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Hello there. Welcome to The Cseekly Recap. I’m your host, Csomm and here I'm going a bit deeper into the topics that I’ve covered in my shorts.
#thecseeklyrecap #gamingnews #opinion #discussion
Like, share, subscribe and all that good stuff!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:15 Crimson Desert story situation
03:16 Eidos-Montreal woes
07:26 Nintendo and patent shenanigans
10:17 Bethesda Yes Men
13:52 Outro
Sources:
Article 1: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/not-even-crimson-deserts-main-character-va-understood-the-games-story/1100-6539099/
Article 2: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/eidos-montreal-announces-124-job-cuts-studio-head-david-anfossi-departs-after-19-years-at-developer
Article 3: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/110816/report-eidos-montreal-cancels-new-game-that-it-spent-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-to-produce/index.html
Article 4: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/us-patent-office-revokes-nintendos-patent-on-summoning-characters-to-make-them-battle/
Article 5: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/skyrim-and-fallout-4-artist-says-bethesdas-todd-howard-has-too-many-yes-men-a-lot-of-people-were-afraid-to-say-no-to-todd-and-that-hurt-him/
#thecseeklyrecap #gamingnews #opinion #discussion
Like, share, subscribe and all that good stuff!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:15 Crimson Desert story situation
03:16 Eidos-Montreal woes
07:26 Nintendo and patent shenanigans
10:17 Bethesda Yes Men
13:52 Outro
Sources:
Article 1: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/not-even-crimson-deserts-main-character-va-understood-the-games-story/1100-6539099/
Article 2: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/eidos-montreal-announces-124-job-cuts-studio-head-david-anfossi-departs-after-19-years-at-developer
Article 3: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/110816/report-eidos-montreal-cancels-new-game-that-it-spent-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-to-produce/index.html
Article 4: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/us-patent-office-revokes-nintendos-patent-on-summoning-characters-to-make-them-battle/
Article 5: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/skyrim-and-fallout-4-artist-says-bethesdas-todd-howard-has-too-many-yes-men-a-lot-of-people-were-afraid-to-say-no-to-todd-and-that-hurt-him/
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GamingTranscript
00:00Hey hey hey, it's time for another edition of the Cheekly Recap.
00:04I'm your host Chum, and I'm here to go a bit deeper into the topics that I've covered
00:08in my shorts.
00:09The footage behind is from the game Death Stranding 2.
00:13Let's get this show on the road.
00:15The first story of the day is all about Crimson Desert and its story.
00:19In this particular news, Crimson Desert's story might be more confusing than you actually
00:25thought.
00:25Voice actor Alec Neumann, who voices Cliff by the way, reveal he struggled to understand
00:31the narrative during development, with major story elements changing over time and key
00:36emotional moments added later.
00:38You don't have to be a genius or a wizard or a clairvoyant person in order to figure out
00:44that the story is actually a mess.
00:46I mean, that's the thing that's supposed to grip you in the beginning of the game and
00:50for the first couple of hours it's just a disjointed mess.
00:54This is obviously my opinion because I am always playing games with story on the first
01:00place because that's the driving factor when I'm doing something, you know, you have to
01:04have a story and a reason why your character is doing all these things.
01:07And when the story is this poorly presented, at least in my opinion, obviously you're gonna
01:13have problems getting into the game itself.
01:15Now, some people don't have issues with this particular problem and more power to them.
01:21And they have decided to play the game their own way, which is for the most part focusing
01:27on the open world exploration element of the game.
01:30And like I said, again, more power to you.
01:32If you can do that, amazing.
01:34Very happy for you.
01:35I, on the other hand, cannot.
01:37I don't know what was going on through the heads of developers when they decided this
01:41is going to be the introduction of the general story, you know, the things that you do in
01:45the game like saving cats, cleaning chimneys and all that stuff.
01:49But it definitely in my book doesn't have a lot of sense.
01:52And the funny thing is, when I think about it, only with a couple of tweaks you could have
01:57changed it in order to be more gripping.
02:00And it still wouldn't be top of the line storyline, but it needs to be serviceable at least.
02:06I mean, check Skyrim story, for example, nothing extra, but it does have a head and a tail,
02:12so to speak.
02:13So yeah, I reckon with these particular insights that we are getting, I kind of feel that I
02:19was in the right when I said certain things.
02:21And I still wouldn't change my mind, even if these things wouldn't be available to us.
02:26Because at the end of the day, like I said, I want a complete experience, not a half-baked
02:32experience where I'm kind of making stuff up in the head in order to justify the actions
02:37that I'm performing in the game.
02:39Still, at the end of the day, I would say that I could probably soldier through this
02:44type of a storyline, especially now that they have been fixing the controls and all
02:49the other elements of the game that I found to be lacking when I initially reviewed it,
02:55or rather, when I produce my first impression.
02:58And also, credit where credit is due, they are pushing these patches and fixes, even
03:02though most of the time I'm asking myself, was this really necessary?
03:07But apparently, if that's how they do things, and they own it up later on, I guess it's gonna
03:14be okay at the end of the day.
03:16Speaking about things ending up okay at the end of the day, well, that's not really how
03:22things are looking at ADOS Montreal.
03:25Because ADOS Montreal has announced 124 layoffs alongside the departure of Studio Head after
03:3219 years.
03:33This marks another wave of cuts as Embracer Group continues restructuring, impacting studios,
03:39projects, and thousands of developers across the gaming industry.
03:42And this wouldn't be a story that's, you know, happening out of the blue, so to speak.
03:48We've seen all other gaming studios being closed or laying people off, stuff like that.
03:55You could say this is a trend in the gaming industry now, especially what happened with
03:59Epic employees, where Epic just fired around 1000 people, I believe.
04:04So I was like, okay, it is what it is, nothing you can change about the whole situation.
04:09But then, this story happened a bit later this week.
04:13And it goes as follows, ADOS Montreal has reportedly cancelled a massive AAA game after spending hundreds
04:20of millions of dollars on development.
04:23The project, known internally as P11 or Wildlands, was nearly completed before being scrapped alongside
04:30a new Deus Ex title.
04:32Again, this follows layoffs and restructuring under Embracer Group.
04:36Now, this second story had me worried because, again, if you lay people off, sure, it happens,
04:44sadly, but that's how the situation is.
04:46But cancelling a hundred plus million game right before being completed?
04:51Now, that's fucking worrisome.
04:54Thing is, we don't really know anything about this project Wildlands, so I reckon we will
04:59never know what the game was all about in terms of story mechanics.
05:03We only know it was some kind of a open world fantasy or something along the lines.
05:08But what I am more worried about is the cancellation of Deus Ex title.
05:13See, Deus Ex, Mankind Divided, and Deus Ex, Human Revolution, were two games that I really
05:20fucking enjoyed.
05:21I thought the style, the aesthetic, the gameplay, everything was okay, even though when it comes
05:27to the story for the first game, it was a bit questionable, especially when we are talking
05:31about the ending of the first game, that is, Human Revolution, where you just press a couple
05:36of buttons and then you have these slideshows and voila, you ended the game, congratulations.
05:41Still, I wanted to see what's happening with Adam Jensen in the third game, because since
05:46you already have two games, it was kind of logical to produce a third one and make it a
05:50trilogy, but apparently, as things stand, I don't think we are going to see that any time
05:56soon.
05:56And while I was thinking about this whole situation with Eidos Montreal, I kind of went on Wikipedia
06:01to see what else were they making, what kind of franchises.
06:05And you have Tomb Raider, you have Marvel's Avengers, but then these last two entries kind
06:11of tickled my curiosity.
06:12See, they have Fable, but only as a supportive development for playground games.
06:18And Grounded 2, co-developed with Obsidian Entertainment.
06:22So what I am noticing here is that this studio, who was kind of making their own games, downgraded
06:28itself to do secondary stuff, like I already said, supportive development.
06:33And I suppose that can kind of give you the idea what the studio is going through, as in
06:38they don't really have stuff to do other than doing this supportive stuff, because yeah,
06:44they canceled two of their big games.
06:46So it makes you wonder, what is the future of Eidos Montreal, given the fact that these
06:51things are happening?
06:52Well, like I said, if you look short term, it's survival plus supportive work, which I
06:57already outlined.
06:58But medium term, it's either rebuilding, which means new leadership comes in and they make
07:03smaller scope AA projects, for example.
07:06Or they decline further, with more layoffs, getting fully absorbed into Embracer pipeline,
07:12and then essentially lose identity as a creative studio.
07:15I don't know man, to me it's just sad, because I really wanted to see what's happening with
07:19Deus Ex.
07:20And it makes you wonder, will they even get a chance to lead the game again?
07:24I guess only the future will tell.
07:26Speaking of what's going to happen in the future, well, the US Patent Office has revoked
07:31Nintendo's patent related to summoning characters to fight for the player.
07:35The decision cites earlier patents from other companies, rejecting all 26 claims, though
07:41Nintendo can still appeal.
07:42This could have major implications for game design and future legal battles in the industry.
07:48And right off the bat, I would just say immediately, in my opinion, patenting stuff, like game mechanics
07:55and all that shit, that's just fucking nasty.
07:58So what, if Nintendo managed to push this asinine patent, they could have easily sued anyone,
08:05any game that has some kind of a summon, even fucking Diablo at this point, when it comes
08:10to summoning minions if you're playing as a necromancer.
08:13I mean, that's just fucking batshit insane, if you ask me.
08:16It's safe to say that this patent should have never existed in the first place.
08:20And thank fuck the people at the patent office recognized this and cancelled all that Nintendo's
08:26bullshit.
08:27It's fairly obvious to anyone that these patents are just pushing gaming industry to
08:32a stagnation point.
08:33And we've seen what happens with Nintendo games, especially with Pokemon.
08:37Pokemon games, up until recently, were carbon copy of each.
08:41And there was no evolution, no nothing.
08:44They were just printing them because people would buy it.
08:47Again, there isn't any other game on the market.
08:49And even if there was, they would aggressively shut them down.
08:53And you can see that with Palworld.
08:55And what Palworld showed to people is that you can make a very fucking interesting game
08:59if you give some effort because, essentially, Nintendo had monopoly and they got lazy because
09:05it's easy money.
09:06But for the consumer, it's just a shitshow because you're getting subpar product when
09:11you can see, evidently, that there are better things that you can spend your money on and,
09:16not to mention, have more fun.
09:18One thing I would add to this whole patent situation is that this weakens Nintendo's
09:23legal pressure strategy, but I wouldn't celebrate just yet because, like I said, Nintendo can
09:28modify the claim, can narrow the patent, and they can appeal.
09:31And the key detail here is that even if one surviving claim manages to wiggle through,
09:37they can still use it in lawsuits.
09:39So again, this isn't over.
09:40It's just a major setback.
09:42Let's just hope that people in the future are not going to be this fucking dumb and allow
09:47these asinine patents, because long-term, this is just fucking bad for the whole industry
09:54and it chokes creativity.
09:56And I don't know about you guys, but I don't wanna see the same 10 Pokemon games all over
10:02again for the next fucking 20 years just because Nintendo can do it and print money off of it.
10:07I mean, it's a good strategy for Nintendo, but for everybody else, it's just fucking dumb.
10:12So yeah, let's hope that we don't see these types of news anytime soon.
10:17The final news that I wanna cover, it's all about Bethesda.
10:20A former Bethesda artist claims Todd Howard was surrounded by too many yes-men, with developers
10:26afraid to push back on ideas.
10:28According to him, that lack of criticism may have hurt projects, raising new questions about
10:34leadership behind games like Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield.
10:38This is an interesting one, because at the end of the day, I don't think anyone was surprised
10:44by this situation, if it is true, that is.
10:47But for the sake of the argument, let's assume it's the truth.
10:51And what better way to analyze the state that Bethesda is in right now, other than taking
10:56a look at Starfield.
10:58Everything that can go bad, went bad with that game.
11:01You wanted to make a galaxy full of planets that you can explore, but what we get is just
11:07a small tile where you can land with all points of interest rotating, and that's about it.
11:13Even better, that small tile is huge enough for you to go on foot from one point of interest
11:20to another without even thinking that maybe you should add some kind of a vehicle to let
11:24players cover the distances faster, because at the end of the day, you're just dragging this
11:29game for no apparent reason.
11:31How about the missed opportunity of doing something with New Game Plus, other than giving
11:35players different states when you enter the lodge, and then giving players a fool's hope
11:41that they might encounter something else based on the chances they have in the game.
11:45But let's not forget the best thing ever, which was you joining the pirate faction and
11:50essentially gating off everything else in the game, because you're continuously wanted,
11:55you cannot land anywhere in the major city unless you have a bounty which you continuously
12:00need to pay off.
12:01It's safe to say that we can talk about the problems of Starfield forever, but these three
12:06examples that I gave are a clear indicator of what a mess this game turned out to be.
12:12And if they follow Todd Howard's vision, or a vision that was held by a couple of people,
12:19and nobody had the balls to say something, which I completely understand, you don't want
12:24to go into a conflict, if you're a developer and this is your only job, you just shut the
12:28fuck up and do the work, then this is basically what you get.
12:32And over the past couple of months that I have been covering this situation with Bethesda,
12:37this stuff is really making me worried about the Elder Scrolls 6.
12:42Because if we are in the same situation with people seeing that things don't really work,
12:48or they don't make any sense whatsoever, and then these mechanics are still in the game,
12:53or at least they will be in Elder Scrolls 6, I don't think it's going to end up good
12:58for Bethesda, because people might be tired of their bullshit already, and when they get
13:04presented by something that's subpar, or even worse that we had before, or possibly
13:09a continuation of bad things that have already been implemented in previous games, I think
13:15that the Iron Throne of Bethesda is going to crumble very fucking fast.
13:20As always, here's me hoping that this doesn't happen, but they really need a good slap in the
13:27face if they continue to push this stupid shit more and more, because the time for leniency
13:33towards Bethesda has come to an end, and they will finally be judged properly, instead of letting
13:40them wiggle through all the bullshit that they have been pushing out, just because.
13:46I don't even know what's the reason why people are not calling them out more, but it is what
13:51it is.
13:52And that's basically it when it comes to the news that I covered this week.
13:56Thank you very much for watching, and as always, I encourage you to leave comments.
14:00I read all of them, and I'm very happy to interact there with you guys.
14:04If you enjoy this content, consider liking it and subscribing for more discussions like this.
14:09And that's it from me, until the next one.
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