This is one of the things Ubisoft has gotten on my nerves about for a long time. I pretty much only want to play SP but I'm forced to boot up Uplay/Ubisoft connect for no good fucking reason to launch it.
Your video game hot take(s) thread
- Thread starter Dany_the_penguin
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To elaborate on this DmC (2013) has something most Western and few Japanese H&S games don't have: replayability and pacing. What I noticed is that alot of the games that copied God of War during the 7th generation is that they are only fun the first time through, if not played in years and you are revisiting, or you got many there are just average, mediocre, or bad. Ironic, because both DMC4 and DmC took various elements from God of War, but not QTEs. Which is a great thing. There are hidden parry windows you have to figure out, even if most of them are easy to do in DmC (DE version allows you to make parries harder with the hardcore perk).
The problem with a lot of Western action games was copying God of War whole sale or halfway. You're standard light and heavy attack, QTEs, QTE finishers (usually optional), and giant boss monsters with limited attacks. Insert Dante's Inferno, Lords of Shadows, X-Men: Wolverine, and Conan The Barbarian. Wolverine at least had cool environmental executions you could pull off on mooks. Granted not all examples are cut and dry, but everyone has their various likes, dislikes, or preferences. I know I am going to get some looks, but from a gameplay perspective, DmC even blows all of the God of War games out of the water.
Darksiders suffers heavily from pacing problems in all of the games. Though each game has their own complicated mess where they're following trends that are or were popular at the time. With III trying to copy Dark Souls, until that big ass patch update that allowed people to play it like the previous games.
Then you have Japanese games like Lollipop Chainsaw, Ninja Gaiden 3 and Razor's Edge, Yaiba, and few others where DmC is running circles. Do I need to say anything? LC can be fun, but after one playthrough or getting the good ending, there is little reason to go back. Juliet is a better protag and likeable. A fun story too. Those are the only advantages LC has over DmC. NG3 was a disaster at launch, and while RE is better by comparison, it's still has issues where playing on the harder difficulties are not fun. I know there are critics that tried to pit Killer Is Dead against DmC, but for the wrong reasons. KID is a great game, despite its flaws. It has better boss battles, better art style and character designs, and is not up its own ass. Yes, DmC technically has better combat, but KID can hold on its own, and I had more fun with than DmC. Especially back in 2013.
TL;DR - DmC is better than these in terms of gameplay:
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. The PS2 games can be added to the list as well.
- Conan
- Dante's Inferno
- Darksiders franchise
- Ninja Gaiden II & 3
- Lollipop Chainsaw
- God of War franchise
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- Feb 7, 2011
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See, I don't agree.
I actually think that DmC's gameplay is kind of trash.
Now the reason that I hold this opinion is because I played DmC before they re-released it with rebalanced combat. I played it when you HAD TO use angel weapons on blue enemies and demon weapons on red enemies, which completely fucked the pace of the combat and made it a complete slog. At that point the game was not better than any of the God of War games in terms of gameplay, and definitely not in terms of style.
While I understand that this problem has been fixed I haven't bothered replaying it because I did not like it when I originally played it and have no desire to go back. Comparing the release version of DmC and God of War 3, God of War blows DmC out of the water.
For the record, I am more so referring to the Definitive Edition. That said, color coded enemies are the worst in the vanilla version. The Definitive version actually fixed this as weapons no longer bounce off red or blue enemies of the opposite color. Though they don't recoil and take less damage. There are ways around that in the DE version with input buffering and demon evading. Surprisingly fun in that regard; most of the time. Also, God Must Die is awesome, and I have no idea why Capcom refused to bring it back in DMC5.
Yes and no; opinion varies.
Yes, but I don't like God of War III's pacing. The game just crawls to a slow hog around the halfway point at the near latter end of the game. When I played the Remastered version, I was already getting done by that point. I still finished the game, but I am not going back to it. DmC is quicker paced and at least ends. III drags on too much for me. Plus, I hate the story in God of War III too. I don't like DmC's story either.
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I don't mean that comparison to imply that God of War III is a great game, I actually don't think it is. I just think that the launch version of DmC was bad enough that it gets completely blown out of the water by God of War 3, which is kind of mediocre.
I know this; it's me mostly agreeing with you. Like I said before, I would still take the vanilla version of DmC over God of War III, only because of pacing. Oh...and I love the fighting the Dreamrunners. Best enemies in the game, and act like proper Devil May Cry demons that are challenging and fun to fight. And I happily take DmC: DE over GOW III: Remastered any day of the week. It helps that DE fixed a majority of the gameplay issues I had with the vanilla version. GOW III: Remastered does not have much to fix other than frame rate and performance.
To compare DmC (Vanilla) and DmC: DE -
- DmC (Vanilla) is a 5 or 6/10. I lean towards on 5 more so.
- DmC: DE is a 7/10.
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Would perhaps be more true rephrased as “better combat”, since “better gameplay” is more broadly subjective. DMC doesn’t have any puzzles or platforming, or any significant kind of level design, which many people might consider to make an action adventure game being more enjoyable. Might help explain the appeal of GoW even if the combat is pretty fun but still simple.
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DmC does have platforming, albeit simplified and basic. There are a couple of minor tricky platforming sections in the last few missions. There is a puzzle in Mission 18. The only puzzle you have to deal with. In the vanilla version of DmC, Vergil becomes a Puzzle Boss when he loses 2/3 of his health. DmC does have better combat, but I am still using gameplay for the overall package. The levels never go on too long, nor feel to short, and are as long as they need to be. There is exploration, but once you find all of the Lost Souls, Keys (comes in two sets in the vanilla version), and hidden missions, that is it. There is no reason to explore. Plus, the game discourages backtracking, because it locks you out of the area once you reach the designated path. The levels mostly become a straight line and takes some cues from Bayonetta. Even Bayonetta allowed you to backtrack some of the time. It was mostly for hidden fights and sometimes hidden items.
DmC is basically a lesser DMC4 and Bayonetta (Demon Evade = Witch Dodge). Yet Demon Evade is awesome dodge mechanic that never gets used again. They could have given the slow-mo dodge to Nero. Would have suited him perfectly.
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I mean, you jump to stuff but there isn’t the elaborateness of design found in classic GoW games. Most of the best examples have some combination of puzzles, platforming and combat that flows from one to another.
While not as elaborate as God of War, there are some platform segments with cool or good gimmicks. In Mission 9, you have to fight harpies that are flying above you on an upside down glass ceiling that is breaking. Mission 13 has floors/platforms that change color and if you're color of the weapon does not match the color of the floor you take damage. DmC does encourage using environmental hazards or knocking demons off of the platforms for automatic kills. If you want the highest style rating, it's best to not to do that, or save it for the last demon. Demons can actually harm or kill each other with attacks so there are times you can manipulate them to hurt each other. Or you can parry an ice attack and it either freeze that same ice demon, or one in front of its path. DmC has a dynamic difficulty system built in to it. Demons will less likely attack Dante when his style rating is low, and will mostly circle around him or wait for him to attack first. The higher your style rating, the more aggressive demons get and attack way more often. There is even dynamic music built in to the style meter and a first for the series. The music changes based on how high or low your style meter is. So there is a good amount to going in the game when you play and notice all of the details.
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DMC4:
- Nero's Devil Buster mechanic.
- In DMC4, Nero has a gap closer with his glowing blue arm. Allowing him to either yank, grab, or pull enemies towards him.
- Every boss has a stun state where they're daze for a few seconds, and there is a hidden button prompt. You'll never see it, but when using the Devil Buster on a boss, you get this sweet cinematic attack or finisher. These moves changes depending on whether you are in Devil Trigger or not. What's even better about the Buster, is that it doubles as parry attack when timing certain enemies or bosses attack patterns. Usually if they are charging towards you, or if a certain boss throws a spear at you. It's something unique to the series, that no other game franchise has done.
- Nero has unique finisher grapples moves on less demons too; depending if he has DT or not. All of these are carried over in to DMC5, with better improvements or new features. To the point that Nero gets two styles of gap closer once you beat the last mission in 5.
- DINO (Dante in Name Only) - Who is a combination of Nero and Dante, gets Nero's grapples/gap closer, but made even simpler.
- Demon Pull - You grab enemies. Angel Lift - You pull yourself towards an enemy. These are from Dino's morph weapon, Rebellion. These grapples you use have chain style whips with a claw hook instead of blades at the end.
- The default control setting has L3+R3 or LS+RS to activate Devil Trigger. Thankfully, this can be changed and customized should the player, and many, do so. In all past games and 5, L1 is used to activate DT.
- Dino's fighting style is brutal and unrefined. Like I said before he's this weird algamation of classic Dante and Nero. Nero fighting style could get brutal too, but he still had a sense of refinement to his skills. Dino fight rugged and dirty, because no one taught him. With all said, you can be stylish in this game. In the hands of a skilled player, you can make Dino's brute force look stylish and add flair.
- The grim and gritty setting where the protagonist is an asshole. The black and grey setting where the story tries so hard to be edgy and shocking. All of it falls flat that game makes the story in some parts of God of War II & III look good by comparison.
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Maybe not really a hot take, but when I take a look at gameplay of recent games these days, I just get so tired looking at these UIs. Especially Ubisoft. Beautiful graphics all hidden under floating numbers, healthbars, waypoints, etc. Makes my eyes glaze over.
PC gaming will likely be more popular if PC parts decrease in cost, and if every game company out there is like you don't own the games we do, your just renting or licensing it from us, or you need a subscription to access our games. It's bullshit, you don't own anything means you have to rent games.
Also, the Xbox Games pass will not last, it will be like Netflix where at first you get anything you want, then the studies do their own subscriptions, and bam it's going to be like right now where you have to sub to Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and etc just to watch a diverse array of movies plus shows, and then people will sub for one moth watch their stuff, then leave, but then they raise prices like Netflix did where you need to pay $19.99 just for 4K.
Also, the Xbox Games pass will not last, it will be like Netflix where at first you get anything you want, then the studies do their own subscriptions, and bam it's going to be like right now where you have to sub to Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and etc just to watch a diverse array of movies plus shows, and then people will sub for one moth watch their stuff, then leave, but then they raise prices like Netflix did where you need to pay $19.99 just for 4K.
I've said this before and it's not exactly new but early 3d gaming has aspects that didn't age well. Playing Zelda:OOT and Majora's Mask reminded me that the N64 level allowed them to do 3d games but there's a lot of notable flaws. Notably how tiny all the environments look and feel. I realize this isn't an exclusive problem to those games but games have gotten much better at hiding it(Souls games generally have small areas but they're pretty good at looking much bigger). I mean, Clock town is not a big city but to run around the town you need to load in a new area every minute or so and that's what drives home how tiny it is. Also, a lot of the animations in those early zelda games just look really weird because they repeat the same animations over and over again at high speeds so it looks like some of the NPC are coked up.
Keep in mind I'm playing the 3DS version and not the original N64 version because I want the QOL improvements the newer version offers and I don't have sufficent attachment(as in any) for the original N64 version to play that one.
Coming off BOTW and going back to play these N64 games is a stark contrast but even booting up LTTP reminds me that SNES games haven't aged as poorly as the N64 games did. I'm not sure why but some 16 bit games feel like they hold up a lot better then the 64 bit games that came a few years later. And don't get me wrong, OOT and Majora's mask are good games, but it feels like if you didn't play them in the late 1990's when they were new and only played them in the last few years like I have, they feel dated and not the GOAT like they have the reputation for among some fans.
Keep in mind I'm playing the 3DS version and not the original N64 version because I want the QOL improvements the newer version offers and I don't have sufficent attachment(as in any) for the original N64 version to play that one.
Coming off BOTW and going back to play these N64 games is a stark contrast but even booting up LTTP reminds me that SNES games haven't aged as poorly as the N64 games did. I'm not sure why but some 16 bit games feel like they hold up a lot better then the 64 bit games that came a few years later. And don't get me wrong, OOT and Majora's mask are good games, but it feels like if you didn't play them in the late 1990's when they were new and only played them in the last few years like I have, they feel dated and not the GOAT like they have the reputation for among some fans.
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SNES game were the tail end of pixel graphic, artist had a lot of time to develop trick to make good looking pixel sprite and level. Early N64 and PS1 were the very beginning of 3D, artist weren't used to it, tools were awkward to use and the audience hadn't been "taught" to recognize what object were in this low res 3D so the artist would overcompensate everything. I think modern artist could go back and make game for N64/PS1 hardware today that would look much better just because they learned a lot in the time since.
Aside from ultra blind fans in certain gaming fandoms, this is less of a hot take nowadays, but there are some people who can't get over it. They (intentionally) blind themselves to nostalgia or say, "it's my childhood!". Making their "argument" or defense as if they can't be criticized nor analyzed, unless it's on their pathetic terms.
Personally I think the original Spyro games look much nicer than the remakes, especially in their use of colour and lighting.
Yeah, I know its not exactly hot by any means, it just sticks in my mind when I play early 3D games like this. This isn't a nintendo specific gripe either. I can name plenty of other games from the same era that have the same problem. MGS1 being a perfect example with all the nightmare no-faced people, despite all the other stuff I like about that game.
I think even at the time I felt the 3d graphics looked awful compared to their predecessors.