KidInTheDark666
What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine too
I heard that this one won't be quite as good as its two predecessors, but how could a Zero Escape game be anything short of amazing? Let's find out!
Now Playing (Video Games)
- Thread starter Onhell
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Jer
A window to the west, a blazing star above
It isn’t quite as good as the others, and you’ll need to be patient with it in the early going since it feels disjointed for a while, but it does eventually come together in a satisfying way.
KidInTheDark666
What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine too
chaosapiant
Ancient Marinade
I’m finally getting into XCOM Chimera Squad. So far so good!
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
Yeah and the shareware days when you got 1/3 of the game for free.
People bought new computers based on the real thing. When Duke3D Sharpnel City episode came out as shareware, everyone wanted both SVGA and Sound Blaster, after playing a free sampler. If you were new to FPS you had several hours worth of gameplay in those sharewares. You saw everything. Yes, mega weapons and bosses were saved for the full version, but you 100% saw how the game runs and behaves.
Nowadays someone buys a new gfx card in anticipation of a release that's been shown on a game fair demo. The end product looks worse, runs slower and is full of bugs.
Consoles, are part of the problem. New consoles the ones that are mostly PC hardware, not the weird systems of the old. They brought peasantry into the market. You couldn't sell a buggy half finished game in earlier days because the target audience was way, way more "prosumer" oriented, and they took way less shit.
Companies make a cutting edge demo, and then released game doesn't look like it. Because demo was handcrafted on the PC, while released game is a backport of a console version. Because they target a lowest common denominator.
It's a global problem, outside of games. web/mobile is also plagued. My usual ebanking got upgraded and the UI/UX is unbearable. I literally searched for token for days and didn't find it until someone told me where it is. It's a label, on the intro screen. The intro screen features 1 button, "login", but some labels can be 'tapped'. There is no visual cue, what text is interactive and what text is static.
It is because everyone develops for a single demographic. Every capitalist's wet dream is to have a single clueless market they can shape as they please. And as every peasant carries a smartphone, the device and the UI is adapted to the peasant, not to the technical user. Technical users have demands and requirements and expect a bottom line out of the product. This is harder to do.
I feel bad for no one.
If you just put aside the fact that the world is full of irrelevant distractions, you'll see that the worthy part is also way way larger than it used to be.
It is 5000% more easier to make a great game today, than it used to be. It's just the will and the investment and the goal - passion vs profit. It is true for any software.
I've had a nostalgia trip during the early pandemic. I took out all of my old hardware and even bought some "new vintage" eg. Pentium from ebay. It ended with designing a game to run under 16-bit DOS.
Maybe I wasn't aware of all the limitations when I was 15, but boy oh boy was my outlook too rosy. I completely forgot the basic things why DOS sucked, mainly the memory model and the graphics api. Even when I said ok let's go conventional memory (the famed (myth) of 640kb) and CGA graphics the absolute amount of quirks needed to run a normal framerate game loop is insane. And that's all with 20 years of C experience with UNIX systems programming. Less experience with hardware/C - you need to take something higher-level like BASIC, and then you can't really max out nor 8086 nor 486.
From that aspect, things have gone absolutely better. It is way easier to deliver today, regardless of your skill level or choice of abstractions.
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Now on topic, bro bought Star Citizen package I might follow him because I've been looking for a space MMO to waste hours. But it's a partial FPS and it seems that a lot of people have motion sickness with FPS. Does anyone know some sort of a remedy that's isn't based around get up and go for a walk. Do regular motion sickness glasses (e.g. read a book on a train thing) work?
Jer
A window to the west, a blazing star above
That's an interesting take. I think it had more to do with the growing ubiquity of internet access allowing companies to release unfinished product and then send out patches after the fact, and that's why the buggy half-finished stuff started appearing on the PC first.
Back before consoles were internet-connected, the disc or cartridge that shipped was the only version of the game that would ever exist, so testing had to be extremely thorough and rigorous. The same was true of PC games at first, though with the rise of BBS systems and then the internet, post-release patching of PC games started becoming more common. For consoles it wasn't really until the PS3 / XBox 360 era when internet connectivity was more or less expected and the QA laziness was able to carry over from the PC to consoles.
I do think you're right about cross-platform PC games getting the short end of the stick with the rise of later-gen consoles, since developers would typically target the least common denominator platform. There have been some high visibility counterexamples, though, like Cyberpunk 2077, where the PS4/XBO versions were poorly gimped versions of the PC game with catastrophic side effects.
Yeah, I don't know what happened to UI/UX design principles in recent years. There seem to be patterns of having form trump function, periodically refreshing the look and feel of a UI for empty branding reasons rather than usability improvements, and in some cases making things intentionally obtuse so users can be "delighted" by accidentally discovering new functions while futzing around with the interface.
I'm of the opinion that a UI should provide the typical user with the shortest path from thought to action without requiring specific training, and for frequently used interfaces there should be ways for expert users to configure things to make that path even shorter for their specific use cases. That means you should have clear, consistent signaling of the functions of UI elements -- no scrollable screens without any indication that it scrolls, no clickable labels that look exactly like unclickable ones, etc. But I guess the folks who grew up with a touch screen in their hands feel differently.
Yep. And there's a really vibrant indie game development scene these days, with some cool and groundbreaking stuff if you look for it. But as with anything else, a larger volume of product means a larger volume of trash, and sifting through all of it for the good stuff can sometimes be difficult.
I'm definitely spending more time in the indy game pool these days. I just finished Unavowed on the Switch, a very LucasArts/Sierra descended adventure game, and it was fantastic. Engaging, with great retro-style graphics and excellent controls. I'll likely replay it soon. I've also spent so much time in Stardew Valley of late, and I'm really excited for Haunted Chocolatier when it comes out.
There's not much AAA that I get excited for anymore. Cyberpunk looked like it might be good until it was, as Jer has noted, a complete and total shitfest on release. I'm just not in that much of a rush to get a game at launch that is broken and barely works, when I can wait six months for a patch or ten to be released and the game to be a third of the price.
Another notable failure is the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition release - huge failure across the board, and a huge shame, because those are three games that could use a functional remake to modernize controls and a few aged quirks, plus stability, and instead we got an ugly, buggy mess with few QOL updates.
There's not much AAA that I get excited for anymore. Cyberpunk looked like it might be good until it was, as Jer has noted, a complete and total shitfest on release. I'm just not in that much of a rush to get a game at launch that is broken and barely works, when I can wait six months for a patch or ten to be released and the game to be a third of the price.
Another notable failure is the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition release - huge failure across the board, and a huge shame, because those are three games that could use a functional remake to modernize controls and a few aged quirks, plus stability, and instead we got an ugly, buggy mess with few QOL updates.
Jer
A window to the west, a blazing star above
Yeah, their decision to base the remasters off of the mobile ports was...interesting, to say the least.
Edington
Last Son of The Miracle
The last AAA games I played were DOOM Eternal and Jedi: Fallen Order, which I did enjoy (the former has become a real favourite) but aside from those most of my favourite games I've played over the last 5 years or so have been indie games or old titles that I missed the first time around: Blasphemous, Hollow Knight, Dead Space 1 + 2, Symphony of the Night, Shovel Knight. Most AAA titles now seem to be broken on release, have some kind of hidden fees or are just plain rehashes in a shiny new coat like Battlefield 10 Million or whatever.
Look at Star Wars Battlefront II as well, it took nearly two years for that mess to get fixed. Meanwhile, the original Battlefront II still holds up nearly twenty years later.
Look at Star Wars Battlefront II as well, it took nearly two years for that mess to get fixed. Meanwhile, the original Battlefront II still holds up nearly twenty years later.
RDR2 was the last AAA game I played, and it was absolutely excellent. But I came to it quite a bit later. I generally really enjoy Rockstar's work, and I was very sad Definitive Edition sucked. I was really looking forward to revisiting those games.
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
@Jer remember Elite Force 2? It had a mission where you mount the non-canon cannons in the Enterprise-E's hull so you can have a shootout mini-game. On release one of the cannon's axis did not work. There were three bad things about this - it wasn't for everyone but if you were affected it wasn't workaroundable. The mission was unbeatable without actually rasing elevation of the gun, but 90% of the targets could be hit by moving it port-starboard. Thus you weren't sure was the game buggy. Only after some days/weeks passed people started reporting issues. Activision released a patch. The patch was a new game only, all saves lost. The buggy part was in the latter half of the game.
But EF2 isn't very AAA for the time. It's a Quake 3 engine game, and a myriad of Quake 3 engine games including Quake 3 were high quality releases.
Lately I've tried Chrous. It's a good looking scifi single player adventure. I haven't progressed enough to recommend it, but so far so good. Here I can also touch upon contemporary programming quality - the game runs in 2K on a 5 year old medium-range graphics card. And we all know how much that is worth today.
But EF2 isn't very AAA for the time. It's a Quake 3 engine game, and a myriad of Quake 3 engine games including Quake 3 were high quality releases.
Lately I've tried Chrous. It's a good looking scifi single player adventure. I haven't progressed enough to recommend it, but so far so good. Here I can also touch upon contemporary programming quality - the game runs in 2K on a 5 year old medium-range graphics card. And we all know how much that is worth today.
Jer
A window to the west, a blazing star above
Funny that you mention this, as I just played through Voyager: Elite Force, and was thinking about picking up Elite Force II. But no, I haven't played it yet.
That's terrible. You'd think they could have migrated the save data if they'd actually given a shit.
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
I wish I had a recent experience like that. I tried stuff throughout the years, didn't get hooked. Last one was probably UT3 and that was a long time ago, but the game itself is so cutting edge you might say early 2010s. I played newer Dooms - the graphics are stunning. In one of them, you play in shafts, and then you exit to the terrace where the outside is seen, and it's a stunning piece of art. But it didn't push me to finish it and see what's next.
Oh yes - I bought Elite on Steam also looking to get myself into VR. But the game is so involving, and it requires hours of training to fly and move properly, I just didn't proceed. And I also bought a flightstick for it. I try to get hooked, have an open mind it just doesn't work. Many of these games are much more effort and grind than their actual return in serotonin.
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
Yes if only.
10 euro on GOG, it is worth it. The game is fine and an absolute enhancement over EF1, although I vaguely remember to appreciate the theme and atmosphere of the original a little bit more.
I played it over (both of them) several times and we played multiplayer on LAN parties on both. Multiplayer in EF2 is actually pretty decent, Quakeish but Star Trek. You also get a Klingon gatling gun to use, and something that's reminescent of a Federation double-barreled shotgun. Now when memories start to appear I can say this game is highly recommended
I remember this distinctly, because I never patched the game and it never worked. Very terrible, always died. And in fact, I didn't know it had been patched - I was thinking of grabbing it on GOG but this made me hesitate.
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
The patch took care of it and there was no any other bug I ever experienced, so go for it.
I tried to find does the game have a HD or widescreen mods. It doesn't appear to have a big modding community so that's off the table. There's an interesting mod :
www.moddb.com
This seems like fun
I tried to find does the game have a HD or widescreen mods. It doesn't appear to have a big modding community so that's off the table. There's an interesting mod :
HaZardModding Coop: Star Trek Elite Force II
The HaZardModding Coop Mod allows you to play the Single-Player Story and all the Secret levels Co-Operatively in Multi-Player. Supporting up to 8 players via LAN or Internet. Each Player can chose one of 3 Classes with specific abilities, to support...
This seems like fun
chaosapiant
Ancient Marinade
I’m on a turn-based strategy kick. So right now I’m alternating between:
XCOM 2 WoTC
XCOM chimera squad
Civilization 6
Endless Legend
Endless Space 2
Shadowrun Dragonfall
Battletech
(on PC of course. My PS4 has been relegated to being my blu ray disc and Always Sunny in Philadelphia machine)
XCOM 2 WoTC
XCOM chimera squad
Civilization 6
Endless Legend
Endless Space 2
Shadowrun Dragonfall
Battletech
(on PC of course. My PS4 has been relegated to being my blu ray disc and Always Sunny in Philadelphia machine)
I cannot, no matter how hard I try, get into Civ 6. I play it for an hour or two, then get bored, turn it off, and fire up Europa Universalis.
DJMayes
Ancient Mariner
I don't feel like I've been burned on AAA games recently, but that's mostly down to using Nintendo systems exclusively. I will definitely look into another next gen system in around fifty years time when The Elder Scrolls VI releases if it meets expectations, but for the time being it's just an expense I haven't wanted or needed when Smash, Monster Hunter, and the steady trickle of ports like Dark Souls have been keeping me busy.