Over the years, I have seen multiple ambitious projects (i.e. large MMORPGs or VR projects) get started, teased or leaked and then scrapped because of:
• desktop PCs losing popularity (~2010 was probably the peak)
• relatively weak home consoles and Nintendo not giving their best
• battery-powered laptops gaining popularity
• very low-power pocket "smartphones" gaining lots of popularity
• lower acceleration of computer hardware specs improvement
• higher prices of the newest stuff
• lack of good enough AI that could help with production
New software (games) is still coming out, in the thousands, but overall innovation or ambition perhaps isn't particularly great in my opinion. I know that new AAA games are much bigger projects than old games (5 people worked on Doom and 10 people on Quake back in the 90s, according to John Romero).
For example, Final Fantasy VII came out in one piece (but on three discs) back in 1997 with a budget of 80 million USD. Today, Square Enix needs almost 4 years to release the 2nd part of three parts in total of FF VII Remake. We have no idea when the 3rd part might come out. I hope that useful and well-working AI will help speed up development process, make it easier and cheaper, hopefully lowering amount of human work by as much as ¾.
Cities: Skylines with mods is possibly one the the more invigorating games out there right now, but I'm also looking at some retro stuff.
Yeah, lost interest long ago when my oldest son trashed it after playing it for a bit.
Re: General gaming news and discussion
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2024 10:19 am
by wjfox
Planet of Lana
Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2024 10:51 am
by wjfox
I've been playing through this beautifully animated sci-fi/fantasy game.
A mixture of platform, stealth, puzzle-solving and exploration.
Quite early on, you encounter a cat-like creature who becomes your friend and helps with various problems!
Re: General gaming news and discussion
Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:49 pm
by wjfox
Re: General gaming news and discussion
Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 3:45 pm
by Powers
2 years
Looks more interesting than Geopolitical Slopper.
Re: General gaming news and discussion
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2024 11:31 am
by wjfox
‘The Last Of Us Part 3’ Is Happening, Probably Not Until Next Decade On PS6
Feb 3, 2024, 08:13am EST
Naughty Dog just released a two hour documentary about the making of The Last of Us Part 2, a fascinating look at the controversial, widely awarded video game. And of course, somewhere in those two hours some news was made. Neil Druckmann says that he’s figured out a concept for The Last of Us Part 3 because there “probably is one more chapter to this story.”
My theory used to be that The Last of Us Part 3 would be timed so it would release and given the HBO show more content to work with after Part 2 was split into seasons 2 and 3 of that show, which we already know is happening. That could have been maybe four years from now, but the timeline doesn’t add up for that based on Druckmann’s comments.
Naughty Dog’s next game will not be The Last of Us Part 3, it’s something else, likely a supposed sci-fi IP they’re working on for Sony, which no, is not a live service. After The Last of Us Factions fell apart, Naughty Dog outright declared they’d remain a single player studio, so here we are.
But Druckmann’s comments indicate that The Last of Us Part 3 is likely miles and miles away. I’m talking like, the next decade, as given both development time and a wholly new game coming out before it, that’s probably at least 2030, given that we are just in the “I came up with an idea for it” stage.
There are no hints given about the story content of the game. It’s safe to assume Ellie would return, though I doubt most people predicted a second Last of Us game would largely be without Joel, so who knows. A larger question would be if Abby would return after the events of the second game, or if her part in the story is over.
