What games are you playing now?

[danutz_plusplus]

View: https://youtu.be/1xez4_pcJ_8


Nice. Won’t be long now. 28th March.

 

[JDR13]

I gave the demo for Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon a spin. I was a little disappointed, but my expectations might have been too high. The world and lore seem decent enough, but the production values are definitely lacking.

 

[JDR13]

View: https://youtu.be/1xez4_pcJ_8


Nice. Won’t be long now. 28th March.

If this is accurate, we're gonna need a beast of a system to play at the highest settings.

The Last of Us PC Players Need a $1,199 Graphics Card for 4K 60 FPS Ultra - PlayStation LifeStyle

Those hoping to run The Last of Us on PC at 4K 60 FPS with Ultra settings will need a $1,199 graphics card, the RTX 4080.

www.playstationlifestyle.net

 

[JDR13]

After playing the demo for the Resident Evil 4 remake, I installed the original RE4 with the HD mod and have been messing around with that. It's aged very well except for the controls which were never great to begin with.

 

[Carnifex]

Still playing Chained Echoes here, and I'm starting to believe this game is of extremely high calibre, such as the early Final Fantasy games. It's got a good cast of characters to play, the fights are legit-tough and tons of exploration. I'll be sad when I finish it, whenever that happens.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Played 1-2h of the Diablo 4 beta. Looks great. Plays nicely. Combat is solid. Like you'd expect.
The best thing about the whole thing is how they've definitely stepped up their storytelling, compared to previous games.
They have some solid in-game cinematics. And it's at least average or above average most of the time. Something unheard of in most recent Diablo games.
The one thing I'm kind of disappointed is the skill tree. Feels very uninspired in its structure. The attacks and animations are fine, but the layout of the skills ... it's sort of a return to basics but in the most primitive form.
I'll need to play some more to get more of a feel. I'm going with the rogue, in case it was a question.

 

[JDR13]

They have some solid in-game cinematics. And it's at least average or above average most of the time. Something unheard of in most recent Diablo games.

Really? To me, cinematics have always been one of Blizzard's strong points.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Really? To me, cinematics have always been one of Blizzard's strong points.

In-game cinematics. Which have been virtually non-existent until D3, where they were pretty awful.
D4's in-game cinematics seem closer to the stuff we saw in Starcraft 2. Though they also do sometimes look rough for some reason, like they're not finished.
And I have a feeling they're pretty much close to being done. But regardless, it's obvious that they're taking the story seriously this time.

Played some more of D4, but I kinda got tired. Yeah, it's Diablo. It's an endless grind by design.
Though they do seem to have put plenty of systems in this one, compared especially with Diablo 3.
There's loads of progression systems and build altering systems.

I'll try it again tomorrow, since I'm too tired right now. It may also be that I'm a bit disappointed in the rogue class. They merged the bow/crossbow class with the assassin, and managed to significantly dillute the assassin. I have 2-3 major nodes (out of around 7 or 8, I think there are) where I honestly couldn't choose anything to fit my playstyle. So maybe I'll try a different class.

Oh, another positive I forgot to mention. I wasn't kidding when I said it look so pretty. I stumbled onto a cavernous dungeon and was amazed how beautiful the lighting was. And how detailed everything is.
Too bad it's a Diablo game and you're almost always going at full speed to clear areas and you rarely have time to just look around. The way they pepper the zones with enemies they pretty much make you keep going.
But man, it's so beautiful during the daytime.

 

[JDR13]

In-game cinematics. Which have been virtually non-existent until D3, where they were pretty awful.
D4's in-game cinematics seem closer to the stuff we saw in Starcraft 2. Though they also do sometimes look rough for some reason, like they're not finished.
And I have a feeling they're pretty much close to being done. But regardless, it's obvious that they're taking the story seriously this time

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "in-game" cinematics. Do you mean cinematics that aren't taking place between chapters\levels or prior to\after the game? If so, then yeah, Blizzard has rarely, if ever, done in-game cinematics that I can recall. I definitely wouldn't say the cinematics in D3 were awful though.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "in-game" cinematics. Do you mean cinematics that aren't taking place between chapters\levels or prior to\after the game? If so, then yeah, Blizzard has rarely, if ever, done in-game cinematics that I can recall. I definitely wouldn't say the cinematics in D3 were awful though.

In-game means using the game's graphics engine. Usually rendered in real-time and not pre-rendered (like the D3 ones you linked above; those are pre-rendered)
They had in-game cinematics even in Warcraft 3 or Starcraft 2 (though for SC2 especially, even though they were in-engine, I think those were pre-rendered since I remember reading they built tooling on top of the in-game renderer, to have full cinematic control).

Some examples of the worst in-game cinematics in Diablo 3. The death of Cain or pretty much any of the corny mustache-twirling Azmodan or Diablo cinematics.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e6RGOM4SLI


Compared to this initial in-game cinematic from the D4 beta:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y95GGsxxA34

 

[JDR13]

Ok, that's not what I consider a cinematic though. Those are cutscenes.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Ok, that's not what I consider a cinematic though. Those are cutscenes.

I've always used the two terms interchangibly.
Anyway, I initially started another pointless debate but I'm too tired to keep to it.
So I edited this post.

 

[JDR13]

A cinematic usually refers to prerendered movies. Some people might also refer to them as cutscenes, but I've never seen in-game scripted stuff using the standard engine referred to as a cinematic.

 

[SirJames]

I'm also having a look at the Diablo IV beta!

Loving it, so far. Very pleased with how well it runs on my ancient 2700k rig with a 1070. ALL maxed out at 1080p - even with the 40gb texture pack!

The one thing I'm kind of disappointed is the skill tree. Feels very uninspired in its structure. The attacks and animations are fine, but the layout of the skills ... it's sort of a return to basics but in the most primitive form.
I'll need to play some more to get more of a feel. I'm going with the rogue, in case it was a question.

I'm also playing the rogue first.

The skill tree seems fine but which skills to pick is the question...

I started with Invigorating Strike on my left click, which gives 20% faster resource regen and if you're under 50% energy inflicts Vulnerable, which is 20% more damage.

Then I picked Heartseeker Arrow, which stacks 4% crit chance per shot for 4sec up to 15% but I've haven't unlocked any perks for it because, at the time, I didn't have a slot unlocked to put it in.

By the time I got the second slot for right_click I'd picked the melee Flurry attack and soon got the "stun for 2.5sec after a roll" perk, which is great.

Eventually, at level 8, you unlock the rest of your slots. So, around this point I'm eyeing the Rapid Fire bow move but thinking I'm already easily spending all my energy with Flurry so it it really worth getting another energy spending move? Then I killed a TREASURE GOBLIN and he dropped TWO legendary crossbows, one with a perk for Twisting Blades, the other for Poison Trap, neither of which I have.

But it was a massive upgrade from the raw damage, anyway, so I got Rapid Fire and it does so much damage now I'm wondering if I need any melee skills at all but I guess its more of a single target DPS move and Flurry has a nice AOE to it. BUT there is some Barrage move for bow AOE that might be a good replacement for a bow focused build.

Then I got Dash, which has 2 charges on 10sec CD and is quite long range and helps me keep distance for bow attacks.

Definitely having a great time with these skills but there's a lot more stuff I'm excited to unlock like Weapon Master passive looks like a must have.

Which skills did you get?

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I went with a pure melee build, and kind of tried a lot of things until I settled on Invigorating Strike and Flurry.
But now, on the next major skill nodes, the movement one and the one after that, I had no idea what to pick. None seemed for my style. Either traps or ranged abilities.
And the next one, from what I remembered, simply made me choose between ice, shadow and poison.
I was killing most things pretty fast, but was disappointed at the poor choices I had for a pure melee, no traps assassin style build.
Anyway, I'll give it another shot.

 

[Robollix]

Just finished the HL2 mod 'Minerva'. Excellent. Took me a few years to get round to it...but it was well worth the effort. Pity that there aren't more HL2 mods of this quality.

 

[Redglyph]

I've given another chance to Red Dead Redemption 2. I was hoping for a difficulty settings to focus on the story and exploration, but there isn't any. So far it's not too hard though.

It's such a strange mix. It's packed with details and the world is incredible, they must have taken a great care to render such an immersive environment. But at the same time, the controls are so messed up and inconsistent, and what is this game saving system? When I reload, I'm at an entirely different place and some of what happened after I saved is still there. Time passes way too fast too.

Typical Rockstar. But overall it's enjoyable.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I've given another chance to Red Dead Redemption 2. I was hoping for a difficulty settings to focus on the story and exploration, but there isn't any. So far it's not too hard though.

It's such a strange mix. It's packed with details and the world is incredible, they must have taken a great care to render such an immersive environment. But at the same time, the controls are so messed up and inconsistent, and what is this game saving system? When I reload, I'm at an entirely different place and some of what happened after I saved is still there. Time passes way too fast too.

Typical Rockstar. But overall it's enjoyable.

Yeah, with the save system I completely gave up expecting what you'd expect from most games.
It's either bugged or, and considering how most systems seem to focus 100% on immersion and that's why I tend to believe this, they implemented it in a way where if you return you always find Arthur in a slightly different location and position.
It's almost as if you're just returning to witness his life, and Arthur has a life even without you controlling him. That's how I took it anyway.

 

[Redglyph]

It's almost as if you're just returning to witness his life, and Arthur has a life even without you controlling him. That's how I took it anyway.

That's exactly the feeling I get when I reload, or when I launch the game to continue the story.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

That's exactly the feeling I get when I reload, or when I launch the game to continue the story.

Then if that's the design, it's doing it's job?

I think they built on the same idea they initially implemented in GTA 5, where if you swap between the main protagonists you always find them doing whatever it was they were doing before you swapped. Of course, the effect is very likely faked, but it still does a good job of ensuring immersion. And you don't just swap to a character just find him frozen in time until you jump to him.