You know October is coming because no game can resist shoving winter updates or spooky updates in your face, and ARC Raiders is not an exception with the Frozen Trail update hitting October 8th. There’s also a chance to get a first look at the content right now, though, starting with the new map of Pendola […]
Nightdive's Thief remaster is looking like the exact sort of well-judged but deceptively transformative treatment the classic deserves. It is one of my most anticipated games. But I'm already looking ahead.
We know Thief Remastered is coming with a Nightdive-developed expansion campaign, The Tarnished Mirror. When the studio inevitably takes on Thief 2: The Metal Age, I have so much hope in my heart for Thief 2 Gold.
Based on old Looking Glass Studios documents, this GOTY edition of Thief 2 (similar to the one for Thief) would have contained five new missions to round out Thief 2's campaign. Nightdive's customary access to archives and personnel means it could truly do the concepts justice, in a way even the best fan mission creators could not. I want this so bad, man. I want them to just call the remaster "Thief 2 Gold," marketing be damned—it would be a legendarily great bit.
Today is Control Resonant's launch day, and as I wrote in our review, it's peak Remedy. It's a gorgeously surreal atmosphere to sink into—but I had one main complaint. Its combat system centers around building ways to turn your piddly attacks into heavy hitters, which has the unfortunate side effect of making most of its hours of monster fighting a slog of inflated health pools.
Or at least, that was the case until earlier today. Ahead of launch, Remedy released a launch day hotfix that essentially looked me in the eye to say, Nice review you wrote there—would be a real shame if someone made it irrelevant.
(Image credit: Remedy Entertainment)
In a Steam news post explaining its changes, Remedy said it's been "keeping a close eye" on player feedback, and based on early responses has juiced protagonist Dylan Faden's combat performance to cut down on the game's pervasive damage sponginess.
"Based on what we have seen so far, we have decided to deploy a hotfix (1.3.3) at launch to address a few specific things: enemy health pools feeling too high, requiring too many hits to Falter (stun) enemies for executions, and Dylan’s overall combat strength early on in the game not feeling powerful enough (even if the man just woke up from a coma)," Remedy said. "We strongly believe these changes will improve the gameplay feel and flow while still providing a challenge."
In other words, Remedy took what I advised in the review—that players should use the in-game Assist Mode settings to spare themselves collective hours of chipping away at health bars by boosting Dylan's outgoing damage and Falter buildup—and made it the default experience.
(Image credit: Remedy Entertainment)
And that's fine! It's fine. It'll be a better time for everyone else. It's just that I fought a lot of things during those 30 hours of my life. That's all. But I'm fine!
Remedy also made sure to note that, if you still want to do more fiddling with flow of shapeshifting weapons and boulder-throwing, there's a suite of granular Assist Mode options like enemy aggression adjustments and ability recovery rates for fine-tuning your play experience. If you want, you can even turn Dylan invulnerable and basically set combat to "no." If that sounds appealing, go with God. I won't judge. It's not like it's your job to know.
And if it was someone's job, I'm sure they'd be acting very normal about it.
Control Resonant releases globally today, but some players have had early access for several days. In addition to critics, who largely praised Remedy's latest, fans who pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe Edition were able to play the game two days early. Those players have given the studio some initial feedback, which has resulted in a day one patch for Control Resonant that seeks to address one of its biggest issues: combat.
I love modders. Instead of just wishing a game had a new feature, they make their wishes a reality. Modder LM6 decided it'd be nice if Skyrim NPCs who were shopping or studying had some new dynamic "I'm thinking" animations. Now they do.
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