These days we are expected to be subscribed to tons of shit, including stuff that simply doesn't justify subscriptions. We know it's not a benefit to us, but to the companies that dish them out.
I don't think you quite understand how bad Roblox is.
Think of the most predatory games you can imagine.
Roblox is far fucking worse.
Not only is it a money grubbing game like the worst of mobile free-to-play games, it encourages content creators to exhibit the same behaviours and does nothing about blatant fraud on the platform. Something it's money obsessed nature actually encourages and rewards.
If the shit that goes on in Roblox went on in Facebook to nearly the same degree, Meta would be raked over the coals for it; even Meta haven't stooped so low.
Roblox is a money-grubbing cesspit filled with manipulation. Even if you do close off the MTX route, it opens the door for someone to send a virus and say it'll get you free Robux (the Roblox in-game currency)
Minecraft is pretty good for this kind of stuff, especially Java Edition (has mods, and loooooads of servers, some of which also use mods to drastically alter the gameplay. You can also host your own, free of charge).
The players who lost their accounts aren't hanging around on unranked matches to stomp newbies. They'll want to go into ranked matches to get their level back up. Also, activity on both the new account and the old one would sus out deliberate smurfers
Yeah, we are definitely on the same page. What they did with classic Crash with minimal textures on the character, they also did the same thing with Mario in 64 and Banjo in Banjo-Kazooie.
You could do a similar approach to environmentals for a decent effect too, such as having the texture essentially act as a very restricted form of bump map for the vertex shaded polygon. Goldeneye did this a fair bit.
I would be interested in seeing this kind of art style make a return.
3D vectors can work well, but as an artist you are often better suited by going with the N64 approach. Due to technical limitations, textures were often used quite sparsely, with vertex shading providing the main colour and textures providing details. It was especially prevalent in games with cartoon art styles such as Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie, but even games like GoldenEye used this trick to a degree.
The problem with pure vertex is, the more detail you add to stuff, the more calculations you are doing, and they can really add up. The same is kinda true of bitmap (in terms of resolution) but the problem doesn't scale the same way. With that said, it will work well for a cartoony/anime art style where massive amounts of detail isn't necessarily needed, and shaders can be used to complete the look.
SKU is a shipping and retail thing. It's a unique identifier for products shipped. It has nothing to do with software versions and so forth.
Witcher 3 has a seperate entry for PS5 because they also ship a separate PS5 version.
Thing is, if I put the PS4 version of the game into the drive, and download the updates, the game I have is exactly the same as the PS5 physical. And no, it's not downloading the entire game again.
It is a patch. Not a completely different version of the game.
A free next-gen patch for The Witcher 3 launches on December 14th, giving the aging open-world a boost if you’re playing on a PS5, Xbox Series X/S, or high-end PC.
They aren't limited to unlocked framerates and higher resolutions though. Some games also add additional graphics effects.
it does not give you access to most of the graphical and audio capabilities of the modern platform
Except where it clearly can. For example, Witcher 3's next gen update adds features like ray tracing.
And also about how it’s petty to go and press the downvote button on someone’s posts when you’re having a conversation with them.
Im not the one pressing the downvote button, heck my client doesn't even register you as having downvotes (I'm on Kbin) but I presume someone else is doing it because you are demonstrably incorrect. Go look at Witcher 3. Go look at Cyberpunk 2077. These developers are doing what you deem to be impossible.
you can’t do a ‘patch’ for a new platform, you have to release a new SKU.
Tell that to Microsoft and Sony. Xbox Series X and PS5 have been enabling exactly this for X1 and PS4 games respectively.
The consoles not only have native backward compatibility, but they allow developers to make patches for 8th gen games to specifically target 9th gen hardware.