Interesting article on the mobile game. Guy seems to have adopted a "build it and they will come" mentality and was dumbfounded when he learned that ~x-thousand mobile games release every day and his was lost in the sea of releases.

Hopefully he uses what he learns from his experience in a positive way somehow. I'm definitely not interested in playing a spinning-shooter game with a single action (screen tap) as input, and I'm definitely definitely not going to put any money into it.

Cool tie-in! I like seeing these sorts of cross-promotional things. Also, I'm beginning to find the vast quantities of salt about CP2077 amusing. Keep crying, folks. Some of us are enjoying the game, despite some of its shortcomings.

Icewind wrote on Dec 10, 2020, 13:31:

heroin wrote on Dec 10, 2020, 13:14:
It's fucking fantastic so far, I don't know why there are so many people out there that just chew away at the sails of awesome shit. Depressing mfers.
It runs great too, from the specs they released I should only be playing this on Raytracing Light, but the game put all my settings to Ultra by default and still running at 60fps.
About 4 hours in the Cyberpunk logo/intro is finally ran and I did run into a bug right before that, couldn't get something off someone, reloaded and that person
reloaded/floated outside the building where I couldn't get to, so had to reload the whole mission. A little aggravating but definitely not a dealbreaker besides that haven't seen too many glitches so far. Looks, sounds and plays awesome - combat is better than expected.

Agree 100% on everything you said.

What bugs me is the people complaining are playing on last gen consoles (PS4, XB1) or out of date PCs with GPU/CPUs from more than 3 years ago. You can't expect to get any decent performance from the game when using such outdated tech. This is the Ultima 9 launch all over again. People trying to play a game using bleeding edge technology while on ancient hardware.

I have a Radeon 580 and a Ryzen 7 and it runs on Ultra at 1080p just fine. A good 50-55fps. Very playable and only a few odd visual glitches usually involving the lighting.

I use an RTX2060/Ryzen 2600X, 1080p Medium RTX/DLSS off, and last night at least saw an average GPU utilization of like 60% in busy intersections crowded with NPCs, vehicles, lights, and clutter. FPS could be upwards of 75 in some areas but then dip to 33fps in busy areas. The first time I left my apartment with Jackie and walked down the steps to the car my FPS dipped below 30. Just nutso performance issues. Latest drivers of course. I shutdown my PC overnight and fired it up this morning and it's faring a little better, around 85% utilization, but still not a solid 60fps. I've tried all sorts of toggles. Even tried Low @ 1600x1050 and still didn't get a solid frame rate. Aiming feels almost drifty... like there's input lag when moving the mouse. Rivatuner reported frametimes are sub-15ms though...
You know, when it comes to Battletech, I can live with sub-30fps because it's a tactical game and I'm not aiming a gun reticle at an NPC's head. In an FPS RPG like this though, I really want that minimum 60fps.

HorrorScope wrote on Dec 9, 2020, 10:35:

jacobvandy wrote on Dec 8, 2020, 23:39:
Yeah, we're all looking forward to the future where all aspects of a virtual world become more immersive. I'm just saying there are games now that feature a surprising amount of that "boring" simulation stuff, and what Rockstar puts out is the most obvious example, even if most people ignore it. Eating, drinking, watching TV, mundane (legal) jobs, recreational sports and hobbies, all that stuff has been a part of their expansive game worlds for a decade already. I'm not aware of any everyday life simulator more advanced than what they have baked into Red Dead Redemption 2, just because they can. Otherwise you're looking at the myriad of very specific niches that the '______ Simulator' games fill, at least the ones which aren't parodies or shoddy cash grabs.

Right, now we say we want to do that mundane thing. Give me the option of doing something bold and exciting or something common and boring, people will overwhelmingly choose the former and we know today it isn't easy programming anything and this would add so many more layers of complexity, all devs come to the same conclusion today, not worth it.

My friend and I wish for this constantly. GTA V is good but shallow as a puddle. While I enjoy violence, I'm waiting for a GTA-like game where violence is not the main focus of the game. It could be a significant portion, but provides the player with numerous other outlets to interact with the game such that they may choose to do a lot of other things than simply committing violence. GTA V's side games like tennis, hunting, yoga, were all pretty shallow. I don't necessarily want to mime out yoga. I'd like to bring well-characterized/written/narrated NPCs to the bar and watch sports and drink/eat. I want to explore all sorts of other interiors. Engage in more hide and seek for things other than vehicles and weapons. This all sounds vague, but eventually games will begin to grant us this sort of immersive world where interactions begin to mirror the real world.
As far as CP2077 goes, I imagine interaction will be limited to buying food/drink from a stall, driving around, shooting people, and interacting with certain quest NPCs. Hopefully it has much more than that. I'm just saying, we've seen at least a dozen or two open world style games like CP2077, and okay great we can walk/drive around, shoot people, do quests, can we advance this open world concept to a plethora of other engaging activities now? Please?

OmegaFoRCe wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 06:42:

jdreyer wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 17:55:
One thing I don't understand (and I said at the time of the NVidia story) is why someone doesn't offer virtual machines optimized for game streaming on which you could install your O/S, then Steam, then whatever game you wanted. This should be able to bypass any publisher complaints.

Ah but there is such a service! Shadow has been around for a couple of years and they're slowly but surely expanding their services. A lot of Quest VR folks have been using Shadow for their Virtual Desktop/Oculus Link experiences.

You could also use Shadow to mod Witcher 3 to the max if your home system can't handle it. Or any modding - it's just a high-end Windows environment streamed to your device.

VaranDragon wrote on Nov 27, 2020, 04:24:
Please don't buy Mechwarrior 5 Mercs. It is absolute Shite. I am one of the biggest Mechwarrior fans in existence. Mechwarrior 2 was my Bible. Mechwarrior 2: Mercs, my Catechism.

I played all of them, religiously.

I bought into Mechwarrior 5 at release. The first two missions are actually quite good. The mechbay is quite good. The rest of the game is some of the most terrible, generic crap gameplay I have ever seen. Once you've seen the 5 different mission types you have seen them all. The generic missions for the most part are terrible. Even the "story" missions are the same generic bullshit as the other generic missions (and by generic they really are generic). Each mission (no matter the type) is basically a struggle to survive against waves and waves of teleporting enemies (and they literally pop in existence, sometimes right in front of you) while taking as little damage as possible. No mission design, horrible AI, useless systems, no real sense of dueling it out or accomplishing anything (other than surviving) mission, after mission, after mission.
These guys couldn't build a single-player campaign if their life depended on it. So I have little faith that this DLC is not just more of the same cashgrab.

These guys have literally destroyed the Mechwarrior IP.

Thanks. I don't intend to buy it when it releases to Steam initially, but when it falls to $5 or $10, I'll bite, and I'll make ample use of the mod community's fixes to the game.
It's really sad how they phoned this in. I can see they put in some effort in some areas, but cheaping out on the story like that, and the reportedly poor voice acting, and the shoddy AI... this game should have been the triumphant return of Mechwarrior to PC gaming, and instead it's yet another release where we go "Well, that's a shame, guess I'll just play through The Witcher 3 again..."

I can't decide on GOTY. I put HL Alyx down for VR game, tho I haven't played it nor do I own a headset. RDR2 was very good but something prevents me from giving it my GOTY nomination. I gave it Story-Rich award instead. I put Sea of Thieves down as Better With Friends, Doom Eternal as Best Game I Suck At, Black Mesa as Labour of Love.
Ori 2 was good fun but I couldn't shake the feeling that I paid money to experience the exact same thing again. I put that down for Visual Achievement, it really does have good art direction, but then so does Sea of Thieves.
That still leaves GOTY. I wish I could nominate Cyberpunk...

Happy Thanksgiving Blue, from your northern neighbour across the border.

The Steam release is expected this December among other platforms. I agree though, they should have released to all platforms except the damnable EGS payout nixed that plan. Pretty lame bait-and-switch.
According to this GamesIndustry.biz article, "It followed that up last year with Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries, which EG7 said has sold hundreds of thousands of copies on the Epic Games Store alone."

This game sets the bar for how a remaster/remake should be. Supreme amounts of polish, expansion of interesting areas, adding little details absolutely everywhere, using the latest effects they can. The team poured their hearts into this game and it shows, and the wait was absolutely worth it.
Imagine if the Crysis Remaster had been this level of quality, if their team had the time and resources to polish Crysis to Black Mesa's level of finish. Both are seminal games, only one was a phoned-in cash-grab, while the other is an obvious labour of love.
Speaking of which, I nominated Black Mesa for the Labour of Love award in the Steam GOTY Award nominations.

What's PVP like these days? Are there purpose-built PVP gear sets or do you just use whatever gear you have in PVP and there's a magic scaling system to level other players? I recall Blizz did away with Resilience long ago.

BIGtrouble77 wrote on Oct 23, 2020, 17:02:

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Oct 23, 2020, 13:09:
Well, physical media had its share of pluses and minuses, just like digital, but overall the convenience of digital games seems to outweigh having a physical disk for most people, even back in the day.

Putting sheer install size aside, there are a bunch of things I loved about the "big box" era that we haven't seen for 25 years...

Having a physical representation of the game really added to the immersion and enjoyment when it was done well. I can't imagine playing Ultima 1-7 without the map, bestiary, trinkets, etc. Monkey Island made copy protection fun with Dial a Pirate. I read the X-com and Sim City 2000 manuals cover to cover.

The other side effect is that these weren't impulse buys. You had to go to the store and pull your wallet out to buy anything. I valued my more intimate collection of games way more back then than I do most of my Steam games now. Having a physical representation of a virtual product just made it seem more substantial.

Agreed. And like the article says, it's just nice to see the physical representation of the games you have played and have immediate memories of playing them when you see them sitting there on the shelf. I have a paltry physical collection of things now. A HL2 box, a Diablo and Homeworld manual, some Everquest 2 poster, the original jewel case for Everquest, the Baldur's Gate and FF7 cardboard CD trays... but of the hundreds (?) of games I've played since then, I have no physical reminder of my time with them other than seeing their name in my Steam library to call up memories.
And yeah like you say, forking over cash or your credit card to be able to walk home with a game, thinking on the way home what it will be like and the first thing you'll do, that was fun. Now you simply pay for license access and once it's downloaded play immediately. That's great, but it's missing something.

I think Delta Force used voxels didn't it?

I'm eagerly awaiting DD2, as I loved the first one. I never did get very far into the Crimson Curse expansion though, and I skipped the Colour of Madness and PVP DLC, but I did beat the darkest dungeon. I'm quite proud of that. I prefer non-modded for this title, I feel like it doesn't need additional heroes, and I prefer Red Hook's balancing. I guess I like playing the game the way they intend the player to.
Pity about them taking the Epic cash.

You guys are weird. You're always complaining about unfinished games being released and then dripfeeding the playerbase DLC and cosmetics. DLC which quite often is clearly held back from the initial release so the publisher can charge an extra $10 to unlock it. This has been a common complaint for years. Now EA comes along and releases Squadrons and Jedi Fallen Order and promises a fully contained release, all-in for $40 (or whatever), and you're complaining that you want more and they should release DLC? At least we know what we are getting this time around: a complete story for our money.
I agree that mod tools would be a good thing to release to the community so we can make more content for ourselves.
Another thing, EA must have learned about the SW BF2 fiasco, because this is a pleasing reversal of their previous horrendous DLC/cosmetics/lootbox-infused offerings. Lament that it's a closed story all you want, but don't go whining that they aren't holding back content to charge us extra for.

Looking forward to reviews. For me, TL2 came the closest to feeling like a Diablo 2 successor among the ones I have tried, including Diablo 3. I have low expectations for this game from what I read during the Early Access phase, and I will be legitimately surprised if TL3 manages to match TL2's level of fun, quality, and replayability. Also, mod support. TL2 Synergies mod was a vast improvement on an already great game.

I need to hurry up and finish my ME1 playthrough so I can get to ME2. I never played it back in the day, and ME2 is the one everyone raves about.

Jebus... when did it go EGS exclusive? I've had this wishlisted for a while now. Just checked and no I didn't, but I have been interested in this title since their early announce trailer a year or two ago. What a bummer... I might pick it up for my Switch depending on performance reviews for that platform. They've had a Steam page for a while now right?
That EGS exclusivity payout is just too good for devs these days. A cool, free $2 million up front, a greater slice of the pie on a year's worth of sales... and then the platform has no reviews or forums or discussion boards to "gum up the works" and provide players with pertinent info, no achievements to create - since all other games lack achievements, it's fine if yours doesn't have them either, but on steam it becomes a selling point.

I bought it for Switch and maybe got three solid hours of entertainment out of it. It's a short, quick game with limited replay value. Probably best to wait for a sale on Steam.

I played the single player campaign twice through on release, but then Unreal came out just five months later and its campaign blew me away with its colored lighting, transparency, imaginative levels, better music, and so on. I have vague memories of coming back to Q2 after a couple months playing Unreal and finding it kinda dry and boring. I never really got into multiplayer, maybe only played half a dozen matches.
Then Half-Life came out in November... and Tribes in December of '98. What a time for gaming that was! *nostalgic sigh*