FoolishChaos

Best of luck to all involved. I haven't been an active watcher of the site for 5ish years, but hearing this news still managed to tug on my heart. That's got to say something.

I desperately hope we can still get some E3 (or whatever E3 turns out to be) content reunions if possible. o7

There has been a ton of tension building among diablo fans, since even before diablo 3's release. First, it took 12 years for a sequel for a game which many people would put on their top of all time list. Then it comes out and has a wide range of both mechanical and meta decisions that are widely criticized, and many of which had to be changed post release. And then post release support was pretty abysmal, especially when you consider its competition.

So, basically, its been 6 years since the last game. Tensions are still rising, and then they decide to announce the next entry into the franchise as a game not at all targeted towards its core audience. Diablo 3 already felt like it wasn't really targeting the diablo 2 fans. And then this game is announced, and its like they turned that dial to 11.

And they announce it at their convention, during the prime slot, with an audience (both online and the actual crowd) entirely composed of the fans they are not targeting with this game. Of course it explode in their faces.

The worst part about this is that it is completely predictable. The fact that Blizzard couldn't see it is, I think, part of the reason people are so upset. It further cements in peoples minds that Blizzard is not in-sync with the desires of their core. They were already apart from it, and despite massive amounts of negative feedback, they continue to move away from it. And while I am not a diablo fan personally, I can certainly empathize that that fucking sucks.

My issue with the tutorials is that they seems to never stop.

I had been to several stores and fully kitted myself out to be a cowboy murder man, and then in a mission they are telling me how to buy alcohol from a store. Its like, they show us this sweet town 5 hours earlier and don't think they players have already been to every fucking store and probably robbed them blind by this point?

Actors and locations in Bethesda games remember so much more than those in RDR2.

RDR2 is striving to be a polished game which appears dynamic. Not to spoil anything, but I just did a chase scene through the big city in that game, where the person running away was ducking from alley to alley, pushing past people ect. That whole sequence was scripted so that it could appear as smooth as it did.

In a bethesda game, if an NPC was told to run away from the player, it would just run. It would put one foot in front of the other deciding the best path to escape. And maybe it would get away, or maybe it would get stuck running into a rock and look buggy as fuck.

RDR2 has the advantage in not appearing buggy as fuck because they don't leave as much to their actors and environments to figure stuff out for themselves.

I guess so, yea. The cowboy fantasy is ingrained in me. I love it. But it is just a fantasy. If they attempted to give us the accurate late 1800's gunfighter it would be bleak, boring and disgusting.

I've been thinking recently how there has been a lack of games starring native americans during this period. Actually, I can't think of any. Not that there are many games about this period in general.

The main problem with games which optionally remove guidance's (like yellow handholds) is that there is often nothing in place to fill that void. They offer the option as a way to appease game players who desire a specific hardcore or old-school expeience. But simply removing the UI crutch does not take away that the designers also used this crutch, and without them the game becomes a frustrating, ill-designed mess.

A prime example are options or mods for bethsda games, or just open world games in general, which remove quest markers/ compass guidance. They are thinking "this will make it feel closer to how Morrwind did it". But the stumbling block comes when few of these quests have usable directions like Morrwind had. A quest in current games might say "Speak to elf_1 in city_A", but then you get to city_a and your tools for finding elf_1 are simply not there. You can't ask around, or find environmental clues, because the game was designed around that little arrow.

A funny example was when Metro Last Light first released and their mode Ranger Hardcore. It completely removed the UI. I believe this was since fixed, but on launch you had no way of seeing your ammo counts. And even more egregious, because they moved away from a "switch to hold a grenade, and then fire to throw it" to a "hit the grenade button to immediately throw it" model, you had no way of knowing what type of throwable you had equipped. And switching throwables was done through a radial menu which you couldn't see.

In the end, I hope the takeaway isn't "Gamers find these modes frustrating, they aren't doing well". People really want this stuff, but it is just not executed correctly.

I really enjoyed WoW Radio with TB back in the day. I might have to go back and listen when WoW Classic releases.

It does seem weird that WotC didn't launch with a bundle pack for at least the Base Game + Expansion. Games usually do that, right?

Green Room

A siege movie about some punk band kids in their 20's who take a gig at a neo-nazi skinhead bar. If you liked the directors previous movie, Blue Ruin, you will like this. He does a good job of putting normal people in really shitty situations, and letting them resolve naturally.

A+

INIS is my current fav. Territory domination game at its heart, but all of the actions (making dudes, fighting, re positioning) are drafted at the start of each round. Completely dice-less. The only thing I don't love is that the final turns can get a little complicated and can take awhile. Also, all of its art is gorgeous.

I also recently got Twilight Imperium. I got it because I had store credit to burn and it was on massive sale, but man I have no idea when we will play this. Some day.

Aaaaand I backed the second Gloomhaven kickstarter. Looking forward to getting that.