bitbat

I’ve been a fan since the Gamespot days, very sad to hear the news. Good luck everyone!

With Electronic Arts, the question for me is whether the good games that they publish exist because of them of in spite of them.

You could argue that games with higher budgets would never get that kind of financial backing if the developer was on their own (Bioware for example). So was Mass Effect good because Electronic Arts supported the studio and gave them creative freedom or was Bioware good enough to slog through the corporate swamp and come out the other side with a gem?

For smaller games it becomes a bit more shady in my opinion. PopCap is a good example of a developer that was making beloved indie titles for a while (Peggle, sweet sweet Peggle) and after the acquisition turn some of them (Peggle at least!) into a microtransaction nightmare. I don't see why PopCap could not also exist as an independent studio, the talent is clearly there. Of course, maybe Garden Warfare would have been outside their scope as a studio but I am not sure how liked those games are.

The way I personally see Early Access is as a way to support smaller developers that mainly benefits them rather than the people buying the games, which I don't mean as a bad thing. If you believe in the developer and their ideas (like Supergiant for example) you can support them independently of what game comes out in the end and I think that that's a good thing to do. If you get a good game to boot, then great! What worries me a bit about early access is how it influences the development of games, how it can potentially influence development based on public opinion and away from the original intent of the developer. This is especially evident when one looks at the amount of Early Access games that look beautiful before they play well, I am assuming to drum up support before being in any way playable.

Then again, I personally find imperfect games with rough edges but with a clear vision coming from fewer brains more exciting than focus tested perfect spheres but that is a huge generalisation, I know.

Ronin has definitely stuck with me, the car bits at least are great. It looks like they filmed actual cars racing around Paris which I love, you can’t replace that kind of physicality with CGI in my opinion. They also leave the car chases without music which is a very rare and welcome choice, it’s really effective.

It’s mostly fun for me but I would be lying if I said there is no element of escape to it.

I do wonder sometimes though whether overall anxiety would be better dealt with by doing something a bit more constructive, creative or active rather than temporarily pushing it to the side with gaming. Regarding the anxiety/stress/escape part, it feels more like a distraction rather than a cure to me is what I am trying to say but I am not sure...

@liquiddragon: I don’t have one for similar reasons to yours. The very few times that we manage to meet up with the two old friends that I used to play games with and sit on a couch to play I have a blast so I do love the idea of playing regularly with a crew of good buddies but as you mention, time is so limited for everyone.

It is interesting that for most of the content that GB produces, a gaming crew is at the core of it which I think is part of the attraction for me, because I miss this aspect of gaming from my life. Especially now that multiplayer has come a long way from LAN parties and setting up PCs all day to get them connected, the experiences you can have with other people are so varied and the whole thing is so effortless (although playing with people in person cannot be beat in my opinion).

I do wonder sometimes if the gaming experience that GB presents through its content (playing with friends all the time, trying new games, intelligently discussing the industry) is the rule or the exception for people that play games in general so I am curious what other people have to say.

I played Shady Knight and really liked it. It’s like short level based attempt at what that first person melee Might & Magic game was doing and it’s really well done. Part of the fun is discovering the different moves and ways to dispatch the enemies so I won’t go into it much but I am looking forward to seeing the full thing.

I like weapon degradation when it is done well (I guess that’s true for anything really).

My favourite example is the much maligned Far Cry 2. Before each mission you would go to your stash and pick a limited number of weapons to take with you based on what you will be doing. Your weapons do not jam but during the mission you might run out of ammo or have picked the wrong weapon for the job which might lead you to pick up a gun off the ground, and those would jam. It meant that weapon choice in the beginning was meaningful while allowing you to pick up guns as a last resort. Which also covered the world consistency issue of being able to pick up guns without devalueing the gun buying mechanic. It also lead to some organic moments of desperation which were great.

I generally like inconvenience in games though and I get why it wasn’t popular. Another rarely seen favourite is any form of manual landing/docking in flight based games, I just love it so much. Just let me fly into the hangar myself dammit!

I used to use a 360 controller but the wireless adapter stopped working so I got an Xbox One controller and now the d pad is not working so I now use a PS3 controller because that’s all I have. I like the Xbox ones better but MS build quality has been a bit lacking for me.

@efesell: I agree with you that it’s a good deal, it just doesn’t work with how I play games personally.

Beyond value, I just think that there is an interesting discussion to be had about how it (and services like it) affects game playing in general. Some points have been made already like the guilt associated with not using it while subscribed or using it out of a sense of obligation. I understand that these are all self imposed feelings but they were there, for me at least.

@the_nubster: Yeah you are right, I missed that in the poll options. Judging by the responses it seems like a lot of people are in and out according to the games available, my bad.