I think too many people have tricked themselves/each other into thinking long games are bad because they are long. No, it’s because 95% of the time (moreso today than in the past), a high hour-to-complete time signals a game with 10 hours or content stretched out to an absurd extreme, often in support of MTX/live service type features available ay launch.
An 80 hour game can be good if it has 80 hours of actual content. A 25 hour game can be bad if it’s still just 3-4 hours of real game stretched out to 25-30.
Hmm… I still have zero interest in this game series. They can do whatever they want, but I have zero interest in any western developer's take on Samurai.
It's like when Scorsese did Silence—it's nice he got to live his Kurosawa fantasy, but I have no interest in Eastern culture depicted through a Western lense, even if the source material is Eastern.
I wish they just go back to making Sly. I'd be all over an all new Sly game with fancy gadgets and shit.
Metal Gear is one of my favorite series of all time, and that’s an Eastern developer’s take on Western culture. Another series that comes to mind is Resident Evil.
I don’t see why this is necessarily a problem? Ghost of Tsushima already tells a rather loose story that borders on the fantastical, it never even attempts to be a historically correct depiction.
I didn't say it was? I said I have no interest in it.
You and Sucker Punch can do anything y'all want—I can only talk about my preferences.
Metal Gear is one of my favorite series of all time, and that's an Eastern developer's take on Western culture.
Listen, I'm suffering through the drudgery that is Death Stranding's story RN, so last thing I need is for anyone to invoke Kojima in this context 😂 Someone please tell this dude "we don't understand how [insert made up technology] works" is not an excuse for shit writing 😂
Fair enough, you’re of course entitled to your interests however you see fit ;).
Death Stranding is a weird one. It has some of the most stupid writing in video games, but also has some really strong themes and moments too. I am talking about the first one as I don’t have the budget to buy the sequel at release prices. But Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, 3 are masterpieces in my opinion, and the strange Eastern interpretation of Western spy / military culture is part of what makes it so interesting to me :)!
That seems like a really narrow-minded take. It comes off as arrogant, or maybe even prejudiced. Why deprive yourself of an objectively great gaming experience just because of some convoluted ideal that you've made up?
Also, if you really had zero interest, why even comment or be involved in the discussion at all?
Well hopefully this means SAGs wanted clause that forced non-union actors to join SAG or leave a project after I think 3 (?) sessions on a job is NOT approved.
People can join a union if they want, but nobody should be forced to join a union against their will.
The new contract ensures “safety guardrails” around AI, which includes “consent and disclosure requirements for AI digital replica use and the ability for performers to suspend consent for the generation of new material during a strike”.
Great to see. Now we’ll see if this actually ends all of the voice actor strikes in the industry. I know there were a bunch that started due to this strike but actually hinge on the company’s stance on allowing non-union members to remain non-union.
For someone owning both devices and actually trying to decide which version to get, both are decent in portable mode with the Switch 2 taking the lead in docked mode (as the Deck doesn’t increase its power limits in docked mode whatsoever). So I’d probably get the Switch 2 version if I didn’t have a desktop PC to go with my Deck, but I do, so my “docked” experience (playing on my PC) is vastly superior anyway, with the Deck getting the portable part done.
For a technical comparison it’s kind of inaccurate I think. Yes, it’s certainly impressive that the Switch 2 can run this game in portable mode likely consuming less than 10 watts for the entire system while producing okay graphics. And it’s clear that DLSS does a lot of heavy lifting here, but:
The 8.9 watts figure is likely somewhat inaccurate because it’s based on approximate battery life while playing the game. Even if the game is played from 100% to 0%, there’s still inaccuracies because the specific battery likely won’t have 19.3 Wh exactly. Instead it’ll likely be a bit higher than that when brand new, and a bit lower with 100s of cycles.
The Switch 2 clearly consumes less power than the Deck needs to achieve “playable” framerates in Cyberpunk 2077, but that doesn’t tell us that much about the efficiency of just the SoC. I’d assume the Deck requires a little bit more juice for its OLED screen and also more for the rest of the system, for example the standard NVMe drive it uses. The “approximately 9 watts consumption” comparison they’re doing makes it look like the Switch 2 is around 3 times as efficient, but that’s not how efficiency curves work. You’re comparing the Deck at a power consumption level that’s probably the peak of Switch 2s efficiency curve.
Game settings are (currently?) impossible to match. Some can be matched, others are either some in-between on Switch or even “lower than low”, for example some models/geometry. I assume these changes have a large enough performance impact that CDPR thought they were worth to implement just for the Switch 2.
Scene-specific pixel counting wasn’t really done, so it’s not possible to say which device renders more “real” pixels (even though DLSS certainly seems to make the most out of these pixels).
I still think the Switch 2 is very impressive in terms of performance in portable mode, certainly more than I expected when hearing about the rumored Ampere architecture and the Samsung manufacturing process.
It also shows that something comparable to DLSS (likely FSR 4) would be hugely beneficial to PC handhelds so I hope that the Deck 2 will properly support that. Sad that AMDs Z2 series don’t, but I hope Valve is cooking another custom chip with AMD soon.
You might want to look into sunshine and moonlight for streaming from your PC to the steamdeck. It means your deck will only sip battery, fans will be whisper quite, and the graphics will be stellar, all for a tiny amount of latency.
Yes but frame rate is primarily about responsiveness, not aesthetics,
In games that tie physics and inputs to frame rate, 25-30 fps is about a 30-40 millisecond response in the worst case; usually less. That’s plenty fast enough in most games I’ve played. And not all games do that anyway. So I can’t say I agree with your statement as a general rule.
What game do you play where that’s not fast enough?
In any case, it’s irrelevant to my point. The comment you responded to is explicitly about the frame rates feeling choppy. Meaning visual effect.
You also said “feel” not “look”. If you exclusively meant aesthetics you should clarify it in your own comment.
Also, responsiveness is not about if something is “fast enough” it’s about making the thought>action gap as small as possible for better immersion and player control. Higher FPS means there is a more consistent time from input to effect. If i press a button in a 30 fps game the input delay can be anything from almost none to 1/30th of a second (30ms, which if you played online games back in the day is not great), and there is no way to tell how much it will be. The more frames the less of a possible variance you experience.
Also all input is tied to framerate, if you have examples of games that have their input loop completely separate from framerate I’m all ears, especially given rendering is not on demand.
I did, in order to express that I was thinking of overall sense conveyed by the visuals, rather than whether differences in frame rate could be noticed under scrutiny. Words often have multiple meanings depending on context.
[Edit: I also said “choppy”, referring to the slide-show-like visual effect that most of us have seen at very low frame rates. I also described animation mechanics that are obviously about the appearance of motion. So there was no reason to assume that I was talking about the inter-frame input lag on which you are so fixated.]
you should clarify it in your own comment.
I could, but I won’t. I already clarified for you twice. I’m not interested in further indulging your combative insistence on misinterpretating what I wrote, and nobody else seems to have had trouble understanding me. Bye bye.
Inability to learn from your mistakes is nothing to be proud of. Delete this
Someone misinterpreting what I wrote because they only paid attention to part of it does not make it a mistake.
When they follow up by trying to re-frame the topic that I started into a different one, and then criticize me for not having addressed their pet topic, and furthermore tell me I should have used different words so that they can avoid admitting their misunderstanding… well, that’s just willful aggression.
Much like your comment to me is aggressive, and rude. You are now blocked.
The difference being 25 v. 30 is the murky side of DF here.
The game runs at 40fps on Switch2 in handheld and in docked with a 120hz display. DF chose to lock it to a 60hz display so the game would lock back to 30.
Or you could reward CDPR for maintaining support and releasing a wonderful DLC for it with a purchase on a platform that lets you own your games (and is incidentally owned by CDPR too)
While I agree that one should support developers of games they enjoy if they are able, I recently tried another playthrough of this game and it reminded me how unpolished it is.
Things like
Quest NPCs taking very robot-like paths while walking (walk straight for 10 steps, turn right 90 degrees instantly, walk straight 5 steps…) instead of something more natural
Needing to wait 5 minutes for an NPC to get to a specific spot and/or complete actions before being able to continue conversation. Typically on the fight missions, you’d win the fight, they’d take 30 s to get up, then saunter over (using an unnatural path) to the designated spot, which then took another 10 seconds to activate the speech option finally.
Pedestrians diving into the road in front of your car instead of away.
Perhaps games like GTA spoiled us, but I just found these too annoying to continue.
Sometimes adding the installer as a non-Steam game and running it through Proton works, otherwise I use Lutris. You can find tutorials online for setting it up to use with FitGirl’s installers.
Although specifically for Cyberpunk 2077 I had issues with the install, so I found a no-install version, I believe from DODI.
Does Nintendo let you play content that you accidentally downloaded from the high seas? And do you need to worry about Nintendo killing your account for doing such a thing?
no, they don’t. but the game has been out for 5 years at this point.
articles like these seem quite pointless to anyone who doesn’t already own a switch 2. and possibly pointless even to people who own a switch 2, but have already played cyberpunk on better or similar hardware.
this article is an attempt to pat a multi billion dollar company on the back so it doesn’t feel as bad that people aren’t racing out to buy their 5-year-late, overpriced attempts to dominate the handheld market again.
Possibly the dumbest take I've ever seen on this site, are you saying an article objectively comparing the performance of two handhelds is "an attempt to pat a multi billion dollar company on the back"?
articles like these seem quite pointless to anyone who doesn't already own a switch 2.
"Performance comparisons are pointless if the results aren't what I like", I'm sure if the steam deck performed a lot better you would be in the comments singing praises for it. Digital foundry have been comparing performance for many years but suddenly now their findings are worthless.
They disclosed it many times and have talked about that video often, it doesn't affect their content. I didn't like it either but acting like they're not trustworthy because of one time they were sponsored is dumb
Well, at least for the physical edition, they have to account for the cost of the 64 GB game card they are using. Wasn’t that rumored to cost like $16 a piece?
In theory it makes sense but in the past buying digitally as opposed to physically hasn’t netted anyone any savings. And with the new system where the card doesn’t even hold the actual game, it’s an even worse offering.
Buying on PC is a lot cheaper than buying on consoles typically, especially after a year or two, and PC sales are mostly (all?) digital now.
And the thing about cartridges not holding the game is limited to specific games, devs still have the option of putting the full game on a cartridge instead of the license option. All that happened here is that devs got another option on how to sell their game, so if you want to gift someone a digital game but want a physical item to give to them, the license on cartridge option is perfect, and AFAIK it preserves the ability to resell the game (may be dependent on the game though).
I highly doubt it costs that much. You can buy 64GB SD cards for ~$10 retail, which includes:
margin for retailer
margin for company “making” it
margin for factory producing it
If each step is something like 50% markup (not unheard of), the cost to actually get these things from a factory is probably about $2. Make it a bit more expensive because the packaging is unique to Nintendo, and their quantities are probably a bit less than regular retail SD cards, so maybe it’s like $5 per card.
That’s a lot more than an optical disk, which are probably under $1, but nothing too crazy.
I have no special insight here, just some general understanding of how retail works.
There isn’t official pricing nor reliable sources out there so I’m going by rumors.
With your calculation you have to keep in mind that the Switch 2 cards have to somewhat match microSD Express speeds, so a more accurate comparison would be these, but they aren’t available in 64 GB sizes.
All I’ve heard is that they’re expensive and with the larger sizes often required for Switch 2 games it’s an even bigger problem than with Switch (1). These key cards exist for a reason. And I’d bet Nintendo takes a margin on these instead of only requiring the publisher to cover the manufacturing costs.
Yeah, I assume the key cards have a bit of margin, but they probably need to keep margins low on 64GB cards or devs won’t bother, and physical media does have value for Nintendo’s target market.
Normally, I would agree with you. In the case of game keys, even though I have a physical cartridge now I have to make sure that servers are still up and available for me to download a game. So the massive market for retro games is kind of null and void if you’ve got a cartridge with nothing but a transferable license agreement on it and no way to actually get the game.
Are we really calling tweaking a config file a “remaster” now? This is the bare minimum for a new console, IMO, and it is absurdly disgusting they thought some of these “upgrade packs” should cost money.
They're not charging for performance upgrades. The only paid DLC packs are the ones that are, well, actual DLC. What makes that more "disgusting" than any other DLC?
Yes, they are. If you want 60 FPS and a higher resolution in the two open-world Zelda games, you either need to pay more or have NSO + Expansion Pack. There is no justifiable reason for these to be bundled in with the “Zelda Notes” shit (that’s a smartphone app and not even part of the game).
Hoping to see more third-party devs update their games. It's ironic that the worst ports are the ones that benefit the most. Games that were just thrown onto the Switch 1 with no effort to reach acceptable performance suddenly perform well now. As long as the framerate wasn't capped, it might just hit 60 on Switch 2.
But games that were downgraded to properly fit onto the system can't revert those downgrades. Capped framerates remain so, those games need patches to uncap them.
Some of the games I most want to play on Switch 2 are ones that remain stuck at 30fps still...
Capped framerates are so frustrating. Wish they would just use vsync, which would lock to 30 but will jump to 60fps any time the hardware can handle the scene. Maybe it’s not that easy to do in some cases, idk.
Nightdive have said something along the lines of “just because we made a remaster doesn’t mean we won’t also make a remake”. I’m still holding out hope they will.
I’m not optimistic though. SS1, even in the EE, was ROUGH. SS2 is not that far off from Deus Ex and immersive sims… really haven’t evolved much past that. That combined with the endless funding faucet shutting off makes me pretty sure they’ll be sticking to more popular franchises and the like (allegedly the next big Nightdive announcement is at Quakecon).
I would 100% love a Nightdive (or similar) remaster of Deus Ex. But my point is more that it really doesn’t need it, mechanically. If you were to go boot up DX after having played nu-Prey or Shadows of Doubt or whatever, it would be familiar. Some rough edges but no more than going back to DOOM after… DOOM 2016. And SS2 (and Thief) is maybe one notch further than that.
Contrast that with SS1 where it honestly had more in common with what would become the mechwarrior games than DOOM (see also: CyClones).
As for funding: Plenty of indie devs have talked about it. Xalavier Nelson Jr is always a good listen (he did a few episodes of Remap Radio). Late 2010s/early 2020s, getting funding for a video game was, if not easy, very doable. That is more or less what let Nightdive establish themselves as the weirdos who go REALLY REALLY hard on loving remasters of older games.
But between economic uncertainty and the realization that COVID was probably a localized peak for the gaming market, it has gotten a lot harder for basically every studio to get funding. Which is likely why Nightdive seem to be doing every single iD/MS game they can or games that are part of multimedia franchises (e.g. Dark Forces).
So Quake 4 is a no brainer (would love 3 but that is multiplayer first which gets risky). And while Nightdive CLEARLY love System Shock (it is more or less what the company was founded on), getting the funding for a full “game” a la 2023’s SS1 is a much bigger challenge than a ridonkulous source port/patch. There isn’t a company that is really going to be eager to fund that because it isn’t part of a major monetizable franchise (although Dommy Bug Mommy SHODAN as a Disney Princess would be peak dystopic hellscape) and there would be a hard sell in terms of it significantly increasing market share over the remaster.
I feel like I’m way more critical of Deus Ex than some, but I’m not sure I agree that it doesn’t need mechanical refinements. From gunplay to AI to stealth there is a ton of jank there and I’d hesitate to call any of it modern feeling. Even Warren Spector was aware of this at the time, with that quote about how it’s basically a 7.5/10 FPS, a 7.5/10 stealth game and a 7.5/10 RPG, but its unique selling point is that it’s all those things at once. Personally I think the story, world, atmosphere and concept still hold up incredibly well. The rest could do with modernizing. Not least the voice acting. But I guess with the Mankind Divided sequel being canned I should have limited hopes about a Deus Ex remake getting funding.
The funding bit makes sense, I thought you were referring to something Nightdive-specific, but the post-COVID slump is something we’ve been reading about for some time now. I had hoped SS1 Remake sold enough to merit funding for a full SS2 remake as well, but maybe I need to temper my expectations.
What are you talking about bad voice acting? DX:MD was all serious and professional but it lacked the comic charm of lines like “A bomb’s a bad choice for close range combat”.
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