^ Looks good. Definitely a souls game (it's got everything). The graphics are fine (much better than DS3 though not next gen), but the sound design could  be improved IMHO.

 

Demon's Souls remake (made by bluepoint) had an awesome good sound design (swords/shields' sounds and limbs cracking, etc.)

 

1 hour ago, Enrico_sw said:

^ Looks good. Definitely a souls game (it's got everything). The graphics are fine (much better than DS3 though not next gen), but the sound design could  be improved IMHO.

 

Demon's Souls remake (made by bluepoint) had an awesome good sound design (swords/shields' sounds and limbs cracking, etc.)

 

The Bluepoint Demon souls has the best graphics of all souls games- however the gameplay predates the original Dark Souls-  so it's bit like you get the great graphics but older and less developed gameplay than DS III.

 

IMHO Elden Ring has some strong points that are related to the open world and more freedom of movement.  The enemies are very diverse and benefit from using the move sets from across the entire franchise. 

 

However a place where I think they took a step backward is 1. the Music  2. The artistic qualites and densities of the backdrops.   This might be related to how in an open world they no longer load or develop maps that as detailed.  So far I like how DS3 looks more, however in terms of gameplay Elden Ring could be superior.

On 1/30/2022 at 1:23 AM, Cult Icon said:

 

Yeah, this was revealed on reddit, also the slate of firings after the Cyberpunk fiasco.

 

Did you know that the studio that made the great Bioshock games also had serious trouble (Bioshock Infinite had a lot of development troubles).  After the game was made, the studio was shut down.  That's sad as if the development of the game went well, we'd have Bioshock 4.

 

Ken Levine has also gone off to do his own thing, but his new game has been in development hell for years now.

3 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

Ken Levine has also gone off to do his own thing, but his new game has been in development hell for years now.

 

Too bad that this big success didn't lead to greater things.  With the Bioshock series I felt that we had a director here, from the West, that could have been a star. Other great directors have gotten into trouble.  The Polish guy responsible for Witcher 1-3, Cyberpunk got fired.  Kojima hasn't done much since his own production studio created Death Stranding and had mediocre success.

 

Kojima, is  still one of the most hyped directors in gaming.  For about 15+ years I considered him to be the most talented director in gaming.  Every game he made was very innovative and stretched boundaries of what is possible.  However his successes were always backed by the weight of Konami corporation.

 

It seems that after so much success, his ego grew large and he grew very sick with the Metal Gear franchise.  MGS5 went overbudget & had he development quarrels with his higher ups, leaving him to leave the company to start his own production studio.  Death Stranding was also highly innovative and high quality but a passion project that showed a disconnect with gamers.  It's almost like he was making the game for himself and because he was sick of making games with guns.

 

Miyazi (FROMSOFT) seems to have overtaken Kojima now, with all these Souls-like games.  It is interesting to me how his projects are innovative but also risk-adverse (he reuses a lot of the same assets over and over again). That comes across as a smart move for career longevity.

I haven't really played many triple A games recently.

 

Probably the last one was AC Odyssey.

So that is years ago.

 

When I do play nowadays it tends to be more indie or smaller studio content.

Sasha was the motion-capture model for Jill in RE3 and literally leveraged this flash-in the pan to the max, becoming a hot-girl gamer streamer.  Before this she was a fashion model.

 

Goes to show what a crappy industry modeling is for most.

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/SashaZotova/videos

9 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

I haven't really played many triple A games recently.

 

Probably the last one was AC Odyssey.

So that is years ago.

 

When I do play nowadays it tends to be more indie or smaller studio content.

 

what games

 

Dying Light 2 has come out

 

 

6 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

 

what games

 

Dying Light 2 has come out

 

XCOM 2

Wasteland 3

Crusader Kings III

Desperados III

 

I do remember that I did play a few more bigger games released after AC:O

Control & the Resident Evil 3 remake.

17 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

XCOM 2

Wasteland 3

Crusader Kings III

Desperados III

 

I do remember that I did play a few more bigger games released after AC:O

Control & the Resident Evil 3 remake.

 

I am not familar with those titles (the contents that is).  I have heard of them though.

 

Are you tired of the big games recently?

Shenmue anime coming out.  I had Shenmue on Dreamcast back in the day.  When it was developed, at the time it was the most expensive video game ever made and it really stretched boundaries in its open world.  Both Shenmue 1 and 2 were great.  Shemue 3 was in development hell for ages as funding for its development was very slowly crowd sourced.  I heard the final product, which came of recently, was disappointing.

 

 

looks like this anime movie is based on Shenmue 1, which takes place in Japan.  Shenmue 2 takes place in China.

5 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

 

I am not familar with those titles (the contents that is).  I have heard of them though.

 

Are you tired of the big games recently?

 

Yeah, it's so rarely that I play something that really impresses me or makes me think "oh wow that is truly original".

The consolidation of the gaming industries within a small handful of companies has been bad for innovation imho.

6 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

Yeah, it's so rarely that I play something that really impresses me or makes me think "oh wow that is truly original".

The consolidation of the gaming industries within a small handful of companies has been bad for innovation imho.

 

You bring up a good point.

 

I feel like most of the real innovation in gaming occurred when I was growing up- up to the PS2 generation.  From the PS3 generation onward gaming seemed to be more about making the same type of game over and over again, but with ever increasing graphics and production values.   This is despite the massive size of the gaming industry.  One would think that with exponentially more funds that innovation would make big leaps, but in reality this additional money is eaten up by producers.

 

There seems to be a lot more corruption in the gaming industry (big gaming making jobs for the sake of it, bad and explotiive relationships between producers and consumers).  The Cyberpunk business story comes across as a cesspool of corruption and egos screwing up what was once an outstanding company.

 

As a result there seems to be a few good games made a year but rarely great ones that push boundaries.  Maybe since 2010 there were only on average, less than one great game a year.

Well the Cyberpunk story is sad because it was the corporate side of the company that pushed through its release even though it wasn't near completion.

The creative side was rightly angry when it was subsequently revealed how disastrous that turned out to be for the company's reputation. The release should have been pushed back by at least a year.

 

But that is part of the equation, since these entities are now largely controlled by people who don't care much about the medium, just about how much money they can make from it.

I also saw photos of their headquarters.  Literally it was originally a small company, occupying one floor and then it took over the office complex lol.  Big company, eating money..

 

CD Project Red seems to have really bit off more than it could chew (too ambitious) since they essentially tried to do something new.  With W1-W3 they built off of prior work to finally achieve the greatness that was W3.   However as I watched the whole game I still felt like something was off.  They spent so many years to make the most expensive game ever made (and with a big staff of talent) but the result was underwhelming, more like a normal AAA title with higher production values in areas, and a lot of bugs.  Where was the megabucks going into?  

 

I still remember the days where games were usually released without any significant bugs or significant areas that are incomplete, now it is more commonplace.

 

This looks interesting

 

hacked the Elden ring network test, fighting the wifu Melina