November 2024 PCG Article Discussion Thread

[Pifanjr]

I'm going to commit an unforgivable sin and start the PCG article thread with an article from a different website. I waited a couple of days to see if PCG would make an article, but I've run out of patience.

DayZ creator reveals a "Kerbal Space Program killer" with kittens and challenges license owners to sue him

Stationeers and Icarus developers RocketWerkz are making a spiritual successor to beloved space sim Kerbal Space Progra…

www.rockpapershotgun.com

I liked KSP when I tried it, but it was too slow for me to enjoy it for very long. Being able to switch screens without loading times would already be a big improvement.

 

[Pifanjr]

One of the biggest names in immersive sims reckons they're easier to sell if you call them something else, but one day they'll be 'invading every genre'

To be fair, they're pretty hard to explain.

www.pcgamer.com

Honestly, I've never considered Immersive Sim to be a genre on its own. Similarly to Roguelike, it's a label that says something about how the game was designed, but it says too little about how its played.

 

[Colif]

An article that talks about a thing and assumes you know what they mean, so doesn't explain it.

What is an immersive sim?

Immersive sim - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

oh, so its a game that gives you choices. Hopefully meaningful ones and not just the illusion of choice.

I agree, its an element, hardly distinct. It is part of a game, its not the entirety of the game**

** unless its a choose your own adventure... Zork comes to mind... and if Zork does fit, this genre has been around forever and is hardly new. Almost all good games rely on choices... I said almost.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm going to commit an unforgivable sin and start the PCG article thread with an article from a different website. I waited a couple of days to see if PCG would make an article, but I've run out of patience.

DayZ creator reveals a "Kerbal Space Program killer" with kittens and challenges license owners to sue him

Stationeers and Icarus developers RocketWerkz are making a spiritual successor to beloved space sim Kerbal Space Progra…

www.rockpapershotgun.com

I liked KSP when I tried it, but it was too slow for me to enjoy it for very long. Being able to switch screens without loading times would already be a big improvement.

I can't believe Take Two didn't pick Hall's studio to make Kerbal Space Program 2 simply because they didn't provide artwork with their pitch. Instead they pick a developer that apparently can't make games

I'll give Hall's version a try. I really enjoy Stationeers, and Icarus is a solid game.

Ubisoft boss says it knows players think it has an 'inconsistency in quality,' so it delayed Assassin's Creed Shadows to flip that script

And everyone's still upset about Unity, myself included.

www.pcgamer.com

It may end up being a great game, but I've fallen too far behind the AC games to get this. I need to finish the last 4 of them, to be exact, and that's not happening any time soon.

 

[Zloth]

oh, so its a game that gives you choices. Hopefully meaningful ones and not just the illusion of choice.

Well... it's not that it gives you choices, it's how the game's is designed. That design will naturally lead to many choices.

An immersive sim is a game in which, at least ideally, solutions are not pre-programmed. Instead, all the things in the game are pre-programmed to work in certain ways. The player then uses the stuff in the game to come up with a solution.

Say you're in a warehouse with some small tools, a little office, and a lot of crates. You can see a whole in the ceiling up to an attic, but there's no way up to it.

The conventional way to do this would be to code in a way for the player to stack the crates up and use them to get to the attic. If you go back to Infocom games, it may even be looking for you to specifically say "stack crates."

The immersive sim way would be for all the objects to have code that will deal with how they stack up. It would also have code on how to take things apart and how those small tools work. The player could stack boxes up, but the player could also go back to the office and start the stack with a big desk or two. Or the player could even take crates apart and nail together a makeshift ladder to use. Lots and lots of choices, including ones the developers might not even expect!

The conventional way is going to be a lot easier to code, but players that come up with perfectly good solutions are going to be frustrated when they find they don't work. Conventional programmers can cover more and more solutions, but they can't think of everything. With the immersive-sim style, they don't need to. They just set up things in the game to work as realistically as they can, and whatever should work will work.

But how is the player supposed to know which one is going on? About the only way I know is to wait for the game to be out a few months, then search for "developer didn't know you could solve the quest this way" articles, which is a hallmark of immersive sims. Even then, what are you supposed to do with the half-breeds that use some of both styles? <shrug>

 

[ZedClampet]

Take-Two has sold Private Division to an unnamed buyer: 'We are top-ten hit makers around here,' and Private Division wasn't making them

The publisher has also finally confirmed that Intercept Games and Roll7 are in fact closed.

www.pcgamer.com

I despise Take Two. This news didn't help.

 

[ZedClampet]

Take-Two CEO says Grand Theft Auto 6 is on track for 'fall' next year, GTA 5 has sold over 205 million, and 'PC will be more and more a part of [our] business going forward'

Also rather politely calls the Borderlands movie "disappointing."

www.pcgamer.com

Says PC will be more and more a part of their business going forward. I guess they like money after all.

 

[ZedClampet]

I want one: For a cool $2,900,000 you can own a proper Batmobile with a 6.2 litre V8, and that's a downright bargain if you ask me

Da na na na na na na na, da na na na na na na na...etc.

www.pcgamer.com

That's a good engine, but it looks like you won't want to go over about 5 mph since it looks like you'll be looking out a tiny porthole in the front.

 

[Brian Boru]

looking out a tiny porthole

Last batmobile I saw was Adam West in B&W if I recall correctly—which translates to I know nothing about this. But surely there's an entire HUD on the inside?

 

[ZedClampet]

Last batmobile I saw was Adam West in B&W if I recall correctly—which translates to I know nothing about this. But surely there's an entire HUD on the inside?

Of the fictional bat mobile or the one you can buy? You're certainly paying enough money for one, but it wasn't mentioned.

 

[Colif]

At least you can see out of that one

 

[Brian Boru]

the one you can buy?

Yep, that one—for that price, as you say.

 

[ZedClampet]

Proposed class action lawsuit claims The Crew players were 'duped', bizarrely comparing the game shutting down to Ubisoft breaking into your house and stealing parts of a pinball machine

The question of ownership in the digital age rears its head again.

www.pcgamer.com

I'm not sure why a primary focus of the article is a pinball analogy, but it's an interesting suit that involves the purchase of physical copies of a game with a singleplayer component, but could have ramifications for digital as well. I don't see it succeeding, but it's in California, which is very consumer friendly, so you never know. Would be interesting if eventually publishers couldn't shut down game servers without making the game playable offline. Of course, nothing's to stop them from running the server on a $99 laptop sitting in a janitor's closet.

My understanding is that Crew 1 would have to be basically remade from scratch to disengage it from the online component, so that would be a bit expensive for such an old game.

 

[Pifanjr]

Proposed class action lawsuit claims The Crew players were 'duped', bizarrely comparing the game shutting down to Ubisoft breaking into your house and stealing parts of a pinball machine

The question of ownership in the digital age rears its head again.

www.pcgamer.com

I'm not sure why a primary focus of the article is a pinball analogy, but it's an interesting suit that involves the purchase of physical copies of a game with a singleplayer component, but could have ramifications for digital as well. I don't see it succeeding, but it's in California, which is very consumer friendly, so you never know. Would be interesting if eventually publishers couldn't shut down game servers without making the game playable offline.

I don't think it'll ever come to the point where publishers can't shut down game servers without making the game playable online. A major part of the lawsuit is that the packaging made it seem the single-player component of the game would stay available even if the servers were turned off. The only thing a publisher would have to do to avoid a similar lawsuit is to make it clear that the entire game can be taken offline whenever the publisher wants. Though preferably, they just make the offline portions available to play even if the servers are offline.

Of course, nothing's to stop them from running the server on a $99 laptop sitting in a janitor's closet.

I think that would open them up to lawsuits as well, if it prevents players from being able to play the game.

My understanding is that Crew 1 would have to be basically remade from scratch to disengage it from the online component, so that would be a bit expensive for such an old game.

I think it will be cheaper to refund anyone participating in a class action lawsuit than to try to get the offline components working again.

 

[neogunhero]

Stalker 2 gets updated system requirements and I've got bad news: It's going to be even bigger than we thought

The minimum RAM requirement has gone up too.

www.pcgamer.com

RTX 2070 SUPER/RTX 4060 for Medium (1080p/60fps) is making me sweat. I’m not sure how well my RTX 2060 6GB will handle it. As much as I want the game to look good, if I can turn down setting and play at a solid frame rate then I’ll be happy enough.

But really though, as the author said, seeing these new system requirements is really making me think about how old my hardware is. I’ve had this 2060 going on 6 years now…

 

[Pifanjr]

But really though, as the author said, seeing these new system requirements is really making me think about how old my hardware is. I’ve had this 2060 going on 6 years now…

Ah, but how far back does your backlog go?

 

[neogunhero]

Ah, but how far back does your backlog go?

If it means anything, I can play Cyberpunk 2077 at nearly full ultra settings, RT and DLSS off at 60fps 1080p. Some games I do struggle playing at ultra 60fps like Dead Island 2. The new COD I have to play at a mix of high/medium to get solid 60fps.

 

[BeardyHat]

Stalker 2 gets updated system requirements and I've got bad news: It's going to be even bigger than we thought

The minimum RAM requirement has gone up too.

www.pcgamer.com

RTX 2070 SUPER/RTX 4060 for Medium (1080p/60fps) is making me sweat. I’m not sure how well my RTX 2060 6GB will handle it. As much as I want the game to look good, if I can turn down setting and play at a solid frame rate then I’ll be happy enough.

But really though, as the author said, seeing these new system requirements is really making me think about how old my hardware is. I’ve had this 2060 going on 6 years now…

Much as I love the series (I still remember picking up the first game at Best Buy. What sticks with me is that it was a brand new game, but was only $40 at the time. Seemed like a steal), I'll probably wait on reviews and then an eventual price drop.

But speaking of your hardware, if you haven't Call of Pripyat is still a great game and I also still really love the first game, if you haven't played either.

 

[Pifanjr]

If it means anything, I can play Cyberpunk 2077 at nearly full ultra settings, RT and DLSS off at 60fps 1080p. Some games I do struggle playing at ultra 60fps like Dead Island 2. The new COD I have to play at a mix of high/medium to get solid 60fps.

Sounds like your machine is holding up very well for being 6 years old.

I'm at the point where I have to turn the graphics down to the (near) minimum if I want to play anything from the last 5 years, if I can play it at all. There are still plenty of games from 5+ years ago which I still want to play and which run perfectly fine on medium/high settings, so it doesn't really matter yet.

 

[Pifanjr]

The bloated tyranny of two-factor authentication is ruining my online existence. There has to be a better way

Why won't you remember me?!

www.pcgamer.com

I was reminded of this article just now when I tried to check my profile on Steam. When I opened the Steam store in my browser, it showed me as being logged in. However, when I tried going to my profile page, I suddenly had to log in again. This means they knew who I was and that I logged in to this computer before, but just decided for shits and giggles to make me log in again.

So it sends an email to my hotmail account with a two-factor authentication code. So I go to open my hotmail account and what do you know? I'm logged out of there too. And to get into my hotmail account, I have to get a code from my gmail account. Luckily my gmail account didn't make me log in again, but it seems like it's only a matter of time before you're locked into a loop of services that demand two-factor authentication codes from other services that demand two-factor authentication codes.

Honestly though, I don't mind the two-factor authentication, I just mind being logged out automatically.

 

[ZedClampet]

The bloated tyranny of two-factor authentication is ruining my online existence. There has to be a better way

Why won't you remember me?!

www.pcgamer.com

I was reminded of this article just now when I tried to check my profile on Steam. When I opened the Steam store in my browser, it showed me as being logged in. However, when I tried going to my profile page, I suddenly had to log in again. This means they knew who I was and that I logged in to this computer before, but just decided for shits and giggles to make me log in again.

So it sends an email to my hotmail account with a two-factor authentication code. So I go to open my hotmail account and what do you know? I'm logged out of there too. And to get into my hotmail account, I have to get a code from my gmail account. Luckily my gmail account didn't make me log in again, but it seems like it's only a matter of time before you're locked into a loop of services that demand two-factor authentication codes from other services that demand two-factor authentication codes.

Honestly though, I don't mind the two-factor authentication, I just mind being logged out automatically.

Like a lot of sites, Steam locks you out of the browser website occasionally for security reasons. This doesn't apply to Valve's own app, though. They never log you out of that. But if you log out of it yourself, then it might ask for verification when you try to log back in.

They are probably concerned about things like session hacking where someone steals your cookie. They know who you say you are, but want to make sure it's really you. Sometimes you get messages saying you are on a new system when you really aren't, but those web cookies can't actually identify your hardware. If your web browser, for instance, has had an update since the last time you logged in, that could count as being on a new system since browser version is one thing they can look at with web browser cookies.

 

[Colif]

I have to use 2FA to log on here... so its funny the writers are complaining about it.
Its a tempting setting to turn on, on sites where you have a spam problem from old user accounts being hacked... I could name a few sites with that problem

Problem is the disruption to regular users. its why it is the hammer approach to fixing a problem. It depends how big the problem gets as to if you resort to it.

 

[Pifanjr]

Finally, I can be a gross little rat guy in Vermintide 2's 4v4 versus mode, which is out now

It's time to see things from the skaven's point of view—about four feet off the ground.

www.pcgamer.com

I need to see if I can rope some friends into trying this out with me.

 

[Pifanjr]

How adding a playable dragon race to World of Warcraft brought a 10-year-old loot system to its knees

The tale of the 28 hours that broke the MMO and its players.

www.pcgamer.com

I read the original post on the HobbyDrama subreddit, it's a good read.

 

[ZedClampet]

The top ten best selling CPUs on Amazon are all AMD chips, with the two-year old Ryzen 7 5700X sitting at the tippety-top and Intel's best effort relegated to 12th place

It's red red red, all the way down to number 12.

www.pcgamer.com

I would congratulate AMD, but this is really more about Intel failing.