September 2024 PCG Article Discussion Thread
- Thread starter ZedClampet
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How MechWarrior 5: Clans is bringing a narrative focus and intricate, handcrafted missions back to the storied series
PC Gamer speaks exclusively to Piranha Games about its incoming new BattleTech game.
Really hoping they fix this game. MW5 is just so utterly bland and boring and I attribute a majority of that to being proc gen and the maps being boring little fishbowls.
Kaamos_Llama
Moderator
How MechWarrior 5: Clans is bringing a narrative focus and intricate, handcrafted missions back to the storied series
PC Gamer speaks exclusively to Piranha Games about its incoming new BattleTech game.www.pcgamer.com
Really hoping they fix this game. MW5 is just so utterly bland and boring and I attribute a majority of that to being proc gen and the maps being boring little fishbowls.
Been wanting to try out MW5 for a while, because it kind of sounded like Battletech the Harebrained Schemes game except you actually pilot the mechs. The fact theyre talking about it being hand crafted and authored campaign is making this sound very exciting to me.
Zloth
Community Contributor
Huh!? First, there were plenty of maps that weren't procedure-generated, like this one:
The missions were pretty different, too. This was a defensive mission, where I'm supposed to save the buildings from destruction.
Never could get through the following though to actually get to the cool stuff
But this is really it, ad nauseam. Defend the base, wipe out the defenders, rinse, repeat. The maps are almost all Proc Gen and feel identical to one another, each one taking place inside a massive bowl; it doesn't feel like there's any world outside this map, it feels just like what it is: a randomly cobbled together map to shoot a few mechs on, with very dumb AI, both enemy and friendly.
Compare that to the maps in MWO and you have maps of similar size, but each is hand crafted with different ways to approach, different lanes, etc, etc. It all just ends-up feeling very bland, samey and grindy, especially by comparison to all other Mechwarrior games.
I've heard you can make it "good" if you invest heavily in modding, but each time I've done that, there's always a handful that are broken and then when I come back to the game, no longer work because the game has been updated and most of the supposed good mods are not on the Workshop, but over on Nexus.
Zloth
Community Contributor
I don't know what you're talking about with respect to bowls? When you say that, I imagine a map with mountains around the outside and a low area in the middle. That happens sometimes, but it's pretty rare.
Most missions you'll do are procedural for sure, but there are still quite a few that aren't. The main quest has most of them, of course, but there are a lot of what amount to side quests scattered all over the game. Those will have final missions (like that first link) that are hand crafted and sometimes other missions within that are as well. {The rewards are iffy, though - some of them are great, some of them are weak. SARNA has an excellent list.}
The missions do all boil down to "kill all the enemy mechs" but there is still variety in that. With defense missions, you want to do all you can to not harm buildings. When you are trying to destroy an installation, enemies will continue to show up all through the mission, so you've got to weigh building smashing against mech smashing. Some missions will let you stick around after the mission is done and rack up extra cash by defeating extra enemies. The newer beachhead missions have you going through several stages, dealing with artillery, attacking a town, and then defending it.
The AI is weak for sure, on both sides. TTRulez mod has been great for that, though he's working on an issue with it and the new Solaris arena right now. It doesn't sound like it will be a problem to anyone without the DLC.
As for Nexus vs. Steam, yeah, that's not a big surprise. Remember this game came out on Epic first so there are a lot of players that can't use Workshop. Also, Nexus allows a lot more detail than Steam. Many of them are on Steam now, if you really want to use that. Also, I would assume the Devs are done updating the game. If they do another update, just tell Steam not to update the game and keep using the existing mods. I'm not sure how that works with Workshop, but it works great with Nexus mods. (I expect you'll want YAML badly so you can fiddle more deeply with mechs.)
Risk of Rain 2's creators, along with 'many other' devs from Hopoo, have been snapped up by Valve—which means the end of the studio's unannounced game
Going the way of the Campo.
Valve buys out a developer. Hopefully they make a singleplayer game.
I think it's hilarious and typical that Gearbox bought the rights to this studio's previous games, the Risk of Rain series, and immediately destroyed it with a terrible DLC and an update that broke the game. You go AAA game companies. Keep doing your thing. A small indie team put effort and love into this game and you instantly demolish it. Embarrassing.
Risk of Rain 2 creators comment on Gearbox's first DLC without them: 'It's great to see new content for the game, but it's hard to see growing pains of the new team in real time'
Duncan Drummond and Jeffrey Hunt expressed sympathy for the dev team at Gearbox.
Risk of Rain 2's creators, along with 'many other' devs from Hopoo, have been snapped up by Valve—which means the end of the studio's unannounced game
Going the way of the Campo.www.pcgamer.com
Valve buys out a developer. Hopefully they make a singleplayer game.
I think it's hilarious and typical that Gearbox bought the rights to this studio's previous games, the Risk of Rain series, and immediately destroyed it with a terrible DLC and an update that broke the game. You go AAA game companies. Keep doing your thing. A small indie team put effort and love into this game and you instantly demolish it. Embarrassing.
Risk of Rain 2 creators comment on Gearbox's first DLC without them: 'It's great to see new content for the game, but it's hard to see growing pains of the new team in real time'
Duncan Drummond and Jeffrey Hunt expressed sympathy for the dev team at Gearbox.www.pcgamer.com
TBH geargbox has a history of producing a miss when they get decent ips. Aliens: colonial marines and Duke Nukem Forever, i'm looking at you.
Zloth
Community Contributor
Frindis
Moderator
Concord is being taken offline this week as Sony looks to 'explore options' that will 'better reach our players'
Is this the fastest game shutdown ever?
So Condord with more pronouns than an active playerbase got shut down. A perfect example of what you want does not necessarily correlate to what a player wants. Devs, CEOs, game critics, art critics, and movie critics can praise or try to turn the tide as much as they want, but the only thing that matters when it comes down to it is what sells. This was a catastrophic failure of a launch (maybe the worst ever?) so let's hope other companies are watching closely so they don't recreate this major flop.
Perhaps It would be advisable for devs to avoid doing this also after a Concord flop:
Colif
Moderator
if Freegunner got it on Physical copy, they might be able to keep it as a souvenir
Do they make more money from investments in the game and doing certain things to get more cash that way, than they would selling the game at retail? Write game off on tax. Sure makes you wonder when you see games like Dustborn that took grants from different Governments to be made and are just lucky they aren't a multi player game or would probably be offline like Concord is today. I wonder if it had to be released as part of grant terms. Reminds me of Skull & Bones.
Its player count is actually lower than Concords was.
I wonder if this games actual audience won't end up being schools.
Do they make more money from investments in the game and doing certain things to get more cash that way, than they would selling the game at retail? Write game off on tax. Sure makes you wonder when you see games like Dustborn that took grants from different Governments to be made and are just lucky they aren't a multi player game or would probably be offline like Concord is today. I wonder if it had to be released as part of grant terms. Reminds me of Skull & Bones.
Its player count is actually lower than Concords was.
I wonder if this games actual audience won't end up being schools.
Kaamos_Llama
Moderator
Didnt need the pronoun jab @Frindis. Everyone's welcome here.
A middling to poor (according to critics) 40 dollar game is released to a segment of the market dominated by well regarded and very well established free to play games. It aint rocket science.
This sucks for Sony and big video games in general, if they cant guarantee profits either by following trends or innovating then where do AAA level devs go from here?
My moneys on mobile.
A middling to poor (according to critics) 40 dollar game is released to a segment of the market dominated by well regarded and very well established free to play games. It aint rocket science.
This sucks for Sony and big video games in general, if they cant guarantee profits either by following trends or innovating then where do AAA level devs go from here?
My moneys on mobile.
Colif
Moderator
I am pretty sure lots of people have lost loads of money betting on the wrong horse before. Metaverse comes to mind. Just have to keep trying. If you going to make a project based on a trend, you need to release it before trend stops.
Innovation is fine, replicating what already exists doesn't guarantee success. Only if you can do it cheaper, and better, then you can win.
Frindis
Moderator
I'm sorry you feel like it was a jab as that was not the intention. It was a pun towards the Concord devs and their lack of focus on what matters the most: making a good game. It's the same type of pun I could use against the LOTRO series producers who have ripped Tolkien's work to shreds.
They didn't do anything unique and nobody wanted what they released. They need to go back to the think box and come up with something that we consumers want. It is an oversaturated market, so you have to make something that stands out if you are going to have a chance. Either that or you make a solid niche product that peaks the interest of people.
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Kaamos_Llama
Moderator
Good games arent going anywhere, but AAA is in slightly downward trajectory.
Id prefer the big guys to split their budgets and take some risks. Instead of one 300 million game how about 5 60 million games? Even better how about 20 games of varying scope and budget to gauge what sticks and what doesnt work.
Id prefer the big guys to split their budgets and take some risks. Instead of one 300 million game how about 5 60 million games? Even better how about 20 games of varying scope and budget to gauge what sticks and what doesnt work.
Frindis
Moderator
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 review
After a rip-roaring first impression, the long-awaited sequel quickly runs out of steam.
oof. seems like my concerns about the game were justified. Multiplayer doesn't do this game justice. Shame.
in future i would love to see a COD: MW style imperial guard shooter.
edit: although that said, looking at other sites it seems like the package as a whole isn't bad. so maybe pcg is a blip or something.
I swear, though, that multiplayer is the highest risk type of game. I don't have any stats to back that up, just a general feeling from watching games fail.
If AAA fails, which it might, indies will rise up to create a new AAA, and it will be much better than the old AAA. AA indies like Stunlock, Coffee Stain and Giants (which is coming out with a non Farming Simulator game) can do a better job than the likes of EA.
Anyway, Sony will never stop pumping money into AAA productions. Xbox won't either. But that money may soon go to different companies. Look at Bloober suddenly making their first AAA game. It may be someone else's IP, but it will likely change that company forever.
AAA is the dream, and people who love to make games won't let it go. No eleven-year-old sitting at their PC playing GTA V thinks, "I want to make match 3 mobile games some day." We just have to be patient while the old guard dies off due to greed and incompetence. Then we can have the renaissance.
Well, this was a disappointing review score to see, but i wont judge! I like all the opinions. Looks like Space Marine 2 on average is getting 7/8 out of 10 anyways and it is kind of disappointing that theres no RT but, personally, that doesnt really affect my opinion on a game.
www.pcgamer.com
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 review
After a rip-roaring first impression, the long-awaited sequel quickly runs out of steam.
Colif
Moderator
I was wondering if it would be anything like Blast Corps... not really, but driving though and demolishing buildings was part of that game.
A remake of that game would be interesting today, if only as graphics have improved a little since 1998.
Its so old that most of the videos on it are over 10 years old themselves
Zloth
Community Contributor
'Worse than horse armour'—Age of Mythology: Retold is charging $6 for 22-year-old jpegs, giving the DLC 'very negative' Steam reviews before the game's even out
Mercifully, the base game's faring far better.
Colif
Moderator
Brian Boru
Moderator
Your money is very safe—I assume you saw the charts I posted ~a week ago which show mobile revenue as a good bit more than PC and consoles combined.
The inevitable result of such is consolidation—either IPs closing down or being bought by the few deep pockets which can outlast the others.
You will get that, just not yet. Dev costs for the shiny stuff many consumers demand will remain astronomical until AI is reliably exploited to slash them—probably 30s before that beds in. Meanwhile we players have to put up with the current situation.
From one studio? Likely to be a management nightmare and therefore guaranteed failures all round from which very little would be learned cos it would be too difficult to pinpoint what factors led to the poor performance.
No stats here either, but makes sense to me. Multi depends so much on the 'network effect', and getting that to work for you has to be an exercise in frustration, politics, corruption, luck etc.
Plus of course like SP it also needs to be a good product and in an unsaturated market.
Kaamos_Llama
Moderator
One publisher. The biggest ones already have many studios, there are apparently 9 working on Call Of Duty alone. MS had the right idea, buy talent, leave it alone and let it cook. The danger of that is what happened with the centralization, higher ups came and trashed good studios because the spreadsheet didnt look as good as they wanted immediately.
Mobile has been bigger than traditonal for years. I was more referring to during the pandemic where the bigger publishers saw a lot of growth on PC/console so execs apparently assumed that it would last forever and poured money in. I would guess every big budget game that fails to meet expectations tightens the overall taps a little more as we have seen already with all the layoffs, and theyll be putting funding somewhere else.
Wukong showed theres a huge relatively untapped market in China, I think @ZedClampet may have had a bit of a point when he said every AAA game will be set there in a few years
I think youre right about the indies for the forseeable future, and about Sony because they want to sell consoles based on their games as long as that is viable. Microsoft are pretty jittery about it all at the moment though. As I understand it, the console market has not been really growing for years. The big growth markets (aside from mobile) are for PC gaming, and a lot of that for ftp stuff. Who knows what the kids from today who mainly grew up with ftp models will want to make when theyre older, single player one off games might turn into an old person thing and slowly go off the map. The tea leaves are unclear.
Yea the scores way off the average. Not sure why they didnt get Jody to do the review as he does all other Warhammer stuff. Reviews are opinions pieces though, and it seemed like he justified what he was thinking pretty well. I'd have to play the game to seee whether any of it is true for me though, Im still prettyy excited to play it some dayWell, this was a disappointing review score to see, but i wont judge! I like all the opinions. Looks like Space Marine 2 on average is getting 7/8 out of 10 anyways and it is kind of disappointing that theres no RT but, personally, that doesnt really affect my opinion on a game.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 review
After a rip-roaring first impression, the long-awaited sequel quickly runs out of steam.
Colif
Moderator
All for games being set in countries apart from USA. I think you have enough already.
I just want these games to be geographically correct IE accurately represent what you would find in that region, based on research and not just what you find on wikipedia.
Also helps if you accurately portray the population and don't base it on who you see in your city... the world isn't all the same.
Show respect for the country you are using as backdrop and people will accept it.
Decide to impose your own ideas and well... it may not end well. Generally other countries don't appreciate outsiders coming in and portraying them incorrectly.
Do it right and you won't have Governments having enquiries into your game (how did you guess I was talking about AC?)
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