Community MetaSteam | April 2020 - A Disaster Report From Raccoon City

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Ex-User (119)

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trials of mana now finished.

highly recommend the game but for myself it did become a little drag near end, when a rpg gives you a skill or an item that lets you flee encounters quicker etc thats normally a sign to me that the game is longer than it needs to be. in this case i was right, u collect the mana stone thoughout the game, after doing so you then go off to 8 new locastions which huge zones to find these other bosses to kill, to then find about a secret stone so u go kill another boss in a huge zone, you then go into another huge zone to kill 4 bosses u killied before to then meet last story boss.

i got completey zoned out come the new 8 locations and from there just blazed past monsters to bosses.

also flammie, flammie is best

 

Swenhir

Spaceships!
Apr 18, 2019
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You are misunderstanding what i meant. People are entitled to make whatever purchasing decision they want to make.
I am saying it is ND/Sony who are not deserving of purchases that are reliant on a mix of marketing and mystery boxes that vanish the moment people read the leaks. If your story is good, then it will sell on its merits, such as themes, execution, presentation. And if it doesn't, then the story isn't good and fails because of its absence of merits.

Anyways, a good journey will remain good regardless of knowing where it ends. It isn't just that a lot hinges on execution, execution is the point.
A good story makes you think, opens your mind to new ideas, makes you more empathic to something, triggers you emotionally, challenges your beliefs, teaches you things.
A bad story is reliant on mystery boxes that lead to disappointing thoughtless answer like the recent Star Wars movies or Game of Thrones.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to be abrasive but to me that's a whole lot of opinions. The fact of the matter is that having the surprise spoiled takes out a huge joy out of the game for people. The intrinsic quality of the story absolutely depends on how it is told, but that's missing the point that spoiling robs players of a huge chunk of the joy of playing the game. It follows that not wanting to buy the game when its value to the player has thus been made lesser is logical.

The same goes for the list you made about spoiler culture - and by the way, thanks for explaining!. I can actually see what people are getting at there. These little surprises are joyful to discover and not wanting to be robbed of that is legitimate to me. I find many of those on your list actually okay to not want to be spoiled.

Arguably, it's pretty hard to maintain when it comes down to the name of the game. That's a bit ridiculous, I'll agree with you there. I guess what I'm saying is that it costs people little to nothing to be kind and careful there and I get where they are coming from, both in the case of TLOU II and a handful of those instances you described. It's always about preserving that small, unique moment of discovery that contribute to making games magical.

To give an example, each environment in MH:W is a joy to discover because I hadn't expected it at all. It all comes to me sight unseen and it's a part of the journey. I don't want that surprise to be taken from me and it can't be assumed that I have seen every trailer because in fact, I have tried to go in there fresh and blind. I certainly wouldn't expect people in the MH:W thread to keep it spoiler-free, but in a general discussion channel, I think it's a reasonable expectation.

I hope that made sense, I've tried to describe why it's not about the narrative quality of the work but instead about the joy of the experience for players.
 

Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
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www.seikens.com
trials of mana now finished.

highly recommend the game but for myself it did become a little drag near end, when a rpg gives you a skill or an item that lets you flee encounters quicker etc thats normally a sign to me that the game is longer than it needs to be. in this case i was right, u collect the mana stone thoughout the game, after doing so you then go off to 8 new locastions which huge zones to find these other bosses to kill, to then find about a secret stone so u go kill another boss in a huge zone, you then go into another huge zone to kill 4 bosses u killied before to then meet last story boss.

i got completey zoned out come the new 8 locations and from there just blazed past monsters to bosses.

also flammie, flammie is best

Did you play it non-stop? That's impressive, since it was released a fews days ago :D Who did you choose for your party, and which classes did you end up with?
 
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Ex-User (119)

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Did you play it non-stop? That's impressive, since it was released a fews days ago :D Who did you choose for your party, and which classes did you end up with?
i ran past alot of monsters basically rushing to bosses :D my party was Angela Charlotte and Hawkeye, which annoyed me a lil more because i found out theres meant to be main teams for story, and it doesnt actually tell you the combos and i managed to do one that doesnt involve a main combo, im not sure how someone could playthrough this 3 times to experience all story elements like required, that sounds like a nightmare to me for just how many things happen lol

but i wont forget flammie :D
 
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Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
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i ran past alot of monsters basically rushing to bosses :D my party was Angela Charlotte and Hawkeye, which annoyed me a lil more because i found out theres meant to be main teams for story, and it doesnt actually tell you the combos and i managed to do one that doesnt involve a main combo, im not sure how someone could playthrough this 3 times to experience all story elements like required, that sounds like a nightmare to me for just how many things happen lol

but i wont forget flammie :D
The story is determined by the first character you choose, not a combination of a team. :)
1. Angela and Duran
2. Kevin and Charlotte
3. Hawkeye and Riesz
 

Mor

Me llamo Willy y no hice la mili, pero vendo Chili
Sep 7, 2018
7,110
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trials of mana now finished.

highly recommend the game but for myself it did become a little drag near end, when a rpg gives you a skill or an item that lets you flee encounters quicker etc thats normally a sign to me that the game is longer than it needs to be. in this case i was right, u collect the mana stone thoughout the game, after doing so you then go off to 8 new locastions which huge zones to find these other bosses to kill, to then find about a secret stone so u go kill another boss in a huge zone, you then go into another huge zone to kill 4 bosses u killied before to then meet last story boss.

i got completey zoned out come the new 8 locations and from there just blazed past monsters to bosses.

also flammie, flammie is best

DAMN!!!! that was fast, glad you liked it, Queen.

I will probably play it this year so it's nice to see that game is doing well and people are liking it.
 

Deleted member 113

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INTI CREATES has now pushed 5 updates in the space of one week (the game is up to version 3.0.5, from 3.0.0) for Dragon Marked For Death.
Surely, that must be a record for a Japanese developer. :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:

It's great to see them actively invested in supporting and updating their game.
They really have come a long way since their first Steam release, Azure Striker Gunvolt. Their recent ports have been very good, properly supported.

That's how you do it.
You don't just "dump" a game on PC, and leave it to die, and then wonder why sales were poor, and why people are unwilling to buy your future games.

I then think of companies like Koei Tecmo, who don't fix $%# (how many updates have they released for one of their games, that didn't involve pushing DLC data to the game?).
I still have games like Nights of Azure, that years later, still give me countless problems, and no attempt was ever made to fix anything. :mad:
 

Trisolarian

Junior Member
Jul 12, 2019
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Cart Life! I'll take a look at the newer game... thnx!

TL;DR JSchreier is a narcissist who can't take disagreement, more news at 8

P.S. Spoiler culture is trash and if less people will buy the game because they can read the plot online, then your game was never deserving of their purchase to begin with.
People get way to into policing journalist figures into perfect statements on social media. His reporting has been important to the industry, regardless if you think he's full of himself or not.

As to spoiler culture, its a bit over the top. I'm a journey person as well, on the whole. Sometimes I've gotten more enjoyment from surprise or unexpected moments and sometimes picking apart the layers of a dense universe/lore/plot/artwork, is more rewarding to me. I'm guilty of reading the last few pages of a graphic novel I pick up the library more often than not and if I'm interested in a show I use Wikipedia to catch up.

The real quality shit, that doesn't lose anything by you knowing that a desert level is coming up or by someone referencing something in official pre release media of the product. That's the spoiler culture that makes a lot of us roll our eyes. No one is saying that posting the last 10 minutes of Knives out a few weeks after release isn't a dick move, just that for quality shit, its ALWAYS more than just who croaks and who did it.

Swenhir I understand you are a person who is careful about going in blind, but at a certain point, that's on you to ensure.
 
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texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
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Indonesia
So it's done, Fallout New California is beaten. It's much shorter than I expected, took me 15 hours. The game started great from the prologue in the vault, lots of stuff to do, characters to interact with, and choices that matter. But after you're out in the open world and reach the main city, the game kinda starts going in a linear fashion. There aren't much side content, so you're basically doing main quest after another. It's like a linear Fallout game set in an open world, if that makes any sense. There are choices, of course, and it seems like there are at least a couple of main paths, but I expected more. Nevertheless, the story is entertaining enough, creepy at times, and the ending is satisfying. The story also smoothly transitions you to the start of New Vegas.

I highly recommend it if you're craving for a new Fallout experience that's not called 76.
 

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Guys, don't forget to check Humble's Golden Week Sale.
There's a lot of great deals, and if you are a subscriber (with that 20% additional discount), you're most likely getting better deals than the upcoming Steam Golden Week Sale:

 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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good thread:

Good points, indeed. The "but free games" argument is completely hollow. That doesn't negate the other bad practices and precedents set. It's like these billionaires donating money to universities, funds, charities, etc. to launder their reputation. Them being "charitable" when it suits them doesn't justify extreme economic inequality.
 
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lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
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Good points, indeed. The "but free games" argument is completely hollow. That doesn't negate the other bad practices and precedents set. It's like these billionaires donating money to universities, funds, charities, etc. to launder their reputation. That doesn't justify extreme economic inequality.
yeah, exactly!
 
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Swenhir

Spaceships!
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Good points, indeed. The "but free games" argument is completely hollow. That doesn't negate the other bad practices and precedents set. It's like these billionaires donating money to universities, funds, charities, etc. to launder their reputation. Them being "charitable" when it suits them doesn't justify extreme economic inequality.
Free games weren't even all that free of benefits for Epic to begin with. Free games means more account, which means another metric to try and close exclusivity deals which are themselves anti-consumer.

I'm not sure I want to inflict that article on my eyeballs given the editorial line PCGamer has been following when it comes to Epic and exclusives.
 

Deleted member 113

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A few publishers have already started their Golden Week deals on Steam:

H2 Interactive:


KADOKAWA:


---

And, going back to the Humble Golden Week sales, there's a lot of good deals (especially with the subscriber discount) on older titles.

Here are a few examples of games that, with the subscriber discount, all cost around 4€ or less:














---

And, a couple of personal recommendations, for more expensive titles:


 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,335
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So Raindancer.

It's short and cheap but definitely very good for what it is.
A boss rush ft. 5 different bosses with 2 difficulty modes each (that change the moveset), a unique artstyle and a great soundtrack. It's challenging but fair, you will die often but retry is painless and I never felt like death wasn't my fault.
It took me about an hour to finish it with "story" difficulty, would probably take another one or a bit more for the other difficulty mode. Each boss you defeat gives you a passive skill you can equip (each difficulty mode has a separate one) of which you can equip one at a time.



 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,053
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I started having big doubts about him when I read his piece on Star Citizen. It was fishing for outrage, the facts and interviews quotes had no explanation to help put them in context.

For instance, things being redone which is normal in an iterative process, or memory budgets for character assets not being known in advance while the game is still in character rendering R&D exploration phase. At the very least this made me doubt his goodwill and desire to do a good and fair job of showing how things work.

I have no doubt there's value to some of his work but this piece left a bad taste in my mouth and showed he wasn't interested in fair reporting, merely in clicks and human drama.

Also, Vanguard is a piece of software that's never getting on my machine but Riot's posts and attitude certainly is quite the thing. The sheer hubris in believing they deserve to sit at ring-0 and interfere with what's going on a user's machine goes against every tenet of kernel programming. I don't like abusive language but there's a part of me that would enjoy seeing Torvald tear into them. Schadenfreude is bad :(.
Well said!

Good points, indeed. The "but free games" argument is completely hollow. That doesn't negate the other bad practices and precedents set.
Even more importantly, I cannot believe that anyone would actually be dumb enough to believe that the "free games" would continue to an even remotely similar extent should EGS ever manage to get into a better market position (i.e. one where they don't need to basically bribe people to use their substandard service).
And given that no one can be dumb enough to think that, the only other option is that they are actively ignoring it because it would disturb the narrative they want to spin about Epic.
 

Nabs

Hyper˗Toxic Pro˗Consumer
Oct 23, 2018
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Redout Enhanced Edition FREE for Alienware Arena LVL 2+ members:
Yessssss. This saved me some money. Thanks.
 

Wildebeet

First Stage Hero
Dec 5, 2018
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Free games weren't even all that free of benefits for Epic to begin with. Free games means more account, which means another metric to try and close exclusivity deals which are themselves anti-consumer.

I'm not sure I want to inflict that article on my eyeballs given the editorial line PCGamer has been following when it comes to Epic and exclusives.
Yeah I read that a week or so ago. It's just the same thing PC Gamer keeps doing, which is ignore the argument people are actually making against EGS, and proceed to Say The Talking Points. It reminds me of the Spinal Tap bit where the amp goes to 11. PC Gamer says "but they're free."

Also I'd find it improbable that PC Gamer will find their major game show sponsor to be anti-consumer.
 

NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
9,149
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People get way to into policing journalist figures into perfect statements on social media. His reporting has been important to the industry, regardless if you think he's full of himself or not.
The best case scenario is that the guy was fed yesterday and lashed out. Because otherwise it is a terrible look. Pretending to being an ally and then throw people under the bus as soon as they ‘make it’ is even more bad that just don’t caring at all.
 

rybrad

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Apr 22, 2019
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Redout Enhanced Edition FREE for Alienware Arena LVL 2+ members:
No idea how I was a level 2 member but I was able to get this. Thanks for the tip!
 
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Swenhir

Spaceships!
Apr 18, 2019
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Also I'd find it improbable that PC Gamer will find their major game show sponsor to be anti-consumer.
There is that too, good point :).

Which reminds me of an article that Polygon published, on their front page, after the Xbox One reveal 7 years ago. It featured fierce criticism of Microsoft's always-online policies and reading the article again, it was surprisingly pro-consumer. I don't like what Polygon has become but what you said reminded me of that. Considering the outlet had been partially funded by Microsoft, writing and publishing this article must have taken some spine. Something that PCGamer doesn't seem to have.
 

Arsene

On a break
Apr 17, 2019
3,280
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Canada
Redout Enhanced Edition FREE for Alienware Arena LVL 2+ members:
Holy shit this website is as slow as Alienware's hardware.
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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The socializing/academy stuff in FE 3H is getting really boring. Was fun the fist few times, but now it's just a drag.

And my Gears Tactics download is done in 14 min, so that's nice.
 
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Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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Battle Chasers: Nightwar is so good at delivering an authentic JRPG experience that it's also greatly improved by using cheat engine to implement a simple speedup/turbo toggle :p

(Seriously though, it's a good game, but Turbo makes it a much better game for the same reason it does/would make most other JRPGs -- and other genres actually -- better)
 
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