I remember spending hours after hours with Monkey Island, i remember playing Sam & Max for days! I remember playing Day of the Tentacle, Loom, Kings Quest, Robin Hood (yea i actually did), Simon the Sorcerer, Full Throttle, Maniac Mansion, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. So where have this genre gone? I dont think its the consumers that changed its just that the stereotypical gamer is the 14-16 year old kid who loves violence! And thats what sells, FPS games have never been hotter, video game violence has never been goryer or bloodier. So what happened to taking care of the core gamers? The ones that played games before these kids where more than a twinkle in theyre mothers eye? I think theres a market for every type of game. I think that old school adventure games will make a comeback. You see it with Monkey Island remakes, thats a beautiful thing since Monkey Island 1 and 2 are my top favourite adventure games of all time! None above!! But when you see the overwealming respons those games get why cant other game companys get onto this bandwagon and ride out some more classics? Yea yea, maybe alot of the remakes will suck ass but atleast theres a chance that some of them might still work right? I demand more adventure games in the liking of the old school ones i named. I know theres alot more gamers like me and those are the ones i wanna hear from. So all my fellow old school adventure gamers stand up and lets unite against what is becoming gaming equals FPS games! Lets take back our adventure games, with theyre lame humour, theyre brain numming puzzles, with theyre ability to drag you into theyre world! We dont want so much of the fast paced action packed games we get nowadays, we wanna relax and use your brains abit more! Common!!!
Ronny Stensen
www.gamersweb.no
[email protected]
RKGK/Rakugaki is an action platformer about a team of graffiti artists fighting against an autocratic corporation in Cap City.
TSA writes: "A roguelike deskbuilder full of stylish vim and vigour, Zet Zillions has a lot going for it, but can it challenge the genre's best?"
The Digital Foundry verdict on the technology of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.
Such a good looking game, best graphics this gen so far
" When the camera zooms in for a close-up, the level of detail is such that it left me guessing whether I was looking at real-time graphics or a pre-rendered cutscene. Thankfully, with Photo Mode being available at any time, you can easily confirm that they are, in fact, real-time.Of course, it's really the animation you experience while playing that impressed me the most. The expressions visible while engaged in combat or simply exploring really help bring the characters to life. "
As a story-focused game, characters and character rendering play a significant role in the presentation. However, while the pre-release media largely focused on Senua herself, Hellblade 2 features a surprisingly large number of other humans. It's without doubt one of the games defining visual features - the character rendering in Hellblade 2 sets new standards, delivering sequences that, at times, almost resemble actual filmed scenes with real actors. This is one of the first examples of a game that stands up against the promise of the UE5 demo The Matrix Awakens. The scenes feel very natural and realistic in a way that manages to somewhat sidestep the uncanny valley almost completely.
Incredible graphics..this is finally next gen graphics. It’s an experience more than a game. You can fault it or accept it and embrace what it gives you. It’s like Sony 1886.
(Summary)
- Takes advantage of everything UE5 offers
- Final game 'lives up to the lofty expectations' of the 2019 reveal
- Character rendering sets new standards and nearly resembles movie sequences with actual actors
- Leverages Unreal's Meta Human 5 to bypass the uncanny valley feel
- DF were left guessing whether some cut-scenes were in-game or real life footage (photo mode shows they're all real time)
- Character detail and how light / specular etc reflect on it praised
- A lot of the visual make up is tied to the post-process effects
- No option to disable things like CA, DoF etc but it's all suitable to the games presentation
- Soft filmic image quality and wider FoV praised
Resolution and Visuals:
- DRS 1296 to 1440p (w/ black bars 964 to 1070p). Series S will be covered in separate video
- 'Not sure if adding more pixels would make a difference to the filmic quality'
UE5 Features:
- Lumen is used extensively for direct and in-direct lighting, a lot of real time changes and shadows etc all update accordingly
- 'Phenomenal stuff'
- Lumen does a better job than traditional real time lighting system for indirectly lit areas like under ramps etc
- Lumen reflections used in combination with SSR for water bodies. Some water bodies can show SSR artifacts when moving camera
- 'Anyone looking at the game in motion will be impressed even if they do not understand the technical reasons'
- Unreal's fog is used effectively, fog lights up with light sources and runs at high quality
- Water effects and waves are praised. ' Absolutely stunning'
- Nanite is extensively used and eliminates visible pop-in even during scene transitions
- Minimal repetition or tiling, uses photo-grammatory
- Some assets like tree branches can show low resolution when zoomed in with photo mode, however
- Fine shadow detail is retained even when zooming extremely in thanks to Unreal's Virtual Shadow Maps
- Shadow quality is not always perfect and can show cracks in some instances but very consistent by and large
- Not the first UE5 game to use all these features, but by and far the best looking game to do so.
Performance:
- 30 FPS but the performance is locked and never dropped in John's testing on Series X
- DF tested the game on their Series X - similar - PC to see how much performance could be gained over 30
- 4K with DRS, they were able to stay locked at 30 FPS on High
- DRS 1440p with 60 FPS target sees game play at high 50s with more drops in cut-scenes
- DF thinks based on this test, SX can do 60 FPS with a more aggressive DRS target
- However, PC version can show massive frame time stutters that the Xbox version does not in the same areas
- DF summary: 60 FPS is theoretically possible, but for a stable 60 they might need to drop settings a lot
Audio
- Headphones are needed for Binaural audio effect that the game uses extensively
- DF thinks it is 'incredibly engaging'
Trailer Comparison:
- They compare the Giant fight trailer with the same area in the final game
- Final game has lesser lens distortion and difference in how the flame is lit
- The flames felt more 'fluid' in the demo versus the final game, otherwise no difference in the segment noted
- DF thinks Ninja Theory 'reached their goal'
- Praise the polish, presentation etc.
If they achieved this level of quality their first time using UE5... I can't wait to see what their next game is going to look like.
Remember the trailer release and ppl didn't think it was insane footage cause it looked too good
They are still being mad, what's missing is the quality; another problem is there are about a million strictly puzzle games on the net, which deflate the fan base.
The good news is that Japan style adventure games are becoming popular on the DS, like the Ace attorney series.
My all time favorite are Grime Fandango, Fullthrottle and Gabriel Knight.
P.S: don’t miss the Whispered World, looks great.
I'd say Heavy Rain fits into the category of "Adventure Game". ALso I don't think the market for them is as large as you think - yes the Monkey Island remakes got a lot of praise, but this is from nostalgia from old adventure game fans. That said, I too would like to see more adventure games.