Traversal was a core aspect of the game, with Exodus offering a vertical playground for players to explore, equipping players with a grappling hook, and, according to our source, you’d have been able to “climb and wall-run on any surface.” The team wanted movement to feel natural and fun, similar to that found in games like Spider-Man and the driving in GTA.
Interestingly, our source tells us that ZeniMax had been toying with ideas for multiplayer side content away from the combat that would put the traversal system to good use, included races and obstacle courses. One mode the team had been toying with was like a blend of basketball and Quidditch. Our source says, “There was a ball to dunk into a ring, and you could pass or shoot,” offering an experience that felt a little like Titanfall 2, although not as fast.
Maybe the setting was a little too anti-corpo for Microsoft?
In fact, our source tells us that up until July 2, 2025, when Microsoft announced the layoffs, the ZeniMax Online Studios employees working on Project Blackbird had no reason to think the game would be shelved. In fact, ZeniMax had taken a demo build to Microsoft’s Redmond office in October 2024, and our source says the team had seen “good things coming out of that,” so Microsoft leadership was impressed with the game. In a development release review meeting that took place in late June, ZeniMax leadership were not expecting for Microsoft to shelve the game. In fact, the team was preparing to ramp up development after several years in pre-production and was in the process of executing a $300,000 purchase order for hardware when the news came that the game wouldn’t be going ahead. After several years in pre-production, ZeniMax was preparing to enter full production this October. Initially, the team was aiming for a two-year development window with a late 2027 release, but our source says the release window had moved to late 2028.
The weird people are still there, but development teams are much larger now, so their input is not as prominent. Plus the budgets are so large that a flop can heavily damage a company or even ruin it, so they’re very risk-averse. We need more AA or A games instead of relying so much on heavy-hitters.
I mean, sure, complaining and while doing the same thing and expecting a different result is one strategy. AAA games are purely capitalistic endeavours.
Beyond All Reason (open source with FOSS engine), Stormgate (proprietary but made by ex-SC2 devs) are separate attempts at what I would call innovating the RTS genre.
AoE2 DE by Microsoft is tried, true and super popular still but many aspects are still from the original game 20 years ago. AoE 4 seems to kind of be the attempt at improving the formula, seems okay.
The Starcraft 2 engine is amazing but now under Microsoft ownership, I was hopeful initially but it looks as though it will continue to be left to rot. If only they could give it a Halo makeover using the same engine that would be awesome.
As someone who loved sc2 and had high hopes for Stormgate, it’s pretty hot garbage in its current state. Micro-transaction central before it’s even in a close to finished state.
Micro-transaction central before it’s even in a close to finished state.
10 Euro for 3 missions isn’t even a micro-transaction. If one mission was 1 Euro, we’d ad least get full campaign for regular price but that shit’s just a lazy ripoff.
How is Stormgate innovating? Genuine question–I’ve been avoiding it largely because it looks so much like StarCraft (and Pottinger even calls it out specifically in the article as something not innovative).
Hey you bring up a good point. I consider it innovative because they are trying to develop a non-Microsoft owned IP story/lore behind the Stormgate characters, even if in terms of game mechanics they are trying to achieve “Starcraft 2 with a new coat of paint and business model”.
If they pull off what they are promising, it could be interesting, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.
At best it did a good job with the quick macro system. It’s a good way to allow players to have better macro without hurting the skill ceiling for pros.
I don’t know what you mean, do you mean the advanced layer on holding space? Sc2 also has that for building, and it makes the game significantly more ergonomic, the new ui makes it a lot more clear too.
i had a few people who have never played rts play it and nobody had a problem with that.
It’s been a while since I played but from what I remember build/train/upgrade command each had a second page you had to tab to, so some things took 3 buttons instead of 2. This felt really awkward instead of having dedicated basic/advanced buttons.
it’s a hold space for advanced, too, so it’s at most two buttons at the same time, plus you can see both pages, so it massively improves ergonomics and doesn’t really matter in terms of intuitiveness.
i’ve played with 3 people who have never played an rts and they had no problems with this, and they reported having a great time, and two that are diamond sc2 players who also didn’t have a problem with it.
there is a setting for accessibility to make it a toggle instead of a hold that might’ve been enabled for you, I can see how it would be a problem then, but that’s off by default and only really for the disabled.
I thought everything just went to the 4x formula and/or the micro/hero focused route. I actually wish there were more simplistic Warcraft 1/2 or C&C type games to come out, but I’ll admit I haven’t paid much attention to the genre for awhile, pretty much since StarCraft 2.
I actually wish there were more simplistic Warcraft 1/2 or C&C type games to come out
So do I. There are a few but these are indie projects and in turn their scope is smaller than even those 1990s games. I guess the closest thing is Five Nations which is currently on sale on Steam for under 10 Euro. It’s like a slice of Starcraft 1 where they have taken only the missions with just flying units. At that price point I cannot complain but I’d also like a full price scifi RTS. Not a fan of AoE4 simply because of its “realistic” backdrop. I’m rooting for Tempest Rising after Stormgate was a severe let down.
Why are we getting remasters for games that already look great on PS5? There are plenty of games that could actually use the touch up, and don’t run natively on current-gen at all.
It feels like Sony is sitting on a goddamn gold mine.
This is why RTS shouldn’t focus on the PvP portion of the game. A good campaign and arcade is what Blizzard did and it worked. The greatest thing Blizzard ever ever did was to add in the custom map creator which was fully featured.
They’re working on that, too. It went from preproduction to full development about 2 years ago. It is likely to be released next year, according to some sources that were also completely accurate about the Oblivion remake rumors.
Devs or more specifically the parasitic executives who want nothing that a money machine look no further than Factorio as a shining example of how to innovate a gaming experience and genre. It is as easy or difficult and as simple or complicated as the player wants it to be and it’s not because difficultly settings. Your playstyle is the difficulty setting and it feels like there is ALWAYS something new to do, or a wildly different ways to do the same things. Also, their mod support and integration is unparalleled as far as any other game that comes to mind. No micro transactions, no ads, just an excellent game and experience. Sure, Factorio isn’t for everyone but the way it has been build, supported and all of those other elements that make it what it is beyond the core factory building sim ARE FOR EVERYONE. These aspects can be applied to other RTS games in general and can make it feel like a brand new experience while still being exactly what draws players into a specific RTS game.
Part of the issue is that AAA still hasn’t learned how to manage and produce passion projects, which most great games are. They keep wanting to use what’s working elsewhere with no regard for what makes sense in their own game.
Yeah really. They should be more like campuses funding a hundred small teams each trying to make something they’re individually passionate about. Hell, even give them the IPs to play with and see what they come up with.
I’m confused, isn’t this already available on PC and PS5? Why does it need to be remastered? I thought remastering a game meant making it work on a new platform.
A “remaster” is traditionally more focused on a rerelease with improved graphic fidelity - details, resolution, possibly lower-effort improvements to models and geometry, but basically the same game, slightly modernised with better modern compatibility.
A “remake” would be a complete overhaul of the modelling, QoL improvements, or reimagining some systems potentially including game engine. Eg, the FF7 remake.
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