forknknife
Banned
Wasn't arms supposed to be reviewed I this issue?
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Edge #307 - Rime review, COD cover
- Thread starter Majora
- Start date
Psychoward
Banned
Holy shit, was not expecting a 9. That's good to hear since I've been wanting it since the E3 reveal.
SinCityAssassin
Member
No.
I hope you are wrong about about that :| Or in the very least the broader impact on indie releases on PS4 is not affected by the shift away from direct publishing of Indie titles.
EDIT: Nightengale lays it out pretty clearly....hmm.
sixteen-bit
Member
Nice score for Rime
Equanimity
Member
I had a feeling Rime would score between 8 and 10. I have been optimistic since the second reveal.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
Okay. Salty opinion over a single review score aside it's about ethics in coverage?
Sony figures that indies are still going to come to PS4 due to the sheer numbers of the console, so the idea that they don't need to be the torchbearers anymore has merit, even if the optics didn't look so great initially with their cold turkey approach to their partnerships.
Nightengale
Member
Unless it sells extremely well, this changes no one's mind.
The fact that many WWS 'indie-scale' games are no longer published by Sony means it's a portfolio level decision, where those kind of game investments are replaced with VR investments.
I think it really sucks that Sony is no longer funding said games and moving the funding to VR games instead, but alas.
Another factor is that this gen has seen a lot more mid-tier publishers and self-publishing happening at a broader scale compared to last-gen.
Pubs like Annapurna, Devolver, 505 are supporting the development and funding of many indie games.
Billy_Pilgrim
Member
Glad Rime is turning out to be great.
Yeah, there's been a nice little surge of B-tier publishers stepping up to help make the more expensive indie games possible, and the amount of them that have made it to retail has been pretty encouraging.
Grumplestiltskin
Member
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.
This is really sad to hear... Do we know why? Is it due to the departure of Adam Boyes and Shahid? I don't understand. The indies sponsored by Sony were some of my favorite games last gen. It's a real shame they are dropping support
WordsintheWater
Member
Happy to see that Rime score, I'm glad it seemingly turned it so well
It just makes sense.
They don't need to publish indies anymore because most indies are making PS4 ports. Now they can focus on some B-tier projects like Nier, their own studios, VR, and marketing deals.
Just a different focus.
Savantcore
Unconfirmed Member
Just got my issue through the post. Haven't flicked through yet but if anyone has any questions, I'll happily take a look for you. And, as always, if you're that desperate to read the issue, consider buying it!
Nightengale
Member
This is really sad to hear... Do we know why? Is it due to the departure of Adam Boyes and Shahid? I don't understand. The indies sponsored by Sony were some of my favorite games last gen. It's a real shame they are dropping support
The games I'm citing are all first-party. Adam/Shahid are 3rd-party division, so they're not the reason.
If there's anyone to blame, it would be Shu Yoshida or Shawn Layden, as President & Chairman of WWS respectively.
Highlights of the rime review?
HueyFreeman
Banned
Tremendous. Was waiting on reviews prior to preordering Rime, it's 10% off
Miles Quaritch
Member
Few Rime review quotes grabbed from another forum...
So they made the new version in basically 1 year?
they're great!
You're throwing declarations that all these games were in development hell and his comment is baseless and silly? You have zero evidence about the development issues from the game. His comment is actually backed by reality. What was more "complicated" in Finch's matter?
GinoFelino
Member
I have no idea what point you're trying to make, sorry
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
every game in 2017 will be good, it seems.
Spyder_Monkey
Banned
Wait Rime might actually be good?
jesus christ
you're saying that his point (sony is stopping to publish indie games, which is a fact) is baseless and silly. It isn't. Your point about all these games being in development, however, was silly. There's zero evidence on that. RiME got all that shit on some rumours that weren't proved up to this day.
KratosEnergyDrink
Member
Very nice, not expected Rime to be this good!
DeadOnions
Member
Glad to see Rime looks to have delivered. Probably pick it up if other reviews are positive.
Guardians score pretty much where I would place it. It feels so lifeless compared to the films. Maybe people who have read the comics may enjoy it more though.
Guardians score pretty much where I would place it. It feels so lifeless compared to the films. Maybe people who have read the comics may enjoy it more though.
Steve McQueen
Member
Well, according to EDGE ( issue 305 ) Creative Director Paul Rubio said that he wanted the studio to retain the rights of the game and be able to release it on other platforms. Lacking the financial clout needed to buy them back from Sony, however, Tequila needed to find a new partner who could help.
SomedayTheFire
Member
Also important to note a lot of ex SSM people who working on indie publishing are at Annapurna now.
GinoFelino
Member
O...kay..?
I'm not talking about those rumours, though, man. I don't know what's making you so angry about the fact that some of the games mentioned were in development for a long time with issues along the way.
And yeah, saying
Is pretty damn silly and baseless. Sorry if that offends you for some reason.
What issues?
That's what makes me angry. Those issues as far as anyone knows are not really a thing. Games take time to get made. News at 11. Jumping from that to: development hell, that's why sony dropped them is baseless. Silly. etc.
Grumplestiltskin
Member
Any theories as to why they have so drastically changed their modus operandi of publishing promising indie titles?
funkystudent
Member
Cant imagine they make much money.
I would not be shocked if PS+ kinda killed the market on console outside of the occasional surprise huge indie hit ala Journey
Money is probably spent more wisely securing console launch exclusivity for independent published games that catch their eye instead of going "all in" and bringing it under the SIE publisher banner.
Happy if RIme turned out good after the rumored issues though. Maybe the extra time they got after Sony dropped them was enough to turn things around.
Acquiescence
Member
When Sony dropped Rime, that rang all kinds of alarm bells for me, along with the rumours that started popping up about how rough development was going. It didn't help that what Sony did was kind of unprecedented on their part, since (correct me if I'm wrong) it was unheard of for the company to treat an indie exclusive that way. And then the likes of Edith Finch and Wattam also happened and it seemed that Sony was making a deliberate shift away from funding indie games.
Anyway, I'm glad it reviewed well. Now it's back on my radar. I just hope it's a proper 9 and not a LittleBigPlanet 3 9.
Anyway, I'm glad it reviewed well. Now it's back on my radar. I just hope it's a proper 9 and not a LittleBigPlanet 3 9.
GinoFelino
Member
How so? Calendars are a thing..Many of the games mentioned should've been out by now.
Besides, on Rime, the devs have said in the Edge interview that it took them a long time, during the making of the game, to figure out where they wanted to take it. It's fine now, isn't it? It turned out okay? No need to get upset, man!
Nightengale
Member
1. Poor sales/ROI. It is with indies games like Rapture/Helldivers that we see Sony publishing them on Steam. It may suggest that said games didn't do well enough that they're trying to recoup more profit from other platforms.
2. Expansion/growth of 3rd-party publishing/self-publishing of indie games. Already listed above. The availability of publishers willing to fund games like that means they don't need to fund any themselves, others will fund it.
3. Budget and portfolio management. It's not as if Shu gets a budget that splits AAA/VR/Indie accordingly, those splits are managed by them and if there's no additional budget to fund VR games specifically, generally increased investment in a new range of products mean something within the existing funding pipeline suffers.
4. Change of strategy. Strategy changes can happen pretty quickly.
5. Success of the PlayStation business. Contrary to popular belief, success doesn't somehow mean that companies are given more freedom and leeway to maintain their standard of operations. More successful businesses are often driven to continue improving inefficiencies and enhance their business, and generally that means readjusting resources to maximise ROI. Something like indie games could have possibly ended up in a very lowest totem pole of ROI and that would be significantly deprioritised in a business unit chasing maximum efficiency.
6, Other. Plenty of other possibilities. Business management is tough.
InsaneTiger
Member
It may have been dropped when it was development but the good thing is 1) it is still being released on more platforms so more money potential for TG and 2) it is still releasing on the PS4 so everyone is happy.
Your literally making stuff up to fit some narrative when games don't get made that way. Just take your L and move on, and stop talking about these dumb fake rumors as fact.
Always-honest
Banned
Mn, maybe Rime is good?
GinoFelino
Member
What dumb fake rumours? What stuff are you saying I made up?
What a strange way to enter a conversation.
Messofanego
Banned
"The prototype headset struggles to simulate realistic human behaviour (conveniently explaining the fuzzy AI), so killing people or going off script while in a memory will destabilise it. The consequences for doing so are hardly severe - a terse dressing down by Red, perhaps, and a subtle change to the way some story events subsequently play out - but you'll still feel guilty if you pull the trigger. The Farm 51 toys with this tension, appealing to your sense of morality while at the same time tempting you with the prospect of combat."
"The Farm 51's decision to never settle on any particular playstyle ensures that Get Even retains its ability to surprise right up until the end. Pleasingly, it also means that the twisting storyline is reflected in the game's mechanics."
EDGE's summary of Get Even makes it sound really cool, and it's only hampered by pacing, samey environments, and not as great minute-to-minute experience:
"It's a pity that the environments in which all of this takes place aren't as indelible. Perhaps it's a deliberate choice: the story, after all, explores the consequences of misremembering, and how distinct memories can be conflated into some new, inaccurate haze. But the samey environments feel more like a poor aesthetic choice than a clever reflection of the game's themes. While the photogrammetry-captured locations take in graveyards, abandoned buildings, modern labs and more, the game's pervasive desaturated colour palette and nondescript locales conspire to make them feel indistinct.
There are issues with pacing, too. Switching between so many styles results in a staccato journey in terms of mechanics, even if the story itself is intriguing enough to keep you on edge. It slightly overstays its welcome, and feels less taut by the end, but that doesn't take away from the powerful conclusion. The decision to lock off one of The Farm 51's best gameplay ideas in the epilogue rankles a little, however.
The result is a game that, while built from familiar components, feels unique as a whole. The Farm 51 should be commended for its bold design decisions, and for attempting to create something that dispenses with videogame conventions. That it doesn't always hang together quite as well as it could is disappointing, but that doesn't make experiencing the studio's singular vision any less worthwhile."
But the story, variety, atmosphere, morality, branching story, and tackling themes of misremembering, guilt, loss, and revenge, sound brilliant. Getting shades of Spec Ops The Line here imo.
One of the few times a review score of 6 got me to pick up a game!