Videogame News

[markfm007]

I left twitter a few weeks ago as I got fed up with it I can understand some defensiveness I suppose, just because of how aggressive everyone is on there. But I definitely see your point. People are celebrating the player freedom and choice in these games. Getting defensive about that feels less about being unable to match the scope of a Baldur's Gate or Elden Ring, as it does not wanting to break the moulds that've formed over the years.

[Tolkientaters]

On the Baldur's Gate 3 news cycle, I think it's a bit of a misleading narrative. It's a very successful game for a non AAA studio, but it's unlikely to match the sales of other big hitters like Zelda, Diablo, Jedi Survivor, and Spiderman.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a great game and having no micro transactions or battlepasses is definitely nice, but I don't think that's the reason it's selling, that seems more down to great word of mouth. It's certainly not bug free and I heard the bugs ramp up in act 3. It's success is fantastic and I want more games like this, but there aren't a lot of studios not already owned by bigger companies that are this big. It's got more employees than Bethesda Game Studios *(I doubt they have the same budget for third party help.)

So there aren't a lot of non AAA studios that can put out a game this big with the same level of production. However I think this and Disco Elysium being massive critical darlings could lead to more mid budget CRPGs, which would be great.

[Angry_Kurt]

On the Baldur's Gate 3 news cycle, I think it's a bit of a misleading narrative. It's a very successful game for a non AAA studio, but it's unlikely to match the sales of other big hitters like Zelda, Diablo, Jedi Survivor, and Spiderman.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a great game and having no micro transactions or battlepasses is definitely nice, but I don't think that's the reason it's selling, that seems more down to great word of mouth. It's certainly not bug free and I heard the bugs ramp up in act 3. It's success is fantastic and I want more games like this, but there aren't a lot of studios not already owned by bigger companies that are this big. It's got more employees than Bethesda Game Studios *(I doubt they have the same budget for third party help.)

So there aren't a lot of non AAA studios that can put out a game this big with the same level of production. However I think this and Disco Elysium being massive critical darlings could lead to more mid budget CRPGs, which would be great.

On your first point, I saw that it had been eclipsing Spider-Man pre orders in the run up to release which really surprised me

[Tolkientaters]

That is impressive, I may have been being overly cynical.

[Alex79]

Metal Gear Solid Master Collection confirmed as 30fps and 720p on Switch.

https://kotaku.com/metal-gear-solid-mas ... 1850757390

This is really disappointing in my view. It's the format I am definitely buying it on, but even the PS3 and 360 remasters of the games ran at 60fps, apparently. I can't see any reason the Switch couldn't handle these games at 60fps and 1080p.

[Electric Crocosaurus]

Agreed; maybe saving something for the surely-it’ll-be-announced-any-time-now Switch 2/Pro? But yeah, lack of 60fps turns it from a day one purchase to a maybe with a significant bit of money knocked off in the sales one.

[Alex79]

I don't think I've seen a game launch to pretty much universal acclaim in the way Sea Of Stars has for a while! Kind of amazing that this throwback 16-bit style RPG is garnering such praise! I am definitely keen to play it, but I want to play through The Messenger first. That alone is quite unique, in that the first game was a 2D platform adventure and the sequel is an RPG. Certainly an interesting developer, for sure.

[Kez86]

I don't think I've seen a game launch to pretty much universal acclaim in the way Sea Of Stars has for a while! Kind of amazing that this throwback 16-bit style RPG is garnering such praise! I am definitely keen to play it, but I want to play through The Messenger first. That alone is quite unique, in that the first game was a 2D platform adventure and the sequel is an RPG. Certainly an interesting developer, for sure.

I spent yesterday evening playing Sea of Stars, and can confirm that it is an absolute joy to play and an ode to tropes of the genre, with subtle nods and winks at other games from the past. It's music in particular is a treat as are the intricacies of the battle system, leaning a lot on the Mario RPG mechanics in places. Can fully recommend it.

Physical edition out early 2024, so will be supporting the studio further by purchasing that as well.

[Alex79]

This is pretty cool. A prototype for a completely unreleased Gamecube game has been discovered. Pickles seems to be about a unicycle riding monkey and looks like a 3D platformer. The guy who found it is working on getting it running better and plans to dump the ROM online.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/ ... discovered

https://twitter.com/cake_hoarder/status ... 8FJhg&s=19

[Alex79]

Someone has remastered Wipeout and made it playable in a browser! Even works on mobile (although is barely playable on a touch screen). Full 60fps, amazing job!

https://phoboslab.org/wipegame/

[markfm007]

I've just had a look on PS Plus and noticed that Sea of Stars is free to download if you have a PS Plus Premium or Extra membership. I was quite surprised as I hadn't seen this mentioned anywhere else. I might give it a look at some point.

[Alex79]

I've just had a look on PS Plus and noticed that Sea of Stars is free to download if you have a PS Plus Premium or Extra membership. I was quite surprised as I hadn't seen this mentioned anywhere else. I might give it a look at some point.

Yeah, Gamepass too!

[Kez86]

The Messenger has been a delight. On sale as well on nintendo eshop. Cracking responsive platformer with a blinding soundtrack.

[Truk_Kurt]

https://www.gamesradar.com/game-devs-re ... RbROpR42qM

This is quite the move from Unity. I don't know what they're thinking. If they truly do stick with this policy, pretty much every dev is going to move to another engine.

[Alex79]

https://www.gamesradar.com/game-devs-re ... RbROpR42qM

This is quite the move from Unity. I don't know what they're thinking. If they truly do stick with this policy, pretty much every dev is going to move to another engine.

Goodbye Vampire Survivors. Goodbye free to play games built in Unity? This is fucking mental.

[Rhaegyr]

I've been learning Unity for the last few months via Udemy so this a little disconcerting!

Hopefully there's a climbdown soon.

[Truk_Kurt]

Jim Ryan retiring from his role at PlayStation. Will be interesting to see the direction PlayStation goes now. Like him or not, he's presided over an incredibly successful period for Sony with the PS4 and PS5.

[Rhaegyr]

Probably the best Game Awards I've watched in terms of reveals - feels like it's replaced E3 this year.

Highlight for me has to be SEGA announcing a new JSR, Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and Crazy Taxi all at once - I would've settled for just one of those!

Blade from Arkane was a really nice surprise too - there's a comic book character that's long overdue a decent video game.

[JaySevenZero]

I was a little disappointed there wasn't a new trailer with a release window for Star wars Outlaws but I did get one for Black Myth: WuKong



and a game that could be packed full of potential was Hello Games, Light No Fire



Looks like they've taken a lot of elements from the current version of No Man's Sky and given them a fantasy reskin

[Jobobonobo]

Probably the best Game Awards I've watched in terms of reveals - feels like it's replaced E3 this year.

Highlight for me has to be SEGA announcing a new JSR, Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and Crazy Taxi all at once - I would've settled for just one of those!

The SEGA announcement was a lovely surprise, from the little that was shown all of them looked really nice. SEGA has such an incredible library of franchises that it was well overdue to give some of these a new entry. Never played a JSR game but always wanted to so interested to try that one out in particular. Hoping for the best with these and that some more long abandoned series like Panzer Dragoon get some love.