I was going to say that someone needs to let Austin know, but I'm sure that Austin already knows.
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Waypoint+ |OT| "Fuck Capitalism, Go Home"
- Thread starter Mezentine
- Start date
Austin was easily the highest on that game out of the waypoint crew. I think he stopped at chapter 4 when you enter the city though. The other either didnt like it at all or didn't play it.
I don't remember them talking about RDR2 all that much.
Also they went back to play RDR in a two-part series before RDR2 came out...
And they came away generally liking it way less than they originally did.
And they came away generally liking it way less than they originally did.
I mean, the difficulty in baba is you comes from figuring out what your supposed to do to pass a puzzle, not inputting the solution. You can just Google what to do. In a FromSoft game, the difficulty comes from actually having to fight an enemy, which can still be difficult even if you know what your doing. I don't know what the acessability options are like in BiY, but I think it's just a different situation than something like a Souls game.
While RDR2 was a massive game with a large response, the latter parts of the game, the parts where it becomes what it really is, is like 60 hours into the game. That's a lot to ask of people, games press or otherwise. Like, it's the best part of it, and proves the Housers, but still.
Yeah, I can't blame 'em and probably should have expected it with RDR2 after years of hearing them talk about making hard choices based on game length. Even I took a break from it for like a month.
It might come off as derogatory, but I wish, if they were to discuss a game holistically, that more of them would put the time to actually play through it. I can't (and don't) expect them all to invest 60+ hours to finish RDR to discuss it in its entirety, or all 200 whatever hours of all the Kingdom Hearts games to discuss the series as a whole, but it is kinda frustrating when their default course of action is to just watch a bunch of edited together cutscenes rather than play through the games for these podcasts devoted to each game(s). I don't think any one of them even played the back half of Red Dead Redemption for the 101 podcast.
Which reminds me, I wonder when they are gonna do another 101. They haven't really had any convo about future podcasts at all, especially with the last "just talk about games we've been playing and stuff" podcast being basically 2 weeks ago.
Which reminds me, I wonder when they are gonna do another 101. They haven't really had any convo about future podcasts at all, especially with the last "just talk about games we've been playing and stuff" podcast being basically 2 weeks ago.
I think "lore reasons" took up the time where they'd do a 101 pod, usually. I'd guess they'll do that next before they tackle another big series to play/watch through for a lore reasons.
I agree with the playing through part though, It kinda worked for RDR because people are familiar with that game but i noticed it most with "shadowrun: dragonfall". Sadly with them doing so many other media podcast on top of keeping up with current stuff, playing through an old, 30+ hour game on top of that is just not going to happen often.
I agree with the playing through part though, It kinda worked for RDR because people are familiar with that game but i noticed it most with "shadowrun: dragonfall". Sadly with them doing so many other media podcast on top of keeping up with current stuff, playing through an old, 30+ hour game on top of that is just not going to happen often.
Original tweet by the official Star Wars account for context:
If you were part of the Star Wars universe, what side would you be on? #StarWarsCelebration
The fanfilms were always bad lightsaber fights in the woods instead of political drudgery. Someone in the trailer topic framed it perfectly and I can't find the post now but they said "Star Wars is the most wow_cool_robot.jpg of all" and they were totally right.
Man, between Lore Reasons and Be Good, Waypoint has been on a roll recently. Really fantastic stuff.
My only complaint is that I wish Danielle was on more of the niche casts.
I worry that this stuff is all so specifically for me that it isn't going to last long and I'm going to look back on this as the golden days. Maybe a little morbid, but hey... it's really good!
My only complaint is that I wish Danielle was on more of the niche casts.
I worry that this stuff is all so specifically for me that it isn't going to last long and I'm going to look back on this as the golden days. Maybe a little morbid, but hey... it's really good!
Finally got around to listening to the Difficulty Discourse pod the other day. I agree with a lot of it but still find a lot of the framing annoying. It's almost like people talk about it like FromSoft fans are the ones preventing there from being more difficulty/accessibility options or something.
One thing that did stick out to me, which sounded wrong, was when Austin said that it's probably easier for a big studio like From to implement difficulty/accessibility options than for a single dev or a small team. I think it's the opposite. If you're a single dev or small team where there is only one or two gameplay designers, you have your hand in every single system in the game, so you know intuitively how changing one mechanic or system will affect other systems in the game. That's much harder to do when the responsibility for the game's design is stretched across dozens of people, I think.
Towards the end Austin also contradicted himself I think when he said that he thinks it's fine to bounce off a game like Hollow Knight and not view that as a failure. Why isn't that fine for a game like Sekiro then, if people can't or don't want to engage with the game as it is? It's totally fine! Not all art is for everyone. I didn't really like Us because I'm not into horror. Horror is difficult art to engage with for a lot of people, myself included. Doesn't mean I think Jordan Peele should've made it easier to watch for the faint of heart like me.
One thing I wish they'd talked about is that ALL games are ableist to some degree. When does a game offer *enough* accessibility options? When is it not enough? Like, they talked about how every body is different, and how a lot of what disability is is framed by society. But then they didn't make that connection. No matter how many options a dev puts in, any game will always be too hard or impossible for certain people. There's no cure-all. That doesn't mean I don't think devs should try. But certain genres are more ableist than other by definition. Real-time games will always be less accessible than turn-based games, for example. I don't know, I think that's a thing to consider when having this discussion.
At the end of the day I'm all for FromSoft finding clever ways to integrate more accessibility and/or difficulty options in their games, if that's what they choose to do (and as they have done in many ways in Souls games). But I'm also fine with them putting out a game like Sekiro and saying "here's what this thing it, take it or leave it", as a privileged able-bodied person.
One thing that did stick out to me, which sounded wrong, was when Austin said that it's probably easier for a big studio like From to implement difficulty/accessibility options than for a single dev or a small team. I think it's the opposite. If you're a single dev or small team where there is only one or two gameplay designers, you have your hand in every single system in the game, so you know intuitively how changing one mechanic or system will affect other systems in the game. That's much harder to do when the responsibility for the game's design is stretched across dozens of people, I think.
Towards the end Austin also contradicted himself I think when he said that he thinks it's fine to bounce off a game like Hollow Knight and not view that as a failure. Why isn't that fine for a game like Sekiro then, if people can't or don't want to engage with the game as it is? It's totally fine! Not all art is for everyone. I didn't really like Us because I'm not into horror. Horror is difficult art to engage with for a lot of people, myself included. Doesn't mean I think Jordan Peele should've made it easier to watch for the faint of heart like me.
One thing I wish they'd talked about is that ALL games are ableist to some degree. When does a game offer *enough* accessibility options? When is it not enough? Like, they talked about how every body is different, and how a lot of what disability is is framed by society. But then they didn't make that connection. No matter how many options a dev puts in, any game will always be too hard or impossible for certain people. There's no cure-all. That doesn't mean I don't think devs should try. But certain genres are more ableist than other by definition. Real-time games will always be less accessible than turn-based games, for example. I don't know, I think that's a thing to consider when having this discussion.
At the end of the day I'm all for FromSoft finding clever ways to integrate more accessibility and/or difficulty options in their games, if that's what they choose to do (and as they have done in many ways in Souls games). But I'm also fine with them putting out a game like Sekiro and saying "here's what this thing it, take it or leave it", as a privileged able-bodied person.
Yeah I also found the discussion a little confusing at times like when Patrick stated it was fine for Demon's Souls to be unwavering in its difficultly because it was a niche cult classic, but because From Software's notoriety has increased and the Souls series (or their games in general) has entered pop-culture they must compromise because it's now a commodity.
Edit: I think my main take away from that entire conversation is that it's good to be mindful of accessibility and brainstorm, but ultimately I'm not going to fault a developer for having a vision and not wanting to compromise their visions.
Also very strange conversation around the sinking city and the white apes... like they even call out the short story that the idea was from and kinda laugh about a lovecraft quote... but that short story is.... something else... and was my first introduction to "Yo this dude [lovecraft] fucking sucks and is blatantly racist as shit."
Despite being heavily critical of Lovecraft, their podcast discussing Lovecraft and racism was sort of veering in a similar direction after a while until Natalie stepped in at one point.
Though honestly, outside of the articles from freelancers (which tend to be fantastic), I generally find discussions about race on Waypoint to be lacking. There are of course a few exceptions like Cado on the Life is Strange 2 podcast.
Hmm, disappointed that waypoint didn't see my email regarding the difficulty discourse. I would have liked to hear their take on it.
My man Patrick is teetering on the edge of epiphany.
https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/art...ce-me-to-play-with-a-hand-tied-behind-my-back
It is super weird though, how From can't make up on their mind on whether to require or encourage or abandon consumable grinds.
https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/art...ce-me-to-play-with-a-hand-tied-behind-my-back
It is super weird though, how From can't make up on their mind on whether to require or encourage or abandon consumable grinds.
I love Sekiro, but yeah, I do wonder if they just should've not made them a consumable and just recharge at idols like Estus. They could've even done something like starting you out at a cap of 10 or whatever, then have you find items around the world to increase that capacity as you go.
Or for a simpler solution they could've just given you the Tanto knife after a critical path boss early on in the game. I got it pretty damn late in my playthrough unfortunately.
re diffulty, i guess one factor i'd say is a question of whether or not i feel like something is achievable and i'm just failing to execute on that potential. Like with puzzles especially, picross or hell even logic stuff like in phoenix wright or other ADVs (hell even shrines in BOTW), sometimes I feel like something just isn't fitting into my head and I'll never get it without a hint or some other 'external' difficulty modifier. Whereas often in Souls, character-action, SHMUPs or action games where it's just a matter of inputs and execution, I don't mind throwing myself at something a bajillion times because there's a more tangible sense of 'improvement' in terms of syncing between what my brain wants the character to do and my internalisation of the control mechanisms to make that actually happen.
also, had some weird thoughts about BOTW re the colonialism discourse given that most of what I'm doing is looking for ancient shrines and looting the shit out of them but it's okay because of reasons (fairly good reasons too). i'll have to find a moment to sit down and type it up but it definitely helps when you're the Hero of Time or whatever
The funny thing is Link is uhh "indigenously ancient."
I forget the lore — were the shrines contemporary to Link before the Calamity? Or do they predate it?
how does he make it all the way to that thought and not connect the rest of the dots enough to revise the rest of the article?
A crude wooden shield used by the masses . . . Shields are nice, but not if they engender passivity.
My hot Waypoint criticism take that I can't keep in anymore.
That god damn intro song by Boen is too fucking twee.
That god damn intro song by Boen is too fucking twee.
Listened to it twice now and I don't get their problem with the The Sinking City (I think they used the wrong name on the podcast and/or description) dev statement. It's like Austin argues three different points of view in his monologue and two of them don't have a problem with it.
I actually think Patrick's idea sucks. He would rather have them ignore the problematic aspects of Lovecraft than try to engage it and fail.
I actually think Patrick's idea sucks. He would rather have them ignore the problematic aspects of Lovecraft than try to engage it and fail.
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That last podcast was pretty good, finally a guest with some wildly different opinions on games lol
It did end mid-sentence, though!?
It did end mid-sentence, though!?
open mike was a fantastic guest. really cool to hear the behind-the-scenes business stuff, and open mike's experiences with games. his philosophy towards gaming is wonderfully chill.
the thing about dark souls standing out to him vs. other top-rated games was really intriguing. sorta goes into the whole difficulty conversation from before. like, it is a gateway to demanding games in a way i didn't realise existed. i've, uh, never really followed "best game" guides for a platform, instead going by genre or developer/publisher. or just being aware via osmosis thanks to era.
so i guess i see why folks are so defensive over soulsian design. it's a gateway they haven't opened yet.
i forgot to keep listening for bonus bits, though.
the thing about dark souls standing out to him vs. other top-rated games was really intriguing. sorta goes into the whole difficulty conversation from before. like, it is a gateway to demanding games in a way i didn't realise existed. i've, uh, never really followed "best game" guides for a platform, instead going by genre or developer/publisher. or just being aware via osmosis thanks to era.
so i guess i see why folks are so defensive over soulsian design. it's a gateway they haven't opened yet.
main pod ended with "peace," as usual.
i forgot to keep listening for bonus bits, though.
I've never liked the song and skip it everytime. The 2mello songs are much better.