Leaderboard

There's a lot of hype around CD Projekt Red "fixing" Cyberpunk 2077 again, and it did tempt me a little bit to repurchase the game and play it again (I refunded it after one hour on Steam), but after doing some research on the "life path" options, how they barely have any impact on the rest of the story, I'm once again not interested in the game anymore, which is a shame. However, all these complaints about the life paths does leave me thinking. RPGs like Cyberpunk with their false illusion of choice is the reason why I don't enjoy sandbox games because the outcome of your decisions in sandbox games are as inconsequential as Cyberpunk 2077's life paths. Think about it. Choosing whether to be a Nomad or a Corpo in Cyberpunk only means something in your mind. Whether V is a different person from any other player's version of V is in your mind, because the story's gonna be largely the same for everyone. It's all imaginary, just like sandbox games like The Sims where you imagine the Sims to have more interesting lives than just whatever career paths the base games offer you (I haven't played The Sims games for a long time, but one thing that bothered me was that you couldn't even see what the Sims' workplace was like, making your choice of career path for your Sims feel all the more hollow). It's like playing with Lego blocks and imagining your Lego man to be some superhero when he doesn't even have a costume. It's like spending 100 hours designing a theme park in some super creative fashion - Planet Coaster doesn't give you extra points for creativity as far as I know, it only rewards you for meeting the visitors' needs and making the rides fun. Same with Minecraft. The only "impact," "interaction" and "reward" that exist for these games are in your mind. In that sense, while that ultimately means that Cyberpunk 2077's inconsequential life paths wouldn't make the game appealing for me, I don't think the game did anything different from other RPGs or even sandbox games in terms of offering players the false illusion of choice. Many modern RPGs' "choices" are aesthetic-based, or more commonly, the choices only affect the gameplay, never the story, so Cyberpunk 2077's "faults" in terms of its life paths are more like the industry standard for modern RPGs. That's because it's hard to cater to the choices of billions of players. It's hard to make a bazillion different outcomes and paths based on player choices, even if CD Projekt Red did promise a game that "would change gaming forever." That's why when a game does create the lightning in a bottle, the rare game where your choices actually lead to multiple outcomes and endings, that's when it's such a gem to me, which is why I held Detroit: Become Human in such high regards because your dialogue choices alone could ultimately lead to so many different variations. Even Fallout: New Vegas did this better, even though its "outcomes" is just a series of slideshows, the same way Mass Effect 3's developers added different "outcomes" in the extended cut of the game through a series of slideshows. But anyway, it's why I find it a shame that the roleplaying aspect of many role-playing games isn't as immersive as I would like it to be, for a game's story to reflect on your choices the same way a gamemaster would work the plot around your characters' choices and backstory in a tabletop RPG. It's why "roleplaying" is such a joke among a lot of MMO RPGs. I remember how roleplaying is pretty much dead in Star Wars: The Old Republic because it's just a bunch of people imagining their characters going on adventures the base game didn't offer. It's just kinda sad, to be honest.

I think there should be a JRPG where there is a recurring merchant(like Oaka from Final Fantasy X) who is quite mysterious. At the end of the game, the merchant turns out to be the secret final boss and how powerful he is depends on how much currency you supplied him with throughout the game. Also some of his abilities and equipment depend on what stuff you sell to him.

For me, it was the Chocobo Trainer Race mini game, which is also part of a side quest to get Tidus' ultimate weapon in FFX. Those stupid birds swoop in from nowhere at all, at random. I hate that mini game. I hate it with every fiber of my being. I got so upset, I almost broke my controller.

The video game awards will be back this December, is anyone excited? I'm more interested in the reveals more than anything, but they will be adding one new category. That new category being best adaptation, as in video games turned into movies, tv shows, comic books and other such media. So you probably won't see the likes of The Last Of Us make the list, but I'm sure they will include the Halo show, that Resident Evil show and I imagine there are a few other game adaptations I'm forgetting. Anyway, feel free to discuss what games you think will also make the Game Awards this year. https://www.ign.com/articles/the-game-awards-returns-in-december-with-a-new-category?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A Trending Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2m5-9UI_yYzXZZyrHagCYvSDPw72xVk0kngiZAT4HNrUsHweM7QVLMY0Y

Breath Of The Wild is awesome! Just got it for the Switch last week and I must say that I'm really enjoying it.

Yeah - I'm happy he's almost fully healed. When I went to the vet, they had just finished examining him and were going to put him back in his enclosure. When I called out to him he jumped out of the Vet assistant's arm and ran straight to me and jumped in my arms. I was really tempted to take him home but he has a few more days of treatment before I can get him back.

This is the only one I could find that had his whole bit on it, so ignore the second half.

I have resolved the issue by not dying.

I would first of all ask how your ADHD is affected - if at all - by caffiene consumption. As someone who also has ADD, SNEAK does help me with focus more than tea or coffee but it has limited efficiency and the packaging recommends against consuming more than 2 servings per day. My days of bouncing off the walls from caffiene consumption are over but that's because I used to live off Coca-Cola for over a decade. If you feel it's safe to consume though, I'd recommend the cheapest options: there's a random one and there's one where you can choose a number of flavours, and get a shaker.

Had a look around the site, what would be the best pack for a ADHD person?

Hmmm. I want previous choices from early games in a series to continue in the sequel and not just stick to the default storyline and ignore your choice when the sequel is released. In other words, our choices should shape how the story unfolds in the sequel/s.

I used to listen to the Killer Instinct soundtrack when I was a kid since it came with the game. Lately though, I have only heard the soundtrack to RDR2, and the signature song to FF8.

"An epic story with the open world to complement, but is it good?" "Hello and welcome everyone" "(plus maybe a little further)" "So, how was that?" You still used the offending letter multiple times.

You broke the rules. You used the forbidden letter quite frequently.

I'm always advocating for multiple paths in a game's storyline. I know it's hard to do, so I don't really have high hopes for such a feature to be more prevalent. But on the other hand, you get a JRPG like Shin Megami Tensei where some of their endgame content does contain multiple paths depending on whom you side with (SMT IV comes to mind). I believe Fire Emblem games also contain different paths based on whom you side with. I feel like this is mostly a JRPG thing though, because whenever a western RPG does it, they'd often resort to the lazy "slideshow" method like Fallout: New Vegas or Mass Effect 3, instead of creating three distinctly different gameplay levels based on player choices. Now, obviously, games like Detroit: Become Human and The Dark Picture anthology could do it easily because they lack gameplay features outside of QTE, so it's easy to make them. But I would propose for game developers to be more daring and innovative, creating full game levels with multiple paths. You see this in older RPGs too like Dragon Age: Origins, so I don't know more AAA games these days don't have such features anymore. I heard The Witcher 3 had multiple paths, but I'm not really a fan of medieval fantasy settings, which is why when CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk: 2077, I thought we were going to get Witcher 3 with a sci-fi cyberpunk setting, with all the multiple paths Witcher 3 had to offer. Alas, that was not so, with the way the life paths were described by people who've played them. Another cool concept I've really liked in the past is Undertale with the players' act of pacifism being a core important part of the story, and even though I had my problems with the message, Spec Ops: The Line had a nice concept like that as well, so I wouldn't mind seeing more games in the future turn the game genre on itself, like the Goombas in a Mario game calling out Mario for stomping on them all the time or something, or a Pokémon game where the questionable ethics of dog-fighting comes into question. Just spice things up a little and do a little subversion to make the familiar formula fresher, more interesting. BioShock had a good idea in terms of farming the Little Sisters for ADAM, but they made it too easy morally to choose not to farm them. And I'm not talking about how challenging the gameplay is, but rather, making the decision more morally grey. I'm not exactly sure how to do it, especially in the obviously morally questionable objectivism of BioShock context, but a game where the innocence of a malicious ghost child comes into question would be interesting as well in horror games. Imagine having to play through Silent Hill 2 without killing any monsters, for example. Speaking of horror games, here's a concept for you: a protagonist whose appearance becomes more grotesque depending on your moral actions, but the other characters actually call out on this. In most games that have such a feature, I feel like the NPCs don't usually call out on the protagonist's appearance, such as Mass Effect or even Fable. How about a horror protagonist with some kind of disease that gradually makes them become as deformed as the monsters they fight? Maybe the deformed lump of flesh becomes a burden even that movement becomes harder by the end of the game, and maybe depending on your choices, you could either become one of the monsters or fight against the disease with all your might. I don't know. I'm just spitballing here. 😛 Hope it helps. lol

Yeah i've noticed amazon does not like linking to their site, oh well just google Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: The Unofficial Guide to Shin Megami Tensei and Persona instead and you'll come across it i'm sure.

I feel like the problem persona 4 had, well apart from steam is that it was always released on platforms that were pretty much dead in the water. It came out on the ps2 in late 2008 in america, even spring 2009 in europe, at a time when pretty much everyone moved on to newer consoles. Same deal with the ps vita, while i won't deny the vita was probably the best platform persona 4 golden could get a release the harsh truth was who the fuck owned a ps vita, the best thing about the psvita was imo the people who had one loved the machine to death and pretty bought anything they could get their hands on, while it does not say much persona 4 golden is one of the best selling titles on the platform considering it sold 2.5 million units on a the vita alone and If vita hardware sales are to be believed around 10 million that is quite impressive for a series to is supposed to be niche. For the general public it's good to see persona 3 and 4 being re-released because these games have become quite collectible over the years. You know this makes me wonder is Persona the more populair series now as it would be interesting to compare in a few years how many units Shin Megami Tensei V or the recent released soul hackers 2 sold. But man i would not call any Atlus or Persona game released overhyped, Atlus has been bringing out exellent games for as far as i can remember, imo their games deserve all the attention because nearly all are their games are worthy of your hard earned cash, the only problem is having the spare time to play them all. Anyways maybe i'm not adding anything new to the table but lot's of shin megami tensei and persona talk lately and you know i can dig that. Btw if you want to have a good read that covers the entire SMT series and all it's spin offs, i suggest you should check out Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: The Unofficial Guide to Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, it's avaible on amazon if you are interested.

Sneak is a decent enough product, but I personally wasn't impressed by it. The stuff was extremely bland, and I had to use a triple amount of the flavoring just to be able to taste anything. I suppose others would really like or even love it. But I say don't get your hopes up. You can find many other products of this nature, but I would personally rather stick with Gatorade as opposed to Sneak. The bottle leaks and I had to clean up quite a bit of it when I tried to use it. All in all, I don't particularly support it. Others may, but it's just simply not for me.

I've listened to many game soundtracks a lot longer than I played their games, the three that come to mind immediately are: Child of Light Desktop Dungeons Ocarina of Time

Just got told about this from my better half. Honestly, I won't shed a tear. I have little love for the royals, frankly the most significant thing Queen Elisabeth II did for Scotland happened about half an hour ago. Not that I'm happy or anything, any death is tragic and my respect and condolences, but I find it difficult to feel sorry for a woman who lived a life of obscene opulence and luxury up to age the age of 96. The only tragic thing about this is that this idiot is now king.

They called SMT V "Persona without the heart." That was a game released last year. That tells me everything I need to know, how little research they did about their games. Persona games are a spin-off of SMT, not the other way around. Their "Persona without the heart" was so hilarious it easily became the "Too much water" meme of our modern generation. Plus, there's also the aforementioned Digimon Survive and Soul Hackers 2 reviews that I just found insulting and unfair. For Soul Hackers 2, IGN called turn-based combat dated. I mean, I get that a lot of gamers (particularly on Reddit) love to call turn-based combat "a dated gameplay," but I just find that to be a rather narrow-minded point of view because it's like calling platformers dated. It's a style of gameplay many gamers still enjoy today. Plus, FYI - Persona games are turn-based combat games and they gave P5 a high score. So no, it's not just "one or two reviews" that made me think that way, but a number of bad takes that were made even recently, particularly on JRPGs and visual novels.

You see @Kane99, I did that a lot when I was with my cousin. He can be a serious pain whenever I want to play with my brother, so we devised that means to blindside him. The picture below is a perfect description of what we did to him.

Some tough competition there for the Cuphead show on Netflix! /s I'm not really into the Game Awards but I'd be interested in seeing who wins this category for the first time. Thanks for sharing this one, Kane.

Ummm - the Halo Show is on the terrible side though. I got a chance to watch the first three episodes and I was so turned off, I didn't bother going any further. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.