Random video game news... Games are Randomly News Worthy

[Keyrock]

1 hour ago, Hawke64 said:

Granted, on GOG, Bethesda cannot mess up your games anymore.

Not for lack of trying.

[MrBrown]

On 4/19/2024 at 8:33 PM, Keyrock said:

What makes this game significant, besides the fact that it's a follow up to a generally well liked game, is that AFAIK it's the first of the Unity Exodus games, at least of note. What I mean by Unity Exodus is games that were originally going to use Unity but switched engines because of the whole debacle where they were going to retroactively start charging developers (more) money where they hadn't before. I believe the ***holes that made that call at Unity wound up walking it back, but not before the engine's reputation had been thoroughly dragged through the mud. Plus, if they tried that once what's to stop them from trying that again? Anyway, the devs of Slay the Spire 2 wound up switching to the free and open source Godot engine despite the fact that the game was already in active development using Unity and they stuck to that even when Unity walked back their policy change. I'll be curious to see a high-ish profile game using Godot hit the market and how it performs. Could Godot become effectively the replacement for Unity for indie devs?

I assume the delay from that is the reason they felt like they needed to announce a beta 1 year in advance.

[uuuhhii]

On 4/20/2024 at 2:08 PM, Keyrock said:

Not for lack of trying.

 

still remember one of the skyrim patch make dragoon fly backward for some player

that was funny

now it is just sad

[Raithe]

https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-announces-its-intention-to-transform-into-three-standalone-publicly-listed-entities-at-nasdaq-stockholm/

 

[LadyCrimson]

7 Days to Die is going to leave Early Access this summer after 10 years. Version 1.0! ... and coming to console again! With a higher pricetag ($45)! But they still have a roadmap. And haven't put in those promised bandits yet. Or other stuff like weather and (PC) optimizations. Coming in updates thru and to maybe late 2025. Maybe with some costume DLC.

So basically, it's a "gold" Alpha 1.0 release so it can be labeled as a not-early access release to console. I still personally like the game as a goof-around time, but, all I gotta say is: "Bwahahahahaaaaaa!"

Edited April 23 by LadyCrimson

[Wormerine]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/whatever-the-fallout-tv-show-does-with-new-vegas-lore-josh-sawyer-doesnt-care-it-was-never-mine

bla bla bla, Fallout, bla bla bla

No new info regarding PoE2 production, but quite a bit of flavour from JS point of view:

Recently, Sawyer tweeted that

burnout had replaced crunch as the primary hazard of the game industry. “Even though some studios have very strict no-crunch policies, people are still being asked to do either impossible things, or things that they don’t really believe are for the good of the project,” he says. “And you eventually just start to tune out and feel very demoralised.” Burned out developers not only feel awful, Sawyer says, but do bad work and make irrational decisions. He speaks from personal experience.

“With Pillars Of Eternity II, we were in a position where we knew that we did not have enough time, nine months before we hit that wall,” Sawyer says. “We raised concerns to management, and the options were either to invest more time in it, or to cut scope and staff. And they didn’t want to do that.”

The problems were compounded when Sawyer was blocked from cutting a major feature - and when, midway through development, Obsidian committed to voicing every character in the game. “It was that feeling of accelerating towards a brick wall,” Sawyer says. “We knew that it was happening, and the closer we got to it, the more stressful it became. I and a lot of other people on the team became really harsh, and were snapping at people. I didn’t really recognise myself at a certain point because I had very little tolerance for time being wasted and questions and things like that. I was pushing people in a way I had never done on a game before.”

Eventually, Sawyer went home and sent a letter to Obsidian’s owners - to say that he wouldn’t return to work until the schedule was extended. “Every day I come in, I leave feeling worse than before,” he wrote. “I feel like I’m making the game worse every day. I just can’t do it.” The studio owners relented, and when Pillars Of Eternity II released, it reviewed well. “But it didn’t sell well, and that was very demoralising,” Sawyer says. “I was like, ‘Damn, I was this huge, awful **** to this team’. And it felt like a big waste.” It took him a year afterwards to recover.

[xzar_monty]

Interesting that from what I've read, "voicing every character in the game" appears to be either a feature that doesn't particularly impress players or seems like a downright mistake (for me, it's a mistake, because it seems obvious that it constrained the writing too much and too early), and the fact that "Sawyer was blocked from cutting a major feature" (assuming it's naval combat, which I'm pretty sure it was) looks like a big mistake to an awful lot of players (in my view, all time spent on this feature was time wasted).

So, "Obsidian", whoever that happens to mean exactly, seems to have made two big mistakes or at least two choices that made very little positive difference in the game, and Sawyer knew it and just had to soldier on with it.

[Wormerine]

4 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Interesting that from what I've read, "voicing every character in the game" appears to be either a feature that doesn't particularly impress players or seems like a downright mistake (for me, it's a mistake, because it seems obvious that it constrained the writing too much and too early), and the fact that "Sawyer was blocked from cutting a major feature" (assuming it's naval combat, which I'm pretty sure it was) looks like a big mistake to an awful lot of players (in my view, all time spent on this feature was time wasted).

I don't think that's true. Full VO seems like a rather coveted feature - no doubt you will find a lot of support on this forum (including myself, as I don't require full VO or VO at all to enjoy a game) but you will cut your self from a potential player base. There is also no evidence of "VO limits writing". Yes, Bioware games became smaller and smaller in scope as they wramped up production value, but there are also enough examples to the contrary. It seems that if one can afford it, full VO seems like a rather valuable feature to have - both for audience and marketing (aka. streamers)

From what I remember (Josh mentioned decision to full VO in his Post Mortem) full VO was mostly a scheduling nightmare - as they didn't plan for full VO, having to fit recording sessions took a toll on the devs - it is not as simple as sending a script to a third party and having it recorded.

Yeah, I also thing the "feature" he mentions was the Ship Combat.

[Mamoulian War]

Unfortunately, most of the time, you do not have the luxury to have both full VO and enough time for all the desired gameplay features. Unless you plan to burn 50M budget on yoir game. So I am considering it as a waste of limited resources in most of the games I’ve played.

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Mamoulian War said:

Unfortunately, most of the time, you do not have the luxury to have both full VO and enough time for all the desired gameplay features. Unless you plan to burn 50M budget on yoir game. So I am considering it as a waste of limited resources in most of the games I’ve played.

This is how I used to think as well, but I am not sure how true that is. Your logic assumes that if a game doesn't get VO, than it can invest more money into other features. I just don't think it works that way. I suspect it is more reasonable to assume that if a game won't get budget for a major or full VO, it will also be underbudgeted in other aspects as well. I can think of two instances of when RPGs got full VO post release - so I think it might be better to think of VO an extra accessibility/mass market appeal feature. I think it is less of a case make great RPG or full VO RPG, and more of creating a great RPG and spending extra money to expand your potential audience. It really comes down to how many sales one could loose without including full VO, and that's something I can only speculate about.

Unfortunately, it seems that higher ups at Obsidian decided to have the cake and eat it too - spend money on full VO, but still skimp by not accomodating production schedule putting a lot of extra burden of devs. Perhaps it had an impact on the final game's quality, but even if not it seemed to come at a cost of devs wellbeing and morale. Why not take a cue from D:OS and DIsco Elysium and wait with VO post launch, if you can't fit/afford it for 1.0?

Edited April 25 by Wormerine

[Zoraptor]

I'd be pretty confident that if PoE2 didn't have full VO at launch it would not have got it later since it was not an immediate financial success unlike DOS and Elysium. Doesn't bother me personally either way.

I'd suspect the full voiceover was more an issue for JES and than the devs in general since it would have been a lot of extra supervision*. End of the day most of the dev work for dialogue had to be done anyway- dialogue scripting, any triggers or other scripting, branching and dependencies all have to be done whether voiced or not. So in theory it would 'just' be adding the triggers for the sound files with appropriate timings. Easy for me to say of course when it's not me doing the extra work...

*even something as 'simple' as making sure the polynesian type names would be pronounced correctly and consistently. My experiences with tourist pronounciations here is that they can be creative, even with a guide. Asking the way to Ka-ee-tah-ee-uh took a little while to process despite all the sounds being correct (Kaitaia, a town in Northland). Not the sort of thing you'd want to be dealing with with it being extra work you didn't think was necessary and when already rushed.

Edited April 25 by Zoraptor

[Mamoulian War]

2 hours ago, Wormerine said:

. I suspect it is more reasonable to assume that if a game won't get budget for a major or full VO, it will also be underbudgeted in other aspects as well.

Well, this depends on what it really means to be underbudgeted. IMHO PoE2 could fit into the definition of underbudgeted, or to have a more fresh example, look on Steam for Vivat Slovakia game. It has full VO, despite being absolutely unoptimised mess, despite it having a big potential for our domestic audience. after 5 years in development it hit Early Access now. Therefore for me, full VO in indie/AA games seems more like a type of mismanagement, as I do not see much difference betweem having it or not if your target audience is very niche in the first place. Which means it is almost impossible case to attract the mythical “wider audience”

[Lexx]

Full VO is EXTREMELY expensive. Good voice actors aren't cheap at all and especially RPGs usually have a lot of text that would need to be recorded.

[MrBrown]

Didn't we have some Escape from Tarkov players here?

 

[Malcador]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/escape-from-tarkov-players-rage-as-developers-lock-co-op-pve-behind-a-new-dollar250-edition-despite-promising-access-to-all-subsequent-dlcs-in-its-old-dollar150-edition/

Clever play on what DLC is, heh.

[sorophx]

apparently Xsolla has to refund now, because BSG broke ToS with that release. people have been asking for refunds for ages, and now they just might get what they wanted

[Wormerine]

On 4/25/2024 at 9:59 PM, Zoraptor said:

I'd suspect the full voiceover was more an issue for JES and than the devs in general since it would have been a lot of extra supervision*. End of the day most of the dev work for dialogue had to be done anyway- dialogue scripting, any triggers or other scripting, branching and dependencies all have to be done whether voiced or not. So in theory it would 'just' be adding the triggers for the sound files with appropriate timings. Easy for me to say of course when it's not me doing the extra work...

There also would be: casting, participating in recording sessions guiding the actors, picking the takes and creating sound files that than can be implemented (editing, post processing?). VO might also require unique tech, like voice effects changing depending on enviroment etc.

[Hawke64]

14 hours ago, sorophx said:

apparently Xsolla has to refund now, because BSG broke ToS with that release. people have been asking for refunds for ages, and now they just might get what they wanted

To provide more context (because I did not understand the original post): https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/after-promising-free-dlc-forever-to-some-players-escape-from-tarkov-locks-a-new-pve-mode-behind-250-edition

Quote

The creators of Escape from Tarkov may be looking for their own escape at the moment, after enraging the extraction shooter’s community with a new top-tier edition [$250] of the game that’s come under fire for its extortionate cost, “pay-to-win” offerings and for U-turning on the promise of free DLC for buyers of a previous bundle [$150].

Not Star Citizen, but getting there.

 

[Wormerine]

Terror from the Void, a total conversion mod for Phoenix Point reached 1.0.
I meant to check it out for a long time - Phoenix Point was a game with a fantastic pitch, and some good ideas in the finished product, that seemed to lack polish to really deliver. I am somehow doubtful if a mod can fix game's issues, but there are some smart and insightful folks behind it. I am curious if they managed to achieve their vision. Will have to make some time for it in a near future.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/839770/view/4176601697647254493

 

[melkathi]

The funny thing is, the developer sent out a newsletter email yesterday advertising the mod.

[BruceVC]

Some people may be aware of the fantastic news  that a Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has been announced 

This is my 6th favourite game of all time and its absolutely brilliant. Really good  medieval action game, no wokeness just historical realism 

Here is an update video about  KC:D2 

 

And here is a summary of certain key features ( these arent my summary points but they seem accurate )

• Savior Schnapps - The save system will be returning. Although Sir Tobi mentioned that they are aware that especially in the early game it was hard to afford to save often enough. They are making it more accessible in the early game.
• Blacksmithing - This is a confirmed mini-game similar to how alchemy worked in the first game.
• Lockpicking - Lockpicking will work much the same way as it does now in KCD1, however he said it was smoother and more accessible.
• Father Godwin - Everybody's favorite priest is confirmed to be back.
• Time passing - The start of the game picks up exactly where KCD1 ended. Sir Tobi refused to speculate at all about anything related to story. So whether or not time advances later was left unsaid.
• Story structure - Initially KCD was envisioned as a three part story. But the first game ballooned to be much bigger than they had planned back in 2014. KCD2 will "end the story" but exactly what that means is unclear.
• Current state of KCD2 - According to Sir Tobi, they are much farther along in development with KCD2 than KCD1 was at this stage. He says they are now working on bug fixing and localization. He said the team is very confident they can release in 2024, but acknowledged that outside factors may change that.
• Character progression - Sir Tobi said there is always a challenge in sequels about how much progression to reset so the player can grow the character again. He alluded to something happening to sort of soft-reset Henry's skills. But also said that since KCD2 takes place in a far larger and more powerful area of the world than KCD1, Henry is now up against bigger and more powerful foes - and therefore he might not be as skilled as we thought.
• Game areas - As we already knew, there are two separate game maps. Once the story advances to the point that Henry gets to the second, Sir Tobi confirmed that you can travel freely back and forth between the two. They are far apart, so there is a loading screen as Henry makes the journey.
• Returning characters - Sir Tobi was very vague about story points and who we can expect to see. However he said there were some familiar faces, but also many new characters. After all, Henry has traveled a long way to a much larger area. There will be many new characters.
• Battles - Sir Tobi confirmed that just like KCD1, there will be larger-scale battles. But just like the first game, these are restricted to story moments. Henry cannot just decide to siege a castle for fun.
• Mini games - Again Sir Tobi was very vague in his answer. He confirmed blacksmithing as the big new addition, and said Farkle is back with some minor additions.
• Miscellaneous - Beyond these things, Sir Tobi confirmed there will be no NPC children in KCD2. This is primary a time restraint. It doesn't add enough to the game for the team to devote the time it would take to do it properly. He also said there was no fishing to his knowledge. When asked if Henry could swim now, he said no. But the way he answered it made me wonder if that would be a skill Henry could learn, similar to how Henry could learn to read in the second game. Maybe I'm speculating there... Tobi confirmed in another interview that Henry will only swim in a cutscene.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 1 by BruceVC

[MrBrown]

I like some esports, I hope it won't die out because of stuff like this

https://www.tomshardware.com/monitors/msis-ai-powered-gaming-monitor-helps-you-cheat-at-league-of-legends-looks-great-doing-it

https://www.osnews.com/story/139517/chinese-tencent-owned-company-riot-games-installs-rootkit-on-every-league-of-legends-players-computer/

[Wormerine]

8 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Some people may be aware of the fantastic news  that a Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has been announced 

This is my 6th favourite game of all time and its absolutely brilliant. Really good  medieval action game, no wokeness just historical realism 

Here is an update video about  KC:D2

I hate to be that guy, but putting a game that hasn't been releases yet (or even shown much gameplay off) on a very specific place of your "Game of all time" list might impact the perceived integrity of your globally followed BruceVC game rating system.

[Chilloutman]

55 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

I hate to be that guy, but putting a game that hasn't been releases yet (or even shown much gameplay off) on a very specific place of your "Game of all time" list might impact the perceived integrity of your globally followed BruceVC game rating system.

i think he is talking about first one in that instance

[BruceVC]

8 hours ago, Chilloutman said:

i think he is talking about first one in that instance

Yes I was, I reread my post and it wasnt written properly 

@Wormerine Wormie I hope this clears up any confusion because you absolutely right. We dont want anything to undermine the global influence of the " BruceVC game rating system "