Industry News / Upcoming Games

[JustKneller]

Slightly related tangent, it always seems weird to me when not buying something because it's too expensive is framed as a "boycott".

I think that's a good point. On one hand, calling these things a boycott has the advantage of highlighting that the consumers have a voice and there's a collective agreement about a product/pricing. On the other hand, it also has a connotation of extremism, when the reality is that the economy is tanking for the average American and they need to re-assess and scale back on a lot of purchases. I can only speak for the US, but the "virtue of selfishness" that has pervaded our economy and culture for so long is not sustainable. I don't recall a time where big price hikes with no real added value to the consumer ever worked out. It's going to hit luxury industries first and hardest. People will have to work more, have less money, and less time to play games. At this point, a lot of (leisure) industries are competing against people's grocery budgets. Good luck with that!

For MS/X-box, they've basically doubled the price, and are going to lose a lot of people. But, I bet they won't lose half, so they'll still come out ahead on profits. They'll see it as a win, and predatory business strategies will get stronger. But, it won't actually affect a lot of people because they'll just drop out of that sub-system.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

"Heroes of Might and Magic" fans will probably enjoy this 30th anniversary celebration video that the Ubisoft Channel on YouTube just released. Also, it mentions there is a documentary being released on the same channel this weekend on October 11.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

Here's the short "Heroes of Might and Magic" documentary video that was promoted in the anniversary video linked in the above post.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

I missed this franchise, somehow. Do you think it would hold up for new players trying it for the first time today? The early ones look dated, but would trying the more recent titles be worth it, or do you need the backstory from the early games?

 

[Chronicler]

I only played Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3, and not recently, but from what I recall there's not really any story to speak of.

It's a little similar to Cid Meyer's Civilization. You have a hero, and a castle. You send your hero out to acquire resources, which you use to build up various parts of the castle, create more units to serve under your heroes, acquire more heroes, more castles, eventually conquering the opposing factions who have of course also been building up their empires.

It's all gameplay really. Should be pretty simple to just pick up and play any of them.

 

[Chronicler]

You could also say it's like if a real time strategy game was turn based.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

I missed this franchise, somehow. Do you think it would hold up for new players trying it for the first time today? The early ones look dated, but would trying the more recent titles be worth it, or do you need the backstory from the early games?

Overwhelmingly the most popular title in the series is "Heroes of Might and Magic 3". It's considered the pinnacle of the series, especially in Eastern Europe. If you want to give it a try to see for yourself what the big deal is, I'd recommend getting that one and leaving the rest on the table for now. Get the complete edition from GoG so you can use mods eventually. Don't get the Steam HD version, because it's missing all the expansions, and it can't be modded with extremely popular mods like "Horn of the Abyss", although my advice would be to play the vanilla game first and then try mods later if you still want more.

There's a loose framework of a story to its campaign mode, involving a queen returning to her home continent to stop invasions and stabilize her nation, but the opening cutscene explains it, and that's pretty much all you need to know story-wise.

The campaign is long and teaches you the basics of playing, but the longevity of the game all these years has more to do with its single map mode. The complete edition includes dozens of standalone maps to play, and the community has made hundreds more you can download.

The gameplay loop involves exploring the overland map, building towns and castles to recruit units, then having combat with enemies who try to take over your towns and castles while you try to take theirs. Each playable faction has six tiers of units that resemble a chess set. Combat is done on a hex-board that resembles a chess board or a tabletop RPG setup. The art and music that make up the game environments are first-rate and arguably are a cornerstone of the success of the franchise.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Thank you for your answers! HoMM 3 is on sale at GOG, too, for anyone else who's curious.

How do you all feel about the new one that's coming out? Reasons for optimism or pessimism?

 

[Skatan]

Thank you for your answers! HoMM 3 is on sale at GOG, too, for anyone else who's curious.

How do you all feel about the new one that's coming out? Reasons for optimism or pessimism?

Just as an FYI it goes on sale a couple of times per year And funnily enough, it's still to this day one of their top sellers each time! (at least from what I've seen when I check their most sold games on sales, so it's anecdotal but still).

 

[Antimatter]

HoMM 3 is still the game I play semi-regularly. The HD modding community keeps working on supporing the MP lobby, and the HotA mod is like a huge expansion for the game, now with 2 additional towns. This game still has ranked competitive play, this factor alone can prove the game is alive. I haven't played ranked games though. For me personally, the most fun aspect is exploring the map and building your army against difficult enemies, so it's more about making decisions on logistics.

HoMM 5 is also a great game in the series. It's early 3D, and it blends more RPG elements into your heroes' development. Just as HoMM3, this game has hundreds of hours where you can learn about different towns, their heroes, and play fun games vs the AI.

I played the 6th and the 7th entries into the franchise, and while I had some fun, I never came back to them.

The new game recently got a demo on Steam, and the reviews so far have been quite positive. You can freely download and play the demo.

 

[Xzarloxara]

I have played a lot of Heroes 3 over the years and to a lesser extent 4 and 5. Heroes 3 is probably the best one they made and I can definitely recommend it, even these days. There is a story and lore to the games, but it is rather unimportant in the grand scheme of the games.

 

[Cahir]

While I agree that HoMM 3 od probably the best of series, I have a soft spot for HoMM 2, because it was the first HoMM game I have played. It was something magical in seeing and playing this game for the first time as a kid.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

While I agree that HoMM 3 od probably the best of series, I have a soft spot for HoMM 2, because it was the first HoMM game I have played. It was something magical in seeing and playing this game for the first time as a kid.

I still play all of 1-6 from time to time. I never got into 7, though. I didn't think it was bad, necessarily, but it just didn't click with me at the time for whatever reason. I have huge nostalgia for 1 and 2, which unavoidably and powerfully affects how I feel about them and why I still play them.

"Heroes of Might and Magic 1" was my very first computer game way back in the 1990's. I came to it after playing "Dark Wizard" on Sega CD, and I wanted more fantasy strategy games to play, plus I wanted to get more use out of my shiny new PC with 250 mb RAM that was sitting in my living room and doing nothing but AoL email, typing letters, and solitaire.

HoMM 2 was my second PC game after HoMM 1. I spent so many hours staying up almost all night every night for a year or two playing those. Then I noticed Might and Magic 6, which reminded me of my old D&D games with high school friends, so I got that and got hooked. More sleepless nights followed. Then came Baldur's Gate, and you all know about that and what it means to all of us. Then there was HoMM 3, and all the sequels to Might and Magic (MM7, MM8) and Baldur's Gate (ToSC, BG2, ToB). It was truly a golden age of PC RPG gaming.

As far as the new HoMM Olden Era, I'm withholding judgement until I see a lot more information and gameplay development for it.

 

[Antimatter]

This week saw Amazon's AI-powered layoff of 14,000 employees... Among all the bad things, this fact stood out to me the most:

As Amazon's game business crumbles, the public is surprised to discover that it was trying to compete with Steam all this time

If you're wondering how it all went so wrong, former VP Ethan Evans might be able to shed some light on things.

www.pcgamer.com

Amazon's overarching goal, according to a LinkedIn post we reported on in February, was to "disrupt the game platform Steam." No problemo, right? As Evans wrote on LinkedIn, "We were at least 250x bigger [than Steam]," and that's a pretty good starting point.

Ah, but problemo indeed. "The 15+ year long attempt to challenge Steam started before I was VP of Prime Gaming, but we never cracked the code," Evans wrote. "Not under my leadership or anyone else's."

"At Amazon, we assumed that size and visibility would be enough to attract customers, but we underestimated the power of existing user habits," Evans admitted in his February LinkedIn post. "We never validated our core assumptions before investing heavily in solutions. The truth is that gamers already had the solution to their problems, and they weren't going to switch platforms just because a new one was available.

"We needed to build something dramatically better, but we failed to do so. And we needed to validate our assumptions about our customers before starting to build. But we never really did that either. Just because you are big enough to build something doesn't mean people will use it."

The extent of Amazon's failure to crack the Steam nut is revealed in the fact that not only did it fail to compete, but lots of people didn't even know it was trying in the first place. That's, uhh, really not a good sign.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Hey, at least there's an AI Snoop Dog game!

I couldn't give a fuck about Amazon trying to build a game platform (as pathetic as that is), tbh, but the AI layoffs are really depressing. When the AI bubble bursts, we're going to have a real mess on our hands. But, sadly, that crash is the best outcome to hope for.

 

[JustKneller]

This week saw Amazon's AI-powered layoff of 14,000 employees

Just in time for the holidays. What saints they are over there...

When the AI bubble bursts, we're going to have a real mess on our hands.

I'm not so sure that is going to happen. At least not explicitly, or any time soon. I think we're more likely to see the economic catastrophe caused by a combination of AI job replacement and trade tariffs (at least in the U.S.). Both factors drive down consumption dramatically which can grind an economy to a halt.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

I'm not so sure that is going to happen. At least not explicitly, or any time soon. I think we're more likely to see the economic catastrophe caused by a combination of AI job replacement and trade tariffs (at least in the U.S.). Both factors drive down consumption dramatically which can grind an economy to a halt.

I think the crash may be delayed by the post-truth phenomenon we’re in, but it’s coming.

The experts are saying that AI isn’t good for much of anything requiring real thought or nuance, so it will be interesting to see how these companies do if they’re laying crucial people off.

 

[Antimatter]

Another topic of this week is Satya Nadella's quote that games these days compete with TikTok and YT shorts (and that's why, apparently, Xbox games often fail--according to him). I can recommend this article by Jez Corden. This statement has become a bit controversial.

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/satya-nadellas-xbox-competes-with-tiktok-comments-dont-make-sense-but-not-for-the-reason-you-think

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Yet another reminder of how old I am.

 

[JustKneller]

That's really interesting. I wasn't aware that MS already lost the console wars. I also never thought of games as competing with 30-second video clips of random and inane things. I play games for an interactive experience. If I watch YT shorts, it's usually because I'm somewhere where I only have my phone and am looking for some time killing quick entertainment. I never choose between the two. If I can game, gaming wins.