I suspect uncapping FPS would break physics and damage calculations. FromSoft are fond of tying those to FPS.

I’m not surprised about the rest either, though they really should start getting criticized for it in my opinion. No DLSS in 2024 is especially hard to excuse.

I don’t think the writing is particularly good, and it is particularly problematic in Act 3. The pacing falls apart, all urgency disappears and there is also a big problem with the villains. Gortash and Orin are pretty bad characters and the nebulous blob that is the Nether Brain is not a compelling antagonist. The Emperor is a pretty interesting character, but he sadly doesn’t really play out as an antagonist - which I find a massive waste in itself. It also felt like some parts of the plot only make sense if you’re playing as Dark Urge.

The companions all being extremely horny and protagonist-sexual gives off a weird vibe, and the progression and design of the relationship system is extremely bad. As an example, Shadowheart can say you’re her soulmate that changed her whole life on like the second day you spend together! There is also a severe lack of bonding moments that are purely adventure party/friendship and not avenues for everyone else to hit on you.

There being literally 0 consequences for dabbling in Mind Flayer powers felt weird and bad and generally undercut the impact of the entire main story. There is no reason not to fill out your whole tadpole tree (including becoming half illithid), and there is no reward for completely abstaining. No specific dialogue, no impact on the ending. Not even an achievement.

Lots of small attempts at fanservice for fans of BG 1&2 feel like surface level lipservice made by people who never played the originals. The Flail of Ages being a shitty rare regular flail sold in a random shop is just depressing.

I wish they left more BG 1&2 characters alone if they didn’t know exactly what to do with them. Jaheira is mostly fine, but even Minsc felt out of place and shoehorned in and the character assassinations of Viconia and Sarevok just felt terrible. Especially since the role of both of those characters in the plot could have easily been replaced with brand new NPCs.

On a similar note, it strikes me as extremely weird that they seemingly outright refused to have any voice actor reprise their role. Heidi Shannon has disappeared from the face of the earth so Jaheira needed to be recast, but Grey DeLisle (Viconia) and Kevin Michael Richardson (Sarevok) are still out there working for example and Jim Cummings (Minsc) was asking random fans at cons to remind Larian he exists.

I have a deep love for Greedfall. I think it’s sadly pretty underrated. It’s very janky, and time and again it’s non-AAA nature rears its head, but it has such heart behind it. The good parts are worth powering through its flaws in my opinion, and it’s not like they were asking for €60 anyway.

Like you say, the lore and world building is really quite interesting and I loved what they did with the language. Managing to create and enforce consistent accents for all the natives goes such a long way towards maintaining immersion.

I’m very curious how the sequel will turn out. Teer Fradee was the best part of the game for me, so knowing that it’s a prequel taking place on the mainland makes me a little hesitant.

For sheer versatility you can’t beat PC, so that is going to have to be my choice. Having flexibility between KB+M and controller, having access to mods and tweaks and (typically) having a wider array of graphics/performance options to tailor to your preferences makes for an unbeatable package.

That being said (and it pains me to say this given my distaste for Nintendo), I absolutely loved the 3DS. The dual screens were cool, it had good ergonomics for me and a nice weight in your hands and there was something very satisfying in the mechanics of flipping it open or listening to the click as you slam it shut. It’s just a really nice device to use.

Very exciting appointment, and a typically Tony Bloom one too. Love that Brighton continues to show ambition and willingness to take risks and trust their analytics. It’s been said many times but they really are an exemplary club in British football.

Can we not go after one of the few good guys in gaming? Please? If you want to hound someone Nintendo is right over there.

This is why the game lost me to be completely honest. I felt like the type of storytelling changed into more of a Sunday morning cartoon type vibe where the gang always wins and nobody ever dies.

There was a point during the story (probably Post-ARR through the beginning of post-Stormblood patch quests?) where it felt like there were actual stakes and risks of consequences and the lives of beloved characters were actually in danger and I loved that.

But instead more people seemed to come back from the dead than actually die.

For sure. Will probably be even more likely if the Elden Ring DLC does really well and further propels FromSoft into a true mainstream household name.

I’m not fussed about the minimap, I play with it off anyway. I might turn off the compass too if given the option, I like checking the PDA for directions.

The ammo though is a travesty to me. Maybe I’m overly sensitive but for me it’s such an immersion break, and these games thrive off of immersion. That’s the whole dang point! Interchangable ammo is such a “video gamey” thing that every time I loot a container and see “assault rifle ammo” I’m going to be pulled out of the zone mentally.

Tuulik was a real one and I would have been very interested in his spinoff. He was really the last bastion of the old ZA/UM as one of the co-creators of the setting (having been part of the original Elysium tabletop game sessions with Kurvitz et al). Him getting fired a couple of months ago was pretty much the final nail for ZA/UM.

But hey, at least the Disco Elysium mobile game with 0 original creator participation is still under development!

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Are you familiar with Bethesda games? The best way to describe it is that it’s a Bethesda game that sacrifices what makes Bethesda games great (the handcrafted open world) in exchange for an illusion of scale and scope by way of procedural generation.

What you’re left with is mediocre writing, boring characters and uninteresting exploration of copy-pasted points of interest.

They shouldn’t have to compromise on the unique experience and simplify it for everyone and ruin what makes them good.

When was this ever about compromising the vision or changing the games? I thought this was about the use of guides while playing.

I’m perfectly happy for all the players who spend thousands of hours scrounging every surface, making conspiracy-boards out of item descriptions and feverishly figuring out every hidden secret in these games by themselves.

It’s still completely valid to enjoy all the rest the games have to offer and look at the wiki for how you access the secret area with the hidden boss.

Arguably the first Dark Souls is one of these. Most of the classes push you towards shields as the cornerstone of defense. The studio felt like this overemphasis on shields was such a mistake they took 2 whole games (Bloodborne and Sekiro) in an almost entirely shield-free direction to teach players there were other ways.

That’s more the studio changing design philosophy rather than the game giving poor hints, I would argue. Shields are very viable through all of DS1.

But that’s literally the point of these games compared to everything else that’s out there.

I don’t think that’s entirely true. There are lots of people who play them mostly for the challenge of learning and beating the (mostly) well designed bosses.

Where else do I get cryptic puzzles and unforgiving exploration without a map full of markers?

Outer Wilds? Subnautica?

FromSoft sort of brought it upon themselves with their design philosophy to be fair, going back at least as far as Dark Souls. Selling a DLC and having it locked behind a convoluted puzzle you wouldn’t figure out without a guide was certainly a choice, for example.

I played Origins recently and heavily modded it too. That engine should not be touched, if it is ever revisited it will have to be in the form of a full remake. Which, I think, the odds of it ever happening has to be near zero.

I’ve played only Origins but this trailer is not doing a whole lot for me. Even visually I don’t like it (which is bizarre because I think Origins looks like shit and still I somehow prefer it). Don’t really like this art direction, personally.

I wonder how they’ll deal with James McCaffrey’s passing. I can’t imagine the game with someone else’s voice, and I can’t imagine just using the existing recordings from 20 years ago would be enough for a modern remake (unless it’s literally retelling the story frame by frame, I suppose).

Regardless, I’m very hopeful about this project and I’m glad Rockstar let Remedy do this. The Max Paynes are true classics and hopefully this can introduce a new generation to those stories.

Yes, definitely! Using the [email protected] works well for communities, but linking to posts is a bit of a headache honestly.

Impressive that enough people still care for there to be a backlash.