Influential games and their horrible horrible consequences

[Local Degenerate]

Snip

At least Monster Rancher 1 and 2 (read, the only ones worth playing) got a re-release on the Switch, and they DID get a new game...some bullshit Ultraman crossover where you raise Kaiju. The franchise is slowly trying to crawl back, and I couldn't be happier.

Also, I'm personally kinda looking forwards to Palworld. It'll probably suck, since the devs are kinda notorious for half finished indie projects, but the idea of pokemon, but real world, both when it comes to having them help domestically (say, getting a water mon to help garden), and giving a snorlax a minigun and using him as a portable cover.

Stupid as hell, but should at least be worth a laugh.

 

[Wesker]

I swear they used to go for 80 bucks at most. Have the retro hipster soyboys really destroyed the market that much?

I think that's probably it. Ten years ago you could get them for nothing with 50 games on average.

I haven't checked in some time but there's quite a bit that aren't that bad but there's "refurbished" ones that are nearer to $200. I have no problem buying one used, but many look dirty like they have old crusted cum stains on them.

 

[Epoch]

I think that's probably it. Ten years ago you could get them for nothing with 50 games on average.

I haven't checked in some time but there's quite a bit that aren't that bad but there's "refurbished" ones that are nearer to $200. I have no problem buying one used, but many look dirty like they have old crusted cum stains on them.

View attachment 4469705

Try checking local game stores or pawn shops, Ebay is usually full of garbage prices. I could understand a fat going for more, but 130 for a slim is just ridiculous, considering they were in production until 2013.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (allegedly) resulted in everything being brown and grim for years. Not because COD was bad, but that everything had to be mAtUrE, and it was a long time before people started appreciating gamey games and color and beauty again.

 

[ChucklesTheJester]

And then you have games like Overblood that look worse.
View attachment 4461504

And yet it still looks better then the indie games aiming for ps1 style. There is a charm to the way ps1 Looks. The Wobble ( look at the top of the door) for example. Nowadays It's slap a CRT/VHS filter on a low texture game while making it really hard to see anything.

Look how colorful Overblood and parasite eve are. Things pop, it's pleasant to look out even with out a CRT filter.

Even bad games like "Virus: It's aware" look better despite being far worse game design and play ability wise.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

That a lot of people think this is a good idea--that horror is meant to be read into rather than simply read--is one reason I tend to avoid most things Matpat covers. If they're effectively designed so that you need a theory video to understand them, what even is the point?

I'd agree it started with PewDiePie. Pretty much every game he covered got a huge burst in popularity. Happy Wheels, Goat Simulator, etc.

Vampire Survivors is in the same boat. Double so since every 1 to 2 man hack dev team thinks they can shit out the same success with a minor tweak.

Vampire Survivors is so low quality it bothers me. There's nothing special about it and I fell asleep halfway through my first run.

Mass Effect for defining the shallow action focus of almost every RPG to come, Demon's and Dark Souls for making that action become shitty and repetitive.

Mass Effect isn't even an RPG. It's a tactical shooter with a useless skill system (you literally get to chose between 10% damage and 20 health points, wow) and a dumbed down dialogue system. The combat system is generic cover shooter that doesn't benefit too much from the skills.

Thread tax: Starcraft and Warcraft 3 killed the RTS genre.

I like games like Zero-K where micro comes from tactically assaulting the enemy and positioning/using the environment. Starcraft has none of that; just attack move the units and use their very specific abilities. The maps are very small and the unit mobility is very limited. The ranges are short and the only variety between units comes from their skills. Heck, projectiles are auto-tracking and will follow their target once they are launched. Spellforce simplifies this a lot and it's a lot more intuitive to play. Starcraft and Warcraft's engine is decent, but their balance is shit.

 

[Disc]

Or, """new""" games.
With the controversy that Sword and Shield generated, there's been a boom of rushed Kickstarter ""successors"" to Pokémon attempting to cash in that do absolutely nothing to change the formula aside from swap out Pokémon's monsters with their own, less memorable ones or add a singular bad gimmick to claim differentiation.
TemTem, Coromon, Nexomon, EvoCreo, Monster Crown- I can go on, but the sum of it is that these are all "Pokémon but better" instead of an interesting contribution to the genre. They're all piles of trash wearing the skin of another franchise and claiming to be its superior, polluting a genuinely interesting genre with a lot of potential in favor of "DURR WHAT IF WE JUST DID THE BEST-SELLING THING AGAIN BUT WORSE".
The closest i've seen to "innovation" has been Monster Sanctuary (2D platformer with monster catching elements) and Skyclimbers (Open-world survival-craft base-building garbo, but at least it's something different), or MAYBE Kindred Fates (""Nuzlocke"" game where your creatures actually die and the combat is some weird 3D arena thing), but two of those games haven't even released and one of them is currently alleged of refusing refunds and "shady actions" (pic rel).

I'll note, the one alleged of shady actions is one of the unreleased ones. The game that actually released, Monster Sanctuary, I personally vouch for if you like games with team building and big synergy coom moments. It's very solid. Fight at least once in every new room you enter, the game's designed that way.

But yeah, as someone who likes Pokémon, the craze of Pokéclones isn't doing anyone any favours, least of all the pokeclones themselves. I'm gonna come out and say Pokémon has damn near perfected it's formula since about Gen 4 - that's why most of the mechanics added since have been stapled on top, and can be easily pried off later.

The problem with this, as a Pokéclone, means that you're often making things worse by just trying to do "Pokémon but slightly different". I look at things like the type matchup system in Cassette beasts, which has changed type matchups affecting damage to type matchups giving buffs and debuffs and go "wow, this is way more complicated and hard to understand than Pokémon's system." I look at a lot of the stamina systems in these games and go "boy I'm glad I have to include low-stamina moves on everyone - because, of course, they have the 4-move 6-monster setup as pokemon despite having a stamina system - or just sit on my fucking ass for a turn."

Not to mention they're all trying to incorporate a bevy of fucking mechanics to aid speed-running or nuzlocking or randomising, seemingly completely ignoring that if your game is good enough, the players will develop those tools and methods for themselves. I don't need a nuzlocke mode. I can just box my beasties when i'm playing a nuzlocke.

And what's worse, is that a significant portion of the mon games fandom is basically treating Pokémon like an ex they can't get over. They're sleeping around with whatever somewhat resembles the original person, but completely dumping them as soon as it becomes clear that it hasn't gotten their attention. they're forcing games to be more like Pokémon in hopes of cultivating their attention when in reality they'll dump 'em as soon as the original even starts to look good to them again.

...When is cassette beasts gonna release, anyways?

 

[Anonitolia]

...When is cassette beasts gonna release, anyways?

as soon as they finish properly implementing pronouns and the relationship system

Spoiler

steam page says 2023, but Kindred Fates said 2024 and afaik hasn't even left alpha, so I'm keeping my expectations through the floor

 

[skykiii]

I'd agree it started with PewDiePie. Pretty much every game he covered got a huge burst in popularity. Happy Wheels, Goat Simulator, etc.

At least all Pewds and Markiplier did was play the games though, they didn't come up with autistic theories that became so big that designers started actually designing their games around autistic theory-crafting.

 

[Thiletonomics]

The Sims would come to mind, regarding it's influence in the gaming industry, and the consequences that resulted from it. The game being popular among female players, while not an issue on it's own, did bring about the nasty parts of them. Also, while the first 3 Sims games were fairly non-political in terms of modern-day issues at the time, The Sims 4 has gone all-out in terms of virtue signaling, to the point that it's used for that primarily, instead of being a game, because of how hollow and buggy the game is, even after 8 years at $1000 of DLC. Those things include pronouns, gender customization (which was added to the game before toddlers were re-added), troon and non-binary premade Sims, the recent top surgery scars addition to the game, and although males getting pregnant via alien abuction was a thing in Sims games since The Sims 2, some people associated the "birthing people" term to that.

The fact that TS4 was originally developed as a multiplayer game similar to the failed The Sims Online, but was hastily patchworked changed to a single-player game after the SimCity 2013 disaster, means that the game's limitations can't be patched out at all, and yet EA decided to just go all-in on milking the game with the said $1000 of DLC, because unlike other game genres, The Sims effectively has no competition. And as mentioned, the game is so buggy, that some players only play TS4 for Create-A-Sim, and to build homes, and thus choosing to skip out on the living aspect of the game completely.

 

[byuu]

I think that's probably it. Ten years ago you could get them for nothing with 50 games on average.

I haven't checked in some time but there's quite a bit that aren't that bad but there's "refurbished" ones that are nearer to $200. I have no problem buying one used, but many look dirty like they have old crusted cum stains on them.

View attachment 4469705

Wow, that's ridiculous.
You can literally buy a PS3 for the same price. And the old fat model plays PS2 games too.

 

[Kheapathic]

The whole idea of retro as a genre. If you're a smaller/unknown team, I can be very generous on what I expect from you, especially when it comes to graphics. I don't need all the ultra high res shit we have; just have an art style / art direction where I can identify shit and what's going on. Instead there's a lot of shitty pixel art; I'm not saying they're all bad, just most of them are... and they'll never live up to the pixel art masters of 1990's SNK.

 

[skykiii]

The whole idea of retro as a genre. If you're a smaller/unknown team, I can be very generous on what I expect from you, especially when it comes to graphics. I don't need all the ultra high res shit we have; just have an art style / art direction where I can identify shit and what's going on. Instead there's a lot of shitty pixel art; I'm not saying they're all bad, just most of them are... and they'll never live up to the pixel art masters of 1990's SNK.

View attachment 4475208

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say "the pixel art masters at Nazca?" They're who actually made Metal Slug after all, and I seem to recall their proto-Metal Slug game Gunforce II (aka Geo Storm) also had excellent pixel art.

 

[The Foxtrot]

I'll take art through adversity any day over being a typical graphics coomer. I haven't been truly engrossed in a game like I was when I was a kid in a very long time and it wasn't from how the game looked for the most part. Although games back then were cutting edge at the time. There's something so charming about how old games look. Ultra high fidelity games almost all look terrible. It's just too much for your eye to process.

I'd buy a PS2 but I don't feel like dropping $300 on it since they typically run high.

Modern games have what I've called "too much screen clutter". Things that in the past were sprites, wall textures, or low poly static objects are now completely modeled and textured physics objects. Or in the case of character models, yes, now we can see every sweat pore on some character's cheeks, whoopie. Everything makes insanely detailed (pointlessly so) particle effects when lightly touched. And it's too much for your brain and eyes to process. Most people, myself included, tune 95% of this shit out because it's irrelevant to actually playing the game.

This has resulted in games fucking ballooning in size because optimization is a lost art, as is good use of shaders and lighting. All those uncompressed textures wind up taking more memory than literally the entire rest of the game. Also maybe it's just me, but modern Unreal Engine games have some of the worst shader and lighting work I've ever seen.

And here's another thing too, in my opinion: We might have SUPER ULTRA REALISTIC HIGH FIDELITY graphics, but that shit means games start blending together and same-y. It's like the reverse of the trend that CoD4 started, instead of everything looking brown and muted, everything is blown out and oversaturated for MUH REALISM!!!!

I once heard an Anon say: "Fidelity is temporary, but art direction is forever." And this is very, very true. Even with 2001's low-poly graphics, Halo: Combat Evolved still looks awesome.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

Modern games have what I've called "too much screen clutter". Things that in the past were sprites, wall textures, or low poly static objects are now completely modeled and textured physics objects. Or in the case of character models, yes, now we can see every sweat pore on some character's cheeks, whoopie. Everything makes insanely detailed (pointlessly so) particle effects when lightly touched. And it's too much for your brain and eyes to process. Most people, myself included, tune 95% of this shit out because it's irrelevant to actually playing the game.

This has resulted in games fucking ballooning in size because optimization is a lost art, as is good use of shaders and lighting. All those uncompressed textures wind up taking more memory than literally the entire rest of the game. Also maybe it's just me, but modern Unreal Engine games have some of the worst shader and lighting work I've ever seen.

And here's another thing too, in my opinion: We might have SUPER ULTRA REALISTIC HIGH FIDELITY graphics, but that shit means games start blending together and same-y. It's like the reverse of the trend that CoD4 started, instead of everything looking brown and muted, everything is blown out and oversaturated for MUH REALISM!!!!

I once heard an Anon say: "Fidelity is temporary, but art direction is forever." And this is very, very true. Even with 2001's low-poly graphics, Halo: Combat Evolved still looks awesome.

And every Unreal asset flip has these high quality renders that turn your GPU to 120%.

Quixel is more of a curse than a blessing.

Sorry, I don't need rocks to have 1000 polys and 6000x6000 UltraHD realistic textures.

Worst part is, they don't even look that realistic without 500 PP effects.

 

[The Foxtrot]

And every Unreal asset flip has these high quality renders that turn your GPU to 120%.

Quixel is more of a curse than a blessing.

Sorry, I don't need rocks to have 1000 polys and 6000x6000 UltraHD realistic textures.

Worst part is, they don't even look that realistic without 500 PP effects.

Again, why do you think I bitch so hard about optimization being a lost art?

Actually, let me add this on that note there too:

GAME DEVELOPERS: STOP MAKING YOUR GAMES EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE HIGHEST PERFORMING HARDWARE!

Not everyone has a fucking $15,000 Super Ultra Republic Of Gaymerz RAYZOR 420_69666 Cumslut Edition machine.
In fact, most of us fucking don't. Stop jacking up the hardware requirements to cater to these assholes on YouTube who make videos bragging about their hyper expensive rigs, because they're the 0.01% of PC gamers. So when you make a game that almost nobody can actually run well, it doesn't inspire us to run out and drop $5,000 or more for a new rig, it makes me hit the "Refund" button for my Steam purchase and leave a negative review, and I know I'm not the only one.

If a mid-range gaming machine can't get a solid 60FPS on the medium graphical settings in your game, you fucking suck at optimization.

 

[Dixieland Buckaroo]

Leisure Suit Larry.

Fucking cock tease.

Spoiler: Best waifu

 

[Judge Dredd]

Sorry, I don't need rocks to have 1000 polys and 6000x6000 UltraHD realistic textures

This has resulted in games fucking ballooning in size because optimization is a lost art, as is good use of shaders and lighting. All those uncompressed textures wind up taking more memory than literally the entire rest of the game.

I blame Crowbcat and the various glitch YouTubers. They post videos of games with a blurry rock, in the background, in an obscure corner of the map, that any normal person would run past in a few seconds. They zoom in on with a sniper rifle and make jokes about how the game is trash.

So now every rock, coffee cup, and other minor detail has to have 4k uncompressed texture.

 

[The Foxtrot]

I blame Crowbcat and the various glitch YouTubers. They post videos of games with a blurry rock, in the background, in an obscure corner of the map, that any normal person would run past in a few seconds. They zoom in on with a sniper rifle and make jokes about how the game is trash.

So now every rock, coffee cup, and other minor detail has to have 4k uncompressed texture.

I hear you, dude. It irritates me to see these speds go apeshit over tiny details that don't have any real impact on the gameplay and act like it totally ruins the experience. If I see something funny like that, I shrug and move on.

 

[Epoch]

And every Unreal asset flip has these high quality renders that turn your GPU to 120%.

Quixel is more of a curse than a blessing.

Sorry, I don't need rocks to have 1000 polys and 6000x6000 UltraHD realistic textures.

Actually 90% of the time, Unreal burns your GPU because by default Vsync is off, and Unreal without Vsync just maxes out your hardware usage no matter what. Whats worse is that to turn on vysnc you need to run a console command, so all the shitty asset flippers don't know this and ship with Vsync off.

Quixel is really nice if you just need an asset quick, but if you are actually making something that isn't "Hire this man" graphics you need to actual author your own materials. I mainly just use Quixel stuff for Blender renders, since they look good when you raytrace, no extra work. For actual Unreal stuff, I use Mixer to actually make unique materials out of the Megascans stuff, and I usually stick to 2k textures, since you can easily get higher detail with detail textures (Unreal Engine 2 did this, its not new but nothing does it anymore). Texture file size grows exponentially, 4k is 4x the size of 2k, and games are being rendered at 4k now, which means you 'need' 8k textures to not see texels.

The 3d scanned stuff I usually avoid, since for natural stuff it just looks like a blobby mess if you don't download the 8k source scan, and mechanical stuff can easily be modeled by hand and have proper topology instead. I do use the plants though, since those aren't 3d scanned, they are authored by an artist at Quixel, but use the scanned plant textures. Epic games is a shitty company though and they released the trees, which are the same deal as the plants, but ONLY for Unreal, which I have better options for that don't alias like crazy. I would use the trees in Blender, but I literally can't.

Modern hardware isn't really limited by polygons anymore, they can still be an issue if they are a bunch of separate draw calls, but GPUs have advanced to be able to render millions of tris. The issue stems from devs not optimizing anymore, probably because publishers want the games out as soon as possible for maximum money. It doesn't help that nobody is learning about optimization anymore since everybody is just using a pre-made engine that does culling and memory management for them. I've seen mods for Skyrim that have the worst texture optimization I've ever seen, single colours stored at 4k and the like. Whats bad is that modders are moving towards indie game dev, but they are taking their non-existent optimization skills with them, leading to messier games. Modern hardware also doesn't help, since for the most of the time you can just throw the poor optimization at it, and the hardware power will make up for it.