Video Games Thread

[harv]

I've already said it was a no-brainer for them to spread the cost across another platform. It's an odd decision tbh, but one that doesn't surprise me given the many daft decisions that are made by publishers these days. It's the main reason why almost every publisher is losing money hand over fist. I wish I could find that post regarding Take Two's finances now, it was pretty gobsmacking. Basically it's only GTA that's kept them afloat, same with Sega and the Mario And Sonic Olympics franchise.

[jman]

Well its not a no-brainer is it... the people with all the information, education and experience have basically said their game wouldnt sell very well on a nintendo console... why would they waste time and money porting it to the Wii U... Im expecting every single port to have fairly miserable sales on the Wii U by the way - I guess if you wont listen, you'll find out the hard way when you have to resort back to buying games on "older generation" machines because your new machine doesnt have the games you want to play 

[harv]

Lol, the people with all the 'information, education and experience' are busy running the company into the ground. Releasing a game for a Nintendo platform that's launching with a 2D Mario title that's of decent quality and has decent marketing isn't a gamble at all, particularly if the GamePad can quite easily be the centre of attention. The GamePad is ideal to double as a PDA and also ideal to hold the full sized map, something that has always annoyed me when I'm forced to pause the game to do so. I'd also have quite liked an optional mini-game to hotwire cars.

A very daft decision, but like I said it isn't a big surprise given the board seem to be running the company into the ground relying on GTA to haul their arses off the coals.

So many publishers seem determined to lose money giving all sorts of wonky titles the green light and expecting them to sell. Singularity and Vanquish are prime examples, and don't even get me started on Escape From Bug Island lololol.

Some of the decision making up at the top with these publishers sometimes defies belief.

[Late]

Odd how often the long term unemployed know more about running multinational corporations than those who do so, isn't it...

[harv]

Odd how often the long term unemployed know more about running multinational corporations than those who do so, isn't it...

Anyone with any knowledge of gaming and experience of working in the industry would know more about what's going to sell and what isn't going to sell. That's why it's no surprise that most publishers are losing money hand over fist.

Eidos are a prime example - Tomb Raider 6 was a disaster, should never have been released. They turned down Bioshock and Fallout 3, they let the Lego franchise go and they decided that Escape From Bug Island was a great idea. Eidos were 48 hours away from having the receivers in before they had to release Champ Man 5 well before it was ready. If they didn't release it in that state then they would have gone bust due to numerous bizarre decisions made by these 'experts' you're putting so much faith in during the 3 or 4 years before Champ Man 5 was released. And that release pretty much destroyed the brand for plenty of people.

The problem with the people that run these 'multibillion corporations' is that they know bugger all about gaming. That's why so many of them are making redundancies to stay afloat, why they're closing down their mobile gaming divisions because there's bugger all profit in mobile gaming unless you discover the next Angry Birds.

[jman]

Odd that harv thinks Sega are in the same position as Rockstar - which must mean they are running themselves into the ground too - even though Sega released a large proportion of their games on the Wii...

Interested to know what exactly was "wonky" with Vanquish though harv.. I rented it and enjoyed completing the game... theres nothing wrong with it in that respect.. the reason it failed to sell.. it had no multiplayer mode.. therefore it didnt appeal to people to buy brand new... no-ones going to waste £40 on a game that lasts them 8 hours.. yet you seem to think they will with ZombiU lol... of course.. that has 20-30 hours of gameplay in it...suree!!  I heard the same thing about Rage - I completed that in around 10 hours I think.

[Late]

...they would have gone bust due to numerous bizarre decisions made by these 'experts' you're putting so much faith in...

I never said that I have faith in the top level executives of these companies.
I intimated that I have more faith in their ability to run a company than I do in you to do so.
It's easy to run companies, football clubs, etc. from your armchair. They'd be 100% royally fucked if you were actually in charge though.
You know what you like when it comes to gaming, Harv, but you have no idea about the everyman. Left to you everything would be motion sensitive, with no multiplayer.

[jman]

Halo 4 out on Tuesday and early reviews suggest its as good as ever.. cant wait to get into the new storyline.. back with master chief at last !!

Excellent timing too, got a half day off work on Wednesday so I can get to the Chelsea match in the evening.. so will be able to play a few good hours interrupted before I have to leave 

[Late]

Halo 4 out on Tuesday and early reviews suggest its as good as ever.. cant wait to get into the new storyline.. back with master chief at last !!
Excellent timing too, got a half day off work on Wednesday so I can get to the Chelsea match in the evening.. so will be able to play a few good hours interrupted before I have to leave 

Similar thing here, with COD. Comes out on Tues 13th Nov, and I feel a migraine coming on which I think will hit around the 13th requiring me to take a few days off, on the sick...




(Would take hols but I used my full year's allowance when one of the kids was ill earlier in the year.)

[harv]

Odd that harv thinks Sega are in the same position as Rockstar - which must mean they are running themselves into the ground too - even though Sega released a large proportion of their games on the Wii...

Interested to know what exactly was "wonky" with Vanquish though harv.. I rented it and enjoyed completing the game... theres nothing wrong with it in that respect.. the reason it failed to sell.. it had no multiplayer mode.. therefore it didnt appeal to people to buy brand new... no-ones going to waste £40 on a game that lasts them 8 hours.. yet you seem to think they will with ZombiU lol... of course.. that has 20-30 hours of gameplay in it...suree!!  I heard the same thing about Rage - I completed that in around 10 hours I think.

Take Two and Sega are in very similar positions, and are getting their arses hauled off the coals by GTA and Mario And Sonic respectively. Sega have done well on some of their Wii releases but have made some daft decisions on others - they could have made a fortune out of their gladiator game if they hadn't first decided to ruin it by changing it's style and then decided to stealth release it, and they could have bettered the sales of the first Conduit if they hadn't stealth released it. Both of those titles would have sold over 500K if marketed.

[bealec]

Wait didn't you first say The Conduit would sell over a million copies? Now only 500K?

[harv]

I thought it would have gone platinum, but any Wii game shifting over 500,000 units is a resounding success. The first game did over 500K and the second would have outsold the first if they had marketed it at all. Sega have done very well with Wii development, it's the sales of their PS3 and 360 titles that have put them up Shit Street.

[ancelotti]

Stuck on the final mission of XCOM... Had 2 attempts so far and keep getting annihilated by the final boss. Only takes me 30 mins or so to even get to that point. 

No way am I even going to attempt to play through this again... I've struggled quite a bit on Normal difficulty so Hard/Very Hard would break me. If I can finish it off tonight I might go and pick up AC3. Although, I'm thinking if I buy that, it'll take me a lot longer than 10/11 days to get through and that'll mean Blops 2 will be left on the shelf when it arrives.

[Late]

Think the beach near where you had to do that ship defense mini-game is the best place to grind in the game...

I'd heard that elsewhere, too, so had a looong spell there (Numara Atoll, it's called). Spent about 15 hours there, but it was going frustratingly slowly - I picked up about 4 levels, and tbh I think I was levelling up faster in normal gameplay!
Then I found the "Temple of Enlightenment". Much better for grinding - though it'd be a dangerous place to take low level characters. I picked up about 20 levels in about 5 hours there, then spent the rest of my weekend's gaming time by doing a few side quests (picked up a few of the top weapons and accessories etc. - mainly involved going back to areas infested with beasties that used to be a nightmare but can now be swatted aside without really noticing them).
Enjoying the game to the degree I'm putting off going into the final lair, now. It's massively time-consuming (I regularly spend half an hour picking my character's abilities and equipment) and the grinding is sometimes a bit frustrating (as is always the way with RPGs) but I'm thoroughly enjoying it - thanks for the recommendation Kieron.

Will certainly get it finished some time this week, ahead of Blops 2 next week. Not sure how to fill the few days in between Lost Odyssey and COD though. Not worth starting Darksiders 2, FFXIII-2 and the such as I know I wouldn't get it finished before next Tues - and then I'd end up putting it down a quarter complete and probably never get back to it.
I'm sure there's something in the pile to occupy me.
And I've definitely been feeling drawn back to playing the first two Bioshock games again lately. Excitement's definitely starting to mount, again, for next year's Bioshock Infinite. It's been such a long wait my enthusiasm definitely started to wane somewhat, for a while, but now it's getting close I can't wait.

[jman]

Is that the maze place.. if so, I did grind there a bit myself and I almost mentioned it.. but found myself too tempted to actually go into the maze (out of boredom).. which wasnt a good idea as I lost about 2hrs worth of gameplay there because I went in, got lost and subsequently died lol...

Dont want to spoil the ending, but you do have a fair old chunk to do after you enter the final liar until you reach the final boss.. so might not be worth putting off.. I found the end battle most disappointing as it was too easy with my characters... plus my disc stopped working on the cut scene after I beat the boss and I ended up having to beat him 4 times and had to skip some of the end cut scenes to actually finish the game - kinda took the point out of the whole game lol.


Halo shipped Friday from HMV, hope its on my mat when I get home.. although stupidly I have volunteered to help at a fireworks display tonight so theres still zero chance of playing it until quite later on/tomorrow.