RMWeb Gamer's Lounge.

[Classsix T]

Polished off Stray pretty rapidly last weekend, it's not a long game anyway but as I was able to play it for next to nothing (a not specifically related subscription fee) I don't begrudge it that. Found it quite a delightful gaming experience and would be thrilled if Blue Twelve expand on it. 8/10.

 

I'm now in something of a 'between games' quandary. Yuh, First World problems huh? Various "incoming" titles seem to be shifting back as development pressures start to take effect which is no bad thing to take care of a steadily increasing backlog.

 

Without checking my notes, it might be prudent on my part to complete A Plague Tale next as I believe the sequel to that might be the first new game out of the traps in a couple or more months.

Still, not a bad place to be that there's a shed load of top rated stuff on the drives to tide me over before the 'new & shiny' product drops.

 

C6T.

[Reorte]

1 hour ago, Classsix T said:

Polished off Stray pretty rapidly last weekend, it's not a long game anyway but as I was able to play it for next to nothing (a not specifically related subscription fee) I don't begrudge it that. Found it quite a delightful gaming experience and would be thrilled if Blue Twelve expand on it. 8/10.

Nice game, short, but didn't feel like it was lacking for that, did pay the normal price for it which is a bit too much, but without wanting to give anything away the ending fell rather flat for me.

[Classsix T]

9 hours ago, Reorte said:

Nice game, short, but didn't feel like it was lacking for that, did pay the normal price for it which is a bit too much, but without wanting to give anything away the ending fell rather flat for me.

Do you think the ending is deliberately open ended? I mean as far as I know Stray is a one-off. But I couldn't help thinking that the protagonist's story is hardly concluded.

 

C6T.

[Reorte]

9 hours ago, Classsix T said:

Do you think the ending is deliberately open ended? I mean as far as I know Stray is a one-off. But I couldn't help thinking that the protagonist's story is hardly concluded.

It definitely feels that way, which is a big part of why I felt it fell flat for me. If there's more to come it would make sense.

[Classsix T]

As an aside, I had a wry smile on my face at the breakdancing Companions in Midtown, none of which were doing robotics...the irony!

 

And in the made-up future, I might not be around, but someone will be able to play my Streetsounds Electro cassettes on an appropriate sound system, with auto "reverce" no less!

 

 

C6T.

[SHMD]

...needs an aerial!

 

 

Kev.

[Classsix T]

9 minutes ago, SHMD said:

...needs an aerial!

 

 

Kev.

Low angle picture, it's hidden in the slot where the pop-up handle resides!

 

C6T.

[SHMD]

...nice to see the tape-to-tape recording feature faithfully reproduced.

 

 

Kev.

[Classsix T]

10 minutes ago, SHMD said:

...nice to see the tape-to-tape recording feature faithfully reproduced.

 

 

Kev.

Sure, but the inclusion of a 'phono' button suggests cobbling together of assets, maybe of a hi-fi amp? None of the boom boxes I knew of had RCA jacks for plugging in a turntable.

 

Truth be told though I never had the money at the time for such kit. One kid at skool had a box with miniature keyboard on the front. Lugging a sodding geet radio around always seemed to be a major hassle though because of the huge amount of batteries they required!

 

C6T.

[MJI]

14 hours ago, Classsix T said:

Sure, but the inclusion of a 'phono' button suggests cobbling together of assets, maybe of a hi-fi amp? None of the boom boxes I knew of had RCA jacks for plugging in a turntable.

 

Truth be told though I never had the money at the time for such kit. One kid at skool had a box with miniature keyboard on the front. Lugging a sodding geet radio around always seemed to be a major hassle though because of the huge amount of batteries they required!

 

C6T.

 

Somewhere in the garage is a portable hifi with turntable

[Classsix T]

Being essentially a stealth-em-up I fully expected A Plague Tale: Innocence to take a considerable amount of time to complete, as it happens I was done and dusted after 14 hours.

Game world is truly beautiful to look at and the multiple asset handling of the rat swarms is impressive (played the 4k/60 PS5 version). Thoroughly enjoyed the small part of the game playing as Hugo.

Weapon wheel combat could be tricky, might have been something to have the L-R directional buttons for quick switching of ammo types.

Good game though and looking forward to the sequel in October.

 

 

C6T.

[Classsix T]

A couple of Kotaku's staffers discuss the exact same point Reorte and myself had with Stray's ending, suffice to say SPOILER ALERT if you intend to play it:

https://kotaku.com/stray-ending-explained-b12-bluetwelve-cat-annapurna-1849366887

 

Personally I gravitate towards respect of what I've been given by creatives and try not to get embroiled in personal takes. I'll critique poorly executed art, but I don't think I can accuse Blue Twelve of that. More that my own expectations of a conclusion to the game were left hanging on the understanding this was a one-off story that didn't have a (on reflection) Disney ending.

 

There's absolutely no reason for it to end the way I might've liked of course. Horizon Forbidden West absolutely cues itself up for the next installment, but that's to be expected in a hugely successful franchise.

 

Stray's ending is a little more like the end of Bladerunner perhaps? Inconclusive and leaves the viewer wondering what happened next, not necessarily in a bad way. I just hope if there is another part to Stray it won't take as long as it took to receive BR2048.

 

C6T.

[Classsix T]

Further to the above, I will point out I do have major grief with Peter Jackson's LotR movies, in that in every single cliffhanger situation the giant eagles save the day. To the point one wonders why they just didn't give the Ring of Power to an eagle to plop straight into Mt. Doom.

 

But it probably wouldn't make a bunch of profitable movies to do it like that.

 

C6T.

[Classsix T]

Ambulance chasing legal team face-plant into the rear doors, ActiBlizz, for one time only perhaps, not the bad guy:

https://kotaku.com/call-of-duty-cod-infinite-warfare-sean-brooks-lawsuit-1849377479

 

Lol! C6T.

[Reorte]

20 hours ago, Classsix T said:

Further to the above, I will point out I do have major grief with Peter Jackson's LotR movies, in that in every single cliffhanger situation the giant eagles save the day. To the point one wonders why they just didn't give the Ring of Power to an eagle to plop straight into Mt. Doom.

 

But it probably wouldn't make a bunch of profitable movies to do it like that.

It's true to the book in that regard, so the problem exists there. People have discussed it often enough, IIRC there was some reason given, not that I can remember what it was.

[Reorte]

22 hours ago, Classsix T said:

Personally I gravitate towards respect of what I've been given by creatives and try not to get embroiled in personal takes. I'll critique poorly executed art, but I don't think I can accuse Blue Twelve of that. More that my own expectations of a conclusion to the game were left hanging on the understanding this was a one-off story that didn't have a (on reflection) Disney ending.

 

Hmm, that's starting to run up against one of my grumbles! Talking generally I'm rather bored of all too many things getting worked up about a "Disney" ending and thus having to chuck in some negatives (often rather contrived) just for the sake of avoiding it. Doing that has become so common it's more of a cliche now and more expected than the opposite.

[Classsix T]

3 hours ago, Reorte said:

 

Hmm, that's starting to run up against one of my grumbles! Talking generally I'm rather bored of all too many things getting worked up about a "Disney" ending and thus having to chuck in some negatives (often rather contrived) just for the sake of avoiding it. Doing that has become so common it's more of a cliche now and more expected than the opposite.

Well, as a "Disney ending" I guess I meant "happily ever after"? I guess that's kinda old fashioned these days though as cinema especially seems reluctant to actually end on a positive note.

But I wonder if that's a specifically formulaic thing driven by Marvel. We're deliberately gonna end this on a downer to get the rubes in for the next movie.

 

I'd actually appreciate once in a while an ending to a movie or game that neatly bow tied everything and left me with a sense of satisfactory conclusion, rather than, I best see if there are teasers after the credits have rolled.

 

C6T.

[Reorte]

8 hours ago, Classsix T said:

Well, as a "Disney ending" I guess I meant "happily ever after"? I guess that's kinda old fashioned these days though as cinema especially seems reluctant to actually end on a positive note.

But I wonder if that's a specifically formulaic thing driven by Marvel. We're deliberately gonna end this on a downer to get the rubes in for the next movie.

 

I'd actually appreciate once in a while an ending to a movie or game that neatly bow tied everything and left me with a sense of satisfactory conclusion, rather than, I best see if there are teasers after the credits have rolled.

"Happily ever after" was rather tiresome because it was such a common cliche. Hard to have much in the way of drama when you know it's going to end like that. But nowadays the opposite is all rather too common to the point where it's more a surprise when that doesn't happen. Which isn't any better from the drama point of view, plus it's more depressing, and the real world provides enough of that. When it comes to games though there's a storytelling medium where a fixed outcome definitely does not have to be set in stone.

 

I don't really mind it happening after the credits if it must, although that's a bit irritating. It can work though, because you don't always know it's going to be there.

[Classsix T]

Rum do's in PlayStation land at the weekend made me almost feel like a PC owner! But I didn't have to call testical support, so bullet dodged.

 

I required something to dip into Sunday night, no shooting, no thinking...just spit some pixels on screen and whatever...entertain me. I booted up the PS5 (as the primary device) and not seeing anything installed I fancied then checked out the Library which should also include titles purchased (through PSStore even if not installed on that specific hardware). Huh, Need for Speed, ideal!

I then had to remember which console had my NFS titles installed...ah on the HDD in the PS4, boots up PS4...

So there's Need for Speed (platinumed), NFS Payback and NFS Rivals... didn't I have NFS Heat!?

 

So checked both consoles installed games again, I found NFS Heat dlc but no main game. Logged into PSStore to check the status of the main game and it had a "Download" button. Pressed it, error! Code was CE-38605-2 (this game is already installed). Clicking that took me to the PlayStation support website...that informed me they didn't know the code! FFS!

 

Internet to the rescue, a Google search of the error code took me to a Reddit page that thankfully solved the issue, because apparently the people who own a Playstation know more than the people who make them.

 

And yes it took ages to download a game I already had then a bit longer to delete the (duplicate) game I had but couldn't play.

 

I then played a couple of hours of an at times pretty ropey looking game in between shaking my fist at the moon... because technology.

 

The End.

 

C6T.

[Classsix T]

On 06/08/2022 at 10:47, Reorte said:

When it comes to games though there's a storytelling medium where a fixed outcome definitely does not have to be set in stone.

Absolutely and wonderfully in the game medium we're also not unfamiliar with multiple endings to the same story. However my mind is lodged in reality and how the games industry can work. For example:

Deus Ex, left hanging after the second act of what many fans took to be a three-parter when the Publisher sat on the IP (hopefully resolved).

 

Mass Effect...um, yeah.

 

MA: Andr...well, you see where I'm going with that.

 

Point being that most games players (as opposed to "gamerz") realise that a lot of titles will deliberately have open endings because we're familiar with the concept of the Publisher or studio heads expecting dlc/expansion or a sequel to a profitable title.

 

I think some cinema and streaming TV series has unfortunately fallen into that trap.

 

Indie game houses though shouldn't be like that. I checked House House's website after being left deflated by Strays ending...if there's gonna be an Untitled Goose Game 2, they aren't saying. Nor do they need to. It's a charming little game but it ends when it does.

 

Maybe I don't care enough about geese, but I sure as hell wanna know what the little ginger mog does next!

 

C6T.

[Classsix T]

Goat Simulator blows (imo), Untitled Goose Game was marvellous fun and Stray rocks...ladies and gentlemen, if this animal protagonist in development title doesn't run on hardware I already own... I'll be buying more hardware:

https://kotaku.com/squirrel-with-a-gun-indie-ue5-steam-pc-viral-clip-1849406574

 

C6T.

[Classsix T]

Dovetail appear to be going down the EA sports title route, less than 13 months after TSW2 you'll be able to buy it all over again!

 

Big ticket addition seems to be dynamic weather.

TSW2 stuff will transfer across apparently (though I'd still have to stump up for PS5 specific add-ons or settle for PS4 dlc and game).

 

C6T.

[Reorte]

Is it supposedly a completely new game or the same one updated, like Train Simulator 20xx is, where you get the new version every year without paying, although not any new routes or stock that would get bundled with it if you were buying from scratch?

[big jim]

Spotted a real life mario and Luigi in Doncaster earlier! 
 

[Kelly]

On 09/08/2022 at 22:30, Classsix T said:

Absolutely and wonderfully in the game medium we're also not unfamiliar with multiple endings to the same story. However my mind is lodged in reality and how the games industry can work. For example:

Deus Ex, left hanging after the second act of what many fans took to be a three-parter when the Publisher sat on the IP (hopefully resolved).

 

 

 

 

 

Deus Ex and Tomb Raider are both now owned by Embracer group, so they will probably make new games in the coming years. Square Enix had decided both were not worth continuing with and moved to focus on their 'Games as a Service' games and Japanse RPGs, so sold off almost all their Western IPs to Embracer. Embracer now owns a LOT of developers/studios.