As if more proof was needed that gaming is dead

[shunwick]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

I fully agree, Scott. I don't think there is any great disagreement between any of us. I can't help thinking though that the snake-oil salesmen would have a much harder time of it if people stopped buying snake-oil. Maybe I am an idealist.

This is Total Biscuit's take on Doublefine and Spacebase DF9

[video=youtube;gAd8Ls8Mwl4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAd8Ls8Mwl4&list=UUy1Ms_5qBTawC-k7PVjHXKQ[/video]

Best wishes,
Steve

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

Wow, haven't posted in a while. RL issues and all that. Anyway, happened across this vid on another site and, yes, the man is quite correct about the awful state of gaming. This time the bomb is...The Evil Within:

[video=youtube_share;hsbHO2o41bA]http://youtu.be/hsbHO2o41bA[/video]

 

[kawaiku]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

@Shunwick - I've been slowly watching his commentary videos and I really wish I'd been following him longer. Very good and enjoyable.

@Scott
Was wondering what happened to ya. Hope all is well

I agree with him about that game. Watched a let's play and it was pretty awful. I really don't know how this game was allowed to be made. Right now, the best horror games I can think of are Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Outlast, and Alien: Isolation. This looks like your typical 90's Japanese eerrr... "action-arcade game" or whatever they were lol.


-EDIT- Speaking of Total Biscuit, he does a great video on mobile games and the mobile gaming development field.
[video=youtube;NG_F7GK8xRY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG_F7GK8xRY&list=PLTFohR7GUZYe-gZjqBluQpoIjr5uhV-gw&index=13[/video]

 

[shunwick]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

Ok. We have spent plenty of time moaning about the state of the industry. However, I think it's worth showing that there good guys around as well. Take a look at the Early Access game Arms Dealer and how the devs handle it.

Arms Dealer Store Page

Check out the forum stickies and the dev activity on the forum as well.

Best wishes,
Steve

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

Ok. We have spent plenty of time moaning about the state of the industry. However, I think it's worth showing that there good guys around as well. Take a look at the Early Access game Arms Dealer and how the devs handle it.

Arms Dealer Store Page

Check out the forum stickies and the dev activity on the forum as well.

Best wishes,
Steve

Good point! Maybe we should start a new thread to highlight those devs who are doing things right!

I am not familiar with the devs for Arms Dealer - I did check out the game when it was announced, though (and it looks intriguing!) - but I am glad to hear they are one of the EA good guys. Even though I haven't purchased the game (yet!), Little Green Men, the dev for Starpoint Gemini 2, have been doing very good community outreach for that game. I am also pleased to see CodeForce, the geniuses behind Distant Worlds, have been doing the right thing with Universe. I see they are now committing to monthly patches in concert with the mod communities requests. Nice! Long past due for me to get that game.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

Just when I thought the the big players in the industry had finally learned the QA lessons of 2013, Ubisoft decides to go down the EA route:

[video=youtube_share;SgpzT5V5Mgs]http://youtu.be/SgpzT5V5Mgs[/video]

Glad I wasn't interested in this game. I am surprised at Ubi. They have been working so hard to rehabilitate their rep after the beating it took during the DRM wars. Just when they get to the point where most gamers trust them again, they go and do this. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

 

[shunwick]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

Ubisoft had a review embargo on the game that expired twelve hours AFTER it had been released. The warning signs were there.

Yes they have been trying hard to get their act together. And yet they keep shooting themselves in the foot.

When push comes to shove, corporate suits just cannot stop from behaving like corporate suits.

[video=youtube;b5nJSgTxwJw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5nJSgTxwJw[/video]

Best wishes,
Steve

 

[kawaiku]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

My gf even knew about this atrocity and she doesn't even play video games or watch gameplay videos or just pay attention to the industry at all. That's how bad this is if even she heard of it! It also allowed her to talk a kid she babysits out of purchasing it as well.

 

[Gen_Electric]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

This is kinda related to the thread and I didn't want to start a new one. We al have suspicions sometimes about gaming hacks, esp. on public servers; but this story goes farther. I think it's like any other sport where money is involved. The push to win becomes the overriding factor over morals. And reading about this particular cheat, it was very clever as nothing showed on the screen, just an aiming boost that was undectable until now. Is the player that naïve when the guy tells him, "everyone is using it."? Anyhow, here's the story: http://www.pcgamer.com/csgo-competitive-scene-embroiled-in-hacking-scandal-as-three-players-are-banned/

 

[kawaiku]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

Interesting article, thanks G.E. Also, did you find it ironic that the tourny was titled, "DreamHack"?? I thought it was rather fitting lol.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

This is kinda related to the thread and I didn't want to start a new one. We al have suspicions sometimes about gaming hacks, esp. on public servers; but this story goes farther. I think it's like any other sport where money is involved. The push to win becomes the overriding factor over morals. And reading about this particular cheat, it was very clever as nothing showed on the screen, just an aiming boost that was undectable until now. Is the player that naïve when the guy tells him, "everyone is using it."? Anyhow, here's the story: http://www.pcgamer.com/csgo-competitive-scene-embroiled-in-hacking-scandal-as-three-players-are-banned/

I saw this the other day. Sigh. What can I say? I am a big supporter of e-sports - I do believe they will become as mainstream popular as analog sports one day - but stuff like this just sets the whole scene back. Not only that, but it also reinforces the belief that PC gaming is too vulnerable to hacking to be the preferred platform for e-sports. Based on this, and the countless hackers found playing just about any PC multiplayer game, maybe it is true?

EDIT: Back in May, PC Gamer had an excellent article by a staffer who inadvertently discovered just how rampant hacking is in the CSGO competitive scene. It really is a sad sort of story:

http://www.pcgamer.com/what-i-learned-about-csgo-after-watching-the-twitch-stream-of-someone-i-beat/

 

[shunwick]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

[video=youtube;mQsl5kiAj40]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQsl5kiAj40[/video]

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes,
Steve

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

[video=youtube;mQsl5kiAj40]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQsl5kiAj40[/video]

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes,
Steve

That was hilarious! LOL! :laugh: Great find!

With the exception of Elite (which I am loving more and more with each bite of gameplay), I am still enjoying my new found hobby of board games!

 

[shunwick]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

H1ZI

"H1Z1 is currently in Early Access on Steam. With a fully transparent approach to game design and development here at SOE ..."

This is the Free to Play game, with no micro-transactions that will be game-altering, and will not be Pay to Win.

It was released on Early Access yesterday. It costs £14.99 (which I think is about $20 for you guys), it has micro-transactions that are game-changing, and it is Pay to Win.

This is what Francis thinks...

[video=youtube;5IROiaiOVEU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IROiaiOVEU[/video]

And this is Boogie2988...

[video=youtube;qszERY3qIys]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qszERY3qIys[/video]

Best wishes,
Steve

 

[shunwick]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

And for any and all fans of Francis.... Laying down the Train.

[video=youtube;ukxBX4IPS4s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukxBX4IPS4s[/video]

Best wishes,
Steve

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

LOL! He is great! And his point about the disconnect between what players want versus what Sony wants is very good. In 2013, I wrote on my blog that "one of the other sins of modern game design is how high handed many developers are: "we're making it, and you're going to buy it" seems to be their philosophy. In other words, devs have shown that they really don't care what you want, just what they want."

Yup.

 

[Dr Zaius]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

That's a direct consequence of the consolidation of game developers around just a few big name publishers and development houses. They now basically hold a monopoly over what gets made and what doesn't. And you combine that with the same thing happening to the gaming press, where there now only a handful of large corporate game sites that really matter, and they not only control what gets made and what doesn't, but they essentially control what gamers hear about. The corporate monopoly over the game media ensures that you're pretty much never going to hear about most of the indie games out there unless you just happen to stumble across one on the Internet or see it pop up in the bargain bin on Steam.

If Hollywood and the tobacco industry had a baby, that would be the modern games scene.

They want you addicted to cheap, disposable games that you'll buy just out of habit. They control your fix and how much it costs you, and you ought to be grateful to them for their benevolence.

 

[shunwick]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

That's a direct consequence of the consolidation of game developers around just a few big name publishers and development houses. They now basically hold a monopoly over what gets made and what doesn't. And you combine that with the same thing happening to the gaming press, where there now only a handful of large corporate game sites that really matter, and they not only control what gets made and what doesn't, but they essentially control what gamers hear about. The corporate monopoly over the game media ensures that you're pretty much never going to hear about most of the indie games out there unless you just happen to stumble across one on the Internet or see it pop up in the bargain bin on Steam.

If Hollywood and the tobacco industry had a baby, that would be the modern games scene.

They want you addicted to cheap, disposable games that you'll buy just out of habit. They control your fix and how much it costs you, and you ought to be grateful to them for their benevolence.

Depressingly true.

Best wishes,
Steve

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

Even Nvidia has gotten in on the disreputable racket. Real story here:

http://www.maximumpc.com/gamers_petition_geforce_gtx_970_refund_over_error_ specs_2015

Parody here:

[video=youtube_share;spZJrsssPA0]http://youtu.be/spZJrsssPA0[/video]

 

[shunwick]

Re: Battlefield Hardline

Steam have introduced a mechanism by which modders can monetize their mods via the Steam workshop. This applies only to Skyrim at the moment. Bethesda and Steam take 75% of all sales and the modders get 25%.

The move has pretty much ripped the Skyrim community apart as well as generating the predictable internet nerd rage that should not come as any surprise to anyone. To be a modder for Skyrim, at the moment, is a dangerous pastime. Modders monetizing their mods are generally absent from the Steam forum and modders not monetizing their mods are pretty quick to stand up and say so....

My take on it is that everyone should be able to earn money for their work. However, the way this has come about leaves me with a great unease.

[video=youtube;uZAKeddtOuM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZAKeddtOuM[/video]

Best wishes,
Steve