» To Cut A Long Story Short - A Day Of Reckoning For DCUO's New Narrative-Led Approach
01/30/25 19:10 (6 hours ago) from Inventory Full
Following on from yesterday's post , where I talked about how reliable Daybreak 's patcher is and finished up promising I'd say something...
» CCP Posts an Unsurprising 2025 Roadmap for EVE Online
01/30/25 16:15 (9 hours ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
In looking at the EVE Online 2025 roadmap I suppose the critical question is whether or not a completely predictable roadmap is a good th...
» A Tale of Three Dusts
01/30/25 08:22 (17 hours ago) from Tish Tosh Tesh
The video game industry is undergoing some dysfunction and disrepair of late. Despite Chinese games like Black Myth: Wukong selling well,...
» I'll Tell You When I get There...
01/29/25 18:42 (1 day ago) from Inventory Full
I'm sitting here writing this as I wait for DCUO to patch. I want to log in and check out the new " narrative-focused " update, Light and...
» Enshrouded Adds Text Chat and More with the Pact of the Flame Update
01/29/25 16:15 (1 day ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
Yes, I put text chat in the headline, if only because it seemed like such an odd omission back when we picked up the game after the big u...
» LOTRO: Secret towns and surprising horror
01/29/25 14:00 (1 day ago) from Bio Break
Umbari questing continues as it has been for a while — smooth, interesting, and full of fresh content. I’m not getting hung u...
» Malifaux: Booty & Plunder
01/29/25 14:00 (1 day ago) from Chasing Dings!
Rasputina and her crew are painted and ready for "primed" time in her first serious match-up. Related posts: Malifaux: The Littlest Cap&#...
» The Sims: The Second Coming
01/28/25 18:39 (2 days ago) from Bio Break
I should make wistful wishes more often. You won’t believe me, but a little over a week ago I was getting all misty-eyed over the S...
» Stars Reach – Mining, Refining, and Kickstarter Followers
01/28/25 16:15 (2 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
Need more planets to devastate -B1ackWu1f, Stars Reach Discord Server Too true mate, too true. One of the big announcements over the last...
» Darth Malgus Conquest News - Jan 28th 2025
01/28/25 12:52 (2 days ago) from Going Commando | A SWTOR Fan Blog
» Stars On Saturday Night
01/27/25 17:10 (3 days ago) from Inventory Full
Here's another post about the Stars Reach pre-alpha, which is ongoing, although with the Kickstarter close to revealing its secrets, this...
» Reviewing 2024 Destruction in EVE Online – The Year of the Fake Kill Mail
01/27/25 16:15 (3 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
I did it last year so I am going to do it again this year. I have concatenated the twelve monthly killdump.csv files from the Monthly Ec...
» Those Who Rule released!
01/27/25 15:57 (3 days ago) from Chasing Dings!
It's finally live! Related posts: Those Who Rule: new demo! Our STAR*VADERS! Those Who Rule: Chapter 1
» Fallout 76: Maniacal robots and kitten heads
01/27/25 14:00 (3 days ago) from Bio Break
To get back in the habit of playing a different “free agent” game very week, I asked my friend Chris to choose a title for me...
» Blaugust Reviews – Humble Choice January 2025 Edition
01/27/25 14:00 (3 days ago) from Nerd Girl Thoughts
It’s time again for the quick summary of the January 2025 Humble Choice Bundle. Every month, when the bundle releases, a bunch of us get ...
» I Know What I Did Last Weekend
01/27/25 13:31 (3 days ago) from Chasing Dings!
Some updates on games and game-related dinguses from this past weekend... Related posts: I Know What I Did Last Weekend Palworld, Vandal ...
» Microblogging Journal through 1/27/2025
01/27/25 08:00 (3 days ago) from Endgame Viable
Dispatches from @ultrviolet@gts.endgameviable.com : Tuesday 01/14 17:06 # I, for one, am fed up with all this cold weather during winter....
» Ghostrunner II and Hot Wheels Unleashed
01/27/25 05:26 (3 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» I Got Keystone Hero, So I Have More Thoughts About The War Within’s First Mythic Plus Season
01/26/25 20:34 (4 days ago) from Kaylriene
This week, I went back to start cleaning up the remaining goals I had for The War Within’s first season of content. That involved f...
» Today Is a Good Day to Die
01/26/25 18:25 (4 days ago) from Blog - Contains Moderate Peril
Star Trek Online is currently running its yearly Klingon Recruitment Event for PC players. Characters created from January 21st to Februa...
» TAGN Fantasy Critic League 2025 Week 3 Bids and Updates
01/26/25 16:15 (4 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
I am not going to write a post about the league every single week. At least I don’t think I will. I suspect there will be weeks w...
» Deadpool & Wolverine and Dune: Part 2
01/26/25 07:20 (4 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» Holiday Binge Watch Review
01/25/25 16:15 (5 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
Over the holidays Roku had a subscription sale, as did a few other streaming channels, some of them even offering up discounts on the ad ...
» AI is going to steal my job — and I couldn’t be happier
01/25/25 14:00 (5 days ago) from Chasing Dings!
Taking an idea to reality takes just minutes, even if you don't know one thing about programming. It's a new world. Related posts: HeroQu...
» And So The Story Goes
01/25/25 13:33 (5 days ago) from Inventory Full
I took a break from Scars of Destruction in EverQuest II yesterday so I could carry on with the Rinascita storyline in Wuthering Waves . ...
» Playing MMOs on a Second Monitor
01/24/25 22:10 (6 days ago) from Blog - Contains Moderate Peril
I have two monitors on my desk. The first (which is the primary monitor as far as my PC is concerned), is on the left and the second is o...
» Total Annihilation: A 2025 Return to a Retro RTS Classic
01/24/25 16:15 (6 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
First I was writing about TorilMUD adding new features, now I am writing about one of the big 90s RTS titles, Total Annihilation. I feel...
» Picking At Scars And Other Questionable Activities
01/24/25 15:13 (6 days ago) from Inventory Full
I've written a lot of long posts this week so I'm going to try and keep this one really short. Place your bets now... Should be easy enou...
» World of Warcraft: Revenge of the Techno Lock!
01/24/25 14:00 (6 days ago) from Bio Break
Now that we’re in the new year, it’s always a good time for a bit of welcome change to gaming routines. So in addition to my ...
» All the Way to the Top
01/24/25 13:00 (6 days ago) from Many Welps
I just finished reading Lost Man’s Lane by Scott Carson. That’s not the topic of today’s post but it’s a good boo...
» Video Game Specifications
01/23/25 21:24 (7 days ago) from Blog - Contains Moderate Peril
Video game specifications are the hardware and software requirements for running a game. These specifications include the amount of RAM, ...
» The Drugs Don't Work
01/23/25 13:37 (7 days ago) from Inventory Full
Remember when I said I was working on a music post that was going to be all songs about drugs? Well, that's not going to happen. I starte...
» The Best And Worst Dynamic Encounters on Tatooine
01/22/25 23:33 (8 days ago) from Going Commando | A SWTOR Fan Blog
» Jentryfication
01/22/25 16:06 (8 days ago) from Inventory Full
Yesterday, I wrote a rave review about a video game. Today, I'm writing one about a TV show. I do occasionally worry I'm turning into tha...
» LOTRO: Making plans for the new 64-bit servers
01/22/25 14:00 (8 days ago) from Bio Break
Now that we have a whole lot more details about the upcoming new LOTRO servers and how SSG is going to handle character transfers, you ca...
» Stardew Valley: the Board Game and Mysterium
01/22/25 11:19 (8 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» Addendum – Splat Maps and Megascans
01/22/25 02:22 (8 days ago) from Scopique
I went back and recreated the shader tree for the canyon, and recorded the node layout for posterity.
» Getting There – Rendering with Splat Maps and Megascans
01/21/25 21:18 (9 days ago) from Scopique
I found a way to use better textures on terrains exported from World Creator and while the renders aren't perfect, they're getting closer.
» Air Fryers and Modern Cooking
01/21/25 16:01 (9 days ago) from Blog - Contains Moderate Peril
In October 2023, we bought an air fryer. Specifically the Ninja Foodi Max which was on special offer on QVC UK. We were intrigued by the ...
» Night And The City - The Cloudpunk Review
01/21/25 16:00 (9 days ago) from Inventory Full
Last night I finished Cloudpunk . According to Steam it took me a little over eleven hours, which feels about right. It's one of the best...
» FANTASIAN Neo Dimension (Part 1)
01/21/25 13:48 (9 days ago) from Chasing Dings!
A throwback to the classic JRPGs set in handcrafted dioramas, Fantasian Neo Dimension is a love letter to the Final Fantasy series. Relat...
» Blizzard Did It – They Made Me Like Plunderstorm
01/21/25 02:59 (9 days ago) from Kaylriene
Last week, Blizzard returned to retail WoW with the battle royale mini-mode Plunderstorm, enabling it for a monthlong window during the d...
» Red Sparrow Outside the Wire
01/20/25 20:57 (10 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» Inauguration Day 2025
01/20/25 19:30 (10 days ago) from Endgame Viable
We should normalize talking about politics again. Preferably in a normal, non-shouty way, outside of managed platforms with algorithms. I...
» Names From The Past, Names For The Future
01/20/25 15:18 (10 days ago) from Inventory Full
Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, otherwise known as the 1980s, I used to write an opinion column for the comics fanzine ...
» WoW Classic: Eyepatches make for trustworthy contacts
01/20/25 14:00 (10 days ago) from Bio Break
Why play WoW Classic? There are many answers to that, but one that comes to mind today is “simplicity.” This is, for the most...
» They Came to a City (1944)
01/19/25 23:14 (11 days ago) from Blog - Contains Moderate Peril
Humanity struggling to survive a dystopian future has been a mainstay of pop culture for several hundred years. They Came to a City, made...
» Washington Is Going To The NFC Championship Game
01/19/25 18:24 (11 days ago) from Endgame Viable
I just want to take a moment here and acknowledge what we’re all thinking on this three-day weekend. We now live in a world where W...
» Good Renders – Do I Have the Stamina for This?
01/19/25 17:30 (11 days ago) from Scopique
I'm learning that it's a lot of work to make a render look this poor.
» Bio Break Mix Tape: Garbage, A’me Lorain, and more!
01/19/25 14:00 (11 days ago) from Bio Break
It’s the start of the week, so why not start it off right with some great tunes? Enjoy your latest Bio Break Mix Tape, a random collectio...
That’s very close to how I like to play and how I evaluate whether a game is “good” or not. I’d also add building, which I find almost dangerously addictive – I can lose whole evenings just trying to get a roof put up. It hardly counts as dynamic gameplay but I find it both compulsive and relaxing, which is a great combination.
I think you’re going to find Nightingale pretty enjoyable. It’s an excellent exploring game although I suspect the re-use of assets might come into play after a while. Early Access though, so if it’s successful they’ll no doubt add more biomes and architecture. Palworld is decent to explore as well but the draw there is more seeing the various weird life-forms than the scenery, which is nice enough but hardly thrilling to discover.
I always think I like building and when it comes to throwing together a basic structure I do but when it comes time to make it look nice and stuff, my imagination always deserts me! Which is really disappointing. I have a vivid imagination when I was younger but somehow managed to lose it. I should probably commit to noodling around with things that take imagination just to try to build it back up!
In terms of some of those games you liked despite the general sentiment, might it have something to do with staying apart from the wider discourse about those games, particularly in the lead up to their launch?
Possibly not, as clearly you’re aware that the overwhelming (in some cases) negative sentiment is there, but still I wonder.
While making no statement on whether I think Skull & Bones is any good or not for the moment, I do think a lot of hate bandwagoning happened after the Ubisoft CEO made the very ill-advised comment that he considered S&B to be an ‘AAAA’ (Quadruple-A) game, and generally stuck the game’s neck out higher than the crowd.
Nature then took it’s course with everyone being awl, ‘We’re not having a bar of that’ and going out to chop it off.
That said; my own impressions have been less than stellar. I don’t think it’s… bad… exactly. But it is extremely, aggressively, average. So if you then combine that fact with the CEO commentary, and it *does* leave a bit of a sour taste.
Similar sorts of stories exist for the other games too, save maybe for Anthem — but then on that one, I’m with you. I was very sad when EA finally came down with the decision *not* to go ahead with Anthem NEXT/2.0. There is no question the game had some pretty serious faults, but for all that, the foundation of the gameplay that dev team managed to whip together in the last 12 or so months of development was just… FUN…
*sigh*
Sorry, I don’t know why wordpress is so bad about notifying me of new comments. I got a notification of your “like” but not of your comment.
Anyway, belated response:
“I do think a lot of hate bandwagoning happened after the Ubisoft CEO made the very ill-advised comment that he considered S&B to be an ‘AAAA’ (Quadruple-A) game, and generally stuck the game’s neck out higher than the crowd.”
So that’s like another whole post. I don’t know where these gamers work, but I know the CEO of my company has zero to do with any of the actual work being done. So if I design a website and the CEO says “We have a website that is the best site that has ever been created!” and then people start shitting on my design in response to the audacity of his bone-headed comment, even though I never said a thing about it… that feels pretty rotten. Yes, Ubisoft’s CEO says a lot of idiotic things but I don’t hold his comments against the work of the game designers/developers. I honestly don’t understand how what some person says about a game impacts how enjoyable a game is or isn’t.