Game News 2.0

I got the worst possible value out of Hitman's convoluted purchasing scheme, bought Hitman 3 at launch having never played the first two, and I loved it so much I bought the first two games. This was when next gen consoles just came out and everything was full price, think it was well over 100 quid in total.

Still enjoyed it a lot, most of the levels I only played once or twice but the ones I really liked got a lot of replays. I never really understood all the other random stuff in the game outside of repeating the main levels tbh, especially coming back a year or two later.

Schreier: "Hidden Path D&D game cancelled"

Hidden Path: "Ah, no, actually we're hiring"

Schreier: "Hidden Path D&D game cancelled"

Seems weird...

Tim Miller (Deadpool) stepping in to direct reshoots for the Borderlands movie in place of original director Eli Roth. They claim it's because Roth will be too busy on a small horror movie he's due to start filming.

I'm guessing initial screenings were skag-sh*t and they're bringing in Miller to try salvage the movie.

I read that whole article waiting for the mention of Zachary Quinto...

The humour in Borderlands 2, I have to admit I found a lot of it funny. Not good funny, mostly just stupid funny, and I hadn't played the first game so I'd gone into BL2 with no idea what to expect. However they then leaned so far into that with later games that stupid funny mostly just became stupid annoying. Same jokes repeated ad nauseum. Everyone had to be a "character with a gimmick". And once the formula for their humour became apparant, it just lost all meaning and effect.

Tiny Tina and Krieg are two of the main characters for the film, and they've cast Kevin Hart as Roland, so I'd say they're going for constant yelling and hope some of it lands.

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Xbox event on the 25th of January.

Excellent stuff.

Speaking of Ubisoft AAA shite... Skull & Bones is being delayed again.

Ubisoft also announcing they've cancelled more games they were working on and are revising targets downwards generally.

Ah, it's not boring, it's a simple story, well told and it's got a lot of heart. It's kinda like if James Cameron made a video game. 😸

Very likely they are looking for a merger where they stay at the head of the table which is going to be difficult to push through.

But they have a serious amount of IP.

Was about to say that. MS will flash the cash.

Ah yeah, fair point, forgot about that.

Ubisoft seem to be blaming a lot of their woes on consumers spending more money and time with live service games, while completely ignoring that there is a huge market and potential for the type of games Ubisoft do make; they just need to make them better. They're beyond stale at this point and most of their single-player offerings all feature the same additional revenue tropes;

• Resource-collecting in the game for upgrades, but several upgrades requiring the same resources which you therefore run out of quicker.... but you can buy resource bundles in the shop, because what's better than having to play the game less!
• Slow XP gains.... but you can buy XP boosts in the shop, because what's better than having to play the game less!
• Numerous types of currency for buying things
• Numerous types of cosmetic items.... but after launch new purchasable cosmetic packs will continuously be released and shoved down your throat every time you open the game or menu, or even from the PS5 main menu because they change the background image that appears when you highlight the game to advertise their wares
• DLC packs for stuff that should have been in the game
• Stories that never end. All games designed to set up the next game

I mean Christ, imagine Elden Ring or GOW Ragnarok with that business model behind them. Want to level up your Dark Moonlight Greatsword? You need to collect 158 timber, 42 steel and 5 gold, or you can buy them from the online store in the pause menu for just 10 Erdtree Credits! For just 4.99 you can make Kratos and Atreus look like Finn and Jake the Dog from Adventure Time!

I know Ubisoft aren't the only ones who do the above, but it's become such a staple of theirs that even outside of their typical Ubisoft formula for actual game design it's really pushing people away from their games. I loved AC Odyssey and completed everything in it, but when Valhalla came out I just couldn't justify starting again at the bottom rung of another Ubisoft ladder. It also doesn't help them that their games are always on sale. You can't browse through any sale on PSN without seeing most of the Ubisoft games from the last 5 years on sale, with their various editions or bundles. Even if they release a game in October, it'll be 30% off in the Xmas sale.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to them in the coming years. You would hope this would be a wake-up call, but given that they seem to be eyeing live-service games as where the bulk of people's time and money is going towards, I'm not hopeful.

It's trendy to hate on the ubisoft openworld formula but if you look at what they've been saying, that's not where they're failing. Assassin's Creed is still a megahit and they're doubling down on it, while Far Cry 6 reportedly made more money than its predecessors too. Their problem is that they haven't had one of those games recently and all their attempts to diversify have not succeeded. The latest Mario Rabbids didn't sell, same with Just Dance, Riders Republic, Roller Champions, Immortals Fenix. Nothing they've tried outside their established big franchise over the last few years has stuck, that's why they're saying the market wants large scale live service games, because large scale live service games such as AC Valhalla are the only place that they're finding growth and their attempts at other genres are not working out.

Probably doesn't help that Skull & Bones has been in development hell and looks dreadful, and who knows how much resources have been spent behind the scenes on vaporware like BG&E and Prince of Persia.

They're a company built on dlc very expensive dlc at that mind you not Square Enix NFT esque but still every Assassin's Creed has had a €100+ version since PS4/XboxOne. Even Fenyx had a very high priced edition and these are not the statue editions these are only extra content.