Whether a game can be called a good game or not, everyone's standards are not the same.

Paul and Fred now represent MS, and they now evaluate Sin City by the same standards as MS's next-gen masterpieces.

Originally, according to the process, MS would communicate with Future Oasis online first, and let Future Oasis show the content of the game with text, video, etc., before further review.

However, now because of the urgency of time and the fact that there are already a lot of videos related to Sin City, MS skipped the first step and did not let Future Oasis directly submit the packaged game files, but specially sent someone to communicate and review, which also reflected some sincerity.

Paul and Fred are members of MS's review team, both seasoned gamers, and they will attach a detailed report to the review to give MS a position on Sin City.

It's a mediocre work.,Or a work of acceptable quality.,Or an excellent 3A masterpiece.,Or,It's a rare masterpiece worth fighting for.。

They may not be able to set a clear standard for a good game, but they do know what a good game looks like and how it feels.

Paul and Fred this time, the most important thing is to communicate with the producer of the game, and ask some game-related questions in person, although the video conferencing system has been very convenient and advanced, but it still can't replace the feeling of face-to-face communication.

The test machine and TV are ready, and the game is installed on the test machine. This test machine, which is a lap larger than the console of the Gamer version, is used by the developers to test the game, and this machine cannot run the commercial version of the game, only the development version of the game.

Open the game, and after a LOGO screen, before entering the game's title menu page, there is an opening animation of Sin City.

Instead of skipping this opening animation, Paul and Fred watched it carefully.

It's an anime that has never been revealed, and Paul and Fred became the first people to see the opening animation outside of the development team. The content of the animation should be some foreshadowing of the game's plot. The entire anime isn't long, with four different scenes showing four criminal activities taking place in Sin City.

A "traffic accident" in a commercial district, an assassination attempt in a customary place in the city of Toei, a tin canister with corpses and cement thrown into the sea from the port, and a violent incident in the dark night of a slum.

Four seemingly unrelated events are connected by several shots, and several scenes at the end of the anime show that there is no doubt that these events are connected, implying some contradictions and clues in the game's plot.

"The style of the animation at the beginning is very consistent with the style of the game, and it is rendered in real time?"

Fred asked.

Su Li nodded and said, "All the video content of Sin City is rendered in real time. ”

Although Fred already had the answer in his heart before, he still sighed when he heard the producer admit it himself. Instant rendering can do this level, and the future Oasis will definitely surpass those used by MS's first-party studios in terms of engine performance.

The opening animation is just an appetizer, and the main course is still the content of the game.

"How about starting with a single-player story?"

Fred asked.

Su Li nodded and said: "No problem, this test version of the game already contains most of the content of single-player and multiplayer, and the single-player plot can be smoothly carried out 80% of the game content, and we have also built a multiplayer environment, with a special team to test the multiplayer mode." ”

Fred and Paul looked at each other and nodded, they had heard of the legendary cool multiplayer mode before, and if there was a dedicated test environment, they would definitely experience this multiplayer content.

However, they still start in order, starting with the single-player mode.

After entering the game, there is another animation, and the game officially begins.

The first scene, the port of Sin City, is the beginning of the first promotional video, which is also the beginning of the game. It's just that at the beginning of the game, they can already see the main character of the game.

A very stylishly dressed young man, dressed in a white casual suit, disembarked from a luxury cruise ship and walked into the city of sin.

The plot hasn't unfolded yet, and they don't know exactly what the young man is going to do, just follow the quest prompts.

After officially entering the game, both Paul and Fred took a deep breath and did not act for a long time.

In next-gen games, the improvement of graphics is an inevitable trend, and before that, both Paul and Fred have played several masterpieces on new consoles, many of which use graphics as their biggest selling point.

However, the graphics they had seen before were somewhat overshadowed by Sin City, and the future Oasis has lived up to their previous promises in Sin City, which will set a new standard for next-gen graphics.

The biggest improvement in the game's graphics comes from the accuracy of the textures, as well as the light and shadow effects in all aspects.

From the moment they left the port and entered the city, both Fred and Paul froze.

Although there have been a lot of videos leaked before, including some actual game videos, videos are always videos, and the actual game experience is still very different. At least now, in front of the big 4K TV, Paul and Fred have experienced the kind of shock they haven't experienced in a long time.

It's been a long time since they've experienced this shock, and it's not like "oh, this game looks good" or "this game is a bit fun to play," it's like "oh my god, how can this game do this!" ”。

A few moments into Sin City made them experience this incredible feeling, the intricate textures and the right lighting effects brought a realistic city picture, and the various NPCs in Sin City really achieved the design goal of "living city" that Oasis has been pursuing in the future.

The NPCs in Sin City are modeled in such detail that Future Oasis has put a lot of effort into them. At the beginning of entering the city, the crowd walking around, some noisy sounds, the actions and reactions of NPCs, and the changes in the flow of people throughout the city all gave them a strong sense of impact.

For both Paul and Fred, it was the first time in the game that they felt the feeling of "these NPCs seem to be alive".

Aside from factors such as NPC modeling, NPCs in ordinary games have a very strong sense of falsehood in terms of action and action patterns. Because of the existence of this sense of falsehood, in many cases, no matter how realistic the scenery is, the unique sense of falsehood of the game scene cannot be concealed.

But here, Paul and Fred see the natural movements and reactions of the NPCs, the detailed character modeling and logical action patterns, and they forget for the first time that this is a game scenario.

A game is not afraid of shortcomings, it is afraid that there are no highlights. The so-called flaws are just like that, as long as the game has enough strengths and highlights, a few non-fatal flaws are not a big deal.

They know exactly what a highlight of a crime game with some RPG elements is for this kind of forgettably false immersion, with vivid NPCs. How many games are now pursuing the intelligence of NPCs, turning NPCs from a character who can only speak fixed lines and cannot move to a vivid character.

Fred felt that he had seen so many games, and that only Future Oasis had truly done it in Sin City.

Paul had previously played Future Oasis' Shadow Secrets, and in this game, Future Oasis has shown their technical accumulation in NPC intelligence. However, in Sin City, Future Oasis has made a new breakthrough in this regard.

"It's incredible, how did you do it?"

Fred manipulates the characters, walking back and forth through the city, talking to NPCs, observing their reactions and their lines.

He also did some other things, such as smashing someone's table in an open-air café on the side of the street. Then what awaited him was a large number of onlookers, calling the police, and being beaten up.

Fred was having a bit of a blast right now, forgetting what he was supposed to do next.

"We've designed a complete, intelligent NPC action model for Sin City. As you can see, the NPCs in Sin City have surpassed his previous roles, giving the game a much more immersive feel. ”

"How many NPCs have you made like this?"

Fred asked, gesturing to the game screen.

"There are tens of thousands of intelligent NPCs throughout Sin City."

Su Li replied.

Fred and Paul glanced at each other, wondering how they felt that as soon as they entered the city, there was a feeling of crowds, and there was no sense of emptiness in the game scene.

That's a lot of work.

At this time, Fred began to admire the game's graphics again, and he felt that the current game graphics of "Sin City" should not appear in the early stage of a platform, but more in the middle and late stages of the platform. After the accumulation of projects, developers can grasp the limits of the console's performance and make better game graphics.

However, "Sin City" obviously did not follow this routine, and the first game of the future Oasis on the new platform directly used all the potential of the console, and it can be said that this picture should be the best game picture of this generation.

If you want to pursue better game graphics, then the console can't do it, and you can only find a way on the PC.

In every generation, the ultimate game screen is basically achieved on the PC, and the hardware configuration of the console is certainly not as good as the PC that can be updated from time to time, but the convenience of optimization is its advantage.

"I think you're throwing a huge problem at other game developers."

"You guys can make a picture like this right now, and those game developers are going to start having a headache, you're just committing a foul," Fred said. Frankly, even our MS first-party studio will take time to produce this level of graphics and complete optimization. ”

"It's so foul, the other developers will hate you."

Su Li smiled and said, "In fact, this generation of MS hosts has more performance that can be explored. ”

Fred said as he manipulated the characters, "You mean VR?" ”

Su Li nodded and said, "Yes, Future Oasis has studied VR-related performance, as well as the VR headset launched by MS this time. We feel that the new generation of VR equipment has a lot to offer. ”

"That's great, VR is the main route for new consoles, and Ingrid will be happy to hear you say that," Fred said. Oh yes, Ingrid is our president, and she's driving the route positioning of the new host. ”

Su Li nodded, he had also heard a little about the female president of the MS interactive entertainment department with good skills.

Fred casually said, "MS is looking for developers who are willing to develop exclusive VR titles for new consoles, and I think you can check them out." ”

Fred has now turned his attention back to the game, and now it's basically Fred in charge of the game operations and Paul in charge of the records. This time, they recorded the entire test review, and in addition to the report, they also needed to submit all the game recordings.

At this point, his character has completed several initial missions, meeting with several NPCs who look special in different scenes, and then has a temporary shelter, which is supposed to be a safe house-like place.

Immediately afterward, Fred also received a key task, which was named "First Business".

At this time, the identity of the player's protagonist was also revealed, and it was not surprising that the identity of the first protagonist was indeed a killer, or a well-known high-level killer in the industry.

And this mission, called "First Business", is to have the player infiltrate Dongying City and assassinate a Chamber of Commerce president.

The time limit for the mission is 7 days in the game, which is 144 hours.

The player is given a series of materials, such as a description of the mission, some information and photos.

Other than that, there was nothing else, and the quest prompt was interrupted.

"No other hints?"

Fred asked Su Li.

Su Li replied: "Yes, one of the core design contents of Sin City is to let the player design and complete an assassination operation by himself, rather than a puppet that is prompted by the mission. ”

"From now on, kill the target of the mission and then escape the pursuit, that's what you're about, and you can do it any way you want. Infiltrate assassinations, get hands on cars, cause traffic accidents, and do whatever it takes to get the mission done. ”

"Give a small hint that the target will have its own schedule like a normal person, and you can choose a variety of locations to complete the task."

"This is the well-designed assassination mission system of the future Oasis, and everything in it will have a dynamic balance, so you don't have to worry about crashing."

Fred was also a little excited by what Su Li said, and said, "Then let me do a big job." ”