Posts by Thrik

  • What have you watched recently?

    Still got Luther playing on my mind, some really memorable shit in that programme. Can't recommend it enough for fans of any kind of crime/psychological drama. No season three on Netflix yet though, hopefully the trend of excellence will continue.


    I've now started watching Dexter from season one, and after a couple of episodes am already starting to feel hooked. Definitely love the premise, hopefully there'll be lots of morality shit to come where I'm forced to feel conflicted about whether or not I can really get behind what he does — it's an area the formula leaves wide open for exploration.


    I'm also trying to consider which of the million shows on my Netflix list I should alternate with, currently leaning toward The Walking Dead. Of course, I've now got 24 season nine episodes appearing for viewing... shieeeeet.

  • Big Budget Games - Input needed

    Haha, very succinct but true marks.

    I think that putting money into exceptional games is commendable, but this industry is unbelievably unpredictable. Even the next Call of Duty game could end up being a complete flop if everything lines up a certain way, never mind something completely new and unknown like Destiny. Plus there's the quality and fun of the game itself to consider: you can throw endless marketing at a game, but if it gets sub-par reviews and doesn't have something that makes people desperate to play it (i.e. extremely well-known IP) then it counts for nothing.

    Another thing to consider is that a studio isn't necessarily going to produce gold every time, even if it's experienced huge success in the past. Angry Birds is one of the most successful games of all time, but I bet you that Rovio will never release another hit that comes close without using the Angry Birds IP. I have no idea whether or not Destiny will be a great game, but can any game be guaranteed to be amazing? Is it really smart to bank so much money on the hope that it will?

    Personally, what annoys me about so much money being spent on one game is that it means there are numerous smaller games that aren't getting green lit. If something like Uncharted 2 can be developed for about $20m, what kinds of games are we missing out on when $300–$500 is laid down for a single game? Imagine if we could see what games weren't developed as a result of such costs being put aside for Destiny — can any game really be worth the sacrifice of all those others?

    What's interesting is that on a game-by-game basis, the development costs means nothing to us; we'll play the game and we'll either like it or we won't. If we go and spend £45 on a game and we enjoy it, we're happy. But if Uncharted 4 came along and cost a BILLION dollars to make and we know the kind of effect that would inevitably have on peoples' livelihoods and the development of games in general, at what point do we say 'this is a bit too much'?

    I guess the film industry should be looked at here because they've gone through a similar situation there and things have more or less balanced out I think. They bank huge budgets on things they think will sell like crazy (e.g. Marvel films), but when a film doesn't do so well they seem to survive. I wonder how many jobs and such are lost though, and what kind of effect it has overall. I guess unions protect people?

    But let's not forget that these film studios are massive, and simultaneously fund both small-budget indie films and blockbusters alike; even though they put huge sums aside for epic films, they also produce (via different brands) low-budget 'art' films and other such things. Does a comparable company exist yet in the games industry? EA and Activision are no Disney or Time Warner.

  • What are you playing now?

    Yeah, not to over-hype it but GTA5 literally shits on its predecessor in every way. The gameplay feels much more refined (i.e. shooting is as good as any cover shooter), the missions are way more unique and designed rather than just 'go to waypoint, kill everyone, escape police', the story is much more interesting, the characters are better written, and the jumping between lead characters creates some awesome moments. The game world is also infinitely nicer IMO, none of that endless grey.

  • What have you purchased recently?

    Think I just went a little crazy with my catalogue credit.

    • Wii U
    • Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
    • Super Mario and Luigi Bros
    • Super Mario 3D World
    • PlayStation 4
    • Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
    • Battlefield 4

    Looks like you're not seeing me for a few months.

  • What are you playing now?

    Finished GTA5 and now don't know what to do with my life. I put about 80 hours into that shit, what a great experience. I don't think I'm going to bother with GTA: Online, but I'm very much looking forward to the single-player DLC that Rockstar has said will be coming later this year — there are lots of areas and aspects of San Andreas unexplored in the single-player campaign.


    Not sure what exactly I'd like to see in the DLC. Surprisingly, gangs and mafia weren't dealt with too much so there's plenty of scope for stuff there. I expect that it'll have to be something big though so that the game's best mechanic — multiple characters — can still be used. Of course, what I'd like to see even more is something that goes beyond San Andreas altogether and opens up more of North Yankton or something.

  • What have you watched recently?

    Finally got round to burning through Luther on Netflix. Seriously edge-of-seat stuff, one of the best crime dramas I've seen. Programmes like this always get me thinking about how sad it is that people end up with similar fates in the real world though, god damn.


    Also got through the first season of The Following, which I thought was similarly superb.

  • [Feature] Virtual Reality: The Final Platform

    Quote

    "My very first memory about virtual reality comes from an ad for Nintendo’s Virtual Boy due for release in 1994. I was 11 at the time and this ad sparked my imagination. True 3D graphics, wrap-around viewer, two High-Resolution displays, etc. Gaming would never be the same again. Unfortunately the system was a commercial flop and due to its failure in Japan and America, the Virtual Boy was never released in Europe and discontinued less than a year after its initial release. With that, my interest in virtual reality faded."


    Read more »

  • What's going on with your life?

    The whole cutting back on porn thing has caught my attention after being brought up by two people now. Why is that? Is it the porn itself you're saying is a bad thing or the fap? I definitely agree that it's best to avoid either if you're actively pursuing relations because it kind of takes away your drive to bother and you don't be as forward as you should.

    As for me, week was going pretty well then yesterday I was basically crippled and could barely move all day — think I strained my back through moving heavy shit and/or sleeping badly. Feeling a bit better today so hopefully going to get some productive stuff done. Got new MapCore content to publish, a surprise £250 bill from my ISP after moving to get pissed off about, and a Wii U to order.

  • What's going on with your life?


    This is great to hear.


    Not for the same reasons, but part of why I've been making so many changes recently is because I realised that I was getting increasingly unhappy due to me not making time for my own simple pleasures, things that I really enjoy doing. Since focusing 100% on myself, I've become so much more positive about everything it's unreal. Even just making time for my most basic of hobbies like gaming, watching films, and playing an instrument has made me happier.


    In some ways I feel like I've gone back to where I was about four years ago, when I was similarly focused on self-betterment but I ended up putting that aside because for whatever reason I decided that finding and keeping a relationship needed to be my #1 priority instead. It sounds horrible to say, but it's almost like my life went on pause for a couple of years as I tried to make an increasingly futile relationship work. The ambitions, drive, and self-belief I had back then have returned after being absent for way too long.


    Mixing things up is definitely something I recommend to those feeling generally dissatisfied. Even moving to a new apartment can feel like a fresh start, although a new city or even country (not done the latter yet) is even better I imagine. With life being so short, there's every reason to totally stir things up on a regular basis and go way out of your comfort zone. I was going down the road of sticking with the same stable job for years on end and living in the same shitty town, and my god am I glad I escaped that.

  • What's going on with your life?

    The idea of this thread is people talk openly about how they're currently feeling, good or bad. If too much spotlight is put on discussing just depression (assuming that's what you mean) I'm not sure it'll work so well. A 'depression thread' doesn't seem quite right, whereas it's less pressure to bring such personal matters up in a thread like this. I might have misunderstood what you meant though.


    I do hope that this thread will exist for a very long time to come though, as I always want to know what's up (and down) with my MapCore family. People never want to make threads all about themselves even though many of us care about each other.

  • What's going on with your life?

    Wow, some really hard times for some but I think it's great to discuss these things openly. We don't do it enough in the modern age IMO, especially if you're a bit introverted anyway which many developers seem to be.

    I've never had depression, but I have learnt something from friends and family who've suffered from it that some of you fellow non-sufferers might not quite realise: there's a big difference between actual depression and anxiety, and concepts such as 'feeling depressed' and 'feeling anxious'. The latter are simply states of mind that we all experience, but the actual clinical types that I think some in this thread are referring to aren't just things you can shake off, and most of us have never experienced it — not even for a day.

    I think of it a bit like this: imagine that someone who you seriously, seriously love has died. No matter how many people tell you to focus on other things and just get on with life, you're not going to feel much better, right? That's pretty much how I understand clinical depression to be: you can do anything you like, but short of taking something that helps with the part of your brain responsible for the state of mind it's not going to help very much. The gloom is always there.

    With that said, there's a lot of evidence that drugs aren't necessarily the only way. Exercise, diet, avoiding certain drugs, etc can also make a huge difference and should be the first ports of call. And I do think that a lot of guys in this thread make a fair point, which is that escaping environments and circumstances that exacerbate depression is a good idea. It won't eliminate the condition, but it'll certainly avoid making it worse.

    Anyway, I'm kind of speaking for a group I've never been part of here, but for many years I almost dismissed depression as a real illness because I thought that it was just a mood and that those suffering from it should just snap out of it, cheer up, and stop seeing everything so negatively. I didn't appreciate that it was a legitimate psychological condition, and in fact it's even worse than the grief I mentioned earlier because at least that can be healed by time.

    Telling people to not take medication for such a condition is like telling someone not to take antibiotics when they're suffering from an infection, and to just will the bacteria out of themselves instead.

  • Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

    That name is really bad, lol.


    The screenshots look good, love a bit of Kevin Spacey too. It's really interesting to see proper likenesses and performances in games, now that the fidelity is there it actually works very well (same for Beyond: Two Souls). I guess that as games become so potentially realistic, faces have to be based on actual people and performances — expecting artists and animators to immaculately make up characters is a very bad use of time, although I can imagine some vehemently oppose the idea because it's less creative. Of course there'll always be more stylised games to produce things from scratch, just like with films.


    WTF at the video though, 90 seconds of ads before I can watch it? Get fucked Destructoid.

  • Beyond: Two Souls

    So I finally got this to console myself following my console's demise, and it's reminded me why I've always been on the 'love' team concerning Quantic Dream's polarising games. While it's the same old story in that much of it is spent triggering scripted moments and going around relatively controlled environments, there's just something about the atmosphere and immersiveness of these games that's unique.

    In some ways they're a showcase of technology, because my god does this game look good both in terms of fidelity and animation. The environments feel very alive and fun to just explore. Despite being a last-gen game it feels like a glimpse of the future, and if developers can combine this level of attention to detail and cinematic feel with different styles of gameplay (ADD GUNS THEN ITS A REAL GAME LOL) then we're in for a treat.

    I hope that adventure games make a comeback with this kind of quality. That's what Quantic Dream's games have always been at heart, and it's a shame that almost every other game in that genre looks (and often plays) like crap. Apart from the ones that are highly stylised, of course.

    I have to say though, the highly scripted nature of the game results in some really brilliant moments. When the camerawork, music, audio, art, and drama all come together they produce something extremely memorable — something that's not really a game or a film, where the term 'interactive entertainment' actually feels more appropriate.