MentalEdge

MentalEdge, 8 dni temu

They seem to be getting back into it.

There was Alyx, at first. But today there’s Deadlock, two more rumoured games, and now this?

MentalEdge, 8 dni temu

As long as there are killer 1st party titles exclusive to a console platform, there’s a reason to buy one.

Counterargument: some of us consider this kind of arbitrary BS a reason NOT to buy one.

And that’s before you even consider the additional crap consoles pull, like Nintendo making the only way to back up your saves a fucking subscription service.

MentalEdge, 9 dni temu

Don’t buy steelseries.

I like the DualSense controller. Yes, it’s “for playstation” but all controllers work on PC nowadays. Especially on Linux, the driver for PS controllers is in the kernel, and they can work both wired and via Bluetooth.

It even supports using the special features of the DualSense in some games, like the adaptive triggers when playing Rift Apart or Forbidden West.

And the touchpad works as a mouse, which is handy.

MentalEdge, 9 dni temu

Yes.

MentalEdge, 9 dni temu (edited 9 dni temu)

Really? I know her range is kind of insane but I don’t hear Hale in McGinnis at all.

Edit: Some people say it sounds like Erica Luttrel, which jives with me. McGinnis sounds almost exactly like Bangalore from Apex.

MentalEdge, 10 dni temu

It’s one of the few games where I switch between mouse and controller when on foot vs in a car. They’re damn near undrivable with wasd.

MentalEdge, 10 dni temu

Oh, it’s even worse on wasd. It’s like only being able to steer by wild swerving.

MentalEdge, 14 dni temu (edited 14 dni temu)

“The potential here is absurd,” wrote app developer Nick Dobos in reaction to the news. “Why write complex rules for software by hand when the AI can just think every pixel for you?”

“Can it run Doom?”

“Sure, do you have a spare datacenter or two full of GPUs, and perhaps a nuclear powerplant for a PSU?”

What the fuck are these people smoking. Apparently it can manage 20 fps on one “TPU” but to get there it was trained on shitload of footage of Doom. So just play Doom?!

The researchers speculate that with the technique, new video games might be created “via textual descriptions or examples images” rather than programming, and people may be able to convert a set of still images into a new playable level or character for an existing game based solely on examples rather than relying on coding skill.

It keeps coming back to this, the assumption that these models, if you just feed them enough stuff will somehow become able to “create” something completely new, as if they don’t fall apart the second you ask for something that wasn’t somewhere in the training data. Not to mention that this type of “gaming engine” will never be as efficient as an actual one.

MentalEdge, 14 dni temu (edited 14 dni temu)

Ok.

Try to get an image generator to create an image of a tennis racket, with all racket-like objects or relevant sport data removed from the training data.

Explain the concept to it with words alone, accurately enough to get something that looks exactly like the real thing. Maybe you can give it pictures, but one won’t really be enough, you’ll basically have to give it that chunk of training data you removed.

That’s the problem you’ll run into the second you want to realize a new game genre.

MentalEdge, 14 dni temu

Obviously.

But at what point does that guidance just become the dataset you removed from the training data?

To get it to run Doom, they used Doom.

To realize a new genre, you’ll “just” have to make that game the old fashion way, first.

MentalEdge, 14 dni temu (edited 14 dni temu)

You are completely missing what I’m saying.

I know the input doesn’t alter the model, that’s not what I mean.

And “general” models are only “general” in the sense that they are massively bloated and still crap at dealing with shit that they weren’t trained on.

And no, “comprehending” new concepts by palette swapping something and smashing two existing things together isn’t the kind of creativity I’m saying these systems are incapable of.

MentalEdge, 13 dni temu

Bloated, as in large and heavy. More expensive, more power hungry, less efficient.

I already brought it up. They can’t deal with something completely new.

When you discuss what you want with a human artist or programmer or whatever, there is a back and forth process where both parties explain and ask until comprehension is achieved, and this improves the result. The creativity on display is the kind that can unfold and realize a complex idea based on simple explanations even when it is completely novel.

It doesn’t matter if the programmer has played games with regenerating health before, one can comprehend and implement the concept based on just a couple sentences.

Now how would you do the same with a “general” model that didn’t have any games that work like that in the training data?

My point is that “general” models aren’t a thing. Not really. We can make models that are really, really big, but they remain very bad at filling in gaps in reality that weren’t in the training data. They don’t start magically putting two and two together and comprehending all the rest.

MentalEdge, 13 dni temu (edited 13 dni temu)

In a couple sentences? In a way that doesn’t approach, equal or exceed the effort of training the model with that data to begin with?

You insist these models can do new things out of nothing, and you keep saying “all you have to do, is give them something”.

MentalEdge, 12 dni temu (edited 12 dni temu)

My argument was and is that neural models don’t produce anything truly new. That they can’t handle things outside what is outlined by the data they were trained on.

Are you not claiming otherwise?

You say it’s possible to guide models into doing new things, and I can see how that’s the case, especially if the model is a very big one, meaning it is more likely that it has relevant structures to apply to the task.

But I’m also pretty damn sure they have insurmountable limits. You can’t “guide” and LLM into doing image generation, except by having it interact with an image generation model.

MentalEdge, 18 dni temu

Even if it is, it’s a derivation I’ve been sorely missing. Ever since Battleborn got shut down, there’s been a Battleborn shaped hole in my heart. Deadlock fits in that hole really well.

It’s possible that the whole impetus for creating Deadlock came from something like that. Someone at valve, like me, enjoyed the hell out this particular mix of mechanics.

There’s nothing like it. Dota doesn’t do the trick, neither does Overwatch. Of all things, the closest thing might be Titanfall 2’s titan combat.

MentalEdge, 18 dni temu (edited 18 dni temu)

Don’t they supposedly have a couple other games in the works, too? What are the chances they’re working on three new MOBAs?

MentalEdge, 18 dni temu

No. Some also like Gigantic, but they never appealed to me enough to try em.

I was in the Battleborn beta, and had such a blast I absolutely had to keep playing, so I bought it day one.

I was really sad to see it be loved by those that played it, and hated as an “Overwatch clone” by everyone else.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu (edited 19 dni temu)

If you play or want to play: !deadlock

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

No. More a third person Battleborn, actually. Or Dota with guns. It has items, ability leveling, hero leveling, lanes, NPCS, all the MOBA things.

And no, Battleborn never played like Overwatch.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

It’s not for everyone, but it has fit surprisingly well into the Battleborn-shaped hole in my heart.

MentalEdge, 18 dni temu

Deadlock or Battleborn?

I’d say yes. But you do have to figure out how to apply the MOBA way of thinking. How to stack the stats of items, abilities and leveling up, into doing a shitload of damage without dying.

That applied to Battelborn, and it does in Deadlock, too.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

I’d be very worried if a studio was pumping out several full-scale games a year. Did you mean publisher? I find following publishers to be pretty hit or miss, they usually deal with a multitude of game studios whose output will vary wildly. The days of EA making a bunch of EA games is over, now people care whether it’s Dice, Respawn or BioWare, and what the specific game is like.

Studios still just making games do exist. Kojima Productions, Santa Monica, Guerilla, Remedy, Fromsoft, Square Enix, Larian, Id Tech, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, CDPR…

They’re just relatively fewer and farther between as so many studios have pivoted to spending years and years working on one live service title or another, and the rest of these you only really hear from once in several years, when a game comes out.

For publishers, Devolver and Paradox come to mind.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu (edited 19 dni temu)

Yes and no.

It’s not as good as dead space, and not as scary.

It does have decent atmosphere, cool visuals, etc. The combat system is very good. Much more action game than horror game. The melee system meant that not running out of ammo and being careful with your shots wasn’t as important as in dead space.

It falls short in several disappointing ways. The “stealth” system is a joke. There’s a level where you have to sneak around “blind” monsters that only act on sound, except you can walk right up to them and just melee kill them, LOUDLY, without any of the others reacting.

So the stealth sections are completely trivial.

There’s a pretty interesting enemy in the form of the automated security robots of the prison, except it literally shows up in just the tutorial, where it shows you how to deal with them, but then they’re utterly absent in the rest of the game.

The whole game is really impressive in a couple ways (graphics and animation, the combat system) but it feels like 50% of what was supposed to be in it was cut, and like several mechanics never got implemented.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

It was good in many ways. And it expands on dead space in many ways mechanically, it just didn’t follow through in some aspects.

The guns are cool and there’s a very satisfying melee system.

But the melee system is overpowered, which means monsters are less scary. The sound-based stealth sections where you go through rooms full of blind monsters that allegedly react to sound, have the monsters being completely deaf to melee kills, which means you can just walk up to them one by one and clear the room.

And you’re right about the story. The game should have had LORE, but it’s just the bare minimum generic excuse to have a horror setting.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu (edited 19 dni temu)

That it’s a good game on it’s own premise

It doesn’t really even manage that. It’s not bad, there’s a lot to like, but playing it I ran into a lot of stuff I wish was there, but wasn’t.

The story was one thing, but it completely fails at bulding tension. DS1 fills you with adrenaline at regular intervals, but in Callisto Protocol the second I realized the “sound-sensitive” blind enemies don’t react to the noise of melee combat, it was like all the air went out of the balloon.

That’s a perfect microcosm of the whole game. Really neat ideas, really good execution, but only to 90%. And that last 10% matters. A LOT.

The combat system is great, but it doesn’t lean into it at all. The final boss is just a bullet sponge that makes no clever use of any mechanics, and the game is so obsessed with trying to be DS (and TLOU) with boring stealth sections and puzzles.

You end up spending a lot of time wishing combat was happening.

I feel like a Callisto Protocol 2 that leans into the things worked, and fixed just a couple small things that get near working, could be amazing.

MentalEdge, 23 dni temu

Rebirth when.

MentalEdge, 24 dni temu

!deadlock has a thread for inviting and getting invited in case the guy who already commented doesn’t get you in.

MentalEdge, 24 dni temu

I’d be suggesting Battleborn if it wasn’t dead…

Maybe Predecessor (paragon reboot)?

Marvel Rivals might be a bit too close to Overwatch, or maybe that’s a good thing?

You might consider just not playing ranked. In anything. Assigning a number to my skill level and that of others had a negative effect on my relationship with games and using them to have fun. Recognizing that and just playing to play instead of to appease the rating system, has led to much more fun coming out of my fun.

It doesn’t mean you can’t get better at the game over time, only that you’ll be the judge of your progress, instead of an arbitrary number that won’t ever feel truly fair.

MentalEdge, 24 dni temu

I completely disabled both text and voice chat, and haven’t looked back.

MentalEdge, 25 dni temu (edited 25 dni temu)

…

Ok yeah that’s really fucking uncool.

There are absolutely actors who are down to do that stuff but you can’t hire people with a script sight-unseen and just drop stuff on them that might straight up give some people a panic attack to even think about, let alone re-enact.

Title makes you think there are actors who don’t want games in general to contain explicit adult content, but this is 100% reasonable, and yet another reason voice actors and game industry workers need to unionize.

I bet your ass the same shit is happening with asset creators and animators.

MentalEdge, 25 dni temu

In some countries, some people, in some parts of the industry, are unionized. It’s not even close to being the norm. It’s only slowly starting to happen.

MentalEdge, 25 dni temu

Rock and stone!

!drg

MentalEdge, 26 dni temu (edited 26 dni temu)

Literally just sat and benefitted from the hype to get some sales, then shat all over everything right before people actually start having fun.

Nevermind that if it went live, likely would have meant even more sales.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

It’s going to require a crowdstrike type fuckup, exploit, or privacy scandal on a widely used AC like EAC before public opinion changes on this.

So many games are making the trade-off and it only makes sense because players don’t understand what they are giving in to.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

Yeah, but it didn’t affect gamers. People don’t care until something either does affect them, or in a VERY in your face kind of way, could.

Crowdstrike, unfortunately, is a funny “lol the corporates fucked their own shit up” case and the average gamer simply won’t connect the dots.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

Good. Hopefully they actually get somewhere with that.

I’m just not seeing popular opinion among gamers wising up to the risks of kernel level access.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

Dunno. But it seems like its bulletproofing has been accurately translated into the game.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

bingo

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

I’m thinking of replaying the first Watch Dogs.

There’s a mod that implements a massive amount of cut content, to the point it’s almost a different game.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu (edited miesiąc temu)

2 and 3 feel like saints row knock-offs for 12-year-olds.

The first game was… Genuinely different in a lot of ways.

The mod is called Living City and adds so much, it might almost be the real Watch Dogs 2 we never got. What the series could have been had it not gone off the rails.

15 minute video that showcases the many, many things the mod adds to the game.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

Was confused for a second there, the title doesn’t specify that the article is about Infinite, so for a minute I thought we were discussing the first game, or the franchise in general.

The first game obviously has a lot to say where rampant freedom is concerned. You might consider it anti-capitalist, but really it’s anti-anarchy, if anything.

I always found the games to be more potent as a starting point for tackling the bad shit a lot of humans will try to pull given power, but Rapture was twice the setting that Colombia was in that regard.

Rapture pulled me into Bioshock.

But Colombia didn’t pull me into Infinite. Booker and Elizabeth did.

As a cleverly written and somewhat complex personal story, Infinite shines. It’s got compelling characters that make you care, and then it puts those characters through the wringer in their search for contentment.

I cared a whole lot about where Elizabeth and Booker would end up, but I can’t say I ever spared Colombia at large a second thought.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

And the “twins”. They were fun to run into every time.

Even Comstock, despite barely appearing, was a good villain in the way that he was used to flesh out Booker and the multi-universe plot.

So not really a villain at all, but a clever detail in Bookers detailed personal journey.

Infinite had tons and tons of detail and depth when it came to the characters. The audio logs in the earlier games all fleshed out Rapture.

In Infinite, they flesh out the characters and their lives.

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu

I just want arenas back…

Not that I’ve ever spent, or ever will spend, on Apex.

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu

Yeah that was a bug.

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu

Not gonna happen. Not really.

So far research suggests the guardrail and hallucination problems are unsolvable, and we are seeing diminishing returns from increasing the complexity of these systems.

Hence devs will never have the necessary control required to author an actual narrative. NPCs will end up talking about mechanics that don’t exist, or saying things that contradict an overrall narrative.

Even with actual people, if you just throw them in a room and have the improv a world into existence, it never ends up quite as good as a properly authored narrative.

And LLMs are nowhere near achieving the level of internal consistency required for something like the worlds of Elden Ring or Mass Effect.

Baldur’s Gate 3 contains truly staggering amounts of writing, multiple times that of classical literary works. The hallucination problem means that if all that were AI generated, small parts of it might pass inspection, but trying to immerse yourself in it as a fictional world would have you noticing immersion breaking continuity errors left and right.

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu

I’m not sure whether you’re kidding, but I wouldn’t complain either.

Five and six are not good games, but played in co-op, slightly drunk, they are a riot of cringe, ridiculousness and camp.

We laughed our asses off in the Ada story sections where the second player constantly pops into existence as a faceless “agent” because Ada doesn’t normally have a companion, but they had to make her sections somehow playable in co-op.

The games are top tier material to laugh at.