Q&A: September 20th, 2023

RupertLitterbin Asks
You wanna watch castlevania and get drunk with me?

I'm not John.

Dominik Jaworski Asks
Most games use something binary while splinter cell and thief used a spectrum of dark and light. Recently playing those, I was in the mindset that if I'm not in the lowest levels of visibility, i might as well be completely visible since I don't know specifically how enemies will spot me in the "middle" values of visibility. Do you think this is a plausiblr reason why binary visibility is so common?

I think that's a potential reason, and if so, I think it's just a bit of a shame, because one of my favorite things about the old Thief games is the fear that occurs everytime you're moving in light that isn't pitch black, just like you would if you were really sneaking around.

Though, if you think about it too, in major game releases, most games spell out information overtly. Think hitmarkers, damage numbers, healthbars, etc... I really don't like it.

Obviously, there's games I love with all of these things, but they've increasingly become the default, and I think it's because it's far easier and more importantly, more consistent to make a game where anybody playing it will have the same information regardless of skill level or experience, where as immersing players enough to pick up on detailed nunaces regarding line of sight, sound, damage, health, etc, that's more difficult.

Don't take this as me calling developers lazy, it's just an objective fact that a hitmarker is going to be more consistently informative than a combination of animation, particle/impact effects, audio, etc... but games aren't experienced objectively, and that's what I'm kinda sad to see more games be really, for lack of a better word, cold.

Holy Shift Asks
I got the impression, that in spite of having an open world, Paradise is a lot more restrictive than Revenge because of no traffic checking and the mechanics not being suited to Midnight Club-style open-ended street racing, while Revenge, as limited as it is in track selection, keeps it fresh by giving players lots of opportunities to affect the more tightly designed sandbox. What do you think?

I can definitely understand this viewpoint.

I choose to view it more as Revenge is focused on immediate gratification, whereas Paradise is focused on long-term growth as a player. You go from being completely unfamiliar with this world it's built to knowing the full map like the back of your hand all the while going faster in more wild and dangerous vehicles.

Though, I think Revenge holds up as a more unique game today because Paradise's formula has obviously been replicated several times in racing games, and just video games in-general, which is quite ironic, considering how unique EA's racing games like Paradise and Underground 2 were at the time for having Open Worlds.

K The Shy Kat Asks
Your thoughts on the Barbie film?

I quite liked it.

Much more than I thought I was going to.

I knew the film would have something to say because of the director and conversation surrounding it, but I wasn't expecting to leave the theatre discussing its nuances after leaving the theatre. 

I didn't get the sense it was written by a high-school student that just discovered Feminism 101 and is storming off to replicate Big Red, but somebody who's lived a good chunk of life and witnessed first hand the complexities and contradictions that stem from the world.

And damn, it's refreshing to see an American Comedy that's confident enough to pepper its material with varying levels of humor instead of just aiming for gutbusting laughs that tire the audience out after twenty minutes, and each one seemed to be hitting a different audience member, with me being the loudest that laughed at the dude trying to explain to their GF why the Porsche 935 changed auto-racing.

Dario Asks
Do you have a favorite medal of honor game?

Honestly? Favorite's kind of a strong word as, while there's Medal of Honor games I've enjoyed, none have really stuck with me. Though, that's also in large part because I never played the ones that notably impacted the industry until well after they'd been succeeded.

I've got a soft spot for Medal of Honor 2010's multiplayer, because of its over the top sounding weapons, fun times with friends, and just being a tighter Bad Company 2 mod.

Submit your questions in the comments below, for future Patreon Q&A's.