Gaming News

Mickeroo

Is there any decent gaming podcasts around? Something like the /filmcast but for games.

Retr0gamer

Mickeroo wrote: »

Is there any decent gaming podcasts around? Something like the /filmcast but for games.

Retronauts is the best around but it only focuses on old games.

Kat Bailey does a good RPG focused one called axe of the blood god. I like it but she is a bit drole so it isn't for everyone. The other USgamer podcast is okay but I stopped listening to it since it wasn't great without Jeremy Parish there.

The 8-4 podcast is a fantastic Japanese gaming focused podcast from the localisation specialists from 8-4, probably the best source of Japanese gaming news.

Other than that there's the likes of Easy Allies and Giantbomb but I really don't value the opinions of the main voices on those shows, they do have one or two good people on there but it's just too focused on the big games which I find boring.

SeantheMan

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Other than that there's the likes of Easy Allies and Giantbomb but I really don't value the opinions of the main voices on those shows, they do have one or two good people on there but it's just too focused on the big games which I find boring.

I love Easy Allies, and the community is great and very respectful too.
They are completely funded by Patreon members (they used to be members of GameTrailers)
Definitely give them a watch....they are honestly my favourite thing to watch/listen to in relation to games.

I also disagree with Retro (...prepare for backlash :P ) ....with his opinion that they only cover big games. This is not true and they often talk about smaller games or ones that may have gone under peoples radar.

In fact...they created a new show called 'Don't Skip' ...where they give good insight into games that are worth a mention but may not be in the public consciousness atm. It's like a review....without a score. The 2 most recent were 'Night in the Woods' and 'Hollow Knight'

lEasy Allies Youtube channel

Retr0gamer

Not going to change my mind but I'm not going to change yours either. I just think there's still a bit too much gametrailers in them were it's about personality rather than actual knowledge and even the indie games they cover are just the big indie games.

Sieghardt

I think Ben does a great job of covering niche games, smaller JRPGs and visual novels and stuff

each of the guys specializes in something different and they have a good variety going

Kyle makes a point of playing completely unheard of games for streams

bear in mind the vast bulk of their content is twitch streams, if you're looking at their youtube that's only a tiny bit of their work

Pac1Man

This is news. Deadly Premonition is getting a board game through Kickstarter with the approval of Swery!

This is now an official call to arms to all DP fans. Show this some love and we might get DP2.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/deadly-premonition-board-game-revealed-get-all-the/1100-6449860/

Burgo

Mickeroo wrote: »

Is there any decent gaming podcasts around? Something like the /filmcast but for games.

I'd recommend Crate and Crowbar for a PC gaming podcast.
The hosts work for PC gamer and RPS and even some indie devs too!

http://crateandcrowbar.com/

Skerries

Elder Scrolls saves guys life

SolvableKnave

Skerries wrote: »

Elder Scrolls saves guys life

Fair play to Bethesda for their offer of a replacement.

Sabre0001

Next Need for Speed will feature an offline single player mode. Otherwise the update is fairly underwhelming - just touches on how important customisation will be and mentions a release date of 2017.

Zero-Cool

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Next Need for Speed will feature an offline single player mode. Otherwise the update is fairly underwhelming - just touches on how important customisation will be and mentions a release date of 2017.

The last NFS was very strange. The graphics on the cars were superb, the handling nice and arcadey, I even liked the cutscenes, but on a whole it was just very boring. For something that was always online, it always felt dead. Why bother racing each other when you can just crash into each other instead. Only once I actually got another guy to race me properly, all other times the guys would just try and ram me into a wall and get me stuck.

Game definitely needs lobbies and premade races for online. As for single player, I'm not sure what the can do to keep it exciting.

SolvableKnave

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Next Need for Speed will feature an offline single player mode. Otherwise the update is fairly underwhelming - just touches on how important customisation will be and mentions a release date of 2017.

Zero-Cool wrote: »

The last NFS was very strange. The graphics on the cars were superb, the handling nice and arcadey, I even liked the cutscenes, but on a whole it was just very boring. For something that was always online, it always felt dead. Why bother racing each other when you can just crash into each other instead. Only once I actually got another guy to race me properly, all other times the guys would just try and ram me into a wall and get me stuck.

Game definitely needs lobby's and premade races for online. As for single player, I'm not sure what the can do to keep it exciting.

Haven't played a NFS game since Underground 1&2 and Most Wanted. I'd like them to go back to that style for SP. Are EA Black Box still around? (Or is it a silly question in relation to EA keeping a studio open?)

SolvableKnave

SolvableKnave wrote: »

Haven't played a NFS game since Underground 1&2 and Most Wanted. I'd like them to go back to that style for SP. Are EA Black Box still around? (Or is it a silly question in relation to EA keeping a studio open?)

Gone 4 years now , I'd love another Skate game.

Square Enix dropping IO Interactive http://kotaku.com/square-enix-splits-with-hitman-creators-io-interactive-1795115574

No real reason given

in a statement released today, the Japanese publisher says “to maximize player satisfaction as well as market potential going forwardâ€, they have “regrettably decided to withdraw from the business of IO INTERACTIVEâ€.

Hopefully they can survive, not sure what kind of numbers Hitman did last year but I imagine they were not what Square hoped, like most games they release these days.

ERG89

Deleted User wrote:

Hopefully they can survive, not sure what kind of numbers Hitman did last year but I imagine they were not what Square hoped, like most games they release these days.

Fuuuuuck. I enjoyed that game. Is that licence gone now?
Like do Square Enix keep it or are they just cutting ties.

CatInABox

Deleted User wrote: »

Hopefully they can survive, not sure what kind of numbers Hitman did last year but I imagine they were not what Square hoped, like most games they release these days.

Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Hitman. Man, this generation has brought nothing but bad news for the big single player games.

Square has long been too optimistic with their games though, if I recall correctly, they thought that Tomb Raider under performed, despite selling in the region of three and a half million. I would have said that they were great numbers, but obviously the cost of creating games is now such that AAA games without incredible sales are now in danger of being cancelled.

Sephiroth_dude

Mickeroo wrote: »

Is there any decent gaming podcasts around? Something like the /filmcast but for games.

Co optional pod cast maybe?I enjoy it, Might not be for you though,totalbiscuit isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Penn

CatInABox wrote: »

Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Hitman. Man, this generation has brought nothing but bad news for the big single player games.

Square has long been too optimistic with their games though, if I recall correctly, they thought that Tomb Raider under performed, despite selling in the region of three and a half million. I would have said that they were great numbers, but obviously the cost of creating games is now such that AAA games without incredible sales are now in danger of being cancelled.

Yeah but if that 3.5m is across two platforms and Uncharted 4 (the most direct comparison) sold 8m as a platform exclusive, it's easy to see why they feel it under-performed. Like you, I'd think 3.5m was still a good number to hit, but given the history of the franchise and brand recognition I'd say they set their sights too high. I think they also released it at a bad time of year, in amongst some of the big annual multiplayer games.

kunst nugget

Penn wrote: »

Yeah but if that 3.5m is across two platforms and Uncharted 4 (the most direct comparison) sold 8m as a platform exclusive, it's easy to see why they feel it under-performed. Like you, I'd think 3.5m was still a good number to hit, but given the history of the franchise and brand recognition I'd say they set their sights too high. I think they also released it at a bad time of year, in amongst some of the big annual multiplayer games.

I'm sure the timed exclusive hurt it's sales on the PS4. It seemed to come out with little fanfare on that console and any hype from its launch was long gone.

CatInABox

Penn wrote: »

Yeah but if that 3.5m is across two platforms and Uncharted 4 (the most direct comparison) sold 8m as a platform exclusive, it's easy to see why they feel it under-performed. Like you, I'd think 3.5m was still a good number to hit, but given the history of the franchise and brand recognition I'd say they set their sights too high. I think they also released it at a bad time of year, in amongst some of the big annual multiplayer games.

Yeah, in that context they're bad numbers, but to think that a reboot of a sickly franchise would do as well as the fourth edition of a game series that has consistently hit incredibly high standards is just stupid on the part of Square. Or at least, it is if that was their thinking.

EDIT: Just realised that we're talking about different Tomb Raiders, as I was referencing the 2013 version, so the above isn't really relevant. Of course, Uncharted 3 released in 2011, with 3.8 million shipped on launch day, so you could substitute that in.

CatInABox

kunst nugget wrote: »

I'm sure the timed exclusive hurt it's sales on the PS4. It seemed to come out with little fanfare on that console and any hype from its launch was long gone.

I'm talking about the 2013 one actually, released at the same time on the PS3 and 360. The sequel was silly to release as a timed exclusive, but from the talk at the time, it wouldn't have gotten made without Microsoft footing a fair chuck of the bill. That's a pretty bad deal for Microsoft in my opinion as well, seeing as it didn't move the needle on Xbox One at all.

gizmo

****, buying up a 200+ head studio is a big ask for any publisher so fingers crossed someone steps in soon.

As for the Hitman series itself, despite being fairly revered, it's never been a massive seller which, given current generation development costs, was never going to work in the studios favor as their most notable IP. The complaints about Square Enix's sales predictions can often be off base when you actually look at the sales of previous iterations in the series though. I mean, they got flack for considering Hitman Absolution's sales figure of ~3.6m to be underpreforming yet that would put it slightly under the lifetime sales for Hitman 2: Silent Assassin as of 2009. It was above the sales of Contracts and Blood Money but that's not really saying much for those titles since they were well under the Silent Assassin sales themselves and were also based on a more similar launch window.

kunst nugget

CatInABox wrote: »

I'm talking about the 2013 one actually, released at the same time on the PS3 and 360. The sequel was silly to release as a timed exclusive, but from the talk at the time, it would have gotten made without Microsoft footing a fair chuck of the bill. That's a pretty bad deal for Microsoft in my opinion as well, seeing as it didn't move the needle on Xbox One at all.

Rise seems to have sold around 3.5 million between PS4, Xbox One and Xbox360. Tomb Raider Reboot has sold 8.5 million after 2 years according to wikipedia.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-04-06-tomb-raider-reboot-has-sold-8-5m-copies

Sieghardt

ERG89 wrote: »

Fuuuuuck. I enjoyed that game. Is that licence gone now?
Like do Square Enix keep it or are they just cutting ties.

Either they'll sell it to another company that wants to continue it or it'll go into the vault to eventually be slapped on some mediocre indie game in a few years like what they did to Fear Effect

They werent happy with Deus Ex or Just Cause either and Nosgoth was a total failure. Seems likely to me they're going to cut off all their western division now and refocus on their japanese games

CatInABox

kunst nugget wrote: »

Rise seems to have sold around 3.5 million between PS4, Xbox One and Xbox360. Tomb Raider Reboot has sold 8.5 million after 2 years according to wikipedia.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-04-06-tomb-raider-reboot-has-sold-8-5m-copies

Yeah, sales-wise, it did recover in the end, but as the article says, it missed it's expected sales over the first month by 50%. Those first month sales are where most of the money is made, so even though the sales did clock up by the end of the year, it came about because of massive discounts on it.

Osmosis Jones

Not getting great sales numbers is probably a by-product of deciding to release the game episodically. Loads of people just say they'll wait until the full game is out and by then most have forgotten about it.

SeantheMan

CatInABox wrote: »

Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Hitman. Man, this generation has brought nothing but bad news for the big single player games.

That's a huge overstatement.

This generation has been fine and has had some of the best single player games in recent years. This year alone has been phenomenal.

The games you mentioned too , Deus Ex was excellent, Hitman was fantastic too. It's unfortunate that they may not get sequels, but they were great.
It was great news that we got them, and got to play them....alongside many of the other amazing games from this gen.

Just off the top of my head,

Breath of the Wild,
Dark Souls 3,
Persona 5,
Yakuza 0,
Horizon Zero Dawn,
Uncharted 4,
Doom,
Titanfall,
Deus Ex,
Hitman,
XCom2,
Dishonored 2,
Last Guardian,

No Mans Sk.....actually wait...yeah....this gen did bring bad news for single player games :P

CastorTroy

Thought Titanfall was multiplayer only, which is why I didn't pay too much attention to it.
Was I wrong? Is the single player worth getting it for if no interest in multiplayer?

Mickeroo

CastorTroy wrote: »

Thought Titanfall was multiplayer only, which is why I didn't pay too much attention to it.
Was I wrong? Is the single player worth getting it for if no interest in multiplayer?

I'm guessing he meant Titanfall 2 and yes the campaign is great.

SolvableKnave

CastorTroy wrote: »

Thought Titanfall was multiplayer only, which is why I didn't pay too much attention to it

The first one was. TF2 released with a SP campaign. It's only about 8/10 hrs long, but it is one of the best SP campaigns I've ever played. Most everyone who has played through has nothing but good things to say about it.