I don’t know about developing, but he’s certainly involved in a live service-ish game called Rivals of Aether 2 as “Director of Strategy”, whatever the hell that is. His name is listed in the game’s credits (video). He comes up at around 01:57 mark. Really bums me out too, because I like that game :(
Um, no. Ross Scott, the organizer of this whole thing, said that it will most likely fail. Meaning that there’s still a chance of success, not that he’s completely given up. The deadline for the European Citizens Initiative is 31st July, more than a month from now.
I see most of my faves have already been covered by others, so I’m going to add the Metroid Prime games. Unlike the mainline Metroid games, which are awesome in their own right, the Metroid Prime games are played from a first person perspective.
You still get to explore, you still get power-ups, but because you can scan almost anything with Samus’ visor, there’s some actual worldbuilding, which the mainline Metroid games didn’t really start doing until Metroid Fusion (which was alright, but Metroid Dread did a better job at worldbuilding, I feel). As for the platform, I played the GameCube versions on the Wii.
Good picks, but I don’t think Dark Souls qualifies as a metroidvania. Metroidvanias gate off parts of the map based on what abilities the player has/doesn’t have, whereas Dark Souls blocks off parts of the map simply because you’re missing a key. Also, Dark Souls doesn’t really have ability power-ups with the exception of acquiring the Lordvessel.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this disinterested in a Nintendo console and I bought the WiiU. So far we have:
Insane price tags: 80$ to buy games digitally? And 90$ for physical? This isn’t how you stop piracy, it’s how you start it.
The tech demo costs money. Why? Sure, they explained why. Just not very well.
That Nintendo-Denuvo deal from 2023 is still a thing. Thankfully, no games on the Switch have implemented Denuvo. With the Switch 2 coming out, I’m not certain this will remain the case.
Far as I can tell, they did next to nothing to fix the joycon drift. The one big problem with the Switch 1.
Also, the launch titles are kind of sparse. Most are rehashes of existing Switch 1 games, with two or three exceptions. Not for me, I guess.
Just finished Yakuza 0 and am psyched to start Yakuza Kiwami (which is a remake of the first Yakuza game). The action is soo good. Beating the shit out of enemies is already satisfying enough, but where it gets really good is when you build up something called a Heat meter as you’re fighting. Once it builds up, you get access to Heat Actions and they are nuts.
The quality of the game isn’t why The Crew makes a good target. It’s because it’s made by Ubisoft, which is based in France. And France has some pretty strict consumer protection laws. Were this, say, EA, which is based in the US, the lawsuit would be a non-starter. In adddition to that, France is a part of EU, which means Ubisoft has to comply with EU law in addition to the aforementioned French laws. So if this goes through, they will have to fight this on at least two fronts. The Crew is also a singleplayer game with an online component, which shouldn’t be necessary for the game to function, but here we are.
So to sum up: the lawsuit is not because people are super passionate for The Crew (though some probably are), but because if you’re going to make an example of a game, your best shot is suing a company which is located in a country with good customer protection laws. The Crew just happened to fit that bill.
Nah, I didn’t forget. It’s just that Pitchford’s list of screw-ups is so extensive that if I wanted to list of each and every one, we’d be here all day.