Community MetaSteam | February 2025 - Dragon Pirates of the Bohemian Wilds
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Wukong's benchmark hit 85k concurrent. Using simple math and pattern recognition, Monster Hunter Wilds will peak at 1.3 million.
I interviewed Johnny from Health (amazing band if you haven't heard them before) about how Max Payne 3 changed things for them, a funny story about the GTA V song they did, how the Cyberpunk 2077 collaboration almost didn't happen, how he played most of Elden Ring on tour on Steam Deck, his thoughts on streaming services, the Evangelion memes, and more for RPG Site.
I understand your point, and I agree that VA can elevate a scene, or a story moment, or give the impression that a game is higher quality
But again that's not what makes the average spender show up. Once again you can point at gachas to see multiple very popular ones that don't have full voice acting (especially in ones that have long story scenes). Some gachas don't have EN VA at all, and some only have unit/gameplay VA (so no voiced story scene at all in all languages) and still make millions
We can actually see this in non-gacha games too. Let's ignore Nintendo and pretend they have their own fanbase that doesn't follow normal rules, once again I'm pointing at Ubisoft, EA, WB, all big companies that have fully voiced games and most importantly fully voiced games in multiple languages (not just english and japanese). Their games also have very good graphics on average and big advertisement budgets, and yet all of them had multiple failures this gen. Graphics, VA, presentation, music, these are all things that make a game feel high budget, feel AAA, but ultimately they don't actually decide the future of a game. They're an extra, the one thing that helps with marketability, but in the end you still need to have "something" to actually market
Hell, I keep insisting on western companies, but I can make the same points for eastern companies. Capcom is actually the one JP company that has taken VA the most seriously. Resident Evil games are fully voice acted in multiple languages, MHW is fully voice acted in multiple languages, the new Onimusha will be fully voice acted in multiple languages. They also had multiple success stories this gen. But is it really because of the voice acting, or because they are making games that people want to play?
Same for Sega, same for Square Enix, same for Bandai Namco. Let's talk about Bamco: they also had many failures this gen (especially the past year), but they also had multiple success stories, including ones with games that don't have full voice acting (or don't have english voice acting at all). The games that did well managed to pull it off because they targeted the correct customers, while games with no "targets" failed on all front. I didn't want to pick on this game in particular since it's a confirmed failure with confirmed layoffs, but Unknown 9 is fully voice acted in multiple languages (7 dub tracks in total). Unknown 9 is also a literal steaming pile of shit, and it "sold" like a steaming pile of shit
Talking about indies, Disco Elysium is a very successful RPG with tons of voiced text. You know which other indies sold a ton? Undertale (no VAs, and Toby's cheap ass couldn't even bother to pay for more translations outside of JP for both the original and Deltarune despite selling millions), Hollow Knight (simlish-like VA), Palworld (only cries and grunts). Again, VAs don't matter when you have a good hook. Also DE is "indie" but there is also a clear budget behind it (just look at what happened behind the scenes). The vast majority of indie developers in no way can afford full voice acting for their games. Voice acting is cheap only if you have a real backing behind it
One last point, and for this let's go back to Sega. I personally think the "fixation" with voice acting is a very "english/american" thing. All right, in Japan VA is a massive business too, but most of these VA discussions seem to be made with an english point of view. It's specifically because I'm italian that maybe I don't care about english voice acting (or maybe voice acting at all), after all it's not my native language. So when Sega decided to give their Yakuza games more budget they didn't just add english voice acting (which is not a small task in any way, most Yakuza games have tons of voiced lines), they also decided to translate the games in many more languages instead of being EN/JP only (and that included italian). This part honestly makes the game feel much higher budget than simply having english VA, it also opens the game to more markets including the massive chinese PC market. Even when talking about western companies I don't care nor listen to the EN dubs because the game defaults to the IT dub, and I assure you most of those are very well made. And they're also not cheap at all: italian voice actors are paid well, and honestly italian voice acting is one of the easiest way to separate a true AAA budget from the lower ones. Which is why in no way I fault developers for skipping it
Huge success for them. Very nice to see. At this rate they'll make their money back within the first few days if they haven't already.
Thanks for the write up, mate.
Also, Disco Elysium didn't have full voice acting until they were a hit. Only a select part of the game was voiced before the Extended cut release.
In General, full voice acting also narrows the scope of the game and its choices.
Find the issue:
Fallout 2
Fallout 4
Or from Bioware:
Baldurs gate 2:
Mass Effect:
Steam achievements are up for Watch_Dogs 2!
The source of that rumour is iconera, a forum that is apparently known for being obsessed about playstation and hating pc?
If so, I wouldn't trust any pc related rumours coming from there.
"IconEra" lmao. This is like asking on an official Nintendo forum if they like emulation.
While I agree that the source in this case is laughable, Sony not putting a Souls game on PC for no reason whatsoever is the most believable thing ever.
OP
OP
Back when the debug executable leaked for Dark Souls Bamco hired some law firm that went after everyone trying to host the debug.exe, and I think Durante's self hosted DSFix was collateral damage. Obviously it survived, as did the debug executable.
I think Bamco's community manager at the time did confirm that it was a mistake, but obviously it's not great that it happened in the first place.
That's what I recall anyway, but it's been a while.
Not sure if my memory can be trusted!
s&box
Weird but cool that Valve is doing this. A missed opportunity to not have a new wave of titles - or one flagship - open and modable like in the HL & 2 days plus give the ability to release the mods/total conversions stand alone/commercially (within terms/reason of course) but better a 3rd party than noone at all I guess.Garry's Mod developer currently making successor s&box on the latest Source Engine said:
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Thanks for the write up, mate.
Also, Disco Elysium didn't have full voice acting until they were a hit. Only a select part of the game was voiced before the Extended cut release.
In General, full voice acting also narrows the scope of the game and its choices.
Find the issue:
Fallout 2
Fallout 4
Or from Bioware:
Baldurs gate 2:
Mass Effect:
Using bioware and bethesda, 2 of the most incompetent devs in history who should have never had any success at all, is misleading.
It's been proven by other devs that you can still have full VA and have deep conversations. I mean BG3 was not even 2 years ago.
Valve is finally (indirectly) licensing Source 2? It only took a decade. Valve time is too strong.Weird but cool that Valve is doing this. A missed opportunity to not have a new wave of titles - or one flagship - open and modable like in the HL & 2 days plus give the ability to release the mods/total conversions stand alone/commercially (within terms/reason of course) but better a 3rd party than noone at all I guess.s&box
sbox.game
OP
OP
It has nothing to do with competency but with scope. And 95% of devs narrow the scope because of full voice acting. Regardless if there is an outlier like BG3
You just can't be flexible and have walls of text for your game.
Any change in dialogue needs another voice actor session and possibly even new motion capture.
Play Fire Emblem Three Houses. According to my friend it's extremely long (3.5 routes), has full VA and apparently really good story.
I still haven't started the game. Switch 2 needs to come asap.
I still haven't started the game. Switch 2 needs to come asap.
Achievement update for Watch Dogs 1 and 2 is out.
store.steampowered.com
store.steampowered.com
Watch_Dogs™ - Achievements Unlocked for Watch Dogs - Steam News
Steam Achievements Unlocked for Watch Dogs.
Watch_Dogs® 2 - Achievements Unlocked for Watch Dogs 2 - Steam News
Attention Dedsec, We are pleased to announce that Steam Achievements are now available for Watch Dogs 2! As a heads up, achievements will be retroactively earned for the accomplishments already completed in your game. For the sync to happen you need to launch the game once, and the previously...
The problem is the dialogue is:Thanks for the write up, mate.
Find the issue:
Fallout 2
Fallout 4
Or from Bioware:
Mass Effect:
Stupid!
Stupid! (Angry)
Stupid! (Flirty)
(Ask another question that leads back to these same three answers)
You forgot:
y: Consoles players
x: can't scroll
a: so they need
b: at max 4 dialogue options for their silly buttons
Looking at monitors and wondering if this is like the 21:9/32:9 1440 UW monitors where you can make the screen 16:9 and it just turns off the pixels on the side. Example is at 6:22 for this UW:
After 6:22 the person has the game just in the middle..
Is the 32 4K MPG 322URX QD-OLED able to do this as well? I know its not an UW and such.
After 6:22 the person has the game just in the middle..
Is the 32 4K MPG 322URX QD-OLED able to do this as well? I know its not an UW and such.
Every time I see a video thumbnail like this, I get tempted to invest in an ultrawide for shmups lol. I could set my LG 850 vertical for shmups and have 21:9 next to it (when I get a new desk) for some games like the Falcom ports, Tsushima, etc.
I am askign baout a non-UW 16:9 4K monitor that for the one pvp game I play I would like to scale down. Wondering if the fucntion of that on UW can be done on the non-uw
If I'm understanding correctly, it depends on the game but maybe Windows lets you work around it. My only experience doing 21:9 on 16:9 displays has been on laptops and handhelds for testing. Some games let you just choose 21:9 aspect ratio and play with black bars up and down on a 16:9 display. Some games only show you the 21:9 aspect ratio on those displays (but maybe there's a way to force it that I'm not aware about).
The monitors do it selves now. You can make the UW have two inputs and behave like dual monitor setup.
Yup three houses is a great example and one I keep forgetting has full VA.
Same boat ! I recently got the urge to finally play it, but it’s not an easy game for me to tackle.
Emulating it is nice but my save will be locked on PC, though I don’t think it’s an issue it bugs me. And whatever emulation glitch there may or may not be. And while I’m no stranger to emulation, I like to pay for my games, too. I’m not 12 anymore.
Buying a Switch 1 in 2025 is pushing on insane territory. But the damn Switch 2 is still far away. And the price of both game and xpac, I swear Nintendo horrible game prices are more stable than gold.
Yeah, it's a huge undertaking. My friend spent over 200 hours and finished everything in the main game. Took him months. He didn't even get the DLC campaign.
Definitely don't buy a Switch 1 now lol unless you an find a way to sell it at relatively good price afterwards. Switch 2 should be released around summer. If I plan to spend 200 hours on a game I would rather play it on something that allows it to run better. I know, switch 1 games running better on 2 is still an assumption but we will know more in April.
Crossing fingers but yeah, not convinced Switch 2 will have any effect on Switch 1 games, outside of a select few. And I admit I'm a Debbie Downer here but releasing in Summer ? Hmm, I would say September-October, more realistically.
I'm not arguing with you, I want you to be right here
Thats a massive gap in your JRPG experience, you should correct that ASAP, imo of course.
I only gravitate towards select strategy RPG hybrids, but I absolutely LOVED Three Houses. Thoroughly enjoyed the plot (and the different ways you can progress through it), and I still fondly remember so many of the characters. Omega Force knocked it out of the park, it's their magnum opus.
No worries.Crossing fingers but yeah, not convinced Switch 2 will have any effect on Switch 1 games, outside of a select few. And I admit I'm a Debbie Downer here but releasing in Summer ? Hmm, I would say September-October, more realistically.
I'm not arguing with you, I want you to be right here
Nintendo is planning a live demo event in different cities globally, and the latest one is holding in June. So the popular speculation is that it is launching in July or August. Hopefully the prediction is right. I really should have played it earlier. I prefer to game on PC first so I completely forgot those unplayed Switch games on the shelf.Thats a massive gap in your JRPG experience, you should correct that ASAP, imo of course.
I only gravitate towards select strategy RPG hybrids, but I absolutely LOVED Three Houses. Thoroughly enjoyed the plot (and the different ways you can progress through it), and I still fondly remember so many of the characters. Omega Force knocked it out of the park, it's their magnum opus.
Sounds like an exhilarating experience.
It's so weird seeing the mental gymnastics from console fanboys trying to say that the game failed. The difference between a brand new release and a port is that a port costs significantly less to make than a full game with new assets and such.How it started (for our friends at Icon Era):
How it's going:
Spiderman 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart "undersold" according to Sony (Back when they were only on PS5), but apparently did decently on PC, so why would it be any different with Square Enix unless they fumble the ball with the port (Which let's be realistic, people will buy it regardless)? Every time I've seen an IconEra post appear on X, it was console war nonsense, so it's somehow infinitely worse than ResetEra's reputation ever was.
From what I've seen of gameplay and the cinematics, it just feels like "We have Baldur's Gate 3 at home", setting aside any of the controversies or the (reportedly) mind-numbing gameplay or millennial-tinged writing for a second. I feel indifferent to it, mainly because BioWare isn't the BioWare from the KoTOR or Mass Effect eras, and I got better things to do than to constantly A-Log video games that I don't plan on playing or find entertainment from mocking.
Looks like Civ7 reviews are very mid. And the user reviews for the early launch are negative.
A lot of complaints from people for many different things. And some are even saying this was made for consoles and not pc...wtf is 2K doing.
Disappointing indeed.
I skipped Civ6 and probably gonna skip 7 unless they turn it around over time with expansions/updates.
I should have bought the cheap complete Civ6 deal during winter sale. Also I think I'm gonna look/wait for a good deal on AOE4 and play that later this year. MS is continuing to update it and looks like people liked it for the most part.
Keeping an eye on Manor Lords getting out of EA as well when its ready. That one was a ton of fun and has a lot of potential.
A lot of complaints from people for many different things. And some are even saying this was made for consoles and not pc...wtf is 2K doing.
Disappointing indeed.
I skipped Civ6 and probably gonna skip 7 unless they turn it around over time with expansions/updates.
I should have bought the cheap complete Civ6 deal during winter sale. Also I think I'm gonna look/wait for a good deal on AOE4 and play that later this year. MS is continuing to update it and looks like people liked it for the most part.
Keeping an eye on Manor Lords getting out of EA as well when its ready. That one was a ton of fun and has a lot of potential.
From what I gathered from the IGN review there is a streamlining issue but overall it's a combination of the traditional incomplete first new Civ entry and absolute insane lack of tooltips for the most basic shit.
It doesn't seem unsalvageable.
Tried the MHW benchmark just to see it. I think it's one of the best looking games ever, everything everywhere is dense, intricate and in so many ways dynamic. Maybe each asset isn't the best but everything comes together beautifully and seamlessly, it looks one of a kind even with this small glimpse. I get like 20 fps at medium-ish settings, lol. Resolution seems to be a huge factor, I can get near 30 if I go super low (with extreme upscaling). Sucks I won't be playing on this ol rig.
Civ has a special place in my heart, I remember playing the very first one all those years ago.
I feel like it peaked at around 5. I did enjoy 6 but am not sure if i'll bother with 7. Seem like they make changes just for changes sake. I guess thats the same as any long term franchise. How do you keep making the same game but different?
I feel like it peaked at around 5. I did enjoy 6 but am not sure if i'll bother with 7. Seem like they make changes just for changes sake. I guess thats the same as any long term franchise. How do you keep making the same game but different?
Wait, map sizes in Civ 7 are tiny!? the biggest is "standard"? I saw that on one of the reviews. That sounds awful, I always always play on biggest map with fewer AI civs.
Yeah I do that, Big map - about 3-4 other civs.
Oh no my Mac doesnt really play KCD 1 that well, so thought I would buy it on console, but neither xbox nor playstation play it well either.
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