dingus

dingus, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

I think what isn’t being discussed enough is how many fans of games like Dragon Age Origins this game is pulling in.

What this game does is straddles the difference between classic CRPGs like the original Baldurs Gate and modern, cinematic RPGs like Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect, whose games began to veer into very action-oriented cinematic style as opposed to classic three-quarter-overhead-view turn-based style. It also brings the cinematic aspect to romancing companions as well, something that was also pioneered in DAO and ME. Other games had ability to romance as well, but not deeply like DAO and ME made it, with their cinematic style allusion-to-sex scenes.

This game does both and so it is grabbing the attention of people who loved classic CRPGs like Baldurs Gate, Fallout and Neverwinter Nights, but it’s also grabbing the attention of more “normie(?)” players who cut their teeth on Dragon Age Origins through Inquisition.

It’s a “best of both worlds” approach that has solidified success because it appeals to the people who loved classic CRPGs as well as the people who wanted the cinematic beauty as well as ability to cinematically romance companions. It has beautiful cinematic detail as well as a fully fleshed out CRPG system and non-linear CRPG story. It’s giving players of all types what they wanted out of an RPG.

Also, excellent console controls directly help this. Old CRPGs required a mouse and keyboard, but I can play this game split-screen with my SO who only ever played the Dragon Age games and who I struggled to get into D&D previously.

My SO fucking loves this game, and she wouldn’t have ever been opened up to such a style of game without the excellent cinematic graphics alongside the top tier classic CRPG gameplay. There is no way in hell I could get her to play a strictly top-down no-cinematics classic CRPG. This game opened her up to the genre. It’s essentially the perfect modernization of a classic CRPG.

dingus, 10 months ago

Gosh, if only American Criminal Lunatics were still this way!

dingus, 10 months ago

For all it’s flaws, Mass Effect Andromeda was beautiful (if you ignore character models and focus on scenery). It’s story was weak, but the gameplay compelling. It’s actually disappointing it was so badly received, because in many ways it was quite a good game. There was a feel of BioWare returning to the style of the original Mass Effect, but we’ll probably see less of that considering how badly it was received.

dingus, 10 months ago

The environments. ME2 and ME3 felt like everything was in a long hallway, just very much funneling you down a path you didn’t have a lot of exploration choices in. Mass Effect had grand and large environments to explore in the Mako, and MEA was the first entry in the series since that had large open areas for exploration on planets. Whatever you feel about weak story, the environments were beautiful and well designed.

dingus, 10 months ago

I felt like the article covered this, but more in a hand-wavey way. The article is really about the more cinematic aspects of the game, which is a more spiritual follow-up to Dragon Age Origins. Dragon Age Origins was very ambitious and was made by the same BioWare that made Baldurs Gate and Baldurs Gate II. They were trying to capture the spirit of the old games with a more fleshed out cinematic world where you could get up close and personal with the characters.

Arguably, Baldurs Gate III is the first game to successfully weave it’s way through both. Divinity Original Sin and DOS II both lack this cinematic aspect. They both hem closer to traditional titles like Neverwinter Nights, where you have the three-quarters overhead view of your characters, but your characters are not explicitly detailed, nor do you get that many “close up” looks at them.

I’m fucking floored at being able to do a full on top-down view, and then being able to zoom in on incredibly detailed characters that exist in the world. It’s arguably the best of both worlds.

Anyway, I see the article as focusing on cinematic aspects, which would be the ability to see detailed interactions among characters akin to a film, a thing we haven’t seen much of in this style of game before, barring DAO.

dingus, 10 months ago

I definitely gotta admit, this is one of the most impressive parts of the game to me.

Having played the original Baldurs Gate and Baldurs Gate 2 by BioWare, its really kind of amazing the depth they’ve given this game, which is arguably very inspired by what was done with Dragon Age Origins (follow ups maybe not so much).

Except it really is like playing the two original games, just with the ability to get a super close up look at your party, as well as as a high-level overview of the gaming space.

So far, the game does a stellar job of providing a truly cinematic experience during dialogue exchanges. One of the more recent RPGs that people claimed “set the bar” was Witcher 3, and it had a lot of people gesticulating from the waist up for the most part. So much of the game is so fully detailed, and yet has reasonable system requirements compared to current PC specs. It really is a stunning achievement, and a near perfect follow up to the classics.

dingus, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

DirectX 11 is sometimes your only choice if you want to play splitscreen couch co-op on the PC.

Vulkan results in many graphical glitches and certain areas are unrenderable (the culprit being the black boxes so many people mention). My partner and I reached a point where we couldn’t move on anymore and graphics drivers were already updated and game was already updated so we were confused as how to move forward.

After searching for a few hours, I found a post specifically about the splitscreen and how this seems to affect lots of people trying to play splitscreen with Vulkan.

I personally prefer Vulkan and think it runs better in single player mode, but if you want to play splitscreen without major issues, I strongly suggest DirectX 11.

dingus, 10 months ago

AMD

dingus, 10 months ago

I kind of always wanted an RPG of severely under-powered normal folks in over their heads who survive through luck, absurdity, and definitely not knowing what they’re doing or actually having the tools or knowledge to succeed. As in so inept that they aren’t even trying to save the day, it ends up being kind of an accident.

Earthbound sort of had this type of feel initially, but then quickly loses it. Another aspect of Earthbound I like is it being set in the modern world. Controlling a bunch of weird slackers in a shitty van barely escaping inexplicable lovecraftian horrors a la some sort of video game Scooby Doo sounds like fun. You can do things like drink beers to take the edge off, but you have to try not to get too drunk or you might not be able to drive the van to escape.

dingus, 10 months ago

Arguably, that’s the whole point. I never played the original Fallout thinking I could play every option. I’ve seen people complaining about “you have to use savescumming or you miss half the dialogue.” No, that’s called “replayability” so when you go back and try as a different type of character, there will be paths you’ll be locked out of, but there will also be paths that were previously closed now open.

dingus, 10 months ago

Funny, because Justin Roiland’s involvement is why I wouldn’t pay for it.

dingus, 10 months ago

Ending credits of Nier Automata. Weight of the World.

dingus, 10 months ago

Black & White

dingus, 11 months ago

Adorable!

dingus, 11 months ago

My fursona is a homo sapien. Am I doing this right?

(This joke isn’t meant to denigrate furries at all, rather it is a joke pointing out that humans are animals, too. That’s all)

dingus, 11 months ago

I’d rather be ID’ed at the point-of-sale than this absolute horseshit.

No, you don’t get to have a million scans of my face in perpetuity. Fuck all the way off.

dingus, 11 months ago

Nazi punks FUCK OFF