I'd like to welcome you all to something that's likely to become a semi-regular thing (my apologies up front to a great many of you for that). It's simply an attempt to see if I can make sense of current PR trends, so if you'll bear with me I'll begin.
This episode (for want of a better word) delves into the latest and greatest PR spinner of the week, which would be "Tiled Resources". That's right boys and girls. The magic that defies technical constraints. The ability of MS to create unlimited detail *pauses for effect* with no impact to resources at allz!!1!!!1! Truly the olive in crap sandwich that has been MS PR to this point.
The "cloud" may have turned out to be nothing more than servers. DRM may have been the "future" (Thanks major) that people rejected. The...well you get the point. The thing is though that this latest and greatest PR BS is just MS making a lot of noise. "Tiled Resources" are nothing more than "PRT". As built into all AMD GCN hardware (made evident here http://www.amd.com/us/produ... ).
What makes it worse is that AMD themselves have stated it runs on an OpenGL extension (As can be found here http://renderingpipeline.co... ).PRT and the implementation directly into AMD hardware dates back to 2011 (as can be seen clearly by the date stamps in the links). It's not something new. It's not something MS came up with. It's not something missing from the PS4 or non-Windows 8 PCs. Hell, id were running Megatextures using OpenGL when?
Now correct me if I'm wrong by all means, but isn't there a word for treating people this way? For having such contempt for a person or group of people? Come on! Somebody help me out here.
What sticks out the most though, is the fact that thanks to a decision made by some of the staff here on N4G (I'm lookin' at you Beans, Columbo and Smokey) we now have an abundance of shills (that's the fault of a gaming company). With an abundance of bubbles (yeah, you guys can wear that one). It's lead us to the point where PR is everywhere.
Well never mind. I wouldn't have material for future blogs in this series if there was no PR. Now I must apologize for the short sharp nature of this blog but if I make it too long...well it's the interwebz. We all know what happens if something's longer than 140 characters.
I will however be back. You've been warned.
"30XX is one of the best roguelikes out there, combining the tight platforming action of the Mega Man X series with the challenge and randomization that roguelike fans crave. Batterystaple Games has done lots of refinement through updates since 30XX first appeared on Steam Early access a few years ago. The latest such update adds a new character for free, one who combines the best attributes of the two existing characters. Also, the Steam version is on sale, making it a great time to travel to the distant year of 30XX!" says Co-Optimus.
"Hammerwatch II's journey to Xbox has been long and perilous. After first launching on Steam in the fall of 2023, the game finally turned up on PlayStation 5 last December. Since then, Xbox gamers who enjoyed the original Hammerwatch and the sublime Heroes of Hammerwatch have been anxiously awaiting their turn at the long-promised sequel. At last, the wait is nearly over because Hammerwatch II will hit Xbox and PlayStation 4 on April 23," says Co-Optimus.
Joe 'Three Sheets' Neate (Executive Producer): "As I’m sure you can imagine, when it comes to Sea of Thieves my days are full of numbers. Development costs, active servers, days until the next update… Sometimes, though, a truly extraordinary number stands out – a number like 40 million, which I’m incredibly pleased to say is the number of pirates who’ve now set sail in Sea of Thieves!"
Garrr... more people to walk the plank and send to Davey Jones locker.
would have been funny to release this on talk like a pirate day.
40 million have set sail...that's great. How many are sailing now? Monthly active users....when it actually matters. How many people purchased the game is another important number.
You don't get numbers like that from MS mouth pieces, they just like to say stuff like "this game was looked at 129 million time, the biggest amount of people browsing a game of this genre on xbox gamepass ever in the last 3 weeks compared to before gamepass was out (small print only 2 million bothered playing longer than 20 seconds and only 100 people are playing it concurrently)
It's all smoke and mirrors
There are usually around 10,000 concurrent users on Steam not counting Xbox or PS but really it doesn't matter as long as there are enough people on the servers to play which there always were and will be for a long time now with the PS players coming on board. Same goes for how many people bought it and how many are on GP, we aren't the accountants of these console companies so why would we care?
Microsoft PR at this point is a parody in itself.
Just look at this
"The problem is that Sony decided to go out and publish a bunch of numbers, which are in some ways meaningless"
Then later on he says this
"on top of all the magic we're going to add with the instant switching, and the power of the cloud."
So wait numbers lie but magic of tha clowds is somehow significant when you havent shown anything that prrofs this "magic" especially not the drivatar that rammed into everything.
"Did you see Call of Duty, it looks f**king awesome!"
This is the new meme after Mayor Nelsons evasion of questions by saying "hey did you see Titanfall".
Its like every week they get another moron to put his foot in his mouth its damn entertaining.
***What sticks out the most though, is the fact that thanks to a decision made by some of the staff here on N4G (I'm lookin' at you Beans, Columbo and Smokey) ***
Whut?
Yeah, megatextures were a talking point for Rage. Nothing new. It didn't even look good in Rage, either. At a distance the game was pretty. Within a meter or two, PS2 city.
I also think there are some legitimate shills on this site. It's mostly fanboy peons who could only dream of being paid shills, but once in awhile you'll find one that can actually write, carry a conversation, and distract.
Great entry. Great not in its nature as console war ammo (I understand MS is just the easy example), but great in exposing the lack of integrity in advertisement and journalism in the industry.