July 2024 PC Gamer Article Discussion

[BeardyHat]

D&D's lead rules designer admits he changed some spells because of how 'painful' and 'excruciating to cast' they were in Baldur's Gate 3

"I thought: 'we are going to redesign Produce Flame.'"

www.pcgamer.com

You would think they would've noticed how painful some of these spells are in the decade the game has existed, but I suppose the fresh perspective of a video game adaptation doesn't hurt. Though Produce Flame is actually not that bad in the tabletop version, Baldur's Gate 3 just made it unnecessarily complicated.

The change I'm most excited for is the addition of Weapon Masteries in the new 5e version. Baldur's Gate added Weapon Actions, where each weapon gives you a special attack you can do once per short rest, to add a bit of variation between weapons. The update to 5e instead adds a special at-will ability to each weapon that you can unlock if you have the Weapon Mastery feat, which most martial characters get for free. Meaning weapon choice will actually matter beyond the raw damage and martial characters will be a bit more interesting to play.

Skimmed the article, didn't see any mention of the At-Will stuff for weapons, but I have now excitedly brought-up the D&D Youtube channel and will watch through that stuff when I have a minute.

Exciting news, as martial characters have always been a bit boring; 4e, for all its faults, was pretty cool since everyone had all the different abilities to do stuff with. I generally play Melee characters (Cleric is my usual goto), so it'll be nice to have some stuff to do other than just hit stuff and cast a few spells here and there.

 

[Pifanjr]

Skimmed the article, didn't see any mention of the At-Will stuff for weapons, but I have now excitedly brought-up the D&D Youtube channel and will watch through that stuff when I have a minute.

Exciting news, as martial characters have always been a bit boring; 4e, for all its faults, was pretty cool since everyone had all the different abilities to do stuff with. I generally play Melee characters (Cleric is my usual goto), so it'll be nice to have some stuff to do other than just hit stuff and cast a few spells here and there.

Sorry, the PC Gamer article didn't mention Weapon Masteries, I should've added the link where I read about them:

Weapon Mastery in DnD 5e: A Complete Guide | D&D Rules

We hack and slash our way through the new Weapon Mastery system, a major set of new DnD 5e combat rules that are part the upcoming 2024 Player's Handbook.

dungeonsanddragonsfan.com

Sadly Clerics don't get access to them, at least not by default, though I think you can take a feat to get access to them and I can imagine the War domain might give you one as well.

 

[BeardyHat]

Sorry, the PC Gamer article didn't mention Weapon Masteries, I should've added the link where I read about them:

Weapon Mastery in DnD 5e: A Complete Guide | D&D Rules

We hack and slash our way through the new Weapon Mastery system, a major set of new DnD 5e combat rules that are part the upcoming 2024 Player's Handbook.

dungeonsanddragonsfan.com

Sadly Clerics don't get access to them, at least not by default, though I think you can take a feat to get access to them and I can imagine the War domain might give you one as well.

Thanks for the link. I did end up going to their YouTube channel and seeing they have a bunch of information there, though I would rather read than watch.

Cleric is my favorite class, but I'm currently playing a Paladin with the group I just joined in December. They had plenty of healers and support, so I made a tanky damage dealing Pally instead and I'm looking forward to having some more options for him.

Now to show off the mini I painted for it.

https://imgur.com/a/Xcisab9

 

[Zloth]

UK is beyond hope

We found that out back when they cancelled Dirk Gently!

 

[Colif]

We found that out back when they cancelled Dirk Gently!

Good thing I only ever read the books, I was completely unaware there was a series.
Books probably better anyway, It was Douglas Adams after all.

The Guide says there is an art to flying", said Ford, "or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

link

the world just isn't as fun anymore.

 

[Zloth]

Throwing yourself at the ground and missing is kind of how orbits work.

The show really had very little to do with the books at all, other than the Dirk Gently character sharing many of Adams' characters' traits.

 

[Colif]

The show really had very little to do with the books at all, other than the Dirk Gently character sharing many of Adams' characters' traits.

That doesn't sound like anything I would have missed.

Sick of the pattern of using a characters name as a way to sell a product that has little to do with the original work. All too common in entertainment. Name recognition gets people in but how long can you keep them there? So far they haven't found a way to force people to consume the results. For very long anyway. Once word of mouth gets around it sinks or swims.

One way would be to make the product interesting enough you don't need to rely on the name... but if its that good, why use name at all? Its a crutch and many of the entities using it don't seem to walk free without it. Not without collapsing soon after.

 

[Pifanjr]

but if its that good, why use name at all?

Marketing. Doesn't matter how good your product is if no one's ever heard about it and no one has a reason to try it out.

 

[Colif]

Marketing. Doesn't matter how good your product is if no one's ever heard about it and no one has a reason to try it out.

if the same thing is used too often and by too many, it will backfire and no one will trust anything to contain what it says it does... I am there now. I am pleasantly surprised when I am wrong. Its the safer approach than to fall for hype.

 

[Zloth]

Sick of the pattern of using a characters name as a way to sell a product that has little to do with the original work.

I thought about that, too, but then I would be beefing about the show ripping off Dirk Gently.

OK, I deleted a paragraph going on about whether they should or shouldn't keep using the name. I don't want to make life hard on the topic cops. I'll just say: give it a shot if you see it on some streaming channel.

 

[Pifanjr]

Spelunky creator comes out against god modes in brutal games like his because 'The amount of satisfaction one gets from succeeding eventually is incredible'

But he reckons it's reasonable to include god mode in "most games."

www.pcgamer.com

While I think options are always good, I also agree with Derek Yu that developers cannot and should not expect players to be able to custmize their own difficulty level without breaking the intended experience of the game.

So while I think it's fine if developers don't want to add difficulty options, I think they could if they just added a big warning sign that messing around with those options can potentially ruin the experience.

But difficulty options can also make a game playable for players who otherwise wouldn't be able to experience the game at all. Not everyone can just "git gud", maybe because they simply don't have the time to do so or maybe because they physically are unable to get good enough.

 

[Hveðrungr]

But difficulty options can also make a game playable for players who otherwise wouldn't be able to experience the game at all. Not everyone can just "git gud", maybe because they simply don't have the time to do so or maybe because they physically are unable to get good enough.

I think something even more important is that they enable players who are generally good at the game to get past the one point where the game was too hard for them without just dropping it. It's not like this is an “inauthentic” experience, either: thirty years ago all games had cheat codes.

 

[ZedClampet]

Palworld announces merch after a new partnership with Sony Music, and I'm praying to Jormuntide Ignis that means plushies

Time for some cuddly pals.

www.pcgamer.com

I realize that providing internal links is a good way to increase engagement, but it is annoying to me that every article about Palworld has to mention the false claims that they were stealing Pokemon designs.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't mind having a few Palworld figurines.

 

[DXCHASE]

The First Descendent is dollar store Destiny starring exclusively hot people

We have Destiny at home! Destiny at home:

www.pcgamer.com

Yet another piece on a shooter that i mostly disagree with by this PCG writer. I kind of think that his takes on FPSs at this point are meant to be divisive opinions if you look at the comment section after his articles and thats cool, nothing wrong there, but I can tell w/o knowing the author as i read through the article who was writing it. The game deserves its criticisms, but this article, imo, isnt a very good representation of what The First Descendent is.

Firstly, TFD is not "destiny lite" though i appreciate the tagline for the article (i want destiny, we have destiny at home, Destiny at home: TFD)

As a Destiny player myself for a bunch of years i only see generic instances (enemies come from ships, the hub area) and maybe some skills that look similar to Destiny, but there are other game comparisons that fit better here (warframe).

The gunplay comparison between TFD and Destiny is a bad one. The gunplay in TFD is good and the guns look great and its way different than Destiny's. FPSs and 3rd-person shooters are going to inherently have different gunplay. So comparing the gun play here to destiny is just widely inaccurate. Now comparing it to Outirders? Division? Warframe? Sure, but destinies is unique to literally its own game.

At the end of the article the writer says theyve only unlocked 1 descendent. I had 2 (the bunny descendent that everyone is in love and is the picture in the article, was the 2nd) by the end of the 1st area in the game. So if they didnt have more than 1, they didnt play enough or might not have known they unlocked it, idk but i have had more than 1 character unlocked for the majority of my play time.

He also laments the MTX which i agree with! So i agree with that part but theres a lot more to discuss there than the 2-sentence paragraph he dedicated to it imo.

Then the cherry on top, he ends the article saying hed rather play Suicide Squad (368 people in game atm, 13.5k all-time peek in the last 5 months) over the First Descendant (170,000 atm). I mean putting aside that its a DC game, I cant really get behind someone's point of view when they would rather play a game that has been a complete flop since it dropped (not even cracking the top 50 on release) versus one that will remain at least in the top 20 for the foreseeable future.



With this article i already know what PCG is going to give The First Descendant but its a fun game to play that you can avoid paying anything in. Again, it has a ton of flaws, but this article just really didnt touch on most of them.

 

[Hveðrungr]

Yet another piece on a shooter that i mostly disagree with by this PCG writer. I kind of think that his takes on FPSs at this point are meant to be divisive opinions if you look at the comment section after his articles and thats cool, nothing wrong there, but I can tell w/o knowing the author as i read through the article who was writing it.

He's also the guy who wrote the piece trying to take down Dr Disrespect's studio as well, even though they'd already cut ties with him for the heinous crime of flirting with a 17-year-old. I dunno, posting ragebait articles always feels to me like eating your seedcorn when you're trying to cultivate a mass audience. Yeah, you juice your numbers short-term, but long-term you alienate the mass audience you need. I don't blame him, I blame the commissioning editor.

 

[Zloth]

I think something even more important is that they enable players who are generally good at the game to get past the one point where the game was too hard for them without just dropping it. It's not like this is an “inauthentic” experience, either: thirty years ago all games had cheat codes.

On the other hand, there are some people that really can gain from getting tossed into the deep end and left to sink or swim. How a game is supposed to distinguish people like that from people that really can't get it, I have no idea.

 

[Hveðrungr]

On the other hand, there are some people that really can gain from getting tossed into the deep end and left to sink or swim. How a game is supposed to distinguish people like that from people that really can't get it, I have no idea.

Yeah, but I think those people will deliberately push themselves too hard by taking the highest difficulty levels anyway. I'm not saying games should be hand-holding at all times. So I think the players do the distinguishing themselves.

 

[ZedClampet]

The First Descendent is dollar store Destiny starring exclusively hot people

We have Destiny at home! Destiny at home:

www.pcgamer.com

Yet another piece on a shooter that i mostly disagree with by this PCG writer. I kind of think that his takes on FPSs at this point are meant to be divisive opinions if you look at the comment section after his articles and thats cool, nothing wrong there, but I can tell w/o knowing the author as i read through the article who was writing it. The game deserves its criticisms, but this article, imo, isnt a very good representation of what The First Descendent is.

Firstly, TFD is not "destiny lite" though i appreciate the tagline for the article (i want destiny, we have destiny at home, Destiny at home: TFD)

As a Destiny player myself for a bunch of years i only see generic instances (enemies come from ships, the hub area) and maybe some skills that look similar to Destiny, but there are other game comparisons that fit better here (warframe).

The gunplay comparison between TFD and Destiny is a bad one. The gunplay in TFD is good and the guns look great and its way different than Destiny's. FPSs and 3rd-person shooters are going to inherently have different gunplay. So comparing the gun play here to destiny is just widely inaccurate. Now comparing it to Outirders? Division? Warframe? Sure, but destinies is unique to literally its own game.

At the end of the article the writer says theyve only unlocked 1 descendent. I had 2 (the bunny descendent that everyone is in love and is the picture in the article, was the 2nd) by the end of the 1st area in the game. So if they didnt have more than 1, they didnt play enough or might not have known they unlocked it, idk but i have had more than 1 character unlocked for the majority of my play time.

He also laments the MTX which i agree with! So i agree with that part but theres a lot more to discuss there than the 2-sentence paragraph he dedicated to it imo.

Then the cherry on top, he ends the article saying hed rather play Suicide Squad (368 people in game atm, 13.5k all-time peek in the last 5 months) over the First Descendant (170,000 atm). I mean putting aside that its a DC game, I cant really get behind someone's point of view when they would rather play a game that has been a complete flop since it dropped (not even cracking the top 50 on release) versus one that will remain at least in the top 20 for the foreseeable future.



With this article i already know what PCG is going to give The First Descendant but its a fun game to play that you can avoid paying anything in. Again, it has a ton of flaws, but this article just really didnt touch on most of them.

Guy is such a Destiny fanboy he doesn't realize how close to Warframe this is. Played today for the first time and really enjoyed it.

Planet Coaster 2's announcement promises 'gripping rides, spectacular slides', but I can't wait to see what ungodly contraptions the community makes

Rock and roll(ercoaster).

www.pcgamer.com

What I wanted was a physics-based ride creator, but I guess that's not going to happen.

 

[Zloth]

Yeah, but I think those people will deliberately push themselves too hard by taking the highest difficulty levels anyway. I'm not saying games should be hand-holding at all times. So I think the players do the distinguishing themselves.

Actually, I'm thinking of people with low self-esteem and/or newer gamers. They hit a block that they are perfectly capable of getting through, but they stop because they don't think they can do it. If you can find a way to get them through a few of those, self-esteem comes back, and they are happy gamers!

 

[ZedClampet]

Actually, I'm thinking of people with low self-esteem and/or newer gamers. They hit a block that they are perfectly capable of getting through, but they stop because they don't think they can do it. If you can find a way to get them through a few of those, self-esteem comes back, and they are happy gamers!

& @Hveðrungr

I've lost track of exactly what you are talking about, but there are a lot of non-brutal AAA and AA games that include failsafes for big battles/events. You fail a few times and then the game secretly helps you win the next one. I had always suspected this was true, and then there was a big article about it in PCG a couple of years ago.

They gave a number of examples. The only one I remember now was a non-combat example of changing a maze on the fly for people who were obviously lost. Most developers do not admit to doing this because it would cheapen the feeling of victory, but there are all sorts of easy ways to do it, like hidden damage increases, but I've seen a variety of things change before, though you aren't supposed to notice..

FYI: @Brian Boru I've never noticed this in a Ubisoft game.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I've lost track of exactly what you are talking about, but there are a lot of non-brutal AAA and AA games that include failsafes for big battles/events. You fail a few times and then the game secretly helps you win the next one. I had always suspected this was true, and then there was a big article about it in PCG a couple of years ago.

Yes, this is the kind of thing I was suggesting. But there are also games now where if you fail a setpiece a few times it pops up an option asking gently if you would like to skip this bit and pretend you managed it.

 

[ZedClampet]

The Outlast Trials' new major update has given a deranged killer a shotgun because all the melee opponents weren't hard enough

Who gave this man a gun?

www.pcgamer.com

NOOOOOOOOOO!!! My kids are going to make me play this again.

I mean, it was fun pushing the orphans through a meat grinder. I'm just terrible at the game.

 

[ZedClampet]

Under fire after OnlyFans leak, Twitch streamer Sketch posts apology for a past that doesn't really need one: 'That was a dark time, [a] rough time'

"People like FaZe, Banks especially, and my friends that I've made over the past couple of years came and they saved me. I don't know what I was gonna do."

www.pcgamer.com

Sad story. Reminds me of the TikTok lady who committed suicide after being endlessly harassed online because she was arrested for sitting, fully dressed, on a vibrator in public. I mean, yeah, don't do that, I guess, but I'm not sure she should have actually been arrested, and the Internet's reaction was appalling.

 

[Hveðrungr]

Reminds me of the TikTok lady who committed suicide after being endlessly harassed online because she was arrested for sitting, fully dressed, on a vibrator in public. I mean, yeah, don't do that, I guess, but I'm not sure she should have actually been arrested, and the Internet's reaction was appalling.

Do you mean the beach lady, Christina Revels-Glick? If so, she wasn't merely “sitting, fully dressed on a vibrator in public”. She was in swimwear and masturbating loudly enough for nearby families with young children to hear her orgasmic moaning and call the police. Indecent exposure in a public place is a crime in any jurisdiction. She was a drug user with severe mental health problems who had had many prior arrests and convictions. Her suicide came eight months after the arrest and over a year and a half before the bodycam video was released and went viral. Her family say her suicide was not connected to the arrest, which for her was just one among many, but to her underlying problems. She never even saw the internet's reaction to her arrest video.

 

[Colif]

Less than 6 months later, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will be free to download and keep for Prime subscribers—though you'll only have 48 hours to snag it

One last try.

www.pcgamer.com

Remind me in a week.