XboxEra Community Hangout |OT12| The Dirty Dozen

Fair enough.

is this the same Neil Druckmann who failed in chaning the f**** industry? asking for a friend

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The ironic thing is despite how much I loved the first TLOU I think there’s much better storytelling in other game franchises such as:

  • Red Dead Redemption
  • A Plague Tale
  • Mass Effect
  • Bioshock

And more…

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https://x.com/hazzadorgamin/status/1793702270871425417?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ

I mean not all should be HB2 now…

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Pentiment knocks them all into a hat, for me. It’s leagues ahead of most games. Texture, subtlety, history, complexity. No hero/anti hero, no shock twist as the hook, no need for anything filmic.

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I love how he recently was intrigued by (or even discovered?) the minimalist approach of story-telling in games like Elden Ring and Inside, it’s like the dude is I dunno…12 years late into the party? there were numerous discussions about Fromsoft’s delivery of story approach back in 2012 (which I am sure we can go back even earlier with other titles) in forums like this one here and from players like us…how the fuck someone who works in the industry and wanted to “change the fuckin’ industry” noticed that particular style of story-telling all those years later? :roll_eyes:

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Annoyingly if he makes a space RPG PlayStation fanboys will declare it the best one ever.

Which is untrue - no space RPG will ever beat Mass Effect trilogy (particularly 2).

That’s a hill I’ll die on lol

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PlayStation fans won’t like that - it’s admitting that AAA film-like games aren’t sustainable, which Jim Ryan said they were if you didn’t have Game Pass and instead bought your games.

They’ve been conditioned that unless it’s top end graphics it’s not AAA and it’s not worthy of PlayStation first party lol

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I don’t know how the interviewer didn’t immediately laugh Druckmann out of the interview. Political disdain aside, this is the same person who heads the studio that produced the same game literally three times (four, if you include their assistance on the PC port) and even the follow-up to that beaten-horse has been remastered before they produced a singular new IP. This also blatantly ignores the fact that they literally just had a new title cancelled (sure Factions wasn’t a new IP but at least it was a new game ffs)… so again, all this glorifying of SIE seems willfully dismissive to the point of disinformation.

Furthermore, he’s part of SIE… the same publisher that literally just nuked their most creative, artistic studios… and some of their oldest studios mind you, thus further cementing that, no SIE’s “culture” isn’t about empowering devs to pursue new ideas.When you consider Sony’s heavy reliance on remastering their content over the last two generations, and the overwhelming lack of new titles (new IP or otherwise), I struggle to find any proof to that statement…. Put it simply for the uninitiated, recycling content is quite literally the direct antithesis to “new ideas”. Won’t waste my time reading and commenting on the rest of the interview.

Oh hey look at that, example #88979 of something Xbox knew years ago: not every game produced by 1P has to be beholden to this obsession of being a technical showpiece, and has arguably been successful at that front. We have a range of technical showpieces over the years - HB2, MS Flight Sim, Gears 5 - whilst still supporting smaller, less graphically-intensive titles. Wonder what the new ‘let’s shit on Xbox’ narrative will take form now :confused: What’s more hilarious is that I wonder how IGN-types will spin Sony storytelling as the ‘greatest-ever’ (not hyperbole, there’s an article directly stating as such) when they can’t rely on the one thing that helps sell most of their mediocre, games-that-wish-they-were-movies….

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does this mean more games where the narritive is explained while playing or more movie like games like uncharted

It means less expensive. :smile:

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Xbox appear to be saying to Activision - make Black Ops 6 Halo 3, please, and Activision are saying ‘OK boss’.

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Bit of both I assume - they’re effectively admitting pushing graphics to ever higher levels is diminishing returns by this point, so immersive narratives are a better way to go.

For me, Mass Effect is one of the best mixes (telling the story via cutscenes, characters talking to you and each other, text you can pick up and the camaraderie to make you care about it all) but there’s a place for movie-type games and those which don’t explain the story at all but you interpret it.

The latter is one of my favourite types - Unpacking for example as you’re trying to squeeze the creator’s stuff when she’s moving in into the small space her boyfriend has given her you think “what a dickhead” but later with her girlfriend you see they’re much more caring.

As @Knottian points out, Xbox has already been creating a number of games where narrative is the most important thing, and are ahead of the curve on this - just like @RedSparrows I particularly love Pentiment for the great way it tells its story as well as the historical context

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I played games with deep storytelling on the C64. This isn’t a recent development.

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https://x.com/joshmunsee/status/1793740180165435395?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ

Next gen really did start.

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Just finished Chapter 2 of Hellblade 2. I am utterly convinced that if this game were a PS5 exclusive it would be somewhere in the 90’s of Meta. That’s all I have to say about that. Ninja Theory should look into making a full on Survival horror game.

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A good take from a IGN dude? What is going on? :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

https://x.com/DMC_Ryan/status/1793722477673345149

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Iv said it before and I’ll say it again

Druckman is a wannabe Kojima minus the quirkyness and actual innovation

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One of the few times I find myself in agreement with Ryan.

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Butch of double turn in journalist industry.