Comments 379

Re: Most Forza Motorsport Players Sticking To Single-Player, It Seems

RBRTMNZ

The game seems to be designed with online as the focus and single player being a place to grind out car levels so the majority of players will only ever get to experience sub-optimal vehicles. How did they miss the mark so badly?

I really hope we are nearing the end of companies chasing GaaS money.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 14-15)

RBRTMNZ

@Balta666 I think the problem is less that they are tanky and more that the punish windows are almost always only long enough for a single attack. I normally play dex builds but switched to heavy for this because even with a light weapon it’s hard to get more than one hit in so the fights become slogs. I imagine even more so for you as the combat is predicated on staggering bosses via parrying.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 14-15)

RBRTMNZ

@Balta666 I wish I had it in me to quit a tough game. The unrelenting difficulty of Lies of P bosses has sapped some fun out of the game but I'm just going to keep pushing that boulder up the hill. I don't normally have issues with souls games(beat Melania second try) but this game is hard AF for me.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 14-15)

RBRTMNZ

@BBB That's interesting. I've fallen out of watching racing so I didn't consider that things might be handled differently these days. I think the inability to go door to door is the rub for me. It's weird that trading paint side by side gets penalized, especially during the initial ***** at the start of the race where I will often get sandwiched between two AI each trying to push my off the race line from either side.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 14-15)

RBRTMNZ

@Titntin I think I figured out the issue with Forza AI. It seems like the cars just want to be magnetized to the ideal race line and will try to take it even if you're already occupying that space. They constantly force me off the track this way and then I get penalized with a 1 segment slowing the already frustratingly slow car progression.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 14-15)

RBRTMNZ

@BBB I would argue that stock car racing, or at least NASCAR, which I grew up watching, is very much a contact sport. But this is just a different challenge and that’s fine.

I wish I could at least use a classic NASCAR technique of drafting into the car in front of me and pushing them forward so we could chase down the lead car, without being penalized CP, since Forza games always seem to handle difficulty by just making the first place car drive away from the pack so that when you clear the field they have an impossible to close lead.

Re: Lies Of P - Dystopian Pinocchio Slashes And Stabs His Way Onto The Best Soulslikes

RBRTMNZ

@Romans12 I thought the demo was easier than most of Elden Ring. I think a lot of ER fans struggled with it because it’s asking you to parry rather than dodge. I saw a lot of ER streamers struggling because they kept trying to dodge exclusively even though the game seems to actively discourage dodging by making it as hard to use as parrying is in ER. I’m sure you could learn it if you wanted to.

Re: Talking Point: Xbox Fans, How Do You Find Time For All These Amazing 2023 Games?

RBRTMNZ

I definitely think this is the best year for games ever but it’s oddly a bit lost on me. FF16, Starfield, SF6, MK1, and BG3 are all not for me. Plus some games I anticipated ended up reviewing poorly for reasons I think would bother me if I tried them. As a result I loved 2022 way more than this year.

Hoping Mario, Alan Wake, lies of P, Ghostrunner, and Gunbrella turn the tide.

Re: New Starfield Test Suggests It Could Run At 40-60FPS On Xbox Series X

RBRTMNZ

@Lightweight Is it possible that what you've identified is not hypocrisy and instead that there are hundreds of millions of gamers and some of them have opposing opinions?

Hell, I think it's even possible for the same person to completely reasonably think Redfall, primarily a shooter, is not okay at 30 fps but Starfield, primarily an immersive storytelling RPG is fine. For me personally Starfield at 30 fps was a deal breaker but 30 fps didn't impact my enjoyment of Zelda in the slightest. Different games and different people have different needs.

Re: Forza Motorsport Receives High Praise In First Round Of 'Hands On' Previews

RBRTMNZ

@Tonmoy Yeah the thing about opinions is that they sometimes can contradict other peoples opinions. His tepid approval is just as valid as your glowing opinion. It would be absurd for anyone to accuse you of being a fanboy for enjoying the game just as it’s absurd to treat it like he was hating on the game when he was clearly just expressing some level of disappointment while still rating it as “good” and recommending the game.

Re: Forza Motorsport Receives High Praise In First Round Of 'Hands On' Previews

RBRTMNZ

@Tonmoy The person who reviewed Starfield for IGN is a diehard Bethesda fan and even played Starfield in new game plus. I’m not sure what the issue is. He just didn’t love it. It’s an opinion and a well reasoned one if you read the article. Fair to disagree with their opinion but weird to consider it a problem based on not liking the score.

Re: Microsoft Unveils The Next 3 Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass

RBRTMNZ

@Deljo That feels like a bad faith reply but I’ll take you seriously. Women account for 48% of Xbox owners vs 41% of ps owners. The average age of an Xbox owner is 33 vs 28 for ps. While the typical owner profile is the same across all consoles those are still significant enough margins to impact the tone of the communities.

Re: Microsoft Unveils The Next 3 Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass

RBRTMNZ

@GrumpyDev You’re definitely right but there are degrees to this. Up until two years ago I had only ever had Nintendo consoles and decided it was time for an HD console. I didn’t have any prior allegiance but I ended up picking XBox because the PS community came across as incredibly toxic. I now own all three and frequent their communities across several websites and forums and still think PS is by far the most toxic. It makes sense when you consider that the PS audience is younger and skewed more towards men.

Re: Review: Atlas Fallen - AA Adventuring Rises Above Its Flaws With Addictive Action & Exploration

RBRTMNZ

@UndyingInsurgent95 I love AA games! I'm currently playing Remnant 2 and Plague Tale Requiem and loving both. That's part of why I would have felt compelled to play this at full cost had the reviews been the 80s. And I do agree with you that a lot of people seem to have a much lower barrier for dismissing non-AAA games but my comment was based on my gaming budget struggling to keep up with the onslaught of amazing games this year.

Re: Review: Atlas Fallen - AA Adventuring Rises Above Its Flaws With Addictive Action & Exploration

RBRTMNZ

@UndyingInsurgent95 The aggregate score is currently sitting at 67, the same score as the widely mocked Forespoken. It received a lot of 4s and 5s from various outlets.

In a world with thousands of 7-10 games, it is very rare that I will play a 6. Having read and watched some reviews this doesn't sound like it is going to be a low scoring exception for me, especially at $60. Maybe when it drops to $10.

Also your response is needlessly aggressive.

Re: Talking Point: Should Xbox Make A Revised Controller With Haptic Feedback?

RBRTMNZ

Nope! I turn the trigger BS off on PS5 games because it hurts my hands and there is nothing immersive about a hunk of plastic constantly shaking aggressively in my hands, it's just distracting.

Plus most third party developers don't even try to do anything interesting with the haptics, Sony studios also seem to be doing less and less, so it makes the controller more expensive for nothing.

Re: Digital Foundry Posts Huge Breakdown On Why Starfield Runs At 30FPS On Xbox

RBRTMNZ

I hate the patronizing tone of these things. "Oh you just don't understand why it has to be 30 because of their design choices." No, I totally get it and think they should have made different design choices. 60 fps > Persistent sandwiches, 4k, never seeing pop in. I don't begrudge them for making the game they wanted to make but it's annoying to be told that my disappointment is somehow an unfair misunderstanding.

Re: Starfield Will Run At 4K / 30FPS On Xbox Series X, 1440p / 30FPS On Series S

RBRTMNZ

I just read Todd's reasoning and if the game really does run at an inconsistent near 60fps they should have given us a VRR mode as opposed to a performance mode and note for the player that if they choose that mode but do not have VRR their experience will be sub optimal.

With VRR I had none of the problems that plagued other people's experience with games like Star Wars Survivor. Let me have that option and I will be happy to play the game at 48fps or whatever it can manage.