September 2024 PCG Article Discussion Thread

[Kaamos_Llama]

Assassin's Creed Shadows debate somehow reaches Japanese government ministries, who reportedly remind everyone that historical fiction isn't really their concern at all

No, the Japanese government isn't investigating Ubisoft's game

www.gamesradar.com

Or not.

A video game not being 100% historically accurate? What is the world coming to.

 

[Colif]

Asking for historical accuracy in games is a pointless act unless you have a time machine and can go back in time and stop it 50 years ago.

But other forms of accuracy will go along way to having the host country of game be accepted by them. really depends how many sales you want in the host country. If say you did base it in China, you better be right about the setting or they won't boost your sales.

 

[Brian Boru]

I just want these games to be geographically correct

Why?
Surely gameplay trumps any silly notions of accuracy? Unless game is marketed as 'geographically accurate'—very stupid thing to do unless it's a geography sim—there are more important things to cater to for a decent game.

MS Flight Sim is probably the game with the most geographical 'inaccuracies' of any—and it's doing just fine. Far Cry did fine with inaccurate depictions of Nepal, Montana and Cuba. Have you seen the scenario maps in Civ games? Civ ain't suffering…

I'm not saying the ProComs, PerpOs and others in the DogPile community won't choose geography as their bone of choice with which to savage some unfortunate game, but that'll be on some influencer's whim—so just bad luck really.

Did you know that there's no somewhat-large map in current public existence which is geographically accurate? So it would be a big waste for a game to invest the huge resources necessary to get 90% or over accuracy—and the DPs would just pick some other aspect anyway if it was their target of the day.

Generally other countries don't appreciate outsiders coming in and portraying them incorrectly.

Surely not many countries are that insecure? Bolivia complained about Ghost Recon Wildlands, any others? Btw GRW was very successful.

historical accuracy in games is a pointless act unless you have a time machine and can go back in time and stop it 50 years ago

That won't work either—one of many statements to that effect is:
History is a set of lies agreed upon—Napoleon

other forms of accuracy will go along way to having the host country of game be accepted by them

Are you basing this on anything? I'd be very interested in anyone who has explained why Video Games have done so well in the USA—just one example, since I'm familiar with it and it is a major market—while rarely depicting any aspect of the country accurately.

I think what you're talking about is the DP community in rival countries just waiting for their topic of choice to trash cultural output from other countries—since almost everything in a game is de facto inaccurate, that's an easy target. But any other target will do, since the issue isn't about the game but where it comes from, either country or company.

 

[Zloth]

Not PC Gamer, but a pretty interesting article on DLC/Expansions/stand-alone Expansions:

Does the rise of 'expandalone' games mean the end for big DLC?

Dying Light: The Beast is a new game from Techland that, originally, was destined to be DLC for Dying Light 2. It's a f…

www.gamesindustry.biz

spoiler: the answer is no

 

[Colif]

Warhammer have been releasing dlc as full games for years now, just recycle old ideas from previous ones that were removed, and now put back in for extra cost.

 

[Brian Boru]

interesting article on DLC/Expansions/stand-alone Expansions

The fundamental problem that's trying to circumvent is the increased time, complexity and cost of making bigger games—500 devs for 5 years is a huge investment. Reducing time and cost to market has been a basic goal of product development for many decades, to minimize the impact of intervening consumer taste changes, plus regulatory and competitor actions.

Until AI kicks in in a decade or 2 to dramatically reduce time and cost, larger companies have to find ways to stay in biz—we don't want more complaints about layoffs, do we?

 

[Colif]

just a heads up for regulars.
Don't click Captcha challenges if you see them, just report post.

 

[Zimbaly]

I don't say this often, and usually when games get delisted people can still play em...... but my god that article about Oxenfree is a god damn crime. That game is absolutely amazing. Could even be in my top 10, but for people to lose access to it completely. What a god damn shame. If I somehow broke the rules with my language I apologize, but man. That is truly a shame.

 

[Brian Boru]

Oxenfree

Hmm, I just downloaded the installation files from GOG, just in case.

 

[ZedClampet]

Hmm, I just downloaded the installation files from GOG, just in case.

I don't think you can just remove the right to download your game from GoG or Steam.

I would not be surprised at all to learn that Netflix pulled the game from Itch for political reasons. Netflix is known as a huge supporter of Israel--one of the co-founders is Jewish--while Itch is very vocally against Israel and is supporting Palestine financially. There is a movement online to boycott Netflix because of its support for Israel, and I suspect they are fighting back. Or being petty. Or both. I don't have a problem with either

This is an informational post, not a political one. All the above is simply factual information to support the theory that the Oxenfree move is political.

*********

Watching Doom being played on a hologram-like volumetric display is like taking a peek at the future of gaming

But let's hope the future involves less noise and more pixels, yes?

www.pcgamer.com

Very long way to go with volumetric displays. but they are pretty cool, anyway.

 

[ZedClampet]

Notch thinks the Minecraft movie looks pretty neat, actually: 'I was expecting way worse'

"OK I'm in."

www.pcgamer.com

I also don't see anything wrong with the trailer. It's campy. sure. but what would you expect from a Minecraft movie?

Here's the trailer:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE2YZhcC4NY


And here's Gordon Ramsey in Minecraft

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHy-qfkO54E


It's true that Gordon Ramsey's take on Minecraft is probably better than the movie trailer. When he says he was scammed by the villagers for 15 emeralds, I laughed. Villagers have been scamming players for years. It took someone very familiar with Minecraft to write that.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Colif other than GTA V and Red Dead Redemption, what games take place in the US? I'm not being argumentative. I just can't think of any. Maybe Spiderman, but that's lore friendly, and you couldn't really set RDR anywhere else.

Speaking of nationalities. I was reading the user reviews for Dale and Dawson Stationary Supplies and one of the negative reviews was:

Too many British people.

I had to upvote it as helpful.

 

[ZedClampet]

Assassin's Creed Shadows debate somehow reaches Japanese government ministries, who reportedly remind everyone that historical fiction isn't really their concern at all

No, the Japanese government isn't investigating Ubisoft's game

www.gamesradar.com

Or not.

A video game not being 100% historically accurate? What is the world coming to.

The most hilarious thing is the rumor of the Japanese government investigating. Although I could definitely hear an American politician saying something like "We denounce the depiction of cotton being harvested in May!"

 

[Colif]

@Colif other than GTA V and Red Dead Redemption, what games take place in the US? I'm not being argumentative. I just can't think of any. Maybe Spiderman, but that's lore friendly, and you couldn't really set RDR anywhere else.

Wasn't there a Far Cry in US? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Cry_5
Crew 2 played on a scaled down version of the entire continental US - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crew_2
Crew 3 is Hawaii

As is TDU2 &3

That is off top of my head

Category:Video games set in the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ZedClampet]

Wasn't there a Far Cry in US? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Cry_5
Crew 2 played on a scaled down version of the entire continental US - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crew_2
Crew 3 is Hawaii

As is TDU3

That is off top of my head

Category:Video games set in the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Off the top of your head, but hardly any considering how many AA and AAA games there are and that 40 percent of the market is in the US. One out of 6 Far Cry games and you are tired of games being set in America?

Also, I wouldn't count Crew as a game. I'm still salty about how terrible those "games" are.

 

[Colif]

I know someone who liked the crew 2 and was annoyed when they took them offline. His PC needed an upgrade but he is stubborn and refused to upgrade even if PC really needs to retire.
It isn't up to playing Crew 3 whatever its called now.

I see about 697 games on the wikipedia page, not going to look at all their names though. Seems a lot.

 

[ZedClampet]

I know someone who liked the crew 2 and was annoyed when they took them offline. His PC needed an upgrade but he is stubborn and refused to upgrade even if PC really needs to retire.
It isn't up to playing Crew 3 whatever its called now.

I see about 697 games on the wikipedia page, not going to look at all their names though. Seems a lot.

Probably mostly old games. Did you know that Pong takes place in Idaho?

 

[ZedClampet]

I know someone who liked the crew 2 and was annoyed when they took them offline. His PC needed an upgrade but he is stubborn and refused to upgrade even if PC really needs to retire.
It isn't up to playing Crew 3 whatever its called now.

I see about 697 games on the wikipedia page, not going to look at all their names though. Seems a lot.

By the way, I made an editing error above. I meant to only talk about recent games, but got confused when I mentioned GTA V, which is actually too old. My point was that very few recent games, say since 2020, have been located in the US.

 

[Johnway]

I don't say this often, and usually when games get delisted people can still play em...... but my god that article about Oxenfree is a god damn crime. That game is absolutely amazing. Could even be in my top 10, but for people to lose access to it completely. What a god damn shame. If I somehow broke the rules with my language I apologize, but man. That is truly a shame.

Any reason why its not being on itch.io? political reasons is one thing but there has to be more to that surely.

i would plug Stopkillinggames.com initiative, but atm there is still methods/ways to play the game (on other stores) so its not exactly dead. But still its a pretty painful reminder that we don't own the game and whether the game is a license or an actual product etc.

Another topic it reminds me of is what happens to games to people who die. i mean, surely after 100+ years someone is going to tweak and say, "hey this person who owns this account is likely dead as its 150+ years old. Shut it off" No inheriting games (family sharing is allowed in some cases). But with deceased users? hmm...

jokes on them, i'm going to live forever. Well my account at least.

oh and if you are in the EU, please sign the iniative for stopkillinggames.com.

 

[Brian Boru]

other than GTA V and Red Dead Redemption, what games take place in the US?

"With 2,516 games, the United States is the top video game setting worldwide, followed by Japan (860 games) and Canada (672 games).
New York is the city where the most video games are set (479 games)"

The Cities Where The Most Video Games Are Set - Guide Strats

One of the best things about video games is the opportunity to escape from reality for a little while. Indeed, one British survey found that, for over a third

guidestrats.com

 

[Colif]

By the way, I made an editing error above. I meant to only talk about recent games, but got confused when I mentioned GTA V, which is actually too old. My point was that very few recent games, say since 2020, have been located in the US.

So AAA games made and released in the last 4 years? Probably none as most AAA games take about 8 years to be released (just to fail) but the odds are there was at least one or two.

Australia is in 200 video games but most of them are racing games that include this track

Mount Panorama Circuit - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And its possible a game with it came out in last 4 years but its hardly just a game about Australia

 

[ZedClampet]

So AAA games made and released in the last 4 years? Probably none as most AAA games take about 8 years to be released (just to fail) but the odds are there was at least one or two.

How long it takes to make/release a game is irrelevant. Just games that launched in the last 4 or 5 years.

The point that I was trying to make is that the opinion that there are too many games located in the US is an old opinion that doesn't hold true anymore. At least I don't think that it holds true anymore.

 

[Colif]

Obvious choices:
Madden 25
College Football 25
NHL25? Do you guys play Hockey or it is just Canada?
EA PGA Sports
NBA

Latest Games - Base Games - Official EA Site

We exist to inspire the world through Play. Electronic Arts is a leading publisher of games on Console, PC and Mobile.

www.ea.com

EA does make it easier with releasing same games every year

 

[Zloth]

I guess setting a game in the USA gets a lot of landmarks that the world recognizes - thank you Hollywood movie industry. I don't think you'll see many cities that are short on internationally recognized landmarks, though.

The Cities Where The Most Video Games Are Set - Guide Strats

One of the best things about video games is the opportunity to escape from reality for a little while. Indeed, one British survey found that, for over a third

guidestrats.com

Ah... landmarks and famous race tracks! Though Forbidden West has the ruins of San Francisco AND Los Angeles (in the DLC) AND Las Vegas as well as some other landmarks, so I'm a bit dubious about that article.


One funny thing about all these open worlds: mountains. Mountains are fraggin' huge! Hiking from the base of a decent mountain to the peak and back down again can take up a whole day. Yet, the mountains we get in games can be climbed in more like 10 minutes. Granted, the characters have stunning endurance that allows them to sprint straight at the top, but still, these things are WAY smaller than a proper mountain.

And yet, they look fine! Even if you climb up one and look out at the world, it still looks fine. Horizon: Forbidden West's map is only 5'ish miles wide. From a proper mountain, you shouldn't have any trouble seeing ten times that far on a clear day. But it still looks fine in the game because everything is miniaturized, plus they throw in some haze to make it look like you're seeing things at a far greater distance.

 

[Johnway]

After eating it for killing The Crew, Ubisoft promises to bring offline support to The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest

Ubisoft said the offline mode will "ensure long term access" to both games.

www.pcgamer.com

I like to think that the SKG had an impact on this. Nice to see that the other crew games are getting offline modes. But i don't trust the publishers/Devs from doing that as standard in future. If anything more damning evidence to hang them with. Could do it, but most choose not to.