Starfield. I love some Bethesda games, and I don’t hate the game, it’s just not worth the price. It would be way more tolerable at $40. I got about 40-45 hours into it, and I don’t know if I’m ever going to complete it. I feel like I’ve seen everything the game offers and there doesn’t seem to be anything new coming along in terms of mechanics or story.
I got 40hours in and it was tolerable with the ship building but questing was uninspired loading screens suck and the progression tree was a massive turn off. You’d think they’d take a few cues from fallout nv
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I’m not usually into base/ship building, but I’m glad it is there for those that are into it. I can’t imagine how poorly the game would have been received without it though. Skill tree is bullshit. Can’t modify weapons or armor because I’m not high enough level, even after 40 hours. I can’t modify a damn scope? WTH?
I mostly hated that the skill trees are still mostly % increases. Cyberpunk retooled their entire skill tree because of that.
It’s a type of gameplay progression that just isn’t that fun - but Bethesda loves it.
Yeah, glad I didn’t buy this. Thought it was hated on a bit too much though.
I enjoyed the combat more than most RPGs and some of the hand crafted environments were nice. Found the ship building quite fun too.
Combat is fun, but not anything special. I feel like the quests aren’t fun enough to bother dealing with all of the non-fun parts of the game, e.g. travel.
Same boat.
I don’t exactly hate the game, but the planet-hopping has segmented it too much and exploring a thousand empty terrains each with 3-4 generic caves/camps grows old quick. I don’t know if the main story would have picked up speed any time soon (I retrieved 3 or 4 of the thingies they collect), but I haven’t launched the game for a few weeks now.
Same, dude.
Diablo IV. What a disappointment that turned out to be.
My wife and I were massive fans of D3, so buying D4 was a no-brainer. We liked the campaign, and we (begrudgingly) completed the first season. We didn’t finish the second season, and only played about 2 hours of the third season. Unless they do something drastic in future seasons I don’t see this becoming the hit for us that D3 was. They have time to make it better, but it will probably be shelved for a couple years for us.
80 f’ing bucks! The most I’ve ever paid for a videogame! To play this snorefest. must be half a year now and I’m still bummed…
Interesting.
My partner and I played a lot of Diablo 3 and for the winter break, I bit the bullet and bought D4, feeling a bit uneasy as many people online were disappointed.
The obligation to be always online, coupled with the slow servers did not help to ease the uneasy feeling, but after playing for a while, I must say that besides for that online crap, the game feels much more like a rpg than D3.
The world is much more open, and you don’t have to just follow the main quest as there are many side quests spread around.
I get that many people play for the online seasons and to perfect their setup, and I can’t speak for this experience, but if you approach the game as a casual loot action rpg with a big world to dicover, to me it is a much better game than D3.
This was my experience, up until my stats turned into a series of interconnected boardgames. I got a bit lost in the sauce at that point and quit. Up until then I was having an okay time, though.
The mechanics and bosses are an upgrade from 3, but the scaling ruins everything that made the game an RPG. You don’t get more powerful when you level up because everything around you gets stronger.
I mean did nobody with any power at that company realize that it’s not satisfying for your spells to do less damage, or that your armor getting less effective every time you leveled up was a bad thing?
/rant
Same. A friend and I were excited to play together like we did in D3, but we barely managed to finish the campaign. It’s on the shelf for now unless/until we hear the team turned things around.
I don’t have a lot of hope now they’re second-siblings in the Microsoft family.
I knew it’d be shit but I bought it anyways. Idk what is wrong with me. Why did I have to give them money
Diablo 4.
I played like 10 hours, then realized it was really fucking boring. It felt soulless. Uninteresting.
The infinitely scaling enemies was the dumbest fucking shit Ive encountered in a LONG ass time.
Im lv1 and a shipwrecked mugger can kill me
time warp 30 hours of gameplay
Im lv50, Im dripping in rare loot, I just kicked a greater demons balls through the roof of his mouth oh and a shipwrecked mugger can still kill me.
The infinitely scaling enemies was the dumbest fucking shit Ive encountered in a LONG ass time.
Infinitely scaling enemies is sort of the point of the genre. Wherever you go at max level you’ll still find enemies that can drop shit you might want (though of course eventually you don’t want much loot that drops from most enemies). Once you have good gear and a good build a single minor mob shouldn’t be able to take you out unless you’re AFK. Unless you’re in like, a high NM level dungeon.
You’re never supposed to out-level stuff, basically, except certain boss fights. It’s just a constant dopamine drip. Pointless, sure, but so is plenty of stuff. Makes a great podcast companion, IMO.
The way it’s done in D4 is definitely not they way of the genre.
The genre is about accumulating levels and gear to go out and find bigger challenges to get more level and gear, rinse and repeat. Not having 100% of the enemies you encounter match your exact level at all times wasn’t an issue, but it was nonetheless solved by having difficulty settings.
Having all of the enemies scale automatically makes your spells do less to enemies and it makes your armor less effective every time you level up.
Okay, fair enough. But most of my time spent playing D3 and D4 has been at max level anyway. I’m not usually worried about my armor becoming weaker relative to the enemies because I leveled up, but because I’m trying to tackle the next level of Nightmare or whatever.
That’s also fair enough lol. Personally I ended up dropping the game because I didn’t wanna put in that much work before it became satisfying.
I love the new enemy/boss mechanics, but it wasn’t enough to keep me hooked
Absolutely agree. Worst 70 euros I spent in quite some time.
I actually dozed off at my computer playing D4, something about the mindlessness of it just lulls me to sleep.
Animal Crossing is my favorite sleepy time game, but Diablo gets me nodding off like it’s downtown Kensington
Baldurs Gate 3
There’s nothing wrong with the game, I just don’t find it fun to play. Somehow got 48 hours out of it, but never made it to the end of act one. The gameplay just wasn’t something I terribly enjoyed.
I don’t necessarily regret the purchase as supporting smaller, decent studios is a good plan, but it’s still a game I’m not going to get a lot of use out of
Right there with you. I had like 25 hours in the game and realized I just spent most of that time save scumming a single battle over and over. I tried another 15 hours and it felt like that’s all I was doing. I felt I was under leveled, I rerolled a new character on the easiest difficulty but was still finding myself doing the same shit and battles weren’t getting easier.
I’m sure there’s a great game there, but I don’t have the time for it.
You summed up my experience perfectly, down to the OP build on the easiest difficulty. I just didn’t have that much fun with it
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I never played any of those, or tabletop RPGs and it took me a long time to adjust to it.
I had to get out of the mindset of controlling a character, and more in the mindset of you’re on the phone and telling them roughly what to do.
Things are sometimes supposed to fail, and the point is to rescue a shit situation by the skin of your teeth, several deaths and in desperate need of a long rest. You can get the results you want with some save scumming (and in fairness you can save mid-cutscene to make that work), it’s just going to be mechanically more annoying than doing what they intend.
It’s super annoying that whoever you enter a conversation with is doing all the actions. I’d have preferred a team effort in those things. Like maybe Lizzy stepping in for an intimidation check, or Gale for some intellect. You don’t know what you need beforehand so if you’re trying to get specific results, you’ll be seeing the cutscene a lot.
Elden Ring.
Waited all year until it was on sale as I thought it might not be my cup of tea, tried not to let my prejudice get the better of me but felt it was such a drag I had to put it down.
It was recommended to me as I like Zelda but it couldn’t be further from the things I like about it: innovation, fluid gameplay, freedom, puzzles, multiple ways to tackle enemies.
I don’t think it’s the difficulty as I play lots of roguelike and bullet hell games. My main gripe is the clunkiness of the combat to the point it’s unfair. Like you don’t really stand a chance through reactions alone, you have to learn the patterns and hitboxes of enemies so that you know in advance when to react.
Also I kept hearing how good the graphics are but I think they’re kinda average although the actual art style is quite nice.
Any suggestions on how I might enjoy it would be much appreciated as I haven’t got very far.
Whoever thought you might like Elden Ring because you like Zelda is not a true friend. There’s really not much similar with the gameplay loop.
You’re right that the gameplay is more about learning and recognizing patterns of enemies and adjusting to them so if that doesn’t appeal to you you’re probably not going to like it. With that being said though, your first soulslike is always the hardest and if you stick with it they are very rewarding to play once you know what to expect.
Cheers, probably just not for me then.
It sounds like you probably had the wrong expectations of what the game was going in. These games can be frustrating under the best of circumstances, but are very much “tough but fair.”
If you choose to give it another shot, look up a build. The weapon scaling system is a little obtuse and if you’re pumping levels ups into str and using a dex weapon you’ll do no damage. Whatever you do, put a lot of points into Vigor. Get it to 40 at least after you have the stats to equip your weapon to increase your health because defense is mostly cosmetic in these games. Other than that, you get i-frames on your roll and the game rewards aggressive play so learn to roll into attacks and not away if you’re not using a shield.
I expected it to be difficult with a possibility of not enjoying it but seemed pretty popular so thought I’d give it a go.
Will give your suggestions a shot but I find everything about it obtuse to be honest. To me good game design lowers you gently into mastering the controls and ramping up difficulty, not just chucking you in at the deep end with confusing menus so it’s on the player to look everything up.
Dropping you into the deep end and expecting you to find your own way is kind of a hallmark of the series. Almost every game starts with a basic overview of the controls and then a difficult boss you are expected to lose to. Even the controls overview is entirely skipable because they are in the form of messages on the ground. In a way this teaches you about how you interact with the world because the storytelling is almost entirely environmental. Going against this would upset a massive fanbase because this is a very well established series at this point.
At a certain point in the story, you can respec all your stats. If you mess up or want to change anything - this happens after the second major story boss. The only thing that you truly need to know about to be successful is weapon scaling. All weapons scale based on a specific stat, ranging from E-S with E being the weakest scaling and A/S being strong scaling. The number on the left when you’re in your equip menu is the base weapon damage based on its level (normal weapons can be level 1-25 and special weapons 1-10. You unlock the ability to upgrade weapons pretty early in the story) and the number on the right is the additional damage you’ll have added based on a combination of the weapon’s scaling and your own stats. You can be quite successful just by understanding these two mechanics because they will make up a good portion of your damage.
Since you mentioned Zelda originally, there is a reason this meme exists:
After I died for the 327th time within the first few hours of playing, I ditched it. Haven’t been back since. The gameplay is really cumbersome, blocking and dodging are hit or miss, and I’ve been jumping and rolling around all day like some unmedicated ADHD kid on speed trying to get one hit in that causes minimal damage, while every enemy counterattack goes near critical.
I’m not against a step learning curve or anything, but Elden Ring was a major frustration.
I mean this in a constructive way: you’re literally playing it wrong. Elden Ring is a Souls game, which (in terms of gameplay) is the complete opposite of a hack & slash button masher. There’s almost no animation cancelling, so once you press a button, you’re committed to the outcome and have to wait for it to finish. So if you miss a heavy swing with a giant 25 kg greataxe, you’ll be wide open for the enemies to smash you. The game requires self-control to make every input matter.
Once you acclimate though, I think the combat feels very good. It’s responsive (once you accept the fact that you can’t cancel actions), flexible, and the hitboxes are way more accurate than most games.
But don’t think you have to master it all at once. The enemies are tough, but you don’t have to fight fair. Sneak and backstab if you can, soften them up with arrows or ranged spells, debuff them with throwables, summon some spirit ash helpers, use the environment to land attacks from the high ground, stack up poison and bleed effects, use a shield to block-counter, use your weapon abilities to help break enemy poise, etc etc. You can create entire builds around any of these but of course there’s power in combinations.
clunkiness of the combat to the point it’s unfair. Like you don’t really stand a chance through reactions alone, you have to learn the patterns and hitboxes of enemies so that you know in advance when to react.
Nice to see it hasn’t changed since Dark Souls. Thought I might have been missing out.
I think it sounds to me like it just isn’t your thing. What you’re describing as a frustration is what I love about Elden Ring, you have to figure out every enemy and learn their patterns in order to succeed so every enemy is like it’s own little puzzle to solve. There’s no secret to avoid that part of the game besides maybe building INT and just avoiding fights which does not sound fun tbh
This. I think people who enjoy it see every enemy as a puzzle. Even developing your character is a bit of a puzzle, figuring out what stats suit the weapons you like and the play style you’re aiming for. Conversely, Zelda is incredibly simple and boring to me. Most of the fights are boop boss on the head 3 times, or throw their own bombs back at them 3 times. The only Zelda I enjoyed was the first one.
I don’t think the bosses are meant to be the puzzles in Zelda, the non-fighting parts of the dungeons are. I’m not really a fan of Zelda games though so I’m not fighting their corner here.
I don’t find Elden Ring puzzling, but maybe I haven’t played enough. From what I’ve seen so far it’s more trial and error and than figuring stuff out, which I find boring.
Skill trees in general I think are bit of a cop out in most action games, let alone having to decipher them. I’ll reach for 4X games like Stellaris or Civ if I want to sit and think about how stats affect outcomes.
Yeah boss battles are usually pretty easy in Zelda, as you say, 3 hits and done most of the time. They’re traditionally about getting the player to master the technique or item you’ve just unlocked. Have you tried running straight to Ganon if BotW or tackling The Depths in TotK though? I don’t think either of those tasks could be considered simple.
Surprised you only like the first one, the games are constantly innovating in terms of gameplay and design, but the first is a pretty standard affair. A lot of the time the simplicity is what enables the fun, fluid gameplay as with most games Nintendo put out.
If I want a challenge I’ll play online shooters or pretty much any roguelike where when I die I don’t come away feeling it was unfair. Tbh I think I just don’t enjoy modern action RPGs in general rather than it being a specific Elden Ring criticism. I find they try to cater to lots of mechanics that other games implement better but fully aware that’s an unpopular opinion.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I have not tried those things in BotW and TotK. I got to the water temple in Ocarina of Time and got bored, which I heard was common - sincerely tried to beat it because my childhood friends love the game and were excited for me to get through it. Played 10 mins of Majora’s mask and BotW. Watched a bunch of videos of BotW and the new game of people doing cool stuff with bombs and gliders. Just not for me I guess, but I totally see the appeal of them.
I can definitely see your point about modern action RPGs catering to lots of mechanics that other games do better and the genre is saturated now with different souls-likes that lack any kind of innovation but I guess they are safe to make due to their popularity.
Souls games are honestly just pretty rhythm games. The queues are obscured and the timing can be quite silly, but it’s the same core gameplay.
Main point in enjoying soulslikes is the approach. Modern action RPGs are very fast paced, very direct in their approach “hit A - enemy dies - get dopamine”.
To make it work, slow down. Treat every enemy as a real threat, not filler between bosses. Pretending they are all real players and not bots might help. Keep your distance, bait out several attacks, see how they behave, carefully close in and make your move. Don’t get greedy on the offence and only attack when the enemy opens and then break the distance again.
Also as others mentioned, game makes you commit to any actions you take. When you attack the enemy, take responsibility of every button press. If you start mashing, the game punishes you fast and hard.
I don’t have the best reaction speeds, but I was able to steamroll most of the bosses under 10 tries, so the game is definitely not the “die until you memorize the moveset” type. If you play patiently and carefully build up your character it is definitely possible to tackle most threats on first sight.
Edit: Also, if you’re on PC I don’t mind giving you a hand sometime and playing together a little
Yeah think you’re right, I like fast-paced games where I can enter flow state quicker and I never was one for grinding up a skill tree in order to progress unless the grinding itself is fun/fluid.
I prefer actively attacking enemies with a bit of running away and dodging where required as opposed to patiently dodging waiting for an opening to attack.
Thanks for the offer, I would have taken you up on that, unfortunately I have it on Xbox, not PC.
I’m a diehard FromSotware fan but even I was a little let down by it. I got a lot more enjoyment from co-op and PvP so I ended up finishing the actual game after 300+ hours lmao
I’ve beat all the other Souls games so dying hundreds of times didn’t bother me… But for some reason I didn’t feel compelled at all to actually progress in the game
Like you don’t really stand a chance through reactions alone, you have to learn the patterns and hitboxes of enemies so that you know in advance when to react.
Yep, Elden Ring (and all soulslike games) are basically just guitar hero with a shitty interface. And way more grinding.
It’s not actually challenging just memorization. Elden Ring is basically like speedrunners being able to play Mario with their eyes closed.
Weirdly I like Guitar Hero, but think that’s mainly down to enjoying the songs and playing with friends. Scraping through Cliffs of Dover on expert was enough Eden Ring for me lol.
Starfield was definitely one of my worst purchases in a long, long time. Full price for nothing.
I have the hope that it will be improved and expanded upon going forward, as well as the possibility of mods.
I get that most planets don’t have to be interesting, but if the planet isn’t going to be interesting, fucking just tell me that instead of putting a hundred “points of interest” on it. The fact that every planet has a bunch of random pirate bases on it and a dozen random caves with nothing in them is just …ugh. If it only put markers on things that were actually interesting, that would be a huge step in the right direction.
Palworld
I was expecting factorio but with union busting knock-off Pokemon . I got a really generic open-world survival craft with normal knock-off Pokemon.
Yeah it is over-hyped. I enjoy it, but you do have to keep in mind that it is early access. Hopefully it will continue to get better.
Yeah I’ve been telling people I think it’s fun, but if they haven’t jumped on by now due to hype, they might want to wait until the game is less buggy and more complete. I imagine it’s gonna stay in early access for a long time.
Given how they’ve left their last two games… probably not.
Modding hopefully will be a feature in the future. I’d love to have factorio with Pokémon slaves
I tried it out bc it was so popular but it felt sooooooo boring to play.
I think it’s a fun game. But it certainly is overhyped as fuck.
I luckily refunded it lol
Temtem.
Had the potential to be the RPG Pokemon could be if it just entered this generation’s technical level. Instead, it became a shitty grindy money-grab that has been killed by the devs.
I thought about getting it for switch so I could finally check it out only to realize it was online only.
Well, yeah. It’s an MMO lol
Yeah I forgot that. Kept thinking it was just online coop not full mmo
Awww. Well that’s a dissapointment. About a year ago I bought it, twice actually so me and my GF could Co OP it. And got to the end of the then level cap and got bored grinding for shinies.
Was vaguely thinking about picking it back up… :/
I bought Lethal Company because it looked like fun. Then realized I don’t have enough friends to play it with.
Bought it as well, but have friends… it’s super shallow. We played it maybe 4 hours, basically past the point I can’t refund it.
Eh, it’s fun enough for the price, we got a few fun evenings out of it
Same. I’ll play with you 😄
Humble bundle had a bundle of all the Mega Man games for 20 bucks.
I instantly regretted it once I loaded it up and I thought to myself, I could’ve just got roms for these and a better emulator than the one it came with… The emulator doesn’t even let you fuckin adjust the audio levels.
Something is just fucking wrong with the Mega Man collections. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but they just don’t feel right.
Starfield. I want to like it - and there are some things I really do like about it - but it’s just not a very good game. The menus and inventory management is atrocious, which is unforgivable when you have to spend so much time on those screens. The enemies are bullet sponges. It’s not fun dumping a magazine into a guy, reloading and doing it again while the guy just walks right into it like you’re spraying him with a garden hose. I’m ok with there not being a map on remote planets, but it makes no sense that there wouldn’t be one in a city. It’s the kind of stuff you’d overlook if it was an indie early access game, but it doesn’t fly when it’s a $70 game from a major studio. I can’t imagine what they were doing all those years the game was in development because it’s not reflected in the product.
Maybe everyone responsible for the Elder Scrolls and Fall Out games have all retired or been fired and now their devs are people whose main strengths were being great at leet code.
Diablo 4, hands down. My best friend and I have been playing co-op games together for many years, and we were convinced that D4 would be the next 200+ hour co-op event of the year. So I bought myself the 100 dollar collectors edition and he, the same one since his birthday was near launch.
Yep, after 2 weeks we both admitted it just wasn’t a good game, and neither of us wanted to play anymore. What a massive disappointment.
Could not possibly agree more. Bought for $90CAD, put in like 20 hours. Didn’t enjoy it but kept pressing on hoping it would improve. My morale broke after I finished the sandy place in the west, and then stopped playing.
That’s the nail in the coffin for Blizzard games for me.
Idk if you’ve played since launch, but they’ve added some semblance of an end game and some QoL since then as well.
It’s still not a full game imo, but I have a week or so of fun per season. Its definitely been a disappointment overall though.
One thing I absolutely hated was the Open World, it was non-stop jammed packed full of monsters, just spawning non-stop. And they are always around your level, so you never feel like you’re progressing in power. It was just such a shitty way to handle the world, you can never clear out an area, never go back to an earlier area and flex your new power. Also, monsters spawning constantly was jarring, but the first time I saw a grizzly bear climb straight out of the ground, not a den, just the ground… lazy bullshit.
There are so many things that were just trash about that game, the stats on gear, it was impossible to figure out which pieces would be actual upgrades. The skill trees looked fun but feel so empty and hollow, ugh, I’m irritated all over again about that purchase.
So unless you’ve corrected all of that stuff plus a ton more, I probably won’t ever play it again.
Itemization is scheduled for change next season, around April I believe, the current incarnation does leave something to be desired.
I agree about the open world scaling as well, it takes away a lot of the power fantasy until late game when you just bulldoze shit 50 levels above you anyways.
I like to zoom zoom so I can’t say I ever felt that the open world was packed; compared to dungeons (after the fix) and the new vaults, the open world seems so sparce tbh. And since I’m zooming I never really noticed mobs spawning either.
The game absolutely needs tons of tweaking and content be a full fledged arpg, maybe around season 20 or so it’ll be there lmao.
Try last epoch. Got it last week, it’s really scratching that Diablo itch without being as complex as path of exile. It’s not as visually polished as Diablo and the story is average at best, but the builds are more interesting, a loooooot more qol stuff and it plays just as well. I have very high hopes for the future of this game.
Full launch is next week too.
Stray.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cute game, and I love the combination of cute and cyberpunk. But the game is really on rails, and the puzzles are just not super engaging. And it’s really short, which makes sense, because it’s on rails. I just wanted it to be more.
I was glad when it was done that’s for sure. Like being on a tedious kiddie ride
Command Modern Operations.
I love EVE for being spreadsheets in space. I love Masters of Orion. I loved Harpoon. I thought I knew a lot about military hardware (certainly more than my friends, and enough to be annoying at parties). I have a PhD, so I’d like to think I’m pretty smart…
But this game broke me. The 450page manual destroyed me. I have 120 hours in this game, 3 whole working weeks and at least as twice as much reading guides and watching letsplays, and I understand absolutely fuck all about it. I feel like retard every time I start it and didn’t take into account some insanely niche details about missile turning rates or how I should just know the radar crosssection of an F15 increases threefold when it climbs and turns right.
This game has won. I give up.
Punch me, but: “Doom Eternal.”
I thought it was a guaranteed hit, but it turned out to be a really bad arena shooter where you make colorful resources shoot out of enemies and are forced to run into the middle of enemy groups, exposing yourself to attacks from all sides that don’t count because you’re repeating 5 kill QTEs ad nauseam - the only tactic the game allows.
Doom was great. Doom Eternal took the most obvious elements of the first and turned them up to 11 and threw out all the pacing, atmosphere, and subtle touches that made the first one work.
Doom Eternal sucks ass, I’m so glad I tried it on game pass instead of buying the damn thing.
