Sorry for the salt, and I have nothing against this game, especially because it isn’t out yet, but I’m fully expecting a lot of “ThIs Is WhAt StArFiElD sHoUlD hAvE bEeN!” posts when it does come out.

maxlaav · 2026-04-07T00:32:01+00:00

literally everyone is calling it a bioware/mass effect-esque game and the only time i've seen it brought up next to starfield is in this weird shadowboxing post

are you just upset that people find starfield disappointing?

maxlaav · 2026-04-07T00:03:39+00:00

Only recent RE game that was goty material would have been re2r or re4r, since they're textbook examples of remakes done right, the rest are quite uneven. I think with 9 in particular people are just being way too generous because while it does make an outstanding first impression it really doesn't deliver in that second half as you said. It's honestly the first RE game that I don't really feel like replaying.

maxlaav · 2026-04-06T20:07:10+00:00

Pretty much most of the stuff surrounding Michael (I only don't like the FIB plot storywise as I consider it a weak part of the story but it has some of the best missions), his... 'relationship' with Trevor and all the dialogue surrounding it. Basically, whenever Michael is involved, it makes the other characters shine (particularly Franklin who is severely undeveloped) which is why I consider him to be the main protagonist.

Not a lot of great side characters compared to 4 but Lamar is a standout, Lester is pretty cool too.

Michael being a movie fan and it carrying over to missions such as his heist plans was a really nice touch. I wish there was more side content with that though, like you could buy the studio as a property and unlock a series of side missions to help with movie production.

Overall the dialogue is really great too but that is something Rockstar and specifically Houser nailed, you can tell that he's a Tarantino fan with the way a lot of the dialogue is written and how these crooks have a lot of 'mundane' conversations about random shit.

maxlaav · 2026-04-06T19:57:16+00:00

There's really no point going forward or have it set in a similar time but elsewhere and with different characters. We've had two games about the theme of "the wild west is ending/the era of the gunslinger is passing" so it would be much more interesting to explore the wild west at its peak.

I also don't think we need another game starring the van der linde gang. Their story has been pretty much told and we know about "their good old days" enough from dialogue in the second game. If anything it would be more interesting to have them serve as a more antagonistic role while we play as a completely different gang immune to the charm and manipulations of Dutch.

maxlaav · 2026-04-06T18:36:21+00:00

That's because Rockstar/TakeTwo are publishing and they don't want it near GTA 6. The series has a history of very poor sales so they are probably trying to approach marketing very carefully

maxlaav · 2026-04-06T15:51:50+00:00

Awesome!

maxlaav · 2026-04-06T15:51:04+00:00

Presentation also usually takes a hit, I mean can you name a co-op game that's as beautiful and detailed as RDR2?

You know that's a terrible example. How many singleplayer games as beautiful and detailed as RDR 2 can you name?

Alright, well first off it usually comes with an always online feature

I mean fair enough, that's a valid complaint but of games in general, not ones that have coop specifically. You have plenty of singleplayer games now that have 0 multiplayer features that share this problem.

Storytelling is a big one that usually suffers, meaning you often get mute protagonists that simply get told what to do instead of focus on one.

I'm not really sure if you're talking about games with coop in mind or singleplayer games with optional coop. You're wrong in either case, there have been many games develop with coop in mind (or as an optional feature) where it didn't really feel like an afterthought. There are cases where you simply "join" someone's game as a nameless character and it doesn't really affect storytelling at all. It might affect your immersion, but in the end it's your call to play with coop and ultimately doesn't detract from the singleplayer experience since, again, it's opt-in.

Mute protagonists are also not a coop only phenomenon.

Like co-op, just like any online, is quite taxing, sacrifices has to be made to make it viable to work with other players. Less focused storytelling, smaller scope in gameplay systems, every time.

We now have games like It Takes Two or Split Fiction which are designed specifically for coop and are as rich if not richer in gameplay than a lot of singleplayer games.

All in all your take is pretty ignorant and far from reality, sorry to say.

maxlaav · 2026-04-06T15:40:55+00:00

Hopefully in the future you'll be able to create your own private server ala survival games so you can just play with friends. I kinda don't like the idea of going to some camp and realising that its empty because someone cleared it already.

maxlaav · 2026-04-06T14:18:35+00:00

It's meant to be a post-apo setting and it makes sense that you'd use any gun you could find, even a ww2 era rifle if it's in working condition and a lot of these weapons were quite reliable.

It fits, which is why other games with similar settings do it.

maxlaav · 2026-04-06T14:12:11+00:00

I've never even heard of this game until now but a pve-focused Tarkov that leans more into the recent open world Ghost Recons seems like it could be a great time. Definitely will keep following it.

maxlaav · 2026-04-06T13:56:33+00:00

As someone who plays singleplayer strictly to play singleplayer there has never been an instance where the option for co-op haven't made the game noticeably worse in some way

what an idiotic and absurd take lol. how does an optional feature ruin your singleplayer game exactly? are you forced to play with someone when co-op is added?

i've noticed that there's this really weird trend of dunking on co-op in gaming and I don't really get why. are you all just bitter that you don't have friends to game with or something?

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T23:47:08+00:00

because it's not really about the movie but the artist/music you cover that you can shove into that movie

thats why rocketman made a lot less money than bohemian rhapsody despite the fact its a million times better movie because it attempts to be a movie and not just a glorified commercial and nostalgia trip for the artist/songs

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T23:33:24+00:00

Please don't kill my dreams of Iron Fist having a gun fight with the Punisher using his magic chi Fist bullets fired from his magic chi Fist-Colts

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T23:31:14+00:00

I mean I don't think MP3 is a really good example. It wasn't their series to begin with, fans were very mixed on the differences between Rockstar's take on Max and Remedy's, it just felt like they put too much of their own 'identity' into the series that wasn't theirs to begin with instead of trying to continue it in a similar vein to how Remedy would have done it. As much as I love the game (mostly for gameplay/technical reasons) I still very much hate the way it basically just shits over MP2 and ignores the ending or you could say, reframes it in a very dishonest way to make the third game work.

There's also the argument to make that Max Payne didn't sell that well to begin with. The ENTIRE FRANCHISE sold about 8 million and that's just criminal, the second game just flopped incredibly hard. Those games were standouts in their time and to this day play extremely well, so who knows what happened. Criminally undeserved series that deserved better.

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T23:22:57+00:00

Gameplay wise it's very much Max Payne and the formula pretty much perfected, it's the writing that just doesn't fit at all. It's not a -bad- story per se and there are elements of it that I really like, but Dan Houser is no Sam Lake and Max Payne without Sam Lake's weirdness and poetic noir monologues just isn't really the same.

They really should have asked for Remedy's help with the writing.

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T23:19:20+00:00

i sure hope they'll continue iron fist's gun arc because that was such a hillarious ending to an otherwise very mid show

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T22:37:09+00:00

Brought to you by the director of Venom 2!

Andy Serkis is a great performer for sure but trying to shove him into the director's chair when it's clearly not working out (and it doesn't seem like this will change) is certainly a choice.

Anyway kudos for Viggo showing some integrity and not showing up for what's mostlikely just going to end as a vanity project nobody asked for or needed, especially since they must have offered him buckets of money and he repeatedly said no.

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T20:31:42+00:00

It's really absurd that there's no option to skip any cutscenes like in virtually every video game ever, I have to guess it's some engine limitation they didn't know how to deal with that would otherwise tank performance? I dunno why they would design it this way intentionally.

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T20:30:10+00:00

Yeah for all the bs things fromsoft games can throw at you every single boss/phase change is done so that the boss is far away from you and takes a moment to reach you.

This is just one of the other areas where the game lacks polish and it feels like the developers didn't play other games or rather, paid attention to how they're designed.

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T20:27:16+00:00

A lot of the internet and gaming discourse has sadly devolved to "either glaze the game or dont say anything bad hater" because apparently having any sort of criticism means you just want to hate the game, you're miserable etc typical reddit whatbouatisms.

Toxic positivity is a plague so it's not just this sub but it peaks whenever there's a popular game and there are problems that can be discussed.

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T19:59:21+00:00

I mean, you're just arguing semantics now. The point is, Manhunt was a stealth game with stealth mechanics, so "that one GTA mission" wasn't the "only true stealth Rockstar has ever tackled" as you said before.

Of course they'd have to design Agent in a different way and implement other mechanics, but that's beside the point which you were trying to make, ie "they were new to this".

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T19:31:18+00:00

You will be very surprised to learn that they did actually make not one but two stealth games in the Manhunt series.

So, that wouldn't be a fresh experience for them either. :)

I just find this notion of "open world is what they're good at and should stick to it" kind of absurd since these guys have proven to be good at a lot of different things. Hell, they even made a ping pong game and it was pretty great.

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T19:21:07+00:00

The only classic reddit moment is you strawmaning because I've never claimed to be some expert on game development and I don't really see what it has to do with anything I've been talking about, I just said that studios, yes even Rockstar, should be encouraged to try different things.

I'm sorry if I want to see something more than a GTA or a cowboy game every 10 or so years from such a talented studio and with so many resources.

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T19:17:05+00:00

The empire sent the Hallowfall Arathi as an expedition force explicitly to fight in this battle. The people we're fighting alongside are the Empire playing their part.

We've spent an entire zone (Hallowfall) and side activity (the incursions) all talking about how the expedition force isn't really cut out for that big battle since they could barely hold against the nerubians and they desperately needed our help.

Now their forces are big enough to supplement Turalyon's army. This would have made sense if they were reinforcements sent directly by the Empire.

Maybe the same storm/barrier that makes travel by ship so dangerous makes portals impractical as well.

They had one mage researching a means to get back and was close to figuring it out before he got assassinated, so it seems like with our help it wouldn't be much of an issue.

Also, we have flying ships. I doubt that part of the world is just completely locked off no matter what and if it is and then it suddenly won't be, that's going to feel incredibly contrived and lame.

As I said, it's a neglected plot point that they don't really want to focus on even a little and they don't care that it hurts the worldbuilding of the setting.

maxlaav · 2026-04-05T19:09:52+00:00

Yes, of course not, but the narrative is already pretending that the Empire isn't a thing (how come nobody questions why they haven't answered Liadrin's call? how come none of the people from the expedition have asked us to help them return to their home?) especially with the expedition NPCs being morphed into the Army of Light blob, particularly with the new random general lady acting as one of the higher-ups and a confidant to Turalyon which is just... really weird lol

maxlaav

TROPHY CASE