toxicitizen

Yeah, that's what I meant too. The portraits that show up during dialogue.

IIRC, they actually redid the character portraits. That's why they look so much better than everything else. Also, I thought about Win 10 being a problem as well but I've been reading up and people having performance issues seem to have pretty varied setups. Win 7, 8 and 10 and even folks with 980s are reporting shitty framerates while others with lesser hardware claim the game is running just fine. It's pretty weird.

It's a weird one. Some people are having performance issues but just as many are apparently getting a solid 60 fps. I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad port but I feel like they probably didn't test it on as many different systems/configurations as they should've. For me, the framerate tanks with v-sync on and slows the game to half speed, but it seems to run mostly fine with everything off. Some of these settings are kinda weird, anyway. Like, why would I want DOF in a game like this? Or blur at the top of the screen??? The new ground textures are also hit and miss and the sprite filter makes the characters look blurry as hell, so I kinda like it better with most of it off anyway. Stuff like SSAO and crisper shadows are nice and shows they put some effort into it but it definitely needed a little more work. I really hope NIS are going to salvage this one because I'd hate for this to be the end of the series on PC.

Yeah, that prototype sold me on the concept pretty much instantly. I've been looking forward to the full game ever since.

Well then you're in luck cause SUPERHOT is coming out this week!

Yeah, Dishonored's biggest issue was that it gives you a ton of fun tools to play with but then tells you you're a bad person for using them. Personally, I played it as if it were a Thief game, so it didn't really affect my playthrough all that much. But that's definitely something I hope they improve in the sequel.

Why? I already played the Vita version if you mean for story reasons. Ultra Despair Girls is the only one I haven't played yet.

I was going to wait before double dipping, mostly because of the price, but turns out the bonus soundtrack is actually limited and won't be sold as DLC once the first week promo ends. So fuck it, it's not that far out of impulse range anyway. Not sure when I'll actually get around to playing it, though. I don't think I'm anywhere near done with my XCOM 2 campaign and there's also Disgaea coming out later this week. Plus, I should probably prioritize playing Ultra Despair Girls first since these games are so easy to spoil...

Yeah, I'm with Jack on that one. I wouldn't necessarily compare to Molyneux but I'm pretty skeptical about content quality when it comes to procedural generation. I think the main problem is that it's an incredibly ambitious game and Sony kinda went all in promoting it almost as if it were first-party. Those two things combined certainly didn't help keep expectations in check. I kinda feel like the price point is what's going to make or break NMS. It was listed as a 79.99$ physical release on Amazon.ca a few months ago but that listing seems to be gone, so I have a feeling that might've been retailers jumping the gun because I can't see listings for physical copies anywhere now. As a full price release, I can definitely see a lot of people having issues with it and, personally, I'm out that's for sure. But as a downloadable game in the 20-40 range? They could probably get away with a lot more.

Sorry, I wasn't suggesting that's what you were doing. I just honestly have no idea how anyone could've expected that kind of gameplay if they followed the game's marketing even just a little bit. The initial reveal was kinda vague, yeah, but we've known what the game is for well over a year now. Yet, I still occasionally see people acting as if that's not the case. Expectations have seriously been out of control from the very start here. Hello Games is a small team, there's just no way they can make a game that can live up to that kind of hype.

In fairness to the game, you literally pulled all of that stuff out of your ass. Everything they've shown never so much as implied it would be anything other than what it turned out to be. Out of curiosity, why did you even think the game would be like that? I mean, it's not just you. I keep seeing the same thing happen with other games. This is why I'm sure No Man's Sky is going to get a pretty negative reaction at launch. They've shown it numerous times and it's pretty clear what the game is at this point. But you still constantly see people asking "But what do you do???" and pretty much assuming the existence of gameplay that was never even suggested to exist. I mean, the game is only 4 months from release now, do people seriously think they're just not showing some game-changing content for some reason?

Made a couple of last minute purchases right before the sale ended. It's the last one I was missing and I'd like to finally play through the series this year. Kinda wish they'd put the first one on Steam as well, but I think there's some legal issues preventing it, unfortunately. So, I'll probably have to fire up the PS1 version on my Vita and put up with the horrible load times... No reason other than Skylines is great and I've been meaning to go back to it for a little while. Also, I think the new expansion is coming out soon, so I didn't wanna end up falling too far behind in terms of content.

http://devwiki.introversion.co.uk/pa/index.php/Escape_Mode

Isn't there also some kind of story/campaign mode where you escape from your own prison or something like that?

Frozen Synapse 2 is a thing that exists and is coming in 2016. Website mentions "Open World Tactics", which I'm not sure what to make of considering the one screenshot looks very similar to the original. Also, they're apparently dropping the more realistic look of Frozen Cortex and going back to Synapse's more abstract visual style. The first one was fucking amazing so this is great news as far as I'm concerned. I never did finish the campaign, so it looks like I should get around to doing that soonish.

Firewatch. Really loved it. It's basically a more elaborate version of Gone Home that takes place in the forest. There's a lot more to the story than there was in Gone Home, though, and I thought the mystery driving the plot forward was pretty compelling. The resolution was kinda disappointing but that might just be me, it wasn't bad or anything, it just went in a different direction than I had hoped.

Well, without knowing what your definition of "actual gameplay" is it's hard to say but yeah, you do more than just "walk around and look at shit". That being said, it's still a very laid back game, you're not going to be fighting anything or solving puzzles or whatever. It's basically Gone Home in the forest but with voiced dialogue and a more involved (and imho more interesting) story. You're not just walking around looking at notes or whatever, stuff is happening around you.

Oh, I definitely looked up a couple things when it started to feel like I was wasting my time trying to figure it out. I just tried not to for the most part, it was a last resort I only used a couple times. Using a walkthrough for a significant portion of the game kinda feels like you'd be robbing yourself of the experience, though, which at 40 bucks I'm not sure why anyone would do that... Ignore Cowboy, he's dumb and also a bully. Probably tortures small animals for fun when no one's around, too!

UGH! I've barely had any time to play because of this fucking school assignment! I should drop out, it's getting in the way of my XCOM time. Priorities, you know... But what little time I DID take to play, though... OH MY GOD IT IS SO GOOD! I wasn't really sold on the whole guerrilla angle but so far I'm really digging it. Using overwatch to set up ambushes by moving covertly and making contact on your own terms was already the optimal way to play on harder difficulties in EU, so it's kinda cool to see the devs recognize that and actually design the game around that playstyle.

It's a Steam sale for the Chinese New Year or whatever, it's not just this game specifically that's discounted.

The Witness left me hungry for more puzzle goodness, so I was already planning on getting it as soon as it went on sale somewhere. Didn't really expect it would happen so quickly, though!

Damn, they seriously upped the presentation/budget for this one. I'm kinda glad to see them ditching the original's animated cutscenes. They were alright but they felt so out of place. As for the beta, I would expect any "multiplayer" would be time trials stuff like in the original. At least, I hope...