@TimG13 exactly. I can definitely appreciate the impact the original might have had at the time, but I was kinda shocked by how the formula didn't seem to change or evolve that much with subsequent entries. Fortunately Infinite seems to shake it up a bit so far, I'll see how long it keeps me interested.
@TimG13 same. I'm playing Infinite at the moment, and while definitely more fun than the older games, it's just nothing special. Hell, I played the old ones via MCC and came away incredibly disappointed and bored. They're just such simple games with basic level design, and I personally don't find anything special in the setting or lore, which to me look and sound super generic and uninteresting.
Yeah the core system is dreadful. I don't play a lot of MP games, but boy does Infinite get customization and unlocks wrong, it's by far the worst game I've ever seen in that department. And I haven't even mentioned yet that the meagre unlocks you get are locked behind a paywall as well.
@Tasuki ah I see, you must be very experienced then! DMing sounds like such an awesome, although incredibly taxing thing to do, but I'd like to try it in a few years when I'm more experienced 😃
@Tasuki nice! Creating new characters is so engrossing, I already have ideas for the next 2 or 3 lol Currently my company and I are almost wrapping up a campaign that's been going on for 5 years, although I only started playing less than a year ago (yeah I'm a noobie 😄), so big things are happening left and right lol Back to your campaign though, I'm curious, what character are you gonna play? 😃
Well, I guess I'm gonna play Far Cry 6, Resi Village and Timesplitters 2 on my brand new Series X all day today, and maybe tomorrow I'll manage to sneak in some game time between work and D&D 😃
@carlos82 I haven't tried Infinite yet, but I bought the MCC a few months ago, eager To finally play these super well-received and popular games, and came away thoroughly disappointed and utterly bored. I don't know, the level design is just plain and the firefights uninteresting. I just don't see where that highly regarded "sandbox" is in the campaign.
Conversely, and funnily as I'm not a Multiplayer guy at all, I poured 20 hours in Infinite's MP and had a lot of fun.
@UltimateOtaku91 no please, let id work on their own properties, let them reboot Quake! We don't need the best FPS devs to be constrained by regenerating health, two-weapon limit and all other crappy restrictions Halo imposed on the genre.
@OldgamerDave I haven't played it yet but I'm following it closely and happen to just have watched Under The Mayo's review on YT, so I think I can fill you in a bit 😃 If you've played Doom Eternal it's gonna be way easier explaining the appeal if this game, because it takes a lot of inspiration from DE. Firstly, there's a fixed arsenal, no more loot crap; every weapon has its uses and purposes. Secondly, you can gain both ammo and health back from enemies in a similar fashion to DE. Also similar to DE is the presence of quick-switch combos. Lastly, and again like DE, mobility is key, with a great emphasis on wallrunning and grappling. Hope this helps you!
Yeah, I don't care about Fortnite but I do care about gyro, and XBox not having it really is pretty antiquated. I hope gyro catches on in the future more than it has so far, because it's simply a game changer.
@Barry_Biscuits yeah that's why I almost never reply to anyone anymore, it's just a bunch of effort in being informed and providing examples only to be labeled as a hater. Unfortunately those without any arguments are louder than those that have them, and think themselves on the same level even when there's clear disparity in the arguments offered.
Please never report on anything related to this piece of trash again. This isn't newsworthy in the slightest, and only goes on to inflate the already absurd cult of his personality. Please.
@Cikajovazmaj weird! I've been playing on PC as well and haven't noticed any major bugs or glitches, nor long loading times! I'll admit though that I'm a noob regarding online shooters as I usually only play single player games.
On topic: I must say, though, that I'm enjoying Infinite way more than I thought, especially since I bought the MCC a couple of months ago and came away incredibly disappointed and bored to tears by the Halo campaigns. It's weird how this series works the opposite of what I'd expect for me!
I was pretty hyped up for this game even if I hadn't played any other Halo before, so I went on and bought the MCC, and I gotta say, boy was it a colossal letdown.
I was super excited to finally get into this legendary FPS series since I love FPS games, but it quickly turned into my most regretted purchase. It's just not fun. I've spent 10 hours between Halo 1, 2 and Reach, and I gotta say, the fundamentals like moving and shooting are absolutely on point, which makes the horrible level design and mission structure stand out even more. I don't know, it just devolves into mindless, aimless shooting and just can't keep me engaged. They're not bad games, at all, but I just don't see where all the praise comes from. I know the first one was super influential, but I just had to turn it off after 3 missions or so because it was boring me to tears. Out of the three, Reach certainly seemed the most competent in its mission structure, and I might even grit my teeth and finish it. Oh well, I hope 3, ODST and 4 will change my mind, but I think Halo is probably just not for me. A shame.
@LordSmok way to conflate two incredibly different things that don't correlate to one another.
But then again, what do I expect from an edgelord with a Joker profile pic?
Eternal all day long, it's simply such a massive step forward for the genre as a whole.
I absolutely love all of them (apart from 3, that I just liked but nothing more), but Eternal is undoubtedly peak FPS design and I guess nothing's gonna change that, at least until id drops another one.
I'm not holding my breath for anything big since Eternal has been out for only a year and a half (and they're still updating it regularly), but I cannot wait for their next big project because they've been on a freaking roll lately.
In any case, I'd really like to try out the Quake games on consoles, hope they bring them over like they did with the excellent DOOM ports.
Yes please give us another one! The New Order is just so, so, so good! The New Colossus kinda jumped the shark a bit for me, but was nonetheless very good.
@InterceptorAlpha yeah the Anthem comparison seems quite apt, let's hope the end result is different though lol
Personally I don't play a lot of multiplayer games so I'm not the right person to judge their value as I don't know them very well, but the ones I really like are Splatoon 2 and Titanfall 2, as they're fast, quite simple to grasp, and let me have fun even though I'm terrible at playing them lol
To be honest I was so underwhelmed with that reveal I kinda zoned out and I just remember it as this bland mass of buzzwords, compared to what Arkane usually delivers lol
Management: "so this Arkane studio we have, what are they good at?"
"They usually create outstanding single player immersive sims with deep lore and worldbuilding, not the kind of explosion-heavy blockbuster that sells 10+ million copies, but a more nuanced experience that enthusiasts cannot get enough of"
"What is popular now?"
"Eeeeehhhh....zombies, I guess? Or maybe not anymore? Anyway, 4-player shooty stuff with zombies I think..."
"Shooting is in. Make a market analysis, see if zombies are still popular. Otherwise, throw some vampires or something in there, I don't care."
Back to BOTW, the physics engine is so bonkers they claim to have a chemistry engine in there, and there's some truth to that. Everything in the game is systemic, which means everything can and will interact with everything else, whether with your input or without. Metal attracting lightning, fire being spread by wind, fire creating updrafts, electricity interacting with water, rain making rock slippery, Link being freaking colder or hotter whether you stand in direct sun or in the shadow, a few centimeters apart. Equipping fire weapons also raises Link's body temperature, and vice versa for ice weapons. These are some examples off the top of my head, but I haven't played it in a while and I'm sure I left out some systems wholesale. All of this is why it's so fun to experiment with the world and the elements of this game 😃
The freeform climbing, while certainly not a first, is another big one, and it loops back on the world design and the focus on verticality and freeform exploration. Side quests are not exceptional, they're pretty basic in fact, but they were mostly worth it for me because they usually don't boil down to "follow a road/teleport to a map marker", but often give you an image or a description of the place you need to find. Isn't that why more interesting than mindlessly going through the motions?
And lastly, the story. Yeah, it's a weird one and if you don't like it, I totally get it. I'm not a big fan myself, but as I said, story isn't very important to me in a Zelda game. What is really interesting and innovative about it is the fact that you can access it at your own pace and in any order, just like everything else in the game. That is what sets it apart from conventional open world stories. Open worlds should be all about exploring, and BOTW is, so it's cool to stumble upon story moments just like you would a shrine, or an enemy camp, or whatever. Again, the story itself is nothing special and I get why some people don't like it and even how it's told, but the way it's delivered is perfectly harmonious with how the whole game is structured, as opposed to being a linear one spread around a huge map.
All this is not to say BOTW is perfect, far from it. What it does well, though, it does in a way no other game does, and I hope the open world games devs take note and finally deliver some interesting world to actually explore. Hope I could answer your curiosity, I'm curious to know what you think about it 😃
@BlueOcean #29 yeah OOT has a perfectly serviceable story, I'm not criticizing it in the slightest; it's just that I wouldn't say it's the centerpiece of the game, and what made it the revolutionary masterpiece it was/is, nor is it in any game of the series (except for Majora's Mask probably).
#33 basically everything, to be honest. The handcrafted layout of the world, which generates some kind of question/intrigue behind pretty much every corner; in other worlds it's one of the few games where running around is actually fun and not just following a line on a minimap for a stretch of nothing in between markers, because planning a road to the objective and getting constantly sidetracked by little things that pique my curiosity is exactly the kind of fun that exploration done well delivers to me.
On the topic of map markers, well, you make your own by reaching high ground, spotting something interesting, and "pinning" it yourself. The towers don't give you a load of meaningless chores, they simply give you a better understanding of your surroundings, which ties in with the glider that we've seen now pop up all over the place in open world games, and for good reason. Blindly riving a car or riding a horse for minutes at a time until the next quest just isn't fun to me, it's not engaging. Flying is even more boring, as it's an even straighter line. That's why I prefer games like inFamous, Sunset Overdrive and Saints Row 4, because they all follow the same formulaic, boring structure, but at least they have some actually interesting gameplay in the traversal.
Part 2 below, it's a long one lol Hope the mods don't mind 😉
@LtSarge I completely disagree. Just like no other open world has managed the same level of physics and interaction as BOTW, none has found a way to integrate the story into the structure. Outer Wilds is the other one and managed it way better than BOTW, but that's understandable cause story is everything in that game. You may not like how BOTW handled it, but it's the only way anyone has made a narrative that fits the open world format to a T. Every other open world is a linear story with a bunch of copypasted markers spread around a huge map, that's it.
I haven't played Horizon so maybe it isn't like that, but from what I've seen it seems to work pretty much like TW3, Skyrim, inFamous, GTA, Sunset Overdrive, etc. etc..
Regarding story, I don't know, Zelda stories have always been super simple and generic, save for Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask, the only two that actually did something different from the usual setup. But OOT isn't regarded as well as it is for its story, as is the series in general. Skyward Sword had a good one for Zelda standards, but that's it.
Nintendo has never been interested in telling stories, and I don't expect them to ever change that, at least in their tentpole franchises. They have Fire Emblem and Xenoblade for that 😃
@LtSarge there wasn't for BOTW either. You may not like the story (which is certainly not BOTW's strongest point, but was never the focus in Zelda games to begin with), but how is it compromised? It was clearly intentionally set up that way to better fir the open world structure of the game, as opposed to a linear one.
But again, you're talking hardware compromises but story is a weird one to pick, since it has nothing to do with the hardware, and in this specifically case there was no compromise whatsoever, especially considering that BOTW's physics engine is leagues ahead any other open world game out there, and it runs on a glorified toaster. So no, Guerrilla wouldn't have made it better, considering Horizon isn't nowhere near as innovative as BOTW.
I mean, it's sad cause he seems like a very honest and kind person even when he should be promoting his game, but such an unmitigated disaster just can't be ignored. I'd be pretty p*ssed too, if I'd hired a legendary senior dev and he came up with this.
Ah, I didn't notice that! But hey, knowing those trolls at Devolver I would wager it's just a joke...I don't wanna get my hopes too high 😃
Also I'm not sure, but I seem to remember that the creators said HM was done after the second one wrapped the story up. Hope they change their minds lol
Shoot I completely forgot! I wanted to jump in and have my arse handed to me lol I'm absolute crap at multiplayer games and I usually don't have much fun with them, but TF2 is really really fun.
@Acksaw @AFCC multiplayer yes, but it's got nothing on DOOM Eternal if we're talking single player 😃
@BAMozzy yes I know, and I absolutely agree with what you said. I know devs are more often than not super passionate and perfectionists, and that the blame for botched launches, predatory monetization and such falls squarely on the management; but since all management sees and cares about is revenue, that many sales regardless of everything that went down is all that matters. I'm sure CDPR devs would've loved to delay the game and deliver the best possible product, but until a broken mess sells 13+ million copies in 21 days I don't see shareholders of big companies all over the world changing their modus operandi anytime soon.
@BAMozzy agreed.
I'm waiting for it to be thoroughly patched before buying it on my PC (or maybe a new console, if I get one sooner than I'm planning to at the moment), since I usually play games way after they come out, and I can be patient.
The only thing I think is an absolute shame is that a lot of people, like you said, probably splashed the cash but are waiting to play it, and that encourages CDPR to put out broken stuff. I mean, they don't care too much if we play it or not, or even how many out of those 13+ million people will. Those people have already forked out their money, mission accomplished for CDPR.
P.S.: Idk if it's a mission name or whatever, but New Dawn Fades is a very good song.
They're finally doing something with Rare's IP's? Cause that would be more than cool, since they bought a company and kept it and its IP's pretty much under ice for 20 years. C'mon you cowards, give us a new Banjo!
@gingataisen of course it's doesn't make the games any less fun to play, come on. Probably I didn't explain myself well, but come on, don't be so antagonistic.
What I was trying to say is that such projects feel a bit out of place in the overall franchise, given its overall quality and impact, that's all. That's the same as a bad movie in an otherwise good franchise, or a bad finale to a good series, or whatever; although not to the same degree, I'll concede. I'd feel the same about a Zelda mobile cash grab, for example. Hope it's clearer now, have a good one 👍🏻
Comments 153
Re: Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed Hits Xbox Series X|S This August
The Clone Carnage thing is explained by the fact that it's DLC for the first game, not the second, which is also why it's out now.
Re: Reggie Fils-Aimé Gushes Over Halo, Reveals Why It's His Favourite Non-Nintendo Game
@TimG13 thanks! Actually that's the only one I haven't tried, along with 5, so maybe I'll reinstall the MCC and try it out 😃 have a good one mate!
Re: Reggie Fils-Aimé Gushes Over Halo, Reveals Why It's His Favourite Non-Nintendo Game
@TimG13 exactly. I can definitely appreciate the impact the original might have had at the time, but I was kinda shocked by how the formula didn't seem to change or evolve that much with subsequent entries.
Fortunately Infinite seems to shake it up a bit so far, I'll see how long it keeps me interested.
Re: Reggie Fils-Aimé Gushes Over Halo, Reveals Why It's His Favourite Non-Nintendo Game
@TimG13 same.
I'm playing Infinite at the moment, and while definitely more fun than the older games, it's just nothing special.
Hell, I played the old ones via MCC and came away incredibly disappointed and bored.
They're just such simple games with basic level design, and I personally don't find anything special in the setting or lore, which to me look and sound super generic and uninteresting.
Re: Deals: Xbox 'Next-Gen' Sale Now Live, 100+ Games Included
40% off Shadow Warrior 3 so soon after release is tempting, especially with no physical edition in sight!
Re: Halo Infinite Is Officially Ditching Its Controversial Armour Core System
Yeah the core system is dreadful.
I don't play a lot of MP games, but boy does Infinite get customization and unlocks wrong, it's by far the worst game I've ever seen in that department. And I haven't even mentioned yet that the meagre unlocks you get are locked behind a paywall as well.
Re: Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase Confirmed For This June
I just hope id reveal the rumoured Quake reboot 🤩
Re: Pick One: Which Of These Rare Replay Games Is Your Favourite?
It's funny cause I started playing Banjo-Kazooie just yesterday via Rare Replay 😃
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 9-10)
@rtr0GMR1 hey thanks! 😃
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 9-10)
@Tasuki ah I see, you must be very experienced then!
DMing sounds like such an awesome, although incredibly taxing thing to do, but I'd like to try it in a few years when I'm more experienced 😃
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 9-10)
@Tasuki nice! Creating new characters is so engrossing, I already have ideas for the next 2 or 3 lol
Currently my company and I are almost wrapping up a campaign that's been going on for 5 years, although I only started playing less than a year ago (yeah I'm a noobie 😄), so big things are happening left and right lol
Back to your campaign though, I'm curious, what character are you gonna play? 😃
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 9-10)
Well, I guess I'm gonna play Far Cry 6, Resi Village and Timesplitters 2 on my brand new Series X all day today, and maybe tomorrow I'll manage to sneak in some game time between work and D&D 😃
Re: Halo Infinite Dev Admits 'Difficult Situation' In Response To Fan Unrest
@carlos82 I haven't tried Infinite yet, but I bought the MCC a few months ago, eager To finally play these super well-received and popular games, and came away thoroughly disappointed and utterly bored.
I don't know, the level design is just plain and the firefights uninteresting. I just don't see where that highly regarded "sandbox" is in the campaign.
Conversely, and funnily as I'm not a Multiplayer guy at all, I poured 20 hours in Infinite's MP and had a lot of fun.
Re: Halo Infinite Dev Admits 'Difficult Situation' In Response To Fan Unrest
@UltimateOtaku91 no please, let id work on their own properties, let them reboot Quake!
We don't need the best FPS devs to be constrained by regenerating health, two-weapon limit and all other crappy restrictions Halo imposed on the genre.
Doom & Quake >>>>>>>>>>>> Halo
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Are Saying About Shadow Warrior 3
@OldgamerDave you're welcome mate, have a great one 😃
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Are Saying About Shadow Warrior 3
@OldgamerDave I haven't played it yet but I'm following it closely and happen to just have watched Under The Mayo's review on YT, so I think I can fill you in a bit 😃
If you've played Doom Eternal it's gonna be way easier explaining the appeal if this game, because it takes a lot of inspiration from DE.
Firstly, there's a fixed arsenal, no more loot crap; every weapon has its uses and purposes.
Secondly, you can gain both ammo and health back from enemies in a similar fashion to DE.
Also similar to DE is the presence of quick-switch combos.
Lastly, and again like DE, mobility is key, with a great emphasis on wallrunning and grappling.
Hope this helps you!
Re: Fortnite Fans Complain About Lack Of Gyro Aiming Support On Xbox
Yeah, I don't care about Fortnite but I do care about gyro, and XBox not having it really is pretty antiquated.
I hope gyro catches on in the future more than it has so far, because it's simply a game changer.
Re: Blood-Soaked FPS 'Scathe' Unleashes Hell On Xbox Later This Year
Never heard of this, to the wishlist it goes!
Re: Elon Musk Seems To Be Enjoying His Time With Halo Infinite
@Barry_Biscuits yeah that's why I almost never reply to anyone anymore, it's just a bunch of effort in being informed and providing examples only to be labeled as a hater.
Unfortunately those without any arguments are louder than those that have them, and think themselves on the same level even when there's clear disparity in the arguments offered.
Re: Elon Musk Seems To Be Enjoying His Time With Halo Infinite
Please never report on anything related to this piece of trash again.
This isn't newsworthy in the slightest, and only goes on to inflate the already absurd cult of his personality.
Please.
Re: Xbox Exclusive FPS CrossfireX Officially Launches February 2022
Looks incredibly generic.
Re: Halo Infinite Team Is Listening To Constructive Feedback, But Admits Changes Will Take Time
@Cikajovazmaj weird!
I've been playing on PC as well and haven't noticed any major bugs or glitches, nor long loading times!
I'll admit though that I'm a noob regarding online shooters as I usually only play single player games.
On topic: I must say, though, that I'm enjoying Infinite way more than I thought, especially since I bought the MCC a couple of months ago and came away incredibly disappointed and bored to tears by the Halo campaigns.
It's weird how this series works the opposite of what I'd expect for me!
Re: New Halo Infinite Campaign Footage Is Here, And It Looks Awesome
I was pretty hyped up for this game even if I hadn't played any other Halo before, so I went on and bought the MCC, and I gotta say, boy was it a colossal letdown.
I was super excited to finally get into this legendary FPS series since I love FPS games, but it quickly turned into my most regretted purchase.
It's just not fun.
I've spent 10 hours between Halo 1, 2 and Reach, and I gotta say, the fundamentals like moving and shooting are absolutely on point, which makes the horrible level design and mission structure stand out even more. I don't know, it just devolves into mindless, aimless shooting and just can't keep me engaged.
They're not bad games, at all, but I just don't see where all the praise comes from. I know the first one was super influential, but I just had to turn it off after 3 missions or so because it was boring me to tears.
Out of the three, Reach certainly seemed the most competent in its mission structure, and I might even grit my teeth and finish it.
Oh well, I hope 3, ODST and 4 will change my mind, but I think Halo is probably just not for me. A shame.
Re: PETA Is Campaigning To Have Far Cry 6’s Cockfighting Mini-Game Removed
@LordSmok way to conflate two incredibly different things that don't correlate to one another.
But then again, what do I expect from an edgelord with a Joker profile pic?
Re: Unsighted Is Proving To Be A Hidden Gem On Xbox Game Pass
I'll add it to my wishlist! The game certainly looks cool, but how in hell is this a Metroidvania? Looks like an isometric action adventure to me.
Re: Random: Xbox Responds To 'PS5 Is Better' Comments On Social Media
@Carck "no need to be a duck about it"
This got a pretty loud chuckle out of me, thanks! 😄
I've never heard "being a duck about something" but I'm gonna abusethe hell out of it now lol
Re: Pick One: Which Is Your Favourite DOOM Game On Xbox?
Eternal all day long, it's simply such a massive step forward for the genre as a whole.
I absolutely love all of them (apart from 3, that I just liked but nothing more), but Eternal is undoubtedly peak FPS design and I guess nothing's gonna change that, at least until id drops another one.
Re: Unknown id Software Project Rated By Aussie Classification Board
I'm not holding my breath for anything big since Eternal has been out for only a year and a half (and they're still updating it regularly), but I cannot wait for their next big project because they've been on a freaking roll lately.
In any case, I'd really like to try out the Quake games on consoles, hope they bring them over like they did with the excellent DOOM ports.
Re: Bethesda's Redfall Appears To Have Been In Development For Four Years
So no one is gonna mention "you spin me right round" and "I'm floating in space!" being entries in this résumé? 😂
Re: Mini Review: Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance - It's Dangerous To Go Alone, So Bring Some Friends
After watching SkillUp's review I'm wondering whether you played the same game lol
Re: Don't Worry, Bethesda Still Has Plans For Another Wolfenstein Game
Yes please give us another one!
The New Order is just so, so, so good!
The New Colossus kinda jumped the shark a bit for me, but was nonetheless very good.
Re: The New Xbox Design Lab Allows You To Make An 'Xbox 360 Throwback' Controller
@Fenbops heh, I've been doing the same and I don't even have an XBox 😂
I just freaking love controllers lol 😃
Re: Random: It Looks Like Bethesda Originally Teased Redfall Last Year
@InterceptorAlpha yeah the Anthem comparison seems quite apt, let's hope the end result is different though lol
Personally I don't play a lot of multiplayer games so I'm not the right person to judge their value as I don't know them very well, but the ones I really like are Splatoon 2 and Titanfall 2, as they're fast, quite simple to grasp, and let me have fun even though I'm terrible at playing them lol
Re: Random: It Looks Like Bethesda Originally Teased Redfall Last Year
@NEStalgia ahahahah that's right, my bad 😂
To be honest I was so underwhelmed with that reveal I kinda zoned out and I just remember it as this bland mass of buzzwords, compared to what Arkane usually delivers lol
Re: Random: It Looks Like Bethesda Originally Teased Redfall Last Year
You gotta love the video game industry.
Management: "so this Arkane studio we have, what are they good at?"
"They usually create outstanding single player immersive sims with deep lore and worldbuilding, not the kind of explosion-heavy blockbuster that sells 10+ million copies, but a more nuanced experience that enthusiasts cannot get enough of"
"What is popular now?"
"Eeeeehhhh....zombies, I guess? Or maybe not anymore? Anyway, 4-player shooty stuff with zombies I think..."
"Shooting is in. Make a market analysis, see if zombies are still popular.
Otherwise, throw some vampires or something in there, I don't care."
Re: Rumour: Xbox Might Have An Acquisition To Announce At E3 2021
Back to BOTW, the physics engine is so bonkers they claim to have a chemistry engine in there, and there's some truth to that.
Everything in the game is systemic, which means everything can and will interact with everything else, whether with your input or without.
Metal attracting lightning, fire being spread by wind, fire creating updrafts, electricity interacting with water, rain making rock slippery, Link being freaking colder or hotter whether you stand in direct sun or in the shadow, a few centimeters apart. Equipping fire weapons also raises Link's body temperature, and vice versa for ice weapons.
These are some examples off the top of my head, but I haven't played it in a while and I'm sure I left out some systems wholesale.
All of this is why it's so fun to experiment with the world and the elements of this game 😃
The freeform climbing, while certainly not a first, is another big one, and it loops back on the world design and the focus on verticality and freeform exploration.
Side quests are not exceptional, they're pretty basic in fact, but they were mostly worth it for me because they usually don't boil down to "follow a road/teleport to a map marker", but often give you an image or a description of the place you need to find.
Isn't that why more interesting than mindlessly going through the motions?
And lastly, the story.
Yeah, it's a weird one and if you don't like it, I totally get it.
I'm not a big fan myself, but as I said, story isn't very important to me in a Zelda game.
What is really interesting and innovative about it is the fact that you can access it at your own pace and in any order, just like everything else in the game.
That is what sets it apart from conventional open world stories.
Open worlds should be all about exploring, and BOTW is, so it's cool to stumble upon story moments just like you would a shrine, or an enemy camp, or whatever.
Again, the story itself is nothing special and I get why some people don't like it and even how it's told, but the way it's delivered is perfectly harmonious with how the whole game is structured, as opposed to being a linear one spread around a huge map.
All this is not to say BOTW is perfect, far from it.
What it does well, though, it does in a way no other game does, and I hope the open world games devs take note and finally deliver some interesting world to actually explore.
Hope I could answer your curiosity, I'm curious to know what you think about it 😃
Re: Rumour: Xbox Might Have An Acquisition To Announce At E3 2021
@BlueOcean #29 yeah OOT has a perfectly serviceable story, I'm not criticizing it in the slightest; it's just that I wouldn't say it's the centerpiece of the game, and what made it the revolutionary masterpiece it was/is, nor is it in any game of the series (except for Majora's Mask probably).
#33 basically everything, to be honest.
The handcrafted layout of the world, which generates some kind of question/intrigue behind pretty much every corner; in other worlds it's one of the few games where running around is actually fun and not just following a line on a minimap for a stretch of nothing in between markers, because planning a road to the objective and getting constantly sidetracked by little things that pique my curiosity is exactly the kind of fun that exploration done well delivers to me.
On the topic of map markers, well, you make your own by reaching high ground, spotting something interesting, and "pinning" it yourself.
The towers don't give you a load of meaningless chores, they simply give you a better understanding of your surroundings, which ties in with the glider that we've seen now pop up all over the place in open world games, and for good reason.
Blindly riving a car or riding a horse for minutes at a time until the next quest just isn't fun to me, it's not engaging.
Flying is even more boring, as it's an even straighter line.
That's why I prefer games like inFamous, Sunset Overdrive and Saints Row 4, because they all follow the same formulaic, boring structure, but at least they have some actually interesting gameplay in the traversal.
Part 2 below, it's a long one lol
Hope the mods don't mind 😉
Re: Rumour: Xbox Might Have An Acquisition To Announce At E3 2021
@LtSarge I completely disagree.
Just like no other open world has managed the same level of physics and interaction as BOTW, none has found a way to integrate the story into the structure. Outer Wilds is the other one and managed it way better than BOTW, but that's understandable cause story is everything in that game.
You may not like how BOTW handled it, but it's the only way anyone has made a narrative that fits the open world format to a T.
Every other open world is a linear story with a bunch of copypasted markers spread around a huge map, that's it.
I haven't played Horizon so maybe it isn't like that, but from what I've seen it seems to work pretty much like TW3, Skyrim, inFamous, GTA, Sunset Overdrive, etc. etc..
Regarding story, I don't know, Zelda stories have always been super simple and generic, save for Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask, the only two that actually did something different from the usual setup.
But OOT isn't regarded as well as it is for its story, as is the series in general. Skyward Sword had a good one for Zelda standards, but that's it.
Nintendo has never been interested in telling stories, and I don't expect them to ever change that, at least in their tentpole franchises.
They have Fire Emblem and Xenoblade for that 😃
Re: Rumour: Xbox Might Have An Acquisition To Announce At E3 2021
@LtSarge there wasn't for BOTW either.
You may not like the story (which is certainly not BOTW's strongest point, but was never the focus in Zelda games to begin with), but how is it compromised? It was clearly intentionally set up that way to better fir the open world structure of the game, as opposed to a linear one.
But again, you're talking hardware compromises but story is a weird one to pick, since it has nothing to do with the hardware, and in this specifically case there was no compromise whatsoever, especially considering that BOTW's physics engine is leagues ahead any other open world game out there, and it runs on a glorified toaster.
So no, Guerrilla wouldn't have made it better, considering Horizon isn't nowhere near as innovative as BOTW.
Re: It Looks Like Balan Wonderworld Creator Yuji Naka Has Departed Square Enix
I mean, it's sad cause he seems like a very honest and kind person even when he should be promoting his game, but such an unmitigated disaster just can't be ignored.
I'd be pretty p*ssed too, if I'd hired a legendary senior dev and he came up with this.
Re: Devolver Digital Announces E3 Show With Apparent Hotline Miami 3 Tease
Ah, I didn't notice that!
But hey, knowing those trolls at Devolver I would wager it's just a joke...I don't wanna get my hopes too high 😃
Also I'm not sure, but I seem to remember that the creators said HM was done after the second one wrapped the story up.
Hope they change their minds lol
Re: Games With Mouse & Keyboard Support On Xbox One, Xbox Series X
It's so ironic how the only DOOM game you can play with M+KB is the only one that was console exclusive ahahahah
Re: Pick One: Which Platforming Hero Is Your Favourite?
Everytime Sonic enters the conversation, I'm always surprised by how many and how loyal his fans are.
Re: Reaction: Wow, Titanfall 2's Community Day Was A Massive Success
@AFCC ahahahah don't worry, it would've been fine either way 😃 have a good one!
Re: Reaction: Wow, Titanfall 2's Community Day Was A Massive Success
Shoot I completely forgot! I wanted to jump in and have my arse handed to me lol
I'm absolute crap at multiplayer games and I usually don't have much fun with them, but TF2 is really really fun.
@Acksaw @AFCC multiplayer yes, but it's got nothing on DOOM Eternal if we're talking single player 😃
Re: CDPR Releases Hotfix 1.22 For Cyberpunk 2077, Here's Everything Included
@BAMozzy yes I know, and I absolutely agree with what you said.
I know devs are more often than not super passionate and perfectionists, and that the blame for botched launches, predatory monetization and such falls squarely on the management; but since all management sees and cares about is revenue, that many sales regardless of everything that went down is all that matters.
I'm sure CDPR devs would've loved to delay the game and deliver the best possible product, but until a broken mess sells 13+ million copies in 21 days I don't see shareholders of big companies all over the world changing their modus operandi anytime soon.
Re: CDPR Releases Hotfix 1.22 For Cyberpunk 2077, Here's Everything Included
@BAMozzy agreed.
I'm waiting for it to be thoroughly patched before buying it on my PC (or maybe a new console, if I get one sooner than I'm planning to at the moment), since I usually play games way after they come out, and I can be patient.
The only thing I think is an absolute shame is that a lot of people, like you said, probably splashed the cash but are waiting to play it, and that encourages CDPR to put out broken stuff. I mean, they don't care too much if we play it or not, or even how many out of those 13+ million people will. Those people have already forked out their money, mission accomplished for CDPR.
P.S.: Idk if it's a mission name or whatever, but New Dawn Fades is a very good song.
Re: Rumour: Xbox Game Studios Working On Four New IPs, Including A Spinoff Of An Existing IP
@NEStalgia ahahahah I wouldn't put it past them to give us something nobody asked for once again
Re: Rumour: Xbox Game Studios Working On Four New IPs, Including A Spinoff Of An Existing IP
They're finally doing something with Rare's IP's?
Cause that would be more than cool, since they bought a company and kept it and its IP's pretty much under ice for 20 years.
C'mon you cowards, give us a new Banjo!
Re: Xbox And Bethesda Mobile Developer Alpha Dog Working On New DOOM Game
@gingataisen of course it's doesn't make the games any less fun to play, come on.
Probably I didn't explain myself well, but come on, don't be so antagonistic.
What I was trying to say is that such projects feel a bit out of place in the overall franchise, given its overall quality and impact, that's all.
That's the same as a bad movie in an otherwise good franchise, or a bad finale to a good series, or whatever; although not to the same degree, I'll concede.
I'd feel the same about a Zelda mobile cash grab, for example.
Hope it's clearer now, have a good one 👍🏻