Comments 172

Re: Random: 'Bring Back Killer Instinct' Sign Shows Up At AEW Dynamite Event

stinkyx

@Blessed_Koz KI was hugely important for fighting games. First and foremost, it invented combo breakers. Next, it was the first game to have really long combos, and lastly it formalized the combo gameplay structure we see in lots of other fighting games to this day. It was accessible yet deep. That's not even to mention the cultural appeal it had in the 90s with its characters and music.

Re: Call Of Duty Might Be Ditching Yearly Releases, And It's About Time

stinkyx

I personally like the yearly release schedule because the quality and amount of content is usually justified by the pricetag, and the older games still have a huge enough player base that it's not essential to migrate.

The thing I do NOT like, however, is the forced Warzone integration. I think it limits the creativity each developer has by locking them into a template. No dolphin diving or crazy gadgets in BLOPS CW because those features wouldn't meld with MW's gameplay systems in Warzone. Will we ever see another futuristic game with wall-running or advanced movement? Or just any notable change in gameplay? Doubtful if it has to play nicely with Warzone.

Re: Call Of Duty Might Be Ditching Yearly Releases, And It's About Time

stinkyx

@Somebody We'll have to see. From a business POV, it would be interesting if players could get the latest COD on GamePass vs having to shell out $70 on PS5, and then having some kind of exclusivity window (like a month?) would lock-in all the content creators to Xbox while still leaving the door open for the masses to play on their platform of choice.

Re: Pick One: Which Of These Is Your Favourite Activision Blizzard Franchise?

stinkyx

Call of Duty!

Also, hoping Xbox players will stay humble with the acquisition. Maybe it's just me, but the community at PushSquare seems to have gotten more elitist over the years as Sony became top dog last console generation. Like...a LOT of corporate shilling in the comments. Sucks for PS gamers they can't play new iterations of these franchises, but they can do what they've been telling Xbox and PC players for years and just buy a new console

Re: Talking Point: Is Forced Cross-Play On Xbox Becoming A Huge Issue?

stinkyx

I play a lot of crossplay, and it's lame that people want to exclude players because 10+ years ago there were a bunch of aimbots in PC shooters. I personally haven't had any problems.

To me, the only noticeable difference is when someone is using mouse + keyboard and you see their screen whipping around everywhere in the spector cam. I used to think it was super unfair, but controller autoaim is so heavy nowadays, and those types of people might LOOK good but usually aren't, so it's not uncommon to see controller players stomp them.

I think stats-based ranking and matchmaking systems have an even bigger impact on enjoyment. Matches where one team is waaaaay better than the other, or where 1-4 players are waaaaaay better than everyone else have been the leading cause of frustrating / unfair / boring matches in my experience.

This has been the case long before crossplay was a thing. Let the really good players (PC or not) get pooled together with other really good players. But who knows what's going on (remember Activision-Blizzard's matchmaking patent to put players who just bought a skin or DLC into matches with bad players, in order to manipulate everyone into subconsciously associating buying items with doing better?).

There's also the problem of internet quality here in the USA. That's been a noticeable problem for me, especially in games where fractions of a second matter. Pre-aiming and pre-firing help a lot, but getting dumped into a match where everyone has 200+ ping is less of a thing for me with crossplay too thanks to the expanded player pools.

The last elephant in the room is that some people just suck at shooters or aren't as good as they used to be and want to blame others. Overall, there's a lot to be said about other problems affecting the enjoyment of online games. Crossplay has done a lot of good to let friends with different consoles or PC play together, and trying to blame and compartmentalize it instead of identifying and fixing overall problems is sad.

Re: Mass Effect TV Show Plan "Makes Me Cringe A Little", Admits Former BioWare Writer

stinkyx

@Magabro Nice, that's quite a feat if you did it without really making use of the tactical pause and micromanaging your squadmates. Made it feel closer to Dragon Age than Gears. But anyway, yeah...at this point in my life, I like the story of Gears better than Mass Effect, so I'd say you're not missing anything. For one thing, Gears doesn't abandon ship when one of its games does bad (i.e. Mass Effect Andromeda isnt getting a sequel, lol, so the TONS of time I spent absorbing the lore and story just got trashed, lol). I'm actually really loving the Gears story and would rather see a movie in that universe.

Re: Mass Effect TV Show Plan "Makes Me Cringe A Little", Admits Former BioWare Writer

stinkyx

@Magabro You need to play these games on the harder difficulties because they are NOTHING like Gears of War! You'll need to carefully position your squadmates around the environment, use your powers and abilities at the right time on the right enemy, and carefully prioritize your targets. Also, like David Gaider in the article said, the choices really make the game special, and it really is just another run-of-the-mill sci-fi universe without them. I'm definitely gonna have to respectfully disagree with you there.

Re: Xbox 20th Anniversary: Which Xbox Generation Has Been The Best?

stinkyx

I'm really impressed with Xbox for making games more affordable (Game Pass), making sure new Series X games are X1 compatible, letting PC players join-in day one, letting you game anywhere with XCloud, and being the front-runner in accessibility for disabled players (just to name a few). No one gets left out, period. So cool.

Re: Can You Believe It? The Gears Of War Series Is Now 15 Years Old

stinkyx

How time flies. Great series! I remember fellow PC gamers pirating the absolute hell out of the first game, which caused Cliffy B to not put Gears 2 on PC and call out PC gamers out as a bunch of pirates...and then PC gamers have the audacity to stay mad at him still to this day for his remarks, lol.

Anyway, Cliffy B is a genius, period. Great game design that stands the test of time.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 25-26)

stinkyx

@Luigi_Skywalker I was exaggerating a bit, admittedly, but it still takes a few dozen hours to get a good loadout in COD, IMHO! And I agree 100% that map knowledge makes the better player, but getting shot in the back because a player spawned right behind you will never not be annoying, and the map design of many levels makes luck too much of a factor (I think more "3-lane maps" and dedicated spawn bases goes a long way to correct this, i.e. Killzone games).

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 25-26)

stinkyx

@Luigi_Skywalker The special weapon timers are definitely an "old" design idea, but I think the fact that you can pick up these weapons after you kill the person holding them makes it more balanced. Also, having everyone respawn with the same loadout goes a long way to making the game more fair than COD, where you'd have to play for like over a hundred hours to unlock certain weapons and the good attachments for them.

To each their own, but I'm personally sick of having to spend dozens and dozens of hours unlocking guns and attachments just to get some semblance of fair play online.

Re: Pick One: Are You More Interested In COD Or Battlefield This Year?

stinkyx

The last two COD games have been amazing thanks to Gunfite mode...now that that's butchered, the game has lost all of its appeal to me.

Plus, the thought of grinding for MONTHS to unlock all the weapons and attachments in COD and BF just to have some kind of even playing field is not something I'd want to do again, lol.

Re: Killer Instinct's Twitter Bombarded With Requests For New Game (Again)

stinkyx

So frustrating that MS is squandering all of its IPs and basically making us wait untold years between sequels in popular franchises.

None of us are getting any younger, lol. I mean, in the timespan between the last two Halo games, high school grads could complete 4 years of college and then gotten a 2-year masters degree. By the time another KI comes out, it'll be almost an entire decade between release dates at best.

MS has tons of money. It's super annoying to see them release one big game every few years while PlayStation drops big sequels multiple times per year.

Re: Pick One: Which Of These Quake Games Is Your Favourite?

stinkyx

Quake is such a mish-mashed series, lol. I personally like Champions the best...fun little hero shooter who's only downside (IMHO) is god forbid you run into a "Quake veteran" in the community forum who will trash the game for its fancy graphics, newfangled gameplay, and everything that makes it not-Quake-3. Yep...those old timer gamers aging disgracefully.

Re: Here's A Look At The Crysis Remastered Trilogy On Xbox Series X, Coming Fall 2021

stinkyx

@The_New_Butler I absolutely HATED Crysis 1 at first when I played in 2008 but ended up enjoying it a lot more when I switched to the hardest difficulty. You have to reeeally make use of your powers and the environment/physics, which means you can't just run through the game with guns blazing.

It really shines at that point, and has given me lots of really unique moments, like using super speed to rush a group of enemies, grab one, speed away into the bushes while being shot at, and then tossing the enemy I grabbed off of a cliff. Or using super strength to jump on top of a shed, punch a hole in the roof, and kill the enemy inside. The sandbox levels are really fun to just mess around in, IMHO. Maybe give it another try?

Re: It Sounds Like A 'Revitalised Edition' Of Quake Is Getting Announced At Quakecon

stinkyx

@SplooshDmg There's definitely something to be said about just making a "good game" without feeling the need to add-in extra features. In fact, I'd argue there's still a lot of ground to cover for gameplay features that seem to be relegated to secondary thoughts in most games...how about better A.I., and more interactable environments? Like Strogg enemies who keep fighting in totally dynamic ways depending on how you blow off their limbs, or having to kill a Shambler by physically blowing apart the architecture to crush it?

These are things we've seen in games before, but on a limited scale and in very staged and predictable ways. I think developing these secondary systems would add complexity without taking away from the simplistic core gameplay.

Re: It Sounds Like A 'Revitalised Edition' Of Quake Is Getting Announced At Quakecon

stinkyx

@SplooshDmg Hmmm, but how can Quake mix-up the Doom 2016 formula, or would it just be more of the same? I feel like advanced movement (strafe jumping, rocket jumps) is the one aspect of traditional Quake gameplay that can be explored, but those certainly wouldn't be selling points for a larger potential audience. The enemies and lore are great, so maybe they could reboot the series as an entirely new genre (turn-based tactical shooter? Horror shooter?).

Re: It Sounds Like A 'Revitalised Edition' Of Quake Is Getting Announced At Quakecon

stinkyx

The biggest barrier to Quake's popularity is the fanbase, IMHO. When I was playing Quake Champions, there was soooooo much complaining and toxicity from original "fans" on the Steam forums and in-game that I'm sure it scared away a lot of new players. Quake Live also has the most unwelcoming community I've ever tried to be a part of. From what I can tell, Quake "fans" want the old games, unmodified in every way, and don't want any new players touching "their" games. It's a community shooting itself in the foot, and head, lol.

Re: Call Of Duty: Vanguard Images And Details Leak, Reveal Reportedly Taking Place Next Week

stinkyx

@Tasuki I'm ashamed to admit that I'm probably gonna get it too, but you didn't need to take it that far, lol.

Money is the only language these horrible corporations understand, so not-buying the game is the only way to say, "Stop harboring a work atmosphere of creepy behavior." I mean, have you ever worked in a job where your employer shanks you in some way or another? Even after you quit, you still want to see them fall. Activision-Blizzard need to face consequences for treating employees like dirt. All us "normal" people are all on the same side. Let's stand together!

Re: EA: Mass Effect Legendary Edition Sales Were 'Well Above Expectations'

stinkyx

@RedShirtRod 100%. God forbid they made a sequel to Andromeda that learned from its mistakes. Instead, we're going to back to Shepard's story, and canonizing the ending of ME3. So dumb.

Imagine investing yourself in a story and books and all that and they just throw it all away. For a story-based series, it just ruins the immersion and what makes a series like ME special, IMHO. I've actually jumped over to Halo for my sci-fi epic fix.