August 2024 PC Gamer Article Discussion

[Brian Boru]

sounds pretty similar to … games I've played, which I did enjoy quite a lot

Yeah, sounds okay, should be worth it when it's finished and complete and on sale. I wonder why it's not on Steam—ooh look, $130 on Epic for the mugs Ultimate edition

Not for me tho unless QTE is minimal and there will be a FPP mod.
"quick-time events for bites and scoops"

 

[Colif]

They took their usual formula and slapped into a Star Wars game. Shame both Star Wars and the formula aren't fresh anymore... they tired reminders of what they once were.
TBH Star Wars games have never been a guaranteed success.
Rumour is this game was going to have DLC that tied into the Acolyte Season 2... so much for that idea.

Spoiler

cliche levels... oh look, a desert world (Seems Tatttoine is obliged to show in all of them), an ice world, a jungle world and ... I forget last but almost every game since the 1980's have had the same worlds.

It doesn't help 90% of game is stealth but as soon as one enemy sees you on a stage, they all know where you are and come to you. Its trial and error succeeding in any quest.

Weapon variety is... non existent. I hope you like using that blaster. No light sabres in a SW Game seems against rules, and yet... here we are.

Buying it on sale is the suggested best move. IN a year or so.

 

[Brian Boru]

usual formula

I didn't get that from the review, where he talks about the "Ubisoft magic"—altho I guess that could be formulaic to a degree. It's worth reading what's written, not just the bits which are 'tired reminders' of preconception. Examples:

"Ubi has devised one of the more unique upgrade systems I've seen"

"I've never seen anything quite like it".

"maybe my favorite open world side activity ever"

"not enough people talk about the cool, unexpected, or just plain weird little touches its games have that no other massive publisher would ever greenlight"—which is followed by a few examples from games I haven't played.

Where's the spoiler stuff from?

almost every game since the 1980's have had the same worlds

This seems written as a criticism? Weird.

90% of game is stealth but as soon as one enemy sees you on a stage, they all know where you are

Again, weird—this is clearly meant as a criticism. If you mess up the stealth, stuff happens

No light sabres

Is this correct? Morgan says "blasters rule and lightsabers drool", but doesn't mention lightsabers afterwards as far as I can see.

 

[Pifanjr]

Starfield modders are already trading in Bethesda's new buggy for Halo's Warthog and Luke's landspeeder

Thanks for the new vehicle, mind if we immediately swap it for something cooler?

www.pcgamer.com

I had to reread the title for it to make sense. Usually when I read the words "Bethesda" and "buggy" in the same context the latter is not referring to a type of vehicle.

 

[Colif]

I wasn't basing my reaction on the review here, I looked at videos online.

Spoiler

I don't know if any enemies have light sabres at all but main character only uses one off heavy weapons and the blaster that seems to have 3 different attacks itself. Since main character doesn't have them, I assume the force isn't a feature... in a Star Wars game.

Well, the buggy is probably buggy since it was made by Bethesda, This is one of the only times they will call what they make a bug though. Precedent breached. Bethesda will continue to charge you more for any new bugs that they create.

 

[Brian Boru]

I looked at videos online

Next time try someone with a clue about the genre.

"On this channel you will find tutorials, walkthroughs and lore videos on your favorite RPGs. Games you will find here are the Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age, Fallout New Vegas, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and the Elder Scrolls."

Not saying he's wrong and Morgan Park is right, but Morgan has way more credibility in that at least he knows the subject:
"Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them"

I assume the force isn't a feature... in a Star Wars game

That's like having a Far Cry game without guns, isn't it?

 

[Pifanjr]

That's like having a Far Cry game without guns, isn't it?

So Far Cry: Primal?

 

[neogunhero]

'This game is going to easily—and I mean easily—take over': Major streamers, early fans, and esports players share their Deadlock hype after Valve opens the floodgates

Valve's lifted the restrictions on discussing its not-so-secret shooter MOBA.

www.pcgamer.com

If you’re a fan of third person shooters and MOBAs, this game is very good and worth checking out. I’ve put about 8 hours into the game before it was “officially” unveiled and although it’s buggy and in beta, the core gameplay is quite fun. Not sure if I’ll really get deep into it, but definitely worth a shot for anyone into multiplayer shooters. Let me know if you need an invite.

 

[ZedClampet]

'This game is going to easily—and I mean easily—take over': Major streamers, early fans, and esports players share their Deadlock hype after Valve opens the floodgates

Valve's lifted the restrictions on discussing its not-so-secret shooter MOBA.

www.pcgamer.com

If you’re a fan of third person shooters and MOBAs, this game is very good and worth checking out. I’ve put about 8 hours into the game before it was “officially” unveiled and although it’s buggy and in beta, the core gameplay is quite fun. Not sure if I’ll really get deep into it, but definitely worth a shot for anyone into multiplayer shooters. Let me know if you need an invite.

Invite? Does this involve supermarkets or cat grooming in any way?

Seriously, though, I don't even know what a MOBA is.

***

Ubisoft's Star Wars game sounds good to me. I pretty much like all their open world games, though my expectations were too high for Far Cry 6.

I'll probably sign up to UbiPlus for a month and give it a try. Either that or buy it from Ubisoft. No reason to buy from Epic if I just have to open Ubisoft anyway.

I'm going to wait until the new AC game, though. That way I'll have two things to try during my month.

 

[neogunhero]

Invite? Does this involve supermarkets or cat grooming in any way?

Seriously, though, I don't even know what a MOBA is.

Right now it’s invite only, direct from Valve or from a Steam friend. I got the invite from Valve a couple of weeks ago. It’s a MOBA in the sense of DoTA or League of Legends, there are a few lanes through the map that NPC minions go through from both teams, they meet up in the middle to battle. Players need to fight enemies minions and destroy NPC towers that attack as you get close, as you destroy their minions and towers you get to the enemy team’s spawn area and destroy the rest of their towers to win the game. It’s all about holding the enemy line from advancing while also pushing them back, so lots of teamwork and coordination is needed to be really good. All the matches I’ve played everyone mostly just did their own thing, but I assume as the game grows more people will start to take it seriously and work together more.

Ubisoft's Star Wars game sounds good to me. I pretty much like all their open world games, though my expectations were too high for Far Cry 6.

I'll probably sign up to UbiPlus for a month and give it a try. Either that or buy it from Ubisoft. No reason to buy from Epic if I just have to open Ubisoft anyway.

I'm going to wait until the new AC game, though. That way I'll have two things to try during my month.

This is definitely what I’m going to do also. Both of those games seem fun to me, and I like how UbiPlus gives you the ultimate editions instead of spending $130 for it.

 

[neogunhero]

Age of Mythology: Retold review

Age of Mythology: Retold is still mostly a classic RTS, but the visual overhaul makes a big difference.

www.pcgamer.com

Pretty decent, I bet there’s a lot of fun to be had. A lot of the reviewers complaints seem to be something that can be fixed in the future, apart from the voice acting.

I’ve never been huge into RTS games. I’ve played them all my life but they never seem to have me playing for more than 20-30 hours. However Age of Empires 4 was very well made and I really enjoyed that game, so with this remake coming from the same studios, I’m quite excited to check it out. Going to play it on Game Pass though. Already told one of my childhood friends who used to play the originals about it and challenged him to a 1v1.

 

[Johnway]

Age of Mythology: Retold review

Age of Mythology: Retold is still mostly a classic RTS, but the visual overhaul makes a big difference.

www.pcgamer.com

Pretty decent, I bet there’s a lot of fun to be had. A lot of the reviewers complaints seem to be something that can be fixed in the future, apart from the voice acting.

I’ve never been huge into RTS games. I’ve played them all my life but they never seem to have me playing for more than 20-30 hours. However Age of Empires 4 was very well made and I really enjoyed that game, so with this remake coming from the same studios, I’m quite excited to check it out. Going to play it on Game Pass though. Already told one of my childhood friends who used to play the originals about it and challenged him to a 1v1.

i played afge of mythology back in the day (with expansion pack) so i will be giving this one a miss. I'm still playing AOE2: DE and unlikely i'll be playing AOE4 anytime soon.

 

[neogunhero]

i played afge of mythology back in the day (with expansion pack) so i will be giving this one a miss. I'm still playing AOE2: DE and unlikely i'll be playing AOE4 anytime soon.

Just my speculation, but I think hardcore RTS fans aren’t jumping to play Age of Mythology or even AoE 4. For me, they’re just a lot more modernized and streamlined so I like them better as a casual player. I do know that community consensus is that AoE 2 is the best.

 

[Zloth]

I don't know if any enemies have light sabres at all but main character only uses one off heavy weapons and the blaster that seems to have 3 different attacks itself. Since main character doesn't have them, I assume the force isn't a feature... in a Star Wars game.

Probably not. People who can use the Force are a rare thing in the Star Wars universe. It isn't a major part of the second series of Thrawn novels I've been reading. The Empire, the rebels, and light sabers are nowhere to be seen, either.

 

[ZedClampet]

The eagerness to grave dance on unpopular games has become a bad habit

Concord's low turnout has led to the usual jubilation over the prospect of seeing a big game fail.

www.pcgamer.com

They are mostly talking about the failure of Concord, Sony's latest game to hit Steam. My question, though, is how popular are competitive games on Steam? You have CS, TF2, Dota, the new Valve game and PUBG. So basically one battle royale and all the rest of the games are made by Valve. Just seems like most of the rest of them are struggling to maintain their player counts. There may be a bunch of successful ones I don't know about since I don't play them myself.

 

[Colif]

They are mostly talking about the failure of Concord,

It has no memorable characters. I watched a video showing them all and I can only remember the trash can robot with a heart on it as in video they asked if you could describe it in anyway... that was all I got. The color palette is pretty gross too.

It doesn't do anything different. Its just another 5 v 5 shooting game... there are enough of those now.

Sony hero shooter Concord launched late last week, and its Steam concurrents haven't yet topped a thousand

Its not even close:

Its not going to be hitting 1000 players any time soon unless they pay people to play it. Wait times between matches was about 8 minutes at once stage, its only getting worse.

Judging by drop off after 1st 24 hours, looks like anyone playing it for video making purposes never came back.

As for Star Warts... Um, Darth Vader shows in some scenes so he might use a light sabre. I don't think you fight him though.

 

[ZedClampet]

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director speaks about the dark fantasy RPG's stunning Unreal Engine 5 graphics: 'It’s a key foundation for the studio to really look for the latest technology'

Lighting the way forward for RPGs

www.pcgamer.com

I believe I've found my next AAA game. Unfortunately it has a vague "2025" release date. But it's absolutely beautiful, and I like the turn-based, jRPG-style combat.

 

[Johnway]

Bandai Namco and Amazon say no refunds as they kill off anime MMO Blue Protocol, but they'll give you 5,000 funbucks a month until it dies

End of the line

www.pcgamer.com

Just over a year after it launched on PC, Warner Bros is shutting down Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

NetEase will continue to operate the free-to-play Potter game in Asia, but its days are numbered everywhere else.

www.pcgamer.com

Something something https://www.stopkillinggames.com/.

if you're based in the EU, feel free to sign. being in the UK i can;t. And that sucks.

 

[neogunhero]

Real Yakuza use a gamepad so you should nab this Xbox Controller at over 30% off to play the best series the right way

You wouldn't want to let RGG down, would you?

www.pcgamer.com

This article kind of shows just how popular the Yakuza series is right now. A sudden huge influx of online communities popping up around the internet certainly has driven the franchise’s popularity to new heights. The article mentions the game for no other reason I can think of besides the author being a big fan. There was no need to mention Yakuza but for some reason they did lol. Love to see it. In case you’re unaware, the title refers to a splash screen you see when booting up the games that reads “Real Yakuza Use A Gamepad!”. I can also attest to the article that the newest version of Xbox controllers are some of the best you can buy if you just need a simple gamepad. I have big hands and it fits perfectly, causing no strain over long gaming sessions.

 

[Pifanjr]

Obsidian seems scared people will compare Avowed to Skyrim, but it shouldn't be—the similarities are obvious, but the differences make it compelling

Bethesda's RPG looms large over Obsidian's latest, but having played it, there's no need to shrink from the comparison.

www.pcgamer.com

I think Obsidian most definitely should be scared people will compare Avowed to Skyrim, because it can certainly create false expectations which can then result in a massive backlash.

Comparing something to Skyrim is dangerous because Skyrim does so much stuff and there are large groups of players that only enjoy a specific subsection of the gameplay mechanics. Telling them another game is like Skyrim just sets that other game up to fail if it doesn't have those specific game mechanics.

 

[Zloth]

I think Obsidian most definitely should be scared people will compare Avowed to Skyrim, because it can certainly create false expectations which can then result in a massive backlash.

Ugh, I hate that! Games have a lot of issues over-emphasizing action in games that aren't about the action, but sometimes customers pull crazy stuff out of the air, then trash the game for "fooling them" when they fail to find their hallucinations in the finished product.

 

[Brian Boru]

sometimes customers pull crazy stuff out of the air

That seems to be a growing trend in recent years. It's like a wolf pack waiting for the next wounded animal to ravage, rinse and repeat.

 

[Brian Boru]

Tyler Wilde's article is a good read on this general unwelcome fashionable dogpile culture:

The eagerness to grave dance on unpopular games has become a bad habit

Concord's low turnout has led to the usual jubilation over the prospect of seeing a big game fail.

www.pcgamer.com

You can see it very clearly in this disconnect:

That 1.9 is out of 10, not 5! If that's not a rabid pack in full dogpile, I dunno what is.

Tyler quotes:
"you mostly saw people gloating"

"If you release an unpopular game, everyone is suddenly morally justified to shame and embarrass you"

"a ****-talking free-for-all that turns the developers into cartoonish corporate stooges and totally warps the reality of the game"

"the piranha-like gnashing of social media hasn't delivered any real insight"

From our POV of trying to discuss games, this next is a pity:

"the reflex to cheer for Concord's failure as if it's deserved only produces resentment and misunderstandings, creating an environment where everything is deemed obvious and real analysis is drowned out in favor of sharable quips, surface-level observations, and hyperbole"

One thing's probably for sure: this consumer behavior will speed up the adoption of subscription models for games—no responsible company will choose to live in such an unpredictable and predatory environment, willfully neglecting the welfare of their developers and investors.

 

[Frindis]

Start making good games, maybe people complain less. Cheering for failure is not helping, but complaining that people don't appreciate your game is not good either. You made a bad game, suck it up and start thinking about why. Steam/Metacritic reviews can be a harsh reality check and at times the criticism is not very constructive, but for the most part, there is some reason behind it, something the company did to make the players riled up like that. Learn from it and take lessons from companies that communicate with the players and appreciate the feedback. There is a reason some companies are well respected while others are looked upon with a stricter eye.

 

[Brian Boru]

Learn from it and take lessons

Oh of course. But that's not the topic of that article, which focuses on experiences where there are no lessons or learning opportunities—other than hasten the subscription model.

some companies are well respected while others are looked upon with a stricter eye

Right. Example above is Sony, who recently were praised to the skies for Helldivers 2 🤷‍♂️