RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[Malcador]

I was just coming here to mention that Banished will be available very soon. I remember seeing a developer vid. for it many months ago. 1.5 more days to be able to get it. And I don't have to Steam-purchase it if I don't want! And no awkward combat-mode tacked on, either. That's a nice review vid, haven't seen that one, thanks.

 

Please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck ... altho, at least it'll only be about $20.

 

http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/

 

 

 

Didn't I post that review ? Pft.  But at $20 and based on what we've been told and seen so far, I think I'll take the plunge and see how it is. 

[BruceVC]

Impire has terrible writing. The writer thinks he is funny and witty but isn't. The squad management is interesting, but the dungeon building is a let-down (LadyCrimson, do not buy this game, you'd be disappointed). I had fun enough with the game, trying out all the different units etc, but the campaign is  not interesting enough to play it to the end, and the dungeon building is too underwhelming to spend much time in skirmish mode.

 

Aarklash: Legacy is very typical Cyanide: trying to do a lot of interesting things, always constrained by size, money, whatever. Disappointing for some who were looking for a RPG with loads of stats and classes and character creation, fun for people who want to run around with a small 4-man party and try not to die.

 

And then there are the older games like Loki, Cyanide's diablo-clone, that again tried to do interesting things but somehow never managed to reach the popularity of games like Sacred, Torchlight etc.

 

Melk you have a good knowledge of games. I would love to do a survey on these forums to see who has played the most games in there gaming career and who has the broadest knowledge of different types of games. Of course it would be impossible to do because of all the variables but it would interesting to see

[melkathi]

The field in the survey with the most information would be the "other" section, where every forumite would tell you about the games they have played and you didn't include

[BruceVC]

The field in the survey with the most information would be the "other" section, where every forumite would tell you about the games they have played and you didn't include

 

Very true

[TSBasilisk]

Ten minute walkthrough of The Witness

[LadyCrimson]

Total Biscuit's review of Banished. Sort of a review crossed with a speedy, not optimal start of a let's play to stare at while he's talking about features/gameplay and such. Anyway, I liked it because he's not all super gushy over it, but seems to like it overall. And I laughed at all his "then they die" type comments. Survival city builder sounds awesome to me. Man I can't wait, is it tomorrow yet.

 

[Starwars]

Yeah, pretty stoked for this game actually. The survival angle and the fact that you can build some pretty nice looking cities is gonna be fun!

[Oner]

Total Biscuit's review of Banished. Sort of a review crossed with a speedy, not optimal start of a let's play to stare at while he's talking about features/gameplay and such. Anyway, I liked it because he's not all super gushy over it, but seems to like it overall. And I laughed at all his "then they die" type comments. Survival city builder sounds awesome to me. Man I can't wait, is it tomorrow yet.

 

I just wish he didn't complain that it's *gasp* No combat survival builder!

That's how the game works, that's how it sets itself apart from other such games. Deal with it.

[LadyCrimson]

I just wish he didn't complain that it's *gasp* No combat survival builder!

That's how the game works, that's how it sets itself apart from other such games. Deal with it.

I didn't see it as him complaining so much as him just saying he has a personal preference for combat/tech trees busy work, and others might have their own preferences. And it's something ppl who know little about the game might want to know.

 

But yeah...I won't miss combat at all. I don't want city/town-sim-builder+AoE (or whatever).

[melkathi]

 Man I can't wait, is it tomorrow yet.

 

Well the game has just released on GOG. So you can get it there about 8 hours before its Steam release if you really can't wait

Edited February 18, 2014 by melkathi

[NOK222]

It's morning and it's still not up

[Malcador]

http://www.gog.com/game/banished

 

Hooray. 

[HoonDing]

Braggarts DLC

[Sarex]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/02/18/irrational-games-winding-down-ken-levine-starting-smaller-team-within-take-two/

 

Guess Infinite didn't make as much money as they expected.

[Leferd]

I'm actually seeing it as Levine wanting to make smaller scale niche games in the vein of KS, just without the crowd funded aspect.

[Zoraptor]

Can't see it. 2k bought Irrational, it's one of their internal studios. Feargus Urquhart when he was running BIS would not have been able to just decide he wanted a break with a few close friends to chill and throw ideas at a whiteboard, nor any other subsidiary manager. At absolute minimum it would have to be done with the approval of the parent company- and the vast majority of the time it's the parent company spinning their decision to wind down a division by getting Someone Else apart from Herve Caen or Straus Zelnick to sugar coat the news. I'd almost suspect that there's a contract to be worked out, with regards to Levine.

 

Unsurprising that B: I didn't sell that well though, 5 years and a massive advertising budget meant it would always be an uphill battle to break even.

[Keyrock]

I thought the general public ate Binfinite right up?  Everybody was all GameoftheYearing it up.  I guess that doesn't necessarily translate to massive sales?

[AwesomeOcelot]

The sales were massive, over 4m units, Bioshock: Infinite had similar performance in sales to Tomb Raider, maybe 2K Games were less than impressed with the return considering how much the development and marketing cost, maybe they were rethinking how much time they should give Irrational and how much DLC there needed to be. All we know is that Ken Levine threatened to leave with the core team of Irrational Games and 2K Games said if you're going to do that we might as well be your private investment.

[LadyCrimson]

 

 Man I can't wait, is it tomorrow yet.

 

Well the game has just released on GOG. So you can get it there about 8 hours before its Steam release if you really can't wait

 

I went to bed instead. Probably a good thing, otherwise I'd have been up without sleep.

[alanschu]

Can't see it. 2k bought Irrational, it's one of their internal studios. Feargus Urquhart when he was running BIS would not have been able to just decide he wanted a break with a few close friends to chill and throw ideas at a whiteboard, nor any other subsidiary manager. At absolute minimum it would have to be done with the approval of the parent company- and the vast majority of the time it's the parent company spinning their decision to wind down a division by getting Someone Else apart from Herve Caen or Straus Zelnick to sugar coat the news. I'd almost suspect that there's a contract to be worked out, with regards to Levine.

 

Unsurprising that B: I didn't sell that well though, 5 years and a massive advertising budget meant it would always be an uphill battle to break even.

 

I was more curious if Levine was quitting (possibly because of publisher restriction), and some people wanting to go with him to work on something else.

 

 

Depending on the void left it may not be feasible to keep the studio open if a lot of (key) people leave.  Part of me, though, was wondering if it was shades of West/Zampella, though leaving under a bit different (and perhaps amicable) circumstances.

[Zoraptor]

Irrational is already pretty gutted on the senior people front. Just about all of them apart from KL left during B:I's development, and it clearly had a troubled development. I'd be moderately surprised if Levine were still at 2k in a year's time, personally, the whole thing reads like spin. Indeed, I'm not really sure from whose point of view any contract may be being worked out.

 

The sales were massive, over 4m units, Bioshock: Infinite had similar performance in sales to Tomb Raider, maybe 2K Games were less than impressed with the return considering how much the development and marketing cost, maybe they were rethinking how much time they should give Irrational and how much DLC there needed to be.

 

$200 million USD (sorry, original NYT article is now paywalled) was the supposed budget, even 4 million digital sales through their own portal would barely turn a profit for 2k. You'd have to suspect that the actual break even point would be multiple millions more, perhaps as many as 7 million full price copies. They'd have lost a fairly significant amount of money on 4 million sales if the 200 million cost is accurate.

[alanschu]

To be fair, I have zero visibility on the project as well, so if there was already struggles then it could be a sinking ship.

 

 

$200 million sounds high for me, but the only company I have anything remotely close to accurate for is BioWare, so I don't know.

[Leferd]

$200 million ($100m development+ $100m marketing) is some pretty good scratch. Ouch.

 

Is there a category for something beyond AAA? We're talking about the CoD's, GTA's etc...

Edited February 18, 2014 by Leferd

[Guest Slinky]

$200 million ($100m development+ $100m marketing) is some pretty good scratch. Ouch.

 

Is there a category for something beyond AAA? We're talking about the CoD's, GTA's etc...

 

"Bats**t crazy russian roulette" would be my suggestion for it's name.

[Keyrock]

Sweet mother of excess, $200 million is one helluva budget.  That kind of model is unsustainable.  For ever GTA V record shattering success, there's bound to be a handful (or handfuls) of failures.  As the budgets climb higher, the failure to success ratio will just get more and more skewed.