Duderino

Not related to Death Stranding, but relevant to the insider leaking this info, given his statement in the Death Stranding thread about also working on Days Gone.

For anyone wondering, here's what this resetera poster has said about Days Gone:

I hope they’ll put obsidian to work on a new IP.

Soo...Microsoft is doubling down on CRPGs?

The success of single player DLC should be measured by how much buzz it can generate to help sell new copies of the base game, or entice people to buy the more expensive complete edition. FFXVs multiple story DLC chapters never made much sense under this context. It’s not like some new Noctus backstory was going to ignite new interest in FFXV.

Well this is a lawsuit case, meaning no claim should be above scrutiny on the road to a potential settlement.

I have too, but I’ve also had the opposite happen where reporting has felt very out of place. Seems to occur more frequently than not, but maybe that’s just been my experience.

Looting does buy time for the event to trigger. Rockstar designers clearly wanted this situation to happen a lot, even when seemingly no one is around. As anoyed as I am with the looting pace, I do get that a quicker reporting timeframe would be necessary to counteract shorter looting animations. That would also get frustrating real fast. I don’t have like it though to understand it. To me, neither scenario sounds great.

The methodical looting quite simply doesn't fit in the context of needing to flee the scene before the law shows up. Wow that's interesting. Wonder if Rockstar had some negative user feedback that lead to this.

I’m about 10 or so hours in. Purposefully taking it slow; don’t see RDR2 as the type of game I would enjoy marathoning. I certainly haven’t spent enough time to experience all the game has to offer, but I do have a grasp of what the general gameplay loops and mission structure is like. So far I just don’t find it to be all that engaging and oddly enough, immersive. Think it could have been had Rockstar spent another 6 months or so dialing in the user experience so it’s flaws are less of a distraction. Back to the topic at hand, I’m sorry but only less than 2 seconds to loot a body? You really think that’s short for an action you often repeat 5, 10, 15 times in a row? That’s just baffling to me. I get that Arthur grabbing the torso adds some flavor to the animation, but it is quite excessive. As I mentioned earlier, the lack of urgency to it does pull me out of the experience.

It feels very forced, but intentional.

Clearly most people just assume the slow looting is there to add realism like every other slow action in the game, and not serve a game mechanic.

It's hard to appreciate something that feels soo out of place in context. I don't believe a real life Arthur Morgan, or the gang for that matter, would loot corpses this leisurely after a shootout. I get the impression Rockstar padded the looting time to give the law ample time to show up. In fact, many of the slow as molasses actions in the game seem to be buying time for systems to wind up. I'll give Rockstar this, it's clever how they've covered it up.

I keep reading the claim that RDR2’s excessively long animations add to the immersion, but when it comes to the loot body animation I couldn’t disagree more. Waiting for Aurthor to align himself with a corpse, then perform his TSA style patdown feels incredibly out of place. There should be a whole lot more urgency to the action when at any time a witness may spot you or the law men could show up.

Perhaps this is a small complaint, but I also really dislike the map. Wish there was a greater emphasis on landmarks that could relate it back to the world. Also, these icons are crazy small and obtuse. No one is really a fan of the UI though, right?

I’ve watched a number of RDR2 discussion videos now from a few different outlets. From what I can tell many game journalists do have issues with the game. The reviewer always seems to love it though.

I’ve started using the cinematic mode just to avoid bumping into people and causing accidental altercations. Comes with its own set of drawbacks though: First, it’s hard to tell when you are or are not in control. Doesn’t help that the rules to it are very inconsistent and change in some mission segments. No wonder people are confused about the holding X thing. Second, the cinematic mode is truly aweful when a random event occurs that you want to interact with. I haven’t felt this disoriented in a game since Quest 64. Also, why on earth did Rockstar decide leave the view active when you jump off the horse? I get that RDR2 demands a lot of patience, but this is more a case of poor design, plain and simple. Unfortunately the more I play the more the review scores are starting to baffle me.

Would have been a lot more enjoyable if the opening was just a movie instead where I could set down the controller. I can do slow in movie format, love Once Upon a Time in the West, but put a controller in my hand and my patience drops.

Played through the opening last night and reached camp. Way too much exposition so far for me. Probably the most walk/ride and talks I’ve ever experienced in a play session of that length. Good thing they have that snow tech to help the players rationalize all that slow movement. Feels very much like the writing team strong-armed their way into owning the entire intro and making sure no line of dialog was cut. Also ran into my fist bug that kept me from progressing without restarting a mission (Arthur wouldn’t sit in the stagecoach). Something similar happened to me in GoW with the boat, but at least there it was clear the game just broke (was rowing the boat on dry land), whereas in RDR2 I probably wasted 10 minutes trying to get Arthur to sit down. I hope the traversal and world engagement when riding the horse opens up cause right now I’m getting some FFXV car flashbacks. Movement, especially in combat, leaves much to be desired. Sure after playing more I’ll get used to it, but people weren’t kidding about Morgan’s sluggishness. So far I wouldn’t say I’ve had the greatest experience, but I’m open to see if it gets better.

Still waiting for my copy. So what is the general consensus on how RDR2 will impact perceptions of the remaining yet-to-be-released open world games this gen? Are games like Ghosts of Tsushima, Days Gone, and Just Cause 5 up against an impossibly high bar now? Or has RDR2 left a hole these open world games can fill? For all the praise the RDR2 is receiving, it also sounds like there is some clunkiness to it, a general lack of respect for the player’s time, and some slow pacing with the story and world encounters. Sure I’ll enjoy RDR2 plenty enough regardless.

Thought there might be some interest here. I backed the 2nd Breakfast XL that ends in a few days.

And had a counter at the booth. Largest number I could find on twitter: This was also the first time Days Gone was playable to the public. A challenge based demo, first playable public showing, and winnable swag all add up to show floor buzz.

The TGS audience was clearly interested:

Great news for developers with publishers that rely on metacritic. Removing or lessening Polygon from the equation is one less hurdle in the way of bonuses or at worst, staying employed. Good riddance.

The issue is less Nvidia timing and more so gamers not managing expectations. At this point in time, this tech is first and foremost a tool for the VFX industry to achieve faster renders. Raytracing is just a very costly operation that becomes exponentially more expensive at high pixel counts. Even at 1080p these RTX cards will not be able to brute force real-time raytracing, but with Nvidia's software interpolating the results with fewer samples, they can produce an image that looks close enough if frame rate is not a concern. Keep in mind too this Tomb Raider example is only raytracing shadows. No reflections and no light bounces.