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Neuro5i5

Neuro5i5

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This thread will attempt to provide a place to discuss past/present/future PC gaming deals. While mainly focusing on Steam games, any standout sales may also be presented. I will not be updating every Daily/Weekly/etc. sale. The tools to help individuals become a smarter shopper will be provided below.

See this POST for links to store sale pages, threads of interest and other tools to help you become a more informed PC game shopper.
 
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I can’t get over how incredibly disappointing Cyber Punk looks. I’ve watched a few of the video critiques and a video from today highlighting the most recent patch. What bothers me is that the game just looks bad at its core. Take away all the glitches and imagining the game worked perfectly as intended by the developers ... and it just doesn’t look all that great.

Comparing the trailers and the previews to what we actually got ... it looks like they showed us a PS4 game that ended up looking like a late gen PS3 game (I’m just saying, even at its best, it looks kind of bad for the end product). I was watching another video on the best Fallout 4 mods and the gameplay captured there actually looks better than anything I’ve seen in the Cyber Punk videos. And I’m not talking narrative moments, I just mean purely walking around and exploring the world as designed.

Frankly, it seems like CD Projekt Red got in over their heads, bit off more than they could chew, and then realized the higher ups were demanding they roll it out because they were bleeding money from lack of anything but Witcher 3 and Gwent revenue. I say this as a pretty big fan starting with Witcher 2. I just don’t think they had the chops to pull of the type of game that a Rockstar or Bethesda or hell even Ubisoft have really mastered over the past 10 years.

Maybe I’m wrong ... I still have a sealed copy for the Series X that I’ll play someday (I could run it on PC, but I preordered long ago and justified my Series X purchase bc of Cyber Punk ironically). So just wanted to throw that out there ... just shockingly disappointing.
 
is anyone excited for the diablo II remaster? i watched my friend play the original when it came out and never played II so i have no nostalgia for it. many moons ago drabe told me he would look forward to it. as for it being bad like the warcraft III remake, vicarious visions is working on it. and they made the thps 1 and 2 remakes so i'm not worried. anyways, i'll give it a look when it comes out.

 
I won't even go so far as to say cautiously optimistic, but if by some miracle it turns to be a well-done remaster without changing the core gameplay or style of the game I would definitely drop some time in it.  Especially if I there were others wanting to play it, I solo farmed like crazy but full games were the most fun.  I put a couple hundred hours in Diablo 3 but I probably put several times that in Diablo 1 and god knows how much time in Diablo 2. 

Diablo 3 is fun but just when they were starting to hook me with more variety in content like Rifts they started doing the seasons thing with time-gated rewards which for whatever reason almost always makes me quit playing a game.  I'll play ridiculous hours to unlock something that has no time limit but if I have to earn it within a certain time frame I just quit.  *shrugs* 

Of course my friends all quit playing D3 early on so I was doing it entirely solo which I do enjoy a lot less as well. I keep saying I'll go back and play the Necromancer and I might get around to it eventually but the last time I was going to, I ended up playing Diablo 1 from GOG for about 30 hours instead.  *shrug*

 
I don't understand the point.. DII to DIII was what.. like 15-20 years?  I remember playing it left, up, sideways, and backwards.  I don't understand wanting to RE-play it all over again.

 
etcrane said:
I can’t get over how incredibly disappointing Cyber Punk looks.

[...]
Maybe I’m wrong ... I still have a sealed copy for the Series X that I’ll play someday (I could run it on PC, but I preordered long ago and justified my Series X purchase bc of Cyber Punk ironically).
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So, wait... what did you play it on? Or were you watching videos? I thought it looked between good and great, myself (depending on area) especially given the scale of the game and number of elements on the screen at any given point but that was at 1440p with stuff turned up and RTX on. But even when I ran it for the lulz on a Xeon x3450 and R7 270x 2GB it looked pretty good. It ran at a blistering 10 fps but it looked decent doing it.

But I never bothered with the preview hype videos so maybe in those it healed the sick and raised the dead and I don't realize what I'm missing out on.

 
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IkedaTeramusa said:
I don't understand the point.. DII to DIII was what.. like 15-20 years? I remember playing it left, up, sideways, and backwards. I don't understand wanting to RE-play it all over again.
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Yeah, it took forever for us to get D3 b/c of Development Hell.

Most of the Core Team from D2 at Blizzard North that was working on D3 Original Version left, in the middle of development - b/c Blizzard wanted that online-only D3 (after WoW's MMO success and cash-cow); issues of game-direction b/t the Core Team and Blizzard; and numerous over reasons.

They left to form Flagship to do Hellgate London (RIP Flagship); and then eventually some fled Flagship to form Runic.

Sources:

https://kotaku.com/this-is-what-diablo-iii-looked-like-a-long-time-ago-5761172

https://www.diablowiki.net/Diablo_III:_Blizzard_North_version

What was done with BN's D3 was scrapped...and then Blizzard Irvine took over and started over from scratch. Blizzard Irvine's version is the D3 we know of now, which got released.

Given what Vicarious did w/ Crash Bandicoot Trilogy and Tony Hawk 1+2 Remake - makes sense to have them re-do D2. They seem to be on a roll w/ Remasters/Remakes. D2 certainly could use official high-rez, high-texture, and whatnot for support. Given what Vicarious did w/ other Remasters, as long as Blizz gives them enough time, Vicarious could do this justice.

Some gamers still play D2 to death - so, not surprising Blizzard wants a remaster of this. This thing's just gonna print $. Old-school D2 fans will buy this...b/c it's D2, no matter how good or bad it is. Any gamers from the modern era that just for some reason can't get down w/ trying and/or playing the old D2 classic b/c of lack of modern official high-rez support, how the game's aged in some regards, and things of that sort - this new shiny Remaster is also for them.

 
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Syntax Error said:
So, wait... what did you play it on? Or were you watching videos? I thought it looked between good and great, myself (depending on area) especially given the scale of the game and number of elements on the screen at any given point but that was at 1440p with stuff turned up and RTX on. But even when I ran it for the lulz on a Xeon x3450 and R7 290x 2GB it looked pretty good. It ran at a blistering 10 fps but it looked decent doing it.

But I never bothered with the preview hype videos so maybe in those it healed the sick and raised the dead and I don't realize what I'm missing out on.
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Ive just been watching playthroughs online, and while visually there are parts that look good, the overall world looks a bit disappointing. More so from lacking strong npc ai, interesting random events, etc. I guess I was expecting an evolution of something like Deus Ex and this just seems like another average game. I still haven’t found a game since Skyrim that really pulled me in for hours on end. Was hoping Cyber Punk might have that sort of effect.
 
Yeah all the side activities to me are a bit boring for Cyberpunk 2077 to me other than the named side missions which generally has a few flops, but quite a few multi part quests where you're able to get to know more certain people and parts of the world. Those quests generally are stronger than the main quest for me, which frankly blows after a while. I feel Ghosts of Tsushima did the side quests better, as each could have felt like a mini part of a movie. Most were good not great, but still felt pretty good across the board. The main story was good albeit very predictable later. You could see the ending coming a million miles away. The side activities were quick, but not super memorable either. It was a decently good game in my book, about a 7.5/10, while Cyberpunk 2077 felt more like a 7/10. Both games were good not great for me, but are both worth playing nonetheless. In my ratings usually above 6 is at least worth trying equating average in my books. I just don't think open world games are my forte though I enjoy some games like the Yakuza ones a good amount. 

 
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I can understand the bandwagon effect, but I’m more disappointed because it seemed like it had so much potential. It seemed like 2020 had a lot of games that didn’t live up to expectations, with Cyber Punk probably being the most high profile. I have a feeling if Halo had actually released, it might have taken the title and also taken some of that bandwagoning away from Cyber Punk.

I’d like to believe CD Projekt Red will improve the game significantly, but things like weak enemy AI and mindless npc clones aren’t usually the sort of thing that get major enhancements over time. Who knows ... I’ll probably open my copy soon and just see if other aspects make it more fun than the videos look.
 
If it's any consolation I didn't jump on to the bandwagon and thought CDP games were always overhyped.  Witcher 1 had a few good quests in it with a high level of interaction with the world (murder investigation where your possible answers/choices could depend on whether you had bought and read certain books in the market that you'd otherwise not think to read) but other than that it's like 'boobies so game is mature!'

 
Honokie said:
If you hate the game and think it sucks then that's fine but I have to wonder how many people hate it just because they were told to and never even played it themselves.
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Definitely not as many as who were excited for it before it came out, all of whom I can guarantee had never played it for themselves ...

 
IkedaTeramusa said:
I don't understand the point.. DII to DIII was what.. like 15-20 years? I remember playing it left, up, sideways, and backwards. I don't understand wanting to RE-play it all over again.
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Because it was fun and if they don't screw it up it will still be fun. And nobody has managed to replicate the D2 formula in such a way as to properly scratch that itch.

Plus nostalgia is a hell of a drug, man. I replay my favorite NES and SNES games every once in a while, I spent a ridiculous amount of time in LotRO during its first few years and completely burned out by the time it started going downhill but I still can not help myself but go back to it for a couple of weeks once or twice a year.

 
etcrane said:
I can understand the bandwagon effect, but I’m more disappointed because it seemed like it had so much potential. It seemed like 2020 had a lot of games that didn’t live up to expectations, with Cyber Punk probably being the most high profile. I have a feeling if Halo had actually released, it might have taken the title and also taken some of that bandwagoning away from Cyber Punk.

I’d like to believe CD Projekt Red will improve the game significantly, but things like weak enemy AI and mindless npc clones aren’t usually the sort of thing that get major enhancements over time. Who knows ... I’ll probably open my copy soon and just see if other aspects make it more fun than the videos look.
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I hate the bandwagon effect, period.

Cyberpunk is just a fucking game. It always was. Most physical/social activities were cancelled due to COVID, and movie production was postponed, which led to people using video games for a lot of entertainment. Keanu Reeves seems like a cool guy, but the internet has taken that fascination into a stupid obsession, and that propagated into this game that he was featured in. But it's JUST a fucking game. I'm honestly pretty frustrated that people acted like it would change their lives so dramatically, and then turned around and cried like infants enough to make companies offer FULL REFUNDS for it. Why do so many of you seem like you were lobotomized? Can't imagine being that weak-minded.

People are so starved of a sense of belonging that they become eager to adopt the mindset of being highly biased towards something they've never experienced to feel secure, and this is prevalent throughout human culture. The crowd mentality and group think are both flaws in human behavior that people are too afraid to correct in themselves, even though all it takes is a little inner development. Just look at all of the non-conformists in every demographic who exactly fit their demographic's stereotypes and tell me we don't need to start fostering independent thought more.

 
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Marketing hype and whatnot probably got a lot of people wanting Cyberpunk. I'm also guessing  The success of Witcher 3 & its expansions also probably generated the hype machine. Heck, you can probably toss W1 and W2 in here, too - but most people latched onto CDP b/c of W3.

I think many probably wanted this CP 2077 to be like a Deus Ex (cyberpunk RPG/FPS) meets GTA (open-world game with huge scope & scale) meets Witcher (decision-making). It doesn't sound like....gamers truly got that next evolution of the Deus Ex game, bringing it towards the level of GTA size & scope, TBH.

I dunno - I don't even think Deus Ex series has...really surpassed the original yet in many ways, TBH. We ain't even had a ton of Deus Ex copycats though either.

I think this game was announced so long ago - and probably too long ago, TBH - it generated crazy buzz; that didn't help. All of the Night City previews. All of the reactions from YongYea and those that got Early Demos, saying it was amazing.

I don't think a lot of the promised stuff and removed stuff helped. We heard of wall-running being cut. Train stations & monorail being accessible...aren't b/c those didn't get finished. One night stands at V's apartment were removed too. Hacking into other humans was also planned for non-missions, but that was scrapped. Some cut-scenes were supposed to purposely be moved to 3rd person viewpoint, actually. AI and Police/Wanted system was supposed to be more robust.

Sources on removed stuff:

https://www.pcgamer.com/9-features-that-didnt-make-it-to-the-final-version-of-cyberpunk-2077/

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/12/16/cyberpunk-2077-cut-content-features/

I do wonder what it'll take to make some gamers happy. Will cut-content get finished and/or patched in for free? Will paid-DLC or paid-expansions add more features and content that the base-game was supposed to have in the first place? Or will it take a Cyberpunk 2078 to totally redeem this series?

 
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Blade said:
I hate the bandwagon effect, period.

Cyberpunk is just a fucking game. It always was. Most physical/social activities were cancelled due to COVID, and movie production was postponed, which led to people using video games for a lot of entertainment. Keanu Reeves seems like a cool guy, but the internet has taken that fascination into a stupid obsession, and that propagated into this game that he was featured in. But it's JUST a fucking game. I'm honestly pretty frustrated that people acted like it would change their lives so dramatically, and then turned around and cried like infants enough to make companies offer FULL REFUNDS for it. Why do so many of you seem like you were lobotomized? Can't imagine being that weak-minded.

People are so starved of a sense of belonging that they become eager to adopt the mindset of being highly biased towards something they've never experienced to feel secure, and this is prevalent throughout human culture. The crowd mentality and group think are both flaws in human behavior that people are too afraid to correct in themselves, even though all it takes is a little inner development. Just look at all of the non-conformists in every demographic who exactly fit their demographic's stereotypes and tell me we don't need to start fostering independent thought more.
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You mean I shouldn't join Yanni Crapuccino when he storms the CD Projekt HQ.... FOR MUH VIOLATED GAMUR RITES!!!
 
Honokie said:
It's not a good game but I hate the fact that everyone jumped on the bandwagon to hate them when there are many other companies that also put out glitchy games. Not to mention other games like Watchdogs Legion were so glitchy that saves were being corrupted. Someone even said that the company treats their employees like shit but that's pretty common in every company today, I bet the same person orders from Amazon who pays bad wages, no health insurance and doesn't even let their employees take piss or shit breaks without yelling at them. If you hate the game and think it sucks then that's fine but I have to wonder how many people hate it just because they were told to and never even played it themselves.
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I mean, it’s actually pretty obvious why it generated so much hate—it’s because it had generated so much hype before release. When essentially anything reaches a certain level of popularity with nothing but previews to support it, it’s pretty inevitable that the backlash to anything negative about that thing after it becomes available will be proportionately strong, that’s just human nature. And Cyberpunk just happened to have an unusually varied list of things for people to get upset about when that backlash happened—I mean, CDP did force a ton of overtime on their devs, they did at least partially obfuscate that the game might run poorly on some of the platforms it was coming to, and of course there were all the bugs. Add in the usual slew of “it’s too progressive!” and “it’s not progressive enough!” whining that any significant media release is subjected to, and you’ve got angry people coming in from all angles.

I’m sure in spite of the bugs, when played on a reasonably high-performing machine, it’s a decent enough game, at least if you like Ubisoft-style open world games and first-person cameras don’t make you sick. But this game got hyped up to ungodly levels and as a result all of its flaws got stuck under a magnifying lens.

Though at the end of the day it let Keanu Reeves put yet another character name John on his acting resume, and that’s what really matters.
 
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Deus Ex has never had a great sequel. The modern series is ... ok ... it’s better than Invisible War or whatever that was on the Xbox, but the level of choice and freedom in the original Deus Ex is unparalleled, even compared to more modern games. Fingers crossed that some new IP we’ve never heard of comes along and really blows things out of the water in 2021.
 
I loved Deus Ex HR and really liked even MD, but....yeah, Deus Ex 1 is on a Godly level still. DE1 is one of the games ever made. When Deus Ex 1 came out, for me, there wasn't any other game out there that I played like that. It was a fantastic mix of RPG/FPS.

Thing is...HR is basically more Deus Ex; and MD is more of that. MY biggest problem w/ MD was....well, it wasn't finished with its story arc and a bunch of threads never got wrapped-up. B/c of that all, to me, it's a great game that really needs a stand-alone expansion, sequel, or something...just to wrap stuff up.

Deus Ex: Invisible War (AKA Deus Ex 2) was another one that never lived-up to the hype, given how amazing previous game was. Things like the unified ammo for me; and consolization of the game really did not help matters, IMHO. Still like the game, even despite it never living up to the hype of the original Deus Ex masterpiece.

Kind of reminds me of DAO. I loved DAO and think it's one of the best and last true old-school style CRPG's of that kind from AAA studio - but, DA2 really so did not live up to the hype. I liked DA2, but...it lacked the customization & tac-cam. Recycled areas really hurt the game more than anything, IMHO.

I think we could compare Cyberpunk 2077 also to Fable. A lot of Fable 1's features....just weren't in the game. The evolving trees. The game was supposed to be a true seamless open world, but inside they had no choice but to do a areas/modules/maps set-up - more on that here. Other heroes that you might have to compete with. Yeah, for a lot of people that dropped $60 on that, I bet they were disappointed. But, I think many also felt the same about the repetitive Black & White games, too - another game hyped to the moon, but didn't live up to the hype; and also had cut contents.

 
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Today's Lessons were (a) Learn a healthy dose of skepticism when dealing with people whose job is it to turn your money into their money and (b) If a product isn't explicitly a sequel in a franchise, don't go expecting it to be the sequel in that franchise. 

I wonder what the reaction split was between people who bought it largely blind thinking "Oh, hey, that looks kinda fun and cool" and people who preordered it and then hung up Keanu Reeves "100 Awesome CP2077 Features" advent calendars over their bed to count down the days until launch.

For my off-beat analogy of the day, Cyberpunk 2077 reminds me of those little black and white magnetic Scottie dogs.  If you first approached them in an advertisement in the back of Boys Life or Archie Comics, you were promised "Amazing lifelike play as dogs scamper and chase one another, acting like real dogs on your desktop!".  Then you'd get a box with two little magnets with a plastic dog toy on top and the gimmick being that one magnet repelled the other.  OMG so much disappointment.

On the other hand, if you came across them in a gumball machine at the grocery store, while waiting by the doors for mom to finally find her checkbook and pay, they looked pretty cool.  Mostly because all the hype text wasn't there and they were surrounded by cheap brass-plated rings and stickers and plastic necklaces. You'd see those and think "Hey, that's something I could amuse myself with for a while". 

That's CP2077 for me.  For me, it's one of the gems in my gaming collection, fun for what it is and better than 95% of the other stuff.  For others, I'm sure it was an object lesson in why you don't daydream too hard when reading comic book ads promising x-ray vision and hovercrafts and "real" pirate gold.

 
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^ That's the part that gets to me. I can understand children falling for those ads, but not adults. I might be a hard-ass, but I'd draw the line at 14 for that sort of marketing credulity/gullibility.

But I mean, Trump was almost re-elected, so maybe I'm the true idealist here.

 
Cyberpunk 2077 stuff.
 
Newest Patch 1.10 adds a new game-breaking bug & a workaround is listed in here to get around it for the "Down the Street" mission.
 
Sources:
https://kotaku.com/cyberpunk-2077s-latest-patch-reportedly-added-a-game-br-1846117720
https://www.thegamer.com/cyberpunks-1-1-patch-game-breaking-glitch/
 
The "Down the Street" mission bug & work-around.
Without the dialogue, you will be left without a way to progress in the mission. Unfortunately, restarting the game from that point won't fix the issue. Even if you reload a save that was, say, 20 minutes before that point, the bug will still be there.

To address the problem CDPR has come up with the following solution:

  1. Load an older save file before Takamura and V leave Wakako’s office.
  2. V must finish the conversation with Takamura outside the office right away.
  3. Right after the conversation and updated quest progression, skip 23 hours.
  4. This should trigger the holocall and the correct conversation.
 
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Smkane112 said:
Anyone have recommendation for wireless keyboard and mouse trying to keep it under $100?
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How are you using it? Any couch gaming? Or strictly desktop?

Logitech is probably your best either way as they have many different combos to choose from. Those keyboard is mechanical and wireless and currently $80:

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-G613-Lightspeed-Mechanical-Multihost-Connectivity/dp/B07796MBJ7/

If you pair that with like a $40 lightspeed g305 you've got a nice wireless gaming combo for $120.
 
BaeStuped said:
How are you using it? Any couch gaming? Or strictly desktop?

Logitech is probably your best either way as they have many different combos to choose from. Those keyboard is mechanical and wireless and currently $80:

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-G613-Lightspeed-Mechanical-Multihost-Connectivity/dp/B07796MBJ7/

If you pair that with like a $40 lightspeed g305 you've got a nice wireless gaming combo for $120.
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I use from a couch. Always have used logitech in the past (usually their $20 to $30 combos) only thing is I've alway had problem connection with their keyboards either lags or drops connection completely even when the receiver is 2ft away. Not sure if this is a problem with their more expensive ones or not.

Gaming I mainly use a controller but sometimes I do use the keyboard

 
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Blade said:
^ That's the part that gets to me. I can understand children falling for those ads, but not adults. I might be a hard-ass, but I'd draw the line at 14 for that sort of marketing credulity/gullibility.

But I mean, Trump was almost re-elected, so maybe I'm the true idealist here.
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There’s a big difference between an ad and a game preview/ walk through though, and I don’t mean an E3 preview but one that’s closer to actual launch. Just seems like CP2077 didn’t live up to the initial promise or vision, but it could improve. Fable is a good comparison and that seemed to be nicely improved by the time the Lost Chapters were added on.

Maybe CD Projekt Red should hire Peter Molyneux ... 😜
 
Feeling mildly devastated (if there is such a thing as mild devastation) to see this news:

https://www.gamesradar.com/resident-evil-4-remake-reportedly-delayed-following-creative-reboot/

Was hoping there might be a chance to see a RE4 remake this year that was faithful to the original. Now it looks like we'll be getting a significantly altered version in 2023 at the soonest. It should still be great but feeling a little less confident that it will be worth buying at a high price.

 
BreadNiblets said:
Feeling mildly devastated (if there is such a thing as mild devastation) to see this news:

https://www.gamesradar.com/resident-evil-4-remake-reportedly-delayed-following-creative-reboot/

Was hoping there might be a chance to see a RE4 remake this year that was faithful to the original. Now it looks like we'll be getting a significantly altered version in 2023 at the soonest. It should still be great but feeling a little less confident that it will be worth buying at a high price.
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Isn’t that actually good news though? RE3 remake was panned for being rushed and cutting content from the original. They’re bringing RE4 back in house to avoid that and take more time to get it right. We might have to wait longer but the end product should be closer to a $60 value ... just my two cents.
 
etcrane said:
Isn’t that actually good news though? RE3 remake was panned for being rushed and cutting content from the original. They’re bringing RE4 back in house to avoid that and take more time to get it right. We might have to wait longer but the end product should be closer to a $60 value ... just my two cents.
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They were never going to cut content, so I don't think it's good news. The article mentions the original dev wanted to avoid making changes partially due to the negative feedback to RE3. They were the ones who wanted it to be faithful to the original, but Capcom decided they wanted to make changes so they switched developers. Again, it will probably still be good but RE4 really isn't the type game that needs sweeping changes. AFAIC they can only make it worse.

 
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BreadNiblets said:
Feeling mildly devastated (if there is such a thing as mild devastation) to see this news:

https://www.gamesradar.com/resident-evil-4-remake-reportedly-delayed-following-creative-reboot/

Was hoping there might be a chance to see a RE4 remake this year that was faithful to the original. Now it looks like we'll be getting a significantly altered version in 2023 at the soonest. It should still be great but feeling a little less confident that it will be worth buying at a high price.
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meh dont care for RE4 I want a remake of Code Veronica

 
Syntax Error said:
There is literally no difference between these things.
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Come on now, the Cyber Punk ads are way more cinematic than the actual game ... almost every recent video game ad includes a disclaimer that says “not in-game footage” or something similar. It’s akin to the way CGI cutscenes used to be the reason you played through a Final Fantasy game on PS1, but those graphics weren’t representative of the full game experience.

When I say game preview in my earlier post, I mean when developers walk you through the first level or something and have a person controlling the experience ... not a pre-rendered preview. And yes, there are plenty of examples where an e3 playable preview was still misleading (Halo 2 springs to mind), but there’s definitely a difference between video game ad campaigns and actual playable game previews. In the case of Cyberpunk, both ads and previews were seemingly misleading.
 
Game previews should (and did) show live gameplay footage.  Ads are just cinematics and marketing commercials. 

Nothing frustrates me like when you go to say Steam to watch a preview video for a game you're considering and they don't show you any actual gameplay. 

 
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Syntax Error said:
Today's Lessons were (a) Learn a healthy dose of skepticism when dealing with people whose job is it to turn your money into their money and (b) If a product isn't explicitly a sequel in a franchise, don't go expecting it to be the sequel in that franchise.
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If you are preordering games still then you really have no one to blame than yourself for your disappointment. Not much is going to be lost by waiting a day or so. If you're worried about spoilers stay off of social media. If you have to play/experience the next big thing than the next big thing this time was disappointment. You got what you wanted even though you failed to realize exactly what you wanted.

Every game is better if you wait on it... Honestly, I don't even get upset about Epic buying exclusivity anymore... Its people paying for open beta access.

 
Blade said:
^ That's the part that gets to me. I can understand children falling for those ads, but not adults. I might be a hard-ass, but I'd draw the line at 14 for that sort of marketing credulity/gullibility.
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Just gotta remember it's mental age not physical age that tricks people with ads.

 
INMATEofARKHAM said:
If you are preordering games still then you really have no one to blame than yourself for your disappointment. Not much is going to be lost by waiting a day or so. If you're worried about spoilers stay off of social media. If you have to play/experience the next big thing than the next big thing this time was disappointment. You got what you wanted even though you failed to realize exactly what you wanted.

Every game is better if you wait on it... Honestly, I don't even get upset about Epic buying exclusivity anymore... Its people paying for open beta access.
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There are still a handful of games I'll pre-order (just did so with RE8) but for the most part I agree about waiting. In the last few months I've had a great time playing Death Stranding, Borderlands 3, and Days Gone and if anything it was a better experience because of waiting. It's always nice to pay less for a better game after a year+ worth of updates and patches.

 
etcrane said:
When I say game preview in my earlier post, I mean when developers walk you through the first level or something and have a person controlling the experience ... not a pre-rendered preview.
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The purpose of the developer walking you through the first level is to interest you in buying the game. It's going to be presented in the best possible light. It's an ad. It's more of an infomercial than a 30 second spot but it's still an advertisement for the game.

 
BreadNiblets said:
There are still a handful of games I'll pre-order (just did so with RE8) but for the most part I agree about waiting. In the last few months I've had a great time playing Death Stranding, Borderlands 3, and Days Gone and if anything it was a better experience because of waiting. It's always nice to pay less for a better game after a year+ worth of updates and patches.
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Oh, I still preorder. I think I average about one a year.

I pre-ordered
Division
Wildlands
For Honor
Division 2
Star Wars Squadron

Granted, you'll see 4 of the 5 had betas closed/open that I was able to play so I hardly went into them blind but if Squadron had been a "Star Wars Disney" movie, aka a dumpster fire, I wouldn't blame anyone but myself.
 
I don't recall the last game I preordered.  Either Torchlight 2 or Orcs Must Die 2 depending on which had the later release.  In those cases I knew I was getting advanced tweaks on existing mechanics.  I would have preordered Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw if they didn't go Epic exclusive.  As they did I will only be buying it in a bundle.  I can't think of any game I anticipate enough to warrant preordering especially when it's lost all meaning.  At most you get some silly in-game perks but I'd trade those away for allowing early purchases to essentially beta test the game at launch.  Never mind most games will go on sale for at least 30% off no more than a few months after release.

 
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Get Even.

I'm about 5 hours or so into Get Even.

If Condemned: Criminal Origins; Observer; some FPS's; and some stealth games all got together & had a baby - yeah, this game would be some kind of mixture of all of that. This feels like part walking-simulator; part FPS; and part stealth game.

So, combat itself is fine. It's certainly functional. You can shoot enemies, even though the game will often berate you for doing so. You can sneak up behind enemies and kill them, which the game might either berate you or commend you for it. Though, there is a stealth gun, called the Corner-Gun. Basically, you can mount a gun on a special handle with a camera-phone to look around and stealthily shoot around corners. Corner-Gun is nothing short of interesting, cool, awesome, and fun to use.

Combat isn't terrible, mind you, as it is functional - but each piece of it is just not that deep; it's shallow. You also can't take many hits, either. Seriously, you take a hit or two - you're pretty much done; go reload last checkpoint save. But, all of this elements here, when combined - they make for an interesting & at times intense experience, where the sum of its parts make the combat actually worthwhile.

Though, like Observer and Condemned: Criminal Origins - you'll be investigating scenes everywhere. This is actually one of the real elements of the game. You will need to examine areas and find whatever you can. You have your trusty camera phone, which has all kinds of functions: it can light-up areas; it can be a UV light (so you can see enemies or other things); you can use it to see pictures; you can use it to read texts; you can use it to scan evidence across a CIA-like/FBI-like database; etc etc.

If this isn't enough - you play Cole Black and have memory loss. A girl had a bomb strapped to her; you found her; and it blew up. You somehow survived, waking up in a dilapidated mental hospital/asylum. You also have a device on your head, which is similar to an Animus in Assassin's Creed games or the memory device in Observer; and you are re-living memories of yourself & others. Some memories are destroyed and you're trying to piece all of the events together; and figure out the role you played in this; and why the Doctor who is helping you wants you to figure this whole mess out. Since you're playing detective here - yes, you can expect that there a good amount of twists, turns, and reveals. Just when you think you have an idea what's going on...well, expect a twist, turn, and/or rug to be pulled from underneath you.

Like other games I've mentioned, such as Observer and Condemned: CO - this game is loaded with atmosphere & Lore. There is evidence and collectibles everywhere, which all are important to the story and the game-world. If you're paying attention, you might be able to put pieces of the story together from this here - but, you and your mind's not the most reliable narrator; and neither is the device on your head all the time either. 

The music in this soundtrack here for this game is great, so far. This score is strong in just so many ways, I don't even know where to begin. Yet, I'll try. Whether it's going and sounding at times like it's the most sinister orchestra-style music that I've ever heard in a game within recent memory or going to try to tug at your emotional strings, when the game decides to enlighten and reveal more about its characters - the music always seems to be on point...and then some.

Running often at 150-240 frames per second at 1080p with maxed-out settings here, this game runs smooth as can be. Not only that, the game's environments look great & very realistic. The character models might be the best looking of models, in many instances - but it's the environments and game-world shines here more so than anything else.

Still, most of these complaints of mine are minor complaints - namely, the ones about the character models not looking so hot; and the lack of depth in the combat systems. Given how great the actual experience itself for the detective stuff especially and the actual story of this game actually is, this is so far worth playing for all of that stuff.

And now, I must get back to this game and try to get even more soaked up in its atmosphere; play detective some more; and hopefully finish up its crazy & awesome story.

 
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Mooby said:
I don't recall the last game I preordered. Either Torchlight 2 or Orcs Must Die 2 depending on which had the later release. In those cases I knew I was getting advanced tweaks on existing mechanics. I would have preordered Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw if they didn't go Epic exclusive. As they did I will only be buying it in a bundle. I can't think of any game I anticipate enough to warrant preordering especially when it's lost all meaning. At most you get some silly in-game perks but I'd trade those away for allowing early purchases to essentially beta test the game at launch. Never mind most games will go on sale for at least 30% off no more than a few months after release.
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I think the last game I preordered was Super Mario Odyssey, and that was only because Best Buy had a $10 gift card that stacked on top of GCU and a sale promo.

Game Pass, bundles and a backlog covering multiple platforms and generations has basically killed my want to spend more than a $10-20 on a game unless I'm planning to play it as soon as it's been downloaded. Watching the Cyberpunk slow motion trainwreck has been a lot of fun for me, but that's probably because I wasn't even thinking of possibly playing it until several tiers of discounting and dlc releases occurred.

I mean, after the past several years when almost every major hyped release, even those from well established devs and publishers, crapped the bed, how did anyone reasonably think that CD Project Red was going to manage it?

 
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