It’s the end of the week again gamers, and that means it’s time for another news roundup. Very little came from Quakecon in terms of announcements but that’s ok because there were a lot of moving pieces this last week which gives us some things to talk about. I’m of the mind that 2022 is going to be the “primer” for this generations golden age because there’s a plethora of things going on to bring us good games and good game related media in the coming years.
News Round Up
- A few more games saw delays (which is not surprising).
- Days Gone is getting a cinematic counterpart.
- Rumors pointing towards a sequel for the PlayStation exclusive, Helldivers.
- Embracer group continues to buy companies thus expanding their place in the industry.
- Disney will be showing off games related to their owned IP during the D23 showcase.
The Delays Strike Again
4 highly anticipated games have recently seen delays. Marvels Midnight Suns was slated to release October 7 and has now been said to release at the end of 2K Games’ fiscal year which ends March of next year. High On Life’s original release date was also in October (the 25th) but earlier this week the game’s developer, Squanch Games, released a statement saying the game will now come out on December 13. Evil West was supposed to come out September 20th but is now releasing on November 22. The last game to be delayed this week is was Hogwarts Legacy. This game was supposed to come out later this year (Holiday 2022) now it will hit all platforms on February 10 next year. All of these games were on my watch list and I’m sad to see the Midnight Suns and Hogwarts Legacy get pushed back to next year. Shigeru Miyamoto once said, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” and I agree with it so much. Complete games are far and few between, so when companies want to take more time to work on their games I’m fully onboard. There are plenty of games to play in my backlog plus there are more games coming out this year that have not (yet) been delayed that I’m still looking forward to playing. (XmanFiles)
Days Gone To Get A Feature Film
Days gone, which is a severely underrated work of narrative driven gameplay, is rumored to be in the process of adaptation to film. Actor Sam Heughan is rumored to be on deck to portray Deacon St John. While several of his films I have not seen, he was most recently in Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot movie. Details are scarce, but if this proves to be fact, I am incredibly intrigued to see how they will condense this 30 plus hour game into a potential two hour feature-length film. I can’t say that it’s impossible, because Sony struck gold when it released Uncharted, which to my surprise has done incredibly better than I expected. Hardcore fans of the games have taken some issue with how various parts of the story and characters were altered for the film. My hope is that the directors for Days Gone will be able to do justice to the great game that it is today. Days Gone did not receive the highest critical acclaim, specifically at launch primarily because of pacing and bugs. However after many bug fixes, additional challenge modes, and people actually giving the game a chance to get into the second half where everything becomes exponentially more interesting, it seems that the game has increased its fan base. It is rumored that Days Gone has sold 9 million copies to date, but those figures have not been corroborated by Sony. However, if the film adaptation is a success, fans can begin to get their hopes up about the possibility of a sequel. As we know, a sequel for Days Gone was pitched by Sony bend but rejected. A successful film adaptation just might pump enough new excitement into the fan base and convince Sony bigwigs to fund the next chapter in this story. I have yet to finish the first game, but I hear it’s a cliffhanger perfectly set up for a sequel. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and I will continue to follow this rumor and update you right here on the blog. (JusBernard)
Diving Into Hell For The Second Time
Earlier this week we got to see a quite comical social media post on Twitter from the social media manager for Arrowhead studios. The intent was to walk through a day in the life of her job. Said video starts with brewing a cup of coffee, sitting at the keyboard of her computer, taking that first mouse click and a sip of Joe, and then reading through all the comments. The next question of the video is simply an endless barrage of posts from fans of the first game repeatedly asking, “where is Helldivers 2????”. After seeing more than 30 comments asking the same question, the social media manager sips her coffee once more. The timing is quite interesting as it has been rumored that a sequel has been in development for some time. For those unfamiliar the original is a PlayStation 4 exclusive which was very well received by fans and has tremendous replay-ability as well as multiplayer benefits. Rumors suggest that the sequel will depart from the top down perspective and go to an over-the-shoulder view. How this will enhance our gameplay has yet to be seen. Also, with the incredible variety of weapons and loadouts in the original game, one can only imagine how the sequel will build upon the ambitions of the first games many weapons and vehicles. My fingers are crossed to at least get a glimpse of this game in some sort of teaser before the end of the year. Stay tuned! (JusBernard)
Embracer Group Is On A Buying Spree
Very early Thursday morning Embracer Group made a slew of purchases. The most notable among the new subsidiaries are Limited Run Games, which mainly prints digital exclusive games, and the rights to The Lord of The Rings in its totality. LOTR (Lord Of The Rings) IP being bought is pretty big news. The potential is really endless here but I would genuinely like to see a big RPG based in the Lord Of The Rings universe that gives the player similar feelings to playing Skyrim or Elden Rings. As previously stated, Limited Run Games print physical copies of digital exclusive games and collector esc media. I can’t think of too many ways they could be utilized differently than them just printing off games that are made under the Embracer Group umbrella. Embracer Group continues to buy and buy studios this is exciting because as I said in the opening, This year many companies have made moves that could lead to games being made that we could have never seen. This is another unprecedented move that could bear substantial fruit later on. (XmanFiles)
Disney Enters The Showcase Ring !!!
The graphic above was seen Monday. This was completely left field for me as I have never been aware of Disney having a games showcase, In fact I don’t know if they’ve ever had one previous to this one. Games confirmed to be shown to include Marvels Midnight Suns, updates on The Skywalker Saga, as well as a look at the ensemble Marvel game from SkyDance Studios. There’s a plethora of other games that could be shown based on the previous announcements and rumors which is what will have me tuned in. I cannot wait to see how this show is going to go. (XmanFiles)
PlayStation Plus Premium Review
As a long time PlayStation Plus subscriber, when the new tiers of PlayStation Plus were announced, I was very hesitant to jump in and upgrade my subscription. However, Sony offered PlayStation Plus members for currently enrolled the ability to upgrade at a steeply discounted rate. Several months went by before I decided to upgrade. Here are my thoughts and reflections around what I’ve experienced so far with the PlayStation Plus premium service:
Let’s start with the positives – PlayStation streaming has significantly improved in terms of performance, fidelity, and latency. Games I played seem to be very responsive and I was quite pleased to see that button presses seemed to instantaneously be registered on screen by the characters I was controlling. While games look good and controlled well, I would like to see even further improved resolutions for older games. Additionally, it was nice to have access to some of the older games I wanted to try but have never been able to play.
Now for the negatives – I did not feel as if Sony was sharing all the games it’s tremendous back catalog. I felt the fact that the selection was quite limited. I do understand however that games are in rotation for limited time and that more games will be added to the lineup over time.
As the service continues to evolve I will be sure to post my thoughts from time to time and let you know if I think it’s worth the cost of the one your subscription. Stay tuned! (JusBernard)
What I’ve Been Playing
This past week I played a lot of games. I went back and replayed the campaign for Battlefield 4, I dipped a little back into Destiny 2, I beat F.E.A.R. 2 and I’m wrapping up Yakuza 0 as we speak. Later I want to try out The Diofield Chronicle demo as I’m starting to hear more and more about it as the release date approaches. The upcoming week holds 2 games that I am very excited for. The Saints Row reboot comes out Tuesday and Soul Hackers 2 comes out Thursday. I am going to be very busy and I want to dabble in reviews. Those will be up when I either get to a point where I’ve experienced much of what the games have to offer, or I’ve beaten them (which is unlikely to be soon).
COMING SOON(ISH)
Nothing too serious but there are some passion projects that we would love to work on and we’ll be putting them out during the week so keep an eye out if you’re interested in reading about random (but heartfelt) gaming topics. We want to do this somewhat regularly but if there’s anything you would like to be explored and expanded upon feel free to leave a recommendation.
That is this weeks post all wrapped up lets get some conversation started in the comments and keep us in mind throughout the week. The next main post will be next Saturday, SEE YOU THEN !!!
36th Gen 