Video Game News and Miscellany

Well, some of that interview made me feel like an ass. I'm loyal to the developers I'm loyal to--I've paid way more than I should for Atlus titles at release, or getting the collector's editions. I've bought some of their stuff multiple times for one reason or another (wanted collector's, but also digital).

But I admit, when it comes to indies, I do the sale wait-out. Like right now I'm on the fence with Crypt of the Necrodancer because I'm not sure I'll enjoy it, so I'm just waiting for a sale. But in the context of that interview, that's not going to foster more good indie games. I guess I figure if it's an indie I'm really gung-ho about, like Shovel Knight, I'll buy it right away at full price (which I did). I don't feel bad waiting for sales on PSOne Classics, because I pretty much bought all those games many years ago when they were much more expensive, and they're by big developers anyway, but supporting the little guys if it's a game you actually want seems like the appropriate thing to do. That, or if you buy it cheap and like it, gift it to someone else.

I don't know.
It's worth remembering that established IPs and developers add value to their prospective games in the form of trust: if you've liked other games in a series by that developer, you have a good idea if you'll like the next game in the series. This means you are willing to risk more money on their work. New IPs from established developers still have the benefit of their developer's history so you still have an idea of the quality to expect. Even new AAA developers get a certain amount of trust by virtue of being able to raise enough capital for a AAA experience. New Indie devs don't have these advantages, nor should they. They haven't done anything to gain that trust and it's unreasonable of them to expect you, as a consumer, to be willing to pay above a certain price point (usually 20 dollars) for a game. But even then you have to consider the lack of trust... which is why people usually wait for the sales, to minimize their risk.

Devs complaining about people being unwilling to pay a certain price for their product are simply trying to make you, the consumer, absorb some of the risk of their business. It's why developers are cutting out content and selling it as DLC. It's why we have season passes. It's why we get annual releases. To put it bluntly, everything about business in general is about making you, the end user, absorb as much of the financial risk involved with a product as possible. We, as consumers, have our tactics in this battle: waiting it out for sales. However (and this is important), it is not your fault as a consumer when a business fails because it couldn't manage it's own risk.
 
I get it with AAA stuff. I just mean between the overhead and the people with GameFAQs nonsensical "fuck indies" mentality, they have a lot going against them.

But I see what you guys are saying.
 
Not that I'm happy over people losing their jobs, but Sega could be doing so much more with its resources.
It's really only a matter of time until this happens to Konami and heads start to roll. Poor mobile income + no in-house auteurs + toxic corporate structure = Loss of jobs.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Lionhead Studios closing, Fable Legends cancelled.

Can anyone really say that a SINGLE Lionhead game was REALLY good? Fable, as a series, was usually average at best and Black & White never really worked like it was supposed to.
Actually, I really liked Black and White. Yeah, it didn't live up to what Molyneaux pitched it to be, and I found the "make your creature do things" mechanic to be more of a hinderance than a help, but It was a pretty interesting godgame I often went back to replay - which isn't something I can say for many games these days.
 
Actually, I really liked Black and White. Yeah, it didn't live up to what Molyneaux pitched it to be, and I found the "make your creature do things" mechanic to be more of a hinderance than a help, but It was a pretty interesting godgame I often went back to replay - which isn't something I can say for many games these days.
That game was worth having for all the hilarious stuff you could do to your worshipers alone. Flinging them into my cauldrons, or having the creature play with them was so much fun.
 
Lionhead Studios closing, Fable Legends cancelled.

Can anyone really say that a SINGLE Lionhead game was REALLY good? Fable, as a series, was usually average at best and Black & White never really worked like it was supposed to.
Granted, Molyneux was the king of false promises, but Fable 1 and 2 were fun games and in terms of character growth and customization were pretty open-ended compared to most ARPGs. So yeah, I could easily say the first two were pretty good games. 3 and that on-rails thing seemed pretty lackluster but I never got around to plaything those.[DOUBLEPOST=1457370358,1457370157][/DOUBLEPOST]Oh, also the solo dev behind Bear Simulator will call it quits after a final Kickstarter-promised update.

Apparently he took negative reviews a bit too personally, and Pewdiepie slammed the game pretty hard in a video, making it even worse for the dev.
 
All these people leaving Mass Effect: Andromeda are just sort of confirming that Bioware doesn't know what to do with the property after the poor reaction to Mass Effect 3.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I liked The Movies. I wouldn't say it was REALLY good, but it was good. I always hoped the game would find its way onto Steam.
I played it a fair bit too, but I had one major complaint with The Movies, and that was that the actors/writers aged too damn fast, compared to how long it took to shoot, produce, and release a movie. Just when a writer started getting good, he'd retire, and just when an actress would really come into her own, she'd be too old for anything but sci fi. But apart from that, it was pretty darn good.
 
I played it a fair bit too, but I had one major complaint with The Movies, and that was that the actors/writers aged too damn fast, compared to how long it took to shoot, produce, and release a movie. Just when a writer started getting good, he'd retire, and just when an actress would really come into her own, she'd be too old for anything but sci fi. But apart from that, it was pretty darn good.
This was intentional commentary on how Hollywood throws away women past a certain age, I believe.
 
I played it a fair bit too, but I had one major complaint with The Movies, and that was that the actors/writers aged too damn fast, compared to how long it took to shoot, produce, and release a movie. Just when a writer started getting good, he'd retire, and just when an actress would really come into her own, she'd be too old for anything but sci fi. But apart from that, it was pretty darn good.
One of my issues was the overall disconnect between the two game modes: movie making and studio lot management.
 
I have fond memories of the first Black and White, partly because I used to hide my porn in my computer's Black and White directory. I mean, who's going to go searching for porn inside the data files of a computer game? But the game itself was pretty fun too. The physics engine was quite good for its time, which meant crushing buildings and flinging villagers felt visceral and real. It also gave you lots of options to be evil. My personal favorite was poisoning the food supply of an enemy village, waiting for everyone to die out, and then moving my people in. Free village!
 
My question is did this become a Pavlovian thing? Like, every time you open your Civ5 folder do you get an immediate erection?
Actually, funny you should mention that. It didn't happen with Civ 5, it happened for an old football management game called Championship Manager 01/02. The match interface was almost entirely text-based. Looked something like this:



One of the few graphical representations on this screen was the possession percentage bar, near the bottom. (The part that says Last 5 Mins, 59% and 41%) This bar showed the distribution of possession of the ball between the two teams over the last five minutes of the game. As the game ebbed and flowed, possession would frequently switch between the two teams, which meant that long bar would move back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, again and again through the whole match.

After watching that for a bit, I'd get in the mood to open up my Black and White folder.

I still play soccer management games these days. Nowadays the matches are rendered fully in 3D, which means there's no possession bar any more. Nonetheless, after playing for a while, I'll start to get... urges.

And that's that for today's episode of Way Too Much Information about Bhamv! Come back next time, when we'll discuss teenaged Bhamv's first experiences perving on people in AOL chatrooms!
 
I wish they were able to catch the magic of Fable 1. The magic in 2 was bad and 3 in all, left to be desired. The part where "you rule a kingdom" was basically 30 minutes of gameplay was lamesauce.

They have great IPs, I hope someone can grab them and make something out of them... without that bastard of a French guy.
 
I wish they were able to catch the magic of Fable 1. The magic in 2 was bad and 3 in all, left to be desired. The part where "you rule a kingdom" was basically 30 minutes of gameplay was lamesauce.

They have great IPs, I hope someone can grab them and make something out of them... without that bastard of a French guy.
The real issue with "ruling" a kingdom was that I had complete ownership of the Kingdom by half way into the game because real estate ownership was so lucrative. When I own every god damn building in the game, I think I get to declare myself king.
 

fade

Staff member
I wish they were able to catch the magic of Fable 1. The magic in 2 was bad and 3 in all, left to be desired. The part where "you rule a kingdom" was basically 30 minutes of gameplay was lamesauce.

They have great IPs, I hope someone can grab them and make something out of them... without that bastard of a French guy.
I agree with this. Fable 1 was really interesting and fun. The sequels were boring.
 
No Man's Sky is sounding crazier and crazier. Planets are apparently vastly different in size and can take a ridiculous amount of time to walk around (so one should use their spaceship, of course). There are alien languages to decipher and faction gauges for different alien species. I'm just fascinated by the stuff that's been taken into consideration, such as planetary rotation, temperature issues--it's going to be a hazardous universe.

I'll likely buy it, but I don't think I'll have ever put in the time it probably deserves if it lives up to its potential. Or will this be another Spore type of disappointment? Hard to say until its release date.
 
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