Yeah, Sea of Stars demo I played on Switch and I was meh on it. But then I played the demo on PS5 and the difficulty felt better and I had a much better impression. Baldur's Gate 3 I played on PS5 launch, but I quickly felt like I wasn't ready. I'm more used to simpler RPGs so it was feeling kinda overwhelming. Maybe I'll be ready for it next year.
True. That why I felt I enjoyed BotW way more than I did TotK. When I played BotW I was in dire need of a zen kinda game, relaxing in nature. TotK felt meh to me because I didnt get the same zen feeling despite being almost 1:1 in terms of world design. That or the novelty of BotW just fell off
I problem i see here is that you go into series searching another game, you go into fallout searching TES, go into Dragon age, searching mass effect. You have a problem with pre conceive notions and expectations
Funny thing is the more aware you are the less fun you have. Games are a place for imagination not logic and it's easy to see how one overtakes the other as we get older. This video is something I enjoy, dissecting games, but when you start to dissect games you have to try to enjoy them in a new way...you could say this video is actively making games less fun but for the purpose of knowledge.
Who hasn't got that Problem with misguided Notions & Expectations though? If I take a Look at the current Gaming Audiences all over the Globe, I see Billions of People having those exact Issues going on. Just take the whole Ubisoft & AC Bashing, that is happening for way to long now. People think, they're the Kings of Gaming Culture and that Developers & Publishers are obligated to obey to the Audience's Demands. But that's not how This works. Developers & Publishers are no Slaves to the Public and all that Audiences can do, is to stop preordering/buying/playing the Games from Developers/Publishers, they don't like anymore because of their Business Decisions or maybe even Repetitive or Lazy Game Design. Of course, it's completely legitimate to criticise Developers/Publishers for their Products and Business Models/Decisions as well as their Treatment for their Workers. Don't get me wrong here. I only say, that it's not very smart to expect any Change from them just because You're making a lot of Noise about their Issues on the Internet. Those big Developers/Publichers/Companies don't even care about some Hundrets of Thousands of Hypermoralists constantly complaining about their Products, as long as their Income keeps being safed. To them, Sales are the One and ONLY Argument, that still counts. And that's where we should be focussing on. Don't try to change the stubborn Mountain just because You're to stubborn to leave it alone.
Best way to describe red dead 2 is, most games are playable movies but red dead 2 is a playable novel. You gotta slowly go page by page and it’s hard a first but once you finish it, you’ll wish there was more
@@Hidjcs It depends on which parts of the game you find tedious. Will the horse riding, hunting, fishing, or escorting get better? No. The core game mechanics never change, such as feeding your horse or eating, but the story definitely picks up pace with time. And yes, some of the missions can be a little janky, but there definitely will be a lot more gun fights and character development as you progress throughout the story. If I had to pick a spot, the action really starts happening past the point of reaching Saint Denise. Mind that some of the missions can be a real slog, but the game's strength is exploration and seeing how the world changes with your intervention or lack of it. You build relationships with random npcs across the world over time and it has a real impact at the end once you put it all together. Each chapter introduces change to the world, so it can be fun to watch that change happen. Examples such as homes being built, railroads built, giving advice to a young man about his lovelife and seeing the consequences. There are so many little details in the game that made me want to explore obscure locations just to find what is there. The game is full of easter eggs and little secrets that keep it fun and the experience for each area different. The sense of discovery is worth it for me, but it does take patience and it really depends on the person.
39:56 The idea that the lore/story is so obscure that you can make up your own story can be a good or bad thing in my opinion. The original idea behind FromSoftware’s storytelling was that it was obscure and left pieces of the story missing so that the player could be the one to make their own story. I”ve read that in his childhood Miyazaki read English fantasy novels, and because his English wasn’t that great he had to fill in the parts of the story that he didn’t understand, which ended up making each story partly the author’s but also partly his. This was something that he wanted to implement in his games so that each player could make their own version of the story and make it make sense. I’ve realized that I enjoy the story of these games a bit less the more I learn about them because then the story becomes less personal to my own character. Either way, great video!
Ya its a fine line for sure because I do love mysteries and coming up with our own ideas but like you said the more that is unraveled it just feels so disjointed and random. Thanks for watching!
It's like in the metal community, metalheads have a tendency to shit on anything labelled as an all-time great - but then once they listen to it, they change their tune (no pun intended). Friend has his arms crossed and a scowl for the entirety of Master of Puppets, then two weeks later he told me he had it on repeat for an hour.
I thought i was the only one that thought that with bg3. But thats a huge reason why i keep going back to bg 1 n 2 or pillars of eternity. Everything feels more serious and real instead of a theatre harem high fantasy sims.
I played the trilogy on the LE launch after years of hearing all the hype of ME2. Never been more bored of a game, didn't even take notice of the "Suicide Mission" until characters on ME 3 start talking about. After the first game Mass Effect 2 feels like a cheap spinoff.
It felt a little bit too side tracked and the features that they streamlined really didn't need to be. Bit sad, but thankfully they did successfully streamline for the most part in ME3.
The major fumble at the end if 3 sours the whole experience for me. Bioware didn't just drop the ball they spiked it on the 1 yardline, then were surprised when fans were angry. I'm glad others don't have that issue and can just enjoy the game.
I remembered the first Fable game as one of the best I've ever played when I was young. But after replaying it later in life I realised that it's actually a very comical, almost a parody trying to tell a serious story and it didn't grip me the same way like before
Despite it's Problems, pansexual is Just the best choice for Party members, except maybe If the Sexuality is a Specific part of a Characters Arc. For a Character Like laezel for example it wouldn't add anything. For the lore in bg3...I think its Just bc its dnd. Everyone kinda already knows dnd and how it Work. So glad they Go Back to their own IP's again where they can do what they want
You’ve got to remember that I’m bg3 the characters all think they’re going to die initally. It makes sense for a group of attractive people all on the verge of death to act on impulses, and for the emperor, it was a ploy to continue his manipulation. Also, characters like astarion are trying to gain your trust, laezels race doesn’t see intimacy in that view, and gallon is straight up a horn dog.
Ya definitely I think there are some good justifications but makes it feel a little too “gamey” for me. I tend to be hard to please with relationships in games though I’m much more of a world-building and story kinda guy
@@FranklyGaming It IS a Game, Dude. C'mon...it's SUPPOSED TO BE "GAMEY"!!! I mean, this whole Game's Mechanics and Interactions are based on the Dungeons and Dragons 5e Ruleset and if You've ever played D&D 5e, You would've known, from where that's coming and why it is the Way it is. Also, This is not even a Secret. In Fact, it's quite common knowledge, that You encounter almost IMMEDIATELY as soon as You start building up some general Interest for BG3. 😅🤔🤨
@@FranklyGaming To be fair though: It's completely understandable, if Somebody isn't really interested in D&D and it's Mechanics and why they matter so much for BG3. That's a very Special Interest Topic, tbh. 😆✌
It's really nice to watch a video about games that is really honest and reflective. There are SO many out there that are just the same repeating how fantastic a game is just because everyone kinda got to a kind of silent agreement that you are allowed to love this game, totally ignoring the not so great things about the game. Playing a game should be about how you feel about it and not a matter of what is considered "good" or "bad" and saying you dislike (or like) a game that is considered "good" or "bad" is how it should be without community hate or dislike.
I kept seeing everyone talk about how great Nier is, but when I first played it i absolutely dreaded. I love platinum game, but for some reason this game didn’t click. Few days ago I decided to try it again…it has been one of my favorite games Ive played.
I personally love Death Stranding for what it is, and I have quite a lot to say about it. I don't know if anyone will be bothered to read it, but buckle up. I went into Death Stranding when it came to PC knowing that I'll either get bored of the game and I'll just finish it as quickly as possible, or I would either love it and I wouldn't want it to end. Death Stranding is an experimental mishmash of smish mash and shmoo, if you know what I'm saying, because you spend four hours discovering new outposts, building to them, finding the best route, setting up your course, you build some roads, you deliver some packages, you deliver some more packages, and then some more; you level up your stuff, and by that I mean you unlock new gear, and you become a better delivery man, and then you get some story, and that's what wonderful is that I was doing this fairly monotonous repetitive gameplay, and I wasn't bored by it, you know I very much enjoyed it, and I wouldn't say I didn't have streams in the backround, but I was like hmm 2 hours ago they told me about this, I wonder how that's gonna factor into what happens next, and then eventually you get sucked into a tornado, and now you've got two hours of different gameplay going on and it's a big old experimental mishmash and that is not for everyone. Again, I don't think that's entirely fair though, because the baseline is in exploration, and you need to have the patience and the interest in doing that, and the intrigue in the world. The problem is Death Stranding is more than just one thing and I think the term is more than sum of its parts, more than just the delivery boy, more than just the tornado, more than just people talking and the very long cutscenes, is the world, and there's story, and that all goes in together, and the game is unapologetic about what it wants to do. The story comes at you very fast, and when you're not dealing with a story you have other things to do, and those other things do mean that you will have to care about the world and care about doing things for example five starring your facilities; it's difficult because you have to deliver a lot of packages, but it allows you to streamline and become a better porter and if that sounds stupid then maybe it's not the game for you, but I really adored that. It's made by Hideo Kojima, and the man is known for depth and having an extreme full on nature in his games, in the world, in the characters, in the gameplay, like an example on the top of my head is metal gear solid phantom pain where if you shoot people in the head they start wearing helmets, if you constantly hide in boxes, the soldiers will begin shooting the boxes before they even get near them, and if you don't shower you will get flies from the blood and the mud and the enemies will find you easily. And it's things like that, that you can find in Death Stranding, and even more so now that the game is about character, world connectivity, and that greater universe, you get these incredible character moments, every single character you come across from the main cast to the smaller NPCs have these amazing backstories and you can get lost in them, and honestly some of them you don't care about, and some of them are cool. The first ones you find is a junk dealer and he lost his girlfriend and turns out his girlfriend is very close, but her mum convinced her that the boyfriend had died, and you bring them together, and they get married, and it's like a small character moment that has no relevance to the major story, but you did that, you connected them and now every time you come back they are together and it's very cute, and that's the smaller characters.
Death Stranding unlocked memories of kid me during road trips and reminded me of how special they felt. In fact after finishing the game for the first time last year, I bought a cruiser motorcycle a few months later to go on road trips again
I recall the time when I acquired Fallout 3. It took me a while to become engrossed in the game, but after a few hours, I was captivated by both the game and the series as a whole. I still need to complete New Vegas and invest more time into Fallout 76.
@@FranklyGaming As someone said above, the appreciation of a game can really depend on the moment at which we play, our mindset etc. During my first 4-5 hours on Outer Wilds a few years ago, I was not too hooked by the game, and I put it aside. Then I launched it again a few months later and I do not know what had changed but I was absorbed and it became my favorite game. Have you tried the DLC ? Because if you have now understood the game better, maybe you will appreciate it from the first time, it is really worth it
I think its Larian's philosophy of player-first mentality. They changed Wyll entirely, they made companions far less likely to abandon you due to negative decisions you make, I believe they made Halsin more of a sexpest in the final release, etc. All to placate demands made in EA among other bugfixes, suggestions, and fine-tuning within gameplay mechanics. It's the dual-sword of EA. I do personally prefer the more nuanced 2077 writing style but their EA was the entire 3-4 yrs before Phantom Liberty hehe. Going back to the Cyberpunk comparison, I think there were a lot of times I simply forgot that V was going to die soon because the progression of the biochip working to rewrite your personality was gated based on main story quest progression rather than via sleeping or some other process that accounted for the progression of in-game time. I always thought the worm and the chip are similar in that regard where if you pressure the player too much to complete the main story rather than go at their own pace with side-objectives, they might mentally combust and opt out of the game altogether. I thought those two motivations were very similar to one another in why they were implemented like that.
I'm pretty sure that if CDPR had added a clock to the game, I'd have noted out before getting to meet Panam. That kind mechanic sucks the fun out of a game for me at any rate. I know it isn't that way for everyone, and that's the cool part of the hobby.
too bad they're so 'player-first mentality' they didn't think about making the game actually fun. Both BG3 and D:OS2 are mind-numbingly boring with pitfalls that would make any sane person quit. Like making the difficulty labelled as 'easiest' actually more difficult than the 'harder' difficulties (though atleast Larian fixed it in BG3 by making a custom difficulty option.) or by making retardedly difficult boss-fights you HAVE to cheese to get past. Like the first Spectator fight in the UD or the final fight in the game. (Though that has abit more leeway since it is the final fight but still stupid how difficult it is on the truly easiest difficulty.)
@@TheVincenzoGaming What are you talking about? The easy difficulty is definitely easier than the harder ones. (I don't know how you came to that conclusion.) The Spectator is optional and you can fight him just before leaving Act 2 if you want. As for the final fight, you have literally the strongest gear there is in the game. If you've been doing side content, you have like 20 summons. You have an insane amount of potions and spell scrolls to help you out. If your build isn't good, you can switch it at camp. I can't even think of a fight that would be "retardedly difficult" outside of honor mode. The only one that comes to mind is the weird possessed fight on Bloodmoon Island in D:OS2, though that one was optional as well.
Mass Effect 2 does the most heavylifting in terms of worldbuilding out of the trilogy. Sure the first game provides the foundation but most of it arent even shown in the game. Most of the lore are either written in the codex or told by the squadmates. Meanwhile ME2 allows you visit them instead of just hearing about them like Tuchanka, Quarian Fleet, or Omega and they do this through the companion quests. ME 2 shows how big the whole galaxy truly is by showing the people living inside them and whats happening to them like the asari and justicar code, the biotic experiment on human kids, or the genophage and its intricacies between salarian and krogan and many others. Saving each race in ME3 wouldnt have much impact if ME2 doesnt exist since ME2 gives players the chance to explore the universe and its people while both ME1 and ME3 just focus on the main threat. Also please stop with the Cyberpunk glazing, somehow you still manage to insert Cyberpunk in all your arguments no matter the topic which suggest that youre just not creative enough. The title says games you were wrong about but the whole ME2 sections contradicts the whole video and its basically just you saying its "the worst in the trilogy" and "Cyberpunk is better"
Yeah the inclusion of ME2 is pretty silly. Him playing it as "i changed my mind from the first time i played it as a kid" or whatever doesn't really work given that anyone who's watched his videos has heard him call ME2 boring or the worst of the trilogy about 15 times already
Baldur's Gate 3 has the same problem as Fallout 4 and Witcher 3. All of those games get lost in the trivialities of their world compared to the urgency that is imposed on you at the beginning.
Yeah, the Mass Effect 2 thing is a hot take, though I respect your opinion. I actually did exactly what you suggested very recently: I played through the entirety of Cyberpunk and then played through the entirety of Mass Effect for the umpteenth time. While I still think the Cyberpunk characters were incredibly well done, they still don't hold a candle to the cast of Mass Effect 2. I loved the Ocean's Eleven-esque vibe of the story and how each of the characters (with one or two exceptions) feels like a fully fleshed out person with their own motivations and reasons for joining your crew. I feel like each game in the series is trying to tell a different type of story, all while focusing on a singular cast of characters. Mass Effect 1 is sort of a sci fi detective noir story, uncovering the truth behind a bad man doing bad things. Mass Effect 3 is a war story, exploring the toll a war can take on people and dealing with concepts of loss, defeat, and dwindling morale. Mass Effect 2 is a heist story and also serves as an anthology. As you mentioned, it IS a collection of seemingly disconnected short stories, but that is it's strength, not it's weakness. This is supposed to be a living breathing galaxy with millions of life forms living their lives and, as Shepard, you get to jump into the lives of a few and pull them into your conflict while exploring theirs. You get a glimpse of what it's like to be a Drell Assassin seeking atonement, or a Salarian Scientist curing the poor in the armpit of the galaxy, or an Asari Justicar roaming the galaxy and righting wrongs. Because of the way that Mass Effect 2 is told, we get far more world building because we get to see far more of the galaxy and what it's like than we get to see in any of the other games. We get to see what the prison system is like in a massive diverse galaxy like this. We get to see the culture, politics, and collective racial PTSD of the Flotilla. We get to see decency buried in a seedy underworld, and blatant criminality in the upper echelons of society. We get to see the pride and shame of the Krogan first hand, not by being told by an NPC, but by going there and interacting with it directly. Anthology stories like this can be jarring, but, much like the Witcher book, "The Last Wish", if you put in the time, you can usually find that, by the end, you have a much more broad understanding of the world and characters involved. Anyway, just my two cents. Just found your channel today and really enjoy your content.
The trilogy itself should be regarded as a whole. It's one of my favorite games of all time. It's one of the most interconnected videogame series after all...
Skyrim is a weird game for me. When it released i knew it was awesome and had fun with it. Never really progressed far in the story it was just the type of game to play like gta for me. Run around and explore. I recently tried to actually play through the game and after 10 hours i just couldnt. I got bored and then got vampirism and stopped
As someone who is playing Cyberpunk 2077 right now, has already played the ME trilogy twice in 2013, AND recently bought the remastered trilogy. I'll get back with the answer to your question in a few months (hopefully).
I am replaying the ME trillogy right now and have similar thoughts about the second installment. It's still a very good game overall but lackluster compared to the first one. The worldbuilding in ME1 alongside the story, the music and overall atmosphere is top notch. The combat didn't feel bad tbh maybe because I'm playing the remaster. It actually felt pretty good despite jank. ME2 feels...limited, compartmentalized and focuses on the things that aren't the series's main strenghts. And as you said, the characters aren't that great with few exceptions. Still having a good itme. It's a great game by all means.
Ya I truly feel playing me2 right after playing me1 for the first time is the best way to see why it is the worst in the trilogy, I actually like the 3rd one a lot too
Yes, it's typically the kind of lore and stories that some players find good because "it's too mysterious and cryptic so it's too cool blah blah blah", but if you connect everything you realize that it has no interest. It's just the "mysterious" side that makes some players fantasize but damn... it really sucks
ME1 was made for the PC and it shows. It was an RPG with shooter elements. There was rich skill building and the weapons and armor system. ME2 was just a watered down brainless console controller shooter with waist high walls like Gears of Snore and some vague rpg elements. So much potential pissed away to cater to the lowest common denominator. If the person reading this prefers ME2 over ME1, you are everything wrong with gaming.
I get a lot of criticisms against the From Software Souls titles, but there's very few games that make you feel like an archaeologist trying to piece together the story of past civilizations like they do. So I have a problem with people arguing against it just because they don't enjoy it, we should be celebrating all the unique ways developers are telling stories in this medium.
Now try and play Dragon Age: Inquisition and romance Solas. Yes, even if you're a straight guy and that would mean having to play an elf woman up until the end of the Trespasser DLC. Believe me, you'll thank me later. Because if lore interests you, and you like the drama and incredible acting, you'll be served. It changes that game a lot more than what you'd expect, and for a lot of us it's also the best canon going in into Veilguard because of the potential (remember that you'll create the Inquisitor in character creation at the beginning).
Playing games you remember hating as a kid, or even just a couple of years, is honestly a great way to find games you love as an adult. I Apparently played Wasteland 3 several years ago, but i stopped after only a couple of hours, i have to this day no earthly idea of why i stopped, cause when i tried it again, i was absolutely smitten by it and finished it in it's entirety, DLCs including.
What an amazing video You showed us that no matter how much you hate a game you can change your mind just by understanding it and dive more in it's lore
BG3, ME2, RDR2, are three of my alltime fav games. Origins is also peak Bioware before they lost their soul. For me now it's Post BG3 era. The Standard is set high for me. And I'm too cynical to Corpo greed and lost of original IP lore. Indy games captures that feeling I had in the 90's and hopefully the OG Bioware and now Larian influence continues on!
Baldur's Gate 2, where relationships felt like they were earned, and took legitimate effort to achieve. You were also not going to have every party member wanting you to bone them for simply asking how their morning was. And that is on top of having great gameplay. Gameplay that is still emulated today. Such as with the recent Pathfinder games. Plus the nostalgia factor is there too, at least for me. Being one of the first crpgs I ever got to play, even if it was a little old by the time I did.
I really didn’t click with The Witcher 3 when I first played it... I stopped after a few hours. I went back years later and absolutely fell in love with the game. P.S., in my opinion, ME2 is the greatest game of all time. P.P.S… recently got the platinum for Disco Elysium. Really enjoyed the game… but I had to fast forward Measurehead’s dialogue, it just went on forever!
I definitely had the opposite experience with death stranding and elden ring. Elden ring I could play over 5-10 times but I wouldn't want to touch death stranding again even though I enjoyed it.
I felt that ME1 was a good RPG with janky shooting, that ME2 was a decent shooter with a bit of RPG and ME3 was the one that got more of a balance. ME1 is still my fave too, even though on replays I dread the stuff in the tank thing (who's name escapes me right now)
I skipped over your outer wilds section because I was told that I should go in blind, but do you think that I should play it? It seems interesting and it’s very highly rated but I dont really get what the hype is about
For me the first game that comes to mind that I changed my mind on was Resi 6. I absolutely loved Resi 4, I played through it many times, on several different consoles. Then there was Resi 5 which was not quite as good as 4, but I could play it with a friend, so overall I really enjoyed the game. So when Resi 6 came out I was super excited for it, but boy was I disappointed. I played through just 1 of the 3 campaigns with a friend. We were so disappointed we had to force ourselves to finish that 1 campaign. But a few years later my friend asked if I wanted to give it another go, so we did. This time around expectations were low and we didn't consider it to be a resident evil game. By the end of completing all the campaigns we actually enjoyed it. In thinking of it as just another Zombie co-op game and not a resident evil game we ended up enjoying it for what it is.
I adore BG3. Especially playing with dozens, hundreds of mods with friends, it's a great experience. It will *_always_* come second to actual D&D. Baldur's Gate 3 is fun to play, but I can't get lost in a conversation for an hour, where myself and friends pretend to be entirely different people in a world we are in the midst of crafting together. And with the rigidity of code comes flaws for story. The biggest gripe I have when it comes to the main plot, and Karlach sharing this, being.... the complete ease at which you can be cured? For some reason, the tadpole is treated as an omnipresent threat, something edited and empowered and warped by a power greater than what even other Mind Flayers understand. It's different than it should be, stronger, and no-one knows why. And to be perfectly honest, i'm still not even sure why myself, after beating the game. Is it something to do with the Emperor's protection? Probably not, it confuses him too. Is it the Netherese Crown the Elder Brain uses? Maybe, but why only us then? There are hundreds of other infected. But at the end of the day, the threat is the same for the tadpoles as it is for Karlach's engine. The tadpole being removed would kill you. Karlach's engine not being removed would burn her out unless she goes back to hell, and no-one on the material plane seems capable of fixing the engine. These problems are both easily solved. If the threat of removing the tadpole is death, then go for it. Stab me in the head, kill the parasite... then use one of the two dozen revivify scrolls I have in my pocket to resurrect me, and let's move on to fixing this whole ordeal. Same with Karlach. I can't get invested in her story as much as I like the character because Gale is carrying around a Scroll of True Resurrection that I know for a fact solves her entire character arc but there's never any point wherein we can use it, even if we know the scroll exists from Gale having died, since we don't even need it to bring him back to life if he does. The True Resurrection spell, for those who may not know, is the highest tier of resurrection magic in official D&D, besides Wish. Where Revivify (in actual rules, not BG3) can only raise the dead within a minute and doesn't restore the loss of organs and such, making it possible to just be too grievously wounded, and Raise Dead has similar limits but a ten day timeframe, True Resurrection is insanely powerful. So long as a creature died within the last century, you bring them back to life. If they were undead, they aren't anymore (also solving Astarion's vampirism but he is capable of handling that already). If they were obliterated into a thousand pieces, who cares, here's a brand new body - all organs restored and all alterations removed. Karlach's entire character conflict means nothing because you can just allow her to die or mercy-kill her then use the scroll to restore her to perfect health without the engine. The tadpole's only threat being dying if it is removed means nothing when half the party has the items and magic needed to immediately revive me, and also I have a God of Death back at camp who will revive me for a literal pittance of gold. I love the game, but if a DM in real life ran a game where I wasn't allowed to use these spells to solve the problems they are made for, I would be, in a word, unhappy. EDIT: Also, never heard the Emperor referred to as a main villain. That was crazy, but I guess not technically wrong. He's only not an antagonist because he realises he can't dominate the brain once he sees it as a Nether Brain, whereupon he's happy to kill it. He's... technically on your side the whole time and doesn't try to get in your way when his goals fall through, even though he's a liar and manipulator. At the same time, I personally always viewed that as more tragic than malevolent - he's a Mind Flayer. Despite what he says, despite what he shows, despite what he believes, this has irrevocably changed who he is and there's no getting back the man he was. He views this neutrally, maybe even uncaringly, but there's that simple lingering sense that if he was as much of himself as he claimed to be, he would himself be horrified by what he has become. He's a mortal warped by basically eldritch forces into a literally-soulless alien, who can no longer comprehend how deeply tragic his conversion was nor comprehend the sheer breadth of just what he lost. He can't comprehend his oldest friend saving him, despairing over his transformation and seeking countless ways to fix it, and eventually deciding that the best way out would be a mercy killing... and most tragically, he can't even comprehend the fact that the man he was in life would have likely agreed with this old friend at every turn. This man did not want to be a Mind Flayer. This man, if he was still in there, would still not want to be a Mind Flayer. But the Emperor is a Mind Flayer, and the man he once was simply does not exist anymore. And sadly, tragically despite what he has done in his new form, he doesn't himself seem capable of comprehending this. I don't view him as a villain despite the cruel things he has done because he's not, at least, the villain of our adventure, since he doesn't get in our way and holds true to his promises to help us, even when the goal shifts from dominating the brain to destroying it. He at no point actually tries to force you to follow the path of a Mind Flayer, just encourages it. He also doesn't turn on you unless you try to free Orpheus, which is in no way necessary to the overarching goal of stopping the Mind Flayer. It's a tragedy of Humanity Lost that makes him haunting to me. EDIT 2: weirdly, Omeluum, who is frankly a glossed over side character, is... way stronger than the Emperor? At least from our context. He's just as pragmatic, but he has an actual friend whom he isn't dominating to get on his side. He also wasn't freed from Elder Brain control, but himself wrested away from it. He has a Ring of Mind-Shielding which is somewhat attributed to his continued independence, but he *didn't have this* when he originally gained freedom, and at no point is he implied to have been saved by someone else. He broke free of his own willpower and spends his time doing research into the Mind Flayers and looking over fungus with his bugbear friend. He's way cooler and I wish there was more of him, but outside of the scenes in Act 2, I haven't seen him. He might show up in other places I have yet to find though.
@@FranklyGaming It was all, "I started this game, got antsy, then quit, then came back and had a good time once I cleared my head about it." And I completely understand. I operate much the same way.
@@FranklyGaming I remember buying Dragon Age Inquisition when it launched on 360 in 2014. For years I talked shit about it. I thought it was a boring slog, and the characters were booty. I finally got around to finishing it just last week, because the veilguard trailer dropped, and I'm still currently playing the shit out of it. I'm enjoying it so much now.
If this video doesn't recant your terrible disco elysium take, it's over. Edit: YOU DID IT!! Still insanely bad takes but i just didnt feel like you gave it a fair shake, which now you did
This has happened to me with both GTA 5 and Ghost of Tsushima. I played both when they came out, but i was pretty much addicted to grinding ranked apex with ghost, and i was alot younger (24) when GTA came out. With GTA, i always saw myself as trevor. He was the stereotypical GTA character. But in going back to it recently, i can see how my perspective has changed. Even if i dont agree with the things michael did, i can understand now. Life doesnt always give you a "good choice" and a "bad choice". Sometimes, you only have bad options. Its just kind of weird to see how much ive changed. With Ghost, i only played like 8 hrs of it before i decided it was boring and went back to apex. Now, sitting down and actually trying to immerse myself in that world, its the most beautiful game ive ever played. Im completely invested in it right now. Please no spoilers. Im about halfway through the game and its incredible. As someone who isnt a stealth gamer, Ghost has prolly the best stealth gameplay ive ever played. Great video homie 👌
Persona 3 is a great example that will hold up for more years to come that includes the remake which tells a very sad story that I and many others who played it will never forget it
You're still wrong about bg3. I've never felt more emotional and on edge in a game. Maybe you should do another playthrough. The romance isn't as quick as everyone thinks. You still have to build relationships.
Pretentious is one of those words that is annoying because it relies on an assumption one makes about the intention of creators one doesn't know. I heard it thrown around a lot here, and I think it's best left out because it is used for shorthand to convey various types of emotions, and it leaves out a lot of opportunity for you to explain why you didn't connect with the material. It's interesting, because I think the entire idea behind the video is to critically engage with your own perceptions and engage the art in good faith. If that is the case, I think it makes more sense to engage the creators of these games in the same way. The story of many Fromsoft games are cryptic, but treat that as a matter of intention and not out of spite. Disco Elysium is very abstract and deals with incredibly complicated statements about the nature of the human condition. If that becomes rather heady, it may have something to do with the many abstract thoughts it is exploring. I think it's cool that you finally understood the grounded and humanizing ways it explores those ideas. I'd point to your love of death stranding as an example of the ludo narrative connection as well as Red Dead Redemption 2. The game play of those games is meant to pair with the narratives and ideas being explored. I am curious, though, about your claims about games being some of the best in the genre or of all time despite your dislike for them. I don't completely understand where this is coming from, and I don't want to make assumptions. Is this coming from a place of enjoying the game play, but not connecting with the story? I want to assure you, this is in good faith. I'm not blaming you for saying this or think that it's a problem. I just find the dissonance of those statement intriguing, and I'm trying to figure out where this is coming from.
Thank you for this video. I personally having similar changes of opinion about the games since replays. I am playing Mass effect Legendary edition and feel like I underestimated and overlooked Mass Effect 1 because beside of main plot point I didn’t remember anything. I feel like I either did not understand or rushed it through so many years ago. I absolutely love it now even though most of side missions become repetitive. What I did not expect is that I feel like Mass effect 2 is not as good as I remember, but mostly from gameplay side. Combat became primitive with lesser abilities and enemies are hitscanners that obliterate your armor and health unless you take cover and peek’n’shoot. Also, there is too high sensitive on paragon and renegade that you have to maximize one for success while you could easily do renegade actions when you feel like it and still have full paragon in ME1. I never played ME3, but if is better than ME2 at least in gameplay, then I am on it. Also, I never finished dragon age and to be honest I kind of hate it. I think I should give it a chance after I deal with Baldur’s gate 3 in my backlog.
Disco Elysium isn't supposed to be a feel-good experience. The fact that it takes place in a broken world inhabited by broken people is entirely the point. Because even in this broken husk of a post-revolutionary (or failed revolutionary) slum, there's still hope, and love, and friendship. The game is about being stuck in the past, and choosing whether to move on and let go. About to whether to be a miserable drunken wreck or a hopeless romantic or a revolutionary idealist, or just someone who can persevere from moment to moment when all the odds are against you. And the choice is completely up to you. That's why so many people love it, and that's why it's one of the greatest RPGs ever made
I ignored Dragon Age: Origins when it released. At the time I felt like the only person who did not like the pausable real time combat used by Bioware since Baldur's Gate 1. A few years later I got health issues and spent a lot of time at home, and as I saw Dragon Age in a Steam sale I gave it a try. And it was dark and mysterious and well written - it was awsome, and I felt like a idiot for ignorering it for so long. Even the combat felt right, it gave me back the feeling of beeing in controle, which I did not have in Baldur's Gate. I got so immersed that some memories I have from my first play through feel like a fever dream. Which could probably be related to my health issues. The game is not only special to me because it is good, it helped by giving me another focus than my health issues, offered an escape when needed, in the best sense. I recently played it again, and on the technical side it's showing it's age (pun intendet). But the story and the characters still made me play through the whole game.
Man, I've tried getting into BG3 and Disco Elysium multiple times, because on paper I should love them. And while the quality of both games in evident and undeniable, I never find myself wanting to continue. Kind of a bummer.
I feel like your take one Mass Effect 2 is shared more and more among fans in these past years. Replaying the games makes it quite obvious it's the weakest entry. Personally I still think they butchered what made the first game special in both sequels. The quality of writing of the main story took a big nose dive in both games and the exploration aspect and atmosphere of the first game are unmatched.
For me it’s always gonna be no man’s sky. I played for the first time close to launch and it sucked. Years later I heard that it got better and I gave it another try. The sheer amount of free updates of story gameplay and crafting has given me hundreds of hours of content. The most recent update was yesterday and it’s a complete graphics and world overhaul. Truly a great game
I just enjoyed this video so much. Your dialog and speaking was master class...I instantly subscribed to your channel and liked the video (of course). Now I'm going to see what else you have. Really great job on this. Thank you.
The Main Reason why the Lore of Dragon age and Mass Effect feels more intruiging than DnD for me is because of of something called catalogization. In DnD every Person, God, item, etc. belongs to a category and there are set numbers and Rules for them. There are books where everything is stated and explained. It makes the Lore feel static and takes away a lot of Mystery from the world. Dragon age and Mass Effect for examples have only the codex entries in their games to rely on. In Mass Effect the Codex ist the Alliance database so what you read there may be only what the Alliance wants you to know. In Dragon age the Codex entries are made of letters, books, quotes all from various sources and may even contradict each other. Also agree with you, was very disappointed by the Characters in BG3. Not only the constant hornyness for everything that has two legs but if you dont romance them there is SO much less content for them. Karlach was the worst Comp. In my opinion i felt like they absolutely rushed this Character. I played her as an Origin on my first playthrough and that really tainted my perspective on the game.
2 year ago i had my retro phase in my life aka i started replaying ps1 and ps2 games with emulators, i touched none of those since i was 15, now i’m 31. It was interesting to see how many times my opinions were the complete opposite of what it was before.
Death Stranding was the other way around for me. I loved the exploration, traveling here and there, finding the best path to my goal. But the combat was awful and felt so forced in. And the encounters with those floating things (can't remember their name) were a pure chore. Barebone stealth sections hindering me from the exploration. Eventually I gave up.
Andromeda, to this day, struggles to be widely considered as even a complete game, let alone a good one and definitely not a Mass Effect game. It's also where the franchise literally almost died. Not a very good thing for identity. Mass Effect 2, on the other hand, is fully half the reason anyone cared about 3 and entirely responsible for 3 being anything that it was other than a story-driven RPG. It has cemented itself as the favorite in a massive chunk of the fandom, it is what those people think of when they think of Mass Effect, and it's the only one of the original three to give us a little bit of everything Mass Effect has to offer instead of going too far into either story-driven with VERY dated gameplay, or lackluster story in a blockbuster action game. The fact that the characters in Cyberpunk were more interesting, to you, a decade later, doesn't change anything about what Mass Effect 2 did for the identity of the franchise. It definitely doesn't somehow make Andromeda that much more important to the franchise.
I had a reverse to bg3. Warmed up to it after they dropped honor mode actually giving gravity to everything. I was a big fan of the first two games so it was tough shaking the bias
I completly dissagre on your bg3 take. 😅Personally i loved reading about the lore and dont think the characters are that sexual except Astarion. Btw the emperor is not a villain like what did you play the game😂
39:00 Wouldn't you also get that feeling from bloodborne, too? The point of the lore from elden ring and bloodborne is that it is meant to very heavily metaphorical and unreal feeling its supoused to be hard to understand on closer inspection because your ment to feel what the game is showing you. It's the same reason why lore is more explicitly told in item descriptions.
Mass Effect had great lore, but I didn’t give a shit about it because I was just reading about it. I didn’t care about the world until I started LIVING it with these characters. The overall plot may have stalled with 2, but my investment skyrocketed and made 3 so much better from it. 1 set the foundation but 2 ignited my love for the franchise. Experiencing everything rather than just learning stuff was so much more substantial when I played 2. It’s a top 5 game ever (and legendary edition 3 is a top 15 game ever)
BG3 is very much a DnD campaign for better and worse. Like the dynamic storytelling of your first playthrough is unlike any game ive ever played. But at the same time because its all actually scripted events and no real dynamism happens you realized that once you see something there is no real surprise anymore. Its like running through the motions. DnD is a game that isnt meant to have the same story played more than once.
As someone who loved the first 2 fallout games back when they came out, but never even tried the Bethesda games until the tv series game out (had the close minded view about the complete change in gameplay style), i totally agree with your take. I did try new Vegas in 2020, but intro bored me to tears and the very dated graphics and antiquated gun play didn't help. I bought fallout 4 on gog for 9.99 (i started on game pass, switched for mods). And while i agree with the haters about the main story being shallow, the world itself is so damn immersive. My feeling is that most who call the entire game shallow, don't stop to read the many terminals around the commonwealth. Packed with lore and sometimes hilarious, you miss 75% of the story and lore if you don't like reading. So many miss the true genius of fallout 4, from their aversion to reading. Plus there are so many mods that add so much to it. Add depth to the minutemen, give yourself far more building opportunities, new quests and experiences are there for anyone who is willing to take the modding journey. I think the true brilliance of fallout 4 though is if you want to play it as a stats based game you can do that by using VATS, and skill based shooter, you don't use it. Both are available to you from the start, and both systems are very competently done.
I dont really agree on the importance of characters in ME2 its just a more action focused game for some reason, it didnt lead you to conversations but you could still have them if you looked, I regard the trilogy as a whole sense its one of the most interconnected games ever made and a masterpiece for that. My main conplaint would be cutting most of the rover type sections, theres only like two in ME3 and one is optional, whoever decided to cut that was stupid because to me it was extremely immersive and they couldve improved the maps. Also I hated Fallout 4 crafting compared to unique weapon variants.
My friends start to insult me when I told them that Alan Wake 2 deserved more the GOTY than Elden Ring Don't get me wrong, Elden Ring is an amazing game, but... I played it before, is just another Dark Souls with more build mechanics on top of it that yes, is amazing but not unique, is an evolution from the genre. But Alan Wake 2, I never played something like that game and I hope doing it again in the future Yes the game has jump scares but once you understand why they are part of the experience, how they really make you be scare instead of feeling you are doing the generic things from survival horror games where the concept of horror is just temporary, Alan Wake reach to keep you in a tense and unprepared for what may happen while the story evolves the more you and the characters start to understand it and interact with it. Plus the mechanics are just amazing, a huge evolution on the use of now days technologies
"Death Stranding isn't about the fun, its about the beauty" Look i agree its beatiful but its 100% definitely supposed to be fun too. Its fine you don't like the gameplay but its what you do for 80% of the game, it wouldn't work for anyone if it wasn't fun lol
I’ll never understand why ppl love mass effect so much… I’ve played the first two games, I never got through the third I just didn’t really care, I didn’t enjoy the first two just played because you know they’re meant to be good. But I found them pretty lacking… the world felt empty and undeveloped, I always got the feeling that it was weird that I’m playing a sci fi game that’s meant to have this huge universe with lots of planets and aliens and cool shit but it just felt like I was always on the same tiny little station talking to the same three aliens on a council. Every planet you do end up going to for the main quest is an empty continuous tunnel or an open plain with maybe a building or two along the way. The story was ok but far from the epic I was expecting… maybe I just expected too much? I just remember the second game opening with a hugely ridiculous explanation as to why the universe at large decided that it was actually a good idea to revert back to bullets and reloading for guns because it’s definitely better! Don’t think about it too much! It’s better!… anyway I don’t think the games are bad I just don’t like them…
Tbh it sounds like you just have more time to enjoy games now 😅 as a new dad if I need to slow down to enjoy it, I’m not gunna play it at this stage in life
This feeling of disappointment you've had with Dragon Age after playing Mass Effect, I've had with Mass Effect after playing NeverWinter Nights as a kid, as well as Bioshock after playing System Shock. Making those games accessible to a wider target audience required them to be watered down. Seeing you call the Mass Effect era "oldschool Bioware" also got a good laugh outta me.
@@Sumoniggro I own NWN2 but have yet to play it. The original game is incredible though. It's absurd how many different builds you can come up with and still find ways to be viable. I remember being really disappointed at the co-op mode in Inquisition where you have preset characters. Weird how the older game gives you more options.
Great video man! I couldn't help but agree with some of your points with Elden Ring. I'm also replaying the game for the DLC, and I do still REALLY LOVE Elden Ring. But, I'm not a fan of the copy n paste bosses and lore. Elden Ring's lore doesn't feel different enough from Dark Souls. I wish it was more unique like Sekiro and Bloodborne. Anyways, great video! Keep up the great work! 😄
I used to love the saints row and GTA games and now I can’t stand them, I just find them kinda cringe or boring now weird given how much time I sank into them as a teenager
A lot of games are just vibes you gotta be in the mood for. Right place right time.
100%, and things change over time too
Yeah, Sea of Stars demo I played on Switch and I was meh on it. But then I played the demo on PS5 and the difficulty felt better and I had a much better impression.
Baldur's Gate 3 I played on PS5 launch, but I quickly felt like I wasn't ready. I'm more used to simpler RPGs so it was feeling kinda overwhelming. Maybe I'll be ready for it next year.
@@JeannieLovepass on sea of stars and buy BG3 In my opinion
Well said! If it clicks it clicks if not maybe some other time!
True. That why I felt I enjoyed BotW way more than I did TotK. When I played BotW I was in dire need of a zen kinda game, relaxing in nature. TotK felt meh to me because I didnt get the same zen feeling despite being almost 1:1 in terms of world design. That or the novelty of BotW just fell off
I problem i see here is that you go into series searching another game, you go into fallout searching TES, go into Dragon age, searching mass effect. You have a problem with pre conceive notions and expectations
Funny thing is the more aware you are the less fun you have.
Games are a place for imagination not logic and it's easy to see how one overtakes the other as we get older. This video is something I enjoy, dissecting games, but when you start to dissect games you have to try to enjoy them in a new way...you could say this video is actively making games less fun but for the purpose of knowledge.
Who hasn't got that Problem with misguided Notions & Expectations though?
If I take a Look at the current Gaming Audiences all over the Globe, I see Billions of People having those exact Issues going on. Just take the whole Ubisoft & AC Bashing, that is happening for way to long now.
People think, they're the Kings of Gaming Culture and that Developers & Publishers are obligated to obey to the Audience's Demands. But that's not how This works.
Developers & Publishers are no Slaves to the Public and all that Audiences can do, is to stop preordering/buying/playing the Games from Developers/Publishers, they don't like anymore because of their Business Decisions or maybe even Repetitive or Lazy Game Design.
Of course, it's completely legitimate to criticise Developers/Publishers for their Products and Business Models/Decisions as well as their Treatment for their Workers. Don't get me wrong here. I only say, that it's not very smart to expect any Change from them just because You're making a lot of Noise about their Issues on the Internet.
Those big Developers/Publichers/Companies don't even care about some Hundrets of Thousands of Hypermoralists constantly complaining about their Products, as long as their Income keeps being safed. To them, Sales are the One and ONLY Argument, that still counts. And that's where we should be focussing on.
Don't try to change the stubborn Mountain just because You're to stubborn to leave it alone.
I don't think disco elysium really has "side quests". They're all important parts of the overall story.
Best way to describe red dead 2 is, most games are playable movies but red dead 2 is a playable novel. You gotta slowly go page by page and it’s hard a first but once you finish it, you’ll wish there was more
Great way to put it
I want to try this again, I just wish things weren’t so tedious. But maybe that’s just at the beginning?
@@Hidjcsthis was my experience. Tedium. And the controls were so unintuitive. Despite digging the story these things made me quit 5 or 6 hours in.
@@Hidjcs It depends on which parts of the game you find tedious. Will the horse riding, hunting, fishing, or escorting get better? No. The core game mechanics never change, such as feeding your horse or eating, but the story definitely picks up pace with time. And yes, some of the missions can be a little janky, but there definitely will be a lot more gun fights and character development as you progress throughout the story. If I had to pick a spot, the action really starts happening past the point of reaching Saint Denise. Mind that some of the missions can be a real slog, but the game's strength is exploration and seeing how the world changes with your intervention or lack of it. You build relationships with random npcs across the world over time and it has a real impact at the end once you put it all together. Each chapter introduces change to the world, so it can be fun to watch that change happen. Examples such as homes being built, railroads built, giving advice to a young man about his lovelife and seeing the consequences. There are so many little details in the game that made me want to explore obscure locations just to find what is there. The game is full of easter eggs and little secrets that keep it fun and the experience for each area different. The sense of discovery is worth it for me, but it does take patience and it really depends on the person.
39:56 The idea that the lore/story is so obscure that you can make up your own story can be a good or bad thing in my opinion. The original idea behind FromSoftware’s storytelling was that it was obscure and left pieces of the story missing so that the player could be the one to make their own story.
I”ve read that in his childhood Miyazaki read English fantasy novels, and because his English wasn’t that great he had to fill in the parts of the story that he didn’t understand, which ended up making each story partly the author’s but also partly his. This was something that he wanted to implement in his games so that each player could make their own version of the story and make it make sense.
I’ve realized that I enjoy the story of these games a bit less the more I learn about them because then the story becomes less personal to my own character. Either way, great video!
Ya its a fine line for sure because I do love mysteries and coming up with our own ideas but like you said the more that is unraveled it just feels so disjointed and random.
Thanks for watching!
It's like in the metal community, metalheads have a tendency to shit on anything labelled as an all-time great - but then once they listen to it, they change their tune (no pun intended).
Friend has his arms crossed and a scowl for the entirety of Master of Puppets, then two weeks later he told me he had it on repeat for an hour.
Metal community gets it
Stairway to heaven was like that for me lol
He had an hour long album on repeat for an hour?
Once you go Necrophagist, you don’t go back
@@AttilaGorilla What's the second song in the album called?
Hell yeah! A 50 minutes video about video games.
Hope you enjoy!
Guy decided to become contrarian
Can’t help myself lol
mindlessly accepting the norm is so unimaginative.
This is honestly really refreshing. Most videos similar to this use the same few games over and over again. Respect the honesty
Ya had to pick the ones I actually had strong feelings on lol, thanks for watching!
I thought i was the only one that thought that with bg3. But thats a huge reason why i keep going back to bg 1 n 2 or pillars of eternity. Everything feels more serious and real instead of a theatre harem high fantasy sims.
You skip RDR2 cut scenes??? Oh my
Forgive me for I have sinned
Tbf tho some of them are just too long, and replaying the game and rewatching those cutscenes doesn’t really give you much more eh
Completely agree on your Mass Effect 2 take. It's still a good game, but I vastly prefer 1 and 3. Great video.
Glad I found someone who thinks the same lol I know it’s an unpopular take, thanks for watching!
I played the trilogy on the LE launch after years of hearing all the hype of ME2. Never been more bored of a game, didn't even take notice of the "Suicide Mission" until characters on ME 3 start talking about.
After the first game Mass Effect 2 feels like a cheap spinoff.
It felt a little bit too side tracked and the features that they streamlined really didn't need to be. Bit sad, but thankfully they did successfully streamline for the most part in ME3.
It definently is a hot take.
The major fumble at the end if 3 sours the whole experience for me. Bioware didn't just drop the ball they spiked it on the 1 yardline, then were surprised when fans were angry. I'm glad others don't have that issue and can just enjoy the game.
I remembered the first Fable game as one of the best I've ever played when I was young. But after replaying it later in life I realised that it's actually a very comical, almost a parody trying to tell a serious story and it didn't grip me the same way like before
Despite it's Problems, pansexual is Just the best choice for Party members, except maybe If the Sexuality is a Specific part of a Characters Arc. For a Character Like laezel for example it wouldn't add anything.
For the lore in bg3...I think its Just bc its dnd. Everyone kinda already knows dnd and how it Work. So glad they Go Back to their own IP's again where they can do what they want
You’ve got to remember that I’m bg3 the characters all think they’re going to die initally. It makes sense for a group of attractive people all on the verge of death to act on impulses, and for the emperor, it was a ploy to continue his manipulation. Also, characters like astarion are trying to gain your trust, laezels race doesn’t see intimacy in that view, and gallon is straight up a horn dog.
Ya definitely I think there are some good justifications but makes it feel a little too “gamey” for me. I tend to be hard to please with relationships in games though I’m much more of a world-building and story kinda guy
@@FranklyGaming It IS a Game, Dude. C'mon...it's SUPPOSED TO BE "GAMEY"!!! I mean, this whole Game's Mechanics and Interactions are based on the Dungeons and Dragons 5e Ruleset and if You've ever played D&D 5e, You would've known, from where that's coming and why it is the Way it is. Also, This is not even a Secret. In Fact, it's quite common knowledge, that You encounter almost IMMEDIATELY as soon as You start building up some general Interest for BG3. 😅🤔🤨
@@FranklyGaming To be fair though: It's completely understandable, if Somebody isn't really interested in D&D and it's Mechanics and why they matter so much for BG3. That's a very Special Interest Topic, tbh. 😆✌
It's really nice to watch a video about games that is really honest and reflective. There are SO many out there that are just the same repeating how fantastic a game is just because everyone kinda got to a kind of silent agreement that you are allowed to love this game, totally ignoring the not so great things about the game. Playing a game should be about how you feel about it and not a matter of what is considered "good" or "bad" and saying you dislike (or like) a game that is considered "good" or "bad" is how it should be without community hate or dislike.
@@kennethburridge862 100% agree, thanks for taking the time to watch!
@@FranklyGaming ; My pleasure ..got yourself a subscriber.
Love the long format videos! Def look forward to every time you make new stuff
Really appreciate that thanks for the support!
My man picked the most well known great games and wrote a whole scenario for a yt video lmao
I kept seeing everyone talk about how great Nier is, but when I first played it i absolutely dreaded. I love platinum game, but for some reason this game didn’t click. Few days ago I decided to try it again…it has been one of my favorite games Ive played.
I personally love Death Stranding for what it is, and I have quite a lot to say about it. I don't know if anyone will be bothered to read it, but buckle up.
I went into Death Stranding when it came to PC knowing that I'll either get bored of the game and I'll just finish it as quickly as possible, or I would either love it and I wouldn't want it to end.
Death Stranding is an experimental mishmash of smish mash and shmoo, if you know what I'm saying, because you spend four hours discovering new outposts, building to them, finding the best route, setting up your course, you build some roads, you deliver some packages, you deliver some more packages, and then some more; you level up your stuff, and by that I mean you unlock new gear, and you become a better delivery man, and then you get some story, and that's what wonderful is that I was doing this fairly monotonous repetitive gameplay, and I wasn't bored by it, you know I very much enjoyed it, and I wouldn't say I didn't have streams in the backround, but I was like hmm 2 hours ago they told me about this, I wonder how that's gonna factor into what happens next, and then eventually you get sucked into a tornado, and now you've got two hours of different gameplay going on and it's a big old experimental mishmash and that is not for everyone.
Again, I don't think that's entirely fair though, because the baseline is in exploration, and you need to have the patience and the interest in doing that, and the intrigue in the world. The problem is Death Stranding is more than just one thing and I think the term is more than sum of its parts, more than just the delivery boy, more than just the tornado, more than just people talking and the very long cutscenes, is the world, and there's story, and that all goes in together, and the game is unapologetic about what it wants to do. The story comes at you very fast, and when you're not dealing with a story you have other things to do, and those other things do mean that you will have to care about the world and care about doing things for example five starring your facilities; it's difficult because you have to deliver a lot of packages, but it allows you to streamline and become a better porter and if that sounds stupid then maybe it's not the game for you, but I really adored that.
It's made by Hideo Kojima, and the man is known for depth and having an extreme full on nature in his games, in the world, in the characters, in the gameplay, like an example on the top of my head is metal gear solid phantom pain where if you shoot people in the head they start wearing helmets, if you constantly hide in boxes, the soldiers will begin shooting the boxes before they even get near them, and if you don't shower you will get flies from the blood and the mud and the enemies will find you easily.
And it's things like that, that you can find in Death Stranding, and even more so now that the game is about character, world connectivity, and that greater universe, you get these incredible character moments, every single character you come across from the main cast to the smaller NPCs have these amazing backstories and you can get lost in them, and honestly some of them you don't care about, and some of them are cool. The first ones you find is a junk dealer and he lost his girlfriend and turns out his girlfriend is very close, but her mum convinced her that the boyfriend had died, and you bring them together, and they get married, and it's like a small character moment that has no relevance to the major story, but you did that, you connected them and now every time you come back they are together and it's very cute, and that's the smaller characters.
Death Stranding unlocked memories of kid me during road trips and reminded me of how special they felt. In fact after finishing the game for the first time last year, I bought a cruiser motorcycle a few months later to go on road trips again
I recall the time when I acquired Fallout 3. It took me a while to become engrossed in the game, but after a few hours, I was captivated by both the game and the series as a whole. I still need to complete New Vegas and invest more time into Fallout 76.
Wow you might be the first person to enjoy a second playthrough of Outer Wilds more than the first.
I think I just learned to appreciate it more, it would have been so much more impactful if the first playthrough was great I think
@@FranklyGaming As someone said above, the appreciation of a game can really depend on the moment at which we play, our mindset etc.
During my first 4-5 hours on Outer Wilds a few years ago, I was not too hooked by the game, and I put it aside. Then I launched it again a few months later and I do not know what had changed but I was absorbed and it became my favorite game.
Have you tried the DLC ?
Because if you have now understood the game better, maybe you will appreciate it from the first time, it is really worth it
I think its Larian's philosophy of player-first mentality. They changed Wyll entirely, they made companions far less likely to abandon you due to negative decisions you make, I believe they made Halsin more of a sexpest in the final release, etc. All to placate demands made in EA among other bugfixes, suggestions, and fine-tuning within gameplay mechanics. It's the dual-sword of EA. I do personally prefer the more nuanced 2077 writing style but their EA was the entire 3-4 yrs before Phantom Liberty hehe.
Going back to the Cyberpunk comparison, I think there were a lot of times I simply forgot that V was going to die soon because the progression of the biochip working to rewrite your personality was gated based on main story quest progression rather than via sleeping or some other process that accounted for the progression of in-game time. I always thought the worm and the chip are similar in that regard where if you pressure the player too much to complete the main story rather than go at their own pace with side-objectives, they might mentally combust and opt out of the game altogether. I thought those two motivations were very similar to one another in why they were implemented like that.
I'm pretty sure that if CDPR had added a clock to the game, I'd have noted out before getting to meet Panam. That kind mechanic sucks the fun out of a game for me at any rate. I know it isn't that way for everyone, and that's the cool part of the hobby.
too bad they're so 'player-first mentality' they didn't think about making the game actually fun. Both BG3 and D:OS2 are mind-numbingly boring with pitfalls that would make any sane person quit. Like making the difficulty labelled as 'easiest' actually more difficult than the 'harder' difficulties (though atleast Larian fixed it in BG3 by making a custom difficulty option.) or by making retardedly difficult boss-fights you HAVE to cheese to get past. Like the first Spectator fight in the UD or the final fight in the game. (Though that has abit more leeway since it is the final fight but still stupid how difficult it is on the truly easiest difficulty.)
@@TheVincenzoGaming What are you talking about? The easy difficulty is definitely easier than the harder ones. (I don't know how you came to that conclusion.)
The Spectator is optional and you can fight him just before leaving Act 2 if you want. As for the final fight, you have literally the strongest gear there is in the game. If you've been doing side content, you have like 20 summons. You have an insane amount of potions and spell scrolls to help you out. If your build isn't good, you can switch it at camp.
I can't even think of a fight that would be "retardedly difficult" outside of honor mode. The only one that comes to mind is the weird possessed fight on Bloodmoon Island in D:OS2, though that one was optional as well.
Mass Effect 2 does the most heavylifting in terms of worldbuilding out of the trilogy. Sure the first game provides the foundation but most of it arent even shown in the game. Most of the lore are either written in the codex or told by the squadmates. Meanwhile ME2 allows you visit them instead of just hearing about them like Tuchanka, Quarian Fleet, or Omega and they do this through the companion quests. ME 2 shows how big the whole galaxy truly is by showing the people living inside them and whats happening to them like the asari and justicar code, the biotic experiment on human kids, or the genophage and its intricacies between salarian and krogan and many others. Saving each race in ME3 wouldnt have much impact if ME2 doesnt exist since ME2 gives players the chance to explore the universe and its people while both ME1 and ME3 just focus on the main threat.
Also please stop with the Cyberpunk glazing, somehow you still manage to insert Cyberpunk in all your arguments no matter the topic which suggest that youre just not creative enough. The title says games you were wrong about but the whole ME2 sections contradicts the whole video and its basically just you saying its "the worst in the trilogy" and "Cyberpunk is better"
Yeah the inclusion of ME2 is pretty silly. Him playing it as "i changed my mind from the first time i played it as a kid" or whatever doesn't really work given that anyone who's watched his videos has heard him call ME2 boring or the worst of the trilogy about 15 times already
Baldur's Gate 3 has the same problem as Fallout 4 and Witcher 3. All of those games get lost in the trivialities of their world compared to the urgency that is imposed on you at the beginning.
33:38
Planescape torment does the mystery so good. Strange to see disco fumble it, as they obviously took lots of inspiration
Haha I love that you said Cyberpunk 2077 had better romances because I was thinking it RIGHT before you said it 🤣🤣
I got you 😂
Yeah, the Mass Effect 2 thing is a hot take, though I respect your opinion. I actually did exactly what you suggested very recently: I played through the entirety of Cyberpunk and then played through the entirety of Mass Effect for the umpteenth time. While I still think the Cyberpunk characters were incredibly well done, they still don't hold a candle to the cast of Mass Effect 2. I loved the Ocean's Eleven-esque vibe of the story and how each of the characters (with one or two exceptions) feels like a fully fleshed out person with their own motivations and reasons for joining your crew.
I feel like each game in the series is trying to tell a different type of story, all while focusing on a singular cast of characters. Mass Effect 1 is sort of a sci fi detective noir story, uncovering the truth behind a bad man doing bad things. Mass Effect 3 is a war story, exploring the toll a war can take on people and dealing with concepts of loss, defeat, and dwindling morale. Mass Effect 2 is a heist story and also serves as an anthology. As you mentioned, it IS a collection of seemingly disconnected short stories, but that is it's strength, not it's weakness. This is supposed to be a living breathing galaxy with millions of life forms living their lives and, as Shepard, you get to jump into the lives of a few and pull them into your conflict while exploring theirs. You get a glimpse of what it's like to be a Drell Assassin seeking atonement, or a Salarian Scientist curing the poor in the armpit of the galaxy, or an Asari Justicar roaming the galaxy and righting wrongs. Because of the way that Mass Effect 2 is told, we get far more world building because we get to see far more of the galaxy and what it's like than we get to see in any of the other games. We get to see what the prison system is like in a massive diverse galaxy like this. We get to see the culture, politics, and collective racial PTSD of the Flotilla. We get to see decency buried in a seedy underworld, and blatant criminality in the upper echelons of society. We get to see the pride and shame of the Krogan first hand, not by being told by an NPC, but by going there and interacting with it directly.
Anthology stories like this can be jarring, but, much like the Witcher book, "The Last Wish", if you put in the time, you can usually find that, by the end, you have a much more broad understanding of the world and characters involved. Anyway, just my two cents. Just found your channel today and really enjoy your content.
Should be a crime call Mass Effect 2 the worst of the trillogy
The trilogy itself should be regarded as a whole. It's one of my favorite games of all time. It's one of the most interconnected videogame series after all...
Some of these are pretty valid criticisms, but others have to be among the worst takes I've seen, Quantum Tv level of bad
That’s what I’m here for 😎
@@FranklyGaming but hey, you are a good sport about it, that's what matters
@enlightmentxv1548 it's just an opinion after all. No 2 people are going to like all of the same things
Skyrim is a weird game for me. When it released i knew it was awesome and had fun with it. Never really progressed far in the story it was just the type of game to play like gta for me. Run around and explore. I recently tried to actually play through the game and after 10 hours i just couldnt. I got bored and then got vampirism and stopped
one of the absolute most overrated games ever
As someone who is playing Cyberpunk 2077 right now, has already played the ME trilogy twice in 2013, AND recently bought the remastered trilogy. I'll get back with the answer to your question in a few months (hopefully).
I am replaying the ME trillogy right now and have similar thoughts about the second installment. It's still a very good game overall but lackluster compared to the first one. The worldbuilding in ME1 alongside the story, the music and overall atmosphere is top notch. The combat didn't feel bad tbh maybe because I'm playing the remaster. It actually felt pretty good despite jank.
ME2 feels...limited, compartmentalized and focuses on the things that aren't the series's main strenghts. And as you said, the characters aren't that great with few exceptions.
Still having a good itme. It's a great game by all means.
Ya I truly feel playing me2 right after playing me1 for the first time is the best way to see why it is the worst in the trilogy, I actually like the 3rd one a lot too
I love Disco Elysium more than Baldur's Gate 3. Disco gave me more valuable and unique experience.
You said what I always think about the story of Elden Ring and Dark Souls series. 34:55
Yes, it's typically the kind of lore and stories that some players find good because "it's too mysterious and cryptic so it's too cool blah blah blah", but if you connect everything you realize that it has no interest.
It's just the "mysterious" side that makes some players fantasize but damn... it really sucks
ME1 was made for the PC and it shows. It was an RPG with shooter elements. There was rich skill building and the weapons and armor system.
ME2 was just a watered down brainless console controller shooter with waist high walls like Gears of Snore and some vague rpg elements. So much potential pissed away to cater to the lowest common denominator. If the person reading this prefers ME2 over ME1, you are everything wrong with gaming.
I get a lot of criticisms against the From Software Souls titles, but there's very few games that make you feel like an archaeologist trying to piece together the story of past civilizations like they do. So I have a problem with people arguing against it just because they don't enjoy it, we should be celebrating all the unique ways developers are telling stories in this medium.
Once you delve into fromsoft lore no games feel like same and I play every souls like game
Now try and play Dragon Age: Inquisition and romance Solas. Yes, even if you're a straight guy and that would mean having to play an elf woman up until the end of the Trespasser DLC. Believe me, you'll thank me later. Because if lore interests you, and you like the drama and incredible acting, you'll be served. It changes that game a lot more than what you'd expect, and for a lot of us it's also the best canon going in into Veilguard because of the potential (remember that you'll create the Inquisitor in character creation at the beginning).
Playing games you remember hating as a kid, or even just a couple of years, is honestly a great way to find games you love as an adult.
I Apparently played Wasteland 3 several years ago, but i stopped after only a couple of hours, i have to this day no earthly idea of why i stopped, cause when i tried it again, i was absolutely smitten by it and finished it in it's entirety, DLCs including.
What an amazing video
You showed us that no matter how much you hate a game you can change your mind just by understanding it and dive more in it's lore
Thanks for watching!
"Out of all of the games I've played, Baldur's Gate is one of them." Is how I thought that sentence was going.
Missed opportunity lol
BG3, ME2, RDR2, are three of my alltime fav games. Origins is also peak Bioware before they lost their soul. For me now it's Post BG3 era. The Standard is set high for me. And I'm too cynical to Corpo greed and lost of original IP lore. Indy games captures that feeling I had in the 90's and hopefully the OG Bioware and now Larian influence continues on!
Disco's not meant to be enjoyed. It's meant to be experienced. And I legitimately never want to play a game like that again.
I loved that game but I agree even with all its replayability. I feel like it's a game to be played at your lowest 😂
Ah, Outer Wilds. It's the best game i've ever played that means so much to me, and yet i can only truly play and experience it once.
Baldur's Gate 2, where relationships felt like they were earned, and took legitimate effort to achieve. You were also not going to have every party member wanting you to bone them for simply asking how their morning was.
And that is on top of having great gameplay. Gameplay that is still emulated today. Such as with the recent Pathfinder games. Plus the nostalgia factor is there too, at least for me. Being one of the first crpgs I ever got to play, even if it was a little old by the time I did.
I really didn’t click with The Witcher 3 when I first played it... I stopped after a few hours. I went back years later and absolutely fell in love with the game.
P.S., in my opinion, ME2 is the greatest game of all time.
P.P.S… recently got the platinum for Disco Elysium. Really enjoyed the game… but I had to fast forward Measurehead’s dialogue, it just went on forever!
I definitely had the opposite experience with death stranding and elden ring. Elden ring I could play over 5-10 times but I wouldn't want to touch death stranding again even though I enjoyed it.
Refreshing to see a youtuber share his actual opinions, even if they may be unpopular
Ya knew some of these would be hated takes but made the channel so I can voice them
I like mass effect 1 more then others too
I felt that ME1 was a good RPG with janky shooting, that ME2 was a decent shooter with a bit of RPG and ME3 was the one that got more of a balance. ME1 is still my fave too, even though on replays I dread the stuff in the tank thing (who's name escapes me right now)
I skipped over your outer wilds section because I was told that I should go in blind, but do you think that I should play it? It seems interesting and it’s very highly rated but I dont really get what the hype is about
Ya I thought it was ok at first but I would recommend you take your time and figure it out all for yourself and then it’s something special for sure
For me the first game that comes to mind that I changed my mind on was Resi 6.
I absolutely loved Resi 4, I played through it many times, on several different consoles. Then there was Resi 5 which was not quite as good as 4, but I could play it with a friend, so overall I really enjoyed the game.
So when Resi 6 came out I was super excited for it, but boy was I disappointed. I played through just 1 of the 3 campaigns with a friend. We were so disappointed we had to force ourselves to finish that 1 campaign.
But a few years later my friend asked if I wanted to give it another go, so we did. This time around expectations were low and we didn't consider it to be a resident evil game. By the end of completing all the campaigns we actually enjoyed it.
In thinking of it as just another Zombie co-op game and not a resident evil game we ended up enjoying it for what it is.
I adore BG3. Especially playing with dozens, hundreds of mods with friends, it's a great experience.
It will *_always_* come second to actual D&D. Baldur's Gate 3 is fun to play, but I can't get lost in a conversation for an hour, where myself and friends pretend to be entirely different people in a world we are in the midst of crafting together. And with the rigidity of code comes flaws for story.
The biggest gripe I have when it comes to the main plot, and Karlach sharing this, being.... the complete ease at which you can be cured? For some reason, the tadpole is treated as an omnipresent threat, something edited and empowered and warped by a power greater than what even other Mind Flayers understand. It's different than it should be, stronger, and no-one knows why. And to be perfectly honest, i'm still not even sure why myself, after beating the game. Is it something to do with the Emperor's protection? Probably not, it confuses him too. Is it the Netherese Crown the Elder Brain uses? Maybe, but why only us then? There are hundreds of other infected.
But at the end of the day, the threat is the same for the tadpoles as it is for Karlach's engine.
The tadpole being removed would kill you. Karlach's engine not being removed would burn her out unless she goes back to hell, and no-one on the material plane seems capable of fixing the engine.
These problems are both easily solved. If the threat of removing the tadpole is death, then go for it. Stab me in the head, kill the parasite... then use one of the two dozen revivify scrolls I have in my pocket to resurrect me, and let's move on to fixing this whole ordeal.
Same with Karlach. I can't get invested in her story as much as I like the character because Gale is carrying around a Scroll of True Resurrection that I know for a fact solves her entire character arc but there's never any point wherein we can use it, even if we know the scroll exists from Gale having died, since we don't even need it to bring him back to life if he does. The True Resurrection spell, for those who may not know, is the highest tier of resurrection magic in official D&D, besides Wish. Where Revivify (in actual rules, not BG3) can only raise the dead within a minute and doesn't restore the loss of organs and such, making it possible to just be too grievously wounded, and Raise Dead has similar limits but a ten day timeframe, True Resurrection is insanely powerful.
So long as a creature died within the last century, you bring them back to life. If they were undead, they aren't anymore (also solving Astarion's vampirism but he is capable of handling that already). If they were obliterated into a thousand pieces, who cares, here's a brand new body - all organs restored and all alterations removed.
Karlach's entire character conflict means nothing because you can just allow her to die or mercy-kill her then use the scroll to restore her to perfect health without the engine.
The tadpole's only threat being dying if it is removed means nothing when half the party has the items and magic needed to immediately revive me, and also I have a God of Death back at camp who will revive me for a literal pittance of gold.
I love the game, but if a DM in real life ran a game where I wasn't allowed to use these spells to solve the problems they are made for, I would be, in a word, unhappy.
EDIT: Also, never heard the Emperor referred to as a main villain. That was crazy, but I guess not technically wrong. He's only not an antagonist because he realises he can't dominate the brain once he sees it as a Nether Brain, whereupon he's happy to kill it. He's... technically on your side the whole time and doesn't try to get in your way when his goals fall through, even though he's a liar and manipulator. At the same time, I personally always viewed that as more tragic than malevolent - he's a Mind Flayer. Despite what he says, despite what he shows, despite what he believes, this has irrevocably changed who he is and there's no getting back the man he was. He views this neutrally, maybe even uncaringly, but there's that simple lingering sense that if he was as much of himself as he claimed to be, he would himself be horrified by what he has become.
He's a mortal warped by basically eldritch forces into a literally-soulless alien, who can no longer comprehend how deeply tragic his conversion was nor comprehend the sheer breadth of just what he lost. He can't comprehend his oldest friend saving him, despairing over his transformation and seeking countless ways to fix it, and eventually deciding that the best way out would be a mercy killing... and most tragically, he can't even comprehend the fact that the man he was in life would have likely agreed with this old friend at every turn. This man did not want to be a Mind Flayer. This man, if he was still in there, would still not want to be a Mind Flayer.
But the Emperor is a Mind Flayer, and the man he once was simply does not exist anymore. And sadly, tragically despite what he has done in his new form, he doesn't himself seem capable of comprehending this.
I don't view him as a villain despite the cruel things he has done because he's not, at least, the villain of our adventure, since he doesn't get in our way and holds true to his promises to help us, even when the goal shifts from dominating the brain to destroying it. He at no point actually tries to force you to follow the path of a Mind Flayer, just encourages it. He also doesn't turn on you unless you try to free Orpheus, which is in no way necessary to the overarching goal of stopping the Mind Flayer.
It's a tragedy of Humanity Lost that makes him haunting to me.
EDIT 2: weirdly, Omeluum, who is frankly a glossed over side character, is... way stronger than the Emperor? At least from our context. He's just as pragmatic, but he has an actual friend whom he isn't dominating to get on his side. He also wasn't freed from Elder Brain control, but himself wrested away from it. He has a Ring of Mind-Shielding which is somewhat attributed to his continued independence, but he *didn't have this* when he originally gained freedom, and at no point is he implied to have been saved by someone else.
He broke free of his own willpower and spends his time doing research into the Mind Flayers and looking over fungus with his bugbear friend. He's way cooler and I wish there was more of him, but outside of the scenes in Act 2, I haven't seen him. He might show up in other places I have yet to find though.
100% agree about BG3. I hope they tone it way down for their next project. Or just not have romance options at all.
Keyword being options there if you don't want to get romantically involved with a character you can turn them down and not engage with romance at all
80% of this video is this guy talking about his undiagnosed ADHD and how it affects his gaming.
What lol 😂
@@FranklyGaming It was all, "I started this game, got antsy, then quit, then came back and had a good time once I cleared my head about it." And I completely understand. I operate much the same way.
@@PainfullyMinty ya sometimes just have to be in the right mood
@@FranklyGaming I remember buying Dragon Age Inquisition when it launched on 360 in 2014. For years I talked shit about it. I thought it was a boring slog, and the characters were booty. I finally got around to finishing it just last week, because the veilguard trailer dropped, and I'm still currently playing the shit out of it. I'm enjoying it so much now.
Yeah skipping cutscenes in RDR2 is wild haha
If this video doesn't recant your terrible disco elysium take, it's over.
Edit: YOU DID IT!! Still insanely bad takes but i just didnt feel like you gave it a fair shake, which now you did
I got you
Mordin's greatest moment is in 3, you say? Someone's never heard him sing Gilbert and Sullivan
This has happened to me with both GTA 5 and Ghost of Tsushima.
I played both when they came out, but i was pretty much addicted to grinding ranked apex with ghost, and i was alot younger (24) when GTA came out.
With GTA, i always saw myself as trevor. He was the stereotypical GTA character. But in going back to it recently, i can see how my perspective has changed. Even if i dont agree with the things michael did, i can understand now. Life doesnt always give you a "good choice" and a "bad choice". Sometimes, you only have bad options. Its just kind of weird to see how much ive changed.
With Ghost, i only played like 8 hrs of it before i decided it was boring and went back to apex.
Now, sitting down and actually trying to immerse myself in that world, its the most beautiful game ive ever played. Im completely invested in it right now. Please no spoilers. Im about halfway through the game and its incredible. As someone who isnt a stealth gamer, Ghost has prolly the best stealth gameplay ive ever played. Great video homie 👌
Persona 3 is a great example that will hold up for more years to come that includes the remake which tells a very sad story that I and many others who played it will never forget it
You're still wrong about bg3. I've never felt more emotional and on edge in a game. Maybe you should do another playthrough. The romance isn't as quick as everyone thinks. You still have to build relationships.
Pretentious is one of those words that is annoying because it relies on an assumption one makes about the intention of creators one doesn't know. I heard it thrown around a lot here, and I think it's best left out because it is used for shorthand to convey various types of emotions, and it leaves out a lot of opportunity for you to explain why you didn't connect with the material. It's interesting, because I think the entire idea behind the video is to critically engage with your own perceptions and engage the art in good faith. If that is the case, I think it makes more sense to engage the creators of these games in the same way.
The story of many Fromsoft games are cryptic, but treat that as a matter of intention and not out of spite. Disco Elysium is very abstract and deals with incredibly complicated statements about the nature of the human condition. If that becomes rather heady, it may have something to do with the many abstract thoughts it is exploring. I think it's cool that you finally understood the grounded and humanizing ways it explores those ideas. I'd point to your love of death stranding as an example of the ludo narrative connection as well as Red Dead Redemption 2. The game play of those games is meant to pair with the narratives and ideas being explored.
I am curious, though, about your claims about games being some of the best in the genre or of all time despite your dislike for them. I don't completely understand where this is coming from, and I don't want to make assumptions. Is this coming from a place of enjoying the game play, but not connecting with the story? I want to assure you, this is in good faith. I'm not blaming you for saying this or think that it's a problem. I just find the dissonance of those statement intriguing, and I'm trying to figure out where this is coming from.
Thank you for this video. I personally having similar changes of opinion about the games since replays. I am playing Mass effect Legendary edition and feel like I underestimated and overlooked Mass Effect 1 because beside of main plot point I didn’t remember anything. I feel like I either did not understand or rushed it through so many years ago. I absolutely love it now even though most of side missions become repetitive. What I did not expect is that I feel like Mass effect 2 is not as good as I remember, but mostly from gameplay side. Combat became primitive with lesser abilities and enemies are hitscanners that obliterate your armor and health unless you take cover and peek’n’shoot. Also, there is too high sensitive on paragon and renegade that you have to maximize one for success while you could easily do renegade actions when you feel like it and still have full paragon in ME1. I never played ME3, but if is better than ME2 at least in gameplay, then I am on it. Also, I never finished dragon age and to be honest I kind of hate it. I think I should give it a chance after I deal with Baldur’s gate 3 in my backlog.
We have very similar opinions it sounds like lol, I just played the full dragon age lineup and it’s awsome
Disco Elysium isn't supposed to be a feel-good experience. The fact that it takes place in a broken world inhabited by broken people is entirely the point. Because even in this broken husk of a post-revolutionary (or failed revolutionary) slum, there's still hope, and love, and friendship. The game is about being stuck in the past, and choosing whether to move on and let go. About to whether to be a miserable drunken wreck or a hopeless romantic or a revolutionary idealist, or just someone who can persevere from moment to moment when all the odds are against you. And the choice is completely up to you. That's why so many people love it, and that's why it's one of the greatest RPGs ever made
Outer Wilds is one of those rare games it is impossible to overrate.
I ignored Dragon Age: Origins when it released. At the time I felt like the only person who did not like the pausable real time combat used by Bioware since Baldur's Gate 1.
A few years later I got health issues and spent a lot of time at home, and as I saw Dragon Age in a Steam sale I gave it a try. And it was dark and mysterious and well written - it was awsome, and I felt like a idiot for ignorering it for so long. Even the combat felt right, it gave me back the feeling of beeing in controle, which I did not have in Baldur's Gate. I got so immersed that some memories I have from my first play through feel like a fever dream. Which could probably be related to my health issues. The game is not only special to me because it is good, it helped by giving me another focus than my health issues, offered an escape when needed, in the best sense.
I recently played it again, and on the technical side it's showing it's age (pun intendet). But the story and the characters still made me play through the whole game.
Man, I've tried getting into BG3 and Disco Elysium multiple times, because on paper I should love them. And while the quality of both games in evident and undeniable, I never find myself wanting to continue. Kind of a bummer.
I feel like your take one Mass Effect 2 is shared more and more among fans in these past years. Replaying the games makes it quite obvious it's the weakest entry.
Personally I still think they butchered what made the first game special in both sequels. The quality of writing of the main story took a big nose dive in both games and the exploration aspect and atmosphere of the first game are unmatched.
100%, mass effect 1 to me is what the series actually is at its peak, pure amazing storytelling and worldbuilding
For me it’s always gonna be no man’s sky. I played for the first time close to launch and it sucked. Years later I heard that it got better and I gave it another try. The sheer amount of free updates of story gameplay and crafting has given me hundreds of hours of content. The most recent update was yesterday and it’s a complete graphics and world overhaul. Truly a great game
I just enjoyed this video so much. Your dialog and speaking was master class...I instantly subscribed to your channel and liked the video (of course). Now I'm going to see what else you have. Really great job on this. Thank you.
Really appreciate that! And I think youll like a lot of the recent videos
Bruh, it's 2024 you cant just admit you were ever wrong 😂
Doing this wrong 😂
Congrats on getting 100k! (I know, I'm a bit late).
@@felman87 appreciate it!
0:52 - The 1st sentence sums up why i subscribed to this channel. Because i feel the same way towards video games.
@@marcdwonn9772 ❤️
The Main Reason why the Lore of Dragon age and Mass Effect feels more intruiging than DnD for me is because of of something called catalogization. In DnD every Person, God, item, etc. belongs to a category and there are set numbers and Rules for them. There are books where everything is stated and explained. It makes the Lore feel static and takes away a lot of Mystery from the world.
Dragon age and Mass Effect for examples have only the codex entries in their games to rely on. In Mass Effect the Codex ist the Alliance database so what you read there may be only what the Alliance wants you to know. In Dragon age the Codex entries are made of letters, books, quotes all from various sources and may even contradict each other.
Also agree with you, was very disappointed by the Characters in BG3. Not only the constant hornyness for everything that has two legs but if you dont romance them there is SO much less content for them. Karlach was the worst Comp. In my opinion i felt like they absolutely rushed this Character. I played her as an Origin on my first playthrough and that really tainted my perspective on the game.
2 year ago i had my retro phase in my life aka i started replaying ps1 and ps2 games with emulators, i touched none of those since i was 15, now i’m 31. It was interesting to see how many times my opinions were the complete opposite of what it was before.
"Ah, yeah, but is it as good as the great game of all time, Cyberpunk 2077?"
The 🐐
Fr
Death Stranding was the other way around for me.
I loved the exploration, traveling here and there, finding the best path to my goal.
But the combat was awful and felt so forced in.
And the encounters with those floating things (can't remember their name) were a pure chore. Barebone stealth sections hindering me from the exploration.
Eventually I gave up.
oh no! Mass Effect 2 is the only game in the series I've played! I've gotta check out 1 and 3
Andromeda, to this day, struggles to be widely considered as even a complete game, let alone a good one and definitely not a Mass Effect game. It's also where the franchise literally almost died. Not a very good thing for identity.
Mass Effect 2, on the other hand, is fully half the reason anyone cared about 3 and entirely responsible for 3 being anything that it was other than a story-driven RPG. It has cemented itself as the favorite in a massive chunk of the fandom, it is what those people think of when they think of Mass Effect, and it's the only one of the original three to give us a little bit of everything Mass Effect has to offer instead of going too far into either story-driven with VERY dated gameplay, or lackluster story in a blockbuster action game.
The fact that the characters in Cyberpunk were more interesting, to you, a decade later, doesn't change anything about what Mass Effect 2 did for the identity of the franchise. It definitely doesn't somehow make Andromeda that much more important to the franchise.
In all fairness George R.R. Martin was behind the story for Elden ring
call me back to this channel when this guy gets out of middle school.
@@peterkistler3537 what lol
I had a reverse to bg3. Warmed up to it after they dropped honor mode actually giving gravity to everything. I was a big fan of the first two games so it was tough shaking the bias
I completly dissagre on your bg3 take. 😅Personally i loved reading about the lore and dont think the characters are that sexual except Astarion. Btw the emperor is not a villain like what did you play the game😂
Ya definitely get if people like it that’s awesome makes the game even better, and he for sure was a villian for me 😂
39:00 Wouldn't you also get that feeling from bloodborne, too? The point of the lore from elden ring and bloodborne is that it is meant to very heavily metaphorical and unreal feeling its supoused to be hard to understand on closer inspection because your ment to feel what the game is showing you. It's the same reason why lore is more explicitly told in item descriptions.
Mass Effect had great lore, but I didn’t give a shit about it because I was just reading about it. I didn’t care about the world until I started LIVING it with these characters. The overall plot may have stalled with 2, but my investment skyrocketed and made 3 so much better from it. 1 set the foundation but 2 ignited my love for the franchise. Experiencing everything rather than just learning stuff was so much more substantial when I played 2. It’s a top 5 game ever (and legendary edition 3 is a top 15 game ever)
BG3 is very much a DnD campaign for better and worse. Like the dynamic storytelling of your first playthrough is unlike any game ive ever played. But at the same time because its all actually scripted events and no real dynamism happens you realized that once you see something there is no real surprise anymore. Its like running through the motions. DnD is a game that isnt meant to have the same story played more than once.
You could call this a list of “some of the best games of all time” and I’d be perfectly fine with it lol
As someone who loved the first 2 fallout games back when they came out, but never even tried the Bethesda games until the tv series game out (had the close minded view about the complete change in gameplay style), i totally agree with your take. I did try new Vegas in 2020, but intro bored me to tears and the very dated graphics and antiquated gun play didn't help. I bought fallout 4 on gog for 9.99 (i started on game pass, switched for mods). And while i agree with the haters about the main story being shallow, the world itself is so damn immersive. My feeling is that most who call the entire game shallow, don't stop to read the many terminals around the commonwealth. Packed with lore and sometimes hilarious, you miss 75% of the story and lore if you don't like reading. So many miss the true genius of fallout 4, from their aversion to reading. Plus there are so many mods that add so much to it. Add depth to the minutemen, give yourself far more building opportunities, new quests and experiences are there for anyone who is willing to take the modding journey. I think the true brilliance of fallout 4 though is if you want to play it as a stats based game you can do that by using VATS, and skill based shooter, you don't use it. Both are available to you from the start, and both systems are very competently done.
So excited for my first video as a now subscriber! Keep up the great work ^_^
Thank you for the support and hope you enjoy!
I dont really agree on the importance of characters in ME2 its just a more action focused game for some reason, it didnt lead you to conversations but you could still have them if you looked, I regard the trilogy as a whole sense its one of the most interconnected games ever made and a masterpiece for that. My main conplaint would be cutting most of the rover type sections, theres only like two in ME3 and one is optional, whoever decided to cut that was stupid because to me it was extremely immersive and they couldve improved the maps. Also I hated Fallout 4 crafting compared to unique weapon variants.
You have subtly become one of my favorite gaming channels.
Good and deserved watched/liked ratio.
Frankly is the name of the game.
Appreciate the support ❤️
My friends start to insult me when I told them that Alan Wake 2 deserved more the GOTY than Elden Ring
Don't get me wrong, Elden Ring is an amazing game, but... I played it before, is just another Dark Souls with more build mechanics on top of it that yes, is amazing but not unique, is an evolution from the genre. But Alan Wake 2, I never played something like that game and I hope doing it again in the future
Yes the game has jump scares but once you understand why they are part of the experience, how they really make you be scare instead of feeling you are doing the generic things from survival horror games where the concept of horror is just temporary, Alan Wake reach to keep you in a tense and unprepared for what may happen while the story evolves the more you and the characters start to understand it and interact with it. Plus the mechanics are just amazing, a huge evolution on the use of now days technologies
"Death Stranding isn't about the fun, its about the beauty" Look i agree its beatiful but its 100% definitely supposed to be fun too. Its fine you don't like the gameplay but its what you do for 80% of the game, it wouldn't work for anyone if it wasn't fun lol
Hey dog friend. What's your opinion about Concord???
I’ll never understand why ppl love mass effect so much… I’ve played the first two games, I never got through the third I just didn’t really care, I didn’t enjoy the first two just played because you know they’re meant to be good. But I found them pretty lacking… the world felt empty and undeveloped, I always got the feeling that it was weird that I’m playing a sci fi game that’s meant to have this huge universe with lots of planets and aliens and cool shit but it just felt like I was always on the same tiny little station talking to the same three aliens on a council. Every planet you do end up going to for the main quest is an empty continuous tunnel or an open plain with maybe a building or two along the way. The story was ok but far from the epic I was expecting… maybe I just expected too much? I just remember the second game opening with a hugely ridiculous explanation as to why the universe at large decided that it was actually a good idea to revert back to bullets and reloading for guns because it’s definitely better! Don’t think about it too much! It’s better!… anyway I don’t think the games are bad I just don’t like them…
Tbh it sounds like you just have more time to enjoy games now 😅 as a new dad if I need to slow down to enjoy it, I’m not gunna play it at this stage in life
100% the stage you are at in life is everything, made a video about it recently actually
This feeling of disappointment you've had with Dragon Age after playing Mass Effect, I've had with Mass Effect after playing NeverWinter Nights as a kid, as well as Bioshock after playing System Shock. Making those games accessible to a wider target audience required them to be watered down. Seeing you call the Mass Effect era "oldschool Bioware" also got a good laugh outta me.
I know right? Old school biowars is Kotor and NWN and the beauty about those two is both the sequels were made by Obsidian.
@@Sumoniggro I own NWN2 but have yet to play it. The original game is incredible though. It's absurd how many different builds you can come up with and still find ways to be viable. I remember being really disappointed at the co-op mode in Inquisition where you have preset characters. Weird how the older game gives you more options.
Great video man! I couldn't help but agree with some of your points with Elden Ring. I'm also replaying the game for the DLC, and I do still REALLY LOVE Elden Ring. But, I'm not a fan of the copy n paste bosses and lore. Elden Ring's lore doesn't feel different enough from Dark Souls. I wish it was more unique like Sekiro and Bloodborne.
Anyways, great video! Keep up the great work! 😄
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed
bro, I could listen to you. talk about random things for hours. in fact, that's what I've been doing lol
Appreciate it ❤️
I used to love the saints row and GTA games and now I can’t stand them, I just find them kinda cringe or boring now weird given how much time I sank into them as a teenager