Darkness_Falls on 18/2/2014 at 23:35
Saw someone playing what looked like the full game on Twitch for a short time today, looked like PS4. Went beyond the Lockdown mission, and also saw some equipment upgrade stuff.
One problem, if this happened to be the Final/Gold build (which I do not know it was for sure)... there was an approximate 30 second load time to go from the hideout to the Stonemarket area; and about 15 seconds to go from Stonemarket into the Inn. Each involved going through a bright, magical slow-swirling orb of light to get to. At the orb it would say, for example: "The City - STONEMARKET- Would you like to go to this district? (YES/NO)"... followed by the loading screen, which showed a piece of concept art (of the destination) and helpful "Tips." (That's not entirely new, as The Tingler has mentioned this type of stuff before; but to see the load times and screens in action, it was a bit of a shame.)
I'm not sure if the playthrough was all about, though. I don't understand how they were able to play, as there's no demo that I'm aware of. But it was neat to get a taste. I tried not to pay too much attention to plot-specific things... I looked away and turned the volume down when there were story things going on, or when NPCs talked in the environment. It eventually got taken down before they got too incredibly far, as a violation of Twitch's policy or something.
I liked the dark atmosphere of it, and as we saw in the Lockdown gameplay, that you feel alone... and can take things slowly to absorb your surroundings, etc. It showed nice potential for sneaking around and being a voyeur in the world. Some usual annoyances reported before were present, though, which detracted from the experience (in-game camera grows wings and takes flight to show guards talking or whatever, head-butts when grabbing loot, etc.).
I still hope it's a net positive once the game is finally played. A couple new nitpicky annoyances popped up :) But I don't really want to get into detail on those. I want to respect EM, in that it seems like they probably didn't authorize that gameplay feed to be happening. So pre-launch, I want to avoid giving spoilers and giving too precise of thoughts on things that might not be in public circulation yet.
I was happy to see that it looks like when you're crouched and pick a door lock, Garrett appears to remain crouched as he goes through. I mean, Garrett pops up a little for a quick sec to turn the door handle, but he quickly popped back down, and I don't think the player had to re-crouch him.
GodzillaX8 on 18/2/2014 at 23:36
Quote Posted by Weasel
You didn't say AAA the first time.
But we're presently talking about one, so one should reasonably be able to infer that much.
Weasel on 19/2/2014 at 00:02
Quote Posted by GodzillaX8
But we're presently talking about one, so one should reasonably be able to infer that much.
I was going to mention Dark Souls, which apparently isn't considered AAA, but surely has enough As in it to satisfy any Thief fan.
GodzillaX8 on 19/2/2014 at 01:03
Quote Posted by Weasel
I was going to mention Dark Souls, which apparently isn't considered AAA, but surely has enough As in it to satisfy any Thief fan.
"A AAA game, or pronounced "triple-A game", is generally a title developed by a large studio, funded by a massive budget.
These games will have a marketing budget in the multiple-millions of dollars, and are planned to earn out in excess of one million titles sold. Investors/publishers expect a multiple-of-cost return on their investment. In order to recoup general development costs, publishers will generally produce the title for the major platforms (currently Xbox 360, PS3, and PC) to maximize profits, unless it is a console exclusive, in which case the console maker will pay for exclusivity to offset the loss of potential profit to the developer."
Shinrazero on 19/2/2014 at 01:08
In my opinion, triple A gaming is the worst. Devs always account for the lowest common denominator to maximize profits thus gameplay often suffers as a result. Speaking of Dark Souls, I think people confuse it as OMG ITS SO HARD with the reality that it is a game that expects some effort, no more, no less. Games like Dark Souls are a breath of fresh air in a sea of mediocre, narrative driven, games. It is the antithesis of triple A games.
Renault on 19/2/2014 at 01:22
Hey Gojira, I don't think he was asking for the textbook definition of what an AAA game is.
GodzillaX8 on 19/2/2014 at 01:44
Quote Posted by Brethren
Hey Gojira, I don't think he was asking for the textbook definition of what an AAA game is.
It wasn't clearly defined in the thread, and there appeared to be some question as to what qualifies as one. Now there is none.
Enjoy.
Renault on 19/2/2014 at 02:55
I'm pretty sure everyone here is well aware of what an AAA game is, after following Thief 4 for the better part of the past year. The problem is, you didn't specify that that's what you were referring to. You said:
Quote:
Games are a little bit different now than they were 10+ years ago.
Games, plural. As in, all games. I not sure how anyone would naturally assume you meant AAA games, because you weren't just talking about Thief. You were referring to ALL games. All games today...versus...all games from 10 years ago. And how they're different now as compared to...then.
Make sense? Hope that's finally sinking in now.
GodzillaX8 on 19/2/2014 at 03:09
Quote Posted by Brethren
I'm pretty sure everyone here is well aware of what an AAA game is, after following Thief 4 for the better part of the past year. The problem is, you didn't specify that that's what you were referring to. You said:
Games, plural. As in, all games. I not sure how anyone would naturally assume you meant AAA games, because you weren't just talking about Thief. You were referring to ALL games. All games today...versus...all games from 10 years ago. And how they're different now as compared to...then.
Make sense? Hope that's finally sinking in now.
My comment was in direct reply to a comment specifically about Thief. There is absolutely nothing hard to understand about this. It should have been very easy to determine the intent based on the context. I'm not some kind of drooling idiot that doesn't understand that indie games and low budget games exist. It's excruciatingly obvious that I was referring to AAA games in that sentence, especially since I was indirectly referring to the necessity of wide appeal.
Make sense? Hope that's finally sinking in now.
Also, I don't really know why the fact that I assumed people could connect the dots without me explicitly stating "AAA" in my original post is somehow the issue of the day, but the only point I was making here is that a AAA game needs to maintain widespread appeal to be successful, and a smooth difficulty curve is essentially a core component of that.
Renzatic on 19/2/2014 at 03:21
Dark Souls is only considered a AAA title because it ended up being so popular. The game was made by a fairly small team, and was only ever meant to be a niche title that'd go on to sell a couple hundred thousand copies. I remember reading somewhere that the budget was so (relatively) low, every copy sold after the first 25,000 was pure profit for From.
They ended up making a mint.
(
http://deadendthrills.com/gallery/?gid=100#/) And what's really tragic for the rest of the game industry is that it honestly has better gameplay and higher production values than games that cost 10x as much to make.
