What are you playing right now?

[apalisoc_9]

at this point, i'm on board with apalisoc_9's Goat of War assessment. i dont think i've ever enjoyed a game this much.

last thing i did before going to sleep was beat the dark elf boss, so it looks like i'm about done with alfheim, which appears to be chapter 4 out of 17 ... as long as the remaining chapters are similar in length, i dont think im going to have any complaints of note. the difficulty on give me a challenge feels just right. i'll probably replay this on give me god of war, but only as NG+. i dont want to deal with absurd damage sponges with a level 1 axe and no abilities

baseline bum based on the style of combat/difficulty, you think this game is a good launching pad for me to get into bloodborne?

That was the very first annoying mini boss Room was too darn dark.

[spurraider21]

That was the very first annoying mini boss Room was too darn dark.

i thought the stage itself was fine. but he had a bunch of attacks that had the darkness effect, especially when he would throw the projectiles. but overall wasn't too hard imo, i think i might have just died once, then i learned that if im ever hit with the darkness stuff just keep rolling nonstop until you're over it

whats ur recollection of chapter lengths? based on my "chapter progress" i'm only about 25% of the way through. does that seem accurate?

[apalisoc_9]

i thought the stage itself was fine. but he had a bunch of attacks that had the darkness effect, especially when he would throw the projectiles. but overall wasn't too hard imo, i think i might have just died once, then i learned that if im ever hit with the darkness stuff just keep rolling nonstop until you're over it

whats ur recollection of chapter lengths? based on my "chapter progress" i'm only about 25% of the way through. does that seem accurate?

Its been a while. I do think the later chapters were significantly faster. Id say you're probably close to 40% than 25%. I could be wrong though. Its been a while.

[Joseph Kony]

NieR Automata for PC is a truly horrible port and I don't think it ever got a single patch. It renders internally at something like 720p on the PC version running at 1080p crashes all the time out of the box. But there is a fan made patch that fixes all that . Don't you run a pretty high end gpu? On my GTX 970 I could make it run far superior to the PS4 version (which I also have), so if you're running something like a 1060, 1070, 2060, etc you're golden.

You'll need to get an unofficial fan made patch called FAR to run the game at native resolution and correct the crashing bugs. But with FAR you should have no problem running it at a locked 1080p 60fps. I had to turn down a global illumination setting to medium through FAR but if you have 1070 or better I doubt you'll need to. And FAR gets rid of all the crashes thankfully. Out of the box it's the worst port I have ever seen of a major game but thankfully the community saved it.

Nice, thanks for the heads up. I have a 1070 yea, but im definitely going to download that unofficial patch

[spurraider21]

Its been a while. I do think the later chapters were significantly faster. Id say you're probably close to 40% than 25%. I could be wrong though. Its been a while.

yeah, i mean i'd be pleasantly surprised if i was only actually 1/4 through the game, but i felt that would be unrealistic.

[baseline bum]

disappointed about the DLC but the rest is good to hear, i played the first two with 2B / 9S but didnt get further than that, so as good as the game is and as much as i like i know there is much more to come still, so $40 bucks for the complete edition for PC isnt bad, hope it isnt a ty port though

Well there is one thing pretty funny about the DLC: you can fight the CEO of Square Enix and the CEO of Platinum Games in one of the arenas. Also LOL at the Kaine costume here.

[spurraider21]

even the side content in god of war is just massive. i traveled to veithurgard (not another realm, just one of the islands in midgard) which i hadn't discovered before, and my god, theres a lot of to do in this game. that area alone had a few different quests... taking down the statue of thor, the whole sequence with that dragon. the side content doesn't just feel tacked on. they feel as grand in scale as the main story.

i mean fafnir's hoard (one of the favors you can do for the dwarves)... as a side quest. its absurd

[vander]

That timeframe is bull anyway..

what's bull is they didn't even try to make it seem like Clair and Leon were operating in the same reality/timeline, how much harder would it have been to have Clair accomplish different things that aided Leon in the background?
man I was so disappointed when I had to unlock doors that should have already been unlocked, and fight that same guy in the same place...

[Xevious]

even the side content in god of war is just massive. i traveled to veithurgard (not another realm, just one of the islands in midgard) which i hadn't discovered before, and my god, theres a lot of to do in this game. that area alone had a few different quests... taking down the statue of thor, the whole sequence with that dragon. the side content doesn't just feel tacked on. they feel as grand in scale as the main story.

i mean fafnir's hoard (one of the favors you can do for the dwarves)... as a side quest. its absurd

tbh I'm having more fun with the side content than the main quest. The storyline is not that compelling, and I think I'm getting close to the end (though don't know for sure). The only thing driving me forward is that advancing the story is the only way to unlock new abilities and certain locations/quests. I'm having fun doing like fighting in the arenas on Muspelheim, trying to collect the necessary materials for certain gear, fighting Valkyries, etc.

[spurraider21]

tbh I'm having more fun with the side content than the main quest. The storyline is not that compelling, and I think I'm getting close to the end (though don't know for sure). The only thing driving me forward is that advancing the story is the only way to unlock new abilities and certain locations/quests. I'm having fun doing like fighting in the arenas on Muspelheim, trying to collect the necessary materials for certain gear, fighting Valkyries, etc.

the side content is massive tbh. the dwarf favors and dragon missions are incredible. i unlocked muspelheim but haven't gone in yet. i think i need another cipher for niflheim. my character is still fairly underleveled (i'm at level 3 now, and just spoke with the world serpent for the second time with our new... companion). mostly because i haven't leveled up any of my armor. i feel like its so stupid to waste resources upgrading armor when 1-2 missions down the line i'll probably just discover flat out superior armor somewhere in the world. and while there are plenty of ways to acquire hacksilver, the atreus bow upgrades and runic upgrades are expensive as .

but my skill tree isn't that far off from being complete. i already completed boy's skill tree. at this point im basically missing the stance-switch skills and some of the spartan rage ones

[spurraider21]

i wonder what the future of gaming is gonna look like.

while the industry has clearly been shifting away from single player oriented games, imo the best games are still the AAA, high production quality single player games. granted, i've only had a ps4 for a few months, but games like TLOU, Red Dead 2, God of War have had me absolutely floored*. but those games aren't going to be the norm, and the massive production cost basically rule out indy developers from making games that can compete on that stage. god of war and red dead probably cost something like 200 mil or more to make, let alone marketing. the development of god of war lasted for like 5 years. these kinds of games cant be produced with regularity because of their scope. and one bomb like fallout 76 can derail them because they sunk so much money into making them. santa monica studios was ready to hang up god of war after ascension got lackluster reviews.

with the improving tech, companies are going to have to spend even MORE money to develop the highest quality games. if TLOU and Bioshock set the standard for the PS3, and if Red Dead/God of War/Horizon set the standard for PS4, what's the leap going to be for PS5? what are production costs going to look like, and how many copies are they going to have to sell to turn a meaningful profit? at current production costs, you have to sell several million copies just for this genre to be viable. i imagine with increases in production cost, we'll see less and less studios willing to develop these games, or they're going to have to increase prices from the standard 60 to something else.

tl;dr, i worry that these amazing big budget games are going to become more of an endangered species, which sucks because they're jaw dropping. before people played games and thought "hm, they should make a movie for this." but now, what's the point of a RDR2 movie or God of War movie? the game already accomplishes it.

*just gonna reiterate one more time... i legit think god of war is the best game i've ever played. i already know i'm gonna NG+ it immediately after i finish the campaign. and at some point in the future i'll come back and just play raw Give me God of War, which from everything i've read is substantially more difficult than NG+

[spurraider21]

also, witcher 3 complete edition is on sale at gamestop for $20

https://www.gamestop.com/ps4/games/t...edition/132185

thats tempting as . i cant imagine it would get any cheaper than that even on black friday... although i told myself im just gonna buy games in black friday batches as a way to stay disciplined

[apalisoc_9]

i wonder what the future of gaming is gonna look like.

while the industry has clearly been shifting away from single player oriented games, imo the best games are still the AAA, high production quality single player games. granted, i've only had a ps4 for a few months, but games like TLOU, Red Dead 2, God of War have had me absolutely floored*. but those games aren't going to be the norm, and the massive production cost basically rule out indy developers from making games that can compete on that stage. god of war and red dead probably cost something like 200 mil or more to make, let alone marketing. the development of god of war lasted for like 5 years. these kinds of games cant be produced with regularity because of their scope. and one bomb like fallout 76 can derail them because they sunk so much money into making them. santa monica studios was ready to hang up god of war after ascension got lackluster reviews.

with the improving tech, companies are going to have to spend even MORE money to develop the highest quality games. if TLOU and Bioshock set the standard for the PS3, and if Red Dead/God of War/Horizon set the standard for PS4, what's the leap going to be for PS5? what are production costs going to look like, and how many copies are they going to have to sell to turn a meaningful profit? at current production costs, you have to sell several million copies just for this genre to be viable. i imagine with increases in production cost, we'll see less and less studios willing to develop these games, or they're going to have to increase prices from the standard 60 to something else.

tl;dr, i worry that these amazing big budget games are going to become more of an endangered species, which sucks because they're jaw dropping. before people played games and thought "hm, they should make a movie for this." but now, what's the point of a RDR2 movie or God of War movie? the game already accomplishes it.

*just gonna reiterate one more time... i legit think god of war is the best game i've ever played. i already know i'm gonna NG+ it immediately after i finish the campaign. and at some point in the future i'll come back and just play raw Give me God of War, which from everything i've read is substantially more difficult than NG+

Triple A games will mostly likely be developed soleybfor the purpose of winnning customers over in the console wars.

Theres just way too much finanacial potential in multiplayer games for it not to be the main focus for big publishers.

[apalisoc_9]

Like we're talking billions of dollars potential.

I doubt triple A single player games can reach the billions $

[apalisoc_9]

Also Elnono works in the industry, apperently higher tech doesnt mean higher spending..iirc thats what he said.

[spurraider21]

Triple A games will mostly likely be developed soleybfor the purpose of winnning customers over in the console wars.

Theres just way too much finanacial potential in multiplayer games for it not to be the main focus for big publishers.

for the most part, yeah. there are the occasional multiplatform ones like what Rockstar/Bethesda put out, among some others.

but luckily it looks like Sony is committed to that idea and will continue to bankroll santa monica/naughty dog... insomniac makes a lot of their exclusives too. but commitment aside, i just question the viability with growing costs. or we just have to start paying more.

[apalisoc_9]

Also musphelheim was fun. I gotta go back and play the challeges in god of war mode.

Its challenging even in give me a challenge but once you get good, you need more challenges.

Theres an optional area in that thats also very challenging.

[spurraider21]

Also Elnono works in the industry, apperently higher tech doesnt mean higher spending..iirc thats what he said.

ElNono

i came across this some time ago... was pretty interesting

https://www.raphkoster.com/2018/01/1...cost-of-games/

while the cost per megabit for developers has been going down... it does seem to have plateaued a bit. in the meantime, consumers are expecting to keep paying the same amount for more content

[apalisoc_9]

I have no problem with microtransactions personally. The idea that video games are getting more expensive is absurd. Most ps1 tles i owned were 60 dollars and that was in the 90s

If you consider inflation probably 100$ now.

But Fortnite isna saving grace though because it proves that you can make tons of cash adding microtransactions without tying your microtransactions to progression which EA and a lot of them dumb companies dont get.

[apalisoc_9]

Sell at 60. Add cosmetic microtransactions.

That probably makes up for everything and then some.

[spurraider21]

I have no problem with microtransactions personally. The idea that video games are getting more expensive is absurd. Most ps1 tles i owned were 60 dollars and that was in the 90s

If you consider inflation probably 100$ now.

im pretty sure that ps1/ps2 games were sold at $50. it was around the PS3 when $60 became the industry standard for the big games. dont get me wrong, i'm not complaining about current prices ... im just worried that the current model isnt really incentivizing good single player games. i mean at this point im glad i have a backlog because i had been out of the scene for a few years... but if i wasn't id just be rolling my thumbs waiting for TLOU2

But Fortnite isna saving grace though because it proves that you can make tons of cash adding microtransactions without tying your microtransactions to progression which EA and a lot of them dumb companies dont get.

Sell at 60. Add cosmetic microtransactions.

That probably makes up for everything and then some.

i think that could be a legit solution... people were buying the spiderman DLC's just so they can unlock new suits that had no abilities . i imagine people would pay to change cosmetics of god of war armor, or the weapon flavor color of the axe, etc

[Xevious]

A lot of companies will probably follow Rockstar's formula - release a killer single player experience with a tacked on multiplayer option that microtransactions the out of players. But with all the big single player games on the horizon, it's hard to imagine them going away any time soon. But if they ever did, I'd be done with video games. I have no time or interest in playing a never-ending game that has me getting my ass kicked by a bunch of tweens over and over again.

[DJR210]

also, witcher 3 complete edition is on sale at gamestop for $20

https://www.gamestop.com/ps4/games/t...edition/132185

thats tempting as . i cant imagine it would get any cheaper than that even on black friday... although i told myself im just gonna buy games in black friday batches as a way to stay disciplined

If you're anything like me as far as game playing time is concerned, that's a ing 4 year investment right there.. I just barely started Blood and Wine this year and I've owned the complete edition for several years.

[DJR210]

Microtransactions are fine.. pay to win, not so much. Here we are 13 years later and we're still seeing the impact of Oblivion's ing Horse Armor DLC

[DJR210]

Also, starting to see the charm in Yakuza Kiwami.. On 4X super sample this looks amazing. The cutscenes are acted and animated well, and they should be considering this game is about equal parts playing and watching.