Timex
4292
I’m checking out sable, and the first thing I’m noticing is that while the frame rate for the game overall is fine, the main character is animated at a very weird, unnaturally low frame rate. Like…10 fps or something?
Is this intentional? Like some kind of artistic decision? Because it’s somewhat jarring.
Yep, that’s an intentional aesthetic choice.
I’ll say that I found Sable to be a really intriguing non-combative open world game at first, and then was let down by the surprising clunkiness of the speeder physics (it’s your main mechanic, guys!!) and the way the world got less and less interesting as you went further and further. It felt like they put everything into the looks and the first hour of gameplay (probably a vertical slice) and then were not very inspired when making the rest of the content. If anyone has played into the late game and wants to tell me I’m wrong, though, I would be happy to have a reason to return to it!
Thraeg
4294
I’ve played a couple hours and am liking it so far.
I really dug Sable all the way through- it’s definitely in my top games of the year. No, it wasn’t perfect- the aforementioned speeder physics could be clunky, and omg, the framerate was uneven (literally one of the last things I care about). More to things that actually mattered to me, I’d have liked more dialogue with the various npcs in the world, but I understand this was a small team and their first game, and so understand the limitations.
this popped up in my Google feed yesterday, and it pretty much mirrors my thoughts.
Has anyone tried out Next Space Rebels? I stopped by my brother’s place today, and he was kicking it around. It looks like a simpler (maybe? It was early game for him) Kerbal Space Program but instead of launching cute aliens, you’re trying to build a democratized, for-the-people, DIY-style space program built on a YouTube channel? Wacky.
LMN8R
4297
Just finished The Forgotten City on game pass today and thoroughly enjoyed it! Took me about 10 hours to get all endings and multiple variants of them.
Such a refreshing game to play after the utter disaster of Twelve Minutes. The Forgotten City is so smart on how it handles loops, avoiding repetition, and so forth.
RickH
4298
I’ll admit I found the presentation style and limited early choices offputting.
I’m liking Sable a lot. It doesn’t have only a unique visual style, the music also accompanies the game very well, the writing is sparse but good, the setting is original, and the exploration based gameplay is excellent, with very organic puzzles/platform segments, they are really handcrafted experiences but it totally fools you into thinking that you discovered a climbing path by yourself.
That said, there is a myriad of minor technical issues. There are still weird framerate hiccups that happen from time to time, even if usually the gpu rests at 65% of power. The limited animation for the main character is a very weird choice, the controls systems of the game aren’t well polished and sometimes you will climb something you didn’t want to, and the grav bike tumbling around is so dumb, they have worked hard to make these beautiful, evocative desertic landscapes and then you have your bike going crazy with any kind of slope, that ‘ruins the photo’.
Not sure I understand the bike issue. I treat it as any vehicle, guide it towards smoother paths to try and maintain speed, but slowing down for slopes when necessary. I guess it’s slightly frustrating that you can’t just let rip with it, admittedly. Osmo did this far better with its surfing mechanic, just let you have fun with it. Mind you, I’m someone who liked the Mako in ME1, and have mastered the weird handling of the Warthog in Halo Infinite! I guess I like bouncy vehicle physics.
TurinTur
4301
It isn’t the gameplay, you can glide straight to your destination without problem, it is how aesthetically it’s ugly to see it banking left and right like crazy.
The tech issues kind of make Sable unplayable for me. I had my character go sideways in really weird way when collecting one of those worm things, but the bigger problem is just the inconsistent framerate on the Series S, which I think normally wouldn’t bug me so much but combined with the intentional low frame animation and the smooth art style ends up bugging me a lot. I just tried it again the other day and decided to put it down until another patch hopefully gets released as otherwise it seems like a chill game to play.
Yeah, I don’t like to criticize a small developer too much for taking shortcuts, but in the case of Sable, the bike physics seemed so half-baked, and really behaved in silly ways. Considering what a central part of the game that is, it deserved more attention, and if there had been better bike controls and less content (not a simple 1-for-1 tradeoff, admittedly), then I think it would have been a better game. Which is not to say it’s an easy problem to solve, but the concept kind of demands it.
rei
4304
Has anyone figured out why/when GamePass queues up a game and actually starts another download? WTF
By the way, in case it isn’t clear, Sable’s technical issues are minor flaws, I’m really liking it.
That said, the list of issues I see grows:
-it has negative mouse acceleration. Why.
-Sable’s model will clip through geometry because they let you stand up in the middle of a small vent shaft that you entered while crouched.
-Speaking of clipping, she goes through some 3d models in the Whale ship, and I have seen the ‘wind trails’ effect going through walls too.
-sometime the ‘water trail’ while you swim goes crazy, and draws a long line in the opposite direction in the water.
I gave it a go. The screen tear made me wince a bit and when after wrestling with the bizarre Navigator I was asked to fetch some beetles I thought, no not worth it.
Though I soured on Sable after a bit, I will say I like that it frames everything in a conceit that fits the non-violent open-world genre: You’ve come of age, and it’s time to figure out what role you want to play in society… Go out and try all the things, and let us know what you like!
Nonviolent exploration sounds totally perfect for me. When I get back home I intend to give it a spin.
Thraeg
4310
I also picked this back up last night since it was on my list of games to give a bit more time to before the Quarterlies voting starts.
I had this same reaction, but then appreciated that you’re free to bypass the beetle quest and just find where that girl hid the part.
Anyway, I played up through to the title screen, and will give it a bit more time tonight to see if I want to continue. I do like the central conceit, and am enjoying the writing and the art style, but am still getting some distracting framerate hiccups (on Series X), and am not sure the fairly basic and sedate platforming will be enough moment-to-moment interaction and challenge to keep me engaged.
Also on my list to play more of before the end of the year was Unpacking. I had played the first hour or two on console, and it was pleasant but not really hooking me. But I tried it on the Surface and it winds up being a great fit for the platform. Good touch interface, and the extra tactility of physically dragging objects around with your finger just feels a lot better than the analog stick for this.
