RMWeb Gamer's Lounge.

[Classsix T]

Not having read post release reviews etc myself (played early February demo), but I suspect that to be the case.

EA seem to be searching in vain for some sort of Fortnite golden goose to placate the shareholders. And literally destroying the franchises that made consumers want their products with loyal regularity in the process.

 

It's a well known fact in the cinema industry that the crowd pleasing summer blockbusters subsidise the less successful sleeper hits which will eventually accrue returns over a longer period. I don't know the figures but I suspect EA Sports does very well thankyouverymuch out of NBA, FIFA and NFL titles - as well as Battlefront etc, you'd think, if they get back key Mass Effect bods to polish Anthem, it's gotta be a long-term winner.

No. I personally don't believe Anthem will engage anyone enough to play it beyond initial purchase of say a week before it becomes a post pub dicking about game like Rocket League or Gang Beasts, purely because it lacks exactly what made Mass Effect great, a cracking story that demands empathy from the player.

 

In Anthem you are "Freelancer", you have no actual name, you're a no-mark, unrelatable and anonymous. And if not going on a mission with your actual friends, why do you care what happens to them?

Conversely, I'm sure as hell gonna make sure Garrus gets through this Mass Effect mission, he's my buddy, my brother in arms...etc.

 

Nah, I might buy Anthem when it starts dribbling into the pre-owned marketplace, but I in't paying £60 for it. And that, Electronic Arts is why you fail. I do feel for BioWare though...

 

C6T . 

[Clagsniffer]

EA does VERY well out of the sports games. I heard a figure of $600 million dollars income off FIFA ultimate team alone! That’s just crazy money. But that seems to have affected the way they think about all games, not just sports. They now look at how they can monetise everything. The way they treated Battlefront 2 is a perfect example of that. I just get the feeling now that if a game isn’t an MMO or battle royale, developers don’t care. Sad really as I’m more of a lone wolf and prefer solo games with a deep narrative.

[Classsix T]

Started SILENCE and Elite: Dangerous at the weekend, oooh, they've both disappointed friends...

 

One is a horrendously complicated spacefaring "where am I what do I do next?" annoyance (something No Man's Sky left you alone to find out, but wouldn't leave you in limbo) the other would be quite a nice puzzle story with the kids were it not for frustrating on-screen interaction and unnecessary swearing giving it a PEGI rating far above what it should be!

 

Seriously...C6T. Sticking with the GTSport...'til Days Gone is out. 

[Clagsniffer]

I’ve recently downloaded Ghost Recon: Wildlands, got it for £12 and I’m enjoying it so far. HUGE map, open world. Been playing it a few days now and it’s been fun.

[SouthernRegionSteam]

GR:W is fantastic; I've got over 200 hours on record thus far.

Surprisingly, for a while I even found the PVP fun (until the wonky hitboxes/collisions became infuriating).

But yeah, the game is great fun; although I am a sucker for open world games. The flying and driving is a little arcade-y, but the gunplay is very satisfying. The stealth aspect is also enjoyable and very satisfying, although the lack of being able to hide bodies is surprising, and can make things tricky at times. All in all, a nice little game; and definitely worth that £12. My friend and I had a lot of fun playing it, that's for sure!

 

[Classsix T]

Get a room you two!

 

Only joking, enjoy it. I'm a bit cheesed-off that recent cheap take a punt titles haven't delivered the enjoyment I'd hoped...sigh. Jealousy is a horrible thing.

I do have Deus-Ex Mankind Divided and Mass Effect Andromeda to replay mind...

 

C6T. 

[big jim]

getting into forza horizon now!

[Reorte]

6 hours ago, Classsix T said:

Started SILENCE and Elite: Dangerous at the weekend, oooh, they've both disappointed friends...

 

One is a horrendously complicated spacefaring "where am I what do I do next?" annoyance (something No Man's Sky left you alone to find out, but wouldn't leave you in limbo) the other would be quite a nice puzzle story with the kids were it not for frustrating on-screen interaction and unnecessary swearing giving it a PEGI rating far above what it should be!

 

Seriously...C6T. Sticking with the GTSport...'til Days Gone is out. 

The problem with Elite: Dangerous isn't the complexity (I like that), it's the shallowness, and it would've been rather better if they hadn't bothered putting in any multiplayer aspect. You can ignore it (there's a private mode) but it must take effort to develop that could've been better spent elsewhere; other people rarely add to a game IMO (other than as a sideshow, e.g. the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 was fun).

[Classsix T]

3 hours ago, Reorte said:

The problem with Elite: Dangerous isn't the complexity (I like that), it's the shallowness, and it would've been rather better if they hadn't bothered putting in any multiplayer aspect. You can ignore it (there's a private mode) but it must take effort to develop that could've been better spent elsewhere; other people rarely add to a game IMO (other than as a sideshow, e.g. the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 was fun).

Complicated in its interface I should have said. I can see that on a keyboard and joystick set-up how it'd work but jamming all the controls on a console joypad has made it difficult to grasp.

To be fair though I'm only one play session in. I'm taking it easy - single player, avoiding conflict, delivering data - so a little more perseverance on my part will probably see it come good. We'll see.

 

Any tips for navigation to intended destination welcome BTW! I'm s'posed to deliver this data but it tells me I don't have the fuel to supercruise there...

 

C6T. 

[Andrew F]

You need to re-plot your route (should be possible from your mission board), taking in systems that are closer together as your ship (Sidewinder?) has a crappy jump range. You can upgrade your ship to jump further but this needs loads of money which you won't have. 

 

Do you have the Horizons version?. Without this you can't land on planets and explore which sucks ass.

 

One tip is to make one system your base and do several missions at once to nearby systems and build up reputation with those factors so they offer you more money for further missions. Another tip is to get a cheap ship like the Cobra and get some extra cargo bays so you can take on missions with better pay. You'll notice the same missions coming up everytime you visit your home system. Try and take missions for either the Federation or Empire as that will rank you up with them and you will eventually get permits to systems like Sol and chances to buy much better ships than are available normally. Also consider joining a community goal and just fulfilling the bare minimum to get money fast.

 

Be prepared for endless repetition, seemingly pointless missions and over complications with everything, just for the sake of making your life difficult. It took me about a year and a half to buy and max the best ship in the game and get the ratings up.

 

You'll need a laptop at the side of you just to find out what to do and how to do it as there's no instructons with the game and it is mega complicated. Crazy! 

 

Saying all that, it's still my dream game and I' was a fan since '84. They keep doing updates to it and one of the recent ones made it necessary to learn more complications so I've not played it for a bit.  It's a game for life to the right person.....or until they pull the servers.....which puts me off putting more years into it.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Andrew F

[Reorte]

Unfortunately I lost interest before I got as far as getting a thoroughly top-rated ship and reset my save; in some ways it's more fun pottering around in something smaller anyway. I dip back in occasionally (and it's pretty amazing in VR).

 

Playing in Open, most people are fine, you get the occasional antisocial idiot who seems to think the game is entirely about shooting anyone in a smaller ship. PvP seems hopelessly imbalanced, having driven away anyone who wasn't already pretty much up there so there's no decent PvP at different levels of expertise (unless you go into a private group specifically for that) and no point in flying in Open in anything other than a top-rated combat ship. I still do though since (a) you hardly ever run in to people anyway, and the occasional ****, and wondering if someone else is one, makes things a little more interesting. It's not usually that hard to avoid them although the interdiction system is terribly glitchy (two or three times it's said I'm winning then bam!)

 

But that all said there's nothing else that gives anywhere near the same sense of flying around the galaxy.

[Classsix T]

I suspect I'm at least the third owner of my copy of Elite, as such the DLC code is defunct. Paid a tenner, so half price effectively.

 

The season pass with Horizon is another 20 quid. Will it significant enhance the game experience for me friends?

 

Interesting that the price is holding fast less than two years on and that pre-owned copies seem scarce, which is a good indication of fanbase loyalty. IMO.

 

C6T. 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Classsix T

[Andrew F]

I bought it second hand too without the DLC, finding out later what was missing. I really liked the game so ended up getting a new copy with Horizons included.

 

I'd play the copy you have and see if you're likely to get into it before buying the DLC.  I didn't like "No Man's Sky"  after playing Elite and didn't give it a proper chance.  Elite is just the Daddy; the ships and atmosphere and loneliness are just so cool whereas No Mans's Sky seemed cartoony to me.

 

Aside form the planet landings which you'll want to do (visit ancient alien sites/more mission opportunities/exploration and mining in a buggy) there's also (I think!) the "engineers" aspect of the game which means visiting these scientists and their installations to improve your ship. All the landable planets are pretty much rocks with no atmosphere and have bases rather than civilised developed cities but they add loads to the game.

 

You might want to check out "Obsidian Ant"'s You Tube channel and get a taste of it.

 

 

[Classsix T]

Thanks Andrew.

 

I quite liked No Man's Sky, graphically a disappointment natch, but it has a certain charm. Rebel Galaxy is also fun but as I mentioned earlier in thread, is very much an Elite "lite".

 

C6T. 

[Classsix T]

18 hours ago, SouthernRegionSteam said:

GR:W is fantastic; I've got over 200 hours on record thus far.

Surprisingly, for a while I even found the PVP fun (until the wonky hitboxes/collisions became infuriating).

But yeah, the game is great fun; although I am a sucker for open world games. The flying and driving is a little arcade-y, but the gunplay is very satisfying. The stealth aspect is also enjoyable and very satisfying, although the lack of being able to hide bodies is surprising, and can make things tricky at times. All in all, a nice little game; and definitely worth that £12. My friend and I had a lot of fun playing it, that's for sure!

 

 

18 hours ago, Clagsniffer said:

I’ve recently downloaded Ghost Recon: Wildlands, got it for £12 and I’m enjoying it so far. HUGE map, open world. Been playing it a few days now and it’s been fun.

Having read more about this title, would either of you paid full price?

 

I liked Just Cause 2's huge play arena, but frankly the premise of the game was ridiculous (topple incumbent regime by ruining the country for everyone (#Venezuela)). There seems to be much more thought put into this. 

Negative reviews mention SRS's criticisms plus state the missions as samey/repetitive and OK for multi player but lacking for in solo.

Is it Anthem without flying suits!?

 

C6T. 

[Reorte]

All this talk about Elite - it's a handy source of arbitrary usernames - see mine!

[SouthernRegionSteam]

2 hours ago, Classsix T said:

Having read more about this title, would either of you paid full price?

 

I liked Just Cause 2's huge play arena, but frankly the premise of the game was ridiculous (topple incumbent regime by ruining the country for everyone (#Venezuela)). There seems to be much more thought put into this. 

Negative reviews mention SRS's criticisms plus state the missions as samey/repetitive and OK for multi player but lacking for in solo.

 

Personally I don't feel a lot of AAA titles deserve the full price. GR:W doesn't due to the things I mentioned, and yes, there is also a lack of variety. It's also heaps more fun with at least one other person to play with; playing solo just isn't quite the same thing as teaming up to try and take down an entire base stealthily! Oh.. and without wishing to "spoil" it, I've also just remembered how disappointing the "story" is, particularly the ending. Thankfully though I don't play games for the story; I play games to mess around!

 

Most of these games suffer from the same problem; hard work by one section of the development team has been overshadowed by other sections not pulling their weight. In this (and Far Cry 5), for me the world and physical environment are very nicely done (although as with all games, don't look too closely at the railway aspect of it!). There's clearly been a lot of love by the team, as you'll often find little details all over the place that give some life to the place. But this great work is completely ruined by the fact there is very little variety in NPCs; locals, rebels, and enemies have a handful of different models and that's it. It becomes very noticeable.

 

So no, for me it's not worth the full price, but, as I said, if you have someone to play it with and you enjoy stealth and open world games; you'll still get many many hours out of it. I still maintain it's a great game, even for all its flaws.

 

Edit: Forgot to talk about Just Cause:
Just Cause is a franchise that... well... there's not much difference between each game. Sure, there are some new grappling abilities, and different worlds, but every single one in the series suffers from repetition, a lack of care with the world-building, and a multitude of other sins. I expected Just Cause 3 to be a lot of fun, but despite the new grappling abilities, it got old very quickly, and I didn't have nearly as much fun as I would have expected. The franchise is one I'd love to sing the praises for, but the huge world means they sacrifice any sort of variety; every time you play it's a case of clearing similar looking bases the same way, and doing the same missions... anyway, I think you get the point! The only redeeming feature in a way is the ridiculous voice acting, which always makes me chuckle.  Oh, and whilst I'm at it, how has Just Cause never had official multiplayer?! The unofficial multiplayer mods are so much fun, even with the reduced grapple capabilities.

Edited March 12, 2019 by SouthernRegionSteam

[Classsix T]

All good points SRS, thanks for that.

I'll go on to the other points anon, but it would seem GR:W isn't for me, for now. I do like a good stealth-'em-up. Thief and Deus-Ex deliver this in spades, whilst Uncharted 4 and Last of Us are capable in the genre. I don't really see how GR:W can be without the ability to hide bodies, never mind, if I see it for a tenner or less at least I'll know what to expect.

The third person aspect and large play area appeals, so never say never.

I'd got Just Cause 2 as a PSN download, daft game. Rather less cerebral than I'd've liked. But then I've never watched a Die Hard movie either for similar reasons though I appreciate they have their fans!

 

C6T. 

[Clagsniffer]

Urgh, Thief. Now there’s a game I hated, just couldn’t get on with it at all. Just stopped playing it in the end. Did get it for free though with my Xbox live gold account so I guess I didn’t lose anything.

 

Have you played Dishonored? Plenty stealth involved in that game plus satisfying combat and character progression. Didn’t play the second one but the first one was very good.

[Classsix T]

So, without negative criticism of his point of view whatsoever, SouthernRegionSteam raises a point that do we, individually, believe games are worth the release date prices asked for games? If he has no objections I'd like to hear this thread's regulars thoughts on the subject.

 

I'm old enough to remember that in the last knockings of cartridge based consoles, the hardware would cost you around £399-£450 at release and the cartridges were £44.99 a piece. It seems to me that two decades on, as hardware tech (CPU chipsets and RAM) and games (ROM) have developed, they don't actually cost much more now than they did then. And that's without taking inflation into account. Fairly impressive...no? 

 

So with this in mind I occasionally will pay brand new release date prices for games if I'm of the opinion that it'll be a title that will reward me wrt entertainment. Not because I "must have" it necessarily, I'm happy to let unknown quantity titles drip feed into pre-owned, but perhaps because I'd like my money to go directly to the developer for producing something I'm likely to enjoy. This doesn't always pan out of course...sigh.

 

Thoughts welcome, C6T. 

[Classsix T]

13 minutes ago, Clagsniffer said:

Urgh, Thief. Now there’s a game I hated, just couldn’t get on with it at all. Just stopped playing it in the end. Did get it for free though with my Xbox live gold account so I guess I didn’t lose anything.

 

Have you played Dishonored? Plenty stealth involved in that game plus satisfying combat and character progression. Didn’t play the second one but the first one was very good.

I have heard of Dishonoured, briefly looked into it but I either had something else on the go or something put me off.

The beauty of all these games being out there is you can pick them up for silly money later. (cough...and appreciate the dev's hard work...cough!)

 

C6T. 

[SouthernRegionSteam]

By all means, feel free to discuss full-priced games. I'm afraid what follows is a very lengthy rant on my part; for which I can only apologise!

 

The problem is that it's quite subjective!
I'm quite reserved when it comes to purchases, hence my personal point of view that a lot of AAA games I feel are not worth the money, and you often seem to spend a premium just because its by a AAA developer. That said, a lot of people that I've played with have other points of view, and will happily pay full price. My biggest concern with pricing nowadays is that you tend to pay for a service, rather than a game. I don't expect any game to have online servers that last over 5 years, but if you've bought a full price game (particularly those heavily weighing on multiplayer aspects), you'd hope that you'd have unlimited access to it for a significant period of time.  Along similar lines, I find the "always online" aspect disturbing, and the fact this is happening with single player games raises suspicion!

 

Anyway, the only AAA game I payed full price for was GTA5. And despite having an embarrassingly huge amount of playtime in it, I find the game a love/hate relationship, and I still feel guilty paying full price for it! The world, the driving, the gunplay. and the single player are all sublime; yet the online economy is inflated to such a disproportionate amount that you have no "money" to buy anything that they add. Every time I go online, I'm bombarded by about 5 in game emails, 6 calls, and various notifications that imply I'm missing out on content and should spend a large amount of money on buying the content. The "sneaky" side is that they never mention the Shark Cards (the virtual credit cards that cost real money (and a lot of it) to purchase in-game money), but by frequently slapping you with reminders of how much you're missing out on, you feel pressured. I've never bought a Shark Card because I find the whole idea absolutely abhorrent and obnoxious, but I can see how Rockstar and Take-Two make millions of dollars by selling them...and it's disgraceful. Their stance on it is that they're still "under-monetising" players... unbelievable! I get that they constantly add stuff (even if it wouldn't take much to do so), and that they do it for free, but the way they go about raking in the millions makes my skin crawl... anyway....

 

Slightly on a tangent, I'd like, if I may, to talk about the overall quality of full price games upon release. I appreciate larger AAA devs have larger overheads, larger teams, and have to pay publishers, but equally I can't help but feel disappointed by the majority of the games they now produce; especially during the first weeks of release. Gone are the days when you'd buy a game, and that would be that; no patches or issues that would be needed. The reasons are many; whether the publisher has pushed forward release when the game isn't finished, or perhaps there hasn't been a high level of testing and QA are just two reasons I can think of.  The bigger game companies have gotten, the more people and more differing visions and opinions that will be fighting during development; and it really shows! I think it's fair to say that publishers also have a huge impact on the end result; quite often to the detriment of the players experience. At least in many AAA games I've played.

 

Indie games are a whole other story; and a lot seem to be more "reasonably priced" to me; but then again, they have lower overheads so... who knows?!

 

Again, apologies for the lengthy rant. Don't feel like you can't disagree with my comments; I always welcome any level-headed discussion!

[Classsix T]

Pertinent points well made SRS I think, I've certainly no objections.

 

Being of perhaps an "older skool" (you've not stated a "gameography" so I can only assume) I think it's worth reiterating that the relationship between developer (writer), publisher (monetising ) and end customer (gamer) is often fractious. Like Hollyoaks. 

 

I'd also be interested in your reference to triple A titles. I take such to mean heavy hitting cross platform franchises, more or less guaranteed to fly off the shelves. Assassins, Batman, CoD et al. 

With competition from the likes of Forza, I don't know if Grand Turismo can be regarded these days as AAA?

 

C6T. 

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Yes, I'm definitely newer to gaming than most; having started with Populous: The Beginning. And then along came Steam and all of a sudden I was able to actually buy a lot of games, instead of having only two (Populous and Rollercoaster Tycoon 2) in my library!

 

With regards to the relationships between publisher and developer; I think the developers know it would be very hard to get anywhere without the publishers, and the publishers know that, hence why (aside from often being shareholders I'd imagine) that they have so much power over what the developers put in their games. Fractious it definitely is! The other downside is that quite often it's the developers that get the stick should bad decisions occur, rather than the publishers. This is not to say all publishers are bad, but I think a lot of them have too much hold over the content of games.

 

As for the term AAA, it's one that doesn't really seem to have a proper agreed definition. The general consensus is that a AAA game is one with a huge budget, and often huge workforces. Success or failure doesn't seem to be a factor. Either way, it's not really defined, but you've pretty much got the idea of how most people use it. I've no idea about Gran Turismo as I've never had a console, but it seems to be one of the most popular franchises on Playstation, so could well be AAA.

Edited March 12, 2019 by SouthernRegionSteam

[Classsix T]

Interesting opinions SRS. I'm certainly not going to pull an age card out to disprove any of that.

 

However (he said pulling the age card)! It might be worth mentioning that historically the developer has been the card-holder in terms of Intellectual Property and publishers have then offered riches in return. Whether the IP inventor then keeps hold of the direction of their vision or the publisher buys them out and then decides "market forces dictate" takes it in a different tack, I'll let you decide.

 

Worth pointing out also that the likes of Polyphony (Grand Turismo) and Naughty Dog (Uncharted, Last of Us) are tied to Sony one way or another. These companies obviously see a benign symbiotic relationship with each other. Whether it's good for the market otoh, I dunno. 

 

C6T. 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Classsix T