Agreed, it's part and parcel of how all gaming media works, everyone tiptoeing around each other coz they don't want to upset friends or people they might work with down the line.
@@cube2foxUnderstandable, but still unfortunate that journalists like DF can't always speak their minds as freely as Jorg is able to. Still nothing but love for the DF crew!
@@mastersniper101 They do speak their minds. They just don't share all of your opinions. And personally I don't want them to become another whining channel like other gaming channels did.
Jörg is my new favorite thing to come out of DF Direct in months. No bs, no punches pulled, clearly not afraid to make people uncomfortable with calling out how F'd a lot of this industry is.
I wish I had the money to buy both psvr2 and his game because of how upfront he is. I would love to support these type of individual driven products instead of the borg cube.
"Calling out" doesn't change a thing. It does make others uncomfortable, because getting socially involved and emotional in a regular discussion comes out as immature.
Realistic graphics isn’t going anywhere even if studios start embracing more stylized visuals again. There is an inherent marvel to seeing hyper realistic visuals - the market will always be there.
@@e2rqey True, and they always try to frame it as AAA games are inorganically funded and that they should never be that large. Like sure guys, lets pretend studios like Rockstar and Naughty dog haven't been around for decades and started by putting out the same garabge middleware products most indies put out today. You want the money? Make a blockbuster hit and go from there just like they did. Almost no AAA studio hasn't risen through the ranks - only exception I can think of is 343
He only cares about what drives clicks which is why he is obsessive about pro consoles and brow beats John and Alex into supporting him on this subject, look at the shorts they put out they’re 100% made by him and have 100% clickbait titles. You certainly never see him talking about the experience of actually playing games the way John does, John and DF Retro are the soul of DF so it’s a good thing Rich pushed the next episode back into December…
Love to see VR being discussed on DF!! Please more of this. It's been a bumpy ride so far but I truly believe VR can be the future of the medium of games. Playing VR on a quality headset and ideally on a nice PC, is like stepping into the future. The level of immersion and interactivity is simply unmatched by any form of conventional gaming.
Ngl it was nice to see a guest like Jorg that goes against the typical “soft spoken” candor that DF is known for. Sometimes it’s nice to hear “fuck these companies” as opposed to just “what a shame.” But I understand that not everyone may tune in for that type of dialogue here. Would like to see more guests like Jorg from time to time, or maybe in a separate video outside the Direct.
Completely AGREE!! The older I've gotten, the MORE I care about the folks making the games mental well being and lives, and LESS about the game itself! There will always be more games to play! F these greedy companies and their shareholders! Get the F*** away from my friends!
At about the 30:00 mark they were talking about budget/experimental titles and this is something that I really miss about the handheld platforms. As budgets were starting to skyrocket during the PS360 era, studios could have a smaller team create a lower budget game for the DS/PSP that either tied into their console efforts or allowed them to experiment with new features. You would think with the variety and popularity of more niche indie titles, that companies would be more open to doing this in the current era.
There's no reason they couldn't exist on home consoles though. The indie market does; I love playing shit like Celeste or Undertale on my 3090. The AAA market think that you need to spend a billion dollars making the most visually stunning experience ever witnessed by man, only sell 10 million copies in a day, cry over how no one wants to play videogames anymore, lay off all of their workers and get immediately outflanked by one guy, some sprites and an old roland keyboard.
Why is everyone surprised that Insomniac created 3 Spiderman games in such a short time? They all share the same city, which is arguably the most time consuming thing. Remastered is not a new game at all, Miles and 2 are playing in the same city too. I'm not saying the work is bad or lazy, just that the games are not created from scratch and off course are faster ready to launch. And don't forget, the games also launch on a single platform only and the port is done later.
Yes it is the same city but it’s definitely been altered considerably, aside from being expanded. I replayed all of 2018 and Morales before 2 launched and from the moment the game starts and you get to swing around, the difference in scale and fidelity is night and day. The buildings all feel larger in scale, and the detail is through the roof. There is no way to do it justice with words, without a visual comparison. You move through the city significantly faster, yet it still feels like ground takes a long time to cover, without compromising on the players sense of speed.
That's certainly how Yakuza does it, and I'm not complaining at all. Insomniac also did Ratchet & Clank and are working on Wolverine, though, they make a huge portion of Sony's exclusives just by themselves
Minority Report for the Gamecube was one of my favorite games as a kid! The physics and cheat codes and explorable destructable enviroments were incredible IMO
Was that the game where the enemies straight up ragdoll without any death animations when you kill them? I remember playing it for a bit on the PS2 as a kid and the only thing I remember were those goofy ragdolls
Yes he is clearly a fresh breeze of air and i like his rant against massmarket shooters with dancing after a kill. And agree with him on dreams. It is fantastic how somebody recreated with it the iconic scene with the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. It looks almost like the film. 18:07 As for Alex confirming that RTAO was used, i wonder why the lighting still looks odd though, even resembling screen space looks at times. I still see some lights leaking for example beneath the trophy shelf. Sand Man looks odd too. If we only had a debugging view like in forza motorsport we could say more. I think local shadows are missing.
I'm a VR dev and there is something that video games medias don't talk about much : we are a lot of people making games/experiences/learning apps in VR/MR that you won't see on Steam or other opened stores. There is a hole market of alternative uses that is not talked about.
@@MKwadratPodcast no I mean entertainment centers, special events, art installations, education, medical world and such. Those are my company's clients. We don't put anything out on the stores.
Because they are talking about the hardware adoption and success and potential.@@Tarets I can see first hand, every day, people discovering VR for the first time. And they always love it. In the video, they're saying it will probably stay niche forever. I'm saying that as we speak, people don't even know what they're missing. We have a new 3D artist at work, he told me he is a huge nerd, he is very interested, he plays a lot of games. And still he will try VR for the 1st time tomorrow. The point is, all is not taken into account when we say it's a niche.
1:32:28 Strong disagreement with this statement. When money changes hands, you are owed the product that was advertised. Blanket statements like "nobody owes you anything" are just wrong.
Indeed !! I'm borderline done with VRR due to flickering problems, and without it you cannot use DLSS3 FG because the FPS caps are under 120 or 60 etc. 116fps does not look nice vsynced without VRR!!!
Dev saying. "No one owes you anything" is the reason AAA games ship in such poor states. You owe the consumer the experience you advertised when you take their money.
No, the reason is people are buying these games anyway. His presumption is that customers know what they're paying for, which ok - might be a stretch, but also often isn't. The only reason we get games in such a state is because devs and publishers constantly get away with it, since gamers act as if their long term memory was broken.
In the AAA space, you probably want to redirect your frustrations towards the publishers… We should never be accepting the state of modern gaming, but let’s make sure we’re hating the right people.
I really hope the special guest doesn’t return for future episodes. I know one viewer’s opinion might not mean much, but to me he came across as arrogant, jaded, and a tad ignorant. Doesn’t seem like the type of guest that measures up to the knowledge or temperament of the DF team I’m used to. Otherwise, fantastic episode as always (I love when John gets to host occasionally!)
There is a r/FuckTAA subreddit because TAA ruins games making them a blurry mess that a SNES game seems more detailed. And forcing this is totally insane, I gone back to playing games without that mess, I personally really can't stand this
Yeah, as much as Ratchet is one of my favorite game franchises and it has been consistently good over the years as Sony's bread and butter platformer, I figure Insomniac might want to try creating other things by now. I thought Resistance was awesome, but I wouldn't want that coming back either, I think it probably had its time and place. They do great work with Spider-man, but Marvel stuff in general just has too much saturation at this point, and it's not Insomniac's own creation. Having Crystal Dynamics, Eidos, and Firaxis all make Marvel stuff and taking their time away from making their own personal projects felt like a waste too.
The big improvement that pancake lenses bring is one that you probably don't even notice. The "sweet spot" is bigger. Translation: you just put the headset on and go. You won't be fiddling with the strap to line yourself up with the tiny non-blurry area of the Fresnel lenses.
I always worry the higher ups will one day force John to stop talking about VR, but it always warms my heart every time he does. Yeah it's a niche market and niche doesn't drive clicks but I would love to see DF covering VR platforms like they do consoles/PC. Quest 2/3 PSVR2 graphic comparisons could turn out more interesting than standard console face-offs because the differences between a standalone platform and one that's tethered to a computer/PS5 is way bigger. Just today I was also thinking about hardware reviews: DF covered PSVR2 but not Quest 3 and that seemed odd to me, because if you think about it, Quest 3 is a console (that's already on its third generation), and Meta could be thought of as a video game company like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, one that already owns studios such as Ready at Dawn, Sanzaru, Camouflaj, Armature, Twisted Pixel, etc. yet the media keeps treating it like it was Google Stadia or something.
Glad to hear Rich is on the mend. A friend of mine just recovered from his second dose of Covid and he was REALLY poorly this time. Hopefully we’ll see him on the next DF Weekly.
Sorry to hear about your friend mate, glad they're doing better! I've had COVID 4x meself. And yet I still hear about dummies refusing to get inoculated against the virus 🤢
@@kaikiske7436 I had covid and I still don't feel normal, I suffer from shortness of breath, I've never had to deal with that at all. I lost my dad to covid and my best friend died from complications. I feel like the people that have gotten vaccinated got more sick and passed away. I hope I didn't come across rude in my last comment, that wasn't the intention. I just want everyone to be OK and I want to be back to normal. My sense of smell is still shot. Feel better. 👊
@@deepblue8143 no worries at all my dude! Sorry for your loss! I had a co-worker in Brazil lose both parents and his brother during the pandemic. I was also extremely sick in late 2019, around the time it was going g crazy in China. Idk of that was COVID, but I was really sick for almost a month. I have never been that sick before. The doctor said it was “some kind of bronchial infection” but didn’t know exactly what it was. The times that I have tested positive for COVID have all been mild. Nothing like whatever I had in 2019. My nephew also caught what I had and had to be hospitalized for 2 days. But again, the docs didn’t have an official diagnosis… he was coughing for a month tho
Alex is wrong when he says VRR doesn't have frame pacing issues. Good frame pacing means you have the same frame time every frame. Sounds like he's talking more about a specific type of judder, where the frame time pings back and forth between large values. However, bad frame pacing doesn't require that kind of judder. With VRR you will obviously get very inconsistent frame times, and for a lot of people, a frame rate cap is a lot better than VRR for that reason.
ONLY dev would speak on issues like Jörg just did. You can see it even in John's reactions. The VG journalism hangs on keeping a good and even better relationship with the majors so they wont dwell on the real stuff too much.
Yeah I noticed this. Was nice to see a dev just directly pan these negative things in the industry. Journalists in general avoid being too direct and DF especially seems allergic to condemning anything.
You mean VG media should all start whining about layoffs in the industry? To what purpose? We've all seen the news and moved on. If anything, Jorg's reaction is rather unprofessional. Yes, it's all bad that people are losing their jobs, but no one will retain the staff if it's not financially profitable. His comments have nothing to do with the video game industry - it's just a socialist's take on capitalism.
Classic, Jorg saying “no one owes you anything” I mean, they owe you a game, if its unplayable at launch they owe you to fix it. Man, thinking like that makes me laugh, I think john was going to jump in there, but it shouldn’t happen in the beginning and should be delayed until it is in a state that someone can enjoy.
No, they owe you nothing. They only owe it to themselves to have the best work conditions and family life balance. These capitalist companies would have the teams working 50+ hours a week 50 weeks a year at only slightly above median income!!. The profits should be distributed equally within the team!! One of the benefits that we got from COVID was proving that we can all work and stay within our domeciles, and still produce great work without mid level manager supervision!! No more crunch either!!!
@@kaikiske7436 What? This as nothing to do with working conditions. This is the responsibility of the company they work for, and I agree all that should be in place in the first place, but for the customer that just brought your game/product with their money for them to not owe you nothing if its broken is just insane, sorry. You would not buy anything that had faults. Let’s say a motherboard as faulty USB ports or none functioning options in the bios, but a bios update could fix it, so you contact the manufacturer for the software update for them to say “sorry we owe you nothing, have a nice day” don’t think you be happy.
I skipped to the Supporter Q1 section and I thought of something: Blurbusters made an article called G-SYNC 101. They conclude that G-Sync + VSync (disabled in-game, but enabled in NVCP) = no screen tearing, and if you limit your FPS to at least 3 frames below your screen's refresh rate (preferably with an in-game frame rate limiter, but you can use RTSS or NVCP "max frame rate" setting if necessary), you'll avoid the horrible input lag of VSync but still get the benefits of G-Sync + VSync. You could replace G-Sync with FreeSync and still get the same results, I think.
Really loved the discussion on VR, I hope we see more discussions! Honestly I think VR is the most exciting thing happening now, a whole new medium to discover, what could be better? I’m loving my psvr2, the only downside has been PlayStation’s stupid decision to not bring Dreams to the headset. Really hoping we also see some real movement on the pc front. I’m waiting for Steam to say something because really I’m neither sold on Meta the company, or their new no eye tracking headset.
Surprised there is no talk about Alan Wake 2 PC requirements. An RTX 3070 is only good for 540p internal resolution(DLSS Perfomance) at 1080p60 Medium. How will this run on a Series S then?
I’d imagine if those specs are accurate that medium settings will look very close over all to max like remedy’s previous games and 1080p if it’s paired with a good upscaler can produce perfectly good image quality. That said with the consoles not having dlss I do wonder what base res/setting it will have let alone the series s!
It might be because of its VRAM limit? The amd cards in comparison sort of make me think it’s just the 8 gigs of vram since they aren’t stronger GPUs at all. I guess we will find out when people on 4060 ti 16 gig compare to the 3070 (Let’s not argue value. They just are close in performance.)
Great choice having Jörg join the direct and offer a perspective from a dev's POV. Hope Rich is on the mend and will be back next week. Thanks to John for hosting another great show with Alex as his wingman. 😃
I think he's too negative for this show though... He keeps bringing things back to firing employees and everyone being caught up in their virtual world ignoring their children... It just doesn't fit the tone of the show, that's not why I listen to DF
@@anonony9081agree 100%. It’s taken me a few days to watch the episode because I’ve started and stopped multiple times mainly due to this guy. His cynicism is a real turn off and if I wanted this sort of take I would just browse gaming Twitter
Wanted to mention that Playdate game by designed & coded Frederic Raynal, SKEW, is incredibly cool. Would love to see a DF video on the playdate, if just to help people appreciate how unique it is
I can’t imagine having to actually sit and talk to Tittel for an hour. The man’s constant cynicism and pessimism is incredibly irritating and makes this episode difficult to even watch. Actually interacting with him would make me want to fling myself off a bridge.
More cynicism and pessimism is apparently what the typical Gamer who watches these videos wants. Just look at the comments. It's almost as if these people just want to be angry at something all the time. I'm sure Mr Tittel is a good game dev but I'm sorry, he's not built for podcasts. Half the time I can't make out what point he's trying to make and the rest of the time he's yapping like a grumpy old dude. I just can't.
We don't want blind love bombing of every game. Harsh criticism can have some good points even if we don't agree with the level of negativity within it.
@@SanguinePink The criticism that's not constructive is just whining. And the only people who like to listen to others whining are whiners themselves. Yes, people are being laid off - a bummer for their families, but that's how the world works. Yapping about it achieves nothing, other than raising negative emotions. I'm glad the DF crew has not jumped that wagon like most gaming channels have.
I appreciate Jorg's candor since DF, as a media outlet who wants to maintain good relations with publishers and developers, often has to soften their stance. More Jorg!
Less Jorg for me. There are plenty enough yt channels falling into that whiny territory, succumbing to the always negative audience. No, sorry - that's not what DF is about.
Why whinge about layoffs? Most of them have simply been contractors. Which kind of explains itself. If you ran a company there is absolutely no way in hell you'd be paying people to sit there and do nothing until more work came along.
I recently bought a pico 4, it was my first VR experience and it was incredible. I have already played half life alyx, vertigo, red matter 1 and 2. I have tried some 3D movies and the effect is great. I am looking forward to what else it can offer, but it's a shame there isn't more AAA games investment.
I have to say in terms of VR, I absolutely love the Quest 3 and it's Pancake lenses. My only negative is the headset hasn't been fully utilised, but Red Matter 2 is an absolutely fantastic example of what the Quest 3 can do. Once devs and Meta themselves start doing a heavy push, it'll become really interesting. I kinda wish PSVR2 does a V2 Model that has Pancake Lenses because it would do wonders for their headset. I totally agree with Newjorg about Astro Bots! The only thing that's making me keep a PSVR- is RE7 and Astro Bots Rescue Mission.
Stormland is the PCVR game you are talking about and to this date is an awesome game! Way too advanced for it's time! Hell even now if you compare it with the current VR games... Cosmic Smash is smashing ;))
I feel like they're not getting half of Jorg's jokes, especially Alex (i.e. they start answering him seriously as he's obviously just fooling around). I hope we'll see him more often.
Thanks team for discussing VR. I know it's not mainstream, but the immersion is truly amazing. Special thanks to John for mentioning the Pimax Crystal. I usually only hear tech channels discuss the cheaper mass-market headsets. Pimax aren't perfect, but they are trying to push VR forward in many ways, and I think they deserve kudos and recognition for that. Lastly, Jörg is a legend!! If you bring C-Smash VRS to PCVR, I'll insta-buy. DF Direct is my favourite podcast.
Jorgs pitch from 1:10:00 and forward is the best case I've heard for VR. To me I've kinda subconsciously put it into the same blur as all the other bad tech shit trying to untether us from reality, but the way he puts it is really convincing to me. The fact that it is such a huge and conscious jump in every literal sense really does escape you from reality, but then as a result grounds you back to life and the now once you take those goggles off. Genuinely wholesome stuff in that sense
With the cost of aaa games going up and up, "budget creep" as was mentioned. That is another reason to like where Nintendo is at. Making nice looking games, that aren't pushing any envelopes but generally keep looking a bit better than previous gen games. I look foward to how Nintendo will use the power of the Switch 2 to make even prettier stylized games for their trademark series.
fortnite is a “real metaverse?” “kratos in fortnite!” is not a metaverse, its like when you saw a guy in batman costume at the mall as a kid, you said to yourself “that aint the real batman” and you had zero doubts about it
Love the flavor Jörg brought to this episode. Just the raw, pessimistic, realist doomer opinions on everything. Also delving into the philosophical aspects of gaming at times. Really enjoyed his inputs.
As soon as i saw lawnmower man, i was fascinated with the prospect of being in a video game. Its a great tine for gaming. I dont understand the VR hate AT ALL....unless you get easily nauseous.
This guest speaker was really getting obnoxious tbh. I get the dislike towards capitalism but jesus fuck, any time Alex or John try to make points about anything this guy's first retort is to spin it into a topic about corporate greed and how overstaffed companies are laying people off. I bet if John tried to make the point that budgets are too high that it unsustainable this guy would counter by saying that they should just keep those employees anyway.
Simply, I can’t be sympathetic to a company that ships unfinished products. I should be able to give them half my cash if they give me half of a game. Music is not released with just a couple of notes recorded or a movie with only 1 scene recorded to come back 6 months to listen or watch the rest. I’m also not blaming the ppl that make the game. I am blaming the business model where is now ok to usher in products with promise. Even tech is now released with promises. This must stop. Because the promise is never what they claim. "Don’t buy then", should not be their battle cry to ignore this pandemic of promises. City skyline is not finished. full stop. They made a game I use to relieve stress that is very stressful. Their low fps is not an ignorable problem. The business model now does not care about the stain it leaves on the consumer; we already have their money. We will fix it in the post should not be the norm.
I dunno about most people but one of the worst features of the first VR headset I tried at a friend's house(occulus Rift) was the cable. Having it drag around behind me and having to be constantly aware of it so that I didn't step and trip or yank it was completely immersion breaking and was one of the reasons I ended up getting a quest 2, since that is wireless. So...his comment about never thinking about the cable once the headset is on is completely untrue, at least in my experience.
the issue with games these days aren't a hardware issue but a developer issue. Ps5 pro will not solve optimization issues but rather give more rope to Devs to optimize even less. Devs aiming for 540p for current gen hardware is mind blowing.
As reconstruction gets better native resolution metrics will continue to matter less and less, it's already a borderline irrelevant metric. And imagine when consoles catch up with DLSS in terms of reconstruction quality, at that point rendering res will completely cease to matter, it'll remain a talking point for clueless reddit armchair experts and fanboys. Waving an arbitrary number around to justify "lazy devs" shitposting is a big oof.
I would also agree that devs don’t owe us anything beyond the product and its contents that we agreed to purchase at the time of that transaction however, with games other than early access games or games where the customer has agreed to purchase the product in an unfinish state, the customer would and should have the basic expectations that the product purchased would be in a functioning state. I don’t expect a dev or publisher to provide free content or even anything other than what was stated to be in the product or tier of product at the time of my purchase however, I do expect the game to actually function and delivery the futures that were stated to be available at the time of my purchase. If I bought a washer and it was missing features or parts (other than a defect) and didn’t work as advertised then I as the customer would be justifiably upset as I rendered payment on the basis that I was purchasing a functioning product. I understand and appreciate that games are super difficult and stressful to make with a lot of moving parts and likewise, I understand that some people can and do have very unreasonable expectations of devs but I don't think that it is unreasonable for customer to expect a feature complete and working product because at the end of the day, the customers has also worked hard to be able to purchase the product in question.
@1:11:30 Personally, being able to use online maps to figure things out takes a lot of the anxiety out of traveling. If not for that I probably would still be more of a shut-in since it took me a long time to get enough social experience to even be able to ask for directions/help. I get where you guys are coming from but there's benefits beyond the obvious convenience, too.
@@jtij497 I'm pretty fine managing it when out and about tnese days but the younger me would never in a million years have asked for directions and was deathly afraid of even ordering things off a menu lol. I think it's all a balancing act y'know. These technologies can help us but sometimes we need to recognise when we are relying on them and force ourselves to take a step outside of our comfort zones on occasion.
@jalex9808its not a matter of the graphics. Its the fact that they are using mesh shaders which are only supported by relatively modern GPUs. I think Nvidia started supporting them with Turing (RTX 2000 series). While the game definitely looks good, it's not purely the processing power needed that's dictating the GPU requirements, its the graphics technology itself (mesh shaders).
@@e2rqey But that goes back to the point they discussed a while back - is the tradeoff even worth it to use this new technology & these features if the end result doesn't look any better than what's already out there? We've seen many games breakdown all these crazy, state-of-the-art modern visual features, yet gamers can hardly notice a difference. Meanwhile, the frame rate is half of what it used to be & even higher end CPU's are reaching their limit due to everything being pushed in these games.
Can we get a DF Retro with Timothy Cain! His videos have been amazing, it's a match made in heaven. PS The driver talk reminds me of the drama around Richard Geldreich's blog posts in 2009 talking about GPU company A/B/C1/C2 (A is Nvidia, B is AMD, C 1 is intel Linux, C 2 intel windows). A bunch of posts related to that are online on archive sites, as if pressure was made to wipe some of them.
Would definitely be looking forward to that VRR/Vsync video. Could you guys also give handhelds a section or two since that’s the environment where it matters the most to me. Get better Rich!
They probably want a fresh PS5 exclusive version and a PC version of TLoU2 ready for when season 2 of the series hits. I doubt it will be as much of a remake as part 1 was. Probably mostly tech upgrades that they've already been working on for the multiplayer game and some higher quality versions of the same assets
48:40 I really like C-Smash VRS, but good luck trying to find someone else to play with in public matchmaking. It has good amount of single-player content, and it works fantastic when I invite a friend and then we play either the 4 versus modes or the 1 co-op mode together, but you can't random others to play with using public matchmaking. Part of it is because they have a server component that was not working following their big free content update that added AI Bots to play against during matchmaking. It wasn't known to them to fix for a few days following the release of that big patch. That kind of mismanagement kills the potential to create an online multiplayer community.
True. It's because there's a separate matchmaking for every single mode. I can't wrap my head around that decision. It's like the developers don't even try playing their own games. Just give me an option to join ANY match.
@@Tarets There is option to do matchmaking for a specific competitive mode, but it also has option to choose all 4. It does not allow you to match for either competitive or cooperative at the same time. If you use the invite friend function to play cooperative, and want to switch to competitive, you have to exit the lobby, start a new hosting session and re-invite the friend. I think you are right that developers that talk up their game don't actually try playing their game to understand why their matchmaking lobbies are dry. They didn't even realize for days after their big free content upgrade that their matchmaking system was timing out because some server component needed a reboot. It wasn't until I bothered going to their discord to report the issue that they resolved that. That was the time to hook a community of players, but they fumbled it.
I think one of the biggest issues with VR is that most people just haven't tried it, because it's not the easiest thing to try without actively seeking it out. I had to use VR for a job interview of all things, and after that I knew I'd buy it eventually. Before then, I had no interest at all. I think a lot of people just think of it as '3D', and don't realise that it is full 360 and with the motion controls etc.
Yea he needs to calm down. I was fine with the 1st but if he makes an anti capitalist statement every news story I'm going to check out. Df isn't big by whining every 5 seconds.
If Skylines 2 knew it had a bunch of problems but still had to release it, maybe release it as early access. I bet the product page didn't say "Can barely run on a 4090" on it anywhere.
The last of us 2 still holds up visually. You guys really went off the rails with the diatribe about realism. They do remasters to sell the same product twice, not to make the product acceptable by modern standards.
Gotta love hearing Jörg shilling for broken unfinished releases as if it’s on the paying costumers to show more patience and sympathy for the poor developers. FUNNY though how, when these f*cking things are riddled with in-game purchases, those seem to work flawlessly. If only these companies were more concerned with shipping a finished product over squeezing every cent out of our pockets over dumb sh*t.. just imagine how different the industry would be. It’s NEVER our job to hope for broken games to MAYBE get fixed when we’re charged full goddamn price upfront for said broken games. We give them money, they give us a game. It’s as simple as that. Expecting anything less is allowing developers and their publishers to push the envelope on what scummy sh*t they can get away with. Nobody asked them to over-promise concepts they fundamentally can’t deliver on. So Mr. games developer Jörg can take his corporate apologist takes somewhere else.
This episode was really brought down by their guest, I feel. A lot of cynicism/pessimism that kind of led into a lot of conversational dead ends. Recover soon, Rich!
Exactly. You can discuss certain problems, but when the discussion doesn't lead to any conclusion it just becomes salty. You can see by some of the comments, that some people are into that, but that's not what I watch the DF for.
Ray-Tracing is an objectively superior technology than Rasterization, the only problem is performance. So sure some people may very well dislike ray-tracing because they care more about performance/FPS than visuals, there's nothing wrong with that preference/priority. But I'm also sure those people don't mind it being an option in game, they're not advocating for RT to be abandoned, they just choose to not enable it. That's exactly what FuckTAA's does too except unlike RT, TAA tends to be forced on therefore we actively require a subreddit and advocacy because we can't tune our PC games to match our preferences. You don't need the same thing for RT because it's not forced on you, FuckTAA is only against forcing the option not TAA's existence itself. Another way it is different is that Ray-Tracing from an image quality standpoint is just 100% better whereas TAA is worse when compared to methods like SSAA, so in your example TAA would be like raster and SSAA would be like Ray-Tracing. In both situations the technique is superior in terms of image quality but is worse in performance, yet DF's justification for TAA is that its required for good performance. So it seems DF is prioritizing FPS over image quality when it comes to TAA but not with RT which I don't think you realize, but it's fine because that's your preference but the beauty of PC gaming is we should all be able to choose what we like, forcing options onto people is for a console experience. Even if you leave the option in an ini file I don't care, just let me tinker, don't make it impossible.
Because having RT-only rendering allows you to skip a lot of work needed by other techniques. Having it disabled isn't "just an option" - it requires tons of baking and prerendering, on top of programming the use of all that precomputed data.
@@Tarets Yes, so not providing a raster option only helps developers but harms the consumer. In an era of poorly optimized games and game engines like unreal engine pushing for features that automate processes but performs awful I would hate to see fully ray-traced games. Some of them like Metro are good cause they're made with love and care but most games are not. Most studios already cut a lot of corners at the expense of delivering an efficient game, you pair that with forced Ray-Tracing it would mean 1 of 2 things 1) Most people couldn't play the game 2) Forced super aggressive upscaling, like Alan Wake 2 requiring a 3080 for 540p gaming, there comes a point where the compromise for better lighting is overall worse for the visuals. I think a native 1440p image without RT would look better than a 540p upscaled image with RT for example and I'm not even sure if Alan Wake 2 forces RT yet it has these requirements, so if it doesn't I can't imagine the performance it will have when its enabled
1:32:12 If developers feel "they don't owe their customers anything", their prospective customers will conclude they don't owe the developers anything, and this is a buyer's market like never before seen in the history of gaming - and THAT'S the reason for these layoffs and studio closures. There ARE definitely developers out there whose attitude is "we'll ship a dumpsterfire and maybe improve it later." 343 Industries is a shining example. I do understand that there's a lot of factors in play and developers often aren't the ones calling the shots, but this "take it or leave it, you should be honored we're making games for you at all" attitude is trash. "Hungry" indie developers with small studios on shoestring budgets who cater to their customers have been responsible for a majority of the breakout hits lately because big studios are so out of touch and infected with this "take it or leave it, we're too big to fail" attitude. Battlefield vs Battlebit, etc.
@@dab88 Most transactions have recourse if the product is fraudulent or defective. There's "lemon" laws for cars, or you can sue the previous owner if your house turns out to be a money pit and they didn't disclose that. Virtually any retail store allows returns if you aren't clearly abusing the system. For various reasons that's not possible in the context of videogames, so the concept of good faith has to come into it. Both developers and customers must act in good faith or the transaction breaks down. "Tough shit, I've already got your money" isn't good faith, and it invites prospective customers to behave similarly. I was interested in this guy's VR game, it looks like a good workout to add to my Quest 3's cycle of exercise games, but not with his attitude. When Quest 4 comes out is he going to put in the hour of work it takes to release a 1KB patch to support it by at least running at a higher resolution? He's already got my money and he doesn't owe me anything, so why would I expect that? Meanwhile Pistol Whip keeps releasing new free content and improvements so 1) I didn't mind buying a second copy for PCVR, 2) I'll certainly buy their next game, and 3) I take every opportunity I can to recommend it to people.
This mentality is exactly why there is such disain from devs towards consumers. They know how much effort was put into the game. But to be brutally honest, effort doesn't matter to the consumer. They want a great game and don't care if it was the easiest or hardest thing in the world to make. While you have devs with this mentality that they dont owe the customer anything becuase they "did their best" or just tried. Imo they are going to be judged on the price they charge and what other games at a comparable price are achieving whether they like it or not. They absolutely owe the consumer something and the idea they dont is toxic.
@@AFistfulOf4K Dude, I'm not saying there aren't problems with the gaming industry but your entitled attitude is exactly what Jörg was getting at. In most circumstances devs aren't bound by any obligation to continue support for a game after it ships yet you somehow expect this? After your shift finishes do you continue to work for free becuase your boss messed up and the product/service you offer isn't up to scratch? No! You go home. Just like game devs.
Making excuses of sub 10 FPS performance as a "feature" missing at launch is...I'm sorry, but even being from a small studio, Jorg really let the cat of the bag with how developers are thinking currently. Performance isn't a feature, it's a baseline aspect that must be at an acceptable level OR refunds should be legally mandated no matter the hours spent playing up to a reasonable amount, maybe a few days. And that's a man from a tiny dev team. Imagine the insanity of thought at big dev studios. They probably think releasing poor products is just good fun at this point.
It's like when dads not in and so you swear as much as you want
"You know".
Richard Getbetter
GOATed comment. 🏆 🥇
nice
👏 👏 👏
Lol
😂
Jorg is amazing. Pulls no punches, and I feel DF is often too "nice" when it comes to discussing the bad practices that big companies often employ.
Agreed, it's part and parcel of how all gaming media works, everyone tiptoeing around each other coz they don't want to upset friends or people they might work with down the line.
Jörg is not a journalist, he can give opinions. The others are journalists, they have to be at least somewhat neutral.
@@cube2foxUnderstandable, but still unfortunate that journalists like DF can't always speak their minds as freely as Jorg is able to. Still nothing but love for the DF crew!
@@mastersniper101 They do speak their minds. They just don't share all of your opinions.
And personally I don't want them to become another whining channel like other gaming channels did.
@@mastersniper101 Rich was uncharacteristically passive-agressive about Denuvo in AC Mirage and I actually liked seeing that.
Bro Rich probably did one of the most insane transformations week to week that i have ever seen.
I was just about to make the same quip but you got it in first.
He visited Turkey i guess
Since they said Rich is not there in the first 15 seconds of the video, your comment is completely pointless and not funny.
@@MR-pt7ou this post was brought to you by Neil deGrasse Tyson
@@MR-pt7ou 🤓☝️
Jörg is my new favorite thing to come out of DF Direct in months. No bs, no punches pulled, clearly not afraid to make people uncomfortable with calling out how F'd a lot of this industry is.
here here
I wish I had the money to buy both psvr2 and his game because of how upfront he is. I would love to support these type of individual driven products instead of the borg cube.
@@noahsabadish3812 *hear hear
"Calling out" doesn't change a thing. It does make others uncomfortable, because getting socially involved and emotional in a regular discussion comes out as immature.
@@Taretshe doesn't come across as immature to me, but you're entitled to your opinion
Glad to see Al Pacino doing well nowadays
Whoo Ah!
@@Ja-KShe's got a GREAT ASS!
Donkachino
Realistic graphics isn’t going anywhere even if studios start embracing more stylized visuals again. There is an inherent marvel to seeing hyper realistic visuals - the market will always be there.
If noticed Indie devs will often trash talk it because most can't play in that space.
@@e2rqey True, and they always try to frame it as AAA games are inorganically funded and that they should never be that large. Like sure guys, lets pretend studios like Rockstar and Naughty dog haven't been around for decades and started by putting out the same garabge middleware products most indies put out today. You want the money? Make a blockbuster hit and go from there just like they did. Almost no AAA studio hasn't risen through the ranks - only exception I can think of is 343
Rich brings a lot of positivity to the podcast, hope he gets well soon. Great job this week too.
What happened to him? I'm only curious because it is glossed over. Hope he gets well soon.
They said he was ill. Probably just picked up Covid or the flu or something. Clearly nothing especially serious.
Rich is the best! Positivity ftw.
He only cares about what drives clicks which is why he is obsessive about pro consoles and brow beats John and Alex into supporting him on this subject, look at the shorts they put out they’re 100% made by him and have 100% clickbait titles. You certainly never see him talking about the experience of actually playing games the way John does, John and DF Retro are the soul of DF so it’s a good thing Rich pushed the next episode back into December…
@@GunFeverr That's some nice mind reading there
Love to see VR being discussed on DF!! Please more of this. It's been a bumpy ride so far but I truly believe VR can be the future of the medium of games. Playing VR on a quality headset and ideally on a nice PC, is like stepping into the future. The level of immersion and interactivity is simply unmatched by any form of conventional gaming.
I loved the part "A new AA is better than an AAA Remaster". Perfect!!!
Most of the time a new AA is better than a AAA game generally.
Ngl it was nice to see a guest like Jorg that goes against the typical “soft spoken” candor that DF is known for. Sometimes it’s nice to hear “fuck these companies” as opposed to just “what a shame.” But I understand that not everyone may tune in for that type of dialogue here. Would like to see more guests like Jorg from time to time, or maybe in a separate video outside the Direct.
Completely AGREE!! The older I've gotten, the MORE I care about the folks making the games mental well being and lives, and LESS about the game itself! There will always be more games to play! F these greedy companies and their shareholders! Get the F*** away from my friends!
Maximilian dood being invited to the podcast is wholesome
Dude, I was thinking the same thing
🤣
Lol. That was I was thinking all the time while watching the podcast.
At about the 30:00 mark they were talking about budget/experimental titles and this is something that I really miss about the handheld platforms. As budgets were starting to skyrocket during the PS360 era, studios could have a smaller team create a lower budget game for the DS/PSP that either tied into their console efforts or allowed them to experiment with new features. You would think with the variety and popularity of more niche indie titles, that companies would be more open to doing this in the current era.
There's no reason they couldn't exist on home consoles though. The indie market does; I love playing shit like Celeste or Undertale on my 3090. The AAA market think that you need to spend a billion dollars making the most visually stunning experience ever witnessed by man, only sell 10 million copies in a day, cry over how no one wants to play videogames anymore, lay off all of their workers and get immediately outflanked by one guy, some sprites and an old roland keyboard.
Why is everyone surprised that Insomniac created 3 Spiderman games in such a short time? They all share the same city, which is arguably the most time consuming thing. Remastered is not a new game at all, Miles and 2 are playing in the same city too. I'm not saying the work is bad or lazy, just that the games are not created from scratch and off course are faster ready to launch. And don't forget, the games also launch on a single platform only and the port is done later.
They also made Rift Apart...
Similar to the latest Zelda
Yes it is the same city but it’s definitely been altered considerably, aside from being expanded. I replayed all of 2018 and Morales before 2 launched and from the moment the game starts and you get to swing around, the difference in scale and fidelity is night and day. The buildings all feel larger in scale, and the detail is through the roof. There is no way to do it justice with words, without a visual comparison. You move through the city significantly faster, yet it still feels like ground takes a long time to cover, without compromising on the players sense of speed.
That's certainly how Yakuza does it, and I'm not complaining at all.
Insomniac also did Ratchet & Clank and are working on Wolverine, though, they make a huge portion of Sony's exclusives just by themselves
Pretty sure Queens and Brooklyn weren't in the first two.
Minority Report for the Gamecube was one of my favorite games as a kid! The physics and cheat codes and explorable destructable enviroments were incredible IMO
Was that the game where the enemies straight up ragdoll without any death animations when you kill them?
I remember playing it for a bit on the PS2 as a kid and the only thing I remember were those goofy ragdolls
@@w21aaaaaYup
Great episode and wonderful guest with Jörg. Well wishes to Rich, hope he feels better soon.
Yes he is clearly a fresh breeze of air and i like his rant against massmarket shooters with dancing after a kill.
And agree with him on dreams. It is fantastic how somebody recreated with it the iconic scene with the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. It looks almost like the film.
18:07 As for Alex confirming that RTAO was used, i wonder why the lighting still looks odd though, even resembling screen space looks at times. I still see some lights leaking for example beneath the trophy shelf. Sand Man looks odd too. If we only had a debugging view like in forza motorsport we could say more. I think local shadows are missing.
I really liked that phrase. Reality right now is rough, but I also don't want escapism, I want to simply travel places
I'm a VR dev and there is something that video games medias don't talk about much : we are a lot of people making games/experiences/learning apps in VR/MR that you won't see on Steam or other opened stores. There is a hole market of alternative uses that is not talked about.
What market? You mean Sidequest, or something else?
@@MKwadratPodcast no I mean entertainment centers, special events, art installations, education, medical world and such. Those are my company's clients. We don't put anything out on the stores.
@@TheGameLecturer And why would VIDEO GAME media talk about it?
Because they are talking about the hardware adoption and success and potential.@@Tarets
I can see first hand, every day, people discovering VR for the first time.
And they always love it. In the video, they're saying it will probably stay niche forever. I'm saying that as we speak, people don't even know what they're missing.
We have a new 3D artist at work, he told me he is a huge nerd, he is very interested, he plays a lot of games. And still he will try VR for the 1st time tomorrow.
The point is, all is not taken into account when we say it's a niche.
@@TheGameLecturer Ok, I understand now - these are definitely valid arguments given the context :)
1:32:28 Strong disagreement with this statement. When money changes hands, you are owed the product that was advertised. Blanket statements like "nobody owes you anything" are just wrong.
Really hoping Alex gets the time to put out that VRR/VSYNC/FRAMECAP PC setup guide.
As always thanks for the video guys!
Indeed !! I'm borderline done with VRR due to flickering problems, and without it you cannot use DLSS3 FG because the FPS caps are under 120 or 60 etc. 116fps does not look nice vsynced without VRR!!!
Dev saying. "No one owes you anything" is the reason AAA games ship in such poor states. You owe the consumer the experience you advertised when you take their money.
No, the reason is people are buying these games anyway. His presumption is that customers know what they're paying for, which ok - might be a stretch, but also often isn't. The only reason we get games in such a state is because devs and publishers constantly get away with it, since gamers act as if their long term memory was broken.
In the AAA space, you probably want to redirect your frustrations towards the publishers… We should never be accepting the state of modern gaming, but let’s make sure we’re hating the right people.
It's always great when VR gets shown some love
I really hope the special guest doesn’t return for future episodes. I know one viewer’s opinion might not mean much, but to me he came across as arrogant, jaded, and a tad ignorant. Doesn’t seem like the type of guest that measures up to the knowledge or temperament of the DF team I’m used to. Otherwise, fantastic episode as always (I love when John gets to host occasionally!)
There is a r/FuckTAA subreddit because TAA ruins games making them a blurry mess that a SNES game seems more detailed. And forcing this is totally insane, I gone back to playing games without that mess, I personally really can't stand this
Jorg was a great addition, informed as a game creator and balanced rhetoric around all things gaming.
balanced XD
Insomiac are so talented they really need to make a new IP at this point
They will probably be making Marvel and Ratchet games for eternity now.
Well wolverine is a new IP i guess.
Yeah, as much as Ratchet is one of my favorite game franchises and it has been consistently good over the years as Sony's bread and butter platformer, I figure Insomniac might want to try creating other things by now. I thought Resistance was awesome, but I wouldn't want that coming back either, I think it probably had its time and place. They do great work with Spider-man, but Marvel stuff in general just has too much saturation at this point, and it's not Insomniac's own creation. Having Crystal Dynamics, Eidos, and Firaxis all make Marvel stuff and taking their time away from making their own personal projects felt like a waste too.
@Amhoj1 something original not tied to any established superhero stuff
Lets talk about Mario wonder it runs flawlessly no bugs no patches just a finished game at launch well done Nintendo.
The big improvement that pancake lenses bring is one that you probably don't even notice. The "sweet spot" is bigger. Translation: you just put the headset on and go. You won't be fiddling with the strap to line yourself up with the tiny non-blurry area of the Fresnel lenses.
I believe they are darker though. Not as transparent.
The Red Letter Media crossover no one ever even considered.
I always worry the higher ups will one day force John to stop talking about VR, but it always warms my heart every time he does. Yeah it's a niche market and niche doesn't drive clicks but I would love to see DF covering VR platforms like they do consoles/PC. Quest 2/3 PSVR2 graphic comparisons could turn out more interesting than standard console face-offs because the differences between a standalone platform and one that's tethered to a computer/PS5 is way bigger.
Just today I was also thinking about hardware reviews: DF covered PSVR2 but not Quest 3 and that seemed odd to me, because if you think about it, Quest 3 is a console (that's already on its third generation), and Meta could be thought of as a video game company like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, one that already owns studios such as Ready at Dawn, Sanzaru, Camouflaj, Armature, Twisted Pixel, etc. yet the media keeps treating it like it was Google Stadia or something.
I wouldn't call Cities:Skylines "a very niche thing". The first one has sold over 12 million copies.
Glad to hear Rich is on the mend. A friend of mine just recovered from his second dose of Covid and he was REALLY poorly this time. Hopefully we’ll see him on the next DF Weekly.
Sorry to hear about your friend mate, glad they're doing better! I've had COVID 4x meself. And yet I still hear about dummies refusing to get inoculated against the virus 🤢
@@kaikiske74364x? Wow! How'd that vaccine work for you?
@@deepblue8143 so far so good! Not feeling particularly well today, as Long COVID has its challenges.
@@kaikiske7436 I had covid and I still don't feel normal, I suffer from shortness of breath, I've never had to deal with that at all. I lost my dad to covid and my best friend died from complications. I feel like the people that have gotten vaccinated got more sick and passed away. I hope I didn't come across rude in my last comment, that wasn't the intention. I just want everyone to be OK and I want to be back to normal. My sense of smell is still shot. Feel better. 👊
@@deepblue8143 no worries at all my dude! Sorry for your loss!
I had a co-worker in Brazil lose both parents and his brother during the pandemic.
I was also extremely sick in late 2019, around the time it was going g crazy in China. Idk of that was COVID, but I was really sick for almost a month. I have never been that sick before. The doctor said it was “some kind of bronchial infection” but didn’t know exactly what it was. The times that I have tested positive for COVID have all been mild. Nothing like whatever I had in 2019. My nephew also caught what I had and had to be hospitalized for 2 days. But again, the docs didn’t have an official diagnosis… he was coughing for a month tho
Alex is wrong when he says VRR doesn't have frame pacing issues. Good frame pacing means you have the same frame time every frame.
Sounds like he's talking more about a specific type of judder, where the frame time pings back and forth between large values. However, bad frame pacing doesn't require that kind of judder.
With VRR you will obviously get very inconsistent frame times, and for a lot of people, a frame rate cap is a lot better than VRR for that reason.
ONLY dev would speak on issues like Jörg just did. You can see it even in John's reactions. The VG journalism hangs on keeping a good and even better relationship with the majors so they wont dwell on the real stuff too much.
Like what issues? Give me a timestamp.
@@rav186Around 42:00
Never heard of this guy before but I like him
Yeah I noticed this. Was nice to see a dev just directly pan these negative things in the industry. Journalists in general avoid being too direct and DF especially seems allergic to condemning anything.
You mean VG media should all start whining about layoffs in the industry? To what purpose? We've all seen the news and moved on.
If anything, Jorg's reaction is rather unprofessional. Yes, it's all bad that people are losing their jobs, but no one will retain the staff if it's not financially profitable. His comments have nothing to do with the video game industry - it's just a socialist's take on capitalism.
Classic, Jorg saying “no one owes you anything” I mean, they owe you a game, if its unplayable at launch they owe you to fix it. Man, thinking like that makes me laugh, I think john was going to jump in there, but it shouldn’t happen in the beginning and should be delayed until it is in a state that someone can enjoy.
No, they owe you nothing. They only owe it to themselves to have the best work conditions and family life balance. These capitalist companies would have the teams working 50+ hours a week 50 weeks a year at only slightly above median income!!. The profits should be distributed equally within the team!!
One of the benefits that we got from COVID was proving that we can all work and stay within our domeciles, and still produce great work without mid level manager supervision!! No more crunch either!!!
@@kaikiske7436 What? This as nothing to do with working conditions. This is the responsibility of the company they work for, and I agree all that should be in place in the first place, but for the customer that just brought your game/product with their money for them to not owe you nothing if its broken is just insane, sorry.
You would not buy anything that had faults. Let’s say a motherboard as faulty USB ports or none functioning options in the bios, but a bios update could fix it, so you contact the manufacturer for the software update for them to say “sorry we owe you nothing, have a nice day” don’t think you be happy.
I skipped to the Supporter Q1 section and I thought of something: Blurbusters made an article called G-SYNC 101. They conclude that G-Sync + VSync (disabled in-game, but enabled in NVCP) = no screen tearing, and if you limit your FPS to at least 3 frames below your screen's refresh rate (preferably with an in-game frame rate limiter, but you can use RTSS or NVCP "max frame rate" setting if necessary), you'll avoid the horrible input lag of VSync but still get the benefits of G-Sync + VSync. You could replace G-Sync with FreeSync and still get the same results, I think.
Jorg has such a fun, impassioned, offbeat, and informed perspective. I’d love to see more content from him and want to try one of his games.
Really loved the discussion on VR, I hope we see more discussions! Honestly I think VR is the most exciting thing happening now, a whole new medium to discover, what could be better? I’m loving my psvr2, the only downside has been PlayStation’s stupid decision to not bring Dreams to the headset. Really hoping we also see some real movement on the pc front. I’m waiting for Steam to say something because really I’m neither sold on Meta the company, or their new no eye tracking headset.
Surprised there is no talk about Alan Wake 2 PC requirements.
An RTX 3070 is only good for 540p internal resolution(DLSS Perfomance) at 1080p60 Medium.
How will this run on a Series S then?
This was probably recorded before Remedy revealed the requirements.
Simple. A 2060 super can run the game at 30fps with only dlss quality, so the consoles will run at 30
I’d imagine if those specs are accurate that medium settings will look very close over all to max like remedy’s previous games and 1080p if it’s paired with a good upscaler can produce perfectly good image quality. That said with the consoles not having dlss I do wonder what base res/setting it will have let alone the series s!
It might be because of its VRAM limit? The amd cards in comparison sort of make me think it’s just the 8 gigs of vram since they aren’t stronger GPUs at all.
I guess we will find out when people on 4060 ti 16 gig compare to the 3070
(Let’s not argue value. They just are close in performance.)
I believe this was recorded before the requirements were released.
+1 for Jorg being an awesome guest. He was spitting and couldn’t be stopped. I loved it.
Great choice having Jörg join the direct and offer a perspective from a dev's POV. Hope Rich is on the mend and will be back next week. Thanks to John for hosting another great show with Alex as his wingman. 😃
Jorg is a charismatic and smart guy. Was great to listen to him. Thanks guys.
I think he's too negative for this show though... He keeps bringing things back to firing employees and everyone being caught up in their virtual world ignoring their children... It just doesn't fit the tone of the show, that's not why I listen to DF
And looks bit like drago malfoy ;)
@@anonony9081 Yeah, too much virtue signalling for me.
@@anonony9081agree 100%. It’s taken me a few days to watch the episode because I’ve started and stopped multiple times mainly due to this guy. His cynicism is a real turn off and if I wanted this sort of take I would just browse gaming Twitter
Just to add: Cities Skylines 2 is coming out on Consoles but they've delayed their release. They should have delayed the PC release too.
Wanted to mention that Playdate game by designed & coded Frederic Raynal, SKEW, is incredibly cool. Would love to see a DF video on the playdate, if just to help people appreciate how unique it is
Jorg is an absolutely wonderful guest! Hope we get more of him in the future!
...really?
I can’t imagine having to actually sit and talk to Tittel for an hour. The man’s constant cynicism and pessimism is incredibly irritating and makes this episode difficult to even watch. Actually interacting with him would make me want to fling myself off a bridge.
More cynicism and pessimism is apparently what the typical Gamer who watches these videos wants. Just look at the comments. It's almost as if these people just want to be angry at something all the time. I'm sure Mr Tittel is a good game dev but I'm sorry, he's not built for podcasts. Half the time I can't make out what point he's trying to make and the rest of the time he's yapping like a grumpy old dude. I just can't.
We don't want blind love bombing of every game. Harsh criticism can have some good points even if we don't agree with the level of negativity within it.
@@SanguinePink The criticism that's not constructive is just whining. And the only people who like to listen to others whining are whiners themselves. Yes, people are being laid off - a bummer for their families, but that's how the world works. Yapping about it achieves nothing, other than raising negative emotions. I'm glad the DF crew has not jumped that wagon like most gaming channels have.
@@Tarets That's a good point, yeah unless I worked there I don't have enough invested to feel negatively towards the situation.
Really enjoyed this one - great hosting John
I appreciate Jorg's candor since DF, as a media outlet who wants to maintain good relations with publishers and developers, often has to soften their stance. More Jorg!
Less Jorg for me.
There are plenty enough yt channels falling into that whiny territory, succumbing to the always negative audience. No, sorry - that's not what DF is about.
Why whinge about layoffs? Most of them have simply been contractors. Which kind of explains itself. If you ran a company there is absolutely no way in hell you'd be paying people to sit there and do nothing until more work came along.
Because he's anti capitalism....
I recently bought a pico 4, it was my first VR experience and it was incredible. I have already played half life alyx, vertigo, red matter 1 and 2. I have tried some 3D movies and the effect is great. I am looking forward to what else it can offer, but it's a shame there isn't more AAA games investment.
Sony really need to put more effort into it. I think if they could make a true Half Life Alyx rival then we could see a hype around VR again.
I have to say in terms of VR, I absolutely love the Quest 3 and it's Pancake lenses. My only negative is the headset hasn't been fully utilised, but Red Matter 2 is an absolutely fantastic example of what the Quest 3 can do. Once devs and Meta themselves start doing a heavy push, it'll become really interesting.
I kinda wish PSVR2 does a V2 Model that has Pancake Lenses because it would do wonders for their headset. I totally agree with Newjorg about Astro Bots! The only thing that's making me keep a PSVR- is RE7 and Astro Bots Rescue Mission.
Stormland is the PCVR game you are talking about and to this date is an awesome game! Way too advanced for it's time! Hell even now if you compare it with the current VR games...
Cosmic Smash is smashing ;))
I feel like they're not getting half of Jorg's jokes, especially Alex (i.e. they start answering him seriously as he's obviously just fooling around). I hope we'll see him more often.
The Unspoken was the insomniac VR game John was trying to remember.
Thanks team for discussing VR. I know it's not mainstream, but the immersion is truly amazing. Special thanks to John for mentioning the Pimax Crystal. I usually only hear tech channels discuss the cheaper mass-market headsets. Pimax aren't perfect, but they are trying to push VR forward in many ways, and I think they deserve kudos and recognition for that. Lastly, Jörg is a legend!! If you bring C-Smash VRS to PCVR, I'll insta-buy. DF Direct is my favourite podcast.
Jorgs pitch from 1:10:00 and forward is the best case I've heard for VR. To me I've kinda subconsciously put it into the same blur as all the other bad tech shit trying to untether us from reality, but the way he puts it is really convincing to me. The fact that it is such a huge and conscious jump in every literal sense really does escape you from reality, but then as a result grounds you back to life and the now once you take those goggles off. Genuinely wholesome stuff in that sense
"Does king kong have ray tracing?" ... "I dont think it has ray tracing at all"
With the cost of aaa games going up and up, "budget creep" as was mentioned. That is another reason to like where Nintendo is at. Making nice looking games, that aren't pushing any envelopes but generally keep looking a bit better than previous gen games. I look foward to how Nintendo will use the power of the Switch 2 to make even prettier stylized games for their trademark series.
fortnite is a “real metaverse?” “kratos in fortnite!” is not a metaverse, its like when you saw a guy in batman costume at the mall as a kid, you said to yourself “that aint the real batman” and you had zero doubts about it
Love the flavor Jörg brought to this episode. Just the raw, pessimistic, realist doomer opinions on everything. Also delving into the philosophical aspects of gaming at times. Really enjoyed his inputs.
As soon as i saw lawnmower man, i was fascinated with the prospect of being in a video game. Its a great tine for gaming. I dont understand the VR hate AT ALL....unless you get easily nauseous.
loved the VR chat, cool segment
Jörg was draining to listen to. He makes some good points, but every five seconds? I don’t come here for this.
thats a great guest not holding off real stuff driving the industry as a whole now
Unfortunate that this was probably recorded before citizen con and the Star Citizen/Squadron 42 announcements
This guest speaker was really getting obnoxious tbh. I get the dislike towards capitalism but jesus fuck, any time Alex or John try to make points about anything this guy's first retort is to spin it into a topic about corporate greed and how overstaffed companies are laying people off. I bet if John tried to make the point that budgets are too high that it unsustainable this guy would counter by saying that they should just keep those employees anyway.
Simply, I can’t be sympathetic to a company that ships unfinished products. I should be able to give them half my cash if they give me half of a game. Music is not released with just a couple of notes recorded or a movie with only 1 scene recorded to come back 6 months to listen or watch the rest. I’m also not blaming the ppl that make the game. I am blaming the business model where is now ok to usher in products with promise. Even tech is now released with promises. This must stop. Because the promise is never what they claim. "Don’t buy then", should not be their battle cry to ignore this pandemic of promises. City skyline is not finished. full stop. They made a game I use to relieve stress that is very stressful. Their low fps is not an ignorable problem. The business model now does not care about the stain it leaves on the consumer; we already have their money. We will fix it in the post should not be the norm.
Why is NewJorg always mad???
I dunno about most people but one of the worst features of the first VR headset I tried at a friend's house(occulus Rift) was the cable. Having it drag around behind me and having to be constantly aware of it so that I didn't step and trip or yank it was completely immersion breaking and was one of the reasons I ended up getting a quest 2, since that is wireless. So...his comment about never thinking about the cable once the headset is on is completely untrue, at least in my experience.
the issue with games these days aren't a hardware issue but a developer issue. Ps5 pro will not solve optimization issues but rather give more rope to Devs to optimize even less. Devs aiming for 540p for current gen hardware is mind blowing.
sure bud. Devs are lazy that's definitely it. You should go in there and show em how it's done
The resolution drop limit should be 720p or even better 1080p, 540p just for 60 fps? No lmao
@@cheese_crab I mean look at insomniac.
Next time just type “lazy devs lol”
As reconstruction gets better native resolution metrics will continue to matter less and less, it's already a borderline irrelevant metric. And imagine when consoles catch up with DLSS in terms of reconstruction quality, at that point rendering res will completely cease to matter, it'll remain a talking point for clueless reddit armchair experts and fanboys.
Waving an arbitrary number around to justify "lazy devs" shitposting is a big oof.
I would also agree that devs don’t owe us anything beyond the product and its contents that we agreed to purchase at the time of that transaction however, with games other than early access games or games where the customer has agreed to purchase the product in an unfinish state, the customer would and should have the basic expectations that the product purchased would be in a functioning state.
I don’t expect a dev or publisher to provide free content or even anything other than what was stated to be in the product or tier of product at the time of my purchase however, I do expect the game to actually function and delivery the futures that were stated to be available at the time of my purchase. If I bought a washer and it was missing features or parts (other than a defect) and didn’t work as advertised then I as the customer would be justifiably upset as I rendered payment on the basis that I was purchasing a functioning product.
I understand and appreciate that games are super difficult and stressful to make with a lot of moving parts and likewise, I understand that some people can and do have very unreasonable expectations of devs but I don't think that it is unreasonable for customer to expect a feature complete and working product because at the end of the day, the customers has also worked hard to be able to purchase the product in question.
@1:11:30 Personally, being able to use online maps to figure things out takes a lot of the anxiety out of traveling. If not for that I probably would still be more of a shut-in since it took me a long time to get enough social experience to even be able to ask for directions/help. I get where you guys are coming from but there's benefits beyond the obvious convenience, too.
Anxiety sucks 😞 glad maps are there for you friend
@@jtij497 I'm pretty fine managing it when out and about tnese days but the younger me would never in a million years have asked for directions and was deathly afraid of even ordering things off a menu lol. I think it's all a balancing act y'know. These technologies can help us but sometimes we need to recognise when we are relying on them and force ourselves to take a step outside of our comfort zones on occasion.
I actually just had a copy of the second Riddick game arrive at my doorstep today!
I was hoping they were comment on the requirements of alan wake 2
@jalex9808its not a matter of the graphics. Its the fact that they are using mesh shaders which are only supported by relatively modern GPUs. I think Nvidia started supporting them with Turing (RTX 2000 series).
While the game definitely looks good, it's not purely the processing power needed that's dictating the GPU requirements, its the graphics technology itself (mesh shaders).
@@e2rqey But that goes back to the point they discussed a while back - is the tradeoff even worth it to use this new technology & these features if the end result doesn't look any better than what's already out there?
We've seen many games breakdown all these crazy, state-of-the-art modern visual features, yet gamers can hardly notice a difference. Meanwhile, the frame rate is half of what it used to be & even higher end CPU's are reaching their limit due to everything being pushed in these games.
Probably recorded before they released the requirements
Can we get a DF Retro with Timothy Cain!
His videos have been amazing, it's a match made in heaven.
PS The driver talk reminds me of the drama around Richard Geldreich's blog posts in 2009 talking about GPU company A/B/C1/C2 (A is Nvidia, B is AMD, C 1 is intel Linux, C 2 intel windows). A bunch of posts related to that are online on archive sites, as if pressure was made to wipe some of them.
That guy has a Dreamcast arcade cabinet thing behind him, and therefore I approve of him.
Wow Maximilian Dood looks so different!! 😂
Would definitely be looking forward to that VRR/Vsync video. Could you guys also give handhelds a section or two since that’s the environment where it matters the most to me.
Get better Rich!
I thought that was Maximillian Dood in the thumbnail 😂
I told you not to invite Maximiliam Dood after him being in drugs.
They probably want a fresh PS5 exclusive version and a PC version of TLoU2 ready for when season 2 of the series hits.
I doubt it will be as much of a remake as part 1 was. Probably mostly tech upgrades that they've already been working on for the multiplayer game and some higher quality versions of the same assets
48:40 I really like C-Smash VRS, but good luck trying to find someone else to play with in public matchmaking. It has good amount of single-player content, and it works fantastic when I invite a friend and then we play either the 4 versus modes or the 1 co-op mode together, but you can't random others to play with using public matchmaking. Part of it is because they have a server component that was not working following their big free content update that added AI Bots to play against during matchmaking. It wasn't known to them to fix for a few days following the release of that big patch. That kind of mismanagement kills the potential to create an online multiplayer community.
True. It's because there's a separate matchmaking for every single mode. I can't wrap my head around that decision. It's like the developers don't even try playing their own games. Just give me an option to join ANY match.
@@Tarets There is option to do matchmaking for a specific competitive mode, but it also has option to choose all 4.
It does not allow you to match for either competitive or cooperative at the same time.
If you use the invite friend function to play cooperative, and want to switch to competitive, you have to exit the lobby, start a new hosting session and re-invite the friend.
I think you are right that developers that talk up their game don't actually try playing their game to understand why their matchmaking lobbies are dry. They didn't even realize for days after their big free content upgrade that their matchmaking system was timing out because some server component needed a reboot. It wasn't until I bothered going to their discord to report the issue that they resolved that.
That was the time to hook a community of players, but they fumbled it.
@@cusman I'd swear there was no option for joining any competitive mode. I'll give it another try then :)
I think one of the biggest issues with VR is that most people just haven't tried it, because it's not the easiest thing to try without actively seeking it out. I had to use VR for a job interview of all things, and after that I knew I'd buy it eventually. Before then, I had no interest at all.
I think a lot of people just think of it as '3D', and don't realise that it is full 360 and with the motion controls etc.
Man I could not listen to Jorg talk. This is why I like DF they're just about the games and hardware no BS.
And wait what, pancake lenses make a hugeeee difference, you can look anywhere without moving your head 😊
Newjorg's cynicism quickly gets tiring.
Yea he needs to calm down. I was fine with the 1st but if he makes an anti capitalist statement every news story I'm going to check out. Df isn't big by whining every 5 seconds.
@spellepscringe
But he's right though.
Mad cause he’s right lol. DF, don’t listen to this clown
@spellepscringe🤮
The podcasts master volume is often really low. Are you folks Normalizing the audio on export???
Weirdly satisfying, hearing the beep machine being used willingly by Alex, and pretty early into the episode also lol.
When rich is back, i hope he feels more bespoke and gen on gen then ever before.
It would be golden if you did a performance video on Skull Island
If Skylines 2 knew it had a bunch of problems but still had to release it, maybe release it as early access. I bet the product page didn't say "Can barely run on a 4090" on it anywhere.
Rich's sphincter puckering up everytime Jorg opens his mouth😂
The last of us 2 still holds up visually. You guys really went off the rails with the diatribe about realism. They do remasters to sell the same product twice, not to make the product acceptable by modern standards.
Project Spark
I always thought that was a game that would have *FLOURISHED* had it made it to GamePass. Sucks so much that they let that project go.
Gotta love hearing Jörg shilling for broken unfinished releases as if it’s on the paying costumers to show more patience and sympathy for the poor developers. FUNNY though how, when these f*cking things are riddled with in-game purchases, those seem to work flawlessly. If only these companies were more concerned with shipping a finished product over squeezing every cent out of our pockets over dumb sh*t.. just imagine how different the industry would be. It’s NEVER our job to hope for broken games to MAYBE get fixed when we’re charged full goddamn price upfront for said broken games.
We give them money, they give us a game. It’s as simple as that. Expecting anything less is allowing developers and their publishers to push the envelope on what scummy sh*t they can get away with.
Nobody asked them to over-promise concepts they fundamentally can’t deliver on. So Mr. games developer Jörg can take his corporate apologist takes somewhere else.
This episode was really brought down by their guest, I feel. A lot of cynicism/pessimism that kind of led into a lot of conversational dead ends. Recover soon, Rich!
Yeah, this guy is a full on pessimist if you check out his social media. Everything has a negative spin. I can't imagine living life like that.
Exactly. You can discuss certain problems, but when the discussion doesn't lead to any conclusion it just becomes salty. You can see by some of the comments, that some people are into that, but that's not what I watch the DF for.
Ray-Tracing is an objectively superior technology than Rasterization, the only problem is performance. So sure some people may very well dislike ray-tracing because they care more about performance/FPS than visuals, there's nothing wrong with that preference/priority.
But I'm also sure those people don't mind it being an option in game, they're not advocating for RT to be abandoned, they just choose to not enable it. That's exactly what FuckTAA's does too except unlike RT, TAA tends to be forced on therefore we actively require a subreddit and advocacy because we can't tune our PC games to match our preferences. You don't need the same thing for RT because it's not forced on you, FuckTAA is only against forcing the option not TAA's existence itself.
Another way it is different is that Ray-Tracing from an image quality standpoint is just 100% better whereas TAA is worse when compared to methods like SSAA, so in your example TAA would be like raster and SSAA would be like Ray-Tracing. In both situations the technique is superior in terms of image quality but is worse in performance, yet DF's justification for TAA is that its required for good performance.
So it seems DF is prioritizing FPS over image quality when it comes to TAA but not with RT which I don't think you realize, but it's fine because that's your preference but the beauty of PC gaming is we should all be able to choose what we like, forcing options onto people is for a console experience. Even if you leave the option in an ini file I don't care, just let me tinker, don't make it impossible.
Because having RT-only rendering allows you to skip a lot of work needed by other techniques. Having it disabled isn't "just an option" - it requires tons of baking and prerendering, on top of programming the use of all that precomputed data.
@@Tarets Yes, so not providing a raster option only helps developers but harms the consumer.
In an era of poorly optimized games and game engines like unreal engine pushing for features that automate processes but performs awful I would hate to see fully ray-traced games. Some of them like Metro are good cause they're made with love and care but most games are not.
Most studios already cut a lot of corners at the expense of delivering an efficient game, you pair that with forced Ray-Tracing it would mean 1 of 2 things
1) Most people couldn't play the game
2) Forced super aggressive upscaling, like Alan Wake 2 requiring a 3080 for 540p gaming, there comes a point where the compromise for better lighting is overall worse for the visuals. I think a native 1440p image without RT would look better than a 540p upscaled image with RT for example and I'm not even sure if Alan Wake 2 forces RT yet it has these requirements, so if it doesn't I can't imagine the performance it will have when its enabled
1:32:12 If developers feel "they don't owe their customers anything", their prospective customers will conclude they don't owe the developers anything, and this is a buyer's market like never before seen in the history of gaming - and THAT'S the reason for these layoffs and studio closures. There ARE definitely developers out there whose attitude is "we'll ship a dumpsterfire and maybe improve it later." 343 Industries is a shining example. I do understand that there's a lot of factors in play and developers often aren't the ones calling the shots, but this "take it or leave it, you should be honored we're making games for you at all" attitude is trash. "Hungry" indie developers with small studios on shoestring budgets who cater to their customers have been responsible for a majority of the breakout hits lately because big studios are so out of touch and infected with this "take it or leave it, we're too big to fail" attitude. Battlefield vs Battlebit, etc.
They don't owe you anything because it's a transaction - what you get and give is all there before you buy.
@@dab88 it's not when they lie to the press about included features, or present trailers that aren't accurate to what the game is or looks like.
@@dab88 Most transactions have recourse if the product is fraudulent or defective. There's "lemon" laws for cars, or you can sue the previous owner if your house turns out to be a money pit and they didn't disclose that. Virtually any retail store allows returns if you aren't clearly abusing the system. For various reasons that's not possible in the context of videogames, so the concept of good faith has to come into it. Both developers and customers must act in good faith or the transaction breaks down. "Tough shit, I've already got your money" isn't good faith, and it invites prospective customers to behave similarly.
I was interested in this guy's VR game, it looks like a good workout to add to my Quest 3's cycle of exercise games, but not with his attitude. When Quest 4 comes out is he going to put in the hour of work it takes to release a 1KB patch to support it by at least running at a higher resolution? He's already got my money and he doesn't owe me anything, so why would I expect that? Meanwhile Pistol Whip keeps releasing new free content and improvements so 1) I didn't mind buying a second copy for PCVR, 2) I'll certainly buy their next game, and 3) I take every opportunity I can to recommend it to people.
This mentality is exactly why there is such disain from devs towards consumers. They know how much effort was put into the game. But to be brutally honest, effort doesn't matter to the consumer. They want a great game and don't care if it was the easiest or hardest thing in the world to make.
While you have devs with this mentality that they dont owe the customer anything becuase they "did their best" or just tried.
Imo they are going to be judged on the price they charge and what other games at a comparable price are achieving whether they like it or not. They absolutely owe the consumer something and the idea they dont is toxic.
@@AFistfulOf4K Dude, I'm not saying there aren't problems with the gaming industry but your entitled attitude is exactly what Jörg was getting at. In most circumstances devs aren't bound by any obligation to continue support for a game after it ships yet you somehow expect this? After your shift finishes do you continue to work for free becuase your boss messed up and the product/service you offer isn't up to scratch? No! You go home. Just like game devs.
Making excuses of sub 10 FPS performance as a "feature" missing at launch is...I'm sorry, but even being from a small studio, Jorg really let the cat of the bag with how developers are thinking currently. Performance isn't a feature, it's a baseline aspect that must be at an acceptable level OR refunds should be legally mandated no matter the hours spent playing up to a reasonable amount, maybe a few days.
And that's a man from a tiny dev team. Imagine the insanity of thought at big dev studios. They probably think releasing poor products is just good fun at this point.
DirectX 12 is 8 years old now. Ashes of the Singularity, the first shipped DX12 game was released in 2016.
And devs still don't have it under control yet.
Most games and studios didn't switch to DX12 until ray tracing and the new consoles.@@CaptToilet
@@ZacDonaldps5 devs like insomniac havent because ps5 uses a similar api to the ps4