Ronnie

I'm just thinking of ways to appease fans who wanted more storyline in the game. I think they can achieve a mix of being able to adventure in any direction, stumble on whatever you want, but also needing to reach certain checkpoints to progress the main story. Think things like the Master Sword in BOTW, nothing major or earth shattering but some place where you can have a few cutscenes and character interactions that help more the narrative along. I thought the memories were a good substitute for cutscenes in the last game but they probably can't use that same system again for the next one.

I'm also firmly in the camp that enjoyed the breakable weapons aspect, it introduced a whole new dimension to play. I loved swapping between the various weapons to suit the baddie you're facing. It's tricky because as soon as you introduce permanent weapons then you lose any point to hunting and collecting breakable ones, even with the debuffs you mentioned. I'm of the opinion that frankly, Nintendo nailed it with that aspect. I don't really think it needs improving because like I said any permanence makes the whole system pointless. The sense of progression is a lot more organic than most games. You aren't filling up a progress bar and reaching level 32 or whatever. Peer from the NVC podcast once described the game as a quest for confidence, and I think that's pretty on point, you're slowly getting stronger as the game progresses and it's up to you when you want to finish it. That said I do think a slightly better sense of progression in terms of the items you're given would help. I love the go anywhere, have your own adventure to the game and would hope they keep it for the sequel but I do think they could introduce 2 or 3 mandatory story beats that you have to do. Those could then provide you with unique items for the rest of the game. But then again the beauty of BOTW's openworld is you're given all the tools at the very beginning and nothing is beyond you once you leave the Plateau, so being given unique items that change the gameplay might go against that. It's a tricky balance to strike, they certainly went fully in one direction with BOTW and maybe a half way point between that and Skyward Sword wouldn't work as well.

I know game development is crazy hard and I don't know what went on behind the scenes, but it feels like they kind of missed the boat to maximise sales. It would have done so well on Switch last year.

I did the Switch advert thing of playing 2 player MK8 in tabletop mode on the train the other day. Not with a randomer obviously, sorry Nintendo, that's a bit too weird

Obviously if reviews are catastrophically bad I'll cancel my pre-order but I've been looking forward to this game since it was first revealed and I'm fully on board. I didn't play the demo (out of choice) but the general consensus seems to be that the game looks stunning and the gameplay is loads of fun, it's just quality of life issues that are hampering things, and we also haven't really seen any of the story, which is obv going to be a big part of the experience. Hating on anything EA puts out is pretty much par for the course these days so I'm taking some of the negativite reactions with an anti-EA sized pinch of salt. The server/demo issues made things far worse, likewise putting out an old build rather than the one that went gold a couple of days ago. Respected editors from IGN have mentioned that the build they got to play at preview events had a much better framerate than the demo was getting, so that doesn't really worry me. Like I said, I'm fully expecting 7/10 sort of reviews, probably down to a lack of content at launch and the game needing more time in the oven, but the devs keep saying they'll have new stuff most weeks and months and I have to assume the quality of life improvements will come over time as well. tl;dr: I'm forking out for this game because it looks loads of fun, is a flying third person shooter with a Bioware storyline thrown on top of it. Walking speed in the hub and dodgy server issues a month before release don't really worry me.

Sorry... what's the Switch Pro exactly? Again with the assumptions. People just assume there'll be a January Direct, just because. People assume Nintendo will suddenly care about the arms race and again and release a super powerful Switch. It's counter productive. Why is it "too late to target the current Switch"? The PS4 has been out for 5+ years, probably 6 or 7 years by the time the next one comes out. The 3DS has been out for EIGHT years and they're still releasing games for that. We're 1.9 years into the Switch. Metroid Prime 4 was promised for this Switch and it'll come out for this Switch. Now that doesn't mean that if Nintendo iterate and release new hardware it won't also be playable there, but it's being developed for this current Switch, because in this day and age (ie not the N64 era), it has to be.

I've not played the demo (decided not to, will just wait for the release date) but I can easily see this as a game that'll get 7s and at most 8s from review outlets, citing lots of teething problems, not much content etc. Fast forward to a year or two though it'll be a completely different game: highly polished, loads of story and multiplayer content. Hopefully the player base will stick around till that happens though. They've already hinted at post-launch content coming a week, two weeks, a month after release, so there should be plenty to get stuck into. If the core gameplay is fun, then everything else can be ironed out.

No one is saying it's not going to be a completely different game. Of course it will be. But from a business, optics and consumer POV, it's this game: Metroid Prime 4. Something that was promised for Switch in 2017. You can't promise Metroid on Switch, and then not put it on Switch and ask all those people who got excited about it to shell out another £300 on new hardware to play it. It makes zero business sense and would be a PR disaster. You can't honestly believe what you're saying. The comparison to Doom (2016) and Doom 4 especially is just laughable, come on. The situations are nothing alike. Disrepectful? Maybe they went over to Retro Studios HQ, got on their hands and knees, showered them with presents and begged for their forgiveness in giving MP4 to another developer. The point is, we have no idea what went on, and so can't draw any conclusions.

It's incredibly childish. The majority of the community seem to be at their happiest when they're up in arms about something.

Have to say it's really refreshing seeing the reaction from the community about this. I was dreading lots of outrage and abuse when Nintendo tweeted it but everyone seems to be taking it well except for kav and respecting their honesty.

You can't say they were snubbed without knowing what actually went on. Maybe Retro were already working on a project, as is most probably the case. They've also talked about in the past how they were done with Metroid and wanted to work on other things. It absolutely is, that's why they used the same logo as they did back in 2017. They said development has started from the beginning. At the end of the day the minutiae of the situation doesn't matter. Metroid Prime 4 was promised for (OG) Nintendo Switch and they have to deliver that. It's very feasible people bought a Switch because of the promise of Metroid.

Yeah I should have three, but won't be home for a bit

They can’t announce Metroid Prime 4 for Nintendo Switch and then not release it on this form of the Switch. It could be on two hardware consoles though like BOTW.

The 3DS is what eight years old and didn’t Nintendo talk about keeping the Switch around for a very long time? If they release a new model I suspect it’ll be a PS4 Pro / Xbox X iterative hump where games will work on either model.

Also, the LAST thing I expected to see... Figured it would be the other way around. Speaks to their honesty and dedication to quality I guess.

Bloody hell. I commend their honesty and integrity even though the news is really disappointing. Almost two years of development wasted. Oh well. Surely we have to see the game Retro's been working on before now this year. Bamco not up to the job then? Always thought it was a strange choice of developer for this. *insert the Miyamoto quote about delayed games*

If everyone who takes part in the VIP demo gets 3 friend codes then I'll have some to give out. Just need to decide if I'll play the demo or wait for the game to drop (like I usually do)

From comments I've been reading people are realising Anthem is looking less like Destiny and more like Diablo or Warframe. Content wise, they've said all future expansions will be free which I'm a bit worried by, it seems a bit promise to lock yourself into, though I'm a bit ignorant about if this is normal in games as service. I think they said they're going to talk about the road map before release, or at the very least the endgame content, we'll see.

There's no roll of the dice for the microtransactions, and no loot boxes. There's a video I linked to on the previous page that goes through all the customisation you can do to your Javelin in the base game. The options are genuinely insane, tons, and tons of personalisation available. Overwatch handles cosmetic microtransactions well and I imagine it'll be a similar story here.

A month before release and they've just revealed this out of the blue. Social hub created due to community feedback. Sufficed to say the news is going down very well

They've said the only microtransactions are cosmetic

Good stuff, nice to see the Steamworld reveal especially, just wish it wasn't a turn based RPG. We'll get an NoA Nindies Showcase in the next month or two on the back of this

I gave up updating this thread when it started to feel like I was the only one on this board interested in this game. I imagine the main criticism at release will be a lack of content but they said all future storyline updates would be frequent and totally free (which in itself makes me even more worried for the base game). Really, really excited though. Vast majority of people who've actually played it said it plays like a dream.

One customer will only ever get one version. A PS4 owner isn't going to get the benefit of a Pro owner. A Switch owner gets the benefit of a home console game and a handheld game. It's not a big deal, I'm not saying it's the only reason certain Switch games can cost more then on the other platforms, but it's part of the equation. In addition to things like "its selling like crazy, so they can" like you say.