[alt text: a 4-panel comic by Safely Endangered. The first panel depicts Kirby in the doctor’s office, telling a doctor, “I don’t feel well”. The doctor resembles Dr. Mario. In the second panel, the doctor is placing his stethoscope on Kirby’s “chest” and saying, " Ok, breathe in." The third panel depicts Kirby...
The three patents—all filed in Japan between May and July 2024—draw similarities between Palworld and 2022’s 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus specifically. Their descriptions concern game mechanics like “riding an object” or throwing a ball to capture and possess a character in virtual spaces.
Wait…so the patents didn’t even exist when Palworld was released into EA? or am I missing something?
Counterpoint: both of those ideas being patented meant no competitor could use them while the ideas were relevant. And in both cases, the patenting company made like one promising example of the patented idea and then barely used it after that. Wouldn’t it have been better for consumers if we could have had loading screen minigames back when long loading screens were still relevant?
sounds about right from my personal experience. 40% of devs actually go out of their way to carefully design the lighting around it, and tweak lighting resolutions to get acceptable frame rates. the other 60% throw it in for marketing.
Edit: alright i have watched this video more and have more detailed thoughts. Many are pointing out that HUB used somewhat cherry-picked samples in this case, and they have a history of presenting RT in an unfavorable light (no pun intended). Now that I am thinking about it, I can see that a few of their samples are cases where the RT lighting produces softer, more realistic shadows or reflections, but Steve says the non-RT image looks better because the shadows or reflections look “sharper”. Idk, they weren’t that egregious, but it does give a weird vibe.
Regardless, I hope people don’t look at this and go “wow I guess RT is pointless then!”. The title of the vid suggests that we’ve had 6 years of RT with little to show for it, but I think I disagree. Part of the problem is that AAA game dev times are LOOOOONG, and devs are using engines from before the RT renaissance that they are comfortable with using. Accordingly, they stick with lighting techniques that they are familiar with, rather than trying to learn a new workflow. Combine that with the fact that the majority of gamers are still using last-gen consoles or 1080ti’s, and so devs have to use the old method of lighting to ensure that they can reach a viable audience. In that case, RT is a bonus feature that requires extra work on top of building the pre-baked lighting model.
We’re starting to see more UE5 games with “software” RT from Lumen, and these look great and can run smoothly on current-gen consoles. But even if the difference can be hard to see, the point is that RT lighting lets devs automate lighting in a lot of cases where previously they had to hand-place every lighting source. So moving to an RT future will mean that dev costs will go down, and smaller teams will be able to produce more visually-stunning games. It’s just that we’re in this weird limbo right now, where devs don’t want to go to only RT because a majority of gamers won’t be able to play the game, but gamers don’t want to get next-gen consoles because to their eyes, the graphics look basically the same. And of course they do, because devs are destroying themselves to make the pre-baked lighting look almost as good as RT.
Same reason emulators are allowed. As long as the emulator doesn’t use Nintendo’s literal software/hardware or schematics, and as long as the emulator doesn’t traffic in illegal file-sharing, it is allowed. Or at least, it exists in a legal grey area. And Analogue’s pitch is original hardware, essentially rebuilt from scratch using FPGA technology. You still need actual Nintendo 64 carts to use this device. Or at least, that is how it is marketed.
I think the recent emulator shutdowns by Nintendo were more about software piracy. The devs knew that their emulators were being used to play unreleased Nintendo games. The emulators themselves may have been safe and legal, but the devs are mostly just volunteers, or small time operations running on a patreon. As soon as Nintendo applied even the smallest amount of pressure, the devs caved, because they don’t want to spend their entire life savings and then some trying to defend software piracy on principle. Me thinks that Analogue would actually put up a fight if Nintendo tried anything, and that’s why Nintendo doesn’t try anything.
[alt text: a panel from a Sonic the Hedgehog comic book, depicting Sonic using his spin attack to cut a robot in half. There are caption boxes in the panel, which say: “For the first time in his life, Sonic is devoid of humor… For the first time in his life, Sonic truly understands the meaning of WAR…”]
[alt text: an image of a man standing at a self-checkout kiosk. The man has placed his hands on the scanning surface like he is playing a computer game. On the kiosk screen, it can be seen that the man is somehow playing Minecraft on the kiosk.]
[alt text: a photo of a statue of Mario in the process of sliding down a flagpole, as he commonly does at the end of Mario levels. The statue is placed in the video game section of a a supermarket. In front of the statue, there are multiple human hands holding up wads of US dollar bills towards Mario.]
how tf there only 2 comments in this thread? Y’all this is SILENT HILL TWO and it’s scoring WELL I guess my reason is horror games aren’t really my cup of tea. but this is a BIG DEAL!
Edit: here’s a key passage from the Eurogamer review that is hype:
The original game was both combat-light and a little short, and Bloober has addressed both these issues head-on. For the latter, the remake has opened up a slew of new landmarks for us to explore, so I devoted a lot of time picking through the streets of Silent Hill, revelling in the new-found freedom of being able to visit shops and buildings that had hitherto been out of bounds for us. This, coupled with longer levels and more places to visit, more than doubles the original eight-ish hour run-time.
As for combat? Well, be careful what you wish for, I guess. Silent Hill 2 was outrageously easy, even on its hardest difficulty, and Bloober’s edition is not. The good news is Remake doesn’t exactly make combat central to the experience (at least, not on standard difficulty). But it sure does make it harder to adopt the typical survival horror strat of run-away-run-away-run-away. Because of its claustrophobic tight spaces and nooks and crannies, it’s incredibly difficult to retreat from a fight, and there is essentially no meaningful way to stealth around the place, either. On top of that, most boss battles - they are all here, as well as a surprise or two - will deplete your ammo reserves with ruthless efficiency. It’s also often tough to finish off foes without taking damage yourself as a result, burning through your ever-dwindling medical supplies. (Yes, Lying Figures spewing toxic vomit in your death throes - I’m looking at you.)
They took a legendary game and made it better. Props to Bloober team, guess they still got it.
It’s a fair question, but honestly I think Nintendo generally focuses on emulators that they perceive as affecting their current or near-future income. The Wii U is fully dead to Nintendo, at least for the moment.
If you were using this emulator, you weren’t likely purchasing anything from them in the first place. And I’m no doctor, but… I’d have to imagine that’s likely the reason Nintendo took this down to begin with.
Actually…I own a Switch and paid full price for TOTK on launch week. But playing the game in 30fps chunky resolution was very painful for me, as i’ve gotten quite used to 60fps+ over the last few years with 3D games. I almost put the game down in the first hour or so, playing the game was literally making my eyes hurt. That’s when i went poking into the Switch emulation scene and set up yuzu (RIP). Within a few hours i was playing TOTK at 60fps 1440p and it was mostly glitch free. I put another 20 hours into the game before putting that down. But it was a glorious 20 hours, as that game is absolutely beautiful when you can wipe away the greasy look of 30fps low-res Switch graphics.
So…I am a Nintendo customer that was getting a better experience out of my purchased Nintendo game by emulating it. I know that isn’t everyone in this scene - I see the reddit posts everyday for the past week about people playing leaked Echoes* of Wisdom. I get why that shit would piss Nintendo off. It just sucks that now, others can’t share the amazing experience I had with TOTK.
What does “witch hunt” even mean anymore? I feel like it has been overused to the point of losing all meaning. In this case, by “witch hunt”, the writer means “they have started going too far and making some bad calls”. They aren’t calling for people to mount heads on spikes or review bomb, as far as I can tell.
It’s a strange case, though. Who do we think follows these curators? The title of the list is in Ukrainian, so I’d guess it’s mostly Ukrainians. On the one hand, I don’t want to tell Ukrainian folks how to spend their money with respect to Russia. Maybe for some, even the slightest whiff of Russia will turn them off from the game, regardless of how logical it is. It’s not my busieness to question the mostly-harmless emotional reaction of a people under siege. For those, these curation lists might still be useful. Of course, people that care this much would probably research another way if the curator lists didn’t exist.
For others, I’m sure they would prefer a curator list that actually does the research and doesn’t list a game unless the purchase would very clearly benefit Russia in tax dollars. For those, this turn of events is unfortunate. On the other hand, those people are probably level-headed enough to do their own research on a game-by-game basis.
My point is: the impact of these curator lists existing is probably minimal. But maybe i’m wrong, idk. What do y’all think?
The number of users to have voiced their disagreement already exceeds that of the admins.
Seems like it’s kind of a moot point then, no? If even a majority of Ukrainian users are aware of the issues with the list, I would expect most would just leave and the list would fade into obscurity.
they DID add those crossover decks recently, and the dev has indicated that there is more additional content coming. Idk, I think having the cards in HD wouldn’t look right, because the entire game has a specific kind of pixel art. Even the smooth, swirly background has a pixel art filter on it, bc that’s the vibe that the dev really wants the game to have. Mixing them would be like when pixel art rpgs have super hi-res fonts. It just doesn’t fit right.
We all expected that to be the case, it turns out it isn’t complete BS! But 8K TVs are currently outrageously expensive, and so most people don’t have them. Additionally, it sounds like the number of games that support 8K will be only a fraction of all the games that get PS5 Pro updates. Gran Turismo and F1 2024 are the only ones I saw called out in the video. They might have mentioned more, but I skipped around.
You make a fair point, that is a surprisingly accessible price. I could see a small audience of Gran Turismo freaks buying 8K TVs and PS5 Pros solely for that game. Though now that I say that, I feel like they are all satisfied already with PSVR2 🤔
i put very low stock in rumors, and i put even less on rumors reported by gamerant. No shade to you casey, I just think gamerant is a clickbait publication.
The main difference between Link and Zelda is that Zelda can’t fight. Instead, with a magical staff, she can summon material “echoes” of real objects from thin air – which could be anything from a cut of meat to distract monsters, to crates and tables to construct towers and staircases. When you come across the usual Zelda selection of deceptively mild-looking monsters, you can simply conjure a spear-wielding Moblin or a few bats into existence to dispatch them for you. Or, failing that, you can manifest a pot and throw it at whatever’s menacing you.
I did get used to Echoes of Wisdom’s new way of doing things as time went by – but I didn’t love it. There’s lots to like about it; particularly the painfully cute toylike aesthetic, which makes Hyrule feel a bit like like a giant Polly Pocket, and Zelda’s adorable horse. It’s a good game, and its mishmash of intersecting ideas does bring something new to Zelda. But I hope that the next time we play as Zelda, it feels more empowering.
So it sounds like this is the type of game that appeals to sickos that liked playing summoner necro in Diablo 2 (i’m one of those sickos). Except obviously it works better than that bc the entire game is built around it.
I don’t want to watch bc I’ve never played Tsushima and I suspect I will want to some day. What’s the spoiler free scoop? I had no clue this was getting a sequel, but exciting news in itself!
Y’all I finally watched the trailer and now i’m kinda hyped. I’ve been watching Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix and it’s giving me those vibes. Maybe it’s just the female (but maybe nonbinary) protagonist in both media, but either way, it’s working for me and now I’m eager to see more about this one.
This is such a nothing article. “We asked the creative head of the Space Marine 2 team if he thought the PS5 Pro would improve the framerate. His SHOCKING answer??? ‘Maybe.’”
my rec: try to power through until you get the Mothwing Cloak and Mantis Claw, which you get within the first 5 hours or so. If you don’t like the game by then, it isn’t going to click, but I think a lot of people give up on Hollow Knight too early.
I really love the difficulty in this game, but I get that that’s a matter of taste. Hollow Knight would definitely benefit from an “assist mode” like Celeste, or a “god mode” like Hades. I think the devs intended for the badges to be a way for players to fine-tune their difficulty and playstyle (kind of like how in Dark Souls, pyromancy is easy mode, at least early on). But often the best badges are hidden behind challenges, and even the best badges do not dramatically reduce the difficulty. So I totally empathize with your perspective.
this is where I think an assist mode would come into play. Personally, I think the difficulty and the limited checkpoints are important for the delicious tension of the game, so removing either aspect would ruin the game for me (and as I said elsewhere, this game is my favorite of all time). But if you could go into the settings, and flip on an assist mode that gave you checkpoints at the beginning of every room? I see no downside there, make the game more accessible for more people!
I also agree that the Shade is a flaw in the game design. Honestly the only clumsy design choice that I can think of in this game. I think Team Cherry wanted to do something similar to the Dark Souls bloodstain mechanic without completely copying it, but the shade ain’t it. If you like the difficulty of the game, the shade becomes a meaningless roadbump after the first few times, so it might as well be an automatic collection. If you are struggling with the difficulty of the game, the shade is just another hurdle to the game clicking for you. The shade has some lore significance, but I feel like they should have just made it an automatic collection without having to actually fight the shade.
Thank you for your write up! This has me WAY more interested in Elden Ring than I was before. I like Dark Souls a lot, but part of it is my investment in the lore. It’s not that I expect Elden Ring lore to be worse in any way, but it’ll be a new world to relearn so I have to work myself up to it. Reading your take has me way more excited to dig into it!
[alt text: a post on twitter by @Ranting_Trans, posted in June 2022. The text in the post says: “People only ask ‘what is a woman’ and not ‘what is a man’, because that question was already answered by the greatest philosopher of our time: Dracula”. Below the text is a screenshot from the game Castlevania: Symphony...
all better (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: a 4-panel comic by Safely Endangered. The first panel depicts Kirby in the doctor’s office, telling a doctor, “I don’t feel well”. The doctor resembles Dr. Mario. In the second panel, the doctor is placing his stethoscope on Kirby’s “chest” and saying, " Ok, breathe in." The third panel depicts Kirby...
Pocketpair reveals specific patents featured in Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld (www.gamedeveloper.com)
malicious backdoor found in widely used game mod by Low Level [YouTube] (youtu.be) angielski
Invidious, an alternative YouTube client in the browser without using YouTube directly (more private): inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=VH_8arwuRz8...
Kamala Harris' 'Fortnite' map bans guns, has less than 400 people playing (www.newsweek.com) angielski
DRAGON BALL DAIMA IS THE GT VERSION ON 2024 (playstationcouch.com) angielski
Hardware Unboxed: 6 Years of Ray Tracing - Part 1: On vs. Off 37 Game Comparison (youtu.be) angielski
Analogue’s 4K Nintendo 64 launches next year for $249 (www.theverge.com) angielski
Game composer Nobuo Uematsu will retire after Fantasian's console launch (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
war... war never goes fast... (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: a panel from a Sonic the Hedgehog comic book, depicting Sonic using his spin attack to cut a robot in half. There are caption boxes in the panel, which say: “For the first time in his life, Sonic is devoid of humor… For the first time in his life, Sonic truly understands the meaning of WAR…”]
you filthy casuals wouldn't understand (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: an image of a man standing at a self-checkout kiosk. The man has placed his hands on the scanning surface like he is playing a computer game. On the kiosk screen, it can be seen that the man is somehow playing Minecraft on the kiosk.]
when Nintendo finally runs out of ideas (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: a photo of a statue of Mario in the process of sliding down a flagpole, as he commonly does at the end of Mario levels. The statue is placed in the video game section of a a supermarket. In front of the statue, there are multiple human hands holding up wads of US dollar bills towards Mario.]
really robs the dramatic tension (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: text that says: “boss: kills me for the 20th time & takes me back to the unskippable cutscene before the battle...
Silent Hill 2 (2024) Review Thread
Game Information...
[Fan Art] Super Smash Bros. Poster by Marinko Milosevski angielski
cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/19005703...
The Rocky Horror Video Game is a thing, and coming out this month [Eurogamer] (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
Nintendo has reportedly shut down Ryujinx, the Switch emulator that was supposedly immune (www.theverge.com)
Ukrainian gaming curators turning to witch hunting (medium.com)
Hit deck-builder Balatro is now available for mobile [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
PlayStation 5 Pro Hands-On: 11 Games Tested, PSSR and RT Upgrades Revealed, Developers Interviewed! [Digital Foundry] (youtu.be) angielski
TL;DW:...
Rumor: Sony Will Announce More Major PS5 Exclusives for 2025 (gamerant.com) angielski
Sucker Punch is planning ‘other spin-offs’ beyond Ghost of Yotei [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review Thread
Game Information...
Ghost of Yōtei (Ghost of Tsushima sequel)- Announce Trailer (youtu.be)
Space Marine 2 devs “hopeful” PS5 Pro will surpass Quality Mode with higher performance - Dexerto (www.dexerto.com) angielski
Let's discuss: Hollow Knight (beehaw.org) angielski
The format of these posts is simple: let’s discuss a specific game or series!...
he got his bachelor's in gender studies circa 1492 (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: a post on twitter by @Ranting_Trans, posted in June 2022. The text in the post says: “People only ask ‘what is a woman’ and not ‘what is a man’, because that question was already answered by the greatest philosopher of our time: Dracula”. Below the text is a screenshot from the game Castlevania: Symphony...