The pics thread

[SentinelSlain]

You look like that PUA guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT5V6lnQjec

[Xorv]

can that shit max crysis?

[King Richard]

^Not sure, I would think so.

[zabu of nΩd]

Originally Posted by Krigloch the Furious

i just owned some bacon. Feels good

so yeah, how's that diet / weight loss goin?

[King Richard]

What diet?

[Xorv]

that IS his diet

[Vimana]

Don't call it a diet. Diet is synonymous with what someone eats to stop being fat. It needs a word that has no such synonym.

[Overwatch]

[Krigloch the Furious]

Originally Posted by zabu of nΩd

so yeah, how's that diet / weight loss goin?

meh, I've been at 186/187 the entire winter. so what I put on 7-8 lbs
When the weather finally warms up I'll be biking every single day.
Come July 19th when I post my naked pic like I've done the past 2 years, I'll look amazing. So I dont give a fuck about what I do in the next month or so.
Cant wait to ride to work every day. Especially since gas is going to be stupid expensive.

[Overwatch]

Just for Krampus

[waif]

Originally Posted by Xorv

can that shit max crysis?

Crysis isn't really that demanding on current hardware. PCs outstrip the capabilities of the 360 and PS3, but all the best-looking, big-budget games are multiplatform/pc exclusive, so graphics haven't really evolved past the capabilities of the consoles. As a consequence, it's pretty cheap to build a PC that can run anything. The exception is when devs optimize poorly, such as with The Witcher 2. That game looked fantastic on PC (easily one of the best looking games ever) but ran poorly.

[Xorv]

Originally Posted by WeAreInFlames

Crysis isn't really that demanding on current hardware. PCs outstrip the capabilities of the 360 and PS3, but all the best-looking, big-budget games are multiplatform/pc exclusive, so graphics haven't really evolved past the capabilities of the consoles. As a consequence, it's pretty cheap to build a PC that can run anything. The exception is when devs optimize poorly, such as with The Witcher 2. That game looked fantastic on PC (easily one of the best looking games ever) but ran poorly.

someone has never heard of dx11 tessellation. ugh,

[Master_Yoda77]

Shit, my bro's computer can max both Crysis games. That thing should do even better.

[~Neurotica]

hello

[Death Delirium]

[Balls McHoolihan]

Originally Posted by Death Delirium

That's what I'm talkin' about.

[waif]

Originally Posted by Xorv

someone has never heard of dx11 tessellation. ugh,

I'm not saying the technology's not there, I'm saying people are barely using it.
Observe:

You Tube

Is there a difference? Sure. But barely.
Look at it in an actual game:

You Tube

even more negligible.

Point is: very few or no major developers are putting significant effort into advancing PC graphics, because if you can't release it for consoles you're left with a very pretty, very expensive game that not that many people can play.

And to be honest, that's fine. Graphics are good enough as is. There's going to be another generation of consoles, but this should be the last, because we're well into the territory of diminishing returns. Where visuals need improvement is in animation and aesthetics, not polygon count, texture mapping, and shaders. Sure, those things can be improved, but it's not really worth the effort required.

[Overwatch]

Originally Posted by WeAreInFlames

And to be honest, that's fine. Graphics are good enough as is. There's going to be another generation of consoles, but this should be the last, because we're well into the territory of diminishing returns. Where visuals need improvement is in animation and aesthetics, not polygon count, texture mapping, and shaders. Sure, those things can be improved, but it's not really worth the effort required.

Have had that discussion recently. Animations need polishing in a lot of cases, but the level of detail is already incredible in most new, serious games. I mean, how much better do you really want games to look?

[Dodens Grav]

I'm totally in support of the idea of a technological 'cap' of sorts. Aesthetics is firmly secondary to a quality storyline and playability. There are times when graphics enhance the experience, but if they were really all that essential, people wouldn't still be playing NES games. I really don't need a game to look any better than Skyrim does, for example. What more can be gained beyond what the visuals in this game capture?

[Der Morgenstern]

I have this above my computers at the lab.

[Zephyrus]

I love Rheims Cathedral! Too bad the Krauts bombed out most of the stained glass.

[waif]

Originally Posted by Dodens Grav

I'm totally in support of the idea of a technological 'cap' of sorts. Aesthetics is firmly secondary to a quality storyline and playability. There are times when graphics enhance the experience, but if they were really all that essential, people wouldn't still be playing NES games. I really don't need a game to look any better than Skyrim does, for example. What more can be gained beyond what the visuals in this game capture?

Aesthetics and graphical fidelity are separate things. Aesthetics are what make Diablo 2 still look good despite its laughable graphical fidelity.
Also, while Skyrim's graphical fidelity is adequate, the incredibly poor animations really do detract from the experience. It's hard to feel immersed in another world when someone sits down and their sword clips right through the chair.

But yes, plot and gameplay are getting shafted lately. Although the reason for that is not simply that developers are focusing on graphics.
Plot is getting shafted because the casualization of gaming has led to an audience increasingly disinterested in the plot, so why bother? For example, most people playing the Modern Warfare or Battlefield games jump straight to the multiplayer, so why bother coming up with an interesting story? Or even one that makes the slightest fucking bit of sense. This even extends to something like Skyrim, which you'd typically think of as a hardcore game. The success of Oblivion brought in a much bigger audience, one whose intellectual fortitude Bethesda seems to have fairly little confidence in, so the depth of the lore and the stories the game tells have been reduced significantly in favor of a simple system that gives players bite-sized quests. Sure, all the lore from the older games is still present, but they haven't added or expanded much, and what they have added is basically just Norse myths with the nouns changed around a bit. So Skyrim is deep compared to most current games, but compared to something like Morrowind it's nothing. Still a good game, but the story has clearly been shafted to suit a more casual audience.
As for gameplay, triple-a games cost a lot to make, and the people bankrolling them want a guaranteed return on their investment. Thus they've become as risk-averse as Hollywood.
Sorry for the manifesto. I'm still kinda pissed about the new ME3 debacle.

[Overwatch]

Originally Posted by WeAreInFlames

Plot is getting shafted because the casualization of gaming has led to an audience increasingly disinterested in the plot, so why bother? For example, most people playing the Modern Warfare or Battlefield games jump straight to the multiplayer, so why bother coming up with an interesting story? Or even one that makes the slightest fucking bit of sense.

There have been a lot of articles on this now. People are content to spend hours playing "Angry Birds", so why make a Trip A game?

[waif]

Originally Posted by Overwatch

There have been a lot of articles on this now. People are content to spend hours playing "Angry Birds", so why make a Trip A game?

Big games like Modern Warfare and WoW make shitloads of money, but a miscalculation can cost them dearly. That's probably why the mainstream gaming media is so much less reliable than it was a few years ago - companies have millions riding on their games, and a negative review can have a serious impact on sales, so they push pre-orders and blatantly pay off reviewers for glowing previews and high scores.

The markets for a game like Angry Birds and a game like Modern Warfare are very different. They may contain some of the same people, but it's like how some of the same people buy pasta and running shoes, but those products still have different markets. There's still big money to be made with AAA games. Really, though, the only thing that can save gaming is if development costs go down. If you look at, for example, Paradox Interactive, they're making complex, deep, excellent games for a very specific niche audience, and that seems to be working for them. The trade-off is a certain lack of polish and visual fidelity. But I'll take an actually creative game like Mount & Blade over some me-too bullshit like Homefront every damn time.

[Balls McHoolihan]