, and motion captured graphics are very clean, design looks cool and unique, and really like the look of the game. However, I cannot get into a delivery man simulator. I wish the game was more of an open world action game in lines with Elden Ring, or the recent two Zelda. With weapons or whatnot in third person like in Remnant games if we are going for a futuristic look. Kojima is great at scripting story or story boarding, but he maybe out of touch when it comes to combat/action games these days. I can't enjoy Metal Gear Solid anymore after playing Soulsbornes. The combat feels too gimmicky. However, the characters and story is phenominal.

Ok, so regarding balance of Remnant 2, it isn't as bad as I initially thought. The bosses tend to give impressions that it's nearly impossible (unless you have the right archetype skill or weapon), but if you keep at it, they are manageable. A lot of the boss guides gives wrong impression since they already have the right weapons to defeat the bosses, which isn't much of a guide if that's the case. Interestingly, I can figure out how to beat Remnant 2 bosses quicker than on Lies of P. But, it feels like I couldn't at the start, it's odd.

I think still, you shouldn't expect any cohesive story experience. It's more of an arcade experience with varying worlds, but the action is fun, I give it that. I do like crawling through dungeons and killing a lot things, and enemy variations, which this game checks off. Overall, a fun experience, but some bosses can be kinda annoying. lol Since it's procedurally generated, you may end up with the most annoying boss with a crap starting weapon, that is the issue with this game. Since you have to develop your archetype and find weapons, it doesn't make sense to have bosses be sequenced in random order. Thus, since events are not deliberately planned, there will be balance issues. Lies of P for examples gets progressively more difficult as you keep going, but Remnant 2 on the other hand... The enemy scaling seems like a wonky decision as well. You can over level the world you are currently in however. If you move on to the next world, the world will be scaled 1 level higher.

Their design methodology is too simplistic, and it doesn't work well with Souls-likes. You don't just automate it by level scaling damage and hp and call it a day. Bosses have attack patterns that can distinguish difficulty levels. This is bad/lazy design decision when they have it done randomly.

They tried to automate something that shouldn't be automated. It should be designed and tested by humans. I'm not a proponent for automated systems unless it's for boring repetitive tasks. AI cannot make same decisions as us humans. AI cannot know what quality is. I don't like AI, I hate NPCs, I hate games like GTA. I hate sims.

And Starfield?.. I will never be hyped for a Bethesda game again. I will not be fooled twice.

 

[SilverEars]

Let's look back to see if ign game reviews are terrible as reputed. For the games that actually mattered and were critically acclaimed.
This was 2019 game of the year


Perfect narrator was picked and I luv the UK English grammar. Anor Londo soundtrack is the best.




And lets look at their latest Starfield review. They were lower than their foreign counterparts, but weren't they more accurate as well?

 

[FilipeNgra]

For some reason or another i backloged some great games, this is turning out to be the best year for me at least in game history.

Last games i completed:

Resident evil 2
Dead Space Remake
God of War (2018)
Red Dead Redemption 2
and now im playing cyberpunk 2077, with verson 2.01 and liberty city DLC.

Thank Valve for steamdeck!

 

[SilverEars]

Ok, so regarding balance of Remnant 2, it isn't as bad as I initially thought. The bosses tend to give impressions that it's nearly impossible (unless you have the right archetype skill or weapon), but if you keep at it, they are manageable. A lot of the boss guides gives wrong impression since they already have the right weapons to defeat the bosses, which isn't much of a guide if that's the case. Interestingly, I can figure out how to beat Remnant 2 bosses quicker than on Lies of P. But, it feels like I couldn't at the start, it's odd.

I think still, you shouldn't expect any cohesive story experience. It's more of an arcade experience with varying worlds, but the action is fun, I give it that. I do like crawling through dungeons and killing a lot things, and enemy variations, which this game checks off. Overall, a fun experience, but some bosses can be kinda annoying. lol Since it's procedurally generated, you may end up with the most annoying boss with a crap starting weapon, that is the issue with this game. Since you have to develop your archetype and find weapons, it doesn't make sense to have bosses be sequenced in random order. Thus, since events are not deliberately planned, there will be balance issues. Lies of P for examples gets progressively more difficult as you keep going, but Remnant 2 on the other hand... The enemy scaling seems like a wonky decision as well. You can over level the world you are currently in however. If you move on to the next world, the world will be scaled 1 level higher.

Their design methodology is too simplistic, and it doesn't work well with Souls-likes. You don't just automate it by level scaling damage and hp and call it a day. Bosses have attack patterns that can distinguish difficulty levels. This is bad/lazy design decision when they have it done randomly.

They tried to automate something that shouldn't be automated. It should be designed and tested by humans. I'm not a proponent for automated systems unless it's for boring repetitive tasks. AI cannot make same decisions as us humans. AI cannot know what quality is. I don't like AI, I hate NPCs, I hate games like GTA. I hate sims.

Update: I'm starting to really dig this game after getting through the beginning stages of the game and now that I'm more powerful. Boss fights still feel like a slosh, but they don't take much attempts to take down, not as much as Lies of P that needs perfect parry all the time. The boss fights in this game is a bit of a mess, but I feel that you tank most of the attacks, and it's not a game with perfect parry like mechanics that requires perfection. lol Boss fight just doesn't feel like you are making progress with more attempts, but you are hoping for luck to beat it, because boss fights are kinda a mess in this game. I don't like their solutions to boss attacks for a shooter. But, it's a fun game so I would recommend anybody to just put up with the imbalance in the beginning stages. Or just bring the difficulty down.

As for Lies of P, it's getting high praise, as it's a fantastic game. This game should be rated higher IMO, and Starfield should be rated low. So much biaed with reviews. Starfield should be shated on so that they would be motivated to make that game much better. Like what they did with Cyberpunk 2077, in which I will not put time into because gameplay sucks. Put in a 3rd person mode with good combat mechanics, I maybe tempted. 1st person view combat is not my idea of good combat. I moved on from boomer shooter combat.

https://www.themcelroy.family/2023/...-pinocchio-souls-like-we-never-knew-we-needed

 

[paradoxper]

For some reason or another i backloged some great games, this is turning out to be the best year for me at least in game history.

Last games i completed:

Resident evil 2
Dead Space Remake
God of War (2018)
Red Dead Redemption 2
and now im playing cyberpunk 2077, with verson 2.01 and liberty city DLC.

Thank Valve for steamdeck!

Definitely a strong year for games.

I'd gone back and played RDR, Outer Worlds and a little Star Citizen.

 

[SilverEars]

Asmongold is just so funny. How does somebody have such level of no shame? lol His steak cooking vids and rating of people's setups are his best contents. I think he's faking acting shameful. He had no shame. lol


His steak cooking vid. This guy sees the humor in it like I do.



Rates setups

 

[SilverEars]

Lords of the Fallen is one of those games I can feel it won't be that great from the initial impressions. I really dislike the movements of the main characters and enemies. The animations isn't great. I'm not a fan of the world design. It looks overly done, and creepy in a non-interesting way. Just too over done. It feels like a CI game actually. The playable character moves like the character from the original Lords of the Fallen. I hate how the movement looks. After playing lies of P, this game feels like a step back for how the combat feels, and the design of the game. I will likely play a bit more to see if I end up liking it.
I have the same thoughts as her


Wow, this guy is super authentic! He don't give a F--k! He even says he didn't clean it up to give an authentic experience. wow. I'm sure he's worth millions, but still lives like this. crazy.

 

[SilverEars]

Been playing Lords of the Fallen, and it's a slosh, but it's kinda engaging in a anxiety inducing way due to it's annoyances. lol. Once you level up your weapons and find out about some of the non-obvious mechanics, it becomes manageable. Key to survival in this game is to know all the nuances of the game mechanics. I would recommend it, if you are into souls and usually digs deep into the mechanics of them. It will feel janky at first (it's not Lies of P with the polish), but you have to progress to understand some of it's charms (and it's annoyances lol).

To me, one of the main goals in souls games is the overcoming the obstacles that seems impossible by any means necessary. And this game provides that challenge, and the tools. You have to find out the solution with the tools. This is draw of this game I think.

There's a lot of obstacles presented in souls games, and it's the overcoming of it that really drives you to progress. It's not like any other genres. It evokes an emotion from you. It's not a dull first person shooter. Real life analogy would be challenges to drive you to keep doing what you are doing. You really have to experience the ups and downs to understand the experience.

She is very good at Souls games and just very good at explaining things verbally. I really do respect her opinions on things based on her content. Her opinions are agreeable and her tips are actually practical.

 

[worminater]

Starfield should be shated on so that they would be motivated to make that game much better. Like what they did with Cyberpunk 2077, in which I will not put time into because gameplay sucks. Put in a 3rd person mode with good combat mechanics, I maybe tempted. 1st person view combat is not my idea of good combat. I moved on from boomer shooter combat.

It shipped with third person mode, in ship, running about, and god-view during outpost building.

I'm ~30h into Starfield and digging it. Much more engaging for me than Skyrim was at launch. I may just be getting old though.

 

[SilverEars]

I just luv Tyrannicon. He's so hilarious! Only he would come up such level of cheese. lol

 

[jmaranto]

true ,he's so hilarious lol

 

[SilverEars]

true ,he's so hilarious lol

His old stuff is super funny. I can't find the Skyrim one that was really funny, but here are a couple. He's good.

 

[SilverEars]

I really disliked RE4 remake, and Tyrannicon expresses it exactly how I felt. Felt janky as hell.

 

[twopapercaper]

Had a chance to play the Tekken 8 closed network test and have to say it's a load of fun and they seem to have polished it quite a bit. Also it looks like they are adding quite a bit of content even if you're not into the hardcore competitive aspect. Excited for the full release and would recommend anyone mildly interested to check it out!

 

[OM hawk]

Rating in Progress: Wayfinder

I wanted to try this game because I was so impressed with what I had seen of the game world, and now that I've played my first 4 hours, I will say it certainly met my high expectations on that front. Wayfinder is a game supposively all about characters: you grind to improve your existing character and to unlock more and more additional characters to play as, but the world of Wayfinder steals the show, it in some ways outshines the characters. The first few dungeons, so far aren't as impressive as the pre-designed open worldish areas, but I'm actually pretty excited (especially in the long term as the devs embelish and expand on this Early Access build) to see how many random modifiers and optional variations the game will throw at me.

So far, there has been a good balance between town/story dialogue, open worldish exploring, and dungeons, with none of these lasting too long at a time. And all these aspects of the game seem solid, though the world is the only part that truly wows me.

I've heard people say that the endgame is pretty much dominated by just running dungeons over and over, so we'll have to see if I still like the game once that balance is upset. I personally am very much enjoying the other aspects of Wayfinder (in addition to the dungeons that is), so I kind of hope in the full release they give us more different activities to mess with during endgame besides just dungeons.

Current rating: 4/5