I also don’t buy his take that the game started development in 2016, this is what was big culturally in 2016, and the team just retreated into a bunker until launch and didn’t have any way to course correct.

That’s not how game development works. I guarantee the headcount for this project didn’t peak in 2016 and stay steady. This was a low-priority item on a few people’s kanban boards for a couple years, probably had multiple starts, dead-ends, and reinventions.

I have to think Sony saw the writing on the wall, pushed the project out the door because they didn’t think it would get any better barring significant reinvestment, and braced for the impact. I credit them just a tiny bit for not writing it off on their taxes and canning the project like Hollywood has been doing lately.

I don’t have downvote arrows in either my browser or Jerboa on Android.

Fair points, but I can’t participate in this thread because I’m on an instance that doesn’t allow down votes. The up vote solution is at least a bit more inclusive

As someone who actually played these games on the Genesis and Sega CD, I’m guessing someone said, “We need to compete with the Mortal Kombat movies. Find me another fighting game franchise that’s got the same level of violence. Bonus points if there hasn’t been a new game in 30 years so we won’t piss off as many nerds when we butcher the lore.”

And it might work. As much as I enjoyed the games back in the day, it really doesn’t take up much space in my brain. I really wouldn’t lose any sleep if it bombed.

I don’t think many adult games can afford mocap though. Typically the adult content is purely animated models.

Hey that’s me! I coasted through high school and got to college having no work ethic or ability to really study material that I almost, but not quite, had down. Dropped out senior year to work in IT, got fired a year later, and had to move back in with my parents for almost a year before I went back and finished my degree and got a new job.

It was very humbling

Because many of us remember before that, when Valve revolutionized the single player first person genre again and again with the Portal and mainline Half-Life games.

Any other dev would have capitalized on the massive interest in a sequel or at least sold off the property so someone else could have continued those franchises.

…Irish car bombs have Bailey’s Irish Cream and possibly coffee liqueur in them. Many people would say that’s a pretty sweet drink.

You sure you’re not thinking of an Irish Boilermaker? That’s just a beer with Irish whiskey.

On old gen consoles, yes. On PC, it was merely a rough launch, not the industry shattering event it was made out to be.

(First off, the last gen versions were a shit show and I fully believe CDPR should have bit the bullet and cancelled those preorders. That was a failure at the high levels, not with the devs. This is about the PC version:)

Hey yo, I’m one of those idiots that gave it a good review, and that was day one. Yeah, it had a bad launch, but I’d argue it was no worse than No Man’s Sky, or Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, or The Witcher 3. All of the above are some of my favorite games of all time.

If you don’t like the core game, cool. Agree to disagree. But the things that people love about the game now have been in there since 1.0. Sure, there are genuine criticisms to be made, but most of the hate this game got has either been patched out or was pure bandwagon hate to begin with.

Yeah, I just set it up because I don’t want Meta’s shit on my phone and my friend group insists on using WhatsApp. I still had to install the native WhatsApp client but I was able to remove it as soon as I had confirmed the account creation. It also means I can stop giving out my cell number when I want to meet someone from Facebook Marketplace to buy something.

They advise against removing the apps on your phone, but at the least, you can turn off notifications for everything other than Beeper and use it as a single interface. On the desktop app, it makes a bit more sense. I’ve stopped running the Telegram, Signal, and Google Chat apps. I just wish Google Voice played nice with integrations and could be added to the platform.

They should cut a trailer for Terminator 2 that hides the twist that Arnold is playing a good guy this time. They originally wanted to keep it out if the marketing but Arnold was a much bigger draw since the first movie and the studio wouldn’t let it be a surprise.

Can you imagine how epic that mall hallway shootout scene would have been if you went into it blind?

The actors don’t look like they’re having fun. I commented in another thread that they seem to be attempting to make a Guardians of the Galaxy style movie, but chemistry between the actors and director were critical for those movies.

Bro, we lost that fight. I was watching a Youtube video of a guy clearing games from his Steam backlog and introduced one with, “So, many of you watching probably weren’t alive when this game came out. Everyone talks about what a classic this is, but I don’t think I’ve met anyone who has actually played this game.”

I died a little inside when it turned out he was talking about the first Half-Life.

I think it’s a textbook Your Mileage May Vary game (pun mildly intended if you’ve played it). You have to have the tolerance for Kojima running wild and doing his thing, and it only works if you are engaged in the core gameplay loop, but if both are true, it’s easily a 70+ hour game. The Director’s Cut was the second game I ever took the time to Platinum.

I don’t think this trailer will sell many new players on the experience if they weren’t down for the first one, but I’m excited to play the sequel. Seems like it’s going to land some real gut punches.

There’s also an extended Gameplay Reveal on WoD’s Youtube Channel. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but the trailer hasn’t blown my mind. That dialog interaction looked so flat. Still, VtMB 1 had its own share of jank.

I’ll still reserve judgement until I can get my hands on it.

Remember that a huge number of Steam accounts exclusively play Free to Play games and spend no money at all. 6 of the Top 10 Most Played on Steam right now are F2P games and only one is from this year.

Going to second Midnight Suns. I’m a big XCOM fan, and while there were a lot of differences, it still scratched that same multi-genre itch.

I also played (in no specific order):

Hitman - World of Assassination - A whole hell of a lot of game in one package. Definitely the highlight of the series if it is your type of game.

Horizon Burning Shores - A worthwhile reason to go back to Horizon Forbidden West, though it was over sooner than I’d like. I’d feel better about the length if it was easier to miss the story, but anyone who goes from Forbidden West to the next game without playing Burning Shores might be caught off guard by the new character. (And I’mma be mad if they don’t bring back the new character!)

Death Stranding: Director’s Cut - Another YMMV game that will suck you in if you like good progression mechanics and don’t mind a slightly slower pace. And Hideo Kojima being Hideo Kojima.

Crisis Core - FFVII Reunion - You know the old school parenting style of making your kid smoke a pack of cigarettes so they want to wretch every time they catch a whiff of them? I accidentally did that to myself with JRPGs during the PS1 era. I thought maybe Crisis Core could coast by on nostalgia factor because I was able to enjoy FFVII Remake. Crisis Core was a big stinker though. The story hits every bad JRPG/anime trope you can think of (fucking Genesis… WOOF), and the quest design seems designed to embrace pointless backtracking and tedium.

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty - I will argue until I’m blue in the face that while the PS4 and Xbox Series Whatever was a shitshow, the PC launch of CP2077 in 2020 was only a bit rocky. All the praises that people have been singing about the game since 2.0 and Phantom Liberty? They’re praising the same elements that have made the game great since Day 1. It’s just not sandwiched between T-poses and occasional CTDs any more. PC veterans who lived through rough launches of great games (like Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines or, hell, Witcher 3!) were right at home. The Phantom Liberty Expansion was a great excuse to revisit Night City and remember why I fell in love with the game three years ago.

Slay the Spire - Because I’m going to hit A20 and kill the Heart with Silent eventually, goddammit.

Baldur’s Gate 3 - Because best $50 I spent in 2020.

No Man’s Sky - I waited until this year to pick up NMS and this was another one that sucked me in for a solid couple months. Hello Games has sunk years into making this game a great bang for your buck if you like exploration and building.

I played the balls out of the Dead Rising series through the third game. Definitely check out 2 if you like the first one. Off the Record is a fun retread of the second game if you take a break before playing it. 3 was a bit poorer received at launch, but on an SSD, it’s still a damn fun game.

Never got around to the 4th game. It sounded pretty soulless from the reviews

He will not be the first. Here is a good run down. Ironically, Ali isn’t even the first Luke Cage villain to get a second role. Alfre Woodard played the grieving mother who convinced Tony to kick off the events of Civil War.

Gemma Chan was arguably highest profile in terms of plot importance if you don’t count Agents of Shield and the Netflix shows… She played a named bad guy in Captain Marvel, then Sersi in Eternals. You’ve also Michelle Yeoh who played a Ravager in Guardians 2, and Shang Chi’s aunt. A bunch more had voice/CGI roles for their second appearance, like Linda Cardellini or Benedict Cumberbatch.