@Yoshi3 I assume because Nintendo wants to be sure to push the game forward, not just retread the same ideas. We see this with Mario and it's also why we didn't get Mario Kart 8 for the longest time.
I'd really like to see an analyst insight on what all these layoffs are going to game releases in 2026 and 2027. Last year and this year have had a high number of releases. Either we're about to hit lean times with releases, or there's going to be so much AI used to make games released in 26 & 27 that it'll make you vomit.
Yes, I feel horrible for the people losing their jobs. Lots of articles are covering that. What isn't being covered is what this means for releases in the coming years. Higher game prices and few titles is my assumption. Hopefully we'll at least see fewer live service games. That trend needs to die a swift and painful death.
Take the extra time; Terminate as many bugs as possible before release. At this point, I'll probably wait until next year to pick the game up. Have other priorities for the holiday, but am still very much planning to play this.
Really so depends on the game. Lower price like an indie game I may buy a couple. Bigger AAA titles maybe 1 if it goes on decent sale. I suspect most are buying less as a trend
Just glad to see the Pinball game listed in the vote. I loved that game. The rumble wasn't great, but it I thought it added to the fun factor. I still have my DS and the rumble pack still works.
No, it didn't have the best title screen, but it was a really fun game anyways.
I guess my first time to really play DQ was VIII. My wife and I played it together. I'm perplexed at idea of a possible remake/reimagining of VIII, the first voiced in the series. Does it really need to updated? I tried to play the mobile port, but the portrait mode was just too frustrating to even get past the start. Do I want a remake? I might be happy with just porting VIII to modern systems. But, what would a reimagining be like? Probably just look like XI, right? hmm
This was all pretty mid for me. The one game reminded me of SSX, and that last one had an interesting particle system demo. That's about it. It all looked like indie stuff being published by a brand that's trying to recover it's formal glory. Is this AA gaming?
Meh. Looks like a bunch of indie games. The SSX style game looked mildly interesting. That last one looked like a particle system demo with like a platformer theme.
@Blast16 LOL I downloaded the demo and then realized I had already played it. My character was still on my Switch too. It's fully playable. And the game cheats as bad as ever. I switched to Hard and that kinda made it more fun too since I know how the game works. Need to shake off my prediction skills to know where the cheating is going to happen. Best way I found to play this game, and others like it, are to play attrition style. I think I'm going to wait for this Immortal version though. They might polish things up a little more than what the current version is.
Oh wow. I loved the original game. I didn't pick up any ports because I kept hearing about bugs and such. I didn't realize the Switch version of Legend Returns had a demo. I need to check that to see how it plays. But, might just wait for Immortal to pick up the game. Fingers crossed it's a quality port and plays well. Really been itching to play this game again.
@RupeeClock I was thinking a lot of those same thoughts. It's a combination of storage costs and lack for forward thinking. Plus, licensing for things like music probably made it all so much more complicated.
I kinda get through the 16bit era no one really thought games would come back full circle for remasters, rereleases or porting to newer system decades later. I'd love to hear the private thought of the C level at the big publishers. I want to hold out hold that they are internally conflicted knowing what the right thing to do to preserve their product as art vs having to be handcuffed by shareholder value. "Won't someone please think of the Shareholders!?" is quickly become the bigger root of all evil - which is still money, but a more specific aspect.
It'd be nice to assume they have the rights to every IP that was shown. But, not holding my breath. They had some good games, but there were some seriously bad licensed cash grabs that where some of the worst games ever. I'm probably in the minority, but I remember that more than their hits. Hopefully this reboot of the brand can clean things up.
Glad to see this. Been itching for a pure arcade racer. This should scratch the itch well. Hopefully it's tune well. Trailer looks promising for simple arcade fun. I want it to load quickly, be able to jump into a race with just a couple of button mashes, and be done in a few minutes, like an arcade game.
This is why I left the game biz. Movies are the same way. It's so hit driven. Even if you have hits, if you can't sell the idea of your next game, you're not going to get funding to make it. The dev I worked at didn't do project based accounting for its games. That shocked me, so they didn't know how much money a game earned them directly. I'm d be super curious to know what accounting practice these smaller devs use to keep tabs on profits and cash flows.
All of these layoffs suck. But, I'm really starting to wonder if we're in a gaming glut that is partially responsible. There are so many games, good games, lately. I wonder if gamer just can't spend enough to cover all of the games at launch. I know I can't. If there were fewer games, then with less competition individual titles might sell better outside of a Steam sale.
@GravyThief It's an easy feature to add, same with survival mode. But, I really enjoyed survival mode on SoR4 for some reason vs other games that have the feature. I'm not usually a completionist, but I have messed with boss rush to try and hit S rank in all stages on SoR on all difficulties. Some bosses suck for some characters, so more work to do for me.
I still remember when these first came out. I was blown away by what I thought was a Doom mod. I want say I played more Hexen than Heretic, but it was probably the other way around. So much fun. I like the weapons more than anything. It just felt different. I feel that $15 is a fair price. It's not a straight port, some new content, and tuned to run at 120fps. NICE. This would be a good one for the long Labor Day weekend that's in a month.
This looks really good. It's got a number of different vibes going for me, and all are good. As long as the controls are tight, hit boxes are where you think they should be, no cheap deaths, you now the usual stuff that'll wreck a game - this should do well. Could prove to be the new template on how to do a movie tie-in game too.
So, this is a reskinned game picked up by Atari. In a way, ya, I can kinda, sorta, maybe, see where they say this fits with the old Adventure game. It could be argued that Adventure at its heart really is the OG Metroidvania. So, take any game with a kind of fantasy setting that you have to explore around in, pick up items, attack "something" and complete an objective to win, and okay ya that's kind of what Adventure is. So, just change up the graphics and there you go. Tower of Samsara, you can play the new demo from Atari, isn't a bad game. I didn't feel it does a lot new. Emotionally, it did nothing to grab me enough to consider it the successor of Adventure. But, trying to call out why proved to be REALY hard. What would that game look like?
There are some homebrew games out there that have tried to do just this. I haven't looked at them, but I've read one at least is a really good effort. I need to go look at that.
Unless the reviews say this is a good enough game to put the IP aside and just enjoy the game as-is, I can't see myself picking this up on any platform unless it's like < $5. There's nothing there that reminds me that I'm playing Adventure other than the marketing tells me so.
Surprised no one has brought up Ori and the Blind Forest. That game couldn't run at 60fps as-is. They had to revamp a lot of the game with a lot of tradeoffs to make it work. That took a lot of time, and I expect they only did it after they saw how well the game performed on all the other platforms. So, it's not as simple as tuning a game with just tweaks; which is what Dotemu is probably running into. The game engine is probably set to a floating performance so it can scale on its own for the Switch 2. I would assume they will watch game sales and which Switch has the higher adoption. If they get enough Switch 2 sales, they'll do an optimization patch. But, unless it sells very well, I doubt we'll see the same level of revamp as Ori got. I can't find the video I saw where it showed some of the changes, downgrades and tuning that went into the Switch version. Based on that, I don't see what they are saying as concerning. They are staying within a budget and if the sales are there, they may be able to do more for tuning and adjustments especially for Switch 2.
If the game engine is doing anything like what SoR4 does, it's not a simple title-based pixel engine. SoR4 does a lot with lighting and effects across the various layers. There are several videos that cover how the game is put together. If Ninja Gaiden is build in a similar way, I can see why it takes more CPU muscle to pull off than what it may look like.
But, I'll be playing on Steam anyways, so it's all moot for me.
@SabreLevant When it came out originally it was considered an indie game since it was produced by a small dev studio. Later it opened the question since more people questioned if being published by Dotemu pushed it out of the indie zone.
But, there are plenty of big name games now that are considered indie games, look very high quality, and were not funded by a publisher. Tools like Godot and platforms lowering the barrier to get on their store fronts have really changed the industry. That's my main point.
Only played the newest entry on the PC. Had a good time with it. Didn't quite scratch the Afterburner itch I had at the time, but it was good fun. Looking forward to this to see where it all started Not a day one purchase for me since it does appear to be a bit shallow, but maybe that's ok overall. I don't need long games any more. Good pick-up and play for 20min is fine for me.
If there are more in the series that get ported, I hope they do a compilation pack later.
It was an interesting comment about this all being a kind of market correction. We are in an interesting period like never before. Post pandemic. Gaming at it's high valuation and revenue ever. More people playing a game of some kind than ever before. Console and PC gaming appear to be heading for some kind of convergence. Eventually. AI coming to take all of our jobs. And, we're also in this kind of golden era of indie games. Which is something I've considered in some posts. What makes a game "indie"? It used to equate to lower budget games. But, that isn't consistent now with games like Streets of Rage 4 being considered Indie, but having a good size budget and high production values. Same for other games from that dev/pub combo which is leading up to Absolum next. So, how much is an indie shift affecting the market in addition to everything else? Add inflation to the mix and I have no idea how to read the market any more. Everything is so hella expensive. I've drastically lowered my gaming budget because of inflation. Is that part of the writing on the wall that MS is seeing to make this kind of correction now? No clue, but there are things that could be read into that theory. My general assumption is that there are multiple factors at play, not just one thing. Not just AI. Yet. That is coming, and possibly in my lifetime. Economic factors? Could be. Maybe even other things like MS and other really seeing cloud gaming as the future and it coming sooner than we think. No way to read the tea leaves this time, I don't think.
I spent some time with the demo. Does it look or act like Adventure? NOPE. Does it play like Adventure? Eh, this is where it gets murky. In a way, the original game was kind of the early forerunner of what we consider a Metroid game where you have to explore and backtrack, etc. Does it feel like Adventure? After the trailer, Gen X Grownup's vid and starting the demo, I would say HARD NO. After playing most of the demo? I'm still going to go with no, because there is isn't much that connects it to the nostalgia of the original. But, I can start to see why Atari wanted to "slap" the IP on the game. I disagree with it, but I can kinda ,sorta, but not fully, start to grasp their thinking. Is the game itself worth playing? Eh. I really didn't like how the controls work for the ledges. The jumping is too floaty, even for what I assume is trying to bring back how jumping was in the 2600 era. The combat didn't feel as tight as I thought it should. Too bad I played this almost right after playing the Absolum demo, which was everything you'd want in a SoR meets Hades game mashup. Super tight gameplay and an expansive combo system, etc.
Also, my nostalgic sense of the OG game has no technology in it. Data cube? sigh. I would rather have had some kind of labyrinth style 3/4 view game, that was maybe a very rouge-like-ish game to enhance replay value, but not that you had to keep killing yourself to progress.
This is not a Recharge version of the game, which I guess is more of what I was hoping for. They repurposed another game that couldn't make it's Kickstarter campaign. Is it even worth following the news cycle on this? No. Only if Atari takes in all the negative feedback from the demo and totally changes course would it be worth it. Otherwise, the demo did nothing new. I'd much rather go play the Absolum demo again.
In fact... I'd rather dream of what Dotemu and its stable of dev studios could have done with this IP instead of Atari.
Between this and Absolum, I am all set for action games for 2025. Love these video looks at Shinobi. Dotemu is quickly becoming my favorite publisher, and LIzardcube is really making a name for themselves in the dev space. Super looking forward to both releases!
I'm kinda disappointed about the comment on taking it down to 30fps. I get that not every game really "needs" 60 fps. To me it seems that we should be in an era of gaming where 60fps should just be the minimal norm. Ya, probably means a trade off between smooth 60fps and some visual polish, but it seems most gamers really prefer 60fps over better visuals. Double so for anything with action in it. Pokemon? eh, ok it can get by at 30+. A kart racer or platformer? Hard no. Shouldn't even enter into consideration that 30fps would be an option.
I think I'm going to sit out on the launch window. I'll save up for the inevitable OLED version next year, and not at launch then either. The whole scalper culture really needs to die a fast excoriatingly painful end.
So far I like the balance that Lizardcube and Dotemu have produced with their games. This game is looking good. Really good. I thoroughly enjoyed SoR4. Like, I still pick it up a few times a months just to mash through survival or boss rush for the hell of it. So good. This Shinobi tribute looks like it has all the same love letter attention to detail. Think I'll pick this up for Labor Day weekend here in the US and have a good run with it.
Really though, I don't want any news about how the launch goes. Scalpers have gotten so bad post-covid, it's just not worth trying rush to get a launch unit unless you can get in on some lottery system. Every retailer, of any size, needs to implement the most strict measures to prevent scalpers. What's odd is that last year Nintendo even said they were trying to out produce scalpers for this launch. Seems like that's not going to be possible? bummer.
Ok, I could tolerate the rationalization for higher game prices if the argument was specific to "At Nintendo we desire to pay our game developers a fair wage. Our game prices reflect the their time and dedication involved in making our games. Further, we limit the use of AI to only assist in their productivity so it is their vision of the game that is produced, no the hallucinations of an AI model.". Ok, I might pay a little more to support the dev team directly, but let's make sure they are fairly compensated.
Without question is was a question of tradeoffs. Price, power, thickness, etc. All probably worked against having an OLED at launch. Unless the LCD is just so good, pretty sure they've got the OLED in the roadmap for year 2; especially after they've had time to refine the SoC for battery saving or smaller die, etc.
Also, there isn't a Lite at launch, so you know there will be future models. Just wish the launch price was $100 less. That would be much more of a no-brainer to grab a launch system. But, at $499 for the bundle? ehhhhhhh, that's a tough pitch for a generation of gamers growing in a time EVERYTHING is expensive these days.
LOL I just finished watching Impact Rising. There's a similar vibe here. I feel like I may have played one of the earlier games. Maybe on the DS? Dang, the memory is getting fuzzy that far back.
This looks appealing though. Going to add this to the watch list.
I read through the patent file, because why not. This def meant to be something to overlay on an existing game. No modification to the original game engine required. Just the rendering path. Some really interesting ideas mentioned that I would not have immediately thought about like morphing the normal map to align with the virtual camera. I'm sure that would be obvious once you start working with the idea, but wouldn't have hit me right off.
I assume this is just interesting tech that someone in Nintendo was knocking around to see if there was a simple way to take an older game and convert it to 3d. It does appear to be rather dependent upon how the game is constructed for full effect. Don't look for this patent to be used in a game. This is just Nintendo realizing this is good tech, but not immediate application in a form that allows them to make money. Nintendo has lots of patents that never make it to market. This is likely one of those.
Ah yes. I remember a very long and tedious argument about RNG with the community manager back in Everquest. They would talk about percentages, how various parts of the game had x% or whatever. The devs/community manager were set that the % was x. End of discussion.
Except, that's not what the experience was. There were data nerds that logged all of their results. If I remember right, in the early days there was a toggle to see the dice rolls from the engine. Anyways, the data nerds had hard data that while it could be true that the devs set the % "chance" to x, the results the players were actually experiencing was different. I get that it's the dev's game, so they're going to make it to whatever they want, but the hardest part backend was the interaction that just made it an us vs them war. I played that game for far too long. We all used to camp various spawns to rare drops. We'd know what the drop rate was, but we also knew what the actual recorded length of time to get something. Someone speculated the way the game did RNG was actually a table of numbers, rather than an RND() function; that given how the system was just a large database doing a pointer in a table would be more efficient to manage results for a mass number of players. This is to say there would be a pattern to results, even spread across multiple users. Again, data nerds with lots of time on their hands. They had the numbers to back their claims.
Today, yeeeah, I can still grind. There is something zen about it, but not always. I admit it sometimes gets in the way because it can cause me to hit a different kind of burn out before I'd seen enough of the game. I guess that's kinda why I like just digging in Minecraft? Weird.
Oh dang that looks good. The art "style" is similar to SoR4, while the art direction is different. I'm ok with that, but let's not make that the only thing Dotemu can do. If this has the same quality of game play as SoR4 this should be really good. I still play survival in SoR4 at least once a week. So good.
Digital Foundry did a video about SoR4 digging into the technical aspects of the genre. Did a really good job explaining thing. It's honestly why I have I hopes for this title on just that video.
Great news for anyone that hasn't been able to pick up this game. It's so good.
Now, can we entertain the idea of a DQ VIII remaster? I know they still have to release 1-2 with same treatment as 3, but I loved 8 and never got to finish the game before I shelved the PS2. It was one of the games my wife and I played when we were newly married. We would love to sit down and finish the story. Judging by the guides I think we were like 4-5hrs away from finishing the main story.
@Daniel36 Same here. I hadn't played the original games, but I backed the Kickstarter because it looked like something I wanted. But, like you, it just didn't hook me. I think it was the 100+ characters concept. I guess I'm at the point in my life where I don't feel I have the time to explore all the possible combinations of characters to find what works for me, or what I find to be fun. And, I don't want to just look for a Best Combo guide. Also, I guess the combat system in the beginning just didn't grab me either. You waste a lot of points trying to balance out hitting back rows or being optimal. I assume that works out once all the systems are explained, but it frustrated me in the first 2 hours or so.
But, ya, I need to give it another shot. Double so since I did back it.
Oh ya looks good. Noticed the likeness thing right away. Love that they used the sounds from the movie. if the controls are tight, this should do well. Real question will be can this run at the trailer's 60fps on the Switch?
Curious if they licensed any dialog clips from the movie too. Regardless, I think they nailed the art direction perfectly.
Need to see more to understand what it will do different from Arkanoid and Crystal Hammer. Spent a lot of hours with both. From the trailer it looks like more of the focus is on the ball itself instead of power ups for the paddle. Curious to see more. I like the art direction for sure.
Bah, now I got the song from Crystal Hammer stuck in my head. Where's the .mod file I keep on my drive?
Given the lackluster previews about overly bland gameplay, I'm perfectly fine with this. Take the time to make the game fun and fully polished. We fans of the Shire won't mind waiting.
But, now you gotta wonder if they decided to change their target spec to NS2. While that would probably make the game play smoother, it wouldn't have any impact on the gameplay quality.
In a very Nintendo-convoluted way I could see this as the groundwork to bring in a Nintendo family library concept. Something we've wanted since the beginning, and double so when Nintendo publicly stated they wanted each member of the household to have their own Switch, mostly the Lite. They sorta helped larger families with putting some DLC into the highest tier of the online family plan.
Fingers crossed we get something of a family library with Switch 2. I kinda doubt it, but we can dream.
It's getting harder to understand or see Xbox's end game here. On one hand, as mentioned in comments already, it does feel like Xbox is moving the same direction as Sega and will move away from hardware. It's not an illogical move given the expense of developing a new platform. And this current generation ended up being rather close in terms of base tech from the same partner(s). If MS expects that to continue, then it makes it harder for them to truly differentiate themselves from competition; mostly Sony.
BUT, MS has also invested heavily in cloud. Would they walk away from that? I kinda don't think so, but that's at odds with not wanting to pursue console hardware development. Unless there is something about designing cloud gaming platforms that's completely different from consoles. The one thing that comes to mind would be shared resources vs single stand alone console. Maybe it's better to design a server cluster to host game sessions vs discrete personal systems? No clue. Just spitballing here.
Then again, there's been that rumor that Xbox might buy Sega. Would you do that, hand over the collection of Xbox Studios to Sega leadership to take over development, and then double down on cloud technology as the real future of gaming? I could see the argument for that. Not sure I agree with it, but I can see the reasoning.
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Re: Star Fox Programmer's Next Game May As Well Be A New Entry In Nintendo's Series
I'm encouraged by the trailer. Looks like a fun ride at least. Hopefully it's got new ideas to play with.
Re: Star Fox Programmer's Next Game May As Well Be A New Entry In Nintendo's Series
@Yoshi3 I assume because Nintendo wants to be sure to push the game forward, not just retread the same ideas. We see this with Mario and it's also why we didn't get Mario Kart 8 for the longest time.
Re: Square Enix Hit By Mass Layoffs As Part Of Global Restructuring
I'd really like to see an analyst insight on what all these layoffs are going to game releases in 2026 and 2027. Last year and this year have had a high number of releases. Either we're about to hit lean times with releases, or there's going to be so much AI used to make games released in 26 & 27 that it'll make you vomit.
Yes, I feel horrible for the people losing their jobs. Lots of articles are covering that. What isn't being covered is what this means for releases in the coming years. Higher game prices and few titles is my assumption. Hopefully we'll at least see fewer live service games. That trend needs to die a swift and painful death.
Re: Talking Point: What's The Best Firework Sequence In A Video Game?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brsn7a7HTr0
Some random game from Activision that let you make your own fireworks show. Or does it have to be on a Nintendo system?
Re: Terminator 2D: No Fate Has Been Delayed Again On Switch
Take the extra time; Terminate as many bugs as possible before release. At this point, I'll probably wait until next year to pick the game up. Have other priorities for the holiday, but am still very much planning to play this.
Re: Vampire Survivors' Latest Free Crossover Will Surely Be Its Most Addictive Yet
Diabolical! Seriously.
Re: Poll: How Many New Games Do You Buy In A Year?
Really so depends on the game. Lower price like an indie game I may buy a couple. Bigger AAA titles maybe 1 if it goes on decent sale. I suspect most are buying less as a trend
Re: Talking Point: Can Metroid Prime 4's Title Screen Go As Hard As The Others?
Just glad to see the Pinball game listed in the vote. I loved that game. The rumble wasn't great, but it I thought it added to the fun factor. I still have my DS and the rumble pack still works.
No, it didn't have the best title screen, but it was a really fun game anyways.
Re: Why Remake 'Dragon Quest VII' Before The Zenithian Trilogy? Yuji Horii Comments
I guess my first time to really play DQ was VIII. My wife and I played it together. I'm perplexed at idea of a possible remake/reimagining of VIII, the first voiced in the series. Does it really need to updated? I tried to play the mobile port, but the portrait mode was just too frustrating to even get past the start. Do I want a remake? I might be happy with just porting VIII to modern systems. But, what would a reimagining be like? Probably just look like XI, right? hmm
Re: Round Up: Every "Exciting New Game" From The Acclaim Showcase
This was all pretty mid for me. The one game reminded me of SSX, and that last one had an interesting particle system demo. That's about it. It all looked like indie stuff being published by a brand that's trying to recover it's formal glory. Is this AA gaming?
Re: Publisher Acclaim Is Hosting Its Own Showcase Today
Meh. Looks like a bunch of indie games. The SSX style game looked mildly interesting. That last one looked like a particle system demo with like a platformer theme.
Very little direct ties with their legacy IP.
Re: Puzzle Quest: Immortal Edition Brings Match-3 RPG Fun To Switch This Month
@Burning_Spear Great to hear. Maybe it was another platform that had the issues.
Re: Puzzle Quest: Immortal Edition Brings Match-3 RPG Fun To Switch This Month
@Blast16 LOL I downloaded the demo and then realized I had already played it. My character was still on my Switch too. It's fully playable. And the game cheats as bad as ever. I switched to Hard and that kinda made it more fun too since I know how the game works. Need to shake off my prediction skills to know where the cheating is going to happen. Best way I found to play this game, and others like it, are to play attrition style. I think I'm going to wait for this Immortal version though. They might polish things up a little more than what the current version is.
Re: Puzzle Quest: Immortal Edition Brings Match-3 RPG Fun To Switch This Month
Oh wow. I loved the original game. I didn't pick up any ports because I kept hearing about bugs and such. I didn't realize the Switch version of Legend Returns had a demo. I need to check that to see how it plays. But, might just wait for Immortal to pick up the game. Fingers crossed it's a quality port and plays well. Really been itching to play this game again.
Re: Final Fantasy Tactics' Devs Had To Lean On Fans To Recover Original Source Code
@RupeeClock I was thinking a lot of those same thoughts. It's a combination of storage costs and lack for forward thinking. Plus, licensing for things like music probably made it all so much more complicated.
I kinda get through the 16bit era no one really thought games would come back full circle for remasters, rereleases or porting to newer system decades later. I'd love to hear the private thought of the C level at the big publishers. I want to hold out hold that they are internally conflicted knowing what the right thing to do to preserve their product as art vs having to be handcuffed by shareholder value. "Won't someone please think of the Shareholders!?" is quickly become the bigger root of all evil - which is still money, but a more specific aspect.
Re: Publisher Acclaim Is Set To Host Its Own Showcase Next Month
It'd be nice to assume they have the rights to every IP that was shown. But, not holding my breath. They had some good games, but there were some seriously bad licensed cash grabs that where some of the worst games ever. I'm probably in the minority, but I remember that more than their hits. Hopefully this reboot of the brand can clean things up.
Re: Fast & Furious: Arcade Port Cruises Onto Switch This October
Glad to see this. Been itching for a pure arcade racer. This should scratch the itch well. Hopefully it's tune well. Trailer looks promising for simple arcade fun. I want it to load quickly, be able to jump into a race with just a couple of button mashes, and be done in a few minutes, like an arcade game.
Re: Tron: Catalyst & John Wick Hex Dev 'Bithell Games' Makes "Majority" Of Staff Redundant
This is why I left the game biz. Movies are the same way. It's so hit driven. Even if you have hits, if you can't sell the idea of your next game, you're not going to get funding to make it. The dev I worked at didn't do project based accounting for its games. That shocked me, so they didn't know how much money a game earned them directly. I'm d be super curious to know what accounting practice these smaller devs use to keep tabs on profits and cash flows.
All of these layoffs suck. But, I'm really starting to wonder if we're in a gaming glut that is partially responsible. There are so many games, good games, lately. I wonder if gamer just can't spend enough to cover all of the games at launch. I know I can't. If there were fewer games, then with less competition individual titles might sell better outside of a Steam sale.
Re: Forget Silksong, This New Terminator 2D Overview Trailer Looks Stupidly Good
@GravyThief It's an easy feature to add, same with survival mode. But, I really enjoyed survival mode on SoR4 for some reason vs other games that have the feature. I'm not usually a completionist, but I have messed with boss rush to try and hit S rank in all stages on SoR on all difficulties. Some bosses suck for some characters, so more work to do for me.
Re: Nightdive Studios Reveal "Definitive" Re-Release Of 'Heretic + Hexen' On Switch
I still remember when these first came out. I was blown away by what I thought was a Doom mod. I want say I played more Hexen than Heretic, but it was probably the other way around. So much fun. I like the weapons more than anything. It just felt different. I feel that $15 is a fair price. It's not a straight port, some new content, and tuned to run at 120fps. NICE. This would be a good one for the long Labor Day weekend that's in a month.
Re: Forget Silksong, This New Terminator 2D Overview Trailer Looks Stupidly Good
This looks really good. It's got a number of different vibes going for me, and all are good. As long as the controls are tight, hit boxes are where you think they should be, no cheap deaths, you now the usual stuff that'll wreck a game - this should do well. Could prove to be the new template on how to do a movie tie-in game too.
Re: Forget Silksong, This New Terminator 2D Overview Trailer Looks Stupidly Good
@GravyThief Boss rush is a good way to learn the bosses and refine strategy so you can beat them easier when you play through.
Re: Atari's Retro Metroidvania 'Adventure Of Samsara' Launches Next Month
This is covered on GenXGrownUp. His vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP7UZst9hhA
This game was originally called Tower of Samsara.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtC5bzuLy68
So, this is a reskinned game picked up by Atari. In a way, ya, I can kinda, sorta, maybe, see where they say this fits with the old Adventure game. It could be argued that Adventure at its heart really is the OG Metroidvania. So, take any game with a kind of fantasy setting that you have to explore around in, pick up items, attack "something" and complete an objective to win, and okay ya that's kind of what Adventure is. So, just change up the graphics and there you go. Tower of Samsara, you can play the new demo from Atari, isn't a bad game. I didn't feel it does a lot new. Emotionally, it did nothing to grab me enough to consider it the successor of Adventure. But, trying to call out why proved to be REALY hard. What would that game look like?
There are some homebrew games out there that have tried to do just this. I haven't looked at them, but I've read one at least is a really good effort. I need to go look at that.
Unless the reviews say this is a good enough game to put the IP aside and just enjoy the game as-is, I can't see myself picking this up on any platform unless it's like < $5. There's nothing there that reminds me that I'm playing Adventure other than the marketing tells me so.
Re: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound Will "Average" 30fps On Switch
@Sylamp Oh, ok. That explains why I couldn't find the video.
Re: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound Will "Average" 30fps On Switch
Surprised no one has brought up Ori and the Blind Forest. That game couldn't run at 60fps as-is. They had to revamp a lot of the game with a lot of tradeoffs to make it work. That took a lot of time, and I expect they only did it after they saw how well the game performed on all the other platforms. So, it's not as simple as tuning a game with just tweaks; which is what Dotemu is probably running into. The game engine is probably set to a floating performance so it can scale on its own for the Switch 2. I would assume they will watch game sales and which Switch has the higher adoption. If they get enough Switch 2 sales, they'll do an optimization patch. But, unless it sells very well, I doubt we'll see the same level of revamp as Ori got. I can't find the video I saw where it showed some of the changes, downgrades and tuning that went into the Switch version. Based on that, I don't see what they are saying as concerning. They are staying within a budget and if the sales are there, they may be able to do more for tuning and adjustments especially for Switch 2.
If the game engine is doing anything like what SoR4 does, it's not a simple title-based pixel engine. SoR4 does a lot with lighting and effects across the various layers. There are several videos that cover how the game is put together. If Ninja Gaiden is build in a similar way, I can see why it takes more CPU muscle to pull off than what it may look like.
But, I'll be playing on Steam anyways, so it's all moot for me.
Re: Romero Games "Is Not Closed" Following Xbox Layoffs
@SabreLevant When it came out originally it was considered an indie game since it was produced by a small dev studio. Later it opened the question since more people questioned if being published by Dotemu pushed it out of the indie zone.
But, there are plenty of big name games now that are considered indie games, look very high quality, and were not funded by a publisher. Tools like Godot and platforms lowering the barrier to get on their store fronts have really changed the industry. That's my main point.
Re: Review: Arcade Archives 2 Air Combat 22 (Switch 2) - A Top Gun Origin Story
Only played the newest entry on the PC. Had a good time with it. Didn't quite scratch the Afterburner itch I had at the time, but it was good fun. Looking forward to this to see where it all started Not a day one purchase for me since it does appear to be a bit shallow, but maybe that's ok overall. I don't need long games any more. Good pick-up and play for 20min is fine for me.
If there are more in the series that get ported, I hope they do a compilation pack later.
Re: Romero Games "Is Not Closed" Following Xbox Layoffs
It was an interesting comment about this all being a kind of market correction. We are in an interesting period like never before. Post pandemic. Gaming at it's high valuation and revenue ever. More people playing a game of some kind than ever before. Console and PC gaming appear to be heading for some kind of convergence. Eventually. AI coming to take all of our jobs. And, we're also in this kind of golden era of indie games. Which is something I've considered in some posts. What makes a game "indie"? It used to equate to lower budget games. But, that isn't consistent now with games like Streets of Rage 4 being considered Indie, but having a good size budget and high production values. Same for other games from that dev/pub combo which is leading up to Absolum next. So, how much is an indie shift affecting the market in addition to everything else? Add inflation to the mix and I have no idea how to read the market any more. Everything is so hella expensive. I've drastically lowered my gaming budget because of inflation. Is that part of the writing on the wall that MS is seeing to make this kind of correction now? No clue, but there are things that could be read into that theory. My general assumption is that there are multiple factors at play, not just one thing. Not just AI. Yet. That is coming, and possibly in my lifetime. Economic factors? Could be. Maybe even other things like MS and other really seeing cloud gaming as the future and it coming sooner than we think. No way to read the tea leaves this time, I don't think.
Re: Classic Atari 2600 Title 'Adventure' Is Being Revived As A Metroidvania
GenXGrownUp had a good video about the game.
His vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP7UZst9hhA
He shared the background that it was previously a Kickstarter game called Tower of Samsara
trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtC5bzuLy68
I spent some time with the demo. Does it look or act like Adventure? NOPE. Does it play like Adventure? Eh, this is where it gets murky. In a way, the original game was kind of the early forerunner of what we consider a Metroid game where you have to explore and backtrack, etc. Does it feel like Adventure? After the trailer, Gen X Grownup's vid and starting the demo, I would say HARD NO. After playing most of the demo? I'm still going to go with no, because there is isn't much that connects it to the nostalgia of the original. But, I can start to see why Atari wanted to "slap" the IP on the game. I disagree with it, but I can kinda ,sorta, but not fully, start to grasp their thinking. Is the game itself worth playing? Eh. I really didn't like how the controls work for the ledges. The jumping is too floaty, even for what I assume is trying to bring back how jumping was in the 2600 era. The combat didn't feel as tight as I thought it should. Too bad I played this almost right after playing the Absolum demo, which was everything you'd want in a SoR meets Hades game mashup. Super tight gameplay and an expansive combo system, etc.
Also, my nostalgic sense of the OG game has no technology in it. Data cube? sigh. I would rather have had some kind of labyrinth style 3/4 view game, that was maybe a very rouge-like-ish game to enhance replay value, but not that you had to keep killing yourself to progress.
This is not a Recharge version of the game, which I guess is more of what I was hoping for. They repurposed another game that couldn't make it's Kickstarter campaign. Is it even worth following the news cycle on this? No. Only if Atari takes in all the negative feedback from the demo and totally changes course would it be worth it. Otherwise, the demo did nothing new. I'd much rather go play the Absolum demo again.
In fact... I'd rather dream of what Dotemu and its stable of dev studios could have done with this IP instead of Atari.
Re: Sega & Lizardcube Talk Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance And How To Modernise A Classic
Between this and Absolum, I am all set for action games for 2025. Love these video looks at Shinobi. Dotemu is quickly becoming my favorite publisher, and LIzardcube is really making a name for themselves in the dev space. Super looking forward to both releases!
Re: Mario Kart World Was Originally In Development For Switch 1
I'm kinda disappointed about the comment on taking it down to 30fps. I get that not every game really "needs" 60 fps. To me it seems that we should be in an era of gaming where 60fps should just be the minimal norm. Ya, probably means a trade off between smooth 60fps and some visual polish, but it seems most gamers really prefer 60fps over better visuals. Double so for anything with action in it. Pokemon? eh, ok it can get by at 30+. A kart racer or platformer? Hard no. Shouldn't even enter into consideration that 30fps would be an option.
I think I'm going to sit out on the launch window. I'll save up for the inevitable OLED version next year, and not at launch then either. The whole scalper culture really needs to die a fast excoriatingly painful end.
Re: Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance Shows Off Gorgeous Hand-Drawn Action And Environments
So far I like the balance that Lizardcube and Dotemu have produced with their games. This game is looking good. Really good. I thoroughly enjoyed SoR4. Like, I still pick it up a few times a months just to mash through survival or boss rush for the hell of it. So good. This Shinobi tribute looks like it has all the same love letter attention to detail. Think I'll pick this up for Labor Day weekend here in the US and have a good run with it.
Re: Analyst Predicts Record-Breaking Launch Numbers For Switch 2
But, what does Michael Pachter think?
Really though, I don't want any news about how the launch goes. Scalpers have gotten so bad post-covid, it's just not worth trying rush to get a launch unit unless you can get in on some lottery system. Every retailer, of any size, needs to implement the most strict measures to prevent scalpers. What's odd is that last year Nintendo even said they were trying to out produce scalpers for this launch. Seems like that's not going to be possible? bummer.
Re: Nintendo's Bowser Comments On AI And Its Uses
Ok, I could tolerate the rationalization for higher game prices if the argument was specific to "At Nintendo we desire to pay our game developers a fair wage. Our game prices reflect the their time and dedication involved in making our games. Further, we limit the use of AI to only assist in their productivity so it is their vision of the game that is produced, no the hallucinations of an AI model.". Ok, I might pay a little more to support the dev team directly, but let's make sure they are fairly compensated.
Re: Switch 2's Jump From OLED To LCD Wasn't A Decision Nintendo Took Lightly
Without question is was a question of tradeoffs. Price, power, thickness, etc. All probably worked against having an OLED at launch. Unless the LCD is just so good, pretty sure they've got the OLED in the roadmap for year 2; especially after they've had time to refine the SoC for battery saving or smaller die, etc.
Also, there isn't a Lite at launch, so you know there will be future models. Just wish the launch price was $100 less. That would be much more of a no-brainer to grab a launch system. But, at $499 for the bundle? ehhhhhhh, that's a tough pitch for a generation of gamers growing in a time EVERYTHING is expensive these days.
Re: Iconic Sony Sports Series 'Everybody's Golf' Tees-Off On Switch This Year
LOL I just finished watching Impact Rising. There's a similar vibe here. I feel like I may have played one of the earlier games. Maybe on the DS? Dang, the memory is getting fuzzy that far back.
This looks appealing though. Going to add this to the watch list.
Re: New Nintendo Patent Is All About 2D Visuals, But Don't Jump To Any Remake Conclusions
I read through the patent file, because why not. This def meant to be something to overlay on an existing game. No modification to the original game engine required. Just the rendering path. Some really interesting ideas mentioned that I would not have immediately thought about like morphing the normal map to align with the virtual camera. I'm sure that would be obvious once you start working with the idea, but wouldn't have hit me right off.
I assume this is just interesting tech that someone in Nintendo was knocking around to see if there was a simple way to take an older game and convert it to 3d. It does appear to be rather dependent upon how the game is constructed for full effect. Don't look for this patent to be used in a game. This is just Nintendo realizing this is good tech, but not immediate application in a form that allows them to make money. Nintendo has lots of patents that never make it to market. This is likely one of those.
Re: Opinion: Against All Odds - Why Does RPG RNG Hate Me?
Ah yes. I remember a very long and tedious argument about RNG with the community manager back in Everquest. They would talk about percentages, how various parts of the game had x% or whatever. The devs/community manager were set that the % was x. End of discussion.
Except, that's not what the experience was. There were data nerds that logged all of their results. If I remember right, in the early days there was a toggle to see the dice rolls from the engine. Anyways, the data nerds had hard data that while it could be true that the devs set the % "chance" to x, the results the players were actually experiencing was different. I get that it's the dev's game, so they're going to make it to whatever they want, but the hardest part backend was the interaction that just made it an us vs them war. I played that game for far too long. We all used to camp various spawns to rare drops. We'd know what the drop rate was, but we also knew what the actual recorded length of time to get something. Someone speculated the way the game did RNG was actually a table of numbers, rather than an RND() function; that given how the system was just a large database doing a pointer in a table would be more efficient to manage results for a mass number of players. This is to say there would be a pattern to results, even spread across multiple users. Again, data nerds with lots of time on their hands. They had the numbers to back their claims.
Today, yeeeah, I can still grind. There is something zen about it, but not always. I admit it sometimes gets in the way because it can cause me to hit a different kind of burn out before I'd seen enough of the game. I guess that's kinda why I like just digging in Minecraft? Weird.
Re: Ex-Nintendo Employee Spills The Beans On The Company's Weirdest Zelda Ad
HA! I remember the cell commercial well. For whatever reason that's always stuck with me. It was so odd. But, effective!
Re: Hands On: Absolum - Dead Cells Meets Streets Of Rage 4 In An Effortlessly Stylish 'Rogue 'Em Up'
Oh dang that looks good. The art "style" is similar to SoR4, while the art direction is different. I'm ok with that, but let's not make that the only thing Dotemu can do. If this has the same quality of game play as SoR4 this should be really good. I still play survival in SoR4 at least once a week. So good.
Digital Foundry did a video about SoR4 digging into the technical aspects of the genre. Did a really good job explaining thing. It's honestly why I have I hopes for this title on just that video.
Re: Dragon Quest XI S Returns To Switch eShop "At A Permanently Reduced Price"
Great news for anyone that hasn't been able to pick up this game. It's so good.
Now, can we entertain the idea of a DQ VIII remaster? I know they still have to release 1-2 with same treatment as 3, but I loved 8 and never got to finish the game before I shelved the PS2. It was one of the games my wife and I played when we were newly married. We would love to sit down and finish the story. Judging by the guides I think we were like 4-5hrs away from finishing the main story.
Re: Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes First Story Expansion DLC Out This Week
@Daniel36 Same here. I hadn't played the original games, but I backed the Kickstarter because it looked like something I wanted. But, like you, it just didn't hook me. I think it was the 100+ characters concept. I guess I'm at the point in my life where I don't feel I have the time to explore all the possible combinations of characters to find what works for me, or what I find to be fun. And, I don't want to just look for a Best Combo guide. Also, I guess the combat system in the beginning just didn't grab me either. You waste a lot of points trying to balance out hitting back rows or being optimal. I assume that works out once all the systems are explained, but it frustrated me in the first 2 hours or so.
But, ya, I need to give it another shot. Double so since I did back it.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online Announces Removal Of Super Famicom Title
Almost certainly it's a licensing issue. I need to get into BoF fast I guess. Been putting it off, but guess the clock is ticking.
Re: We're Losing Our Minds Over This New Retro 'Terminator 2' Game
Oh ya looks good. Noticed the likeness thing right away. Love that they used the sounds from the movie. if the controls are tight, this should do well. Real question will be can this run at the trailer's 60fps on the Switch?
Curious if they licensed any dialog clips from the movie too. Regardless, I think they nailed the art direction perfectly.
Re: Stunning New Physical Edition Of Stardew Valley Is Now Available At Fangamer
That's a nice collection. Not sure if my wife "needs" another copy of the game, but those are neat collectables.
Re: Atari And Choice Provisions' New Take On 'Breakout' Gets March Release Date
Need to see more to understand what it will do different from Arkanoid and Crystal Hammer. Spent a lot of hours with both. From the trailer it looks like more of the focus is on the ball itself instead of power ups for the paddle. Curious to see more. I like the art direction for sure.
Bah, now I got the song from Crystal Hammer stuck in my head. Where's the .mod file I keep on my drive?
Re: Tales Of The Shire, The Cosy LOTR Game, Has Been Delayed Again
Given the lackluster previews about overly bland gameplay, I'm perfectly fine with this. Take the time to make the game fun and fully polished. We fans of the Shire won't mind waiting.
But, now you gotta wonder if they decided to change their target spec to NS2. While that would probably make the game play smoother, it wouldn't have any impact on the gameplay quality.
Just make it fun
Re: Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance Brings 2D Ninja Action To Nintendo Switch This August
@LikelySatan Exactly. I still throw on survival randomly just to enjoy the combat. So good.
Re: Game Vouchers Won't Work On Switch 2 Exclusives, Says Nintendo
In a very Nintendo-convoluted way I could see this as the groundwork to bring in a Nintendo family library concept. Something we've wanted since the beginning, and double so when Nintendo publicly stated they wanted each member of the household to have their own Switch, mostly the Lite. They sorta helped larger families with putting some DLC into the highest tier of the online family plan.
Fingers crossed we get something of a family library with Switch 2. I kinda doubt it, but we can dream.
Re: Expect To See The Switch Logo Pop Up In Future Xbox Showcases
It's getting harder to understand or see Xbox's end game here. On one hand, as mentioned in comments already, it does feel like Xbox is moving the same direction as Sega and will move away from hardware. It's not an illogical move given the expense of developing a new platform. And this current generation ended up being rather close in terms of base tech from the same partner(s). If MS expects that to continue, then it makes it harder for them to truly differentiate themselves from competition; mostly Sony.
BUT, MS has also invested heavily in cloud. Would they walk away from that? I kinda don't think so, but that's at odds with not wanting to pursue console hardware development. Unless there is something about designing cloud gaming platforms that's completely different from consoles. The one thing that comes to mind would be shared resources vs single stand alone console. Maybe it's better to design a server cluster to host game sessions vs discrete personal systems? No clue. Just spitballing here.
Then again, there's been that rumor that Xbox might buy Sega. Would you do that, hand over the collection of Xbox Studios to Sega leadership to take over development, and then double down on cloud technology as the real future of gaming? I could see the argument for that. Not sure I agree with it, but I can see the reasoning.