I’m only a few minutes in, but one thing I’m already noticing from the gameplay: proper ammo types being looted like 9x19mm FMJ (as opposed to “Pistol Ammo” reported from a previous build). Good sign.
EDIT: The visuals are stunning and it’s promising how well they’ve captured (and built upon) the stellar atmosphere of the originals. I love hearing the designers emphasise loneliness, desolation and fear - all essential to the magic of STALKER. I do hate the immersion breaking video game compass at the top. Hopefully it can be turned off.
I remember you were upset about that change which I agree would have been immersion breaking. Glad to see they are making that change. Looking forward to watching this later
I think it looks pretty good. Intrigued about what they said about the AI, I think that’s one of STALKER’s strengths - A-life and not only the combat AI but the way the world feels alive and dynamic. If they nail that - along with the atmosphere - they’ll have a great product, even should it turn out the story is mediocre.
Isn’t Thor an industry insider? Like, he works for a game developer? Wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest?
But regardless, “The terms say you don’t own the game” is not an argument against the problem. That is the problem. From a legal standpoint, games with those terms must be required to say in both terms and marketing that you aren’t buying the game, you are leasing the game.
Imagine a car rental company saying in their marketing: “Buy a car for as low as $70.” They’d be sued instantly, and lose. Why isn’t it the same with software?
They want to lease games to us, then force them to market it as leasing and make them take the fat financial L that would result.
He also works for the publisher offbrand games. Offbrand currently has exactly one game in its portfolio: The upcoming smash bros like “Rivals 2” - a game with a big multiplayer focus that might even be free to play.
Many games already do this and I would like to give honorary mention to NeocoreGames who have done this to their Van Helsing and most recently with Warhammer Inquisitor. Latter one just recently got offline support with all past seasons playable.
I dont think its unreasonable to require even live services or mmos to have robust end-of-life plan that quarantees customers that the game will remain playable in some form or another.
I do not think developers should be compelled to add single player modes to multiplayer games, but I do think that server software should be open sourced as a multiplayer game is shuttered. I believe the studio is entitled to royalties if a server host is profiting from their discontinued game, but I also think that servers for discontinued games should be allowed to be run as nonprofit, charging only as much as necessary to keep the server active and healthy, and not be charged royalties.
I say this having not watched any discussion on the topic, nor knowing anything about how any of this works.
The art looks so much improved here. I just hope the puzzles are more than just ricochet tests; CrossCode got old because it was so overdependent on shot angles for its puzzles. You’re not alone in having not finished it. I had to resort to watching a no-commentary longplay.
Fun fact: they spent quite a while working on a segmented 3D animation system for all the sprites. Every sprite is split up into segments, and then those segments are positioned in 3D space depending on the camera angle. They can even independently move each part of a character, like a leg, without having to create an entirely new sprite just for one frame.
This is 3 years old at this point, but this should give a good idea of how the new animation system works!
seconding this! Crosscode is an insanely good game! IMPORTANTLY before you go in though! there are two main criticisms against the game, which to me are both incredibly strong positives, but it’s important to know what you’re getting in to!
First is that the dungeons are very long. we’re talking an hour minimum, often even longer. You are spending time in these locations.
Second is that there are a lot of puzzles, and they are not always baby easy action game puzzles. This game is an action/puzzle game and it does not slack in either regard. Expect to be utterly stumped sometimes. Also fights are puzzles too, and if you’re struggling on a fight try to see if you can figure out its puzzle, I promise it will make it a lot easier!
I just looked it up and I already own it from the Itch.io Bundle for Ukraine. I should play it sometime! Also on sale on GOG rn at a historical low price DRM-free.
I hope there will be native Linux support, even if it comes a few years after it is released. CrossCode is supported on various platforms, and it even has a web version for its demo.
Ohh that looks so good. The full 3D world will do wonders for the environmental puzzles that were often so confusing to navigate in CrossCode. Assuming they have them in this game too.
These are my sentiments exactly, very excited to see this getting closer to release. If I had to sum up my feelings of enthusiasm, I’d quote Lea’s joyous line: “Hi! Lea! Hi!”
youtu.be
Aktywne