Roons wrote on Sep 6, 2024, 14:44:
There are many games that don't get review bombed because they simply don't do stupid things. Once game companies realize, even if the feature is optional, they shouldn't include whatever feature drives the review bombing and they should JUST FOCUS ON MAKING GREAT GAMES, reviewing bombing will die down.

Just make great GAMES. Simple.

Yes, review bombing a game because an optional component improves the gameplay experience by enabling more people to play with, such a valid reason....

Eldaron Imotholin wrote on Sep 5, 2024, 03:47:
If you keep missing the point, I guess it might look that way! The point is that most "wokeness" complaints aren't simply about diversity or an attack on white people or whatever strawman argument you want to throw out there. Look at Prey, for example: it featured a predominantly Native American cast with a female lead, and even portrayed white men as villains. Yet, no one raised an issue. Why? Because it made sense within the context of the story. It wasn’t shoehorned in or trying to push a separate political agenda.

Just because you didn't see something happening didn't mean it wasn't going on. Several times I witnessed people claiming that Prey was woke because it put a female in power over males. Hell, I even saw people going "anti-white agenda" quite a few times...

Similarly, Jedi: Fallen Order included a significant black character, and there wasn’t a backlash about it. The reason? The character wasn’t portrayed as some kind of caricature or used as a platform for a different message. It was simply good storytelling that included diverse characters naturally.

...there was plenty of backlash happening over Jedi Fallen Order, the least of which was with Cere's inclusion. People were falling over left and right about just the sheer number of females in major roles in the game...for example look here.

This is exactly what I meant when I said you don't argue in good faith, you make some demonstrably false and seriously half-cocked accusations and then wave your hand about stating how "we don't see it the right way".

There are certainly people who equate any inclusion of a female character or person of color as "woke," but pretending that everyone who sees issues with forced diversity or overt political messaging falls into this group is a mistake. This kind of blanket dismissal prevents real discussions from happening and stops creators in gaming, film, and TV from understanding what went wrong when their content feels shallow or forced. If we can't have open discussions about these things, we'll just keep getting more of the same shallow, pandering content. So, let's cut the forced politics and trends from fiction and focus on genuine storytelling. Tolkein is spinning is his grave right now.

Please don't bring up Tolkien in this discussion, there's absolutely nothing about any of the recent works that would cause him to roll any more than he already is just because of their sheer existence. Rings of Power may veer from established Lore but that is out of necessity and less about an agenda, in so much as Pete Jackson's versions of LOTR do the same. As a long time Tolkien fan (so much that I even took several years of course work on his writings), I actually accept the new media rendition simply because without it, most of the Professor's work would not be consumed by people due to the difficult prose he took. Do things annoy me about the changes made? Sure, but it's inconsequential in the grand scheme of things as I'm not the primary target for it.

NotOneOfUs wrote on Sep 3, 2024, 19:15:
Sometimes, good things happen.

Implying people losing their livelihoods is a good thing is pretty low.

Blue wrote on Sep 4, 2024, 11:26:

Heymelon wrote on Sep 4, 2024, 11:14:
You seem to have linked a development video for the wrong game.

Though one that I am more excited fore as it happens.

Oh dear, you are correct. I deleted this video and am pretending this never happened.

Thanks for the heads-up.

"We're very sorry for showing the wrong video, those involved have been sacked."

Eldaron Imotholin wrote on Sep 4, 2024, 09:53:

Beamer wrote on Sep 4, 2024, 09:21:

NKD wrote on Sep 4, 2024, 07:39:

Sepharo wrote on Sep 4, 2024, 07:09:

DarkCntry wrote on Sep 4, 2024, 06:22:
I cannot wait until the collective zeitgeist of people crying about "woke', "DEI", or whatever flavor du jour of idiocy finds their next outrage teet to suckle while the general population laughs at them...

Seriously, this particular arc can not end soon enough.

Yep, I'm just over it and considering unplugging entirely from game discussion forums because it's become such a problem and it leaves me in a foul mood every time I have to read the horseshit and refrain from commenting on it.

What's funny is that this is the same bullshit since Gamergate in 2014, only with new acronyms to be their boogeymen. You'd think a lot of those people were 15-25 back then, which would make them mid-20s to mid-30s, and yet they're still crying about the same things. Their lives haven't advanced the tiniest bit in a decade.

You think Prey is woke, and are openly surprised why people aren't complaining about it. You show you don't understand what ppl are pissed about these days. You're fighting your own strawmen. It's a funny spectacle.

Mayhap people aren't engaging you because you don't debate in good faith. You immediately call anything that you don't remotely understand a strawman and then dismiss it while attempting to sound pseudo-intellectual about it. All you're doing is further dismissing any notion that interacting with you will result in meaningful discourse.

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to understand why people are pissed, give them five seconds and you're going to be inundated with some diatribe about how everything is woke and being shoved in their faces. If that fails to hit home, then they pivot to things like LBGTQ+ or DEI. If that fails to hit it comes down to something as simple as "women as a strong protagonist is bad".

From the get-go, the gaming space has been dominated by the main characters being male it seems that simply because we're seeing a 'golden age' of female leads that for some reason it's immediately an "agenda" by the "woke mob" to shove their "ideology down our throats". It could never be that as a community matures that things would be far more diverse; no, it could never be something as simple as that.

As with many titles in the last few years, I was entertained with the game despite it being the punching bag of the gaming community. Was the writing good? Not really, but it's not really any worse off than most of the Star Wars stories. Was Kay a bad character? Not really, she's pretty much what you'd expect of a person put in that position with the 'tools' available to her. Was the gameplay bad? In my opinion, not at all. It's a pretty tight adventure game. There were some minor quibbles with the speeder controls, but overall I don't think it detracted from anything.

If I had to complain about anything, the Syndicates required some tedium in grinding them if you wanted to be at maximum excellent ratings with them. I liked how they used Nyx as the stealth tool, but I did find the stealing animation rather funny. Something about a creature the size of a small dog jumping on your back and then scampering off that makes it feel like it's not exactly all that stealthy. Couple that with how quickly the NPCs just forget about Nyx's entire existence, it is a bit jarring to the immersion.

Overall, I'd give it somewhere near a 7 or 8...

I cannot wait until the collective zeitgeist of people crying about "woke', "DEI", or whatever flavor du jour of idiocy finds their next outrage teet to suckle while the general population laughs at them...

Cutter wrote on Sep 2, 2024, 20:16:
Soon as I saw the title I knew, JRPG.

I mean...it's a Koei Tecmo game using the same name as the series of games that GUST has been doing for damn near 30 years now...

The syndicate factions are pretty much the only grindy aspects, doing their faction quests are pretty samey throughout the game.

fujiJuice wrote on Aug 28, 2024, 18:09:
Umm I think you mean Stargate SG-1 star...

Jaffa, Kree!

Or even earlier, he was in MacGyver...

Burrito of Peace wrote on Aug 29, 2024, 09:40:

Zirthimon wrote on Aug 29, 2024, 09:26:
<...drivel...because I know it is likely to be removed>

Dude. What...the...FUCK?!

Perusing their posting history should answer that question rather succinctly.

You know, I wouldn't have minded Gamestop doing this to open up their backstock of used games, but considering it looks like they are trying to use collector's resale prices for things that I know won't be in the condition that warrants the price, this just reeks of desperation to recoup some money on people who don't know better.

Hell, I saw Mega Man 5 is listed for $100US, if this were a guaranteed quality condition with the box and manual, sure...but we're talking about Gamestop here, where they rarely if ever get a complete kit of something.

VaranDragon wrote on Aug 29, 2024, 02:30:

Cutter wrote on Aug 28, 2024, 23:15:
Never shit where you eat.

I always hated this expression. It's typically American (and no the irony is not lost on me) disgusting, and even when used to refer to something that is inherently not wrong, it makes it look like you're doing something dirty or disgusting.

As for this piece of news, the only surprising thing here is that Bungie is remaking Marathon. I had no idea....

Well, we Americans are notorious for 'colorful' idioms to make even the most mundane thing 'special'.

As for Marathon, I doubt it's going to be the cup of tea for most people here, last I heard it's going to be a multiplayer extraction shooter.

Kxmode wrote on Aug 28, 2024, 22:59:
I'm really glad to hear that you have consistent treatment! 👍 I’m curious, though—do novel viruses like COVID-19, or any serious disease for that matter, pose any challenges to your treatment or the medication you take monthly?

I was just diagnosed a few months ago, so I am not entirely sure. I would assume that since the medication prescribed to me only targets the cancer cells, I don't think C-19 would interact with it, but I don't know for sure.

wrlwnd wrote on Aug 28, 2024, 22:50:

DarkCntry wrote on Aug 28, 2024, 21:11:
I'm lucky to get a shot in my ass monthly for the rest of my foreseeable future to help combat it, and hopefully that treatment will take and I'll be around to see a lot more games piss off gamers

Lanreotide?

Correct.

jdreyer wrote on Aug 28, 2024, 17:55:

DarkCntry wrote on Aug 28, 2024, 15:52:

Kxmode wrote on Aug 28, 2024, 13:42:
I'm not being jaded, but did they verify that life-long Civ fan actually has stage four pancreatic cancer?

The article reads like, Fan: "I have cancer. Can play early?" Community manager: "Sure!" Nothing verified.

It does make me wonder how many people understand that stage 4 isn't exactly a death sentence, it really depends on a lot of contributing factors.

I have stage 4 cancer of the pancreas, but due to the type of it, my prognosis is literally 50 months to more than 30 years so I probably won't be getting to play anything early.

Stage 4 is the new stage 2? I hope you max it out.

I'm lucky to get a shot in my ass monthly for the rest of my foreseeable future to help combat it, and hopefully that treatment will take and I'll be around to see a lot more games piss off gamers

Kxmode wrote on Aug 28, 2024, 13:42:
I'm not being jaded, but did they verify that life-long Civ fan actually has stage four pancreatic cancer?

The article reads like, Fan: "I have cancer. Can play early?" Community manager: "Sure!" Nothing verified.

It does make me wonder how many people understand that stage 4 isn't exactly a death sentence, it really depends on a lot of contributing factors.

I have stage 4 cancer of the pancreas, but due to the type of it, my prognosis is literally 50 months to more than 30 years so I probably won't be getting to play anything early.

yonder wrote on Aug 27, 2024, 19:27:

RogueSix wrote on Aug 27, 2024, 15:16:

Darks wrote on Aug 27, 2024, 14:38:
did you play the game?

Do I look like I play dwarven clown games? Nope. I sure don't!

My strong dislike for apes (and why I'm hard-passing on BMW) is only rivaled by my aversion to dwarves. As a teenager, like (almost) everyone, I thought they were kinda funny and cute but nowadays they just annoy the shit out of me with their tropes and stereotypical dwarven behavior (ale and gold hohohoho). I can't stand the silly "humor" (or what is probably supposed to be humorous) and the typical dwarven voice-overs with the forced hohoho style. Just. Fuck. Off. Fuck dwarves.

The only dwarf I can deal with is Varric from DA2 and DAI but that is mostly because he actually doesn't behave or talk like a dwarf all the time. There are a few occasions where the tropes and stereotypes show through with Varric but mostly he is just a pretty charismatic character with merely a dwarven background instead of being your typical in your face ale-gushing gold-mongering hohoho dumbass look-at-me-i'm-funny shit-dwarf.

/rant ... aaaaaahhh that felt liberating

P.S.: I don't do multiplayer/coop. You can probably turn most mediocre/shit games into something really fun simply via the social fun and interactions that come with an established coop group. As a solo player, you are more exposed to the actual game experience, the writing (97%+ of the time absolutely beyond abysmal in modern games) and at the whim of what the devs have cooked up instead of making/finding your own fun with your friends.

Tell us how you really feel

Please don't...

Games like this are exactly why I got Ubisoft+ when it first came out...being grandfathered in on their original price for the service and the high probability I'd be playing their games even if it was to just check them out (see: Avatar for example), I've saved far more than I've spent.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Aug 23, 2024, 15:13:
This is by design. It's part of the corporate move of "You'll own nothing and like it".

While I don't disagree with the sentiment here, I'll wager it's probably closer to the loss of the publisher and/or developer of many titles over the years with little recourse to obtaining the data to preserve.

I know of several games that which have been lost to the ether because a combination of companies behind them have disappeared. I'm also going to bet that a few of the titles have been lost because we've also lost the people behind them to time.

Per the article though, it seems that it boils down to aspects like loss of things like third-party software like licenses, codecs, and whatnot.

RedEye9 wrote on Aug 23, 2024, 09:51:
A Los Angeles man, who launched an independent campaign for president after discovering a dead worm in his brain, and confessed to Roseanne Barr that he left a dead bear cub in Central Park in 2014 because he thought it would be “amusing,”
has dropped out of the race.

Now RedEye...he's only 'suspended' his bid...you know, after Trump considered offering him a cabinet position, which Trump'll never give him.