Game News 2.0

Mr Crispy · 01-03-2021 9:27pm

The next Need For Speed is going to be delayed, as Criterion are put to work on Battlefield instead - Game Informer.

Markitron · 02-03-2021 10:06am

Mr Crispy wrote: »

The next Need For Speed is going to be delayed, as Criterion are put to work on Battlefield instead - Game Informer.

This is exactly what they did to Visceral

Zero-Cool · 02-03-2021 10:08am

Need for Speed was one franchise that needed some love, last few entries have been shyte. Heat has been the best in a while but still underwhelming and the fact it lost it's post launch support so quickly wasn't a good sign. Won't be keeping up hope for this one.

Turquoise Hexagon Sun · 02-03-2021 10:20am

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Need for Speed was one franchise that needed some love, last few entries have been shyte. Heat has been the best in a while but still underwhelming and the fact it lost it's post launch support so quickly wasn't a good sign. Won't be keeping up hope for this one.

I hear ya. But it's impossible for NFS to make any mark when Forza: Horizon exists. Horizon is the best arcade open world racer. But its not completely arcade. So it moved that type of game forward. Its progressive in that sense. NFS is kind of stuck in that 90s arcade racer genre with a modern look. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed some Payback as that had good drifting and a nice map but Forza is just so refreshingly good.

Retr0gamer · 02-03-2021 10:32am

Once EA destroyed criterion there was no hope for that franchise

gimli2112 · 02-03-2021 10:35am

I see criteron have been drafted in to assist on BF6

Mr Crispy · 02-03-2021 1:29pm

Ten of Swords wrote: »

Sinking City has been listed on Steam today however it appears to be a version released by the publisher Nacon, who still have some kind of tenuous hold on the IP, not the developers Frogwares.

It doesn't have any of the DLC's and will likely be unsupported by the devs who are distancing themselves from it

Frogwares are going so far as to say Nacon have cracked and pirated the game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYTSt5oOr5g

More background info here on a Frogwares blog post.

PopePalpatine · 02-03-2021 2:14pm

Turquoise Hexagon Sun wrote: »

I hear ya. But it's impossible for NFS to make any mark when Forza: Horizon exists. Horizon is the best arcade open world racer. But its not completely arcade. So it moved that type of game forward. Its progressive in that sense. NFS is kind of stuck in that 90s arcade racer genre with a modern look. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed some Payback as that had good drifting and a nice map but Forza is just so refreshingly good.

Agreed. Who needs "brake-to-drift" when Horizon has intuitive physics that still have some basis in reality. I booted up Heat a few months ago after leaving it alone for a few months, and I just found those "brake-to-drift" physics so jarring. Hell, even Absolute Drift, which probably had a development team that you could count on your hand, has better physics.

Mr Crispy · 02-03-2021 4:26pm

I completely forgot this was in development, but Cold Iron Studios and Fox have revealed the Aliens game they've been working on - a class-based co-op shooter. Won't be getting too excited yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B63_ljZ91Mc

pixelburp · 02-03-2021 4:33pm

I was going to say it already looks better than Colonial Marines, but then even Colonial Marines looked good at the start; a co-op shooter does seem like a pretty simple fit & execution so you'd like to think they couldn't balls it up too much.

Vicxas · 02-03-2021 4:35pm

gimli2112 wrote: »

I see criteron have been drafted in to assist on BF6

Thats Criterion gone so.

BlitzKrieg · 02-03-2021 4:41pm

Cant say I'm excited at all. After the high that was Isolation it feels like such a regress to go back to the well that Colonial Marines took a **** in.

The batting average for alien titles that lean heavy on the marines is shockingly poor. Colonial Marines may be the lowest point but honestly most of the games that have involved players controlling space marines vs aliens were not great. I think the best might be the first pc based AVP because of how they balanced it and how damn scary even a basic alien would be in that game because of how fast they were and dark. It really did feel like you were a glass cannon, a tonne of firepower but if you let even one of them get close you were in a world of hurt.

Every other alien/avp game has been average to awful when it came to the marines, the other AVP titles have mostly lived of how good their alien or predator campaigns have played out (though I'll credit AVP 2 for getting closest to the tone)

EoinMcLovin · 02-03-2021 7:07pm

https://twitter.com/FallGuysGame/status/1366811607213481985?s=20

TheChrisD · 02-03-2021 7:35pm

EoinMcLovin wrote: »

https://twitter.com/FallGuysGame/status/1366811607213481985?s=20

Well, RIP them as a game developer people will buy from.

TitianGerm · 02-03-2021 8:01pm

TheChrisD wrote: »

Well, RIP them as a game developer people will buy from.

That's just stupid. People will still buy their games.

CatInABox · 02-03-2021 8:13pm

TitianGerm wrote: »

That's just stupid. People will still buy their games.

A lot of people are in denial about just how successful the Epic Games Store has been.

TitianGerm · 02-03-2021 8:27pm

CatInABox wrote: »

A lot of people are in denial about just how successful the Epic Games Store has been.

It's ridiculous. It's a client that everyone has access to and it does exactly what it needs to do. Yes there's some features missing but it does the most important thing it needs to do - load the game.

Markitron · 02-03-2021 8:51pm

TitianGerm wrote: »

It's ridiculous. It's a client that everyone has access to and it does exactly what it needs to do. Yes there's some features missing but it does the most important thing it needs to do - load the game.

I’m mostly a console gamer so I found it utterly bizarre when people went mad about games being exclusive to the Epic store. Yea its inconvenient to not have it with the rest of your games on steam, but it’s not like you have to buy a 500 quid console is it.

TitianGerm · 02-03-2021 8:52pm

Markitron wrote: »

I’m mostly a console gamer so I found it utterly bizarre when people went mad about games being exclusive to the Epic store. Yea its inconvenient to not have it with the rest of your games on steam, but it’s not like you have to buy a 500 quid console is it.

Don't mention the war.

Markitron · 02-03-2021 8:54pm

TitianGerm wrote: »

Don't mention the war.

Lol

Kiith · 02-03-2021 10:47pm

The only issue i have with Epic is their exclusivity deals. No place in the PC market for that kind of ****e. If they want to get ahead of Steam, make a better client (not that hard considering Steam has been **** for ages), and offer better prices. Throwing Fortenite money at anyone and everyone just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

dreamers75 · 02-03-2021 10:53pm

Fall guys is fun but lets be real whoever owned that company made a ****ton of money.

Look at their previous games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatonic

Thecageyone · 02-03-2021 10:57pm

Fall Guys was one of those games I regret not refunding after an hour and a half - tried to get into it for a week, looked fun at start but man, does it get incredibly boring fast? the sounds are nauseating, and there's really no skill involved bar persistence.

I don't get the hate for Epic though, thought everyone with a PC had the Epic store, they throw out the odd half decent freebie and vouchers for €10 off games over 14.99 ... their games tend to always work at least too, not had any issues. I've had way more with Steam tbh

Retr0gamer · 02-03-2021 10:57pm

dreamers75 wrote: »

Fall guys is fun but lets be real whoever owned that company made a ****ton of money.

Look at their previous games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatonic

They gave us Hatoful Boyfriend.

McFly85 · 03-03-2021 12:22am

Thecageyone wrote: »

Fall Guys was one of those games I regret not refunding after an hour and a half - tried to get into it for a week, looked fun at start but man, does it get incredibly boring fast? the sounds are nauseating, and there's really no skill involved bar persistence.

I don't get the hate for Epic though, thought everyone with a PC had the Epic store, they throw out the odd half decent freebie and vouchers for €10 off games over 14.99 ... their games tend to always work at least too, not had any issues. I've had way more with Steam tbh

Fall guys was great for a while in lockdown for me, the gf doesn’t really game but the simple idea got her hooked, we had a few evenings where it was genuinely great fun. Also it was one I could play with my nephew too, which was nice considering I couldn’t visit!

But yeah, it got old very quickly. Didn’t help that season 2 was a massive disappointment-a couple of new maps wasn’t going to keep everyone playing too long, especially when they didn’t fix core issues.

Thecageyone · 03-03-2021 12:32am

McFly85 wrote: »

Fall guys was great for a while in lockdown for me, the gf doesn’t really game but the simple idea got her hooked, we had a few evenings where it was genuinely great fun. Also it was one I could play with my nephew too, which was nice considering I couldn’t visit!

But yeah, it got old very quickly. Didn’t help that season 2 was a massive disappointment-a couple of new maps wasn’t going to keep everyone playing too long, especially when they didn’t fix core issues.

I did get my 12yr old daughter to try it out and we had a couple fun sessions playing it at first but it just got old fast for me. She had more fun with Tekken 7 and some platformers I downloaded around the same time. It was mostly The Witcher 3 on my new PC got me through, but it's whatever works right?

Dave1711 · 03-03-2021 2:36am

Kiith wrote: »

The only issue i have with Epic is their exclusivity deals. No place in the PC market for that kind of ****e. If they want to get ahead of Steam, make a better client (not that hard considering Steam has been **** for ages), and offer better prices. Throwing Fortenite money at anyone and everyone just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

i dont mind it purely because its given a lot of developers more freedom to make the games they want like IOI going solo to make Hitman 3 which was great

Games like Satisfactory,Hades,Control, Outer Wilds and Worlds all came through their exlusivity program who knows how different they may have been if they had to seek out bigger publishers to help them along.

I understand the frustration though theres so many launchers these days but i do feel Epic get a bit too much **** tbh

And most of it probably isnt even Fortnite money think people forget they own the Unreal engine too which probably bags them more then Fortnite.

earthwormjack · 03-03-2021 12:18pm

CatInABox wrote: »

A lot of people are in denial about just how successful the Epic Games Store has been.

Going by their released financials it hasn't been that successful though.

Markitron · 03-03-2021 12:32pm

earthwormjack wrote: »

Going by their released financials it hasn't been that successful though.

I don't think they care about losing money on it right now, they are throwing cash at the wall to get a share of the market.

gizmo · 03-03-2021 12:34pm

earthwormjack wrote: »

Going by their released financials it hasn't been that successful though.

The numbers have been interesting alright. They went from $680m in sales, $251m of which was from third-party content, in 2019 to $700m in sales, $265m of which was again from third-party content, in 2020. So there's growth there, it's perhaps not as large as one would expect given the investment in the platform?

It'd definitely be interested to see the active user stats specifically in the context of third party games too as Fortnite will likely be inflating those substantially.

earthwormjack · 03-03-2021 12:43pm

gizmo wrote: »

The numbers have been interesting alright. They went from $680m in sales, $251m of which was from third-party content, in 2019 to $700m in sales, $265m of which was again from third-party content, in 2020. So there's growth there, it's perhaps not as large as one would expect given the investment in the platform?

It'd definitely be interested to see the active user stats specifically in the context of third party games too as Fortnite will likely be inflating those substantially.

To be fair, they were also 60% over their forecast so they must be happy enough It just doesn't seem like huge growth for the money invested and a year in which the world slowed to a crawl and most people stuck at home.

Mr Crispy · 04-03-2021 2:29am

Bloomberg are (again) reporting that there'll a new version of the Switch by the end of the year. According to them it will have a 7" 720P OLED screen made by Samsung, but output in 4K when docked.

Potential-Monke · 04-03-2021 2:36am

I've been tempted by the Switch a few times, but been holding off for the Switch v2. Been holding off a while now!

Grumpypants · 04-03-2021 9:37am

God sake how am I supposed to hide 3 switches from the missus

Metroid diorteM · 04-03-2021 9:47am

Mr Crispy wrote: »

Bloomberg are (again) reporting that there'll a new version of the Switch by the end of the year. According to them it will have a 7" 720P OLED screen made by Samsung, but output in 4K when docked.

That sounds **** tbh. 720p? People don't buy games on switch for TV 4k games. If I'm playing on a TV in 4k I'll be buying it on xbox or playstation because the performance will be suitable. A super powerful portable is their niche.

TitianGerm · 04-03-2021 10:13am

Metroid diorteM wrote: »

That sounds **** tbh. 720p? People don't buy games on switch for TV 4k games. If I'm playing on a TV in 4k I'll be buying it on xbox or playstation because the performance will be suitable. A super powerful portable is their niche.

You won't be playing Mario or Zelda on either of those though.

pixelburp · 04-03-2021 10:35am

Is it just a resolution bump, or is there actual extra meat being put into the Switch within the unit? It's obvious the Switch is lagging behind the current generation, despite the miracle work being done by studios like Panic Button. It needs a little bump in its chipset IMO, not 4K (would love to know how actually prevalent 4K is across countries, 'cos i question it)

Markitron · 04-03-2021 10:41am

pixelburp wrote: »

Is it just a resolution bump, or is there actual extra meat being put into the Switch within the unit? It's obvious the Switch is lagging behind the current generation, despite the miracle work being done by studios like Panic Button. It needs a little bump in its chipset IMO, not 4K (would love to know how actually prevalent 4K is across countries, 'cos i question it)

4K TVs are standard these days, anyone buying a new TV would have to go out of their way to get a 1080p panel. If I was to guess I would say it is capable of outputting 4K in the way that PS5 and Series X are capable of outputting 8K. It is technically possible but I can't see it happening very often.

johnny_ultimate · 04-03-2021 11:05am

Don’t think there really could be a simple resolution boost to 4K without a substantial upgrade to the underlying tech! Can imagine it being akin to the mid-gen refreshes last gen, which were reasonably meaty upgrades that brought a substantial performance boost.

earthwormjack · 04-03-2021 11:18am

Hopefully Nintendo get Nvidia's DLSS fully integrated next time somehow. That would give a huge performance boost.

pixelburp · 04-03-2021 11:24am

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Don’t think there really could be a simple resolution boost to 4K without a substantial upgrade to the underlying tech! Can imagine it being akin to the mid-gen refreshes last gen, which were reasonably meaty upgrades that brought a substantial performance boost.

True enough; will wait n' see I guess. I specifically chased the Switch fadó that had the battery-life bump, so won't jump on a new one unless I see there are particular performance gains. I don't have a 4K TV so that Feature does nothing for me

If there's a trade-in exchange, that would definitely turn my head. Love my Switch and is now my standard, go-to system for gaming TBH.

Mr Crispy · 04-03-2021 11:40am

This is quite the undertaking for Hidden Path. It's a far cry from Defense Grid!

https://twitter.com/HiddenPathEnt/status/1366801985450598400?s=20

Still, an open-world AAA D&D game should sell bucket-loads if it's in any way competent, especially with TES6 being so far off.

Retr0gamer · 04-03-2021 12:08pm

earthwormjack wrote: »

Hopefully Nintendo get Nvidia's DLSS fully integrated next time somehow. That would give a huge performance boost.

That needs the tensor cores, this is more than likely just updating the hardware to the latest nvidia shield chipset.

Markitron · 04-03-2021 12:17pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

That needs the tensor cores, this is more than likely just updating the hardware to the latest nvidia shield chipset.

That is a shame, can think of no better use for DLSS than a Nintendo console. Would be nice to play one of their amazing games where it isn't pixelated AF.

I'd be happy if the new switch could manage 1080p as standard with the odd game running at 1440p.

earthwormjack · 04-03-2021 12:22pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

That needs the tensor cores, this is more than likely just updating the hardware to the latest nvidia shield chipset.

I know but I'm foolishly hoping against all hope that they've done something in this refresh.

Retr0gamer · 04-03-2021 12:27pm

Markitron wrote: »

That is a shame, can think of no better use for DLSS than a Nintendo console. Would be nice to play one of their amazing games where it isn't pixelated AF.

I'd be happy if the new switch could manage 1080p as standard with the odd game running at 1440p.

I kind of prefer nintendo's dedication to rock solid 30 and 60 FPS games.

Markitron · 04-03-2021 1:01pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I kind of prefer nintendo's dedication to rock solid 30 and 60 FPS games.

Yea that's why I still don't mind paying for them, they are still fun and play really well, they just look awful on a large modern television.

pixelburp · 04-03-2021 2:40pm

Hopefully if nothing else it'll see a bump in performance on those various games that have been a disaster area such as Outer Worlds. Though I still maintain that particular dogshít port was down to the Devs, rather than the hardware.

ERG89 · 04-03-2021 2:44pm

They should just wait and release their new system in late 2022. They're obviously working on things that are that far out so don't ask people to buy another halfstep that will be out of date in 2 years anyway.

Even back in 2017 when released Breath of The Wild wasn't exactly rock solid on the Switch & Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was shocking.
This past year you've had Age of Calamity run bad, Bowzer's Fury have framerate dips and that new open world Pokemon game already looks ropey which is hardly a shock as all of the other Pokemon games don't run well either. Link's Awakening had performance issues too.

Penn · 04-03-2021 6:51pm

Marvel's Avengers seems to recognise that they had a fairly rocky launch and need to win back players as much as possible. So with the launch of the next-gen version and the Hawkeye DLC, they're going to... make it take longer to level up....

https://avengers.square-enix-games.com/en-us/news/cosmetic-xp-rework/?utm_source=twitter_playavengers&utm_campaign=xp_item_rework_photo_SQEXSOCIAL

The current XP “curve” isn’t really a curve at all. In most RPGs, the amount of XP you need to level up increases as you gain levels in a curve, but our system is a straight line. This has led to pacing issues, such as skill points currently being rewarded too fast, which may be confusing and overwhelming to newer players. We want each decision to invest in a skill or Heroic to be more meaningful.

Based on these issues, we’ll be increasing the amount of XP needed to level up, starting from around level 25. This amount will increase the closer you get to level 50 so that it will take longer to reach higher levels, and will only affect character level, not power level. If you already have level 50 characters, which is the current maximum, this won’t affect you. If you have a character who isn’t level 50 and want to speed up their progress, take this time to do so before the update on March 18.

Yeah, the thing to do when you're going to regularly release new playable characters is to make it take even longer for players to try and level them up.

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