ZeroPike1 wrote on Sep 2, 2024, 04:10:
Pushing the Tech or just poorly optimised!? You make the call!

As the article points out, ray-traced lighting being the default enabled the devs to create interior scenes that are literally not possible using rasterization. At least, not without scattering a ridiculous number of fake light sources all over the scene (wasting a ton of your environment artists' time), which makes things visible but not convincingly realistic. Ray-tracing makes plausible light sources "just work," which is why it's such a massive innovation. It doesn't just look good, it is easier to implement. All we need now is for hardware to get a bit better so they're doing it for the reflections, too, which are still largely screen-space duplicates here.

Prez wrote on Sep 2, 2024, 04:05:
Return of the Jedi had little teddy bears seemingly killing stormtroopers with prehistoric clubs, which I thought was very silly, but that's what they did, and since the Endor sequence was by far the least interesting sequence, I didn't care. All the game had to do was give the protagonist a club or other bludgeoning weapon and at least it would be consistent with the universe. In the end it is one of those things for which I just hit the "I believe" button and forget about.

I agree on the suspension of disbelief, but I think it's the way it is for balance reasons. There is an advanced class of enemy that is not able to be taken down so easily, such as combat droids, Gamorrean guards, and Death Troopers -- they require specific equipment similar to a stun gun for you to be able to stealthily knock them out. So in that context, the standard stormtroopers (and unarmored officers and technicians) are on the same level of difficulty as the droves of unremarkable humanoids that work for the various crime syndicates that are all vulnerable to surprise unarmed takedowns.

VaranDragon wrote on Sep 2, 2024, 07:46:
The punching enemies in the helmet is not the problem. The problem is punching enemies in the face in the 1st hour of playing, and still punching them in the helmet on the 50th hour of playing. From what I've seen of it the game is not only stupid, it is mind-numbingly excruciatingly boring. The combat is boring. The quests are boring. It's literally like someone decided to make the most generic Ubisoft open-world game, and then dumb it down some more and give it a Star Wars skin.

Oh look, another person that has not played the game commenting on how fun it is. Most action games that involve sneaking also involve takedowns... If you don't find that type of gameplay compelling, I'd recommend against engaging in it for 50 straight hours. There is plenty of shooting and blowing shit up to do, as well.