The Monday letters page considers the impact of ray-tracing in the new generation, as a reader discovers The Outer Wilds.
PLEASE NOTE: We’re starting to prepare our content for over Christmas and the New Year, which will include several Reader’s Features. So if you have an idea for an article, now would be a great time to submit it, at the email address below.
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End of ‘Watch
I’ve always been a big Overwatch fan and was really looking forward to the generational update that recently came out, but I think it’s time to give up on it. Not because the game’s bad. It’s still great when it’s played like it’s supposed to be played. I’m giving up because I find many of the players on it now to be destroying it.
I’d honestly say 80% of the matches I play now end up with at least one player dropping off well before the end, making the entire game a miserable experience for those that stay. On top of that, the amount of times you start a round and one of your guys hasn’t even bothered to pick a character or is just standing in the lobby not engaging.
I hoped that with the new Call Of Duty these types of players might drop off, but nope. It’s still as bad as ever. I wonder if anyone else is getting as irritated as I am at the general experience?
Chris
Missing the scares
I think the thing that put me off buying The Callisto Protocol the most is the idea that it’s not scary. What’s the point of a horror game that’s not even going to get your scared? If it wanted nothing but gore I’d play Mortal Kombat not a survival horror that thinks the horror part is just heads getting caved in.
I was interested to hear that there’s going to be another new Amnesia game and that’s another series that doesn’t seem to understand what’s needed even when it gets it right. The first one was amazing, SOMA was amazing, the other games were terrible.
It’s a difficult balancing act, obviously. Gore can be a part of it, sure, but it’s tension you need. Not just that but pacing as well, an a threat that’s scary but grounded enough for it not just be silly. You also need to be underpowered, much more than usual for a video game, or otherwise there’s no fear. If The Callisto Protocol is all about just punching space zombies in the face then I think it’s missed the point again.
Yorkie
Size matters
After finishing A Plague Tale: Requiem I must say, not only does the game look wonderful, but it was also a decent ending to the story. What really surprised me though was, unlike the first one, I didn’t have the constant desire to kill the younger brother that you’re protecting.
However, at around 18 hours long (over double the length of the first) it was far too long. What’s odd though is I’d say the first eight are the problem, rather than the end being dragged out. They really could have been edited down to just one to two hours and improved the whole story. It’s such an overly long intro that, at one point, I wondered if originally they planned it to be three games, with the first ending at quite a definitive point 10-ish hours in.
It also makes me wonder if this is a constant issue for developers, that after spending so long making levels it’s inconceivable that cutting content would make something better. Do games ever get content chopped out like a film does or is it always a case that once it been made a longer game is always deemed a better game?
Tim
GC: Ideas are often dropped during development but it’s rare that completed sections are removed.
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Shield Protocol
The need to provide value for money is obviously important but in many cases it’s making it impossible to tell a well-paced story.
Bought The Callisto Protocol on Friday and I’m probably about halfway through it (I’m at the snowy outside chapter called Lost).
I put the game on the hard difficulty and OMG, I died 10 times in a row trying to beat the first bad guy.
Once I figured out all you have to do his hold a direction down and wait for an attack the game became a lot easier. Holding left or right is basically an invincibility shield and so I’m not scared of any bad guys. I am constantly dying when faced with a couple of bad guys, but I don’t mind as I am forced to use the grip mechanic, gun combos, and my own body placement to survive.
Overall, I agree with your review, but I have to say I am 100% satisfied with my purchase and this cinematic PlayStation 5 experience.
Exploration is definitely a thing, though, as you can easily miss gun schematics.
TommyFatFingers
Number variance
Predictably, The Callisto Protocol is receiving extremely favourable review scores along with some significantly poor ones. I haven’t played the game, but it seems all too familiar situation where there is a number of obvious flaws and yet the game is somehow evaluated by some to be near perfect.
Perhaps it’s a tad dramatic to say, but is there a review crisis in the games industry? I’m looking at the Metacritic for The Callisto Protocol and a quarter of the reviews are 9 or above. What’s going on there? Can a game experience be so subjective that one person’s 5/10 is another person’s game of the year?
Twignacio Varga
GC: As we’ve said before, we find everyone giving exactly the same score to be far unhealthier and indicative of an industry wide problem. Looking at Metacritic, we’re not sure we’ve heard of any of the sites that have given it 9/10, so, as ever, it’s just a question of who you trust.
The anti-Ubisoft
RE: The Outer Wilds. So extremely late to start playing this, and really only started after reading this article in The Guardian.
I have no idea what’s going on and unless I didn’t read some character interaction properly, I’m not aware of the event in your review yet.
I pottered about in the village and spent some time on the flight mechanics and went off into space.
Again, maybe I missed something but I assumed there would be landing pads on planets. Nope, so that took a random guess.
After the moon I headed off to another planet and ended up falling into a black hole. My ship’s about 13 km away.
Managed to get back to my ship.
It’s then its updated what looked like a mission screen so now I know I have objectives.
Am I just not paying attention at all or is it not telling me in an Ubisoft style?
Really enjoying this voyage of discovery.
Paul (Brethren09)
GC: There is nothing Ubisoft style about The Outer Wilds.
No impression
I played the whole of Dead Stranding and I have to admit I have no memory of what happened at the end. I remember killing the bad guy and there being at least three different credit sequences, and the twist at the end but that’s it. I have no idea what the state of the world is supposed to be at the end, what the villain wanted, or if the ghost things have gone.
Does anyone else get like that with video game stories? I just really don’t find them very important beyond being an excuse for missions, etc. Obviously Kojima stories are especially weird but they just don’t leave any impression on me. Not like with a movie or TV show.
Dark Invader
Switching modes
Ray-tracing hasn’t got much attention this generation, the main focus – or should I say controversy – being on frame rates. My preference for 60fps has arisen thanks to developers offering different graphical modes. The implementation of ray-tracing has varied a lot, usually something subtle like ray-traced shadows, meaning I never use it – or even trial it.
When playing a third person game, my issue with switching back to a 30fps mode is the image appears jittery as you pan the camera. That’s why first person shooters are notably better at 60fps. Whilst there is a difference in responsiveness, I do feel the gap is exaggerated. The slight lack of smoothness in image quality gives the perception the responsiveness is so much better.
Playing The Castillo Protocol, performance mode is either on or off. Since the default is set to off, I noted that when panning the camera it was more stable than the usual quality mode. Afterwards, courtesy of Digital Foundry, I discovered the game heavily uses ray-tracing. Switching to performance, the image quality degrade is very noticeable and not worth the slight difference in responsiveness.
I was curious why the image seems more stable using ray-tracing, so I booted up Guardians Of The Galaxy. I had never even tried the ray-tracing mode before, but what a difference – which looks notably better than the quality mode in action – despite the frame rates being identical. I have no idea why the image appears more stable?
I still feel a first person shooter demands 60fps, but for third person games I’m more on the fence now – especially if ray-tracing is used effectively. Those of you who have Guardians Of The Galaxy, switch between the modes and I would wager the ray-tracing mode comes out on top.
Anon
Inbox also-rans
That Christmas song from the Rare vets was really sweet. There is a distinct lack of theme tunes in video games. Especially as the only ones I can think of are all in the Amiga and N64 area. Unless you count that song with the creepy lyrics they always play in Kingdom Hearts.
Torbin
I knew The Callisto Protocol was doomed when I read GC’s preview of it a few weeks ago. I think most people, especially someone with a bit of experience, can sense a dud pretty early on. How long did you play it for in the preview? It seemed quite a long time?
Woozie
GC: We played about an hour and a half and, yeah, we had a bad feeling about it then.
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Cranston and asks what is your favourite and least favourite entry in a long running franchise?
There are plenty of video game series that have been running for 25 years or more, some with dozens of sequels, but which do you think is the best and which is the worst? Try to keep your suggestions to mainline sequels, but other than that you can pick any games from any era or format.
Does a sequel need to have a lot of new ideas to be successful and how much can it differ from the original game before it loses its identity? What advice would you give for the next sequel in whatever franchise you’ve picked?
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
MORE : Weekend Hot Topic: The Game Awards 2022 hopes and predictions
MORE : Games Inbox: Not getting a PS5 for Christmas, The Callisto Protocol price, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor date
MORE : Games Inbox: Best Marvel video game, The Callisto Protocol length, and Starfield bugs
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