Some of these could use “Nightdive” treatment like TimeSplitters trilogy.
Simple a PC version of the game with support for latest hardware and operating systems and support for LAN or self hostable multiplayer would give these games new life among people not interested in modern multiplayer games.
Many games already do this and I would like to give honorary mention to NeocoreGames who have done this to their Van Helsing and most recently with Warhammer Inquisitor. Latter one just recently got offline support with all past seasons playable.
I dont think its unreasonable to require even live services or mmos to have robust end-of-life plan that quarantees customers that the game will remain playable in some form or another.
They’ve probably spend a lot of budget to make the combat in this game this fluid. However as a side effect the game has become even more of an action game with leveling and loot shoveled in than before. I just hope Bioware can pull off at least some level of build diversity with different classes, skills, items and abilities so that there will be at least some depth with character progression.
Gameplay looks fine but also very similar to most triple-A action games on the market. Combat is fluid and cinematic meaning you can probably pull off all sorts of combos by mashing light and heavy attack buttons then do bunch of acrobatic moves to dodge any enemy attacks. You can probably also counter attacks execute all sorts of cool cinematic takedowns with single button or QTE.
But this often means that the combat lacks any sort of meaningful weight, emergent gameplay is non-existent and actual player choice is very limited and thightly controlled by what the game and level designers allow.
The trailer makes my eyes hurt so it’s a definate skip for me.
I mean the whole thing seemed to be animated exclusively with 3s or 4s which to me looks like the characters are micro-warping around instead of moving. When watching In to the Spiderverse and LOVE, DEATH & ROBOTS (SUITS) I literally had to take breaks and watch elsewhere so rest my eyes and this looks a lot worse.
Was about to comment about the developers probably had to meet some diversity quota but the “hero shooter cast” sounds even more descriptive. Personally don’t really mind much if the gameplay is good and the game is free of the usual triple-a monetization shenigans.
But in a post Baldurs gate 3 world Bioware will need to work extra hard to meet the increased expectations.
Looks like more doom which is all right in my book. Now If they can keep out the always online and live service bullshit out of this one and focus on single player it might turn out to be yet another good doom game. Not sure about the dragon and mecha though, I would rather not have any vehicles, mounts and anything like that in Doom games.
The cutscenes hurt my eyes with the frame rate but the gameplay looks alright.
Honestly not fan of the the way some 3d animations animate with 2s/3s to create fake stop motion videos. It’s even worse when they try to make it look like a cartoon/anime and completely forget to add any smear frames that make the these animations look a lot smoother than they actually are. For me these look like characters constantly warping around instead of moving which hurst my eyes, luckily it seems to only affect the characters and not the movement camera.
The gameplay looks alright but very unoriginal, there’s seems to be this basic combat with dodging, light and heavy strikes and then these fly using streams of wind/magic/energy and energy hook-shot to get you exactly where developers want you to go. Maybe the theme, story and visuals will be enough to make this shine above the competition.
If its a single player focused with no (or very minimal) live service bullshit then great.
If not then well there’s bunch of indie or classic boomer shooters I’ve not yet tried that are just that.
Honestly all these tech layoffs could really come bite back publishers and the big tech in the near future.
Theres a lot new talent for competitors to snatch and fraction of these developers might even form up new studios to make the next big thing.
Personally I feel that games are just one form of entertainment among many, it’s not all that uncommon for people to have points in their life where binging tv-series or reading books can feel more novel and interesting. It’s also possible that one finds a new hobby or interest that develops in to a obsession taking most of the free time with it.
Sure as an adult you’ll have more responsibilities and less free time to play but I feel that at least for millenials and zoomers gaming in some form or another will persist throught our lives. For some it may be few hours a day, for others it may be few hours a month but it’ll still feel good to pick up that new/old title and have some fun.
Returning to a game you’ve left unfinished or just havent played in a long while can really feel like leaving ones comfort zone. Funny thing though is that its often a lot easier than one might think once you actually gather enough motivation to sit down to it.
When it comes to light rpg mechanics, those are usually designed so that you can’t really go wrong with them. They’re more of a problem when you’re a “minmaxer” looking to “optimize fun out of the game” as then it’s really easy to start overthinking about these things.
The game will likely be a moderate success provided they can fix the performance problems.
Most players (unfortunately) do not care about having microtransactions in a full priced video games or about things like Denuvo. This is party the reason why the triple-a game industry is in such sorry state at the moment.
Also I find it funny that you’re already worrying about sequels when the newest game has not been out for even a day.
Honestly they’ve been on a steady decline in my eyes at least. With each and every new entry they’re becoming more and more like the rest of the Triple-A studios.
Sure many of their games are still decent fun if you can ignore:
Dark patterns
Microtransactions in full priced games
Battle passes
Denuvo
Personally I just can’t as mere existence of these thigns ruins my trust towards these developers/publishers.
They’re still microtransactions in a full priced game which can break the trust between player and the developers/publishers.
Worst ones are probably the portcrystals and metamorphsis ones which both solve artificial problems created by the developers.