Great list! I'm not partial to any generation, just looking for something preferably fast-paced, challenging and mechanically complex.
I've played through a couple of those. Onimusha was good - will have to check out the sequels. Genji looks promising as well. And Nightshade is, by all appearances, Bayonetta before Bayonetta?
Nah, I've played enough early PS action games to believe it. I'll definitely give that one a try.
Yeah man, I thought Nioh 2 was great. Then I unlocked S-rank agility and discovered it had an entire animation cancelling system, at which point it starts playing a bit like high-stakes character action. Easily one of the most compelling combat systems I've had the pleasure of mastering.
First one it is then. Thankfully emulation is pretty solid for PS1-3.
Sounds good, I'll give it a try thanks.
Got any recommendations on where I should jump into the series?
DMC I've done to death. Batman never really worked for me, not sure why.
I've been meaning to try Infamous. What's the moment to moment gameplay like? I'm usually not great at repetitive gameplay loops.
Can't say I have, but it looks promising. The only video I could find of it was from the first chapter; I assume pacing and difficulty picks up moving forward?
Depends on the combat - first prize is something relatively fast paced, but decisive and with room for strategy. Ninja Gaiden 2 being the epitome of that to me.
The stance switching looks interesting. Does it have a decent amount of depth?
Japans first diversity hire.
I'd seen BeamNG used spring-mass systems for their deformation, but given that damage was limited to certain zones in GTA V, I'd assumed they used pre-authored damage morphs & debris meshes like everyone else. Got any links, it would be an interesting read?
As for the expense, requirements dependent, you might be surprised. I played around with soft body in Unreal a bit. A really performant PBD implementation was actually quite quick to get up and running. Non-linear Gauss-Seidel solvers can be heavily parallelized on GPU through clever clustering and graph colouring. Collision remains a bit of a sticking point - I got about half-way towards good results with low resolution proxy hulls, but then Unreal went and changed physics APIs.
Good characterisation will always make undesirable traits less grating. That's what makes entertainment so effective at normalizing them.
Given that the BBC chose a flaming faggot to reboot a long running series, one which was already quite liberal in theme, I find it hard to believe this wasn't always the intention.
GTA has soft-body physics?
On the one hand, it's further looting and degradation of European culture. On the other, I can wholly believe that is, and will forever be a virgin goddess.
Each to their own. I also liked the characterisation of the Doom Guy, but that's where my appreciation of the lore/story ended. The need to expand the universe and add gravity/grandiosity is ultimately what moved the game away from being what it was good at. As a result, it went from being a short and sharp corridor shooter to including a hub, replete with upgrades and other bullshit, and a bunch of uninspired and oversized "modern" levels to sell the premise.
Definitely agree on TLoU though. Tranny killed the beloved protagonist, and with it the franchise. Didn't help turning the second most liked character into a bulldyke who wouldn't tolerate bigot sandwiches in a world of starvation, either.
Rage 2 somehow managed the worst of both worlds. It had an enjoyable enough core loop, but insisted on not giving you a chance to use it. Instead, you got inundated with fetch quests and lengthy driving sequences to promote the open world design. A large, open world filled with locations and factions devoid of personality, and made with none of the artistry of the original.
A real pity; It reminded me of Borderlands 3 in that regard.
Actually replaying it at the moment. It had everything going against it - zero budget, rushed production, tank controls in a 3d brawler and IGN being well, IGN.
Turns out an excellent core gameplay loop and an unapologetic commitment to fun is all it takes to make a cult hit that's still relevant today.
Definitely a factor - for games that need one. Doom Eternal, in my opinion, is an example of where an expanded universe, lore and story actually detracted from the game. Some would argue that the increased mechanical complexity did as well, with many favouring the simpler Doom 2016.
I think, as a designer, you're ultimately crafting an experience. It needs to be cohesive and it needs to be compelling. Anything that doesn't add to that need not apply.
Mechanical complexity doesn't necessarily equate to gameplay depth; Nor does gameplay depth to enjoyment. Some of the most enjoyable games have a really simple gameplay loop - just done well. Great game feel, nice setting, whatever. Take it from someone who's initial forays into game design involved the kitchen sink.
Too many/complex mechanics become cumbersome and usually land up being half baked or poorly integrated. The sweet spot, IMO, is in a relatively small set of polished mechanics that can interact with each other in interesting ways to produce a lot of player options. Options that have gameplay significance, and are fun to use.
Platinum Games are good at this. Metal Gear Rising, Vanquish and Bayonetta are all superficially simple and quick to learn; But there're always layers of complexity to the mechanics which provides plenty of room for mastery - and some of the highest skill ceilings I've seen.
do you think the oft-pornographic engagement with modern-day sexy media is exactly equal to looking at a piece of art in the Louvre? is Rule 34 just one big art project?
No, simply pointing out the obvious - that millennia's worth of sexualisation didn't yield the effects we have seen develop only in recent years.
but it certainly is the effect
This is where we disagree; I believe it a symptom, not the cause. Given that tame, wholesome and even modest characters are subject to the same treatment, and that "pornography culture" is a thing to begin with, I'm not sure attractive characters are deserving of my ire or removing them would be of any benefit. Where do you draw the line? How does that extend to film and other media?
Most sexualisation I've seen in games doesn't reach the level of what was common in film or literature growing up. Back then, it wasn't a problem. Amongst people of my age, it still seems not to be. If I were pressed to choose between an android in a maid outfit and the wholesale promotion of degeneracy at a household, institutional and state level, I'd be inclined to assign blame to the latter.
but my enemies don't like this porn
That was intended as a separate point. Simply put, I don't see Lara Croft or 2B, in their original context, as porn.
And what exactly is the point of your cherry picking? Everyday women, aristocracy, queens, semi-divine beings and goddesses all where subject to sexualisation. There's a very long history of people appreciating idealised, even sexualised beauty in non-sexual ways.
So no, I don't think hentai is the same thing as classical art. Nor am I making an argument in favour of it. I just think the notion that people enjoy idealised or even sexualised characters in games solely as a substitute for pornography is retarded. Given that it's the go-to means of dismissing criticisms of the intentional androgynisation of characters, I'm certainly not going to support it, even if we can agree on the excess of porn in modern society.
In their own words:
The author retains the copyright on the submitted material, and their name is added to the site's "Contributor Recognition" section.
It would be worth scraping the site, and setting up an "archival project" complete with at least the appearance of DMCA reporting functionality just to bleed them of 99% of their traffic.
it just makes us look like pornsick retards trying to get our rocks off
No, the bad-faith reframing of a couple millennia old tendency towards enjoying beauty as something base is what does that, and you're giving it airplay.
Take a walk through the Louvre. A sizable portion of its contents are designed to titillate, and do so with far more nudity than you'll find in any game. Should we burn it to the ground in a misguided attempt to avoid what is essentially an insult, designed to shame in lieu of an actual argument?
There are open source implementations of both Morrowind and Arx Fatalis. That should be a no bullshit way to figure out their level scaling.
An alternative, if you don't want to get bogged down with formulae, is just to use a curve. It's designer friendly and quick to adjust, which is great for figuring out early development balance. Something like damage and attribute scaling is going to be dependent on your implementation of game systems - DPS for example is determined by attack speed, which'll likely be influenced by animations.
That wasn't really what I was looking for, but now I'm thinking it is.