I was going to say that someone needs to let Austin know, but I'm sure that Austin already knows.
I been meaning to ask, what has Waypoint's general opinion on Red Dead Redemption 2 been
what has Austin's opinion been on it, i know he was somewhat of a big RDR fan. Did he not like RDR 2?
I been meaning to ask, what has Waypoint's general opinion on Red Dead Redemption 2 been
what has Austin's opinion been on it, i know he was somewhat of a big RDR fan. Did he not like RDR 2?
It is pretty interesting that this conversation never comes up in concerning, say, Baba is You
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.Various members of the crew seemingly bailing on The Missing and RDR2 half way through, at least as pod discussion material, were big bummers for me last year. I so badly want to hear them talk through the final stretches of those games.
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.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.
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.
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.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."
(Since originally writing this piece last week, I've reached the endgame of Sekiro, a point where I'm able to afford way more spirit emblems than I could ever hope to use, but it comes at a point where my approach to combat involves almost never using prosthetics, singularly relying on blocking and parrying, and only occasionally using a firework when I'm trying to finish off a boss. Tools are an afterthought.)
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.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.
Or Volgarr the Viking or Contra or a million SHMUPs.It is pretty interesting that this conversation never comes up in concerning, say, Baba is You
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
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?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.
Honestly I use the ninja prosthetic a lot.
Umbrella certified GOAT.
main pod ended with "peace," as usual.
My hot Waypoint criticism take that I can't keep in anymore.
That god damn intro song by Boen is too fucking twee.