What are you currently playing?

[Bartholen]

It's a crime how Arkham Knight hasn't had a remaster yet (or simply a patch that bumps up the fidelity and framerate), because even now that game looks fucking stupendous.
I don't know what kind of fairy dust Rocksteady was working with when they made this game.

Video game graphics peaked in 2015, and have been stagnating, if not outright regressing ever since with only a few bright spots here and there. I will not be convinced otherwise. As evidenced by the game I started playing, Witcher 3, from a fresh save file. Other examples include Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Bloodborne and Metal Gear Solid 5, all of which still look like a zillion bucks. Think about it: if you took gameplay footage from high-profile releases every 5 years starting in 2000, you'd no doubt be able to tell which games came from which year, until 2015. At that point hardware specs basically achieved the maximum level of fidelity that's easily distinguishable to the human eye, and it's been diminishing returns ever since. The time between the releases of Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess was 6 years, and graphics wise the two are lightyears apart. The exact same amount of time passed between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, yet the two look virtually identical.

Witcher 3's obviously had tons of updates since 2015, but it nonetheless absolutely kicks most current games' asses when it comes to graphics. This time I decided to take the Elden Ring approach to the game: no minimap, minimal HUD and fast travel. I'm playing the game completely differently. I don't even care that much where I'm going, I'm just enjoying the scenery and seeing what I can find by just bumbling around. The sense of scale and place is basically still unmatched save for the only game that achieves an even greater level of immersion for me, that being Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[Gordon_4]

Video game graphics peaked in 2015, and have been stagnating, if not outright regressing ever since with only a few bright spots here and there. I will not be convinced otherwise. As evidenced by the game I started playing, Witcher 3, from a fresh save file. Other examples include Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Bloodborne and Metal Gear Solid 5, all of which still look like a zillion bucks. Think about it: if you took gameplay footage from high-profile releases every 5 years starting in 2000, you'd no doubt be able to tell which games came from which year, until 2015. At that point hardware specs basically achieved the maximum level of fidelity that's easily distinguishable to the human eye, and it's been diminishing returns ever since. The time between the releases of Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess was 6 years, and graphics wise the two are lightyears apart. The exact same amount of time passed between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, yet the two look virtually identical.

Witcher 3's obviously had tons of updates since 2015, but it nonetheless absolutely kicks most current games' asses when it comes to graphics. This time I decided to take the Elden Ring approach to the game: no minimap, minimal HUD and fast travel. I'm playing the game completely differently. I don't even care that much where I'm going, I'm just enjoying the scenery and seeing what I can find by just bumbling around. The sense of scale and place is basically still unmatched save for the only game that achieves an even greater level of immersion for me, that being Cyberpunk 2077.

Graphical fidelity has probably peaked, but I'd argue we still have art styles yet to be best realised.

 

[Worgen]

Finally started on Persona 3, also got Cleared Hot and Total Chaos. Still pretty early in Persona 3, beat the birds. It starts faster then 5, but does a much worse job of establishing the world and your friends. Junpei kinda just inserts himself as your friend, Ryuji in 5 naturally developed into a friend. The girls, Yukari and Mitsuru so far seem fine, although Mitsuru seems old for a high schooler, she totally feels like she should be 35. I only have vague memories of playing it back in the day since my memory card ate my save rather early on, but combat is certainly splashier then it was and everything seems to have been styled up thanks to P5.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Video game graphics peaked in 2015, and have been stagnating, if not outright regressing ever since with only a few bright spots here and there. I will not be convinced otherwise. As evidenced by the game I started playing, Witcher 3, from a fresh save file. Other examples include Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Bloodborne and Metal Gear Solid 5, all of which still look like a zillion bucks. Think about it: if you took gameplay footage from high-profile releases every 5 years starting in 2000, you'd no doubt be able to tell which games came from which year, until 2015. At that point hardware specs basically achieved the maximum level of fidelity that's easily distinguishable to the human eye, and it's been diminishing returns ever since. The time between the releases of Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess was 6 years, and graphics wise the two are lightyears apart. The exact same amount of time passed between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, yet the two look virtually identical.

Witcher 3's obviously had tons of updates since 2015, but it nonetheless absolutely kicks most current games' asses when it comes to graphics. This time I decided to take the Elden Ring approach to the game: no minimap, minimal HUD and fast travel. I'm playing the game completely differently. I don't even care that much where I'm going, I'm just enjoying the scenery and seeing what I can find by just bumbling around. The sense of scale and place is basically still unmatched save for the only game that achieves an even greater level of immersion for me, that being Cyberpunk 2077.

Saying stuff like this…I get the sentiment but it’s still pretty much adjacent to nostalgia goggles. Kinda like with Crysis which damn near everyone thought would never be topped, if you really look at TW3 there are some very, very rough edges. Things like weapons and armor have high detail, while the broad brushstrokes of scenery still look great, but it’s what we’re choosing to see while ignoring the lesser elements that are still present in some ways to a greater extent with games today. The problem is that we’ve seen so much of everything that very little stands out anymore as being truly exceptional.

 

[BrawlMan]

Double Dragon IV I did a fresh run after not touching it since 2021.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Video game graphics peaked in 2015, and have been stagnating, if not outright regressing ever since with only a few bright spots here and there. I will not be convinced otherwise. As evidenced by the game I started playing, Witcher 3, from a fresh save file. Other examples include Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Bloodborne and Metal Gear Solid 5, all of which still look like a zillion bucks. Think about it: if you took gameplay footage from high-profile releases every 5 years starting in 2000, you'd no doubt be able to tell which games came from which year, until 2015. At that point hardware specs basically achieved the maximum level of fidelity that's easily distinguishable to the human eye, and it's been diminishing returns ever since. The time between the releases of Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess was 6 years, and graphics wise the two are lightyears apart. The exact same amount of time passed between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, yet the two look virtually identical.

Witcher 3's obviously had tons of updates since 2015, but it nonetheless absolutely kicks most current games' asses when it comes to graphics. This time I decided to take the Elden Ring approach to the game: no minimap, minimal HUD and fast travel. I'm playing the game completely differently. I don't even care that much where I'm going, I'm just enjoying the scenery and seeing what I can find by just bumbling around. The sense of scale and place is basically still unmatched save for the only game that achieves an even greater level of immersion for me, that being Cyberpunk 2077.

With Arkham Knight same as something like The Witcher 3 it feels like a combination of certain visual and lighting effects. Remember the original Resident Evil 4 and how well it did its fire effects? It wasn't some advanced tech, it was just very clever blending. The rain in Arkham Knight similarly doesn't look like expensive tech, it looks rain drop samples mixed very well. And in The Witcher 3 just having the trees kinda go a bit nuts in the wind brings so much more life to the open-world.

I don't know in what ways developers have changed their production cycle over the years, but maybe less time is given now to really allow visual effects artists (the people who make the rain, snow, and smoke effects in games) to really experiment with tech.

I mean, there's a warm ruggedness to the old PS2 rock and stone texturing that I'm sure is not outside of current tech's capabilities, but developers just don't use it anymore.

Like it feels like you could take a bite out of that stone.

 

[Bartholen]

Graphical fidelity has probably peaked, but I'd argue we still have art styles yet to be best realised.

No doubt. I just don't think those art styles are really gated behind hardware capabilities anymore, or at least have yet to see proof of them being so. There are definitely still areas where hardware could be pushed: draw distance and NPC crowds for example. There's a particularly noticeable trick in Cyberpunk 2077 to convey a sense of scale: if you drive on long stretches of the roads at night, you'll see dozens of car taillights in the distance. But when you drive closer, you'll see those lights just disappear into thin air, because they're just 2D sprites programmed to disappear when you get close enough. Space Marine 2 was the first game to really impress me graphically in ages because of how it managed to properly convey the sense of being attacked by innumerable swarms of enemies. It just feels like games seeking to push these boundaries are becoming fewer and farther between.

 

[bluegate]

I might be wrong about this, but I'm a firm believer that chasing a higher resolution every generation does us a disservice.

You get new and fancy hardware and you're spending most of it drawing roughly the same image, but at a bigger resolution.

I could do with a resolution plateau for the next 20 or so years.

 

[BrawlMan]

I might be wrong about this, but I'm a firm believer that chasing a higher resolution every generation does us a disservice.

You are not wrong and very much correct. The best kind of correct.

 

[Gordon_4]

I might be wrong about this, but I'm a firm believer that chasing a higher resolution every generation does us a disservice.

You get new and fancy hardware and you're spending most of it drawing roughly the same image, but at a bigger resolution.

I could do with a resolution plateau for the next 20 or so years.

I have a feeling - for games at least - we're probably gonna sit on 4k for a while and chase higher refresh rates and other things like HDR. Yes 8K is a thing but only absolute lunatic hardware can push a video game on it natively, and all the upscaling and frame gen in the world still looks like ass with it. Movies might go 8k but games? Not without an absolute quantum shift in several levels of component manufacturing and pricing.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Movies might go 8k but games?

What's even the point for movies? I can barely notice 4K in movies.

 

[Drathnoxis]

What's even the point for movies? I can barely notice 4K in movies.

You get to watch a movie with a number twice as big. Pretty self explanatory really.

 

[BrawlMan]

You get to watch a movie with a number twice as big. Pretty self explanatory really.

Aside from that.

What's even the point for movies? I can barely notice 4K in movies.

Movies like aquaman are really the only ones that benefit from 4k.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Beat Stray. It's a very PS+ game. Easy, short, cute gimmick, wouldn't have bought it in the first place, will never play again.

I kinda rushed it because my subscription is about to expire and I won't be renewing since there's no BF sale for members, just new subs. So uh fuck it. I'll miss it mostly for the convenience of cloud saves. I don't do multiplayer, the freebies are a crapshoot and I'm sitting on 200+ games worth of backlog anyway.

I have a little over 2 weeks left so I guess I'll play Control since it's the one PS+ game left I have any interest in.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

The Devs of little nightmares dropped a demo for their new game 'REANIMAL' -(assuning it's meant to be all caps cos that how it always appears) - even though it ain't out till like next year. Some may say that's confidence, some may, say, uh...wait I don't recall people saying anything else tbh. The cover initially kinda looks as if it's revealing a lot, yet with no reference points to go off, maybe not? First impression between the cover, the demo start and perhaps the title card gives a distinct "what if we stopped hiding from the mist in Stephen king's the mist? We ain't trapped here with the mist, the mist is trapped here with us!"

Anyway, so far is big mood. Wasn't that a meme for 5 minutes or something? BigMOOD? I swesr there was a brief moment people were saying it. Well am bringing it back, for just this one post. BIGMOOD!


Total Chaos
Deceptively restrained atmospheric FPS horror from devs of Turbo Overkill - making it all the more deceptive: it appears to be more of a silent hill, but 3 inception levels deeper into the silent hill where you ain't getting no cosy neighbourhood to ease you in, nope it's straight to the incomprehensible environments for you! Even the first narrative memo reads more akin to a cliff notes "hey we doing that silent hill shit, k? ...k?! Alrighty then!"
Suspecting it's possible they might've just ported the physics movement system from Turbo Overkill wholesale, the FOV was outta fucking contro, but they provided a slider to turn it down at least. Have yet to find gun however. Or even a stick to repair the broken pickaxe. Found plenty of mouldy bread slices, rotten apples and alcohol bottles though! Revenge will be sweet as soon as gun happun, whenever that may be...

 

[bluegate]

I kinda rushed it because my subscription is about to expire and I won't be renewing since there's no BF sale for members, just new subs.

Try cancelling your subscription and see if you get an offer for a deal through that page ( seen posts about it happening online ), or after your cancellation.

When you cancel your subscription it doesn't automatically end, it continues up until your renewal date, so you lose nothing by not trying it.

I signed up for a year of Plus back in February of this year and cancelled promptly after to avoid automatic renewals, Plus was still active until next February. I checked the PlayStation app on my phone today, navigated to the PlayStation Plus section and I was offered a deal on another year of PS+.

Now good until Feb 2027.

 

[BrawlMan]

Beat Stray. It's a very PS+ game. Easy, short, cute gimmick, wouldn't have bought it in the first place, will never play again.

I kinda rushed it because my subscription is about to expire and I won't be renewing since there's no BF sale for members, just new subs. So uh fuck it. I'll miss it mostly for the convenience of cloud saves. I don't do multiplayer, the freebies are a crapshoot and I'm sitting on 200+ games worth of backlog anyway.

I have a little over 2 weeks left so I guess I'll play Control since it's the one PS+ game left I have any interest in.

The last time I had PS+ was in 2021. I don't miss it.

I tried out Jack Bros. It's an interesting bird's eye view, action, run and gun, maze game but I hate how your time is your health. That knows hitboxes are very suspect when fighting bosses. Dying means you have to do the entire stage in sections all over again. I am putting this on hold for now. I'll have to use save states like crazy.

I've been going back to back with NG4 and DmC. It's crazy how many similarities these games have with each other. A trigger button that changes your weapon and stance. The demon world manipulating the human world and defying the laws of physics. Especially in those opening chapters. I still have to finish my hard run for NG4. I'm at a boss, I'm not exactly in a mood to fight. I really hate fighting that giant ghost shark, with a weird Ghostface inside its mouth. I know how to fight it, but it doesn't make it any less tedious and annoying. If I have to spam items, I will just to make it go faster.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Try cancelling your subscription and see if you get an offer for a deal through that page ( seen posts about it happening online ), or after your cancellation.

When you cancel your subscription it doesn't automatically end, it continues up until your renewal date, so you lose nothing by not trying it.

I signed up for a year of Plus back in February of this year and cancelled promptly after to avoid automatic renewals, Plus was still active until next February. I checked the PlayStation app on my phone today, navigated to the PlayStation Plus section and I was offered a deal on another year of PS+.

Now good until Feb 2027.

This time last year I managed to renew at a discount even though members were supposedly excluded, so either it's random or regional shenanigans are afoot. But sure, I'll give it a shot since I'm cancelling otherwise.

 

[BrawlMan]

I beat Ninja Gaiden 4 on Hard mode this time. The last boss sucks on this mode, and I am not going to bother with Master Ninja Difficulty.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well I'm playing Control since it's usually name-dropped when discussing 3D Metroidvanias. The definition of what the fuck is a Metroidvania is loosy goosy enough, and I don't know what it is about 3D that makes it even vaguer. Some people talk Arkham Asylum and Fallen Order like they're MV. I think the only 100% 3D MV I've ever played is Supraland, and people don't like that one because it's not very combat oriented.

It's hard to specify why but it feels like a very PS3 game so far. Moment to moment I'm reminded of inFAMOUS, minus the traversal. Something about character movement and speed. Also combat, insofar as it's based around clearing waves of spongey enemies and using powers that all boil down essentially to shooting. Contrasting with the perfunctory gameplay, the presentation's really intriguing, and I like the idea of an 'indoors open world' that manages to feel like an office building instead of the typical research facility/space station. Nice to hear James McCaffrey too.