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Edge #307 - Rime review, COD cover

N

Nightengale

Member
b8D1qY3.jpg


If you've paid attention to the last two years of Sony's announcement slate, you could already see a notable decline in announcements for "indie-scale" games from Sony WWS, as announcement portfolio has shifted from a ratio of:

60: AAA
30: Indie
10: Remaster

To somewhere around:

60: AAA
20: VR
10: Remaster
10: Indie

What can be gathered is that the last 18 months has seen a shift of portfolio alignment from an investment perspective, where funding that used to go to games like Rime/Edith Finch are re-routed to VR games, where the quantity of new VR announcements are roughly the same amount as the decline in indie first-party announcements.

There are still games that Sony are funding in that category, like Matterfall, but for every 3 indie game that Sony published in the past, now only 1 remain or somewhere along those lines.
 
G

GinoFelino

Member
nbnt said:
No, it's not obvious or logical. Was Edith Finch shit when Sony dropped it? Wattam? Modern Taxi Zombie Co.? Sony dropped more than just Rime last year but people didn't pay attention because there was no one spreading false rumors about those other titles.

It's also silly to think that Tequila Works was able to build a seemingly great 3D adventure game from scratch within just a year. The reality is that Sony is just not interested in indies like they used to, they're all about orchestras now.
Click to expand...

Edith Finch is a bit more complicated than ''dropped'. Wattam is in a mild development hell now too, it's fair to say. So yeah, I get why they don't want to foot the bill on indie games with a troublesome development cycle anymore. Don't you?

Your final comment, bolded, is baseless and thoroughly silly.
 
sublimit

sublimit

Banned
I don't care about review scores but i always had faith for Rime that it would turn out great,even though at times i felt like i was the only one.Hopefully the game sells well,we (i) need more games like that! ^-^
 
S

Shiggy

Member
ShinUltramanJ said:
Not without doing a bunch of searching. I said "I believe", because I thought I recalled reading it somewhere. I'm not saying it's a fact though, because I could be mistaken.
Click to expand...

In this case we really need some source if things like that are claimed, as there have been some malicious rumours without any truth related to this game. Those rumours still keep spouted around.
 
V

Visualante2

Member
Has anyone read the Persona 5 article? Is it spoiler heavy? The game has just sunk its teeth into me. I will probably return to it in 90+ hours.

Next month's issue looks like Destiny 2 to me. Still going to wait on impressions for RIME.
Passose said:
but which version should I buy then? The ps4 one or wait for the switch version?
Click to expand...
Edge tested PS4 version.
 
S

SomedayTheFire

Member
Castef said:
Not that they need it anymore.

Basically they also "dropped" Housemarque.
Click to expand...
They didn't really "drop" housemarque. Though I suppose this is what you mean by the quotations. There was a great story in Edge itself a couple of months back about Next Machina. They said they wanted to try self publish a title and have still been working with Sony during the development of Nex Machina. I wouldn't be surprised if Matterfall was released on PC if Nex Machina is a success.
 
MrS

MrS

Banned
SomedayTheFire said:
They didn't really "drop" housemarque. Though I suppose this is what you mean by the quotations. There was a great story in Edge itself a couple of months back about Next Machina. They said they wanted to try self publish a title and have still been working with Sony during the development of Nex Machina. I wouldn't be surprised if Matterfall was released on PC if Nex Machina is a success.
Click to expand...
After the commercial failure of Alienation, I'll be interested to see how Nex Machina performs. It's fair to say that Housemarque needs Sony and Sony's resources more than Sony needs Housemarque. It seems to me that Housemarque doesn't know how to effectively advertise their games. I have no idea how they're gonna change it up for Nex Machina with a month til launch because I don't see a lot of buzz for the game. I do think Nex Machina will be part of Sony's E3 in some form, likely in a sizzle reel. Hope they have more up their sleeve to generate buzz than just that, though.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
mclem said:
Most intrigued by the Strafe score, because the reviews up to now have seemed a bit middling. Would like to hear what they say about it.
Click to expand...

nbnt said:
Wondering about this too, game gets a lot of hate on its Steam page.
Click to expand...

ShinUltramanJ said:
Strafe got an 8??? Even shooter fans don't seem to like the game all that much.
Click to expand...

MrS said:
An 8 for Strafe is laughable, honestly. Way, way too high.
Click to expand...
EDGE critic goes on for a whole column about Strafe bringing him/her old school shooter memories, and how exciting it is to add random generation to that.

Summary: "Strafe styles itself as both 'the future of videogames' and 'the most action-packed game of 1996', and there's a ring of truth to both gags. In folding together and drilling into layers of FPS convention, Pixel Titans has created a game that is at once sentimental and sharply contemporary. It doesn't so much take us back to '96 as transport '96 into the present, picking up threads left by Doom and Quake and weaving its own tapestry out of them, every time you play."

Funnily enough, EDGE does mention a few of the criticisms that others echo:
"...podgy, club-wielding grunts who advance almost noiselessly to clobber you from behind"
"...this encourages defensive play to the point that Camp would seem a more appropriate title than Strafe. Over time, though, you learn to cut through the crowd, leaping over skirmishers, and flicking through the arsenal with your mousewheel in the finest deathmatch tradition."
"One of the nastier surprises is that gun mods may be more bother than they're worth, depending on what exactly the procedural generation coughs up. A rifle upgrade that trades range for damage may not avail you much in the third zone, with its longer sightlines and zombie sharpshooters."
But the EDGE critic didn't seem to mind it as much.

I'd disagree with the critic's description of the weapons as "boxy and brutish", they're not all that impactful and I just hate the wimpy reloading. I'm not as into roguelike elements as others are, so I was disappointed by three or so hours I gave to Strafe, but YMMV.
 
SmokedMeat

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Messofanego said:
EDGE critic goes on for a whole column about Strafe bringing him/her old school shooter memories, and how exciting it is to add random generation to that.

Summary: "Strafe styles itself as both 'the future of videogames' and 'the most action-packed game of 1996', and there's a ring of truth to both gags. In folding together and drilling into layers of FPS convention, Pixel Titans has created a game that is at once sentimental and sharply contemporary. It doesn't so much take us back to '96 as transport '96 into the present, picking up threads left by Doom and Quake and weaving its own tapestry out of them, every time you play."

Funnily enough, EDGE does mention a few of the criticisms that others echo:
"...podgy, club-wielding grunts who advance almost noiselessly to clobber you from behind"
"...this encourages defensive play to the point that Camp would seem a more appropriate title than Strafe. Over time, though, you learn to cut through the crowd, leaping over skirmishers, and flicking through the arsenal with your mousewheel in the finest deathmatch tradition."
"One of the nastier surprises is that gun mods may be more bother than they're worth, depending on what exactly the procedural generation coughs up. A rifle upgrade that trades range for damage may not avail you much in the third zone, with its longer sightlines and zombie sharpshooters."
But the EDGE critic didn't seem to mind it as much.

I'd disagree with the critic's description of the weapons as "boxy and brutish", they're not all that impactful and I just hate the wimpy reloading. I'm not as into roguelike elements as others are, so I was disappointed by three or so hours I gave to Strafe, but YMMV.
Click to expand...

Thank you for filling us in on their thoughts! Strafe's still a game I want to pick up at some point. It's just no longer a priority.
 
Castef

Castef

Banned
SomedayTheFire said:
They didn't really "drop" housemarque. Though I suppose this is what you mean by the quotations. There was a great story in Edge itself a couple of months back about Next Machina. They said they wanted to try self publish a title and have still been working with Sony during the development of Nex Machina. I wouldn't be surprised if Matterfall was released on PC if Nex Machina is a success.
Click to expand...

I guess all their future releases will be multi-platform. Let's see...
 
S

SomedayTheFire

Member
MrS said:
After the commercial failure of Alienation, I'll be interested to see how Nex Machina performs. It's fair to say that Housemarque needs Sony and Sony's resources more than Sony needs Housemarque. It seems to me that Housemarque doesn't know how to effectively advertise their games. I have no idea how they're gonna change it up for Nex Machina with a month til launch because I don't see a lot of buzz for the game. I do think Nex Machina will be part of Sony's E3 in some form, likely in a sizzle reel. Hope they have more up their sleeve to generate buzz than just that, though.
Click to expand...
Yeah it will be interesting. Obviously Resogun was a. Big success, but it's could be said now that it was a success due to the relative drought of good games at launch rather than it being a style of game that resonates with people. Alienation, honestly I didn't know came out when it did. The marketing was nonexistent and it was unfortunate it was released after Helldivers, which went PS+ just two months before its release.

I'm genuinely surprised they went to work on Nex Machina after Alienation last year, but I suppose they had the opportunity to work with Eugene Jarvis. You can't really turn that down.
 
D

DukeBobby

Member
Edith Finch is well worthy of that 9. If you're even a casual fan of the genre, it's a no-brainer. Best in its class.

Also, I really need to pick up Statik. The demo was terrific.
 
S

SomedayTheFire

Member
Castef said:
I guess all their future releases will be multi-platform. Let's see...
Click to expand...
It will be interesting to see what happens. As Nirolak pointed out Sony is culling their indie publishing, but XDev Europe still exists in a way the SSM indie publishing doesn't. If Nex Machina is a resounding success. I could see Housemarque continuing with self publishing. However a failure would put an interesting proposition to Sony and other publishers. A hurting indie dev with a good to great track record of games.

Matterfall is as of this moment still a "Sony game". That will be the acid test following Nex Machina. If that stays Sony I could see them adding Housemarque as a WWS.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
megateto said:
I'd say that it was denied rather than debunked, and for what's it worth I really trust lherre.
Click to expand...

Well, there's no tangible basis on which to conclude or even presume the founder/CEO/creative director of Tequila Works is lying, but if you'd rather put more stock in lherre's word, then that is of course your prerogative.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
EvB said:
Th Dangerzone devs stated that Sony aren't interested in indies anymore , unless they are making VR.
Click to expand...

Not interested as in 'not seeding development' or more like 'ignoring completely'?

Because the former makes sense. They've supported heavily at the start of the generation and it paid dividends, now their focus is on encouraging VR support. That shouldn't mean a general lack of indies, just a more standard third party relationship.
 
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