Episode 521: Power Outage

Last week’s podcast couldn’t be uploaded thanks to some good old-fashioned California power outages. This week’s episode is full of snark — enjoy.

The news items include:

  • PlayStation Classic using PAL versions for several games regardless of region
  • Bethesda apologizes about Fallout 76 launch
  • Fortnite surpasses 200 million players
  • No Man’s Sky Visions update improves diversity

Let us know what you think.

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How do you argue with that? Personally, I think the graphics look wonderful, brilliant, vibrant and professional. Diablo 3 game designer Jay Willson said:

“The key thing to remember here is that this has been Photoshopped. This isn’t created by the engine. Though it looks really cool, it’s almost impossible to do in a 3D engine because you can’t have lighting that smart and run on systems that are reasonable. If we could do that, we probably would in a few of the dungeons.” (slashdot)

Non-developers seem to forget that the colors, cameras and lighting don’t come free on a video game. Everything has limitations and, although the limitations change over time, today’s graphics for a standard machine are capable of running Diablo 3. Blizzard isn’t making a game that only hardcore PC gamers can play, this game is for everyone.

Building a video game is a lot of smoke and mirrors to make a virtual object look “real” to normal gamers. Immersion and definition is important, grainy dark graphics do set a mood, but they also frustrate many players. Remember DOOM 3? Some people could barely see the “epic graphics” of the last DOOM sequel, it’s time to mature and show off true colors.

Darkness usually is used to hide imperfections, Diablo 3 has nothing to hide.

(For a high resolution photo, checkout MTV Multiplayer Blog)

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The news includes:

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This week’s discussion:

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All this, and the Question of the Week is “What weird rituals do you do when playing videogames?”