General gaming discussion

Thecageyone · 21-01-2021 9:30pm

Just to say; I have never had any desire for either 3Dtv nor VR ... I feel like with VR I'd end up feeling nauseous and would be checking every other minute to make sure there wasn't some random person in the room laughing at me

Potential-Monke · 21-01-2021 10:50pm

Dcully wrote: »

Especially for you

Good man. Looks way better! I'm a bit weird like that when I'm a passenger in a car, I feel like reaching over to speed up, or even worse, turn off the wipers when there's no rain. I want to punch people who don't turn off the wipers when there's no rain!

Looks stunning though, definitely the best rain effects I've seen, and i've no doubt that some people watching that could be fooled into thinking it's real. Would love to get into racing games, but I wouldn't unless I had the proper racing set up, which I won't have for the foreseeable.

Regarding cost, I got the PSVR(v2) when it released for €300 iirc, and then the Move controllers for another €80, so €380 all in. Or, the price of 6ish new games. I'm trying to use the PS website to see how many hours I've played in VR to see if it paid for itself, but that also wouldn't include the cost of the games. My biggest hurdle (aside from it visually looking nearly last gen) is the locomotion. I don't like the snap turn, and most games (on PSVR) are not great at the smooth turn. Something like the 3D Rudder interested me, but it doesn't look like it releases support very often.

I would have bought into the Omni, but that appears to have gone commercial only. Would love to give Alyx a go, but won't happen on current PSVR and I don't have €2k aside for the Index, accessories and PC upgrades I'd require. I truly believe that VR or even AR is the next proper leap, it's just not there yet. Plus, headsets need to come down to Ready Player One size, the big headsets are off-putting to a lot, and they say one size fits all, which is true, but it's not one size comfortably fits all.

Parsnips · 22-01-2021 12:29am

The Raging Bile Duct wrote: »

Coming up as €70 for me. Played it last month after getting a month's EA Play. It's grand... finished it and enjoyed it for the most part but it's a pretty bog standard action game.

Sorry that was a typo.. Was €25 on PS store not €5.

Thecageyone · 22-01-2021 1:14am

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Hope you enjoy it as much as i did, just soak it in.

Ok, played through, and it was fun but ... think I definitely should have played this before 'Edith Finch, as Gone Home felt a lot 'emptier' - not nearly as much going on, and at times I felt I was just looking for more. It has some cool parts, really enjoyed

searching through that angsty teen bedroom,
- could sound wrong but it so reminded me of my own teen years with grunge magazine covers, game cartridges and home recordings - ok mine weren't near as cool but I did dabble in my teens and pretend we had a band of some sort that we recorded

Really think I'd have enjoyed it more if I'd not just played the other one a couple nights prior, even allowing for the time gap, I think Edith Finch has much more to offer but some of that comes down to personal emotional taste, I felt Gone Home's story, though sweet, was well ... just that .. I couldn't relate, I thought in the end it was just that, a sweet story

J Mysterio · 22-01-2021 2:12am

VR just wasn't for me at all. Was excited at first and went all in, buying all the gadgets. Was pysched for Firepoint but found it to be beyond basic and fairly shoddy really, even with the gun. Wasn't too impressed with any of the games, though the scuba diving experience with the shark was cool. Most craic I had was VR porn :pac:

VR does make me feel a little nauseous too though tbh, and like cageyone mentioned, I don't like the feeling of being unaware of my surroundings.

Ended up trading it in with my OG PS4 for PS4 Pro and credit. The lad in Gamestop couldn't believe it and thought I was some type of special idiot. Just didn't enjoy it.

riclad · 22-01-2021 2:32am

Most people do not want to buy expensive headsets , it's not comfortable
to play Vr games for hours. Half life alyx is
the only game I saw that looks great on vr
It's like 3d TV. People are used to playing
games with controllers. Many Vr games
can make people feel nausea.
I think we are past the stage where people will play games that need add on hardware. The last game that was a hit
that needed peripherals was guitar hero,
Rock band. Even if half life 3 was released
On Vr I don't think it would make much difference .
There's more good games out now than anyone can play and there's great free games like cod Warzone fortnite
Of course 3d TV was a gimmick
People do not want to put on glass, s just to play a game
Companys need to sell new tvs and hardware even if it offers no benefit to consumers Sony did research most gamers do not care about Vr they just want good games to play on the new consoles
Just making some high tech product does not mean people will buy it
I suppose in a few years we will be told
you must buy a 8k TV to play the latest
games or watch films in super HD mode

Potential-Monke · 22-01-2021 2:32am

On that point, it's still very early days for VR and we're basically test dummies who have to purchase the test products. It has improved, but still has a ways to go. I just want them to release Subnautica in VR! It would be amazing, and the game feels like it's made for it (especially when you're in the Seamoth).

Edit: I see they have released it in VR on PC, but by all accounts it wasn't done well and is poo...

Jordan 199 · 22-01-2021 2:33am

J Mysterio wrote: »

VR just wasn't for me at all. Was excited at first and went all in, buying all the gadgets. Was pysched for Firepoint but found it to be beyond basic and fairly shoddy really, even with the gun. Wasn't too impressed with any of the games, though the scuba diving experience with the shark was cool. Most craic I had was VR porn :pac:

That was really really good.

I like dipping into PSVR once in a while, but my best experience with it was Blood & Truth which is an amazing game especially if you have the move controllers.

one armed dwarf · 22-01-2021 2:51am

Tbh they can say that all they want about 8k, I sat out the last gen in 1080 and am quite happy to game at 1440 on PC for the next few years.

On PC especially it just makes sense, it means I can turn graphics and RTX up way more so my games look better anyway than 4k

riclad · 22-01-2021 9:31am

Right now you need a very powerful pc to run Vr games as well as a headset
so most people will never try it. It's like self driving cars , it's always a few years away.
I think Vr will be always a minority interest
like some people play rts games
millions of gamers play cod or fortnite or battle royale type games

quokula · 22-01-2021 9:38am

I had VR for a while but got rid of it as it's just so much hassle with cables everywhere, it's uncomfortable, you obviously can't see anything around you which is a problem if you have pets or kids, it's just entirely unpractical and none of the gimmicky games that were around a couple of years ago at least were anywhere near being worth it. Nothing I've seen talked about since seems worth it either, it's never going to be a big enough market to entice many top developers to invest in developing major titles for it.

Kiith · 22-01-2021 10:45am

Playing through Titanfall 2 again. Easily one of the best shooters i've played in a long time. Some of the level design is genius.

Mr Crispy · 22-01-2021 11:01am

Yeah, would absolutely love a Titanfall 3.

johnny_ultimate · 22-01-2021 11:03am

Don’t sleep on Ghostrunner if you love Titanfall 2. Quietly but brilliantly the one game to truly capture that game’s spirit of level design.

Retr0gamer · 23-01-2021 12:31pm

It's not great....

johnny_ultimate · 23-01-2021 12:34pm

I haven’t played it since release because I loved it then and reckon I’d be nowhere near as forgiving now that I’ve seen the different sort of directions story-based games can shoot for.

I will unambiguously say it has one the greatest scores in the history of the medium from Jessica Curry - so far above and beyond what we’d traditionally consider a good video game soundtrack. And there are one or two sequences in the game where the score and visuals come together into something truly, remarkably breathtaking.

Zero-Cool · 23-01-2021 12:41pm

As someone who loves 'walking simulators', i couldn't get into this. Granted i didn't give it enough of a chance so i need to give it another shot.

johnny_ultimate · 23-01-2021 12:50pm

Zero-Cool wrote: »

As someone who loves 'walking simulators', i couldn't get into this. Granted i didn't give it enough of a chance so i need to give it another shot.

It’s something I’d put a strong ‘not for everyone’ warning on.

I really enjoyed its languid, no-rush pacing and eerily sparse environment when I first played it. But I think (with the benefit of hindsight and a few years of storytelling evolution) the likes of Kentucky Route Zero (which was still a work in progress back in 2015) probably do a better job in marrying the mundane and the mysterious while also digging really deep into the setting and themes.

Jordan 199 · 23-01-2021 12:54pm

Is Firewatch classified as a walking simulator? I couldn't get into that game.

johnny_ultimate · 23-01-2021 1:00pm

Jordan 199 wrote: »

Is Firewatch classified as a walking simulator? I couldn't get into that game.

100%. Probably has the best feel of actually walking around out of any them

It’s obviously an informal description, but it’d include everything along the lines of Dear Esther, Firewatch, Gone Home, Jazzpunk (one of the greats), Tacoma, Paratropic, The Stanley Parable, Edith Finch etc... All very different games tonally, but basically if it’s a story-focused game with a limited number of interactions beyond simply walking around an environment... that’s a walking sim.

Retr0gamer · 23-01-2021 1:36pm

Everyone has gone to rapture is a game I felt was way over rated at launch because the ps4 at the time was struggling for meaningful content. It's not terrible. As said the score is great a d it seems good at the start but then the story gets really stupid later on. Marriage of narrative and gameplay just isn't there either, you just walk form point to point.

23-01-2021 1:51pm

My favourite walking simulator is Stanley's Parable. Started it up the other day to get an achievement for not playing it in five years. Really holds up.

Nate--IRL-- · 23-01-2021 2:00pm

Deleted User wrote: »

My favourite walking simulator is Stanley's Parable. Started it up the other day to get an achievement for not playing it in five years. Really holds up.

Easily one of my all time favourites of any genre. Genuinely hilarious in places, if it matches your sense of humour.

Nate

Zero-Cool · 23-01-2021 2:03pm

I love firewatch, absolute pleasure start to finish. I think Stanley's parable is coming to console soon.

pixelburp · 23-01-2021 2:03pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

My favourite walking simulator is Stanley's Parable. Started it up the other day to get an achievement for not playing it in five years. Really holds up.

Easy addition to a list of games from that decade, if not ever. So funny, clever and just marvellous to play. *considers reinstalling*

Thecageyone · 23-01-2021 2:07pm

Yeah Stanley Parable was fun, unique even for it's time. I still have it on Steam, must re-download see if I get that achievement

The problem with some of these 'walking sims' is the lack of interactivity, surely the devs know that gamers want to game, not just observe? I thnk 'Edith Finch' nailed it, there's just enough for the player to do, you never feel as if you're not involved. Only issue I have is that the game is too short, would have gladly spent another few hours in that world.

23-01-2021 2:14pm

pixelburp wrote: »

Easy addition to a list of games from that decade, if not ever. So funny, clever and just marvellous to play. *considers reinstalling*

Well there's an achievement to get so if five years have passed.

J Mysterio · 23-01-2021 3:11pm

Not really mad into those games, but Firewatch was great.

johnny_ultimate · 23-01-2021 3:34pm

Thecageyone wrote: »

The problem with some of these 'walking sims' is the lack of interactivity, surely the devs know that gamers want to game, not just observe?

It’s important to remember the context these games emerged in, when there was a big debate emerging over what kind of stories games could tell. It was after the emergence of the infamous ‘ludonarrative dissonance’ debate about how many games (things like BioShock, famously) were telling stories with themes and ideas that were often the opposite of what players could actually do in the game itself. How can Nathan Drake be a charming, down-to-earth hero while gunning down hundreds of dudes? How can BioShock critique the ideological foundation of Rapture while gleefully encouraging you to use Rapture’s toys and tools to your benefit? This isn’t to say there weren’t great story games before walking sims, but they were typically within fairly rigid genres (such as the JRPG, isometric RPG, FPS or point ‘n’ click genre).

What the best walking sim games did (and occasionally still do, although it feels like most developers are eager to try new things instead these days) was remove those complications so the spaces and stories could be far more internally consistent. You can tell the story you want to by limiting player interactions to a degree that they don’t actively conflict with the narrative or characters. It was a sense that ‘actually, we can tell different types of stories’ by using game spaces and language, but those types of stories are in total contrast to most popular gameplay mechanics.

The limitations became clear, of course, as more of these games were released. One of the big things was that a lot of the stories were ‘passive’ - as in you’re simply uncovering stories that already happened - which can be fairly limiting. And you need the writing to be very strong when that’s what the entire game is resting on. Tacoma (second game by the Gone Home crew) felt like a somewhat confused attempt to move the genre forward, without quite getting there - not a bad game by any stretch, but definitely one where you could start seeing the limitations. That’s why, as I mentioned earlier, it was so exciting to see a second generation of story-focused exploration games that have boasted far more robust gameplay systems to more actively involve the player, even if it’s just figuring out what happened to other characters.

There’s a lot of great stuff in the best walking sim games, though. It really makes you appreciate just how strong and potent environmental storytelling can be. For me, they’ve definitely been a valuable and rewarding part of my own ever-evolving interest in games.

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