abe_hikura

Good to hear. Too many are concerned with growth and run into gestures at the current state of the industry

It was wild watching the companies who made a killing during the pandemic because you had the likes of Nintendo who recognised it was a weird blip, and stuff will go back to normal after and then you had the nutters like Netflix or Amazon who thought they could somehow keep that momentum going. "we did 'best ever' during the pandemic, this year we can do double 'best ever'"

granted this might be a personal pet peeve but It does bother me when a performance mode doesn't tell you exactly what you are giving up.

"but as far as the main campaign goes, most of this stuff feels a little shoe-horned into the ending, without spoiling anything."

So it's an Obsidian game then. lol.

On a serious note, this seems to be largely where I expected it to fall, some weird middle space where it's not Skyrim, It's not Pillars, and it's not Outer Worlds.

Excited to play.

I liked Alan Wake 1, I liked Quantum Break, and I LOVED Control, so I hesitated on Wake 2 u till I got a good deal on it and the DLC but oh boy did I love Wake 2.

Glad it's making money now. Looking forward to FBC and Control 2. Not sure on the Max Payne remakes as I never gelled with the originals beyond playing around with the bullet time.

As a standalone expansion/psudo sequel thing, I give it a 9.

As a "proper game" a 7

Dont get me wrong cool, this is becoming an increasing problem and has basically running android gaming but how did that awful Mario football clone get through then?

Between its huge time sink and its choices regarding saves I'll be waiting till a quiet period and which should mean it'll be more stable.

I saw a report earlier that said Wonder Woman is no longer using the nemesis system and will be "a traditional action game", which sounds like Warner Brothers doesn't like money.

(I'm aware there would be reasons why, if true, they'd move away from it but still.)

@BacklogBrad Yeah it might not be as good as the other ones but it was still a blast to play with a buddy.

I'm still not sold on this. I love MGS3, and kinda prefer the Big Boss Era to Solid Snake but I was hoping that as a remake they'd address the flaws of the original game (for example guards magically forget you exist if you leave the section.) that was due to the limitations of the hardware and removing things like the segmented map would allow for the game's greatness to shine for a new generation. This feels like a weird half-step.

@Kaloudz certainly is in my house, got a shelf that's "zombie pads" ones that 'work' but drifter ha e some other issue.

@nomither6 I was more thinking they'd replaced the drifting part witha fresh one, though "Hall effect upgrades" would be a cool service.

Wonder if they fix stick drift, and how much it'll cost.

@BacklogBrad Agreed. I've seen a lot of nonsense about it online. But pretty much any issues I have with the game basically stem from EA trying to make it live service in the first place. Reminds me a lot of DA2, lots of ideas absolutely no time or money to deliver it.

I suspect this would have been their take even if it matched Inquistion's numbers. EA isn't doing well and that Fortnite money would make it all go away, shame that's just not possible because Fortnite is already a thing.

This is the same company that remade Dead Space, conceded it was a success, and then put the franchise back on ice.

@Kaloudz I was wondering the same because I know I played it with a friend and I know I haven't bought it. Must have been a GwG

@Markatron84 Yeah there was a thing about it because as you said tacking a game people were already playing.

I assume that's going to get filled out at the indie event thing, because that's concerning light.

@OppoFieldPower doesn't really help with the no manual save vs crash issue but yes it QR dose make it more convenient to play.

@HelloCraigo hey I'm cool with living with the consequences of my actions, it was being punished for the game crashing I wasn't cool with.

Is the save system still "sleep" and rare drink?

Because I was really enjoying the first one until I went to a bed to save and it crashed and I lost a whole bunch of progress.

Obviously, I'd play this via game pass but depending on what it actually included (bundle vs integrated like MCC) I'd buy it on Switch 2.

@Markatron84 Yeah, they still seem to think they can "cover the spread" that if they make enough LS games one will strike it big and justify it all. Seemingly forgetting we gamers don't have infinite time. The industry can't support to many of these forever games just as it couldn't support too many MMOs.

Somone will come up with some other way of milking cash and they'll rush to that. Instead of just making games and selling them.

@Markatron84 Of the people I've spoken to that seems to be basically true.

They try the game, think it's pretty good, decide to have a look at the store and DO THE MATH and decide there and then it's not worth it.

Just release a paid version of the game.

I liked this but the pricing was insane and never spent a penny on it.

Release it as £60 offline edition with the characters and I'll buy it.

@armondo36 "But don't be surprised if Sony does eventually port to Xbox"

Your not wrong but it's worth noting that right now Sony isn't porting their "new games" (live service titles excluded), they are making sure every possible sale is made on PS5 before launching on PC.

I think once they start launching games day and date on PC and their budgets swell again then they'll start looking at Xbox and Nintendo for "older" titles repeating the cycle again.

@TheEstablishment Oh agreed I doubt Xbox is just going to say "womp womp. too bad. so sad" but there are still poor outcomes beyond that.

My worry in that scenario is they go "Look your purchases are safe right here on the cloud, ready anytime along as your paying gamepass"

I'm sure this is the game Sony is going to be paying attention to as it's the first Xbox game on PS that "plays in the same waters" as their own games.

As I've said from day one, my concern about this push is not PS/Nintendo users playing these games. These are great games that more people should play. Even more so when it's a multiplayer live service game like Forza Horizon.

I support the concept of a platform-agnostic future, I don't think this is going to achieve that.

It's the unintended effects that give me pause. We've watched Xbox sales drop 30% quarter after quarter. I'm sure this push will do wonders for Xbox earnings but seems unlikely to boost console numbers. We've also seen third-party publishers look at platform sales and go "We're done" and support becomes dependent on being paid.

Suffice to say, I am really interested in how MS plans on winning the next-gen on "features". This could be more exciting than the actual performance of the thing.

@Ricky-Spanish it's a very marmite game, but there are certain amount if the negatively towards the game is from PS players who haven't played it, haven't even watched actual gameplay.

When it comes to PS I am sure it will be just as divisive but there will be some narrative of PS5 getting the fixed "superior version" and how it's "not actually that bad"

@K1LLEGAL It's probably the classic "it's not on my platform, so it's automatically poo" thing, once it's actually on their platform they give it a fair shot.

I expect the general tone around Starfield to shift when it goes MP.

@Kaloudz It might be because I already own AW2

Looks like it's fixed

We need a name for games like Sniper Elite Resistance, Farcry Blood Dragon/Primal/New Dawn, Spide-Ma: Miles Morales and the ACII sequels that are new games but not "ground-up new"

"Standalone expansion" is the closet we have but it doesn't feel right to call some of these games "expansions".

I think it would help with some people expecting this game to be full fat sequels being disappointed and sets a standard that could allow devs to not need to take 5 years to produce another game, maybe keep budget costs down a little

Is actually many people asking for 4k game streaming? I seem to recall people saying stadia Pro was only worth it for HDR, that streaming at 4k did more harm than good.

@carlos82 that's the issue with game streaming, too much outside your or even Microsoft's control will ruin it for you. I used to be able to use it reliably I could play "any game" on it but now in the same house, with the same internet, with the same devices half the time it's not worth playing anything isn't turn based.

see I didn't see how him replaying the games meant a trilogy remaster was incoming in the first place, surely he'd wait to play that instead?

Like sure its one thing to replay a series before a new entry but replaying a series so you can... replay the series seems weird

I wonder if any of the "missing stuff" will get added back in, it's weird that what should be the definitive version of an amazing game doesn't have all of it.

(I expected Co-op to be dropped, multiplayer always seems to be gone in remasters)

In the image in my head of that interaction is the two studio heads are talking about it and Spencer forms like the liquid terminator "did I hear new Ninja Gaiden?"

I wouldn't be suprised but I suspect it might be two generations before we see it.

They've already ported games to PC, some even on day one, if budgets keep going as they are the only growth will be all games on PC, and then once stips giving them growth the only other places is Xbox and Nintendo.

He's not wrong.

Take the Yakuza/LAD games. No amount of good review can offset their being 8 of the damn things. Even at discounted prices that adds up.

Flash forward to now after the games were on gamepass, I bought every entry since (except Ishin).

That simply wouldn't have happened without gamepass.

@AverageGamer I get that development has gotten "that" but I simply cannot accept that a series that is, as a huge fan of the series, a collection of corridors. Now takes two studios almost an console generation to produce 1 title.

Now I know games like the Like A Dragon (lot of reuse), or Sniper Elite (not AAA), and overlapping development of the CoD and AC games are definitely make it seem worse but "2 studios= once a gen gears" seems like it should be a massive alarm bell for the industry.

@Isolte @Cakefish Obivously they can't force publishers to go back and give us PC versions of games we already have, but Microsoft could do it with the games they own. Like I don't think Halo MCC is on there, Bethesda/Obsidian/Inexile back catalogue don't seem to be (despite being on both console and PC gamepass) and well Acitvision games don't even seem to be in a hurry to be on gamepass, so them not having play anywhere integration isn't a shock.

@Isolte Yeah I suspect you don't get to spend 70 billion of business daddy cash, then spend more fighting legal battles around the world without strings getting attached.

@FatGuyInLilCoat Agreed, though to be fair to them, the MP stuff they did with Judgement was the same thing I heard people saying they wanted when playing Gears 1-3 multiplayer.

They still should have known better, mind but it was ideas plenty of people seemed to have.

Dose makes me wonder why they are needed, is the collation just incapable of making a Gears game on their own, or are they doing something else?

Like maybe E-Day is more akin Wolfenstein Youngblood, where another studio makes a side entry whilst the actual studio is working on their next project (one assumes Gears 6)

@oopsiezz Normally I'd agree with that and this whole "Super Duper Deluxe edition being on sale but the base game isn't" needs to end.

But honestly, I don't think I would have liked the Night Springs DLC anywhere near as much if I hadn't played them as part of the campaign i.e. bought the DLC after finishing the game. They gave me much needed vibe breaks from Alan's section

Just finishing up AW2 now, really loved that the DLC integrates with the campaign, to me it helps both the DLCs and the campaign.
Slightly peeved that I bought it in the last sale and now they giving away AW-R with it. But hey that's how it works it's not like it's being added to gamepass after I bought it... right...?

"is my library of games safe, am I still going to be able to play the games?' and I think over the years, I'm proud of the commitment we've shown to respecting purchases on our platform through back compat, through Xbox Play Anywhere, through crossplay "

It's nice to know that has reached him. Except neither of those addresses the concerns people have about this direction and their existing libraries.

-Backward compat means nothing if there isn't a new console and the concern is if Xbox sales are in the floor "with exclusives" how much further they go without them, and just how far will it go before Microsoft doesn't want to make hardware. They didn't even want to pay to keep their sole Japanese studio, something they have spent their entire existence trying to get, so whilst it's good that he's confirming more hardware doesn't mean daddy MS doesn't pull the rug from under him (I'm sure Sega was working on new hardware too).

Play Anywhere is a perfect solution to that issue, of cause the problem there is that it only applies to a fraction of Xbox console games.

I hope they can do an official version of that fan app that lets you play X1 games natively in Windows, after all, they don't have to worry about protecting console sales anymore.

My concern is they are going to "protect" our libaries via the cloud.

@Cakefish them both being on the Player engagement too might suggest the former.

But the latter would explain why MS doesn't seem to care about Xbox consoles anymore. If people aren't buying as many games on Xbox then that's pretty much the traditional revenue model dead.

@Cakefish evidently most of DAv sales was on Xbox.

That or it shows just how few games are actually sold on the platform that the "low performing" games can make the charts.

Can't really express how much I'm enjoying Alan Wake 2.

I do think having the Night Springs DLC side stories integrated into the campaign has really helped both.

Great show.
I think having the mystery of the unknown game really brought together the dev direct formula.

Would explain why the first and this one felt better than the 2nd where we all expected a shadow drop/reveal and nothing happened.