What Game Are You Playing At The Moment ?

[RoboFox]

1 hour ago, Finnegan said:

 

But I thin immersive only takes you so far. 

 

For me, this is why open world games are both attractive but I also almost never finish them. 

 

Like @Beliall, I love just being in a world sometimes. Like everyone else, my Skyrim is heavily modded to hell and back and it's all weather effects, graphics, filters, sounds, just to make the world look and feel better. Like everyone else, I've owned Skyrim for a billion years and have a trillion hours in it and I've still never actually completed it. I just play it every now and then to wander around and be in it.

 

I've never finished Red Dead, I've never finished Ghosts of Tsushima, I've never finished a Far Cry or Ghost Recon. 

 

But they're all great to log in to occasionally and just be.

 

I did love wandering around the station in Prey, I loved the mood and the atmosphere of it, it was really well done. But the actual gameplay is so dry and stale, there's very little personality anywhere. 

 

It's like playing Myst with guns. 

 

Compare it to something like Bioshock, which it's clearly a little bit inspired by, which had me gripped solidly from start to finish and it just isn't in the same league. 

 

For me, Control was trying to do a lot of the same things but was even more samey, had even less personality and even less gameplay and just wanted to prop itself up with its kookiness but meh. 

 

 

When I say "Immersive sim", I mean as the genre, which Prey definitely is.

 

• Immersion in an elaborate and believable game world.
• Simulation: physics and AI are used to create believable behavior in objects and characters which the player can freely interact with, resulting in 'emergent gameplay'.
• First-person perspective so as to truly look through the eyes of the protagonist.
• Game design that allows for multiple paths and/or multiple solutions in every situation.
• A systemic game world that keeps track of the player's actions, which can affect the "whole" game.
• Open-ended/non-linear game design with an emphasis on choice and consequence.
• Full control over the player's character in every situation.
• A world with consistent rules that the player can interact with.
• Narrative that is not always forced on the player, but instead can be told through exploration and gameplay at that players will.

 

Bioshock is a spiritual successor to System Shock which IMO is the OG "Immersive Sim" made by Looking Glass Studios. My favourite game ever - Thief was made by the same studio. The Dishonored series was made by many of the same core team after Looking Glass went bust and they moved to Arkane (and IMO is the spiritual successor to Thief). Arkane also made Prey. 

 

The Bethesda RPGs share a lot of the same DNA via ex-Looking Glass developers too. 

 

Games like Far Cry, Ghost Recon, Assassins Creed aren't immersive at all IMO. They're just huge empty worlds full of endless arbitrary content. 

 

Edited 29 August by RoboFox

[dmayne7]

Been on a bit of a clearout of unfinished games recently.

 

Finally got to finishing Ghost of Tsushima on PS5 after initially having dropped it when I had a PS4. It's a strange game because it's one of those objectively good games but is ridiculously overrated by some; like it's not even close to a 10.

 

For the most part it's a great looking game. At times incredibly atmospheric but also completely devoid of it other times. I think that's a lack of biodiversity that does it.

 

Love what it tries to do with exploration via the wind and animals but that can also be tedious at times. Think it suffers from having such a bland and mostly empty open world. And with that, it's quite slow to get around (though the horses feel great but slow) and I found myself constantly having to swap in the traveling amour just to clear a tiny bit of the FOW.

 

Combat is another area where it tries some really cool ideas with the stances which can be super satisfying but also incredibly frustrating (especially when getting hit is pretty punishing and the game repeatedly doesn't react to input). And the way you access all the different tools is so clunky, I didn't use half of them.

 

The biggest issue is the pacing though. It's such a slow start and is not helped by not being able to skip some of the splash/mission name screens (or moreso when you complete one). And every quest requires so much riding/walking before anything happens. Main story is pretty meh, which isn't helped by Lord Shimura being so unlikeable. The 'companion' tales are great though and is where the game is at.

 

Lots of these bits are quality of life changes as much as anything so I think of they improve on these, the sequel should be brilliant. Seen lots of people comparing AC Shadows to it (which looks disappointing so far) but they seem quite different in approach. And GoT benefits from not having the history that AC does because it does lots of what AC games do, and often not as well, but isn't criticised whereas AC games are.

 

[Libertine]

Just finished my nth play through of MGS2. Now onto Snake Eater to get ready for the remake. Then probably will do Peace Walker. 

[Zear0]

On 29/08/2024 at 10:56, RoboFox said:

 

When I say "Immersive sim", I mean as the genre, which Prey definitely is.

 

• Immersion in an elaborate and believable game world.
• Simulation: physics and AI are used to create believable behavior in objects and characters which the player can freely interact with, resulting in 'emergent gameplay'.
• First-person perspective so as to truly look through the eyes of the protagonist.
• Game design that allows for multiple paths and/or multiple solutions in every situation.
• A systemic game world that keeps track of the player's actions, which can affect the "whole" game.
• Open-ended/non-linear game design with an emphasis on choice and consequence.
• Full control over the player's character in every situation.
• A world with consistent rules that the player can interact with.
• Narrative that is not always forced on the player, but instead can be told through exploration and gameplay at that players will.

 

Bioshock is a spiritual successor to System Shock which IMO is the OG "Immersive Sim" made by Looking Glass Studios. My favourite game ever - Thief was made by the same studio. The Dishonored series was made by many of the same core team after Looking Glass went bust and they moved to Arkane (and IMO is the spiritual successor to Thief). Arkane also made Prey. 

 

The Bethesda RPGs share a lot of the same DNA via ex-Looking Glass developers too. 

 

Games like Far Cry, Ghost Recon, Assassins Creed aren't immersive at all IMO. They're just huge empty worlds full of endless arbitrary content. 

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/alan-wake-and-control-film-and-television-rights-acquired-by-annapurna

 

Some good news for you and @Finnegan

[Lako42]

Consolidation of all these 'entertainment' threads has killed all discussion on gaming. 

 

 

[HoustonFox]

On 09/09/2024 at 16:44, Lako42 said:

Consolidation of all these 'entertainment' threads has killed all discussion on gaming. 

 

 

I struggled to find it and now they are all distributed 

[Daggers]

On 09/09/2024 at 22:44, Lako42 said:

Consolidation of all these 'entertainment' threads has killed all discussion on gaming. 

 

 

Yep. Not a fan.

[Mark]

On 09/09/2024 at 22:44, Lako42 said:

Consolidation of all these 'entertainment' threads has killed all discussion on gaming. 

 

 

Gaming forum had been quite for a while and at the time of merging the music and gaming topics into here, their hadn’t been a post in gaming for almost a week. This tends to happen though when there are more large topics, like if everything associated with PS5 including games is all in one topic, but there are specific topics for music as has been the case then gaming topics will be outnumbered. But everything PS5 doesn’t need to be in one topic, likewise everything TV doesn’t have to be in one singular topic - I’ve left this open as I don’t mind I have always read the large tv and film topics and if you prefer large all in one topics I’m not forcing change, but I thought this might encourage more opening of topics related to specific games, tv, film etc

[Lako42]

1 hour ago, Mark said:

Gaming forum had been quite for a while and at the time of merging the music and gaming topics into here, their hadn’t been a post in gaming for almost a week. This tends to happen though when there are more large topics, like if everything associated with PS5 including games is all in one topic, but there are specific topics for music as has been the case then gaming topics will be outnumbered. But everything PS5 doesn’t need to be in one topic, likewise everything TV doesn’t have to be in one singular topic - I’ve left this open as I don’t mind I have always read the large tv and film topics and if you prefer large all in one topics I’m not forcing change, but I thought this might encourage more opening of topics related to specific games, tv, film etc

Personally preferred it before. Easier to find what I'm actually interested in 

[kingcarr21]

3 hours ago, Mark said:

Gaming forum had been quite for a while and at the time of merging the music and gaming topics into here, their hadn’t been a post in gaming for almost a week. This tends to happen though when there are more large topics, like if everything associated with PS5 including games is all in one topic, but there are specific topics for music as has been the case then gaming topics will be outnumbered. But everything PS5 doesn’t need to be in one topic, likewise everything TV doesn’t have to be in one singular topic - I’ve left this open as I don’t mind I have always read the large tv and film topics and if you prefer large all in one topics I’m not forcing change, but I thought this might encourage more opening of topics related to specific games, tv, film etc

Agree with Lako, much prefer how it was before. Ive found myself forgetting that gaming threads even exist 

[Zear0]

Might help if there was just a gaming thread covering all maybe?  Releases are so far and few between at the moment, the PC master race, Nintendo, PS and xbox thread split doesn't help chatting about games.  There's just a single film thread after all.

Edited Thursday at 12:39 by Zear0

[Legend_in_blue]

FF7 Rebirth is a fantastic game.  I can see myself sinking hours and hours into this game.  I didn't leave Kalm until doing all 3 rounds of Queens Blood and the final round took 4 tries 

 

4 hours later and I'm finally in the grasslands.

[HoustonFox]

7 hours ago, Mark said:

Gaming forum had been quite for a while and at the time of merging the music and gaming topics into here, their hadn’t been a post in gaming for almost a week. This tends to happen though when there are more large topics, like if everything associated with PS5 including games is all in one topic, but there are specific topics for music as has been the case then gaming topics will be outnumbered. But everything PS5 doesn’t need to be in one topic, likewise everything TV doesn’t have to be in one singular topic - I’ve left this open as I don’t mind I have always read the large tv and film topics and if you prefer large all in one topics I’m not forcing change, but I thought this might encourage more opening of topics related to specific games, tv, film etc

Appreciate that insight Mark. 
 

Gaming has been quiet because everyone is waiting for the new FIFA 

 

(or if you are @Finnegan - some massive new mindblowing open world RPG).  🤣
 

Personally I finally started playing God of War (2018) so I’m way behind! LOL 

[spacemunky]

I finally finished Uncharted 4. 

 

 

[FoxyPV]

Space marine 2

 

I am garbage at this game