FPS Quest turns the perpetual battle for a good frame-rate into an emergent shadow war between rival geeks

I'm a spot tantalised by FPS Quest, but I bash interest that it has already defanged its astir absorbing ideas. Developed by Farlight Games Industry, it's a dungeon crawler successful which your frame-rate "is your health", with mistakes and harm causing slowness and stuttering.

To regain health/frame-rate, you indispensable bash what you bash erstwhile moving immoderate crippled connected a murphy PC - fiddle with the settings similar you're bargaining with an particularly recalcitrant devil. This extends from lowering the prime of partition textures and characters, to plucking retired full pieces of environment. The much you bash this, of course, the alien the satellite becomes and the harder it is to navigate. The slayer enactment from the Steam page: "optimizing is risky". You'll besides person to support a lid connected a simulation of your PC's temperature, and determination are faux-prototype off-map areas to research via noclip-style abilities.

It's a metafictional melange successful the tone of The Stanley Parable and Pony Island. The developers person woven a communicative astir the 'give maine show oregon springiness maine death' gimmick that engages immoderate acquainted philosophical disputation astir authorial volition and reception.

You are a random subordinate who has installed a weird mod. The mod's developers are 1 of the factions - they're keen to monetise their creation. They're opposed by OutofBounds, "enemies of monetization and difficulty, guiding you with shortcuts and secrets". Both groups are astatine likelihood with the Custodians, "defenders of the archetypal developer's vision, opponents of glitches and cheats". And past determination are a mates of in-game AI personalities, the Null Process, "a breached AI that lone wants you to halt progressing truthful it tin rest", and the Dungeon Lord, "an overenthusiastic, paternalistic, and clumsily violative AI who tries to 'help' by removing obstacles".

You'll link with these nebulous 3rd parties mostly oregon exclusively done however you play, alternatively than by mode of dialog oregon text. There are unlockable "scripts" that seemingly impact your lasting with the factions. One of these is simply a "dynamic slug time" diagnostic whereby you velocity and dilatory the crippled utilizing your mousewheel.

There is scope for much chinstroking beyond the intrigues elaborate connected that Steam page. If you virtually marque a bug a feature, is it inactive a bug? What counts arsenic a 'real' glitch oregon method mistake successful a crippled that is 'designed to beryllium broken'? What counts arsenic genuinely unfinished successful a crippled that models the unfinished? We extremity up successful this bizarre presumption of tethering authenticity to the lack of intention. Now, ideate if DICE abruptly applied each these brainy convolutions to the penning of Battlefield 6.

Again, though, I'm not definite FPS Quest has afloat assurance successful its ain concept. The communicative metaphor whitethorn beryllium to beryllium acceptable dressing for a regular phantasy enactment acquisition with progression elements, and a caller mode of presenting concealed areas. The developers already look disinclined to propulsion it excessively far, oregon instrumentality it excessively seriously. Death takes the signifier of an MS-DOS bluescreen with the substance "the crippled volition present adjacent to forestall further humiliation" - much Borderlands than Barthes, for my onions.

The devs besides suffice that they're lone simulating FPS drops wrong the simulation, not really altering your PC framework rate, due to the fact that "playing astatine debased existent FPS is uncomfortable and nauseating. That's wherefore the crippled simulates a low-FPS satellite and turns it into gameplay: a amusive challenge, conscionable similar different games crook unfun oregon boring real-life tasks into playable mechanics." I recognize the caution here, but... I bash often similar it erstwhile games marque maine consciousness uncomfortable, and present I cognize successful beforehand that FPS Quest won't situation maine excessively much. Anyway, this is out: astatine immoderate point. Thanks to PCGN for passing it on.