Digital Foundry Retro Discussion [2022]

[Remij]

DF Retro EX: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined Review - The Retro Remake Redefined! - YouTube

Neat looking game. I'd probably like it quite a bit but unfortunately not on PC atm. Judging from other games of theirs though it should hopefully come over eventually.

The visual style and the animations look great. John also always has a way of making me want to try all these games I missed out on back in the day.. especially the more Japanese-oriented ones that didn't make it over back in the day. I love that about how he covers some of these more obscure games.

I could get it on Switch, however I have a Steam Deck coming and I'd rather just have the 2-for-1 so to speak of the Steam version.

 

[Cyan]

Is that running in Excel without VB/scripting, or is it just using Excel as an output? This guy encoded a Doom engine in Excel in an alternative coding paradigm, it seems...

impressive nonetheless, although except for some little action, he just wanders around in an almost empty level.

Back into the video I shared, you can create macros in Excel, and use the keyboard of course, also save your progress at any moment in a workbook, to play later. Wasn't there a new version of Excel that included some kind of flight simulator?

That being said, and as impressive as it is, from what I remember from the original Doom, the guy maybe isn't playing at all, but mimicking the gameplay "intro" of Doom, the one that started running if you didn't press a key for a while. I may be wrong though, I am talking from memory, but those initial moves and enemies certainly look familiar, like reminders in my memory of a gameplay intro.

 

[PSman1700]

 

[Riddlewire]

I'm surprised John didn't mention that Blood Wake was one of the few games on Xbox that used the NV2A's anti-aliasing capabilities, along with Shenmue 2 and PGR2.

 

[Cyan]

Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit, running on Unreal Engine 5.

One of the best games I've played to date -perhaps in my top 5 ever-. I had it on PC with a brand new 3D graphics card and it looked great with hardware acceleration mode -in software mode it featured some unique cool stuff but it didn't look as good-.

The soundtrack was unique and unrepeatable, the tracks were super charismatic and I remember almost all of them, unlocking El Niño was quite an achievement, and the last race was crazy complex but at the same time quite engagin.
I played this game with one of my best friends, and he liked it so much that one day he stole it from me. He didn't say anything and I spent a few days looking for then. Then I tried to recall the facts.... I don't hold a grudge against him but darn, it hurt.

 

[PSman1700]

I hope we will see an intresting DF Retro soon enough.... Im sure some will find motorstorm intresting but i cant imagine it being that popular outside of John himself. Maybe have a look at half-life, unreal... quake, MGS series, starcraft, C&C series, jak & daxter, Sly, Time splitters, theres so many out there and then you lay this much time and resources on a personal favorite Motorstorm.

 

[Cynicalking]

I hope we will see an intresting DF Retro soon enough.... Im sure some will find motorstorm intresting but i cant imagine it being that popular outside of John himself. Maybe have a look at half-life, unreal... quake, MGS series, starcraft, C&C series, jak & daxter, Sly, Time splitters, theres so many out there and then you lay this much time and resources on a personal favorite Motorstorm.

Wtf are you talking about. Motorstorm and specially its sequels where awesome. I was looking forward to this since he teased it on twitter.

Even so, it’s good he does videos on games he enjoys instead of catering for the masses. I personally don’t like all the coverage he gives to retro 2d platformers but I know he enjoys them and support his work. Definitely won’t do a totally out of place rant because I’m not a fan of a game he’s covering.

 

[PSman1700]

Wtf are you talking about. Motorstorm and specially its sequels where awesome. I was looking forward to this since he teased it on twitter.

Even so, it’s good he does videos on games he enjoys instead of catering for the masses. I personally don’t like all the coverage he gives to retro 2d platformers but I know he enjoys them and support his work. Definitely won’t do a totally out of place rant because I’m not a fan of a game he’s covering.

As i said, theres certainly an audience for John's personal favourite games. His presentations are superb, didnt say they werent either. Again this are clearly personal views and opinions. I personally think he should cater to the masses on the DF channel, he could create his own channel for his personal tastes perhaps?
Theres obviously nothing wrong with outing personal views, John's basically ranting on the PS3 there and its not the first time.

 

[Cynicalking]

As i said, theres certainly an audience for John's personal favourite games. His presentations are superb, didnt say they werent either. Again this are clearly personal views and opinions. I personally think he should cater to the masses on the DF channel, he could create his own channel for his personal tastes perhaps?
Theres obviously nothing wrong with outing personal views, John's basically ranting on the PS3 there and its not the first time.

DF Retro is basically his personal channel. I know he struggles with the main channel content and comparisons, mostly because of the console warring, and DF retro is more of a passion project for him. Plus, it’s a patreon premium tier that they release for free on YouTube after a certain time. So I guess if you have any feedback for him, support the retro patreon tier first and then give him feedback or requests.

 

[PSman1700]

DF Retro is basically his personal channel. I know he struggles with the main channel content and comparisons, mostly because of the console warring, and DF retro is more of a passion project for him. Plus, it’s a patreon premium tier that they release for free on YouTube after a certain time. So I guess if you have any feedback for him, support the retro patreon tier first and then give him feedback or requests.

Fair enough, i personally dislike Motorstorm, as i have said. He could have covered the entire Jak series and i would have enjoyed it.

And again, John's presentation and content is excellent. I guess the next dive into another Retro game series will be something more intresting (for me): Loved the SOF2 video (PS2/PC versions).

 

[see colon]

No mention of Motorstorm Apocalypse's most interesting rendering mode? The 2 player mode available on Playstation 3D Displays where it synced both eyes of one set of glasses to left eye, and the other set to right eye, so each player would get a a full screen display. Full screen split screen, if you will.

 

[PSman1700]

No mention of Motorstorm Apocalypse's most interesting rendering mode? The 2 player mode available on Playstation 3D Displays where it synced both eyes of one set of glasses to left eye, and the other set to right eye, so each player would get a a full screen display. Full screen split screen, if you will.

I remember seeing that in a local electronics store, intresting at the time.
A coverage on warhawk, starhawk and MAG would have been cool. These where attempts to breakthrough the large online battle arenas, quite fun games and graphically intresting aswell. In some ways resemblence of Planetside (also a sony title) but exclusively for the PS3. I think MAG had 256 (!) player modes. Physics where quite a step up in these games aswell.

Technically i think it was more impressive at the time, innovative aswell.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I hope we will see an intresting DF Retro soon enough.... Im sure some will find motorstorm intresting but i cant imagine it being that popular outside of John himself.

I think you're very guilty of expecting the world to reflect your own tastes and interests. Chatter on the EG article is clearly more vociferous than other articles, and a look at the DF Retro playlist video view figures shows this Motorstorm vid more popular than the median.

May I also remind you that this is supposed to be a technical discussion. If a game doesn't interest you, don't bother talking about it.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think MAG had 256 (!) player modes

It did indeed, but they were largely broken down into regional conflicts, 16 versus 16 or 32 versus 32. I remember one video where a whole lobby managed to meet up centre map or something, but the game combat density was no different to any other shooter. Which indeed is what you want, because squeezing more people into limited space just makes things more hectic and random.

 

[PSman1700]

May I also remind you that this is supposed to be a technical discussion. If a game doesn't interest you, don't bother talking about it.

Just a small rant because i want different Retro content then what he has been covering extensively as of late (GT, motorstorm, maybe next some racer too).

It did indeed, but they were largely broken down into regional conflicts, 16 versus 16 or 32 versus 32. I remember one video where a whole lobby managed to meet up centre map or something, but the game combat density was no different to any other shooter. Which indeed is what you want, because squeezing more people into limited space just makes things more hectic and random.

Like Planetside then, you where with hundreds in one map fighting the same objective but devided over different areas. I played Planetside 2 extensively, i really like the concept of it. Maybe someday sony upgrades planetside to current gen standards, perhaps a new engine for the game.

 

[Nesh]

Just a small rant because i want different Retro content then what he has been covering extensively as of late (GT, motorstorm, maybe next some racer too).



Like Planetside then, you where with hundreds in one map fighting the same objective but devided over different areas. I played Planetside 2 extensively, i really like the concept of it. Maybe someday sony upgrades planetside to current gen standards, perhaps a new engine for the game.

i think it was sold, along with Sony online entertainment.

 

[Nesh]

I remember seeing that in a local electronics store, intresting at the time.
A coverage on warhawk, starhawk and MAG would have been cool. These where attempts to breakthrough the large online battle arenas, quite fun games and graphically intresting aswell. In some ways resemblence of Planetside (also a sony title) but exclusively for the PS3. I think MAG had 256 (!) player modes. Physics where quite a step up in these games aswell.

Technically i think it was more impressive at the time, innovative aswell.

oh how much I d wish to see a new next gen Motorstorm with super heavy physics.

I wonder how close we can get with todays technology. We could have UE5 super detailed environments nd fluid based physics for the mud.

It would have looked Godly

 

[PSman1700]

 

[PSman1700]

 

[PSman1700]