Random video game news... Bring me a bucket, and I'll show you a bucket!

[LadyCrimson]

^ I'm not into such games, but from everything I've seen/heard re: Concord, it just didn't offer anything interesting enough to move players from other games to that one. There are only so many games a single person can dedicate themselves to, and MP games that need constant regular players --- just can't expect many dozens of them to all be hugely populated. I guess the dev/publisher hope is always that yours will be the next big thing, but perhaps there isn't going to be a next big thing again for a while.

I mean, even outside of online games, you have the same situation with other genres. City builders, survival, open world rpg etc - how many of those do we all need per year. Why should I play this or that when I can just keep playing 7 Days to Die. It's getting so most of these games kinda look exactly the same on the surface. I love my smaller dev/indie games, but even that is horribly oversaturated these days. And worse, many of them look more and more like pure asset flips/all the same art/3d model with almost no innovation/uniqueness. Sure many may still be "ok" or at least pass the time but...it gets tiresome trying to navigate it all.

Consumer burnout cycles. Concord maybe just hit a bad timing.

[Mamoulian War]

16 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

Judging by Alan Wake II, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Larian's D&D game being critically and commercially successful, I would say that racists, homophobes, and transphobes claming that Concord's failure is anyhow related to "wokeness" are purposefully lying. The market oversaturation, combined with the price and the lack of marketing are more likely reasons.

IMHO, 40EUR price tag in the era of full games costing way over 100 EUR is most likely scapegoat as well.

[uuuhhii]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ossianstudios/pathfinder-the-dragons-demand/description

 

20 day left and 60 percent funded

not looking good

[Hawke64]

8 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

IMHO, 40EUR price tag in the era of full games costing way over 100 EUR is most likely scapegoat as well.

The comparison should be with the direct competitors. Other team-based PvP FPS, such as Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, and Valorant, are free-to-play. Or even the older ones, such as Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortres 2 (I might be wrong here - it has been years since I played PvP). Arguably, Helldivers 2 is somewhat similar and costs $40, but it is PvE/co-op only, as the developer said, "to reduce toxic elements from the community. We want an environment that's supportive, fun and where we all are fighting on the same side!" (the original Xitter link does not seem to work, so https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/helldivers-2-will-never-get-pvp-because-arrowhead-dont-want-a-toxic-community).

Additionally, at the moment, by the time a game is content-complete and reasonably bug-free, it is also safely in the £10-15 price range or lower, unless one wants to support the developers or to be a paying tester. Granted, the large publishers are quite good at exploiting the FOMO, while the audience might be vulnerable to it.

[MrBrown]

https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-delists-original-horizon-zero-dawn-on-pc-forces-psn-requirement-for-remaster

[Hawke64]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/a-few-hours-with-new-arc-line-reminded-me-that-setting-doesnt-mean-much-in-an-rpg-if-the-characters-arent-interesting

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I do think the bones are here for a decent CRPG in a potentially interesting setting, but it's safe to to say the game doesn't put its best foot forward. Hopefully it's hiding in that nifty coat somewhere.

Not a favourable preview, but I am curious about the setting and ambivalent about the turn-based combat.

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https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/in-pagan-party-based-rpg-banquet-for-fools-you-can-doodle-your-own-spells-in-blood

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The latest to catch my fancy is party-based RPG Banquet For Fools, out in Early Access today with a demo. Created by two-person Hannah and Joseph Games, it casts you as one of the Vollings - a race of gaunt elven humanoids, hailing from the same school of manky action-figure as Judero, who have been shunned by their gods and have accordingly turned to paganism.

Specifically, you're a lord who has set up a spice farm on a "cursed" island, the former home of a long-dead civilization. This certainly sounds like a foolish thing to do, and it's no huge surprise that everybody on your farm has gone missing. So off you trot with a team of four custom-generated companions to solve the mystery, and also make up gnarly spells by daubing your blood on trees.

The game sounds interesting, though the system requirements are rather puzzling (50GB for v.1.0) and I have not finished the developers' previous game, Serpent in the Staglands (the saves are told to be possible to import).

https://steamcommunity.com/app/3172700/discussions/0/4851030238680772668/#c4851030238681356426

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Banquet is entirely non-linear. Early Access 1.0 only has some starting areas as we're focusing on bugs and balance, but eventually you'll be able to go in any direction you'd like from the starting fort. For instance Caravanner-boats will allow your party to diegetic fast travel to other villages and forts, and you'll be able to do this right from the starting town.

There is quick saving and a field of save slots, outside combat encounters there is no limitation on saving.

Keyboard controls are all rebindable in the options menu, there's a keyboard diagram you can move things around on for it.

Serpent did have respawning enemies if you didn't destroy the whole clump or if enough time passed. Banquet enemies are all individual characters, so they will not respawn, every Volling is named and every monster has its own day and night patrols, and sleeping location.

If an area is cleared simple creatures do come in to fill it, what creatures come depend on the environment, but it is designed to be more of a simulation rather than just respawning more foes.

Hope that helps. If you played any of Serpent and have those files you can import them and change some of the lore of the world and some more direct ways which we'll be introducing down the road. There's a button on the main menu that'll automatically collect your most recent auto save if you don't have the [] and grab any data it can.