Your video game hot take(s) thread

[XsjadoBlayde]

After some experience, I have to say Ray-tracing technology is just not worth cutting the framerate in half for. I understand that it potentially takes a small load off the devs work, but when games like Control claim they are giving the choice between 60fps or 30fps with Ray-tracing... a game where pretty much everything is unreflective concrete, it baffles me why anyone would bother, or why there should even be an 'either/or' when Spiderman manages to compromise for both high framerate and Ray-tracing within an open world city able to maintain fast traversal and high-octane combat. Every game feels way more next-gen with higher framerate, yet disappointing with just this RT technology for show.

I suppose it's all about those marketing screenshots or whatever, but unless the technology can present some unexpected results from a phantasmagorical clash of light sources that human imagination could not have conceived, it's not particularly interesting or exciting for the customer much, seems more a hindrance on performance so far.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Every online AFPS goes through the same phases of life. I've noticed the trend enough to identify it, and it happens every time.

Phase 1: Excited enthusiasm. This is the time! It's the revival of AFPS and Quake like shooters! This game has X Y Z, so I'm sure it'll garner attention!
Phase 2: Intense playtesting. The game is out now! It's so much fun, X Y Z are all great mechanics! I told you guys this would be the revival of AFPS!
Phase 3: Player bleeding. Okay, so maybe the game isn't doing so anymore. But once the devs put out some more maps, and a few more gamemodes, we'll pick up again!
Phase 4: Mass suggestions and anger. Alright everybody, I played X AFPS back in the day. And I see this game isn't doing so well. Here's what the devs need to do if they have any hope of the game picking up! (Usually these suggestions are accompanied with "Fuck you, this game is dead, go play X AFPS instead")
Phase 5: Acceptance. The people who are still playing the game are fans of the game. They don't worry about trying to bring in mass amounts of new players. If you're new, they'll gladly lend a hand, but they've accepted their small game community. The devs have either moved on, or are only pushing out occasional updates.

And those are the phases of AFPS. Go ahead and ask me which AFPS stands where in these phases. I can tell you where, and point out the symptoms of such.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't the death of the AFPS pretty much be attributed to the fact that basically every other game for the past 15 years has had some form of multiplayer making the "arena" feel more like a lone component rather than a worthy, standalone venture? Quake 3 Arena on PC is where I found my love of FPS games, but after a gaming drought lasting a few years, I picked up an Original Xbox, Halo: CE and Halo 2 and it was evident immediately to me that Q3A-like games felt like relics. I'd picked up Unreal Tournament for my Xbox as well, tried to get back into the arena groove I'd loved so much, but it just felt like too little; I could stand it for a few minutes at a time, but that paled in comparison to the HOURS I was dumping into Halo 2.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I’m really starting to hate timed missions in story based games. Like for Gold medals in RDR2 when you need to play through 3/4 of stuff like walk or ride n talk and shooting it really drags things out. I said to hell with one mission, An American Pastoral Scene, where Micah rides so slow and then drives the wagon so slow the rest of the way (even stopping it right before the wheel falls off), as I can never seem to have even a minute left to finish the final shootout. Had to switch to lock on aiming which I don’t prefer, and again Micah takes his sweet time getting back to the wagon to finish it. Maybe I’d eventually be lucky enough to copy that video guide method but right now it’s a waste of time as I only have about 30% of the medals I need. Will be avoiding any time based stuff whenever possible from now on in this game at least.

Basically any type of challenge mode that forces you to skip cutscenes is badly implemented from the start, and goes to show another reason that story-driven games are generally not conducive to high replayability.

*edit* this guy’s commentary towards the end says it all about the above mission

Might actually still try whatever he did as it seemed to work well.

Scratch that, I’m trying this first

Yyyep.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

After some experience, I have to say Ray-tracing technology is just not worth cutting the framerate in half for. I understand that it potentially takes a small load off the devs work, but when games like Control claim they are giving the choice between 60fps or 30fps with Ray-tracing... a game where pretty much everything is unreflective concrete, it baffles me why anyone would bother, or why there should even be an 'either/or' when Spiderman manages to compromise for both high framerate and Ray-tracing within an open world city able to maintain fast traversal and high-octane combat. Every game feels way more next-gen with higher framerate, yet disappointing with just this RT technology for show.

I suppose it's all about those marketing screenshots or whatever, but unless the technology can present some unexpected results from a phantasmagorical clash of light sources that human imagination could not have conceived, it's not particularly interesting or exciting for the customer much, seems more a hindrance on performance so far.

It will get there soon hopefully. Do you have an RTX card to take advantage of

NVIDIA DLSS 2.0: A Big Leap In AI Rendering

Through the power of AI and GeForce RTX Tensor Cores, NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 enables a new level of performance and visuals for your games - available now in MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries and coming this week to Control.

www.nvidia.com

?

 

[DJShaddycat]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't the death of the AFPS pretty much be attributed to the fact that basically every other game for the past 15 years has had some form of multiplayer making the "arena" feel more like a lone component rather than a worthy, standalone venture? Quake 3 Arena on PC is where I found my love of FPS games, but after a gaming drought lasting a few years, I picked up an Original Xbox, Halo: CE and Halo 2 and it was evident immediately to me that Q3A-like games felt like relics. I'd picked up Unreal Tournament for my Xbox as well, tried to get back into the arena groove I'd loved so much, but it just felt like too little; I could stand it for a few minutes at a time, but that paled in comparison to the HOURS I was dumping into Halo 2.

Are you trying to say that Arena FPS put too much emphasis on the Arena, while modern day shooters do less so?
You might certainly have a point, to an extent. I've never thought much of it, and I would have no explanation for it, but shooters seem to more and more push away from the interesting and special arena. The most recent culmination of this would be Valorant vs CSGO. CSGO looking more like locations, while Valorant is more of a blank slate.

 

[Casual Shinji]

For context, this is video he made. It was made as a sorta damage control after giving God of War 4 harsh criticism. I did not have problem with him disliking it, but I hate the fact he decided to insult others for liking the games and saying shit like "you were fooled in to liking it". That's just petty and sounds like crying for a toy you can't have. He missed people's main point of critcisms of his video insulting others and focused only on the people who said that GoW 4's combat should not be criticized (which is bullshit and I agree with GB in this regard), because it's no longer a traditional hack n slash. GB has seemed to calm down a bit from this, but I can't watch some of his 2018 videos, because he takes potshots at God of War 4 unprovoked when the video game he is discussing in question has nothing to do with it. If reviews another God of War game and starts insulting others for liking/being excited for Ragnarok, I am dropping him his ass. You doing fine talking about games you enjoy or showing more obscure stuff, don't ruin it by being another loud know-nothing-know-it-all asshole.

He did the same regarding The Last of Us at the time - constantly bringing it up to poop on it even when the topic itself didn't have anything to do with it. It got very petty. I never bothered with the guy again after that GoW '18 video.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Are you trying to say that Arena FPS put too much emphasis on the Arena, while modern day shooters do less so?
You might certainly have a point, to an extent. I've never thought much of it, and I would have no explanation for it, but shooters seem to more and more push away from the interesting and special arena. The most recent culmination of this would be Valorant vs CSGO. CSGO looking more like locations, while Valorant is more of a blank slate.

Not really, just saying Arenas are JUST arenas whereas games like Halo 2 (keeping it near the era when AFPSs were most popular,) offered substantive single-player stories as well as what is effectively “Arena” (and other) multiplayer modes (less bots, mostly.) Halo has maps that are as memorable and engaging as most AFPS I’ve played (which isn’t many, if I’m being honest,) but it offers so much more atop that. I could be wrong having not dealt with AFPSs in years, but AFPSs feel like the equivalent of only offering something that’s effectively standard by the industry in other games that [at least attempt to] offer competent content alongside “arena” modes.

 

[BrawlMan]

He did the same regarding The Last of Us at the time - constantly bringing it up to poop on it even when the topic itself didn't have anything to do with it. It got very petty. I never bothered with the guy again after that GoW '18 video.

I remember, you mentioned it back on the old site. like I said before, he's been doing fine so far, but if he starts to insulting people for liking something again, I'm done. I'll drop him like I immediately dropped Score PN.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

This is the most important statement regarding the criticisms of God of War 2018.

(Godhand) decided to make a silly story around a crazy action game rather than put an action game into a serious story (God of War)

 

[BrawlMan]

This is the most important statement regarding the criticisms of God of War 2018.

(Godhand) decided to make a silly story around a crazy action game rather than put an action game into a serious story (God of War)

That's nothing new (for me), and there's no arguing around that either. That statement I don't have a problem with. God Hand does have better combat than all the God of War games. As for GoW 4s story, I did not mind it at all. I like it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

That's nothing new ,(for me)and there's no arguing around that either. That statement I don't have a problem with. Got hand does have better combat than all the God of War games. As for GoW 4s story, I did not mind it at all. I like it.

It’s a good story and I like how it’s told and presented, but yeah. They did build an action (adventure) game around it vs the other way around, and it hurt the gameplay design as a result. Namely combat mechanics. The ax felt awesome though even if it lacked depth.

 

[BrawlMan]

It’s a good story and I like how it’s told and presented, but yeah. They did build an action (adventure) game around it vs the other way around, and it hurt the gameplay design as a result. Namely combat mechanics. The ax felt awesome though even if it lacked depth.

Exactly. Hopefully, they learn from their mistakes and make many improvements.

 

[Jarrito3002]

He did the same regarding The Last of Us at the time - constantly bringing it up to poop on it even when the topic itself didn't have anything to do with it. It got very petty. I never bothered with the guy again after that GoW '18 video.

I did enjoy his GoW 18 video. I needed that dilute against every shitting on the past GoW which it seems like people dismissed as screaming rage porn which 3 definetly was at time but damn it had a lot going on for it. Especially since the series was always cinematic but still interactive where GoW 18 was more watching.

Plus press to triangle to hug family was a perfect flip of mechanics that was simple but greatness all together.

 

[Jarrito3002]

Saw some mention of Godhand. I played it and I can say it does not deserve that low of the score that people are hold IGN over it from years ago but its not a 5 star masterpiece. Its like a 3 out of 5 for me with a concept that could be build on and improved but we will never know.

 

[BrawlMan]

I did enjoy his GoW 18 video. I needed that dilute against every shitting on the past GoW which it seems like people dismissed as screaming rage porn which 3 definetly was at time but damn it had a lot going on for it. Especially since the series was always cinematic but still interactive where GoW 18 was more watching.

Plus press to triangle to hug family was a perfect flip of mechanics that was simple but greatness all together.

Two wrongs don't make a right. I didn't like the critics overly praising the fourth game and acting like none of the old games matter either, but when you act as if you're better than everyone else and your excuse boils down to you're sheeple for liking this game, then you ain't much better. That was my main problem with GB in that video.

Saw some mention of Godhand. I played it and I can say it does not deserve that low of the score that people are hold IGN over it from years ago but its not a 5 star masterpiece. Its like a 3 out of 5 for me with a concept that could be build on and improved but we will never know.

I always had problems with ign, even before the God Hand review. I just know after that review I never trusted them again with anything. I already knew something was off with the review. Once I started seeing videos on YouTube, it was mainly obvious that the person sucked and didn't want to bother learning any mechanics with the game. hell, nobody in the office like that game apparently and it took a second opinion to give it a 6 out of 10, but it was too little too late by that point. The closest you're going to get to God Hand at this point is either Mad World or Anarchy Reigns. The latter plays more like a streamlined version with multiple characters. you may not get a customized move set, but you still get a lot of moves and different gameplay mechanics for each character.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I did enjoy his GoW 18 video. I needed that dilute against every shitting on the past GoW which it seems like people dismissed as screaming rage porn which 3 definetly was at time but damn it had a lot going on for it. Especially since the series was always cinematic but still interactive where GoW 18 was more watching.

Plus press to triangle to hug family was a perfect flip of mechanics that was simple but greatness all together.

Past the first game it was all screaming rage porn. They were fun games, and the first game I'd argue is still the best in the series, but you can't deny starting with GoW2 the developers got a little too eager in creating sequences to show off Kratos being a shitheel. Emphasis on "show off", because it was presented very much as having the player cheer on Kratos' viciousness without the games ever really calling it into question. The only time it was called into question it was done so by characters that were deliberately obnoxious, annoying, or "weak", who than quickly got horribly murdered by Kratos. Again, they were fun enough, but things got really fucking ugly. So much so that even Ascension tried very hard to do a roll back on Kratos; no sex mini-game, no mindless violence toward innocent bystanders or regular people that helped you. But since it was a prequel it ultimately mattered very little.

And the 'press circle to hug your family' might've had more impact on me, if the game at any point showed Kratos really caring for his family. Even when you save his family at the end of that sequence Kratos immediately shouts his pride toward Ares instead of savouring his family's safety.

Also, I can't say GoW '18 was less interactive and more watching, considering the combat was more involved than it ever was. At best you can say GoW '18 had less environmental puzzles and threats.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

It will get there soon hopefully. Do you have an RTX card to take advantage of

NVIDIA DLSS 2.0: A Big Leap In AI Rendering

Through the power of AI and GeForce RTX Tensor Cores, NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 enables a new level of performance and visuals for your games - available now in MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries and coming this week to Control.

www.nvidia.com

?

It's a PS5, thanks to a helpful friend over the last month sorting me out once they hooked one. No idea what it uses for RT, but the games that do use it are few and far between. Ghost of Tsushima at 60fps is very next-genny though, one step closer to the enraptured matrix future! Yeah, no doubt time should see more impressive implementation, it's just a little bit of a damp squib when they sacrifice framerate for something that is only a visual garnish in specific environments which may not even be noticed if the game demands your attentions in combat. I've been bitten by the framerate bug hard lately, lol. It's like my eyeballs have been freed from a soupy gloopy prison!

 

[happyninja42]

And the 'press circle to hug your family' might've had more impact on me, if the game at any point showed Kratos really caring for his family. Even when you save his family at the end of that sequence Kratos immediately shouts his pride toward Ares instead of savouring his family's safety.

Eh, I would say that the level of grief he shows at the start of GoW, when he's talking to Athena, and asking her if he finishes this task, will his pain be over, is there to illustrate his care for his family. It's not great, I'll grant you, as they're already dead, and it's in the past, and he's now fueled by pure guilt and rage. But I recall feeling that he was genuinely grief stricken by what he had done, by the end of the first game. He hid it under a metric ton of rage and violence, but it was there, fueling that rage.

Past the first game it was all screaming rage porn. They were fun games, and the first game I'd argue is still the best in the series, but you can't deny starting with GoW2 the developers got a little too eager in creating sequences to show off Kratos being a shitheel. Emphasis on "show off", because it was presented very much as having the player cheer on Kratos' viciousness without the games ever really calling it into question.

Yeah the first time I can recall thinking "ok come on, am I playing the bad guy at this point?' was in GoW2, when you are...I forget what you were unlocking, but it was some ritual thingy, and a person had to read the ritual words from the book, and then give an offering of blood. And he's forcibly making the priests read the text, and then brains them to death to fuel the ritual with their blood. I had far less empathy for Kratos by that point in GoW2, but was still kind of on the "ok so maybe they will have him stop being a shitheel by the end, and see the error of his ways....oh..no...well ok then." Then GoW3 came out, and while I defend that it's got the most epic (literally) tutorial ever made in a fucking game, ending with you killing the god of the seas, his complete blind goal to just destroy everything in front of him because "waaah, they made me hurt myself, and then hurt me! so I'm justified in literally destroying my entire world, killing millions" That was just, yeah too far. I felt physically ill near the end, where I'm being forced to do some horrible things, all under the guise of revenge. Which, is just not a good motivating factor for me personally. Maybe it's because I'm not a hormonal teen boy anymore, but even then I wasn't a huge fan of violence, or harming others to make myself feel better.

So I like that they addressed a lot of that in GoW4. They didn't really try and excuse it, but I mean, it's always a problem with the idea of people who do wrong to others. If we accept the idea that they actually have the capacity to change, to realize the path they were on is wrong, and then they actively try and not live like they did, well, I mean what can you say? Kratos never asks for forgiveness for what he did, he never denies that he was a horrible person then. That doesn't mean he is horrible in every capacity of his life. It doesn't mean he can't become better, and try and make up for the harm he's done. He doesn't look for redemption, he looks for trying to make sure his son does not fall into the same trap that he and his family did. And honestly, I'm fine with that as a motivating force for playing someone like Kratos again. It's about the only way I was going to enjoy playing it, after how the end of GoW3 left a genocidal taste in my mouth. I REALLY hated the end of that game. I'm glad they took the new game in a different direction, while still acknowledging where Kratos came from.

 

[Hawki]

I like Sonic's stupid friends and find it a shame Sonic dropped its more ''ambitious'' attempts of storytelling.

These days Sonic stories are really self contained and tend to only focus on Sonic and maybe Tails. In the first 3d games it wasn't like that. You could feel a story was being told across multiple games. Adventure one flowed directly into adventure 2, which directly flowed into Heroes, which directly flowed into Shadow the Hedgehog, which directly flowed into the trainwreck of 06.

Throughout these games many of Sonic's stupid friends had a bit of an arc to them. In Adventure 1 Knuckles still doesn't particularly like or trust Sonic, in Adventure 2 they are somewhat friendly and he's willing to help out to some extend, and in Heroes Knuckles is just an official part of Sonic's group of friends. Tails learns to believe in himself in Aventure 1 which mostly sticks in the games after it, and Shadow has a fair bit of character development, character development locked behind two awful games but character development all the same. Him and Team Dark becoming a little family was about the only decent thing of 06.

Sonic with high stakes and drama is silly, but it is the right kind of silly.

So I considered how to respond to this, because I broadly agree with the sentiments, but with caveats.

Thing about Sonic is that as far as platformers go, it actually started off being ahead of the curve with storytelling - we see this as early as STH2 (the ending stills), and more significantly, STH3&K, what with each act being interconnected. Then we get Adventure 1 & 2, and however one might have felt about the stories, I challenge someone to find a platformer made around the same time with as much attention to story.

Still, Heroes might have too much credit here. Knuckles has certainly mellowed out, but the game can't even be arsed to explain why Knuckles is there, and why he's apparently left the Master Emerald unguarded so readily. I mean, yeah, later games have more or less forgotten all about it, but Heroes arguably started the trend.

Far as continuity goes, you're right, Adventure 1>2>Heroes>Shadow>06 have a clear line of continuity, though I'd argue they exist in relative isolation. On the flipside, we had the handheld games filling in the gaps - so, Advance 2 has to come before Heroes, Battle has to come after Shadow, Advance 3 has to come after Battle, etc.

Still, come the 2010s, and story's gone out the window, and it's taken some of the characters with it. Tails is reduced to a quivering wreck in Forces because he of course never had the ability to do anything by himself prior to that...nup. Knuckles has been reduced to a dunderhead. Amy's arguably fared a bit better, but, yeah.

I think there's a happy medium to be had in Sonic tones. Stuff like Shadow and 06 veered too far in one direction, Colours and Heroes too far in the other. Happy mediums are somewhere in the realm of SA1, 2, and I'd argue, even Forces, if we're confining this to mainline games.

 

[Hawki]

I do thank you right there. The reason Sega's so focused on mainly Sonic and Tails, is because they wanted to distance themselves from Sonic 06 and you had critics like Yahtzee, Jim Sterling, and Movie Bob going around saying how nearly all of Sonic's pals are useless and unnecessary and their fans parroting opinions without any back up. I am not saying it's entirely their fault, but combination of that and an unpleasable fanbase will do that. This is the same fan base that is known to be wishy-washie.

I've never got the argument of "too many characters."

If you're making the argument from a gameplay standpoint, then yes, I think there's an argument there. No-one likes Big in SA1 for instance. The Chaotix missions in Heroes are tedious. Having only a select no. of characters be playable at any given time is fine. But I don't get the idea of "there are too many characters, period." I mean, do people make those arguments for Marvel and DC? I mean, we're never going to get a...I dunno, Plasticman game, but does the existence of Plasticman in of himself cheapen the setting?

EDIT: Ironic, because the Sonic Boom cartoon show fixes these issues having more than just Sonic and Tails. Amy is nicer again or back to her original self with out the Flanderization. Though Knuckles does get a bit dumber in some cases

What Boom does or doesn't do isn't too important to me, because I'm open to different settings having different takes. I mean, that's been par for the course for day 1 - AoSTH Robotnik and SatAM Robotnik can exist side by side in the wider franchise for instance.

That said, with Boom, I don't know if Amy's back to her 'original self' per se, because if anything, I think Boom!Amy is the best version of the character the franchise has had. Still has a crush on Sonic, but it isn't the be all and end all of her character. Yeah, the games did a bit with Amy in SA1, but by Heroes, she's back to chasing Sonic across the world demanding matrimony.

As for Boom!Knuckles, not fond of him, but I'm left in a chicken or egg scenario, because Segaverse!Knuckles isn't much better these days. Tempting as it is to blame Boom for it, I'd argue the rot for Knuckles arguably set in as soon as Generations, if not Lost World, where he became comic relief, and by Forces...ugh.

Well I know it ain't Battle Born, Lawbreakers, nor Evolve, they're all dead in the water. Though I do feel bad for Battle Born. I was not an exact fan, but it did not deserve that much hate. Sucks you can't even do single player anymore.

I wouldn't call Battleborn an AFPS. It's more a hero shooter/MOBA hybrid.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't the death of the AFPS pretty much be attributed to the fact that basically every other game for the past 15 years has had some form of multiplayer making the "arena" feel more like a lone component rather than a worthy, standalone venture? Quake 3 Arena on PC is where I found my love of FPS games, but after a gaming drought lasting a few years, I picked up an Original Xbox, Halo: CE and Halo 2 and it was evident immediately to me that Q3A-like games felt like relics. I'd picked up Unreal Tournament for my Xbox as well, tried to get back into the arena groove I'd loved so much, but it just felt like too little; I could stand it for a few minutes at a time, but that paled in comparison to the HOURS I was dumping into Halo 2.

I'm kind of in a similar boat. I mean, I've played Halo multiplayer extensively, and its 'default modes' (if they can be said to be that) are AFPS ones, even if I wouldn't even know what the term meant by then. And there's a reason why I, and many others, loathed the loadout system in Halo 4.

Question is, is there room for stand-alone AFPS, or are they better served being multiplayer modes to singleplayer games? Market seems to indicate the latter.