What are you playing?

Arkham Origins:

Glitchy? Yes. Fun? FUCK YES! Also is the Electrocutioner as sad in the comics as he was when I first kicked his ass? WHY WAS HE HIRED?!
 
Arkham Origins:

Glitchy? Yes. Fun? FUCK YES! Also is the Electrocutioner as sad in the comics as he was when I first kicked his ass? WHY WAS HE HIRED?!
He's a LITTLE bit less of a pathetic ponce in the comics, but not by much. He's a D-lister.

And yeah, I agree. It's definitely the least good one among the three (by a long shot), but it still has enough going for it to make it a mostly enjoyable experience.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
So since it was my "test" download from ocean of games, I tried Valkyria Chronicles. My eyes feel like they've been put in garlic presses, those graphics were clearly not meant to scale up to 1080p! The strategy is sort of interesting once you figure out the dynamic. The whole "everybody shoots at you while you move" is way different from other games of this nature that I've played and took a LOT of getting used to (I got Alicia dead more times in that defend the gate mission than I'd like to admit). All in all, I guess so far it isn't a *terrible* strategy game, as far as console/handheld fare goes.
 
So since it was my "test" download from ocean of games, I tried Valkyria Chronicles. My eyes feel like they've been put in garlic presses, those graphics were clearly not meant to scale up to 1080p! The strategy is sort of interesting once you figure out the dynamic. The whole "everybody shoots at you while you move" is way different from other games of this nature that I've played and took a LOT of getting used to (I got Alicia dead more times in that defend the gate mission than I'd like to admit). All in all, I guess so far it isn't a *terrible* strategy game, as far as console/handheld fare goes.
I'm surprised to hear the graphics have issue at 1080; I would've thought that art style would upscale just fine.

PSP's lack of a right analog made the handheld sequels a real chore. The strategies and depth of the maps/battles gets better as the game goes on ... by better, I mean "fuck, no, I didn't mean for that to happen, let me just reload my last save for the 43rd time."
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I'm surprised to hear the graphics have issue at 1080; I would've thought that art style would upscale just fine.

PSP's lack of a right analog made the handheld sequels a real chore. The strategies and depth of the maps/battles gets better as the game goes on ... by better, I mean "fuck, no, I didn't mean for that to happen, let me just reload my last save for the 43rd time."
The art style is the problem - or rather, the brush/ink postprocessing filter is. There's plenty of vertices in the polygons, and the textures are fine... but the way they try to stylize everything as an ink drawing makes it both blurry and blocky at the same time.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Here are examples of what I'm talking about - spoilered for size cause they're 1920x1080


Check out the lines of the forehead on the first picture, and the fringes of the hair and at the edges of the clothing polygons in the second.

That blurry-blocky shit is everywhere, it comes and goes, and really hurts the eyes. Even more infuriating because it doesn't have to be there... but because I'm 99% sure this game is running an emulator overlay for its native hardware, the game is really just upsampling its handheld native resolution and then the GPU tries to anti-alias it... but the difference in resolution is so huge that rather than smoothing the jaggies it just makes each individual pixel a fuzzy box instead of a sharp one.
 
Check out the lines of the forehead on the first picture, and the fringes of the hair and at the edges of the clothing polygons in the second.

That blurry-blocky shit is everywhere, it comes and goes, and really hurts the eyes. Even more infuriating because it doesn't have to be there... but because I'm 99% sure this game is running an emulator overlay for its native hardware, the game is really just upsampling its handheld native resolution and then the GPU tries to anti-alias it... but the difference in resolution is so huge that rather than smoothing the jaggies it just makes each individual pixel a fuzzy box instead of a sharp one.
VC was a PS3 game. It's sequels were on Vita, but this was DESIGNED for ether 720 or 1080p.
 
It was an early PS3 game, so it was designed to run at 720, which is also what the settings default to on the game. The jaggies seem actually less apparent at that resolution. May be the way the filters work or whatever.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
It was an early PS3 game, so it was designed to run at 720, which is also what the settings default to on the game. The jaggies seem actually less apparent at that resolution. May be the way the filters work or whatever.
Changed resolution back to defaults (1280x720), loaded the save, took the same shots... not much in the way of improvement imo.



Somethin' just isn't working right on the PC version's renderings. It looks like blown up versions of DS screenshots, like when I emulate fire emblem.
 
You're looking at older games with new game eyes man. It looks like an older PS3 title.
 
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Also pointing out that this is a port, not an HD remaster or anything.

I still think that GB is being overly harsh on it. Even the screenshots he posted don't look that bad. I'm not saying it looks like a current gen game, but it's not a current gen game.

In regards to it not looking like TF2, TF2 doesn't have the stylized cell shading lines, and that seems to be what you're on about. I don't know what sort of rendering process goes into that , but I'm sure it's better now than it was then. It's something that TF2 doesn't have to worry about.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I guess maybe it is unfair to expect a 7 year old console game to look like an 8 year old PC game. But furthermore, I think I figured it out - the blurry-jaggies only happen in some cutscenes, not in others. I'm pretty sure the ones where they happen, on further inspection, are prerendered FMV. Which would explain why raising the resolution just makes the pixels bigger. In the "conversation" cutscenes you have to hit spacebar to advance look much better. I'm betting those are being rendered natively.
 
the game is really just upsampling its handheld native resolution and then the GPU tries to anti-alias it...
I was going to say, those look like aliasing artifacts. Try forcing aliasing to off and see if that does you any better. Silly as it may seem, I had the same problem with Diablo III. With aliasing turned on, the character models and graphics actually look much better...but suddenly all the text looks like it's been shoved behind a rain-slick windshield. I'd rather have razor-sharp text even if it means my characters look a little blocky.

--Patrick
 
I guess maybe it is unfair to expect a 7 year old console game to look like an 8 year old PC game. But furthermore, I think I figured it out - the blurry-jaggies only happen in some cutscenes, not in others. I'm pretty sure the ones where they happen, on further inspection, are prerendered FMV. Which would explain why raising the resolution just makes the pixels bigger. In the "conversation" cutscenes you have to hit spacebar to advance look much better. I'm betting those are being rendered natively.
That is exactly what is going on, which would explain the jaggies. In actual game play, the game looks fantastic (especially with the increased FPS).
 

fade

Staff member
Arkham Asylum

I played this on PS3 a couple of years ago. I'm giving it a run on PC now that I've forgotten enough about it to make it fun again. So off to beat up some blue skeletons. I still wish the Riddler's puzzles were harder, and not just a test of my pop-culture knowledge. I was having trouble at first, getting beaten up by run of the mill thugs. Then I realized that my right mouse button wasn't working consistently. No wonder I wasn't able to counter. I always have trouble with Poison Ivy, even though the pattern is simple. Bats is just sluggish enough that I get hit.
 
Arkham Asylum

I played this on PS3 a couple of years ago. I'm giving it a run on PC now that I've forgotten enough about it to make it fun again. So off to beat up some blue skeletons. I still wish the Riddler's puzzles were harder, and not just a test of my pop-culture knowledge. I was having trouble at first, getting beaten up by run of the mill thugs. Then I realized that my right mouse button wasn't working consistently. No wonder I wasn't able to counter. I always have trouble with Poison Ivy, even though the pattern is simple. Bats is just sluggish enough that I get hit.
I realized something with Ivy that made the fight a LOT easier: you can throw batarangs at her at ANY time and it does a little bit of damage. I found that made the boss fight a lot more manageable.

Totally agreed on the Riddler puzzles. Personally, I liked the puzzles in Arkham City more. Lots of clever ways you had to unlock certain Riddler trophies.
 
I realized something with Ivy that made the fight a LOT easier: you can throw batarangs at her at ANY time and it does a little bit of damage. I found that made the boss fight a lot more manageable.

Totally agreed on the Riddler puzzles. Personally, I liked the puzzles in Arkham City more. Lots of clever ways you had to unlock certain Riddler trophies.
I loathed the Arkham City Riddler puzzles, which were mostly just derpy little reflex tests in my opinion (how fast can you target batarangs BATMAN?!). At the least most of the Asylum ones were basically riddles.

Me, I'm playing Transistor for the first time. I'd read a lot of complaints about the combat system and how little the game explains itself but I've found it quite intuitive and easy to experiment with and have taken to it quite handily. Of course the art style and music are beyond fucking incredible. It feels like I'm playing a modern Reboot game (like, Reboot as in the Canadian CG cartoon series from the mid 90s).
 
I've been bouncing between FFVII on Steam, Omega Ruby Pokemon, and FF Theaterythm: Curtain Call. It's nice having some non-MMO stuff take up my free time for a change.
 
I decided to replay all the Splinter Cell games. I finished the first and now I'm halfway the second. They are much easier than I remember.
 
Alright, I found what I hate in Transistor. The fucking death penalty is SUPER annoying. The fact that it can autosave with lost functions is fucking stupid. I don't care how intended this annoyance is, I don't like it.
 
Shadow Warrior (2013 remake)

Not gonna lie. It's hella fun to cut through massive waves of demons with a katana. :D

Your sidekick Oni (it's Oni, right? That's Japanese demons, I think?) has some great lines, too.
 
Shadow Warrior (2013 remake)

Not gonna lie. It's hella fun to cut through massive waves of demons with a katana. :D

Your sidekick Oni (it's Oni, right? That's Japanese demons, I think?) has some great lines, too.
And it's made by Flying Wild Hog, one of my favorite developers!
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Alright, I take it back. Valkyria Chronicles is retarded bullshit and I'm glad I pirated it instead of paying money. I had Maximillian's supertank carefully outflanked and suddenly magic electrodildo torpedotits woman comes outta nowhere, is literally invulnerable, walks past my tank (which cuts all of her squad to ribbons as they try to pass) and annihilates all of my lancers (and scouts, and a sniper) in 2 turns. Turns that the supertank SHOULD have been using to fire at the knocked-over walls, but instead "nope, no, wait, I have to move 3 more feet before I fire, and I can't move and fire in the same round for some reason even though I've saved up infinity command points.

Fuck this shit. If this game was tabletop I'd be kicking the GM in the nuts for bullshittery of this caliber.
 
Alright, I take it back. Valkyria Chronicles is retarded bullshit and I'm glad I pirated it instead of paying money. I had Maximillian's supertank carefully outflanked and suddenly magic electrodildo torpedotits woman comes outta nowhere, is literally invulnerable, walks past my tank (which cuts all of her squad to ribbons as they try to pass) and annihilates all of my lancers (and scouts, and a sniper) in 2 turns. Turns that the supertank SHOULD have been using to fire at the knocked-over walls, but instead "nope, no, wait, I have to move 3 more feet before I fire, and I can't move and fire in the same round for some reason even though I've saved up infinity command points.

Fuck this shit. If this game was tabletop I'd be kicking the GM in the nuts for bullshittery of this caliber.
This mission isn't as bad as you think... but you MUST be ready to finish off the tank the moment it hits the third wall and pop's it's last vent (which means having a gunner or scout in a certain spot) and you MUST delay Selvaria's advance by at least one turn (which means having some guys in cover in the middle trench). If she gets to the tank, you've lost because she'll usually waste your runners by the time they get to the ladder, even if you use the Edelweiss as mobile cover.

It really is the worst mission in the game though because Selvaria comes out of nowhere and you have no idea how to deal with her like that.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Selvaria comes out of nowhere and you have no idea how to deal with her like that.
Exactly. It's the biggest sin that a strategy game can make to require you to have mystical foreknowledge of the bullshit twist that's going to happen in the last 5 minutes of a mission and prepare specifically for that with a strategy that would be pure insanity otherwise.

I'm done with this. UNFORGIVABLE. If anybody happens to ask me , I'm going to tell them it sucks more dick than Sasha Grey and the dev team deserves genital papercuts.
 
It reminds me of those RPG battles where you're getting rocked, but you don't know until you've burned a shitload of expensive health and revive items that you were supposed to lose to advance the story. So even if you win, you get jack shit and just wasted 3/4 of your inventory.
 
It's not even that Selvaria comes. It's that she shows up in her fucking super powered form and lays waste to your entire group in seconds and you had no reason to prepare for that kind of thing even a few minutes ago.

Really, the biggest problem with this mission is that it wants you to use the Edelweiss behind the tank to take out the turrets... but moving it up the map to turn it into cover for the final phase is the best use of it, even if this means it has to eat a mortar or two from the super tank. But you can't do this once Selvaria shows up because she's going to waste your team (including Largo and Rose, who give extra command points) and you won't have any command points stocked for the next phase to use orders like Defense Up.

But if you want REAL bullshit, you need to try the Eddy Detachment DLC episode. You get a set team (including the pacifist scout who randomly won't shoot) and have to hold a certain area against enemy attacks for the duration of the mission... while it's getting nailed with mortar fire. Not only does the episode require you to act perfectly to deal with this challenge, you need to know about things that you couldn't without losing at least once (like the existence of a sniper... who only your pacifist scout can take out in time.) Now this is a DLC episode that is designed to test all your skills, but it's still COMPLETE bullshit.
 
Now this is a DLC episode that is designed to test all your skills, but it's still COMPLETE bullshit.
It sounds like it's designed to either test your skills as a mystic, or as a game guide googler. If it's meant as a test of your strategic ability and skill with the system, this sort of you-have-to-know-in-advance gotcha's are exactly what to avoid.
 
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