General Video Game Thread

dvoraen

Recently finished FF7:REBIRTH for PC.

15/10 OST.

Can’t say more because don’t want to spoil anyone.

dvoraen

I need to know what everyone who has finished Clair Obscur — Expedition 33 felt about the story right meow.

(No spoilers. FEELINGS ONLY.)

I had a lot.

33/10 story.

Pavel

@dvoraen said in General Video Game Thread:

I need to know what everyone who has finished Clair Obscur — Expedition 33 felt about the story right meow.

Two thoughts:

Jesus Fucking Christ

and

Jennifer English needs a happy character please.

Tori

Finally finished Veilguard and man. MAN. I super enjoyed it.

Once the credits were rolling, I was thinking how I can’t imagine doing the game again. There were so many games that I played through a handful of times - both KOTORs, Dragon Age I & II. I mean like fired up DAII last year while waiting for new games to come out.

Lately, I can’t bring myself to do the newer games a second time though. Loooved Greedfall, but wouldn’t play it again. Maybe they’re too big? Or maybe I got all I needed out of it? I don’t know. Just a random thought post-game.

Roz

@dvoraen said in General Video Game Thread:

I need to know what everyone who has finished Clair Obscur — Expedition 33 felt about the story right meow.

(No spoilers. FEELINGS ONLY.)

Just finished tonight. It was like a gut punch.

KarmaBum

@dvoraen TY for posting this recommendation. I was on the fence about paying for a new game, but you tipped the scales and I bought it a few days ago.

I have not finished it. I am going to!!

But I was playing last night, having a grand time. The gameplay is fun, the scenery is gorgeous, the characters and voice acting are spot on, the universe is intriguing. I’m super loving this! I’ve hit my stride! Each party member has a fun mechanic, I love the synergy of the fight mechanics and how I customized my team to work together and then–

I had to take a wee break after an emotional gut-punch (I’m sure y’all can guess~).

Will tap back in once I get to the end - which, to be clear, the beautifully sad story has only made me more afraid and excited to uncover. I hope it keeps being this devastating.

Jennkryst

If people have left Elite Dangerous and alhave been considering looking back in, there is currently a trade war going on with 55x markup of certain items. Also depending on how long you’ve been gone, Thargoid war is over (for now) and we have hot rod boosting through FTL. Also space legs/walking around (just not inside your own ship, for some reason).

bear_necessities

@KarmaBum said in General Video Game Thread:

@dvoraen TY for posting this recommendation. I was on the fence about paying for a new game, but you tipped the scales and I bought it a few days ago.

I have not finished it. I am going to!!

But I was playing last night, having a grand time. The gameplay is fun, the scenery is gorgeous, the characters and voice acting are spot on, the universe is intriguing. I’m super loving this! I’ve hit my stride! Each party member has a fun mechanic, I love the synergy of the fight mechanics and how I customized my team to work together and then–

I had to take a wee break after an emotional gut-punch (I’m sure y’all can guess~).

Will tap back in once I get to the end - which, to be clear, the beautifully sad story has only made me more afraid and excited to uncover. I hope it keeps being this devastating.

So entirely immersed in this world, I have cried and laughed and cried and cried, and I just got to that same emotional gut-punch and had to take a break but WANT TO PLAY AGAIN SO BAD!!!

I usually spoil myself because I hate surprises and spoilers don’t really ruin the experience for me, but I am doing everything I can not to spoil myself this time around and it’s slowly killing me. I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING lol

Prototart

citizen sleeper and citizen sleeper 2 are both amazing

Pyrephox

@Prototart said in General Video Game Thread:

citizen sleeper and citizen sleeper 2 are both amazing

A thousand times this. Beautiful games - and nicely bitesized, too.

bear_necessities

@dvoraen said in General Video Game Thread:

I need to know what everyone who has finished Clair Obscur — Expedition 33 felt about the story right meow.

(No spoilers. FEELINGS ONLY.)

I had a lot.

33/10 story.

100000000/10 rating.

I’m devastated. This game is going to leave a hole, and I don’t know if there’s another game out there that can fill it right now.

Solstice

I have… thoughts about the ending of Expedition 33.

Spoilers, don’t read if you haven’t beaten it:

First off: Loved the game. That said, the ending! I feel antagonized rather than emotionally gut-punched. I feel as though the game had a narrative-favorite ending, which just makes me wish they’d leaned into it rather than presenting it as an option.

The “A Life to Paint” ending was framed with such quiet malice oozing from it that you’re meant to feel like a jerk for choosing it. You’ve got Verso lit to look old and creaky and drained, and then it goes for the dissonant shot of Maelle’s face paint-splattered and sinister.

By contrast, “A Life to Live” seems to be the ‘correct’ choice, wherein the Dessendres receive their closure, Alicia has her fond memories, Renoir and Aline are healing, and Clea… exists… as a character that definitely exists, and you get the hopeful swell and the fond farewell to the rest of the cast. So like, it feels like the endorsed “true” ending.

It’s all just narratively dissonant, and I think they undercut their own message with both endings.

Didn’t care for that. It’s a lot to ask that the player decide to strip the agency and lives of an entire world’s worth of people simply because their already-dead creator is sad and tired. The rallying cry of the entire game ‘For those who come after’ is discarded in service of ‘sometimes it’s okay to let go’… but I can’t get that to land when it’s literally just a family of people playing god and then abandoning their creations.

…and being real, all of my sympathy for Verso evaporated when he eventually admitted he let Gustav get murked because it would be easier for him to convince Maelle if he wasn’t around. What a piece of work.

A comment I saw put it best - that the “A Life to Paint” ending is the best ending because it restores the canvas, gives Maelle what she wants, and also fucks over the Dessendre family the most, and I’m finding it hard to disagree with that sentiment.

Story: 8/10.
Ending: 3/10
Verso: 0/10
Gustav: 10/10

Anyhow! That’s a lot of words, but with those words said: The game was a solid 9/10, with 10/10 combat, art direction, music, and vibes. Super imaginative and refreshingly weird, and the amount and quality of the music is a triumph. The moments that hit hard hit like a freight train, and I’m going to be thinking about lots of these characters for a long time.

dvoraen

@bear_necessities said in General Video Game Thread:

@dvoraen said in General Video Game Thread:

I need to know what everyone who has finished Clair Obscur — Expedition 33 felt about the story right meow.

(No spoilers. FEELINGS ONLY.)

I had a lot.

33/10 story.

100000000/10 rating.

I’m devastated. This game is going to leave a hole, and I don’t know if there’s another game out there that can fill it right now.

But now you know everything…

…

(I have high expectations for this IP.)

bear_necessities

@Solstice

My thoughts … spoiler if you haven’t finished the game obv.

I initially chose to fight as Maelle because I didn’t think it was right to erase all the other people in the canvas. I didn’t feel any oozing malice from that ending, just the stark reality of what it meant, and once I sat back and thought about it, I changed my mind. Verso wanted to die, she’d let everyone else go but couldn’t let him go, and instead she forced him to grow old in a life he did not want, while she painted everyone else’s perfect happy ending. We also know Maelle isn’t the painter that real Verso was - so when she repainted the expeditioners, were they really the ‘same’, or were they just versions as she remembered them? Did they actually have agency in the end, or were they just sims living out Maelle’s grief-stricken fantasy life? And I think that the ‘sinister’ face of Maelle’s you saw wasn’t really sinister … it was her facing the grim reality that her fantasy didn’t make her happy, either.

‘For those who come after’ is about the people left behind. It’s about Maelle, Clea, Aline and Renoir. I think erasing the canvas as Verso had painted it would have been wrong, but the canvas already wasn’t what Verso had made - it was destroyed by the family’s grief. They had taken what he left for them, a beautiful reminder of life and love and happiness, and had ruined it. And I don’t think the people in the painting had any agency in the end, certainly not as Maelle had repainted them. I don’t think she’s meant to be depicted as evil, but I do think the message of the game is about coming after and not living with ghosts. And I don’t think it’s about “sometimes it’s okay to let go” but … you still have to live, even when the person you love is gone.

And I thought about it as someone who lost her father a few years ago, and I wondered about the choices I would’ve made if I could live in a world where he was still alive, and there’s still a big part of me wrapped in grief that would’ve made Maelle’s choice. But there’s also a part of me that knows that living in a fantasy world where my dad’s still here wouldn’t be real, and living in a delusion doesn’t help anyone, and it’s not that I need to MOVE ON … but I still need to live, and remember him as he was and had been, versus continuing his life in a way I would’ve envisioned it.

Anyway, just my thoughts. I think the endings could be interpreted in so many ways, and for that I give it a 100/10, and I’m going to wrap here because I am sad again.