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Vidya Games Thread
- Thread starter Saturnus
- Start date
PC Master Race cried enough to get it changed.
Microsoft/Bethesda layoffs/Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games and Roundhouse Studios shut down
New
John Vtuber👁️
Sentient Eyeball, Primarch of Hag Pride Worldwide
Certified Manwhore
Joined:
Oct 24, 2022
not to be outdone by the Nintendo Switch 2 hype, Microsoft cuts even more studios, no Redfall DLC for any of the 12 people that pre-ordered it:
What a great console generation it's been thus far
www.gamespot.com
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.
>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.
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Willemshaven
Outlasted the Chinese Community Sinicization Group
True & Honest Holofan
Joined:
Sep 23, 2023
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Important announcement
A new chapter in the Relic saga
www.pcgamer.com
Relic Entertainment is 'returning to its roots as an independent creative studio,' but it's also owned by a global investment firm now
Emona Capital is now the majority owner of Relic.
Willemshaven
Outlasted the Chinese Community Sinicization Group
True & Honest Holofan
Joined:
Sep 23, 2023
Follow-up to my previous post about Men of War II. Steam positive review ratings have jumped to around 60%, but it's still in the "mixed" category.
Here's my issues with Men of War II from playing the betas that are confirmed to be still in the game, which can't be (completely) modded away:
There's a small roadmap, but it says nothing about new factions, such as adding the British and Japanese factions that were present in the previous main games. It's mainly about fixing issues with the game that existed all the way back in the betas and sometimes even in Arena. Also, there's this line in particular:
Your mod has to be deemed to be popular so it will be allowed to be used in the dedicated server mode in the lobby mode. Otherwise, you will have no choice but to play modded games through the local server mode, which is apparently as dysfunctional as the multiplayer system in the older games.
Two weeks in after launch, and MoWII player numbers are already down to around the level of MoWAS2, which is really only played for the massive backlog of mods everytime I peeked at the multiplayer lobby list (if there is one available at all). I've seen complaints that matchmaking outside of the PVP battalions mode and (maybe) combined arms mode takes a very long time. They definitely appealed to a wider audience.
We'll have to see what happens when the game goes on sale. By then, they surely should've patched singleplayer mode to be offline, right?
In conclusion, Men of War II is what happens when you stubbornly hang onto the effort sunk into a free-to-play live service game that flopped. It's not worth 45 bucks for players like me that don't touch multiplayer often.
Here's my issues with Men of War II from playing the betas that are confirmed to be still in the game, which can't be (completely) modded away:
- In an effort to simplify infantry squads by ditching squad leaders, they've ironically made them worse to play.
- You can't group squads together other than what the game configures them as, requiring you to use control groups.
- You can't direct control squads, only a individual soldier.
- Resources no longer gets automatically distributed across a squad, making inventory management more clunky and time consuming.
- This is compounded by small arms ammo stacks being much bigger, which makes distributing them across soldiers even harder. The inventory management system might as well not exist as units gets auto-resupplied from thin air when they run out of ammo.
- Ordering infantry to storm a building causes them to run into the building to... melee the enemies. The enemies can still use their weapons just fine so you will pretty much always lose units.
- If you use the traditional lobby, you will be sent back to the main menu after playing a game. Which means you have to re-configure the settings and re-invite people, unlike past games.
- This issue was among the most upvoted in the Discord server during the open beta, yet nothing came out of it.
- If your unit is on hold fire mode, the ammo type still automatically switches when engaging an enemy. It's really annoying as ammo switching happens instantly unless you use the inventory interface.
- When you get auto-kicked out of the game for being AFK, you can't reconnect.
- Another player testified that this issue existed since Men of War II: Arena.
- The unit icons over them aren't selectable unlike in Assault Squad 2 and Gates of Hell.
- In addition to that, the infantry unit icons disappear when zooming out too much.
- The irony is that one of the complaints for Gates of Hell is that the dark and gritty artstyle makes the infantry blend into the environment. Yet, this game is worse as you can't just look for a icon to look where the infantry are.
- In addition to that, the infantry unit icons disappear when zooming out too much.
- The always-online requirement.
- You can get auto-kicked out of singleplayer for being AFK.
- A recent patch is supposed to fix this, but that patch also had bugs that caused crashes, so it was rolled back.
- Patches require the game server to be shut down to get them deployed. If you're mid-game, sucks to be you.
- Sometimes, you just don't get mission rewards for multiplayer at all.
- It turns out that the singleplayer component is already technically offline. It just needs a constant internet connection to give you the mission rewards for multiplayer.
- The devs and publishers recognized that many players don't want always online for singleplayer, yet they still decided to launch the game as is.
- You can get auto-kicked out of singleplayer for being AFK.
- Bonus issue that has been revealed post-launch: the standard multiplayer spawn system applies to singleplayer.
- None of the missions during the open beta used that system, so no feedback about that could be given.
- The system is something like this:
- There are two logistic slots for spawning in units. They will be on a cooldown when used.
- Aside from the starting echelon, there are two more that will unlock over time.
- There's a unit limit that will increase over time.
- This unit limit will stop you from manning your own and allied vehicles if having them goes over the limit. Enemy and neutral vehicles are exempt from this limit, but it's not like that will happen often as vehicles usually get irrecoverably destroyed.
There's a small roadmap, but it says nothing about new factions, such as adding the British and Japanese factions that were present in the previous main games. It's mainly about fixing issues with the game that existed all the way back in the betas and sometimes even in Arena. Also, there's this line in particular:
Your mod has to be deemed to be popular so it will be allowed to be used in the dedicated server mode in the lobby mode. Otherwise, you will have no choice but to play modded games through the local server mode, which is apparently as dysfunctional as the multiplayer system in the older games.
Two weeks in after launch, and MoWII player numbers are already down to around the level of MoWAS2, which is really only played for the massive backlog of mods everytime I peeked at the multiplayer lobby list (if there is one available at all). I've seen complaints that matchmaking outside of the PVP battalions mode and (maybe) combined arms mode takes a very long time. They definitely appealed to a wider audience.
We'll have to see what happens when the game goes on sale. By then, they surely should've patched singleplayer mode to be offline, right?
In conclusion, Men of War II is what happens when you stubbornly hang onto the effort sunk into a free-to-play live service game that flopped. It's not worth 45 bucks for players like me that don't touch multiplayer often.
John Vtuber👁️
Sentient Eyeball, Primarch of Hag Pride Worldwide
Certified Manwhore
Joined:
Oct 24, 2022
Bloodborne Kart (now legally distinct after Sony's intervention) released before a Bloodborne PC port/next-gen update:
in other news, here's an obligatory shill for the original creators of Daggerfall wanting to make a modern game of that style using machine learning and procedural generation. They're currently holding a kickstarter to fund one year of full-time development, which has been mostly funded in the first week, and once that early-access build is complete they will ship it off to publishers to try and fund the rest. Unfortunately for them, this sort of game isn't an infinite money printer, so publishers may be wary of funding an ambitious single-player game built for replayability. $40 for a copy of the game (and that early-access build), so go into it only if you want to support their efforts (or follow along their publisher search), but I believe in them if only to one day topple Todd Howard's reign on the genre:
in other news, here's an obligatory shill for the original creators of Daggerfall wanting to make a modern game of that style using machine learning and procedural generation. They're currently holding a kickstarter to fund one year of full-time development, which has been mostly funded in the first week, and once that early-access build is complete they will ship it off to publishers to try and fund the rest. Unfortunately for them, this sort of game isn't an infinite money printer, so publishers may be wary of funding an ambitious single-player game built for replayability. $40 for a copy of the game (and that early-access build), so go into it only if you want to support their efforts (or follow along their publisher search), but I believe in them if only to one day topple Todd Howard's reign on the genre:
Posting this here because the backup obviously didn't catch it.
Probably the last Direct for the Switch. I doubt there's going to be a lot of heavy-hitting announcements. As @reinigen said back in the cloud, I doubt Metroid Prime 4/Anything "big" (mainline Mario/Zelda game) will be showcased but it will still be fun to watch.
I expect the Direct will have more details on Pokemon Legends: ZA because they said that was going to be releasing this year for the Switch iirc. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to delay it for Switch 2.
Probably the last Direct for the Switch. I doubt there's going to be a lot of heavy-hitting announcements. As @reinigen said back in the cloud, I doubt Metroid Prime 4/Anything "big" (mainline Mario/Zelda game) will be showcased but it will still be fun to watch.
I expect the Direct will have more details on Pokemon Legends: ZA because they said that was going to be releasing this year for the Switch iirc. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to delay it for Switch 2.
I liked this game enough to play it for the 3rd time. But then I'm reminded they killed the sequel. They are so silent I'm not even sure if sales of the anniversary edition would bring it back (I have a big backlog and not enough patience to dedicate myself to Elden Ring even though I own it so I check other stuff instead)
Still teasing THQ's two unannounced games. Should be easier to guess the games compared to last time. If they're new IPs, this is basically impossible to decipher.
In other news, shortly after Pieces Interactive dying (new Alone in the Dark), Piranha Bytes is kill
In other news, shortly after Pieces Interactive dying (new Alone in the Dark), Piranha Bytes is kill
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John Vtuber👁️
Sentient Eyeball, Primarch of Hag Pride Worldwide
Certified Manwhore
Joined:
Oct 24, 2022
(Content Warning: Genshin Impact Fans, which temporarily killed Ghost Archive during the archive process)
In a similar vein to AC: Shadows, Genshin Impact is currently undergoing a boycott by twitter freaks because the characters aren't black enough (no, I am not joking). This has been going on for years, but has risen to a fever pitch now that all of the currently previewed Natlan characters either aren't black or aren't the right shade of black - they can hem and haw about "cultural appropriation" all they want, but come the fuck on, everyone knows exactly how these very same people feel about AC: Shadows and "cultural appropriation".
Archive
I am going to try my best to limit myself to one tweet per bullet point because diving through genshin fan brainrot makes me want to kill myself, but by all means, don't just take my word for it. The initial response from HoYoVerse boiled down to "this is a fictional game, please touch grass", which only served to increase their anger. How dare they not capitulate to their demands, etc.
Archive
Officially partnered content creators and even the English voice actors of the game are making a stink about it, but that's just the English VA community in general, nothing that we didn't already know about them. They will quite literally jump on [CURRENT THING] at the drop of a hat, even if it's against the very same people they seek employment from.
Archive
What is their proposed solution to get what they want? Simple, really: they will stop playing the game and spending money on it, and everyone against them are BIGOTS. No, you can't just keep playing the game yourself or not agree with them, if you are against their cause, you are the problem as well. Which, doing even a fraction of this in any other industry would get them fired and blacklisted! These people are utilizing mafia tactics and expecting companies to not only follow suit, but continue to pay them or give them work afterward! I can not stress enough how insane this is! I mean, you can't get any more clear-cut "are we the baddies?" than "keep your foot on their necks", it's just a video game, holy shit!
Archive
Why do I not believe that they will stop harassing the company and its employees if these characters are simply "made more black"? Because then they would cry racism at any possible slight otherwise. As an example: Elfy is a main NPC in the newly released Zenless Zone Zero that the player interacts with daily, she recycles unwanted equipment into new equipment, AND she is the exact sort of "representation" that these people cry about on the regular. So, you'd think she would be everything they want design-wise, right? Unfortunately, there is a record cover in the background of her shop that renders this "representation" null and void, because these people have never seen a penguin in their lives, and immediately jump to "this is blackface"...despite various other Penguin motifs being present in the game as well (including various pieces of equipment referencing penguins, if not being penguins outright).
Archive
If they want to continue this boycott while harassing the employees and people running the social media accounts? By all means, that's entirely on them, and these crybullies should be laughed at and archived in the process. If this boycott gets out of hand - which currently seems possible, with how quickly things are heating up - it's best to have a record of their actions so that they don't try to gaslight everyone that they "simply wanted more representation uwu".
Otherwise, it's Genshin Impact fans being Genshin Impact fans, news at 11.
...How the fuck am I a better game journalists than most other game journalists
In a similar vein to AC: Shadows, Genshin Impact is currently undergoing a boycott by twitter freaks because the characters aren't black enough (no, I am not joking). This has been going on for years, but has risen to a fever pitch now that all of the currently previewed Natlan characters either aren't black or aren't the right shade of black - they can hem and haw about "cultural appropriation" all they want, but come the fuck on, everyone knows exactly how these very same people feel about AC: Shadows and "cultural appropriation".
Archive
I am going to try my best to limit myself to one tweet per bullet point because diving through genshin fan brainrot makes me want to kill myself, but by all means, don't just take my word for it. The initial response from HoYoVerse boiled down to "this is a fictional game, please touch grass", which only served to increase their anger. How dare they not capitulate to their demands, etc.
Archive
Officially partnered content creators and even the English voice actors of the game are making a stink about it, but that's just the English VA community in general, nothing that we didn't already know about them. They will quite literally jump on [CURRENT THING] at the drop of a hat, even if it's against the very same people they seek employment from.
Archive
What is their proposed solution to get what they want? Simple, really: they will stop playing the game and spending money on it, and everyone against them are BIGOTS. No, you can't just keep playing the game yourself or not agree with them, if you are against their cause, you are the problem as well. Which, doing even a fraction of this in any other industry would get them fired and blacklisted! These people are utilizing mafia tactics and expecting companies to not only follow suit, but continue to pay them or give them work afterward! I can not stress enough how insane this is! I mean, you can't get any more clear-cut "are we the baddies?" than "keep your foot on their necks", it's just a video game, holy shit!
Archive
Why do I not believe that they will stop harassing the company and its employees if these characters are simply "made more black"? Because then they would cry racism at any possible slight otherwise. As an example: Elfy is a main NPC in the newly released Zenless Zone Zero that the player interacts with daily, she recycles unwanted equipment into new equipment, AND she is the exact sort of "representation" that these people cry about on the regular. So, you'd think she would be everything they want design-wise, right? Unfortunately, there is a record cover in the background of her shop that renders this "representation" null and void, because these people have never seen a penguin in their lives, and immediately jump to "this is blackface"...despite various other Penguin motifs being present in the game as well (including various pieces of equipment referencing penguins, if not being penguins outright).
Archive
If they want to continue this boycott while harassing the employees and people running the social media accounts? By all means, that's entirely on them, and these crybullies should be laughed at and archived in the process. If this boycott gets out of hand - which currently seems possible, with how quickly things are heating up - it's best to have a record of their actions so that they don't try to gaslight everyone that they "simply wanted more representation uwu".
Otherwise, it's Genshin Impact fans being Genshin Impact fans, news at 11.
...How the fuck am I a better game journalists than most other game journalists
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