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JZStudios

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Posts posted by JZStudios


  1. 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 shit.

  2. CMMcBabe said:
    JZStudios said:
    JZStudios said:

    UE4 being free... makes me slightly concerned. You used to be able tell whether a tiny indie game in Steam was crap or not based on graphics/engine, but now you can't.
    This is super offtopic, but I disagree massively with this type of statement. I understand where it's coming from, it's harder than ever to differentiate between a successful, well-designed indie title and a bargain bin trash heap but the existence of free to use engines has been a massive boon for the games industry. Back in the mid-late 2000s any game using Game Maker to make a 2d experience was looked down upon because, of course, most Game Maker games were trash made in 20 minutes by some teenager but with games like Hotline Miami and Undertale being produced, that stigma is at least partially gone. With 3d titles, Unity was and is seen as a sign of a game's lack of polish or quality but with every year more really amazing titles like Subnautica pop up and show that the engine isn't at fault for that, and with time UE4 will have the same.
    The reality is that free engines mean that people who would've never made or finished a game can now do so, and that means, yes, people who want to make a completely amateur cashgrab with little to no inspiration can make games but so can amazing artists and dev teams who otherwise would've never had the chance. The things that make it hard for a consumer to differentiate between the two is a lack of filtering and selection for distributors (steam's given up on moderating games released on their system) and the abuse of the early access model to get away with basically never finishing a game rather than having a very clear plan and release path and simply using early access to get funds earlier than one would otherwise and get immediate, widespread feedback on the game itself. These are the problems the industry faces, not the proliferation of tools to make games.
    I again disagree. There's nothing wrong with Game Maker or Unity, but a few years ago you had to put effort into it for it look appealing in any way in order to make it stand out. Hotline Miami did that.
    My point is that you USED to have to either put in a decent amount of effort and create your own assets with a unique style, or buy nice assets, of which still had to fit a cohesive style.. Now, especially with UE4 any dingbat can "make a game" in 20 minutes and look visually similar to a better made game. There's still a slight variance in materials/models, but even triple A games fall into the Epic trap of using seemingly standard assets and materials... which I guess also says something there.
    I mean, I followed some tutorials for UE4, but I'm not putting them up on Steam for sale, while others are, and VISUALLY it doesn't look terrible at a glance. On the flip side, for the indie devs that ARE dedicated, UE4 being free is nice since it is a better platform than Unity, except they want your royalties.
    I like that there is now more to a "good game" than just shiny graphics, I have had plenty of great experiences from less shiny games (loving Moon Hunters right now).  There is a lot of asset flipping going on now, there is no denying it.  I think the Steam refund system is amazing (and as a console user I am jealous).  Pick up a game, try it for two hours and decide if it gets to keep that money or not.  For me I need to read some reviews, watch a few videos and hope they are all on the same mindset I am.
    2 hours is a tiny window on a platform that often requires lots of tweaks to get the game running well. You must also only purchase digital, because I have zero issues selling/returning/trading/lending/borrowing physical copies that no longer exists on PC due to Steam. I have games I'd like to gift or share with my brother since I won't be playing them probably ever again really, but Steam HATES that. You can do a "family" plan or whatever, but then only one user can be on at a time, which is retarded.

  3. JZStudios said:

    UE4 being free... makes me slightly concerned. You used to be able tell whether a tiny indie game in Steam was crap or not based on graphics/engine, but now you can't.
    This is super offtopic, but I disagree massively with this type of statement. I understand where it's coming from, it's harder than ever to differentiate between a successful, well-designed indie title and a bargain bin trash heap but the existence of free to use engines has been a massive boon for the games industry. Back in the mid-late 2000s any game using Game Maker to make a 2d experience was looked down upon because, of course, most Game Maker games were trash made in 20 minutes by some teenager but with games like Hotline Miami and Undertale being produced, that stigma is at least partially gone. With 3d titles, Unity was and is seen as a sign of a game's lack of polish or quality but with every year more really amazing titles like Subnautica pop up and show that the engine isn't at fault for that, and with time UE4 will have the same.
    The reality is that free engines mean that people who would've never made or finished a game can now do so, and that means, yes, people who want to make a completely amateur cashgrab with little to no inspiration can make games but so can amazing artists and dev teams who otherwise would've never had the chance. The things that make it hard for a consumer to differentiate between the two is a lack of filtering and selection for distributors (steam's given up on moderating games released on their system) and the abuse of the early access model to get away with basically never finishing a game rather than having a very clear plan and release path and simply using early access to get funds earlier than one would otherwise and get immediate, widespread feedback on the game itself. These are the problems the industry faces, not the proliferation of tools to make games.
    I again disagree. There's nothing wrong with Game Maker or Unity, but a few years ago you had to put effort into it for it look appealing in any way in order to make it stand out. Hotline Miami did that.
    My point is that you USED to have to either put in a decent amount of effort and create your own assets with a unique style, or buy nice assets, of which still had to fit a cohesive style.. Now, especially with UE4 any dingbat can "make a game" in 20 minutes and look visually similar to a better made game. There's still a slight variance in materials/models, but even triple A games fall into the Epic trap of using seemingly standard assets and materials... which I guess also says something there.
    I mean, I followed some tutorials for UE4, but I'm not putting them up on Steam for sale, while others are, and VISUALLY it doesn't look terrible at a glance. On the flip side, for the indie devs that ARE dedicated, UE4 being free is nice since it is a better platform than Unity, except they want your royalties.

  4. I like that they attempt to give the setting and drivers some personality. Not many  racing games do things like that anymore
    The first Forza Horizon did that, man that was a great game. Then 2 and 3 basically got rid of any actual progression system at all. The first game I got most of the cars just from winning the races, they scrapped that.

    UE4 being free... makes me slightly concerned. You used to be able tell whether a tiny indie game in Steam was crap or not based on graphics/engine, but now you can't. Best I can figure is whether or not it looks like it's using all stock assets and UE's trademark super glossy "PBR photorealistic" materials.

    I'm also about 50/50 on thinking whether Gravel could be fun or just mediocre. It's slightly competing with Forza Horizon, so I wonder how well it'll do.

  5. urgaffel said:
    lol... nothing wrong with a phallic festival :D

    Japan is a country like any other, it has its own issues but! It is well worth visiting in my opinion because it is beautiful, the food is fantastic and it's something that's very different. If nothing else, go for the food :D
    Yeah, my dad went there for business recently, and they were "honored" guests so they got the REALLY traditional food... which is terrible apparently. Even the Japanese there were kind of complaining about it saying they basically don't ever eat it.
    On the topic of Japan, they apparently had some rather large brightly colored spiders, one of which managed to bite my dad in the leg and caused a very large... well, you get the idea and a hospital was involved.
    My dad also said he was sitting in one of the hot springs with the other guys and one looks at another and says "What country are you from?" the response being "Japan, why?" "...Oh, nothing. You just look like you could've been Chinese."  :D
    My dad laughed pretty good and said "You mean you can't tell them apart either?"
    And that concludes fun stories about Japan.

  6. urgaffel said:
    tbtstt said:
    That is a seriously awesome collection @Kuris, great pictures as well! How was Tokyo? Japan is top of my "countries to visit" list! 
    Japan is ace, I've been there several times and definitely recommend it. /goes back to lurking
    I'm about 50/50 on Japan.
    I see some things and I'm like, "hey, that'd be cool to check out." Then I see some other stuff that contorts my face and makes me question life in general and I'm pretty sure I want no part of it.
    This pops into mind.... Ummm... maybe NSFW? Google it on your free time.
    Kanamara Matsuri

  7. dirt3joe said:
    KevM said:
    dirt3joe said:
    Team is passionate. But they have to work within commercial reality. Spending hours and hours making tiny tweaks to physics may please a few people on here, but is unlikely to result in improved sales.

    I have been playing Dirt 4 the past few days and I quite like it. I think the stages are not as good as the handcrafted ones in rally, but even with the repetition issues your stage is pretty damned impressive. I just hope they get the opportunity to take it forwards and develop it further.
    DiRT 4 has tanked because of physics.  DiRT Rally still sells because of physics.  It’s that simple
    If physics was all people were interested in the Dirt 4 would sell really well and games like FH3 would fail. FH3 has succeeded, massively. Why ? Because it's a great game.

    It's gaming experience that equals sales volume not physics. If Dirt 4 fails it's because it wasn't a good enough game, not because it wasn't a good simulator. Less than a hundred people on here might be p'd off with the physics. Maybe extend that to 30,000 or so for the entire sim racing community. But that is nothing compared with the 500,000 who buy the game in total.

    I want the Dirt series to have good simulation components and there is no reason why they shouldn't have that as an option, but they have to be great games first, otherwise the series dies. And yes, it really is that simple.
    I disagree. I didn't play FH3, but I did play 1 and 2, and the physics were always stable and enjoyable. Cars acted somewhere around like how they should, they all felt unique, and all the tuning you can do also has a tangible effect inside the game world. Dirt 4 has stable physics, but they aren't really very enjoyable.
    For example, The Crew basically failed because EVERY ONE hated the physics. It was actually unplayable, and Ivory Tower/Ubisoft did like 3 massive physics overhauls to the point it's at now... which still isn't great. Sure, the story is dumb, but the map is cool and it has a fair amount of decent cars, but none of them really feel that unique and due to it being a carpg they all have to perform on the same level rather than anything even remotely realistic.
    The Crew 2 is coming out, but it looks like it has the same terrible physics, so I wonder how sales will do. In the commercials you can see off roaders/rally cars and other cars taking jumps and they just get sucked back down to the ground.

  8. Didzis said:
    JZStudios said:
    carpa said:
    bogani said:
    carpa said:
    adsadsads said:
    I would definitely not describe DiRT 4 as polished. It has a bunch of new features compared to Rally but they mostly need work. 

    -A whole bunch of cars that can't be used effectively in single player rally because AI time generation for your stage is borked.

    -Team management that the game isn't properly balanced around. (I decided to go back and finish Rally part of triple crown, doing perfectly fine with an E rated crew chief and no engineers.)

    -Team management that punishes the player by locking them out of using set-ups that they've put all of the effort into making.

    -The default set ups being so awful.

    -Frequently poor pace-notes with camber calls removed entirely but for some reason still mentioned in the tutorial.

    -Pro tour's ridiculous over-punishment of disconnects. 

    -Sponsor system that doesn't take anything into account, for example always having a sponsor expect an overall win in every rally you've driven before regardless of class.

    Polish is something this game is desperately lacking.
    The word that better describes DiRT 4 is "rushed" I think. With a little more development time it could have really been a good game. It would have also been better if it had decided what it wanted to be: a numbered and funny DiRT game with all sorts of rallycross and landrush and crazy challenges, multiplayer minigames and just a general fun and chilled atmosphere,
    OR a sequel to DiRT Rally with the ambition and the focus on becoming the best and most complete rally sim ever made.
    Yep. I can assure you it was rushed in every single possible way.

    Thing is, for it being a numbered Dirt game it lacks the party atmosphere and fun. For us that loved Dirt Rally it lacks it's soul and "rawness". It's an in between that doesn't really satisfies anybody.

    I'm pretty sure that many in the dev team are quite gutted about how D4 and it's reception turned out, but the big guys upstairs wanted a numbered Dirt title out, and fast.
    Exactly. I mean, I would have been fine with an arcade-ish game which was really fun and with lots of content, but DiRT 4 would then be the first ever arcade rally game where drifting is difficult :/
    The Crew is difficult to drift in. And if you feel like taking cheap shots, Project Cars.

    the Crew isn't that difficult to drift in. Once you get used to it, it actually has quite nice, if not a bit floaty handling
    Really?/ Maybe you're using controller, because with my wheel it's near impossible. I take a 1970s Challenger at 120mph, rip the handbrake, turn in, and nothing happens. Just turns. The only "drifting" I get is on the ice part.

    @tbtstt
    I still hate your name.
    How do you get those super clear movement shots? I mean, fast shutter speed n such sure, but are you just lucky and manage to match the speed or what?


  9. carpa said:
    bogani said:
    carpa said:
    adsadsads said:
    I would definitely not describe DiRT 4 as polished. It has a bunch of new features compared to Rally but they mostly need work. 

    -A whole bunch of cars that can't be used effectively in single player rally because AI time generation for your stage is borked.

    -Team management that the game isn't properly balanced around. (I decided to go back and finish Rally part of triple crown, doing perfectly fine with an E rated crew chief and no engineers.)

    -Team management that punishes the player by locking them out of using set-ups that they've put all of the effort into making.

    -The default set ups being so awful.

    -Frequently poor pace-notes with camber calls removed entirely but for some reason still mentioned in the tutorial.

    -Pro tour's ridiculous over-punishment of disconnects. 

    -Sponsor system that doesn't take anything into account, for example always having a sponsor expect an overall win in every rally you've driven before regardless of class.

    Polish is something this game is desperately lacking.
    The word that better describes DiRT 4 is "rushed" I think. With a little more development time it could have really been a good game. It would have also been better if it had decided what it wanted to be: a numbered and funny DiRT game with all sorts of rallycross and landrush and crazy challenges, multiplayer minigames and just a general fun and chilled atmosphere,
    OR a sequel to DiRT Rally with the ambition and the focus on becoming the best and most complete rally sim ever made.
    Yep. I can assure you it was rushed in every single possible way.

    Thing is, for it being a numbered Dirt game it lacks the party atmosphere and fun. For us that loved Dirt Rally it lacks it's soul and "rawness". It's an in between that doesn't really satisfies anybody.

    I'm pretty sure that many in the dev team are quite gutted about how D4 and it's reception turned out, but the big guys upstairs wanted a numbered Dirt title out, and fast.
    Exactly. I mean, I would have been fine with an arcade-ish game which was really fun and with lots of content, but DiRT 4 would then be the first ever arcade rally game where drifting is difficult :/
    The Crew is difficult to drift in. And if you feel like taking cheap shots, Project Cars.


  10. KevM said:
    Community competition will only work if the ‘feel’ is improved.  DiRT 4 is a great polished game let down by obscure physics traits as you’ve by now gathered.  I don’t think it’s a bad game.  I just don’t think the handling is immersive anymore.  I crave that to be fixed.  If it was, I would enjoy both the game & community competition.  

    Without a handling fix, I won’t have anough interest or curiosity to even load the game to see how the Competition/Clubs even work...

    Am I alone?  I don’t really think so.

    Make the magic happen guys.  It’s not too late....
    I've said it before, but I'd love to love Australia, probably followed by Spain, but Australia is just so weird to drive on I just couldn't get to grips with it. Spain was pretty good, but I like my dirt.

  11. My issue with any upcoming patch is that it's most likely going to be some league related thing, which is fine, but after 4 months and nothing done about any other issues people have... I just don't see how it would bring people back in droves. It won't bring me back when I still don't particularly the driving model and I still don't have a location I love.
    I really hope they do a surprise major expansion patch or something, because at this point anything less and I'll be extremely disappointed.

  12. BadD0g said:
    I honestly don't see GRAVEL being all that successful, not sure why CM is bothering competing with it. I don't know, maybe it's a bigger market than I'm aware of, but I personally don't see it.

    Can ANYONE on the Dirt team say SOMETHING about Dirt 4 besides the usual Twitter marketing stuff? My faith in this company has gone from 100 to 0 over the course of this year and it's really disappointing when something brilliant like Dirt Rally turns out to be a flash in the pan because the community gets ignored.
    CM bought Evo Studios and they were confirmed on a new IP well before GRAVEL was announced. I think it just happened to coincide. All CM has to do to compete with those guys is... literally nothing...
    Still, I was hoping they would be making something.... better? More original? Nothing about that trailer made me excited to play it.

  13. Alf72 said:
    Didzis said:
    KevM said:
    It’s a model of a car and another model of the same car.  And they are similar - now, there’s a surprise...
    there's a reply from CM to the modder further in the thread - http://www.racedepartment.com/attachments/f2002_my_007-jpg.218873/
    That post / picture says everything. Codies are already investigating what happened * grabs more popcorn *
    https://twitter.com/xtinamcgrath/status/923879318970884096

    Edit: Thread in RD keeps going, with almost 40k views !! at this time. Hot Topic indeed...
    It kind of sounds like someone got a little lazy and just pushed it out. Shame. I highly doubt CM did it on purpose since it's a rather large legal issue, though that also depends on the creative commons license they published with the release....

  14. Slowish said:





    Although OR/PC has the grunt to deliver a better experience, the 3-4x sales advantage of PSVR over OR probably means PSVR is the most likely choice IF the hardware is strong enough to deliver a decent experience. I think it can happen on rally. Not so easy on rallycross or circuit racing with multiple cars on PS4, which is why I guess we see no F1 or  Pcars2 to date on PSVR. Tough choices for marketeers to make I think.
    Well, numbers are what drives the industry but, that doesn't sway me toward consoles or away from Sim's. The best VR possible isn't going to satisfy me if the handling is off and I can use triples for cases where VR is not supported.
    I still can't believe Sony pushed the PSVR considering the console REALLY isn't near powerful enough. I bought a Pro because I didn't already have a standard, but there is not enough difference to reasonably call it "Pro."

  15. carpa said:
    20 new comments in the DiRTy Gossip Thread:

    they're about how to pronounce "FJORD" correctly.
    For a brief moment, the clouds parted, and there was gossip. Then someone mentioned fjords, and the clouds rolled back over
    There's only one right way, and it's with goofy bullshit as opposed to anything useful. That's your break in the clouds.


  16. It's spelled Jag-U-ar

    I've never near Fjord pronounced any different than fe-yord

    I'm learning the Mexican derivative of Spanish and everyone says Halapeenyo - how is it supposed to be?
    It's kind of like the n in onion. It's more like Hala pain yo.
    bogani said:
    JZStudios said:
    bogani said:
    JZStudios said:
    Etirion said:
    You guys arent reading into this enough, what does norway have? FJORDS! What other country has Fjords? New Zealand! Rally NZ Fjord Stages confirmed
    Hmm, Fjord is often pronounced as just Ford, which means either we are getting more Fords or a wily haired ginger with a towel.
    Hey JZ, did you just pull that straight out of your a$$? ;)

    Why would anyone pronounce Fjord as Ford? It's not like it's a tounge twister.
    It amazes me how upset this makes people.
    This from the same people I've had arguments with about saying words correctly such as Jaguar. Or the people that say Jalepeno wrong. It's an enye with the ~ over the n.. it's not pronounced halapeenyo.
    But sure, I say people say Fjord like Ford and everyone loses their minds!
    I'm not the crazy one here alright!
    You are!
    And for the love of GOD! It is not Jag you are!
    You seem to be the one that is silently upset about people saying things wrong.

    Let it out, don't let it build up inside you ;)
    Oh, oh okay! So I'm still the crazy one here! I didn't start this!

  17. bogani said:
    JZStudios said:
    Etirion said:
    You guys arent reading into this enough, what does norway have? FJORDS! What other country has Fjords? New Zealand! Rally NZ Fjord Stages confirmed
    Hmm, Fjord is often pronounced as just Ford, which means either we are getting more Fords or a wily haired ginger with a towel.
    Hey JZ, did you just pull that straight out of your a$$? ;)

    Why would anyone pronounce Fjord as Ford? It's not like it's a tounge twister.
    It amazes me how upset this makes people.
    This from the same people I've had arguments with about saying words correctly such as Jaguar. Or the people that say Jalepeno wrong. It's an enye with the ~ over the n.. it's not pronounced halapeenyo.
    But sure, I say people say Fjord like Ford and everyone loses their minds!
    I'm not the crazy one here alright!
    You are!
    And for the love of GOD! It is not Jag you are!

  18. JZStudios said:
    Etirion said:
    You guys arent reading into this enough, what does norway have? FJORDS! What other country has Fjords? New Zealand! Rally NZ Fjord Stages confirmed
    Hmm, Fjord is often pronounced as just Ford, which means either we are getting more Fords or a wily haired ginger with a towel.
    I have never heard fjord pronounced as ford. :0
    Because you're.... swedish? Man I honestly can't remember. I mean, yeah, it should be more like Fyord, but that's only a little jump away. More of a hop really.
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