Comments 1,712

Re: 'I Think So': God of War Actor Hints at the Return of Sex Minigames in PS5 Remake

wildcat_kickz

@DETfaninATL It's not about the originals at all. What's cringey is how much of a fuss people are making about whether the sex minigames will or will not be in the remakes, as if this is the most important part.

Things I think are more important:
1. Will gameplay be more in line with originals or Norse saga?
2. Will this be 3 games or 1 large game?
3. Why is this being done internally at Santa Monica and not at the recently closed Bluepoint?
4. What am I having for dinner?

Re: 'Did Not Work': The First Descendant Considered a Failure by Its Developer

wildcat_kickz

@RyPal I mean, I literally just made that argument about CoD. But what you're describing are franchises, which isn't exclusive to live-service. Every new entry in a franchise is a "continuation" of the last, iterating, building on, etc.

For clarification, what do you mean by "live service" or "GaaS?" To me, these are almost completely interchangeable with multiplayer games, or at least all multiplayer games fall under that umbrella. It's basically non-existent for a multiplayer game to not have some component of live-service because people would get tired of the same content over and over again. All "live-service" or "GaaS" means is that there is additional content added regularly after the initial release.

Re: 'Did Not Work': The First Descendant Considered a Failure by Its Developer

wildcat_kickz

@RyPal I see where you're coming from, but don't really agree. You could reasonably make the same argument for CoD. One of Destiny's biggest problems is that they don't have good onboarding and when a game has been out for a long time, it's really hard for new players to feel like they can have a meaningful experience that isn't completely overwhelming, bogged down by years of layered mechanics.

By releasing segmented installments, it allows for a hard reset, evening the playing field for everyone. It also allows the developer to tackle a different angle, era, setting, etc., while staying in the same universe. Destiny 3 doesn't need to continue the story of 2 or 1, especially because that story arc is over.

Re: Assassin's Creed Unity's PS5 Patch Is Put to the Test, with Some Surprising Results

wildcat_kickz

I'm sure I'll get back to it at some point. I do actually really like Unity and the FPS/Resolution bump is really noticeable. The patch doesn't fix the inconsistent cover mechanics, but I didn't really expect that either.

Unity has probably one of the most interesting settings of an AC game, thus far.

I remain confused as to why a French/Canadian publisher and developer gave everyone in the game UK and Irish accents, though. The entire game is populated by Jean-Luc Picard.

Re: 'Did Not Work': The First Descendant Considered a Failure by Its Developer

wildcat_kickz

I think most people here know that I'm not anti-GaaS, but I think one of the biggest problems in that sector is every GaaS wants to be a "forever" game. It obviously goes against every instinct in a share-holder's body, but games really should be designed to be finite. It makes space for more titles and even more releases from your own teams.

Destiny 2 should have ended with the Light and Dark saga, taking the same approach as Destiny 1: keep the servers up, but no new content. Even with Marathon, Destiny 3 should have been announced by now. The Last of Us Online should have been released with a 1-year content plan and that's it.

Call of Duty is a GaaS and they release new titles every year. I'm not saying that other devs (or even CoD) should have that kind of output, but it shows that games don't need to last forever - even GaaS.

Re: Opinion: Does Starfield Suck? People Keep Telling Me to Skip Its PS5 Release

wildcat_kickz

@Northern_munkey Regarding the loading screens, I too would love if Bethesda could figure out how to get rid of them. I was listening to a podcast and they gave a reasonable explanation for them, though. It has to do with the fact that Bethesda games track everything you touch in their games, so memory needs to hold on to that positional data. This is way more granular than any other game I've ever seen. It sounds like it would be too much information to track if they opened everything up.

No Man's Sky actually does have loading screens, but they're clever in how they hide them, like entering and exiting atmosphere, but they still don't have object permanence like Bethesda does.

That said, I think Bethesda should be able to figure out how to reduce the amount of loading screens, though unlikely they'll remove them entirely.

Re: PS6 Could Cut Costs with Just 1TB Storage, But Games May Have Smaller File Sizes Than Before

wildcat_kickz

@Rich33 Seems interesting for sure. I'm not smart enough to really understand anything Mark Cerny says, but I would love games to get smaller, even if it is just a byproduct of a data streaming solution. I know that the SSD was allowing for changes in game design as well (not relying on loading corridors, etc.), but because so many games up until this point were cross platform, not a lot of devs were really taking advantage of that to its fullest.

Re: Starfield PS5 Won't Play Off Physical Disc without a Download

wildcat_kickz

@Max_the_German I understand the frustration, but multiply that by the amount of copies they're actually producing and that comes to a hefty chunk of change. When you're talking about economies of scale, every penny counts. I'm not saying this "justifies" the choice, but does go along way to explaining it, at the very least.

Re: 'This Is Unsustainable Madness': Modern Video Game Budgets Are Out of Control

wildcat_kickz

@Shinnok789 I was using the "royal you." I didn't mean you, specifically. I don't think Americans are the only people who can make quality video games. The Witcher 3 is my favorite game of all time. I also hate my President, but to say, "they can thank their chieftain. 'nuf said" is a low effort, cheap shot.

You even have a God of War avatar - a game made by an American team.

Re: 'This Is Unsustainable Madness': Modern Video Game Budgets Are Out of Control

wildcat_kickz

@Shinnok789 No, @TrollOfWar didn't miss the point. You missed his point. It does matter where a game is made when we're talking about game budget. The cost of living in Poland is wayyy less than the USA, especially California. CDPR can pay their Polish developers way less to make the same game. Just wait to see how much Cyberpunk 2 costs, since it's being made in Boston, which is one of the most expensive places to live in the USA.

Edit: To be clear, I also think that game budgets are out of control, but if you want American talent making a game, you need to pay American wages.