Shagger

I liked the Final Fantasy XIV community when I was playing a few years ago. Generally they were helpful and understanding bunch.

Because this is you own personal thoughts on a game/DLC and not actual news, I've moved the topic to the "Video Games" sub-forum. Long term members know how I feel about these types of games and given that I wouldn't blame anyone for not taking anything I have to say seriously. So I might be wrong, but aren't the boss fights the whole point of these games? The "trial and error" approach to difficulty is the reason I personally can't stand these games (To me that's a disingenuous form of challenge. The constant repetition associated with that also make these games tedious for me.), but if you're right about From Software's over reliance on boss fights and thus detract focus from story, regular combat, exploration and other elements then just sounds like a Soulslike to me. That's literally what's wrong with these types of games as far as I'm concerned. Why put effort into those things when you know people are going obsess over one thing, the difficulty? I'll given Elden Ring credit as it does seem to do exploration as well as it's creative design, environments and style very well, but that doesn't change the fact bosses are to a Soulslike what platforms are to a Mario game, it's what they're about. The difference is that people don't complain about the combat in a Mario game because they know that's not the point of it.

GTA is a racing game?

I'm going to have to disagree a little here. I know that the FPS genre has generally been a big let down as far as storytelling experiences go, but the genre itself can do this and has done this well. Spec Ops: The Line (Technically a third person shooter, I know, but still), The Metro Series, Titanfall 2, Halo, the Farcry Series and even COD has done this well in the past. It seems unfair to lump all FPS together like that. And with all due respect, why use Mario as the example of "good" storytelling? The storytelling experience in Mario games tend to revolve around some rather archaic and juvenile tropes, it's not known for doing stories particularly well. Great games, but this isn't what they're known for. Harry Potter is also kind of a strange example. There are really only three types of Harry Potter game; Movie licensed trash that merely translate the story from the books/movies. So they are not only not original in terms of story, said translation has historically been done quite poorly, so it's debatable whether or not they actually count. The LEGO Harry Potter games. MUCH better games, but still share the same issue with thier stories not being original and based of of the movies/books. The third is Hogwarts Legacy. Easily the best Harry Potter game despite not even having Harry Potter in it. More importantly, an original game with an original (and IMO, very well put together) story. So yeah, the only one the defiantly counts, but it's still just one game. It's your opinion and I'm not saying you're wrong, I just find it a little odd to lump and entire genre of games together as if there is no game in that genre that can tell a good story when that is so obviously not the case, and then come up with a couple of pretty weak examples to counter. Is there something I'm missing here you care to elaborate on? Onto the topic, and I don't care how much praise Elden Ring and the Dark Souls series get, I will never play them. The last "Soulsbourne" game I attempted to play was Nioh (before the game glitched out and showed the controller button prompts and the wouldn't even pause in the settings menu as I attempted to fix it) after having a horrible time with both Bloodbourne and Demon Souls before. Add to that an even worse experience with the rancid fanbase surrounding these types of games and I decided enough was enough and that I was done with these games. I can oly speak from my limited experiences, but for me the difficulty was disingenuous, it's about trial and error more than it is skill and strategy, I hated the lack of basic quality of life features such as a pause (Seriously, how does the lack of a pause button make a game more challenging? It just doesn't.) and the aversion to difficulty options sets a bad precedent for gaming in general. Multiple difficultly options don't take challenge away, just the opposite in fact. Not to mention when game developers do add difficulty modes that offer players the chance to just explore thier game worlds and enjoy thier stories, they end up actually making games with interesting worlds to explore and deep stories to tell. They actually end up putting effort into that stuff! Funny that, isn't it? In short, well all benefit from that and games can still be as hard as you want.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be harsh, I just trying to understand what was so compelling about this. And I must admit how uninteresting it is does kind of make it interesting. Not that this is worth playing.

That was one of the worst trailers I've ever seen for a game. That was so bad I'm not even sure whare to start. I suppose I'll start with a question. When you've made a trailer that you plan to use internationally, what do you do about lip-syncing a character's voice over in those multiple languages? Well, these half wits decided the answer was "let's not" and not have the characters move thier lips at all. Then, there is the obvious problem of the trailer not having one mere second of actual gameplay in it. That's not a good sign for any game when the game is already out, but for a mobile game that should send everyone running to the hills. But I think my biggest issue is that was clearly this is clearly the work of a committee that know nothing about gamers, they just read about them in a copy of National Geographic or something, and thus look at us like wild animals to be exploited. They studied these creators and found dozens of things that they like, such fantasy, cyberpunk, mechs, pirates, dancing animals, magic, swords, guns, big armour on big dudes, small armour on little babes and so on. But remember, gamers aren't people, they're stupid animals who's attention won't be held by a single, cohesive theme, so let's have all of them! Just cliché on top of cliché with no cohesive theme at all. Same story with music, it's all over the place with folk, industrial, R&B, pop, what is the tone and ambiance they are going for? Even the name of the game is just two random buzzwords with an "of" in between. The funny thing is that the one cliché they omitted from that ridiculous trailer was a King, so why is it even called "Hero's of Kings"? It's insulting, clichéd and utterly uninspired. The most woefully, yet clearly deliberately, unoriginal crap I've ever seen. This is just another mobile trash game that does what every other mobile trash game does. It's not worth the time. I'm actually embarrassed that I've taken the time I have to tear it a new one. I think the reason why I did is to build up to asking @Cpvr why you're wasting our time with this? Not only is this obviously garbage, it's garbage that doesn't even stand out amongst the ocean of garbage that is the Apple/Play stores. It's the same crap as hundreds, if not thousands, of other mobile games, so why post about it? Why this one? I've seen the gameplay footage, this just a rip off Mobile Legends that was a just a crappy, mobile rip off League of Legends, what was it that drew your attention to this?

You can mock Trump, Republicans and religious zealots all you want, just don't celebrate a child being abused in the process if you don't mind. I don't think that's much to ask for. If your original post had read something like this; Then I would haven taken no issue with it. Seeing somebody as ecstatic as you were over a child being molested because it provided you with political ammo really bothered me. It didn't feel right. But, I'm happy to drop it now. I am glad you shared your story and I wish nothing but the best for you and your family going forward.

@Reality vs Adventure I am truly sorry for what your sisters, your family and yourself have gone through, I really am, but that does not excuse what you said. What your saying here is that what this child went through is a good thing because it helps you prove your point. Just think about that. A child being molested is nothing to celebrate no matter what the circumstances. You and your family have been through more than your fair share of tragedies and I sympathise greatly. However, there will never be enough tragedies that any person(s) or family can go though that would justify celebrating a child being sexually molested. Again, I am so sorry for what your family has gone through and I hope that you have gotten or will get justice for that, but it has nothing to do with that child being molested. Not does it have anything directly to do with politics either based on how you described it. What I'm addressing is what you did with that post, and that was just about as selfish, insensitive and callous as it gets. You don't celebrate people being hurt because it suits your point of view. I know that it's also not the first time somebody has done this. I've seen politicians and political groups (representing both sides) do similar things and it's no better when they do it either. What you and them all have in common is that you don't understand that there's a difference between a martyr and victim. How would you feel about your sister's death being celebrated by somebody because they saw it as an opportunity to tear into the Mormon community, Christians or whatever? I'm sure, or for your sake desperately hope, that you would not approve. And please, please tell me that you would not approve because the alternative is so much worse. Trust me when I tell you neither of us wants me hold up that mirror, but I will if I have to. Not on the forum though, it will be through a DM. Again, I'm begging you, please don't force me to play this hand.

Be sure she knows about thoughts are with her. Glad to know this situation is at least improving.

To be clear, I'm not posting this a a moderator, only a member. Nothing of what I'm about to say is meant to represent VGR in any capacity. With that done, onto the point, that I am very disappointed with you @Reality vs Adventure and even a little angry. I really don't like how exited you are about this @Reality vs Adventure. What is your concern with regard to this story, the suffering of an abused child or "getting one over" the political bias you oppose? To anyone with common decency, this is NOT good news. It is never is when a child has been molested. Honestly, you should be ashamed of yourself for this. Not that I'm condoning what this man did, not even slightly, I'm just calling out what I see as a pretty appalling attitude on your behalf. You couldn't care less about that child or what they went through. All you care about is that this makes the republican party look bad, so you're exstatic at the thought a child have been sexually molested. Honestly, it's kind of sick. Would you be this happy if it were somebody this closely associated with a Democrat leader (After all, it has happened before.)? I doubt you would be. In fact, I'd bet you wouldn't have made a post about it at all. A child being molested by a republican is a cause for celerbration, whilest a child being molested by a democrat is an "incovience" to ignore and just hope it goes away. Either way, you couldn't care less about the victim, and what's so wrong with what you just did. A republican supporter equal in passion to yourself would, of course, do exactly the same thing. This is why I'm not fond of political extremists from either side. They're so busy flinging shit at each at other their blind to the fact that, deep down, they're exactly same. Full of shit. Whare as the sensable, grounded people sitting near the middle get drowned out and ingored. But that's another rant for another day because, unlike @Reality vs Adventure, I would never turn the suffering of a child into some sort of political flex. MY thoughts go out the this child and thier family. I hope you make it through this difficult time.

I am familiar with this, and I don't think there was any point from it's embarrassing announcement at The Game Awards 2022 by a barely coherent Michael Madsen; To it's subsequent trailers then finally to the release of the game itself where it was well received by anyone. Even IGN slammed it when it first came out; And I have a very hard time believing it's gotten better to the point whare it might be worth playing in the last 15 months. Honestly, this is one to avoid.

I highly doubt that's true. It's true of many PC ports of multiplatform games allow the player to "hotkey" functions, something that isn't really possible with a controller However, hotkeys are, like you said, shortcuts to functions, not the primary means of accessing that function, so I find it unlikely that actual control functions are just straight up missing on console ports of The Sims 4. The shortcuts may be missing, but functions will be thier. That's one of the reasons why I personally prefer to play those types on games om PC, but no developer would make the game impossible to play on console. There would have been a massive backlash against The Sims 4 and EA in regards to that if they did. I can't say for sure as I don't really play The Sims 4, but it doesn't make sense for anybody, not even the out-of-ouch twats at EA, to do that.

I wonder how long this thread will go on until somebody says "phone"...

There's a difference between games that sharpen maths skills and games that simply use them. I work in engineering as my trade, so math is a way of life for me. So, with all due respect @Knight Barida and @Shortie, no video game is going to test a player's math skills that hard unless it's a true mathematical puzzle game.

A trailer's purpose is marketing, simple as that. The level of insight it offers may be helpful in determining if it's the kind of game one might be interested in, but they are not to be trusted.

It started with an Atari for me. I the think it was the 2600 Junior, but it could have been the 7800 as the two look similar.

I like the title of this thread as it implies there is a difference between a video game and a mobile game. I concur. There is nothing wrong with mobile devices as a gaming platform, the issue is that the games on that platform are crap. The market is oversaturated with FTP garbage with some of the worst business practices associated with the industry.

I'm starting to believe that games not pausing music on pause screens is a common peeve. With good reason as well because it is really annoying. Another one that come to mind for me is games without difficulty options. I know "soulsborne" fans are a bit sensitive to this critisisum, but alternate difficulty options only makes games better. It allows greater challenges whilst also forcing developers to work on other elements, such as storytelling, with equal focus.

Why would anyone skip the cut scenes on a story based game? At least on the first play through.

It's difficult to respond to this thread without determining the difference between a "AAA" game and an "Indie" game actually is to you @Knight Barida. It's also very important to do so because, from a technical standpoint, the difference is very clear and very simple. People who have been on VGR for while will likely have seen this from me at least once, so I'll keep it brief. An Indie game is a game that has been independently published. In other words, it's a game that has been published by the same company (even if that company is one solo developer) that developed the game. That's whare the term "Indie" comes from, that's what it means. So technically a list of "Indie" games can include the likes of Skyrim, The Assassin's Creed series, The Witcher series, Devil May Cry, Cyberpunk 2077, every GTA before 4, Unreal Tournament and Fortnite. On the flip side, there are games like Ori and the Blind Forest and Child of Light that have that small scale "artsy" feel but are actually backed by big time publishers. The scale, popularity and cost of a project has nothing to with the definition between "Indie" and "AAA". That is what makes this thread difficult to answer for me. The term "Indie" has become a buzz word for marketers. When most people think of an "Indie" game, they think of a passion project with barely a handful of developers working a shed when that is so rarely the case. And don't even get me started on business practices. AAA publisher's may be bad, and I mean really bad in this regard, but with the amount of scams, false betas, DMCA abuses, assets flips and other rancid behaviour that so-often happens within the "Indie" space, if anything it's even worse. That's why I simply don't care if a game is "Indie" or "AAA" and judge it on its own merit. Is it worth the money they are charging for it? Yes or no. I'm not souless, if I know that I'm buying a game in support of a genuinely passionate independent developer that is a nice feeling, but I don't let that distort my principles.

The biggest problems I find with online game are usually the people who play them. Cheaters are a part of that, but these communities are often very toxic as well.

Is this really so different to the audience prompts and cues that happen in television literally all the time? At least the audience got something out of it other than an NDA. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just pointing out that it's not completely fair to single out the gaming industry and mainstream game's journalism for this.

Do you have any articles on this or examples of it hapoenibg? It's just that I've not seen anything about this before.

Not even one second into the video and I'm already seeing an issue. The UI scaling is terrible. To clarify, this is an issue that can happen when you run games at high resolutions. The user interface (UI) effectively shrinks to a point whare you can barely see it because the textures that make up the UI, the icons, the text and so on, aren't made up of enough pixels to cover that specified area of the screen. This typically happens on older games when one tries to run them at resolutions they were never really made for, but for a new game in 2024, even an indie title, this is unacceptable. I found this screenshot of the same game online that is at 1080p. I want to draw your attention to the icons to the upper-left of the screen in both @Kane99's video and in this image. Can you see how much clearer the icons are in the image below? Developers get round this problem by including alternate textures for the UI for different graphics settings. These textures typical get applied automatically, and since I find hard to believe the uploader of this video actually wanted the icons on his UI to be this small, I have to assume the developer just didn't bother to include larger icons for 4K set ups. If I was using a 4K system, this would render game pretty much unplayable for me. Yes, my PC isn't 4K capable, but that's not the point. I would still not want to buy this out of principle until this was fixed.

I'm not surprised to see the series fall back on the original protagonist. Life is Strange 2 and True Colours were OK, but Before the Storm was crap. The point is that the games haven't really hit the same peak that they did with the original, so of course they will use the original as a crutch. That is not a good a good sign, and not just because it's the hallmark of a developer that doesn't have great confidence in themselves to create something new. It's also concerning because it's Deck Nine at the helm this time, the same developer that made a complete mess of BTS. To be clear, it's not that they made a complete mess of BTS that concerns me, it's why they made a complete mess of it that worries me. I go into more detail about it on this thread if anyone wants to check it out, but to cut a long story short Deck Nine robbed the player of choice in Before the Storm because of thier own selfish desire to canonise thier own interpretation of something refenced in the original game. Whether one agrees with that interpretation or not, that is unacceptable in a game of this type. BTS was less like a proper prequel and more like a fan-fiction. A very well produced fan fiction, but a fan-fiction none the less. And now, given the how open ended the original finished, they are going to have to canonise one path or the other again and I have no faith in this developer's ability to do that. I feel that they are more likely to mess this up than get it right. Maybe they won't bother and just give the game an entirely new setting and not address the originals ending at all, but then we are back to the rather cowardly mentality that likely led them to bring back that aforementioned crutch of the original protagonist in the first place. Sorry, but as much as I loved the original, I just can't see this going well. Plus, Deck Nine were actually prejudiced, abusive bastards as a company.