MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Dec 10, 2021, 01:15:
Wtf, the game looks gorgeous, even better than the first, but what the hell is even going on here?

The first game, I interpreted everything to be her metaphorical battles against her own mental illness, and/or just straight up hallucinating or having psychotic episodes from past trauma. It always seemed as though the story was hinting that very little of the combat and monsters etc. were actually anything real at all, if any. I always pictured her as just flailing around by herself in the woods.

Now the second game, is she supposed to be imagining her whole tribe alongside her as she fights her internal monsters? This game will be even more depressing if so.

I was under the impression that the monsters she fought in the first game were actually the tribe that killed her...betrothed/husband/(I forgot). She's batshit insane throughout, but she's clearly entering actual encampments and whatnot. The one non-human thing she fights may have been a tribe "pet" or war animal, twisted into the rotting monster you see in the game.

She may now have collected a bunch of crazies, but there's no "well, it *could* be a normal human but she's twisting it in her mind" going on with that giant. Not that it doesn't look cool; that video looks impossibly good (but so did the entire first game). I'm just not sure how the first and second game can reconcile what's going on when the second one goes absolutely supernatural AND has others along who see the same thing she does.

I played through Alan Wake immediately before the AWE expansion for Control came out (which I haven't played, due to sudden changes in my real life, but that day is coming soon), and found it to be quite meh. The combat is the same thing, with VERY little room for improvisation, beginning to end. I get that Alan is a writer, not an action hero, but his minimal arsenal/functions got boring very fast. I enjoyed the story but ended up playing through on easy mode because I didn't find the combat engaging.

Control is significantly better, although the combat feels a bit loose. Might be a side effect of being third person, dunno. I hope the new Alan Wake takes lessons learned from Control, and doesn't regress into a one trick pony like the original AW. From comments saying it's changing genre a bit, maybe they will!

EGS isn't a deal-killer for me, but it absolutely does dampen my interest. Unless the game is a holy-shit-must-have-now one, I'll wait for it to saunter over to Steam. Currently, AW2 doesn't sit in that category.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Dec 7, 2021, 12:40:
Interesting. I played through ... the first two of these, I think? On PS2 or PS3, and I never got around to the third (or fourth?) game, so I may pick this up if the price isn't egregious.

Lucky you! I'd like to pretend the third one doesn't exist. Not that it isn't pretty, or that the gameplay is bad, but the story is a complete clusterfuck, where impossible stuff happens and they forget to ever explain it. If I recall correctly, the writer of the story left due to the process the company was using for it. Basically, they would come up with the levels and locations first and then tell the writer to find a way to make them fit together into a story.

I don't know if they developed the final game that way, but it doesn't FEEL like it. The story is very focused and coherent, like 1 and 2 are. You don't *need* to have played the previous games to understand what's happening in 4, but there are a handful of jokes that are throwbacks to the prior games. 2 and 4 are the standout games in the series, if you have a ps4/5 the first 3 games are in a remastered package that is routinely $10, if you're concerned about knowing all the backstory.

Simon Says wrote on Dec 6, 2021, 14:50:

From the reviews I read/watched, what I take away is:

-Lots of graphical bugs and issues, deep lack of polish especially highlighted by DigitalFoundry's review
-Slow performance on PC despite much beefier specs ( 6900XT/3090 SLOWER than XsX makes absolutely zero sense ), and crappy'ish graphics even compared to Halo 5. See computerbase.de testing.
-Strange crashing issues with "lower" end setups ( RX580/GTX1060 ), again computerbase

Some lauded the game for "this is what happens when you delay and let the developers do their job".

I disagree vehemently...

The game is half-baked. I'll try it in a year.

I listen to crashing/performance issues in games with a heavy amount of skepticism. I work at a computer store, and I get "my computer runs poorly, and I'm only running (insert low resource software name here)". Inevitably, we find that it works JUST FINE, and then they say "oh, I also have (insert system-destroying software here)". Ah yes, thanks for wasting our time and your money. Point is, people are ALWAYS running other shit. Is the game buggy? Oh, very likely. I mean, name a single game that released without a followup patch (or several) within the first week or two.

I'll be waiting a bit on this one anyway, as I'll wait for the co-op campaign, and probably a little after that so they can fix issues with it. I don't know about the single player performance, but the multiplayer runs butter smooth on my i5/1660 laptop.

If the multiplayer for both games is truly fucked, that explains why they yanked the original game and not the sequel. At least TF2 has a stellar, if short, single player campaign. The game often sells for $5, and the campaign is worth more than that.

Was really hoping for a TF3 with another incredible single player campaign, but that looks...unlikely.

Oculus Air Link is absolutely a game changer. Valve needs to step up with something similar to the Quest 2, even if they can't put it out at the insanely low price point Facebook can.

I have a Q2, because it's a stellar piece of hardware that allows for easy wireless PC VR. I don't buy Oculus or Quest store games, aside from a bundle I bought with the $30 friend referral I got (Demeo, part of that bundle, is fucking fantastic). It streams wirelessly with low enough latency that it hasn't hurt my ability to play Beat Saber or Superhot. That's pretty damn good! Yes, there are wireless kits for most wired headsets, but that's an additional cost on top of an already pricey piece of hardware.

I'd love to purchase a headset that isn't Facebook's, but honestly, they're pushing the medium a lot harder and further than anyone else is currently. I have no doubt they'll have a headset with eye tracking/foveated rendering out before anyone else does, and also likely include other face-tracking stuff. That sort of thing is crucial in social games, and Facebook is also working on a massive social environment for VR.

Anyhoo, Valve....GET ON IT! Show us you can make a great standalone/wireless linked headset, I'll put in a fuckin pre-order for it, and I preorder NOTHING.

Mr. Tact wrote on Dec 1, 2021, 14:31:

BIGtrouble77 wrote on Dec 1, 2021, 14:07:
That said, there's no need to get out of the industry, the Indie scene is what's driving things forward these days, not the AAA studios. This bullshit is pretty much non-existent on small indie teams.

Yep. The BS quotient goes up the bigger the company is. Unfortunately I think it is an unavoidable consequence. There are just too many idiots and assholes in the world. It has little to do with the nature of being game developers and everything to with the nature of the human condition.

Yep. Sadly, sociopaths climb the corporate/political ladder faster than most, because they don't care whose fingers they step on to move up.

I paid $1129 for my 3080 (non-ti) through the newegg shuffle. It *IS* the list price of the card, which is Gigabyte's (I know, ugh) flagship 3080. I'd rather have saved a little cash and it NOT had an LCD screen on the card and a little Aorus figurine in the box, but whatever.

Currently, the cost of video cards is making consoles look more and more like the better way to go. the Series X has been in-stock on microsoft's site for days now, and Sony set up a surprisingly smooth queue system for the PS5 (mine arrived two days ago). At their MSRP, the muscle they have is hella impressive.

[VG]Reagle wrote on Nov 19, 2021, 09:27:
Epic games it’s just gonna lean everyone over and we are all going to take it??! What happened to the days where we had standards? Omg

What standards? Free games that you aren't pirating. EGS pays the devs of those games. EGS gets....I dunno. Maybe you'll start buying from them or something, I guess that's the plan. I've bought 2 things on EGS. Satisfactory and Journey to the Savage Planet. Both are on Steam (now), and are both well worth buying.

If you have limited time to play a game, maybe go for one that isn't story-focused? The article is about as stupid sounding as:

"I sat down to watch a movie, but I couldn't finish it before my kid woke up. Why aren't there shorter movies, like maybe a half-hour long, that I could watch instead?"

They're called tv shows, holy shit. Just like maybe don't go for a narrative-heavy game and be surprised that it's narrative-heavy and "wasting your precious gaming time". Play something with minimal story and you won't have to be bothered BY THE STORY.

Microsoft should be offering the same setup as Sony, where you log in with a pre existing PSN account and can be put in a queue. Later, you’re sent an email with a time window where you can actually purchase a console.

Mine is arriving tomorrow, I signed up for it a couple months ago.

Although I'm more excited about the campaign, I'll happily give the multiplayer a shot, since it's free and apparently very solid.

Yikes, the whole “it just won’t start” thing is pretty bad. Is it the virus scanner’s fault? Do they shut it down because those companies haven’t added whatever it sees as “bad activity” to its whitelist?

If so, what bad activity is a supposedly benign game doing?

It’s likely just an oversight. I mean, even Microsoft’s own Windows Defender can supposedly cause the issue, although I haven’t had that problem.

Lorcin wrote on Nov 9, 2021, 12:21:
Pick your multiculture avater who is no more than 25.
Pick your pronoun!!!!
Pick your voice - you may be young British black guy or a girl.

Things are a bit much when you have more choices of pronoun than voices! I managed to find one guy who did look mid twenties, and the voice sounds like his balls only dropped last week.

Oh and then it introduced me by my real name! Nobody uses my full name - it didn't even offer a name choice.

Not sure why anyone needs any of this crap in a racing game.

Aside from that except for the scenery I'd be very hard pressed to tell the difference between 4 and 5. Still gamepass.

Honestly, the character creation area is WAY beyond what a game where you spend 100% of your playtime IN A CAR needs. The two voice choice thing likely is due to the surprising amount of dialogue your character has this time around.

As for calling you by your actual name, literally the very first thing it does, prior to the opening sequence, is picking a name/nickname for the other characters to call you. You can change this at any time at your house. There's a good number of real names, and a huge list of nicknames to pick from. I don't know how you missed this, but it's there, no worries.

I do find it amusing that a game with such a focus on inclusivity only has 20-somethings as avatars, while they clearly have character models for older ages as NPCs. Who knows, maybe in FH6 they'll include middle-aged guys with beer guts and little old ladies who can barely see over the steering wheel. I'd TOTALLY have Aunt Bessie, an irresponsibly elderly driver who is also somehow the world's best stunt driver as my avatar!

JeffCO wrote on Nov 9, 2021, 12:06:
Does anyone have a recommendation for a racing game that doesn’t involve racing other players or racing against time limits?I’m awful at it. My favorite racing experience ever was evading cops in the original NFS Most Wanted.

FH5 has some time limited races, but you can play the entire game in Solo mode (and due to network issues currently, you SHOULD be in Solo). The timed ones usually have 3 tiers of times to try to hit, the lowest one being fairly easy to do. Also, if you just don't trust your reaction time on the faster cars, you can slow down time up to 60% in solo mode. Audio stays normal but you'll have way more time to dodge those cars on the highway, or manage tricky turns. There are a LOT of accessibility options.

This game has zero cops to evade, the *only* evasion mode they have is in the Playground Games, which are games of CTF, Red Rover and Keep Away, and are absolutely multiplayer only.

I'm really enjoying this version, more than FH4. It's not that anything fundamental has changed; they're largely the same game with different maps. FH4 focused on the gimmick of having all 4 seasons, at the expense of the map looking largely the same end-to-end during each of them. FH5 doesn't have season changes, but it does have widely varying areas on the map.

The larger focus on story missions is fine; it adds a little extra flavor to the usual "drive from here to there". Your character now talks, which made me wonder multiple times "who the hell is that? oh, it's me".

If you're on the fence, and haven't tried any of the FH games, you can try FH4's demo on the Windows store (no demo for 5), and know that FH5 looks better, and has a more diverse landscape than what you're seeing, but plays largely the same. Or get gamepass for a dollar for a month and play it that way. Racing wheel not necessary; Xbox controller highly recommended.

They could make an on-foot RPG using the exact same data from FH5 and it would look fantastic. It's nuts how much detail they put into stuff you blast past at 100+mhz.

Sadly, FH5 on Steam appears to be having the same issues FH4 on Steam had...hitching and no-reason framerate plunging, or outright CTDs.

The Windows Store version is, as far as I've played, rock solid. Yes, it has the online services disconnection issues everyone is seeing, but if you're playing solo it's literally just a box at the top occasionally, and you can go into solo-only if you don't want even that small annoyance.
I bought the Windows Store version because my wife also wants to play the game, and I'm not buying her a separate copy. She plays it on our OG Xbone, which runs the game *surprisingly* well. Sure, it's 30FPS, but ever since the first FH, Playground has used a weirdly perfect motion blur that makes it FEEL much smoother than it should. The load times are atrocious, but...whatever, nothing to be done about that. It looks quite good for running on the lowest-end Xbox hardware supported!
My laptop runs it on the High setting, which is two from the top (Ultra and Ultimate) at a rock solid 72fps (locked intentionally). It was a mid-grade laptop when I got it, a 1660ti max-q and an i5. Still finishing the basement so my tower is sadly disassembled, VERY anxious to see this game running in its full glory.

If you dig non-sim racing games AT ALL, this series is the one to play. I'd avoid the Steam version for now, though.

I think I have little patience for city builders, and Jurassic Park was…dunno. Didn’t get my interest. Not sure why Aven Colony somewhat does. It shouldn’t; it’s immensely generic looking. Maybe because it tells me WHY I’d want certain structures, and the progress structure made sense immediately.

Bill Borre wrote on Nov 4, 2021, 19:01:

Does that make you hope to get two weeks of fun out of Aven Colony?

Oh, snap.

Lol

For once I decided to actually try the game I got for free. It’s not bad! Fairly laid back “city” builder. Looks decent, makes more sense than the Jurassic park one. I tried that one over the last weekend and it was a complete mess. The first level is supposed to onboard you but doesn’t explain half of what it should.