68. Two Rooms and a Boom

Tony started playing Stray and loved it, and PlayStation released a detailed video on The Last of Us Part 1 that Tony got super excited about. The Pixel Boys also discuss when to use subtitles and Dan played a bunch of new board games. Recorded July 23rd, 2022.

Summary

Tony started playing Stray and loved it, and PlayStation released a detailed video on The Last of Us Part 1 that Tony got super excited about. The Pixel Boys also discuss when to use subtitles and Dan played a bunch of new board games. Recorded July 23rd, 2022.

IF YOU PODCAST PLAYER DOESN'T DISPLAY LINKS IN THE NOTES BELOW–
Linked show notes available at https://pixelnoise.fm/episodes/68

Support our show on Patreon to get live and early episode access!

Let us know what you think on the Pixel Noise Discord!

Follow us on Twitch Twitch.tv/PixelNoiseFM and follow our calendar, so you'll know when we're going live next!

Also, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, and even Pinterest! You can join our mailing list here.

0:00:00 Topics Start!
0:00:14 Stray is Released
The Last of Us
Playstation Plus Premium comes with Stray
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Control
Owlboy
Horizon: Zero Dawn

0:19:50 The Last of Us Part 1, Features and Gameplay Trailer
NBA 2K
Inside, The Game
Xbox Game Pass
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
Celeste
Anthony Caliber
Super Mario Bros. 3
Captain Disillusion
Magic: The Gathering Design

1:02:32 To Subtitle or Not to Subtitle
Symm
Framing isn't important to Dan
Thor: Love and Thunder
Bob's Burgers
Rick & Morty
Bojack Horseman
Apple TV

1:23:21 New Content in TLOU Part 1?
1:40:55 Dan's Board Games
Two Rooms and a Boom
Avalon
Codenames
Formula D
Coup
Betrayal at House on the Hill
Apple's Desk View

Bonus: Tony's notes on The Last of Us video

TLOU Part 1 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRKIWQUucj0 “The Last of Us Part I Rebuilt for PS5 - Features and Gameplay Trailer | PS5 Games”. Terrible title, great video.
Tons more detail on how the game was rebuilt
Likely a response to public sentiment that the project is just a cash grab
Replaced all pre-rendered cutscenes with in-engine scenes, which also has the side effect of making the in-game characters have higher fidelity
Higher density of physics objects in a scene than ever before. More “bumpables” and “chipables”. Referenced the tank scene in Pittsburgh in particular.
Completely new AI tech, using AI developed for part II. Included cool screenshots revealing what the AI is doing in the video.
Enemy and friendly NPCs have a much richer understanding of the environment. Enemy “communicating, flanking, and tracking” are among the enhanced features.
Friendly NPCs have an understanding of present and future exposure to enemy sight, which makes their evasiveness much more intelligent. Also accompanied by some cool dev-kit screenshots showing enemy awareness and AI decision-making.

“Motion Matching” - new tech that matches in-game-actor intended movement to a large library of motion-capture-actor assets to make game-actor animation more realistic than ever before.
Quoted new features: Additional gameplay modifiers, additional render modes, evolved photo mode, permadeath mode, speedrun mode, more unlockable outfits, model viewer mode, award-winning accessibility features (including being the first playstation game with full audio-description tracks for all cinematics).
“Completely revamped art direction” - all new, more detailed environments
3D audio and adaptive triggers add a lot to the stealth combat experience
Hear enemies moving in hyper-realistic space
Unique adaptive trigger, haptic, and controller-speaker sound profiles for every weapon

New part 2 like weapon upgrade table, complete with new animations and haptics
New haptics for all player actions as they traverse the world, climbing, landing, petting the soft giraffe