To a certain extent you’re right (though I’d say Witcher 2 was still closer to ‘cult following’ than ‘pretty well received’), but I still feel like - just in comparison to their peers - they jumped up to those lofty heights... pretty damned fast. Like, going from The Witcher 2 to Wild Hunt to ‘We’re the best developer…

I always found it fascinating how quickly CDPR jumped into that ‘everybody’s favorite game developer!’ spot. Like, they went from ‘game developer you’ve maybe heard of, but you’re not going to buy their new game purely on CDPR’s name alone’ to ‘I will buy any game they make because they can do no wrong!’... pretty…

Same boat, as far as experience goes. Still, I tend to think that they could get away with ‘and she’s markedly less powerful now that she’s not the Chosen One anymore, because the ending of Wild Hunt means that mumble mumble flurgle splarkz’. (Though I honestly wouldn’t hate it if they did find a way to work the…

That could definitely work as well - though I think you’d still have to decide, one way or another, which of the endings of Wild Hunt was ‘canon’.

I mean, I’d be perfectly happy to get a Ciri-focused game that just assumes the ‘she survived and became a Witcher’ ending (ummm... spoilers, I guess). Maybe make the game’s tutorial area her visit to Geralt’s sweet little vinyard at the end of Blood & Wine, so this one starts where that one ‘left off’, so to speak.…

I definitely know what you’re talking about, especially when it comes to the ‘well, I’ve waited this long, what’s the harm in waiting a little longer and hoping the price goes a little lower?’ mentality. For my part, I try to get around that to make ‘whether or not I buy the game’ less about that game in particular,…

Very true, especially the bit about PvP games; I play very, very few primarily PvP games, but even still, I’ve definitely had that experience of ‘well, I’m playing this six months after release, and the only people still playing other than me are those who’ve memorized every single map, learned every single ability’s…

Yeah, once you get that backlog, it just becomes hard to justify the day one purchase; I’m currently enjoying Far Cry 6 rather than playing Elden Ring, and I do feel a little left out of the ‘conversation’ around From Software’s latest... but I also know I’ll enjoy the actual game just as much when I pick it up for…

Not nearly as many as I used to; thanks mainly to consoles getting more and more of the ‘massive discount’ digital sales over the last decade or so - the sort that used to be purely Steam’s purview - it’s hard to justify paying ‘full price’ when I know damn well the game’ll be at least 40% off in six months or so.…

Okay, at this point - as much as I’ve enjoyed the conversation, don’t get me wrong - we’re just talking around each other: I’m running out of ways to say ‘I’m legitimately glad having that harder difficulty has improved the narrative for you, but that doesn’t mean it’s improved the narrative for me, which means I…

Okay, at this point - as much as I’ve enjoyed the conversation, don’t get me wrong - we’re just talking around each other: I’m running out of ways to say ‘I’m legitimately glad having that harder difficulty has improved the narrative for you, but that doesn’t mean it’s improved the narrative for me, which means I…

I think gameplay can absolutely effect how someone experiences a story - the most obvious example would be something like Dark Souls, where the basic gameplay loop of repetition/frustration/success is built into the lore (I hesitate to use the word ‘narrative’ when it comes to Dark Souls). And if I’m understanding you…

I’ll give you Zavala has been more central to the narratives than Ikora*... but I don’t think that he’s really been much more developed. He’s still the same ‘stoic moral center’ that he’s always been, and - crucially - hasn’t really formed relationships to the same extent the others have. Now, maybe that’s…

Eh; I get being upset about vaulting - I really do. But I honestly think, of all the things they bungled in that transition, ‘folding vaulting into the actual narrative of the game’ isn’t one of them: I thought it was actually handled pretty elegantly, all things considered.

I think you’re absolutely right this is the way New Lights are meant to approach the ‘story’ of Destiny 2 - as an evolving world that the player character happens to wake up in, an amnesiac with no stake in the history around them - but I do think Bungie could do a much better job of leaning into that, making it clear…

Ah, I see what you mean. I think there’s a way Bungie could do that, but again, they’d need to commit much further than they have currently, especially where Zavala and Ikora are concerned: they’re arguably the most ‘important’ of the supporting characters, but at this point most of the rest are significantly better…

That’s definitely an interesting interpretation - but, like you said, the narrative hasn’t done much to support it... and, crucially, I think, the gameplay hasn’t, either. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really cool idea; Bungie’d just have to do some significant work before I’d buy it.

I use my glaive on my Hunter - my sneaky, crafty, ‘ranger of the wilds’-styled Hunter - who immediately turns into Drax the Destroyer when you put a glaive into their hands, all frantic stabbing and incoherent screaming. ‘I will kill this thirty foot monstrosity by brutalizing it’s shins!’ seems to be the default…

That’s very true - there’s a reason my favorite ‘era’ of Destiny, narratively speaking, isn’t an expansion at all, but Season of Arrivals, just because that’s where it finally started to feel like things were happening. (A feeling the game hasn’t entirely been able to maintain.) I’m still not entirely convinced…

Yeah, the ‘narrative’ of Destiny and the ‘lore’ - the latter of which is more what’s being discussed above - are really two separate things. Even if I’ve never played Destiny before in my life, the newest expansion is going to make two things clear right off the bat: the Light is what makes Guardians special, and now…