Community MetaSteam | January 2021 - It's Rare to See a Medium So Well-Done

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texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,621
8,660
113
Indonesia
Seems like all the other companies have followed suit.. I guess it was nice of them to do it after the new year as the industry I work in had our duty and taxes cost basically double back in November. Kick in the teeth for the people who were waiting for supply to stabilized.
US incraeses tariffs > increase price in EU too despite not affecting at al. GG.
Yeah, everything, especially electronics, revolves around the US. Which means, the rest of the world will suffer too, if not more. 2021 kicked off to a great start. :negative-blob:

I guess I'll continue playing indies and replaying my favorite RPGs with mods forever.
 
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LEANIJA

MetaMember
May 5, 2019
3,232
7,897
113
Austria
Spiritfarer: gorgeous, amazing animations, super cute.

Quickly forgets its metroidvania elements in favor of Harvest Moon grind, you spend your time farming, feeding your cute guys, travel at sea and fish, fish, FISH, FIIIIISH, barely seeing any dialogue... that strays very fast far way from the cute and touching grim reaper that you are to just... gossip between girls because that's what they do (and it's the longest dialogue in the entire game to this point!). And that guy is a union leader, see, fun, anticapitalism, feminism yay. Or not, because it feels like it's written by a 15 years old with a bingo to fill up.

Also amazing visuals! All islands look the same. If you wanted to reuse the same background, maybe make a single large one, not five tiny ones with nothing on them. It's just a rehash, both visually and in gameplay, which is just a complete bore.

Sea travel has never, ever been done well in any videogame ever (Wind Waker can get fucked), and should never be. it's fucking boring and ugly. When you have 95% of it, and the rest is barely registering as anything else than menial fetch quests, I stop playing.

I also didn't like Spiritfarer.
It starts out nice, but the gameplay soon reveals itself to be very tedious and boring. Now, if you like that kind of, as spiel calls it, cozy management game, then you will probably be fine. But I was immediately put off be feeling like a butler to an arrogant moose. Or, more harshly said, it felt like babysitting.
I must admit I didnt play much further but I rarely do when a game doesnt immediately grab me within an hour or so, because so many other games want to be played. I looked at some reviews and the community hub and it became obvious how it would go on.
I also dont really get sappy at any kind of media anymore.. its just that 95% of the time its super obvious what the writers are trying to do and it doesnt work on me.

The closest to good sea travel in video gaming (for me) was in Asscreed (starting with Black Flag), and I didnt like it then even. I know some people loved the boat stuff (which is why Ubi keeps bringing it back), but I got tired of it fast.
 
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Myradeer

Rayon de Soleil
Apr 17, 2019
320
498
63
Yeah seafaring by its nature is boring even in real life, so I don't know how it can be translated into interesting gameplay without some heavy redaction.

When there is a successful boat game like Sunless Sea, often the game's strength has little to do with sea travel itself. In fact, I dare say sea travel (combined with slow boat speed) is the weakest part of Sunless Sea.
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,848
26,510
113
Me waiting for that Bloodborne PC announcement. Every day.



And I already own it on PS4, finished it 3 times for the 3 endings, almost all trophies (chalice dungeons trophies left). I just really love it. Gave it a 9.5/10 in my review at launch and it's the framerate and frame pacing that dragged it down.
 
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yuraya

MetaMember
May 4, 2019
2,729
6,355
113
Me waiting for that Bloodborne PC announcement. Every day.

Hang in there.

Less than 30 days now until Nioh 2 with unlocked frames.

That should tide me over until summer and hopefully we get BB PC + Elden Ring news around that time.
 

Shahem

R7 7800X3D I RTX 4080
Jan 26, 2020
1,261
2,274
113
France
Me waiting for that Bloodborne PC announcement. Every day.



And I already own it on PS4, finished it 3 times for the 3 endings, almost all trophies (chalice dungeons trophies left). I just really love it. Gave it a 9.5/10 in my review at launch and it's the framerate and frame pacing that dragged it down.
Don't do this to yourself man. It won't be announced before March.
 
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sk2k

Steam New Releases Warrior
Dec 8, 2018
610
1,411
93
Somewhere else
I bougt some too many games. I hate all the winter sales. :upside-down-face:

Steam:

Inmost
Batbarian
Wildfire
Cryogear
Neversong
Something ate my Alien
Monsterboy And The Cursed Kingdom
OUTBUDDIES DX
Ministry of Broadcast
Inexistence Rebirth
In The Shadows
Flood of Light

Life is Strange 2 Complete Season
Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town
The Surge 2
Tell me Why
Pleiades
Sole
Anatarctica 88
Titan Chaser
Zof
Tales of Esteria: Araxis
Waking


EGS:
Disco Elysium

GOG:
Decay of Logos

Other shops:
Praey for the Gods
Code Vein
Hellpoint
Ary and the Secret of Seasons
 

Le Pertti

0.01% Game dev
Oct 10, 2018
8,623
22,149
113
45
Paris, France
lepertti.com
My shopping on Steam has become kind of archival now. I bought mostly games that I like but was missing. Like Grow Home, Dungeon Keeper 2, but did buy Doraemon game and Ni No Kuni 2 also. Just need to install bootcamp again so I can play.

On Xbox I got Red Dead 2, damn hyped for that!
 
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fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,848
26,510
113
This one looks mighty cool, Swen Vincke from Larian tweeted about it, not buying it now though, currently have all hands on deck on Divinity OS 2.

 
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fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,848
26,510
113
My final haul (games crossed out are the ones I have already finished):

The Fall Part 2: Unbound
When The Past Was Around
Trials of Fire
Heave Ho
Rusty Lake Paradise
Wide Ocean Big Jacket
No one lives under the lighthouse
looK INside
Card Hog
Witcheye
Cube Escape Collection
I Am Dead
If Found

World of Horror
Assemble with Care
Subnautica: Below Zero
Ghostrunner
Wasteland 3
So Many Me
Downfall
Gray Dawn
Light Fall
Splasher
Sky Racket
Radical Rabbit Stew
Wilmot's Warehouse
Metamorphosis
Florence
Paradise Killer
Spiritfarer
John Wick Hex
Battletoads
Hypnospace Outlaw

Just Shapes and Beats
XIII - Classic
Gears 5
Missile Command: Recharged
Hexologic
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Cosmic Express
The Sims 4
NFS: Most Wanted
Butcher
Old Man's Journey
 
OP
lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
32,138
90,536
113
Didn't vanilla Destiny 2 campaign also get taken down? So that is 2 singleplayer fps campaigns killed in always online games and they aren't even old games too :(
yeah, it fucking sucks :(
 

Arsene

On a break
Apr 17, 2019
3,280
8,305
113
Canada
Didn't vanilla Destiny 2 campaign also get taken down? So that is 2 singleplayer fps campaigns killed in always online games and they aren't even old games too :(
It was removed alongside the first 2 DLC campaigns. Granted the dlc campaigns lowkey sucked and Bungie doesnt really acknowledge them much in the lore anymore but Red War (Base Game campaign) was a really fun tutorial and introduction into the world and they should have kept it in.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
1,700
2,944
113
I also didn't like Spiritfarer.
It starts out nice, but the gameplay soon reveals itself to be very tedious and boring. Now, if you like that kind of, as spiel calls it, cozy management game, then you will probably be fine. But I was immediately put off be feeling like a butler to an arrogant moose. Or, more harshly said, it felt like babysitting.
I must admit I didnt play much further but I rarely do when a game doesnt immediately grab me within an hour or so, because so many other games want to be played. I looked at some reviews and the community hub and it became obvious how it would go on.
I also dont really get sappy at any kind of media anymore.. its just that 95% of the time its super obvious what the writers are trying to do and it doesnt work on me.

The closest to good sea travel in video gaming (for me) was in Asscreed (starting with Black Flag), and I didnt like it then even. I know some people loved the boat stuff (which is why Ubi keeps bringing it back), but I got tired of it fast.
But I would like it to be sappy! I knew what I was going for, and yet... it's not. I'd like to see touching moments with cute talking animals.
Except in hours, there were none.
As you said, you're just a butler, bringing them pork chops, listening to their mysticism that go over my head, instead of developing their background... which they do, like the pig's your uncle, the deer you've known for ever but... I don't care? The dialogue is just dull and since your character doesn't talk, ever... I see no reason to relate. And they are annoying rather than endearing. I liked Isabelle in Animal Crossing, I don't like those guys.
Or it can be worse, like I said, the lioness was just unbearable tropes stuck together.

And the sea I think would work as downtime... as "downtime". No as full time, to the point where it takes less time to fully explore most islands than to reach them, and the game is 80% back and forth between them so you just... wait.

And waiting as gameplay is a sin in any game.

I really appreciate this impression. You don't see that approach with the media reviews for this game. Something about it seems slightly too sappy to hold up (I haven't played it) and what you touched on there might be why. I also didn't like their previous game and I'm skeptical.
See, that's the one thing I don't understand about videogame reviews.
Plenty of games get political, or even just touch on social aspects in the most basic way. But while it may appear in a review as a "this game talk about this sometimes", there's never any opinion applied to it.
Which is just odd, because especially when I replay old games, it's a critical factor for me: did they address the points they wanted to bring in the game in a correct manner? Or did they sabotage their own work because BOOBS (hi Kojima).
It can be done in plenty of ways, and is obvious justification for the villains, and can become major plot points when you, the player, are not what you think you are (hello Earthbound, Undertale, etc etc).

But no, the "thought provoking themes" usually jump straight into caricature, because videogames authors are just as good as any other media: they are not with things that they're not familiar with.
"sa fé reflaychire" as some French speakers would say.
 
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fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,848
26,510
113
Good thing the sale ends today so I can stop considering getting Phoenix Point. Kept looking at the buy button for the game, but have stopped myself every time today. I simply have too much to play already.
 
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