The Hot Topic Returns

[Maf]

True story the other day I was thinking about playing through all my Switch games in alphabetical order and then I remembered Astral Chain and it put me off 

[Sly Reflex]

Looking at the graphic Nag posted I wish half of them didn't exist anymore, nevermind picking a favourite! 🤣

 

Being serious, it's probably Coffee Stain or Devolver.

[Metroid66]

Unfashionably I'm going to say Bethesda. I mean, I even had a good 50 hours on Starfield, until it became apparent what a dog's dinner the main campaign was. 

 

But their dev output (elder scrolls, fallout) has included many of my all time favourites, and their publisher arm is almost as near to my heart, Dishonored, Rage, Prey etc.

 

Blimey, I even read that Hi-fi rush, the best original game I've played for this generation, was under the Bethesda umbrella.

[Nag]

 

Quote

Nag says... "Something a little different this week, what's your favourite game artwork? Going to try to keep this to game box artwork or promotional pieces... no doodles from Bob two doors down or unofficial work thank you"

 

[one-armed dwarf]

These aren't the best artwork necessarily, but I've enjoyed how the Doom reboots have remade the original game's art

 

[mfnick]

When I was a kid I loved LED storm

 

The Sonic & Knuckles one has always been one of my favourites. 

 

I’ll need a bit of time to think of more. 
 

The recent DOOM stuff is a great shout.

[DANGERMAN]

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the game, but I'd have a poster of the Wasteland box art 

 

 

I love some of the SNK stuff too, I do have a small poster of the below (Mega Drive Fatal Fury), which I had to tidy up to remove some logos and stuff, then print using the fancy artwork printer at work 🙊

 

[mfnick]

Just remembered another I love. This actually drew me into playing the game even though I’d never heard of it before (proof box art still matters) it’s just jumped out immediately across all the Game Pass stuff.

 

Big shout out to all the Metal Slug, Blasphemous and Marvel Vs series artwork too. But there’s too much there to pick from to be honest. Can’t single any out. 

 

[spatular]

i really like the art from gravity rush, jet set radio, and the painted style art from splatoon, i'm not so good at stealing pictures from the internet but will try...

 

 

lots more really nice ones here:

https://splatoon.nintendo.com/base/en/gallery/

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/xjJb4heXPh7F569v6

 

 

 

[shinymcshine]

Not quite sure why, but this one came to mind - maybe because I played it loads.

 

 

[Maryokutai]

This is mostly down to Suzuki's excellent artwork, but I think basically every Ikaruga cover except the Gamecube one looks great, particularly these two:

 

 

 

 

As a more recent example, this one for Talos Principle II really caught my eye:

 

[HandsomeDead]

I have a hard time with more recent games because the first time you come across them is most likely a trailer and I don't pay as much attention to promotional art.

 

But during the magazine days it was a lot different 

 

 

I like the one rare piece of artwork with Cloud wielding the Hard Edge instead of the Buster Sword.

 

 

But thinking of other promotional material I can only remember the really corny stuff.  I think I've done boxart before and I'd pretty much just be repeating myself.

[Nag]

I'll echo the Final Fantasy love, I've always like the minimalist covers and VIII doesn't disappoint. 

 

 

This Nemesis image pretty much lives rent free in my head too.

 

[Sly Reflex]

In no particular order.

 

Borderlands 2 box art.

Left 4 Dead box art.

Red Dead Redemption 2 box art.

Command & Conquer box art.

[Nag]

 

Quote

Nag says... "What game flopped (sales or review scores) but in your opinion really didn't deserve to?"

 

[Maf]

The only game I can think of is Mirror’s Edge. I adored that game then learning that it failed was crazy to me. It did come out at a really packed time for games (tangent but 2008 was such a good gaming year) but it was so different and much cooler than everything else.
 

The concept, the art style, visual design, the music. It’s not perfect. It’s a bit like Sonic where when blasting through a level and hitting everything first time feels really cool. But if you hit a section where you keep getting stuck or falling down takes the thrill out of it. But that game really worked most of the time and I played it at least 3 times that year

I remember being excited when they said they were going to make a sequel, then fucked it up. Instead of making the first game but better they made the first game but bigger and it was substantially worse because of it. Now I think the series is proper dead and beyond revival. 
 

But that first game should have been a hit! It was brilliant 

[one-armed dwarf]

Not sure if it 'flopped' necessarily but it was recent enough I was reading that Alan Wake II only made back 80 percent of its cost. It's one of the most playful and stylish AAA games I can think of in recent memory so it would be nice to have that validate by a bit more success. 

[mfnick]

Sleeping Dogs

 

Genuinely my favourite open world game. Such a shame there won’t ever be a sequel and the devs got shuttered. It was dog food and deserved to sell loads better. 

[spatular]

Yeah mirrors edge I agree with, I’d lump that in with gravity rush too, both had great first games that were close to greatness and 2nd games that should have fixed the problems with the first game and been amazing but they didn’t manage it, although I really like gravity rush 2 still and quite liked mirrors edge 2.

 

project cars 3 I always mention for stuff like this, it’s main problem was being called project cars 3 as it wasn’t like previous games so gets a lot of hate. I thought it was great.

 

stealth games/immersive sims like deus ex/dishonoured/thief in general don’t seem to do that well sales wise I guess as we don’t seem to get many/any these days 

[Maf]

Speaking of EA games I think Titanfall 2 underperformed as well. Which not only did it have a great single player, it (and the first game) are one of the few multiplayer shooters I enjoyed as well. Being able to leash people across the map and dropping in the Titans was super fun

 

Arguably that failing gave way to Apex Legends which has probably done better for Respawn than a Titanfall 3. But still a shame. Titanfall 2 was great