I played Andromeda for the first time about a month ago and droppped it, it was just so dull. It just had nothing that stood out, a particularly bad comparison from the OG trilogy.
can barely hear it?
Community MetaSteam | May 2021 - Wallets Gone
- Thread starter lashman
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Been almost a week but I just got around writing something up.
Thanks to a month of EA Play, I got to play Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. (Why is the colon after Jedi btw. That irks me!)
Since I got a ticking time clock in the back of my head of the sub running out, it did make me play more focused. Don't think otherwise I'd have finished it in a month.
Anyhow, I enjoyed my time with Fallen Order overall. There's definitely a lot of aspects that could have been more fleshed out but for what I consider the first proper replacement for the Jedi Knight series, Respawn did a good job.
First things first, the game feels like a big-budget experience. For all its pros and cons. More on that later. Visually, it's an impressive journey that gets only better if you're a fan of the Star Wars universe. From iconic sounds and races, Fallen Order brings the goods. The environmental design in particular always manages to impress and stand out. Thankfully, it does not make the mistake of solely being a nostalgia trip. There's just enough of the beloved known things mixed with plenty of ambition on its own to flesh out the universe more.
On a purely technical level, Fallen Order suffers from a surprising number of issues that do detract from the overall experience sadly.
Subpar facial tech, visual glitches and errors, hick-ups and freezes, spikes in CPU usage for no apparent reason, narrow Field-of-View. Later can be fixed with a community mod but a big-budget Electronic Arts game set in the huge Star Wars universe should be better than this.
You play as - what I assume - is a brand new character in the Star Wars universe. Cal Kestis. A young Jedi padawan that lives in the aftermath of the infamous purge of the Jedi that happened in the final movie of the prequel trilogy. It's the dark ages of the universe where the empire is at its most powerful and evil reigns while the good hide. Ever since Cal experienced the events as a child, he hid his powers and past, spending his life on a scrapper planet. But an event leads to the Imperial Inquisition - bent on exterminating the Jedi threat - getting on his tail.
It's here where the game starts. Saved by a small crew, Cal goes on a dangerous mission to rebuild the Jedi Order. As expected, it uses the narrative of Cal hiding his Jedi powers for over a decade to slowly introduce Force Powers throughout the entire story. It's a fitting crutch but I hope for the sequel, we won't have to regain the enjoyable powers all over again. Since Fallen Order's overwhelming allure is its campaign, I won't be talking more about it. But rest assured, it's well-written, well-paced, and overall good.
But the real highlight of the game is the gameplay itself. Unlike recent Star Wars games that showcase gun combat, Fallen Order primarily focuses on the Jedi experience. Almost to a fault. There are zero weapons featured for you to use. Even if they fall of downed enemies, you can't pick them up and use them. There aren't even grenades to use. It's 100% all about Jedi Powers.
This is both a blessing and curse since Fallen Order features way too little variety of these unique abilities. While it's always fun to force grab a stormtrooper and execute him with your lightsaber, it does eventually get old. The same goes for the other powers. It's a missed opportunity to not include a more diverse range of powers. Maybe even add the Dark Side into the mix, and make the player chose between both sides.
I get that as the first try by Respawn, they didn't go full out. Or maybe they weren't allowed by Disney. And it doesn't matter in the end, since in that regard Fallen Order remains leagues behind Jedi Outcast. A game from almost two decades ago that seamlessly integrated Jedi powers, lightsaber combat, a vast first-person shooting aspect, and third-person traversal.
It may be a bit too harsh since what is on offer is fun to play after all. Pushing stormtroopers over cliffs is a timeless joy. Coupled with the robust traversal mechanics Cal has, the gameplay is an overall positive part of the overall package. And it's more than just fighting either. There's a healthy dose of environmental puzzles that require Jedi powers and traversal. Enemy variety is fairly solid, with a nice mix of regular mobs, the odd mini-boss, and even anti-Jedi specialists that will require a bit more tactic. Exotic enemy types are also here which spice up combat nicely.
Besides combat and movement, the world itself is a huge contributing factor to Fallen Order's allure. You are probably already aware of it by now but Fallen Order is a Souls-like game. I think it would be more appropriate to call it a Souls-lite however, as it borrows only a few hallmark aspects of Souls games and goes very easy on the player at that, too.
The big influence featured are bonfires and respawning enemies. But with the resting spots being spread fairly generous and combat being far, far less intimidating than Souls games, it would be a disservice to either franchise calling it a Souls game with a Star Wars skin. In that regard, it's much more akin to a modern Tomb Raider game.
Ultimately, Respawn did the right thing here. Having a less punishing experience helps the story pacing immensely. I don't even want to imagine what a jumbled mess a no-nonsense brutalist approach would have resulted. This way, replaying areas becomes more fun, and almost never grueling. This also ties in with the leveling system that never required grinding of any sort.
The last big gameplay pillar of Fallen Order is its world design. And here we have the undoubted crown jewel of the entire package. While the game is a strictly single-player affair that moves in one direction, the journey feels refreshingly open. This is thanks to the world being split into multiple planets which you can choose to visit at practically any time. Each world gets gradually unlocked as the story progresses but since the game isn't too long as a whole, you'll be hopping around each location fairly quickly. The selection of locations is a bit small but great attention to detail, varied visuals, and a number of exciting set pieces make up for it.
Respawn has done a great job at utilizing this mechanic together with the constant downpour of new player abilities, that ultimately results in you revisiting old places to discover previously unreachable places. At times, these new paths lead to new cosmetics or story tidbits. But they also serve as major roadblocks for the main story. Couple in really well-thought-out level design and the world itself quickly becomes the star of the entire show.
It's exactly here where the potential of what-could-have-been clashes with the reality sadly. I can only assume that working on an external IP controlled by Disney led to Respawn being wedged in creatively. The tone of the story lies more on a serious note but never fully commits due to the franchise trying to be family and kid-friendly with its other big projects as a whole. Nothing shows this more when major side characters act totally out of what their backstory conveys, just to have a peachy conclusion. It just feels unfitting for some of the narrative threads to become easygoing while other darker themes aren't explored enough.
Add on top, a severe lack of characters throughout the story, and you get a paradoxically claustrophobic narrative. This really clashes with the overall goal of basically trying to save the entire galaxy, while also uncovering hugely important history. It's another miss.
While I'll try not to take away anything from new players, I'll also have to briefly touch on the conclusion of the story. It's a major letdown that retroactively makes you think that all you worked for was a waste of time. Another part that I couldn't help but feel that Disney had their hands in by being too careful to introduce important new lore into the existing Star Wars universe. But all it does is rob Fallen Order of a certain gravitas and push it halfway towards a corner of shunned projects.
I'm fairly certain that Cal Kestis will get a second chance due to Fallen Order's success. And I'm almost entirely convinced that some grievances I have with this game will be alleviated there, like the limited number of Jedi powers and the Dark Side as a whole.
One aspect I fear will remain shallow however is the willingness to go deeper with the lore, establish major new ideas, and not just serve as a safe space to regurgitate what its big brothers do on the big screen.
Today i managed to get this router for 70$ and my Quest 2 Wireless connection is solved. Rock solid performance during 45 minutes of Beat Saber.
there are snippets in the dev interview vid
and yeah as Lashy-chan said .... Thea games are nice ,.. so hopefully should be good
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I think that would throw the console world upside down if the feature offering is anything like Steam on PC, let alone consoles opening up.made by Thea devsso it should be at least serviceable
and in other news:
Could be anything.
That we'll see they won't do shit with consoles. That they'll just port some of their own games to consoles. That there'll be crossplay/saves/account links etc.
More game pass type stuff. Or the opposite with offering some limited Steam thing on console stores. Who knows.
That we'll see they won't do shit with consoles. That they'll just port some of their own games to consoles. That there'll be crossplay/saves/account links etc.
More game pass type stuff. Or the opposite with offering some limited Steam thing on console stores. Who knows.
can barely hear it?
- Will Steam go console or stick to PC only?
- You'll have a better idea by the end of the year.
Well, pretty much a confirmation about the expansionism of the platform as a bridge, also hello HL:A PSVR 2 edition
OP
- Thread Starter
- #1,559
it'll most likely be this, yes
It is exactly that, expanding their tools into the console environment, probably linking some console services to their own one and of course the games coming to consoles (if possible)
So yeah, the bridge theory "I don't want to the the only way but I want to be the way you take too"
playing through the Caspian Sea level on Metro Exodus EE and got to the part where you are looking for something in an underground bunker filled with
and the whole time was nerve racking with these god damn ambient sounds of them constantly there. was glad to get out of that area lol
these creepy spider like monsters
err this press release has Lars Wingefors's phone number in it, and it seems to be his real mobile number. I was curious and added him to my contacts to see if he would show up in Whatsapp - and he did. Im not sure if thats deliberate or an oversight or if its a burner phone or if he just doesnt care
but anyway, its interesting.
err this press release has Lars Wingefors's phone number in it, and it seems to be his real mobile number. I was curious and added him to my contacts to see if he would show up in Whatsapp - and he did. Im not sure if thats deliberate or an oversight or if its a burner phone or if he just doesnt care
Why don't you do all of us a favor and ask him on WhatsApp what his long term goals are with all these acquisitions?
[UWSL][/UWSL]you better hurry up then ... with how often they're releasing those sequels we'll probably get Spark 4 before the end of this year
[UWSL][/UWSL]
Spark is being made by 1 guy outside of music and he said Spark 3 was still really early in development. The livestream he hosted around announcement seemed to imply a 2023 release at the earliest. But Spark 2 was released earlier than expected so who knows.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #1,567
Does it star a screaming John Travolta and a mumbling Christian Slater?
I've played Thea 1 and it's really good! I really need to get back to it someday!
Why is that gaben video auto starting when I load the page? Is it happening for anyone else?
not a bad idea ;PWhy don't you do all of us a favor and ask him on WhatsApp what his long term goals are with all these acquisitions?
OK OK, Hear me out...
what if it is... streaming your Steam games to console through xCloud?
what if it is... streaming your Steam games to console through xCloud?
Subnautica Below zero is getting some good reviews. Out soon I think.
I would love that, some of the early hardware out now that's a handheld PC looks cool but is way too expensive.
Valve playing 4d chess, THEY are behind epic suing Apple with the outcome that closed systems have to open, and thus consoles and then steam can be on everything and OWN EVERYONE
OP
- Thread Starter
- #1,578
I really feel this when I come to this page and all of these reddit videos start auto playing.
Joke's on you, nothing loads for me, I have to open each link individually.
Internet standards! A little magic for everyone.
Capcpom pls
GIV
PRE-ORDER
DURING
STEAM
SALE
GIV
PRE-ORDER
DURING
STEAM
SALE
OP
No one has time to play through 2000 hours of stupid filler missions across 4 games.
this, I can't believe this strategy of theirs has been so successful for so long
EDIT: actually now that I think about it this move is even more confusing, do Ubi even have any big F2P successes?
Ubisoft will probably do 1 AAA game per year with 1-2 ongoing F2P games to collect revenue.
3-4 AAA per year has always been impressive for them but isn't sustainable unless everything sells well. They can't afford anymore Watch Dog Legions and Ghost Recon Breakpoints.
You need good and quality F2P games tho. That hyper scape game was so gonna need to do better than that.
3-4 AAA per year has always been impressive for them but isn't sustainable unless everything sells well. They can't afford anymore Watch Dog Legions and Ghost Recon Breakpoints.
You need good and quality F2P games tho. That hyper scape game was
so gonna need to do better than that.
A game studio that can't craft good content when you pay for it is going to try and make people pay for it after getting the game, for free.
Well, I can't see that going wrong given their vast creativity and the way each of their games play differently, answering design questions in their own individual way. I hope we at least get another battle royale where we can play the really good guys.
Get ready for a new Splinter Cell where you can buy upgrades for Sam's tech/weapons/outfits.
Hyper Scape was so forgettable even Ubisoft forgot what happened to it.
Good fucking luck
OP
Jeff Grubb is saying that Remedy is publishing Alan Wake 2 by themselves and there might be something at E3.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #1,598
omg, that would be the absolute best news!
I'm not even sure what to think about any of that. It kind of rejoins Scorsese's fear about the future of cinema. F2P and live services mean such a drastically different structure and intent for games that I'm pretty much ready to write the major AAA publishers off.
Trend-chasing and the corpses it leaves behind has been a thing since videogames came to be. "Everyone wants to be the new Fortnite" is simply the new "Everyone wants to be Mario" or "Everyone wants to be World of Warcraft" and as studios fail at that other studios will fill the gaps.
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