Posts by blackdog

Finally took the time to sit down cozy and watch Prospect last night. It’s not as good as the “best sci-fi since Moon” title card suggests, but it’s interesting. It’s a story of survival that leaves you with so many questions about world details.

It’s the most analog, in terms of tech, film in the genre I’ve seen in a while.

Dexter New Blood was a decent throwback at the then hit show.

I am hoping this social/metaverse won't gain traction. The fact that the barrier to entry is so high is comforting. It's just scary imagining all these people plugged in like in the Matrix, pursuing virtual shit that don't matter. Seems a way to just rob people of everything. The repercussions of socials are already well known, force feeding dopamine boosts to people seems like sending lemmings over the cliff.

In a sense it was cool the gaming we've experienced growing up, it was an equalizer, it didn't matter who you were, if you could afford to wear Nike at school or not, in game we were all the same and just the skill mattered... now with NFTs and all this personalisation content we are just recreating the clique aspect of the school playground. If I'm immersing myself in a virtual world is to get a break from the real one... are we gonna get people hustling to sell you shit, like those on the side of the street?

@Castle where do you find all that time to spend in VR, I've got a child to feed and educate, I can hardly message family when I'm looking after them. And when I see friends I want to hug them and share food with them... even if I could afford a VR kit, I just wouldn't have time.

Quote from will2k

On 1/12/2022 at 5:21 PM, will2k said: I remembered your post last time about pre-2010 gaming era nostalgia and I'm noticing this awful trend now for most games, where the graphics nowadays are getting photorealistic but the games themselves are getting dumber and too mainstream/simplistic.

Quote from Beck

6 hours ago, Beck said: Yeah I was talking to one of the level designers at work about this today. I'm finding it harder and harder to find a game I can really stick with and put a lot of hours into. Whereas 10+ years ago there were quite a few games that I would really enjoy and put many hours into.

Now some of this is probably down to me getting older, having less time to play, my friends not playing as much and my tastes changing.

Age is the biggest component imo. This is something I used to tell already back when I was moderating the Italian gaming forum, and that's many years ago: if we are realistic, we are not the target audience.

Most AAA revolves around these live service that we, as working professionals, in stable relationships, maybe mothers and dads, haven't got time for! I'm sure we have all seen stuff that looks like it can tickle our interest, but it's just too big and becomes offputting.

CliffyB was right when, responding to criticism to Gears of War, talked about the pros of shorter but more polished experiences. It's a shame we don't diversify more, for example I'd buy most COD games within the launch year, if they sold the campaign on its own at 1/3 1/2 of the price.

On top of time, themes are a big thing, there's not really much to connect nowadays for a mature audience. I'm so glad I played Last of Us only last year, I think it triggered some emotions I would have never felt before becoming a dad.

So tempting to try and get one. So many other things need money for... if I get the new job I'm interviewing for and a decent bump, I just might reward myself

The biggest acquisition in gaming yet: $12 billions!!!

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/10/2287…cquisition-deal

How is Zynga more valuable than Bethesda, it seems unreal... but I guess working on mobile/social games has a much higher ROI when you strike right. It's not even mentioned in the article that Zynga has acquired overtime many mobile-casual developers, and more hardcore companies like Natural Motion, the latter originally created the physics engine used in GTA4 and other R* games, and then they moved to the casual space with successful series like CSR Racing.

I hadn't followed the plans for the Season Pass, so comes a bit as a surprise that it's all a revival of the previous 3 chapters. You'd want this content to go along those games, and use the DLCs to expand on the characters of the latest iteration? Just me?

That being said, the type of gameplay is the type of thing I like, good for shorter runs and blow some steam.

I wonder if we’d have the same reaction from a blind test. I’m looking at this on my phone, I’m sure a random person on the street would think why I’m looking at desertic caves photos. What’s this weirdo into?

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned, but it’s a big component to achieve photo realism, would be the general simulation/rendition of air dust. Those city shots look very detailed but clearly CG because of that reason, IMO.

It’s something I never noticed until I went for a hike in Canada at 1200+ meters: the air was so clean, the pictures I took up there look so detailed, almost as if I used a different camera or lenses.

~

All of this looks great, and it’s very exciting in a way… but from a gaming standpoint I dunno how much I care: I always felt the real “next gen” would be when the AI would actually make the world feel more immersive, when systems are more interconnected and allow for long term consequences and make the player feel they really had an impact.

~

Nice to see an Italian working on the core tech of the engine ☺️

I’m pretty sure that sketch is in “Raising the bar” art book

Been watching these, was great to find out fine details behind the scenes.

I think I left this one halfway, whilst the COD one I watched. Very cool to see in person who worked on stuff you actually remember from the game.

~ I was really close to buy TF2 again, on Steam this time, to play with mouse and try the MP… but whoemIkidding whosgotthetime. Was crazy cheap.

~ I might have posted in the talks thread but there was also this presentation about TF2 campaign

Quote from FMPONE

16 hours ago, FMPONE said: No, no new weapons. Just new story and levels and animations.

Honestly even though people seem to want to see the trailer in advance, I’m worried that we won’t end up converting as many eyeballs to downloads as we would with a day of launch. Valve’s social media game is seemingly non-existent outside of CS:GO, so there won’t be any support there. Ultimately my priority is to get workshop downloads and people into the game

Yep, that was exactly my thought.

I don’t think it harms to have a trailer ahead, puts a pin for those who are following, but that means you definitely need a second video for release day. You know the resources you have to work with.

In the grand scheme of things, being a mod, long tail beats all else. Which means a message “get it now”.

You could release every so often (once a week, every two weeks) little snippets, like 15 seconds of even just a static room letting the environment do its job, maybe have a combine walk by or something, that sort of “giffable” content. If you update for bug fixes and changes, release something then, etc.

I think it depends how many influencers and reporters you can get involved. I think if you have that type of support you do in advance, otherwise if you’re counting on the trailer alone, it’s better to have a shorter delay if not contextual release.

Mods are not like full games.

Goes without saying if you release after the trailer you probably need a release trailer to confirm it’s out.

Is the mountain a custom texture of yours @will2k? seems like taken from a map/geo app

Quote from will2k

19 hours ago, will2k said: More progress

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/tFMtYMM.jpg]

Looking good! I imagine is Dying Light’s engine?

That another corner of Italy you got there? ? Makes me think of the lakes region

lol Romero, milk it while you can

Shouldn't this just be in the same memorial topic there was already?

Anyone played GTA5 with bluetooth headphones? I'm having problems with both my Microsoft Surface and Sony XM3. Everything plays fine in windows or other games, but GTA goes silent a moment after it shows the logos at the beginning -- now i remember why i abandoned the game (as i wanted to play it on the tv).

I've just tried to adjust settings according to this topic and the first follow up answer, but still no joy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GrandTheftAu…oblem_with_the/

if you have a solution please let me know.

Artstation training is now free. Earlier this year Epic acquired this platform as well.