And Crysis was not playable at any PC that was not “high-end” back then. This is not an exaggeration. The meme “Can it run Crysis?” exists for a reason. Mid-range PCs did not achieve playable framerates.
Now imagine that on a game that is multiplayer and therefore there is a significant overhead on network communication and synchronization over single-player.
I don’t think Blizzard has more than 10-15 engineers for the game engine. Not to mention the hundreds of employees that are not even part of the game development but appear in credits simply because they are in the company: accountants, marketing department, cleaning department etc.
While I´m loathe to defend this so called “dev” that apparently refuses to accept the basics of engineering and economics, he does have a minor point there… WoW´s art team is IIRC something like a hundred people…
That said, they´re also not all working on character models and armor, so it is in fact not completely unrealistic to think that one person could do it with the help of AI to do some of the heavy lifting. Case in point the revamped classic cinematics
Yes, the art team is large. But the team that actually makes everything possible, the ones maintaining and upgrading the game engine and its systems, is in the low tens. The hundreds of artists, sound engineers, quest designers etc. use the tools developed by the engineering team to create the game.
Recently I completed Triangle Strategy on the PC. The Credits have more than 200-300 names in it. The names in the Engineering section were… 5?
Oy, mate, you know the difference between playing a game and watching a movie, 'aight?
Watching the WarCraft Cinematics and the WarCraft movie and completely loving the atmosphere, the realsitc graphics and all that is one thing. Oh yes we do love realistic grahpics for our universe.
But playing the game? Never. It just feels…wrong…off…simpy just not good.
The lack of self awareness is baffling. You’re literally watching the lowest tier of slop mass produced for nothing but ad revenue and using that as a qualifier for any kind of business decision.
Yes, absolutely true. But upscaling textures and remodeling assets is not really an engineering issue at this point, the tech is already there and has been for quite some time, it´s just a question of delegating it to the appropriate artists… the 20th Anni T2 sets being a good example of how it could play out without causing the game to become Crysis:Reloaded
We don’t need all games to look the same. Would you ask that of anyone making any sort of visual story? Cartoons/comic books/films and so on all need their own distinct style. Would you tell an artist to make their art look like whatever’s popular? That’s how you get no soul in their work.
I just remembered that I wanted to point out that Game of the Year 2024 (if we should pay attention to these rewards) was Astro Bot, a game that is cartoony in its presentation and far from realistic in animation.
In the end, these award shows are either popularity or paid contests, like the Academy Awards. I wouldn’t put it past Sony to have bribed someone to have a Sony-exclusive title receive that award. And at the same time, Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves and Zenless Zero in Player’s Choice? 3 gacha games?!
Not surprising whatsoever given their player count. Genshins playerbase is astronomical. Wutherings playerbase prefers its over Genshin because the company isnt as stingy with stuff as Genshins and because the game is more “actiony” and harder (and also 20m players). Zenless was just the new cake on the market (and the same will happen when Endfield releases)
