Roleplayer's Off Topic Thread #38

[The Good Doctor]

3 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Kind of dosen't matter anymore with how much the flood gates have opened and it's being exploited left or right  As good as Chrisopher was at protecting it, it's a shame he didn't install that same level of care into his heirs. 

As with any property, that was always just a matter of time. The best thing that can happen now is for fans to just keep pushing back like they did with RoP so that it ends up continuing to cost more than it’s worth.

Amazon spent over a billion dollars on a show that’s failing badly. That is a victory for LotR.  

[BigBossBalrog]

Just now, The Good Doctor said:

As with any property, that was always just a matter of time. The best thing that can happen now is for fans to just keep pushing back like they did with RoP so that it ends up continuing to cost more than it’s worth.

Amazon spent over a billion dollars on a show that’s failing badly. That is a victory for LotR.  

Not when every reprint besides the super deluxe editions are plastered with Rings of Power images and a big giant stamp mentioning it 

I also think it's still going to be alot of peoples first experience with the IP; which is REALLY really bad. 

[BigBossBalrog]

Give the IP to FROMSOFT and have FROMSOFT hire George to write it  (They seem to have a good relationship now) 

I could get my Moira focused horror-Action RPG 

[The Good Doctor]

3 hours ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Kind of monkey paw; because alot of fans used to think Christopher was being far too controlling with the IP and look at it now 

Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy is basically what opened the floodgates for to the massive commercialization of his father’s work, something neither of them ever expected or wanted. I can understand Christopher’s issue through that lens. But I think he let the movies’ (in his opinion) negative cultural impact skew him away from ever observing them on their own merits. Because Jackson went through the greatest lengths of anyone I’ve seen to honor the themes what he was adapting, and made a damn good trilogy in doing so. Amazon’s approach has been virtually the antithesis of this.

Still, I’d rather beloved series like this have strong gatekeepers like Christopher over greedy ones who will whore it out for profit. Or worse, corporate ownership.

[The Good Doctor]

7 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Not when every reprint besides the super deluxe editions are plastered with Rings of Power images and a big giant stamp mentioning it 

You don’t have to buy it from Amazon Prime. It’s very easy to find the books without any connection to the show. 

18 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

I also think it's still going to be alot of peoples first experience with the IP; which is REALLY really bad. 

I honestly doubt it. Maybe in the very short term, but I think this show will have even less of a lasting impact than the Hobbit films. Only like thirty-something percent of people who started the season ended up even finishing it, which is abysmal. Worse than those trashy CW shows.  It has a bad reputation despite Amazon continuing to pump tens of millions into their damage control marketing.

Meanwhile, Tolkien’s books are timeless classics. They will still be famous on their own merits a hundred years from now while Amazon’s trainwreck will be forgotten and discarded a decade after it’s finished. 

[BigBossBalrog]

2 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

You don’t have to buy it from Amazon Prime. It’s very easy to find the books without any connection to the show. 

 

At my bookstores I recently checked to see if I could get one of the illustrated deluxe editions; and all the soft cover ones were the Amazon ones  

[The Good Doctor]

18 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Give the IP to FROMSOFT and have FROMSOFT hire George to write it  (They seem to have a good relationship now) 

I like George, but keep him far the hell away from Tolkien.  

[BigBossBalrog]

6 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

I like George, but keep him far the hell away from Tolkien.  

"Then Sam spent twenty hours emptying his Mordor-sunburn diarrhea from the sixteen rolls of Lambus bread he gored on" 

The world he crafted for ER was deliciously Tolkien-esque though 

[BigBossBalrog]

Speaking of, George finally got a Nebula Award (a very big one in the sci fi and fantasy space) after 25 years since his last one 

[The Good Doctor]

13 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

The world he crafted for ER was deliciously Tolkien-esque though 

It definitely bears similarities in a good way. Though I wonder how George feels about finally wining that award for a world that he only collaborated on for a medium that he doesn’t actually engage with. 

[BigBossBalrog]

1 minute ago, The Good Doctor said:

It definitely bears similarities in a good way. Though I wonder how George feels about finally wining that award for a world that he only collaborated on for a medium that he doesn’t actually engage with. 

He seems to be very appreciative of the game actually  Posting about all of his wins on his blog. The man loves his awards. 

[BigBossBalrog]

Using a US based studio was the start of their mistake 

This is the Gaas Witcher game btw. 

[The Good Doctor]

2 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Using a US based studio was the start of their mistake 

Hate to say it, but this is probably true.

In similar news, I saw some dives into Bethesda lately, and it looks like the A team were far more involved with FO76 than they let on. Bethesda Austin were mainly working on the online stuff, but the core team who made Skyrim and Fallout 4 were still heavily involved in that game’s development and it was their primary project during that time. The Austin branch were basically used as a marketing scapegoat. 

Explains a lot of the suspiciously familiar bad ideas that went into the game, but also why there’s an eight year gap between Fallout 4 and Starfield. They haven’t actually spent eight years focusing primarily on Starfield. It’s been more like 4-5.

[BigBossBalrog]

7 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

Hate to say it, but this is probably true.

In similar news, I saw some dives into Bethesda lately, and it looks like the A team were far more involved with FO76 than they let on. Bethesda Austin were mainly working on the online stuff, but the core team who made Skyrim and Fallout 4 were still heavily involved in that game’s development and it was their primary project during that time. The Austin branch were basically used as a marketing scapegoat. 

Explains a lot of the suspiciously familiar bad ideas that went into the game, but also why there’s an eight year gap between Fallout 4 and Starfield. They haven’t actually spent eight years focusing primarily on Starfield. It’s been more like 4-5.

That was fucking horrible they threw Austin under the bus like that; seemed like 76 dialed down on the questionable stuff Fallout 4 introduced, and there gamble failed miserably and they weren't willing to take the hit to their reputation. 

[The Good Doctor]

47 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

That was fucking horrible they threw Austin under the bus like that; seemed like 76 dialed down on the questionable stuff Fallout 4 introduced, and there gamble failed miserably and they weren't willing to take the hit to their reputation. 

Yeah, it seems like the correct response to the idea of their split branches working on separate games Fromsoft-style is "it doesn’t work like that". The Austin branch was formed to assist in the creation of games, not make spin-offs while the A team spends its time on other provecta.

And it does suck. I am really mixed on FO76 in terms of how it ranks with the other Bethesda Fallouts. Certain elements of it are just straight up better than FO3 and FO4… but those elements are constantly undermined by the things it does horribly, which there is a lot of.

[BigBossBalrog]

24 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

Yeah, it seems like the correct response to the idea of their split branches working on separate games Fromsoft-style is "it doesn’t work like that". The Austin branch was formed to assist in the creation of games, not make spin-offs while the A team spends its time on other provecta.

And it does suck. I am really mixed on FO76 in terms of how it ranks with the other Bethesda Fallouts. Certain elements of it are just straight up better than FO3 and FO4… but those elements are constantly undermined by the things it does horribly, which there is a lot of.

It's why FROM released 4 games and 2 cross-gen ones in the generation it took Beth to shit out Fallout 4 and 76 

[The Good Doctor]

Speaking of 76, I finished the BoS expansions and part 1 of The Pitt last weekend.

 

I never really got over the BoS and super mutant stuff being in this game to begin with, but I tried to give it a fair shake anyway. Honestly, main villain was halfway decent by Bethesda standards (voiced by Joshua Graham’s VA). He was a far better take on the "evil scientist" trope than they usually do. Unfortunately, 2/3 of the main BoS characters were so unlikable that siding with any of them was a turn-off. By the end I was legitimately just trying to pick the option that I felt was most likely to result in their collapse.  

The Pitt was basically a huge open world action-horror dungeon. You spend the first half completing objectives for this human faction to help them in their fight against a rival faction of raiders. But halfway through you hear the questgiver scream "what the fuck is that?!" over your radio, followed by distant gunshots, screaming, and the sound of something growling. That’s when the trogs emerge from underground and begin slaughtering members of both factions. And you have to run/fight through the carnage to make it back to safety. It reminded me a lot of Aliens.

Unfortunately, it didn’t lean nearly heavy enough into the RPG side of things for my taste, and I would still consider it a waste of the best location in East Coast Fallout… but as a horror sequence, it was really solid. The atmosphere was great, and I did like the characters well enough. 

[BigBossBalrog]

7 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

Speaking of 76, I finished the BoS expansions and part 1 of The Pitt last weekend.

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The Pitt was basically a huge open world action-horror dungeon. You spend the first half completing objectives for this human faction to help them in their fight against a rival faction of raiders. But halfway through you hear the questgiver scream "what the fuck is that?!" over your radio, followed by distant gunshots, screaming, and the sound of something growling. That’s when the trogs emerge from underground and begin slaughtering members of both factions. And you have to run/fight through the carnage to make it back to safety. It reminded me a lot of Aliens.

Unfortunately, it didn’t lean nearly heavy enough into the RPG side of things for my taste, and I would still consider it a waste of the best location in East Coast Fallout… but as a horror sequence, it was really solid. The atmosphere was great, and I did like the characters well enough. 

 

That does sound really cool; have they made an indication there going to be doing more these mega dungeon set pieces? It's not ideal compared to full areas; but as a bite sized experience through other Fallout Locations, it seems like it could have alot of potential. 

[The Good Doctor]

12 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

 

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That does sound really cool; have they made an indication there going to be doing these mega dungeon set pieces? It's not ideal compared to full areas; but as a bite sized experience through other Fallout Locations, it seems like it could have alot of potential. 

I think they have explicitly said that was the plan. However, the development and support for this game’s post-launch expansions has been so horribly mismanaged that it seems unlikely that they will actually follow through. They aren’t retaining or bringing back enough players to justify the cost of making something so big for it. Legitimately think they regretted hyping up The Pitt specifically because it locked them into actually having to make it. And as far as I know, all they’ve done since is shitty little monthly "events".

[The Good Doctor]

Honestly, I think The Pitt would be pretty fun if you could get a team of 3-4 to run through it with you and "Aliens Fireteam" that shit.  Especially since there were a couple objectives that would’ve been way smoother if we could’ve split up and tackled them at the same time. As it was, I played solo and had to do a lot of running back and forth.

The trog portion was the best part by far. There is a Part 2 that I haven’t played yet, but I’m hoping it has more of them. Reckon it does.

[Centurion]

8 hours ago, The Good Doctor said:

Yeah, it seems like the correct response to the idea of their split branches working on separate games Fromsoft-style is "it doesn’t work like that". The Austin branch was formed to assist in the creation of games, not make spin-offs while the A team spends its time on other provecta.

And it does suck. I am really mixed on FO76 in terms of how it ranks with the other Bethesda Fallouts. Certain elements of it are just straight up better than FO3 and FO4… but those elements are constantly undermined by the things it does horribly, which there is a lot of.

Fallout 76 did a ton of things right and a shit-ton of things wrong. Like fallout 76 has an excellent map. It has relatively untouched small towns and destroyed metropolis areas, it has wild forest and plains and the verticality of the map is fucking amazing. And the vegetation is so good. But then the story telling and the shoehorned in staples ruin it. The new factions are genuinely interesting, but they are dead and gone, Beth revised what they did to power armor in fo4 and made it better in 76 and then shit on it by introducing 50 different power armors, and many many more things that I don’t have the energy to bring up

[BigBossBalrog]

https://deadline.com/2023/05/wga-strike-costing-studios-30-million-a-day-guild-says-1235367477/

BURN IT ALL, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD 

[The Good Doctor]

I did finished part 2 of The Pitt tonight. It’s alright. A good dungeon and it did have a few people to talk to and even stat-based dialogue checks (still a better RPG than Fallout 4 ). And I really liked the main two characters you interact with quite a bit. 

That said, I really miss actually exploring the factions and meeting lots of people like we got to do in OG The Pitt. This one is just way too fast paced and combat focused. 

[The Good Doctor]

15 hours ago, Centurion said:

The new factions are genuinely interesting, but they are dead and gone

The Pitt expansion actually soft-retconned the Responders being dead and gone. Now a number of them survived and occupied Whitesprings after the Scorched Plague was brought under control. Unfortunately, few if any of them are as interesting as the dead characters, and their survival kind of makes the Responders’ doomed "final stand" at Morgantown Airport less impactful. Still, it’s not the worst job this game has done of reviving a faction post-launch.

Free States are still gone, though. It’s weird that they’re one of the only factions to not get brought back in any capacity considering that their leader, his kids, and another major character from their storyline are some of the only people who were never implied to be dead in vanilla FO76. Shame because the Free States are probably my favorite faction in Bethesda Fallout. Wish the story expansion had revolved around them instead of the BoS, because there is nothing about it that they couldn’t have done instead.

[BigBossBalrog]

Speaking of Fallout; I was bored last night and decided to watch a playthrough of the uncensored Frontier and holy fuck  Remeber the Brotherhood NCR War, one of the pivotal moments of the background that everyone wants to see?  You start the Mod living it out; but it's a on the rails script fest that runs at like fifteen FPS; and it plays like Call of Duty (one of the bad ones). It's so janky, it pretty much ruins the entire scene (which plays out like a by the books corny war movie), not helped by the fact the Creation Engine is not good for all out battles. 

Maybe it was better left to our imagination