Welcome back to another week of game news and headlines!
It’s been a busy week here. Last time I told you my dog had an infection after a minor surgery. I’m happy to be able to report that things are going well for him: the vets are pleased with the wound healing. He has to wear a large pad over it at the moment that is tied with loops that have been sewn into his skin, and on top of that he has a pressure suit and a cone to prevent him from reaching it. .
Needless to say, he’s going to be a little crazy. He is currently on a strict no-exercise regimen because the wound has a large surface area and we need to let the skin grow back on it. Trying to keep him busy is a full-time job right now, whether it’s special treatment balls or gentle tug-of-war, or maybe a little hide and seek with treatment. However, I’m running out of ideas to get him amused, so I’d appreciate any advice.
Without further ado, let’s dive into some of this week’s headlines that caught my attention.
Gears of War almost switched to first person
Let’s start with something interesting, shall we? According to a certain Cliff Bleszinski, Gears of War has almost gone from a third-person shooter to a first-person shooter, and he should definitely know. Bleszinki worked at Epic Games for 20 years before leaving the company in 2012, a year after Gears of War 3 wrapped up the original trilogy, and in that time he became one of the most famous faces best in gaming.
On the XboxEra podcast, the team asked Bleszinksi if there were any details he could share about how Epic thinks about continuing to develop Gears of War before they sell the rights to Microsoft, and Cliff was quick. Quick reply: “Yes, I can. tell you I really want to consider seeing it in first person. Can you imagine chaining a Locust in first person?”
Speaking to IGN last year, Bleszinski also admitted that he doesn’t think Epic really knows what to do with Gears of War after the third game.
“Honestly, I used to think Lee Perry [Gameplay Designer for Gears of War 2]me and Rod Ferguson [Producer for Gears of War] For the rest, I believe Epic really doesn’t know what to do with the franchise,” he said.
“They haven’t shipped a game in a while. The [Unreal] The engine works pretty well, but they’re growing and they probably need some income even though they really don’t know what to do with the future of the franchise.
Their answer, of course, was to sell the rights to Microsoft, who immediately transferred the series to Black Tusk, who quickly changed the name to The Coalition. According to Bleszinski, Microsoft’s aim is to bring the series back to its gothic horror roots, which I had come to expect. In the original game, Locusts were seen as more like horror monsters, and parts like evading Berserker or dashing from one light source to another to avoid Krill were seen as scary situations rather than episodes. show off.
“That was Phil Spencer’s main note when Microsoft acquired IP. When talking to Rod Ferguson, he said ‘let’s get back to the horror stuff.’”
Sadly, that didn’t really happen. Since taking over the series, Microsoft has published four games, starting with a solid remake of the original game called Gears of War: Final Edition and then to the first sequel, gears of war 4. But until 5 . gear that the Alliance feels like they’re finding their groove, including a creepy part that harks back to the days of dingy basements, creepy Krill, and monsters lurking in the shadows.
The delay of the suicide team
The recent gameplay reveal for Rocksteady’s upcoming Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League was not well received. Before the video’s release, people were excited to see what Rocksteady had been up to since their popular Batman: Arkham game. And the story videos they’ve put out seem to show Rocksteady’s writing skills very precisely, painting the Suicide Squad as a bunch of hilarious lunatics. At the top of it all is the premise: fighting the Justice League? Head-to-head with Superman, Flash and Batman? Great.
However, the gameplay video failed to meet high expectations and was buried under a flood of dislikes. It’s a pretty clear message: people don’t like the loot-shooting style or the various hints at a potential live-service game. New characters and quests, a battle containing cosmetic items, and online claims even for single player have many people worried that this will be another installment. Avengers disaster, or something similar bland Knight of Gotham.
I mention all of this because Suicide Squad was supposed to have its release date delayed to May 26, and it’s not certain if it will come out this year. Based on Bloomberg’s Jason SchrierThe game has been pushed back to the second half of 2023.
However, Jeff Grubb followed this report in an episode of Jeff Grubb’s Game Mess say “I’m listening to the year 2024.” Grubb has long been considered a source of insider news and is often very reliable. He went on to say that, “this source is always a very good source” but also confirmed that “those things are always hard to pin down.”
We can’t say with absolute certainty that these delay rumors have anything to do with the way the gameplay was revealed to be broken and burnt, but the timing is certainly questionable. The delay until the second half of this year won’t give Rocksteady enough time to change anything significant about the Suicide Squad, instead it will focus more on polishing what’s already there. However, the delay to 2024 may reflect a deeper rethinking of the design
Square Enix says Forspoken reception is ‘challenging’, sales ‘fade’
Forspoken 2 may not occur. Shock, I know.
Speaking during a February 3 financial call, for which the English transcript was just published, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda mentioned the recent launch of Forspoken. He described sales as “faint” and reviews for the game as “challenging”. end public, Forspoken holds a Fair rating and a reviewer recommendation is quite low, at just 29%. Player reception doesn’t seem to be much better.
But Matsuda has been trying to find a silver lining, telling investors, “However, the game has also received positive feedback for its action features, including parkour and combat abilities, so it has resulted in us improving our ability to develop other games. future games,”
However, it was not enough to save the game developers. A month after the launch of Forspoken, Square Enix announced that Luminous Productions Co will be merged with its subsidiary Square Enix Co, Ltd, effective May 1. Sadly, most mergers both tend to put people out of work and it doesn’t look like Forspoken 2 is coming out anytime soon. With that said, Luminous has said that they are working on the DLC for Forspoken which will release later this year.
Arguably, there’s still some hope that a sequel could happen, but it doesn’t look like Square Enix will greenlight a sequel unless they can come up with something more special.
Epic Store allows self-publishing
The Epic Games Store is about to get a lot more crowded. Earlier this week, Epic announced new plans allowing people to self-publish their games using brand new tools, as long as they pay a $100 fee.
According to the post, all publishers will have to do is log into their Epic Developer portal and turn it off. Of course, there are some requirements to consider that we’ll look at in a moment, but for the most part, Epic will take a more hands-on approach to what’s in their store. Valve has been doing the same thing for years now and it’s… well, messy.
On the one hand, it’s great for smaller companies and single developers to bring their games to multiple platforms without much fuss. But on the other hand, it can lead to loads of things hitting stores, and Steam has struggled with that for a long time. Since Steam no longer checks every game uploaded, it is possible that hundreds of games per week appear on the storefront. The result is a messy system where it’s hard to discover interesting news games under a mountain of cheap junk, property toppling, and other trash. It becomes a real problem for small publishers and developers as their games are swallowed up almost instantly and must be a miracle for people to discover or for their own algorithms to be. Steam recommends them.
It was a quantity over quality approach, and now Epic is moving in the same direction. I have no doubt that means a lot of new games coming to the storefront but is that really a good thing?
As for the requirements to publish, there are a few. One of the coolest things is that multiplayer games will have to support cross-platform play, which can be achieved through a variety of means, including Epic’s own Epic Online Service. Many other platforms don’t have this requirement, which has caused a lot of problems for players who bought a game only to find out that they couldn’t play with their friends on Steam or Xbox PC Game Pass.
Unlike Steam, Epic will not allow pornographic games on its platform. This can be difficult because pinpointing what constitutes porn can be tricky, especially when something like Cyberpunk 2077 is full of nudity and sex, even if you don’t see everything.
Personally, I have no problem with porn games, and I have no problem with a platform wanting to stay away from them.
Streets of Rage 4 Update
Streets of Rage 4 is one of the best games of 2020, brings some old-fashioned side-scrolling brawls to modern consoles while also resurrecting a franchise that has long slumbered in the process. 3 years later, you can expect things to be quiet on the Streets of Rage front outside of the announced fifth game, so it’s a surprise to see developer Dotemu roll out an additional new update. some interesting new stuff.
First, there’s a brand new survival mode where players can put themselves in a never-ending war. There are tons of customization options, including whether or not bosses are included, whether players can heal, weapons, enemy sizes, starting locations, and more. This should give die-hard fans who are still playing the game an extra boost.
On top of that, co-op moves are now something the game was sorely lacking when it launched. They mostly revolve around throwing your partner around the screen so they can unleash fancy new attacks.
And if that’s still not enough, there are over 300 changes to things like character balance, combos, etc
It’s great to see Dotemu continue to support the game so far after launch, especially since this update is completely free. They have previously released paid DLC but without any other mention of the game, but I can’t help but think that this level of work means they still haven’t finished Streets of Rage 4.
