20°

The Feel Thing- by Mr Biffo

Mr Biffo writes: So, Ken Levine - lovely Ken Levine, creator of Bioshock - is apparently working on a game that is going to treat video game narrative and character in a whole new way.

Speaking to GameInformer, here's what he had to honk: "The whole system that I came up with, and that we’re developing, is based upon the fact that to make an interesting character, you have to have a character who has a bunch of passions, wants, and needs.

"The player now has the ability to facilitate those wants or needs or go against those wants or needs or ignore those wants or needs."

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digitiser2000.com
370°

Anyone else not blown away with graphics these days? Me neither

Talal writes: "I'm talking about having that rush of excitement - that feeling you get when you know you've just made a memory for a lifetime."

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videogamer.com
OptimusDK20h ago

There are different games. Some have gamplay at it highest priority, some have the story, some have the replay value and choices... There are a lot of different game experiences.

It is laughable that just now graphics does not have anything to do with that experiene. We have had many games of that type over time. This is just the one that have come closest to feel like playing an actual movie. Just look the the Digital foundry walkthrough it is a masterpiece in that perspective and hence wrth trying. But yes do not do it for the gameplay - but that was never the goal of this experience.

GamerRN12h ago

It's because it's on Xbox. When Xbox has amazing graphics, they don't matter. When PlayStation does, it's a game changer!

Lightning7712h ago

Pretty much my thoughts. They were technical marvel's on PS and still are. The moment Xbox puts out a graphically intense game is doesn't matter suddenly.

4 years ago this month would the UE5 tech demo debut with the girl flying (tech demo said it was only possible on PS5 because of the SSD. Glad to finally see it in its glory.

fr0sty10h ago

FFS, gaming journalism has really gone downhill. At least hire people with a basic grasp of grammar... "Me neither" means the exact opposite of what the "author" is trying to say. That's like saying "I could care less"... lol.

S2Killinit10h ago

Maybe because the gameplay being dull allowed it to have the amazing graphics and people are not as impressed by graphics alone anymore? I mean there is a lot of sites saying the story and the gameplay are lackluster. So what are we supposed to enjoy then? Cgi graphics are beautiful but since they arent interactive, they dont impress me as much as they used to. Thats an extreme example, but you get my drift.

Terry_B6h ago

When Playstation (Sony) does it..its usually a great game and not a cinematic experience..or at least something new at the time..like Until Dawn back in 2015.

1Victor4h ago

@gamer:” It's because it's on Xbox. When Xbox has amazing graphics, they don't matter. When PlayStation does, it's a game changer!”

The game looks as good as any other PlayStation game in my eyes why can’t you and the other hardcore Xbox be happy about it and drag PlayStation into every conversation and force PlayStation hardcore to look into the game and find flaw that most games have in one way or another.
@light: “ 4 years ago this month would the UE5 tech demo debut with the girl flying (tech demo said it was only possible on PS5 because of the SSD. ”
Yes at that time it was only possible on PlayStation SSD how ignorant of you to think that after 4 years the technology wouldn’t evolved and move to a industry standard 🤦🏿I wish your mentality wasn’t so naive and narrow to post stuff like that 😩 in a year or 2 a new game will come out that might look better, it’s the nature of the industry.

Now that the distraction is gone I feel that is a good thing that the graphics in games are starting to hit the rooftop and hopefully the developers will put more thoughts into story and gameplay mechanics than just the next shiny oily skin of old.

Reaper22_4h ago

So true. Not surprised by all the negativity. It's a really good game and looks better than any game I've ever seen. GOTY nominee for sure. Like I said before, sony screwed up big time by not purchasing Ninja Theory.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4h ago
MajorLazer3h ago(Edited 3h ago)

We've had graphical gamechangers before, such as Crysis but those games still had gameplay to compliment it. Hellblade pretty much has none, and only achieved such graphics through being incredibly linear and having very small, closed off environments where very little is happening.

20h agoReplies(7)
Kneetos19h ago

Mario kart 8 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Sonic188119h ago

Horizon forbidden West has great graphics and great gameplay

GamerRN12h ago

Yeah but graphics don't matter, remember?

VincentVanBro13h ago

I agree and I actually think Forbidden West looks better than Hellblade 2. I easily prefer looking at it at least.

Show all comments (86)
220°

Activision’s new Elsewhere Entertainment studio is working on a new IP

Headquartered in Poland, Elsewhere Entertainment — an all-new internal studio at Activision — is working on a new “narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise.” Elsewhere includes developers credited on The Last of Us, Uncharted, Destiny, Cyberpunk, and more. Activision’s new studio announcement comes just a week after its parent company, Microsoft, closed three Bethesda studios. It also follows job postings about a new Activision IP.

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theverge.com
Sciurus_vulgaris8d ago

The game industry confuses, closing down proven studios only open a new studio?

ThinkThink8d ago

It would certainly be strange if this news came from Bethesda, but Activision is its on monster.

Eonjay8d ago

To be fair, many Activision employees lost their jobs too during the the last few months. So it really is quite odd to see them opening another studio. All I can say is they better not do another mass layoff anytime soon or its just gonna piss everyone off. Studio description reminds me of The Initiative. The only saving grace is that they aren't claiming to be making a AAAA game lol. I guess we will check back in in 5 years to see how everything is going.

XiNatsuDragnel8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

Man what ip are they cooking? /s.

RaidenBlack8d ago

Soldier of Fortune 🤞🏻
Hexen/Heretic?
True Crime?

8d ago Replies(1)
thesoftware7308d ago

Gotta break some eggs to make an omelet.

romulus238d ago

Tango Gameworks was the omelet, so that statement fails on the face of it.

InUrFoxHole8d ago

Really? What special games did they make 🤔

romulus238d ago

@InUrFoxHole

Well, xbox was pretty adamant that Hi-Fi Rush was special, journalist and gamers seemed to agree and from my own personal experience I would say it was a great game. They also made Ghostwire: Tokyo, and the Evil Within series.

thesoftware7308d ago (Edited 8d ago )

Yeah, then the head/lead of the company left...

No hope for a good Evil within game, ghost wire was not really successful,and HI-FI alone was not enough to keep an entire studio open.

Eonjay8d ago

@thesoftware730

I think the fact that this 'wasn't enough' is a problem wouldn't you concede?

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 8d ago
romulus238d ago

Hi-Fi Rush was a great game regardless of who left and according to Aaron Greenberg,

"Hi-Fi RUSH was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release."

So of course they rewarded the team for their accomplishment by firing them. They have studios that have contributed much less that they haven't closed. It is going to be very difficult for any game to be successful when it goes straight to gamepass day one.

Einhander19728d ago (Edited 8d ago )

I think this is just a publicity stunt and that this studio never actually produces a game. Someone at Microsoft was like were getting cooked in the media after they closed these studios and they came up with a plan to create some dummy studio someplace outside of the reach of the English speaking presses reach to distract people.

"Oh hey we're not closing studios we're actually creating studios"

And of course what are they working on... the type of game that gets the most popular public perception a narrative driven story based game... ya know not the thing Activision and Microsoft are known for.

8d ago Replies(2)
Einhander19728d ago

GamingFans6946m ago
They hired a bunch of people and opened a new studio for a publicity stunt?

Yea, they hired people... Who? "Oh, you know, people..." people who worked on TLOU Uncharted and Destiny of course...

It's the same crap they did with The Initiative where they were under fire for buying a bunch of studios and not forming anything except even more sketchy this time. Of course the The Initiative was formed with people mostly poached from PlayStation specifically Naughty Dog, then less than 12 months later almost everyone was back at Sony and The Initiative was rumored to have lost 80% of it's staff and the game they were working on was announced to actually be getting developed by Crystal Dynamics.

Noskypeno8d ago

The way we need to look at these buzzwords is the same that we see when a sports team brings in the best athletes in their position in hopes to bring them to look like a superteam, only to barely win half of their games or lose in the first round of the playoffs. Sometimes superteams work, but when it doesn't it just makes you question how they can't take advantage of their abilities.

Show all comments (41)
90°

Two Decades Later, the Original Splinter Cell is Still a Masterpiece

They don't make games like this anymore.

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gamingbolt.com
vgvill9d ago

Too dated in my book. The AI is way too unpredictable to be acceptable today. It's definitely a game of its time.

Jingsing9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

Agreed with those sentiments. The quality of the CPU controlled characters make or break a stealth game and they are pretty poor in all the Splinter Cell games by today's standard. This is what led me to playing Spies vs Mercs all the time in later games just to get a better stealth experience from a real person. Arguably Sony are making better stealth games albeit not Tom Clancy stuff.

TheProfessional8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

You should stick with fortnite or one of the countless bloodborne style games then. What a joke.

rlow19d ago

I had a good time with the game. It is a product of its time. But when it came out it was a must have game for a lot of people. I wish Ubisoft would make another game in the series or at least a reboot.

vgvill8d ago

They are making a remake, I think. I loved the original game when it was released, but I tried to play it again in recent years and just couldn't get on with it. The same with the older Hitman games.

PrecursorOrb8d ago

Yeah chaos theory still holds up though I gotta say. If you’re a fan of the series I highly suggest you go back to that one. Ubi has said they are remaking sc for “modern audiences”. I don’t have a lot of faith for the future of that company

Chocoburger8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

Due to the lack of modern stealth games, and me constantly playing the MGS series, I've been looking for alternative stealth games to play, and went back and re-played the SC series recently. I wouldn't call SC1 or SC:PT masterpieces, there are AI issues, they're very much trial-and-error games, and that can lead to a lot of frustration. I also found the stories in this series to be boring, uninteresting, and just sloppily told. Cinematics are also of poor quality for both in-game scenes and CG cut-scenes, the soundtrack didn't leave any impression on me either.

Chaos Theory is better, but there was still a lot of room for improvement, and Double Agent (old gen ver.) was a sloppy mess that ended up a regression from CT. But still, at least they tried back then, these days Ubi-junk doesn't even try to make good games!

HvNzSoul7h ago

Everyone needs to quit with all of the unnessacery Ubi-hate. SC Conviction and Blacklist are both still good games.

HvNzSoul7h ago

Everyone needs to quit with all of the unnecessary Ubi-hate. SC Conviction and Blacklist are both still good games, they just weren't 100% focused on stealth with Conviction and they remedied that in Blacklist. The only thing they have released recently that I was disappointed with was Watch Dogs Legion, and Skull & Bones. Everyone seems to be salty about the misleading trailer for the original Watch Dogs and The Division. Which are also, both good games, and actually Watch Dogs seems like it was ahead of its time even with all the trailer drama (having gone back and played recently, can say the game didnt deserve all the flak). Yeah the misleading E3 trailer that had better graphics than release is understandable to a very small degree, when most Teaser Trailers, or Game Demo's only have that portion of the game developed so they use the highest quality assets of w/e they have being showed, or what they are showing was made purely for the showing, allowing for extra polish . As to the gripes about minor game design changes, or cut features upon a games release just goes to show how unknowledgeable most gamers are in terms of how game development works or to even understand what what the hell a WIP, let alone titles still in early development.

Good games from Ubi since 2014 (Year that SC Blacklist Released) include:

Watch Dogs 1 & 2
The Division 1 & 2 (Although I had a hard time getting into The Division 2 at first)
R6 Siege
Ghost Recon Wildlands & Breakpoint
Immortals Fenyx Rising
AC Origins, Odyssey, MIrage (Haven't finished Valhalla games too damn long)
Far Cry Primal, and 5 (6 also has a length issue)
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
Prince Of Persia The Lost Crown

Haven't played a couple of titles those being For Honor (played at launch but didn't honestly give it an actual go), The Crew, R6 Extraction and at the time of writing this xDefiant.

Even if you absolutely hated any of the above titles, they aren't inherently bad games, they're just good, but not always top quality either.

I say give Ubi credit where credit is due, they at least fix games post launch if they start out rough, Breakpoint is an excellent example this and is such an enjoyable experience now compared to it's launch.