DenzelDM

@BacklogBrad but it’s not just one artist and one job though is it? It’s happening all over. But look you’re clearly arguing in bad faith and you don’t want to care so have a nice day. Hope your job doesn’t get threatened by AI anytime soon (heads up it will)

@BacklogBrad PlayStation does these avatars regularly. And they would usually have to hire an artist for it. So yes. Someone did not get hired for this.
And everyone else involved would still be involved

@BacklogBrad and still it took someone's job. but you know. that's easy to ignore right?

@Chip-Douglas saying no one was replaced or lost a job is just straight up not true. Every other year this job would go to an artist. Now a technology, based on images that were never meant for it's training, has taken that job.
I'm sorry not everyone is a doctor. But you're on a gaming website and all games are made by artist, coders etc and ALL their jobs are being threatened by this technology.
But sure, let's just let the corporate overlords waltz over us, because those jobs aren't as important apparently.

This is such a great move. (Obviously being able to play native would be better but considering everything this is huge)
Would love to get codes or something for games I have physical so I could stream those too…

Genuinely tempting to buy more digital. Until I see the prices on the PS store

@Rich33 Yeah I've read similar things. I'm sure the guys complaining about Aloy in FW will be happy with their trash knock-off

@BAMozzy There's a big difference in blatant rip offs like this though. Doom/Goldeneye/Halo all have very specific looks and even games inspired by them (restistance for example) are still very recognisable as they made an effort to visually have different things going on. Cod, Battlefield are all taking place in our world, so obviously there will be more similarities there, but even then there is a substantial effort from the developers to make the game it's own thing.
This one is actively visually ripping off Horizon. For it's visuals, trying to look like it instead. (again, would not be surprised if they used AI generated art to come up with the concepts/promo images for the game)

That girl on the LoM image looks like someone did an AI prompt for Horizon but anime. Looks like absolute slop

Honestly, the text by itself wouldn't be a huge thing.
but it's a slippery slope and a worrying trend.
also if they used this, there's no guarantee they didn't use it for other stuff. Did they use genAI for concepts or some of the writing etc...
it just throws the hole thing into question.
Not to mention it just feels lazy... honestly it can't be that expensive to have someone write something up for the screen.
Glad they're getting a lot of backlash on this. Hopefully it teaches them to avoid doing this sort of stuff in the future.

What if I own the games physical? Genuine question. I assume that doesn't work?

@themightyant So, just so you know where I'm coming from, I work in animation and have friends who work in gaming.
Even if morally trained on only owned IP (which for a company like microsoft is a VERY wide spread of games) an algorithm will only be able to "collage" ideas from different games together.
This isn't the same as artists taking inspiration, as the program doesn't understand why things look the way they do, when they search through a database of images.
Fundamental design choices (big vs small shapes, complex vs simple etc) get lost and you get things put together messily. It'll feel somewhat like what you've seen but it won't actually stick in your mind the same way because the process was thoughtless.

Now to the point that they're not using it to generate content and only for quick iterations.
Once a visual has been established, with AI or even just a quick pencil sketch, an idea gets locked in our minds.
Say the algorithm creates 10-20 ideas, the preferred one will end up as the core idea and the artists will end up only marginally changing things because the producers, who pay you, want the thing they saw. (I have seen this happen already)
Essentially it makes the artists just clean up ideas that the algorithm has pushed out, taking all the actual artistry and ideas, experiences, etc that a human brings to the table out of the equation.
Hence the slop people talk about.

@themightyant There is a HUGE difference between AI and Generative AI, which is the slop people are referring to.
The video here does seem to refer to Generative AI to come up with things "quicker". But this will in general just mean derivative of other games and so we will end up with even more copy paste games or slop than we already do.
This is a race to the bottom and will devalue gaming and the hard work that artists put into it every day

Clearly the Series S is a problem for AA games. Smaller games run on it easy enough and AAA studios have recourses/experience to get their games to run on both systems but lots of games in between struggle plenty

@PuppetMaster fair. I gave up, before ever trying, on the “she looks like a man” people cuz those are forever lost from reality.
But Porcos theory was so easily debunked by logic that I forgot this is the internet for a moment…

@Porco I highly doubt that this is a PR move from any studio.
I work in animation and have worked on shows for Nick, Disney,…. And know people who work on games too as there’s a lot of overlap between certain roles.
People working on these shows or games often make fanart of things we enjoy without ever having to check with anyone about posting.
Studios usually aren’t afraid of us going online talking negative stuff cuz, even if we don’t enjoy something, we know it took a lot of work, effort and heart to make something and sometimes things just don’t come together.

All that to say… this more than likely is just an artist making fanart of something he enjoyed getting retweeted by the studio (or more specifically the person in charge of their twitter account) who’s excited over people liking their game. Not to mention that stuff like this is basically free advertising for ShiftUp. As they could mention he works for a studio with a high pedigree.

@ShogunRok Amazing! It's going on the christmas list then ^^

@Nakatomi_Uk I have and I get he hates it, but he's also one of the only reviewers that feels that way. It's valid, but one point of view among many.
I've never played the first two games so have zero interest in similar tone. From what I've seen the action looks like it could be fun and so I'm just asking someone who's played the game

@ShogunRok As someone who loved the ME trilogy but couldn't get into Dragon Age Inquisition and hasn't played the other DA games. Would this be a better fit?

there was already an elegant solution for people who want to play digital only. Just do that and don't use the disc drive that's part of the console.
As @Neither_scene said, this is very much about forcing people to use the PS store that sells games at inflated prices and gives a price monopoly.

still very much enjoying the game, but I do wish some of the premium passes would become cheaper/free after x-amount of time.

The trailer is fantastic! The two characters could create a fun mix of gameplay of the older AC stealth and more open world brutal action. Definitely curious. although the required internet connection for installation is a massive bummer and pushing it from a possible day one to play it on ps plus

If it wasn’t using AI generated art is give it a go… but now it’s a no from me.
Same deal as The Finals… these companies shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this unregulated theft.

@BansheeNorn OR they could just learn to deal with their not liking a piece of media like normal human beings and not threaten anyone….
Now, go learn how to be a decent human being who doesn’t think attacking anyone (actor or dev) over a game is even a remotely normal response before you’re allowed back on the internet.

@ChrisDeku don't try to argue with wiiware. I remember him complaining about how Aloy looked in HFW.......... this is gonna be a pointless argument, just let him be angry and sad

It's barely an awards show, caring more about marketing and actors than celebrating the people who make the games... You know the reason it's an awards show and not a winter gamefest.
Especially in a year where game studios have been hit with this many lay-offs that was disappointing, although not surprising.

...good announcements though

Anything involving Bobbypills as a studio deserves your attention! this will be nuts!

No issues yet. Been playing on graphics mode and at 60% through the game... wondering if I should switch or if I've passed the point (without getting spoiled)

I installed remote play on my steamdeck so no way is this of any interest to me...
Even if it was a proper handheld I'd have had questions as they're fumbling PSVR2 about as hard as they did Vita or the original PSVR, releasing far too few games for people to want to adopt the hardware.

I was wondering about the pace too. The logical part of my brain that's watching it as a show felt it was well paced, but the part of my brain kept reminding me of the game.
I asked my wife after the episode ended how she felt about the pacing of the episode and she didn't notice it being rushed at all.
I think this is one where we just remember how much of the game this episode covers.
At this point you can pretty much guess what each episode is going to be (Next Left Behind, then the Lakeside resort, and then getting to the hospital ending season 1)

Since Arcane and Cyberpunk have been some of the best adaptations, game or otherwise, I'm open to this!
Just depends how it's handled. Mostly it doesn't have to follow the same story as the game. Honestly it'd be a lot more interesting that way.

Considering the open threads at the end of 2 this was inevitable. Loved both those games so bring it on!

That being said I do hope they're working on some new IP internally. But I'm there for anything ND does. They have not let me down so far.

I'll watch it for the steam deck giveaway. the time is stupid though so I might not make it all the way
If it wasn't for the giveaway I'd just catch up the day after

@theGoodChap what I said is that the right winged crazies have gotten so many people riled up with the word.
He might not be far right, never said he was, and be critical of the GOP (hard not to be , if you’ve got half a brain cell, and yes same goes for some in the left jeeez I see a comment coming) but he still used the laziest excuse to not admit he made a very mediocre game.

And now I’m just going to reuse my response to someone else.
People can have opinions but using woke as a punching bag is just sad and antagonising. The moment you use it you ask to not have a decent conversation, as it's become a baseless complaint for people to throw around if they want to attract a certain audience.
if he actually created reasonable arguments (even if I don't agree with them) then it'd be a very different conversation. and my words would've been a lot more respectful.
But by adding "woh me being attacked by woke reviewers", there's no point in doing that anymore. It's a bad faith statement.

@Genghis_Schlonng nope. it would've still had terrible writing, a bland world design and the most boring fetch quests imaginable...

@The_Moose lol look at you trying to twist words.

People can have opinions but using woke as a punching bag is just sad and antagonising. The moment you use it you ask to not have a decent conversation, as it's become a baseless complaint for people to throw around if they want to attract a certain audience.
if he actually created reasonable arguments (even if I don't agree with them) then it'd be a very different conversation. and my words would've been a lot more respectful.
But by adding "woh me being attacked by woke reviewers", there's no point in doing that anymore. It's a bad faith statement.

Using "woke" as an insult just shows you're a sad sack who wants to jump on a right wing bandwagon.
All it means is being respectful of others. then right wing crazies turned it into something negative.
This guy is either making it clear who he wants his audience to be.

Oh and I played the game on PS5, and after a few hours I had to stop. It was just so boring gameplay wise after you finish your first horde, with an empty world

@Belatarr oh no hurt feelings here that show is very mediocre at best. just thought it was funny writing one of as fan-fiction when they both are

@Belatarr LOL so are the games XD

Of course it's unnecessary, but I do believe that Naughty Dog is putting in the work and that it'll be a solid remake... once the price is lowered

if you like naval combat this'd be fine I suppose. But I don't. Add to that managing your crew... this is a big nope for me

Reading this comment thread was a mistake. leaves

Played the game earlier this year on ps5. It played alright and the first few hours are pretty fun but it became a true slog halfway through.
It didn't introduce any real new elements and the story and writing was too cringy so never finished it.
Still a shame it didn't get the green light for a sequel. It clearly found it's audience and with some improvements the sequel could've been an absolute hit!

NFTs are 99 percent a scam. Half of the art being sold has been taken off off someone's website, so it's also art theft too. (or you own absolutely nothing, cause the artists still have the original file on their computer anyway.)
That's setting aside the massive amounts of damage it does to the environment to just make one NFT... this in a winter that feels like spring.
Yeah some people will make a quick buck, but there is nothing right about NFTs

I don't mind the voice acting that much but I do find it strange that the faces just don't seem to emote.... I know gameplay won't suffer from this and that part definitely looks like it could be a lot of fun, but showing so many faces where the eyes are just big and wide and dead is kinda off-putting?

@naruball those free sources aren’t legal ways of watching anime. Which means legally it most definitely is (same way Disney buying out Fox is a monopoly).
And with an industry on the brink due to overworked and underpaid artists, I don’t think those “free” sites are any welcome sources to that industry.

@naruball it’s a western monopoly. As combined Crunchyroll and Funimation distribute at least 50% of anime.
It might sound advantageous now, but in the long run this won’t be good for consumers.

@Areus right! I thought EA bought them later on. my bad

lol isn't this EA saying they're surprised the games BioWare made before EA bought them still sell way better than anything since?

Hah they really want us to go buy those games on sale this month, haven't seen it this bad in ages

I've played a good bit of Apex but why do all these free to play games basically look like a reskinned version of one another. it genuinely doesn't make me want to try them out at this point