Any weird/controversial opinions? I’ll start. Before the remake, the best version of Resident Evil 4 was the Wii version. The Wiimote controls old Resi’s tank controls better than any other controller at the time. The PC version had a bunch of little bugs and detractors that the Wii version just doesn’t have.
I’ll extend this by saying that the Wiimote is actually pretty damn good for shooters, and particularly good for accessibility. Not having to cramp up my hands to press buttons is awesome for having arthritis. Aiming with the Wiimote and moving with the nunchuck just feel really natural, you barely have to move your fingers for anything.
Witcher 3, Dark souls 3, Titanfall 2 and Doom reboot. I guess I can say I am technically wrong because yes elden ring and Doom eternal we’re great but that’s 2 out of 100’s of AAA releases
Haha. All lewd games are weird at times. I can appreciate how it’s one of those games (nsfw or otherwise) that has had a surprising amount of hours put into expansion/enhancement over the years in the same way that Dwarf Fortress, or Factorio have. I haven’t delved into it extensively myself. Also like DF and Factorio, it’s systems are surprisingly deep and complex. XD
Ive been playing modded skyrim. Took me a long time just to learn how to properly mod skyrim, and even then, the balancing was tedious. But I got there, and it plays well.
In no way was nsmbu overshadowed by mario maker. The quality of levels is not there in those games. Either kaizo or very dumb are the two options of mario maker levels
After the first Halo came out, every damn game was a FPS. I don’t mind FPS games, but it’s not all I ever want to play.
It was around then I was basically forced to start playing more indie games, and now I play them almost exclusively. The AAA space is just 3 games in a trenchcoat (and I’ve already played those 3).
I mean something good can start trends that are annoying. I love the first Avengers movie, but at some point the oversupply of Marvel shit with all the clones made it annoying at some point.
Weapons, armor, equipment, upgrades, etc. in single-player games that have effects that have tradeoffs or very niche use-cases are unfun. I can understand it in multiplayer competitive games where balance is important, but effects like “provides 20% more defense versus <specific enemy type>” or “increases range, but decreases damage” just deflate me when I get them in games. If I’m spending time playing a game, I want to earn things that make me objectively better as I progress. Developers of modern games seem waaay to preoccupied with holding back and not allowing things to be “broken” in games where it just doesn’t matter.
If you want a game that not only allows you to break it but encourages it and it doesn’t ruin the fun, try Noita. Very unforgiving and secretive. It’s kinda like a roguelike where the thing you’re building up between plays is knowledge of how the game works. Sometimes you’ll find an ability combination that makes you a god, other times you’ll find one that kills you before you understand the implications of what you’re trying to do.
It’s fun but just be aware that any specific fun you start to have will be fleeting, but you’ll find other kinds of fun while chasing that last one.
This is tangentially related to inventory management, encumbrance, and other mechanics that often come across as tedious. Does it make sense that the character is sitting down and taking a while to decide how much & which stuff to carry, which gems to socket, which items to upgrade? How much is the game supposed to be about resource management vs. about swinging swords at skeletons or solving puzzles?
I’m okay with those kinda things if they’re not limited. Eg, if they’re a skill and you can get many skills. But if it’s like FFXVI, where you have only 3 accessory slots and most accessories are borderline useless, then I agree that they’re just disappointing. I want to feel like equipment (or whatever) is impactful. I want it to be able to wildly change up my strategy.
I love when games have stuff like wildly different weapon types or the likes, such that you can make so many different kinds of builds. Far more fun and replayable than the games where there’s basically only one way to play and nothing will significantly change it.
That is honestly one of my favourite things about Saint Row 3 and 4. If you want to go balls to the wall with an infinite ammo, instant reloaded rocket launcher, while running outside the enemies range. Just get to level 50 and go nuts.
Saints Row is such a fun series because they know exactly what kind of game they are. They’re not GTA. They have no business being serious, grounded, or realistic. They embrace the utter bonkers ridiculousness and it works great. I had so much fun in Saints Row 4 with the super powers. And it works great with how the game is written. Utterly hilarious game that I enjoyed every minute of.
Also, killing enemies with a dildo bat never grows old.
That’s why i loved Divinity Original Sin 2, fairly sparse combat, only when necessary, and when it wasnt necessary it was short and sweet. Made the combat quite a treat, certainly helped that it was an amazing system
I think this sometimes, too. But at the same time, I gotta admit there is some feel of convenience with not having random encounters. It can be tedious sometimes when you’re just trying to do something and you have to keep doing battles at regular intervals. Eg, revisiting a low level area would be soooo boring because the battles are absolutely trivial and unrewarding and just get in the way.
Perhaps something to be said about the hybrid systems like Persona 5 have, where the battles aren’t random, but rather there’s enemy indicators that you have to touch to start a battle. So you can avoid battles, but if you’re not careful, you’ll still end up in a battle. In fact by preemptively accepting the battle, you can gain an advantage (and inversely, if you’re not careful, you’ll get ambushed).
I like the system of Earthbound where enemies need to touch you to start a battle and if you’re overleveled, the battle is skipped and you still gain exp and items
Interested to see how hot this take actually is but…
The Nintendo switch is the best console ever made.
As a lifelong Nintendo fan boy (Nes, right the way through) I may be a little biased but I have also owned various PS/Xbox and I don’t think I’ve spent as much time on any console as the Switch.
Being locked inside for a few years during the pandemic helped, but even a year or so after that I’m still playing.
It helps that Breath of the wild is maybe one of the best games ever made, and Tears of the Kingdom is, so far, an incredible sequel.
But also playing Overcooked with my wife and more recently Mario Kart (a personal “couples goal” of mine I never thought would happen) has filled so many lazy Sundays with hours of gaming joy.
Honestly, I would almost agree with that, if the damn thing was not so crappily made.
I’ve replaced way too many drifting sticks and broken joycon rails. Also needed to replace the backplate that broke around the corners because it’s made of that crappy brittle plastic, and had to replace the internal fan that was dying and started make helicopter noises.
Also its wireless is shit, getting the poorest WiFi signal of any device I have, and having joycon Bluetooth fail when I’m three meters away if I’m not in the right position.
Love the games, like the concept, hate the execution.
Yeah, Steam Deck costs a little more, can play newest AAA titles handheld, can play Switch games too, can buy a shit ton of games for cheap because of Steam Sales, and gives you a whole desktop if you plug it in a dongle. Also, it’s an open system, so you can actually install any OS on it, if you like.
I picked up the switch the other day (it was getting dusty so I wanted to put it in the electronics box) and was surprised at how light (by mass) it was. I almost turned it on. But the call of the deck, the smell of it’s exhaust, the non drifting controls, the Bluetooth m+kb, the deck is my new favorite console ever. (That said there are still some ui improvements that absolutely need fixing)
The only thing in a videogame to ever actually make me feel ill is the camera in Star Trek Online. I don’t know what the deal is, but more than an hour gives me a horrid headache.
VHS/TV static, scanlines, and tracking filters are obnoxious and developers need to stop using them. You can’t just slap a shit filter over bad graphics and be like “It’s the 80s/90s!”
I get the aesthetic and that a lot of developers are pandering to my generation, but it’s become the hallmark of shit games for me. Do something innovative.
I overall disagree because in average they are putting more thought into their visuals than many triple-A studios that never see an end to their skin pore-delving levels of realism. But I find it very funny how many indie horror games use VHS effects for no reason as if playable VHS had ever been a thing.
I’ll agree with that, they are definitely putting more thought into it. When it’s used well, it’s great, but it’s used so often now that it feels like sloppy design in a lot of games. It’s like using the piss/mexico filter to convey being in a third world country in the mid-2000s.
The weird thing about analog horror is that its now being done by people who never experienced the art that they are imitating. Sometimes their interpretations are lacking.
First game I remember with it was Hotline Miami, where it worked quite well for the game. I’d say the tape rewind from that game is iconic. But yeah, it’s normally just cheap points for le epic retro gamers
As someone who regularly uses CRTs for gaming, I can say with confidence that there’s a ton of poorly done scanline filters out there. I have to question if those implementing them even know what a CRT looks like, because there’s a whole lot more to it than just a blank line every few pixels.
Sonic Mania has an excellent set of scanline filters if you want to see them done right.
Low-resolution pixel art lets a game be developed with comparatively-inexpensive assets and lets the brain interpolate the missing information.
My guess is that various obscuring distortions can have a similar effect. If your brain sees it as noise getting in the way of what’s really there, it will try to fill in the correct stuff.
Exclusives can be beneficial.
By exclusives, I don’t mean Sony/Microsoft pay the developer for exclusivity, that sucks.
What I’m referring to is a developer picking a platform and developing a game using that platforms full potential.
Games like Zelda, Crash Bandicoot, God Of War, Last Of Us all took full potential of their consoles architecture and brought pretty good games.
Yeah, I think most people in general are fine with Nintendo exclusives, since it’s nearly the only console maker on the market that doesn’t ship out what is essentially just an optimized pc. Especially since the Nintendo emulation scene is so incredibly thriving, games being exclusives there is generally only true on paper.
With that said: Fromsoft I am begging you release Bloodborne on PC I need my 60+ fps no motion blur game that is wetter than a crushed tomato and edgier than London’s knife bins’ contents. I want to replay it but I don’t have the magic box anymore goddamnit…
Exclusive optimisation is amazing. Some of the games they squeezed out of some consoles is amazing. I can’t believe tears of the kingdom runs so well on the switch. There was also an amazing PS2 game called “black”.
If Owlcat games was able to make 2 Pathfinder video games with Real-Time with pause gameplay, Larian Studios has no excuse for not doing for BG3 (and DOS2)
I mean, its a completely different system for a different type of game. Thay’s like saying “Gears of War did 3rd person shooting well, Halo has no excuse for not doing that”
Resident Evil 6 is one of the best games in the franchise. It’s definitely the best out the 4-5-6 era. It’s huge, has many, many hours of gameplay due to the three different campaigns. The monsters are fun, even if they do have guns, and the bosses are the wild and insane kind of Resident Evil content I’m in it for. It has all those romantic overtones between Chris and Piers. I’d call it a must play.
People were SO unfair to RE6 back in the day, in my opinion. I bet if it had not been associated with the series, it would be remembered as a ridiculous bombastic cult classic in the same vein as Metal Gear Rising. It may have issues but come on, it managed to have a super fun, super unique, super deep take on TPS gameplay, it is wonderfully over the top, it has stupid amounts of content…
But because it was called RE and didn’t fit whatever mold the titles in the series should fit in the eyes of some, it was panned. Thankfully it has been looked at with different eyes in recent years.
The popularity of skill based matchmaking decimated game design that allows people of different skill levels to play together and progress in a multiplayer setting. Most games actually punish you for playing with better players on your team instead of allowing you to help somehow without being a liability. And when you are, the game is no longer winnable and people get extremely pissed off ensuing you won’t get to play with them again.
Everyone i play games with gets the “sbmm is one of the worst things to happen to video games” rant every single time i play a game that has it. I dont play them often thankfully
Any way you can clarify the negatives of SBMM or have a good yt vid or something that explains it? In theory I like the idea because I think back to unranked halo 3 and one game I’m a god and the next I’m getting absolutely destroyed and it kinda sucked having such a wide gap lol
The short of it is really 3 main issues and ill use cod as the example:
First it makes it difficult for friends of different skill levels to play together and have fun. Me and my boys cant play cod together because ill go 30-6 one game where they barely break even and then for the rest of the night theyll go like 6-12 because i popped off too hard. Making it so we play 3 games before they arent having fun cause im just better at the game than them.
Second reason is it ruins any casual experience. Most days, for me a grown adult with a full time job, id like to just hop and play casually in my free time but with sbmm and the constant fluctuation in the system and where it places you can spend many, many games in a row in an absolute sweat fest without any reprieve. The skill level of a playerbase is typically on a bell curve meaning your much more often to face average players without sbmm, because thats where most players fall in the skill range. With sbmm you are waiting for whatever algorithm to have mercy on you and give you an easier lobby. Which can lead to a cycle of getting stomped for a couple games then stomping others for a game, rinse, repeat. Most people would i know would rather just roll the dice than trust some arbitrary system to place them in a lobby that may be fun.
Third issue is its redundent. In most competitive games there is a casual and competitive/rabked mode. If i wanted to play against people guaranteed to be my skill level id play ranked. Refering back to issue one, i dont play ranked with those friends because we vary in skill, casual would be the mode for that situation but due to sbmm being in casual both modes really just seem to be ranked.
Bonus reason: When mw2 came out in 2022 there was talk about using sbmm to manipulate people using the data to keep them winning just enough to keep playing but not enough to ruin others experience. Sounds great to some but to me thats not what competitive games are about. And i definitely dont need some studio dictating how much fun i have in a game, telling me essentially when i get to win.
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There has not been a good AAA game since 2016 and I don’t think there will be
Elden Ring?
It’s poor PC optimization on release, though. But if we cut the optimization part out, Jedi Survivor is another good AAA, imo.
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I disagree, but what AAA game did you consider good released in 2016?
Witcher 3, Dark souls 3, Titanfall 2 and Doom reboot. I guess I can say I am technically wrong because yes elden ring and Doom eternal we’re great but that’s 2 out of 100’s of AAA releases
How about the new Zelda? And FF XVI? God of war Ragnarok? Street fighter 6?
You can make a porn game thats both a good game and good porn. Its tricky as hell to balance, and you won’t attract most players, but its possible.
The real issue is the stigma, which right fully exists. But I still want my triple A porn game.
My dream is to make one of those. One day…
Hubie Pop
This reminds me of a fake quote attributed to Hideo Kojima:
Mad respect my dude. Got any recommendations? ;D
I’ll give my two cents for the classic CoC, and the shockingly good story of The Last Sovereign.
It’s weird sometimes, but I heavily fw degrees of lewdity.
Haha. All lewd games are weird at times. I can appreciate how it’s one of those games (nsfw or otherwise) that has had a surprising amount of hours put into expansion/enhancement over the years in the same way that Dwarf Fortress, or Factorio have. I haven’t delved into it extensively myself. Also like DF and Factorio, it’s systems are surprisingly deep and complex. XD
Ive been playing modded skyrim. Took me a long time just to learn how to properly mod skyrim, and even then, the balancing was tedious. But I got there, and it plays well.
New Super Mario Bros U is the best 2D mario game. Even more so if it is including Luigi U (which some shipped with)
People dismiss it because it’s part of the NSMB series, but it’s basically Super Super Mario World.
I used to really like it, but after Mario Maker, I noticed the controls in NSMBU feel different, and I couldn’t go back to it.
It’s great, but as the 4th in the “New”-series it didn’t really feel fresh, and it soon got overshadowed by the Maker games.
It was the first one of the four that was actually challenging, so that’s a big deal.
In no way was nsmbu overshadowed by mario maker. The quality of levels is not there in those games. Either kaizo or very dumb are the two options of mario maker levels
After the first Halo came out, every damn game was a FPS. I don’t mind FPS games, but it’s not all I ever want to play.
It was around then I was basically forced to start playing more indie games, and now I play them almost exclusively. The AAA space is just 3 games in a trenchcoat (and I’ve already played those 3).
And now it’s all Third Person pseudo RPGs and the FPS genre is pretty small…
I agree…but I gotta say I did love the last few chapters of Halo 3, especially the last bit where you drive away while everything explodes.
I mean something good can start trends that are annoying. I love the first Avengers movie, but at some point the oversupply of Marvel shit with all the clones made it annoying at some point.
Weapons, armor, equipment, upgrades, etc. in single-player games that have effects that have tradeoffs or very niche use-cases are unfun. I can understand it in multiplayer competitive games where balance is important, but effects like “provides 20% more defense versus <specific enemy type>” or “increases range, but decreases damage” just deflate me when I get them in games. If I’m spending time playing a game, I want to earn things that make me objectively better as I progress. Developers of modern games seem waaay to preoccupied with holding back and not allowing things to be “broken” in games where it just doesn’t matter.
If you want a game that not only allows you to break it but encourages it and it doesn’t ruin the fun, try Noita. Very unforgiving and secretive. It’s kinda like a roguelike where the thing you’re building up between plays is knowledge of how the game works. Sometimes you’ll find an ability combination that makes you a god, other times you’ll find one that kills you before you understand the implications of what you’re trying to do.
It’s fun but just be aware that any specific fun you start to have will be fleeting, but you’ll find other kinds of fun while chasing that last one.
This is tangentially related to inventory management, encumbrance, and other mechanics that often come across as tedious. Does it make sense that the character is sitting down and taking a while to decide how much & which stuff to carry, which gems to socket, which items to upgrade? How much is the game supposed to be about resource management vs. about swinging swords at skeletons or solving puzzles?
I’m okay with those kinda things if they’re not limited. Eg, if they’re a skill and you can get many skills. But if it’s like FFXVI, where you have only 3 accessory slots and most accessories are borderline useless, then I agree that they’re just disappointing. I want to feel like equipment (or whatever) is impactful. I want it to be able to wildly change up my strategy.
I love when games have stuff like wildly different weapon types or the likes, such that you can make so many different kinds of builds. Far more fun and replayable than the games where there’s basically only one way to play and nothing will significantly change it.
That is honestly one of my favourite things about Saint Row 3 and 4. If you want to go balls to the wall with an infinite ammo, instant reloaded rocket launcher, while running outside the enemies range. Just get to level 50 and go nuts.
Saints Row is such a fun series because they know exactly what kind of game they are. They’re not GTA. They have no business being serious, grounded, or realistic. They embrace the utter bonkers ridiculousness and it works great. I had so much fun in Saints Row 4 with the super powers. And it works great with how the game is written. Utterly hilarious game that I enjoyed every minute of.
Also, killing enemies with a dildo bat never grows old.
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Real-time with pause is superior than turn-based for CRPGs, especially given how many encounters there are in the games.
Turn based wins out the less encounters there are.
That’s why i loved Divinity Original Sin 2, fairly sparse combat, only when necessary, and when it wasnt necessary it was short and sweet. Made the combat quite a treat, certainly helped that it was an amazing system
I like random encounters in JRPG. Having enemies that I can avoid all the time (DQ11) removes the challenge and fun.
In earlier DQ games I enjoyed exploring new locations, taking the risks of being wiped by stronger enemies. In DQ11 there is no risk and no reward.
I think this sometimes, too. But at the same time, I gotta admit there is some feel of convenience with not having random encounters. It can be tedious sometimes when you’re just trying to do something and you have to keep doing battles at regular intervals. Eg, revisiting a low level area would be soooo boring because the battles are absolutely trivial and unrewarding and just get in the way.
Perhaps something to be said about the hybrid systems like Persona 5 have, where the battles aren’t random, but rather there’s enemy indicators that you have to touch to start a battle. So you can avoid battles, but if you’re not careful, you’ll still end up in a battle. In fact by preemptively accepting the battle, you can gain an advantage (and inversely, if you’re not careful, you’ll get ambushed).
I like the system of Earthbound where enemies need to touch you to start a battle and if you’re overleveled, the battle is skipped and you still gain exp and items
Yes. And I like that when the enemies are stronger, they actively chase you so you can’t always avoid the battles.
Interested to see how hot this take actually is but… The Nintendo switch is the best console ever made. As a lifelong Nintendo fan boy (Nes, right the way through) I may be a little biased but I have also owned various PS/Xbox and I don’t think I’ve spent as much time on any console as the Switch. Being locked inside for a few years during the pandemic helped, but even a year or so after that I’m still playing. It helps that Breath of the wild is maybe one of the best games ever made, and Tears of the Kingdom is, so far, an incredible sequel. But also playing Overcooked with my wife and more recently Mario Kart (a personal “couples goal” of mine I never thought would happen) has filled so many lazy Sundays with hours of gaming joy.
Honestly, I would almost agree with that, if the damn thing was not so crappily made.
I’ve replaced way too many drifting sticks and broken joycon rails. Also needed to replace the backplate that broke around the corners because it’s made of that crappy brittle plastic, and had to replace the internal fan that was dying and started make helicopter noises.
Also its wireless is shit, getting the poorest WiFi signal of any device I have, and having joycon Bluetooth fail when I’m three meters away if I’m not in the right position.
Love the games, like the concept, hate the execution.
I love my Switch SO much, but I find myself playing Switch games on my computer way more than my Switch now…
That’s a big claim when the Steam Deck exists
Yeah, Steam Deck costs a little more, can play newest AAA titles handheld, can play Switch games too, can buy a shit ton of games for cheap because of Steam Sales, and gives you a whole desktop if you plug it in a dongle. Also, it’s an open system, so you can actually install any OS on it, if you like.
I picked up the switch the other day (it was getting dusty so I wanted to put it in the electronics box) and was surprised at how light (by mass) it was. I almost turned it on. But the call of the deck, the smell of it’s exhaust, the non drifting controls, the Bluetooth m+kb, the deck is my new favorite console ever. (That said there are still some ui improvements that absolutely need fixing)
Now that’s a hot take!
I find it incredibly uncomfortable to play on. Games are way too expensive too, and the console is massively underpowered. To each their own though.
Agreed. Enjoy the hot take tho. I love the pro controller and I love playing switch games on my computer.
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I also cant stand motion blur but always thought the “making me ill” thing was non sense
The only thing in a videogame to ever actually make me feel ill is the camera in Star Trek Online. I don’t know what the deal is, but more than an hour gives me a horrid headache.
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That’s not much of a hot take.
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VHS/TV static, scanlines, and tracking filters are obnoxious and developers need to stop using them. You can’t just slap a shit filter over bad graphics and be like “It’s the 80s/90s!”
I get the aesthetic and that a lot of developers are pandering to my generation, but it’s become the hallmark of shit games for me. Do something innovative.
I overall disagree because in average they are putting more thought into their visuals than many triple-A studios that never see an end to their skin pore-delving levels of realism. But I find it very funny how many indie horror games use VHS effects for no reason as if playable VHS had ever been a thing.
I’ll agree with that, they are definitely putting more thought into it. When it’s used well, it’s great, but it’s used so often now that it feels like sloppy design in a lot of games. It’s like using the piss/mexico filter to convey being in a third world country in the mid-2000s.
The weird thing about analog horror is that its now being done by people who never experienced the art that they are imitating. Sometimes their interpretations are lacking.
First game I remember with it was Hotline Miami, where it worked quite well for the game. I’d say the tape rewind from that game is iconic. But yeah, it’s normally just cheap points for le epic retro gamers
As someone who regularly uses CRTs for gaming, I can say with confidence that there’s a ton of poorly done scanline filters out there. I have to question if those implementing them even know what a CRT looks like, because there’s a whole lot more to it than just a blank line every few pixels.
Sonic Mania has an excellent set of scanline filters if you want to see them done right.
Low-resolution pixel art lets a game be developed with comparatively-inexpensive assets and lets the brain interpolate the missing information.
My guess is that various obscuring distortions can have a similar effect. If your brain sees it as noise getting in the way of what’s really there, it will try to fill in the correct stuff.
Exclusives can be beneficial. By exclusives, I don’t mean Sony/Microsoft pay the developer for exclusivity, that sucks. What I’m referring to is a developer picking a platform and developing a game using that platforms full potential. Games like Zelda, Crash Bandicoot, God Of War, Last Of Us all took full potential of their consoles architecture and brought pretty good games.
Yeah, I think most people in general are fine with Nintendo exclusives, since it’s nearly the only console maker on the market that doesn’t ship out what is essentially just an optimized pc. Especially since the Nintendo emulation scene is so incredibly thriving, games being exclusives there is generally only true on paper.
With that said: Fromsoft I am begging you release Bloodborne on PC I need my 60+ fps no motion blur game that is wetter than a crushed tomato and edgier than London’s knife bins’ contents. I want to replay it but I don’t have the magic box anymore goddamnit…
Exclusive optimisation is amazing. Some of the games they squeezed out of some consoles is amazing. I can’t believe tears of the kingdom runs so well on the switch. There was also an amazing PS2 game called “black”.
I can’t comprehend how Nintendo managed to make Tears of the Kingdom on a console like the switch. And I’ll check out Black, thnx for the suggestion
If Owlcat games was able to make 2 Pathfinder video games with Real-Time with pause gameplay, Larian Studios has no excuse for not doing for BG3 (and DOS2)
I mean, its a completely different system for a different type of game. Thay’s like saying “Gears of War did 3rd person shooting well, Halo has no excuse for not doing that”
Resident Evil 6 is one of the best games in the franchise. It’s definitely the best out the 4-5-6 era. It’s huge, has many, many hours of gameplay due to the three different campaigns. The monsters are fun, even if they do have guns, and the bosses are the wild and insane kind of Resident Evil content I’m in it for. It has all those romantic overtones between Chris and Piers. I’d call it a must play.
People were SO unfair to RE6 back in the day, in my opinion. I bet if it had not been associated with the series, it would be remembered as a ridiculous bombastic cult classic in the same vein as Metal Gear Rising. It may have issues but come on, it managed to have a super fun, super unique, super deep take on TPS gameplay, it is wonderfully over the top, it has stupid amounts of content…
But because it was called RE and didn’t fit whatever mold the titles in the series should fit in the eyes of some, it was panned. Thankfully it has been looked at with different eyes in recent years.
The popularity of skill based matchmaking decimated game design that allows people of different skill levels to play together and progress in a multiplayer setting. Most games actually punish you for playing with better players on your team instead of allowing you to help somehow without being a liability. And when you are, the game is no longer winnable and people get extremely pissed off ensuing you won’t get to play with them again.
Everyone i play games with gets the “sbmm is one of the worst things to happen to video games” rant every single time i play a game that has it. I dont play them often thankfully
Any way you can clarify the negatives of SBMM or have a good yt vid or something that explains it? In theory I like the idea because I think back to unranked halo 3 and one game I’m a god and the next I’m getting absolutely destroyed and it kinda sucked having such a wide gap lol
The short of it is really 3 main issues and ill use cod as the example:
First it makes it difficult for friends of different skill levels to play together and have fun. Me and my boys cant play cod together because ill go 30-6 one game where they barely break even and then for the rest of the night theyll go like 6-12 because i popped off too hard. Making it so we play 3 games before they arent having fun cause im just better at the game than them.
Second reason is it ruins any casual experience. Most days, for me a grown adult with a full time job, id like to just hop and play casually in my free time but with sbmm and the constant fluctuation in the system and where it places you can spend many, many games in a row in an absolute sweat fest without any reprieve. The skill level of a playerbase is typically on a bell curve meaning your much more often to face average players without sbmm, because thats where most players fall in the skill range. With sbmm you are waiting for whatever algorithm to have mercy on you and give you an easier lobby. Which can lead to a cycle of getting stomped for a couple games then stomping others for a game, rinse, repeat. Most people would i know would rather just roll the dice than trust some arbitrary system to place them in a lobby that may be fun.
Third issue is its redundent. In most competitive games there is a casual and competitive/rabked mode. If i wanted to play against people guaranteed to be my skill level id play ranked. Refering back to issue one, i dont play ranked with those friends because we vary in skill, casual would be the mode for that situation but due to sbmm being in casual both modes really just seem to be ranked.
Bonus reason: When mw2 came out in 2022 there was talk about using sbmm to manipulate people using the data to keep them winning just enough to keep playing but not enough to ruin others experience. Sounds great to some but to me thats not what competitive games are about. And i definitely dont need some studio dictating how much fun i have in a game, telling me essentially when i get to win.
Interesting points, thanks!