Kojima Wrote:I was listening to Caroline Polachek last year and became a big fan of hers. After I put that on my Instagram, she contacted me, and then we DM’d. We kept in touch and eventually met up in Paris, and that’s when she told me she wanted to write a new song for Death Stranding 2. She works very fast. You heard her song when you saw the Plate Gate – it’s called “On the Beach”.

I was hoping for it but there hasn´t been anything official yet. This seems hopeful. Hearing Low Roar in DS2 is gonna break me.

With MGS2 it seemed as if the Otacon ending was canon but MGS4 dashed that eventually. So really it’s sort of down to personal preference? And what’s yours?

I’ve always preferred the Otacon ending. I feel like it makes the story more impactful and ties Otacon and Snake together in tragedy. Plus their exchange on the snowmobile is better.

Hey everyone, I know a lot of you have been blessed with having issues with mass awarding of a certain codename. I've been aware this was happening but unable to do much about it until now. With any lucky that phenomenon will now stop. So while I appreciate that you haven't all been bombarding me about this glitch since I was aware of it I'd like to ask that if it happens to any of you from hereon please post in this thread to let me know it's happening.

Anyone who was affected by it before now please post to let me know and I'll go through and fix your codenames. If I spot any mass awards in your profiles I will be doing this myself so don't hide to protect your little beasts!

@"Blueblob" if you give them up willingly I will make it worth your while. If you force me to take them by force your name will be sullied forevermore.

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-big-death-...zarre-epic

Seems like a lot of outlets were invited to preview but this is quite a detailed one which lasted 30 hours for Ed Nightingale. I won't quote all of it as it is worth a click but here are a few snippets, including a fair few comments regarding certain Metal Gear similarities (even from Kojima himself).

Press-Start
IGN
GameSpot
Game Informer

Quote:The world is more dynamic and diverse, there are more options for asynchronous connection, and more opportunities for player expression. Gameplay is an evolution of the first, but there's so much more depth and texture now. Of the time I played, the vast majority was spent experimenting with gameplay systems rather than passively watching cutscenes - despite the prevalence of film production facilities in the studio hinting otherwise. How unlike Kojima!

Quote:The game is still focused on taking cross-country delivery jobs through a hostile landscape for social media likes, stacking and balancing a load of boxes on your back, and dealing with momentum-based traversal at a slow and steady pace. Yet Kojima compared the transition between games as similar to that between Metal Gear Solids 1 and 2: where the first game had to introduce stealth gameplay for the first time, the second could build on it; likewise Death Stranding was the first delivery game but now it's been vastly expanded. To me, it feels similar to the difference between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom - it's more of the same, but the added depth makes the first game feel primitive by comparison.
Let's start with environments: both the Mexican desert and the Australian outback are far more dynamic than America before thanks to extreme weather conditions. Sandstorms topple Sam over, intense rainfall leads to flooding, and earthquakes shake the ground and screen alike to send avalanches tumbling. There's more diversity too, from barren mountainous outcrops, to white sandy deserts, lush jungle, and moon-like rocky debris, all bathed in blinding sunlight or striking moonlight depending on the time of day (which can impact the temperature of your precious cargo). Plus, creating routes across the map will now signal specific hazards along the way to prepare for in advance. I do miss the rugged and melancholic Icelandic tundra that formed such a core part of the first game's identity, but it feels static by comparison. Here the changing landscape and lighting allow Kojima's cinematography to thrive: from the glare of sunset blooming behind ghostly silhouetted entities, to a giant moon overwhelming the sky lending space-age iconography to match his meeting rooms.

Quote:There's far more customisation this time around too: for Sam, for his backpack, and for vehicles. Sam naturally and explicitly levels up his abilities through use, be that increasing his stamina or his proficiency with different weapon types. Moreover, as his porter rank increases in different areas following the completion of each mission, new buffs are unlocked on a skill tree. For instance, more time in stealth will allow for buffs like better noise cancellation and enemy alerts, while more time in combat will unlock improved bullets and a better scanner range. It's RPG-lite, but it adds to the feeling of Sam being an extension of your playstyle and adapting to each mission.
Then there's backpack customisation, with Sam able to fabricate various attachments: extra ammo pouches, shields, and the like. This later extends to vehicles too. Not only was I able to add an arm to a truck that would automatically grab lost packages, I then attached machine guns to automatically shoot enemies as I drove through bases in tank-like fashion. After previously trudging through on foot, that felt particularly cathartic.

Quote:In many ways, Death Stranding 2 feels like Metal Gear Solid 6 - an extension of the open world design and smooth transition between stealth and combat the fifth game provided. Mexico and Australia are filled with enemy bases to infiltrate, with Sam able to sneak around for silent takedowns, or simply fire away with powerful weapons. He's given a whole load of options, from pistols and assault rifles and shotguns, to grenade launchers, a blood boomerang (we're in Australia, after all), and the return of my favourite rope-firing Bola Gun. Weapons are punchy and combat can be explosive, if a little easy.

Quote:Combat against BTs, meanwhile, is more active this time. The previously invisible enemies are more visible now, not to mention the new Watcher type that can properly see Sam rather than sense him, resulting in some tense sneaking. And with plenty of weapon types to retaliate with, BT encounters are no longer a tedious lesson in holding your breath but shootouts against nightmarish visions. BTs may have lost some of their fear factor as a result, but when the rainfall comes Death Stranding 2 remains darkly atmospheric. As for bosses, I only fought a couple in my playtime and while they were fantastically surreal, I'm still waiting for that Psycho Mantis or The End moment.
The Metal Gear influence on combat, at least, was indirect. "There are so many people all over the world asking me to make another Metal Gear, so I added more options for combat," he said. "When I was working out those mechanics, I was a little worried because many of the staff that worked with me on Metal Gear still work here, and we kept saying to each other, 'Does this feel too much like Metal Gear?' It wasn't on purpose."

Rockstar just dropped a new trailer.

Seem some love for Hades and Slay the Spire, so figured we needed a thread for the genre. Big fan of these types of games as they're addictive but digestible -- being able to effectively 'complete a run' of something, often within an hour, is perfect on the time-poor days where I can't squeeze much gaming in.

My main two at the moment are Slay the Spire and Monster Train which are both getting sequels, but I was pretty hardcore on Hades for a while too.

I'm still yet to play The Binding of Isaac, even though it's so highly regarded. Also heard Balatro is awesome.

What's everybody else into?

@"Blueblob". If all else fails, this can just be where we share screenshots of StS decks from insane runs.

https://whichyr.com

WhichYear 4/30/25
3230 pts
15 avg. years off

7️⃣ ❌ 4️⃣ 1️⃣ ❌

https://whichyr.com 

Pretty simple, you get 5 pictures a day and have to guess what year they're from. You get 1000pts per picture if you get it correct and then get a bit less for how far away you are when you don't. You can reveal one digit if you're a sucker wish. I'm not great at it but got one 1 year off and another 4 years off so I'll take it.

I've been seeing a lot of people online clowning on game devs like Bethesda and Naughty Dog for their constant re-releases and remasters, etc of Skyrim and The Last of Us respectively. They get called "lazy" and "unoriginal" for "porting old games onto newer systems for a quick buck" 

Personally, I think it's a good thing that more and more devs are bringing their older games up to date and making them accessible on newer systems. I can't even begin to count how many older games I've wanted to play fully legally only to find that their not on any digital stores and/or can only be found secondhand for hundreds of dollars. It benefits old players because they have an excuse to revisit, it benefits new players because it's now accessible to a wider audience, and it benefits the devs and distributors because it brings in a new stream of revenue and lowers the risk of piracy.

I can't really see a downside to remasters and remakes, surely they can't take away too much energy from devs that they can't put as much energy in their newer games. Surely most of the work on remasters is already done and they're just tweaking them slightly? I know in cases like The Last of Us Part I, they pretty much remade the game from the ground up and only reused dialogue, sound effects and music from the original. But I'd also imagine that no additional writing or concept art was needed so no dev power was taken off their unreleased stuff? 

What are you guy's opinions on this?

EDIT: also, happy 100 threads!

I know this might contradict to the "Gaming Chat" thread but I figured that if its not allowed then a mod can delete it!

Currently im playing Old School Runescape as the main game and to the side I have: Death Stranding (unsure how I feel about it so far) and another game called Hyperbox: Uncharge

What games are you guys playing?