Arkane Dishonored 2 - Emily and Corvo's Serkonan Vacation

[pippin]

Sequels being "more of the same" has been a thing since forever in gaming, in fact, franchises get very resented when that's not the case. Games are simply coming out too fast an people can't afford them, sometimes is just that simple.

 

[DeepOcean]

How many stealth action games are coming out on november? I hardly believe someone that likes Dishonored won't buy it cause Call of Duty. The cynical me suspects that there were a bunch of people that played Dishonored 1 and after discovering it is a stealth game instead of a Bioshock game, they won't buy it. Plenty of dummies tought that Dishonored was like Bioshock because of the art style on Dishonored 1.

 

[evdk]

Let me add to it that Bethesda completely ignores regional pricing and goes for the throat for us third worlders. Dishonored 2, Like Fallout 4 and D44M cost about as much as two other AAA games on Steam.

Welcome to Eastern Europe.

 

[pippin]

Let me add to it that Bethesda completely ignores regional pricing and goes for the throat for us third worlders. Dishonored 2, Like Fallout 4 and D44M cost about as much as two other AAA games on Steam.

Welcome to Eastern Europe.

Eastern Europe and Latin America: Forever united by the Legacy of the Potato

 

[Crooked Bee]

I think it would've made more sense to discuss whether the game hasn't sold well due to the oversaturated market, or regional pricing, or being too niche or a sequel or the wrong genre, if it hadn't been released as such a technical mess. As things stand, they fucked up the release, and the rest is just speculation at this point.

 

[Icewater]

^This. The quick sale means the game hasn't done well, and it's probably mostly from the horrible technical issues. It's no coincidence the sale hit right after a bunch of patches to address those issues.

 

[Morgoth]

I think it would've made more sense to discuss whether the game hasn't sold well due to the oversaturated market, or regional pricing, or being too niche or a sequel or the wrong genre, if it hadn't been released as such a technical mess. As things stand, they fucked up the release, and the rest is just speculation at this point.

The pressure here is always the same: Devs make a tight game with a fairly moderate budget and moderate team size, it turns into a huge success..... and then the "logical" conclusion of the publisher is that the sequel has to become bigger in every sense. More content, new engine, twice as big team, thrice as large budget. Well, I can see why this formula isn't working anymore.

The older days of making sequels, like Thief -> Thief 2, or BG -> BG2 (same engine, mostly same features) formula would nowadays enrage spoiled customers and game journos as "lazy", "ugly", "not fresh enough" and other bollocks. And that's how franchises die - like capitalism, they become a victim of their own hyper-gluttony.

 

[Siel]

 

[skacky]

Yeah I saw that as well. Immediately thought of Raphael Colantonio.

 

[Raghar]

Let me add to it that Bethesda completely ignores regional pricing and goes for the throat for us third worlders. Dishonored 2, Like Fallout 4 and D44M cost about as much as two other AAA games on Steam.

That's a consequence of Denuvo. Do you want the game? Pay for it. Don't you, don't. It's not like there is a pirated version as an alternative.

(Not to mention regional pricing is bad idea, it hurts all sides, with exception of these who are living in "poor" region and can afford them.)

 

[Excidium II]

Plenty of Denuvo games use regional pricing. Bethesda is the only AAA company that does not, in fact.

And regional pricing isn't a bad idea, only for butthurt first worlders that think people are getting games "cheaper" when they're still paying comparatively more than first worlders do.

 

[Raghar]

Regional pricing creates need for enforcement of regional pricing, aka additional locks and spying on user. Do you remember BD and DVD absurdities? Like limited number of region switches for PC DVD drives? Basically it hurts the platform in the long term.
(When they want to do regional pricing, they might create a free non transferable licence for disabled, there is really no reason why people that are dependent on state money would pay for virtual stuff at all. With all necessary spying on users, all necessary prerequisites are there already. )

Lack of regional pricing has additional advantage, you can see what it does to well paid people when they MUST wait for theirs next paycheck, or a sale. It's incredibly amusing.

 

[Excidium II]

Region lock for cd-keys is much more trivial. Privacy is not a concern, or you wouldn't be using Steam to begin with.

 

[Raghar]

Region lock for cd-keys is much more trivial. Privacy is not a concern, or you wouldn't be using Steam to begin with.

And from when does Steam know where I'm located or my address?

 

[Excidium II]

Store frontpage is region/country-specific, and some games aren't available in some regions.

 

[Raghar]

Store frontpage is region/country-specific, and some games aren't available in some regions.

Well, when you are in country A, and it thinks you are in poor region B, you see page for region B. Still doesn't know anything about from where you are connecting. You just need to have separate account for these low price games, and fence both steam installations so Steam will not have a clue. Actually it's best done from different PC, but nobody says your relative from poor country didn't arrive with his library. Or your account would be "poor region" only and you'd be fine as well. When TW:WH arrived a lot of people did just that, because of 60 euro price tag.

In fact. Dishonored has 60 euro price tag now. Only US has 60 discounted to $40.19.

I must admit it's simply amazing what third world like countries in EU accepts. They can rape them from behind without lube, and they still showing butt again.

 

[Excidium II]

Of course, you can just use a proxy when you activate the key.

 

[34scell]

Once again I have to wonder at Bethesda's cheapness. For a well off company, surely not doing enough QA is not worth the damage to the brand even without a direct hit to sales, as seems what is likely to have happened in this case.

 

[abija]

Executive decision: miss the launch date and get fired or roll the dice and ship it with bugs.

 

[34scell]

Yeah, but poor QA is apparently a general policy.

 

[Multidirectional]

Harvey mentions Far Cry 2 as his favorite game. Really??? Never played it, but now I'm curious. What's so special about this open-world nigger sim?

The most special thing about it is how exceptionally shitty it is. They had to be actively trying to make it as shit as possible.

 

[Morgoth]

I played it a couple hours (with mods) and I think it's the best in the series so far.

 

[Latelistener]

Harvey mentions Far Cry 2 as his favorite game. Really??? Never played it, but now I'm curious. What's so special about this open-world nigger sim?

It is considered (by him, at least) to be one of the best examples of the so-called emergent gameplay. Harvey spent a lot of time in his life working on the games that uses the same idea (Deus Ex, Dishonored. etc), so it's easily understandable from where he's coming from.
FC3 isn't the same, because, for example, they removed weapon durability, which was the major part of gameplay in FC2, but hey, you can burn drugs while listening some dubstep shit, so it's 10/10.

 

[abija]

Yeah, but poor QA is apparently a general policy.

My point was that games are released before they even fix all the bugs QA found. Same for bugs found during various alphas and betas.
I doubt for dishonored 2 the performance was something missed by QA. That first patch was probably several months of crunch that just didn't quite make it in release.

 

[rado907]

Beat the game on a no-kills no-detections run with Corvo on normal. The game was great, but it needed a little bit more to be truly special. A few more missions, or better graphics, or more and more interesting characters, or a better ending, or something.

Still a great game, though. Felt interested enough to immediately start another run - on hard with Emily with no supernatural powers but with killing. First two missions were a blast.

Had perfect performance with newest drivers and newest patch.

Anyway, at the end of the day the game is more of the same and extremely polished. I'd rate it 8/10, maybe even 9/10 - but not 10/10.