Vidya Games Thread

[Saturnus]

SMT V Vengeance got a random update. Other than a few bug fixes they've decided to add a few demon navigators for the overworld and a whole new optional boss/quest against Marici (who wasn't in the base game) in the Taito region map.

(Mara, Idun, Mothman, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Hell Biker, and Cleopatra have been added.)
Nice to know that despite Kozuka working on Persona 3 Reload's OST for the Episode Aigis DLC, he's still making peak for random one-off free DLC bosses.

Spoiler: Battle - Marici

 

[Security]

Crowbcat uploaded a new video

Die, industry, die!

Also, Bioware started it's spiral into shit in 2011/2012 with Dragon Age 2/Mass Effect 3. At the time, the bits of failings in those games just seemed like errors made due to being rushed by EA, but thinking on how Mass Effect 3 started the trend of self-referential irony, I should've realized that something more was amiss. It seems like it was really ahead of everyone else in getting on the bandwagon of the modern millennial writing.

Thinking on it, the time lines up with the community of gamers and game developers I was apart of showing early signs of the mindvirus. And one of those people I knew also worked for Bioware at the time... hmm...

 

[TKN_Lurker]

As a bit of an unrelated sidetrack, I got curious suddenly and decided to delve into a bit of the background of American McGee, famous for being the director of the Alice: Return to Madness game.

Let me tell you, I didn't expect his childhood to be;

1. Hippie parents who divorced early into the marriage.
2. His mother legit giving him the legal name of American because of crack logic.
3. His father attempting to kill him on his 13th birthday party and only stopping after he lied to him about wanting to go drink at the pub.
4. And his own mother abandoning him for her tranny girlfriend while getting robbed of his inheritance because his deadbeat mom cared more about her gf's 'life saving surgery' than her own adolescent son.

Explains a lot of the dark themes in the games huh. That's a fuck ton of baggage.

 

[PleaseCheckYourReceipts]

As a bit of an unrelated sidetrack, I got curious suddenly and decided to delve into a bit of the background of American McGee, famous for being the director of the Alice: Return to Madness game.

Let me tell you, I didn't expect his childhood to be;

1. Hippie parents who divorced early into the marriage.
2. His mother legit giving him the legal name of American because of crack logic.
3. His father attempting to kill him on his 13th birthday party and only stopping after he lied to him about wanting to go drink at the pub.
4. And his own mother abandoning him for her tranny girlfriend while getting robbed of his inheritance because his deadbeat mom cared more about her gf's 'life saving surgery' than her own adolescent son.

Explains a lot of the dark themes in the games huh. That's a fuck ton of baggage.

American's story is wild. Seems he's based out of Shanghai these days. He's got a YouTube Channel.

EA fumbling good IPs? Oh, haha.... I'm sad now.

 

[Security]

EA fumbling good IPs? Oh, haha.... I'm sad now.

To be fair here, American McGee's Alice was a bit of a disappointment in sales and reception (ignore critics). I don't know how much EA put into the game, but I imagine they were expecting a lot more, as names from id Software were the hot shit at the time. While they surely didn't put the amount of money Eidos put into Ion Storm and John Romero's Daikatana, the sales performance for Alice wasn't all that good. Reception amongst the scene was also "meh" at best. I got it on release, and I really liked it, but I remember being one of the few.

I was pretty surprised when it got a sequel a decade later. Have yet to play it myself, but as far as I can tell, it didn't sell all that much, either. Hard to blame EA here, especially when, in the year 2000, both big former id Software designer names - John Romero and American McGee - produced bombs, when expectations were super high.

 

[Bronze]

Mass seething 2: electric bogaloo in production

 

[Security]

Mass seething 2: electric bogaloo in production

You know what to do, Pippa. Never stop avenging her frown.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

Mass seething 2: electric bogaloo in production

Oh cool, Geoff finally acknowledges the existence of the best selling game of 2023.

 

[MrProcessor]

The funny part of this is that she is explaining all this to a judge who doesn't know anything about videogames.

 

[CalciumAnimal]

As a bit of an unrelated sidetrack, I got curious suddenly and decided to delve into a bit of the background of American McGee, famous for being the director of the Alice: Return to Madness game.

Let me tell you, I didn't expect his childhood to be;

1. Hippie parents who divorced early into the marriage.
2. His mother legit giving him the legal name of American because of crack logic.
3. His father attempting to kill him on his 13th birthday party and only stopping after he lied to him about wanting to go drink at the pub.
4. And his own mother abandoning him for her tranny girlfriend while getting robbed of his inheritance because his deadbeat mom cared more about her gf's 'life saving surgery' than her own adolescent son.

Explains a lot of the dark themes in the games huh. That's a fuck ton of baggage.

The guy was generally a force for good in the games industry and i'm still pissed that dealing with EA's bullshit seemed to have burned him out on games entirely. Akanerio deserved better then to be written off as a mobile game and Fuck you EA for giving him the runaround for like 10 years.

To be fair here, American McGee's Alice was a bit of a disappointment in sales and reception (ignore critics). I don't know how much EA put into the game, but I imagine they were expecting a lot more, as names from id Software were the hot shit at the time. While they surely didn't put the amount of money Eidos put into Ion Storm and John Romero's Daikatana, the sales performance for Alice wasn't all that good. Reception amongst the scene was also "meh" at best. I got it on release, and I really like it, but I remember being one of the few.

I was pretty surprised when it got a sequel a decade later. Have yet to play it myself, but as far as I can tell, it didn't sell all that much, either. Hard to blame EA here, especially when, in the year 2000, both big former id Software designer names - John Romero and American McGee - produced bombs, when expectations were super high.

Not exactly wrong but part of the problem is for such a unique game EA did nothing to push it to an audience that would appreciate it every time i saw it on selves and it's sequel i would pause and pick it up and still have no idea what genre it even was.

Tim Burton comes to mind as a comparison not just in style but in the "who the fuck is this for"
Good movies but how are you gonna pitch a grimdork version of alice in wonderland. Amusingly they both worked on adaptation of the same source.

 

[Punished Anime Discusser]

As a bit of an unrelated sidetrack, I got curious suddenly and decided to delve into a bit of the background of American McGee, famous for being the director of the Alice: Return to Madness game.

Let me tell you, I didn't expect his childhood to be;

1. Hippie parents who divorced early into the marriage.
2. His mother legit giving him the legal name of American because of crack logic.
3. His father attempting to kill him on his 13th birthday party and only stopping after he lied to him about wanting to go drink at the pub.
4. And his own mother abandoning him for her tranny girlfriend while getting robbed of his inheritance because his deadbeat mom cared more about her gf's 'life saving surgery' than her own adolescent son.

Explains a lot of the dark themes in the games huh. That's a fuck ton of baggage.

Can't forget that his sister is still missing, most definitely dead, but they never found the body.

 

[Brosnan Pierce Brosnan]

American McGee was also conspired against by Tim Willits who successfully got him fired by ID. Very cool Tim. Nice indeed. Non-stop shitshow since birth really. No wonder he ended up far away really.

 

[CalciumAnimal]

Can't forget that his sister is still missing, most definitely dead, but they never found the body.

given the chaos that is his life i would not be surprised if shes somehow survived all these years and is living as some big name actress who hires people to be her fake parents.

 

[John Vtuber👁️]

Brighter Shores begins early access today, criticisms reign in from "this plays too much like RuneScape", "this doesn't play enough like RuneScape", and everything in between. Personally, I trust this team more than Jagex currently, and they may actually tackle issues players put forward in a timely manner. At the very least, I'm going to give it a fair shake, because I am eternally desperate for something good again, and have a high tolerance for growing pains though development!

 

[Kazuma]

The Trails series are having a sale on Steam right now. Been meaning to get into this series for a while now.

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

 

[Abomination]

The Trails series are having a sale on Steam right now. Been meaning to get into this series for a while now.

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

It is a long and ongoing series, but an incredibly rewarding one, in my opinion. Some of the best JRPGs I've ever played, even some of the weaker ones in the series.

Back when I started playing the series, the most recent title in the West was Cold Steel 4. From the first game up to that one is nine games. It took me almost exactly one year to the hour to finish the series up to that point:

Trails in the Sky FC prologue achievement:

Trails of Cold Steel IV true ending achievement:

This wasn't intentional, and I only noticed this when I finished CS4. I took very few breaks from the series during that time. I think the most I took was maybe two months between Trails in the Sky the Third and Trails from Zero because there wasn't an official localization of Zero and Azure at the time, and I had to get the fan localization going. I still remember being so into Azure that it only took me 10 days to beat it....taking about 110 hours all while still going to work, sleeping, doing my regular things.

I could sperg on for a long time about how much I love this series, but I'll stop for now by saying that it is an amazing series if you have the time to invest in it, even if slowly. I've been lagging on catching up with some of the recent games in the series, but I'm trying to finish a few games I'm playing right now and plan on getting back to it.

 

[CalciumAnimal]

It is a long and ongoing series, but an incredibly rewarding one, in my opinion. Some of the best JRPGs I've ever played, even some of the weaker ones in the series.

Back when I started playing the series, the most recent title in the West was Cold Steel 4. From the first game up to that one is nine games. It took me almost exactly one year to the hour to finish the series up to that point:

Trails in the Sky FC prologue achievement:

Trails of Cold Steel IV true ending achievement:

This wasn't intentional, and I only noticed this when I finished CS4. I took very few breaks from the series during that time. I think the most I took was maybe two months between Trails in the Sky the Third and Trails from Zero because there wasn't an official localization of Zero and Azure at the time, and I had to get the fan localization going. I still remember being so into Azure that it only took me 10 days to beat it....taking about 110 hours all while still going to work, sleeping, doing my regular things.

I could sperg on for a long time about how much I love this series, but I'll stop for now by saying that it is an amazing series if you have the time to invest in it, even if slowly. I've been lagging on catching up with some of the recent games in the series, but I'm trying to finish a few games I'm playing right now and plan on getting back to it.

i goobered into starting at reverie and i still enjoyed myself fun series even if there is more then a minor amount of jank attached to these style of games

Just to touch on something i think was skipped over These games have an advancing timeframe so while you can jump in basically at any point (arc) there will be callbacks and recurring characters who just know each other and reference events.

it will not hold your hand for these exchanges it will sometimes info dump but does so in vague generalizations because they expect you to know.

Good game would play the epilogue first by accident again.

 

[Abomination]

i goobered into starting at reverie and i still enjoyed myself fun series even if there is more then a minor amount of jank attached to these style of games

Just to touch on something i think was skipped over These games have an advancing timeframe so while you can jump in basically at any point (arc) there will be callbacks and recurring characters who just know each other and reference events.

it will not hold your hand for these exchanges it will sometimes info dump but does so in vague generalizations because they expect you to know.

Good game would play the epilogue first by accident again.

Yes, this is one series where it is heavily advised to start from the first game. The entire series takes place on the same continent during the same time periods and are all evolving both independently and dependently of each other. As you said, there are many, many recurring characters and many, many events that events that are referenced throughout the entire series. There are also many sub-stories and pieces of lore that continue throughout the games and even the story arcs.

You can start wherever and still enjoy it, sure, but there will be a lot of missing context and some moments won't be as impactful without the context behind them. There's definitely a lot to it because of this, but it helps make the world feel much more alive because of it.

 

[Bronze]

 

[El Rrata]

"We mean it this time, guys... frfr!"