Vidya Games Thread

[That Chuuba Enjoyer]

Didn't expect this collab.

GOD DAMMIT

Why does the lord do things to make me come back to this shit game

Would be funny if they made him a killer, but most likely going to be a survivor. which I'm fine with.

---

It was probably part of it, but I think it's not as big of an issue as people make it out to be. A lot of the dumb shit Blizzard did was on their own.


I don't see how they recover as it seems they filled the void with a new breed of degenerate that is exceedingly lazy and the people who are still there from the prior group have all burnt out and simply don't care.


They also paraded out a troon for their Dragon Isles expansion of WoW and the artist who made the new race of dragon twinks was confirmed to be a literal furry artist. No wonder nothing gets done anymore, they're filling their company with the worst kind of people.

If I was Microsoft, I'd probably not want to buy that AIDs filled company at this rate with all of their IP failing.

I honestly think in next few years we going to see more indie companies prosper and the bigger ones go through more struggles.

Take a look at Ubisoft, they had a abysmal earning the past year, drained 500$ million euros on R&D with nothing to share at the shareholder meeting, and currently going through several litigations of terrible work environments. Just crazy to see such great companies go down the shitter.

 

[Realticule]

I honestly think in next few years we going to see more indie companies prosper and the bigger ones go through more struggles.

Take a look at Ubisoft, they had a abysmal earning the past year, drained 500$ million euros on R&D with nothing to share at the shareholder meeting, and currently going through several litigations of terrible work environments. Just crazy to see such great companies go down the shitter.

I think a lot of game companies failed to innovate and were able to cost on old products for so long that they've withered from the inside, and are probably going to be replaced by new and upcoming brands.

As for terrible work environments, I wonder how much of that is when you're first starting out and your team all has the same vision, it's easy to put in the extra hours and grind things out because you're all part of this one vision. Once you grow beyond that and bring in outsiders, you try to apply the same drive to them but what do they care, they're not part of that vision, they're just executing your vision. Think of it as a janny, they do it for free because they like the person or entity, but bringing in random people also gets those who just want it for the power high which is how you end up with Reddit and Discord jannies that are the worst of the broom scum.

 

[Bug Eater]

Apparently, they are changing the PVE to something else than originally planned, not cancelling it.

Yeah, I think the reason that people are so mad is that they basically stopped development on OW1 to work on that stuff (in its original form as a standalone campaign with hero progression and skill trees and whatever). Maybe some of that content will make it into OW2 but it still seems like a huge downgrade. I was sceptical at launch after they revealed that it wouldn't be shipping with PVE content and gave it a release date of Soon™.

 

[MrProcessor]

What a coincidence, that frenetic pace is what kept me from playing more consistently. I stopped working in a kitchen because it made me want to kill people, I don't need my mental break coming from fucking up some bitch-ass motherfucker weasly ass looking soycuck meal and docking me a single point off the gold because I slipped on the ingredient keys.



RIP Blizzard, you were the gods of my tweens but I hope you fucking burn and die for what you've become.

They really were something special in the old days, it's a damn shame:

 

[The Holiest Hole]

Chuuba related since many of them play Uma Musume, the cute horse girl game. They are being sued by Konami. From what I understand it has to deal with the training mechanics being too similar to Konami's Power Pro games, the games that Niji uses for their Koushien Tournament. Good clip of the game in "action".

This is a retarded comparison to sue for. In that case Konami should also be suing Koei Tecmo for Monster Rancher, or Kairosoft for every game they ever made. Raising sims are not a unique concept and from my perspective it looks like a conglomerate trying to bully cash out of another company.

As for terrible work environments, I wonder how much of that is when you're first starting out and your team all has the same vision, it's easy to put in the extra hours and grind things out because you're all part of this one vision. Once you grow beyond that and bring in outsiders, you try to apply the same drive to them but what do they care, they're not part of that vision, they're just executing your vision. Think of it as a janny, they do it for free because they like the person or entity, but bringing in random people also gets those who just want it for the power high which is how you end up with Reddit and Discord jannies that are the worst of the broom scum.

I honestly feel a bit bad for TripleA Devs because it all comes down to the publishers pushing demands on developers which are cooked up by retarded investors that look for profit even if it means kicking square pegs into round holes. Dead weight and bloat is just a natural thing when a company is forced to hire that many people to make their coveted 400% return on investment. It just reminds me of the Mick Gordon/DOOM controversy and it makes you think how much political snaking can you really do if the whole dev team is 10 employees vs 400.

Look at SuperGiant games, Over the years they've produced hit after hit and the only real flop you could argue is Pyre but that game flopped from gameplay not retarded profit mechanics or investor interference. Max 30 employees and they try to publish their games with as little to no compromise on their vision. Hades in early access literally had 500 discord jannies(early access players) playtesting the game and giving so much feedback(that devs actually listened to) so the game could go to full release as it was. Real community effort.

 

[Realticule]

I honestly feel a bit bad for TripleA Devs because it all comes down to the publishers pushing demands on developers which are cooked up by retarded investors that look for profit even if it means kicking square pegs into round holes. Dead weight and bloat is just a natural thing when a company is forced to hire that many people to make their coveted 400% return on investment. It just reminds me of the Mick Gordon/DOOM controversy and it makes you think how much political snaking can you really do if the whole dev team is 10 employees vs 400.

Look at SuperGiant games, Over the years they've produced hit after hit and the only real flop you could argue is Pyre but that game flopped from gameplay not retarded profit mechanics or investor interference. Max 30 employees and they try to publish their games with as little to no compromise on their vision. Hades in early access literally had 500 discord jannies(early access players) playtesting the game and giving so much feedback(that devs actually listened to) so the game could go to full release as it was. Real community effort.

The second you take your company public, you've lost any control and it will turn to shit. Private is the way to go.

 

[MrProcessor]

This is a retarded comparison to sue for. In that case Konami should also be suing Koei Tecmo for Monster Rancher, or Kairosoft for every game they ever made. Raising sims are not a unique concept and from my perspective it looks like a conglomerate trying to bully cash out of another company.



I honestly feel a bit bad for TripleA Devs because it all comes down to the publishers pushing demands on developers which are cooked up by retarded investors that look for profit even if it means kicking square pegs into round holes. Dead weight and bloat is just a natural thing when a company is forced to hire that many people to make their coveted 400% return on investment. It just reminds me of the Mick Gordon/DOOM controversy and it makes you think how much political snaking can you really do if the whole dev team is 10 employees vs 400.

Look at SuperGiant games, Over the years they've produced hit after hit and the only real flop you could argue is Pyre but that game flopped from gameplay not retarded profit mechanics or investor interference. Max 30 employees and they try to publish their games with as little to no compromise on their vision. Hades in early access literally had 500 discord jannies(early access players) playtesting the game and giving so much feedback(that devs actually listened to) so the game could go to full release as it was. Real community effort.

I feel like directly related to Konami you can see this with both the Bloodstained games (by former Konami producer Koji Igarashi) and other indies like Blasphemous. This was years after a producer at Konami said, "You'll never see another 2D Castlevania game." (And of course he was wrong, because Konami had the Dead Cells devs make a 2D Castlevania recently.)

 

[Punished Anime Discusser]

I honestly feel a bit bad for TripleA Devs because it all comes down to the publishers pushing demands on developers which are cooked up by retarded investors that look for profit even if it means kicking square pegs into round holes. Dead weight and bloat is just a natural thing when a company is forced to hire that many people to make their coveted 400% return on investment. It just reminds me of the Mick Gordon/DOOM controversy and it makes you think how much political snaking can you really do if the whole dev team is 10 employees vs 400.

Look at SuperGiant games, Over the years they've produced hit after hit and the only real flop you could argue is Pyre but that game flopped from gameplay not retarded profit mechanics or investor interference. Max 30 employees and they try to publish their games with as little to no compromise on their vision. Hades in early access literally had 500 discord jannies(early access players) playtesting the game and giving so much feedback(that devs actually listened to) so the game could go to full release as it was. Real community effort.

Project Wingman was made by three people. One first time developer who just wanted a new Ace Combat game and a portfolio piece, one fanfiction writer, and a music composer who barely had any credits. VA'd by a bunch of randos off of 4chan, and small-time VAs the dev could find, on a kickstarted budget of around 115k AUD, after asking for 35k. Mostly getting feedback by posting stuff about the game in the Ace Combat general on /vg/.

I can't say whether it's the best game of 2020, because I specifically haven't played Hades yet, but it's so comically ahead of every other game that came out that year, AAA or otherwise, that it's not even funny. It looks good even though it's aiming for realism on a tiny budget, it runs well, it plays better than actual Ace Combat most of the time, the story is cheesy and full of memorable characters, while also having some great serious moments, and the soundtrack is genuinely some "top 10 of all time" level stuff.

Also it's $13 for the next three days.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

Has Blizzard had a good hit? Dragon Isles is still doing poorly as people are fed up with WoW after Shadowlands and the trooning. Hearthstone doesn't seem like it's doing particularly great. Their other games are all dead, and the only thing that seems to be getting any kind of hype is Diablo IV but after playing the beta, I can see it being a flop because of all the bullshit padding it has instead of action and some of the problems others raised.

Blizzard is a shitshow to sum it up. Everyone is excited for that Microsoft deal to go through because everyone wants those Blizzard IPs to be used by other devs. Everyone still likes those Blizzard IPs, they just hate Blizzard's games.

Spoiler: WoW

>huge population drop in Classic as Wotlk isn't all that everyone thought it was and Ulduar is actually an annoying raid to run. TOGC is coming up and no one is excited. The game has an expiration date of Cataclysm on the horizon
>Hardcore WoW is coming out but it's likely going to be a small boost and then everyone leaves again
>SoM2 is being made but the same thing will happen. Everyone will try it for 2-3 months and then just bail
>Dragonflight (Retail WoW) isn't able to restore the goodwill that BFA and SL burned to the ground. People are noticing the increasing faggotry in the games and are just completely tuned out now. Even the typical WoW talking heads aren't saying that DL is doing super well

Spoiler: Diablo

>Diablo Immortal pissed off everyone but managed to print money like crazy. So they basically just cashed in on goodwill
>Diablo 4 has some hype but a lot of people are concerned. The MMO systems like "world bosses" is making a lot of people reconsider playing it but it will probably not be a complete flop because there's a lot of fanatical Diablo fans

Spoiler: Hearthstone, Starcraft, Overwatch

>Overwatch population is about to fall off hard after this recent drama
>Starcraft is basically dead
>Hearthstone is pretty much quietly existing and getting updates but it's population is a fraction of what it was

Apparently, they are changing the PVE to something else than originally planned, not cancelling it.

The original plan was to have PVE be its own thing like a campaign with character progression/skill ups. Hilariously enough during April Fool's, they did an event with weird character stuff and people are speculating that THOSE were some of the stuff they were going to do for the PVE but they scraped it and just recycled it for the April Fool's event. So they literally turned it into a joke. In response to the backlash, they've hinted they're going to do some cinematics and other stuff for the PvE events but pretty much no one trusts them at this point. It's likely going to be those PVE scenarios they've done before but with a cinematic to accompany it. Those PVE scenarios they've churned out before are straight garbage and people stop doing it after 15mins of engagement.

Take a look at Ubisoft, they had a abysmal earning the past year, drained 500$ million euros on R&D with nothing to share at the shareholder meeting, and currently going through several litigations of terrible work environments. Just crazy to see such great companies go down the shitter.

Ubisoft is in a weird spot right now.
>Their MP game (Hyper Scape) that came out in 2020 has already shut down last month
>Far Cry 6 got Giancarlo Esposito to play the villain but people are officially done with the repeated formula since Far Cry 3 so they have to innovate now
>Watchdogs 1-2 were messy garbage but still some people enjoyed them. Watchdogs 3 tried to be innovative but it fucked up colossally
>Their numerous updates to Siege has made it a shitshow and their spinoff Infection game was horrible
>Skull and Bones exists
>Newest Assassin's Creed (Valhalla) was seen as incredibly bloated but sold like a motherfucker

Spoiler: Ubisoft Plans

Basically they're betting the farm on Assassin's Creed because they're working on like 4 fucking games for it. The newest, Mirage (ancient Baghdad), is suppose to come out this year but they've shown us absolutely nothing about it aside from a cinematic trailer. All we know is that it's suppose to take after the old style. There was recently a leak however and people are mixed on some of the details. They have a mobile game set in the works named Codename Jade (3rd Century BC China) so that should make money despite whatever quality. The other games they're working on are Codename Hexe (16th Century Central Europe) and Codename Red (Feudal Japan). We know nothing about these games aside from that Ubisoft Quebec (Syndicate and Odyssey) is working on Codename Red.

The only other rumor we've heard of is that they're supposedly planning something with Splinter Cell, whether it be a remake or a new entry is unknown.

 

[Punished Anime Discusser]

Ubisoft is in a weird spot right now.
>Their MP game (Hyper Scape) that came out in 2020 has already shut down last month
>Far Cry 6 got Giancarlo Esposito to play the villain but people are officially done with the repeated formula since Far Cry 3 so they have to innovate now
>Watchdogs 1-2 were messy garbage but still some people enjoyed them. Watchdogs 3 tried to be innovative but it fucked up colossally
>Their numerous updates to Siege has made it a shitshow and their spinoff Infection game was horrible
>Skull and Bones exists
>Newest Assassin's Creed (Valhalla) was seen as incredibly bloated but sold like a motherfucker

Spoiler: Ubisoft Plans

Basically they're betting the farm on Assassin's Creed because they're working on like 4 fucking games for it. The newest, Mirage (ancient Baghdad), is suppose to come out this year but they've shown us absolutely nothing about it aside from a cinematic trailer. All we know is that it's suppose to take after the old style. There was recently a leak however and people are mixed on some of the details. They have a mobile game set in the works named Codename Jade (3rd Century BC China) so that should make money despite whatever quality. The other games they're working on are Codename Hexe (16th Century Central Europe) and Codename Red (Feudal Japan). We know nothing about these games aside from that Ubisoft Quebec (Syndicate and Odyssey) is working on Codename Red.

The only other rumor we've heard of is that they're supposedly planning something with Splinter Cell, whether it be a remake or a new entry is unknown.

At least The Division 2 is apparently getting a whole expansion next year instead of just a content drip feed. Splinter Cell Remake is also happening for some godforsaken reason. Ghost Recon is probably dead as fuck since Breakpoint sold and reviewed terribly even though I love that game in a so bad it's good kinda way. Xdefiant, ironically enough, for how cursed it started off, seems to be almost ready to release, and there's a lot of hype around it, because it's bootleg classic Call of Duty, and all of the COD content creators are hyping the shit out of it.

They're also making a new The Crew game, and uh, y'know, their sports games division exists, I guess. I don't know why, everything they put out is shit.

 

[Realticule]

Wotlk isn't all that everyone thought it was

Always hated Wotlk as it was the start of the end and had ease of access but in all of the wrong ways that made the game just unfun to play and forced you to play the patch and not the whole expansion. I think some version of Classic or TBC taken in a more refined direction would be a good idea as raids are over designed in retail and there's nothing to do most of the time without any aspect of community. Classic straight as it is doesn't work due to how min-maxed games are now, but an approach with its style could work.

Even the typical WoW talking heads aren't saying that DL is doing super well

Even the biggest supporters are pleading for people to give Dragon Isles a try as they're not getting as many views on their content and that means even more people aren't playing.

>Diablo 4 has some hype but a lot of people are concerned. The MMO systems like "world bosses" is making a lot of people reconsider playing it but it will probably not be a complete flop because there's a lot of fanatical Diablo fans

My issue was when I got to the cave system and it turned into me following around two oh so quirky people quipping at each other while I waited for them to do the thing, then I'd blow up the monsters, and then I'd have to watch them again while they RPed. I shouldn't feel like I'm forced to wait for NPCs in an action game, neither should they be so important that it's impossible to progress without them in a normal run.

 

[Punished Anime Discusser]

I think some version of Classic or TBC taken in a more refined direction would be a good idea as raids are over designed in retail and there's nothing to do most of the time without any aspect of community.

If TurtleWoW ever gets shut down, you know it's going in this direction.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

At least The Division 2 is apparently getting a whole expansion next year instead of just a content drip feed. Splinter Cell Remake is also happening for some godforsaken reason. Ghost Recon is probably dead as fuck since Breakpoint sold and reviewed terribly even though I love that game in a so bad it's good kinda way. Xdefiant, ironically enough, for how cursed it started off, seems to be almost ready to release, and there's a lot of hype around it, because it's bootleg classic Call of Duty, and all of the COD content creators are hyping the shit out of it.

They're also making a new The Crew game, and uh, y'know, their sports games division exists, I guess. I don't know why, everything they put out is shit.

Apparently the team behind Xdefiant is Ubisoft San Fran, who made the Rocksmith series and made South Park: Fractured But Whole. So I have absolutely zero faith in any FPS game they're making.

Always hated Wotlk as it was the start of the end and had ease of access but in all of the wrong ways that made the game just unfun to play and forced you to play the patch and not the whole expansion. I think some version of Classic or TBC taken in a more refined direction would be a good idea as raids are over designed in retail and there's nothing to do most of the time without any aspect of community. Classic straight as it is doesn't work due to how min-maxed games are now, but an approach with its style could work.

Same, I started in original Vanilla so I always hated Wrath. The whole "expac with the best raids" that got spouted around constantly was always horseshit because there's brain dead Naxxramas, Ulduar is a fucking slog, TOGC is the most forgettable shit, and ICC is ok. The only good thing about Wrath is that a lot of specs are fully realized like Fire Mage, Demo Lock, and Boomkin. Classic is probably the best form as the open world actually mattered but the game balance is way too fucked at endgame. I don't see it having any staying power if they rerelease it without buffing non-warriors but warriorfags will screech at any changes that knock them out of the #1 position. I've considered the idea of implementing Wrath talents for lvl 60 Vanilla but add like 2 talents every 5 levels after lvl 15 so you end up with a fully fleshed out build. However that would likely destroy the original Vanilla feel of mobs being actually threatening.

If TurtleWoW ever gets shut down, you know it's going in this direction.

I need to finally get around to playing Turtlewow. I think the world additions are nice but the class changes are so minimal that it's nonexistent for a lot of classes. Ascension has been the only version of wow that's kept me interested at this point purely due to the creativity of it.

 

[Realticule]

Same, I started in original Vanilla so I always hated Wrath. The whole "expac with the best raids" that got spouted around constantly was always horseshit because there's brain dead Naxxramas, Ulduar is a fucking slog, TOGC is the most forgettable shit, and ICC is ok. The only good thing about Wrath is that a lot of specs are fully realized like Fire Mage, Demo Lock, and Boomkin. Classic is probably the best form as the open world actually mattered but the game balance is way too fucked at endgame. I don't see it having any staying power if they rerelease it without buffing non-warriors but warriorfags will screech at any changes that knock them out of the #1 position. I've considered the idea of implementing Wrath talents for lvl 60 Vanilla but add like 2 talents every 5 levels after lvl 15 so you end up with a fully fleshed out build. However that would likely destroy the original Vanilla feel of mobs being actually threatening.

I really like Ulduar except for the first boss and everything to do with it, but outside of that and Sarth 3D I wasn't particularly excited. I hated TOGC as that's when the whole "lol nothing before this patch matters" became very clear. ICC wasn't bad I suppose. I agree with you on classes and specs, Vanilla was miserable for that and TBC was just ok, with Wrath probably having a point where classes were fun to play but not cumbersome like they are in later expansions.

If they do ever expand Classic, I'd like them to experiment with design space instead of just doing more of the same. Maybe something like an encounter where resistance tanking is a thing, but each tank needs a different resistance, and then one tank needs to health stack as it's holy damage which has no mitigation. That way you have druids being a thing and different tanks also having options. A council fight like King Gordock but still using traditional tanks.

 

[reinigen]

>Diablo Immortal pissed off everyone but managed to print money like crazy. So they basically just cashed in on goodwill
>Diablo 4 has some hype but a lot of people are concerned. The MMO systems like "world bosses" is making a lot of people reconsider playing it but it will probably not be a complete flop because there's a lot of fanatical Diablo fans

This Asmongold clips does a good job demonstrating why I'm not at all excited for Diablo 4 yet, and will probably let my friends play it a bit to judge if I want to end up buying it myself.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

If they do ever expand Classic, I'd like them to experiment with design space instead of just doing more of the same. Maybe something like an encounter where resistance tanking is a thing, but each tank needs a different resistance, and then one tank needs to health stack as it's holy damage which has no mitigation. That way you have druids being a thing and different tanks also having options. A council fight like King Gordock but still using traditional tanks.

They basically did that in TBC with Illidan. You'd have a normal beef tank to handle Illidan for most of the fight. Then you had 2 fire resist tanks to handle the Flames he'd spawn in Phase 2. Then you'd need a warlock with a Shadow Resist set for Phase 4/Demon Form. Sadly people were so jacked in DPS in TBC Classic that they skipped Demon Form by just going full send. I definitely agree though, they need to do more unique design mechanics instead of just adding more mechanics to a fight. It's why stuff like Nefarian is cool because of the class calls. HM Freya is like the worst shit of all time because there's like a dozen mechanics in that fight and only like 1-2 of them are interesting.

I really like Ulduar except for the first boss and everything to do with it, but outside of that and Sarth 3D I wasn't particularly excited.

Ulduar's main problem is that there's way too many bosses that go on for way too long (fuck you, HM Vezax). It's cool for the first few weeks but after that, the novelty wears off really quick. It's probably why SWP is my favorite raid of the 3 eras. It's got hard fights but there's only 6 bosses and not a lot of trash. It's not super short but it's not super long either. Wiping in SWP is fun because with 6 bosses, if you get a boss down, that's 16% of the raid done. Wiping to get down a HM in Ulduar is super gay because there's 10 HM fights, there's 4 NM only bosses that waste your time, and you get only 1 piece of HM loot per boss. Then you have the fags crying "guys, can we just do this on NM and get it done with?"

This Asmongold clips does a good job demonstrating why I'm not at all excited for Diablo 4 yet, and will probably let my friends play it a bit to judge if I want to end up buying it myself.

Thank you for this, I haven't kept up too much with Diablo 4 but I use to raid in WoW Classic with one of the people on the Diablo 4 dev team. I gave him so much shit for Diablo 3's real money AH and he tried to say it was all corporate and there wouldn't be anything like that again in Diablo 4. Time to remind him to neck himself.

 

[reinigen]

Thank you for this, I haven't kept up too much with Diablo 4 but I use to raid in WoW Classic with one of the people on the Diablo 4 dev team. I gave him so much shit for Diablo 3's real money AH and he tried to say it was all corporate and there wouldn't be anything like that again in Diablo 4. Time to remind him to neck himself.

They are CLAIMING, that everything through the battlepass and shop will be purely cosmetic. But we all know how those fucking things end up going.

 

[Realticule]

Ulduar's main problem is that there's way too many bosses that go on for way too long

Maybe it's just poor memory, but I feel like MoP/WoD mythics were similar to Ulduar in that once your group got it, it wasn't too bad afterwards and pretty quick. The fun was getting a HM down for the first time, but back then I also had more time to play games so maybe I've view it differently today.

This Asmongold clips does a good job demonstrating why I'm not at all excited for Diablo 4 yet, and will probably let my friends play it a bit to judge if I want to end up buying it myself.

I'm also not a fan of "trust us, this paragon system will totally solve everything when you see it." bit. Generally systems either work or they don't and having to grind to unlock another system to make your initial system work is kind of dumb.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

Maybe it's just poor memory, but I feel like MoP/WoD mythics were similar to Ulduar in that once your group got it, it wasn't too bad afterwards and pretty quick. The fun was getting a HM down for the first time, but back then I also had more time to play games so maybe I've view it differently today.

The modern WoW community has become significantly less patient, as a result of the retail WoW players with their "go go go" mentality and the zoomers that have been sucked into WoW. Ulduar has some alright fights but there's a lot of dumb shit

Spoiler: Ulduar's Time Sink

>Flame Leviathan isn't too bad, just an annoying fight design
>Ignis can be burned down pretty fast once you're more geared
>Razorscale has a set timer on the harpoons before you can do P2, so there's a minimum duration
>XT isn't too bad, especially after the nerf
>Kologarn is a non-problem
>Iron Council has 3 bosses that reset their HP to full each time you kill one and you need to wait for the Power Ruin before going into the third phase
>Auriaya is like Kologarn, just extra time but is a non-interesting boss unlike Kologarn
>Thorim is alright
>Freya is a fixed timer on 3 waves of adds you need to kill before killing her, unless you're really geared and can do the full send her strat
>Hodir is a dumb design where you can lock yourself out of the HM by killing him 1-2 seconds too slow. Not a problem when you're geared after 2 months though
>Mimiron is a lot of HP across 4 boss phases with a bunch of RP inbetween each phase
>Vezax is on a fixed timer before the HM add spawns, so you get him to 5% and then sit on your hands for like 2-3 minutes
>Yogg is a long fight by design
>Algalon is not a short fight in anyway
Only like 3-4 of those are long fights but the problem is that there's way too many bosses padding the raid timer. The current fastest speedruns of Ulduar are 52mins, so take that into consideration in a normal run. Meanwhile in comparison to speedruns of past raids in WoW Classic, the only raid that gets close to that time is Black Temple, which was due to how fucking huge that raid was and how much backtracking there was. The major difference with Ulduar is that if you're more likely to wipe in Ulduar on farm than BT on farm, which is going to add a bunch of time with how long some of the fights in Ulduar are.

Spoiler: raid speedruns

>level 80 Naxx = 37:53
>SWP = 31:17
>Black Temple = 51:14
>Mount Hyjal = 32:02
>Serpentshrine Cavern = 38:52
>Tempest Keep = 42:28
>Karazhan = 41:53
>level 60 Naxx = 43:29
>AQ = 41:02
>BWL = 22:28
>MC = 19:54

 

[Banana Hammock]

I'm afraid that I have some bad news. I know how excited everyone was to hear about the timeline placement of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, but after getting further into the game, it seems that I was mistaken.

Spoiler: Fairly minor spoilers

Apparently the "Imprisoning War" was just a reference, rather than the one from A Link to the Past's backstory. After completing the Gerudo Desert "dungeon," we get a flashback and some exposition. It turns out that the Zonai (new race) Rauru (not that one) was apparently the first king of Hyrule. On top of that, Ganon is explicitly mentioned as a former Gerudo leader. Unless this is a case of Hyrule being re-founded long after the original faded into legend, it looks like Nintendo has given up on the timeline. I know, I'm as disappointed as you are.

On other news, I've been enjoying the game so far. Which is surprising, since I wasn't a huge fan of Breath of the Wild. It feels like there's more to do, other than just run around on a big, empty map and hope to run into shrines and koroks. Not sure if that's actually the case, but that's now it feels. The dungeons aren't as good as I had been hoping for. I've only done one of them so far, but it was a big letdown.