Just to respond to the one random Zelda Q, I think it's a beautiful game and also deserves recognition for what they've done with environmental interactivity and exploration in a 3rd person POV. I will just never get over how insane it was to see climbing, swimming, paragliding and all that stuff executed so flawlessly, and I'm legit blown away at how far Nintendo pushed that stuff in the new one.
I'm less bowled over by things like Link on a motorcyle or construct vehicles, but still that whole idea of just climbing up that tree and jumping off it to float down like Mary Poppins somewhere, swimming in the river or coasting some kind of makeshift raft. It's unreal how satisfying the simple things are. Like they even pulled off cooking and broken weapons in a way that's actually kinda fun. I'm surprised that in 6 years nobody has yet matched it, and so the new entry still kind blows the competition out the park, cause there is no competition for that, really.
I mean my total wish would be if BG3 or a party based D&D game set in the Forgotten Realms could do exactly that sort of thing, but with a full crew of characters, and then also to have a transparent systems turn based form of combat on D20. If they could pull that off with the dress up we see in stuff like Cyberpunk, there would be no stopping a Dungeon Dragon, but it's like clearly not really here yet. Tears of the Kingdom is to Breath of the Wild what Majora's Mask was to the Ocarina of Time. Like sure they look practically the same, but it's an entirely different story, and it's not like an expansion cause you don't need the first one to do the second one, but the fact that they are connected and maintain a cohesive visual aesthetic is also something I think could be celebrated there. It's hard to maintain that sort of coherence and not succumb to the need to be so avante garde that it gives up what hooked people in the first place, which was also a kind of in the look. It's charm is that is more cartoon animation as opposed to cinema mimetic, like it reminds me of Jim Henson worlds in that way, and Nintendo always does excel in that arena. Because it's Japan they also have to lean into other conventions too, which favor whimsy over grit, which is kinda interesting for a point of contrast.
To me this is a real contest, like both these games have done something very special, and full disclosure, I absolutely adore Patricia Summersett's voice! The Japanese dub is stellar too, obviously, and I can do that for sure. It's a bit like deciding whether to watch Ninja Scroll or Akira or Fist of the North Star with a dub, though for any of those I prefer Japanese, but Zelda I loved what she did. I know it was a thing at one point, but that performance and that voice, damn, I mean really, I loved it! And all the backups in that one too. It's just special, I can't think of any reason to knock it.
BG3 though damn, like when I log in, sometimes I do just think instantly, "why can't I climb that?!" or "why can't I swim there?" and so I think BG3 could kind go there a bit more, without having to fully go there, and it could give me sort of what I'm after. Shadowheart's swim DLC? hehe
I'm not sure how to really weigh in on the Multiplayer aspect, it seems like there's some jank there at least in the respect that I can't find any ready way to export/import between an MP session and an SP one which is what I expected, and I don't feel like there's a ready pick up thing built-in that does sufficient leg work. But then I'm not on discord much so maybe that's how that's done. Discord moves a bit too quickly for me, I tried it for A&A EAs and that wasn't nearly as large, kinda warp speed, but I don't think of BG3 as on the lvl of a NWN with it's Persistent Worlds or sub communities of MP that way. Seems like a stretch, but I have seen some co op floating around and it does appear to have something going there in the antics and spontaneous fun. I feel like it's probably just all MP with peeps you already know though, whereas to really by like an MP best in class game it has to provide more onboarding to randomly link up with new peeps, or find peeps with similar playstyles and interests. I just don't know that I need that from a BG game though, so yeah, maybe not for that one specifically.
Still, love the game, and hopefully it gets some love! These are sorta like the Oscars to the Baftas that just happened right? Like in game to film parlance? I mean then there's one more right that I guess would be like Golden Globes or maybe Cannes or Sundance, or even MTV hehe seems like there are more than I remember.
I caught that they wanted a sign in of some form to vote, though I suppose at this point google probably runs my brain, so I guess it's whatever, I'll toss in a vote once I can truly decide for some stuff. Alan Wake 2 just made in under the wire, like I don't know if November release is kinda pushin' it, I'm already thinking about hanging Xmas lights now. So it's sorta like a 2024 game for me there, cause I'm still too into the stuff that came out at the end of Summer. Cyberpunk had a rocky start for sure, and that's like not how I want things going here either, to that last point on the previous page, but if Larian can do what they did and just keep banging away until we eventually get something super clean in 2 years time, I guess I'd prefer that to them just bouncing on D&D. I feel somehow that if it gets all the plaudits it can, that could only help to sorta stake out a little claim for a dlc expansion or sequel, or at least to raise the roof a bit with mod integration on steam and such, so I can raise the roof on my camera heheh. Fingers crossed!
Best of luck
Last edited by Black_Elk; 14/11/23 01:38 PM.
