Useless gaming news & chatter

[Sky]

Shit's just more complicated than the pixel days.

Then you get a gem like Stardew Valley and it reminds you that maybe people are making it more complicated than they have to.

I mean, Ultima 9.

And I /liked/ Ultima 8. 3d killed 2d pretty hard, and often unnecessarily. I'd still rather have a high res 2d Civ or HoMaM game than anything they've done since going 3d. No need for it.

Now excuse me while I go yell at a cloud.

[Nija]

Time has healed Ultima 8 for you.

The only things I specifically recall from U8 are the following:

Those jumping puzzles with the roundish rocks that look like they occupied more tiles than they really did. Instant death if you fall in the water.
The groups of children north of town. I power leveled by killing groups of children, no kidding.

[Sky]

No, I liked it. Though that was conditional on the jumping fix patch (and I was a habitual saver, so probably saved before every jump if it was a thing).

[Nija]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk0pDM7N62k

[Kail]

Shit's just more complicated than the pixel days.

Then you get a gem like Stardew Valley and it reminds you that maybe people are making it more complicated than they have to.

Stardew Valley isn't exactly a runaway smash hit.  It's doing great for a niche title (compared to the ocean of also rans which have been pretty much ignored) but it's not going to rival, say, The Division.  That (lone) dev has been working on that game since 2012, and now he gets maybe a few weeks worth of sales in the top ten (as far as I can see the numbers have been dropping since the 6th) as a budget title.  Pointing to it and saying "see, it's THAT EASY" seems a bit oversimplified.

[Sky]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk0pDM7N62k

You appear to think you're making a point here.

Pointing to it and saying "see, it's THAT EASY" seems a bit oversimplified.

Not what I'm doing. Also, no shit.

[Kail]

Pointing to it and saying "see, it's THAT EASY" seems a bit oversimplified.

Not what I'm doing. Also, no shit.

My bad.  I know a few guys who bitch constantly about the state of AAA video games who are genuinely of the opinion that "the market" should just go back to the 90s and start making nothing but small or mid sized games again, like you can just un-ring the bell and keep making those kinds of games with that kind of profit forever.  Every time an indie game does decently they jump up and go "SEE, ACTIVISION SHOULD BE COPYING NUCLEAR THRONE, YOU KNOW THEY POSTED A LOSS LAST QUARTER BECAUSE STARCRAFT FLOPPED THAT PROVES IT" or whatever.  Thought you were taking that angle.

[Jeff Kelly]

What they really want is Indie pricing for everything. They are used to the fact that for example a Nuclear Throne is less than $20, because the dev tools have improved so much that you now need fewer people to make that kind of game. Secondly because of online retail services and less overhead costs as a consequence. Thirdly because Indie studios "undervalue" their work and the race to the bottom led to people being afraid to charge more than x amount of dollars for it.

See: The hubbub about Hello Games' "No Man's Sky" that gets derided by internet fuckwads for charging full price for their game. The argument I most often read is that "they're Indie, this is an Indie game. Why do they charge AAA prices".

What they fail to realize is that a Nuclear Throne would be a cartridge in a nice retail box if we're talking nineties here and that it would have retailed for full price. Like all of the games that are beloved from that era.

[Sky]

My point was more about how quickly the industry dropped 2d graphics and we had titles that really didn't need to be 3d that went 3d just because. Whether it radically changed the game (Ultima 9) or not (Civ 4), it was pointless. Imo Civ 4 was far uglier than Civ 3 when it should have been even more detailed with high res sprites. Ditto HoMaM (why I called those two out in particular).

There's no reason why there shouldn't be 'AAA' games created in the old 2d style. I'd love to see a new Ultima (not by Richard Garriot) in the vibe of Ultima 7/7.5 done with modern advances in design and UI but just refining the old graphics rather than pointlessly 3d modelling everything. Driftmoon had a lot of elements but it was too cutesy for my taste.

I do agree that it's easy to miss an indie title in the vast morass of crap that people can shove out. But you could say the same about AAA, everyone is all into the Division right now, but it just looks like another generic AAA title that will fade quickly and become a sequel mill.

If No Man's Sky can deliver a quarter of its promise I have no problem handing over my earth dollars. But it smells vaguely of Spore (which really had so much promise but showed why a AAA studio cannot develop an innovative title).

[Mandella]

My point was more about how quickly the industry dropped 2d graphics and we had titles that really didn't need to be 3d that went 3d just because.

Here ya go!!

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/how-a-new-emulator-generates-3d-scenes-from-2d-nes-games/

 

[Bunk]

This seems like a good spot for something totally random, but PC related. I just discovered that Google Groups has online archives of all the old newsgroups I used to frequent. Very weird reading posts I made to rec.games.computer.ultima.online 18 years ago.

[rattran]

I think I'm too scared to go back and read my own posts from there.

[schild]

It didn't archive alt.binaries.erotica.redheads did it? I'm asking for a friend.

[Soulflame]

Diablo 2 patch - 1.14a

Meant to enable D2 to run on modern machines.

So, if you're itching to play an ARPG, and aren't playing Marvel Heroes 2016/Grim Dawn/PoE/Diablo 3/I'm sure I am missing like 20 other games, there you go!

[Merusk]

They're doing the same thing for Warcraft III next week, apparently.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, I was curious, so reinstalled my digital version of Diablo II LOD from the Battlenet.

Jesus Christ, it has not aged well.

[Merusk]

16 Years is a long, long time in Games & Tech.  72" televisions were tubes and had a massive 480p resolution, mobile phones were a new thing, internet was a bunch of us yahoos on privately-run message boards while everyone else used dial-up AOL, Google was a 2 year old search engine company, Everquest had released Ruins of Kunark two months prior, and the Trammel had just happened a month before.

[luckton]

There's was news a couple years ago that Bliz was working/hiring people to make HD/next-gen working versions of Warcraft II/III and possibly Diablo II. Maybe this is just the start.

[schild]

If they next-genned up Diablo 2 I would tell my lovely wife that she better learn to love it.

[Malakili]

That'd be pretty boss.  This is probably enough to get me to do another play through of Diablo 2 at least.  I seem to be good for about one a year.

[Rendakor]

I haven't touched it in a while; an HD update would be a good reason to go back.

[Soulflame]

It'd prompt me to try to dig up my keys again, at least.

[Merusk]

It'd prompt me to try to dig up my keys again, at least.

You should do that anyway, just to archive them on your battlenet account. I lost my disks years ago but still can d/l and play the games because I did that.

[Soulflame]

I've made a couple of efforts to find my D2 case, but I have not managed it.  :/

It may be lost and gone forever.  Ah well.

[Sky]

16 Years is a long, long time in Games & Tech.  72" televisions were tubes and had a massive 480p resolution, mobile phones were a new thing, internet was a bunch of us yahoos on privately-run message boards while everyone else used dial-up AOL, Google was a 2 year old search engine company, Everquest had released Ruins of Kunark two months prior, and the Trammel had just happened a month before.

13 years ago I had a 720p 61" tv connected to my computer you cunts.

[schild]

16 Years is a long, long time in Games & Tech.  72" televisions were tubes and had a massive 480p resolution, mobile phones were a new thing, internet was a bunch of us yahoos on privately-run message boards while everyone else used dial-up AOL, Google was a 2 year old search engine company, Everquest had released Ruins of Kunark two months prior, and the Trammel had just happened a month before.

13 years ago I had a 720p 61" tv connected to my computer you cunts.

Yea, you wouldn't shut up about it. Literally everyone around from back then remembers it. We remember it so well your grief title reflects it, and it will likely never change.

[Merusk]

Not to mention 720p is still terrible definition for such a large screen. Hell, 1080p is awful but 4k isn't the standard and won't be for some time, if ever.

More things I thought of this morning about when Diablo was released.

* Bill Clinton was still President
* VHS was not only a viable format, but still the dominant format. People honestly debated if DVDs were worthwhile. http://www.geek.com/news/dvds-threatening-cds-vhs-565521/
* TiVo had only shipped its first units a year earlier. DVRs were not a thing.
* MP3s were just gaining popularity
* Napster was a new thing
* The iPod was a year away from release
* Lord of the Rings was a year from release
* The Phantom Menace was only a year old, the public hadn't yet fully eviscerated it.

[MrHat]

I think I still have my D2 beta installation disc.

[Sky]

Yea, you wouldn't shut up about it. Literally everyone around from back then remembers it. We remember it so well your grief title reflects it, and it will likely never change.

That's why you're cunts  I was just trying to convey how awesome it was to play games on a huge screen.

Not to mention 720p is still terrible definition for such a large screen. Hell, 1080p is awful but 4k isn't the standard and won't be for some time, if ever.

720p wasn't horrible, but UI would take up a lot of real estate. 1080p is pretty perfect, though some games are unplayable due to miniscule text. 4k without a scaling UI sucks.

[Jeff Kelly]

That's because the UI is designed by people who sit at a desk close to their 4k Monitors.

If you're like me and don't have the best eyesight then it gets really infuriating that things are always so tiny and that you can't scale UI elements most of the time.

[Merusk]

You guys are talking about UI as if computer applications are the only content displayed on these large devices.

720 is a pretty shit picture compared to 1080 for movies, programming, and just about anything else. 4k is brilliant, but only in certain contexts like nature shows or filming real-world scenarios. A 4k reproduction of most TV and Movies would look awful because the cheapness and shoddiness of sets and props are no longer blurred by the low resolution. (Remastering of Twilight Zone, for example, made a lot of things look terrible.)

[luckton]

The Warcraft III patch is out.

http://www.pcgamer.com/warcraft-3-rises-again-with-patch-127

[Lucas]

Well, if you like Paradox and strategy games, this is going to be a busy late spring/summer (from the GDC Paradox livestream) :

Stellaris - out May 9th
Hearts of Iron  IV - out June 6th
----

But that's not all!


Obsidian also announced their new CRPG, called "Tyranny":

http://www.tyrannygame.com/

Looks like it's going to use the same technology and engine (Unity) of PoE.  Personally,  I hope for a less streamlined story and approach to gameplay, compared to their kickstarted title.

[Fabricated]

Makes sense they'd reuse the engine they spent a long time and their kickstarter cash on. I mean, it was a pretty good engine.

I wonder if they'll reuse the same combat system/stats/etc or do something different.

[Yegolev]

I remember being pretty irritated that D2 started off with some crap resolution for the era.  480x600?  They fixed it, so there's your HD upgrade.

It's ugly now but I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't going to check it out.