Random Gaming Talk Thread

[Himu]

Good grief... I was gonna maybe pass on this game and wait for a discount, but this shit looks too good.. this may be a Day Oner...  I got a month to hopefully finish FFXVI. 



I'll be honest, I never really played an AC game.  Was always fascinated with them since the PS2 entries and only dabbled with one or two, but never sat down and sink into one for some reason.

I want it. I haven't played an Armored Core beyond the demo in PS1 for AC1.

[Svejk]

I think what detered me from the AC games of the past, is that I was too particular about the mech designs.  Like a bunch of us, we grew up with Robotech, Voltron, Tranzor Z and Gundam (if you were lucky.. I wasn't. Gundam came way later for some reason).. I did my damndest to try and draw my own hyper futuristic robot/mech, but as a kid, the skills just weren't developed yet. 

When AC came around, the designs felt so basic with little to no aesthetic flare to them (according to my memory).  Most likely that, when AC came around, I was already extremely fascinated with the hyper xenomorphic, crazy designs of Five Star Stories mechs.  I was lucky to have stumbled across FSS by randomly snagging the movie from a hole in the wall Japanese video store near my neighborhood. (Also how I discovered Project A-ko).  To this day, looking up Nagano Mamoru's designs, they are so ahead of it's time.

Holy fuck, I just found the trailer that would play after the movie I had on VHS (it was recorded from a lazer disc. lol)


OMG, This just made me tear up.. the nostalgia just pile drived the shit outta me.

Anywho, moving back to recent years, I appreciate the more down to earth mech styles of military practicality that AC has had.  What really adds to the designs now, is the minuscule animated details of ports opening and closing, gears turning, pistons pumping with steam/frost billowing out from ports... It feels like a living, breathing(?) power mech can finally be realized with so many more details that are crucial to make it feel like an immersive, functioning toy/vehicle.   Oh, and the demolition/explosions are on another level in AC6 from what they've shown.  Absolute bliss.   

Also, I'm not sure if AC games always had it, but the bullet hell type segments in this demo made me fill the cup.  After playing the supremely bad-ass Returnal, I've been yearning for more of this. 

[Bebpo]

I've played various AC's since AC1. Usually like the first new one on each new console gen.
I've never finished a single one. And I love mecha stuff.

I just never find the level design, moment by moment combat particularly compelling after a few hours. Being able to assemble your own mech is cool but I always felt like because you can do this the combat and level design could never be tightly designed because it had to allow so many different types of builds to accomplish it.

Compared to like Zone of the Enders where you have a very small movekit and the game is tightly designed around it for great action encounters. I love and finished the ZoEs, but always been lukewarm on AC and its clones.

I still don't believe the new AC will be different enough that it'll finally sell me on an AC game that I actually see through to the ending. But when it's on sale in a year I'll give it a fair shot since From Soft has greatly improved their gameplay quality in the past decade.

And yeah, Five Star Stories has amazing Nagano mech designs.

[Bebpo]

So after FF16, I think I'm gonna do FF rankings again. But I decided it's impossible to rank the games individually, so just gonna use tiers.

Top-Tier: 6/7/8/10  - 6 for all around gameplay+story+visuals even if WoR is flawed, 7 for same, 8 for ambition in both gameplay (though a bit broken) and story and best ost/aesthetic. I want another crazy FF like 8 before the end of my lifetime, 10 for story and visuals

Great-Tier: 1/5/10-2 - 1, especially the PR version, for being an ambitious fun game, great music too and story is honestly solid despite minimal, 5 for great gameplay, 10-2 for great gameplay

Good-Tier: 2/4/9/12/13-2 - 2 for being the first real narrative linear FF and having interesting fun (but insanely busted) gameplay and because the story is kinda crazy (Emperor goes to hell and comes back just to fight you again), 4 for good story and music but simple gameplay brings it down (4r on DS kinda redeems it with better combat), 9 for almost nailing it but having slow boring gameplay bringing it down, great ost and aesthetic though, 12 for being 2/3rds a great game and 1/3rd a shit last tier, 13-2 for being a lot of fun but not quite as fun as 10-2

Solid-Tier: 3/15 - 3 for having a cool job system (that's nowhere near as good as 5/10-2's job system) and airships and multiple world maps, but goddamn the endgame crystal tower shit is awful and unfun and kinda ruins it, 15 for having a fun sandbox map to run around with the bros and also an interesting story and great music, but so-so battle system and last 1/3rd is a disaster of a mess in storytelling.

Weak-Tier: 13/16 - 13 for being a slog with bad characters, bad story and no towns but having the battle system, visuals and music saving it from total worthlessness, 16 for being a slog with bad characters, bad story and no towns but having a battle system, visuals and music saving it from total worthlessness. Though 16 gets credit for having the best English VA track of a native Japanese game ever.

Missing: 13-3 because I still need to play that. The idea of Majora's Mask FF with Lightning who I dislike AND single unit only turn-based combat is just really unappealing in concept to me so I've never bothered.

[Svejk]

I've played various AC's since AC1. Usually like the first new one on each new console gen.
I've never finished a single one. And I love mecha stuff.

I just never find the level design, moment by moment combat particularly compelling after a few hours. Being able to assemble your own mech is cool but I always felt like because you can do this the combat and level design could never be tightly designed because it had to allow so many different types of builds to accomplish it.

Compared to like Zone of the Enders where you have a very small movekit and the game is tightly designed around it for great action encounters. I love and finished the ZoEs, but always been lukewarm on AC and its clones.

I still don't believe the new AC will be different enough that it'll finally sell me on an AC game that I actually see through to the ending. But when it's on sale in a year I'll give it a fair shot since From Soft has greatly improved their gameplay quality in the past decade.

And yeah, Five Star Stories has amazing Nagano mech designs.

Yeah, I'm hoping with the know how, and the amount of time they had to create levels around all sorts of builds, the designs will be a blast to play.  Also the scale they can pull off now too.. That was always a factor that would deter me.  Seems like the potential can be fully realized now. 

But I may wait in this also.  Got so much on my plate already, but it'll be hard to resist if the reviews gush over it.    What Vaati was explaining in that vid, was the replay value of trying missions with different builds and trying to achieve an S rank on missions, none of that would interest me tbh. I just want a neat story, cool bosses and have the freedom of going in and out of places; entering a base or boss to take it out from the inside and escape, a la death star style.  That may be a far stretch, but man... I want that. Lol

[Bebpo]

Oh and I guess I should count the MMOs. I never played more than a dozen hours of FFXI so no comment on that besides amazing music.

For FF14 I'd say:

Top-Tier: Heavensward/Shadowbringers - Great story, great fights, great music, great job stories, great world to explore, great music
Great-Tier: Stormblood/Endwalker, Stormblood for the fanservice and great music and gameplay and decent story, Endwalker for the good story with an epic conclusion to the series, great music, great fights
Solid-tier: A Realm Reborn - good job stories, some great fights at the time (Odin Extreme), cool world, slog of a storyline

[demi]

FF14 finally coming to Xbox. Now I can play it

[Himu]

I've played various AC's since AC1. Usually like the first new one on each new console gen.
I've never finished a single one. And I love mecha stuff.

I just never find the level design, moment by moment combat particularly compelling after a few hours. Being able to assemble your own mech is cool but I always felt like because you can do this the combat and level design could never be tightly designed because it had to allow so many different types of builds to accomplish it.

Compared to like Zone of the Enders where you have a very small movekit and the game is tightly designed around it for great action encounters. I love and finished the ZoEs, but always been lukewarm on AC and its clones.

I still don't believe the new AC will be different enough that it'll finally sell me on an AC game that I actually see through to the ending. But when it's on sale in a year I'll give it a fair shot since From Soft has greatly improved their gameplay quality in the past decade.

And yeah, Five Star Stories has amazing Nagano mech designs.

Yeah I tried the AC1 demo that came with my original PSX and...what was on there was super boring. Like you picked mech. Then you picked rollout. Then you fought mech in a forest. Or you took out mechs in some warehouse. It was really boring and forgettable iirc.

[Bebpo]

FF14 finally coming to Xbox. Now I can play it

It's good. Very, very good.

But like some of these games where you need to play "x" hours until it gets good,
you need to play like 50-70 hours before it gets good. But they keep making that 50-70 hour portion go faster and faster every year, so maybe it's more like 30 hours by this point.

Also because of the ways MMOs work, the older expansions that were great at their release time are now way less engaging because you're overpowered, your movesets are simplified and no one is doing the zone content anymore. They're still good stories, but they're not going to hit as hard as at the time of release.

[Himu]

It's an MMO and a waste of life, Demi. It takes 200 hours to get good. MMO players are weirdos. 50 hours in you'll probably choose to watch the cutscenes on youtube instead.

[Bebpo]

It's an MMO and a waste of life, Demi. It takes 200 hours to get good. MMO players are weirdos. 50 hours in you'll probably choose to watch the cutscenes on youtube instead.

I mean FF14 is essentially a single player rpg at this point with each expansion being a full fledged mainline FF game around 50 hours...

You can solo the entire games with bot party members.

[Rahxephon91]

It does not take 200 hours to get good.

If you focus on MSQ ARR is an ok 40hour-ish JRPG. Same for the other expansions.

[demi]

I'm not planning on being a MMO god gamer hardcore raider, I just want to check out the main story.

[Himu]

It does not take 200 hours to get good.

If you focus on MSQ ARR is an ok 40hour-ish JRPG. Same for the other expansions.

I couldn't get through ARR without falling asleep. Some people say it doesn't get good until even after after ARR? So, 100 hours rather than 200?

Then there's the actual gameplay. The quests are banal. Dungeons are piss poor. Being forced with dumb kids that rage ahead as a white mage made me want to die. It has good ideas that are similar to FFXII but then the rest is full of doo doo.

I've tried multiple times to get into FFXIV and just gave up. I legitimately dislike the MMO genre.

[demi]

There is a free trial that goes through the first few campaigns so I just stop playing if I lose interest. No harm no foul

[Bebpo]

It does not take 200 hours to get good.

If you focus on MSQ ARR is an ok 40hour-ish JRPG. Same for the other expansions.

I couldn't get through ARR without falling asleep. Some people say it doesn't get good until even after after ARR? So, 100 hours rather than 200?

Then there's the actual gameplay. The quests are banal. Dungeons are piss poor. Being forced with dumb kids that rage ahead as a white mage made me want to die. It has good ideas that are similar to FFXII but then the rest is full of doo doo.

I've tried multiple times to get into FFXIV and just gave up. I legitimately dislike the MMO genre.

ARR is like 50 hours or less now. Yes, it doesn't get good until after ARR. ARR is basic mmo.

The dungeons get better visually and pacing-wise and better boss fights but they are just straight lines. There is good gameplay to be had as you get closer to the level cap and have your full movekit and are doing raid fights.

I think FF14 works for even people who don't like MMOs, but yeah it's not for everyone.

[Himu]

[Himu]

You can do anything magic skeleton.

[bork]

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/exclusive-lenovo-is-working-on-a-pc-gaming-handheld-called-the-legion-go

[Coax]

This is adorable and amusing looking. Might pick this up.



Available on itch and Steam

[Himu]

kawaii

[MMaRsu]

Goddamn Baldurs Gate 3 is dope

[bork]

[Svejk]

Since BG3 is not coming to XB this year, that gives PS5 quite an edge to compete with Starfield this holiday season.

That being said, which will be the top console RPG this 2023 holiday?  Personally, I wish the tables were turned (Starfield on PS5/BG3 on XB), but it’s kinda crazy how big these titles are, and are (finally) releasing within the same window. 

Obviously, PC will be the preferred platform for both, but when it comes to console install base, I have a feeling BG3 will beat out Starfield pretty easily, with it's current hype.  Man, this year has been exciting!

[bork]

That being said, which will be the top console RPG this 2023 holiday? 

Zelda.

 

[Bebpo]

Abso-fucking-loutely*


*although BG3 sounds fantastic and maybe after playing that I'll change my mind.

[Himu]

Looks great.

[Svejk]

That being said, which will be the top console RPG this 2023 holiday? 

Zelda.

 

A WiiU caliber dlc? 

Besides, It's no more an "RPG" than FFXVI. 

[Nintex]

The two biggest holiday games will be Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Two megaton detonations.

As for Starfield I dunno, PlayStation can't seem to move many units for Final Fantasy. I think a stellar number of Starfield copies sold on Xbox but mostly PC at launch will overshadow the fact that Xbox sales won't budge much.
It'll probably convince the few remaining Xbox One / X hold-outs to upgrade to Series consoles. But the pricing of the Series S 1TB is just out of whack and the X too expensive with all the PlayStation discounts going on.

[Svejk]

The two biggest holiday games will be Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Two megaton detonations.

As for Starfield I dunno, PlayStation can't seem to move many units for Final Fantasy. I think a stellar number of Starfield copies sold on Xbox but mostly PC at launch will overshadow the fact that Xbox sales won't budge much.
It'll probably convince the few remaining Xbox One / X hold-outs to upgrade to Series consoles. But the pricing of the Series S 1TB is just out of whack and the X too expensive with all the PlayStation discounts going on.

Sales wise, yeah most likely, thanks to the roughly 7 years of an install base for Ye Olde Switcheroo.  And yeah, can't see FFXVI being a system seller at all.  It's a shame, and frankly reetarded, that Sony put more advertising and heft into FFXVI over BG3.  They're lucky that XB is so adamant about producing everything on the Series S.  Man, what a crippling requirement for devs that is.

I was just pointing out the 2 giant RPG's launching within the same week (on consoles).  Both been in the oven for well over 6 years, and lots of hype generating from both, so it'll be interesting to see what wins out as a more successful launch the remainder of the year.  I initially assumed Starfield would wipe the floor and steal the spotlight, but with PSN having BG3 as the #1 best selling pre-order now, it brought me to question how well it will do on a sole console.

[Rahxephon91]

Baldurs Gate 3 does nothing for me, just not my kind of game. I never find crpgs fun to play.

So I’m betting on Starfield.

[pilonv1]

https://twitter.com/PressStartAU/status/1689091806506754048

[tiesto]

Baldurs Gate 3 does nothing for me, just not my kind of game. I never find crpgs fun to play.

So I’m betting on Starfield.

Yeah, I feel like I'm missing out on this with all the talk but it's hard for me to get interested. I've played DND like twice in my life (and that was mostly an excuse to go over to a friend's house and get a free tasty meal and some good beer out of it), so I have barely any knowledge of the rules. CRPGs seem pretty arcane to me in terms of their gameplay (I don't like the RTS-esque point and click battle systems a lot of them use), and I also don't care for generic western fantasy settings and orcs and pretentious elves and drunken dwarf shit. The CRPGs I really enjoyed tended to have simple mechanics and unique settings - Witcher series with its Slavic lore, Disco Elysium, Planescape.

I do have a Series X, I do really like space exploration type settings, but find Bethesda games janky as hell with terrible combat/gameplay. So I don't know about Starfield.

Star Ocean 2 remake is gonna be my RPG of the year, though Trails of the Reverie is going pretty good so far.

[Svejk]

Baldurs Gate 3 does nothing for me, just not my kind of game. I never find crpgs fun to play.

So I’m betting on Starfield.

Same. BG is the type of game I'd love to get into, and is super tempting with all the hype, but I'm just not wired to soak it in the way it's meant to be played.  Playing through BG1 was a chore for me.  Love the choices, lore and atmosphere though.

[Bebpo]

crpgs are great! Combat is basically like a good tactical jrpg like BoFV or SMT. Lots of buffs, debuffs, and a huge variety of strategies you can come up with.

Like wanna throw 100% fire protection on a tank and have them buff defense and rush into a mob of enemies to be surrounded while you have 3 mages shoot off AoE fireballs nonstop to melt the entire mob? Sure.

Want to drop silence in a group of mages and then have your fighters murder them all? Yeah, that works if you can get the drop on them before they put up their magic buffs. In which case you can dispell their buffs with higher dispells.

Want to make a thief invisible and they scout out ahead and when they find a group of enemies, they lay down traps and then get behind the biggest enemy and backstab them for 5x damage while the traps go off and melt all the enemies? Let's do it.

The combat is really free form and feels kind of like Resonance of Fate where you spend the whole game learning new tips and tricks and create more and more efficient strategies.

Meanwhile the questing is usually pretty good, XP feels good because levels matter a lot since the caps tend to be about 10-20 levels in a game. NPC vendors actually have legit good items instead of jrpgs where everything at a vendor is either crap or you just buy everything at each new vendor to gear up. Makes money worthwhile in crpgs because then you can buy endgame type items at any time when you have the cash.

Plus getting player choice in questing is always nice.

crpgs weakpoints tend to be the main stories are short and unspectacular compared to jrpgs (but these days most jrpg stories suck so...), but that's because crpgs focus on rewarding exploration and discovering things and that's like 80% of the game.

I feel like if you like the tactical aspect of jrpgs and coming up with efficient strategies, you tend to also like crpgs.
If you just want to press A to win and watch the story, they don't appeal as much.


But none of these counts for Bethesda games because they just copy & paste the same shit 1,000x so those games suck 

[Bebpo]

Baldurs Gate 3 does nothing for me, just not my kind of game. I never find crpgs fun to play.

So I’m betting on Starfield.

Same. BG is the type of game I'd love to get into, and is super tempting with all the hype, but I'm just not wired to soak it in the way it's meant to be played.  Playing through BG1 was a chore for me.  Love the choices, lore and atmosphere though.

What part of BG1 was a chore? The combat?

[Bebpo]

Baldurs Gate 3 does nothing for me, just not my kind of game. I never find crpgs fun to play.

So I’m betting on Starfield.

Yeah, I feel like I'm missing out on this with all the talk but it's hard for me to get interested. I've played DND like twice in my life (and that was mostly an excuse to go over to a friend's house and get a free tasty meal and some good beer out of it), so I have barely any knowledge of the rules. CRPGs seem pretty arcane to me in terms of their gameplay (I don't like the RTS-esque point and click battle systems a lot of them use), and I also don't care for generic western fantasy settings and orcs and pretentious elves and drunken dwarf shit. The CRPGs I really enjoyed tended to have simple mechanics and unique settings - Witcher series with its Slavic lore, Disco Elysium, Planescape.

I mean...Planescape is in the same world as Baldur's Gate. BG2 literally has characters from Planescape showing up. There's plenty of weird setting stuff in BG.

Considering the logo for BG3 is like cthulhu tentacle stuff, I'd be surprised if it's just a "orcs and elves and dwarves" generic fantasy setting. BG2 really isn't that.

And it's not like jrpgs don't usually fall into the same medieval knights and dragons stuff. Tales of games does that plenty for instance. Star Ocean is a mixed bag because on one hand the sci-fi setting is unique, but then on the other hand they usually waste it and you just spend the whole time or most of it on some generic low fantasy world.

I feel like a good Star Ocean game should be more like Mass Effect where you're going from planet to planet and the world map is the galaxy.

[MMaRsu]

Baldurs Gate 3 does nothing for me, just not my kind of game. I never find crpgs fun to play.

So I’m betting on Starfield.

Yeah, I feel like I'm missing out on this with all the talk but it's hard for me to get interested. I've played DND like twice in my life (and that was mostly an excuse to go over to a friend's house and get a free tasty meal and some good beer out of it), so I have barely any knowledge of the rules. CRPGs seem pretty arcane to me in terms of their gameplay (I don't like the RTS-esque point and click battle systems a lot of them use), and I also don't care for generic western fantasy settings and orcs and pretentious elves and drunken dwarf shit. The CRPGs I really enjoyed tended to have simple mechanics and unique settings - Witcher series with its Slavic lore, Disco Elysium, Planescape.

I do have a Series X, I do really like space exploration type settings, but find Bethesda games janky as hell with terrible combat/gameplay. So I don't know about Starfield.

Star Ocean 2 remake is gonna be my RPG of the year, though Trails of the Reverie is going pretty good so far.

I started playing Baldurs Gate 3, and I don't know any 'rules' of DnD.

All I care about is that the game let's me play with a controller, in a chill way. And the story is good so far, what I like is that every dialogue has choices in it, so depending on what you choose every encounter can have a different outcome.

Thats really all you need to know, and I would advise on picking it up if you even like rpg's like Dragons Age/Mass Effect mixed with a bit of Xcom.

Oh yea and the story certainly isn't orcs and knights standard fantasy sheit.

When you play with a controller you get direct character control, use the sticks to move around + the camera. The controls in this mode are very chill.

[Svejk]

Baldurs Gate 3 does nothing for me, just not my kind of game. I never find crpgs fun to play.

So I’m betting on Starfield.

Same. BG is the type of game I'd love to get into, and is super tempting with all the hype, but I'm just not wired to soak it in the way it's meant to be played.  Playing through BG1 was a chore for me.  Love the choices, lore and atmosphere though.

What part of BG1 was a chore? The combat?

It was moreso the UI and the rule set/stats.  Something that should be simple, like trying to transfer an item from one character to another, understanding weapon and armor stats, zooming in/out on a greater scale and snapping back to a psuedo-default view even when the setting was on manual, the AI settings for your followers (It was like herding cats on fire half the time),  having to look up what effect icons are on your characters and why they aren't doing certain commands, and the toggle between trap detecting/disarming.  And to just heal with magic, you have only a set amount.  By the time a battle is over, you rest, then half the time you get ambushed in the middle of the night, causing you to do it all over again, if you survive.  That got pretty annoying.

Other than that, all the freedom of choice, party members, atmosphere, music, dialogue and banter... I loved all that.  Granted, my family and I were all into table top D&D at the time I played it, so there was hype for it.  Being able to make my TT character roll right into BG1 was pretty cool.  Thos 2nd Edition rules though... yuck.

Edit: Seems most of you all don't like the generic high fantasy stuff... I do.  Not a big fan when they try and create super fantastical beings and other worldly alien type shit.. then it's just reaching and has a lore that is less believeable as a specific age of an old world... But again, that's just me.   Personally, the mindflayers of D&D are some of the stupidest looking characters ever created... But apparently they're popular... So much so, Demon's Souls even had them, and they appear to be the main antagonists of BG3.   

[Bebpo]

Baldurs Gate 3 does nothing for me, just not my kind of game. I never find crpgs fun to play.

So I’m betting on Starfield.

Same. BG is the type of game I'd love to get into, and is super tempting with all the hype, but I'm just not wired to soak it in the way it's meant to be played.  Playing through BG1 was a chore for me.  Love the choices, lore and atmosphere though.

What part of BG1 was a chore? The combat?

It was moreso the UI and the rule set/stats.  Something that should be simple, like trying to transfer an item from one character to another, understanding weapon and armor stats, zooming in/out on a greater scale and snapping back to a psuedo-default view even when the setting was on manual, the AI settings for your followers (It was like herding cats on fire half the time),  having to look up what effect icons are on your characters and why they aren't doing certain commands, and the toggle between trap detecting/disarming.  And to just heal with magic, you have only a set amount.  By the time a battle is over, you rest, then half the time you get ambushed in the middle of the night, causing you to do it all over again, if you survive.  That got pretty annoying.

Other than that, all the freedom of choice, party members, atmosphere, music, dialogue and banter... I loved all that.  Granted, my family and I were all into table top D&D at the time I played it, so there was hype for it.  Being able to make my TT character roll right into BG1 was pretty cool.  Thos 2nd Edition rules though... yuck.

Yeah, that's totally fair. The UI is super fucking dated. But these are 20+ year old games and they're more complex than "run" + "jump" platformers or PnC adventure games of the 90s so they don't hold up as well in that. The simpler the UI, the easier it is to hold up decades later. Meanwhile the Infinity Engine games have dozens of mechanics and things going on so yeah.

Like playing BG2 this past week or two, the AI pathfinding is the worst I've ever seen. People hilariously go the wrong ways and get murdered or get stuck against walls. I have to constantly babysit movement because the pathfinding fucking sucks. And yeah, inventory management is a huge pain in the ass and every few mins I'm hitting the inventory screen and moving blue items to my high lore character to identify them and then moving them to the character who can use them or sell them, moving all the gems I pick up to the gem bag, potions to the potion bag, etc...

I mean you get used to it and put up with it to enjoy the other stuff. Plus these games have a fuckload of mods and cheats to smooth some of that stuff out like "just save edit or mod and give everyone infinite bags of holding to carrying everything if you want"

Rest mechanics and ambushes are kinda offset by 1) picking areas that enemies shouldn't spawn, like a boss room, or an empty castle vs an open field, but you can also get around them by hitting quicksave and resting and if you don't get a full rest hitting quickload and trying again

Weapon/armor stats/mechanics are just getting used to AC/THAC0. I've never played any D&D that isn't 2E rules, so no idea there. I'm guessing BG3 isn't using 2E

Traps are annoying and having to manually switch on detect traps after every battle is annoying, but it is what it is. If you turn the AI on the trap detecting characters will automatically do that, but if you turn the AI on they'll blow all their buffs when you're not even in a fight and aggro everything so it's honestly better to leave AI off and just switch detect traps on after every battle and every trap disarm. Also quicksave or using mods to instantly detect traps helps.

But at the end of the day, everything you just said about why you didn't like BG1...shouldn't apply to BG3 at all? Because everything you said is more that it's a 20+ year old game and dated in its UI which BG3 should not be. So I wouldn't be put off of BG3 because of that stuff.

Edit: Seems most of you all don't like the generic high fantasy stuff... I do.  Not a big fan when they try and create super fantastical beings and other worldly alien type shit.. then it's just reaching and has a lore that is less believeable as a specific age of an old world... But again, that's just me.   Personally, the mindflayers of D&D are some of the stupidest looking characters ever created... But apparently they're popular... So much so, Demon's Souls even had them, and they appear to be the main antagonists of BG3. 

I think Mindflayers are fine in the small doses of them in BG1/2 so far. I like the concept that they're like dimensional outcast aliens from a fallen society trying to hide and find refuge on other planets. I also like Beholders and all that weird stuff, but I also enjoying fighting big dragons. I think the only lore stuff I don't care for in D&D from BG1/2 is the Drow/Dark Elves because I find elves and dwarves and Gnomes and halflings pretty boring. I've never been a LoTR kind of person and even there I mostly like the Balrog demons and ghost riders than the dwarves/elves/orcs stuff.

[Himu]

Starfield will probably be the rpg I get this year unless I get Diablo IV and BG3

[Bebpo]

I have zero interest in Starfield or expect it to be any good, but Bethesda rpgs are one of the few types of games I absolutely hate so I'm a little biased. I hate their writing, I hate their bland shallow combat, and I hate their copy & paste dungeon designs. Big repetitive world to explore zzzzz

Wake me up when a better developer does a space rpg. Maybe Obsidian can do Starfield New Vegas next.


That said, I know they have a huge fanbase, which is why their games sell so much, so more power to those who enjoy them.

[Himu]

I agree about Bethesda outside of Morrowind and Oblivion. But Starfield looks so good and old school I'm giving it a shot.

[Pissy F Benny]

Cyberpunk will be it, theyre supposed to be doing another huge shakeup with Phantom Liberty.

I'm mad hyped for Starfield even though it will be a tremendous mess at best (esp at launch, but gamepass so who cares?)

[MMaRsu]

I have high hopes Starfield will launch in a great state. Bethesda really doesn't want a repeat of Fallout 76 damaging their reputation, since that kind of shit spreads like wildfire now.

Phil says they have been polishing for like a year, since it was feature complete last year and would have launched last year if MS didnt take over supposedly.

I also have the premium edition preordered so I might be biased

Being able to mod their games to look great 10 years later is also a cool thing



Besides the amazing amount of game improving mods like Open Cities etc.

[Svejk]

I think Mindflayers are fine in the small doses of them in BG1/2 so far. I like the concept that they're like dimensional outcast aliens from a fallen society trying to hide and find refuge on other planets. I also like Beholders and all that weird stuff, but I also enjoying fighting big dragons. I think the only lore stuff I don't care for in D&D from BG1/2 is the Drow/Dark Elves because I find elves and dwarves and Gnomes and halflings pretty boring. I've never been a LoTR kind of person and even there I mostly like the Balrog demons and ghost riders than the dwarves/elves/orcs stuff.

I like the traditional stuff.  I think that's why I adore Dragon's Dogma.  Itsuno wanted the mythological classics.  Even instructed his concept artists to imagine what these creatures were pictured as back in ancient times when they dug up bones and such; Like the elephant skull having a aperture near it's forehead, conjuring up the idea of a cyclops.  I love that approach and art style.  They didn't know any better back then, but still a very grounded approach to creatures.  Creatures from space or different dimensions was left to the gods... Which can be it's whole set of lore and genres I suppose.

Cyberpunk will be it, theyre supposed to be doing another huge shakeup with Phantom Liberty.

I'm mad hyped for Starfield even though it will be a tremendous mess at best (esp at launch, but gamepass so who cares?)

As much as I gushed over both Witcher 3 DLC's, I'm oddly hesitant on this.  Man, I loved CP2077, but it felt it was missing this big underworld military type structures to dive deep into and uncover crazy worldly shit.. Deus Ex had those moments and areas and totally made those games, IMO.  Maybe PL will fill that void.  I got pseudo bored just trekking around slums and a few buildings and basements/rooftops to go to.  They showed the classic now a cyberpunk genre requirement, walking tank, which looks cool to fight.  Want to see more unique types of boss fights other than OP bosses like Adam Smasher, etc.  I do trust CDPR though... they do deliver.  With this being more than just a dlc (overhauling the perk system and more), this could be the TOTK of CP2077... just half the price and still more of an RPG. 

I do think it's going to be overshadowed by Starfield and BG3 no doubt... But who knows. 

One thing's for sure, the jank will be trill around the board. 

[Bebpo]

Cyberpunk will be it, theyre supposed to be doing another huge shakeup with Phantom Liberty.

I'm mad hyped for Starfield even though it will be a tremendous mess at best (esp at launch, but gamepass so who cares?)

Will be interesting to see if they can turn Cyberpunk around.

People loved Witcher 3. It's tied with Skyrim as the best selling rpg ever. But then everyone hated Cyberpunk.

[Rahxephon91]

I don’t think everyone hated Cyberpunk. I sure didn’t.

[Svejk]

  Shit's looking kinda batty.  Interesting shake up on the genre.

[bork]

I have high hopes Starfield will launch in a great state.

Bethesda

 

[Svejk]

Holy crap.. BG3 is currently sitting at a MC 97 - OC 95. 

[Bebpo]

My only concern with BG3, is coming straight from BG2/Throne of Bhaal, worried it won't live up.

Even 23 years later, BG2 is really good. Putting this up there with Undertale as a very hyped/high rated game that actually even with that level of hype, lives up to the hype.

Only real negatives I have about BG2 is it's definitely early era "choices" where you can do things A or B or just kill every NPC and that's usually it. Definitely lacks the nuance of later rpgs with various ways to complete quests. That and BG2 EE in 2023 is still buggy like a launch year Obsidian game, but I blame that mostly on Beamdog. They even fucked up the pathfinding by changing it in 2018 wtf and now characters consistently get stuck on top of each other.

Otherwise BG2 is such a huge and satisfying game in world development, cast of companions, questing, combat, main story, BG3 is going to have a lot to live up to for me.

[who is ted danson?]

Rogue Warrior is in the Quakecon sale
Is it worth it?

[Polident Hive]

I don’t think everyone hated Cyberpunk. I sure didn’t.

At launch it got ragged on for feeling unfinished and having technical issues, especially on consoles. Context for the time, think it releases after the new consoles and didn’t really support them. PC GPU availability was limited and prices were inflated. Unfortunate time to release a game hyped up since 2012.

But even then people saw a good game underneath those issues. As they’ve been fixing it up, there’s been a reassessment. It’s sitting at very positive on Steam.

I still need to play it. Waiting until I get a good GPU to do the RT Overdrive mode.

[Svejk]

Tempted to start a new game; going Corpo this round, and build my character through this overhaul and slide into Phantom Liberty.   

[Coax]

Play the Japanese dub for the ideal Cyberpunk experience 

[HardcoreRetro]

Rogue Warrior is in the Quakecon sale
Is it worth it?

Just listen to this.

[Bebpo]

My understanding was that people were disappointed by Cyberpunk for both tech and gameplay reasons. Tech because the game was a mess on consoles at launch and gameplay-wise because there wasn't much roleplaying or player choice having any effect on anything and the "rpg" aspect was shallow.

[MMaRsu]

I have high hopes Starfield will launch in a great state.

Bethesda

 

[MMaRsu]

My only concern with BG3, is coming straight from BG2/Throne of Bhaal, worried it won't live up.

Even 23 years later, BG2 is really good. Putting this up there with Undertale as a very hyped/high rated game that actually even with that level of hype, lives up to the hype.

Only real negatives I have about BG2 is it's definitely early era "choices" where you can do things A or B or just kill every NPC and that's usually it. Definitely lacks the nuance of later rpgs with various ways to complete quests. That and BG2 EE in 2023 is still buggy like a launch year Obsidian game, but I blame that mostly on Beamdog. They even fucked up the pathfinding by changing it in 2018 wtf and now characters consistently get stuck on top of each other.

Otherwise BG2 is such a huge and satisfying game in world development, cast of companions, questing, combat, main story, BG3 is going to have a lot to live up to for me.

bg3 is top notch