General Game Chat

[Maniakkid25]

Oh, you mean The Video Game Advertisments? Nah; that's why I stopped paying attention to E3, after all.

So, I fixed the plot of one of the games I own that I hate! And it took all of 10 minutes at 3 in the morning. For those of you that missed it, Digimon World Data Squad is an underwritten, poorly optimized slog of a "game", and I hate its guts. But I was thinking about its plot, and how it's completely wasted by the fact that the game specifically invented 5 characters for the game, despite being a game ostensibly set in the Data Squad universe (and ends up being completely incompatible with that universe), and most of those characters having essentially no effect on the plot. By cutting out 3 of those invented characters, and actually looting characters from, you know, the universe we are using, I managed to create a full character arc for Marcus (WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?!) and a more sensible villain without even changing most of the story beats! Going into specifics would require me to explain most of the game's plot and some things about Data Squad as a universe, so I won't go into details unless explicitly asked to, but it amazed me that I literally, off the top of my head, came out with a better version of the plot than BANDAI-NAMCO did! The more I dig into this game, the more fail I find; it continues to impress me how staggeringly incompetent this thing is!

[Moonface]

-Jump Force being nominated for best fighting game might be the only joke bigger than Death Stranding in nominated for any of these awards.

Yeah, surprised this one got a nomination. It came and went and no one seemed to care nor talk very positively about it.

I expect Death Stranding to win in every category its nominated just because the guy who runs the show is bffs with Kojima and he needs to make sure he stays in good standing with him. Going to be really sad to see, honestly.

I'm hoping that the winners being decided by a panel that wasn't part of DS will avoid any potential bias towards that game, but if it does win too many awards (not that they matter) it is going to raise questions. I don't think the game is unworthy of any awards, but I don't think it's something that is worthy of everything it has a nomination for.

The rumour of a new Crash Bandicoot game being announced is the only thing I'm currently getting hyped for from the show tonight (as stupid as I am for getting hyped over a rumour that could be nothing). It'll be interesting to see what direction the series is going now that the remakes are all out of the way.

[Mr EliteL]

Looked at the nominees and categories, and surprised Death Stranding got into more than I expected. Game of the Year, Action/Adventure, Narrative and then Performance I thought would be enough but now I know why. Don't mind if the game wins a few but definitely don't want to see most go to it.

Also disappointed about Fire Emblem, and no Pokémon or is November release still too close? I forgot that they don't allow month release wise, thought it was only December. Agree on CTR, needs to win Sports. If I was voting, I'd only be voting in about 5 of these. Oh forgot about Link's Awakening. Make that 7. Way too many on eSports stuff, can agree on Player being part of it, even as a stretch.

Can't watch tonight, so will see tomorrow the results and any noteworthy announcements.

[Dragon Lord]

Getting on Twitter and seeing that Sekiro won GoTY and denied a mediocre, overrated game like Death Stranding and its mediocre, overrated creator the crown was awesome.

Honestly the fact that a game as difficult as Sekiro won surprises me. In this age of most gamers needing their hands held throughout the entirety of a game, to the point where even the smallest amount of effort required causes them to whine about it online, I didn't think a game that beat your ass down as hard as Sekiro does would have a snowball's chance in hell at winning GoTY. Very awesome to see it get appreciated.

Even more awesome to see Kojima get deniiiiiiiied.

[Maniakkid25]

Honestly the fact that a game as difficult as Sekiro won surprises me. In this age of most gamers needing their hands held throughout the entirety of a game, to the point where even the smallest amount of effort required causes them to whine about it online, I didn't think a game that beat your ass down as hard as Sekiro does would have a snowball's chance in hell at winning GoTY. Very awesome to see it get appreciated.

We clearly don't frequent the same gaming circles, because the only complaints I see on difficulty ever are that games are too easy and hand-holdy. Star Fox Zero had an invincibility mode as an official difficulty, and people on twitter immediately light up about how stupid it is. Mario Kart 8 adds Smart Steering? People won't shut up about how it's cheating (even though using it online requires at least some sort of input so that the game doesn't D/C you). And lets not forget that one time that ONE GUY used a mod on Sekiro to help him out, and spawned a meme. As much as I hear about video games being "dumbed down", it seems like the only discourse I hear about it is that "it's easy so it sucks!" Hell, I swear to god it exists, but I'm having trouble finding it, but there was one guy who said if he caught his child using something that made a game easier for him (and I want to say it was Star Fox Zero), he would disown him.

Yes, Pokemon games now hold your hand through the game, showering you with items and heals before battles...because it's meant for kids. Yes, tutorials for game mechanics have entered the game rather than figuring it out yourself...because we've moved past the days where we had instruction manuals in every game. Yes, most of the hardest games are older ones -- Battletoads and MegaMan on the NES come to mind, as well as the first Devil May Cry compared to the 4th -- but have you actually sat down and tried to PLAY these games?! Some of the crap they do is downright unfair, from beginners traps explicitly designed to just suck lives from you, to OP monsters that don't care two ways about your crappy little peashooter! I've actually rage quit the first DMC because I was sick and tired of constantly dying to a single boss about halfway into the game! Sure, I play SMT games on hard mode when I feel like kicking my own teeth in, but I also play Triggerheart Excelica on Easy because it's a Bullet Hell, and I'm neither co-ordinated enough nor quick-witted/capable of memorizing the mass waves of bullets that kill me in one hit. I play Rock Band exclusively on Expert, but my favorite thing while playing the game is to see other people who aren't as skilled in the game play lower difficulties because it lets me remember when I was first learning. When I play fighting games, I program the AI to the lowest setting possible because I get my face kicked in if I try otherwise. Sure, at that point I'm basically fighting a scarecrow that occasionally flails with the wind, but considering my play style is basically "button mash and hope for the best", that's about an even match for me.

I feel like I have to agree with Jim Sterling's general opinion on the matter of game difficulty. The TL;DR version of it is this: Why does it matter? Why does it matter that someone else needs to play at an easier difficulty, or needs a little more help learning to play the game (or can't functionally play the game, such as handicapped people or young children)? Why does it ruin YOUR experience that someone else needs the help? This would be like me saying that all people who look at the Limit Definition of a Derivative and say "the hell am I looking at?" are pansies who will never match up to "real" mathematicians, and that teaching kindergarteners how to count is "dumbing it down for them". Me? I do differential equations when I'm bored. And you know what I say whenever I meet someone who says they hate math? "Hang on, let me see if I can't help." And you know what, maybe it will help. They may never get to the point where they can look at a Fourier Series and understand what the hell it means (Hell, I can't remember what it means, but that was because I learned it 5 years ago and haven't used it since), but by guiding them through it, maybe they won't be intimidated by "upper level" math. ...I've kinda lost my point in all this, but the point is that people are different, and making a game that caters to what every player wants should be more important that appeasing the people who want everything to be as hard as possible. And maybe, just maybe, those players that wanted an easier game will be able to learn, and come up there with you.

[Dragon Lord]

I dunno if anyone else is paying any attention to AGDQ this year, but good lord does the game's list suck. There's like a total of three or four games during the entire week that are even remotely interesting. The rest are games I don't think most people have ever heard of.

It's like they decided to make the entire marathon the "awful games done quick" block.

[Moonface]

I had a quick look over some of the list yesterday and nothing really took my interest. My big gripe with the lists though is how some stuff is a frequent returner. Jak 2 is being run this year, but was only done 2 years ago. Jak 1 was last year and 2016. Unless something notable was found I'd rather not see games returning so quickly because there's probably more people watching that have seen that stuff before at a past event than not. Like Ratchet & Clank was in 2017 and 2018, and although the rules for them were different I don't feel that should be enough to have it in back to back years.

[Dragon Lord]

You bring up a good point and I agree with it -- AGDQ has been getting extremely stale the last few years because they just keep recycling the same games every year, but just a different category that has slight changes to it.

The biggest problem is that the person who runs the event is very picky about what games get in. He uses his personal taste as the way to determine what games get it. From what I've heard he has a pretty huge bias against JRPGs or "anime" games in general, and will usually deny those without even looking at them. Like, I get it, not everyone likes games that are anime-ish in artstyle and what not, but to deny them just because you don't like them is stupid. There's a lot of speedruns of these game that are really neat and they should have as good of a chance as any other game of getting into the marathon.

Then you have the bigger problem of any time that they do let a JRPG/anime/niche game into the marathon, they put it at like 2-5 AM when no one will see it. I get it, they want the "big boys" in the prime time hours, but I don't think it is fair to more niche games that they get stuck in the middle of the night every time. The marathon is a week long, I think they can give day time hours to more niche games for one day of the week.

Now I'm not saying they should give special attention to these games, but just make it fair. As a huge fan of JRPGs/anime/niche games, it sucks when every one I want to watch is at like 4-5 AM when I have to be up in the morning.

If he would open his mind a little more to them, the lineup could be a lot more varied and unique. I'm not saying they should let games like Gal*Gun in (I love Gal*Gun, but obviously there's reason why it wouldn't be AGDQ-friendly), but there are a lot of niche games that would be fine for the marathon. Like last AGDQ (think it was the last one at least) we had Disgaea 5, and seeing that in the marathon was awesome. The bias in GDQ is one of the reasons why I much, much prefer watching RPG Limit Break's yearly marathon, since it's nothing but RPGs and they allow these niche titles in.

[Moonface]

Games shouldn't be rejected on taste but rather whether they are good for speedrunning. Let's just hypothetically say Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had some crazy skips in it to do the whole story in like, an hour or two, then it should have a high chance to get in because of the techniques being showcased. It shouldn't just be "Is X game entertaining?" but rather "Is speedrunning X game with Y method/conditions entertaining/interesting?" Surely the point should be wowing people at what crazy shit people can pull off in any game, not just the mainstream stuff. Although my gripe is still mostly with some games often returning. Sure, shove some new stips on it but it's the equivalent of WWE putting on the same main event match for consecutive WrestleMania events but letting the wrestlers twat each other over the head with a chair one year and then the next they get to fight on the stage setup. It's different but still gets stale quickly compared to giving something else the chance to shine.

Onto other subjects, Royal Mail announced they're doing a series of stamps based on video-games from the 80's and 90's that were made by British developers, such as Worms, Tomb Raider, and Wipeout: https://shop.royalmail.com/special-stamp...VIDG_PR_01
No idea what I'll get yet from it, if anything.

[Moonface]

For anyone who's interested, the entire Half Life series is free to play on Steam from now until when Half Life: Alyx is released. I'm definitely going to try them out.

[ShiraNoMai]

Any thoughts on it so far?

Platinum Games, makers of famed titles Bayonetta, Vanquish, and various other action titles with their own brand of crazy, have announced today a Kickstarter campaign to finance (what is presumably only their marketing budget initially based on the fact they have a release window of April 2020) their remaster of their WiiU exclusive title "The Wonderful 101", coming to the Nintendo Switch, with stretch goals of release onto PC and PS4 as well. As of this moment, those goals have been easily met. The initial goal was $50k, and is presently sitting at just under $1m.

You can see the Kickstarter here and pledge to be banned on Hideki Kamiya's Twitter!

[Mr EliteL]

Wow, that Kickstarter's nuts and I only looked at it for when the tier for getting blocked started. Perhaps that was the main reason behind the goal now being almost 30x the original amount? *shot* Amazed by the support for the remaster.

[queenzelda]

Let's just hope they fix the controls so that it plays better this time; compared to the confusing control scheme it had on the WiiU when the Wonderful 101 released the first time.

[Moonface]

Any thoughts on it so far?

It's alright. I see why it was probably a big deal when it released, but it really hasn't held up well. Some of the level design gets very...questionable.

Let's just hope they fix the controls so that it plays better this time; compared to the confusing control scheme it had on the WiiU when the Wonderful 101 released the first time.

Was it the touch screen controls that made the game difficult to play on Wii U?

[queenzelda]

Let's just hope they fix the controls so that it plays better this time; compared to the confusing control scheme it had on the WiiU when the Wonderful 101 released the first time.

Was it the touch screen controls that made the game difficult to play on Wii U?

Oh but it was more then the screen controls; you'd have to swap from using the touch pad for some moves; while with other moves you'd have to use B,A then control pad. Or control pad: b + LT. If it would have stuck to the control pad maybe it'd have been alright; but it made you swap between control schemes. If it just stuck to one control scheme then it might have been alright, but going back & forth between how the game controls was a huge issue for me with the Wonderful 101. 

I played the demo for the game & due to the bad control scheme; I wasn't very impressed with it. The demo is still available for download if you own a WiiU & wanna see for yourself.