@e_zed_eh_intern said in Blue Box Game Studios, AKA 'The Conspiracy':

@el-shmiablo Theories:

1. Abandoned is an Eiffel 65 rhythm game

Zorotl’s Revenge: Move Your Body

Yeah the opaque front facing of these mega corporations that run gaming and the over all bottom line ‘fiduciary growth’ bean counting that has plagued this industry since it’s inception seems to be at an all time boring and stuffy point right now.

I will gobble this shit up to at least get some spice back, even if it’s still something probably conjured up by said stuffy corporations to garner good will.

I can’t really say it better than those who posted above me but Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an all time great Metroid game.

I didn’t play the original game because I thought the combat looked quite poor but this game looked at the market competition (Hollow Knight) and massively improved the combat and made it a core of the fundamental game.

Like @Phbz showed off in his tweet, the platforming and overall flow of the game is both puzzling, technical, and just insanely satisfying.

My biggest praise for the game is it’s attention to ‘shot’ composition where all elements of the foreground, middle ground, and background are all so well composed to give the world a lot of depth. You might be walking on a creature that is burrowed into the ground and they are somewhat animated to give it life. They aren’t actual characters you interact with but they are creatures in the world and all of these little subtle details just make the whole world feel rich and lived in.

Kinda like Astro’s Playroom, Ori also lets you interact with a ton of stuff. The FX detail and animation is fantastic where you might whip a energy bolt at an enemy and it explodes with particles splashing all over the screen and a loud thud in the SFX. You might hit some health plants or power crystals and the whole thing just feels so interactive, lived in, and immersive.

It’s probably overstated at this point but the music is just great. It gives me AC2 vibes actually. I wouldn’t say it necessarily some of the action scenes have an out of the ordinary score but the overall vibe the score gives off just helps bring you into this world.

Been replacing movies with sports lately. Upon the recommendation from comedian Brent Butt, I watched some Billy Wilder movies in order of release.

Double Indemnity - (A-)

A good thriller plot with pretty good twists and turns. The main premise is a cat and mouse between an insurance salesman who is scamming the system to elope with his married lover and his cunning supervisor who smells something fishy.

My key takeaway was the line: "She lived in one of those Spanish houses. Must've cost $30,000. That is, if he ever finished paying for it." Wow must be nice to buy a house in 1944. Looks like a mansion too!

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Sunset Boulevard - (A)

This is a classic for a reason. I was surprised how damning it depicts Hollywood all the way back in 1950. This has aged quite wonderfully in the #MeToo era.

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The Apartment - (A+)

The best of the bunch. This jumped up to one of my favourite all time comedies. The entire joke is so ridiculous to the point I have no idea how somebody came up with this shit.

A desk jockey tries to climb the corporate ladder by letting his superiors bang their mistresses in his apartment after hours. He slowly becomes a shell of a human and, again, this is just a damning depiction of capitalism and how it strips you of humanity and self care.

It's also just so absurd that most scenes keep topping itself. Really funny, really well acted, and one of the greats in my eyes.

Read this on Polygon: "Ninja Theory gives an update on Hellblade 2, which seems far away"

Tameem Antoniades, “chief creative ninja” at Ninja Theory, said in a development update Thursday that the Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 team is currently “building a good chunky slice of the game before we then move into full production to build out the rest.”

Antoniades said that Ninja Theory “didn’t want to do a straight sequel — we wanted to do something extra special, and so we’re making our lives as difficult as possible in that pursuit.”

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 will be set in ninth-century Iceland, Antoniades said, and to properly capture that setting, Ninja Theory has sent its “art and audio teams out there doing photography, photogrammetry, and combining it with satellite data to recreate large swathes of the landscape.”

A) Sounds like 2+ years away

B) I want that photography job so I can get paid to go to Iceland

@el-shmiablo

Started late and turned it off while they "broke down" the Halo Infinite MP trailer. That was complete horseshit and a waste of my time.

This might be a little out there but what if we ranked Pixar movies like this: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/6/12/17449968/pixar-movies-ranked

I feel like we're all movie fans here and Pixar movies are so mainstream that we've probably seen at least 50-70% of them.

The ranking was determined by a purely democratic process in which members of the Ringer staff were asked to rank their top 15 Pixar films. The movies were then awarded points based on where they landed, with a first-place vote equaling 15 points, a second-place vote equaling 14, and on and on.

How could I forget Forza Horizon 5. That one is highly anticipated too. However, FH4 is still kinda fresh in my mind. It didn't release yesterday but it feels like yesterday. Also not sure how you top the UK setting with Hospital Records playing overtop the whole time. Mexico is a nice world too but FH4 had vibes that'll be hard to top.

Gonna look so good on my Ultrawide though. I need a PC upgrade for games like FH5.

Ugh definitely doesn't work in Canada. None of these games show up on Game Pass. Really wanted to try Lawn Mower Simulator lol

I feel like I have a lot to look forward to in 2021 and 2022. E3 might not be the powerhouse it once was, but I also don't need Metal Gear Solid 6 in VR to get excited either.

PEAK ANTICIPATION

Battlefield 2042

This was a pretty great showing. A hype ass scripted CG trailer that is a nod to both Battlefield as a series, it's fans, and it exists to just say "LET'S GOOOOOO!"

The gameplay trailer was pretty solid too. Again, to the point. Hands off demo has a lot of BF community members quite happy with what they saw. Roadmap is clearly a multi-year endeavour. I suspect this will be a good game for 2-3 years.

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Halo Infinite

Skeptically excited. I've rewatched the multiplayer trailer a few times and I think if the gear like grappling hook, shields, rocket deflectors, and whatever else they might be hiding, is all a pickup on the map, then there will be a good dynamic of whether to go for a power weapon or an equipment pickup. 343i isn't the best at game balance and I worry a clear meta will form but it's waaaaaay too early to tell.

All I know is that if this is a good game, my buddies and I will play it for years to come.

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HIGH ANTICIPATION

Riders Republic

What's not to like? I am all in on a downhill biking video games (we haven't had a great one since the masterpiece Downhill Domination on PS2) so the other playable sports are just a bonus for me.

1st person downhill biking on technical terrain looked really friggin fun. If you can upgrade your bike with better parts as you progress through the game, I expect a pretty rich gameplay loop. It would also be nice if there were different builds you can create such as fast bike vs more stable bike.

I wasn't super into Steep because of the ski-bum Whistler/Vermont bro aesthetics, but this game looks off the wall and I've warmed up to the "generic" zaney vibe of it.

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Metroid Dread

It's a 2D Metroid game in the actual Metroid series. There is no doubt in my mind that this will be a great game, but the competition is so steep nowadays that things might've gone full circle and there is a chance Nintendo needs to follow in the footsteps of the people they influenced.

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ANTICIPATED

Life Is Strange: True Colors

LiS Remastered is probably what I'm looking forward to the most tbh, but Deck Nine did a fantastic job designing Before The Storm so I have no reason to believe this won't be a great game. LiS2 left a pretty bad taste in my mouth but this is a whole new studio and I can already tell this game is a lot more focused than LiS2 was.

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Starfield

Described by Bethesda as Skyrim in space". I didn't love Skyrim or Fallout 4 but the Bethesda open world RPG formula is probably the best RPG formula in gaming so I look forward to this despite knowing nothing about it.

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Elden Ring

It looks like Dark Souls on cocaine.

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STILL HOLDING OUT HOPE

Vampire The Masquerade 2

It'll show well at E3 2022... right?

TES6

This will show well at E3 2025!