So, MS saw Steam on PC was successful with always online DRM and felt it was a great idea to make its nextbox always online too? If they offer a workable offline mode maybe this could work but this being MS and the rumours of this being oriented towards video services and cable, not to mention the dismal (and deserved) reputation MS has earned from indie devs and its paid online network don't really paint a nice pre-announcement picture for the next XBox, let's see how it all pans out.
I think video games need to have something of a movie ticket kind of release now, or at the very least match prices with retail releases of popular TV shows and movies so that the bumped up audience can help recoup the dev costs while turning a profit but for this to happen the main issue is the number of users who have a platform to play the games on. Consoles and gaming-grade PCs are not as widely available as the throngs of people who own a dvd player or can go buy a cinema ticket while at the mall. When/If streaming games with appropriate networks to support them take off (which IMHO is doubtful for the next 5-10 years even though the PS4 is partly betting on it), it might actually enable such a business model by eliminating the barrier of the platform to play the game on and enabling any screen to play the game, be it mobile or in the living room. It's definitely not ideal but studios need a very large number of paying customers to support growing costs and while the audience has grown tremendously over the past few years, it just does not seem to be enough to match the almost movie CGI grade graphics we have come to expect for 15+ hours.
Just remake Megaman Zero into a super polished lush yet gritty 3D platformer with DMC-style combat and make some of the characters truly mature (yes, it has a mature and interesting story with great themes despite the simplicity) or just make that recent youtube vid where X goes all karate with busters on mavericks and we have a great new Megaman. But no, Capcom management was on an anti-Inafune witch hunt across the company prior to and after his departure. I just hope they come to their senses in time and bring the Megaman we know and love back in some worthwhile video game form.
YES! If the open sourcing of Freespace, Doom and Quake is any indication, there is a great chance of seeing some very nifty fan-made upgrades to these classics in a few years (yes, coding takes time)! I've always wanted to see some visual upgrades to the Jedi Knight series although its 2003-era Quake engine graphics still hold up remarkably well even now. The gameplay itself is as awesome as ever, one of the best Star Wars game series out there.
Lucasarts has had a rough current generation, the main new game coming from them that I can remember was Star Wars the Force Unleashed and little else of note, the first one was great, a Star Wars movie experience through and through, the second one was not so great in its second half but mostly I'd chalk that up to the ex-Epic guy who came in halfway through to run the show and almost cancelled it, killing what was shaping up to be a great game as the first half of SW:TFU 2 amply shows. 1313 looked very promising and was probably built on the TFU engine which did some really amazing things with physics but a handful of games over an extended console generation cannot keep a studio alive what with the dev costs these days. Lucasarts has earned its place in the gaming hall of honour with the myriad of classics it has put out since its creation: Monkey Island, various excellent Star Wars Game series, Grim Fandango and many more game series across a tonne of genres. It's sad to see it go and will be fondly remembered but looking back at how it performed recently it is somewhat understandable to see this happen. Now, if the laid off staff go and found their own studio and start some more awesomeness free from mismanagement a la TellTale Games and Doublefine then this could actually be very interesting. Also, sell the rights of Monkey Island back to Gilbert or Mickey Mouse will be a symbol of oppression and nobody wants that.
@franzito Tokyo Jungle is one of the best RPGs released in 2012 and it made a lot of positive noise, you really should check it out. Don't let the graphics fool you, I got so addicted to this game that I dropped playing everything else for several weeks just to finish up the game's story and fool around with alternate playable "characters".
Now, I love AC but a "quality product" means actual new content (no padding), minimal to no bugs and satisfying stories and characters in each entry, did any of these criteria get satisfied since Revelations was out? Yearly releases are just about having a steady revenue stream while sucking the life out of the people and studios making the franchise until the brand holds no value anymore. It's like a steam train heading towards a cliff just because the one driving it does not have the brains to slow down and angle the tracks differently.
@R2C25 @chronocommander @ryan0991 @Mr_Mark_Legion That particular user is part of the messed up platform fanboy group for sure, kinda hilarious at times though mostly irritating. But more seriously, one particularly messed up user cannot be representative of the entire fanboybase (I never thought I'd use a word like this).
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