Also I replayed The MAsquerade as an adult and it does not hold up remotely, unless you are currently 13. If you are currently 13, maybe give it a try but I dunno is the era translates to new kids, prolly not.
I do not care if this franchise gets more games.
Edit: WAit no, the one from 2004 was Bloodlines, wasn't there a new game they were working on like 10 years ago now? Is THIS that game they were working on 10 years ago? The already did pre-orders and everything forever ago.
NEvermind, I'm old and confused and no longer with "it", which is weird cause they don't really keep changing what "it" is anymore, they just keep trying to feed me worse versions of things I liked when I was 13. I'm nearly 3x that age now. I have no interest in just about any of it.
The game has been stuck in development hell for more than a decade, yes. I agree that Masquerade does not hold up, yet it still consistently makes best RPG/game lists. I think it's just nostalgia that keeps it alive in the gaming culture. It was janky even when it came out and the story is like a YA novel; modern modding has made it more playable but it's not worth revisiting imo... unless you're a moody teen who doesn't want to consume any of the more modern moody teen slop.
I know it’s urban fantasy, but I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw the player character use an automatic gun while in Washington. Also really disliked how story NPCs just stand around in their environments instead of engaging with it. Also no indication of Jeanette returning so…
Watching a video on FNAF: Security Breach the guy had a pretty good system for measuring, first delay shows that they care about polish and are okay taking a bit more time for it to cook, second time signifies significant management issues where they've now missed their deadline twice and you should probably start feeling uneasy, after two delays, just throw your expectations in the garbage and just pray that it comes out at all.
And this one's had a handful of delays, a revolving door of Creative Directors, and swapped development studios a year ago. I'll be shocked if this thing isn't a hot mess that gets abandoned shortly after launch.
Again this is false equivalency, "taking longer" means only "we didn't finished". It's never about making it better for players or developers, it only means that the current product is deemed unsuitable to release even by the shitty corpo publisher standards. If anything, there will be MORE crunch and MORE cuts in game like in case of all products that are overtime and overbudget.
Paradox is based in Sweden which has pretty good labor laws and that limits what they could get away with. There has been no reporting that Paradox relies on crunch. And they specifically deny relying on crunch in this Reddit post.
Also, I'd say that a studio being known for delaying release windows is a sign that they use crunch less than if they always make the release window.