General Gaming News.

[hanselthecaretaker2]

The RTX 3070 - in Aus bucks - retails for $590 to $650 depending on trim. So take at least a third off that for the likely US price. Which is what it should have retailed for, but life was shit.

U.S. seems to start new at $500 these days but there are different trims. Dual OC looks like the baseline while the FE goes up over $700. I’d be tempted for anything under $500 but even then I’m too particular in these cases to bite on just anything.

 

[Gordon_4]

U.S. seems to start new at $500 these days but there are different trims. Dual OC looks like the baseline while the FE goes up over $700. I’d be tempted for anything under $500 but even then I’m too particular in these cases to bite on just anything.

Founders editions are the ones direct from nVidia, I wouldn’t use them as a metric for prices because they’re rarer than the board partner cards and command a stupid premium because collectors are nuts.

 

[Chimpzy]

Those are pretty reasonable across the board. Also lets be real, no one who plays games should be using hard drives for anything other than bulk media storage now. It made sense when SSDs were as expensive as hell, by this point though.....just spend the fucking money. Its an upgrade that pays dividends and will last for quite a while.

Well at the very least it looks better than that OTHER PS Port that came out eariler this year.

So the Rift Apart port will be using Direct Storage and gpu decompression

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has DirectStorage on PC and a GPU trick to take a load off the CPU

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is confirmed to support DirectStorage, and it'll be the first PC game to utilize version 1.2 and GPU decompression tech.

www.tweaktown.com

It'll be interesting to see what the tech can do for pc games. I'm sure DF or someone else will benchmark this game with and without. The onl other game I know that used it was Forspoken, which did have fast loading times when I tried the demo, afaik about on par with those on PS5.

 

[BrawlMan]

You're Solid Gold, I'll See You In Hell

It's been real, Kotaku, but everyone has to go sometime

kotaku.com

https://www.geekwire.com/2023/antstream-arcade-will-bring-cloud-gaming-service-and-1300-retro-titles-to-xbox/

About as many people older than 45 play video games as kids under 18, trade group data reveals

Over 212 million Americans play video games for at least an hour a week, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

fortune.com

The Video Game Industry Is Famously Toxic. These Workers Have a Radical Idea to Change It.

Video game workers are ditching bosses and middle management for shared ownership and democratic decision making. Is it sustainable?

slate.com

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

The Video Game Industry Is Famously Toxic. These Workers Have a Radical Idea to Change It.

Video game workers are ditching bosses and middle management for shared ownership and democratic decision making. Is it sustainable?

slate.com

Key paragraphs -
But while equality sounds like an inspiring ideal, operating a business without formal hierarchy can be tricky in practice. In 2013 former Valve employee Jeri Ellsworth denounced the company’s “pseudo-flat structure,” noting that there was a “hidden layer of powerful management structure in the company” that “felt a lot like high school.”

Working in a company where everyone is considered your equal sometimes means that nobody wants to take responsibility for addressing toxic behavior, former and current cooperative members have said. The decision to lay off people or otherwise confront bad behavior becomes especially difficult when the bad news has to be delivered not by a boss, but by peers or even friends. As is common for small businesses, some of these companies have no formal, standing HR structure. Layoffs are often decided through a collective vote, with members saying they prefer to retrain staff or take collective pay cuts instead of firing people.

Even in the best of cases, democratic decision making can “easily become a politics nightmare,” Berthier said. Motion Twin tries to avoid such nightmares by staying away from meetings as much as possible and keeping things small. Its team is capped at around 10 employees. “Legally speaking, we can debate everything,” he said. “But if we do that, it can last until the end of time—and we might be dead, and the game will not be released.”


If they’re having that much trouble managing a team of just ten, then it’s like, what the hell is the rest of the industry gonna look like under that model. Exceptions like Valve are due to the fact they are highly established, primarily as an online marketplace. They can afford to basically run on autopilot, and release projects like Alyx at a loss.

The bottom line is human organizations need leadership of some kind to be successful. It’s just what humans and even some animal species respond to, and the biggest obstacle isn’t leadership itself so much as plain shitty leadership. Unsurprisingly the causes of that are a bit of a conundrum though.

 

[meiam]

Key paragraphs -
But while equality sounds like an inspiring ideal, operating a business without formal hierarchy can be tricky in practice. In 2013 former Valve employee Jeri Ellsworth denounced the company’s “pseudo-flat structure,” noting that there was a “hidden layer of powerful management structure in the company” that “felt a lot like high school.”

Working in a company where everyone is considered your equal sometimes means that nobody wants to take responsibility for addressing toxic behavior, former and current cooperative members have said. The decision to lay off people or otherwise confront bad behavior becomes especially difficult when the bad news has to be delivered not by a boss, but by peers or even friends. As is common for small businesses, some of these companies have no formal, standing HR structure. Layoffs are often decided through a collective vote, with members saying they prefer to retrain staff or take collective pay cuts instead of firing people.

Even in the best of cases, democratic decision making can “easily become a politics nightmare,” Berthier said. Motion Twin tries to avoid such nightmares by staying away from meetings as much as possible and keeping things small. Its team is capped at around 10 employees. “Legally speaking, we can debate everything,” he said. “But if we do that, it can last until the end of time—and we might be dead, and the game will not be released.”


If they’re having that much trouble managing a team of just ten, then it’s like, what the hell is the rest of the industry gonna look like under that model. Exceptions like Valve are due to the fact they are highly established, primarily as an online marketplace. They can afford to basically run on autopilot, and release projects like Alyx at a loss.

The bottom line is human organizations need leadership of some kind to be successful. It’s just what humans and even some animal species respond to, and the biggest obstacle isn’t leadership itself so much as plain shitty leadership. Unsurprisingly the causes of that are a bit of a conundrum though.

I would absolutely hate to work for a company that vote on everything, especially layoff! It sucks but layoff are necessary part of every company, and sometime some very sympathetic people are just terrible at their job and have to be replaced. There was a Kino Journey (the good one, not the bad one) about a country that vote on everything that was pretty good representation of the obvious pitfall.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I would absolutely hate to work for a company that vote on everything, especially layoff! It sucks but layoff are necessary part of every company, and sometime some very sympathetic people are just terrible at their job and have to be replaced. There was a Kino Journey (the good one, not the bad one) about a country that vote on everything that was pretty good representation of the obvious pitfall.

It just goes to show that systems in which you try to make everything equal and fair simply don't work. There needs to be a hierarchy in order to assign responsibilities and make sure things get done. Being a leader is very difficult, ask anyone managing a team at a job or hell ask anyone who's ever led success raids in an MMO. Managing people, trying to fix or replace the bad apples, keeping everything on track and on time is ridiculously hard. It's why managers make more money than the people doing the actual "work".

 

[BrawlMan]

It's why managers make more money than the people doing the actual "work".

Oh that's fair enough to an extent, but even those not in a management position should not be underpaid nor overworked, nor treated like garbage. Too much of that has been going. I know you're not excusing it, but that's a problem with this whole freaking system. I don't want that vote on everything system they're trying in the article either, but either do something to make things better or don't. They some would have the right idea, but they still need structure. As long as people are doing their job and not being jackasses, then it shouldn't matter much. Now not everything has to be traditional, and some things need changing for a better, but they shouldn't drop everything.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Oh that's fair enough to an extent, but even those not in a management position should not be underpaid nor overworked, nor treated like garbage. Too much of that has been going. I know you're not excusing it, but that's a problem with this whole freaking system. I don't want that vote on everything system they're trying in the article either, but either do something to make things better or don't. They some would have the right idea, but they still need structure. As long as people are doing their job and not being jackasses, then it shouldn't matter much. Now not everything has to be traditional, and some things need changing for a better, but they shouldn't drop everything.

I mean props on them for trying something new, but there is such a thing as being TOO fair. Authority is important, rules are important, and enforcement of said rules are important.

What you can do is make a ruleset that is less restrictive to people's needs, so long as they get the job done it should be fine.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Key paragraphs -
But while equality sounds like an inspiring ideal, operating a business without formal hierarchy can be tricky in practice. In 2013 former Valve employee Jeri Ellsworth denounced the company’s “pseudo-flat structure,” noting that there was a “hidden layer of powerful management structure in the company” that “felt a lot like high school.”

Working in a company where everyone is considered your equal sometimes means that nobody wants to take responsibility for addressing toxic behavior, former and current cooperative members have said. The decision to lay off people or otherwise confront bad behavior becomes especially difficult when the bad news has to be delivered not by a boss, but by peers or even friends. As is common for small businesses, some of these companies have no formal, standing HR structure. Layoffs are often decided through a collective vote, with members saying they prefer to retrain staff or take collective pay cuts instead of firing people.

Even in the best of cases, democratic decision making can “easily become a politics nightmare,” Berthier said. Motion Twin tries to avoid such nightmares by staying away from meetings as much as possible and keeping things small. Its team is capped at around 10 employees. “Legally speaking, we can debate everything,” he said. “But if we do that, it can last until the end of time—and we might be dead, and the game will not be released.”


If they’re having that much trouble managing a team of just ten, then it’s like, what the hell is the rest of the industry gonna look like under that model. Exceptions like Valve are due to the fact they are highly established, primarily as an online marketplace. They can afford to basically run on autopilot, and release projects like Alyx at a loss.

The bottom line is human organizations need leadership of some kind to be successful. It’s just what humans and even some animal species respond to, and the biggest obstacle isn’t leadership itself so much as plain shitty leadership. Unsurprisingly the causes of that are a bit of a conundrum though.

Don't we have a history of failed games due to not having proper leadership? Redfall being the most recent.

I don't think I ever saw autocracy work in any environment. Maybe having a group of leaders yes, but everyone being equal with no chain of command sounds chaotic.

IDK, I think this is less about chainging the hierarchy structure and more about having competent and level-headed individuals as leaders.

 

[meiam]

So capcom launched something this week.


A hero shooter, except full price. So you might be thinking its back to the good old day where you just pay once and got everything? NOPE, there's apparently in game store, battlepass, loot box, all stuff expected from F2P game, except you have to pay to get access to it. Oh and it doesn't look that good (not bad, but not going to set the world on fire). I don't understand who though this was a good idea and really don't see how this could possibly succeed.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

So capcom launched something this week.


A hero shooter, except full price. So you might be thinking its back to the good old day where you just pay once and got everything? NOPE, there's apparently in game store, battlepass, loot box, all stuff expected from F2P game, except you have to pay to get access to it. Oh and it doesn't look that good (not bad, but not going to set the world on fire). I don't understand who though this was a good idea and really don't see how this could possibly succeed.

I mean, "Mech suits vs. Left 4 Dead hordes but dinosaurs" is the kind of premise I could get behind, but all that weird monetization would turn me off if I wasn't already steadfastly against any sort of online gaming. I did hear that they're going to have a pure PvE mode (in addition to the PvEvP one), so that much is nice.

 

[BrawlMan]

So capcom launched something this week.


A hero shooter, except full price. So you might be thinking its back to the good old day where you just pay once and got everything? NOPE, there's apparently in game store, battlepass, loot box, all stuff expected from F2P game, except you have to pay to get access to it. Oh and it doesn't look that good (not bad, but not going to set the world on fire). I don't understand who though this was a good idea and really don't see how this could possibly succeed.

Why do I get the feeling that it's one of Capcom's bean counters or investors involved in this? This has RE: verse written all over it, but worse. The same jackasses who tried those Resident Evil multi-player spin-offs, most of them being bad.

 

[sXeth]

Why do I get the feeling that it's one of Capcom's bean counters or investors involved in this? This has RE: verse written all over it, but worse. The same jackasses who tried those Resident Evil multi-player spin-offs, most of them being bad.

The beta was vaguely interesting, but it looks like it doesn't really expand beyond the potential that hinted at. Its just Overwatch criss-crossed with DEstiny's Gambit mode and a random (And by reports, apparently irrelevant to the outcome) pvp match at the end.

Also the graphics, not my usual area to get snobby at. but just felt kind of half hearted. No interesting aesthetic to it and not particularly impressive either.

 

[BrawlMan]

The beta was vaguely interesting, but it looks like it doesn't really expand beyond the potential that hinted at. Its just Overwatch criss-crossed with DEstiny's Gambit mode and a random (And by reports, apparently irrelevant to the outcome) pvp match at the end.

Also the graphics, not my usual area to get snobby at. but just felt kind of half hearted. No interesting aesthetic to it and not particularly impressive either.

That and some EDF with dinosaurs thrown in for good measure.

Capcom...people just want a new Dino Crisis. It's not that hard! I appreciate trying a new IP and all, but you got to do more than that. If I get this game, it's really only going to be for the PVE content, and that's about it.

 

[Chimpzy]

Team behind PlayStation’s Patapon reveal successor game ‘Ratatan’ | VGC

The project, announced during BitSummit, will come to Kickstarter this month…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Neat

 

[Chimpzy]

Gaming handhelds, like the Switch and Steam Deck, will need to have a replaceable battery by 2027

Could EU law make it so any future Steam Deck would have a replaceable battery?

overkill.wtf

Good

 

[meiam]

Team behind PlayStation’s Patapon reveal successor game ‘Ratatan’ | VGC

The project, announced during BitSummit, will come to Kickstarter this month…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Neat

Ratatatatatatan, doesn't have the same energy.

 

[Chimpzy]

Ratatatatatatan, doesn't have the same energy.

What it reminded me of

 

[FakeSympathy]

https://comicbook.com/gaming/amp/news/the-last-of-us-tlou-part-2-remaster-leaked-gustavo-santaolalla-ps5-pc/

I just- Why the fuck would y- That doesn't even- ugh, it's gonna be one of those undeserved hits, isn't it?