Random Gaming Talk

[chronovore]

It did last week.

From a sales standpoint, you're correct. 

From a technology standpoint, Switch 2 hasn't brought anything other than incremental improvements to the table.

[Nintex]

Surprisingly enough it is the first console with DLSS.

[Polident]

On DLSS, I started up Robocop recently and it’s my first experience with frame generation.

It’s not as bad as I thought. Situationally. In menus it’s awful. The game is evoking the 1980s computer aesthetic. You have sharp green lines against black backgrounds. The green lines and text are warping and smearing. In game it’s passable and if I weren’t hitting consistent 60fps I’d keep it on.

I don’t know if that’s possible on Switch 2 or it’s only up scaling.

[Nintex]

Switch 2 doesn't do Frame Gen, which is a weird thing all together.

It works well for games where input lag doesn't matter but for games where input lag matters it doesn't work very well.
Overall from 30fps > 60fps it's good enough but if the game runs below 30fps and is pushed to 40fps or whatever input lag is severe.

I'm overall conflicted on Ray Tracing too. It looks fan fucking tastic but in gameplay, eh. Results vary a lot.
Realistic lighting usually makes areas too dark or the screen way too busy with all the reflections. 

In Cyberpunk 2077 I might prefer the regular screen space reflections to the ray tracing when it comes to actual gameplay.

[DavidCroquet]

Caroline Polachek in Death Stranding 2? I sleep.

Danny Harle produced? Real shit.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

I realize that the Death Stranding song has 0% chance of sounding like the above.

[D3RANG3D]

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

[Nintex]

So uh I hear they're shutting down a pretty famous Xbox studio this week

[HardcoreRetro]

Well, before they get kicked to the curb I'd personally like to thank them all for the great games they made this gen.

Like ....... and ........

[DavidCroquet]

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

hate these fuckin' guys man

[who is ted danson?]

So uh I hear they're shutting down a pretty famous Xbox studio this week

can u leak it pls

[Potato]

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/nintendo-switch-2-sales-price-gaming-tech-consumer-5202606

The internet gives consumers a voice they once didn’t have. But separating signal from noise is a challenge, says Gearoid Reidy for Bloomberg Opinion.

---

For executives, it’s the latest example of an increasingly pertinent lesson: While the internet has given consumers a voice, you must not confuse it for reality.

Separating the signal of genuine consumer sentiment from the noise of the most terminally online is a challenge.

---

It’s also increasingly hard to isolate genuine fan engagement from click-chasing rage-bait. Online revenue-sharing creates incentive for insincere actors to generate controversy that often matters little to the wider public.

There was much ink spilled and calls for boycotts ahead of the launch of Warner Bros’ Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy, owing to author JK Rowling’s views on gender and trans issues. None of that stopped it becoming one of the best-selling of all time.

[Nintex]

Yup. It explains both the success of the Switch 2 and the DEATH of Xbox. 

Also Nintendo nailed the 3 things that matter in the modern era: execution, distribution and sales.

They put these things directly in the hands of the consumer with their road shows. 'cut the noise' with Nintendo Directs and put Switch 2 offers directly into your inbox if you already had a Switch. There was no waiting in line or even the need to pre-order, you got an email that said: "We've reserved a spot for you, click here to buy it" simple and clean.

Finally there is the execution, it's basically a flawless product for what it is. They didn't sell a roadmap of potential but instead a new open world Mario Kart on day 1 and the system transfer was seamless. No pre-order tier, early unlock bullshit.

Xbox is just confusing as fuck. No one knows what they're buying, what they need or what they own. And all they do is appeal to the noise while failing to deliver on the things that matter.

It's funny how that was also part of the plot in the F1 movie. Brad Pitt telling the rookie social media influencer only the racing matters and everything else is noise.

[Besticus Maximus]

Real talk, Death Stranding 2 is maybe one of the best vidyas of all

[Potato]

Real talk, Death Stranding 2 is maybe one of the best vidyas of all

[who is ted danson?]

Real talk, Death Stranding 2 is maybe one of the best vidyas of all

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/06/uks-death-stranding-2-ps5-physical-sales-down-66percent-compared-to-predecessor-but-context-matters

BOMBA

[chronovore]

I played the first one for like six hours. It was stunning in its arrogance, how casually it treated the player's time. Someone told me at six hours, I hadn't even gotten to the real game yet. 

Fuck Kojima.

[simiansmarts]

Real talk, Death Stranding 2 is maybe one of the best vidyas of all

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/06/uks-death-stranding-2-ps5-physical-sales-down-66percent-compared-to-predecessor-but-context-matters

BOMBA

 
The massive disconnect between game critics who constantly glaze Kojima as an auteur and the actual audience buying games will never not be funny. Death Stranding 1 burned so many people as an Amazon delivery simulator that of course they didn’t return for the sequel.

[DavidCroquet]

Real talk, Death Stranding 2 is maybe one of the best vidyas of all

Death Stranding 2? More like Death Stranding 1.2 

I'm enjoying it, but I'm one of those weirdos who would have been perfectly happy with a Death Stranding expansion pack. I expected the sequel to be much more differentiated--supposedly it gets there, eventually.

[Nintex]

So uh I hear they're shutting down a pretty famous Xbox studio this week

can u leak it pls

[simiansmarts]

So is Xbox just going to be the COD/Minecraft/Blizzard company now?

[chronovore]

So uh I hear they're shutting down a pretty famous Xbox studio this week

can u leak it pls

“The Initiative,” former Crystal Dynamics’ studio head, Darrell Gallagher’s “quadruple-A” studio, which has produced no videogame after 7 years of premium priced development efforts.

[benji]

Really, that's the Microsoft problem across the board. They needed to push all these teams to release something. It wasn't just The Initiative, they did one Halo in a decade, it seems doubtful The Coalition was doing a Gears prequel for seven years, etc. It's like an entire company where people set off to do infinite money masterpieces instead of something that can be put out in three years that can be delayed if necessary.

Perfect Dark was really more like something they should have gone to the stadium worth of CoD developers, taken the "off-year" team and told them to make something to release in three years. Instead they mashed everything together to keep putting out yearly games.

Microsoft has had way too many people and way too many possible IPs to not be releasing things every year across multiple scales of budgets and time cycles from all these studios. They rightly felt they shouldn't rush teams because of how big their empire now was but it seems almost like they did away with deadlines altogether and let how many of these teams start over multiple times. It should have been something like "okay, Halo needs another 18 months, then Perfect Dark really needs to hit in that window and Gears needs to be at this point, etc." It doesn't matter if that doesn't actually happen, what matters is having that focus and intent.

It seems logical that GamePass made them think they didn't need product cycles anymore without realizing that meant nothing would ever get finished. (Even though they've had this problem with Windows multiple times.)

Though this isn't just a Microsoft problem, 2K has had how many studios that haven't produced anything in how long outside of Rockstar. What has half of EA been doing? And so on. Say what you will about Ubisoft, they churn that junk out.

[Polident]

Halo Infinite situation was odd, from what I remember. Loads of rejiggering and simplification to get it out the door. But the core was fun, if barebones. The right track after 4 and 5. The “idea” was set. The follow up would build on the open world loop. It’s four years later and nothing. I don’t think anything has been announced much less shown.

Halo 1 to Halo 2 was 3 years. Halo 2 to Halo 3 was 3 years. Halo 3 to Reach was 3 years, with ODST a year before. Halo Reach to 4 and 4 to 5 were similar gaps. Then, even accounting for COVID, a six year gap until Infinite. We’re approaching that for the next game.

I don’t know. Something seems broken here.

[benji]

Halo Infinite situation was odd, from what I remember. Loads of rejiggering and simplification to get it out the door. But the core was fun, if barebones. The right track after 4 and 5. The “idea” was set. The follow up would build on the open world loop. It’s four years later and nothing. I don’t think anything has been announced much less shown.

They announced they're scrapping the engine they spent all that time on for Unreal Engine 5 and basically rebooting the entire studio: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/10/06/halo-studios-unreal-engine-interview/

[Polident]

Brilliant!

An aside on UE5. YouTube recommend a video about why UE5 was bad. One of the first sentences had the guy claiming UE3 was amazing and everybody loved it and games build with it had diverse and unique visual identities. I was there in the late 2000s! People constantly complained about the “UE3 look”. Mirror’s  Edge was praised for being an UE3 game with colors.

[D3RANG3D]

[who is ted danson?]

Halo Infinite situation was odd, from what I remember. Loads of rejiggering and simplification to get it out the door. But the core was fun, if barebones. The right track after 4 and 5. The “idea” was set. The follow up would build on the open world loop. It’s four years later and nothing. I don’t think anything has been announced much less shown.

Halo 1 to Halo 2 was 3 years. Halo 2 to Halo 3 was 3 years. Halo 3 to Reach was 3 years, with ODST a year before. Halo Reach to 4 and 4 to 5 were similar gaps. Then, even accounting for COVID, a six year gap until Infinite. We’re approaching that for the next game.

I don’t know. Something seems broken here.

I can't believe Halo Infinite came out at the end of 2021

Feels like a lifetime ago

[who is ted danson?]

Developers, just release some damn games

wtf is going on

[Potato]

https://www.ign.com/articles/ea-will-shut-down-anthem-in-january

Huh? That shit was still going? Who the fuck was playing it?

[Potato]

Developers, just release some damn games

wtf is going on

Maybe, just maybe, turning everything into GAAS shit and trying to chase the "cinematic" bullshit with bloated $300 million budgets and 1000 person teams wasn't a great idea...