Greedfall -- Colonizers vs Magic Injuns

Looks like this game is fairly consistently scoring in the 7-8/10 range. For a company like Spiders, whose reach has always so thoroughly exceeded its grasp, that's a fucking meteoric rise. Consider this one on my list.

Made it out of the tutorial area basically, controls on PC are meh to me, will see if it brings me back.

i just read a review from kotaku that said mechanically the game is fun. the quests are fun and open-ended (you have multiple ways of tackling each quest, combat, stealth, subterfuge, diplomacy) but it's "kind of fucked up" because by playing it, you are "wrapping yourself up in the pageantry of the 18th century" and "recreating the iconography of colonial expansion and native slaughter."

also the person who wrote it is a woman (i think? i guess? identifies as a woman?) with unnatural hair color.

so, this seems like a day one buy for me.

Fedor said:

"heather" alexandra

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lol gross. i like how "heather" still has beard stubble.

anyway, to continue the stupid article...

"she" mostly complains that the setting has the potential to be really great but doesn't really do anything risky. even though there are several, often opposing, factions, it's much better to placate them and keep them all happy and relatively peaceful. through "her" 10 hours of gameplay "she" found "herself" trying to balance every one and the effect is that while people were happy, nothing changed.

so on one hand, i think... IF EVERYONE IS HAPPY WHY DO THINGS NEED TO CHANGE?

on the other hand, i think, NO ONE MADE YOU BE NICE TO EVERYONE. you CHOSE to not change anything. SUBCONSCIOUSLY you are TRYING to find equilibrium. this is a video game where there are no real life repercussions. you can side with the natives and screw everyone else but you DIDN'T. then you blame the game because it's THEIR fault you're subconscious is trying to keep the peace?

yeah, i'm definitely the same way. i have a fear of conflict, so i just want to diffuse and de-escalate. i don't begrudge the author for doing that. my point was that she makes a point to say that she wishes there was some way to change the whole colonizer mentality but admits to just sucking it up and trying to keep everyone happy because it "felt" better. THAT IS HOW REAL LIFE IS, WOMAN-MAN-THING.

There’s no polite way of saying it. Greedfall is kind of fucked up. Wrapping yourself in the pageantry of the 18th century means recreating the iconography of colonial expansion and native slaughter. It means emulating a time when supposedly great men failed to do what was morally right, opting instead to do what was politically expedient.

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YOU had a playground to do EXACTLY that and chose to do the same thing that you are criticizing real historical people for. AND YOU HAD NO REAL BACKLASH FOR GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN. real people in real life were killed, ostracized, turned into indentured servants... and not just for them, but for their entire family.

In the time I’ve played Greedfall, it’s clear that while I can alienate factions (sometimes gaining favor with my companions for doings so) there’s a great deal of advantage to placating all parties and maintaining the status quo on Teer Fradee. Don’t rock the boat. Make sure to bow before the racist cardinal even if you want to stab them in the neck. Dedicate yourself to a milquetoast middle path that keeps a peace but transforms nothing.

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again, i don't have a problem with trying to keep everyone happy. it can be a jigsaw puzzle sometimes trying to figure out how to appease everyone without betraying your own tenants. i enjoy trying to solve that puzzle in real life AND in games. my issue is gall this person has to complain about it all when that's what she CHOSE to do.

and yes. there have been a bunch of games i've been waiting for that all came out within like a month of each other and the rest of the year is a drought

Qhue said:

To be fair I too often find myself trying the most diplomatic options in these sorts of games. I ended up with both the Quarian AND Geth participating in the Battle of Earth in Mass Effect 3 etc.

Many times in these games I have a visceral reaction when I try to go 'off-brand' in terms of these morality plays. I've never once made it through more than a third of a Mass Effect game or any of the Infamous series while choosing the 'bad' options.

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The dark side and closed fist options in KOTOR and Jade Empire were legitimately entertaining and a worthy counterpart to the over the top heroics of light side/open palm. Starting with Mass Effect the paragon options continued to be over the top heroism but the renegade options mostly consisted of being a petty asshole with the occasional departure into casually murdering your comrades.

it's just another reason to get angry about something, i guess. probably they are just doing things that subconsciously they WANT to do, but it doesn't agree with ANY of their worldview. so either they have to address that inconsistency personally, or they go the easier route and blame someone else about it.

anyway... i'm enjoying the game, i only played a few hours. combat doesn't feel right to me for some reason... in the videos it looks fine, but while playing something is off... maybe that will just come together once i get more skills? also the facial animations seem pretty dated. the game has a AAA feel to it in a lot of places, but then there are a few really glaring places where you remember that this is not a AAA studio, AT ALL.

but all in all, i like the setting more than i thought i would so we'll see how it progresses

Gavinmad said:

The dark side and closed fist options in KOTOR and Jade Empire were legitimately entertaining and a worthy counterpart to the over the top heroics of light side/open palm. Starting with Mass Effect the paragon options continued to be over the top heroism but the renegade options mostly consisted of being a petty asshole with the occasional departure into casually murdering your comrades.

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i could only do a dark side/evil play through in any game once i beat it. video games just have no idea how to have good vs evil as a playable mechanic and still go through the same game with the same overarching plot. SWTOR SORT of got it right with dark side jedi and light side sith. if i remember correctly, infamous had sort of a decent viewpoint on it as well...

but yeah, ultimately games with good vs evil choices tend to let you play a psychopath in the dialogue choices but then still have you railroaded into the same story as the paragon of virtue and goodness.

Huh, apparently I have this on my wishlist because I got the release announcement on e-mail.

I have to say it looks intriguing but the $65 Can price tag requires a wait for me.

I despise all this social commentary in gaming - fuck off my hobby you rejects. Sure, colonialism, with summoned demons and shit. Just fuuuuuuuuck oooooofffffffffff. GOD!

It's $65 for you?

It's only $50 for me.

NPCs triggered:

As a card-carrying shitlord, I can't decide which faction I should be supporting. Obviously not the natives, but the first group of colonizers you meet are crazy people who only care about spreading their silly religion. I had planned to go all-in on the science dudes but they aren't quite what I expected from the pre-release info either. Coin Guard seems more like a secondary group to help alongside the main choice since they obviously support the colonization efforts. Haven't come across the Nauts yet at all, but they sound more like rivals to Coin Guard rather than the main three factions (possibly the pro-native alternative to CG?).



As for the game itself, I very nearly put in a refund request but decided to stick with it based on ACG and other reviewers I like. I knew what I was getting into with a game by Spiders, and everyone is right, it's insanely more polished and playable than anything they've done before. Still though, even as AA games go there is a fair bit of jank here. I was hoping for something close to on par with, say, Remnant and that's not the case at all.

j00t said:

combat doesn't feel right to me for some reason... in the videos it looks fine, but while playing something is off...

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I agree with this completely, probably the main reason I nearly refunded the game. There's something just wrong about how the camera moves, and it doesn't matter whether I play it with mouse or gamepad (much better overall). My 5700 XT gets here on Friday, so I'm hoping that maybe going from somewhat variable fps to completely stable will fix those issues. The game is kind of ugly on a mix of medium/high settings, so also looking forward to seeing it on ultra instead.

goishen said:

It's $65 for you?

It's only $50 for me.

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I haven't logged onto Steam, but yeah the "An Item on your Steam Wishlist" e-mail says 64.99 (Canadian, I reiterate).

Ahhh, okay. That's it then.

watched lirik play for 2 hours, it looks really awesome like something bioware would have put out 10 years ago