You’re right. But it doesn’t change the fact that this article was written with AI, imo. For example: “ARC Raiders has been pieced together by Embark Studios, of The Finals fame.”
“Pieced together” is a really bizarre way to say that they created a brand new game from scratch.
I’ve been looking into this recently because The Algorithm wanted me to (I don’t always do what The Algorithm wants, but sometimes it’s really fucking spot-on so maybe I’m just institutionalized) and I simply don’t see why this is really any different from anything else available.
Is it really that much better? Is it the same thing just with better execution? As we’ve seen time and again, popular doesn’t always mean good.
It’s the best extraction shooter I’ve played in the genre by like a country mile. Obviously we haven’t seen what the full economy looks like or endgame but there isn’t a single component that doesn’t outclass the competition in my opinion.
Like the immersion is top tier with the sounds, the graphics, the feedback, the movement. It feels really good.
The gameplay is also top notch and does things others in the genre don’t do. Namely:
variable game length that feels rewarding. I can do a 5-10 min run and get quick and dirty loot with a free load out or I can stay in the map for the full 45 and look for exactly what I want.
the items themselves are compelling game play pieces. Like the rare weapons are full on laser rifles and mini missile grenades - they’re cool and change how you play, not your power level. Like in Gray Zone Warfare nothing I get feels meaningful different or cool, other than the bullet spongy nature of higher level zones and even that’s not super noticeable. I had no reason to want to chase loot in that game.
the meta game is sick, probably comparable to Tarkov (although I didn’t play enough to actually compare this). Every match I feel like I’m working towards a goal of making the gear floor higher and gear ceiling easier to attain. Again, we need to see what the full game is like but collecting recipes, upgrading my workbenches, and collecting targeted materials feels good.
I’m positive I’ll get 3+ months of good fun out of this before I might start mixing other things back in. If the end game is really good I’ll be able to make it 5+ months with no content additions I think. The real question for any multiplayer game is can they add material at a fast enough pace to keep it compelling long term. We’ll have to see, but they have dozens of levers to pull on compared to a traditional fps or PvE game. New ARC, new bosses, new map mods, new events, new maps, new guns, new gadgets, new subsystems, new modes. Lot of different angles they can add to in parallel.
The release window for Arc Raiders could not be worse. Right between Battlefield 6 and Tarkov 1.0. Also a few weeks ago Arena Breakout Infinite released, which is also a very competent extraction shooter, that I had lots of fun with before Bf6.
This activity is a good sign for Arc Raiders, however it’s only a free playtest while the full release will cost 40€. How many of those players enjoying it now will actually cough up this much money for a game in a genre with many failed games before it? Dark and Darker was hugely popular during its last playtest and rapidly declined after the paid (Early Access) release.
I hope that they’re successful with Arc Raiders. I think the extraction genre is super interesting and needs more healthy choices that are not Tarkov (which has so many problems of its own).
I mean Fortnite‘s release window couldn‘t have been worse and it defined the entire genre going forward. In the end people will stick with what‘s best and it could be any of those three and more. I think there is something poetic about Embark going head to head with Battlefield 6 as if to prove themselves. Arc Raiders has good momentum. Now it needs to land properly and we‘ll see from there.
I’m right there with you on the Steam Deck! Its still sad to see and it gives me PTSD when Sega killed the Dreamcast early in its life and got into publishing 3rd party only. Having only 2 console makers in the space makes me fear for innovation and creativity. The silver lining this time around is PC and the success of indie games recently.
Wait, it’s already out? I heard a bunch of rumors about it just the other day and I went on Steam to look it up, and I could swear it was still targeting a release in 2026.
They must have been working overtime on this to beat Skyblivion to the finish line.
They dropped the trailer and the game at the same time. Its a pretty well done remaster/remake so far. Minor visual bugs but thats kinda to be expected at this point. Nothing totally gamebreaking though. Runs well enough on Xbox and considerably better on a PC. Xbox performance mode gives it a high framerate, though I am unsure if it is 60 or 120 fps, I would assume probably just 60.
According to some YouTube videos I watched, a bunch of screenshots were recently leaked, confirming the existence of this whole project, which apparently has been kept under wraps the whole time.
But yeah, I can’t help but think they wanted to get it out there before Skyblivion drops (which is likely going to be free), so they can get some of that sweet cashflow before it’s too late.
I would be extremely surprised if they don’t find a way to get more money out of it. Cosmetics for sure. Perhaps quests at some point. I feel like full expansions are kinda dead though and certainly out of scope, as isn’t just the normal game in an Unreal 5 wrapping?
I play ESO, and love it, but I have been shaken down too aggressively to trust.
If anything Firaxis’s take on XCOM has made turn based tactics somewhat mainstream again, and Ubisoft has already tried to surf on this trend once with Mario+Rabbids.
I don’t think there’s been a turn based game that has sold as well as BG3 in a long time. They’re just chasing trends. Something like XCOM is a better comparison in terms of gameplay and style, but doesn’t have the sales that BG3 has.
anything ai generated just feels deeply wrong if its supposed to be anything other than wanting to see how some idea might look like. I dont listen to much music so ai generated music can sound pretty good to me, but even then I still notice that there is no unifying idea in the details, just bunch of random threads that go nowhere. There is no reason for anything to be there in ai generated content because there can’t be any reason since ai can’t do anything by itself. Its so stupid they even call it ai because there is no intelligence involved.
It’s a complicated issue. In an extremely financialised economy like in western societies, a non insignificant portion of labour was detoured from productive useful work into entertainment and services. This labour is becoming more and more replaceable by NNs which threatens the jobs of bloggers, influencers, artists and the like. Personally, I think the negative sentiment is a mix of these people having privileged access to spread their message and the incompetence of governments legislating so that all these economic sectors don’t eschew workers resulting in massive unemployment and a further degradation of standards of living for a big slice of society.
Taking all that into consideration, I can’t help but feel a slight schadenfreude due to these sectors of society having hijacked the blue collar class struggle and shifting the left towards movements that are predominantly defending bourgeois causes and leaving the working class behind. I happily see more and more artists talking of unionisation and labour movements. Perhaps we can go back to mainstreaming relevant left wing talking points like minimum wages, labour unions, workers rights, et al. Group issues, rather than bourgeois issues that focus mostly on individuals.
The fact that this is possible is amazing to me. The fact that the whole trailer consists of nothing from the game but dreamt up fabrications of a random number generator with lots of training is not.
Games are an intentional art where a lot of creativity and work is put into a unique interactive medium. The AI trailer is far from that.
Intent is critical for my enjoyment of art. What makes art wonderful is that it lets you connect with another human being, get a glimpse into their mind, see their perspective, feel their feelings.
Gen AI as it exists today has no intent, so I have no interest in it.
Generative AI “art” is incredibly useful for small creators to prototype works. Whether that is storyboarding/previs or making a presentation to show investors. It allows those small creators to make something “understandable” while keeping budgets down during the early days/years of a project.
Once that work is ready to be shown to the public? All work must have an actual creator. Whether that is an asset pack you purchased because it is “close enough” or an artist that you contracted/hired.
But also? Studio Wildcard (the company behind Ark) is very established and have been making games for over a decade at this point. They should have artists on staff who are already familiar with the style and design bibles of the Ark universe.
I like the idea of mixed media with AI and hand drawn/painted, or acrylic pour painting. I also like the idea of using AI for lyrical inspiration, like the cut ups process. Where words are written on paper, and they are cut up and mixed together like David Bowie, Eno, Brion Gysin, and Burroughs.
It's because you didn't spend a significant portion of your life learning how to create things from, for lack of a better term, your soul, and then had a machine rip it all away from you. There are good things and bad things about gen-AI.
AI music is ass, so I can see what you mean about soullessness. This reminds me off Mass Effect 3, when they used AI for the faces and they were uncanny. They had to use a human touch to improve the facial gestures.
What’s rad about a character holding a gun with three hands? It’s insulting to professional artists and the player base alike.
GenAI videos can be fun to use as inspiration, but you don’t collect a reel of shitty animations and call it a trailer. I don’t even play ARK and I feel bad for the players. They got served a shit sandwich.
Good AI art should be completely invisible, like when romcom movies with no visible CGI are actually changing the entire sky in certain scenes. People were able to spot the flaws here instantly.
Or if you’re a 1 man studio living in their parent’s basement, go nuts with it. This is a gigantic company that could afford to hire humans.
Holy shit gaming outlets are really desperate for clicks. How, just how are these people better paid than garbage collection crews or entry level nurses. We need to make it impossible to make a living wage creating click and ragebait. Just mandate adblocking by default in all browsers, ffs.
I remember reading that bosses just scale to the amount of players so my guess is solo is actually solo. This would make the solo or trio only decision even stranger…
IGN: Sure. [Laughs] Back to the game, one thing that wasn’t clear to me yesterday. Do you have to play it online in a group of three, or can you also play it solo or in a duo?
Junya Ishizaki: The game is designed to be played as a three-person team, but you can play it as a solo player.
IGN: Oh, great. Or in a pair?
Junya Ishizaki: No, it’s either one-player or three-player.
That’s so weird. Why not give an option for two? What if a lot of players only know one other player? What’s the reasoning for “one, or three players”?
Just their artistic vision and game design philosophy, which I can both respect and go WTF at the same time. Like with their steadfast refusal to provide the option to turn off invasions.
Turning off invasions while still playing coop you mean? Cause offline mode turns off invasions (duh). I guess invasions are part of the thrill in their mind and after a random coop sunbro and I were invaded by a phantom while super low health and outta potions way into a dungeon in Dark Souls and managed to survive by hiding away together with no voicecomms, it‘s hard for me to disagree with them lol
I don’t know, I usually play duo and 5-6 is overtuned, and nearly impossible. Especially on automatons, because it just spawns infinity low levels. But then diff 9-10 feel like diff 3-4 because even though they spawn the big enemies, for some reason it spawns less of the low levels.
The game feels like it has automatic scaling, but it always feels like it is set up wrong.
I think I just did automatons back then because that's where the rewards were but it was a completely overwhelming number of enemies spawning in non-stop. Combined with the sort of time limit I just did not enjoy that experience at all. Maybe you can kinda get better and grind through it I feel I'd rather waste my time and money on something that's balanced around singleplayer, even if just optionally.
I don’t know what it is with Japanese devs and arbitrary multiplayer decisions. The way Capcom handles Monster Hunter’s multiplayer continues to baffle me.
From a PC gaming perspective, it feels like Western developers decided to just give players multiple options to play together all the way back in the 1990’s. This sort of thing always feels badly regressive to me.
My friend finally convinced me to try PoE. I generally like it, but it seems… Unpolished? I dunno. Kinda stuttery. Too much going on. It’s like they’ve just accepted and (mostly) implemented every single feature request they ever got without necessarily thinking about how it should work with all the other stuff. Not really a fan of the item/jewel/currency system or the skill tree. Like, I just want to play the game and kill monsters and make things go boom, this is too much work and planning.
I do love the carnage, though… When my level 5 or 6 fighter guy swung a regular white text sword for a regular non skill attack and it took out like 5 zombies at once, that was really nice. Never did that in Diablo.
That’s my highly unscientific opinion after playing for about a week. Sounds like 2 is going to clean up and address some of my complaints, so I’m looking forward to it.
Too much going on. It’s like they’ve just accepted and (mostly) implemented every single feature request they ever got without necessarily thinking about how it should work with all the other stuff.
I played PoE for a good few years around its release and had a lot of fun initially with the temporary hardcore leagues with new mechanics every time, but there is a good reason I haven’t come back to the game - and it’s not just that I’m kind of over the ARPG thing. Scope Creep has turned it into a convoluted mess to get back into if you’re been out of the game for a while (or never played it) and I say that as someone who typically enjoys complexity.
Path of Exile is much more flexible and advanced than Diablo - you have almost unlimited flexibility in what your character can do. Everything stacks too, so your jewel slots, ring slots, armor slots… Everything works together.
So this is not just hack and slash, you won’t actually be able to complete the game even unless you understand some of that complexity.
If you stick with it, you will have many aha moments where your character suddenly doubles his damage because you figured out a good way to build it and combine it’s items to maximize its potential.
I played a lot before but I have grown tired of it. But it probably gave me several hundreds of hours of semi-fun gameplay.
That unlimited flexibility to me is significant complexity.
I like PoE a lot and I’m rooting for them.
But I absolutely hit barriers where I can’t proceed because I built wrong. And had restart and follow a guide. That’s a normal situation for most PoE players.
I do love the carnage, though... When my level 5 or 6 fighter guy swung a regular white text sword for a regular non skill attack and it took out like 5 zombies at once, that was really nice. Never did that in Diablo.
If you think that is carnage, you should see what the end game has in store. You'll be blasting through hordes and hordes of enemies. You can clear entire maps in a few minutes. It's a blast!
My build for Settlers league was the most fun map blaster I’ve ever made. I made a melee witch (occultist) with Viper Strike that could one-shot entire packs and some map bosses! Just running up to a pack and slapping it and running off.
It was absolute garbage at bossing, though. The survivability was softcore/10.
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