Community MetaSteam | December 2019 - Halo! Is It Me You're Looking For?

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Trisolarian

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Jul 12, 2019
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You know what game really needed one single accessibility tweak in order to fit the lives of most gamers? Persona 5. That game needed a save state/quick save function in the worst possible way. Just add that and I wouldn't grumble a bit about the last quarter of the game every time I think of it. Instead, I was forced to use an easy mode I didn't need for any reason OTHER than to save time and prevent myself from losing progress in hour 87.
 
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Kyougar

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I played, finished and enjoyed most of them and I did not even found them particularly hard to be honest but I'll never agree with this. They are great games but kinda shit cultural works, which is something videogames should strive for as a medium if we want half the world to stop considering them as toys for children of very dumb adults.

They are crappy cultural works because they cannot be enjoyed by someone who would love to but is unable to due to inexperience, age, cultural background or any other variable.

They should have an easier mode. Because they're great games with great writing and great art and great level design and have nothing less noble than the best Gothic book or movie and they should experienced by anyone who wants to.

This moronic aura of "true gameZ for true gamerZ" isn't good for anybody other than From and whoever the publisher is for a particular game because it helps selling copies to those who feel they need to prove themselves and the world that they're worthy of the PhD in "true gameZ master".

An easier mode next to the standard one, which is the games as they are now, wouldn't make the games worse for anybody other than those idiots who feel part of some sort of elite because they completed a game few people can complete. The challenge, the satisfaction and everything, when playing the "standard mode" would be completely untouched.

Anyone can read Shakespeare, anyone can watch a 7-hour Bela Tarr movie, anyone can admire a beautiful painting, just a small group of people can completely understand what makes those particular works masterpieces, but everyone can enjoy them, and that doesn't make them less of a masterpiece, just universal and relevant. The same would apply to fucking From Software games.
I don't agree with the Souls fanboyism you quote, but if you want to enjoy something for the art/direction/level design/story but not the gameplay, you should just watch it on Youtube.
 

beep boop

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Dec 6, 2018
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I thought the difficulty debate was only around Sekiro because I was under the assumption that doesn't have character levels like Souls (still not sure about this). Those games can be a pain in the butt, but if you have a little bit of patience you can grind to offset some of the difficulty at least. My impression was always that Souls games are more punishing than challenging per se. For me anyway,, it was really more of an endurance/patience test. Sekiro seems to be both punishing and challenging. In any case, I wouldn't have minded them being a bit easier. I always liked the environments and mystery of those games' worlds more than the gameplay. I go to Monster Hunter when I want to get my ass beat :')
 
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PossiblyPudding

sometimes a doctor of rhythm
Apr 17, 2019
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Souls talk reminds me I haven't touched Sekiro yet.
I should pick up Sekiro. The Souls series is probably my series of the decade, I don't know why I've held off.
I think you two will enjoy it quite a bit, especially with you being a big fan of the series, Nabs. The only bummer for me was missing the ability to try new builds and weapons.

But I eventually got over that hump and realized that, okay, this is its own thing and not a Souls game. I wouldn't put it ahead of the Souls series personally though I could understand the argument from folks that might. For me it's one of the better games I've played in the past few years.

My personal brand of this is "too fucking real syndrome" and I haven't played much of Night in the Woods because of it.
Oh no, I think this is going to be my lashman moment! :p

NitW is such a charming game. It isn't a flawless one, there's moments later where it kind of loses the plot.. though I do have my own theories about some of those that I won't spoil here. But the writing and characters are so good it's hard not to be drawn in. I'd really recommend getting the rest of the way through even if you have to take it a little at a time.

It's one that hit me pretty hard, I share and have lived so much of what Mae's character goes through. From living in small town America and finally getting out only to return years later to find it mostly the same, yet slowly falling apart at the same time. To dealing with depression and the struggles and demons that brings.
 

fearthedawn

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Apr 19, 2019
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to the souls/sekiro difficulty debate:

a) I've yet to meet anybody who wants to literally force devs/pubs to only release games a certain way, imho they should be free to release whatever they want however they want (within the law of course). If people don't like something about the product it gets criticised, doesn't sell... or sometimes worshipped for doing something different.

b) Good accessibility options (which for most games include some sort of adjustment options for difficulty) should be industry standard and every dev with the resources to implement them should at least know that this is expected and will likely cost sales if not.

I am for both of those things...
 
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lashman

lashman

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Sep 5, 2018
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Oh no, I think this is going to be my lashman moment! :p

NitW is such a charming game. It isn't a flawless one, there's moments later where it kind of loses the plot.. though I do have my own theories about some of those that I won't spoil here. But the writing and characters are so good it's hard not to be drawn in. I'd really recommend getting the rest of the way through even if you have to take it a little at a time.

It's one that hit me pretty hard, I share and have lived so much of what Mae's character goes through. From living in small town America and finally getting out only to return years later to find it mostly the same, yet slowly falling apart at the same time. To dealing with depression and the struggles and demons that brings.
:wd_heart:
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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If Nvidias next GPU release is just a 2080ti super or something Im gonna scream. I really hope the 3080ti releases next year, but so far it seems like I have to survive HLA and Cyberpunk with a gtx 1080.

I do have money for a 2080ti, but I don't find the "jump" from 1080 to 2080ti to be enough worth my money, so I hope 3080ti comes out next year.

Otherwise, I have no idea if I need to upgrade anything else. I have 32 GB ram with 2666 mhz and a 5820k 4ghz.
 
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Trisolarian

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Speaking of cards, I've had a foil card for Killing Time at Lightspeed


For over 18 months. At one point they were going for $5. Nothing biting lol.
 

beep boop

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Dec 6, 2018
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Oh no, I think this is going to be my lashman moment! :p

NitW is such a charming game. It isn't a flawless one, there's moments later where it kind of loses the plot.. though I do have my own theories about some of those that I won't spoil here. But the writing and characters are so good it's hard not to be drawn in. I'd really recommend getting the rest of the way through even if you have to take it a little at a time.

It's one that hit me pretty hard, I share and have lived so much of what Mae's character goes through. From living in small town America and finally getting out only to return years later to find it mostly the same, yet slowly falling apart at the same time. To dealing with depression and the struggles and demons that brings.
I'm redownloading it now but... D:

 

PossiblyPudding

sometimes a doctor of rhythm
Apr 17, 2019
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You know, I don't think I've ever said how much I appreciate that emoji, nor have I returned the kindness in a while!



Oh! And I'll hopefully be able to report back with a LIS2 review of my own sometime soon. Plan to start it this week. :smiling-face-with-smiling-eyes:

I'm redownloading it now but... D:
Haha! Like I told NarohDethan last night I'm such a bad influence when it comes to games. I'm so sorry! :LOL:
 
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lashman

lashman

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You know, I don't think I've ever said how much I appreciate that emoji, nor have I returned the kindness in a while!
awww, thanks! :cat-heart-blob:

Oh! And I'll hopefully be able to report back with a LIS2 review of my own sometime soon. Plan to start it this week. :smiling-face-with-smiling-eyes:
i ABSOLUTELY can't wait to hear what you thought once you're done! :)
 

Eferis

MetaMember
Nov 12, 2018
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Oh no, I think this is going to be my lashman moment! :p

NitW is such a charming game. It isn't a flawless one, there's moments later where it kind of loses the plot.. though I do have my own theories about some of those that I won't spoil here. But the writing and characters are so good it's hard not to be drawn in. I'd really recommend getting the rest of the way through even if you have to take it a little at a time.

It's one that hit me pretty hard, I share and have lived so much of what Mae's character goes through. From living in small town America and finally getting out only to return years later to find it mostly the same, yet slowly falling apart at the same time. To dealing with depression and the struggles and demons that brings.
I second this. One of my favorite titles ever. It hits pretty close to home for me as well but, instead of that making it hard for me to play, it actually does the opposite, I'm sort of relieved in a "see? there's someone who gets it" kind of way.
 

Knurek

OG old coot
Oct 16, 2018
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Knurek I'm pretty sure there's voice patches for the PC versions! Please play them on PC. The Evolution releases are kinda bunk!
I want to play them portable though, and sadly the PC versions crash on alt-Tab and hibernation on GPD Win 2. Believe me, I've tried.
(I played through all three on PC already, before the VA patches were a thing. Just want to re-experience them with voice acting to prepare me for Zero/Ao and Durante's ToCS3 PC port
 

PossiblyPudding

sometimes a doctor of rhythm
Apr 17, 2019
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I'm downloading FIFA right now
Ahh! What have I done?! I'm a monster! :face-screaming-in-fear:
I second this. One of my favorite titles ever. It hits pretty close to home for me as well but, instead of that making it hard for me to play, it actually does the opposite, I'm sort of relieved in a "see? there's someone who gets it" kind of way.
Yep! That was exactly how I came away from it too. There was so much in there that really resonated with me.
 

Amzin

No one beats me 17 times in a row!
Dec 5, 2018
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Not sure what that was in regard to (Hellblade, maybe?) but I typically find games more entertaining and rewarding on harder difficulties because they require you to use more of what's offered. But it also really helps if the game itself is already enjoyable to play. if a game doesn't play well raising the difficulty isn't going to help things.

I don't mind lowering the difficulty if I just want to rush through something or if I'm simply not having as much fun on a harder difficulty I'll try lowering it to see if that improves my experience.
That's funny, my experience is the exact opposite. I remember getting frustrated with my replays in action games on the hardest difficulties because there are so many of your abilities and tools you straight up can't use, or you will die or lose resources. I play on normal/easy now just so I can play with the abilities or weapons that I want to instead of what the game dictates. The early God of War games were the most obvious examples of this I can think of, where you literally wanted to not unlock special moves so you don't accidentally use them in combat.

No one would give a shit about their games if they were easy. The entire appeal of Souls games is that you can go from being on top of the world to being dead in a second. Every enemy is a threat. The world is designed to kill you. Staying alive is rewarding and dying carries consequences.

If people can't handle the difficulty and difficulty spikes then they should just watch a lets play on youtube. People spend way too much time crying about this stuff on the internet. Get good and beat the game. Or cheese/cheat your way through them. Or just move on with your life by playing anything else. There are actual people who love this genre and are passionate about the design/experience of these games. Let them enjoy it. No need to piss all over a directors vision because something is inaccessible to you.
This is, frankly, disgusting elitism, a bit delusional, and shows a lack of empathy or understanding. No one (beyond a few people like you, I guess) regards games that have difficulty settings as worse. Saying people "wouldn't care" is like saying people shouldn't care about Minecraft, or any of the Final Fantasy games, or Celeste, or Hollow Knight, or Super Mario, or.... fucking almost the entire library of modern games. Games are as popular as ever and as shared as they are and as polished as they've become because of how many people have access to them. I've played and beaten some of the "hardest" games on consoles and PC and some (old) ones didn't have difficulty settings and they would not be worse if they did.

The only things that should ever be gatekeepered are things where it would actively harm other people to not restrict access. Driving, owning a gun, being an educator, etc. all are things that deserve to have some actual limit on access. There is no legitimate reason to not accept difficulty options in games, or making them available for more people to enjoy. That's not to say I think difficulty options should be a #1 priority for devs but ignoring them entirely, in action games in particular, will only hurt in the long run.

If you think a game is just a worse piece of work because it has more options, that's honestly on you.

Edit: Closest comparison I can think of having personally is Rick & Morty. I like R&M a LOT, but I don't talk about it with hardly anyone because the majority of the fanbase seems to like different things about it than I do. That sucks for me trying to share my own passion of it, but I don't begrudge those people for enjoying something differently.
 
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yuraya

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I played, finished and enjoyed most of them and I did not even found them particularly hard to be honest but I'll never agree with this. They are great games but kinda shit cultural works, which is something videogames should strive for as a medium if we want half the world to stop considering them as toys for children of very dumb adults.

They are crappy cultural works because they cannot be enjoyed by someone who would love to but is unable to due to inexperience, age, cultural background or any other variable.

They should have an easier mode. Because they're great games with great writing and great art and great level design and have nothing less noble than the best Gothic book or movie and they should experienced by anyone who wants to.

This moronic aura of "true gameZ for true gamerZ" isn't good for anybody other than From and whoever the publisher is for a particular game because it helps selling copies to those who feel they need to prove themselves and the world that they're worthy of the PhD in "true gameZ master".

An easier mode next to the standard one, which is the games as they are now, wouldn't make the games worse for anybody other than those idiots who feel part of some sort of elite because they completed a game few people can complete. The challenge, the satisfaction and everything, when playing the "standard mode" would be completely untouched.

Anyone can read Shakespeare, anyone can watch a 7-hour Bela Tarr movie, anyone can admire a beautiful painting, just a small group of people can completely understand what makes those particular works masterpieces, but everyone can enjoy them, and that doesn't make them less of a masterpiece, just universal and relevant. The same would apply to fucking From Software games.
There is like 8 billion people on this planet. Most of them will live their entire life without ever playing a video game. Some of them will never learn to read. Others will never visit a museum or watch any movies. Who cares. There are way too many variables to analyze accessibility and art. Treating games like they are some museum exhibit defeats the point of interactive entertainment.

Games are different. Not everything has to be a rush to see the ending credits. I don't enjoy Souls games because I got to see the ending credits. I enjoyed them because I needed like 15 attempts to beat Genichiro and like 10 attempts to beat Owl. And the final boss I lost count how many times I needed to beat him but I got him on the 3rd or 4th day. Those were the 3 big difficulty spikes in Sekiro. That was my enjoyment of the game. If they were easy fights I would have wrapped up the game in like 15hrs instead of the 40 that I needed. It would have been a completely different experience and one that wasn't memorable. The great art and storytelling would just be something you pay money to see instead of something you fought your to finally seeing. Its earned and its different.

Some games are more about the journey than anything else. Souls games are just that. There is a difference and easy difficulty would ruin the majority of Miyazakis vision. We can climb MT. Everest or we can all take an elevator up there while sipping on champagne. Its one or the other with these type of games. You would have to redesign an entire Souls game if you add difficulty options. Thus you get a different game and that is basically censorship. Seeing him accept that award the other day was very important even if it sounds cringey to say. The genre has come a long way and the last thing we need right now is casual gamers dictating things.
 
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Trisolarian

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Now that we're on this discussion, a game that really ground my gears was Folklore for the PS3. You better flick that controller upwards or you get nothing. I tried that while recovering/suffering from wrist strain and I had to drop the game.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Test
I enjoyed them because I needed like 15 attempts to beat Genichiro and like 10 attempts to beat Owl. And the final boss I lost count how many times I needed to beat him but I got him on the 3rd or 4th day. Those were the 3 big difficulty spikes in Sekiro. That was my enjoyment of the game. If they were easy fights I would have wrapped up the game in like 15hrs instead of the 40 that I needed. It would have been a completely different experience and one that wasn't memorable. The great art and storytelling would just be something you pay money to see instead of something you fought your to finally seeing. Its earned and its different.
Are you oblivious to the idea that people aren't saying difficult games should only have one difficulty and it should be easy? The argument is for difficulty options. If they remake Demon's Souls (as rumors suggest could happen) and there's three difficulty options with the original game's difficulty listed as Normal with both an Easy and Hard added would you suddenly feel different about the game's difficulty?
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
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A little rant about Discord as a place for "tech support"

It doesn't fucking work! I want to find answers and not ask stupid questions which are getting answered MAYBE.
Biggest example: Roguetech. The reddit is fucking useless. Anyone who asks questions like how to improve turn times or if something works as intended is closed immediately and told to ask it in the Discord.
 

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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That's funny, my experience is the exact opposite. I remember getting frustrated with my replays in action games on the hardest difficulties because there are so many of your abilities and tools you straight up can't use, or you will die or lose resources. I play on normal/easy now just so I can play with the abilities or weapons that I want to instead of what the game dictates. The early God of War games were the most obvious examples of this I can think of, where you literally wanted to not unlock special moves so you don't accidentally use them in combat.
I guess you're not entirely incorrect that some games may limit the amount of abilities you can get on harder difficulties (though I can't recall in past God of War games holding off on buying abilities on harder difficulties, I simply didn't use the abilities I may not have needed?).

My point is more that on lower difficulties you rarely feel like you need to use the full set of abilities since you can more easily just stand around, take hits, and deal out damage with basic stuff. It probably isn't like this for every game but I do find the majority work this way (for me).
 

Theswweet

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Mar 12, 2019
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I don't really have anything to add to the Sekiro discourse either, I guess. I didn't really have too much trouble with it - I beat it in 3-4 days, I think - but I also know that there are plenty of people that legitimately got stuck at the final boss and couldn't finish the game.
 

derExperte

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Dec 9, 2018
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I'm assuming that D3 has cards but they don't actually have the emoticons or the profile wallpaper? Or the badges for that matter?
D3? All games have all that stuff but Steam Card Exchange can only list items that were on the market at least once.

I Just got my new keyboard, it will take some getting use to but hopefully it isn't too bad right now the issue that I have with it is that it is wider than I would have liked, by which I mean the G keys, I am not use to something being there, and have felt like hitting them when aiming for the caps lock keys a few times already.
Hey, I got me a G815 on Saturday because it was on sale for 111€ and I wanted to try a low profile mechanical keyboard but it'll go back. A) it's slightly bent with the middle standing up off the table, b) no wrist rest and it's too flat to use with the one I have, c) it's too wide for me too, don't need those G keys, will probably hit 'em often and tbh I overlooked them when ordering and d) typing feels really good and certainly better than flat rubberdomes but I just don't like flat keyboards as much, at work it's fine but when I've got the choice, nah. Also those rubber 'keys' for special functions on the G815 feel really bad.
 
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Lamplight City (a game well worth a consideration in the upcoming sale, for those who are yet to buy it) just got updated with a commentary mode:


 

BlackRainbowFT

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Apr 17, 2019
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Like many debates about many different topics, I always struggle to understand why there is a debate to begin with.

Why care about what other people do, how they do it and whom they do it with ? As far as I know it doesn't affect you in any way... live and let live, or something.

For example, my GF started playing games in her 20s and probably rolled a -10 dexterity when she was born. She refuses to watch me play because she wants to "be" in the game and wants to feel like she accomplished something. So, she just plays on the easiest difficulty setting and she enjoys the game a lot... and she still manages to die because she was born with two left hands. To her, playing on easy is like playing on legendary... now, does this affect me in any way ? nope. I could still crush her 100:0...

personally, I'm all for inclusiveness.

 
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