The General Videogame Thread

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Steam machines appear to be dead in the water.

I'm not tracking Steam Machines sales, since I'm not interested in using them personally. At the same time, their manufacturers like Dell and others don't publish sales numbers for their hardware, so I can't say whether they are dead in the water, or selling well even if I wanted to. But, it doesn't look like manufacturers see them as failing. Alienware/Dell for instance released the second generation of their variant (R2) recently: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/alienware-steam-r2-console

For me the benefit of Steam Machines advancement was the pressure they could put on console incumbents (MS and Sony), forcing them to do less bad stuff and reduce bad influence on gaming in general. I.e. they had that potential to show that consoles can be closer to PC and not being crippled with corporate paranoia and slowness. But if they'll fail, I doubt Sony and MS will improve much. They enjoy stale market where people buy them anyway.

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Also note, that VR support on Linux is only now starting to surface (with various Vulkan demos shown recently). So talking about new consoles (in the media) will be most likely in VR context in general, since it seems to be a popular topic.

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I think Jim's point is valid. Why are Sony and MS even trying to compete with PC and tablets?

He is right that current incumbents are only becoming worse. But that's the point - they are only able to do that because they aren't competing with PC and tablets. They managed to make a relatively separate market where they enjoy capture and stagnation. Like any oligopolists, they aren't interested in investing in quality and innovation. Breaking the walls of this market could force them to move forward.
 
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Heck who wouldn't love to ride Geralt on the go? :3

I don't use the Playstation Vita, but I have heard that you can play TW3 on it. Not exactly sure how that works. I guess you're streaming to the device ... kind of the reverse of what's going on here. There is no real console to speak of with the Nintendo Switch, just a docking port for charging that allows you to stream to your TV.

@26:00 in the video below


3rd party software will determine whether or not I end up picking up this console. I owned a Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and N64 as a kid, but haven't really enjoyed a Nintendo console since then because they lack support from other devs. One can only play so much Mario and Zelda.
 
^^ Gamecube had a pretty killer game line up as well, including from other devs.

Part of Nintendo's problem is they delay their flagship IPs until late in the console's lifespan. That's what happened to the Wii U. In terms of games, the Wii U had a bad first year, a great second year, and an "okay" third year. By that time the PS4 and XboxOne were hitting their stride. It's no surprise the Wii U didn't sell
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If Nintendo wants people to buy their consoles they need to have a great game line up the first two years. Otherwise people won't buy it and 3rd parties won't support it. And I don't think relying on last-gen ports (Skyrim, Darksouls, The Witcher) is the way to go either. Nintendo needs new games.
 
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They need to ditch the gimmicks. No one is going to play that clunky thing in public, not over a tablet or their phones.
 
They need to ditch the gimmicks. No one is going to play that clunky thing in public, not over a tablet or their phones.


I've actually seen a lot of people on Nintendo 3DS' as well as their phones. It's going to take a lot of effort to convince them to change to the new Nintendo.
 
No one is going to play that clunky thing in public, not over a tablet or their phones.

If they are going to release games like Fire Emblem on it - that would probably look much, MUCH better than their 3DS counterparts - I'd probably add it beside my 3DS actually :) It all depends on the games that they would release on it. Honestly, I'm not that into multiplatforms on consoles since I mainly play on PC. As long as they have a good line of exclusives there (especially on the JRPG side), I'd probably get one. Also, the prospect of instant multiplayer with friends on the go actually seems pretty fun.

But it will all depend on things like weight and batter life (and the games, obviously) I suppose. It is definitely not for everyone though, and that's okay.
 
@Alan989
@Garrison72
People said the same thing about the 3DS, and it was a huge success. Why? Because Nintendo released a shite ton of great games on it. Problem is - console games take a lot longer to develop than 3DS games
 
If they are going to release games like Fire Emblem on it - that would probably look much, MUCH better than their 3DS counterparts - I'd probably add it beside my 3DS actually :)
Even after Fates? You have the patience of a saint; I've already given up hope that they have any Radiant Dawn or Seisen no Keifu left in them.
 
Arkane posted a really cool live action Dishonored 2 trailer:

[video=youtube;-2JvtKTSWxU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2JvtKTSWxU[/video]
 
Wow, really great cast of the characters. Emily looks beautiful in real life. :wub:
I'm so hyped for this.
 
They are freaking about about lack of DRM in those demo versions (which as some report helped breaking Denuvo). Typical corporate paranoia and control freaks decision. In short - don't feed it by buying DRMed games.

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New interesting engine in development: http://www.intrinsic-engine.com

It's built from the ground up using Vulkan, and targets high efficiency and parallelism. And, the best thing - it's open source.
 
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They are freaking about about lack of DRM in those demo versions (which as some report helped breaking Denuvo). Typical corporate paranoia and control freaks decision. In short - don't feed it by buying DRMed games.

Sorry, I'm going to pick up my copy of Dishonored 2 and enjoy it. DRM or no DRM.
 
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