Yeah, the biggest issue I had with D2 when it first came out was how disconnected it felt. It never felt like a full world, it felt like you warped into a map and killed some things with no larger goal, just some "kill x things" or "pickup x drops" mini quests. Then you warped back to base and then picked a new zone to warp to for no particular reason.

D1 at least had a story that propelled you forward, including tons of lore (admittedly poorly implemented lore, but it was there!) and secrets and easter eggs. The story and voice acting was one of the big criticisms at the start so it's one of the things they worked hard on fixing over the life of the game. So it was REALLY off-putting when D2 went back to no story and lore. (And as I said, they decided to fix it by just putting in the story from D1.)

Thinking on it now, Avengers had that same disconnected feel as D2 once you got thru the campaign. I quite enjoyed the campaign but the game stopped being fun after that. Coincidentally right when it started being like D2.

I like... don't even have an idea in my head of what we're talking about. Is it like Gamefly for renting video games? Is it like Epic Games Store, a pathetic attempt to cash in on Steam by offering the exact same service but worse? Is it like Amazon App Store, a pathetic attempt to copy the Google App Store but worse? Is it games you play on your TV with the TV remote? (I'm pretty sure I have seen one of two of those on Netflix that my kids played.)

I could look it up but they might see that as interest, and I'm really not interested. Just OOTL.

Full disclosure, it's been many years since my last LoL game. It's possible they've taken steps to mitigate that particular issue, but it's just one of many.

I, too, enjoyed the campaign. But the campaign alone wasn't worth $70 and once the campaign ended, the game just turned into a boring grindfest.

I don't even feel like casual is the right word because you can have a deep, interesting game without a game feeling like it requires a huge time and energy investment. Something like Last Epoch manages to have depth while still being approachable to casual players.

Diablo just seems... I don't know, hollow. It looks great on paper but falls apart in practice.

Oh man, haven't played CoH in ages. I was really sad when they shut it down but I had stopped playing by then anyways. I might have to check it out just for nostalgia sake.

Starfield and Forza Motorsport are coming to Game Pass on day 1. Both pretty solid reasons to stick around (or at least resub in a month or two) IMHO.

But the real trick is to keep an eye on Slickdeals. I got three years of Game Pass Ultimate for like $120 or something like that a little while back. Game Pass is so much better when it's a fraction of the normal price! 🙃

That sounds like the D.C. government alright...

a lot of games have added “hundreds” of hours of content by large and relatively empty open worlds that are full of worthless autogenerated side quests and collectible trinkets, which is undoubtedly a worse gameplay experience.

coughDIABLO4cough

Personally, I really like watching Nilaus play factory games. I enjoy playing the games to a point but he puts forth an amount of effort that I can never bring myself to emulate and it's really satisfying even to just watch. Satisfactory, Tectonica, DSP, etc

Ouch, that sucks. It's not something I've ever heard of happening around here. Tough choice!

Honestly, I've had Gamepass Ultimate for so long, I'm not even sure anymore. Maybe, tho? I can edit that bit out... doesn't make a huge difference to the rant. lol

Stellar is is fun but I HATE how they put the DLC stuff in the main game as a teaser and then dont let you experience it until you pay. It's asinine and I can't think of another game that does that.