RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS THREAD!

[Starwars]

GS: Fans expect over-the-top explosions and attitude in a C&C game. How will you build on the explosiveness and craziness of past installments?

 

Thank god we having gaming journalists who are able to ask those really hard questions.

[Guest Slinky]

Thresher Maws have been in since ME1, so you are a bit late to the party.

 

Wasn't it in ME2? Can't remember them in the first game.

There's just one in ME2, ME1 had loads of them.

[Oner]

"Leave it uncle, it's not important!"

Okay, then you'll go back to retrieve the damn thing when the quest pops up.

 

Also, it was a hundred times better than the previous cinematic they showed.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Oner

[Nepenthe]

After playing Uncharted 2 I'm actually kind of looking forward to see Naughty Dog's take on the post-apocalyptic/zombie outbreak thing.. they made the only title this generation which I feel I can call "cinematic experience" without insulting it. It also made me much less impressed with BioWare's trailer, since their cinematic setpieces pale in comparison.. Mass Effect 3 could still be a good game, but that didn't exactly show its strong side.

Agree with both parts here. A bit surprised by the amount of "OMG, MUST PREORDER" I'm seeing for ME3 now - this didn't really provide anything new... or that impressive. Uncharted 2 was still held back by the total lack of player input into the story, but I agree that their "cinematic set pieces" were indeed very, very impressive. Wonder if I should grab 3 today, hmm...

 

And yes, as was mentioned already, the maws were a lot more numerous in me1, and really, the whole idea is that it rips off both sand worms and sarlaccs at the same time.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Nepenthe

[Morgoth]

No it wasn't. The girl looks like it's out of some ****ing Final Fantasy game, the old man is so clichee it's not even funny. Everything looks too clean, Blizzard must have exchanged the whole CG team or something as this video is as creatively bancrupt as it's get.

 

Compare it to the awesome Diablo 2 videos, or SC1, or War3.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Morgoth

[Azdeus]

crap

if that is true, Stalker 2 is one of the VERY few games I have looked forward to.

 

Since Stalker 2 was looking to become a consoleitis infected stinkhole, I'm a bit torn. Best shooter series that's been released the last few years, and this happens? Why can't this happen to some uncreative ****ty series, like CoD or Bioware instead.

 

There are alot of vicious rumors running around, and I can't find anything on their own website about it either.

 

Hopefully the metro 2033 dev picks up the IP and continues the franchise.

 

I really hope not, I'd rather it be dead than risk turned into a zombie like the Fallout franchise.

[Giantevilhead]

Ray Muzyka interview about Generals 2

 

Bioware + AAA strategy + PC exclusive = Day1 purchase

 

BioWare in name only. I wonder if gay/lesbian romances are in.

 

That may be true but the studio is headed up by the guy who created Might and Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic, and King's Bounty. Technically, he also created Rift but left before the game was complete.

[Nepenthe]

Since Stalker 2 was looking to become a consoleitis infected stinkhole, I'm a bit torn. Best shooter series that's been released the last few years, and this happens? Why can't this happen to some uncreative ****ty series, like CoD or Bioware instead.

:lol:

[C2B]

Not exactly News but Dungeon Siege III is $5 as DD on Amazon. So, if you haven't gotten it yet....

 

http://www.amazon.com/Square-Enix-40701eon...9811&sr=8-4

[Azdeus]

Since Stalker 2 was looking to become a consoleitis infected stinkhole, I'm a bit torn. Best shooter series that's been released the last few years, and this happens? Why can't this happen to some uncreative ****ty series, like CoD or Bioware instead.

:lol:

 

****e, just noticed now that I missed adding "just" before Bioware. >-<

[Nepenthe]

It's great, it's like this forum is rapidly becoming a parody of itself.

[Morgoth]

Do you mean their reputation before or after Dragon Age 2? If after, then I wouldn't expect much from their games...

You kiddin' me? People gonna literally throw themselves over ME3 when it's released, 2 million+ Beta testers for SWTOR and a huge-budget PC exclusive with cutting-edge tech funded by courtesy of EA tells me BioWare is now stronger as ever.

 

DA2? Why, pretty good game overall, considering the short dev cycle. Just wait how fast DA3 is gonna sell, regardless of the usual whining of course. BioWare gets lots of puplicity, that's the best thing that could happen to them. The worst thing would be just getting ignored.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Morgoth

[Azdeus]

Do you mean their reputation before or after Dragon Age 2? If after, then I wouldn't expect much from their games...

You kiddin' me? People gonna literally throw themselves over ME3 when it's released, 2 million+ Beta testers for SWTOR and a huge-budget PC exclusive with cutting-edge tech funded by courtesy of EA tells me BioWare is now stronger as ever.

 

DA2? Why, pretty good game overall, considering the short dev cycle. Just wait how fast DA3 is gonna sell, regardless of the usual whining of course. BioWare gets lots of puplicity, that's the best thing that could happen to them. The worst thing would be just getting ignored.

 

Sales does'nt necessarilly equate to any particular quality, Beta testing is'nt exactly a measure of success either, but a pointer towards interest. We'll see in 6 months time or something wether it goes Age of Conan or not.

 

DA2 is nothing but mediocre, even though that does'nt mean it is'nt entertaining to some people, but yeah, any publicity is good publicity or how goes the saying?

 

As for C&C Generals; I would'nt have batted an eyelash if it actually turned out to be Command and Conquer; S&M, with Bi, Gay or Straigth upgrade trees.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Azdeus

[Malcador]

Nothing exciting. Generals was fun to play though, so maybe that'll be worth it.

[Morgoth]

Sales does'nt necessarilly equate to any particular quality

Yeah, I think we figured out that one a long time ago, but saying BioWare's reputation is now weakened because of DAII is a bit thick, no?

 

I've seen EA studios and others that only needed to produce 1-2 failures, and they were shut down soon after. EA can't kill BioWare that easy, not to mention since the BioDocs are EA Vize presidents and thus do have a lot to say about their studios. Not to mention BioWare now became it's own label.

 

Now I see that DA2 isn't Bio's best effort, but it sure is still better than 90% of most other games out there. BioWare would have to release 3-4 titles in sequence that get 60% scores and sell under 1 million units to let the EA board reconsider a shut down.

 

SWTOR right now is pretty much the biggest risk they've taken, if that one tanks, there're gonna be consequences for the Austin studio at least I'm afraid. The one I don't really care.

[Flouride]

Do you mean their reputation before or after Dragon Age 2? If after, then I wouldn't expect much from their games...

You kiddin' me? People gonna literally throw themselves over ME3 when it's released, 2 million+ Beta testers for SWTOR and a huge-budget PC exclusive with cutting-edge tech funded by courtesy of EA tells me BioWare is now stronger as ever.

 

DA2? Why, pretty good game overall, considering the short dev cycle. Just wait how fast DA3 is gonna sell, regardless of the usual whining of course. BioWare gets lots of puplicity, that's the best thing that could happen to them. The worst thing would be just getting ignored.

 

While I have trust that BioWare is able to do quality products, I don't have trust in EA that have to please their shareholders. Proof of this: DA2 and the ridiciously short development cycle.

And yes, I'm waiting for Mass Effect 3 as well, to see how the trilogy finishes, but that doesn't change the fact that Dragon Age 2 did hurt their overall reputation as a company and a brand.

 

For MMO the real test starts after 4 to 6 months of release. Will the playerbase stay, or will they find something else to play. Someone who has been looking into the game more, can prolly tell if EA will even make profit with the initial sales, or do they need the people to keep paying them montly to actually make profit later on. The good news for BioWare/EA is that Blizzard is most likely alienating bunch of WoW players with their Pandarens. I've already heard from a lot of my ex-guildies (don't play any longer myself) how they are switching to SWTOR (which I would imagine is mostly due to the damn Pandas).

[Nepenthe]

i dunno, I thought DA2 was better than NWN OC and Jade Empire, and they survived those two just fine. Guess it was just before the EA acquisition and everybody starting to hope for some kind of collapse.

[greylord]

 

Woah, that was bad...compared with Blizzard's previous CG efforts.

 

Color me unimpressed. That didn't really inspire me to play the game.

 

PS: thanks for posting it though.

 

Do you mean their reputation before or after Dragon Age 2? If after, then I wouldn't expect much from their games...

You kiddin' me? People gonna literally throw themselves over ME3 when it's released, 2 million+ Beta testers for SWTOR and a huge-budget PC exclusive with cutting-edge tech funded by courtesy of EA tells me BioWare is now stronger as ever.

 

DA2? Why, pretty good game overall, considering the short dev cycle. Just wait how fast DA3 is gonna sell, regardless of the usual whining of course. BioWare gets lots of puplicity, that's the best thing that could happen to them. The worst thing would be just getting ignored.

 

While I have trust that BioWare is able to do quality products, I don't have trust in EA that have to please their shareholders. Proof of this: DA2 and the ridiciously short development cycle.

And yes, I'm waiting for Mass Effect 3 as well, to see how the trilogy finishes, but that doesn't change the fact that Dragon Age 2 did hurt their overall reputation as a company and a brand.

 

For MMO the real test starts after 4 to 6 months of release. Will the playerbase stay, or will they find something else to play. Someone who has been looking into the game more, can prolly tell if EA will even make profit with the initial sales, or do they need the people to keep paying them montly to actually make profit later on. The good news for BioWare/EA is that Blizzard is most likely alienating bunch of WoW players with their Pandarens. I've already heard from a lot of my ex-guildies (don't play any longer myself) how they are switching to SWTOR (which I would imagine is mostly due to the damn Pandas).

 

From the looks of it SWTOR is going to do extremely well at this point, at least I think the hype machine has it equal to a Blizzard release almost...and hype is half the battle right there.

Edited December 11, 2011 by greylord

[Azdeus]

Yeah, I think we figured out that one a long time ago, but saying BioWare's reputation is now weakened because of DAII is a bit thick, no?

 

Depends on what you mean by their reputation, I can't speak for the entire fanbase and I have'nt visited the BioWare DA2 forums since the information about how the game was turning out to look and be played, but the people I spend my time with who are also gamers mostly considers DA2 a dissapointment and have lost interest in that series. Their faith in BioWare is dwindling and they are looking at ME3 with exitement and dread at the same time. Where I stand is pretty clear by now I reckon.

 

If you mean by some kind of Metacritic score reputation, that's pretty much worthless no matter wich way you swing it.

 

Bloody hard to tell how the buyers of the games feel about the game since all forums are generally speaking filled with the vocal minorities from both sides.

 

I've seen EA studios and others that only needed to produce 1-2 failures, and they were shut down soon after. EA can't kill BioWare that easy, not to mention since the BioDocs are EA Vize presidents and thus do have a lot to say about their studios. Not to mention BioWare now became it's own label.

 

Now I see that DA2 isn't Bio's best effort, but it sure is still better than 90% of most other games out there. BioWare would have to release 3-4 titles in sequence that get 60% scores and sell under 1 million units to let the EA board reconsider a shut down.

 

SWTOR right now is pretty much the biggest risk they've taken, if that one tanks, there're gonna be consequences for the Austin studio at least I'm afraid. The one I don't really care.

 

Nothing I disagree with, though I hope that SWTOR badly. Mostly out of childish spite, because I found it to be pretty damn boring, and also out of childish spite for wanting a proper KotoR that does'nt have a monthly fee.

 

i dunno, I thought DA2 was better than NWN OC and Jade Empire, and they survived those two just fine. Guess it was just before the EA acquisition and everybody starting to hope for some kind of collapse.

 

I never found anything in DA2 that was better than those two games, well, with the Original Campaign qualifier there I would say they're equally fubar, but NWN wins on the other parts in the game in my opinion.

[Flouride]

i dunno, I thought DA2 was better than NWN OC and Jade Empire, and they survived those two just fine. Guess it was just before the EA acquisition and everybody starting to hope for some kind of collapse.

 

Yes, at least I managed to finish DA2. Jade Empire didn't intrest me at all and I never managed to finish NWN OC, can't even find my copy. Must have buried it somewhere deep. But then again I don't think either one of those games had as much recycled maps as DA2.

[Nepenthe]

But then again I don't think either one of those games had as much recycled maps as DA2.

So "amount of recycled maps" is now a measure of its own, separate of how good/bad the game is?

[sorophx]

holy crap, that Diablo trailer looks sweet... is that CG? couldn't figure out, looked like a live action a bit. damn those artists are good.

 

ME3 trailer, on the other hand... what a piece of ****

[Azdeus]

So "amount of recycled maps" is now a measure of its own, separate of how good/bad the game is?

 

Artistic/intellectual lazyness?

[Nightshape]

holy crap, that Diablo trailer looks sweet... is that CG? couldn't figure out, looked like a live action a bit. damn those artists are good.

 

You're kidding right? It sucked - it told me nothing of value about anything.

 

It was obviously CG, it was very well executed, some of the best I have seen ever.

 

Blizzard's cinematic dept could likely rival Pixar if they wanted to go in that direction, but it's not purely about art - You can only produce those results with some serious hardware, and software, which is basically an artist enabler. It's excellent work though, the kind of thing only Blizzard could achieve.

[Nightshape]

So "amount of recycled maps" is now a measure of its own, separate of how good/bad the game is?

 

Artistic/intellectual lazyness?

 

They certainly weren't lazy.

 

They had a very small execution window, even for a sequel.

 

The problem with DA2 wasn't so much they were lazy, more that they couldn't actually get enough content in to hit the release.

 

Map recycling was the least of the problems DA2 had.