Video Game Industry Thread: Master Chief -- script delivery boy

Shutdown · April 2012

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

i just bought a modded saturn off of ebay, along with shiningforce 3 sc 2 and 3. I usually refuse modded classic consoles, but this is an exception. now, over a decade after i got the original shining force 3 on discount at eb games, i'm gonna be able to play the rest of the story in english.

I recently replayed sf3 after beating fft on my psp and i had forgotten how different the two srpgs are. i much prefer shining forces emphasis on grouping and positioning over fft's emphasis on stats and army building. i cant wait.

I always loved that SF wasn't punishing. If you're team member falls in battle, then you just res them afterwards, if your main character dies, then you just respawn back in town with half your gold. If you're whole team is weak, then you can use egress to fight a battle down to the last guy and restart with all your exp.

I am massively jealous of your SF3 run, unless it gets re-released I doubt I'll ever get to experience it, which is greatly dissapointing. Every time I've seen another Shining game come out that isn't a 'Force' tactical game I get a little more sad.

Off to grind some more in Tactics Ogre I guess.....

chocobolicious · April 2012

..Man there is totally a LP of Totalbiscuit playing Shining Force 3. That is amazing. I just wanted to look at some gameplay to see if it was the game I remembered, and now I have hours of entertainment ahead of me. Tally ho.

darleysam · April 2012

surrealitycheck wrote: »

the combat in mirrors edge is actually fine once you know whats going on, especially if you are willing to disarm the right enemies and shoot while moving/wallrunning/jumping

you can basically matrix it up if you want to

The big problem was that a developer made the comment that there's an achievement for playing through without shooting anybody, that it's possible to do so. Then when it came out, everyone went "PACIFIST ON HARDEST MODE, GONNA GET MAH CHEEVEMENT, THIS IS HOW IT'S MEANT TO BE THE DEVELOPERS SAID SO! OH WAIT NOW IT'S SO HARD I HATE THIS GAME!!!"

Hold up there, Turbo, no he didn't. He said it was possible, but that's if you really want to do it that way. The shooting actually works just fine if you give it a minute to get the feel of the guns, but if you either expect just to charge through like an acrobatic Gandhi or try to play it like Call of Parkour, it's not going to work out. But everybody did.

Synthesis · April 2012

Spoit wrote: »

Synthesis wrote: »

I don't actively dislike Cliffy B, but I do blame him (perhaps inadvertently) stirring the whole "Consoles are killing gaming, man..." crowd--specifically, the faction that is angry at what they consider a lack of visual advancement. I personally call them the "Crysis Crowd"--since Crysis could negatively be called "overwhelming flash, very little substance" (that's unfair to the game, I acknowledge, even though I'd be very reluctant to give it much praise outside of the graphics and mod-friendliness departments).

Ultra-high textures are a labor of love (and modders). Fix the other goddamn problems with your game. Mass Effect 3 could have had an engine that required twice the RAM our consoles, and had textures four times the size, but it wouldn't have fixed the fucking bugs, substandard animation work and bad design decisions. That has nothing to do with power (even the matter of animations) and is all your fault.

Cliffy B is pretty typical of that problem, bah. Can't ratchet up visuals any further? Then fix the rest of your game's problems in the meantime!

(Though, I suppose ironically, my experience with the GoW series has been largely bug-free.)

The problem with the RAM isn't textures (though the textures and addition of AA did make mirror's edge practically a different game), it's level design and scale. To take one of the other games you mentioned, look at the 'evolution' of the level design from Mass Effect 1 to 2, and 3. The presidium was this great big open area in 1, with plenty of quests that didn't involve chest high walls. Then the city hubs become like a tenth the size, with twice the loading zones between them. And then in 3, you only have like 1 or two interactable NPCs per area, and they're smaller still.

Also, you should feel bad about trolling with that the crysis gameplay comment when you know better

No, not particularly, given that I already acknowledged that, while it's not outright bad, the gameplay is hardly that praiseworthy in that area. Sorry if you think the game is good in that regard, but I don't. You can keep that shame, thanks.

And frankly, Mass Effect 1 is a great demonstration of this prob;em--personally, I was never impressed by the Presidium because the game as a whole was buggy and poorly finished--next-to-useless AI, game-breaking glitches, walls you could fall through.

ME2, and ME3, sure enough, have smaller environments, but vastly better gameplay. I don't have anything against large environments (that's probably the one thing I like about the Overlord DLC), but the assumption that it should take level scale should take precedence over a game that doesn't have shitty AI. You can have good small environments, and good large environments--crap AI is just crap AI. In the area of aesthetics, a big, open area that has no logical layout and is barren and sterile--lost most of ME1's environs--and an annoyingly long loading screen doesn't really impress me any more than a small, closed area with a much more convincing layout that is not sterile with shorter loading screens.

Of course, lower RAM is an actual barrier--you might be able to have AI that doesn't suck, with good large environs or with good small environs. But first, you should have AI that doesn't suck in a squad-based game.

Henroid · April 2012

I hate to break everyone's nuts over it but video games don't have to include combat / guns. Mirror's Edge almost felt like that was tacked on for the sake of having it. The core of the game was the movement mechanics.

Synthesis · April 2012

Henroid wrote: »

I hate to break everyone's nuts over it but video games don't have to include combat / guns. Mirror's Edge almost felt like that was tacked on for the sake of having it. The core of the game was the movement mechanics.

That was the impression I was under--it was an escape simulator. Or perhaps something like Oni, where guns existed by were clearly inferior to the other combat mechanic, by design.

I mean, I don't know if gun handling, as I remember it, was bad deliberately or just out of lack of focus, but it seemed to fit well with the intent of the designers for a footrace.

I don't think many people are making the case that video games have to include guns--some form of combat as a whole, perhaps--in this thread though.

Henroid · April 2012

Synthesis wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

I hate to break everyone's nuts over it but video games don't have to include combat / guns. Mirror's Edge almost felt like that was tacked on for the sake of having it. The core of the game was the movement mechanics.

That was the impression I was under--it was an escape simulator. Or perhaps something like Oni, where guns existed by were clearly inferior to the other combat mechanic, by design.

I mean, I don't know if gun handling, as I remember it, was bad deliberately or just out of lack of focus, but it seemed to fit well with the intent of the designers for a footrace.

I don't think many people are making the case that video games have to include guns--some form of combat as a whole, perhaps--in this thread though.

Not unless Cliffy B graces our presence.

In other news, the head of the studio that made Darksiders decided to say the same thing Chris Remo did last week; user testing can be misleading, etc.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/168578/Usability_tests_can_trick_you_says_Darksiders_developer.php

Dark Raven X · April 2012

So I guess the PS Vita has quietly price dropped here in the UK? Didn't see any news of it, but Sainsburys near me now have the WiFi one for £195, 3G for £250. Same on Amazon UK. Not a huge drop by any stretch of the imagination, but a price drop none the less...

Edit; don't think it's a sale, anyway;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-PlayStation-Vita-Wi-Fi-only/dp/B0054Q82WI/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1334586752&sr=1-1

In a sale, the regular price is on display, crossed out, right? This just has the current lower price.

Allforce · April 2012

That has to just be a sale

RainbowDespair · April 2012

Not an actual sale, but Gamestop is giving PS Vita buyers a free game (choice of Wipeout, Hot Shots Golf, and Modnation), and a free carrying case with their purchase.

I gotta imagine if retailers are already starting to try to give extra incentives for PS Vita purchases that Sony won't be able to hold off on an actual price drop for long. I'd be surprised if it doesn't get one in time for the holiday season.

cloudeagle · April 2012

Aegeri wrote: »

Would PC gamers really have made up the difference there? I find that very difficult to believe, given that the reason cowaduty sells gangbusters has nothing to do with the PC and everything to do with the Xbox crowd buying it year after year. Even so, I find it incredible that EA can remotely call a game that sells 13 million copies a failure: But they also regarded Medal of Honor (a second tier FPS game IMO) a failure for selling around 4 million dollars.

Didn't Syndicate barely sell 200,000 copies or something similar? That's a failure. Selling 4 million plus units, that's not a failure unless you have seriously stupid expectations. Minding, this is EA.

Actually, when an extremely niche and low-budget game like Catherine sells 200,000, that's a smashing success. When a game with a ginormous development budget and a huge advertising budget "only" sells 4 million, it's entirely possible for it to be considered a disappointment, especially if it didn't actually bring in any money when all is said and done.

Welcome to the crazy world of vidja game sales.

At any rate, looks like the gigantic investment in Star Wars isn't paying off, and it isn't becoming the next WoW.

RainbowDespair wrote: »

Not an actual sale, but Gamestop is giving PS Vita buyers a free game (choice of Wipeout, Hot Shots Golf, and Modnation), and a free carrying case with their purchase.

I gotta imagine if retailers are already starting to try to give extra incentives for PS Vita purchases that Sony won't be able to hold off on an actual price drop for long. I'd be surprised if it doesn't get one in time for the holiday season.

Keep in mind that retailers have been offering their own sales on the PSP Go since, well, a couple days after it launched, and Sony is still pricing the damn thing at $200.

Sigtyr · April 2012

Unless that projected 6.4 billion loss had taken a Vita price drop in consideration, the chance of a price drop is really, really low.

cloudeagle · April 2012

The Vita absolutely NEEDS a price drop now, but unless Kaz has enough power to go against decades of tradition Sony just doesn't roll like that. (See: Betamax.)

Also, Crysis 3 was revealed. New York overgrown with jungle, sandboxy shooter, pointless use of the word "cry," blah blah blah. But, even though it's not coming out till 2013, EA's made sure to divulge the most important information of all, namely: what kind of random extra crap will be divided among the various retailers?

EA also announced details of the different pre-order bonuses that will be available at retail. Details of those are below.

• Stalker Pack – Includes the base game, all Hunter Edition content and the following early multiplayer unlocks: for players who like to stalk their prey from the shadows the Stalker Pack provides early multiplayer access to the deadly semi-auto Jackal shotgun. This powerful, close-range shotgun comes with a unique silencer attachment, custom weapon skin and two exclusive themed in-game dog tags.

• Overkill Pack – Includes the base game, all Hunter Edition content and the following early multiplayer unlocks: the Overkill Pack features early multiplayer access to the Typhoon assault weapon and skin. Spewing 500 rounds a second, the Typhoon gives players the ability to go guns blazing to take back the Liberty Dome. Also included are two exclusive Overkill themed in-game dog tags.

• Predator Pack – Includes the base game, all the Hunter Edition content and the following early multiplayer unlocks: the Predator Pack delivers early multiplayer access to the Feline submachine gun and exclusive camo. With an extremely fast rate of fire and a 60 round magazine the Feline is highly effective and deadly, at short range.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1223060p1.html

Seriously, that list takes up half the article.

....yeah, it's now the cool thing to say EA's evil again, but honestly the company's starting to do some damned annoying things.

Couscous · April 2012

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/rumour-ea-preparing-for-500-1-000-layoffs/094475

Publisher EA has denied an unsubstantiated report claiming that it is on the verge of announcing between 500-1,000 job losses after the story spread like the wildfire across the internet this morning.

StartupGrind claims to have confirmation of the claims and says that lower-than-expected sales of Star Wars: The Old Republic and Battlefield 3.

“Estimates put Battlefield 3 sales around 13m units,” the site says. “The company ‘chased’ the launch dumping an estimated $30m into incremental marketing after the game launched according to one source within EA.

“The same thing was done for Star Wars to extend its run and try to improve sales. Star Wars sell through is estimated to now be around 3m units, but the subscriptions which are needed for an MMO to payoff are already declining.”

It goes on to speculate that CEO John Riccitiello is coming under increasing internal pressure to cut costs and get his house in order – a problem that has been exacerbated by a string of high-level corporate defections to rival Zynga.

EA has denied the news, however, offering the following comment to MCV: "There are no lay-offs as such, we always have projects growing and morphing. At any given time there are new people coming in and others leaving. EA is growing and hiring and building teams to support the growing demand for digital games and services."

I can't tell if that is a nondenial denial.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/syndicate-sales-hurt-by-game-instability/094481

Developer Starbreeze has claimed that the recent instability at retailer GAME “hurt” the sales of its recent shooter Syndicate.

Syndicate was released in late February and was only temporarily stocked in the UK’s leading games retailers GAME and Gamestation following the collapse of terms with publisher EA.

Although EA is now back on board with GAME, stock of all releases post SSX is only arriving in stores today, meaning Syndicate was missing for a key period after its release.

"There's so many reasons why a game succeeds or fails from a commercial point-of-view,” Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark told Games Industry. “We released the game about a month or more ago, and we're doing our post-mortem right now: what did we do right, what did we do wrong, and of course we will look at the commercial side as well.

"The numbers are not as high as we would like, and I think if you asked anyone they would say the same thing about any game they made.

“But [Syndicate] was released in the midst of GAME going under; the retail space is hurting, and I think that hurt us because we were such a retail product."

The game sold like shit in the USA too.

Turkey · April 2012

Henroid wrote: »

Synthesis wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

I hate to break everyone's nuts over it but video games don't have to include combat / guns. Mirror's Edge almost felt like that was tacked on for the sake of having it. The core of the game was the movement mechanics.

That was the impression I was under--it was an escape simulator. Or perhaps something like Oni, where guns existed by were clearly inferior to the other combat mechanic, by design.

I mean, I don't know if gun handling, as I remember it, was bad deliberately or just out of lack of focus, but it seemed to fit well with the intent of the designers for a footrace.

I don't think many people are making the case that video games have to include guns--some form of combat as a whole, perhaps--in this thread though.

Not unless Cliffy B graces our presence.

In other news, the head of the studio that made Darksiders decided to say the same thing Chris Remo did last week; user testing can be misleading, etc.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/168578/Usability_tests_can_trick_you_says_Darksiders_developer.php

That article reminds olme of that joystiq chucklefuck and his Nier review.

cloudeagle · April 2012

Apparently today's EA day.

EA has issued the following statement in response to claims that the tank designs in Command and Conquer Tiberium Alliances appear to have been copied from Warhammer 40,000:

"Games Workshop and EA are aware of the IP issues around the artwork in question, which have now been resolved. The artwork was internal EA concept art that was unintentionally released publicly. No Warhammer 40,000 tanks have ever made an appearance in Command and Conquer Tiberium Alliances, and never will. Games Workshop and EA continue to have a strong relationship working together on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and the new free to play game Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes which just entered open beta."

http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1222872p1.html

Anyone in the beta? Did the designs actually change much?

Couscous · April 2012

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/uk-charts-fifa-street-returns-to-the-top-spot/094474

EA has made good on its temporary loss of the No.1 spot last week by bouncing back to claim the top spot in the UKIE GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40.

Last week’s No.1, Microsoft’s Kinect Star Wars, whose sales fell over 50 per cent week-on-week, has to settle for fourth spot this week with former chart-topper FIFA Street returning to the top for the fourth time.

That equals the four No.1’s claimed by 2005 title FIFA Street.

EA claims the other three Top Five places, too, with Mass Effect 3, FIFA 12 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 claiming second, third and fifth respectively.

The only new release in this week’s chart is Nintendo’s Wii RPG Pandora’s Tower at No.38.

Here’s the UK Top 20 for the week ending April 14th:
1. FIFA Street (EA)
2. Mass Effect 3 (EA)
3. FIFA 12 (EA)
4. Kinect Star Wars (Microsoft)
5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 (EA)
6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision)
7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda)
8. Battlefield 3 (EA)
9. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Sega)
10. SSX (EA)
11. Saints Row: The Third (Activision)
12. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (Activision)
13. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (Ubisoft)
14. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (Capcom)
15. Moshi Monsters: Moshling Zoo (Mind Candy)
16. Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft)
17. Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros)
18. Mario Party 9 (Nintendo)
19. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (Warner Bros)
20. WWE ’12 (THQ)

Cantido · April 2012

It's a shame because I like BF3 better. I guess EA thought "completely overtake CoD forever" would have been acceptable.

Lanrutcon · April 2012

I hope I'm around when EA crashes and burns. Would help if people stop buying their sports title rehashes. Seriously, that UK top 20 list makes me facepalm.

cloudeagle · April 2012

What's the difference between FIFA and FIFA Street? Is FIFA Street the one where they talk all gangsta, yo? (Or whatever the Euro equivalent of "gangsta" is.)

mere_immortal · April 2012

Smaller teams, lo-fi venues and bigger emphasis on tricks and skillshots are what I've seen.

cloudeagle · April 2012

So kinda like NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, then.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Shutdown wrote: »

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

i just bought a modded saturn off of ebay, along with shiningforce 3 sc 2 and 3. I usually refuse modded classic consoles, but this is an exception. now, over a decade after i got the original shining force 3 on discount at eb games, i'm gonna be able to play the rest of the story in english.

I recently replayed sf3 after beating fft on my psp and i had forgotten how different the two srpgs are. i much prefer shining forces emphasis on grouping and positioning over fft's emphasis on stats and army building. i cant wait.

I always loved that SF wasn't punishing. If you're team member falls in battle, then you just res them afterwards, if your main character dies, then you just respawn back in town with half your gold. If you're whole team is weak, then you can use egress to fight a battle down to the last guy and restart with all your exp.

I am massively jealous of your SF3 run, unless it gets re-released I doubt I'll ever get to experience it, which is greatly dissapointing. Every time I've seen another Shining game come out that isn't a 'Force' tactical game I get a little more sad.

Off to grind some more in Tactics Ogre I guess.....

SF3 isn't punishing in terms of perma-death, but the death of a member can still be devastating because once a member is dead, all his friendship points reset, and any friendship bonds he has will sever. These friendship bonuses are SF3's method of buffs, and they grow stronger as you keep people alive and together. This is where that whole grouping thing I talked about comes into play, because you only have 12 members in your group at a time, and it's smart to party them up until 3 or 4 smaller groups, keeping those people together so they can become friends and function like a complete party at only 1/3 or 1/4 the total group size. Like, for example, if you pair a Knight with members, their defense stats boost, and if you keep them together long enough, you can start to send that group out without a healing mage and trust that their defense will be boosted high enough to make managing their health not a concern. These friendships level up as you progress through the game, so it's sort of a gamble - the longer you go without dying, the more devastating death becomes. Near the end of my regular SF3 game, my main character, Synbios, had formed a close friendship with a knight, and it boosted his defense way up to the point where I could send the two out as a 2-man wrecking crew. Well the Knight died very late in the game, and suddenly Synbios' def stat fell so low that he became the biggest liability in every battle, and I had to move him to the back of every battle to keep him from dying. Which sucked, because he and my knight were my best weapons.

I do like how many enemies SF3 throws at you at once, though. FFT would only send like 5 or 6 enemies at once on a small map. The 3rd or 4th battle in SF3 pits your group of about 5 against 25 enemies at once, taking place over the entire country side. Much larger battles. I really can't wait to try the other 2 scenarios.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

cloudeagle wrote: »

What's the difference between FIFA and FIFA Street? Is FIFA Street the one where they talk all gangsta, yo? (Or whatever the Euro equivalent of "gangsta" is.)

I think the euro-equivalent to gangster is chav culture, or probably, in this case, soccer hooliganism, which as I understand it, borrows a lot from chav culture.

Fifa street is like NBA street. It's the ZOMG ZANY soccer game, what NBA Jam was to basketball sims.

mere_immortal · April 2012

cloudeagle wrote: »

So kinda like NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, then.

As far as I know yeah, not played any though but my understanding is that street is still the most technical.

Couscous · April 2012

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/16/rumor-farmville-2-revealed-by-resume/

A San Francisco copywriter's resume appears to hint that Zynga has given the green light to making a sequel to its popular flagship Farmville title. Writer Alex Harvey, while listing out his work for "communications agency" Isobar, says he participated in the "successful" pitch for Farmville 2. That tells us that Farmville 2 was at one point a suggested thing, and that Zynga has said yes to it becoming a real thing.

For now, that's all we know. It's probably fair to say, however, that there will be cows, and you will click them.

Finally. The sequel everybody has been waiting for.

ArcSyn · April 2012

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

What's the difference between FIFA and FIFA Street? Is FIFA Street the one where they talk all gangsta, yo? (Or whatever the Euro equivalent of "gangsta" is.)

I think the euro-equivalent to gangster is chav culture, or probably, in this case, soccer hooliganism, which as I understand it, borrows a lot from chav culture.

Fifa street is like NBA street. It's the ZOMG ZANY soccer game, what NBA Jam was to basketball sims.

There was an NFL Street too.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/syndicate-sales-hurt-by-game-instability/094481

Developer Starbreeze has claimed that the recent instability at retailer GAME “hurt” the sales of its recent shooter Syndicate.

Syndicate was released in late February and was only temporarily stocked in the UK’s leading games retailers GAME and Gamestation following the collapse of terms with publisher EA.

Although EA is now back on board with GAME, stock of all releases post SSX is only arriving in stores today, meaning Syndicate was missing for a key period after its release.

"There's so many reasons why a game succeeds or fails from a commercial point-of-view,” Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark told Games Industry. “We released the game about a month or more ago, and we're doing our post-mortem right now: what did we do right, what did we do wrong, and of course we will look at the commercial side as well.

"The numbers are not as high as we would like, and I think if you asked anyone they would say the same thing about any game they made.

“But [Syndicate] was released in the midst of GAME going under; the retail space is hurting, and I think that hurt us because we were such a retail product."

The game sold like shit in the USA too.

Syndicate didn't bomb because GAME went to shit. Syndicate bombed because the game had no target audience. It's a classic real time tactics game that was gutted and made into a generic FPS with no marketing push behind it. People who had never heard of Syndicate before didn't bat an eye at it because it looked generic and wasn't boosted by a massive marketing push to get it into public consciousness, and classic fans ignored it because it was so different from the original.

Which begs the question - what's the point of reviving a dead franchise if you're going to turn it into something completely different from the original, while also making it a "me-too" also-ran? Who's the target there?

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/16/rumor-farmville-2-revealed-by-resume/

A San Francisco copywriter's resume appears to hint that Zynga has given the green light to making a sequel to its popular flagship Farmville title. Writer Alex Harvey, while listing out his work for "communications agency" Isobar, says he participated in the "successful" pitch for Farmville 2. That tells us that Farmville 2 was at one point a suggested thing, and that Zynga has said yes to it becoming a real thing.

For now, that's all we know. It's probably fair to say, however, that there will be cows, and you will click them.

Finally. The sequel everybody has been waiting for.

Those in the US will be treated to a reskinned Doki Doki Panic with Farmville characters because Zynga USA will think it's too similar to the original.

Dark Raven X · April 2012

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Which begs the question - what's the point of reviving a dead franchise if you're going to turn it into something completely different from the original, while also making it a "me-too" also-ran? Who's the target there?

Metroid Prime pulled it off, guess it set a precedent for revivals-into-a-different-genre.

As I recall, exactly no one thought it'd be any good though, it was all word of mouth and a drought of any proper FPS games on the Cube that made it a success.

Aegeri · April 2012

I have been saying that about XCOM for so long now. I have to wonder how XCOM would have done it if had made its original march release. Given the bad vibe on the net about it and lack of interest from the cowaduty crowd, I really think that 2kgames must have seen the writing on the wall and delayed it considerably.

I still feel it will have to do something really great to get over its initial PR mess to succeed. Goes to show that slapping an old IP into an FPS is not a guaranteed winning formulae.

Undead Scottsman · April 2012

Well, and the fact it's a fucking awesome game.

Shit, if CoD can get yearly releases, I with we could at least get another trilogy for Metroid Prime.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Dark Raven X wrote: »

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Which begs the question - what's the point of reviving a dead franchise if you're going to turn it into something completely different from the original, while also making it a "me-too" also-ran? Who's the target there?

Metroid Prime pulled it off, guess it set a precedent for revivals-into-a-different-genre.

As I recall, exactly no one thought it'd be any good though, it was all word of mouth and a drought of any proper FPS games on the Cube that made it a success.

Metroid Prime was not different from the original, except for the perspective. Metroid Prime was very much Metroid in 3D.

Syndicate was nothing like the original.

RainbowDespair · April 2012

Pandora's Tower debuted at #38? Guess that kills any shot of a US release. Sad.

cloudeagle · April 2012

Shiggy's still keeping busy:

Shigeru Miyamoto has implied that a new Mario game for Wii U will be revealed at this year's E3.

The news came in an interview Miyamoto gave to Spanish newspaper El Mundo (via GAF).

The passage in question roughly translates as:

"[Miyamoto] anticipates that at E3, the largest exhibition of video games, held in June in Los Angeles, Nintendo will launch a new Super Mario for this platform, which will combine the TV screen with the remote." (Google Translate)

In the same interview, Miyamoto also said that he was currently focussed on smaller but important projects for Wii U, Pikmin 3 and Luigi's Mansion 2 for 3DS.

Miyamoto also revealed that wants to do more with the idea behind Wii Music. Although he acknowledged the game's disappointing reception, saying "It is always sad when something does not sell as well as expected," he still believes there to be a good idea in there somewhere, and revealed that when something underperforms Nintendo "usually try to work the best idea or at least take it up and concretize it from an angle different for use in another title."

http://wii.ign.com/articles/122/1223063p1.html

How long has he been saying he's been working on Pikmin 3?

Archsorcerer · April 2012

Edit: Ninja'ed.

LegendofLink · April 2012

Metroid Prime also had the advantage of still being a really good game, something that Syndicate can't quite claim.

Skull2185 · April 2012

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/syndicate-sales-hurt-by-game-instability/094481

Developer Starbreeze has claimed that the recent instability at retailer GAME “hurt” the sales of its recent shooter Syndicate.

Syndicate was released in late February and was only temporarily stocked in the UK’s leading games retailers GAME and Gamestation following the collapse of terms with publisher EA.

Although EA is now back on board with GAME, stock of all releases post SSX is only arriving in stores today, meaning Syndicate was missing for a key period after its release.

"There's so many reasons why a game succeeds or fails from a commercial point-of-view,” Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark told Games Industry. “We released the game about a month or more ago, and we're doing our post-mortem right now: what did we do right, what did we do wrong, and of course we will look at the commercial side as well.

"The numbers are not as high as we would like, and I think if you asked anyone they would say the same thing about any game they made.

“But [Syndicate] was released in the midst of GAME going under; the retail space is hurting, and I think that hurt us because we were such a retail product."

The game sold like shit in the USA too.

Syndicate didn't bomb because GAME went to shit. Syndicate bombed because the game had no target audience. It's a classic real time tactics game that was gutted and made into a generic FPS with no marketing push behind it. People who had never heard of Syndicate before didn't bat an eye at it because it looked generic and wasn't boosted by a massive marketing push to get it into public consciousness, and classic fans ignored it because it was so different from the original.

Which begs the question - what's the point of reviving a dead franchise if you're going to turn it into something completely different from the original, while also making it a "me-too" also-ran? Who's the target there?

I wouldn't say generic FPS. Its a pretty solid FPS, with some interesting abilities. I don't know of any FPS that lets you hack a grenade mid-flight, making it harmless. Plus all the other DART tricks you have. Its a pretty unique FPS, really. I never played the original though, so I didn't go into the new one already hating it because it wasn't the exact same game as the original.

I didn't buy it right away though, not because it looked "generic", but because I couldn't justify the $60 at the time. I did pick it up new for like $30 recently.

Also,

Is Bethesda expected to announce something tomorrow? According to Reddit(I don't know why I still go there...) The Bethesda FB page uploaded this pic:

546570_324741520926711_139538492780349_842734_2083296939_n.jpg

546570_324741520926711_139538492780349_842734_2083296939_n.jpg

with the caption "Tomorrow"

Skyrim expansion?

cloudeagle · April 2012

LegendofLink wrote: »

Metroid Prime also had the advantage of still being a really good game, something that Syndicate can't quite claim.

Also Syndicate came out a week before a fairly similar game called Mass Effect 3.

vsove · April 2012

Lanrutcon wrote: »

I hope I'm around when EA crashes and burns. Would help if people stop buying their sports title rehashes. Seriously, that UK top 20 list makes me facepalm.

I'm glad that you hope to see eight to ten thousand people lose their jobs. Thanks!

Penny Arcade

Video Game Industry Thread: Master Chief -- script delivery boy

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