General Gaming News

[DjchunKfunK]

For sure I don't expect everyone to like their games. I just think for the quality of the games they have put out they have not received the public recognition in terms of sales that I think they deserve. Just looking at peak players for instance Dishonored, Dishonored 2 and Prey all peak at around 20k which isn't huge.

[Snowy]

Yeah I put in a couple of hours last night and quite enjoyed myself, which I wasn’t expecting. El Gaucho had tried it and wasn’t complimentary about the experience on our Discord channel so my expectations were low.

So the bad then: the game looks like an arcane title - the graphics are clumsy and cartoonish in appearance, the textures are poor close up and I got some graphical artefacts on the screen, flickering shadows, for example.

The AI seems fairly weak, having enemies equipped with sniper rifles running headlong towards you is baffling. The vampires tend to be a lot more mobile and are more difficult to hit, which makes them more interesting to fight.

The town is very quiet. You are not wading through enemies by any stretch, at least not in the opening area. Enemy groups tend to be 3-5 humans and one or more vampires. I actually don’t mind this as it lets me explore without constant conflict.

The good:
The game plays very smoothly but as I have a brand new rig I would hope so.

The atmosphere in the game is good, using sound (both music and effects) to good advantage. Having frequent inputs from the Hollow Man (the main protagonist I assume) adds to this.

The combat is fast paced and packs a heft, with the guns feeling good and punchy.

The map is nice, with the player having to be creative to reach particular areas. The mantling can be a little hit and miss but generally it is decent.

It feels like a title that will work well in co-op - I look forward to finding out.

[Animalmother]

I was amazed at how quickly you can die, as in insta-killed out of seemingly nowhere. It happened to me multiple times and I had no clue what got me. Other times I was able to kill a large group of cultists with relative ease due to the poor AI. There's also no real penalty for dying, you immediately respawn at the nearest safehouse with full health.

I've uninstalled it now anyway. Might come back to it in a few months if a few patches improve the experience.

[Sly Boots]

So, to summarise the last couple of months:

- The Last Of Us PC port - complete bust
- Jedi Survivor - complete bust
- Redfall - complete bust

Saved loads of money already this year . So which is the next hyped AAA title in the pipeline? Because I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that it won't meet expectations.

Do people still preorder? I can't even remember the last time I did, apart from smaller indie titles day one releases just seem like more of a mug's game than ever before.

Good luck Starfield...

[Sly Boots]

[Animalmother]

He didn't hold back did he?

I'm glad he mentioned how bad using the controller is, I thought it was just me or the aim assist was turned off.

[Snowy]

OK played some more and feeling quite a lot less charitable to be honest.

The AI is fucking woeful. You can shoot someone only to have other enemies just ignore the booming gunshot. I met a vampire who was growling all sorts of scary shit, but he was also in mid air in a christ pose and didn't respond to gunfire. Enemies just run at you. Vamps can be more fun, but even so. I did manage a sliding punch-kill though which was nice.

Also way too much fucking collectible shit. It nearly all turns into insta-cash but I must be honest, stopping to pinch the bogroll because (a) money and (b) Covid is frankly taking the piss. I spend more time hoovering junk than exploring and fighting, and that ain't the right ratio.

Also it is so empty. You do a lot of running around and looting, with the occasional fight. Which tends to only be 3-5 enemies.

Funniest thing is that I got the key as an add-on with my new 4080 graphics card. How this could ever be thought of as a graphics showcase is beyond me, plus it stutters every time it pre-loads more map. On a 4080. Speaking of graphics, the options are barely worth a page, almost zero settings to work with.

It is all just so unfinished and unloved. I think there could be a good game in there, but it needs mining, smelting, refining and forging still.

[DjchunKfunK]

I played a few hours last night and thought it was OK. Combat felt pretty good and the powers look like they will be pretty useful once they have been upgraded a bit. I quite like how the map isn't filled with a bunch of icons like most of these types of games so I've appreciated how much space there is between enemy encounters. I agree the AI is not much cop and it is rather buggy.

I think there has been a bit of a pile on in the media, people calling it a disaster and such like. I've played a fair few games that are much worse than Redfall.

EDIT: Just on the graphics, it has a specific style to it that is aping the house style that Arkane use. I don't think it looks ugly but it does look a bit last gen.

[Snowy]

I have given it 3 hours or thereabouts and while it is inoffensive there are just too many glaring issues for me to overlook. I think it is salvageable, but whether they will do so I couldn't say. I hope so, I like the premise.

[Achtung Englander]

Xbox is a complete shit show at the moment, this is a very good analysis

[DjchunKfunK]

People have gone way overboard with this stuff, they put out one poorly reviewing game and suddenly it's the end of times and Xbox is a mess.

In that video the guy says for the last ten years Xbox has been putting out 6s and 7s as the norm whilst Nintendo and Sony have been putting out only high quality games, that's just patently false.

Forza Horizon 5 92
Hi-Fi Rush 89
Halo Infinite 87
Psychonauts 2 91
Flight Sim 90
Pentiment 89
Grounded 86

And those are just from the last few years. Sony has put out stuff like Days Gone and Nintendo has released a parade of half-baked sports games on the Switch. All the big three make good games, average games and the occasional duffer. The fact that he continues to bang on about this "ten years" right through the video is weird.

People are treating this as the same as previous generations and it's not. Microsoft's goal is not to get you to buy an Xbox by offering that one or two marque title because the majority of console players are not making a decision based on that, they are making it based on where their FIFA or Madden or Fortnite account is and because of how badly Microsoft lost the last generation the majority of those people are playing in the Sony ecosystem. Sure some people might switch over because of one or two games but AAA titles are such big bets now and it doesn't make financial sense for Microsoft to take those huge risks considering their position in the market right now. This isn't to say that they wont still try to make great games.

This thread sums this all up nicely.



It's what I have talked about before, people have their brands now, whether it's phones, trainers or clothes and they stick to them. Now that consoles allow you to carry over your library people stick to their brand a lot more than they have done in the past.

[Sly Boots]

WTH, Days Gone was great goddammit!

[Alan]

Halo Infinite is not an 87 either!

[DjchunKfunK]

I could say the same about most of PlayStation's marque titles which I think, personally, are overrated. Reviews are ultimately subjective but if you are going to have this discussion, like the person in the video is, then you need to use aggregate sites like Metacritic.

[Achtung Englander]

Even if the strategy is turn Xbox into a service, it still is doing a questionable job. They have 24 studio houses and we have been pretty fucking patient with Phil Spencer who sounds like a broken record and promises the games are coming. He's been saying that for 10 years....

He is a nice guy and all and I met him for about 10 minutes but to me, now, its just another example of someone failing upwards.

You cannot say the quality of 1st party games from Microsoft is on par with that from Sony - you will be just lying to yourself. There really is no excuse. Spencer has let down this generation