Katana314
@Katana314@lemmy.world
- Comment on Video games are losing the "attention war" to gambling, porn, and crypto, according to industry report 2 days ago:
People follow “rules/systems” and notice “patterns” when pulling slots too.
- Comment on Digital Foundry found a significant performance boost for Jedi: Fallen Survivor's PC 2 days ago:
I feel sorry for this game, because it was a pretty well-written story and a bit of a better grappling with anger and the dark side. Also a great choice for a story, given that it occupies a span of story where “The Empire is winning, and none of the heroes can change that until Luke flips his dad.”
As mentioned, the performance issues make it hard for anyone to experience that. I think I heard a claim that it performs better on Linux than Windows, which I didn’t take time to verify yet. Sadly, while they’ve made some cool findings here I don’t think this is enough for anyone to pick it up. If I ruled EA, I’d want them putting out a re-release by fixing the issues themselves, and throwing in some new skin or something to market it.
- Comment on 2 days ago:
It’s a very tricky thing, I’m sure thousands of people will cry foul about it, but I do think “low framerate” has a good place in design, mainly around cinematic moments where the loss of clarity triggers an intentional panic. Ex: PTSD-riddled hero is in shock from a sudden violent event, and has a panic attack blurring their vision.
One thing that comes to mind is the reveal of Ganon (final form) in Ocarina of Time. The game kind of overloaded the N64 with all those active effects, which worked really well especially with the lightning silhouetting the beast.
Another scenario is some scenes in Final Fantasy 7. In 3D, all tweened animations are naturally smooth. I can’t quite tell what triggers it, but a few hard-hitting character scenes somehow bring that animation framerate down to emphasize certain actions (one specific example is Barret, in the town below the gold saucer, raising his gun to shoot his teammates - but actually hitting an ambusher behind them).
- Comment on Get. Out 3 days ago:
That has been happening for decades. It hasn’t actually made retail that much more automated, just massively reduced quality of service and quality of work for those remaining. Every store that has followed these methods still gets customers due to increased isolation and lack of choice, but no one likes going there.
- Comment on Hopefully, he will be 6 underground by that time. 5 days ago:
Pretty sure there’s core differences between Biden and Bernie.
“Whaat? You mean some people DON’T vote by race and gender??”
- Comment on Did anyone really think the Final Fantasy 7 remake was better than the original PS1 version? 5 days ago:
I’ve tried Remake once or twice, and cannot adjust to their “action battle” system. Give me old turn taking to make sense of things.
I definitely think they sorely mishandled the story with so much “addition”. They completely lost the feel of “less is more”, like only seeing the results of Sephiroth’s warpath instead of seeing every pixel of his presence.
I didn’t even bother with Rebirth. A while ago I thought “I’ll just wait until the full story is actually out, I don’t buy into this piecemeal bs” But now, I really don’t think I’ll ever play it from what I know.
- Comment on Sony plans to minimize effect of rising PlayStation 5 memory costs by boosting software and network service revenue, according to CFO 5 days ago:
When on sale, it’s about $100 for a year of access to a general library of games. Xbox Game Pass never goes on sale, costs at least $15 a month now, and doesn’t even have many of the singleplayer exclusives Sony puts out. So this comment seemed completely the wrong way around to me.
- Comment on Why are we not getting stress relief games where we take our stresses out on normal people? 5 days ago:
I’d especially like to see more games making a modern take on this battle. We used to view Nazis as a historical, comically evil villain. I’d like something new that makes every one of them alive feel thoroughly unwanted in this world.
- Comment on Bloober Team's big reveal is Layers of Fear 3 6 days ago:
Oh my god, my eyes saw the word “Lay-“ and knowing this is a studio in 2026 that makes singleplayer games, it automatically filled in a different word.
- Comment on ‘This shouldn’t be normal’: developers speak out about bigotry on Steam, the world’s biggest PC gaming storefront 6 days ago:
One of the problems with that is, many publishers don’t care about curating a discussion community. Many didn’t even want to generate a “forum” when publishing their small indie game. So, it’s entirely possible, and even likely, for many game discussion forums to be filled with hate speech, or even recruiting into extremist cults.
I’m all with you about word-based censoring, and I honestly want to see a bit more use of AI there to lower that burden; to better pick up hateful context separating “Fuck you, random user” and “This boss fight is fucking hard”. That should only be in place to better alert real moderators, though, since I’m sure many people don’t like getting directly banned by silicon.
- Comment on ‘This shouldn’t be normal’: developers speak out about bigotry on Steam, the world’s biggest PC gaming storefront 6 days ago:
The purpose of a blocklist is to have a large group work on the large task of identifying a certain set of trolls, and then share that list automatically with themselves.
Individually blocking 8 or 9 trolls yourself as you browse 20 new indie games becomes a laborious task. But, if a community of hundreds all knows “Yeah, every time someone posts the ‘Please include LGBT!’ comment on these block-matching puzzle games, it’s a troll” then 99 people don’t even have to wait until they’ve identified trolling and blocked it each time.
Bluesky uses these sorts of blocklists, and it works pretty well. By having members opt into them, it evades the issue of Valve “promoting an army of hundreds of highly opinionated moderators”.
- Comment on Video game romances need to evolve beyond lore dumps 6 days ago:
One of my favorite video game romances takes place in the Legend of Heroes: Trails series. When first described on paper in a quick summary, it’s something some people might roll their eyes at, but it’s built very well.
Something that had to be nailed down early about it was, it really couldn’t be optional, based on “relationship score”, or even happen on its own time. One of the best scenes in this duology centers around a huge character reveal, which puts forward the confession of love all at the same time; while that relationship had been a slow tease through individual scenes, it suddenly became a huge, very important part of this large conflict.
I definitely think for better relationships in games, we need a lot more focus on characters, and we need to stop viewing the relationships as rewards; sadly I don’t have many further ideas than railroaded stories, but I think there’s probably more options out there.
- Comment on Video game romances need to evolve beyond lore dumps 6 days ago:
Part of me thinks the devs should just be more settled about having more relationships that don’t involve the player. You get 5 supporting characters, and character A, in their “relationship event” with you, admits that they have feelings for character C and want your advice because they don’t know how to express it.
- Comment on Video game romances need to evolve beyond lore dumps 6 days ago:
I heard about a very silly, cartoony game that applies this as a basis: Buster Jam. The two leads are in a relationship, but it doesn’t affect their lazy heroic dynamic in any way. Funny to have a villain remark “…you and your GIRLFRIEND…” and not get corrected.
- Comment on Video game romances need to evolve beyond lore dumps 6 days ago:
I would actually agree with him in some level. Art should always be evolving, and it should be looking past its comfort zones, even past areas many others have failed, to do so.
It doesn’t need to be a form of “disqualification” as he says, but there IS value in applying change even just for its own sake.
- Comment on Young gamers in Japan may not be forming the same attachment to Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest because modern dev cycles are as long as their childhood, users theorize - AUTOMATON WEST 1 week ago:
I mean…basically FFXIV’s Dawntrail expansion. But even then, a lot of their side dungeons and such have been referencing events/worlds from other Final Fantasy games via some multiverse theory.
- Comment on ‘This shouldn’t be normal’: developers speak out about bigotry on Steam, the world’s biggest PC gaming storefront 1 week ago:
The main reason Valve doesn’t step in on these is they have a firm philosophy of giving the community the tools to form their own outcomes, rather than directing them in every issue. So they might be dissatisfied with people writing “Woke TRASH!” braindead reviews, but also not want to take action on them.
The least they’ve done is remove the clown award so people have less incentive to troll. But I’d also like them to implement community blocklists; If you nag a game for “Having/not having LGBT representation”, you go on a blocklist 90% of the community is using.
- Comment on Fighting games have a product design problem 1 week ago:
Well, that’s the good part. I don’t think AI will ever replicate the kinds of full-system dynamics that occur in ranked modes, but I DO think it could make for an interesting challenge when the goal is to reduce the game state to just a few techniques the game is trying to teach the player.
For instance, an AI playing as Guile that can only use Flash Kick and Sonic Boom, and teaches players to counter him by spotting out his charging and blocking what comes through.
- Comment on Fighting games have a product design problem 1 week ago:
After playing Arc Raiders, I kind of wonder if the newer generation of AI could put together a challenge that actually fits the holy grail of fighting Game singleplayer.
An AI could be given a special avatar that challenges a particular theme of the player’s development, being strong in some regards but not in others. Think one enemy that’s a crawling ninja with super fast movement, another who’s a crawling hulk with high-range attacks.
The AI could also be guided by metrics of how fast its opponents learn mechanics or how much they enjoy the match, rather than “how do I beat this player”. I’d feel safe thinking a predictable AI would not be judged well.
- Comment on Fighting games have a product design problem 1 week ago:
I think the biggest thing it can help with is steady escalation of difficulty.
In level 3, you learn how to grapple. The level has a growing number of enemies that can only be beaten by grappling.
In level 4, you learn about pokes and block punishes; and enemies will use different attacks that can test your block (but grappling is set aside for the moment so players aren’t overloaded)
Oh, and crucially: This isn’t put into the set dressing of a big square stage with a “Training Step 5 of 182” HUD and a “Good!” and jump to the next lesson each time the player executes a mechanic once.
Have the president’s daughter kidnapped, send a horde of zombies, make the player a detective finding clues in the bad part of town. Break it up with a locked door puzzle, climbing sections, etc. The lessons of interest learned from every other action adventure game.
- Comment on REANIMAL | Release Trailer 1 week ago:
I watched a streamer I like playing through this. I really liked the cinematic element of some of the horror sequences, and there’s some nice “open world moments” and vehicle moments. That sounds initially like it doesn’t fit with a creepy game, but I liken it to the isolation of Highway 17 in Half-Life.
- Comment on DEAD OR ALIVE New Project - Teaser Trailer 1 week ago:
Best summary I can give: 3D-movement fighting game, very much based around having three heights of attack, and a few ways you can guard moves based on their height, as well as react to your opponent’s guard.
It’s mostly known for sexualized characters, some of which are visually on the “younger” side, and a very complex, DLC-driven, gacha-based method of unlocking other costumes for its roster. It shares a universe with the Ninja Gaiden games, so a few of those characters like Ryu Hayabusa appear as more than just cameos.
- Comment on DEAD OR ALIVE New Project - Teaser Trailer 1 week ago:
I’m imagining getting a headshot of Kasumi, upon which she indignantly says “Hey! My breasts are down here.”
- Comment on Games you fell out of love with. 1 week ago:
I don’t think it’s a full gate train, since it’s a game that defined my early childhood, but Half-Life 2 had more flaws than I’d initially admit.
Some I’d the things you need to pick up on to enjoy the levels are not readily apparent in the moment. The gravity gun obscures your view, leading many people to get objects trapped against bits and bobs. They only introduced the intelligent save system in Episode 2, meaning many players get stuck just before a big fight at 20 hp.
The story, while often environmental, relies very much on Lost-style mysterious elements; not just relating to the G-man but the resistance’s ready acceptance of Gordon’s reappearance. Most crucially, what little further development we’ve gotten on it suggests Valve never really had concrete ideas for a conclusion, or even an answer for people’s burning questions.
Tap for spoiler
This even goes so far as to create a time travel retcon in Half-Life: Alyx to undo a character death that may have only happened to up the “drama” levels.
- Comment on Been putting a lot of thought into this 1 week ago:
I mean, not here. But give me five minutes to look up my secretary’s number in my Rolodex so I can dial her number on my rotary phone, and she could take a Polaroid of it for me to share.
- Comment on cant take it anymore 1 week ago:
There could be two major attacks.
First is pricing realism. Just like many pre-IPO products, it’s trying to gain interest. Someday, it has to make money, meaning everyone with a cheap/cheesy idea will need to pay for it.
The second is legislative attacks related to copyright infringement. I’d see it as a progressive legislator asking them for lists of permission from every image author they’ve grabbed from. Inevitably, they profess “We don’t have that!” And the model is blocked. Admittedly, that is not something I see happening soon, but it’s something to hope for.
- Comment on Been putting a lot of thought into this 1 week ago:
I mean…I just keep my binders in a filing cabinet like normal people, but I guess you do you
- Comment on Death Stranding 2: On the Beach - PC Announce Trailer (March 19) 1 week ago:
Futro Truck Simulator
- Comment on 1 week ago:
So, I can believe Windows is falling apart; I’m less sure of real indications that “Microsoft is panicking” though. I think the newest pie charts I saw of their revenue showed they weren’t really so specifically dependent on Windows. It helps to sell their other cloud platforms, sure, but it doesn’t seem so critical they sell home PCs anymore. Maybe I could be wrong and someone can correct me.
Don’t get me wrong, I moved my gaming PC off Windows late last year, I’m happy to end the toxic relationship, just predicting what’s going to happen next.
- Comment on What animals real think of us 1 week ago:
If it snowed out, I’m either getting exercise by shoveling the walkway outside my house, or the street’s already been plowed and I can bike.