- 0 Posts
- 155 Comments
Like any other game mechanic, there are times it makes sense to have it as an option, and times it doesn’t. If it’s a 100% PvE cooperative game you’re playing with a close friend you know well, sure; why not? Let either player pause the game for everyone. At least some of Hazelight Studios’ games feature this (A Way Out, It Takes Two, Split Fiction).
But for competitive fighting games or ones with many players, it could be abused, or just be too annoying to enable. Maybe in the latter type an in-game voting system where everyone has to agree to pause the action?
The purchasing power for myself and other consumers has never been lower.
Tell me more about how your profitable company is entitled to more of my shrinking money…
I would normally agree with you. But a fighting game is completely about the balance. You’re assuming the team under crunch, aiming for a financially-beneficial release date magically got it 100% right the first time, under pressure. In reality, they’re responsible for balance. They got it wrong, but it sounds like they’ll fix it.
Keep in mind Rockstar cancelled single-player DLC content for Grand Theft Auto V. Why? Because online Shark cards (microtransactions currency) made them too much money. That’s a fact. They literally cancelled the paid, story-driven DLC they were already planning on making and selling simply because it wouldn’t have made them the most amount of money. So it was deleted, never finished, and will never be released.
They made 8 and a half BILLION dollars from GTA V!!!
You think a publisher like that is hurting? You think I’ll ever buy anything from them again?? Especially not at $80/90/100…
Huh. Interesting article. But, like a lot of people, I didn’t really know anything about Unity before other than they tried to lock in and fundamentally change the fee model with their last CEO.
With respect to PC gaming, this CEO talked a lot more about AR, VR, and “web games” (still not really sure what those are, he envisions people playing them on phones in a Safari browser?) than he did about PC games. That’s concerning, but maybe to be expected of the former COO of Zynga. I guess that’s where the majority of the money is… He even said “We’re usually supportive of PC gaming too.” Lol. But in fairness, they did touch on the Steam Deck, just less than they did on things I’m much less interested in, like vehicle UX, and nothing about Linux gaming at-large…
I think developers realized how much depending on a single closed ecosystem like Unity could put them over a barrel and started to look at alternatives like Godot, etc that will probably continue to haunt this new Unity company for a while. But I’ve always been of the opinion that more competition and choices are better, for consumers and companies…
Hmm, the referenced water block doesn’t sound that great. In fairness, I have’t played the game, but the article is light on examples:
In no time at all, you realise with eye-widening, no, surely not possibility that if you create two water blocks on the same spot, they’ll spool skywards into a tall, liquid column.
Not to be a joyless cynic, but this seems less impressive than time, terrain, Iron Boots, or other gimmicks from past Zelda games that expand the existing map…
Don’t forget the king of hardware exclusives: Nintendo! Other than ones with gimmicky motion controls or displays that can’t be easily replicated, most of their games would have the best experience by being more accessible, on better hardware, using better controllers, but Nintendon’t want that. They would also be cheaper!
I really like Dark Souls/Elden Ring multiplayer PvP. I especially like Dark Souls 3 and it’s still pretty active, at least on PC! Hosts can choose to be invaded by intentionally using an ember and the dried finger and even try to “gank” the invader by teaming up with other players to fight them with a massive advantage. It’s fun to invade these worlds and have a duel, or try to overcome a gank. I got pretty decent at fighting, spacing, parrying, weapon-swapping during animations for massive critical damage, etc.
But the game will also ember you after beating bosses, opening you up to invasions even if you didn’t want that. And invading is such an aggressive act that I don’t find it fun to hunt down and kill someone who doesn’t even want to PvP. So when I encounter someone who very obviously doesn’t want to fight me (and I can’t entice them to attack), I’ll just follow them around in underwear or a crazy outfit, staying out of the way and gesturing and yelling by using the carvings at all the PvE enemies they kill. You can also drop items for other players. It’s a silly, time-wasting thing to run around until the host dies or goes to fight a boss and you get kicked out of their world…