Computer games.

Had a short sesh on Zelda last night - very good. It looks like the identical engine and story structure to BoTW so feels very much like a direct sequel, but with different mechanics which will create new gameplay. Early days though.

I had no expectations of what the game would be like so don't know if that is a good or a bad thing. BotW is essentially the perfect engine and look for this sort of game so I guess a radical new direction wasn't ever on the cards.
 
Bought a couple of games, didn't realise they were still early access, so I will probably wait until 1.0 release after a quick bash, like I do with all EA listings. I think at the moment I have these as EA titles -

Valheim
www.pcgamer.com

Valheim is getting a creative mode and some truly brutal hardcore difficulty options

Designer Jonathan Smårs gave fans an early look at several new difficulty modes coming to the Viking survival game.
www.pcgamer.com www.pcgamer.com

Core Keeper
www.pcgamer.com

Core Keeper blasts past half a million downloads on Steam

It's only been two weeks since the indie game launched in Early Access.
www.pcgamer.com www.pcgamer.com

Shadows of Doubt(looks really good this, looking forward too it, but it has only just entered EA)
www.pcgamer.com

Detective sim Shadows of Doubt heads into Steam Early Access

This urban sandbox places you in a city of endless crime-solving possibilities.
www.pcgamer.com www.pcgamer.com

And...

Necesse
 
DualityNSNO said:
Most of the critic reviews are paid, to be honest. You can take this as me making stuff up which I will totally understand, but I am well enough connected in the gaming industry to know about that, let's say.
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I don't think you even need to be connected to know that. It's been an open, dirty secret that enough advertising revenue will ensure that a score hits certain benchmarks for decades, now. On the plus side, that dynamic gave us Supergiant Games, so there's that.
 
Martin Alvito said:
I don't think you even need to be connected to know that. It's been an open, dirty secret that enough advertising revenue will ensure that a score hits certain benchmarks for decades, now. On the plus side, that dynamic gave us Supergiant Games, so there's that.
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It is but people still say "oh rated 9/10 by IGN" etc., whereas that means basically nothing lol
 

longers said:
Looks to be a bare bones tech demo but as a showcase for what’s possible in unreal engine 5 it’s pretty mad, the environments and lighting just look more real than anything I’ve seen before.

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Sure that's not just edited video of those crazy russian/east european paint ballers?
 
DualityNSNO said:
It is but people still say "oh rated 9/10 by IGN" etc., whereas that means basically nothing lol
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Martin Alvito said:
I don't think you even need to be connected to know that. It's been an open, dirty secret that enough advertising revenue will ensure that a score hits certain benchmarks for decades, now. On the plus side, that dynamic gave us Supergiant Games, so there's that.
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I get what both of you are saying. But I use it as a guide as I mentioned. If they all call a game trash I’m ok with the fact it’s probably trash. If it gets across the board outstanding scores I’m ok with the fact it’s probably a pretty great game. I will still read/watch independent reviews but with monetisation they aren’t even that independent anymore. And user reviews on stuff like Metacritic etc. are pointless for the reasons I mentioned in my initial post about it.

I also know what types of games I like. A recent example is something like Forspoken. I like that type of game usually as I like just missioning around a nice looking world as it can be a lot of fun. However that gameplay looked poor, I played the demo and it was rubbish and the reviews were awful. So I didn’t buy it. Had it got around 80 odd on Metacritic I still wouldn’t have come close to buying it.
 
Wizard said:
I get what both of you are saying. But I use it as a guide as I mentioned. If they all call a game trash I’m ok with the fact it’s probably trash. If it gets across the board outstanding scores I’m ok with the fact it’s probably a pretty great game. I will still read/watch independent reviews but with monetisation they aren’t even that independent anymore. And user reviews on stuff like Metacritic etc. are pointless for the reasons I mentioned in my initial post about it.

I also know what types of games I like. A recent example is something like Forspoken. I like that type of game usually as I like just missioning around a nice looking world as it can be a lot of fun. However that gameplay looked poor, I played the demo and it was rubbish and the reviews were awful. So I didn’t buy it. Had it got around 80 odd on Metacritic I still wouldn’t have come close to buying it.
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The problem is more that reviewers will tell you a game is good when it's not, provided that enough money was spent on ads. It's fair to say that if they all say it's great, it's probably at least pretty good. It also may not be your cup of tea.

It's like with anything, when it comes to reviews. You should be reading them for content, and deciding whether what is said matches up with your preferences. I'm a bit of a gameplay fanatic, so I'll enjoy something if the gameplay is excellent and the story or graphics are meh. I don't mind a somewhat grindy gameplay loop if the gameplay is very solid. I find open world games to be uneven, and the current iteration of Zelda has design elements that frustrate and irritate me, so I don't play them even though my kids buy them and play them to death.

I think Saints Row 4 is a blast, and Saints Row 3 is meh. Many people disagree. I enjoy a romp through all the ridiculous elements of the last forty years of gaming popular culture, but not a bland open world game. I like the Arkham series, but not the old Far Cry games back when everyone said they were good. The Bethesda games aren't things I revisit, the way people do. Good once, but gets old. I quit The Witcher 3 early on, because I disliked the combat system.
 

New Zelda is a bit harder than the last one istm - not the gameplay so much, just damage is a bit more balanced and part of the story is that your weapons break frequently. One of the skill things is called fuse, which seems to be essential to making stronger weapons.

All to the good - find it very chill, restful gaming.
 
DualityNSNO said:
On what CPU? It's not a ridiculously demanding game like...
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i5 4570 3.2ghz ,16gb ram, Geforce 1650 thought it was a bit strange but when I went to settings it was already on low 720p. I'm playing Nier Automata on 720p no issues, dishonoured 2 works fine. I try not to play games that use too much juice these days, I only haver a refurbed office pc
 
Terrarian said:
i5 4570 3.2ghz ,16gb ram, Geforce 1650 thought it was a bit strange but when I went to settings it was already on low 720p. I'm playing Nier Automata on 720p no issues, dishonoured 2 works fine. I try not to play games that use too much juice these days, I only haver a refurbed office pc
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It should still run it okay enough, weird. Maybe it's just showing its age at this point? I know mine is, and it's a bit newer than yours - i5 6600K - and it craps itself on some older games that are more cpu-heavy/bound than not.
 
Black Belt Jones said:
New Zelda is a bit harder than the last one istm - not the gameplay so much, just damage is a bit more balanced and part of the story is that your weapons break frequently. One of the skill things is called fuse, which seems to be essential to making stronger weapons.

All to the good - find it very chill, restful gaming.
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I really like the game, but there is an elephant in the room with it. The graphics are pretty abysmal by todays’s standards. I know it’s running on dated hardware and they’ve crammed a lot in, but it looks worse than some of the older versions of Fortnite. Thankfully, the gameplay is still good enough to compensate.
 

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