Your video game hot take(s) thread

hanselthecaretaker

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Why does every fucking game have a section of the player base that wants hard enemies that take dozens of minutes to kill, hard puzzles that require you to look it up, and even then it's hard.

I don't fucking agree. I just spend 20 minutes trying to solve one puzzle in Genshin because the stupid fucking influencers/youtube & twitch streamers wanted harder puzzles. I also had to decrease the world tier-one level which means I get fewer rewards because the enemies, and environment are fucking mental in Inazuma/Japan.

And this is coming from someone who plays Genshin almost every day, what about more casual players. Fuck them right? Not every game needs to be Dark Souls.
But Dark Souls isn’t that hard? Unless you’re going for all endings/covenants/etc. IE down a completionist’s path, which is understandably a step up from the norm.
 

Dalisclock

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Why does every fucking game have a section of the player base that wants hard enemies that take dozens of minutes to kill, hard puzzles that require you to look it up, and even then it's hard.

I don't fucking agree. I just spend 20 minutes trying to solve one puzzle in Genshin because the stupid fucking influencers/youtube & twitch streamers wanted harder puzzles. I also had to decrease the world tier-one level which means I get fewer rewards because the enemies, and environment are fucking mental in Inazuma/Japan.

And this is coming from someone who plays Genshin almost every day, what about more casual players. Fuck them right? Not every game needs to be Dark Souls.
Because the min-maxers and the people who optimize the shit out of the game will feel bad if it's not fucking hard as balls even then.

Despite the fact they picked the playstyle that trivalizies most of the difficulty and thus bringing it on themselves.

I've heard people say JRPGs are generally easy because you can just level grind until you're super overleveled and nothing is challenging, except the price for that is the game is no longer challenging and you've spent hours and hours doing tedious grinding to reach that point and if you're doing a bunch of really boring shit more akin to a job rather then spending that time enjoying it, why the hell are you playing again? I know the reason I rarely replay most JRPGS is because I dread level grinding just to have a chance against the next boss, let alone trivialize it. "Oh, the walkthrough says the recommended level is 30-35. I'm currently at 20. Better spend an hour walking back and force grinding levels and cash......groan"
 
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Inspired by the above post and article, I kind of understand where the author is coming from. OTOH, I also feel like the Witcher 3 might not be the game for them. Most people tend to agree the best part about this game is in it's Side Material(the contracts and side quests) and yes, it's more or less required, because the game doesn't give out much EXP for killing monsters or clearing bandit camps. But doing contracts is kind of Geralts Job and the side quests do a lot to flesh out the world around him and in general, the side quests tend to be a lot more interesting then the eternal hunt for a girl whos always about 2 weeks ahead of you until you actually find her.
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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Ok here's my Hot Take.

Gone Home is not actually a revolutionary game and was only held up high by people who wanted to look progressive because lesbians.

Now let me explain myself a further before I get yelled at. What Gone Home does narratively it does well but it's a huge series of Tropes so common in Lesbian Pulp fiction that it's almost a running joke in said scenes (See the Canadian Documentary Forbidden Love). Also gameplay wise Gone Home is pretty poorly optimised such that if you leave on too many lights in the house and move certain interactive items about you can cause the framerate to chug even on machines that should easily handle it.
 

Gyrobot

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Still for a former bioshock dev it is a good passion project that paid off since you could make a Walking Sim out of Minerva's den and it would still be awesome. Pity about his situation though
 

Dirty Hipsters

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Why does every fucking game have a section of the player base that wants hard enemies that take dozens of minutes to kill, hard puzzles that require you to look it up, and even then it's hard.

I don't fucking agree. I just spend 20 minutes trying to solve one puzzle in Genshin because the stupid fucking influencers/youtube & twitch streamers wanted harder puzzles. I also had to decrease the world tier-one level which means I get fewer rewards because the enemies, and environment are fucking mental in Inazuma/Japan.

And this is coming from someone who plays Genshin almost every day, what about more casual players. Fuck them right? Not every game needs to be Dark Souls.
Because if you mostly just play one game, and you've played it enough that you can do all of the content in your sleep you want more of a challenge. Something that a casual player who plays the game for an hour a week finds challenging probably isn't much of a challenge for a hardcore player who plays the game 4 hours a day every day.

So long as there is still casual content in the game I don't see a problem. If 90% of the game is casual content, and 10% is crazy challenging then the casuals don't have to do that 10% of the game and can still enjoy 90% of it with no impact on them.
 
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BrawlMan

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Because if you mostly just play one game, and you've played it enough that you can do all of the content in your sleep you want more of a challenge. Something that a casual player who plays the game for an hour a week finds challenging probably isn't much of a challenge for a hardcore player who plays the game 4 hours a day every day.

So long as there is still casual content in the game I don't see a problem. If 90% of the game is casual content, and 10% is crazy challenging then the casuals don't have to do that 10% of the game and can still enjoy 90% of it with no impact on them.
And usually when a hardcore player finds a game too easily at that point, they mod the difficulty themselves if the game has a PC version that is. I remember when DMC 4, DmC (2013), & DMC 5 got their respective PC releases, fans didn't modifications to make the games even harder. The fan dub name Gods Must Die mode. Though it made some sense for the reboot version, as even fans down the hardest mode too easy. God Must Die mode became official with the updated re-release of the reboot.

With Genshln Impact's problem, I don't play the game, but it is known as a grind fest. So that really doesn't help much with the difficulty. It'll be one thing if these were optional challenge rooms and such, but if it's an update that fundamentally changes what was already there to begin with and there's no balance for it, I can see the issues and problem.
 
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Drathnoxis

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The No More Heroes franchise has the best light saber combat to date. Beating all of the Star Wars games that focus heavily on melee/light saber combat.
Maybe it's different in NMH3, but the first couple NMH games had kind of terrible combat. Yahtzee summed it up very well as "mash A until bored, then mash B." Granted I haven't played many Star Wars games, but I would probably give the credit to Wii Sport Resorts "fencing" minigame over NMH. They probably aren't supposed to be lightsabers, but they sure as heck look like them. Or I might say Red Steel 2 at a stretch. I know it's a katana, but it works more like a lightsaber than a sword, and the combat is pretty fun.
 

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Maybe it's different in NMH3, but the first couple NMH games had kind of terrible combat. Yahtzee summed it up very well as "mash A until bored, then mash B."
While the combat is not perfect, NMH's is between good and fine. The main problem with the first game is that you can't switch targets while locking on. You have let go of the button and hope Travis is targeting towards the enemy you want. The problem is that the combat seems limiting at first, because you don't have all the upgrades yet. To upgrade his combo strings, you need to go to the gym (the same applies in the 2nd game) or collect 7 Lovikov Balls. Collecting 7 each grants you one new upgrade. Whether it be a dash attack, more stun, a leaping attack, etc. NMH2 fixes this by letting you keep the dash attacks by default, and allowing your fist attacks to do actual damage instead of just stunning the opponent. You could finally switch lock on target too, and curb stomp or grab enemies that are knocked to the ground. 2 did bring a lot improvements.

NMH3 streamline this by getting rid of the punch and kick attacks, but you can now throw an non-stunned opponent when you're either behind them, or if you activate throw crazy mode in your slot power up. Travis only has one weapon now, but it morphs and changes its appearance based off whether you did a light or heavy attack (The high and low stances are gone). You later get Death Glove attacks that offer more offensive and defensive options. You can now dodge without having to lock on, the slot power up is less random now, you have two different types of super modes and one limit break. There is finally a dedicated jump button (TSA had it first) and you can home in on opponents depending how your locked on and which attack button. My only gripe is that you have to buy the dash attack and charge attack. The former became a default move in 2, and the charge attack was always a move you can do from the start in the past games.

I would take what Yahtzee says with a grain of salt with most melee action games or brawlers. This is the same guy that said the motion controls in Mad World "don't work" and you have to haphazardly shake the Wii mote to get correct inputs. Here's hint, if an action command have a vertical input icon for the Wii mote, shake you remote up and down in a straight line. If you turn it in any way, the game will read it as a horizontal input. Other MW reads shake and horizontal slashes just fine.

Back on point: even with each games' unique flaws, they still have better light saber combat than all of the Star Wars games.
 
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Jarrito3002

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Kai Leng is actually the bestest of the best character to come out of Mass Effect 3 and people only hate him because it reminds them that anime peaked at Naruto and has been falling ever since.

For Mass Effect 5 in terms of the gameplay I want to build off Andromeda it did a lot of things wrong but gameplay and levels were some good ass times.

I will never play XCom in Iron Man mode. While I appreciate it makes you play conservatively and really helps prep to make each shot matter with XCom fuckshit RNG that can make a 99.9% wide left my soul can not deal with that.
 
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Hawki

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For Mass Effect 5 in terms of the gameplay I want to build off Andromeda it did a lot of things wrong but gameplay and levels were some good ass times.
I'll give my hot take that ME5 should take place in Andromeda, because continuing on from 3 in the Milky Way is an asinine choice, and that if anything, BioWare should move onto a new IP (yes, I know they tried with Anthem).
 

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Kai Leng is actually the bestest of the best character to come out of Mass Effect 3 and people only hate him because it reminds them that anime peaked at Naruto and has been falling ever since.
No, most people hate him, because the game designer trying and failing to build up as a genuine threat, but comes off as non intimidating and weak sauce. The player can easily beat him in all of their encounters. Not to mention, very try hard and "edgy" that he comes off as laughable.


 

Jarrito3002

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I'll give my hot take that ME5 should take place in Andromeda, because continuing on from 3 in the Milky Way is an asinine choice, and that if anything, BioWare should move onto a new IP (yes, I know they tried with Anthem).
Like honestly Andromeda is fine and great to explore pluss it gives the universe a even bigger sense of scope and stops all important events takin place in these specific places.

No, most people hate him, because the game designer trying and failing to build up as a genuine threat, but comes off as non intimidating and weak sauce. The player can easily beat him in all of their encounters. Not to mention, very try hard and "edgy" that he comes off as laughable.


My comment was given some flavor but I have no hard feelings for Kai Leng either way. Like he was ninja dude and served his purpose and got rightfully murked. To be honesty the whole Mass Effect trilogy especially 3 suffer that strong disconnect between gameplay and cutscene but I guess the Kai Leng hate makes people zero in on him.
 
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Dirty Hipsters

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The No More Heroes franchise has the best light saber combat to date. Beating all of the Star Wars games that focus heavily on melee/light saber combat.
I don't know about that. If the light saber in no more heros was a baseball bat instead the gameplay would barely change. The idea of a lightsaber is that it can slice through anything, but that's not really something that No More Heroes beam saber ever does. In no more heroes you just whack people with a stick until the game decides you're allowed to cut them. That's not very "light saber."

I would say something like Metal Gear Rising Revengence is closer to having good light saber combat, and it doesn't even have a beam sword.
 
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Dalisclock

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I will never play XCom in Iron Man mode. While I appreciate it makes you play conservatively and really helps prep to make each shot matter with XCom fuckshit RNG that can make a 99.9% wide left my soul can not deal with that.
I'm not sure this is really a hot take. Iron Man mode is for people who think normal XCOM isn't hard enough and haven't gotten around to playing the Long War mod.

And yeah, I'm never gonna play Iron Man Mode either.
 

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I don't know about that. If the light saber in no more heros was a baseball bat instead the gameplay would barely change. The idea of a lightsaber is that it can slice through anything, but that's not really something that No More Heroes beam saber ever does. In no more heroes you just whack people with a stick until the game decides you're allowed to cut them. That's not very "light saber."
So? I get it, but it still has better light saber combat than any of the Star Wars games. Shoot, in both Force Unleashed games and Fallen Order, you still have to whack most things for a couple seconds. Not as much compared NMH, but it's not as instantaneous you would see in the movies, TV shows, comics, etc. It makes sense for gameplay purposes and all that, but it's still a similar issue.

I would say something like Metal Gear Rising Revengence is closer to having good light saber combat, and it doesn't even have a beam sword.
I appreciate the enthusiasm and effort, but I'd say Metal Gear Rising is more of a 3D Mega Man Zero (Zero's combat expanded in general with his Z Saber) and Strider. Strider has a plasma/saber weapon that kills most things in one hit too, so there's that. Mechanically yes; visually, no. Plus, Rising has plenty of elite mooks and mini bosses that you can't cut instantly unless they've been hit plenty of times and lose their armor. Or, you parry their attack for opening. If you're playing on Revengance mode, this becomes a 1 or 2 hit kill, if successful and depending on the enemy you're fighting.

But if you see it that way, I have no problem. Both NMH and MGR have better melee combat than the SW games, so it works out either way.
 

Jarrito3002

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I'm not sure this is really a hot take. Iron Man mode is for people who think normal XCOM isn't hard enough and haven't gotten around to playing the Long War mod.

And yeah, I'm never gonna play Iron Man Mode either.
I just have bad memories of assclown going "this the true way and the true experience" that made my eyes roll. Honestly I would be more impressed by the person who doesn't reload a save with the option there versus the person who plays the mode that removes it. It is a true test of who is truly capable of self governance.
 

Gyrobot

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No, most people hate him, because the game designer trying and failing to build up as a genuine threat, but comes off as non intimidating and weak sauce. The player can easily beat him in all of their encounters. Not to mention, very try hard and "edgy" that he comes off as laughable.


I found him threatening on a personal scale, responsible for the demise of people close to Shepard and make you feel the burn on blind playthroughs. It is just we have the benefit of the narrative Metagame to make sure he does as little damage as possible
 

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I found him threatening on a personal scale, responsible for the demise of people close to Shepard and make you feel the burn on blind playthroughs. It is just we have the benefit of the narrative Metagame to make sure he does as little damage as possible
Okay then. I admit it's rarity hearing that from a Mass Effect fan.
 

Gyrobot

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Okay then. I admit it's rarity hearing that from a Mass Effect fan.
Its a problem games with choices matter or avoidable deaths. People are inclined to play the messiah playthrough and it becomes a Metagame to save those around you. Kai Leng is there sharpening the reaper's scythe setting up major characters to die