#see if it comes out of lootboxes at that level | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lizzy-frizzle · 4 years

Text

I’m going to start this by saying, I have bias. Everyone does. I do not intend for this to come off as “the thing you like is bad”, but moreso “the corporation that controls the thing you like is manipulative”.

My background; I am a 26 year old trans mom, I have a history with addiction, particularly gambling, and spend most of my time playing video games. I have gone to college for about 3 years for my psychology degree, and while I do not have my degree, I have been studying psychology for roughly 12 years. This is to say, my views will reflect this background. Just because I present this information like I do, does not inherently mean I’m right, though it also doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Try to view things with a critical mind, and know that most topics have nuance.

Ok, so lootboxes, booster packs, gacha games, all of these are gambling. This is not really an argument. You are putting money into a service of sorts, and receiving a randomized result. Be that a fancy new gun, that same boring legendary you have 5 of, or that final hero you’ve been trying to collect. You don’t know the outcome before you give your money. As defined by the merriam-webster dictionary: “Gambling; the practice of risking money or other stakes in a game or bet”

You are risking your money in not getting an item you want. There are ways this is handled acceptably, and ways this is handled poorly. Gambling is also illegal to people under 21 in a lot of places, but places online aren’t quick to tell you why. I don’t have any sources because every source requires a paywall to get any information, but pulling from my own personal experience and what I learned in college, it’s because children are very impressionable. I say “I like pokemon” and suddenly my 2-year old can’t go anywhere without her pikachu. I remember distinctly playing poker with my mom and her friends when I was 12. When you normalize gambling, what it does is lower the risk aversion of gambling. You are less likely to see a threat in playing that card game, because when you are that young you have no concept of money. You don’t know what a dollar is, so why not throw it away so you can have fun. This is...I hesitate to call it fine, but it’s mostly harmless. The issue is with children and their lack of knowledge of money. When I grew up and got a job, it’s a lot harder to tell my brain, “hey, don’t spend that money, you won’t get it back and you won’t get what you want.” Because my brain just acknowledges the potential for what I want. I want to buy the booster pack so I can have the potential to get that masterpiece misty rainforest. I want to buy that diamond pack so I have the chance to get the cute hero. I want to buy that lootbox so I can get the battle rifle that does a cool effect. These are harmless concepts, but very dangerous.

Make no mistake, companies know how psychology works, and will use it to their advantage. MatPat from game theory states that companies have even go so far as to have systems in place that change the odds as you’re losing, and monitor your skill level to put you up against harder opponents, to see the better weapons and go, “Oh I want that!” and entice you to buy more lootboxes. As it turns out I found an article covering what he was talking about, Activision had actually acquired a patent to arrange matchmaking to do just that [x], and the article says it’s not in place, but my trust in companies is not high enough to actually believe them.(honestly, matpat made a 2-part video series about lootboxes, and I’d recommend watching them)

So, companies are trying to manipulate you to buy more gambling products. There’s proof of it. It’s also more blatantly obvious in games like Magic the Gathering, where they release fancier versions of cards at rarer probabilities. To better explain it, from a collector’s standpoint, you want the fancy card cause it has value, it has value because it’s rare, rarer than the other versions, so if you’re on the lower end of the income ladder you buy a pack, or two. After all, you could get lucky and get it. On the higher end of the income ladder, you buy the card outright and hoard it. Maybe sell it off later if you notice the price goes down. From a player perspective, you see a card is being used by tournament players, you want to win more games, so you want those cards, which encourages you to buy products and try to get those cards. That’s predatory behavior. It’s predatory from the company’s perspective because that poor person might not be able to afford the card outright, but $5-$10 isn’t much, plus they always entice you with that Chance. They also further this desire for the cards by making it limited runs, such as the secret lair packs, if there’s a low amount purchased and it’s made to order, or worse, if they limit the order capabilities themselves, that drives up the value, and provides further incentive to buy the cards and packs. This not only creates an impossible barrier between the poor and the rich, but also heavily encourages people buy their gambling pack than people would have in other conditions.

For the record, I love magic the gathering, I’m not saying the game itself is bad, this is just a VERY predatory marketing tactic.

Let’s switch gears. Gacha games. I play AFKArena, because like I said, I have a gambling addiction and cannot stop myself. In AFKArena, you collect heroes, and battle with them in various ways. If you collect more of similar heroes you can rank them up. If I’m to believe what I’ve heard, it sounds like this is pretty common for gacha games. So what makes it bad. In AFKArena you use diamonds to summon heroes, now, you can acquire diamonds by beating specific story chapters, logging in every day, random limited time events, or paying for them with real money. AFKArena hero drops don’t seem that bad compared to the free diamond amount they dish out, which has resulted in me not spending all that much money on it, all things considered ($20 over 2 years). I believe that for a mobile game like this, that’s fair. I get way more enjoyment out of the game than I do most $60 games, so it balances out. However, this isn’t the case for every gacha game, and my trust in companies, as previously stated, is very low. The issue lies in them making the rates for good heroes so low that you HAVE to spend money on the game to really get over a roadblock of sorts. I do think that there is this issue in my game and I just didn’t notice it, someone with a lower tolerance or patience might absolutely have the incentive to drop hundreds of dollars on the game over a month. There are people of all different flavours, and it’s important to keep that in mind when discussing these topics, just because a marketing technique doesn’t work on you, does not mean it doesn’t work on anyone. After all, they have those $100 packs for a reason, you might not be that reason but someone is. That’s predatory.

I feel like I’ve gotten off track, let’s get back on the rails. Where was...gambling...predatory…ah, kids. So my biggest issue, is that Magic the Gathering is marketed towards 13 year olds. Not directly, but the packs say 13+. AFKArena and any mobile game for that matter, can be downloaded by anyone with a phone for free, with minimal mention that there’s microtransactions. AAA title games like Destiny 2, Overwatch, Fortnite, etc. are probably the worst offenders. A kid spent $16,000 of his parents money on fortnite in-game purchases, and that’s not the only time this has happened [x] [x] . More often than not, what happens is, the kid wants to play a video game, like halo on xbox, or destiny, or something, they ask their mom for their credit card, and the system saves it. I mentioned before that kids do not have a concept of money or its value, so giving kids unlimited access to the credit card is going to result in this kind of thing happening. I’m not blaming the parents for not being hypervigilant, sometimes you are really busy, or disabled, or whatever the reason, and you don’t notice the system just saved your card. I’m not blaming the kids cause their brains are literally underdeveloped. I blame the corporations, because they make the process as easy as possible to prey on kids and people with gambling addictions. (as a personal anecdote, I found that if I want a magic card in MtG:O, I’m way less likely to try and buy it if I have to get up and get my card, I’d recommend not saving your card if you suffer from gambling/addiction problems)

So after all of this evidence, how can anyone still view these things as anything but predatory? The answer is simple. You’re told they aren’t. Businesses spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on really good marketing, and public relations. I tried to google why gambling is illegal for people under 21, and got nothing, I got a couple forums asking the question, and a couple religious sites saying it’ll make them degenerates. I try looking up sources to prove the psychology behind these concepts, but they are locked behind paywall after paywall after paywall. Businesses and capitalism has made it so incredibly hard to discover the truth and get information you need, and it’s on purpose. They want you to trust that that booster pack is a good idea. They want you to spend money on lootboxes (look at all the youtubers that shill out for raid shadow legends, or other gambling games to their super young fanbase [x]). They want you to lower your guard and go, “well, it’s a video game, how can it be predatory?” “it’s a card game with cute creatures on it, surely it’s not that bad”

But it is. So why did I make this post? I dunno, my brain really latched onto the topic, I see so many people enjoying gacha games, but I’m worried that it’s going to ruin lives...I just want everyone to be informed and critical of what is going on.

#gambling addiction tw #addiction tw #this is probably a bad idea to post knowing how this site operates #but it matters to me

230 notes · View notes

shnowbilicat · 3 years

Text

Why Overwatch 2 will be just fine

Before we begin I wanna say that all of this are my own perspectives and thoughts, so take it with a grain of salt ... but tbh yall should sit down and chill until the game drops, kay? Kay.

Soo, there was another OW2 livestream not so long ago and people started freaking out and boycotting the devs. Why? 5v5 and there will be only one tank now.

I'm hearing left and right how much of a problem this will be and I can't stop getting annoyed about the fact that people really are SO upset that there will be no 'off tank' in their games and how the devs 'refuse to balance their game' instead and how there will be smurfing and- you get the point.

Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm not into the 'meta' cuz my competitive rank is a 'metal' one, OR MAYBE I'm just this guy who says 'it just game, why u have to be mad??'.

I personally really look forward to OW2, mostly for the PvE part of the game as it sounds so massive and seeing how much they've done with the very first mission they've shown us and the fact that we can level up our heroes and equip unique abilities just makes me giggle and excited about the final release and future events and updates!

So many cutscenes, so many new animations and skins, so many new maps to play X33

And 5v5?? I'm looking forward to that too!

No, for real, one tank does not make or break anything for me, mostly for one single tiny reason alone.

A Tank is still a Tank.

I dunno if you ever played other games where there are Tank, DPS and Healing roles, like LoL, Dota, heck even Pokémon and Fire Emblem.

Tank roles have one single purpose; be the literal meat shield for their team.

I dunno about you, but I've never played a Tank in my life that wasn't completely about taking the attention from my squishies and jump in to protect them. And according to my ranking I'm a Tank main, sure my highest Rank is Platinium, but just because I don't grind my way up like any other madmen.

Tanks are SUPPOSED to be in the front lines taking the damage, making a way through the crowd, mess up the other team's formation. I also believe I'm not the end all be all for my squishies, I trust in them that they can protect themselves when I go in for a kill, which they can with their several abilities like a sleeping dart, climbing walls or building up a wall to hide behind.

Here we have Pro Tank players freaking out and complaining that 'they lack a tank' that there won't be any strategy involved cuz they are missing another meat shield that has their back etc. etc.

Again, I'm just a noob playing my Quickplay and Arcade games for lootboxes ... but god am I sick and tired of hearing these excuses from one trick pro players who have been stuck in their metas and comps.

SURE they are up there for a reason, but the fact of the matter is that I don't care if you do not want a 'dive comp' if I wanna play D.Va to get myself a 6 stack Ult kill, kay??

I don't care if we have a Zarya and Roady, they gonna wreck our enemy team and I'm gonna pump up their asses with as much healing as they want, kay???

The standarts OW pro players have been setting time and time again has muddied the waters of normal play. Because of them Symmetra and Bastion have been thrown into the corner of the back room and will never be seen in normal play because 'they ain't meta'.

Bro, I've been a Bastion main since Comp Season 3 and I've been wrecking my games left and right whenever I play him. I do not need your meta to succed, I don't need a Mercy pocket or a Rein shield because people like the pros set the standart that Bastion is ONLY useful when these criteria are met.

Not only that, BECAUSE of their standarts I forced myself into being able to switch to any roles with heroes that do just as much good as my Bastion. And that was actually a very good thing! Now I'm a solid Gold-Plat rank player that can play pretty much every hero in Mystery Heroes.

... and then I see our current pros. Who are scared shitless that their off tank players gonna play ... DPS?? Or Healing?? Like, weren't you guys moaning about one tricks? About people not being able to switch?

You ... you do know how OW started, right? OW was a game the devs SPECIFICALLY made to be open gameplay, they WANTED people to switch to heroes and experiment with new combos.

But lately we had buffs, nerfs, change in ques and all you can do is complain about it.

YOU put the standart 2-2-2 because people started to go tank-healers only, or Genji-healing only, or some shit because that was OP.

YOU were the ones forcing in a role que system because other people could not or refused to switch their roles.

YOU forced the devs to rework ALL HEROES to your standarts. Granted, here you got the devs to make Symmetra interesting to play, Bastion and Torb more viable and Brig to be more fair ... for you, because I cannot play Brig to safe my life, she's such a squishy and I die the second the round starts.

If you cannot handle what pro players dished out years ago, then please do me the favor and stay with your Rein-Zayra combo for the rest of eternity thxx

And we haven't talked about the OW2 hero reworks and new maps with more things to hide behind yet! Making each Tank more viable and more enjoyable to play. And guess what? THEY AIN'T DONE YET! I've seen alot of players moarn that the game will be SO unfair ... but we haven't seen anything yet. Espacially since they haven't told us any DPS or Healing ability changes either.

'But BUT 3 years of development!!!' so?? 3 years could mean anything. Not to mention that the EXACT SAME DEVS are working on OW2 are ALSO STILL working on OW 1 at the same time. And it's a pandemic. Sure they are a huge team, but they have a huge goal; aka THE STORY MODE WITH HUNDRETS OF HOURS OF PLAYTIME AND ANIMATED CUTSCENES.

They still have a long ass way to go, so chill out and give em some time. There are over 30 heroes they have to rework, remodel, give a part in the Story. Multiple new Maps to work, maybe even rework, test and make sure everything is as polished as possible for the general player base; which ain't the pros btw.

So, with pretty much mostly everything said, what's my final stand?

I would say to everybody worrying that the game won't be good; trust me, it'll be just fine.

If you don't enjoy the 5v5, there will still be Arcade and Story to keep ya company, like, I've been playing Quickplay and Arcade 99% of the time, you gonna be fine fam.

And if you're a pro player who JUST CANNOT handle 5v5 without their off tank puppy jumping after them then here's a tip:

Don't play Overwatch 2.

Nobody will force you to it, Overwatch will still exist with it's 6v6 2 tanks, 2 DPS, 2 healing boringness and it's frozen metas and comps and the same ass people in the Top 100 you play against each and every day with tiny buffs and nerfs every other day.

Meanwhile me and my squad will enjoy more shenanigans in OW2.

I'll gladly play momma Orisa and keep my friends save and sound, while also hooking every evil doer who dares come close to em ewe

Overwatch 2 is for us, the players who play the game like the devs intended; play the heroes you want, no matter if you lose or fail and have to pick yourself up again to grow and become stronger.

Overwatch 2 will be just fine.

#overwatch #overwatch 2 #shnoverwatch

17 notes · View notes

scope-dogg · 3 years

Text

Long post about Mass Effect below

I noticed that there’s a big mass effect trilogy remaster coming out and it just made me think back on how badly the ball was dropped with that series. When the first game came out it immediately became perhaps my favourite game of all time, it was the kind of game where I was tearing up at the ending and then immediately started up a new playthrough the instant the credits got done rolling. The game was extremely jank and rough around the edges and it ran like total shit on the 360, but I loved it anyway because I fell in love with the lore of the universe, the characters and the story. It was one of those games where I’d play it in the most obsessively completionist manner possible, doing every singe sidequest possible, talking to every character on the ship after every mission, browsing the ingame codex for hours on end and dosing up on lore. When it was confirmed that Mass Effect 2 was in development I had such high hopes, of course I wanted to see the gameplay tightened up and the technical side of things improved, but more than that I just wanted to see more of the universe, get more of the universe to explore and learn more about it, and I was especially excited at the possibility that the choices I’d made, especially the massive ones in regards to the council at the end of ME1, would carry forward and really shake up the way the fate of the universe would pan out in the long term.

When the game finally came out, I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t really what I was hoping for. While the combat was much improved over ME1, I couldn’t help but feel like everything else was pared back too much - like, levelling and loot in ME1 weren’t all that well done but I was still really disappointed to see how they were all but stripped out in the sequel. I especially hated how crap sidequests on uncharted worlds were, they were basically just short combat sections with almost nothing in the way of meaningful dialogue or choices to make. Like, don’t get me wrong, uncharted worlds in ME1 felt like the maps were procedurally generated and the Mako had wacky controls, but they still managed to pull off the right atmosphere of going to these dangerous and remote places on alien worlds, and there was some legitimately intriguing stuff going on in some of those sidequests, and it was honestly a little infuriating to see all that basically get the axe entirely instead of getting some polish. I also just felt like the additions to the lore and story were disappointing. I was excited to find out about how society in the Terminus systems was different from Citadel space and meet some new alien races, but that didn’t really happen - I guess they tried with Omega, but that just felt like a mildly edgier version of the Citadel. The only new alien race aside from the Collectors they introduced were the Vorcha and I guess the Batarians if you didn’t play the DLC for ME1, but neither ended up being all that interesting. People remember ME2′s story fondly because of the characters, and I agree that the characters are great, Legion and Mordin especially stand out though all of your squadmates and major supporting characters on the ship are great (except maybe Jacob I guess) as are each of their accompanying stories that get resolved through their loyalty missions, but I think that the actual core plot of ME2 isn’t good at all. The whole thing about you dying and coming back to life seems like it was done just to have the excuse of having a timeskip happen, and I never felt particularly compelled by the Illusive Man or Cerberus as a faction - they were in a sidequest chain in ME1 technically but I still felt like they kind of came out of nowhere and never really fit into the grand scheme of things properly - there’s nothing that they really enable Shepard to do differently that wouldn’t have already been justified by you being a Spectre. The revelations about the Collectors and ultimately what they were doing with the colonists they were kidnapping felt really stupid and pointless apart from giving you an excuse to have a really cheesy and out-of-place final boss. The final mission was only exciting because of the tension of potentially losing one or more of your squadmates than because of what the actual consquences of failure for the galaxy were if you failed. There was no compelling antagonist to square off against like Saren in ME1, and ultimately the whole thing felt kind of pointless - it wasn’t until later after the trilogy was done that I realised that you could take ME2 out of the equation entirely and it wouldn’t make that much difference, but even in those moments as the credits were rolling after I beat the game for the first time, I was struggling to make up my mind about whether I’d actually enjoyed the game or not. I mean, it wasn’t like the game was bad or anything but I was thinking more about the opportunities that they missed rather than the good things they added. I was really missing that sense of discovery and exploring an alien galaxy that the first game had and got left by the wayside for the second. I did start up a new playthrough after that like I did with ME1 but IIRC I didn’t bother finishing that playthrough.

Then along came ME3. Everything about that game is depressing. The whole path of the plot and just the unrelenting apocalyptic tone of the game in general feels like it’s actively punishing you if you actually like the setting, characters, lore and so on and so forth. I know a lot of people like the Citadel DLC that they released because it lightened the tone a bit, but even with that I find it hard to set aside the fact that the universe is literally ending while you’re trying to take a break from it all with how hard the rest of the game beats you over the head with it. How bad the endings were even with the “fix” DLC that got added is a horse that’s been thoroughly beaten to death by now, but it’s not just the endings either. I already didn’t like the Illusive Man or Cerberus and had a hard time buying them as an organisation with the kind of reach and pull they had as portrayed in ME2, but seeing them turn into the Hellghast in ME3 not only betrays that portrayal of them as an org that works through subterfuge but also stretches my disbelief beyond breaking point, plus it brings you into contact with Kai Leng who has to be up there as one of the most obnoxious rival characters in any videogame ever. Otherwise, it did a few things that ME2 did slightly better and some things slightly worse, and didn’t really do anything to recapture the stuff that made ME1 so memorable to me that ME2 skipped out on. And then there was the way that Javik, the game’s most interesting new squadmate by far, was preorder DLC, and then there was the multiplayer that you were kinda forced into playing if you wanted the best ending in the singleplayer (for all the difference that made) and was riddled with lootbox microtransactions (the first major implementation of that in a AAA game IIRC.) The coup de grace for me was when dipshit vidya journalists circled the wagons around Bioware and were taking a dump on angry and disappointed fans who were demanding a change to the ending. Like, looking back I think there was a lot of histrionics involved with that from the fanbase, and let’s just say that the Bioware fanbase has earned a reputation for being particularly turbulent, but even so I really couldn’t stand the attitude that they were taking and it made me hate the game itself by proxy that much more. (I honestly think that entire saga set the stage for Gamergate two years later.)

Eventually when ME Andromeda ended up being a stillborn flop, it didn’t even really move the needle for me that much because ME3 had already set the bar so low. Worse though is that the first game was retrospectively ruined for me. Like I said earlier, I was a hyperfan for that game when it came out, but now I can’t go back to it without thinking about the disappointments that followed it, and its flaws stand out extra hard now. After I beat it for the first time it was my number 1, now I’m not sure it’s in the top 10. There’s probably the added factor that I played it to death and know it almost off by heart which takes the shine away, but that’s also the case for some of my other all-time favourites like Metroid Prime 1 and 2, Ace Combat 2, or Command and Conquer Red Alert 2, but those never really dropped in my estimation the way Mass Effect did. Honestly to this day I’m still waiting for someone to do another star-hopping sci-fi RPG in the same vein as Mass Effect and to pull it off well, because at this point I’m all but certain that it’s not going to be Bioware that does it, not with the new one they’ve got coming in the works or the trilogy remaster.

29 notes · View notes

rwdestuffs · 3 years

Text

RvB0: What went well, what didn’t, and all the in-between.

Since RT is making this a bit easier by releasing the complete seasons in long videos, this is arguably something that probably should be done to wrap up the whole thing, and maybe see how far the series has come.

Red vs. Blue: ZERO is arguably the most divisive season of the entire series of the show.

Now obviously, people are very resistant to change, but whereas the prior seasons had change that was received to varying degrees of positivity, it was overall, positive.

So let’s go over some history to better understand what happened.

The main aspect of the original Reds and Blues, intentionally or not, were based off of gaming stereotypes.

It’s WAY too long to describe here, so here’s a link to how it works: [here]

Seasons 1-5 is basically a showcase of these gamer stereotypes. Displaying them as their base personalities and grows them as these new characters.

The whole entirety of Project Freelancer is pretty much a deconstruction of gaming tropes. The AI are Lootboxes that give an edge to a player, they have leaderboards, and they go into lobbies with lower level players to basically flex all over them.

The Chorus Trilogy has an arc deconstructing the concept of these types of team battles, pointing out how it never really amounts to anything except profits for the one side that’s basically the third party (Think Mann Co from TF2).

Season 14 is basically a celebration, so we’ll skip that, but keep in mind Meta vs. Carolina, it’ll be important later.

Season 15 is basically an attempt to revive the series. Maybe a documentary on prior pro players, and how people might try to exploit them, or how people may have lost their streaming careers to some of the players humiliating them, but that’s a stretch. There is no real tie to gaming here, or during this arc. This is where the whole thing starts declining. A lack of actually tying it to a gaming trope arguably makes it much more different than the previous seasons.

So, where does RvB0 stand in all this? Well, it is a bit of a return to form by being a previous pro player wanting to get a new squad, but having to now adapt to a new team.

But the way we’re introduced to them is jarring. This isn’t some episode of DEATH BATTLE. We should get to know who these characters are by their interactions with one another, their dialogue, and their actions. But let’s take a look at what gaming stereotypes we’re working with here. we already covered Florida, and the Director is basically these guys’ sponsor who basically caused all of what happened. Carolina is the streamer who gets mad at losing her top rank, York is the nice guy who probably helped set up other peoples’ streaming equipment and is just a friendly guy to be around in general, South and North are what happens when someone gets a rare item from a lootbox and the other doesn’t, etc.

Shatter Squad, is unfortunately, a lot of repeat gamer stereotypes.

West is basically the dad who is an ex-pro trying to make sure his team succeeds, like Florida.

One is the competitive pro who doesn’t like having her top spot challenged, like Carolina.

Axel is the resident Cool Guy™ whose exploits are told by anecdote or flashback. Similar to Tucker, except minus the sex jokes. Or maybe he’s like Wash, in the sense that he’s an ex-pro who got out of the game but keeps being dragged back into it by other circumstances (maybe financial).

East is the new player, much like Caboose. She thankfully is different enough by way of being the stream mole who helps out the other team by sabotaging the team she’s a part of.

And Raymond is the guy who thinks that all his tech and equipment will give him an edge over his opponents, much like most of the Freelancers who had an A.I.

The action is actually good, except for one scene. The scene where East (temporarily) kills Tucker.

Like… Torrian. Torrian. Meta vs. Carolina is my favorite episode of season 3 aside from Hulk vs. Doomsday, and you have him go down to a dagger? You pretty much animated an epic fight scene with all the Reds and Blues in the RvB0 advertisement that really should have been Tucker vs. Jaune as a means of joint advertising- I’m getting off topic here.

The new characters are also a point of some good and some bad. Obviously, you can only do so much with the OG characters until it becomes stale. This is why Dragon Ball is starting to get boring. It’s also why Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is still going strong. But trying to diversify the cast isn’t going to go well with a lot of the original audience. The most progressive thing the Blood Gulch Chronicles did was have Church challenge Simmons’ stereotypical comments regarding Donut. Change won’t go over so well with the audience.

In addition, the passing of Tucker’s sword to another character wasn’t going to go over so well without a big fight scene over the sword. Again, Torrian: YOU MADE Balrog vs. TJ Combo, All Might vs. Might Guy, and Blake vs. Mikasa. Out of everyone on that team, you of all people would have been more than qualified to animate a cool fight sequence that would showcase Tucker stopping East from just stabbing him. I know that the research is left to other people, but one of the big things about the characters is that they tanked a bomb worth a few dozen megatons of TNT… And Tucker goes down… To a dagger.

The fight sequences of RvB0 are great. I’ll say that much. But after every fight, I fully expected Wiz and Boomstick to come in and explain why the fight went down the way it did. Though, that may be due to me actually being interested in RT because of DEATH BATTLE… For better or for worse…

The dialogue wasn’t that great though. A lot of the humor falls flat, and the only joke I legitimately laughed at was when a member of Shatter Squad (One IIRC) responded to Carolina’s bold and serious declaration of “We have to save Lavernious Tucker” with “Who’s Tucker?” This is a series where the comedy comes from dialogue. So slapstick and physical humor don’t land as much, and the whole thing of them making reference to their situation doesn’t let a joke land as well as it could.

People are used to the head bobs of prior seasons, so the expressive gestures is super jarring and actually makes dialogue harder because you have to accompany it with the gestures. The limitation of what they had in season 1-5 is what led to innovation. Limits are how you make something extraordinary. So the freedom of actual gestures makes the overall product feel less like RvB and more like Torrian‘s equivalent of RWBY. He wanted to make a bunch of cool fight scenes. Which like… He had the perfect place to do that: DBX. Want a character who can generate a clone and uses a bladed weapon to fight? Uh, Noob Saibot is right there. You could have him fight… I don’t know, maybe Shadow Jago? They both utilize darkness, it would be fun.

Regardless, I honestly hope that wherever Torrian takes his talents, that he’s going in a place that he likes and that can keep him and his family comfortable.

RvB0: It’s a mess, it hardly really connects back to the OG Reds and Blues, and while the new characters breathe a new life into the series that was sorely needed, it probably wasn’t what people expected. This changing of the guard type of story doesn’t really work when the previous guard doesn’t pass down the mantle.

Also, Carolina constantly calling Wash by his real name just feels like some random pandering. It used to be special that you didn’t know what the real names of the Freelancers was, but the constant use of it just feels like something to just be there to constantly use.

But hey, if you liked it, more power to you.

#rvb crit

5 notes · View notes

burgerpocalypse · 3 years

Text

Back 4 Blood Beta

It's not good. I don't recommend buying or playing this game. Avoid it. If you like it, you're actually wrong.

I'll be directly comparing Back 4 Blood to Left 4 Dead because it's the same development team (supposedly). I'm also in an especially unforgiving mood, so this will be an outwardly hostile discussion of this terrible product. If you think I'm just being overly negative and want the game to fail because I'm an asshole, well, yeah, I am, but this shoddy product deserves considerable ire and I won't be convinced otherwise.

Some publications and individuals are calling it good, a worthy successor to L4D. They're wrong. L4D was a charming, polished, streamlined game. B4B is passionless, janky, and complicated. It makes mistakes that L4D solved or cleverly avoided, and introduces critical issues that ruin the experience.

Game Feel

Shooting feels weak and unresponsive, slows your movement speed, and requires aim-down-sights to have any accuracy.

Basic movement is slow and plodding. Sprinting drains stamina almost instantly, and is barely faster

Melee attacks rapidly drains stamina and has dubious reach; shoving enemies provides almost no benefit unless you have a specific perk card.

Zombies (or Ridden, a terrible, thoughtless name for zombies) shumble at you like they're competing for the Jank Olympics. One zombie can drain your health bar in seconds through sheer jankitude.

Players will regularly be yeeted, and it will seem like you just experienced an unintended bug or glitch rather than a deliberate force.

You're constantly taking damage from random, unidentifiable sources.

In summary, the game feel of this particular game is woeful.

Characters and Monsters

I hate the player characters. Well, that's a lie. HG, the prepper guy, or whatever his name is, is the only one I don't hate. He doesn't say cringeworthy lines, and he has a definable personality beyond broad emotional traits or bog-standard tropes. Player animations are also jank

The Ridden, which I will reiterate are named terribly, are indistinguishable from each other, players, and the environment. The common zombies are of the same color and height as players, so you're gonna probably be shooting teammates a lot, especially when everyone's covered in blood effects. Special zombies are awfully designed, to the point that I have to complain about them for the rest of this section. They:

are unpredictable, in a bad way

have entirely too much health with easily missed weak points

do far too much damage from unreasonable distances

move faster than the player's default speed, and can charge for extended distances

often appear in multiples and crowd chokepoints

The Hocker operates like the Smoker from L4D, but can lock down multiple players at once, chunk your health from great distances, and repeatedly jump from vantage point to vantage point at random. Its name is also stupid.

The Snitcher calls more zombies if you shoot it, which isn't obvious at all until you end up shooting it and call more zombies. It's also a key mistake that the developers of L4D avoided through rigorous playtesting, which allowed them to see that a similarly designed enemy was completely unfair, resulting in it being cut from the final release. Its name is also stupid.

The big fat guy can douse you in health-draining bile from 50 meters away, is difficult to kill, and has a variant that charge you and explode. This like they took the Boomer and made it worse in uniquely awful ways, just to see if they could. I don't remember the name, but its probably stupid.

The big arm guy can thwack you for 50% of your health bar, pin you in place, is also difficult to kill, and has a variant that is even more difficult to kill. I don't remember his name either, bu its definitely stupid.

The final one I can remember is the one that sits in a flesh pod and ambushes a player that gets too close, pinning them exactly like the Hunter would. The flesh pod blends into the environment in an especially egregious way, and the enemy itself looks stupid. Its names is also probably stupid.

Difficulty

I've cut my teeth on L4D and other coop shooters. I've beaten all the official campaigns on Expert. This game is stupid hard and unforgiving to such a degree that I fully believe that the developers do not understand at all what made L4D fun.

As players lose health, they also accrue trauma, which reduces maximum HP, potentially down to 40 HP. This cannot be recovered, even after respawning at a safe room or midround, unless you find a special medicine locker, which costs copper to use.

Levels are far too long, and there is never, ever any room to breathe. Players are constantly assaulted by zombies from all angles with no sense of rhythm or dramatic tension.

Levels also have no flow. Players will feel as though they are randomly wandering with no sense that they are being led in a particular direction. In L4D, the player characters would constantly be making observations about the environment (i.e. "Up that ladder!" or "We can use X to get across"). While L4D used tooltips to point out important objects, B4B relies entirely upon them.

Players have an elaborate inventory and currency system that is confusing and unreliable. Instead of providing healing and ammo at the start of each level, players have to buy it with copper. Like, literal in-game microtransactions. Each player has a unique wallet, though any copper picked up is given to all players equally. The copper system is an unnecessary addition that serves to slow down the start of a round.

Players can hold one offensive, healing, and support item. Medkits are not given a specific item slot, but instead compete with bandages and pills for inventory space. Guns and melee weapons also have tiers and ranks that are ill-defined. I have an extensive list of gripes I could go on about with this system, but I'll list some key issues:

There are too many items of each type, and they are too plentiful in the environment to be worth spending copper on

Ammo is broken into 4 types, which can leave you with lots of ammo for a weapon type you aren't using and no ammo for the gun you're actually using

Weapon attachments and ammo upgrades do nothing but provide confusion and force you to stop and stare at a stat screen to understand what it is you're adding to your gun. You also can't transfer them between guns, so you'll eventually have to swap a lower-tier gun with great attachments for a higher-tier gun with no attachments

Some offensive items do not behave in the way you expect them to, or provide so little value that they aren't worth using

Bandages and medkits operate identically, offering no interesting decision-making opportunities

The efficacy of healing items in general is needlessly reduced by players being able to heal by killing enemies, as well as trauma reducing max HP to the point that they don't provide any value

The Legacy of Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead provided a tightly packaged experience that nearly anyone could pick up on, and has a satisfying core loop that kept me coming back for years in spite of its many obvious glaring flaws. It was not bogged down by unnecessary progression systems or overly complex mechanics.

Since Valve allowed the series to shrivel and die, there has been no refinement of the mechanics that give L4D its magic, only inferior imitations that do not understand why things were they way they were.

Warhammer: Vermintide fails by being too complex, with vast differences between player characters, and an awful gear system that locks players out of higher difficulties with an arbitrary power system and random lootboxes

PAYDAY has zero polish, an unfathomably dull progression system, uninspired characters, awful artificial difficulty, and generally wastes the player's time with crushing amounts of busy work and waiting around

Back 4 Blood could have been great, but it completely misses the point. I'm going to try and play more of it while the beta is open, since I'm a miserable masochist, but also because some small part of me still wants to like it.

I'm sorry that this was so long and uncoordinated. I also apologize if you do enjoy the game. I just hope that I was able to provide a unique perspective of some small value to someone.

Thanks for reading. Sorry there's no interesting art to look at. I only put that comically small cover image there because it made me feel slightly better.

#back 4 blood #turtle rock studios #left 4 dead #video games #review #sorry for the rant

4 notes · View notes

houserproblem · 4 years

Text

Castlevania: Moonlight Rhapsody Thoughts

I’ve been looking into Konami and Shenqu’s new mobile title, Castlevania: Moonlight Rhapsody. At first, I thought this was going to just be another dumb gacha game meant to cater to nostalgia and just rehash old storylines.

While it does appear to have some mobile game trappings such as a mission/quest based progression structure, random dropped equipment designed to be upgraded via fusion and farming, and playable characters locked behind a paywall, it also looks like much more thought was put into it.

For starters, the gameplay looks to be a proper Metroidvania, as it has a large, continuous map instead of being broken up into levels. The map will likely start off fairly small at first, with new areas being added in updates, but it’s still there.

Second, there are only 8-10 characters so far. Normally, mobile games are all about earning new characters via random gacha-style summoning. But because of the smaller character pool and the fact that said characters can wield a variety of weapon types from the gameplay footage I’ve seen, the random/lootbox element may come from the collectible equipment instead.

Finally, the graphics and art style are gorgeous. I’m not ashamed to admit that I actually have a soft spot for the anime art style used in Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin. It detracted from the dark, gothic setting, but it wasn’t horrible. Moonlight Rhapsody blends elements from the Kojima artwork, DS-era anime style, and even the Netflix series to create a style that blends the best of each.

What really sold me on the artwork is how they got around China’s strict rules on the depiction of the dead. Long story short, games aren’t allowed to depict dead bodies or gore. Gore I can understand, but the dead bodies part means that they can’t use any skeleton enemies. So they replaced the skeleton enemies with armor knights, vampire soldiers, or werebeasts with similar attack patterns and weaponry, while Death was given an admitedly impressive redesign. My favorite example was what they did with one of the playable characters.

One of the planned playable characters is a warlock named Vincent. While Vincent’s gameplay hasn’t been released yet, his opening animation when you highlight him on the character select screen has him doing a punching combo, followed by summoning a creature similar to the winged skeleton enemy (those flying skeletons with spears), except its made of crystal fragments. I thought that was pretty clever and a cool (if unintentional) shout-out to Castelvania’s spiritual successor series Bloodstained.

Granted, there are parts of the game I’m not particularly fond of. I’m on the fence in regards to the new characters, as they come off as generic, demon hunter anime archetypes (there’s a guy who is literally the priest from Dungeon Fighter Online with a different haircut and outfit). I’m especially unimpressed with Elvis - the new dhampir protagonist -, due to his name and that he seems to be a rehash of Alucard with Richter’s color palette.

But despite it’s flaws, I’m looking forward to seeing what Moonlight Rhapsody brings to the Castlevania universe. Canon or not, I wish Konami and Shenqu the best of luck and hope that the game does well.

If you’re interested in checking out yourselves, here are some links to get you started:

Moonlight Rhapsody’s page on the Castlevana Wiki. (Includes links to some YouTube videos of the game).

Mike Fringe’s YouTube Channel. He does a playthrough of the game. Just search for the videos and you’ll find them in no time.

#castlevania #castlevania moonlight rhapsody #konami #shenqu #mobile game

1 note · View note

nautiscarader · 4 years

Text

Glitch Techs - review

Okay, so I’ve finished the Glitch Techs, and it was... profoundly okayish. Some spoilers below.

The show is an average buddy friendship team-up where two teenagers learn lessons while going on wacky adventures. Except there are also computer games everywhere that glitch ALL THE time, and into our world, no less, so the company that makes them, Hinobi, needs a whole heap of tech teams, called Glitch Techs to defeat and contain these glitches Ghostbusters-meet-Men In Black-style.

Before I continue, I should disclose some biases: I don’t consider myself a gamer. I occasionally do play games, but I most certainly am not obsessed with them, and I didn’t grow up with retro consoles like NES and Genesis actually Xboxes are considered retro now. Wow, I’m old.

I also might have a slight allergy to the fad of pixelation that has been going on for the last decade or so. I’m not against it, but... Come on, people, we have anti-aliasing. And vector graphics, which are superior anyway.

So, as you might expect this show didn’t exactly “click” with me, and the final element that made me take so long to finish it was the lingo. Oh dear lord, the cringy, cringy lingo.

See, Miko and Five don’t go to work, they “do quests” to “get EX PEE”, by defeating an “NPC” that “aggro’d” on them and then they can exchange said XP for “power ups” when they “level up”. Could they be any less subtle?

I mean, imagine a show about people working in a pet shop, and when they go out, they go “in herds”, refer it to a pizzeria as “a waterhole”, and their leader is “an alpha”, it would be a bit over the top, wouldn’t it?

Once I take those annoying parts from the equation, though, we get a rather standard show for kids. We have an episode about lying, about working in a team, about not pretending to be someone else, taking care of your pets, you know the drill. Some episodes were painfully predictable, though. In Castle Crawl, for example, that broken sword, described as “the worst weapon” was a perfect example of Chekov’s gun, but with extra Bethesda floating quest-marker pointing to it in case you missed it. It was still funny, though.

I also have to admit, though, they nailed the depiction of the e-sports obsession .

It looked as ridiculous in the show as it does in real life. Also, I thought they would address more gaming-related problems, like lootboxes or microtransactions. They kinda touched the subject of pre-ordering craze, but not that much.

The animation is pretty good, typical for western cartoons, with occasional dive into anime-inspired madness, and its style benefited the fast-paced nature of the chases and battles.

Also, even though it’s full of used tropes, the friendship between Miko and Five, as well as Miko and her incredibly extended family was very well done. Her parents sure had lots of DLCs (see? annoying!).

The quote-unquote douchebag villain was delightfully facepunchable, and I am looking forward to seeing him got punished more.

Also, in episode 2, we got a glimpse into a potentially darker storyline featuring a LEGENDARY glitch urban legend, so that better be good.

But there is one thing that really irked me, and it’s that I don’t think the show really understood what potential video game glitches can be.

A glitch, as a concept is amazing. And the idea of something like that happening in our world is fascinating. Computer programs are ruled by logic and math, so an error there can turn the world upside down - literally, sometimes - create effects so random and unpredictable, decided by machine’s relentless dedication to doing its job, your brain cannot comprehend them.

And in the show it was all boiled down to random monsters showing up in the world. That’s Pokémon Glitch Go, they even parodied it with Flunkies.

Which is ironic, because one of the most famous glitches, MissingNo, comes from Pokémon, and if they did that, I’d be madly impressed. Imagine if someone’s pet turned into A BLOCK OF PIXELS OR A SKELETON OF KABUTOPS.

Hell, when it comes to glitches, Matrix did that better years ago. That scene with a deja vu cat? That is a glitch. And an even better job of depicting glitches was shown in an animated short “Beyond”, a part of “Animatrix”, and anthology of shorts in Matrix universe, which I cannot recommend more. It is a fantastic movie.

In this short, a woman finds an abandoned creepy house, where Matrix has glitched, and it causes temporal and spatial anomalies: lack of gravity, localised rain, time distortions, etc.

That’s what a glitch could do if it leaked into our reality!

(oh and BTW, Thor 2 stole that whole short and put it into the opening scene when Jane finds the Dark World thingy in that abandoned tower, and I’m still mad about this).

I would be okay with video game monsters escaping, if the carnage they did matched with the abstract nature of glitches: give me buildings that suddenly are made of hot-dogs instead of bricks because the tile palettes were swapped. Give me a coffee machine spawning endless coffee because the end loop command was never executed properly. Give me a person who suddenly knows what the person next to them is thinking due to memory OVERFLOW. That would be interesting!

And instead we have a bird that vomits pixels.

...which, you know, would be still weird, but not very creative. On occasions they brushed that pure abstract madness of glitch art, but nowhere near close as I expected.

Also, I have to ask: this company, Hinobi... They have portals.

And can spawn items.

And can create virtual reality.

And can erase memories, through tv no less.

...what is stopping them from overthrowing all the governments, exactly? And if you tell me that is a higher level quest, I’m gonna strangle you with my mouse cord-wait, no, I have wireless one, dammit.

Also, for an organisation who has a dedicated glitch-capturing team, their tech glitches itself A LOT. Hm. Maybe that’s what stopping them...

Watching this show gave me a major “Cyberchase” vibe, but I was fine with that, since it was an old show that taught you math, so I was willing to see past the clichés there, or the fact that they referred to “cyber space” as real space, and what do you mean it’s still going. “Wander of The Yonder” was cancelled after two season but this thing is still on air since 2002 what the FLUNKY DETECTED!

So, yeah, not a huge fan of this show, but from what I understand, there are more episodes done and some potentially in making, so maybe it will get more interesting. And the game parodies were clever enough for me to get lots of laugh, so, as I said, it was o͓̳̩k̔a̯̭̭̻̤̗͌̓̎̽ͧ͒y̻͔͓̞͙̻̩ͪ͌.̭̯̼̞̇

See, even I can do that.

#glitch techs #glitch techs spoilers

11 notes · View notes

ruffianbc · 4 years

Photo

Today I found myself thinking "Whoa, is this really the end of the decade?” A colossal journey has been made. Hell, 10 years ago I never imagined that I would be in the place and at the time where I am now. Can't remember everything, but I challenge myself and try to go through the most significant events. On the exact schedule, I do not remember everything, so catch porridge and discord:

First, the drawings. I started drawing in 2012, and I started with transformers. Before that, I sometimes drew horses, but seriously got carried away with all this with the beginning of the series Transformers Prime. Oh, those times, around the same time I started learning English through the series experience, every Thursday waiting for a new episode of the second season on the American YouTube channel. At the same time, my robo-collection was launched, and transformers turned out to be the second most important fandom for me after SRMTHFG at that time. I also started writing fanfiction in an immeasurable amount for several years, this is a charge of inspiration turned out to be! Well, where is it without a comparison before and after, I can't just leave it ~

Second, role-playing. ROLE-PLAYING ON FORUMS RULE. More precisely, they were rule. Role-playing were my all, I now resembles on decrepit old man, reading notation on type: "And here is in our time posts were on three Word’s pages!!1", however all same, thanks the huge experience, heap acquaintances and smartly conducted time in all role-playing in which I managed to visit and shake my iron bones. There were so many plots, actions, fantasy development, and huge wagons of inspiration for the rest of the work that I drew from there that it's hard to describe.

Third, guys. You are my suns, without you I can't imagine myself as I am now. There were a lot of rises and downs, difficulties, awesome time spent, all who are now with me – I love you with all my soul. This also applies to all subscribers and people who follow my work. You give me a lot of unforgettable emotions *: - ﾟ ✧ Also I congratulate my schoolmates, classmates, taglit-mates, masa-mates, artists from our community and role-players, guys I here all physically for 10 years will not list, but I am terribly grateful to all of you for this time together! You're the best damn thing that ever happened to me.

Fourth, fandoms. Ohhhh, this good was in bulk, I'm in this rummage guys. My dedication started with Transformers , continued, and will surely never end. I found myself in this fandom, my alter-ego was imprinted EVEN IN MY NAME, I think it's not just a coincidence) To hell with everything and all hail Megatron! Next in my life appeared Mass Effect , which became the story that I experienced as if in real life, so close to me were all the characters, all the chips and everything that happened. Thank you for the clear sky above our heads, Shepard! In The Witcher with Geralt, we went through no less adventures, wound up tens of thousands of kilometers on Velen, got drunk Regis’s tinctures and ate at the katakan’s autopsy. Well, a couple of dozen times we had to remove the Roach from the roofs, because the horses also want to fly. Among other things, I tried out a whole separate world of anime for myself and thanks to TATAKAE and CAPTAAAAAAIN for joined me to two of the most amazing fandoms - Attack on Titan and Seven Deadly Sins . I'll be honest, at that time I have not enjoyed so much and did not hang out on fantasy and action, and a kind of Game of thrones in the manga only added intrigue to what is happening. Overwatch and Destiny taught me to keep my anger in check, because when you try for the HUNDREDTH TIME TO KNOCK OUT A DAMN LOOTBOX OR TAKE DOWN THE BOSS, you lose a little self-control) and, God, what well-designed characters, locations, missions and community with a lot of content! And THANKS to Jeff for new Dutchman-grandfather, who brought me back to the game, respect from tankmainer. A small touch of sadness and simultaneous pride brought the end of the Grand stories with which we grew up together and went a long way. Supernatural and Winchesters are gradually approaching their finale, Game of Thrones ended on an unexpected note with hints of bitterness, and after Avengers Endgame and Dark Phoenix we said goodbye to a whole era of heroes that accompanied us for years on our way. Thank you, Stan Lee. What should be a great stealth action? One where you can run all over the map on the roofs, over the heads of hapless guards. Oh, my Dishonored, thank you for tons of steampunk, the atmosphere of hopelessness and hours spent in hiding to pass the level like ghost. Thank you for the complex moral issues and antagonists who suddenly become protagonists. But not thank you for Daud's insanity, not thank you. Damn Good Omens caught me in a trap last summer and won't let me go! I wish I had found this book before, such a great satire on religion, politics and society I have long lacked. Both the superbly played characters in the series, and the production itself with the story, this is an amazing source of inspiration! (shippers especially) Well, at the end of the year, the final chord, I met with Hazbin Hotel and damn it, this fandom managed to break my creative stagnation. I have been so lacking in good 2D animation and styling lately that Hazbin has become a breath of fresh air and a charge of activity, for which I am terribly grateful to the creators of this fandom and community. Guys, I won't get tired of saying that you're gorgeous! In summing up and re-reviewing my entire journey, I want to thank no less my grandmother, my parents and the animals that were and are with me, because without them I would not be myself. Thank you for your support, patience and care. And most importantly, for understanding.

Friends, we are moving into a new decade, and I really hope that all your plans, undertakings and dreams will come true in the near future, thank you all for being here, thank you for the emotions, experience and support, for the feedback, God, it always brings me incredible joy when I see your likes and messages! Happy new decade and new achievements!

25 notes · View notes

ot3 · 4 years

Note

Sorry for my late reply, tumblr never notifies me. I couldn’t agree more with what you said. I think videos game have an amazing capacity for all kinds of expression. Something that stood out to me from the video was noting how Pathologic doesn’t rely on Skinner box mechanics. Pathologic works so well, IMO, because it’s entirely player-motivated. Through it’s mechanics and story it invites players to keep going and doing unpleasant things. (1/2)

I think if more games marry mechanics with their story, rather than have a sharp divide between them, we would see more games do what Pathologic does, to a lesser degree probs. Games like Lisa and to a small degree Undertale do a good job of blending the two aspects. I’ve been following your blog for a while so it’s just cool to me that you’re into this and have some great opinions on the topic. Sorry if I’m bothering you with this lmao. Have a good one! (2/2)

You’re not bothering me at all i LOVE talking about this kind of thing, feel free to send me any sort of Discussion about storytelling, art, or games.

I think you make a fantastic point about player motivation! This ties in a bit to what I said in my original response which im linking here for anyone who might be trying to read this without context. I absolutely can’t remember where I saw this - I’ve been watching a lot of game related youtube videos out of late, but someone was talking about what makes a game Engaging. I think it might have been gamemakers toolkit?

Anyway, they made a point about intrinsic value in a game, where you’re not playing it for any ‘reward’ at the end (whether that be grinding for lootboxes, or levels, or achievements, etc) and the incentive is wholly just the experience of the game. And I think that’s so important! In a sense you could say that pathologic doesn’t have the intrinsic value because you’re just suffering through it for the reward of the story, but I don’t think that’s the case because that suffering is part of the story.

I haven’t played lisa and i don’t know a thing about it, actually, but its on sale right now so i’m legit about to go buy it.

Undertale’s also another great example. It’s combat mechanics and the way the game is SIGNIFICANTLY harder if you don’t wan’t to kill anyone I think blend super well with the message the game is trying to send. I think it’s a super careful balance to strike.

Like, I’m gonna go off track here for a minute and talk about breath of the wild which is probably the most fun I’ve ever had with a game. Obviously the story is, at best, fun. It’s pretty basic and most of the depth in it comes from the things you end up projecting onto it, which is completely fine. The plot in BOTW comes secondary to the fun you’re supposed to have in the world. In my first BOTW save I just ran around getting apples for weeks until i had capped out my apple storage at 999. And then i baked all of them. I just sat there dumping one thousand apples into the fire just for the sake of having a thousand baked apples and nothing more. But in many ways the robustness of BOTW’s physics and how the world feels so real makes the story feel that much weaker in comparison because the simplicity of the story is almost discordant with how complete the world feels. Imagine how much impact it could have had if they had found a way to conceptually marry the two.

I think death mechanics in story games in particular are an interesting thing to look at, because whether or not the threat of death feels heavy very much effects the way a story will feel. Like in undertale, death isn’t that bad. It’s fine, you just go to your next save - but the fact that you are able to do this is a significant part of the real story and is canonically addressed and contextualized. Then there’s, on the other end of the spectrum, Pathologic, where character death is the main threat hanging over your head the whole time. The mechanics of dying, how you need to keep track of hunger, exhaustion, health, etc. tie directly into the feeling of ‘this isn’t a game, i’m not a main character, i’m just a person in a bad situation’ that the game attempts to create.

Hollow knight is another interesting look at this: when you die in Hollow Knight you get sent back to your last save, you lose any money you were holding, and you lose some of your potential to heal/do magic, represented by the container that stores your ‘soul’, a type of energy you gain, being shattered. You also leave behind a shade; a ghostly shadow of yourself that you need to track down and defeat to regain your money. As a death mechanic, people have different opinions about this and how it relates to the exploration aspects of the game, but regardless of how it fits into the gameplay flow it has a place in the story flow. As you progress through the game and learn more about your character, the knight, and their origins, this mechanic actually begins to not only make sense but reveal a lot about the world of hollow knight in general.

Video games are a unique medium and still relatively new and finding their footing but I truly believe that the ability to marry mechanics and story will elevate narrative in a way you can’t get in any other format. it’s so cool. Stories that you have to engage with to truly experience! Art that you have to genuinely commit to to experience! The potentials are LIMITLESS.

#vibeo game . . . .#im explaining hollow knight because #maybe youve played it #but im sure someone who might be reading this hasnt #THIS IS LONG IM SORRY #I'M JUST PASSONATE #dot-tired

9 notes · View notes

felinalain · 5 years

Text

Sale VS ad

Ya know, after seing a post on the problem that the comics industry, and more particularly Marvel, has (which is that they cancel runs days after releasing them, because they only care about quick cash, not fanbase)...

Well I decided to do a little investigation, in terms of sale number VS the publicity that a run was given to reach those numbers. I did so for a character that I have interest in (Venom), because despite the abysmal writing of the current run, I had often been given the argument

“Yeah but people must like it since they buy it!”

And this never sat right with me, because I’m in the video game industry and I know that this is a bullshit excuse. There is dozens of ways to make sure people are gonna buy what you want them to, be it by active incentives (like games do with in-game lootboxes etc) And byproduct actions (like pushing forward one specific thing, to drown out the rest)

So, I went and looked at sale numbers for Venom 2018 and Venom First Host. Which released at the same time. I did that before, once, but this time, I also went and looked for articles and publicity given to those run. (by way of articles and other such ways of advertising)

Now, let’s have some numbers: (https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales.html)

According to this website, sales for Venom 2018 started strong, then dipped by about 75% in the following months Marvel advertised it on a lot of website. (I found several dozen articles, websites, mentions)

First host sale started much less high than Venom 2018, but stayed more consistant, and even went above V2018 sales several times, even though it dipped by about 50% in the following months It was barely advertised. (I found half a dozen mentions, and a couple articles)

And then come the first disrupting factor in this little exercise of mine. The Venom movie was released in October. Now let’s look at the numbers:

Venom 2018 (being advertised by many articles that spoke of the movie) got a sudden jump up in sales.

First host (I didn’t see a single mention of it during that time) kept on, with a slight dip.

In the following months, Venom 2018 also proceeded to dive again, back to the same level it was at before movie release. (proving that it wasn’t the writing that people came for, since they didn’t stay)

Second disrupting factor is that comic sales overall are dipping, apparently 30% less than last year at the same time. If comics sell less, of course each individual run will dive down.

Last factor is that Venom 2018 is an ongoing serie, while First Host is over. Sales for V2018 keep happening because of that, while sales for First Host naturally took a dive as people had bough their copy and would not buy another (unless they collect various editions).

So what can we take from this?

First Host, despite its lack of advertisement, managed to do as well, sometimes even better, than Venom 2018 which was heavily advertised.

First Host sales decreased by about 50% in total, despite being barely advertised, and over when the movie released. Venom 2018 sales did a saw-teeth thing, where it decreased by 75% despite heavy advertisement, climbed back by about 35% following movie release and consequent advertising, then dived back those 35% again.

Now imagine if First Host had been the run that was being advertised? Imagine the numbers it would have racked up.

Next time someone tell you

“But look at the sale numbers!”

Ask them

“Yeah, but look at the ads too.”

I guess that was just a rant, or a useless post or whatever, take it as you will, but now I’ve seen with my own eyes how the comic industry kill something, simply by keeping silent about it and... well, the comic industry sucks.

21 notes · View notes

invidianblog · 4 years

Text

EA’s Online Issue

Okay, so it’s been a while since I posted. Hello all.

I recently got Star Wars: Battlefront 2 after a long “Wait and see” period after they removed the microtransactions. I had heard all the content that will be out is out, so I thought now would be the time to get the game for dirt cheap on Origin.

Low and behold, the game experience was actually enjoyable. As though, had they released the game in this state in the first place, this game would have been a critical success.

That, however, does come with one big caveat, and it’s one EA has become just as infamous for as Ubisoft: Connectivity issues.

The game is fun. There is no denying that, and playing through the major game mode, Supremecy is also very enjoyable. I’ve never been big into the “Hero” aspect of Battlefront games. It adds too many “BS” moments, in my honest opinion, but I’ll live with it if the experience is there, and they experience most definitely is there to make up for those moments.

However, these matches are long. 20-30 minutes at least, and through them I have gotten several rank ups for my classes, and various other unlocks. Progression is right where it needs to be. I recently hit rank 15 with my officer, so I just got new perk cards to use.

Or at least I should have...

The same issue I hit last night occurred today: You have been disconnected from the server due to networking issues. Please check your internet connection. Yadda Yadda Yadda. My internet is fine, btw. Perfect, if I do say so. I was watching youtube in the background with no issues. It’s a server-side issue that presented itself.

And that server-side issue... Fucked me.

So that progression I said I made was more levels for new perk cards, and progression toward a firearm for my Officer I don’t absolutely hate. All down the drain. Those 30-minute games just became a huge waste of time with no value whatsoever for the effort, all because any progression you gain, if you disconnect for any reason, even if it’s EA’s fault, you lose.So there goes my ranks, and any and all enjoyment I had been getting out of the game, twice in a row now. Thanks EA.

Star Wars Battlefront 2, two years removed from the pay to win lootbox gambling controversy: Still only a 5/10 experience, because EA’s server-side networking issues.

#battlefront ii #star wars battlefront 2 #EA #electronic arts

1 note · View note

communistsoapbox-blog · 5 years

Text

Capitalism Ruins Art-- and How You Can Help Fix It

People always talk about how Communism ruins art, progress and technology. Without the incentive to create, who will create new things? Without the struggle to survive, how can progress be manufactured?

Yet, it seems these days people willingly ignore that a vast majority of the issues we face in popular culture such as new movies or new video games are a direct result of Capitalism and its inevitable destruction of human art and emotion. The masses complain about ‘live-action remakes’ and ‘endless sequels,’ they complain about ‘micro-transactions’ and ‘lootboxes’ but hardly ever do they come to the conclusion that the current state of Capitalism is what created the environment in which these products have thrived and will continue to thrive.

Capitalism ruins art because the continued drive to make more and more money despite already having plenty, has become the near-sole motivator for creating art (and don’t worry, I’ll talk about indies in a moment). A popular example of this is Illumination Studios, a company that has made bank not because of their desire to create art that has a positive impact on the human race-- but to produce more money.

All of their films are specifically engineered to create the most amount of money with the least amount of time, effort, and money possible. As a result, despite being commercially successful, Illumination Studios has created a wide library of movies that have entered popular culture notorious for their horrendous quality. And despite this, other studios are following Illumination’s example. Not because Illumination is a pioneer in human art and expression-- the contrary actually. Illumination is a pioneer in creating a product to harness the most amount of profit possible, and everyone wants in on it. The film and animation industry has not only seen a sharp decline in the quality of content, but in the originality of content. Movies exist solely to make money now, this is the lesson taught to us by Illumination, Disney, Sony, Warner Brothers, and many more.

Despite this being a major concern for everyone who pays attention to the film and animation industry, there is very little call to address how money is affecting the production of these films and what we can do to fix it. China is now beginning to overtake both the United States and Europe in box office revenue (do not take this as a compliment to China or its government-- only evidence of Late-stage Capitalism’s decay of art and emotion), yet people still wonder how this can be... when the answer is right in front of us.

Video games are not exempt from the effects of Late-stage Capitalism. AAA games have reached a level of disturbingly low quality with the advent of Fortnite, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout 76, and so on. Bugs in Bethesda’s Games have become so common, they’re a meme in popular culture. Yet somehow, we continue to let them go unaddressed. Professional game reviewers (such as IGN) still give these games high scores, because if they didn’t, how would they collect revenue from the companies who made the games?

Furthermore, the structure of games and their economic models have become increasingly hostile towards the consumer-- entire games built around the model of making a profit and not making the game actually good or fun. Fortnite employs some of the nastiest anti-consumer methods to implore not just gamers-- CHILDREN, into spending massive amounts of money around a product riddled with quality issues with the express goal of squeezing money out of unsuspecting kids who only see a game and not a complete scam. EA continually creates games with an insane amount of micro-transactions and withholds so much content from the full game just to get the consumer to pay more money-- and the consumers hand it to them on a silver platter so they may continue to exist and produce more and more games of similar caliber. The ever-present focus on obtaining the most money possible has turned games into money making machines with the express purpose of tricking the consumer into buying more and more and more. Even Nintendo has hopped onto the bandwagon with the disaster of a game known as Mario Kart Tour.

Our only salvation in a day and age where popular culture is ruled by the same handful of companies that continue to shovel effortless garbage into our faces so that we may hand them the world on a silver platter is the growing indie scene for games and media. Please, take time to engage with and consume content created by the average citizen at home-- not the gigantic corporations who want nothing more than your wallet. There are very real people out there with stories to tell, people whose voices are never heard, trans-folk, people of color, the disabled, and more. Countless games, movies, comics, and books exist, so I ask that you stop giving your money to corporate ventures and interact with those who truly deserve it.

Despite what I have provided, art is not dead. It will continue to exist for as long as human emotion exists. Now is not the time to sit and watch as our society decays. I ask that you listen to what I say and not only consume indie content but I encourage you to create indie content of your own. The world gets better with every new piece of art within it, and you deserve to have your stories told. Write your books, make your movies, produce your games. The world is yours and today there are more tools than ever to make it easy for the average citizen to simply... create. And that’s all I want to see. A world that... creates, again.

Because we truly need it.

#soapbox #communism #politics #politcal #art #movies #video games #this is my first post so it most likely is worded in a weird way #indie #music #activism #anti capitalism #antifa

5 notes · View notes

rahimaldemir · 5 years

Text

Dying Light 2 - Q&A

In the official Dying Light discord one of the representatives, Uncy, from Techland held a q&a session during E3 2019 and I took the time to copy everything down. There were a lot of questions asked, but I only copied down the ones that were answered.

Uncy said they were going to post a FAQ with all of these questions and I’ll make sure to link it when they do. As of right now, I don’t think it has been released.

A lot of people were typing during the session and unfortunately a lot of questions got repeated. There is also a decent amount of typos in these questions, but it felt important to keep the Q&A session in an honest a form as possible, so I have not corrected any typos or omitted any duplicate questions.

I did add a “Q” and “A” to the beginning of every question and answer for clarity. Uncy used emojis sometimes in their answers, but I did not copy those over if they weren’t text emojis.

I have put my own notes in [italicized brackets].

WARNING: There are huge spoilers for The Following in these questions, they are marked to make them easier to avoid, but please be wary.

@tafferfield I know you got a pretty wicked master list of DL2 stuff, so if any of this helps you feel free to grab it and add it.

Putting under a read more because this is long:

Q: Are all current zombies considered volatiles? A: Not really, there are still regular zombies and volatiles

Q: Zombies only exit the night? A: now that's a hard one, zombies can stay outside for some time during the day but they get weak IN THE SUN

Q: How much diffrent endings are there? A: About endings - more than one, don't want to spoil it

Q: Battle royale mode? A: no BR mode

Q: Are you able to clear the city of zombies? A: Basically human learned how to deal with infection, so the more humans the less zombies

Q: how does Aiden stop from turning? does he use antizin or something else A: antizine is finished but human discovered that strong UV light weakens the infection, that's why you have the biomarker

Q: Is Aiden a foreigner to the land like Crane? A: Aiden doesn't even know Crane exists Q: I meant is Aiden from around there or did he come from somewhere else A: he's not from the city, he's an outsider

Q: What are future plans for multiplayer? A: multiplayer wise - we have some stuff coming apart from co-op, but I can't really share multiplayer details now

Q: Will there be a fallout kind of karma system? A: karma system? nope but your choices and actions will affect how people see you

Q: How long will one playthrough of the game be? A: hard to tell, but i know that dl2 will be a game for a long time

Q: Will dying light 2 feature the same great ragdoll physics as the first. A: upgraded ones

Q: Will the game be translated into Brazilian Portuguese as the first? A: more languages will come, cant really tell for now

Q: Can we expect to see actual time sensitive activities within the game? (IE: Do this now or forever lose the chance) A: Yes, but its more like choice wise, like do one thing and u will never be able to do another

Q: Will you play Dying Light 2 with me on release ;d? A: why not

Q: Will Aiden be customizable (e.g. hair, individual clothing pieces,etc) A: yup there will be customization

Q: Is there a weapon combo system? A: what do you mean by that? Q: Like a combo like last game you could spam attack and hold it for a more powerful attack, I'm asking if you can combo attacks like 2 quick attacks and then a charged attack or stuff like that [This question never actually got fully answered]

Q: Did anything replace the grappling hook. Did it change in anyway? A: there's a grappling hook - and some more options to travel cause the city is huge {you will be able to upgrade them}

[SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING]

Q:if the vial ending from the following is canon (if the following is canon) is crane a Volatile?

A: in some way - both are canon. It's up to the player to choose it Q: will Crane make an appearance or not. If you cant answer then atleast say which ending is canon A: not really

[END SPOILERS]

Q: Will the game launch with any DLC's? A: i dont think it will launch with dlc's but post release support is planned

Q: The last trailer showed working vehicles, will we be able to use some? A: Yes

Q: How many different kinds weapons are there (number) A: too many to mention, we're still adding more weapons

Q: is it sticking with the old crafting system or are y'all switching it up A: crafting system is upgraded a little

Q: are in dying light 2 developer tools having the chance to make custom movements and animations? A: I don't really have info about dev tools right now

Q: Are firearms coming back ? A: No guns, no firearms - but there will be distance weapons like crossbows

Q: do we gain strength or anything when nighs fall? since we are infected A: during the night you need to use UV lights to stop the infection, you wont get stronger

Q: is the choices you make permanant (one save only) or can you save and go back? A: you can save and go back on some difficulties

Q: Czy będzie drzewko umiejetnosci tak jak w 1 ? A: tak

Q: Is the max number in a party still going to be 4 or will more team members be able to join in co-op multiplayer, if there is any. A: 4 player coop

Q: is there a system where our beard can grow out and cut it same with hair like rdr2 asked a few times chat just to fast lol A: hmm, i don't think so

Q: Can you turn into a zombie if you dont pay enough attention to your wristband? A: that's still under discussion, i don't think you will be able to play as a zombier tho

Q: When the game releases, are you able to link your old account from DL1 to get rewards? A: we wont forget about dl1 owners

Q: will you be able to upgrade/modify tools like grappling hook and the UV flashlight? A: yes, tools will be upgradeables

Q: are we going to have trading cards to craft badges on steam with dying light 2? A: Yup

Q: Will the UI be changed completely, both in-game, etc? A: there will be some changes for sure, i dont know how hard tho

Q: How many skill trees are there, and are they any more complex? A: you can upgrade a lot of stuff now

Q: Are ranged weapons going to be as powerful as they were in DL1 or is it a bit more balanced A: there are no guns, so its balanced

Q: I wonder if we will see some more gameplay (apart from the trailer) from E3? A: something will come this month

Q: what are the main factions in dying light 2? A: Peacekeepers and scavengers - those are two main factions, but there are more

Q: Who is the girl in the trailer? A: that's actually one of our employees but for now all I can say that she's singing in one of the bars in the city

Q: Has the infection gone worldwide A: yup

[SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING]

Q: What happened to kyle crane? Will he have anything to do with the game

A: he ded

[END SPOILERS]

Q: will there be an enhanced edition or any other editions or just the normal one? A:there will be different editions - more details coming soon

Q: Will some weapons from Dying Light 2 (before release) be added in Dying Light? A: watch the trailer closely

Q: Are you taking in any alpha testers any time soon? If so I would like to be the first volunteer. A: there are no tests planned for now

Q: Referencing the Trailer, will we have the ability to choose our siding, survivor or what seem to be the "law"? A: its all up to you and your decisions!

Q: during the first game the side quests were some of the most amazing in the whole game, my question is, will those little side quests be present in the second game as well and will they also impact the game A: Yeah! side quests will be there and there wont be just easy fetch quests, but rather a small stories on their own

Q:There's a post. On twitter(?) That mentions something like "as Aiden you can do things no one elese can" Does that mean there will be benefits in having your infected level reach a certain level? A: Aiden is simply well prepared to live in The City - that's all I can tell right now

Q: Will there be new skill trees or the same ones? A: would be weird to put in the same skill trees

Q: can you upgrade parts of the town? and is roger smith coming back for Voice acting A: depends what do you mean, if you help certain people by your actions or choices, they will start to build stuff like bridges, farms etc which will help you, they will also get rid of the zombies from buildings etc

Q: Is it possible, that BTZ will be in Dying Light 2? A: possible but not confirmed

Q: can we get the song from the trailer? its sick A: I think i got the name somewhere, ill add it to faq [Couldn’t find Uncy’s link, but I was able to find two of the three soundtracks featured in trailers on youtube: Help I’m Alive and Crimson Blaze & Battlefields]

Q: Please dont add lootboxes A: Cmon

Q: Why can't we pre-order A: cause we don't have all the editions ready yet

Q: got 2 questions: - Will we have a season pass for a limited time just like in Dying Light so we can get the DLCs for free? - can us console players please get a fov slider A: 1.There will be a season pass 2. I'll let the devs know about fov slider

Q: Will there be a new type of villain like Rais? A: nothing is white or black in The City

Q: Will it be the same loot system or a loot system at all? A: what do you mean by loot system? like those crates etc? Q: I'm referring to weapons and stuff like that. A: then I don't really know, afaik it got changed a little

Q: Can we expect to see a different climbing mechanic, same with the grapple? A: parkour system is upgraded a lot, grapple is coming back ofc

Q: 1. are there gonna be volatiles in dl2? and are the zombies in dl2 more faster, brutal and better in movement to chase u down? A: There are new and old zombies, can't tell more atm

Q:Will some of the old zombie mutations be returning? A: yup

Q: Distance weapons are mentioned, does that mean a weapon smith we can get distanve weapon blueprints from? A: you can created your own weapons

Q: Are there other zombie types than the ones mentioned in the interviews? If so can we know a bit about them? A: there will be more, no info now tho

Q: On the topic of Grapple, is it expected to behave the same as DL1, or will it have a different mechanic, such as a swing? A: grapple is different now and you can upgrade it

Q: an we drop kick zombies and humans from sky scrapers? A: Yup

Q: Will the grappling hook operate the same as in DL1? I think it was overpowered and needed bigger cool down, it took away from parkour element a lot for me. A: as I said later, it's reworked a little - not OP now

Q: Is Brecken alive in Dying Light 2? Or is he maybe related to protagonist? A: no one from DL1 comes back

Q: Does no ranged mean guns or are we also losing the bow/crossbow A: never said no ranged, i said no firearms, ranged weapons will be there

Q: Will the gore be overhauled or different in Dying Light 2? A: it will be upgraded, there are also new finishers coming in

Q: Will quarantine zones come back? A: dark zones will be in the buiuldiings

Q: what happen to the cure A: gone

Q: will there be more weapon upgrades than in the first DL? A: a lot more

Q: can we put miniguns on vehicles or weaponize them like the buggy from The Following? A: I don't think so - nothing for now at least

Q:What happend to the GRE? A: They were there when the infection started - they are the ones that gave away the biomarkers - no sight of them in the city now

Q: If there's a co-op mode, what is the max amount of players in 1 lobby? A: 4 players max

Q: Will there be more end game content then dl1? A: yup, first of all you will have to finish the game multiple times to experience the game fully, end game will also be improved

Q: What do you think will be there an epic crossover mission when we meet kyle but he's turned A: I don't think he will come back

Q: Infected animals? A: animals will be there, you can hunt them, dunno about infected ones tho

Q: Are there children in DL2? If so, can we kill them? A: Brutal

Q: Referencing the ease of combat in DL1, can we expect to see actual struggle when going against enemies? Will we have the feeling of should I fight or run? A: Ups [???] depends on the difficulty for sure, some of the fights will be hard, for example - you fight some guys near to the building and then zombies hear it and come out for few minutes, and you have XvXvX fight to go trough

Q: Kiedy pre order? A: Niedługo

Q: are the voliatile hive quests coming back? A: you will be cleaning some mess for sure, I don't know if those particular quests will go back

Q: Alright. I asked if we'll get skin to customize our weapons as in we keep them forever as blueprints and we can apply them to any weapon? A: customization will be upgraded, that's for sure, I believe we will actually share more details about it in the future

Q: Will there be brutal finishers after stun, like in old Dying Light version where Kyle pulls out smth from the chest? A: yup, we're still adding more and more finishers

Q: Are safezones upgradable in any way? A: you can't upgrade them as in "click a button and its happening" it changes when you do something for the city or you act in some way

Q: is there gonna be a volatile chase mission in the sewer like dl1? "extraction" with more running action? A: that's a really gameplay-detailed question, I don't think i have answer for it now

Q: Will there be weapons rarities? A: some weapons will be stronger than other - don't know about how will we deal with rarities

Q: can we do farming? A: i think that other people are meant for farming, not Aiden

Q: Is dl2 going to have the same docket system like dl1 if not please explain A: dockets are cool, would be good to have them back

Q: Will zombies give a fight for your life feel, or will it be light DL1 where they are primarily just nuisances? A: try going to dark zone during the day, you wont get out of there alive

Q: do we have a different type of vehicles or just one like dl the following we only had the buggy + we are going to have horses and motorbikes or no ? A: there will be some vehicles - more about that coming soon

Q: is there going to be any refrences from dl1??? A: yup, there will be differences [I’m assuming the question was misread]

Q: you said that there wont be any firearms in DL2, but can you maybe tell what's going on in here, as a game dev? It confuses me quite a lot [pic of peacekeeper with what looks like a gun] A: concept arts are not 1:1 gameplay

Q: Is there gonna be something that can make you even stronger if you maxed out all skill trees? (Like the Legend in DL1.) A: that's a really late-game stuff, i believe something like that will come

Q: will the hostile factions attack you if you go into certain areas (i.e if you take a safe zone for a scavenger will the peackeepers attack you in an office building A: yup

Q: how much is pre order and when will it go live A: we are still taking care of different editions and prices

Q: Are the weapons going to become more modern as you level up ? A: nope, weapons are really "hand made" but they all look cool

Q: Will there be any stational turrets, which you can craft/use in some safezones to clear hordes? A: people are dealing with the infected, turrets are too modern

Q: we can pre-order the game soon ? i mean like next month maybe or after a while ? A: yup, preorders will go live when we will figure out the versions etc

Q: Will multiplayer/coop loot be instance based, or client base? (DL1 uses a client base, as each player gets their own drops/items from chests/zombies) Instance based would be there's only 1 item for all players, first to grab gets. A: We still need to figure that out, I believe we will check which one is better

Q: any cool easter eggs coming? A: a lot of them

Q: Will there be any missions that require 4 players, and can more people join you for the final boss? A: 4 people is max

Q: will there be any more presentations or info about DL2 at e3? A: there will be more + new s this month

Q: Will there be boss fights and if there is at the last story mission do we have to be alone? A: don't ask about last mission when the game is not out

Q: we can play with animals like far cry ? i mean like u send animals to attack zombies or something like that, and will there be infected animals too or no ? A: you will be able to hunt animals for resources, i dont think you will be able to tame them

Q: what your prediction about the pc spec? A: i think you will be fine if you can run modern games, We go for FPS over resolution and we aim for 60 at ps4 and xone, its not confirmed tho

Q: so is there going to be some sick loot if we have dl1 and bad blood?? A: there will be something for DL owners

Q: Are there gonna be hunger and thirst bars, and food and drinks you can loot around the world or get from faction cities and safe zones? A: that's still under discussion, its not confirmed

Q: Will we see random wildlife throughout our explorations? (Not those of zombies.) A: yup and you can hunt them

Q: Will we be able to use the dying light companion app in Dying Light 2 A: probably yes

Q: so is there infected animals or no ? A: I dont think so, it's not really confirmed, so we will see

Q: Can we get a confirmation that the dev tools will be available eventually considering it massively increase the longevity of the game and wasnt a total fuckup of a decision like bad blood was? A: about dev tools - im still waiting for confirmation

Q: sorry for the torture but will there be a PVP gamemode or any special gamemode for DL2? A: we will have multiplayer based discussion, for now there are no details to tell about mp

Q: will DL2 get better mod support ? Something like Fallout 4 so we can add more stuff to the game A: i hope so

Q: asking again, will there be seasons? like winter and summer with weather changes? A: I don't think so

Q: Do i have to side with 1 faction completely? Do certain factions control certain safe zones or are safe zones neutral territory? A: nope, you don't have to side with 1 faction

Q: limitation (character inventory)? Like we can no longer have unlimited or 99x items in stacks - including crafting materials. A: I think there wont be limits to crafting materials, like 99x, i need to confirm that with devs tho

Q: Will there be walking zombie hordes, which will try to destroy safe zone's gates? And will it be like event? (is it really possible)? A: people's safe zones are protected with UV lights, zombies wont cross them

Q: Can I sleep in Dying Light 2 to skip night? A: the whole day-night cycle is changed in DL2, more details coming soon

Q1: will there be xray like in the old game A: what x ray Q2: Survivor sense, he meant I think Q3: the critical blue hit, when u hit a zombie, thats what he means A: oh, survivor sense is coming back

Q: Will duplications be patched frequently? As in DL1 there are still many that can occur. A: well i hope there wont be any dupe glitches

Q: Around how long would it take to playthrough the game once? A: quests etc are still coming so i cant really tell how long it will be right now

Q: Btw every pre-order got a bonus content so ofc dl2 got bonus content so when i buy the game after the release i can get this content even if i buy higher edition or its for pre-orders only ? A: i dont think we will have any preorder exclusives, time will tell tho

Q: How many quests Will there be? A: a lot

Q: how many or which of the zombie types from the first game will we see again in DL2? A: everyone from DL1 is coming back (zombie wise) wise some cool additions and upgrades

Q: How many factions are confirmed so far or at least under disussion? A: 2 main ones are confirmed, and there will be more side ones

Q: will there be any sort of vehicles we can drive in DL2? A: yup there will be vehicles

Q: Will there be shields and (fast?) counterattacks after blocking? A: ripostes will be there, im not sure about the shields but u can block without it

Q: The map takes place in a City, is this city based on a real life counterpart? A: it's a fictional city based on european cities

Q: what happened to the firearms i mean why they are removed from the game ? A: they are very rare commodity 15 years after diseaster

Q: can we drive vehicles? A: yes

Q: When does the Q&A end? A: in around 10 minutes

Q: I don't know if this was asked. But Will we be able to explore more then the city? A: the city alone is 4 times bigger than the first DL, there is a lot to explore, dunno about going outside tho

Q: Will there be some type of pvp in the game? A: more info about multiplayer modes will come very soon

Q: Who is the voice actor for aiden A: dunno to be honest xD not the kyle voice actors and that what matters [This has been released. Aiden’s voice actor is Jonah Scott.]

Q: So there is firearms in the game but they are very rare and hard to find ? i mean u can still find them but its hard right ? A: i mean that they are so rare that you wont find one, but as i said, there are still ranged weapons, and some you can craft on your own

Q: Will it be a new Be The Zomby ? Or Human player invading other world like DS3 ? A: as i said, no details for multiplayer this time, sorry! :x

Q: Will the implemented day/night cycle have any special amendments? (Can we expect to see random encounters/anomalies on random nights/days?) A: would be cool, ill ask devs

Q: In the trailer we saw bracelet and how "charges go down". What will happen if it goes down and will we have "antizin"? Can we buy or trade it? A: there is no antizine, strong UV lights weakens the infection, its still under discussion what will happen when it will go to 0, most possible outcome is simply dying and having to restart the game

Q: Hold up. "No guns" or "very rare guns"? I saw both those answers from Uncy A: its pretty much the same, like, they're all pretty much gone

Q: what about invasions? Be the zombie A: no multiplayer details now

Q: Is the game 4 times bigger then just the slums? Or the WHOLE game A: the whole game without the following

Q: Will there be more interactions within the game? (IE: Fishing, skinning the animals we hunt, cooking, etc) A: yup, there will be a lot to do in the city

Q: Will DL2 be on next gen xbox as it just got announced? A: right now we plan ps4 xone and pc release

Q: Will it be possible to take (offline) single-player saved games online, and if so, what proactive measures will Techland take to prevent game-save mods from disrupting the online multiplayer experience? A: as i said, multiplayer details will come in the future, those things are still under discussion

Q: Can we go and roam outside the city? A: Aiden wants to stay in the city

Q: my final question what is the virus called is it still called the harran virus A: well it's not in harran only anymore

Q: Is there some way to calculate just how many final outcomes you can get out of the game? Like in Detroit Become Human for example A: not really, not right now at least

Q: will screamers have more of a purpose then obstacle you have to get around A: they will be different this time

Q: Legend levels made the first game really easy so are they in dl2 or no ? and if they are there so is it balanced now or it will still make the game so easy ? A: legends levels are still under discussion as well

Q: Still another question about that charges... Will there be some visual and sensitive effects (like in Dying Light where the screens goes green and we dont have stamina)? A: yup, i think so at least

Q: Will there be more detailed animations for each thing we do? (If we activate our flashlight, Aiden would reach to his shoulder to turn it on) A: some things are speed up of course to not be annoying, but there will be more animations, like imagine having to reach the uv light for a 10000 time when volatile is at your face

Q: Will this channel remain so we can review all the previously stated questions? A: it will be closed but it will remain (i need to make QA out of it)

Q: Will it be possible to take (offline) single-player saved games online, and if so, what proactive measures will Techland take to prevent game-save mods from disrupting the online multiplayer experience? A: i responded to that with - no multiplayer details for now, I really don't have any info about it

Q: Can we ride horses ? A: nope

Q: Is korek in dl2? A: i dont think so

Q: anything to mention about Night hunters? A: night runners you mean? actually Aiden is the only man capable of reviving hte nightrunners caste

Q: wingsuit? A: maybe this will be one of the things we will be talking about - i mean, new traversal options

Q: Will we have the ability to pursue affections of NPC? Such as a friend meter, or even a lover? A: you will be able to interact with every single npc in the game - how? you will see

Q: Any building destruction in ds2? Like walls collapsing when you use explosives, would be cool A: just the last one - yes environment is destructible in some cases

#dying light 2 #dying light #the following spoilers #aiden caldwell #techland #long post #mod post #stills #dying light spoilers

11 notes · View notes

affectos · 5 years

Text

NBA 2K20: Rated ‘E for Everyone’ by the ESRB rating & ‘3+’ by PEGI. Uses real casino game imagery (Wheel of Fortune & Slot Machines) to encourage microtransactions for real gambling.

Pokemon Blue: Has a mini-game of a simulated slot machine that uses in-game currency. Rated ‘12+’ by PEGI.

The ESRB rating system says that if a game has real gambling like what NBA 2K20 is peddling, it HAS to be rated ‘Adults Only’. PEGI defends their rating, claiming that while yes, the game uses casino mechanics & imagery and that yes, players can pay money to gamble for in-game items, it doesn’t actually teach players how to gamble and that the gambling is a required part of the story.

It’s clear that the self-regulation of the game industry is now failing. Governments across the globe need to start treating this as real gambling; not ‘surprise mechanics’ or whatever excuse EA has to spin. It’s now predatory gambling.

It’s funny, back when this all started, I had hopes and supported the concept of lootboxes. My big catch though was that players had to be given ample opportunities to earn lootboxes for free and earn all the in-game content without paying a dime and minimal grind. If a game hides items in lootboxes behind the choice of either lengthy grind or paying money for the chance to earn what they want, then it needs to be treated as gambling.

Now though, watching Apex Legends attempt to trick players into shelling out $200+ dollars for a top-rarity item through underhanded tactics and the rating systems turn a blind eye to predatory gambling sickens me. To see even NINTENDO stoop to such a level with their mobile games isn’t promising.

I still believe in the concepts of lootboxes, but that comes with my aforementioned qualifiers.

2 notes · View notes

ladala99 · 5 years

Text

Spyro Reignited Countdown - Skylanders: Imaginators

And here we have the final Skylanders game. A game that was so uninteresting that it took until I started these reviews to finish it. Actually, no: I only didn’t finish it because I went to college and wasn’t going to bring my Skylanders with me.

Gameplay

It’s Skylanders gameplay. If you’ve played any of the Skylanders games, you’ll recognize it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The M.A.P. is pretty interesting, though. After a bit, you have an overworld to run around in, and when you do, you move more quickly. This overworld connects the levels, has hidden secrets, and allows you to ambush enemies. It’s pretty neat.

Other than that, though, you’ve seen it all before.

Special Note: the Crash Bandicoot level feels like not Skylanders and I love it. It’s so platform-y, and the minigames are a blast. I feel happy getting this game only for this level in particular. So much love and attention went into it. It was also made by Vicarious Visions rather than Toys for Bob like the rest of the game, so that might make the difference.

The Gates

There actually are not any in-level elemental gates in this game. There’s special things for the Senseis to interact with, and the Battle Gongs do add to your level percentage, but there’s no exclusive collectables or anything. You really only need a Sensei, and the game comes with two.

There are Elemental Realms, though: complete exclusive levels, one for each elemental Sensei. I count these more like Adventure Packs, though - neat, but extra. I do think that this might justify the price, though?

Old Figures vs. New Figures

This game is the real reason I put this section in, because the old figures are worthless in this game.

Sure, you can use them, but the enemy difficulty is balanced around the Imaginators, not the Skylanders. The Imaginators can achieve levels well beyond the maximum Skylander level, which makes them very overpowered, especially because this game takes after the 3DS games in that you gain stats by leveling, rather than just health.

The Senseis all have a really overpowered move that isn’t quite spammable, but is usable decently often. That’s how they are still useable in this game. Old Skylanders though? Unless you’re playing on Easy, they’re going to have a rough time. And Eon help you if you use them on Nightmare Mode. It’s just not feasible.

Also, Imaginator figures cannot be natively reset. This is intentional, and really limits replay value. Also limits resale value, which is what Activision wanted I’m sure.

But... you can reset them anyway if you have either Spyro’s Adventure or I think Giants on the 3DS. 3DS specifically, not console. The game reads them as corrupted figures and offers to reset them for you. So take that, Activision.

The Collectables

Treasure Chests, Soul Gems, and Legendary Treasures make a return. Not hats, though. There are no hats in this game. Unless your Skylander is already wearing one.

Legendary Treasures this time are Legendary Selfie Frames. You can use them to display different combat styles of Senseis and Imaginators.

The other thing that isn’t counted the same way is Imaginator parts. You don’t get to just plop on your Imaginite and make whatever you want, no, you gain the parts from various sources but mostly Imaginite Chests.

Imaginite Chests are found... well... everywhere. They’re in levels, sometimes hidden. You get them as rewards for beating opponents on the M.A.P. or doing other small tasks. They respawn.

You can also get exclusive parts through each individual Sensei, Imaginite Crystal, Elemental Realm, and many are locked specifically in the Lost Imaginite Mines Adventure Pack level. There’s also some unlocked by story progress and even Nightmare Mode.

So really if you want everything, you need to buy everything. But as fun as customizing your Imaginator is, it’s not the main gameplay. I mean, they had a companion app (that they broke in the final update, probably on purpose) that allowed you to customize Imaginators to your heart’s content. That was for the purpose of getting you to buy 3D-printed figures of them, though.

And yes, Imaginte Chests feel just like lootboxes. Now I actually know what those are, so I can feel the scumminess seething off of them. The game even lets you pay for more instantly if you want! (but why would you when they’re free?)

Bosses

One in each level, I believe. Kaos can make Imagintators, too, and he makes one of each type in attempts to defeat you.

And with this, Kaos goes back to his roots by being your equal. Using Imaginators to fight, just like you do. And the final boss fight feels like the final boss fight of Spyro’s Adventure.

That’s about the only thing this game does that’s a great ending to the series. It comes full circle in your rivalry with Kaos. The game’s not actually written to be the end of Skylanders, though, so it’s more of a coincidence than anything. Superchargers also goes full circle with the Core of Light being destroyed, after all.

Levels

They’re Toys for Bob length, which is fairly short. And there’s not that many of them. They’re pretty standard in their designs, though.

Except for Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands, though, which is amazing. It’s long and fun and different.

Can’t say anything about the other Adventure Packs since I got none of them, though, and I’m not feeling particularly inspired to get them.

Story

Kaos makes friends with a brain that allows him to use his imagination to create Imaginators (and later, a level). But, with Imaginite, you, the Portal Master, can do the same.

I think he also wreaks havoc in various ways, too? I only played the very end recently, so I don’t recall what happens in earlier levels.

The brain at the end decides that since Kaos isn’t winning, he’s not cool, so he betrays him and joins your side. Also, he starts to tell a story about his past, implied to actually be told in the next game. Lol. Guess we’ll never find out his backstory.

Unique in the Series?

Not really. Yes Imagintors and their customization is a new thing, but the vehicles in Superchargers had similar, if more limited, mechanics.

It’s unique in how awful it is to play older figures, though. And the Sensei Gongs that summon a lot of enemies in a level area is new. But mechanic-wise, it doesn’t do anything too different.

It’s just more Skylanders, just this time you can create your own.

Conclusion

So the Skylanders series ends not on a bang, but a whimper. Sales got lower and lower, and I’m not even sure if all the figures came out before the game was abandoned.

Toys ‘R Us shut down. Retailers didn’t want these figures cluttering their Video Game sections. All Skylanders competitors gone. Toys To Life as a game concept died.

It was a fun half-decade. It was an expensive half-decade.

But rising from the ashes of a failing series, Spyro is allowed to return to his roots. Will it meet my expectations? In a few days, we shall see. We shall see.

#spyro #skylanders #skylanders imaginators #video game review #spyro reignited

2 notes · View notes