Randomly Mine #13

My apologies for not releasing this document earlier as another video was in the works. However, I decided to make this a longer Randomly Mine document to account for lost time.

Thank you for your continued support, and hopefully, you get something out of this and the latest for the channel.

Superficial

Recently, I’ve been reversing the nerd sin of never seeing the Indiana Jones movies. Last Crusade still needs to be crossed off my list but unlike my underwhelming experience with Star Wars, the Indiana Jones movies hold up very well. 

It’s easy to understand why this franchise became a template for action-adventure films. They elegantly balance humor, drama, tension, and tone with a production that admirably holds up almost forty years later. And even when it doesn’t hold up, it’s hard to not be charmed by the green-screen and backgrounds.

But Indiana Jones has been rather absent when it comes to video-games. There were classic adventure games in the LucasArts era, and even some decent titles on the N64 and PS2. But the general attitude I’ve seen gamers have about the prospect of a new Indiana Jones game is “what’s the point?”

Uncharted is already a popular franchise and Tomb Raider’s been gaming’s star archaeologist for decades.

However, this is a common reaction I’ve seen in regards to video-game comparisons. They’re quite superficial.

Indiana Jones, Uncharted, and Tomb Raider, are action-adventures staring a knowledgeable hero fighting against a villain with dangerous intentions. They run, jump, shoot, and solve puzzles.

But hold on a moment.

Running, jumping, shooting, and solving puzzles…

That could be Half Life, Resident Evil, Legend of Zelda, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, DOOM, or dozens of other franchises.

Just because Uncharted and Tomb Raider took inspiration from Indiana Jones, it doesn’t mean there’s nothing that could be done with the originator.

Though in fairness, I think the hesitation players have stems from a history of licensed games coming full circle and copying the gameplay of IP’s that ripped off their premise and style.

But still, while there’s always room for doubting a publisher which owns a particular brand, that shouldn’t stop people from seeing potential or coming up with innovative mechanics to match the brand’s power.

That, and it’d be cool to hear Harrison Ford in a game. 

A PC Problem

Load times…

They’re great on PC, fantastic. In-fact, rarely is there a PC title that takes forever to load. The Battlefield games come to mind, but those are exceptions to the rule.

And old games? Forget about it. They load practically instantly, which is far preferable compared to their console counter parts that are stuck with the same 20-40 seconds no matter what generation they’re played in.

But there’s one nitpick to be had, and that’s in the 7th generation, games loved tips. Everyone at the same time seemed to think it was great to put information in a loading screen. You’re not doing anything else, might as well get you to read, right? Never mind that Triple A games are terrified of reading in any other context. It’s fine.

At some point, someone decided to push the ball forward and include story details in these loading screens. Lore’s going to be a lot more interesting than a tip that says something to the effect of hold forward to move forward.

Then someone had the bright idea to make these lines of text descriptions by your own otherwise silent character.

Yeah, I’m actually just talking about Far Cry 2 now.

And while it was a great idea for its time, Metro’s the only game I can come up with where a silent protagonist showed their personality while loading.

There’s a big problem.

On PC, Far Cry 2 loads instantly, meaning that the only source of my character’s souls isn’t readable unless I speed read like Sonic became a Librarian.

You can never predict technology. I highly doubt those making games for the SNES and Genesis thought we’d have the graphical power of today so soon. However, something you can bet on is speed, and that if something in your game relies on a certain speed, be it framerate or load times, rest assured. It’s going to increase in time.

007 Legends on PC...

Might just be the worst PC port of a video-game I’ve ever come across.

It’s not that the game fails to run like Saints Row 2 or GTAIV did at launch. It’s not the gluttony of DLC like DOA5: Last Round. What it is, is unplayable from the ground up.

Its resolution is locked to 720p internally and normally that’d be pathetic, but you know what, it doesn’t even mattered compared to the primary issue.

007 Legends is a console FPS on PC that doesn’t have gamepad support, nor mouse settings other than sensitivity, with mouse-acceleration so severe, you’d be just as capable of killing with your feet.

Imagine someone else moving their hand on top of yours while playing Counter Strike. Think of a magnet pulling your mouse while in the middle of a 1v1 in Quake. Imagine if the sensitivity between Call of Duty’s normal aim and ADS had the difference of 300% built in.

That’s what it’s like playing this game.

I’ve been arguing for sometime that any console game should just get a PC port after a number of years for the sake of preserving games. 

But not like this.

Because this isn’t preserving 007 Legends.

It’s butchering it.

We’ll Bang Okay?

Bioware recently announced that Anthem won’t have the company’s tradition of Romances. Now, this isn’t a big surprise for me, Anthem is a game built in response to the likes of Destiny, Warframe, and The Division. Most familiar with the genre didn’t expect grinding for gear to be accompanied with getting your freak on. This was likely said exclusively for Bioware fans who aren’t familiar with MMO-Lite.

However, this gives me the opportunity to bring up Bioware’s general missed opportunity with romances.

I said on Twitter that the company drilled a formula into the ground and I mean it.

Whether you’re with a young psychopath haunted by PTSD, a noble knight, or a suited up alien, the pattern is the same.

The character in question hints at a romantic interest, the player character initiates this – and can also shut it down completely without challenge – the character joins without any question or doubt, they declare love, and have a passionate session the night before they may die, and then the story is over.

And I couldn’t see how this was satisfying.

Not only does holding sex as a relationship’s conclusion kinda off-putting, it’s also a huge missed opportunity.

By putting 90% of the relationships under this pattern, there’s no chance for characters to stand out not just in their personality, but in their circumstance.

Why couldn’t romances be mixed up with character’s who are single mothers, just coming off a previous relationship, or have truly never done something as simple as a date?

I find it bizarre that in the current state of romances in games, Tali and Jack can have an identical romance plot despite being polar opposites everywhere else.

Optimization

Recently I upgraded my machine for gameplay and capturing. From an R9 390 at 1080p to a GTX 1080 at 1440p, and while I’ve felt liberated being able to run games and capture them with far less tinkering and worry, part of me is frustrated by what seems like needless complications.

When a game that ran at 1080p 60fps on low settings with my old card is able to surpass in framerate at 1440p on ultra, I don’t feel that is just because of the GPU’s horsepower.

Something else is going on.

And this is due to Nvidia’s GPU dominance in the market.

Not only are the cards themselves more impressive than AMD’s current offering - the 500 and VEGA series – they’re also combined with software and personal involvement with specific titles that allow Nvidia to optimize the card for games immediately at launch.

AMD’s inability to make a superior card also combines with unfair tactics and tinkering by team green, consistently creating technology such as PhysX, Hairworks, or Gameworks, that optimize software in a closed environment, rather than open source where everybody benefits.

It’s just one thing that makes me glad I didn’t end up waiting for a new card by Nvidia that I would’ve had to give my entire paycheck to.

I’m terrified about this new video.

I really am…

Driving Difficulty

This is something I’ll likely elaborate on in a future project, but I think it’s interesting that driving games have a unique struggle when it comes to difficulty. Mainly, in that there’s two settings.

The AI’s skill is what every driving game I’ve been playing from the PS2 era calls difficulty. Easy, medium, or hard.

But easy, medium, or hard, also extends – I’d argue more – to the vehicle you’re driving. Putting you in a VW Lupo on hard mode isn’t going to be more challenging than a Koenigsegg CCX on easy.

And that I think is why games like Forza have difficulty selection be so in depth. Accounting for everything from damage to traction or stability control. Having eight levels of AI skill instead of three.

It’s something that should be standardized in driving games because this isn’t an FPS where guns are suddenly more difficult to handle the farther in get into the game.

In-fact, it’s often the opposite.