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The Hot Topic Returns


Nag

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I've not watched them a lot recently for a few reasons. Largely they've not been putting out stuff that I'm interested in, but then there's not exactly been a ton of worthwhile games out recently that suit the Digital Foundry treatment. They did a video not that long ago comparing the Luigi's Mansion 2 remake to the 3ds version, that seems pointless to me. Same when the pour over game reveals and trailers. 

 

I suspect I'd care more about their Pro coverage if I was getting one, but I'm not playing through Ratchet and Clank again, as good as it was, so I'm just more interested in the bigger picture of how much more powerful the machine is. 

 

Some of their opinions annoy me on the podcast too. Their standards are obviously different to mine. Alex and Oliver I really like, Oliver especially just seems like a very chilled guy. Jon and Rich share a lot of gaming history/retro tastes with me, so it's not that I don't like them or anything, genuinely more a disagreement made worse that they can be talking for ages on a subject to fill a podcast 

 

They definitely do get a little too into the minucia, they've said it themselves. I don't have a problem with that, they're just pointing out things they've seen, but they probably do need to be better at flagging that they're talking about stuff that doesn't matter. Not that frame rate drops don't, but if it's for a total of 30 seconds of their entire play through it really doesn't matter and shouldn't impact which version people get 

 

That said, particularly with pc, if they flag something as performing badly then I will listen. I wouldn't listen to them as to whether a game is good, especially Jon 😅, but they're definitely useful 

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Yeah, I watch their stuff, too. Their normal videos rather irregularly, but I do listen to their podcast every week and only skip sections about video cards and such which I have no interest in. I think Alex can be a bit anal about this whole 'shader stutter' or whatever it is. I can see why he does it because it's an engine issue from what I understand and pointing it out as a big outlet might make Epic look into it, but from my perspective it's just super nitpicky. 

 

And while their tech-focus rarely aligns with what I look for in games, I do appreciate the general tone and demeanour they bring to the table. There's no console war nonsense, they don't put out unfounded rumours into the world, it's the polar opposite of attention-grabbing algorhitm fodder and that's rather nice.

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I dunno if console players realise how annoying the stutter stuff is on PC. It's not like a frame drop or hitch on console, it can look like this (timestamped), like how a disc might skip or something like that. It's very immersion shattering, especially as it specifically ruins the first playthrough of a game when it's compiling the shaders

 

That said, I can't say it's been a problem for me in recent titles I've played, as devs have gotten way better at having precompile phases. Which partly comes from DF giving out about it the whole time

 

 

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14 minutes ago, DANGERMAN said:

I wouldn't listen to them as to whether a game is good, especially Jon 😅, but they're definitely useful 


Yes, this is a good point I only watch their stuff purely for the tech breakdown. 
 

Jon in particular thinks he’s gods gift to gaming but he’s taste is rubbish, he not good unscripted on a microphone and he’s reviews when it comes to the gameplay is generally very poor 

 

He obviously knows he’s shit when it comes to tech, but anything outside of that I don’t really listen too

 

My favourites on there are Rich and Oliver. Like @Maryokutai was saying they’re really good at just giving very straight forward, calm and measured answers and breakdowns. 

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I'm sort of surprised at the frustrations with Jon.  He's my favourite of the group mostly because the DF Retro documentary style videos that he makes are easily my favourite (in fact I was thinking there hasn't been one for a while but I missed one about Sunsoft a few months ago so that's my evening set.  Glad I checked).  He's a bit "likes everything" I suppose but I don't think he's annoying about it.  He's got a perspective that incorporates the actual game as a whole where tech is an important part but not everything where as the others are a bit less forthcoming about the games outside the tech.

 

But yes I watch them, not as frequently lately because I just haven't been interested in much at the moment but like everyone else I've learned a lot about what's going on under the bonnet and, I dunno, I just like knowing and understanding a bit about how games work.

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41 minutes ago, HandsomeDead said:

I'm sort of surprised at the frustrations with Jon.  He's my favourite of the group mostly because the DF Retro documentary style videos that he makes are easily my favourite (in fact I was thinking there hasn't been one for a while but I missed one about Sunsoft a few months ago so that's my evening set.  Glad I checked).  He's a bit "likes everything" I suppose but I don't think he's annoying about it.  He's got a perspective that incorporates the actual game as a whole where tech is an important part but not everything where as the others are a bit less forthcoming about the games outside the tech.

 

But yes I watch them, not as frequently lately because I just haven't been interested in much at the moment but like everyone else I've learned a lot about what's going on under the bonnet and, I dunno, I just like knowing and understanding a bit about how games work.

I don't dislike Jon (I should really Google if it's Jon or John), his retro stuff is really good. His modern tastes don't really align with mine. I also think his standards on monitors etc are kind of ridiculous. I get the impression he's paid well and can afford not to have a budget as such. If I'm buying a TV I'm essentially looking at if it's a good one for less than £400

 

Edit to say, that's his job. I'm not complaining about that, just that it feeds in to him going overboard on criticism sometimes 

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Same here regarding John, his tastes mostly align with mine (he's the only one dropping names like Star Ocean or Ys in a discussion) and he's not as tech-focused as the other guys. Though I also agree that his obsession with good displays is a bit on the mental side. Dude would probably drop dead if he took a look at my 1080p LCD from 2015.

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One other thing about stutter, and this is a bit of a late bump cause Stalker 2 made me think of it, but stutter feels far far worse on mouse than it does on controller. I think controller gaming kinda masks it a bit, while if you think about moving a mouse around on a PC, any kinda 'hitch' or general junkiness is much more jarring. You're moving a cursor around much more quickly and precisely, or trying to anyway.

 

I'm playing Half Life 1 and Stalker 2 currently and they are sort of on opposite ends of the spectrum as far as this is concerned.

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resize.webp

 

Quote

Nag says "You have enough money to get a single game from the PS1 generation remade... what do you go for? Would it be a from the ground up remake or just shiney newer graphics?"

 

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Vagrant Story was already called out. So I would add Alundra or Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. Sony really shot themselves in the foot with how they treated their very own Zelda. Meanwhile, the first in the LoK series could definitely benefit from a revamp (pun intended).

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I think Parasite Eve actually does have a weird legal reason preventing this, but that might also just be one of those weird internet rumours. But I think it was why the third game was called Third Birthday and not Parasite Eve 3.

 

I think it would be an interesting candidate for a remake cause it sort of started out as FFVII if it took place in Midgar, but before it was Midgar they were supposedly going to set FFVII in New York which sounds crazy. But allegedly that got turned into Parasite Eve instead, or the two concepts crossed up at some point (they talk about that here: https://www.polygon.com/a/final-fantasy-7)

 

But cause of that it makes sense cause they already did a Midgar-centric remake so the scope of PE would fit this.

 

Really though I don't actually care if they remake Parasite Eve, I think a modern version would probably be worse than the old version. I don't see Square making a big budget horror RPG like that, they'd probably change the style of it way too much to give it broader appeal with a lower age rating

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Panzer Dragoon Saga without question. It could look amazing. 

 

I'm not really pushing for more remakes, and I enjoy it as it is, but I wouldn't say no to some reimagining type thing for original gothy Quake. I'm not sure if they could afford Trent to do the soundtrack again, or if he still has that kind of sound in him, but it could be very cool 

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My ignorance shows itself here because I’ve played about 6 PS1 games and they either still get sequels or remakes anyway. 
 

PS1 generation? Does the Gameboy and Pokemon count? Because that’s the one game I think I could play forever and ever as it’s already had (technically) 4 remakes and I’m down for a 5th, baby, give me that Pokemon Red on UE5 I want Charizard’s tail to cast shadows 

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