E3 2019 - Conference times and general chat

[countstex]

Interesting, cacheing involves a lot more discrete write actions than mass storage does, and most SSDs don't hold up that well being written to over and over, I hope these consoles don't have limited lifespans because of that...

My understanding is that that issue was for the earlier generations of SSD and modern ones don't suffer in the same way. Also important to remember that streaming your gameplay has become very popular and having an SSD for recording gameplay to will prevent any slowdowns whilst playing for the most part so that could be part of the reasoning too.

Also I can't agree that SSDs are a luxury, once you;ve moved your OS to one and then go to a PC which using standard HDDs it can be painful to use. Then again I'm probably more of a power user when it comes to storage, I have two SSDs and five HDD for a total of 18TB of storage in my machine and do a lot of video conversions and the like.

That said playing large, disk intensive games from the SSD makes all the difference in my book, making saves in Dwarf Fortress much faster, and my heavily modded Skyrim install is probably only possible with that extra nippiness in certain locations.

Also they are talking about having GDDR6 RAM in these new consoles making the difference in data transfers in memory even more distinct from the physical movement of the heads in a HDD. A three tiered approach does sound like the best solution in my book. (Or 4 tiered assuming the CPU/APU has some discrete cache of it's own)

[Alex79]

The price of Uplay+ seems a little steep when you consider Ultimate Gamepass is the same price.

[hazeredmist]

It's not just gaming obviously, but I'm pretty tired of the amount of platforms trying to get me to sign up for subscription-based services now. It's too much. Everything wants me to subscribe. EVERYTHING. Games. Radio. TV. Movies. I am even hassled to subscribe to nappies on Amazon when I buy them now. Where will it end? Will breathing require a direct debit?

I do think there will be a jumping-off point for me with modern media delivery the way things are going, and I'll end up hugging a collection of DVD's & cartridges in a corner someday soon.

[KSubzero1000]

I'll end up hugging a collection of DVD's & cartridges in a corner someday soon.

That's basically what I'm doing already. Once my PS+ expires next week, I think my handful of Patreon pledges will be the only remaining form of entertainment-based subscriptions I'll have. No recurring TV, magazines, gaming, premium storefronts or music subscription "services" for me.

It's liberating, gentlemen. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything, it protects me from stealth bills accumulating while I'm not looking and it's making me appreciate that which I own all the more. I recommend.

[hazeredmist]

Stealth bills. That's a perfect description, KSub.

It's what they want. The odd £3 here, the odd £7.99 there... You'll just forget about it, not notice. I don't like it. I want to pay for something and be done with it, whether I "own" it from then on, or it's a one-off rental cost.

It only occurred to me properly fairly recently when trying to reduce monthly costs - being a single income family with a toddler and another on the way (no benefits or other support - I pay for everything) - the gravity of this. We hadn't watched Netflix for months - why the hell are we paying then? Cancelled. The minute Amazon Prime stops being essential to us, that will go too. This rolling subscription model works both ways. Stop your payment if you aren't using it - you can always go back. Or not. It's so easy to let yourself get fucked by stealth billing.

[Suits]

Corner cartridge hugging for the win.

[hazeredmist]

My dad bought something on amazon once and they offered him free amazon prime so he got free delivery for whatever he was buying so he was like "Oh yeah, go on then". He only realised 18 months later that it was an automatically recurring monthly fee and he'd been "enjoying the benefits" of amazon prime for 18 months and had absolutely no idea about it.

They were nice about it in the end and refunded his money, checking the records and seeing that he hadn't used it for anything (I mean, he was getting free delivery on the odd occasion that he bought something from amazon, but they overlooked that).

Yep, the tech-savvy among us may even still get fucked by this stuff - what about the older generations or vulnerable people? They're the ones I worry about. I've had many talks with people on companies taking advantage of them.

Beer52 is a good example. You get offers for boxes of beers which require you to take out a subscription, so you can then enjoy paying three times the amount for less in a box every month until you cancel. And you can't cancel with a button on the website. Oh no. You've got to email or phone up a human, who then hounds you through several emails with escalating offers and bolt-ons to get you to leave your recurring payment in place. Eventually, once you've forwarded a vial of your blood and provided witness statements to prove you are of sound mind, you can be released. Never again. What about those more impressionable / fearful of conflict, or less aware of their rights as a consumer to just walk away?

[Suits]

Yep, the tech-savvy among us may even still get fucked by this stuff - what about the older generations or vulnerable people? They're the ones I worry about. I've had many talks with people on companies taking advantage of them.

Mate, I get stung almost everytime I take advantage of one of those XBL offers.

You need XBLG to be able to play Fallout 76, so occasionally, like now, Xbox will run an offer for a month, for £1.

But it sets you up for a recurring monthly subscription at £6.99 or whatever it is.

Many a time I’ve forgotten to cancel it and just been paying each month at full price.

It kind of puts me off getting excited about the actual offers.

It’s my own fault entirely but still leaves a bad taste.


There’s an AWESOME Ale House under Chelmsford Train Station that I’ve required collecting from many a time.

[Caligulas Horse]

Anyone else think that the FF7 character designs lose every single ounce of charm and instead actually look really silly when they’re rendered in the quasi realistic style of the remake?

It doesn't quite work for me either but I'm also not sure that they could have done it any differently. I really want to see how some of the later areas look, especially The Golden Saucer.

I'm also quite confused by the way it's going to work. It's apparently episodic but it's 2 discs and the entire first disc will be in Midgar?

Edit - After doing some further reading it seems like it's being broken up into episodes and each episode will be a full game. The first game will all be in Midgar.

[KSubzero1000]

I just get things as and when I want them, it's old fashioned, but it's the what I'm used to and it seems to work for me.

I may be on the younger end of the CaR community demographics, but I'm equally old-fashioned and it seems to work for me as well. Netflix can go down in flames tomorrow, but my Lawrence of Arabia Blu-Ray isn't going anywhere. Various game publishers can decide to revoke licenses (as they often do), but my physical game discs and cartridges will still work 20 years from now. The amazon fire tablet ebook thingy (I don't even know what it's called) will probably end production at some point, but the hardcover classics in my cupboard will still be perfectly usable absolutely free of charge even 100 years from now.

It's what they want. The odd £3 here, the odd £7.99 there... You'll just forget about it, not notice.

This rolling subscription model works both ways. Stop your payment if you aren't using it - you can always go back. Or not. It's so easy to let yourself get fucked by stealth billing.

That's exactly what they want. They wouldn't be pushing this transaction model so hard if they weren't making money hand over fist with it. That's not to say that it's impossible to make use of subscription services in a responsible fashion. But for every savvy Netflix consumer who makes sure to watch at least five films per week and doesn't hesitate to cancel as soon as necessary, there are at least twelve who just go "Oh well, that sounds like a great deal!", only to forget about it shortly afterwards and be surprised by the salty late payment notice one year later.

The most cynical part of all this is that the recurring subscription model is built to take advantage of the most vulnerable consumers of all: those without too much disposable income. Those who only see the short-term benefits at first but fail to calculate the potential long-term problems ahead of time.

[hazeredmist]

That's it like, a catch-all service would be the dream, but how much would it be? I used to laugh at the amount people would fork out for Sky TV with the movies and sports packages and 30,000 useless channels with carp fishing out-takes and that. Now our subscription services combined will dwarf that, making it seem comparatively good value. Plus like you say, stuff is on Netflix one month then gone the next. We started watching Seinfeld on Prime, three seasons in, then get a warning it's fleeing Amazon in a couple of weeks. OK, cheers for that. Are you reducing my bill because you're taking content I want away from me? No? That's not how it works? Right then.

To refer back to gaming, you no longer just buy the consoles and a PC. You've got Uplay, EA Access, PS Plus, PS Now, Xbox Live, Xbox Gamepass, Nintendo Online, Google Stadia etc etc etc swallowing up your funds. Digital storefronts with servers that get turned off. It's SO expensive to be a catch-all gamer.

[Jobobonobo]

Anyone else think that the FF7 character designs lose every single ounce of charm and instead actually look really silly when they’re rendered in the quasi realistic style of the remake?

Yep, 100% agreed. I played and finished FF7 for the first time last year and I thought its chunky visual style gave the game and its cast a lot of personality. Mind you, I am one that thinks a lot of the chunky polygons of the PS1/N64 era had their own unique aesthetic qualities that could make a game strangely timeless instead of dated. A goofy timelessness, yes, but one that I find quite endearing.

Have to say, despite loving my time with FF7, this remake does not do it for me because of the needless desire to make the graphics as super advanced as possible typical of modern Square and it being an "episodic" game leaves an especially cynical, exploitative taste in my mouth.

[ratsoalbion]

It's available as a one time purchase though, for the same price as it would cost if it was a single release.

They haven't decided how many episodes it's going to be yet, and no-one knows how long each one will take to complete either, so I wouldn't pony up for a pre-order myself (never do):
https://www.destructoid.com/square-enix ... 7124.phtml

[KissMammal]

Anyone else think that the FF7 character designs lose every single ounce of charm and instead actually look really silly when they’re rendered in the quasi realistic style of the remake?

Yep, 100% agreed. I played and finished FF7 for the first time last year and I thought its chunky visual style gave the game and its cast a lot of personality. Mind you, I am one that thinks a lot of the chunky polygons of the PS1/N64 era had their own unique aesthetic qualities that could make a game strangely timeless instead of dated. A goofy timelessness, yes, but one that I find quite endearing.

Have to say, despite loving my time with FF7, this remake does not do it for me because of the needless desire to make the graphics as super advanced as possible typical of modern Square and it being an "episodic" game leaves an especially cynical, exploitative taste in my mouth.

I think the switch over to the more 'realistic' graphical style with FFX is when I lost interest in the series as a whole. The outlandish costume design and hairstyles make sense visually when the characters themselves are very stylised, but they look ludicrous on relatively real looking human figures. I also don't really like it when rpgs mash up real time action with turn-based combat - I'd rather they just pick one style and stick to it.

Yeah, i'm not remotely interested in the remake either - I'm firmly of the opinion that when people asked for a FFVII remake all those years, all they were asking for was the original game with tarted up visuals and audio. I think this remake has to be one of the most over-thought things ever. Presumably the 'sequel/continuation' to the remake won't be out until the next generation of consoles. How will that work?

[Stanshall]

FFVII Remake is an impossible task and that's why I'm so fascinated by it. I expect nothing and I dream of something far beyond my imagination. I don't care if it's a colossal failure and pile of crap, the original is an evergreen facet of my existence which I haven't tired of in more than twenty years. It means so much to me and is transportative like little else. The soundtrack still makes me feel excited and nervous and cheerful and moody in a timeless way, like the first times I ever heard it. It's bizarre. I love how goofy it is. I love how earnest it is. I love how ambitiously profound it is. I love how artificially gamey it is. It means more to me than almost any game and while I'm waffling away here, I wouldn't even really know where to start talking about it. I wish I'd made a significant contribution to the C&R issue but it was a rare occasion where I just didn't know what to say or where to begin.

If the new one is a total dog egg, it won't bother me at all, my expectations are nil. It can only be a pleasant surprise.

[Jobobonobo]

I think the switch over to the more 'realistic' graphical style with FFX is when I lost interest in the series as a whole. The outlandish costume design and hairstyles make sense visually when the characters themselves are very stylised, but they look ludicrous on relatively real looking human figures.

Certain game series benefit from realism and others don't and Final Fantasy I think is far more appealing to me when they stray from realistic aesthetics. FF7 was my first entry into the series but I think it is telling that it is 6 and 9 that I would like to try next. Another infamous example of realism really screwing up the visual style of a series was Sonic 06. Having a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog run around with a regular sized human princess will never not be absurd to me. What on earth was in SEGA's heads to go through with that?!

Yeah, i'm not remotely interested in the remake either - I'm firmly of the opinion that when people asked for a FFVII remake all those years, all they were asking for was the original game with tarted up visuals and audio. I think this remake has to be one of the most over-thought things ever. Presumably the 'sequel/continuation' to the remake won't be out until the next generation of consoles. How will that work?

Oh dear lord, there is going to be a sequel? I thought the whole point of Final Fantasy is that they are standalone stories! I like that the ending was ambiguous yet hopeful. It is an ending that suggests a followup is not necessary and a sequel unless it is done very well is going to really screw that ending by actually explaining what happens. A bit of ambiguity can be a good thing sometimes. Oh well, at least there is still the original.

[Flabyo]

It’s gotten a bit confused how the remake is actually going to work out, as far as I can tell it’s not ‘episodic’ in the sense that a telltale game might be, but more like the Star Wars movies are.

So it’ll be ‘ff7, part one’ as a full game on it own, then later on a new full game called ‘ff7 part two’ etc...

They’re aiming for each part to be a full size jrpg, and stand alone.

Whether that’s how it shakes out, who knows? It sounds an awful lot like what Namco tried with Xenosaga...

[Caligulas Horse]

I feel the same as Stanshall.

I think it's worth pointing out that even if people were only asking for tarted up visuals and audio all those years ago (I was) it seems like a lot of fans are really excited for this remake and we're probably the minority on this one.

Oh dear lord, there is going to be a sequel? I thought the whole point of Final Fantasy is that they are standalone stories! I like that the ending was ambiguous yet hopeful. It is an ending that suggests a followup is not necessary and a sequel unless it is done very well is going to really screw that ending by actually explaining what happens. A bit of ambiguity can be a good thing sometimes. Oh well, at least there is still the original.

I don't think that's what they are doing, they are just dividing up the story that already exists. The first release seems to cover the time spent in Midgar which is around 10% of the original game.

[Caligulas Horse]

I think what would really suck for me is if I play it and end up enjoying everything except for the story and the characters.

Actually what would really suck is if I play the first part and end up enjoying everything, only for the full thing to never be released haha.

[Suits]

I could only watch the first minute or so of that - soooooo, painful and cringe.

Like an episode of Faulty Towers but worse, as it’s real.