What video game are you playing?

[greyhammer90]

So after a couple of hours in the beta last night, I cancelled my preorder for Battlefront II. I don't really have a great explanation beyond "I wasn't having fun playing it," which is probably the best reason I can think of to cancel the game. The whole time, I was thinking my free hours would be better spend working through my 100% completion max honor Red Dead play through.

Wiz last night:

 

[IrishLion]

Bump. Somebody share my excitement. Lion, are you on Xbox? Did you preorder?

Not on Xbox, I'm a PS4 guy (used to have Xbone, but switched).

Haven't preordered... still needling my wife about why I need to buy a $100 version of Assassin's Creed first.

She played ACII and loved it, because she's a history buff and loves Renaissance Italy more than everything except 15th century England and... Egypt. Currently convincing her that we can spend hours exploring the secrets of the pyramids together.

She's also a historical-conspiracy buff, so this *should* be an easy sell, but $100 for a video game requires a new level of understanding for her lol.

So after a couple of hours in the beta last night, I cancelled my preorder for Battlefront II. I don't really have a great explanation beyond "I wasn't having fun playing it," which is probably the best reason I can think of to cancel the game. The whole time, I was thinking my free hours would be better spent working through my 100% completion max honor Red Dead play through.

This is a huge bummer/buzzkill. Every time I see new gameplay footage, I get more excited. It looks beautiful, and it's got beefed up content, game-modes and customization for weapons (or at least so they say).

 

[wizards8507]

This is a huge bummer/buzzkill. Every time I see new gameplay footage, I get more excited. It looks beautiful, and it's got beefed up content, game-modes and customization for weapons (or at least so they say).

The customization is actually one of the things that make me nervous about it. The customizations are not just cosmetic, they actually impact your characters' abilities and they're acquired through crates. The crates can either be purchased or earned through XP, which means the whales we were talking about yesterday and the kids with infinite free time are going to have huge advantages over us nine-to-fivers who play a few hours a week.

 

[IrishLion]

The customization is actually one of the things that make me nervous about it. The customizations are not just cosmetic, they actually impact your characters' abilities and they're acquired through crates. The crates can either be purchased or earned through XP, which means the whales we were talking about yesterday and the kids with infinite free time are going to have huge advantages over us nine-to-fivers who play a few hours a week.

One of the EA bros said that "you can spend money to speed up your progress, but you can't spend money to win."

Does that mean people are going to be dropping cash on scopes and weapon mods that aren't huge improvements over the base weapon? Or is he just trying to make people feel better if they don't want to drop extra cash?

Or is it that thing like, "shitty players can spend money to get a little better, but they can't win because they will run into players who are actually good either way."

 

[IrishLion]

Just saw the Steelbook Gold Edition of AC:O is $87.99 with a Prime discount.

That's pretty decent.

 

[wizards8507]

One of the EA bros said that "you can spend money to speed up your progress, but you can't spend money to win."

Does that mean people are going to be dropping cash on scopes and weapon mods that aren't huge improvements over the base weapon? Or is he just trying to make people feel better if they don't want to drop extra cash?

Or is it that thing like, "shitty players can spend money to get a little better, but they can't win because they will run into players who are actually good either way."

Somewhere in between. You can grind to get to the same place you'd otherwise get with cash, but if you're not a basement dweller who games eight hours a day, you're going to be behind literally everyone else. The cash guys will be ahead of you as will the hardcore grinders. The upgrades aren't going to make you god-tier unkillable, but they have a very real impact in game. I'm personally very trash at shooters so I don't have the skill to make up for a gear handicap.

It's a shame that For Honor had such shitty servers because their gear model was decent. You got upgrades that affected your abilities in the arcadey 4v4 modes, but everyone was reset to "base" gear for 1v1 duels and 2v2 brawls so it was 100% a matter of skill.

 

[IrishLion]

Somewhere in between. You can grind to get to the same place you'd otherwise get with cash, but if you're not a basement dweller who games eight hours a day, you're going to be behind literally everyone else. The cash guys will be ahead of you as will the hardcore grinders. The upgrades aren't going to make you god-tier unkillable, but they have a very real impact in game. I'm personally very trash at shooters so I don't have the skill to make up for a gear handicap.

It's a shame that For Honor had such shitty servers because their gear model was decent. You got upgrades that affected your abilities in the arcadey 4v4 modes, but everyone was reset to "base" gear for 1v1 duels and 2v2 brawls so it was 100% a matter of skill.

This type of thing makes me miss COD:MW2 all the more. That game had a perfect balance between its perks, weapons mods, and matchmaking servers based on skill. If you were good, but didn't have time to grind like the bros that sucked but were on all night, you weren't totally handicapped by using stock sites or red-dot scopes while the other guys are using ACOG sites or advanced weapons. It still came down to skill for the most part, along with how intelligent you are with using certain perks on certain loadouts or playstyles.

It's a realllllly tough thing to balance. COD had the perfect setup, and they STILL screwed it up in later releases. Adding pay-for-perks only makes it more difficult and out-of-whack.

Side note: In SWBF1, I hated going to the upgrade screen and seeing certain guns as "available" or "unlocked," only to hover over them and see that I need to buy/beat the Hut add-on challenges to get them.

 

[GowerND11]

This type of thing makes me miss COD:MW2 all the more. That game had a perfect balance between its perks, weapons mods, and matchmaking servers based on skill. If you were good, but didn't have time to grind like the bros that sucked but were on all night, you weren't totally handicapped by using stock sites or red-dot scopes while the other guys are using ACOG sites or advanced weapons. It still came down to skill for the most part, along with how intelligent you are with using certain perks on certain loadouts or playstyles.

It's a realllllly tough thing to balance. COD had the perfect setup, and they STILL screwed it up in later releases. Adding pay-for-perks only makes it more difficult and out-of-whack.

Side note: In SWBF1, I hated going to the upgrade screen and seeing certain guns as "available" or "unlocked," only to hover over them and see that I need to buy/beat the Hut add-on challenges to get them.

I was never really an Xbox guy, but I generally loved the way Halo 3 (only one I really played with friends) was set up online. Everyone started out with the same weapons, and everyone had (somewhat) equal access to the same weapons on the map. While some people were much better with the sniper than others, it was very balanced because it didn't matter how much you played, everyone was on an even field to start each game.

*I want to say Gears of War was like this too.

 

[IrishLion]

I was never really an Xbox guy, but I generally loved the way Halo 3 (only one I really played with friends) was set up online. Everyone started out with the same weapons, and everyone had (somewhat) equal access to the same weapons on the map. While some people were much better with the sniper than others, it was very balanced because it didn't matter how much you played, everyone was on an even field to start each game.

*I want to say Gears of War was like this too.

Yeah, Halo was really good for balance, too. If you sucked with the sword but knew you could area-blast with the bazooka, you knew where to go and how to fight if you wanted the best chance to win or level the playing field. If you couldn't aim for shit with the AR, you knew that you needed to lob grenades and try to get to a shotgun.

COD answered that with perks and by making sure that the "best" guns were available relatively early. You could kind of level the playing field by masking your weaknesses with intelligent loadouts. A really good player is deadly with an AK47, which isn't unlocked until way late, but a decent player has a fair fight if they use a P90, which is available early, and has certain perks selected to go with it.

Different ways of allowing players to mask their weaknesses, but with pretty good results in terms of online play.

Now, with micro-transactions, you can just spend money to hide your flaws. I won't do that lol.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

I was never really an Xbox guy, but I generally loved the way Halo 3 (only one I really played with friends) was set up online. Everyone started out with the same weapons, and everyone had (somewhat) equal access to the same weapons on the map. While some people were much better with the sniper than others, it was very balanced because it didn't matter how much you played, everyone was on an even field to start each game.

*I want to say Gears of War was like this too.

Halo 1 - 3 were all phenomenal. Lost far too much of my life to those games but it was a lot of fun at the time.

 

[GowerND11]

Yeah, Halo was really good for balance, too. If you sucked with the sword but knew you could area-blast with the bazooka, you knew where to go and how to fight if you wanted the best chance to win or level the playing field. If you couldn't aim for shit with the AR, you knew that you needed to lob grenades and try to get to a shotgun.

COD answered that with perks and by making sure that the "best" guns were available relatively early. You could kind of level the playing field by masking your weaknesses with intelligent loadouts. A really good player is deadly with an AK47, which isn't unlocked until way late, but a decent player has a fair fight if they use a P90, which is available early, and has certain perks selected to go with it.

Different ways of allowing players to mask their weaknesses, but with pretty good results in terms of online play.

Now, with micro-transactions, you can just spend money to hide your flaws. I won't do that lol.

You're right the more I think about how COD was set up. This whole micro transaction thing just sucks. I don't want a game that only has 4 maps, and spend $40 more dollars on more maps. I'm all for DLC, but give us something substantial to play with on the original disk/digital DL.

 

[wizards8507]

Different ways of allowing players to mask their weaknesses, but with pretty good results in terms of online play.

I know I talk about it often, but that's what sucked me in with Overwatch. The last FPS of any type I played prior to 2015 was Medal of Honor: Frontline, which came out when I was in 8th grade. I had never played any type of online game besides Age of Empires III. Needless to say, my aim is shit. With Overwatch, I have about a dozen heroes to choose from where hitscan aim is either irrelevant or largely unimportant.

 

[NorthDakota]

I know I talk about it often, but that's what sucked me in with Overwatch. The last FPS of any type I played prior to 2015 was Medal of Honor: Frontline, which came out when I was in 8th grade. I had never played any type of online game besides Age of Empires III. Needless to say, my aim is shit. With Overwatch, I have about a dozen heroes to choose from where hitscan aim is either irrelevant or largely unimportant.

Bish I'll rock your shit at AoE3. Germans 4 life.

 

[GowerND11]

Bish I'll rock your shit at AoE3. Germans 4 life.

Well that explains a lot

 

[nlroma1o]

Stardew Valley is out on Switch now and its only $15. I've heard great things about this game, and now that its on switch and i can play it in handheld mode i think i have to take advantage of this deal. Has anyone else played it yet?

 

[dublinirish]

started MGS: The Phantom Pain there, its free on PSN Plus. Enjoying it so far

 

[nlroma1o]

started MGS: The Phantom Pain there, its free on PSN Plus. Enjoying it so far

I had not checked the games for October yet, THIS IS IS AWESOME NEWS. I have wanted to play this in the past but didn't have the time. I'm downloading this first thing when i get home from work.

 

[dublinirish]

I had not checked the games for October yet, THIS IS IS AWESOME NEWS. I have wanted to play this in the past but didn't have the time. I'm downloading this first thing when i get home from work.

it's probably the best thing that's ever been made free on PSN plus. the DLC/micro transactions though are ridiculously priced.

The prologue is slow as hell but once you get out in the open world its good fun. The desert/horse riding setup gives me tons of red dead redemption feels

 

[GowerND11]

started MGS: The Phantom Pain there, its free on PSN Plus. Enjoying it so far

Loved it. Loved the ability to roam around. The cut scenes are wonderfully done, as usual. It's another great game by Kojima, and a terrible shame that he was pushed out.

 

[calvegas04]

Early Battlefront 2 impression is meh... I know it is beta but Battlefield 1 beta felt much more polished

 

[ulukinatme]

EA game isn't polished? Color me shocked.

 

[calvegas04]

EA game isn't polished? Color me shocked.

Battlefield 1 was

 

[wizards8507]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IyQtynedXpU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This. The video is a few months old but the beta confirmed it all. I'm out.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

My brother lent me his Switch a few days ago, so I just got sucked into Breath of the Wild.

Sounds like Shadow of War is getting very positive reviews. Will likely pick that up soon.

 

[greyhammer90]

My brother lent me his Switch a few days ago, so I just got sucked into Breath of the Wild.

Sounds like Shadow of War is getting very positive reviews. Will likely pick that up soon.

Such a beautiful non-graphically impressive game. Really shows how important art direction is. There were so many moments in that game where I would just look around at a distant mountain range.

 

[IrishLion]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IyQtynedXpU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This. The video is a few months old but the beta confirmed it all. I'm out.

So they did away with "Pay-for-DLC" which sounded f*ckin' awesome, especially when they said you wouldn't be able to "pay to win."

But it turns out that you WILL be able to pay to win. That's a bunch of shit. It's cool if its Clash of Clans or something like that, but keep it away from games where skill levels actually matter.

 

[wizards8507]

So they did away with "Pay-for-DLC" which sounded f*ckin' awesome, especially when they said you wouldn't be able to "pay to win."

But it turns out that you WILL be able to pay to win. That's a bunch of shit. It's cool if its Clash of Clans or something like that, but keep it away from games where skill levels actually matter.

This monetization policy is somehow worse than the $50 season pass on the original Battlefront, which is truly an accomplishment. The game is getting destroyed on YouTube, with Boogie2988, TotalBiscuit, AngryJoe, Jim Sterling, etc. all slamming it.

 

[IrishLion]

This monetization policy is somehow worse than the $50 season pass on the original Battlefront, which is truly an accomplishment. The game is getting destroyed on YouTube, with Boogie2988, TotalBiscuit, AngryJoe, Jim Sterling, etc. all slamming it.

If I buy the game, it will be for the atmosphere primarily. I'll play online, but not to be the "best," but instead to experience the different levels, visuals, and vehicles. I won't need to take part in the microtransactions in order to get the DLC levels whenever they drop.

Sure, a bunch of shithead 12-year-olds are going to make me look dumb and talk shit about my mom, but I probably wouldn't be as good of those kids regardless of what advantages they're paying for.

I'll just be happy to get free level downloads, and to play an actual single-player campaign.

(Trying to talk myself into buying the game on Black Friday, is it working? IDK)

 

[nlroma1o]

I just played through the Prologue of MGS V TPP.... I don't know what the fuk is going on, but it's gnarley as hell. I'm gonna try and bing play it this weekend.

 

[dublinirish]

I just played through the Prologue of MGS V TPP.... I don't know what the fuk is going on, but it's gnarley as hell. I'm gonna try and bing play it this weekend.

yeah prologue is slow and weird but it gets fun when you get out in the open world/missions