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Let's have a thread to discuss events, game announcements, releases, and whatnot-- about the gaming industry. It would be cool if discussion here could fluctuate from one news bit to another depending on what is happening.
Industry News / Upcoming Games
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I will open it up by mentioning the upcoming release (February 4) of Dying Light 2, an action RPG developed by Techland. It's a sequel to 2015's Dying Light - an acclaimed first-person survival horror game about zombies.
Dying Light 2 has a bit of a difficult development history but for now, it seems like the developers have solved the majority of their issues and the game looks promising.
Contrary to popular belief, Chris Avellone didn’t write the whole story and just did a few quests for the upcoming game. Chris Avellone was the one who presented Dying Light 2 at E3 2018, so maybe that’s why a lot of people thought that he was the face of this game.
However, with or without Chris, the game sounds like an ambitious project. PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon got hands-on with Dying Light 2 for a four-hour preview of what's to come. "Every conversation I had was overwrought and amusingly melodramatic" Wes said, "...the writing and acting for story beats feel like they belong to a game from a half-decade ago that hasn't aged particularly well." He also detailed further that the characters all feel morally ambiguous, but in a fairly obvious way we've come to expect from anything painting itself with the post-apocalypse color scheme. These choices do have concrete results that can be worth your time, though. As you sway the groups who control an area, you may find parkour aids from helping out the survivors, or traps for killing zombies if you work for the more militaristic and ironically named peacekeepers. We don't yet know how the smaller sample will add up in the larger story—and access to the other districts of the city—and there could be far more compelling characters and choices ahead. But for the moment, the most exciting part remains the gun-free melee combat and running wild-and-free on the rooftops and ruins of Dying Light 2's massive city.
We need to remember that Techland was also joined by at least one member of The Witcher 3 writing team: Karolina Stachyra, known for her work on the Bloody Baron questline. I like that quest VERY much, so this sounds promising.
Dying Light 2 has a bit of a difficult development history but for now, it seems like the developers have solved the majority of their issues and the game looks promising.
Contrary to popular belief, Chris Avellone didn’t write the whole story and just did a few quests for the upcoming game. Chris Avellone was the one who presented Dying Light 2 at E3 2018, so maybe that’s why a lot of people thought that he was the face of this game.
However, with or without Chris, the game sounds like an ambitious project. PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon got hands-on with Dying Light 2 for a four-hour preview of what's to come. "Every conversation I had was overwrought and amusingly melodramatic" Wes said, "...the writing and acting for story beats feel like they belong to a game from a half-decade ago that hasn't aged particularly well." He also detailed further that the characters all feel morally ambiguous, but in a fairly obvious way we've come to expect from anything painting itself with the post-apocalypse color scheme. These choices do have concrete results that can be worth your time, though. As you sway the groups who control an area, you may find parkour aids from helping out the survivors, or traps for killing zombies if you work for the more militaristic and ironically named peacekeepers. We don't yet know how the smaller sample will add up in the larger story—and access to the other districts of the city—and there could be far more compelling characters and choices ahead. But for the moment, the most exciting part remains the gun-free melee combat and running wild-and-free on the rooftops and ruins of Dying Light 2's massive city.
We need to remember that Techland was also joined by at least one member of The Witcher 3 writing team: Karolina Stachyra, known for her work on the Bloody Baron questline. I like that quest VERY much, so this sounds promising.
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The biggest news of the month that just finished involved 2 major acquisitions: Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard ($68.7 billion), while Sony acquired Bungie ($3.6 billion).
"Unlike Microsoft’s deal with Activision Blizzard, it’s not particularly clear what Sony is getting from this partnership. Whereas we can reasonably assume that Activision series will eventually become Xbox exclusives a la Bethesda, it seems that Sony has instead acquired Bungie for different reasons outside of producing PS5-only games. Perhaps the studio is working on another, non-Destiny IP that Sony is interested in, or maybe Sony just wants Bungie around to help it with the development of a first-party live service game considering Destiny‘s success. At this point, we’re not really sure." https://www.playstationlifestyle.ne...pinion-sony-buys-bungie-microsoft-activision/
What are your opinions about these deals?
"Unlike Microsoft’s deal with Activision Blizzard, it’s not particularly clear what Sony is getting from this partnership. Whereas we can reasonably assume that Activision series will eventually become Xbox exclusives a la Bethesda, it seems that Sony has instead acquired Bungie for different reasons outside of producing PS5-only games. Perhaps the studio is working on another, non-Destiny IP that Sony is interested in, or maybe Sony just wants Bungie around to help it with the development of a first-party live service game considering Destiny‘s success. At this point, we’re not really sure." https://www.playstationlifestyle.ne...pinion-sony-buys-bungie-microsoft-activision/
What are your opinions about these deals?
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Sounds like the game is getting lots of positive reviews from players, and the main draw is fun people have while playing the game. An underwhelming story but a massive, exciting sandbox of parkour and kinetic combat.
Dying Light 2 Has Shambled Onto Steam's 25 Most-Played Games of All Time by Concurrent Players - IGN
Dying Light 2 appears to be off to a strong start, as it has already shambled its way onto Steam's top 25 most-played games of all time with a peak concurrent player count of 274,983.
I'm glad to see how the initial promise actually turned into a real game here.
One thing that needs to be added: Dying Light 2 is a good example of a game where adding RPG genre elements didn't seem to make it better:
I really wish Dying Light 2 wasn't an RPG
Please just let me enjoy the parkour, Techland.
alice_ashpool
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An open world action game with lite rpg mechanics... quelle surprise
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Phil Spencer wants to make Starfield the ‘most-played Bethesda game ever’ | VGC
The sci-fi title is coming to Xbox Series X/S, PC and Game Pass in November…
www.videogameschronicle.com
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It sounds so, so odd about the Sims 4 and Russia. But then again, with that country, non-released DLC is the least of their concerns.
The next big game is Horizon Forbidden West. Its reviews are very good.
The next big game is Horizon Forbidden West. Its reviews are very good.
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One can hope this will turn out to be a proper game. Ubisoft often gets a lot of flak, but I've enjoyed their Assassin's Creed: Odyssey game.
www.nme.com
"In a listing on the Ubisoft careers page (spotted by VGC), Ubisoft says that it is looking for a Senior Brand Manager to “champion the brand marketing and product marketability of a new Might and Magic AAA game. Under the management of the Brand director, join an ambitious team and help reinvent one [of] the biggest fantasy franchise"
Now I have to stop imagining this, but with new quests, storylines and worlds to explore...
Ubisoft is hiring for a new ‘Might and Magic’ game
A new job listing states that a new 'Might and Magic' game is in development.
www.nme.com
"In a listing on the Ubisoft careers page (spotted by VGC), Ubisoft says that it is looking for a Senior Brand Manager to “champion the brand marketing and product marketability of a new Might and Magic AAA game. Under the management of the Brand director, join an ambitious team and help reinvent one [of] the biggest fantasy franchise"
Now I have to stop imagining this, but with new quests, storylines and worlds to explore...
BelgarathMTH
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I've seen the news about Ubisoft's job announcement in our Reddit subs. Those of us who are long time fans of the franchise are not holding our breaths. Ubisoft's most recent release under the "Might and Magic" title was a mobile arena type thing. Most of us suspect there will be some kind of gacha style game or DLC money grab upcoming. Ubisoft has a terrible reputation among Might and Magic fans, of releasing buggy, unfinished products that are outsourced to obscure developers who are fired as soon as the game releases, pulling the plug on servers for online connection required games, and just generally not understanding or caring what fans of the franchise want.
Thanks for helping to spread the news, though. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade. I'd be happier than anybody if they actually released something new in the franchise that was as good as MM 6-8 or HoMM 1-4. I actually enjoyed their Might and Magic X: Legacy, but it had an online DRM check in it to get past the first tutorial town which served as a demo, and they pulled the plug on that server, rendering everyone's copies of it unplayable. I've read they finally went back and did something about the DRM problem, but I haven't tried to play it since then to confirm that it works again.
Thanks for helping to spread the news, though. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade. I'd be happier than anybody if they actually released something new in the franchise that was as good as MM 6-8 or HoMM 1-4. I actually enjoyed their Might and Magic X: Legacy, but it had an online DRM check in it to get past the first tutorial town which served as a demo, and they pulled the plug on that server, rendering everyone's copies of it unplayable. I've read they finally went back and did something about the DRM problem, but I haven't tried to play it since then to confirm that it works again.
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An update! EA reversed its decision. My Wedding Stories will be released in Russia, and it will be “unaltered and unchanged.” As first reported by VICE, in a letter posted to the game’s website, the Sims development team told its community that “we’ve reassessed our options and realized we can do more than we initially believed.” Since the studio has decided to release the wedding expansion in Russia, the worldwide launch date for My Wedding Stories has been pushed back from February 17 to February 23. EA promised that the game’s content would not be changed for the Russian edition.
Sims 4’s Queer-Friendly Wedding Expansion To Be Released In Russia After Community 'Outpouring'
EA will release My Wedding Stories in Russia unaltered despite the nation’s homophobic laws
kotaku.com
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Yeah, I heard about that Might and Magic X: Legacy problem when it first appeared and didn't like the initial reaction to take down the whole game. However, as the article says, "Ubisoft later fixed the issues and returned Might and Magic 10 to storefronts. Players also received The Falcon & The Unicorn downloadable content for free as an apology. In a statement, Ubisoft said, “our teams have spent the last few months investigating and testing the different solutions to make sure players’ experience lives up to our standards in terms of quality of service.”
Over the last 2 years, Ubisoft has seen a lot of leadership changes in response to harassment & bad culture complaints. I think these changes have already started to influence their games positively, with AC: Valhalla getting tons of free DLC and even a free DLC for AC: Odyssey.
I know and share the same thoughts about how Ubisoft handled the M&M franchise in the past. I played Might & Magic Heroes VI on its release and saw how that 3rd party developer was fired. M&M Heroes VII developers had nearly the same fate. Can't say I didn't enjoy any of these games, I think VII is pretty decent. But of course, neither of those games became the true heir to HoMM III or V. But there is hope the lessons have been learnt.
You can look at this list of games developed by Ubisoft Shanghai: https://www.igdb.com/companies/ubisoft-shanghai/best A pretty good list, to be honest.
So there might be some hope for the next M&M title.
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Horizon Forbidden West has been out since last Friday, and I want to quote this review by Kotaku which I agree with. A few snippets:
"It is perhaps unfair to measure Horizon Forbidden West against the lofty expectations established by Zero Dawn. Let’s rewind for a second to the 2010s, a not-exactly-halcyon era that saw the big studios of the world caught up in a cycle of sequels and threequels and prequels. Here we had a brand-new series from a studio (Guerrilla Games) best known—and perhaps written off by some—for a quintessentially generic series of sci-fi shooters known as Killzone. But this new game…man, it wasn’t just good. With its distinct action and unforgettable enemies, it was phenomenal, setting a standard for what an ambitious big-budget video game could accomplish. How fun! How fresh! How pleasantly unexpected.
From the jump, Horizon Forbidden West could never pull off the same hat trick. Its biggest gimmick—that it uses fossilized behemoths from the Mesozoic as blueprints for artificially intelligent war machines—isn’t a novelty that can be replicated. You know how it goes: You see one robot T. Rex, you’ve seen ‘em all.
To compensate for a lack of what experts call “holy shit!”-ness, Horizon Forbidden West distracts by throwing more at you—more giant robot dinosaurs, more Hollywood A-listers, more lens flare, more skill trees and upgrade materials and weapon variations and categories of optional activities, more, more, more, more, more."
"Five years ago, Horizon Zero Dawn stood out among the crowd by openly challenging what we’d fairly come to expect from the insatiable serialization machine. Horizon Forbidden West has succumbed to the same machine."
"But behind every small convenience hides a slightly less-small inconvenience, showing how the Horizon series—yeah, it’s a series now—has failed to keep pace with advancements made by open-world game design over the past half a decade."
"I thoroughly enjoyed Horizon Forbidden West, and I suspect anyone who loves open-world RPGs will thoroughly enjoy it as well. But despite getting a kick out of fighting robot dinos, despite the enthralling time sink of “Machine Strike,” despite finding myself ravenous to return to this rich, inspired open world, I can’t shake how plainly Forbidden West misses the one philosophical throughline that helped its predecessor ascend to greatness: Sometimes, the question is more interesting than the answer."
The next big game is, of course, Elden Ring. Here is the release trailer:
"It is perhaps unfair to measure Horizon Forbidden West against the lofty expectations established by Zero Dawn. Let’s rewind for a second to the 2010s, a not-exactly-halcyon era that saw the big studios of the world caught up in a cycle of sequels and threequels and prequels. Here we had a brand-new series from a studio (Guerrilla Games) best known—and perhaps written off by some—for a quintessentially generic series of sci-fi shooters known as Killzone. But this new game…man, it wasn’t just good. With its distinct action and unforgettable enemies, it was phenomenal, setting a standard for what an ambitious big-budget video game could accomplish. How fun! How fresh! How pleasantly unexpected.
From the jump, Horizon Forbidden West could never pull off the same hat trick. Its biggest gimmick—that it uses fossilized behemoths from the Mesozoic as blueprints for artificially intelligent war machines—isn’t a novelty that can be replicated. You know how it goes: You see one robot T. Rex, you’ve seen ‘em all.
To compensate for a lack of what experts call “holy shit!”-ness, Horizon Forbidden West distracts by throwing more at you—more giant robot dinosaurs, more Hollywood A-listers, more lens flare, more skill trees and upgrade materials and weapon variations and categories of optional activities, more, more, more, more, more."
"Five years ago, Horizon Zero Dawn stood out among the crowd by openly challenging what we’d fairly come to expect from the insatiable serialization machine. Horizon Forbidden West has succumbed to the same machine."
"But behind every small convenience hides a slightly less-small inconvenience, showing how the Horizon series—yeah, it’s a series now—has failed to keep pace with advancements made by open-world game design over the past half a decade."
"I thoroughly enjoyed Horizon Forbidden West, and I suspect anyone who loves open-world RPGs will thoroughly enjoy it as well. But despite getting a kick out of fighting robot dinos, despite the enthralling time sink of “Machine Strike,” despite finding myself ravenous to return to this rich, inspired open world, I can’t shake how plainly Forbidden West misses the one philosophical throughline that helped its predecessor ascend to greatness: Sometimes, the question is more interesting than the answer."
The next big game is, of course, Elden Ring. Here is the release trailer:
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Seems like we're witnessing a rather unique (in today's gaming) situation where a game that has been hyped a lot actually not only lives up to that hype but probably even surpasses it. Elden Ring is breaking records on aggregate sites like Metacritic and OpenCritic. On both aggregators, the game holds an impressive 97 score(!). This has positioned Elden Ring as one of the best-reviewed PS5 games of all time on Metacritic and the highest-rated game of all time on OpenCritic.
What is more, it sounds like the game moves the genre of open-world games forward (unlike Horizon Forbidden West for example).
IGN:
"more than anything else I was in near-constant awe–from the many absolutely jaw-dropping vistas, the sheer scope of an absolutely enormous world, the frequently harrowing enemies, and the way in which Elden Ring nearly always rewarded my curiosity with either an interesting encounter, a valuable reward, or something even greater."
Hardcore Gamer:
"Elden Ring is one of the best games in years, with a breathtaking vast world to explore, and one of the most satisfying combat systems in an RPG. This is the accumulation of FromSoftware’s work over the last thirteen years and an evolution on its inspiring formula."
One More Game:
"Elden Ring is the logical evolution in the trademark souls formula, borrowing the best features from previous titles and blending them into a finely-tuned mix of intense combat and high-pressure precision. While veterans will surely enjoy the punishment that comes with it, newcomers are treated to what could arguably be one of FromSoftware's more approachable titles to get into."
What is more, it sounds like the game moves the genre of open-world games forward (unlike Horizon Forbidden West for example).
IGN:
"more than anything else I was in near-constant awe–from the many absolutely jaw-dropping vistas, the sheer scope of an absolutely enormous world, the frequently harrowing enemies, and the way in which Elden Ring nearly always rewarded my curiosity with either an interesting encounter, a valuable reward, or something even greater."
Hardcore Gamer:
"Elden Ring is one of the best games in years, with a breathtaking vast world to explore, and one of the most satisfying combat systems in an RPG. This is the accumulation of FromSoftware’s work over the last thirteen years and an evolution on its inspiring formula."
One More Game:
"Elden Ring is the logical evolution in the trademark souls formula, borrowing the best features from previous titles and blending them into a finely-tuned mix of intense combat and high-pressure precision. While veterans will surely enjoy the punishment that comes with it, newcomers are treated to what could arguably be one of FromSoftware's more approachable titles to get into."
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Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft and Epic Games suspended their services in Russia. They joined big names like Netflix, EA Games and CDPR in boycotting the country over its illegal war.
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The Elden Ring release has sparked a big debate about open worlds in games. Here is the context (I've tried to search for a more or less balanced view on the matter):
Here is the story about the current debate which also has a MEME picture of how the UI "would have looked" if Elden Ring was created by Ubisoft:
screenrant.com
Here is the story about the current debate which also has a MEME picture of how the UI "would have looked" if Elden Ring was created by Ubisoft:
Elden Ring Meme Reimagines It As A Cluttered Ubisoft Game
The meme pokes fun at games like Assassin's Creed.
Chronicler
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Eh, this guy's fear seems to be pretty much just how things work in general.
The Lord of the Rings was popular so for the next few decades fantasy novels were almost exclusively lesser writers trying their hand at Lord of the Rings. Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns were popular so comics had a whole phase of mostly unsuccessful imitators to those two books. So on and so forth.
I don't think debating on twitter with all the nuance in the world could prevent it, and honestly Shitty Dark Souls sounds better than the shitty games they'd be replacing anyway.
The Lord of the Rings was popular so for the next few decades fantasy novels were almost exclusively lesser writers trying their hand at Lord of the Rings. Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns were popular so comics had a whole phase of mostly unsuccessful imitators to those two books. So on and so forth.
I don't think debating on twitter with all the nuance in the world could prevent it, and honestly Shitty Dark Souls sounds better than the shitty games they'd be replacing anyway.
Chronicler
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@Urdnot_Wrex I feel like you're making my statement into something much more extreme than it is.
At the end of the day, most of art isn't "The Classics" or whatever. There's a lot of shlock that's gonna be made no matter what the current trends are. And honestly, that's not always a bad thing. I like a lot of shlock. That being said, the developers that this dude fears will be making shitty dark souls clones, they weren't going to be making innovative classics if only that nasty trend hadn't taken hold of the media landscape. It's not like skilled craftsmen just suddenly become bad at their work when games that are light on the user interface become the hot new thing.
At the end of the day, most of art isn't "The Classics" or whatever. There's a lot of shlock that's gonna be made no matter what the current trends are. And honestly, that's not always a bad thing. I like a lot of shlock. That being said, the developers that this dude fears will be making shitty dark souls clones, they weren't going to be making innovative classics if only that nasty trend hadn't taken hold of the media landscape. It's not like skilled craftsmen just suddenly become bad at their work when games that are light on the user interface become the hot new thing.
Chronicler
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People do have a tendency to divide everything into binary extremes.
That being said, with the User Interface thing I'm skeptical that we can expect both sides to be satisfied. Look at Final Fantasy for example. Early final fantasy games, you talk to people, they tell you where stuff is, you go find it. The cave of the damned is to the west of the pit of pratfalls. You follow the directions and there it is.
Bravely Default, same company, same vein of game, technically a different franchise. They introduce a map with quest markers. They tell you to go to the cave of the damned, you follow the market on the map and there it is.
There is an option to remove the marker, but what you'll rapidly find is that nobody in this game actually tells you how to find anything. You're just running around like a chicken with your head cut off hoping to stumble upon this cave of the damned you've been told is so important.
The Developers very clearly made this game with the user interface in mind, and the ability to remove the user interface, while on its surface an adequate appeasement to the people who prefer that kind of thing, isn't really when the whole game is designed around it.
And personally, I do prefer the old way of doing things in this respect. If there's a case where there's doubt about which would be the appropriate route for this game, I'd prefer the dark souls method to be the default rather than the opposite.
That being said, with the User Interface thing I'm skeptical that we can expect both sides to be satisfied. Look at Final Fantasy for example. Early final fantasy games, you talk to people, they tell you where stuff is, you go find it. The cave of the damned is to the west of the pit of pratfalls. You follow the directions and there it is.
Bravely Default, same company, same vein of game, technically a different franchise. They introduce a map with quest markers. They tell you to go to the cave of the damned, you follow the market on the map and there it is.
There is an option to remove the marker, but what you'll rapidly find is that nobody in this game actually tells you how to find anything. You're just running around like a chicken with your head cut off hoping to stumble upon this cave of the damned you've been told is so important.
The Developers very clearly made this game with the user interface in mind, and the ability to remove the user interface, while on its surface an adequate appeasement to the people who prefer that kind of thing, isn't really when the whole game is designed around it.
And personally, I do prefer the old way of doing things in this respect. If there's a case where there's doubt about which would be the appropriate route for this game, I'd prefer the dark souls method to be the default rather than the opposite.
Chronicler
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That's fair.
If we're talking immersion vs convenience I think Skyrim handled it pretty well with the quick travel. There is a quick travel function that can take you anywhere in the game immediately, but I never felt like I was fighting the game when I tried to explore it on foot. And there are the taxis that'll take you to major cities for a small price as a sort of middleground between these two extremes too. Don't know if I could articulate what made that different from bad examples terribly well but in the hands of a capable developer these sorts of things are possible.
If we're talking immersion vs convenience I think Skyrim handled it pretty well with the quick travel. There is a quick travel function that can take you anywhere in the game immediately, but I never felt like I was fighting the game when I tried to explore it on foot. And there are the taxis that'll take you to major cities for a small price as a sort of middleground between these two extremes too. Don't know if I could articulate what made that different from bad examples terribly well but in the hands of a capable developer these sorts of things are possible.
Chronicler
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And yeah, I know using Bethesda as my example of a "Capable Developer" might ruffle some feathers, but despite their faults they've done a lot of things well over the years and I think that's one of them.