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JZStudios

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Posts posted by JZStudios


  1. Snaky115 said:
    Crew 2 devs did, for the slightly worse.

    I couldn't survive the DUDEBRO long enough to have a researched opinion on the handling, though. The Boat/Plane handling is as bad and numb as i predicted to say the least. Does look better for the same FPS, though not that much. Some odd Forza Horizon vibe in rendering style.

    Lots of odd design decisions.
    Oh, you were part of it too? I had a very strong feeling you European types would VERY much not like the "dudebro."
    At this point, it's like they're trying to go absolutely head to head with Forza Horizon, which is an extremely poor choice.

    JZStudios said:
    In completely unrelated news, I'm very much disappointed in what The Crew 2 is shaping up to be. I can't think of a single reason to recommend it over Forza Horizon, or hell even GTA.
    All they had to do was make it control well. Some of the decisions they made in the handling baffles me.
    I haven't heard much about the handling. I thought they were changing it.
    I.... didn't get that impression. It felt more consistently stable, but still extremely bizarre at worst and boring at best. The map is designed to suit the physics, so there's no tight turns, since you can't drift... or turn... the roads are rather wide and exceptionally straight, and they have some race tracks, some that are "real" and some are fictional. Every one of them is like... 15 meters wide for the entire track. The first game had Laguna Seca and it was TERRIBLE. The track is too wide, it barely fits the actual layout, and the corkscrew is a joke. Not even a funny one.
    The Crew needs to focus on having a fun map to drive around, but with boring straight roads and terrible physics the game is just boring. I think they took 90% of the Crew 1 map, and just straight up ported it into the new map, but the new map is bigger with very little new to fill in the large gaps. I read a post on the forum complaining about how terrible Laguna Seca is and how it's exactly the same as the first game. You used to be able to see Pikes Peak from damn near anywhere in the first, but in the second it's not. I'm using that to gauge my map scale. BTW, in TC2, the satellite dishes and observatory on Pikes Peak are damn near the size of the mountain. I mean, they're f'in HUGE. The road up Pikes Peak is also exactly the same.

    If they don't make some major changes I imagine a lot of people (should) be very upset about how it's basically just a port of the original, + planes that handle like barges. I honestly thought the boats handled like GTA's boats (from what I can remember) and I actually kind of like how the wake from a boat ahead of you can suck you in....

    Which reminds me, the biggest visible difference to the map is a suspicious amount of rivers/lakes that weren't there prior...

  2. In completely unrelated news, I'm very much disappointed in what The Crew 2 is shaping up to be. I can't think of a single reason to recommend it over Forza Horizon, or hell even GTA.
    All they had to do was make it control well. Some of the decisions they made in the handling baffles me.

  3. dwkGravey said:
    Alf72 said:
    carpa said:
    https://twitter.com/Codemasters/status/940626472200540162?s=17

    Games Testers Wanted, huh? There might be something going on at the Codies HQs...
    Probably also for the DiRT Franchise but I'll never know because I live way too far and I'm way too young. Still something worth some Gossip on I think
    Should have said on that ad: perks include being in on all of the fun stuff that stays inside the building far before it goes public. ;)
    In this day and age, you don't need to be " inside of the building " to be a Game Tester. Reading the comments of your twitt, it's not possible to work from home ( for now ), and i'm sure that a lot of us would consider / apply to the job, if that was possible... but i'll say again, i'd prefer if you guys would go the Alpha/Beta path.
    As enamel pointed out, being a game tester isn't the same as playing an alpha/beta and (maybe, voluntarily) reporting bugs. You think you'll be playing a sweet game early, but in QA you're just as likely to be assigned glamorous tasks like disconnecting the controller thirty times in a row to see if or how the game freaks out and reporting on that.
    Matt from 2 best friends did QA on Deus Ex Human Revolution for like 2 years, and they had to remove some... things... for the Japanese market. So there was a task force that got assigned to "D**** duty" searching all around the games map for any and all items to be removed for the Japanese release.

  4. What exactly is required to be a game tester anyways? I know it's not as much fun as you'd think, but I also don't understand the qualifications when it mostly seems like just dicking around trying to find bugs.
    Matt from the Best Friends Play started his own personal channel and does a series of "The Bug Report" where he talks about some of the games he playtested and it really just seems like dicking around trying to break the game and writing down what happens.

  5. JZStudios said:
    Today PRC shut down entirely, which I find immensely disappointing. Where am I supposed to find actual reports on the poor quality of sim racing games?
    Three possibilities:

    1. Shutting shop
    2. Software update
    3. Ian Bell revoked his contrct
    According to a tweet he did, he closed it due to "conflicting interests" now that he's a contractor and driver for SMS. Which means he's being paid by them enough to warrant closing his blog as opposed to retiring.
    I also agree that some of the stuff he wrote did contain some misinformation or half truths he should've fact checked first, but on the whole it was a good place to see how childish the developers are, how rabid the crazed fans are, and just how little the genre has progressed. I might be tempted to call it regression.
    I mean, my FIRST interaction with racing games and a wheel was NFS 3, which for some reason is like it never existed, and GTR on my brothers friends Logitech wheel, then on a gamepad. I bought a new wheel 2 years ago only to find out that games are only slightly better in graphics and that's kind of about it. I mean, I basically got banned from the AC forums for daring to say that Forza looks better. Most are really just poor, buggy, boring, hotlap sims. Austin was the only one to point out that very little has changed in nearly 15 years.

  6. edgenz said:
    Dytut said:
    Yeah we should just accept that Codies has changed to Valve time.
    We are currently bound to the will of people who are in a different time zone, alas! Will keep you all updated, but we might have to shuffle to later this week. 
    We are currently bound to the will of people who are in a different time zone, alas! Will keep you all updated, but we might have to shuffle to later this week.

    >

    n w a l a ! i g e

    >

    new zealand dlc is legit!
    I'm glad you translated that, because I had absolutely no idea.

  7. KickUp said:
    KevM said:
    KickUp said:
    KevM said:
    Hopefully it’s not hidden in the inside of a corner.  If it is, the understeer means it’ll never be found... :P
    :pensive: Its inside something

    Good to see you back @KickUp

    Time for a bit of Gossip-thread Premature Speculation? 
    Well, I've been busy doing stuff and things. That said I haven't left many clues as to my actions for people to gossip from.
    What kind of stuff n things?

  8. adsadsads said:
    Re: Mankind Divided, I enjoyed it overall. It's a smaller scale story than Human Revolution so less travelling the world and you basically just stop one plot. I think the smaller scale of what you achieve, a bit of sequel bait at the end, and Prague being the only hub area left it feeling unfinished to a lot of people. I really enjoyed it though, Prague shits on all of the HR hubs combined and the story is good. Also has two of the best sidequests in any game ever. 
    I wonder which sidequests you mean? I assume the first one is the augmented murder investigation, but the second?
    I think some of my sidequests glitched out. I know I ran into an apartment and found a dead guy with a bullet casing, but nothing happened.
    I was also supposed to argue with David Sarif, which I did, and that still says incomplete.
    I was also also supposed to get a brain implant thing for the other augs and take it back to the doctor guy, but he wasn't there and the mission appeared to just finish itself.
    Not sure how much better the new one is when I had 0 issues at any point in time in the older one.
    adsadsads said:
    adsadsads said:
    Re: Mankind Divided, I enjoyed it overall. It's a smaller scale story than Human Revolution so less travelling the world and you basically just stop one plot. I think the smaller scale of what you achieve, a bit of sequel bait at the end, and Prague being the only hub area left it feeling unfinished to a lot of people. I really enjoyed it though, Prague shits on all of the HR hubs combined and the story is good. Also has two of the best sidequests in any game ever. 
    I wonder which sidequests you mean? I assume the first one is the augmented murder investigation, but the second?
    The cult and the underground newspaper were my favourites.
    The cult in the sewers? Or the church? I did the one in the sewer, THOUGHT I got a key for the church, but reloaded, didn't and the guy wouldn't talk to me again... so I think that may have glitched out as well.
    The newspaper was.... eh? Although... to be fair I had already basically killed everyone in that location before I started it... and the original infiltration was fun. That reminds me that I started HR after a few months, ran into a bar thinking "Have I been here before?" Then the game loaded in all the corpses scattered everywhere. "Yep, I've been here before."

  9. tbtstt said:
    JZStudios said:
    Not being... British? I never had any idea that 555 is apparently a brand of cigarettes? It always confused me seeing the fake livery or the ( without the numbers.
    Back to Deus Ex and I really enjoyed HR. The boss fights did seem a bit out of place, but they didn't ruin the game for me. I haven't touched the original game for years and, given that I have fond memories of it, perhaps I should leave it that way!
    My biggest gripes were just the fact that I couldn't figure out why smacking people in the back with a baton would only sometimes knock them out, combined with having to sit completely still for 5-15 seconds before you can shoot any gun with any amount of precision other than the radius of 5-15 feet. I've since seen a video stating that you should smack enemies in the lower back and NOT their head... which makes little sense to me. I still leaves me confused as well, considering most of my time was crouching....

    There's a whole bunch of mods for it, including a texture overhaul that actually does help, but for a game that old, poor graphics are expected. The funky controls you could rebind and get used to, but HR and MD really improved it. I'd really love to see a total remake of the game with updated graphics and smoother controls. I'd say overall, if it was redone it would actually play a lot like HR, but without the bad boss fights.

  10. tbtstt said:
    I am yet to play Mankind Divided, really should pick it up as I have enjoyed all the previous entries in the Deus Ex series. The first game was absolutely mind-blowing back in the day!
    I got the entire series as a bundle for $10-15 as I recall... and while I actually liked the freedom of options and level design n such in the first.... holy crap is it janky as hell now. The default buttons make basically zero sense. The default walking bindings I'm pretty sure was the arrow keys, with lean being something like z and x... not the smoothest game. I went about halfway through the game then gave up. Skipped the second one.
    Deus Ex Human Revolution I actually highly recommend, and apparently the terrible boss fights are easier now I guess... It just kind of sucks that those are THE lowest points.
    Mankind Divided.... I'm not sure about. So far I've spent about 20 hours in the largeish open world without entering any main missions, it's super densely packed. Based on reviews however, the main city hub is most of the game, with only 3 or 4 other missions, and apparently a really bad ending. It's definitely got better visuals than HR, but it's certainly not very well optimized with 1080's struggling to run it at max.

  11. So in lieu of any... anything... about DiRT or CM....
    I've been playing Deus Ex Mankind Divided which has a super nifty bug where if you have too much inventory (don't know what the limit is) entering/exiting a firing range will crash to desktop, the solution being to dump all your inventory on the ground.
    So, I thought my inventory WAS rather neat and tidy, looking like this....


    But apparently that translates into this in reality. Which makes me really question video game inventories on single characters.





    Yep, I'll just shove that in my pockets, it'll be fine.

    Edit* apparently that's 197 items I had shoved in my robo pockets somewheres, with 20 of those being alcohol. I don't know what it is with that game, but I swear theres like 500 bottles of alcohol around.

  12. carpa said:
    That DAKAR 18 game looks interesting...

    [Looks at the wallet]

    Damn.
    Where on Earth were all these promising games some years ago?

    JZStudios said:
    Isn't the Dakar rally like.... REALLY bland open space? I've never watched other than pictures like their ad there, or going through Saharan sand dunes. Sounds like it could have some neat features, but I'm not 100% on either of these companies.
    It might just turn out like Fuel....
    Yep, some parts of the environment in which they race are large open fields with bushes and sand which could seem quite repetitive. Thing is, this is a fundamental part of the DAKAR because it means you can get lost. And if the map is big enough imagine how Kris Meeke'd you could get :D
    The only 2 big glaring issues with that is... 1. The real event I'm fairly certain uses full GPS navigation and an entire crew, and 2, this is a video game, meaning even as large as the map is... you shouldn't get that lost and it'll definitely have a map. But hey, here's hoping they require you to drive for 8 hours straight between saves.

  13. BadD0g said:
    JZStudios said:
    Julo264 said:
    Off topic, but interesting:
    Polish game studio - Techland have just announced the official DAKAR game. It will contain full license including cars and drivers, and big open world map. Trailer is below
    https://youtu.be/50GhBe6NL8M
    Isn't Techland the guys that originally made Dead Island? Moving to a Dakar game is super weird.
    They also made Xpand Rally, so it's not completely out of nowhere.
    Huh. I also thought they ran into some issues and nearly shut down after Dead Island.... Don't even remember if they were actually part of the second one or not.
    Then again, I could just be completely crazy.

  14. Julo264 said:
    Off topic, but interesting:
    Polish game studio - Techland have just announced the official DAKAR game. It will contain full license including cars and drivers, and big open world map. Trailer is below
    https://youtu.be/50GhBe6NL8M
    Isn't Techland the guys that originally made Dead Island? Moving to a Dakar game is super weird.

  15. carpa said:
    tbtstt said:
    carpa said:

    Lancias might be known for self-destructing themselves in the UK but I think we can all agree Lancia (and Abarth) were damn good at making dominant rally cars. And I'm definitely not saying that 'cause I'm Italian. It makes it even sadder that the only car they're still producing is the Ypsilon :s ... 
    Absolutely! I have huge respect for Lancia rally cars - and their history in the sport - but I have little desire to actually own one! Such a shame that the name is attached to such boring cars now.
    To be precise their name isn't attached to any car at all in most of the world nowadays... here in Italy they keep on selling the Ypsilon (which should be ashamed of using the same badge the Delta or 037 used if it wasn't for the fact they also changed that to this awful new restyling)


    and in every other country of the world they don't sell anymore I think (not that y'all are losing something though). The whole brand is probably going to die of a slow, unnoticed death and all that will be left will be those 10 Manufacturers Championships and some awesome cars. Which is enough to underline why it's a shame Lancia will be soon gone, probably forever. 


    54. Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo 1986
    WINNER H.Toivonen - S.Cresto
    #7 Lancia Delta S4
    I thought Lancia had already been dead for a while. In the States we have a few brands that somehow still clung/cling to life despite absolutely no one remembering or acknowledging their existence.

    I'm disappointed that post was removed though. I mean, c'mon, page 634 went without a problem.

  16. carpa said:
    Externaltest branch was updated a few days ago, It means we are clooooser to get the patch with new physics, locations, tiles, and Skoda Fabia R5!
     :dizzy:

    You forgot to mention all 2017 World Rallycross Championship tracks!
    And the Audi S1 RX Supercar!
    Let's not forget the Toyotas guys...

     :/
    It stinks that we won't see Toyotas in racing games because for some reason they keep pulling out.
    ...Never pull out.

  17. JZStudios said
    P.S. Subnautica and other well made indie games based on Unity have a clear coherent art style, of which is not ****.
    The issue of games having flashy graphics but with a bland, lifeless artstyle often turning out to be mediocre is not something caused just by UE4 and Unity and so on. Back in the 360 era I was constantly looking out for games with the plastic sheen of a completely unedited Unreal 3 post processing set, because generally speaking that meant a game had little care put into it. The classic example I use is the Rainbow Six Vegas games - the assets are all AAA-grade, but even in a still screenshot you can tell how completely uninspired the game was.
    With asset stores and other methods to quickly pump out a title (which, by the way, have very little to do with engines being free), you can see plenty of games that have AAA-grade graphics but, at least in my experience, it's exceptionally easy to tell how uninspired they are without even touching them. Games with a more unique artstyle due to limited budget are often where I struggle, and that's been an issue since the beginning of indie gaming.
    That's a good point about the plasticky sheen of the Unreal engine, which for some god forsaken reason a lot of people seem to like and think looks "photorealistic." I hate being able to look at games and just think, "Oh, that's ABSOLUTELY a UE game." I mentioned Ethan Carter, and I think the only reason that game doesn't look like plastic is because it used photogrammetry.
    I'm not 100% on RS: Vegas, but as far as I can remember the gameplay was still good, but of course that was back when it was new. I don't remember a whole lot. Yeah, the graphics aren't amazing, but much like Insurgency (which actually looks kind of similar) it has a more realistic art style. You can tell that you're in a casino. It's still art direction if not top notch grade A super graphics.
    CMMcBabe said:
    JZStudios said:
    Operator1 said:
    Gameplay > graphics.

    Every time... and twice on Sundays.

    There's more to games than just visuals. Not even the best graphics can turn bad gameplay into a good game.

    Some games got popular by reusing aspects of other games but applying gameplay that was so much better, the spin-off's popularity outgrew the original's.

    If there are free/affordable assets/engines to help good gameplay designers get better-quality games out, that's a win for gamers.

    Okay, so again, bad games oft look shitty. EVERY game that's been mentioned as "Bad looking" has in fact NOT been bad looking. You may as well say that Fez looks terrible, or the Witness, Monaco, Ori and the Blind Forest, Anodyne, Basically ANY of the Zelda games beyond 2, Bastion, Child of Light, or Oxenfree. And those are just games from my collection.
    Except that NONE of those look terrible. They all have a clearly defined art style that fits the aesthetic of the game they're going for. Not to mention that most of them are objectively beautiful. You could also add Firewatch to that list based on your definition of "bad graphics"
    They ALL had thought, time, and effort put into the visuals. A strong art direction indicates a level of care and craft. Asset flipping does not. I mean, I bought The Vanishing of Ethan Carter just because it's pretty. Poor art direction and obvious asset flips indicate there's probably not a lot of car going into the product.
    P.S. Subnautica and other well made indie games based on Unity have a clear coherent art style, of which is not ****.
    Firewatch is a beautiful Unity game.  Coherent art direction matters so much, I love Supergiant games for that.
    I demand a secret filter selection in the next DiRT title for Firewatch graphics.
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