February 2024 General Gaming Discussion Thread

[Brian Boru]

niche general gamers

Um, we're the niche General and mobile are the majority.

fans who only play them and never really look at anything else

If I recall correctly, the average new games for Steam members was 4 in 2023. So yes, the large majority only play a few in any year.

what counts as AAA

We talked about this last week if I recall correctly, incl AAAA. It's mainly budget and scope of resources spent, where there's a big to huge financial risk involved. Wiki.

 

[Colif]

So if budget is all it takes, Star Citizen (if it ever releases) will be 27 A

And Duke Nukem Forever that took 13 years to release probably wasted enough to be AAAA as well. that tells me all I need to know about the labels.

I am saddened to find it doesn't mean anything to do with quality... but I bet they will try to sell it as meaning game is better as we wasted more money making it.

Ubisoft's 1st AAAA game has mini games in it that wouldn't be out of place on your phone... it doesn't look any bigger than any other game. Lots of ocean doesn't make it big, just empty. I bet its full of ways to make you spend on the ingame shop.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Um, we're the niche General and mobile are the majority.



If I recall correctly, the average new games for Steam members was 4 in 2023. So yes, the large majority only play a few in any year.



We talked about this last week if I recall correctly, incl AAAA. It's mainly budget and scope of resources spent, where there's a big to huge financial risk involved. Wiki.

Yea, sorry it wasnt clear, I did mean that we are the niche general gamers, who play games in general as enthusiasts. Whats true for someone who plays Clash of Clans and nothing else is irrelevant to people making Baldurs Gate 3 and is pretty useless to people who make COD or FIFA too. Surveys should seperate that somehow.

If its just budget then fine. I do think there are bad AAA games and good ones then, its too simplistic to say indies do this and AAA's do that IMO.

 

[Colif]

Everyone treats AAA games as superior, but if its just budget, you can budget for promotions more. The more you have to spend, the more the illusion of quality you can portray, and get people to promote your product without looking too hard.

The games might look better and have better UI but the gameplay isn't changing that much, its just chasing whatever is popular now to make money. The people in charge of these companies only care about profit now, who cares about tomorrow. More MTX, More ways to make us pay to play the games.

Live service... always online games that no one can play as soon as servers are gone, hence making games have use by dates now. No one gets to wait to buy the game in a year with GOTY editions if the servers are dead... they trying to stop Brian.

I always assumed AAA meant the games were better but its just a marketing term, The people who are trying to convince us to pay more for games shouldn't be the ones who make the labels as well. It is meaningless.

The end result is what matters, not what labels they put on them. And trying to charge more for the same old stuff in a bigger virtual box isn't it... People should just ignore the games that charge more. I know they won't but it be nice if people would wake up.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Everyone treats AAA games as superior, but if its just budget, you can budget for promotions more. The more you have to spend, the more the illusion of quality you can portray, and get people to promote your product without looking too hard.

The games might look better and have better UI but the gameplay isn't changing that much, its just chasing whatever is popular now to make money. The people in charge of these companies only care about profit now, who cares about tomorrow. More MTX, More ways to make us pay to play the games.

Live service... always online games that no one can play as soon as servers are gone, hence making games have use by dates now. No one gets to wait to buy the game in a year with GOTY editions if the servers are dead... they trying to stop Brian.

I always assumed AAA meant the games were better but its just a marketing term, The people who are trying to convince us to pay more for games shouldn't be the ones who make the labels as well. It is meaningless.

The end result is what matters, not what labels they put on them. And trying to charge more for the same old stuff in a bigger virtual box isn't it... People should just ignore the games that charge more. I know they won't but it be nice if people would wake up.

I dont think lots of people do treat them as superior really. I think a good amount of people who just want to play AAA dont really think about it much at all other than enjoying playing them, probably with friends. Not all big budget games have micro transactions either, none of the ones I've really enjoyed in the last few years did, it must depend on what type of game youre looking for. Some people do like buying cosmetics and stuff and would be annoyed if you couldnt.

 

[ZedClampet]

Going to take a bit of a break. Probably will be back eventually if allowed. Someone take the monthly threads for awhile. See ya around.

 

[Brian Boru]

its too simplistic to say indies do this and AAA's do that IMO.

Oh of course, there's no big cut-off or set box of ingredients, it's a full spectrum from kid in bedroom to multi-acre campus. Main thing small guys don't have is the degree of risk exposure—it's great to talk about innovation and trying new things until it's your money financing it and hundreds or more of your employees going down with the company if it bombs.

bit of a break

Enjoy

I dont think lots of people do treat them as superior

Yeah, I haven't seen much evidence of that, beyond a small tranche of probably new gamers who have yet to learn to navigate the market avoiding the marketing.

Not all big budget games have micro transactions either, none of the ones I've really enjoyed in the last few years did

Same here, not that I've bought any very recent games—Far Cry 6, Civilization VI, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 would be the newest of well-known recent purchases. Far Cry 5 has Silver Bars you could buy in the in-game shop if you wanted to—I don't recall why you might, as I never spent the free ones acquired at start and thru playing.

Some people do like buying cosmetics and stuff and would be annoyed if you couldnt

I'm all in favor of that, optional purchases which are not pay-to-win can only help a studio avoid a dreaded financial failure costing the existence of the company.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Oh of course, there's no big cut-off or set box of ingredients, it's a full spectrum from kid in bedroom to multi-acre campus. Main thing small guys don't have is the degree of risk exposure—it's great to talk about innovation and trying new things until it's your money financing it and hundreds or more of your employees going down with the company if it bombs.

I see your point, but I dont think smaller teams necessarily have less risk exposure. For a team of a couple people working full time on a project for years that makes huge losses is a massive problem. The scale is different but I dont think the amount of risk always is. I'd even think the bigger publisher has less existential risk because if management has been sensible they shouldnt have all their eggs in one basket.

But I was thinking more in terms of AAA's automatically doing some stuff better or vice versa. There are indies with amazing soundtracks and also with really beautiful art styles and even 3d graphics. Maybe voice acting, because its harder for lower budgets to fit in many quality voice actors. Probably scope would be the main thing, hard to make a huge open world with any level of polish without a huge team.

 

[BeardyHat]

I must say, I'm very enticed by the Tomb Raider remasters, even though I don't generally buy stuff at full price, on release, though they're only $30.

I'll probably end-up saving the money and going back to my PS1 save on my Vita instead, but the Remasters are really very tempting. Seems like an excellent Steam Deck game.

 

[Brian Boru]

the Tomb Raider remasters

I assume you played the originals? Main thing I recall from those, apart from Lara herself, is that the platforming was savage, even by platforming standards of those days. I didn't finish any of them, too much frustration.

However if that's you're thing, it's an okay price. My only useful comparison is with the Command and Conquer Remaster which had 2 main games plus 3 major expansions for $20.

 

[BeardyHat]

I assume you played the originals? Main thing I recall from those, apart from Lara herself, is that the platforming was savage, even by platforming standards of those days. I didn't finish any of them, too much frustration.

However if that's you're thing, it's an okay price. My only useful comparison is with the Command and Conquer Remaster which had 2 main games plus 3 major expansions for $20.

I played the original quite a bit a few years ago and enjoyed it. I got to the collusuem area that had some pretty challenging platforming, but on the whole,I didn't find it too bothersome.

I'll probably save the money and just start a new game of it on my Vita. That'll probably satiate me, as the graphics don't bother me in the slightest and the controls are fine or at least the same as the Remaster, it seems.

 

[Zloth]

I do think there are bad AAA games and good ones then, its too simplistic to say indies do this and AAA's do that IMO.

AAA games spend a ton of money on development, B games (or A games) spend less, indie games spend a LOT less. That money buys you:

• Marketing - trailers don't make themselves, you know.
• Voice acting and lip sync.
• Translations to other languages, which means more voice actors and (hopefully) lip sync.
• Motion capture for better animations.
• More artists to work on more models. (Ever see a town with just four different people wandering around, copied over and over?)
• More programmers to work on more systems.
• More platforms supported and better support for different controllers.
• More QA people to find the bugs in those systems, the weirdness in the animations, and the mistranslations on the various platforms.
• The more expensive versions of the various tools.

Obviously, just because you spent the money doesn't mean the money will be well spent, but a small budget game isn't going to be able to do all that stuff at all. Something like Night City is not going to be possible in a game with a Greedfall budget, even if you populate it with Horatio.

Naturally, plenty of games would have no use for Night City or any of the other stuff, really. Outer Wilds jumps to mind. The whole fighting game and 4X genres wouldn't benefit all that much from those kinds of huge budgets.

I must say, I'm very enticed by the Tomb Raider remasters, even though I don't generally buy stuff at full price, on release, though they're only $30.

I'll probably end-up saving the money and going back to my PS1 save on my Vita instead, but the Remasters are really very tempting. Seems like an excellent Steam Deck game.

I'm not seeing the point of them, myself. For people that want a nicer looking Tomb Raider, there's Tomb Raider Anniversary. For people that don't care that much, just stick to the cheaper originals. Maybe in a few years, when the remaster price starts to get close to the price of the three original games, they will make more sense.

P.S. Wow, Anniversary is just $1 on GOG right now. Looks like the other old Tomb Raider games are about $1 each, too! Do any of those work on Steam Deck?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I've hit 100 hours in Against the Storm, and I still like it but the shine is wearing off a bit for me. As the difficulty goes up the micromanagement required increases which is a bit tiring. I'm hoping I can finish a full run end the storm and then move on. Its a really great game but maybe my time is close to up with it.

---

---

---

AAA games spend a ton of money on development, B games (or A games) spend less, indie games spend a LOT less. That money buys you:

• Marketing - trailers don't make themselves, you know.
• Voice acting and lip sync.
• Translations to other languages, which means more voice actors and (hopefully) lip sync.
• Motion capture for better animations.
• More artists to work on more models. (Ever see a town with just four different people wandering around, copied over and over?)
• More programmers to work on more systems.
• More platforms supported and better support for different controllers.
• More QA people to find the bugs in those systems, the weirdness in the animations, and the mistranslations on the various platforms.
• The more expensive versions of the various tools.

Obviously, just because you spent the money doesn't mean the money will be well spent, but a small budget game isn't going to be able to do all that stuff at all. Something like Night City is not going to be possible in a game with a Greedfall budget, even if you populate it with Horatio.

Naturally, plenty of games would have no use for Night City or any of the other stuff, really. Outer Wilds jumps to mind. The whole fighting game and 4X genres wouldn't benefit all that much from those kinds of huge budgets.

All true but I'd say a lot of that falls under size of scope and some of it is kind of peripheral to the quality of the game, or even whether its fun or not.

B games with bigger open worlds are kind of easy to spot for a lot of the reasons here, the jank, repeated character models, worse animations, emptier world maybe. But when you narrow a game down in size then smaller budget games can have all of the graphics and polish of a AAA as well if done right. The only thing lacking is the big marketing budget and localisation.

 

[Colif]

it sounds like the Dream AAA company as many only have some parts of the things you listed.

Marketing - trailers don't make themselves, you know.

To me, trailers are just cut scenes and very rarely show what actual game is like. They spend most of money building up hype and sometimes its only at launch people find out what game is actually like.

I don't really care about Voice acting/lip sync as standing around and listening to characters talk is boring when I could be actually doing something useful. It doesn't add anything to the game play and in some games the NPC just won't shut up. talking as you travel, pointing out things you can do.

More artists to work on more models. (Ever see a town with just four different people wandering around, copied over and over?)

More likely to have most of them working on cosmetics and have people buy the best outfits on the shop. DLC and Pre order bonuses...

More QA people to find the bugs in those systems, the weirdness in the animations, and the mistranslations on the various platforms.

You can dream... more likely to hire people to help add more stuff for the store, and make players bug test or Mod game to make it work if Dev is bethesda

Perfect games that don't make people pay for DLC or Expansions are impossible standards to try to make AAA companies match... shame Baldurs Gate 3 & Last Epoch offer both.

hmm, according to Skull & Bones, sailing ships used torpedoes. I have my doubts... 1st torpedo invented 1866. That doesn't seem the right time period, I know... its a game but come on. Why? they don't even explode on impact and that would seriously damage a wooden vessel.

 

[BeardyHat]

AAA games spend a ton of money on development, B games (or A games) spend less, indie games spend a LOT less. That money buys you:

• Marketing - trailers don't make themselves, you know.
• Voice acting and lip sync.
• Translations to other languages, which means more voice actors and (hopefully) lip sync.
• Motion capture for better animations.
• More artists to work on more models. (Ever see a town with just four different people wandering around, copied over and over?)
• More programmers to work on more systems.
• More platforms supported and better support for different controllers.
• More QA people to find the bugs in those systems, the weirdness in the animations, and the mistranslations on the various platforms.
• The more expensive versions of the various tools.

Obviously, just because you spent the money doesn't mean the money will be well spent, but a small budget game isn't going to be able to do all that stuff at all. Something like Night City is not going to be possible in a game with a Greedfall budget, even if you populate it with Horatio.

Naturally, plenty of games would have no use for Night City or any of the other stuff, really. Outer Wilds jumps to mind. The whole fighting game and 4X genres wouldn't benefit all that much from those kinds of huge budgets.


I'm not seeing the point of them, myself. For people that want a nicer looking Tomb Raider, there's Tomb Raider Anniversary. For people that don't care that much, just stick to the cheaper originals. Maybe in a few years, when the remaster price starts to get close to the price of the three original games, they will make more sense.

P.S. Wow, Anniversary is just $1 on GOG right now. Looks like the other old Tomb Raider games are about $1 each, too! Do any of those work on Steam Deck?

Good point on Anniversary. I did play that back when it came out and definitely wouldn't mind playing that again; I did actually end-up jumping back in to TR1 on PSX and loading my old save, then dying relatively quickly and backing out again. I guess I'm not really feeling up to fighting the controls and figuring out the puzzles at the moment, so that saves me $30.

I understand why AAA games cost so much these days, I just find that most don't have much to offer a person like myself. Even Cyberpunk, which I thought was pretty cool only held my interest for about 35-hours, after which I just felt kind of bored with it. Even the stories aren't terribly interesting and don't really have anything to say; the last game I played that I really felt had a good narrative and interesting decisions was Pentiment and that's not even close to AAA.

I still like the odd AAA game here and there, but they're few and far between these days. I did enjoy Starfield, but I got that for "free" with my new GPU and wouldn't have bought it and otherwise, I enjoy Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild, neither of which I bought for myself.

Diverting a bit, I started up Planescape: Torment and it definitely seems pretty interesting, but I don't think I have the mental bandwidth for it right now or at least, I'm not interested in sitting still and having it tell me a story right now. I'm still deep into painting and that seems to be satisfying the need to sit still, so I'm really enjoying games that are much more immediate right now and aren't trying to bog me down with heavy story or cutscenes. I've been still playing the original Advance Wars 2 and I'm thinking I ought to jump back into Elden Ring or BotW again, but Advance Wars is just so nice and immediate, it's hard to beat for me right now.

 

[neogunhero]

Haven't played anything in the past few days. Reminder that it’s okay to take breaks, it’s good for you!

Now with that being said, I can’t wait to spend all weekend finishing up Cyberpunk 2077. I’ve grinded that game to bits. I’m surprised how much content I’ve actually completed and how much I’ve played it. It’s very rare for me to put 100 hours into any game these days, yet here I am less than 2 months from starting it and I’m just about to hit the 100 hour mark.

I was one of the poor saps who preordered it and played it at launch. To be fair, I got a good 60 hours out of it then, but never finished the story. I can’t remember exactly why I didn’t. If I played it for 60 hours then I must have been having a good time, but I think I was starting to go over my boiling point with how many bugs there were and how bad performance was.

These days the performance is greatly increased of course and most bugs are patched out apart from a few tiny glitches. The only major bug I had was rewatching Lizzy Wizzy’s concert in a BD, and for some reason it still let me open my phone. When I did whilst inside the BD and exited the phone interface, my whole computer screen turned into digital soup and all the colors and pixels started to melt. It was very strange and I wish I thought to snap a pic with my irl phone when it happened.

I greatly recommend it to anyone who likes open world FPS games. It isn’t quite an immersive sim but it does give you plenty of options on how you want your playstyle to be. I opted for katana only for 90% of the game, only using other weapons as a way to grind out skill levels to get small buffs.

 

[Zloth]

I understand why AAA games cost so much these days, I just find that most don't have much to offer a person like myself. Even Cyberpunk, which I thought was pretty cool only held my interest for about 35-hours, after which I just felt kind of bored with it. Even the stories aren't terribly interesting and don't really have anything to say; the last game I played that I really felt had a good narrative and interesting decisions was Pentiment and that's not even close to AAA.

I found quite a few very interesting stories! There are quite a few gigs that are fairly forgettable, and some that would have been forgettable if I hadn't been reading all the little text bits lying around. I've really liked the main stories, though - especially Phantom Liberty's. Reed turned out to be an incredibly interesting character!

I still like the odd AAA game here and there, but they're few and far between these days. I did enjoy Starfield, but I got that for "free" with my new GPU and wouldn't have bought it and otherwise, I enjoy Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild, neither of which I bought for myself.

You can get a lot of them for really cheap, eventually.

Of course, writing isn't all that terribly expensive. As near as I can tell, great stories are all over the place on the indie/B/AAA spectrum. AAA can give one to you with great voice acting and well choreographed music made just for that story's scenes, while an indie may need to put it in text with music that just fits the part of the story you're in, but the stories themselves seem more or less at the same level.

P.S. Pentiment is Obsidian!?!? That sure doesn't look like any of their other games!

 

[Johnway]

Still playing assassins creed odyssey. 62hrs in and only 47% of the main story completed and i'm at level 42. and the entire map is unlocked at level 48.

So far i'm plodding around and although that are many POI, there are surprisingly few (substantial) missions in the regions. i suspect that i'm exploring areas where none of the main story content hasn't been unlocked yet. I've sort of given up exploring mainland and decided to hop into my ship and start making my way around to the islands where the next main missions are located.

yes i could just quick travel and spawn the ship so save me time sailing around the whole of greece, but i'm at a high enough level that i can go any random direction and explore.

 

[DXCHASE]

Helldivers 2

Go play it. Its fun. Pay the 50 for the game and pass, kill terminators, kill bugs and save democracy! There might be some server issues, but its very well worth it!

Aside from me being blindsided by HD2 and bringing my Diablo 4 character grind to a few-levels-a-week kind of play, ive started to play Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and, to my surprise, im intrigued by the story.

You play as 2 people, one in the real world, one in the spirit world, and you go around kicking spirit butt while solving murders and deciding whether or not the guilty brings your one half back to life, or you let it go. Theres more to it but, there are ghost mysteries to solve aside from fighting, which feels solid so far.

Runs very well, looks good and the aesthetic (1600s america so far) looks nice.

 

[Pifanjr]

I managed to play 7.7 hours of No Man's Sky yesterday and I must say it does a very good job at constantly giving something to work towards. At some point I figured I had seen enough of the game and might as well stop playing, as I'm not going to buy the game immediately after the free weekend anyway. Then I played for another hour or so just because there kept being something I wanted to finish.

I probably won't be getting it for my birthday either, as our PC just isn't good enough to play it smoothly. Even with the graphics on minimum, I kept having frequent FPS drops. Not so bad it was unplayable, but bad enough to make it less fun playing. On top of that, warping took a long to load, which is a bother when you just want to quickly turn in some quests.

Besides that, there are a bunch of things in this game that are bothersome. The UI and control scheme seems like it's made for controllers, but there's too much stuff to do so they just made a "quick menu" and stuffed everything they couldn't map to a controller button in there. You can only navigate the "quick menu" by scrolling.

Crafting is done by selecting an empty part of your inventory and then scrolling through a window that only shows 8 recipes at a time, which seem to be ordered semi-randomly and cannot be sorted. There is also no search function to quickly find something in your inventory or crafting menu. Nor is there a way to quickly store resources into a container, you have to move everything manually.

I like the idea of learning alien languages word for word, but it's a bit bothersome that you have to talk to every single NPC you find, wait for them to say something, wait for the description to appear, wait for the options to appear, select the one for learning a word, wait for the next options to appear, select one and then be thrown out of the conversation. Then you have to start the conversation again if you want to get the reward each NPC gives you for showing it how well you know their language.

The game is filled with mechanics like these that just make you wait or click more than should be necessary. Out of curiosity I checked for popular mods after I was done playing and saw there were a bunch of QoL improvements, so I'll have to take a closer look at those it I ever decide to buy the game.

 

[Johnway]

kill terminators, kill bugs and save democracy!

Wait, just 2 factions? is are those religious aliens not a faction in HD2?

I would like to get HD2, but it seems like a rehash of HD1 but in 3rd person mode and a lick of new paint atm.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Finished another go of Brothers A Tale of Two Sons, it still looks great and the story still has the same impact. Left me wondering why they bothered to remaster it, because from the trailer I saw it doesnt look much better and gameplay looks to be the same. Great game still.

Also caught that Moon Studios of Ori and the Blind Forest fame have a new ARPG coming out. Hadnt seen it before, wishlisting this one.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Ozk5iBuH4&t=49s


(I know the link's not working in post)

 

[BeardyHat]

I found quite a few very interesting stories! There are quite a few gigs that are fairly forgettable, and some that would have been forgettable if I hadn't been reading all the little text bits lying around. I've really liked the main stories, though - especially Phantom Liberty's. Reed turned out to be an incredibly interesting character!


You can get a lot of them for really cheap, eventually.

Of course, writing isn't all that terribly expensive. As near as I can tell, great stories are all over the place on the indie/B/AAA spectrum. AAA can give one to you with great voice acting and well choreographed music made just for that story's scenes, while an indie may need to put it in text with music that just fits the part of the story you're in, but the stories themselves seem more or less at the same level.

P.S. Pentiment is Obsidian!?!? That sure doesn't look like any of their other games!

I just can't think of any AAA game that had a story that really stuck with me. By and large, all the ones I've experienced have been pretty hackney and rote, but I don't play every AAA game either. But also, voice acting is usually a negative for me, as I'm typically playing games on low volume or with the sound off for a variety of reasons, mostly that there's always noise in my house or someone wanting to talk to me, so it ends-up impeding my ability to take the game at my own pace. Usually what happens is someone starts talking and then one of my kids comes and starts asking questions!

Pentiment definitely isn't your usual Obsidian game, but damn if it doesn't have a fantasy story and characters. I recently started playing Planescape: Torment and I'm not that far into it yet, but being an earlier Obsidian-Adjacent I'm not finding it as compelling as something like Pentiment. What I do really appreciate about it though is that it has a tablet mode setting, so I've been playing it in the evenings on my Surface Go, detached from the keyboard and lying in bed.

I'm hoping I stick with it, as I know there are a lot of people that love it, but I'm having doubts right now.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The amount of historical detail in Pentiment was pretty crazy, I think that and the art style were what impressed me most. I fell off after a few hours because its basically a point and click game which isnt my thing normally, but I appreciated the craft of it and it was obviously a passion project for them.

I loved PST at the time, the companions are all really interesting if you get to know them as well as the Nameless Ones story as its slowly revealed. I tried to play it again myself last year and got up to meeting a certain character in the Sensates guild but fell off there. The combat was bad 25 years ago and hasnt improved. If I didnt know the story already of old I might have been more sucked into it. That probably doesnt encourage you sorry @BeardyHat , but if you love fantasy stories that play with philosophical ideas then its definietly worth seeing.

 

[BeardyHat]

The amount of historical detail in Pentiment was pretty crazy, I think that and the art style were what impressed me most. I fell off after a few hours because its basically a point and click game which isnt my thing normally, but I appreciated the craft of it and it was obviously a passion project for them.

I loved PST at the time, the companions are all really interesting if you get to know them as well as the Nameless Ones story as its slowly revealed. I tried to play it again myself last year and got up to meeting a certain character in the Sensates guild but fell off there. The combat was bad 25 years ago and hasnt improved. If I didnt know the story already of old I might have been more sucked into it. That probably doesnt encourage you sorry @BeardyHat , but if you love fantasy stories that play with philosophical ideas then its definietly worth seeing.

I get in the mood here and there for something point and click. A lot of the time when I want to play a game, but really am not looking for a skill challenge, I'll go over to Point and Click and Visual Novels (which are a new addition to my game tastes). That said, I usually prefer to play them on my Steam Deck or a handheld of some sort where I can just cozy-up on the couch and play. Pentiment really pulled me through because I found the setting just so interesting and the meditation on religion, tradition, relationships, both personal and more broadly to just be so damn interesting.

I'm hoping a lot of that will apply when it comes to Planescape Torment, but we'll see. I spent my four years of college studying Philosophy, so I often find many games speaking on the subject tend to be a little 101, if that makes sense. Nothing wrong with that, of course, especially when introducing new concepts to people, it just doesn't tickle me as it once did.

That said, as per my first paragraph, I do love that I can cozy-up with Planescape on my tablet and just read. The combat doesn't bother me too much, as no one is there for it and it goes by pretty quickly from what I've experienced so far and I've played plenty of games like it at this point, so we'll see how it goes.