The Axis Unseen free demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1807810/The_Axis_Unseen/
It took about 3.5 years, but now it’s actually coming out in less than two weeks. I’m really excited to see what people think of it and it has been cool watching streamers react to the demo. Somehow my two story tall tree guy is really good at sneaking up on people. :D
original post on imgur
What is publishers role anyway in digital age of 2024? Marketing?
Turok 2024
Consider me intrigued.
Why the f I see vertical gameplay of someone playing 16:9?
Ahh, a game dedicated to being a stealth archer, fuck yeah, I’m in.
I know right. He knew that was the best way to play Skyrim. This game looks bad ass.
I never used any ranged weapon in the game, did I miss out?
There were other ways to successfully play base Skyrim??
Stealth and daggers backstab could also eliminate having to interact with the actual combat of the game, making for a better experience.
Yeah, but…that sounds like effort. Much easier to slap a stabby bit on the end of a stick and only occasionally accidentally kill a random goat.
I played the demo for a few hours. Might be a solo dev, but his experience is definitely noticeable. Game looks great, albeit unoptimized. Progression is simple and fair. Artwork is incredible for a solo dev. Combat is decent, and unexpectedly satisfying.
Someone else mentioned the excessive blood explosion - it’s the best feeling when you land one of those shots from across a field.
GPU: 4 GB VRAM GeForce GTX 980/Radeon RX 580
Dammit, my iGPU has more than enough computing power but only half of the VRAM.
iGPU’s can use system RAM to supplement VRAM. Might still be doable
Right, i forgot about that. A bios setting, right?
I believe so
There is a demo, so you can see if it will run well enough for you before you buy it.
a demo in this day? dev knows what’s up
Remember getting demo discs in magazines? Great times
as a poor kid living in the sticks demo discs were the only way I could play many games.
if it weren’t for them, I would have never gotten into games, nor computers, nor my career that has elevated my QOL.
could say demo discs saved my life from many hardships.
Still took less time than Elder Scrolls 6 to come out
Think we know why (this guy quit)
You’d think it would be a blow to Bethesda that their sole programmer quit, but fortunately the creation engine is so cutting edge that I’m sure they’ll lean on it just as it is for years to come.
Looks interesting, but the music should hit WAY harder, IMO. Based on the visuals, I was expecting early 2000s Opeth, and I got late 2010s Opeth instead.
The music is all written by a member of ISIS, which is pretty heavy, but in an “atmospheric sludge/post-metal” way. So I can see how you’d think that if you’re looking for something more death metal (which would fit in the fight scenes, although atmospheric sludge or funeral doom would go pretty well in the rest of the game)
Oh snap thanks for pointing this out! Been a long time and I haven’t kept up with ISIS, but their Panopticon was damn near genre-defining for me at the time.
I’m glad to see they’ve turned a corner in their careers. Last I heard they were mostly producing beheading videos.
Lol yeah, name became a wee bit unfortunate thanks to those angry rascals
Not really all that related, but if you like Panopticon by ISIS, you might also appreciate the best Appalachian atmospheric black metal I’ve ever heard, Kentucky by Panopticon.
Now find more metal by a band Kentucky
Buddy, “Appalachian atmospheric black metal” is a weird combination of words I’ve never seen before and I’m stoked to give it a whirl. Praise Satan for keeping metal interesting.
Add Blackbraid to that list as well. Amazing one man native black metal.
Absolute all-timer of an album IMO
This record, a few by Neurosis, and one or two by Cult of Luna were such a vibe. We knew some knuckleheads who even started a joke ish band called Cult of Neurisis lol
Check out Battle of Mice, Deafheaven, and Oathbreaker if you haven’t. They lean pretty heavily on the depressing side of metal, but they have some killer vibes.
Oathbreaker’s Rheia is one of the most moving records I’ve ever heard, truly a masterpiece with no wasted moments, missteps, just basically flawless in my opinion. On the other side Deafheaven just hasn’t worked for me at all. Taste’s so fickle lol.
I’ll check out the third tho!
Fair warning, Battle of Mice can be tough to listen to. Song 6 of “A day of Nights”, titled “At the base of the giants throat” has 911 call audio from 7:00 ish to the end of the song.
Rheia is so fucking good. It’s a perfect example of music driven by emotion and backed up by incredible execution of the music itself. Glad to see that other people dig it. As for Deafheaven, I loved it when I first heard of it and listened to it all the time, but it’s become one of those bands that I can’t listen to anymore because of the association to that point in my life, which was not great to put lightly. I remember it being an incredible band, but it’s been close to 10 years since I’ve listened to it, so I can’t say whether I’d think it’s good today. Maybe I wouldn’t like it today if I was just hearing it the first time.
Edit: my favorite Battle of Mice song, Sleep and Dream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k74EB4XVp0
I recently got into slug metal. Would you have any recommendations for sludge, funereal, and/or doom metal?
Could check out High on Fire if you haven’t.
Saw them open for Mastodon in 2009 (I think). Fucking excellent on stage.
Started the night off with Fireface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2HFUePNKDs
Dopethrone by Electric Wizard
Isn’t Dopethrone Doomer/Drone/Stoner? How many names are there for the same subgenre?
It’s considered doom metal or stoner metal. Metal has a huge number of related subgenres. Sludge metal has more screaming. Stoner metal has more guitar riffs. Doom metal is like stoner metal, but heavier and with lyrics about Dungeons and Dragons.
Is that heavy metal music actually in the game, or is it just for the trailer?
This looks like skyrim sneaky archer: the game.
Definitely gunna play this.
Can I play a stealth archer
This, in fact, seems to be the only option.
What about an archer that is stealthy?
Worth giving it a shot!
It’s a long shot, though.
I feel like credentials such as used to work at Bethesda, aren’t as good as they think they are… Or is it just me?
It’s just you. That a company makes terrible decisions tells not that much about a dev. If a dev says he worked on multiple projects does tell something about the dev regardless of the company. Don’t forget that Bethesda sold their soul to MS and now has a lot more “steering” at the top, devs don’t participate in that.
Edit: a word
You shouldn’t dismiss someone’s 14 year career, including a game of the year, because you don’t like the studio he came from.
Length of time isn’t a credential to me
It is to the real world, it’s called work experience.
I understood it as “they were fed up with the henhouse and proved they could do better alone”.
Yeah but it’s like, ok so you’re a programmer. Neat. Working at a company for a set period of time just doesn’t tell me anything. I guess that’s just me
I don’t blame the devs for bad AAA games, with like 300 people working in one game, if it becomes shit it’s management fault.
Okay but I don’t see how it’s a net positive credential, how it even actually means anything?
What specifically are you disagreeing with? Bad games are bad largely due to design and monetization reasons, both of which developers don’t participate in deciding. But, they do witness all of the good decisions that get cut from the design. Buggy games are one thing you can partially attribute to developers, but saying Bethesda devs have a net negative credential without explaining is willfully obtuse and borderline troll behavior.
Good developers CAN make good games but good games require more than being just good at development… And bad developers can produce fun buggy games
Everything but starfield seemed like a plus to me
Well he mostly worked on starfield of he was recently employed there
Especially if we are going back only 14 years. So what did they work on, skyrim remasters or Fallout 4 remasters?
Starfield. Active development started 9 years ago.
Mashing x to doubt…
That timeline was trotted out to make it sound pre no man’s sky during marketing. Inside sources had it’s real development time as way shorter, hence it’s so terrible even for a Bethesda game
Meaning the last 6 years of his career there were on starfield, which he wasn’t a manager of, if he quit 3 years ago.
This feels like a standard toxic gaming community thread where dismissing someone’s achievements is for some reason fair game.
Dude held a job at a huge publisher for 14 years, then quit and developed his own thing.
Good on him!
To address your point of toxicity, I didn’t get the impression. In fact it’s the first thing that popped into my mind as well.
Bethesdas reputation is just that tarnished.
Yeah I dunno. Journalist who worked at cnn 20 years quits to make own newspaper wouldn’t do it for me either
You’re missing that he quit during the development of that crappy game, which gives him extra points for judgement.
Why do all Unreal 5 games look the same?
Because making it not look like an unreal engine game requires an entire technical art department. Absolutely possible, but there’s waay too many dials to play with.
Ah just Windows, at least on the demo. Wine and such have never had great results for me either. Shame.
If you’ve only tried wine from like 10+ years ago like I have, I’d suggest giving it another try now. Running windows software on Linux has been better than ever with Wine/Proton/Bottles
Eh? I have a Steam Deck and I rarely ever run into a game that performs badly or has issues. Proton and GE Proton have done amazing things for bringing mainstream gaming to Linux.
