I would buy it if the excuse was they wanted an actor that could do voice as well as motion capture, and maybe David Hayter wasn’t cut to do both at the same time. In some promo it sounded like they wanted someone who could do both. In the age of motion capture, it’s going to be jarring to record voice lines in a booth separately. Particularly if multiple actors interact with each other in a scene.

But no. There was barely any interesting acting at all from Snake. Most of the acting was carried by the other characters, while Snake was just grunting doing nothing in particular.

I’d rather take MGS4 Snake any day.

I don’t think more expensive games is going to cause a crash. If demand decreases, then the prices will follow.

What could potentially cause a crash (among the big guys) is the massive betting on landing the next big Fortnite goldmine. Sony is investing massively on live service titles like Concord, Marathon and Fairgames. Microsoft has struggled equally. They couldn’t even get Halo right.

Nice! I had a good time with the game last year. It’s impressive how a game based on a Doom-like engine is also one of the most immersive shooters I’ve ever played. Will probably pick it up again once the second chapter has been released, but I’m looking what I’m seeing in this update.

I think no discussion about parrying is complete without mentioning Ultrakill. It strikes a good balance between being usable without being an auto win button.

In Ultrakill, besides from dealing extra damage and gaining style points, parrying enemy attacks is one of the most effective ways to regain health. Low on health? Find an attack to punch and you’re back in action.

This creates a risk reward system. Committing to a parry is risky. If you miss you lose health - and it’s easy to miss when there’s 10 other things going on at the same time. It’s not always easy to find an opening to commit to.

It also had a bug in early development where the player could also parry their own shotgun bullets if timed correctly. This was developed an intended mechanic, so Ultrakill is the game where punching your own shotgun bullet makes them go faster.

Timesplitters 2 and 3 for some older stuff. They’re spiritual successors to Goldeneye (made by mostly the same people) and they both feature fun coop campaigns. Shouldn’t be too difficult to emulate.

Personally I think the visual style looks messy. It’s an incoherent vomit of colors to my eyes. Almost like they made all assets in isolation and pray it will work out somehow. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how they did.

Is anyone excited about this game? Feels like the only thing going for it is the Bungie name recognition, but it seems like not even that is enough.

At this pace Sony will have one Concord situation per year.

I don’t think the game engine has anything to do with it. The common criticism against Helldivers 2 is that there should be more enemies, biomes, weapons, missions etc.

Adding a new enemy isn’t easy work. People think it’s just dragging a new 3D model to the map and then it’s done.

First it needs to be planned. It must be conceptually different from all other enemies so people don’t complain about that it’s just a copy paste reskin. Then it must be developed, which includes code, modeling, animation and sound design - all working in tandem.

And finally it must be tested and tweaked to ensure it mechanically works with all other systems in the game, like other enemies, weapons, missions, etc. Maybe during testing they realize it’s not as fun to play as they imagined, so they have to go back to the drawing board and iterate. Each iteration can affect code, modeling, animation and sound design. However, all involved aren’t just waiting in standby for feedback from play testing. They’re currently working with 100s of other things at the same time.

And then after a month of work they realize it’s never going to mechanically work, and they have to start from the beginning with a new idea.

Then repeat all of the above until they find something that actually works. This could easily amount to 6 months of work.

I’m not sure. Looks like these assets make up a large part of the game’s design identity. I doubt they just hand this work to some person and just go with whatever first version they produced. This kind of thing should be iterated on with feedback from relevant stakeholders.

It’s not a good look. It’s sloppy.

I’m a huge fan of Doom Eternal. It really proved what movement shooters are capable of.

Haven’t played Dark Ages yet, and I’m not super eager to play it.

I expected Dark Ages to be a middle ground of 2016 and Eternal, but it seems like they’re straying away from movement shooters with the ”stand and fight” tagline. That’s disappointing, because I feel like there’s so much more to explore with movement shooters. Just look at Ultrakill for example.

I will wait it out a bit. It still seems like a fun game. Next on my play list is Expedition 33.

I think the big problem is when companies apply for patents but never utilize them. In my ideal world, patents should quickly expire and opened to the public if they aren’t being used. Like, what’s the point of protecting your idea if you have no intention to use it anytime soon?

That could deal with the patent troll problem as well.

He went on podcasts bragging about how he’s the best player in the world.

Left joycon for movement. Right joycon for mouse.

We got a new release year trailer

It got a bit of the old Rareware vibes with the eyed rocks. Looks like a fun game!

Funny how Fortnite is among the incompatible games, and is the only game with a fix: ”A Switch 2 version is planned”

Great that they’re open about which games are incompatible, and that they seem to have made an effort to try all games on Switch.

how will Nintendo compete?

Mario Kart 9

It’s the magic word that makes any story seem more significant than it really is.

Or the EA Sports games: same game but with a different number on the box art.

How many open source projects have 2000 concurrent contributors working full time on it?

Maybe I’m nostalgic, but I think Pokémon graphics peaked with the Gold and Silver generation. They really nailed the color palette in that one.

I’m just waiting for them to release Bloodborne on PC. Everybody says it’s great, but I ain’t going to buy a PlayStation console just for one game.

PSN was down for almost a full month during the PS3 era. Imagine the impact if it would happen again.

Early access games are usually sold for cheaper. I think it’s a good deal: pay smaller price for a fun but partial game. Maybe it will turn into a good full game? The developers get feedback directly from customers. It’s a win win.

I’ve enjoyed early access games that are still in development. Most notably Ultrakill, which I regard as one of the best action games of all time. Yeah it would suck if Ultrakill would never reach its conclusion, but I’d rather have a great but unfinished game than no game at all.

He targeted gamers!

A good fit would be random background NPCs. For example, pedestrians in a GTA like game. Can potentially increase the variety in the things they can say, and maybe even talk about things the player has just done.

The flight level near the end of the game is particularly demanding. Even modern PCs struggle rendering it at a stable frame rate.

Limiting to PC only games makes things tricky. Most games on PC are available on console as well. Especially soulslike and fighting games.

But my recommendation is Ultrakill. It’s a fast paced FPS with a Devil May Cry style system. It really showcases the benefit of having a mouse and keyboard for shooters.

Edit: another is Black Mesa.

If anything, I think RTS need to go back to its roots. I’m not a huge RTS fan, and I’m not particularly nostalgic about the genre, but I have played a few games. My favorite? AoE2! It’s just a damn good game.

I love the game. Even got all the endings.

I think all the parrying is more satisfying than all the dodge rolls in Dark Souls. It makes cool noises and look more spectacular. Dodge rolls just look weird and doesn’t make sense at all (but it’s still fun to do).

And if you think the game is too easy, there’s a way to make it harder (before NG+). You can ring the Demon Bell found in Senpou Temple, which will trigger some form of ”hard mode”.

Video game graphics seem to have reached diminishing returns at this point. Games are more expensive to make, but the end consumer barely notice any visual difference.

There was a time when having the best graphics in any video game was a selling point. People argued whether X360 or PS3 could produce best graphics. Now, nobody cares.

I believe publishers already have good control over their prices. If they feel a game isn’t selling to the extent they wish, they lower the price. If it’s selling well, then they have no need to lower the price.

It’s market economy.

Probably Team Fortress 2. It was a comfort game for me when I studied university.

Haven’t played it in a great while now. Heard there’s a bad bot situation with it right now.

I can already hear Fromsoft fans say “it’s for lore reasons”, “it’s Miyazaki’s vision”, “git gud”, etc.

It’s a surprisingly good game even it’s just a clicker game based on HTML forms.

Elden Ring. Even after finishing the final boss there was so many areas I’ve not been to. And all those areas are unique - some with unique enemy types. It’s the game that dares to hide a secret area behind a secret area.

Without the Naughty Dog reveal I wouldn’t have remembered the trailer 10 seconds after it ended.

A favorite from this year is the trailer for Doom: Dark Ages. Excellent pacing. Weapons I’m waiting to get my hands on. It makes it clear how it’s going to set itself apart from the previous entries, and I’m hyped for it.

An all-time classic will forever be the first trailer for Zelda: Twilight Princess. At the time it was the right trailer for a new Zelda. People wanted a ”proper” Zelda after Wind Waker, and what they presented was just mind blowing. In the end I didn’t enjoy TP as much as I wanted, but that first trailer still gives me goose bumps. At least TP made me find a new appreciation for WW.

They targeted gamers