An opinion you're probably all alone with?

[LibraryOgre]

I remember shooting games where the scenery moved, but you didn't choose where to go or look. For example, the setting was a bank heist, and you saw what one of the robbers would see, but movement was preprogrammed and you moved the reticle on the video screen. If you didn't manage to shoot the police quicly enough while it was chasing you, you lost and got captured.

Ah, the rail shooter. Most recent I know of is some of the space combat missions in SWtoR, but my biggest memory? The Adventures of Bayou Billy. You scrolled slowly to the right, and shot things as you went along.

[MCerberus]

They pretty much were a more cinematic equivalent of analogic coin-ops with tiny cowboys you had to somehow shoot as they appeared and disappeared among plastic cutouts of mountains.

I will not have Area 51 slandered with such accuracies.

[Spore]

Ah, the rail shooter. Most recent I know of is some of the space combat missions in SWtoR, but my biggest memory? The Adventures of Bayou Billy. You scrolled slowly to the right, and shot things as you went along.

It was genuinely fun I might add. Add in Space Combat into your current "premium" 7x XP run for story quests you have a nice side thing to break the tension of your story quests. One minute you are an imperial agent in a standoff with a sith lord (which you technically have no chance in beating storywise), the next you are the ace pilot for the Empire playing a mini Star Fox 64.

To throw in a new debatable stance based on the MMO idea of keeping players "busy", on which I am not alone with, but there is a vocal opposition: I hate hate hate filler content in games. I don't give a flying **** if my game is "just" 12 hours long and I paid 40 schmeckels for it. I want to be engaged and I want the games' story to be paced decently. A bit of busywork is nice - I have had the reverse where jRPGs threw hours of cutscenes at me between gameplay. But do I really have to pacify all the areas of Zandalar for the Orcish Horde all by myself when I am canonically an ambassador and not a one-man army? Do I need to solve puzzles to learn the approval of my autistic Kitsune wizard? Does the Dragonborn need to solve radiant quests to advance the dramatic story of the Companions? No, no, NO.

The irony in some games is even that there is so much CONTENT which makes for GOOD story twists and turns that get ignored because some players might have already killed the icy palette swapped Tauren of Northrend or you need more gems for your Xenoblade Run so you murder random monsters all while the enemy robot army is juuuuuuuust about to infiltrate your last remnant of humanity. (But not quite since the attack triggers when you arrive).

[Taevyr]

Do I need to solve puzzles to learn the approval of my autistic Kitsune wizard?

Assuming you're referring to Nenio: this is the first time I see anyone using autistic in reference to her, and I'm genuinely stuck between laughing out loud and feeling just slightly offended. It fits too well (in a stereotypical way, sure, but still), I kind of wish it didn't, and I'm perplexed that I never thought of the comparison myself.

More to the point of your post: I don't mind "filler" content when it's used to add to the theme/feeling of a given location, flesh out the world to complement the main quests and/or local storyline; just as I don't mind "filler" episodes or issues in a series if they have a similar relevance.

However, I do agree that there should be at least some effort put in so you're not just going out to e.g. grind 50 direwolf pelts, and that they should remain limited and/or optional. SWTOR did a decent job at that, both through the optional class story xp boosts available, and by splitting off the "exploration quests" from the key non-class story ones by having them be toggled by a button on the map screen.

[Vinyadan]

I have an opinion that I haven't seen expressed: Skyrim's Blackreach is good and even amazing (literally, it looks like an enchanted world beneath the grimy surface), it's Nirnroots that always were a bad idea.

[Lord Raziere]

I have an opinion that I haven't seen expressed: Skyrim's Blackreach is good and even amazing (literally, it looks like an enchanted world beneath the grimy surface), it's Nirnroots that always were a bad idea.

I don't see anyone disagreeing with Blackreach being cool, because it is pretty cool.

the nirnroots......yeah that was a pretty pointless quest. peak "collect twenty random stuff quest" design. I think a lot of people will agree with that, along with No Stones Unturned being a bad quest because of that same design but on a bigger scale.

[Keltest]

I don't see anyone disagreeing with Blackreach being cool, because it is pretty cool.

the nirnroots......yeah that was a pretty pointless quest. peak "collect twenty random stuff quest" design. I think a lot of people will agree with that, along with No Stones Unturned being a bad quest because of that same design but on a bigger scale.

I wouldnt mind the nirnroot quest so badly if they unlocked something cool, like an artifact or something, or even just some new alchemy functionality. But they really arent that exciting except being a kind of rare ingredient.

[WritersBlock]

That quill retrieval quest you can do for Maven Black-Briar is one of the worst quest objectives in the game as well. (Where you have to go underwater and possibly look over the entire giant lake that is near Riften.)

[Spore]

That quill retrieval quest you can do for Maven Black-Briar is one of the worst quest objectives in the game as well. (Where you have to go underwater and possibly look over the entire giant lake that is near Riften.)

You have to have a reason for that ONE quest pointer spell that leaves a silvery line Fable style after all. But since it is not a quest pointer I assume it doesnt even work on that quest.

[Keltest]

That quill retrieval quest you can do for Maven Black-Briar is one of the worst quest objectives in the game as well. (Where you have to go underwater and possibly look over the entire giant lake that is near Riften.)

Lets be fair, that quest is hardly the worst thing about Maven Black-Briar

[LibraryOgre]

I don't see anyone disagreeing with Blackreach being cool, because it is pretty cool.

the nirnroots......yeah that was a pretty pointless quest. peak "collect twenty random stuff quest" design. I think a lot of people will agree with that, along with No Stones Unturned being a bad quest because of that same design but on a bigger scale.

Part of what made No Stone Unturned such a horrible quest, IMO, is that if you picked up ANY of the gems, it took up inventory weight until you got all of them, and each of the ****ers was half a pound. So, you have to get up to 12 pounds of useless crap in a game that's already an inventory abomination.

[factotum]

Part of what made No Stone Unturned such a horrible quest, IMO, is that if you picked up ANY of the gems, it took up inventory weight until you got all of them, and each of the ****ers was half a pound. So, you have to get up to 12 pounds of useless crap in a game that's already an inventory abomination.

Really? I thought quest items never actually weighed anything in Skyrim, even if they say they do?

[Zevox]

Since the subject has come up, here's one I'm probably not alone with, but it can feel like it: I have never played Skyrim, and have no desire to do so. Because I did try other Bethesda games before Skyrim came out (mostly Fallout 3, but also briefly Morrowind and Oblivion), and it became clear I just don't like their whole MO when it comes to game design. It's a big part of (though not the sole reason for) me deciding I didn't like open-world game design.

I actually got to the end of Fallout 3's main story, but almost didn't finish it, simply because my motivation to play the game went to absolute zero the moment I hit the maximum level. You see, since I don't like first-person shooters, I'd looked up how to make a melee character work in the game before I got started, figuring it was the sort of build you'd need to plan out to make effective in a game that's mostly designed for FPS gameplay, so I had a plan for what to grab from levels 1-20 from the outset. And as soon as that was finished, my reason for playing the game was just gone. Nothing else about it had engaged me at all, it was all just seeing that plan through, getting the character's level up and picking up the planned abilities. I forced myself to play the last story mission, just because when I looked up where I was against a guide, I realized I literally just had the one left, and wanted to be able to say I'd finished the game. It was honestly one of the most stark realizations I've ever had playing a game, to so completely lose interest in such a clear-cut way, all at once like that. Combined with not at all being able to get into Morrowind or Oblivion from the brief attempts I made with those, it quickly brought me to the conclusion that I just shouldn't ever bother with Bethesda's work again.

[Lord Raziere]

My experience with Bethesda games is that I've never played Fallout 3 and bounced off Oblivion and Morrowind as well....but Skyrim somehow got me hooked. I still can't stand Oblivion or Morrowind, because in those I either kept dying or couldn't do anything competently so its just never worked. but Skyrim is easy or simplified enough that it just flowed so much better when I played it the first time, it didn't have the stupid hit chance, it felt fun to go through the quests fighting things, everything was just smooth out and streamlined enough for me to have fun with it. granted it my older brother that kept buying the games, but that just means I have him to thank for so much fun I had. I'll probably never play FO3 because it just sounds like a worse F:NV.

[veti]

Really? I thought quest items never actually weighed anything in Skyrim, even if they say they do?

Correct. More than once, when I finish a quest, I've found myself encumbered because all of a sudden the quest items acquired weight.

I've never actually tried collecting those stones, looked like a fool's errand to me the first time I saw it and it still does... But I'm reasonably sure the "quest item" property that keeps you from stashing or selling the things, is the same property that makes it weightless.

[LibraryOgre]

I could have sworn they took up weight even while quest items.

[factotum]

I could have sworn they took up weight even while quest items.

Next time you pick one up check your overall encumbrance before and after. Pretty sure it won't change.

[Actana]

Quest items having no weight also had some funny interactions in Oblivion, especially with the Umbra sword. It had a quest associated with it, and until you finished that quest it had a weight of 0, making it by far the most efficient weapon to swing (since weapon fatigue use was governed by weapon weight). In addition, quest items could not be removed from your inventory by the game, so that one main quest where you have to give up all your gear? You got to keep all the quest items in your inventory, including Umbra.

It also helps that Umbra was the highest damage one-handed weapon outside of DLCs and conjured ones.

[Sloanzilla]

More pen and paper than video games... but unpopular opinions:

1. Classes don't need to be perfectly balanced in cooperative games. Having a unique feel to each class is actually more important than balance.

2. Healing has its place in combat. Damage spells have their place in combat.

3. 3.X/Pathfinder Monks aren't actually that bad. They are magekillers in a game where mages are very powerful.

4. Roleplay is not automatically more a more "pure" way to game than "roll play"- in fact, a balance between the two is probably best.

[Spore]

More pen and paper than video games... but unpopular opinions:

1. Classes don't need to be perfectly balanced in cooperative games. Having a unique feel to each class is actually more important than balance.

2. Healing has its place in combat. Damage spells have their place in combat.

3. 3.X/Pathfinder Monks aren't actually that bad. They are magekillers in a game where mages are very powerful.

4. Roleplay is not automatically more a more "pure" way to game than "roll play"- in fact, a balance between the two is probably best.

Inhales sharply: Boy do I agree to disagree on several terms here.

1. Completely agree. In fact while I like 5e, I really miss 3.5 and Pathfinders ridiculous power gaps. Not for the practical games, but for the fact that high level wizards and clerics SHOULD feel completely disconnected from reality. Mundane problems should not bother them. The Elminster version of Golarion lives IN THE F*CKING SUN. And canonically the wizards of 5th edition are powerful planes hopping entities. And what does your 20th level wizard do? Wish for 8th or lower level spells? Come on!

2. Healing and damage is a "pool of ressources thing" and has its place in combat, as long as it changes certain outcomes, and "tempo". Playing card games has made me understand and appreciate life totals. If you have enough life to survive another hit, healing is not needed. If you don't have enough damage on your spell to (vastly) change the battlefield, damage spells are not needed.

3. Monks are mostly bad, because their ressources are often too limited (who thought it was a good idea to limit their weird palm techniques? If they are martials, they should work on the assumption of being effective all day every day) and it takes an expertly crafted build to take down an underoptimized caster on a day off (not a day where they prepare to fight a monk). But it is one of the early (read as in low level) versions of rocket tag. If the caster cannot disable the monk immediately, they are instantly grappled and manhandled, unable to proceed further, effectively removing them (and the monk) from the battlefield in their own little game what I call "struggle-cuddling" because it is usually a grappling thing. And then they have a ring of Freedom of Movement, and the monk is utterly hosed.

4. Agree here. People want to play something they are not good at IRL. Why the shy player playing the seductive sorcerer should be forced to roleplay out their sirene songs of desire if they don't feel comfortable instead of rolling is just as weird as not allowing the Cha 8 fighter to bring up a very valid reason why this border patrol is bogus and they should be left alone.

[Zombimode]

Speaking of balance: here is another hot take:

Balance is a terrible optimization goal for a single player game.

[warty goblin]

Speaking of balance: here is another hot take:

Balance is a terrible optimization goal for a single player game.

I completely agree with this, with the provisio that a player doing sane things on Normal difficulty should be able to succeed. So like in an RPG if you play Sir Swordsalot and pump up your Strength and take sword related upgrades, you should be able to beat the game with a reasonable amount of effort. If you do obviously stupid things like play a wizard, but pump dexterity, ignore spells and charge everything and try to punch it to death, it's OK if you get totally atomized. It's also fine if there's builds that completely trivialize the game, so long as on standard difficulty you can just muddle through without graphing out every level up choice and item for an entire playthrough.

Further hot takes, RTS games died in no small part because they listened to the community, which naturally was made up of highly invested, competitive multiplayer loving people. These people make up like 90% of the vocal community, and are probably like 10% of actual players. Everybody else just wants a fun campaign, a skirmish against a predictable AI that provides a steady stream of dudes to murder, and lots of cool, goofy units to mess with. Yes floating the resources for a super expensive mega-dragon is dumb and less efficient than building like 500 archers. It's also way, way cooler, and playing around with cool stuff is the fun of an RTS.

The trick is that for the singleplayer person, balance is a negative once you clear the threshold of being able to win with a particular Faction and sane strategy. Part that point, balance is just removing cool stuff.

[Sloanzilla]

Hey you agree half the time!

1. I think the Crowd Control> evocation damage argument, while logical on paper, ignores some realistic metagame dynamics.

Option 1: Wizard casts sleep. Hobgoblins fall asleep. End of combat.
Option 2: Wizard casts burning hands. Hobgoblins take damage equal to half their hit points. Fighter hits hobgoblins for the other half.

At some point, Option 1's DM turns them into hobgoblin zombies, etc. Or the fighter rerolls. I don't think the metagaming psychology of "being useful, but not too useful" is always taken into account. Soaking up 40% of the hit points with a burning hands/fireball/etc. doesn't keep the bad guys from getting their turn, but, if calibrated right, it means the other party members can finish the job on the next turn. I think a good Tier 1 caster who addresses the metapsychology of the game can find a way to still be the most powerful player on the board- but in a more subtle way that doesn't alienate newer players or the DM.

What's weird is that old old old fashioned DND seemed to do an OK job balancing arcane casters by making them ultra squishy (20 hitpoints at level 6!), changing experience charts and even adding casting time. Not a perfect balance, but the general consensus during the AD&D era was that high level wizards kind of earned being more powerful than high level fighters due to a much more rigorous low level initiation phase. That's no longer the case. I'd actually be fine with tier-based experience charts. As you said, a high level wizard...should feel high level. Also, the "fighters get followers" thing was even a good idea.

3. Sure I can make a wizard who can beat a monk 100% of the time. But if I'm plugging my way through a reasonable Pathfinder Adventure Path, for example, the monk seems to do OK against the assorted cast of casters introduced. Mobile. Hard to kill or incapacitate. Good damage output if he has a chance to flurry.

Inhales sharply: Boy do I agree to disagree on several terms here.

1. Completely agree. In fact while I like 5e, I really miss 3.5 and Pathfinders ridiculous power gaps. Not for the practical games, but for the fact that high level wizards and clerics SHOULD feel completely disconnected from reality. Mundane problems should not bother them. The Elminster version of Golarion lives IN THE F*CKING SUN. And canonically the wizards of 5th edition are powerful planes hopping entities. And what does your 20th level wizard do? Wish for 8th or lower level spells? Come on!

2. Healing and damage is a "pool of ressources thing" and has its place in combat, as long as it changes certain outcomes, and "tempo". Playing card games has made me understand and appreciate life totals. If you have enough life to survive another hit, healing is not needed. If you don't have enough damage on your spell to (vastly) change the battlefield, damage spells are not needed.

3. Monks are mostly bad, because their ressources are often too limited (who thought it was a good idea to limit their weird palm techniques? If they are martials, they should work on the assumption of being effective all day every day) and it takes an expertly crafted build to take down an underoptimized caster on a day off (not a day where they prepare to fight a monk). But it is one of the early (read as in low level) versions of rocket tag. If the caster cannot disable the monk immediately, they are instantly grappled and manhandled, unable to proceed further, effectively removing them (and the monk) from the battlefield in their own little game what I call "struggle-cuddling" because it is usually a grappling thing. And then they have a ring of Freedom of Movement, and the monk is utterly hosed.

4. Agree here. People want to play something they are not good at IRL. Why the shy player playing the seductive sorcerer should be forced to roleplay out their sirene songs of desire if they don't feel comfortable instead of rolling is just as weird as not allowing the Cha 8 fighter to bring up a very valid reason why this border patrol is bogus and they should be left alone.

[MCerberus]

Further hot takes, RTS games died in no small part because they listened to the community, which naturally was made up of highly invested, competitive multiplayer loving people. These people make up like 90% of the vocal community, and are probably like 10% of actual players. Everybody else just wants a fun campaign, a skirmish against a predictable AI that provides a steady stream of dudes to murder, and lots of cool, goofy units to mess with. Yes floating the resources for a super expensive mega-dragon is dumb and less efficient than building like 500 archers. It's also way, way cooler, and playing around with cool stuff is the fun of an RTS.

See that's where the old westwood games were great. No matter your build path, you got the fun units. Rocket troopers fighting war blimps, mechs fighting cyborgs. Tanks that are so big they run over other tanks only for there to be a giant tank that can run over it. You defeat psychic Lenin by overloading his time machine and getting him eaten by a t-rex.

[Sloanzilla]

"Further hot takes, RTS games died in no small part because they listened to the community, which naturally was made up of highly invested, competitive multiplayer loving people."

This needs to be written in fire across the sky. Don't let your small group of very vocal ultra competitive players convince you that they speak for the 90% casual players. Happens over and over again.

[Alcore]

Here is one I am probably alone on;


Final Fantasy 10-2 is a better than Final Fantasy 10 in every way other than game length.

FFX-2 didn't spend hours establishing Ail Bed as cheating, enslaving and sadistic bad guys to just turn around to call you a bad person for thinking badly about them as a people. Then the game goes back to establishing them as a people to be evil without a single good character. Even Riku, who helped enslave your character in the beginning complains that they are not all theives... while steal is her central feature...

I found FFX-2 to be more coherent. Even when it wasn't coherent it had the awareness to have some characters call itself out. The writing team went above and beyond unlike with FFX.

* * * - * * *

One more!

Creative mode that gives you everything! But often leaves you with nothing to do. Recently played Evil Genius 2 and has a... sandbox mode. (Actually called creative?) Where you have unlimited money, all researches done, everything!... Which is fine if you want to play around with the trap rooms in configurations that would impossible in the long term games. Sounds like a good bit of fun but there is not a lot of things to do.

Subnautica creative is much the same way. No food, no water, no oxygen, no crush depth, no structural integrity and no death (I think you can kill yourself but you'll have to be quite creative; fall damage?). What is there to do? Grow plants for decoration? Hatch eggs? Build a neat looking base? By the end of the game you have done all that.


I like Space Engineers for having it as it is Legos; In Space! And it is more like a blank canvas for creating space ships, rovers and bases.

[Zombimode]

Hey you agree half the time!

1. I think the Crowd Control> evocation damage argument, while logical on paper, ignores some realistic metagame dynamics.

Option 1: Wizard casts sleep. Hobgoblins fall asleep. End of combat.
Option 2: Wizard casts burning hands. Hobgoblins take damage equal to half their hit points. Fighter hits hobgoblins for the other half.

I don't know man, how deep are you into the hyperbole?

Sleep has a 1 round casting time, and a tiny 10 ft. radius burst area-of-effect, and affects 4 (!) HD worth of creatures.

Lets take the very first encounter in Red Hand of Doom, unmodified: 6 2-HD Regulars, 2 4-HD Hellhounds, 1 3-HD Doom Hand Cleric, 1 4-HD Bladebearer and 6 additional 2-HD Regulars in the second wave.
At the most Sleep affects 2 targets, that get a save and can be awakened with an action. And your casting is at danger of being interrupted. A somewhat risky move, but the payof may be worth it. A good use of an action and a 1st level slot, but surely competing with other actions. And hardly the combat-ending nuke you make it out to be.

[Rynjin]

FFX-2 didn't spend hours establishing Ail Bed as cheating, enslaving and sadistic bad guys to just turn around to call you a bad person for thinking badly about them as a people. Then the game goes back to establishing them as a people to be evil without a single good character. Even Riku, who helped enslave your character in the beginning complains that they are not all theives... while steal is her central feature...

While technically a correct statement at the start there...it's only because neither did FFX. Keep in mind everything I'm about to say uses the translation of their language to decipher their real motives.

The literal first thing the Al Bhed are shown doing is saving the main character from freezing to death alone and then offering to take him literally wherever he wants to go. While they do threaten to kill Tidus at first...they think he's a fiend in human disguise. Which is reasonable, considering it's technically true. The only morally ambiguous thing they do is make them help with the dive...but considering that without said dive the heroes literally would not be able to move around fast enough to complete the plot later, I think we can give 'em a pass.

Then they're shown attacking the party and trying to kidnap Yuna several times, which is evil on the face but their dialogue (and the later plot context I think your forgot?) makes it clear that their goal, while misguided, has pure intentions. They want to prevent the summoners from dying for what they think is a pointless gesture (the Final Summoning) and instead seek out a more permanent solution to Sin. Which again, ultimately, the main characters do.

I'm really not sure where you're getting "the game goes back to establishing them as a people to be evil without a single good character" from at all. Yuna and Rikku are both Al Bhed. Cid is Al Bhed, as is the entire crew of the airship you use to get around. And most of the characters you think are evil are, again, revealed to have good intentions either by the plot (in their home city) or by their translated dialogue (in subsequent playthroughs or with cheats).

The only thing I can think of is you just assumed it was correct when Wakka said it and never critically questioned whether or not he was maybe just a little (read: a lot. Holy **** so much) racist?

I don't know man, how deep are you into the hyperbole?

Sleep has a 1 round casting time, and a tiny 10 ft. radius burst area-of-effect, and affects 4 (!) HD worth of creatures.

Lets take the very first encounter in Red Hand of Doom, unmodified: 6 2-HD Regulars, 2 4-HD Hellhounds, 1 3-HD Doom Hand Cleric, 1 4-HD Bladebearer and 6 additional 2-HD Regulars in the second wave.
At the most Sleep affects 2 targets, that get a save and can be awakened with an action. And your casting is at danger of being interrupted. A somewhat risky move, but the payof may be worth it. A good use of an action and a 1st level slot, but surely competing with other actions. And hardly the combat-ending nuke you make it out to be.

And this is why Color Spray is and always has been better.

[Rodin]

Sums up my thoughts pretty well. The Al Bhed are Fantasy Romani, and its telling that I had to remember to change my verbiage over what I learned as a kid - and which terminology was still predominant at the time FFX was released 20+ years ago. FFX was very much making a point by portraying the Al Bhed the way they did and then revealing that your one-sided view of them (since you don't even speak their language the first playthrough) is entirely wrong.

[LibraryOgre]

And this is why Color Spray is and always has been better.

Eh, Color Spray might only hit one person, no matter how powerful they are. At low levels, sleep is 2d4 HD, no save... that'll incapacitate a lot of goblins and orcs... at least 2, and an average of 5. That's pretty much an entire fight gone. Color Spray? Even that 2 HD boss gets a save at 1st level, and he might be the only one hit.

Plus, Color Spray can't be cast behind their lines to make it more likely that the leader or shaman is taken out.