Your video game hot take(s) thread

BrawlMan

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The worst part about Sony’s most recent exclusives for me is just the general rate of interruptions there are to the gameplay for cutscenes/dialog choices/walk n talk/ etc. Yes it’s usually very nice eye candy which is entertaining the first time especially, but probably 80% or so of whatever is going on during all this isn’t something I’m going to remember by the time the credits roll anyways. It’s kinda like short form of the saying about 10% learning retention from high school.
Agreed. The only selling game to not suffer from this is really Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. There are almost Next to none walking sections and if there are any they go by so fast and at a split second you're not going to notice.

Here's another take from Frost. There's always a bright side to gaming. @Old_Hunter_77, this one is for you.

 
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Old_Hunter_77

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Like.. I hear what y'all are saying about Sony's narratives but I guess I don't feel it when I play? Or I actually like it, I guess. I dunnno... you're right, but I don't personally care, I guess. Another example of individual tastes and why Sony- like Nintendo- are correct to mostly cater to certain concentrated audiences.

Anyway, here's my hot take for today: "emergent story telling" just means the folks who made the game didn't bother to write a story or create characters.
 

BrawlMan

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Like.. I hear what y'all are saying about Sony's narratives but I guess I don't feel it when I play? Or I actually like it, I guess. I dunnno... you're right, but I don't personally care, I guess. Another example of individual tastes and why Sony- like Nintendo- are correct to mostly cater to certain concentrated audiences.
Like I said before I would have less problems with these walking sucks and if they were skippable. Most of the time they are not or only become skippable after update 4 to 6 months down the line. I know we already had this conversation with the walking sections are pretty much the new unskippable cutscenes. There's nothing wrong with enjoying them, but for people repeat playthroughs are going to challenge runs they just want to get to the game play and that's it.


"emergent story telling" just means the folks who made the game didn't bother to write a story or create characters.
Don't worry, most people stopped falling for that around the late 2010s.
 

XsjadoBlaydette

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Unlike younger years, The Crew Motorsport may be first game I started insta-skipping "pre-race" fmv videos with a vocalised sentiment of "I ain't watching your insufferable time-wasting bullshit no more!"

They really do waste your time. Trying to be fun. Funny? Preposterous! Get this fckin PG13 clownery outta h...wait is that the guy from the cringe E3 'trips and falls into mic stand' stunt? Oh dear. Though he does seem to be trying, can't be mad at someone trying to keep moods aloft. But am personally low on time, happiness and just wanna race. Nowt personal. Also the 4K does no favours hiding broken capillaries of alcoholism on the fella's face, got me feeling all self-conscious too. Shit.
 

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You go here if you want to play Skyrim AND you don't update.


You go here if you want to play game administration and version control and don't care about playing the game.

 

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I've been procrastinating progressing in Elden Ring; instead, I've been using a lot of YouTube guides for the various dungeons I've either avoided or missed. What's pissing me off are how many of the guides either 1.) don't have voice audio, and/or 2.) the person has already cleared the dungeon, and has instead opted to walk back through it and say where the items and enemies "were." This isn't helpful; at the very least, it's stupid to think anyone searches out specific videos for what's effectively a recap of shit they won't be able to see that they specifically clicked to see!!

If your going to go through the effort, perfect your craft, and do it on a new playthrough. Fighting Cowboy is excellent at this; he does his blind playthroughs as a separate series, then plays the game again as an instructional walkthrough. Only problem is his videos tend to be long, and he covers a lot of ground in each, so finding the very specific content you're looking for can be difficult.
 
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BrawlMan

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Only problem is his videos tend to be long, and he covers a lot of ground in each, so finding the very specific content you're looking for can be difficult.
I take it he does not provide chapter stamps in the time bar. It shouldn't be that difficult to do when doing a long walkthrough.

I've been procrastinating progressing in Elden Ring; instead, I've been using a lot of YouTube guides for the various dungeons I've either avoided or missed. What's pissing me off are how many of the guides either 1.) don't have voice audio, and/or 2.) the person has already cleared the dungeon, and has instead opted to walk back through it and say where the items and enemies "were." This isn't helpful; at the very least, it's stupid to think anyone searches out specific videos for what's effectively a recap of shit they won't be able to see that they specifically clicked to see!!
This has always been an issue with YT since the late 2000s and 2010s. You have click baiters or people mislead "walkthrough" for a playthrough, etc. Unfortunately, it has reacted to the logical conclusion of this bullshit and has only gotten worse.
 
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Xprimentyl

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I take it he does not provide chapter stamps in the time bar. It shouldn't be that difficult to do when doing a long walkthrough.
Not sure if he uses timestamps or not, and as Elden Ring is an open world game, its hard to pin down intuitively where he goes next. He might do half of an area, then go somewhere else entirely halfway through the video. It was worth mentioning, but not really a complaint. He's pretty thorough, and usually, I can type in the area I'm looking for, and it'll point me to his applicable video; I just have to jump around in the video to find what I'm looking for.
 
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BrawlMan

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Not sure if he uses timestamps or not, and as Elden Ring is an open world game, its hard to pin down intuitively where he goes next. He might do half of an area, then go somewhere else entirely halfway through the video. It was worth mentioning, but not really a complaint. He's pretty thorough, and usually, I can type in the area I'm looking for, and it'll point me to his applicable video; I just have to jump around in the video to find what I'm looking for.
Ok then.

Now here's another take I can agree with. Leon's character transition from RE2R to RE4R works so much better than the original continuity.

 

Dirty Hipsters

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lol no you can't buy/build a PC that rivals a current-gen PlayStation or XBox, not if you're building a scratch and not if you're using legal means to acquire parts. The appeal of PC gaming is that after your initial build you can upgrade parts- so doing the equivalent of PS4 to PS5 should be cheaper than a console gamer buying a whole new console. But even that's sketchy now with the fluctuating market for graphics cards.
You can...kinda.


It's not a direct comparison. The PS5 is still going to be much easier to set up, and the PC is made from used parts so there's no warranty. On the other hand, a PC is a PC, it does a lot of things that a PS5 doesn't, and most people do need a device (a desktop, laptop, tablet, etc) that can do things other than game.

So you can build a PC that rivals a PS5 in performance, for roughly the cost of a PS5. It takes a lot more effort, but it's also useful for more than just gaming.

I personally generally don't go for used parts for PCs as I think that the risk and additional hassle outweighs the savings, but for someone this could be a good alternative to a PS5 and actually a way to save money overall.
 
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Gergar12

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You can...kinda.


It's not a direct comparison. The PS5 is still going to be much easier to set up, and the PC is made from used parts so there's no warranty. On the other hand, a PC is a PC, it does a lot of things that a PS5 doesn't, and most people do need a device (a desktop, laptop, tablet, etc) that can do things other than game.

So you can build a PC that rivals a PS5 in performance, for roughly the cost of a PS5. It takes a lot more effort, but it's also useful for more than just gaming.

I personally generally don't go for used parts for PCs as I think that the risk and additional hassle outweighs the savings, but for someone this could be a good alternative to a PS5 and actually a way to save money overall.
A used PS5 digital edition will run me $350 and will have a Video Game Store warranty plus you can play FF7 Rebirth and God of War Ragnarok on it.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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A used PS5 digital edition will run me $350 and will have a Video Game Store warranty plus you can play FF7 Rebirth and God of War Ragnarok on it.
And a PC will let you play every xbox exclusive and most of the PS5 exclusives (though delayed), and you can also use it for things like excel, doing your taxes, light 3D rendering, etc. You also don't have to pay to play online. I can play Helldivers 2 and Halo Infinite on my PC, which can't be done on either the Playstation or Xbox.

FF7 Rebirth and God of War Ragnarok will be playable on the PC in like a year.

Like I said, for the price of a new PS5 you can buy a PC that will rival the PS5 in gaming performance. Both have their advantages. The PS5 is going to get playstation exclusives earlier, and it's more user friendly. The PC will have more features and has access to a much larger overall library of games, but it might not be all the games you specifically are interested in (like there's still no PC port of Bloodborne).

My point wasn't to say that PC was better and you should build one instead of getting a PS5. In fact, it's quiet difficult to build a decent PC for the same price as the PS5. I was just responding to Old_Hunter_77's claim that you can't build a PC that rivals a PS5 in terms of performance, which is incorrect.
 
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I've been procrastinating progressing in Elden Ring; instead, I've been using a lot of YouTube guides for the various dungeons I've either avoided or missed. What's pissing me off are how many of the guides either 1.) don't have voice audio, and/or 2.) the person has already cleared the dungeon, and has instead opted to walk back through it and say where the items and enemies "were." This isn't helpful; at the very least, it's stupid to think anyone searches out specific videos for what's effectively a recap of shit they won't be able to see that they specifically clicked to see!!

If your going to go through the effort, perfect your craft, and do it on a new playthrough. Fighting Cowboy is excellent at this; he does his blind playthroughs as a separate series, then plays the game again as an instructional walkthrough. Only problem is his videos tend to be long, and he covers a lot of ground in each, so finding the very specific content you're looking for can be difficult.
If you’re looking for anything specific gear-wise, just go to Fextralife. You can search any item in the game and it’ll often link to video locations of the player finding the item. I just did this the other night actually because I forgot where some of the ritual pots were, and one of the player messages nearby inadvertently led me to a hidden room I never found before in the Academy.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Oh look another thread where someone AHKCHOOLLIES me by explaining that you can do something I said you can't but only if it's followed by a bunch of impractical conditions. Cool.

There was this classic Daffy Duck and Porky Pig cartoon where Daffy is trying to sell Porky some bullshit insurance policy where you can get a $1 million for getting a black eye. But the conditions are so batshit insane they keep escalating. You know, lately, I been thinking about that cartoon a lot.
 
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You can...kinda.


It's not a direct comparison. The PS5 is still going to be much easier to set up, and the PC is made from used parts so there's no warranty. On the other hand, a PC is a PC, it does a lot of things that a PS5 doesn't, and most people do need a device (a desktop, laptop, tablet, etc) that can do things other than game.

So you can build a PC that rivals a PS5 in performance, for roughly the cost of a PS5. It takes a lot more effort, but it's also useful for more than just gaming.

I personally generally don't go for used parts for PCs as I think that the risk and additional hassle outweighs the savings, but for someone this could be a good alternative to a PS5 and actually a way to save money overall.

Kinda feels like being back in 7th Gen with these kinds of videos, which AFAIK was when they became a thing in the platform wars. It will never be a direct comparison unless PC and console API’s are practically identical. The gap has lessened for sure, but it’s still more of a novelty/vanity project to be able to say, “Hey look! It caaaan be done!” I would never try to match the price of a console when building a PC because the whole point is the ability to go beyond them. But then again the law of diminishing returns has made that as a “goal” less practical in general.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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What this guy said!


Specifically boss fights- they are not boss fights if you have to beat them again and again. I actually really like the combat of Hades but having to re-fight the boss fights.. blech. Same with Binding of Isaac. I can't deal with that.
 
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BrawlMan

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What this guy said!


Specifically boss fights- they are not boss fights if you have to beat them again and again. I actually really like the combat of Hades but having to re-fight the boss fights.. blech. Same with Binding of Isaac. I can't deal with that.
That's why I always recommend Double Dragon Games. It's a rogue type game, but you can choose the bosses in any order, and the named mini bosses that are hired mercenaries are randomized for each run. Sometimes you'll fight a few of them and other times you only have to fight the one named mini boss.

Reoccurring boss fights can work, but they're harder to achieve in rogue lite/likes compared to your regular or standard game. It works in games like DMC 1, DMC3, or even Resident Evil 5, because you're either fighting in new areas, the boss has new moves, or each form is completely different from the last, or All the above. Vergil gets new attack patterns each time you fight him. On Dante Must Die mode, he only ever bring out summon swords on that specific difficulty. Wesker has something different to him each time you fight them and each boss fight is a puzzle each time.

I can see why people love Hades, but I already know I'm not interested in the game, and it's not for me.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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> t works in games like DMC 1, DMC3, or even Resident Evil 5, because you're either fighting in new areas, the boss has new moves, or each form is completely different from the last, or All the above

Yeah that's also kind of like most action games, repeating boss fights. Or doing that thing where first it's a boss fight then you fight the same thing later but it's not a boss fight it's a "regular" enemy and I guess the idea is that you feel so strong but really it's just a way to re-use things.
Or the three different asylum demons in Dark Souls