General Gaming News

[Raid]

Guess I'll take that off the wishlist then -_-

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry ... nitiative/

Jesus. Hope you like your Calls of Duty and your Halos and your Forzas, because that's all you're bloody getting from now on. There was genuine excitement for Perfect Dark, I wasn't quite among the excited but I was definitely interested - Perfect Dark Zero was a quirky favourite of mine, even after the 360 received more than two games worth buying.

Does the major-publisher games industry just make balance sheets now instead of, y'know, games? Why don't they just fire everyone but the CEO and one assistant who makes a spreadsheet, and have the best quarter in the history of videogames before the CEO fires the assistant and retires on a billion dollar bonus?

[Lenny Solidus]

I was so looking forward to this one myself, but didn't they make something like $88 billion in pure net profit last fiscal year?



Five years of waiting. I genuinely don't understand this industry anymore.

[Wrathbone]

I’ve never witnessed a business self-destruct quite so profitably as Xbox.

[Lenny Solidus]

I mean, sure I like Uncle Phil as much as the next guy in the room, but surely there has to be some serious motive questioning going on when a company as big as Microsoft can cancel something as promising as this and somehow in the same universe greenlight and see right through to release a game such as disastrous as Redfall while then acting somewhat stunned at its cautionary tale super piss poor reception. Everything they seem to commit to only ever turns round into being a big nothing and makes the company look like it's downright self sabotaging itself at every given opportunity. Starfield, a game that was a dream game for so many so badly fumbled and left to float away into a virtual black hole just floating awayyyy la la la never to be seen or heard from again. A game that cost anything upwards of $400 million to produce btw.

They also super hype and bring out titles such as Avowed which people forgot existed within the space of what a single week - coming out in February and has less than three hundred players while right after pushing lacklustre looking titles such as Outer Worlds 2 a game with an $80 price tag - yet something as genuinely well received when announced and shown only last year as a new Perfect Dark game just completely gets tossed in the bin. Nah fuck it, we could tell nobody wanted that. Consumers are signalling with bright green lasers attached to their heads exactly what it is they desire loud and clear, for all this Microsoft seem intent on making their entire brand (or what remains left of it) nothing more than a straight-up bait and switch hey you look what we have for you here while then continuously pulling the rug from underneath us once again as they deliver yet another Scalebound scenario...leaving us all forever wanting and utterly confused in the process.

What the fuck are we doing here Phil/Microsoft? At this juncture if Fable ever actually releases I will be nothing short of astonished.

Phil Spencer tells staff "our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger".

I'm not quite sure I believe you anymore Phil.

[Wrathbone]

Starfield, a game that was a dream game for so many so badly fumbled and left to float away into a virtual black hole just floating awayyyy la la la never to be seen or heard from again.

It's received numerous substantial updates adding new features and QoL improvements, it's already had one DLC (which was shit, but that's beside the point ¬_¬) and has another one in the works. It's not a live-service game so I'm not sure what more you'd expect. In fact it's arguably had more post-release support than any BGS RPG except Skyrim, and even that didn't have as many substantial updates in the same timeframe.

I think it's fair to say nobody is happy with Microsoft at the moment, but I'll not let the "let's all shit on Starfield" train chug along unchallenged where it's not deserved.

[Alan]

I'm still baffled that people bought into Phil and his smarmy corpo gamer schtick. His face and delivery just make me throw up a little, hes such a wanker. Peter-Satan-Moore is the only good face XBox ever had unless you count Larry and X... Z.... E? I think it was E. Larry had a semi Jack Tretton vibe, he was shilly but he was like your shilly uncle.

[Lenny Solidus]

I think it's fair to say nobody is happy with Microsoft at the moment, but I'll not let the "let's all shit on Starfield" train chug along unchallenged where it's not deserved.

I was (somewhat brazenly I agree) simply stating that a studio at that level and a game release of that magnitude it looks to have been fumbled given the general reception...but yes admittedly and openly I've never played it and duly should do so at some point in the future to warrant a true grasp on its merits/shortcomings.

You know me and how I tend to put things across.

Also...



And how could I forget...

[Snowy]

Nah you're good Dave, Starfield was gash ¬_¬

Good to see that the Xbox hordes are gonna get to enjoy Helldivers as well. It's a game that just uber-clicked with me and hasn't overly released me since, I still love playing it.

[Raid]

Unable to decide how many developers it'll have to fire to achieve it's Q4 net profit targets, EA decides that selling enough copies for 1.25% of the world's population is an achievable goal for their next Battlefield game.

https://www.eurogamer.net/ea-reportedly ... est-seller

Perhaps they've worked out that there is actually a lowest number of employees to still be considered a game developer.

[Wrathbone]

I think it's fair to say nobody is happy with Microsoft at the moment, but I'll not let the "let's all shit on Starfield" train chug along unchallenged where it's not deserved.

I was (somewhat brazenly I agree) simply stating that a studio at that level and a game release of that magnitude it looks to have been fumbled given the general reception...

This is the thing - Starfield is yet another example of mass opinion quickly regressing from valid criticism to sneering and jeering, people condemning it as a total disaster. And the reality is that it was a massive financial success for Bethesda, it reviewed well for the most part and it's a decent game with some notable flaws. It genuinely bothers me when the narrative of Starfield being a flop is perpetuated, because Bethesda's RPGs (Starfield included) are among my favourite of all time. And just to be clear, I don't blame you, because I completely understand why someone would think it was a flop based on that narrative. I get why a lot of people don't like the game, and that's fine, but of all the many MANY reasons to blame Microsoft for their failures in recent years, Starfield is about as far from one of them as I can imagine.

Apologies for the mini rant - as you might tell, this is a sore spot for me.

[Mantis]

I think probably people consider it a failure because it hasn't entered the cultural zeitgeist that Skyrim and Oblivion did. It feels like people have brushed it under the carpet somewhat.

Personally I thought it was a functional but ultimately incredibly bland experience.

[Snowy]

I think it's fair to say nobody is happy with Microsoft at the moment, but I'll not let the "let's all shit on Starfield" train chug along unchallenged where it's not deserved.

I was (somewhat brazenly I agree) simply stating that a studio at that level and a game release of that magnitude it looks to have been fumbled given the general reception...

This is the thing - Starfield is yet another example of mass opinion quickly regressing from valid criticism to sneering and jeering, people condemning it as a total disaster. And the reality is that it was a massive financial success for Bethesda, it reviewed well for the most part and it's a decent game with some notable flaws. It genuinely bothers me when the narrative of Starfield being a flop is perpetuated, because Bethesda's RPGs (Starfield included) are among my favourite of all time. And just to be clear, I don't blame you, because I completely understand why someone would think it was a flop based on that narrative. I get why a lot of people don't like the game, and that's fine, but of all the many MANY reasons to blame Microsoft for their failures in recent years, Starfield is about as far from one of them as I can imagine.

Apologies for the mini rant - as you might tell, this is a sore spot for me.

Didn't mean to rub any salt in WB mate.

I genuinely disliked the game, I played it on release with no performance issues but just couldn't find much to enjoy. It didn't make me feel like a spacefarer at all. One huge challenge I suspect is that I have played a bit of Star Citizen, and while it isn't vaguely a game yet...

You log in and wake up in your apartment. You leave and take the train to the spaceport where you walk up to your ship and get in. You un-dock and blast across a cityscape and up into the atmosphere, flying up to and docking with a space station. You then get out of your ship and go visit the spaceport.

All of this happens in full control in a first person view. It makes you feel you are somewhere. Elite Dangerous does similarly. Neither are RPGs I get that, but I never managed to buy into the illusion that I was adventuring in space that Starfield was selling. It didn't get much time from me, and may be better now, but I really didn't enjoy my time with it.

[Wrathbone]

Yeah, in the brief attempt I had at Star Citizen, I couldn’t get the door to the apartment to open. Like it or not, at least Starfield is accessible!

[Snowy]

Haha I can well believe that! Raid and I played it, and while the scope of what they are doing is amazing the levels of jank were beyond olympian

One day, it might be amazing, but it sure ain't there yet!

[Sly Boots]

EA killing off Anthem for good in six months' time.

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-per ... anuary-12/