Nintendo has now officially upped the difficulty threshold of Xenoblade Chronicles X a thousand fold. Not that I used a lot of online features, but taking care of BLADE missions while aimlessly wandering the planet was kind of neat.
RIP, 3DS and WiiU online support. You were great while you lasted.
When you say he “hates diversity,” what exactly do you mean? If you mean in an identity politics kind of way then he’s actually citing some excellent examples. If you mean diversity in the sense of “varying types of gameplay” then Suicide Squad is just another looter shooter wearing a DC comics skin suit and the Saints Row remake…frankly I have no idea what that was even supposed to be.
I would argue the endless virtue signaling goes hand-in-hand with the “masses of soulless trash” being released (I’d tried for other descriptors but frankly you said it better than I could.)
Even goofier when Arkham Knight (which is obviously canon) references stuff from Origins with both Firefly (who talks openly about being thwarted at the bridge) and Deathstroke (albeit his is more vague about past dealings). If I remember right, even the Red Hood DLC had some callbacks to the Black Mask story from Origins. Rocksteady is kind of dumb, but since they’ve gone the obvious 2023 route of tearing down established heroes in favor of building up villains as the new heroes I guess it fits.
I didn’t think anything could be less exciting than Gotham Knights (which I agree is baffling to not be counted as canon either) but SS:KtJL might just be it. Yawn.
This also allows companies like Limited Run (or whatever their name is) to swoop in and capitalize. Don’t get me wrong - they make very nice collections, but you then end up paying a lot of money to own a disc version of likely a $20 game, often because you don’t have the option to not purchase the collection set with the figurines and animation cells and art books and whatnot.
Again, cool stuff, but some of us just want the games.
The gameplay in the Uncharted games is there to service the story and keep it moving forward. There’s not really anything wrong with focusing on story in a single player game - if you want one where the bonkers story takes a backseat to the gameplay, I present to you Bayonetta (nothing wrong with that either, just saying.)
Personally love the UC games stories, but I’m also a sucker for pulp adventure.
Probably a Souls-like. That seems to be the rage these days. I could see Druckmann playing 15 minutes of Elden Ring and asking his team, “But how can we make this inclusive and diverse?”
Upgrading the gaming experience of Joel getting beaten to death by a thoroughly unlikable new character from HD to UHD? Seems like a cash grab to me.
But whatever. I’ve lost this argument before. Game companies obsessing about remakes and remasters should be digging deep, going after licenses for games that literally can’t be found anymore or are prohibitively hard to procure. I refuse to believe that someone couldn’t reverse-engineer from a working copy of, say, Panzer Dragoon Saga to rebuild the game from the ground up (yes, I know there’s factors such as “Is there a mass-appeal market for the amount of effort this would take” and other economical points to consider - this is only an example.) But no, let’s re-remaster recent games instead. Who can’t have enough copies of Devil May Cry or Last of Us 1/2?
Hear, hear. The most interesting point the SAG-AFTRA group brought up in their demands is the whole having their likenesses exploited by AI issue, but even that could be circumvented by, oh I don’t know, actually taking the time to read a contract first before signing it? Entertainment is important, but actors are not always shining beacons of rationale and intelligence. And as for the whole pay thing, just remember that your least favorite actor on your favorite show still makes more money per season than you’ll likely see in a year. If that’s not enough to get by, then I think they have other problems to contend with on a more personal level.
I stand corrected - I think I was counting the version of MGS3 included in the MGS Collection on PS3 as a remake and just took it for granted that it had been done again since then.
As for remakes, I was never big on the RE series but I get why people love them and don’t exactly want the tank controls and blocky polygons anymore. As for me, I’ll care when someone announces a ground-up remake of Koudelka/Shadow Hearts or maybe the original Parasite Eve.
So…another remake of a game that’s been remade already? The game industry is a lot like Hollywood, aren’t they? MGS3 is already pretty great - what could they possibly hope to add?
Either work on original content or, if you have to remake something, dig deep and find something that literally no one can get hold of anymore.
…Sorry. I know I’ve been on this soapbox before, and when Naughty Dog announces another remaster of The Last of Us in another couple of years I’ll pull it back out and shout at the clouds some more.
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