What are you currently playing?

[The Rogue Wolf]

The inventory limit is just abysmal, though. Even early Resident Evil games gave you 8 slots (except for OG Chris), and that's before you find the side pack. Because apparently the height of horror is running back and forth across the map every time you search a new room to unload your inventory.

It's this slavish adherence to the bad parts of classic gaming that really puts me off of this whole remake trend. We've learned, people.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Well i finished MK11 + aftermath. Honestly, that was a completely bonkers story. 90% of the fights seems to happen because characters simply choose not to listen.

Aftermath was so dark. And it was kinda sad to see Liu Kang being the only one who has the knowledge of his timeline.

And you know what? I think i had my fill. I might do a few tower matches here and there or play online, but i wanna go back to Elden Ring and try out the new convergence mod

 

[Absent]

90% of the fights seems to happen because characters simply choose not to listen.

That's what I got from Marvel/DC aswell.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

90% of the fights seems to happen because characters simply choose not to listen.

Character 1: (Reasonable discourse)
Character 2: (Anger noises)
"Round 1! FIGHT!"

 

[Bartholen]

My enthusiasm for Pillars of Eternity might have been a bit premature. Every time I boot it up I feel like going to sleep. Granted, I'm still only 2,5 hours in, but there's so. much. reading. and not a whole lot of narrative momentum. Plus the combat, despite earlier saying that I'd grown adjusted to it, still feels frustratingly unresponsive and incomprehensible. It feels like it's moving twice as fast as it should to be able to keep track of it at all. There's so little feedback I often times have no idea what the fuck is going on. Status effects, for example, are displayed only with a teensy weensy icon next to the character portrait, and not prominent at all. There's no pop-up text saying "STUNNED" for example. There's also next to zero indication as to what abilities the party members are using at a time, those also being displayed only in tiny icons for a couple of seconds while they cast them. The amount of spells in the game seems astronomical, but the party AI can only be modified with vague generalities like "defense, damage, crowd control" etc. I thought DA:O might have prepared me for this stuff, but turns out the "real" RTWP games are even more frustrating than that.

Outside of combat it's not much better. I was investigating the temple in the starting town, and came across 3 bells. The NPC in the area hinted at something to be found in the "room with all the books". After going in circles and reading the notes I'd picked up over and over again for like 15 minutes I finally gave up and looked online. Oh, turns out you can only find the secret room if you have a certain amount of points in a certain skill. And nowhere was there even a hint of this. Just fuck you.

Already turned down the difficulty. Turns out I still fucking loathe RTWP systems, and Dragon Age was different in a few critical areas that it wasn't really truly representative of the old style CRPGs.

 

[Chimpzy]

The inventory limit is just abysmal, though. Even early Resident Evil games gave you 8 slots (except for OG Chris), and that's before you find the side pack. Because apparently the height of horror is running back and forth across the map every time you search a new room to unload your inventory.

No disagreement here, it is the game's most annoying flaw. Eventually I took to running around with just the shotgun (cuz its overall the best weapon) and maybe the flashlight. No other weapons, extra ammo, healing, nada. Only picking up more shotgun ammo and revolver ammo (to save for bosses), and healing items when needed. Cut down on a lot of back and forthing, and the self-imposed scarcity was imo more fun too.

 

[meiam]

My enthusiasm for Pillars of Eternity might have been a bit premature. Every time I boot it up I feel like going to sleep. Granted, I'm still only 2,5 hours in, but there's so. much. reading. and not a whole lot of narrative momentum. Plus the combat, despite earlier saying that I'd grown adjusted to it, still feels frustratingly unresponsive and incomprehensible. It feels like it's moving twice as fast as it should to be able to keep track of it at all. There's so little feedback I often times have no idea what the fuck is going on. Status effects, for example, are displayed only with a teensy weensy icon next to the character portrait, and not prominent at all. There's no pop-up text saying "STUNNED" for example. There's also next to zero indication as to what abilities the party members are using at a time, those also being displayed only in tiny icons for a couple of seconds while they cast them. The amount of spells in the game seems astronomical, but the party AI can only be modified with vague generalities like "defense, damage, crowd control" etc. I thought DA:O might have prepared me for this stuff, but turns out the "real" RTWP games are even more frustrating than that.

Outside of combat it's not much better. I was investigating the temple in the starting town, and came across 3 bells. The NPC in the area hinted at something to be found in the "room with all the books". After going in circles and reading the notes I'd picked up over and over again for like 15 minutes I finally gave up and looked online. Oh, turns out you can only find the secret room if you have a certain amount of points in a certain skill. And nowhere was there even a hint of this. Just fuck you.

Already turned down the difficulty. Turns out I still fucking loathe RTWP systems, and Dragon Age was different in a few critical areas that it wasn't really truly representative of the old style CRPGs.

Dunno if you played it, but I think PoE 2 is better, you can do turn time combat and there's less exposition dumb at the start.

 

[FakeSympathy]

My enthusiasm for Pillars of Eternity might have been a bit premature. Every time I boot it up I feel like going to sleep. Granted, I'm still only 2,5 hours in, but there's so. much. reading. and not a whole lot of narrative momentum. Plus the combat, despite earlier saying that I'd grown adjusted to it, still feels frustratingly unresponsive and incomprehensible. It feels like it's moving twice as fast as it should to be able to keep track of it at all. There's so little feedback I often times have no idea what the fuck is going on. Status effects, for example, are displayed only with a teensy weensy icon next to the character portrait, and not prominent at all. There's no pop-up text saying "STUNNED" for example. There's also next to zero indication as to what abilities the party members are using at a time, those also being displayed only in tiny icons for a couple of seconds while they cast them. The amount of spells in the game seems astronomical, but the party AI can only be modified with vague generalities like "defense, damage, crowd control" etc. I thought DA:O might have prepared me for this stuff, but turns out the "real" RTWP games are even more frustrating than that.

Outside of combat it's not much better. I was investigating the temple in the starting town, and came across 3 bells. The NPC in the area hinted at something to be found in the "room with all the books". After going in circles and reading the notes I'd picked up over and over again for like 15 minutes I finally gave up and looked online. Oh, turns out you can only find the secret room if you have a certain amount of points in a certain skill. And nowhere was there even a hint of this. Just fuck you.

Already turned down the difficulty. Turns out I still fucking loathe RTWP systems, and Dragon Age was different in a few critical areas that it wasn't really truly representative of the old style CRPGs.

Yeah, I tried playing POE and tried convicing myself that I was liking it, but gave up around 5 hour mark. I think that was the game that made me hesitant on playing more of its types save for DA:O. I got over it and enjoyed the likes of Wasteland 3, Divinity Original Sin 2, and Tyranny. I'm also waiting to the Baldur's Gate 3 full release, because I loved early-access enough but want the whole game

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

My enthusiasm for Pillars of Eternity might have been a bit premature. Every time I boot it up I feel like going to sleep. Granted, I'm still only 2,5 hours in, but there's so. much. reading. and not a whole lot of narrative momentum. Plus the combat, despite earlier saying that I'd grown adjusted to it, still feels frustratingly unresponsive and incomprehensible. It feels like it's moving twice as fast as it should to be able to keep track of it at all. There's so little feedback I often times have no idea what the fuck is going on. Status effects, for example, are displayed only with a teensy weensy icon next to the character portrait, and not prominent at all. There's no pop-up text saying "STUNNED" for example. There's also next to zero indication as to what abilities the party members are using at a time, those also being displayed only in tiny icons for a couple of seconds while they cast them. The amount of spells in the game seems astronomical, but the party AI can only be modified with vague generalities like "defense, damage, crowd control" etc. I thought DA:O might have prepared me for this stuff, but turns out the "real" RTWP games are even more frustrating than that.

Outside of combat it's not much better. I was investigating the temple in the starting town, and came across 3 bells. The NPC in the area hinted at something to be found in the "room with all the books". After going in circles and reading the notes I'd picked up over and over again for like 15 minutes I finally gave up and looked online. Oh, turns out you can only find the secret room if you have a certain amount of points in a certain skill. And nowhere was there even a hint of this. Just fuck you.

Already turned down the difficulty. Turns out I still fucking loathe RTWP systems, and Dragon Age was different in a few critical areas that it wasn't really truly representative of the old style CRPGs.

Yeah, felt the same. While I got no problems with reading, even long reading in other games, something about PoE text scrolls just feel kinda tedious, even though it's not badly written. Plus there are those NPCs who's texts are literally Kickstarter backer contributions - which took me embarrassingly too long to figure out lol - often big walls of text covering mildly uninteresting fantasy tropes. Also with a controller it's another layer of tedium, console peasantry notwithstanding maybe). Yet games like Planescape Torment and Torment: Tides of Numenera present battalions of paragraphs and they are still interesting cause everything is so alien and unexpected, it's more of a desperate learning process in the midst of a psilocybin trip IMO at least.

 

[Worgen]

Think I'm done with Crying Suns. I like the story but I kinda find the gameplay dull and I would rather play other games.

 

[BrawlMan]

It's this slavish adherence to the bad parts of classic gaming that really puts me off of this whole remake trend. We've learned, people.

Hey, you can get a large inventory space in RE2Remake (which can be upgraded, but is halved on Hardcore), RE3Remake (can be upgraded), RE4Remake (also can be upgraded like the OG), and Dead Space Remake (same thing as the others). That's my problem with some of these AA and Indie throwback survival horror games, and the blind fans (such as Avalanche Reviews) annoyingly defending outdates mechanics. Just because you put them in your new game, doesn't make them better, nor a better alternative to modern gaming.

 

[Bartholen]

Yeah, I think I'm going to start using Pillars as the gaming equivalent of chamomile tea. This game just makes my eyelids droop, and I think I've figured out why. In DA:O and Divinity Original Sin 2, both games I've ended up loving, there's just way more sense of impact and connection to the world. I didn't even realize what a difference the fact that DA:O uses a third person camera and you move the character by yourself makes, but it definitely helps connect with the world and characters more. In Pillars, when you just click on the party to go somewhere, and twiddle your thumbs while you wait for them to do so (even on fast mode), it definitely lessens the feeling of controlling characters in a world, and feels more like moving pieces on a board.

Well, Divinity OriSin 2 also uses a strictly isometric camera, so what gives? Well, OriSin 2 takes place in a 3D world with a fully rotating camera, whereas Pillars' background are strictly 2D and single-angle. OriSin's environments are also incredibly interactive, allowing you to pick up basically anything that's not nailed down, right down to cutlery and sometimes even single coins, and everything is fully 3D rendered. Pillars operates much more in abstract 2D art, lessening a sense of tactility in the world. Considering these games were made on comparable budgets and schedules in comparable timeframes, Pillars feeling so cheap in comparison is a dire mark against it indeed.

The NPC conversations are also incredibly boring, and I've also figured out why: it's literally like reading a book, and not a very interesting one at that. DA:O and OriSin 2 both have fully voice acted (and really well acted to boot) dialogue, which are both enhanced by a switching camera and exquisite narration respectively. DA:O's camera is literally just shot-reverse shot, and the facial animation looks laughable these days, but I never realized how much more palatable it made those long, loooong bouts of dialogue. Pillars has neither, not even music cues or partial phrases uttered out loud, and my eyes just glaze over the paragraphs and paragraphs of text.

Also I'm not sure this game even works the way I understand it should, because no matter how much I try to set specific movement formations, the party always moves in a 2x2 formation, and most of the time i seems the character who talks to NPCs is picked at random. Which gets pretty fucking frustrating when in combat the wizard always seems to run in head first. And I have no idea how the party AI system is supposed to work either. It says that the party AI is active, but in combat the characters do literally nothing until I command them to, and at that point I'm not sure if they're following their AI script or my commands strictly.

Oof, only a little over 4 hours in and I'm already bitching this much? Oh no...

 

[Absent]

Yeah, I think I'm going to start using Pillars as the gaming equivalent of chamomile tea. This game just makes my eyelids droop, and I think I've figured out why. In DA:O and Divinity Original Sin 2, both games I've ended up loving, there's just way more sense of impact and connection to the world. I didn't even realize what a difference the fact that DA:O uses a third person camera and you move the character by yourself makes, but it definitely helps connect with the world and characters more. In Pillars, when you just click on the party to go somewhere, and twiddle your thumbs while you wait for them to do so (even on fast mode), it definitely lessens the feeling of controlling characters in a world, and feels more like moving pieces on a board.

Never played fallout 1/2, arcanum, or baldur's gate ?

 

[sXeth]

Yeah PillarsoE is very much doing what its statement was, an essentially accurate replica of BG/IWD/Torment/Arcanum/OG Fallout et al.

Like much of the 1998-2004 or so nostalgia era remake/spiritual successor fad though, it forgets to ask the question "was this actually good or was some of it a bunch of jank due to technical limitations.


Like I loved me some Ultima 7 but if anyone spat that out with the gameplay identical I'd just look at them with a solid WTF is wrong with you. (6 might hold up as strictly turn based, though the UI sitll had a lot of cludgery)

 

[Bartholen]

Never played fallout 1/2, arcanum, or baldur's gate ?

Tried both Fallout 1 and Baldur's Gate, and found them incredibly boring for the exact same reasons.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Its prettymuch how it goes. The game (or in my broader direct experience, neverwinter nights server) takes place in X place which is generally moderate at best in size.

Then you basically a make a mad libs sheet for what every other place in the world is. ________ is a nation of (class/profession) with a theme of (element or abstract concept) . their colours are _______ and _______, and their creest is a (plant) and (animal or monster). Run some RNG through it and cool, you now have a fantasy RPGs worth of kingdoms and religions. (hell you can literally shove the "nations" actually ingame in Elden Ring into this format, Caelid is a nation of warriors with a theme of rot, their colours are red and their crest is (a bull IIRC). Which distinguishes them from the yellow lightning knights or the blue mage people.

A “mad libs” analogy suggests that there is no structure to the game’s world, and everything is basically randomized. That lore is more a wild goose chase vs a puzzle to be solved. Everyone’s probably heard the story of Miyazaki going to the library as a kid to read western lit but having only partial understanding of English, so he’d fill in the blanks with his imagination. In that sense yes, it’s easy to infer how some of that mindset carried into FROM’s games, but only in the way its world information is presented.

Picture a story or history being written, then fractured into hundreds or thousands of pieces and scattered across a game world. But there is still a good deal of thought and design to where they end up. For instance,

Spoiler

nowski_ 2d
Yeah. They point to catacombs which is where the heroes and nobles were buried so their spirits could be absorbed by the roots of the Erdtree, which is seen in the boss rooms of these catacombs. This is Marika’s designed way of death called Erdtree burial.

This process was overseen by the Erdtree Burial Watchdogs.

None of this is outright explained, but rather “found out” and pieced together. A bit like gathering evidence to solve a crime. It may never be or seem “complete” but is often considered enough to gain a better understanding of what happened.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

On my weird quest to finish the third person games published by Sega in my backlog.

Binary Domain. Never worked on my old laptop, even shittier somehow on my actual gaming PC. Uninstalled almost instantly. Didn't seem like it was worth the effort.

Vanquish. Now this one I really wanted to like back then, but just couldn't. Maybe this time I just paid more attention to the tutorial, or maybe the lowered difficulty was that impactful, but this is pretty damn fun now. The story and characters are pretty worthless so far, the bizarre charm of Americans through a satirical Japanese lens got old quick. The combat however clicked a lot better with me now and I'm popping off robot heads like the professional the cutscenes make you out to be. I really enjoy the progression for your guns. There's finally a reason for me to scramble all over the battlefield picking up ammo other than me being OCD. That more games don't have this system is fucking CRIMINAL.

 

[BrawlMan]

Binary Domain. Never worked on my old laptop, even shittier somehow on my actual gaming PC. Uninstalled almost instantly. Didn't seem like it was worth the effort.

Not a bad game, but once you get the golden ending, there's not much reason to go back to it. It ends on a sequel hook, regardless of the ending, which will never be followed up on.

Vanquish. Now this one I really wanted to like back then, but just couldn't. Maybe this time I just paid more attention to the tutorial, or maybe the lowered difficulty was that impactful, but this is pretty damn fun now. The story and characters are pretty worthless so far, the bizarre charm of Americans through a satirical Japanese lens got old quick. The combat however clicked a lot better with me now and I'm popping off robot heads like the professional the cutscenes make you out to be. I really enjoy the progression for your guns. There's finally a reason for me to scramble all over the battlefield picking up ammo other than me being OCD. That more games don't have this system is fucking CRIMINAL.

This is a game directed by Shinji Mikami, and the man has admitted that he is not a storyteller. He just wants to have cool characters do cool things, fighting cool stuff. I told you: it's the best third person cover shooter generation, and one of the best third person shooters of all time. The upgrade weapon system on Hit or Miss about. While I appreciate it, it becomes null in void on the hardest difficulty. You can't upgrade your weapons, and dying causes you to lose your weapon upgrade on lower difficulties. There is a workaround this with the title screen glitch. If you die or about to die, immediately go to the title screen then go to continue. You'll be at that recent checkpoint, but it won't count as a death, nor will you lose your upgrade(s).

 

[Bob_McMillan]

You can't upgrade your weapons, and dying causes you to lose your weapon upgrade on lower difficulties. There is a workaround this with the title screen glitch. If you die or about to die, immediately go to the title screen then go to continue. You'll be at that recent checkpoint, but it won't count as a death, nor will you lose your upgrade(s).

Thanks for the tip. That penalty sounds absolutely pointless.

 

[sXeth]

A “mad libs” analogy suggests that there is no structure to the game’s world, and everything is basically randomized. That lore is more a wild goose chase vs a puzzle to be solved. Everyone’s probably heard the story of Miyazaki going to the library as a kid to read western lit but having only partial understanding of English, so he’d fill in the blanks with his imagination. In that sense yes, it’s easy to infer how some of that mindset carried into FROM’s games, but only in the way its world information is presented.

Picture a story or history being written, then fractured into hundreds or thousands of pieces and scattered across a game world. But there is still a good deal of thought and design to where they end up. For instance,

Spoiler

nowski_ 2d
Yeah. They point to catacombs which is where the heroes and nobles were buried so their spirits could be absorbed by the roots of the Erdtree, which is seen in the boss rooms of these catacombs. This is Marika’s designed way of death called Erdtree burial.

This process was overseen by the Erdtree Burial Watchdogs.

None of this is outright explained, but rather “found out” and pieced together. A bit like gathering evidence to solve a crime. It may never be or seem “complete” but is often considered enough to gain a better understanding of what happened.

Cool more lore seemingly pulled out of thin air by random people on reddit/youtube whatever with not even a listed source. Also that would seem to be the wrong answer, as the one who has a source has a completely contradictory one (and even thats jumping a couple of gaps to get there, but at least they matched things up and the Axe of Rosus vaguely resembles the statues. Of course the one thing the game does throw out there is the entire Erdtree god crew and Rosus is not on that list, and they are hardest of hardcore monotheists (in the literally homicidal vein) so they aren't gonna be mixmatching an outside deity into their burial rituals. Also Marika not the biggest fan of Death, hence the whole game.


So why does a god of the dead exist in some items and as a pointer to dungeons? Well, that part makes sense self contained. It doesn't fall apart until you mix match it into the main "plot". Almost like the main plot and the world elements are written by different people, eh. Sub-writer #37 working his 19 hour shifts churning out item descriptions en masse doesn't get access level to the main story so they can't leak it.

I've covered this before, and I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole again, but all (or a solid 99%) of the Souls/ER lore videos and fanwikiing, is basically the same thing as the guys who said Mephisto was gonna be the villain of Wandavision and whatall. Except usually with less actual connection because at least they can pull some concrete examples somewhere out of the 8 million MArvel comics (honestly it'd be surprising if you couldn't find some niche reference in near 100 years of material)