That's an excellent question. You may remember the term [Decision Paralysis] used before on this blog. It's when a decisionmaker is presented with so many choices that they refuse to make (or put off making) a choice out of fear of making a mistake. Decision Paralysis affects everyone, including game developers like me. We can get so wrapped up in finding the perfect solution that we never commit to any one, for fear of that's solution's drawbacks... even though any solution that we commit to wi
That's an excellent question. You may remember the term [Decision Paralysis] used before on this blog. It's when a decisionmaker is presented with so many choices that they refuse to make (or put off making) a choice out of fear of making a mistake. Decision Paralysis affects everyone, including game developers like me. We can get so wrapped up in finding the perfect solution that we never commit to any one, for fear of that's solution's drawbacks... even though any solution that we commit to will have drawbacks regardless. This lack of commitment has side effects down the line - because we can't commit to something, we're afraid of our work being wasted or thrown out so we won't commit our best effort to it.
As such, pressure like a deadline naturally pushes us towards what I've taken to calling decision commitment - when we are willing to lock down a choice and accept all the benefits and tradeoffs that choice entails, rather than continuing to circle the options and never commit. It is closely related to what Mark Darrah likes to call completion urgency - the pressure to finish what we're working on. Decision commitment is necessary to make actual progress. Without any pressure to commit to a decision, dev teams can (and do) burn indefinite amounts of dev time and resources going in circles and end up with very little to show for it. When we've got a hard deadline, we know we have to buckle down and commit. That pushes us to give our best because we know it won't be wasted.
Lack of (or late) decision commitment really hurts craftsmanship and quality because we aren't actually committing to what we're building. If we are always keeping the back door open to drop whatever it is we're working on and changing our minds on the direction we're going, it always feels like a potential waste to do our best work. The quickest way to burnout is to feel like your work doesn't matter and your effort was wasted. Why polish, optimize, and improve if we're going to go a different way next week and throw this work out? No one likes to feel that way, so we naturally hedge our efforts with the minimum viable effort if we aren't sure whether it will be used.
This is all a long-winded way of saying "Yes, I absolutely do better quality work when I'm under pressure. Since I am confident we're doing this thing, I can give it my all." Without the pressure to deliver, the back door is always open and it's extremely hard to commit to the decision and give my best. If I know that we're absolutely committing to what I'm working on, I will build the best feature and content that I can. I believe that many other devs share this feeling for similar reasons.
Alan Wake 2 was my "Game of the Year" winner, and this is from a gal who enjoys horror games and movies. I've made my opinion after playing its predecessor and this one, and if you have an idea of both, meaning if you played them then you will probably have a better understanding of the evolution of this franchise. Everything about Alan Wake 2 made it fantastic and I could stay here praising it for a long. However, I have some favorite aspects: its graphics are some of the best I've seen, and it
Alan Wake 2 was my "Game of the Year" winner, and this is from a gal who enjoys horror games and movies. I've made my opinion after playing its predecessor and this one, and if you have an idea of both, meaning if you played them then you will probably have a better understanding of the evolution of this franchise. Everything about Alan Wake 2 made it fantastic and I could stay here praising it for a long. However, I have some favorite aspects: its graphics are some of the best I've seen, and its reference to Twin Peaks - in particular The Return - was truly exceptional (if you get it). Just play both games and don't be let down by the bad reviews before making your own idea: I guarantee it will be worth it! You won't be sorry you did purchase it.
10/10 for Story and Graphics
The story of Alan Wake 2 is impressive, after all, this is a cinematic experience packed as a video game, so we should expect a great story/script and excellent visuals. But nothing prepared me for what I found: expect unexpected plot turns that you won't anticipate and an immersive dark, mysterious atmosphere to keep you guessing and constantly on edge. It is easily one of the apex Xbox horror games and nobody can deny it. Graphics? Simply stunning. Like entering into an immersive nightmare. Seriously, lighting effects alone should receive recognition. Alan Wake 2 is an immersive experience in a mysterious and nightmarish first-hand experience that excels in its way.
Stop Complaining: It Is the Story that Makes the Game, not the Action!
Some fans of the original game are complaining about how different its combat is this time around; but here's the deal, sweeties: this time around the story takes center stage - think of it like an interactive thriller with just enough combat to keep things interesting - which was ultimately true of its counterpart's fights as well. Plus... you remember it wrong as in the first Alan Wake, it wasn't exactly spectacular either. I'll say that from the narrative and atmospheric points of view, Alan Wake 2 is hard to match, in any case, one of the two three games that are way above the others. At the same time, I can understand why action-driven players who were looking for a "Last of Us" kind of adventure are not fulfilled. It is not that kind of game.
A Solid Narrative Performance Worthy of GOTY
Alan Wake 2 is more like Resident Evil: Village but much stronger in visuals and even if the gameplay is not taking central stage in either one of them, I feel that Alan Wake 2 comes better in comparison. I know you want to be sure before you get it, and this is good practice anytime you buy Xbox games. But the bad reviews are so much off the point. About Alan Wake 2, some reviews have expressed displeasure with it for being too "woke" or racist, however, these complaints shouldn't be taken too seriously; these trolls are simply trying to stir things up; real gamers, those who appreciate an impressive narrative experience with stunning visuals love Alan Wake 2. Simply stated.
Conclusion: A Suspenseful Story for Fans of Story-Driven Horror Games
Once again, Alan Wake 2 has proven its mettle by keeping my pulse racing! I have already experienced more thrilling moments than I can count, making me jump more often than necessary and loving every scary minute! For fans of suspenseful stories with stunning graphics Alan Wake 2 should not be missed; don't let the critics dissuade you! Just remember this is a story-driven experience so buckle up for one helluva ride; easily one of my top games played this year (trust me: this blonde bombshell has seen many games!) I highly recommend it ;).
Steam store page
One of my favorite activities in Minecraft is going deep inside the caves and just exploring them. A few years ago, the developers behind Cave Digger reached out to me and asked me to review their game. Not too long after, the sequel got released and looked like it would be a VR exclusive. Until I noticed that it appeared on the Nintendo Switch eShop. So, I thought, maybe it also released on Steam, since after playing the Switch version, I felt like this game was better p
One of my favorite activities in Minecraft is going deep inside the caves and just exploring them. A few years ago, the developers behind Cave Digger reached out to me and asked me to review their game. Not too long after, the sequel got released and looked like it would be a VR exclusive. Until I noticed that it appeared on the Nintendo Switch eShop. So, I thought, maybe it also released on Steam, since after playing the Switch version, I felt like this game was better played with keyboard and mouse. Now, a non VR version is on Steam now… But is it worth it? Well, after playing the first sections of this game, I want to talk about it. The latest update was on May 28th, 2024 when writing this article. Now, before we dive right into it, I want to invite to you leave a comment in the comment section with your thoughts and/or opinions on this game and/or the content of this article.
Risk of Staleness
In this game, we play as an unnamed miner who is throwing into the deep end, when his digger broke. You arrive at a mysterious valley. In this valley, a hardy explorer once did his research. But why? Which secrets are in these valleys and the accompanying mines? That’s for our miner to figure out. Now, the story is being told by various comic book pages you can uncover and, according to the Steam store page, has multiple endings. I’m quite curious where it’s going to go.
So far, I haven’t gotten too deep into the story. But, from what I can read on the Steam store page, I think it has potential. I have my doubts on how the multiple endings will work. Since comic books mostly have one ending, right? Unless, it all depends on which page(s) you find or in which order or where. That’s something I’ll discover when I’m deeper into the game.
If this game is like the original game, the story overall will take a backseat for the gameplay. And after 5 hours in, that’s the case. The original game didn’t have a lot of story to begin with, but more story in a game like this can be interesting.
There is one voice actor in this game. He does a pretty fine job and brings some life to the atmosphere. I replayed a bit of the first game and I have to be honest, I appreciate the small voice lines during the exploration. Even when you quickly hear every different line, it’s a nice break since they aren’t spammed and don’t appear that often.
One of the biggest changes in this game is that the cave this time around is randomly generated each time you enter. So, this game becomes a rouge like to a degree. But, you can always exit via the lifts to safety. Since, dying in the caves means that at least half of your obtained loot is dropped. The atmosphere this time around is very cohesive. This game presents itself as a sci-fi western game, and it really feels like that. Something I really like in this game is that it doesn’t go overboard in the sci-fi genre and stays grounded. The technology could realistically exist today, apart from the unique enemies in the cave, that is.
With the story taking more of a backseat, it’s quite important that the gameplay loop is enjoyable. The gameplay loop is simple, you have to explore the caves with 4 chosen tools. The three slots above the entrance give you a hint on which tools you will need to bring to gather the most loot. You take the lift down and gather loot, while fighting enemies and avoiding pitfalls to survive. The goal is also to find the other elevator that takes you down to the next level to gather even more valuable ores to bring to the top. You have to fill in the ores you gathered into the grinder to buy upgrades to your tools and environment to progress.
The big risk with this kind of gameplay loop is that this is just a different numbers game. What I mean by that is that, apart from maybe the visuals changing, the core concept is always the same. This risks that the game becomes stale and repetitive. It’s possible that it is just a “me thing”, but I enjoy games like this more when there are some variations on the gameplay or some different puzzles. Thankfully, this game has that. There are a lot of things you can upgrade and improve to make each run feel rewarding, and each type of cave you can visit has different enemies types and unique lay-outs to keep you on your toes. In a way, I dare to compare the idea a bit to Cult of the Lamb in a degree.
The music in this game is also a blast. It fits the atmosphere of each area like a glove. My favorite track is the track that plays in the lake caves. It sounds like you image a typical track like that to sound. And it gets more intense while you are fighting enemies down there. Now, the silent moments when the music doesn’t play feel a bit long, but I always know that there is more music coming and that it fits the atmosphere perfectly and draws me more into the game. Sadly enough, this isn’t the only problem with this game, and I’d like to talk about them.
No feedback
This game has an addictive gameplay loop, and I’m really curious how the multiplayer works. I haven’t tested the multiplayer in this game, but it looks like fun. Now, this game can be played solo perfectly fine.
Now, I don’t know if VRKiwi took the VR version as a base for the non VR version, since I have the impression, that is the case. I especially notice that with the controls in this game. It feels a bit floaty, like you aren’t really connected to the ground. It also feels a bit stiff, like you have to move your mouse like you would a VR headset. You really have to play with the settings until you hit that sweetspot that feels right for you. For me, I had to lower the sensitivity to 80, amongst other things. I highly recommend that you tweak the settings to your liking, since on the Nintendo Switch version, I had to lower the sensitivity to 40 before it felt right.
Still, the character control doesn’t feel right. At first, I thought it was because the controls felt floaty… But, after some testing, I think I found a few other problems with the character control that might cause it to not feel quite right. First, the jump in this game is just silly. You can’t really rely on it, since it doesn’t always trigger when you hit the spacebar, and it’s just a pathetic jump. You can’t even jump out of ankle high water sometimes.
Secondly, there are no sound effects for walking on most floors. You feel like you are floating, and it’s jarring when you suddenly hear a sound effect when you walk over a table or a railway. Thirdly, climbing on ropes amongst other things is just insanely picky. There is also no real feedback or sound to show you grabbed the rope. Fourthly, the scroll order between tools is extremely weird. You get numbers on the wheel counter clock wise. But you go down, right, left, up. Which still confuses me after 6 hours of playing this game.
And finally, some things are extremely picky. For example, there are safe riddles you can solve down in the caves. But to rotate the letter wheels to make pick the right letter is more difficult to do. All of these things give you a feeling that you aren’t always in control of your character and that you don’t get the feedback as a player on what’s happening. Making you unsure what’s happening and doubt if you are doing the right thing.
Prompts like “Use W/S to use the crank” should be “Hold W/S to use the crank”. Since, you need to hold the key instead of pressing it. Small things like that could also improve this game and it’s controls quite a lot. Overall, the controls are good, but they lack feedback to the player sometimes. Either with sound effects or with some visual effects. Like with the hammer, you barely have any sound effects when you use it, and it has some wind up animation, making you unsure if you are using it or not.
That is one of the biggest flaws in this game. The lack of feedback on your actions. Things like not knowing how many bullets are still left in your revolver or a sound effect when you hit an actual enemy. I think if there is one thing I’d use the built-in feedback tool is to report various cases/moments when I expect feedback from the game, like a sound effect or visual effect. Maybe they appear in the form of rumble effects… But, I’m not playing this game with a controller.
When you read this section of the article, I wouldn’t blame you if you think that this game isn’t good. Small bugs like the text of “Press R to reload” when your gun isn’t equipped or the bullets not leaving from the gun but from the player model don’t improve things either. Yet, I find myself looking past these problems since the core gameplay still works. I find myself getting used to the jank in this game and finding a very rough diamond. If the developers keep up with their promise of improving this game, I think that more action feedback will bring a lot to the game and maybe fixing the small bugs like in this paragraph as well.
Things like the animation of the shovel looking weird sometimes. The animation looks like the arms go through each other after a dig. Speaking of the shovel, the last dig is annoying since you have to move a pixel or two for it to count and give you your goodies. But the bug I’d love to see fixed most is the freeze for several seconds when you pick up something new or get a new codec entry. The game locks up like it’s about the crash, but it doesn’t.
What’s next for us?
Usually, I’m not really picky when it comes to the visuals of a game. As long as a game looks consistent, I’m quite happy. It needs to have a certain style so that you can quickly identify what’s what and enjoy the game.
Yet, for this game, I do have some things that I not really like in terms of the visuals. Firstly, the contrast of some ores and the floor isn’t clear enough. Sometimes I was passing up on ores since I wasn’t able to notice them on the ground.
There are also a lot of objects to give more details to the cave, but you can barely interact with them. I’d love to see lilly pads in lakes to move a bit when you walk past them or something more than just being able to clip through them. As well, a sound effect when you hit a wall you can’t mine. You get shouted at when you use the wrong or a too weak tool on something, so when not for the rest?
I think the biggest mistake that the visuals make is that it has an identity crisis. What I mean by that is that it isn’t a cohesive style. There is a lot of shell shading going on, but there is also a lot of details that give off a more realistic vibe. Some textures aren’t detailed enough and strechted too wide giving wrong impression the rest of the visuals that look more modern. The floor textures sometimes suffer most from this issue.
Looking back at this article, I think I’m being very critical for this game. I have played a lot worse and broken games for 15€. But, in this game you even have customisation options for your character and thee developers are extremely open for feedback. This game has a lot going for it. Fun achievements to hunt for, bosses at the end of runs and an amazing auto save system.
Apart from improving the character controls and adding some feedback on actions, I think this game is pretty decent. Yes, there is some polish missing like not having a tooltip with the lever at the cave entrance on what that lever does. I personally feel less conflicted about this game compared to the original. The growth in this title is immense and brings me a lot of hope for either some amazing updates, DLC or a new entry in the series.
The basis of for an amazing title is here and if you look past it’s short comings, this game is a blast to play. Maybe it’s a bit too repetitive for some and can be more fun in short bursts. But, when this game sinks it’s hooks into you, it really clicks. There is some polishing left to do and for a rather new VR focused developer, this is amazing. It’s their second non VR game and it shows a lot of promise.
The game is a perfect relaxing game to wind down, since it isn’t too difficult. The game is rather forgiving. I wouldn’t be surprised that I play this game after work to wind down and try and finish it slowly. Then again, while I’m writing this, I have summer holidays and I wouldn’t be surprised that I finish most of this game during my summer break.
Like I said earlier, I feel less conflicted about this game compared to the previous title. This game has a lot more going for it compared to the original. It’s less repetitive and it has a lot more going for it. It has it’s problems, yes. But, if you enjoy games like Minecraft, Steamworld Dig or Cave Digger, give the demo of this game a chance. The demo gives a very good idea on what you can expect from this game and if you enjoy it, buy the game. I’m enjoying myself quite a lot with this game and I’m happy that I have chosen the PC version over the Switch version since I feel like it just plays better. But maybe, if I get used to the Switch controls, I might enjoy it on Switch as well.
With that said, I have said everything I wanted to say about this game for now. Maybe when I finish this game, I might write a full review with the final thoughts and opinions on this game. But for now, I think the best conclusion for this game is that it’s an amazing step up from the original and besides some unpolished things… It’s a great game and comes recommend from me.
So, it’s time to wrap up this article with my usual outro. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then have a great rest of your day and take care.
Honestly, I felt completely numb to it in both cases when it happened. That's because the game getting cancelled meant that the team was also getting laid off so I immediately had to go into survival mode. At the time, I shoved all of those feelings about never seeing my work into a tightly-sealed jar to process later once I had secured my own survival. Most of the things I learned from those layoffs (and subsequent layoffs) have been crystallized into my [Gamer's Primer to Practically Dealing w
Honestly, I felt completely numb to it in both cases when it happened. That's because the game getting cancelled meant that the team was also getting laid off so I immediately had to go into survival mode. At the time, I shoved all of those feelings about never seeing my work into a tightly-sealed jar to process later once I had secured my own survival. Most of the things I learned from those layoffs (and subsequent layoffs) have been crystallized into my [Gamer's Primer to Practically Dealing with Job Loss]. I didn't have any time to mourn for my lost work because I was too busy trying to secure my own living situation. I did process eventually get around to processing it, but by then it was much later and the scar tissue had already grown.
Over the course of my career, I've worked crunch hours (10+ hours a day) on at least ten separate games, two of which never shipped. I worked weekends on nine of them. Some crunch periods were intermittent (crunching near the end of milestones to make the deadline) and others were ongoing due to overly ambitious schedules and constantly-moving goalposts. Crunch period length was determined primarily by the project - some were short (shortest: two week crunch periods and not more than four weeks
Over the course of my career, I've worked crunch hours (10+ hours a day) on at least ten separate games, two of which never shipped. I worked weekends on nine of them. Some crunch periods were intermittent (crunching near the end of milestones to make the deadline) and others were ongoing due to overly ambitious schedules and constantly-moving goalposts. Crunch period length was determined primarily by the project - some were short (shortest: two week crunch periods and not more than four weeks total over the entire year) and some were long (longest: eight months of sequential crunch leading up to launch).
I like Mark Darrah's perspective on this - crunch often brings completion urgency, which is the feeling that the team must make final decisions and commit to them, rather than second-guessing and redoing work or just not deciding. Significant amounts of work are gated by committing to large decisions - and crunch is one of those things that tends to force commitment. The longer major decisions go without commitment, the more work piles up on the other side of the decision commitment, thus often necessitating crunch to finish. Looking back on all of the games I've worked on, the projects that committed to the big decisions early were the ones that had the least issues with crunch.
I really like an obscure game with an odd mechanic in it. I want to make a clone of it so I can keep playing it, even if its graphics and audio are inferior to the original!
This game has a highly unusual mechanic though. It relies on voice-acting to relay info to the player (or at least the opponent, it used to have online features). Not having this signalling would render half of the game's mechanics unusable.
Obviously, I don't have the ability to add voice acting to my game. So what other me
I really like an obscure game with an odd mechanic in it. I want to make a clone of it so I can keep playing it, even if its graphics and audio are inferior to the original!
This game has a highly unusual mechanic though. It relies on voice-acting to relay info to the player (or at least the opponent, it used to have online features). Not having this signalling would render half of the game's mechanics unusable.
Obviously, I don't have the ability to add voice acting to my game. So what other method can I choose? Having some sort of graphic or text pop up on the screen indicating the opponent's action would require the player to divert their eyes to elsewhere on the screen. I could have unique sound effects for every action, but there's literally dozens of them! Besides, it would take quite a while to learn which sound is associated with each action. With voice acting, the character is literally just calling out the name of the action they're performing!
Is there any other method I could use to relay this information? Or is a game like this simply impossible to play without audio? I mean, how many games are there where you literally couldn't play them at all if you're deaf? Some sort of audio cue seems a practical necessity.
The most common answer in all of game dev is always "it depends". Most game development falls along a spectrum with one extreme end being "well-oiled machine" (i.e. a project where almost everything is already well-established) and the opposing end being "no idea where they're going and holding on for dear life" (i.e. everything is new and vision/direction is constantly changing). Qualities like clarity of vision, team leadership, and total team experience will determine where on this spectrum
The most common answer in all of game dev is always "it depends". Most game development falls along a spectrum with one extreme end being "well-oiled machine" (i.e. a project where almost everything is already well-established) and the opposing end being "no idea where they're going and holding on for dear life" (i.e. everything is new and vision/direction is constantly changing). Qualities like clarity of vision, team leadership, and total team experience will determine where on this spectrum each project falls.
If the development process is disciplined and things are proceeding to plan, the demos we show to the executives are not far removed from the final versions we release to the public because things are proceeding as expected. The better-established the game and its feature set, the easier it often is to develop. Franchise games like Madden, COD, or Assassin's Creed, or long-running games like World of Warcraft have a well-established formula, very experienced teams, and a deep tool chest that allow games and game content to be built very quickly and efficiently. They are well-oiled machines that don't often have to reinvent the wheel because they've been using and improving on that process for many years already. They know exactly what they are building and are very good at delivering it. Any demo they build to show off work in progress will be very close to what will be shown in the final version of the game. Very little work will need to be redone.
If development is troubled and the team is having difficulty hitting their goals and milestones on time for whatever various reasons, then the demos will reflect that. Most troubled development executive demos tend to be smoke and mirrors, with a lot of hacks and demo-exclusive assets that are held together by bubblegum and a prayer. These kind of demos can cause the team to enter into a death spiral because cobbling a bunch of hacks together for a demo actually puts the team even further behind schedule because we can't use those kind of hacks in real production. This means that these teams need to build almost everything twice (at least) - a hacky rushed way for the demo and then the "real" way. They constantly need to "catch up", but the hacks they put in place often cause instabilities and [technical debt] that must be addressed later on, which puts them further and further behind. This is commonly known as development hell.
These are, of course, the two extreme ends of a single spectrum. Most game development projects fall somewhere along that spectrum. More experienced and established franchises lean towards the "well-oiled machine" side because they've had all the bad practices beaten out of them over the years. Most new IP and experimental gameplay tends to lean more towards the wild-and-crazy side of the spectrum, because there are too many [unknown unknowns] on projects like that. If you ever find yourself repeatedly behind the 8-ball crunching to put together many demos in a row with lots of hacks, you may wish to consider parlaying the firefighting skills you've learned into a job elsewhere.
When we're trying to craft an experience for the player, it's almost never one big element that sets the experience. Instead, it's the combination of many small details and decisions that all pull in the same direction and combine into a single, cohesive experience. For example, let's say we wanted to convey that the player's character is feeling dehydrated while walking through a 3D space. What could we do to make the player feel that sensation? We might...change the walk cycle so that the play
When we're trying to craft an experience for the player, it's almost never one big element that sets the experience. Instead, it's the combination of many small details and decisions that all pull in the same direction and combine into a single, cohesive experience. For example, let's say we wanted to convey that the player's character is feeling dehydrated while walking through a 3D space. What could we do to make the player feel that sensation? We might...
change the walk cycle so that the player is stumbling slowly instead of walking normally
have ambient audio of the character with ragged breathing or panting
have the environment be very parched - lots of brown colors. Place lots of rocks and sand, with any plant being withered or cracked with no leaves
add a heat shimmer post-processing effect to the screen
add a lens flare near the sun
add specks of dust and sand to any wind effects on screen
add a clothing shader to show sand/lightly colored dirt building up on the character's clothing
Now... in such a situation, what kind of bounding volumes would help convey this experience? Walking through the bottom of an empty ravine or canyon with high walls might do the trick. Walking across a narrow land bridge over a desert gorge could do as well. However, any water-related visuals would likely take away from the feeling of dehydration. Walking along the beach, even if it's a desert beach, just doesn't convey the same feeling as walking through a desert with sand as far as the eye can see.
Ultimately, all of the elements of environment art and level design are tools for us to craft the kind of experience we want. The choice of invisible wall, debris field, cliff, crate, railing, or whatever is up to the designers and artists trying to convey a specific experience. Each individual element only moves the needle a little bit, but having all of them together at once moves the needle a lot more.
The selection of games rotating into PS Plus at the end of May isn’t that impressive, save for one: Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar Games’ open-world Western returns to the subscription service after a nearly two-year hiatus. Will you beat it this time?Read more...
The selection of games rotating into PS Plus at the end of May isn’t that impressive, save for one: Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar Games’ open-world Western returns to the subscription service after a nearly two-year hiatus. Will you beat it this time?
I've actually worked on and shipped more than one annual sports title over my career and I want say for the record that the idea that annual sports titles are "mostly minor tweaks and roster changes" is absolutely and categorically false. Annual sports titles absolutely do not have the same scope as AAA games with multi-year dev cycles, but they do absolutely have significant breadth and depth of scope each year beyond "minor tweaks and roster changes". The majority changes that occur each year
I've actually worked on and shipped more than one annual sports title over my career and I want say for the record that the idea that annual sports titles are "mostly minor tweaks and roster changes" is absolutely and categorically false. Annual sports titles absolutely do not have the same scope as AAA games with multi-year dev cycles, but they do absolutely have significant breadth and depth of scope each year beyond "minor tweaks and roster changes".
The majority changes that occur each year are spread out because they must be - there simply isn't enough development time within the ~11ish calendar months between launches to rebuild everything, so decisions must be made about what gets added/updated this year and what waits for next year. That means that, besides roster updates and minor tweaks, this year we're committing to change our animation system, these eight specific stadiums/arenas, these three game modes, update the commentary system, and rework the stat simulation. Next year, we're committing to these other eight stadiums/arenas, these other four game modes, the physics system, the VFX system, and the AI logic. This sort of round-robin approach is necessary - the dev team often isn't large enough to sustain working on everything each cycle so we need to pick and choose what we can do each year within the time we have. It also means that players who only engage with some of the game likely don't necessarily see (or notice) all of the changes we make each time around. This doesn't mean that we didn't do it or that the changes aren't there, but it can certainly look like not much has changed if the player isn't playing those parts of the game.
To your main question - The primary reason that annual sports games haven't transitioned to a live service model is because of inertia. There is a well-established and financially sustainable annual sales model that works. There would need to be a significant and tangible gain to be had by switching to a live service model other than novelty - all of the current existing tools and systems are built with the expectation of delivering a new retail game each year, and all of the dev experience built up is for delivering a new retail game each year. Switching over to an ongoing service would come at tremendous cost. There must be a gain to outweigh that cost in order for the publishers to do it.
In the latest Windows 11 Copilot Build 26212 preview version, Microsoft has introduced a new feature called “Companions,” which promises to revolutionize the way users ...
The post Microsoft Windows 11 Copilot now lets you search setting options appeared first on Gizchina.com.
In the latest Windows 11 Copilot Build 26212 preview version, Microsoft has introduced a new feature called “Companions,” which promises to revolutionize the way users ...
Samsung Community moderators have acknowledged a bug in the One UI 6.1 update Quick Panel. This bug has been causing inconvenience to Galaxy users. This ...
The post Samsung admits that One UI 6.1 Quick Panel has a bug – a fix is coming soon appeared first on Gizchina.com.
Samsung Community moderators have acknowledged a bug in the One UI 6.1 update Quick Panel. This bug has been causing inconvenience to Galaxy users. This ...
Between its haunting and beautiful art, intriguing story, and easy play style, I’m honestly surprised that I didn’t know about the Spirit Hunter series until the recent English release of Death Mark II. Though not very long, the tight pacing and collection of scares make for a satisfying experience.
The story of Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II follows protagonist Kazuo Yashiki. He is a specialist when it comes to dealing with hauntings. The headmaster of the esteemed Konoehara Academy hires him
Between its haunting and beautiful art, intriguing story, and easy play style, I’m honestly surprised that I didn’t know about the Spirit Hunter series until the recent English release of Death Mark II. Though not very long, the tight pacing and collection of scares make for a satisfying experience.
The story of Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II follows protagonist Kazuo Yashiki. He is a specialist when it comes to dealing with hauntings. The headmaster of the esteemed Konoehara Academy hires him to investigate recurring rumors about a ghost called The Departed. The Departed leaves notices around the school, warning students that a spirit will target them. Those notices usually come true, with the warned student disappearing the next day. Yashiki, along with some of the student body and his Mark Bearer friends from the previous games, investigate these spirits. But just as he is pursuing The Departed, so too is The Departed pursuing him.
Screenshot by Siliconera
While this is a direct sequel to the previous games in the series, I never felt lost while playing it. It explains past events and characters in a concise way, giving me enough information without bogging down the pacing. Since most of the game is a visual novel, with side-scrolling adventure elements when exploring, the plot is more important than the actual gameplay. Fortunately, the story is fairly interesting. All of the ghosts that The Departed warns about are based off of famous Japanese folk tales. For example, we've got Hanako-san and Kokkuri-san. I personally really liked that! I enjoyed seeing how the game puts its own spin on these stories and breathes new life into them.
When I say that Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II breathes new life into these classic horror stories, I mean it in multiple ways. For example, the first case focusing on Hanako-san really humanizes her. Who wasHanako, and why did she hate the world enough to linger as a spirit? Hanako-san is so ingrained in Japanese culture that most people likely aren't scared of her. In Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II, though, Hanako-san isn't just a girl in a toilet who'll drag you down to hell, or make a lizard eat you. You find one of her victims in the toilet who died after Hanako made rubber hoses sprout from his eyes, pushing out his eyeballs (which you can still see clinging via the optic nerve).
Screenshot by Siliconera
Now, I’ve read and written my fair share of horror stories with that level of body horror. It’s one thing to read about it and imagine it in your head. It's a whole other thing to see that image rendered with loving care on your Switch. I was really surprised! I had been under the impression that games on Nintendo devices are usually fairly family-friendly. Because of that preconception, you can imagine my surprise when I saw just how disgusting the bodies in this game look.
The art for the game is really something, between the beautiful shading and how visceral it is. The artist went hard on depicting the gruesome deaths, making you feel sorry for the victims even if some of them really deserved it. The balance of gore to body horror is fantastic. There isn't a lot of blood, which could serve to censor the injuries. The art explains this way with items stuck inside the victims to staunch the flow of it. As someone who does enjoy body horror and guro, I found this balance to be artistic and I genuinely enjoyed feeling the initial rush of disgust. If you’re not someone who enjoys gore or body horror you can turn off a lot of the gore and jump scares from the settings. I myself turned off the jump scares because I’m not a fan of them.
Screenshot by Siliconera
While Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II was a great experience overall, I have to say that the exploration for the game sometimes was lacking. The environments aren’t too interesting to look at, which can make exploration a slog. I do have to say that I appreciate how the game lets you teleport back to the infirmary. That's where you save or switch companions. I highly recommend going back every time you make progress! This is so that you don't have to backtrack too much if you need to switch companions for a Suspensive Act. As well, for all I praised the story, I noticed that it dips in quality later on. The beginning chapters were just too strong. Part of this comes from pacing. It definitely feels like it should be a longer game and that they had to cut some stuff out.
Over the course of seven chapters, Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II spins a terrifying and intriguing yarn that leaves you wanting more. Even if you use its accessibility features to remove the gore or jump scare, it remains a suspenseful read. As a new fan of the series, I’d love to go back and see Yashiki and the other Mark Bearers’ previous adventures as I wait for the next installment.
Přihlásit se
