PixlBit

I part time in a warehouse, so a good box isn't hard to come by.

Wanted to keep it a fun, video game related thing. Maybe even see how other people interpret the character. Reddit conversations often break down into e-peen competitions and self styled experts arguing over nothing.

I've been playing mostly rogue-likes and management games lately. Now I'm finding it hard to get into games that lack the kind of depth and minute to minute decisions those games have. They demand constant focus, which is what I'm all about in my games right now. My current favorite is Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, an open world, zombie survival roguelike. The crafting system is insane. Built a vehicle almost from scratch, powered both by gas and electric/solar power.

Original X-Com is more forgiving yet far harsher in some ways. New recruits have little value and you can order them by the dozens. And you aren't on such a strict timeline to progress. XCom is more linear, or railroaded. If you don't get those satellites up in time you lose a nation's funding.

I have yet to see the stunnig graphics in this game. These screenshots don't show it, and I watched a Twitch stream and not only I, but the streamer and many of the commenters thought the game looked subpar in many areas. Is this something to do with the Xbox One? Things look flat with mediocre to poor texture work.

EVeryone is horrible at open world design these days. Go to the marker, do the task. Anyone can populate a world with menial labor and robotic NPCs. Far Cry 2 is about the last to do it right. Ultima 7 did it the best (interesting things to find without map markers or signposting. Every NPC had unique, rich dialogue) , but it's "old" so no one thinks there is any value to be learned there, except for some indie devs. I haven't played Witcher 3 so I don't now if that game too is a bunch of "quest" (most of which are just errands not actual quests. Lord of the Rings is a fucking quest) nodes.

Seems like you represent the common sentiment about this game, with some people liking the combat more or less. But I think if the name Final Fantasy wasn't on it, it would get a lot harsher treatment from the media and audience.

I like strategy games now because they force you to play by their rules, even if the rules don't make sense in the context of realistic simulation. You either make the right play or you lose a unit. Also rogue-likes, action games made by Platinum, indie games, sports. Mainstream action games and RPGs don't do this anymore.They give the player tools to break the rules and circumvent any potential challenges (e.g. wall hacking in stealth games; double jumps, boosting and auto correction in platformers.)

Most achievements are ass, tedious, and not fun to get. MGS4 had some really ridiculous ones, like doing 100 rolls or something, crouching against a wall for an hour, rolling 200 feet in an oil drum. How is that an achievement? Finding 100 feathers spread throughout a world is not interesting or satisfying "challenge". I pursue my own challenges in games if I want somethign extra.

The gunplay in Doom beats the competition with significant feedback and heft, there is more enemy variety, a satisfying weaopn upgrade system, non-Euclidian level layouts the likes of which we haven't seen much in modern game design. In terms of single player, BF1 was not competition at all. Titanfall 2 has a good campaign, but it comes with a lot of the limitations of the CoD style. All of them were effectively linear, but at least in Doom you had a lot of forks, levels that turned back on themselves, verticality.

However I am a big fan of Battlefield multiplayer in general, so it's somewhat of a draw. I give the edge to Doom because the action is more kinetic and agile, and because of the weapon suite, enemy variety, brutality, flow of encounters. The award is for Action Game, not map design. Old school FPS were less linear than modern FPS, btw. We don't see levels as expansive or labyrinthine as Hexen or Doom 1 these days.

Then you don't know about the thousands of educated Hispanics (29% according to CNN), blacks, whites, women, Asians and even gays who wanted him in.

It's not on the level of Ys Oath or Origin imo, but it's a fun little throwback. Not very challenging. Tonally reminds me of Vagrant Story and other PS1 RPGs. I bought it at full price because I want to support PC ports of Japanese games, especially niche titles. I'm hoping for Zwei!! and the latest Ys games, along with more Cave shmups.