@frylock1987 Over the past five years Square has released: Lords of Arcana, Quantum Conundrum, Scarygirl, Mini Ninjas, Infinite Undiscovery, Last Remnant, Heroes of Ruin, Army Corps of Hell, Nier, Moon Diver and Chaos Rings. So don't kid me by saying Square hasn't tried establishing any new franchises recently, they tried and they were ignored.
I almost forgot to mention the Japanese exclusives they worked on in the form Bravely Default, Blood of Bahmut and Sigma Harmonics aswell. They probably weren't released here because people like you would never buy them.
@Gr3gSolidus @loopy_101 The Armored Core series has been consistently good with every release and it is a deep mecha series. It is because of Armored Core that From Software's work on Another Century and the Gundam games has been so spectacular, it is only a shame that none of them have made it overseas.
I also enjoyed what From Software did with Enchanted Arms and Ninja Blade, before that, their work on Lost Kingdoms and the Otogi series are now rightly regarded as cult classics. I won't even bother mentioning the many King's Field sequels and spin-offs they worked on either, Demon Souls/Dark Souls being the obvious exception.
Arc System Works are one of the last bastions of the 2D fighting game genre, much in the same way Cave are to the shmups. Their titles: Guilty Gear, Blazblue or Arcana Heart, always have distinct artwork and fluid controls. I've heard nothing but positive remarks about their work on P4 Arena as well. The reason I mentioned them however is because of Hard Corps Uprsing which gave the Contra series a new lease of life.
I'm glad someone had the balls to respond to Keiji Inafune's inflammatory comments on the Japanese gaming industry.
Only because Capcom, Konami and Namco's practices have become shrewd doesn't mean that the likes of From Software, CyberConnect2 or Arc System Works have gotten any worse as developers either. There are still original teams making original games, they simply don't have the limelight is all - this is nothing new.
I'd also like to mention that the likes of Sega, Square Enix and SCE Japan Studio still take risks on new Ips and games with niche appeal, so it isn't like all of the big studios are complete jerk-offs either.
I think From Software, Grasshopper Manufacture, Platinum Games, Arc System Works, Cave, Dimps, Eighting, Monolith Soft, CyberConnect2, Game Arts and Tri-Ace would all disagree with you Mr. Inafune.
I think this review is fair: PAYDAY 2 can be as fun as the previous one was when you're in good company but the quality of the missions are mixed and still too short in number. You get a dozen variations on the bank heist mission and effectively it is played almost as much as First World Bank leading to alot of the same level grinding that Overkill wanted players to avoid doing.
I'm not a big fan of the multiple day contracts either, it removes the quick pick-up and play nature of the first game and people in public matches can't be expected to stick around for the full thing either. The lobby system is absolutely dire, over-stylised and not all that efficient. On Playstation 3 PAYDAY 2's frame-rate can drop below 30 quite often, besides having some bizarre animation issues and controller lag.
Overkill finally missed their oppertunity to include additional modes outside of the heists, akin to what Valve had with Left 4 Dead. A survival type mode where you collect as many bags as possible would have been nice, failing that, why not have cops vs robbers with a team of players trying to apprehend a team of criminals? It would strengthen PAYDAY 2's longterm appeal so much more by having something like that.
I'm glad Overkill managed to grant this one a retail release but honestly it is barely up to snuff with many of the other titles expected for release at the end of this month, I guess I should be thankful that they atleast gave it a budget price-tag from launch.
I think the love for DuckTales on NES has always surpassed nostalgia as it is still actively sought after and played by a younger generation who might never have seen the original DuckTales cartoon. It isn't nostalgia anymore when you have people under of the age of 20, today, playing the original DuckTales and enjoying it as much as the eighties kids did when it was originally released in 1989.
@VenkmanPHD So how about Red Dead? It still hasn't got a PC release and sadly never will, none of us want Rockstar to make the same mistake with GTA V.
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