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gerbithats · 4 years

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A long sims 4 rant

Starting this I can already predict it’s gonna be a big one so if you stick with me, thank you and I’ll try and add pictures to make things feel easier 😆

I was thinking about it and I mean really thinking about these community surveys we’ve been getting and how they speak volumes on the way the game is handled but also also how we position ourselves as a community. I noticed alot more game changers are starting to get pretty vocal about their thoughts since the first community survey came out and that’s refreshing to say the least, but it shows a pattern that we all present: give us what is missing no matter how. We want beaches. We want cars. We want more stairs. We want bunkbeds. Etc.

So these things are probably somehow rushed into production to please the community and then, when we finally get it, it’s like we finally realize that what this game truly lacks is gameplay and not more items.

I invite you to come and think about the packs and the stuff we got throughout these 6 years with me.

🏢 Chapter 1: The apartment issue

Yes we got apartment buildings with city living, but sometimes it doesn’t even feel like it’s a game feature because it’s L I T E R A L L Y related to living in a city, so it’s not a real feature. We have no possible way to play with apartments and condos outside of san myshuno because for the first time ever we can’t build or own apartments. This was such a missed opportunity of giving us new lot treatments like condos and even rentable properties. I mean, just think about how those 2 features could allow so much new gameplay and stories with it (I can literally imagine being a landlord, having to go fix renters stuff in my their places and doing social events as condo meetings).

The neighbors in that type of lot could also help solve somehow what so many people mention as “boring lot gameplay”. Let’s be real. hardly something ever happens with so little npcs and only the walk by sims (You have to literally run after them to make things happen sometimes and it shouldn’t be like that). But if sims were to live in the same condo or building as yours, sharing common living spaces that’s a whole other thing. Which brings me to the fact that even in the city, where apartments exist, there’s no common area other than the halls. Imagine if we could build laundries, rooftops, basements, patios with pools and all that sort of stuff.

That sort of detaling and really getting deep into the pack’s features is even show in elevators: we can’t use them ourselves (for building) and they’re not even animated, your sim is just teleported (even the modded ones have animations and that’s just awkward).

🌊 Chapter 2: Swimming in shallow waters

“We want a beach”, we said. So they gave us a beach, and a beach only. I’ve never seen so many people call a pack “shallow” as I’ve seen it happen to Island Living and tbh I do agree with them ‘cause... there’s really not much to do in this pack. For the first time ever swimming was restricted to this pack which is already a big let down by itself, but then features like deep diving were added for no reason and of course, as a rabbit whole, not actually contributing with much to do. So how could it be better?

My answer is pretty obvious: resorts. It is a livable world, but that don’t mean your sims can’t take a vacation from work and just stay there if that’s the gameplay you want to go with and resorts match perfectly with that, not to mention it would have great integration with packs like spa day. It also means a new lot type and lot system, that wouldn’t be much new if the city living building condos and sublocating them as I mentioned would’ve already been implemented, but now with the feature of renting it yourself too. Resorts could also have their own event schedules, integrated with the seasons calendar: cava parties every wednesday, yoga lessons on thursdays, etc. And the best thing would be: if you own one, you can make your own events and traditions. imagine just how fun that would be. A feature like this would also mean it’s already done for other packs coming later on, maybe a colder destination where you can ski and build iglus or even another cultural based pack like jungle adventure.

Other obvious resolution would be better mermaids. Make it harder to become one, being only able to get the kelp from a mermaid themselves. Make it less anticlimactic, having an animation of them turning before they just walk in water with a tail all of the sudden, maybe just some scales in their legs. Give them more unique features and powers like vampires and spellcasters have, such as easily persuading people (sort of like the mind control feature aliens have) and maybe even a secret lot, like a grotto where all the mermaids are. Give them curses with the points system to go with it, some mermaids are actually sirens amirite

🥶 Chapter 3: Seasons change, gameplay stays the same

Activities truly based on the season that are specific to that moment create urgency and different moments. Something I can think of is integrating a pack we already have: spooky stuff. It does feel lackluster ‘cause it’s missing opportunities, but imagine going trick or treating but actually going, loading different houses and gathering it while a meter like the active jobs one guided you. Forming groups with friends to do it or maybe for tpeing trees and bushes if you’re on the rebel teen side and destroying their porch jack’o lanterns. It could even be randomly generated, like the game would send you to 3 different houses to do it (that would bring lots of replayability value ‘cause you could end up in houses with neighbors that love you and will give you candy no problem, but maybe also neighbors with family feuds that won’t answer their door or make it harder for you to accomplish the event objectives), maybe one of those could even be a abandoned one that’s haunted or something like that.

The implementing of a better wants and fears system is very essential for this pack. Yes your sims get overheated and a popup message tells you they need some water or lighter clothes, but it’d be so good if they’d actually want to go to the beach, swim in the ocean, take a vacation from work and go to a resort. Heatwaves that would make your sim act weird, not strangerville level of weird, but maybe not obeying your commands.

Blizzards so strong that work and school would get canceled and you actually don’t have the option to leave your home lot anymore until it passes would not only add a different element to the gameplay, but also add value to the weather controler machine.

🥺 Final chapter: The general “more stuff to do” and “more things happening” factor

The game offers all these beautiful secret worlds and yet when you finally get to them there’s not much to do other than searching for rocks and frogs and doing some fishing. I miss going to a community lot hidden somewhere and finding an eremite, goddamn bigfoot, some crazy npc or even just an actual community lot with something to do and people doing stuff in it. Unique community lots would also be a way to make towns more lively and captivating like they did so well with realm of magic and the casters alley section of the world. Maybe forgotten hollow has this abandoned haunted house where people claim they’ve seen the grim reaper walking around. Maybe sixam has a alien station where they clone human sims. Maybe sulani has this beautiful sunken ship beach where a club of people that dress up as pirated meet. Maybe Del Sol Valley has a movie theater where you can watch premieres. Maybe Oasis Springs mine hides actual gold that you can collect and get rich outta nowhere. That kind of stuff.

I can’t stress this enough, but NPCs are so important to shake things up. It was so good to have a pack like realm of magic where the we would have to go to the three sages in order to progress. Having unique sims like this or npcs that change the way your story is going like burglars, firefighters, cops, social bunny, bonehilda and even a fortune teller is so important to keep things impredictable and interesting.

Age groups really need more specific restricted gameplay for better feel of progression. Many people say sims 4 is a young adult simulator and well... there’s not much to show that differs from that. Toddlers are as interesting as hamsters, locked in an object waiting for you to feed, clean and give them attention. Teens really should feel more like a transiction period, and the wants and fears system would really help out with that. I miss being able to participate in more elements that would mark a sims life even if they’re cheesy as heck, like having a prom, graduating, having a midlife crises.

In conclusion

First of all: if you got to this point thank you and I’d really wanna know what you think about all of this.

Some people may find even ridiculous for someone to go about a rant this big on a game and to that I have to say I agree lol I can’t help it tho, honestly, the sims has always been the game I’m most passionate about and it helped me express myself and my creativity so much since I was a kid. I really do care about this game and this franchise.

The point I want to make with this is: perhaps we shouldn’t ask for more and more different stuff, but actually put some effort into showing things we already like in the game and how they can be improved to make it more interesting. At the end of the day I still want spiral staircases, ladders, paintable ceiling, werewolves and all that but does it really matter if they get added to the game following the same patterns as the things pointed in here? Also we really are getting to a point where only a few things are missing as far as cas/build/buy go and I believe it’s time for us, as a community, to give gameplay as much importance as all these things we wanted so bad that got implemented. I probaby forgot to say something here and I didn’t even mention the infamous hamster pack, but anyway, I hope the point got across.

I try really hard to believe that the gurus are here for us and that most of all we, as a community, have a very strong voice, all we need to do is make it clearer and stronger about the things we really wish for this game.

#i'm never doing rants again #honestly this is my last one #from now one i'll only express my thoughts through memes and reblogs #ressurrection spell was a missed opportunity for zombies to be back in realm of magic btw #i don't even know how to tag this #the sims #the sims 4 #ts4 #sims 4

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fizzingwizard · 3 years

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So I played Snowy Escape this week! It’s my cup of tea! I watched LGR’s review (and Plumbella’s too) and yeah, as usual, I agree with both of them. The pack doesn’t give us a lot that’s really new, especially in terms of gameplay, and I really wish there had been even small interactive moments aboard trains and ski lifts. However, I also agree that it’s a really aesthetically beautiful pack. The way tourists who haven’t gone to Japan yet think of Japan might be like Tokyo Shibuya area, or Osaka shopping streets... but uh, Tokyo and Osaka are only two cities in all of Japan, and pretty much the entire rest of the country isn’t like that. The majority of Japan’s tourist attractions are nature- and history-based, after all.

The big question for me was just how touristy “Mt Komorebi” was going to come across. Sims is pretty noticeably America-centric, and Western culture is the norm. They put out Jungle Adventure and it’s like stepping into a 90s action movie. The most progressive thing you can say about the locals in that pack is that, due to being governed by the same rules that apply to all Sims, they don’t come across “different” enough to be straight up othered. The area they live in, of course, is underdeveloped in spite of the “culture” skill, and very much is meant to be an exotic adventure for Indiana Jones.

Komorebi’s not that bad though. I was impressed at first by the amount of detail there seemed to be. I never expected we’d get space heaters and kotatsu and nabe in-game without downloading CC. Taking off your shoes to go inside, using chopsticks, sliding doors (which I’ve wanted more of for SO LONG), are all true to life as well as modern and also just nice to have. There’s some weird bits, like how when sims sit at the kotatsu they don’t sit on their knees, their legs just disappear into the floor... I guess we can assume there’s a hole underneath (which is the case with some kotatsu just not usually the at-home kind). I also would have liked more every day interactions, like doing homework at the kotatsu or watching TV or even taking a nap.

The patterns for yukata/kimono are pretty awful though. The more understated ones I can live with, but anything with a splash of color is a fashion disaster.

The look of the houses in the towns are really nice. The interiors, not so much, but that’s easier to fix than the facade and landscaping for most of us. The non-interactive backgrounds areas really do look like Japan. It’s a pity we can’t explore it at all. (I would have LOVED just one interactive conbini. That’s one Japan staple that it’s simply weird to leave out. They probably figured conbini wouldn’t have anything the vending machines don’t have, but personally I’d rather have conbini than vending machines. Unless they made it rabbit hole, in which case fuck it)

Also liked the snow festival and the lights festival. It’s true there’s not a lot to do at them, other than take pictures, and it was really hard to get good pictures with my sims in them... When I went to snow festivals, you could do things like light candles in little snow cubbies, or have a meal in a kamakura, etc. That would have been nice. Otherwise it’s just look at the pretty sights and make normal snowmen. Same with the lights festival - it’s gorgeous, but... They do have food stalls but the variety is limited. You can get four different kinds of yakisoba and ramen but no okonomiyaki, no ikayaki. There’s no festival games. I’m currently festival-starved due to covid-19 so my hopes were a bit higher. Still... like I said, I enjoyed them. I guess I just like pretty things. And I do spend an inordinate amount of time just taking pictures of my Sims doing things anyway xP

The Youth festival is pretty dull. It seems more like a not!Pokemon festival than anything else. The crepes, however, are great. Also it’s really WEIRD that the koinobori (the carp flags) are out all the time, like a normal decoration, in the city. That’s one culture thing that I think got confused.

So as far as it goes... it’s not as touristy as I expected it to be. I give it props for that. It’s definitely still got a vibe of “non-Japanese foreigner goes for a visit,” as in, I think if a Japanese company made a Sims game with Japanese players in mind, they’d have done a ton things differently. But we got a more robust cultural depiction than we ever have before, so, nice.

The winter sports are fun! I weirdly didn’t get bored even though like LGR says, it is just watching the Sims do the same thing over and over again without any player interaction. That does suck but is also par for the course with Sims 4. Since I play multiple Sims at a time, it’s easy for me to stick one on the bunny slope and just let them ski until they level up while I do something else with another Sim :P (Sims is more fun when you cheat!)

The onsen is a let down. It’s nice, sure. It’s just a spa though. And it’s WEIRD that you can have sex in the onsen while other people are in it, even children, and they are not freaked out, but you can’t skinny dip in front of children. All they get is an uncomfortable moodlet afterwards because now the onsen water is dirty x’D I wonder if that’s an oversight that will get tweaked in the future...

However, onsen is very pretty too. I would have liked a smaller building and better landscaping with two or three hot springs to pick from. Also, there are gendered entrance curtains, but they don’t actually divide Sims by gender and all lead to the same place... I guess it’s good to have for pictures at least. If you want to put in the ladies room and mens room doors you could easily make his and hers as well as a mixed hot spring baths. I think this is one we just have to let the Sim builder greats take on.

So HIKING is awesome! I loved it! It’s relaxing for me. Some might find it dull, but it’s really just so pretty, and for me brings back a lot of memories. Hiking in Japan is pretty much like that (although a lot more mountainous of course). It’s somewhat dependent on your graphics settings - mine aren’t that high so like the bamboo forest vanishes as I cam through it.. can’t get that sense of really being inside it. Also when I came across the cemetery I had my spellcaster try to Necrocall the one grave that has interactions, but it didn’t work, even though the option came up. ?? I was expecting some sort of cool ghost. Oh well.

I’m interested in climbing. I don’t have Fitness Stuff so I never did it before. It’s way more boring than leveling the winter sports though. But I think the mountain climb will be worth it.

There are little kodama and sprites you can come across and interact vaguely with. I’ll accept that as a Ghibli nod. It’s more cute than cultural but it’s also a bit of fun surprise, though I haven’t noticed any real effect beyond a moodlet. (Was told one gave me a present but I couldn’t find it in my inventory so I think it was just the moodlet.)

Also the bugs!! That’s very Japan! And you can buy insect repellent hahaha that’s a level of realism I didn’t ask for but will take

I’ll talk about lifestyles and sentiments too. I don’t need them personally. The sentiments are kind of nice to see, but they’re predictable. You get the same ones if you do certain things. They give you a moodlet when the Sim shows up, which I guess I do like, but... tbh it’s damn inconvenient sometimes. For ex, I played by Tsubasa family to explore Mt Komorebi, and I noticed many conversations were inexplicably becoming “awkward.” The reason was - even though no one was saying or doing anything flirty - Kurogane and Fai were getting in the mood by just looking at each other thanks to sentiments, and Sakura and Syaoran were like -___-; I mean, it’s hilarious, but also annoying!

Lifestyles... eh. So far all my Sims just get the same ones. They all seem to get Adrenaline Seeker just for playing winter sports. Also I find the pop-ups warning me when a Sim’s going to lose their lifestyle annoying, and if a Sim gets a lifestyle I don’t want for them, it’s annoying to watch their mood change for dumb reasons like “didn’t spend enough time outdoors today.” It’s the same concept as traits. It’s kind of nice that you can change them around by doing different things, and since we’re limited to three traits I won’t say no to more (for example, instead of giving a Sim the “Loves the Outdoors” trait, you can try to get the Outdoorsy lifestyle and use the trait slot for something that influences their personality more). But all in all I find my Sims still just act the same as usual and the gameplay is all in pop-ups, so it’s just not exciting for me.

Also had a glitch where Sakura would take off her shoes to go inside but when she went out, she put on a pair of snowboots that I never even equipped her with, and she wore them with every outfit. Editing in CAS didn’t help. A reboot did though.

So pretty much, I definitely think they could have done more with this pack, BUT that’s been the case with literally every pack since the base game. There are no expectations for me anymore, that’s why I really just genuinely like this one. I’m happy they picked North Japan rather than Tokyo or Osaka, I think we got a lot more detail because of that.

#sims #sims 4

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altaaira-ashuratan-blog · 5 years

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Welcome to “the Subconscious!”

As I promised, a sneak peak of my WIP world, totally unedited and -filtered screenshot, just a few months old picture! Here you go! C: I hope this picture encourages the others post pics about their worlds, no matter how WIP and unedited they are (more pics under the cut).

“The Subconscious” is my custom world I’ve been creating for... Over seven years, I assume. Actually, the picture below sums very well why I have been struggling with it for so long time. If the whole .world file hasn’t totally corrupted with all those ready lots, the objects, both CC and EA’s, have caused a lot of trouble like this the most recent hot routing mess which almost made me giving up with the whole project - thanks @nilxis for the help and @grandelama for fixing the water CC. Moreover, I’ve shaped it all over again too many times and am still unsure if I like it enough to let it be. :/

It’s the world created primarily for my own use: I wanted the world where to include all my favourite fandoms, architecture styles, lookalike buildings and mythologies. I’ve always enjoyed creating neighbourhoods from the scratch since TS2. Due this, it went without saying I HAD to test CAW tool once released. I vowed not to touch the gameplay itself until I had got everything ready in the Subconscious. It meant all work and no play (the Sims 3) ...does not make altaaira a dull person. Just a pitiful nerd. BD

It all began with the spiral. I remember travelling in the train in the wintertime when I got stuck with the spiral-shaped world from the Digimon Adventures (S1) on my mind. It made me to doodle the first version of the Subconscious. There were a huge mountain in the middle of the world and different areas around it: the corrupted city, the mountain of the Ancients, the hill of the test subects, Tuonela river, and so on. The first version became quite ready to be played before its literal corruption. Afterwards, I’m pleased it happened because it felt... amateurish, and it had zillion lots just for the rivers and waterfalls. It may have lagged worse than Isla Paradiso. Whoopsie.

After this huge failure, I started everything over. At this time, I got the inspiration from the world’s name itself. Once again, I placed the spiral mountain in its original position but everything around it was based on Freud’s theory about psyche. Everything “cultural” and “sophisticated” would have been on the top of the mountain and rest around it. I tried to place different cultural areas to the correct geographical locations and make each public lot to represent some of their historical roots: for example, the school would have been the mixture of cathedral and mosque. Finally, I came to the conclusion this may have been too racist - in the school’s context for example, it would have been too Euro-centrist way to understand how the education has historically developed. From this version, I just left the cultural locations and the idea of “the past” and “the afterlife” in the west and “the future” and “the birth” in the east - and the art gallery named “Freud’s Psyche”. It will be the only one similar building from the very first version. Nostalgic.

Every picture in this post are from the newest version of the world. The colours may vary because I’ve tested different colours. It’s very hard because I feel everybody else has already used all the nice-looking colour combinations. :<

The desert in the valley is the only place which structure I haven’t changed a lot. In the current version, there’s no sand painting yet and I’ve placed a lot of city walls. The only way to access there is either go through the cave (seen in the pic) or across the mountains. I wanted a remote area for my town with traditional Arabic-Persian-Islamic architecture and Shia mosque inspired by Blue Mosque and this (right in the pic, likely going to be more Persian styled because of already-existing Eastlands), Ancient Egypt lots (left in the pic) placed inside the mountain inspired by Petra and “Bedouin” gameplay .

The coastal area has been expanded a lot from this. The lagoon is still there but there’s a lot space for the nature and forest in the current version. See the lot for the Moomin house next to the mountain! <3

In this pic, you may notice the city walls from Shang Simla. My intention is to build the town using elements of the traditional/ancient Chinese architecture and city planning. There will also be the fountain/water source for the rice fields in the north side of the mountain, the epic martial arts place and arena and separated monasteries for the Buddhist and Sufi monks.

My delta area next to the desert. I planned to create the tropical jungle around the river and the town inspired by Varanasi for my Hindu deities. It has also been expanded a lot from this and there’s not so many mountains anymore - I found it too restless and incoherent landscaping, and of course, no more radio towers anymore. :D

The super old sneak peak from my metropolitan city area and the view from the north. The Olympus mountain (right in the pic) has been separated as an island and the valley expanded a lot. Besides, there’s more land to be cultivated. I have no better pics from the city centre but a few city plans drawn in the tablet. If I find out out how to transfer them, I’ll post them later and tell more about my plans.

I planned to locate Yubaba’s onsen and Howl’s castle around here.

Daang, how much I hate this mountain! Olympus is the place for antique and modern Greek architecture, my Greek Deities and the University. Nothing more to say, just glad I bulldozed the whole crap.

...for the rice fields! But oh well, this has been another experiment of doom. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like this because I gave up my attempt for create these by using CC water by @grandelama. Instead, I place the fields to the hill by painting and try to create a semi-aesthetic watering system. Experiments, experiments.

Moreover, there are more diverse areas not mentioned yet. It’s easier to tell about the when I take the pics. Yes, a cliffhanger. :D

That��s all folks. I’ll post the newer WIP pictures when I finally place the removed objects again and remove @potato-ballad-sims Boroughsburg’s CC - as I mentioned earlier, I intended primarily create the world for my personal use. At the moment, if you guys are interested in using it, I’ll release it once getting ready. I’m not going to change my plans due to the public release, however. It means I’ll use quite a lot of CC in both the world and the hypothetical lots.

#the Sims 3 #the sims 3 custom world #WIP #the Subconscious #not-your-everyday-Tumblr-pictures

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britesparc · 3 years

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Weekend Top Ten #483

Top Ten Non-Predictions About Not-Quite E3

So E3 is upon is at last! Nearly. Almost. Sort of. A bit. But after a year in which the world-famous videogame trailer convention and Keanu Reeves meme factory was sidelined by this virus thing (Google it), it’s nice to have a major entertainment landmark back in the calendar.

Last year was a bit frustrating, but also interesting. For a long time I’ve wondered about the need – as a consumer – for huge conventions such as E3. It makes sense for the industry, sure, the same way Sundance or something does for film: it’s a way for creators to showcase their wares and hopefully secure deals or employment. But as a way of showing to the public games that are in development, or announcing new things, it’s seemed old-fashioned for quite a while. It requires developers and executives to turn into PT Barnum or something, hawking their wares on elaborate stages, titivating their offerings with dances and celebrity appearances. Sure, sometimes it’s genuinely excellent and entertaining, but most often it’s memorable for all the wrong reasons. With many companies now engaging directly with fans by releasing curated videos that announce their games in their own way, in their own time, would that not have been better? If last year is anything to go by, then no, not really. What we got – and this may have been in large part due to 2020’s unique circumstances – was a long, long summer and autumn filled with rumour and conjecture, and occasional, uninspiring videos, often featuring CG trailers, often for games that were literally years away. On the one hand, lots was announced; on the other, it all felt vague and woolly, and the slow drip-feed did nothing but build anticipation to unrealistic proportions. Without E3 serving as some kind of anchor point – in time, if nothing else – then the spray-gun smattering of videos, trailers, and announcements felt disparate and a little disappointing.

And so it’s back! But not quite. Because, understandably, the huge convention aspect is gone, replaced by a wholly online event. And whilst this may be detrimental to people who want to secure a distribution deal for their game, it might actually make for better showcases for us, the unwashed masses. Instead of a ninety-minute stagebound light entertainment extravaganza that ends up feeling like a ten million dollar school play, we’ll (hopefully) get tightly edited videos that highlight the games, alongside trimmed-down and relevant talking head interviews from developers explaining what we can expect and just how many bumps they’ve managed to map this year. At least, that’s what I hope will happen.

Of course, exactly what E3 is nowadays is a bit weird anyway, and this year exacerbates that. Loads of companies seem to shun the show itself but schedule their presentations for the same week or thereabouts, giving us, what, a fortnight (with a “gh”) or so of things to look forward to. I mean, it feels a bit weird putting this list out a full week before E3 formally kicks off, but I wanted to try to pre-empt any interesting amusing reveals that might occur in the days preceding (at the time of writing, Nintendo haven’t announced a new Switch, despite everyone on Twitter saying it was due any minute now). To be honest, I always like to look for the random stuff anyway, as the huge games tend to be known about or heavily rumoured well in advance (it felt like an open secret for at least a year that Playground Games were developing a new Fable, for instance, and we were just waiting to see when Microsoft would announce that). So I’ve tried to make these predictions daft, wish-fulfilment, or at least offer some kind of personal spin on the sort of thing we might expect. And, of course, as someone who tends to prefer to play on Xbox or Nintendo, there will be a skew towards those companies (anyway, Sony don’t really have a presence at E3 nowadays). And like I’ve said before, the really personal wish-fulfilment stuff I always used to “predict” in these things have started to come true – we’ve got Fable and Perfect Dark on the way, and we had Crackdown 3 a couple of years ago. If it goes on like this I’m just going to have to start wishing for loads of old Amiga games to get rebooted.

You heard it here first: E3 2022 is when we get the third-person open world Ruff ‘n’ Tumble reboot we’ve all asked for.

Anyway, here are ten predictions for E3 that probably won’t happen.

Halo Infinite multiplayer beta: we know Halo will be there, because it’s front and centre of Microsoft’s little announcement picture thing (along with what appears to be a bit of the Starfield logo). As the image also seems to show multiplayer Spartans, I imagine this will be the focus rather than more campaign gameplay. I actually think this is a big risk, as the main criticism of Halo last year was that its graphics weren’t good enough; typically, I’d say, the campaign visuals are stronger than the multiplayer portion, which tends to focus on elegantly designed levels and fast-moving gameplay. I wonder if there’ll be another, longer look at the campaign sometime later in the summer, in a dedicated Halo presentation. Anyway, one thing I think MS will do to curry favour is announce an imminent multiplayer beta. Maybe there’ll be a sign-up, but I think it would be cool if it was available for anyone in Game Pass Ultimate. It’s a way to get people to sign up for the service, and that seems to be Microsoft’s main goal right now.

Games ready to play RIGHT NOW: Psychonauts 2, Age of Empire IV, and the Xbox version of Flight Simulator have all been given age ratings recently, something that only happens relatively close to a game’s release. I think that at least one of these – maybe all three! – will be shown at the Xbox presentation, and then declared to be available immediately on Game Pass. Again, it bigs up Microsoft’s service, and would also be a cool mic drop moment for games that might be anticipated but aren’t quite the triple-A behemoths of Halo, Fallout, or Gears.

All the rays, nicely traced: one thing that’s been a bit frustrating as an Xbox Series X owner is the lack of genuine next-gen feeling experiences. I’ve really enjoyed the upgrade from a base Xbox One, and playing a game like Gears 5 feels like a huge improvement (and it’s gorgeous too). But I want to see crazy stuff that the old box couldn’t do, and not just in higher resomolutions. One of the things that I’d love to see is more ray-tracing; this is a next-gen graphical treat that, to me, feels like when I first saw games with dynamic coloured lighting twenty-five years ago. So I hope we get a proper reveal/release date for the ray-traced Minecraft expansion, but I’d also love it – now that Xbox owns everything – if the ray-traced version of Quake 2 was announced for the console. Give me them rays, Microsoft!

Quaking: speaking of the Quake series, it’s the first game’s twenty-fifth anniversary this year, and I think it needs some love. Now, id are working on their Doom reboot trilogy thing, so I don’t expect to see a fully-fledged reimagining for a few years yet, but how about re-releasing the original game on modern consoles? Doesn’t need anything fancy, just like the ports of the first Doom that are ten a penny. Quake is a bit more complex to port, it’s true, but I still think it’d be amazing to see it on consoles before the end of its anniversary year.

Nothing but Star Wars: outside of the Xbox-Bethesda conference, I hope we see some lovely, lovely Star Wars goodies. There are a few projects in development, but I’m gonna stick my neck out and say that we’ll get a fairly long look at the Knights of the Old Republic remake/reboot, a very vague teaser trailer for Fallen Order 2 (maybe even just a title reveal), and a teaser for the open-world game from Ubisoft. I don’t, unfortunately, think we’ll see anything of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga until the Lego livestream later this summer, but for what it’s worth I’m not expecting that game till Christmas now.

Old games on Switch: I think one of the things Nintendo is going to announce is a bunch of older games coming to the Switch. We already have Skyward Sword coming, but I think we’ll hear about other classic Zelda games coming in the anniversary year. Maybe remastered Metroid Prime games too? And I think they’ll do another one of those battle royale-style versions of their classics, maybe the first Donkey Kong?

New games on a new Switch: the sheer weight of “New Switch” rumours seems to suggest it is real, but when are they announcing it if their E3-ish Direct is all about software? I wonder if we’ll see some new games for Christmas ’21 going into ’22 that are then revealed to be enhanced by this mythical Super Switch. We’ll probably see a bit more of Breath of the Wild 2 (although I think there’ll be a bigger Zelda-focused Nintendo Direct later this year). I’m gonna predict Pikmin 4. And vague teasers for both a brand new Metroid Prime game, and also for Mario Kart 9. And all of these will be designed to run better on Switchy McSwitchface. Whenever that comes out.

Microsoft buys more companies: I just think this is inevitable, and I reckon we’ll get another announcement next week. Which companies? God knows. The Flight Sim guys maybe, or The Medium developers. Or, I dunno, Team 17. Probably not Sega, as funny as that would be. Maybe a medium-sized Japanese developer. So, yeah; Microsoft’s spending spree isn’t quite over.

Sony’s not-E3 announcements: Sony appears to be skipping E3 altogether, again. So when will they have their next big video presentation? I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long personally. So what will they talk about? I’d have thought we’d see the next Spider-Man revealed this year, but the big chitter-chatter at the moment is the whole “cross-gen” conversation (my opinion is: who cares?), and also when their games will come out. well, call me pessimistic, but I think Horizon: Forbidden West will end up being early 2022, with the new God of War and Gran Turismo ending up as late 2022 releases.

Crazy talk: I think this has ended up being a relatively straight and rational list, which just won’t do. So let’s get some wild ones out of the way here at the end. Sony announces remastered versions of Lemmings and Lemmings 2 for PC! Microsoft is making new games starring their Avatars! Double Fine release a PC version of Scurvy Scallywags for Game Pass! A brand new Duke Nukem! Lucasfilm bring Ron Gilbert back to oversee a reboot of Monkey Island! Nintendo announces Switch Sports! Gabe Newell announces VR support for Xbox Series X with an exclusive port of Half-Life: Alyx! Peggle 3! Phew, glad to get that out of my system.

#top ten #e3 e3 2021 #xbox #nintendo #sony #playstation #switch #switch pro #microsoft #series x #halo

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dandelliongirl · 5 years

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August

die she must ♫

So summer came and went! I didn’t blog at all in July and I don’t mind it. My summer was full of swimming, spending time at the summer house, eating, going on bike rides and runs, rollerblading, SUP paddling, watching H2O, shopping, berry picking, eating strawberries and ice cream, road tripping and living my best summer life. ☼ Now it’s back to work and life isn’t all roses..

I worked until the 17th of July, and work during those weeks was very slow. I got to watch twitch streams, take long lunch breaks and finish any work I had on my to-do list from the spring. I’m glad my coworkers were all on vacation before me.

My first paid summer vacation ever was amazing! I did everything I had planned to in the short 2½ weeks I had, and the weather was amazing! ☼ Me and my guy took our annual shopping road trip, I spent a bunch of time with mum and dad at the summer house and in my little sleeping cottage surrounded by beauty and nature. Mum, grandmum and I started a quilting project together and me and dad went on long bike rides with his fat bike and my off-road bike exploring the little country roads around our cottage. Temperatures were in the +30 celsius range with no rain, and lake water was warm enough to walk into. I even went on a late night swim with my guy which was so much fun! I also saw my dance friends before one of them moved abroad and two of them went away to their study cities, and I got to watch the rally world cup live at my boyfriend’s cottage. I’m so glad I’ve been able to take the most out of my summer.

I cannot believe how fast an entire summer went and to be honest it kind of scares me to think about the upcoming 8+ months of more or less misery. This Sunday mum and I got to spend one of the last summer days outdoors by washing rugs (and my guy’s kendo coat) at the shore, and it was warm enough to go swimming and sit on the dock for a bit while our laundry was drying. I’m so proud of myself for getting over my fear of cold water. I still need it to be above 18 ish celsius but it’s a lot better than I’ve done in the past. I’m an absolute scaredy-cat when it comes to cold/wet conditions, and being able to challenge that has felt incredible! It’s moments like last Sunday that make the winters worth it - at least somewhat. Besides I’m definitely excited for Christmas - it’ll be here so soon. And I’m hoping for some good cross country skiing weather. And hopefully a trip next spring... I got to do two more photoshoots for my photo project this summer, so I’m also hoping for at least one pretty fall foliage photoshoot.

So work... Students are now enrolling for courses and our support queue has around 90-100 unopened requests at all times. It would be fine otherwise but we also have meetings and trainings and other things to attend to and see to, so it can get pretty stressful. I’m fine staying in my lane, and I work incredibly well under pressure, but my colleagues seem to constantly be in a really bad mood. Obviously and understandably a lot of our end users are in a really bad mood as well. We also have a new boss, and while I love her entire attitude and she’s an amazing boss-lady, she obviously needs a lot of help and instructions on a lot of things since she started less than a month ago. Regardless, aside from training guidance counsellors (which has literally been the stuff of nightmares lately) and the awful mood our team seems to be in I’m enjoying the feeling of importance and having stuff to do. It is taxing and I do find myself more tired after work than I used to, and I also find it harder to detach myself from my work during time off, but I’m consciously working on it, and having started body combat and HIIT classes again helps get things off my mind. Ballet is starting this week as well but it’s right after my HIIT class so I’m going to have to figure out a system of going to one or the other if both of them are too much to go to in one night. I’d also like to take modern dance again for the first time in years but that group overlaps with my ballet class..

Lately I’ve really been wanting to buy a sublimation printer, namely the Canon SELPHY. I bought new ink for my Canon PIXMA MP550 because I could not justify an entirely new printer when my actual printer works as a photo printer as well. However I think the old inks have dried up because I can’t get the printer to print in colour. So, I decided I would order a set of pictures I picked out on Sunday, including some graduation photos from May. It was around 10€ for 100 photos plus 5€ postage and handling so it’s still a lot cheaper than an entire 130 € sublimation printer plus ink and paper for 50€.. I still really want it though because it could print photos directly from my phone and my camera without the added need for PC intervention. I’m trying to be mindful of the environment though, and also the fact that we have very little space in our apartment as is. We’ll see.. I did a cleanup of our bookshelf and walk in closet and managed to get one bag of donateable books, clothes and other stuff. I’m trying to KonMari my life in order and towards a more minimalist lifestyle, which is something I usually do this time of every year as a “new school year” begins. It’s an old habit but it helps me get at least a bit excited for the upcoming year when my stuff is in order. Needless to say another piece of electronic junk doesn’t really go with the idea. (Oh speaking of which, I got my boyfriend his Christmas present since it’s easy and discreet to deal with now that he’s still working for a couple more weeks. I won’t disclose what it is in case he reads this but I went way over my budget with it - another reason why I haven’t jumped at the printer thing.. I’m having his present delivered hopefully sometime this week.)

So the Sims 4 Realm of Magic trailer just Premiered on YouTube and I’m cautiously excited. I’ll still wait for Deligracy, James Turner, Plumbella and Lilsimsie to publish their reviews, but maybe for the Christmas sales I could go for a build-a-bundle with the City Living EP, Realm of Magic GP and Romantic Garden SP.

Me and my guy have started Fire Emblem Three Houses, and we just made it to the (mild spoilers!) time skip part. Fire Emblem is a very hard core strategy game and probably more fun to play than to watch from the sidelines. There seem to be so many characters that most of them are super 2D and very annoying caricatures of age old anime stereotypes. I like the plot/story though and I find it very interesting, but from the golden deers (my pick) the only people I tolerate(d) are Claude and Lysithea. Compared to Valkyria Chronicles 4 with a cool story and engaging gameplay that was interesting to watch, and characters I got invested in I’d still recommend VC4 over FE, but we are pretty early into FE still. Maybe the characters will grow on me now that they’re older and hopefully less annoying.

My high school class has a reunion this Saturday. Me and two other classmates are carpooling for a short visit since I have to work on instructor training and its materials on Sunday, and I don’t feel like hanging out with drunk people anyway. Something tells me nobody has actually grown up in that regard.. Anyway it’ll be interesting to see where everyone has ended up. It has been six years since graduation and I’ve only kept in touch with 3-ish people.

My guy is playing pokémon with his friend tonight and I’m seeing my friend from way back in daycare tomorrow, which sucks because I was hoping for some quality time of H2O and more Fire Emblem now that he has two days off, but we’ll have plenty of time together starting September when he is home full time. I’ll probably continue work on a photo book I’m making for mum and dad for Christmas about our summer house. It’s been 10 years since I started spending actual time there, and mum has wanted a photo diary for a while now. I’m glad I’ve started early because it takes a lot of effort picking out the photos and arranging them in the book.

I’m glad I got to blog for the first time in a while. Feels good to be caught up. I don’t want future me to forget these experiences and little moments I’ve loved and valued at this point in my life. Now, onto September! I’m glad there’s still more than one week of August left.

#personal #diary #August2019

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foursprout-blog · 6 years

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25 Gamers On The Most Gruesome Story That Stuck With Them Long After They Finished Playing

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/25-gamers-on-the-most-gruesome-story-that-stuck-with-them-long-after-they-finished-playing/

25 Gamers On The Most Gruesome Story That Stuck With Them Long After They Finished Playing

Unsplash / Nicolas Gras

1. S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl

“In S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, there were several underground research labs full of all kind of spooky and paranormal badness and other sorts of anomalies. It was like exploring a haunted house except the ghosts were real and there’s a psychic force slowly driving you insane. Also it’s pitch black and you can get lost really easily.” — Innalibra

2. Outlast

“Outlast and Alien Isolation gave me so much anxiety I had to stop playing them.

I managed to complete Outlast and Outlast 2, but I haven’t touched Alien in years. There’s no way I’m going through 20 hours of that shit.” — HearTheEkko

3. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

“That game fucked with your head so much using the sanity meter. For those that haven’t played it here are some of things that would happen:

When entering a room, the character may turn into a Zombie, and ‘die’ a moment later or after going through some doors.

Attempting to cast Recover may cause the character’s torso to explode, resulting in a (fake) death of the character.

When entering a room, the character’s limbs may explode in a systematic order, going for the head, the arms and then the torso, resulting in a (fake) death of the character.

When entering a room, the character may shrink or grow while moving. This is most commonly seen in the strange curved corridors of the Forbidden City.

When entering a room and when holding a gun, the character can shoot at nothing at random times or turn around and shoot at the camera leaving a fake bullet hole in the screen. (Similiar to the Prologue of the James Bond movies, and in Resident Evil 2.)

When attempting to reload a gun, it may go off in the character’s stomach, resulting in a (fake) death of the character. This is most prominent in Max’s chapter, for he is the only one without a bigger gun than his flintlock pistols. Revolvers in other chapters have been known to cause this phenomenon to occur as well.

When entering a room, the character’s head falls off (but can be picked up), and levitates on screen reciting ‘HAMLET’.

The screen goes black, as if the TV went off.

Bugs may appear to be crawling on the TV screen.

The game will lower the gameplay volume while displaying a green volume bar, similar to real on-screen TV settings.

The screen goes black and changes to video mode, and you will hear your character getting eaten until they ‘die’. (Even without a ‘Break Free’ control stick, the unseen Zombie can still be pushed away)

A false sneak-preview of a sequel to the game, called ‘Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Redemption’ (the original planned sequel to ‘Sanity’s Requiem’) will appear.

Upon saving your game, a message will say, ‘Are you sure you want to delete all of your Saved Games?’ If you say yes or no, the saved files will be ‘deleted’.

A ‘Blue Screen of Death’ will appear.

You will see the image you see when you start up or reset the game, quoting Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven’ in Edward Roivas’ voice.

When the controller is left idle long enough, a still ‘screensaver’ shot of Pious will appear on the screen until a button is pressed.

When you open your inventory screen, all your inventory spaces appear empty.

When entering a room, the character may be unable to move or attack, and the player will get a fake system message telling that a controller isn’t plugged in, while the many zombies attack them.

A fake screen message will appear, congratulating the player for finishing the demo of the game.

The camera begins leaning as the Sanity Meter lowers.” — -eDgAR-

4. Doki Doki

“My old roommate was playing this game and I thought it was some dating sim game. So, I left and went to play some game and I hear him yell ‘JESUS FUCKING CHRIST NO!!!’ and was like ‘yo, wtf dude you alright?’

I kid you not he was white as a fucking sheet and literally shut his computer (gaming laptop) and proceeded to go outside. I’ve known the dude for two years and worked with him for one. He hates going outside… But, not after Doki Doki. That shit made him contemplate life.

I’m scared to even buy the game if it did that to an anti-social recluse.” — xItz_Anthonyx34

5. Bloodborne

“Everything about Bloodborne is disturbing and eerie, the atmosphere, the monsters the unpredictability of the world itself, by far the most tense I felt playing a video game.” — Novasex

6. Until Dawn

“Until Dawn was pretty fucking well done. At times it was like they were trying to hard, but over all one of the best horror anything I’ve played/watched/read.” — murderousbudgie

7. Amnesia

“I got a cracked version of Amnesia from a friend.

Loaded it, stepped into the main hall, heard scary noises. Have never played again.” — iKILLcarrots

8. Condemned: Criminal Origins

“There is no game that has filled me with a worse sense of dread than Condemned: Criminal Origins.

Yes, the graphics aren’t great and there are a few things that aren’t great, such as the story or a couple levels, but still. I have yet to play a game that has such a good sense of suspense, dread, and fear of the unknown.

It has such good enemy reveals, such as the mannequins in the department store. Or the starving corrupted beings in the sewer.

It uses audio and visuals perfectly, and has very good foreshadowing, such as how you can sometimes look behind you and catch a glimpse of the late game enemies, or how it purposefully misleads you for things such as the locker jumpscare, or how SKX isn’t The Match Maker.

Overall, C:CO is a phenomenal game and I highly suggest everyone to play it if they want a great psychological horror game.” — PhReAkOuTz

9. Subnautica

“I’ve played a ton of horror games – my roommate and I went on a kick where we’d stream ourselves playing every horror game we could find, from big names like Outlast/Outlast 2 and RE7 to lesser known indie games.

Subnautica has honestly scared me way more than pretty much every one of those. It’s just that feeling that there’s something out there, especially when you’re diving into new areas. I’ve literally jumpscared myself by accidentally driving the Seamoth into a tiny fish without noticing – there’s just way more chances to run into something unexpected that won’t be given away by the soundtrack or something else (most horror games really give away their jump scares).

Love that game.” — blay12

10. The 11th Hour

“I always remember the 7th Guest & 11th Hour creeping me out. The way the games gradually descended into the eerie parts made it more disturbing than games that start right out with the horror and jump scares.” — wj333

11. Silent Hill

“They might not hold up as well now but I remember being scared shitless playing the first Fatal Frame and Silent Hill games as a kid sitting in the dark down in my basement.” — TheLastSpoonBender

12. Dying Light

“Playing Dying Light at like 1 in the morning. Especially when you got to the point when the running zombies were introduced.” — PM_ME_UR_BOOBSICLES

13. Gone Home

“Gone Home. I was so sure my dead sister’s corpse was going to suddenly tap me on the shoulder. Especially down in that stupid basement. I sprinted to all those lamps immediately.” — olive1112

14. Doom 3

“Probably Doom 3, especially in that dark corridor where the babies were crying.” — DejectedHead

15. Riven

“I remember playing this game as a kid and being absolutely terrified when the wahrk swims up to the window. I could never figure out why everything about the game made me feel so creeped out and uncomfortable but I think [the] emptiness and isolation was what did it.” — JosefGordonLightfoot

16. Dead Space

“The Dead Space series, especially the first game. That game made me jump so many damn times. I loved it!” — nope_noperstein

17. Parasite EVE

“Parasite EVE for PS1.

Playing it as a kid probably has something to do with why it was so scary to me, but seeing people infected with a sentient parasite and grotesquely mutating was pretty intense.” — Serukaizen

18. Manhunt

“Manhunt, that shit was pretty intense when it first came out… Using things like piano wire to not only choke people to death, but to actually saw the guys head off…

Also came with classic lines such as ‘I can smell the shit in your pants’ whilst being hunted.” — Jee187

19. Penumbra: Overture

“Penumbra: Overture is scary shit, and has a terrific story as well. The entire series is great, although Requiem is more like added content than anything.

The SCP games were super low fi but actually pretty terrifying, too.” — ZeusAmmon

20. SCP Containment Breach

“SCP Containment Breach. I am not trying to sound like a manly badass but there are few horror games that can scare me in the same way as SCP Containment Breach. I always quit the game early because I get scared of the sculpture and don’t feel like playing after that.” — Edgyfaggot6969666

21. Half Life

“I couldn’t play Half Life. Never even saw the first enemy. The sounds and suspense stressed me out too much. Dead Space got me too. I’ve played plenty of horror games but couldn’t do those. I’m sure there were a couple others between those two I’m forgetting. Just some of em strike me the right (wrong?) way.” — rectalstresses

22. First Encounter Assault Recon

“I enjoyed the creepy darkness and sounds/jumpscares in the F.E.A.R Series.” — Uppgrade

23. SOMA

“Have y’all played SOMA? It was good but everything freaked me out even days after I finished it.” — Shiruet

24. Resident Evil

“Resident Evil 7 is so disturbing and graphic. I had to look away so many times.” — ccr3ds

25. Spooky’s House Of Jump Scares

“Spooky’s House Of Jump Scares.

It starts off cartoony with the cardboard cutouts.

But it goes downhill fast.

And they keep doing the cardboard cutouts to keep you on your toes.” — Pasta-hobo

#Happiness

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vrheadsets · 7 years

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Luke Thompson On VR Sickness, Sigtrap Games’ Future Plans & What VR Must Do In 2017

At the end of last year VRFocus was in attendance at the Develop:VR, an event at which we saw some of the most entertaining, thrilling and intriguing uses of virtual reality (VR). From it’s use in video games to film and entertainment to even learning how to test an electrical circuit box safely. We also found some of the ways you shouldn’t implement VR.

Amongst the more interesting talks was that of Sigtrap Games Co-Founder Luke Thompson, who in his discussion “Techniques for Comfortable Movement in VR” described the hows, whys and wherefores of player movement’s potential to cause discomfort in VR. As well as some of the methods developers can implement in order to reduce the possibility of sim-sickness and bolster comfort levels.

After his session we took Thompson aside to discuss these topics further and also see what he thought 2017 has in store for the VR industry.

VRFocus: You were talking about sickness today- motion-sickness in VR. Are we any closer to getting this problem solved once and for all?

Luke Thompson, Sigtrap Games: [laughs] Ultimately I don’t think so. I mean – until you either have something that gets injected straight into your brain to sort of trick your vestibular system, or you have, you know, home devices where you literally move in one of those Lawnmower Man things – there are always going to be issues with it. It is, like I said, a fundamental mismatch between the different stimuli that your brain’s getting. So unless you can fake one of them sufficiently, even if you can sort of improve things to 99%, there’s always going to be the 1% of people who react badly to any particular technique.

So it’s a difficult one to ever say you’ve fully solved. We can sort of get closer and what really I think we should be aiming towards is a conclusive set of best practices, where we really understand what’s going wrong – not necessarily with a view to saying ‘we can solve all these problems’, but if we can understand them all and know how best to circumvent them, then that’s probably a more realistic goal, at least in the short term.

VRFocus: Okay. In terms of ways of preventing or minimalising the effect, though, I mean, is there one that stands out above all the others at the moment; would you say that?

Thompson: I, well, uh – with the caveat that this is all with given our experience, and-

VRFocus: Yes.

Thompson: -and again, it’s not going to apply to all games all the time, but certainly something, like I said in the talk, the best bang for buck is this sort of tunnelling, vignetting effect – where you restrict peripheral vision, based on the motion that’s happening in the game. Your brain gets a lot of its motion cues from that peripheral vision, and more so than it does from the centre of your vision, so, by restricting the information that it’s getting in that area of the eye, you can really do a lot to minimalise the amount of motion that your brain is trying to interpret. So, in terms of it being simple to implement, widely effective, and computationally extremely cheap, [there really is, like] it should be the first thing on any list of measures to implement.

VRFocus: So, 2016. It’s been quite a year, in many, many ways – but especially for VR. Do you think 2016’s was ‘The Year of VR’ as everyone has been terming it since the beginning of-

Thompson: No.

VRFocus: -you don’t think it has?

Thompson: No, no. Um, because, I think VR is going to, a few years from now, dwarf this year. I think we are, you know, what we’re seeing this year is the beginning of something. There are so many more things that we can do with VR that we haven’t figured out yet. Like, this year may provide the kernel of a lot of that. But this isn’t The Year of VR. This is The Year That VR Began. Right? Five years from now, there’s going to be so much more. We’re going to understand so much more. We’re going to be doing such exciting things with it, that I really think to call THIS The Year of VR would be to undersell the potential of VR.

VRFocus: In terms of what’s been done this year – I mean, you say about, the future will dwarf, I would say that 2016 certainly has dwarfed 2015-

Thompson: Mmhmm.

VRFocus: -as to what we’ve seen – what’s the most creative thing you’ve seen in VR this year?

Thompson: Creative…?

VRFocus: I mean, it could be anything, I know, but-

Thompson: No, that’s – that’s interesting.

VRFocus: But [VR has] been taken in so many different ways already. Is there anything that sort of sticks out in your mind as seeing something and going “wow, I wish I’d thought of that” or…?

Thompson: That’s tricky, actually. I mean, there’s been so much. I mean, one of the things that, again, one of the reasons that I feel like this year hasn’t been The Year of VR is because we haven’t really – you know, one of the things is that we haven’t figured out that killer app yet. We haven’t figured out, what is it that VR does that nothing else does? And we know those answers are there, and we’re starting to find them.

But, to really point out something that says, you know – I would like to be able to point out something where I could say “that has defined VR”, right? And that’s not something we can say here. Because we haven’t found that foothold yet. We know that those answers are there. We know the potential is there. We don’t know what the answers are yet. So, there has been a hell of a lot of awesome stuff this year. But I would say that most of it, for better or worse, has been within the confines of how we already understand games, rather than necessarily taking something to a new medium.

VRFocus: We’ve just translated what we knew from then, to what we have now.

Thompson: Exactly. And we’re starting to branch out from that, which is really exciting. And there are experiments that people have done. Just generally, the sort of things like – okay, here’s an example: Budget Cuts. The idea of using portals to move through the world, is really cool. Those things that you can, because – you’re toying about with, experiencing non-Euclidean geometry in a way that makes sense with your 3D understanding of the world, and that’s something you can’t do any other way. So that’s really cool. You have other things – do you know Unseen Diplomacy?

VRFocus: Yes, and funnily enough, I asked this question of somebody earlier and they said, “Unseen Diplomacy.”

Thompson: Yeah. Unseen Diplomacy is a really cool thing, and we’re actually working on something ourselves. So, we were working on something – and we’re still working on it – when we hadn’t actually heard of Unseen Diplomacy; and we were interested in a lot of the same things they were, and they were like “oh, [they’ve] already made this” – so it’s interesting seeing what sort of similarities. I can’t say too much about it, but we’re really excited about it. But one of the core things there is that social aspect of VR, and the fact that VR by its nature is very isolating; but thinking of cool ways around that and ways to even leverage that, to say, “I’m going to control what this other person can see in an interesting way”, and change how people communicate, with a local multiplayer setting; there’s some really cool opportunities there. And Unseen Diplomacy does that well! So. I suppose, if you wanted a concrete answer, those are maybe the ones to go for.

VRFocus: So. 2017. You mentioned this ‘other’ project, but what else is happening with Sigtrap Games? We’ve obviously got Sublevel Zero–

Thompson: Yep. So, Sublevel Zero – I can’t put a date on it yet, but it will be coming out early next year, and we’ll be targeting [Oculus] Rift and [HTC] Vive for that. We’re really excited to get that out.

We’ve already got a beta version of that on Steam and on GOG – for people who already own the game on there, they can opt into a beta and sort of see what we’re doing. A lot of the stuff we’re doing just right at the moment, because we are such a small team, we’re concentrating on the 2D console versions of the game, which are going to come out very early next year. And a lot of the stuff we’re doing on there, the optimisations in particular, really play back into the VR stuff. But it has taken a little bit of our time away from that, unfortunately. But we’ve got a lot of great ideas on what we’re going to be doing with that for release next year. We’re also, like I say, we’re working on that project that I’ve hinted at. We’re working on something else as well which we’re extremely excited about, and again-

VRFocus: Is that VR or non-VR?

Thompson: They’re both VR. So we’re not – we don’t see ourselves as an exclusively VR studio but, at the moment, the gameplay ideas that we want to explore are in VR; and ultimately, the reason for that is, what I was saying about not knowing what it is yet that VR can do that other mediums can’t. And that’s what we want to do! We want to do things in VR that you can’t do otherwise, really use-

VRFocus: So it’s not having those rules, and the freedom of creativity is opening the doors for other things.

Thompson: Exactly.

VRFocus: Again – if we discussed about what the future will bring, what’s the one thing that VR needs to do, above all else, in 2017?

Thompson: Well the obvious answer is wireless. That’s kind of the clear and present thing, getting rid of those wires and untethering you from this big brick of computational power. That’s very tricky to get right, but, you know, next year we might see things that do that well.

VRFocus: Have you tried the Santa Cruz, or any of the HTC adapters?

Thompson: I haven’t tried the wireless ones, unfortunately. I think it’s more likely that it’s going to go the way of Santa Cruz rather than the wireless add-ons for HTC Vive and things like that. The main reason there is, my primary concern is latency – if they can solve the latency problem with wireless, then that’s great – again, I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know how far along they are.

VRFocus: With the Vive, there’s also multiple separate entities as well. It’s not HTC themselves.

Thompson: Exactly. So you’re talking about things where all the different hardware can kinda get in each other’s way and you’ve gotta really optimise those things for it to be a good experience. So I suspect you’re going to see more things like Santa Cruz that sort of do the inside-out tracking and have the computational power actually attached to your head to begin with. Obviously, that’s not necessarily the way to go in the medium term – if you can get rid of the wireless latency problem, then you can pump a lot more data out of a computer than you can out of essentially two mobile phones strapped to your head. But I think in the short term it’s gonna happen. So, I think in terms of making VR get out to a wider audience, in terms of hardware, wireless is that thing that it really needs.

But the more subtle answer, I think, is a killer app. We need something that shows what VR can do that nothing else can do. That’s what gonna drive people to get involved with VR and buy it and try it out, and evangelise their friends. At the moment, it’s a cool piece of tech. But that’s for geeks like us, right? We’re like, “AWW, that’s cool, that’s cool! I’ll try that and I’ll spend two hours setting this thing up!” Like, it’s really nice that PSVR has given slightly more mainstream players a chance-

VRFocus: Ready access.

Thompson: -exactly, a chance to- and because they don’t care about the numbers, you know? They don’t care that the resolution’s slightly lower. They care about actually being able to do this without having to turn out their entire living room. So, the way that you actually make that apply to the mainstream is, do something spectacular in VR that can’t be done any other way and make people want to experience that. So ultimately, what we’re waiting on more than tech is content, and the design strategies and the design language that we’re lacking currently, that we’re just inheriting from regular video games.

from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2kZU498

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