The Hot Topic Returns

[retroed]

I think the last time I was mega excited for the launch of a game was Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. I watched the multiplayer trailer over and over, eagerly anticipating its release.

[Craymen Edge]

I don't pay a lot attention to game announcements these days, and often don't look at trailers or videos until a game is imminent. 

The last time I did really pay attention to upcoming  games was probably around the Xbox 360, The game I remember being most hyped for was either Left For Dead or Mass Effect (1 and 2), I spent a lot of time reading about those.

[shinymcshine]

So have we all become so brow beaten by an industry where hype vs reality leads to disappointment, or is it now knowing that in many cases Day One games are sometimes broken messes requiring instant patching that just tarnishes the experience..?

 

Maybe the dev cycle from announcement to release is now way too long, and usually release dates become aspirations with delays and deferments taking off the gloss?

 

Perhaps it's just that real life gets in the way, and often it's just an 'oh I'll get around to playing it eventually'....

 

Or maybe we're just a bunch of cynical older ffkers nowadays ?

[Nag]

Day one patches really don't bother me, maybe that's a byproduct of being a digital only buyer nowadays...

 

I do think announcing a game literally years in advance needs to die a death... if it were up to me games wouldn't be announced until they were around 7 or 8 months out, I think that's a nice sweet spot.

 

As for being a cynical old fucker... we'll that's a given nowadays.

[mfnick]

Cynical old fucker here. 

 

Day 1 bollocks also affects it for me. I was really looking forward to Jedi Survivor for example, still haven’t played it yet though due to all the issues. The more that happens the less I’m letting myself actually get excited about a game being released. 
 

[DisturbedSwan]

I've got super excited a number of times by many games over the years, I've likely forgotten many of them though.

 

It's probably the Rockstar games I've most been excited about over the years though, GTA: San Andreas back in the 2000s, GTA IV and GTA V, then more recently going digital so I could play RDR2 at the stroke of midnight. 

 

To a lesser degree the likes of Hogwarts Legacy, Jedi Survivor, Zelda: ToTK this year and GoW Ragnarok, Horizon: FW last year. I was super hyped for the launch of the PS5 and some of the launch games too like Miles Morales and Demon's Souls. 

 

I'm also nonplussed by Day 1 patches, there was a time when I was bothered by them, when I played a lot more games in my teens or early twenties but I've just become used to downloading stuff now really. 

 

7 hours ago, mfnick said:

Cynical old fucker here. 

 

Day 1 bollocks also affects it for me. I was really looking forward to Jedi Survivor for example, still haven’t played it yet though due to all the issues. The more that happens the less I’m letting myself actually get excited about a game being released. 
 

 

The game is bloody fantastic on console in Quality mode, it's largely just if you're on PC or playing in Performance mode that you may get issues. I'm 60 hours in, had 1 crash and no bugs etc. in that entire time, the game is incredibly polished, is meant to be a little more stable on XSX too (I'm on PS5). 

[DANGERMAN]

I was excited for Witcher 3, enough that I built a pc for it, and it lived up to it

[Nag]

 

Quote

Readers discuss their favourite one hit wonders from throughout gaming history, from Eternal Darkness to Vanquish.

 

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Gain2, who asked why you think your chosen game never got a sequel and what you’d want it to be like if it did.

 

Although there were plenty of choices, some names did come up multiple times, including Skies Of Arcadia and Blast Corps. Beyond Good & Evil was also mentioned more than once, despite technically having a sequel on the way – albeit one nobody seems to think will actually be released…

 

[shinymcshine]

Whenever this come up, my nominations tend to be Freedom Fighters and Vagrant Story.

 

Why there wasn't a sequel - I think IO moved onto Kane & Lynch, and Square were just doing their Square thing (read somewhere too that it was more popular in the West than Japan).

 

I'm not even sure whether the original gameplay of either would endure in today's market - so I figure they'd likely be more of a reimagining than direct like for like sequel.

[OCH]

^All time favourites! I'm still convinced Vagrant Story is the best standalone game Square has ever done. Eternal Darkness, as noted in the question, is another. I'd add Killer7 and Asura's Wrath to that too. Modern Capcom are guilty of sitting on most of their back catalogue, unfortunately. Although I am aware of the reasons as to why Asura is a one-off. Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. Which exists in this list due to the licensing limbo which means it will likely never return. 

 

Indie games like Limbo, Braid and Astalon: Tears of the Earth also come to mind.

 

Going a bit more old school: Chuchu Rocket, Transformers (PS2), Psi-Ops, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Mischief Makers, Hybrid Heaven, Space Station Silicon Valley, Blast Corps (also as noted above), Operation: Winback, Ring of Red, Chrono Trigger and Alundra. The latter two have technically unaffiliated sequels. 

[Maryokutai]

It's difficult for me to answer because there are a ton of cool one-hit games out there that I enjoyed, but I don't think more than a fraction of those should have gotten a sequel. For example, the already mentioned Skies of Arcadia. I loved that game back then and with nostalgia goggles on I'd easily put it in my Top 5 RPGs of all time. But does it need to have a sequel? It's a wonderful self-contained story that doesn't need a follow-up and using its unique setting as a jumping-off point for unaffiliated sequels à la FF would retroactively have a negative impact on the original's USP.

 

On the other hand, and I'm certainly the only person on the planet thinking about that game in this context, I would have loved the plans for the Too Human trilogy to come to fruition. I'm well aware that the original is rough and that it only becomes decent in the postgame, but it was such a cool setting and way ahead of its time in terms of cinematography that I would have loved to see where Silicon Knights would have taken it after that game. 

 

I also think Microsoft dropped the ball when they didn't further pursue Lost Odyssey. This could have been their own Final Fantasy and the background with having immortal characters would even allow them to occasionally have fan-favourites pop up throughout the series while also keeping every entry self-contained. 

[one-armed dwarf]

DnD is on the mind right now so I'll say Planescape Torment* is one of the most absorbing RPGs I've ever played. Felt like an interactive fantasy novel. Even if BG3 is clearly more mechanically refined and richly featured, its world isn't as well rendered (so far) as what PS:T does with text alone

 

*Though technically speaking it shares a world space with other DnD games, including Baldur's Gate. But still.

 

They made a game later on called Torment: Tides of Numenera, but I don't think the two are really connected due to licensing issues.

[mfnick]

A lot of mine have already been said - Killer 7, Vanquish, Asuras Wrath, Psi Ops being the main ones.

 

As for one I’d really like a sequel to I think I’d pick Asuras Wrath. I’d just love to see what extra craziness they could come up with on the current gen of consoles.

 

One that I don’t actually want a sequel to is Killer 7. I think that works best a 1 off complete experience. I’d live a HD version though. 
 

Edit - Singularity is another Id love to see return. I loved the original despite its flaws. 

[HandsomeDead]

I think I agree with what's been mentioned.  A lot of us are pretty primed for a Freedom Fighters game today.

And I would really go for a new game like Skies of Arcadia because I want to customise an airship and take it into cool turn based battles.

 

But to go on a somewhat related tangent that does use Vanquish as an example.  To me Vanquish does belong in a lineage of games, as part of the works where Shinji Mikami is the lead.  You have Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4, God Hand, Vanquish and The Evil Within.  And I know there are others he worked on in some capacity but they are the ones he was the head.  But that kind of lineage is more interesting than the comfort blanket of a sequel and it's not without its throughline that makes those games recognisably linked.

 

I get the material reality of why sequels are such a thing in gaming but I think we need to let go more and realise that these things don't really go away and do evolve into fresher things if you let them.

[DANGERMAN]

Binary Domain is one for me. I'm sure I've played better games that never got a sequel, and that kind of wraps up, but it did feel like there was enough room for them to do something else with it. A few tweaks to the combat and Sega could have had another really good franchise on their hands.

 

Again, nowhere near the best game, but The Order was begging for a sequel. I enjoyed it quite a bit, really felt like they could have built on that

[OCH]

2 hours ago, HandsomeDead said:

A lot of us are pretty primed for a Freedom Fighters game today.

To this day, IO putting this series to the back burner in favour of Kane & Lynch (if I have the timeline right?) still puzzles me. There was a glut of those kind of games at the time. Army of Two, Gears of War etc But, especially off the back of Hitman, Freedom Fighters was really something special and largely unique on console. The ending was clearly pointing towards a sequel too. A long war of attrition to follow. But it's been decades now. So we're all quietly confident that isn't happening.

 

2 hours ago, mfnick said:

One that I don’t actually want a sequel to is Killer 7. I think that works best a 1 off complete experience. I’d live a HD version though. 

You say that, yet there was clearly somewhere for the sequel to go... Killer8.

[spatular]

driveclub, ketsui, sunset overdrive, into the breach
 

hard to remember these, sure theres loads more
 

Agree with a lot already mentioned like killer 7 and vanquish

[mfnick]

Driveclub!!! Excellent shout.

[Nag]

40 minutes ago, spatular said:

sunset overdrive

 

Good shout... I really need to play that again to see how well it holds up.

 

Alien Isolation for me, not sure where they'd take it but it's easily one of my favourite standalone games.

[OCH]

Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage on the Dreamcast. Sure the localisation was all wrong (as was the VO really). It was a side story with no connection to the main plot and it was an extremely short game. But it was a really fun Berserk game. Before I even knew what the series was.