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Shadows of the Damned $39.96 at Fry's Electronics BOMBA SUDA51 AM CRY

B

Barkley's Justice

Member
Wario64 said:
I don't understand this.
Click to expand...

Not every game is worth "$60". and not every game should be sold for $60. this is one of those games.

yet publishers feel the need to market games like this at $60 because, well, sony and microsoft apparently tell them to?

what if EA saved the expensive of producing a boxed retail version of this game and sold it digitally for $30 on xbl and psn. how much money do you think EA would save in *shipping* to retail alone? not to mention manufacturing and materials.

you may say, "well, they wont sell as many units online." possibly. but they wouldn't lose sales to the 2nd hand market either. which, let's face it, a title like this will surely find itself in that channel at some point.

does it balance out? it's hard to say. thats because EA is not allowed to sell games like this on xbl and psn. why? probably because of retail pressure on microsoft and sony by the likes of the walmarts, gamestops, etc ("if you sell your games day-and-date digitally, we will give you less retail space...")

i'm not sure what the budget on this game was. it was probably low.

we need a paradigm shift away from the default $60 boxed title. not all games, this one included, are worth that.

i think we'll find it will produce better games as well, since developers and publishers will no longer (we can hope) feel the need to pad their experience to make the game "feel" like it was worth $60 of the consumer's money (boss gauntlets, fetch quests, collectibles, etc)
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
hey_it's_that_dog said:
Isn't it preferable that the game exists without promotion if the alternative is that it doesn't exist at all?
Click to expand...

I was talking about it from business perspective. If EA goes down by releasing 5 games like this in a year for 10 years straight I'll be a very happy man.
 
F

Flavius

Member
Lorne Lanning blogs that he'd like to "motorboat that rack," referring to the then EA Director of Marketing's spouse.

Stranger's Wrath goes on to sell precisely 17 copies.

Years later, Suda51 says he wouldn't mind "dipping his pen in that company ink," referring to an EA exec.

Shadows of the Damned first day sales? 1.4 copies.

When asked about his company's name, American McGee says "...and speaking of spicy whores, have you seen these gals?," motioning to a group of EA top-level employees.

Copies of the Alice sequel are smeared with actual poop, straight from the factory, shadow of the damning it to...you must forgive the expression...shitty sales figures.

There is a lesson to be learned here, developers. Be careful with your words, lest your game be next.
 
T

Totobeni

An blind dancing ho
Flavius said:
Lorne Lanning blogs that he'd like to "motorboat that rack," referring to the then EA Director of Marketing's spouse.

Stranger's Wrath goes on to sell precisely 17 copies.

Years later, Suda51 says he wouldn't mind "dipping his pen in that company ink," referring to an EA exec.

Shadows of the Damned first day sales? 1.4 copies.

When asked about his company's name, American McGee says "...and speaking of spicy whores, have you seen these gals?," motioning to a group of EA top-level employees.

Copies of the Alice sequel are smeared with actual poop, straight from the factory, shadow of the damning it to...you must forgive the expression...shitty sales figures.

There is a lesson to be learned here, developers. Be careful with your words, lest your game be next.
Click to expand...

or just don't work with EA and go with THQ's partner program or other publishers.
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Barkley's Justice said:
Not every game is worth "$60". and not every game should be sold for $60. this is one of those games.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but his point is why this game? Maybe because it has no multiplayer?
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Y2Kev said:
Yeah, but his point is why this game? Maybe because it has no multiplayer?
Click to expand...

I would guess because it is clearly a low budget affair. Low budget -> low retail price. It's not a realistic expectation, but I think it's fair in a sense.
 
Dr. Kitty Muffins

Dr. Kitty Muffins

Member
Barkley's Justice said:
Not every game is worth "$60". and not every game should be sold for $60. this is one of those games.

yet publishers feel the need to market games like this at $60 because, well, sony and microsoft apparently tell them to?

what if EA saved the expensive of producing a boxed retail version of this game and sold it digitally for $30 on xbl and psn. how much money do you think EA would save in *shipping* to retail alone? not to mention manufacturing and materials.

you may say, "well, they wont sell as many units online." possibly. but they wouldn't lose sales to the 2nd hand market either. which, let's face it, a title like this will surely find itself in that channel at some point.

does it balance out? it's hard to say. thats because EA is not allowed to sell games like this on xbl and psn. why? probably because of retail pressure on microsoft and sony by the likes of the walmarts, gamestops, etc ("if you sell your games day-and-date digitally, we will give you less retail space...")

i'm not sure what the budget on this game was. it was probably low.

we need a paradigm shift away from the default $60 boxed title. not all games, this one included, are worth that.

i think we'll find it will produce better games as well, since developers and publishers will no longer (we can hope) feel the need to pad their experience to make the game "feel" like it was worth $60 of the consumer's money (boss gauntlets, fetch quests, collectibles, etc)
Click to expand...


This is a game that is well worth 60 bucks. I don't understand you one iota.
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
hey_it's_that_dog said:
I would guess because it is clearly a low budget affair. Low budget -> low retail price. It's not a realistic expectation, but I think it's fair in a sense.
Click to expand...

yes, it's clearly not a 60$ game by today's standarts. Just because it doesn't have multiplayer...

and I'm serious. While all other 60$ games have this why this 7-8 hour SP game shouldn't? People are right that it is a rental.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Dr. Kitty Muffins said:
This is a game that is well worth 60 bucks. I don't understand you one iota.
Click to expand...


Because with most products, the market dictates the price based on what they are willing to pay. Yeah, this game might be worth $60...to about 50 people who are die hard suda/mikami/game fans, but somehow I think Capcom was shooting for higher than that, which could have happened if there was a more open pricing market and they could have priced this game accordingly. 5 million people will pay $60 for the next CoD game, that's why it's sold for that much, has much more to do with that than it does with how much content or multiplayer there is in the game.
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Cheska said:
Damn that was fast. This is getting to be pretty sad.
Click to expand...

A game being bomba has nothing to do with sales. You'll find a lot of MW3 copies for 40$ at launch. And other games too...
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
subversus said:
yes, it's clearly not a 60$ game by today's standarts. Just because it doesn't have multiplayer...

and I'm serious. While all other 60$ games have this why this 7-8 hour SP game shouldn't? People are right that it is a rental.
Click to expand...

Not just because it doesn't have multiplayer. That's the point I'm trying to make. I don't care about multiplayer. I do care about them trying to sell a game that looks like it was made using the default settings in Unreal Engine for 60 bucks alongside games with huge budgets. That's my personal value appraisal in this situation and I think some other people feel the same way.
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
hey_it's_that_dog said:
Not just because it doesn't have multiplayer. That's the point I'm trying to make. I don't care about multiplayer. I do care about them trying to sell a game that looks like it was made using the default settings in Unreal Engine for 60 bucks alongside games with huge budgets. That's my personal value appraisal in this situation and I think some other people feel the same way.
Click to expand...

it doesn't look like it's using default settings in UE. At all.
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
subversus said:
it doesn't look like it's using default settings in UE. At all.
Click to expand...

That was sort of a joke. I don't know if UE even has default settings (because I don't know how engines work - and from the looks of things neither do Grasshopper). But you can't deny the game is massively blurry and bloomy, which fits some of the old stereotype about UE.

Anyway, the game looks budget. That's what people are going to see before they play it and realize it's worth $60 or whatever because of the genius of Mikami-san and Suda-san and OMG LOL dick jokes and whatever else. That's what is going to determine the typical consumer's value judgment.
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
hey_it's_that_dog said:
Anyway, the game looks budget. That's what people are going to see before they play it and realize it's worth $60 or whatever because of the genius of Mikami-san and Suda-san and OMG LOL dick jokes and whatever else. That's what is going to determine the typical consumer's value judgment.
Click to expand...

The game doesn't look budget. It has top-notch art, it feels polished, graphics are quite good for consoles and perfomance is pretty smooth compared to other UE3 games. It's better than other games in writing, art and while gameplay is pretty standart it has its share of interesting quirks. There are tons of games on market which are worse than this game, look worse but sell bigger numbers.

It's just a matter of game's direction. If games like No One Lives Forever bomb because of its theme and art direction. We don't live in 90s when this kind of stuff worked well with mainstream crowd (I'm not talking about games).
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
subversus said:
The game doesn't look budget. It has top-notch art, it feels polished, graphics are quite good for consoles and perfomance is pretty smooth compared to other UE3 games. It's better than other games in writing, art and while gameplay is pretty standart it has its share of interesting quirks. There are tons of games on market which are worse than this game, look worse but sell bigger numbers.

It's just a matter of game's direction. If games like No One Lives Forever bomb because of its theme and art direction. We don't live in 90s when this kind of stuff worked well with mainstream crowd (I'm not talking about games).
Click to expand...

The game looks technically subpar. Put it next to any other UE game releasing this year and it looks technically worse (on console, I'm not even comparing to PC). I'm not shitting on the art direction; I like it well enough. I've only heard a little of the writing in footage that has been released and it was uniformly cringe-inducing. There's probably a lot more to it than that, so I'll withhold judgment on that aspect.

.JayZii said:
The things that GAF members do and do not know about continues to baffle me. Who ARE you people?
Click to expand...

I'll take the bait. Whatcha talkin' about there?
 
B

B_Rik_Schitthaus

Banned
subversus said:
That's why we need CD keys if we want games like these to exist.

/sigh
Click to expand...
Or why we need games that are longer then 6 hours (Played on legion difficulty.) that are made with a good re-playability.

The game has nice art direction(poorly executed but still) and the interaction between Johnson and Garcia is great...the story books are nice but take those things away and you're left with a dull corridor shooter with a limited number of enemies and weapons that is shockingly easy in both its combat and its puzzles.

Suda should quite putting small old school sections in his game and just make a full-on retro game, he might be good at that.
 
K

Kade

Member
I always thought "replaying" a game meant, you know, replaying it but apparently it means adding extra content the extend your experience with the game. Replayability isn't something you can put a pricetag on. It's all personal preference.
 
ToyMachine228

ToyMachine228

Member
I highly recommend picking this up for $40. I picked it up at $60 and it was worth every dollar. It does have it's problems, as many games do, but definitely worth playing.
 
R

Rahxephon91

Banned
At $40 the games worth it. It's a very solid RE4 like game.

It's a shame EA did not try to push this game at all. It could have done pretty well if they actually tried.
 
A

a Master Ninja

Member
How is the first response not an avatar quote?
Shadows of the Damned $39.96 at Fry's Electronics BOMBA SUDA51 AM CRY
Click to expand...
OZr5K.jpg
 
I

IC_Champion

Member
Flavius said:
Lorne Lanning blogs that he'd like to "motorboat that rack," referring to the then EA Director of Marketing's spouse.

Stranger's Wrath goes on to sell precisely 17 copies.

Years later, Suda51 says he wouldn't mind "dipping his pen in that company ink," referring to an EA exec.

Shadows of the Damned first day sales? 1.4 copies.

When asked about his company's name, American McGee says "...and speaking of spicy whores, have you seen these gals?," motioning to a group of EA top-level employees.

Copies of the Alice sequel are smeared with actual poop, straight from the factory, shadow of the damning it to...you must forgive the expression...shitty sales figures.

There is a lesson to be learned here, developers. Be careful with your words, lest your game be next.
Click to expand...

Do you have any links to those statements?
 
B

Buddha Beam

Banned
Count me among the folks who didn't know this was out. I do want to play it, though.

Unfortunately, I can no longer tolerate playing shooters on dual analog. Give me pointer controls or give it to me for $20 dollars!
 
J

.JayZii

Banned
hey_it's_that_dog said:
I'll take the bait. Whatcha talkin' about there?
Click to expand...
I just meant all the people who had no idea the game is out; I always assume people on GAF are up to the minute about everything. There's even a fairly large thread about it on these forums, so it's just weird that so many people missed it.
 
I

iconoclast

Member
Smision said:
do other people agree this is "RE4-2"?
Click to expand...

No, the gameplay isn't in the same league as Mikami's other games. The story and characters aren't as interesting as Suda's other games either. It's also piss easy even on the highest difficulty.

It's a good game, but it's a rental.
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
It's not RE4-2. But it's really good.


iconoclast said:
No, the gameplay isn't in the same league as Mikami's other games. The story and characters aren't as interesting as Suda's other games either. It's also piss easy even on the highest difficulty.

It's a good game, but it's a rental.
Click to expand...

Think of it as a Massimo Guarini game!

I'm not a Suda fan. Suda's games are, like, all pretty "quirky". And by quirky I mean usually fukboring or broken. But this one is pretty different.
 
M

Man

Member
Y2Kev said:
I'm not a Suda fan. Suda's games are, like, all pretty "quirky". And by quirky I mean usually fukboring or broken. But this one is pretty different.
Click to expand...
He managed to cram some of his 'genius' into this one as well. Huge retro platformer like diamonds for collections and glowing poo's for savepoints.

I am Okay with the goat lamps because they stress you in the dark and surround sound crunch otherwise.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Everyone needs to buy this now.

You've got Akira Yamaoka of Silent Hill fame for music and sound.
Suda 51 for script
Mikami for gameplay design suggestions
And the director Massimo Guarini, isnt that bad either.

Everything in this game is excellent aside from no new game + option (so far).
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
zoner said:
I don't see grindhouse Troma-esque appealing to anyone BUT the US
Click to expand...

But do you see Troma movies getting huge advertising campaigns in the US? Or do you see them in the bottom corner of the shelf at Blockbuster away from all the mainstream stuff?
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Suda wrote the script and directed the premise as far as I'm aware, but the gameplay was designed by Massimo Guarini, with Shinji Mikami helping refine the combat. Mechanically it's not a Suda51 game at all.

Shadows of the Damned is not without flaws. Controls can be a little clunky. A couple of gimmicks in later acts drag out a little longer than they should. There's no new game plus, achievement stacking, or any replay value beyond simply playing for fun. Achievements dont stack, so if you're an achievement/trophy seeker you'll have to play through multiple times to get platinum.

But the good stuff tends to greatly outweigh the bad. The weapons are wonderful, and the combat, while simple, is satisfying. Enemy variety is kept fresh throughout the entire game. The boss fights are interesting. Level design is, again, quite simple, though still engaging thanks to clever use of light/dark puzzles that are never tedious yet often intense. Various gimmicks are littered throughout to surprise you, and near all of them play well. The characters are fantastic thanks to sharp writing and rock solid performances across the board. The story too is pretty interesting and well paced.

Shadows of the Damned is like a more focused Resident Evil 4. Smaller environments, less puzzles, and a greater focus on combat. Yet even with the focus on combat, it never devolves into a monotonous grind. The various enemy types, the light/dark puzzles, and the variety of environments help keep the game interesting. It's the kind of game where you want to progress as you dont know what is going to be around the next corner, whether it be some funny punchline, quirky gameplay gimmick, new enemy or character, or strange level design.

As said, it's not without flaws, which is pretty typical of a Grasshopper game, but its arguably the most traditional and polished game the studio has ever produced. Grasshopper/Suda haters should give it a look, as it has basically nothing in common with a lot of other Grasshopper games.
 
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