RAND0M VIDE0 GAME NEW5

[Keyrock]

If nothing else, we got some good memes out of Diablo Immortal.

[marelooke]

Bunch of upheaval in MMO-land.

It's starting to look like WoW going in the wrong direction for expansions on end might finally be catching up to them and they're very much likely to lose their No1 spot to FFXIV...

 

Guild Wars 2 also isn't doing particularly great for the more hardcore players, here's a breakdown of what went down there for those interested:

I do tend to agree with skillUp that there's a relation between hardcore and casual players and that if either is unhappy, or straight up quitting, it'll have a considerable impact on the rest of the playerbase.

[Malcador]

It's been going the wrong direction for expansions on end ?  Thought Legion was well liked.  Well as much as that braying fanbase can like anything.

[Humanoid]

3 hours ago, Malcador said:

It's been going the wrong direction for expansions on end ?  Thought Legion was well liked.  Well as much as that braying fanbase can like anything.

It is, but a lot of it is only in hindsight. Legion had some terrible, terrible issues, and probably marked the peak of RNG reliance as a determinant for success - see the Legendary and Titanforging systems. I'd go so far as to say Warlords of Draenor would have been the better expansion ...if it wasn't only two-thirds the size of the average expansion. Can't say anything about Pandaria as I quit partway through Cataclysm and didn't return for 2.5 years.

FF14 isn't the answer though, less than two months in and I'm already feeling fairly burnt out, though to be fair, going through three expansions worth in one go will burn anyone out. I only made it to near the end of the first expansion and haven't progressed any farther for over a week.

[marelooke]

2 hours ago, Humanoid said:

It is, but a lot of it is only in hindsight. Legion had some terrible, terrible issues, and probably marked the peak of RNG reliance as a determinant for success - see the Legendary and Titanforging systems. I'd go so far as to say Warlords of Draenor would have been the better expansion ...if it wasn't only two-thirds the size of the average expansion. Can't say anything about Pandaria as I quit partway through Cataclysm and didn't return for 2.5 years.

FF14 isn't the answer though, less than two months in and I'm already feeling fairly burnt out, though to be fair, going through three expansions worth in one go will burn anyone out. I only made it to near the end of the first expansion and haven't progressed any farther for over a week.

Cataclysm was Blizzard realising they messed up with progression and difficulty during Wrath of the Lich King and trying to right the ship. Heroic dungeons were actually hard again, as were the raids. Unfortunately they didn't have the foresight to also remove LFG (aka, to realize that there was no way back), so what ended up happening is that anyone who wasn't a tank spent stupid amounts of time in a queue trying to get into dungeons, only to have the tank quit after the first wipe.

Pandaria was just a daily quest grindfest in a crap setting. The cliché laden faux-eastern stuff really doesn't do it for me and the fact that you had to grind through so many goddamn dailies for anything was just horrible. I raided for a bit in Pandaria and then just called it a day.

Current expansion basically feels like Pandaria levels of Grind with just as bad of a story (at least the bits I saw of it before calling it quits) community in the game is also entirely dead. Leveled through 2 expansions (whatever came before Legion and Legion and then partway through BfA) and there was no-one talking anywhere, ever. And no, that's not an exaggeration for effect, even the major hubs and cities were dead.

I haven't actually played FFXIV, I tried the beta (so the pre-re-release version) and wasn't too impressed (but  yeah, we all know how that ended up going) but the FF aesthetic doesn't really work for me, generally. I might give it a go eventually though since it's apparently pretty good once you get past the early bits.

As for the other MMOs:

• ESO I thought was just boring and the only thing it had going for it was the setting, lack of storage in the F2P version also makes it unplayable as a F2P game as far as I'm concerned.
• SWToR was ruined by the terrible engine, but at least the levelling was fun the first time around.
• GW2 was fun, but the tedious bossfights in the stories (usually in hour long missions that you have to re-do if you decide to bail) have really stopped me from attempting them in the latest Living World seasons. The fact that the answer to getting anything desirable at endgame is "grind gold" (or buy gems and convert them to gold, gee wonder why all that grind is there) is also a huge turn-off. And of course then there's the loot boxes, excessive reliance on cosmetics (that have gotten really obnoxious, visually, over time) and the points that Nike! makes in his video.
• EverQuest 2 was just sunk by the people who bought it from Sony, the game's been turned into an Asian style grindfest, the latest expansion basically makes the class you chose irrelevant as well as you "ascend". Suffice to say I'm amazed that given the plummeting playerbase the game is still around.
• Guild Wars 1 is still pretty darn good, but of course no new content is added
• Age of Conan, kinda hard to judge, I tried it a few times, never could get into it. Looks pretty darn dated as well nowadays.
• EVE Online is EVE Online, not much to add there. Game just requires way too much time to get anything out of it for me personally.
• LotRO supposedly has been going downhill fast, barely has a raiding community according to a friend of mine who used to play it and exploiters just run rampant. Classes apparently also have been streamlined so they lost their uniqueness.

Can't really think of any other major MMOs that are still around off the top of my head (without getting into the MMO shooters).

Edited July 25, 2019 by marelooke

[Hurlshort]

All of these games are old. It's amazing that the lifecycle has lasted this long in the first place. Like, I have no idea how ArenaNet has stayed in business. They are magicians. 

[daven]

Yeah WoW has gone on way past it has any right to.

I actually liked Wrath, that was the peak of WoW for me. Raiding ICC was some good times.

[Malcador]

LFG was a good addition, sure beat sitting in city chat spamming LFG or LFM. 

[Azdeus]

LFG and crossrealm killed wow for me, there was no community anymore. You LFG'd and met a couple of random people, said "hi" (In the beginning, nowadays it's not even that) did an instance with them, and never saw them again.

[the_dog_days]

5 hours ago, marelooke said:

• ESO I thought was just boring and the only thing it had going for it was the setting, lack of storage in the F2P version also makes it unplayable as a F2P game as far as I'm concerned.
• SWToR was ruined by the terrible engine, but at least the levelling was fun the first time around.

ESO isn't F2P. SWToR is.

[marelooke]

1 hour ago, the_dog_days said:

ESO isn't F2P. SWToR is.

Well, ESO can be played without a subscription, which is what  I meant, you still have to actually buy the game and expansions (the way GW2 used to be). So I guess it's B2P. Without a subscription you don't have access to the crafting storage though (forgot the actual name) which just makes gathering and crafting a massive pain, to the point I'd consider it unplayable without (but ymmv), assuming you care about crafting, of course.

If they changed that then maybe it's worth another look.

Edited July 26, 2019 by marelooke
spelling

[marelooke]

5 hours ago, Hurlshot said:

All of these games are old. It's amazing that the lifecycle has lasted this long in the first place. Like, I have no idea how ArenaNet has stayed in business. They are magicians. 

It's just software, if well maintained it can go on for quite a while. Of course most games (including MMOs) are not built to last. So a lot of them run into issues with spaghetti code or other hacks to just get things out the door. Blizzard spent a bunch of time refactoring WoW's engine to future proof it, for example. The ironic thing is that I'm sure many of them thought these games wouldn't last this long and that they'd then just make a successor. Then they discovered that creating enough content to keep players busy isn't exactly easy (or cheap), so now they're all stuck with games built on shoddy foundations that many of these companies don't have the will, talent, or money to refactor, assuming they even created or own their own engines (*cough* SWToR *cough*).

A pretty good example of doing it right, imho, is Warframe, where they figured out that paying the up-front cost of creating a well engineered engine means they they just keep up with the times.

On that note (and since you mentioned ArenaNet) Guild Wars 2 is still running on an upgraded GW1 engine, which, apparently is a huge blob of spaghetti code that they're afraid to touch. At least "spaghetti code" is the default reason they used to decline implementing any UI improvements (though they've announced build templates now).

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

LFG was a good addition, sure beat sitting in city chat spamming LFG or LFM. 

Probably depended on your realm, your guild (and its reputation) and how active you were (playing consistently around the same time kinda helped in my experience, as you'd just start running into the same people and thus build a reputation, meaning sooner or later people would just ask you to join).

I never really had trouble finding groups once I got over the anxiety of joining PUGs (and I mained a Mage, so no tank/healer privileges). I loved running dungeons though so I spent most of my (game) time in them (at least during TBC, WotLK dungeons were mostly a snorefest, unfortunately)

Edited July 26, 2019 by marelooke

[Humanoid]

The worst evolution of WoW for me is the increasing push to make you do all the content on every character. Your power level is now dependent on many other factors other than just raid gear so if you want to stay competitive. You need to participate in all the auxilliary content to get your correct legendary gear (in Legion), power up your artifact, gain various currencies needed to upgrade your non-raid best-in-slot gear, etc. It's all designed to maximise the time investment needed, because that's what looks good in their metrics.

Gone are the days where you can just log into the game for a couple of raids a week and be functional when called upon. The end result is you can no longer really hotswap different characters in unless you've invested just as much into them as you have on your main character. The game is now more alt-unfriendly than it has been at any point in its history.

[Malcador]

Hopefully they ditch the artifact scheme in the next expansion, the weapons were cool and all but yeah, did make the grind a bit too transaparent.  They do have catch up mechanics though,  should just tweak those. 

[Malcador]

https://wccftech.com/mechwarrior-5-mercenaries-launches-december-10th-as-an-epic-games-store-exclusive-refunds-available-until-september-1st/

 

Our partnership with the Epic Games store allows Piranha the opportunity to make sure MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries meets our internal goal of creating the best MechWarrior game possible. Since we announced the development of the first single-player MechWarrior game in 17 years, we have stated that our goal was to deliver to fans a MechWarrior: Mercenaries experience with true freedom of choice and to be able to share that experience in a coop setting.

Understandably some fans will be disappointed that they have to wait a short while longer for MechWarrior 5, but it’s important to Piranha Games that we absolutely get this right. We are happy to say that our new partnership with Epic Games store allows us the time and ability to accomplish our goals both in the games development and marketing efforts.

 

 

[Azdeus]

I'm thirsty.

 

[Malcador]

I'd think one would just pirate it regardless of the store it's on.  Unless people really need to give Newell his cut

[Azdeus]

I do actually feel the need to give gog.com their cut >_>'

[the_dog_days]

Pillars numero uno is coming to the Switch August 8th. Digital only. Looks like this version is being done by Versus Evil.

https://nintendoeverything.com/pillars-of-eternity-complete-edition-coming-to-switch-next-month/

Edited July 27, 2019 by the_dog_days

[the_dog_days]

Yesterday I got a email telling me I am accepted into the GOG Galaxy 2.0 beta test. For those not in the know, Galaxy 2.0 is being re-branded to not only allow you to download (though you don't need it) and buy gog games, but also to operate as a universal launcher. I've tested it with UPlay, Steam, Epic (yes, I do have a few games on there), and Origin. First you have to sync up your accounts individually with Galaxy, then you can see those titles in either in individual launcher folders or all in one, and with UPlay, Steam, and Epic you can download and launch games without opening up the separate applications. Origin games open up Origin and from there you have to launch/download/whatever. There are also options for Xbox Live and (eventually) the PS store (whatever its called). Currently there's nothing for Battle.net or Bethesda.net.

Even as someone who doesn't get frustrated with multiple launchers and have no trouble remembering where my games are, I love this new feature.

[marelooke]

13 hours ago, the_dog_days said:

...and with UPlay, Steam, and Epic you can download and launch games without opening up the separate applications. 

Does this only work for DRM free applications, or does it mean it doesn't pop up the respective launcher but it's still running in the background?

Just for funsies I had a look at all the launchers I have around when they run in the background (everything approximate, of course, and I gave everything about 10min to "settle" after launching them and/or waited for any upgrade and updates to complete):

• Bethesda.net Launcher: 560MB(!!!)
• Steam 150MB
• Gog Galaxy 150MB
• Battle.net 110MB (as a bonus, I updated WoW and that added another 400MB process for the duration of the update)
• Uplay 110MB
• Origin 85MB

Kinda surprised Origin was the leanest one, honestly, it always looked so bloated, but it turns out that's just the UI being...not so great.

Obviously there's nothing scientific about the approach (small sample size is the least of the issues ), just figured it was a fun thing to do.

But yeah, running all of them eats up over a Gigbyte of RAM, half that if you are sensible and stay away from that Bethesda abomination (not to mention that quite a few of them almost constantly "do stuff" in the background and thus (lightly) tax your CPU as well).

Didn't test Epic's thing because I disagree with their way of doing business, so I'm not doing business with them for the time being.

[melkathi]

I read some review the other day that currently Uplay or Origin for example will still launch in the background, and when you quit the game you then have to manually close that launcher. Apparently that is being worked on.

[the_dog_days]

1 hour ago, marelooke said:

Does this only work for DRM free applications, or does it mean it doesn't pop up the respective launcher but it's still running in the background?

Their launchers don't pop up. I downloaded Grim Dawn on Steam through Galaxy and even when I hit play before it was finished all it did was pop up a small window show how long until it was playable. Steam doesn't run in the background unless the application is open. Same with Origin. UPlay makes sense given that the Steam launcher basically does the same thing. Of the launchers I tried, Epic might be the only one that actually runs in the background.

[marelooke]

5 minutes ago, melkathi said:

I read some review the other day that currently Uplay or Origin for example will still launch in the background, and when you quit the game you then have to manually close that launcher. Apparently that is being worked on.

Can confirm for Origin, uses about 3MB in that state. Uplay actually appears to be gone though, so maybe they already fixed it.

[marelooke]

The game might be bad, but this review was comedy gold.