E3 Thread - 2013 Edition

[pmp10]

 

The only reason steam won out is because there are no high profile DRM-less PC games anymore.

If publisher doesn't have their own platform they may as well use steam.

It's not a given that the same logic will prevail with consoles as some competition is still happening there.

 

I know you said high profile games, but do you think the recent trend of Kickstarter games being released DRM free on GoG will change this?

 

I really wish Kickstarter could change anything but just don't see that happening.

Some people may see it as the start of the new publisher-less golden era of PC gaming.

I think it's more of a last minute sell-out of once cherished names and titles before the shop closes doors.

Things can be better, but on PC, they once were worse, much, much worse.

Can't say I agree but that issue aside consider this:

Steam didn't stop the use of always-online DRM in Diablo 3 and Sim City.

The only question now is whether always-online and F2P model are the future of PC gaming.

Edited June 13, 2013 by pmp10

[Keyrock]

Well, there is The Witcher 2, and the upcoming The Witcher 3, both of which are/will be DRM-free.  I guess that's as high profile as it gets for recent DRM-free PC games.

[Oerwinde]

 

The only reason steam won out is because there are no high profile DRM-less PC games anymore.

If publisher doesn't have their own platform they may as well use steam.

It's not a given that the same logic will prevail with consoles as some competition is still happening there.

I know you said high profile games, but do you think the recent trend of Kickstarter games being released DRM free on GoG will change this?

No, because the majority of them are also on steam.

[alanschu]

 

I know you said high profile games, but do you think the recent trend of Kickstarter games being released DRM free on GoG will change this?

 

 

Depends on how successful they are financially, for the idea to permeate to large publishers.

 

I don't know how much most people are affected by most types of DRM.  Some even willfully embrace it (speaking of Valve fanatics in this regard).  Others will feel that the DRM is worth the service's that they feel Steam provides.

Edited June 13, 2013 by alanschu

[Zoraptor]

 

I know you said high profile games, but do you think the recent trend of Kickstarter games being released DRM free on GoG will change this?

No, because the majority of them are also on steam.

 

Yeah. There are only two things that will kill off steam or make it irrelevant/ bring it back to the pack; if MS decides to bring the closed Metro/ Live system to PC- which they ought to do, really, but won't since it's sensible- or if more publishers establish Origins of their own- which they really ought to do as well. If SimCity sold 1 million full price copies on Origin that's $20 million going to EA rather than Steam, no reason why Acti/ 2k/ Ubi/ Squee etc should not save themselves equivalent amounts.

 

[don't think GOG keys will make much of a difference either, though it is certainly nice to see Larian offering them on their boxed copies as well as, presumably, CDPR]

Edited June 13, 2013 by Zoraptor

[Katphood]

D4 was pretty much the only game I cared for this e3 and guess what: It's Xone exclusive!

[AwesomeOcelot]

If Microsoft brought a closed system to PC, Windows would lose most of its market share eventually after the remaining people have moved on from Windows 7, not even Mac users would tolerate such restrictions let alone Windows users. If Windows 8 and Games for Windows Live stores are anything to go by they wouldn't even be gilded cages, they'd be rusty iron ones.

 

The moves by Ubisoft and EA have just made me buy less Ubisoft and EA games, because I know I'd have to deal with their unnecessary layer of DRM. Uplay is crappy software, that installs vulnerabilities into your browser without informing you which I think is on the level of Sony's rootkit. Origin isn't bad because I've never had to use it, I registered an EA account and login in-game, but I wouldn't want to manage 8 accounts from every major publisher.

[Oerwinde]

I think rather than every major publisher having their own, if it got to that level they would get together and establish an online mall type of thing. One account, several different stores.

[Zoraptor]

Uplay is crappy software, that installs vulnerabilities into your browser without informing you which I think is on the level of Sony's rootkit.

Steam actually had the same vulnerability.

 

I wouldn't envisage them closing down the marketplace for general software, only games. The whole idea of win8 was to have, basically, the same OS running on xbox, phones/tablets and PC, might as well take advantage of it especially if your new xbox is, basically, the same as a PC anyway. They could let the publishers run their own stores via Live and charge only the console licence fee equivalent which is considerably less than steam's 30% cut is.

[AwesomeOcelot]

 

Uplay is crappy software, that installs vulnerabilities into your browser without informing you which I think is on the level of Sony's rootkit.

Steam actually had the same vulnerability.

 

Wrong, that's not the vulnerability I was talking about. Also my browser doesn't have that vulnerability (as far as I'm aware no good browser does, who uses Safari anyway), it's kind of ridiculous that browsers even support it, let alone companies like Steam and Ubisoft using it with buggy software, but if you are directed to links and click yes to anything then you've got larger security concerns.

Edited June 14, 2013 by AwesomeOcelot

[Morgoth]

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/why-ryse-is-the-most-frustrating-game-of-e3/

 

I’m on the battlefield. I’m stomping through the corpses of my comrades swinging my sword at anything that moves. I begin a combo, I slash twice and then whooom slow motion is initiated, **** is about to get ‘cinematic’. A button prompt hovers elusively above the sword I’m about to drive into the throat of my enemy… argh I’m too slow! The prompt flickers, disappears.

I missed it. Damn.

But then somehow, for some reason, I still complete the cinematic ‘kill’.

What?

Maybe it’s a bug I think, but no. Next time I deliberately press the wrong button. The kill goes ahead, no consequences. Then I try hitting no buttons whatsoever. The kill goes ahead. I put the controller on the table in front of me, the kill goes ahead.

What is going on here?

I ask one of the Crytek people hovering at the booth – is this a bug? Why am I completing kills when I hit the wrong button prompt? Or, worse, no button at all. Turns out it was a deliberate design choice.


“We don’t want the player to feel frustrated,” I am told.

 

 

[babaganoosh13]

Either way, when I go home shortly, Origin & UPlay will let me play my games, whereas Steam wont because it has "lost" my login info like it always does, and the couple of attempts that I have made to get around that (backing up files) have failed. Therefore Steam is a worse form of DRM than those two.

[AwesomeOcelot]

I can't even process that idiots complaint, Crytek are just giving retards what they want. He's complaining about QTE failure states not giving him control or challenge, they're QTE, there is no control or challenge, it's not even a game. It's the natural progression of console games, from real games to QTE to pretend QTE, people just want to believe they're controlling something. Soon there will be pre-rendered movies with button overlay and a score at the top.

[Keyrock]

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/why-ryse-is-the-most-frustrating-game-of-e3/

 

I’m on the battlefield. I’m stomping through the corpses of my comrades swinging my sword at anything that moves. I begin a combo, I slash twice and then whooom slow motion is initiated, **** is about to get ‘cinematic’. A button prompt hovers elusively above the sword I’m about to drive into the throat of my enemy… argh I’m too slow! The prompt flickers, disappears.

 

I missed it. Damn.

 

But then somehow, for some reason, I still complete the cinematic ‘kill’.

 

What?

 

Maybe it’s a bug I think, but no. Next time I deliberately press the wrong button. The kill goes ahead, no consequences. Then I try hitting no buttons whatsoever. The kill goes ahead. I put the controller on the table in front of me, the kill goes ahead.

 

What is going on here?

 

I ask one of the Crytek people hovering at the booth – is this a bug? Why am I completing kills when I hit the wrong button prompt? Or, worse, no button at all. Turns out it was a deliberate design choice.

 

 

“We don’t want the player to feel frustrated,” I am told.

 

 

 

Taking the game out of gaming.

[babaganoosh13]

^^^^

If they're going to do those button timing press games and not having to get it right is an option, why not just scale back the difficulty on them each time someone fails, because they should have to do less because the enemy would have less hit points, or something.

 

Otherwise, they may as well just rid of it completely for a cinematic.

 

This comes from someone who has only likes it the way they did it in Amalur. Those games annoy me, and seems lazy. I don't remember Shadow of the Colossus needing that crap.

[Keyrock]

Why even pretend it's a game.  Just make a movie that will only play when the controller is in somebody's hand.  Then they can sell a peripheral that clamps on the controller to simulate a hand and fool the contorller into thinking that someone is holding the controller.

[Morgoth]

It's the curse that has befallen all tech-focused companies. Same with Epic and idSoft. They once made decent games in their earlier days, then they decided to create middle-ware engines and put all the focus into this and then sort of pushed themselves into this corner. Now they're  scared ****less to make a game that doesn't look better than the competition, and what better way to prove their engine business being viable than taking onto Hollywood directly?

 

THIS IS SPARTA ROME!

[HoonDing]

You better not fail your QTE against Pictish supermodels.

 

[AGX-17]

 

 

I know you said high profile games, but do you think the recent trend of Kickstarter games being released DRM free on GoG will change this?

No, because the majority of them are also on steam.

 

Yeah. There are only two things that will kill off steam or make it irrelevant/ bring it back to the pack; if MS decides to bring the closed Metro/ Live system to PC- which they ought to do, really, but won't since it's sensible- or if more publishers establish Origins of their own- which they really ought to do as well. If SimCity sold 1 million full price copies on Origin that's $20 million going to EA rather than Steam, no reason why Acti/ 2k/ Ubi/ Squee etc should not save themselves equivalent amounts.

 

[don't think GOG keys will make much of a difference either, though it is certainly nice to see Larian offering them on their boxed copies as well as, presumably, CDPR]

 

Microsoft already did Games for Windows LIVE. With that, they've already proved they're no match for Valve on the DD front.

 

Anyway, since Sony is winning handily, I might as well start playing The Last of Us.

Edited June 14, 2013 by AGX-17

[Malcador]

I can't wait to play Ryse on the Youtube platform

 

This was fun to read as well - http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/call-of-duty-ghosts-preview/

[Morgoth]

 

 

[Zoraptor]

Microsoft already did Games for Windows LIVE. With that, they've already proved they're no match for Valve on the DD front.

 

And? Doesn't matter if they make it compulsory to use Live to sell on PC- something they didn't do with GfWL. If they do that the entire reason for publishers to use steam goes out the window since they'd have to pay both MS and Valve for pretty much the same service- and the MS option would give them more cash as well.

 

Wouldn't be particularly great for consumers, but would be great for both MS and publishers.

[Keyrock]

It's funny because a long time ago the big thing was Dragon's Lair, which was essentially a movie with QTEs.  Then they made games with actual gameplay.  Now it looks like we're back to Dragon's Lair.  So I guess "Next Gen" means 1983.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Keyrock

[Wrath of Dagon]

 

Microsoft already did Games for Windows LIVE. With that, they've already proved they're no match for Valve on the DD front.

And? Doesn't matter if they make it compulsory to use Live to sell on PC- something they didn't do with GfWL. If they do that the entire reason for publishers to use steam goes out the window since they'd have to pay both MS and Valve for pretty much the same service- and the MS option would give them more cash as well.

 

Wouldn't be particularly great for consumers, but would be great for both MS and publishers.

 

MS can't do that on PC, it would violate all their anti-trust agreements with the government.

[alanschu]

 

 

Maybe it’s a bug I think, but no. Next time I deliberately press the wrong button. The kill goes ahead, no consequences. Then I try hitting no buttons whatsoever. The kill goes ahead. I put the controller on the table in front of me, the kill goes ahead.

What is going on here?

I ask one of the Crytek people hovering at the booth – is this a bug? Why am I completing kills when I hit the wrong button prompt? Or, worse, no button at all. Turns out it was a deliberate design choice.


“We don’t want the player to feel frustrated,” I am told.

 

Huh!  I could totally see this being "by design" for the E3 demo, but after reading the article, I'm very surprised that they seem to feel this is ideal for the game in general.  If you want to make the button press not necessary for progression, at least allow it to provide variation.