About Most Wanted...
I love Most Wanted. I often put it in for a half an hour or so, and just drive my Bugatti Veyron Super Sport (damn I wish I'd finally pony up for some online distributable cash for that snazzy Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse), listening to music, doing sick jumps and generally just taming that beast to do my bidding, without crashing and burning. That's pure joy to me. What I'm saying, I love the game, more so than most - I bet.
Despite my deep appreciation for the driving game Criterion put together, Most Wanted's multiplayer is not my favorite multiplayer of the year - in fact, I don't even like playing it at all. While it's absolutely amazing when it all comes together, usually it just doesn't. Why? Because it is pacing itself after the worst competitor, rather than the best. The first guy to reach a meet-up? He'll get 200 speedpoints... and might have to wait 10 minutes for the last contender to show up, before the speedlist moves along.
Any multiplayer game that puts me at the mercy of the worst player in the lobby? Automatically fucked.
Then there's a slew of technical problems with multiplayer, which just has not been resolved yet with the latest patch - at least on PC. Players dropping out often causes the speedlist to choke up, and not progress at all anymore - for example. Long story short. Due to its design and technical issues, Most Wanted's multiplayer is horridly paced, squandering all of its immense potential. Also - why the game doesn't have an all-racing speedlist option for its matchmaking, that's just unforgiveable for a driving game.
My Multiplayer Game of the Year...
It's somewhere between Mass Effect 3's coop mode, Guild Wars 2 (if MMOs count), and of course Battlefield 3 (especially its DLC content, most of which was released in 2012).
- I played tons of Mass Effect 3 coop, and loved it - but due to its free-2-play unlock scheme, which works via mystery box booster packs, which get more redundant and less rewarding the more you play the game - I grew to hate it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. Still got my N7 level to over 1000 though, so there's definitely something to it.
- Guild Wars 2 is great. Kinda. It's mostly great because of how different it is. The whole thing kinda doesn't really work yet. At least for me. Regardless, I've commited to grind out a legendary - just in order to keep me engaged with the game for long enough, so I can be along for the journey of ArenaNet figuring it out.
- I hate Battlefield 3. I love Battlefield. In this love/hate relationship I have with Battlefield 3, over the course of 2012, and all the premium content and technical refinement that went into the game, love starts to overrule hate most definitely. I still hate all the things I hated, like suppression and how its graphical design is set-up to obscure what's happening, rather than giving me clarity - which is tiring to the eyes, and can be very frustrating, when things are not going my way. Regardless - I'm 500 hours into it, and I'm enjoying myself. Ever more.
Yes. My winner is BF3 DLC, between Close Quarters, Armored Kill and especially Aftermath - I have an excellent time with Battlefield 3, and I'll be playing regularly way into 2013, likely up to the release of Battlefield 4.
What's Your Multilplayer Game of the Year?
...and if you've played Most Wanted, what are your experiences with it? Has it been as broken for you, as it is for me (and what platform are you on)? Do you wish it'd offer some straight-up racing-only option like I do?
P.S. If we'd be talking asymmetric multiplayer, Most Wanted would get the nod. I enjoy compulsively chasing high scores so much. Autolog 4 life!
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