I’d already left a couple of reviews on re5 and re revelations expressing my discontent. But otherwise there are more older collections that actually have that drm applied.
Unfortunately, we still have work to do to rightsize our company and I regret having to share that we are taking the painful step to reduce our headcount by just over 500 people across Twitch.
Absolutely hate that "rightsizing" is a term. It's called downsizing and it will have negative impacts on Twitch users, Twitch as a platform, and the 500 Twitch employees that will be out of a job now.
Maybe Twitch should be "rightsizing" CEO and Executive Suite salaries?
While I’m sure there will be a lot of false starts with this tech and it will take a while to iron out the kinks, I’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time. This will probably be similar to the switch from small, limited world maps in games to expansive open-worlds. It’s going to be a massive boost to immersion and will probably lead to some hilarious bugs/unexpected behaviours. Can’t wait!
It will be interesting for sure, but let’s not fool ourselves into believing that NPCs with AI behaviours will be better in all cases like modern game players seem to with open world game design.
Not every game needs an open world, and in some cases open world game design can end up doing more harm than good. This will be something that developers should look at on a game by game basis, and not a default plugin that everyone uses for every NPC in their game.
This will probably be similar to the switch from small, limited world maps in games to expansive open-worlds.
Interesting comparison, because I'd argue that that switch has, lately, been worse more often than it's been better, and that a lot of games would have been far better off if they stuck to the more limited equivalent.
I agree, huge open worlds are often exhausting for me, and the developer need to fill it often ends up with cheap copy and past Ubisoft methods (collectibles, etc)
If Skyrim was the size of say, Assassins Creed Odyssey, it would’ve honestly suffered horribly, largely because one of Skyrims best features was the fact that their map was handcrafted and full of detail and secrets.
Sure you can add secrets to a procgen map, but that developer process that lead to the best ones are largely gone.
On the contrary, I’d expect individual NPCs to be refined first. Like if the cast of Baldur’s Gate 3 was mostly improvising. Or if you had a halfway genuine friendship with your buddy Superfly.
That is actually an excellent point! I’m imagining a Lydia from Skyrim who would actually comment on your actual quest progression without just resorting to canned responses.
Or lean into that passive-aggressive vibe the actress took. She got assigned to some half-naked cat who stumbled into town smelling like an execution, five minutes after he killed a creature of legend. There’s a bit of Commander Kiff in that “I am sworn to carry your burdens.”
On the other hand - I don’t do tagalongs. I sat her ass in Breezehome as it got larger, fancier, and piled high with obscenely rare weaponry. It was kinda sad every time she stands up like we’re gonna go somewhere. Lydia, honey - this is your house. I use the chests, the bookshelves, and the gratuitous enchanting table that might actually be a mod. Go hook up with Farkas in one sense or other. I should come in and find you drunk on mead, out in some dungeon, or improvising whatever a sock on the doorknob is for a culture that has neither.
I haven’t read the article but this headline gave me an idea. In future tech/cyberpunk settings, humans and cyborgs should be animated convincingly like real life humans, perhaps with slight differences to accentuate the cybernetics. Robots should be as they are in real life too. Androids should be varying degrees of Bethesda npc. The variations would be based on the in game lore or the manufacturer. So high end stuff would be more like real humans, but the Bethesda like companies can only put out Bethesda like products with spooky uncanny valley bug eyed stare through your skull faces and body doing whatever in a different direction.
After watching it, basically this. Save this specific version for later and when it improves use the new and the old together and there are your androids. Combine with traditional voice and animation for the humans. Realism out of fake looking shit.
I’m just waiting for my consciousness to be copied, uploaded, and enslaved for a hellish eternity. Like that one video game/tv show/movie/novel/short story that totally isn’t a warning of things to come /s.
This was clearly inevitable even before they chased away every customer they’ve ever had and every potential customer that has ever looked into the engine. Now that so many people have jumped ship, I would not be surprised if this was just the first of many such moves.
Fucking morons running this company, that’s for sure. Way to just give away what was easily the greatest market share that they will ever see.
My favo games from the past few years. I absolutely adored every single one of them. Sad to see them go. This final dlc is on the expensive side imo, but I got them all, just to show support. I do very much look forward to playing them.
I’m very sad they are closing shop, but I understand it.
I find their last DLC awfully expensive, but I think I’ll buy them anyway, as I really loved all their games (bought desperados 3 day 1, same for shadow gambit, and no regrets).
Their games were crafted with love, and it shows. If you haven’t, go and try them on, it’s a fun genre.
I started playing because I had nostalgia for the commandos games, but they really refined the gameplay and made the different difficulty modes so everyone can have fun.
I find their last DLC awfully expensive, but I think I’ll buy them anyway, as I really loved all their games (bought desperados 3 day 1, same for shadow gambit, and no regrets).
I find the Zagan DLC to be a bit boring, but he’s got some really interesting abilities.
Yuki is just fucking perfect, though. She might even be a little OP. Also, she adopted Kuma. It’s great.
It also carries forward her story from Shadow Tactics in an interesting way, but remains subtle enough that no one has to have played that before to enjoy her character.
I bought the DLC at full price because I’d already gotten the base game on sale (also because the DLC hasn’t gone on sale and I wanted to finish up the collection before year’s end).
Honestly, could definitely have done without the Zagan DLC. I’d only get it if you really like his abilities (they can be legitimately fun at times) and the darker tone of his story. Otherwise, no need.
Yuki was worth every cent, though.
It’s also fun chopping everyone into wood. Her passive is basically “everyone she kills turns into a block of wood that guards don’t notice or care about”.
Link up with John and Quentin/Suleidy, and you’ll never have to drag any dead body into bushes or throw them in the ocean ever again.
I’m sad they’re shutting down, but glad it was their decision.
I don’t think there’s anyone who does (did) stealth tactics like them, and there aren’t a ton of games in the genre to begin with, so I’ll miss them quite a lot.
I'd personally recommend Shadow Tactics and Desperados III first, and Shadow Gambit only when you're still itching for more or if you just really love the ghost pirate setting. Shadow Gambit throws in some unnecessary repetition that I felt dragged the game down a bit compared to its predecessors.
Having just finished Shadow Gambit a few hours ago, I can kind of agree.
I loved it, but it did reach a point where it felt like it was going on too long and overusing some of the maps.
Regardless, if people prefer pirates over samurai/ninja or the Wild West, Shadow Gambit plays to its strengths and feels like an actual pirate game which takes a fair amount of inspiration from Ron Gilbert (of Monkey Island fame) and other swashbuckling adventures, which works out pretty nicely.
Quirky crew, pretty lighthearted, and doesn’t take itself all that seriously for the most part.
It’s fun, but can maybe overstay its welcome for some people. Best to play it over several sessions instead of diving into everything and rushing it, otherwise it’s going to feel a bit tedious.
After the several hours I spent on the final mission (which I mostly enjoyed, but for a few frustrating moments), I definitely feel I need a well-deserved break. I’ll get to the post-game later, which I actually do want to do at some point.
(And for the DLC, playing Shadow Tactics first and then playing the Yuki DLC for Gambit after is the best way to experience her character arc as well. I mean, it’s not super necessary, since she works fine standalone. But the relationship between her and Kuma is much sweeter once you know how it came about.)
They are the reason WotC canceled all those in-development d&d games a year and a half ago. All WOTC published games were canceled because their CEO passed away and they scrambled to find a new one. This new CEO saw all these in-development games and canceled them in an attempt to save money, and with the Dark Alliance game released the year before, they felt there was no recouping development costs.
Overall a huge bummer. I would have liked to play an immersive sim d&d game.
I'd like to live in the world where multiple devs are making D&D games in Larian's engine the way there were a handful of Infinity Engine games 20 years ago. Replaying BG3 is great, but it would be nice to have new areas, characters, and calls to action while still having the freedom to just "verb a noun" the way you can in BG3.
Larian isn’t sharing it’s engine and I feel like even if it did, a lot of studios want the creativity of building their own thing. Not just another D&D crpg top-down isometric game. A lot of the D&D games in the works were unique and took interesting risks that might have paid off.
I doubt they would sell the engine but it would be nice if we had good modding tools and map editors like in NWN for example, custom maps and campaigns could keep bg3 alive for a long time - especially considering that they have no plans for expansions afaik
I think they were implying they like their instance but wish they could downvote sometimes. My instance doesn’t allow it either, and coming from more than a decade on Reddit, it can be frustrating at times. Still, I wouldn’t leave Blahaj because my interests align with those of the instance’s owners.
I didn’t even notice this comment until now. Looking at the comment I wrote late one night, there are tons more issues than that. Hell, I spelled ‘canceled’ with 2 Ls. I appreciate it though, reminded me to run my grammar checker.
I am just an annoying grammar stickler, friend. I assume most mistakes are from typing on a mobile device or being a non-native English speaker, many times both.
My most severe gripes are the misuse and/or overuse of words like “like”, “literally”, “aggravate” and “jealousy”, or when I see “would of” instead of “would’ve”.
In a couple hundred years, the precision in English usage I pompously strain to uphold will be antiquated to the point of incomprehensibility. I admit that dying on this hill is a fool’s errand.
This, the OGL, the Pinkerton incident, the continued decline in quality products. Talk about squandering the opportunity of a lifetime with the renaissance of D&D.
polygon.com
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