Spider-Man - PS4

Zero-Cool · 17-06-2016 09:46PM #1

Insomniac Games working with Sony to launch a new wave of Marvel Comics games. No more movie tie-ins (except for possible dlc to coincide with films/comics) as they want propery devilpment cycles and not rush anything.

Some details from the dev in the blog below.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/06/13/insomniacs-new-ps4-exclusive-spider-man-game-revealed-first-trailer/

Dev confirmed all in-game footage used for the trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R2uvJqWeVg

Marvel did interviews about their plans. Sounds promising.

Notes taken from neogaf

Jay's team is specifically focused on console-style games for Marvel. The mobile and social stuff is already hitting it out of the park, so his group is dedicated to making their console games great again.
Insomniac/Sony's Spider-Man series will be the only console Spider-Man series going forward. They want to find excellent teams and then dedicate the IPs to them so they can focus on quality. That's not to say Spider-Man can't be in a cross-over game, but you won't see something like Activision console Spider-Man games coming out alongside these. Jay explicitly says "The future of the Spider-Man console games is with Sony and Insomniac."
Movie tie-in games are over for Marvel. This is the same as their mobile strategy. All games will be given lengthy development cycles with all the budget they need and have no concerns about hitting a specific date tied to a movie/comic book/whatever. Marvel is very clear that developers cannot be rushed or underfunded if they're going to make great games.
That said, Jay notes that on the mobile side, the games tend to have tie-in events when films or certain initiatives like Women of Marvel launch. He doesn't explicitly commit to this happening on the console side, since it probably varies a lot per game, but don't be super shocked if you have downloadable skins or DLC for a game when a movie or comic book initiative comes out, especially if it's a living product.
When asked about whether Marvel's console games will have cross-overs and cameos like the films do, he states "The world's full of surprises. You never know."
Jay notes that in the past, they used to take about 30% of console game opportunities that are presented to them. These days it's more like 10%.
He's also clear that Marvel will only work with developers who they think will make excellent, top tier titles instead of just "good" games. So far their two publicly announced partners are Insomniac and Telltale. He speaks very fondly of the LEGO games, but IIRC that's run out of the mobile licensing division.
Marvel will also only work with developers who are clearly very excited about the IP itself instead of just the IP's money making potential. He notes that he can usually tell within the first 30 seconds if someone is actually passionate about the IP in question.
There's an implication that the publishing partner is also important to them. I imagine this is especially true for retail games.
Jay mentions that the success of the films and the success of their top mobile games, along with the break away from the movie game model, has resulted in way more developers being interested in working with them. He mentions that developers have even gotten more open to the idea during his two year tenure as titles like Marvel: Contest of Champions have crossed $200 million.
As for working with Insomniac specifically, Jay mentions that they're only 10 minutes away from the studio and 10 minutes away from Sony as well, so that they're in contact every day, which they think is very helpful for getting their new initiative going well. They also openly admit that Spider-Man is the most commercially successful superhero so they're more than happy to start with him.
Jay notes they have several other console games in development that will be revealed over the upcoming years. I probably wouldn't expect an immediate impending announcement (beyond perhaps unveiling Telltale's game) since he wasn't teasing any more reveals soon.

Kylo Ren · 17-06-2016 11:44PM

I so excite.

Grayditch · 18-06-2016 03:32PM

Perfect company to do Spiderman.

EDIT: Wait, I'm thinking of Suckerpunch, but still...

Turtyturd · 18-06-2016 04:05PM

Is this an exclusive exclusive or a out on PS4 a few months before Xbox exclusive?

As a huge Spider-Man fan the former would would make me consider picking up a PS4. Costume looks like sh!te though but I am sure there'll be plenty of DLC to address that.

Penn · 18-06-2016 04:36PM

Turtyturd wrote: »

Is this an exclusive exclusive or a out on PS4 a few months before Xbox exclusive?

As a huge Spider-Man fan the former would would make me consider picking up a PS4. Costume looks like sh!te though but I am sure there'll be plenty of DLC to address that.

Ps4 exclusive. If they're doing a shared universe of games with other Marvel characters games it's unknown if the other games will be exclusive or not (there may be Xbox exclusive games too, we don't know).

I do like the idea of a shared game universe of Marvel games, though I'd worry they'd run out of enemies fast seeing as how games tend to have enemies as sub-bosses or side missions.

Turtyturd · 18-06-2016 05:00PM

Penn wrote: »

Ps4 exclusive. If they're doing a shared universe of games with other Marvel characters games it's unknown if the other games will be exclusive or not (there may be Xbox exclusive games too, we don't know).

I do like the idea of a shared game universe of Marvel games, though I'd worry they'd run out of enemies fast seeing as how games tend to have enemies as sub-bosses or side missions.

I reckon the exclusivity is part of the deal to send Spidey home. As for a shared universe I reckon making non repetitive types of games would be a bigger issue than recurring enemies.

Zero-Cool · 18-06-2016 05:29PM

Sony approached Insomniac with the idea so it sounded like it was their choice from the beginning to be exclusive. Still, it's such a big license, surely they'd make more money having it on xbox as well.

As for the spidey suit, Insomniac said at E3, the white spider serves a purpose that will be revealed later. Intriguing but I'm sure there will be a ton of costumes to unlock/find. The graphics and city look class so far and of they can get the swinging mechanics down (ala Spideerman 2) then it could turn out to be a lot of fun. Hopefully this will be Spidey's answer to the Batman Arkham series.

tok9 · 20-06-2016 12:40AM

Sony owns some rights to Spiderman so I'd imagine that's why it's exclusive.

Everyone expected Suckerpunch due to the rumour but I have to say Insomniac was a great choice. They are really going all out with the current batch of games they've created, Ratchet & Clank, Song of the Deep, Edge of Nowhere... all very different games.

From what I heard, the traversal in Sunset Overdrive was really good.

Skerries · 20-06-2016 01:41AM

are the Spider-Man games any good?

genuinely the last one I played was this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpptmULD6YM

Vyse · 20-06-2016 01:53AM

I thought shattered dimensions was a great game. Nice bit of variety in it.

SeantheMan · 20-06-2016 02:02AM

Spiderman 2 is considered the best of all of them, by a long way.

I think shattered dimensions was also popular somewhat.

I personally haven't played any superhero games in recent years as most of them have been awful or disappointing ...with the exception of the first few Batman games (Deadpool, Wolverine, Spiderman etc)

Doodleking · 10-07-2016 11:57AM

Why doesn't Insomniac Games announce the release date?

Nathan G · 10-07-2016 03:44PM

Doodleking wrote: »

Why doesn't Insomniac Games announce the release date?

Most likely they don't know when it will be ready to launch.

Zero-Cool · 13-06-2017 02:42PM

Release date '2018'....

Looking really cool but I'm not sold on the swinging yet, it looks slow and stiff in the e3 demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO1Haxomq3M

Osmosis Jones · 13-06-2017 02:56PM

Looks like a whole lot of fun, the Arkham combat doesn't put me off as long as it's engaging enough. The mission they showed did have far too many QTEs for my liking however.

Doctor Nick · 13-06-2017 02:58PM

I loved the combat in Arkham. While I am not a huge fan of superheroes in any context I loved the Arkham games and will definitely check this out on release

Penn · 13-06-2017 02:59PM

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

Looks like a whole lot of fun, the Arkham combat doesn't put me off as long as it's engaging enough. The mission they showed did have far too many QTEs for my liking however.

I'd be inclined to put that down to them trying to show off a particular mission with a lot of different parts (fight, swing through the city, big dramatic saving people moment). I'd hope there are fewer QTEs in the majority of the missions.

SeantheMan · 14-06-2017 07:32AM

We just wanted free world swinging.

I think people would have been happy with in-game swinging around and a random event happen for Spidey to look after.

Instead it was a big set piece where the played didn't seem to have much control...and now people have fears about QTE

Stone Deaf 4evr · 14-06-2017 07:58AM

Only just saw the gameplay trailer for this, I wouldnt be overly concerned about the qte aspect, most likely its just a particular story mission where its tightly scripted to give it a cinematic feel. Sunset overdrive on xbox one proves that Insomniac can totally nail a busy open world without relying on qte.

Its a great looking game, I only remarked in the E3 thread, that is only when you see spider-man swinging around in broad daylight in what looks like a beautiful summers day in new york, that I realised how tired I was of the grim and dark look that most games go for.

Osmosis Jones · 14-06-2017 09:38AM

The only other problem I had is that while swinging it didn't look very momentum based. There were plenty of moments where he would sort of cancel an animation halfway through to shoot another web and kind of unnaturally change direction. That's probably both something that they'll have sorted by release and also something that I'll need to try myself before knowing.

Wonda-Boy · 16-06-2017 08:51AM

SWINGING.....Im in for sure.

Penn · 16-06-2017 08:56AM

Can't remember where I seen it but the devs had said the QTEs are only in the game sparingly and are used to showcase blockbuster-type moments.

Retr0gamer · 16-06-2017 10:49AM

Penn wrote: »

Can't remember where I seen it but the devs had said the QTEs are only in the game sparingly and are used to showcase blockbuster-type moments.

Hopefully and it's not just the developer backtracking. They were pretty awful in the footage shown, no real context to them or reason for them to exist. It reminded me of that older spiderman game whose name escapes me, possibly for the third film where they had QTEs for QTEs sake.

Penn · 16-06-2017 10:55AM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Hopefully and it's not just the developer backtracking. They were pretty awful in the footage shown, no real context to them or reason for them to exist. It reminded me of that older spiderman game whose name escapes me, possibly for the third film where they had QTEs for QTEs sake.

Yeah the QTEs in Spider-Man 3 were awful, especially after coming from how great Spider-Man 2 was.

I can see the dev's point, because for example in the gameplay shown with the crane falling, how can you possibly do that purely through gameplay without a QTE? Or going through the smashed billboard through a tiny gap? You either end up having to completely slow down time to allow for you to do it yourself through actual gameplay, or make it so easy that it's no longer as cinematic. Or not have any controller input at all and it just switches to doing it itself automatically but if you have multiple instances of that in one section, it becomes tiresome and boring.

It's a fine line, but I really hope they pull it off.

J. Marston · 16-06-2017 11:22AM

QTE's get too much stick. They're fine as long as the whole game isn't using them (Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls).

They can add awesome cinematic moments to games, like in God of War.

Penn · 16-06-2017 11:25AM

J. Marston wrote: »

QTE's get too much stick. They're fine as long as the whole game isn't using them (Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls).

They can add awesome cinematic moments to games, like in God of War.

One of my most hated moments in gaming came from Heavy Rain, where, since you hadn't had to input anything in a few seconds, the game made you have to tie the tie of a 50-60 year old police chief because he somehow couldn't do it himself.

Retr0gamer · 16-06-2017 11:41AM

Penn wrote: »

Yeah the QTEs in Spider-Man 3 were awful, especially after coming from how great Spider-Man 2 was.

I can see the dev's point, because for example in the gameplay shown with the crane falling, how can you possibly do that purely through gameplay without a QTE? Or going through the smashed billboard through a tiny gap? You either end up having to completely slow down time to allow for you to do it yourself through actual gameplay, or make it so easy that it's no longer as cinematic. Or not have any controller input at all and it just switches to doing it itself automatically but if you have multiple instances of that in one section, it becomes tiresome and boring.

It's a fine line, but I really hope they pull it off.

I'm ok with QTEs but these ones are just so lazy. It's the same button press action for everything. I mean they could have some fun to them, different QTEs for different actions that actually have a bearing on what is going on and at least try to simulate what is going on.

Like instead of having spidey shoot a web by timing a button press have time slow down and let the player aim at a big pulsating target. I should be a lazy game designer but then I think I'm not lazy enough for these guys.

J. Marston wrote: »

QTE's get too much stick. They're fine as long as the whole game isn't using them (Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls).

They can add awesome cinematic moments to games, like in God of War.

I think Heavy Rain and God of War do it right, the QTEs have context to the actions.

Beyond however simplified everything and it was done poorly in my book along with being one of the worst games I played last generation.

gizmo · 16-06-2017 11:53AM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'm ok with QTEs but these ones are just so lazy. It's the same button press action for everything. I mean they could have some fun to them, different QTEs for different actions that actually have a bearing on what is going on and at least try to simulate what is going on.

Like instead of having spidey shoot a web by timing a button press have time slow down and let the player aim at a big pulsating target. I should be a lazy game designer but then I think I'm not lazy enough for these guys.

Come now, Retr0, do you really think you're the only one to think of doing that? Would you not consider that maybe someone on the team suggested it and it was voted down? Or it was discarded because of time constraints? Or, perhaps most likely, was prototyped and found to slow down the action too frequently in set-piece heavy scenarios?

Penn · 16-06-2017 11:53AM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'm ok with QTEs but these ones are just so lazy. It's the same button press action for everything. I mean they could have some fun to them, different QTEs for different actions that actually have a bearing on what is going on and at least try to simulate what is going on.

Like instead of having spidey shoot a web by timing a button press have time slow down and let the player aim at a big pulsating target. I should be a lazy game designer but then I think I'm not lazy enough for these guys.

And that method runs the risk of losing momentum from the action sequence. I don't think either method is automatically worse than the other or lazy, it's how it's implemented and how often.

Retr0gamer · 16-06-2017 12:15PM

gizmo wrote: »

Come now, Retr0, do you really think you're the only one to think of doing that? Would you not consider that maybe someone on the team suggested it and it was voted down? Or it was discarded because of time constraints? Or, perhaps most likely, was prototyped and found to slow down the action too frequently in set-piece heavy scenarios?

I was trying to be humourous but I think my point still stands, that there's really no excuse for this kind of bad lazy design and I refuse to think there's no better way to do it. Maybe it's time/budget constraints but then again that's bad management and doesn't excuse it.

Penn wrote: »

And that method runs the risk of losing momentum from the action sequence. I don't think either method is automatically worse than the other or lazy, it's how it's implemented and how often.

I think it's better than what is currently shown because from my perspective there's no flow, the cutscenes might as well not have QTEs. Press X to continue the cinematic, I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up there's no fail state for a lot of them.

gizmo · 16-06-2017 02:15PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I was trying to be humourous but I think my point still stands, that there's really no excuse for this kind of bad lazy design and I refuse to think there's no better way to do it. Maybe it's time/budget constraints but then again that's bad management and doesn't excuse it.

Time and budget constraints aren't necessarily the result of bad management though, they're both finite resources and if engineers had to implement every idea which came from design they'd never ship anything. Maybe there is a better way to do it but I wouldn't automatically blame the designers at Insomniac, and I certainly wouldn't call them lazy, for not being able to solve a problem that's existed for at least two console generations now. Then again...

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I think it's better than what is currently shown because from my perspective there's no flow, the cutscenes might as well not have QTEs. Press X to continue the cinematic, I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up there's no fail state for a lot of them.

...perspective is indeed important because, like I said before Penn posted similarly, slowing down the action in order to give the player enough time to move a reticule over a particular area would kill the momentum in certain scenes. With momentum being synonymous with Spider-Man's character movement, I'd argue that losing that would be bad design more so than relying on a QTE which is at least more indicative of the reactions necessary in those kinds of scenarios.

Spider-Man - PS4

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