Marvel’s Wolverine

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[OCH]

So, a Wolverine game was the reveal? As the trailer was a whole lot of nothing. Still, Wolverine games tend to be fun. Hopefully Wolverine isn't an over designed mess in this ala Midnight Suns. X-Men costumes translate well enough without that kind of armoured aesthetic.

[mfnick]

As a few people have pointed out, Spiderman 2 got a 2023 release date. This got nothing. So going to be later than that at least. Way too early to announce, just don’t get it.

 

See how it looks in a couple of years when they show gameplay. If it’s not like Origins though where I can chop heads off, lift helicopter pilots into the blades and get all my skin shot off to the point I look like the Terminator then watch it grow back I’m going to be very disappointed. Which it won’t, so I will be. Wolverine doesn’t work in a PG-12 setting at all IMO but I can’t see current Marvel/Disney allowing it to be more. Insomniac aren’t exactly known for violent games either. 

[Maf]

I doubt they will go really gory, but I don’t think they need to. It has to be rougher and more violent than Spider-Man for sure, but you can be brutal without tonnes of blood and body horror. How many games are super violent without being super graphic.

 

A very long time ago when Sony got Spider-Man I said if I were Xbox I’d be on the phone to Marvel being like “Yo, so what about Wolverine?” Guess they missed the boat and the Sony + Marvel relationship has gone from strength to strength. 

 

If I were Xbox I’d be phoning up DC being like “Yo, so what about Batman?”

[Maryokutai]

7 hours ago, Maf said:

 

If I were Xbox I’d be phoning up DC being like “Yo, so what about Batman?”

 

I mentioned this in the showcase thread but that's not a direction a lot of publishers are willing to pursue because they'd spend millions of dollars for what is ultimately PR for another company's IP. Yes, short term you have a very popular character exclusively on your platform. But we all know how the Disneys of this world work. Imagine, at some point, they smell more money elsewhere and move the Spider-Man games over to a different platform. Then Sony loses what is currently one of their strongest and most popular series and there's absolutely nothing they can do about it because they don't own even a fibre of the Spider-Man IP. They would have built up this big franchise of sorts for them and lose it in a heartbeat. 

 

I'm not saying it will come to this but it's a risk. Better off strengthening the presence and position of what actually belongs to you, even if it might not be quite as popular. 

[DisturbedSwan]

12 hours ago, OCH said:

So, a Wolverine game was the reveal? As the trailer was a whole lot of nothing. Still, Wolverine games tend to be fun. Hopefully Wolverine isn't an over designed mess in this ala Midnight Suns. X-Men costumes translate well enough without that kind of armoured aesthetic.

 

Yup, was just an early CGI Teaser Trailer for the project. Completely different team to Firaxis and early in development so we've no idea how Wolverine will be designed. My wish is that it'll be similar to the superb X-Men: Origins - Wolverine game of a few years back complete with blood, limbs flying off etc. but I think this'll probably be in the realms of PG-13 territory.

 

12 hours ago, mfnick said:

As a few people have pointed out, Spiderman 2 got a 2023 release date. This got nothing. So going to be later than that at least. Way too early to announce, just don’t get it.

 

See how it looks in a couple of years when they show gameplay. If it’s not like Origins though where I can chop heads off, lift helicopter pilots into the blades and get all my skin shot off to the point I look like the Terminator then watch it grow back I’m going to be very disappointed. Which it won’t, so I will be. Wolverine doesn’t work in a PG-12 setting at all IMO but I can’t see current Marvel/Disney allowing it to be more. Insomniac aren’t exactly known for violent games either. 

 

A lot of stuff didn't get a release date, even GoW:R which is a 2022 release but it's trailer didn't say as much. But yeah, it's safe to assume this is quite a ways out but as Insomniac have so many teams I don't think this'll be super far out, 2024 maybe I'd say. But, yeah, I agree it's a little too early to announce it, I think these types of announcements are to let folks know what is coming in the future pipeline, much like Microsoft with Avowed, State of Decay 3 etc. last year and Nintendo with Bayonetta 3 at the start of the Switch's lifecycle.

 

3 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

Imagine, at some point, they smell more money elsewhere and move the Spider-Man games over to a different platform. Then Sony loses what is currently one of their strongest and most popular series and there's absolutely nothing they can do about it because they don't own even a fibre of the Spider-Man IP. They would have built up this big franchise of sorts for them and lose it in a heartbeat. 

 

I don't think Marvel could do that with Spidey as his rights are owned by Sony but with other characters like Wolverine, sure, it's possible. If SIE/Insomniac are knocking it out of the park and creating a buzz for their characters and future releases like they are now though, I can't see why they'd ever do that. 

[Maryokutai]

People keep saying Sony owns part of Spider-Man but I've yet to see anything that confirms it. The fact that you have Spider-Man in Ultimate Alliance 3, which isn't even multiplatform but a Switch exclusive, tells me that this is still just being done on a case-by-case basis.

 

And yes, right now it's not a problem. Maybe it never will be. But it's not unheard of either. PS1 was famously build upon the successes of multiple third-party IPs and it took Sony until Kratos, Drake and Aloy to finally get a group of their own mascots together.

 

Anyway, totally off-topic. We'll see each other again in 2024 when there's news for Wolverine. Unless by then we're all living in a desert and have other problems to worry about.

[Nag]

Sony own the film rights to Spider-Man, getting a definitive answer as to who owns the rights to the video game version is loads tougher... although both the PlayStation games are titled Marvel's Spider-Man so it's pretty clear who's stamping their authority on those.

[Guest]

Yeah it’s not too complicated. Sony owns spider man film rights, marvel/Disney own the games and merch. 

[Nag]

 

Well this looks excellent...

[Maryokutai]

I'm going to be negative about this, but it's not necessarily to the game's fault. It looks like a competent Uncharted-like (where they switched out the guns for claws and added a 'bit' of blood). But there's something very deflating IMO about seeing such a 'standard' cinematic Sony game that I doubt will have any deep or unique mechanics and will live on set pieces mostly, taking so ridiculously long to make. At one point in the State of Play they mention you can see the blood between his teeth, but I question if that really is something to cheer for when a couple of seconds later the release date pops up and it's only out in another 12 months.

 

(I guess five years is not extremely long all things considered and this might have been announced shortly after being greenlit, but as good as it might look in a vacuum, I think there's a lot of symptoms here to dissect that plague development of the big boy games these days.)

[Guest]

I really hope this is a linear, action game, I don't want open worlds. 
Simple fun, visceral and chunky combat with a light levelling system (ala early god of war games) 

 

If they can do this I'm sold

[Maf]

I dunno what my specific beef is with the trailer. But the violence was really off-putting. Obviously the character has knives on his hands, so what do you expect. But I really didn’t like it 

[one-armed dwarf]

There's violent video games and then there's video games that seem horny for violence and come across sort of puerile cause of it.

 

That might just be a trailer issue though, and the weirdly excessive screen shake and camera angles when Wolverine is doing the murders. It might be more balanced in the full game

 

I'm really not into Insomniac's games though so I won't find out. Spyro 2 is still their high bar imo 

[Maf]

I’m trying to resist doing it, but oh well. When they say they bringing the comics to life. I’ve never seen Wolverine rapid punch someone in the chest with his claws out in to a fucking shoryuken and blow someone’s head open. This is one of those mainstream misconceptions where, again, his got knives on his hands so I get it. And based off this trailer the demographic is 12-30yos. But, this not really what he does. Or it’s what the mainstream thinks so maybe he does

 

I also find it less bad when he’s out of costume. When he’s looking like an X-Men character and destroying people’s innards 

 

I dunno. Video games are generally violent. But this is the most gratuitous level of it I’ve seen in a while

[Nag]

If this game was called Johnny Knifehand Man you probably wouldn't care less though...

[one-armed dwarf]

I can't remember what the Logan movie was like. I think I remember it being bloody but not relishing in it, if that makes sense. It had that Western (the film genre) sensibility to its violence, I want to say. Something brutal yet also sometimes necessary

 

Maybe we need to make ludonarrative dissonance an acceptable term again

[Maf]

6 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

 

Maybe we need to make ludonarrative dissonance an acceptable term again

Do you,know what i’ve had a sudden change of heart. Let the blood fly, I’m all in like Wolverine’s claws and that guy’s rib cage 

[OCH]

Personally would have preferred a new X-Men game, over just Wolverine on his own (although rumours would suggest someone else being unlockable). I don't really think the longevity or replay value is there with just him.

[mfnick]

That looks fucking awesome!!!

 

Confirmed mega violent too - my biggest worry before this trailer. Hell yea!!!

 

Quit being big babies. This looks fun as! He has big knife hands, it should be ultra violent.