This just seems like they are trying to take a shortcut that might end up having unforeseen consequences. I have no problem with AI upscaling as a technology. It’s already proven its merit with almost all triple A games that have come out in the past few years. But this just seems like a way to push the cost off onto consumers by making them buy more expensive hardware at the cost of efficiency. Games are so poorly optimized these days that this just seems like another way to release games that run like ass. If you see this as a benefit in any way, just remember that we will all be paying the extra cost that they get to save.

And of course there’s gonna be people that’ll just be like “upgrade your PC, bro” which just makes us fight amongst ourselves instead of fighting the companies that are fucking us over. We’ll fight each other for hours on end about how shitty someone’s PC is before we even consider that the game they are playing is so poorly optimized it’s a miracle it even works on a high end PC. It’s already to the point that a $4,000 PC isn’t even enough to play some common triple A titles at a good frame rate. I can play God of War at the highest setting with no issues whatsoever but can’t even play Jedi Survivor at a stable frame rate. Sure a better PC would achieve better results, but that’s not a hardware issue.

Well, let’s hope they can do something with it. I played the beta and was so disappointed I just downloaded Payday 2 and never even bought 3.

There’s only so many times you can get fucked over before you just call it quits. And if you wanna work at a big studio you’d probably just lose your job within a year again anyway. They could go solo but that’s not a guaranteed success, especially if you’re not financially stable. I don’t blame these people for going with something else. Plus with years of this bullshit I’m sure a bunch have had the life sucked out of the work they used to love.

Every game they’ve released in the past 5+ years has been mid or worse. They’re too big of a company to keep releasing mediocre games. Not only that but every game they’ve been coming out with has been hyped with stupid bullshit like NFTs and AAAA quality games. They’re trying to survive on gimmicks while betting on all the wrong things.

They’re just gonna lay off a bunch of people, make another assassin’s creed game, and then call it a day.

I think the only one that surprises me here is Grey Talon. You can absolutely mop the floor with him if you build him up right. My guess is people pick him expecting something like Hanzo from Overwatch. It was my first thought and I had to rethink my build halfway through my first game with him.

Also people be sleeping on Paradox. That switcheroo ability is my jam.

Oh yeah, I see what you mean now. Looks almost exactly the same lol

I’m not that old but my parents loved that movie. Definitely gives off similar vibes. Other movies I’d have listed would be the original Tron and Wargames (I think that’s what it was called). Honestly that whole era in the 80’s would fit pretty well. I wasn’t alive in the 80’s but they had a lot of bangers when it comes to movies.

It’s less about exhaustion with the genre and more about being exhausted with the f2p model. Especially with games like Overwatch where this is a new thing. The core gameplay mechanics of Overwatch are fine, minus the constant changes to larger mechanics like team composition and role changes. But as a FPS game there is nothing objectively wrong with the game from a gameplay standpoint. It’s fluid, easy to learn, and responsive. Same with games like Apex. There’s nothing objectively wrong with the gameplay. But they sacrifice server stability and game breaking issues that have been present since the game was released in favor of adding more ways to spend money. If anything these issues have gotten worse while the shop looks more complicated and predatory than Fortnite’s in its hay day.

I know Concord isn’t the next big thing, but I think it’s worth a try. $40 is not even that much when you consider how much f2p games are charging for their skins. And I’d much rather pay $40 for a game and have minimal microtransactions than play a game for free but have to spend even more money than the game is worth just to customize the huge roster of characters these games have. And the argument “it’s just cosmetics” is such a lazy excuse when customizing your character is one of the only ways to express yourself in a game. It’s the reason why there are so many jokes about people saying the first 10 hours of a new game they bought is spent customizing their character.

Sorry, I went on a bit of a rant and didn’t mean to. Got a little carried away. I’m not trying to say your point is wrong, just that that’s not the reason I’m exhausted with hero shooters.

Well if you can give me any recommendations besides games like Overwatch, Valorant, Apex Legends, and Paladins I’d be dying to know. Because I’m honestly sick of all of them. I’m genuinely curious because I’m exhausted with all the current hero shooters I’ve played. Kinda the reason I was bummed when this game was pretty mid and flopped. Everyone always talks about the market being saturated when everyone that plays these hero shooters is pissed at the developers of said shooters almost on a daily basis. I don’t think Concord was the next big thing. I’m just so sick of all the games currently out to the point I’m willing to try anything.

Deadlock seems pretty sick though. That’s honestly the one I’m waiting for.

Well the fact that it doesn’t even have the name of the game on it and the fact that it looks cool would be a pretty good selling point. You wouldn’t even need to know or care what the game even was.

I played the beta and was kinda excited to see it released. It wasn’t the best game in the world and felt very generic in some aspects. But less than 700 concurrent players is just ridiculous. That’s less players than most of the half baked, asset swapped, copy cat games that release into early access on steam and get abandoned in less than a year. I know Concord isn’t the next big thing and has a lot of problems. But if you can tell me why games like Vigor, The Front, and Deadpoly (All on steam) have higher player counts I’d be dying to know. I know Concord got hit with the hate train, but this is just confusing. I’d rather play a generic new hero shooter over another generic early access survival crafting game.

I think people just expect hero shooters to be F2P these days. At the same time $40 may be expensive but that would only get you 1 or 2 skins in a game like Overwatch. Not only that but Overwatch used to cost about $40 and nobody gave a shit back then because you could potentially get all the skins in the game for free if you grinded enough. Nowadays if you want all the Overwatch skins in the game you’d have to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get them all.

Just a heads up, this opinion is also based on the fact that I find the Far Cry games extremely boring and exhausting with side “quests”:

Handsome Jack was definitively an amazing antagonist. Seemed like a believable character. I think that’s where they fell off, honestly. The only good characters in Borderlands 3 were the ones from the previous games. The only thing keeping me interested through the tedium on my recent playthroughs were the characters. The constant back and forth within the same areas between NPC’s and bounty boards for fetch quests would be unbearable without the characters. Unsurprisingly, Borderlands 3 was the only one I didn’t finish upon replaying.

If they don’t do anything new or crazy, it’ll probably be a hard pass for me. Borderlands 3 was pretty mid and I’m pretty exhausted with the whole “looter shooter” genre. Plus my only memories of the previous Borderlands games are shooting the same enemies for hours while [insert NPC] is constantly talking into my ear. I honestly don’t even remember the gameplay of those games without someone always talking over everything. Besides major plot points and memorable cutscenes, I think 80% of the dialogue just went in one ear and right out the other.

I have nothing against the games and I have nothing against people who like the games. People like what they like. I tried going back and playing through them all again a couple years ago and everything just felt tedious and boring. But if they can pull out all the stops and put in the effort, I might give it a try if my friends want me to get it.

My point is that regardless of what kind of agreement they will come to, these companies are going to find a way around it if they can. They’ll just stop hiring them altogether. I really feel for these people and I wish they didn’t have to deal with this. But I also know that the people in charge don’t really care.

Honestly, let them use AI for voice over. That way we can all see how emotionless and uninspired games will become. It’s gonna be hard to relate to video game characters when they are stripped of their humanity even more than they already are being fictional to begin with. Sure it’s cheap and they can churn shit out at a quicker pace, but when they try to make a game like The Last of Us with AI voice over let me know how much people will give a shit about the characters. Add AI writing into it and you’ve got yourself something so soulless you’ll look back on Nazeem asking you about The Cloud District with fondness.

Is Newegg shit now? It’s been a long time since I’ve used them. Probably the last time I built a new PC back in like 2018. Is this a situation like seeing an old friend from highschool only to find out they are a raging alcoholic? I’m just out of the loop and that seems stupidly low.

But everyone that’s an artist wants to make money from it. And contract work back then is more akin to an artist nowadays doing commissions. The problem with pleasing shareholders is that, in all honesty, they don’t give a shit about the art. All they care about is profit. If money was the only goal of the clients, then Michelangelo (or whomever he worked for) would have never been commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel. They would have just paid some schmuck to paint it grey or something to save on money.

Not trying to be confrontational, just trying to make my point more clear.

Laying off 17% of your staff right before a big DLC is released? I don’t need to tell you that it won’t be the employees getting a raise or bonus. That would be silly to pay the people that actually make the game more money.

Video games have, and always will be, a form of art. Even if you take an awful game made by a big company and pick it apart, you can find people passionate about what they do. People that want to share their ideas and expressions with the world. People that love working on games. People that are talented… People that give a shit.

If Leonardo da Vinci had to please stockholders instead of expressing himself, we’d have a thousand versions of the same painting instead of a collection of unique and individual paintings.

Can’t call it a crowded market when the vast majority of games under the “hero shooter” category are cheap at best and excessively greedy at worst. As a long time Overwatch and Apex Legends player I’ve been waiting years for a good replacement. I’m not saying Concord is that game to replace said hero shooters (And games like Valorant are in a category of their own.) I’m just saying that if there was an actual competitor to a fast paced game like Overwatch that isn’t as blatantly greedy, I would 100% play it.

The community is thirsty for a fresh take on the hero shooter and everyone I know that plays Overwatch and Apex Legends are in the same boat. It’s why games like Team Fortress 2 are having a resurgence. The only reason we play these games is because they are the best gameplay wise. At the same time, the bar is so low we’ll give any game that wants to put in the effort a try. I played the beta of Concord and enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s rough around the edges, don’t get me wrong. But that’s what betas are for. I paid $40 for Overwatch before it went free to play and they locked all cosmetics, old and new, behind a paywall. So if it’s decent I’ll pay $40 for Concord.