Sony's Playstation was the sole home of the Tenchu series for quite some time; another one of those "exclusives" that the big black box would never see.
The gaming landscape is a bit different now. It appears that the latest trend is uni-platform releases, sometimes even when an exclusive was a part of the original plan (cough, GTA, cough, cough Assassin's Creed).
The acquiring of the Tenchu license from Sony immediately meant that the stealth/action series was open to all consoles, including the Xbox. With Tenchu: Return from Darkness doing just so-so on the Xbox, and with a general lack of interest from gamers in the franchise, Activision bailed and left the ball in FROM's court. It's taken a bit of time, but yes, we actually have a Tenchu game coming to the Xbox 360 in June.
Tenchu Z is the next-gen version of this long-running series, but a quick glance at the demo will make it abundantly clear that most of the dev team's energy has gone into the gameplay programming. There's the typical Tenchu clip, the blurry background textures, and even some animations that look ported straight from earlier iterations of the series. Yes, Tenchu Z is a bit visually disappointing in this demo, but hopefully things will somehow be a bit different in the final version.
While some video games overwhelm you with sheer scale, titles like Asura's Wrath and Doom Eternal make you the boss player right upfront.
Wolfenstein: The New Order turns ten years old today, so we decided to play it again and discovered just how much of an extinct kind of game it is.
It's an outstanding game and so was The Old Blood. Also a lost era of gaming. Interesting, I received a physical copy of The Old Blood 9 years ago today from Poland. It was digital only in North America initially upon release so I had to import.
Wolfenstein: The New Order launched 10 years ago today, but can it stand up to the modern FPS titles it inspired?
I disagree. Its still a fantastic game, with very good gunplay and a surprisingly loveable cast of characters and a good story trough many different and interesting setpieces
All The New Order needs for my tastes is a this gen enhancement patch.
I played New Order a couple of years after launch and I give it an 8/10. The shooter holds up because it is focused on being a good shooter. There is no crafting, no RPG elements, no open world find the question mark Weapons are fun. Enemies are fun. Levels offer a nice mix of stealth and shooting. You get to be the predator; this isn’t a game about fending off waves of enemies while a robot companion unlocks a door. Most importantly, New Order is the last of a dying breed of single player shooters.
Singleplayer shooters are still getting released every year, just look up "boomer shooters" and you'll find an an abundance of them. AAA fps campaigns, not so much.
Last year had Trepang2, RoboCop: Rogue City, Turbo Overkill, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Dread Templar, Sprawl and more
The games you mentioned are not from AAA developers. Wolfenstein likely had a budget that was probably as big as all those games you mentioned combined. I'm not knocking the new wave of retro shooters. I absolutely love them (I think some get much higher review scores than they deserve though). I just really wouldn't describe Wolfenstein as purely a boomer shooter based on the relatively cohesive story, with cut scenes and is fully voice acted. Full set piece moments.
AA development seems to be focused keeping the single player solo experience alive. But the big developers are only concerned about the MTX and milking players who enjoy multiplayer.
The age of AA shooters. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I like less expense, shorter games.
Weird all the Wolfenstein articles.
Can you guess what will be announced at Xbox showcase?
What Machine Games did with Wolfenstein franchise is awesome. The game play definitely to me , is still very fun to play !!!
Dont bother downloading this its total pap!!!
i downloaded it yesterday, i can't believe the gameplay mechanics are EXACTLY like the original Tenchu for PSx... don't even get me started on the graphics... during the in-game cutscenes, their mouths don't even move!
I THOUGHT THIS WAS 2007!
Don't bother to download this game is garbage.
I could tell the series was dying when I played "RETURN TO DARKNESS" on the Xbox. The game played well, but it was too long, there wasn't much difference between missions, and the graphics were sub-par.
Tenchu may have been a pioneer in the stealth/action genre, but they've failed to keep up with current gaming standards, and are now obsolete.
Too bad most of them are crap :(
Edit:
Bladestar, that's not worse, that's irrelevant. Seriously, multiplatform games hardly matter for a purchasing decision; I rather have a console with ports that look OK, than a console that breaks. (I have both anyway, but that is if I had to make a choice). Those that just buy Madden will go to PS3 since it doesn't break and since PlayStation has a strong brand name, but anyway, those are still happy with their PS2.
By the way, virtua tennis, fight night and oblivion are better on PS3. Dipshiit.