Community MetaSteam | September 2020 - An Offer You Definitively Can't Refuse

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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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If I won that computer I'd sell it and get one that's not so way out of my league (also, ryzen based, idiot gaben), haha, that's insane, it must cost like $10k.

14TB worth of SSD storage x_X
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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I just finished the main game of Control (no expansions yet) and HOLY MOLLY JOLLY :blobeyes::cat-heart-blob::blobeyes::cat-heart-blob::blobeyes::cat-heart-blob:

Top 3 this year no doubt!
I haven't finished it, but played quite a lot of it already and the game frustrates me a bit. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful game, the setting is great, and I also enjoy the gameplay quite a lot. It doesn't frustrate me because it's bad in any way, but because it could be even better without fundamental changes, if not for some design decisions.

In terms of overall setup it reminds me of Prey (2017) all the time, and Prey is -- for my tastes at least -- just far more well-designed in almost all gameplay aspects. In both Prey and Control, you explore a secret facility in a state of emergency, as somewhat of an outsider, and piece together the intricacies of a cool setting and its history from the clues you find. In both of them you unlock individual sectors one after the other, and acquire skills that open up routes in somewhat of a metroidvania-style fashion.

But while Prey excels at rewarding off-the-beaten-path exploration, both in gameplay and lore rewards, Control only gives you some mostly meaningless drops (if that), and often gates you from areas comparatively inelegantly. Where does that difference come from?

In terms of gameplay rewards, in both Prey and Control the "coolest" things you can find are those that allow you to upgrade your character skills/perks, though new weapons are also neat. In Control, the only way to get ability points is through major quests, while the only rewards exploration and sidequests can provide are materials used as fodder in an ultimately unexciting mod-crafting slot machine. In Prey, a ton of the things you randomly find while exploring nooks and crannies can be recycled into materials which ultimately allow you to learn new perks and improve your major skills.

So that's the gameplay side, but the lore side is somewhat similar, though less dire for Control. Both of them allow you to find random tidbits that flesh out the setting. However, in Prey it's simply far more likely for any hard-to-reach off-path area to contain something interesting, especially as you try to learn what happened to everyone on the station.

And finally there's the difference I alluded to earlier regarding progress gating. Control has multiple areas where skillful application of your abilities would very obviously let you skip ahead of the intended path, and the only thing preventing that, regardless of how well you do, are invisible walls. Prey just doesn't have anything like that. Combined with the exploration rewards, this makes Control feel like a game which says "yeah, you can explore a bit, but then hurry back to the main quest, and remember not to try to cheat the intended progression", while Prey says "oh, you reached that area intended for the endgame by building an unlikely contraption that catapulted you there? Go right ahead".

Now obviously Remedy probably wasn't even trying to match Prey in these aspects, and were focusing on different things. But from my perspective, with Prey being easily one of my favourite games of the past 5 years, I just can't help but see all the ways in which Control falls short. Which, again, is not to say that it's not a very good game or that I'm not really enjoying it overall.
 

AHA-Lambda

MetaMember
Oct 9, 2018
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I played Control earlier in the year, and while I enjoyed it, quite simply my biggest issue with it that I feel really holds it back, is that the moment to moment combat becomes quite repetitive quite quickly.
I love so much else of what is around it (particularly the premise and style) but the core gameplay isn't particularly strong
 
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PC-tan

Low Tier Weeb
Jan 19, 2019
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California


Imagine what we all would be if we didnt get distracted by videogames!
I feel like if we didn't have video games a lot of people would be porn addicts or something
------
I wonder if Valve would do a high end and low end Steamboy

One that cost about $100 USD and that is of "good build quality" that will primarily be used to stream stuff to it (bring back the Steam video stuff as well maybe?) And also have it be able to play some simple stuff so VNs at least (that would at least help it a bit in Japan wouldn't it? Since it takes a while for VNs to release on N/S and they stopped making the Vita in Nippon already. At least streaming wise DMM Games is already experimenting something, I think that they have it were you can buy the game from their site and if you sign into your account on your phone you can stream the game to your phone. There are also those H games that I have noticed use something that lets you play on Android and PC with the same build of the game? (Anime game riding on top of the Android mascot, blasting off somewhere). Maybe that would still be too much for a $100USD machine.


And since PC is full of "enthusiasts" price something between $800 USD-$1000USD that lets you play most games on the device. And while the N/S Lite exist, the Steam Boy Pro would be able to play stuff like Cyberpunk 2077 natively on the device (storage would potentially become an issue and that is why it would potentially act similar to how the PS Vita transfers game files from the Vita to a PC or PS3 instead of having to download the full game. Who knows maybe it would even have base PS4 quality with a decent battery life.
 
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PC-tan

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Jan 19, 2019
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In regards to the contest
I guess that I should not be surprised that Era will not mention the give away given the subreddit that it's on and I guess the only mention of it (sort of) is a youtube video that someone posted on the monthly thread over there.
 

PC-tan

Low Tier Weeb
Jan 19, 2019
3,797
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PSA Game billet has Lego Star Wars on sale, and Fanatical has the Force Awakens game on sale.

Sadly I don't think that the new Sky Walker Saga game will have the Lego Clone Wars stuff though (the 2008 show). Normally I would think that is okay but seeing how Disney went out of their way (??) To give that show a final season on Disney+ I would have thought that they would also include it as well.


By the way some time ago didn't Disney say that they would still be making another Indiana Jones movies after Crystal Skull?
 

Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
4,362
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20XX
www.seikens.com
So, all I have to do is to send an empty email to Gaben with the subject "Falcon Northwest - The Heart of Racing Contest" and I will win the computer?
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,687
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When?! I adored the demo, made me actually want to try the old Thieves game before their age slapped me in the face.
They're not much more primitive, they just don't have guns and shit because that's not their theme/gameplay loop, just pure, and the best in a 3D game ever, stealth. Make sure to install TFix for Thief 1/Gold and T2Fix for Thief 2, the former especially updates various models and assets to those seen in T2 so it's a bit nicer overall without being some garish fan remade assets (there's mods like that if you want). At the same time they don't make a huge difference I guess. What put you off? The controls can be configured to WASD, QE for lean, whatever for use, jump, crouch, attack, swich weapon/item etc., if they're weird at first.
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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Never thought I'd say this but that's a few too many old school FPS games shown in the 3DRealms stream, ha.

I'm still interested in several of those I'd seen before (and some not shown here), I guess I just don't think the rest had much to make them interesting too.
 
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ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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Oh wow, it never reminded me of Prey. But Interesting points you are making, and I agree: Control would have been better, by a lot, if it would have been designed to be a game in a different genre.
The problem with Action Adventure RPGs is that the term is too broad to categorize every game in there and it feels a bit like you are wishing Giana Sisters would have been a Metroid Clone. I'm not sure the developers ever wanted Control to work like Prey 2017.

Control lacks diverging play styles and improvable skills that make games like Deus Ex or Prey work. There is no stealth, no hacking, no abilities that allow you to access map areas in diverse ways, because at heart I have the feeling Control was designed to be another Action Game with super powers, like Quantum Break.
The only thing they really changed was making it a bit less linear, overlap a couple levels and made you backtrack in a confusing map layout.
(The map is awful and orientating by signs and memory more effective.)

What confuses me most about Control is how many strange decisions they made for something that I perceive to be foremost an action game.

There are redundant weapons: You have, for example, spin and the "shotgun". Both have the same functionality and the same drawbacks: They don't work at long range, they burn ammo fast, they do good damage at close range and because of that there is never a situation where you wish you'd have spin and the shotgun equipped at the same time.
It has contradicting game mechanics: there are cover mechanics, but the game wants you to play aggressive and movement is key to victory. Especially in later parts of the game, where the most effective way to avoid damage is to fly around and doge. Taking cover will be punished and you'll die fast.
Most powers are mundane and upgrading them is boring: You have dodge, shield, slightly increased melee punch range. Flying and throwing stuff around are cool but I feel like the setting would have allowed them to do more cool powers than two.
Many powerups are redundant or not useful: Why should I take +60% to armor damage if I can take +60% to all damage? Why take -10% energy cost for one ability, if I can take +30% more to my energy pool? etc.

One thing they did, that I cannot decide if it is bad or good is hiding some of the best "outer worlds" encounters and "stories" behind side content. It brings worthwhile "exploration" to the table and some of the best riddles, but I'm sure many players missed them because other side quests are not worth doing and involve confusing backtracking to previous areas, which is the poor man's exploration. Especially uninteresting if the reward is a mundane +x power up that you already have in better quality.

Sounds like I do not agree with you or like I'm not enjoying the game or the DLC. It's the other way around, I now wish Control would have been designed like Prey, Deus ex etc. I just think it is an action game first and was always meant to be.
 
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Swenhir

Spaceships!
Apr 18, 2019
3,534
7,621
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They're not much more primitive, they just don't have guns and shit because that's not their theme/gameplay loop, just pure, and the best in a 3D game ever, stealth. Make sure to install TFix for Thief 1/Gold and T2Fix for Thief 2, the former especially updates various models and assets to those seen in T2 so it's a bit nicer overall without being some garish fan remade assets (there's mods like that if you want). At the same time they don't make a huge difference I guess. What put you off? The controls can be configured to WASD, QE for lean, whatever for use, jump, crouch, attack, swich weapon/item etc., if they're weird at first.
Sorry, but I tried. Just too old for me :).

I can't explain it, I tried them, tried the dark project, they made me nope out. Gloomwood, though? I loved.
 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,394
12,478
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I KNEW this Adventures of Square game seemed familiar, i'm sure i played a wad a couple of years ago.
Yeah, must have been the demo back in 2014 or so.
 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,394
12,478
113
Romero's on Realms' Deep tomorrow. Cool.
Also, looks like i'll have to give Postal 4 a reinstall again soon, they've made a lot of new content since i last tried it.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,041
19,492
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What confuses me most about Control is how many strange decisions they made for something that I perceive to be foremost an action game.

There are redundant weapons: You have, for example, spin and the "shotgun". Both have the same functionality and the same drawbacks: They don't work at long range, they burn ammo fast, they do good damage at close range and because of that there is never a situation where you wish you'd have spin and the shotgun equipped at the same time.
It has contradicting game mechanics: there are cover mechanics, but the game wants you to play aggressive and movement is key to victory. Especially in later parts of the game, where the most effective way to avoid damage is to fly around and doge. Taking cover will be punished and you'll die fast.
Most powers are mundane and upgrading them is boring: You have dodge, shield, slightly increased melee punch range. Flying and throwing stuff around are cool but I feel like the setting would have allowed them to do more cool powers than two.
Many powerups are redundant or not useful: Why should I take +60% to armor damage if I can take +60% to all damage? Why take -10% energy cost for one ability, if I can take +30% more to my energy pool? etc.
That's also a very good point, and it actually plays into what I was trying to say about how the itemization doesn't really help in rewarding exploration: you are most likely to find some mod that is either totally redundant, worse than you already have, or -- if you're really lucky -- incrementally better by a small amount. Or resources to gamble for such a mod.

I also agree on the powers, especially the shield seems like a strange choice to me. The game plays much better if you zip around and throw stuff at enemies, and since that comes out of the same resource pool as the shield I don't see why you'd ever have a good opportunity to use that.
 

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
3,220
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I don't see why you'd ever have a good opportunity to use that.
Free get out of trouble card whenever you run out of ammunition right in-front of an enemy and a melee or launch attack won't instantly solve the problem. Launch also needs to "wind up"
Or when you desperately need to get into an area that is being swarmed by enemies but also has all the health pick ups that you desperately need.

Shield allows you to be even more aggressive in your combat style. I found it useful on harder difficulties.
 
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AHA-Lambda

MetaMember
Oct 9, 2018
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I'm assuming Graven was the immersive sim people were talking about from the 3D Realms stream?

EDIT: no take it back, I'm guessing it was this

 
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fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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My curated backlog collection on Steam consist of 100 games now. I think it was in january or february I made it and it reached around 80 games, took me around 7-8 months then to get it from aroudn 80 to around 50-60 and now It's at 100.

Fuck. My plate is packed.
 
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