Video Game General

[anthony]

How did I never notice that there are Chuds in Dominions before?

5 is a great place to get into the series because there was a big battle-system overhaul from 4. Before 5 movements were resolved turn by turn rather than real-time, which meant that the best tactics were ultimately cheese-based. Things like learning where to place units to get first strike because the other guys stop short a tile before yours and then get charged into, or turn-1 nuke spells going off before the other army can move. I've barely played 5 online but I think it lends itself to far more interesting emergent tactics now.

It's really an incredible game to just screw around with even in single player. It can have as much or as little depth as you want. You can win by brute-forcing conventional armies out against the world if you're committed and the AI isn't set too high, or you can experiment with magic and create ridiculous reality-bending god-like strategies. Then you can go online and test your ridiculous god-moves against someone else's.

I feel like Dominions 5 really captures best what high level fantasy-strategy has been aiming for for decades. The accumulation and exercise of nearly unlimited power. In other games you just collect power points until you can click to activate your magic nuke. In Dominions you pile up tools and resources and then build the magic nuke yourself. Fantastic game. I might even play some AI games now for fun.

[Svevlad]

So, I just completed the obscure Half Life 2 mod turned game, G String, and uhhh. Well, it's a weird little game that's for sure. Apart from good ol' fashioned Half-Lifey shooting and, regrettably, platforming, there does seem to be some sort of deeper point to this whole thing apart from "don't turn corporations into niggerjews via welfare" and "don't manage to somehow fuck the planet 6 ways to sunday" and perhaps most importantly, "fat people bad."

Who plays through will understand what I mean - the weird surreal sequences that culminate in that weird sacred geometry epilepsy inducing sequence which I guess is one of the more interesting takes on death that isn't le cloud land or just nothing, but I digress.

The whole point of the game seems to be that the main problem isn't that the planet is fucked (there's basically no atmosphere anymore, for example) or any of that shit, but that anything more abstract, spiritual, "higher" has been, for all intents and purposes, banned. It's actually one of the better cyberpunk settings I've seen - and actually it takes some things to levels of ridiculousness that would be comical if not done the way they were - like the bowels of the city being full of broken sex dolls that want to beat you to death, and the vending machines dispensing... used lingerie, apparently. It's truly a "coom and consoom" society to the point where at one point in the game, a section of the megacity is *orbitally bombed* for "high incidence of anticonsumerism" among other things. The games greatest strength is this ability to go to such absurdities and *not* making you laugh, which is where 90% of works that try that fail.

Anyways, the true point or whatever is something everyone will interpret differently, so I will bother with it no longer. Off to the meat:

Now, if I treat this thing as a mod for Half Life 2, instant 10/10. However, as a standalone Source engine game which it is, I must give a 7, for a few reasons:

1. Maps and navigation - this is where it really shows that this was made by 1 woman (yes, she basically did the whole thing for like 12 years) - though the maps are realistic - every apartment you go through makes sense, even if ruined - in that sense, they can be VERY confusing and you can and will run in circles and spend too much time trying to find out how to get to another area, only for it to be revealed that it's a ridiculously thin beam, or even running atop a fence that's the answer. Making it worse is how brown (or blue) everything looks, which can mask passages, openings and such. This also presents another problem - this is a rather long game. Bolloxed managed to do it in slightly over 6 hours, but most people will probably stretch that to more than 10. And at some point it becomes sort of repetitive. It suffers from the reverse of Alice: Madness Returns, where the environments are filled and the gameplay isn't repetitive, but instead the aesthetics are. There are a few sequences where you go through "higher level" areas that don't look dingy and dilapidated, but instead their flaw is that they look incredibly plastic. Unlike Combine architecture from Half Life 2, which despite being made out of almost entirely the same material of the same color, it still manages to hold out - meanwhile here any such high tech area tends to look somewhat fake. Yet it still manages to look impressive.

2. Weapons, enemies - This game can be BRUTAL. You're gonna get surrounded often, the enemies all have God level aim, at least on normal, and worst of all are the drones in the later levels. Every single supply spot will spawn a group of enemies, often on all sides, and you will frequently have to fight in very fucky environments where you might get knocked off into toxic sludge, into a tripmine (they're gratuitously used). The guns are basically the same as those from HL2, except the gravity gun is telekinesis, the crowbar is a hammer, and the rest are basically retextured guns. Thankfully, better sounds, though the shotgun imo is a little underpowered. The sniper, which replaces the crossbow, works a little weird - there's no physical projectile that impales like in HL2, but the bullet still travels slowly. But you're not gonna use the sniper much anyway.

3. Graphics, appearance - I guess I mentioned a lot of this in the maps section, but a lot of the game is just sort of desaturated, dark. Yet, there exists a wholly separate "FX" option where you can literally apply filters and change how the game looks, which is pretty interesting - the skyboxes and backgrounds universally look great and is really where the game shines. Nothing tells you you're in a mandatorily niggerified consoomer neoliberal ultrashithole like giant NATO banners floating in the sky. Many of the signs you encounter will be readable, but if it's something like an info-panel, there will be grammar errors and generally weird language, probably because the creator is Korean, or something.

4. Music and sound: the music is great, 9/10 I guess, but the voice acting... Not so much, which I guess is understandable. There's also this weird thing going on with the biosuit and some announcements where they're in this weird japglish sort of thing, but generally like in all source games subtitles are recommendable, weird accent or not

Mechanics, well, there are no real innovative mechanics, albeit the final section with the driving is quite interesting.

All in all, you should play...

[Leverkühn]

5 great place to get into the series because there was a big battle-system overhaul from 4. Before 5 movements were resolved turn by turn rather than real-time, which meant that the best tactics were ultimately cheese-based. Things like learning where to place units to get first strike because the other guys stop short a tile before yours and then get charged into, or turn-1 nuke spells going off before the other army can move. I've barely played 5 online but I think it lends itself to far more interesting emergent tactics now.

It's really an incredible game to just screw around with even in single player. It can have as much or as little depth as you want. You can win by brute-forcing conventional armies out against the world if you're committed and the AI isn't set too high, or you can experiment with magic and create ridiculous reality-bending god-like strategies. Then you can go online and test your ridiculous god-moves against someone else's.

I feel like Dominions 5 really captures best what high level fantasy-strategy has been aiming for for decades. The accumulation and exercise of nearly unlimited power. In other games you just collect power points until you can click to activate your magic nuke. In Dominions you pile up tools and resources and then build the magic nuke yourself. Fantastic game. I might even play some AI games now for fun.

Been looking into this  game and I think I'm going to play it once I finish up Deus Ex. Will probably wait for some kind of Steam sale if I want to end up playing multiplayer (which seems to be what the game is more geared towards). I imagine there's no issues with playing vs AI on a torrented version of the game right? 


Aside from Deus Ex I've been playing a lot of Daggerfall still. It's a great dungeon-scroller and with the right mods it actually looks fine; it's just sad the world is so incredibly huge that traversing it in open world isn't really feasible, even with a quick-travel mod. I think they really perfected the ES series with Morrowind--perfect mix of complexity and accessibility. Also think the atmosphere of Morrowind is better than the two that follow: high fantasy and gritty northern realism are interesting in their own ways but it's something you see in multiple games every year. Vvanderfall continues to feel like a unique setting even decades after it was made. The clash b/w native Dunmer culture and the encroaching Empire is represented so effectively too, much better than whatever supposed differences are supposed to exist between the Empire and Stormcloaks in Skyrim.

[Talionis]

I do not enjoy riding around a horse picking up flowers that just drags out the sword+Sorcery on a grassy plain aesthetic that overstayed its welcome after the first boss. Rather than build on the ingenuity of Sekiro and BB's combat system breakthroughs Miyazaki decided to continue with the DS3 rollspam. The bosses are designed around being a dexfag with nonsensical delays to certain attacks on top of bosses having invulnerabilities to the point where the only way to survive is spamming the backjump buttom until the animation is finished. The feeling of combat doesn't give a sense of relief upon victory and yearning to fight again in NG+ only a "Holy shit, thank god it's over".

I got the platinum trophy recently and your criticisms are spot on. It's such a shame because this is my favorite game world they've ever created. I was actually invested in teh "lore", characters and story which I never gave a shit about with the other games in the series. All the copy pasted side dungeons made the game feel sloppy too. I'm interested in what they'll do with DLC this time around since they have a good track record in that regard.

This open world status quo desperately needs to die already. Fromsoft basically broke the mold and created their own sort of genre with Dark Souls, so I was hoping they'd do it again with Elden Ring and make the open world to end all open worlds, but it ended up just being derivative.

[anthony]

This open world status quo desperately needs to die already. Fromsoft basically broke the mold and created their own sort of genre with Dark Souls, so I was hoping they'd do it again with Elden Ring and make the open world to end all open worlds, but it ended up just being derivative.

As you say it's the 'status quo' around big AAA games that's the problem. I'm not tired of 'open worlds'. To me it makes perfect sense to call Dark Souls an open world game. I'm tired of the narrow and reactionary tropes that we got from games like Farcry3, which is remembered as a trend-setter for 'open worlds' despite being designed to funnel you into short, small states of limited and directed engagement. Spiritually Farcry2 was an infinitely more open game.

I haven't played ER yet, but I've played most of From's older big games, including King's Field. The philosophy has always been 'Open'. Find your way, everything is one massive interconnected trial. When people say that ER has "gone open world" I can only figure people have been so reprogrammed by games journalism and video essays that they've forgotten the word "big". I'll have more to say after actually playing, but from here it seems like the problem isn't "open world" status quo, it's Miyazaki status quo. Sekiro was such a neat evolution of how Dark Souls plays, looking at how Elden Ring plays after that is kind of depressing. *Someone* at from seems very reluctant to break their (or perhaps his) mold.

[Vitilitagation]

I played the videogame Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy. One could argue it is the spiritual father of story driven games: think of What Remains of Edith Finch, you walk through a "movie" playing minigames. It was, as expected, one of the worst things I ever played in my entire life. The gameplay was an awful succession of quicktime events decided by Simon Says and the "story" (which was revered at the time) is absolutely ridiculous, begins like a gritty paranormal murder tale (music by Angelo Badalamenti) to end with the cardboard protagonist becoming more powerful than Doctor Manhattan for no reason, and to do nothing with it.

Still, the creator David Cage had a seminal influence on that whole industry. Fahrenheit was extremely praised, and was followed by even more praise in Heavy Rain. There's a couple of things, like trying you to emphatize with the main character by making you perform movements with the controls that imitate those of the character (like having to drag down to open a door) that I've seen it being praised as mindblowing in relatively new games - again, Edith Finch. I find it yet another example of a highly personalistic figure (David Cage appears as a character during the tutorial) of the 00s with a heavy weight in what later would become a mostly automated industry with no stand outs being sacrificed later on.

[skotomogilnik]

with some aesthetic influences from other places (Call of Cthulu: DCotE, Bloodborne, Resident Evil 4)

Every single New Blood dev (or any dev in general) who does this should get executed. I am talking about kind of advertisment tactic like "devilmayquake.com". I assume it is easier for general audience to recognize what type of game they are looking at when they are labled as "Doom-like Quake-like Zelda-like Lovecraftian-like Biblically-accurate-angels-like It's-2013-and-you-just-came-home-from-school-like" but it just does not seem like butchering an artwork in such a horrible way is really worth it.


ULTRAKILL is a fine game by itself both gameplay-wise and aesthetics-wise but when I see how it's promoted I feel as if I am fed with pure soy.

[Corvid]

After beating Elden Ring and letting the aftertaste marinate a little bit I've decided it was not as good as I expected.  

DS1 > Sekiro = BB > Elden Ring = DS3 > DS2

'Open world' doesn't fit the Fromsoft atmosphere. I do not enjoy riding around a horse picking up flowers that just drags out the sword+Sorcery on a grassy plain aesthetic that overstayed its welcome after the first boss. Rather than build on the ingenuity of Sekiro and BB's combat system breakthroughs Miyazaki decided to continue with the DS3 rollspam. The bosses are designed around being a dexfag with nonsensical delays to certain attacks on top of bosses having invulnerabilities to the point where the only way to survive is spamming the backjump buttom until the animation is finished. The feeling of combat doesn't give a sense of relief upon victory and yearning to fight again in NG+ only a "Holy shit, thank god it's over". When a fromsoft game is inseason PvP is always a blast and the only part I'm enjoying right now but I'm probably gonna do a charmless belldemon Sekiro run or an arcane build in BB in the future when it wears off.

Yeah, I really just can't get into the 'open world' aspect at all. I play these games as a sorcerer, and  at first I thought maybe it's because my arsenal of spells is growing too slow/isn't varied enough for my tastes. About halfway through I switched to a strength ultragreatsword character and the problem persisted. I put several hundred hours and multiple playthroughs into DS3 and I believe the essential difference is that DS3 wasn't open but rather on a 'wide track'. Sufficient freedom to explore within an area (and I practically know that game like the back of my hand) but not enough to let the player avoid encounters or, even worse, spread key items throughout the map to such a degree that I usually just want to look up where the particular thing I want is. Open world is just a poor game design choice for this type of game. It really killed any enthusiasm I would have had for this story. I still haven't finished the game.

[Youkai]

For the GSG fans among us, what is your opinion on the upcoming Victoria 3? It looks to be far more detailed than its predecessors mechanically.

I don't think it will be super pozzed relatively speaking, as some others have called it, but there are a few concerning things. I've noticed that mechanically, there do not seem to be many consequences of creating an "egalitarian" society besides temporarily pissing off certain interest groups. This could change between now and release, but I am doubtful of this. There have been no apparent consequences of long-term alienation, tensions, or forced diversity being shown, and it's obvious that much of this was created from the standpoint of racial equality, where various innovations and cultural aspects seem to be divorced from certain attributes in various ethnicities and races. The levels of societal tolerance based on racial and religious groups are a crude model of tolerance as well, which while a commendable effort in that few if any games previously have tried to model such a thing, has had some apparent flaws even in the early leaked build.

Perhaps the consequences became much more evident beyond this time period, but the fact remains the player has the potential to create something like outside of our contemporary timeframe without certain consequences being modelled.

The only other serious gripe I have pre-release is that the warfare system is very arcadey and lacking in strategic depth. It has taken a backseat to other factors, to the point of it being a sideshow. I believe a player needs to get emotionally invested in warfare in GSGs, and best way to do this is to give them a good amount of control, rather than mostly watching balance of power bars shift constantly. It should feel satisfying rather than like an annoying mini-game. Not necessarily to the point of high micromanagement as in previous games, but there certainly has to a somewhat satisfying balance somewhere.

It's a promising game even before release and I'm sure modders will be able to model certain things better. I would say it has great potential, even if a good portion of it was developed while beholden to a shitlib mindset. Perhaps I will attempt this myself.

[Svevlad]

"I just pretend the ethnic/racial equalization in economics is the result of mass eugenics."

[dairydeity]

I have spent 7500 hours in old school runescape

[Hamamelis]

Do any of you like Factorio? Probably the game I played the most in the last few years, or even overall.

Another game I haven't seen mentioned is Noita. It's the most innovative and clever game I have played in a long time, but would definitely suggest you don't spoil it by watching streamers for at least the first 10h of the game.

[anthony]

Do any of you like Factorio? Probably the game I played the most in the last few years, or even overall.

I enjoyed Factorio. Launched the rocket and now feel pretty done.

[Verl]

Love me some Squad. Love me some ARMA. Love me some Microsoft Flight Simulator. Simple as.

[anthony]

Love me some Squad. Love me some ARMA. Love me some Microsoft Flight Simulator. Simple as.

Sports games for people with autism.

[Guest]

Age of Decadence is one of the best 2010's RPG's. The sheer quality of the story and the writing is rivalled only by Planescape: Torment, even if they're different in many respects; the former offers an unparalleled freedom of the path you can take with your character who, for one reason or another, seeks an ancient temple built before the apocalypse, while the latter is a personal story of a man dealing with the consequences of his past life. There are similarities, though. The stories takes place in a unique setting, ruthless and unforgiving, with many wishing to take advantage of the player, and that it does not revolve around saving the world; while there's an ample opportunity to change and influence it, there's no single-minded doom looming over it that needs a hero to deal with it.

In AoD, in many ways you are the villain, willful or not, because often enough the other choice means failure. It is probably the only role playing game I know of which allows you to play a Conan or a Cugel the Clever, depending on the choice of stats and skills; you can play a brute killer, a machiavellian manipulator, or preferably to create a balance between the two. Every character origin you can choose from (a legionary, a merchant, a thief and others) offers a widely different perspective, allowing you to partake in events that seemed to be merely background occurences in your other playthrough; when previously, as a merchant, you've heard a passing remark about a massacre of the local garrison, you suddenly end up in the middle of it as an assassin. Out of easily understood necessity, all of these paths converge into one near the end, but the exact ending is determined by prior as well as present choices.

On top of entertaining dialogues and memorable characters, there's a complex and challenging combat system that gives plenty of tools of the trade: the classic hardware that one associates with the ancient era as well as nets, greek fire, powder bombs and poisons to aid in the deadly endeavors. At the start, you determine whether you'll avoid being hit or accept it by means of a shield; whether you'll focus on nimbleness of light armor or perseverance granted by a lorica segmentata. The only magic present is out of your grasp, taken to the grave by its ancient masters, but some of their tools are there to be found and put to use.

While it's often criticized for dated graphics, the difficulty and certain mechanical shortcomings, I've found that those disliking this game struggle to name any concrete flaws besides those pertaining to their own preferences. I personally found it amusing to read through the negative steam reviews and see people bend themselves into pretzels in order to say anything more than "I don't like it, it's too hard, the graphics are ugly and there's too much text". The downsides certainly are there: the traversable map limited only to the designated locations, and thus no random encounters, the repetitiveness of certain segments during multiple playthroughs, the not-great length of a single playthrough (although necessitated by the aforementioned design - the game was made by a handful of indie developers), beginner-unfriendliness when it comes to the character builds (still, a reasonably intelligent person will finish the game just fine). Other things, as I mentioned, are dependent on personal preference. Some RPG fans criticized the design of level-ups - upon finishing a quest you receive a pool of points you can freely assign at any time, with some small skill bonuses granted by killing enemies, opening locks, sneaking etc. As any design philosophy, it has its good and bad sides.

The developers are currently making a new game inspired by a sf novel by Heinlein, which looks very promising so far.

[BillyONare]

Someone post the God of War Amarna infographic. They made Thor a giant fatass in God of War: Ragnarok.

[anthony]

Age of Decadence is one of the best 2010's RPG's. The sheer quality of the story and the writing is rivalled only by Planescape: Torment, even if they're different in many respects; the former offers an unparalleled freedom of the path you can take with your character

Can I climb that mountain? Can I pick up that can? Can I walk into that home and just appreciate the phenomena of inhabiting that three dimensional space?

[Guest]

There definitely is a button that you press and something awesome happens.

[anthony]

There definitely is a button that you press and something awesome happens.

That's Dragon Age 2. And that game's problem wasn't that it wasn't an isometric rpg.