The All Purpose Video Game Thread Part Iv

[Overcast]

Great post.

Have you heard of Claire Obscur? It’s a modern love letter to 90’s square JRPG games, it’s full of emotion, where characters expressions speak louder than words spoken, graphics are beautiful and the story is top notch as you try to piece it together. It’s a minuscule development team (under 40 total ppl involved I believe) and the most impressive thing is how they’ve managed to make their characters facial expressions so human and real (a pet peeve of mine as nearly all modern games have elite graphics with each strand of hair and photon of light having their own dedicated CPU, but still have the stiffest most robotic and awkward faces). Even more amazingly, they have somehow captured the human soul and essence in the eyes of their models making them feel so real and vulnerable. Absolutely stunning work.

I've heard a lot of really good things about Clair Obscur, and from what I've seen it looks just as good. I've tried to stay away from as much info as possible because it sounds like something I'd enjoy and I don't want to spoil too much, but the battle system looked like a cool twist/update to the turn-based style of old JRPGs. There's like parrying/dodging or something? Kinda looked like Super Mario RPG's timed-button-press system to get a stronger attack/spell in battles.

 

[nyr2k2]

I've heard a lot of really good things about Clair Obscur, and from what I've seen it looks just as good. I've tried to stay away from as much info as possible because it sounds like something I'd enjoy and I don't want to spoil too much, but the battle system looked like a cool twist/update to the turn-based style of old JRPGs. There's like parrying/dodging or something? Kinda looked like Super Mario RPG's timed-button-press system to get a stronger attack/spell in battles.

Ha, Super Mario RPG is the first thing I thought of when I first saw the mechanics.

Really though the button presses when attacking are minimal, like maybe two per turn, and don't make that much of a difference. It's all about the enemies' turns: you literally live and die by parrying and dodging. To be clear, dodging is like a last resort because it doesn't really do anything for you other than spare you from taking damage.

However parrying is key. You need to parry to launch counterattacks which are where the real damage is done. Some enemies are easy to parry and some are f***ing hard. Eventually you get the timing and rhythm down, but until you do you'll probably die a lot. Like you might fight a group of three enemies, and if you don't know how to parry them, they will absolutely f*** you up. Like dead in a turn or two. But then you learn how to parry their moves and you go in and counter their first attack and suddenly they're 80% dead after one go. It's all about the parry. And they add some wrinkles later.

The other thing is you really need to focus on your character build. It's not just like, okay I got a new strong weapon, time to f*** shit up! Each weapon will scale with certain stats so it may have more base attack, but it scales with agility and luck, and you don't have those leveled up. But another weapon you have does scale with those, and so it's actually twice as powerful. And then with the pictos and luminas, the things you equip to add buffs and debuffs and other conditions, you can come up with some crazy shit. It can be overwhelming but once it clicks it's like man, I can do whatever I want. I'm getting the first attack with my character who by choice starts with 1 HP so she can do 500% damage with guaranteed crit and 4 burn stacks. LOL. Random stuff like that.

If you wanted a turn based RPG on the classic mold, which is what I was initially hoping for, this is not it. But it's something fresh, and innovative. And it's so well done across the board. Great game.

 

[Bob Richards]

Games wouldn't cost as much as the Burj Khalifa if AAA studios stopped worrying about spending half a million to make grass have hyper-realistic swaying, or so that you can see into character's pores. I would like for my imagination to do some of the lifting again when playing games.

We gotta be at some kind of point of diminishing returns for graphics right?

Every new game hyping its graphics doesn’t really look that much better than the last one. If at all. The jump we had from the late 90s to like 2010 was going from spear sharpening to the fighter jet. Now they’re just adding more cup holders and air fresheners to the jet lmao.

 

[Bob Richards]

Let me know what you think. I've seen mixed things about both in terms of some reviews but also the chatter online and what seems like a lackluster start with the sales.

I have beaten this newest iteration of DOOM. I think it’s a good game. I had fun. Though it is not as good as Eternal. Here are some scatterbrained takes I have.

The pacing is slower but not crawling. There is now a parry system which I actually like and think worked for what they’re going for. Way too many f***ing “vehicle” sections. I disliked that a lot.

There’s some kind of bug or mixing problem with the music. It felt strangely quiet or absent through my play through which lessens the experience.

All in all, I enjoyed it. They tried something different and I think it worked for the most part. I appreciate that they didn’t just settle for making Eternal 2.

 

[Irishguy42]

We gotta be at some kind of point of diminishing returns for graphics right?

Every new game hyping its graphics doesn’t really look that much better than the last one. If at all. The jump we had from the late 90s to like 2010 was going from spear sharpening to the fighter jet. Now they’re just adding more cup holders and air fresheners to the jet lmao.

Technologically speaking, yeah it's hitting the point where there are diminishing returns with the way the current chip architecture is going. They keep making the die smaller, but there's only so much smaller they can get and get an increase out of it.

Maybe that's why we're seeing a huge pivot to frame-gen the last few generations of GPUs.

We'll see where the next big technological breakthrough is or if they'll just go down this AI rabbit-hole.

 

[Overcast]

We gotta be at some kind of point of diminishing returns for graphics right?

Every new game hyping its graphics doesn’t really look that much better than the last one. If at all. The jump we had from the late 90s to like 2010 was going from spear sharpening to the fighter jet. Now they’re just adding more cup holders and air fresheners to the jet lmao.

I would definitely agree that we're nearly at the graphical peak of games. At this point it's nearly like entering an almost 1:1 digitalization of reality with some tweaked lighting effects. It feels like these companies try to spin those cupholders as generation-defining additions because they're "using the engine to its full capability." Maybe some of the oldheads can chime in since I wasn't around then, but it feels like dealing with door-to-door snake oil salesmen.

Also re: your other post about The Dark Ages soundtrack: I read that Mick Gordon didn't do the soundtrack for The Dark Ages because there was some dispute over something that happened with Doom Eternal's soundtrack (Can thank AI for this blurb: Specifically, the issue revolved around the release of the Doom Eternal soundtrack and the attributions for the music).

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

The newest games I play are probably Binding of Isaac or Rocket League. I know where to look for games/what games I like, but I'd reckon most people don't care enough to look at what is out there and just get the prettiest looking, newest game with the most marketing.

If you like Rocket League and have a computer you can try a free game called Puck on Steam. It’s an insanely challenging physics game just like Rocket but it’s hockey. It’s so hard but occasionally when you do something right it feels amazing

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

I had 7-page essay written up about how the big companies have to stop making open-world games, but decided against posting it No one actually wants 250 hour casual playthrough massive open-world games. No one wants every single game to be a live service model that's supposed to have 10 years of additional content. But for the average/casual gamer, their options are: COD, Mario, or one of these open world games.

There were a few successful big world games (Red Dead, GTA, Witcher) and then every single company on earth including the ones that made those said "Welp, that's what sold extremely well so we're only focusing on that game design forever now." Except it's almost always 70 hours of traversing a completely empty and lifeless world that you never actually explore or closely inspect (because there's almost never a reason to; it's all just filler to get you from one checkpoint to the next), no wildlife aside from a flock of birds or some distant ambient roar of animals you'll never actually be able to see or interact with because it's just a disembodied sound byte, no NPCs aside from the strategically placed post-apocalyptic outposts. And then whoop dee doo, you're goaded into buying 4 DLCs at $40 each so you can "finish" the story and get the neon acid green clown costume and chainsaw on a stick with 1 new lifeless zone.

Games these days are just laden with more particle effects or bright flashing lights because that tricks people's lizard brains into thinking the game itself is an enjoyable experience because "Oh my gawd I punched that guy and he got hit by lightning and his head exploded, this game is great!!!" But that is all locked behind the 5th DLC, and is a time-limited reward from grinding 10,000 kills over double XP weekend while only using your lizard wizard character and fire spells. Yawn.

Give me more Hollow Knight. Give me more Hyper Light Drifter. Give me more Square games from the 90s. Tell a story without verbally telling a story. Let me find and piece some of the story together and feel like I'm playing an active role in discovering that story. Let characters visibly show emotion. Make characters jump for joy or hang their heads in sorrow. They don't need to say "I'm so happy/sad right in this moment because a/b/c happened!" Give me games where there doesn't have to be some 10-minute cut scene where the main characters out-loud identify that the bad guy is, in fact, the bad guy and that he NEEDS to be stopped. Yes, I saw them destroy half of the world and kill off a main party member.

Just give me a game that, on release, is a complete game. I've heard Baldur's Gate 3 was basically that, but I couldn't be less interested in D&D and that fanbase was a step below furries. It basically sounds like a romance simulator.

I don’t play single player games much but it always kind of depresses me seeing how much effort goes into the environment and presentation of every overhyped open-world game. Like it’s so much work for something that’s only cool for a few hours or minutes.

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

I’ve always found talk of video game prices fascinating. Hard to find a better bang for your buck, in my opinion.

I pay $70 for ~100 hours of entertainment on a game like Baldur’s Gate. Even more for a game like NHL (no matter how shit it is).

Meanwhile, I pay $130 for the shittiest seats in MSG to watch Mika Zibanejad lug his lazy, pathetic ass around the ice.

I pay $15 to for a mid ass salad at lunch so I don’t starve to death.

I pay $70 for an uber from Manhattan to Brooklyn when the subway is heavily delayed (shocker) and I have somewhere I need to be.

I’d argue, regardless of your economic status, that video games are a pretty cheap form of entertainment in 2025. I wouldn’t complain if they cost $150 each. Especially if it meant we got games quicker.

 

[romba]

I don’t play single player games much but it always kind of depresses me seeing how much effort goes into the environment and presentation of every overhyped open-world game. Like it’s so much work for something that’s only cool for a few hours or minutes.

FR. So much emphasis on graphics because it caches your eye in a trailer. Open world only makes things worse via repetition.

 

[haohmaru]

I’ve always found talk of video game prices fascinating. Hard to find a better bang for your buck, in my opinion.

I pay $70 for ~100 hours of entertainment on a game like Baldur’s Gate. Even more for a game like NHL (no matter how shit it is).

Meanwhile, I pay $130 for the shittiest seats in MSG to watch Mika Zibanejad lug his lazy, pathetic ass around the ice.

I pay $15 to for a mid ass salad at lunch so I don’t starve to death.

I pay $70 for an uber from Manhattan to Brooklyn when the subway is heavily delayed (shocker) and I have somewhere I need to be.

I’d argue, regardless of your economic status, that video games are a pretty cheap form of entertainment in 2025. I wouldn’t complain if they cost $150 each. Especially if it meant we got games quicker.

Never had a mid ass salad. Not sure I want to. Depends on the ass, I guess.

But, yeah, no kidding. If it's costing you $.70/hr I think you're doing okay.