Computer games.

[RFUS]

Finished The Outer Worlds. 48 Hours play time total is a pretty decent return.
My thoughts (story spoilers):

Spoiler

The credits finished and I was left feeling a bit disappointed.

To elaborate, I was absolutely in love with the game through the first 30 or so hours. Exploring and questing across Terra 2, then the Groundbreaker, then more of Terra 2, then Monarch with Parvati and Vicar Max and finding the scattered lore on the terminals and NPC dialogue finding out about the history and flaws of Halcyon was brilliant. Exactly the kind of adventuring I loved from Fallout NV. The deeper, depressing lore underneath the cheesy slapstick humour was a perfect blend and I loved it.

Then Byzantium happened. The game which for days had me carefully considering all the potential consequencies of my character's choices threw me into a segment with no choice. Every city guard was 'kill-on-sight' to me, so, despite trying to sneak through a heavily populated and guarded city, I ended up just having to kill a lot. I actually had to google if I was missing something, and nope, lots of others also bewildered that they were forced to fight because once your faction rep with the Board goes over 50 and you are 'kill-on-sight', it never goes back down. Turns out the reputation does reset after completing a main quest later (someone had to actually get a tech support response confirming it), but Byzantium didn't reset. All the civilians were hostile to me so I couldn't fast travel anywhere. The bartender stayed 'kill-on-sight' even after the rep reset. Guard's bodies still littered the street and the carefully constructed RPG I was liking so much suddenly felt like a uninspired sandbox where consequence didn't exist. It was just so disappointing.

Up to that point, you had a choice for how to approach the problems in the game and figuring out the best solution, like joining the Iconoclasts with MSI was what was making it special and that ended abruptly. For the rest of the game I felt much less invested in choices and consequences than before. The story ended well enough but it had let itself down after being over 9/10 for the majority of the time I spent playing it.

Almost ordered Death Stranding but decided £50 for Marmite is too much.

I’m not sure how I did it but every time I first landed on Byzantium (3 run through) I’ve always been of good rep with them however I never had the skill required to get further with the quest so I had to go full on Anakin Skywalker with them. Think if I had persuasion high enough I could do it. Might open up a slightly different ending for me next time.

Very strange. Had zero problems in Byzantium. Only hostile people were the guards in restricted areas but there are plenty of ways to get past them (the sewers provide a nice secret entrance).

Took me just over 30 hours to do all quests and sidequests which is decent. Played plenty of RPGs that are three or four times longer but when free time is limited it's nice to have a game that isn't padded out unnecessarily.

There are minor areas for improvement but all in all Obsidian hit it out the park for me. Hope there's a sequel in the works.

 

[Tubey]

Been watching Death Stranding streams and... well...

I'll just say that if you've spent money on that, I hope you find enjoyment from it. Somehow.

 

[larrygobfiend]

Been watching Death Stranding streams and... well...

I'll just say that if you've spent money on that, I hope you find enjoyment from it. Somehow.

It's one of the weirdest releases I've ever seen. They've clearly put loads of work into it and spent a tonne of money, but it's barely even a game.

 

[LostLegend]

Been watching Death Stranding streams and... well...

I'll just say that if you've spent money on that, I hope you find enjoyment from it. Somehow.

The more I see of it, the less sense it makes.

It’s like the script and story were written by one of those low end AI bots. Absolute gibberish

 

[Toast]

The more I see of it, the less sense it makes.

It’s like the script and story were written by one of those low end AI bots. Absolute gibberish lol

I've got it for my lad today.
Looks like one he will play for a weekend and then trade in if I'm honest.

Tesco have two Switch games for £60 at the moment, I'd rather have bought them.

 

[Tubey]

Jim Sterling - a famously anti-Konami game industry figure - is not impressed.



"It's annoying and boring."

That's my impression of it too. There are games that don't stream well but are great when you play it - this is obviously not one of those.

 

[LostLegend]

Jim Sterling - a famously anti-Konami game industry figure - is not impressed.



"It's annoying and boring."

That's my impression of it too. There are games that don't stream well but are great when you play it - this is obviously not one of those.

To be fair, he does say that he’s happy for Kojima being able to release a game that he wants without the interference of a corporation hanging over him, but god yes, it looks horrifically boring lol

Also, some are hitting out at the fact that streamers and YouTube lets-players are being slammed with copyright claims over all the licensed music and cinematic scenes (if which there are over 7 hours of... good luck to the speed runners )

Others are pointing out the not very subtle product placement this game is packed with:



lol

 

[Tubey]

To be fair, he does say that he’s happy for Kojima being able to release a game that he wants without the interference of a corporation hanging over him, but god yes, it looks horrifically boring

That's what I meant though - that Jim had every reason to want to love Kojima's Konami-free game, but can't, because it's quite clearly rubbish.

A lot of questions should be asked of games media after this. The scores in general are absurd.

 

[Tubey]

Like this is silly. People aren't viewing it as a game - they're viewing it as a Kojima game. They are genuinely forcing themselves to find enjoyment where none exists, meaning where none exists.

If it wasn't by Kojima, this is clearly getting 5/10s across the board at best.

It's like if Banksy drew a stickman on a wall - people would still laud it, simply because it's Banksy.

I get it, Kojima is likeable, but a game is a game.

 

[Connor]

Amazon Deliveryman simulator still baffles me

 

[gonetomorrow]

The wife is addicted to the computer games.

Freecell and that. It's a drag.

 

[Blueclouds]

It's a shame Kojima ended up with when he had free reign and unlimited budget.

Wonder when Sony had that moment
"What the hell"

Not really a fan of Kojima but I expected better. Apparently he one of the best

 

[Wizard]

To be fair, he does say that he’s happy for Kojima being able to release a game that he wants without the interference of a corporation hanging over him, but god yes, it looks horrifically boring lol

Also, some are hitting out at the fact that streamers and YouTube lets-players are being slammed with copyright claims over all the licensed music and cinematic scenes (if which there are over 7 hours of... good luck to the speed runners )

Others are pointing out the not very subtle product placement this game is packed with:



lol

Death Branding

 

[Zezti]

Ordered Death Stranding from Amazon earlier (and got 3 months of Amazon Music Unlimited bonus). Seems like everyone either loves it or hates it, and I just have a feeling its my kind of game.
People are really jumping on board the bashing and memeing train without giving it a chance which is a shame.

 

[Blueclouds]

Ordered Death Stranding from Amazon earlier (and got 3 months of Amazon Music Unlimited bonus). Seems like everyone either loves it or hates it, and I just have a feeling its my kind of game.
People are really jumping on board the bashing and memeing train without giving it a chance which is a shame.

More people will play when its half price or pre owned.

The trailers and reviews dont sell it to the casual gamers.