N'Gai Croal via Next-Gen.Biz writes: "Compared to 2007's high standards of gaming excellence N'Gai Croal's been finding himself generally underwhelmed with what he's seen of 2008's release slate, but a few titles have restored his confidence in AAA games.
At the time of writing, I'm three days into a week-long series of presentations from game developers and publishers (there will be a second such week soon) in advance of the July E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles, California. So far, I've been hosted by Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sega, Ubisoft and PlatinumGames, and with a few exceptions I find myself generally underwhelmed.
It was only last month that I wrote a column titled 'Write What You See' in which I explored the difficulty I face in properly calibrating my response to seeing games during the preview stage of development. But this seemed different, as if something else was at work."
While many gaming layoffs are cruel, Tango Gameworks being culled after Hi-Fi Rush doesn't even make sense.
Good read. I think the point is important. Cuz the message it sends is, make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down. How the fuck are you supposed to feel any sense of job security under those conditions. The level of core incompetence at play in the upper levels of this industry is staggering. This is common sense shit. You can’t chase trends on a 2 year cycle when games take fucking 6-8 years to make. Just let artists fucking art for gods sake. They don’t understand the basic principle that they’re all haggling for the same slice of fucking pie and the market will not bear it. Find a different fucking pie.
Interview with Stephen Russell, Actor for (Nick Valentine, Codsworth, My Handy) in Fallout 4 which is a vast open world role playing game set in the apocalyptic wastes of Boston, the Commonwealth. The career goes further with other Bethesda games from Starfield to Prey to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
This looks like a great way to play.
Rocksmith+, the award winning music-learning app that teaches you guitar and piano with thousands of hit songs, is coming to PlayStation and Steam on June 6, and is available to wishlist now on both platforms.
either this is a old article(blog) or he doesn't have a ps3! Are you serious your playing echocrome on your ps3, when MGSIV is wreaking havoc on anything moving. If he has even seen MGS4 then he would know that his whole theory holds less water then a fishing net!
He started playing games in 1999. He's not a real gamer. He probably saw the industry was growing and thought "Oh I better start covering this stuff and try to make a name for myself".
hu..
if anything, last year was the year of big titles that became big let downs. specially with the new IP's.
"What did I witness that was so disappointing? A realtime strategy game whose online innovations were masked by a sci-fi-tinged fantasy art direction and rendering techniques that look depressingly like any other western fantasy title I’ve seen (BattleForge). Mascot games whose novel features were either being placed alongside gameplay concepts that have yet to really work (the 3D camera and controls in Sonic Unleashed) or user customization modes that are too difficult for even adults to easily make use of, let alone the young target audience (Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts). A hack-and-slash retread whose visuals and mechanics are located at the intersection of mediocre and barely inspired (Golden Axe)."
Outch! But to be fair, I can see where he is coming from. Games try to hard NOT to venture out and be different. Perhaps this is why MGS and all of its many facets of gameplay have rekindled my faith that there are game makers out there that make you come back for more.
To end he said there were several titles he really enjoyed seeing. I would dare say that for every stinker he reported, there were 2 good titles he was looking forward to.
You have to take into account that he is generalizing based on a small subset of developers (Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sega, Ubisoft and PlatinumGames), there are many developers like Sony and Nintendo that were not covered by this event. So there is still room for pleasant surprises. I'm not saying it will happen but at least it's too early to reach negative conclusions.