I mostly agree. I’d say they went uphill though, but so did every other game, but even faster. Each game improved some things, but the competition improved much more. They’ve been coasting off of name recognition ever since the first game.
It’s mostly not UE5 exactly. UE5 just let’s devs turn on features that are performance hogs easily. Squad, for example, just upgraded from UE4 to UE5 but they took their time and did things in a smart way (like not using Lumen), and performance increased for a lot of people, with much higher detail too.
UE5 isn’t the issue. It’s devs who turn on all the features they can and ignore optimization because “the engine just handles it.” It’s got some really impressive technology, but it’ll ruin your game if you let it.
I think it was a really good game originally. The writing has gotten really fucking bad though, and the gameplay hasn’t really evolved with the times. (I can’t speak on the new game.)
I really don’t understand the open world though. I don’t think that’s the direction they needed to go. I think the best looter-shooter I’ve played recently is Roboquest. It has all the movement you said (and more), but it’s in tight rooms, so the devs have more control of the design. Open worlds means the devs have essentially zero control of encounters and it becomes too easy. The only thing they can do is crank up health of enemies so they don’t die as quickly.
Yeah, I just have a bias against open world games at this point. Damn near every game thinks they need to be open world, and most of the time it just makes things more tedious and boring. It takes a ton of dev time to make just for players to run past 99% of it. There are some games it really works for, but most would be better off with a tighter design (and it’d also save time and money).
I dont really understand your point. Devs still curate where you meet the enemies. Its not like its procedurally generated map where everything is random.
I haven’t played it, so maybe they’ve done something to control it. I doubt it though. If you can come from any direction, that makes encounters much harder to design. Think about older Borderlands games when entering a compound. You’d come through one main gate and enemies would be set up with cover and you’d have to fight your way through. With open world you could do something like fly into the middle of the compound, and that’s has to be accounted for.
Check out Roboquest, for example. It has some really impressive movement options, but it’s choice of rooms let’s them restrict how much you can abuse them. You’ll always be fighting through the enemies from an expected direction.
I cant remember single time in my 20 hours of gameplay where i have tought that i hate fighting here, or that these enemies dont fit here.
This isn’t what I meant. There’s nuance between liking something and it being the best possible thing. It can be good and still be possible to be better. My biggest issue with open worlds is, like you mentioned at the beginning, fast travel. It takes so much time and resources to make an open world, just for players to fast travel past most of it. Is it really worth the that? Did it add that much to the experience? We could have more cheaper games with tighter designed experiences instead of games that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make. (BL3 cost $140m, and for cost “more than twice” that, so minimum $280m.)
I don’t think people understand that everything is an opportunity cost. If you make an open world game, that’s at the expensive of so much more. At minimum, it’s going to be less game to play (or longer between games and more expensive). Is getting a lot of space that you hardly interact with worth it?
I suspect it won’t work for them, but I think the idea that they can’t work is wrong. With a really passionate and talented team, I think it could be done very well. It’d take real innovation though, unlike BotW. BotW was innovative for LoZ, but almost everything it’d done had been done before. I would say currently the closest formula they could copy is Elden Ring, and it isn’t as much of a Metroidvania as previous more enclosed entries were.
I haven’t played them in ages, but from what I’ve seen of them they’re worse than we had back then. At least they tried to present some challenge. I think that’s mostly gone now, like it is for most mainstream gaming.
More profitable is not the same thing as better. For example, Marvel movies are pretty shit, but they make a ton of money. Palworld is better than Pokémon, for many reasons. One major one is that it actually tried to innovate on something. That’s more than Game Freak has done in decades despite having an infinite money glitch.
To paraphrase Jeff Grubb, there’s been more smoke lately indicating a console than VR, but “frame” implies glasses implies VR headset. It could go either way or both, where the console and VR are complementary. Or neither! But I think smart money is on Valve announcing new hardware imminently, and personally, I think...
There’s no way it’s VR. They already have the Index name for the VR line. It’d be called the Index 2 without a doubt. Maybe AR glasses, but frame does not imply glasses. Sure, glasses have a frame, but so do so many other things. Have you ever heard of a main frame? Those aren’t a type of glasses.
Main frame was just an example of a type of frame that aren’t glasses. There are many other types of frames that have nothing to do with glasses. A frame is just the structure of something. The people using that name to say it must be glasses are hyper-focusing on one usage of the word.
Although, truth be told, I mostly just want a Steam Controller 2.
I would disagree about KSP, at least for the first hundred hours or so probably. You’re actively learning and adventuring, and discovering new things. After that, once you’re figuring out how far you can push things or installing RP-1, you’re right.
Both games are currently on sale on Steam for about the same price ($59.99 CAD vs $58.49 CAD). I’ve never played either. I know they’re both supposed to be excellent games. My question is, for those who have played both, which do you prefer?...
They’re very different, so you need to figure it out for yourself. Both are great, but we don’t know your tastes. I would recommend BG3 though, for what is worth.
However, if you’re strapped for cash, I would recommend playing indie games. They’re often more interesting than these larger budget games (though these two are exceptions to large budget games being shit), and they’re usually like $20 max. Most people can get more out of Factorio or Dwarf Fortress, for example, than they can out of these games, at a much lower price.
Just buy it for random people on your Steam friends list if you want to do that. There are still plenty of people who don’t own it (like me) and it might finally give them the push to play it.
I appreciate that the devs keep updating the game, but honestly I don’t get it. Sure, there are a lot of planets. There’s not any reason to one over another though. They’re all procedurally generated with the same general stuff (yeah, you’ll need to travel for specific resources). For me, it just feels like I’m wasting time, because it doesn’t make you feel like you’re doing anything meaningful. I can’t be the only one who feels this way.
I gave up on Elite shortly after launch. However, I do keep tabs on it on occasion. The end game of Elite is basically choosing factions to support and helping them take over star systems. Honestly, it seems at least intriguing. I can’t say the same for NMS.
But in MC there is a drive. It’s not an extrinsic goal though, rather entrinsic needs. You need better gear, you need food (and maybe you don’t want to spend time doing it so you automate it), etc. NMS has a notion of this, but barely. It’s enough to say there is progression, but it doesn’t feel like you’re progressing.
That said, I barely got into base building. Maybe that’s where things get good, but it takes far to long to get to that point that I’m bored by the time it’s a real option.
I’m glad people like it. I just don’t understand why.
I play a lot of Squad, which has no progression or anything that’s tracked from match to match. I’ve also played a good bit of X4, which is a space sandbox game, where you mostly set your own goals. Factorio is also one of my favorite games. I’m fine with games where you set your own goals. I just don’t get NMS.
I think part of it is that there’s absolutely no friction when saying. For example, flying makes it impossible to crash. There’s just nothing at stake and progression feels mostly pointless. If there was danger or a threat to defend against, I think that’d go a long way to making it feel like there’s a reason to do what you’re doing. As it is, it just feels like chores.
I’ve never really played any porn games more hardcore than Baldur’s Gate 3 before, but you remember a couple weeks ago when GOG gave away those NSFW games, as a direct response to the whole thing?...
Yeah, usually the stars are classically attractive still, but there’s a lot more space for other people in other roles. I think comedy in particular has a lot of stars who aren’t incredibly hot.
However, probably a lot of people who are getting jobs as extras are trying to make their way in the industry. The industry, being dominated by attractive people, attracts attractive people. Ugly people fear they wouldn’t succeed, so it creates a selection bias.
Yeah, no. You don’t have to try to make everything into more than it is. I’d be perfectly fine being trans. No hard feelings. I’m not though, but I sometimes play female characters because I prefer looking at them. It’s not more than that.
I couldn’t find the exact context of what you linked, but down from it I saw your opinion, which I don’t agree with, and doesn’t say what you’re claiming now.
I honestly don’t understand what you’re asking of me. Women having equal rights is a binary thing, they either do or don’t.
This is wrong. They can be equal in some parts and unequal in others. No culture gives identical rights to all other cultures. There are degrees to equality. It isn’t all or nothing. I would say most of the west is more equal than countries that follow Islam as a state religion, but most of them don’t have total equality. I assume you agree with that, right? And Saudi Arabia is better than Iran, right? Not significantly, but there are degrees to it, right?
Painting it as binary all or nothing is wrong, and probably is antithetical to progress. If it’s all or nothing, and something would take a step in the right direction, then why take that step if it isn’t all the way, right? Treating it as binary is bad.
I don’t know when you’re talking about, but it probably wasn’t self hosting, unless you’re talking about like original internet stuff. GeoCities, for example, was not self-hosting. It was hosting your content on their platform.
Yeah, the only way I see it happening is if it’s done in a way that’s invisible to users. Even then, I don’t know if it’s a good idea. Either you store a copy of all content locally or your content is only available when your server (presumably your computer or phone for most users) is online. Most people aren’t going to have to storage space for self-hosting federated content that’s distrubuted, and having people go down constantly from turning their computer off is far from ideal.
I love the “you can’t modify my mod because it undermines authoritative intent” and then modifying things like the standing stones because “oh, that’s not the way it’s supposed to work.” Obviously he doesn’t even believe what he says. He just says whatever he needs to to “win” like a true narcissist.
for me mine are 1. Elden Ring, 2. RDR2 3. BOTW, all because they genuinely blew my mind when playing them for the first time and changed how I saw and played video games.
I really think someone needs to make a modern evolution of Dark Cloud. Maybe the technological limitation was actually a benefit though, because a modern game would probably try to do open world, full 3d construction, and things like that. The technology at the time required that they keep it fairly simple but also really well designed.
Xbox is canceling Contraband, announced in 2021 from Avalanche Studios (Just Cause), after four years of radio silence, sources tell Bloomberg News. This news arrives weeks after a mass layoff in which Xbox canceled several other big titles. - Jason Schreier
Why would we have seen it? You normally don’t see anything until they’re gearing up for launch.
I think it’s more likely MS looked at their portfolio, looked at how much this was costing, and decided it didn’t fit what they were looking for for how much it was costing.
This is not to say it’s a good call, just that MS executives are pretty shit at game development analysis.
4 years of development and they didnt have anything to show except for a CG render?
Anything to show you. They aren’t beholden to you. The CG render was to get applications for jobs, not to sell the game. That happens when it’s almost done.
Are there any examples of games which have had 4 straight years of radios silence that have not had major development problems?
The vast majority! Game dev cycles are often 8+ years now, and you don’t hear anything from them until about a year before launch. You think about the canceled ones, but most of them that launch you just don’t consider, which is good. No news is good news, as the saying goes.
To be fair, they are largely anti-american and woke, but in a good way. Woke is good, and America has some fucking issues. If you’re choosing to be not woke or actively pro-america, then you might be doing something wrong.
Throw the System Shock remakes into your replay. They’re Bioshock in all but name, except you get more freedom (that decreases steadily over time with each game in this “series”).
I don’t know if it’s a slight against them. There’s a whole shit load of stuff not included. Just because something wasn’t doesn’t mean it was a choice. It would have been nice, but we can’t really know why there’s none here.
Steam is having a Racing Fest sale until August 4th and I thought I might like to try. I used to play a lot of Gran Turismo 2 and 3 back in the day, especially the rally modes....
Is there anyone who sells games that aren’t bad in some way? You don’t become successful in capitalism by being altruistic. Any company successful enough to run a market probably has some skeletons in their closet.
I agree with you that time isn’t the measure of value. That’s not what the person above said though. Honestly, I think it was a pretty bad game. The writting didn’t trust the player, instead they beat them over the head that it’s a goofy critique of capitalism. The characters were boring. The game in general just wasn’t very fun.
Honestly, it did fall into what you’re saying where it felt bloated. There was potentially a good game in there, but it was buried under everything that wasn’t interesting but they thought they needed.
There are lots of good examples, they’re usually smaller studios/indie though. GaaS sucks when you get the people with business degrees in on it. It’s great for people who are working on a game they’re passionate about and just want to keep adding more content.
Back in 2014, Wein revealed that Deep Silver was ‘mightily proud’ of the trailer, but it was the spark that ignited a major downfall, and within weeks, milestones were failing to be hit. The product being pieced together by Yager wasn’t reflective of the first games that had sold so well....
I got it for free on Epic. I launched it and something wasn’t working right, and tried a few different Proton versions. Then it just would launch because Denuvo thought it was different systems. I thought I’d come back later and try it, once that wore off, but I never did and probably never will, so the game wasn’t even worth trying it for free for me. Lol. Maybe I’ll try it some day, but I doubt it.
It also requires perfectly rational actors with perfect information. If they can suppress information about competition or manipulate you to have loyalty then it doesn’t work, and both of these happen constantly.
Isn’t before the price is set in stone the time to make a big deal out of it? Like you said, they probably leaked it to gauge the response. We should mock it for the absurdity that it is so they know they’re way off the mark before it comes out.
That is, assume the price is something we want changed. Honestly, I don’t really. I want this to flop. We need fewer Microsoft products out there, not more. I want people on Linux powered devices, so we get more support for Linux software.
I think it’s fair, and sometimes good. I’ve been playing Stationeers recently and it’s fantastic. It’s priced reasonably, and it’s an amazing game. They have a few DLCs, which are purely there to give support, not new content. It’s for you to pay the devs more if you have the money to give them and want to.
However, they’re also losing money on the game and have said they never expect it to be profitable*. Most games aren’t Stardew Valley, and they’re struggling to survive. Stardew doesn’t need to make more money. Most small/indie studios do.
*It’s the studio making Kitten Space Agency, which they’ve said they want to be free, with the option to donate. I think they’re allergic to making profit and only like making cool games. I’d highly recommend checking out their games, if only because they seem to be doing development for the sake of the games.
Yeah, it’s not likely to happen, but still EA wasn’t making good use of them. I always hate to see layoffs, but making people with knowledge available, especially when other studios end up with a demand for them, is good. I’m sure they won’t pick up the entire team, but I’d be surprised if some of them don’t end up there.
We’ll never get the same thing, but I’m always hopeful that some of the people have the knowledge, resources, and desire to spin up new studios at least, where they can make the games they’ve always wanted to make but weren’t allowed to. Certainly they won’t all end up at the same place, and only a few with this studio, but their experience now gets spread to new places outside of EA where I think we can expect better things.
We’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully we get cool indie experiences, like The Art of Rally, as well as more expensive projects, like whatever the WRC game becomes.
Yeah, I had GamePass before I switched to Linux. It sucks that they’ve chosen to not support Linux, but it’s their choice. I’m not going to let them hold me hostage on their shitty OS for it. I’d likely happily pay for it again if they decide to release a Linux version, but until then they can fuck off. I don’t need their service.
I fixed Borderlands 4's stuttering issue by upping my shader cache size to 100 GB, which feels like something I shouldn't have to do in a well-optimised game (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
'Borderlands 4 is a premium game made for premium gamers' is Randy Pitchford's tone deaf retort to the performance backlash: 'If you're trying to drive a monster truck with a leaf blower's motor, you're going to be disappointed' (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
I just beat Bloodborne for the first today, and it's probably one of the best playthroughs of a video game that i have ever had and stories of one as well. angielski
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Release Date Trailer (December 4) (www.youtube.com) angielski
Former Pokémon Company head lawyer says yeah, those latest Nintendo patents are a bit much, aren't they (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
New Valve trademark for 'Steam Frame', looks like we're getting new hardware (www.gamingonlinux.com) angielski
To paraphrase Jeff Grubb, there’s been more smoke lately indicating a console than VR, but “frame” implies glasses implies VR headset. It could go either way or both, where the console and VR are complementary. Or neither! But I think smart money is on Valve announcing new hardware imminently, and personally, I think...
Elite Dangerous angielski
Baldur's Gate 3 or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? angielski
Both games are currently on sale on Steam for about the same price ($59.99 CAD vs $58.49 CAD). I’ve never played either. I know they’re both supposed to be excellent games. My question is, for those who have played both, which do you prefer?...
Stardew Valley will be getting another update after all (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
The final final update v4 (for real this time)
No Man's Sky: Voyagers update releases today, introduces customizable "colossal, fully furnished, completely bespoke Corvette-class starships" (www.nomanssky.com) angielski
As someone who last tried No Man’s Sky out about 5 years ago, it looks like it’s time to give it another shot.
The recent Steam censorship debacle actually sort of opened me up to adult games. angielski
I’ve never really played any porn games more hardcore than Baldur’s Gate 3 before, but you remember a couple weeks ago when GOG gave away those NSFW games, as a direct response to the whole thing?...
Whine harder you assholes angielski
It Turns Out, Steam’s Adult Content Ban Has Been Plotted For A Year And Is Spearheaded By One Of Project 2025’s Leading Voices (www.thegamer.com) angielski
Anyone know if this is true or not?
[Fredrik Knudsen] Unofficial Skyrim Patch | Down the Rabbit Hole (youtu.be) angielski
what are in you're top 3 favourite games of all time? angielski
for me mine are 1. Elden Ring, 2. RDR2 3. BOTW, all because they genuinely blew my mind when playing them for the first time and changed how I saw and played video games.
Xbox Drops Work on ‘Contraband’ Video Game After Four Years (www.bloomberg.com) angielski
Xbox is canceling Contraband, announced in 2021 from Avalanche Studios (Just Cause), after four years of radio silence, sources tell Bloomberg News. This news arrives weeks after a mass layoff in which Xbox canceled several other big titles. - Jason Schreier
Next BioShock Game Suffers From More Development Hell After Failing an Executive Review (www.bloomberg.com) angielski
18+ GOG NSFW Giveaway (items.gog.com) angielski
CENSORSHIP...
Good racing games on Steam? angielski
Steam is having a Racing Fest sale until August 4th and I thought I might like to try. I used to play a lot of Gran Turismo 2 and 3 back in the day, especially the rally modes....
Recommendations for games to play on a treadmill (i.e. not too intense) angielski
Hello. I got a walkpad a month or so ago (it’s a small treadmill) and I try to walk 1hr per day daily for health....
Outer Worlds 2 cut to $70 after backlash (xcancel.com) angielski
Supposedly, they’re rolling back the price increase for all holiday releases....
Has the live-service dream crashed back down to earth? | Opinion (www.gamesindustry.biz) angielski
Former Dead Island 2 Dev Addresses Delay: 'Boy, That Game Sucked' (insider-gaming.com) angielski
Back in 2014, Wein revealed that Deep Silver was ‘mightily proud’ of the trailer, but it was the spark that ignited a major downfall, and within weeks, milestones were failing to be hit. The product being pieced together by Yager wasn’t reflective of the first games that had sold so well....
ROG Xbox Ally Is $700 And Xbox Ally X Is $1050 (fandomwire.com) angielski
Stardew Valley dethrones Valve classic Portal 2 as Steam’s top-rated game (www.dexerto.com) angielski
After parting ways with EA, WRC gets new home and six-year deal to "reboot" rally series (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
SteamOS 3 finally released by Valve for other handheld (store.steampowered.com) angielski