I can only speak for the games I’m most familiar with, and apparently that same problem exists with how these nominees are chosen too, just like the Keighleys. For a second, I thought perhaps the people suggesting the nominees had not heard of Indika, because Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was nominated for narrative and Indika was not. The fighting game category doesn’t hold up very well either, because while the Khaos Reigns expansion is a bit of a stretch, Underdogs is even more of a stretch. Sure, maybe the people submitting nominees haven’t heard of Diesel Legacy (which would be my pick for fighting game of the year), but could you at least be aware of Rivals of Aether II? They didn’t even get Under Night on the list!
From Jason Schreier. “The plural of ‘anecdote’ is not ‘data’,” but this is some analysis from Schreier seemingly rooted in many anecdotes. The long and short of it is that development on AAA games tend to routinely hit bottlenecks where entire portions of a team are waiting for some other team to unblock them so that...
They wanted to release it 6 months ago, rumor has it. But they postponed it to shore up supply to meet launch demand, give extra development time to its key launch games, or to squeeze the last bit of juice out of the Switch 1 – or some combination of those things.
The Switch 2 will do just fine, better even, compared to its next closest competition.
The private equity that would control it after it goes private, in all likelihood, would be the same family who controls it today and always has controlled it. They’re not interested in stripping it for parts, but they’re also not interested in scaling their operations down and learning some hard lessons to make a sustainable video game company.
It’s a lot more than that. SteamOS isn’t just Steam Big Picture Mode. There’s some special sauce in there to capture the active window so that you never lose focus of the game window and such. If you just run a Windows machine set to boot into Steam Big Picture on startup, you’ll find lots of times that you have to break out a keyboard to Alt+Tab for a variety of reasons that SteamOS never encounters. And given the other problems Windows has introduced over the past decade, that’s the least of their problems now.
A decade or more ago, I thought surely that was what the app was going to do, considering Humble would package Steam + Android keys in the same purchase back then.
There are a lot of reasons that this makes sense for them. But also, given the other things they’ve been promising, I think this is going to be an expensive piece of hardware that basically just hides Windows under the hood.
If it is a PC like many of us expect, then its use case is that they want to outdo the SteamOS experience and also provide compatibility with games that rely on kernel-level anti cheat.
Yes, I think it’s going to be quite expensive. They’ve been saying it’s going to be an enormous leap in performance, and that’s not going to come cheap.
There are always a few fighting games I’m playing; typically Skullgirls, Guilty Gear Strive, and Street Fighter 6. When a new one comes out, I tend to spend a few dozen hours learning it before moving on.
Then there’s a story/campaign game. Right now, it’s Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Then there’s a “shut your brain off”/“second screen”/“podcast” game. Currently that’s Borderlands. It doesn’t mean that I’m always listening to something while playing it, but it does mean I don’t have to think too hard to enjoy it, and I can consume it like junk food. I may not have the highest opinion of these games, but it’s good to have some of them as palate cleansers.
Then there’s whatever game I’m in the middle of playing co-op with friends. Currently that’s V Rising.
The above is what my plan is, but it rarely goes that way. Often times I’m in the middle of a campaign/story game, and then the new, shiny thing came out before I finish it, and I can’t help myself but to start up the new one too, so I’ve accumulated a running total of other games I’m in the middle of and haven’t finished. As for time management, mine is a DINK household, so there’s plenty to go around, even after social gatherings and such, but our schedules tend to be fluids that will expand to fit their containers. I’ve begun to arrive at something similar to an Agile board, if you’re familiar with software development. I’ve got a number of games that I intend to finish before the month is out, and based on HowLongToBeat data, I’m estimating how much time I’ll probably have to play them and how long it will likely take me to finish them. This is a new development for me from the past few months, but it’s starting to pay dividends…then again, that may also have to do with new releases slowing down at the end of the year.
At the time, Infamous seemed to get a larger share of the hype, but nothing about that game felt good to me, and Prototype felt great. Prototype’s protagonist might be one of the worst in all of video games, alongside Watch Dogs’ Aiden Pierce, but despite the video’s intro, his morality isn’t ambiguous; he’s the bad guy. In Infamous, every choice to be good or evil is so cartoonishly polar opposite that no one would struggle with the decision except for Cole MacGrath.
I get that I’m the minority with Infamous, but after going back and playing Sly 2 and having since tried Infamous 2, I think maybe I just don’t jive with Sucker Punch’s open world design, which makes me hesitant to start Ghost of Tsushima. And while I loved Prototype, alongside Crackdown, what I really wanted was that game again but in a different city, and both of those franchises reused the same city for their sequels, which would be like giving Mario new actions to use but having him run through the same levels all over again.
It’s funny, because I’m much more forgiving of BioShock 2 and even Dishonored’s DLC, which reuse the same levels but chop them up differently and have you approach them from different directions. In an open world, you can go anywhere, so even if they deform part of the map, it still feels like the same map to me.
Maybe some day, but on top of disagreements I’ve had with that developer’s game design in the past, there’s also the looming threat that Sony patches in more dependence on a PSN login to give me pause.
Are you aware that this studio was already fully shut down by Microsoft and this company swooped in to keep most of it intact? No matter what happens 6-12 months from now, it’s better than if they weren’t purchased.
In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, the acclaimed developer also discusses his next game, ‘Judas’, generative AI and why it “wasn’t easy to step away from BioShock”
There were several deviations from System Shock 2 along the way. And even if this one plays like that, I hope they nail the story stuff they’re going for. Previews have seemed impressed.
Happy new year guys!😀 Just now, it hit midnight here, and it’s officially 2025. I was playing Pennon and Battle, and I realized it’s the last game I played in 2024!! That gave it a different kind of meaning. Now I’m curious, what was the last game you played in 2024?
It does have split screen, and getting that mode in particular to run well is why the Xbox Series S version had problems coming to market. I can’t speak for how well it runs on PS5, but it had no problems getting certified by Sony.
When a new game comes out, I’m compelled to play the earlier entries in the series first, so I got the Borderlands collection, and I’m playing through the first game now.
Hell yeah! I’m trying to finish up the DLC I never got around to before Avowed comes out. Have you checked out the turn-based mode? I like it way better, and I’m surprised it works as well as it does.
I think if they ever made a Pillars 3, they’d come up with a new system so that RTwP and turn-based aren’t two different versions of the same game. Or at least, if they were able to start a Pillars 3 right after Pillars 2, that seemed to be a direction that made sense for them. I like action points in theory, but they tend to lead to fights being very static, because attacking twice is basically always better than moving and attacking in the same turn, so when you always have a movement every turn, it keeps things more interesting to me. I’m definitely bothered by trash mobs, but Pillars 2 turned that knob way down compared to Pillars 1. Maybe the turn-based version of the game would have been improved by another slight reduction on that knob, but I still loved it.
How about 2026? If you played Alyx, you’d know why it’s rational to expect HL3. And according to some datamining, they’re staffing up specifically for HL3. Granted, that could also make it a 2027 game, with how AAA games are developed these days.
I’d be happy if they pandered more to controller players without removing the decision making in base building, like Halo Wars did. I always look to Cannon Brawl as an indication of what RTS can still be (by which I mean, not exactly like Cannon Brawl).
I have. It does have base building, but it doesn’t really have choke points the way that StarCraft does. That doesn’t make it a deal-breaker, as I do enjoy that game. In fact, the way it has a controllable character that puts a controller-friendly speed limit on APM is something it has in common with Cannon Brawl.
Is this a modern/old dichotomy? Playing through Metaphor right now, I agree that they go with the old-school dungeon crawler approach, but Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII are definitely not modern, and I don’t think they’d fall into the same bucket.
Alright, not like for like exactly, and at 34M, we’re stretching the definition of shoestring. I’ll bet KC:D’s sequel spent far more, for one. I’m with you that more of these studios ought to be aiming for reasonable fidelity in a game that can be made cheaply, but when each of those studios took more than 5 years to build their sequels, that becomes more and more unlikely.
It’s true, and I’d certainly like to see some of these studios try to target making many games at that budget than a single game at ten times that every 7 or 8 years, but even these “cheaper” games you listed still take a long time to make, and I think that’s the problem to be solved. Games came out at a really rapid clip 20-25 years ago, where you’d often get 3 games in a series 3 years in a row. We can argue about the relative quality of those games compared to what people make now and how much crunch was involved, but if the typical game is taking more than 3 years to make, that still says to me that maybe their ambitions got out of hand. The time involved in making a game is what balloons a lot of these budgets, and whereas you could sell 3 full-priced games 3 years in a row back in the day, now you’re selling 1 every 6 years, and you need to sell way, way more of them to make the math work out.
I’d make that trade, easily. More often I find games these days are too long to their own detriment than that they felt like they ought to be that long. Your mileage may vary on a game by game basis, but in general, that’s how it’s been lately.
DICE Awards 2025 Nominations Revealed With Astro Bot, Helldivers 2, and Indiana Jones in the Lead - IGN (www.ign.com) angielski
Why So Many Video Games Cost So Much to Make (www.bloomberg.com) angielski
From Jason Schreier. “The plural of ‘anecdote’ is not ‘data’,” but this is some analysis from Schreier seemingly rooted in many anecdotes. The long and short of it is that development on AAA games tend to routinely hit bottlenecks where entire portions of a team are waiting for some other team to unblock them so that...
Nintendo Responds to Leaks: "Not Official" (smarfdurden.wordpress.com) angielski
Assassin's Creed Shadows delayed again to March 20 (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
It was previously releasing Feb 14. Does not look good for Ubisoft.
Microsoft is combining “the best of Xbox and Windows together” for handhelds (www.theverge.com) angielski
Seemingly confirming the theory that “Xbox” will just be Windows going forward, at least on handhelds.
Playing Sony games angielski
SteamOS expands beyond Steam Deck (store.steampowered.com) angielski
Ex-Annapurna Video-Game Staff to Absorb Former Take-Two Indie Label (www.bloomberg.com) angielski
I don’t know why Schreier hyphenates “video-game”.
2025 will be a make-or-break year for triple-A video games as we know them (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
Next Xbox Rumored To Launch In 2026 With New Call Of Duty (www.gamespot.com) angielski
There are a lot of reasons that this makes sense for them. But also, given the other things they’ve been promising, I think this is going to be an expensive piece of hardware that basically just hides Windows under the hood.
How many games do you manage to play at the same time? angielski
I’m a separated dad with a demanding job and a fiancé. I only have the kids when I’m not working but I want to be fully available for them....
Infamous vs Prototype | 15 Years Later (www.youtube.com) angielski
Tango Gameworks studio has been reborn, joining Krafton Inc angielski
Please tell me this means they can work on Evil Within 3 now
Bioshock creator Ken Levine discusses the future of narratives in games (www.gamesindustry.biz) angielski
In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, the acclaimed developer also discusses his next game, ‘Judas’, generative AI and why it “wasn’t easy to step away from BioShock”
what was the last game you played in 2024? angielski
Happy new year guys!😀 Just now, it hit midnight here, and it’s officially 2025. I was playing Pennon and Battle, and I realized it’s the last game I played in 2024!! That gave it a different kind of meaning. Now I’m curious, what was the last game you played in 2024?
The voice actor of the GMan just posted this promising cryptic HL3 rumor (fxtwitter.com) angielski
Age of Empires designer believes RTS games need to finally evolve after decades of stagnation (www.videogamer.com) angielski
Have JRPG battles become a sub-system? angielski
First some definitions or my understanding of terms....
Video game journalist Jason Schreier's top 10 games of 2024 list (www.bloomberg.com) angielski
Runners-up: Tactical Breach Wizards, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, UFO 50, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle...
Video Games Can’t Afford to Look This Good (www.nytimes.com) angielski