Videogames: The War (for equality) Has Just Begun

[Jace, Extat]

New trailer for Dragon Age 3.

It's kind of a mess, but Hawke is in it.

[Fez]

New trailer for Dragon Age 3.

It's kind of a mess, but Hawke is in it.

It doesn't reduce my anticipation for the game, but yeah, that's not a very good trailer.

[Muttering Bill]

It looks like TR will, in fact, be a timed exclusive. No timetable is set for a PS4 release, but here it is.

Whew. It's safe to get hyped again. :cheers:

[Tony Soprano]

It's official.

Kojima: "I'm really happy you guys are so excited with the cardboard boxes," he said after a demonstration of some new box features. "And yes, it's coming to Steam."

[The Anti-Targ]

It looks like TR will, in fact, be a timed exclusive. No timetable is set for a PS4 release, but here it is.

I feel a little confirmed in my assertion that buying exclusivity (permanent exclusivity I should clarify) for an fairly popular existing IP does not pay off financially or in hardware unit sales. Perhaps once upon a time it did, but not any more.

I hated the stupid spin that went on with this round of "Is it a timed exclusive?" Including the likes of Aaron Greenberg tweeting to say Geoff Keighly was mistaken in thinking it was a timed exclusive, without actually saying it, only for it to turn out that Geoff Keighly was right and Aaron Greenberg is still a dick; at least when it comes to Xbox PR. I'm sure he's a great guy in his personal life.

I don;t believe in punishing people for making business deals that are perceived to be financially beneficial which in the end don;t actually cause anyone any harm. But I do believe a strong Wheel of Time sniff is in order in response to the PR bullshit that's been flying around these last few days. And that goes to Kaz too who, while funny, was a bit unprofessional in his uncharted pun.

[The Mance]

So I've got some questions about how the matchmaking/co-op system works in the upcoming Destiny game. Specifically, will I be able to co-op all the way through the main story campaign ala Borderlands, or will there just be co-op specific missions ala CoD? And, will I be able to choose my teammates for some or all of my online play? This second question being the most important, as my daughters and I had a blast playing through Borderland I & 2 (and soon 1.5, or whatever) and I'd like to be able to play Destiny with just them and not them and maybe other random xboxers.

i haven't been able to find a clear answer to this except to note that whatever the plan had been, its been changed. And most of the talk has been about the raiding system. Which, while I understand is sort of an MMO term, I've never played an MMO, so I'm not clear on how "raiding" is similar/different to co-op campaigning, or how much of the game will be comprised of raiding vs. story missions, or if there's even a difference.

Thanks.

[Jabronius Maximus]

For the matchmaking/co-op in Destiny, from what I played in the beta the majority of it can be done with random players by your side. The only time you'd be alone would be in specific 'dark zones', for example the area leading up to and including a boss. But if you party up with a friend (a 'fire team'), you can play the entire thing on co-op. That's how I played the beta. I believe the max fireteam size is 3 players.

[Galactus]

BioWare's new RPG is called Shadow Realms.

Its an urban fantasy featuring four player co-op play. I will take a wait and see approach on this one.

That's Bioware Austin, not actual Bioware. (IE: The SWTOR people)

[The Mance]

But if you party up with a friend (a 'fire team'), you can play the entire thing on co-op. That's how I played the beta. I believe the max fireteam size is 3 players.

That would be perfect for us.

But whats the deal with the six player raiding aspect? Is that just a separate multiplayer mode, or does/can it tie in with the campaign?

[Shryke]

That's Bioware Austin, not actual Bioware. (IE: The SWTOR people)

Other warning signs, the use of the word "episodic".

[Lightning Lord]

Ugh. It seems that I will have to buy Dragon Age II soon. Anyone know if the Amazon version will play nice with the Steam version of DA:O? Aren't there somehow importable type things? I am such a n00b... Also, true that the Foursome Having Pirate Duelist is a playable character in II?

Update: I solved my Oblivion carrying capacity conundrum. Spell-errific. But I think my build sucks and that I am going to start suffering soon, as I level up. It took me awhile to figure out that upping only relevant skills led to +5 to some stats, instead of +2. So my stats aren't as strong as they should be. Also, I am all over the map doing random crap, which is fun, but the specific schedules of certain NPCs are irksome at times. Also, I didn't realize the disease thing in the early going and now I am stuck with vampirism until I can pick/spell a Very Hard Lock and straight murder an uber-vampire. Also also, I think I stole a mage's horse, and now I have to track down 20 of the ingredients from (I'm guessing?) the most isolated, boring part of Hell and I am fucking pissed and want to mage-murder-spree to get them to let me back in the Guild.

Seriously, fuck your alchemical restocking BS.

[Muttering Bill]

So I've got some questions about how the matchmaking/co-op system works in the upcoming Destiny game. Specifically, will I be able to co-op all the way through the main story campaign ala Borderlands, or will there just be co-op specific missions ala CoD? And, will I be able to choose my teammates for some or all of my online play? This second question being the most important, as my daughters and I had a blast playing through Borderland I & 2 (and soon 1.5, or whatever) and I'd like to be able to play Destiny with just them and not them and maybe other random xboxers.

i haven't been able to find a clear answer to this except to note that whatever the plan had been, its been changed. And most of the talk has been about the raiding system. Which, while I understand is sort of an MMO term, I've never played an MMO, so I'm not clear on how "raiding" is similar/different to co-op campaigning, or how much of the game will be comprised of raiding vs. story missions, or if there's even a difference.

Yeah, story missions and Strikes/Raids are separate. There are going to 4 different maps - Earth, the Moon, Mars and Venus - and all of the different game modes are just going to occur in certain portions of those maps.

You can play the entire story co-op, with up to 2 other people. You can set up your Fireteam in advance with friends/family. If you don't go in with a Fireteam then random people will pop in but you're not stuck with them. Actually, if you go in with a Fireteam you will still see randoms too. They're just there doing their own thing on the map and you can join up with them if you want. But there are going to be restricted zones where randoms will disappear. Anyone on your Fireteam will stay.

Strikes are 3 person co-op only missions. You can go in with a pre-made Fereteam or get matched with randoms. In this case you would be stuck with them, but you can still have other people pop in on the map as long as you aren't in a restricted area.

In the Alpha/Beta there was only one strike. In the full game there will be more. Plus "Nightfall Strikes" which are new daily and weekly missions - the weekly missions supposedly being rather difficult.

You can also do Explore mode with a 3 person Fireteam. Not sure if they let you go in with 6, never tried, but you can have 6 people on the map at once. (I don't know if that's a hard cutoff, I never noticed having more than that in the Alpha/Beta, but one of the earlier demo's showed up to 9 people at once.) Or you can go in alone and other people will randomly pop in and out, and you can choose to hang around them, or ignore them and do your own thing.

But whats the deal with the six player raiding aspect? Is that just a separate multiplayer mode, or does/can it tie in with the campaign?

6 player Fireteams are for the Crucible (PVP) and Raids. Not required for the Crucible, just the max cutoff. The Raids are extremely difficult co-op missions that require a 6 person Fireteam - pre-made, no matchmaking. As far as anyone knows now, there are only going to be 1 or 2 Raids. The only one we definitely know about is the Vault of Glass. Another one was found by data-mining the Beta and companion app, but there's been no official word about it.

Voice chat is restricted to your Fireteam, so you won't have ignorant people butting in if you're just trying to play with your daughters.

Also, Bungie is saying that the real meat of the game is going to be in end-game content: daily "Story Missions" (I don't understand how that ones going to work), public events, Nightfall Strikes, and, of course, the Crucible.

[Azzanadra]

I have a sudden urge to play Diablo again... I still have not bought Reaper of Souls, is it worth it?

[fuseprime]

Time-exclusive and console-specific swag had a big impact on whether I bought something for the PS3 or 360. The fact that Tomb Raider will be out on Xbone first, means that I will be buying it for that system. I don't think it's a "system-seller, but I think the move is to sway those of us who own both systems. By the time it comes out, both systems will be out for two years and people who own both system will be greater. I think that's who Microsoft was trying to win over with this move.

[The Mance]

Destiny for Dummies

Wow, thanks for the breakdown. Thats very helpful.

So it sounds like the three of us will have the main story campaign, a free roaming explore mode, and however many Strike missions there ends up being, that we can play together.

Do you know how/if the explore mode and Strikes relate to campaign character stats and equipment? And how about the loot system? I know there's supposed to be individual loot awards, and a huge variety of weapons, armor, and upgrades/mods etc, but are there other assorted odds and ends to pick up and use/sell/trade? Or is it all just weapons and ammo?

Thanks again,

[Jabronius Maximus]

Well, shit. Bungie apparently said the progress in the beta won't carry over to the full game. I didn't sink too many hours into the beta, but I wonder how those who did feel about this. Along with others I know, I assumed the progress would carry over.

Edit: @ The Mance: I'm not sure about Crucible (competitive multiplayer), but every mode outside of that gave my character progress points and weapon unlocks in the beta. But I progressed much faster by completing story missions, as opposed to exploring and strikes.

[The Anti-Targ]

Ugh. It seems that I will have to buy Dragon Age II soon. Anyone know if the Amazon version will play nice with the Steam version of DA:O? Aren't there somehow importable type things? I am such a n00b... Also, true that the Foursome Having Pirate Duelist is a playable character in II?

Yes there are importable type things between DA:O and DAII, But for the most part they don't have much bearing on the game itself. I'd be very surprised if obtaining the game from different online vendors would cause problems with the importable stuff, but I wouldn't know for sure as I have the games on PS3. And yes Isabela the duelist you can have a quickie with in DA:O is one of the playable characters in DAII.

Time-exclusive and console-specific swag had a big impact on whether I bought something for the PS3 or 360. The fact that Tomb Raider will be out on Xbone first, means that I will be buying it for that system. I don't think it's a "system-seller, but I think the move is to sway those of us who own both systems. By the time it comes out, both systems will be out for two years and people who own both system will be greater. I think that's who Microsoft was trying to win over with this move.

Yeah I don't think that's what paying for timed exclusivity, so you have a solo run at the holiday period is all about. For MS it's about selling more consoles. I'm sure they'll welcome any multi-console owner for buying their version, but they didn't spend hard earned money on getting several months, at least, of exclusivity just to convince the very small proportion of multi-console owners to buy the Xb one or Xb 360 version. Especially this early in a generation when theoretically the number one position is up for grabs (but isn't really in this case), any sort of exclusivity deal is intended to get people to buy the console.

At this point MS knows it's really competing to be the firm second placed console. And I don;t think MS believes for a second that timed exclusivity for TR is going to make inroads into the lead PS4 is building up. But it can certainly help to either close the gap with, or put some distance on Wii U, depending on relative position at the time RTR launches. MS will always claim its aiming for the number one slot, but realistically the it only has a chance at number one in the USA. Globally its all over bar the counting. And even in the USA the chance of being number one is diminishing not increasing.

[Jabronius Maximus]

...I wouldn't go so far to say that MS is competing to be the 2nd place console - right now it is though, I'll give you that. But if last generation tells us anything, it's that MS and Sony will trade blows and console sales will end up being roughly equal in the end. We're seeing it now - Microsoft is making these moves, while Sony is seemingly standing pat, riding the goodwill from last year. Sony likely won't make any major improvements until they're forced to - when the Xbone sales numbers approach those of the ps4. Over the years, Sony has shown a wonderful ability to be complacent when they have had the lead (see: PS3 launch), and we're seeing it again here.

[Shryke]

Well, shit. Bungie apparently said the progress in the beta won't carry over to the full game. I didn't sink too many hours into the beta, but I wonder how those who did feel about this. Along with others I know, I assumed the progress would carry over.

Edit: @ The Mance: I'm not sure about Crucible (competitive multiplayer), but every mode outside of that gave my character progress points and weapon unlocks in the beta. But I progressed much faster by completing story missions, as opposed to exploring and strikes.

Really? That basically never happens with these kind of games.

[Jabronius Maximus]

Really? That basically never happens with these kind of games.

I know that now, but the game was showing many powerful weapons and abilities that could be unlocked later (not to mention the partially unlocked moon map). I guess that led us to believe we were basically playing a version close enough to being finished that it would save our progress.

It's no big deal, though. It's definitely the best beta I've ever played (even though the only other one is Titanfall :p )

--

I just played 'PT' on ps4 for about 20 minutes today. It's ok, and the art style definitely felt 'next console gen'. I also didn't plan on sleeping much tonight anyway. If Kojima is really feeling grand, he should make this game compatible with the upcoming vr headset.