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DownIsTheNewUp said:
I love a good Western RPG and have been let down my almost every single one of the modern era (Fallout 3, Outer Worlds, Mass Effect Andromeda).
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Have you played Fallout: New Vegas? That one is very good and loved a lot by hardcore RPG fans. I agree Outerworlds is a snooze. I love Fallout 3, but my love for that game is more nostalgic. If I had played it fresh today I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much.

Also, I’d really consider giving The Witcher 3 another shot. I just finished my second play through of it and it’s really complex, a good story, tons of quests and different ways to level and build your character. Plus the combat is fun, interesting, there’s so many different ways to go about it. And once you get to a much higher level you don’t feel over-powered like in most games. You still need to be strategic for almost every encounter. It has classic RPG elements and this second time through I really thought about my choices much more because there are multiple endings for different actions like a true RPG. You don’t really get that with Fallout 3 or 4, but you do with New Vegas.
 
wokeupnew said:
Have you played Fallout: New Vegas? That one is very good and loved a lot by hardcore RPG fans. I agree Outerworlds is a snooze. I love Fallout 3, but my love for that game is more nostalgic. If I had played it fresh today I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much.

Also, I’d really consider giving The Witcher 3 another shot. I just finished my second play through of it and it’s really complex, a good story, tons of quests and different ways to level and build your character. Plus the combat is fun, interesting, there’s so many different ways to go about it. And once you get to a much higher level you don’t feel over-powered like in most games. You still need to be strategic for almost every encounter. It has classic RPG elements and this second time through I really thought about my choices much more because there are multiple endings for different actions like a true RPG. You don’t really get that with Fallout 3 or 4, but you do with New Vegas.
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The 5 games from that gen that I have copies of and really need to get around to playing are Portal 2, Fallout: NV, Sleeping Dogs, Nier Replicant and Bayonetta. I own remasters on the later three. The former 2 I own on 360 but my 360 is dead and I'm waiting for the right time to buy the a Series X so that my backlog is playable. Will probably time it with the release of Starfield.

I'm familiar with both Obseidan and New Vegas' reputation. Buggy af and unpolished but probably the most beloved of the series among die hards for it's story and humor. The only reason I haven't played it is because it dropped right after I had beaten 3, and I wasn't down for more Fallout and then kinda forgot about it.

Part of the hesitation with Witcher 3, other than just not liking high fantasy, is the time commitment. Like I put 100 hours into Breath of the Wild and it took me a full year. I'd say in non-pandemic times, a 60 hour game typically takes me 3 months. And there's just so much I want to play. Same reasons I never touched Skyrim btw...

But if we are talking my favorite RPGs:
1) Mass Effect 2
2) Knights of the Old Republic
3) Jade Empire (underrated af)
4) Persona 5
5) Fallout 3
6) 13 Sentieniels: Agies Rim
7) Mass Effect 1
8) Disco Elysium
9) Earthbound
10) South Park: Stick of Truth or Mass Effect 3... could see Cyberpunk knocking them off though.

I hated turned based Square Enix games (namely FF) as an early teen and thought I hated RPGs until I played KotOR in high school. And I'm still really picky about combat systems. Namely if they feel too passive.

Also, not sure where Horizon Dero Dawn falls in this convo 😂😂😂. Not an RPG but also the closest to a good Bioware game we got last gen. Hoping for a huge discount on the new one come Black Friday.
 
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DownIsTheNewUp said:
The 5 games from that gen that I have copies of and really need to get around to playing are Portal 2, Fallout: NV, Sleeping Dogs, Nier Replicant and Bayonetta. I own remasters on the later three. The former 2 I own on 360 but my 360 is dead and I'm waiting for the right time to buy the a Series X so that my backlog is playable. Will probably time it with the release of Starfield.

I'm familiar with both Obseidan and New Vegas' reputation. Buggy af and unpolished but probably the most beloved of the series among die hards for it's story and humor. The only reason I haven't played it is because it dropped right after I had beaten 3, and I wasn't down for more Fallout and then kinda forgot about it.

Part of the hesitation with Witcher 3, other than just not liking high fantasy, is the time commitment. Like I put 100 hours into Breath of the Wild and it took me a full year. I'd say in non-pandemic times, a 60 hour game typically takes me 3 months. And there's just so much I want to play. Same reasons I never touched Skyrim btw...

But if we are talking my favorite RPGs:
1) Mass Effect 2
2) Knights of the Old Republic
3) Jade Empire (underrated af)
4) Persona 5
5) Fallout 3
6) 13 Sentieniels: Agies Rim (kind of a stretch)
7) Mass Effect 1
8) Disco Elysium
9) Earthbound
10) South Park: Stick of Truth or Mass Effect 3... could see Cyberpunk knocking them off though.

I hated turned based Square Enix games (namely FF) as an early teen and thought I hated RPGs until I played KotOR in high school. And I'm still really picky about combat systems. Namely if they feel too passive.

Also, not sure where Horizon Dero Dawn falls in this convo 😂😂😂. Not an RPG but also the closest to a good Bioware game we got last gen. Hoping for a huge discount on the new one come Black Friday.
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I don’t know if I’d consider The Witcher high fantasy. It takes place in a world more similar to medieval times rather than a game of thrones type world or lord of the rings. You don’t really need to follow or care about different factions. You’re just a guy who is sometimes beholden to them but also is just doing his own thing on his own quest. It doesn’t get confusing or convoluted.

Yeah… it’ll take you about 35-40 hours to beat the main game with enough experience and ease. You could probably speed run it I half that but it’ll be harder. And obviously you want to enjoy it. I also hadn’t played the DLCs this time around and those alone add another 40 hours. There’s TONs of extra content, highly recommend them too. So all-in-all it took me close to 100 hours to beat it completely this time around.

Also I’m currently playing Mass Effect 2 for the first time right now! I was really into gaming all the way up until 2012~. Stopped completely and missed tons of good games until I bought a Xbox One X in 2019. I played ME1 last year, really liked it. I’m only about 5 hours in ME2 right now. Will probably play Andromeda after that too.
 
wokeupnew said:
I don’t know if I’d consider The Witcher high fantasy. It takes place in a world more similar to medieval times rather than a game of thrones type world or lord of the rings. You don’t really need to follow or care about different factions. You’re just a guy who is sometimes beholden to them but also is just doing his own thing on his own quest. It doesn’t get confusing or convoluted.

Also I’m currently playing Mass Effect 2 for the first time right now! I was really into gaming all the way up until 2012~. Stopped completely and missed tons of good games until I bought a Xbox One X in 2019. I played ME1 last year, really liked it. I’m only about 5 hours in ME2 right now. Will probably play Andromeda after that too.
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After ME3 right ;)
 
wokeupnew said:
Ooooooh I thought it went 1, 2, then Andromeda. I didn’t know there was a 3!
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Yeah. 1 / 2 / 3 = the trilogy where your decisions from one game feed into another. All from 360 / PS3 era. Often considered the best trilogy in gaming history.

Andromeda = Ps4 / One era and a game that was considered mad disappointing by both fans and critics. I've actually never touched it. But it does have some defenders and was patched up post-release. The fact that I'm I'm enjoying Cyberpunk so much has me considering giving it a shot.

Does this mean ypu aren't playing thr Trilogy Remaster? Or did you just think Andromeda = 3.
 
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DownIsTheNewUp said:
Yeah. 1 / 2 / 3 = the trilogy where your decisions from one game feed into another. All from 360 / PS3 era. Often considered the best trilogy in gaming history.

Andromeda = Ps4 / One era and a game that was considered mad disappointing by both fans and critics. I've actually never touched it. But it does have some defenders and was patched up post-release. The fact that I'm I'm enjoying Cyberpunk so much has me considering giving it a shot.

Does this mean ypu aren't playing thr Trilogy Remaster? Or did you just think Andromeda = 3.
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The last part. I thought Andromeda = 3. If three is worth playing I’ll make my way to it after 2. They’re all now on GamePass so it’s easy to play.
 
About 12 hrs into God of War Ragnarok and I think it's pretty good, but has some serious pacing issues that I'm surprised didn't factor into review scores at all. A lot of the story missions feel way too long, especially
The Ironwood mission with Atreus and the giant girl, which was borerline torturous and should've been 1.5-2 hrs shorter.

The dialogue is also pretty bad. Suprisingly silly at times, and loads of exposition dumps. still looks, sounds, and feels good tho, even if I haven't really felt any of the wow factor I did from GoW 2018.
 
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ayayrawn said:
About 12 hrs into God of War Ragnarok and I think it's pretty good, but has some serious pacing issues that I'm surprised didn't factor into review scores at all. A lot of the story missions feel way too long, especially
The Ironwood mission with Atreus and the giant girl, which was borerline torturous and should've been 1.5-2 hrs shorter.

The dialogue is also pretty bad. Suprisingly silly at times, and loads of exposition dumps. still looks, sounds, and feels good tho, even if I haven't really felt any of the wow factor I did from GoW 2018.
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Vinny (formerly of Giant Bomb now of Nextlander due to the OG crew's exodus) had a very similar take during their episode 2 weeks ago. The 2018 game is an all-timer for him and he was fairly disappointed at about the 15 hour mark. But last weel he had changed his tune and it had grown on him immensely. But he straight up said that having the story pick up steam 20 hours in is inherently problematic.

My guess is the ending is a banger and most reviewers were left remembering what they loved more than what they didnt.
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
Vinny (formerly of Giant Bomb now of Nextlander due to the OG crew's exodus) had a very similar take during their episode 2 weeks ago. The 2018 game is an all-timer for him and he was fairly disappointed at about the 15 hour mark. But last weel he had changed his tune and it had grown on him immensely. But he straight up said that having the story pick up steam 20 hours in is inherently problematic.

My guess is the ending is a banger and most reviewers were left remembering what they loved more than what they didnt.
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Looking forward to seeing where it goes! Always kind of funny to me how games that are blatantly imperfect still get lauded with 10/10s though. Reminds me of the MGS5 and RDR2 hype.
 
ayayrawn said:
Looking forward to seeing where it goes! Always kind of funny to me how games that are blatantly imperfect still get lauded with 10/10s though. Reminds me of the MGS5 and RDR2 hype.
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You're talking to the wrong person because Red Dead 2 is 1000% a 10/10 in my book. 😂😂😂

The story was great, the themes rich and relevant, the gunplay was better than in the first one and it is easily the best open world ever built as far as feeling dense, alive, gorgeous and unpredictable. Grant I have not played Elden Ring because From Software titles are not my cup of tea.
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
You're talking to the wrong person because Red Dead 2 is 1000% a 10/10 in my book. 😂😂😂

The story was great, the themes rich and relevant, the gunplay was better than in the first one and it is easily the best open world ever built as far as feeling dense, alive, gorgeous and unpredictable. Grant I have not played Elden Ring because From Software titles are not my cup of tea.
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It's technically amazing absolutely, but I think it's evident of a tired Rockstar formula. It's a 40 hr story stretched into 80 hrs, and some of the mechanics just aren't fun. I was pleading for it to be over before I even got to the (also overlong) Marston epilogue. The best parts are exploring, the random encounters and just enjoying the environment (fishing!)
 
ayayrawn said:
It's technically amazing absolutely, but I think it's evident of a tired Rockstar formula. It's a 40 hr story stretched into 80 hrs, and some of the mechanics just aren't fun. I was pleading for it to be over before I even got to the (also overlong) Marston epilogue. The best parts are exploring, the random encounters and just enjoying the environment (fishing!)
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I think the mechanics were vastly improved from the first game which I mostly enjoyed for the story and have marked down in my log as a 8.5. My memory with that one was the gunplay got redundant because I needed the auto lock due to a lack of precision with the aiming. That wasn't the case with the second game.

I'm not typically a cowboy/ western person either though I love the shit outta GTA in large part for the ability to just drive around.

I took my sweet time with the story but savored every second of it while also spending ample time merely exploring the world. It's absolutely bonkers to me how few repeated moments there were in regards to the random encounters, I enjoyed spending time with the many side characters. I put probably 80 hours into it and was sad when it ended.

I have that one marked as a 9.5 (because I wished there was more of a sandbox element to some of its mission structures). But I very rarely give a game 10, so in essence I consider it one. Especially because I find myself thinking of it so often and every open world game I've played since winds up under it's shadow.

Conkers Bad Fur Day, Last of Us 1, Super Mario Bros World / 3 / Wii, Jade Empire, KotR, Mass Effect 2, GTA V / San Andreas, Tony Hawk 1 & 2, Zelda OOT / Windwaker / BotW, Resident Evil 4, Inside, GoW 2018, Stardew Valley, WWE No Mercy, Goldeneye, Donkey Kong Country, Burnout 3, Dead Cells, Bioshock 1 / Infinite, Harvest Moon 64, Turtles in Time, NFL 2k5, Virtual Tennis, Earthbound, Metroid Prime, Max Payne, Worms Armegeddon, Pokemon Blue / Red, Fight Night 3.

I think those are the only games I would give 10's to of the many games I've played in my life after glancing through my list of favorite games. And yet, RDR2 sits above many of those on that list of favorite games-- at #25 (slotted right in between Eternal Darkness and Jet Grind Radio)...
 
Side note, you definitely aren't alone in feeling that way. It seems some people struggled to click with the core mechanics but those that did consider it a clear masterpiece due to it's emaculate world building. Also, depended on whether your the personality type that loves cinema that is basically slow burning mood piece versus someone who wants a fast paced action flick. I definitely fall into the former.
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
Side note, you definitely aren't alone in feeling that way. It seems some people struggled to click with the core mechanics but those that did consider it a clear masterpiece due to it's emaculate world building. Also, depended on whether your the personality type that loves cinema that is basically slow burning mood piece versus someone who wants a fast paced action flick. I definitely fall into the former.
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I definitely love a cinematic slow burn/mood piece in movie form, but it's different for me with games. A 3 hr movie is over in a sitting. A slow burn game will take me months. It has to be paced well enough/have a strong enough gameplay loop to keep me invested long term. A recent exception is Elden Ring, that I played for 7 months and about 80 hrs, and never really got bored of it. RDR2 has a good story, I just think it was padded a little too much, and the mechanics surrounding it not quite strong enough to keep me involved that whole time (I still liked it tho, don't get me wrong!) Think I'm just more critical of games these days since I don't have as much time to invest in them as I used to.
 
Throwing my hat in the open world discussion. For me, no game is perfect, but for it to be considered it a 10/10, it has to be so fun and engaging that I completely overlook the faults. In the open world realm, BotW, Red Dead 1 & 2, Elden Ring, Spider-Man, the GTA's, and Ghost of Tsushima all really did this for me. Core gameplay loops never seemed to dull for me, traversal is either very satisfying or quick to get to where you need, and the side stuff seemed at least somewhat relevant to what each character would be doing.
 
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