It's called the Google Stadia, but let's be real here.
On March 19th, 2019, at the Game Developers (And Google) Conference, history was made. Something that would shake the very foundations of gaming was unveiled, something earth-shatteringly amazing- The Google Stadia. Or, as I like to call it, the Ouya 2. Running at an astounding 60 fps (I actually checked, I honestly thought it would be 30 or less), the Google Stadia streams your games instead of, y'know, running them like a normal console. This allows you to play your games anywhere, anytime, they said. Sounds familiar, but okay. The console itself is going to have a massive library, heresofar consisting of 3 games- Doom Eternal, a highly anticipated FPS, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, a stupidly generic and mediocre game (In other words, an Assassin's Creed game), and, at this time, an unannounced game being made by Q-Games, the makers of... Pixeljunk Monsters? Yay? Before I mock it any more, they did do one thing right. They brought in an experienced game developer to head their projects, much like Amazon did with their studio (A 9 year old studio that has yet to release anything). The developer in question is Jade Raymond, who has worked on a few Ubisoft games, namely Assassin's Creed I and II, and a few Tom Clancy games. I mean, it could be worse. Now, I know what you're thinking; "I hate my PS4 and Xbox and PC running my games at 60fps 1080p! I want something with some lag, and low-quality video! Well, here's the Stadia for you. On recent quality tests, it's shown to have a whole 40 frames of input lag! Amazing! On another note, I really can't believe that it's 1080p. The pixels are so big that they anti-alias themselves. The bushes in Odyssey (Not the Mario one) look like someone took the brush tool from Photoshop and scribbled all over the screen. It's not good. I really hope that it succeeds, even if it's just because somebody's gonna get fired if it doesn't.
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If you read a few of my prior blog posts, then you know that I have been playing quite a bit of Dark Souls 3. The Souls games are widely praised for their interconnected and ingenious level design. You wind your way through varied and intricate castles, sewers, and ruins, opening secret passages and shortcuts along the way. The entire world is vastly interconnected, compact and a joy to navigate.
However, I feel that Dark Souls 3 is slightly lacking in this regard. I do enjoy how half the time, you open a shortcut instead of a checkpoint. I think that that's a nice feature. But it feels that almost every location is just a variation on a sort of castle or cathedral. It all gets a bit bland. Sure, there's the occasional shantytown or grand library, or perhaps a swamp, but for half the game, you'll just be navigating a run-down palace of some sort. |
AuthorHi! I'm Thomas MacDougall, a sophomore at DSA. Here you can check out my thoughts and recent activities. Please note that the views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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