What's Out This Week?

[DomsBeard]

Downloading now and both kids down for a nap. I will report my findings in the playing thread

[dezm0nd]

Carnival Games - NS
Déraciné - PSVR
The Forest - PS4
GRIP - NS
Omen of Sorrow - PS4
Overkill's The Walking Dead - PC
World of Final Fantasy Maxima - PC, NS, PS4, XBO
Tetris Effect - PS4/VR

[dezm0nd]

Wait, is that FROM SOFTWARE releasing that Deracine? That and Tetris Effect are ones to keep an eye out for

[Stanshall]

That's right, I'll be keen to hear how it turns out even if I'm unlikely to ever play it.

[stvnorman]

Spectrum / C64 classic Saboteur is out on Switch this week. Both versions feature as the original mission, plus a load of new levels and story five times bigger than the original, and all sorts of other features. I’d be unable to resist at five times the £6 asking price!.

[SimmyBassline]

Is anyone else looking forward to see what Grip is going to play like, in guessing it's just going to be an update of Rollcage, which won't be a bad thing as long as it handles the online multiplayer well(Unlike that poor Micro Machines World game that came out a little while ago).

[Alex79]

Is anyone else looking forward to see what Grip is going to play like, in guessing it's just going to be an update of Rollcage, which won't be a bad thing as long as it handles the online multiplayer well(Unlike that poor Micro Machines World game that came out a little while ago).

Rollcage and its sequel were some of my favorite PS1 games, so yeah quite interested to see how this turns out.

[KSubzero1000]

Is anyone else looking forward to see what Grip is going to play like

Yes, very much so. I'm always on the lookout for the next great arcade racing game.

For the record, it'll come out tomorrow on PS4 and XBO as well, not just Switch.

[dezm0nd]

Is anyone else looking forward to see what Grip is going to play like, in guessing it's just going to be an update of Rollcage, which won't be a bad thing as long as it handles the online multiplayer well(Unlike that poor Micro Machines World game that came out a little while ago).

Curious about it. Any spiritual successor to a beloved game will always peak my interest. Rollcage certainly had its admirers but I wasn't one of them as I was probably too involved in the N64 at this point.

[Flabyo]

The first ever professional video game source code I ever poked around in was the Rollcage PC DirectX rendering engine. Rob’s a great guy, I hope this does well for him. (The game was still called G-FX at that point, soon to be renamed Riccochet)

[Alex79]

If you're still in touch, tell him to put out a bloody demo!

Half joking of course, I doubt he had anything to do with that decision, but it does really piss me off these days that we get so few demos. Don't publisher's realise that demos sell games?

[Flabyo]

Demos don’t sell games actually, all of the data says they hurt sales.

I should probably elaborate.

There’s a cost/benefit analysis to do when you decide whether to make a demo. They’re not free to make, you have to spend time working out what the demo will be, and then you have to construct it in a way that doesn’t accidentally reveal things about the game you don’t want public (because people will datamine it for clues). It’s not good enough to just make it the main game but with something that flips a switch, cause people will find a way to flip it back again.

All told, they take about a month or so to put together, time that has to come from somewhere.

The ideal outcome is that you make a good demo that reflects the game well, and convinces people to buy the game who otherwise wouldn’t have done.

The more likely outcome is one of the following:

You make a bad demo that doesn’t reflect the actual quality of your game, people who were interested in it are now not.

You make a good demo, but players are happy just playing the demo a few times and consider that enough. Why buy the game? I’ve had my fun.

You make a good demo, but for some reason the final game doesn’t live up to it, sure people bought it, but they’re not going to buy your next thing.

As a result, you’re more likely to get good return on money spent by just running a few more targeted ad campaigns than you are making a playable demo.

(This isn’t true 100% of the time. If your game is so novel there’s no way for players to understand what it is without trying it, then a demo will help. This did wonders for the early days of rhythm action games like Parappa etc...)

[ratsoalbion]

Demos are also, more often than not in my experience, a terrible demonstration of the experience of playing the finished product.

[ratsoalbion]

GRIP reviews are coming in... tepid.

[Flabyo]

GRIP reviews are coming in... tepid.

Ones I’ve read so far suggest that if it’s a remake of Rollcage you’re after it’s fine, but if you’re expecting it to make any concessions to the last 20 years of game design, not so much.

[KSubzero1000]

That's really disappointing...

It's especially frustrating because entire genres are slowly but surely fading away over time... What would you guys say is the best arcade racer of this generation? Wipeout and Burnout Paradise are last gen ports... Fast RMX, perhaps?

[Flabyo]

Probably Mario Kart 8 to be honest. If you don’t count the Forza Horizon games.

[KSubzero1000]

Ah, fair enough. I tend to think of kart racers as a separate genre altogether, but Mario Kart has probably been gaming's most reliable gold standard of quality for the past 25 years.

I was thinking of stuff like F-Zero, Burnout or even Split/Second. Polished, fast-paced and challenging single-player games with great linear tracks and fantastic long-term reply value. There isn't much out there that fulfills that niche nowadays.

[Flabyo]

It’s defintely seen as quite a risky genre right now. Several of the higher profile attempts at it in recent years have crashed and burned at retail, so publishers aren’t really looking at it right now.

I doubt it’s gone for good, it just needs the right new idea to spark it off. In an era where racing games, even super casual stuff like Need for Speed or CSR, are throwing around realistic looking cars with real world licenses, an arcade game using fictional stuff doesn’t seem to stand out.

I suspect it’ll take Sony deciding to have a real crack at Wipeout again before anything much happens elsewhere.

[Alex79]

Demos don’t sell games actually, all of the data says they hurt sales.

Etc etc.

Thanks Flabyo, that was interesting and genuinely enlightening! Never really thought about it like that. I do miss the days of Live Arcade on the 360 though where everything had a trial, and as everyone always mentions the old PS1 demo discs, I used to love just trying absolutely everything!