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[Detective Beauregard]

I'd call it "overbaked" - the ideas are great, with the switching of characters and mental space to solve cases and changing the structure of levels with shutting off/turning on the lights, the non-linear narrative (you can technically do the stories in any order) etc... but as a whole it just feels... too much.
Too slow, gameplay-wise, really a bit overcomplicated - the lore is so byzantine I'm literally completely lost - and keeping up the momentum feels a bit like chore to me. The game is really good on paper, but it isn't that much fun as a game. IMHO, that is.

I do understand this feeling a bit, particularly with Alan’s sections. The game is far more appealing to me as Saga, as I prefer a more “grounded” story and detective-type stuff. Wake’s sections absolutely are swarming with confusing plot points.

 

[Sheriff_of_Huddersfield]

Holy crap, this thread is about 19 years old.

Children have been conceived, born, and grown to adulthood in the time since this conversation was started.

As a fun exercise, in 2006, I was playing (that I can recall):
Hearts of Iron II
Red Orchestra
Yahoo Chess

 

[Spambot]

Finished God of War (2018) main story, and I’ll probably go for 100%, but I gotta admit — this wasn’t the game I hoped it would be. I see why people like it and why it was (and still is) a big deal for Sony, but I don’t think I’ll be playing Ragnarok anytime soon. Here’s a couple of things that bugged me (spoilers ahead):

Spoiler

This isn’t typical hack and slash - and that’s OK. I get that they needed to elevate the franchise, but for me, it was a bit too much. All the runes, equipment, and extras… usually as a game progresses, so do the weapons and skills. But this time, with skill trees, and you have to buy/craft gear which you have to choose and upgrade- it all felt like it slowed things down. I usually enjoy that stuff - if it’s in an RPG like Diablo or Torchlight.

The whole “open-world” thing didn’t work for me either. First off, it wasn’t really open. You can’t jump, so you're constantly blocked by small obstacles. There’s a rock between two areas? Nope, can’t hop over - gotta hop in a canoe for a 6-7 minute trip. And those portal doors? Useless for the first 15-20 hours. Long-distance travel just got tiresome. Which brings me to maybe my main gripe: the game’s pacing.

I’d turn on the console, expecting some action, and then spend 30 minutes doing… something… without a single fight (if I followed the main story). And then when enemies did show up - it was waves of them. Same with puzzles. All previous games had a better rhythm: single enemies-puzzle-group fight-cinematic-boss-etc - or something like that. Here, it felt like I was playing two different games stitched together.

The story didn’t win me over either. I don’t know if it was the voice acting or just the weird logic of it. Like, your main villain attacks you because he was looking for your wife, who recently died, but he didn’t know that… so now you just beat the shit out of each other for 20 hours? The father-son arc also lacked progression. Kratos just ignores him, then yells once when the boy finds out he’s a god, and then suddenly - boom - Kratos is chill with everything at the end? That’s it? Nothing to ground that transition.

And then there was this moment near the end: I was messing around with my PS account, changed my profile pic to Kratos (OG style, smaller beard), and immediately started humming the God of War theme from 15 years ago. THIS ONE And just like that, I could picture it: flying off Mount Olympus, Zeus blasting thunders after me, landing on giants, ripping apart Prometheus - guts and blood everywhere. And here I am, canoeing, looking for closets with a single sad violin music playing. In the snow. I hate snow, like Anakin hates sand. (Even worse: I finished the game, and returned to Kratos' house the Ragnarok trailer drops… and guess what? More snow.) Oh, and that whole “Nine Realms” thing? What a dick move! You show all nine, but you can only travel to six and three of those are the size of a broom closet!

Anyway, it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it at all (though the main story felt a bit short?). I will play Ragnarok at some point. But before that, I think I’ll go back to some remastered originals from the 2005–2010 era.
Once I finish this, I’ve got the Bioshock trilogy lined up (I played the first one years ago on PC, but I’ve forgotten pretty much everything)
Also, just got an email that PS+ is 50% off (1- and 3-month subscriptions), so I might check what that gets me.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

Finished God of War (2018) main story, and I’ll probably go for 100%, but I gotta admit — this wasn’t the game I hoped it would be. I see why people like it and why it was (and still is) a big deal for Sony, but I don’t think I’ll be playing Ragnarok anytime soon. Here’s a couple of things that bugged me (spoilers ahead):

Spoiler

This isn’t typical hack and slash - and that’s OK. I get that they needed to elevate the franchise, but for me, it was a bit too much. All the runes, equipment, and extras… usually as a game progresses, so do the weapons and skills. But this time, with skill trees, and you have to buy/craft gear which you have to choose and upgrade- it all felt like it slowed things down. I usually enjoy that stuff - if it’s in an RPG like Diablo or Torchlight.

The whole “open-world” thing didn’t work for me either. First off, it wasn’t really open. You can’t jump, so you're constantly blocked by small obstacles. There’s a rock between two areas? Nope, can’t hop over - gotta hop in a canoe for a 6-7 minute trip. And those portal doors? Useless for the first 15-20 hours. Long-distance travel just got tiresome. Which brings me to maybe my main gripe: the game’s pacing.

I’d turn on the console, expecting some action, and then spend 30 minutes doing… something… without a single fight (if I followed the main story). And then when enemies did show up - it was waves of them. Same with puzzles. All previous games had a better rhythm: single enemies-puzzle-group fight-cinematic-boss-etc - or something like that. Here, it felt like I was playing two different games stitched together.

The story didn’t win me over either. I don’t know if it was the voice acting or just the weird logic of it. Like, your main villain attacks you because he was looking for your wife, who recently died, but he didn’t know that… so now you just beat the shit out of each other for 20 hours? The father-son arc also lacked progression. Kratos just ignores him, then yells once when the boy finds out he’s a god, and then suddenly - boom - Kratos is chill with everything at the end? That’s it? Nothing to ground that transition.

And then there was this moment near the end: I was messing around with my PS account, changed my profile pic to Kratos (OG style, smaller beard), and immediately started humming the God of War theme from 15 years ago. THIS ONE And just like that, I could picture it: flying off Mount Olympus, Zeus blasting thunders after me, landing on giants, ripping apart Prometheus - guts and blood everywhere. And here I am, canoeing, looking for closets with a single sad violin music playing. In the snow. I hate snow, like Anakin hates sand. (Even worse: I finished the game, and returned to Kratos' house the Ragnarok trailer drops… and guess what? More snow.) Oh, and that whole “Nine Realms” thing? What a dick move! You show all nine, but you can only travel to six and three of those are the size of a broom closet!

Anyway, it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it at all (though the main story felt a bit short?). I will play Ragnarok at some point. But before that, I think I’ll go back to some remastered originals from the 2005–2010 era.
Once I finish this, I’ve got the Bioshock trilogy lined up (I played the first one years ago on PC, but I’ve forgotten pretty much everything)
Also, just got an email that PS+ is 50% off (1- and 3-month subscriptions), so I might check what that gets me.

Almost all of your complaints are fixed in Ragnarok. The story is bigger, the realms are more vast, and most importantly, you can go to all nine of them.

It’s hard for me to get a frame of reference since I never played the original trilogy, but I enjoyed both 2018 and Ragnarok very much.

The Bioshock trilogy is fantastic. The second one is actually my favorite, although most seem to prefer the first.

 

[Vaenyr]

Currently going through Dark Souls 3 for the first time. I'm done with the base game and started the DLC yesterday.
It's a pretty good game, but by far my least favorite so far. My rankings would be:

Demon's Souls >>> Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin > Dark Souls Remastered > Dark Souls 3: The Fire Fades

I must've mentioned this before, but the difficulty in those games is massively overstated and hyped for no reason. The Nameless King for example has been proclaimed to be one of the greatest boss fights in the franchise, incredibly challenging and arguably one of the best fights in gaming. Well, turns out he's a complete chump lol
The spectacle, the atmosphere and the vibes were immaculate, I'll give him that. But the fight itself? Mechanically and difficulty-wise? Utter disappointment. I had him down in fewer than 10 tries, half of which were me goofing around with different spells and weapons to see my damage output. Hell, I had more trouble with the Twin Princes than I had with him.

I'll stand by that Yozora from Kingdom Hearts 3's DLC is one of the hardest and best designed boss fights I've ever seen. I died more to him than in my entire platinum playthroughs of Demon's Souls, DS1 and DS2 combined.

There are still a few infamous bosses left in the DLC for DS3, so I'll see if my opinion on the game will change much, but I kinda doubt it to be honest. The music is phenomenal though, gotta give the game props for that.

Edit: Forgot to add my biggest complaint lol
The constant callbacks to Dark Souls 1 and the fanservice makes this one feel like it's not sure about its identity. Either tie all games from the trilogy in (DS2 has incredibly interesting additions to the lore) or focus on delivering a unique experience. This heavy emphasis on DS1 feels like a crutch and the game is worse off because of that.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

Finished God of War (2018) main story, and I’ll probably go for 100%, but I gotta admit — this wasn’t the game I hoped it would be. I see why people like it and why it was (and still is) a big deal for Sony, but I don’t think I’ll be playing Ragnarok anytime soon. Here’s a couple of things that bugged me (spoilers ahead):

Spoiler

This isn’t typical hack and slash - and that’s OK. I get that they needed to elevate the franchise, but for me, it was a bit too much. All the runes, equipment, and extras… usually as a game progresses, so do the weapons and skills. But this time, with skill trees, and you have to buy/craft gear which you have to choose and upgrade- it all felt like it slowed things down. I usually enjoy that stuff - if it’s in an RPG like Diablo or Torchlight.

The whole “open-world” thing didn’t work for me either. First off, it wasn’t really open. You can’t jump, so you're constantly blocked by small obstacles. There’s a rock between two areas? Nope, can’t hop over - gotta hop in a canoe for a 6-7 minute trip. And those portal doors? Useless for the first 15-20 hours. Long-distance travel just got tiresome. Which brings me to maybe my main gripe: the game’s pacing.

I’d turn on the console, expecting some action, and then spend 30 minutes doing… something… without a single fight (if I followed the main story). And then when enemies did show up - it was waves of them. Same with puzzles. All previous games had a better rhythm: single enemies-puzzle-group fight-cinematic-boss-etc - or something like that. Here, it felt like I was playing two different games stitched together.

The story didn’t win me over either. I don’t know if it was the voice acting or just the weird logic of it. Like, your main villain attacks you because he was looking for your wife, who recently died, but he didn’t know that… so now you just beat the shit out of each other for 20 hours? The father-son arc also lacked progression. Kratos just ignores him, then yells once when the boy finds out he’s a god, and then suddenly - boom - Kratos is chill with everything at the end? That’s it? Nothing to ground that transition.

And then there was this moment near the end: I was messing around with my PS account, changed my profile pic to Kratos (OG style, smaller beard), and immediately started humming the God of War theme from 15 years ago. THIS ONE And just like that, I could picture it: flying off Mount Olympus, Zeus blasting thunders after me, landing on giants, ripping apart Prometheus - guts and blood everywhere. And here I am, canoeing, looking for closets with a single sad violin music playing. In the snow. I hate snow, like Anakin hates sand. (Even worse: I finished the game, and returned to Kratos' house the Ragnarok trailer drops… and guess what? More snow.) Oh, and that whole “Nine Realms” thing? What a dick move! You show all nine, but you can only travel to six and three of those are the size of a broom closet!

Anyway, it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it at all (though the main story felt a bit short?). I will play Ragnarok at some point. But before that, I think I’ll go back to some remastered originals from the 2005–2010 era.
Once I finish this, I’ve got the Bioshock trilogy lined up (I played the first one years ago on PC, but I’ve forgotten pretty much everything)
Also, just got an email that PS+ is 50% off (1- and 3-month subscriptions), so I might check what that gets me.

I enjoyed it more than you did, but I was also somewhat disappointed.

But it's the same as with The Last of Us - very often when people say the game is "like a movie" or even "like a book", my immediate thought is "well, you haven't watched many movies and haven't read many books, have you?".

Meaning the narrative storytelling and characters and "cinematography" and everything (like God of War's oner - the entire game is one continuous shot) is almost always overrated, with certain exceptions (yes, RDR2 indeed is like a movie - or more precisely, TV miniseries and Planescape: Torment is like a book, but those are the outliers).

I agree that the pacing of the game is quite lacking and the "set pieces" kinda jarring ... and the combat was trying to be hard, but wasn't as well-done and carefully crafted as with from soft, so it was more frustrating than it was necessary.

Had the game come out when I was fifteen, it would almost certainly become my favourite game ever. But it hadn't, so it didn't. As it stands, I have trouble forcing myself to replay it to play Ragnarok, which I have already bought, some time ago.

Freya is incredibly hot, though.

 

[DJMayes]

Currently going through Dark Souls 3 for the first time. I'm done with the base game and started the DLC yesterday.
It's a pretty good game, but by far my least favorite so far. My rankings would be:

Demon's Souls >>> Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin > Dark Souls Remastered > Dark Souls 3: The Fire Fades

I must've mentioned this before, but the difficulty in those games is massively overstated and hyped for no reason. The Nameless King for example has been proclaimed to be one of the greatest boss fights in the franchise, incredibly challenging and arguably one of the best fights in gaming. Well, turns out he's a complete chump lol
The spectacle, the atmosphere and the vibes were immaculate, I'll give him that. But the fight itself? Mechanically and difficulty-wise? Utter disappointment. I had him down in fewer than 10 tries, half of which were me goofing around with different spells and weapons to see my damage output. Hell, I had more trouble with the Twin Princes than I had with him.

Edit: Forgot to add my biggest complaint lol
The constant callbacks to Dark Souls 1 and the fanservice makes this one feel like it's not sure about its identity. Either tie all games from the trilogy in (DS2 has incredibly interesting additions to the lore) or focus on delivering a unique experience. This heavy emphasis on DS1 feels like a crutch and the game is worse off because of that.

Without attempting to be glib, what did you expect? Based on the fact you've made this ranking at all, you have played at least 3 Souls-like games before this, so you were bound to find it easier than the average player.

With regards to the series in general, I personally feel the difficulty is there but its misconstrued. It's not a test of mechanical ability, but a test of patience and pattern recognition. These can be huge roadblocks for a first playthrough but once they're down they transfer very easily between the whole series.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

You know what? I'm buying the Oblivion remaster. Sure, it's the same old jank under the new coat, it's just another in the stream of Bethesda's re-releases, but Oblivion always filled that sweet 00s fantasy spot, you know, the LOTR movies nostalgia and everything. It's going to be a trip down the memory lane. And it looks really good.

So I guess instead of going through the excellent games of Larian, Remedy, Naughty Dog, Vavra's Kingdom Come 2, new Dragon Ages and Avoweds and whatnot I'm instead whoring out to Todd "It just works" Howard, but


lol.

It's actually hilarious, now twenty years later, if I got a penny for every time my PC can probably barely handle Oblivion and I hope I don't have to play at my friend's instead, I'd get two pennies. Which isn't a lot, but it's still pretty weird that it happened twice.