What are you playing right now?

[Manveru123]

Started playing Regalia: of Men and Monarchs recently. It's surprisingly fun.

[Katphood]

I watched about an hour of the Anthem beta gameplay on twitch and my god did it look boring. I don't know if it's just me but the variety in the environment and enemy types is just...horrid. It all looks the same.

 

It's just another developer trying their luck at an online co-op shooter that is 'fun to play with friends'. I thought we had enough of those already, with Warframe's success and Destiny 2's failure.

[Majek]

Anthem on consoles was fun to play but yeah bulletsponges galore ( i even played a mission on hard and with the gear i had i almost went insane), no shoulder switch camera ( and the reason for that from lead producer is bad), and worst of all crashes, blue screens of death, disconnects,...  plenty of crap to drive players from the game.

I think i'll wait for DIvision 2. The managed to fix that pretty well in the end, so i have hope endgame will be good from the start this time. And no a year later. :D

[Manveru123]

I watched about an hour of the Anthem beta gameplay on twitch and my god did it look boring. I don't know if it's just me but the variety in the environment and enemy types is just...horrid. It all looks the same.

 

It's just another developer trying their luck at an online co-op shooter that is 'fun to play with friends'. I thought we had enough of those already, with Warframe's success and Destiny 2's failure.

Instead of only making games in genres they're good at, the developers try to expand into every popular genre, and usually fail miserably. Not only Obs but even Blizzard fumbled.

[213374U]

 

I watched about an hour of the Anthem beta gameplay on twitch and my god did it look boring. I don't know if it's just me but the variety in the environment and enemy types is just...horrid. It all looks the same.

 

It's just another developer trying their luck at an online co-op shooter that is 'fun to play with friends'. I thought we had enough of those already, with Warframe's success and Destiny 2's failure.

Instead of only making games in genres they're good at, the developers try to expand into every popular genre, and usually fail miserably. Not only Obs but even Blizzard fumbled.

 

I'm not sure I'd blame Bioware this time. It's worth remembering that SWTOR wasn't initially conceived as a MMO to kill WoW -which in retrospect justifies the awful choice of engine- and "sources claim" that they have repeatedly attempted to make a more traditional KotOR (even going so far as building a prototype), but EA just isn't down with the idea. This jibes with their constant push to make everything a service that players can keep going back to, which was precisely their reason for canceling Ragtag and Orca.

 

Anthem looks to me like an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle in the vein of ME3MP, only designed from the get-go to be their billion-dollar-per-annum shooter holy grail.

 

I don't need to consult my magic 8-ball to see that it's going to fall short of that.

[Chilloutman]

once you get to stock market, you either go up, or you are dead. that is real problem with current AAA game industry - to go up, you need to have draconic monetisation model to feed all those investors which in the end (hopefully) make them left our industry alone

[Katphood]

Warframe isn't only a good online mmo shooter, it's also a very good example of how a f2p game should be. I don't think we will see any other mmo shooter dethroning Warframe for quite a long time.

[SonicMage117]

It really depends on the motives of why devs/publishers are trying new things/genres out of their comfort zone.

 

 

For example, AAA Guerilla going from futuristic dystopian FPS in Killzone to ancient and colourful third person open world in Horizon Zero Dawn.

 

Indie dev Supergiant going from Arpg to Visual Novel is another example.

[213374U]

Warframe isn't only a good online mmo shooter, it's also a very good example of how a f2p game should be. I don't think we will see any other mmo shooter dethroning Warframe for quite a long time.

 

Yes, but even Warframe's wildly successful model pales in comparison to the kind of money that EA's other live services bring in by about an order of magnitude. Apparently, it's been decided that anything that isn't making Ultimate Team-levels of profit is a waste of time.

 

And, as per opportunity cost decision making, that's true... based on the assumption that any genre can be the sports genre.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Tried the Anthem demo over the weekend (even bothered to install Origin for it), and...I ended up just quitting the game during the first mission (mission was bloody long, by the way).

 

It's an obvious console-first game with a horrible PC UI, bad defaults (unplayable for me without fiddling with at least the mouse sensitivity, even in the hub area) and a clunky movement system.

The last one is especially baffling since everyone appears to be going ape over how awesome the Anthem movement system is. Has none of those people played Warframe? Did everyone just play with a controller? Because, aside from flying being practically unusable with mouse+keyboard I found general movement finicky as well. Both Warframe and Destiny 2 feel well smoother to me, movement-wise.

 

Anthem is a powers first game, and in that respect is more akin to Warframe than to Destiny 2 (where power usage is heavily tempered with cooldowns). But unlike Warframe the gun they gave you in the Anthem demo felt like a total peashooter (judging from what I read it's not just this weapon either, guns really take a back-seat) and the powers have, imho, long-ish cooldowns, for how dependant you are on them.

 

Oh, and enemies are total bullet sponges, even the trash tier ones. They also do love their staggers (which are, imho, pretty badly communicated to the player, which might have lead me to consider movement clunky as it felt like the game was unresponsive before I figured out what was going on)

 

Graphics wise, I also don't really get the hype. Maybe I need to get my eyes checked but the game didn't look any better than the competition to me.

 

Oh yes, and I did play solo, which they heavily discourage, so that's on me, but I'm personally not interested in games where I must do every little thing in a group, especially any and all story missions (I quit Guild Wars 2 when I ran into the final "story quest" being a mandatory dungeon, which they've thankfully rectified by now). So if you don't mind grouping up for everything then the game might be OK, as I'm sure having more people compensates for the amount of bullet sponge enemies they throw at you.

 

Anyway, after the demo this went from a "Might pick it up if it reviews well" to "Meh, might pick it up if it ever goes on sale to see if they've improved it".

That was all I needed to know. Thanks, marelooke!

Anthem

[Hurlshort]

Does Warframe really make much money though? I mean, it seems like it does well enough, but it doesn't seem to be a behemoth.

[Mamoulian War]

A few words from our most beloved jimmy about the likes of Anthem

 

[Chilloutman]

A few words from our most beloved jimmy about the likes of Anthem

 

 

I am happy that 99% of AAA titles does not intereset me at all so I don't have to deal with this sh1t because franky, even if I care about some new title, there is no way I would get into this rabbit hole of 10+ editions until there is complete pack 50% off on steam if it ever happen (looking at you Mass Effect)

[Wormerine]

I am happy that 99% of AAA titles does not intereset me at all so I don't have to deal with this sh1t because franky, even if I care about some new title, there is no way I would get into this rabbit hole of 10+ editions until there is complete pack 50% off on steam if it ever happen (looking at you Mass Effect)

I didn't touch any of the major AAA releases in a while. Speaking of Mass Effect I am still pissed I can't pick up Mass Effect2 DLCs like a a normal person through steam. I sort of want to give it another playthrough, but everytime I try to figure out how to buy DLC I get really annoyed.

 

Between worrying about microtransaction and lootboxes interfering with my enjoyment of the game and the exploitative pricing even if something looks promising there is just too much for me to break through. I am worried though - those games clearly sell. Either this madhouse will collapse, or it will be rarer and rarer to see... well, games. 

[Katphood]

Best way to play AAA titles nowadays: wait until they hit the sales.

 

There are exceptions but that stands true for 90% of the triple A games out there.

[Mamoulian War]

Well, sometimes all you need to do is wait two weeks for the sale to happen. Buying anything from AAA on release date is at the moment very unrational, to put it mildly...

[Gorth]

It's a bit hit and miss. Last two "aaa" titles I bought at full price were Witcher III and Overwatch. Loved the former. The latter... a complete waste of money for me.

 

Best full price title investment for me would be Borderlands 2. I got my moneys worth with outrageous interest from that game

[Keyrock]

There are a few exceptions, obviously, but OVERWHELMINGLY I'm far more interested in indie and AA titles than AAA titles these days. I fully agree that waiting for a sale is the smart way to buy AAA titles.  The one exception to that rule is Nintendo 1st party titles, since those pretty much never go on sale.

Edited February 4, 2019 by Keyrock

[marelooke]

 

 

I watched about an hour of the Anthem beta gameplay on twitch and my god did it look boring. I don't know if it's just me but the variety in the environment and enemy types is just...horrid. It all looks the same.

 

It's just another developer trying their luck at an online co-op shooter that is 'fun to play with friends'. I thought we had enough of those already, with Warframe's success and Destiny 2's failure.

Instead of only making games in genres they're good at, the developers try to expand into every popular genre, and usually fail miserably. Not only Obs but even Blizzard fumbled.

 

I'm not sure I'd blame Bioware this time. It's worth remembering that SWTOR wasn't initially conceived as a MMO to kill WoW -which in retrospect justifies the awful choice of engine- and "sources claim" that they have repeatedly attempted to make a more traditional KotOR (even going so far as building a prototype), but EA just isn't down with the idea. This jibes with their constant push to make everything a service that players can keep going back to, which was precisely their reason for canceling Ragtag and Orca.

 

Anthem looks to me like an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle in the vein of ME3MP, only designed from the get-go to be their billion-dollar-per-annum shooter holy grail.

 

I don't need to consult my magic 8-ball to see that it's going to fall short of that.

 

 

Out of curiosity, what was SWToR initially conceived as? I can't remeber it ever having been brought up that it was not initially conceived as a MMO.

 

Also I'm pretty confident they could have had a WoW killer (or at least a decent competitor) if the game had been released in an actual finished state, as it was many a guild fell apart because it took months for them to get the "endgame" to a playable state (source: I was there). If instead they could have worked on new content they might have been able to keep something going, at least for a while.

 

Warframe isn't only a good online mmo shooter, it's also a very good example of how a f2p game should be. I don't think we will see any other mmo shooter dethroning Warframe for quite a long time.

 

Indeed, and it's not just about the monetization aspect. Most other games in the genre are just first person "tranditional" MMOs (aka WoW clones), they badger you into playing daily with "daily heroics", "heroic dungeons", "raid lockouts", the works. The entire progression is locked behind these mechanics, this is the case for Destiny 2, it appears it will be the case in Anthem. I have no idea about the Division but I suspect it's also the case there.

 

Warframe does not have any of that(*)(**), despite being grindy as hell the game oddly enough manages to respect your time to an extent very few other MMOs do. If I don't feel like playing for a week I just don't, there's no "need" to keep up or fall behind, moreover unlike other games Warframe is not in the habit of having "timed" stuff, as in there's no gear that is here and will be gone forever if you don't get it now(***) and the same goes for the vast majority of cosmetics (there is/was some minor stuff tied to partnerships with things like Twitch, Steam and some other things though). Rewards for timed events do, eventually, make their way back into the game in some form or another (sometimes takes a very long time, but it has always been the case so far in the 5 years I've been playing the game).

 

Now this leads to some issues, but I'd rather DE continue innovating along this path rather than revert to the tried and, imho, tired time gating employed by virtually everybody else.

 

(*) technically there are Sorties, which are daily, but their rewards are not mandatory for any content in the game.

(**) there used to be Trials (raids), which did have lockouts, but those were scrapped pending a rework, their rewards were moved to Eidolons, open world bosses that you can kill as many times as you are able in a single day (or rather, night).

(***) three very specific items excepting as those were part of the Founders packs, which basically boils down to them being "Kickstarter rewards" for those supporting the game before it was able to stand on its own.

Edited February 4, 2019 by marelooke

[Zoraptor]

 

Out of curiosity, what was SWToR initially conceived as?

 

IIRC straight sequel to K1 (and largely ignoring K2), primarily if not entirely SP. It got retasked to an MMO very early on though; and LucasArts were developing a K3 internally which was cancelled a year before TOR released.

[SonicMage117]

I'm continuing my AC Odyseey journey, suddenly the game turns into a bit Dragon's Dogma with some Giants and other mythological creatures. More Shadow Of Mordor characteristics with it's war skirmishes and then more Dragon's Dogma with it's on ship/off ship companions via naval warfare and ship crew command technicals.

 

Having a horse can be a problem because it's only a bit faster than running and NOT faster than animals like wolves or lions. Still, it's better than having a fast horse that runs into walls ala RDR2.

 

 

Mercenaries are always on my back making my Odyseey much harder than it needs to be lol but I suppose that's what happens when you don't want to pay the bounty off or kill the sponsors/convince them to cancel.

 

I like how you can recruit people that you almost kill, to be part of your vessel's crew. Brings a sense of freedom.

 

The abilities are really starting to remind me of Dragon's Dogma as well. Split shot, spread shot, multi-shot and more than one shot but I want a rapid shot ability.

 

 

 

 

 

ACE COMBAT 7

You are part of the "MAGE" squad.

 

At the end of the game you must face me, SuperSONICmage.

[Gorth]

This jibes with their constant push to make everything a service that players can keep going back to paying for

 

A bit of creative quoting and editing of the post made it easier to read

[Katphood]

The one exception to that rule is Nintendo 1st party titles, since those pretty much never go on sale.

True, sad but also pretty damn funny!

 

 

Thank you, Sir.

[SonicMage117]

I think he meant PS exclusive titles but those always go on sale, or is god of war not equal to zelders just because nostalgic boot?

[Agiel]

Not playing right now, as there's other stuff on my plate, but I suppose for some that's not much of an excuse given the only $7 cost of entry:

 

 

Be interesting to see this get polished up some more, as it looks to shape up to be stronger than many AAA FPS showings. Assuming that the purported sole developer doesn't get snatched up by one of the big names and further development of this gets put on hold indefinitely. 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Agiel