What should they do about it if it actually runs great on their systems though?
A lot of games only play well if you take some time figuring out a certain combination of graphics settings for your own computer. Then there is bugs and stutters that really is only happening with certain settings. Particularly these days with the four common upscaling models, you never know which games are best optimized for which model, but none of them are optimized for running without upscaling.
So for a regular reviewer to really give a game a fair score, should they run at the default settings? Would be unfair to expect them to know how every weird setting impacts the game. Should they try the game at 4+ different systems to make sure there are no performance issues and stutters dragging it down in certain cases? Leaving performance testing to dedicated performance reviewers and just focus on reviewing the game itself might be the best option.
They should have the insight to use a system comparable to the average user. Or at least attempt to understand the perspective of the audience they’re reviewing for
This is much older than 2023. I remember Fallout 4, the console version was apparently almost unplayable at launch, so Giant Bomb actually lowered the score, compared to the PC version. And even that example isn’t when this started.
Similarly, what if the reviewers don’t get a specific version, that runs like shit? Like what happened with Cyberpunk, where nobody was able to play the XBONE or PS4 versions.
The thing is, as always, a review is subjective. If the game has problems, but the reviewer can look past them or doesn’t care, why should they change the score.
Someone mentioned it already, but review copies might also run outdated code, and reviewers are in contact with the publisher or devs, and they might say some problem is fixed on release. If the reviewer believes them, it probably won’t affect the score.
Throwing another example on the fire: The Last of Us Part I PC port. The people who released that code ought to be brought up on charges for climate destruction.
I’ve downloaded some old PS2 era games. Some of the gameplay is quite dated, but I really enjoy the retro feel of the environments and graphics. Perfect photorealism isn’t always necessary to enjoy a game. I’ve been playing Burnout and Ghost in the Shell SAC.
Burnout, what a game! I know 3 still is regarded as one of the best arcade racers to this day, although tbh - controversial opinion, I know - Paradise is likely my favourite in the series.
It’s honestly not amazing. It’s a third person shooter across multiple different levels of built up environments, offices, corridors. The enemy AI is pretty terrible, and although there are different tactics you can use to “hack” and take over enemies or melee, it’s usually just easier to shoot.
But the parkour style navigation stood out. You can do wall jumping, which I was not expecting, and there are hidden pickups you can explore and find. And the open environments are nice (the corridors can feel a bit samey after a few levels).
It feels like one of those tie-ins that, had the dev team had more time to explore, balance, and really make it into its own game, might have been really good.
I think using LLMs to provide the dialog for NPCs in a RPG is a use case that’s just begging to happen. Ie townsfolk that don’t just give the same few replies every time, and who react to things you’ve done in the past beyond just whatever prewritten options the developer thought of.
That is…actually far better than I thought it would be. It’s clearly not ready yet, but I could see the potential.
The AI model is too happy to serve the whims of the player, but if there was a better model that could actually be hooked in to me hanics like personality scores or reputation, I could see that as an interesting gameplay system. It also needs more checks on what they are and aren’t supposed to know (e.g. why would a Skyrim NPC associate the name Batman with heroism, or why would they know who Gandalf is?).
A (digital) setup like Westworld is probably in the cards someday. Hopefully with more checks in place to keep the AI from rising up though!
Thanks for sharing, this set me off down the rabbit hole, and it seems this is now a popular and viable skyrim mod for organic dialogue with NPCs: www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/…/98631
If the feature actually worked as intended I could see myself ignoring the rest of the game and just chatting with the townsfolk.
In reality, I imagine the NPC would totally forget what we were talking about after a certain amount of messages pass. Limited context windows and all that jazz.
A challenge game developers have talked about with integrating LLMs is keeping the dialogue matched to the game world, e.g. you don’t want a Skyrim NPC mentioning a cell phone.
As the meme implies, stop and think about how to change tactics.
Uhhh no? Especially if your playing a game that your suppose to try multiple times like hades.
I guess it depends on the game but imo the best boss fights are puzzles (god of war style) where you don’t change tactics, you keep playing until you figure out the puzzle.
Idk if I call that changing tactic, I just keep trying until I figure it out.
Agreed, but adjusting tactics often is part of the puzzle, no? You need to solve the puzzle (find out what work = changing tactics) and then executing that solution
If you never consider more than one possible tactic, then by definition you’re not solving a puzzle, you’re just executing a fixed series of instructions.
You give Hades as an example of a game where you’re doing the same thing every run, but on the contrary the game is specifically designed so that no two runs are alike. It’s trying its best to force you to change tactics each run, that’s the point.
I spent 172 hours retrying the final boss fight on ff8. I mistakenly saved just before the end boss with 2 phoenix downs, a handful or potions and ethers, and not much else. It took weeks to beat her alone.
I learned many things in those multiple weeks of doing basically the same thing over and over again, with minor tweaks to strategy… the first of which is always maintain a second save at least 3 hours prior to the current save. The second thing was never have an empty inventory even if you legit never bother using any of it. Don’t sell anything until you hit max stax.
And finally I learned that sometimes trying the same exact thing for the 20th time actually does work for reasons. And that was on like ps1 framework. A lot more stuff is a lot more random now.
Damn, I’m surprised to see a Lunacid post on Lemmy
Edit: I recently did a playthrough with a vampire character. I kinda power-leveled some stats though, basically just running my way up and down the game’s entire map killing enemies over and over. I got into a decent rhythm for the combat because I had a decent enough Dex so I would just jump to dodge certain attacks if I couldn’t kite them.
Certain spells can be pretty OP throughout the game if you focus on your magic skills. Flame Spear can honestly carry you through most of the game if you focus entirely on magic.
All that said I actually liked the Vampire “class” as it felt a bit more forgiving for most of the game (except the sewer area). I’m kinda working on collecting all the items so I can get the last ending.
Damn, I’m surprised to see a Lunacid post on Lemmy
I didn’t see any posts about this game so decided to make the first step myself!
Certain spells can be pretty OP throughout the game if you focus on your magic skills.
On my first playthrough I had a magic-focused character, and yeah, magic is extremely strong in this game! That’s why on my vampire run I decided to ban any attacking spells, to focus more on weapons.
My main problem with vampires was taking damage when using holy water - it’s really important in some areas like the prison (fucking dogs…), and not being able to just use it whenever I want was… annoying.
I don’t regret playing as a melee vampire, I learned to use blocking effectively (I basically never used it on my first playthrough) and the quirks were neat even if not really that impactful gameplay-wise.
I’m kinda working on collecting all the items so I can get the last ending.
I tried out every weapon I could. I leveled each weapon that I could as well, cause I liked seeing what I would get and how I liked playing with it.
I ended up being pretty balanced in play styles and how I leveled my character. Last time I played I was like level 150-something, just to see how high I could go. You start getting very diminishing returns around 120 or so, getting only one point per level, and each of those points only increasing a fraction of each skill.
I stopped leveling when I reached 100 since I was already so OP I didn’t see a reason to continue (also a pretty number).
It still took me awhile to get all the endings on the save file but at that point I was just running around destroying everything with my seemingly neverending mana pool.
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Aktywne