AV_Gamer

@creepingdeath0: I'm not a financial expert, but it seems to be a sleezy way to increase their bottom line by the end of the year. Many of those companies that acquired and then shut down seem to report record profits. So they basically are buying and selling, and while doing, so disrupting a lot of people's lives.

@spacemanspiff00: Well, they don't want another major backlash like they got when they closed down Tango too soon, and they know people are waiting for it. With that said, I would take this with a grain of salt. Who knows what they'll do months down the road. One thing I think they'll do is not keep the game as an Xbox exclusive.

From the moment Microsoft announced the Xbox Series X/S, to recently, this game was pushed by them as the exclusive worth waiting for, arguably even more so than Starfield. You can say that given recent events with the layoffs and studio closings, the game didn't get a lot of ads and stuff before they dropped it today, but that doesn't change the massive buildup the game was getting prior to these things happening. Now its a waiting game. I know the initial reception is not what Microsoft was hoping for. It's not terrible by any means, but it's also not a game of the year type of reception, just like Starfield wasn't. And at this point, as many gaming journalists have pointed out, Microsoft needs a knockout. This game isn't it, and it might be their last chance.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii/

While it's currently holding an 80 percent on Metacritic, the game is not the knockout Microsoft was likely hoping for. Especially, since they put so much of their faith and energy behind supporting the game, while they abandoned others. The big brother website Gamespot for example gave the game a 6/10. Senua's Saga was supposed to be the killer app that put the Series X and Gamepass on the map. But it turns out to be the game most of us already guess it would be. A game some people will love, and a game some people just can't get into. I personally liked the first Hellblade a lot, and this game is more of the same. But this is for better and for the worse.

The game, according to most who've played it, has some of the best visuals and sound design people have ever seen in gaming. But the gameplay is repetitive with little enemy variety and the puzzles are a pointless distraction. These were the same issues with the first game, but the story, visuals and of course the sound design won me over. But this is my personal opinion.

Have you played the game yet? What are your thoughts on the reception and the game overall?

Is this game also going to underperform for Microsoft, which might cause Ninja Theory to be the latest neck on the guillotine?

As someone who follows the FGC, the DOA games have always been as popular as Tekken and Virtual Fighter. The difference is that Tekken is at the top of the mountain in terms of tournament backing and prize money, so the game has gotten a lot more attention. Namco like Capcom has fully invested in the whole e-sports world tour, where players compete for huge cash prizes. Meanwhile, Tecmo /Team Ninja was banned from EVO because of the display that happened in 2018 during their event. Prior to this, DOA was one of the top 3D fighting games you'd see at tournaments. Just because you don't see the gaming being hyped like Tekken on social media, doesn't mean a lot of people around the world aren't still playing it. Virtual Fighter is also not hyped like Tekken is right now, but has a huge following of people playing the game around the world.

I'm not going to get into the so-called sexy factor, because it's irrelevant. DOA has always been a solid 3D fighting game series, and this is why the series has lasted through the years. Not because people get off on seeing Kasumi, Ayane, etc.

Microsoft is all over the place. They don't know what they want to do. They never recovered from the hit they took with the Xbox One debacle, and they have been slowly sinking ever since. I would compare it to the Titanic, but unlike that tragic event, Microsoft doesn't get my sympathy.

It's funny, because I tried to play Killzone 3, but couldn't. The gameplay was too sluggish for my taste. I never played Killzone 1 or 2, but I watched Lets Plays of them. But I did get and played Killzone Shadowfall when I got my PS4, and I think that game has one of the best single player campaigns in a first-person shooter. But a lot of people act like Shadowfall was not as great as those previous Killzone games, go figure.

And as much as I like the Horizon series and look forward to the final game in the trilogy. I also would love a follow up to Shadowfall.

This is nothing new. Women and people of color have been harassed in online gaming since Xbox Live became a thing decades ago. It got to the point that the whole thing about the bratty white kid spewing racial nonsense has become a meme. But, of course, it's mostly adults doing it. This is why many women and people of color usually don't speak in their mics in a public online game, because as soon as they do, some bigot or creep goes in on them with most people during the session laughing and encouraging it. There have been so-called steps taken to combat this, the problem is, most of these game developers don't enforce their own rules. They claim to have zero tolerance for harassment of any kind, yet rude gamers still come go on their servers, spew a bunch of nonsense and get away with it. And reporting them doesn't work either. Sadly, you have sexist and racist who work for many of these game companies, so they claim to fight bigotry and sexism for PR, but nothing more.

So the sad answer is, it can't be dealt with, because the people who could do something about it, really won't. But they make a PR statement and act like they're doing something to fool people. And many of these online pricks know this.

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! Steelers! Here we go. Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl! Here we go!

@thepanzini: Glad it worked out for them, but I also noticed how the article ends with Insomiac pretty much saying "whoa we need to slow down some. No major releases anytime soon". Hope 2025 is another good year for them. I can certainly go on another adventure with Rivet and crew.