Your video game hot take(s) thread

Chimpzy

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The Game Awards should drop the awards bit and rebrand itself as something else. Actually, they should've done so 5-6 years ago. But they didn't and now they're stuck with the awards branding even though it's ever more obvious it's not really what they want to do. You're running a commercial show, Geoff. Own it.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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The Game Awards should drop the awards bit and rebrand itself as something else. Actually, they should've done so 5-6 years ago. But they didn't and now they're stuck with the awards branding even though it's ever more obvious it's not really what they want to do. You're running a commercial show, Geoff. Own it.
I have to believe the Geoff Keighly Brofist Hour would probably get even more viewership.
 

BrawlMan

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The Game Awards should drop the awards bit and rebrand itself as something else. Actually, they should've done so 5-6 years ago. But they didn't and now they're stuck with the awards branding even though it's ever more obvious it's not really what they want to do. You're running a commercial show, Geoff. Own it.
He was the chosen one, dammit! He was supposed to lead the Gaming Awards into the light and not into the dark, dank, and deceptive commercial filled assholery!
 
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He was the chosen one, dammit! He was supposed to lead the Gaming Awards into the light and not into the dark, dank, and deceptive commercial filled assholery!
Gotta wonder if it’s unavoidable given the Oscar format he’s chasing. Gotta take the good with the bad for that kind of lamestream mainstream exposure.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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The Game Awards should drop the awards bit and rebrand itself as something else. Actually, they should've done so 5-6 years ago. But they didn't and now they're stuck with the awards branding even though it's ever more obvious it's not really what they want to do. You're running a commercial show, Geoff. Own it.
You know... I knew it was going to be ads and promotion. I knew the "awards" part wasn't really the point or the focus.
But, damn.. even I got overwhelmed by it. It was the combination of the main part- where Keighly is actively hosting- with the "world premieres" and previews, and then the actual ad breaks.
And then when things actually slowed down to have something else there were some cool bits like performances, but then he let Kojima and Jordan Peele blather on forever (frankly I've been extremely over Kojima's whole deal).
 
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Chimpzy

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Speaking of Kojima, just saw the trailer to his new thing. Holy fuck, so much uncanny valley.

Why do they always insist on doing clse-ups of human faces emoting? Whyyyyyyyyyy!
 

The Rogue Wolf

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He was the chosen one, dammit! He was supposed to lead the Gaming Awards into the light and not into the dark, dank, and deceptive commercial filled assholery!
You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become E3.

Speaking of Kojima, just saw the trailer to his new thing. Holy fuck, so much uncanny valley.

Why do they always insist on doing clse-ups of human faces emoting? Whyyyyyyyyyy!
Vidja gaems are a SERIOUS ART FORM! Wit emotions an stuff!
 
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Casual Shinji

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Speaking of Kojima, just saw the trailer to his new thing. Holy fuck, so much uncanny valley.

Why do they always insist on doing clse-ups of human faces emoting? Whyyyyyyyyyy!
Those were real-life faces though, you can tell from the lighting rig reflected in the eyes, as well as the faces just looking not-CG. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by 'uncanny'.

Not that the trailer doesn't look like Kojima, navel gazing, hogwash.
 

Chimpzy

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Those were real-life faces though, you can tell from the lighting rig reflected in the eyes, as well as the faces just looking not-CG. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by 'uncanny'.

Not that the trailer doesn't look like Kojima, navel gazing, hogwash.
They're real in the sense that they're all real actors, but the OD trailer faces are not live-action, they're rendered in UE5 using MetaHuman tech.

And it's not so much the way they look that's uncanny to me. It's, as it often is with these realistic face renders, the animation that weirds me out. It's ever so slightly 'off'
 
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They're real in the sense that they're all real actors, but the OD trailer faces are not live-action, they're rendered in UE5 using MetaHuman tech.

And it's not so much the way they look that's uncanny to me. It's, as it often is with these realistic face renders, the animation that weirds me out. It's ever so slightly 'off'
I'd like some actual comformation on this, because unless my brain has lost its capacity to distinguish real from CG this totally looks live-action. Again I'll point to the eye reflection that clearly shows the face scanning rig - this thing...

Lightcage-Yellow.jpg

If these were fully rendered, fully finished faces that they wanted to use in this teaser, why would they keep that obvious refelection in the eyes? Because of the rig with light being shone at every angle of the face it looks a tad flat, but those faces are real. You look at Udo Kier's face - the way the nose moves along with the premaxilla, how the skin flares and bulges subtlely - no tech today can match that level of movement. Even the line they say in the trailer and Sophia Lillis' sudden scream are most likely information tests to get the widest range of expressions from the actors for the CG models and animation rigs. This also explains why each actor's hair is tied back, which is a standard when scanning a face.

I'll eat my words if this actually is CGI, but nothing from this trailer indicates it's anything other live-action test footage.
 

Chimpzy

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I'd like some actual comformation on this, because unless my brain has lost its capacity to distinguish real from CG this totally looks live-action. Again I'll point to the eye reflection that clearly shows the face scanning rig - this thing...


If these were fully rendered, fully finished faces that they wanted to use in this teaser, why would they keep that obvious refelection in the eyes? Because of the rig with light being shone at every angle of the face it looks a tad flat, but those faces are real. You look at Udo Kier's face - the way the nose moves along with the premaxilla, how the skin flares and bulges subtlely - no tech today can match that level of movement. Even the line they say in the trailer and Sophia Lillis' sudden scream are most likely information tests to get the widest range of expressions from the actors for the CG models and animation rigs. This also explains why each actor's hair is tied back, which is a standard when scanning a face.

I'll eat my words if this actually is CGI, but nothing from this trailer indicates it's anything other live-action test footage.
The first OD trailer was unveiled at The Game Awards 2023. The short teaser shows three of the core cast in what appears to effectively be motion-capture screen tests – floating heads on a black background, rendered by Epic's Unreal Engine 5 and MetaHuman technologies, as the eyes illuminate the lights and camera in front of them. You can watch the first teaser trailer for Hideo Kojima's OD above.
So test footage, but rendered, if this is to be believed, as well as some other sources that basically state the same. Then again, I also found conflicting ones.
 
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They're real in the sense that they're all real actors, but the OD trailer faces are not live-action, they're rendered in UE5 using MetaHuman tech.

And it's not so much the way they look that's uncanny to me. It's, as it often is with these realistic face renders, the animation that weirds me out. It's ever so slightly 'off'
It’s kinda like LA Noire for current gen tech. The colour is what weirded me out on this one more than anything.
 
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So test footage, but rendered, if this is to be believed, as well as some other sources that basically state the same. Then again, I also found conflicting ones.
I’ll give it this: Kojima is know for various kinds of fakeouts, messing with people’s minds. It’s not unreasonable to think he’d create a mockup motion capture session like this as an example. It’s really just a face. Hell Quantum Dream was basically doing this back on PS3 with the KARA tech demo.
 

BrawlMan

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I miss when Nintendo made small projects for their IP. I could use a new small scale Zelda game
There's the Link's Awakening Remake that came out a few years ago. Unless you played that already. Their next smallest project is that Mario versus Donkey Kong game.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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I’ll give it this: Kojima is know for various kinds of fakeouts, messing with people’s minds. It’s not unreasonable to think he’d create a mockup motion capture session like this as an example. It’s really just a face. Hell Quantum Dream was basically doing this back on PS3 with the KARA tech demo.
I think I had a post in this thread a while back about how over I am with the whole Kojima thing and how this dick-riding across the industry and internet about this guy has gotten way stupid. I was willing to give him props for Metal Gear because I understand it was a big deal for its time even though I never played them but that was a while ago.

His appearance at the TGA just further cemented that feeling. He and Jordan Peele just stood around and wasted everyone's time in an event largely criticized for wasting everyone's time.

I am almost always resistant towards attacks on creators and artists being called overrated, pretentious, etc, because so much of art/entertainment I like gets called that. But in this case, that's just how I feel about the whole Kojima- it's really become insufferable. The man comes out to feed us literally just a bunch of marketing bullshit ("a new kind of entertainment" lol gtfo) and everyone's like hahaha, wacky ol' Kojima, isn't it delightful? No, no, it's not delightful, it's annoying.
 
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