Atomic Heart - Half Life with Russian Robot Clowns

[Eighthours]

24 minutes ago, Strafe said:

I’m taking the line that as it’s on gamepass I’ve basically contributing to funding it already. (Though I understand there is likely some additional revenue share based on downloads and player count).

 

I don’t envy the developers position, that’s for sure.

 

What I hope is that if there is some murky trail leading back to Russia, Microsoft will cancel the Game Pass deal for Atomic Heart due to the potential bad publicity. It then follows that if this DOESN'T happen, then we can give the devs the benefit of the doubt. This relies on Microsoft’s fear of bad PR, of course!

[Strafe]

I thought it was already the case that mundfish had some initial state funding from Russia.

 

I would expect that Microsoft are going to be extremely careful about where they send the money to and what happens to it. I’m sure it’s possible to reroute money to avoid sanctions but I’d imagine whatever contract MS and Mundfish have has had an awful lot of penalties added to it.

[HarryBizzle]

The Eurogamer piece sort of misses the bit where the Soviet Union he says is being “glorified” results in you being a genetically engineered soldier losing his mind and having to fight killer robots. 

 

I wonder if this game will ever make as much money as the EU spends on Russian fuel in a single day. 
 

I don’t think there’s any difference between this and a game by a Chinese dev with links to the Chinese government, really. But I don’t think the piece would have been written in the case of the latter. 

[Treble]

It's really hard to express what you're doing about this particularly niche part of capitalist consumerism without sounding like you're virtue-signalling. But here goes: after a battle with my conscience, I cancelled Game Pass several weeks ago. Partly because I was concerned about Atomic Heart, but mostly just because they partner with and platform EA; a company I (now) 100% boycott financially. 

 

As it's such a great value proposition (although less so since MS Studios basically stopped releasing games!) it was tough, but necessary for me. I mention it mainly because it can often look performative when saying you won't buy a game. In this case, it means I haven't played (amongst others) Hi-Fi Rush and will pay full price for it; I'll be doing the same with Forza and any other MS Studio releases. Ditto Starfield. That entire value proposition gone. 

 

On the EA side it means I won't be playing any of their games on my preferred platforms - PC & Steam Deck - and will only buy them secondhand for PS5. Dead Space, Jedi Survivor, Alan Wake II... all relegated to aftermarket purchase down the line. 

 

It's hardly hod-carrying in terms of strain, but it does mean a big shift in how, when and where I play my games instead of having a freer, easier choice. But we all have to draw a line somewhere. 

 

As for Atomic Heart, if it gets good reviews I'll get a secondhand copy. I won't be paying the publishers for it. 

[Eighthours]

7 minutes ago, Treble said:

It's really hard to express what you're doing about this particularly niche part of capitalist consumerism without sounding like you're virtue-signalling. But here goes: after a battle with my conscience, I cancelled Game Pass several weeks ago. Partly because I was concerned about Atomic Heart, but mostly just because they partner with and platform EA; a company I (now) 100% boycott financially. 

 

As it's such a great value proposition (although less so since MS Studios basically stopped releasing games!) it was tough, but necessary for me. I mention it mainly because it can often look performative when saying you won't buy a game. In this case, it means I haven't played (amongst others) Hi-Fi Rush and will pay full price for it; I'll be doing the same with Forza and any other MS Studio releases. Ditto Starfield. That entire value proposition gone. 

 

On the EA side it means I won't be playing any of their games on my preferred platforms - PC & Steam Deck - and will only buy them secondhand for PS5. Dead Space, Jedi Survivor, Alan Wake II... all relegated to aftermarket purchase down the line. 

 

It's hardly hod-carrying in terms of strain, but it does mean a big shift in how, when and where I play my games instead of having a freer, easier choice. But we all have to draw a line somewhere. 

 

As for Atomic Heart, if it gets good reviews I'll get a secondhand copy. I won't be paying the publishers for it. 

Why are you boycotting EA, out of interest?

[Mr. Gerbik]

29 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

 

I don’t think there’s any difference between this and a game by a Chinese dev with links to the Chinese government, really. But I don’t think the piece would have been written in the case of the latter.

Same goes for a game made by any American dev. I'm not saying the criticisms and worries around Atomic Heart aren't valid, it's just... none of us have any such qualms when it's America committing war crimes or bombing civilians. But if you extend the argument made against Atomic Heart, one can wonder why we don't. 

[Treble]

11 minutes ago, Eighthours said:

Why are you boycotting EA, out of interest?

 

In brief, buying and eviscerating studios, their employee treatment, and the current worst thing which is their use of loot boxes and gambling that targets children and people with ASD. 

[Rex Grossman]

2 hours ago, RubberJohnny said:

 

Only just read this thread, but "actually people are nostlagic for AI apocalypse stories because y'know that's what it was actually like in history" has to be the stupidest, most reaching take in the 20 years that this forum has existed.

Sure.

You do you.

Just don’t speak to any Russians of a certain age who are incredibly nostalgic about the Soviet Union and the Cold War. I would love to live in your bubble. It sounds idyllic.

 

But as the the forum’s most notorious nostalgia-phobe I can understand you struggling with this concept. Not to mention your similarly notorious lack of comprehension skills 

 

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/24/75-of-russians-say-soviet-era-was-greatest-time-in-countrys-history-poll-a69735

[Strafe]

So now we’re trusting Russian polls?

[footle]

2 hours ago, Strafe said:

I thought it was already the case that mundfish had some initial state funding from Russia.

 

I would expect that Microsoft are going to be extremely careful about where they send the money to and what happens to it. I’m sure it’s possible to reroute money to avoid sanctions but I’d imagine whatever contract MS and Mundfish have has had an awful lot of penalties added to it.

They’ll have a contract with Focus Interactive, the publisher.

[Strafe]

They’re French, right? Presumably under the same sanctions as the rest of Europe and the US.

[Rex Grossman]

40 minutes ago, Strafe said:

So now we’re trusting Russian polls?

Ha!

 

Edit: interesting research and analysis from Harvard here https://harvardpolitics.com/soviet-nostalgia/

[Strafe]

For Xbox at least this has a 00:01 am 22nd February release date for all regions which means it should be playable in about 9 hours if you set your region to New Zealand.

 

https://www.purexbox.com/guides/atomic-heart-release-date-release-times-and-preload-details-on-xbox-game-pass#comments

[Strafe]

Had a quick go through some of the intro which is basically a walking simulator like bio shock or half life. Looks pretty enough on Series X, allbeit it with a softer looking image than the previews. Runs at 60fps, there are no video options that I could see beyond brightness adjustment.

 

No idea if it’s any good or not, I’ve seen a tweet that suggests that structurally, it’s a mess but let’s see.

[stir fry]

Just this morning I've read that it's a miserable experience and it is a 9.5/10 masterpiece comparable to Prey 2017.

 

So 65-69 metacritic then

[HarryBizzle]

Looks a bit rough on Series X and the voice acting is very stilted and awkward.

 

 

 

Also does that annoying thing where these Russians all sound like posh Brits or happy go lucky Americans.

[Strafe]

Wow, those face textures don’t look very lifelike at all!

[footle]

1 hour ago, stir fry said:

Just this morning I've read that it's a miserable experience and it is a 9.5/10 masterpiece comparable to Prey 2017.

 

So 65-69 metacritic then

was the second written by Ivan from Crimea?

[JoeK]

I had nagging suspicions that the voice acting was going to be poor, and it really is fucking shite.

 

I don't understand the logic of going to all the effort of making these absolutely beautiful world and then destroying the atmosphere with scrimping on the voice talent.

 

Hopefully it might be better in Russian...

[Harsin]

35 minutes ago, Strafe said:

Wow, those face textures don’t look very lifelike at all!

[stir fry]

3 minutes ago, JoeK said:

I had nagging suspicions that the voice acting was going to be poor, and it really is fucking shite.

 

I don't understand the logic of going to all the effort of making these absolutely beautiful world and then destroying the atmosphere with scrimping on the voice talent.

 

Hopefully it might be better in Russian...

I took a quick flight to NZ and loaded it up on gamepass, there's no other language options . The language option in the game just changes the text

 

Also notice that 4k dlss quality on 4090 hits 120hz with room to spare on the opening section of the game, not needing FG at all in that particular section. Maybe this changes later on.

 

It stutters a lot though. Every time it has to load in a new 'event' (NPCs having a chat, for instance). 7700x and installed on a gen 3 nvme

[Eighthours]

Eurogamer's YouTube channel isn't covering it because of the Russia connection. I wonder if this means that main EG will also boycott.

 

 

[stir fry]

Will be interesting to see what DF does. They seemed a bit divided over their Hogwarts' coverage (John very much not wanting to touch it and Rich just going ahead doing it himself)

[Strafe]

4 minutes ago, Eighthours said:

Eurogamer's YouTube channel isn't covering it because of the Russia connection. I wonder if this means that main EG will also boycott.

 

 

An article entitled “questions still remain” isn’t really “answered perfectly”. That’s my pedantry take.

 

 

[JoeK]

Watching that initial stream, I can't say I'm now bothered either way. The dialogue and the script seem to be some of the most atrocious bollocks I've heard in ages - which is a crying shame, because there is some really decent design-work in it. 

[HarryBizzle]

I think this is a much murkier set of circumstances than Hogwarts and seems like a slippery slope to go down for a media outlet, for all the reasons that have already been gone over. Where do they start drawing the line with the likes of Activision or ties to the Chinese government?

[Strafe]

I didn’t think the voice acting was bad, just weird that it’s in Russia with Russian writing everywhere but American accents.

 

As for glorifying Russia, I didn’t get that impression. The characters talk about how great it is but I don’t think the player is supposed to get that impression, like they’re in on the joke that everyone in the game isn’t. Brave New World, 1984 vibes.

[Timmo]

We’re basically all fucked, aren’t we? Pretty much anyone who pays into a pension, maybe even just stores money in a bank, can be linked to child labour and other nefarious practices. Unless you’re living off the land you’re probably part of the problem.

[Lying Cat]

7 minutes ago, Timmo said:

Unless you’re living off the land you’re probably part of the problem.

 

Nope. Not good enough. At some point you're going to die and end up dumping all those forever chemicals you've got locked up into your body into the soil and eventually the ground water.

 

How could you?

[Ry]

This review makes it sounds like my nightmare game. https://techraptor.net/gaming/reviews/atomic-heart-review

 

"Characters talk and talk with no end in sight. They all just spew verbal diarrhea."

 

"Atomic Heart simply has the most aggressively terrible writing I've ever seen in my life."