This is video games now, apparently


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    I like Street Fighter. I think everyone does, in one way or another. Grab a controller and beat up people until you beat up the boss. Or maybe two controllers and go head to head with peoples. Simple format, lots of fun.

    Then I read this article, and I know the industry is doomer:

    There is literally a 1:1 ratio of sentences to WTFs.

    • An arcade fighting game is released without an arcade fighting mode
    • That is heavily criticized during beta testing, which is supposed to gardener feedback but is instead used as "pay for early access"
    • The company who has been making this game for 29 years didn't realize people might want that, so is "looking into it"
    • In the same breath, announces at least 7 different downloadable contents that people can pay for
    • Also the mega-revolutionary "difficulty slider", because again difficulty modes for an arcade game are a new concept
    • Despite forcing people to play over networks, network outages are so common that this article about a completely different topic can just casually say "oh, btw, yes, the game was out because the servers were fucked. Glad you didn't want to play your game or anything"
    • Despite forcing people to play over networks, they didn't think to come up with a solution for ragequitting BEFORE releasing the game-- because again, apparently ragequitting is a brand new concept no one has ever heard of before

    Note stated directly in the article, but implied or adjacent:

    • Some idiot designers think it's okay for an arcade fighting game, which requires split second timing, to have network multiplayer-- which is infamous for near-seconds long lag at any given moment
    • Can you play your friends on your own console, with multiple controllers and one copy of the game? Fuck if I know, after 15 minutes of googling I can't find an answer to that

    So those keeping score: overpriced, laggy, unplayable incomplete game missing the absolute most basic features of what the genre requires. And you can keep paying for it after you buy it. Until the servers go offline.



  • Were you channeling @accalia?

    @Lorne_Kates said:

    go head to head with peoples

    @Lorne_Kates said:

    the industry is doomer

    @Lorne_Kates said:

    gardener feedback


  • FoxDev

    YIP?

    /me looks up from the book she was eating....

    what? just trying to ingest this dictionary to improv my spellaring



  • EA did it with Simcity on the PC too.

    Games are now "Art", and the real money is now in Freemium. So we're fucked.



  • @Lorne_Kates said:

    Can you play your friends on your own console, with multiple controllers and one copy of the game?

    Yes, you can. But only another local player. Your only options for fighting the computer is in Story mode or in Training.

    Another dumb thing with Street Fighter 5 is it requires registering a Fighter ID that can't be changed ever that is always associated with your account, and when trying to register, it doesn't say why the name is invalid unless it's too short. So, if anyone else ends up playing and meeting a "ChaosT" online (which may not be any time soon, I only tried the game once since my brother lent it to me for a night) that's me, because their system outright refused every name that had Eternal in it, and it auto-approved when I accidentally submitted before trying "ChaosTE" as an ID.


    @HardwareGeek said:

    Were you channeling @accalia?

    Missed one:

    @Lorne_Kates said:

    Note stated directly in the article



  • Out of curiosity, do you play other fighting games? I've mostly played the Japanese ones (Dead or Alive & Soul Calibur), that weird DC Comics one, Injustice Gods Among Us and quite a bit of the XBone Killer Instinct.

    I actually own Street Fighter IV on Steam but I couldn't get into it at all. The games named above were way more fun.


  • :belt_onion:

    That's... ah... not how that works. You're supposed to read those.......


  • FoxDev

    read?

    what's that?

    is it good to eat?


  • :belt_onion:

    Not... exactly.

    It's like eating, without the devouring part...


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @ChaosTheEternal said:

    Another dumb thing with Street Fighter 5 is it requires registering a Fighter ID

    Full stop. So, I don't turn on the game, press START, pick a fighter and beat people up? I need an account to play a local, single player game? What the shaqfu is that?

    @blakeyrat said:

    Out of curiosity, do you play other fighting games?

    Not in recent years. Last one I was big into was X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Loved Killer Instinct, even the janky-ass SNES port.

    @sloosecannon said:

    It's like eating, without the devouring part...

    It's like eating with your eyes.



  • @sloosecannon said:

    without the devouring part

    I've certainly devoured a lot of books.


  • FoxDev

    .... what's the point of that then?



  • @Lorne_Kates said:

    I need an account to play a local, single player game?

    If you are connected to the internet, you have to connect to their servers first before you can play the "local single player" modes. Because they tie their in game cash to the account, and the local modes also grant that cash.

    It also means if there's a server hiccup, you get kicked from a single player mode.

    If you start disconnected, it'll let you play those modes fine. Just don't know if you screw yourself out of the in game cash if you complete or make enough progress in the modes if you later go online.



  • @Lorne_Kates said:

    Not in recent years. Last one I was big into was X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Loved Killer Instinct, even the janky-ass SNES port.

    Hm ok.

    Well I guess I'll phrase it differently: Street Fighter might only exist at this point due to nostalgia purchases.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @ChaosTheEternal said:

    It also means if there's a server hiccup, you get kicked from a single player mode.

    #:wtf:

    @blakeyrat said:

    Well I guess I'll phrase it differently: Street Fighter might only exist at this point due to nostalgia purchases.

    Obviously it's not due to it being a good game.

    For the record, I don't own it. I just came across that article, and was reminded why I don't own many new games at all, and never will own them.



  • The next big fighting game is definitely going to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokkén_Tournament . 😛

    Friend of mine has been playing SFV and is rather enjoying it, so they've probably done something right.

    Netplay for fighting games isn't completely terrible if it's done right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GGPO is considered pretty damn good as far as I'm aware, and from what I've been told SFV uses a similar rollback algorithm.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @accalia said:

    just trying to ingest this dictionary to improv my spellaring

    IT'S NOT WORKING.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Lorne_Kates said:

    I need an account to play a local, single player game? What the shaqfu is that?

    How else can they keep you from pirating it without always-on connection? That's why SimCity sucked so badly, too. Well, one of many raasons.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @accalia said:

    what's the point of that then?

    You don't have to try to pass paper a couple days later.



  • @Lorne_Kates said:

    Some idiot designers think it's okay for an arcade fighting game, which requires split second timing, to have network multiplayer-- which is infamous for near-seconds long lag at any given moment

    Counter Strike?

    @ChaosTheEternal said:

    @Lorne_Kates said:
    I need an account to play a local, single player game?

    If you are connected to the internet, you have to connect to their servers first before you can play the "local single player" modes. Because they tie their in game cash to the account, and the local modes also grant that cash.

    It also means if there's a server hiccup, you get kicked from a single player mode.

    If you start disconnected, it'll let you play those modes fine. Just don't know if you screw yourself out of the in game cash if you complete or make enough progress in the modes if you later go online.

    Diablo III?



  • @FrostCat said:

    How else can they keep you from pirating it without always-on connection?

    ...It's a PS4 game. I didn't think people could pirate PS4 games yet.



  • @jmp said:

    ...It's a PS4 game. I didn't think people could pirate PS4 games yet.

    Welcome to Asia.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @jmp said:

    t's a PS4 game.

    Is it? Well, that's besides my point.



  • @Lorne_Kates said:

    What the shaqfu is that?

    Welcome to the AAA game industry, an unsustainable mess of terrible ideas driven by bad management. It's not the first, it won't be the last, at least until that segment finally implodes.



  • @Ascendant said:

    Diablo III?

    Pretty much the same deal.

    @jmp said:

    It's a PS4 game.

    It's also on PC.



  • At least it doesn't have any quick time events. That's the real cancer in AAA games.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @blakeyrat said:

    At least it doesn't have any quick time events. That's the real cancer in AAA games.

    Wasn't the midgame boss in The Order: 1886 a quicktime fight? And the end boss was just a copy-paste of the mid boss, event-for-event?



  • I don't play shitty Sony games.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @blakeyrat said:

    I don't play shitty Sony games.

    Just what I heard from reviews.



  • @Lorne_Kates said:

    shitty Sony games.

    We cannot give you a refund for your water damaged smartwatch(SW2) because your smart watch was supposed to be waterproof.

    I'm not buying any Sony waterproof anything anymore.



  • @FrostCat said:

    You don't have to try to pass paper a couple days later.

    Whenever I see paper, I just turn round and walk back the other way.



  • @Lorne_Kates said:

    Some idiot designers think it's okay for an arcade fighting game, which requires split second timing, to have network multiplayer-- which is infamous for near-seconds long lag at any given moment

    From what I hear, they're also still trying to convince us to rent a VM "in the cloud" which will stream video frames back to us with a latency tacked on to the already inevitable roundtrip latency from our keyboard/mouse/gamepad input. They've been talking about this for a decade and every time someone points out how shitty an idea this is, they keep saying "the technology isn't ready yet."



  • @CatPlusPlus said:

    Welcome to the AAA game industry, an unsustainable mess of terrible ideas driven by bad management. It's not the first, it won't be the last, at least until that segment finally implodes.

    The last time I paid more than $40 for a game was in 2011. Largely, this has been a good thing.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @tar said:

    Whenever I see paper, I just turn round and walk back the other way.

    WHAT IF IT SURROUNDS YOU



  • @HardwareGeek said:

    I've certainly devoured a lot of books.

    It's a great idea, isn't it? You literally wipe your arse as you shit.

    @blakeyrat said:

    The games named above were way more fun.

    You expect fun in computer games? Man, are you behind the times!


  • BINNED

    @tufty said:

    You expect fun in computer games? Man, are you behind the times!

    QFT. Sadly.



  • Here's a fun fact revealed today:

    The game Quantum Break requires an Internet connection for the PC version. They're justifying this by hosting the cutscene videos in the cloud "because they're 4k videos."

    Mind you, the Xbox One version doesn't have this requirement as it will contain all the video files as 1080p both in the download and retail disc releases.


  • BINNED

    I hope this shit gets fixed once they release the next-gen PCs, they should have 1TB drives, apparently.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @powerlord said:

    The game Quantum Break requires an Internet connection for the PC version. They're justifying this by hosting the cutscene videos in the cloud "because they're 4k videos."

    Are they distributing the game via floppy disks?



  • Goddamned, you guys are worse than Boomzilla.

    Yeah games these days! So awful! Why in my day we had Doom and we were happy with that daggumit!

    And none of those new fangled "DLCs". Why, in my day, we called them "expansion packs" and they came in boxes in retail stores. TOTALLY DIFFERENT CONCEPT!



  • @powerlord said:

    Mind you, the Xbox One version doesn't have this requirement as it will contain all the video files as 1080p both in the download and retail disc releases.

    You can't pass Microsoft's cert if the game is useless while offline. (Well, unless it has a very prominent warning on the box.)

    The PC version streaming the videos is weirder, they could just put it in Steam as a free DLC (like the high res Skyrim textures pack thing) and let people optionally download it if they wanted.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    You can't pass Microsoft's cert if the game is useless while offline. (Well, unless it has a very prominent warning on the box.)

    The game is being published by Microsoft. Which is probably why it's only on PC and Xbox One.



  • Microsoft published games still have to pass the Xbox cert.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @blakeyrat said:

    "DLCs". Why, in my day, we called them "expansion packs"

    In all fairness, expansion packs expanded a completed game.

    DLC are more accurately COMPLETING the game, since they sold an incomplete game.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    Also relevant (and shamelessly stolen from a scummy aggregate site who stole it from someone and didn't credit them so I can't credit them):

    http://i.imgur.com/XlL4Ce2.png



  • @Lorne_Kates said:

    DLC are more accurately COMPLETING the game, since they sold an incomplete game.

    Bullshit.

    You don't even play games. Who the fuck are you to make this claim? How about naming a single piece of evidence? What game, specifically, are you referring to?

    @Lorne_Kates said:

    Also relevant

    I have no idea what that image means, but anything that saves you from playing the snore-fest Final Fantasy VII is a positive in my book.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @blakeyrat said:

    How about naming a single piece of evidence? What game, specifically, are you referring to?

    Any game that has day one (or, I'd argue, month one) DLC has released an incomplete game.

    Also, Mass Effect 3.

    @blakeyrat said:

    I have no idea what that image means

    FFVII is three discs long. There are optional characters you can unlock (Yuffie and Vincent). There are optional bosses you can encounter and beat (couldn't find the version of the image with those). Aries is a character who dies as part of the storyline, and there's no way to save her. Golden Saucer is a series of in-game minigames that, if you play enough, you can get some good gear.

    All that came WITH the game for $60.

    If the game was released now:

    • The three discs would be separate "chapters", which you'd have to pay for
    • The optional side characters wouldn't be unlockable in-story, you'd pay Real Monies for them
    • The optional bosses would be DLC, instead of being hidden as easter eggs
    • The Golder Saucer would be an in-game money pit as people pay to play a game they already own
    • The devs would reverse their "Aries dying is an artistic choice and an integral part of the story" by appending "unless you pay us $20"

    Now that I've explained the joke to you, you can call me a humorless fuck.



  • @Lorne_Kates said:

    Any game that has day one (or, I'd argue, month one) DLC has released an incomplete game.

    The game is complete when everything in its design doc has been implemented. Whether the DLC appears on day one or day 21 is irrelevant to that.

    You of course haven't read the design doc, so you have literally no way of judging whether a game was released "complete" or not. You're just ass-pulling, then bitching based on your ass-pulling.

    For example, do you think Halo 2 was released "complete"? But how could that be! It ends on a cliffhanger! The story isn't finished! Why, those bastards at Bungie must have only implemented half their game! Uh. No. That's not how it works.

    @Lorne_Kates said:

    Also, Mass Effect 3.

    Haha no they released a complete game but half-assed the ending so bad they had to go back and "fix" it, and even after the "fix" it's still totally half-assed. That's a totally different situation. That doesn't even count as a DLC. That's just, "our original story was so fucking awful we couldn't ignore the millions of complaints from unhappy customers".

    You have to prove that the Mass Effect 3 delivered to the public differs substantially from its original design document. I wager it does not.

    And BTW, if you bought Mass Effect 3 after playing ME2, you deserve it, because you are a stupid idiot who loves shitty games and wants to be shat on some more.

    @Lorne_Kates said:

    All that came WITH the game for $60.

    In 1997? That would be highly unusual. $50 was standard for a AAA title then. (And, BTW, using a handy-dandy inflation calculator, $50 in 1997 is worth $73.81 today. Which addresses another old grumpy person complaint, that games now are more expensive than they used to be-- no, even AAA games are quite a bit cheaper than they ever were in the past.)

    @Lorne_Kates said:

    Now that I've explained the joke to you, you can call me a humorless fuck.

    No I honestly didn't get the joke, because I never owned a Playstation and didn't play that dumb game until it was like $5 on Steam. And it was a waste of money at that price, because it's a snore-fest as I previously stated.

    In 1997, I was playing awesome shit like MechWarrior 2.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @blakeyrat said:

    That would be highly unusual. $50 was standard for a AAA title then.

    He was probably counting in 🍁 .


  • :belt_onion:

    @blakeyrat said:

    millions of complaints from unhappy customers

    Sounds like a bug to me....


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