Vidya Games Thread

[John Vtuber👁️]

Since I don't know anything about Paradox, and this is one of the few places which might actually give me information that's not shit - what caused Paradox to fall from grace? Didn't they used to be the premier grand strategy studio? I can see here that they've been releasing shit games, but what's caused their games to go to shit?

And what is in it for Microsoft to do a buyout, if all they're making now is crap? Microsoft is admittedly infamous for buying studios that fall in quality, but when they're bought, they do start off with a decent reputation and decent games. If Microsoft bought Paradox tomorrow, what are they going to do to turn the company around, besides giving them a decent advertising budget for their games?

there's no one answer to give, since it's been a stream of poorly received decisions for about a decade. long and short of it is, brain drain is real with talent loss and shuttered studios, they may think licenses aren't worth paying if they don't get a larger cut of the profits, and the latest focus on revenue means if something isn't successful then support is pulled - sometimes even before the game launches

you would think that they would make games and updates based on what their audience likes, right? their old catalogue is right there, they can even play it themselves to understand why their audience enjoys them - so iteration based on engine upgrades, stability, and gameplay refinement would basically print money with a dedicated audience.

unfortunately, that takes time, and the money needs to be made now. I could more or less write essays regarding each release since Imperator, but that's the sort of long-term project I might make videos on as a filthy PNG-tuber instead. special shoutouts to BATTLETECH, The Lamplighter's League, Empire of Sin, Surviving The Abyss, so on and so forth, all of whom have their own stories and surrounding discourse (like when I last mentioned BATTLETECH and its culture war discourse a few weeks back).

tl;dr: big wigs want money, they decide to release products before they're good to go, massive amounts of DLC for content that isn't worth the asking price, if customers don't buy them support is killed prematurely and they move on to the next one. for their core strategy games, it's more complicated, but the first phrase that comes to mind is "Brain Drain" and dis-illusions of grandeur/resting on their laurels.

EDIT:

For Microsoft, the answer is IP and branding. Crusader Kings, Stellaris, EU, HOI, regardless of recent fumbles still have mindshare with their respective audiences. Microsoft also owns the BATTLETECH and Shadowrun IPs, as well as Obsidian who made Tyranny under Paradox. It is a result of the perfect storm that is the last ten years of decision making on the end of all parties, and could also take me a few essays to lay out fully, so give that a bit of time.

 

[reinigen]

Fatlus bros....... It's almost time!


Reminder for those who don't remember. It looks like Persona, but in a fantasy setting/isekai with race factions.

 

[Saturnus]

Fatlus bros....... It's almost time!


Reminder for those who don't remember. It looks like Persona, but in a fantasy setting/isekai with race factions.

Can't believe SMT x FE was in development hell for this long.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions never happened.

 

[Dispirited Helmet]

Also, do remember that the Vicky 2 being played now is not Vanilla. It's HPM variants, Crimeamod if you're and edgy edgy boi, or alternate history forks (usually based on HPM) beacuse Vicky 2 is still very much broken in Vanilla, even with the 2022 beta patch you still will get the 6 Gorillion rebels by 1900 since it's impossible to satisfy them even with all political and social reforms, Health care is still completly broken, great wars are a mess at best (and not intentionally!) ACW still gets confederate Iowa due to the AI being unable to properly respond to events... The list goes on.

The modders helping to fix/improve the base game requires the modders to be: 1. Competent and: 2. The modding scene to be active. If one is missing you're fucked (See HoI 4 with their garbage VN's masquearding as strategy games) and the negative press and general shit quality has ensured Vicky 3 will never be properly modded (the increased railroading does not help modders either)

The thing is, I agree that base Vicky 2 is bad and broken. BUT, it had the tools available in the base game to allow modders to improve upon it. That is the sole thing that has kept Paradox enjoyable for me: the ability to mod out the shitty issues with most of their games. Victoria 2 modding was only able to thrive the way that it did BECAUSE the base game was dropped early (no endless updates for the sake of selling DLC), and frankly I'm expecting Paradox to give up on it before too long. My hope is that they will leave enough tools in the base game for modding to solve its issues. With that said, if Victoria 3 mods are going the same way as HOI4 then all hope is lost. IMO part of the issue with HOI4 modding is the endless updating for DLC sales discourages dedicated modders, but damn if you aren't spot on with the "garbage VN" criticism.

Since I don't know anything about Paradox, and this is one of the few places which might actually give me information that's not shit - what caused Paradox to fall from grace? Didn't they used to be the premier grand strategy studio? I can see here that they've been releasing shit games, but what's caused their games to go to shit?

And what is in it for Microsoft to do a buyout, if all they're making now is crap? Microsoft is admittedly infamous for buying studios that fall in quality, but when they're bought, they do start off with a decent reputation and decent games. If Microsoft bought Paradox tomorrow, what are they going to do to turn the company around, besides giving them a decent advertising budget for their games?

Their business model incentivizes massive in-game changes in the form of DLC, regardless of how the game actually performs. Does a game play great, and only needs minor performance updates? Can't sell those updates as DLC, better completely overhaul combat and the economy system so you have something to sell, even if the game is finished. Does the game suck balls, with a bunch of completely redundant or useless mechanics? Sell all of those improvements as individual DLC packs, ensuring that the game remains broken for 3+ years. That also leaves no incentive for them to make too many improvements to their in-house game engine, which is painfully outdated at this point.

That is the Paradox problem in a nutshell. But man, when their stuff works it scratches an itch that most other games can't provide for me, particularly in multiplayer. Player-on-player diplomacy is so interesting when its working, and since you can get so many people into some of these games it transforms a gameplay session into glorious chaos like nothing else can. A good Paradox game is like the bizarre lovecraftian love-child of Among Us and Dungeons and Dragons.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

That is the Paradox problem in a nutshell.

Some might say its a paradox.

 

[Porean]

The thing is, I agree that base Vicky 2 is bad and broken. BUT, it had the tools available in the base game to allow modders to improve upon it. That is the sole thing that has kept Paradox enjoyable for me: the ability to mod out the shitty issues with most of their games. Victoria 2 modding was only able to thrive the way that it did BECAUSE the base game was dropped early (no endless updates for the sake of selling DLC), and frankly I'm expecting Paradox to give up on it before too long. My hope is that they will leave enough tools in the base game for modding to solve its issues. With that said, if Victoria 3 mods are going the same way as HOI4 then all hope is lost. IMO part of the issue with HOI4 modding is the endless updating for DLC sales discourages dedicated modders, but damn if you aren't spot on with the "garbage VN" criticism.

Honestly I'm a big HoI 4 hater so i didn't even take the quick update schedule into account, but you are entirely correct, the big downtimes between expansions (hey remember when it was expansions and not DLC and you could buy physical disks to get them? Pepperidge farm... etc.) That downtime really made the big mods able to be made, for example HoI 2 had the most popular mod "Darkest Hour" get made into a stand alone game, and that is the definitive version of HoI 2.

It was a long, long time since i did any PDX game modding but i doubt some of the core features are able to be changed, like for example the absolutely asinine war system with frontline, unless its still running the Clauzewitz regiment vs. regiment combat under the hood the war system is always gonna be shit, and what about the world market that will ALWAYS buy goods even if at a low price? That's a real bad system, and i don't think it's a coincidinky that the Vicky 3 world market works like Stellaris galaxy market.... Almost like the glorious jank that was the Vicky 2 market was really difficult to make, and hey most players couldn't understand it, so why make a new version, Stellaris runs on the same engine let's just port it over... That's another thing i just don't see getting fixed neither by PDX or modders, i mean Vicky is a game about the of the industrial revolution and it's consequences, not even attempting to properly simulate a world market is an unforgivable sin IMO.

Their business model incentivizes massive in-game changes in the form of DLC, regardless of how the game actually performs. Does a game play great, and only needs minor performance updates? Can't sell those updates as DLC, better completely overhaul combat and the economy system so you have something to sell, even if the game is finished. Does the game suck balls, with a bunch of completely redundant or useless mechanics? Sell all of those improvements as individual DLC packs, ensuring that the game remains broken for 3+ years. That also leaves no incentive for them to make too many improvements to their in-house game engine, which is painfully outdated at this point.

So true, Jewhans aggressive DLC policy might have made PDX rich but at what cost, Well we see the cost now, the games were never complete at release, but now we are getting sequels missing most of the features of their predecessors, look at CK3, at release why would you get it instead of CK2, purely from a content standpoint mind you, disregard the horrible UI, the fact the the new features was fucking RPG skill trees for you characters, stress being made into mana, the religious reform system being entirely epik memes XD with nudism and le based gynaecocracy, so hecking right side of history! upvoted and and R*ditt golded goonsir!

That is the Paradox problem in a nutshell. But man, when their stuff works it scratches an itch that most other games can't provide for me, particularly in multiplayer. Player-on-player diplomacy is so interesting when its working, and since you can get so many people into some of these games it transforms a gameplay session into glorious chaos like nothing else can. A good Paradox game is like the bizarre lovecraftian love-child of Among Us and Dungeons and Dragons.

Man, the only thing that comes close to that MP experience is Dominions MP, BUT and this is a big BUT and i cannot lie; you have to sell your ass to the /domg/ Discord
cabal, or pledge eternal fealty to our lord and master Lowtax Jeffery of YOSPOS to ever even get into a game, don't even try R*ddit.

Now that I'm all seethed out i just want to share my favourite picture of Great Leader Jewhan;

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

So true, Jewhans aggressive DLC policy might have made PDX rich but at what cost, Well we see the cost now, the games were never complete at release, but now we are getting sequels missing most of the features of their predecessors, look at CK3, at release why would you get it instead of CK2, purely from a content standpoint mind you, disregard the horrible UI, the fact the the new features was fucking RPG skill trees for you characters, stress being made into mana, the religious reform system being entirely epik memes XD with nudism and le based gynaecocracy, so hecking right side of history! upvoted and and R*ditt golded goonsir!

I was fine with the RPG skill trees because it was suppose to encourage you to change playstyles between rulers. However that ran into a huge issue where if you know anything about the intrigue system, you can get infinite gold just by making lies about other rulers and then blackmailing them with those lies.

I was not a fan of the stress system at all though. I understand at some points it made sense for a shy character to get stressed because he has to have a feast but the fact that it causes mental breakdowns and all sorts of negatives was horrendous. It didn't encourage me to change how I wanted to play, it encouraged me to just sort out my inheritence and then speedrun my character into the grave by stressing themselves out until suicide was an option.

CK3 is plagued with all sorts of "sound interesting but holy fuck, which retard decided to implement it this way" that Paradox has been fucking up a lot with lately. The fact that the "North Korea" strat was not just viable but the best way to play on release shows how little thought went into the game.

Everyone that worked on the Iberian Struggle system deserves to be drawn and quartered.

 

[Fucking YTs]

I hate having a work iPhone, but this makes it a little better:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/delta-game-emulator/id1048524688

The Delta emulator finally released without needing to side load.

Supported Game Systems

• Nintendo Entertainment System
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• Nintendo 64
• Game Boy (Color)
• Game Boy Advance
• Nintendo DS

 

[John Vtuber👁️]

listen, man, if COD Zombies isn't going to be good any time soon, someone else is going to eat their lunch - and wouldn't you know it, one such game released from EA today - party like it's the mid 2000s all over again at the drop:



wash it down with some glorious slav-jank, though perhaps wait for an optimization patch or two before pulling the trigger:



alternately, the creator of the OG Kerbal Space Program is at it again with another free-form machine building game, and it seems to be better received than Kerbal Space Program 2:

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

So a few months ago I linked a game that was shown at IGN Fan Fest and it's coming to Early Access soon.
Game: Manor Lords
Developer: Slavic Magic
Release Date: Early Access on April 26th
Manor Lord is a medieval citybuilding/strategy game with tactical battles

Spoiler: Gameplay Trailer

Ambiguous Amphibian did a 3hr stream a few days ago.

Spoiler: AmbiguousAmphibian

Crimzon Ruze of StarsEN also did a ~4hr stream a few days ago

Spoiler: Crimzon Ruze

 

[Thomas Talus]

KC: D2 preview, coming in November:

 

[John Vtuber👁️]

KC: D2 preview, coming in November:

please look forward to game journalists malding that medieval bohemia doesn't look like modern day San Francisco, just like the first time around

So a few months ago I linked a game that was shown at IGN Fan Fest and it's coming to Early Access soon.
Game: Manor Lords
Developer: Slavic Magic
Release Date: Early Access on April 26th
Manor Lord is a medieval citybuilding/strategy game with tactical battles

Spoiler: Gameplay Trailer

Ambiguous Amphibian did a 3hr stream a few days ago.

Spoiler: AmbiguousAmphibian

Crimzon Ruze of StarsEN also did a ~4hr stream a few days ago

Spoiler: Crimzon Ruze

I've been looking forward to this for literal years and will buy the biggest, baddest edition around because this is the GOOD shit and should be rewarded

 

[naganon]

please look forward to game journalists malding that medieval bohemia doesn't look like modern day San Francisco, just like the first time around



I've been looking forward to this for literal years and will buy the biggest, baddest edition around because this is the GOOD shit and should be rewarded

The trailer looked pretty good. But I'm slightly worried about this. From IGN:
"In a 2015 tweet he wrote, “Would you please explain to me whats racist about telling the truth? There were no black people in medieval Bohemia. Period.” But when asked if Warhorse’s philosophy had changed at all for the sequel, or if it would incorporate more stories like the original game’s DLC, A Woman’s Lot, Stolz-Zwilling told IGN, “The story and plot of KCD has evolved—it’s darker, deeper, and more cinematic, yet also crueler with pivotal decisions and plot twists that challenge the players’s conscience. Nevertheless, it retains its humor and down-to-earth approach. As mentioned already, Henry is embarking on a journey from the countryside and local quarrels to a relatively Cosmopolitan city. that is besieged and occupied by the invading king. Naturally, in a place like this, people can expect a wide range of ethnicities and different characters that Henry will meet on his journey."

Sounds like code for "we're adding ոiggers" to me.

 

[Superduper Samurai]

The trailer looked pretty good. But I'm slightly worried about this. From IGN:
"In a 2015 tweet he wrote, “Would you please explain to me whats racist about telling the truth? There were no black people in medieval Bohemia. Period.” But when asked if Warhorse’s philosophy had changed at all for the sequel, or if it would incorporate more stories like the original game’s DLC, A Woman’s Lot, Stolz-Zwilling told IGN, “The story and plot of KCD has evolved—it’s darker, deeper, and more cinematic, yet also crueler with pivotal decisions and plot twists that challenge the players’s conscience. Nevertheless, it retains its humor and down-to-earth approach. As mentioned already, Henry is embarking on a journey from the countryside and local quarrels to a relatively Cosmopolitan city. that is besieged and occupied by the invading king. Naturally, in a place like this, people can expect a wide range of ethnicities and different characters that Henry will meet on his journey."

Sounds like code for "we're adding ոiggers" to me.

They will never get rid of the stain, to this day i still encounter niggas who say "yeah its good but the creator said gamergate good so he should kill himself"

I hope its just empty buzzwords or just a random arab, shame if they cuck out in full but we have to see, chances are they dont, chances they do

 

[naganon]

They will never get rid of the stain, to this day i still encounter niggas who say "yeah its good but the creator said gamergate good so he should kill himself"

I hope its just empty buzzwords or just a random arab, shame if they cuck out in full but we have to see, chances are they dont, chances they do

I didn't see any ոiggers in the trailer. That's doing better than literally every other western game in the last decade.

 

[John Vtuber👁️]

I feel like this article is IGN setting up the inevitable dressing-down of Warhorse Studios when the game doesn't meet their standards of diversity. there could be characters that are prisoners of war, or slaves, merchants, nomads, or caught up in the maelstrom along with everyone else, and it wouldn't be enough for IGN and associates despite being actual diversity for that period of time. that being said, I would trust Warhorse Studios to make those characters leaps and bounds better than the current Western output of filling checkboxes, because they have a proven track record and have shown with this preview that this track record will be upheld.

either way, it's IGN stirring the pot, but it really is GamerGate 2.0 if KCD will capstone the year and re-ignite the discourse surrounding it

 

[Thomas Talus]

The biggest Kingdom Come fan I know is an African immigrant.

Maybe there will be an Italian trader in the big city.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

I've been looking forward to this for literal years and will buy the biggest, baddest edition around because this is the GOOD shit and should be rewarded

Yeah, normally I'm hesitant about "Early Access" drops but they've shown so much already that I have hope that they're going to continue on with updates for a while. Satisfactory still has room for more updates but I have zero regrets about buying that one because I've enjoyed what they gave me. Manor Lords looking like someone poured Mount & Blade, Banished, and Crusader Kings into a pot and I'm all for it.

 

[El Rrata]

Manor Lords looking like someone poured Mount & Blade, Banished, and Crusader Kings into a pot and I'm all for it.

AND I'M BEING PULLED IN!

 

[Brosnan Pierce Brosnan]

Ah Microsoft is having a big Steam sale and from what I am seeing they haven't released anything worth playing for... a really long time...

.....................