Random Gaming Talk Thread

[I'm a Puppy!]

I did a project for an online gambling gaming company. This loot box thing is going to be huge. I couldn't believe the amount of money people pumped in for virtual currency to be able to gamble more. Now multiply that times 3 given how gamers are. It's going to be insane.

[Positive Touch]

going to be? i mean, there's a reason the big f2p mobile games are GIGANTIC money makers

[archie4208]

Everyone has been raging about loot boxes for the past two weeks and here I am thinking this shit has been in games for years. 

I guess people only notice it when it hits AAA games.

[Bebpo]

Apparently there was some sort of Gran Turismo demo up for 3 days in the middle of a work week that is gone already? And people are saying it's actually good? Don't trust GT enough to put $60 down on a prologue-type game, would've liked a demo...for more than 3 days.

[Raist]

GAF raging over loot boxes and going all "ESRB/PEGI plz" is quite funny TBH.

Loot boxes don't fit the legal definition of gambling, so fuck all will happen. It does push the exact same buttons though, and thinking that kids who start with that may get a higher predisposition to get into actual gambling isn't necessarily far fetched.

But at the end of the day, unless you have a kid playing VG and dealing drugs so that he can buy another 20 loot boxes in Destiny 2, I don't see why you should care. And if you are in that position, I'd say you should look back on your parenting skills rather than hope for the ESRB etc to fix it

[thisismyusername]

It is gambling though. You're basically pressing a slot machine for a reward. The difference is, unlike the slot machine that is (CPU now) disposed to go "YOU LOSE LOL" lootboxes go "YOU DON'T GET THE SHIT YOU WANTED LOL."

Throw in that Valve's form of it (the crates) has trading, and has it's own economy/trading to where people made "gambling" sites to get more rewards to get better income, and it's a slippery slope.

My problem with it is the Pay 2 Win nature of Gacha shit. EAFront 2 being a key example. You can't get perks in the game via leveling up. You get them via the Lootboxes. So if someone P2W's you, and you don't: Skill doesn't matter, they have a FAR better loadout than you. How the fuck is that acceptable in a $60 purchase?

[Rufus]

It's not gambling in the one way that matters. You're guaranteed to walk away with something, just not what you want.

They're safe unless the backlash becomes so massive it can be proven to have hurt their bottom line. Given that people actually buy those boxes, I would not count on that.

[toku]

battlefront 2 was so bad idk how ppl get enjoyment out of it, even if theyre big sw fans

[Nabbis]

battlefront 2 was so bad idk how ppl get enjoyment out of it, even if theyre big sw fans

Who would expect that people who have shit taste in a franchise to also have a shit taste in games.

[Raist]

It is gambling though. You're basically pressing a slot machine for a reward. The difference is, unlike the slot machine that is (CPU now) disposed to go "YOU LOSE LOL" lootboxes go "YOU DON'T GET THE SHIT YOU WANTED LOL."

Throw in that Valve's form of it (the crates) has trading, and has it's own economy/trading to where people made "gambling" sites to get more rewards to get better income, and it's a slippery slope.

My problem with it is the Pay 2 Win nature of Gacha shit. EAFront 2 being a key example. You can't get perks in the game via leveling up. You get them via the Lootboxes. So if someone P2W's you, and you don't: Skill doesn't matter, they have a FAR better loadout than you. How the fuck is that acceptable in a $60 purchase?

There's a difference between "not getting anything" and "getting something you don't want". Hence why they won't do shit about loot boxes.

CCG aren't gambling. Buying a promotional pack of crisps that may get you to win a trip to Hawaii isn't gambling. Etc.

[seagrams hotsauce]

I used to play magic the gathering which expects you to spend hundreds of dollars every few months to play the current game. I don't applaud loot boxes but they were an inevitability, and since in most games they're restricted to cosmetics I can't get too worked up about them tbh

[thisismyusername]

It is gambling though. You're basically pressing a slot machine for a reward. The difference is, unlike the slot machine that is (CPU now) disposed to go "YOU LOSE LOL" lootboxes go "YOU DON'T GET THE SHIT YOU WANTED LOL."

Throw in that Valve's form of it (the crates) has trading, and has it's own economy/trading to where people made "gambling" sites to get more rewards to get better income, and it's a slippery slope.

My problem with it is the Pay 2 Win nature of Gacha shit. EAFront 2 being a key example. You can't get perks in the game via leveling up. You get them via the Lootboxes. So if someone P2W's you, and you don't: Skill doesn't matter, they have a FAR better loadout than you. How the fuck is that acceptable in a $60 purchase?

There's a difference between "not getting anything" and "getting something you don't want". Hence why they won't do shit about loot boxes.

CCG aren't gambling. Buying a promotional pack of crisps that may get you to win a trip to Hawaii isn't gambling. Etc.

I used to play magic the gathering which expects you to spend hundreds of dollars every few months to play the current game. I don't applaud loot boxes but they were an inevitability, and since in most games they're restricted to cosmetics I can't get too worked up about them tbh

Someone put it better than I did when it comes to Magic:

You get physical cards you can trade away. You get physical cards as an option to buy singles if you don't get the card you want and can find it for cheap (or expensive if you have the money).

Lootboxes in game? You have no such option to buy the stuff. It's digital pixels that can be removed at any time from your account. You don't own it, it gains no value. Totally different. BUT: Take Overwatch: You have the option to buy the "event limited time costumes!" But, they don't give you gold at all for playing matches! You get gold from dupes in lootboxes.

How is that not a form of gambling? You're gambling for a reward. Same as a slot-machine. But again: Instead of "YOU LOSE LOL" you get "YOU DON'T GET WHAT YOU WANTED LOL" as the "lose" phase. Under legalese? Sure, you're not "gambling" because you still get something from nothing, but it is gambling in all senses of the word. You're paying (or not paying, depending on how you get the box) a chance for an item you want. It's the same as a mystery box.

battlefront 2 was so bad idk how ppl get enjoyment out of it, even if theyre big sw fans

The base game is solid for 1-2 hour casual fun. But the lootboxes absolutely kill it. It's like EA did the reverse from the first EAfront: Instead of it being super casual, they gave it some "depth" (class balances, no jetpack star-card since it's a special class now) but then ruined it with P2W bullshit to make sure nobody enjoys the game for more than 5 mins.

[Rufus]

It's not gambling in a way that would be actionable. Morally, I see the point. It's set up so you spend more for the thing you want than you would otherwise be willing to pay. It is predatory, it is scummy. It's also not going away.

[thisismyusername]

It's not gambling in a way that would be actionable. Morally, I see the point. It's set up so you spend more for the thing you want than you would otherwise be willing to pay. It is predatory, it is scummy. It's also not going away.

Let's take this in another direction: CS:GO has lootboxes. You get an item you put in your inventory you can do whatever you want with it.

Now, let's take your Magic example: Same thing: You get an option to own the items. You put them on a MtG Lounge (CS:GO Lounge) gambling site. What makes your gambling the item that way for more items any different from the lootbox mystery-box gambling?

[Rufus]

You can't take your mystery items out of the game to use in gambling that is visible and actionable to authorities.

[D3RANG3D]

Eurojank

[Raist]

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/307546/Humble_Bundle_has_been_acquired_by_media_giant_IGN.php

Wut.

[Rufus]

They owned Direct2Drive before. Expect IGN exclusive promos and such.

[desert punk]

Eurojank

German press gave it relatively high scores but I think they'd done that for every Piranha Bytes' games, even the bad ones. It's cute how they desperately want that studio to be Germany's CD Projekt Red.

What I could glean from the little I read is that it's basically the same shit they've always done for the past 20 years, only packaged in a Fallout-like setting. That includes mediocre gameplay and outdated graphics and animations.

I tried out Gothic 1, 2 and the first Risen but none of these could really grab me, so I'm not sure why this game should be any different

[Rufus]

Gothic 2 was the pinnacle of their formula, so if that one didn't grab you, none of them will.

[benjipwns]

I played 45 minutes of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Presents Shawn White's Rainbow Six Featuring Watch Dogs Wildlands for this free weekend.

None of my AI dudes would get in the car so I drove off without them. Then I saw the waypoint was in a valley, so I drove the truck off the side of the road down the hill. My guy said things like "shit! balls!" as the truck rolled down the mountain.

When I got there and stopped then got out, all the guys spawned into the truck and got out.

Seems like Just Cause trying to be realistic. Or Far Cry with bros.

Will look on YouTube's for a clip of the segment set in what I assume is Salar de Uyuni because I saw it in the menus and it's like top level unlocks and crap and I just wanna see it because it should be pretty sweet. I had always wished that was one of the awesome parts in Bad Company 2 when they were in the Chilean border area and Atacama Desert.

Also I secretly hope there's a mission that strands you in the middle of the "lake" and you have to run to land across.

[benjipwns]

HELICHOPPERS?!? LAME

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[Raist]

Always baffled me how 95% of Germany's production is shit like Forklift Simulator 2017. And then there's Blue Byte.

[Rufus]

Always baffled me how 95% of Germany's production is shit like Forklift Simulator 2017. And then there's Blue Byte.

Certinaly popular here, but the two heavy weights aren't from here. Farming Simulator is made by Giants Software, who are based in Switzerland (they also have an office in Germany, but that doesn't count ) and published by Focus Home Interactive, who as you know are French. So you're partly to blame for this blight.
Euro Truck Simulator is made by SCS Software, who are Czech (only honorary Germans).

German studios making Something Something Simulator dross certainly want to ride this wave with cheap cash grabs though.

These two publishers oarticularly. Their entire portfolios are bargain bin garbage:
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?publisher=Aerosoft%20GmbH
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?publisher=astragon%20Entertainment%20GmbH

My 'favourite' is TML Studios, makers of this abomination:


---

German devs are also big in browser games (Bigpoint). And point and click adventures (Daedalic). And now you've inspired me to check who's active still.

Blue Byte (Settlers, Anno), as you've already mentioned, though they're a subsidiary of Ubisoft.

Crytek is hanging by a thread, I think. Hunt: Showdown looks nice, but it may be their swan song, if they survive for long enough to ship it. 

Daedalic (Deponia) make and publish mostly point and click adventure games. Pretty healthy, I think. Their latest effort is based on Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth.

Deck13 (Lords of the Fallen, The Surge) is doing fine, I suppose? Don't think they can keep making souls-likes though.

Egosoft (X series) made a big mistake by alienating their base with X: Rebirth, but they're probably gonna recover. Though now they've got more competition in the spreadsheet space game space.

Kalypso is mostly a publisher, but they have two in-house studios, one of which makes Dungeon Keeper knock-offs (the 3rd one just came out) and the other carriers the torch for Patrician and Port Royale. Their next game is a railway sim.

King Art (Book of Unwritten Tales series) are a subsidiary of THQ Nordic. Mostly point and clicks. About to revive another popular point and click series, Black Mirror.

Koch Media/Deep Silver are mostly a publisher, but they have a German subsidiary which makes mobile games (Fishlabs Entertainment). Who are now possibly more profitable than their stablemate Volition?

Piranha Bytes is obviously still around re-making Gothic for the umpteenth time, but they're tiny (25 employees according to Wikipedia). Survived by keeping lean, I guess, but they also can't afford to take risks, so...

Top Ware has no in-house devs, but publishes eurojank from the eastern european periphery. Deserves an 'honorable' mention for the turd that is Raven's Cry.

Yager (Spec Ops: The Line). Their next game, Dreadnought, is coming out in August. Looks - OK?

Black Forest Games (former Spellbound people, makers of the Desperados series) are making the new Bubsy game for THQ Nordic. Ahem. Previous titles include the 3D remake of Giana Sisters.

Grimlore Games are making Spellforce 3 currently, also for THQ Nordic. Former Coreplay people, makers of Tunnel Rats, a terrible Vietnam war game.

tl;dr German devs are mostly busy mining niche audiences, making stale derivatives or chasing past glory.

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[benjipwns]

I had read that a bunch of those simulator companies, like many of the ol military simulator game companies in the DOS days, are re-purposing technology into "game" form to sell to another market. So a bunch of them are basically the same thing with a different vehicle/machine stuck in it. Like that one company has every facet of the logging industry now split into like six different "games" that are all on Steam and they're all glorified tutorials since they weren't designed to be played as games.

And then the other 90% are jumping on the bandwagon. Though some of those wind up being more than garbage because they add in all the gaming components you'd expect. (And a few companies have started expanding out the repurposed simulators, I think one of the logging ones started randomly patching it to add more game-like features five years after release, make it work on Windows 10, etc.)

One exception actually seems to be the Euro Truck guys, they actually were fans of simulating driving semi trucks to and fro and the second game just took off because of internet videos like Giant Bomb's. And the farming simulator guys apparently were also earnest developers.

Of course train simulators have always been a thing, especially in Japan (or people who do real model trains), then the one went crazy with the DLC.

That My Summer Car game was made by one Finnish dude.

[benjipwns]

I mean, the industry has always done this kind of thing, even the biggest players. Sega's Model 1, 2 and 3 arcade machines were all repurposing technology from (the eventual company that became) Lockheed Martin's simulators. All so Yu Suzuki could do a bunch of driving and fighting games.

[Rufus]

Of course train simulators have always been a thing, especially in Japan (or people who do real model trains), then the one went crazy with the DLC.

I completely forgot about Train Simulator! Probably still the most expensive game on Steam if you were to buy a complete collection. It's crazy that they could convert model trains to digital so successfully. Still cheaper than a real train set, I suppose.

That My Summer Car game was made by one Finnish dude.

On that note, parodies like Goat and Surgeon Simulator also took off, I assume almost entirely thanks to Youtubers laughing over them. Coffe Stain Studios must have made more money on Goat Simulator simulator than on Sanctum (fun spin on tower defense, btw) and it's sequel, judging by all the DLC.

Yup

While the title received mixed critical reviews, as it was released in a purposely buggy state to take advantage of the ragdoll physics, it became highly successful through Let's Play videos and streamers; by 2016, Coffee Stain Studios reported that Goat Simulator has brought in $12 million in revenue, outperforming all sales of the studio's previous titles.[2][3]

[benjipwns]

I pre-purchased Sanctum 2 on the basis of the first one and its regular free updates, but I'm glad they're actually making money finally, even if balancing Sanctum 2 sorta fell by the wayside. And they seem to be becoming a publisher rather than working with Hidden Path on a Sanctum/Defense Grid crossover that will revolutionize the genre. (Speaking of tower defense developers making crazy bank entirely off of something else.)

While I'm ragging on them for not fixing nearly five year old games, they also should do something about Super Sanctum TD's tendency to randomly crash that's never been patched.

[Rufus]

Man, that reminds me that I had to group with people to beat Sanctum 2, only to be rewarded with a shitty teaser ending hinting at greater things I'm sure never materialized. >:C

I didn't know the Defense Grid folks remastered Age of Empires 2 for Microsoft.

[benjipwns]

They've also been the ones maintaining and updating both CS:S and CS:GO for Valve for a while now, and they were apparently the main developers on GO. It's only like a 30 person studio or something which probably explains a lot about Defense Grid 2's post-release strangeness like with the Workshop.

[thisismyusername]

I laughed running across this in the sewers.

[Raist]

I don't know if I'd count Crytek. They make PC benchmark apps don't they?

[D3RANG3D]

http://gematsu.com/2017/10/shin-megami-tensei-synchronicity-prologue-side-scroller-pc-released-free-download

[Rufus]

I don't know if I'd count Crytek. They make PC benchmark apps don't they?

Crysis is a good game.

The free roaming half, anyway...

[toku]

[Raist]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-gran-turismo-sport-bundle-cost-46600-comes-wit/1100-6454125/?ftag=GSS-05-10aab8d&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:%20Trending%20Content&utm_content=59e5bf8f04d3014e61a1dfa9&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

I'll buy three!

[Raist]

[MMaRsu]

I dunno if yall watch giant bomb but i feel like abby is in love with vinny lol

[Joe Molotov]

I dunno if yall watch giant bomb but i feel like abby is in love with vinny lol

I ship it.

[Rufus]

I dunno if yall watch giant bomb but i feel like abby is in love with vinny lol

Feels to me like he adopted her.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dan, however, was dropped off at his doorstep.

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[thisismyusername]

EA has apparently shut down Visceral. Uncharted: A Star Wars Story is cancelled apparently.

GOD. FUCKING. DAMN IT. I was looking forward to that.

[chronovore]

EA has apparently shut down Visceral. Uncharted: A Star Wars Story is cancelled apparently.

GOD. FUCKING. DAMN IT. I was looking forward to that.

I know it had a long development schedule planned, but this is been in the works for four years already. If they didn’t have enough shit in place to keep it going now, it was never going to happen.

[benjipwns]

EA has apparently shut down Visceral. Uncharted: A Star Wars Story is cancelled apparently.

GOD. FUCKING. DAMN IT. I was looking forward to that.

I assumed that was being headed up at Motive Studios, Jade Raymonds studio, which is what BioWare Montreal merged into. I thought Amy Hennig had moved up there too recently, but it was Kim Swift I guess.

That was where the other half of that game was being made in any case so it's weird that they've restarted it and given it to someone else to lead.

Visceral lost a lot of people after Hardline shipped which was sorta weird.

[benjipwns]

Wow, I always confused Visceral for what they renamed EALA for the fifth time, but that's now DICE Los Angeles and it has a similarly sad looking status.

Dreamworks Interactive -> EALA -> Danger Close -> WARFIGHTER HAPPENS -> DICE Los Angeles (BF4 and 1 Post Launch Content Only)

The LA studio is also working on unannounced projects, built on the Frostbite 3 engine. In May 2013, DICE General Manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson said in an interview: "There is an extreme talent pool over that we want a part of."

welp, nope

[eleuin]

EA has apparently shut down Visceral. Uncharted: A Star Wars Story is cancelled apparently.

GOD. FUCKING. DAMN IT. I was looking forward to that.

feel bad for amy hennig

can't wait for whatever multiplayer mess we're getting now

[toku]

https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/920439320284147712

[Great Rumbler]

[benjipwns]

from the related stories:
http://www.pcgamer.com/this-nifty-utility-purportedly-compacts-your-games-without-a-performance-hit/

what

[demi]

EA has apparently shut down Visceral. Uncharted: A Star Wars Story is cancelled apparently.

GOD. FUCKING. DAMN IT. I was looking forward to that.

you were probably going to steal it anyway

[Rufus]

from the related stories:
http://www.pcgamer.com/this-nifty-utility-purportedly-compacts-your-games-without-a-performance-hit/

what

Just a GUI for a Windows 10 exe. It's explained on the Github page, though they're vague on how modern a CPU has to be for there to be no performance loss. I assume the games it doesn't work well on already use some form of on-the-fly decompression. In fact, I assumed most did, but I guess not.

[benjipwns]

i saved 15mb out of a 6gb folder

[Rufus]

It all adds up, man.

Their table shows Guild Wars 2 with a bunch of asterisks, but doesn't explain what they mean.

[benjipwns]

there also seems to be no "safe" way of cancelling it if it gets stuck for some reason

[Rufus]

And it currently doesn't work on German and other localized systems. :<
https://github.com/ImminentFate/CompactGUI/issues/40

[thisismyusername]

EA has apparently shut down Visceral. Uncharted: A Star Wars Story is cancelled apparently.

GOD. FUCKING. DAMN IT. I was looking forward to that.

you were probably going to steal it anyway

I only steal from Nintendo and Sony, bb.

[bluemax]

Eurojank

I'm watching Jon Blow play this on twitch right now. Seems super jank.

[Bebpo]

 :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

I didn't like Dead Space 3, but still upset at this one. I liked the concept of them doing a single player Star Wars game, and as a fan of single player games, the statement EA put out about how the game was pretty far along but basically "the market has moved on and demands games that people will keep coming back to for months" was incredibly depressing in addition to the studio closure. Pretty much the official death knoll for single player AAA gaming if there was one.

And this is coming right when I'm in the middle of The Evil Within 2 which went from single player tight linear -> open world mission based ;_;

Only hope at this point is Japanese studios still putting out AA single player linear stuff.

Like I really like Resident Evil 7 and think it's the best game Capcom's put out in years, but then of course it sells bad and I'm sure RE will go to open world MMO action gaptcha game now or something.

[Positive Touch]

re7 hasn't sold bad at all; it didn't do re6 numbers (yet) but it had to be way cheaper to produce.

i don't think aaa single player is dead either lol because ea is adding some pay shit to one of their titles. companies will continue to add in microtransactions and whatever new monetary trends pop up, but that doesn't mean the basic structure of single-player gane is going to change. the whole thing with extended play type games isn't new, it's just new as a trend for the industry. western companies especially,  like Bethesda,  add in plenty of new features for months after release, while also having larger paid expansions available too. ffxv has been doing this since release, and it's kept the game in the media for way longer than it would have been otherwise. companies now are just trying to come up with other ways they can get suckers to throw them a few more bucks in between and long after major dlc releases.

[MMaRsu]

i saved 15mb out of a 6gb folder

benji thx for letting us know about that program..

here is a game list with compression results:

https://github.com/ImminentFate/CompactGUI/wiki/Compression-Results:-Games

[D3RANG3D]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=252388293&postcount=4469