@el-shmiablo said in The PS5 News and Info Thread:
They've been at a power disadvantage for about 3 years now and nobody has cared.
I care. I used PS4 for early 3rd-party games and now I use Xbox. For me power and services are the deciding factors when I buy a console and exclusive games are a tie-breaker at most.
@themarcv said in Final Fantasy VII Remake:
if your launching a huge AAA big budget game like FF7 Remake and you're not trying to get everyone to play it you're failing at your job.
That is a smart thing to do if it's the last game you've ever releasing. Because now I will remember that their claims should be trusted even less than other's, so it will be nearly impossible to sell me their future new projects. And rather than spending time on checking claims of someone whom I don't trust, I will play games I already own or already interested to buy.
So in my opinion, they are failing at they job because they are firing in all direction instead of targeting their audience (which is big enough for this project). Compare it to Read Dead Redemption 2 - it was a huge deal for fans, for the industry, but Rockstar never treated it as a must-play title. Instead they just showed the game and let you decide for yourself.
It's so funny to read all those exciting impressions because I liked nothing in this demo besides the fact that there's a demo for a high-profile game. I guess Square Enix made a game just for the fans of the original, which is totally fine (and great if you are a fan), but I wish they didn't promote it as a must-play title for every gamer.
@yoshi And why this is a big deal? Games, movies and other entertainment quite often don't release on the same day worldwide. Sometimes you'll be waiting for weeks or even months. Waiting for one extra day after waiting for so many years is almost nothing, especially since Australian 11 will be 10 for Europe and America.
If you not sure what you are looking for, try getting Xbox Game Pass and try every RPG it offers. It's a low commitment and you'll probably find something you'll like.
@axel Yes, I can see it now. Great post!
@axel I can't see your submission (it was probably deleted). Please check it, submissions are closing soon.
@axel Community Showcase submission post is up now.
@dipset You can change difficulty anytime and there's Easy and Very Easy. So my advice is to build a character you would like to play as and then find the right difficulty.
To the mods: let's move this topic to the Hall of Fame.
@axel Please submit results to Community Showcase or Q&A.
Here’re my top 8 2019 games:
The only one that didn’t make into top 25 is The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan. I really liked my first playthrough: having to react quickly knowing that every mistake can mean death or bad outcome was intense and horrifying. But further playthroughs to get all collectables weren’t that great and it’s hard to replay particular segment in the middle of your playthrough (which is fine for the 1st run, but not good for the 2nd). It’s memorable, but it’s one-and-done game.
I’ve played a demo of Resident Evil 2. Not for me – character moves too slow for an action game. And Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a From Software game and after finishing Bloodborne I will not play any games from this studio until they implement Easy difficulty and add substantial story that isn’t lore-based (so, probably never).
@axel said in The EZA Community Top 25 Best of 2019!:
Dat Luigi's Mansion 3 snub tho.
If it had proper control scheme I would play it. But with its current unfriendly controls I support this snub.
The Outer Worlds is my #3 because of its revolutionary game design.
First of all the game design in The Outer Worlds is a new step for the industry in terms of combining player freedom with storytelling. I feel like in every other branching narrative game I played (even in story-driven games like games from Quantic Dreams) I could always see the limit of my choices and the scope of their impact. But in The Outer Worlds I felt like I’m playing with a real DM, who understands my actions and changes everything accordingly. The game has so many possibilities, but it never lists them. Even with skill checks in dialog it only shows you those options that you can use immediately or very soon. This creates a feeling that there’s no wrong way to play this game and whatever you choose you always feel like you made the right call.
Another impressive aspect is its open-world design. I don’t like when open world games have no question marks on the map – I want to know that I’m not wasting time by going somewhere. But when there are question marks I clear all of them first, because I don’t want to miss any side content. But then I revisit familiar places during my quests, which isn’t that interesting. The Outer Worlds don’t have typical question marks, but instead the game sends you to every interesting location on some quests and it makes sure that all quest beginnings are near to other quest's goals. And the maps are just the right size to give you room for going off the path, but don’t make you feel like you’ve missed a lot if you didn’t. Again this is a remarkable achievement in game design.
So why this game is my #3 and not my #1? This game has countless interesting stories both big and small, but they aren’t especially emotional. Maybe it’s because game’s dialog are just talking heads, but the fact remains: I love and adore this game on intellectual level, but it doesn’t feel special. Even so I highly recommend this game to everyone especially since it’s not that long and it’s on Xbox Game Pass.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is my #25 of 36.
First things first: I don’t like Nintendo as a company and I don’t like Switch as a console so a first-party Switch exclusive has an uphill battle with me. That being said, I was genuinely interested in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and was determent to be fair to this game despite its origins and platform.
Good things first. Of the small pool of Nintendo games I’ve ever bought it’s the first one I’m not regretting buying. Also it’s the first one which I wanted to play more after reaching the credits. In fact I finished all 3.5 campaigns in a row. It was mostly because swapped face buttons is a huge problem for me, and since I got more or less used to it by the end of the first playthrough, it was wise to play other campaigns while I’m there. But still, I wanted to continue, and that is totally thanks to the game’s relaxing gameplay and decent story.
Now the bad things, which are numerous (otherwise it would not by my #25). Visuals are terrible outside of combat, especially for an AAA 2019 game. Especially during dialogs, when backgrounds wraps and bends like your character is drunk. Character animations are also very rigid, limited and repetitive. I could not look at this “early PS3” image, so I just listened to the dialogs (thankfully the game is fully voiced). Characters weren’t that memorable either (maybe because I didn’t look at them). They aren’t bad, and some interactions are worth pursuing, but there are so many of them, that the story of each one becomes too sparse and short. Combat encounters are great and controls well especially for a strategy on console, but very often inputting your turn takes too much time because there are so many characters and the battlefield isn’t small. Especially when you do them again because this game forces you to replay a good chunk of it in your second and third playthrough. Oh, and running over the castle takes too much time when you do it again and again.
In summary, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is simply too big. My closest comparison is The Banner Saga trilogy and those games are better than Three Houses in almost every aspect (except for not being fully voiced). So I would recommend them over the latest Fire Emblem, especially if your gaming time is limited.
Control is my #2.
You can easily disagree, but I think that Control is the first next-gen title. The amount of destruction with realistic physics for every piece of debris is mind blowing. The visuals are stunning even without ray-tracing – there are projectors that actually project! And when you enable ray-tracing the image becomes even better. I’ve spend $1200 on a new PC to play this game and it was 100% worth it!
But even if you can’t run this game the best way possible, it’s still an amazing experience. The combat is great – a chaos of explosions, sounds and enemies pushing from all angles. It’s easy to get swallowed by this chaos, but you also have so many tools to control it. Movement feels great, shots feel impactful and abilities are a joy to use. Even if there was nothing else in Control it would be worth playing.
But there’s more! Exploration in Control is also great. Sure, the map isn’t a winner and there were times when I was running in circles trying to understand how to get somewhere, but each room in The Oldest House is so distinct and meticulously detailed, that I didn’t mind going through the same places again and again. Even when I played the game a second time it still felt new and exciting.
World building is also top tier. I love how weird and unexplainable stuff slowly becomes just another day on the job. When you read some documents in the beginning of the game it all sounds crazy, but later it all makes sense even though it really doesn’t. Trying to communicate with the duck toy sounds crazy and it is crazy, but in The Oldest House it’s a reasonable thing to do. Also many lore pieces are interconnected and sometimes you read about on object of power before you see it, which is always nice since it makes you feel like you know what you’re doing.
Such fascinating narrative is supported by a great cast. Jesse Faden is a great lead with a great balance of relevant history and lack of experience. She is perfect avatar in this strange world, but she never feels like just an avatar – you want to help her with her goals and want to unravel her own story. The rest of the characters are also distinct and interesting and some of them you can never meet.
For a long time Control was my GotY, but it ended up being my #2, because Borderlands 3 (my GotY) made me emotional like no other game in 2019. Control is fascinating and rewarding journey, but it doesn’t have an ending that sticks with you. And that’s why it got my second place.
Death Stranding is my #16 of 36.
I can’t say that I’m Kojima’s fan: I think that he creates cut-scenes like no other, but gameplay and story of his games aren’t that memorable for me. But my favorite aspect of Death Stranding is its traversal. It just feels great to plan the path on the map and then adapt on the fly when you actually reach these places. Yes, it is tedious, but it’s a very relaxing tedium. My closest comparison would be No Man’s Sky at launch where going through motions was also a great way to relax after work.
I didn’t mind that there’s no meaningful progression in this game: the motorcycle is OP and you get one early on. I even stopped looking at the stuff you unlock and I stopped carrying any traversal cargo or weapons – you can always just drive away from enemy encounters and drive around environmental obstacles. And when you forced to fight a boss, there’s always stuff lying around. It almost feels like the game wasn’t designed around the motorcycle. And the music absolutely wasn’t – 30 seconds after a new track starts playing you reach your goal and interrupt it.
Online features are the most interesting case. Certainly there were some good online components (like roads and charging stations), but most of them were absolutely useless to anyone. There were bridges over flat surfaces, speed-up signs on roads and inside bases where you can speed up as much as you want and stuff like that. And they were clearly placed there just to gather likes, because they were always on your path. It was very annoying and while I was playing the game I was wishing it was an offline game with all useful staff just appears when you unlock new region. But after the fact I decided that this was a good social experiment that showed how useless online interactions can be when they are driven by likes.
Other aspects weren’t that memorable. I had no attachments to game’s characters (even to BB) and its story. And music is better outside of the game. But as I said, I enjoyed going through motions which is why it’s my #16.
@iboshow I have a strong feeling that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is among the last 7.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is my #27 of 36.
I don’t like Star Wars: I think it’s pretty dumb and while new movies can be fun as visual spectacle, original trilogy lack even that and I can barely watch it. So my perspective isn’t a common one.
I approached Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order as just an action game. Combat is fun and strikes great balance between challenge and accessibility. And if it doesn’t, there are difficulty options. Level design is also great and environments look really good. Exploration is also nice, but it has one huge problem: there’s no fast travel, so opening some secrets after you’ve got necessary ability is unnecessary tedious.
As a non-fan of Star Wars I wasn’t especially attached to the story and I didn’t care about all visual updates to your gear. So the main reason to play for me was to explore new locations. Unfortunately there was one huge obstacle for me on this path – game’s music.
The music never shuts up. I traveled to some remote secluded place, nothing happening around me, let me just stand there for a second and breathe its atmosphere, please! No, - says the game, - I will drown you in music, because everyone loves Star Wars score and listen it on the loop. And it’s the same style of music no matter how different locations are! I’ve never done this before, but in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order I’ve muted the music in the middle of the game. It was a huge improvement, but it was too late, because by that point I already saw most of game’s environments and they were ruined for me.
At least I played it via Origin Access Premiere and I also played A Plague Tale: Innocence with that subscription, so it wasn’t a waste of my money.