• Added the ability to adjust HDR Brightness provided that the system supports it. (Xbox & Windows 11 only).

If AI-generated content helps developers expand and flesh out their game worlds, I don’t see that as a bad thing? Open-world games have tons of filler and AI would be perfectly suited to generating said filler while human developers can focus more on the important, handcrafted content.

Blood Money’s final level at least made you feel like a ruthless killing machine. The train level in H3 just wasn’t very good. It felt like a half-assed attempt at a Hitman level instead of a power fantasy set-piece.

The train level was just a super linear and short level with cutscenes. Honestly, it would have been better off as just one big cutscene.

The actual combat/stealth in AP were the worst parts of the game. The best parts of the game were the dialogue and reactivity. In other words, the same strengths as Telltale adventure games.

That level wasn’t representative of the game as a whole. Quite the opposite, in fact. I’m not sure why they decided to go that route. I’m guessing they were over budget and had to significantly reduce the scope of the final level, resulting in what we got. Honestly, they probably should have just modified Mendoza and…

AP still has some of the best reactivity and dialogue in all of gaming. Playing as an asshole was hilarious. Really, if Obsidian just made another AP as a Telltale-style adventure game with said reactivity and dialogue, it would be great. The conversations were the best part of the game anyway.

IO isn’t going to make this Hitman: Bond Edition. They know that pure stealth isn’t going to resonate with most players. It’ll be a mix of stealth, combat and probably a few car chases.

You could just use filters but I think you’d lose a lot of a nuance in doing so. The way a krogan speaks is fundamentally different from how a salarian speaks, not just in terms of sound but in the words they choose and the manner in which they assemble them. Basically, to do this well, you’d need unique dialogue for…

You can say that but I can’t think of a single example of an RPG with a fully voiced protagonist that had more than two VO sets (one male, one female). If costs weren’t an issue, it would have been done by now.

I don’t think that would fly with Mass Effect where certain species have very distinct voices. In Dragon Age, every race/species is basically just a variation of human. Elves are slim humans with pointy ears, dwarves are short, thick humans with big beards, qunari are big, tall humans with horns, etc. Their voices are…

I think VO is the main bottleneck here. In BG3, the player character is silent. In ME, the PC is completely voiced. Players will expect a Turian to sound different from a Krogan, which means including those as playable species would require multiple VOs for every line.

In the context of this debate, “platform” refers to digital distribution platforms where you can buy, download and play PC games. Steam is a platform. EGS is a platform. GOG is a platform. Origin is a platform. MS Store is a platform. Uplay is a platform. Battle.net is a platform.

Apparently it is relevant which is why so many people complain about EGS exclusivity and not Steam exclusivity. Nobody likes exclusivity but when that exclusivity is the direct result of the platform owner effectively bribing the developer/publisher, that makes it all the more aggravating.

Will this be the first ME game where you can actually choose your species in the SP campaign?

Oh boy. You know things are going downhill when people start throwing “shill” around.

You’re not going to convince me that giving people a completely optional way to make money is exploitative or bad for consumers. As I said, if you’re an artist, you have plenty of ways to make money in the gaming industry. Valve is not the only option. Don’t like their terms? Then don’t accept them. Go sell your work…

You really need to do more research. Several Total War games are available on non-Steam platforms, including all three Warhammer entries, Pharaoh and Troy. Hell, Troy even launched as an EGS exclusive.

Two stores before Steam even started selling third-party games. One of those stores (Direct2Drive) had much bigger third-party titles than Steam did when it eventually started selling third-party games in 2005. Unless you consider Rag Doll Kung Fu and Darwinia to be higher profile titles than Splinter Cell: Pandora…

Source? I haven’t seen anything indicating that the scaling revenue split has changed since 2018.