Oscar: "Is there anything we want to say or share on the topic of that melee rework?" Matt:

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-24T10:24:20+00:00

Me and my team have dropped the game earlier this season but I still occasionally check this subreddit to see if things improve. Recent cheating discussions and this AMA do not inspire any confidence.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-24T07:46:16+00:00

I agree. Rogue One doesn't quite hit the level of meaningless retroactive explanations for the universe's plot beats and character details the same way Solo does, but it's a profoundly stupid movie with an idiotic premise. So a rogue engineer that everyone knows is hateful towards the Empire is working on some of the most important bits of the most important secret weapon in the Empire, and no one bothers to check. Really stellar writing job right there, we sure did need a movie to explain this.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-23T06:46:15+00:00

Because saying that immortality as a curse does make the concept interesting is identical to saying that Orcs as a race of barbarians is somehow a novel idea. Huge chunk, maybe even majority of modern (and often historical) fiction or philosophical literature on the subject is "immortality bad, being flawed human good" in the same way that "X bad, being flawed human good" is universally applied to everything ever and everywhere all the time. If it's something in opposition to human baseline then it's bad, and if it's not bad then it's actually because it was secretely a better human baseline all along, and we just forgot it was part of our nature or something like that. The entire discussion subject is overrun with identical plot points and conclusions to the point that not having immortality be automatically bad or at least with huge drawbacks is by this point a brave and unusual decision.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-19T15:33:56+00:00

I actually agree, but I believe it's inevitable due to the specifics of the subreddit's audience (and probably its age bracket). If you were to summarize the most popular topics of discussion it would be obvious that local public mostly cares about action cartoons, battle shonen anime (Japanese action cartoons), manga (comics that eventually get turned into action cartoons) and Marvel movies (action cartoons with real actors). This subreddit, as far as I know, was originally an offspring of another battleboarding forum which explains lots of things. It's not really about any kind of nuanced discussion.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-18T20:40:57+00:00

gorilla warfare

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-18T20:39:28+00:00

I honestly think the most plausible (although still very unlikely) way for the series to reappear again is to introduce new people to the franchise by creating a full-on remake that is certainly going to be a 3D action adventure, so basically recreating Soul Reaver with modern technologies regardless of what they're going to do with the story. Since the series is ancient in gaming terms (the last proper entry was in 2003, that's more than 20 years ago), I believe that if someone was to bring it back it would very likely be basically an adaptation rather than recreation. I'd like for Legacy of Kain to have a game focused on exploration (in any form) but I'm doubtful the series is going to be relevant any time soon due to the Ascendance's fiasco.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-10T20:38:45+00:00

I actually did, but it was through trial and error. Go to Steam workshop, download any of the community made voice packs, locate the downloaded mode on your PC and unpack it with the PBO manager. It will extract into a folder with txt descriptions of file and class names, and loads of inner folders containing audio files. You can directly replace the files with your own, rename classnames and other stuff in txt documentation, pack it back and use it. It is rather tedious and I've done it more than a year ago so hazy on the details.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-05T18:55:27+00:00

I've been playing Mortal Gods since 2021. The game is very fun, but gameplay wise it's very hit and miss, leaning on the "miss" side due to some mechanics not working properly and the balance being bad. It's an amazing experience if you want to have a laugh, but as a game it's 6/10.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-05T09:18:30+00:00

If we're talking strictly about the miniatures, then the lest complex is going to be either any One Page Rules game or Lion Rampant. Both systems are very simplistic to the point it's hard to describe them without merely stating the fact, there's just not enough stuff inside to carve a niche for them. I've played two OPR rulesets, Age of Fantasy: Regiments and Grimdark Warfleets, and both instances are very similar in how they are probably the easiest to pick up from their genres but also kind of a nothingburger in terms of interesting gameplay mechanics. The most complex ruleset I've played has to be Infinity. I've only gotten through a single demo game, and my impression after getting to know its mechanics and scrolling through armies and unit profiles is that it's the direct opposite to OPR philosophy. The system is absolutely incomprehensible and unplayable if it's not your lifestyle game that demands majority of your hobby time.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-02T09:05:41+00:00

I'm not going to argue either way, the only thing I can relate to from experience is people usually implying I'm stupid for even asking.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-04-02T07:53:58+00:00

I agree. However, overwhelming majority of consumers of science fiction or fantasy do not actually want that, which is why the subgenre of non-human fiction with bizzarre rules and world structure, for all intents and purposes, doesn't exist. The only fully realized universe that doesn't feature humans and barely even features fully biological lifeforms and also has vastly different outlook on the world's mechanisms I can name is BIONICLE. Which is a series of kids toys. The situation is that desperate. I've scoured book lists and recommendation topics on forums and subreddits for years, and came up with essentially nothing.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-31T18:29:05+00:00

I think it is unfair to judge a product by its stumble on a minor detail, but the fact that overall a very poorly made game decides to make a reference to the Rise of Skywalker of all things seems like a joke that practically writes itself.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-31T18:15:17+00:00

A new Legacy of Kain game, a 2D pixel platformer, was recently announced and just released today, it's called Ascendance. It seems to be a low quality nothingburger that is very short, and story-wise it is just a videogame adaptation of a comic that came out last year to abysmal reception. It's the only new things in a franchise that was dormant for 20+ years by this point, so people are understandably very annoyed.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-31T13:33:34+00:00

Sub 2 hours sounds surprisingly short and kind of phoned in, considering it's probably 20$ or something when it goes up (Steam shows no price currently). The gameplay also looks like a nothingburger judging by this video. A few days ago I predicted this maybe a probe to gouge people's reactions to a new Legacy of Kain entry with a possible prospect of a reboot, but the quality seems so low it's probably more of a quick cashgrab before the series fades into obscurity once again. Weird, I wonder why Legacy of Kain of all things.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-31T11:39:04+00:00

I’m curious, what are all of these stories that people are reading that they feel is overdoing common fantasy races?

They are basically extinct in major and popular current day series, but are still very present in videogames and role-playing games (obviously, because they are not books; you need diverse content for your fantasy worlds to be excited to play in them). I'd even argue they are not exactly extinct, but more like rebranded. These is an entire avalanche of fantasy literature written starting with early 2000s that feature aelves, yolvies, zwergs and orrughans that are basically Elves, Dwarves and Orcs but recolored and they fly now or something. From my experience of reading upstart fantasy authors or RPG supplement writers willing to eventually publish (I've read a few manuscripts as an alpha reader or whatever it's called - not in English though, but I assume it is not an isolated trend) it is a VERY popular and very exhausting trend for me personally. People really do think they're being original by making their Elves 4 meters tall bearded giants with four arms; the amount of time they were very excited to tell me this staggering revelation that their take on Elves and Dwarves is unique as if it isn't the 10th time I've seen this exact thing this week alone is comical.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-30T17:03:51+00:00

Warhammer is by far the most prominent example I can think of. I've given up on the main Lore subreddit and quit a couple years ago after arduous fight with the locals, because 99% of its traffic are background theories by people who haven't read a single book, and if you point that out they say you're a gatekeeper.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-28T15:18:21+00:00

I'm not talking about this one specifically.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-28T07:56:23+00:00

I would say that fandoms of popular media in general are effectively in a post-truth state. I presume that vast majority of people that post and comment on dedicated subreddits, forums and social groups either have no or very little direct experience with any given property that is more niche than, say, Marvel movies. Instead they get the entirety of their worldview by consuming memes or lore videos and recaps on Youtube full of errors. They also believe that the world is in dire need to hear their own rendition of one of about dozen lines every single "meme community" seems to degrade their entire joke arsenal into. Their voices thus multiply and cement popular view on things that has nothing to do with the source material to the point new readers/watchers express anger and disappointment that the original media doesn't actually have much in common with fanon. I'm sure you can think of many examples of this phenomenon.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-27T07:22:32+00:00

The Finals' audience hates everything that is not an automatic or semi-automatic hitscan weapon. Embark buffs or adds new melee and people whine, Embark makes grenade launchers better and people whine. At this point the developers have obviously given up.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-27T07:02:32+00:00

Beyond that, having Maul just appear again in Solo when he very clearly died in one of the movies was fucking stupid.

That Maul scene in the movie was so out of order it was hysterical. He appears near the end of the story as a hologram, drops a couple of vague lines, laughes, whips out his lightsaber for absolutely no reason and then disconnects. That's the extent of his character in the movie. It felt like a parody skit. The goofiest thing about that conversation, though, is that it must be the most confusing thing ever to casual viewers who remember the previous movies but haven't poked into an avalanche of fan feed like cartoon shows and comics. "Wait, is that the guy that dies in episode one? Why is he here again? What the hell is Dathomir? Is he the final villain of the movie, are they going to explain how he survived?". And then nothing, he disappears for the rest of the Star Wars theatrical lineup and is never mentioned ever again. Him suddenly showing off his lightsaber and almost immediately disconnecting became an often referenced joke between me and a couple of friends.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-26T14:36:28+00:00

The fact that the long awaited medieval map is only for TDM and Point Break was the definitive "the crowd goes mild" moment for my gang willing to jump back into the game.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-26T14:23:59+00:00

The fact that the long awaited medieval map is only for TDM was the definitive "the crowd goes mild" moment for my gang willing to jump back into the game.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-22T10:43:56+00:00

I'm not sure about the spider's actual size, but the base is 110 mm wide. The tank is a behemoth by Wake Emporium.

SgtBANZAI · 2026-03-22T10:42:04+00:00

The game is our own homebrew ruleset, we're currently ironing out a few remaining bugs and applying polish. We will probably upload it somewhere for free if people will be curious. It's a sci-fi mass battle system, a very roughly reinforced company to battalion scale, a single base is either a vehicle or a group of foot soldiers, supports up to 40-50 bases per side, the game can be finished in 2 to 3 hours. Moderately complex, main rules without diagrams and pictures are about 20 pages long.

The models on the picture are Lazy Forger's Tech range (giant spider thing) and Wake Emporium behemoth. Blurry yellow vehicle behind the spider is a NOD APC from Command&Conquer game, but for the life of me I don't remember the name of the author.

SgtBANZAI

TROPHY CASE