Vidya Games Thread

[Abomination]

in terms of recent game recommendations, I can not give Hooded Horse enough praise for their catalogue, so here are a few that I've been following the development of and am willing to shill.

Clanfolk wears its inspiration on its sleeve, a medieval-styled Rimworld, and it does so wonderfully. Instead of going into autistic detail, check it out below if you're deep in the Rimworld addiction:



Firaxis isn't making XCOM 3 any time soon, so Xenonauts 2 is picking up on the obvious demand. I will never forgive their decision to make a Marvel tactics game that bombed spectacularly, but that's another tangent entirely:



Speaking of XCOM, the creators of "The Long War" mod are still bashing together Terra Invicta, I know I have shilled it numerous times in the thread but I am legally obligated to do so whenever I talk about the lack of XCOM:

I've only played two Hooded Horse published games so far, but I've been very interested in their current and upcoming titles as many of them look fun and interesting. The two I have played are:

Against the Storm. I've talked about it before, but it's a ton of fun. A unique mash-up of city-builder/colony sim/resource manager and rougelike. Every settlement you make is different depending on what building and perks you choose from the random assortment you're given and how you decide to focus your settlement. Absolutely one of my favorite games to come out in the last few years and a great game to kill an hour or so

Old World. Most people describe it as a mix of Civ and CK3, which is a pretty good description. Essentially, it's a 4X game that puts a lot of focus on your ruler, the decisions they make, and the relationship between others around them along with the classic 4X formula. I've only played the tutorial and completed two games so far, but it's a lot of fun, though it's not perfect. One thing I was just thinking about yesterday is how out of the five victory conditions, three of them are tied to victory points you earn throughout (reaching the cap, having the most after 200 turns, having more than double anyone else by the time you hit half the points needed for the cap). I wish there was more variety, but on the other hand, the ambition victory is a fun one (basically completing ten goals that you can accept throughout the game). All-in-all, it's a lot of fun, and I hope to see it grow more as time goes on.

 

[CalciumAnimal]

Finally got around to playing Noita, MAN this game is better than I thought. I thought it was just "rogue-lite terraria", but the whole spell-making/wand customization thing really elevates it for me. I haven't quite figured out all the rules of the wand stuff yet (I'm avoiding spoiling myself on it for now) but I have managed to make a bizzaro daisy chained projectile loop a couple times now and its really rewarding when everything comes together. Honestly more interesting than the actual progression of the game.

when you feel the need to look stuff up I enjoy most of FuryForged for his Noita content. hes also heavily involved in secret hunting so definitely worth a watch if you want to get into the DEEP end.

 

[UberSoldat]

What a great console generation it's been thus far

Sony Names Two PlayStation CEOs, Says PS5 Growth Is Likely Over

Sony announced that PS5 sales are down and are likely to stay that way as it named two new PlayStation CEOs to replace the departing Jim Ryan.

www.gamespot.com

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

What a great console generation it's been thus far

Sony Names Two PlayStation CEOs, Says PS5 Growth Is Likely Over

Sony announced that PS5 sales are down and are likely to stay that way as it named two new PlayStation CEOs to replace the departing Jim Ryan.

www.gamespot.com

It's wild to me that they picked Herman Hulst, the guy from Guerrilla (Horizon Games), to be in charge of their 1st party games.

 

[MrProcessor]

It's wild to me that they picked Herman Hulst, the guy from Guerrilla (Horizon Games), to be in charge of their 1st party games.

Here's an old article about Hulst:​

What's next for PlayStation? Inside Hermen Hulst's plans for God of War Ragnarök, PS VR2 and live service gaming​

Based on this, I think the guy is getting a promotion but that his role isn't changing that much. So, I read this as Sony's board thinking, "Everything is fine, no major changes needed." Which doesn't really surprise me that much.

Sony Interactive Entertainment appoints new CEOs Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst​

Nishino is currently senior vice president, Platform Experience Group, and leads the team responsible for developing the experiences and technology within PlayStation products and services. The Platform Experience Group pushes the boundaries of play in many ways, including the innovations in PlayStation 5, the immersiveness of PlayStation VR2, and connecting millions of people on PlayStation Network. In his new capacity as CEO of the Platform Business Group, Nishino will continue to be responsible for technology, products, services, and platform experience. He will also oversee third-party publisher and developer relations and commercial operations, including sales and marketing of hardware, services, and peripherals.

So Nishino is going to be the person in charge of the technology side of Playstation, not the software (creative) side. I'm sure it's an important role at the company, but to me it seems like it's not that interesting from a consumer perspective. I mean a great game on an old potato console (or as it is normally called, the Nintendo Switch) is a bigger deal than a terrible game on some amazing high tech wonder.

Was it Hulst's idea to have Horizon: Forbidden West compete with Elden Ring? It's nice to have confidence in your games, but hubris is a sin cursed by the gods.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

Was it Hulst's idea to have Horizon: Forbidden West compete with Elden Ring? It's nice to have confidence in your games, but hubris is a sin cursed by the gods.

The first Horizon was released like 3 days before Breath of the Wild too, which was an even more retarded idea. I have no idea what the specifics of Hulst's decision making was but anyone that looked at a calendar and thought "hey, that's fine if we drop our new IP next to Zelda" deserves to be removed from any leadership position. The Elden Ring release was also retarded because FromSoft had already broken out of containment with Sekiro so FromSoft was no longer some niche little developer making games that only a small section of the consumer market knew about.

 

[Bronze]

>Be me
>Wait more than a decade for AC in japan
>Don't get to play a japanese samurai

It's releasing on November 15th

 

[Xuhle]

>Be me
>Wait more than a decade for AC in japan
>Don't get to play a japanese samurai

It's releasing on November 15th

Then there next game of hexa is supposed to be more like the tyranny of Washington where your shapeshiting into animals.
Ubisoft has really lost all identity to AC since 3.

 

[UberSoldat]

Common Ubisoft L

Ubisoft Has Canceled The Division Heartland

Ubisoft has announced that it's free-to-play shooter The Division Heartland has been canceled three years after it was revealed

insider-gaming.com

 

[John Vtuber👁️]

Common Ubisoft L

Ubisoft Has Canceled The Division Heartland

Ubisoft has announced that it's free-to-play shooter The Division Heartland has been canceled three years after it was revealed

insider-gaming.com

imagine if that support was put into The Divison 2's post-launch content instead of initially putting it on ice, because at least that game's actually been released!

please look forward to "The Divison 3" fracturing the game's remaining players even further, if that's not cancelled as well

 

[httn]

>Be me
>Wait more than a decade for AC in japan
>Don't get to play a japanese samurai

It's releasing on November 15th

Thats on you for looking forward to a modern AC game. I'm not looking forward to this spawning even more bad history takes regarding yasuke though.

With any luck Fromsoft might remember they own the tenchu IP and give us a japan based stealth game.

 

[ValkyrieAce]

Oof that's not the AC game I wanted. But saying that guy is unknown is pretty weak nowadays. Maybe a decade ago. The dude appeared in Nioh and didn't they just make an anime about him?

 

[agility_]

>Be me
>Wait more than a decade for AC in japan
>Don't get to play a japanese samurai

It's releasing on November 15th

Be reasonable - There are countless other games where you get to play as a Honoraburu Nihongo Hittokiri. This is ubisoft, of course it's going to be a story about that one african man who wielded a katana and shyieeeet. And most definitely will get the local girl in doing so.

I don't play ass creed, but I can already see another 8 or 10 months of the same mouthbreather grifters clutching pearls about the travesty of ESG scores and the already stale and tired checklist of sins made by Corportate Entity #847 trying to appease their shareholders.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

For those that don't know, you should check out the "talk" section of Yasuke's wikipedia article. It's full of angry Japanese yelling at westerners for making up fan fiction about Yasuke as if he's some important and amazing samurai.

 

[Willemshaven]

Men of War II has been released after being in development since 2021. Actually since 2015 if you count Soldiers: Arena.


A few hours in and things are already going well with highlights as:

• A requirement for a active internet connection to a server, even for single player content and the map editor. Unstable internet? Sucks to be you.
  • The devs have said before that they will make a offline mode post-launch for single player content, but first impressions matter.
• In-game voicelines and a few other sounds from Faces of War, which was released all the way back in 2006.
• Game files are encrypted so you can't make even the most basic "changing a value" mods.
  • A few modders (well, only two) from Assault Squad 2 did get early access to the modding tools, only Lost Eagles was released at launch. How do others get hands on the tools? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • At least there's documentation, but only the Russian version goes beyond the more basic stuff.

While writing this post, a dev clarified that the encrypted files weren't ready to be unlocked by launch. Point still stands.

Spoiler: Importance of GEM Engine modding

I'm not goint to list further issues, objective or subjective. The anti-modding, encrypted game files just doesn't compare to anything else.
As seen with Call to Arms with the forced first-person Direct Control and curtailing efforts to mod it away, if you discourage modding, modders will stay away. It doesn't matter what improvements you make since then. Modders will rather stick with Assault Squad 2, which has terrible performance and is crash prone when playing with total conversion mods due to it's 32-bit engine. Gates of Hell: Ostfront is the only other GEM Engine game that has a active modding scene, but it's much smaller than Assault Squad 2.

Since Soldiers: Heroes of World War II, modding has been a big staple in the GEM Engine games. One early innovative mod was BTRH. This mod introduced armor slope calculations years before it was official since the original Men of War. If I recall correctly, Digitalmindsoft originally were modders and later went on to work on Men of War and make the Assault Squad spin-offs. The introduction of Steam Workshop in Men of War: Assault Squad 2 was a big deal in a otherwise underwhelming entry. Barbed Wire Studios, which made and still updates Gates of Hell: Ostfront, were originally modders as well. This includes the creator of the Robz Realism Mod, by far the most popular mod for Assault Squad 2.

Having played the betas, the big good thing about Men of War II is that the multiplayer infrastructure is the best one yet. The main issue is that the game was fundamentally made with a MOBA-like PVP in mind, and it shows with it's greatly simplified elements and always-online requirement. The game is just Men of War II: Arena haphazardly reworked to be a regular pay-to-play game. Classic mode and realism mode felt like additions to soften the backlash the first betas got with players of the older games, with how little emphasis there was on these modes in the marketing. The end result is a fast-paced game with casual elements in the direction of Company of Heroes, yet still has a steep learning curve due to the more in-depth and complex control scheme and UI the GEM engine games always had.

As someone that doesn't touch online multiplayer often, I don't see a compelling reason to buy the game at a price of 45 bucks unless it goes on sale and when there are good mods available. I can see that there's effort to recover from Men of War II: Arena by sponsering streamers and other content creators, as well as other marketing. At the time of writing, the game sits at 50% positive feedback on Steam (it briefly dipped below that), which is a worse launch rating than Call to Arms but better than Men of War: Assault Squad 2 - Cold War.

 

[UberSoldat]

Men of War II has been released after being in development since 2021. Actually since 2015 if you count Soldiers: Arena.


A few hours in and things are already going well with highlights as:

• A requirement for a active internet connection to a server, even for single player content and the map editor. Unstable internet? Sucks to be you.
  • The devs have said before that they will make a offline mode post-launch for single player content, but first impressions matter.
• In-game voicelines and a few other sounds from Faces of War, which was released all the way back in 2006.
• Game files are encrypted so you can't make even the most basic "changing a value" mods.
  • A few modders (well, only two) from Assault Squad 2 did get early access to the modding tools, only Lost Eagles was released at launch. How do others get hands on the tools? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • At least there's documentation, but only the Russian version goes beyond the more basic stuff.

While writing this post, a dev clarified that the encrypted files weren't ready to be unlocked by launch. Point still stands.

Spoiler: Importance of GEM Engine modding

I'm not goint to list further issues, objective or subjective. The anti-modding, encrypted game files just doesn't compare to anything else.
As seen with Call to Arms with the forced first-person Direct Control and curtailing efforts to mod it away, if you discourage modding, modders will stay away. It doesn't matter what improvements you make since then. Modders will rather stick with Assault Squad 2, which has terrible performance and is crash prone when playing with total conversion mods due to it's 32-bit engine. Gates of Hell: Ostfront is the only other GEM Engine game that has a active modding scene, but it's much smaller than Assault Squad 2.

Since Soldiers: Heroes of World War II, modding has been a big staple in the GEM Engine games. One early innovative mod was BTRH. This mod introduced armor slope calculations years before it was official since the original Men of War. If I recall correctly, Digitalmindsoft originally were modders and later went on to work on Men of War and make the Assault Squad spin-offs. The introduction of Steam Workshop in Men of War: Assault Squad 2 was a big deal in a otherwise underwhelming entry. Barbed Wire Studios, which made and still updates Gates of Hell: Ostfront, were originally modders as well. This includes the creator of the Robz Realism Mod, by far the most popular mod for Assault Squad 2.

Having played the betas, the big good thing about Men of War II is that the multiplayer infrastructure is the best one yet. The main issue is that the game was fundamentally made with a MOBA-like PVP in mind, and it shows with it's greatly simplified elements and always-online requirement. The game is just Men of War II: Arena haphazardly reworked to be a regular pay-to-play game. Classic mode and realism mode felt like additions to soften the backlash the first betas got with players of the older games, with how little emphasis there was on these modes in the marketing. The end result is a fast-paced game with casual elements in the direction of Company of Heroes, yet still has a steep learning curve due to the more in-depth and complex control scheme and UI the GEM engine games always had.

As someone that doesn't touch online multiplayer often, I don't see a compelling reason to buy the game at a price of 45 bucks unless it goes on sale and when there are good mods available. I can see that there's effort to recover from Men of War II: Arena by sponsering streamers and other content creators, as well as other marketing. At the time of writing, the game sits at 50% positive feedback on Steam (it briefly dipped below that), which is a worse launch rating than Call to Arms but better than Men of War: Assault Squad 2 - Cold War.

First Homeworld 3 now this. Terrible month for RTSs.

That leaves Tempest Rising as the only one I'm looking forward to now.

 

[MrProcessor]

>Be me
>Wait more than a decade for AC in japan
>Don't get to play a japanese samurai

It's releasing on November 15th

I recommend Nioh 2 instead (if you haven't already played it, it has been out for a while).

 

[ogey_rrat]

>Be me
>Wait more than a decade for AC in japan
>Don't get to play a japanese samurai

It's releasing on November 15th

In other news, the PC port for Ghost of Tsushima releases in less than a day.

 

[Brosnan Pierce Brosnan]

For those that don't know, you should check out the "talk" section of Yasuke's wikipedia article. It's full of angry Japanese yelling at westerners for making up fan fiction about Yasuke as if he's some important and amazing samurai.

yasuke is not evaluated historically in Japan. The reason is because he was worthless. yasuke does not have an impressive event in a fight. It is only it that he was defeated by the akechi forces. There is no useful description in yasuke as an aide of nobunaga.

 

[PleaseCheckYourReceipts]

Be reasonable - There are countless other games where you get to play as a Honoraburu Nihongo Hittokiri. This is ubisoft, of course it's going to be a story about that one african man who wielded a katana and shyieeeet. And most definitely will get the local girl in doing so.

I don't play ass creed, but I can already see another 8 or 10 months of the same mouthbreather grifters clutching pearls about the travesty of ESG scores and the already stale and tired checklist of sins made by Corportate Entity #847 trying to appease their shareholders.

The funny bit is that there were actual fights that included Ronin, Conquistadors and Aztecs in that era, because the 1600s were freaking wild in the Pacific. But that's beyond Ubisoft's ability to think. Part of me is still deeply confused how they turned the "Magical Negro" trope into the only way they can get stories approved. But Ubisoft also should have had an AC game in Japan by 2012, but, it's Ubisoft, who's leadership are catastrophically dumb.

It should probably be actually pointed out that the shoving a nobody, random mercenary that moved along the Indian & Pacific coasts lines into a, technically, historical Japanese setting game is very racist. In the actual context for what that word used to mean.