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One thousand percent. The different mechanics and environments and stuff were varied and often interesting (if simple), the production quality was obviously quite high…
But man, the story and characters were distractingly bad. The dialogue was super generic shitty 90s sitcom cringe, and nobody was actually likeable. Then the payoff at the end was like… what? My SO and I were like “Wait so that was the end?” Did they just like… run out of budget like the end of Monty Python’s Holy Grail, so it needed to end abruptly?
We finished it, but yikes. Overrated is right.
They get you in different ways. Maybe Dave the Diver hooks you with some fun farm and restaurant mechanics. Then you make a little garden in Valheim and that feels pretty good. You think maybe you’ll experiment with a bit of Stardew. Then next thing you know, BAM you’re mainlining Farming Simulator-- Ironically at first, and then not.
That’s immensely expensive though, and not guaranteed to work because much of that stuff is still research stage. You’re right that paring down the models to make them leaner and more specialized is the primary direction that current research is pursuing, but it’s far from certain at this point how to do it, how well it will work, and how small you can get them before they start to fall apart. Not something game studios are likely to gamble their budgets on, at least not yet.
We’re nowhere near the “just hire a guy to trim it down instead of hiring writers” stage, and it’s unclear yet whether or not that’s where we’ll end up. We could pull off “just hire a guy to fine-tune an existing foundation model,” but that doesn’t make them smaller.
What in the ChatGPT is this article? It’s like someone from LinkedinLunatics paid an aspiring content writer to write a vapid hype piece but insisted that it be about 6x too long.
Here are some highlights (although it was hard to figure out which sections were the cringiest):
This new studio represented more than just a business venture; it was the manifestation of Feng’s dream to create games that prioritized player experience over profit.
The team’s dedication to authenticity was unparalleled. They immersed themselves in Chinese mythology, reading the classical novel “Journey to the West” over 100 times. They visited countless cultural sites, drawing inspiration from ancient architecture, art, and landscapes.
The impact of Black Myth: Wukong extended far beyond sales figures. It became a cultural phenomenon, bridging the gap between Chinese mythology and global audiences. The game’s success inspired a new wave of developers to create games based on their own cultural mythologies and histories
Feng Ji: The Humble Visionary Despite the overwhelming success and adulation, Feng Ji remained characteristically humble. When asked about the game’s achievements, he responded with a touch of philosophy: "When you are at the peak of confidence, you are also staring at the valley of foolishness. This statement encapsulated Feng’s approach to game development and success. Rather than resting on his laurels, he immediately turned his attention to the future, focusing on expansion packs and maintaining the game’s quality
Jesus christ tone it down.
“Why do you have all of these screenshots of this thong witch squeezing some NPC’s head with her thighs?”
Oh uh it was for a joke post I made just as a joke. I can probably just delete them now, I just forgot.
Well I wasn’t gonna post all 82 but I just wanted to make sure I got the best by which I mean funniest angles. For the joke, you see.
If you’ve bought or built a new PC within the last eight or so years, then it’ll almost certainly have a TPM chip, but the older the hardware, the less likely it’ll be present or the right version.
That meant when Windows 11 appeared with its TPM 2.0 requirement, an enormous swathe of perfectly viable PCs were left without the chance to upgrade to the latest version of Windows
Linux people: Linux would never do you dirty like this.
Mac people: Whoa, they let you use EIGHT YEAR OLD hardware? Lucky!
Seems like a cool concept that they just didn’t execute super well.
Like having two behavioral simulations (cast simulation interacting with props you place, and audience simulation that reacts to where you place the camera’s attention) that you need to navigate sounds cool, and bound to lead to some interesting and funny emergent experiences… but it sounds like the implementation was just undercooked.
I’d probably still give it a try on sale or something but g o d d a m m i t does that Corporate Memphis art style rub me the wrong way. Lmk when the San Andreas texture mod drops though.
I think that’s the thing where if you pre-order the Collector’s Edition or whatever, you get the game 3 days earlier than everybody else, but I could be wrong. If that’s the case though… It seems like yeah why wouldn’t it count toward your refund window?
It’s hard to imagine the game changing much in that window… But maybe it matters for zero-day patches or something.
You mean they need WotC’s expertise to handle D&D 5E properly? Or to make a good game?
As far as the former… I think that the partnership was a major factor in BG3’s success, but I expect it has more to do with the D&D brand and BG nostalgia, than any virtues of the 5E system. Maybe WotC’s contributions to worldbuilding and lore helped… Larian are of course good at that in their own right, but there’s a whole Forgotten Realms canon to navigate. (I don’t actually know what WotC contributed in that regard, mind you)
In the case of the latter… The Divinity system is pretty heckin good, and in many ways a better CRPG system than any edition of D&D. Larian ARE experts at making really solid CRPGs, after all. The Divinity series is perhaps the most successful ever, maybe now behind BG3… So returning to their own IP would not be shooting themselves in the foot by any stretch, IMO. More like trading one kind of overwhelming success for a different kind of overwhelming success.
Lemmy is great in the same ways (and better in some) in principle, it’s just a scale thing that makes it more difficult to obtain that “build your own experience” effect like Reddit has. There just aren’t enough people right now to support the super idiosyncratic stream of content that you can curate with Reddit.
My advice is to just lean into it. Start with Ubuntu or Mint, queue up The Next Generation season 1 on your Jellyfin server, and keep contributing.
If you want more from the same era, give Conker’s Bad Fur Day a try. It’s got much of the same DNA (it’s also by Rare) but it’s voice acted and does significantly more to mix up the gameplay mechanics and abilities.
For that reason, it’ll be more hit-or-miss for people, and the humor might be a little crude or immature for your taste (they’re going for a kind of edgy adult vibe, which I think has its moments, but is not for everyone), but it’s really a good time, which I think still holds up, and is a good companion to Banjo Kazooie/Tooie without just being more of the same.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Let me know what you think if you try it.
This is going to get soooo much more treacherous as this becomes ubiquitous and harder to detect. Apply the same pattern, but instead of wood carvings, it’s an election, or sexual misconduct trial, or war.
Our ability to make sense of things that we don’t witness personally is already in bad shape, and it’s about to get significantly worse. We aren’t even sure how bad it is right now.
There’s more than one article about this?!
At least this one actually calls out the fact that this is a nothing story.