henke on 26/8/2022 at 15:20

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Dunno if it's just me and dema who are gonna be excited about this, but Dakar 18 is finally getting a sequel, coming out October 4th!

[video=youtube;HI1up6iw1CE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI1up6iw1CE[/video]

It looks pretty dang good!

demagogue on 27/8/2022 at 07:27

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Yeah, if you've been noticing my Steam screenshots I've been getting back into the 2018 version in a big way recently. It's kind of a fun coincidence I found out about this right around the same time.

The waypoint system is okay if it sticks to path-looking routes; going off into completely featureless countryside for long stretches isn't really worth the trouble except in small doses where it's a worthwhile challenge. But fortunately a lot of routes are like the former. And I liked making my own long distance routes. I mean it started out as just free roaming, but if you do that enough it naturally starts turning into route-making. So I like that this version has an editor that lets you save it as a map so you can run it for time. I think that'll help me get into it a lot.

I kind of wish they had a classic Dakar rally, you know back when they actually finished in Dakar or some other place in Africa, and not just going with the last official one ... for a few reasons.

- It's the original Dakar experience. I feel like you can start to understand what it means today by first tapping into its roots.

- Not enough games feature Africa, and even among those that do, not so positively, and not ones where you explore the countryside so intimately.

- Related to that, I think the terrain was more varied in the classic routes, and the trailer wasn't reassuring me too much. But I may be underestimating how varied west/central Saudi Arabia is, so I don't want to bank too much on that. The addition of dynamic weather and day-night cycle, etc., I think can also help with the variation.

- Vintage vehicles have more character that contemporary ones. That's not a dealbreaker though.

- And generally, the Saudi government has been grade-A asshole under MBS, more than most of the countries it's been hosted in in the past. I don't want to blame the country itself or race organizers for that, although I expect for a country like that there is actually some kind of official patronage going on, so I'm still down on the place and not all that excited to visit the place in this kind of context (e.g., hearing excitable/oblivious race commentary).

Edit: Oh I just ran into an (https://www.bbc.com/sport/motorsport/62796771) op/ed on exactly this issue today too, Saudi "sports washing", so it's not just my thinking. Well anyway I made a link to it for reference.

That said, I think this will be easier to separate from real world politics than other kinds of games, i.e., I can pretend it's in a fantasy Saudi Arabia like I couldn't, e.g., for a wargame -- countryside itself mercifully doesn't care about politics -- and someday MBS will be gone and the place will see better days (I have to believe), which I'll be a little more happy to visit. I think it's a temporary concern.

So all in all, I think the pros outweigh the cons. I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with this. Especially making my own routes I think will boost my enjoyment of it a lot, since I'll know the route by heart and I can make it as easy or as challenging as I like, and actually making a good route is kind of a game in itself I've been finding out. I still hope they make a vintage version of this someday, but I can live with this one and have fun with it.

Thirith on 30/8/2022 at 14:32

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Not sure if I'd say I'm outright hyped (I'm not really), but there are supposedly relatively trustworthy rumours that the next Assassin's Creed will be a return to the roots, i.e. it'll be smaller, city-based and it won't contain all the (relatively shallow) RPG elements. It'll supposedly be called Assassin's Creed Mirage and be set in medieval Baghdad.

While I'm not hyped, though, I definitely welcome the return to a smaller format. The bigger the recent Assassin's Creed games got, the less I felt like playing them.

demagogue on 6/9/2022 at 12:24

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Is it strange that I'm hyped about this?

[video=youtube;uYllbjF2xaM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYllbjF2xaM[/video]

I think it plays to the admin / logistical side of my personality. I'm not that much of a dogfighter, and I like flying around airliner-sized jets as it is, but it'd be cool to do it in a wartime environment to get the flavor of both worlds. I like the idea of doing supply runs with some escorts through hostile territory.

Brethren on 19/9/2022 at 14:42

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Missed this from way back in April, here's the new game in the works from Heart Machine, who made Hyper Light Drifter (one of my all time faves) and also Solar Ash (which was really good too):

[video=youtube;nBKSUXC0Ke8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBKSUXC0Ke8[/video]