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Ben’s Week In Review: April 21

So who's ready to see the PlayStation 4? Me, I really don't care much about what it looks like, but I know others do. 😉

Maybe Mikami can rekindle the survival horror genre

I think it goes without saying that most fans of this niche category of gaming aren't too happy right now. They didn't really get a great Silent Hill effort this generation, Resident Evil has changed significantly , and we all know the direction Dead Space has taken. So maybe those horror followers have to pin their hopes to one game: Shinji Mikami's The Evil Within . Bethesda is publishing it (surprise!) and the live action teaser is pretty sick. I think Mikami is just the right person to resurrect this ailing genre, because I really believe he understands the core of fear. The man created Resident Evil and although he has been involved with super fast games since then, survival/horror is in his blood. It's part of his past.

Of course, Bethesda did say it's going to be a "blend of horror and action" but then again, isn't that a decent description of even the old RE and Silent Hill games? They were just more horror than action; the terror built during the downtimes, when you were never sure what was lurking around the next corner… If there's one person who might still get this, it's Mikami.

You're funny, Square Enix

There's really no other way to describe it. Final Fantasy Versus XIII news has been "coming soon" for over six years now. And they actually think they can appease fans by saying it again ? What, like this time they really mean it? Also, could someone explain to me why there has been an information ban on the game? What's the incentive behind that? I'm assuming there's a reason but the only one I can think of is too logical: They just didn't have anything to say. I do, however, find it interesting that the idea of releasing info has been a "delicate issue" within the company. The only way to interpret that is as follows- If anything is "delicate," it means there are supporters and dissenters on a certain topic. That means some wanted to tell the fans more about the game, while others didn't.

Obviously, those who didn't have been winning. And maybe they'll just keep winning until they finally tell us that Versus XIII has become a next-generation project. Anybody taking bets on whether or not it actually turns up as Final Fantasy XV ? At this point, why not?

Personal gaming update

There's not much to tell, but I'm nearing the end of Bioshock Infinite and then I'll be able to go back and savor Tomb Raider . I'm also interested in checking out Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon just because I have a weak spot for campy 80s stuff. The retro theme combined with current-generation first-person shooter mechanics sounds wicked fun, and I love the campy story and setting. I wish I had some games I want to play for the Vita, but there's not much out there. As for other titles, you can expect reviews for Injustice: Gods Among Us and Dead Island Riptide at some point here. I know a lot of you are anticipating the latter because you loved the original; I'm not in that group, but I do want to check it out.

I just can't wait for the end of the year. So many good games coming! 🙂

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Corvo
Corvo
10 years ago

Not trying to defend SE, but i heard the other day that FF12 took 5 years to develope. If you think about the fact vs13 is supposed to have a world map, a new battle system, those graphics, different battle styles for each character, and all that this time frame would make sense. If anything they shouldn't have announced the thing sooooooo early, but thats only if the developement of ff12 was correct.

Which i didn't bother checking for myself because some final fantasy news site i follow on twitter was giving away beta keys and it was one of the questions. Unless those people were lying, 5 years for ff12, more for ffvs13? So if it wasn't announced so pre-maturely it would make sense. Just my opinion though.

Mikami's horror game looks wicked, and i meant the word in its meaning. PGU would be far cry 3 on master, tomb raider for shinys, and i bought the mass effect trilogy so im playing the first one for the first time. Not a fan of the combat, the gameplay, or the mini map, but the story certainly has a better hold on me now. Maybe i can apreciate the series more.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
10 years ago

Games can take a long time to develop, but they actually make progress over time. Versus is a handful of brief videos and images and has been for ages, but it isn't like Rockstar where they talk when they damn well please to talk about it, they've actually come out and promised that more Versus info was coming "soon" a few times now and it's all very strange and unprofessional. Add that to all their mistakes this gen and it's hard to be anything other than skeptical.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
10 years ago

I'll try to be optimistic about TEW, Bethesda tends to back some pretty good projects.

Square Enix probably has workers who are sick of being put on other projects and forced to not talk about Versus so as not to draw attention from all the unplanned FFXIII sequels that have come out to try to recoup the epic waste at SE. They probably feel if they could talk about it then SE would let them work on it again.

I'm all about Tomb Raider right now, I love it. It's so much more than I could have hoped for it's like a 1st party production. Somehow Crystal Dynamics has come from being a good developer to a AAA creator.

CrusaderForever
CrusaderForever
10 years ago

It's still my 2013 GOTY and that's after playing Bioshock Infinite for 4 hours. Tomb Raider just gets better and better as the game goes on. The combat and evading was pretty much perfectly executed. I will be playing through it again some day. Play it on hard it really completes the package.


Last edited by CrusaderForever on 4/21/2013 1:14:27 AM

daus26
daus26
10 years ago

I personally think it was Wada who put this "ban" on FFvsXIII. Is it not a coincidence that after the announcement of his departure, this "ban" is lifted? Plus, it's not like Lightning Returns is already in store. I figure we'd at least have to wait for that to release before we get anything out of FFvsXIII.

We also have to remember that it was pretty sudden with FFvsXIII. When the last trailer was revealed (2011/2010?), it just seemed like they were ready to unleash a bunch of info on the game. Then as soon as FFXIII-2 took the limelight, FFvsXIII just seem to suddenly disappear.

Temjin001
Temjin001
10 years ago

I've lived about a 1/3 of my life (yes, I plan to live a long time) and I'm ready to see some crazy looking consoles. I want something unconventional in design. Don't ask me what that should be. That's their job, but I want something cool. With all of S-E's foibles it's really too bad S-E management just happened to have Final Fantasy as one of their games. it's too bad like Konami or someone didn't get that team who started the franchise back in the day. I mean really, could there have been a worse scenario for the franchise? Koei, Sega, Tecmo, Crapcom… well maybe not them.. and Namco. Anyone.

I've retired survival/horror.

And oh yes, I'm eagerly anticipating your Injustice: Gods Among Us review Ben 😉 Yes indeed =p

PGU: I've been all over the place. I've made progress in AC: REvelations. I'm sort of enjoying the story… more the characterization of seasoned Ezio. I do like the flashback sequences playing as Altair in post-AC1 events. It's cool seeing Altair old and settled down with his wife and stuff. It would seem Ezio is about to do the same 😉
Anyway, so AC: Revelations has introduced to the franchise wall-slide QTE segments. There's something I'm beginning to pick up on here. If your long running franchise resorts to wall slide QTE's as a 'new' game play mechanic then you're franchise is probably due for an overhaul or reboot. GoW: A, NG3, and AC: R, know of what I write. I guess you could say 'the writing is on the wall-slide" =p


Last edited by Temjin001 on 4/21/2013 12:24:39 AM

CrusaderForever
CrusaderForever
10 years ago

It will be very interesting to see how The Evil Within turns out. Be nice to get back to the survival horror roots.

SE…let's just hope they can knock it out of the park next gen.

PGU:
Been playing Defiance none stop. The game is just addicting. I cannot stop playing it. Just had a 6 hour session and it was hard to quit, but I am tired. The gun play is so fun. Defiance gives you that Diablo/Borderlands feeling with all the guns and loot.

I am hooked on the modding system. I am already at 15 hours in and don't see myself slowing down any time soon. Glad I took a chance on this game. Also, since it's a MMO I am really interested to see all the new content that will be added in the near future. This game has me thinking about Dust 514 as well. We'll see how that turns out.

Shams
Shams
10 years ago

Much better avatar, thanks.

___________
___________
10 years ago

the evil within has be giddy as a school girl, it just looks SO f*cked up!
silent hill meets hostel, oh come on how can you not love it!?
thats probably a bad thing though, ill put my money down now.
50 bucks says this is going to be really disappointing because that trailer is writing checks the game will never be able to cash.
hopefully it will, but hey that trailer was so freaking twisted the game cant be that f*cked up!
but hey, for now all ill say, is, SURVIVAL HORROR IS BACK B*TCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

square, well, weve been down the road of japanese developers MORE than enough times!
heads so far up their a$$es not even the light of god could illuminate the facts in front of them to make them legible!

back to bored sh*tless again!
cant finish darksiders 2, just pisses me off too much!
why, oh why did they have to change it so much?
it was already so special, different, original, unique, innovative!
then they make it that much worse, and add a gun to it for a few levels.
sigh.
moved onto sly cooper 4 thieves in time now.
only played a few hours of it, but im surprised how decent it is.
i mean yea its pretty basic and simplistic, but its actually semi fun!
shame it dident get the recalling the franchise deserves, but hey this certainly warrants another stab, and cements sanarzu into the industry and, hey, maybe they could make a habbit of this just reviving playstation mascots?
whos next?
crash?
sir daniel?
spyro?
jack?
gex?

xenris
xenris
10 years ago

The delicate Versus info can really only be a couple of things. Either they canceled it and don't know how to tell anyone without people literally trying to kill SE employees, it became multiplatform for the xbox 360 and maybe even the pc, it got ported to their new engine we saw the agni engine or whatever and it is now a next gen title for the PS4 AND the new xbox.

Those are all of the reason I can think of that would warrant such a ban on information.

I mean if it just comes out for the Ps3 like planned I will be really surprised, super duper happy, but still really surprised.

Here is hoping that it is launched on the PS3 and PS4 😀

Rogueagent01
Rogueagent01
10 years ago

The ban for FFvsXIII is no suprise to me as almost all devs actually do this with there projects. The suprising part to me is that it has lasted this long, which makes everybodies comments above good questions/statements.

As far as survival/horror goes it has been a long time since I played one, I lost interest many years ago but would like to give it another go. So here's hoping everything works out good for Mikami.

PGU: As always Dust514 till I hit my SP cap, really looking forward to the 6th and the new Uprising build. Then trying to slowly knock out my backlog, finished Dante's Inferno and The Walking Dead last week and thought both had interesting/good stories, but I also thought both had severe control issues. I don't know which game(s) I'm going to start working on next.

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