Ro[x/y]

Feeling angry about the games industry! Maybe I'll delete all of this if I look at it tomorrow and feel bad about it. Basically all of this is coming from that gameplay reveal of Suicide Squad that happened earlier today.

• I have to wonder if there's going to be a point where studios start to recognize that, unless you have a $10 billion budget or feel EXTREMELY lucky, you should not make a live service/multiplayer game. It will flop within 12 months and get delisted. Everyone's already playing 1 or 2 other forever games and they don't have time to give a shit about yours.

• Holy FUCK stop slapping cookie cutter loot progression systems on top of your action game. Wow, after sorting through the 30 new guns I picked up, I found one that has 0.5% higher crit chance than my current gun. Compelling gameplay. Also stop implementing gear scores in your shit, it sucks.

• Just from this 6 minute video I've seen more giant glowing weak spots on enemies than the entire Resident Evil franchise. Covering every enemy in big purple weak spots feels like really weak design, I don't know. Because the game has to be loot and numbers driven, along with being co-op, every enemy has to have an inflated HP pool. So I'm guessing the easiest way to add some sort of extra gameplay and skill to fighting giant HP sponges is to add weakpoints so you aren't just dumping several magazines into every enemy's center mass.

• Speaking of dumping several magazines into enemies: man those parts of the video where you watch somebody hold down the right trigger for what feels like a minute until a single weak point on a big turret blows up feels real bad. Maybe more of a game capture issue than an actual game issue, but it doesn't show the game in the greatest light. To be honest they should have captured those parts with way less health remaining so you could blow it up with a single burst ability or grenade or something. The part at the end where King Shark jumps at the final weak point, does like... something for five frames before the game cuts to Deadshot's viewpoint where he dumps an entire magazine into it... flies around a bit... reloads... dumps another half of a magazine in to it... and then awkwardly throws two grenades with way too much time in between each throw... it's just awkward feeling.

• This game has been in dev for a very long time. Games are taking longer and longer to make and yet it feels like they frequently have less meaningful content in them than PS2 games. So much extra time is needed to make all this live service shit, the absolute best graphics, the absolute best animations... but the gameplay doesn't feel like anything substantially better than stuff from two generations ago. It just makes me feel very cynical about a lot of games being made.

• Did Destiny break everyone's brains?

holy moly i think this was one of the first adventure games i ever played as a kid. fundamental gaming experience

All levels¹ in the World of Assassination Trilogy fall roughly into one of three categories I've just made up.

Onion

Pictured: Sapienza.²

What defines the topology of a Hitman level is mainly two things:

1. How the level divides into zones with different security conditions, mainly defined by which areas can be traversed openly with which disguises
2. How those zones relate to one another spatially.

In an onion, the player starts on the outside looking in and gradually peels each layer to get to the high-security central area. The central 'fortress' features numerous ways in, encouraging the player to poke and prod at the edges.

Ur-example: Sapienza, of course, with its progression from the city streets, to the mansion grounds, to the ultra-secure underground lab.

Best example: Mendoza, more on the strength of its intricate storytelling than anything. In an appropriate series-ending showstopper, it features an extended scripted sequence with four NPCs – a target, 47's secret compatriot, and two characters that may or may not be replaced by 47 in disguise – and multiple possible outcomes.

Most deviant specimen: Dartmoor. One of two levels in the trilogy where 47's suit is not a valid disguise anywhere. It still features a concentric progression of zones: The mansion exterior, then the first floor, then the top floor and the target's office.

Other examples: Mendoza.

Festival

Pictured: Bangkok

The default construction for a Hitman level: The player is on the inside looking out, in a crowded public event that is surrounded by a connected 'backstage'. By inviting the player to cross back through the central public area in different disguises, these levels suggest different opportunities to the player as they explore.

Ur-example: Paris; the fashion show is a central spine that touches all of the different secure areas: The palace basement, the backstage of the fashion show, and the upstairs auction area.

Best example: Berlin. Huge, complex, and the setting of one of the most tense setpieces in the trilogy.

Most deviant example: New York. The only level in the trilogy that takes place entirely indoors, with a small public area crowded with enforcers; once 47 commits to infiltrating the backstage, he isn't really fully safe in most of the level.

Other examples: Bangkok, Hokkaido, Isle of Sgáil, Dubai.

Archipelago

Pictured: Marrakesh

A public area connects several independent fortresses, each one with its own system of disguises and security. Usually, each fortress has its own target.

Ur-example: Marrakesh sets out all the ingredients that would be seen again in other iterations: Two targets ensconced into their respectives fortresses, a secret connection between them, and the ability to draw them out of their hidey holes to avoid having to infiltrate one or both locations.

Best example: Chongqing, with its brilliant verticality and unimpeachable vibes.

Most deviant example: Whittleton Creek; six little mini-fortresses, each one based on the same cookie-cutter suburban house floorplan but populated with completely different security conditions ranging from a public mini-festival, to totally empty, to a claustrophobic rat's nest of enforcers.

Other examples: Haven Island, Ambrose Island, Santa Fortuna, Colorado, Mumbai.

1. Excluding nonstandard tutorial or story sequence levels: ICA Facility, Hawke's Bay, Carpathian Mountains.

2. All maps here taken from hitmaps.com.

considering signing up again for giant bomb premium for a month just to grab my favorite videos and archive them. in an age of individual personalities that rake in way, way more views and money than giant bomb ever did, what they did can't be replicated, and what they did was exciting and interesting, and it's sad there isn't going to be anything like it.

here's a list of some of my favorite moments by identifying names I'm giving them, without spoiling the jokes:

1. Jeff's Teleprompter Won't Work / "I Got Media Training"
2. Hot Rope Jump
3. Castlevania Bloodlines Scooter Enemy
4. Contradiction: Spot the Liar
5. Australia Beef World War 3
6. John Vignocci Autocorrect Mishap
7. "What's the impostor doing?" "I don't know!"
8. Certified Anonymous Liquid Container
9. Kerbal Space Program
10. Sheikh Zanzibar

Other strong contenders:

• "Let's Watch A Pro"
• The NintenDownload Xpress
• Found Me The Bomb
• Drew's E3 Vlog
• The Giant Beastcast Holiday Specials
• Vinny's Beach Landing