-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
STEAM Announcements & Updates 2014 II - The Definitive Edition
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
- Status
Glass Rebel
Member
This is true but I often felt that these actions were very puzzle-like. Walking past an NPC in disguise or exchanging a replica gun with a real one doesn't require the memorization of walking patterns or timing for example. But then again, some parts did require timing and in a more broad sense they're all cognitive skills so... It's actually interesting how innovative Hitman was in this regard.
scorpscarx
Member
Yeah that's one thing I'm really disliking about it so far, pretty much just skipping through them and then piecing the story together in my head.
Make sure to post your impressions (spoiler-free, please) when you are done with it if you don't mind fellow GAFfer!
jaundicejuice
Member
I think that's a pretty fair assessment. I guess I can see why some can see past the flaws and know why others can't.
You need to have a HAWKEN account to download the client to Steam atm, they send you out a code to redeem in their latest email. Dunno why. Google for the HAWKEN website and you should be able to open one there.
Stealth isn't about memorizing patterns and timing, and if you think it is, you need to start playing better stealth games, like Thief.
A good stealth game is a game where you think "how can I avoid being seen for what I really am?" and "how can I do whatever I came here to do while satisfying that first condition?"
It is a kind of puzzle game--you're presented with a problem, and you need a solution--but that's true of every game ever. See, for instance, shooters, where you need to determine what enemies to take out in what way for the most advantageous outcome.
Will try.
I did post some impressions yesterday (ignore the first two paragraphs as they discuss some tactics/decisions for going into the end of the game) in the Banner Saga OT.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
I just finished up The Banner Saga and I thought I write some thoughts on why I liked it quite a lot.
I went into The Banner Saga looking for another turn-based fix after wrapping up XCOM: Enemy Within and while it wasn't as similar as XCOM as I thought it would be, it was a terrific experience that really impressed me.
Let's get the most important (and controversial) opinion out of the way: Banner Saga manages what Telltale has been trying to do in recent years and failing so hard at. What is that you ask? Making your decisions actually weigh on you. In The Walking Dead you pick who dies or make a vague decision that will lead up to someone dying. It seems thrilling at first, but the pattern becomes incredibly obvious and the complete lack of effect it has on the rest of the experience makes it feel completely hollow. Banner Saga wisely grafts that concept onto what is essentially your squad in XCOM. Make a shitty decision in hopes to greedily secure more supplies? Well that just cost you your best tank in battle and you might not be able to have someone ready to take his role for another hour or possibly even the whole game. You are then are forced to approach battles quite differently and possibly even try to avoid them at the expense of your convoy. It leads to some serious gut-wrenching moments and rushing into decisions will lead to some truly devastating repercussions. I know you probably think I'm exaggerating to a ridiculous degree, but I actually stopped playing the game at three different points due to how bleak my set up for battle had become due to decisions I had made up to over an hour prior. I felt that bad about my leadership abilities.
And it's fitting that your decisions carry weight. The world in the game is in an incredibly depressing state. The stakes are incredibly high. The developers actually make you feel like your chance of stopping the end from coming are almost non-existent. That's kind of crazy in a world of games where the main character is capable of genocide, right? It's a hard emotion to experience for almost an entire game, but it's incredibly refreshing to see a developer actually embrace it for once. When every single Bioware game in existance gives you time off from saving the world to slowly romance and make love to everyone who believes in your cause, Banner Saga pushes you forward constantly. There are no breaks from the impending doom.
The art is stunning as well. I'm a sucker for this style and source material, but it looked so good on my 42 inch plasma. While I wouldn't have minded a bit more in the way of animation, I will happily sacrifice that to continue getting story moments that hit really hard and have an impact on the narrative.
That's why I think people should give this game a shot.
MarcoZombieCannon
Member
The port has a couple issues (like defaulting to 1080p every time I start the game), but they might not matter if your monitor if 1080p or above. The 80s cheese is everywhere, and it's great. Music is the usual Jake Kaufman goodness, if you keep up on him at all. The game play is sort of slow compared to something like Streets of Rage, but it seems a little deeper than your average beat 'em up. There is a high five mechanic that gives boosts and things if you play in co-op, but I haven't tested it yet.
Get it if you like 80s nods, beat 'em ups, or what-have-you.
Thanks for the link inm8num2.
This is an amazing write up, thanks a lot, you should save the link when someone asks for impressions about this game (I'm not sure if that's what just happened when I posted and you had posted this in the past and I missed it!).
Sounds like my type of game, really glad to see things weigh more than a Telltale game, because, while I do like them I wish my decisions could have more impact in those games.
I talked to GAFfer Hawkie about this game a couple of days ago and he said the same thing. Great news.
This is an amazing write up, thanks a lot, you should save the link when someone asks for impressions about this game (I'm not sure if that's what just happened when I posted and you had posted this in the past and I missed it!).
Sounds like my type of game, really glad to see things weigh more than a Telltale game, because, while I do like them I wish my decisions could have more impact in those games.
I talked to GAFfer Hawkie about this game a couple of days ago and he said the same thing. Great news.
Atraveller
Banned
There's a mod in XCOM:EU that can let you do just that.
Backlogger
Member
Excellently put - I agree 100%, and my impressions would not have been nearly as articulate or well-written.
Glass Rebel
Member
I did say "for example" and pretty much any stealth game involves some form of pattern memorization and requires timing in instances. We can make it broader and call it (behaviour) observation if you want but at its core its the same. Whether other elements like sound or light come into play is beside the point here, even if they're integral to a good stealth game. To put it more bluntly, large portions of Hitman: Blood Money merely require you to have the right costume to get from point A to point B so you can do thing X. In a good stealth game you'd have to factor in several aspects like line of sight or sound and light as I mentioned earlier.
Basically, I'm looking at the underlying mechanics while you seem to be more interested in the simulation aspects. That's a discussion for another night though.
Taco_Human
Member
Finally joined the real master race. New pc was up and running yesterday. Alongside my 248qe, feeling 144 fps blown my mind.
Feels good maxing out games for the first time.
Feels good maxing out games for the first time.
Yes... i alawys anger them by "accident".... hahaha!
Loved to spelunky daily challenge today, got so far for a daily!
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
That Banner Saga artwork looks really lovely. Kinda want now.
Sounds cool, will have to pick it up some day. But I disagree on your assessment with how choices work in Telltale's games vs. something in say XCOM or TBS (if I interpreted it correctly as they are mechanically similar). Telltale's games are more about playing a story and less about an emergent narrative that forms from gameplay. Something more scripted say in TWD is more reliant on the writer(s) to craft something well and play to its strengths. So I guess something like "should I steal this guys stuff" decisions in TWD feels weak in comparison because they have to always hit the basic story beats in each episode to cover all their bases, so the fallout to that decision doesn't feel as concrete as say, the other character interactions in TWD/other TT adventure games (which are the real meat of those games rather than the plots).
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
TBS is more akin to The Walking Dead than it is XCOM as far as decision making goes. It's a story heavy game and all of the decisions you make are written into the narrative (some seriously heavy path branching I assume). They just happen to effect the battles you fight too and it gives the decisions some real punch. In Xcom the stories come from the decisions you make in the battles.
Yeah, I found myself so compelled that I beat the game in a single nine-hour sitting. It's breathtakingly beautiful, richly emotional, and... well, it needed more. That ending was rather abrupt, and we were left with a lot of dangling threads. Didn't like that the final fight was a massive difficulty spike.
My last message might have seemed a bit more rude than I intended. I've been really busy all day, so I posted quickly, and I know that can sometimes come across as discourteous. Sorry if it seems that way.
I'd argue that Metal Gear Solid-style stealth, which is what you've been describing, has actively held back the genre as a whole for quite some time, and is detrimental to the way of which we think in stealth games on the whole. Blood Money's twist on the game is welcome because it rejects pattern memorization to some degree, opening up a broad avenue for ways in which we can rethink and approach stealth games.
Metal Gear Solid and the games that are influenced by it are... honestly, pretty bad stealth games, when all is said and done. They're rather limited and allow for pretty repetitive play with a lack of variation. Thief's take on stealth as a aural and light/dark (which influenced Splinter Cell), and Hitman's take on disguises both opened up the experiences we could have in these games.
There's so much more that we could do with stealth games, and we're held back by some of the worst games in the business, just because they're extremely popular. It's frustrating to me.
AbundantChoice
Member
Just finished Jazzpunk. That game is short, and buggy as hell, but I still loved it. Whatever review described it as "what if a game was basically nothing but easter eggs?" pretty much nailed it.
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
anywhere from 45 minutes if you rush and ignore everything to 3 hours taking your sweet time poking every corner
so fucking good though
Okay then, that sounds really interesting now, maybe I'll pick it up sooner rather than later. Always interested to see how different devs take choice and consequence and work with it. I don't know if it's fair to say it's "a step up" from TWD because I get the feeling they come from a different school of writing games versus what TBS's devs want to do.
Either way I am very interested in the game now.
Been very pleasantly surprised by that zombie game How To Survive, really enjoying it. If you don't like zombie games of course you probably won't like it but it seems very nicely polished, enjoying the combat and surprised by how indepth the crafting is (compared to how I thought it was going to be tbh).
Funny thing is I read about how short it apparently was and I've put in over 10 hours already. Probably due to my nature of looking in every corner and taking my time.
Along with that still playing Double Dragon Neon which continues to be awesome Bought Final Exam as well, liked the demo for that. Been a very 2D/isometric heavy weekend!
Funny thing is I read about how short it apparently was and I've put in over 10 hours already. Probably due to my nature of looking in every corner and taking my time.
Along with that still playing Double Dragon Neon which continues to be awesome
Bought Final Exam as well, liked the demo for that. Been a very 2D/isometric heavy weekend!ROW means rest-of-world and is a blanket term referring to the regions not covered by region-specific subs. In other words, "yes".
Speaking of playing video games, I've been playing Baldurs Gate EE. First time playing it.
Something about this game clicks with me on a fundamental level. I think I just love old RPG's in this style. The characters, the world, the story, the combat, everything about it is just so appealing to me.
I'm extremely excited to dig into the rest of the infinity engine games once I finish this one.
Something about this game clicks with me on a fundamental level. I think I just love old RPG's in this style. The characters, the world, the story, the combat, everything about it is just so appealing to me.
I'm extremely excited to dig into the rest of the infinity engine games once I finish this one.
corrosivefrost
Member
Chance Hale
Member
Lord's of Shadow's cutscenes are all pretty short for the most part, outside of the ending dump. There are a few exceptions here and there but it's really no different than God of War in that it has a short cutscene for introducing new enemies, character interactions here and there, and so on. It's certainly no MGS. The game takes a while to get going but it ends up working as it's a build up to the true scale of the game and locations as it progresses through the story. The levels get bigger, the locations more grand, and so on. After chapter 2 it's pretty much a constant joy throughout, and even before that it's not bad but just a little slow.
God of War has lots of killrooms, and they also have you revisit locations at times(mostly in the second game) with new powers. In any case Lords of Shadows isn't really similar in structure to either as it's broken into levels which try to encourage replays(and playthrough of the trials) by having upgrades that you can come back to later. That's a pretty common trope across any action genre and certainly the Castlevania series itself. Every single level is entirely separate in any case, so it's definitely not like Devil May Cry.
Just run back, you can jump over most of the bridges and another warg will spawn. If it really did break which I haven't experienced in my two playthroughs of the game then restart and play the ten minutes it takes to get there, cursing your bad luck all the while. Game is very polished and I've never experienced a single game breaking bug.
God of War has lots of killrooms, and they also have you revisit locations at times(mostly in the second game) with new powers. In any case Lords of Shadows isn't really similar in structure to either as it's broken into levels which try to encourage replays(and playthrough of the trials) by having upgrades that you can come back to later. That's a pretty common trope across any action genre and certainly the Castlevania series itself. Every single level is entirely separate in any case, so it's definitely not like Devil May Cry.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Why aren't my foils being bought?
Backlogger
Member
Ah man, had no idea FC:BD was infested with uPlay shit.
There goes my clean install
Such a great game though, totally worth having to deal with uPlay
Why aren't my foils being bought?
I sold my one and only HL2 foil for 1.30
thanks for the clarification.
the game is apparently cut in germany...
we usually don't get cut content here in austria, and the game isn't even german dubbed. what would be the reason to do that
EDIT: wait I think I misunderstood. If I buy a ROW copy (which I'd assume is uncut) I can activate it on my austrian account/IP?
corrosivefrost
Member
No, you're right -- you actually have to kill the warg when Turfster did if you want all the scrolls for that level -- you then can run back, drop off the side of a cliff and use a grapple point to slingshot back to fight the warg again and ride him to the end of the level.
I did that. Three times. No wargs.
I'd just had enough by then.
Did that. No warg respawns for me.
Anyway, I'm done with the game.
Chance Hale
Member
Corrosive has a better memory and said what you're supposed to do. Which is right as I remember getting off the get the item and then going back and grappling back. Remember it being pretty obvious as well but oh well.
I was wondering why Magicka Wizard War appeared on my game list.
http://www.gamefront.com/magicka-wizard-wars-alpha-free-for-all-mount-blade-owners/
http://www.gamefront.com/magicka-wizard-wars-alpha-free-for-all-mount-blade-owners/
Rust is just one of those games I'll never play because I know I won't enjoy it, but much like EVE. Online with it's wars, I am going to be forever fascinated by the society, cultures, groupings, and nations that will be created.
That pantsless group alone is fascinating from an anthropological perspective. Meanwhile I haven't really noticed anything of the sort being talked about for DayZ-Daisy-Quite-Contrary.
That pantsless group alone is fascinating from an anthropological perspective. Meanwhile I haven't really noticed anything of the sort being talked about for DayZ-Daisy-Quite-Contrary.
maneil99
Member
Because Dayz is shit right now, the loot rate is like 10%. I wager 90% of players die of starvation or kill themselves within the first hour. Its fucking garbage. Theres a difference between scavaging and half a fucking map having like 20 food cans
- Status