u/EnigmaticEreghor

...that at this point having a roster played entirely straight without Dramatic Tragic Backstories consisting of something like an alluring but aloof witch for men, an honest noble handsome knight for women, a gruff but well-meaning dwarven brawler, a pure-and-innocent cleric girl that doesn't serve an evil cult, and a wise old wizard who isn't "secretly" a sex pest will be subverse all by itself.

When did we stop getting companions that weren't most-original-Tumblr-OC-evers in RPGs? Around 2014, when DA: Inquisition came out, becoming the herald of what's to come? There was also Siege of Dragonspear and the debacle that rose from it (and which had a homosexual quirky gnome as a party member - I guess that's where WotC first enacted their mandate in regards to that stereotype which is all over BG3).

And you could feel Obsidian losing Avellone taking a toll on their companion writing. He seemed to be about the only example of someone who could reliably make zany characters that weren't insufferable or were insufferable by design (Durance).

Seems as though 90% of the shows, both 2D and 3D, are done in this eye-straining manner for the past few years (not to mention generally hideous art styles).

To think that in 1930s perfect smoothness could be made by hand, and 90s to early 2000s pushed the limits of 3D animations to achieve a blend of extreme fidelity, fluidity, and style only for it all to devolve first into the CalArts trademark noodle limbs and generic look and now this "artsy" approach which feels like deliberately making the animation look worse for some inane reason.

A gaming-related question for a change.

HoMM: Olden Era is the only recent strategy I've dedicated a lot of time to recently, and it honestly deserves it (undoing most of the damage Ubisoft had done to the franchise as well as daring to have fanservice-y designs in this day and age as a welcome bonus).

Had my eye on Master of Command for a bit, too, but not much else - most of the "bigger" ones have gotten dumbed down and/or "modernized" in the more recent iterations (AoW 4, which is currently being milked like crazy by Paradox, Civ VII (blergh), Homeworld 3...). I don't mind replaying 20+ years old stuff by any means, but might be missing out on something good that's more recent.

Any connoisseurs having any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

Can't help but notice how these seemingly mutually exclusive statements are made about the same thing by the kind of people you'd expect to do so for the past couple of years.

So which one is it, then?

Is Fortnite to blame for this? For 10 or so years already anything that isn't Doom or Doom-adjacent barely has any blood or weapon impact to speak of, especially if the graphics are on the cartoony side. I've tried to at least give Valorant and Apex a chance back from before they bent over for the "larger audience", but never could take the lack of violence in a violence-centric game seriously. Also the Finals, the never Battlefield and CoD - all of them seem too hell-bent on keeping the 12+ age rating (because apparently killing is perfectly acceptable as long as you don't include a gratuitous blood splatter).

What non-indie shooters with a good multiplayer even are there nowadays that don't shy away from gibs and blood, actually?