Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

Definitely. Stuff like, err... basic or altogether absent A.I. for NPCs and drivers, lol... isn't a lack of polish. Parts of this game are just plain unfinished. The project's internal and external timelines seem to have been VERY mismatched, and I'm guessing the management kept announcing mini-delays out of desperation when they realized this. The proper thing to do would have been to announce it for a mid-2021 release and emphasize that it's a game primarily designed to be played on next gen systems.

It's particularly funny when you consider that there was even one of those promotional videos for it where the Ghost in the Shell trailer narrator guy talked up the game's believable A.I.

@Arugula I thought I move our conversation here. I'm usually quite organised, but even more so this year due the current circumstances, and working from home has its advantages. Not that I have a great deal to get anyway. We scaled things back a few years back in our family as it was becoming too expensive for some people to buy for everyone.

YOU KNOW WHAT I CANNOT FATHOM??? HOW I'VE SPENT HOURS AND HOURS ON A LEVEL OF CRASH BANDICOOT 1 THAT SHOULD TAKE 3 MINUTES. ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH

@TheIdleCritic Is it the one on the bridge perchance?

They've added the RT performance mode to Spidey Remastered

@nessisonett Oh god...

No, it's Native Fortress, on the first island lol. time trial takes 3 minutes. I'm getting very agitated. I've wasted a whole day.

@TheIdleCritic Oh yeah that one was pretty annoying. I will say that I just couldn’t be arsed getting 100% on the first Crash game but the second is a lot better and the physics engine seems to suit it a lot more as well.

@nessisonett I hate it. I really hate it.
It doesn't have the slamming, or the sliding, or the helpful little landing indicator. And WHY does he move on different planes (plains?) Some of the levels are 2D, why on earth does he have movement depth? Sometimes when I jump on a turtle, he lands off behind it. Sometimes he doesn't hit the box above it because for some reason he's jumped up and he's moved from the X axis (?). Grrr.

@nessisonett I DID IT. I BLOODY DID IT. I'm going for a long drive around the M25.

@TheIdleCritic Congrats, you’ve done what I genuinely said ‘sod it’ to! I look forward to seeing your frustration towards the later levels 😂

@nessisonett @Kidfried I've decided to skip Crash 1 after that debacle. Started the first level of 2 but I'm burnt out on that game for today (probably for a while haha. I started playing at 2pm today, and it's now half 11).

@Arugula I really hope they didn't have to do that live!

@TheIdleCritic I just saw your post about your dream about ant Dickens, I just can't, I don't, i have no valuable words 😂😂😂

Crash 1 is a tough one, I didn't go for the full completion when I played it (but I may do in future). That bridge level that Ness mentioned, I tried to at least 100% that level at the time just because I had it memorised and didn't want to relearn it. I can't remember if I succeeded though!

@TheIdleCritic Crash 1 can definitely be a pain at times. Native Fortress was probably the first level I remember being a barrier when I first played it. Then there are the bridge levels and Sunset Vista.....

Honestly, I played the game enough to where it's second nature, but then N. Sane Trilogy put relics in the game, and that drove me nuts.

lol youtube is full of salty people who hate that TLOU 2 won GOTY.

the best video title i have seen is called "all the rewards cemented TLOU 2's failure".

like how does that even make sense? i guess if GOT would have won all those awards that game would have also been cemented as a failure accoring to that guy?

@jdv95 The same happens most years i think. Last year apparently Sekiro was too difficult to win it and the year before God of War because it wasn't Red Dead Redemption 2. 🤷‍♂️

A bit off topic, but I wasn’t sure where to post this —
I’ve been playing video games since I was knee high to a grasshopper but I don’t think I could effectively say how many frames-per-second a game I’m playing is running. How do people speak with such authority about what FPS a game is doing? Just reading the recent articles and comments about Cyberpunk and they talk about absolute numbers that I thought a person would need to have special equipment to measure, like Digital Foundry. I mean, I know when FPS tanks in a game, but I don’t know if I could tell what is 30 FPS and what is 25 FPS. I guess I don’t have the calibrated eyeballs of some people. I think the best I could specify is the frame rate is “smooth”, “semi-smooth”, “choppy”, “studdering”, or “a slideshow”.

@Th3solution My eyes are really sensitive to that sort of thing so I could spot it a mile off. Some people barely notice it as well, it’s down to the individual person. Rule of thumb for me, if I turn the camera and it’s noticeably jumpy (if you can sorta spot frames), it’s probably 30FPS. If it’s smooth, it’s probably 60FPS. Control dropping to below 30 at times was an absolute killer, I had to have a bit of a lie down after playing for more than an hour.

@nessisonett Yeah, I might not be quite as sensitive to it as other people, but I’ll notice a slow down, I just don’t know how to gauge 30 FPS vs 40 FPS, etc. God of War for me right now seems perfectly smooth, but I imagine it’s 30 FPS..? I think?

@Th3solution On PS4 Pro it’s variable 30-50 odds in performance mode and a stable 30FPS in resolution mode. I went back and forth with it because I have a 4K TV and the stable frame rate was actually possibly better than the variable unlocked framerate in the resolution mode. The thing is, games don’t aim for a cap of 40 or 50, they aim for a cap of 30, 60 or 120 FPS due to... reasons. Therefore you wouldn’t be able to pick out 45 FPS for example as it’s just indicative of a variable/fluctuating frame rate. The worst thing is when devs tie their game logic into the frame rate as that means PS5 cannot run an unlocked frame rate without ruining everything. So for example, if a developer takes for granted that a game would always run at 60FPS then they could check for a variable 60 times every second. This is where Bloodborne is an absolute shambles, it counts frames itself and individually instead of synchronising them with your display. That’s probably the main reason why there just won’t be a 60FPS patch on PS5.