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msbarrows · 1 year

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Posting these here because AFAIK they’ve long since disappeared off the internet anywhere else. These are the handful of screenshots I still have of Inertia (later - and only briefly - known as Full Auto), the original game that Pseudo Interactive was working on for Microsoft before this was cancelled and the contract to create Cel Damage as a launch title for the original XBox was signed (PI was the first 3rd party developer to be signed to create an XBox launch title). Which... also got cancelled by Microsoft, and then picked up and put out by EA instead.

Anyway, this was the title PI was working on when I was hired back in 1997 (when the entire company was four guys working out of David’s mom’s house). It was using a then pretty damn revolutionary real-time physics engine coded by David Wu (who’d worked briefly at Origin Systems in Texas before returning to Toronto to open his own game studio, along with two engineer and one musician friend of his). The vague idea behind the game was that the player was driving around on (and sometimes in) an alien planet at some nebulous future time, and the planet was infested with vehicular and robotic opponents. Also, your car had guns you could customize (yeah the guys were heavily inspired by Car Wars, I still remember their excitement at getting to meet and talk to Steve Jackson at GDC one year).

The game had a lot of problems, such as not being sure if it was more of a race game, or car combat, or a first person shooter (except for you being a car instead of a being), or something entirely different and unique. At one point David had to essentially rewrite the vast majority of the code, because so many things had been changed and/or added on (there was a tendency for him to create a simple feature such as animated textures so the world wouldn’t be as static, only to come in the next day and find out we had used animated textures to make a conveyor belt and a river and oh, hey, David - can you make it so this sliding texture has a physics effect on vehicles? Great, perfect, thanks!).

It suffered from a lack of direction, basically. It was also the most fun thing I have ever worked on in my life (yes including working on Cel Damage afterwards, plus some additional game demos after that). I still regret we never got to finish and publish it. I still miss working with the game editor and engine we used for it.

Some favourite memories:

See the screenshot of the blue car and the walker robot? It’s cut off at the top of the screenshot but there’s a sort of scorpion tail/reverse ostrich head bit on top of the robot that is an articulated arm with a gun on the end. That’s one of my levels - I can still remember what a HUGE GRIN I had on my face while play-testing that level. I’d encountered the walker robot, slammed into its legs with my car, and even while it was tumbling through the air from the impact the robot’s AI was driving the arm to try to continue facing me and shooting me.

Working on a different level, there’s a bit where you encounter what’s essentially a large bulldozer with a scoop on the front. I programmed the AI (using a very simple AI wizard, basically) that when it detected a player it would try to get close to them. If it was close to them it would raise its scoop and try to ram into them. If it was rammed into them (forget if that was also distance based or a sensor on the front), it would slam its scoop up and down. Play-tested the level, I’m driving through a darkened underground area, suddenly a big dozer slams into the side of my car, jamming my vehicle against a wall, and then pounds its scoop up and down on me. I loved how we could create such seemingly intelligent hunting behaviour using very simple AI rules.

The lower left screenshot with the vehicle inside a cylindrical space with a cluster of glowy things, that was one of the multiplayer arenas. We had control of gravity within each portaled space, so that cylinder was a ring of wedge-shaped spaces with the gravity towards the outer “floor” of each wedge, so yes you could drive all around the exterior of the cylinder. There were a couple of goals inside (at opposite sides and ends, so you had to go around the cylinder to get to the goals) and the cluster of glowy things is a ball. You’d catch the ball by ramming it with your vehicle, which attached it to you with an invisible elastic tether, and then you had to drag it behind your vehicle to get it to your own goal... with everyone on the other team trying to ram it and take it away from you, or shoot you. Yes it was very fun to play.

#Gaming #Game Development #Pseudo Interactive #David Wu

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kuiperblog · 3 years

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DRPGs: function over form

I have an odd affection for DRPGs, or “Dungeon-crawling Role-Playing Games,” which are sometimes referred to as “Wizardly clones” in the same way that early FPS games were called “Doom Clones.”

Legend of Grimrock is an indie game that I’ve found is closest to actually emulating the feel of the original Wizardry games from an aesthetic perspective while updating them for modern graphics; most of the examples from recent history are Japanese and feature anime-style character designs, with Etrian Odyssey being perhaps the best-known (and best-selling).

I describe my affection for DRPGs as “odd,” because few other games have the ability to thoroughly captivate me for the time I’m playing, only for me to completely forget everything about them when I’m done playing them.

For example, I recently noticed that Demon Gaze 2 was on sale for 75% off in the Playstation store. I’m keen to try it out, since I enjoyed the first Demon Gaze game so much that I took the time to 100% (I earned the “platinum trophy” so that anyone on my Playstation Network friends list can see the evidence of my achievement). This is a task that reportedly takes around 50 hours. I say “reportedly” because it’s based on other people’s reports of how long it took for them to “platinum” the game; I can’t really recall from memory how much time I spent playing that game, or really anything else about it for that matter.

I cannot express how weird it is for me to not have a memory of have any specific memories of playing a video game, especially one that I spent that amount of time playing. I can still vividly remember a specific game of Dota 2 that I played over half a decade ago. I could talk for paragraphs about an indie puzzle game that I played for 2 hours in 2012. You could ask me to talk about any of the N64 games I played as a middle schooler and I could probably recall many specific memories from the time I spent with those games.

And yet, when it comes to Demon Gaze, I remember nothing. Not the characters, not the plot, not any of the specific milieus or setpieces. And, truthfully, it’s probably because caring about any of these things is never really something that the game asked of me in the first place. I earnestly tried to remember anything I could about Demon Gaze, and here is a full, comprehensive list of what I came up with:

There’s an NPC whose character trait is that she’s always sleepy. I think she lived in the basement of...something. I think your “home base” was an inn, and she lived in the inn’s basement, and you would sometimes have to talk to her to do certain things or something.

One of the levels had plants and was mostly green. Maybe multiple levels, actually. I want to assume this meant there was a hedge maze, but I’m not actually remembering a hedge maze; I’m just assuming that a dungeon-crawling game plus a green area must mean there was a hedge maze.

One of the levels involved climbing a tall tower, or maybe descending into a deep pit. There was definitely verticality involved, and the map was cylindrical.

I think the main character used swords. But maybe they didn’t. I’m pretty sure that you could dual-wield at a certain point in the game. (I think part of what made the main character so strong was the fact that they could equip an artifact that let them dual-wield?)

That is truthfully and honestly the full extent of what I remembered about the game before I started writing this post and digging up screenshots which reminded me of the main character’s heterochromia. When grabbing screenshots for this post, I found one that showed a character’s class as being “Paladin,” and my reaction was not, “Oh yeah, Paladin was totally a character class in this game,” but “Oh yeah, Paladin totally sounds like a character class that could plausibly be in this game.”

Normally, I’d have memories of specific boss battles, or setpieces, or characters, or story moments. But in place of those, I have memories of looking at Google Sheets that people had made to list all of the items that dropped from certain areas, and ranked them to let you know which items were the best. I could more vividly tell you the decor of the room I was in when I unlocked the platinum trophy than the final boss I beat (or item I obtained) to unlock it. (Being a game for a portable system like the Vita, I actually have memories of many locations and “setpieces” associated with that game; just not locations in the game.)

DRPGs are, maybe more than any genre, a game that is experienced through a layer of abstraction, and I think this is best illustrated by the Etrian Odyssey, which lives in the DS family of systems, which are notable for having two screens (as is suggested by the name “Dual Screen”). Here’s a screenshot that shows what the game displays on both screens when you’re dungeon crawling:

On the top screen, you see the environment you’re exploring in all its 3D-rendered detail. On the bottom screen, you have a map of the area you’re navigating, with the arrow in the middle indicating your current position and orientation. And for the vast, vast majority of dungeon crawling, my attention is focused solely on the bottom screen.

This is, I gather, how most people play DRPGs. Etrian Odyssey puts even more of the focus on the bottom screen by forcing you to draw the map as you walk (hence the bevy of icons and paintbrushes it offers you when filling in the grid). If you try to play by looking at the environment, you’ll quickly realize how much of the area is just copy-pasted assets that are difficult to navigate by. The map isn’t just a “guide;” the game feels less like a first-person dungeon crawler and more like game with a top-down POV where your avatar is represented by that arrow on the map. If you watch gameplay videos and only pay attention to the top screen, you’ll be blown away by how fast it seems like people are moving, but it makes a lot more sense when you realize that people are only paying attention to the map: people will see, “okay, I want to walk north 5 tiles, turn 90 degrees left, then walk west 2 tiles,” and then just input that series of actions faster than the walking animation can actually play out on screen.

I’m half convinced that the reason Etrian Odyssey took off more than any other DRPG is that, due to being on the DS, it has an entire screen dedicated to the map, whereas in a game like Demon Gaze, your screen is mostly taken up with what amounts to decorative filler while the part of your brain that’s focused on gameplay has to focus on a mini-map in the corner of the screen:

So, perhaps you can understand how it is that I played this game for 50 hours, yet have no recollection of the scene/location depicted in this screenshot. It’s because close to 100% of my focus was on the mini-map. I experienced most of this game as an abstraction.

There’s a real sense in which DRPG players (I’m talking about myself here) want everything in the game to be an abstraction. The ideal length for a combat animation is “as long as it takes for me to read how much damage the attack did, so please just advance the battle as fast as I’m pressing the X button.”

Video games are inherently abstractions of real things, like the way that adding the pyramids to my build queue in Civilization V is an abstraction of what it’s actually like to build the pyramids in ancient Egypt, or left clicking in Counter-Strike is an abstraction of what it’s like to fire a gun, but they usually try to call back to the things that they’re abstractions of. Civilization gives you an inspiring quote from some historian describing the pyramids, and Counter-Strike tries to have animations and sounds that somewhat reflect the behavior of real guns. But in DRPGs, I don’t want the combat to be the simulation of my character swinging a sword on an enemy. All I care about is watching the numbers flash on screen, and the reward isn’t “you’ve triumphed over this vile forest-dwelling enemy,” it’s “the number on your exp meter went up.”

While games like World of Warcraft eventually become like this for a lot of people (a game with a hundred buttons that is all about managing cooldowns), you at least start from a place of walking your avatar around the world and performing actions that make your wizard look as though you’re casting a spell. But most DRPGs start from the position of “all you care about is the numbers, right?” The game is an abstraction unto itself. It is a game that is made for people who like looking at spreadsheets (and I most definitely spent a decent chunk of time looking at spreadsheets).

Maybe that’s why they can get away with having character designs often clash with the art style of the environment and enemies, and sometimes with the art style of other party members. Several of the character portraits in the above screenshot seem like they were drawn by different people, and there are some moments that, when you look at them in a screenshot gallery, make you think that the characters just don’t belong in the world they’re inhabiting. And while the game is sometimes visually non-cohesive in a way that becomes really obvious if you pay attention, the truth is that when you’re actually playing the game, you’re not really paying attention to all that.

For another example of this, I like to turn to Stranger of Sword City, which has a really cool aesthetic that hits you from the moment you pick up the box (or look at the title screen):

The original release of the game, on Xbox 360, was remarkably consistent with this specific style. But the Playstation Vita version of the game (which was later ported to PC) gives you an updated character creator and your options include, well, a variety of options drawn in a variety of different styles.

I just looked at the screenshots on the Steam store page for the Stranger of Sword City and, well:

Yes, that is a Prinny in the bottom left corner. Yes, Nippon Ichi did publish this game, why do you ask?

I think one of the reasons I don’t tremendously mind the aesthetic choice (or is it a lack of choice?) in a lot of DRPGs like this to randomly have anime-style characters (even when they might be dissonant with the rest of what’s on screen) that I don’t necessarily need my paladin’s look to really communicate that they’re a holy warrior or whatever; I really just want them to be eye candy that I can appreciate in the moments when I’m distracted from the numbers. But in the end, it doesn’t actually matter that much, because, well...

DRPGs feel like they are all about function over form. (The “looking at the mini-map and not the 3D environment” is a microcosm of a playstyle that’s encouraged by a design philosophy that seems to apply to nearly everything in a “good” DRPG.) This puts them in stark contrast to, say, Persona, which involves a ton of dungeon crawling, but relies heavily on the style (which includes the battle music, the stylish combat animations, and the quips that your characters make in battle) to make that part of the game interesting.

When you down all of the enemies in Persona, part of the “reward” for that comes from getting to deal a bunch of damage to all of the enemies, but a huge part of the reward also comes from the feeling of visceral pleasure that comes in the moment when Akihiko senpai says “I’ve been waiting for this!” and you smile and agree and say, “Me too, Aki. Now give me that shot that’s so iconic it became a meme template.”

I probably would not have made it through dozens of hours of crawling through Tartarus in Persona 3 if Mass Destruction weren’t such a banger of a battle theme. But I spent just as much (if not more) time dungeon crawling in Demon Gaze despite not having Lotus Juice’s rap verses soothing my ears during those battles, which I guess maybe stands as a testament to how good Demon Gaze was at making the game fun?

Ultimately, the abstraction that every RPG leveling system gets toward is “your character gets stronger.” Maybe DRPGs are better than any other genre at removing any abstractions that would serve as a barrier between you and that goal. And the best DRPGs also give you formidable challenges that give you ample reason to want to become stronger: games like Etrian Odyssey are notorious for their difficulty. I feel the difficulty is a bit overhyped; much like my feelings on Dark Souls, Etrian Odyssey only really feels “hard” when compared with other games where the player is never put plausibly close to a failure state whereas Dark Souls and EO actually punish the player for making mistakes, and EO also has the “X-factor” of having enough variance (due to things like random crits) that you actually do want to give yourself a decent margin for error. Which is to say, EO is one of the RPGs where you actually care a lot about having a team that’s strong enough to kill a boss in 8 turns instead of 10 turns, since that’s 20% fewer chances for an unfortunate event to send you back to home base. Powering up your team in EO feels important and significant way more than it does in a lot of other JRPGs.

There is a very real sense in which the entire point of the obligatory spreadsheet companion is to aid you in your quest to become the strongest you can be by breaking the game somehow. The thing I do remember about Demon Gaze (not concretely, but in the abstract) was that there were some item/class combinations that were wildly better than the alternatives. Some might deride this as poor balance, but in my eyes, “breaking” a game in that way is really more akin to “solving” it, in the same way that one might “solve” a puzzle. I did it: I found right combination of skills and items to trivialize the game’s difficulty! Huzzah! In a “well-balanced” game where all items and classes were all carefully tuned to be equally viable, such a thing would not be possible. Thus, what others might consider “poor balance” in some DRPGs is actually an essential and core part of what compels me to spend time with those games.

I feel like these factors and more make DRPGs somewhat unique in a way that probably contributes to them reviewing poorly. For example, if you look among discussions on DRPG forums about recommended games, there seems to be universal consensus that Stranger of Sword City is a great game (with many praising it as the best DRPG they’ve ever played), but on OpenCritic, only 45% of critics recommend it, and I think all of this is perfectly encapsulated by a 6/10 review from TheSixthAxis:

Stranger of Sword City excels at one thing, and really flounders at the others. It’s a rewarding experience if you’re a fan of challenging RPGs and gameplay depth. If you’re a fan of well-written dialogue, engaging music or proper difficulty curves though…well….there are a lot of other video games out there that may suit you better.

And that’s the kind of thing that makes me want to locate a guide, crack open a spreadsheet, and start a new save file.

Anyway, the Stranger of Sword City is on sale for 80% on Steam right now. That’s $4, for a game that I paid $40 for when it first came out on Vita! I’m tempted to buy it again, just for the convenience of being able to play it on my monitor without having to dig around to locate my old Vita TV.

#drpg #stranger of sword city #video games #nippon ichi #jrpg #atlus #persona #demon gaze #wizardry

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gtavicecityapp · 3 years

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GTA Vice City Review: A Classic Never Goes Out Of Style

Parachute pants, big hair, and pale sports jackets may not be the height of style nowadays, but gamers were in the middle of a digital resurrection ten years ago. Grand Theft Auto Vice City rode about the enormous (and pleasant ) victory of GTAIII using a new setting, a much more character-driven narrative, and an elegant sandbox universe, which makes it a string popular even now. People who wish to relive the glory days of the 1980s (and 2002) may download the game on Google Play for only five dollars.

Can Vice City live up to expectations? Well, no and yes. The technical facets of the game, and Rockstar's ambitious dedication to the sandbox design, have not aged well. If you have played GTA-style games in recent years, Vice City will appear simplistic and laborious. The game's comparative absence of sophistication works nicely in the brand new mobile form factor on the flip side. People who are burnt out to the "everything to everybody" design of Grand Theft Auto IV (guy dates, anybody?) Will enjoy the simplicity. And as an interface, Vice City excels on high-powered hardware.

Crime Pays Pretty Well, Really

The narrative begins with Tommy Vercetti, a mafia guy. He has just been released from prison and delegated to emerging criminal possessions in Vice "no, it is not Miami, we swear" City. Players can build a criminal empire by stealing automobiles, busting drug prices, intimidating less elastic sellers, and even killing lots and lots of individuals. The narrative is amazingly coherent and plays out like a love letter to Scarface. Voice acting is strong - really, the actors and actresses much outclass their electronic avatars' capacity to express them.

Compared with the elderly Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City includes a lot of depth, even though it isn't immediately evident. A broader selection of weapons and automobiles (like bicycles and helicopters) will be the icing on a remarkably profound system of property and money laundering. Play about half the game, and you will have the ability to get and upgrade land, subsequently making you money. It's possible to invest this money in more and better hideouts and improved equipment. Coupled with more collectibles and side assignments than you can shake a 12-gauge at, Vice City provides about 30 hours of playtime directly through and at least 70 hours for completionists.

But moving straight through assignments in this sort of game is practically missing the point. You'll end up hard-pressed to withstand the desire to crash automobiles, race tanks, try out numerous challenges, and normally create the Vice City Police Department to make their cash. At times, the subtle and, sometimes, a not-so-subtle comedy that endures through the game should delight the twelve-year-old in you (also create the adult in you feel guilty). It goes without mentioning that this game isn't intended for children and should not be played with them between the picture representation of criminal behavior and novelty.

They Do Not Make' Em As They Used To

To a technical degree, Vice City is somewhat behind the times. Textures are flat and dull; draw space is almost zero, and also, the individual versions particularly seem like something from a 90s game. All these were forgivable back to the PlayStation because of the sheer extent of this game. Still, past an increase to a resolution that's thankfully flexible from the settings menu, there are not any improvements. To put it bluntly, the game is ugly, but that should make it much easier for older hardware to join in the fun. The screenshots in this review have been shot on a Transformer Prime, with settings maxed out.

On the plus side, this comparatively low degree of graphical elegance makes the game run amazingly well on Android. Vice City is quicker and more straightforward in my tablet computer than it had been in my own dusty old Xbox, also. As mentioned above, people who demand a little additional oomph in their hardware ought to have the ability to correct the digital resolution of this game to match. More annoying are the marginally older gambling conventions present: both the planning and leaping mechanics are annoying at best and utterly ruinous at worst. The simple fact your character dies almost immediately in water at a game consisting almost exclusively of islands remains incredibly annoying. These issues are not specific to the Android variant, but it is a slight bummer that Rockstar did not address them at the translation.

The highlight of this game's demonstration, today as then, is your sound. Total voice acting was uncommon back in the afternoon, and also professional, devoted focus on the figures was less. Combine this with Vice City's full complement of period-correct radio channels (and, of course, exceptionally entertaining faux chat channels ), and you would do yourself a disservice if you did not hear this game on a fantastic set of headphones.

Catch A Controller

This is generally the stage in the review in which I lament a game's touch-based controllers, and really, Vice City leaves a lot to be desired in this section. You can fix the camera by sliding in the center of the display, but what else is accomplished by onscreen buttons - lots of these. It is a complex game and demands many excellent controllers, particularly in these sections where you are working guns or flying vehicles.

The controls are responsive and quick, for the most part. I can not fault the designers for the intricacy of the game because simplifying the controllers will need gutting a lot of actual gameplay. If you are patient and well-coordinated, you should not find the touch controls a significant barrier to your enjoyment of this name.

Grand Theft Auto is supposed to be played with a gamepad. Recognizing that, Rockstar programmed complete gamepad support (such as the PowerA Moga, for all those who took advantage of this current free advertising ). After hammering in my Logitech gamepad, the digital controls automatically vanish, and the layout yields. There are a couple of hiccups; for instance, there's no visual indication regarding what to press to take a telephone call. But overall, it is a virtually perfect emulation of the classic gameplay. Throw in an HDMI adapter, and suddenly you are back in 2002 - with high-definition images to boot.

Conclusion

There are many slight issues with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the majority of which have already been with the game since its first edition. Meaning that it is challenging to play with no control, and it'll punish gamers used to more pliable, contemporary mobile games. However, for those willing to check beyond its flaws, the game is delightful and engaging as it had been a decade ago.

More than this, it is a beautiful price. While five dollars is on the other side for Android games, many games at the Play Store do not have the breadth and scope of Vice City, and they will not keep you going for months on end. If you are a casual fan of Grand Theft Auto or sandbox games, Vice City is essential. Otherwise, await the game to go on sale (it probably will at some stage ) and snag it afterward. You will not regret it.

#GTA Vice City #GTA #Vice City

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oldmanyeshomo · 4 years

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Why I hate Tumblr

Look at me, I’m making a post about why I hate Tumblr on Tumblr. That’s valid grounds to say “Oh look at you making a post about why you hate Tumblr on Tumblr. You hate the site so much then why are you on it?” I’m on Tumblr because I don’t have any other social media where you can blog without a word limit, or getting a removal due to lack of relevancy, so I’m doing it here. Also, why make a post criticizing Tumblr anywhere else? I’m trying to criticize a site so I might as well make my criticizations happen on the site itself for convenience, even though likely no one will see this post. I’d also like to preface this post by saying that I am not trying to spread hate despite the very misleading title. I hate Tumblr, but there’s a set of reasons for that which I will get into later. I can hate something and not spread hate about it. I will not fix what I don’t like about the site by spreading hate so I will attempt not to do that. Even if I had the intention of spreading hate, how I am going to do that? Galvanise my non existing followers into brigading Tumblr? I am fully against that type of behaviour online, and I don’t lie about my opinions online. That’s something else I’d like to say. I will not change or hide my beliefs. I will own what I believe in. That doesn’t mean I’m going to push my way of life on you, and it doesn’t mean I’m not open minded. It means, for example if I say I hate eggplant, I hate eggplant. If I say I like Trump I like Trump. If I say I support Women’s rights I support Women’s rights. I will not lie about what I believe in.

Anyway, the first thing I hate about Tumblr is the lack of respect for heterosexual people. I know that not everyone on the site shares the same beliefs, but from what I’ve seen on the site I can firmly say some people do not have respect for people who are straight. What kind of disrespect am I talking about? The kind where people say “Oh you’re straight? Boringggggggg” Which gender you like does not influence who you are. Gay people are not automatically the belle of the ball because they are gay. I am not the cat lady down the street who knits all day because I am straight. Sexuality should not influence whether you are quote unquote “interesting”. It’s very arrogant for someone to say that straight people are uninteresting. Like, I get that LGBT culture has a reputation for being flamboyant. But, consider this. LGBT people are not the only people who can be flamboyant. I’ve met lots and lots of interesting straight people. I’ve met old people with lots of interesting stories about their past and they’re straight. I wish people would stop using their sexuality as a crutch to tell people they’re interesting and put down people who are straight as being not interesting. In my eyes, everyone has something interesting about them. It could be a talent, a hobby, a past experience but everyone is interesting in their own way. I’m not saying this because “muh straight people”. If I was bi, gay, pan or ace I would say the exact same thing. This isn’t a post from a straight persons perspective but from a persons perspective. If I hadn’t said I was straight you should take the post and see it in the same light. I don’t mind people being interesting and flamboyant, I mind that they put down other sexualities to do it and use their own to support the fact that they’re interesting.

The second thing I hate about Tumblr is the arrogance. I cannot even being to describe how much mental agony I’m put in about arrogance. If someone is even the slightest bit arrogant, online or anywhere else I am instantly put into a state of anger. I cannot even begin to describe how angry I get. It is the strongest emotion I can possibly begin to comprehend and it happens when people are cocky without reason, arrogant because they can be and condescending. If I didn’t have the self control my house would be a cheese grater of drywall holes because of the constant, FUCKING anger I get into about arrogance, because of how much I see it online. Even if someone is being arrogant to say, Trump after his fiftieth racist tweet I cannot stand it. I’m not the only one who hates arrogance either. It’s pretty much a universal thing unless you’re a monk or something. Arrogance attacks what humans are, giant egos. We are at the top of the food chain because we cannot stand being at the bottom. We rose above every other animal because we cannot stand being below someone. It is this ambition and ego that drove us to where we are now, and while having an ego is bad sometimes, I would not be writing this, as I sit in my chair in my house if we did not have egos. This ego is what leads to me be so fucking infuriated when someone online is arrogant or condescending. It makes me want to go Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 lobby but in text form. That’s why I always try my very best to not be arrogant. If I hate arrogance so much then I can only imagine everyone else who hates arrogance, so I try my very best to not be arrogant, but it seems not everyone else had the same bright idea. I see what’s fun about being condescending, but my god. It is such mental torture to me. And guess what Tumblr is. A sassy, arrogant, condescending site. You say something someone disagrees with. Arrogant response. You argue with someone. Condescending response. Someone posts a screenshotted tweet. Condescending tweet. Someone disagrees with the tweet. Arrogant replies. This isn’t contained to Tumblr, but it is where I see the most infuriating examples. I loathe the culture of Tumblr, where open mindedness and acceptance is often thrown out in favour of a cocky response or a condescending baby talk reply. This sassy culture is what I hate, and I see it everywhere. That’s why I try to be open minded and accepting, but guess what, Fucko? No one else is gonna be. Good job on trying to have a nice respectful argument, because while you show the other person respect, that’s something they won’t reciprocate as they throw passive aggressive condescending remark after the other at you. Despite the trouble with trying to remain open minded and accepting, I still can’t give in and let myself sink into the arrogance that is the internet. I will keep trying because if I don’t I have no right to complain. Anyway, my point is. people should be open minded, respectful and down to earth everywhere. If someone has an opinion, let them have their opinion without being overly rude about it. If someone is contesting your point online, try to not dismiss it right away.

That concludes my rant. In conclusion, be respectful, not only to me but everyone else. If you would like to point out something you didn’t like about my essay then feel free, but please try to be open minded and respectful as I will try to be. Obviously its dumb to make a somewhat controversial post and not expect people to be rude to you about it, but I believe in the best of humanity. We as the human race should not be thinking about how we can stop each other but how we can help each other. We live on one planet, we share it with everyone else so if your fellow human is trying to get something off of his chest, try to remember we will get nowhere in life if everyone else is ignorant of each other. Reciprocate people with respect unless they definitely don’t deserve it, like if they committed a genocide, but aside from that try and be respectful, even if its not easy. Thank you.

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teaandgames · 4 years

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The Tea Times - June 2020

Well, we’re officially over halfway through the year at this point. I know for many people it feels like we’re dragging ourselves over that point but try and keep your chin up. All bad things must end. In the world of games it’s been a rather packed month, with some high profile releases and some unexpected announcements coming out of the woodwork. Hopefully that’ll tide us over for the second half of the year where things will, hopefully, start to look up.

At A Glance

Valorant, Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, Desperados III, The Last of Us Part II, Summer in Mara and Pokemon Cafe Mix released.

Resident Evil 8: The Village, Crash Bandicoot 4, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2, Pokemon Unite, Pokemon Snap and Lost in Random announced.

Kingdoms of Amalur is getting retooled!

Rumour mill: Far Cry 6 and Batman!

UK strikes out at loot boxes!

Playstation 5 is revealed!

Cyberpunk 2077 Re-Delayed!

The Releases

My goodness there’s a lot to get through this month. Let’s begin with Valorant, a team shooter developed by Riot Games. Many team shooters have jumped up and been smacked right back down but Riot Games, the League of Legends lads, have some proper grunt behind them. I’ve heard a lot of positive chatter about Valorant, and seen some exciting videos, so there’s every chance. I’m too incompetent for these type of games but if you’re not then it released on PC on the 2nd June.

I’m also too incompetent for Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection but that’s not going to stop me. While it’s not much of a collection, containing only Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Red Alert, there’s a lot of love in the package. The retooled art is nice to see, while also preserving the spirit of the original. It’s a heavily nostalgic game and a reminder of when RTS games were about the base building and not screaming at your teammates. If you fancy a trip down a FMV-laden memory lane then it was released on the 5th June.

Desperados III caused some long forgotten light bulb to spark in my head, though I can’t really explain why. It’s a real-time stealth game set, rather unsurprisingly, in the Wild West. Was there much stealth there? My mind has been too corrupted by images of people blind-firing at each other with revolvers. Still, Desperados III seems to have an action element to it as well for when you’re bored of killing people and stashing their bodies. It’s also getting decent reviews too, which is encouraging. If you fancy some rootin’-tootin’ throaty slittin’ then Desperados III came out on Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the 16th June.

Summer in Mara is a funny one. It popped up constantly on my Facebook, sending me ad after ad. Normally this would turn me against a game but, in a rare twist, it actually got me pretty excited. It’s a farming game, with an exploring element to it and I am all about that. It also looks gorgeous, in screenshots at least. I actually didn’t realise it was out yet so I will soon be booting up either Steam or my Switch to get on that. I’m ready to waste another hundred hours. It released on the 16th June.

Well now here’s one that’s been doing the controversy circle. Released on the 19th June, The Last of Us Part Two was quickly subjected to review bombing. Possibly because it committed the cardinal sin of acknowledging that the LGBT community exists. Ah well. That nonsense aside, it’s picking up top scores and awards, much like its predecessor. It appears to be heavily story focused though the physics, by the look of it, are top notch too. If you liked the original then give it a whirl. It was released on PlayStation 4 on the 19th June.

Even more unexpected is Pokemon Cafe Mix. Not too much to say about this one, to be honest. It’s a pleasant little puzzle game about serving folks in a cafe, which is staffed by Pokemon wearing adorable outfits. It’s free to play, with microtransactions, and seems like a nice little game to kill a few minutes. It dropped on the Switch on the 23rd June.

The Announcements

It seems like every five minutes, I found another game that had been announced. Not least of all is Resident Evil 8: The Village. If you remember, I adored Resident Evil VII and I hope that the sequel carries on its spirit. It’s certainly in first person and the trailer gives me hope. It also has an old man in a flat cap with a shotgun which always gives me hope. The trailer is absolutely dripping with symbolism too. It should be coming out next year.

Next in line of the unexpected sequels to nostalgic games is Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, which has a trailer set to The Rockafeller Skank just to maximise that early 2000s nostalgia. As you might expect, it’s about time. That title has its tongue buried deeply in its cheek. It looks like a proper return to form too, with bright colourful graphics and a fresh Cortex plan to ruin. While I never got on that well with the Crash Bandicoot franchise, I know a lot of people will be excited for the return to form. It’ll be out on October 2nd.

Lord, they are cranking out Bloodstained games, aren’t they? Back in 2018, the original Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon came out, which was an old school Castlevania game in all but name. A companion game, Ritual of the Night, made things 2.5D. Now however, we’re back to Curse of the Moon with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. It looks like it keeps the old school Castlevania art style, which is nice to see. If you’re in the mood for an older flavour of game, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 will be out on the 10th July.

The second controversy on this list is a new Pokemon game, Pokemon Unite. In this case, the ire may well be justified. Pokemon Unite is a MOBA, of all the bloody things, which is a bit of an odd move. It’s a pretty heavily saturated genre, full of big names, and I don’t honestly know how much market Nintendo will be able to carve out of that. Add in the fact that it has a definite connection to Chinese company Tencent (which doesn’t have the best reputation) and it goes some way to explaining the mountain of dislikes the video has gotten. Ah well. A release date has yet to be announced.

What is much more up my street is Pokemon Snap for the Nintendo Switch. The original was one of the highlights of my emulation days. Basically, you ride on a little cart through the world of Pokemon, taking pictures of them in their natural habitat. Then Oak looks through them and reveals how weak of a photographer you are. It’s not a game for everyone but if you always wanted to see Pokemon frolic around like normal animals then Pokemon Snap is your game. No release date yet, though.

Still not too sure about Lost in Random to be honest. I think I just like me some dice games. It’s set in a fairly dark world where people’s fates are decided by a roll of the dice, but it also has something of an upbeat tone in the vein of Tim Burton. It’s an action-adventure game, with some pretty heavy looking combat, set in a gothic fantasy world and all of those are good things. If you like the sound of it, then Lost in Random will be out next year.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Well this is one I wasn’t expecting. I did a whole piece about how the intellectual property had been handed around like a game of hot potato, even landing in the hands of the state of Rhode Island at one point. THQ acquired the property rights in the end and they’ve now announced that they are giving it a fresh coat of paint, which is being handled by the folks at Kaiko, who did the Darksiders remasters. So it should be fairly decent.

What confuses me is that the things they are working on are the graphics and the gameplay. The two things that Kingdoms of Amalur didn’t really suffer from. The game always looked pretty gorgeous, to be honest. It captured the spirit of a fantasy forest nicely. I never looked at it and thought, damn this needs retooling. Same with the gameplay really. It wasn’t anything amazing but it wasn’t screaming for a remaster.

Honestly, Kingdoms of Amalur’s biggest flaw was from the core design. The huge open levels with bugger all in it, quests that didn’t really do anything interesting and long lore dumps that put you to sleep. That’s not really going to change if you’re just doing surface level stuff. Still, we don’t know for sure what they’re changing so you never know. The remastered version should be out in August.

The Rumour Mill - Exotic Locales And Batman

The first of our rumours this month revolves around Far Cry 6. The latest entry Far Cry 5 was set in North America and revolves around a cult, which probably hits a little too close to home for some people. If that’s not your bag then you’ll be pleased to know that Far Cry 6 will be set somewhere more exotic. No exact details at the moment but I imagine there will be sunshine and clear waters. It’s also supposedly due to be released before April next year, COVID19 depending. If the rumour is true, we’ll hear more about this on July 12th.

For those more interested in the caped crusader then you may be interested to know that there’s a good chance of Warner Bros. announcing two Batman games in August this year. This rumour is fuelled by the fact that two domains have been registered. They point towards two titles, ‘Gotham Knights’ and ‘Suicide Squad’. The second one is more obvious and probably inevitable, given that we’ve had a whole film about them. Not sure about Gotham Knights though. We should hopefully have more info at DC’s fandome event on the 22nd August.

UK Says Loot Boxes Are Not OK

Following on from the example of companies like Belgium, UK ministers are asking for a review of evidence with regards to Loot Boxes in games. The issue comes from the definition of Loot Boxes as gambling. It’s not an unreasonable definition, as it encourages people to put in a varying amount of money for the chance at getting something rare and exciting. Everybody wins, of course, but most of the time it’s basic stuff that entices you to try again. Sounds like gambling to me.

People aren’t too happy with advertising gambling to under 18s so this decision has a lot of weight to it. If Loot Boxes are declared to be gambling, then games will be required to remove them or change them up so they can be sold to under 18s. They may even remove the games entirely. How enforceable that will be remains to be seen but it will likely make it harder for multiplayer games to be marketed in the UK. Not a happy thing but we’ll have to wait and see what the evidence says.

The Sleek, Sexy… Router?

Well here’s an interesting one. Sony released their first images of the PlayStation 5 design this month and people are already disagreeing with it. I can see why. It’s a very sleek, futuristic design. Minimalist white and grey in an obelisk like shape. I’m in two minds about it myself. On the one hand, it’s quite sleek and attractive. It doesn’t look like a ‘console’ which I think is a good thing. It looks memorable.

On the other hand it looks like a wireless router. You’ll have to make your own mind up on this one.

Re-delayed

Just a quick one to end on. CD PROJEKT RED are fully committing to making sure Cyberpunk 2077 is ready to go. To that end, it’s been delayed back to November 19th. They’ve been fully transparent as to why as well, which is refreshing. Essentially, while it’s good to go content-wise, they need extra time to go through everything and iron out those bugs. A good reason, as reasons go.

They did however release some new gameplay trailers to keep people going, so make sure to check those out to remind yourself why it’s worth waiting until November! That’s all for June, see you in July!

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thelongestdamnreviews · 5 years

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Mega Man Network Transmission

Mega Man Network Transmission is one of those games I've had forever due to buying it at GameStop back when they actually regularly stocked GameCube games. It took about six and a half hours to finish. Through the magic of emulation, I used an Xbox 360 controller and had to play around a little with the controller settings in Dolphin since the GC and X360 layouts are a little different.

Nothing serious, considering you never need to use either stick. Jump on Xbox B, fire on A, use chips on Y.

TLDR The Good

Callbacks to the Classic series - From the disappearing block puzzle in Ice Man's stage to having reversed gravity sections in Gravity Man's stage, people who are familiar with the Mega Man Classic games will see some nice references to the Robot Masters here in the stage gimmicks. Some viruses come straight from the Classic games and aren't found in the other Battle Networks!

Great music - Even the "basic Internet" theme is high-energy and gets you in the mood to beat the crap out of some viruses. Every other stage has its own theme and I found myself not really liking only a handful of tracks...amusingly enough, the remix of the home theme from MMBN was one of them.

Flexibility/Customization - Much like the BN games, you can stick whatever chips in your Folder, but there are no Chip Codes and copies of a single chip stack to a set limit instead of each taking up a Folder slot. Chips also helpfully tell you in what situations they can or can't be used (on the ground, in the air, on a ladder, while using a wire hanger) as well as how many MP each use burns. PowerUPs return for the Mega Buster to boost its damage, its rapid-fire capabilities, and enables/quickens charging too.

Shh, I X series now. The wire hangers show up in a few stages but there aren’t any vertical ones at least.

TLDR The Bad

Early-game hell - Your Mega Buster starts out horribly weak, you have a small variety of chips that are also weak, and said chips are your best means of actually killing viruses to get more chips. The first boss in the game can kill you in about four hits with the right Armor and mercy invincibility is extremely short. It's not that bad afterwards but it's far from the easiest sidescroller Mega Man game, potentially worse if you're not used to how chips operate in the context of the gameplay. Like having an MP meter but also so many uses per chip.

Some grinding required - You'll need to kill viruses quick and with little to no damage taken to get them to drop chips, and you'll need to pick up Zenny coins in the field to fund increasingly-expensive upgrades and other chip purchases. This ties back into the hard start but at least you can immediately use chips you pick up if you’re already using them, or once you shuffle your Folder if not.

RNG screwage potential - Just like the core series, you can still end up with a bad draw of cards in the Custom menu. You'll have to wait longer than in the BN games for the Custom gauge to fill due to the more actiony aspect of the gameplay, but you can get up to ten chips to show up on future draws and you can eventually find/buy FastGauge and FullGauge consumable items.

Trying something new here with the review format. Why not put some TLDRs on top?

It's been a month since Lan and MegaMan.EXE defeated the WWW's Life Virus and peace has returned to the land. But now there are rumors of an even worse virus making the rounds and a tainted vaccine that's making Navis go crazy. Time to jack in and uncover the mystery of the Zero Virus! Huh, where have I heard that term before?

TrustMe.exe has encountered a problem and needs to restart.

Mega Man Network Transmission is a mashup of Classic Mega Man platforming with elements of the Battle Network series. MegaMan.EXE runs, jumps, shoots, and slides through a variety of stages while navigating around traps and destroying viruses in his way. You place chips in a Folder and these are randomly selected when you call the Custom screen and you can then use said chips a limited number of times, limited both by what you find and buy but also the arbitrary limit the game sets. I didn't play one stage long enough to see if completely-expended chips were made reusable when you burned through the rest of your Folder, however. There's also an MP bar that limits your chip spam but at least it constantly regenerates. The elemental strength/weakness system is still in place and since this takes place before Battle Network 2, you still have elemental Armors to mitigate damage instead of Styles.

Hitboxes are pretty tight so I’m unfortunately eating the shock in this picture. I need a better system to take screenshots.

I mentioned earlier that the Mega Buster is lackluster at the start and it's telling when it takes you ten shots to kill a basic Canodumb, or three with maxed Damage. It gets better with more levels in Charge, to the point it almost becomes a gamebreaker because of how quick it is at max Charge, limited by a full-power charge having annoyingly short range and you losing your charge level when you take damage. When aura-equipped enemies start appearing near the end, your Buster won't be able to make them vulnerable so try not to neglect your Folder like I did.

Chips mostly behave the same as they do in their core series with several adapted to 2D gameplay, and there are still Program Advances too. Even a basic Cannon + Hi-Cannon + M-Cannon combo gives you ridiculous firepower that also makes you invulnerable for several seconds--and it only uses one copy of each chip in the combo! You can only have one active chip/PA at a time of your ‘hand’ of five and you use L/R to swap through them, or you can trigger Standby Mode and freely swap while the game is halted (though the Standby Mode notification blanks out most of the action).

Unlike the regular Battle Network games, you don't play as Lan at all. He shows up in the story and he tools around in his room when you're not jacked in, but that's it, no skating through the overworld this time around. Several characters show up in portrait form but otherwise aren't even given models. And speaking of models, every Navi you beat creates a toy figure in Lan's room of that Navi which I thought was a nice little touch. And because I don't really have anywhere else to fit in this complaint, the Japanese-only audio kind of got on my nerves and very little of it is actually subtitled.

The jack in sequence is kinda impressive the first couple of times, but you can’t seem to skip it--and you have to watch it in reverse when you jack out!

Stages are pretty basic Mega Man fare. Flat sections, sections you can slide through, ladders, enemies, spikes (that actually only deal 200 damage this time around so you can survive them after several HPMemory upgrades), instant death pits, the works! Work your way to the end of the stage and face the boss in a battle to the death. You're given a confirmation before entering the arena and almost all of them have a big health recovery behind the portal so you can heal up before duking it out. I oddly got Mega Man ZX vibes with the way you enter new stages from the central Internet stage (ZX) and where you pick from stages without knowing who the boss is beforehand (Advent). I mentioned the Classic Robot Master stage references but not every stage has them (SwordMan's doesn't seem much like the one in MM8) or the boss doesn't match the stage (ShadowMan's stage has the platforms from Guts Man's in MM1).

I generally get frustrated when taking on disappearing block puzzles, but none of them in this game were all that bad.

Progression starts you against FireMan.EXE as the first boss, then you have to track down GutsMan.EXE, and you're given small batches of stages to choose from before getting railroaded again. Navi difficulty is kind of all over the place--BrightMan was my bane yet SwordMan that came after him was no problem. Interestingly, you can slide between the legs of some Navis and come out unharmed. There's an area on the map where you can refight defeated Navis for their chips based on your performance. Some bosses have gimmicks like BrightMan’s shield and a counterattack, or GravityMan having a tiny vulnerable area while you manually switch gravity by jumping.

I found the game to be pretty hard, a bit more than the average Mega Man sidescroller. I've played every Classic game apart from Mega Man 11 and I still had a bit of trouble, like QuickMan's stage having instant-death lasers that never turn off once activated. There are other parts where you need pretty good timing on your jumps and your slides to avoid unnecessary damage. I wouldn't say the game is unfairly hard other than at the start so if you can soldier through that, you might be able to enjoy yourself. Lan will always notify you when you hit zero BackUps, so you should probably jack out to not only refill your extra lives, but also to keep everything you picked up during this outing. Having to work back to the boss room is a chore, but being able to exit a stage before defeating the boss is very rare in any Mega Man game.

You can’t seem to jack out during a boss battle and you can only save in Lan’s Room, so try to be careful!

And I did enjoy the game. Great music and fun familiar gameplay were a great combo, and it didn't outstay its welcome. Farm 10 DoubleJump chips off of the flying penguin enemies in WaterComp's starting area and you'll be able to explore a little more in the cyberworlds since there are no Mega Man X-styled permanent upgrades or anything. I found the controls to be pretty tight and there are a lot of chips to collect, a secret boss to unlock, and a variation on the ending too. If you're a fan of 2D platformer Mega Man games, you'd probably like this one. And even if you're more into Battle Network, the game isn't so hard as to be unfair.

And if you’re emulating, you can abuse savestates to get through the bank lasers. Cough.

More like, “I can feel wanton cyber-murder coming on!” in my experience.

#gamecube #recommended

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archload796 · 3 years

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Midnight Club Los Angeles Pc Game Download

Midnight Club Los Angeles Pc Game Download Pc Windows

Midnight Club Los Angeles Pc Game Download

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Midnight Club II

Midnight Club II is a game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published under.It is an amazing video game with good gameplay.It was released for PC on June 30, 2003.It has multiplayer features, and 2nd game in Midnight Club series.Players race through cities like Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo.Enjoy Midnight Club 2 full game with cheats,soundtrack and car list.we provided Midnight Club II PC. Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a computer game in the Midnight Club arrangement of dashing computer games. It was formally reported for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on January 11, 2008 by Rockstar Games. The amusement was created by Rockstar San Diego. The amusement highlights 43 autos and 4 cruisers.

3.91 / 5 - 12 votes

Description of Midnight Club II Windows

In 2003, Rockstar Games, Inc. publishes Midnight Club II on Windows. This action and racing / driving game is now abandonware and is set in an automobile and street racing.

External links

Captures and Snapshots

Screenshots from MobyGames.com

Comments and reviews

pingupingu2020-09-072 points

its removed from steam. make it available again please

ScottTheWoz2020-05-192 points

Wish I could get my hands on this game.. Definitely my favorite racing game growing up! Until then.. more waiting.

disain't good2020-05-023 points

Midnight Club II is back to being abandonware for over a year now!

berkut30002020-04-141 point

I have recently switched over from Modul8 to Resolume, and there is one feature in Resolume that I just can't seem to get to work right that I used quite a bit in Modul8, Chroma Key. What I want to be able to do is take the blacks or white out of certain layers and be able to turn the said colors transparent. Resolume Avenue VJ Software Avenue is an instrument for VJs, AV performers and video artists. Avenue puts all your media and effects right at your fingertips. The only restriction (until you have entered your serial number) is the Resolume logo watermarked on the video output and a robot voice in the audio. Free Updates for 12 Months. Starting with version 7 you receive free updates for 12 months when you buy a Resolume license. Resolume Avenue VJ Software Avenue is an instrument for VJs, AV performers and video artists. It puts all your media and effects right at your fingertips so you can quickly improvise your live visuals. Jan 02, 2020 Resolume Arena Crack With Latest Serial Key Free Download Win & MAC Resolume Arena Crack is a software with complete Visual Jockey (VJ), real-time video effect as well as composite software program for blending display in live performance. It is a much powerful and efficient virtual video mixing program that can play multiple. Resolume arena 7.1.0 keygen.

This game, though shown in the catalogue, is not available for purchase on Steam.

Kabir shah2019-06-220 point

Nice and wonderful game

Midnight Club Los Angeles Pc Game Download Pc Windows

ProtonicCobra2019-03-312 points

Midnight Club Los Angeles Pc Game Download

Although the steam page still exists theres no option to buy it anymore

bob2018-11-176 points

The game is taken off Steam, bring it back.

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Share your gamer memories, help others to run the game or comment anything you'd like. If you have trouble to run Midnight Club II (Windows), read the abandonware guide first!

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whatimconsuming · 3 years

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The story of Discord is the story of platform shifts. Jason Citron started his career in game development studios creating some of titles for Xbox and Play Station 2 (that’s how old he is 😂) that you probably never heard of 😬. Platform Shift: Mobile In the 2008, the “app store” was just announced and Jason thought this would be the perfect time to take the entrepreneurial plunge. His thesis was that with the launch of mobile gaming on the iPhone he would get “free distribution” if he manages to become a “launch title” (ie develop his game before the app store is live). After all, whenever a new console comes out, there is always new set of games that offer a new kind of experiences that are “native” to that console and new gaming behaviors are born….this was a once in a life opportunity. Jason raised some seed capital from the uncle of one of his roommates and was off to the races building Aurora feint. He pulled off being a launch title and Aurora feint was one of only 50 games that were available on the app store on the blessed day.

The Good News: it got rave reviews…partly because of the limited competition at the time, but also because Jason was just an extremely talented game developer. The Bad News: the business model didn’t really work. Aurora feint’s Business Model The Business model for the game was very similar to other stuff that Jason had worked on in the past. He gave the game away for free and build a premium version that had multiplayer dynamics (such as competing with friends on leaderboards...competing in ghost matches....etc)….this was a very common behaviour for PC….but what he didn’t realize at the time was that with new platforms…comes new expectations and subsequently new consumer behaviors. The $8 price tag (probably out of thin air) to access those social features didn’t really work. As time went by, and more games were build around the iPhone, and the price tag was anchored at $0.99 - $4.99. Jason and his 5 person company made a meager $30k in revenue from this game….a far cry from a “hit” game.

The pivot to OpenFeint One day, while discussing with the another founder, Citron realized that the iPhone did not have Xbox live in it, but their Aurora Feint 2 did have a similar feature. From my very shallow understanding Xbox live is just a platform that allows gamers to play multiplayer games, communicate with each and discover new games. In an act of desperation, Jason decided to spin out those social features and sell them to other developers, in an attempt to become equivalent the Xbox live for iPhone….the only problem was he didn’t really have any money to pay his engineers let alone hire new ones to build this in time…or anyone for that matter….to get Jason put up a landing page...photoshopped a couple of fake screenshots ...the message was "xbox live for mobile." He convinced Techcrunch to cover “the launch” and took that mailing list to investors…sprinkled some “vision” on it and raised a bridge round. He used the money from that round to hire 10 new developers to actually build the product The $104m payout

Over the next two years Openfeint took over Jason’s life. As someone whose life revolved around gaming, I can’t even imagine how it must have felt like to build the entire infrastructure for social gaming on the iPhone. By 2010, Openfeint had more than 10 million users and was powering 30 of the top 100 games on the App Store. Next year the company was acquired by a Japanese company (named GREE…but thats not really important) for a whopping $104 million (for reference the company ever raised $3m). When Jason signed on the dotted line, it was under the expectation that he will now have the resources to build the Xbox live for mobile. But as with many acquisitions…the story took a sour turn after the deal closed… Rinse and repeat (for iPad) Jason took a 7 months hiatus after being booted out of his own company. Jason took the time-off playing video games….A LOT of video games. Around that time, in 2013 the iPad was in its first years of inception and slowly making it to the main stream. While everyone saw iPad as a tablet, Jason saw it as a new platform shift for gaming…specifically for playing team-based games. He hypothesized that the iPad would make these kind of multi-player games more accessible and that the only problem was that there wasn’t enough high quality games being produced. Ready for round 2…Jason started another company…this time named Hammer and Chisel. Hammer and Chisel was a game development house that focused exclusively on creating high-quality iPad games. The vision for Hammer and Chisel was to replicate the Openfeint model for iPad. Fates Forever

After a few hit-and-miss with launching different games (3 to be specific), Jason had Another ONE(idea) up his sleeve…this time for a game called Fates forever. In a true Sell-Build-Ship manner that we can come to expect from Jason, instead of putting in the hours to build a game and see it crumble in-front of his eyes, he, instead, chunked up the art ....and started posting it on reddit along with explaining how the “game worked”(there was no game at the time…just some art). He took feedback from and incorporated it into into the art and ultimately the game mechanics. Six months later, Fates Forever shipped to the app store, and yet again didn’t really live up to the expectations of Jason or the team. The pivot to Discord

Jason was going around in circles trying to figure out how he can “fix” Fates Forever. In a conversation with Stanislav (Stan) Vishnevskiy (a developer at Hammer and Chisel then and cofounder of Discord later) Jason was complaining to Stan that the chat experience on Faints Forever sucked. He then went on a rant explaining how the ideal communication platform SHOULD work for developers. And so the OG idea of Discord was born. The idea was building Teamspeak meet skype. To take a step back Teamspeak was one of the more popular tools at the time used by gamers who played team vs team games. The problem with Teamspeak, at least from Stan’s prespective, was that to start a conversation on Teamspeak users had to download the app, pay for it and share their IP address (IP address is kind of like your mailing address) with other team members. Cutting through the noise Jason and Stan started building the first version of Discord as a side project within the company. First 20 customers The first 20 customers for Discord were friends, friends and friends. For the first 5 months, Jason and Stan were building Discord and hammering their gamer friends to use it. Their friends signed up but weren’t actually really using the product. Everytime they asked them why, they highlighted that they needed this feauture or that feature. Stan and Jason would go build it and come back to them…they got excited for a minute and then demanded more features. This loop kept going on and on and at some point the team had spent 3 weeks not shipping anything, they figured that maybe Discord just wasn’t as important as they had previously thought. First 200-300 customers Those 3 weeks where yet another reminder to Jason of how important distribution was. He figured that gaming communities were far and wide on the internet and that the product was at a point where it could be stress tested by more than just his unappreciative friends. So Jason and Stan got one of the friends to post in the Final Fantasy 14(a popular game at the name) subreddit. They reason they narrowed down to this one specific game was that there was a new expansion (i.e new features, content..etc) coming out which meant that was a lot of anticipation, speculation and excitement about the new release on reddit.

Their friend posted a simple link saying “"Hey...did anyone try this new voiceover IP app called discord [link to a voice chat].“ Jason and Stan immediately jumped onto the voice chat and started talking to anyone who showed up. The Redditors would go back, say "I just talked to the developers there, they're pretty cool," and send even more people to Discord. That kind of kicked the snowball off the top of the mountain.

Fun fact: Discord now claims this day (May 13, 2015) as their “launch day” First 1000 customers For the next 1000 customers, Jason and Stan focused all their product work on just 3 games, all of which had upcoming expansions (i.e new releases) in an attempt to make integrations with these games as seamless as possible. They then did the same Reddit routine, got a friend to post on the game’s subreddit asking if member had tried using Discord and accompanying that message a link to a voice chat where Jason and Stan were waiting to meet and greet and answer any questions anyone had. To double down on that strategy, Jason and Stand started doing some 1:1 promotion with “guilds” of these games. Guilds are “an organized group of video game players that regularly play together in one or more multiplayer games. Many guilds take part in gaming competitions, but some guilds are just small gaming squads consisting of friends. “

#discord

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teaandgames · 4 years

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The Tea Times - November 2019

Ah, November. For you folks in the United States, this signals a day full of turkey, relatives and drunken conversations. For us over in Blighty, it signals the last warning before that other day full of turkey, relatives and drunken conversations. The wallet’s looking bare, the temperatures dropping, it can mean only one thing - Christmas is coming. Before we begin the panic though, let's look back at the previous month.

At a glance:

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Death Stranding, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy and Planet Zoo released.

Everwild, Age of Empires IV, Half-Life: Alyx, Knights of Light, Arise: A Simple Story, Nine Witches: Family Disruption announced.

Google Stadia announces its launch line up.

Someone’s making Silent Hill in first person

New Saints Row to be announced next year

Project C becomes Life Beyond

The Releases

I’ve never followed Star Wars too closely, being more into classic fantasy than sci-fi, but the thrill of lightsaber battling is not lost on me. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order seems to have captured that pretty well, with lots of lightsaber waggling and force powers that come together to make a pretty exciting action game. It’s been awhile since a good single player Star Wars game has been on the market and this one seems to fit the bill. It came out on November 15th.

Death Stranding, the premier package delivery game (if the internet is to be believed) came out on November 8th. It being a Kojima game, it’s pretty confusing from an outsiders perspective (and not necessarily straightforward for an insider) but what is clear is that it’s a polarising game. It seems to be about ninety percent walking simulator, which is a divisive genre full stop. Add Kojima into the mix? Then God only knows.

Pokemon Sword and Shield is the release this month that I’m most excited for. Despite being twenty-six, I was transported back to my youth as I added it to the top of my Christmas list. It’s been getting mixed reviews from the community, largely centered around the lack of the National Pokedex. Makes sense. Less pokemon can hardly be a good thing. Either way, it seems to hold the same, good, clean fun that the series is known for. The pair came out on November 15th.

Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy wins the award for longest game title I’ve ever typed out. The next in the disarmingly charming puzzle series came to the Switch on November 8th. I mark it here solely because I didn’t realise it had come out on 3DS two years ago. Still, I hope the series finds a welcome home on the Switch.

Planet Zoo, labelled the ultimate zoo simulator, came out on the 5th November. Made by the people who made Planet Coaster and Zoo Tycoon, there’s a good chance that it’ll be a good follow up. After all, they seem to know what they’re doing. Going by the screenshots alone, it looks like it’s pretty in depth too. One for the hardcore simulators, perhaps.

The Announcements

Everwild is a new project from Rare, the Banjo-Kazooie lads, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. That’s about as much as we know, to be honest, other than it’s likely going to be Xbox exclusive. The trailer shows a group of humans timidly interacting with a number of animals. Some, like the deer, seem friendly. Others… less so. I don’t have any more details on it, at the moment, but it’s worth keeping your peepers on.

Age of Empires IV has been long anticipated since Age of Empires III failed the light the spark in the hearts of die hard fans. I rather liked it but the guns and cannonballs didn’t go down too well. You might be relieved to learn that they’ve been thrown out the window for IV. It’s back to swords, arrows and big chunks of masonry. Hopefully, Age of Empires has gone back to its roots now. No concrete release date yet.

In a fairly shocking move, Valve has revealed the next entry in the Half-Life series. There are two things to note with that. Firstly, it’s a prequel featuring Alyx. That’s not so bad as she was a rather good character. The bigger, second thing of note is that it’s a VR game. Therefore cutting off most of the market. Still, Valve is one of the biggest champions of VR, so it perhaps shouldn’t be so surprising. Half-life: Alyx is coming March 2020.

Knights of Light is a game inspired by Mount and Blade and its trailer and screenshots contain much the same sort of feeling. Horseback combat that looks as exciting as it is terrifying and lots of hitting people with swords. The plot centers around Iraq and the battle of Al-Qadisiyyah, which I absolutely didn’t copy and paste in. I know nothing about that battle but that almost makes it better. It’s a chance to learn while hitting people. Looks like it’ll be hitting early access first, but I’m not sure when yet.

Arise: A Simple Story is a game with an awful title that caught my eye simply because of how pretty it is. The trailer opens with an elderly chap’s funeral pyre, only for him to wake in a snow covered world. As he explores, he seems to enter a forest-like area. I probably won’t be able to tell you much more, as it looks to be a PlayStation 4 title, but it’s coming out on December 3rd.

Nine Witches: Family Disruption is a quirky looking adventure game about an alternate history involving Nazis and supernatural forces. It’s done in a retro pixel art style and seems to be trying to emulate the older school of adventure games. The humour in the trailer seems very hit or miss (mostly miss), but if it’s your cup of tea, check it out in Quarter 2 2020.

Google Lines ‘Em Up

Google has revealed its line up for its launch, which will take place on the 19th November. The list is this:

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Destiny 2: The Collection

Gult

Just Dance 2020

Kine

Mortal Kombat 11

Red Dead Redemption 2

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Samurai Shodown

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Thumper

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

A rather odd choice to include three Tomb Raider games on launch, but it’s a fairly impressive line up. I rather like Thumper being in there. They’ve also promised to add the following before the end of the year:

Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle

Borderlands 3

Darksiders: Genesis

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

Farming Simulator 19

Final Fantasy XV

Football Manager 2020

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Grid

Metro: Exodus

NBA 2K20

Rage 2

Trials Rising

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

A mixed bag of games there but, for all of its faults, Stadia is at least coming out swinging in its first year. Whether it’ll be enough, however, remains to be seen.

The Hills Have (New) Eyes

A quick part here to point towards an interesting development. Someone is remaking the original Silent Hill in first person. It’s only a concept at the moment, but check it out. It looks great. I can, however, hear the terrible siren noise that can only mean the arrival of a cease & desist. Still, Konami may have chucked Silent Hill aside in favour of a pachinko machine but it’s nice to see that people are still carrying the torch.

Even outside of that context, this video looks pretty damn creepy. If nothing else, this might prove that there’s more to the original Silent Hill than awkward controls. It proves that it’s scary full stop.

The Prez is Back!

Didn’t want to stick this one in the announcements because it feels more like a pinky promise than an actual announcement. Still, the current big bosses that own the Saint’s Row franchise, Koch Media, have said that they’ve got a new game in the making. They don’t want to release too many details now and start colouring people’s expectations but more details are going to coming next year.

Saint’s Row IV came out about six years ago and was nothing but crazy, ridiculous fun. It’ll be interesting to see where the series can go from here, to be honest. Once you’ve reached the point of being an actual overpowered superhero, is there anywhere up? I guess we’ll find out next year.

C To (L)B

Project C, a pretty looking social MMO, has gone through a name change, to reflect its core idea. It’s been changed to Life Beyond. To be frank, I had never heard of it, mostly because MMO’s aren’t really my bag. Still, I do like the idea of social MMOs. The idea of trying to bring people together to build communities and make friends is great. It doesn’t always work, mind you, due to the caustic nature of internet communities.

When it does though, it’s great. I’m reminded of that sprawling Minecraft villages where everyone builds their fantasy architecture together. Not sure if I’ll get it myself, but it’s bright colourful graphics make it one to watch. That’s all for November, see you in December!

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Xbox Series X Review

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After spending over a week with Microsoft’s top-of-the-line next-gen console, one thing is clear: the Xbox Series X is a powerful machine, and an impressive hardware upgrade for anyone looking for a home console that can run games at 4K resolution and up to 120 frames per second. The Series X is also lightning fast thanks to its custom 1TB NVME SSD and Velocity Architecture, which seriously cuts down on load times, and the console also features many other quality of life improvements that make it the best way to play Xbox games in 2020. But even a console this fast can’t outrun its most glaring issue: a lack of next-gen exclusives at launch to justify making the upgrade on day one, even if its impressive 4K upscaling and Auto HDR technology does enhance the console’s vast library of past-gen experiences.

Before we jump into the games, let’s talk about the hardware itself. I covered the console’s physical attributes more closely in my unboxing article, but the short of it is that the Xbox Series X is a big, hefty piece of hardware. At about 5.9 inches wide and 11.8 inches tall, and weighing in at 9.8 pounds, the Xbox Series X isn’t quite PC tower size but it’s still massive when compared to most other home consoles. While its absolutely dwarfed by the 15.4 inch tall PlayStation 5, you may still have trouble finding a spot for the Series X in your home entertainment center. I certainly had to get creative with the Ikea TV stand in my living room, and ultimately had to lay the console on its side in order for it to (barely) fit in one of the shelves.

And while I find the Xbox Series X’s minimalist, monolith-shaped design to be eye-catching and a refreshingly clean look when compared to its next-gen competition and PC gaming rigs bathed in RGB lighting, Microsoft’s console looks much less cool when in its horizontal position. It’s true that putting the Series X in either its natural vertical or alternate horizontal position takes a lot less effort compared to the PS5’s removable stand, but I think Microsoft might have sacrificed a better horizontal solution for the sake of convenience to the player. When in the horizontal position, the Series X’s round stand sticks out of the left side of the console, a slightly ugly appendage that you can’t remove from the console’s otherwise clean shape. Maybe I’m seriously nitpicking here, but the point is that this console wants to stand in the vertical position, and I’d advise you to figure out how to display the Series X the way it was meant to be shown off.

You can check out the unboxing video below to hear way more of my thoughts on the console’s shape, size, and design:

Once you turn on the Xbox Series X, set up the console with your Xbox Live account, and sync it to the Xbox app on your phone — and I suggest you do so you can enable Remote Play and more Share options, which we’ll get to in a bit — the first thing you’ll notice is how quiet this machine is. Unless you put your ear real close to the vents at the top of the console, you won’t even hear a low hum from the Series X’s single “whisper-quiet” fan. In fact, the only time I was able to actually hear the Series X from the other side of my living room was while installing a game from a disc, the console’s 4K UHD Blu-ray optical drive working quickly to install the 32GB Mad Max. Still, the virtually silent Series X is a major improvement over the mechanical sound of the original Xbox’s hard drive and loud hum of the Xbox 360 and Xbox One’s fans.

Speaking of fans, the powerful airflow solution in the Xbox Series X is very good at keeping the console’s components relatively cool most of the time. Generally, what you’ll feel when putting your hand close to the console’s vents is a gentle breath of cool to tepid air. Things get a little hotter inside the Xbox when you’re playing Optimized for Series X titles like Gears 5 and Forza Horizon 4 at 4K 60fps, but the heat levels never felt all that alarming. I didn’t have a fancy thermal camera to test heat levels in the console, so I’d suggest you check out Digital Foundry’s excellent breakdown of the console’s power efficiency if you want to get into the nitty gritty.

The Xbox Series X’s specs have always been impressive on paper. Back in March, when we finally learned the specs of both consoles, we even speculated the Series X would be slightly more powerful than its next-gen competitor. It’s obviously too early to give a final verdict on the XSX vs. PS5 debate, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that Microsoft’s console has an advantage out the gate, boasting a more powerful CPU and GPU, even if the PS5’s potentially game-changing SSD has commanded much of the technical discussion.

Here are the main Xbox Series X specs you need to know:

Let’s talk about the console’s custom 12 teraflop GPU. While it might not be able to eclipse NVIDIA’s brand new line of GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs in terms of the raw specs, this is still an incredibly powerful graphics card when it comes to the home console market. Ever since it announced the Xbox Series X, Microsoft has had a clear mission: to make 4K 60fps the standard for all next-gen Xbox titles, while looking ahead at an 8K resolution future. After spending a bit of time playing Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, and Sea of Thieves at 4K 60fps, it’s clear that Microsoft has absolutely knocked it out of the park.

While the Xbox Series X has no first-party next-gen exclusives at launch, which may make some players pause when considering the console’s $499 price tag, this machine does a lot to improve the Xbox experiences you already love. Playing Gears 5 at higher resolution brings the game’s diverse landscapes to life like never before, with improved textures and particle counts, while the inclusion of raytraced shadows and lighting makes all of the environments more immersive than ever before. There is some seriously beautiful lighting in this game to begin with, but the Optimized for Series X version of Gears 5 feels like the most fully realized take on this world. The higher framerate provides a better gameplay experience as well, especially when it comes to shooting mechanics, which feel silky smooth, a major boon when taking on Grubs.

Players can also set the framerate of Gears 5 multiplayer to 120fps, which provides the best look at the Series X’s current graphical ceiling (while the console is 8K-ready, there aren’t any 8K titles out to actually showcase that resolution). While I’m not sure I can tell as much of a difference between 60fps and 120fps when compared to the absolutely massive framerate jump between 30fps and 60fps, the ability to play a game on a home console at framerates that were once considered possible only on PC is no less impressive.

Ultimately, the jump to 60- and 120fps is a much bigger improvement to the home console experience than 1080p vs. 4K resolutions, especially when playing competitive shooters, racing, and fighting games, which demand quick reaction times and low latency. The clearer 4K resolution is certainly an improvement worth commending — just look at how good Forza Horizon 4 and Sea of Thieves look in the 4K screenshots taken from my Xbox Series X — but I’d pay more attention to what games you can turn all the way up to 120fps.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many Optimized for Series X games to actually try during the review period — only the Xbox One version of Yakuza: Like a Dragon was available ahead of the embargo, for example — so it remains to be seen how new titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion, current-gen games that are also Optimized for Series X and will boast 4K 60fps visuals, will perform at launch. What I’ve seen from the three optimized games I tried so far bodes well for the rest of the Xbox Series X’s launch lineup, though.

As I said at the start of this review, the Xbox Series X doesn’t have any first-party next-gen games on its list of launch titles, so it’s impossible to say how the Xbox Series X will perform when true next-gen experiences arrive to push that GPU and SSD to its limits. With Halo Infinite delayed to 2021, and other first-party releases like Obsidian’s Avowed, Ninja Theory’s Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, and Playground’s new Fable game still a way’s away, we may be at least a year out from seeing what the console can really do.

Fortunately, there’s a lot to play on the Xbox Series X until then. In fact, the Series X may be the most backward compatible and most bang-for-your-buck console ever released — as long as you already have a $15 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription (and you totally should, if you’re an Xbox fan). Boasting a library of hundreds of backward compatible titles from across all generations of Xbox consoles, you can bring all of your physical and digital games from the original Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One with you to the Series X. And with Xbox Game Pass, you also get a selection of over 100 games to download and play right out of the box. When compared to the PS5’s backward compatibility options, which only include PS4 titles and what’s available on PS Now, the Series X’s library of games is absolutely stacked.

I spent some time playing Star Wars: Republic Commando (an absolute banger for the original Xbox), Fable Anniversary for the Xbox 360, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection (which is also getting an Optimized for Series X upgrade later this month) and Mad Max on disc for Xbox One. The Series X emulates the original Xbox and Xbox 360 experiences perfectly, while Xbox One titles run natively on the console, which is a nice touch for those who simply want to pop in a current-gen disc and play without worrying about a middle man.

But even that quality of life feature pales in comparison to the way the Series X is able to upscale 720p and 1080p experiences from the past to next-gen 4K and up to 120fps, while also seriously improving the picture quality of those titles through the console’s Auto HDR technology. While I spent a limited time trying out these backward compatible titles on the console, I can definitely say that Republic Commando looks and plays better than it ever did on the first Xbox, while I noticed a distinct choppiness in the framerate in Fable Anniversary and Mad Max (again, running on a disc). Digital Foundry said in its own detailed breakdown of the Series X’s 4K upscaling and Auto HDR for past-gen titles that this isn’t a “one size fits all solution – but when it works, it really works.” I should also note that Republic Commando did crash on me once at the start of my playthrough, but hasn’t given me any issues since.

Now, you can of course make the argument that people buy next-gen consoles to play next-gen games, and I tend to agree with you on that, but the vast backward compatible library on the Xbox Series X still makes this machine a hell of a deal for people jumping into home consoles for the first time as well as new gamers. The size of the Series X’s games library may very well be the best selling point for parents buying next-gen consoles this holiday season. You simply get way more options on Series X. And that’s before you even factor in the console’s Smart Delivery system, which allows you to upgrade select Xbox One titles to the Optimized for Series X version for free.

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Microsoft has also made the incredibly consumer-friendly decision to allow Xbox fans to bring their Xbox One accessories over to the Series X. Both the Xbox Wireless Controller for the Xbox One and the Xbox Media Remote will work on the Series X, for example. As a player who doesn’t like the idea of spending $60 a pop on extra controllers, this is a huge deal. Setting up to play a few rounds of Mortal Kombat X on the Series X, it was very easy to sync my white Xbox Wireless Controller with the next-gen console and jump right into the fight. If you already have an Xbox One and are upgrading this holiday, rejoice in the fact that you already have more than one controller for the Series X.

The only Xbox One peripheral I wasn’t able to sync with the Series X was my SteelSeries Arctis 9X wireless headset, which is supposed to be compatible with the next-gen console at launch. It’s possible that third-party peripherals weren’t compatible with the Series X during the review period, or that this is a bug Microsoft will squash at launch with a firmware update, but just a note of warning if you’re trying to bring your fancy headset over to the next generation.

I’ve waited this long to elaborate on the Xbox Series X’s SSD-powered Velocity Architecture and Quick Resume feature for dramatic effect — because this is where the console truly reveals itself to be an absolute showstopper. Not only does the Series X virtually eliminate load times in past-gen games like Republic Commando — no longer must you wait while different sections of a level load in the middle of the action — but seriously cuts down load times in Optimized for Series X titles like Gears 5 and Sea of Thieves. Gears 5, for example, transitions between cutscenes and gameplay almost seamlessly, while jumping into the campaign in the first place takes only a matter of seconds. Comparing load times between the Xbox One version and Series X port resulted in the latter winning every time. An unsurprising result considering the XBO uses an HDD, but a comparison worth making if you want to see the real difference.

Then there’s the Quick Resume feature, which allows you to switch between several games at once without having to stop and restart applications. With Quick Resume, you can play a few hours of Gears 5, switch to the Halo: Reach campaign in Halo: MCC, play a few quarters in Madden 21, and then go back to Gears 5 and pick up exactly where you left off without having to go through the game’s initial startup again. Loading back into Quick Resume-enabled games takes only a matter of seconds — and this goes for back-compat titles like Republic Commando, Mad Max on disc, and Gears 5 through Remote Play on my Google Pixel 3a XL, too.

The only two games I tried that didn’t seem to work with Quick Resume were Forza Horizon 4 and Sea of Thieves, which had to load from scratch again after switching to other games, but that might come down to the console’s pre-launch state or the fact that both of these games require logging into online servers. Every other game I tried seemed to be compatible with Quick Resume, though. Besides one hiccup where, after Quick Resuming, I lost all sound in Madden 21, this quality of life improvement, along with the graphics upgrade, is enough reason for hardcore Xbox fans to make the jump to the next-gen console.

You can see Quick Resume in action in the video below:

Meanwhile, not much has changed with the Series X’s UI, which has made an almost seamless transition from the Xbox One version. Yes, menus on the dashboard load much faster and everything feels much snappier and flows more smoothly, with little buffer between the dashboard and loading into Settings menu for example, but you won’t find a major UI redesign here. As someone who thinks that the current Xbox UI outpaces the competition, I’d say that continuity between generations is a good thing.

I have a few nitpicks regarding the UI, such as the unintuitive way you access recent screenshots and gameplay clips captured through the console’s Share function, but I’d hardly call this a deal breaker. I will say this: for a company so invested in making PC-level resolution and framerates a reality on a home console, Microsoft missed one key aspect of the PC gaming experience — the ability to quickly adjust graphics on the go. At the moment, you have to exit out of games and visit the console’s Settings menu to change resolution and framerates. The exception out of the Optimized for Series X games I tried is Gears 5, which lets you switch between 60- and 120fps multiplayer in its in-game graphics menu. While it’s true that developers themselves decide just how adjustable a game’s graphics are in-game, it wouldn’t have hurt Microsoft to have implemented more robust graphics options in its first-party optimized titles at least.

The above might not be something console-only gamers are really all that concerned about, of course, which would explain why Microsoft hasn’t done much about it. But when you tout 4K and up to 120 fps gaming so often, you should at least create a faster way to access graphics options on the console without forcing gamers to exit out of the game. Maybe some quick toggles in the Guide menu would do the trick?

Like the UI, the Xbox Series X controller brings pretty much everything you loved about its Xbox One predecessor back for the next generation. Microsoft has perfected its gamepad to the point where it’s also become the preferred controller on PC, so there’s no point in fixing what isn’t broken. I went into way more detail about the actual feel of the controller in my unboxing, but the short of it is that the Xbox Series X gamepad is comfortable, responsive, and features some neat improvements.

The first addition is its new D-pad. Microsoft has done away with the traditional cross-shaped design and replaced it with a new facetted dish inspired by the Xbox Elite Controller. While the new, rounder D-pad felt a bit odd at first, I’ve quickly grown accustomed to it, and have even started to prefer it over the Xbox Wireless Controller’s cross, which now feels a bit stiff in comparison.

The other big new feature on the controller is the Share button, which I had an absolute blast using throughout the review period. With one click of the button, you can now easily capture screenshots of your gameplay, while holding down the button allows you to record 30 seconds of 4K gameplay (you can record longer clips at lower resolutions). From there, you can upload the captures to your activity feed, message them to an Xbox friend, post to Twitter, or even save them to your phone through the Xbox app.

All of the images used in this article were taken with the controller’s Share button, and the results look pretty impressive to this very amateur game photographer. As I mentioned above, for the best experience, I’d suggest handling these captures on your phone once they’re uploaded to the cloud, as it’s easier to zoom and switch between them on the Xbox app than in the console’s Guide menu.

There’s no doubt that the Xbox Series X is a powerful console, one worthy of the next-gen label, but what will ultimately decide the console’s success is its games. Unfortunately, and this is absolutely no secret, the console’s launch lineup is a bit of a letdown. Leaning heavily on third-party Optimized for Series X titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and first-party next-gen ports like Gears 5 — most of which aren’t exclusive to XSX — as well as its Xbox Game Pass and backwards compatible library, the Xbox Series X doesn’t really have an exclusive next-gen title in its launch lineup to entice gamers who are on the fence. Even timed next-gen console exclusive Yakuza: Like a Dragon will be available on XBO, PS4, and PC at launch.

It does seem at the moment like Microsoft’s console will limp out of the gate when it’s finally toe-to-toe with the PS5. Without something truly new and exciting you can only play on the Xbox Series X, I’m not sure I can recommend you buy this console on day one unless you’re looking for raw power in your next-gen gaming. So who is this console really for at the moment? Hardcore Xbox fans who want the best way to play upcoming Xbox titles as well as Game Pass and backward compatible games.

For everyone else, getting an Xbox Series X right now is really an investment in the console’s future. With so much GPU and SSD power at its disposal, the Xbox Series X should prove to be an excellent canvas on which developers will be able to create great pieces of art. And what’s coming up from within Microsoft — Halo Infinite, Avowed, all upcoming Bethesda titles — certainly has me excited about the types of experiences we’ll eventually be able to play on the console. What I’ve experienced so far in terms of graphics and load times tells me that the future of Xbox is very bright.

But at launch, Microsoft wants you to feel like this is still the Xbox experience you love with some major upgrades to performance. Is this a good strategy when it comes to hooking PlayStation and PC gamers across the aisle? That’s up for debate. But as a celebration of everything Xbox fans love about the brand, the Xbox Series X absolutely succeeds and shows a ton of promise to boot.

The Xbox Series X launches on Nov. 10. The Series S, which wasn’t provided by Microsoft in time for a review, will also release on Nov. 10 for $299.

Stay tuned for more of our ongoing coverage of the Xbox Series X here.

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suzanneshannon · 4 years

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Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers

I was offered a Surface Book 3 to use as a loaner over the the last 5 weeks. I did a short video teaser on Twitter where I beat on the device with a pretty ridiculous benchmark - running Visual Studio 2019 while running Gears of War and Ubuntu under WSL and Windows Terminal. I have fun. ;)

Hey they loaned me a @surface book 3! So...I threw EVERYTHING at it...Visual Studio, Gears of War, Ubuntu/WSL2/Windows...*all at the same time* because why not? LOL (review very soon) pic.twitter.com/FmgGCBUGuR

— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) May 14, 2020

Size and Weight

My daily driver has been a Surface Book 2 since 2017. The new Surface Book 3 is the exact size (23mm thick as a laptop) and weight (3.38 and 4.2 lbs.) as the SB2. I have had to add a small sticker to one otherwise I'd get them confused. The display resolutions are 3000×2000 for the 13.5-inch model and 3240×2160 for the 15-inch one that I have. I prefer a 15" laptop. I don't know how you 13" people do it.

Basically if you are a Surface Book 2 user the size and weight are the same. The Surface Book 3 is considerably more power in the same size machine.

CPU and Memory

They gave me an i7-1065G7 CPU to test. It bursts happily over 3.5 Ghz (see the compiling screenshot below) and in my average usage hangs out in the 2 to 1.8 range with no fan on. I regularly run Visual Studio 2019, VS Code, Teams, Edge (new Edge, the Chromium one), Ubuntu via WSL2, Docker Desktop (the WSL2 one), Gmail and Outlook as PWAs, as well as Adobe Premiere and Audition and other parts of the Creative Suite. Memory usually sits around 14-18 gigs unless I'm rendering something big.

It's a 10th gen Intel chip and as the Surface Book 3 can detach the base from the screen, it's both a laptop and tablet. I gleaned from Anandatech that TDP is between 10 and 25W (usually 15W) depends on what is needed, and it shifts frequencies very fast. This is evident in the great battery life when doing things like writing this blog post or writing in Edge or Word (basically forever) versus playing a AAA game or running a long compile, building containers, or rendering a video in Premiere (several hours).

FLIP THE SCREEN AROUND? You can also when docked even reverse the screen! Whatever do you mean? It's actually awesome if you want an external keyboard.

All this phrased differently? It's fast, quickly, when it needs to be but it's constantly changing the clock to maximize power/thermals/battery.

SSD - Size and Speed

The device I was loaned has a Toshiba KXG60PNV2T04 Hard Drive 2TB NVMe M.2 that's MASSIVE. I'm used to 512G or maaybe a 1TB drive in a Laptop. I'm getting used to never having to worry about space. Definitely 1TB minimum these days if you want to play games AND do development.

I ran a CrystalBenchmark on the SSD and it did 3.2GB/s sequential reads! Sweet. I feel like the disk is not the bottleneck with my development compile tests below. When I consulted with the Surface team last year during the conception of the Surface Book 3 I pushed them for faster SSDs and I feel that they delivered with this 2TB SSD.

GPU - Gaming and Tensorflow

The 13.5-inch model now comes with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 memory in its Core i7 variant, while the 15-inch unit features a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q with 6GB of GDDR6 memory. When running the Gears 5 Benchmark while plugged in (from the Extras menu, Benchmark) is has no issues with the default settings doing 60fps for 90% of the benchmark with a few dips into the 57 range depending what's on screen.

It's not a gaming machine, per se, but it does have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti so I'm basically able to 1080p 60fps AAA games. I've played Destiny 2, Gears of War 5, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare on default settings at 60 fps without issue. The fan does turn on but it's very manageable. I like that whenever we get back into hotels I'll be able to play some games and develop on the same machine. The 15" also includes an Xbox Wireless Adapter so I just paired my controller with it directly.

I was also able to run Tensorflow with CUDA on the laptop under Windows and it worked great. I ran a model against some video footage from my dashcam and 5.1 gigs of video RAM was used immediately and the CUDA engine on the 1660Ti is visible working in Taskman. The commercial SKU has an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 that is apparently even more tuned for CUDA work.

Developer Performance

When I built my Intel i9 Ultimate Desktop 3.0 machine and others, I like to do compile tests to get a sense of how much you can throw at machine. I like big project compiles because they are a combination of a lot of disk access and a lot of parallel CPU work. However, some projects do have a theoretical maximum compile speed because of the way the dependences flesh out. I like to use Orchard Core for benchmarks.

Orchard Core is a fully-featured CMS with 143 projects loaded into Visual Studio. MSBUILD and .NET Core supports both parallel and incremental builds.

A warm build of Orchard Core on IRONHEART my i9 desktop takes just under 10 seconds.

My 6 year old Surface Pro 3 builds it warm in 62 seconds.

A totally cold build (after a dotnet clean) on IRONHEART takes 33.3 seconds.

My Surface Pro 3 builds it cold in 2.4 minutes.

I'll do the same build on both my Surface Book 2 and this new Surface Book 3 to compare. I've excluded the source folders from Defender as well as msbuild.exe and dotnet.exe. I've also turned off the Indexer.

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on this Surface Book 3 takes 46 seconds.

A warm build is 16.1 seconds

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on my Surface Book 2 takes 115 seconds.

It's WAY faster than my Surface Book 2 which has been my daily driver when mobile for nearly 3 years!

Benchmarks are all relative and there's raw throughput, there's combination benchmarks, and all kinds of things that can "make a chart." I just do benchmarks that show if I can do a thing I did before, faster.

You can also test various guesses if you have them by adding parameters to dotnet.exe. For example, perhaps you're thinking that 143 projects is thrashing to disk so you want to control how many CPUs are used. This has 4 physical cores and 8 logical, so we could try pulling back a little

dotnet build /maxcpucount:4

The result with Orchard Core is the same, so there is likely a theoretical max as to how fast this can build today. If you really want to go nuts, try

dotnet build -v diag

And dig through ALL the timing info!

Webcam Quality

Might be odd to add this as its own section but we're all using our webcams constantly right now. I was particularly impressed with the front-facing webcam. A lot of webcams are 720p with mediocre white balance. I do a lot of video calls so I notice this stuff. The SB3 has a 1080p front camera for video and decent light pickup. When using the Camera app you can do up to 5MP (2560x1920) which is cool. Here's a pic from today.

Ports and Power and Sound and Wi-Fi

The Surface Book 3 has just one USB-C port on the right side and two USB 3.1 Gen 2s on the left. I'd have liked one additional USB-C so I could project on stage and still have one additional USB-C available...but I don't know what for. I just want one more port. That said, the NEW Surface Dock 2 adds FOUR USB-C ports, so it's not a big deal.

It was theoretically possible to pull more power on the SB2 than its power supply could offer. While I never had an issue with that, I've been told by some Destiny 2 players and serious media renderers that it could happen. With the SB3 they upped the power supply with 65W for the base 13.5-inch version and a full 127W for the 15-inch SKUs so that's not an issue any more.

I have only two Macs for development and I have no Thunderbolt devices or need for an eGPU so I may not be the ideal Thunderbolt consumer. I haven't needed it yet. Some folks have said that it's a bummer the SB3 doesn't have it but it hasn't been an issue or sticking point for any of my devices today. With the new Surface Dock 2 (below) I have a single cable to plug in that gives me two 4k monitors at 60Hz, lots of power, 4 USB-C ports all via the Dock Connector.

I also want to touch on sound. There is a fan inside the device and if it gets hot it will run. If I'm doing 1080p 60fps in Call of Duty WarZone you can likely hear the fan. It comes and goes and while it's audible when the fan is on, when the CPU is not maxed out (during 70% of my work day) the Surface Book 3 is absolutely silent, even when running the monitors. The fan comes on with the CPU is bursting hard over 3Ghz and/or the GPU is on full blast.

One other thing, the Surface Book 3 has Wi-Fi 6 even though I don't! I have a Ubnt network and no Wi-Fi 6 mesh points. I haven't had ANY issues with the Wi-Fi on this device over Ubnt mesh points. When copying a 60 gig video file over Wi-Fi from my Synology NAS I see sustained 280 megabit speeds.

The New Surface Dock - Coming May 26th

I'm also testing a pre-release Surface Dock 2. I suspect they wanted me to test it with the Surface Book 3...BUT! I just plugged in every Surface I have to see what would happen.

My wife has a Surface Laptop 2 she got herself, one son has my 6 year old old Surface Pro 3 while the other has a Surface Go he got with his allowance. (We purchased these over the last few years.) As such we have three existing Surface Docks (original) - One in the kids' study/playroom, one in the Kitchen as a generalized docking station for anyone to drop in to, and one in my office assigned me by work.

We use these individual Surfaces (varying ages, sizes, and powers) along with my work-assigned Surface Book 2 plus this loaner Surface Book 3, so it's kind of a diverse household from a purely Surface perspective. My first thought was - can I use all these devices with the new Dock? Stuff just works with a few caveats for older stuff like my Surface Pro 3.

RANDOM NOTE: What happens when you plug a Surface Pro 3 (released in 2014) into a Surface Dock 2? Nothing, but it does get power. However, the original Surface Dock is great and still runs 4096 x 2160 @30Hz or 2960 x 1440 @60Hz via mini DisplayPort so the Pro 3 is still going strong 6 years out and the kids like it.

So this Surface Dock 2 replaces the original Dock my office. The Surface Dock 2 has

2x front-facing USB-C ports (I use these for two 4k monitors)

2x rear-facing USB-C ports

2x rear-facing USB-A 3.2 (10Gbps) ports

1x Gigabit Ethernet port

1x 3.5mm audio in/out port

Kensington lock slot - I've never used this

First, that's a lot of USB-C. I'm not there yet with the USB-C lifestyle, but I did pick up two USB-C to full-size DisplayPort cables at Amazon and I can happily report that I can run both my 4k monitors at 60hz plus run the main Surface Book 3 panel. The new Dock and its power supply can push 120 watts of power to the Surface with a total of 199 watts everything connected to the dock. I've got a few USB-C memory sticks and one USB-C external hard drive, plus the Logitech Brio is USB 3, so 6 total ports is fine with 4 free after the two monitors. I also Gigabit wired the whole house so I use the Ethernet port quite happily.

Initially I care about one thing - my 4k monitors. Using the USB-C to DisplayPort cables I plugged the dock into two Dell P2715Q 4ks and they work! I preferred using the direct cables rather than any adapters, but I also tested a USB-C to HDMI 2.0 adapter I got in 2018 with some other Dell monitors in the house and that worked with the Surface Book 3 as it had previously with the Book 2.

SURPRISE NOTE: How does the super-thin Surface Pro X do when plugged into a Surface Dock 2? Amazing. It runs two 4k monitors at 60 Hz. I don't know why I was shocked, it's listed on the support page. It's a brand new device, but it's also the size and weight of an iPad so I was surprised. It's a pretty amazing little device - I'll do another post on just the ARM-based Surface Pro X another time.

One final thing about the new Dock. The cable is longer! The first dock had a cable that was about 6" too short and now it's not. It's the little things and in this case, a big thing that makes a Dock that much nicer to use.

Conclusion

All in all, I'm very happy with this Surface Book 3 having been an existing Surface Book 2 user. It's basically 40-50% faster, the video card is surprisingly capable. The SSD is way faster at the top end. It's a clear upgrade over what I had before, and when paired with the Surface Dock 2 and two 4k monitors it's a capable developer box for road warriors or home office warriors like myself.

Sponsor: Have you tried developing in Rider yet? This fast and feature-rich cross-platform IDE improves your code for .NET, ASP.NET, .NET Core, Xamarin, and Unity applications on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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philipholt · 4 years

Text

Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers

— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) May 14, 2020

Size and Weight

Basically if you are a Surface Book 2 user the size and weight are the same. The Surface Book 3 is considerably more power in the same size machine.

CPU and Memory

FLIP THE SCREEN AROUND? You can also when docked even reverse the screen! Whatever do you mean? It's actually awesome if you want an external keyboard.

All this phrased differently? It's fast, quickly, when it needs to be but it's constantly changing the clock to maximize power/thermals/battery.

SSD - Size and Speed

GPU - Gaming and Tensorflow

Developer Performance

Orchard Core is a fully-featured CMS with 143 projects loaded into Visual Studio. MSBUILD and .NET Core supports both parallel and incremental builds.

A warm build of Orchard Core on IRONHEART my i9 desktop takes just under 10 seconds.

My 6 year old Surface Pro 3 builds it warm in 62 seconds.

A totally cold build (after a dotnet clean) on IRONHEART takes 33.3 seconds.

My Surface Pro 3 builds it cold in 2.4 minutes.

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on this Surface Book 3 takes 46 seconds.

A warm build is 16.1 seconds

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on my Surface Book 2 takes 115 seconds.

It's WAY faster than my Surface Book 2 which has been my daily driver when mobile for nearly 3 years!

dotnet build /maxcpucount:4

The result with Orchard Core is the same, so there is likely a theoretical max as to how fast this can build today. If you really want to go nuts, try

dotnet build -v diag

And dig through ALL the timing info!

Webcam Quality

Ports and Power and Sound and Wi-Fi

It was theoretically possible to use pull power on the SB2 than it's power supply could push. While I never had an issue with that, I've been told by some Destiny 2 players and serious media renderers that it could happen. With the SB3 they upped the power supply with 65W for the base 13.5-inch version and a full 127W for the 15-inch SKUs so that's not an issue any more.

I also want to touch on sound. There is a fan inside the device and if it gets hot it will run. If I'm doing 1080p 60fps in Call of Duty WarZone you can likely hear the fan. It comes and goes and while it's audible when it's one, when the CPU is not maxed out (during 70% of my work day) the Surface Book 3 is absolutely silent, even when running the monitors. The fan comes on with the CPU is bursting hard over 3Ghz and/or the GPU is on full blast.

The New Surface Dock - Coming May 26th

I'm also testing a pre-release Surface Dock 2. I suspect they wanted me to test it with the Surface Book 3...BUT! I just plugged in every Surface I have to see what would happen.

So this Surface Dock 2 replaces the original Dock my office. The Surface Dock 2 has

2x front-facing USB-C ports (I use these for two 4k monitors)

2x rear-facing USB-C ports

2x rear-facing USB-A 3.2 (10Gbps) ports

1x Gigabit Ethernet port

1x 3.5mm audio in/out port

Kensington lock slot - I've never used this

Conclusion

Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers published first on http://7elementswd.tumblr.com/

0 notes

linuxlife · 4 years

Text

Linux Life Episode 67

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to my ongoing quest regards Linux. Well I did say I was getting frustrated with the slowness of Manjaro well due to having to fight with it virtually every time when I built something from the AUR. I eventually had enough. So now the i7 desktop is now running Archman Mate.

The problem with Manjaro as I said was it seemed to be sluggish to load, respond and generally work. It did work but for some reason everything took far longer than it should. Also building anything would be problematic.

I will explain what I mean. Now Arch has a tendency to build from source which is not a problem. However most Arch versions with the exception of Manjaro if they script is in the wrong order it will normally correct so it will be able to build the program.Manjaro will just stop dead make you find a series of libraries which itself could have made. It's counter productive. Now I know sometimes AUR scripts are not perfect but just installing say Fuse the spectrum Emulator.

It uses libspectrum now every other Arch distro I have used discovers this and build this first and then Fuse. Manjaro just stalls, informs libspectrum is needed and stops. So now I have to go back to pamac install libspectrum first and now I can install Fuse. I'm sure someone seems to think this is a good idea as you see what you need before building the program in question.

However I just need a program to work and find all these unnecessary install steps annoying. If it needs such then like every other version out there install the library first and then build. However it will stop warn and not install.

This is very much like the old issue I used to have with Debian when it will inform you of the dependencies but not where they are. So you end up installing one library, then another, then another and still may not be close to being able to install the program you want.

It's inconvenient. I really don't understand how Manjaro is listed and praised so highly. I really don't. I have found it slow, obnoxious and obstructive. But for some reason people like it. Well let's just say I don't.

If you like Manjaro that's your prerogative. To be honest I admit I think I am pretty fussy about things. This is why I have shifted many times and through many versions of Linux.

Don't get me wrong now I will at least attempt to see if their is a fix if there is an issue which previously I wouldn't. Well I would but I have learned several things over time about symbol links going missing and how to sort them and that amending one or two files may be enough to save you having to totally reinstall the distribution.

As I have said before the reason why I use an Arch system over a Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora system is the applications are in a much more central location on Arch. On the others you normally need to keep adding PPAs and pointing the distros to file servers you have no idea whether they are safe or not.

Admittedly several scripts at the AUR may not work so I'm not saying it's perfect but nine times out of ten I can get the programs I want either from the central repositories of the distribution I'm using or the AUR.

Do they move their mirrors and files. They probably do but that is sent with the updates normally so I don't have to manually enter the movements.

Obviously I understand that if I was running a server I would want a machine that I set up once and then hopefully only have to do occasional updates the likes of Debian/Fedora are commonly used and I respect that. If I was to setup a central server then I would be looking at them but I don't have a server need.

As a desktop user I like to install programs try them, love them or hate them, keep them or remove them so I need a pretty dynamic setup. Hence why the Arch system suits me.

However I have discovered once I find something I like I will tend to stick with it. For example my usage of Shutter to grab screenshots. Sure there is Flameshot and Greenshot and probably others but they don't always manage to grab game shots very well which I normally can get Shutter to do.

Shutter hasn't been updated in a long time and getting it to build on various distros can be a long trek but Archman for example made sure it built without stopping by building the libraries in the right order which Manjaro could not do.

Maybe it's because Archman is using Mate where as when I was running Manjaro it was KDE. Given Shutter is primarily based in Gnome and Perl maybe Mate just knows how to deal with it better as it's based on the Gnome system. I don't know you see for all I am quite technically minded.

When it comes to complex programming my brain has decided it just doesn't want to get involved. I tried programming many years ago and discovered it was not for me. I just don't have the patience to find a missing semicolon or symbol in a several thousand lines of code program.

As much as I like to investigate programs I really don't have the patience to sit and learn programs that are incredibly complex either. I know Blender is an incredible tool and as well as being a 3D modelling software is capable of producing animation and some even use it for video production.

I have sat and rendered a model from example files and sat and waited for several hours for what turns out to be a two minute animation. Yes it's impressive but to be honest I know in my heart I would not sit and do such.

I love Emulation. It fascinates me seeing a machine running on my PC which was never meant to. Being able to try out programs and games I never could.

For example MAME includes MESS so it can run several computer systems as well as arcade games so I was able to play with Irix as there is now SGI Emulation in there. It's far from perfect and obviously not a huge amount of stuff is widely available to download for it.

However I have always wanted to see the Irix system in action and unless I was willing to pay the silly amounts asked on eBay for machines such the Octane and the Indigo. This is the only way I will get to try out such.

Hence why I now have Previous on most of my setups. It's an Emulation of the Next Systems so I can play with NextStep. Once again software is pretty limited and getting some of the stuff to work is a bit of a challenge. However seeing it and how you can see Mac OS X has integrated many of its features and improved makes it fascinating to me.

It never ceases to amaze me how the emulator programmers keep getting things working. I wouldn't know where the hell to start. Seeing them get things like Yusu, Xenia and Citra which are running emulation of Switch, Xbox 360 and 3DS games respectively. OK they are not perfect but the fact they have done so just proves how incredibly dedicated these people are.

I have always said my ideal desktop operating system which would never be possible. Is a machine where I can run Linux, Windows, Mac, Amiga, Next, BeOS and more from one desktop with one simple double click. Integrated Emulation at desktop level. Integration between clipboards and software. It's very idyllic and would never happen as the companies responsible for said technology would vehemently prevent such. But hey a man can dream. Either that or I'm just lazy and want everything under one roof to save me leg work.

Anyway I think that's enough waffle for this episode. So until next time ...take care.

#linux life #waffle #linux manjaro #linux archman #emulation #programming #idyllic

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mysticfyres · 4 years

Text

2019 Fyre Awards: Game of the Year Awards

Winner: Mobile Game of the Year - Florence

While I admit I am somewhat late to the party on this one, Florence truly is a clever and refreshing twist on mobile games which I much appreciated this year. Florence is a relatively short game which tells the story of a young woman’s search for love, eventual heartbreak, and journey of recovery and self-discovery. Though perhaps this sounds somewhat simple on paper, the game represents these concepts through beautiful visuals and clean/simple comic-style artwork so beautiful I was practically screenshotting every panel. However, though comic-esque in its style, this game uniquely manages to tell this heartfelt story with almost no dialogue (spoken or written) whatsoever, instead leaning heavily on its visuals, use of colors, and fantastically inter-woven gameplay to tell its story. Though nothing in its story itself was inherently unique, its gameplay elements, such as putting together pieces of a blank dialogue box to demonstrate how it feels to work your way through a conversation with someone new, were. In fact, elements such as these make me both hopeful and curious as to what digital comic designers in the future may be able to do with their work, to allow reader interactivity beyond simply glancing over their page. Innovations aside, however, Florence as it is is a sweet, reflective, and quiet experience I much appreciated amid the noise and chaos of many other entires on this year’s game list. As such, Florence is my clear winner of the 2019 Mobile Game of the Year Award.

Winner: Xbox Game of the Year - Dishonored 2

While I previously sung its praises for its level design, I can’t neglect mentioning that Dishonored 2 was the best single-player experience I’ve had all year. From a visual perspective, this game is stunning, with beautiful steampunk coastal exteriors and interiors brimming with art, coins, and trinkets. Its level design is likewise phenomenal, with diverse options for clearing each and every section of each and every level, whether you are bloodthirsty or aim to disappear into the shadows completely. Its enemy and weapon designs are likewise fun, with iconic adversaries like the clockwork soldiers, and abilities which let you do things like turn into a shadow monster. With so many ways to play and so many cool things to see on your way, the game gives you strong inherent incentive to explore, and spend hours and hours in its world. Although that world is considerably smaller than that of some other games, every second among Karnaca��s alleys felt like a treat. Its overall excellence and creativity in design make Dishonored 2 an easy winner of the 2019 Xbox Game of the Year Award.

Winner: PlayStation Game of the Year - Shadow of the Colossus

Speaking of games I definitely missed out on at the height of their popularity, my first experience with Shadow of the Colossus this year was one I will never forget. Shadow of the Colossus, for those living under a rock, follows a boy named Wander’s quest to climb and destroy 16 colossi roaming across forbidden lands, in order to resurrect a girl named Mono. Although I had a good time with it, there was a lot which I think was left to be desired with Shadow of the Colossus, as even the game’s remaster felt empty, colorless, and glitchy. However, one significant point of note about Shadow of the Colossus is that it permanently changed how I felt about boss fights. After finding these 16 colossi, quaking at their magnitude and destructive power, and attempting to scale and wound them only to be time and time again thrown off, beaten around, or killed, I found myself a changed person. After completing these bosses and this game, no boss battle has ever felt quite as intimidating. Although I’m sure there are yet games out there which will provide even greater challenges than that I faced with these colossi, after scaling and defeating these creatures I don’t think later boss fights will ever feel as impossible to me. That’s the beauty of building a game around crazy-intimidating boss fights, through this, the game trains you to approach even the most insurmountable-feeling task with a level of determination and trust in your own abilities which I feel so many other games don’t care if you do or don’t have. Again, while the game at large didn’t feel that fun or strike any specific chords with me, I think this is definitely something everyone should experience at least once. Thus, Shadow of the Colossus wins the 2019 Playstation Game of the Year Award.

Winner: Nintendo Game of the Year - Untitled Goose Game

As far as games go that let you unleash your inner b*stard, nothing can beat Untitled Goose Game. Untitled Goose Game is a stealth/simulator type game where you play as a goose whose sole purpose is to steal bells and simultaneously ruin the lives of everyone around you. As someone who always picks the nice option in video games, and who knows all too well about the studies which prove the nonexistence of things like catharsis, I didn’t really see myself being able to get into the mindset of a goose who really just wants to bring chaos and ruin. But I gave it a try, and soon found myself giving in to my inner a**hole. Part of the ease of doing this, I think, is great game design. In a world where you can pick up and move everything your goose mouth can hold, why wouldn’t you? In a world where people will be mean to you and stare at you for simply minding your own business, or god forbid- trying to have a picnic, why wouldn’t you, say, steal their radio, lock them in a garage, or break their stuff? Although the game tells you all the best ways to ruin their lives, it doesn’t have to incentivize you to do them: when you’re that small and filled with that much rage, it comes naturally. Although the controls to pull off some of those things are a bit slippery at times, if anything it only serves to fuel your terrible rampage, and continue your pleasure-seeking riot through the village. Again, while not ever things I would see myself doing, a goose does as a goose does. For this unfiltered look at my own psychoticism, Untitled Goose Game wins the 2019 Nintendo Game of the Year Award.

Winner: PC Game of the Year - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

While there were many games I really enjoyed this year, there is no game I had more inherent interest in or continued desire to play than the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. PW:AAT is the port of three classic games which I’ve wanted to play basically my entire life: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations. All three games follow lawyer Phoenix Wright in his quest to defend the innocent in various trials. As a combo of all three games, PW:AAT features hours and hours of content, which together make for an enjoyable, though somewhat mixed, bag of ideas. Characters in the three games are wacky caricatures which somehow loop back around into being unique, yet somehow entirely believable. The writing, meanwhile, careens back and forth between being dead serious and comedic. The story behind each case and the logic it takes to solve it is sometimes clear as day, otherwise seemingly non-existent. However, while PW:AAT is occasionally frustrating, it also keeps things fresh and leads to some genuine surprises. Each trial is a roller coaster ride from start to finish, and while far from a perfect game series, it is nonetheless wildly entertaining. For countless surprises and top-notch entertainment value, I have to give PW:AAT the 2019 PC Game of the Year Award.

Winner: Ultimate Game of the Year - Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

And finally, the winner of my Ultimate Game of the Year Award for 2019 is Borderlands: The Handsome Collection. Like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection is actually multiple games in one, and includes both Borderlands 2 and Borderlands the Pre-Sequel plus all DLCs of both games. The collection is named after the famous villain Handsome Jack, who appears prominently as both a protagonist and antagonist in both games. Besides being a genuinely great experience, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection was the series that defined my entire summer, and which I played start to finish with my best friend Ak. Story-wise, the games’ writing is phenomenal, with one of the best co-op campaigns I have ever played, and an engaging yet upbeat story as well. As mentioned before, both games likewise host an iconic cast of characters of diverse ethnicities, sexualities, and body types. The world design is likewise simultaneously bleak and colorful, leaving both Pandora and Elpis feeling both masterfully whimsical yet also like the wastelands they are often likened to. As far as gameplay, the game’s FPS and loot system mechanics are some of the most enjoyable I’ve experienced, and come to fruition in some insanely fun boss battles with great loot drops. Though other games both on this list and in the world at large have tried to mirror these elements, no game quite nails it like this one. The Handsome Collection is likewise easy to sink hours into without even trying, and before I knew it I had over 250 hours logged easily. Though I put off exploring the Borderlands series for many years, I am so incredibly glad I finally gave it a chance, as it’s now one of my favorite series of all times. As the game collection which allowed me to fall in love with this all new set of characters and universe, the Borderlands: The Handsome Collection is my indisputable 2019 Ultimate Game of the Year.

#Dani speaks #video games #games #gaming #The Fyre Awards #the fyre awards 2019 #thefyreawards #thefyreawards2019 #fyreawards2019

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