not looking good for Redfall...

[craig_obviously]

first there was news of the 30 fps cap...and now I hear rumblings...and one reviewer I trust had a scheduling issue with a review being posted too early and had to take it down immediately..but the title pretty much gave it away that it won't be favourable

[BrandedBerserk]

At this point I'm convinced Microsoft is just cursed or something how does one buy all these talented studios yet still manage to fall short on exclusives is crazy to me. Sad that it had to be Arkane of all studios too. 

[sepheroithisgod]

24 minutes ago, BrandedBerserk said:

At this point I'm convinced Microsoft is just cursed or something how does one buy all these talented studios yet still manage to fall short on exclusives is crazy to me. Sad that it had to be Arkane of all studios too. 

It's not a curse, it's just bad management. Microsoft is willing to rush out its titles for no reason and it really shows with most of their big releases.

[MidnightDragon]

MS is getting hit with some long overdue karma on all sides. Also, they have ruined almost everything they touch. 

Edited May 1, 2023 by MidnightDragon

[Conor]

Redfall just had red flag after red flag appearing all along. Hate to say it but Starfield is absolutely gonna be ass as well and judging by the reactions to Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76 and now Redfall I’m gonna guess Bethesda won’t get a pass on it like they got with Skyrim back in 2011

[NorthPaul93]

5 minutes ago, Stan Lee said:

Redfall just had red flag after red flag appearing all along. Hate to say it but Starfield is absolutely gonna be ass as well and judging by the reactions to Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76 and now Redfall I’m gonna guess Bethesda won’t get a pass on it like they got with Skyrim back in 2011

Yup. 

[DrBloodmoney]

There's an element of tragedy in seeing that Microsofts current "reverse Midas touch" is strong enough to affect even a developer as talented as Arkane.

[Burritoprime]

Well Bethesda is involved so no surprises it being buggy since it's kinda like their thing, it boggles my mind how some devs just release a semi-working product and just fix it (maybe) as they go, scummy business.

[Ashande]

I’m just enjoying a bit of schadenfreude as I watch the Xbox Twitterati not just move the goalposts but launch them into orbit. Even just a week ago it was “doesn’t matter if it’s 30 FPS, it’s still gonna be a killer app and all the Sony Ponies are just salty they don’t have any games.” Now they’re saying “Redfall was in development before the deal so it’s not Microsoft’s doing if it’s bad, and it’s just a small game, not intended to be a system seller or anything.”

 

Redfall is pre-loaded on my Xbox, and I’m waiting to play it… but I’m not expecting much. It’s not helped by the devs continually showing footage that looks like “Left 4 Vampires,” but claiming that’s not what kind of game it is… while not being able to describe what kind of game it is.

[Studfox]

As time goes on I'm not bothered by console exclusivity because, barring flagship IPs/titles, it seems like games eventually find their way to the other console and by the time that happens (if ever) all the kinks are already worked out. If Redfall comes to PS5 in 3-4 years at least the bugs will be ironed out or it will be dirt cheap lol

[craig_obviously]

from what I understand its not bugs so much as its lacking in decent gameplay, which is really...even worse. I'm not much for console wars or PC vs console... I think success can benefit us all indirectly so it is really a bit of a shame.

[Slava]

It seems like there's a broken game every couple of weeks or so, PC versions in particular: TLoU, SW Jedi: Survivor, and now Redfall.

 

At the same time, Xbox and M$ just can't get a W. The number of first-party releases has been small even after acquisitions, the number of successful launches is even smaller. Not to mention what's been going on with the ABK deal.

[BlackCatBurrito]

The model now is:

 

Get it onto Gamepass 

 

"it's free so it's not a big deal if it's broken at launch really" 

 

Talk about how many people played it (for 5 minutes & never went back) 

 

"It's a success, people played it" 

 

Games media report it as a success... 

 

 

 

But we all could be going off too soon, maybe it's great. Just a joke they still aren't allowing reviews till last minute though. Criminal stuff. 

 

 

 

 

[Ashande]

1 minute ago, BlackCatBurrito said:

[…]

 

But we all could be going off too soon, maybe it's great. Just a joke they still aren't allowing reviews till last minute though. Criminal stuff. 

 

 

 

 

 

Given what the handful of reviews that have been leaked were saying and giving it… yeah. Not a lot of hope for greatness. (Of course, according to some folks, those reviewers are just salty Sony Ponies mad that they didn’t get the game. Which makes… precisely zero sense, but… ??‍♂️)

[Dreakon13]

I mean, from a gameplay perspective some Fortnite-looking 4 player coop tweens-with-attitude vampire hunting game was never going to live up to Arkanes heavy hitting catalog at this point.  Bugs or no bugs the game was IMO always gonna be a disappointment considering what that team is capable of.

 

The fact it might not run well at launch as well is kinda par for the course these days.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Dreakon13

[DrBloodmoney]

Bet you all the money in my pocket, against all the money in your pocket, that it went down like this:

 

 

Open Scene:

Arkane one day after Zenimax Sale

 

Arkane Dev:

”We have a PS5 and an XboX version in the works, being worked in parallel”

 

Microsoft Project Engineer: 

”Well, not anymore you don’t, we just bought you. My gantt chart says if you cancel that PS5 version, I’m sure you can get the XboX one out in half the time!”

 

Arkane Dev:

“That’s not how it works… ”

 

Microsoft Project Engineer: 

”It’s how it works now, motherfucker, get it done”

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

[Dangisuckatgamin]

And we can expect this from future bugthesda and activision games as well. Microsoft has no care for quality control.

38 minutes ago, Studfox said:

As time goes on I'm not bothered by console exclusivity because, barring flagship IPs/titles, it seems like games eventually find their way to the other console and by the time that happens (if ever) all the kinks are already worked out. If Redfall comes to PS5 in 3-4 years at least the bugs will be ironed out or it will be dirt cheap lol

That’s if the servers even last that long lol. Giving it 1-2 years of life honestly.

[diskdocx]

1 hour ago, MidnightDragon said:

MS is getting hit with some long overdue karma on all sides. Also, they have ruined almost everything they touch. 

This really just sums it up. I have no love lost for MS. Basically they pushed Sega out of the home console market, but since the original Xbox have done nothing but bring negatives to gaming.

 

That said, I strongly believe that a healthy dose of competition is good overall to keep the industry honest and encourage innovation. Sony dominating will NOT be in the best interest long term for gamers. I hope someone else either steps up to replace MS, or they figure shit out and at least find a way to bring balance to the industry.

[Rozalia1]

1 hour ago, Ashande said:

I’m just enjoying a bit of schadenfreude as I watch the Xbox Twitterati not just move the goalposts but launch them into orbit. Even just a week ago it was “doesn’t matter if it’s 30 FPS, it’s still gonna be a killer app and all the Sony Ponies are just salty they don’t have any games.” Now they’re saying “Redfall was in development before the deal so it’s not Microsoft’s doing if it’s bad, and it’s just a small game, not intended to be a system seller or anything.”

 

Redfall is pre-loaded on my Xbox, and I’m waiting to play it… but I’m not expecting much. It’s not helped by the devs continually showing footage that looks like “Left 4 Vampires,” but claiming that’s not what kind of game it is… while not being able to describe what kind of game it is.

 

They set Redfall against Forspoken of all games as what would show that Xbox is better than PlayStation. Not any of the actual 1st party titles, but a third party one. That game scored badly but now it looks like Redfall might get even worse. That is setting the bar as low as possible and then still failing.

 

2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

There's an element of tragedy in seeing that Microsofts current "reverse Midas touch" is strong enough to affect even a developer as talented as Arkane.

 

It really is quite something to see. As for how you believe it went and Xbox had them rush it out... it would be both I'd say. It is speculated that Redfall got rushed out at the end because a year ago Microsoft did an event where they stated that 3 big titles would come out within the next 12 months. The other two titles are bigger than Redfall and not coming in those 12 months so Xbox has offered up Redfall as a sacrifice so no one can say that 0/3 of the games they promised within the next 12 months didn't come out.

 

At the same time Xbox gives seemingly little to no oversight over their studios and allows them to be late and overbudget all the time, seemingly because being "hands off" is Microsoft's way of things, which is really bad because if so then it means that whoever is running Xbox is irrelevant even if they found people good for the job.

 

1 hour ago, BlackCatBurrito said:

The model now is:

 

Get it onto Gamepass 

 

"it's free so it's not a big deal if it's broken at launch really" 

 

Talk about how many people played it (for 5 minutes & never went back) 

 

"It's a success, people played it" 

 

Games media report it as a success... 

 

But we all could be going off too soon, maybe it's great. Just a joke they still aren't allowing reviews till last minute though. Criminal stuff. 

 

This certainly plays a part too. Redfall is a blackeye for Xbox at the time when it really doesn't need one. Nintendo/Sony/Publishers will at times outright cancel bad games rather then try and salvage something as a substandard game they know would hurt their reputation. Even Xbox and Spencer himself knows this considering he has cancelled games in the past, and yet they've let this one go through and the answer is likely because of Gamepass. Gamepass hurts third party game sales certainly, but it'll have an even larger effect on their 1st party to the point that I can't even recall the last one to chart (not counting Minecraft which sells on other platforms), which is something that even savaged games on other platforms can manage at least for a week or two. As such Redfall could be a perfect game or it could be dreck and there would be no real difference in sales. So just throw it on Gamepass so it can be a +1 for their statistics of games delivered.

 

59 minutes ago, diskdocx said:

This really just sums it up. I have no love lost for MS. Basically they pushed Sega out of the home console market, but since the original Xbox have done nothing but bring negatives to gaming.

 

That said, I strongly believe that a healthy dose of competition is good overall to keep the industry honest and encourage innovation. Sony dominating will NOT be in the best interest long term for gamers. I hope someone else either steps up to replace MS, or they figure shit out and at least find a way to bring balance to the industry.

 

Xbox doesn't deserve to exist just so there can be competition. Both Sony and Nintendo have hard times and only became better for them. Xbox only ever takes shortcuts or goes after get rich quick schemes.

 

Personally I'm hoping they finally pack it in. First was the Xbox One which was supposed to be the all in one multimedia box to render other consoles useless, that Microsoft, and many have forgotten this due to how much of a failure it was, Microsoft expected to sell 400 million to 1 billion (!!!) units. They thought their plan was so good that they'd ruin the competition and dominate like no one has ever before. That of course failed and so Microsoft management was ready to scrap Xbox until of course Gamepass came along. Xbox can be a trojan horse towards making gaming subscription based, where Microsoft with all their assets and in essence infinite resources can outspend their opponents into ruin, then they'll reach over a billion gamers and have a monopoly. Thankfully once again Microsoft's vile schemes seem to be falling apart as Xbox burns and Gamepass has hit a wall it hasn't been able to get past for years now.

 

In short. As funny as it is to see Xbox fail and get humiliated is, they only need to win once for everything to go to crap. If they give up then the risk of them succeeding in one of their schemes disappears. As for Sony, Nintendo, the greatest videogame company since its inception in videogames would still be around and they'd likely start competing more closely. If anything people should be more worried for Sony if Microsoft gives up because Nintendo, who Microsoft would likely attempt to assist if it keeps any gaming assets also, is no joke.

[Breakingthegreen]

As much as I enjoy learning that I'm not missing out on anything with this release. Shouldn't this go in the Xbox Series forum post? I worry that topics like this will end with an abundance of console war spam.

[TJ_Solo]

2 hours ago, Dangisuckatgamin said:

And we can expect this from future bugthesda and activision games as well. Microsoft has no care for quality control.

 

 

Why would I expect Microsoft quality control from future Activision games?

[Vault-TecPhantom]

5 hours ago, Stan Lee said:

Redfall just had red flag after red flag appearing all along. Hate to say it but Starfield is absolutely gonna be ass as well and judging by the reactions to Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76 and now Redfall I’m gonna guess Bethesda won’t get a pass on it like they got with Skyrim back in 2011

 

I'd go as far as to say people are out for blood when it comes to Bethesda, and Starfield will certainly be scrutinised within an inch of its life...and rightly so. People still haven't forgiven them for Fallout 76 which really ruined their reputation (even though I loved it having payed it after many patches). They have to learn that they can't keep using day 1 buyers as unpaid beta testers. That being said, I think Starfield will awesome with patches.

 

5 hours ago, sepheroithisgod said:

It's not a curse, it's just bad management. Microsoft is willing to rush out its titles for no reason and it really shows with most of their big releases.

 

Pretty much this - and I say that as someone who thinks xbox and gamepass are incredible. In fact, if it wasn't for xbox and the achievement system this website wouldn't be what it is...

but Microsoft don't seem to understand that every exclusive is an advertisement for the console and so releasing a bad game makes the xbox look bad by association. Bloodmoney mentioned this upthread but it bears repeating: it takes a special kind of "talent" to take a dev company like Arkane - who has never released a bad game - and then have them release a game that gets crowned one of the worst games of the year while they are under you. Some serious re-evaluating needs to be done at Microsoft.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Vault-TecPhantom

[cy1999aek_maik]

I don't know if Microsoft management is completely to blame for this one. Initailly, I was interested in it just because Arkane was attached to it and I've loved every game of theirs I've played. However, any FOMO I had immediately went away when I saw the gameplay showcases. The game looks very generic and uninspired. The issue seems to be with the creatives at Arkane as it conceptually seems to be flawed. Even if it had a 60fps mode and it ran smoothly, the game looks boring. I think you can blame Xbox management for the 30fps debacle and whatever bugs surface, but it's not like any of Arkane's previous releases went smoothly anyways. They were always a buggy mess but there was always something unique in the gameplay and atmosphere of their games, which cannot be said for Redfall

[Ashande]

So. I played it. It’s worse than expected. It’s not even 30 FPS. Constantly dipping to sub-20. Screen tearing everywhere. Ridiculously hypersensitive controls that “stick” (push left, camera starts panning. Release left, takes half a second for the camera to stop panning), input lag (or perhaps a deliberate choice for animations to start “late;” regardless, when you press “jump,” expect a full second delay before it happens) ridiculous motion blur, atrocious UI, unhelpful in attempting to determine what it is you’re supposed to be doing, the vampire staking mechanic is very poorly executed, for a game without melee weapons ammo is extremely sparse, and from the combat I’ve had so far, it’s clearly balanced with multiplayer in mind and designed to hose solo players.

 

That’s aside from all of the PCs being cringe inducing. One of them is described on her splash screen as “The Telepathic Threat in Student Debt!”

 

The vampire death animations are decent, I guess. If they hadn’t been copy/pasted from Buffy the Vampire Slayer…

[ZitMeatloaf]

Full disclosure that I haven't played Redfall... but I've long felt that Game Pass was eventually going to be a problem for the quality of Microsoft's games.

 

When all of Microsoft's studios know ahead of time (or partway into an already existing project) that their games are going to be dumped into Game Pass on day one, they know that their game no longer needs to be good enough to buy - it only needs to be good enough to try. Consciously or subconsciously, this will affect the quality of their work, almost certainly to the negative.

 

Redfall could very well be an example of this happening.