For me it’s probably Jazzpunk, but I liked Disco Elysium too. I’ve been looking for something to scratch that “Jazzpunk surrealist comedy itch” for a while and not many games have come even close.
With the way they reused, dynamically loaded assets before and tried to keep world seamless, they’d probably load\unload parts of these 125 Gb a lot, with this 16 Gb RAM requirement no less. They test it with SSD and make it so it doesn’t have microstutter and loading problems on their target machine. Or, god forbid, loading screens when walking outside, like it was in TES3; or TES4 banning levitation and loading complex cities as different locations that won’t work in a space sim etc etc. BethSoft had many problems with it already. I doubt it’d refuse to work, but if they build their game around it, the result is unpredictable. Bet, it’d load low-res LOD textures and only then replace them with okay ones. That’d probably ruin the spaceship landing – one of the, possibly, most demanding and visually sweet parts of the game. It looking great is their baseline here.
The first of the tools Denuvo is offering to Switch developers is Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, a “revolutionary technology to protect games launching on Nintendo Switch from piracy”....
EMPRESS is their name and yeah, they are bonkers. They are also very picky and influenced by donations, so obscure games won’t be cured from DENUVO ever. Judgement, a somehow popular Sega release, was cracked days ago, and it’s a 2018 game. They picked a fight with a ripper\cracker Skidrow in .nfo announcing that.
“The urge to play a violent video game in the midst of the most brutal land war in Europe since World War II may seem baffling. But it’s a way to cope.”
One ukrainian military psychologist and youtuber I’ve watched, Філософ Рептилоїд, frequently said how him bringing a laptop with games to a barrack set up a better overall atmosphere in a combat unit. Gaming is intense and occupying enough activity to distract one from fatigue of the battlefield for a couple of hours. Guess, even wargames work.
Honestly, I agree to an extent. I like watching at a well-designed scenery but I think it hurts games if it takes the priority. I’m not playing games for that, but for cool gamedesign ideas and my own experiences with mechanics. That’s tl;dr, next is my rant, for I had a long bus ride.
Graphics are very marketable and ad-friendly, easier to implement\control rather than changes to engine or scripts (you need to understand first) and they may cover up the lack in other departments. Effective managers love that. CGI guys at Disney are on strike because this sentiment held as true in movie industry too, and they are overloaded, filming the whole movie over chromakey. Computer graphics almost replaced everything else.
In my perspective, this trend in AAA lowers the quality of the end product, makes it safer to develop (formulaic reiteration) but just ok to play, mostly unremarkable. Indie and small gamestudios can’t compete with them in visuals, so they risk and try to experiment, bring novelty, and sometimes win a jackpot.
Like, obviously, Minecraft, that was initially coded by Notch alone. It invented indie scene as we know it now. It put tech and mechanics over looks, and the whole world was playing it. No one cared for how abstract it is being addicted to the gameplay.
Playing older games, I see, that they were in this race too, like how (recently remastered) Quake 2 was a great visual upgrade over Quake 1. People sold an arm and a leg to play them on HIGH at that time. And how they nodded like yeah, now it’s just like a real life watching at a 640x320 screenshot, or how marketologists sold it. But somehow they were made completely different in many ways, not gfx alone, and that’s for a braindead shooter. I feel it with my fingers. I see it in how the game logic works. This sensation was greater for me than anything I see on the screen.
Not being able to recall what happened in what CoD game, I become more amused with how gamedesign, presented via code, affects the feeling of a game. How in Disco Elysium all these mental features made it stand out. How Hotline: Miami did extreme violence so stylish. How Dwarf Fortress taught me to care about ASCII symbols on my screen but accepting the fun of loosing them. How the first MGS’s Psycho Mantis read my savefiles from other games and vibrated my controller on the floor with his psychic power.
These moments and feelings can’t be planned and managed like creation of visual assets. And they are why I like games, as outdated as NES ones or as ugly as competitive Quake config looks. They, like making love with a loving partner, hits different than a polished act of a fit and thin sex-worker. They bring unique experience instead of selling you a horse-painted donkey.
And that’s why I don’t really care about graphics and dislike their unending progress.
And would even require Windows Eleven soon, banning older CPUs!
I agree with you. One factor I still have hope for in that angle are new handhelds. We had Switch, we had Steam Deck and its newer competitors. And they all judged by their battery life and also has small screen where gfx don’t matter as much. Players on a long roadtrip or shift intuitively chose less consumptive games over those eating the battery in a hour. I wonder if Steam can make a special category for energy-light games, just for that obvious reason. And it, in reverse, inspiring devs to make games to cater to that usercase. I can dream.
He only needs to never come back, and for him it’s easy. It’s not yet that stage when they smuggle people back, rn they just clean up cultural landscape from ‘traitors’ to make it 100% sterile. Music scene is already like that.
While Baldur's Gate 3 is being widely celebrated by fans and developers alike, some are panicking that this could set new expectations from fans. Good.
I loved Q1 and custom maps Machinehead (devs behind new Wolfenstein) added to it, but Q2 is fucking boring. Like, really, besides the cool engine, it was just a slow and unimpressive bullshit. Not a Doom 2 level of making a comeback. What I disliked the most, besides irritating enemies, is backtracking to previous maps. It could’ve been shown as creating a consistent world across maps, but in the end it’s just bad design.
I suggest to those reading it to take Q1 instead. Surprisingly, the remastered version runs on Linux without problems. As do many engines created by fans’ community. It’s just better.
To populate the community, maybe, but QuakeLive, original Q3 servers and open alternatives still have people. And what I love about them more than the idea of a remaster is that they aren’t gated by software or hardware. This possible remaster may require a W10-11 and lots of powerful hardware to show all these fancy things you, by default, disable to participate in competitive Quake.
Quake Champions (or how it’s called) is what current gen have instead, while old people don’t care having old Quake 3 Arena things running.
Legend has spent years making Portal for the N64 and by Gaben he's done it (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
cross-posted from: kbin.social/m/games@sh.itjust.works/t/427580...
Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 detailed: what's free, what's not? (www.destructoid.com) angielski
CD Projekt Red explains what's coming in the paid Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty DLC, versus what you'll get in the free 2.0 update.
What's the funniest game you've played? angielski
For me it’s probably Jazzpunk, but I liked Disco Elysium too. I’ve been looking for something to scratch that “Jazzpunk surrealist comedy itch” for a while and not many games have come even close.
Need some local coop recommendations
Hello! I’ve come here to ask you lovely people from Lemmy if you guys know of some fun local coop games for at least 2 player....
Starfield Launch Details, PC Specs & More (bethesda.net) angielski
PC Specifications...
Denuvo security is now on Switch, including new tech to block PC Switch emulation (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
The first of the tools Denuvo is offering to Switch developers is Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, a “revolutionary technology to protect games launching on Nintendo Switch from piracy”....
In a War of Tanks, Ukrainian Soldiers Play World of Tanks Online (NYTimes) (i.imgur.com)
“The urge to play a violent video game in the midst of the most brutal land war in Europe since World War II may seem baffling. But it’s a way to cope.”
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Metro 2033 author Dmitry Glukhovsky sentenced to 8 years in prison for criticizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Baldur’s Gate 3 is Causing Some Developers to Panic (youtube.com) angielski
While Baldur's Gate 3 is being widely celebrated by fans and developers alike, some are panicking that this could set new expectations from fans. Good.
Quake II - Official Trailer (2023) (www.youtube.com) angielski
Developer remakes The Simpsons: Hit and Run from scratch (insider-gaming.com)