General Video Gaming Recs and Discussion


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View: https://twitter.com/EliasToufexis/status/1755396037441896452

Elias Toufexis said:
Deus Ex got canceled. This other massive game I was both acting and directing on got canceled and a third game I was acting and directing on got reworked and now starting from scratch, whole new team.

The video game world is a disaster zone right now.

I am presently working on two or three other games but I'd expect them all to be canceled before the end of the week or something.

I'm fine guys. I'm very lucky to have many irons in the fire. Games are just in a weird place right now.
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Imagine working on a bunch of games and them all getting cancelled and you have nothing to show it for. And Elias Toufexis is a big name actor, imagine being a new developer that can't put shit on your resume.
 
Matthew Ball is a major video game and tech investor/executive who wrote a very detailed and comprehensive article about how the video games industry looks from that sort of top-level corporate perspective. It's a very interesting read that I think sheds some light on why all these layoffs are happening, even if it's written through a lens very removed from the consumer in, uh, a lot of ways.

It's way too long for me to just quote the relevant parts, but here's some key points:

  • The video games industry had a huge boom during COVID, but revenue and consumer spending have declined since then, which is especially damaging due to higher inflation. This is coming as a shock because most forecasters had been predicting uninterrupted growth.
    • The industry cope in 2021/2022 was that hardware shortages and a lack of big releases was the reason for the decline, only to have that seemingly disproven in 2023 when those issues were mostly resolved and growth did not come surging back.
  • Labor costs have also increased, not just due to inflation and cost of living but also because there's a shortage of experienced game devs as they get poached by other tech companies that pay better.
    • Ball also blames increased employee benefits and reduced crunch because of course he does.
  • Apple and Google rolling out privacy protections for smartphones was a huge blow to the mobile gaming industry.
  • Another big issue with mobile games is that the landscape has stagnated, it's incredibly hard nowadays to have a new mobile game take off and the sector is increasingly being outcompeted by short form video content like Tiktok and YouTube Shorts.
  • Similarly, new MMOs or other multiplayer/'live service' games are struggling a lot to retain players after getting initial waves of hype.
  • There's little evidence either way as to whether Game Pass and similar subscription services are impacting overall spending and revenues.
  • Compounding all of the above issues, AAA games have a need to constantly be bigger, which necessitates constantly increasing budgets despite shrinking revenue. No one wants to be the first major dev to admit it's no longer affordable and reduce scope.
There's a lot of emphasis throughout this article on the fact that nothing seems to be growing the market, and instead new releases are basically just cannibalising each other, which isn't sustainable when costs and budgets are constantly increasing.

In terms of predictions for how he thinks the industry can recover:

  • "Transmedia", which is to say a bigger focus on adaptations of video games into other mediums like movies, now that video game movies are no longer expected to be absolutely terrible.
  • Subscription services like Game Pass are probably good for drawing attention to newer studios and IPs.
  • A/AA game studios have been doing relatively well over the past few years while "Big Gaming" chased F2P trends, remakes and sequels, meaning there's lots of innovation and talent bubbling under the surface that larger companies could take advantage of if they pivot back to regular "boxed products".
    • Ball warns, however, that some of the A/AA innovation in the case of games like Palworld might be built on asset stores and cheap overseas SEA contractors, which isn't necessarily good for employment in the American industry.
  • Generative AI might reduce costs associated with AAA games needing to constantly be bigger (he sees this as more of a long-term thing rather than something going to happen any second now).
  • Maybe the layoffs will make the now-reduced AAA dev teams more innovative and efficient???
    • Even he doesn't seem to totally believe this lol
  • He talks a bit about how the outcome Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit might help mobile gaming revenue but my understanding is that Apple basically just found a loophole here since this article was written.
  • Maybe all the young Roblox gamers that are slowly starting to come of age will spend more money on other games too.
  • The capability gap between smartphones and consoles/PCs might narrow enough that it causes more people to get into serious gaming using their phones. The Switch 2 might also expand the market if it attracts to more people than the first Switch.
  • MORE ADS IN GAMES. WHAT IF INSTEAD OF LOADING SCREENS YOU SAW ADS FOR RAID: SHADOW LEGENDS AND SHIT LIKE THAT. WHAT IF YOU COULD WALK AROUND NIGHT CITY AND SEE ACTUAL ADS FOR ACTUAL IRL PRODUCTS?
  • The industry could start appealing more to growing markets outside of the traditional set of Europe, America and East Asia.
 

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View: https://youtu.be/D0LGyPl7UCg?feature=shared
Mullet Mad Jack might be described as a hybrid of Doom and Hotline Miami, with a hard time limit driving you forward through fairly short procedurally generated levels filled with robots to kill in a variety of ways. Between each level, you get access to a shop where you can choose between three different power ups, including one new weapon (of which I've only seen a few; pistol, shotgun, SMG, sword), or two different statistical buffs like piercing bullets or extra time from killing enemies in particular ways. Oh, that's right, you have ten seconds to live (fifteen on Easy). Getting hurt cuts down on the time you have while killing enemies, drinking soda, or completing levels increases it but never beyond the cap barring certain upgrades. The art style is really cool IMO, but I really don't have the reflexes you need to play a game like this. :(
 
This might be recency bias talking, but I'm almost done Turbo Overkill and it is honestly one of the best first person shooters I've ever played. This game embodies the concept of escalation. You start off with a chainsaw leg (really) fighting mooks, and you get the usual FPS staples of a shotgun, super shotgun, plasma gun etc. But by the end, not only do you get a second chainsaw leg, and two chainsaw arms, you also get a telefragging sniper rifle, a wrist mounted homing missile launcher, a microwave beam mod for the plasma rifle, and a gun that can call down freaking orbital lasers. The battles escalate also, with the game throwing truly absurd numbers of enemies at you, having you jump from car to car on a freeway, or grappling around from platform to platform in outer space.

Bottom line, it's rad. My only real complaint is that some of the boss fights have absurd difficulty spikes. But seriously, go buy this game.

Here's the trailer:

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gK5ICK8r0hk
 
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Turbo Overkill is really damn cool, that is true. That said, the last few levels kind of drag and Maw isn't terribly interesting as a villain - shrugging off having his torso excavated and then killing Johnny at the end of the second act was pretty bullshit, and I still don't know how you're supposed to handle his clones who show up in the third. That aside, I can heartily recommend it; the chainsaw leg is an integral movement and combat mechanic, evey one of the guns is useful in some way rather than the pistols losing all utility the moment you get the Uzis, or the standard shotgun when you get the super shotgun. The enemies are easily identifiable and have notable ways of combating them, and the unlockable modifiers and augments allow you to customize your experience to a degree.

The augments that give you health and armour when you kill enemies with the chainsaw leg are kind of overpowered, admittedly, but so worth it. One complaint I have is that the vehicle sections are somewhat poorly implemented; using the third person view causes the HUD to disappear and causes terrain to occasionally obstruct the camera.
 
Robocop rogue city was a blast of a game. Though its mechanics are hardly groundbreaking, the devs really put a lot of effort into making the game feel authentically part of the franchise, especially with the darkly comedic adverts. Fun fact: Peter weller was the only original cast member to return for this game.
 
I've played through Doom Eternal on the Ultra-Violence difficulty and I figured I'd try a new run on Nightmare. I thought it would be manageable. I was so, so wrong.

Any tips from the experts?
 
Oh hey, I've watched some lps/runs of that, I think? Isn't it the one that basically has Andross as a final (or something close to it) boss? If it's the one I'm thinking of I remember basically laughing my ass off when that thing showed up. "The 90s called, they want their boss design back" :V

Far as I can recall, it wasn't even bad design, it's just personal priors made it so I was constantly expecting a villain monologue about star fox or something, can pull a person out of what they're watching, heh.

The plot definitely tried its hardest, though, iirc. Clocked out on it pretty hard, as one does, but I seem to recall the presentation on that being pretty okay, if not super meshed well with the actual gameplay. Thinky-thinks often don't have the greatest, whuzzat word, ludonarrative integration? With shooty-shoots. They try sometimes but you probably just want to be bang bang instead of think much about the fridge horror of the scenario you're technically navigating.
 
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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is free on EGS right now, I haven't played it but I've heard that it's a marked step up from the decent Human Revolution so this this is a nice treat.
 
Hyperion 2.0 said:
I've played through Doom Eternal on the Ultra-Violence difficulty and I figured I'd try a new run on Nightmare. I thought it would be manageable. I was so, so wrong.

Any tips from the experts?
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Update: I have successfully made it to Nekravol Part 1 on Nightmare. This has been a struggle, I may or may not have died an average of 20 times per level. I'm dehydrated and my hands are cramping. When I close my eyes I see Doom Eternal. Why am I subjecting myself to this? Who can say.
 
Slice and Dice just had a big 3.0 update and simultaneously released on Steam and iOS. I am a bit mixed on how silly and complex some of the new additions are, but the underlying game is a fantastic cheap roguelike that can probably run on a potato. I fully recommend it to everyone who vibes with stuff like Slay the Spire.
 
I wish I knew exactly what it was about dice builders that are such a turnoff, honestly. Like, I can stand d6s et al when they're obfuscated ala D&D games or whatever, but when you put actual dice in front me on the computer screen there's just some kind of immediate repulsion. I'm fine with dice in the real world, I'm fine with the mechanics being used off screen, but when you're presenting them front and center in a digital space, I flee.

... there's a similar odd hangup with friggin' hearthstone and stuff with similar design. No clue why, but specifically the circular/round minion display is just somehow repugnant. You can do the same thing but with square (or triangle, or literally anything but round/ovoid) aesthetics and I'm fine, but hearthstone's specific usage and the stuff that apes it is a hard turnoff. It's weird stuff.
 
Finished Akai Ito. Had to fix some things in the fan patch and did some editing for the officially translated part before eventually running out of steam, but despite that fact, I enjoyed it. Honestly, my experience with the last route makes me kinda wish I hadn't referred to a guide as much, but also the whole seal system kinda complicates attempts to figure out the best endings on your own. Though, the Flow menu also helps with that.

I'll probably return to it at some point to get the rest of the neutral and bad endings, since the exercise of figuring out the endings for Sakuya's route was interesting and there appears to still be some other pretty interesting endings that I haven't seen yet.

If you put a gun to my head, I'm not sure I'd be able to name my favorite route. I know on my first playthrough several years ago I was a lot more eh on Uzuki's route, but a more recent playthrough turned me around on it. Sakuya's route was good enough that even though I needed to interpret through some rather iffy translation for its last parts, it really worked for me. And there's always been something about the themes relating to misanthropy in Tsuzura's route that got to me. The other routes have their own interesting points, though they fall short of potential top spot for me.

All in all, it's kind of surreal to go back to a VN of this style, with so many bad endings and a solid few endings which don't end in death, but aren't really great. I feel like it's a lot more common to have only a few endings total in more modern VNs. Or maybe that's just me.

One thing I do like about it is that there isn't a true true ending. I don't think it would have worked. The closest you get is by implication when looking at a chapter in a tie-in manga which seems to follow up the secret route, but I wouldn't say that really counts.

Speaking of, while I did find the secret route interesting, I do think that it could have stood to elaborate just a bit more on the focal character's thought process for the last stretch. I think I understand what was going on there, but I think it's also easily the most the game asks you to read into the subtext behind a character's motivations.

Maybe I'll play Aoi Shiro soon. I get the impression that it has a worse fan translation, but that said fan translation is also actually complete, so maybe I won't feel as compelled to edit the script as I play through. I'm also interested in seeing how they expand on the setting's interpretation of Shinto and Buddhist stuff, since I found a lot of what they did and talked about interesting on that score.
 
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Gotten back into Warframe recently and have been having a blast, gotten a few guns to max affinity, got a few guns that've been on my wishlist, grinded out the Aya to get Redline for my Somachord and have gotten Gauss Prime and all the included bits
 
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