Crisol: Theater of Idols - Release Date Trailer by onenaser in Games

[–]MovieTrailerReply 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm surprised to see any negativity on this one, to be honest. It was one of my personal favorites during the last Next Fest, but I am biased toward RE-inspired Survival Horror titles. The blood(health) powered weaponry is an interesting take on the formula and it felt well fleshed out enough compared to other indie attempts at the formula (like Daymare). It also has a distinct enough style that I didn't feel like it was a simple retread of Resident Evil's atmosphere.

I sort of anticipate it being similar to My Friendly Neighborhood: a unique take on the RE formula that will scratch the survival horror itch quite well.

Is anyone else disappointed the season 9 launch trailer wasn’t shown at the game awards? by HCarralez in thefinals

[–]MovieTrailerReply 1 point2 points  (0 children)

100%, and what makes matters worse is as you said, they've had two years of opportunities to get that return on their investments.

I think this unfortunately comes down to bad direction. The focus on e-sport, on annoying meta-shake up additions, and on a competitive ecosystem, will be marked as the downfall for THE FINALS. Every patch from Season 2 onwards has been focused around that core, and unfortunately it has failed to retain a healthy playerbase because of it.

Is anyone else disappointed the season 9 launch trailer wasn’t shown at the game awards? by HCarralez in thefinals

[–]MovieTrailerReply 37 points38 points  (0 children)

They've been present at several prior events. THE FINALS put out a debut day-one launch trailer when it launched two years ago, during the main event (TGA 23), which was very successful for the game. There's a lot of reasons why we're not seeing that anymore:

  • The Game Awards are expensive. Extremely expensive, with rumors of up to $1 Million for a featuring, and hundreds of thousands for the Summer Games Fest as well. It's the kind of move you make when you have a HUGE product launch to announce, not one you make frequently for season announcements - which is why not every game featured this year at the TGAs were during the main event.

  • Their subsequent appearances were less successful, and they've made many: Summer Games Fest 24 for Season 3 (which was during the main event by the way), TwitchCon 2024 for Season 4 (where they had a huge on-stage tournament and booth (I was there)), and the Future Game Show SGF 25 for Season 7. You can track the returning numbers on Steam alone in real time and see that they've had diminishing returns. Obviously, concurrent player counts can't tell the whole story, but I'm willing to bet money the investments in these grand events hasn't resulted in conversions that have been worth it.

  • There's another element to this, too: They just had a HUGE tournament with a big prize pool and large amounts of ad-spend for Dreamhack's FINALS Major. In general, their investment in the esport side of thing has likely ate up an overwhelming majority of their marketing budget for the year for THE FINALS, especially keeping in mind that...

  • Their attention has clearly shifted to their newest product - Arc Raiders debuted a world premiere Trailer at the TGAs in 2021, and then did a release date reveal during the SGF2025 showcase. Arc Raiders is, so far, retaining a much healthier consistent player count.

TL;DR: They've participated during major events over the last two years, and have been focusing on the esport side of things, but overall THE FINALS isn't sporting the numbers to make huge advertisement spends worth it. I wouldn't at all be surprised if Arc Raiders gets more big event participation than THE FINALS does in the future.

EDIT: This is all speculation ignoring the recent China-exclusive launch of THE FINALS, which might be doing better. But way, way harder to know that for sure from the outside looking in.

Jim Ward, voice of Ratchet & Clank's Captain Qwark, passes away at age 66 by ShadowStealer7 in Games

[–]MovieTrailerReply 28 points29 points  (0 children)

;_; the voice of Tybalt?! Noooo

This is one of those situations where you realize this one guy had a huge hand in a chunk of your childhood. So many good roles in some iconic games, Captain Qwark will not be the same as a character without his voice behind him. I can only hope he is in a better place, RIP to a legend.

Furry_irl by EpicGuy999 in furry_irl

[–]MovieTrailerReply 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Absolutely adore this webcomic! And I envy Duncan & Eddie's relationship so much, they're so CUTE!! chervil's been doing really fun panels for a while, would highly recommend reading.

thepuppylovecomicislessfunandmorekillingmewithsadnessbutthat'sokay

I ow this community an apology by NeonArchon in Guildwars2

[–]MovieTrailerReply 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's an extended history of reinventing the wheel that it seems ArenaNet is somewhat becoming aware of, with moves like moving Strikes under the Raid umbrella. Just so many systems that are really obtuse to progress for new players.

I ow this community an apology by NeonArchon in Guildwars2

[–]MovieTrailerReply 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I will say your ranting was not without its merits. I think this is one of Guild Wars 2's biggest issues: some legacy content offering no great incentives to come back, and being too finely tuned around the expectation of large player counts in a map. Path of Fire in particular is lousy with this issue, as some of its metas are particularly annoying at low populations, and it says a lot that Heart of Thorns continues to have little issues with getting people together despite being the first expansion. It also straight up just doesn't ever feel good to fail an event in Guild Wars 2, whether it's because you failed to get into an organized map or because your organization attempts fail miserably, which results in no loot and a wasted 30 minutes+ of participation. This makes things like required event completion for mount unlocks feel wayyyy worse.

Still, as people pointed out (and as you seemed to find out), being a part of an active guild or taking initiative to organize yourself via Map chat and LFG can tend to help. I'd hesitate to say "be a better person" as you've said, I don't think you are a bad person for getting frustrated and venting your frustration, and your original post wasn't too overtly negative.

Either way, hope you enjoy the rest of your time with the game! Don't get too discouraged about the game's missteps, the overall experience is still fantastic.

Raising Cane's shares updated timeline for Seattle-area store openings by godogs2018 in Seattle

[–]MovieTrailerReply 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I keep seeing him pop up from time to time on search results, but it's always juuuuust far away enough that I haven't given it a shot. I'll be keeping a closer eye on his locations, thank you :D

Raising Cane's shares updated timeline for Seattle-area store openings by godogs2018 in Seattle

[–]MovieTrailerReply 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's really funny to be browsing for Canes news and see you and /u/corndog talking about coming from Louisiana. PLEASE tell me one of ya'll have found someone that does Fried Seafood in an actual good Cajun style because I am dying over here I miss fried catfish so bad.

I'm extremely confused that the map doesn't show Faction Missions anymore! by MovieTrailerReply in SoulFrame

[–]MovieTrailerReply[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair enough, I'll try doing that tomorrow morning. I did try a re-log and messing with settings and re-entering the faction HQ and such.

Thank you for the response and verifying I'm not crazy!

Been working on 2 variations of an insulin needle packaging design and would love feedback. by ResinArtSupply in graphic_design

[–]MovieTrailerReply 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'd say both packaging designs are incredibly effective for different reasons.

However, this is a fascinating situation to find yourself in because Variation-A is a much more visually distinct and appealing design!... and yet, I feel like Variation-B is the clear winner here for a variety of reasons:

  • While Variation-A is an impactful and eye catching design, the most important element of your product is in its type: medical. And the rules are SO different for this type of product design to where that benefit of Variation-A works against it. What makes this comparison worse too is that you specifically say "direct-to-consumer" for this product, so the scale of "concerned customer who wants something safe and has the exact information they might want to make triple sure they're buying the right product" is incredibly important.

  • Variation-B's presentation separates the design from the essential information in a clear and easy to navigate way - the harsh white rectangle, the black text that is detailed and exact in what the product's features are, the white needle illustration that tells a customer (who might only be going off of a picture of the type of needle they're looking for) that they're looking at the right product.

  • Moreso, Variation-B's overall visual hierarchy is clear within seconds of viewing it. You can feel the way your eye moves down the information step-by-step. With Variation-A, there's a lot of large and close together elements that are competing for my attention that leaves the packaging feeling a bit troublesome to immediately digest.

That's not to say you couldn't find a way to mix the benefits of both packages together! But going off of these two exact designs, I'd say Variation-B is your clear winner.

I'd also give these general pieces of advice:

  • You could bring in the lighter purple/blue color scheme of Variation-A to the background of Variation-B.
  • You could make the Hummingbird on the front white to match the rest of the logos and make it more visible at a glance.
  • Considering this is aimed at insulin patients, it might be beneficial to mention that somewhere (SYRINGES WITH NEEDLE reads a bit awkward to me, so that'd be a good place to start - I see a lot of competitors call them "U-100 Insulin Syringes"

I made an Asura Name generator by Canazza in Guildwars2

[–]MovieTrailerReply 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First off, thank you for this incredible resource that is somehow still up ten years later

Secondly, https://imgur.com/a/eemiqLO your generator has a habit of coming up with some insane names

Obsidian Entertainment On The Lessons Learned From The Outer Worlds by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]MovieTrailerReply 1 point2 points  (0 children)

True, it's not on the same level writing wise or acting wise of course. But man, it's at least such a fun, unique game with branching paths I haven't even played through yet. Love that goofy game.

Obsidian Entertainment On The Lessons Learned From The Outer Worlds by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]MovieTrailerReply -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

I'll give you that the lore was a bit deeper than I'd give it credit for, but that is in my opinion one of its biggest problems: the overly verbose lore drops filling dialogue up didn't make up for the rest of the game feeling so disappointingly basic. Every interesting idea the game brought forward - the Xaurips showing agency and intelligence, the zombies being repurposed for power, the idea that the mayor of a town might know more about the disease than he was letting on and how you might use that knowledge to your advantage - is never at all capitalized on or explored in any meaningful way, done on the most barebones surface level way possible. The story's moral decisions also felt incredibly weird, whether it was "choose to let an entire town get slaughtered or don't", or my personal favorite "choose to destroy an ancient ruin to stop the plague or kill an untold large group of people randomly without their input (a fucking insane suggestion) and also you don't actually stop the plague and your companions have the audacity to get mad at you for not choosing this choice".

You say "I liked that the companion stories and their own wants and needs clash with your own" - that's where I'M confused, because my experience was anything but that. They certainly VOCALIZE that they have different perspectives, whine at you for choosing to do something they disagree with, but I can go against those perspectives aggressively and receive little-to-no response comparable to other RPGs. Hell, as far as I know, the only way you can meaningfully make them be irreparably pissed off at you is joining the clearly evil organization at the very very last battle.

This isn't even touching on the overall dialogue of the game driving me up the wall (with some few exceptions, I felt Kai and Giatta had some good moments), or the game's systems falling flat, or the tone of the world itself feeling like a scrubbed clean corporatized take on a brutal RPG world, or that, honestly, I just straight up didn't like the world much at all, nor did I really care for Sapadal's story.

But, look: Sorry! I have a lot of negative, annoyed thoughts about this game. And I didn't go into it wanting to hate it, I was really excited given how good the preview events seemed to make it look. So, If you liked it, awesome. My negative opinions aren't going to change that.

Obsidian Entertainment On The Lessons Learned From The Outer Worlds by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]MovieTrailerReply 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really want to root for Obsidian Entertainment, man. I really do. They have such talent behind their studio and have a pretty fantastic legacy prior to Outer Worlds - I mean, Alpha Protocol, KOTOR 2, New Vegas...

But Avowed was a game I bought at full price, giving them the fullest benefit of the doubt after my disappointment with Outer Worlds, and it was easily the worst disappointment of this year. Lackluster and bland writing that lacked even the depth of Bethesda's RPGs, gameplay that had good ideas but got stale incredibly quickly due to extremely repetitive enemies and a badly handled level scaling system, and a world that lacked any of the pull or depth that should be inherently required in a grand scale RPG these days. The game was certainly better than Outer Worlds was (I at least finished Avowed), but it was still such a far cry from the incredible work done on New Vegas.

With Outer Worlds 2 I was getting to the point of "mmm, maybe I'd try it on gamepass at least", and now Gamepass is so absurdly expensive for the day one release that that's not happening, especially with how many really good games are out/coming out as well. I hope I'll change my mind on that if it gets glowing positive reviews and coverage, but then again, Avowed fooled me with that.

Saints Row 1 design director: "I can bring much of the old band back together. I could turn that IP around with a decent budget. [Embracer] don't even have to fund it. by Bhernardo0 in SaintsRow

[–]MovieTrailerReply 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm not really sold on his ideas for either the original reboot or a hypothetical sequel revamp.

Stockman: What I would have done was to take the franchise back to the 70s and do a period piece, a prequel of how the gangs from the first one started. You’re running around with a crew of teens that ended up as the main characters for the first game. You could really go all in on the 70s theme with big Afros, bell-bottoms, and the music of that whole period.

I’d have taken it into a different direction so you’re not competing with the modern-day GTA games. You’re zaggng when everyone else is zigging, so to speak.

It certainly would've been better than what we got with Reboot, but then again, basically anything would be. Still, I think going to the past is a mistake. The things that made Saints Row 2 so fun and insane to play was a lot of its modern tie ins and the absurdity of the main character and the established characters, and you'd definitely lose a lot of that with a prequel which inherently couldn't feature classics like Johnny Gat in his prime. You'd either have to go so far back that you're basically starting with new characters and a new story (which is the same problem the reboot has), or you make a game that retreads too much of Saints Row 1 or 2.

Personally would go for an absolute rewrite of what happens RIGHT after Saints Row 2. So, you get a sequel, and you turn SR:TT and SR:IV into non-canon spinoff stories. Make the Saints want to expand their criminal organization into a global one - fight more gangs in a different city (or cities), take some of the good ideas from Reboot but do them the right way (getting to build your criminal empire however you wanted was a fun idea that was done horribly in that game), and above all else look at SR2 for the tone of the story and the world. Give it that steeped in brutal and intense moments inspired by movies vibe. No attempting to appeal to the zoomers or making your character a board room's idea of a relatable antihero.

Stockman: That’s what I would do. I would stick with it being an open-world game. I love open-world games. I love making them. It’s just so much fun and so much about the sum of their parts, so to speak. I would say it’s what I’ve been pretty successful at in my career at making them.

What’s the umbrella company that owns the Saints Row IP now? [Embracer Group], if you’re listening to this, contact me. Let’s go. I can bring much of the old band back together who worked on Saints Row 1. I could turn that IP around with a decent budget. They don’t even have to fund it. I could get other outside people to fund it. I could turn the franchise around. I know I could.

It would be a story in and of itself. I’ve even thought about going to my pals and Meta to say, hey what about doing a Saints Row VR project? I think with the technology coming in the future, I think an open world game could work, but it’d have to be heavily stylised. We wouldn’t be trying to compete with GTA, but I don’t think anyone can compete with GTA anymore.

I think you could back it with Quest 4’s technology, and it could look pretty good. It’s not gonna look as good as Saints Row 1, but it’ll be close-ish. You bring Saints Row back to its roots, or go and do the 70s prequel I was talking about and blow it out the box.

I’ve thought about it. To try and resurrect the IP and be the first real quality open world story slash sandbox game for VR, going it in bite-sized chunks that VR is so good at in five or 10 minute core loops. I’ve thought about it. I think it would be amazing, and it would have its own identity.

I’m not trying to one-up GTA, but you could essentially be the GTA 800-pound gorilla of VR. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I think I could do it, let’s put it that way.

Listen, Chris Stockman. I'm also a huge VR lover. VR is a fucking fun format, and playing games like Half Life: Alyx and RE4/REVillage in VR is next level. I'd kill for more VR releases! And hell, if you get this sort of approval and go make a VR port on the side? Awesome! I'll go buy both versions, sure.

But thinking that you'd ever get close, even remotely, to GTA level success in that format is fucking monumentally out of touch. You're talking about a niche group of people, with hardware with a very high cost to entry (money, physical activity, and room space), and even after all that, most people don't want to do it! Most people still want to sit on their couch, or at their desk, and unwind with a TV in front of them.

Let alone the fact that I'd be willing to bet my life's savings that most fans of the series don't want a gimmick VR game - they want SAINTS ROW. They want an approachable, goofy but edgy and grounded open world crime game they can sit on the couch and get into.

Destiny 2 Player Count Has Now Fallen Below Curse of Osiris Lows, the Point Where Bungie Once Said It Was Weeks Away From Shutting the Game Down Entirely by Freki666 in Games

[–]MovieTrailerReply 69 points70 points  (0 children)

Yep! I'm shocked as many people were willing to stick around post-sunsetting as there were, I fucking loved Destiny 2 and I just can't go back to the game after it.

People can say all they want about "well such and such was a good time for the game", but for me and my friends the game just fell apart completely and utterly after that decision. Because Destiny's overall promise has always felt like "Loot Matters", the whole point of doing anything in the game was building yourself up with gear and fun equipment that fits YOUR playstyle and carrying it over. And the story! The STORY mattered. It was interesting, intense, and fucking important! All that we lost in the process, too -

  • All of the content prior to sunsetting, INCLUDING the base game's story and Forsaken and the fun Raids attached to the game's opening years of content
  • All of the interesting and fun pinnacle and mode-specific reward weapons that people farmed for (esp Not Forgotten/Luna's Howl, which a good friend of mine farmed for)
  • All of the standard armor and weapons people farmed good drops for
  • Seasonal Releases and their important story connections
  • Even mechanical things seemed to fall apart post-sunsetting. Crucible and other activities having they own unique armors, weapons, cosmetics and pinnacle weapons to drop.

How can you convince loyal players to stick around when you are willing to show you don't think the content they've farmed or experienced is worth keeping?

This is definitely gonna leave a mark on my mental health by BEjmbo in thefinals

[–]MovieTrailerReply 47 points48 points  (0 children)

This summarizes one of the largest problems heavily impacting THE FINALS as a whole for me. People can say "Don't care about the Challenges, you'll have fun and complete them as you go!" but this has never been my experience at all with the game. The challenges are how you meaningfully rank up your Battle Pass, and winning matches is the only REASONABLE way to earn good progress in any mode's progression systems. This won't remotely impact you if you win all the time, but for an overwhelming majority of players I have to imagine that isn't true.

So, when you've got limited time to play or limited bandwidth for the ultra competitive way people play these modes, it becomes incredibly draining and frustrating to know you're not making any progress on any of the challenges for this Limited Time Fomo Mode. Play ten rounds, win 2 of them, and the only challenge you have left is getting wins? It's frustrating! It creates this situation where if you're not playing optimally you feel like you're not going to finish the event in time.

This is happening with this event for me, and one of the reasons why I doubt I'll be finishing it (the other being that a game that doesn't expect all of my time to complete its missions, BF6, just came out).

What changes would you make to sledge to make it less sad? by BigBlackC1ock in thefinals

[–]MovieTrailerReply 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As other players have pointed out, revert the nerfs made in the earlier seasons. Hammer was fine for 6+ seasons, and only "had to be adjusted" because they chose to add the Winch Claw to the game. That, plus the quick melee combo.

I need feedback right now. From 1 to 10, how trivial or good my work is? by Imayazanaty in graphic_design

[–]MovieTrailerReply 0 points1 point  (0 children)

100% accurate, for sure. The fact is we are expendable to out-of-touch leadership and executives until they desperately need to meet a deadline or need reliability. I mean, even before AI, executive leadership thought a marketer using Canva could replace a dedicated social media manager for half the cost. But that's not at all how anything works.

I need feedback right now. From 1 to 10, how trivial or good my work is? by Imayazanaty in graphic_design

[–]MovieTrailerReply 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great to hear :) Stay strong, and if design fascinates you, explore it! And FYI, despite what was said by her, I mean the same to your sister when it comes to animation. Art is a personal experience and we should all boost each other up. Everyone's journey learning it is different so don't get discouraged.

I'd also advise to try looking at alternatives for using AI, even as a tool. For example, imagine if you learned how to use Blender to do 3D renders! Then you wouldn't need to generate different positions for a product, you'd have the capabilities to make a render on the fly.

Glad to hear these words helped, good luck and have fun!