In the AAA market, for consoles and PC. Iām currently the Technical Director for the engine technology department at Io Interactive, as well as working hands-on myself with many tech features for our games. We mostly make the Hitman series, but have other projects running as well.
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@Kasper Oh man Hitman 1,2 and 3 are some of my favorite games this gen. I assume you had some hand in making the glacier engine so awesome? If so, good job! Was amazed at how good Hitman 3 looked on the series X and also how older levels were upgraded in 1 and 2 to take advantage of the new hardware.
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Thanks a lot (I think you mis-targeted you @ response though)! Yes, Iāve been working on the Glacier 2 tech since 2009. We developed it for Hitman Absolution, which was the first Io game to use the new engine, then went on to further improve it over the course of the recent Hitman trilogy. I implemented a lot of the core engine systems, worked on optimizations as well as being the guy developing the tech for the crowd simulation.
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Haha, if it feels like that for a relative newcomer, imagine what itās like for people like me who started gaming in the mid-80s! Iāve seen it, done it, got the t-shirt, and games are only becoming more similar and less innovative as time goes on. I tend to go for more indy games these days rather than AAA, because at least they arenāt afraid to try new things and target niche markets.
Respect mate. One of my favourite series in gaming, ever since the first over 20 years ago. So innovative back then, and Iām glad it hasnāt strayed too far from the winning formula over the years. 
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I absolutely did for some reason sorry @Kasper and @adi_mrok i was typing fast!
Yeah Iāve played all the Hitman games including absolution. Really great stuff and they all ran great. Playing the new trilogy on with Ray Tracing is awesome!
Thatās pretty awesome. Hitman games are very well known!
Oh wow you make video games? Thats so cool ive always have wanted to make one one day lol. Just to complicated though! Hitman? Thats pretty impressive!
Not to scare you away but I think like 10 hours of my play time was just on the final boss, but the feeling of finally taking it down was hands down a highlight for me that felt better than most boss kills in all of the soulsbourne games Iāve played.
I play only Overwatch and some Warhammer games these days, AC franchise from time to time too. Waiting the the updated Witcher 3 later this year.
I just canāt souls games.
Got about 1/2 way through ds3 and a chunk of Sekiro (which is stunning visually).
Itās just all too much twitch combat and nowhere near enough rpg
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Iāve been playing some xenoblade 3 not to far in it but itās sooo good. One of my fav rpgs so far
Chalk another gamer into the list, albeit far less now than 10-15 years ago! My big thing is sim racing and Iām lucky enough to have built up a decent rig over time. iRacing, ACC and RaceRoom are the games (awaits being pilloried for saying games and not sims!) I sink time into.
More of a winter thing nowadays to be fair but an easy way to lose yourself for a couple of hours! Iāve always liked the idea of RPGās but I havenāt got the patience to get in depth with them it seems. Iām also not averse to a bit of Fortnite from time to time.
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Nice! Yeah fortnite is pretty fun! I play it sometimes. RPGās are so fun you should give them a try someday! Games that come to mind are xenoblade, witcher 3, skyrim, elden ring, as for old ones would be the final fantasy series, legend of dragoon, and xenogears.
Haha, donāt worry, I donāt think this community is as pedantic as most gaming communities! I always say āsimsā, but the reality is that they are still just games. Compare the most realistic āsimulatorā available to us armchair pilots/drivers, and then check out the simulators used to train real pilots, and used by F1 drivers for testing and practice. Theyāre not even in the same league.
Yeah definitely a tongue in cheek comment on the geekier side of the sim community there Ross!! Nevertheless itās still pretty incredible how immersive the genre is nowadays and how itās evolved, like everything tech-wise. Driving games have long been my main interest going back to the original Atari Pole Position arcade boxes!
@Bytron08 - Iāve tried a few in the past but lost interest in the levelling up aspects pretty quickly. I know the Witcher series as well as Skyrim have had terrific write ups, I might pick one of them up whenever they hit a Steam sale.
In my opinion, the Witcher series deserves all of the hype it got. And the books are great too.
Skyrim ā¦ meh. I had an OK time with it, but wouldnāt go back.
Oh yes, thereās no doubt that some of the better sims out there do a great job of putting you in the cockpit of your vehicle of choice, despite the limitations of home computers. Thatās especially true if you have VR and a rig powerful enough to run it with decent performance. I couldnāt go back to simming on monitors now, so if my current HMD ever breaks my interest in the genre will likely come to an end. (Iām not prepared to pay the silly price of most decent HMDs just to play my sims, the only games I really use VR for now.)
I can see Witcher franchise was mentioned few times, deeply recommended, both books and all three games. One of the Witcher songs was the first thing I ever learned to play on the guitar.
Itās funny because despite loving RPGs and enjoying third-person games too, the Witcher series has never really done it for me. Neither of the first two games grabbed me at all. I did put a lot of hours into the third, but after finishing the first area I was done. Felt like Iād seen all the game had to offer, was getting bored of it, and just didnāt feel inclined to bother going any further.
Horses for courses I suppose.
It is curious, indeed. I really think is a really well written rpg. One of the few with great side quests.