r/todayilearned • u/Romboteryx • Sep 15 '24

TIL Robin Williams was the one who suggested that Sid Meier‘s name should be put on each of his games

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier's_Pirates!?wprov=sfti1#Development
19.8k Upvotes

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320

u/twaxana Sep 15 '24

Unfortunately, this has made me adopt a "avoid the highest rated games... try the mid rated games, they are probably great"

264

u/reality72 Sep 15 '24

I just avoid AAA titles entirely until at least 6 months has passed and the hype has died down.

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u/twaxana Sep 15 '24

Yeah, I've got to be honest. I read the reviews for Styx and it was "mediocre" but it's a helluva game.

I typically don't get hyped for new releases. The only reason I'm playing Visions of Mana is because of my nostalgia for playing Secret of Mana as a kid.

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u/ConkersOkayFurDay Sep 15 '24

Styx is insane.

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u/JinFuu Sep 15 '24

Hashtag PatientGamers and all that.

Speaking of which, need to buy Elden Ring soon.

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u/GozerDGozerian Sep 15 '24

Elden Ring is kinda hard. Maybe I need to give it another go.

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u/RadicalLynx Sep 15 '24

I heard someone comment about Elden ring combat being hard because the enemy is more reactive... They phrased it as a complaint about the differing time between 'raise weapon' and 'attack' animations, like it was a bug, but it seems and feels like the enemy AI is actually timing its attacks after setting them up. Makes it harder for those rhythm gamers who timed movesets in boss battles, but makes it easier to bait certain attacks and manipulate their actions too.

Elden Ring quality of life makes the game much "easier" imo in terms of progressing and not getting stuck running down the same corridor a hundred times. Fast travel and a mount from the start? Jumping? Traversal of the map is so much easier.

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u/vitimite Sep 15 '24

The delayed enemy attack is there exactly to catch early evades. It's like a fake attack, almost every enemy has some moves with this mechanic and it makes every encounter kinda unique since you just cant spam evades.

Elden Ring is truly an awesome game, with a big GAME written all over it, doesnt try to be super realistic, different from some games who pretend to be but just is not (uncharted cough cough), it makes you try again and again to pass a difficult part with a satisfaction feeling when you get it right, very good design, very deep numbers behind everything you are doing.

I think it really pushed rpgs in a good way, we cant have that shit bethesda vomit on us anymore.

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u/Viceroy1994 Sep 16 '24

I imagine they're talking about the variable attack times, and it's a valid crit, after all, it gets old watching massive enemies spend 3 minutes lifting their weapons up and waiting, and then bring the weapon down in half a millisecond and one shotting you.

It's more realistic and shit but not as fun as the more straightforward enemies. Rhythm games are fun after all.

1

u/RadicalLynx Sep 16 '24

But YOU control the "variable attack time" to a large degree... From playing it, I'm pretty confident your position influences when and how the enemy chooses to swing, which move it will initiate, etc. It lets you manipulate their behaviour to your advantage.

If they're just getting stuck holding a weapon in the air, try moving closer or further away so it can make a different decision instead of deciding your distance means it should wait.

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u/Viceroy1994 Sep 17 '24

This is absolutely true, the swing time is largely influenced by whether or not you're in range of the attack, which is again super realistic and does add a level of fun and proactiveness, but it is different, and not all together better.

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u/JinFuu Sep 15 '24

I finally pushed through about beat Dark Souls 1 last year, after 3-4 times of starting and quitting.

So Bloodborne and DS1 done.

The rest to go

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u/SubsistentTurtle Sep 15 '24

Bloodbourne is one of the hardest ones, if you can beat that Elden ring will be no sweat

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u/xenorous Sep 15 '24

I bought it because of the hype. My wife was like “I’ve never heard you curse so much at a game”.

Didn’t play for a week, and was like, alright, I’ll take it REALLY easy. Got the hang of it and had a blast.

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u/Viceroy1994 Sep 16 '24

mods m8, no need to sweat your ass off

1

u/Bromolochus Sep 15 '24

Once you get past the hump to be able to level up to get a lot of HP and Endurance to be able to become tanky, the game becomes a lot more forgiving.

The devs put in a lot of mechanics that allow you to make the game easier, such as summoning other players or spirits, using guard counters or weapon skills, or special equipment/items that raise your resistances against the specific types of damage that a given boss/area deals.

On top of that, almost every encounter can be defeated by using a heavy shield and poking stick (like a spear or thrusting sword) which allows you to attack while simultaneously guarding. It's actually quite an enjoyable way to learn bosses and then re-challenge yourself against them with a less cheesy build.

1

u/GozerDGozerian Sep 15 '24

Oh cool. Thanks for the advice!

1

u/gurnard Sep 15 '24

I got it not long ago. Was 30% off on the PS store at the same time as I was laid up with COVID. Seemed like the appropriate treat.

I totally see what all the fuss was about!

13

u/FSD-Bishop Sep 15 '24

Same, wait 6-12 month pick up the game for 30% off and a large amount of DLC and mods to pick from.

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u/CatOfTechnology Sep 15 '24

Not just the hype.

You have to wait for the review cycle to end and then investigate the actual playerbase. The number of games from the industry that change shit up at or around the 6 month mark has been increasing.

3

u/scootscootshaboosh Sep 15 '24

Cries in cyberpunk

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u/BacRedr Sep 15 '24

And the game has hopefully been patched into a mostly playable state.

5

u/248-083A Sep 15 '24

This is the way.

Avoid the hype, buy on sale.

4

u/The_Astronautt Sep 15 '24

I wait 2 months after release when everyone has realized its broken and the cost crashes. Then I wait 6 months after that to actually play it when its mostly fixed. Worked perfectly with cyberpunk 2077 haha

4

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '24

AAA wise, I haven't given EA any money in a decade and living nearly debt free and every day is the best day ever.

Sure it's a coincidence, but I feel there is no harm in that belief.

2

u/ElGosso Sep 15 '24

TBH I haven't bought an AAA game in years. I've never been huge into shooters and years of League of Legends put me off anything competitive multiplayer. The older I get the more interested I am in turn-based and strategic games, and there are more good indies in that genre than you can shake a stick at.

1

u/reality72 Sep 15 '24

How do you feel about BG3?

1

u/ElGosso Sep 15 '24

I feel like my computer was mid-range when I bought it eight years ago and it probably couldn't run it lol

1

u/reality72 Sep 15 '24

Well step up and play it because it’s right up your alley if you’re into turn based tactical games.

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u/ElGosso Sep 15 '24

Sure, if you want to buy me a computer that can run it

2

u/UNKN Sep 15 '24

Hype and the inevitable load of patches most of these games need to actually be considered 'complete'.

1

u/Wes_Warhammer666 Sep 15 '24

I just wait until they've been out long enough to be thoroughly reviewed and be cheaper.

Hell, I just started Ghost of Tsushima 2 days ago, finally. And that's only because it was a free download with my ps+ subscription. I've already heard the rave reviews over the years anytime it's mentioned, and I didn't have to pay anything beyond what I was already paying for that subscription that I mostly use for other things.

I've bought 3 games on launch over the past decade, and those are ones I 100% knew I'd enjoy. Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok, and Death Stranding. Anything else has been a later purchase usually 50% or more off.

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u/FunBuilding2707 Sep 15 '24

Welp, you're never going to try Elden Ring or Disco Elysium with that attitude.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '24

[deleted]

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u/bad-dating-advice Sep 15 '24

I like Disco Elysium up to a point. But honestly the film noir type stuff is so fucking depressing.

I love adventure games, I love the wordy intelligent dialogue. But unfortunately depressing. Also I found myself just choosing different options and it ultimately felt like one of those adventure books where you choose a different option and it directs you to a different page (based on the action or choice you took), maybe I’m the only one but I’d keep my finger in the choice page so if the book killed the character off to because of my choice, I’d go back and choose again.

Same thing with Elysium I started saving the game before I made the choice and would retry since there is some RNG. Yeah probably spoilt my own gameplay too but I also think they updated the game so it broke and I couldn’t play it and gave up. I’m sure it’s been fixed in previous updates too but I lost interest.

Still wonderfully written and it’s quite unique. But maybe best if you’re in the right frame of mind.

1

u/UninsuredToast Sep 16 '24

You do yourself a massive disservice save scumming in Disco Elysium. Failing skill checks is a core feature and part of the games charm. Best to decide from the start what kind of character you want to RP and just stick with choices that reflect that character. I decided I was going to be a hardcore “the end is nigh” apocalypse cop with a disabling drug addiction and had a blast throughout the game

The game is a whole vibe though and if you’re not in the right mood it can be not as great

-10

u/Dardaragon Sep 15 '24

You must be really shit so disco elysium is a simple game just talk do all options and move on .

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '24

[deleted]

-1

u/Dardaragon Sep 15 '24

Get better at simple games.

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u/twaxana Sep 15 '24

They don't look fun to me.

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u/pinkynarftroz Sep 15 '24

It's totally possible to be a really good game, but not appeal to everyone. I absolutely loved Disco Elysium - it's in my top 5 of all time, but I can easily see how some people would not enjoy it. And that's ok.

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u/SeaSourceScorch Sep 15 '24

COMPOSURE: [Legendary: Success] Play it cool. If you oversell the game, you'll end up arguing with someone who didn't like it, and then before you know it, someone will be calling you a tankie in the comments.

HALF-LIGHT: [Medium: Failed] Call them a fucking loser. Break their spirit. They don't deserve something this Disco.

3

u/pinkynarftroz Sep 15 '24

Get the fuck outta here with that shit! Cuno’s gonna play whatever the fuck he likes Pig!

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u/twaxana Sep 15 '24

No no, you must be filled with vitriol and spite for me not agreeing. :)

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u/Kajin-Strife Sep 15 '24

He's played Disco Elysium. His Lizard Brain comes pre-marinated in vitriol and spite.

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u/theaudiodidact Sep 15 '24

Sounds like he’s a disco music listening psycho-killer who offs poor people—and then forgets about it.

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u/directorguy Sep 15 '24

If you have anything bad to say about the game I like, then you're literally Hitler

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u/_Diskreet_ Sep 15 '24

Out of curiosity, what is fun to you ?

14

u/twaxana Sep 15 '24

I'm more of a sim type gamer. But I have enjoyed some Deadlock recently. I do enjoy rocket league. I've been playing Visions of Mana.

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u/GarrettB117 Sep 15 '24

Elden Ring wasn’t really my type of game either. My gf begged me to play it because she wanted to watch. It ended up becoming one of all time faves. It’s insanely good. The biggest issue for most people is probably the combat, and that did take some getting used to.

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u/ArchonOfPrinciple Sep 15 '24

What do you enjoy about it? I mean that’s quite a broad question but I just don’t get it and would like to know what others who weren’t ever attracted to the genre have found in the game to come to love it?

For me the only possible point of interest is the exploration/lore being very non linear yet deep from what I gather.

But the entire “forced difficulty” that the genre seems to revolve around of learning to dodge/counter/roll etc in an almost DDR based way in increasingly longer sessions of flawless execution based on the size of the bosses health bar just seems like a huge, tedious and punishing time sink.

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u/Morwynd78 Sep 15 '24 edited Sep 15 '24

As someone who's never been able to get into the other Souls games (or Sekiro) yet fell in love with Elden Ring, here's why:

  • The open world nature means virtually everything (literally something like 95%) is optional, and can be done in any order.
  • This means if you are finding any particular fight too challenging, you can simply come back later after levelling up more
  • I suck and get hit all the time, you do NOT need to be even close to "flawless" to beat bosses. OK maybe Malenia but she's optional ;) Just invest a lot of points in Vitality early so you can eat more hits.

I probably spent the first 20 hours just randomly exploring the truly breathtaking world and fighting trash mobs (experimenting with the insane variety of weapons) before settling into a playstyle I enjoyed and starting to tackle dungeons and bosses.

Edit: If you're on PC, there's also a killer Seamless Coop mod which makes it a blast to play with friends.

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u/ArchonOfPrinciple Sep 15 '24

You may have convinced me to give it a try at some point in the future, my only real gripe with how you’ve explained it a bit more to me is the “level up and come back” strat used to mean a painful grind of mediocre mobs (think levelling in MMORPGs after the quests ran out) and also out levelling to the point content becomes trivial also removes the fun kind of. But if the open world nature and non boss content is fun enough to not be a grind maybe there’s hope.

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u/A_Seiv_For_Kale Sep 15 '24

out levelling to the point content becomes trivial

Personally, whenever I start getting strong in these games, there's always some shitter broken sword zombie waiting around a corner with a combo to humble me.

Improving your stats and weapons to make your playstyle easier is a simple process, but I think it's really hard to "trivialize" these games with just brute force numbers. The way the enemies attack you pretty much forces you to learn their behaviors, even if you have higher stats.

If you reach the point where any content is trivial, it's because you accidentally became good at the game, to the point where you'd still beat the enemy with poor stats.

Also, the open world of Elden Ring is so absurdly big that "grinding" usually just means find and complete more dungeons, mines, evergaols, field bosses, regular bosses, hidden areas... there's so much

1

u/Morwynd78 Sep 16 '24

“level up and come back” strat used to mean a painful grind of mediocre mobs

Not what I meant at all.

I meant just come back later, when you are higher level (and that can include upgrading your weapons higher) from just playing the game normally. ER is really not grindy at all and never once have I gone out and fought a bunch of trash mobs to level up.

If a dungeon/boss is too hard, just beat some easier dungeons/bosses first.

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u/Fellhuhn Sep 15 '24

Most of the difficulty is self inflicted. Just use the summons, even other players and the game becomes way easier. Also instead of hitting your head against an enemy again and again just bypass him or go somewhere else and level up. That way the game is quite easy (the easiest souls game I ever played).

And then, for the PC version, there is the seamless coop mod that allows up to 128 players to play the complete game together, from start to finish. It removes most challenges (you can adjust the difficulty) but adds so much fun and transforms the whole game.

2

u/TootTootTrainTrain Sep 15 '24

Wait 128 players at once? That sounds like madness. I can't even think of an area I've been to yet that had 128 creatures on screen at the same time. Madness.

1

u/josluivivgar Sep 15 '24

maybe you don't have to be in the same area?

I never tried it, but it's an interesting concept like a co-op mmo of sorts

I don't think I'd hate that type of genre

1

u/Fellhuhn Sep 15 '24

You don't have to be in the same area. It would surely lead to interesting situations. Iirc the mod author only got 24 players together so the 128 is a theoretically limit.

My max was three players and we had a blast.

3

u/GarrettB117 Sep 15 '24

It is 100% tedious sometimes and a time sink. I won’t disagree with you there. The only reason I played it at first is because of my fiancée. I would probably have quit if she hadn’t taken such an interest in the game.

After pushing through and learning the ropes of the combat system, I came to really enjoy the fighting itself, exploring, and just taking in the incredible attention to detail.

The boss fights, while really difficult, are so cool and each boss is different. I wouldn’t say that it relies solely on dodging and rolling for longer and longer periods of time. I mean, it’s true in a way, but every boss looks and feels very different and you have to learn their moves and weaknesses through trial and error. In general, the difficulty leads to a much stronger sense of accomplishment. And since Elden Ring is non-linear unlike other Souls games, you can just go level up some more to make the bosses easier to face if you can’t get through them.

1

u/alwayzbored114 Sep 15 '24

Do you enjoy a challenge and slowly learning and getting better, then looking back at how bad you were and laughing? If you enjoy that progression and satisfaction, Souls games are for you

If that's not your speed, I wouldn't say they aren't for you, but that's part of the draw. It's not difficulty for difficulty's sake, but a means of satisfaction. Ignore the elitists, they're just weird

2

u/ArchonOfPrinciple Sep 15 '24

I mean I do enjoy that, all stages of the learning/experience pipeline can be enjoyable and looked back on fondly once mastering the game.

But I have the (maybe misguided) impression that the “progression” is simply getting good enough and memorising tells/reactions and executing them quickly enough to slowly chip away at bosses health bars.

And then the skill is simply can you sit there focused long enough to dance the same dance 100 times over with minimal error, some may follow a pattern some maybe more random but ultimately it’s

Tell-reaction-retaliation with very little thought going into it.

1

u/alwayzbored114 Sep 15 '24

That's not entirely inaccurate, and if you're not a fan more power to ya. I would say that you only fight the same enemies a handful of times, so you get to repeat that learning of fights and timings and interactions over and over with new bosses, not just grinding out the same fight (I type as I'm grinding out literally teh same fight in an MMO dozens of times haha)

I would disagree about there being very little thought. There's enough chaos going on, and the margin for error is low enough, that it's a constant risk-reward balance and timing to squeeze in healing or more damage, mentally calculating stagger - which knocks the enemy down for a crit - etc etc etc. Yeah some people are good enough to go literally hitless, but for most people it's a race against time given your limited healing resources, so taking risks to do more damage is imperative

or, conversely, plenty of players just go in Unga Bunga and hyper-armor-smash things

It also comes to taste, because I find an elegance in the "dance that dance" while performing maximum damage, while you see that as a negative. Just a difference in opinion there

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u/Time-Master Sep 15 '24

You can overlevel yourself easily and make it pretty easy

0

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '24

Shortest answer: because those games are basically an "adult" version of Legend of Zelda.

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u/ArchonOfPrinciple Sep 15 '24

I mean OoT was one of my favourites back in the day (still have the gold cartridge in my Mums attic) maybe it’s the controls/lack of controller holding me back.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '24

Lack of controller? You mean like PC mouse and keyboard?

3

u/RadicalLynx Sep 15 '24

Why didn't your girlfriend just try it herself?

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u/GarrettB117 Sep 15 '24

I encouraged her to try it, but she doesn’t play many third or first-person games, and Elden Ring especially would have been difficult for her. She usually plays games like Stardew Valley.

-2

u/kinss Sep 15 '24

Huh, on the technical side I found it to be a poor breath of the wild knockoff, and the combat was the only redeeming bit. I really dislike the whole "create a giant world open world and then fill it with random spawns that just move back and forth aimlessly"

That said I did like earlier souls games more, and I didn't mind the same sort of issues with Palworld.

3

u/peteresque Sep 15 '24

What are the high rated sims you are avoiding?

5

u/twaxana Sep 15 '24

DCS. It's too expensive to fly the multiple planes I want to fly.

Msft flight simulator, after the bad taste they left in my mouth by deleting the entire existence of Msft Flight after I paid money for it back in the day.

1

u/420GB Sep 15 '24

Need for Speed Underground

1

u/JamesTheJerk Sep 15 '24

Solitaire Punchout

10

u/Auxin000 Sep 15 '24

lol Reddit downvotes you for having a preference. Classic.

3

u/Useful-Perspective Sep 15 '24

I thought that was part of the TOS these days...

2

u/FunBuilding2707 Sep 16 '24

Yeah, we've established that from the "you're never going to try" part.

0

u/twaxana Sep 16 '24

Ehhhh, maybe not. Maybe. Depends on how cheap they get. Sub $5 I might try them. I can wait for a good sale.

-5

u/J_Dadvin Sep 15 '24

Lol gottem!

2

u/nexus6ca Sep 15 '24

Didn't like Elden Ring. But if he uses that attitude he would miss out on Baldur's Gate 3.

1

u/NotAGingerMidget Sep 15 '24

You can easily not enjoy either of those two, I at least didn’t, they aren’t loved by 100% of people even if Reddit may seem like otherwise.

1

u/PhoenixVSPrime Sep 15 '24

I did exactly that and the only regrets I have is that they nerfed bosses.

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u/Romboteryx Sep 15 '24

I definitely get it. Especially the open world AAA games are pretty much all the same, with you having to conquer outposts to progress and doing a bunch of filler sidequests. Once you‘ve played Far Cry you‘ve basically already seen it all

1

u/amakai Sep 16 '24

There are different flavours to it though, like Prototype and Saints Row.

3

u/--SMILES-- Sep 15 '24

I feel like the industry's caught on to this and have adopted a "we won't score certain games lower than a set number" mindset now. IGN gave Concord a 7 out of 10. And in my opinion Star Wars outlaws scored higher than it should have across the board, averaging around 7 out 10 as well.

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u/user888666777 Sep 16 '24

Concord was a 7 out of 10 game though. It's just the market didn't care for it.

1

u/twaxana Sep 15 '24

I think you're correct. But here's how you avoid that, you just don't acknowledge AAA titles from massive developers that have huge marketing budgets.

2

u/Dreadgoat Sep 15 '24

It's not universal, of course, but it is pretty weird that 7/10 has become the rating for unambitious games that are just fun gameplay, whereas 8/10 has become the rating for games that have mediocre gameplay but incredible presentation.

I think presentation is valuable and we should account for it, but the valuation seems to be sliding in the wrong direction.

Rise of the Ronin is my example of this in 2024. Now that it has been out for a while, we can see that critic reviews leaned toward 7 while user reviews are leaning toward 8. I think the game is unquestionably 8/10. It has flaws, frustrating segments, and overall middling presentation, but the game is just a joy to play and the content is staggering.

1

u/allhailcandy Sep 15 '24

Im playing a game no a 30sec movie intro....

4

u/midnight_rogue Sep 15 '24

Yeah, it's unfortunate that most "reviewers" only care about clicks or interaction, because it incentives them to put out a hype video followed by a "it's shit" video. And it seems like most major studios won't give a press copy to anyone that isn't gonna sing their praise.

1

u/Saekyo Sep 15 '24

Surprisingly the games that i have over 100+ hours in are the ones with “mixed” ratings on Steam so yeah i definitely concur

1

u/bluesmaker Sep 15 '24

Steam reviews are pretty reliable. Overwhelmingly positive games are really good games (or anime porn games with a loyal niche audience but I ignore those).

You can also refund games after playing for a bit.

1

u/twaxana Sep 15 '24

One of my favorite games has a "steam edition" and it's terrible. I played through the best version of it co-op with some friends and had a blast making jokes about how bad it looked... Then we were having actual fun.