April 2025 PCG Article Discussion

[Colif]

Wait a minute... since when do Tomb Raider games care about their scripts?? In the reboot, the second one was the only game with a passable story. Plenty of the older games had weak and/or barebones scripts - just enough to give you an excuse to go to another nation with all new texture mappings.

Its a TV series, not a game.

Following years of rumours, Amazon Prime Video officially revealed plans for a new TV series based on the Tomb Raider games in May 2024.

 

[Johnway]

Piracy isn't the answer as they are removing the servers that the games run on. Stealing game still doesn't let you play it. Online only is their way to stop people playing games for years after. Also a good way to make people keep paying.


Offline single player modes are not good for continued sales... if the game has a shop in it, who is going to buy all the cosmetics if no one else can see them in game? A small percentage, but if you can pair people up efficiently you can make sure those who haven't bought anything can be paired with someone who has bought heaps.

That is why many games that traditionally had a single player offline mode are now online only... and in Diablo 4's case, always multiplayer to make people see all the things they could buy on a store constantly.

I totally wish we could go back to a time where all the best looking gear was in the game. You just had to be good enough to get it, not rich enough to just buy it off a store. Unless store is a reputation vendor in game.
In the past you used to play the game to get the items, now days the games are just advertisements for what is on the store.

What bothers me the most is that even when they deem there is no money to be made from the game (no ones playing/buying it) that they decide to make sure to kill the game? Why not just give it away and let someone else look after it and look after it? What have you got to lose if its not going to make money anyway?

there will be people playing it and i wouldn't be surprised some of the most die hard fans are the ones doing so. Killing the game like that is a smack in the face of their most loyal fanbase as they invest money on various assets etc and all of sudden told they can't because they wrote it into their T&Cs.

Honestly i suspect they're afraid that someone will do a better job and make it a hit and revive it and it does make money. Frankly if that does happen the original publishers deserve it.

lets not forget the simpsons tapped out game, if it were not for private servers and the efforts of the community, the game would be dead and if you're one of those people who invested time and money over a decade playing the game? Tough luck, EA thinks nothing of you.

Lastly is it really that hard/awful to just shut everything down gracefully? to these publishers the answer is no. Burn it all to the ground.

 

[Pifanjr]

What bothers me the most is that even when they deem there is no money to be made from the game (no ones playing/buying it) that they decide to make sure to kill the game? Why not just give it away and let someone else look after it and look after it? What have you got to lose if its not going to make money anyway?

there will be people playing it and i wouldn't be surprised some of the most die hard fans are the ones doing so. Killing the game like that is a smack in the face of their most loyal fanbase as they invest money on various assets etc and all of sudden told they can't because they wrote it into their T&Cs.

Honestly i suspect they're afraid that someone will do a better job and make it a hit and revive it and it does make money. Frankly if that does happen the original publishers deserve it.

lets not forget the simpsons tapped out game, if it were not for private servers and the efforts of the community, the game would be dead and if you're one of those people who invested time and money over a decade playing the game? Tough luck, EA thinks nothing of you.

Lastly is it really that hard/awful to just shut everything down gracefully? to these publishers the answer is no. Burn it all to the ground.

Old games are competition for the new games. One of the major downsides of digital distribution is that old games don't really disappear any more, so every new game has to be significantly better to compete with the old games.

The "most loyal fanbase" who are still playing the old games are not their target demographic, there's probably only a small amount of them and they might not even buy the new products.

The question is whether the damage to their reputation is worth it.

 

[Colif]

Old games are competition for the new games.

Old Better games make them have to meet standards they may not want to or be able to match. That seems to be the theme the last 5 years or so. BG3 was seen as a threat and devs didn't want people to expect all games to be like that... why not?

I agree with Johnway

Destroying all your old games and not letting people simply play them after you deem them not profitable isn't something I want to promote. Just let games die, don't stab them in the heart yourself when people might still enjoy them.

Games as a Service games specifically set up to ensure they die when there is no profit in it. Any game with no offline single player mode should be patched to work without the server, especially if most of the game is local. I totally get online multiplayer games having no future without servers but if you can play alone and not need servers to finish game, just disable them.

1000's of games exist now made by companies who didn't see the games continued existance being reliant on making money. I don't think we should accept that argument now for any game.

Would people still want Half Life 3 20 years or so after previous was released if Valve had stopped selling/supporting it all those years?

It restricts the potential of future games.

The "most loyal fanbase" who are still playing the old games are not their target demographic, there's probably only a small amount of them and they might not even buy the new products.

While it might be true that they aren't the target, most of the time games in a series will only get made if there is some demand already, and the old players do keep franchise alive

Its not often an old dead series comes back without someone being around who plays/played old games.

 

[Johnway]

Old games are competition for the new games. One of the major downsides of digital distribution is that old games don't really disappear any more, so every new game has to be significantly better to compete with the old games.

As it should be. A sequel should be as good as the previous game and more. All the maps, modes and more. Old games should not be seen as competition but as a measuring stick of the absolute minimum to succeed. They can't rest on their laurels and that comes part of the territory. Video games should not be made into a "product" its artistic entertainment. Does it mean an ever growing list of tasks? maybe, maybe not. But that's all irrelevant, its still no excuse for killing a game.

Honestly, i'm not sympathetic towards the AAA(A) industry. They're only as good as their last few games. I'm not going to blindly love bioware or ubisoft if they insist shovelling the same game whilst quality getting worse each time. i'm not going to cry over their problems that they help create. Even less so when they kill my game to force me to get their next game.

I'll throw them a bone and say that the core mechanics don't have to always change, just refine the game mechanics, freshen with some new features, update the graphics, a new story and give me a setting i would play. Make the game like a holiday package or something. I'm a sucker for ubisoft open world games for the right price, but when you have a horrible reminder that you can brick my game(s) i'll think twice buying them.

I'll concede that a good game is might not always equal a good seller, just look at TTLG, but i blame that on marketing failure of the company rather then the consumer. They would gladly spend millions reminding us of well known franchises, trailers for trailers or trailers that do not reflective of the content. The millions should be spent on the new franchises and sold at a price that makes it work. Its perhaps why i gravitate more to Indie games for unique or fresh experiences.

 

[Johnway]

American Truck Simulator is adding a road trip mode where you drive different vehicles, 'say, a powerful pickup or even a sports car'

That enigmatic sound-only tease finally makes sense.

www.pcgamer.com

heres hoping we can have a variety of fun modes like pursuit mode (bounty hunters or cops chasing criminals, cannon ball runners etc)

i would of course settle for a mad max style mod where i can attach guns to my car and drive around making vital deliveries and using machine guns to fend off bandits.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The Oblivion remaster is real: Doubters in shambles as developer Virtuos accidentally leaves the door open to trailer screenshots and assets

I have seen the gates of Oblivion, beyond which no waking eye may see.

www.pcgamer.com

The fan-made remake may or may not be murdered in broad daylight.

 

[DXCHASE]

I'm declaring 2025 the year of the ninja: we're being spoiled with one glorious assassination game after another

Like a moonlit shadow.

www.pcgamer.com

Literally the only ninja/assassination game im playing right now is not listed in this article, i read it because i felt it would be omitted idk why. Im talking about Rise of The Ronin.

Maybe its because its just a re-release but so is ninja gaiden black and thats the head picture here.

Im gonna say Rise of the Ronin is one of my top underrated games so far this year.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I'm declaring 2025 the year of the ninja: we're being spoiled with one glorious assassination game after another

Like a moonlit shadow.

www.pcgamer.com

Literally the only ninja/assassination game im playing right now is not listed in this article, i read it because i felt it would be omitted idk why. Im talking about Rise of The Ronin.

Maybe its because its just a re-release but so is ninja gaiden black and thats the head picture here.

Im gonna say Rise of the Ronin is one of my top underrated games so far this year.

Haha, they even have a TMNT demo in that list, but no Rise of the Ronin. By the way, the combat animations in RotR look excellent from what I've seen. It's on my wishlist, but will likely be awhile before I get it. It looks like the kind of combat I usually enjoy.

 

[DXCHASE]

Haha, they even have a TMNT demo in that list, but no Rise of the Ronin. By the way, the combat animations in RotR look excellent from what I've seen. It's on my wishlist, but will likely be awhile before I get it. It looks like the kind of combat I usually enjoy.

Its pretty easy too on its easiest difficulty and on its hardest, really only hard when you have to fight someone 1v1 (at least for me) and those are if you seek out those individuals, most boss fights you have 2 others on your team you can switch to, which is recommended to win those and its fun.

The 1v1s (so far)really only give you gear and arent main-story questlines or even apart of 100%-iing an area. So those fights really are the only part that gets dark-souls like with fighting, but everything else is more ninja-gaiden/ac shadows and is fun and open to run around (albeit kind of baron) and assassinate, glide, horseback ride, find and collect cats, whatever lol, and if you build up bullet damage enough, you can 1-shot enemies even at the highest difficulty. So its pretty interesting in that regard.

Theres also a gta-style cop system where you can kill civilians and pickpocket them but after a while youll have all the guard after you. Its fun and can add a pretty good challenge combat wise.

Since its release, there have been a couple patches so its a lot more stable now im reading too. Its also 50 as its main release, so def. check it out on sale when itll probably go for 20-30 which i would pay for personally. It has its issues (like you cant exit the game from the option of "quit game", it just takes you back to the main menu where you then can quit) and some minor bugs during combat. Its a KOEI/ Team Ninja game afterall.

Absolutely deserves to be on that list though.

 

[Zloth]

Marvel Rivals' costume customisation may look cool, but it adds yet another unnecessary step while tacking on even more money to expensive skins

How many currencies are we on now?

www.pcgamer.com

$22 for ONE costume?? Then another $6 just to change the colors how you want!? I was laughing at Dead or Alive 6 charging $3 for individual costumes.

The cost of City of Heros' costume options (you can even alter the color of your powers!) would be stunning.

View: https://youtu.be/pYpun0p-xh4

 

[Pifanjr]

Marvel Rivals' costume customisation may look cool, but it adds yet another unnecessary step while tacking on even more money to expensive skins

How many currencies are we on now?

www.pcgamer.com

$22 for ONE costume?? Then another $6 just to change the colors how you want!? I was laughing at Dead or Alive 6 charging $3 for individual costumes.

The cost of City of Heros' costume options (you can even alter the color of your powers!) would be stunning.

View: https://youtu.be/pYpun0p-xh4

If I'm reading this correctly, it's $6 per colour scheme, so it's probably at least double the price of the skin itself it you want to unlock all colour schemes. Though I assume you'll be able to grind for several dozens of hours per colour scheme instead if you prefer.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Roblox's latest legal entanglement is with the creator of the viral 'Apple' dance who took TikTok by storm: 'Kelley is an independent creator who should be compensated fairly for her work'

Kelley Heyer is taking the behemoth platform to court.

www.pcgamer.com

Why would you put this terrible dance in your game to begin with? It looks like it was ad-lib. Just ad-lib something else. And if 8-year-olds playing Roblox are so into Tik Tok that they demanded the dance be added...well, we should probably just blow up the planet right now. And why are we letting people copyright these little, ignorant hand gesture dances anyway? This is like copyrighting being fat. Trump, you idiot. We were banning this crap!

I'm going to do a 15 hour video of me doing every hand and arm gesture I can think of, copyright it, and then file copyright claims against everyone on Tik Tok.

Note: If you haven't caught on yet, I find outrage hilarious, so I like pretending to be outraged.

 

[neogunhero]

Corsair's custom shop Drop announces possibly the best thing to come out of Starfield

The collab focusses on the very customisable CSTM80 ten-keyless mechanical board, but that means you can get most of it separately too.

www.pcgamer.com

To add to this article, I got the Starfield livery Xbox Series controller and it is amazing, my favorite controller I’ve ever owned. Wasn’t a fan of the game but at least the peripherals are nice.

The controller was $80, which is kind of a deal if you add all the customization options it comes with on a custom made controller through their Labs program. It has textured clear plastic triggers, metallic D-pad, and rubberized grips on the back. If you did that in a custom controller it would be close to $100 before tax. The design is quite nice too but really it’s the rubber grips that are the best feature to me. So comfortable, and as my hands tend to get sweaty after gripping a controller for a while, the grips help a lot.

 

[BeardyHat]

Corsair's custom shop Drop announces possibly the best thing to come out of Starfield

The collab focusses on the very customisable CSTM80 ten-keyless mechanical board, but that means you can get most of it separately too.

www.pcgamer.com

To add to this article, I got the Starfield livery Xbox Series controller and it is amazing, my favorite controller I’ve ever owned. Wasn’t a fan of the game but at least the peripherals are nice.

The controller was $80, which is kind of a deal if you add all the customization options it comes with on a custom made controller through their Labs program. It has textured clear plastic triggers, metallic D-pad, and rubberized grips on the back. If you did that in a custom controller it would be close to $100 before tax. The design is quite nice too but really it’s the rubber grips that are the best feature to me. So comfortable, and as my hands tend to get sweaty after gripping a controller for a while, the grips help a lot.

Well that's an awesome looking controller. If I had a spare $80 to burn, I would 100% pick one of those up.

 

[neogunhero]

Well that's an awesome looking controller. If I had a spare $80 to burn, I would 100% pick one of those up.

Needless to say, I was pretty hyped for Starfield before it came out, then left disappointed after pushing through 60 hours of it.

Sometimes, the Xbox Design Lab will have specials and give a slight discount on controllers. The base price for a normal Xbox Series controller with only the rubberized grip addons is $81.97 before tax, I think I saw the specials go down to 20% off. IIRC, it's usually around Black Friday and other shopping holidays. This controller and this one too are on sale on the Microsoft website with rubberized grips. That Nocturnal Vapor one looks especially nice. Seriously the best controller I've ever used, they've designed their controllers perfectly for my large hands. Apart from needing to buy a separate wireless battery since they still use AA for some reason.

 

[BeardyHat]

Needless to say, I was pretty hyped for Starfield before it came out, then left disappointed after pushing through 60 hours of it.

Sometimes, the Xbox Design Lab will have specials and give a slight discount on controllers. The base price for a normal Xbox Series controller with only the rubberized grip addons is $81.97 before tax, I think I saw the specials go down to 20% off. IIRC, it's usually around Black Friday and other shopping holidays. This controller and this one too are on sale on the Microsoft website with rubberized grips. That Nocturnal Vapor one looks especially nice. Seriously the best controller I've ever used, they've designed their controllers perfectly for my large hands. Apart from needing to buy a separate wireless battery since they still use AA for some reason.

I do have a newer wireless one in that style, which I usually bounce from machine to machine with, but it would be nice to have another one. It's such a great feeling controller and I love using mine, especially after going back periodically to my older Xbox 360 controllers, which I just use, just because they work. I recently refurbished one of those and got an interesting 3d-printed d-Pad that provides better accuracy, though is considerably less comfortable. I gotta tear that one down again though, because the new stick covers I put on it are sticking when pushed in extreme directions and it's very annoying.

I feel like the odd-man out, because I really enjoyed Starfield. I got close to 90-hours out of it and I'm not entirely sure I'll go back, but I very much enjoyed what I played at the time; I definitely see the flaws and the cut corners, but I did have a good time with the game. I wouldn't say I'm a Bethesda simp, but I've always enjoyed their games, ever since I first played the Daggerfall Demo off the PC Gamer demo disk ages ago.

 

[neogunhero]

I feel like the odd-man out, because I really enjoyed Starfield. I got close to 90-hours out of it and I'm not entirely sure I'll go back, but I very much enjoyed what I played at the time; I definitely see the flaws and the cut corners, but I did have a good time with the game. I wouldn't say I'm a Bethesda simp, but I've always enjoyed their games, ever since I first played the Daggerfall Demo off the PC Gamer demo disk ages ago.

It wasn't as bad as some people made it out to be, but I shared a lot of complaints as them. My biggest one being that the world felt too empty. It's great having tons of planets to explore but I barely explored any of them because the first couple that I went to were almost identical and I didn't feel interested to do more. I also didn't touch the base building aspect so that's just on me. I haven't played since before they added the vehicle, so maybe I would enjoy it more now. One of the biggest issues for me was performance, so hopefully it's gotten a little bit better since launch. I do have a new CPU so that should help.

 

[Zloth]

I hope they didn't make the Oblivion NPCs hot

Oblivion is a game about weirdos. How will they look in the remaster?

www.pcgamer.com

But then how are people in California supposed to relate??

 

[Frindis]

Let's hope it is a good one! Oh, and it better not be 59.99USD with us paying for the horse armor...again!

Here we go: The Oblivion remaster will be officially unveiled tomorrow

Will it launch on the same day? We remain hopeful.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[neogunhero]

Let's hope it is a good one! Oh, and it better not be 59.99USD with us paying for the horse armor...again!

Here we go: The Oblivion remaster will be officially unveiled tomorrow

Will it launch on the same day? We remain hopeful.

www.pcgamer.com

Calm down everyone. Calm DOWN. I'M NOT FREAKING OUT YOU'RE FREAKING OUT.

So excited for this. Oblivion is my favorite TES game ever. I've played it the most besides ESO (doesn't count as a TES game), with a solid 300 hours in. I think I've beaten the game once.

I'm very interested to see if they have made any major changes to any of the major mechanics, like spell crafting, magic, guilds, anything. One thing I partially hope they don't touch is all the silly bugs and glitches, but realistically being on a totally different engine, those will get fixed, or at the very least replaced with brand new bugs or glitches.

A part of me has a feeling this may come to Game Pass day one, and in that case I sure hope so. I haven't paid for GP in nearly a year, so I would really be getting the game for free lol.

I also wanted to add that the leaked screenshots did not give me too much hope. One of the biggest reasons why I love Oblivion is how colorful and vivid the landscapes are, but the screenshots that leaked looked very brown and a bit washed out. This isn't a huge issue though, as things like ENB, Nvidia in-game color settings, and other mods to bring the color back.

 

[Alm]

I never played Oblivion the first time around. I played Morrowind and Skyrim. I'm hoping for a shadow drop tomorrow. Quite excited to pick it up this time around.

 

[neogunhero]

I never played Oblivion the first time around. I played Morrowind and Skyrim. I'm hoping for a shadow drop tomorrow. Quite excited to pick it up this time around.

It's a lot more like Morrowind than Skyrim, so if you liked that more than the other then you're in for a treat. A lot of ideas were reused in Oblivion for it to later be scrapped in Skyrim, most notably the spell crafting and magic systems.

 

[Alm]

It's a lot more like Morrowind than Skyrim, so if you liked that more than the other then you're in for a treat. A lot of ideas were reused in Oblivion for it to later be scrapped in Skyrim, most notably the spell crafting and magic systems.

Thanks! Sounds good to me

 

[Johnway]

I never played Oblivion the first time around. I played Morrowind and Skyrim. I'm hoping for a shadow drop tomorrow. Quite excited to pick it up this time around.

i played oblivion back in the day, it wasn't bad, but i don't remember much apart from the bad stuff. That reflect physical damage affect some enemies had was absolute BS.

The other problem was how all the monsters/enemies levelled up with you. yes, it was suppose to give you a challenge but it would mean fighting demonic entities constantly in the wild and bandits wearing legendary armours etc. It was kinda silly. A balancing act is needed and if possible near the end to highlight the world was coming to an end or on the verge of collapsing.