Metroid: Dread

[Maryokutai]

Argh, UK only, fucking Brexit.

[DisturbedSwan]

Cheers @retroed that's that pre-ordered.

[mfnick]

I’ve got it too now. I’ll be able to sell on for a profit no doubt when I’m done with it. Yes I’m scum. Blame Nintendo for never making enough stock of anything. 

[Maryokutai]

Or you could just sell it to me for the RRP afterwards.?

[mfnick]

Just now, Maryokutai said:

Or you could just sell it to me for the RRP afterwards.?

+postage and you’ve got a deal ?

[Maryokutai]

Maf might have managed to pull something off for me but if not I'll get back to you!

[OCH]

Got it! Thanks @retroed

[retroed]

Out of stock now. ☹️

[Maryokutai]

Take that you fucking scalpers.

 

Thanks to maf and mfnick and also retroed for the backup plans/ideas though!

 

[mfnick]

Nice one!

 

I’ve just watched that gameplay demo they did on the treehouse. The longer I watched it I don’t mind the graphics so much now. I still think they could have done a much better job l, still just lacks any style at all but they’re ok. 

the actual gameplay looks great though & that’s the important thing. The EMMI’s seem to be locked into certain areas too thankfully and

Spoiler

they killed one near the beginning using a souped up blaster so hopefully that means they act more like chase sequences to start with but you’re able to return to areas to fully explore.

That’s fine with me. If it was more throughout the game it would have ruined it IMO. These games are about exploration so having something that can instant kill you while trying to do so would have been properly shit. 

[mfnick]

Shopto have got the special edition for anyone who still wants it. 
 

https://www.shopto.net/en/swme39-metroid-dread-special-edition-p1145366/

[DisturbedSwan]

35 minutes ago, mfnick said:

Shopto have got the special edition for anyone who still wants it. 
 

https://www.shopto.net/en/swme39-metroid-dread-special-edition-p1145366/

 

Only £77 on there too.

[retroed]

Do ShopTo still send everything out in Jiffy bags?

[DisturbedSwan]

6 minutes ago, retroed said:

Do ShopTo still send everything out in Jiffy bags?

 

My Biomutant CE came in a big ass box with packaging inside if that helps. 

[Manicm]

Managed to pre-order the amiibo from game and game from shopto limited edition version. Roll on October!

[mfnick]

Just thinking about this since I’ve been playing Hollow Knight. This is going to have to be something really fucking special to warrant full price, or near enough full price. Seen it for £35 which isnt as bad but still mental when you think about it. The Metroidvania scene is very crowded and moved on a bit since they last did a proper 2D one of these and just about all of them are the downloadable at less than £20, most are now under £10 or free if you’ve got Xbox.

 

Theres the Ori games, Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, Bloodstained, Guacamelee, the recent Shantae games, probably loads more I’m not thinking about. All of them look significantly better than this too. IMO of course but I bet most would struggle to say otherwise. Not like they’re cut down experiences too. As usual just seems Nintendo are taking piss.

 

& yea I know I’ve ordered the £80 version. But that’s only because I know I’ll be able to sell it on to some schmuck for £100+ or at least the same price when I’m done so it’ll be free or profitable for me. 

[Maf]

Depends on what you like, I guess. I think Metroid Fusion and Samus Returns can absolutely hang in that list of games. 

 

Even Ori 1 which is the only game there I like a lot more than Metroid is more about platforming than the Metroidvania-ing. So the games have their different strengths. 

If this is a great game or turns out to be worth the money or what I have no idea but I don’t see any reason to doubt it so far. 
 

What the fuck is going on with Metroid Prime 4 is the bigger question mark lol 

[Maryokutai]

The thing is Metroid isn't some kind of indie game made by ten people, this is a proper first-party title made by an outsourced company over the span of a couple of years. The time it took to design and animate Hollow Knight's protagonist is probably the same amount it took Mercurysteam to finalise Samus' new armour colours and get the green light from Nintendo. Yes, Hollow Knight looks good and even though I didn't particularly like it I can see the appeal and quality of the game. On the surface it certainly makes every other Metroidvania look hilariously overpriced for the content they offer, but it's still a more simple game under the surface. Areas like the City of Tears make it come across as more lavish as it is.

 

The same goes for Guacamelee, Bloodstained and Shantae, the latter of which I absolutely love. They don't look "significantly better" than Dread. They look different than Dread and unlike Metroid they all chose a certain art-style that managed to work with the limited budget they had available to get it done. Wayforward in particular was very open about this when thy announced Seven Sirens and confirmed that they managed to reuse a lot of assets they created for 1/2 Genie Hero and therefore made the game bigger than Shantae usually is. This was the same approach Konami had with Castlevania back in the day btw. Metroid is literally done from scratch, even Samus' character model is different than it was in previous 3D Metroid game.

 

Ori is another beast of course. What Hollow Knight is in terms of content, Ori is the benchmark in visual spectacle for these games. But Ori, like Metroid, is also a first-party game with financial backing from a platform holder, so it makes sense that this game can keep up or even surpass Metroid in pure production values. 

 

Like maf says, going by Metroid's history, Dread will definitely be able to keep up with its competition in terms of quality. Samus Returns was a bit simplistic, but that was a GB remake. Super and Fusion were excellent though and Zero Mission might be the second best remake of the industry after REmake. The thing some newcomers might be surprised when they play this is that Metroid usually isn't very long and I could see that adding fuel to the "but it's 60MyCurrency!" discussion. I don't know, it's a choice everyone has to make for themselves. I have set a certain price limit for downloadable games because I feel those are such restrictive purchases, but for retail releases like this I usually don't bother. Worst case scenario you can always just sell it if you don't like it.

 

As for Metroid Prime 4, I think we know quite a lot about that actually @Maf. They did restart development at the end of 2018, and like everyone else the got hit by a certain virus last years which was probably a crucial year for that game if, let's say, 2019 was pre-production mostly and 2020 should have been the start of full development. There's no reason to worry about that, unless you want to ponder the question why Nintendo didn't let that studio work on it in the first place. But it's certainly not coming out before 2023.

[DisturbedSwan]

I think the £35/£40 for this is completely fair, Hollow Knight, Bloodstained, Guacamelee and Axiom Verge are all Indie games made by very small teams (I believe only 2 people in the case of HK and 1 in the case of AV) whereas this is made by a large 160 person strong team (according to Wikipedia).

 

So obviously development costs will be much higher (despite its modest 2D appearance) which means it's in the realms of AAA in terms of costs, hence the AAA price tag. That's my read of the situation anyway.

[mfnick]

Guess we’ll see when it’s released but it certainly doesn’t look like it’s got triple A production values. Obviously money can’t buy decent art direction. 
 

Im sure it’ll be up there quality wise but I’ll be interested to see if it offers anything over the other games I mentioned to warrant being so much more expensive.