Videogames Thread: Steaming Ahead

[Ran]

Huh. Star Citizen: Squadron 42 is allegedly feature-complete, which in theory means they are now just polishing and optimizing it rather than dealing with adding the ever-growing list of features that Star Citizen has. Some light in the darkness? It's the only thing I cared about when I joined the kickstarter lo! these many years go. They released a snazzy video featuring Gillian Anderson's in-game performance and some others:

 

[Werthead]

12 years, $600 million. It does look pretty good and it's good to see how much development there's been of the FPS sequences (you can drive boats and do physics puzzles!). I'm still not convinced by how many people want massive FPS sequences and physics puzzles in their space combat sim, but it's genuinely impressive.

Of course, the trailer does confirm that for all of that money, they spent very, very little on the writing. Jesus Christ.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

I only ever wanted to try their single player game, I hate MMOs, so this would be perfect for me (if it turns out good) I’m guessing another 1-2 years for the final release ? The all star cast lineup looks insane!

Edited October 23, 2023 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

26 minutes ago, Werthead said:

12 years, $600 million. It does look pretty good and it's good to see how much development there's been of the FPS sequences (you can drive boats and do physics puzzles!). I'm still not convinced by how many people want massive FPS sequences and physics puzzles in their space combat sim, but it's genuinely impressive.

Of course, the trailer does confirm that for all of that money, they spent very, very little on the writing. Jesus Christ.

How do you burn all that money and still not release a game ? Just boggles the mind.

[Caligula_K3]

15 hours ago, IlyaP said:

MEA has constant loading screens? I've done over a hundred hours of that glorious game and the game pretty much loaded with no real issue for me quite quickly 95% of the time. There was the occasional shader loading issue on one planet (Kadara, I think), but aside from that it was fine! 

It did on my laptop when I played it back in 2017! To get from one planet to another, you usually had to go back to the Normandy, fly it into space, set a course for a new solar system, and then land on a planet (from what I remember). Now, I'm sure the problem was partially my laptop, but each of those was a long loading screen and it was a real pain when you had quests that made you go from one planet to another and then back.

Quote

I've been enjoying Starfield overall and agree with others its more about the variety of options even if if the fast travel does break up the immersion a bit.  I have had a few laughs how the romance scenarios have played out with my paramour generally deciding to flirt at the worst time.  I finally got a prompt to get married after killing off 3 waves of Spacers, wading through sprayed blood and corpses only to be told I am the truest of loves... Oh and by the way, what are the ethics involved in using the precog power when going through the romance dialogues? 

@horangi That's pretty funny. I haven't been able to have a romance yet because it seems that my companions don't approve of decisions like me betraying the military to be a pirate or that time I decided to become a meth-cook. So judgmental...

[Ran]

1 hour ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

How do you burn all that money and still not release a game ? Just boggles the mind.

I mean, the Star Citizen alphas are essentially playable, just buggy, sometimes more so and sometimes less so depending on releases. But the reason why it never seems to be done is simply the mother of all feature creeps, and it seems for a very long time Squadron 42 was hostage to feature parity with Star Citizen. They seem to have decided that they're done with that (at last).

I mean, the footage with the big name actors is from 2015-2016 and has just been sitting there waiting for them to decide that they were finally ready to finish it.

A couple more years wouldn't surprise me. It does look pretty amazing, visually, and I love the immersion of the cockpits. The FPS combat even looked pretty decent. There's a lot of immersive RP stuff that they've done that I don't personally care about, but whatever.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Ran

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

13 minutes ago, Ran said:

 

I mean, the footage with the big name actors is from 2015-2016 and has just been sitting there waiting for them to decide that they were finally ready to finish it.

 

Oh that’s surprising, because graphically it looks pretty good for something made almost 10 years ago…definitely better then star field, especially in the animation department. 

[Ran]

Yeah, regardless of what can say about how long it has taken, it's clear most of the money really did go into development and keeping it fresh in terms of graphics.

[polishgenius]

It feels like basically they're determined to release some game that is mindblowingly ahead of the curve, but the curve keeps moving up, so every time a No Man's Sky (eventually) or Starfield or whatever releases and potentially moves the game forward with regards to space games of one sort or another, the Star Citizen devs go 'oh no!!!' and add more stuff or redevelop the graphics or whatever.

[Caligula_K3]

17 hours ago, polishgenius said:

A good way into Wonder now. It's got a lot of chat that it's the best 2D Mario since World. That's possibly true (I can't say for sure because I haven't played all of them) but what I would say is that it'll probably need time to say for sure because in a lot of ways it's a different sort of game, aiming at different things. 

Essentially World (which I've never played in its entirety and should fix that) is replayable and ages great because it's very much about gameplay, level design and skill. Wonder isn't a walkover in the same way some Nintendo games of more recent times have been, and things don't have to be tough to be replayable-  but I think it is fair to say that a lot of the joy of the initial playthrough comes from the fact that many of the levels are, in part, comedy routines built out of Mario/platformer tropes and mechanics, and it remains to be seen if it holds up as well once you know the punchline.

 

I'm not saying it won't. As a first play it's magnificent and obviously plenty of comedy routines hold up great even on repeat watches, so I'm hoping that's the case here. 

I think this is what I worry about too. I haven't bought it yet (because Starfield), but I'm sure I will at some point. Streams I've watched have made the game seem really fun and funny to experience, but there has been next to no platforming challenge. I was watching early levels, but still - without some challenge even in the early levels, I'm not sure I could replay Super Mario World every couple of years.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

 

Fallout — a live-action adaptation of Bethesda’s popular RPG video game franchise — will premiere on April 12th, 2024, exclusively via Prime Video.

The announcement was made on October 23rd, otherwise known to Fallout fans as “Fallout Day” — the in-game date that marks the beginning of the Great War that turns the world into an irradiated nuclear wasteland.

Bethesda’s executive producer and game director Todd Howard is an executive producer on the series, which stars Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets), Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight), Aaron Moten (Emancipation), Moisés Arias (The King of Staten Island), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), and Sarita Choudhury (Homeland).

Amazon said in a press release that the show will be an original story set in a future, post-apocalyptic version of Los Angeles and will be considered a canonical addition to the existing game franchise. 

Edited October 23, 2023 by AncalagonTheBlack

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

It feels like basically they're determined to release some game that is mindblowingly ahead of the curve, but the curve keeps moving up, so every time a No Man's Sky (eventually) or Starfield or whatever releases and potentially moves the game forward with regards to space games of one sort or another, the Star Citizen devs go 'oh no!!!' and add more stuff or redevelop the graphics or whatever.

At least part of me wonders if the decision to move into the completion phase came form seeing the Starfield discourse and realising they were really ahead of the game there (at least in tech terms).

[Fez]

2 hours ago, Caligula_K3 said:

I think this is what I worry about too. I haven't bought it yet (because Starfield), but I'm sure I will at some point. Streams I've watched have made the game seem really fun and funny to experience, but there has been next to no platforming challenge. I was watching early levels, but still - without some challenge even in the early levels, I'm not sure I could replay Super Mario World every couple of years.

There is no challenge (so far) in completing the levels or in getting all the bonus wonder seeds. But I think there is a bit of challenge, in some levels, for anyone trying to 100% the game. Some of the levels so far have had some decently hard to get 10-purple coins; albeit usually because they're hidden in some way rather than being mechanically challenging to reach. And there's one level in W1 with p-switches and blue coins that I haven't been able to get all the blue coins yet and so have no idea what the secret there is, but it's been tough (and is the only level I've seen so far with blue coins).

[Heartofice]

One more thing about Total War. Volund a total war YouTuber who has been very critical of CA has got a video with testimony from numerous CA employees past and present that highlights the issues as the company.

One comment that stood out to me “Total War doesn’t have tech debt.. it IS tech debt!”

Basically the whole engine is just a branch of a branch and incredibly brittle and hard to work with. Something I think most people guessed. 
 

Also lots of criticism of the brand and marketing teams who basically run the show and decide what gets made. 
 

Makes me very sad and feel like I might be done with the franchise. LegendofTotalWar has basically left the partnership program and everyone is disgruntled. 
 

 

[Kalbear]

Here's a dirty secret about gaming - ALL things are basically that brittle. None of it is made to be extensible or easy to work with or any of that. It's all rough and last-minute kluges and building the airplane while it's flying. 

[Ran]

More from CitizenCon, a very long, rather cool tech demo of their engine that shows a lot of long, seamless movements. And if you recognize the homage at the very start, you are an oldhead like me!

 

[Corvinus85]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

One more thing about Total War. Volund a total war YouTuber who has been very critical of CA has got a video with testimony from numerous CA employees past and present that highlights the issues as the company.

One comment that stood out to me “Total War doesn’t have tech debt.. it IS tech debt!”

Basically the whole engine is just a branch of a branch and incredibly brittle and hard to work with. Something I think most people guessed. 
 

Also lots of criticism of the brand and marketing teams who basically run the show and decide what gets made. 
 

Makes me very sad and feel like I might be done with the franchise. LegendofTotalWar has basically left the partnership program and everyone is disgruntled. 
 

 

I've never cared for Volund because he's had a raging hardon for hating Total War for a long, long time and he's an asshat as evident even in this video. That being said, I won't dismiss this video entirely. Most points are valid.

However, the comment about the brand team being the ones who make decisions is true for virtually any industry. Might as well destroy modern capitalism while we're at it. But the comment about the devs not getting good bonuses is valid and is a sign of a toxic company.

[horangi]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

More from CitizenCon, a very long, rather cool tech demo of their engine that shows a lot of long, seamless movements. And if you recognize the homage at the very start, you are an oldhead like me!

Quite impressive looking.  I like that they didn't edit out the glitches (or at least not all of them) such as the people walking through the raging fire or janky physics.  The age old question is, will the real game be able to pull it off like that and how generic does the procedural generation end up being.  NMS in all of its innovation still gets to be pretty repetitive once you've seen the same monolith over and over.  Similarly, I'm only on level 20 in Starfield but have already cleared out like 4 abandoned UC Comms stations with identical layouts. 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Sooo 3 more years for Squadron 42 right ?Since Chris Roberts is the GRRM of the gaming industry.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Ran]

8 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Sooo 3 more years for Squadron 42 right ?Since Chris Roberts is the GRRM of the gaming industry.

I gave up guessing on when they would be done a long time ago. But yeah, at least a couple of years. There's a lot of systems and moving parts that will need polish and optimization.