Arkane PREY - Arkane's immersive coffee cup transformation sim - now with Mooncrash roguelike mode DLC

[Karellen]

third-person melee combat is, on the whole, better than first-person melee.

First-person melee permits true fencing and free-aimed blows due to its close, focused view of the opponents' bodies and each weapon in play. In contrast, third-person melee whose camera is detached from the pawn and too far away from the subjects to allow even decently accurate free aiming, and certainly accurate enough to enable hit-detection between weapons, is limited to movesets and thus lose a wast amount of complexity, control, and fluidity. Compare e.g. Chivalry's hit-detected parries with Dark Souls', which only requires the player to face the enemy and press a button within the correct time-frame.

That's all true, so if those features amounted to better gameplay, one would expect there to be a large amount of superior first-person melee games, but there aren't. One might even expect actual fighting games with that perspective, but first person modes have never amounted to more than an easter egg in fighting games, and the entire genre is still built around the side-view perspective. The reason for this is the same reason why there are few good first-person platformers; the dynamic of those games is based on precise gauging of distance and range and its interplay with timing, and simply put the first person view is worse at communicating range with the precision that's needed. Of course, third person view is a step back from side-view as well, but at least you see where your character is.

At any rate, if you make a sacrifice in range-based gameplay for the sake of free aiming, one had better do something special with it, but so far there's not a whole lot to show for it. I think part of the problem is that whereas you can adequately represent the aim-and-shoot mechanic of shooting with a mouse, mouse aiming is pretty distant from, say, sword fighting. So it's hard to get it to feel even remotely natural, and even if a mechanic like different types of executable blocks has something going for it, there's a serious risk that the game devolves to a Simon Says struggle with the controls. Ultimately, though, I feel that even if you could do it well, range would still be a more interesting and important mechanic for representing melee - with a sword, there are only so many ways to attack efficiently due to physiological reasons, so people tend to drill a limited number of efficient maneuvers until they become instinctive, and the trick is in knowing what to do when, which is a combination of reflexes and strategy. In that sense, the fighting game system of having different predetermined moves is a pretty sound base to build melee combat on.

Of course, all of this is theory. The main thing is that the melee in Prey doesn't seem to be very good, and I was wondering if it's a good game in spite of it.

 

[Morgoth]

Why should they even release a demo to begin with? Who else is releasing demos for AAA games these days?

Because they're releasing a demo for the game on the consoles?

Honestly are you this stupid 24/7 or is this just a "Day 1 Purchase"-syndrome thing you're afflicted with?

They have no fucking obligation to release a demo whatsoever, you spoiled entitled idiot. Be happy with what you got or fuck off.

 

[Mynon]

How dare they not inflict massive harm to their early sales on PC... Those damn bastards.

 

[Morgoth]

Yeah, we saw how fast Denuvo got cracked after the RE7 demo. Bethesda would be fucking stupid to release a PC demo pre-release.

 

[flyingjohn]

Yeah, we saw how fast Denuvo got cracked after the RE7 demo. Bethesda would be fucking stupid to release a PC demo pre-release.

None of the triggers and obstructions in the demo are anything close to the original game.
I mean every single new patch requires the cracking process to start form the beginning,you think they couldn't do the same for a demo?

 

[Morgoth]

Yeah, we saw how fast Denuvo got cracked after the RE7 demo. Bethesda would be fucking stupid to release a PC demo pre-release.

None of the triggers and obstructions in the demo are anything close to the original game.
I mean every single new patch requires the cracking process to start form the beginning,you think they couldn't do the same for a demo?

"Hey guise, lets release a patch with new Denuvo every single day without any actual bugfixes/content to annoy the cracking scene"

Nope. First week sales are very important so they better not pander to the greedy and entitled whiners. They can release a demo 6 months later for all I care but early sales are paramount.

 

[Mynon]

Yeah, we saw how fast Denuvo got cracked after the RE7 demo. Bethesda would be fucking stupid to release a PC demo pre-release.

None of the triggers and obstructions in the demo are anything close to the original game.
I mean every single new patch requires the cracking process to start form the beginning,you think they couldn't do the same for a demo?

Why take any risk that is likely to hurt your initial sales, especially when it demands additional resources?
Demo would gain them nothing on PC, and could potentially cause them significant hurt. (and not only on PC, early cracking of PC version would hurt sales across all platforms)

 

[Urbanolo]

Morgoth Infinitron Prey had around the same amount of peak players as Dishonored 2 (+/- 23k), and D2 was widely considered to be selling below expectations.

I do not know wether the budget was significantly smaller this time though, so the game may be more likely to turn a profit, but the stats don't look like it's anything extraordinary.

 

[Morgoth]

Morgoth Infinitron Prey had around the same amount of peak players as Dishonored 2 (+/- 23k), and D2 was widely considered to be selling below expectations.

I do not know wether the budget was significantly smaller this time though, so the game may be more likely to turn a profit, but the stats don't look like it's anything extraordinary.

Early stats are not very accurate, so it probably takes a week or so for SteamCharts to put something meaningful out. Also we don't know about console sales. The demo could have helped to repel or gain more customers. The only thing we do know is that the Austin team is smaller than the Lyon team.

 

[Urbanolo]

Morgoth Infinitron Prey had around the same amount of peak players as Dishonored 2 (+/- 23k), and D2 was widely considered to be selling below expectations.

I do not know wether the budget was significantly smaller this time though, so the game may be more likely to turn a profit, but the stats don't look like it's anything extraordinary.

Early stats are not very accurate, so it probably takes a week or so for SteamCharts to put something meaningful out. Also we don't know about console sales. The demo could have helped to repel or gain more customers. The only thing we do know is that the Austin team is smaller than the Lyon team.

I think peak players data from steam.db is pretty reliabale and the biggest peak(1st weekend after release) is over, so that's the best data available on which we can base prognosis of PC sales. It's true however that console sales are an Enigma.

 

[Morgoth]

You should have seen Fallout 4 peak players. Was around 200k, but actual 1st week sales on Steam amounted to something ~3 million. It's not accurate at all.

 

[Urbanolo]

Morgoth I'm not sure you understand my point. I'm not saying the game sold 20k copies, I'm saying it sells about as well as Dishonored 2 sold and D2 was considered to be underperforming saleswise. That's all we can say with the data available.

 

[Morgoth]

I do understand your point, but I'll simply not draw conclusions from such early data.

Most buyers are probably still holding back because the big gaming sites haven't released their reviews yet.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

They have no fucking obligation to release a demo whatsoever, you spoiled entitled idiot. Be happy with what you got or fuck off.

...

Where do I start with this?

You jump to the conclusion that I had something to gain and/or lose.

You jump to the conclusion that I am spoiled and/or entitled (among other things).

Because I state the obvious: That Arkane's attempt at PR reveals their lazyness, bias and contempt for a large portion of their target playerbase. They're free to do things their way, of course, but they should really pause and think before opening their mouths next time, because that comment was really stupid and made them look like douchebags.

Speaking of stupidity and douchebags, you dodged the question I put before you. But it's pretty obvious that you have no intention of answering it, nor the points above, you're fine with just moving the goalposts and spamming that Retadred-rating like you're getting paid for it.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I don't know what's worse, the fact that modern AAAAAA++++ vidya game sales are HARMED by having a demo released, or the fact that millennial degenerates (and Morgoth who tbh has always been an honorary millennial) are defending the practice.

 

[Morgoth]

Arkane isn't responsible for the PR, and calling them lazy while they busted their butts off the last four years on this game only further shows your ignorance and entitlement.

 

[MuscleSpark]

You jump to the conclusion that I am spoiled and/or entitled

Never spend more than $20 on a video game

 

[Kem0sabe]

So is it just me, or has this game failed to generate any hype in a large gaming community? It looks like it isn't selling that well either.

After Dishonored 2 early sales flop, it seems there might be a problem with Bethesda marketing strategy.

Dishonored 1 was a fun but barebones game, with the feeling that a sequel that fleshed out the intriguing world would be amazing.

They proceeded to make such a sequel, but people ended up realizing that the adding to the world without making the gameplay more satisfying, wasn't enough. It failed miserably because people got burned out of doing exactly the same shit for hours.

Enter prey, and it's Dishonored 2 all over again, interesting world building but the same mediocre combat and gameplay for 20 hours.

Arkane is done if this fails sales wise... That space ranger sequel would have been much better.

 

[Black]

They were done once bethesda bought them.

 

[Morgoth]

D2 failed partly due to the shit storm with bad performance, and partly due to the oversaturated market. The formula itself was rock-solid and the level design amazing.

 

[Morgoth]

They were done once bethesda bought them.

They would have gone broke or doing shitty contractor work for EA in perpetuity if it wasn't for Bethesda.

 

[Black]

They were done once bethesda bought them.

They would have gone broke or doing shitty contractor work for EA in perpetuity if it wasn't for Bethesda.

How benevolent of them

 

[Morgoth]

More like how smart of them.

 

[Mynon]

So is it just me, or has this game failed to generate any hype in a large gaming community? It looks like it isn't selling that well either.

After Dishonored 2 early sales flop, it seems there might be a problem with Bethesda marketing strategy.

Dishonored 1 was a fun but barebones game, with the feeling that a sequel that fleshed out the intriguing world would be amazing.

They proceeded to make such a sequel, but people ended up realizing that the adding to the world without making the gameplay more satisfying, wasn't enough. It failed miserably because people got burned out of doing exactly the same shit for hours.

You know, if Thief 1 and 2 were released nowadays, you would probably make that same remark about them. Just think about this for a moment, and see how easily Dishonored and Dishonored 2 in your post could be exchanged with Thiefs within your frame.

 

[Darth Roxor]

So is it just me, or has this game failed to generate any hype in a large gaming community? It looks like it isn't selling that well either.

After Dishonored 2 early sales flop, it seems there might be a problem with Bethesda marketing strategy.

Dishonored 1 was a fun but barebones game, with the feeling that a sequel that fleshed out the intriguing world would be amazing.

They proceeded to make such a sequel, but people ended up realizing that the adding to the world without making the gameplay more satisfying, wasn't enough. It failed miserably because people got burned out of doing exactly the same shit for hours.

You know, if Thief 1 and 2 were released nowadays, you would probably make that same remark about them. Just think about this for a moment, and see how easily Dishonored and Dishonored 2 in your post could be exchanged with Thiefs within your frame.

"Thief 1 was a fun but barebones game" -> does not compute.