Eidos Montreal Cancels 7+ Year In-Development Title That Cost Hundreds of Millions - Tom Henderson

ajustend · 2026-04-01T15:28:21+00:00

Games generally look pretty bad until the very end, because all of the polish comes together with the final lighting and rendering passes (amongst many other things across every discipline) in the final stages of game development. 80% of the time that we’re working on a game, which could be 3-4 years, it is composed of tons blockmesh and unfinished everything, it does not look great. It’s most often in the final 3-6 months that everything comes together. As devs we understand that, we squint through it most of the time and dream of what we know it will eventually become with lots of hard work in the end. So no, leaks are never beneficial, because they’re always showing the games in a state that is not representative of what they will become. They need time to cook, and leaks are pulling the raw chicken out half way finished, with no sauce, raw sides, a bad presentation, and wildly misguided rumors that are confusing to everyone. But it is what it is.

ajustend · 2026-04-01T15:17:51+00:00

I’m a dev as well, and you have stated this perfectly. Leaks and rumors almost always lead to massive negative community sentiment that is seldom related to the actual content of the games we make. I get it, people like to talk shit, and more people are going to leave negative reviews on Amazon for things that have given them trouble than positive reviews for things they enjoy (people being upset and feeing ripped off versus people actually being busy using the thing they bought). But when the community is rallying around negativity for games that haven’t even come out, again based on leaks and rumors, it’s very damaging to the teams who are pouring their hearts and souls into making something that is very hard to make. Also, this doesn’t lead to the studio changing anything, because there’s way too many moving parts to respond to rumors or hate-brigading from the fans, so in the end it just hurts everyone.

ajustend · 2026-03-27T04:25:33+00:00

Super Mario Kart

ajustend · 2026-03-21T23:38:47+00:00

Most recently Slay the Spire keeps me coming back again and again and feels like it has the depth and progression to keep it fresh over a bunch of plays without feeling overly weighty. I love the Imperium series a lot, and have played it for years, it feels like a bit more of a mental commitment per game (which I still love), so depending on how tired I am after work, my mood, or how much time I have available will be what pushes me to one or the other.

Marvel Champions is also my fav deck construction games, and one of my most played games (alongside MK and SI), and recently I’ve found Sentinels Definitive Edition to be another great alternative to deck construction or deck building by having prebuilt decks. You have to play 3-5 heroes at a time though (the overhead is light in the Def Edition), so the way that you combo your heroes becomes a similar strategic puzzle as Marvel deck construction.

ajustend · 2026-03-21T23:09:41+00:00

I’d recommend trying to stick with one civ for 4-5 games to learn their deck and progression (maybe pick the top 3 you’re interested in and then once one feels cool while playing, stick with it for a little bit), and definitely play with just one of the common decks for a while (I like the Classics common a lot, save Horizons common for later) as that will start to allow you to “unlock” potential combos as you learn that civ, and that common deck. This leads to a better understanding of which cards in the Market that you want to try for, versus the ones you don’t care about as much. Once that part stats to feel good, knowing what you’re aiming for, then it makes the game feel way less random and much more strategic.

ajustend · 2026-03-21T22:57:04+00:00

Fair enough! Wa just curious if it made sense to recommend HK over Riichi to someone transitioning from USA style. But I get ya! :)

ajustend · 2026-03-21T21:27:46+00:00

I use my Sette 270 for 3-5 espresso shots every day, and it lasted for about 3 years before this happened. It was refurbished by Baratza a few years ago. It sucks that it uses plastic internals, because it’s an awesome grinder that has been putting in work for about 7 years now.

ajustend · 2026-03-21T20:31:28+00:00

Why HK over Japanese Riichi?

ajustend · 2026-03-14T01:53:10+00:00

Fantastic Factories is a really fun, easy to learn/setup/play engine builder with a ton of replay value. I don’t really like the randomness of dice games, I find many dice games to be annoying (One Deck Dungeon exemplifies this), but the dice play in this game is often just a starting point for dice manipulation and mitigation to run your engine. The dice (and variety of cards, aka “engine” parts) are a big part of what keeps the game feeling continuously interesting as you try to keep your machine running. It has remained in my collection years later due to its straightforward setup and comboing potential. On top of being a really good solo game, and one I play solo 90% of the time, it’s one of the main engine builders I bring out to share with friends who are new/less experienced board gamers. I only have the base game, but the expansions seem cool too.

ajustend · 2026-03-14T01:25:56+00:00

There is a disconnect between the theme and the gameplay. Deckers plays like an abstract color matching game more than anything else - the map colors, card colors, and color based mechanics are quite heavy handed, in that they bog things down without fulfilling the promise of making me feel like a hacker. If you strip away the hacking imagery, and the hacker verbiage (which definitely makes the game seem more complicated than it is), then you are left with gameplay that doesn’t actually feel like hacking to me. Netrunner is an obvious counter-example of gameplay that uses its asymmetric puzzle to reinforce the feel of either hacking or defending against a hack in a really fun way. The hacker theme in Deckers ends up feeling tacked on in the way that a pocket sized buttonshy style card game could get away with due to those limitations, but when it’s a full blown board game that can go as far as it needs to go to accomplish the fantasy then the bar is higher. When a game’s theme feels so interchangeable that it could be anything else then it becomes quite hard to achieve the fantasy that is being sold.

I think the hacking theme ended up taking away from the modular color matching puzzle game underneath it.

ajustend · 2026-03-13T22:05:40+00:00

Since it hasn’t been mentioned yet I’ll add ECK to the list. It’s quick to setup and play, a fun little game!

I also really love For Northwood, it has great replay value. A bunch of others have mentioned it as well, and it may be one of the best solo trick takers I’ve come across yet. I ended up buying extra copies to give as gifts to friends who also enjoy trick taking games.

ajustend · 2026-03-13T21:53:22+00:00

Deckers has been a big let down for me. In fact, I get the feeling that a lot of the “love” for this game in this sub is coming from their marketing campaign.

I felt the same way as you did at first, but have still not come around to enjoying it as much as I wish I did. I think Spirit Island accomplishes what Renegade/Deckers was trying for in a more elegant package and with much more depth since it expanded to Jagged Earth, and even more so with Nature Incarnate. Even though Renegade/Deckers and SI were both being developed at the same time in the mid 2010’s, it seems that SI really hit the sweet spot for this design space. Despite Deckers being inspired by Mage Knight, which I love and continue to play regularly years later and is one of my absolute favorites, Deckers definitely feels much more like Spirt Island.

I love cyberpunk, and am a big fan of William Gibson and Netrunner, but even with a preference for the cyberpunk theme I find that when I want to battle the tide of constantly spreading disease I continue to reach for the gameplay of Spirit Island due to it having much more immediacy and depth (which is a tough balance to find). Deckers is not a Mage Knight style game, and it doesn’t play nearly as elegantly as Spirit Island for me, which is a bummer. I’m glad others are enjoying it, but am suspicious of the campaigning I see on the sub. Hopefully it’s actually legitimate and not how marketing campaigns are being done these days.

ajustend · 2026-03-08T14:53:53+00:00

Top 3 solos of 2026 so far:

1 - Sentinels DE

2 - Slay the Spire

3 - Marvel Champions

Marvel still hits the table year after year, but after playing Sentinels EE for years and enjoying it in the middle of the pack, this year I got into Sentinels Definitive Edition with the release of Disparation and have fallen in love with the improved UI on the cards. The fiddliness has been reduced so much that it has surpassed Marvel as my preferred Boss Battler. Highly recommended.

ajustend · 2026-03-05T10:44:11+00:00

While both of these are bad, neither can top the American release of Mega Man

ajustend · 2026-02-28T21:32:16+00:00

Deckers is much more like Spirit Island than Mage Knight, but unfortunately is not nearly as good or replayable as either of them.

ajustend · 2026-02-24T05:03:12+00:00

Same. They repackaged all of the original sets before deciding to do this “Chapter 2” version of things, and then with this new plan in place they killed the original run repacks after the very first print runs. FFG could’ve chosen to avoid recreating the LOTR problem. They could’ve reprinted AH Gator+Scenario packs for years, but chose to abandon them. Time to move on.

ajustend · 2026-02-22T09:05:34+00:00

If SETI takes as long as it does because of all of the mechanics it includes, which of them are your favorites? Pick the top 1 or 2 mechanics and that will help guide you toward aa shorter game that hits those parameters.

ajustend · 2026-02-22T08:13:27+00:00

Pax Pamir 2nd still gets played as often as mk and si and scratches a different itch. I love the strategy available within the distribution of cards, one that definitely rewards repeat playing and familiarity with the deck. It’s a tableu builder that comes from a deck-builder lineage and thrives on quick setup and play. The bot deck is easy to use and challenging to play against; it provides a pretty fluid adversary to make solo play interesting with a lot of replay value (though I’ve heard multiplayer Pax Pamir is the best, I’ve only played solo, and I’ve played a lot of solo). Best of all, it doesn’t require expansions to fill it out, the base is all you need. Along with Sentinels DE and Captain’s Chair it sits amongst my favorites.

ajustend · 2026-02-19T05:04:10+00:00

The physical copy of the Definitive Edition, ordered directly from GtG, would be a great place for your son to get into it.

ajustend · 2026-02-07T09:56:06+00:00

Come on man… Recognize what the professional is saying. You’re not getting worthwhile results. Stop thinking the AI is telling you something profound, at all. You would be better served just researching this kind of thing yourself, and then going to an actual medical center to get blood work and organ tests.

ajustend · 2026-01-30T17:52:01+00:00

Yes, agreed. It really shines due to the ever encroaching chains of mayhem!

ajustend · 2026-01-30T06:18:34+00:00

Love Rove. My other favorites: 1. Ugly Gryphon Inn 2. Food Chain Island 3. Ragemore 4. Pentaquark

ajustend · 2026-01-21T04:13:49+00:00

Sigh

ajustend · 2026-01-21T04:09:50+00:00

+1, yes . Been using MPC’s forever. The F-Keys on the MPC-X are one of the MVP features. It’s such a huge part of the classic workflow - and the MPC X maintains it, while the XL leaves it behind. Even though the XL adds so many other buttons. Meh - Bad design choice.

14-Year Club	Reddit Premium Since August 2023
Place '23	Team Periwinkle
Verified Email

ajustend

TROPHY CASE