Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero are slated for a February 17 release on the platform, but the developers haven’t been content with a mere port. Instead, they’ve opted for graphical and gameplay optimizations to deliver a more immersive experience. For starters, they’re both going to hit 1440p when docked and 1080p in handheld mode, while running at a buttery smooth 60 FPS across the board.

Those improvements could work very well with optimizations for the Joy-Con 2 that aim for “precise movement, smooth exploration, and refined interaction”, all of which are great news for a gameplay loop that requires all three for your success.

In a press release, producer Michael Verrette gave a nod to the game’s community of players, acknowledging their role in its success and as the key motivator for bringing the first two games to the Switch 2. “Bringing Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero to Nintendo Switch 2 is about welcoming new players into that community, while giving longtime fans a chance to experience these worlds again in a way that feels fresh, smooth, and more immersive.”

Owners of the Switch versions can upgrade their copies for free via an Upgrade Pack. The announcement comes hot on the heels of a Dev Diary that showed off Subnautica 2’s multiplayer features ahead of its release.

At court, Gill also said “absolutely, yes” when asked whether he would like to be reinstated as the CEO of the studio. The reasons behind this, according to Gill, are to steer the launch of Subnautica 2, the production of a Subnautica movie, which was seemingly being worked on by Cleveland, and to release the secret game, which was being developed under the codename Project Labrador.

“We’ve been working tirelessly for three and a half years on Subnautica 2. The release was imminent,” Gill said in reference to the originally planned Early Access launch of the title earlier this year. “And to have that just taken from you at the last moment is hard.” He also noted that “Charlie had no role” when it came to the development of Subnautica 2.

“But there’s many other aspects too,” Gill continued. “I want to see the Subnautica film as a fan. We were making great progress. I want it to see the light of day. I would love to push that forward.”

“Similarly, as I mentioned, we were a multiproject studio. There’s another game that we had a code name called Project Labrador that we were working on that I’m really passionate about. I want to see that game come to light too.”

In its own statement to GamesRadar, Krafton spoke about the decision to push back the release of Subnautica 2 as being its way of ensuring that it is “the best possible experience to our players.” The company also doubled down on its previously-noted “absence of core leadership” from the three co-founders by mentioning them wanting to be reinstated in their positions at Unknown Worlds.

“The trial is currently ongoing where we are making the case that the decisions we have made were all about ensuring the best possible experience for our players. As we have made clear – we were forced to make a change when the former leaders showed little interest in the development of Subnautica 2, which has always been our top priority.”

“Now, this trial comes down to plaintiffs asking to be restored to jobs they were not doing, said they had no interest in doing, and had previously declined requests that they come back and do those jobs. We look forward to continuing to present our evidence before the judge and are confident we will prevail and be allowed to continue our incredible progress.”

Earlier this week, the three co-founders had also accused Krafton CEO Changham Kim of using ChatGPT to try and figure out a way of getting out of the earn-out that was promised to Unknown Worlds and its co-founders as part of the company acquiring the studio.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: HEART OF CHORNOBYL

Here’s a recent and obvious one to kick things off. Every step of the way, it feels like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is trying to kill you. The game takes a lot of pride in how brutally demanding it is, to the point where it can feel actively hostile to the player. Terrifying mutant monstrosities, a constant dearth of weapons and ammo, radiation and extreme weather, or the plain and simple fact that you’re incredibly easy to kill- plenty of factors come together to ensure that you never feel at ease in the Exclusion Zone.

No Man’s Sky

Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky might not have started life on the best foot forward, but it has quickly grown into one of the best space exploration games on the market over the course of many significant updates. No Man’s Sky features a huge open world filled with all sorts of planets to discover and things to do, and the VR edition adds another layer of immersion to it all – making it the definitive way to experience what it has to offer.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Developer GSC Game World brought the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series back into the limelight with the recently released Heart of Chornobyl, which undoubtedly represents the peak of the series. It takes what worked in prior entries, and creates something that’s bigger and better in almost every way. It blends a modern gameplay framework with the brutal survival mechanics of past entries, and that culminates in an experience that’s sure to stay with you long after the credits roll.

Cyberpunk 2077

Stuffing an open world with overabundant icons and waypoints usually hinders immersion, but Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City is such a superbly designed game, that constant signposting doesn’t affect the experience. It’s dense, labyrinthian, a steaming cesspool, gorgeous and bleak; its a city with many mysteries. Night City teaches us that regardless of cyber-genetic augmentation, its citizens are still people with thoughts and feelings. The same can be said of V, who through companions met during Night City’s plentiful and varied main missions often displays tenderness and empathy beyond their chrome. How V resolves side quests and the choices they make, it all impacts the conclusion to their story too.

]]> 606237 https://gamingbolt.com/10-video-games-where-every-gameplay-decision-has-consequences Mon, 02 Dec 2024 15:00:28 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=605481 An important factor in providing a brutal experience is for game developers to inject a sense of realism into their games. Realism can be polarising of course, just look at the proliferation of unpopular eating mechanics in games. However, what the games on this rundown prove is that well implemented well, realistic decisions – no matter the wider context of the game at hand – can be punishing. And punishment isn’t just in death, but in the consequences survival has on mental wellbeing.

This War of Mine

A game to endure rather than enjoy, This War of Mine paints a harrowing picture of survival inside a war-ravaged city. Overseeing a small band of survivors you’ll take sanctuary from the chaos outside during daytime, cooking, crafting tools, healing, and upgrading your hideout. Under the cloak of night time darkness your survivors must venture out in search of materials, resources, and medicine, encountering NPCs both friendly and hostile. Whether you choose to trade, rob, or kill those you meet depends on the desperation within your group; all morals go out the window when you’re besieged, fighting for survival. This War of Mine tells an intimate tale laced with guilt and shame, with the mental wellbeing of your survivors just as important as the food in their bellies and roof over their head.

What Remains of Edith Finch

There are quite a few games disparagingly labeled “walking simulator” due to the lack of action present. What Remains of Edith Finch proves that “walking simulators” don’t have to be boring and they can present some of the best examples of video game storytelling.

What Remains of Edith Finch tells the tale of the titular Edith Finch who visits her ancestral home and uncovers the terrible events that led to their deaths. It’s a game that packs an emotional punch, and there’s a lot of tragedy to process. For a unique gaming experience, this is a title not to be missed.

]]> 599284 https://gamingbolt.com/10-amazing-open-world-games-that-refuse-to-hold-players-hands Wed, 24 Apr 2024 13:53:56 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=584379 Games are often hamstrung by the crippling fear that if they’re not easily understood by their audiences, they’re not going to have mass appeal, and in turn, mass sales. Often, that leads to experiences where excessive guidance, markers, hints, or what have you almost seem to take any and all agency out of the question. That’s why, at a time where we’re inundated by games that seem almost intent on playing themselves, we simply cannot get enough of large, sweeping experiences that aren’t only open-ended, but also choose to go in the exact opposite direction and refuse to hold players’ hands at almost all times. Here, we’re going to talk about a few such games- beginning with the most recent one.

DRAGON’S DOGMA 2

Most companies developing a long-awaited sequel to a relatively niche game that was considered too opaque by many who played it would have tried to streamline things to appeal to a broader crowd, but with Dragon’s Dogma 2, Capcom not only stuck to its original vision, it doubled down on it. Whether its through its lack of quest guidance, the by-design unreliability of its autosaves, its limited fast travel options, or mechanics such as Dragonsplague, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is all about creating engagement and memorable gameplay through an abundance of friction. Something like that can easily break an entire experience, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 thrives with that approach.

ELDEN RING

Elden Ring obviously had to be on this list. FromSoftware’s design ethos has always revolved around offering players as little guidance as possible, something that has enabled some truly excellent experiences over the years, and that same philosophy enables Elden Ring to craft a spectacular open world. Funnily enough, with its generous checkpointing and fast travel system, Elden Ring actually feels more hospitable than previous From titles in some regards, but the feeling of absolute freedom to go anywhere in its massive, gorgeous, intimidating world isn’t something that many other games have been able to nail in the past- or at least not nearly as well as Elden Ring did.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM

Even if Tears of the Kingdom had been a cut-paste follow-up to Breath of the Wild, its open world experience would have merited it a place on this feature, with the whole point of these games being to place no restrictions and offer no suggestions to players about how they should play. All of that is, of course, present and accounted for in Tears– but this is also a significantly larger and more complex game than its predecessor, which makes it that much more impressive to see how well it balances its lack of handholding and how easy it is to grasp its core concepts. Tears of the Kingdom very rarely nudges you in any specific direction, because it has the confidence that no matter what you do, you’re going to end up having fun- and honestly, that confidence is well earned.

OUTER WILDS

Outer Wilds is obviously not your typical open world game, to the extent that labelling it as an open world experience almost feels inaccurate, even if it isn’t on paper. How it’s structured has a huge hand in that. As you go through multiple, repeated 22-minute loops and explore more and more of its mysterious space setting, the pieces of its narrative puzzle slowly start falling into place, and as its many fans will tell you, that’s only as effective as it is because the game goes out of its way to stay out of yours. You’re the master of your own destiny in Outer Wilds, and the game simply cannot be praised enough for how confidently it gives you the freedom to unravel its tantalizing mysterious however you wish.

SUBNAUTICA

In Subnautica, you crash on an alien planet and find yourself in hostile underwater locations. Your only objective? Survive, and find a way off-world. How you choose to do that in its oceanic setting is left up to you. Braving the surreal yet alien depths of its underwater locations, you constantly have an abundance of choices to make, with very little restrictions placed on you in where you want to go, what you want to explore, or what you want to build. The fact that the game manages to have the balanced progression curve that it does in spite of how hands-off it is for the vast majority of the times probably doesn’t get as much recognition as it should.

SONS OF THE FOREST

Sons of the Forest isn’t a friendly game. It’s setting is brutal and harsh, it’s brimming with nightmare-fuel of the scariest kind, and mechanically, it’s not afraid to piss you off with how opaque it can be from time to time. But though all of that could easily turn many people off, its harshness is exactly what makes Sons of the Forest the brilliant game that it is. Every second you spent on its cannibal-infested island is the definition of a waking nightmare, and the fact that the game makes no effort to make that experience even slightly pleasant for you only makes its terrifying offerings stand out in memory that much more.

OUTCAST

Easily one of the oldest games on this list, but a feature like this one would be incomplete without any mention of Outcast. Recognized as one of the first true open world games ever made, above all else, Outcast emphasized immersion. A lot of that came through the use of diegetic elements rather than the overreliance on UI that modern open world titles have become known for, which, paired with the game’s focus on player freedom and agency, made for a game that, for its time, felt truly limitless. Obviously, it had a great deal of technical issues (especially if you play it today, even if you’re playing the remaster), but from a design perspective, it was very much ahead of its time.

METRO EXODUS

Metro Exodus isn’t a fully open world game, instead letting players explore a series of larger, semi-open maps, but it uses its openness to great effect, because never does it feel like it’s inundating you with pointless, filler content, or offering excessive guidance in what to do, or how to do the things that you’re doing. That was, of course, the case with its predecessors as well, but Metro Exodus takes those elements and cranks them up to eleven. Conserving ammo, dealing with the dangers of a post-nuclear wasteland, finding your way around environments, and hell, even using a map- almost nothing in this game feels “gamified”, for the lack of a better word.

KENSHI

Kenshi is definitely a flawed game, especially from a technical perspective, but if you’re aching for an open world RPG sandbox that lets you have whatever kind of adventure you want, it’s well worth a look. The level of systemic and mechanical depth on offer here is almost staggering, to the extent that it can be a bit much in the early hours, but once you get to grips with it, it’s hard not to be taken aback by the agency that you as a player are constantly afforded in Kenshi.

ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED

Like a few other survival games (some of which are on this list), Ark: Survival Evolved prides itself on being almost entirely devoid of handholding, to the extent that it can be almost intimidating to completely new players jumping in for the first time. Its large, unforgiving open world is brimming with a variety of different challenging, and figuring out not only how to get past them, but even learning what those challenges are, is left entirely to you and your ability to explore, discover things, and improve at the game.

VALHEIM

Yep, another survival game- this is a a genre that lends itself incredibly well to the no-handholding philosophy. Valheim is admittedly a little bit more welcoming than a lot of the other games we’ve spoken about on this feature, but even so, when you first jump in, the game tells you awfully little about how to move things forward. Thankfully, everything from combat to exploration to gathering resources to building your bases is a hell of a lot of fun in Valheim, so even when the game’s being a bit opaque about what it wants you to do, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.

These include the Large Room, Glass Dome and surface hatches. The save system has also been “refactored and optimized” to be faster and more reliable. In addition, some accessibility options have been made, like the TextMeshPro plugin for improved UI readability, an “Unstuck” button and a PDA pause. Item bars from Below Zero and an option to disable light flashes are also available.

Over 800 bug fixes for base building, navigation and piloting issues have also been implemented. However, those on a modded playthrough can select the “legacy” beta on Steam and continue playing. The developer also promises some “more exciting news for you in the new year,” which could be related to its next Subnautica title (which past job listings confirmed was in development).

Stay tuned for more updates, and check out the patch notes for the Living Large update below.

Subnautica Living Large Update

Patch Notes

All Platforms

• Improved font rendering to increase UI readability and visual quality
• Adds accessibility features: UI scaling, PDA pause, option to disable light flashes
• Item bars
• Adds pinned recipes
• Adds run mode
• Improved Air Bladder functionality
• Adds the Large Room and Glass Dome base pieces from Subnautica: Below Zero
• Adds Land Hatches from Subnautica: Below Zero
• Pings are now visible when piloting the Cyclops
• Save system improvements
• Improved performance
• Improved subtitles sync
• Loading screen improvements
• Intro skipping improvements
• Various performance optimizations
• Improved control mapping, for things like transferring items between inventory and storage
• Fixed some creatures not spawning properly
• Fixes for some VFX issues
• Fixed multiple terrain streaming issues (vehicles/items falling through)
• Fixed multiple issues related to base-building, vehicles
• Fixes for many possible photosensitive issues
• …And many more various bug fixes!

PC

• Changed how the dev menu is accessed to SHIFT + `
• Fixed jittery movement on land
• Less likely to get stuck in Alien Bases while operating the Prawn
• Added an option to limit FPS
• Added Cloud Save Support
• Legacy Steam branch for Mod Integrity
• Fixed VR frame lag in PDA UI screen movement
• Fixed a VR issue with player orientation being slanted in some scenarios
• Fixed Sunbeam countdown timer not showing up in VR
• Fixed VR Main Menu prompts on selecting and interacting with the menu