General Gaming I hate how big video games have gotten

[Fizzzzle]

I beat Tales of Arise yesterday, so I'm looking for something new. I put a bunch of games I might want to play in a random number generator and tried whatever it came up with.

 

First attempt: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - 38.79GB

I played it for like half an hour before deciding that game is JANKY AS FUCK. I don't know how the hell that game got the reviews it did. People must be thirsty for DBZ content, I suppose.

 

Second attempt: Spyro Reignited Trilogy - 38.8GB

Really fun game, the problem is it completely broke as soon as I got to the second world in the first game. Like, literally half the gameplay functions stopped working. I either couldn't dash or I couldn't stop dashing, enemies would freeze after I hit them, I couldn't glide, etc. The game is unplayable.

 

Third attempt: Horizon Zero Dawn - 68.64GB

... we'll see?

 

 

The problem is it takes like half a fucking day to download any of this shit. I recently finished AC: Valhalla (158GB), and that one I had to start downloading before I went to bed, and I still don't think it was done when I woke up.

 

I kind of wish devs would just fucking cool it on the size of these goddamn games. It gets annoying to try a game for an hour, realize it either sucks and/or doesn't work, just to be like "alright, well I guess I'll try a different game tomorrow."

[Bacon]

Seems like total bullshit that the Mass Effect Legendary Edition is 110GB. Looking up the size of the original games, with DLC taken into consideration, the OT is like half the size of MELE. I know they made subjective """Improvements""" to the graphics but the games don't look 50 gigs better than what was released. Totally reeks of lazy optimization. Despite its flaws and the graphics not being my favorite, ME:A looks damn good and it is only 49 gigs. 

[Keyser_Soze]

2 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

The problem is it takes like half a fucking day to download any of this shit.

 

Stop using McDonald's wifi

[Fizzzzle]

6 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Stop using McDonald's wifi

I pay $80/month for internet. My only options are Comcast or DSL, and guess how many improvements Comcast has made to their infrastructure around here in their last, say... 20 years.

 

Move across town where Comcast has competition with fiber and suddenly their service doesn't blow massive buttdicks. Weird how that works.

 

#fuckmonopolies

 

Things like streaming games could absolutely be the future, but it will never be widely possible/available as long as ISPs have no incentive whatsoever to improve their product in 90% of their markets.

[TheLeon]

3 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

.Second attempt: Spyro Reignited Trilogy - 38.8GB

Really fun game, the problem is it completely broke as soon as I got to the second world in the first game. Like, literally half the gameplay functions stopped working. I either couldn't dash or I couldn't stop dashing, enemies would freeze after I hit them, I couldn't glide, etc. The game is unplayable.

That sucks. I played through that whole game and didn’t have any issues. I would suggest redownloading it, but it sounds like that’s not exactly what you want to hear. 

[Fizzzzle]

6 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

That sucks. I played through that whole game and didn’t have any issues. I would suggest redownloading it, but it sounds like that’s not exactly what you want to hear. 

Yeah, I was thinking redownloading it would probably fix it, but when it takes like 6-7 hours to download the game, I'm like... eh. I'll just pick something else rather than risk wasting a bunch of time for it to potentially be broken again.

[Spork3245]

The sizes are getting kinda crazy, I know a lot of it has to do with assets as compression can only do so much, but many of these games include multiple (audio) languages by default which bloat the size. I don’t think it’d be crazy to have a prompt about languages you actually want installed pre-download/install like some PC games offer. It would save at least several gigs in some cases.

 

Also, this generation of consoles really should’ve offer larger m.2 sizes. I know both consoles are fairly easy to upgrade, and thankfully, for the PS5, (true) gen4 m.2s are dropping like a rock in prices to clear room for gen5 m.2s. However… MSFT, what the actual F with this proprietary port that’s Seagate-exclusive BS? The Series consoles don’t even use full gen3 speeds, but because of the exclusivity to Seagate you’re paying $200 for 1tb for a 2.5 Gb/s m.2… you can buy faster 4tb gen3 m.2s in the $250-300 range. Yes, there’s adapters available, but they only function with an old and not easy to find m.2, which winds up costing you about the same as just buying the official one.

Like, here: https://www.crucial.com/ssd/p3-plus/ct4000p3pssd8?cm_mmc=google-_-us-_-shopping-_-shopping <- this is gen4 and PS5 compatible (albeit, barely) and is 4tb for just $75 more than a 1tb XSX upgrade, and almost $100 less than the 2tb upgrade.

 

[PaladinSolo]

I doubt languages are much of the sizes, its 4k assets that most people really don't use yet, and will probably be some time before they really do, that are bloating the shit out of game sizes.  Basically offer a d/l without 4k and you'd see a massive reduction in size.

[Spork3245]

4 minutes ago, PaladinSolo said:

I doubt languages are much of the sizes, its 4k assets that most people really don't use yet, that are bloating the shit out of game sizes. 

They’re several gigs depending on how many languages are recorded. Source: PC language pack install sizes.

 

4 minutes ago, PaladinSolo said:

Basically offer a d/l without 4k and you'd see a massive reduction in size.

XSS does this and it does indeed significantly reduce size. If you’re gaming on a 4k display though, it’s a hard compromise to make IMO

[PaladinSolo]

9 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

They’re several gigs depending on how many languages are recorded. Source: PC language pack install sizes.

 

XSS does this and it does indeed significantly reduce size. If you’re gaming on a 4k display though, it’s a hard compromise to make IMO

Right, but the point is the vast majority of people are not on a 4k display but they're forced to d/l 4k assets that are 2/3s of these installs.  4k resolution made up 2.5% of steam users last year.

[Spork3245]

13 minutes ago, PaladinSolo said:

Right, but the point is the vast majority of people are not on a 4k display but they're forced to d/l 4k assets that are 2/3s of these installs.  4k resolution made up 2.5% of steam users last year.

I don’t think PC monitors are a good representation for console user displays. Many PC Games offer the option of 4k/high-res textures as a separate option so it’s less of an issue there for sure. The only statistic that I know of for US TVs that we have is a general one and not focused on PS5/XSX owners.

But, regardless, my reply was noting that if someone did have a 4k display and opted not to use 4k assets to save space.

[crispy4000]

2 hours ago, TheLeon said:

That sucks. I played through that whole game and didn’t have any issues. I would suggest redownloading it, but it sounds like that’s not exactly what you want to hear. 

 

Same here, full 1st game of the triology on PC, no problems.

[Remarkableriots]

1 hour ago, Spork3245 said:

I don’t think PC monitors are a good representation for console user displays. Many PC Games offer the option of 4k/high-res textures as a separate option so it’s less of an issue there for sure. The only statistic that I know of for US TVs that we have is a general one and not focused on PS5/XSX owners.

But, regardless, my reply was noting that if someone did have a 4k display and opted not to use 4k assets to save space.

When I was looking at TVs at the store almost all of them were 4k.

[DarkStar189]

2 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

I don’t think PC monitors are a good representation for console user displays. Many PC Games offer the option of 4k/high-res textures as a separate option so it’s less of an issue there for sure. The only statistic that I know of for US TVs that we have is a general one and not focused on PS5/XSX owners.

But, regardless, my reply was noting that if someone did have a 4k display and opted not to use 4k assets to save space.

I definitely wish I could choose to download high res textures or not on PS5.  At least half the games I'm choosing performance mode over quality anyways.  

[Spork3245]

1 hour ago, DarkStar189 said:

I definitely wish I could choose to download high res textures or not on PS5.  At least half the games I'm choosing performance mode over quality anyways.  

 

Texture resolution doesn't typically change with performance mode settings. Textures don't affect performance much as they aren't rendered (at least, not in the same way, as say, a reflection), just displayed/applied, and even with the reduced rendering resolution in performance mode, on a 4k display the degradation in fidelity would be noticeable. The reason I suggest audio language is it would be universal and would not affect anything unless you like to constantly switch languages, reducing texture resolution would be a trade off that negatively impacts fidelity. Yes, the reduction of textures would be a greater offset, but it's an option that has an impact, where as reducing by ~3-8gb+ via audio (pending the game) would not. I don't disagree that both could/should be options.

[legend]

7 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

I pay $80/month for internet. My only options are Comcast or DSL, and guess how many improvements Comcast has made to their infrastructure around here in their last, say... 20 years.

 

Move across town where Comcast has competition with fiber and suddenly their service doesn't blow massive buttdicks. Weird how that works.

 

#fuckmonopolies

 

Things like streaming games could absolutely be the future, but it will never be widely possible/available as long as ISPs have no incentive whatsoever to improve their product in 90% of their markets.

 

 

This is the sad reality of our internet infrastructure and business. From 2013-2020 I live in an apartment where there was only Cox as an option. We were told when we moved in that fiber was coming, but it only seemed to be made available everywhere *except* our apartment complex. The result is I paid the same as you for absolutely awful internet.

 

In 2020, (right before Covid!) we bought a house and one of the first questions I always asked when looking was "is FIOS available?" We now pay $10 more for bilstering gigabit up and down internet. And fortunately game downloads are not really an issue anymore.

 

We seriously need new regulation to break up these regional monopolies. It fucks everyone.

[Ominous]

Sucks to live somewhere like that.
Steam is slow though, so I understand.

 

[gamer.tv]

My internet downloads fanes pretty quickly, but I still agree with the sentiment. Gone are the days of being a teenager and having literally days to fill - now, a game needs to offer me something within 20 minutes otherwise it gets deleted. On that note, I started Inside yesterday and it’s great. 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

I pay $80/month for internet. My only options are Comcast or DSL, and guess how many improvements Comcast has made to their infrastructure around here in their last, say... 20 years.

 

Move across town where Comcast has competition with fiber and suddenly their service doesn't blow massive buttdicks. Weird how that works.

 

#fuckmonopolies

Comcast or ATT DSL are the only options where I live, and Comcast offers the 1.2 gigabit option for the same $80 you pay, and we should have the DOCSIS 4 upgrade next winter for 4 gigabit service and finally real upload speeds (been stuck at 35mbps up for 6 years 😂).

 

But all the cities and counties here are very quick to grant easements and such when the telcos ask, so buildout of their fiber network has been pretty quick.

[stepee]

I thought this was going to be about how it used to be more hipster and niche and now it’s like totally mainstream lol

[EternallDarkness]

I hate when the damn patch isn't really a patch at all but a total redownload of the game....a patch shouldn't be 90gigs!

[TheRealSmallville]

Where I live (middle of nowhere Washington State), Centurylink is my only option & the fastest they have here is 15mbps. We get 8-10 most days if we're lucky. Yep, you read that right lol $55/month, and it takes 10-18hrs to download a big game on a good day. 

[Nokra]

1 hour ago, stepee said:

I thought this was going to be about how it used to be more hipster and niche and now it’s like totally mainstream lol

 

I thought it was going to be about how much content is coming with games or how the gameplay is stretched out with e.g. fetch quests, DLC, etc., how long it takes to beat them, and he was going to wish we had more 4-hour tight masterpieces.

 

Fizzzzle keeping us on our toes!  

 

Sucks about your internet speeds. Seems like a legit reason to move though. Internet is life!  

[Dodger]

I too have shitty internet and feel your pain. At least it’s only $65 a month. I could have better with Cox, not actual gigabit but better but my Cox bill was approaching $300 and going up every year so I just got rid of it to live in internet poverty. The difference just wasn’t worth a cable bill approaching a car payment. It did include tv, so it wasn’t just all internet but still. Fuck Cox.

[Keyser_Soze]

Also check how old your modem is. I replaced my old modem and suddenly my download speeds almost doubled.

[Xbob42]

Stop getting mad at games for trying to improve and start getting mad at your ISPs for not trying to improve. Every time something happens to try to advance (whether good or bad) video games in some way, if it requires any more bandwidth then people bitch like it's the company's fault no one has pressured your ISP in 2 decades. For fuck's sake, send them letters, get on the news bitching about it, demand competition, do anything except blame the people trying to deliver higher quality assets.

Stop trying to force games to fit around shitty internet instead of the other way around, people! If the roads suck, don't blame car manufacturers for not having 10x better suspension than other cities need so your kid stops bouncing around in the back seat!

[Keyser_Soze]

16 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Stop getting mad at games for trying to improve and start getting mad at your ISPs for not trying to improve. Every time something happens to try to advance (whether good or bad) video games in some way, if it requires any more bandwidth then people bitch like it's the company's fault no one has pressured your ISP in 2 decades. For fuck's sake, send them letters, get on the news bitching about it, demand competition, do anything except blame the people trying to deliver higher quality assets.

Stop trying to force games to fit around shitty internet instead of the other way around, people! If the roads suck, don't blame car manufacturers for not having 10x better suspension than other cities need so your kid stops bouncing around in the back seat!

 

 

This kind of reminds me recently that my internet kept getting disconnected and it would happen in spurts so one day I called the ISP and they had to come out and check everything out. It turned out that my cable was hooked up to some unknown splitter outside that went somewhere else (who knows) and so they gave me my own line, and now it's like the newest line out here.

[Fizzzzle]

6 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

Stop getting mad at games for trying to improve and start getting mad at your ISPs for not trying to improve. Every time something happens to try to advance (whether good or bad) video games in some way, if it requires any more bandwidth then people bitch like it's the company's fault no one has pressured your ISP in 2 decades. For fuck's sake, send them letters, get on the news bitching about it, demand competition, do anything except blame the people trying to deliver higher quality assets.

Stop trying to force games to fit around shitty internet instead of the other way around, people! If the roads suck, don't blame car manufacturers for not having 10x better suspension than other cities need so your kid stops bouncing around in the back seat!

Stop trying to make me do things, gorramit

[AbsolutSurgen]

A 50 GB game takes about 10 minutes to download. How slow is your internet?

[MarSolo]

Game sizes are a problem… dammit, stop making BUY more hard drives!

[Paperclyp]

22 hours ago, TheRealSmallville said:

Where I live (middle of nowhere Washington State), Centurylink is my only option & the fastest they have here is 15mbps. We get 8-10 most days if we're lucky. Yep, you read that right lol $55/month, and it takes 10-18hrs to download a big game on a good day. 

It’s funny I was with cox for a long time, they do the general bullshit where they slowly increase your rates over time until you call and tell them to cut the crap, then I discovered century link has fiber in my neighborhood (and had for a while, I guess my neighborhood was the test area for it). They offered a locked in $60 a month for life* (*as long as you make no changes to your services), and now I have blistering fast net for what I consider pretty freaking cheap. 
 

I otherwise wouldn’t touch century link with a ten foot pole. It was sad how much cox tried to keep me as a customer. Those companies are extremely anti consumer and I hope some day it catches up with them. 

[Fizzzzle]

5 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

It’s funny I was with cox for a long time, they do the general bullshit where they slowly increase your rates over time until you call and tell them to cut the crap, then I discovered century link has fiber in my neighborhood (and had for a while, I guess my neighborhood was the test area for it). They offered a locked in $60 a month for life* (*as long as you make no changes to your services), and now I have blistering fast net for what I consider pretty freaking cheap. 
 

I otherwise wouldn’t touch century link with a ten foot pole. It was sad how much cox tried to keep me as a customer. Those companies are extremely anti consumer and I hope some day it catches up with them. 

The best internet I ever had was when I paid $20/week for Cox in New Orleans. There was no plan, just "pay us $20, we'll give you internet for a week." It was the only time in my life I had truly fast internet.

 

Further proof that the whole thing is a fucking grift.

[Fizzzzle]

7 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

A 50 GB game takes about 10 minutes to download. How slow is your internet?

Slow. My internet now is 30mbps on a good day, any faster than that and I'd have to pay half my rent.

 

Steam caps out at about 4mbps.

[GameDadGrant]

Yeah, that sucks. Do you have the option to buy physical games? 

[Keyser_Soze]

8 minutes ago, GameDadGrant said:

Yeah, that sucks. Do you have the option to buy physical games? 

 

The games he mentioned don't have physical versions for PC.