Game News 2.0

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121788146#Comment_121788146

Another counter point would be Yakuza which re used the same location for multiple entries.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121788146#Comment_121788146

There’s certainly a danger of crossing over into annualised churn and over exposure, but there’s a compromise to be reached between that and a five-six year development cycle for studios.

As was correctly pointed out on a recent episode of Remap Radio, there was a time not so long ago when entire franchises were born and went through multiple iterations in a whole console gen. Gears of War had a full trilogy and a major spin off in the 360 era. Uncharted wasn’t far behind that, and that went from middling action game to major blockbuster in a four-five year time slot.

Not that the 360 / PS3 era was entirely idyllic or anything, and things have changed for better and worse. Still, I just don’t think spending vast amounts of money on a single game every six years or so is going to sustain Sony’s output in the long term.

PixelPlayer

Miles Morales would be a good example of how to churn out quicker releases, but they just can't help letting greed get in the way. There is no justification for it being sold as a fully fledged, full priced AAA title. The opposite could be also be said, there's no justification for calling it DLC. The reality is somewhere in the middle. I don't think it needs to be given a label, it can just be a new in-between game with a €40-€50 price tag.

I also think there is a market for shorter AAA titles, but it has to be at a lower price point. Spider-man 2 is very much like Miles Morales where its basically an in-between title. But let's give the benefit of the doubt and call it a fully fledged AAA title, the 15 hour play time is Sony trying to redefine the play time of games and it's quite worrying hoe they dictate the market and this will inevitably become the norm. There is space for short games, but at a lower price point.

Retr0gamer

I honestly think Sony are reaping what they've sown here. They abandoned the model they had from PS1-3 where they produced in house software to fill gaps in the market and make their console appeal to as wide a market as possible. I fell with the PS4 they've chased the gamer market and narrowed their focus while Nintendo have stepped in and taken the broader market away from them.

Sony really didn't need to go down the triple A route, their third parties were already covering that. The odd big game from naughty dog but getting rid of Japan studio was really dumb. Sure they didn't make the numbers of their triple A games but they made games that brought that wide appeal to the platform.

Now I see people on social media saying what I've been saying since the PS4 about the PS5, it's just a bland box that plays games with no identity the way the PlayStation platform had. Sony really need to go back to that older model. They've lost all that Japan studio talent to Nintendo but they could build it back up with some young teams like they did on PS1 and good leadership. They've turned the boat around before, looks at the PS3 so hopefully we can get a PlayStation again that's exciting .

The Raging Bile Duct

15 hours is an ideal amount of time for a single player game. Most AAA games are bloated and tedious. I'd be much happier with the shorter game.

Grumpypants

A few things are happening at the same time. It's harder, takes more time, and is more expensive than ever before to make AAA games. ( At a time when money is really expensive too)

And then you have the games that hover up players. Fortnite, warzone, FIFA etc.

We always had games that released and had big numbers that tailed off over 6 - 12 months.

But those games just keep millions locked in all year.

So it's harder to break through. It's harder to take a risk. The fall out from a miss is worse (studios shutting down/axing half their staff).

Even the big publisher's are condensing development into their big IPs.

But that gives smaller studios a chance to release those AA sub €40 games. I think nightingale is going for a $30 mark too. Hopefully Helldivers is a trend that takes off. Fun game made well for €40.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121788774#Comment_121788774

I mean most PS1 games were 8-10 hours. RPGs were 30-40 hours. I really don't understand the need to make games these massive multi hour games, they should be the exception not the rule.

There is no cost benefit to keeping players engaged in a massive single player game when the initial sale is all that you get from it. Make smaller games and sell more of them.

PixelPlayer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121788774#Comment_121788774

Yes there's definitely an argument for cutting out the bloat. I've just given up on HZD because of the Ubisoft style of forcing me to do boring side quests just to level up and be able to progress the game.

R* and CDPR would be the exceptions.

But a shorter game should be cheaper. Once again Xbox Studios are leading the way here with Hellblade2 being announced as a €50 game specifically because it is only 15 hrs.

But Sony don't have to. They answer to their shareholders, not their customers. I know MS do too, but in order to give the shareholders what they want they need to be competitive. Sony do not.

Edit: Hellblade 2 is only 8 hrs. That kind of wrecks my argument 😄

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121788774#Comment_121788774

I'd also say the opposite is also kind of true; I'd be happier with longer games that didn't spend so much time, effort and money on graphical details that simply do not matter.

Look at the last two GOTYs; Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3. Both incredibly long games, and are absolutely beautiful games in their own way. But does the horse's testicles in Elden Ring shrink in colder areas? I neither know nor care. Does your character in Baldur's Gate 3 squint slightly when facing towards the sun? Unless you go into photo mode and zoom into your character's eyeball you're not going to be able to tell anyway. You don't need Ellie meticulously modifying her weapon to upgrade it. Just select upgrade and boom, it's upgraded. You don't need realistic bugs that follow correct behavioural patterns because you're never going to be able to see it anyway in a 3rd person game like Horizon. You don't need your character to have a dozen different animations for picking stuff off the floor or out of cabinets like Red Dead Redemption 2.

Part of the issue with AAA games and why they take so much longer in an unsustainable way is they keep having to raise the bar and incorporate these minute details that a) the vast majority of people never would have noticed unless the developer was crowing about it, and b) simply don't matter.

I remember watching a playthrough of MGS1 a few years ago and remembering the section where you repel down the side of one of the towers. A very quick section, out of nowhere, never repeated. But it was achieveable because there was less focus on making things look as realistic and impressive as possible or getting the physics absolutely right etc. Contrast that with TLOU2 where Naughty Dog developed realistic rope physics which means that using a rope was part of so many of the puzzles because they had to put those realistic rope physics to as much use as possible to justify it.

Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3 are amazingly crafted and especially in Elden Ring everything feels so meticulously placed and detailed, and Baldur's Gate 3 has amazing variety in all the different areas, enemies, and how the world reacts to what you choose to do. But they feel far more like gameplay is the key focus rather than trying to achieve astounding graphics and details, especially since we're reaching a point of diminishing returns anyway.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121788881#Comment_121788881

I get where you are going but I'd like to add to it. Mechanics for mechanics sake should be abolished. Look at BotW and TotK. There's loads of mechanics in there that try to make the game more realistic but all those mechanics add something to the gameplay. Fire propogation can be used to your advantage or to set stuff on fire. Wind can be used to increase your height or distance when gliding. The animals can be used for food and potions. There's nothing there that's wasted and they all play off each other to make some incredible immersive gameplay and physics fun.

What gameplay function did rope physics add other than to have more arbitrary puzzles in TLOU2. And don't get me started of rdr2 and nonsense like piercing arrows piercing wood to a greater depth. It's all systems for systems sake and I'm sure adding this level of detail to the world made developers lives more miserable than they needed to be.

johnny_ultimate

There’s always something to be said for happily tolerating rough edges when it’s combined with genuine ambition. A game like Spider-Man 2 - which I enjoyed playing through just fine, for the record - might be just about as pristine and polished as a video game gets, but it also feels inherently creatively constrained because it is so pristine and polished. A perfectly solid game, just one that can never hope to live up to far more audacious games like Baldur’s Gate 3 where things can and will break due to the sheer volume of things happening.

Dialling back on polish in favour of more player flexibility makes for more interesting games most of the time. Though somehow Tears of the Kingdom had both 😅

But as the old meme goes: shorter games with worse graphics pls.

Potential-Monke

And then you have Starfield which only wants you to fill your cockpit with potatos... But I agree in general, I'll take rough edges with fun over realism that's boring or unnoticable. Someday it may be affordable to make those details in games, but for now the rough edges are still grand. Then again, my taste seems to be counter to most people on here. The length of BG3 is kinda offputting (due to having to be ok with turn based comabt for so long), but I'm still sinking over 80 hours into a replay of Skyrim right now, so length really doesn't mean anything if it keeps you going throughout. It's only when it fails to do that, that you think it's too long. RDR2 worked, until the end credits for me. I did everything there was to do in HZD and FW, same with both recent God of Wars. Ratchet and Clank, Ghost of Tsushima, etc, I stuck with those games even after end game just to do everything, but other people found them boring.

I loved Immortals of Aveum, but people didn't even try it by the sounds of it. Just wrote it off. And it's 15 hours for the campaign, quoted above as a good time for a SP game, but people called it too long. Granted, they put too much money into it overall, and it came out in a terrible year, but it was a cracking game that ticks all the boxes ye are talking about above, but it failed because people didn't give it a chance most likely because some youtuber said it was crap and it came out in a busy year. It was a quick game that could have been played between the bigger ones, but no, it was just written off a couple of weeks later. Why would studios take a chance when this kind of stuff happens, when chances taken are thrown back in their faces? I think people will come to realise how good IoA actually was, but far too late. It's not breaking any new ground, but it was a fun and arguably brief game that looked and played amazing made by veterans of story telling (Telltale) and FPS's (Sledgehammer). It has a metacritic score of 60, while the bloated, overlong, dull, 30fps and imo graphically inferior Starfield is on 69... I don't understand gamers anymore tbh. All they seem to want nowadays is fecking remakes...

pixelburp

Tears of the Kingdom proved that physics jank shouldn't be possible or accepted anymore; even if it made some critical concessions and compromises in implementation it never was at the expense of the experience - or any degree of "realism" (insofar as that game's mechanics could be called thus).

sniper_samurai

Nintendo Direct on Friday.

https://twitter.com/NintendoUK/status/1759699512195461595?t=GEGQ2dca0PqM34XhcCMrMg&s=19

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121790746#Comment_121790746

Will be get a release date for Metroid Prime 4 Hi-fi Rush, I wonder?

Potential-Monke

In some news that I may have missed but I don't remember seeing it on here, Sega are remaking 5 of their classics for now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU39hQCnU6U

I was a SNES kid, so this doesn't hype me any. I think they've gone Fortnite look for the Golden Axe remake, Shinobi looks to deliberately be a low fps attempt (watched a LetsPlay of the original for a few minutes, looks smoother and better than this remake), never played Jet Set Radio so meh, same for Crazy Taxi but that looks plain/empty? Streets of Rage actually looks ok. More remakes!

More remakes, Brothers a Tale of Two Sons is getting one, due out 28th of this month. Comparison video is good, and makes this look like there was actual effort put into it. Came out 11 years ago, so they're not Naughty Dogging it at least, and the difference is immediate and amazing looking. Never played it, meant to a few times, so will give this a look depending on price/physical release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9pJk3_gdlM

Pacific Drive is new at least!

CastorTroy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121790746#Comment_121790746

21st is tomorrow. So not that long to wait.

Retr0gamer

I'm excited for the Sega stuff. Sega seem to be turning themselves around like Capcom did. Golden Axe could be fun but we haven't had a good modern interpretation yet. Shinobi looks incredible. It's being handled by the team behind mark of the ninja so should be great.

Mr.Saturn

Was under the impression that Crazy Taxi was a sequel rather than a remake (I've still not played 3), but that's definitely the map from the first game having gotten a fair polish. You do have to wonder if they'll fork out the premium to get Bad Religion and Offspring back in the mix.

Grumpypants

If so inclined, you can use the accessibility features like co pilot (that lets you use two controllers on the one profile) to turn brothers a tale of two sons into a co-op game.

One uses the left stick on controller one. The other uses the right stick on controller two.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121791172#Comment_121791172

More remakes, Brothers a Tale of Two Sons is getting one, due out 28th of this month. Comparison video is good, and makes this look like there was actual effort put into it. Came out 11 years ago,

Bloody héll.

johnny_ultimate

Definitely think the Crazy Taxi game is being pitched as something more substantial than a remake, but there’s only so much info and a tiny bit of footage to go on at the moment. TBH it’s potentially so early they could even just be using the original city map to figure out gameplay. But it is a damn good map. Nothing like roaring down that hill at the start of the map.

There is an overt Crazy Taxi homage / successor / parody in Infinite Wealth too. A little more basic than the original given it’s just a mini game, but a fun little diversion for an hour or so.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121792536#Comment_121792536

It was pointed out on twitter that it sounds very much like the Nintendo X100 series of multiplayer battle Royale games and I think that's something that could work extremely well with crazy taxi. Competing with 100 other players for a regularly diminishing pool of fares could be really good and those Nintendo games are so much fun.

EoinMcLovin

https://youtu.be/UdnBT86B6xQ

trailer out tomorrow

pixelburp

When exactly did "from the producer of..." become a point of promotion? It's such a weird flex; they're just the money-men or middle manager, essentially.

As to the film? Hooooooo boy. Genuine question: are there people who like the Borderlands humour? Cards on table #2 won me over at the start, but it kept going and going and ohmygod it won't stop.

CastorTroy

The producer thing is just a way to try and connect the film to other films they think the audience might like. Very common. Even funnier when it's "From a producer" so not even the main or single producer. Though in this case it seems to be referring to Avi Arad who has produced a lot.

The other version is just attaching a famous name, like how many films or TV shows do you think were by Spielberg even though he was just producer? Or even things like "Quentin Tarantino presents"

Anyway, on topic, I never played the Borderlands games so may check this out at some point, though a long way off yet it seems

Potential-Monke

Cate Blanchett and JLC will be perfect I reckon. Don't know the Florian or Ariana ones, so no idea there. JB as Claptrap will just be JB as JB pretending to be Claptrap. Might work, but I doubt it, should have just used either of the ones from the games. But whoever thought Kevin Hart as Roland was a good idea needs to be removed from the film industry. Loud, obnoxious, shouty mouth same in every movie actor playing someone the complete opposite of him... Like JB, it's just gonna be Kevin Hart but a different name.

As for the humour, I dunno. It's a very particular type that worked in the games at the time. I assume it's just gonna be a generic action movie so I don't think we need to worry too much about the humour being game accurate, or even similar. I don't expect much from it tbh, and I expect Cate and JLC to be the only good things.

Penn

There were definitely elements of the humour and certain characters that were funny.... for a while. It could still get a titter here and there, but all the games after Borderlands 2, instead of new jokes they just tried doing the same jokes but louder and more often. All the characters quickly became an annoyance and doing variances of the same joke/characteristic over and over and over again.

PixelPlayer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121793879#Comment_121793879

A trailer for a trailer. Very video game-y. Is it also 8 years from release?

johnny_ultimate

Still time for Shadow of the Erdtree to slot itself into Horizon’s PC release window 😇

https://twitter.com/eldenring/status/1760076880764449173?s=46&t=nwvJe3fJtU0siJ7wj5mjTA