This Week in Gaming (Week 50)

[TheLostSwede]

Welcome to week 50 and Lucia, alternatively Freddy week if that's something that's celebrated in your part of the world. This week's AAA title will bring back childhood memories for many of you, at least if you're old enough to remember Dr Jones. As for the rest of this coming week's new releases, we have a spoiled cat, some people trying to survive the apocalypse, a bunch of people playing with swords, a hungry elevator and some ruins in need of repair.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle / This week's AAA title / Monday 9 December
Uncover one of history's greatest mysteries in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a first-person, single-player adventure set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. The year is 1937, sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle, and only one person can stop them - Indiana Jones. You'll become the legendary archaeologist in this cinematic action-adventure game from MachineGames, the award-winning studio behind the recent Wolfenstein series, and executive produced by Hall of Fame game designer Todd Howard. Steam link




Stars In The Trash / Monday 9 December
Stars in the Trash brings the magic of animated movie classics into a narrative-driven platformer that combines action, exploration and puzzles. Tired of feeling trapped at home, Moka, a spoiled cat decides to run away and seek adventure. Explore, make friends, fight, and escape from the kennelman. Steam link



Urban Strife / Tuesday 10 December/ Early Access
Can you push back against fate, live among ruthless gangs and fight back the zombie horde, with just a handful of ragtag militias to help you? Enjoy an unique blend of old school turn-based strategy, post-apoc survival mechanics and a thrilling RPG storyline. With all the benefits of the modern Unreal Engine, real bullet ballistics, day/night cycle, fire with dynamic material consumption and spread, advanced sound and smoke propagation mechanics, AI NPCs with independent lives, faction based morals, hunger, wounds and sickness, and towards the end of Early Access, advanced modding support. Steam link



Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy / Wednesday 11 December / Early Access
Swordhaven is a classic party-based RPG. Explore the land of Nova Drakonia, embark on quests unique to your character, discover mysterious artefacts of the ancients, and unravel a hidden conspiracy that threatens the very existence of the world. Steam link



Kletka / Thursday 12 December
The most dangerous criminals are convicted and sent to Kletka. Your sentence is to descend into the depths of the Gigastructure while maintaining a living and hungry elevator. Never forget to feed it if you don't want to end up being eaten alive. Kletka is omnivorous, be ready to feed it both fuel and flesh. Steam link



Ruins To Fortress / Friday 13 December / Early Access
Welcome to Ruins To Fortress, a thrilling 2D survival game currently in development that puts you in a world of base-building and intense PVP combat. Prepare to embark on a journey as you navigate a harsh, abandoned island teeming with danger and opportunity. Gather resources, construct shelters, cultivate plants, and forge tools and weapons to survive. Steam link

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Ferrum Master]

The voice of Indiana Jones kinda irks me, it does not nail Ford as it should, is it that hard for audio engineers to add some filters?

 

[ZoneDymo]

The voice of Indiana Jones kinda irks me, it does not nail Ford as it should, is it that hard for audio engineers to add some filters?

interesting, DF's John Linneman thought it sounded very much like him

 

[Onasi]

I read the third game as Urban Strike at first and got unreasonably excited for a modern re-interpretation of a classic top-down helicopter shoot-em up. Sadge.

@ZoneDymo
Ehhh, he sounds like Troy Baker doing a very odd impression of Ford in his younger years. Which is exactly what it is, so that tracks.

 

[Hyderz]

Indy! +1 it looks fun

 

[Frick]

Todd Howard? Let's just hope his impact on the actual game was minimal.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Todd Howard? Let's just hope his impact on the actual game was minimal.

known liar Todd Howard?

 

[Ferrum Master]

interesting, DF's John Linneman thought it sounded very much like him

Fake it till you make it, it is very off, even in terms getting the accent right, not only the tonal specifics.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I read the third game as Urban Strike at first and got unreasonably excited for a modern re-interpretation of a classic top-down helicopter shoot-em up. Sadge.

You might want to keep an eye on a game called Cleared Hot

I know I definitely am.

:EDIT:

Dropping a trailer here

 

[konga]

Todd Howard? Let's just hope his impact on the actual game was minimal.

"Executive producer" is a completely meaningless credit. He didn't do jack.

 

[Ferrum Master]

He didn't do jack.

You mean, like everywhere?

 

[KLMR]

The Indiana Jones game looks so generic... good graphics generic gameplay.

 

[evernessince]

Todd Howard? Let's just hope his impact on the actual game was minimal.

Yeah, I don't even see what expertise Todd can lend. He's oversaw open-world RPGs while this game is linear story driven with the only open sections being that you can explore the level freely.

There are a lot of concepts from Bethesda I hope he doesn't bring to this game like the need to dumb everything down and limiting level design complexity so that it's impossible to get lost. If the puzzles in this game are anything remotely as easy as those in Skyrim it will greatly cheapen the experience.

At this point Todd Howard, like Casey Hudson, having input into your game is a negative. Todd first has to admit to his misktakes in order to start correcting them, something he doesn't seem keen on doing.

 

[Onasi]

Todd is just a hype-man these days, not sure why people are ragging on him. He wasn’t a chief creative force for Beth since Oblivion, and even there it was more of Ken Rolstons baby. It was well noted by ex-Beth and Obsidian staff that he is actually a very nice guy in person who is absolutely willing to hear out input from others. Problem was that he is hard to reach overall and is busy with the business side of things. Even Starfield was, whatever the “game Todd always wanted to make” marketing spiel tried to push, more of a collective failure on Beths part and their complete inability to turn the concept of endlessly generating planets to explore into something that would be any fun in their game formula.
The problem with Beth isn’t Todd, not really. He was the director on Morrowind and that’s their best game, hands down. The problem is that all the actual creative talent has been trickling out for years now and what’s left is unimpressive, to say the least. I don’t think there is even anyone left apart from Todd who was in key positions during MW development.

 

[theouto]

Considering that Indiana Jones runs on IDTech7 and Vulkan while pushing mandatory real time ray-tracing (in the form of RTGI), will there be benchmarks for the game here in TPU? It sounds like it would at least be interesting to compare performance across GPUs and with other games running under DX12 and pushing UE5 features like lumen.

 

[HOkay]

You might want to keep an eye on a game called Cleared Hot

I know I definitely am.

:EDIT:

Dropping a trailer here

Interested! Ty for the heads-up!

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Considering that Indiana Jones runs on IDTech7 and Vulkan while pushing mandatory real time ray-tracing, will there be benchmarks for the game here in TPU? It sounds like it would at least be interesting to compare performance across GPUs and with other games running under DX12 and pushing UE5 features like lumen.

@W1zzard I know you were asking about games for benchmarks

 

[Tomgang]

The game this week would be Indiana Jones if any game have my interest.

But not in a hurry. Still have stalker 2 to complete.

 

[erek]

The voice of Indiana Jones kinda irks me, it does not nail Ford as it should, is it that hard for audio engineers to add some filters?

why couldn't they hire Ford?

 

[bug]

You might want to keep an eye on a game called Cleared Hot

I know I definitely am.

:EDIT:

Dropping a trailer here

Wth, MicroProse is still around? I had no idea.
Their F117 sim and Prince of Persia were the first two PC games I ever played.

 

[evernessince]

Todd is just a hype-man these days, not sure why people are ragging on him.

He's listed as the Game Director, project lead, or executive producer for many Bethesda games. He was also the on stage person that was willing to lie to sell Bethesda games.

By extension those failures are ultimately his being the captain of the ship, irregardless of how much of an absent captain you claim he is / was.

He wasn’t a chief creative force for Beth since Oblivion, and even there it was more of Ken Rolstons baby. It was well noted by ex-Beth and Obsidian staff that he is actually a very nice guy in person who is absolutely willing to hear out input from others.

He went out there and lied repeatedly about multiple Bethesda games. Doesn't sound like a nice guy to me, sounds like a c-suit saying whatever the company wants to continue collecting a check.

Problem was that he is hard to reach overall and is busy with the business side of things. Even Starfield was, whatever the “game Todd always wanted to make” marketing spiel tried to push, more of a collective failure on Beths part and their complete inability to turn the concept of endlessly generating planets to explore into something that would be any fun in their game formula.
The problem with Beth isn’t Todd, not really. He was the director on Morrowind and that’s their best game, hands down. The problem is that all the actual creative talent has been trickling out for years now and what’s left is unimpressive, to say the least. I don’t think there is even anyone left apart from Todd who was in key positions during MW development.

Sources for this? If you are making all these claims of internal Bethesda politics you need to provide proof.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Wth, MicroProse is still around? I had no idea.
Their F117 sim and Prince of Persia were the first two PC games I ever played.

Yes... but no. Id like to say they are the same MicroProse but they've been around the block a few times by now so probably not.

The resurrection of MicroProse​

 

[Dr. Dro]

I voted for Indy, any Todd Howard game's guaranteed to be a hit but a Todd Indiana Jones game sounds like the stuff of legend.

But I'm probably not picking it up right away - will be patient with the patches and updates over time. I'm only buying anything and planning ahead once Nvidia releases their pricing for the RTX 5090, hoping it holds the same price point from the 4090, at worst I'm hoping it doesn't exceed $1,999. Depending on how much I'll have to flip my 4080 and that will mean a few months running a 1070 Ti, which can't run newer games (including Indy, as it requires RT).

 

[damric]

Ok wife just started Indiana Jones. She's running 5800X3D, 64GB of DDR4-3200, RX 6900XT. Ultra settings, 4K but with 50% render scale, looks like about 70-75 FPS. Game looks amazing, and runs very smooth. Happy I don't have to buy her a new GPU quite yet.

BTW, don't buy the game for $100. XBOX game pass free trial $1.

 

[Scattergrunt]

Ok wife just started Indiana Jones. She's running 5800X3D, 64GB of DDR4-3200, RX 6900XT. Ultra settings, 4K but with 50% render scale, looks like about 70-75 FPS. Game looks amazing, and runs very smooth. Happy I don't have to buy her a new GPU quite yet.

I had some fears the game would be awfully optimized but I'm glad to hear that it seems like its mostly okay to greatly optimized depending on the person / source you ask. I cant run the game with my aging hardware at the ideal resolution I'd want so I can't honestly say much of anything personally, but maybe the world of games is healing... (Wishful thinking.)