General Gaming Discussion

[Shagger]

3 minutes ago, Akun said:

Nope. If you've bought them for more than two weeks (14 days), the refund isn't accepted. I've tried this with many previous games, including bundles of games I didn't have time to play.

 

I see. That's unfortunate, but that's digital distribution for you.

[Akun]

2 minutes ago, Shagger said:

 

I see. That's unfortunate, but that's digital distribution for you.

Yeah. I have tons of games on Steam I haven't played for years and I can't get any monetary returns from them. I could sell my Steam account, but there's all kinds of issues with that, including security issues and breaking Valve's TOS and possibly getting the account banned anyway. It's just one huge chunk of money spent I couldn't get back, as opposed to physical games.

[Shagger]

4 minutes ago, Akun said:

Yeah. I have tons of games on Steam I haven't played for years and I can't get any monetary returns from them. I could sell my Steam account, but there's all kinds of issues with that, including security issues and breaking Valve's TOS and possibly getting the account banned anyway. It's just one huge chunk of money spent I couldn't get back, as opposed to physical games.

 

I am more one for keeping games rather than selling them on, even with physical games, so not being able to sell digital ganes on doesn't really bother me, but I couldn't agree more that is a major downside to digital distribution. Nor do I feel that digital games are priced family given that problem. There was a time that PC gaming justified that problem with games being cheap, but I just don't feel like that's the case anymore. EGS offers a lot of games for free and sales can birth great offers, but it just isn't what used to be.

[Kane99]

3 hours ago, Shagger said:

 

I am more one for keeping games rather than selling them on, even with physical games, so not being able to sell digital ganes on doesn't really bother me, but I couldn't agree more that is a major downside to digital distribution. Nor do I feel that digital games are priced family given that problem. There was a time that PC gaming justified that problem with games being cheap, but I just don't feel like that's the case anymore. EGS offers a lot of games for free and sales can birth great offers, but it just isn't what used to be.

There are companies that want to make it possible to buy, sell, trade digital games and digital items, even ones that have already been redeemed. There was a service called equiti games that was supposed to come out and do exactly that. It would let you sell the license for the digital game, so even if you redeem the code, play the game etc, you can resell it later. 

And some studios looked to be involved. I think Tiny Build was interested in it. It would also give a cut per sale to the devs and publishers. 

If they make it possible to sell and trade off your digital games and items, that would be awesome. 

[Akun]

I find it annoying when reviews encourage pity-buying a game just because it's an indie game made by one person. While I could appreciate the hard work such a game would require, if the game doesn't appeal to me (whether it's because it's an indie game lacking the budget of a AAA game is irrelevant), then it doesn't appeal to me, and I shouldn't be guilted into spending my hard-earned money on something just because some other folks want to squander their money on supporting indie developers. Would you pay a large sum of money for a low budget mobile game over a AAA game just to support the developers? If you want to do that sort of thing and support the indie industry, it's your prerogative and more power to you, but don't gaslight, manipulate or guilt-trip me into buying it, saying how "other reviews are comparing this game to a AAA game." Of course they make comparisons to AAA games - they have a bigger budget and are a lot more fun, and therefore they feel those AAA games are more worthy of purchase. That's the sad reality of the industry, and no amount of good intentions from indie developers is going to change how cool-looking and high quality gameplay a AAA game will have over most indie games. If your positive review of an indie game requires the dismissal of the "high budget" of AAA games to make that indie game look better, then maybe the indie game you're defending just isn't that quality to stand on its own merits without comparing "developer budgets."

I like Undertale and Spiritfarer, for example, but as much as I love them, I'm not going to pretend that they're far superior games than most of the higher budget AAA games I've played in terms of gameplay mechanics, game length, storyline and especially visuals. The specific game that got me to talk about this issue, however, is Prehistoric Kingdom. It's been in development for over a decade now, and many reviews complained that it has the bare minimum a dinosaur park management game should have, and I think that, at the very least, they're justified in feeling bored, even if such criticisms might've been unfair towards the indie developer working with a minimum budget. The sad reality is that if you're working with a lower budget, your game will have less features than a higher budget game like Jurassic World: Evolution 2. For all the flaws of JWE2, it's undeniable that it has 1) a lot more dinosaurs, 2) higher quality visuals, 3) a lot more gameplay features. That's not a subjective opinion; that's a fact. It's an opinion to say you enjoy the minimalism of Prehistoric Kingdom, but it's disingenuous to say that Prehistoric Kingdom should be bought just to support low budget indie games, especially when they haven't done jack to develop the game at all for 10 years. It's like begging for a charity case, and it's manipulative.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Akun

[Shagger]

1 hour ago, Akun said:

I find it annoying when reviews encourage pity-buying a game just because it's an indie game made by one person. While I could appreciate the hard work such a game would require, if the game doesn't appeal to me (whether it's because it's an indie game lacking the budget of a AAA game is irrelevant), then it doesn't appeal to me, and I shouldn't be guilted into spending my hard-earned money on something just because some other folks want to squander their money on supporting indie developers. Would you pay a large sum of money for a low budget mobile game over a AAA game just to support the developers? If you want to do that sort of thing and support the indie industry, it's your prerogative and more power to you, but don't gaslight, manipulate or guilt-trip me into buying it, saying how "other reviews are comparing this game to a AAA game." Of course they make comparisons to AAA games - they have a bigger budget and are a lot more fun, and therefore they feel those AAA games are more worthy of purchase. That's the sad reality of the industry, and no amount of good intentions from indie developers is going to change how cool-looking and high quality gameplay a AAA game will have over most indie games. If your positive review of an indie game requires the dismissal of the "high budget" of AAA games to make that indie game look better, then maybe the indie game you're defending just isn't that quality to stand on its own merits without comparing "developer budgets."

I like Undertale and Spiritfarer, for example, but as much as I love them, I'm not going to pretend that they're far superior games than most of the higher budget AAA games I've played in terms of gameplay mechanics, game length, storyline and especially visuals. The specific game that got me to talk about this issue, however, is Prehistoric Kingdom. It's been in development for over a decade now, and many reviews complained that it has the bare minimum a dinosaur park management game should have, and I think that, at the very least, they're justified in feeling bored, even if such criticisms might've been unfair towards the indie developer working with a minimum budget. The sad reality is that if you're working with a lower budget, your game will have less features than a higher budget game like Jurassic World: Evolution 2. For all the flaws of JWE2, it's undeniable that it has 1) a lot more dinosaurs, 2) higher quality visuals, 3) a lot more gameplay features. That's not a subjective opinion; that's a fact. It's an opinion to say you enjoy the minimalism of Prehistoric Kingdom, but it's disingenuous to say that Prehistoric Kingdom should be bought just to support low budget indie games, especially when they haven't done jack to develop the game at all for 10 years. It's like begging for a charity case, and it's manipulative.

 

I agree, I consider a game to be worth buying when it's worth the price regardless of who developed/published it. Dont get wrong, there are good reasons to not support certain companies, but game to game, they should be considered on their own merits. Besides, it's not like the indie scene doesn't have its fair share of scum working in it. 

[killamch89]

On 9/26/2022 at 10:36 AM, Akun said:

I find it annoying when reviews encourage pity-buying a game just because it's an indie game made by one person. While I could appreciate the hard work such a game would require, if the game doesn't appeal to me (whether it's because it's an indie game lacking the budget of a AAA game is irrelevant), then it doesn't appeal to me, and I shouldn't be guilted into spending my hard-earned money on something just because some other folks want to squander their money on supporting indie developers. Would you pay a large sum of money for a low budget mobile game over a AAA game just to support the developers? If you want to do that sort of thing and support the indie industry, it's your prerogative and more power to you, but don't gaslight, manipulate or guilt-trip me into buying it, saying how "other reviews are comparing this game to a AAA game." Of course they make comparisons to AAA games - they have a bigger budget and are a lot more fun, and therefore they feel those AAA games are more worthy of purchase. That's the sad reality of the industry, and no amount of good intentions from indie developers is going to change how cool-looking and high quality gameplay a AAA game will have over most indie games. If your positive review of an indie game requires the dismissal of the "high budget" of AAA games to make that indie game look better, then maybe the indie game you're defending just isn't that quality to stand on its own merits without comparing "developer budgets."

I like Undertale and Spiritfarer, for example, but as much as I love them, I'm not going to pretend that they're far superior games than most of the higher budget AAA games I've played in terms of gameplay mechanics, game length, storyline and especially visuals. The specific game that got me to talk about this issue, however, is Prehistoric Kingdom. It's been in development for over a decade now, and many reviews complained that it has the bare minimum a dinosaur park management game should have, and I think that, at the very least, they're justified in feeling bored, even if such criticisms might've been unfair towards the indie developer working with a minimum budget. The sad reality is that if you're working with a lower budget, your game will have less features than a higher budget game like Jurassic World: Evolution 2. For all the flaws of JWE2, it's undeniable that it has 1) a lot more dinosaurs, 2) higher quality visuals, 3) a lot more gameplay features. That's not a subjective opinion; that's a fact. It's an opinion to say you enjoy the minimalism of Prehistoric Kingdom, but it's disingenuous to say that Prehistoric Kingdom should be bought just to support low budget indie games, especially when they haven't done jack to develop the game at all for 10 years. It's like begging for a charity case, and it's manipulative.

Agreed - I can value a developer's stance but if I don't enjoy their games, why buy them? Isn't that why we play games?

[joblessdude]

My friend has got Away Out. The game is short within a day anyone can complete. It has got some interesting graphics, themes and gameplay. I recommend this game 100%. Best for streamers to stream live. 

[Demon_skeith]

I'm grinding my way through tales of arise in hopefully to pick up bayonetta 3 on its release.

[Akun]

Changed my mind on replaying the Dragon Age trilogy because of a number of reasons.

Much as I love Dragon Age: Origins, it didn't date that well in terms of graphics and gameplay. Really doesn't help that many NPCs look the same or dress the same way with limited range of hairstyles. This is a minor gripe at best though, particularly the dated gameplay, because I still enjoy the "pause and plan out your moves" gameplay of Origins, even if many finds it to be cumbersome. I'm a patient gamer like that who likes my games relaxing and slow-paced.

A bigger reason I might refrain from replaying Origins is the difficulty spikes and how sluggish the pacing of the story/gameplay can feel because of such difficulty. It's not exactly a game you could finish under a week. It's an RPG you have to devote your time to, not to mention the time you would spend modding it. And boy, does this game need mods...

Dragon Age 2 is when it starts to become harder to care about the trilogy, because goddamn is it forgettable. I've read that people found characters in DA2 to be more memorable than Origins whereas it's the opposite for me, so I guess it's subjective to taste, like all things entertainment.

To be fair, I had a better judgment of DA2 when I replayed it several years ago. I particularly liked my female Hawke even though I'm a guy because the voice actress did a pretty decent job of making her badass (she's still no Jennifer Hale/Femshep, but Femshep's hard to top). I must admit that I kinda like my Asian female Hawke's custom design as well since she's kinda attractive. It's just a shame that I couldn't recreate her in Inquisition (a sequel where the import option would've been really helpful).

But still, even with my positive reassessment of the game, when I revisit the list of companions you'll meet from the Dragon Age wiki, I just feel like I couldn't really remember anything interesting about them, except maybe Isabela, and even that's a stretch because she feels like an archetypal pirate queen. In fact, most of the NPCs/companions are extreme archetypes that have pretty extremist views from what little I could remember... especially Anders, the guy that pulled the dick move near the end of DA2 that triggered an entire war - THAT I remembered clearly because of how big of a goof-up it was. But maybe I'm remembering the other characters' personalities wrong (pretty sure I got Anders right) and they're more interesting than I gave them credit for, so whatever.

Varric is the exception, of course. Everybody loves Varric. I find him to be lukewarm at best though to be honest. I don't see what all the hype about him is about except that he's a pretty chill wingman. But he's no Garrus Vakarian in terms of broship (Garrus has better lines too).

The rushed production of Dragon Age 2 really didn't help convince me to replay the game. Rushed writing and rushed character development, which explains why the characters feel paper-thin. DA2 was damaged by EA and no amount of retrospective's gonna fix that.

Then comes Dragon Age: Inquisition, the real reason I wanted to replay the trilogy for the sake of completion. I remember that there's a lot of politics surrounding the game back in the day, most of which I tuned out of for the most part in spite of being more pro-liberal back then. The reason I dropped it was for a non-political reason though. I think it's because I tried to complete the side quests for Hinterlands and got bored; I've only recently learned that it's a bad idea.

But yes, part of the reason I feel reluctant to return to Inquisition is for a rather shallow reason: the romantic interests are just kinda bland-looking. In a roleplaying game, I'm not usually trying to simulate real life. In real life, I wouldn't usually judge whom I want to date or form a meaningful relationship for life by their appearances. However, in a roleplaying game where I'm trying to enjoy myself through a piece of entertainment... yeah, I'm gonna indulge myself a little in being shallow (especially when I don't mix what I do in real life or treat real people with how I view entertainment/fantasies/fictional characters), and an unengaging piece of entertainment for the sake of "realism" just doesn't hook me. Sorry. I need my entertainment to be interesting first, and then maybe realistic second. This is part of the "politics" I mentioned earlier, and I really don't want to get into this because I hate politics (and just arguing in general), but it's hard to express why I feel disinterested in Inquisition without getting this information about my views out of the way.

I might've returned to the game if Vivienne's romanceable though. Too bad she's not, because she's fine.

But still, the fact that I base my interest of the game on whom I could date reminds me just how little investment I have in Dragon Age's saga and lore, probably because the DA team at Bioware has little investment in my journey and adventure by not continuing the Hero of Ferelden's adventures from Origins, switching to a new protagonist each game. I find that hard to invest into because I have to learn to immerse myself in a new protagonist each game in this "trilogy" instead of going on one big epic journey spanning three games... like the Mass Effect trilogy, a trilogy which I had no problems replaying many times over. From a roleplaying point of view, it just feels tedious playing what feels like three separate adventures as three different individuals in the Dragon Age trilogy. When I set out on an adventure for a roleplaying experience, I'd only stick to one protagonist at a time, not three. By the way, this is the reason why I got bored playing Mass Effect: Andromeda. I had to learn to get attached to Ryder the protagonist the same way I had to learn to get into the role of Shepard when I first played Mass Effect 1.

Speaking of roleplaying, this is a far bigger reason why Inquisition has disinterested me. While trying to convince myself earlier that there's still merit to roleplaying the Inquisitor in a unique and perhaps nuanced way... I learned that the Inquisitor's morality is pretty shallow compared to the protagonist of Origins and even DA2... as in there's a lack of "evil" options you can do in Inquisition. Let me explain why these options can make a roleplay feel nuanced instead of just "cartoonishly evil." The option to perform a monstrous act like sacrificing a child for the sake of a country... means you could also choose to NOT perform such a monstrous option. There's a choice there, and it feels meaningful when you choose not to act on such a heinous act "for the greater good." But when such options don't exist in the first place, your morality exists in a vapid vacuum that's all-good and moral without any room for corruption or ruthlessness. Your "good" and "kind" acts feel empty and meaningless because there aren't any pragmatic/ruthless choices to reflect your idealistic/pacifistic ones.

THAT is a big reason why I feel reluctant to play Inquisition: the lack of depth in its roleplaying. In Origins, the roleplay was amazing because not only could you be a Warden from multiple races (with special quests/dialogue that acknowledge your race/origin), you were also capable of playing around with the protagonist's personality in terms of the ruthless sacrifices they'll make in order to "save the world." That's the beauty of Origins as a medieval fantasy RPG - it forced you to make the hard choices to "save the day." Inquisition, from what I've read, removed that nuance.

Honestly, it's not just Inquisition either. I just couldn't find many RPGs these days where the "RP" is an essential part of the story/gameplay... except for maybe The Witcher games (though I have entirely different reasons why I find those games hard to get into that I've explained elsewhere before). It's like, it's in the name, a "roleplaying game," not just "customize your stat points" game. I feel like a lot of people conflate "roleplaying" with customizing a build to your liking rather than the plot-related choices you make in the story, which is fine, I suppose, but since I'm someone who's always more interested in storytelling than gameplay, I find it difficult to enjoy RPGs anymore.

Anyway, that's my lengthy take on why I feel reluctant to replay a trilogy that includes one of my favorite video games of all time (DAO). I don't know why I wrote so much just to explain why I'm disinterested in replaying it... but I feel like it's probably just my own way of trying to convince myself that I'm right, but secretly waiting for someone to correct me or something (then maybe convincing me to replay it). lol I have insecurity issues and have trouble being confident in my own views... Sigh.

Anyway, maybe it's for the best. I've been on a video game binge ever since I first picked up those SMT games, then the binge continued with Two Point Campus, and it just kept continuing into trying to occupy my leisure/free time with video games instead of something more meaningful. So maybe me getting bored with these games might be a good wakeup call of sorts, forcing me to move on to something else.

On the other hand, maybe it's a good time to pick up the Witcher games... Annnd here we go again. lol

Edited October 14, 2022 by Akun

[Akun]

This arrived a few days ago and I've barely touched it because I'm too busy with other stuff in my life right now, including another visual novel, House in Fata Morgana. Will be playing Higurashi Rei with 07th mod after I'm done, so Chaos;Head Noah will have some time to wait.

It's like buying a PS4 all over again. Much like the Playstation console, Chaos;Head Noah was one of those things I kept dreaming about playing someday. Now that I've owned it... the reality just doesn't match up with that initial hype. lol

[Demon_skeith]

27 minutes ago, Akun said:

This arrived a few days ago and I've barely touched it because I'm too busy with other stuff in my life right now, including another visual novel, House in Fata Morgana. Will be playing Higurashi Rei with 07th mod after I'm done, so Chaos;Head Noah will have some time to wait.

It's like buying a PS4 all over again. Much like the Playstation console, Chaos;Head Noah was one of those things I kept dreaming about playing someday. Now that I've owned it... the reality just doesn't match up with that initial hype. lol

I could barely stomach the anime, hope you can endure the game.

[Akun]

2 minutes ago, Demon_skeith said:

I could barely stomach the anime, hope you can endure the game.

lol Nice. I could stomach a lot of stuff, so this should be fun. The opening gore moment of Chaos;Child, for example, was surprising, but not really that bad for me. I'm pretty desensitized to violent scenes by now.

[killamch89]

13 hours ago, Akun said:

This arrived a few days ago and I've barely touched it because I'm too busy with other stuff in my life right now, including another visual novel, House in Fata Morgana. Will be playing Higurashi Rei with 07th mod after I'm done, so Chaos;Head Noah will have some time to wait.

It's like buying a PS4 all over again. Much like the Playstation console, Chaos;Head Noah was one of those things I kept dreaming about playing someday. Now that I've owned it... the reality just doesn't match up with that initial hype. lol

Bro - You always know where to find the anime games on most platforms. How do you know about these? I mean, Anime games just don't get the same amount of coverage as other genres.

[Akun]

1 hour ago, killamch89 said:

Bro - You always know where to find the anime games on most platforms. How do you know about these? I mean, Anime games just don't get the same amount of coverage as other genres.

I was actually lucky with this one as I accidentally stumbled on the news of the pre-order. I can't remember exactly how or where I stumbled on the news - might have been Reddit, might have been a Nintendo article - but I was lucky enough to learn of the pre-order back on March 12, and I just immediately went on Amazon and purchased it. I'm pretty sure it was an article. I think I was scrolling through another unrelated article, and then I saw the Chaos;Head Double Pack article in one of the "trending articles" at the bottom of the page.

But yeah, I'm glad I got the opportunity to buy it, regardless of the circumstances. I did hear that the port isn't the most polished, and people would be better off waiting for the Committee of Zero patch for the PC port, but ah well, I don't regret buying it. I've wanted to play Chaos;Head Noah forever.

I think for anime games, you could check out Steam and follow some of the publishers like Spike Chunsoft, which as you can see from the photo above, was the one which published Chaos;Head. Another one is Sekai Project, but they mostly release visual novels. Once you follow them, and if you have email notifications on, you'll receive emails whenever they release a new project.

Edited October 18, 2022 by Akun