RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[Nepenthe]

I think people are freaking out about the the Oculus news because they have been perceived as a "scrappy underdog" up until now. 

 

Personally, I don't care really. It was pretty unlikely that I was going to buy one in the foreseeable future... And if this makes VR seem doable to more companies, it might actually advance the tech to a point where I would want to buy into it.

 

Like Notch said, there's reason to be upset for people who essentially gave Oculus 1st round VC for essentially nothing just for them to cash out to FB.

 

As mentioned, kickstarter has that anti-corporate flavour - in part due to the funders not receiving any ownership of the IP or maker - and I find this a gross abuse of that principle.

[Guest Slinky]

Dead Space 1 is now free on Origin until April 8.

 

I wonder will SimCity ever get cheaper, then I might actually install Origin.

[Blarghagh]

God, I'm tired of "early access".

 

At first I was like "yay, we get to follow the development of games, how exciting"

 

Then I bought some "open world, exploration/survival romp with action and zombies and exploshons and a billion features and OMG IT SOUNDS SO COOL". Download it, and it's a tree in a room with a skybox that says temporary and a pic of d!ckbutt instead. "Walking? Oh yeah, we're implementing that later", along with the other million features on the list that they will, eventually, maybe get to in an unspecified amount of time. 400 updates later, we're still not walking, but d!ickbutt has changed his blue shade 398 times and the tree has moved four inches to the left.

 

7 Days To Die?

[Keyrock]

God, I'm tired of "early access".

 

At first I was like "yay, we get to follow the development of games, how exciting"

 

Then I bought some "open world, exploration/survival romp with action and zombies and exploshons and a billion features and OMG IT SOUNDS SO COOL". Download it, and it's a tree in a room with a skybox that says temporary and a pic of d!ckbutt instead. "Walking? Oh yeah, we're implementing that later", along with the other million features on the list that they will, eventually, maybe get to in an unspecified amount of time. 400 updates later, we're still not walking, but d!ickbutt has changed his blue shade 398 times and the tree has moved four inches to the left.

Early Access is a mixed bag.  You have some games that are quite playable and well into the process and some, as you described, that are as alpha as alpha gets with nary a thing to do in them.  This is the reason why I mostly stay away from them.  I've gotten 2 early access games so far: Grim Dawn and Might & Magic X: Legacy.  Grim Dawn is a game I've been following for years and supported long before their Kickstarter because I was such a huge fan of Titan Quest, so I got the access even before Early Access because of my pledge and I knew the game was in a decent state because I'm a regular on the Grim Dawn forums and had been seeing the progress closely.  Might & Magic X I admittedly took a chance on because I couldn't help myself because OMG A NEW M&M GAME!  I lucked out with that one since the Early Access was a decent chunk of fully playable goodness and the game turned out to be awesome when finished.  So my experiences have been positive, but I'm still generally not going to buy Early Access games because I know stuff like what you described is lurking out there.  Heck, even some games I have access to because of my pledge, like Divinity: Original Sin, I have not played because I simply would rather wait for the finished product.

Edited March 28, 2014 by Keyrock

[Malcador]

http://store.postudios.com/products/moebius-empire-rising-pre-order

 

Moebius demo out (this is Jensen's new adventure game) 

[LadyCrimson]

I think I've been pretty clear in past posts that I don't find Early Access generally appealing at this point, either. I don't have anything against the concept itself - but I don't typically want to spend on it personally. It'd have to be something I've done a lot of research on and know it already has more than a 20 minute playable pre-pre-pre-pre-alpha build. Also, the search-results thing.

[marelooke]

 

God, I'm tired of "early access".

 

At first I was like "yay, we get to follow the development of games, how exciting"

 

Then I bought some "open world, exploration/survival romp with action and zombies and exploshons and a billion features and OMG IT SOUNDS SO COOL". Download it, and it's a tree in a room with a skybox that says temporary and a pic of d!ckbutt instead. "Walking? Oh yeah, we're implementing that later", along with the other million features on the list that they will, eventually, maybe get to in an unspecified amount of time. 400 updates later, we're still not walking, but d!ickbutt has changed his blue shade 398 times and the tree has moved four inches to the left.

Early Access is a mixed bag.  You have some games that are quite playable and well into the process and some, as you described, that are as alpha as alpha gets with nary a thing to do in them.  This is the reason why I mostly stay away from them.  I've gotten 2 early access games so far: Grim Dawn and Might & Magic X: Legacy.  Grim Dawn is a game I've been following for years and supported long before their Kickstarter because I was such a huge fan of Titan Quest, so I got the access even before Early Access because of my pledge and I knew the game was in a decent state because I'm a regular on the Grim Dawn forums and had been seeing the progress closely.  Might & Magic X I admittedly took a chance on because I couldn't help myself because OMG A NEW M&M GAME!  I lucked out with that one since the Early Access was a decent chunk of fully playable goodness and the game turned out to be awesome when finished.  So my experiences have been positive, but I'm still generally not going to buy Early Access games because I know stuff like what you described is lurking out there.  Heck, even some games I have access to because of my pledge, like Divinity: Original Sin, I have not played because I simply would rather wait for the finished product.

 

Same here, I've generally shied away from Early Access. The games I got early access to due to kickstarter I generally have a quick look every now and then just to see how things are shaping up.

 

For example the D:OS alpha is quite playable, but they break the savegames with each update, so yeah... Also the UI still needs a lot of work imho, I wish they'd take care of that sooner rather than later, I have the impression they underestimate the importance of a good UI (rather typical for game devs it would seem, lots of games with horrible UX)

 

Planet Explorers also seems to be shaping up nicely, though their heavy use of OpenCL makes my laptop rather unhappy so more testing will have to wait until I have some time alone with my desktop.

 

Also Warframe (F2P co-op shooter) is celebrating it's one year anniversary this week, any casual players might want to go grab the goodies before they're inaccessible.

[Labadal]

No day/night cycle for Divinity: Original Sin. A shame stretch goals can't be implemented. I had backed before those goals were announced so I'm not very upset about it. I do understand if there is some backlash, though.

[rjshae]

No day/night cycle for Divinity: Original Sin. A shame stretch goals can't be implemented. I had backed before those goals were announced so I'm not very upset about it. I do understand if there is some backlash, though.

 

The day/night cycle stretch goal was not achieved during the original Kickstarter.

[Humanoid]

Maybe this belongs in the blasphemy thread, but I'm glad it was cut, and would be happy if it never came back in a patch. It's nothing but busywork, and if anything, reduces immersion because it highlights how comically short a day is in-game. If there are day-night cycles in the game, it should run at a 1:1 ratio with real time, but that in itself tends to be unnecessary effort since most people don't play games for 24 hour+ stretches.

[Keyrock]

Maybe this belongs in the blasphemy thread, but I'm glad it was cut, and would be happy if it never came back in a patch. It's nothing but busywork, and if anything, reduces immersion because it highlights how comically short a day is in-game. If there are day-night cycles in the game, it should run at a 1:1 ratio with real time, but that in itself tends to be unnecessary effort since most people don't play games for 24 hour+ stretches.

1:1 ratio is insane and unrealistic.  A 1:6 ratio would be more feasible, where 1 hour is 10 minutes and a day lasts 4 hours.  A single, long gaming session might last 1 game day, which would work quite well, methinks.

[Humanoid]

1:1 is the effectively idea that the night cycle only will happen on player demand - i.e. using wait/rest functionality to get it to night - and the ability to ignore it otherwise. Shorter ratios are a designed for a different purpose altogether, in that it expects the player to experience the cycle organically, making it an active gameplay element - something the player has to react to.

 

That's where the blasphemy comes in I guess, it's an element that I don't want do deal with, because I don't consider it fun.

[Keyrock]

1:1 is the effectively idea that the night cycle only will happen on player demand - i.e. using wait/rest functionality to get it to night - and the ability to ignore it otherwise. Shorter ratios are a designed for a different purpose altogether, in that it expects the player to experience the cycle organically, making it an active gameplay element - something the player has to react to.

 

That's where the blasphemy comes in I guess, it's an element that I don't want do deal with, because I don't consider it fun.

Using wait/rest function to turn it into whatever time of day you want is irrelevant to this conversation.  You can do that with whatever ratio.  You want to talk about breaking immersion, that's as breaking immersion as it gets.  There is no wait/rest function in true immersion.  1:1 is not a realistic ratio for gaming.  No one never plays for 24 hours straight...  No one sane, that is.  Realistically I see a LONG gaming session as 3-4 hours straight at most .  The "best" immersion in my mind would be to make that one session feel like a day, thus a 1:6 or 1:8 ratio, somewhere in that ballpark.  That way you play through a long gaming session (and 3-4 hours is a long time to game without a break, it really is) and feel like you just played a whole day's worth of game.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Keyrock

[Humanoid]

It's relevant insomuch as it's merely there to accommodate quests that are sensitive to time of day, for example the stereotypical "who is stealing my farm animals at midnight" type quests. If not for that then I'd totally stick with not implementing the cycle at all - or just scripting nighttime to plot points such as what happens in Stick of Truth.

 

The point is that I don't enjoy day/night cycles at all, but recognise that some content, in terms of their writing, would require it being tied to daylight conditions. I have no interest in simulating a day at all. Immersion? In absolute terms, sure, but it's about as important to me as the ability to loot worthless random clipboards in Fallout NV - a net negative.

[rjshae]

Maybe this belongs in the blasphemy thread, but I'm glad it was cut, and would be happy if it never came back in a patch. It's nothing but busywork, and if anything, reduces immersion because it highlights how comically short a day is in-game. If there are day-night cycles in the game, it should run at a 1:1 ratio with real time, but that in itself tends to be unnecessary effort since most people don't play games for 24 hour+ stretches.

 

I'll damn and blasphemer myself by saying I liked the way that day/night was handled in DA2.

[Keyrock]

The point is that I don't enjoy day/night cycles at all, but recognise that some content, in terms of their writing, would require it being tied to daylight conditions. I have no interest in simulating a day at all. Immersion? In absolute terms, sure, but it's about as important to me as the ability to loot worthless random clipboards in Fallout NV - a net negative.

To each their own, I thoroughly enjoy watching the sun go down slowly and the world get progressively darker (or the sun go up and the world get progressively lighter), I just feel it happens too fast in 95% of games.  I should not notice dusk starting out, then 2 minutes later pitch dark.  Conversely, when I'm in a dangerous area, particularly if the game implements more dangerous/frequent encounters at night, and sensing dawn coming, the desperate want for the sun to come over the horizon adds a lot to my experience, and it would add more if it happened more slowly and not in 5 minutes.  That feeling of "dawn is coming soon, I just need to survive for another half hour", that's what I'm looking for.  I get it to some degree, but when that half hour is actually 3 minutes, it's not nearly as meaningful.

[Humanoid]

Oh absolutely, I despise short cycles, that as much I won't dispute. And it's a prime reason I ended up not liking Minecraft with its really wonky time (and inability to skip night until you build a bed, screw that).

 

But yeah, I'm probably in the minority in terms of preferring mechanical minimalism, be in regarding the passage of time, loot (Shadowrun is awesome in this regard), or combat in general, so it's no surprise where I lean towards. When something is done poorly, someone more ambitious would try to fix it to make it work better, whereas I generally opt to remove said element altogether, while recognising that the former approach may well end up superior in the end.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Humanoid

[Volourn]

." If there are day-night cycles in the game, it should run at a 1:1 ratio with real time"

 

That's dumb. Plain and simple.

 

 

"whereas I generally opt to remove said element altogether, while recognising that the former approach may well end up superior in the end."

 

So, you are lazy. Just like me. How do you like that? You have something in common with me. HAHAHA!

 

 

\Day/night cycles are awesome. Plain and simple. They are TRUE rpg staples.

[Humanoid]

It's true, I'm the laziest person I know. But effort vs reward and all that, such as in this case. Maybe with some effort they can come up with a fantastic way to handle it, but the net improvement in the game that might result is tiny enough to not be worth the risk of doing it badly.

 

Most RPGs are bad. I'm a crusader in getting rid of RPG staples which are bad.

[Volourn]

Except, night/day cycles add lots to games. Lots.

 

And, if you hate RPGs so much don't play them. It's why I don't play Pokemon. I hate it so why would I play it? LMAO

[Humanoid]

I generally don't play them. Those RPG staples of the 80s and 90s - Gold Box, Might & Magic, Wizardry, Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore, etc - I didn't play because I was uninterested in them. Whereas I am interested in Divinity Original Sin.

[TSBasilisk]

Flockers

Like Lemmings, only with sheep and a lot more gore

[LadyCrimson]

No one never plays for 24 hours straight...  No one sane, that is.

So that's why the guys in white suits showed up at my door those times.

 

I like day night cycles as long as they're not too rapid ... if it's a rpg where I'm supposed to be running around a town/forest and everyone is acting as if time is passing/there's a time clock ("A dragon roasted our town yesterday!" "This potion effect lasts 10 hours"), if there's no period of darkness, I'm going to expect to look up into the sky and see four suns or 10 moons or something. Otherwise it starts to feel weird and unnatural, even if it is just a game. I'm too trained to expect dark or light as time passes, I suppose.

[Noviere]

I personally think a day/night cycle and NPC schedules adds a lot to a game. It's one of the things that made the world in Ultima 7/7.5 feel so alive. That said, I can understand why it was cut, and I still think the game will be great. 

[marelooke]

I personally think a day/night cycle and NPC schedules adds a lot to a game. It's one of the things that made the world in Ultima 7/7.5 feel so alive. That said, I can understand why it was cut, and I still think the game will be great. 

 

And the game will be very much moddable, so I'm hoping some great modders will add it in afterwards.

 

Day/night cycles are also one of the things I like in Bethesda's games, if they're well done I can just go chill out and watch a nice sunrise (or sunset), just like I irl.