Community MetaSteam | June 2024 - Let's conquer this kingdom with some pure hearts

Status
Not open for further replies.

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
1,703
2,951
113
I'm not saying there weren't good games but the perception of how horrible those years were is entirely dependent on what sort of games you want.

If you're the type of player that gravitates towards shooters and multiplayer games, or even cinematic experiences like jrpgs of that time, those were probably great years, but for those players, like me, that look for complex and systems-heavy games, like crpgs or immersive sims, or genres historically associated with pc gaming, like P&C or strategy games, those were awful years with barely any relevant release, and those that did exist were watered-down and dumbed-down copies of greater games that released in the prior decade, that needed to be that way in order to be playable in consoles. I'll never forget nor forgive what they did with Deus Ex's sequel and that was, chronologically speaking, one of the first signifiers of all the dreadful decisions that were to come.

Thankfully we're past that and, while trend chasing is still very much alive, now everyone is being catered to and the whole ecosystem is healthier because of it, although I still wish there were more crpgs and TB tactics games being made.
There was a huuuge change in a lot of popular PC games (and some new ones taking over like MOBAs), but while there's definitely a part of multiplatform development affecting some games and limiting them a lot (the Xbox is particularly to blame here, Microsoft sabotaging Windows to expand to consoles, or MP3 players, or mobile phones and whatever else that one exec thought about before leaving with their golden parachute is nothing new), and the now very well known game sellers defining what was supposed to sell well and what wasn't (and how wrong they were and got steam-rolled)...

There's also an aspect of genre fatigue, not everything can stay on top forever. I'm one of those players that got bored by samey RTS games releasing by the dozens from 1995-2003, and was less and less interested in them over the years after spending thousands of hours in them.
Now why point and click suffered that much, I'm not completely sure, but there were some European series hanging on, so maybe it was more that they were abandoned by historical developers instead.

Because that's the real reason why so much of the PC landscape sucked so much; tons of devs switched for games in either different genres, or just ones that would now use full 3D rather than the old 2D.
A lot of those conversions failed hard (and not only for PC, but also on consoles, lots of companies that keeled over in the early 2000s by losing sight of why they were liked, like Rare), and a lot for others... well that's something that I felt back in the day, but was apparently not in the majority: games that weren't simplified because of consoles, but because full 3D is much harder and much, much less prone to player possibilities (and would also take much longer and faaar more money than 2D, starting that visual war that's just slaughtering the entire AAA industry now).

I know it has tons of fans, but for me going from Baldur's Gate 2 to Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire (and even Neverwinter Nights was worse) was a heartbreak.
Dialogue? 90% is gone.
Exploration? We're in 2003, say good bye to the big open areas with fog of war, say hello to tiny, empty maps with almost zero interactable elements. Build customization? Fuck that one too, it's not like we can add the equivalent of 200 spells that were only tiny sprites back then.
Just follow the story and be happy. The beginning of the end with "cinematic" replacing gameplay.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kyougar

Dragon1893

MetaMember
Apr 17, 2019
1,711
4,178
113
I was thinking of skipping Kuro because I regret the hundreds of hours I put into Cold Steel, but hearing that it focuses on a smaller and better developed cast and has a darker, less cliched story, might get me to give it a chance down the line.
Problem is that I hear the sequel sucks and is basically just filler. I don't want to fall into the same trap of wasting time on completing the arc just because I already committed to it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: QFNS

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
4,338
12,334
113
I was thinking of skipping Kuro because I regret the hundreds of hours I put into Cold Steel, but hearing that it focuses on a smaller and better developed cast and has a darker, less cliched story, might get me to give it a chance down the line.
Problem is that I hear the sequel sucks and is basically just filler. I don't want to fall into the same trap of wasting time on completing the arc just because I already committed to it.
Kuro 2 got fairly positive reviews for the most part, the plot progression being slower does not per-se mean it's terrible. A vocal minority being sad that plot isn't moving faster does not make it a bad game.
These are huge games with a lot of complex threads and it makes sense that Falcom wants to explore the setting a bit before moving on. And from what I gather, Kai (which is basically Kuro 3) will be quite a bit faster paced. At least in terms of crazy shit that's going on there
 
  • Like
Reactions: QFNS

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,376
12,397
113
I was thinking of skipping Kuro because I regret the hundreds of hours I put into Cold Steel, but hearing that it focuses on a smaller and better developed cast and has a darker, less cliched story, might get me to give it a chance down the line.
Problem is that I hear the sequel sucks and is basically just filler. I don't want to fall into the same trap of wasting time on completing the arc just because I already committed to it.
Yeah, I'm not going to jump into another Trails arc before it's over and turns out to be good as a whole.
After Cold Steel 4 especially my default assumption now is that any Falcom writing is gonna be dogshit until proven otherwise.
 
  • This!
Reactions: Dragon1893

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
2,781
7,763
113
Mt. Whatever
Taking a long enough break from FFXIV expansion just to say that it's good. Amazing even despite a slow start for new world-building.

Also, the CB3 graphics team desperately needs to onboard an Nvidia tech with DLSS know-how. The DLSS they've implemented with expansion is one of the most broken I've ever seen. People are losing performance instead of gaining... Trying to patch it up with DLSSTweaker on the user side is a crapshoot. Some people get it to work and others end up not being able to boot.

o_O
 

dex3108

MetaMember
Dec 20, 2018
3,503
16,083
113

Well that's one way to announce that XD

Also i started Life is Strange True Colors yesterday on my Deck. It runs surprisingly great at High settings, 85% resolution and more-less locked 40FPS. IT is really enjoyable experience on Deck and so far i like Alex and the rest of the town folks.
 
Last edited:

Dragon1893

MetaMember
Apr 17, 2019
1,711
4,178
113
Elden Ring DLC got you down?

I've finally broken though some barriers there and would be happy to help if you want it. It is damn difficult though. Summons and upgrading Scadu and Ash levels were key for me.
Haven't started it. I gave up on Sekiro and AC4. Tried to beat Mohg but I'm so rusty after all this time. This just isn't for me anymore. But thanks for the offer.

I bought Demon's Souls at launch on PS3 and beat NG and NG+ without ever summoning help. I played through the Dark Soul trilogy and all the DLCs (the amount of times I fought sister Friede is crazy but I was determined to beat her alone). I beat Elden Ring but had to rely heavily on help for the last 3 bosses.
I don't have the patience or the reflexes for this stuff anymore. It's not worth the frustration.
That being said, whenever I get the chance to play the Demon's Souls remake I will definitely beat it. I'm confident that muscle memory will help me there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: QFNS

FunnyJay

Powered by the Cloud
Apr 6, 2019
1,501
3,908
113
Sweden
I've been mainly a PC player all my life. But I almost always had underpowered hardware when I grew up, even into my twenties.
I would always make do anyway (I remember playing Deus Ex on a severly underpowered Pentium 166 Mhz with software rendering, averaging a 1-10 FPS throughout the game and still managing to complete it).

But there were a period of time, around 2005-2010 were I largely went over to console gaming.
Managed to get both a PS2 and an original XBOX really cheap second hand.

Back then, console games could be traded in and it was really worth it, while PC games had approximately zero value in the second hand market ( no changes there today LOL).

I also bought a X360 shortly after release, so console gaming was huge for me back then.

PC gaming continued to be a haven of pirated games, but it was almost always easier getting the new games on console instead, since hardware requirements were still constantly shifting and PC parts were (IMO) not cheap.

The change came in 2010 when Steam started to grow, and PC games were dirt cheap in the sales.
It also helped when I got my first real job in 2011 after my time at the university, and I actually splurged on a lot of new PC hardware.

Steam made me quit sailing the high seas, and when the new console generation came (Xbox One/PS4) I was totally uninterested in console games.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.