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[vaibhavpisal]

If they wanted to scam Microsoft, they succeeded considering the years it took for a walking sim tech demo.

You could say that.

But I see it as a well made game for specific audience. Games shouldn’t try to appeal to everyone.

 

[winjer]

Digital Foundry said it in their best graphics of the year video.

I get criticism of the game.

But thats what devs wanted to make.

It is not video gamey cause there is no pressure to make a game that sells.

I would say thats true creative freedom.

After the monumental flop that was Hellblade II, I doubt anyone will give them so much freedom to make a new game.

 

[Ozriel]

So if I was a dev I would have a progressive slider in the settings menu. Then people could choose for themselves if they want to turn it all off or crank it up to 11.

The hilarious thing about your whole post is that the entire furore about Avowed started because there’s a toggle to choose pronouns of your user created character in an RPG.

Basically, everybody gets the choice you preach about, but it still makes the grifters and clowns mad.

Who knows? The protagonist of my webcomic was a lesbian. I made her a female because I wanted the lead character to begin as non-threatening as possible - a young girl - and end up becoming the most powerful sorceress on the planet by the end of the series. I made her gay because I wanted her to be secretly in love with her female best friend and her best friend being as oblivious to it as possible because she would never imagine her bestie to be sexually attracted to her. There was no LGBTQ virtue signaling involved, no agenda. Being anti-woke doesn't mean you don't want to see a single gay person in media, ever.

But this is what woke culture did. It made us so averse to LGBTQ representation that people consider games woke simply for having a gay NPC. It's like we went to fight at Vietnam, and now we are back home and the second we see an Asian, we get PTSD panic attacks.

It's fucking sad.

We literally had some discussion in the Indiana Jones thread because one NPC character - an old dude - was hard of hearing and uses a hearing aid.
“But why did they choose to write him as deaf? That’s woke”

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Does this forum want every game to fail?

From what I can see. Only the shit ones.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

After the monumental flop that was Hellblade II, I doubt anyone will give them so much freedom to make a new game.

Usually companies create a department to make sure misfires dont happen.

Rocksteady has one after Suicide Squad debacle. Sony has one to ensure high metascore.

Hopefully it doesn’t come to that at Xbox. It turns all games into a samey soup.

 

[winjer]

Usually companies create a department to make sure misfires dont happen.

Rocksteady has one after Suicide Squad debacle. Sony has one to ensure high metascore.

Hopefully it doesn’t come to that at Xbox. It turns all games into a samey soup.

It's clear that those departments for Q&A and testing, are not doing their jobs. Probably because of political pressure and toxic positivity.

In the specific case of Hellblade 2, it's a game that has nothing to offer gamers, aside from graphics and sound. It's mediocre on all other aspects.
A game can't expect to sell well, when it's little more than a tech demo.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

It's clear that those departments for Q&A and testing, are not doing their jobs. Probably because of political pressure and toxic positivity.

What are you talking bout ….

Oh forgot I was in Avowed thread.

Anyways last post about HB2.

In the specific case of Hellblade 2, it's a game that has nothing to offer gamers, aside from graphics and sound. It's mediocre on all other aspects.
A game can't expect to sell well, when it's little more than a tech demo.

 

[Nickolaidas]

We literally had some discussion in the Indiana Jones thread because one NPC character - an old dude - was hard of hearing and uses a hearing aid.
“But why did they choose to write him as deaf? That’s woke”

I know you can't see me, but I'm facepalming right now.

 

[Fess]

The hilarious thing about your whole post is that the entire furore about Avowed started because there’s a toggle to choose pronouns of your user created character in an RPG.

Basically, everybody gets the choice you preach about, but it still makes the grifters and clowns mad.

Originally? Maybe but that was when the tide started turning on lbtq content and sweet baby etc. At that time everything was exaggerated. Indiana Jones was roasted pre-release for a guy in a rainbow shirt and the ”modern audience” phrase.
Today I think it would work. they don’t have to have it set to 11 as default, have it deactivated instead. If you have it set to off you wouldn’t see anything when creating a character. There are ways around anything.

 

[Buggy Loop]

From what I can see. Only the shit ones.

Your
Posts
Aged
Like
Milk

You never even gave it a fair chance when it was still just an announcement. You have about as much credibility as your avatar, very fitting.

 

[Ozriel]

Originally? Maybe but that was when the tide started turning on lbtq content and sweet baby etc. At that time everything was exaggerated. Indiana Jones was roasted pre-release for a guy in a rainbow shirt and the ”modern audience” phrase.
Today I think it would work. they don’t have to have it set to 11 as default, have it deactivated instead. If you have it set to off you wouldn’t see anything when creating a character. There are ways around anything.

What are you talking about? it wasn’t that much more than a month ago when the toggle for pronouns was seen in a video for Avowed.

And it’s a toggle. It’s not a huge, unskippable carousel or banner in your face. It’s literally a toggle you can choose your gender.

If you’ve pitched your tent with the crazies, you might as well just own it.

 

[simpatico]

Coulda fooled me.

Personally, I was a fan of the people who worked there more so than the name on the shingle. I think the majority of them are gone and we're reaching a situation like The Ramones back in the day. None of the original members were part of the band, but legally they could use the name.

 

[adamsapple]

I know you can't see me, but I'm facepalming right now.

Oh he ain't kidding. Here's a few, I've cropped out the users name and avatar in case they've realized these posts were dumb over time.

Keep in mind, this is in reference to a character whose supposed to be a war veteran from WW1, and not deaf, just wears a hearing aid, which is only brought to attention in a single line in the entire game.

Your
Posts
Aged
Like
Milk

You never even gave it a fair chance when it was still just an announcement. You have about as much credibility as your avatar, very fitting.

 

[xenosys]

I know the game is coming to PC Gamepass, but a month out and it's sitting at #383 in the Steam best-sellers list.

It's going to bomb on that platform.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Your
Posts
Aged
Like
Milk

You never even gave it a fair chance when it was still just an announcement. You have about as much credibility as your avatar, very fitting.

All Indiana Jones posts?

Christ, you must be bored to be going over my old posts about Indiana

And yes, a shit film followed up by a mediocre game

Hardly a revelation.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Your
Posts
Aged
Like
Milk

You never even gave it a fair chance when it was still just an announcement. You have about as much credibility as your avatar, very fitting.

 

[adamsapple]

All Indiana Jones posts?

Christ, you must be bored to be going over my old posts about Indiana

And yes, a shit film followed up by a mediocre game

Hardly a revelation.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

That film should be banished from media! The 4th was eh, but that, abomination?

My god.

 

[Rush2112]

“Oh wait…we actually like money.”

 

[Buggy Loop]

All Indiana Jones posts?

Your shitposts against Indiana is now with a released game. A good game. Even Smash JT had to admit it live on a stream. You should have seen that.

And yes, a shit film followed up by a mediocre game

Hardly a revelation.

Mediocre game? Keep coping.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Your shitposts against Indiana is now with a released game. A good game. Even Smash JT had to admit it live on a stream. You should have seen that.



Mediocre game? Keep coping.

You like the game, okay. Do I have to like it now

Fuck is wrong with you

 

[Labadal]

You guys know that the forum is back up?

 

[adamsapple]

You guys know that the forum is back up?

Yes, it was only really down for an hour or so.

 

[amigastar]

Yes, it was only really down for an hour or so.

So, much ado about nothing.

 

[Buggy Loop]

You like the game, okay. Do I have to like it now

Fuck is wrong with you

You have never played it, let's not kid ourselves here.

You can't admit that all the DEI crusade and throwing the game under the bus for "modern audiences" aged like milk.

This game exhibits the brainrot of youtube grifters like nothing else. You should have seen that Smash JT livestream chat when they start to realize the game is just legit good The dude doesn't even have the balls to make a video of it or archive it. Such alpha males.

 

[Nickolaidas]

EDIT: Wrong thread.

 

[hyperbertha]

But Obsidian didn't make Hellblade. I don't get where Hellblade got into the mix all of a sudden. Ninja Theory had quite a lot of time and money and ended up putting out Hellblade 2. I think that's more the fault of Ninja Theory than Microsoft or Obsidian.

Did ninja theory have the money tho? That's what I'm disputing

 

[hyperbertha]

Its walking sim perfected.

This is exactly what they would’ve made. For more money, it would be an hour longer. Thats it.

Its a pixel perfect execution.

Delusional if you're serious. They could have done so much more with the combat. They didn't have the budget

 

[Dr.Morris79]

You have never played it, let's not kid ourselves here.

You can't admit that all the DEI crusade and throwing the game under the bus for "modern audiences" aged like milk.

This game exhibits the brainrot of youtube grifters like nothing else. You should have seen that Smash JT livestream chat when they start to realize the game is just legit good The dude doesn't even have the balls to make a video of it or archive it. Such alpha males.

Well, good. Hopefully your crusade works and you beat the alpha males, I guess

The game isn't for me.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Xbox seems strapped for money. If they had so much money to throw around hellblade woulda been a longer more substantial game, with actual gameplay improvements

 

[diffusionx]

Delusional if you're serious. They could have done so much more with the combat. They didn't have the budget

for Hellblade 2? lol Hellblade 2 was like a five or six year development, full staff, high end production values. They didnt do a lot with the combat because they suck.

 

[samoilaaa]

Does this forum want every game to fail?

only the ones with racist community manager , lgbtq writers , pronouns and body types in character creator

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Delusional if you're serious. They could have done so much more with the combat. They didn't have the budget

“they didn’t have enough budget”

Never thought I’d see that as a complaint for Hellblade II.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Delusional if you're serious. They could have done so much more with the combat. They didn't have the budget

Doubt its a budget issue, theyve made a Devil May Cry game with likely a much smaller budget than what Hellblade 2 has cost.

It just looks like they were hyperfocused on some things (presentation) and neglected the other aspects like combat.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Wait what happened to the Kingdom Come 2?

 

[adamsapple]

Wait what happened to the Kingdom Come 2?

Rolled out new community guidelines that didn't sit well with some folks. Criticized for being too strict, restrictive and a lot of knee jerk reactions from Steam users.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 rolls out new forum rules to curb toxic behavior, which immediately sparks toxic behavior

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/kingdom-come-deliverance-2-rolls-out-new-forum-rules-to-curb-toxic-behavior-which-immediately-sparks-toxic-behavior/ Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 publisher Deep Silver has rolled out a new code of conduct for discussions in the game's Steam forums, forbidding...

www.neogaf.com

 

[Fess]

Who knows? The protagonist of my webcomic was a lesbian. I made her a female because I wanted the lead character to begin as non-threatening as possible - a young girl - and end up becoming the most powerful sorceress on the planet by the end of the series. I made her gay because I wanted her to be secretly in love with her female best friend and her best friend being as oblivious to it as possible because she would never imagine her bestie to be sexually attracted to her. There was no LGBTQ virtue signaling involved, no agenda. Being anti-woke doesn't mean you don't want to see a single gay person in media, ever.

But this is what woke culture did. It made us so averse to LGBTQ representation that people consider games woke simply for having a gay NPC. It's like we went to fight at Vietnam, and now we are back home and the second we see an Asian, we get PTSD panic attacks.

It's fucking sad.

I think devs just have to accept that if they push progressive values too far it will come back and bite them in the ass. Even if it’s mild, somewhere some people on the planet will frown at it. It’s just how it is. Toy with the idea that a game would aggressively push for islamic values, sharia laws. It would instantly get frowned upon in the west. And then I guess the devs would act surprised at the pushback and start lashing out saying they hate gamers or western folks in general etc etc etc. Blaming everybody else instead of realizing that they’re living in a bubble and tries to shoehorn their personal values onto a global audience who might not be interested at all and just want cool games.

 

[Hudo]

Did ninja theory have the money tho? That's what I'm disputing

Why does Ninja Theory matter?

I am talking about PoE and Obsidian. Josh Sawyer himself said multiple times while making PoE1 and PoE2, budget was an issue. And if he ever were to make a new PoE, he'd need a bigger budget. I don't know how Ninja Theory fits into this.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Why does Ninja Theory matter?

I am talking about PoE and Obsidian. Josh Sawyer himself said multiple times while making PoE1 and PoE2, budget was an issue. And if he ever were to make a new PoE, he'd need a bigger budget. I don't know how Ninja Theory fits into this.

The Kickstarter campaign had an initial goal of 1.1 million USD. They raised over 4 million dollars.

 

[Hudo]

The Kickstarter campaign had an initial goal of 1.1 million USD. They raised over 4 million dollars.

Yes. And still, budget was apparently an issue. And my whole point was that I would like to see a PoE3 with Microsoft money, i.e. a bigger budget to the point where it isn't an issue anymore.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Yes. And still, budget was apparently an issue. And my whole point was that I would like to see a PoE3 with Microsoft money, i.e. a bigger budget to the point where it isn't an issue anymore.

And my point was - is budget really an issue, or is there a management problem? Based on raising 4x the amount they "thought" they could develop the game with, I think it's likely the latter.

Regardless, I would also like to see PoE III.

 

[Ozriel]

You have never played it, let's not kid ourselves here.

You can't admit that all the DEI crusade and throwing the game under the bus for "modern audiences" aged like milk.

This game exhibits the brainrot of youtube grifters like nothing else. You should have seen that Smash JT livestream chat when they start to realize the game is just legit good The dude doesn't even have the balls to make a video of it or archive it. Such alpha males.

Even Grummz posted about enjoying the game.

Much of this shit is performative, anyway.

I think devs just have to accept that if they push progressive values too far it will come back and bite them in the ass. Even if it’s mild, somewhere some people on the planet will frown at it. It’s just how it is. Toy with the idea that a game would aggressively push for islamic values, sharia laws. It would instantly get frowned upon in the west. And then I guess the devs would act surprised at the pushback and start lashing out saying they hate gamers or western folks in general etc etc etc. Blaming everybody else instead of realizing that they’re living in a bubble and tries to shoehorn their personal values onto a global audience who might not be interested at all and just want cool games.

Ah yes. The aggressive pushing of a user selectable toggle in the character creator section of an RPG

 

[nemiroff]

I know the game is coming to PC Gamepass, but a month out and it's sitting at #383 in the Steam best-sellers list.

It's going to bomb on that platform.

It was released on PC gamepass day one.

Edit: Wait, what thread am I in..? Idk what we're talking about..

 

[Buggy Loop]

I think devs just have to accept that if they push progressive values too far it will come back and bite them in the ass. Even if it’s mild, somewhere some people on the planet will frown at it. It’s just how it is. Toy with the idea that a game would aggressively push for islamic values, sharia laws. It would instantly get frowned upon in the west. And then I guess the devs would act surprised at the pushback and start lashing out saying they hate gamers or western folks in general etc etc etc. Blaming everybody else instead of realizing that they’re living in a bubble and tries to shoehorn their personal values onto a global audience who might not be interested at all and just want cool games.

I agree on bolded part

And you were fine with it too

Hogwarts, BG3 AND Starfield had pronouns, more options in character creator than just male/female.

You survived it, I survived it. A lot of peoples did. Hogwarts even being an acclaimed « chud victory » because the other side is triggered by Rowling, the game was still very much « woke » by the internet standards we see in every Avowed threads

 

[NickFire]

What are you talking about? it wasn’t that much more than a month ago when the toggle for pronouns was seen in a video for Avowed.

And it’s a toggle. It’s not a huge, unskippable carousel or banner in your face. It’s literally a toggle you can choose your gender.

If you’ve pitched your tent with the crazies, you might as well just own it.

Odd choice of words in your last sentence. With so much money on the line when these games are developed and launched I’m wondering how it’s even remotely rational, when making a business decision, to include this stuff anymore. What exactly is the business rationale?

 

[simpatico]

If Dark Souls had pronouns in the character creator, I don't think anyone would call it a woke game. Bit of a strawman from both sides. I almost wish the pronoun stuff wasn't a part of the critique against Avowed. I think you can trash it based simply on the combat, aesthetic design and the conversational tone we've seen. It almost gives devs a pass on quality. DAVG was an objectively terrible game, but the lesson is blurred because a ton of people are going to think the only reason it was received poorly is because of the woke stuff. That game would have been awful if Tash wasn't even in it. Same goes for all the other flops of 2024. Outlaws is a prime example. Swap out the MC with either a pretty girl or a dudebro and it's still complete trash.

I have yet to see a truly good game that people skip because of woke stuff. I can make an argument that Red Dead 2 almost as much subversive shit as any of these games. Difference is the game was good enough for me to ignore it and move on.

 

[TheGodfather07]

People on both sides are not right in the head! I mean who the fucks got time to give a damn about such things? I've got actual shit going on in my life than to worry about whether a game is "woke" or not. What's the point anyway? Has any of your bitching changed anything? Go put your energy into something more important.

 

[simpatico]

People on both sides are not right in the head! I mean who the fucks got time to give a damn about such things? I've got actual shit going on in my life than to worry about whether a game is "woke" or not. What's the point anyway? Has any of your bitching changed anything? Go put your energy into something more important.

Well yeah. Look at the statements from devs recently promising to go against this stuff. Look at the CEO of CDPR squirm and lie about his involvement with such things. It's having a huge effect. Keep pushing. These people wanted you unemployed and destitute. This is the limpest of dick energy. A Godfather would never...

 

[TheGodfather07]

Well yeah. Look at the statements from devs recently promising to go against this stuff. Look at the CEO of CDPR squirm and lie about his involvement with such things. It's having a huge effect. Keep pushing. These people wanted you unemployed and destitute. This is the limpest of dick energy. A Godfather would never...

I'm just tired of the whole thing. No it's not going away either. Just imagine the next showing of naughty dogs game. It doesn't matter what the actual game is, the entire focus will be on the looks of the character! Look at this game Avowed. The whole focus is now pronouns omg the world is ending! Why does the entire discussion narrow into only that one aspect? I simply don't buy the game and leave it that. The extremes on both sides are as bad as eachother, is what im trying to say.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I'm just tired of the whole thing. No it's not going away either. Just imagine the next showing of naughty dogs game. It doesn't matter what the actual game is, the entire focus will be on the looks of the character!

They only have themselves to blame.