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Gaming Shout Thread


Sly Reflex
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A while back I was looking to trade in Dark Souls: Remastered and Demon's Souls in Cex. The interest from you guys, in relaying Cex pricing in comparison with the second hand market, was appreciated. But I already knew all that. As I do look into such things before I even considering selling/trading stuff in. I always plan ahead in that respect.

 

Anyway, flash forward to today AKA the day I remembered to do it. I traded in Dark Souls: Remastered for two PS4 games (Infamous 3 being £6 did really surprise me) and, since I outright bought Returnal, opted to put DeS on eBay. It sold within five minutes?

I honestly didn't think the interest in DeS would still be so strong this long after launch.

 

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Going to throw this one out to the forum, HDR games. Recommend them.

 

I played some of the second Ori game last night. It was a bit intense, visually. Very high contrast and vivid. But I liked how the dark scenes were just pitch black which is extremely noticeable when all the lights in the room are turned off. So when you swing a burning branch it actually blinds you a bit and lights up the entire room

 

That isn't a game I'll stick with likely, but I thought that was kinda neat. From what I'm seeing tho PC HDR is a minefield while console is much easier to set up. I figure that MS games like Ori might just be better set up for it than some others.

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Ppl will give you shit for that but don't feel so bad, even I'm still not entirely clear on what hdr is. The default settings for God of War were unbearably oversatured and bad looking and I can't tell if that's what people consider good HDR or not. FFVII is still the best I've seen for having some pretty interesting colours depending on how the light hits Cloud's sword

 

The sky in GoW looked excellent tho, lots of different shades of blue. But everything else seemed set too high

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I've had to look into a lot of terms I was unfamiliar with, over the years. I imagine those more in the know with the inner workings of PC gaming etc are a bit more clued in. But from PS3 onwards, screen tear was the only term I knew of. As pre-patch Valkyria Chronicles 1, had that from the opening cinematic.

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My PS4 pad is randomly registering down-left inputs on the analogue when you move it around. It doesn't matter at all in most games with 2D/3D movement since you're usually just inputting one direction at a time, but in Street Fighter, when you're constantly rotating directions around for special move, it turns into a nightmare. I was crouching when I shouldn't, doing moves I didn't input, blocked low when I actually blocked high etc. 

 

After losing five games or so in a row just because of this I did the sensible thing and took the thing apart (to separately get rid of the battery) but not before stomping on that piece of shit hardware a couple of times. "Hey, look at our PS4, it launches for 100 bucks less than Xbox One!" Yeah, and the overall build quality of everything is complete garbage.

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From the Horizon thread.

  

13 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

I wont be able to play this though because it seems that PS5 hasn't been released yet, or something. Given that nowhere is selling them

 

IGN released a 6 month retrospective of PS5 and Series a couple of days ago. That made me chuckle.

 

I mean it's been such a non-event. There are four or five games exclusive to the new platforms (and I think we have to include Astrobot to get to that number) and the consoles aren't freely available in stores.

I know this is isn't Sony's or Microsoft's or even the manufacturer's fault, but it's certainly the most uneventful and straight up forgettable start of a generation I've ever witnessed. 

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Nothing against Blakey it's partly why those KPIs in the Sony thread made me lol cause the current gen is such a non starter for so many people right now. Like I'm conscious of it also when I post a picture of high RT on a PC game, how there's just no way to get the hardware if you weren't in there at minute -5 (literally how I got my 3070, the button to buy went up too early). 


Basically the generation hasn't begun yet, even if they are showing these games off. Cause fucking nobody can get on board with it yet. Also a reason why the timed exclusivity of FFVII Intergrade annoys the fuck out of me, I have two systems that can play that (one in particular which can play it even better than the hardware it's been released on). But it's been held back from almost everyone for business reasons, a bunch of nonsense

 

 

7 minutes ago, Maryokutai said:

From the Horizon thread.

  

 

IGN released a 6 month retrospective of PS5 and Series a couple of days ago. That made me chuckle.

 

I mean it's been such a non-event. There are four or five games exclusive to the new platforms (and I think we have to include Astrobot to get to that number) and the consoles aren't freely available in stores.

I know this is isn't Sony's or Microsoft's or even the manufacturer's fault, but it's certainly the most uneventful and straight up forgettable start of a generation I've ever witnessed. 

 

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Agreed, I love my XSX and to a lesser extent the PS5 but it has to be the worst “launch window” of a new console gen ever. It’s just so dull compared to how I remember my first few months with the 360, PS3, PS4 and even Xbox 1. 
 

But in a way it’s also been a brilliant start to a new gen as it’s not immediately made all

my old purchases worthless and redundant. In fact it’s made them better for the most part with improved performance and loading. So good in that respect. 

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Yeah, I've had an XSS since Xmas (or XSSmas I'd say if it mattered) but I've played nothing of note specific to it for the last six months.  I've just been catching up on stuff I've missed through Gamepass.  

 

I did just get it to kind of future proof myself but I was expecting more ’next gen' stuff than has came.

 

But to be honest I was at the point where I was thinking technology was progressing faster than projects that tend to get big budgets need.  I just think games limited by technology are inherently bloated by uninteresting big, boring design that requires a lot of consumption.

Like, I've not played Cyberpunk, but a lot of its problems I see have been solved in other games, especially Rockstar ones.

 

It's like, maybe if I was being cynical and kinda uninformed, a lot of mediocre devs just want to brute force their way into perceived advancement.  

This has been the case for a few generations, maybe, but it's only becoming more apparent.  I think I just want the games I like with better performance.  Maybe it's because I'm old and just want things I already like but running nicer.

 

I've not seen any interesting use of new technology.  Some may say VR, but I've got no interest in that but I appreciate it being something explored.  I really don't care about ray tracing, we've already had fun uses of lighting on lesser tech, but having outside of crafted cutscenes in real time is cool.  But this isn't a big jump, or at least one that is super noticeable at a glance, which previous generational jumps were.

 

I think we're close to the peak, lads.  At least visually.

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VR is the only place where really exciting advancements are happening, but it's forever going to be this inaccessible niche of gaming I think. Speaking personally both as an adopter of the tech but also as someone who has chronic pain preventing them from using it more often (as much as I talk about VR, it actually only makes up about 2 percent of my gaming time. to put that into context). You just can't get past that aspect of the tech, even if the headsets become very low profile over time

 

But it is fundamentally different in every way in the same sense as going from 2D to 3D, imo. When I talk to people about it I try and talk less about immersion (which is an important element, though overstated) and more about the high fidelity of interaction, which I think a lot of people really don't quite get, and the emergent gameplay possibility of that. Because it feels like a lot of ppl think it is just like a Wii game with your senses deprived. Even just turning your head to look over your shoulder, or point your hand in a different direction to the center of the 'screen' can change so much on a fundamental level, whether it's a shooter or whatever.

 

I am really really excited about Playstation's investment in VR. Not because I think the Playstation headset will be particularly good, but because it means that there will be Half Life Alyx money poured into at least a couple exclusive projects. That right now is why I'm checking PS5 stock on Smyths, because other than that I already have a gaming machine that's perfectly capable. It's very far away that that stuff will come out though

 

One thing though I'm finding a bit oppressive about how modern games look is they are getting so visually dense and have so many particle effects and highlights in them that I find them harder and harder to follow. I was watching a 4K video of the Horizon stuff and as good as it look I actually find it exhausting to take in. I felt this to a limited extent with dmc5, and God of War. But Horizon takes it to an extreme level. I think RDRII is a good example of how a game can look great without overwhelming you with this extremely high contrast looking visual identity all the time. It's a very natural looking game where you don't have lots of part of the scene competing for your attention, but it feels like HDR is (imo, just my opinion dudes) having maybe a negative influence and forcing this kind of direction a bit

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You know, this just my hugely biased perspective, but I think people are just dropping off when it comes to tech.  Kids love Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite.  Maybe those older just like the MMOs and come in all kinds of niches, and others that just play what they can get on consoles.  Like, me myself the only game I've been looking forward to is Guilty Gear Strive so I have a new fighting game to play with good support.

 

Those yearning for new technological experiences are getting smaller.  Everyone was so passionate about future tech in the past but lots are just getting satisfied with what exists.  As tech gets more advanced I wonder if it's a harder sell.

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I think it's a mix of things.

 

A game doesn't need a lot of grunt to be popular. Sure the grunt comes in handy, but it's not mandatory for a lot of the current popular stuff.

 

The hardware it next to impossible to get, as well as a lot of people having barely two shillings to rub together to buy that shit. It might as well not exist for some.

 

Gaming has split, those disillusioned with AAA games and the MTX have turned their back on it to spend time with other games that don't have the shit that made them grew weary of mainstream don't need the power.

 

I think to some extent that there's no "big" games out either. We're in a zone currently where we can play prettier versions of what's running elsewhere, but there's really not the killer app like when we waited for Halo 3 or GTAIV on 360. I'm not saying there's not good games about, simply that those big titles people buy consoles for have not yet arrived, and might not arrive for quite some time because of Covid19.

 

I think we're quite far from the peak though, even visually. This is muddy waters to talk about, but I am certain that games will look better and better, but in resolution, raytracing and whatever else comes around the corner that we're not quite sure exists yet. Goalposts will always move in that regard, new visual processing comes out as well as new tech on displays that allows more fidelity. Although I do think that games can be pretty from an aesthetic view rather than pushing more and more polygons and higher. Games are art and even within the restrains they have to work in masterpieces will be created.

 

The real advancements I think will come when a system is strong enough to give us graphics that render everything at once and can keep count of everything, but voxels are very processor heavy and Joe Bloggs who plays games won't give a fuck about something like this, he just wants his Call of Duty to look as realistic as possible with acting realistic as possible. And that's the rub, we've gotten ourselves into a rut where as long as it looks nice in a still, you can get fucked on how the game reacts or plays. We could have games more games using tech like Noita or games based around the same engine that runs Teardown. Imagine a cleaned up version of your favourite shooter that had physics, AI and pathing like THIS.

 

The other big one is making the AI within these games smart. The key word being "smart". Not complicated. I've seen countless complicated ones over the last 5 years and all of them have been shit. We saw a few leaps and bounds in how AI worked in games, Halo, F.E.A.R. and Oblivion to name a few, all kicking out emergent gameplay that took us by surprise. Since then I think we've regressed back to dumber AI, mainly because I think they just assume we're going to play vs other players. As far as engaging all they do it make the bare minimum. They follow an algorithm and that's it. No being smart. No setting up traps for you nope. Just shoot harder and give you less health. This is shit, give us proper difficulty by making the enemies smarter, not by making them tankier, you lazy fuckers.

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FEAR's AI largely works due to its constrained level design, it can afford to be pretty binary at times when you're just dealing with narrow corridors and occasionally a window to jump through. Same with mgs2, id consider that a bigger factor in why the enemies in those games seemed really clever.

 

(Oblivion tho, ?)

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The advancements came from clever and inventive people getting more out of less. Some were too ambitious and often hit the ceiling of a given gen. But now the tech has progressed to such a level as this, there isn't the need or call to be as creative with it. There was a conversation earlier noting the leap in tech from Link To The Past to Wind Waker, and how that kind of leap likely won't occur again. I believe it still could, if the incentive was there.

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Taking a break from Returnal. Wasn't really feeling the last session and I know all too well how easy burn out can happen with rogue-likes. So I've switched up with Infamous: Second Son. I forgot how silly the sticky parkour is with this series. Fun so far. 

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