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Eumerin wrote:
Ubisoft potentially has another disaster of a major release this year, as AC: Shadows is due out in November.

Just about everything that I've seen regarding Space Marine 2 has been very positive - except for maybe the publication reviewers (I think I saw one list it as a '75', though I didn't read the review). The player complaints have focused around things such as insufficient customization options for Chaos space marines in the multi-player (no spikes, for example).

Oh yeah, AC: Shadows is a whole nother can of worms that can lead you down a rabbit hole of shocking ridiculousness on the side of Ubisoft, which ranges from stealing and not crediting art from various sources, to outright fabricating history regarding Yasuke and trying to dismiss the backlash from Japan on how they've misrepresented so much of their culture. One of the highlights is seeing Yasuke go into combat and it unironically starts playing hip hop music as the BGM, like you can't make this stuff up.
It's a whole rollercoaster of how Ubisoft is memeing its game out of existence before it even gets released. It's clear they have no idea where to go since Ghost of Tsushima did it so much better before they did, so they have to try and pull the diversity angle to try and compete.
Really hope that's the one that bombs and takes Ubisoft out of commission once and for all.

Thing is, if they'd just made it a more or less standard AC game set in Japan, they probably would have done fine. Sure, they'd get Tsushima comparisons. But it's AC. It's a popular series. People would buy it just for the name.

Of course, that would still leave things like the copyright violations...

Ubisoft has managed to put its foot in its mouth in a very arrogant fashion so many times where this game is concerned. I don't know if they could have screwed up more if they'd tried.


On an unrelated note, I grabbed Astro Bot. It's pretty neat, and I'm having fun with it. Lots of references to Playstation (your mothership is literally a gigantic PS5), and various video game franchises - not all of which have appeared on the Playstation.

Eumerin wrote:
Thing is, if they'd just made it a more or less standard AC game set in Japan, they probably would have done fine. Sure, they'd get Tsushima comparisons. But it's AC. It's a popular series. People would buy it just for the name.

Of course, that would still leave things like the copyright violations...

Ubisoft has managed to put its foot in its mouth in a very arrogant fashion so many times where this game is concerned. I don't know if they could have screwed up more if they'd tried.


On an unrelated note, I grabbed Astro Bot. It's pretty neat, and I'm having fun with it. Lots of references to Playstation (your mothership is literally a gigantic PS5), and various video game franchises - not all of which have appeared on the Playstation.

Legit, the dumb part is they already have a female kunoichi as the other protagonist as far as I'm aware, you would think that would have been sufficient from a diversity angle. It's weird that after making a bunch of original main characters for all the other locations in the world, only after they arrive in Japan, THEN they want to make the main character to be someone that is a historical figure and I'm almost certain it's because they have a specific skin color. It's as if being Asian isn't diverse enough for them. People have been asking for an AC in Japan for the longest time, they've resisted really hard until after GoT dropped and they were shocked at how well it did for some reason and wanted to chase after the bandwagon but in the worst possible way.

Also, cool you got Astro Bot! That's next on my list after I get through Space Marine 2. I really enjoyed Astro's playroom when I first tried it out when I got my PS5, it was nostalgic seeing how they brought up older games like Killzone and Spyro, they did a really good job of actually utilizing the haptic feedback of the controller. I'm assuming they've continued that trend for Astro Bot?

 Grimskul wrote:
It's as if being Asian isn't diverse enough for them.

Apparently some have started to refer to Asians as "white adjacent". Is that relevant to the decision to use Yasuke as a protagonist? No idea, but it might be.

And that's all that I'm going to say on this particular topic.

Also, cool you got Astro Bot! That's next on my list after I get through Space Marine 2. I really enjoyed Astro's playroom when I first tried it out when I got my PS5, it was nostalgic seeing how they brought up older games like Killzone and Spyro, they did a really good job of actually utilizing the haptic feedback of the controller. I'm assuming they've continued that trend for Astro Bot?

Yes, the game makes use of both the feedback and spatial functions of the controller. How you hold your controller is sometimes more important than which buttons you're pressing.

Recently bought a switch lite, generally to play the theatrythm game on which only came out for ps and switch (and I no longer own a tv nor want one, and sold my ps4 a long time ago), also played some pokemon arceus on it now and then but recently got this game called fire emblem warriors three hopes (also had three houses but returned it because the whole hub-section was a chore I do not enjoy investing in, heavily focussed on relationships and such sequences and fetch quests etc).

Anyway, so the warriors games I'm familiar with, and this has a nice take on it giving you a LOT of influence on the strategising aspect, being able to direct your units to attack, defend and even cover objectives such as opening chests or administering controls to open areas etc. Every unit is playable, their classes are all quite unique and work in a sort of rock paper scissors system against eachother.

I can really recommend it, it takes a day or two to get into it but the fun is increasing.

 Grimskul wrote:

Eumerin wrote:
Ubisoft potentially has another disaster of a major release this year, as AC: Shadows is due out in November.

Just about everything that I've seen regarding Space Marine 2 has been very positive - except for maybe the publication reviewers (I think I saw one list it as a '75', though I didn't read the review). The player complaints have focused around things such as insufficient customization options for Chaos space marines in the multi-player (no spikes, for example).

Oh yeah, AC: Shadows is a whole nother can of worms that can lead you down a rabbit hole of shocking ridiculousness on the side of Ubisoft, which ranges from stealing and not crediting art from various sources, to outright fabricating history regarding Yasuke and trying to dismiss the backlash from Japan on how they've misrepresented so much of their culture. One of the highlights is seeing Yasuke go into combat and it unironically starts playing hip hop music as the BGM, like you can't make this stuff up.
It's a whole rollercoaster of how Ubisoft is memeing its game out of existence before it even gets released. It's clear they have no idea where to go since Ghost of Tsushima did it so much better before they did, so they have to try and pull the diversity angle to try and compete.
Really hope that's the one that bombs and takes Ubisoft out of commission once and for all.

Saw you in the rings of power thread too and had me wonder wether you watch itsagundam on yt? He has great takes on these subjects that I see somewhat echoed in your posts.
Quality.

As for my take on AC: Shadows.. they should've gone with the tengu route of the first main char they came up with, but perhaps they are afraid of revealing too much about its origins stirring up a new storm on the polarization-era internet.. not sure.
Yasuke is such an uninteresting character in actual history that it instantly shows where DEI its priorities lie, its all about the diversification of -everything- ignoring context and workability and it shows in "popular" media today, ofcourse the backlash of its consumers is declared either ignorance or bigotry, losing money over this apparently isn't a factor.. and one would wonder about the industry still relying on sales or subsidies.

I would raise this; can you imagine setting up a vg-company today developing a game set around the zulu'-british war and having the protagonist and player character from the perspective and side of the zulu' be a pale viking who's anscestors happened to be in the area out of displacement (A large fleet sailed in 859 south from Seine in France and on through Gibraltar strait.) because that is exactly what making yasuke the central character of AC shadows is like.

 Leopold Helveine wrote:
Recently bought a switch lite, generally to play the theatrythm game on which only came out for ps and switch (and I no longer own a tv nor want one, and sold my ps4 a long time ago), also played some pokemon arceus on it now and then but recently got this game called fire emblem warriors three hopes (also had three houses but returned it because the whole hub-section was a chore I do not enjoy investing in, heavily focussed on relationships and such sequences and fetch quests etc).

Anyway, so the warriors games I'm familiar with, and this has a nice take on it giving you a LOT of influence on the strategising aspect, being able to direct your units to attack, defend and even cover objectives such as opening chests or administering controls to open areas etc. Every unit is playable, their classes are all quite unique and work in a sort of rock paper scissors system against eachother.

I can really recommend it, it takes a day or two to get into it but the fun is increasing.

 Grimskul wrote:

Eumerin wrote:
Ubisoft potentially has another disaster of a major release this year, as AC: Shadows is due out in November.

Just about everything that I've seen regarding Space Marine 2 has been very positive - except for maybe the publication reviewers (I think I saw one list it as a '75', though I didn't read the review). The player complaints have focused around things such as insufficient customization options for Chaos space marines in the multi-player (no spikes, for example).

Oh yeah, AC: Shadows is a whole nother can of worms that can lead you down a rabbit hole of shocking ridiculousness on the side of Ubisoft, which ranges from stealing and not crediting art from various sources, to outright fabricating history regarding Yasuke and trying to dismiss the backlash from Japan on how they've misrepresented so much of their culture. One of the highlights is seeing Yasuke go into combat and it unironically starts playing hip hop music as the BGM, like you can't make this stuff up.
It's a whole rollercoaster of how Ubisoft is memeing its game out of existence before it even gets released. It's clear they have no idea where to go since Ghost of Tsushima did it so much better before they did, so they have to try and pull the diversity angle to try and compete.
Really hope that's the one that bombs and takes Ubisoft out of commission once and for all.

Saw you in the rings of power thread too and had me wonder wether you watch itsagundam on yt? He has great takes on these subjects that I see somewhat echoed in your posts.
Quality.

As for my take on AC: Shadows.. they should've gone with the tengu route of the first main char they came up with, but perhaps they are afraid of revealing too much about its origins stirring up a new storm on the polarization-era internet.. not sure.
Yasuke is such an uninteresting character in actual history that it instantly shows where DEI its priorities lie, its all about the diversification of -everything- ignoring context and workability and it shows in "popular" media today, ofcourse the backlash of its consumers is declared either ignorance or bigotry, losing money over this apparently isn't a factor.. and one would wonder about the industry still relying on sales or subsidies.

I would raise this; can you imagine setting up a vg-company today developing a game set around the zulu'-british war and having the protagonist and player character from the perspective and side of the zulu' be a pale viking who's anscestors happened to be in the area out of displacement (A large fleet sailed in 859 south from Seine in France and on through Gibraltar strait.) because that is exactly what making yasuke the central character of AC shadows is like.

Yeah, a fair bit of the AC: Shadows discourse I got from It's a Gundam's videos, he does a pretty good job summarizing all the things Ubisoft keeps doing to mess up before their release. Always cool to find another fan of his work.

But yeah, your analogy is on point and it's unfortunate that so many modern games even before release has to preface that the game "isn't for you" or attacks people's legitimate criticism because they can't have the game stand on its own two legs.

Second play through of Tears of the Kingdom.

Adored it the first time round, and it definitely stands up to more, especially once you’re used to the combat, and how best to soup up your weapons.

Been playing some Spyro reignited. The Gnasty Gnorc boss fight at the end is a major pain since it has no checkpoints.

And played some Total War Shogun 1. Just got it late last year and so far I've only been able to conquer about 1/4 of Japan. The little cutscenes for events are sure cute.

Oh btw couldn't help but mention that I am really looking forward to buying and playing Zelda echoes of wisdom, I'm a middle aged man and all and playing as a little chibi girl isn't exactly very manly but the gameplay looks the most -fun- and original with the tone set on -exploration and experimentation- and that is what I have been missing a lot in gaming for a very very long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kIXfBL6T3A

 LunarSol wrote:
Picked up Visions of Mana last night. Beautiful looking game but I'm not far enough to say if its any good or not. Combat is fun, but a little floaty. Enjoyed the tutorial boss though, so I'm hoping the combat picks up once I get past the rabites.

Heading into the endgame on this one and its great, but definitely falls into a lot of JRPG cliches. I'd say the worst part is definitely that early on its pacing is pretty sluggish, both in terms of story and gameplay. You get these massive setup stories for each character that often involve traversing through some absolutely gorgeous but kind of empty landscapes. They mostly cap off with some very impressive boss encounters, but it feels padded. Oddly, later on that sense of padding goes right out and the end game turns into a series of tightly designed levels with multiple fantastic boss encounters per dungeon and the game really finds its groove.

 Leopold Helveine wrote:
Oh btw couldn't help but mention that I am really looking forward to buying and playing Zelda echoes of wisdom, I'm a middle aged man and all and playing as a little chibi girl isn't exactly very manly but the gameplay looks the most -fun- and original with the tone set on -exploration and experimentation- and that is what I have been missing a lot in gaming for a very very long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kIXfBL6T3A

Oh I’m definitely game for that one come payday. 2d Top Down 2.5D Zelda was a decent chunk of my childhood, so very much wanting more.

Got back into Hunt: Showdown (now called Hunt: Showdown 1896).

Having decent success as a loner just killing creatures and ambushing other players while they are trying to do the same. Gunplay is a bit sluggish and dated, but it has a great atmosphere and has tons of tense moments.

Kind of wish it had a team pvp mode.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 Leopold Helveine wrote:
Oh btw couldn't help but mention that I am really looking forward to buying and playing Zelda echoes of wisdom, I'm a middle aged man and all and playing as a little chibi girl isn't exactly very manly but the gameplay looks the most -fun- and original with the tone set on -exploration and experimentation- and that is what I have been missing a lot in gaming for a very very long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kIXfBL6T3A

Oh I’m definitely game for that one come payday. 2d Top Down 2.5D Zelda was a decent chunk of my childhood, so very much wanting more.

I played the original zelda games on nes, but a link to the past was my fave on snes and tbh (lambast me if you want) I have never liked the 3d zeldas and skipped them -all-.
Did play the DS topdown zelda, forgot the name' but it was based on lottp, also wasn't links awakening based on the original zeldas? Haven't looked into it cause I've had a big gaming-hiatus for many years.

I just don't enjoy investing into vg anymore, and vg is getting too big and practically substitute for real life which I rather not trade for the virtual ever again.
But that new and upcoming (actual) zelda' game is just so refreshing, bringing something exciting to the table. That does it for me.

Oh, also just started playing another one of my fave series; Yokai watch 4 + +, I actually own -THE- rarest and most expensive game for the 3ds being Yokai watch 3 xD, ordered it pretty early in and apparently people consider it impossible to get a hold of today heheheheheh.

I'm an RPG fan who hasn't played any Dungeons and Dragons, I've played almost 13 hours into Baldur's Gate. And what annoys me the most is how frail all the characters are, even the melee fighters. That and the spell casting is limited and spell slots can only be recharged by resting. Am I just a dang idiot for not yet learning to appreciate this style of RPG game?

I only recently found out that you can get AV > HDMI adapters that can allow your old consoles to play on modern Tellies. So having very hurriedly went out to purchase such a marvelous device, I've spent a good portion of the last week (and the forseeable future) playing through all my old N64 games.
Currently on Ocarina of Time and oh good I've missed it. I'm really taking my time with this one and loving every second of it.

Mostly finished Visions of Mana last night, including one of the super bosses (the other seemed to require more grinding than I cared for). It's definitely a very good game and a highpoint of the series but held back by a lot of odd little things here and there, including the story which has some very weird messaging. Absolutely beautiful game with a ton of super fun boss encounters though, which is probably a good description of the series.

After that.... Space Marine 2. It's really just fantastic. Beat the story mode and played about a dozen rounds of the co-op which is definitely as much of the content as the main game. It really captures the world in a way nothing else has managed and the combat is super fun and thankfully very fun to replay through. Very likely to stick around on this one for a while.

Playing xenonauts 2 since i can't think of any other game i want to play. Doing well so far. I guess it's the closest thing we'll get to an xcom 3 game at this point. If i recall in this version rather than the aliens being actual aliens they all come from earth from another dimension. Yep that's right. They went the marvel multi-verse route.

They're probably working on an XCom 3 out there somewhere...

On the subject of xenonauts 2 i had one very bad mission last night. I think only 2 of 9 soldiers made it out at the end and it was a net loss even for rewards. At least 2-3 of the soldiers were resurrected after the fight through the medbay (35% chance for resurrection is not bad). So about 4-5 dead soldiers in one mission which is not ideal :(. I still call massive bs on the psyon alien spam.

Aside from that i have to fight a dockyard battle and either kill or bring back an enemy general as a captive. I may go straight for the kill as last time it didn't go so well in my other campaign. I guess we'll see.

Edit:

Ok yesterday's missions went really well. The UFO landing assault i expected to have heavy casualties since a lot of my guys were wounded but no soldiers died. I was surprised how well i handled that since it could've gone very wrong. The fight before the ufo was the dockyard battle vs tons of cleaners and 2 guys "died" out of 9 of em but i had my soldiers gather their bodies and gear before they left for the dropship (one of the soldiers resurrected after the mission). All this was after killing the cleaner leader in an area and taking a bunch of their data.

So yeah the game's going really well and now i have some decent armor for my soldiers. I'm going to need more aircraft soon however.

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
They're probably working on an XCom 3 out there somewhere...

On the one hand, assuming that Midnight Suns didn't result in that particular team getting cut from Firaxis, they should be planning on XCom 3. The original game, one of the new ending scenes from the add-on, and even Chimera Squad gave plot hooks that seemed to hint at XCom 3.

On the other hand, iirc Jake Solomon was one of the primary driving forces behind the XCom reboot. And he left Firaxis for a new studio... where he's apparently working on a game that will compete with The Sims.

Back into Helldivers, because somehow, they managed to make it fun and viable again.

 BrookM wrote:
Back into Helldivers, because somehow, they managed to make it fun and viable again.

Definitely feels like they felt their feet being put to the fire with the very visible drop in active players and the public backlash from the playerbase on the nerfs from the flamer warbond kerfuffle. Glad they're willing to backtrack to how some of the guns were based on feedback and the new warbond is muuuuch more interesting compared to some of the other warbonds. I think there's a cool "not DKoK" skin on the store in conjunction with the ones from the warbond. Probably helps that SM2 is somewhat directly competing against them at the moment.

Personally, I haven't redownloaded the game because my friends and I have felt we've already gotten our money/time's worth since the overall game hasn't changed that much. I think what it would take is Illuminates or another faction being added into the game or a substantial addition to the armory in terms of vehicles (still waiting on that APC!).

Eumerin wrote:

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
They're probably working on an XCom 3 out there somewhere...

On the one hand, assuming that Midnight Suns didn't result in that particular team getting cut from Firaxis, they should be planning on XCom 3. The original game, one of the new ending scenes from the add-on, and even Chimera Squad gave plot hooks that seemed to hint at XCom 3.

On the other hand, iirc Jake Solomon was one of the primary driving forces behind the XCom reboot. And he left Firaxis for a new studio... where he's apparently working on a game that will compete with The Sims.

Ya, that's too bad about Midnight Suns. It's a double whammy as I like that game but its lack of financial success may have affected XCom as well. Also, everyone over at Firaxis is probably working on Civ7 too. So maybe after that.

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:

Eumerin wrote:

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
They're probably working on an XCom 3 out there somewhere...

On the one hand, assuming that Midnight Suns didn't result in that particular team getting cut from Firaxis, they should be planning on XCom 3. The original game, one of the new ending scenes from the add-on, and even Chimera Squad gave plot hooks that seemed to hint at XCom 3.

On the other hand, iirc Jake Solomon was one of the primary driving forces behind the XCom reboot. And he left Firaxis for a new studio... where he's apparently working on a game that will compete with The Sims.

Ya, that's too bad about Midnight Suns. It's a double whammy as I like that game but its lack of financial success may have affected XCom as well. Also, everyone over at Firaxis is probably working on Civ7 too. So maybe after that.

I feel like Midnight Suns came at a bad time when super heroes were on the way out with their movies. It's actually a shame because comic book nerds i've known actually loved the game. I like super heroes somewhat but i've never been a huge fan of them.

I still dislike chimera squad but also i think i've had my fill of xcom 2 even when it's modded.

I heard somebody say Jake Solomon didn't want to make a Terror From the Deep style xcom game but somehow i doubt that's true. It's probably some form of "we had creative differences" sort of thing except with a less negative spin on things. It's like how Gears of War 3 was supposed to be the last game in the series and cliffy b wanted it to end but then suddenly was ok with it coming back. I dunno maybe i'm just a downer. It's a shame with Jake Solomon though. I feel like the crew that worked on xcom: eu and xcom 2 both had passion and chimera squad was their way of trying new things in a safe side venture to test for xcom 3. It's so weird to me because i actually felt like the Legacy Operations were a much better form of what they tried to do in chimera squad.

-------

Ok so last night i played xenonauts 2 some more. I had a cleaner supply raid which i only lost one soldier to but only because i rolled over the cleaners so hard that one berserked and shot like 3 to 4 shots at one of my dudes which may have already been injured. Sadly this soldier didn't survive post-battle.

I then went on to face the cleaner hq just before 90 days into the game and increased my per monthly supplies by a lot by winning. I lost 2 soldiers but one came back in the post-battle screen. Keep in mind the cleaner hq is supposed to be very hard. It was rather shocking i lost no soldiers with the room that had 3 turrets in it.

I am now getting ready for another battle on a Destroyer UFO. I think it's one size larger than the first ufo type you can fight a battle to secure.

-------

Sheesh i didn't realize how many times i started a sentence esp. paragraph with "I" for this message. Perhaps it's my autism or some weird behavior i have.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:

I feel like Midnight Suns came at a bad time when super heroes were on the way out with their movies. It's actually a shame because comic book nerds i've known actually loved the game.

Midnight Suns apparently has a couple of problems.

First, in between missions you need to run around talking to people and exploring the residence. It's technically optional, but the game progression expects you to do it. Some people enjoy it. Others are only playing the game to go fight a lot, and these activities take away from the battles that are supposed to be the focus of the game. Second, it sounds as if there were some very problematic bugs - particularly in the DLCs - that never got fixed, and that could potentially break your game. That sort of thing tends to annoy potential customers.

Played a bit more VTMB with the Barabba's Addon mod which changes the bloodlines you can play. I just completed the restored by the Unofficial Patch side quest where you track down a Lasombra for Beckett. The Library you infiltrate near the end of the quest is pretty damned awesome, especially the lobby.

In fact, I'm appreciating the game's art design and graphics the more I play it all of it has aged remarkably well in my eyes.

I seem to be doing ok in xenonauts 2. I need a lot more good aircraft now to fight off alien ufos. It's just sad how expensive they are. However i have been taking out an alien base, doing at least one abduction fight and several other landing ufo sites with abductors. I won all the missions so far but the next one i have is just like 7 guys rather than 9 because everybody left was injured. It can go very wrong since it's a night mission and a ufo landing of an abductor with fewer soldiers so bad news. I need more soldiers because they keep getting injured or dying. I need spares to train up.