-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Waypoint+ |OT| "Fuck Capitalism, Go Home"
- Thread starter Mezentine
- Start date
Halo.
The Halo itself isn't the only thing that's going to be woke
Last edited:
That MASSIVE Austin & Natalie podcast was great, had to skip the last section due to the Undertale spoiler talk since I haven't finished that yet. I bought Heaven Will Be Mine last week after I saw Austin retweet something about it and it sounded pretty cool, finished it with one character so far and really enjoyed it and I'm not usually a big fan of visual novel games.
Loved the podcast with Danika, good to have her back.
Loved the podcast with Danika, good to have her back.
Looking forward to listening to this one when I'm out on a walk tomorrow. Waypoint's end of year stuff has honestly been the best around this year.
Oh right.
I got 2/3 through one route in that and kept meaning to come back, but the timing never worked for me being up to continue it around that time, and then I just never came back. I should do that eventually, hmm.
I didn't dislike it back then but there is something about the way that made me feel like... well, let me find the way I put it back then, if I search for old tweets...
"I don't, necessarily, mind that at times it feels like I'm reading a textbook, but I do sometimes feel like there's a nonexistent first chapter to that textbook that they should have let me read first"
I love some weird obscure terms here and there, but sometimes it was just way way too hard to follow what was happening, what metaphors were being made, and what I was supposed to be perceiving from the characters' actions. That might have just been the character I picked though, so maybe it'd improve on other routes? Dunno. It just made it hard to want to pick it back up if I was really tired that day and/or if it was already late enough at night that I wouldn't make much progress if I got distracted.
We Know The Devil could feel a little of the same thing at times, but not really on the same scale at all.
I still haven't gone back and watched Season 4. I think I was maybe a little let down by [new character] in 3 and wasn't super pressed to go finish it, especially after how much season 2 was just extremely my shit. Also that was around when I had my pancreas burst so that didn't help keep me glued to my PC.
Anyway, I agree with Sal's message. It's generally one third pirate politicking and intrigue, one third sex (of various kinds), and one third sweet maritime tactics. Everyone do watch Black Sails, and ignore that Michael Bay's name is on it, it's a mislead. It features full nudity but is somehow less sleazy than he is.
Edit: Also, just getting their their gotycasts now and hell yeah, Rob and Patrick being heavy supporters for Vampyr. Not necessarily the two I'd expect but I'm into it!
Last edited:
I can only guess that Austin is retweeting shit from the AOC Dances to Every Song Twitter at this hour because he's up watching Japanese wrestling like I am.
Yes. Basically, don't expect any. It's too resource intensive for them and it doesn't give the higher ups enough eyeballs to satisfy them.
Oh shit for real now? Isn't that what Natalie's position was basically for (live producer or something like that)?
I mean technically most of the staff are "editors" but all they're really editing these days are podcast descriptions and the occasional review. All their jobs have changed quite a bit from what they probably envisioned upon founding Waypoint.
I had almost the exact same feelings about HWBM, I only played one character all the way through, over 4 or 5 sessions spread out over a couple of months. It felt like there was a big complex world that had been created but I never felt like I understood any of what was happening except for on a very basic interpersonal level between the main characters. It kinda felt like I started watching a TV show halfway through a later season, I could never remember which factions were which or what their motivations were and couldn't keep up with what was happening as a result.
Well, Austin did say the day they use to prep would soon overlap with the day they can't use the recording room, so in the future they should be doing a little more.
I also wouldn't quite characterize the latter thing that way. Effectively true, maybe, but it was more like the views/person is much better for podcasts, and that the podcasts then got enough views that they could do stuff that requires more focus for a person or two on the side as a result?
Part of it was also that the amount of time required to make any money from streaming was prohibitive (unless they moved to a subscription model like Giantbomb) and the result of them experimenting with a heavy editorial focus and then a heavy streaming focus meant they were overworking either way and focusing on one enough to get results caused issues with the other. And because their team is relatively small, someone getting sick meant someone else had to overwork to keep the content coming.
Austin made a really detailed post about on the Waypoint forums, so instead of risking mischaracterising his words more I'm just going to link that.
I need Rob, Natalie and Patrick to finish watching all of Twin Peaks including Fire Watch With Me. I need a 4 hour podcast about season 3.
Ah thanks for that link, kinda weird to bury something like this (as in here's what's going on with the entire site y'all) in a forum post but oh well.
I love the staff and the general direction of the site but this posts sounds a little too "We don't know what this site even is anymore" for the amount of time they've been around. I hope they figure that stuff out.
I love the staff and the general direction of the site but this posts sounds a little too "We don't know what this site even is anymore" for the amount of time they've been around. I hope they figure that stuff out.
Patrick Klepek, you prince. You made the RDR2 article I've been dying for, digging into how empty and unconnected all of RDR2's systems are:
It's Surprising How Much of 'Red Dead Redemption 2' Doesn't Actually Matter
Though I'd personally go farther than Patrick, and say that the game doesn't support a "make your own fun" style of gameplay either. Set someone like Vinny Caravella loose in RDR2, and you'd just end up with some broken scripting or maybe a game over. Its broadest open world systems--bounties, honor, all manner of thievin'--exist to be marvelled at from afar, rather than actually utilised; because once you do, you see how insignificant they really are. RDR2 is like the ultimate game of mirrors.
It's Surprising How Much of 'Red Dead Redemption 2' Doesn't Actually Matter
It's been agonising to watch critics either fall off of RDR2 (or fall in love with it) without mentioning how empty it is. It is a Witcher or Bethesda-caliber open world, minus the ability to meaningfully interact with anything. It has always felt like a theatre, one that the player is also taking part in, rather than a living world; it feels fundamentally false.
Though I'd personally go farther than Patrick, and say that the game doesn't support a "make your own fun" style of gameplay either. Set someone like Vinny Caravella loose in RDR2, and you'd just end up with some broken scripting or maybe a game over. Its broadest open world systems--bounties, honor, all manner of thievin'--exist to be marvelled at from afar, rather than actually utilised; because once you do, you see how insignificant they really are. RDR2 is like the ultimate game of mirrors.
If Patrick is actually surprised that things like economies and progression are frayed at the edges of a massive open world/RPG/story then he's been asleep for the last twenty or so years since Rockstar themselves popularised this formula. These appear to be very hard problems to solve at anything but the most minute and limited scopes.
As I've always said, RDR2 is like all games that share its DNA (I include story-centric games like Life Is Strange and very obvious parallels like The Witcher 3 or TES); a magic show. It tries to create an illusion of a living world and of choice. To me, it absolutely achieved that illusion to a level of success no other open world game has even came close to matching.
It is an incredible achievement and the one place it most certainly will matter is as a benchmark for other developers and for the expectations of gamers from triple A titles. Games build on either other more obviously than most other forms of media so this is another important building block towards whatever comes next.
Waypoint seem to have purposefully made RDR2 their new bete noire. It's a little see-through.
As I've always said, RDR2 is like all games that share its DNA (I include story-centric games like Life Is Strange and very obvious parallels like The Witcher 3 or TES); a magic show. It tries to create an illusion of a living world and of choice. To me, it absolutely achieved that illusion to a level of success no other open world game has even came close to matching.
It is an incredible achievement and the one place it most certainly will matter is as a benchmark for other developers and for the expectations of gamers from triple A titles. Games build on either other more obviously than most other forms of media so this is another important building block towards whatever comes next.
Waypoint seem to have purposefully made RDR2 their new bete noire. It's a little see-through.
Last edited:
Yeah money has always been a bit of a problem spot for Rockstar. Same problem with San Andreas.
It was the most popular game of last year, it's not unusual for something that big and that ambitious to get criticism like this. I agree with you, though, on that "magic show" idea, except I think that's why I've disliked all but about two open-world type games that I've played. They're so complex with so many systems and if your priorities regarding what would make a good game don't match with the priorities of the developer, you end up with this strained, frustrated feeling. It has the potential to turn into this big house of cards, where if one aspect doesn't work, then others start to fall with it, and from there your entire feeling on the game gets soured. That's kinda the gambit of ambition, though
Okay, there really is a Party Rock Anthem X Evangelion theme video, and that more than anything else is making me excited to watch the show for real.
But also in my searches of PRA mixes I found this and now you all have to deal with this travesty that includes EW&F:
But also in my searches of PRA mixes I found this and now you all have to deal with this travesty that includes EW&F:
Yeah I agree with that. It's ironic, because it was billed as this living world where Arthur can interact with everyone, but it doesn't amount to anything. If anything, it only highlights how little you can actually do in the game. None of the systems matter at all. The Nakeyjakey video also touched on this - none of the camp stuff matters a lick, and the morality system feels completely at odds with the story the game is telling. It's all just stuff layered on top of itself, but nothing is interlinked in a meaningful way.
I think the difference with Red Dead is that we're so used to games rewarding us with stuff and giving us little endorphin rushes when completing objectives that something just put in for the sake of world and character building feels a little strange. I'd say the camp system not mattering in the end is purposeful given the narrative of the game, you're attempting to keep this unit alive but it's slowly being driven apart and I found it pretty amazing that an open world game confronted the futility, disappointment and ephemeral nature of it all. It was refreshing to me to see a game like this where almost nothing is a constant and everything is in flux.
If anything the other way would be weird in a game about America changing
If anything the other way would be weird in a game about America changing
and the slow death of the protagonist.
That's not it, to me. It's that the game fronts like it's a simulation with lots of systems that are purported to matter. But they don't. To anything. It's all just stuff you can do, but none of it has any bearing on anything, because the game isn't actually systemized, especially in missions, which are 100% linear. None of the systems affect one another. I don't think the argument that the camp stuff doesn't matter intentionally because of the game's themes holds any water. Or at least, they don't make it better. There's no commentary by the game's systems or any acknowledgement whatsoever that what you do doesn't matter. Maybe it becomes more apparent later in the story, I haven't finished it. But my impression of the game is that it thinks everything it does is important and weighty, but it's not, because there's no importance or weight attached to anything that doesn't happen in a cut scene.
The importance and weight is attached more to the experience of living with Arthur than any clear narrative or systemic award though. I think Brad Shoemaker nailed it when he said he was doing things in the game not as a means to an end but for the feeling of inhibiting a character.
I dunno, i think a lot of the "empty" feeling i get from RDR2 is that i feel the "soft" tutorial of chapter 2 was poor. I'm fine with an open world going for mood over systems and I enjoyed some side activities for their own sake. As you say, the bar filling skinner box is not the end-all of open world design.
But, especially with the camp, the game often pretends it has those systems, and it's kind irksome that most turns out to be hot air. I don't think doing away or more explicitly explaining the camp mechanics would undermine the subtle charactermoments you can experience within it. At least for me, the systems being bad did more to break my immersion than if they had been absent/minimised.
Or if they wanted to put in systems, make them good/well designed an tutorialise them propperly.
The thing about the "inhabiting Arthur" part is that the game wants to have it both ways. It wants to be immersive sim-y, but without actually systematizing anything. There's just an identity crisis at the core of what that game is. I think the clearest way it expresses itself is in the cores system. Here's this beautiful open world that begs to be taken in, and what does Rockstar do? They put three tiny-ass meters that are barely legible in the bottom corner of the screen, and then they tell you that stuff is important and you should always be mindful of it. Just a baffling choice, systematizing something that doesn't matter at all, that's just a distraction. If they wanted to put in food and light survival mechanics just as flavor, or have it just be visually represented by Arthur's appearance, that would have been infinitely preferable to the awful cores system. You can argue "well the cores don't really matter that much", but that's kind of the whole problem - nothing matters that much. It's all just there. For me personally, all these little distractions and the incredibly awkward control scheme just distract from my immersion.
But I think the beauty of the game is the ways in which that stuff is as important as you want it to be. It works whether you're just going with the flow eating when you only need to or you're setting out to make Arthur's physique a certain way. I love the verisimilitude of that where ignoring it has its own effect.
If you don't put any importance on the core system, especially from chapter 1, you have the worst way of experiencing the game: you do everything slower and more tediously. And that's reinforced by Arthur being sick in the later chapters only affecting the cores and how they charge outside of a few cinematic coughing fits. That Arthur player never feels punished by the status effect as he's as frail as he ever was, only he coughs more later on. The game doesn't comment on his physique outside of perhaps passing npcs telling Arthur to eat or tool tips reminding the player that these tiny fucking circles need to be white all the time for max enjoyment.
You still get the same cutscenes, the same narrative, the same everything that put this game on the Top 10s this past year. You just have to put more time in to walk around, like letting stamina recharge in a gacha game.
I just don't like the idea of maintaining the baseline as opposed to earning a bonus to progression. Empty cores suck and survival mechanics hardly agree with me.
~
Hello, this is my first post in anything Waypoint related and I've been listening the podcast for the last few months. Even got my question read a while back, it was the one about Hand in Killer7 and ancillary material being important to understanding works.
You still get the same cutscenes, the same narrative, the same everything that put this game on the Top 10s this past year. You just have to put more time in to walk around, like letting stamina recharge in a gacha game.
I just don't like the idea of maintaining the baseline as opposed to earning a bonus to progression. Empty cores suck and survival mechanics hardly agree with me.
~
Hello, this is my first post in anything Waypoint related and I've been listening the podcast for the last few months. Even got my question read a while back, it was the one about Hand in Killer7 and ancillary material being important to understanding works.
I'd like to hear Waypoint's POV about all the ways Wolfenstein 2 didn't connect compared to the first. I wonder when would be a good time to hear that. Immediate reactions to the game (like around release) aren't good, I want to know what they think of it somewhat recently.
Do many story-based FPS games do well anymore? A new Halo is about the only only continuing franchise I can think of and it's as much about its multiplayer as single player. COD was hardly hurt by cutting its story mode this cycle. Titanfall 2 was as well received critically as Wolfenstein 2 but people just didn't care when it came down to actually putting their money down.
Do you mean as in sales? Because nowadays good luck getting people to spend 60 dollars on a 15 hour game with almost no replay value. It also came out at the same time as Mario Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Origins.
WolfensteinTNO also came out very early into the current gen (May 2014) so more people were willing to give it a chance since it's not like there was much to play.
There's not a single factor as to why it didn't light up charts. That said, it still did well enough that it's getting a stand-alone expansion this year and III was casually confirmed in an interview.
I meant storywise, not sales-wise :(
It was missing something. It didn't feel as genuine as the first, somehow, but I can't put my finger on why. Usually when I'm in a position like that, Austin can articulate it somehow, heh.