this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 103 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Shame Ubisoft doesn't feel this obligation to gamers. If they did, we'd probably only have 4 assassin's Creed games

[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Is assassin’s creed any good? Once a game becomes a franchise with a bajillion releases I just tune it out. Feel the same way about marvel movies. Maybe they’re good, maybe they’re bad, but I’m more annoyed that they’re trying to shove it down my throat, so I tune out.

[–] MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago

I've played pretty much all but the most recent. They have their ups and downs. The first was almost like a proof of concept. Kinda boring, but the story sets up the sequels. There was a good overall story arc in the Desmond/Ezio trilogy (Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations) that hasn't been duplicated since.

AC3 was a bit of a breath of fresh air, being part of the American revolution, but it wasn't for everyone. The story was being deviated from earlier games too much. AC4 is, for me, still the best single-player pirate game out there. It continues with Rogue. Both of those games I highly enjoyed.

Unity (Paris during French Revolution) and Syndicate (Victorian London) both have fantastic maps and character design, but gameplay and story just wasn't as interesting to me. The series was feeling stale.

To Ubisoft's credit, they knew that too and entirely revamped the gameplay and menu system starting with Origins (Ancient Egypt), then Odyssey (Ancient Greece), and Valhalla (Vikings during 9th Century). Valhalla was really fun. I love how they change certain villages up throughout the year... adding festivals/challenges depending on when you play. The maps were just getting too huge and overwhelming at this point.

I play the games now mainly for exploration. Gameplay and story are secondary as they aren't as interesting anymore. They really put a lot of detail into their surroundings and do their research on history, whether real or fantastical. It's escapism to another land in another time.

Ubisoft is not Rockstar. The story is no longer the reason to play these games. They are forgettable. The Desmond/Ezio storyline of the earlier games are no more. However, we don't have to wait several years to play a sequel.

Valhalla was the only one that I paid full price for since it was 2020 and we were still basically trapped in our homes, but definitely got my money's worth. They seemed to take more time making Mirage so I'll check that out eventually. They are remastering some of their old games so I'd play those over the dated originals.

The Far Cry series has a similar feeling for me, but with a first person perspective. New lands to explore, new stories and characters, but some are better than others.

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] notTheCat@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The series should've ended with AC3, but Ubi milks IPs like crazy (think POP, both the 2008 reboot and whatever we got in last year)

Rogue had a great story though, I'd take it as a spinoff AC

[–] dessimbelackis@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Best sea shanty simulator of all time

[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Obviously subjective, but I was a very big fan of the series for the first several entries, kinda began losing interest around Unity (although in hindsight, Unity is probably one of the best ones in a few ways, but at release it was a very buggy mess).

I am not personally a fan of the way they have ignored the modern day story line after around 3, as I am one of the few on the planet that actually found that part of the narrative compelling and the part I was really playing for.

I don't like they gameplay changes since Origins, and it has increasingly become more of an action game over time and less of a dope assassin game.

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I absolutely loved the modern day story. I was so very invested and it still smarts a bit that they lost interest in doing it justice.

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[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

AssCreed4 is the best game of the series. Black Flag's combat was great and the ship combat keeps me coming back to the game years on.

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[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 97 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I think most gamers would have been perfectly happy with a trip to the Borealis just for the closure of the thing, even if the gameplay brought little to nothing new to the table other than some nice new visuals and arctic setpieces.

Instead we got Half Life: Alyx which was a stunning albeit niche experience in the same old City 17, which retconned Episode 2's cliffhanger with another, different cliffhanger. For fuck's sake, Gabe.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 48 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Instead we got Half Life: Alyx

Only if you're rich enough to afford VR setup. Fuck me for being born in a third world country, right Gabe?

[–] SRo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] qarbone@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Don't threaten them with a good time.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

And are physically abled to play in VR.

I had a VR Headset (Vive Cosmos), but my eyes just aren't up scratch, so I could never enjoy it.

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[–] squirrelwithnut@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

This. I didn't (and still don't) need groundbreaking gameplay for Episode 3. I just wanted an ending to the plot.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 74 points 1 week ago (2 children)

We’ve been waiting for so long that games don’t even remember Half-Life. It’s all “silksong copium” memes now lol

[–] darthelmet@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

Clearly this just means that Silksong IS Half-life 3.

[–] missingno@fedia.io 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I think HL3's meme status is the only reason a lot of gamers today do know it. If it had come out, it would've been forgotten.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 1 points 25 minutes ago

That depends on how good it was but yeah when has the third in a trilogy ever been good?

[–] interurbain1er@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

Just like duke nukem forever was. Had to think hard to remember the name.

[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

I honestly don't even see it memed anymore.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 56 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I. Do. Not. Care. About. The. Tech.

Gabe, you created an obligation when you ended Episode 2 on a cliff hanger. You should have just let Marc Laidlaw and the game devs just make more games.

As long as it had kept the core writers, I'm sure everyone would be happy. Hell, any "innovation" is being handled by the modding continuity. Breadman of Entropy: Zero created a more fun combat loop then any of the HL2 games have. Singularity has a better physics weapons just by being able to use it independent of the selected weapon and making the object transparent.

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I. Do. Not. Care. About. The. Tech.

Exactly. The tech doesn't matter. Tech only exists in service of the gameplay, and (introduced with HL1), the story (previous to HL1 the 'story' of most games was just a quick blurb on why there's monsters and why you have to shoot them).

Gamers DGAF about new tech. Gamers wanted to be told a story. We LOVED the story.

Valve could've used the existing engine, built NOTHING AT ALL NEW, and just finished the story with existing assets and we'd all have been over the moon happy.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You know, I knew the next HL game to come out after Ep2 would be a VR title. It was the most obvious direction Valve could go considering Gabe treats the HL series as a tech demo. Seriously, I think out of anyone at Valve, he has the least respect for the franchise. What I didn't predict that it would a a VR exclusive title and that it would retcon the ending of Ep2 so a character that died(and who's VA had died), would be alive again. Hell, they didn't even ask one of the MC's original VA to reprise her role(or cast into a different character if the age was an issue).

I have way more trust in the fan community to continue the story. Entropy: Zero took some cues from Epistle 3, so I hope the breadman and the Project Borealis are sharing notes, so the can have a shared continuity. I really, really liked the voiced MC of Entropy: Zero and the combat loop, with more enemy types and weapons was superb.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Unfortunately devs at Valve eventually will be swallowed by the money making machine called Steam. It’s the way the company is structured, the people working on the most profitable projects are rewarded the most.

Like the team working on In the Valley of Gods has disintegrated after Valve bought Campo Santo. The devs are all working on other things inside Valve.

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[–] derpgon@programming.dev 55 points 1 week ago (3 children)

At this point I am just expecting Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Part 2

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Then Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Part 2; Chapter 2

[–] lunar17@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Valve is asymptotically approaching episode three. Always getting closer, but never quite reaching it.

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[–] NeoToasty@kbin.melroy.org 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have so many thoughts about this.

I would've wanted a conclusion just to shut up all of the dead-horse beating to dust memelords that for years have been wagoning their tiresome HL3 jokes.

But, it's like, how many games have we waited so long to be released whether it's to continue the story or end it and the reception being more of "...wait that's it?!" than "I'm satisified."

Gamers are the hardest people to appease, so I get the sentiment that Gabe not only felt stumped but written himself into a corner with HL3. Whatever hype at all that has been built, is insurmountably high that whatever Valve pitches out, it's going to be mixed. It'll have a higher chance of being what happened to Duke Nukem Forever in context, than it being what Baldur's Gate 3 became 23 years later after Baldur's Gate II. It's a very narrow window to hit that sweet spot.

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[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

Meh. They might have not wanted to make Ep3, but the fans sure did.

I understand Valve works or used to work very differently, people collaborating without a strong top-down steering from management. Yet whatever explanation they have, we were punched in the gut at the end of Ep2, then left waiting, holding our breath. It’s just a piece of media, but it was an important part of my teenage years, and I could never experience the end of the story (outside of reading it in a blog) I waited so much for.

This made me really resent Valve, and soured my experience/memories with the series, I haven’t touched HL or other Valve game for 10+ years, and I don’t think I will in the future.

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'd have done it just to conclude the story, but then agian, I like stories...

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[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 20 points 1 week ago

We ought to improve as humanity so we can deserve Gabe.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Copping out of an obligation?

Dude, not finishing the story and leaving us all on a cliffhanger for seventeen fucking years and then giving this as an excuse is the real cop out.

Looking back, I actually don't like what Half-Life did to the genre. It didn't push it forward; it made everything after a linear, set-piece experience with minimal replay value. It might have been different back in the day, but it wasn't something I had hoped other developers clung to like they did.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Honestly, I have no problems with linear games.

Even Rockstar is fumbling with open-world games. God forbid if you try to do missions slightly differently than how Rockstar intended.

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 15 points 1 week ago

It might have been different back in the day

It was very different back in the day.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I think it was inevitable. Before HL2 we had Deus Ex. It was glorious. Fans loved it. Game devs looked at it and went “F*%@ that! We’re not making 3 games worth of content when you’re only going to see 1 on a given play through!”

So that defines the basic tension. Gamers love replay value and multiple paths and different character builds and tons of secrets to explore. Game devs on the other hand want players to see every little blade of grass and tree they worked so hard at placing in the game. I think they also have a lot of data from achievements that show most gamers barely finish the game once, let alone discover all the secrets and alternate endings etc.

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[–] Blackmist 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What did Episode 1 and 2 push forward?

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Linear, set-piece story-telling.

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[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Why does Gabe newell look like Richard stallman,Funny enough they have different goals and oppose each other.

[–] RangerJosie@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The man has aged since that famous photo from like 20 years ago.

~shock~

~gasp~

~questions asked at parliament~

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[–] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago
[–] Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

So just leaving the series dead on a cliffhanger is somehow not a copp out to gamers??

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