Talk:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

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The Gameplay section says ”Some members of the team went to the Swedish bullwhip championship to record visual and audio references.” which isn’t right as there is no such championship in Sweden.

Correction: Some members of the team went to visit the Swedish whip cracker Johnny Öhgren of Witchcraft Whips to record whip sound effects and visual references. Johnny is an award winning whip cracker and whip making champion.

Sources: Game Credits: ”Witchcraft Whips Whip Cracking for Sound Recording Whip Cracking Performance Johnny Öhgren”

Website: www.witchcraftwhips.se Listed under ”Accolades & Achievements”

Interview with developers: "We actually worked with a Swedish bullwhip champion. We went to his place up north in Sweden, and the audio guys recorded the sound as he showed us how to properly use it. It doesn't look like when Indie uses it, but it sounds very good. So just a lot of attention to detail on trying to get that right," https://www.thegamer.com/machinegames-worked-with-bullwhip-champion-indiana-jones-great-circle/ 62.108.208.169 (talk) 12:24, 27 October 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: According to the page's protection level you should be able to edit the page yourself. If you seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. meamemg (talk) 15:16, 27 October 2025 (UTC)

GA review

Passed. I apologize for the delay. Bgsu98 (Talk) 03:34, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

This review is transcluded from Talk:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: OceanHok (talk · contribs) 11:31, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Reviewer: Bgsu98 (talk · contribs) 22:53, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello... I will do this review as part of my GA pledge. Bgsu98 (Talk) 22:53, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

User:OceanHok: I appreciate your patience, but I have begun your review. The article is very well-written. I don't know anything about video games, but I am a big Indiana Jones fan. I have begun the source review below, and will finish it tomorrow. Bgsu98 (Talk) 23:34, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Source review (11/17/25)

This table checks 17 passages from throughout the article (15.5% of 110 total passages). These passages contain 36 inline citations (23.4% of 154 in the article). Generated with the Veracity user script. Bgsu98 (Talk) 22:56, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

More information Reference #, Letter ...

Reference #	Letter	Source	Archive	Status	Notes
Similar to immersive sims, levels in the game have alternate routes for the player to reach their objectives.
4		vg247.com	web.archive.org
Disguises can be worn to access restricted areas, though some high-level enemies can see through disguises; committing crimes such as stealing or behaving menacingly will also cause a disguise to fail.
12		gamespot.com			The source does not say that "stealing or behaving menacingly" will cause a disguise to fail, just that it may raise suspicion. Recommend rewording for clarification.
The game was executively produced by Todd Howard, a game director at Bethesda Game Studios known for his work on role-playing video games such as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Howard, an Indiana Jones fan, had previously pitched such a game to franchise creator George Lucas around 2009,
18		telegraph.co.uk	web.archive.org		The Telegraph requires a subscription, so I added that to the citation. The archive did show the full article.
19		ign.com	web.archive.org
Negotiations between Bethesda and Lucasfilm started again in 2019, after John Drake, a friend of Howard, was appointed as Disney's VP of Business Development and Licensing for Games.
24	a	variety.com	web.archive.org
25		gamesindustry.biz	web.archive.org
Several levels in the game are large, non-linear levels, as the team wanted to extend the game's longveity. The team experimented with the Uberkommandant missions in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (2017), which allowed players revisit levels, and they were inspired by Metro Exodus (2019)'s structure, in which the game had a linear narrative while still having large, sandbox areas where players have more freedom to explore and complete side content. Vatican City was the first such "hub" level and served as the game's vertical slice. The team described the Vatican as the most complicated level in the game because it was the level where the developers experimented with different design choices. They decided early on that it cannot be a 1:1 recreation of the city, as they were unable to funnel players across major locations of the map or have them explore certain key buildings or areas.
30	a	youtube.com			I'm not watching that video; I'll trust that it contains what it says it does.
An optional waypoint system was added to the game late in its development.
33	a	ign.com	web.archive.org
The team took an extensive amount of time balancing different facets of gameplay, and attempted to juxtapose setpieces with slower moments in which Indiana is simply exploring the environment and unraveling its mysteries.
40		vg247.com	web.archive.org
To make the game more accessible and support players who are uninterested in solving puzzles, the game allows players to separately lower the difficulty of adventure aspect of the game.
43		news.xbox.com	web.archive.org
The Great Circle was MachineGames' biggest game to date, with nearly four hours of cutscenes.
47		pcgamer.com	web.archive.org
The writers used recurring characters, including Marcus Brody and Marion Ravenwood, to set up the adventure early in the game, before introducing the new characters.
31	c	vice.com	web.archive.org
The audio team, led by Peter Ward, rewatched the films and recreated Ben Burtt's sound design for the game. According to Ward, the team "did hundreds of hours of original recordings, using props like the whip, the fedora, the leather jacket, and lots of different shoe types on lots of different surfaces".
46	b	news.xbox.com	web.archive.org
A downloadable story expansion titled The Order of Giants was released on September 4, 2025.
67		gamespot.com	web.archive.org
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic,
70	a	metacritic.com	web.archive.org
71	a	metacritic.com	web.archive.org
The puzzle system, and especially the hint system, were applauded.
75	a	gameinformer.com	web.archive.org
73	a	destructoid.com	web.archive.org
17	c	ign.com	web.archive.org
and liked how the game rewarded players for exploring.
74	d	eurogamer.net	web.archive.org
76	b	gamespot.com	web.archive.org
78	d	pcgamer.com	web.archive.org
Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, said that 4 million players had played the game by January 2025.
88		videogameschronicle.com
89		gamespot.com	web.archive.org

Close

Image review (11/24/25)

All images have appropriate licenses and captions. Recommend adding alt-text per MOS:ALTTEXT.

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

@Blackstardust16::

• Path tracing's more accurate lighting improves the quality of materials like wood and marble in the game. Metal rendering becomes more visually distinct between types of metal like brass, silver, and gold and they are able to reflect themselves and the surrounding environment - This sounds slightly WP:PEACOCKy. Generally just said "improved metal rendering" will be sufficient.
• Like Doom Eternal (2020), another id Tech 7 title - comparison with other video games is generally not helpful, because general readers do not know what Doom Eternal is. Keep the discussion to this game.
• PlayStation 5 Pro supports software emulation of VRS but this is not used. PlayStation 5 Pro operates at a higher dynamic resolution range of 1440p to 4K though it does not use PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling - you don't need to mention what it doesn't use.
• Try to avoid using unreliable sources, especially since this is a good article. That means information about the Switch 2 should be removed unless there is a better source. WCCFTech is also rated as unreliable, so it is not usable under all situations.

Please avoid wholesale reversion, which is generally not helpful as it undid the smaller, uncontroversial edits as well. OceanHok (talk) 14:23, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

I am finding this revert to be problematic. I already explictly tell you that I am planning to take this to talk page and you still choose to revert over it. For someone who once tried to template experience editors over edit warring, I found what you are doing here to be hypocritical. Per WP:BRD, if your changes are reverted, you should be the one who started a discussion in the talk page and sort it out there. OceanHok (talk) 14:39, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

You are the one who has come in and tried to chop up the writing with a hatchet without understanding why it was written the way it was in the first place. I don't think you understand some of the basic rules for writing like explaining why and how and think you should read Wikipedia:Vagueness. You insist on removing the explanation for why there is a 30 FPS target on Switch 2 in that MachineGames didn't want to heavily compromise the game's visual quality relative to other consoles to hit 60 FPS. Your claim that just writing "improved metal rendering" is sufficient does not explain why or how it is improved. There needs to be some detail explaining technological differences rather than a random collection of factoids that is written with little flow or consideration for the average uninformed reader.

The mention of Doom Eternal was deliberately put there because it is also using id Tech 7 and the some of the core pillars of id Tech 7 is reliance on VRS. The Digital Foundry breakdown says as much.

The mention that the PS5 Pro version does not use PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling is because most PS5 Pro games use it and its exclusion is notable and mentioned explicitly by Digital Foundry. Blackstardust16 (talk) 14:57, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Apparently you didn't read what I wrote so I will just repeat it again. I frankly do not care about how and why it was written if the how and why are based off an unreliable source. I didn't say you cannot explain how it can be improved. The problem I have with it is the way it was written (a manual of style problem), which is only a minor grievance.

Like it or not, Wikipedia is written for your "average uninformed reader", not the tech-savvy, hardcore gamer (see WP:TECHNICAL). By comparing with other games (Doom/other PS Pro games), you are assuming our target audience has prior knowledge when in reality, they do not. These comparions are not needed because they distract from the core subject (which is this game). OceanHok (talk) 15:51, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

For the sake of transparency (apologies for not commenting earlier), I trimmed the section a little more. I removed some extraneous and overly technical information (specifically, one sentence each about path tracing, hair, SER/OMMs, RTGI, BHV, and VRS), but the information itself remains largely intact; I mostly focused on making the phrasing more concise. I was disappointed to see this was entirely reverted without notification or explanation (especially since that reversion reintroduced some other errors) but I'm glad to see it has since been restored and look forward to discussing these changes in more detail if anyone disagrees. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 02:20, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

I have had this article on my watchlist for a long time (mainly because I wanted to improve it), so I've seen what has been going on here since March. My advice to all of you: stick to the talk page and do not make any further reversions, if you don't want to get blocked, of course. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 19:10, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

I fully supported Rhain's changes to the article. I would also have removed "Most platforms use a maximum of 65,000 hair strands, though weaker devices like Xbox Series S and Steam Deck use 32,000 strands" for being overly specific. OceanHok (talk) 05:05, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

That's valid. I found it interesting enough to keep, albeit a tad trivial, but it could always be trimmed for conciseness—e.g., something like Weaker devices like the Steam Deck and Xbox Series S feature less than half the maximum hair strands of other platforms. – Rhain ☔ ^he
_him 06:06, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

I would be ok with that alternative phrasing. OceanHok (talk) 10:30, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Looks okay to me. If the blocked user continues doing the same things before their block, let me know. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 19:00, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

@Blackstardust16: Do you feel the section requires clarification? As above, I'd be interested to know your thoughts if you disagree with any specific changes, and I'm sure other editors feel the same. – Rhain ☔ ^he
_him 23:46, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

I doubt you are actually interested in my concerns. I have many problems with the writing on a functional level like being too vague, not explaining adequately how and why certain things were added, and lack of depth. If writing is to be accessible, it needs explanation and clarity rather than a disjointed collection of statements in the interest of being short.

• The game was built around ray tracing;
  Saying the game was built with ray tracing in mind leaves out the important detail that the game mandates hardware acceleration for ray tracing. The only other games I can think of that mandate ray tracing without a fallback to rasterized lighting are Star Wars Outlaws and Doom: The Dark Ages. Ray tracing is so central to the visual design that MachineGames would not even turn it off for weaker consoles and instead just degraded the RTGI quality.
• To hit the performance target on consoles, MachineGames degraded RTGI quality rather than eliminate it entirely.
  There needs to be comparison to explain by how much RTGI quality was degraded for consoles by comparing it to the PC version and how there is no comparable setting on PC. The RTGI implementation on consoles was not as simple as just choosing the low setting on PC. It was tailor-made for consoles so that it could run at 60 frames per second.
• Hair rendering uses a strand-based system to represent individual strands,
  Hair cards should be mentioned as they are the alternative to a hair strand system and are more widely used. There is no mention for why they chose to use hair strands and the benefits that hair strands had during development such as a shorter worklow for artists compared to using hair cards. Also does not mention how much hair strands are relied upon with only two dead corpses not having them among human characters.
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was the first game to support RTX Hair, added in September 2025
  Does not explain that RTX Hair was specifically added to the game as a way to support path tracing and properly lighting hair.
• to better represent hair strand geometry, reducing geometry needed to render hair strands compared to using triangle primitives
  The reason why reducing the total amount of hair geometry was done is so that it could be fully represented in BVHs for path tracing.
• while the weaker Xbox Series S features cutbacks in graphical quality.
  Writing about the Series S having graphical cutbacks makes no mention of any specifics for comparison to Series X like resolution, frame rate, texture quality, download size. Not mentioning these details for Series S feels like dismissal or disinterest when Xbox Series X|S consoles co-exist side-by-side with shared games. It's a glaring omission when the resolution and frame rate of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 versions are included.
• MachineGames capped the frame rate at 30 FPS to maintain consistent performance.
  Writing that the frame rate was capped to "maintain consistent performance" is too vague because it does not explain specifically why they chose to cap the frame rate such as the technical limitations of the Switch 2 from its weak CPU and the effect it has on things like NPC density, asset streaming, decompression and animation. MachineGames said that they wanted the Switch 2 version to look visually comparable to the other consoles which they could not do at 60 FPS rather than being noticably worse quality like some infamous Switch and Switch 2 ports.
• Textures and audio were compressed to fit within a 64 GB Switch 2 cartridge
  The previous version mentioned that the Series S download size is 87GB, down from 130GB on Series X. The Switch 2 version being only 56GB shows by how much textures and audio were compressed. Compression in game downloads is standard but reducing the size by over 30GB for a version visually comparable to Series S is significant.
• an important achievement for MachineGames
  Again, does not explain why MachineGames thought it was important for the game to fit within a 64GB Switch 2 cartridge. They specifically wanted the cartridge to contain all of the game data so that the user could install the game directly from the cartridge without requiring an internet connection like a Game-Key Card would require.

Blackstardust16 (talk) 00:43, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for elaborating; if I wasn't interested, I wouldn't have asked. I've restored some earlier phrasing to help clarify some points. Let me know your thoughts, especially regarding the technical gobbledygook. – Rhain ☔ ^he
_him 01:18, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

The changes are better in not being extremely vague but there are problems in readability and tone. Run-on sentences and semicolons make it read more like a list of thoughts rather than breaking it up into separate sentences that flow into one another. Constant semicolons and em dashes make it read like AI slop from an LLM. The writing is far too casual and simplistic. Statements like MachineGames realized a Nintendo Switch 2 version was possible late in production. should be reworded to something like The decision to port the game to Nintendo Switch 2 was made towards the end of production in 2024. The word "realized" makes it sound like MachineGames were shocked that the Switch 2 could run a game. Writing that the game fit onto a Switch 2 cartidge is —an important achievement for MachineGames should be a new sentence such as MachineGames felt that it was important for the game to receive a full cartridge release on Switch 2 instead of a Game-Key Card. as it talks about wanting to have a full cartridge release and establishes the Game-Key card alternative. Simply writing it is an important achievement makes it sound like it was just a thing they decided to aim to achieve randomly.

So-called "technical gobbledygook" is dismissing the idea of being precise in language and having an understanding of the subject altogether as unimportant. If you don't understand it, you should educate yourself about it if you want to write on technology. Something that you would probably consider "technical gobbledygook" is actually mentioning the name of a new sphere primitive as Linear Swept Spheres and mentioning how they were introduced with GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs. RTX Hair is exclusive to RTX 50 series GPUs as they are the only ones with support for Linear Swept Spheres. Simply writing a new sphere primitive is not specific enough as other sphere primitives exist. Variable rate shading is relied upon on consoles to hit performance targets with less noticeably precise shading in some parts of the frame while maintaining good image quality. Blackstardust16 (talk) 13:30, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Semicolons and em dashes far predate AI slop—we certainly shouldn't avoid them for that reason alone—but they are easily addressed (I only used one em dash anyway). My phrasing was based on the ref, but I've rephrased to match it more closely.

I fear you've taken "gobbledygook" too seriously; I was being lighthearted, not dismissive. That being said, it's on us to make technical articles understandable, rather than expecting readers to educate themselves. I still think some of this information is straddling that threshold, but I've restored the mention of LSS and VRS. Let me know your thoughts. – Rhain ☔ ^he
_him 14:22, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

I have reworded it to flow better. I added the fact that path tracing was added later and the extent to which hair strands are used for context. "Windows" should be referred to PC instead as the game can be run on other operating systems like Linux and SteamOS. No one commonly refers to playing on PC as playing the Windows version. Blackstardust16 (talk) 16:35, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Wikipedia uses "Windows"; we generally don't name emulation or middleware. – Rhain ☔ ^he
_him 22:15, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

You don't need to mention anything that the game doesn't use. That means you don't need to mention/namedrop Game-Key card. OceanHok (talk) 16:00, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

I don't think you understand basic writing skills. The reason Game-Key Cards are mentioned is because they are the alternative to a cartridge release and require an internet connection to work. MachineGames wanted to avoid Game-Key Cards for that exact reason. Blackstardust16 (talk) 16:18, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

You know what, I am not as patient as Rhain. I will not take this passive-aggressive attitude. Your insinuation of superiority has been incessant and frankly, annoying. If you try this again, I will report you to an admin for incivility. Anyway, I have multiple issues with your changes:

• Path tracing was added to the game on December 9, 2024 after the early access period had ended - the game was released on December 9, 2024 so this was entirely unneeded.
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the first MachineGames title where all cutscenes are rendered in real time with 16:9 and cinematic 21:9 options - written as if it is a remarkable feat when it is likely more of a design choice
• that ^[quantify] is silly, because that will be trivial information.
• except for two dead corpses in the game. Fur on Jones's winter jacket in the Himalayas is also rendered with strands. - very trivial information
• Lower resolution textures on Series S reduce the game's download size to 87 GB from 130 GB on Series X - no numerical value is needed. File size is WP:GAMECRUFT content.

I am willing to compromise on the key card if you really feel that strongly about it. OceanHok (talk) 17:08, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

You are extremely emotional and thin-skinned if you can't discuss it because of some personal animosity. I question whether you are even approaching this in good faith as you have dismissed everything in the technology section as "trivial" without even trying to understand why certain things are included for clarity, context and explanation. Chopping out explanations and context does not make it easier to understand. It just makes the writing shallower and vague. WP:GAMECRUFT does not mention file size whatsoever and in fact does permit technical discussion if there are reliable sources with the example of Crysis. If you read earlier in the thread, there are bullet points for why things like file size for Switch 2 and Series S are relevant to be included. Mentioning except for two dead corpses in the game was done to show the extent to which hair strands were used in the game as every character except 2 use them. Having no mention of it is too vague as it could imply hair strands are only used on certain characters. Blackstardust16 (talk) 18:09, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Blackstardust16, please refrain from using such language in discussions. If you continue, I'll have to extend the block. You are welcomed to take part in discussions without insulting editors that you disagree with. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 18:53, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Before accusing others of being emotional or semiliterate, one might want to consider their own inability to write replies without insulting other users (WP:NPA), their decision to remove talk comments that call them out (WP:TPO), or their consistent reverts with empty edit summaries (WP:EDITCON). These are standard policies and guidelines that must be followed if we want a constructive conversation. You are clearly a good and knowledgeable editor, but it's all for naught without basic behavioural conduct. – Rhain ☔ ^he
_him 22:50, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Interesting that you don't apply this to anyone else when OceanHok wrote threats because disagreement is appararently "incivility". I hope you would say the same thing to OceanHok but I highly doubt it. Rules only apply to certain people here. Blackstardust16 (talk) 23:05, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Disagreement is not "incivility"; telling an editor that you don't think [they] understand basic writing skills is. Comment on content, not on the contributor. – Rhain ☔ ^he
_him 23:14, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Again, didn’t address OceanHok’s threats and application of rules only to people who don’t like. Blackstardust16 (talk) 23:31, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Nothing Oceanhok said counts as any sort of violation. Please just focus on your conduct and your arguments. Sergecross73 msg me 23:38, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Rules should apply to all editors equally. As soon as I see OceanHok violate one, I'll let him know. – Rhain ☔ ^he
_him 23:39, 18 May 2026 (UTC) (edit conflict)

The actual file size doesn't matter. What's matters is that Series S has a smaller file size than the Series X/PS5, and that the Switch version was further compressed. It is important to know that 99.9% of the characters in the game use hair strands. I don't need to know that remaining 0.01%. Mentioning Crysis is WP:OTHERSTUFF. Crysis is known for being significantly ahead of its time in terms of technology, The Great Circle isn't. OceanHok (talk) 05:24, 19 May 2026 (UTC)