TGS news/info

[Typographenia]

Eh, I'd rather just wait for the complete game, instead of getting a chapter every few months. I didn't like the idea with Walking Dead, and I don't like it for SH.

Just for clarification, did you ever play WD or do you mean you just didn't like the idea?

If we had a different protagonist with a highly focused narrative that had little to no filler, I think that could work out pretty well. Like I mentioned, though, I would certainly prefer a finished, full title to chapters, but I don't think it is a terrible concept or approach for the series, as it lends itself more to the format than other properties.

[jdnation]

Just heard that Kojima is thinking of the possibility to add "episodes" to SHs.

The shit begins...

Story is here. Developer is considering an episodic format, but none of this is confirmed at all. They are still deciding on what to do.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-si ... 0-6422395/

This may not necessarily be a bad thing. Siren on PS3 was released episodically. This can convey different ideas

It could simply be as if we were to take Silent Hill 2, cut up each location and release them separately as time goes on, but when put together is still the same linear experience.

Or it could even be something akin to what he did with Ground Zeroes / The Phantom Pain.

I'm not a fan of this. I just like buying my cake in one piece and judging it as a whole. If it's released episodically I'd rather wait for a collection.

[Matt S]

I'd prefer a full, complete game.


Still waiting for Valve to release Half Life 2: Episode 3.

[Seal of Megatron]

Well, that's a punch in the gut if true. However, as long as there isn't too much time between the episodes (downloaded I presume) and the complete disc version, then I could live with that.
Resident Evil revelations 2 is pulling the same crap, but there isn't much time between parts and the full release.

[Matt S]

Well, that's a punch in the gut if true. However, as long as there isn't too much time between the episodes (downloaded I presume) and the complete disc version, then I could live with that.
Resident Evil revelations 2 is pulling the same crap, but there isn't much time between parts and the full release.

In theory, Episodic would most likely have us waiting less time to play, but we shall see.......

Its not like Konami hasn't toyed with $30 demos before

[Seal of Megatron]

Completely forgot about ground zeroes there. Didn't buy that, and as much as I love silent hill, I won't be buying it in that form either.

[Matt S]

Completely forgot about ground zeroes there. Didn't buy that, and as much as I love silent hill, I won't be buying it in that form either.

I won't lie to you all or myself. if they released a $30 episode in the form of a physical copy for retail, I'd have my wallet out so fast it'd probably cause me to suffer from whiplash

[Reverend]

I think episodic could be a great thing. PT worked well as an "episode zero", and it might be cool to have a new part of the story every so often for people to mull over without beating the whole game in a weekend. A new format like this might give the artists a little more freedom to try things out without trying to deliver one giant finished product at once. TV shows get to be more experimental than films. If it doesn't negatively affect the quality it could be very cool for the new Silent Hill to keep surprising us over a longer period of time. We might also be able to play it sooner .

Video games are capable of so much more than most developers are willing to try and the early Silent Hills are my favourite example of that. Silent Hill should be a game changer. It should surprise people and stay relevant. And it should find new ways to tell an interactive story.

I'm very excited.

[clips]

People should be careful what they wish for....this whole fisaco started with DLC and we see how that business mechanic has turned out. It resulted in practically un-finished games and day one dlc.

And companies right now take advantage of it by not fully giving us a complete game, but instead hold off and set aside these other stories and sell them seperately as side missions that should have been included in the game from the jump.

So no...it wouldn't be a good idea and would just open up another can of worms and for me it would work to push more digital downloaded content, which i'am not a fan of. Just give me a solid SH experience based off of the aspects seen in P.T. on a physical disk,..not this downloadable crap they are thinking about.

I understand it's cheaper to release as a download first then create physical copies because they can recoup their shipping and distribution costs by having early sales of episodic content, but i'd rather just have a physical disk. I'm going to try to hold on to physical copies as longa s i can because i'm sure these corporate folks are looking to have everything in digital.

I didn't forget the stunt that MS tried to pull initially with the xbox1....that would have been a nightmare and would have ended my console gaming as i knew it because i would not have agreed to their incredibly arrogant and concumer controlling policies.

The ps3 would have been my last console because i'm sure Sony would have followed suit at some point.

[Mephisto]

^ Indeed. And here I thought that DLC was bad.

I'd rather, like Skele and some others, they release the full game on disk. If they want to have some separate story here and there then they can always release it as DLC's or whatever. But episodes? We will always be playing an incomplete game and waiting for it's conclusion. That's ridiculous.

[SPRINGS02]

Yeah, i'll go ahead and jump on the "i want a full game" bandwagon. I loved the walking dead games, and didn't mind the episode releases for that, but it works for that kind of series. Silent hill needs to be a full game all at once, with the only dlc being some kind of add on story, or extension or something.. Hell, i liked Siren Blood Curse, but i didn't like the episodic releases for it either.

[Matt S]

I will say episodic, for me, would be 'ok' if they did mimic the telltale format: clearly laid out plans on how many episodes, how much, how often, etc. Then I am ok with it. If there is a very muddled understanding of what is happening, then no

[RedPyramidThingy]

Honestly I think making the game in episodic format and playing each episode as soon as they were released would kill a lot of the tension. I'd never have those moments where I'm too scared to carry on because I'd know that the ending wouldn't be that far away. Plus there'd likely be a credits sequence or break between each episode which would draw me out of the game.

[Skele]

Eh, I'd rather just wait for the complete game, instead of getting a chapter every few months. I didn't like the idea with Walking Dead, and I don't like it for SH.

Just for clarification, did you ever play WD or do you mean you just didn't like the idea?

If we had a different protagonist with a highly focused narrative that had little to no filler, I think that could work out pretty well. Like I mentioned, though, I would certainly prefer a finished, full title to chapters, but I don't think it is a terrible concept or approach for the series, as it lends itself more to the format than other properties.

I've played through Season 1, and I just recently bought season 2 (haven't started it yet). However, I didn't play season 1 like the majority of gamers. I waited until all of the episodes were released, and then bought them all at once on steam. I don't like the idea of playing an episode, then having to wait a few months for the next one.

[Typographenia]

People should be careful what they wish for....this whole fisaco started with DLC and we see how that business mechanic has turned out. It resulted in practically un-finished games and day one dlc.

"Un-finished games and day one dlc" is a result of consoles being connected to the internet, companies setting unreasonable timetables for devs, maximizing the time when the final game is going through debug to give the rest of the dev studio something to do, and many other factors. There are many companies that abuse the online content format, but DLC is all ultimately optional. Every game has bugs, and it's impossible to fix everything. At a point, they have to bite the bullet and ship a game. It's sad and frustrating that there are games that ship with a large amount of issues, but it's great that the possibility to address them exists. There are just as many studios and companies doing great things with the space as there are abusing it.

And companies right now take advantage of it by not fully giving us a complete game, but instead hold off and set aside these other stories and sell them seperately as side missions that should have been included in the game from the jump.

So no...it wouldn't be a good idea and would just open up another can of worms and for me it would work to push more digital downloaded content, which i'am not a fan of. Just give me a solid SH experience based off of the aspects seen in P.T. on a physical disk,..not this downloadable crap they are thinking about.

It's not possible for a dev studio to want to continue to support their product by giving their install base an incentive to not sell their game to gamestop? It's not possible that the positive earnings on the sales allowed them to return to the original game and create more content for it? It's not possible that the timeline for the studio forced them to make cuts on the finished game until the final product was shipped to return to previous ideas? Yeah, there are probably some studios cutting content to sell later as DLC. If you're that opposed to their business practices, don't financially support them. We don't have any idea what (if any) true plans that this team has for the final game. It's too early to be upset at what they're doing when we don't know what they're doing. If they reveal their plans and it sounds like an anti-consumer plan, I will be right there with everyone else voicing my disapproval.

I understand it's cheaper to release as a download first then create physical copies because they can recoup their shipping and distribution costs by having early sales of episodic content, but i'd rather just have a physical disk. I'm going to try to hold on to physical copies as longa s i can because i'm sure these corporate folks are looking to have everything in digital.

I didn't forget the stunt that MS tried to pull initially with the xbox1....that would have been a nightmare and would have ended my console gaming as i knew it because i would not have agreed to their incredibly arrogant and concumer controlling policies.

The ps3 would have been my last console because i'm sure Sony would have followed suit at some point.

Of course they're looking to have everything digital- it is the future of how humans consume digital content in every form (at least, for the foreseeable future). It isn't some nefarious plot to suck every drop of blood from the body of the consumer, that's just how people are consuming media now. It wouldn't shock me if the next generation of consoles were a pure download only format. Also, SONY did it before Microsoft with the PSPGo.

Honestly I think making the game in episodic format and playing each episode as soon as they were released would kill a lot of the tension. I'd never have those moments where I'm too scared to carry on because I'd know that the ending wouldn't be that far away. Plus there'd likely be a credits sequence or break between each episode which would draw me out of the game.

Do you also dislike television shows for this reason?

[Tillerman]

Honestly I think making the game in episodic format and playing each episode as soon as they were released would kill a lot of the tension. I'd never have those moments where I'm too scared to carry on because I'd know that the ending wouldn't be that far away. Plus there'd likely be a credits sequence or break between each episode which would draw me out of the game.

Do you also dislike television shows for this reason?

You make some good points, but to be fair television is a different medium, which naturally lends itself to an episodic format.

I think movies would be a better comparison. I think most people prefer for a movie to be a finished product when they go to see it... or even if it's something like the 2nd movie in a trilogy, they'd like some sort of satisfactory conclusion. Nowadays, there's getting to be more movies that are split into parts, like the 7th Harry Potter movie and the new Hobbit movies. I think there's generally a mixed reaction to this. Some people see it as the studios just trying to milk more money from the audience, and you can certainly make that argument for the Hobbit movies.

I guess movies are a different medium as well, since you have to go out of your home to watch them. Of course with on demand that's not so much the case anymore.

Now in the case of games, the thing that I always worry about is a Dreamfall situation. They leave a game on a cliffhanger, and then for some reason are never able to get back to it. In the case of Dreamfall, we've been waiting for 10 years for the continuation of the story, and now thanks to kickstarter it looks like we're finally getting it... but even so, I think we would have been better off if they would have just made Dreamfall a stand alone game. It just seems more fair for the audience.

When it comes to something like the Walking Dead, I haven't actually played it (just watched part of it from a let's play.) But if I did, I'd probably do it like Skele did, which is to just wait for "season 1" to be finished and go through it all as a whole.

[Mephisto]

Yeah, there are probably some studios cutting content to sell later as DLC. If you're that opposed to their business practices, don't financially support them.

"Probably some". This is a joke right?

And about not supporting those greedy fucks: Like that kind of shit works in the first place. It's one sane customer against a million. And the just individual always pays for the sins of many.

First the shitty DLC's (the ones that don't add anything to a game, like outfits and maps), then the re-re-re-re (ad infinitum) releases, freemium (pay-to-win) games and now movie actors lending their likeness to a game - a thing that I'm not really a fan of because there's no creativity involved.

If the episode trend make it's way towards every new game then we're fucked. I'd probably abandon the market altogether and just focus on the retro systems.

[Tillerman]

And about not supporting those greedy fucks: Like that kind of shit works in the first place. It's one sane customer against a million. And the just individual always pays for the sins of many.

Well, it only works if your disapproval for the company is not a small minority. Which is the way it should be, right?

I'm not a fan of crappy DLC's either, which is why I just don't buy them. Most of the time they aren't worth it. If I love a game enough, though, or if it seems like a good value, I have been known to pay for them. I paid for Tokyo Jungle's DLCs just because that game deserved a lot more attention than it got, and I wanted to give them more money. I paid for the Dark Souls DLC because it was a great value for the money.

If the episode trend make it's way towards every new game then we're fucked. I'd probably abandon the market altogether and just focus on the retro systems.

I don't blame you. I have somewhat abandoned it myself, and I do focus on retro systems a lot more than I used to. But don't worry... the worse they get, the more the market will push back. Look at what happened with X-Bone... the consumers basically forced a change. I think DLC is here to stay, but I think that if they try to force it too far they will get burned.

[Seal of Megatron]

I have no interest in downloading a bit of a game, then waiting for the next bit. If the "episodes" are 3-5 hours long, cheap and on disc, then maybe, but 1-2 hours, download only can piss off.
The only decent dlc i have ever come across, which was also on disc, was rockstar's gta4 episodes and red dead redemption undead nightmare. What is now called dlc used to be unlockables and secrets. Nobody's forced to buy it of course, but most of it is just awful.

[Rev]

Eh, just my personal opinion, but I'd rather wait for a completed product than for a Silent Hill game to jump aboard the "downloadable episodes" bandwagon. Unless the episodes are substantial in length, then maybe. But even then I'd hate to have to wait for a few months for a new episode to come out. It worked for TWD because it was primarily a story-driven game, with minimal gameplay and the occasional puzzle. But a game like Silent Hill that focuses on drawing you into the horrific situation of the protagonist wouldn't work in that format because it's taking you in, and then out until you can buy the next episode in a few months.

I guess you could always wait until the game is finished before you buy it, but it'd be frustrating having to avoid all the spoilers and hype until then.