Fenixp

If Steam disappeared overnight, people would be hurt and upset for a few months - and then a different digital distribution platform would become dominant (I'd say Origin, but I'd not be surprised if Humble Store rose to prominence due to their acceptance of DRM, provided they'd manage to create a client quickly enough.) It's also worth noting that when Steam did become dominant, digital distribution was already on the rise - Valve just had the leverage they needed to become the dominant platform. It's not like distribution would not get revolutionized without Valve considering similar services already existed before Steam, the trend was already set at the time. Pretending that Valve is some sort of savior without whom PC gaming would die off is ignoring an entire market that was already growing at the time.

I do prefer GOG to Steam quite a bit. Steam's monopoly which allows Valve to do pretty much anything they want without any fear of repercussions does rub me the wrong way quite a bit - no need to curate games, community will do it. Why hire professional translators, community will translate the client for free! Why bother with a proper tagging system, community will gladly tag for us. And I'm not even talking about the whole gambling thing that Valve kinda just shrugged at and went "Yea, we get massive profit margins from this and have created infrastructure allowing for such use, but we ain't seen nothing" while they just sit with a thumb up their ass when it comes to all non-cutting edge features... Eeeeeh. Yeah. Basically, when I can choose between Steam and any other platform, I choose that other platform. Naturally, Steam's monopoly has lead to a rather unhealthy state on the market where not having a game on Steam essentially means death for a developer, effectively rendering Steam = PC platform. That said, I find Origin's Access feature really cool, allowing me to access a whole array of games at once. I find GOG's curated approach rather fresh and their store is still just fun to browse. Then there's uPlay which... Yeah. And yes, I'm all-digital at this point.

Remember that Prey isn't trying to be a horror game, just survival. And yes, the combat got on my nerves too. It's a lot better on my second playthrough when I started properly using environmental hazards, but that took getting used to.

Clunky third person shooter woman instead of clunky third person shooter man?

Not a problem per se, just... Extremely cumbersome

I'm sorry but that's just complete bollocks. Both Outlast and Amnesia were relatively linear games that presented player with a traditional sequence of levels to play through - Amnesia allowed you to choose which locations you'd like to tackle first, yes, but then pushed you on to the next level regardless. The only thing it has in common with Resi 7 is that there are puzzles and some degree of resource hunting in both - yet Outlast didn't really even have either of that, it being a game completely revolving around stealth play. Resident Evil 7, on the other hand, had two hub areas (one major, one minor) that were progressively unlocked using puzzles, keys and collectibles, with a whole bunch of exploration rewards and optional puzzles to tackle. Additionally, 'gives you the ability to fight back' is a pretty damn big deal, especially since large part of the game has you fighting or running, not really hiding - in other words, it works like Resident Evil 1 did back in the day with change of perspective and addition of some parts of modern horror games to spice things up as opposed to replacing the core design. There's a reason stealth mechanics are so rudimentary in Resi 7 - they're not really necessary most of the time. Calling the game 'Outlast clone' is missing forest for the trees - yes, it has the same perspective and both are horror games focused on immersion, but the underlying mechanics are just completely different. ... You're right, Ethan should have driven a Tesla with autopilot engaged to differenciate from Outlast. Newsflash: Driving car always looks the same :-P Altbeit I'll grant you that car drive itself could have been inspired by Outlast. I think we'll eventually get all the way back to Half-Life with non-interactive but controllable intro sequences. Incidentally, the playable intro was ripped from Silent Hills that got hyped and never delivered on. Silent hills did definitely get inspired by the modern brand of horror games where you can't defend yourself, yes. Suuure. I feel it's such a shame no other horror game aside from Outlast and Resident Evil 7 that copied it had VR support. Because obviously, if Outlast didn't have VR support, nobody would ever think of using the game to sell the new Sony's tech. Can I borrow your mind reading pants too? I'd like to point out that there's been an evolution of the media that lead all the way to Amnesia and that it most certainly did not exist in a vacuum. Sentences like "We'd never have Y if it weren't for X!" are rarely correct.

Have you even played the new Resident Evil? And Outlast, incidentally? If anything, Resi 7 takes inspiration from Haunting Grounds - and by that I do only mean inspiration since the game's structure is almost identical with the original Resident Evil, just... Well, easier. Even the whole aspect of sneaking around and avoiding the family takes up like a grand total of like 15% of the game's playtime, the rest of it you solve puzzles, shoot monsters with various weaponry, scavenge for supplies and murderize bosses.

Tentacles! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0URLGsf1e0

I just hacked Ubisoft San Francisco branch to leak a game trailer in Watch_Dogs 2. I love this game. Incidentally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBNzrCh3Jn0 Yes, that's before Osiris was confirmed.

He does have a point, when your game is so optimized that you only have to render 4 pixels of environment that aren't covered by HUD, oversized weapon, black borders of 5 degrees FOV, it'll run on pretty much anything (Edit: It's also rendered in cinematic 24 frames per second, naturally)

Mentioning 2000 of all years... Soul Reaver for Dreamcast was released in 2000 (3 months after the PC release, actually) These are 2003 PC releases: Aftermath of introduction of 3D acceleration is just one example of a time when computers have benefited greatly from ability for gradual upgrades.

You've not been playing games for very long, have you? :-P The way I remember it, people were primarily blaming Ubisoft for bull****ting them, and many graphical options were unlocked via fairly simple modding within days in Watch_Dogs. Naturally, only high end PCs could run the game with those enabled at the time. Bloodborne performing well on PS4? Well that's a nice fairy tale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBAugV34Xwo Might have been improved in patches, but FROM software has always had performance issues with their games, on all platforms. Incidentally, even running stable 30 isn't what I'd call 'Performs good' any day. Dishonored 2'll run just fine @ 30 frames per second on fairly weak PC hardware.

Which is on of the reasons why I think Age of Empires 2 aged a lot better than the original and so the original needs a remaster quite a bit more.

Incidentally, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. If you ask me, the one game in AoE series which needed a remaster wasn't the second game, but the first one - and finally we are getting one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyPlECHiXcM As long as Xbone support doesn't screw around with UI or control scheme, I'm in.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is... Well... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AySXu8x-RnA I said it with Mass Effect: Andromeda so I'll say it here too: We just don't have enough games like that at the best of times. Then again, ME: A turned out to be not ... Great.

New Wolfenstein game, new Metro and Dishonored content. These are all things to look forward to.

Why does the teaser concern itself with shooting which was my least favorite part of the game is beyond me, but a proper sequel to Sleeping Dogs is great news regardless.

I never played the original so it's quite hard to say for me, really. I find Watch_Dogs 2 to be a nice break from usual GTA-like games that tend to be either super serious or completely ridiculous - W_D 2 is rather lighthearted, kind of a 'Adventure of the dude that changed the world' thing. Which is where the game gets into a real clash with its use of firearms - luckily I have not killed anyone so far and you do come equipped with a taser by default. The game also sports fully functional stealth mechanics and two remote drones you can sometimes even use to finish missions without ever entering areas yourself, which is neat. So yeah, if you don't mind the clash, just murder away, if you do, there's (usually) ways to avoid that - the game doesn't really care either way. You also never miss a chance to point that out any time Steam is mentioned in even remotely negative light, of course :-P

Uuu, play Watch_Dogs 2. I've not noticed any propaganda, but I'm sure it's full of it or ... Something. But it has a quest where you hack ATMs and decide what do with money of people who are waiting to withdraw. It also has absolutely amazing digitized version of San Francisco, which is fun. Including Karl. Oh and it does actually carry a propaganda of "Don't give up control of your lives in exchange for convenience." Y'know it's kinda funny that this particular game is distributed via Steam and Uplay.

What are you talking about, the camera very clearly isn't designed to handle first person view. You'll always get the slight fish-eye effect when you just move 3rd person camera to 1st person without adjustments. As it is, a lot of people would vomit slightly :-P

Well yeah, I don't mind -a- post, but Terminator somehow manages to regularly create over a half a screen long posts about GPU comparisons, which ... Is getting a bit irritating. It's fine tho, ignore functionality exists for a reason, I just kinda prefer not to use it. And that's the last post I make on that (to ensure that it actually is :-P)

Terminator, would you be as kind as to move the constant hardware remarks somewhere else, please? I mean, of others won't mind. Thank you. I for one am playing Watch_Dogs 2 right now. The ATM string of missions was fantastic - the whole game is really good fun. Now that story is great.

Prey's ending is going to be divisive, no question about that - nonetheless, it makes perfect narrative sense and has been alluded to repeatedly throughout the game. Including the game hammering in the information of why is it a big deal and what makes your individual actions worthwhile. I don't really want to say a lot more, but all in all, it's difficult for me to imagine a more elegant way of completely tying the story up (seriously, if Bethesda pushes for a sequel continuing the same storyline, meaning of the ending would be lost entirely)

I'm pretty sure that's the first DRM-free release of New Vegas, isn't it? ... And Fallout 3 presumably.