Community MetaSteam | November 2023 - I'd Buy That For A Dollar...during a Steam Sale
- Thread starter Mor
- Start date
- Status
Having played about 4-5 hours of Persona 5 Tactica, I have to say this game isn't worth £55.
It's a decent game, and fans of Persona will enjoy it, but £55 is daylight robbery for the production values of this game. There are games half the price of this that have more depth to them.
It's a decent game, and fans of Persona will enjoy it, but £55 is daylight robbery for the production values of this game. There are games half the price of this that have more depth to them.
All Star Citizen backers who want to sweep the floors of their star cruisers and wait on trains in real time should take heed!
Some realism that may be impractical is ok, no need for absolutes. Ie, most Half-Life weapons have reloads where Doom's and Quake's just didn't previously
I think the point isn't that realism is bad, as you point out, Half Life's world feels much more real than anything in big shooters that came before. It's that realism isn't valuable in and of itself. The loading forces you to plan a head and introduces some tension. And if you don't have enough tension, combat could get too easy and stop being fun.Some realism that may be impractical is ok, no need for absolutes. Ie, most Half-Life weapons have reloads where Doom's and Quake's just didn't previously
And funny enough, in Alyx manual re-loading actually becomes a game mechanic that is both frustrating, kinda cool and ultimately serves to make things exciting and thus fun.
I'm not sure if this is new. But Steam now keeps track of your controller.
So if you look at a game it will tell you if it's compatible with it on the store page.
I know that they were adding PS control stuff on Steam pages, but it is nice how this is extra information based off the controllers that you do use.
-------------
Full controller support
-support for your Xbox controller
-support for other controllers unknown.
So if you look at a game it will tell you if it's compatible with it on the store page.
I know that they were adding PS control stuff on Steam pages, but it is nice how this is extra information based off the controllers that you do use.
-------------
Full controller support
-support for your Xbox controller
-support for other controllers unknown.
Sony released three PC games this year, Returnal (3200 reviews), Last of Us (23400 reviews) and Ratchet and Clank (4000 reviews).
Not exactly huge successes.
I really hope Forbiden West does better than this, because I don't want Sony to reconsider and start thinking "meh, maybe it's not worth it"
Now of course, Ratchet being low seller is not that surprising, it is not a game PC gamers en masse would be interested in. But I am somewhat surprised about Returnal, roguelike is a big genre on PC and there aren't many AAA ones.
Not exactly huge successes.
I really hope Forbiden West does better than this, because I don't want Sony to reconsider and start thinking "meh, maybe it's not worth it"
Now of course, Ratchet being low seller is not that surprising, it is not a game PC gamers en masse would be interested in. But I am somewhat surprised about Returnal, roguelike is a big genre on PC and there aren't many AAA ones.
At that price point and with this late as hell strategy there will never be anything succesfull on PC from them
Helldivers 2 might be a sleeper hit, i hope at least, if they start talking about the PC version of the game (Instead of hiding It) properly
- Premium Price
- Piss poor regional pricing (non-US player base is lesser)
- Hype was diffused once people knew PS games would be coming to PC (not as exciting to grab them)
- Returnal and R&C have much lower brand value/perception and popularity (R&C isn't what it used to in PS2 days)
- Late ports
- Terrible pricing
- Blocked in Russia (huge PC market)
Isn't that a Steam-wide thing? I am not sure how that really works with the sanctions and Valve being a US company.
take in mind too a lot of people have PS4/PS5 consoles and already have those games, not many usually double dip their games.
What is this now, it says it for every game if I don't click the don't show this on future games thingie, even those that do natively support the DS4 and show icons.
Seams like Valve changed something in ho low they check for this support via Steam input and companies that did they own non standard implementation are now going to get this warning until they update.What is this now, it says it for every game if I don't click the don't show this on future games thingie, even those that do natively support the DS4 and show icons.
That's my quick take anyway.
The ROI is still there even with middling sales. It's not like SIE management expects those 2 years+ late releases to top off the charts.
Hence why I don't see Sony stopping their PC initiative, they knew well in advance what to expect.
The only way to make big bucks on PC is....well to release day and date.
There might be a reason as to why it's how most publishers operate.
I have no idea why people (even here on Metacouncil) are even entertaining the thought of Sony walking back their PC porting. I understand why hardcore Sony fans would still be on that train but we should really know better.
I enjoyed Returnal a lot but I specifically don't recommend it to people. It is NOT accessible, has no difficulty settings, and popular roguelikes on PC have historically been much cheaper AND been more forgiving out the gate, scaling to crazy difficulty optionally as you keep going over and over and over. Returnal is harder than most Soulslikes and less forgiving AND has no way to work around the difficulty (grinding, cheese tactics).
I think there's a great game there but it is WAY more niche than it might appear at first glance. I had a great time but I was lucky it was just the right balance for me, and even then it got frustrating a lot of the time when it probably didn't need to be.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #968
me neither, seriously, and we got this conversation quite a few times already jfc
Basically this. The status quo has proven unquestionably that it doesn’t impact console sales, and stopping these ports would not improve console sales. If it did, Sony would’ve stopped porting (or not started), yet they continue to do it.
There’s no incentive to stop, so they won’t. I think where things are up for discussion is the timing of releases. Sony clearly thinks doing PC day and date with PlayStation is harmful to them in some way.
People give Jim Ryan shit for the PC decision, but these decisions don’t happen on Monday and get implemented by Friday. We know Sony’s been looking at the PC market for a long time (they basically said PS4 Pro was a response to people building PCs). They were likely discussing PC ports for a long time - probably back when they were discussing with their third party partners the impact of PC sales on PS4 sales (likely none).
What is this now, it says it for every game if I don't click the don't show this on future games thingie, even those that do natively support the DS4 and show icons.
New meta data for controllers. If it does not have the meta data it defaults to Steam Input.
Last edited:
No. Blocking sales in Russia is something devs/pubs have to do themselves.
The issue steam has (had?) in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus is (was?) that the bank they use can't (couldn't?) deposit money to developers in those countries.
That's unless developers change their payment info to a bank that's outside those countries (assuming the issue isn't fixed yet)
That's unless developers change their payment info to a bank that's outside those countries (assuming the issue isn't fixed yet)
Returnal does have the disadvantage of having really high minimum specs -- at least compared to everything in the roguelike genre that's massively successful on PC. I don't think this has been mentioned yet and it could have a non-negligible impact.
(I loved Returnal FWIW. By far my favourite of the Sony games on PC, though that's not exactly a high bar at this point)
Oh yeah, it must be the payment side for developers that is affected by this, as Russian banks have been cut off from SWIFT. Then it's a bit strange why Sony would block sales when they don't have to. Of course, it could be a Sony-wide decision not to do business any more in Russia (and extending that to include any digital services) following the invasion.
Discussion - What are you currently playing? (Week 47 of 2023)
New week, new thread! What are you playing? Having a bad time at work lately so I bought a used PS4 Pro again to feel better. I finished Shin Sakura Wars on my previous one then sold it because I really didn't like the console back then. This time I am going to play more games on it, and it...
metacouncil.com
Question, can VRR be enabled in-app/game only or it has to also be enabled in the nvidia control panel universally for all apps or per app on the control panel? How do folks usually do it? Just enable it for windowed + fullscreen apps and leave it at that? Enable it only when it's an in-game setting? Enable it universally in the control panel then disable it for specific apps? 30fps apps have a lot of flicker with it on in my case so maybe disable it for such? Are there conflicts between the nvidia control panel setting and in-game settings that are just about regular vsync, does one work over the other? I'm pretty sure I've seen games have tearing with VRR on in control panel but vsync off in their own settings, it has to be enabled as well? Idk how stuff works...
100% they played a big role, and anyone who says otherwise needs a paddling.
I also liked Returnal, but the launch was so so buggy and it was nearly impossible to enjoy a non-screwed up co-op session with my friend for like the first 6-8 weeks. That was my first Sony game I played on PC too, so it set my expectations and opinion of their efforts really low.
To this day I'm still unsure if they ever fixed certain room/mob combinations setting off a hard lock/crash.
I believe it’s universal.
I switch VRR on for full screen only, and you should keep vsync enabled while using it. Some people say you shouldn’t enable Windowed + Fullscreen, and when I tried it on my old TV I got flicker (see below for more info on VRR flicker).
You get tearing in VRR if your framerate goes above or below the VRR range of your display. Vsync will stop that, but a framerate cap of 1hz below your display’s maximum (eg if your display is 120hz, cap FPS at 119 - sometimes Windows will automatically do 199.88, which is also fine) is also an option. Either way, VRR will still function.
I don't think you can enable or disable VRR on a game-by-game basis, but I prefer instead to cap or lock framerate in games if I have issues.
If you get VRR flickering, that’s your display. Some displays with VRR do just flicker - it’s actually brightness flickering as the display changes brightness depending on refresh rate. My old TV changed brightness at 50hz and 100hz. If you get that issue at certain framerates, you may want to run your game in a way where it doesn’t cross that threshold often or at all.
Since switching to an LG OLED C2 I’ve never encountered any VRR issues.
It's not that hard too see why Sony releases games on PC
Game development takes more and more time while sales are still on par with previous gens and salaries need to be paid every year. What's the best way to reuse something you already have to get money to pay salaries? Rerelease an older title
The problem is that you can only rerelease a game so many times on a single console and for full price before even your most hardcore fans stop buying it. Even tLoU2 has a 10 bucks upgrade pack
So what's left? Xbox? It's from your main competitor. Nintendo? Main competitor and lacks power. And here we are: PC. Drop the game there, sell 1 million, and suddenly you can pay the dev salaries for one or two more years while their next game finishes development
Game development takes more and more time while sales are still on par with previous gens and salaries need to be paid every year. What's the best way to reuse something you already have to get money to pay salaries? Rerelease an older title
The problem is that you can only rerelease a game so many times on a single console and for full price before even your most hardcore fans stop buying it. Even tLoU2 has a 10 bucks upgrade pack
So what's left? Xbox? It's from your main competitor. Nintendo? Main competitor and lacks power. And here we are: PC. Drop the game there, sell 1 million, and suddenly you can pay the dev salaries for one or two more years while their next game finishes development
I always have a max fps well below my monitor's max of 144, I don't wanna overwork my GPU/electricity for no reason. So I don't understand the tearing.
Does "fullscreen" cover "borderless fullscreen" though cos usually I set games to that (and there are games that only have that as an option too), that's why I choose both. I get flicker when it's low fps as mentioned, yes. It's an old cheap g-sync compatible monitor. I don't play many 30fps, usually just RetroArch oldies.
Also yeah just realized I couldn't set it different per app/game, only "3D settings" can be done like that in Nvidia control panel, gsync option is separate tab.
Borderless Fullscreen usually works with VRR for me.
The tearing below 144 is odd, unless you’re playing at a framerate below your display’s VRR range. Or is your monitor refresh set to something below 144hz?
And emulators were probably my biggest cause of flicker - can’t really help you there.
I took a Mandela effect in the face something fierce just now.
Feels weird.
Like, I’m glad that you are well and good, Stephan Eicher, but you have been dead for a couple of years.
Just skimmed through the wikipedia entry about the phenomenon and, what, Mr. Monopoly doesn't have a fucking monocle ?
Feels weird.
Like, I’m glad that you are well and good, Stephan Eicher, but you have been dead for a couple of years.
Just skimmed through the wikipedia entry about the phenomenon and, what, Mr. Monopoly doesn't have a fucking monocle ?
Can't set my monitor refresh rate when it's in VRR mode. I just set a global fps cap. I'm ok with 30fps flickering, again it's really only oldies like that which have such a cap in Nvidia control panel (or new demanding games I can't run at higher fps/settings but oh well, both are not the norm). But yeah there's been tearing with vsync off while having VRR enabled for both fullscreen and windowed apps. Oh well, guess it varies by system.
Last edited:
To be fair here, there is such a thing as micro climates in real life, where geological features can cause rather stark differences in weather between places that are not super far away otherwise. Large mountain ranges are an obvious example, as they can block low level cloud formations and thus cause some places to have a lot more rain/humidity and other places to be much more arid.
I think there is also a consistent change in the weather a bit later in the game, so that unifies things a little. Of course the real reason, most likely, is that for most locations the weather is just "baked in" and it would have likely been a pretty huge expense to remodel the levels around a couple of consistent weather types that change over the course of the story. As I didn't travel between areas until the very end of the game, it didn't really affect things too much for me, as I wasn't thinking much more than just completing the game at that point while traversing.
At the start at Cauldron Lake, if you are walking from the parking area where it is dusk and overcast, you go into the forest/lake area where it is raining and pitch dark. You go back to the parking area it stops raining and its dusk again, you go back to the forest, it is dark again. Back and forth it switches which completely destroys immersion.
Sure, I could handwave it away as "being in the forest is making it darker", but there is still the rain. Although you have not much reason to go back and forth in that location.
BUT! That goes all the way out of the window in Watery, where it's the same with being dark in Coffee World and daytime in Watery/Lighthouse/Trailerpark where you story-wise go back and forth between those locations.
Sure, I could handwave it away as "being in the forest is making it darker", but there is still the rain. Although you have not much reason to go back and forth in that location.
BUT! That goes all the way out of the window in Watery, where it's the same with being dark in Coffee World and daytime in Watery/Lighthouse/Trailerpark where you story-wise go back and forth between those locations.
The changes you highlight ultimately help set the mood a lot better, so I think complaining about realism is a bit dull. And we could also argue that it's an effect from places where the Dark Place is having a strong influence and Taken start to appear. Let us also not forget that an ongoing meta plot is how manuscript is changing the story, so the fakeness of the weather could even be seen as attention to detail as horror stories usually describe things like weather, how dark it is and so on to set the mood. Of course that's a very "meta" way of thinking about it, but it feels justified for a game that is as meta as Alan Wake II is.
I have no issues with realism, it is a Fantasy story.
What I have issues with, is my immersion. The Alan Wake segments are fine, even if I prefer the Saga segments.
And the shifting weather or daytime is never mentioned (so far, I am only at Coffee World) by Saga as part of the reality-shifting nature of the manuscripts. She does mention other aspects of the reality shift, so we don't have an issue with an unreliable narrator, she does acknowledge the different realities and memories of her and the townspeople.
So not mentioning the daytime shifts makes the darkness a gameplay feature that is done for gameplay reasons and not the narrative. Which totally destroys my immersion.
So not mentioning the daytime shifts makes the darkness a gameplay feature that is done for gameplay reasons and not the narrative. Which totally destroys my immersion.
This is where you're mistaken
It is not explicitly mentioned, but remember that we only see fragments of the manuscript. Presumably there is an entire continuos story, and why would that complete story not talk about weather or how dark it is? It's a horror story, of course it mentions those things.
At least on NV, you can disable and enable G-sync/VRR on a per-profile (and thus per-game/app) basis.
This is usually not needed for games, but there are several applications I use that behave badly in very specific circumstances with VRR. Two I know off the top of my head are the Godot engine editor and Krita.
Another hit from the Skull Island: Rise of Kong publisher.
Really fucking sad to see unchecked fascism rising in the world.
- Status