what's old is new again
July 5, 2023 5:18 AM Subscribe
The Best Reviewed Games of 2023 (So Far) [IGN] The snowball of games delayed out of 2021 and 2022 has settled in 2023, coalescing into the most exciting games lineup of the decade so far. 2023, arguably, marks the proper start of the PS5 and Xbox Series X generation with Unreal Engine 5 support building and an increasing number of developers dropping support for last-gen hardware. Each of the three console manufacturers has at least one blockbuster release scheduled this year — Starfield for Xbox, Spider-Man 2 for PlayStation, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo — complemented by a generation-best third-party lineup that includes Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Street Fighter 6, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Hades 2, and Mortal Kombat 1. Five Six months through 2023 and already the year has lived up to its lofty expectations.
Y’all: Firmament.
If you are of a Puzzle Island bent, this is An Extremely Cyan Game. The controls are kinda jank, the game does not hold your hand or help you understand anything whatsoever, you have to distill everything you learn out of careful exploration and experimentation, it is Beautiful Art Deco Extremism and Grimwierd Narrative Incomprehensibility all the way and I am 100% invested in it.
If you want that Myst Island hit again, it’s the real thing, warts and all.
posted by mhoye at 5:43 AM on July 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
If you are of a Puzzle Island bent, this is An Extremely Cyan Game. The controls are kinda jank, the game does not hold your hand or help you understand anything whatsoever, you have to distill everything you learn out of careful exploration and experimentation, it is Beautiful Art Deco Extremism and Grimwierd Narrative Incomprehensibility all the way and I am 100% invested in it.
If you want that Myst Island hit again, it’s the real thing, warts and all.
posted by mhoye at 5:43 AM on July 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
Starfield's gonna be a 2024 game as I'm not going to spoil my experience by rushing to play a Bethesda game with its inevitable bugs. Baldur's Gate 3 is a release-date game, and that release has amazingly been pushed forward, so I'll probably finish it just in time to play the big hit of late august, Sea of Stars.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 5:45 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by I-Write-Essays at 5:45 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
I just finished playing Citizen Sleeper, and I'm really glad I waited a year after release to jump in, because the 3 episodes they finished releasing this April were critical to providing a "true" ending to the game.
You only get one chance to play a game for the first time, and these days it's so easy to ruin that experience by playing a game immediately on release.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 5:48 AM on July 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
You only get one chance to play a game for the first time, and these days it's so easy to ruin that experience by playing a game immediately on release.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 5:48 AM on July 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
so I'll probably finish it just in time to play the big hit of late august, Sea of Stars.
I-Write-Essays, you should consider checking out Chained Echoes , its a completely modern game done in classic SNES/RPG style. And its a love-letter to that genre and beautifully done. Just figured since you're gunning for Sea of Stars, this might hit just as well for anyone who is craving this particular style of RPG.
posted by Fizz at 5:53 AM on July 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
I-Write-Essays, you should consider checking out Chained Echoes , its a completely modern game done in classic SNES/RPG style. And its a love-letter to that genre and beautifully done. Just figured since you're gunning for Sea of Stars, this might hit just as well for anyone who is craving this particular style of RPG.
posted by Fizz at 5:53 AM on July 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
I've been trying to resist the release hype but I'm eyeing Age of Wonders 4 after that Leana Hafer video review linked from the list. I kinda bounced off Planetfall and I'm always super skeptical of a 4X trying to do both strategic and tactical scale gameplay well, but dang if that game doesn't look polished.
posted by okonomichiyaki at 6:06 AM on July 5, 2023
posted by okonomichiyaki at 6:06 AM on July 5, 2023
Starfield's gonna be a 2024 game as I'm not going to spoil my experience by rushing to play a Bethesda game with its inevitable bugs.
I'm going to wait until the first sale in 2025, both for the inevitable patches and (hopefully) mod-support for the unofficial patch… but also to budget for a new gaming PC.
posted by nathan_teske at 6:41 AM on July 5, 2023
I'm going to wait until the first sale in 2025, both for the inevitable patches and (hopefully) mod-support for the unofficial patch… but also to budget for a new gaming PC.
posted by nathan_teske at 6:41 AM on July 5, 2023
My relationship with games has really changed, I guess. At the end of 2022 I bought Sagrada, Vampire Survivors and Soulstone Survivors. This year I've only bought Rytmos and Marble World so far.
I'm not going to buy anything from Activision/Blizzard while Bobby Kotick is still there, and while they're trying to blame their culture of sexual harassment on unions somehow. But also I find I'm just not as excited about Diablo like I used to be. Soulstone Survivors scratches a similar itch for me, but in a more distilled way I guess.
I think the main game I'm interested in is WRC 23, which hasn't been officially announced but there have been some leaks.
posted by Foosnark at 7:02 AM on July 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm not going to buy anything from Activision/Blizzard while Bobby Kotick is still there, and while they're trying to blame their culture of sexual harassment on unions somehow. But also I find I'm just not as excited about Diablo like I used to be. Soulstone Survivors scratches a similar itch for me, but in a more distilled way I guess.
I think the main game I'm interested in is WRC 23, which hasn't been officially announced but there have been some leaks.
posted by Foosnark at 7:02 AM on July 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
oh yeah! Chained Echoes is sitting in my library, next on my list :)
posted by I-Write-Essays at 7:06 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by I-Write-Essays at 7:06 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I bought both Diablo 4 and Final Fantasy XVI on the strength of their reviews (89 on OpenCritic for both) and both games are so disappointing. I'm unlikely to finish either one. Diablo 4 is slow, boring, repetitive, and bleak. FF16 is slow, boring, repetitive, and very loud and shouty. It's also kinda sexy, that part is fun. D4 at least mostly lets you play the game; FF16 sticks to the series' design of having 20 minute cutscenes interspersed with 3 minute interactives. I'll stand by my D4 complaints, I have enough experience with the genre to be confident in my critique. Not as sure about FF16 because I've never successfully played any Final Fantasy game. I recognize they're a Big Deal to many people but somehow they've never worked for me.
Maybe it's not fair because I'm comparing to Tears of the Kingdom which is just honestly a nearly perfect game in most every way.
posted by Nelson at 7:15 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Maybe it's not fair because I'm comparing to Tears of the Kingdom which is just honestly a nearly perfect game in most every way.
posted by Nelson at 7:15 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
All these new amazing games, all the best and brightest in new CG and animation and unreal engine 5, all this cool new shit and I still find myself playing Witcher III again. lmao.
posted by Fizz at 7:25 AM on July 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 7:25 AM on July 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've just put like 250 more hours into Dragon's Dogma, a game from 2012. No game I've played before or since has managed to provide such a compelling and viscerally satisfying combat feel. I think the best part about it is that you don't have to be a generalist with an answer to every situation, you have a party of four, you can specialize in hitting things into next week or stabbing them or shooting arrows or casting spells (some of which are the most absurdly OP things imaginable), and also getting totally destroyed by dragons or whatever. It can be as punishing as Elden Ring on hard mode, but it doesn't feel so tied into your eye-hand coordination (unless you want to play that way), whereas souls games you're pretty much fucked if you haven't got quick reaction times. Also I kind of love when you're fighting a griffin or dragon something and not doing well and the thing just gets bored and flies away, like "oh for fuck's sake."
I want more games like this, that prioritis, you know, having fun. I think I should go back and play Dishono(u)red some more, that's a game that also really wants you to have fun.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:33 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
I want more games like this, that prioritis, you know, having fun. I think I should go back and play Dishono(u)red some more, that's a game that also really wants you to have fun.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:33 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
Take-Two has announced two previously unreleased games are coming in 2024
I am hoping this will be a remaster of Red Dead, fully redone with graphics upgrades, without the weird way they did the “definitive” editions of Grand Theft Auto.
Has anyone else tried the PSVR2 and had a bad experience? I somehow won an NCAA basketball pool and used it to get PSVR2, but the blurriness on the edges ruined the experience and I returned them. I might go for it again in the future but it seems like a common complaint.
posted by glaucon at 7:33 AM on July 5, 2023
I am hoping this will be a remaster of Red Dead, fully redone with graphics upgrades, without the weird way they did the “definitive” editions of Grand Theft Auto.
Has anyone else tried the PSVR2 and had a bad experience? I somehow won an NCAA basketball pool and used it to get PSVR2, but the blurriness on the edges ruined the experience and I returned them. I might go for it again in the future but it seems like a common complaint.
posted by glaucon at 7:33 AM on July 5, 2023
When my boyfriend and I spend time together after dinner, we’re more likely playing a game rather than watching TV. Top new releases for us this year: Cassette Beasts, Dave the Diver, Tears of the Kingdom.
He’s the more prolific gamer (I prefer to watch or play things like Stardew Valley). He bounced off of Atomic Heart pretty quickly, and only dabbled in Diablo 4 (but sinks several weeks into Path of Exile most seasons). Baldurs Gate and Starfield are both highly anticipated.
posted by itesser at 7:37 AM on July 5, 2023
He’s the more prolific gamer (I prefer to watch or play things like Stardew Valley). He bounced off of Atomic Heart pretty quickly, and only dabbled in Diablo 4 (but sinks several weeks into Path of Exile most seasons). Baldurs Gate and Starfield are both highly anticipated.
posted by itesser at 7:37 AM on July 5, 2023
I have a friend who's grooving on Diablo 4. They used to be big into Destiny 2 but it just got so esoterical, confusing, and grindy for the sake of making the player just get fed up and buy shit. Anyway, this friend is well deep into crafting a 1000+ active mod playthrough of Skyrim, a game which just continues to have vast appeal to folks just wanting to have A Good Time. I really respect Skyrim but it just gets too samey for me after a few dozen hours, I hope Starfield doesn't have that. For me what I'm most waiting for is (surprise) Dragons Dogma 2. I am sad that the upcoming Baldur's Gate will be turn-based combat I hear; that doesn't groove me, and is probably why I haven't bothered with Divinity or PoE which otherwise I hear are excellent.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:39 AM on July 5, 2023
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:39 AM on July 5, 2023
Diablo 4 nails it in the graphics department. The worlds, though unrelentingly bleak, are studded with detail. Each screen is a Persian miniature brought to life. The isometric camera really lends itself to the creation of minute, painterly environments that draw in the viewer and don't let up.
But the gameplay loop is spammy spam Mr. McSpam spam. Encounter a trash mob; spam your primary skills to the point of developing an RSI; rinse, repeat. Reddit is rife with stories about gamers who've fallen asleep mid-battle.
Can complex combat mechanics--those you'd find in Elden Ring or other souls games--be included in an isometric game? I'm not sure if that's possible. Certainly, it's hard to envision implementing dynamic dodge-and-rolls and I-frames into the tiny snowglobe world of Diablo.
Maybe spam-centric gameplay is the best that's possible in the Diablo-verse.
posted by Gordion Knott at 7:43 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
But the gameplay loop is spammy spam Mr. McSpam spam. Encounter a trash mob; spam your primary skills to the point of developing an RSI; rinse, repeat. Reddit is rife with stories about gamers who've fallen asleep mid-battle.
Can complex combat mechanics--those you'd find in Elden Ring or other souls games--be included in an isometric game? I'm not sure if that's possible. Certainly, it's hard to envision implementing dynamic dodge-and-rolls and I-frames into the tiny snowglobe world of Diablo.
Maybe spam-centric gameplay is the best that's possible in the Diablo-verse.
posted by Gordion Knott at 7:43 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Diablo for the last two games at least has entirely been about that core loop of: crawl, loot, level up, repeat. And I get that its not for everyone and I'm not even sure if it'll completely click for me (only a few hours in and still fussing with my build) but when it clicks right, it feels so very satisfying. Personally, I'm not sure I need Diablo to be more than just this. But we all have a different experience with games like this.
posted by Fizz at 7:49 AM on July 5, 2023
posted by Fizz at 7:49 AM on July 5, 2023
I just started on elden ring, so will be back in a year or so I guess.
But before starting elden ring, I was having a lovely time running through Fez, which is still a delightful game. The QR code puzzle feels a bit dated, but that's like one tiny thing in a game full of delights.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:52 AM on July 5, 2023
But before starting elden ring, I was having a lovely time running through Fez, which is still a delightful game. The QR code puzzle feels a bit dated, but that's like one tiny thing in a game full of delights.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:52 AM on July 5, 2023
Can complex combat mechanics--those you'd find in Elden Ring or other souls games--be included in an isometric game?
Path of Exile, a Diablo clone, has some of that. See Uber Elder or Sirus, two boss fights. I don't think boss fights are PoE's strength but they do have complex ones. A variety of attacks you have to recognize and avoid in different ways. The combat skills the player uses vary so much there's not so much complexity. Most PoE builds involve one or two damaging skills, one or two movement skills, then a variety of buffs, etc. Part of the game's joy is the wild diversity of builds, changing every season, but any specific build a player has often boils down to spamming 3 buttons.
I'd chalk that up to the limitations of action RPGs in general, not the graphical presentation. World of Warcraft is another example: great combat but still limited, albeit 5-6 buttons instead of just 3. I'd also suggest League of Legends is an isometric game with remarkably complex combat interactions. But it's a small team PvP game so is quite different in many other ways.
Diablo for the last two games at least has entirely been about that core loop of: crawl, loot, level up, repeat.
Oh sure. I love that kind of game and have hundreds of hours in Path of Exile and others to show for it. My complaint with Diablo 4 is the "crawl" and "loot" parts are boring to me compared to other similar games. It's something about the level design and monster diversity and density; far too much walking and killing small groups, not enough propulsive fun. I've yet to hit the "clicks right.. satisfying" part of the game and concluded it's just not there for me. It is working for lots of people though, at least up to level 70, so great!
Gordion Knott's right about the painted worlds though, they are beautiful. Diablo 4 went with a unique painterly rendering style that I really like. (Elden Ring has a bit of this, too). And the scenes feel designed as meticulously as the old Bioware games like Planescape: Torment or Baldur's Gate. That's a remarkable achievement in a game that also has to have procedural dungeons and replayability.
posted by Nelson at 7:59 AM on July 5, 2023
Path of Exile, a Diablo clone, has some of that. See Uber Elder or Sirus, two boss fights. I don't think boss fights are PoE's strength but they do have complex ones. A variety of attacks you have to recognize and avoid in different ways. The combat skills the player uses vary so much there's not so much complexity. Most PoE builds involve one or two damaging skills, one or two movement skills, then a variety of buffs, etc. Part of the game's joy is the wild diversity of builds, changing every season, but any specific build a player has often boils down to spamming 3 buttons.
I'd chalk that up to the limitations of action RPGs in general, not the graphical presentation. World of Warcraft is another example: great combat but still limited, albeit 5-6 buttons instead of just 3. I'd also suggest League of Legends is an isometric game with remarkably complex combat interactions. But it's a small team PvP game so is quite different in many other ways.
Diablo for the last two games at least has entirely been about that core loop of: crawl, loot, level up, repeat.
Oh sure. I love that kind of game and have hundreds of hours in Path of Exile and others to show for it. My complaint with Diablo 4 is the "crawl" and "loot" parts are boring to me compared to other similar games. It's something about the level design and monster diversity and density; far too much walking and killing small groups, not enough propulsive fun. I've yet to hit the "clicks right.. satisfying" part of the game and concluded it's just not there for me. It is working for lots of people though, at least up to level 70, so great!
Gordion Knott's right about the painted worlds though, they are beautiful. Diablo 4 went with a unique painterly rendering style that I really like. (Elden Ring has a bit of this, too). And the scenes feel designed as meticulously as the old Bioware games like Planescape: Torment or Baldur's Gate. That's a remarkable achievement in a game that also has to have procedural dungeons and replayability.
posted by Nelson at 7:59 AM on July 5, 2023
There's truly not enough time or money.
What Fizz said. I'm currently playing Honkai Star Rail and enjoying it quite a bit, but devoting time to it means not devoting time to the other games in my backlog. And the backlog is growing!
posted by SPrintF at 8:18 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
What Fizz said. I'm currently playing Honkai Star Rail and enjoying it quite a bit, but devoting time to it means not devoting time to the other games in my backlog. And the backlog is growing!
posted by SPrintF at 8:18 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I played Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 for hundreds of hours each. I gave up on Diablo 4 after about maybe 3 hours. All the enemies level up with you so you never feel more powerful and the loot drops are rarely exciting. It's just endless clicking with no reward for me. The story and graphics were not enough to keep me invested.
posted by exolstice at 8:35 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by exolstice at 8:35 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
My brother loaned me his still shrink-wrapped copy of TotK because he's deep into another game right now. But he may regret his decision because I think I'm going to be playing this one all year. If you're a completionist, there's just so much in it to do!
posted by eekernohan at 8:37 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by eekernohan at 8:37 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
Playing Diablo 4 right now. I’m enjoying and hoping to get some friends together to really explore the mmo / campaign style stuff. My main complaint is that I’d like an option to follow Lilith, or at least some branches in the story line instead of simply one path in every quest.
posted by interogative mood at 8:40 AM on July 5, 2023
posted by interogative mood at 8:40 AM on July 5, 2023
Can complex combat mechanics--those you'd find in Elden Ring or other souls games--be included in an isometric game?
Hades. Maybe not that complex but definitely more hands on than the click fest I remember as the Diablo series.
posted by Evstar at 8:41 AM on July 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
Hades. Maybe not that complex but definitely more hands on than the click fest I remember as the Diablo series.
posted by Evstar at 8:41 AM on July 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
Not as sure about FF16 because I've never successfully played any Final Fantasy game. I recognize they're a Big Deal to many people but somehow they've never worked for me.
FF16 is a big departure for the series. 15 is sort of the same but less baked. 6 through 10 are considered the golden run/defining games.
Also count me in the group of folks disappointed by 16. I'm glad the world and story is more fleshed out than 15 was. But it feels like a missing episode of Game of Thrones that you can't ever escape. The combat is legitimately fun, but it takes so. very. very. long. to do the big fights that once you get into the depths of the game even that becomes obnoxious. (I feel like this is something that has plagued the series since all the way back to 13.)
I'm pining for a next-gen FF9-style game at this point. Something with a solid colorful aesthetic, vibrant characters, and actual adventure instead of side quests that feel like work.
posted by greenland at 9:05 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
FF16 is a big departure for the series. 15 is sort of the same but less baked. 6 through 10 are considered the golden run/defining games.
Also count me in the group of folks disappointed by 16. I'm glad the world and story is more fleshed out than 15 was. But it feels like a missing episode of Game of Thrones that you can't ever escape. The combat is legitimately fun, but it takes so. very. very. long. to do the big fights that once you get into the depths of the game even that becomes obnoxious. (I feel like this is something that has plagued the series since all the way back to 13.)
I'm pining for a next-gen FF9-style game at this point. Something with a solid colorful aesthetic, vibrant characters, and actual adventure instead of side quests that feel like work.
posted by greenland at 9:05 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
The FF16 side quests are terrible, aren't they? They feel completely tacked on and with the most limited possible writing. The gameplay mechanics are dull too, but it's the lack of story that stands out. Particularly since the world and the main quest are so well fleshed out. They voice acted all the side quest NPCs and clearly put some effort into it. But then the actual quests are like "I am generic courtesan #723 could you please get my makeup kit and bring it to me?"
posted by Nelson at 9:11 AM on July 5, 2023
posted by Nelson at 9:11 AM on July 5, 2023
Interesting that 2 of the 3 games to get 10/10 are remakes/ remasters of Gamecube Games
posted by tomp at 9:21 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by tomp at 9:21 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I picked up D4 and I'm not impressed. I can sort of see where the design was aiming, with a lot of latitude in the design of characters and "if you pick this, you can't have that" mechanics.
But I'm getting a lot of frame drops, rubber-banding, and general bugginess on PC. The UI design for menus takes several seconds to load, and seems sort of tacked together, especially around quests. Itemization is of the Borderlands 3 "we have a million useless items that you'll need to sort through" variety. The big bad has tons of dramatic lighting static shots, but almost no actual threat. Worst of all, the actual combat loop doesn't really allow for clever play, just hit the button more.
It just comes off as a muddled mess. I think Hades may have changed how I expect this type of game to play.
posted by SunSnork at 9:26 AM on July 5, 2023
Possible spoiler complaints
But I'm getting a lot of frame drops, rubber-banding, and general bugginess on PC. The UI design for menus takes several seconds to load, and seems sort of tacked together, especially around quests. Itemization is of the Borderlands 3 "we have a million useless items that you'll need to sort through" variety. The big bad has tons of dramatic lighting static shots, but almost no actual threat. Worst of all, the actual combat loop doesn't really allow for clever play, just hit the button more.
It just comes off as a muddled mess. I think Hades may have changed how I expect this type of game to play.
posted by SunSnork at 9:26 AM on July 5, 2023
I’m still playing Elden Ring. Currently I am trying to beat the game without going past level 60 (dex build, switching between Bloodhound’s Blade and Hookclaws with lightning infusion).
It’s been pretty challenging, but I beat the Fire Giant! Took me a lot of tries!
Also, everyone thinks I’m crazy but I’m also doing this run with no HUD of any kind. It sounds like torture, but mostly I’ve found it to be the opposite. I pay more attention to the enemy animations and I am so so much better at fighting groups. You can still lock on without the HUD —and I do use lock-on for boss fights and duels— but having no HUD encourages me to lock on less often when fighting large groups, and that was a surprise benefit. Also the game just looks so pretty and I don’t want any UI in the way of that.
posted by Doleful Creature at 9:34 AM on July 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
It’s been pretty challenging, but I beat the Fire Giant! Took me a lot of tries!
Also, everyone thinks I’m crazy but I’m also doing this run with no HUD of any kind. It sounds like torture, but mostly I’ve found it to be the opposite. I pay more attention to the enemy animations and I am so so much better at fighting groups. You can still lock on without the HUD —and I do use lock-on for boss fights and duels— but having no HUD encourages me to lock on less often when fighting large groups, and that was a surprise benefit. Also the game just looks so pretty and I don’t want any UI in the way of that.
posted by Doleful Creature at 9:34 AM on July 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
All these new amazing games, all the best and brightest in new CG and animation and unreal engine 5, all this cool new shit and I still find myself playing Witcher III again. lmao.
Same. I've been drawn back into RDR2, mainly because I just flat out missed Arthur Morgan, but also because this time I wanted to take much more time to just wander around picking creeping thyme and singing songs to my horse.
posted by ikahime at 9:36 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Same. I've been drawn back into RDR2, mainly because I just flat out missed Arthur Morgan, but also because this time I wanted to take much more time to just wander around picking creeping thyme and singing songs to my horse.
posted by ikahime at 9:36 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I do find it interesting that Diablo 4 and Final Fantasy XVI are both massive AAA tent-pole games that have a large following/gaming lineage and in their most recent and modern iterations are finding themselves dividing a lot of their fan base.
Mind you, this could just be that its the most new and current and that drives a lot of convo that eventually dies down and settles, but still. I have heard such mixed and polarizing opinions on where the game lands within the communities that love them most.
posted by Fizz at 9:54 AM on July 5, 2023
Mind you, this could just be that its the most new and current and that drives a lot of convo that eventually dies down and settles, but still. I have heard such mixed and polarizing opinions on where the game lands within the communities that love them most.
posted by Fizz at 9:54 AM on July 5, 2023
One of my joy-cons has been out for repair, so I've been out of Tears of the Kingdom for a week or so now, which is fine by me. It's definitely a slow burn; I want to keep exploring and hanging out in Hyrule pretty much forever.
I hate that Hogwarts Legacy is on this list, because it makes me feel like I'd probably enjoy it, and ... well. Anyone ever buy used games from Gamefly? They have this one cheap, but I don't need to be dealing with a scratched-up disc.
I am super looking forward to Forza Motorsport, and cautiously optimistic about Starfield (I love Skyrim, but Fallout and other shooty-type games don't always work for me). And I will for sure devour Jedi: Survivor whenever it comes to the lower tier of EA Play that I can get on Xbox.
I'm not a huge gamer, but I like what I like, and I'm really glad to have some pretty good options right now. Now I just have to convince myself that it's okay to replace the basement TV with a decent 4K set.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:08 AM on July 5, 2023
I hate that Hogwarts Legacy is on this list, because it makes me feel like I'd probably enjoy it, and ... well. Anyone ever buy used games from Gamefly? They have this one cheap, but I don't need to be dealing with a scratched-up disc.
I am super looking forward to Forza Motorsport, and cautiously optimistic about Starfield (I love Skyrim, but Fallout and other shooty-type games don't always work for me). And I will for sure devour Jedi: Survivor whenever it comes to the lower tier of EA Play that I can get on Xbox.
I'm not a huge gamer, but I like what I like, and I'm really glad to have some pretty good options right now. Now I just have to convince myself that it's okay to replace the basement TV with a decent 4K set.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:08 AM on July 5, 2023
I love Age of Wonders 4. I played a lot of Age of Wonders 2: Shadow Magic but Age of Wonders 3 was a bit of a let down for me. I didn't really like the scifi setting of Age Of Wonders: Planetfall.
But AoW 4 really clicks for me. They do need to fix the AI but there is a really solid foundation there.
posted by Pendragon at 11:43 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
But AoW 4 really clicks for me. They do need to fix the AI but there is a really solid foundation there.
posted by Pendragon at 11:43 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm looking forward to the Suikoden 1 & 2 remasters which still doesn't have a release date beyond "Coming 2023". I'm getting close to finishing Tears of the Kingdom and need something new to play when it's over.
posted by downtohisturtles at 11:52 AM on July 5, 2023
posted by downtohisturtles at 11:52 AM on July 5, 2023
I played the FF16 demo on PS5 and was not impressed at ALL. Maybe the story will be stellar? But the look is gray/brown and brown/gray. Long cut scenes with short pointless "exploration" sections. Run up a flight of stairs to get a Potion? Um, OK. The combat felt dull and just old and tired feeling. I know this is the early part where you don't have all the skills, but the frame rate even drops during fights and it's not a graphically impressive game compared to other stuff I've played recently.
People are just raving about how great it is, and I don't get it. Apparently, they've eliminated much of the RPG mechanics, so it's mostly an action fighting game with a very long, serious "Game of Thrones" kind of political story. I have a feeling this will be a game that got rave reviews on release and in several weeks people will be far more tempered with their opinions of it—like the recent Harry Potter game, which turned out to be a mile wide and an inch deep.
Plus, the end of the demo had an extremely flashy, cool looking battle scene of two gigantic monsters, but it "played" as one four minute long Quick Time Event.
Just started Diablo 4 (PS5) and am not as negative as many here seem to be. I'm dabbling the beginning of the campaign as a few different character types to figure out which one I want to take through the whole game. So far I'm liking Druid. I hear Sorcerer gets pigeon-holed into a limited kind of build, so while I love the style and the type of character, I'm probably going to wait on that class. I want to try Barbarian before I fully decide. I dunno, it seems like a pretty cool game so far.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:56 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
People are just raving about how great it is, and I don't get it. Apparently, they've eliminated much of the RPG mechanics, so it's mostly an action fighting game with a very long, serious "Game of Thrones" kind of political story. I have a feeling this will be a game that got rave reviews on release and in several weeks people will be far more tempered with their opinions of it—like the recent Harry Potter game, which turned out to be a mile wide and an inch deep.
Plus, the end of the demo had an extremely flashy, cool looking battle scene of two gigantic monsters, but it "played" as one four minute long Quick Time Event.
Just started Diablo 4 (PS5) and am not as negative as many here seem to be. I'm dabbling the beginning of the campaign as a few different character types to figure out which one I want to take through the whole game. So far I'm liking Druid. I hear Sorcerer gets pigeon-holed into a limited kind of build, so while I love the style and the type of character, I'm probably going to wait on that class. I want to try Barbarian before I fully decide. I dunno, it seems like a pretty cool game so far.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:56 AM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Adding about FF16: I read they disabled the ability for the player to choose a hard difficulty level in their first play through. The developers said they wanted everyone's first time with the game to be mostly about the story, so you can only make it difficult once you completely beat the game.
I am not a "games must be super difficult to be good" person at all. But not even letting players choose a Hard mode makes me think there's something really lacking with the actual gameplay. I played the demo with out the "easy mode items*" so I played on the standard, most difficult level possible during a first play through. I never came even close to dying a single time, and I am not a great gamer by any stretch. My whole experience with the game in general and this "no difficult mode" nonsense has made me put this game on a distant back burner.
A real shame. I loved FF15, my first ever FF game. At least I loved it for the first 2/3rds of the game before it shifted to long-ass cutscenes and a bunch of QTEs. It became a completely different game in the final 1/3. I was really looking forward to FF16.
*FF16 has a couple optional items you can equip to make the combat super easy if you are in it just for the story. I think it's great to have an option like that, but they should also allow the person shelling out $70 or more to choose a more challenging game experience, too.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:15 PM on July 5, 2023
I am not a "games must be super difficult to be good" person at all. But not even letting players choose a Hard mode makes me think there's something really lacking with the actual gameplay. I played the demo with out the "easy mode items*" so I played on the standard, most difficult level possible during a first play through. I never came even close to dying a single time, and I am not a great gamer by any stretch. My whole experience with the game in general and this "no difficult mode" nonsense has made me put this game on a distant back burner.
A real shame. I loved FF15, my first ever FF game. At least I loved it for the first 2/3rds of the game before it shifted to long-ass cutscenes and a bunch of QTEs. It became a completely different game in the final 1/3. I was really looking forward to FF16.
*FF16 has a couple optional items you can equip to make the combat super easy if you are in it just for the story. I think it's great to have an option like that, but they should also allow the person shelling out $70 or more to choose a more challenging game experience, too.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:15 PM on July 5, 2023
But the gameplay loop is spammy spam Mr. McSpam spam. Encounter a trash mob; spam your primary skills to the point of developing an RSI; rinse, repeat.
Can complex combat mechanics--those you'd find in Elden Ring or other souls games--be included in an isometric game? I'm not sure if that's possible.
I've only got experience on Rogue in Diablo 4 but also looking at my friends who are playing (Barbarian / Frost Mage) - none of us even use a primary skill once we developed our basic build. Not sure if this is intended design, but the game feels much better if you just equip aspects or skills that passively generate resource for you.
Twisting Blades feels amazing to play as a Rogue - each hit stabs the enemy with a pair of blades which then returns to you after 2 seconds, spinning around you briefly. The return path of the blade does the most damage. It's a hit and run gameplay loop involving teleporting behind an exposed enemy and stunning them, chain stunning them with a poison trap knockdown, giving you a brief window to trigger Twisting Blades a few times, then you do a long dash and drag the returning Blades to you through the thickest pack of enemies decimating them, without giving any of them time to hit you. This allows you to routinely fight enemies 15-30 levels higher than yourself, greatly accelerating your progress. There's quick planning involved, looking at the geometry of the level, predicting monster aggro movement and clustering, identifying dangerous suffixes, judging how much damage you might take so you know how soon you need to dash out of there.
I've actually come into Diablo 4 from a year of playing Lost Ark and that is a deeply complex game, it's an isometric ARPG using Diablo style combat but the sole activity in the game is MMORPG style raids. Bosses typically have 10+ pages of mechanics per gate, and one person messing up even one mechanic wipes the entire raid of 8 players. Here's one example, Vykas Gate Three - there are 9 major mechanic phases, and 11 general mechanic challenges that can occur at any time and overlap with each other. Unlike WOW where the game is organized around Guilds who get together to raid, this is not tenable in Lost Ark due to the sheer amount of raids you need to do - majority of raiding activity is pugged like League of Legends. This creates an interesting system which demands extremely high levels of mechanical skill and knowledge from basically total strangers working together, I have never seen anything like it. Even more so when we're playing in a server where players can't even communicate with each other due to the language barrier!
One funny mechanic in the Vykas fight is something we call Swords and Clones. In addition to your HP bar, you have "Seduction Bar" general mechanic - Vykas is a Succubus and many of her attacks raise your seduction meter. If your meter reaches maximum you get mind controlled by her and lose control of your character. When she does Swords and Clones, she places 4 illusionary Swords on the map, and 4 illusionary Clones. One Clone will overlap in position with one Sword - that is the "safe spot", because she instantly kills anyone outside that spot after a few seconds.
The trick is that if your seduction meter is lower than 70%, you only see the Clones, while if your seduction meter is higher than 70%, you only see the Swords. Typical MMORPG mechanic, but the game fires them rapidly at you in a relatively short fight.
It's also mechanically demanding - In this clip the damage warning indicator comes on at 2.22 seconds, I react with a teleport at 2.48 seconds, the teleport completes at 3.17 seconds, and damage lands at 3.31 seconds. (you are not invulnerable during the teleport travel animation)
This damage instantly kills you, ending the encounter. Which means even with my reaction time of 0.26 seconds to identify and teleport to a safe spot, I only made it with 0.14 seconds to spare.
And if you die you just wasted the time of 7 other people in the party.
As the game went on, the encounters got more and more complex. Clown Gate 3 would have taken most groups 15-30 hours of dedicated practice to get their first kill, and many groups I know never managed to finish it. I recorded one of our kills but honestly if you don't know the mechanics you will never know how difficult it was, haha, it's just layer upon layer of subtle mechanics that instantly wipe your raid and force a restart.
posted by xdvesper at 3:06 PM on July 5, 2023
Can complex combat mechanics--those you'd find in Elden Ring or other souls games--be included in an isometric game? I'm not sure if that's possible.
I've only got experience on Rogue in Diablo 4 but also looking at my friends who are playing (Barbarian / Frost Mage) - none of us even use a primary skill once we developed our basic build. Not sure if this is intended design, but the game feels much better if you just equip aspects or skills that passively generate resource for you.
Twisting Blades feels amazing to play as a Rogue - each hit stabs the enemy with a pair of blades which then returns to you after 2 seconds, spinning around you briefly. The return path of the blade does the most damage. It's a hit and run gameplay loop involving teleporting behind an exposed enemy and stunning them, chain stunning them with a poison trap knockdown, giving you a brief window to trigger Twisting Blades a few times, then you do a long dash and drag the returning Blades to you through the thickest pack of enemies decimating them, without giving any of them time to hit you. This allows you to routinely fight enemies 15-30 levels higher than yourself, greatly accelerating your progress. There's quick planning involved, looking at the geometry of the level, predicting monster aggro movement and clustering, identifying dangerous suffixes, judging how much damage you might take so you know how soon you need to dash out of there.
I've actually come into Diablo 4 from a year of playing Lost Ark and that is a deeply complex game, it's an isometric ARPG using Diablo style combat but the sole activity in the game is MMORPG style raids. Bosses typically have 10+ pages of mechanics per gate, and one person messing up even one mechanic wipes the entire raid of 8 players. Here's one example, Vykas Gate Three - there are 9 major mechanic phases, and 11 general mechanic challenges that can occur at any time and overlap with each other. Unlike WOW where the game is organized around Guilds who get together to raid, this is not tenable in Lost Ark due to the sheer amount of raids you need to do - majority of raiding activity is pugged like League of Legends. This creates an interesting system which demands extremely high levels of mechanical skill and knowledge from basically total strangers working together, I have never seen anything like it. Even more so when we're playing in a server where players can't even communicate with each other due to the language barrier!
One funny mechanic in the Vykas fight is something we call Swords and Clones. In addition to your HP bar, you have "Seduction Bar" general mechanic - Vykas is a Succubus and many of her attacks raise your seduction meter. If your meter reaches maximum you get mind controlled by her and lose control of your character. When she does Swords and Clones, she places 4 illusionary Swords on the map, and 4 illusionary Clones. One Clone will overlap in position with one Sword - that is the "safe spot", because she instantly kills anyone outside that spot after a few seconds.
The trick is that if your seduction meter is lower than 70%, you only see the Clones, while if your seduction meter is higher than 70%, you only see the Swords. Typical MMORPG mechanic, but the game fires them rapidly at you in a relatively short fight.
It's also mechanically demanding - In this clip the damage warning indicator comes on at 2.22 seconds, I react with a teleport at 2.48 seconds, the teleport completes at 3.17 seconds, and damage lands at 3.31 seconds. (you are not invulnerable during the teleport travel animation)
This damage instantly kills you, ending the encounter. Which means even with my reaction time of 0.26 seconds to identify and teleport to a safe spot, I only made it with 0.14 seconds to spare.
And if you die you just wasted the time of 7 other people in the party.
As the game went on, the encounters got more and more complex. Clown Gate 3 would have taken most groups 15-30 hours of dedicated practice to get their first kill, and many groups I know never managed to finish it. I recorded one of our kills but honestly if you don't know the mechanics you will never know how difficult it was, haha, it's just layer upon layer of subtle mechanics that instantly wipe your raid and force a restart.
posted by xdvesper at 3:06 PM on July 5, 2023
Cities: Skylines II is scheduled for release this fall. I can hardly wait!
posted by syzygy at 3:19 PM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by syzygy at 3:19 PM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
At this point—with my super-commute in effect three days a week—I’m not sure that I’m ever going to play something not on my Switch again. And that’s okay because I’m not sure that I’m ever going to be fully done with TOTK, which continually surprises me with how well it’s put together (and also how well it runs in handheld mode, i.e., way better than it has any right to).
I’m even remembering to do flurry rush and the other slightly more advanced combat tricks this time so I’m enjoying it even more than BOTW.
Also, for anyone dealing with JoyCon issues, I did the Hall effect joystick replacement on my left joycon with only one slight issue (I accidentally bent the board back on my minus button, so I have to press it a little harder to get it to register). It took an hour, wasn’t super complicated, and now I shouldn’t need to worry about it until the Switch 2 comes out in … at some point.
posted by thecaddy at 4:40 PM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I’m even remembering to do flurry rush and the other slightly more advanced combat tricks this time so I’m enjoying it even more than BOTW.
Also, for anyone dealing with JoyCon issues, I did the Hall effect joystick replacement on my left joycon with only one slight issue (I accidentally bent the board back on my minus button, so I have to press it a little harder to get it to register). It took an hour, wasn’t super complicated, and now I shouldn’t need to worry about it until the Switch 2 comes out in … at some point.
posted by thecaddy at 4:40 PM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
As mentioned above I'm playing a Twisting Blades Rogue so here's about a minute of combat I recorded on a relatively easy dungeon about 12 levels higher than me. The Diablo series is is the benchmark by which all ARPGs get measured and I think D4 still solidly holds the crown. There are many cool moments where you escape death by the skin of your teeth, because it's a fine balance between staying long enough to do damage yet not staying in one spot for more than 1-2 seconds because all the projectiles / wind up animations will start to land. That ballista at 0:51 is responsible for so many one-shot deaths in the game, it's absurdly powerful, I Shadowstep through its projectile to end up behind it. This is sort of like those highlight moments in League where you aggressively flash over the enemy's projectile to gap-close and and turn the fight around.
posted by xdvesper at 8:57 PM on July 5, 2023
posted by xdvesper at 8:57 PM on July 5, 2023
I’m playing Diablo 4 on Xbox. I’m playing a Druid / Werebear setup that provides a lot of hulk smash style attack for maximum entertainment value and simplicity. I last played this style of game when the original Diablo came out so I can’t compare it to other games in this style.
posted by interogative mood at 10:12 PM on July 5, 2023
posted by interogative mood at 10:12 PM on July 5, 2023
This list features a game where its royalties will pretty much directly fund anti-trans hatred. And the recipient of those monies has said, repeatedly, that the royalties received justifies any position that person has.
Should disqualify the list entirely. It won't, but it really should.
posted by andreaazure at 6:35 AM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Should disqualify the list entirely. It won't, but it really should.
posted by andreaazure at 6:35 AM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
This list features a game where its royalties will pretty much directly fund anti-trans hatred. And the recipient of those monies has said, repeatedly, that the royalties received justifies any position that person has.
Not quite as important as that, but it's also simply not a very good game! It's just another open-world quest slog when you get down to it, a pile of Assassin's Creed and Witcher mechanics slopped onto a pastiche version of Hogwarts far back enough in history that the devs didn't have to worry overly about canon because any shit they came up with would just be approved by JKR, because money.
Open-world triple-A games have gotten incredibly stale in terms of design. I mean, I get why: these games are incredibly expensive to make, so if you know certain mechanics work, then you use them because it's just one less failure point to worry about. But open-world works for some settings and absolutely doesn't for others: if it's a setting you really want to explore (like Horizon's robot dinosaur post-apocalyptic world or the various cities in Assassin's Creed, it's fantastic, and if it's Hogwarts plus a bunch of surrounding anonymous swamps and forests, it's awful.
posted by mightygodking at 7:42 AM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Not quite as important as that, but it's also simply not a very good game! It's just another open-world quest slog when you get down to it, a pile of Assassin's Creed and Witcher mechanics slopped onto a pastiche version of Hogwarts far back enough in history that the devs didn't have to worry overly about canon because any shit they came up with would just be approved by JKR, because money.
Open-world triple-A games have gotten incredibly stale in terms of design. I mean, I get why: these games are incredibly expensive to make, so if you know certain mechanics work, then you use them because it's just one less failure point to worry about. But open-world works for some settings and absolutely doesn't for others: if it's a setting you really want to explore (like Horizon's robot dinosaur post-apocalyptic world or the various cities in Assassin's Creed, it's fantastic, and if it's Hogwarts plus a bunch of surrounding anonymous swamps and forests, it's awful.
posted by mightygodking at 7:42 AM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Agreed most open world games are stale. But there's exceptions! Elden Ring and Tears of the Kingdom are both great recent games. Elden Ring succeeds in part because of its popular boss fight systems and in part because they approached an open world in a new way, something with minimal guidance in favor of a really beautifully designed world that's remarkably readable without explicit navigation hints. TotK succeeds like BotW did in just being really well done, with lots of fun open world gameplay in various forms and a good story and setting that continues the Zelda legacy. Also the addition of the building system to TotK is giving players a lot of fun.
I think it's telling that Assassin's Creed is reinventing itself. They succeeded in maximizing their vision with Odyssey, but by the time Valhalla came around the formula seemed bloated and tedious. Stale. I'm glad Ubisoft recognized that.
posted by Nelson at 7:49 AM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think it's telling that Assassin's Creed is reinventing itself. They succeeded in maximizing their vision with Odyssey, but by the time Valhalla came around the formula seemed bloated and tedious. Stale. I'm glad Ubisoft recognized that.
posted by Nelson at 7:49 AM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I hope we see more randomly generated dungeon options in some of these open-world games. Once you've killed everything scripted, this gives you a lot more play possibilities with the blessing of an RNG. Bloodborne's chalice dungeons were a tremendous idea and I'm rather sad they didn't much catch on.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:22 AM on July 6, 2023
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:22 AM on July 6, 2023
This list features a game where its royalties will pretty much directly fund anti-trans hatred.
Can you just name the game ? Or am I just expected to know which game it is ?
posted by Pendragon at 12:26 AM on July 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
Can you just name the game ? Or am I just expected to know which game it is ?
posted by Pendragon at 12:26 AM on July 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
From other comments I see it is Hogwarts Legacy but it would just be clearer if people named and shamed games directly instead of being vague.
posted by Pendragon at 12:28 AM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Pendragon at 12:28 AM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
2023 must truly be an extraordinary year for video games when even the 57th incarnation of Alone in the Dark looks amazing.
posted by the_dreamwriter at 9:18 AM on July 7, 2023
posted by the_dreamwriter at 9:18 AM on July 7, 2023
I’m curious which major studio will have the first really successful implementation of LLM driven NPCs. I’m sure the executives are drooling by at the prospect of players having deep emotional attachments to the NPCs in their worlds. Although I remember how traumatizing if was when Lara Croft would drown in the original Tome Raider and how sad my kid was when their pet fox in Minecraft de-spawned.
posted by interogative mood at 11:40 AM on July 7, 2023
posted by interogative mood at 11:40 AM on July 7, 2023
The Hogwarts game opened on release to tremendously fawning reviews. "Best gaming experience ever!" was the general attitude. It had a built-in mega-fan base. The accolades that game got in the first week or so were ludicrous, and probably heavily paid for in many cases.
A week or so later, more tepid reviews started coming out. Go ahead and read user reviews now. The game is three miles wide and an inch deep. The general consensus now is that it's a fun trip through the Hogwarts world for fans, at least for the first few hours. Then it just repeats itself endlessly.
Plus, in the PG Harry Potter world, it has the main character murdering hundreds (potentially thousands) of people and goblins, over and over and over. The people you murder were "poachers" who were capturing the wildlife and selling them. So they deserve their fate! Um...
Then? One of the big goals of the game was for the player to capture the same wildlife and install them in a zoo! This was just one of the stupid mechanics the game had on offer. It doesn't even have a competitive Quidditch game (one thing I remember from the films). How they skipped that—in a video game—is beyond me. Likely just being cheap, maximize profits from a game that's gonna automatically sell without having to make in-game game mechanics. It's mainly a fetch-quest generator in a Ren-Faire open world.
I'm 52 and was never really a HP fan. Read the first book (good book for kids!) and saw the first couple films and remember almost nothing from them (seemed to be good films for kids!). This was all way before Rowlings' TERF garbage. I like to follow game news as I am a fan of fantasy games. Really glad I didn't bother with the Harry Potter prequel game.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:17 AM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
A week or so later, more tepid reviews started coming out. Go ahead and read user reviews now. The game is three miles wide and an inch deep. The general consensus now is that it's a fun trip through the Hogwarts world for fans, at least for the first few hours. Then it just repeats itself endlessly.
Plus, in the PG Harry Potter world, it has the main character murdering hundreds (potentially thousands) of people and goblins, over and over and over. The people you murder were "poachers" who were capturing the wildlife and selling them. So they deserve their fate! Um...
Then? One of the big goals of the game was for the player to capture the same wildlife and install them in a zoo! This was just one of the stupid mechanics the game had on offer. It doesn't even have a competitive Quidditch game (one thing I remember from the films). How they skipped that—in a video game—is beyond me. Likely just being cheap, maximize profits from a game that's gonna automatically sell without having to make in-game game mechanics. It's mainly a fetch-quest generator in a Ren-Faire open world.
I'm 52 and was never really a HP fan. Read the first book (good book for kids!) and saw the first couple films and remember almost nothing from them (seemed to be good films for kids!). This was all way before Rowlings' TERF garbage. I like to follow game news as I am a fan of fantasy games. Really glad I didn't bother with the Harry Potter prequel game.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:17 AM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
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There's truly not enough time or money. Kind of wish these companies would chill on their crunch. I get that we're getting some beautiful ass games but this kind of relentless cycle of major game after major game is really unsustainable in the long-run.
That being said, is it September yet? Because I need Starfield in my life.
posted by Fizz at 5:22 AM on July 5, 2023 [3 favorites]