I always worry about that with From, and Japanese studios in general. They are often black boxes, and the only reason we don’t talk about them as much is because they do a good job of “keeping it in the family”. Maybe From is way bigger than we realize, or maybe they are just grinding entry level devs into dust. We truly just do not know.
i like your positivity. it’s true, except that the landscape for indies is also v grim rn. The kind of investors that fueled indie games of the past have dried up. Kickstarters for games still happen, but it isn’t the like the glory days. And discoverability is a nightmare, releasing an indie game these days is a bit like playing the lottery. But I’ll tell you, when a $20 or under indie game catches my attention, i’m pretty inclined to impulse buy. They are more enticing than the $80 games, for sure.
Excited to see a new game from the Mario Odyssey team, and excited that this one seems to have turned out well! I wish i had anything else to say about this game, but it literally just came out today. I usually don’t play new releases and I never buy a console in the first year of release, so…I look forward to playing this on a Switch 2 or emulator in 5 years. lol
where do we think we would be at at this point if electronic payments were handled by government entities? Not trying to defend Visa or Mastercard, just genuinely curious what others think.
Now, it’s very easy for me, someone who is not building a political action campaign around this topic, to tell someone like Scott that he needs to do better this time. But I’m going to do it anyway. I want this to work. I want the needle to move faster towards preservation of our gaming culture and towards the fulfillment of the copyright bargain with the public. So, please, let this go better this time around.
Ross devoted a year of his life (so far) to making this thing happen, purely out of his own passion for games. He gave it his all and the thing almost failed due to factors outside of Ross’s control. And then you want to turn around and tell him “that wasn’t good enough, do better next time” while sitting on your ass writing your shitty little tech articles for your shitty tech blog? dude even acknowledges how cowardly it sounds, and then proceeds to say it anyway. fuck all the way off.
interesting, i don’t remember the feedback being quite so…mid. I remember this game getting pretty positive reviews, but maybe i’m muddling it with my memory of the other “hex” games.
I don’t think “destruction vs. licensed cars” is the binary in racing games. NFS3 Hot Pursuit had licensed cars, and that probably added to the fun of the game. I think we def need more games with destructible cars and destruction-focused racing, and I agree that you need unlicensed cars to get the most out of that these days, but there are plenty of other ways to make a fun car game. Beam.NG is there for the people that want truly next-level destruction simulation, and it has multiplayer support via mods but we could use a more mainstream version of that. Wreckfest is out there, but maybe that is too “demo derby” for die-hard burnout fans. We had games like OnRush and NFS Unbound come and go, and those games were probably the closest we got to Burnout in recent times, but audiences didn’t show up for those games so they have all but died.
Forza Horizon (which I mention all the time bc it is the only modern car game I have played) is plenty fun and arcadey with a whole smorgasbord of licensed cars. The cars get smashed up a decent amount, though it obviously isn’t quite like a Burnout game. Tweaking the driving settings can make the game feel even more arcadey, if that is your style. If you want the destruction to affect how your car handles, that is a setting you can turn on. If you want a more simulationy driving experience, you can tweak the settings to turn that on, too. It isn’t Burnout exactly, but something about it scratches a similar itch for me. I know the Horizon series is one of the most popular racing series in the current scene, I wonder sometimes if its popularity and live service model are eating the lunch of those other, smaller arcade racers.
I love this. Out of curiosity, do you play any modern racing games, like maybe the Forza Horizon series? If you’re still buds with those buds, no reason you couldn’t be having this kind of experience online (assuming y’all can find the time). I am curious what all the former NFS fans play these days. There isn’t anything QUITE like it but a few modern games get close.
definitely licensing issues, 100%. The record company owns the old song and doesn’t want to allow it in the game again, at least not for a reasonable price. Could the artists re-record songs to bypass the record company, like Taylor Swift did? Yeah sure, but only if they are still around, and only if they care that much about being in the Tony Hawk remake. Re-recording songs includes re-doing all the mixing and mastering, and that is a decent chunk of time and money for essentially no return on investment. Most of the bands in original Tony Hawk that are still around are pretty focused on ROI at this point.