General Games Discussion

The nominees for GAME OF THE YEAR at #TheGameAwards are:

Alan Wake 2
Baldur’s Gate 3
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Resident Evil 4
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

️ Vote Now: https://t.co/ExP93r9Pcq

Streaming live December 7 pic.twitter.com/VhZCH3K5f8

— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) November 13, 2023

Starfield deservedly snubbed.

I hope AW2 wins but it's gonna be BD3.

Game meme awards.

Have zero interest in these, but would like game from Finland to win it.

How did Starfield not make it? I'm kinda out of the loop but I was under the impression that it was the most hyped game these days

Myesyats wrote:How did Starfield not make it? I'm kinda out of the loop but I was under the impression that it was the most hyped game these days

Cool to hate atm, just like it's cool to like BG3 despite it being just a Divinity Original Sin clone. SF is easily my goty, despite AW2.

Myesyats wrote:How did Starfield not make it? I'm kinda out of the loop but I was under the impression that it was the most hyped game these days

It was a 7/10 game, nowhere near GOTY level imo and there was so many 9 out 10 games this year.

Maybe Starfield would have had a chance at GOTY if it was released on 2022 but not this year.

#A23

Game: Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain:-
Year: 1996.
Genre: Action-Adventure.
Publisher: Crystal Dynamics.
Developer: Silicon Knights.




Everything about Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain can be explained by director Denis Dyack's desire to make "a game which adults would want to play". As a result, Silicon Knights made a game that deserves the M rating according to the ESRB, and in the process made something that it thinks is for adults.

In fact, Blood Omen was, at best, what edgy teenagers wanted to appear more adult, as there is nothing truly "mature" about the game. In their pursuit of making a game for adults, it appears that the developers not only loaded the game with wanton bloodlust and gore but also removed the "juvenile" concept of "fun" from the game altogether.

To top that off, the game has some excruciating loading times on the PS1. So much for busy adults wanting to play this game.

"The initiation of a new Aeon. When it becomes necessary to utter a word the whole planet must be bathed in blood..."

After a CGI opening that makes it clear that this isn't a game for kids, with death, blood, and gore aplenty, you are put into control of the game's protagonist, Kain who is immediately murdered and resurrected as a vampire.

Now undead and angry, Kain must wreak vengeance against his killers and their masters. You know that because Kain will constantly narrate his thoughts, expressing his wishes for vengeance in the most graphic and edgy ways possible. In fact, that style of narration extends to the entirety of the story, which is supposed to be presented in morally ambiguous ways. That's the aim, but not the result, which is that everyone is simply terrible, but to different degrees.

Sure, the world of Blood Omen is interesting, with the central lore about the Pillars of Nosgoth and their role in preserving the balance of the world shared between humans and vampires suggesting some hidden depth. Unfortunately, this story is not elaborated on much in the game, and beyond its muddy graphics and interesting world map, there is little to gather besides the narrative pauses of Kain.

Early in the game, villagers run from you on sight (since you are a vampire), but you later get the ability to disguise as a human. I thought that would be the point the game opens up and the story starts to shine. Instead, all villagers repeat the same color dialogue while giving a hint about what to do next. There is no personality to the villagers, just as there is no personality to the world other than its fervent desire to be edgy and cool.


"I didn't care if I was in heaven or hell. All I wanted was to kill my assassins. Sometimes, you get what you wish for"

The best way to describe Blood Omen as a game is that it is an unfun Legend of Zelda with an extra dose of lacking charm. It's a top-down Action-Adventure game in a poorly designed world, filled with poorly designed dungeons, where you fight poorly designed damage-sponge enemies in boring and unresponsive combat.

Shaking the basic combat and exploration is Kane's vampire abilities and weapons. For his adventuring needs, Kane has access to some forms that allow him to talk to humans, jump over short chasms, and fast travel. To more easily dispatch his enemies, Kane can either use some powerful magic spells through an MP gauge, or limited-use gadgets that you can find while exploring.

While these systems shake things up, you will get sick of them thanks to Blood Omen's key design flaw, which is its excruciating loading times. Every time you go into a dungeon, a village house, or the main menu, you will be greeted with seconds of blackness. More deadly and frequent is the shorter, but still notable, time the game loads when you go into your magic or transformation menu. There, what's supposed to be a snappy skill management system grounds the game to a halt.

If the game ran faster, you may be able to forgive its less-than-stellar mechanics and world design. However, with its technical limitation highlighting the weakness of its combat and level design, you are forced to contemplate how much fun you would have playing something else every time you are greeted with that black screen.

"Of all the methods I employ, this is perhaps the cruelest. Causing my victim's body to shrink on itself, crushing bones and rupturing organs til the pressure inside bursts the sack of fleshy skin, springing its contents for all to see"

In its pursuit of "adult" approval, Blood Omen naturally goes for a muted color palette for its world and a more realistic design approach to its characters and creatures. Both aspects work for what the game wants to look like, and thanks to its intelligent use of polygonal graphics, the game looks fine beyond its muted graphics, Silicon Graphics was known for its technical master in regards to graphics, as evidenced by the impressive (for the time) CGI scenes that punctuated key moments in the game.

Yet, it should be immediately apparent from any screenshot of the game that there is a glaring issue regarding the presentation.

There is a big freakin banner that takes nearly a third of the screen. This banner is supposed to be the information display, but it takes so much real estate from the screen that you wonder how its design was ever approved. Seriously, this by itself is a testament to the poor design of the game.

At this point, I half expected the game's soundtrack to be a half-cooked mess. Instead, it's a solid effort at creating atmospheric music. In many ways, it complements the style of the voice acting and  the world itself

In Conclusion:

If by making a game "which adults would want to play", Silicon Knight meant making a game devoid of joy and fun, then they have succeeded with flying colors. However, I don't think that the end product is something that most people would enjoy. This is a "mature" game in the eyes of edgy teenagers who want to grow up fast.

To be fair, something is interesting about the game's uber-edgy aesthetic and style, and I could see some people enjoy it despite its janky nature. Yet, one thing no one would enjoy is the game's excessive loading time.

That's where I implore you if you are still interested in playing this unfun game (which still wouldn't be fun even if it had instant loading), then play it on anything other than a PS1.

Final: 3/10

Pros:

• Kane's voice actor is really good
  
• An interesting host of vampire abilities
  
• Impressive CGI scenes for the time
  
• Solid and atmospheric graphics that didn't age poorly
  
  

Cons:

• A pathetic attempt at making a "mature" story ends up more juvenile than adult
  
• Little attempts at affective world-building or storytelling
  
• A boring Zelda clone
  
• Poor level and combat design
  
• A lot of loading time
  
• There is a freaking banner covering a third of the screen
  
  
  

"Tips"
1- Break barrels for some loot.
2- Press the action button next to dazed enemies to suck their life force.
3- Use the wolf form for faster walking speed.
4- Some gates open based on the moon/sun phase.
5- You slowly regain MP.


"Next Game"

This is probably my most controversial review, since Blood Omen is much appreciated by some people. I think it's flawed in almost every way, and doubly so on the PS1 with its excessive loading times.

The next game on the list is one I am positive I will enjoy, and that's Wild Arms. I played the remake on the PS2, but the original is different enough (and shorter) that I would like to experience it.

Stay Tuned

Mafia II definitive edition available on basic PSN

Hopefully it contains the DLCs i never played on PS3. What a fun game that was, amazing soundtrack, felt almost like a film but still lots of action. The only real problem was the driving which is the case for the entire Mafia series.

game awards tonight, should finally get a proper trailer and date for elden ring's expansion

hope you're all doing well and getting in some gaming where possible

Morrowind (OpenMW) looking awesome nowadays with normal maps, cloud and point light shaders.

Never played morrowind.... think that will change soon because I read it's akin to Gothic. Will have to replay Skyrim too, as I've never fully finished that game iirc. Perfect time now during these snowy winter evenings.

Myesyats wrote:Never played morrowind.... think that will change soon because I read it's akin to Gothic. Will have to replay Skyrim too, as I've never fully finished that game iirc. Perfect time now during these snowy winter evenings.

Kind of, they released the same time to compete as the best 3D freeroam rpg. Somewhat different mechanics however. Where as Gothic was the first modern 3D-rpg with real freeroam, voice acting, no loading screens (couple), npc schedules, rudimentary physics etc. Morrowind only got voice acting lately with ElevenAI voice generation, which really has changed it and actually is very hard to distiguish from the real ones. With OpenMW (open source Morrowind engine) the loading screens are almost instant, and physics are about to be introduced to the engine.

Together with Baldur's Gate (not the fake one), I actually consider Gothic 2 NotR (vanilla) and modded Morrowind the three best ever games made. Just remember to use OpenMW engine and something like the Total Overhaul modding list. https://modding-openmw.com/lists/total-overhaul/
Because unlike Gothic 2 (with new shaders), original Morrowind isn't that good anymore. Morrowind also has the biggest and longest ongoing modding project that that has been going now 22 years, which tries to recreate the whole Morrowind mainland. Currently adding thousands of locations and over 600 guests.