30°

Bits & Pieces Podcast #21 – The Cuckoo in the Nest

"George talks to us about the Resident Evil 2 Remake, Battlefield V, and his epic game of competitive Twilight Imperium.

While Gav talks of his trauma around the constant stream of games from Humble Monthly.

Finally, Nevi talks a bit why swinging around in Spider-Man and racing Mad Max style cars in the Gaslands miniatures game"

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bitsandpieces.games
110°

The Death Of Arkham Has Me Worried About Spider-Man

Saad from eXputer: "After the rise of Rocksteady and its fall with post-Suicide Squad, I'm worried about Marvel's Spider-Man suffering a similar fate."

Hofstaderman25d ago

Why? According to the well publicized Insomniac leaks they have a slew of plans for Spiderman including its sequel.

CrimsonWing6925d ago

The sequel has had rumors that it could be sold piecemeal style or might be GaaS.

https://youtu.be/XCFr3KRB9G...

This is all coming from the leaks you mentioned. The problem is the industry is not doing well no matter how ill-informed people spin it on here when they see “sold 3 mill.” In those Sony leaks it showed the struggle to get ROI and they spend an insane amount of money to develop, which makes 0 sense to me when there’s not much to show for the increased development costs. Case in point would be Suicide Squad vs Arkham Knight.

I believe we’re in the middle of seeing a drastic change in media and distribution. This goes for movies, but more so for games and the industry is scrambling to figure out how to get more money out of consumers rather than stick to the “buy it once” to play it all.

https://www.gamesindustry.b...

https://www.theverge.com/20...

These are things you need to pay attention to in order to know which direction the wind’s blowing with this sh*t storm. I was almost certain the GaaS initiative was killed when Jim was leaving, but now seeing the success of Helldivers 2… I’m thinking we’re in for a bumpy ride. I just don’t know what that looks like yet, but I don’t think it’s gonna be pretty.

anast25d ago (Edited 25d ago )

Insomniac still has a good generation left in them before they get cannibalized by investors. It'll probably happen around the mid PS6 gen, when we see the beginning of the fall.

dmonee24d ago

Huh with this article? If Sony and Insomniac want to abandoned the Spider-Man franchise and make a half baked, live service Spider-Man game, and miss the mark with their fans, then God bless’em!!!!

24d ago
JimmyDM9024d ago

Seems unlikely when they abandoned the GaaS spiderverse game but are still going ahead with single player games like Wolverine and Spider-Man 3.

70°

The best horror games on Xbox Game Pass

Got an Xbox and a Game Pass subscription and want something spooky to play? Here are the best horror games on Xbox Game Pass.

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gamespew.com
130°

The art of difficulty: What’s the best way to make games harder?

There are many ways that a game developer can choose to raise the difficulty in their games — but which ways are the most effective?

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gamespew.com
DefenderOfDoom244d ago (Edited 44d ago )

A great example on how to do difficulty in a video game is DOOM ETERNAL. Started playing on ULTRA VIOLENCE but then I started playing on NIGHTMARE after a couple hundred hours of playing on UV . What makes DOOM ETERNAL fun, is on Nightmare, the enemies are very aggressive ,but they give you the tools to defeat difficult enemies , you just have to learn how to use them .

FinalFantasyFanatic44d ago

Doom Eternal was so tough, but it felt so amazing to finish that game, even when the enemy feels unfair and gang up/box up into a corner.

Nacho_Z44d ago

Personal dislikes are bullet sponges and bosses with regular enemies thrown in. Just make the boss hit harder if it's too easy.

thorstein44d ago (Edited 44d ago )

I think Helldivers 2 really gets it right. If enemies are easy, they swarm. If they're high level, they tend to have good defense and need strategems to take down...or bait.

I never feel too angry if I die by swarm because it is usually my fault for not checking my 6. I don't even mind dying if a teammate drops a bomb on the swarm that is gutting me.

I don't like cheap deaths. When the game allows you to progress only to hit you with an enemy that is suddenly immune to all the things you've unlocked and mastered is just dumb. If the game doesn't do hit boxes right and you get killed in lame ways it is dumb.

The screenshot is from Elden Ring, a game I really enjoyed, but the scaling was silly. I didn't do the Eligtree til late game so it was goofy difficult. I thought the Elden Beast was rather cheap. Not a fun skill based match, but just cheap enemy. There was no sense of, "oh it defeated me because I did this or I did that" like all Souls/Borne games.

Crows9044d ago

Don't handhold. There you go. every game is immediately harder and more rewarding.

DarXyde44d ago

1. Intelligent opponents that don't have some set, optional strategy to win and requires more critical thinking.

2. Game provides players with the knowledge and tools about a game world to stand a chance (or at the very least, the opportunity to gain the knowledge and tools).

3. Don't insist on enemies having much more health than the player arbitrarily. Sometimes, you'll have more durable enemies who are armored or inhuman which I would say is fair. The best approach to this I can recall in recent memory is Naughty Dog games: You're extremely vulnerable without armor and can get picked off pretty easily, but your enemies are pretty beatable with the right weapons and strategies where you can't just brute force it. That said, ammo is in short supply, so you engage at your own risk.

4. Depending on the type of games, make resources more scarce without necessarily making enemies bullet sponges. It simply means you'll have to choose your battles carefully and have damn good aim. Like Uncharted. If you're not good at headshots, Crushing is a rough time.

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