Greatoneshere

Since Wasteland 3 comes out in just a few weeks, inXile Entertainment has announced one of their new games, Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds (a multiplayer VR shooter, team-based, PvPvE and definitely not my thing). This doesn't sound like the game @JPDunks4 was referring too, which definitely seems to be coming (since Frostpoint comes out just later this year). As a result, here's an updated list of what Microsoft's first party studios are up to: -343 Industries: Halo Infinite -The Coalition: Gears of War 6 (most likely) -Double Fine: Psychonauts 2 -inXile Entertainment: Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds; untitled triple AAA RPG -Ninja Theory: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II -Obsidian Entertainment: Avowed; Grounded -Playground Games: Fable -Rare: Everwild -Turn 10 Studios: Forza Motorsport -Undead Labs: State of Decay 3 -World’s Edge: Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (with Tantalus Media) -Relic Entertainment: Age of Empires IV (not a first party studio but still kind of counts) -Compulsion Games: ????? -The Initiative: ????? -Mojang Studios: just released Minecraft Dungeons I took Wasteland 3 off of the list since it has been essentially released now. It's a solid slate of games, many unproven but could turn out really good. I'm definitely in for Gears 6 and Hellblade II at least. Depending on reviews and word of mouth, I may also be in for Halo Infinite, Psychonauts 2, Avowed, Fable, Everwild, and Age of Empires IV. That's a pretty good turn out for me personally.

The idea sounds great. And an original film to boot. I'm tentatively in!

He left after principal photography had finished, just no pick-up shots/reshoots were done yet. His daughter committed suicide in March 2017, he left the production in May 2017, and the movie came out in November 2017. So it wasn't that long between when he left the movie and it came out (just 8 months). And let's be clear, Snyder leaving the production due to his daughter's suicide is just a cover - he was forced out, with that being the excuse, once test screenings were done and WB execs hated it (though they may not have been in the right mind, wanting the opposite of Batman v Superman at the time due to its colossal failure). You don't wait two months after your daughter's suicide to leave production - you'd have left right away. WB had also ultimately mandated a film under two hours, which won't happen here. Yeah, this.

It looks great, I agree. But it's a tough choice for me, it's art syle accounts for its beauty as much as the technical aspect to it (in good ways). Like, I would say in terms of in-game character animations and clipping and mo-cap, Death Stranding (modified Decimus engine), FF15 (Luminous engine), RE2Remake + RE3Remake (the RE engine), and The Last of Us Part II have it beat. But the art style and breadth of visual colors that pop overcome the slightly less technical visual marvel to make it all look really good overall. But in terms of pure visual engine that impresses me the most, Sucker Punch's engine is great (I see a lot of improvements on what Infamous: Second Son started) but not sure which engine is my favorite yet.

I think he definitely means anything shot after he left production. Anything done under him, even second unit, I imagine he'll definitely include. He just won't include anything that was done under Whedon, even second unit under Whedon, is what he means I think.

I think that's fair (I agree with you!), my point was definitely about more than just your post.

I agree, not sure what people are expecting out of games. Shenmue III disappoints, Death Stranding disappoints, the end of FF7R disappoints, The Last of Us Part II disappoints, and now Ghost of Tsushima isn't original? I mean, all these games deserve criticism, of course, but at some point we have to realize not every game will be Disco Elysium or Super Mario 64 but can still be good or great. It's like the old adage, "don't let perfect be the enemy of good".

I just finished beating this on PC. Great game, and not as hard as people said it was - you just gotta learn the patterns is the biggest thing.

Damn! That's very cool - and I agree - Konami letting its franchises die is a damn shame. I was hopeful for Suikoden after the poor Suikoden IV and Tactics with the good Suikoden V and Tierkreis that we were gonna get even more, and better, Suikoden. It never came, sadly (until now, perhaps!). Your knowledge of the series definitely outstrips mine. Yeah, all the characters to me were just really memorable, and I felt very pulled in to the story, which felt very well paced.

I definitely agree about the opening at least! So good. Great song too. As for the bafflement, I actually enjoyed the battle system (as obtuse as it was sometimes, and I recall the game being grind-y), so I think that might be the red line between us on this game since you really seemed to not like it haha. I'm not a huge and deep Suikoden fan though, so me loving III the most could just be because I'm more of a layman as a fan towards the series. So perhaps it was one of the more accessible entries maybe for others? Nice to discuss Suikoden with a real fan though, genuinely. Not a lot of us left.

I mean for me personally - it was the the characters and intersecting storylines. I enjoyed the earnestness of the story and the diversity of not only characters but their stories that were being told (for the time it came out). My thoughts echo a lot of the more positive Suikoden fan reviews for the game on metacritic, if that helps any. I should note I haven't played the game in over a decade though. The game was definitely a bit grind-y, as I recall, but I dunno, it was a lot of fun and unique in its setting, etc. It's the highest rated Suikoden game by critics and the second highest rated Suikoden game by users on metacritic if those facts help defend my claim at all: https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-2/suikoden-iii

Surprised to see Suikoden III hate. I love that game, and behind Suikoden II, is easily considered the next best in the entire franchise, generally speaking. It's a pretty hot take to hate that one I'd say. Otherwise though, I think this is the ranking as generally agreed upon by the fan community (from best to worst, with spaces indicating lower tiers): -Suikoden II -Suikoden III -Suikoden I -Suikoden V -Suikoden Tierkreis -Suikoden Tactics -Suikoden IV I'd honestly only bother with the first three (II and III are legit good still), maybe V and Tierkreis. Tactics and IV are not good games.

I've heard the same about Underwater, I should check it out! Going to the top of the list.

They should probably wait to see how The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf turns out first before making this, but I'm all in to at least check it out either way. Really enjoyed season 1 of the TV series (which adapts much of the first two books).

Go watch last years Color out of Space starring Nicolas Cage (based on the short story of the same name). It is an excellent Lovecraft adaptation.

I mean, it's a well put together, well made, competently made film. It's story and characters are indeed what are lacking, but the scope and ambition make up for it. We rarely get sci-fi/space opera films that actually take place in space and on other planets, so it's nice to just get a film that does on a large scale. I'm starved for such content, and Avatar does it well enough. But I agree, ultimately fairly forgettable film.

I recommend Hustlers with Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu instead. Great movie and it's not a case of a remake where women are just replacing men in the cast. It's an original film very loosely based on a true story. If not that I recommend Steven McQueen's Widows as well (he did Hunger, Shame and 12 Years A Slave), which I stil find highly underrated.

Same. I own the super extended version on bluray and have watched it 2-3 times over the years. It's a fun, solid sci-fi flick but not much more. It's scale and Cameron's solid skill keep it together.

I agree with all of this. Obsidian is interesting - they are a company always emulating other companies. Their first game, KOTOR II, and their second game, Neverwinter Nights 2, were both emulating Bioware. Then, after Alpha Protocol, they emulated Bethesda with Fallout: New Vegas. Right afterward, they emulated Gas Powered Games with Dungeon Siege III. They've begun to forge their own path since with South Park: The Stick of Truth, Pillars of Eternity I + II, SkyForge, and Tyranny, but after playing The Outer Worlds, which was good, but not great, that game felt a lot like it was emulating Bethesda's Fallout model. This is no slight against them, I think they outdo the originals in some cases with their version of the IP, but I also agree that I am interested in Avowed but I don't want it to just be "Obsidian does Bethesda's Elder Scrolls" because that wasn't so great for The Outer Worlds.

SE gonna SE.

I do feel as if I took all that into account too already when I made the list. You can't even average out the game development time for 4 of the 6 studios from Sony who haven't even announced yet. Even with your additional variables, Microsoft comes out ahead. Again, yeah, I agree it's more scale and proficiency question than numbers, but numbers do tell us something when everything else is taken into account.

I absolutely agree - all release dates will shift. Was my post assuming anything about how far along games are? To elaborate: I'm saying I think both Sony and Microsoft's roadmaps are screwed, just that on its face since Microsoft has more announced games that perhaps they are more far along in terms of games getting lined up for the next generation. Part of the reason I think this is because 6 of Sony's studios just released games in 2019 and 2020, which isn't the case with Microsoft's 15 studios, so Sony has to by default be "more behind". It's all just speculation, but that's why I think that. No credence to it you think? First party studios can only really work on one double or triple A game at a time (just look at each company's resume, seems to be the case) so it's going to take those 6 studios awhile to get going. Not only is there a console generation shift and COVID-19 to contend with, each of those 6 studios just finished hauling ass on their last game in each case.

Even Halo Wars 1 + 2 are good! Better than Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, certainly.

I had no idea, if that's true then yes, that makes it 15 for Microsoft, exactly the same as Sony. That would make it 4 out of the 15 studios that didn't or haven't announced a game from Microsoft then (though I think it's a safe bet to assume that The Coalition is working on Gears 6 and I doubt Mojang is working on anything). So that does leave two left, including The Initiative. Thanks for the info! Surprised The Initiative didn't announce a game then. But I think 12 out of 15 first party studios having announced games is pretty damn good on Microsoft's part, all told (with Obsidian working on two at once). Technically that's currently better than Sony's 9 out of 15 studios with announced games (with Insomniac working on two at once), so at that point it becomes about the catalogue of games and what intrigues each individual person. Son'y lineup and style of games feels very different from Microsoft's lineup and style of games (in terms of first party studio games).

I don't count The Initiative for the same reason I don't count Sony's San Mateo Studio (formerly Foster City Studio) or Sony's XDev Studio since The Initiative seems to just shepherd projects for other studios rather than make any games of their own. That's my understanding of them so far anyway. If I were to count The Initiative, that would make it 15 for Microsoft, but then I'd have to count San Mateo and XDev for Sony, which would make 17 for Sony. But studios who shepherd projects to help out other studios doesn't strike me as being worthwhile to count (in terms of games), despite all the great support work they do, I'm sure. And we'll see if that comes to fruition for inXile! A company working on two games at once is pretty rare, we'll see if the game ever really materializes, as this happens a lot during a new system launch where studios get ambitious, pseudo-announce an untitled project, and then it never happens. I stick to a game with at least a title and/or a trailer of some kind (even just an announcement trailer). I have the same policy with films, TV, and anime, after having been burned too many times in my life from exciting announcements that never went anywhere for years in many instances. I think Remedy (for example) recently said they're going to expand and make like 3-4 games, and I was like: "yeah right, we'll see".