This.
The video is a pretty cool retrospective on some of the best titles. It also talks about the reasons why we don't have "realistic damage" in a lot of other modern racing games.

 

So...Pathfinder Kingmaker is out.

Its everything I was wanting and expecting...but for some reason I'm just not enjoying it.

It is truly a perfect transition from Pathfinder to a video game...but there is just...something lacking. I think it might be lack of character depth in the companions, but I just don't know.

Its kinda difficult to care about the main plot. I'm struggling to be emotionally invested.

In contrast, I started Divnity 2 and been enjoying the heck out of it.

So...idk.

 

Finished the latest Tomb Raider, which seems to have attracted a mixed response from critics and fans alike - either a disappointing conclusion to the trilogy or utterly brilliant. Personally, I enjoyed it, and I'd say that if you enjoyed the previous games you'll probably be fine with this as well, but it's far from essential. Creepy as fuck though, at times.

 

Bumping to whole-heartedly recommend Hitman 2, which I finished* today. I had an absolute blast with it, plenty of sadistic and/or hilarious opportunities to exploit in addition to the 'usual' methods.

Spoiler

I've strangled someone with the necklace I've just seduced them with, stabbed them as they officiated 'my' funeral, poisoned their cocaine, blown them off a rooftop film set with an overpowered wind machine, put explosives in a mole hill in their garden, to name but a few

The story is basic, but done pretty well, and the presumably smaller budget for the game actually worked in its favour in this regard, to my mind; rather than fully animated, the cutscenes are now still images with voiceover, which makes it feel like you're playing a comic book. If you liked the last game, you'll probably like this one, as there isn't a massive difference between the two beyond levels and the like. Gameplay is basically the same, bar a couple of upgrades like being able to hide in bushes. And if you didn't play the last game, you can download it - for a fee - with the gameplay changes retroactively added to it (if you already own it, you can do it for free).

Probably one of the most entertaining games I've played this year, all in all.

*I say finished; between the challenges already built in by the developers that I haven't done, plus the extra content still to come (presumably for free, as with the last game) and the contract mode that is, theoretically, limitless, it's hard to say when I'll actually be completely finished. But I've played through the story.

 

I'm happy it delivered. For some reason, I can't get into the new hitman games. Weird thing is I'm sure I'd love them... I guess I'm just addicted to mobile games now... lol.

Hope they keep making them. People seem to adore this new Hitman model. Ironically, the episodic model seems to fit it really well with new map drops and challenges. Did you like it better when it came out as one game in Hitman 2?

 

I didn't play the first one until after everything was already out, so it didn't make any difference to me. I don't think it really matters at all, tbh. In 2, other than a cursory spoiler warning on the level select screen, you can choose whichever map you want, whether you've played the prior one or not.

 

Has anyone here bought Steam games via Amazon?

I've come across a game that I can buy only from Amazon, as it's been delisted on Steam, but would have to go the roundabout way because the purchase itself is region-locked to the UK, so I'm asking in advance if I found someone willing to buy it for me, would they just get a key they could send me and I'd redeem the game or would it require linking a Steam account to Amazon?

 

You don't have to link an Amazon account or anything, anyone can redeem it (at least that's the way it was a few years back), but the game itself might be region locked - or the codes might be. Either way, a bit risky. Which game are you looking at?

 

Marvel Ultimate Alliance bundle on Amazon UK. I'm not seeing anything about a region lock for the game itself, just for purchase.

 

Sure enough...I'm of two minds. On the one hand, a follow up might manage to redeem the massive fuck you that was the ending to Far Cry 5. On the other, charging around £40, as I've seen suggested, for that follow up in addition to the original £50 makes it look even more cynical. New Dawn looks like it'll be fun to play, but FC5 ended so badly that I couldn't be bothered to play the DLC that I had a pass for, never mind blowing more money on a sequel.

Besides, I'll be saving my money for the Crash Team Racing remaster in June.

 

I'm really excited about this one. It's Fallout In Space from the folks who made the good Fallout. I'm all kinds of hyped about it, even though I probably shouldn't be.

 

I definitely see the Borderlands vibe; it's got a similar quasi-Western aesthetic and quirky writing. I think that's about as close as it's gonna get to Borderlands though. Maybe my biases are getting the better of me, but I don't think a looter-shooter with ludicrous bullet sponges, a borderline insane loot system, and quality gunplay is in Obsidian's wheelhouse. I could easily be wrong, but I'm expecting it to play more-or-less like the 3d Fallout games, up to and including wonky, stat-based gunplay.

I doubt it'll be a straight copy, but I'd be very surprised if they moved away from that as the core style.

As for Bethesda, meh. They've always been total ass when it comes to QA. Fallout 76 is only slightly worse than literally every other game they've ever released (at launch anyway, most of their most egregious bugs end up getting fixed within a month or two, not including all the modders who fix their shit), so I'm really not seeing why people are so up in arms about it this time around.

I'm more interested in Outer Worlds because the Obsidian writing team is fucking amazing, and I pretty much universally love the narratives they craft. A spiritual successor to New Vegas, which is what this appears to be intended as, is right up my alley, and I'm gonna be all over it.

 

A lot of it was probably resentment over them turning Fallout into Rust-lite, at least initially. But even the 76 subreddit is starting to rebel, and that place was trying to shine a positive light on things for the most part. From browsing over there it seems that the lack of endgame content and them stealth-nerfing a lot of the systems to make them even more time-consuming is pushing away people who initially went to bat for it. The other games could at least fall back on being quality games once you got past how broken they were.

It's also the massive cascade of fuckups from all areas of the company at the same time since the game launched. 76 might not be much worse QA-wise than the others were at launch, but Bethesda's dropping the ball again and again is not doing them any favors.

First you had the lack of client-side validation coming out, which made them look completely unprepared for hosting an online game. Then there was the scandal with the canvas bag from the Collectors Edition, which made them look greedy (and shady when they gave out the 500 V-bucks or whatever they're called, since that counts as compensation and protects them from legal repercussions for false advertising). Now just recently they fucked up their support tickets and randomly showed customers private information to other people on their site.

I think the real issue is that they got complacent from years of people just putting up with their shit, and now their lack of standards is biting them in the ass, because they put out a dud and people aren't distracted by a shiny new game.

 

That and it's multiplayer. Personally, I find I have a lot less patience for the game being fucky and wasting my time if it's not just my time.

 

outer worlds looks great. definitely getting a mix of fallout/borderlands vibe. It's slated for a 2019 launch, which is pretty soon, though I feel like there's actually a significant bottlenecking of games next year, so maybe some of them will actually be 2020 like metroid 4 and aoe 4

 

I wouldn't worry too much. Being an Obsidian game, it should actually be playable by early 2020? Or maybe just wait for the complete edition in a couple of years. All the most game breaking stuff should be ironed out by then.

 

To be fair, from the sound of things, it seems like the publisher isn't forcing them to rush the game out in half the time they need, and they've been pretty solid when that happens (see: pillars of eternity).

 

I wouldn't be so sure of that. Microsoft owns them now. While they wouldn't be 'forcing' anything per se, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a corporate overlord standing at the front door tapping their foot and pointing at his watch, lol.

I also don't understand how this thread isn't more excited that the greatest Kart Racer ever made is getting a proper remake.