Sometimes you just have to take a step back and cut through the excuses. The reason this has become a 'controversy' is solely because the player character is black, and putting a black person in a videogame causes an immediate kneejerk reaction among Certain Types Of People, who then layer on excuse after excuse to justify the response.

If the main character had been a white guy there would not be the same reaction. See, for example, Shogun and its white protagonist who did not attract the same claims of somehow being insulting to Japanese people.

Yeah it played it a year ago before most of the patches. I want to try it again at some stage. I played it on Game Pass back then, which I don't subscribe to at the moment so I haven't tried it since.
I don't know about the rights situation, I assume Microsoft ultimately has the rights. They've been giving refunds to people who bought the more expensive editions with the promised DLC because they won't be delivering it. The DLC was apparently scheduled to be released at Halloween this year.

Basically:
- Arkane had a history of making immersive sims that were very good but didn't sell very well.
- Bethesda and/or Microsoft (owners) made them create Redfall as an online co-op shooter which apparently the studio wasn't too keen on.
- Most of Arkane's experienced developers left the project over time.
- The final game was buggy and fundamentally just not very good.
- They spent the past year working on updates and a promised DLC with a new character.
- Microsoft closed the studio in May, cancelling the DLC.
- Arkane released one final patch which people seem happy with, although I doubt it changes the game that much.

Personally I thought there were some parts of Redfall that were interesting and I played it right through at launch but it was certainly a disappointment coming from Arkane.

Lol OK this actual historical figure is the inspiration for the entire AFRO SAMURAI franchise which was created by uhhhh a Japanese manga artist. How do these reactionary nerds keep hanging their ass out to the world like this. Manga has gone woke (back in 1998 or something)!!

Having read about this for all of 30 seconds, apparently this person is a real historical figure who served directly under the Japanese emperor. There's very little detail about who he was and he may not have been a samurai, but embellishment is a constant of historical fiction, so I think maybe people need to get over themselves. He's been depicted in Japanese pop culture since at least the 60s so the suggestion that including this character is "insulting to Japanese people" or whatever is absurd.

Teddy wrote on May 7, 2024, 20:36:
Redfall is a new, unproven IP that is now irreparably stained. Could they have spent the money to fix it? Sure. But why?

Tell that to the people who bankrolled the past year of extra work on it! Millions more in wages alone spent on it for nothing, more bad management. Whatever reputational damage they were trying to fix for a year they've now made even worse. Put the blame where it really belongs is all I'm saying.

Judging from the reporting on Redfall's development, Arkane was forced to make a game they didn't want to make, they lost all their experienced devs as a result, and now the rest of them are paying the price for poor management.

For people who would still say Arkane fucked up so they deserve it etc, consider that it should be possible to make a bad game without being eliminated for it. Like that's how a well functioning industry should run. The game industry is not well run, we all know this. Don't align yourself with the fucking bean counters.

Everything they've shown of Stalker 2 makes it look like a heavily scripted shooter with extensive cutscenes, not like the free-roaming of the original games. Got a feeling a lot of people are gonna be disappointed.

Yeah sounds like he's getting out before shit gets really nasty for him, no care given to the livelihoods of all the employees. Or he's just having a mental breakdown.

What a shame.

It's getting very good reviews.

Nullity wrote on Dec 8, 2023, 15:21:
Arkane used to be a good bet, but Redfall is hard to overlook. It's definitely possible that mess wasn't really they're fault, so I guess we'll have to wait and see if they'll get a second chance.

Different studio, different developers. Lyon's last games are Deathloop and before that Dishonored 2. Deathloop felt a bit unambitious to me, but still a very solid and polished game.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Sep 25, 2023, 16:15:
Someone should tell Tom Hall that "AAA" games are already homogenized. That ship sailed long, long ago.

Read a bit more closely...

Hard to think of a clearer example of management fucking up and workers paying the price than this Embracer saga.

I replayed it a few months ago with the Force Engine and had a good time. It does feel like another era, since it was, but it was still fun to play.

Or The Congress.

VC bait.

Is there a rule that every new Star Wars thing needs a cutesy companion?

Yeah people are way too emotional about this show. It sucks that Henry Cavill left (or was forced out, whatever) but maybe calm down and wait and see what happens. Season 2 wasn't that great, maybe season 3 with Cavill will suck before we even get to see the new Geralt, no one knows anything at this point.

No one will make a more faithful adaptation of Middle Earth than LOTRO. If Amazon were smart they'd acquire those devs and put them to work. But then they'd just fire them all after a couple of years anyway with nothing to show for it, Amazon being Amazon.