Community MetaSteam | November 2019 - You Can't Spell Steam Without EA

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RionaaM

Vogon Poetry Appreciator
Sep 6, 2018
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So I just quit Hellblade, and I feel like venting about it a bit.

On the onset, I was really fascinated by what this game attempted to do, which is focus on a protagonist with psychological issues. The setting itself is also really interesting, deeply mired in Norse mythology, though Senua and her tribe themselves aren't Norse.



I love the presentation of this game, especially the sound, you always hear a cacaphony of voices representing Senuas inner conflict. It's playing a lot with various optical effects, and often overdoing things quite a bit, I felt.

But the worse element, to me, is how this game is obsesses with being cinematic. The entire game is set, "filmed" you might mockingly think, in a close-up on Sensua, just over her right shoulder. It's much closer than even the classic RE4 perspective, and in my opinion wholly in appropriate for action scenes, though this is mitigated luckily by the camera pulling back a little bit for those. The tank controls are a mess, though, and led me to quickly set the combat settings to easy, no way was I gonna bother with that.


What really killed the game for me, though, was a scene where I needed to find three runes, while locked in a room which was being taken over by fire. After the fourth time Senua somehow collapsed, and I had to redo it, I decided not to bother anymore.
It makes for a nice interactive movie, but not a great game, exactly.

Still, it's a very beautiful game, so I can't complain too much.
Loved its photomode a lot, too. Probably the most enjoyable part of Hellblade.

I found the presentation, which include the setting and audio department, great. As you said, the voices don't just add a lot to the atmosphere, they are the atmosphere. The gameplay itself was mediocre, with half of the puzzles being copies of the other half, repeated ad nauseam. Combat isn't particularly good either, but at least the voices can help by shouting "Behind you!" sometimes.

This is one of those rare cases where the act of playing the game detracts from the experience. In that sense it reminds me of Bioshock, which would have been amazing if it wasn't for the tiny fact that it was a playable game. Guess they would be far more enjoyable on Youtube than on Steam.
Steam will have Singles Day Sale:

Pfft, singles' day? Try singles' month, or year, or life.

...No, I'm not a miserable pile of loneliness, why do you ask? :'(
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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Pretty big update for Freeman: Guerrilla Warfare.
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
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Toronto



What really killed the game for me, though, was a scene where I needed to find three runes, while locked in a room which was being taken over by fire. After the fourth time Senua somehow collapsed, and I had to redo it, I decided not to bother anymore.
It makes for a nice interactive movie, but not a great game, exactly.
Is this the one where you're being chased around the chains and cloth hanging from the ceiling and the fire is coming or later in the game?
Only a couple puzzle pushed me too far, but I did find most of the ruin puzzles were repetitive and the worst part of the game. The atmosphere and acting are what kept me going, it just took a long while. I found the payoff worth it.
 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
3,982
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Belgium
It makes for a nice interactive movie, but not a great game, exactly.
That's my opinion as well, even while I finished the game completely. The concept, environments, direction and voices are incredible. But the gameplay is extremely boring and repetitive, and rarely ever fun.
 
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Joe Spangle

Playing....
Apr 17, 2019
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Yep I played Hellblade for a few hours, love the atmosphere it has but got put off by the combat and the laborious puzzles.
 

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Hellblade is one of my favorites games this generation. Everything about it worked perfectly for me. Except the fucking credits music. Those of you that put it down before reaching the credits at least missed that glaring error in decision making.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Hellblade is one of my favorites games this generation. Everything about it worked perfectly for me. Except the fucking credits music. Those of you that put it down before reaching the credits at least missed that glaring error in decision making.
Can't be worse than Mass Effect 3's
EDIT:
Listening to it now, it starts bland enough, not good, but also not terrible
Edit:
Oh, god that "singing"
Edit:
Yeah, now I feel even better about not sitting this one through.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Can't be worse than Mass Effect 3's
EDIT:
Listening to it now, it starts bland enough, not too bad
You'll have to remind me which song you're talking about because two came up when I searched and both seemed fairly similar to the rest of the soundtrack as it's just kind of ambient sounding sci-fi techno stuff.

The big issue with Hellblade's is the game has a fantastic soundtrack through the entire game. It's perfectly fitting and is just great. And then the ending credits is some licensed real shit song that is like from a Christian soft rock album.

Read this short article about the thought put into the music and how it's inspired by Celtic and Nordic cultures: Ninja Theory reveals who is creating Hellblade’s music

And skip around to hear how moody this music is:

And it ends with that fucking garbage, generic, C-tier soft rock song. Fuck that song.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
3,962
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You'll have to remind me which song you're talking about because two came up when I searched and both seemed fairly similar to the rest of the soundtrack as it's just kind of ambient sounding sci-fi techno stuff.

The big issue with Hellblade's is the game has a fantastic soundtrack through the entire game. It's perfectly fitting and is just great. And then the ending credits is some licensed real shit song that is like from a Christian soft rock album.

Read this short article about the thought put into the music and how it's inspired by Celtic and Nordic cultures: Ninja Theory reveals who is creating Hellblade’s music

And skip around to hear how moody this music is:

And it ends with that fucking garbage, generic, C-tier soft rock song. Fuck that song.
I listened to this one:

And yeah, I never once had issues with the games soundtrack, at least up until where I played, so it seems strange that it would end on such a bad note. Maybe they ran out of budget and let a few programmers record something in in their spare time?
 

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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I listened to this one:
I meant Mass Effect 3 song because I couldn't find anything that seemed notably bad or out of place.

I think that Hellblade credits song was actually on the radios somewhere in Europe? I remember ranting about it on Discord and a couple people knew the song from the radio and thought it was decent. If I heard it randomly outside the game I'd just think it's a generic and forgettable song with a weak sound. But having it tied to Hellblade and be the endings song is what really made me hate it.
 

JMTHEFOX

Planning to Be a Game Designer
Oct 4, 2018
517
688
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Brooklyn, NY
So many good games with pixel art that i didnt even realize they existed before! :tightly-closed-eyes: (other than the Other RPG game). They certainly have my attention~

Kingdom of the Dump looks really fun. Looks like a mix of Earthbound and Chrono trigger.

All 3 look really great though and I hope all of them are successful.
 
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Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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So many good games with pixel art that i didnt even realize they existed before! :tightly-closed-eyes: (other than the Other RPG game). They certainly have my attention~

They all look great.
Kingdoms of the Dump is also a great example of how visual identity is important in selling your product. I totally remember it, and even it's name despite having not though about their kickstarter for quite a while.
That's certainly isn't the case for others, despite them also being very interesting. They're just much more mundane in their looks, even with "better" pixel art.
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,461
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Sweet. The TakeOver is out of early access. Pelikan13's first indie game launch (after 90s Arcade Racer/90s Super GP that Nicalis is still holding hostage ffs).
 
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Joe Spangle

Playing....
Apr 17, 2019
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I impulse bought this yesterday in a sale...

Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280

Have I made a huge mistake? It looks like a decent drive and it had a big discount. The reviews i found all say its a reasonable one.
 

JMTHEFOX

Planning to Be a Game Designer
Oct 4, 2018
517
688
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Brooklyn, NY
I've checked out PC port of Pure, that arcade racing game from 2008, and yeah, it has some serious problems:

But personally I had fun with this game, so I'll probably try to continue playing it, despite atrocious keyboard controls and other issues. There are not many arcade racing games these days.
I have the 360 version in the form of a double pack with LEGO Batman. I didn't play much of it unfortunately.
 

bobnowhere

Careful Icarus
Sep 20, 2018
1,665
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How did they make Just Cause 4 worse than Just Cause 3? The cutscenes look like XBOX/PS2 level. All the sound is completely out of sync if it even plays at all.
 
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derExperte

MetaMember
Dec 9, 2018
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What a disappointment that game turned out to be, the racing itself is alright but the whole game feels unfinished, so many features and little details which make Codemasters' racing games great are missing and tons of bugs/glitches, multiplayer is already dead and they released only one patch that didn't address any of the major complaints. It's very obvious the budget was smaller than usual and they ran out of time. I bought the Ultimate version so will go back from time to time when DLCs come out but have little hope, better buy/replay the older GRIDs, the new one really is worse than the first.

I've checked out PC port of Pure, that arcade racing game from 2008, and yeah, it has some serious problems:

But personally I had fun with this game, so I'll probably try to continue playing it, despite atrocious keyboard controls and other issues. There are not many arcade racing games these days.
An underrated and overlooked gem, one of my favorites of 2008. But it had tech issues even back then like loooong loading times. Same goes for the devs next and final title Split/Second.
 

Mor

Me llamo Willy y no hice la mili, pero vendo Chili
Sep 7, 2018
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If Half-Life VR is announced (maybe even releases this month), I wonder when.
Don't expect a 2019 release as promotion will be slow, IF WE ARE REALLY LUCKY, December release but don't get to hyped with that idea.
Announcement might be 15th or 16th, HL2 Anniversary, 15 years
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,028
6,665
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Finland
I've checked out PC port of Pure, that arcade racing game from 2008, and yeah, it has some serious problems:

But personally I had fun with this game, so I'll probably try to continue playing it, despite atrocious keyboard controls and other issues. There are not many arcade racing games these days.
I remember liking Pure a lot back then.
 

fspm

MetaMember
Nov 1, 2018
443
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What a disappointment that game turned out to be, the racing itself is alright but the whole game feels unfinished, so many features and little details which make Codemasters' racing games great are missing and tons of bugs/glitches, multiplayer is already dead and they released only one patch that didn't address any of the major complaints. It's very obvious the budget was smaller than usual and they ran out of time. I bought the Ultimate version so will go back from time to time when DLCs come out but have little hope, better buy/replay the older GRIDs, the new one really is worse than the first.
Grid 2 was worse than grid so 3 being even worse is by design.
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,632
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I really hope that around the time when Half-Life VR releases that Valve has started distributing the Index in Canada, Australia, Norway, New Zealand etc.. If Valve wants more people to get the Index in order to play their VR games and not use a Rift (or Quest with the Oculus Link), they should do something with the Index distribution.
 

arts&crafts

MetaMember
Oct 26, 2018
408
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Anyone know anything about monitors? I am upgrading from 970 to 2070S so I want to up my game to 1440P/144hz. I bought this yesterday (hasnt shipped yet), is it a good deal? Should I avoid? Is there a better option? Acer Predator XB271HU bmiprz (this is about $420 USD)
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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Anyone know anything about monitors? I am upgrading from 970 to 2070S so I want to up my game to 1440P/144hz. I bought this yesterday (hasnt shipped yet), is it a good deal? Should I avoid? Is there a better option? Acer Predator XB271HU bmiprz (this is about $420 USD)
Im actually also looking at monitors as I need to replace my current 10 (!) year monitor.

So far Ive found these:


My requirements so far are 1080p and freesync.
 

arts&crafts

MetaMember
Oct 26, 2018
408
709
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Im actually also looking at monitors as I need to replace my current 10 (!) year monitor.

So far Ive found these:


My requirements so far are 1080p and freesync.
I have never had a curved monitor so they kind of scare me :steam_pig_deadpan:
 

Stone Ocean

Proud Degenerate
Apr 17, 2019
2,265
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I finished Usurper, the second game in the Skautfold series, just now. It's legit really good.

Usurper is set after the events of its predecessor Shrouded in Sanity, but unlike that game it is a Metroidvania at heart. There's a cool eldritch world to explore and you get many fun new traversal options over the course of the game. There is only one-way fast-travel/teleport back to the hub at certain locations, but the map is designed with the unlockable powers in mind as well as unlockable shortcuts, so getting to where you want never feels like a chore.

It still retains some soul-like elements - you lose your Vitae (the currency) on death and have to go back to reclaim them, but it's quite forgiving thanks to the enemy attacks having quite generous tells and the really cool "Guard System", which you could call the USP of the combat.

Basically it's like this. Enemies hit HARD. But you're not supposed to get hit. In addition to your health bar, you have a Guard bar as well. This bar is essentially your Stamina bar that gets used for attacks, dodges and blocks but has this neat feature of auto-dodging if it's high enough. It's probably a bit hard to convey, but works really well in practive. So if you're cautious enough the game is pretty forgiving most of the time, but it does absolutely get challenging, especially towards the end. It never feels like your losing undeservedly though, the game is very fair and the controls are tight.

There's also a bunch of different stats to level and lots of weapons to find and some spells to learn that allow for different character builds. You can also always respec for free to experiment. And you can have a mini grim reaper as a pet (among others).

Very recommended.

Gonna start the 3rd game, Into the Fray, now and I'm expecing that one to be good as well. This dev is definitely on my watch-list now.
Whenever I'd see Usurper on the store page I'd go "Oh shit they put Lament of Innocence on Steam???" only to be disappointed afterwards.

Sounds super interesting regardless, will nab the trilogy when i can.
 
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fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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I know its weird. I was advised that Freesync monitors work with Gysnc now though so I am not sure if there is any difference if I have a 2070S?
Im getting the 3080ti whenever it releases next year or 2021 and I have no idea what's the difference between them (freesync and gsync) would be for that gpu or any gpu for that matter.

Also, the amount of gsync supported monitors is a lot smaller than freesync monitors.

I find a ton of freesync monitors, but not many gsync monitors.
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,461
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I know its weird. I was advised that Freesync monitors work with Gysnc now though so I am not sure if there is any difference if I have a 2070S?
Most high end freesync monitors should work fine but Nvidia only "officially" vouch for the monitors in this list, others may end up with flickering or whatever.
G-SYNC Compatible are the vouched for freesync monitors. It's a limited selection probably because they don't even bother testing many older monitors etc.

Maybe you can find information about the specific monitor you're looking at and if users found it has any problems with G-Sync online if it's not on Nvidia's list.
 
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