Posts by Thrik

  • Battlefield 4

    I caught this while reading through some site about hardware choices, etc:


    Quote

    One of the reasons we went with the R9 280X over a similar Nvidia offering is that it will also support AMD’s Mantle API, which is a low level access API that allows game developers to directly access the graphics card hardware better optimizing games for better performance. So far, DICE/Frostbite/Battlefield 4 has confirmed support for Mantle along with a number of other game developers (Eidos, Cloud Imperium Games, and Oxide Games), which should be very interesting in the coming months.


    Yes, very interesting indeed... it's all starting to feel a bit one-sided in AMD's favour at the moment when it comes to GPUs, seeing as all the new consoles are using them and now this? Hmm...

  • [Feature] Valve's Steam Offensive

    Valve recently announced that it's to become a major player in the living room gaming arena. While the general public won't taste the fruits of Valve's careful plans until some time after the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have launched, we're potentially about to see a complete transformation of gamers' relationships with the hardware they use to play. SpronyvanJohnson analyses Valve's trajectory and considers where the Steam Machine could take us all.


    Read feature »

  • Declaring a project dead - when is it time?

    I see it a bit like gambling. Once you invest enough, just quitting feels crazy because you have to get something out of it rather than just admitting you wasted loads of money. So then you waste even more money, and more still, until eventually you're dying in a hospital bed with alcoholism and no family or friends, and have probably become a rapist too.


    The approach I took to personal projects some years ago is to just work on what I feel 100% motivated to work on. Go with whatever technology, technique, or inspiration is calling out to you. If your interest starts to wane, work on something else — only return to it if your interest comes back. Have like 10 projects going at once if you need to. Some will get finished, some won't. But whatever the case, you'll end up with a lot of cool shit and will have learnt a lot.


    The key is to just not become attached to projects. Personal ones don't really matter, nobody's going to fire you for not getting them done. You must learn to be OK with throwing away work without despairing over it or you'll just feel bitter towards your hobby, and when you have free time to do some cool work you'll probably just think 'Fuck that, I can't be bothered with <shitty project I'm bored of> so I'm just going to go play games instead'.

  • Playstation 4

    I guess, but I have used the PS3's Move controller which Killzone 3 supported and it felt awesome. Unless the technology has gone backwards (which seems unlikely) it's about as close to the accuracy of a mouse as we're gonna get until the Steam Controller comes along.


    The beauty of it is you can still roughly aim using the stick, but you can fine-tune where exactly you shoot using the pointer. It allows for quick reactions that you can't really achieve with a stick alone.

  • Call of Duty: Ghosts

    Quote from Vilham

    I actually have zero issue with that. Asset reuse should become a more prevelent thing (as long as the visual style is the same, seriously how many times does the same developer have to make a photo realistic bush), it would significantly help with making games cheaper to produce and let you focus on gameplay and new systems.


    That reminds me, in the same interview where Infinity Ward were discussing 'cinematic spec' assets they also described that by producing ultra-detailed assets that are scaled down for each platform it means that they can build a big library of assets to re-use in all their games. It is overall a smart strategy, but that video is admittedly taking the piss lmao. Seriously, what the fuck.

  • Call of Duty: Ghosts

    Wow look how similar the current-gen and next-gen versions of Ghosts look:


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHNFviGstlI


    To me it looks like a great-looking current-gen game but an unremarkable next-gen game. I'd even argue that in some cases the current-gen version looks better because (bizarrely) they're using different colour grading for the next-gen version.


    Going to be exciting to see how much better games look once they stop trying to work on current-gen too.

  • Call of Duty: Ghosts

    That guy in the video is exactly the kind of PC master race guy I don't really like too much. We all enjoy good graphics, right? But going around examining paint tins and cloths without even mentioning the overall art direction and look seems ridiculous to me. Those kinds of guys don't even care that much about the game or style itself, just the measurable parts. It's like camera nerds who spend millions on certain lens and sensor specifications but pay no attention to the overlook look of the photo.


    With that said, I am surprised by some of the low-fidelity stuff going on in Ghosts. I remember reading an interview with someone from Infinity Ward who was saying that they were building the assets to a 'cinematic spec' (i.e. good enough for use in a movie) and then removing detail/resolution in order to make them run on whatever platform they target. Not a bad idea, would be very useful for later re-releases and such. Surely every asset should look great if they were doing that? I guess it's possible they just went too far with downscaling certain things.


    Personally, I'd love to see all games made like that. Obviously you can never beat making a game from scratch for current hardware, but imagine if in 10 years time they could just re-release Deus Ex: Human Revolution with every single asset in the game being way more detailed because they built everything to that spec in the first place. It's a good long-term strategy that would go some way towards making games as timeless as classic films, but it'd require a shift in terms of how games are made and financed.

  • Playstation 4

    Yeah I agree, I've become a massive couch gamer and have basically no desire to make my home office computer gamer grade. Benefits:

    • Can enjoy time with girlfriend (or drive her out the room with loud shooting if I want privacy )
    • Amazing sound set-up
    • Big-ass screen
    • Wonderfully soft sofa

    Unfortunately there is a downside:

    • Keyboard/mouse is too much of a pain in the ass

    I'm hoping the Steam Controller will go some way towards finally killing that last downside, or at least minimising it to the point where it doesn't matter. If it does, I can honestly say I will never miss sitting alone in a chair at a desk while gaming.

  • Call of Duty: Ghosts

    Yeah, surprising. Whatever your opinion on the game and its release schedule, Call of Duty has always been a pretty safe bet in terms of quality. Could this be the first exception to that rule that leaves even its most die-hard fans cold, with the new generation spelling the end of the franchise's grip on console gaming?


    Well, probably not. But I think more people should stop for a moment before blindly buying it this time around if the reviews are anything to go by.

  • Playstation 4

    24 FPS is pretty shit even in movies where motion blurring hides a lot of it, at least for pans and such. 24 FPS in gaming is madness, lol. 30 FPS is an absolute minimum as far as I'm concerned. For me, 1080p (the maximum 99% of living room gamers can actually perceive) with as high a frame rate as possible is what developers should be targeting.


    Also the 'just go buy a PC' argument really sucks. Consoles have lots of great exclusives, and even when games are available on the PC it's often much later and with compromises — things are getting better, but we ain't there yet. And of course couch gaming is more difficult on a PC, at least until we enter the Steam Machine world.


    Don't you think we'd all just have PCs in our living rooms if it were practical? I've actually had a Crysis-spec PC in my living room which I used for gaming for a year and it was a constant pain in the ass in almost every way. Saying that we're not allowed to have an opinion on tech specs and performance because we haven't invested in a powerhouse PC...