I upgraded from my 15 year old PC to one of the new Mac Minis at Xmas last year, thinking that I would be fine for gaming with my Xbox / Game Pass, and I would “skip a generation” on PC hardware. I have a small Steam / Epic library, but everything that didn’t work on MacOS, I had a Game Pass version of....
Get a Steam Deck? You can hook it up like a PC, use it sat around. Though its not a powerhouse. Wait and see how the Steam Machine fairs? There's still a good second hand market for parts too.
Its a shitty time at the moment with scumbag companies and AI, so consumers are completely fucked.
Also: Fuck subscriptions.
Plus the game pass versions of games are complete dogshit compared to the Steam versions most of the time.
So… Is this a good thing? Bad thing? Gut reaction says that probably not the greatest for GOG, being detached from a huge publisher like CD Projekt probably isn’t great for a niche marketplace. In their faqs it states that GOG had a strong year financially but they would of course bill it that way. The question about why the...
Who made the textures or took the photos that them AI generated ones were derived from, do they get a cut? That justification is even more bizarre now, considering the tools we have to photoscan.
AI isnt needed at all, we didnt need it in the past to create art. And with all the tools and knowledge available online, for free, theres even less reason we need it these days.
I've never pirated a game, but if developers are going to use pirated content to make a game, they cant be mad when we pirate their game.
You have to draw the line somewhere, saying any game cant use AI is much simpler than an arbitrary definition of what slop is. Also means we reward real artistry everytime.
That part is, the next part is who is it going to replace? Which artist isnt going to be hired because they just made something with AI instead? Thats some pure creativity just lost from the world.
Yawn. I dont think AI should be used at all and obviously an unintentional use of it appearing in a search result isnt the same as giving money to an AI company to generate textures derived from stolen artwork.
They could have just bought some textures from the large supply there is out there.
Did you even read my short comment? They can buy a brick texture from one of many marketplaces. Giving an artist money directly. Instead of giving money to use stolen assets. So that argument doesnt hold up.
It's been proven time and time again that a game doesnt need to compare to AA and AAA shit to be successful. You dont need a big game with a big world. There's an endless list of simple indie games that had a captivating charm that are crazy successful, all without a single bit of AI used.
Why are you being obtuse? If the in-house designers didn't want to make some placeholder textures, they could have used a marketplace instead of AI. Are you just going to keep going in circles?
Why go through the effort of AI then for them? It's the same amount of work, well less even, you'll get a full pack of textures at different resolutions with UV maps and all, versus AI where you then have to check it and potentially do more.
It says it all, when purchasing a texture is now "stupid busywork". You literally type in what you want, get hundreds of results, buy one, put in the game. They used UE5, Epic Games have Fab and it's integrated into the engine, they even give away lots of free assets there (granted that is probably going to fill with AI slop soon). There's loads of other options out there too.
This argument of "its placeholder textures" is null.
The major rub of Gen AI art is profiting off of others work. If you’re never displaying it and don’t ever want it shown then who cares?
This doesnt even make sense, you just answered your own question. The major rub is exactly why we care.
There's no red tape. From the site I provided, the license allows them to use it privately or commercially.
It's placeholder and from all the options out there they could have found something.
There's also all the environmental problems with AI.
It's not indie, it had the full support of a publisher. Indie is a handful of people making a game with their own money, not getting a millions of dollars in investment from a publisher.
The awards are done by the big studios anyway, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft etc, thats the jury, it always has a bias. Anything else only wins something if its so popular that it has to. It's just a AAA circle jerk mostly.
But its not about the awards anyway, its about advertising.
Not exactly no, they are directly involved in the process. They pick which outlets can vote, so you immediately have conflict of interest.
As a fair awards show, its fucking awful, but as we know, thats just the facade to selling people new products. It's just advertising, hyped up.
Also media publications are often biased anyway as their entire business relies on exposure, which is infinitely harder to get if you are critical of games. Nobody is gonna slap a 5/10 on their product.
Not to mention its always games with money behind them, there's lots of actual quality games released that never get a mention, let alone a nomination, because they simply werent published by a big company. They have fucking DLC nominated instead of games if the big guys didnt release anything that year.
Nah, Larian will jump the gun, release too early and have another bug infested game. They need to reduce their scope, actually take their time and make a great RPG. BG3 was too much for them, a smaller more refined experience would have been amazing, they shouldn't chase "bigger is better".
Ignoring all the problems, sure. You could get through it, but there were lots of bugs and inconsistencies. I played again recently after all the patches and while it was much better, it still had it's fair share of issues. The overall game, lore and story is very good, though I think DOS combat is far superior for a video game than DnD.
Remember the "Call of Duty games are DLC" jokes? Well that is literally what they have become. There's no soul in them anymore. They are just a vessel to sell skins.
Problem is, Treyarch were the only competent studio after all of IW left. So they have been constantly called in to help to clean up the mess the other studios keep making.
Now development on the games is split across Activision studios all over the world, so the chance of there ever being a coherent self contained experience again is basically zero. Their scope got too big and they couldnt find the right people to take it on.
Depends what generation you ask, because a lot of the CoD audience now, never even played Black Ops 2. Which I agree, was the last good game, I'll give credit to BO3 for it's amazing zombies experience, with mod tools on PC, which was a surprise.
The fact of the matter is it doesn't matter. It doesn't mean it was a good game or something was done better (which is what Todd is looking for, validation), because some people liked it.
That's the point, it doesn't matter. Enjoy any you want.
Todd just wants "his" Fallout games to be the most liked, to stroke his ego.
Also side note, sales never works as a metric because the gaming industry is constantly growing, any game released now sells much more than it ever would have 5, 10, 15, 20.. years ago. Regardless of quality.
I like to think I hold myself to a higher standard or at least just a standard. General consumption, I'm not sure, but for video games, people standards have dropped significantly, the masses accept a lot of bullshit and even defend it.
Valve taking on consoles would be incredible for the space as a whole, but also Linux. Other storefronts would finally have to properly support it too.
The 2025 Steam Awards Winners (store.steampowered.com) angielski
Normally the steam awards winners are real stinkers, but the voters had shockingly good taste this year.
How Are You Guys Handling This? angielski
I upgraded from my 15 year old PC to one of the new Mac Minis at Xmas last year, thinking that I would be fine for gaming with my Xbox / Game Pass, and I would “skip a generation” on PC hardware. I have a small Steam / Epic library, but everything that didn’t work on MacOS, I had a Game Pass version of....
GOG is Getting Acquired By Its Original Co- Founder: What It Means For You (www.gog.com) angielski
So… Is this a good thing? Bad thing? Gut reaction says that probably not the greatest for GOG, being detached from a huge publisher like CD Projekt probably isn’t great for a niche marketplace. In their faqs it states that GOG had a strong year financially but they would of course bill it that way. The question about why the...
Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage (insider-gaming.com) angielski
The Game Awards begins 11 hours from now. What are you looking forward to? angielski
The game awards begins roughly ~11 hours from now. what announcements are you hoping for?
After Black Ops 7's weaker launch, Call of Duty will no longer do back-to-back releases in the same series (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
'Huge respect to the folks at Obsidian': Todd Howard invited Obsidian devs onto Fallout season 2's set so they could see New Vegas in the flesh (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Valve dev counters calls to scrap Steam AI disclosures, says it's a "technology relying on cultural laundering, IP infringement, and slopification" (www.pcgamesn.com) angielski
Steam Hardware [new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and VR headset Steam Frame, coming in 2026] (store.steampowered.com) angielski
No prices yet. I may never financially recover from this.
Mocked-up images of a new Steam Controller appear, as speculation rises around Valve revealing new gaming hardware this week [Eurogamer] (www.eurogamer.net) angielski