Vidya Games Thread

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

I've finally climbed out of Plat (yes I'm coping that I'm going to loss my next 5 games)

But more notably I came across a wretched creature

Spoiler: Beware

Of course he played Rocket

 

[MrProcessor]

This game was a big win for the guys who made it, at least with vTubers. They never seem to get tired of it.

 

[Abomination]

New Old World DLC next month.

 

[shipmate_F]

For some perspective, San Andreas' foundation was so broad and future-proof that a lot of mods were easily made in-engine for both Offline and Online versions, devs didn't need to do much besides mixing/adding values and recycling things already inside the PC edition installation. There's around 5 years of content that didn't even require extra assets or scripts, that is such an insane thing to see that I still consider San Andreas one of Top 5 most important games in the entire history.

I like to compliment Criterion (mostly Ezra) too for their insane work on software engineering for visual representation of debris and destruction without exploding weaker hardware, Burnout Revenge that ran at fixed 60fps on a fucking PS2 and BLACK having entire landscapes rendered while maintaining 30fps and creating the foundation of modern FPS storytelling.

 

[Brosnan Pierce Brosnan]

Imagine if EA didn't kill that game engine where things would be now

 

[addamelech]

Any Touhou players here?
I'm a big fan of the series and playing the game has helped me greatly in entering the flow state easily and lock in.

 

[Tubedude]

View attachment 89225

Ah yes, another article from Schreier that casts all the blame on meddling execs and says that the poor devs are just poor innocent victims.

The execs pushing live service then reversing course can explain the mid at best gameplay and level design, but it doesn't explain the absolutely dogshit lore, story and characters, the area where Veilguard failed the most.

Veilguard had mid gameplay about on par with what DA2 had, yet it still failed.

Characters, lore, and story can be kept consistent through designing a game to be single-player or live service, most live service games that do story tell them as if the player is the sole person doing said story.

DA2 and Inquisition both showed that people would show up for mid gameplay accompanied by okay-to-decent story, lore, and characters.

That is mostly what people went to Dragon Age for after Origins.

If it had story on par with Inquisition, it would have still likely met expectations, but it failed to even meet that low bar.

The failure of Veilguard rests solely on the writers, editors, and directors that had a hand in the story and characters.

Schreier writes the same article every time, "the execs are the issue", on repeat. Can't possibly be the issue of the devs he forms friendships with for info, and that ideologically agree with him.

 

[CalciumAnimal]

Schreier writes the same article every time, "the execs are the issue", on repeat. Can't possibly be the issue of the devs he forms friendships with for info, and that ideologically agree with him.

on the other hand is he wrong tho?

i would love a job where i didn't need to bother networking my contacts because i can throw a dart and still guess with 100% accuracy execs are screwing the game.

 

[Tubedude]

on the other hand is he wrong tho?

i would love a job where i didn't need to bother networking my contacts because i can throw a dart and still guess with 100% accuracy execs are screwing the game.

Execs are likely part of the issue a lot of the time, especially when it comes to monetization, but he sweeps for devs who are just as, if not more, at fault for the state of shitty games. I sincerely doubt the execs came down from on high and made the team make the story and characters as bad as they were. Even in his Anthem article, where it is blatantly obvious the issue was the devs not sitting down and actually forming a coherent plan, he tries saying that it is EA's fault for not doing more, even though they were doing exactly what he constantly fights for, letting the dev team do what they wanted without much oversight.

 

[Security]

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

View attachment 89351

I got a huge reminder of this when I replayed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 last year and watched the credits.

Try to imagine any modern game dev in that scenario.

 

[Smelliest007]

Women and troons ruin everything.

 

[Abomination]

I got a huge reminder of this when I replayed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 last year and watched the credits.

Try to imagine any modern game dev in that scenario.

The Tony Hawk games are some of the biggest nostalgia baits for me. Had so much fun playing them when I was growing up, and especially during the time when I was skateboarding myself. Still like going back and playing them from time to time, even if it's only for a bit.

 

[Security]

I got a huge reminder of this when I replayed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 last year and watched the credits.

Try to imagine any modern game dev in that scenario.

Nearly every US dev studio in the 90s was made up entirely of white men, a scattering of actual geek girls, some with a handful of Asians, and then a few with the odd negro - who were bullied by blacks for being the nerds they were.

It was the Golden Age.

 

[Aquatic Novellite]

Execs are likely part of the issue a lot of the time, especially when it comes to monetization, but he sweeps for devs who are just as, if not more, at fault for the state of shitty games. I sincerely doubt the execs came down from on high and made the team make the story and characters as bad as they were. Even in his Anthem article, where it is blatantly obvious the issue was the devs not sitting down and actually forming a coherent plan, he tries saying that it is EA's fault for not doing more, even though they were doing exactly what he constantly fights for, letting the dev team do what they wanted without much oversight.

One just has to look at the times when a dev gets famous enough that he strikes out on his own, without any execs holding his leash.

Overbudget, over time and overpromised, every time.

And this pattern has existed since the 90s. Literally since dev fame became possible in the first place.

It's popular to hate the execs. Whether it's games, movies, TV, even print media.

But without someone to say "Hol' up. We want to make some money here. Stay with the plan, don't feature creep, kthxbye" shit invariably goes wrong.

Execs can fuck up, no question about that.

But so can anyone.

And a good exec can just as well save a project. Star Wars was fucking forcefed to theaters by 20th Century Fox.

The exec just won't ever get credit for it.

 

[agility_]

The meme 4chan "execs aren't to blame actually, it's those woke devs and furthermore.." opinion is finally put to rest when those anons land their first job and have to deal with company structure.

e: Sticker me all you want, you know I'm right.

 

[I Wanna Die]

One just has to look at the times when a dev gets famous enough that he strikes out on his own, without any execs holding his leash.

Overbudget, over time and overpromised, every time.

And this pattern has existed since the 90s. Literally since dev fame became possible in the first place.

It's popular to hate the execs. Whether it's games, movies, TV, even print media.

But without someone to say "Hol' up. We want to make some money here. Stay with the plan, don't feature creep, kthxbye" shit invariably goes wrong.

Execs can fuck up, no question about that.

But so can anyone.

And a good exec can just as well save a project. Star Wars was fucking forcefed to theaters by 20th Century Fox.

The exec just won't ever get credit for it.

Bungie was a big wake up call for me. Microsoft and Activision were holding them back in terms only in terms of their ability to fuck over their customers.

 

[Smelliest007]

One just has to look at the times when a dev gets famous enough that he strikes out on his own, without any execs holding his leash.

Overbudget, over time and overpromised, every time.

And this pattern has existed since the 90s. Literally since dev fame became possible in the first place.

It's popular to hate the execs. Whether it's games, movies, TV, even print media.

But without someone to say "Hol' up. We want to make some money here. Stay with the plan, don't feature creep, kthxbye" shit invariably goes wrong.

Execs can fuck up, no question about that.

But so can anyone.

And a good exec can just as well save a project. Star Wars was fucking forcefed to theaters by 20th Century Fox.

The exec just won't ever get credit for it.

I know it was Will Wright and Maxis was behind the retardation that was SimCity Societies. But wasn't it whoever woman who took the reigns of Maxis who caused SimCity 2013 or was that EA forcing online shit?

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

Bungie was a big wake up call for me. Microsoft and Activision were holding them back in terms only in terms of their ability to fuck over their customers.

Then there's Respawn Entertainment deciding to launch Titanfall 2 literally weeks between the newest Call of Duty and Battlefield when those games were still the unstoppable juggernauts of the FPS scene.

 

[Dispirited Helmet]

Then there's Respawn Entertainment deciding to launch Titanfall 2 literally weeks between the newest Call of Duty and Battlefield when those games were still the unstoppable juggernauts of the FPS scene.

Well that's the thing, that launch date thing was 100% an executive decision that fucked Titanfall 2's long term viability. A triple A game has a lot of hands on it at a lot of points, and if anyone in that entire creative process gets a bug up their ass they can ruin the entire thing: whether that's the development team or the executives depends on the game.

Specifically for Titanfall 2, there were third party research firms and other interests sounding the alarm about its release date, it was a known concern. To assuage those concerns, the game's producer (one of the founding members of Respawn) scheduled an interview right before it released and said "good games get noticed" and that "it (the date) was locked in a long time ago and there was no changing it." source


We know how that went.

Titanfall in general had an incredibly talented dev team; it was EA executive politics that sank the franchise, and the weird behind-the-scenes circumstances surrounding it led to the creation of Apex Legends and the eventual departure of most of the original devs (in favor of some DEI assholes, to boot). You look at some of the more modern AAA gaming fuckups, and it's probably just as much on the dev team as it is the executives. It's something that differs from case to case.