Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

@Dezzy I'm well of aware of instancing, given I make games myself. I was expecting it to be a crowd simulation for thousands though, with many being significantly lower quality meshes with basic AI to just follow the crowd, not the player like the ones at the front that are more detailed.

Instancing also takes a lot of resources though, especially in large numbers. A 1000 instances is a lot of meshes regardless, hence my scepticism. It's possible, but I'm finding that specific number, instantiated or not, to be a bit much, at least for the base PS4.

I'm not saying it cant happen or hasn't happened, but I do feel its PR hype speak.

@Peek-a-boo Yoshida clarified what's going on the with remake:

"It is a remake. The game content is the same as the original version, but all the assets are being remade," he said.

He also noted that the original game's director, Fumito Ueda, "wasn't that involved" in this remake.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-14-shadow-of-the-co...

@BLP_Software

I'm not aware of the term "crowd simulation" corresponding to a particular rendering technique. Have you got a link for that? Or did I mistake what you meant?

@Dezzy Crowd simulation is a technique of making hundreds of characters and meshes with basic AI. Hence why I thought Days Gone used that. Have the front of the crowd be actual meshes with full AI, and have a crowd sim behind them for the rest with lower quality meshes.

http://aigamedev.com/open/article/simulating-crowd-flow-dynam...

@Octane Well... that's that, I suppose.

In any case, after having a shared feeling of 'YES!' and ' ... but why?' during the reveal, I am now gradually coming around on the announcement. Blueprint Games are the best in the business for remakes, and after playing Gravity Rush Remastered and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in their excellent Uncharted Collection, I have absolutely no doubt that the Shadow of the Colossus Remake will be the best version yet.

I'm also secretly hoping that Fumito Ueda is working on something too.

@Peek-a-boo When it comes to remasters, Bluepoint Games are absolutely brilliant. Makes me wish they had done the Twilight Princess remaster instead.

I'm certain Ueda is working on something. He gave an interview a couple of months ago and he gave some vague hints about his next project:

''I created the more open world of Shadow because Ico was an adventure game set in such a small space – and I spent four years in that closed space. So I wanted to go out into something more open.

I cannot talk about the details [of my next project] but… Shadow came out of the experience with Ico, [going] from a closed world to open world. When I completed Shadow, there was a moment where I wondered if I wanted to go around an open world again, and maybe I should go back to a more closed space, spending a more intimate time with something in that space. That became the starting point for The Last Guardian.

Now I’ve completed The Last Guardian and spent so many years in that game, maybe I may go back to the Shadow-type environment.''

I like the idea of his games being part of the same universe, so I hope we're getting another game in a similar style. Desolate environments, ruins, and weird giant creatures.

@BLP_Software

There's nothing about rendering in there. That's just for the movement.

Between Sony admitting they are holding back reveals, a big PSX last year, and early months-in-advance announcement of PSX 2017, I think PSX is basically destined to replace E3 for Sony in the future as their main annual showcase event.

@WebHead
PSX: Big reveals
TGS: Japanese games
E3: Leftovers

Makes sense though. However I wouldn't mind if they focused a bit more on the games we already know about. I'm sure they'll show TLOU2 at PSX, that's enough for me. They've got plenty of games that are coming out next year, so I feel that any new reveal will most certainly be a 2019 game. I really don't want to know about those yet.

@Peek-a-boo I forget who said it, but I guess Sony really is "stretching themselves a bit thin" with all these conferences. Then again, I guess 3+ smaller events is better than 1 big event in this modern age. And condering the long release dates, I guess it also gives devs more time to put together press builds/tech demoes/etc. without slowing things down too much. Hopefully TGS will be at least as interesting as what we say this past weekend.

@CanisWolfred Nintendo chooses to do those 10 minutes Nintendo Direct thingummies every once in a blue moon, as well as having a Nintendo Showcase digital event during E3, while Microsoft only publicly turns up once a year at E3 (although they did attend Gamescom in both 2014 and 2015 respectively, the latter year of which was the last time we saw Scalebound, boo-hoo).

Sony on the other hand shows their face at E3, Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show, Paris Games Week as well as hosting their own event in December, PSX, which is getting bigger - and arguably more important than the latter four - with each passing year. That's five big gaming conventions every single year!

If Sony are not allowed to cut themselves a little slack at this point, who is (or ever will be)?

It's only folks like us who enjoy and follow our hobby with more passion than the everyday guy and gal that have sky high expectations. I was a bit underwhelmed with their conference the other day too however, I no sooner took a look at their line-up between now and next year and feel (happily) spoilt for choice.

@BLP_Software Found it!

Skip to 7:30

Wow they are actually calling it open-world? I assumed it'd be more like small semi-open areas.

@Dezzy Days Gone? Yeah, it's an open world game. I assume you can go anywhere.

@Octane

That's pretty mad for that type of game. It'll be like Breath of the Wild in terms of how many dynamic game mechanics they'll have to code to perfection, given the sheer number of different situations you'll come across.
Unless it's just a really boring and simple open world. Which it doesn't look like. The trailer from last year was showing some pretty complex situations.

Push Square is reporting that Ni no Kuni II stands entirely on its own as a unique story. Just what I needed to know. I have another game to look forward to this year!

@Dezzy Yup, it doesn't sound unique or new on paper, but I bet it plays unlike any other game.

I get the feeling Sony have been mortgaging their game announcements for about 3 years now, borrowing from their future reveals to feed the press and keep us excited. It's been working great, as we've bought the box and it's kept PS4 2 steps in front of the XB1. But it is unsustainable. I get the feeling Sony saw Microsoft cancelling games and diluting the impact of their exclusives by releasing them on PC, so they intentionally held back on reveals knowing they didn't need as much bang to compete against Microsoft's conference.

But beyond reveals for the end of the year and looking at actual 2017 releases, The PlayStation hasn't really got a mass appeal exclusive for the end of the year (no, Ni No Kuni 2 and Knack 2 don't count), but then I guess COD, Battlefront, AC, FIFA, and Mordor are going to keep people happy.

@MrGawain Wasn't that already a known fact? Some of us have been harping on that for ages that they've been doing that. Heck, they show games that are more than 5 years out. Nobody knows how to manipulate their audiences like Sony. It's worked for 20+ years.

Still, I'm not as ambivalent about this years Sony conference as a lot of people seem to be. People keep complaining about nothing "new", but they finally actually showed us the games they just teased with zero information past years. So they all seem new to me. We haven't really seen most of them in motion before. And I liked that they're still focusing on cinematic story driven adventures rather than "massively online persistent world" junk that seemed to be all the rage at other shows. It was refreshing. However, I'm still uneasy about their increasingly powerful position in the industry, as well as where they are with hardware. With X1X unveiled that makes a laughing stock of the Pro, I'm afraid it will force their hand into PS5 early, ending the momentum of PS4, and even MORE afraid of what their current arrogant selves will do with a PS5 and its policies.

A part of me keeps thinking maybe X1X is a good jumping off point....switch over to XBox and get out before Sony inevitably drops a Mattrick style stink bomb and clears the room. But then I look at the release calendars and remember Microsoft has very little in the way of exclusives, and few of the games that do interest me are from the big AAA publishers. Most of the non-Nintendo exclusive games I want tend to be Sony exclusive.

At the same time I look at the endless flood of things I want to play on Switch and now, yet again, 3DS.....just not enough time to play enough games. I still haven't booted the PS4 since March 3. Why did I just preorder all these PS4 games?

This is a fair point, and it was good to see Spider-Man in action again, especially from a competant developer. And yes please, more singleplayer-focused games. Sony does that quite well...actually, I think it's more that they suck at making compelling online-focused games, but at this point, contrary to what Microsoft and Ubisoft think, we don't need a million of those, anyways. And I'm really tired of hearing how some singleplayer games integrate online components, even if you don't actually want to play online. What's the freakin' point? You're afraid people won't actually like playing it online, so you gotta try to find some other way to justify the servers? Maybe you should just axe the online components all together if you don't think they'll add anything. Sure, some people liked being a total jerk in Dark Souls, but at least I could easily turn that bit off so I didn't have to deal with them...looking at you, Destiny & Elite: Dangerous...seriously, I wound up rebuying No Man's Sky, I was so desperate for an alternative to that hogwash... EDIT: Okay, No Man's Sky still does that, too, I had other reasons to be angry at Elite: Dangerous. I just wanted an excuse to call Elite: Dangerous "hogwash".