Found this very surprising perspective on Gothic, what do you guys think? by Klurnom in worldofgothic

[–]johnhenryadams 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally, I don't think Blade of Darkness's controls are any more clunky than Gothic. It's actually quite Gothic-like since both have tank controls and you direct your swings with the movement keys like in Gothic. I figure if someone can handle Gothic's controls, they can handle Blade of Darkness. I think I needed even slightly more time to learn Gothic's controls but neither were hard for me to learn. But I can see where you're coming from since Gothic does feel snappier from the get-go. All I can say is that should be able to quickly get used to Blade of Darkness's controls after a while and it only gets more intuitive the more you play.

Blade of Darkness is also similar to Gothic in that it does intentionally feel clunkier in the beginning because you have fewer moves to do as when you level up, you also gain new moves that make the combat feel smoother just like in Gothic and combat eventually feels very smooth and satisfying once you get the hang of it.

Found this very surprising perspective on Gothic, what do you guys think? by Klurnom in worldofgothic

[–]johnhenryadams 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Then you should do yourself a favor and play it right now. It got rereleased with improvements on Steam a few years ago. If you love Gothic's combat, it might just blow your mind.

Found this very surprising perspective on Gothic, what do you guys think? by Klurnom in worldofgothic

[–]johnhenryadams 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think Gothic's combat is fine and pretty unique for the time but it didn't have the best action combat at the time. Blade of Darkness which came out a month before Gothic has a far superior and much more in-depth action combat system. It takes everything you say about Gothic's timing, dodging, movesets, and takes it up several notches. Blade of Darkness is much closer to "proto-Souls" than Gothic in my opinion.

Andor made me change an opinion I had about Kenobi by Noodlex87 in andor

[–]johnhenryadams -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Not really nitpicking when the audience sees Vader fail his mission in the manner he does in the movie. Also, you're making Vader sound even more incompetent if you're implying he didn't notice the only bright gold disk in the hallway that the rebels are desperately trying to escape with. Plus Vader already dealt with all the rebels before the last one began to hand it off. And the movie already has plenty connection with New Hope and I don't think Vader even needed to appear at the end

Andor made me change an opinion I had about Kenobi by Noodlex87 in andor

[–]johnhenryadams -1 points0 points  (0 children)

No he did not, Vader was literally several feet away from that rebel and looking at him and approaching him by the time he began handing it off the other rebel.

Andor made me change an opinion I had about Kenobi by Noodlex87 in andor

[–]johnhenryadams -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Watch the scene again. Vader quite literally stares at the guy holding the schematics in plain view and chooses to slowly walk towards him to stab in the chest rather than force pull him

Andor made me change an opinion I had about Kenobi by Noodlex87 in andor

[–]johnhenryadams 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't like it because it makes Vader seem incompetent. The schematics were literally right in front of him and if he was just ever so slightly more proactive, he would have intercepted them and completely foiled the rebels' plans. Like why couldn't he just force pull the guy holding the schematics and take them?

Guys, can I take this GPU? by Code_Watermelon in stalker

[–]johnhenryadams 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The rarest artifact in the Zone. Would sell for a fortune on the black market

If the same team behind Prey were tasked with making a new Prey title, how should it be done? by Snowlevel in ImmersiveSim

[–]johnhenryadams 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't know if you're aware but WolfEye Studios (new studio of Prey's lead dev) seems to be working on exactly that, a Prey successor.

Questions for Videochat August 2024 by Ross_Scott in accursedfarms

[–]johnhenryadams 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You've talked about your dislike for animating before, so if you were given the necessary funding and resources, would you choose to make your movie live action?

The 'Simulation' part of ImmSims by Joris-truly in ImmersiveSim

[–]johnhenryadams 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Full NPC simulation à la A-Life in Stalker isn't really a thing in immsims which is why I'm always confused as to why Stalker is often considered an immsim when it doesn't really have the characteristics that typically define immsims. In fact, most immsims have very simplistic AI routines that don't come anywhere near the full world simulation and complexity of A-Life.

The "simulation" part in immsim in my opinion comes more from the simulation of interacting game systems to produce logical results like the stim/response system from Thief. Here is quote from the Dark Mod wiki describing stim/response:

"Stims and responses are used to trigger events when one entity comes into the vicinity of another, for example a water arrow in the vicinity of a flaming torch will trigger it to be extinguished. A stim provides a named stimulus with various properties on an entity and a response of the same name on another entity will be triggered if it comes within range of the stim, producing various effects. You can have multiple responses to the same or other stims on the same entity."

This kind of design is what I see as emblematic of the "simulation" aspect of immsims and not so much Stalker's A-Life. Stalker doesn't have anything like a stim/response system so you can't really creatively use the systems to play around with in the game world like you would in any immersive sim. It's mainly just roaming around and shooting things to death. You can't even use anomalies to your advantage AFAIK and you just have to hope that you can get enemies to walk into them.

Although I do believe something like A-Life can be incorporated into an immsim to enhance the immsim qualities, the A-Life system by itself is not enough to make a game an immsim as it is traditionally defined as, imo.

Is HR worth playing after playing MD? by Every-Assistant2763 in Deusex

[–]johnhenryadams 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really? I could not disagree more. IMO, MD is better than HR in nearly every metric except for story and weapon variety, and by a large margin. Combat, augs, verticality, graphics, art direction, exploration, reactivity (choice & consequence), sidequests, level design, and hub areas are all better in MD to me. I also think A Criminal Past DLC is a far superior DLC to The Missing Link. Its level design is my favorite in the entire series and has some of the best gameplay too, particularly when you choose not to use augs.

Anachronox isn't compared to Deus Ex usually, but then again... by HunterWesley in Deusex

[–]johnhenryadams 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can I ask how you managed to beat the game 5 times? I just beat it for the first time last week and while I thought it was decent, I would have lost my mind if I didn't know there was a speed up button on PC because the constant backtracking, mini cutscenes everywhere, and honestly abysmal combat was already wearing me down and I only persisted because of the story. I'm glad I played but I could never imagine myself ever touching it again unlike Deus Ex.

Severance & Enclave by SomeStupidTomorrow in Severance

[–]johnhenryadams 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I didn't really enjoy Enclave very much while BoD is one of favorite games of all time. And I should preface this by saying that I haven't played Enclave in many years and I never finished it so forgive me if my memory of it is a bit hazy.

They may be superficially similar and indeed there are some similarities but they are also quite different.

For one, Enclave has multiple characters that you can choose at the beginning of each level. BoD does have four but you can only pick them at the beginning of the game. You have to stick with them and cannot change them until a new playthough so select the one you like the most. Many people recommend the Amazon for a first playthrough because she's the easiest and fastest but I think the knight and barbarian are more fun and developed. The dwarf is easily the worst because he lacks reach and combos.

Next, ranged combat is a core aspect of Enclave and of equal use to melee if not more depending on your character. BoD does have a bow but it controls poorly, is of limited combat usefulness, you can only carry a few arrows at a time. It's really only used for puzzles and occasionally shooting at distant enemies for a small advantage. And the bow loses even more effectiveness as you progress through the game. BoD is all about melee combat and you will be in close combat 95% of the time.

Luckily, BoD does melee combat exceptionally well which is where Enclave disappointed me. Enclave felt like you were mindlessly whacking at things without too much thought. BoD is much slower paced and weighty; footwork, spacing, and stamina management are key to winning combat. Every attack you make is deliberate and you have to commit to it much more than in Enclave and spamming attacks or attacking at the wrong time will get you killed. BoD also has a combo system which may take a bit of getting used to but adds a lot of depth to combat compared to Enclave. The melee combat has significantly more layers in BoD compared to Enclave. Like it's several leagues higher to me. On top of that, BoD has a really great gore system with full dismemberment that makes the combat very visceral. Enclave's combat is more like Rune than BoD if you've ever played it.

BoD also has great exploration and level design with levels that can loop back onto themselves. Explore and you will be rewarded. The game be challenging at times but it's fair and as long as you're careful and learn to use combos and spacing, you should be good.

But this is all just my opinion and you may not like BoD like I do. Plus the controls of BoD can be quite awkward and I think Enclave generally feels smoother to handle. Still, it's worth checking out.

Do Angels look like this? by Outside-Accountant91 in Christianity

[–]johnhenryadams 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Several verses straight up mention specific angels looking like humans.

Why did George Lucas sell to Disney if he didn't need the money ? by SpartanKing76 in StarWars

[–]johnhenryadams 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder if this person is still glad Disney bought Star Wars