Five Things I Hate In AAA Game Design

Five Things I Hate In AAA Game Design
Everyone likes lists, right? I mean that is the thing that made youtube. Lists of the cutest kinds of Hypoallergenic dog hair pubic wigs, stuff like that. So I did a list thing. It took me forever, right? But here it is. I hope you enjoy it.
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Twitter: / pfassett

[@johnread-jones9846]

the worst quests: "Collect 3 pig hearts" Then you kill like 100 pigs because apparently MOST PIGS DON'T HAVE HEARTS

[@struggler8532]

Welcome to monster hunter

[@connorhudock1950]

I would assume that the pigs heart is unhealthy/damaged. It would be interesting of game devs incorporated this into game design, so it was partly dependant on your skills/method of killing it

[@muffinman2546]

"Don't pummel the pigs too hard or their frail hearts will be pulverized to pieces." Doubt it. I also hate how you don't get a single tooth/fang/claw from said animal-to-kill, like how the heck did they manage to hunt? Do they NOT have a jaw. Oh. Guess this elemental doesn't have a core which is practically their heart or essence, like how do they not exist without their essence? Welp. Too bad THIS dragon didn't have teeth, nor scales, nor bones, nor heart. - Chance-based loot systems absolutely suck. Just give me my damn lewt instead of incentivizing large-scaled *_poaching!_* Just give me the damn gear this mob is clearly using! It'd also be nice if side-quests teach you talents/skills your character can use, like teach me a powerful spear attack after doing a quest involving farming with a pitchfork. Give my rogue-character insight in the traps that it encounters as a REQUIREMENT for disarming it. Give my mage-character insight in the spells of the enemies it encounters so he/she can learn it after extensive studies. (Side-quest specific spells) Give my character PERMANENT vitality/armor boosts for those dumb-shit escort side-quests.

[@connorhudock1950]

@@muffinman2546 if I bake a pig with flames to kill it, use a poisoned arrow, or hit it with a Warhammer that can smash rocks, the heart may not be usable. I agree with you, when it comes to drops in most games. I wasn't justifying the way games force you to grind, simply coming up with an alternative.

[@TheCdetonados]

Assassin's Creed 3 had a useful mechanic. When you wanted undamaged skin from an animal, you had to shank it or hit it with an arrow. Gunshots left the skin stained with gunpowder and damaged. Which does make some sense, I guess.

[@DominatorLegend]

>Plays Skyrim >Recruits a companion >We enter a dungeon with a cool landscape >Companion: "Never seen anything like this". >I agree with companion, the landscape is unique >We enter another dungeon with another cool landscape >Companion: "Never seen anything like this" >As for this point companion will always say the same shit. >Companion dies and I recruit another one >Exact same shit

[@itch433]

not to mention that some companions (or even all them, idk) say the same line. The exact same line that was voiced multiple times by multiple different voice actors for seperate characters. It's also true for some merchants lines, never understood why they did that...

[@DominatorLegend]

And let's not even talk about Serana (the vampire companion). Whenever we go outside she always says: "Ugh, so bright, I don't even know how you can stand this". I dunno, maybe because I AM NOT A FUCKING VAMPIRE!

[@itsjonesh]

Man, Skyrim's ok compared with Dragon's Dogma. I love that game but man... CAN YOU PLEASE PAWN JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP?!

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Emo girls with Daddy issues are the best in bed though... Especially the ones that think they are vampires.

[@DominatorLegend]

I see a SexLab user here ;)

[@EvilJ069]

"Hey look, a cave... I wonder what's in there" - Lydia You mean the cave... We just came out of??

[@griffguy]

"Oh, I bet the view from that tower is incredible." I know it is, Lydia. Do you know how I know? Because I was just up there. And sO WERE YOU.

[@juanmorley5388]

Wow, just noticed that before this video :P

[@saltymedpac3943]

Only comment that deserves a manly flex. Companions? You mean help me I'm feeble?

[@EvilJ069]

@@saltymedpac3943 It's called loot storage

[@relishcakes4525]

the only companions i can stand are the pawns from dragons dogma.

[@miguelpereira9859]

The thing about UI in modern games is that it looks so generic, old games made the UI part of the game's artstyle and feel

[@LOL-zu1zr]

Because they didn’t have uni courses pumping out standards

[@BabyKrogan]

I like when the companions talk to each other and have unique conversations but I agree, I HATE when they say stupid and obvious crap like "wow it's hot in this desert" or "there's probably treasure nearby, we should look around!"

[@2cups499]

Patrolling the mojave makes me wish for a nuclear winter.

[@Fullbatteri]

*Let's not lose our 'eads though!* *Man what a buncha Jokers!* Ever played Xenoblade Chronicles? xD

[@Hersatz]

To quote one of my favorite game of all time: ''Goblins!'' "It hates fire!" "There is no need to be reckless, Master..." "It hates fire!" "Careful, a goblin!" "It hates fire!" "Wolves hunt in packs!" "It hates fire!" "It hates fire!" "It hates fire!"

[@kazsixteen7359]

Erzats Erz "perhaps there is aught we can use here."

[@penpenultra]

Erzats Erz I fucking love Dragon's Dogma, mang.

[@Mancyofsouls]

Gotta love the "go collect ten bear asses" fetch quests.

[@AlkisGD]

Especially when some bears don't have an ass while others have two. I remember playing WoW with my roommate-I was a Rogue, he was a Mage, we were both undead-and whenever we'd kill a mob for a skull, tooth, tuft of hair, or whatever but get no drops I'd say to him something along the lines of, "You have to rein that fire magic in man! We can't get them skulls if you keep vaporizing them with fire!" 😂

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

I made this account just so I can comment "I'll kill 2 deers four eight hooves." Why? Why kill two? One is enough.

[@forgiveness7959]

You don't like companions that never shut up? Oh... I don't recommend Dragon's Dogma then. Wolves travel in packs, Arisen. Goblins are weak to fire! Strike at it's eye! Mind your footing master, a fall from this height could prove deadly. HARPIES! OGRE! I have it!

[@Murlak]

I'll scale it and strike from above!

[@Narrifani]

Even in numbers, a weakling is a weakling still.

[@forgiveness7959]

How could I forget that one!

[@vagrant87]

Strength in numbers, Arisen.

[@SlyLilFoxo]

I do believe there was an option to silence them. ..Well. Maybe. I know the talking chair thing let you make your main pawn less talkative at least. Not the others, unfortunately. Also, "What a Gaffe."

[@themGAMEman]

people. He is not criticizing those games. He's just pointing out stupid game fads that are everywhere.

[@jbo4547]

"Heyy he isn't Criticizing!! He is just criticizing"

[@sjs9698]

things can have bad elements & still be enjoyed by people, people can like objectively bad stuff... criticising a thing is not an attack on the people who like it, it's an observation that the thing is not perfect & let's be clear: nothing is perfect.

[@brainwavestobinary]

@@sjs9698 Damn straight. Too many people wrap their egos around the things they like, so any time someone has something critical to say about it, they feel personally insulted, or like their honor has been offended.

[@aiden_macleod]

And if he did criticize them there's a good reason. Sometimes, just sometimes unless a developer isn't told what don't like in their games, they'll continue to put things we don't like, or in the case of EA will ensure those things we hate definitely make it into the next Battlefield game.

[@calcifieddirt4120]

well it should be criticism!

[@rddragonman]

I don't dislike the "go kill those guys" quests. I can't stand the "there's 24 flowers scattered all over the map go spend 1 & 1/2 hours finding them".

[@rddragonman]

Really, it's just the putting the quest super far away or spreading it all over the map to pad it and make it ridiculously tedious.

[@ayylmao8375]

I absolutely hate collection quests. Especially when there's no reason to do it.

[@nerdyneedsalife8315]

I especially hate if a collection quest is required to end the game like Arkham Knight or if it's scattered around every imaginable place like Assassin's Creed 2. Ironically, I like collect-a-thons like Banjo Kazooie but I feel like collect-a-thons are more conistent, thus making it more bearable.

[@twisted4534]

Skyrim's underground cave area where I have to find some fucking nirn root.

[@jackmiller1324]

i hate collection quests when you have to kill something that may or may not have the item 10 or so many times, sure mow down 15 enemies problem solved not every side quest can be amazing, but killing 50 enemies to get 10 items over a huge travel distance can just get away all the way away to fuck

[@AllanForce]

You put so eloquently into words all the angry nerd things i feel in my mind and try to express in every argument i have about video games. Especially when my friends fork out 90 pounds for season pass dlc super big dick editions of "AAA" games. Just started playing Morrowind again to sate my thirst and really enjoying levitate and mark and recall. And things like lock door spells, detect key. Making shoes of permanent super jump, lets not forget quest givers GIVING YOU DIRECTIONS TO QUESTS. Having to travel south until i see a temple and travel eastwards towards the river, no floating markers, no map markers, no dumb skyrim fetch quests with literally no context to find someones missing cutlery that they dont tell you where they left it you just have 3 massive arrows pointing to 3 different caves in the wilderness dotted around the landscape. *breathes* Thank you sir.

[@Kos4Evr]

And all of these directions were written down in the journal. So hard to find anything in that journal...

[@MASHo1992]

Kos4Evr Well, it's a journal. Imagine that I write all the things I have to do in the same journal and at the end of winter holidays I have to go through 6~8 pages to find my homework because I didn't do it as soon as they were given to me.

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

Kos4Evr How is it hard to find stuff in a journal that sorts by quest automatically?

[@jjurksztowicz]

I'm an indie game dev, and I'm so inspired by your thoughtful perspective. Thanks!

[@bobhope7557]

It's been a year, But.. What games have you worked on

[@AngelRaivan8579-xh4fr]

Yeah well hes also a bit of a cranky bastard so pinch of salt.

[@schmebulockjizz]

Do not conform with this my friend, nor the things you hear online, i'd advice you. Read some books, know what has been made before, play many games, generate your own thoughts, *improve upon.*

[@imtiredofitallmakeitstop]

@@schmebulockjizz but this is good tho

[@Grimdewulf77]

@@schmebulockjizz you think you are smart, but your those 2 sentences you wrote here are contradiction.

[@saooran7364]

Bethesda level design is so generic that made modding part of the gameplay

[@robertnewman4854]

With respect to Fallout 4's puzzles, I remember that in Far Harbor there was a quest from Confessor Tektus, where you were given no info aside from a note saying Aubert. In the previous quest there was a prominent periodic table. I realized that these were likely linked. Aubert must mean Au (Gold), Be (Beryllium), and Rt (Rutherfordium). After following this thought process for some time, I eventually stumbled back onto the main quest. Some time later while back in the Children of Atom's bunker, I met a character named Aubert. After one conversation with her the quest was finished. The reason this stuck out to me was because I finally thought that Fallout 4 had returned to difficult, in depth puzzles. It didn't.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

:( Never played Far Harbor or any of the DLC. Couldn't force my way through the main story either. After the big "Twist", I lost interest. Kind of the same way I lost interest in Alien Covenant when they didn't wear helmets on the new planet.

[@ThrottleKitty]

That was a very irrelevant, immature, and overly condescending response. Hard to take anything said in this video seriously, now.

[@bepis985]

It seems you're just upset because someone doesn't like Fallout 4 as much as you, Throttle Kitty. there was nothing immature or condescending about it, and it was only partly irrelevant. He simply stated he wasn't familiar cause he never played any of the DLC for Fallout 4, and then went on to explain why.

[@ThrottleKitty]

Or maybe I just want people to be adults, and actually play the games they shit-talk? It's this "I didn't bother, but it sucks anyways" mentality that's ruin the reliability of reviews. Also, whats with just telling me how we all feel about his post? Sorry God, didn't realize my opinion displeased you.

[@bepis985]

He clearly played it enough to have an opinion. You don't have to 100% a game to do that, which hopefully even you should realize. He's played some dungeons, which are all the same except for like 1 or 2 slightly unique ones, and he got far enough into the story to see the quests follow a basic format. As for Aliens: Colonial Marines, there isn't a single redeeming factor about the game except maybe the setting, so I don't see why you're going out of your way to defend it. Also it's not your opinion that displeased me, it's the fact that you're so quick to jump at someone else's throat because they don't share your opinion.

[@nikzanzev2402]

The saddest part is side quests... Witcher 3 showed us that they could be made to contribute to the game, not just add time-wasting options. Unfortunately, what incentive does ubisoft have to change their generic Far Cry games? If people would eat garbage, sell them garbage! Are enjoy the profit margin.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

I am suddenly craving McDonalds.

[@nikzanzev2402]

Strat-Edgy Productions Remember, everything in moderation!

[@7dayspking]

I honestly have no idea what I truly want in 'side quests' but in my current TW3 playthrough I'm finding them painful. I feel I need complete them before finishing the story but going through the same talk ----> use witcher sense to find point of interest --------> end quest/repeat annoys me to no end. A really notorious one I did a couple of days ago is "Lord of Undvik". The cutscenes themselves within the game are sometimes interesting and I like the characters but I find the gameplay so fucking tedious personally. I feel as if TW3 should have been a linear story experience, I also feel a disconnection between the world and the cutscenes/quests.

[@matternicuss]

TW3 has, for me, the best sidequests I've seen since Baldur's Gate 2. Like BG2, almost every sidequest contributes to the sense of adventure as well as the storytelling/world building. That being said, most are not necessary to complete the game, and if you attempt to do all of them (an insane task), you can very well burn out. If you want a more linear experience you may prefer The Witcher 2.

[@warmlycalculated390]

Witcher 3's side quests (the REAL side quests, not the optional main quests) are almost universally awful, I have no idea what Matternicuss is smoking but I'd suggest avoiding it. What, you think forcing a silent monk to speak, herding a sheep to a fake dragon or tracking down punkass atrociously voiced acted kids who stole some chickens constitutes good side quest design? Or those fucking Treasure Hunts or Scavenger Hunts? Are you serious? You want good side quests, look to Age of Decadence. Look to Dragonfall/Hong Kong. Look to Underrail. Christ, even the Assassin's Creed: Unity "Investigation" and Enigma quests required more lateral thinking and had much more nuanced design than 99% of the crap in Witcher 3. You play Witcher 3 for the nice graphics, cutscenes and atmosphere. Nothing else.

[@greglong7170]

I felt the side quests from the first ME trilogy and Red Dead Redemption were good. The ME ones were woven into the story. For Red Dead they really helped to give you that wild west feel.

[@Yup712]

I really hope more developers start doing side-quests like the “Witcher 3” did! One of the MANY issues I had with “Final Fantasy XV” was just how meaningless and uninteresting the side quests were. For example there is one side quest in FF15 where you have to find something like 20 dog tags. This was an excellent opportunity to learn more about this unit, or the individual soldiers, or something else, etc. However, you just gather 20 dog tags, turn them in, get your reward. Now occasional fetch side quests like that are okay, but it felt like EVERY side quest in the game was like this.

[@frogradar]

ff15 was so shit in terms of sidequests because it literally was just "go kill thing, sometimes kill mutliple thing" and then you got a reward. you learnt nothing of the world or the creatures.

[@elgatochurro]

BOTW lol

[@David_Alvarez77]

Your videos never fail to make me think. What you said about engaging side missions really hits home. Radiant side quests and the "get Isolda a mammoth tusk" side content really need to go the way of the dodo. It is especially irritating when interesting side content is cut for the sake of time, budget, or lack of vision, but infinite supplies of meaningless busywork is provided, as though it was what we really wanted more of. Anyway, great work!

[@dangdudei1506]

Some developers got this idea in their head that having side quests is more important than the content of it. Side quests are also very often too much on the "side" end of things; they have zero relevance to either settings or story. You can ask questions like "who is this", "why are these people here", "how do they survive" and "what do they do for fun when they are bored", but these side missions won't answer you. As Strat-edgy put it: they exist to exist.

[@David_Alvarez77]

You make a good point that a side quest can find justification if it gives insight, scope, or what have to the setting or world. They need not be directly plot relevant. Yet, helping flesh out the setting indirectly can help the story. But, side content for its own sake is garbage.

[@WastelandSeven]

Radiant quests are filler. The real problem is that the AAA games don't have a main storyline that is interesting enough to carry the game, so they put in all these side quests to fill up the blank space where the main story should be. A good example is "The Wasteland Survival Guide" in Fallout 3. How is this helping you find your dad? Or the nuka-cola quantum side quest for Sierra? I mean, yeah, defusing the bomb in Megaton is a good thing to do, but, does it really help you find your dad? All these side quests do is grind your experience points up. Which is another problem. Modern AAA rpg-ish games are addicted to experience points. So all these side quests are there for you to level up your character. Because the objective of the game is to level up your character, not the storyline. The main quest can go to hell so long as you have enough grinding to level up. Its probably why the vast majority of purchacers never complete the average AAA title. I think its like only 10% ever complete the game. Why? Because they're so busy doing these distracting side quests that the main quest like gets thrown under the bus in favor of grinding. But, if you look back at the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, it had no experience counter, no perks, no leveling system. Yet, it feels more like an RPG than a lot of newer RPGs do.

[@Rhino1004]

I was continuing my replay of Okami today, got myself about 60% through the main storyline, and as I saw this video, I realized that the sidequests I was doing in Okami had tangible, UNIQUE rewards. With these sidequests, techniques get upgraded, large amounts of permanent stat points can be granted, you might earn heart container pieces, or you'll get another piece of the optional Stray Bead hunt. You always become permanently more powerful in any NPC sidequest found in Okami. They never give you anything that is merely temporary, like just money, or healing items. In a Bethesda game, your reward for similar questlines to Okami's, such as fishing, finding someone's pet, or purchasing a unique item and giving it to them, might be... a piece of procedurally-generated legwear. The same stuff that drops from enemies, but you miiiiight have better odds this time. Meanwhile, in Okami, almost everything that can drop/be stolen from monsters - money, sellable items, buff items, healing items - are relegated to hidden chests or can be purchased in shops, and boy oh boy are there a lot of shops and hidden chests. So in Okami, every quest giver has something new to bring to the player character's table. That is a very powerful way of designing optional content that people will go and see. AAA devs should really take note.

[@gur1363]

Wasteland Seven I love extra side quests in games. Radiant quests not so much, but real side quests are fantastic. I also love complex levelling systems using xp points, because I love speccing out my character and making interesting builds. It's why I love Fallout New Vegas, Morrowind, Skyrim.

[@hamstersplural4334]

I know this video came out before Metro Exodus but if you want to talk about amazing UI design you have to look at Metro. Wow, the way the Metro games are able to take physical in-game objects like a little clipboard with a map and a written-down objective for you to follow is the pinnacle of immersive Hud design.

[@alephkasai9384]

Well that's true for all the metro games but I get your point

[@shredjward]

@@alephkasai9384 i.e. "the way the Metro games are able" metro games, as in all of them

[@stuglife5514]

God I love Metro

[@kristofb5013]

Strat-Edgy- "Admittedly it is easier to get round a grid based city..." Me, a Londoner for my 30 year life- *bumps into a minotaur whilst trying to use Google maps to find my best route*

[@Highchurch]

Its my understanding that london isnt grid based though?

[@sjs9698]

@@Highchurch indeed it's *far* from being grid-based. it's a maze arising from centuries of donkeys finding semi-viable routes through slums & trashpiles. occasionally some rich fella burned down a neighbourhood to build something in the way of some existing routes, and so on. even IF you can maintain line-of-sight to some landmark, there's no guarantee you can use it to get where yr going bc often the direct-seeming route is a dead-end or worse; a completely railroaded detour. it's marvelous, unless you're trying to navigate efficiently.

[@ProjectRedfoot]

Lmao Boston, too, but we bump into Ogres over here

[@noisynixx]

"Goblins are weak to fire!" I still have nightmares.

[@Shushkin]

Return the slab!

[@notthedroidsyourelookingfo4026]

To the waypoint system of 'The Division' for open world RPGs: I still think the game that made exploration the most interesting and held your hand the least was Morrowind. Map markers in conjunction with your GPS like cursor on the map makes things incredibly easy - which one could argue is a good thing. But for me, immersion in the game world and believing that the people who gave me directions really existed was really helped by MW's system. And if I can just follow a floating marker or a 3D line, then I'm far away from immersion, because I only I interact with the HUD, not the game world.

[@Kos4Evr]

is reminded of the path finding issues in Skyrim and Fallout 4 when you use abilities that help you find your way...

[@MASHo1992]

Notthedroids Yourelookingfor I remember getting lost in my third or fourth Mages Guild quest because I didn't pay attention to the road and went past the cave I was supposed to get in. And I loved that, because I got lost by my own stupidity and that never happens with a big arrow in your minimap or a fluorescent line popping on top of the road.

[@ColCaffran]

This was amazing because when the NPC would say "my grandfather's sword was buried with him in our family tomb" a modern RPG would put up an arrow telling you where to go and that's it. In Morrowind you'd say "Your family tomb?" they'd reply with "head south from Balmora, follow the road to Pelagiad and it's to your right just past the Fort." you'd be given directions that were accurate and you had to understand." this arrow on the map bullshit has basically ruined RPG's. I've really enjoyed playing Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny because there's none of this handholding in these semi open world RPGs

[@jordanrobinson6623]

I could not take his praise for the division's waypoint system seriously after Fable got sooooo much shit back in the day for its "bread-crumb trail" making everything too easy to find.

[@XDarkEcho]

The way I see, that floating waypoint, it actually works well in the world of The Division. Being a Agent with state of the art high tech gear and gadgets, it makes me feel even more immersed in that world. It compliments and melds in with everything else the UI gives you.

[@TobyDK91]

That one time in Oblivion, where you were made aware by the game developers that you were doing no thinking "fetch quest" by killing of the entire black hand on orders of a traitor without knowing it. That one gave food for thought.

[@anthonyalexander8886]

"Five things I hate specifically in Inquisition"

[@Shafferhead]

Fallout New Vegas i clocked 290-300 hours before i was done with it. I did EVERYTHING possible in that game cause it was so friggin fun. Fallout 3 i had about 150 or so.. Fallout 4... I have 25 hours and im already sick of it.. Every quest is the same and there is little to no immersion going on in the F4 world. Most dissapointing game ever :(

[@puhffy]

Shafferhead I feel you I played fallout new Vegas over 5 times and only played fallout 4 twice

[@roymackay145]

But...another settlement needs your help! 😢 I'll mark it on your map! 😁

[@jthomcres]

You leveled up! Now enjoy a meaningless and pathetically-small stat boost after navigating the eyesore that is the perk chart, and... that's all you get. Removing skills kind of killed the character-building for me, and if you ain't got proper character-building in an RPG, then what are you left with? That's right - settlement building. Having fun yet?

[@muss2055]

fallout 4 is my first fallout and its pretty awesome. i once played new vegas on the ps3 and i almost fell asleep.

[@francesco3772]

@@muss2055 500 atoms have been accredited on your account

[@Esakosarara]

Most people don't want to break immersion by following a bullshit line on the screen, Fable 2 did it back in the day and it got a lot of backlash for it, among other things.

[@dariusmorkunas1300]

It did because the fucking game itself was a maze for me :D

[@ldeue4837]

The point he's trying to make is that it's a fucking option, what is it with people? Division 2 did do it right, If you didn't want to use the goddamn thing you didn't have to. I love America today man, why don't you go stand outside mcdonalds yelling at fat people about how unhealthy the burgers are....

[@songbirdo]

@24:00 The Witcher (1) had a very limited inventory system. You didn't have the bag of holding you had in Witcher 3, you could only loot what you could carry: Two swords, an axe and two small daggers. If you wanted to cash in on your looted weapons, you'd have to head to a merchant, hawk the axe and dagger, run back to the corpse to grab some more. Or just focus on the story and not bother looting them.

[@sepnax]

Witcher 1 inventory and UI are hands down one of the worst UI systems I've used.

[@Rellikan]

Yeah. CD PRojektRed fully emulated the item rarity system from games like Diablo III for W3, it wasn't much less of a problem with W1 and W2. Looking back at it I wasted a lot of time hoarding and selling useless junk. At least there's a mark as junk system.

[@FirefoxisredExplorerisblueGoog]

The maps were a lot smaller in the first Witcher, though. Nor were they really open, just a bunch of fenced off roads and fenced off open spaces. I don't think this would've worked for W3. But you could just mod the max carry weight if you wanted to give it a try, should be easy enough.

[@NetPathfinder]

Witcher 1 is the best atmosphere-wise and plot-wise to me.

[@112523]

"there was also a cover mod for fallout 4 wich kinda made the game into a joke" wait, the game wasnt already a joke? i mean, npc's take cover behind poles that cant even cover their legs

[@alexbattaglia8297]

shitty cover is better than no cover

[@zzxp1]

VTMB has some of the best sidequests I've ever played, they are as good if not better sometimes than the actual mainquest, so much in fact that it actually took me a while to realize they were sidequest.

[@sebastianlacroix5871]

Yet another reason why it's the best game ever made.

[@iampagliacci8923]

VtMB is the perfect game up until it jumps the shark in the third act.

[@zzxp1]

@@iampagliacci8923 Yeah the final stretch is pretty combat heavy, such a shame they didn't have time to finish game.

[@jamesthrice2253]

I think the Witcher 3 actually got HUD options (though with ugly design) right. Now hear me out. There's an On/Off switch for EVERYTHING in the HUD in the game menus. So the people who don't have a million hours to play a game and just want to find quest, do quest, turn in quest can do that without messing with the menus, and the people like me who like to take their time and find things without the game holding their hand can turn those things off. For big budget games, I think this is the approach to take because to be honest I find 3D HUDs to be more distracting than huge mini-maps.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Comes down to taste at a certain point.

[@CampingforCool41]

The problem is, even though you can turn stuff off, you end up having to keep turning it back on unless you want to waste your time constantly opening up the menu, then the map to see if you're even going the right direction, or if you don't want to risk constantly dying because you can't see how much health you have left. It would have been such an easy fix for them to just have a button designated to hiding the hud. Or even just allowing a small compass in place of the minimap. I love the Witcher, but the HUD is just a mess.

[@Gigaa666]

Well not entirely. In all missions you are always given directions so if you are an explorer you can go and find it, and if you get lost you see new beautifull piece of land. I don't think that division like lines would be good and that it helps in immersion in any way.

[@wes8723]

Kev Montemurro + I played TW3 without minimap and had no problem whatsoever with quests and orientation in the game world..

[@warmlycalculated390]

Um, I tried to play TW3 without the mini-map and looking at the markers on the map, and it was nearly impossible because you're not given nearly enough information in dialog and the quest log. It was like the game was designed by two entirely different teams in separate buildings with no communication. Just overall sloppy design. If you want good open-world design, look to Piranha Bytes games (disregarding their 5th game) or Morrowind.

[@pabloo.o1912]

Witcher 3 secondary missions are fantastic

[@jthomcres]

Better than the main missions, even.

[@ruuby1006]

The optional ones lets you see Geralt drunk af

[@hallucy2215]

lmao nah its side missions are literally texts no dialogues whatsover the quests are just there, jsut for it to be labeled an rpg

[@muss2055]

the one where priscilla gets almost killed was absolutly mad. that was one of the few times where i actually felt sadness and anger because of a video game. i really wanted to find and kill the bastard who did this. and the mission was absolutly great, especially if you find the real killer.

[@infidelcastro6687]

weak bait

[@Freddie1980]

1. Day 1 DLC 2. Quick time events 3. Mini maps 4. Bullet Sponging 5. Gamers who support all of the above by buying this crap.

[@fatrat600284]

Quick time events and Mimi maps aren't a bad thing, they are the last thing you should worry about.

[@TheFilkess]

What is bullet sponging?

[@valletas]

Oh man i hate to know were i am going

[@jasonferge3686]

Day 1 dlc is a slap in the face honestly. Paying 60 bucks and realizing you still don't have the whole game on release day is bogus

[@NickG40]

@@TheFilkess Bullet sponging is where an enemy takes an excessive amount of bullets to kill. For example, it shouldn't take 15+ shots from an M4 to kill someone.

[@FaeChangeling]

Fetch quests suck even when they're part of the main questline.

[@HarryS77]

In connection with your point at 8:00 about the effect of drawing the player's attention to the corners of the screen, I noticed while I was playing Skyrim that I had fallen into a pattern of exploring dungeons by skirting the walls for chests and passageways. And while hugging the walls, my attention was often drawn to the lower third of the screen, scanning for items, not directed upwards or even at sight level. I seldom walked *through* a place. While this wall/ground centered playstyle returned all the desired loot, I have to admit that I rarely felt like a participant in the world; I always felt like one who frantically paces their house looking for their lost keys: I checked all the right places again and again, with the appropriate mix of urgency and a kind of boredom that is like mounting tension, but I never felt like I moved through a space, was "immersed," but only skimmed from one location to another. All this makes me wonder how changing the design and placement of items and loot can change how players interact with and experience the game world, or whether the loot-oriented approach to exploration doesn't inherently detract from exploration.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

What I have seen is when something lootable isn't highlighted in anyway, and you are forced to explore the level to find things that have something in them, and having containers like desks have the same level of loot as say, a chest, makes both equally important for the player to scan for. It's not the best solution, but it is one from the top of my head. The issue is that a lot of these companies are not seeing this behavior because their sample sizes for tests are too small, so it's something rarely thought of in game design right now.

[@allenholloway5109]

I think a great option would be for, you know... not all chests having the same appearance. Or secret rooms that you actually have to search for. (And not just a Master level lock.) Also, if the game has more interesting movement (say, a wall-climbing skill or something), a lot more can be done for rewarding exploration even when keeping the level design fairly linear.

[@TheMetalButcher]

I love hardcore on Metro 2033 because there is no bullshit clouding your screen. Granted, it is a bit unrealistic not being able to count the number of grenades your player has at the time.

[@liammccoy2208]

Godam love that game! Last-light was good to. Lets hope exodus dosent suck...

[@Bloodhurl67]

SagaHub True and I love how both games are for a certain player. Metro 2033 for people that love horror and Metro Last Light for people that like action!

[@pant104]

You can't even count your ammo dude. "Oh crap i didn't realize i had one shotgun shell left...i am dead."That's more unrealistic than having a hud.

[@Mourt.]

Pull up your clipboard with M and right click, that should bring it into the foreground, and show the ammo counts. I thought the same thing for like 3-4 play through until 2 weeks ago. crazy man.

[@TheMrDewil]

Howya Doin, I don't know where you get that idea, but Metro games, such as they are, are no horror games in any way. Atmospheric, yes. Horror, no. The only horror that is present there comes from the atmosphere, and it's a horror of tragedy that surrounds the protagonist. The tragedy which is, by the way, not impossible in real life.

[@LoydAvenheart]

6:26 "Turns the game into a joke." Dude, Fallout 4 has long since been a joke.

[@nobody8612]

I play most games (Witcher 3 included) with the mini-map off these days and it really adds something to the traveling / exploring. At first you'll be checking the map a lot but it forces you to look for landmarks and learn the environment better.

[@ProjectRedfoot]

I first started doing that when Grand Theft Auto suggested it! Lmao

[@CPUBlackheart]

I feel like the party banter in DAI was done pretty well. In fact the banter allows the characters to flesh out their personalities when they argue over their beliefs or tell jokes with each other. Games like FF: Lightning Returns where Hope interupts you every 20 seconds (not exaggerating) to repeat the same lines again and again is terrible banter design. Games like Dragon's Dogma where the pawns constantly repeat the same lines for every encounter is terrible banter design. DAI has many flaws for sure but I don't think that party banter is one of them. At the very least if one thinks banter is a poor design in general I don't think DA would be a good example of criticism for this as they do it better than most. Personally I would find it awkward if I had a group of people following all around the world in complete silence, like mindless drones.

[@ayylmao8375]

Neptune Purpleheart the way banter was handled was terrible. They had a 50/50 chance of triggering every 15 minutes. I had 2 conversations in 48 hours of exploration

[@CPUBlackheart]

It's been a while since I last played but I'm almost certain they happened for me quite often. Lets even use your stated 50/50 chance every 15 minutes as an example. In order for you to have only had it occur 2 times in 48 hours is astronomically unlikely. Out of 192 chances for banter at 50% chance you only got the banter 2 times which itself is a 1.04% chance. Even if that did happen to you that would just be RNGesus taking the piss, not a fault of the game. Certainly it could be improved upon but it's leaps and bounds ahead of many other games in its genre. I'm not defending the game as a whole because I don't think it's very good either but in this particular apsect I believe it performs well.

[@lavenderwyvern]

That was a bug that got patched and fixed.

[@scubasteve3743]

Subscribed for the quality of this video. You have picked up on the plague of formula dragging down the overall quality of games (and movies, and literature) even if you didn't quite identify the root cause in your video. It's part of doing business. Artistry must always take a backseat to profitability if a company is going to succeed. A bean counter at EA can't measure the metrics of artistry- but they can break down the elements of a successful title (or titles) into a formula. I.e.: this game made X amount of dollars, featured an open world, base building etcetera, so let's do that with our title, but we'll set it in the Fallout universe with its established consumer base. The result is that the only creative sparks we see in gaming is what passionate individuals and small groups within a development company manage to implement within the constraints of the formula they must follow. So in Mass Effect 2, Mordin was clever, developed and endearing, even though Miranda never could aspire to be more than tits and a-girl-with-daddy-issues-trope. Gears of War, though stuck on rails, managed to instill in me that sense of awe, just with a backdrop of interesting architecture and some vague nomenclature. That's not to say that taking a formulaic approach is inherently bad. A formula can be a useful tool to help keep a game streamlined and playable, but when the industry is dominated by a design philosophy of 'follow formula X, spending Y amount of time and Z amount of resources to make N amount of profit' the result is a game like... well just about every AAA title released in the last 10 years or so. I could go on, but I've already written a wall of text no one will read.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

I read it :)

[@jimmurphy9904]

Anonymoose Steve Enjoyed the read :)

[@Willie6785]

I read it and I agree completely. I talk a lot with friends about how formulaic games have become over time and how that drags the medium down to make room for more profits.

[@frogradar]

Single player games also have that issue at the end. Like the most recent Tomb Raiders where you're literally doing the platforming and she just goes "I think I can climb that" like... yes Lara, I know.

[@phantomstrider]

29:15 Best imitation ever XD

[@StratEdgyProductions]

lol, thanks. Not sure who I was imitating there, but whoever it was, they were annoying.

[@mohinden1562]

Strat-Edgy Productions you went full Bill Burr

[@johnnybensonitis7853]

Absolutely, so goddamn hilarious hahaha. It's great diving into the back-catalog of content here. Figured I owe the man whatever kickbacks in ad revenue he might get from my watch time for going through the trouble of making his newest, over 3 & maybe closer to 4 hour journey through ultimate frustration of KOTOR 2.

[@axeltrujillo5693]

That Dead Space UI is fantastic

[@justinw4901]

Witcher 3 did quests the best. Sidequests are just as good as the main quests.

[@rikzz0r]

Some are even better. Laughed my ass off with the pesta killing that poor dude, best moment of the game for me. But I was pretty drunk during that session so maybe I am a bit biased.

[@user-qo8kj1bg2s]

Witcher 3 did nothing "the best". All quests in this game are no better than quests in most of RPGs from early 2000s. Witcher is good only in comparison with other modern games.

[@fricktard12345]

Андрей Батурин Yeah I find most early Final Fantasy games to have VASTLY superior side quests. Nowadays The Witcher 3 is the only game to have side quests that matter

[@user-qo8kj1bg2s]

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has much more interesting and deep side quests.

[@urklenurkle]

idiot

[@inviktus1983]

The sidequests in The Witcher 3 were one of my favorite things about that game.

[@jacacent]

Definitely, each one has an either compelling or fun story going on

[@Stiffmiester979]

CDPR did a great job of using the books and the Pollish folklore to create those stories. I've beaten that game multiple times on Deathmarch both with and without mods. Such a great game that I even replayed the 1st and 2nd games before finishing it on my first Deathmarch run. I've got high hopes for Cyberpunk and I'm excited for any new Witcher related things they may release.

[@TFlo1020]

KZbin just decided to let me know your channel exists. I gotta say I really really enjoy the videos I have seen so far. Keep up the great work man!

[@connor8514]

Once you hear how deep he breathes in you cant stop hearing it

[@angtartitus1235]

I hate you now...

[@averinus7706]

I don't hear it.

[@DaRkNiNjA56789]

Yea i literally cant unhear it now 😭

[@connor8514]

sjp1990 wow I don't even remember commenting this.

[@false_idol__]

@@connor8514 Two years ago. Most people lose their comments in the dust.

[@ink4852]

Companions that won't shut up: Dragon's Dogma. "Harpy!" "There may be aught here." "Soaked to the bone!" "Harpy!" "There armed master." "If we follow this road, we'll soon reach Gran Soren." "Goblins!" "I'll provoke it!" "No, they hold the advantage," "Harpy!" "Be wary, Arisen!" "Tis weak to fire!" "This path leads left." "There kind hates ice and fire both." "Harpies will snatch you and fly." "Harpy!" "Tis a troubling foe." "Harpy!" "This looks interesting." "Harpy!" "Snow harpy!" "Wolves hunt in packs." "Harpy!" "If victory is elusive, seek new allies. Where that fails, seek new foes." "There Master! A harpy!" "Harpy!" "Harpy!" "Harpy!"

[@Drstrange3000]

ink4852 Wow... I haven't played for a few years and I remember mostly all of those lines.

[@AlkisGD]

It bears the head of a cock!

[@gelmir7322]

i give DD a pass considering that its capcom pretty much testing out a new ip hybrid of skyrim-esque open world rpg, monster hunter boss fight, with a flavor of mmorpg. Game is actually more like an action adventure dungeon raiding than an rpg.

[@ragingpapist103]

What was annoying at first, wound up being charming.

[@Fishandchipsguvnah]

Am I the only one who thought the pawn system and the whole concept of pawns was shit and stupid as hell and that the game would've been better without it?

[@royriley6282]

It just dawned on me how god damn underrated you are sir.

[@spartanq7781]

AAA developers look at us as dollar signs. They think how can we maximize profit with minimal effort? They advertise their games as for gamers but it's a lie. They create games to maximize profit that is why a lot of games are called a rpg game when there really not. I.e. Skyrim as the most popular glaring example of this. Developers and publishers are not your friend. There puppeteers pulling our strings. Given us the illusion of what we want from what there peddling. Such as Skyrim haven't no rpg elements but the fame is designed to make you thing your role playing. When your really not. No Man's Sky was marketed as a every man's sky. It was brimming with ambitious goals that were squandered. The develpers still choose to release it anyway. Modern games tend to be streamlined and accessible. This presents it's own problems. As then it turns off players who want depth and complexity in their games. Modern games are overly concerned of scaring off casual players but never the hardcore. This is because like I said before they see us a dollar signs. In most cases they could cater to both but they don't want to take that riskm That is my main problem with most AAA games. They don't takes risks. They play it safe and hardly ever innovate. They don't have to every game but once in awhile. Then a development studio does just that. Only to be imitated. A lot of the time though the imitators miss the point. This rant is not to say AAA games are bad per say. It was only to express my problems with them and how the problem could be fixed.

[@Rainbow_Dash_of_Cloudsdale]

@@sumo-kc4li, the same day people realize "Cultural Marxism" is a real thing, is just as much of a danger as capitalism if not worse, and that the solution to both is National-Socialism.

[@jimmurphy9904]

Q77 Spartan Who is your avatar?

[@Thrillkilled]

Rainbow Dash shut the fuck up rainbow dash lmfao

[@tankninja1]

Wait, I'm like 99% sure the Witcher vision on the minimap is an option you have to enable and by default it is turned off.

[@mushroomking311]

His whole minimap/waypoint argument is stupid. In Witcher 3 you don't follow the minimap, you follow actual contextual clues in the game world like footprints or blood splatters. Saying that your experience was hindered because you chose to enable a minimap feature and stare at that instead of doing what you're supposed to be doing isn't a valid argument at all. The Division has a floaty orange line to follow (which is also on the minimap, so why didn't he follow the one on the minimap like he did with Witcher 3?) and he says that's better for admiring the game's world than following a trail of clues that's literally implemented directly into the game's world naturally. If you want to explore and admire a game's world then how about you do that instead of saying you couldn't do it because your minimap didn't tell you to.

[@jonesjohnson6301]

Nah, the default option is all the clutter being activated. I hated myself for not noticing it until I was through the game. It's not CDProject's fault though as it makes more sense to appeal to casuals and expect the hardcore players to change it. I just wish I had been told it.

[@blakemcilwain2501]

Exactly he acts like people go off on random directions to find new things on a quest, what is this idiot even talking about. Is his highness upset that the games didn't spend hundreds of extra hours to make sure the game is completely perfect

[@stefanm.734]

@@blakemcilwain2501 But, people _do_ go off in random directions during quests. That's part of the fun.

[@Synthia17]

@@jonesjohnson6301 I'm pretty sure they added all this stuff because people complained about witcher 2 beeing too hard which is just funny at this point

[@brycemartin9036]

I like how in Nier Automata you can actually remove certain hud elements from your screen, and it even allows you to make your character a fraction stronger

[@Vorundor]

Dope video, one of my favorite party banter is from Bad Company games. There, the guys with you talk about themselves and other things that they have done before or sometimes they'll make jokes and observations about whats going on in the moment. Bad Company as a whole has some good character dialogue writing.

[@Javetts]

Your heavy HEAVY inhaling after every long tangent was hilarious.

[@SugaryPhoenixxx]

Man you nailed it on the UI. It really detracts from my overall immersion when I am looking at billboards plastering my screen. I never realized how much of a difference it makes until I downloaded the Smart UI mod on Skyrim. All of a sudden I felt immersed in that land like never did before. Until the next fetch quest... FUCK fetch quests. Even though Oblivion's dungeons were flawed, I thought that they were much more immersive & exploreable than Skyrim or Fallout 4. You could take a wrong turn, & have to then navigate back to where you came from. All while encountering enemies & finding extra loot. I personally didn't mind having to backtrack though dungeons, because it is just realistic. It really pissed me off when I walked my happy ass all the way through Labrynthian, only to exit through a stupid shortcut with some sort of barred door. WHY DIDN'T I JUST TAKE THAT SHORTCUT ON THE WAY IN?!?! I am supposed to be the dragonborn, but my wimpy ass can't knock down a wooden door? I know that the whole point of a dungeon is to explore, but that design just really pisses me off. Its like in Lord of the Rings, why didn't they just ride the damn eagles all the way to mount doom? Problem solved. If companions have something to say, it really shouldn't be mundane & repetitive. Unless like you said, they point out something & maybe prompt a cutscene about it, expanding on the lore. I think that when companions speak, it should be something interesting about them personally, like their opinion of another NPC. Or their personally history. Or their opinion of the player. That would add realism to them as a believable person living in a believable world. Something that would build my sense of attachment to that companion. Thanks again Strategy. I love your style man!!

[@skyellis4329]

God, this brought up ptsd of Strong from Fallout 4. If you're using a crafting station and he's in that settlement he'll find you and lay waste to you're mental stability by linking a repeated chain of idle dialogue until you leave.

[@Dredbot-hj7gy]

*I have another settlement that needs our help, I'll mark it on your map.*

[@demeon3738]

A lot of what you say is right, but a lot of it contradicts itself. Like, you talked about how health bars take away from being in the game, but you ranted about having blood on the screen in fps, because it´s more difficult to find cover. Have you ever thought that when you are hit by a bullet, finding cover actually is more difficult.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

"Like, you talked about how health bars take away from being in the game, but you ranted about having blood on the screen in fps"How is this a contradiction. Sounds like I was pretty consistent. "Have you ever thought that when you are hit by a bullet, finding cover actually is more difficult." Never occurred to me. I guess I just thought that when you get shot you just automatically heal like wolverine and it's a bit like getting a splinter. Not sure what your argument is here. When you get shot in the leg, does blood start coming out of your eyes? Might need you to clarify your stance here because I is dum.

[@jordanwebster1728]

Strat-Edgy Productions he’s not saying you’re dumb. “When you get shot in the leg, does blood start coming out of your eyes”. Games aren’t meant to be ultra realistic and thats just an indicator that you’re hurt.

[@genetichell]

The first person shooter Trespasser from 1998 handled the UI-issue nicely as well, by not giving a UI at all. The health bar was shown as a tattoo on the female protagonist's boobs, so you had to physically look down to see it. You also just didn't get any ammo display. Instead, the protagonist would tell you an approximation of the ammo remaining in your mag, for instance: "full clip", "about 20", "5 rounds left", "nearly empty", "that's it"

[@spartanpawn007]

Honestly, I don't mind the bloodscreens. But, replace them with an encroaching black or white boarder and it's like the player's loosing consciousness. Actually, some games and mods already do this (Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm and Arma series' ACE Mods off the top of my head).

[@holythirteenx1]

Consider it a "status ailment that actually matters". :)

[@ColdHawk]

Thoughtful stuff! In trying to pump out content through a Herculean team effort in the high pressure situation that launching a multi-million dollar title has become it must become pretty easy to loose sight of some of these principles. I hope designers hear this! Maybe you could distill it into a list to post in those fluorescent-lit cubicles.

[@InsidiousOne]

Why do modern RPGs need the boring dungeons at all? It's XXI century, the graphics are no longer limited like in 1980-s and 1990-s, the developers can draw some great landscapes and fantastic cities, but they tend to put us into boring dungeons. The funniest thing is that Morrowind was a step in a right direction: most of the quests were social, you were travelling the world, visiting city places and discoverring stuff in the wilderness. There were some remaining ruins and caves, but they were short and not linear for the most time. And then Skyrim just threw that out of the window and put us in the boring linear dungeons again.

[@Bakron97]

dungeons should be saved for special places or things imo. a few greatly designed dungeons will do wonders. i don't think the problem is dungeons i think the problem is the reliance on dungeons

[@xXEPIKgamerXx]

More dungeons should be like Zelda Games, its not a dungeon, its just a really violent messed up place with it own ecosystem and architecture, people probably used and lived in most of them and the traps and enemies reflect how they lived and what could have happened to them, the traditional dungeon is literally just brick room after brick room with bad guys in their because dungeons have bad guys, or rather a caricature of the only real narrative reason for why those places exist. Some sadistic wizard type made up his own SAW style torture maze and you unfortunately find yourself in one, and that was interesting a new concept, but that ultimately devolved into, empty place, animals/beats/zombies attack you for no reason, and if combat itself is fun, fair enough, but when your draw is some BS reward that ultimately doesn't add anything to your playthough that ain't gonna fly.

[@elgatochurro]

tbh though, id always be alright with gameplay over asthetic, if you play zelda 2, the dungeons merely have differetn colors and no real cosmetic tiles adn such, but the dungeons were always formed and different puzzles from one another, ive beaten the game 3 times fully over 10 years and i still get lost wandering AS A GOOD THING, ive a general idea at times where the important items are but i get the experience of having to go through the dungeon exploring it again, not as a bad thing of "idk where to go"

[@diggy_the_first]

muh current century

[@calknight]

I think far too many developers are focusing too much on the graphics and they forget immersion or story telling.

[@rogers4760]

You don't like a game holding your hand but you liked draws a line on the screen on how to get anywhere, that is worse than bio shock infinite.

[@wolfvonversweber1109]

It's kind of funny, most of his rant consists of him complaining that games aren't holding his hand enough... He doesn't want side quests even though he could just ignore most of them and they're mostly an option to explore the world. He doesn't want items that aren't obviously usefull and need a decision if they're worth it. He wants doors and bosses that tell him where he can or can't go (yet). He even wants a line that tells him where to walk to stay in cover ffs... Also he complains about "cluttered" huds in modern games compared "the good old games" when huds in old rpgs/rtss were far less streamlined and had tons of icons and menus...

[@RobynReanimates]

@@wolfvonversweber1109 It's more along the lines that he doesnt want games stuffed with inconsequential bullshit. Side quests with no meaning or impact, or weapons that arent any different than the rest other than the fact that they just have different numbers and therefore become irrelevant once you reach a certain level. He also likes the lines on the screen because it puts your focus on the actual environment instead of just staring at a minimap. It's not that having a lot of things is bad all the time, it's that things like a cluttered HUD break immersion which makes the game less enjoyable. I honestly thought his points were pretty valid

[@peliparado94]

I think he isn't complaining about the game holding his hand. He's complaining about bad HUD design in that particular part. Pointing out that a minimap on the conrner is a lot more distracting than an arrow drawn directly on the game. If he didn't want hand holding he would just have said that games need to verbally give you directions like in the old days without arrows of any sort.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

In @Roger S's defense, I have said that about Morrowind because I prefer a game that doesn't hold my hand at all. The issue is that some people don't understand that if a game is going to have a hud and way points and quest markers and shit like that, I prefer that they be designed in a way that they aren't getting in the way of the experience. Often times people believe that if you take one stance, you are supposed to stick with that stance no matter what the situation is. That is why you see people fall into media bubbles and associate themselves with political groups. This has been a rant from Strat-edgy and now that you've heard it, go watch some futurama.

[@RobynReanimates]

@@StratEdgyProductions Futurama was a mostly good show, I remember going to blockbuster with my dad for the movies that came out after it got canceled

[@112523]

i think the witcher 3 is vastly overrated but the sidequests are pretty damn good both in that they are stories themselves and they also wrap around into the main story in some cases wich i find amazing

[@COHOFSohamSengupta]

Wait a minute, you're getting attacked by the raging Witcher fanboys who call themselves die hard Witcher fan but only boast about the third sequel as if the first 2 game never existed

[@112523]

@@COHOFSohamSengupta this honestly hasn't happened yet. Wich I find amazing. But then again. I always try to explain my reasoning despite the fact that I didnt do that in this comment at all

[@BrickwallStudios0]

I'd rather occasionally watch on the minimap, then have lines allover my screen, showing me where to go and where to vault, hide etc... That's just killing immersion.

[@shaynehughes6645]

In that order?

[@winterburden]

I work as a security guard, and our building patrols are performed by scanning bar codes and answering a series of questions in the scanner. I find that I have to spend so much time messing with the scanner that I have almost no time to spend paying attention to the patrol or verifying if the building is actually secure or not.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

That's cool. What kind of questions do they ask you. Is it like password types questions, or just details about the room?

[@winterburden]

There are 7 questions, and they're mostly like 'are the exits free of obstruction,' 'are the doors functional.' They're distracting and take a long time to click through and don't even cover every possible type of discrepancy. 'Are there any discrepancies, Y/N, if Y please describe,' would allow for much more time to check the area properly and encourage reporting a wider range of issues.

[@connorforce01]

5:19 Saints Row invented this feature. 6:40 Gears of War invented that feature. 7:07 Dead Space did invent and do this very well, fuck Dead Space is a good game.

[@broadbandtogod]

25:45 I love how you presented the weapon designs and how it should be, spot on!

[@hhectorlector]

7 minutes in .. just got to your coverage of Dead Space’s use of UI.. loving this! Easy subscribe

[@adamgeigerjr6995]

far cry 2 ... using an actual map and compass with no mini map at all ( minus vehicles )

[@leecroft7311]

Far Cry 2 in my opinion is one of the most underrated game's out there.

[@jthomcres]

@@leecroft7311 It aged horribly, though. Ubisoft has always had issues with respawning enemies in their games, and Farcry 2 was a perfect example of how that one single aspect can ruin an entire game, if you fuck it up just right.

[@tomoakley760]

FC2 had it's problems, but the things it got right, it got so much more right than any of its successors.

[@itch433]

Speaking of side quests in TES games - you can pretty much clearly see how the writing for those degraded from Morrowind->Oblivion->Skyrim. In Morrowind every quest had something new to experience or learn about how this world works. I still remember the "generic" bandit-killing quest, that consisted of locating the mine without any markers, watching people work there harvesting the kwama eggs, learning what those kwama creature do, where are these eggs exported and sold, and finally finding the hiding bandits and killing them. There was world building at every corner. Oblivion had a lot of fun quests, even though the markers took a lot from immersion, they still told interesting stories with unexpected twists. I actually started a slow casual replay of the game (haven't touched it for 8 years I think) and I keep finding some pretty fun quests that don't even involve any combat. Skyrim PROBABLY had it's number of interesting side quests, it would be unfair to say they all sucked, but the good ones are lost in a clutter of generic chore shit - go kill bandits, find my sword, bring me a tusk, deliver this letter, bounty quests, courier quests, just a ton of boring stories with little to no personality...

[@Kos4Evr]

and thanks to radiant quests a single location may have 2 or 3 quests active at any given time. Personally I love to collect stupid side quests and then just do what ever I want and cash in my quests when I actually remember them.

[@b0hem1]

So, the couriers actually start a bunch of great quests, like the mythic dawn quest. (see more here: elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Courier_(Skyrim) ) There are TWO quests involving finding swords in the game. ONE involving a mammoth tusk. Killing bandits is done as a favour for Jarls, as are bounty quests. One companion quest with a letter, one civil war quest with a letter in it. If you're talking about the radiant quests which are usually just fetching and delivering items, then those are completely optional and to my knowledge no one really bothers with them, seeing as they never end and are kind of bare bones in regards to a plot. In my opinion most of Skyrims quests are well written and have good characters in them, same as the previous games. But I guess it's just easier to pick out and showcase a couple of the more mindless ones, say they're all shit, then call it a day ;D

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

ChampionOfTheSun Because fetching a horn is sooooo different from fetching a tusk, right? You either completely missed the point or are deliberately dodging. In MW, the above mentioned egg mine _was_ a place with characters around that had interesting stuff to say. The horn-fetching sent you through a generic Draugr tomb. The axe fetching for the companions sent you through a generic Draugr tomb. Fetching dwemer stuff for mr crazy wizard under the ice guy sent you through a generic dwemer ruin. The Whiterun sword fetching sent you through a generic bandit camp. I think all these are the same boring repetitive shite. But I guess other than telling us how unique the quests are you can also say "the thing you get out of a generic horseshoe dungeon is sometimes a sword, sometimes a horn, and so on" and call it a day. I could be fetching baskets of badly baked bread out of generic ghoul grave grinds fir all I care, swapping the meaningless mcguffin doesn't make a bloody difference.

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

No, the alliterations don't serve a purpose, I just felt like it.

[@abyssstrider2547]

Шломи Кагерман actually,there were many quests which you would get about items you needed to locate (and you could get them along the way whiče doing main missions for example you go in a city, enter the inn and there is an alchemist asking adventurers if they saw a mamooth tusk beacuse its pretty rare so a player takes a quest and he keeps doing main quests and voila! In a building made by blades which described glory of the last dragonborn (one before player) player found those mamooth tusks, then player keeps on adventuring and has need to go back to the city or simply wants to finish the quest and he is rewarded with a gift or gold coins! Now that is a small side quest, you don't need to clear out a whole new dungeon which is marked on a map somewhere but you just randomly find it doing a main mission

[@tylerthacher1612]

hey been digging the channel and find both entertaining and insightful. keep it up and I'll be waiting to watch

[@kenshii_jim]

This kind of gave me a new point of view, since until now i was all about having my screen filled with stuff. I would turn on every possible option for the hud, enemy hp bars, pc performance (FPS, GPU workload, CPU workload, temperature of both, RAM and VRAM usage, frametime, CPU frequency, GPU clock, memory clock, ping, RTT... yep, i usually had all of that on) and i would love all of that. Turns out, after trying some, i figured out most of that were, indeed not being immersive friendly and that my favorite hud style was something useful, with the essentials, but not very intrusive. I still hate the look of a 1st person lowkey hud, but i understand how much too much hud can suffocate you, so this helped me create the balance on my preferences.

[@matternicuss]

Thankfully The Witcher 3 lets you customize the HUD. You can make it as minimal as you like, and it's even possible to play without it thanks to the Witcher sense mechanic (not very practical though). That being said I really wish open world games did away with quest markers. I realize it's difficult to guide players in really open, large environments, but there has to be a less intrusive way...

[@tzaneee]

hey 5 months to late .....quest markers are not that bad for breaking immersion ,the follow the gold line ,like fable 3, is more of a immersion breaker

[@ajuc005]

Yup, I disabled the question marks and the dotted line, and I just left the general direction arrows. Still playable, and exploration got much more interesting.

[@TranscenGopher]

Quest logs and guidance. Let quest giver explain where you need to go. Hell, figuring out where to go can be a quest in itself. ... but that's hard to do. Doubt it'll ever really return to mainstream.

[@j0nnyism]

matternicuss thankfully i can modify my balls. I dont because theyre perfect the way they are

[@cadeyrndragheim22]

I so FUCKING AGREE in regards to the loot system in games. It's usually just so pointless, different weapons don't even do anything other than stats. And actually, dark souls kinda falls into this as well with the magic items, but at least you can find different spells i guess. But i have to say that the leveling system has a similar problem, at least in regards to enemies. What's the point of leveling up and getting better loot, if enemies level up with you? It just means that the progression you're making is the same, power wise, you just look cooler or get more skills. I've always hated that thing in games like diablo or torchlight, never seen the point to it. So why not just make the world deleveled instead, with meaningful items that you can pick up? That's kinda what dark souls does, which is another reason why i like it. And fortunately, there are mods that can do that for Witcher 3 as well. I just wish more games made the player character feel like they actually evolve, not necessarily grow stronger stat wise. But evolve as in, you get to know your enemies better, have better equipment that fits their weaknesses, you learned new skills that don't necessarily give you more power, but more options to deal with enemies etc. Instead, 90% of rpg's imo are like HURR DURR HERE TAKE THIS ITEM THAT GIVES YOU MORE STATS NOW YOU CAN DEFEAT THE ENEMY THAT YOU COULDN'T BEFORE. It just feels very cheap and lazy. I'd rather have my character go to a dungeon in the main quest and learn a skill to make himself invulnerable for a few seconds, just enough to be able to defeat a one-shot ability of an enemy that he had no hope of defeating before.

[@migueldc6845]

Hey man, you did a great job with the Video. The timing is good, you exaggerated certain things in just the right manner and caught the attention from the very first minute. Very watchable! Thank you

[@NOPerative]

I just started playing BGE again last night and looked out the window to see the sun rising - wow. First time I had a bard in my squad, almost 2K gold (most I've ever had much less this early in the game), a full squad (6) and fastest trek to the Friendly Arm - all in one play through. This game grows on you like mold on a dead man - it just gets everywhere. Good vid too!

[@bootlegphoenix4909]

Seeing as you showed Persona 5 when talking about UI's I wonder what your take on Persona 5's UI is. Personally, I thought it was an excellent UI. Very bombastic, over the top. It's not the top of UI that would work in every game but for Persona 5 it expresses it's styles and themes perfectly. One of my favourites in any JRPG.

[@lunarnocturne]

Phoenix - I really love how all the graffiti and crazy writing and drawings in the UI expresses the overall themes and concepts in the game as well.

[@Jacob-vw9hj]

Dragon age inquisition, while suffering from many of the things you say, does have some side-quests that I remember enjoying quite fondly. Like the one in crest wood where you have to try to close the breach in the middle of the lake. Seems simple at first but you eventually learn that submerged below that lake is the old crest wood town. And when you finally drain the lake and go into the old crest wood town to destroy the breach, you learn that the town was originally submerged because a sickness started there that was killing everybody and the mayor tricked all the healthy people to going up on the mountains and left the sick there in old crest wood and then proceeded to flood old crest wood and kill all the sickly, but ended up saving all the healthy people. While this is just one side quest from the many that were bad, I feel like you should've talked more about dragon age inquisitions few good quests as well as all the bad ones.

[@dudeofvalor9294]

I enjoyed that quest, but to be fair I enjoyed the game a lot. Before the Dawn quest was another great one.

[@dodoextinct4597]

SourPls everyone hate dragon age origin but idk i loved it😅😅

[@usernameunknown9940]

I'd take DAO over DAI any day

[@shayliakara]

You guys might remember that every single companion quest is a "side quest" and can be skipped, but are excellent side quests. In Dragon Age: Inquisition.

[@1InVader1]

Tbh I only remember DA:I side quests because they were just THAT awful. Like the one where you collected shards to unlock doors, where you found MEDIOCRE resistance items (to help fight dragons). Or the one where an old guy is like "Omg, muh ram ran away, bring it back!" and it was ram with golden fur or something. Or the all-time Biowar classic, present in almost all their RPG games (including DA:I), where an old lady is like: "omg I left muh wedding ring in my old house when I fled. Pls bring it back!" You know what was good? The Descent DLC. It's better than the entire rest of the game. If the DA:I would have been like that dlc in the Deep Roads, it would've been an awesome game. Trespasser was pretty good too.

[@nilsvandensteen7655]

I absolutely love these videos :D. Please make more < 3

[@Cacciatoredizombie]

The bg music in this video is so tight, dude! Now I need a fraggin' title list.

[@MrTaxMan666]

Show don't tell is beautiful. Its why Dark Souls DOES have a story and its how you write Screenplays.

[@Simtar123]

The god damn ubisoft part nearly killed me XD

[@moonkingdomify]

Metal Gear Solid V actually does the waypoint system quite well, using markers instead of a minimap, you actually have to take out a device to set the markers and look at the map, but the game doesn't pause while you do this, so it's actually really beneficial to find a good hiding spot to place these markers look for the best route to your target location. I mean not much happens in the open world of MGSV, but I still think that's a pretty cool feature.

[@boethia110]

i like ypur videos and the fact that you also include music i like in the background (every time)

[@CapinKirk]

I hate DA:I so much, tried to like it and just couldn't, I uninstalled it three times. So much fetch quests and pointless content in it, I just can't enjoy it. I hate random loot with generated numbers and a tedious crafting system...

[@NotTheFallen355]

I realize this video is a bit old now, but the only thing I don't like about you're UI argument is that Most isometric RPGs are confusing as fuck. Usually it seems like the whole bottom and at least 1 side of the screen is filled with so much stuff it's hard to remember where everything is at. Take your Baldurs Gate 2 clip from the beginning of this video for example. I agree with you that Dead Space did it best, but I didn't have any of your issues with The Witcher 3. Glance up at the map every once in a while just to make sure I'm heading in the right direction and that's all I really needed.

[@gruma37]

Of the many reasons I like this video, my favorite is that sega sunset is playing softly in the background at one point. I was a little upset that you didn't talk about the souls series' take on sidequests. It fits exactly what you were saying you liked about them.

[@turkey_master]

Really great video, am getting into the games industry (game design) and I love to watch these types of honest opinion videos, they really help in the future to know what the player wants and doesn't want, thanks

[@nman431]

"Even in numbers a weakling is a weakling still"

[@gmclucy]

now I'm not sure if you would want to make a video about this, but could you consider possibly a video about the decline of quality in Call of Duty games or just shooters in general?

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Ohhh, that would be interesting. I would actually have to buy Call of Duty games though :( I can consider this though. I wouldn't mind doing a single player version of it, as I am sure doing multiplayer at this point would be nigh impossible on some of the older titles. I may actually put up a poll and do this, honestly.

[@7dayspking]

+Gmclucy Is there an objective measure for that, more importantly have they in fact 'declined' in quality...or is the magic just gone after playing the same thing for more than a decade? Go back and play COD2 or Big Red One (the latter being the only COD game I've owned for any period of time apart from MW2.) and see if the quality has in fact reduced dramatically. I'd argue it definitely has it's charm when compared to modern COD games at the least.

[@7dayspking]

+John Henry ....none of those are an objective measure of quality though? Do the modern cods offer more content or less? Do they have inferior or superior graphics? Are their stories less or more extravagant and complex and more or less poorly written? Are their games more buggy or less buggy?

[@sirmat22]

Brilliant !! One of the best 2017 video i've watched. Keep up the good work you know your stuff and it's pleasant to watch. 4:08 perfect

[@winstonsmith3092]

The best way 1st ed. AD&D dealt with inventory clutter was it's possible destruction. When you failed a save you then had to determine if your equipment was ruined. One set of bad rolls could see the walking arsenals that players reduced to just their kecks!

[@theepgfiles661]

To be fair, Monster Hunting for a professional Monster Hunter is probably routine, so it kind of makes sense that there's a certain amount of repetition to those quests.There's a procedure to be followed, it's CSI: Witcher!

[@salyonaraplay167]

i'm not a big fan of waypoints

[@eigentlichtoll02]

why and you prefer what instead?

[@jasonfenton8250]

eigentlichtoll02 Map, that does not show player position, and compass, not a magic one with markers, just a normal NESW compass. This combined with NPCs giving directions, and a map with natural landmarks, is easily navigable and immersive.

[@eigentlichtoll02]

Horatio Nelson i like that! can't remember ever have seen that in a game... makes me think there's actually not much of "adventure" in current games (i guess)

[@galacticrelic258]

Morrowind didn't have them I believe you just follow directions in your notes / have to use your brain

[@bilbobaggins8581]

I don't really think the way point was the takeaway... It was a means to an end of explaining immersive practices over over-encumbered UI's that clutter and detract from in-game happenings.

[@jagermazurkewich6454]

I see you using the beyond the black rainbow soundtrack and I love it!

[@Mephilis78]

I never ever pass up the Lambert quest on any of my playthroughs. It is easily just as good, if not better than most of the main quests. There is so much depth to this side quest that it's beyond belief. Same can be said for the Letho quest, and the Roach quest (Vernon, not to be confused with horse)., or "the Last Wish", Keira Metz's haunted Island quest.... etc.

[@otakonjunkie]

I wonder what your opinion of Persona 5's inventory system is. Keeps the item types seperate, and the merchant can with one button buy all the 'money items' you pick up. Limited amount of usable equipment keeps things from getting bogged down too far in that. It is turn based combat, much different from what you talked about in open world, so I'm not sure of your opinion on that, but it is rather straightforward in weapon/item bonuses.

[@jmiquelmb]

Tom H. Yeah omitting Persona 5 while talking about UI in games seems kind of an overlook. He even shows footage from the game at some moment

[@minnevabuh3947]

He showed footage of Persona 5 while commenting about cluttered UI. And he's right, that game is enough to give me a seizure.

[@ouroldhouse3674]

I have to disagree with the first one - I hate world-space UIs. A big line drawn IN the game world leading you to objectives? Fuck no. Give me a mini-map any day. Dead Space has a pretty dumb UI though - why would it be on his back? Resident Evil is perfect however, since it's all in a separate screen - no bullshit anywhere.

[@TylerHNothing]

My fav part of this video is that while The Witcher 3 & Dragon Age Inquisition were so successful commercially and critically, your points sum up exactly why I didn't have a fun time with these games at launch. I had played so many other games before those were popular and these were some people's first big RPG

[@gobber121]

Good video, I loved that you gave reasoning AND examples for each of your points, thank you!

[@gladiatorscoops]

It's usually easier to display HUD in sci-fi games cos you can make it contextual- part of the world/ character itself. As seen in Dead space and HL1/2. It gets a little more tricky in modern day settings and fantasy. I think many games would be much better immersive experiences if they limit the on screen HUD. It pisses me off when it's not contextual, I don't want to know in a realistic setting how many bullets I have left until my gun stops firing and I have to reload. Same with enemy health bars - just get rid of them altogether, it's just an excuse for lazy design and animation shortcuts.

[@gladiatorscoops]

One of the worst offenders is the far cry series - that game didn't need glowing xray enemies you could see behind a building. It's a survival game- strip out all of the HUD- it would be a much more immersive experience

[@matthiuskoenig3378]

a way you can indicate it is have your character display injuries and stuff getting slower and more bloody the closer to death you are, aswell as an option to check your wounds (which then brings up your exact health.

[@hmad898]

In skyrim for some reason my companions never said “oh look a cave” until after we leave the cave

[@sjs9698]

left a cave earlier today & my companion said 'oh i wonder what's in there' a lot of dead bodies... some empty chests... we know this bc we just fekkin' left that cave ye idiot! such a dumb bug.

[@blusauce1484]

Thanks for leaving a list of the music you used nice job crediting!