JCC Gaming Förceboat Parté - JC G4m3z thr34d (Gaming General Discussion)

There's nothing official having been said, but it's going around that the reason Cyberpunk has seen a last minute delay is that it isn't performing to a satisfactory standard on current gen hardware, with the base Xbox One being particularly stubborn.

If this is true, it's honestly no surprise to me. As I've said before, Cyberpunk does not strike me as a game that can run on current gen systems without severe cutbacks in resolution, which won't happen in the HD age, or data load.

 

This is why splitting into the X and Pro was a bad idea, from a developer's perspective.

 

I'm not entirely sure how that would have been the problem in these circumstances.

Honestly, I think they announced the game's concept way too early. (Don't forget that Cyberpunk was first announced before Witcher 3 first displayed any footage.) They felt forced to reveal it too early. And now they're stuck developing for hardware that they just can't bring the game to handle.

 

This theory really does track with all the closed demos where journalists came out skeptical it was a current gen title.

 

Because I bet the X and Pro can handle it. You said the problem was getting it to run on the Xbox One original version.

 

At an "acceptable level" across all hardware, with Xbox One's base model refusing to budge is what I heard.

Witcher 3's console version, which was bleeding edge hardware at the time, was pretty rough. So I think that this is genuinely a problem for them.

 

They should just push it a few months and make it next gen.

 

Assuming September isn't the launch of next gen systems...

 

I keep saying this. Games are getting delayed till Sept. Cyberpunk isn't only one. I think were getting sept consoles so software sales/ bundles are higher for holidays.

 

So I did a return to Everspace. Got blown up.
Tried again, did a little better - started to remember the controls.
Third run - with a couple of upgrades applied, this time they did feel substantial, could take and deal more hits. Racked up the biggest amount of cash so far and managed to kill a good few enemies.
Fourth run - completed my first sidequest, quite cool. Death by black hole.
Fifth run - did another sidequest, plus getting better at killing enemies.
And then I noticed it was 3 hours later....

 

Keep in mind September is also the end of Q2 for most publishers so that makes it a “natural” point to delay until. Sony’s Q2 ends in October, MS’s Q1 ends in October, so September is an odder choice for them. I’m not saying September is impossible but I am saying it lacks some important pieces of evidence, and you usually don’t want your first sales of your new system chopped up by a quarter ending, whereas games are two-week focused and can boost a projected weak quarter.

 

Still on Everspace, did another long run, longer than intended - so can I now see the whole gameplay loop of roguelike games? To a degree. Certainly, after a few upgrades, you do see a difference in the damage and the rewards, which in turn encourage you to keep playing. I can't say I'm a fan of the way the game kills you off as it always feels like either a total ambush or boxed in with no resources, either way? Message from game to player: Time to die.

That said I've gotten further than I ever expected to. The game is made up of seven sectors, my best run has got to six, so seen a fair amount of it.
Had I not gambled on the Encounters DLC, bundled with the base game for a few quid, I likely would not have gotten anywhere. The reason for that being the default ship without it has two weapons you have to manually change in order to down shield and hull damage. The problem? You have forward and backwards thrust, plus boosters. There are primary and secondary weapons, plus other consumable items. You can move the camera and strafe independently of each other. That's a lot of controls and the simple truth is I can fly the ship, keep the camera on track, shoot an enemy or two. But also manually flicking over to the right type of fire while in a full 3D, dynamic combat situation that changes from second to second? Nope. Fortunately, the DLC gives a second ship, which has a single weapon but one that covers both damage types! So much better.

The DLC isn't flawless as most of the missions it sets are utter bastards and if you encounter a character with a mission you have no choice in accepting it or not. I'd really like to fry that rodent Elek, his ones are particularly bad as it involves picking a fight with the super-company G&B, whose fighters are a lot stronger than anything else I've taken on and the hostility follows you into the next sector. **** that little ****.

Word is that the sequel Rockfish are working on will not be a roguelike game, probably due to the success of this. That sequel could really be quite something, if you have a larger world with greater ability to retain stuff it'd be far, far more fun. The space environments look excellent, a larger version of that minus the roguelike? Yes, could be great.

And there have been some quite clever surprises in the main game, for instance

Spoiler

you encounter Seth around Sector 4, he acts as a miniboss and, at this point in an early run, you have no chance. Met him again but the game did not redo the same boss fight, instead it went in a far more interesting direction.

Similarly the amnesia plot device works effectively enough for the main story of which I've seen the majority of. From what I've found out about Sector 7 online, I might get there but that's probably about it. It'll be enough.

 

I BEAT THE WATER TEMPLE AND I ONLY HAD TO LOOK UP A HINT ONCE!

My twelve year old self is so proud.

 

Am I a bad person if I liked Tactics Advance 2 better than the original Final Fantasy Tactics? I mean, I never played more than 1/4 of either game, but FFTA2 really clicked with me in a way the original didn’t.

 

Mechanically I’m willing to entertain arguments but plot-wise hell no.

 

What ways are there to play FFT?

 

The mobile port of War of the Lions is probably the easiest option, the PSP release of WotL is also fine if you have a PSP or Vita (some spells have severe slowdown; fan hacks have addressed this if you know what you’re doing on that end). If the latter is on the table I would also definitely recommend checking out Tactics Ogre, as it’s the same development team and the PSP remake is arguably the pinnacle of that specific type of SRPG.

So naturally Square Enix has never ported that to anything else ever.

Edit: Oh for ****’s sake there’s a mobile port of The Last Remnant but not Tactics Ogre? Get all the way bent. ****. I cannot believe their refusal to let that turd flush.

 

Thanks for the thorough notes. Is FFT Advance no good?

 

Why am I posting this?

Because I'm back into monster hunter, after buying the expansion pack.

What? That doesn't make sense?

I'm just posting why my save file is now going to go over 300 hours.

 

I enjoy Advance and A2 but they’re different games entirely. Spiritual successors might be the correct term? Although the former is the worst of the bunch just from a gameplay perspective, they included this weird law system that periodically bans actions, it’s a chore, it was a chore at the time, it’s aged like milk that had already passed the expiration date.

 

Ahh good to know. Well I have a lot of Google credit so I may get WotL. I have access to a Vita though if my bro lets me borrow his that he never uses.

 

I racked up 150 and still got nowhere near the actual augment endgame, so if you're a bigger fan, yep, it's easy to rack up.

 

In other news, tried the demo for Wolfenstein II - the short review? Didn't like it.

The longer version: It failed on two counts.

Towards the end the story just got unpleasant, very unpleasant. Now I get the idea, it's so you want to kill Engels but will that killing actually make up for everything seen up until then? I suspect not. I can't help but think it's going to be nasty cutscene followed by nasty cutscene and then it'll 'here, now you can shoot in the head and feel better'. Unless I'm told I get to take a chainsaw to her, no I don't think it's going to balance out.

Second, more seriously, I had difficulty spotting the enemies - it'd be 'oh, that grey smear is actually a Nazi shooting at me', or I'd be taking damage from a guy off camera but I wouldn't be able to tell where the enemy was, quickly and easily. Now, the whole directional fire thing used in FPS', when combined with mobile enemies at range, I find useless but it is still something and here there was nothing. Maybe, one day, videogame sound design will be done so well that directional fire is possible - it wouldn't work for me anyway but today? Today is not that day.

Meanwhile, in Everspace, I've got some more perks upgraded to the max and am working on the others. It might take a bit longer to get the lot but I suspect I'm going to. Oh yeah, have also killed 1,000 enemies.

 

Spoiler

You get to effective chainsaw her. On television.

Nice touch: the game has an in-universe arcade game called Operation Wolfstone, which is basically Wolfenstein 3D where "Terror Billy" replaces Hitler as the boss.