All I remember seeing of Fairgames is a generic CG trailer so I don’t have strong feelings about it but if the development is that troubled they should just kill it.
If Arrowhead’s next game is a co-op or solo focused game (I stopped enjoying competitive multiplayer years ago) which equals Helldivers 2 in quality I don’t care who publishes it.
In hindsight Sony missed a trick but merely funding the game as opposed to buying the studio was a reasonable move at the time. H1 was a great game but only a modest success and even many who had looking forward to H2 didn’t expect it to be as popular as it is.
I have hundreds of hours of fond memories of playing the LBPs and their user generated content with my then young daughters (who also played it a lot with their friends) but I’m okay with this. It’s just a logo.
I’m passing on this remaster for now. I spent a lot of time playing OG Oblivion very early in its life on PC. I just wandered around doing random stuff (mostly but not only dungeons and suchlike) for dozens of hours. I enjoyed it but got my fill of it and what with BG3’s recent patch 8 and Clair Obscure Expedition 33 hitting tomorrow the rpg section of my dance card will be full for the foreseeable future. Looks really nice though.
Been playing Helldivers 2, Gran Turismo 7 and Underdogs. Underdogs is a VR mech combat roguelike with incredibly brutal combat. I’ve plucked an enemy out of midair and used it to club it’s buddies, held an enemy down on the ground with one hand and chopped it to pieces with a heavy blade, backhanded an enemy so hard it flew into the guy behind it and charged through a hoard of small bots in order to avoid getting surrounded. Good times.
Looks very nice. I’ve missed the last couple From Soulslikes (just haven’t been in the mood for them) but given the massive sales of Elden Ring I am kinda surprised their last two announced projects have been online multiplayer focused.
It’s not for me since I’m a one system guy nowadays and I’m happy with the PS5 but Nintendo’s uniting of its broad core gamer portable fan base with its narrow console one (portable Nintendo systems have consistently had broad, healthy support from developers the core console has lacked since the N64) has been successful so I am sure it will do well.
Shakes head I knew my 3DS (whose gimmick like that of the Wii U failed to resonate with anyone though it’s sales weren’t quite as dire) was going to become nothing more than a paperweight when Nintendo decided to cancel 3DS versions of pretty much everything, even Pokémon.
Website polls are only representative of the views of people that frequent the website(s).
Which isn’t to say they have no value but they might not align with the views of the public at large.
I am not saying there is no money to be made by resurrecting dead franchises, but it’s worth keeping in mind most of them die due to consumer indifference or because the developer decided they wanted to move on either because they ran out of ideas or because some other concept interested them more.
The videos I’ve watched on YouTube look good. I’m in the middle of Underdogs (brutal fun) and Arcade Paradise (more of a business simulator than anything) but once I finish one of those I’ll pick it up.
A guy who helms a Mario franchise is calling for Japanese developers to focus on their domestic audience and not worry about foreign sensibilities? Okay.
I’m not questioning the Japaneseness of Mario or Smash Brothers (they are as Japanese as any other game out there) I am pointing out that commercial art tends to be a broad thing whose creators draw from a range of influences including but not just local folklore.
Never heard of it but realistically most games are commercial failures in no small part due to an ever more competitive marketplace. Not only are increasing numbers of games released yearly but there are lots of timesinks and/or games with long sales legs floating around.
Dancing on the bones of GAAS is what’s most popular online but guaranteed success is a very, very rare thing in games in particular and commercial art in general.
Out of Sight’s trailer completely sold me on the game (intriguing premise, creepy graphics and VR and horror usually work well together). Roboquest’s vibrant visuals and the variety of weapons and enemies make it a likely buy for me.
I love city builders and enjoy survival games now and again but I need to see more gameplay of the VR adaptation of Surviving Mars. ‘Need to see more’ also applies to Wrath and Shadowgate.
The only game completely off my radar is Postal 2. Shrugs Its sense of humor just doesn’t work for me.
I’ve never played any of the games in question but a simple Google search indicates that the Quest exclusives games Insomniac built for the platform before Sony bought them have flickered on and off the Quest store for at least the past few years.
I doubt VR will break out of its niche (of which I am a part and have been since the PSVR1 launched) anytime soon but it’s kinda strange to attach a larger meaning to this yearly (at least) event.
Also, I don’t think being niche is bad (or for that matter, good) developers who hope to be around for the long haul just have to keep in mind a game’s probable earnings and budget accordingly.
Playing Age of Mythology (I’m early in but the campaign is quite enjoyable), Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero (I’ve long been a fan of the FFT subgenre), Helldivers 2 (I’ve put in several hundred hours and the massive, crazy battles never cease to surprise and amuse) and Gran Turismo 7 in VR (I love the feel/feedback).
I love the Horizon games (if hunting robot dinosaurs with a bow is wrong I don’t want to right) but I’ve never been interested in the Monster Hunter games so I’ll pass on Horizon online if that is the formula it follows. I’ll be there for Horizon 3 though.
I have enjoyed QD’s games and hope that their relationship with Netease is as good as they think it is so I can play new games from them in the future.
As a guy who did a lot of mountain hiking as a Boy Scout and really messed up the first time I did so by overloading with water (when we stopped my Sciutmaster examined my pack, laughed and redistributed the weight to the rest of the troop 😅) I appreciated how well Death Stranding nailed mountain traversal and packing for said traversal. I played through DS twice when it came out. I never got around to the revised edition but I am interested in the sequel,
Sounds fair to me. As a big Helldivers 2 fan the one day outage (on H2’s anniversary) was an inconvenience but the other game I’m currently playing is the offline Phantom Brave The Lost Hero and that worked fine.
@Dragoon1994 Interesting list. It’s been years since I’ve thought of Viva Pinata. I bought that game and played it with my daughters when they were very young but we didnt get far because a key part of the game was developing the land, luring in piñatas and then smashing some of them in order to lure in bigger, fancier piñatas. The smashing piñatas thing was a step too far for my kids so we never unlocked most of the pinatas 😋.
I can still sing the theme song but I think Viva Piñata’s concept is why it didn’t become the hit among younger gamers MS seemed to want it to be.
I was a huge Halo fan when it started but I lost interest in it many years ago (my last Halo was 4). I beat each of the first three at least a couple times solo and played through them in co-op countless times (both online and in person). The problem for me was the campaigns of the franchise declined in quality due to the focus shifting to competitive multiplayer and the franchise transitioning from Bungie to 343 (which recently rebranded itself to Halo Stufios).
Shrugs Of course Halo’s online competitive multiplayer has been far and away the largest driver of the franchise since arguably Halo 2 so if they get that part right I’m sure Halo will do well commercially.
I agree with detractors that the stars of Horizon are the giant robot dinosaurs, the bow and it’s many arrows and the vast, verdant wilderness but I think they are great hooks to hang one’s hat on. I love strong characters in games but I am a longtime gamer (since the Magnavox Odyssey) and in action adventure games I care more about the action and the world than anything else.
Without footage I have no strong feelings about the movie but I’m interested in seeing whatever the next game is (I skipped the Lego game but loved the mainline games and mostly enjoyed Call of the Wild).
That being said I’d also be fine with Guerilla doing something new or even making another KZ game (for my money the current high point of the franchise is KZ2, which was the closest thing to the PC’s F.EA.R. on console).
I’ve been a Team Asobi fan since The Playroom (which I played with my then very young daughters) and the latest Astrobot continues their trend of sweet, playful games which use tech in interesting ways. I’m not surprised them releasing a paid game aimed at a base console has turned out so well. As a big fan of the PlayStation portables coming across a Loco Roco stage while wearing a Kat suit (from Gravity Rush) hit me right in the feels.
The success of Helldivers 2 surprised me. I was a fan of the original game but I ‘only’ played it for a couple dozen hours. Helldivers 2 drew me in a lot deeper (I play two to three matches early in the morning before work and several on weekends and now have over 400 hours). The change in perspective makes everything a lot more visceral. I love the feel of the game and the hundreds of randoms I’ve played with have been overwhelmingly pleasant to play alongside. You and everybody else try not to make mistakes but you take them in stride because battlefields are often chaotic. I laughed out loud yesterday when in the middle of a pitched fight with a horde of zombies who had surrounded me on all sides I was suddenly flattened by the new jeep (driven by an understandably inexperienced driver trying to help me out). The zombies died and I lived (heavy armor FTW!) so it worked.
Another pleasant surprise for me was The Last Spell. I know it was on Xbox and PC long before and was even for PS a bit before I picked it up but I enjoy playing it. I must suck at it because I haven’t beaten it yet but it’s my second most played game this year behind Helldivers 2 in part because it’s very Portal friendly (in the afternoon I tend to be a second screen gamer and I tend to play games which allow me to quickly shift focus). Speaking of which, the Portal becoming a hit was a surprise just because the entire internet seemed to hate the idea.
I had a tough time wrapping my head around Path of the Goddess when I saw the first trailer but the demo sold me on it and it’s one of my favorite games. So I’ll put it in the nice surprise category.
I could go on but suffice to say as a gamer it has been a great year.
Shrugs Game trailers are at best real-time footage of games running at their best (omitting bugs, crashes and glitches) and at worst are target renders of some far off vision developers hope to eventually realize if they are lucky.
My reactions to trailers tend to be colored as much by my experience with the developers/publishers and the perception of the genre than the trailers themselves. I missed the show but the three most exciting trailers I’ve seen are the Helldivers 2 one (I am a longtime franchise fan and have already spent a half dozen hours fighting the Illuminate invasion), the Team Ico one (very gauzy but at least I know they are working on something in their wheelhouse) and the Naughy Dog sci-fi game (looks interesting and it’s great that they are making something new).
As for the notion that games are too complex, I’ve been gaming most of my 50 years (started on my father’s Magnavox Odyssey in the late 70’s) back when games were single person affairs. I agree games are a lot bigger in scope and complexity than they used to be, but I’d argue that has been driven by the demands of gamers, the ambitions of game developers, and the openness of game development which allows everybody and their grandmother can release games.
I think that’s a good trend which has resulted in a broad range of games which appeals to a broad range of people but the downside is that like movies, books and even music there is waaay more content out there than gamers know or care about (dozens of games released daily, the average gamer buys a game a year). That’s not a problem for consumers or successful games but it sucks for the many, many developers and/or publishers who get the short straw.
I owned a PS5 since shortly after launch and picked up a Pro at launch. Ultimately I only wound up spending $350 (sold the original system for that once the data transferred over).
The Pro hasn’t changed the games I currently play the most (Helldivers 2, Gran Turismo 7 and Metaphor Refantazio) but they look and run better (GT7 is the biggest improvement, especially since the December update). So far, so good.
While Monday morning quarterbacking is fun It’s worth keeping in mind success in gaming in general and online gaming in particular is the very much the exception rather than the rule and that success and failure are often unpredictable especially for original games or sequels to niche games.
Unfortunate for the developers, but the frequently hated (online anyway) but healthy (in terms of number of people playing it) Overwatch has left a lot of bodies behind it.
The keep the powers of characters you previously selected angle was kinda interesting but very poorly explained (it certainly wasn’t part of the promotion).
As one might guess, I was a huge Overwatch fan its first few years (in excess of a thousand hours) but bots and throwers in increasingly large percentages of matches eventually soured me on OW in particular and competitive gaming in general. IMHO competitive online is at its best when teams are balanced in terms of numbers and skill. It’s insane neither Concord beta allowed for anyone or anything to fill spaces created by dropouts. A guy drops out in the character selection because he doesn’t get his pick or doesn’t like somebody else’s pick or what have you, then unless there is a severe skill imbalance then the match is screwed for everyone.
I played Concord a couple hours in its first beta but only one in its second (which added a fun new control mode but didn’t fix its core dropout issue and which mostly importantly was a ghost town) and decided not to bother to buy it. There was more positive buzz about Marvel Rivals and even Overwatch due to a new character debuting during the Concord beta.
I was okay with the unmemorable, hero shooter standard characters but I don’t get why the developers were so high on them that they thought the characters and their cutscenes would be a big draw and two short demo weekends right before launch rather than a lengthy beta which would have allowed time to implement feedback prior to launch a good idea.
I hope everyone involved lands on their feet, learns from their mistakes made and finds success in the future.
Right now I’m at level one hundred in H2 and have a little under 300 hours in (mostly playing with randoms). I’ve been a Helldivers fan since the original and have remained a fan.
Not every post launch tweak or bug or what have you has thrilled me but there have been lots of fun enemies released post launch (factory walkers and impalers are things of beauty) and useful weapons (even with the fire nerf the new fire shotgun aka the cookout is a beast and I’d say the only complete joke of a weapon is the knife) added.
For my money a big part of the fun of Helldivers has always been the high level of challenge. I like it best when my team completes the objectives, picks up all the samples and successfully extracts but those successes are only fun because of the tough enemies we overcame.
Shrugs It appears a lot of H2’s initial success was driven by the power fantasy crowd so I don’t blame the developer for chasing them. If the game stops being a challenge to a solid team on the highest difficulty levels (unlikely but possible) I’ll simply move on.
Comments 183
Re: Fairgames, One of Sony's Last Live-Service PS5 Games, Loses Studio Founder Amid Internal Worries
All I remember seeing of Fairgames is a generic CG trailer so I don’t have strong feelings about it but if the development is that troubled they should just kill it.
Re: Helldivers 2 Dev Breaks Away from PlayStation, Next Game Will Be Self-Funded
If Arrowhead’s next game is a co-op or solo focused game (I stopped enjoying competitive multiplayer years ago) which equals Helldivers 2 in quality I don’t care who publishes it.
In hindsight Sony missed a trick but merely funding the game as opposed to buying the studio was a reasonable move at the time. H1 was a great game but only a modest success and even many who had looking forward to H2 didn’t expect it to be as popular as it is.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think of the PS5 Pro, Six Months Later?
I’m very happy with my Pro. It does what it promised, offer up versions of my PS5 games that look better and run smoother.
Of the games I spent a lot of time playing before and after the Pro my favorite upgrade thus far is GT7’s (which I play in VR).
Re: LittleBigPlanet Erasure Continues as Sackboy Removed from PlayStation Productions Logo
I have hundreds of hours of fond memories of playing the LBPs and their user generated content with my then young daughters (who also played it a lot with their friends) but I’m okay with this. It’s just a logo.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Oblivion Remastered?
I’m passing on this remaster for now. I spent a lot of time playing OG Oblivion very early in its life on PC. I just wandered around doing random stuff (mostly but not only dungeons and suchlike) for dozens of hours. I enjoyed it but got my fill of it and what with BG3’s recent patch 8 and Clair Obscure Expedition 33 hitting tomorrow the rpg section of my dance card will be full for the foreseeable future. Looks really nice though.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 577
Playing through as a bard in Baldur’s Gate 3. My good bard has talked his way past several people my evil necromancer killed her way through.
Continuing to enjoy playing Helldivers 2 with randoms. The Gloom infused predator strain makes for a lot of hard, nasty fights.
Also continuing to chip away at the intense VR roguelike mech brawler Underdogs and the relaxed, charming Two Point Museum.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 575
Been playing Helldivers 2, Gran Turismo 7 and Underdogs. Underdogs is a VR mech combat roguelike with incredibly brutal combat. I’ve plucked an enemy out of midair and used it to club it’s buddies, held an enemy down on the ground with one hand and chopped it to pieces with a heavy blade, backhanded an enemy so hard it flew into the guy behind it and charged through a hoard of small bots in order to avoid getting surrounded. Good times.
Re: Bloodborne, Elden Ring Dev Won't Be Releasing Its Next Big Game on PS5
Looks very nice. I’ve missed the last couple From Soulslikes (just haven’t been in the mood for them) but given the massive sales of Elden Ring I am kinda surprised their last two announced projects have been online multiplayer focused.
Re: Feature: Nintendo Switch 2 Direct - 5 Things for PS5 Fans to Pay Attention To
It’s not for me since I’m a one system guy nowadays and I’m happy with the PS5 but Nintendo’s uniting of its broad core gamer portable fan base with its narrow console one (portable Nintendo systems have consistently had broad, healthy support from developers the core console has lacked since the N64) has been successful so I am sure it will do well.
Shakes head I knew my 3DS (whose gimmick like that of the Wii U failed to resonate with anyone though it’s sales weren’t quite as dire) was going to become nothing more than a paperweight when Nintendo decided to cancel 3DS versions of pretty much everything, even Pokémon.
Re: Over 70% of PS5 Fans Want Sony to License More of Its Dead Franchises Out
Website polls are only representative of the views of people that frequent the website(s).
Which isn’t to say they have no value but they might not align with the views of the public at large.
I am not saying there is no money to be made by resurrecting dead franchises, but it’s worth keeping in mind most of them die due to consumer indifference or because the developer decided they wanted to move on either because they ran out of ideas or because some other concept interested them more.
Re: PSVR2 Owners, It's Time to Immerse Yourself in the Headset's Best New Game
The videos I’ve watched on YouTube look good. I’m in the middle of Underdogs (brutal fun) and Arcade Paradise (more of a business simulator than anything) but once I finish one of those I’ll pick it up.
Re: Iconic Game Maker Says Japanese Devs Should Stop Trying to Appeal to Westerners
A guy who helms a Mario franchise is calling for Japanese developers to focus on their domestic audience and not worry about foreign sensibilities? Okay.
I’m not questioning the Japaneseness of Mario or Smash Brothers (they are as Japanese as any other game out there) I am pointing out that commercial art tends to be a broad thing whose creators draw from a range of influences including but not just local folklore.
Re: Another PS5 Live Service Title Does a Concord, Game and Dev to Close Two Weeks After PS5 Launch
Never heard of it but realistically most games are commercial failures in no small part due to an ever more competitive marketplace. Not only are increasing numbers of games released yearly but there are lots of timesinks and/or games with long sales legs floating around.
Dancing on the bones of GAAS is what’s most popular online but guaranteed success is a very, very rare thing in games in particular and commercial art in general.
I hope the developers land on their feet.
Re: Six Major PSVR2 Games Announced as Headset Gets Huge Price Drop
Out of Sight’s trailer completely sold me on the game (intriguing premise, creepy graphics and VR and horror usually work well together). Roboquest’s vibrant visuals and the variety of weapons and enemies make it a likely buy for me.
I love city builders and enjoy survival games now and again but I need to see more gameplay of the VR adaptation of Surviving Mars. ‘Need to see more’ also applies to Wrath and Shadowgate.
The only game completely off my radar is Postal 2. Shrugs Its sense of humor just doesn’t work for me.
Re: Insomniac Delists, Relists VR Catalogue, and Few Even Noticed
I’ve never played any of the games in question but a simple Google search indicates that the Quest exclusives games Insomniac built for the platform before Sony bought them have flickered on and off the Quest store for at least the past few years.
I doubt VR will break out of its niche (of which I am a part and have been since the PSVR1 launched) anytime soon but it’s kinda strange to attach a larger meaning to this yearly (at least) event.
Also, I don’t think being niche is bad (or for that matter, good) developers who hope to be around for the long haul just have to keep in mind a game’s probable earnings and budget accordingly.
2022
https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/Stormland-pulled-from-sale/td-p/935249
2023
https://www.thegamer.com/stormland-vr-delisted-oculus-store-insomniac-quest-psvr2/
2024 (a full year ago, probably before the latest delisting)
https://youtu.be/1iAWS0uGG8k
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 571
Playing Age of Mythology (I’m early in but the campaign is quite enjoyable), Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero (I’ve long been a fan of the FFT subgenre), Helldivers 2 (I’ve put in several hundred hours and the massive, crazy battles never cease to surprise and amuse) and Gran Turismo 7 in VR (I love the feel/feedback).
Re: Horizon Online Snaffles Bungie's Design Lead As Guerrilla Builds All-Star Team Around Live Service PS5 Game
I love the Horizon games (if hunting robot dinosaurs with a bow is wrong I don’t want to right) but I’ve never been interested in the Monster Hunter games so I’ll pass on Horizon online if that is the formula it follows. I’ll be there for Horizon 3 though.
Re: Quantic Dream Responds to Recent Layoffs at Parent Company NetEase
I have enjoyed QD’s games and hope that their relationship with Netease is as good as they think it is so I can play new games from them in the future.
Re: Sony XDEV Is Eager For You to Watch Today's PS5 Livestream
@MrPeanutbutterz I would love the return of Wipeout especially if it was on PSVR2 (bows to PSVR1’s Omega collection).
Re: Sony XDEV Is Eager For You to Watch Today's PS5 Livestream
As a guy who did a lot of mountain hiking as a Boy Scout and really messed up the first time I did so by overloading with water (when we stopped my Sciutmaster examined my pack, laughed and redistributed the weight to the rest of the troop 😅) I appreciated how well Death Stranding nailed mountain traversal and packing for said traversal. I played through DS twice when it came out. I never got around to the revised edition but I am interested in the sequel,
Re: Poll: Did the PSN Outage Ruin Your Gaming Plans Over the Weekend?
It reduced my Saturday time with Helldivers 2 but increased it with Phantom Brave The Lost Hero. Shrugs So it had an impact but not a negative one.
Re: SEGA Revenue Declines 8%, Despite a Seemingly Strong Year
Given that Football Manager 2025 was cancelled the results are unsurprising. Soccer is phenomenally popular outside the US.
Re: Free PS Plus Extension for All Members Affected by PSN Outage
Sounds fair to me. As a big Helldivers 2 fan the one day outage (on H2’s anniversary) was an inconvenience but the other game I’m currently playing is the offline Phantom Brave The Lost Hero and that worked fine.
Re: Rumour: Gears of War to Make PS5 Debut with Full Crossplay in Trilogy Collection
Cool. I enjoyed the first couple of Gears games. The controls and the weapons (tilts hat to the chainsaw gun) felt good and the graphics were great.
Re: Halo PS5 Rumours Intensify in Aftermath of Forza Horizon 5 Reveal
@Dragoon1994 Interesting list. It’s been years since I’ve thought of Viva Pinata. I bought that game and played it with my daughters when they were very young but we didnt get far because a key part of the game was developing the land, luring in piñatas and then smashing some of them in order to lure in bigger, fancier piñatas. The smashing piñatas thing was a step too far for my kids so we never unlocked most of the pinatas 😋.
I can still sing the theme song but I think Viva Piñata’s concept is why it didn’t become the hit among younger gamers MS seemed to want it to be.
Re: Halo PS5 Rumours Intensify in Aftermath of Forza Horizon 5 Reveal
I was a huge Halo fan when it started but I lost interest in it many years ago (my last Halo was 4). I beat each of the first three at least a couple times solo and played through them in co-op countless times (both online and in person). The problem for me was the campaigns of the franchise declined in quality due to the focus shifting to competitive multiplayer and the franchise transitioning from Bungie to 343 (which recently rebranded itself to Halo Stufios).
Shrugs Of course Halo’s online competitive multiplayer has been far and away the largest driver of the franchise since arguably Halo 2 so if they get that part right I’m sure Halo will do well commercially.
Re: Horizon Hatred Simmers Once More As Sony Announces Movie Adaptation
I agree with detractors that the stars of Horizon are the giant robot dinosaurs, the bow and it’s many arrows and the vast, verdant wilderness but I think they are great hooks to hang one’s hat on. I love strong characters in games but I am a longtime gamer (since the Magnavox Odyssey) and in action adventure games I care more about the action and the world than anything else.
Without footage I have no strong feelings about the movie but I’m interested in seeing whatever the next game is (I skipped the Lego game but loved the mainline games and mostly enjoyed Call of the Wild).
That being said I’d also be fine with Guerilla doing something new or even making another KZ game (for my money the current high point of the franchise is KZ2, which was the closest thing to the PC’s F.EA.R. on console).
Re: Video: The Biggest PlayStation Surprises of 2024
I’ve been a Team Asobi fan since The Playroom (which I played with my then very young daughters) and the latest Astrobot continues their trend of sweet, playful games which use tech in interesting ways. I’m not surprised them releasing a paid game aimed at a base console has turned out so well. As a big fan of the PlayStation portables coming across a Loco Roco stage while wearing a Kat suit (from Gravity Rush) hit me right in the feels.
The success of Helldivers 2 surprised me. I was a fan of the original game but I ‘only’ played it for a couple dozen hours. Helldivers 2 drew me in a lot deeper (I play two to three matches early in the morning before work and several on weekends and now have over 400 hours). The change in perspective makes everything a lot more visceral. I love the feel of the game and the hundreds of randoms I’ve played with have been overwhelmingly pleasant to play alongside. You and everybody else try not to make mistakes but you take them in stride because battlefields are often chaotic. I laughed out loud yesterday when in the middle of a pitched fight with a horde of zombies who had surrounded me on all sides I was suddenly flattened by the new jeep (driven by an understandably inexperienced driver trying to help me out). The zombies died and I lived (heavy armor FTW!) so it worked.
Another pleasant surprise for me was The Last Spell. I know it was on Xbox and PC long before and was even for PS a bit before I picked it up but I enjoy playing it. I must suck at it because I haven’t beaten it yet but it’s my second most played game this year behind Helldivers 2 in part because it’s very Portal friendly (in the afternoon I tend to be a second screen gamer and I tend to play games which allow me to quickly shift focus).
Speaking of which, the Portal becoming a hit was a surprise just because the entire internet seemed to hate the idea.
I had a tough time wrapping my head around Path of the Goddess when I saw the first trailer but the demo sold me on it and it’s one of my favorite games. So I’ll put it in the nice surprise category.
I could go on but suffice to say as a gamer it has been a great year.
Re: Star Wars: Eclipse, Wonder Woman Comprised of 'Literally Nothing' When Revealed
Shrugs Game trailers are at best real-time footage of games running at their best (omitting bugs, crashes and glitches) and at worst are target renders of some far off vision developers hope to eventually realize if they are lucky.
My reactions to trailers tend to be colored as much by my experience with the developers/publishers and the perception of the genre than the trailers themselves. I missed the show but the three most exciting trailers I’ve seen are the Helldivers 2 one (I am a longtime franchise fan and have already spent a half dozen hours fighting the Illuminate invasion), the Team Ico one (very gauzy but at least I know they are working on something in their wheelhouse) and the Naughy Dog sci-fi game (looks interesting and it’s great that they are making something new).
As for the notion that games are too complex, I’ve been gaming most of my 50 years (started on my father’s Magnavox Odyssey in the late 70’s) back when games were single person affairs. I agree games are a lot bigger in scope and complexity than they used to be, but I’d argue that has been driven by the demands of gamers, the ambitions of game developers, and the openness of game development which allows everybody and their grandmother can release games.
I think that’s a good trend which has resulted in a broad range of games which appeals to a broad range of people but the downside is that like movies, books and even music there is waaay more content out there than gamers know or care about (dozens of games released daily, the average gamer buys a game a year). That’s not a problem for consumers or successful games but it sucks for the many, many developers and/or publishers who get the short straw.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think of the PS5 Pro, Three Weeks Later?
I owned a PS5 since shortly after launch and picked up a Pro at launch. Ultimately I only wound up spending $350 (sold the original system for that once the data transferred over).
The Pro hasn’t changed the games I currently play the most (Helldivers 2, Gran Turismo 7 and Metaphor Refantazio) but they look and run better (GT7 is the biggest improvement, especially since the December update). So far, so good.
Re: PS5, PC Flop Concord Never Returning, Studio Closed Down
While Monday morning quarterbacking is fun It’s worth keeping in mind success in gaming in general and online gaming in particular is the very much the exception rather than the rule and that success and failure are often unpredictable especially for original games or sequels to niche games.
Re: PS5, PC Flop Concord Never Returning, Studio Closed Down
Unfortunate for the developers, but the frequently hated (online anyway) but healthy (in terms of number of people playing it) Overwatch has left a lot of bodies behind it.
The keep the powers of characters you previously selected angle was kinda interesting but very poorly explained (it certainly wasn’t part of the promotion).
As one might guess, I was a huge Overwatch fan its first few years (in excess of a thousand hours) but bots and throwers in increasingly large percentages of matches eventually soured me on OW in particular and competitive gaming in general. IMHO competitive online is at its best when teams are balanced in terms of numbers and skill. It’s insane neither Concord beta allowed for anyone or anything to fill spaces created by dropouts. A guy drops out in the character selection because he doesn’t get his pick or doesn’t like somebody else’s pick or what have you, then unless there is a severe skill imbalance then the match is screwed for everyone.
I played Concord a couple hours in its first beta but only one in its second (which added a fun new control mode but didn’t fix its core dropout issue and which mostly importantly was a ghost town) and decided not to bother to buy it. There was more positive buzz about Marvel Rivals and even Overwatch due to a new character debuting during the Concord beta.
I was okay with the unmemorable, hero shooter standard characters but I don’t get why the developers were so high on them that they thought the characters and their cutscenes would be a big draw and two short demo weekends right before launch rather than a lengthy beta which would have allowed time to implement feedback prior to launch a good idea.
I hope everyone involved lands on their feet, learns from their mistakes made and finds success in the future.
Re: Arrowhead Offers Peek at Helldivers 2 Patch Meant to Satisfy the Masses
Right now I’m at level one hundred in H2 and have a little under 300 hours in (mostly playing with randoms). I’ve been a Helldivers fan since the original and have remained a fan.
Not every post launch tweak or bug or what have you has thrilled me but there have been lots of fun enemies released post launch (factory walkers and impalers are things of beauty) and useful weapons (even with the fire nerf the new fire shotgun aka the cookout is a beast and I’d say the only complete joke of a weapon is the knife) added.
For my money a big part of the fun of Helldivers has always been the high level of challenge. I like it best when my team completes the objectives, picks up all the samples and successfully extracts but those successes are only fun because of the tough enemies we overcame.
Shrugs It appears a lot of H2’s initial success was driven by the power fantasy crowd so I don’t blame the developer for chasing them. If the game stops being a challenge to a solid team on the highest difficulty levels (unlikely but possible) I’ll simply move on.