RedEye9 wrote on Dec 19, 2020, 11:43:

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Dec 19, 2020, 11:37:

RedEye9 wrote on Dec 18, 2020, 19:51:
There was zero downside and nothing to lose by delaying the release until the game was ready.
And now they're paying the price.

Ehhh.... does that mean delay the game until December 2021?

Yes
That's exactly what i meant.

I am sure you and I, and quite a few people could handle that delay, but I am not sure CDPR could handle being that late to the game after the new consoles launched, especially if the board made stupid promises to Sony and MS. We'll probably never know the full scope of those contracts, but I'm sure they didn't say: "Release the game any year you want, pfft, your choice"

And so the corpo wars begin.

I'll be right back, I'm putting spikes on a pair of football shoulderpads and spraypainting my guns neon colors.

*EDIT* I know, this is most likely against a Russian state controlled group, but I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 near constantly for days.

RedEye9 wrote on Dec 18, 2020, 19:51:
There was zero downside and nothing to lose by delaying the release until the game was ready.
And now they're paying the price.

Ehhh.... does that mean delay the game until December 2021? I mean, after a certain amount of time, all that advertising money is wasted, all their lined up deals with the consoles are wasted, etc. etc.

I'm sure there was a huge push, financially and otherwise, to get the game out the door.

That said, I'm at the last quest, doing side quests, and yes, there are quite a few bugs. It'll probably take 6 months of patches to get rid of all these minor bugs on PC, and who knows how long to fix the console versions. More importantly, some systems, most notably the item crafting/upgrade system and the police spawning system, could use major reworks, from a fun/usability standpoint. As it is now, items are 'fine' but they could be ten time better, and unless you have 18-20 point into Crafting/Engineering/Tech, you are not going to be able to keep your favorite Iconics and Legendaries from early game usable into late game. You can still BEAT the game with lower level items, but they will be decidedly lower level compared to stuff you find later. Insane power levels in any tree is kind of a bonus in my opinion, but I will say that combat got markedly easier once you get deep into almost any of the skill trees.

Reading various forums, plenty of people have completed the game, with a variety of skill setups. Overall, the game is very playable, and it is fun, in my opinion. It'll get patched, people need to calm the fuck down. It'll also get modded, probably more than any game ever, so there will be a ton awesome changes to the weaker systems, even if CDPR does nothing. Too bad about the console players, but they are getting their refunds if they can't wait.

Wow, this would turn my 10 year old phone into slag.

I loved Death Stranding, but the way the game ends the story completely drains any desire I might have had to go back and play more. Especially with the end-game character.

Cool for people who are just getting into DS though!

I would love a completely single player mode, or even the distributed online mode they have now, but with an option where your structures DON'T degrade... after the main storyline of course. Just so I could finish 100% rebuilding the entire US if the desire arose.

Well, the game is fucking massive, so it does not surprise me that they could not get rid of all the bugs. Graphical and sound bugs get played up a little much, and yes I agree with you, the AI could be a lot better. I'm not sure how they will avoid screen-pop style vanishing background npcs though, that's more a hardware/RAM issue than anything else. All of these open world games do it some extent and just try to hide it.

The teleporting cops thing basically just made me avoid killing civilians at all costs; it's the most jarring of the shortcuts for sure. The police don't seem to drop anything useful either, zero reason to fight them.

I'm going to finish this buggy version of the game, then play it again in a year or two, when it's been patched and DLCed and modded into some final, epic form. I do feel a pretty strong sense of urgency to resolve the main storyline, so credit to their writers for that. Also, ... actually nevermind, it'd be a spoiler.

I cannot fucking wait for a mod that lets you KEEP your stolen cars... god. Some of the gangs have the most beautfiul custom painted versions of the stock cars you can buy, but they can get blown up or vanish if you go too far away... so aggravating! I expect a Garage/Stolen Car Permanence will be one of the first mods or DLCs made though.

Cram wrote on Dec 16, 2020, 11:47:

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Dec 16, 2020, 11:07:
*EDIT* reading their update, people will be furious upon release that Legendary affixes are random, rofl. That'll get rolled back to fixed legendary affixes pretty quickly, I'd think.

I believe that's what Uniques are for. I skimmed the update, maybe I missed something.

I agree with your thoughts that Blizzard will push something out the door that's probably pretty fun and engaging. I also believe the game will not hit its potential until 2-3 years after release, as it was for Diablo 2 and Diablo 3. Both previous entries needed their expansion and a lot of patchwork afterwards to get the game to a good, even great place. V1.10 didn't land till nearly 2.5 years after Lord of Destruction launched, for example.

You're right; about the Uniques, and yes I agree with the slow patching process to 'real release' status a few years later. As far as the Legendaries, we've had other ARPGs, and I want to say even Diablo 3 initially, where you end up having 10 Legendary shields of the same name in your inventory, some garbage, some amazing, due to which random legendary affix and at what amount they get. I know, Blizzard wants some of that farming grind, but if the Legendaries are extremely rare in the first place, and then you have additional RNG to get the right roll on top of that... it will frustrate many players. Of course this problem is for like 2023, so not a huge deal right now.

Hrm, a little crazy how China can drum up thousands or millions of real or faked people to complain about a game to GOG.. oh wait, no it isn't, this planet is fucked from top to bottom.

This does make me quite curious about the actual game though. Hopefully it comes out somehwere eventually.

I'd love to bash the Diablo 3 and now the Diablo 4 team, but as recent ARPG releases have constantly reinforced, making a good, 'balanced,' and fun ARPG is extremely difficult, and will not happen on release 1.0. It just doesn't seem to work that way.

Whatever the Diablo 4 team gets out the door for their initial release, I'm sure it'll be pretty, engaging and fun, and maybe even balanced, level/character/item wise. I do expect them to have the funding and staffing to stick with it and make (eventually) some game worth dumping a few hundred hours (or maybe a lot more) into. GOOD LUCK to Diablo 4 being the one team in history to get Stat Point allocation right on the first try, rofl! Good luck to them to, for skill trees, and itemization, etc.

Grim Dawn's stat point setup is pretty good now....dozens of patches and a few DLCs and multiple years later. PoE's Skill trees are really interesting now... like a decade later, and so many iterizations later that I think everybody lost track of what they used to be. It took Diablo 3 several years and probably millions of dollars to get somewhere fun with their items, and they are still out of whack towards sets. The Warhammer ARPGs... the other indie ARPGs... wow. From outside you would not think it is this hard, but all evidence points to it being borderline impossible.

Anyway, I'm about 50 hours into Cyberpunk 2077 and I'm going to stay on this marathon through the holidays. In a couple years whenever D4 comes out, I will most definitely get it and try it out, but I will definitely try to keep my expectations realistic.

*EDIT* reading their update, people will be furious upon release that Legendary affixes are random, rofl. That'll get rolled back to fixed legendary affixes pretty quickly, I'd think.

Mr. Tact wrote on Dec 15, 2020, 22:01:
I've picked up Ben Bova books in the bookstore many times, and each time after reading the back cover or whatever else was available I was never particularly intrigued. I see from his wiki page that he was awarded the Robert A. Heinlein Award in 2008 for his work in science fiction. So.. I assume some of his books are worth reading.. if someone has a suggestion I'd be happy to consider it...

I read several of Ben Bova's novels, and it feels like a lot of his short stories as a kid. Just looking at my bookshelves quickly, what seems to have survived several moves: Mars, Jupiter, The Precipice, Orion, in no particular order. I also did not realize Bova was so prolific, he wrote up into the 2010s... I'll have to pick up some of his later stuff. It's probably been about 15 years since I've read anything of his, so my memory isn't being particularly helpful in recommending a Must Read Ben Bova novel, unfortunately. Try something at random? If there was no COVID19 I'd say just go to a used bookstore and pick up a few, see what you like. Like any author, whose work spans 40-50 years, you're definitely going to get a different feel from different time periods of his novels. Look how much William Gibson has changed over time.

I realize this comment was not very helpful in any specific way.

Hrm, seems like the consoles are having a rough go of it.

It's been running pretty well on my 6+ year old desktop though, although I have had that detached prop issue a couple of times, moving away from an NPC's hand as they talk and move.

No fatal bugs, no crashes, about 30 hours played for me, according to GOG Galaxy. Hopefully they patch up the game for everybody pretty quickly, although I think the PC is definitely the preferred platform for this game.

"Fuck."

Ugh, watched like 2 minutes of that, 80% of his intersection crossings and turns were illegal, cut off like 3-4 cars/trucks, and never signaled a turn ever. He almost got hit once, definitely made several cars/trucks break to avoid hitting him. Pieces of shit like that are why a lot of people hate bicyclists in this country. Being on a bicycle doesn't mean no laws apply to you... fucking idiot!

Sepharo wrote on Dec 13, 2020, 15:25:
My Index arrived this morning.
... and my new monitor and 3070 yesterday.
Going to be tore between Cyberpunk and Half Life Alyx

Oh shit, I forgot all about Alyx... is there a 2D version finally, or still VR only?

Either way, Cyberpunk 2077 is amazing... I had avoided as many of the videos/spoilers as I could and I'm about 17 or so hours into the game... apparently I just got out of the Prologue/First Chapter.

I did get side tracked quite a bit though, with randomly exploring and doing the crime encounters I came across.

Okay, I finally got home and went to fire up Cyberpunk 2077, and it needs apparently an additional 70GB free to unpack and patch. Very annoying on my old desktop.

The CP2077 install is only like 70GB, but GoG's patcher basically requires double that to work on the game... it feels like this should have been broken up into smaller chunks, I don't think Steam has this sort of patching issue.

Yes, I know I should upgrade my SSD.

Pornhub has been in trouble now for months or even years(?), for hosting videos of underage people, refusing to take down videos taken against peoples' will, etc.

Mastercard and Visa can refuse to serve PH at any time, just like any other business. The evidence though is pretty damning. I swear there were some articles linked on Bluesnews even, in the past few months, of PH's issues? Maybe it was another site.

jdreyer wrote on Dec 11, 2020, 18:54:

Mr. Tact wrote on Dec 11, 2020, 17:59:

Cutter wrote on Dec 11, 2020, 13:01:
Ugh, Disney is going to ruin Star Wars even more than Lucas did.

Simply not possible.

As bad as Lucas' prequels are, they're at least unique. Unlike the derivative crap that Disney produced. Ugh. Sorry, but I think the prequels are superior to the newer movies. Rogue One excepted.

I think everybody is in agreement with you, in hindsight. The prequels were bad at the time, but 7,8,9 are atrocious. Solo was passable, Rogue One, I initially disliked, but I've grown increasingly fond of it over time. My only gripe with Rogue One is that the story basically didn't need to be told, from an objective overview of the whole Star Wars series, but the actual telling of it was great.

Well, Vermintide 1 and 2 are pretty cool, honestly. I could never get my co-op people to really get into those games though, maybe WH40k's version will go over better.

I'm definitely interested, but I guess it'll be late 2021 or even 2022?

I have yet to experience any game breaking bugs, but I've been meandering away from the main quest, to explore the city, do side quests, and just ambush those groups of 'Gang Members Actively Committing a Murder or Assault' that show up as blue club icons. I did have my car bug out a bit, and float about 2 feet off the ground when I parked it on the sidewalk, but aside from that, it's been relatively bug free, just a bit much for my 1070 once the combat really starts flowing.

That's a very good article. Unfortunately there are still groups of rabid 'fans' or more accurately, fanatics, online, and their insanity and tendency towards violence has only increased in their various echo chambers the past few years. It's also obviously not just a problem for video games, but for all of social media, and society as a whole.

What's the fix? I don't know, honestly. People are more illogical and irrational now, or at least it's a LOT more easier for them to get their rants online, than at any point in my life, it seems. Then again, it's been the same old story throughout human history, mob mentality vs logic, feelings vs facts, etc. Lack of critical thinking, as well as a lack of empathy for strangers are major problems for the human race that won't be solved anytime soon.