Video Games: The (over-priced) Expansion

[The Anti-Targ]

Interesting. Apparently Sony have been chasing Chris Roberts and his company to release Star Citizen on PS4, apparently sending them dev kits for free so they could take a look. According to Roberts, it'd be pretty easy to reduce the game to work on PS4/XB1 (you'd just have to lower the graphics settings, apparently, everything else would be okay) but he's not happy about doing so because of Sony/Microsoft's approach to creator updates. He said that if Sony would allow creators to update their games at will and not arse around having to double-check and approve everything first, then he'd be happy to go on PS4. He's told Sony that, and apparently Sony are considering the idea.

Obviously that has pretty big ramifications for all games and their patches, updates and expansions released on the PS4 beyond this one case. Given how Sony have been talking up their indie commitments on the platform, I wouldn't be surprised if they did move towards a 'relatively' more open platform.

My understanding is that Sony is very flexible when it comes to creator updates. It's apparently one the the reasons indies are largely singing the praises of making games for PS4. MS is apparently the fly in the console ointment on this. Can't remember where I read that there was a difference in policy between Sony and MS but I do recall reading it. I don;t think it said it would be as easy on PS4 as it is on PC, just that Sony was putting less red tape around the process compared to MS.

Also Ryse: Son of Rome seems to be largely bombing with the critics. http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/ryse-son-of-rome Personally I never had much faith in Crytek making anything other than a pretty looking but fairly mediocre game. They seem to be a much better middleware producer than they are a game developer.

Probably would have gone as low as Knack http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/knack but for the impressive visuals.

Even Forza 5 is gettinga bit of harsh treatment from the critics. Though that's a relative term. Forza 1-4 all got average review scores in the 90s, whereas it looks like F5 is going to average in the low 80's. Still reviewing very well but a notable drop from its previous outstanding pedigree. I wonder if it's partly because of "nex-gen new and shiny" expectations.

It looks a lot like the Xb one line up is getting about as much reviewer love as PS4 launch line up, which is to say not that much.

Are reviewers looking for something more than just last gen games but prettier, and scoring down because all they seem to be getting is last gen but prettier?

What, do you think, is likely to be that next gen game to get critics excited about there being someing truly new about this generation?

Personally I was always looking for incremental advancement from 7th generation to 8th. My expectations were more or less last gen games but improved on a number of fronts. I wasn't looking for anything revolutionary.

Perhaps Kinect 2.0 can deliver something, if it truly is up to the technical capabilities being claimed.

[karaddin]

Critics are waiting for Titanfall to go nuts for a next gen title imo, especially since most of them have played it at conferences already :p

[Relic]

IGN has learned from multiple sources that Telltale Games is developing a game based on George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/21/telltale-is-developing-a-game-of-thrones-game

Uhhhh, wow?

[Jace, Extat]

I stalled out on my Halo playthrough (Reach, Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4 in that order) at the 'Two Betrayals' level in Halo a few weeks ago. I'm now rebooting with Halo 2. This game changed the industry.

[Slurktan]

IGN has learned from multiple sources that Telltale Games is developing a game based on George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/21/telltale-is-developing-a-game-of-thrones-game

Uhhhh, wow?

If true this is fricken awesome.

[Jabronius Maximus]

IGN has learned from multiple sources that Telltale Games is developing a game based on George R.R. Martins Game of Thrones.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/21/telltale-is-developing-a-game-of-thrones-game

Uhhhh, wow?

Wowowowowow that would be ridiculously awesome. Loved the Wolf Among Us, and TWD was very solid. I wonder how well that animated style will work for a series. But I'd love to see how player choices affect happenings in the GRRM universe, and of course those devs have an awesome track record.

Also Fuseprime, thanks for the heads up. I think I'll hold off for now.

[Werthead]

The Banner Saga has a release date of January. I've been interested in this, it's basically Final Fantasy Tactics meets The Oregon Trail meets Steven Erikson's Chain of Dogs. But with Vikings.

True. But the horrible strategy game and the really poor RPG were both by Cyanide, not Telltale; and Telltale has an excellent recent track record.

The RPG wasn't 'really poor' at all. It stacks up quite well to the Dragon Age games and The Witcher (haven't played Witcher 2 yet though), which are allegedly supposed to be the mutt's nuts of this generation. The biggest problem with it was that the first couple of hours were poor (though not as poor as The Witcher's) and the combat was weak (though not as weak as The Witcher's and Dragon Age II's). Once it got over those hurdles, it became a pretty fine game.

[jurble]

watching RoS beta streams (Diablo 3 expansion), I was pretty hyped up by Blizz's announcements, and now I'm de-hyped

New Legendaries are OP, that's cool. Problem is, they have high drop-rates. So people end up face-rolling Torment VI (highest difficulty) in a day. Let's say Blizz nerfs the legendaries or their drop-rates.

Now what? If you nerf the legendaries, who wants them? If you nerf their drop-rates, then people just farming for those legendaries so they can do higher Torment difficulties... for higher chances of getting legendaries. Shit just seems pointless. Everything is BoP, so you can't trade for shit you want, kinda irrelevant.

The game needs some sort of hook, and it's lacking that currently. I'm still not a fan of its skill-system. Lack of locked character specialization is a big negative to me, since it means there's no joy in rerolling. No ladders as yet (they said at BlizzCon if ladders are implemented, it won't by game release but later), and if they do implement ladder, I doubt they'll implement ladders with rewards beyond banners or other dumb shit.

Dunno, they added all this new shit to the game - seriously, this is an Expansion on steroids, which indicates they want the game to not suck, but the fact that the game still seems boring indicates to me that they have no idea what they're doing. Either they're incompetent, or they're locked into certain overall design themes or whatever (casualization, no complexity, etc), that they won't make the changes necessary to make the game good. Path of Exile, for the hardcore ARPG fan, is still the superior game, based on what I've seen of Reaper of Souls.

It is no longer a day 1 buy for me, based on what I've seen at this point. The game isn't coming out until at least March. And, it's currently in a fairly large closed beta with everything accessible. So major changes are still possible. Unfortunately, Blizzard's past betas don't give me much hope. They often ignore player feedback in beta. Their betas are mostly looking for bugs, rather than gameplay feedback - this was most egregious in the StarCraft 2 betas, they fixed little balance things here, some bugs there, removed the Warhound in HoTS beta, but never did anything major that many of the pros were asking for.

[KiDisaster]

I was watching Kripp's stream of RoS the other night and one of the legendary items he got was "Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker". Twitch chat exploded of course. I laughed.

Been on a bit of a Blizz kick lately. Reinstalled D3 after getting kinda bored of PoE. Played a Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor and Wizard up to just after the Skeleton King boss fight. Trying to decide which class to play the rest of the game with now. I like Witch Doctor and Wizard the most. I just wish you could start off with a harder difficulty. Normal is too damn easy. Maybe it gets harder later on though.

[jurble]

Turn up monster power. I don't know if it's an option you have to choose from the options menu? But you can play through normal on Monster Power 10, and it's fairly challenging. Maybe even impossible without using the AH to grab some gear.

[KiDisaster]

Turn up monster power. I don't know if it's an option you have to choose from the options menu? But you can play through normal on Monster Power 10, and it's fairly challenging. Maybe even impossible without using the AH to grab some gear.

I had no idea you could do that. :lol:

[Inigima]

IGN has learned from multiple sources that Telltale Games is developing a game based on George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/21/telltale-is-developing-a-game-of-thrones-game

Uhhhh, wow?

Should be amazing if true. Telltale does phenomenal work. I picked The Wolf Among Us as my Game of the Year this year.

[Relic]

Should be amazing if true. Telltale does phenomenal work. I picked The Wolf Among Us as my Game of the Year this year.

Walking Dead was my favorite game of 2012. Going to snag tWAU during Steam's winter sale.

[KiDisaster]

The Banner Saga has a release date of January. I've been interested in this, it's basically Final Fantasy Tactics meets The Oregon Trail meets Steven Erikson's Chain of Dogs. But with Vikings.

Looking forward to it. I played the multiplayer beta that was on Steam for a while (Not sure if it's still available or not, I think it is) and thought it was pretty cool.

ETA: I was mistaken. It wasn't a beta, they just released the multiplayer component separately and free of charge in February of this year.

[fuseprime]

I got my Xbone earlier in the day, and I still haven't played it. So far, between the initial set up and installing games and apps, it's been a little over 90 minutes so far. I've seen the videos, but experiencing the Kinect so far has been flawless. The picture is surprisingly better than I initially thought. The voice recognition is really on the mark as well. My only gripe about it is that I have to speak up to use them, and I'm not really a "loud" person. Also, all the memorizing of the commands is going to be a pain, but I think I'm up to the task.

The controller is awesome. It's a bit smaller, but as I'm getting used to it, it feels "natural". I'm not a bug fan of the headset, but I wasn't on the 360's either. I think I'm either going to wait for an adapter in order to use my wireless one I currently have.

The TV feature is pretty neat too, but for some reason the screen size shrinks for "optimal" picture (I thought it looked fine on my cable box already). I'm going to give it an honest chance, but right now, I'd rather just watch TV on, you know, my TV.

I'm waiting for Assassin's Creed to finish installing, as well as having to install the monster that is Battlefield 4. I canceled Ryse in a panic, after the flurry of abysmal reviews it received. I was kind of hoping it'd be similar to God of War, but for $60, I think I'll wait for a price cut.

That's about it...I was kind of hoping to get a legit Xbox One game and not a PC and last-gen game to play. Perhaps I'll pull the trigger on Dead Rising 3. Forza looks amazing, but I'm not a racing fan.

ETA: I'm actually shocked that I am having no issues with Battlefield 4. Everything is seamless, no lags, fast gameplay, and it's nuts. I suppose EA and DICE got this launch right....nevermind, as I was writing this, the game crapped out while loading a new map ha ha.

ETA: Okay, so it's not just when a new map loads, it'll happen randomly as I'm playing a match.

[Jabronius Maximus]

Yeah my xbox just arrived and is sitting on my kitchen table. I'll have to use it eventually because it was a gift, so I can't resell it.

It's good to hear the Kinect is seamless, as I was looking to use it with Skype. Also fuseprime, how's the UI? I've seen that video with the MS execs going through it, but that looked a little too good to be true. Is it really that responsive and fast?

As for ps4, bf4 is now fully functional, which is strange timing given the xbox launched today...

[KiDisaster]

Tried to get on Elder Scrolls Online now that the beta started. Keep getting Error 301: Unable to connect to server.

Pretty much what I expected. Will try again later tonight or tomorrow morning when not as many people are trying to get on.

[Inigima]

Oh hey the 2D Zelda for 3DS came out. I have a preorder on that, I should go pick that up.

[jurble]

Tried to get on Elder Scrolls Online now that the beta started. Keep getting Error 301: Unable to connect to server.

Pretty much what I expected. Will try again later tonight or tomorrow morning when not as many people are trying to get on.

Oh, I should play that. I got beta key back in July but never touched it. I saw an email today that they're doing a test this weekend. But everything I heard so far about it has been bad, so /shrug.

[KiDisaster]

I need to stop watching the Hearthstone subreddit. Everytime they release a wave of beta keys someone posts about it, I get my hopes up and frantically refresh my email for 30 minutes before I realize that yet again I won't be getting one. This much disappointment can't be good for the psyche :lol:

Back to Diablo for now then.

ETA: Some awesome individual on Reddit gave me a key last night. Finally playing :)