Wulff

Managed it before the new year!

The game awards are less about actually awarding games based on their merits and more about advertisement. It's unfortunate.

This is tangentially about a video game, but not really at the same time so I decided against posting it in the video games discussion. Gonna toss it in here instead. I'll warn you now it's long and doesn't have any meaningful conclusion, it's just me pouring my thoughts out.

Finished all the main story endings for Nier Automata after about  40hrs of gameplay. Without a doubt my personal GOTY. Nothing else I've played even comes close.

13 hours ago, John Caveson said:

but most people who are poor are poor because of bad life choices.

I'm curious whether you believe that humans are born with an innate ability to divine "good" life choices regardless of their socio-economic standing while growing up or if you believe that the environment you grow up in affects your ability to make lasting good decisions in your life. This isn't an attempt to jab at you, I really am curious.

52 minutes ago, A 1970 Corvette said:

I don't know why you guys do stuff like this. Just say the discussion is dumb if you want to. Posting a bunch of meme images after serious posts just makes you look like asshats. If you don't care about the discussion then don't say anything.

 

You guys are good posters on topics you care about but you then have to become ironically detached from discussions that other people care about that you don't. Maybe I'm the only one annoyed by this. If that's true then I guess I'll shut up.

I agree with this. I'm not saying that occasional shitpost should be grounds for immediate excommunication because god knows that practically every user on this forum is guilty of at least an occasional shitpost, but there are certain people who return to post only to incite and degrade and others who let themselves get whipped up into a frenzy by a fleeting mood. You want to know why this torrent of shitposts came along in this thread? It's because we (Myself, Facade, Huff, Insectan and Raze) were discussing it on Discord, as we do certain controversial things that are posted on these boards. I won't lie to you, there are some opinions that have been posted in this thread that I think are incredibly naive and that I disagree with, but I also don't have the energy or data to really dispute them outside of an "Well I don't feel this way" perspective. So I just don't post. But we still talk about it on the Discord and then people get into this weird fucking mood and it becomes a competition about who can be the most edgy when it comes to the responses. I personally would prefer it if people could just keep it to the Discord if they're going to be like this, but I also don't want to become the moral arbiter of what's OK to fuck with and what's not OK to fuck with, because as mentioned above, it's not like I'm sinless when it comes to this stuff. So I just stay quiet.

Honestly I think you hit the nail on the head, as much as Insectan wanted to prove some point by quoting you or whatever that was. I don't even think that dropping in to say that a discussion is "dumb" is even something you should do, it just comes across as really fucking arrogant. Just ignore it and participate in discussions you do find interesting. Like the really good one about CIA in the War Room right now.

Just now, Moby said:

Decided to catch up with Watamote.

 

That manga sure has changed. It went from 'The misadventures of cringy and socially awkward girl' to 'The daily life of somewhat socially awkward girl and her lesbian harem'

It's all part of Abe's plan.

I'm only six hours into it, but Nier Automata is blowing me away. The gameplay, boss battles and soundtrack have all been 10/10 so far.

On 11/18/2017 at 1:28 AM, Gyokuyoutama said:

Really there was nothing in there that the QA department of a AAA company shouldn't have been able to catch.  Some of the problems were definitely due to intentionally trying to do things that the devs wouldn't expect you to do, but those are exactly the sorts of things that a QA team are supposed to try.  This isn't even a Bethesda style game where they can use the excuse that the game world was too vast for it to be feasible for even a large team to find; the campaign is pretty short and constrained, all things to consider.

 

We should also keep in mind that not only are they charging 60 bucks for this, they are using a pay2notgrind system and lootboxes to supplement their earnings, with part of the (public) justification for that being that it is necessary to generate revenue to keep updating the game.  This isn't some one man project being sold for 15 bucks; they have enough money to actually bug test.

 

Contrast a game like Portal where even if you do try weird things, you'll generally be okay.  If you listen to the commentaries for the game, they discuss instances where the game had to be changed to accommodate ways that playtesters broke the level unexpectedly (sometimes by doing things that the vast majority of players would never try, sometimes by doing things that many players would try but which the devs never considered, such as leaving behind the companion cube before the dialogue and heart made it cute).  Their reaction wasn't "maybe our playtesters should learn to play our game right."

 

I also expect my AAA games to have a standard a little bit higher than "doesn't fuck up basic animations and movements like Mass Effect Andromeda did".

The problem here is that I think that the SWBF2 playtesters probably did do things differently, but not to the level of the clown in the video that was linked, whereas you don't believe enough was done to make the game goof out less. Let me start out by saying that I agree with you when you say that a game shouldn't be made to be "played right" but I also think your comparison to Portal 2 is a little unfair considering the major differences between the SWBF2 SP campaign and the Portal SP campaign. SWBF2 is a much more focused and in many ways linear experience and the game doesn't really encourage you to try weird alternate ways of getting through a mission, whereas Portal 2 encourages you to think creatively and explore every possibility on the later maps in order to get through them. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is up to individual opinion, but I'm just saying that a lot of the "bugs" that the SWBF2 video highlighted are very unlikely to happen to 95% of the players going through it and as such I think it's pretty fucking unfair to try and sell the campaign as a "broken mess" when all it really is, is 5 minutes footage of someone doing weird shit other people would never think to do.

I don't even think the SWBF2 campaign is good, but I still think it's being portrayed in an overly negative light for the wrong reasons.

I also disagree with your initial statement.

20 hours ago, Spectre said:

Taking out microtransactions temporarily won't change the fact that the gameplay is a mess.

I dislike videos like this one. While there are some genuine goofs like the melee takedowns bugging out, the person recording is trying their fucking hardest to break the game by doing weird stuff that no person just playing the game normally would ever do and then pointing and laughing when the game bugs out because you're doing goofy shit. Yeah it's pretty funny that you can make dumb shit like that happen, but it's hardly game ruining. It's one thing when a game fucks up basic animation such as walking/running or lip-syncing like ME: Andromeda, another thing is when a player goes out of their way to break the game. I watched a person play through the campaign and he experienced no bugs or weird graphical/animted glitches, but he was also playing seriously and progressing through the game as his objectives updated.

The part on Endor with the rebel soldier walking over the burning debris and dying was pretty hilarious though.

In more positive video game related things, I got around to play DOOM 2016 this week after missing its release. Absolutely stellar experience, easily one of my new favourite games.

My anime watching has sort of gone down the drain over the past couple of months. Haven't been watching stuff nearly as regularly as I would like to, I blame the fact that after getting a new computer, I've been so occupied with playing all the great games I missed out on over the years, that I've just not felt motivated to watch much anime. I'd rather play cool video games.

That being said, it hasn't been completely barren in terms of anime this season.

Of the current season I've given two shows a try. I usually don't like watching anime as it is airing (with a few exceptions) but because my overall watching has been so sporadic, I've just ended up saying yes when a friend asked me if I wanted to watch something.

Dies Irae is the anime adaptation of a fairly popular(?) visual novel by the same name. Imagine if Hellsing and Wolfenstein had a crazy anime crossover except instead of being good like Hellsing and Wolfenstein, it was just really convoluded, poorly thought out and starring shit characters instead. I'm fairly certain this anime will only be enjoyable for someone who has read and enjoyed the VN. I dropped it after three episodes.

Net-juu no Susume was an anime I had no idea even existed until my good friend Marcus told me about it and asked if I wanted to give it a shot. It's an anime about a Japanese Christmas Cake who willingly gives up her career after her 30th birthday in order to become an "Elite-Neet" as it were. She considers herself above regular NEETS because she actively chose that lifestyle after working for over a decade and saving up enough money to sustain herself. She picks up an MMORPG and gets invested with a guild called "@Home Party", in particular one of its members, a support class player named Lily and together they gain a bond through playing together. A romance starts budding, but as it would turn out, the players behind the screen might be closer to each other in real life than any of them ever could have guessed. It is VERY corny, but oddly endearing at the same time. I enjoyed the first 3 episodes and considering it's only going to end up being 10 episodes total, I'll probably stick through it until the end.

That's it for the seasonal stuff.

Other than that I've been watching Princess Principal from last season and it's OK so far, only 3 episodes in. First episode was good, second and third less so, but not bad by any means. We'll see where it goes. Also been watching New Game!! and that anime is very cute, can't really complain about that one. Just more of the same from the first season. Finally I've also been watching Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls and it feels like the original Im@s except without all the character drama/development that made the first series interesting. Actually I think Cinderella Girls is kinda shit, but at least it's cute... I guess. Probably won't be picking up the second season once I finish the first.

7 hours ago, John Reapson said:

In the case of games such as OW, and EAFront II, these loot boxes also pay for future updates to keep the game alive. Now, you might say that this is just the devs "ransoming" new content with micro transactions. But, would you rather have this? or paid DLC which will either a.) split the community through DLC-only playlists, or b.) integrate DLC maps into normal play, but only if everyone in the lobby has the DLC, will the maps have an option to show up, which generally means, they won't pop up as often, which lessens the value of getting that DLC. For example, iirc, Halo Reach and 4 did the latter, and it sucked, and the older Halos did the former, and it sucked. Halo 5, meanwhile, has lootboxes that only effects one gamemode, which means I can play any mode with any map without spending an extra penny on the game. I'm essentially relying on other people to pay for my DLC, a.k.a. post-release communism.

 

So in my view, it's just an alternative to paid DLC, which is fine. However, if the game still has paid DLC and micro-transactions, or is a single-player game *choghShadowofWarcough*, then it crosses a line.

I personally think that the reasoning in your first sentence is very flimsy and it is my layman's assumption that it isn't even true for the bigname publishers such as EA. That being said, I also understand that game devs and publishers are out to make money at the end of the day. I think a lot of the online gaming population underestimates just how much effort that goes into keeping a game company afloat (see the head of Respawn Entertainment's response to the outcry that came after he allowed Respawn to be bought out by EA) and as such, I actually think lootcrates are an OK idea. I also agree with your ultimate statement of it being an alternative to paid DLC.

HOWEVER

The moment these lootcrates start adding Pay-2-Win Elements in a game that is already Pay-2-Play, that's where I draw the line. Unfortunately that is the case for EA's upcoming Battlefront II. If you rephrase your question to "Would you rather have Pay-2-Win gambling elements in your game OR paid DLC that will potentially split up the community?" the paid DLC is the lesser evil for sure.

Star Wars Battlefront 2's release is turning out to be a figurative rollercoaster. With the launch of the beta I denounced the game due to it's inherit P2W systems with Star Cards, then some time later, EA made a statement talking about changes to the Star Card and lootbox system. These changes were not perfect, but it was a step in the right direction and actually rekindled my interest in purchasing the game once more. Now people have had the ability to play the game via Origin Access, a subscription-based service for your Origin account á la Playstation Plus and the last three days have revealed that while the lootboxes and Star Cards might be less invasive, there are a slew of other issues cropping up with SWBF2.

The game locks hero characters such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker (among others) from immediate play. Yes, a $60-$80 game is locking away content from the player straight from the beginning. In order to unlock these iconic hero characters, you have to pay for them using the in-game currency known as credits. Unfortunately these hero characters cost tens of thousands of credits (40.000 per character to be exact) and as a player, you don't earn a lot of credits actually playing the game. You receive a fixed number of credits after finishing a match, regardless of your performance in said match. This number of credits is in the low hundreds. Not only does this system encourage AFK botters, seeing as how a player with 0 kills and 0 deaths will receive as many credits as a player with 43 kills and 2 deaths, but someone actually did the math and figured out that it would take you 40 hours of playing to unlock a SINGLE hero character... Unless you buy lootboxes and earn more credits through them.

Some people have speculated that these inflated numbers are purely for the early access playtest that came with Origin Access and that they will be significantly reduced, but the silence from DICE and EA on the matter has been deafening.  In short, it seems that a $60 game is releasing with an in-game grind most F2P games could only ever dream of. 

.

21 hours ago, A 1970 Corvette said:

Rep farming.

Fair enough

Why is your OP divvied up into 10 posts for no reason?

8 hours ago, A 1970 Corvette said:

Just watched Heaven's Feel movie one. Hell of a rollercoaster, and I'm just talking about what was going on before the movie. Met some people I never thought I'd meet, saw some things I'd never think I'd see.

 

The movie itself was great. I think that you lost a lot in translating Fate to an anime because like 70% of it is just Shirou thinking but god damn if it wasn't fun to watch. Cu is the fucking BEST and also I FUCKING LOVE RIDER AAAA

I'm jealous as fuck. Been waiting for that shit for so long

A little over a week ago, a bunch of us here got together and watched the long-awaited "Kimi no Na Wa" or "Your Name" by director Makoto Shinkai, who is known for having directed films such as "5 Centimeters Per Second" and "The Garden of Words" among others. Watching this film had been a long time coming after its absolutely glowing reception both in the west and in the east, rivaling the Ghibli classic "Spirited Away" in terms of income globally and having shot to the top of practically every single anime database out there in terms of popularity and average rating.

In preparation for watching Kimi no Na Wa, the aforementioned bunch had gotten together in the months prior to watch Makoto Shinkai's older work. We watched "Voices of a Distant Star" along with some of his newer and more critically acclaimed work, namely "The Place Promised in our Early Days" and "5 Centimeters Per Second".

I must admit that I had my concerns about this film initially. It's rare that an animated piece from Japan gets this much attention on a global scale and the general online opinion seemed to be that Kimi no Na Wa was undisputedly one of the best animated films to come out in decades. That sets the bar pretty high and I'd be lying if I told you that my expectations of the medium aren't a bit different from your average anime fan. As such I was worried that the movie would not live up to the hype and that I'd be disappointed by the end of it.

Makoto Shinkai is notorious in the animation community for putting an insane amount of work into his films. While his official title might be "director" the truth is that he actually does pretty much everything. His earlier works were created almost entirely by him and his wife, including everything from storyboard and animation to sound design and voice acting. As he grew in fame as a director he has since gotten people working under him, but he still very much has a hand in the entirety of the creative process. With that in mind, it's quite simple to discern a Makoto Shinkai movie from other contemporaries because Shinkai has a very unique way of presenting his films. There is always a focus on the backdrop to the point where you could pause and screenshot almost any moment from a Shinkai film and it would make a great desktop background.

Example from Kimi no Na Wa

Example from 5 Centimeters Per Second

Example from The Place Promised in our Early Days

Kimi no Na Wa is insanely beautiful. A still image cannot do this movie justice at all. The backgrounds are so detailed that one can only assume the animators worked for days on every single frame. The characters move with fluidity rarely seen in anime and the use of CG animation is very cleverly hidden away to the point where you'd really have to look for it in order to spot it. I don't think it would be an understatement to say that Kimi no Na Wa is the most well-animated movie I've ever seen.

If you're not familiar with Kimi no Na Wa I will briefly summarize the plot for you. A high school city boy and a high school country girl from two entirely different places in Japan begin mysteriously swapping bodies for no discernable reason. Every time they go to bed, they swap bodies.

That's it. That's the simple plot of Kimi no Na Wa. Of course the situation develops as the movie goes along, but I won't talk about that in detail because it's major spoilers. The bodyswapping aspect leads to some absolutely hilarious but also adorable moments for both the characters. The girl gets called out for speaking like a girl when she is in the boy's body (Certain Japanese words and phrases are considered masculine/feminine, women use "Watashi" while men use "Boku" or "Ore" fx.) and the boy has no idea how to do his hair properly while stuck in the girl's body. Overall, it's pretty damn hard not to be endeared by the characters in Kimi no Na Wa. They have just enough genuine human elements in their portrayal that you can't help but get attached. This goes for the side characters as well (BASED TESSIE).

Earlier in this post I talked about how certain things repeat in Makoto Shinkai's work and Kimi no Na Wa is no different in this regard. One of the biggest overarching themes that exist in all of Shinkai's work is a sort of melancholy, longing or sadness. Every single one of his movies is sad in one way or another. Be it sadness over the loss of a friend, a lover or melancholy feelings of times past. Kimi no Na Wa has this aspect as well and there is a certain point where the movie twists into this theme. I won't speak of it in any more detail, just be aware that it does also happen in this movie, just like all the rest of Shinkai's films. Personally I was very invested in this part of the movie, it didn't feel stupid or contrived to me instead I was just feeling genuine concern for the characters involved and by the movies' end I shed a tear. You'll have to watch the movie to find out whether that tear was one of happiness or sadness.

In summary I can tell you that my concern about Kimi no Na Wa being overhyped was totally unfounded. The movie really is just that good. It hits all the right beats in terms of pacing, plot progression and characters on top of having an absolutely fucking stellar presentation that is practically unprecedented. Kimi no Na Wa is a film that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and is something I wouldn't be ashamed to show my parents, who know nothing about anime whatsoever. It's just all-round a great film that I really recommend that you watch.

Today I downloaded and participated in the Star Wars Battlefront II Open Beta and after about three hours of playing the game, I can say with certainty that I will not be giving EA and Dice any money for this particular release. Ignoring all the other feedback I could have given in regards to this game, there is really only one thing that I feel is worth talking about as it unfortunately overshadows everything good they've done with the new Battlefront II.

The "Star Card" system.

In Battlefront 2 you have access to four different classes when playing the multiplayer. Assault, Heavy, Specialist and Officer. Each of these classes are different in terms of how they appear, the weapons they use and their class abilities. The Assault for example has the ability to throw a thermal grenade, to change his blaster rifle into a shotgun configuration and to shoot a marker that reveals enemies in a small area. The Officer class on the other hand has access to a stun grenade, an activatable aura that gives nearby allies damage reduction and decreases the time it takes for them to start healing after receiving damage and a deployable sentry turret.

Sounds fine, right?

What isn't fine is how the Star Card system interacts with these classes. Star Wars Battlefront II has gone the way of Overwatch and lets you earn loot crates in-game by playing and leveling up your classes. The game also lets you straight up buy them with real money from an in-game store. These loot crates contain fun little things like victory poses for your characters, weapon unlocks that you'd otherwise have to wait for a certain level to unlock (not necessarily upgrades mind you) and other little things. They also contain Star Cards. Now comes the part where I try to explain the Star Cards to the best of my ability in a way that will make you see just how disgusting they are in their implementation. 

Each class in the game can ultimately equip a total of four Star Cards. You start out with one Star Card slot in the beginning and unlock more as you put time into the class. These Star Cards are essentially passive buffs for your class. The Assault class for example, can equip a Star Card called "Assault Training" that allows to regain health every time they land the killing blow on an enemy. The Officer class for example can equip a Star Card called "Battle Command: Fortitude" that causes their aura of damage reduction to affect a larger area. The Heavy class has the ability to spin up their gun, increasing its rate of fire greatly at the cost of reduced movement speed. They can also get a Star Card that reduces the spin-up time for that ability. Not only that, but each Star Card also comes in four different rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare and Epic. The effect of the card is depending on the rarity of it. Take the Assault Training card for example. A Common Assault Training Card would give you 15 Health Restored on Kill while an Epic Assault Training Card would make that 30 Health Restored on Kill. Battle Command: Fortitude is another good example. A Common version of that card would make your aura extend to 10 meters from your character where an Epic version would extend 16 meters from your character. 

Ultimately what it boils down to is that EA and Dice have managed to turn Battlefront II into a P2W gacha where a player who is unwilling to dump money into the game, a player who is unlucky with his loot boxes or just a brand new player will be at major disadvantage compared to a player with a full deck of Star Cards. I personally find it disgusting and wholly unacceptable that there is any sort of P2W aspect in a $60 game and will not be supporting this release. I've seen some people on the internet argue that the Star Card system is OK because there will be no paid DLC for Battlefront II and to those people I say they're missing the point.

I've been pretty enamored by Titanfall 2 over the past month and it's easily the game that's taken up the most of my free time throughout September. As such, I suppose it can't come as much of a surprise that my most recent dream that I can remember was TF2 related.

In my dream me and Silent (who doesn't even own or play Titanfall, fuck knows why he's there) were members of an elite mercenary team known as "The Fast Guys" and we were sent on a mission by the team leader to kill a renowned titan pilot named "Lastimosa" (Who is a character from the single-player campaign of TF2). So we travel to the planet this Lastimosa is supposedly on and a whole bunch of fighting ensues, but we pretty much take out all opposition with ease. Finally we find Pilot Lastimosa and have a long 2v1 duel with him. After a hard fight we blow up him and his titan and Silent turns to me in his titan and goes "Looks like Lastimosa just had his Lastimoment"

Then I woke up.

For the most part, I don't really type anything at the end of a multiplayer games. There have of course been times where I've typed out a smug "ez" in a particularly frustrating game (dota 2) or times where I've had a genuinely close and intense game and I'll type out gg, but I mostly stay quiet. As for the concept of "manners" in video games, I really have no issue with it. My first real experience with a very competitive online community was with the release of Starcraft 2. In Starcraft culture it is considered a standard show of respect to type out "gl hf" or something of a similar vein in the beginning of the game and type "gg" when you tap out. Pros did it tournament play and casuals did it on ladder, that's just how people interacted in that game, be it Brood War or Starcraft 2 so I got used to it.

Does gg being used as a courtesy/manner term take away from the meaning of it? I'd say there's an argument to be made in the literal sense that people type it out of habit when a game ends, regardless of whether it was a good game or not, but I can't really say I get hung up over it. I'm more upset when you're playing a team game and the shittiest player on the team that beat you is talking shit in allchat as if they weren't fucking garbage and got carried hard.

Alright, makes more sense now. Appreciated boss.

4 hours ago, ToasterToastin' said:

People are not taking it well.

I'm out of the loop in regards to TF2, are we expecting a new update or is this just people being overly hopeful and subsequently disappointed.

The PUBG situation right now is very interesting to me and even though I don't actively play or follow the game, I have been following the most recent debacle with Epic Games and Fortnite. PUBG has been pretty solidly in the spotlight for the past half a year roughly and it has even grown to become the most popular game on Steam, beating out giants such as Dota and CSGO. That's a very good thing for the game. Unfortunately it's also been in the spotlight with some more mixed and even negative press over the months, most notably the whole situation with PlayerUnknown making a fool of himself in a public chatroom, the stream-sniping ban controversy, the implementation of loot crates with paid keys during early access development and now finally with the POTENTIAL lawsuit against Epic Games. There's a lot to discuss regarding these things if you choose to care about it and I wouldn't blame you if would rather just shrug and go about your day. As for my self I am a relentless and thirsty drama-whore, so I'll dig into it in hopes of finding the juicy bits. 

So far my conclusion has been that PUBG is probably a fairly solid game and easily the best of the several different battle royale games we've seen since the inception of the original mod in Arma 2. I would probably enjoy playing PUBG with friends quite honestly. Unfortunately I have also concluded that PlayerUnknown is an arrogant prick who has no reservations about shitting on his fanbase and who is willing to go back on his word for the sake of a quick cashgrab (Loot crates in early access after an explicit promise that they wouldn't make it into the game until it had been fully released). Furthermore we're now at a tipping point where PlayerUnknown and his team are considering legal action over a fucking videogame "genre" that they have questionable legal rights to anyway.

People are seriously talking about whether making a genre of videogames intellectual property is OK or not. Absolutely fucking ridiculous if you ask me.

God Titanfall 2 is so good