Videogame News

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Videogame News

Post by KSubzero1000 »

I don't know about "outdated design choices", but all I can say is that I found the movement and combat in ME1 & 2 to be atrociously bad even when they first came out. Bad enough to put me off the series entirely, although to be fair, I'm probably not the target audience to begin with considering I'm not a big fan of dialogue trees and branching narrative RPGs.

I remember that being a rather controversial minority opinion back then...
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Suits
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Re: Videogame News

Post by Suits »

BaileyBoy wrote: May 7th, 2020, 11:19 am Yeah, that's definitely true. A lot of the dialogue boils down to lore/world building too which was new and exciting first time round, less so when you already know it all.
Easily my most favourite Sci-fy narrative in games.

Blew me away massively when I first played it, less so when I had to go back and do all the other companion stories but then they were strong enough to get me to play them all.
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OldBailey
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Re: Videogame News

Post by OldBailey »

KSubzero1000 wrote: May 7th, 2020, 11:21 am I don't know about "outdated design choices", but all I can say is that I found the movement and combat in ME1 & 2 to be atrociously bad even when they first came out. Bad enough to put me off the series entirely, although to be fair, I'm probably not the target audience to begin with considering I'm not a big fan of dialogue trees and branching narrative RPGs.

I remember that being a rather controversial minority opinion back then...
For me, and I suspect many others, the appeal was having an epic scale western RPG (which prior to this had almost solely been the realm of the CRPG) with action combat that facilitated a faster paced game and supported a more cinematic and exciting narrative. The combat itself was never the draw, the appeal was in how it supported the overall game design. There were stepping stones along the way of course (KOTOR etc), but this was a significant evolution of the concept. The Sci Fi setting was also highly unusual for this style of RPG which helped it further stand out.
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OldBailey
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Re: Videogame News

Post by OldBailey »

It should also be said that we were still within a year of the release of Gears of War so the concept of a third person cover shooter was also still fairly novel, even if Mass Effect's action elements were clearly inferior
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Re: Videogame News

Post by DomsBeard »

DomsBeard wrote: May 6th, 2020, 4:00 pm

Looks like I'm rebuying Mortal Kombat 11
£35 seems a bit steep for some story DLC and 3 characters and skins providing you already had the base game. It's £49.99 if you don't own the base game. I'll see what the reviews are like but I'll take a rain check for now.

I've played through Mass Effects 1-3 twice and feel like I'm not overly bothered about a remaster. I feel like we've never lost easy access to it. Total hypocrisy as I'm nearing the end of and have loved the FFVII remake I know but I'd rather ea had the balls to give Mass Effect another shot with a new story, there's enough to go on.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Videogame News

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BaileyBoy wrote: May 7th, 2020, 12:33 pm The combat itself was never the draw, the appeal was in how it supported the overall game design.
I totally get that, my issue is that if you're going to ask the player to spend 20+ hours with your game, then the primary method of gameplay interaction should reach a minimum quality threshold. If all Bioware wants to do is tell a epic scale space opera with memorable characters and branching story paths, then there should be no shame in focusing on that and either minimizing or excising the mechanical baggage entirely.

When I look at ME, all I can think of is how much tighter and more satisfying it would be as a full-blown visual novel rather than a mechanically subpar TPS-RPG hybrid. Then again, I'm obviously approaching this from the biased perspective of an action game player so maybe my metrics aren't appropriate. :P
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OldBailey
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Re: Videogame News

Post by OldBailey »

KSubzero1000 wrote: May 7th, 2020, 12:53 pm
I totally get that, my issue is that if you're going to ask the player to spend 20+ hours with your game, then the primary method of gameplay interaction should reach a minimum quality threshold...
I completely understand this criticism, you're certainly not the only to be put off by the combat! For me, it did reach that threshold. I actually thought the combat system was pretty fundamentally sound, with a good combination of skill/power usage, target prioritisation and aiming skill required to get through each encounter. It was engaging enough, for me, to support the rest of what that game achieved.

What I would not defend though is the combat FEEL. The combination lack of hit detection, no analogue stick aim assist and a super unsteady frame rate really didn't do it any favours.

As a PC player however, most of these issues didn't exist and although it compares unfavourably to the best action games of it's era, it was a significantly improved experience over the console release.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Videogame News

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I was a really, really big fan of Mass Effect after the first one, but my interest gradually waned as the series went on. ME1 was definitely my favourite, because it set up so many amazing avenues for the plot to go forward... But I feel like ME2 was a step in absolutely the wrong direction. I liked it, and I liked the improved gameplay and the bits that focused on characters... But I also felt like the overarching narrative lost focus and started going in a really stupid direction. And then by the time ME3 came out, I wasn't going to buy day one. And the word on the street was that the ending was just straight-up stupid, which kinda confirmed my worst fears.

And then Andromeda had a chance to do something new and interesting. And it shat the bed.

In the fallout of the Anthem story, it seems that Mass Effect lost focus because it lost writers and staff. People were leaving BioWare en masse by the time ME3 came out, and I think that's largely why it feels like the series lost its focus as it went along. It's a shame really. It had potential to be this landmark sci-fi opus, but I honestly don't think it will be.

Dragon Age is a similar story. First one great, second one rushed out the door and kinda of mediocre, third one good, but I'd lost investment in the series by that point.

I think the BioWare of the past is dead and gone now, and with Alberta's economy going down the shitter, I don't have much hope for the future - for those outside Canada, BioWare is based in Edmonton, Alberta, and Alberta's economy is based largely in fossil fuels... But the way they develop fossil fuels makes them the most expensive producer in North America, if not the world. And oil was selling for a negative value just two weeks ago. It's going to be hard to convince new talent to move up there when the Province is ostensibly in austerity mode under a very right-wing Tory government.
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Alex79
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Re: Videogame News

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I can remember very little about the Mass Effect story so can't wait to go back to it. I think the thing about the first game especially is that it's an RPG first. That kind of got stripped back more and more by the third game which is essentially a great third person shooter with a good story, but the first game was shamelessly an RPG with real time combat tacked on to it. Honestly though, I like the world and the characters so much that if they did nothing more than port the PS3 games to PS4 without a single texture upgrade or quality of life improvement I'd still be there day one.
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Re: Videogame News

Post by Alex79 »

Mafia Trilogy incoming: https://mafiagame.com/

Interesting. Wouldn't mind having a look at 1 and 2 again.
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chase210
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Re: Videogame News

Post by chase210 »

Mafia 1 is a remake not a remaster, and it looks incredible.
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Scrustle
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Re: Videogame News

Post by Scrustle »

So the rumours were true. Interesting, as I don't think there was any hint at Mafia 1 in the previous leaks. Perhaps that means they will sell them all individually as well, or perhaps only 2 and 3.

When I've been poking around the internet looking up stuff about these games, it seems the idea of a remake of 1 has actually been highly requested for a while. Even seen quite a few people say it has the best story in the series. I never expected a remake would actually happen though.
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Re: Videogame News

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Oh yeah, didn't think of that, I hope they do offer them seperately. Not sure if the fact that 3 will likely literally be the game currently available makes that more or less likely that they'll sell 1 and 2 on their own.

Seems odd they'd offer it up as a trilogy rather than just 1 and 2 remake pack.
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Re: Videogame News

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It’s possible these are remasters for ps5 and Xbsx of course.
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Scrustle
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Re: Videogame News

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The teaser lists PS4/XB1 at the end. No mention of PS5/XBX as of yet.
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Alex79
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Re: Videogame News

Post by Alex79 »

This looks great. It's just released on the eShop.



Huntdown. A 2D, 16bit style run and gun. Looks a whole heap of fun and has had some decent reviews. Added to my wishlist!
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Videogame News

Post by ratsoalbion »

Also on PS4, XO and PC (prices vary within a couple of quid).
Reviewing around 83% average but apparently it's a proper toughy:
https://opencritic.com/game/9426/huntdown


On a similar tip but ever-so-slightly less well received (79%), there's also Fury Unleashed:
https://opencritic.com/game/9292/fury-unleashed
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OldBailey
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Re: Videogame News

Post by OldBailey »

I'd never heard of this game before now. Thanks for the heads up, looks great!
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Angry_Kurt
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Re: Videogame News

Post by Angry_Kurt »

I encountered a game breaking bug in Mafia 2 where there was a mission at a gas station and no matter which way I approached it to get to my objective, my character would always fall through the floor and was therefore not able to progress the story. Reloading the game and restarting the console made no difference. A shame as I was enjoying it.
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Re: Videogame News

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Angry_Kurt wrote: May 14th, 2020, 12:08 pm I encountered a game breaking bug in Mafia 2 where there was a mission at a gas station and no matter which way I approached it to get to my objective, my character would always fall through the floor and was therefore not able to progress the story. Reloading the game and restarting the console made no difference. A shame as I was enjoying it.
That sucks. Have you tried uninstalling and redownloading it? Or loading from an earlier save? I wouldn't give up just yet. I've had similar situations before where doing one of the above fixed it. But then, I've had situations where it didn't too. :(

It happened to me on the Abes Oddyssey remake on Vita. There was a puzzle where something just wouldn't trigger that was supposed to. No amount of trying to fix it worked and I gave up and never went back. I was really looking forward to playing it too, the original was one of my favorite PS1 games.

Salt & Sanctuary on the Vita too. That was so buggy. Got game breaking bugs twice before I managed a clean run through the game.

EDIT: Wondering if this would help you? https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/94 ... i/58351184

They suggest it's a rare but known bug, and playing the previous chapter again may help?
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