New Games Suck... Or Is It Just Me?

It's a day one Game Pass release, in the midst of there being a number of other notable things to play on that (Expedition 33, Blue Prince, Oblivion Remastered, etc). Those players won't show up on Steam. /shrug

E33's peak concurrent player is 145,063 and oblivion remastered is 216,784. Apparently they have np getting people to play on Steam, despite it's also on Game Pass day 1.

Also doom eternal peak concurrent player is 104,891 but Dark ages is only 31,470. That's more than 50% player loss for no DEI reason involved...

Welp maybe oblivion remastered's developers are 6 times more passionate than Doom developers! /s.

(No offense to Doom Dark Ages developers, I still have great respect for them and I love the art style. I just find all the passion talk kinda silly lol. Poor people's passion got judged by sales results!)

I explained my reasoning for not getting it in an earlier post, but I did watch a few reviews and no one seemed as excited about the end result as they did Eternal and 2016. One noted they felt "Slayered out" at this point and there is a bit of thematic burnout, but most said some aspects of the game (combat in particular) would be love or hate. It seems like it kindof shifted into new territory and I'm not sure it connects with everyone the way the previous two did.

It's probably also true that there are a lot of other releases out right now worth playing, but it's been a pretty stale year for FPS games from what I can tell esp compared to 2024, so I'd expect FPS fans to be a little more interested. Personally I think Painkiller seems more interesting, but I'm also kindof iffy on FPS games because many of them make me motion sick these days, I've also found I get bored of them very fast compared to earlier years.

And the same "explanation" can be used for every game that failed, or every game that was successful.

Like, you know, "E33 was successful because new soulslike parry mechanic brought something new that connects with player!" Or "it's successful because music connects with players!"

It's always easy to say X works or doesn't by second guessing after the sales result is out. The truth is that whether a creative work(like book, movie or game) become a hit or not is very much luck relevant.

Sometimes people just happened to want something at certain time and a new game delivered that so it become a hit. Then people with equal passion can try to deliver the another thing but market doesn't respond well.

If any of those can be anticipated with a formula then no one would lose money in game industry, but the truth is that 9/10 of time a game wouldn't become a hit. Luck and timing is a big factor on whether a game become a hit or not.

E33/Oblivion likely have even better numbers than what Steam alone reflects as well. Could also be a different mindset around some releases, or a reflection of them being out for more than a few days. Different regions maybe too?

The previous DOOM games were just in a Humble bundle as well, so maybe folks are playing those as a result.

I hadn't seen complaints about the style in general, but I did see more wait-and-see attitudes due to each of the modern DOOM games mixing up the formula a bit, and not everyone liking what Eternal did as much.

Regardless, I don't think it's necessarily indicative of it being a bad game. Or one that won't see solid sales in the long run. I know for me, even the previous ones weren't drop everything sorts of things. More something to get to when I'm in the mood. So, along the lines of what you're saying. Timing is a big aspect. Could just be they dropped it in a crowded window.

My explanation was pretty specific to my issues with Eternal coming from 2016 and what appeared to be doubling down on in Dark Ages. It wasn't that broad. This is an established series with multiple titles, so it's pretty easy to say "I don't like what they did here compared to the previous games and not buying it as a result".

I also don't think luck has that much to do with it. This year has been starved for FPS content, the past 2-3 years have had a lot of well regarded titles coming out and 2025 hasn't had any I can note or think of and we're almost halfway through the year.

It's also not that difficult - have conversations with people about what they liked about previous titles. Do you want people connecting with your game because they liked it or because you happened to hit the timing right when there was nothing else good available? I doubt anyone you ask about 2016/Eternal would've suggested adding the mechanics they did.

To be clear again, I'm not calling it bad. It just seems like they dug in on the aspects of Eternal I didn't like, added more stuff I'm kindof meh about, and that kind makes me think it's best to hold out. I was open and willing to think otherwise but so far reviews haven't really changed my opinion. It doesn't seem like it connects with me and if sales numbers are down it's a clear indication that it doesn't connect with others as well.

Exp 33 did come out of nowhere and get a lot of attention.

I'll be honest, I havent even bothered going for a daily kill or two in Wilds because of it.

Ive seen slightly more than average hype for Expedition 33. Many youtubers saying it is a masterpieçe.

Reminds me Wukong had about the same amount of hype. But already there is some time since I heard about it again.

Personally I like to play (or watch) the entire serie in order, and not skipping numbers.

Thus, playing 32 games just to play Expedition 33 is no bueno for me.

They probably didnt even have this game on their radar until its release though.
Hence the "came out of nowhere"

Need da traffic when there is a chance!

:TrollFace:

From what I've seen on YT, meaning gameplay videos, Expedition 33 looks pretty dope.

I'd play it.

Will wait for the inevitable sale though as no time to play such a game. Glad it's doing well.

You know a game I was expecting to do super well but it's struggling? Doom Dark Ages!

It might have sonething to do with the lack of guns in the dark ages.

Most likely it is because it was leaked that Nynja played this game.

Generally this is bad propaganda

70$ price tag in a very bloated market. Pretty much all she wrote.


It is a great time to be a consumer when companies have to fight for your dollar though.

When was someone gonna tell me I've played this game?

AAA games do have a problem. They can't take risks making gameplay that haven't been proven to be successful. The Chinese devs got a lot of fresh ideas but not all of them are successful. They tried. I really appreciate the efforts and I sort of like their quirky games.

Of course, most of these are PC games. Console peasants don't get to play games without proper supervision. Can't have kids running around building soul harvesting hell room. One Palworld is enough to scare the console players.

There was this game called The Matchless Kungfu. It's one of the coolest fighting games I have ever seen but also one of the weirdest. You fight other characters in a world you create by laying down the land mass squares using rock, paper, scissors (punch, kick, palm) style fighting. Cool world building, terrible balance, plus weird story where you have to reincarnate until you get a slot in one of those family for secret martial arts or something.

Schedule I. The most fun I had in years. I was a drug dealer selling weeds out of a motel to burger flippers until I got my Walter White setup and crank out explosive pills and ended up killing my client. I had to put the guy into the recycle bin and the bin gave me $2 for the body....

There are also mid-range games that are really good for the money. They aren't great games but they are very solid.

Aliens: Dark Descent is pretty nice on its own. Pretty much scratch my itch of the Aliens movie.

Amazing Cultivation Simulator is also pretty good. Not great but sort of good for a Dwarf Fortress game with a lot of eastern flavor.

Oh, Kingdom Come Deliverance II is pretty good imo. Not amazing but better than the 1st one.

This game is also on my to-buy list for a long time. I love Aliens and I like squad based tactics games so it got my attention immediately the moment it's released. But I recently picked up nearly 20 free games from Amazon prime so now my backlog has over 60 games unplayed /sigh.

Maybe I'll be able to play it years later lol.

Is this like xcom?

It's real time not turn-based I think. Which is a bonus point for me personally. I very much prefer real time or real time with pause in strategy/tactics games.

https://thegamepost.com/playstation-dark-outlaw-games-artists-generative-ai-tools-midjourney-chatgpt-stable-diffusion/

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/former-dragon-age-writer-says-clair-obscur-expedition-33-and-baldurs-gate-3-prove-whats-possible-when-a-game-is-given-time-to-cook/

Hay guyz, COE33 is a banger because it was "given time to cook"


https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Age:_The_Veilguard
Various sources are stating that "quite a while" is 3 years, the game started development in 2015.


I guess 9 years wasnt enough time for Veilguard to cook.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466060/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon/

Looks like it might be decent game from an indie dev

DEI hiring is the most stupid thing a creative industry can do, it's still amazing to me how they went all in on it.

When you hare a bunch of DEI they are going to be mediocre at their jobs, and when you hire mediocre people they are just going to steal stuff to do the jobs they aren't able to do.

The only saving grace is AI is going to replace most of these people now, who they will soon be laying off.

10 years ago customers would have hated the idea of AI, today with western games almost universally being crap? Who is going to argue against something that will improve quality and offer bigger games?

I can see Square Enix fully embracing AI, if they are not already doing it. Their biggest problem is being unable to hire new staff (cause of Jp laws not allowing layoffs), this fixes that.

Expedition 33 developers.

Wait, you mean to tell us there is a place on earth that doesn't have a West Coast Californian Metro population mix?

After all, everyone knows that mediocre white men are the best mediocrities to hire!

It's nothing to do with white men being better on average.

There are far more white men in the software and game industries than there are any other demographic.

When you try to include other races for the sake of checking a little box, you inevitably pass over more capable people (who happen to be white men).

Expecting equal talent from a pool that's 1/10 the size is silly; that's equivalent to claiming all women and minorities are inherently better than white men.

..I feel like you already know all of this, though. Maybe just a party line thing.

Software and game industry isn't exactly the same.

We don't have DEI policy, and yet male:female ratio in gaming industry is roughly 3:1 from what I've heard. If you only look at programmer and designer position then it's mostly male. Add art, narrative design and marketing/PR department in the mix and you see female demographic increase.

A pure IT company doesn't need to deal with art and writing that's why there are more males. Gaming industry is far more diverse because the departments and even genre are very diverse.

I've also seen plenty of small 2-3 people indie teams that's all female who are just friends that team up and make games. Some of them are still successful commercially.

I don't know why people has to put a lot of stress on the composition of a team. If you want to work with female then do it. If you want to work with male then do it. It's just awkward to post a photo of a team then start comment on the demographics.