In today’s computer gaming news, learn more about Crysis moment for PC gaming may never be experienced by players because PC gaming grew out of absurd system requirements in this time of age. Meanwhile, Greg Coomer, a longtime employee at Valve, remarked that producing games is still “extremely essential” to the company. Lastly, Second Dinner has announced that Marvel Snap will launch on PC and mobile platforms on Oct. 8.
PC Gaming May Never See Another Crysis
Original Source: There may never be another Crysis moment for PC gaming
You must forgive PC gamers for always bringing up Crysis. It’s been a long time since a game was so difficult to run on existing PC hardware that graphics cards had to be created. But we’ve had a few close calls with ridiculously demanding games in recent years, so I’m wondering which game will be the next to grind our PCs to a halt with its terrible system requirements.
If you need a list of games to show off your new graphics card, we’ve got you covered (opens in new tab). I want to look forward to what’s coming and whether we’ll reach Crysis again, as I’m not sure.
But a few prospective releases qualify. First, Starfield. Bethesda’s upcoming game was inspired by Elder Scrolls and Fallout. With a fresh open-world and a new version of Bethesda’s janky Creation Engine, this will be a lovely but hard game.
The Starfield clip from earlier this summer showed only a stony planet or moon, but they were detailed. Since the game’s release has been pushed out until 2023, the actual gameplay may be different. Shadows and ambient occlusion in the clip alone may make a graphics card stutter.
Maybe space won’t tax the CUDA Cores too much. No one can hear your graphics card fans in orbit.
And The Witcher 4 (opens in new tab). Though it’s not confirmed, CD Projekt Red is working on the next installment with its own REDengine. It’s instead chosen Epic’s Unreal Engine 5, joining the army of games in development for it. The game will be wonderful, but I wonder if a more common game engine will reduce its hardware load.
The game industry has learned to do more with less.
“Players can walk in whatever route they wish and handle content in any order,” CD Projekt Red’s Slama remarked this year. “To encapsulate it, you need a stable environment where you can make changes with high confidence it won’t break 1,600 other places down the road.”
UE5’s breadth and detail make it a terrific fit for the much-anticipated Witcher sequel. Here’s hope it has a better launch than CD Projekt’s last game, Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 stretched the visual hardware of the day, but was it because of its expansiveness or an underoptimized engine? It’s a mix of both, but the lack of optimization hurt the game’s performance. There’s a difference between a game that’s challenging for the proper reasons and one that’s not.
Perhaps the closest we’ve been to a watershed moment for graphics hardware like Crysis is the adoption of ray tracing in modern gaming, so I’d imagine that whatever game becomes a test of CPU performance will employ it to some level.
Bouncing a ray for every pixel was thirsty labor for even graphics hardware suited for it. The RTX 30-series has better RT Cores than the RTX 20-series, and AMD has subsequently joined in with its own RDNA 2 Ray Tracing Accelerators. But lovely reflections and shadows aren’t free.
See F1 2022. It looked good with ray-traced reflections, shadows, and ambient occlusion on Sainz’s Ferrari, but even an RTX 3080 failed to make it worthwhile. Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) are improving the image and performance.
Yes, elites. The upscalers may change everything. Are severe demands for more cores, VRAM, and clock speeds ignored by upscaling? I’d argue upscaling does as much for PC performance as faster GPUs.
Since CDPR is using UE5 instead of its own engine, the next Witcher game will likely support UE5’s integrated upscaler, Temporal Super Resolution (TSR). Not to mention any other upscalers CDPR decides should be added. Nvidia’s Streamline architecture for better integrating even competing upscaling solutions could be in feverish usage by then.
Considering console advancements and a shift away from PC-exclusive production, the days of outlandish efforts to push PC technology may be dwindling. With PC-like consoles of diverse power and aptitude, any developer will want to maintain performance across most platforms.
It won’t stop extreme defaults on PC, but it should reduce their frequency.
It’s the next Crysis—a PC-breaking game. It’s not simply a game that can’t run at 120Hz at 4K on a powerful card. We have tons. It uses so many cutting-edge graphics techniques and technology that your PC coil whines just installing it.
For a game as crazy as Crysis, I don’t see anything in the last two years or the future two. Even Crysis Remastered didn’t run as well as its original version, and it didn’t at launch, either. It was due to poor CPU usage, not new graphics technology, and was later patched for proper performance.
Next-generation games will be beautiful, I have no doubt, but we may not witness another Crysis moment because game developers have learnt to do more with less. Crysis came when PC performance wasn’t determined by hundreds of frames, but 30fps. Developers didn’t bring console exclusives to PC like they do now, and we’re getting God of War on PC. Goalposts have been changed and fans expect more from games. I’m not sure if a game like Crysis, which closed the door to most gamers, would be as awe-inspiring today. A publisher wouldn’t mind the idea—someone invested a lot of effort and money on the game.
It’s for the best—while it was an exciting moment for visuals, not being able to play Crysis with a respectable frame rate was frustrating.
Valve Claims It Has’many Games in Development’ and Wants to Explore Half-life
Original Source: Valve once again insists that it ‘has a lot of games in development,’ wants to continue exploring Half-Life
Valve has developed a few huge, impactful games in the last 25 years. You can count them on one hand, and they’re mostly sequels, spinoffs, and hardware demos (Aperture Desk Job). Steam is the proverbial money printer go brrr, but a lot of players would like Valve to make games they love again.
Greg Coomer told Famitsu (via Tweaktown, Google translated) that Valve is devoted to developing games and has many projects in the works.
“Valve has many titles in development and will release more,” Coomer stated. I don’t know the exact percentages, but a large percentage of Valve’s staff work on games.
Yes, that commitment includes Half-Life, though Coomer stated nothing about a new game. Valve loves the location and wants to “explore the Half-Life universe,” he said.
Coomer said making Half-Life: Alyx was fun. “Even for those who worked on that universe, it’s fun to return and tell more stories.
“Virtual reality had numerous problems, and solving them was fun. Half-Life games are often technologically innovative, thus this was a major stride… Valve has more to say about that universe, as Half-Life: Alyx shows.
Coomer’s statement should be taken with a grain of salt, as this is not the first time a Valve employee has made such a claim when surrounded by no new games.
Gabe Newell, when asked if Valve makes singleplayer games: “Yes” (January 2017)
“We’re building three VR games… Gabe Newell implied that these games are bigger and better than the HTC Vive tech demo The Lab (February 2017)
“Artifact is the first of our games. Good news! Hooray! Gabe Newell, during a Valve Artifact presentation (March 2018)
“Now we can focus more on games as a company… Gabe Newell refuted the popular assumption that Valve employees are just slacking off (August 2018)
“We’ll announce next games. Gabe Newell, on Valve’s interest in producing new games after Half-Life: Alyx (January 2021)
Greg Coomer insists Valve is working on more than Aperture Desk Job (March 2022)
To be fair to Valve, it has a lot on the go. Steam is still crushing concurrent user records, and the Steam Deck seems to be the hardware hit Valve has been chasing for years. I have no doubt that it’ll happen again, almost certainly before we get our hands on any new Valve game.
Ben Brode’s Marvel Snap Card Game Debuts in October
Original Source: Marvel Snap, Ben Brode’s new superhero card game, hits full release in October
Second Dinner’s free-to-play digital card battler Marvel Snap will launch on PC and mobile devices on October 8.
Marvel Snap is presently in closed beta on Android devices. A new clip shows off gameplay. The game will start with more than 150 cards featuring unique graphics from Marvel’s history and 80 various gaming locales, each with “challenging, game-changing effects”
Ben Brode, formerly the game director on Blizzard’s popular CCG Hearthstone and now the chief development officer at Second Dinner, said, “We spent years making sure Marvel Snap is the kind of game that everyone, gamer or not, can’t wait to pick up and play” (opens in new tab). “If you appreciate fast-paced, strategic games and the excitement of a last-second power move, you’ll love Marvel Snap.”
Our July preview of Marvel Snap was positive. Small deck size and six-turn limit keep the action going. Ironically, the conflicts seemed flat since comic-book heroes and villains never truly fought, making it feel less like a superhero game than intended.
Marvel Snap’s monetization model and Nexus Events were criticized for being overly aggressive and exaggerating the likelihood of high-tier rewards dropping. Second Dinner promised that players could get every card in the game “for free” just months before requiring players to pay for a strong new card.
The strategy was eventually taken back and refunds granted, but it wasn’t a good look for a game approaching full release and prompted issues about monetizing similar in-game events in the future. Second Dinner hasn’t revealed any revenue intentions, so we’ll be watching.
Pre-register at marvelsnap.com for the October 8 launch.
Summary of Today’s Computer Gaming News
Overall, Crysis moment for PC gaming is what players want and keep banging on about. It feels like an era since a game came around that was so hard to run on PC hardware that graphics cards had to be developed. We have had a few close run-ins with impossibly demanding games these past few years.
On the other hand, Over 25 years, Valve has released a handful of titles that have gone on to become industry standards, but it hasn’t made a lot of games. In what’s sure to come as good news for those long-suffering fans. Valve’s Greg Coomer told Famitsu that the company is devoted to developing games and has many projects underway.
Finally, Second Dinner has announced that Marvel Snap will launch on PC and mobile platforms on Oct. 8. A new teaser shows gameplay from Marvel Snap, which is in closed beta on Android. At debut, the game will have more than 150 cards with unique Marvel images and 80 various gaming locales, each with “challenging, game-changing consequences” to ensure “players never experience the same game twice.”
