WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[Cousin Jim Bob]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

What’s your source for that? I can’t see how that could possibly be true - legal agreements with who? It’s literally their own game, produced and published by Xbox. They surely aren’t under any obligation to publish it anywhere at all if they don’t want to. 

 

Speculation on video games forums like Resetera. Fable was announced for PS5 in January, when Phil Spencer was still in charge, they could have signed a platform release agreement then. 

[FLips]

Xbox going back to being exclusive for their top brands is the best thing they’ve done in ages, and their presentation was easily the strongest of the ones shown this week. Barely a sniff of roguelikes or soulslike and every other dime a dozen shit genre we’ve been lumbered with forever now. Instead they went back to basics and went “We’re Xbox, here’s a cool new console design celebrating our history, and here’s Halo, Gears, State of Decay, and Fable”.

It’s exactly what they needed. Strong entries into their core franchises right off the back of Forza, and then some exciting returning games not shown elsewhere. Crazy Taxi, Spyro 4, Castlevania, the list goes on. It felt like every game shown was either a big hitter or something fresh. 

Very very happy with it. I watched the post-show where they were showing Gears and it looks fantastic. I figured it was just every other Gears game again, which is fine cos they’re good, but there’s a lot of really big changes and additions.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, FLips said:

Xbox going back to being exclusive for their top brands is the best thing they’ve done in ages, and their presentation was easily the strongest of the ones shown this week.

I do think that a strong Xbox is what Sony needs, to pull the finger out and make sure the PS5 (or, more likely at this point, the PS6) is as strong as it can be; pumping out a steady supply of good exclusive games of their own.

Xbox being shit has helped them coast a bit - it’s a little like WWE post-WCW, I suppose.

That said, if they’re going to do this, I think they have to go all in with it - hook the PS5 audience now on their franchises, then go all in with whatever Project Helix is.

It does sound like this is going to be a premium product though, and I’m not convinced that their approach here is going to work, or even can work.

EDIT: Sorry @Cousin Jim Bob - I’m conscious of my tone reading a little dismissive, I promise that’s not my intention!

Edited June 8 by RedTwoster

[westlondonmist]

5 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

Except they’ve not done that - Halo, Fable and Forza are all still multiplatform. They’ve chosen to make a Gears game exclusive alongside an unknown quantity. That’s a very half-baked approach and feels very much like trying to appease a vocal fanbase online; Asha Sharma seems pretty keen to govern based on Twitter feedback.

If they were serious about exclusives, they’d go all in - and they haven’t. And why would they, given that the majority of their sales come from non-Xbox platforms?

It’s a weird decision.

Apparently Gen AI was used in the development (link to Pushsquare) - for background assets it seems; but I’m always wary of that being a justification to test the waters before slowly increasing its prevalence (in a general sense, not in a Crazy Taxi-specific sense)

Yeah seen that, and I get your point, and I can imagine it's been used in making games far more than we realise as much of it has been kept under wraps. 

 

4 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I always find it, if anything, even more annoying/depressing when I hear that AI was used for flavour text and background details. I've always thought that kind of thing must be the most fun part of designing a game, whether it's using it for world-building, or sneaking in little easter eggs and in-jokes - someone posted in another thread about an easter egg on the computer screen in the new Lego Batman, and sacrificing that kind of nonsense for AI generated guff is just a miserable way to go about things.

Yeah I can't imagine AI would come up with little kinks that make us love games. Would AI be able to come up with the Limmy reference in Lego Batman?

 

[Dr. Alan Grant]

On top of the 7 million other new games that have been announced in the past week, Ocarina Of Time remake is now confirmed for this year. Might as well give it a September release to ensure that month goes down as the most stacked in history. 

[JoeManco7]

I admit that I had the Nintendo Direct live playing on Youtube (Nintendo UK channel before it crashed at the point of displaying Nintendo Switch Sports Resort for Switch 2, then Nintendo of America's) for almost fifty minutes just to get anything to confirm the rumours which have been going on for months:

 

Edited June 9 by JoeManco7

[FLips]

Nintendo absolutely bombed that direct. A real slog of years old games, DLC, Switch 2 update versions and some really crap looking titles. I have no interest in Kingdom Hearts or Xenoblade, though I appreciate many do. Ocarina of Time, for a game everyone heard the rumours and knew was coming still managed to disappoint. A 2026 release date but not a jot of footage and less showtime for the cinematic trailer than the thumb wrestling game? Absolutely get fucked. 

50 minutes of absolute junk to build to that dud finish. Completely shat the bed.

[The King Of Swing]

So Persona 6, is finally happening. Looks like it's going in a darker (maybe horror) direction, which is interesting. 

Looking forward to playing it, in three years or so. 

[DavidB6937]

Seemed like a fairly standard Nintendo Direct to me. I never have particularly high expectations.

[The King Of Swing]

Excited for the new Xenoblade, and the Switch 2 updates for the first three games. 

Updating the first game, now.

[johnnyboy]

1 hour ago, FLips said:

Nintendo absolutely bombed that direct. A real slog of years old games...

You're not pumped to play Rise of the Tomb Raider from 2015 handheld?

[Merzbow]

Duskbloods looks like the enshittification of the Soulsborne formula, pushing what Night Reign started and making more "Live Service" trash.

I yearn for slow as fuck single player hell, give me Demon's Souls 2.

Edited June 9 by Merzbow

[FLips]

4 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

You're not pumped to play Rise of the Tomb Raider from 2015 handheld?

About as much as I am to play 2019’s Devil May Cry 5.

[RedTwoster]

2 hours ago, FLips said:

50 minutes of absolute junk to build to that dud finish. Completely shat the bed.

I was intrigued by Final Fantasy Resonance, I’d been wanting to see an older-style FF game for quite some time, I’m not really sure why, but the ability to summon characters from other games made me feel less excited, maybe because I can’t think of a way that this could be presented in a story that is anything other than dumb. We’ll see, though. 

I was hugely underwhelmed by the Direct as a whole, I can only assume they needed to run one for contractual reasons or something with all the third parties in there. I’ve no doubt that Xenoblade Genesis will be excellent, but it’s not the kind of game I feel excited for and I’m a big fan of RPGs.

If Ocarina of Time is out this year, you’d have to assume they could have shown gameplay and given that it leaked, they probably should have. But even if they had, I reckon I’d have felt a bit cool on this one. Unless it’s a full reimagining, I don’t have any desire to play Ocarina again.

[westlondonmist]

I just wanted to say thank you for the feedback on Lego games (I think that was actually in the star wars thread). The shop didn't have Lego Star wars so I got Jurrasic World, and we are having a great time playing it as a pair. All of them are £12 code in a box from Smyths so I can see us going through Incredibles, Marvel and Star Wars. Will definitely get the Batman one when that comes out for Switch 2. 

 

Strangely my partner was telling someone from the council (twas a meeting about my son) and they were actually quite glad. They thought co-op games were brilliant for young kids, which cheered me up as I was worried I was relying on games a bit too much (we play 30-45 mins a day). 

 

Edit: And yeah it's a really fun game. We'll definitely go back and do the play the fee play once completed.

Edited June 9 by westlondonmist