The Hot Topic Returns

[Maryokutai]

Also agree with Mirror's Edge, but on the other hand at least we got a sequel to it, which to this day I can't wrap my head around how that got greenlit. I actually replayed both earlier this year, still think Catalyst is a good game even if it's a one step forward, one step back kind of affair.

 

There are way too many undeserved flops list here I think. Beyond Good & Evil is a classic example, as is pretty much the entirety of Clover Studios output. I also think Valkyria Chronicles doesn't do as well as it should when you look at some of the other anime-type stuff doing really well. VC4 is such an excellent game, easily a Top10 of the last decade for me, but barely anyone picked it up.

 

As for scores, that's always very subjective and I tend not to dwell to much on it, but I think generally speaking a lot of these 'eurojank RPGs' do get overly punished from critics for no other reason than their lack of polish and production values most of the time. Which I think is the wrong way to look at a game and might be one tiny part of why we have this triple-A crisis at the moment.

[Metroid66]

5 hours ago, mfnick said:

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. 

 

I wasn't even aware that flopped. I've played it about 6 times.

 

I can't really contribute to this question. I don't really know what flopped and what didn't. Weren't Squeenix moaning about the performance of the the first Tomb Raider reboot after it selling about 6 mil. Cheeky buggers.

[Maryokutai]

Should have been on everyone's mind due to recent events, but I just remembered that Alien: Isolation was another one of those where the sales figures did in no way reflect the quality of the game. For all intents and purposes that game should have been a massive hit on release, but at least the consensus has since affirmed it as a classic and we're even getting a sequel, with a bit of luck before the planet has gone to hell.

[Nag]

 

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GameCentral readers name the modern games they think will become future classics, from Bloodborne to Mario Kart 8.

 

The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Onibee, who wasn’t talking about your favourite games but the ones you think will be accepted by a majority of gamers as all-time greats.

 

Anything was allowed as long as it was released on a current generation format, with the likes of Splatoon, Rocket League, and The Witcher 3 being amongst the favourites. There was also a lot of optimism that Overwatch would prove worthy of the accolade.

 

Obviously those examples are outdated now... we're on a different generation now, well Sony would have us believe that at least.

[HandsomeDead]

Yeah, a bunch of those examples are 10 years old.  Would you call Chrono Trigger is a modern classic in 2005?  I think current dev time has messed up the gamers sense of the passage of time.

 

I dunno if I've played enough recently to answer this.  In this moment we have a Silent Hill 2 remake (which I think is a question in itself in how remakes will be historically thought about and what their place is) and Metaphor Refantazio which I've not played but classic status is reputation and it's rep seems really good from what I've seen.  I wouldn't be too surprised if it remained in people's minds for a long time.

 

It's a bit older now but Breath of the Wild already kinda is.  TotK will be in conversation with it but it was BotW that broke through.  Which is better will probably be a Zelda fan discussion to the point of nausea.

 

Something like The Outer Wilds seems to me to be one.  Hades.  There's a few indies like that too.

[one-armed dwarf]

Sticking purely to modern stuff, as in the past few years, I dunno. I'd like to think Alan Wake II will for its fun playfulness with genres and mediums outside gaming.

 

I think Cyberpunk's placement is interesting to think about. As much as I like it now in its post Phantom Liberty form, I sort of think the game is too fundamentally flawed to be truly a 'classic'. Hell the 2.0 update even made some things worse, IMO (an overly generous progression curve which diminishes the sense of hostility its world used to have, for one). It feels a bit like a way better version of Fallout with not very deep role playing. But on the other hand, its presentation and cinematics are just way beyond anything else in the space it's in. So maybe it counts still

[DANGERMAN]

Astrobot will be I think, people love it and it's kind of always going to be colourful, varied and fun. 

 

Metaphor Refantazio might be. I've not played it enough to say for sure, not that I'd be able to see the future, but it seems to have been greeted well 

 

Elden Ring will be, a few From games have stopped being talked about but that one seems to still be 

 

Vampire Survivors I've seen referenced as a genre so I think that might be 

[Metroid66]

I think people might talk about Hi-fi rush in those terms. And Cyberpunk is definitely already a classic in my house.

[Maryokutai]

I noticed I can't really say much about this because I'm barely playing these attention grabbing releases anymore, but one game I think might end up becoming an overlooked cult classic is Chorus. I might be a bit biased because it just hit all the right notes for me, but among all those mid-budget titles I've played these last couple of years there was something special about this one, and I predict it pop up in every one of those 'how did we miss this' or 'best games you never played' articles that'll pop up in five years.

 

Coincidentally it came out in the same year as Metroid Dread, which I think will be considered a classic at some point as well, even though it feels a bit boring to put the label on a well-reviewing modern Nintendo game.

 

Genuinely haven't played anything in the last 12-18 months that I could foresee becoming one though, no matter how much I might have enjoyed them on a personal level. Edit: maybe Hi-Fi Rush. Agreed, that might have the staying power of some of those Clover Studios classics.

[Nag]

 

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Nag says... "It's the spooky season yet again so in honour if that what's your favourite spooky game... doesn't have to be strictly horror related (for those that don't play that style) but there's something that sets everyone on edge and games are great at it."

 

[mfnick]

Bit boring but is got to be the Resi series. In particular REmake is still one of the greatest games of all time. OG Resi 2 is still one I look back on with the most fondness. Resi VII is a fantastic modern take & actually the one which does “scary” the best.

 

Dead Space 1&2 are great Aliens style action horror. 
 

Not a popular take but I really enjoyed Callisto Porotocol too. In a similar way to Dead Space. 

 

PT also needs to be mentioned. It’s the only game that has ever made me not want to press up on the stick because I was actually that tense. No other game has ever done that to me before or since. 
 

Games I’ve not played that I’m looking forward to in this genre soon - Alien Isolation, Still Wakes the Deep and Stay Out of the House 
 

 

 

[Maryokutai]

I think Alien: Isolation is the only 'pure' horror game I've played so I'm defaulting to that. Helps that it's an excellent game of course.

 

I do also really like RE4 (the original), which I think at least partially fits the criteria. And while some people will disagree, I think Gone Home was rather spooky at times in a cool 'defying expectations' kind of way. I suppose BioShock also has its moments, can have a bit of a creepy atmosphere at times.

[mfnick]

Gone Home is definitely spooky, with you there. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Subnautica is not a horror game but it's good for some jump scares, real sense of danger as well that doesn't feel forced like it does in some horror games (Amnesia).

 

PT is pretty much peerless for scares. It's way of developing its scares feels so innovative. A lot of its copycats don't really come close to it, it feels like it started a new wave of horror but one that was pretty derivative and unexciting. Exception maybe of Devotion, which while not a fraction as scary managed to tell a pretty immersive horror through its environment and textual storytelling.

 

I started up Fatal Frame II on the PS2 emulator with some CRT filters, I miss fixed camera angles in horror games, works well with the gameplay gimmick of switching the view by forcing yourself to look directly at the ghosts with the camera in first person

[Metroid66]

Not a big genre for me so it's the usual suspects, RE4 and 2 remake, dead space 1 and 2, Alan wake. That's it. That's all I've played, and I've played all except DS2 multiple times, so whereas I seem to like them, I do find them a bit exhausting to play, and I'm more into the relaxing side of this hobby.

 

Dead Space probably the scariest for me, which was down to the sound design more than anything else.

 

[spatular]

Yeah I don’t really play horror stuff so re4 is all I can think of. Long time ago tried to play system shock 2 but found it too scary. Seem to remember pray being quite stressful to play too, partly because of the music. There was that horror rollercoaster light gun game on psvr1, that was quite good, but I feel like I’m listing any horror game I’ve played now.

[Maf]

One thing I’ve liked is return of more old school horror games like Heaven’s Dust and Signalis (Very scary game). Mainly because I feel like I missed them first time around because they were too scary

 

I’m looking forward to digging more into this batch of PS1 style horror games that are around now like Fear the Spotlight and Crow Country 

[one-armed dwarf]

Those games are cool but I don't feel like they're that much like PS1 horrors tbh. I guess this sounds sort of gatekeepey but they seem more like modern horrors with PS1 graphics, like warping textures and stuff but way more exaggerated for effect

 

Signalis is definitely cool though.

 

I honestly think Bloober's The Medium is the best 'old' style horror we've had in terms of actually being like an old game. Unfortunately it's a bit medium itself

 

Speaking of PS1 horrors, one really weird one I tried a while back is FROM's Echo Night. A sort of first person time travelling mystery solving thing with ghosts where you have to turn lights off and avoid jump scares and shit. Has the same control scheme as the classic Armored Core/King's Field games which is also a very scary thing in its own way

[Nag]

I dropped off Signalis... I thought it was terribly overrated personally. 

 

As much as I love my Resident Evil games I can't honestly say they're scary... not anymore at least, although the Beneviento part in Village freaked me out quite a bit. Dead Space is probably one of my most recent favourites (sound design has already been mentioned) and you're always on edge with where those enemies are gonna spring from... the Regenerator always sets me on edge too.

 

Again, I never thought I'd be saying this but the recently released Silent Hill 2 Remake is so so good... the atmosphere is unbearable sometimes, really well done.

[Maf]

Oh my god Returnal!

 

There has been an idea itching at the back of my mind about this question but couldn’t figure it out. We just talked about it. Returnal is the best horror game I’ve played

 

I don’t care how bored people are of me bringing it up! The game is incredible 

 

Also still playing through Metroid Fusion. That game actually has real tension unlike any other Metroid game. It’s not “true horror game” but it fucks with it