Random Gaming Talk

[benji]

Even the FPSes aren't that innovative. First it was all battle royales or Overwatch knock-offs with one little change. Now it's been extraction shooters. The Finals has been one of the few that focused more on the gameplay and even that studio is also doing an extraction shooter. And when you fail at these existing genres it's not like you get chances to fix it, The Cycle is already completely gone from the PvPvE space despite supposedly having a bunch of money behind it, it'll be shocking if Concord isn't another failed Overwatch clone especially when it's coming out against Marvel Rivals.

But when PUBG and The Division came out nobody even thought these were huge ideas you can build franchises off of for years. Fortnite wasn't even supposed to be the mode it is now and Epic completely junked ever doing that mode! (And Epic had that free "test bed for UE" UT to fall back on, instead they rolled all that "test bed" into Fortnite.)

There's no promise that trying new stuff will work but that's always been the case. You basically have to resist the fear that if you shoot too low you'll lose the player base before you can ramp it up to meet the actual demand. I don't think this is legitimately a problem, there's far more failures going the other way like Evolve, Anthem or whatever than more limited games that scaled up like PUBG, Warzone and Fortnite and took years to lose their player base. (If they have.)

Arguably Microsoft is sitting on a bunch of IPs that along with GamePass would suggest fertile ground for lower budget innovative tests in this space. Dust off Crackdown or MechAssault and see if you can't find a player base you can ramp up after getting, if that fails roll out Shadowrun or the long awaited Blood Wake 2.

[Nintex]

Microsoft waited so long to do anything with any of those IPs that the fan bases moved on a long time ago. 

Most publishers don't believe in this ramp up, they believe in massive hits day 1 and to secure their jobs the developers pitch bigger and more ambitious projects.
My bro says no one in the corporate world listens to you when you pitch a $5 - $20 million game because even a 10% return only nets the investors $500k - $2m. Not even enough to fund the next game.

If you pitch a $500 million game with a big name attached to it their heads turn, especially when they stand to make $50 - $300 million a year for the next 10 years, effectively doubling their investment and not having to develop anything new for the next 10 years, so they can lay off a bunch of the staff before the next game needs to be made to increase profits.

So the investors and CFO's basically tell the studio heads to consolidate their resources to work on big projects with the highest projected returns, government subsidies and tax incentives (DEI). In the mean time they use their IPs to outsource cheap remakes and remasters to low-cost East European and Asian developers.

[hide]Of course this is all turning into a nightmare of losses and lay-offs but he says a lot of "developers" are happy they can finally put their gay fantasies into Assassins Creed and HALO and get paid and cheered for it[/hide]

[D3RANG3D]

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

[benji]

[benji]

[D3RANG3D]

[Nintex]

Meta closed Ready at Dawn.

[chronovore]

Meta closed Ready at Dawn.

Awwwww, fuck.

[MMaRsu]

[MMaRsu]

And some Multiplayer footage

[Eric Cartman]

Doom just got a big update, free for existing owners (on Steam anyway)

Developed by id Software, and originally released in 1993, DOOM pioneered and popularized the first-person shooter, setting a standard for all FPS games. The critically acclaimed sequel, DOOM II, followed in 1994. Now the definitive, newly enhanced versions of DOOM + DOOM II are available as a combined product.

Owners Receive:

• DOOM¹
  
• DOOM II¹
  
• TNT: Evilution
  
• The Plutonia Experiment
  
• Master Levels for DOOM II
  
• No Rest for the Living
  
• Sigil
  
• Legacy of Rust (a new episode created in collaboration by id Software, Nightdive Studios and MachineGames)
  
• A new Deathmatch map pack featuring 26 maps
  

Altogether, there are a total of 187 mission maps and 43 deathmatch maps in DOOM + DOOM II.

New Enhancements

• Online, cross-platform deathmatch and co-op for up to 16 players²
  
• Community-published mod support with an in-game mod browser²'³
  
• Choose between the original midi DOOM and DOOM II soundtracks or the modern IDKFA versions by Andrew Hulshult (including brand-new DOOM II recordings)
  
• Improved performance with multithreaded rendering supporting up to 4K resolution⁴
  
• Now on the KEX engine
  
• BOOM source compatibility makes it possible for hundreds of community-created mods from the past 25 years to be published in-game
  
• Accessibility options, such as a modern font to improve legibility, high contrast mode, text-to-speech, speech-to-text multiplayer chat and more
  
• Translated into 8 new languages: Mexican Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese
  

Existing Enhancements

• Upgraded visuals
  
• Modern controller support
  
• Weapon carousel for faster weapon switching
  
• Improved mouse and keyboard controls
  
• Local split-screen deathmatch and co-op for up to 4 players
  
• Featured community mods²'³, including REKKR, Revolution!, Syringe, Double Impact, Arrival, and more! Expect an ever-expanding list of single player mods to be added by the community modders.
  
• 60 FPS and native 16:9 support – up to 1080p
  
• Restored original in-game music using original hardware
  
• Quick Save/Load support
  
• DeHacked mod support
  

[D3RANG3D]

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

[DavidCroquet]

Doom just got a big update, free for existing owners (on Steam anyway)

Developed by id Software, and originally released in 1993, DOOM pioneered and popularized the first-person shooter, setting a standard for all FPS games. The critically acclaimed sequel, DOOM II, followed in 1994. Now the definitive, newly enhanced versions of DOOM + DOOM II are available as a combined product.

Owners Receive:

• DOOM¹
  
• DOOM II¹
  
• TNT: Evilution
  
• The Plutonia Experiment
  
• Master Levels for DOOM II
  
• No Rest for the Living
  
• Sigil
  
• Legacy of Rust (a new episode created in collaboration by id Software, Nightdive Studios and MachineGames)
  
• A new Deathmatch map pack featuring 26 maps
  

Altogether, there are a total of 187 mission maps and 43 deathmatch maps in DOOM + DOOM II.

New Enhancements

• Online, cross-platform deathmatch and co-op for up to 16 players²
  
• Community-published mod support with an in-game mod browser²'³
  
• Choose between the original midi DOOM and DOOM II soundtracks or the modern IDKFA versions by Andrew Hulshult (including brand-new DOOM II recordings)
  
• Improved performance with multithreaded rendering supporting up to 4K resolution⁴
  
• Now on the KEX engine
  
• BOOM source compatibility makes it possible for hundreds of community-created mods from the past 25 years to be published in-game
  
• Accessibility options, such as a modern font to improve legibility, high contrast mode, text-to-speech, speech-to-text multiplayer chat and more
  
• Translated into 8 new languages: Mexican Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese
  

Existing Enhancements

• Upgraded visuals
  
• Modern controller support
  
• Weapon carousel for faster weapon switching
  
• Improved mouse and keyboard controls
  
• Local split-screen deathmatch and co-op for up to 4 players
  
• Featured community mods²'³, including REKKR, Revolution!, Syringe, Double Impact, Arrival, and more! Expect an ever-expanding list of single player mods to be added by the community modders.
  
• 60 FPS and native 16:9 support – up to 1080p
  
• Restored original in-game music using original hardware
  
• Quick Save/Load support
  
• DeHacked mod support
  

Any word on how they'll handle this on consoles (if at all)?

I must've replayed Classic Doom once on every Playstation model since 3. I'm ready for another round.

[Eric Cartman]

It seems like idethesdosoft are just tidying up and consolidating their releases, so I assume whatever marketplace is selling Doom, this is the version youll get and whether its a free upgrade for existing owners or not will be the platform owners decision

[benji]

On all the PC storefronts it's a free update for existing owners like they did with the Quakes.

[D3RANG3D]

[benji]

Anybody futz with this? https://playnite.link/

Looks like it's come quite a long way and has tons of addons now.

[D3RANG3D]

[MMaRsu]

Please Geoff. Soul Reaver Remastered

DO IT

[HardcoreRetro]

Hopefully this new Mafia game'll be good. Mafia 3 might've had pretty average gameplay, but I really liked the writing and presentation. Their Mafia remake was pretty decent as well.

[D3RANG3D]

https://www.zotac.com/us/page/zotac-gaming-zone-portable-handheld

[Nintex]

[chronovore]

They're not wrong. Valve has had some interesting moves in both hardware and getting the Steam Deck able to play Windows games with minimal effort, but the Steam controllers, Steam Index, they tanked. Meanwhile Epic is eating up the world with UE, not just in games, but with revising how film and TV production works. 

Looks like the EU has even backed Sweeney's claim that Epic should be able to run its own store on iOS, as EGS and Fortnite are available again there.

[Besticus Maximus]

Monkey game is real shit. I enjoyed Stellar Blade a lot but this is probably a level above. Don't really understand much of what has been said about this game. It's definitely not a boss rush game, it reminds me of Demons souls but with a Sekiro flavour, so the people saying it's not a souls game are equally confusing. Also I saw people saying there are no shortcuts, there are shortcuts. 

I'm even starting to learn some chinese nonsense fairy tale stuff as I go. One of the best games I've played this year already.

[Nintex]

Almost seems deliberate, step into the shoe of a real Mary Sue. 

[benji]

They're not wrong. Valve has had some interesting moves in both hardware and getting the Steam Deck able to play Windows games with minimal effort, but the Steam controllers, Steam Index, they tanked. Meanwhile Epic is eating up the world with UE, not just in games, but with revising how film and TV production works. 

Looks like the EU has even backed Sweeney's claim that Epic should be able to run its own store on iOS, as EGS and Fortnite are available again there.

Pitchford is wrong and he actually tweeted just the other day admitting he was. EGS is a pretty big failure and Steam has become so much more successful that Activision, EA and Ubisoft came back to it.

Epic's fine as they have been but that has nothing to do with EGS.

[chronovore]

Tweet link?

[benji]

Randy Pitchford
@DuvalMagic
If Epic successfully pressed its advantage, that may have been the case. But Epic did not. So, famously, Steam does very little to earn the massive cut they take and continues its effective monopoly in the West while would-be competitors with much more developer friendly models continue to shoot themselves in the foot. I am a Steam customer and Steam developer that will continue to root for and support competition. Borderlands 3 and Wonderlands demonstrated clearly that the customers show up for the games, not the store front. But the industry gives Steam their monopoly because publishers are afraid to take the risk to support more developer and publisher friendly stores. It’s all very interesting and there is a huge amount of opportunity in the PC gaming space for retail disruption, but no one seems to be able to make it happen. As a Steam Deck customer and user, my bias for personal interest and convenience is fighting against my wish for a more developer friendly alternative on Windows PC. I had high hopes for Epic - hopes that were validated in the moment of the Borderlands 3 and Wonderlands launches. But my long term hope (that appeared in a dozen’s long tweet storm I did five years ago) regarding Epic’s store were misplaced or overly optimistic. It’s a cool lesson for me and anyone who wants to learn from my experience. Moving forward, we’ll continue to support Steam (as we have for literally every PC games we’ve launched since Steam came into existence. Meanwhile, I sincerely hope Epic keeps up the fight and makes headway. Epic is going to have to prioritize the store and try some new initiatives while also doubling down on earning pivotal exclusives if it is going to have a chance. I also hope other viable competitors arrive. I am sure we will all be watching. As a developer I will continue to balance being where the customers are with being where I wished would earn the customers trust and loyalty. As a game player, I will be on all the platforms.

[MMaRsu]

Yap yap yap what a moron

Steam isnt a monopoly

Steam doesnt do 'very little'

Fucking assclown

[HardcoreRetro]

What's with these Star Wars Outlaws reviews? How is it at a 77 average. When you actually read the reviews it sounds like a total piece of dogcrap.