Category Archives: Games

Financial Ethics

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There are a bazillion different ways to talk about ethics, and a pile more when it’s only about finance.  It’s insanely rare for two people to share the same opinion on this, as their personal experience has a dramatic impact.

I come from an upbringing of modest means.  My parents worked really hard to provide and I worked various odd jobs from 12 on until now.  I started full time hours to pay for school at about 17, and it’s been that way for nearly 20 years.  Bought a house when I was in my 20s.  Been running a budget since my teens, and my job has me responsible for a lot of people, and a lot of money.  I tend to avoid daily expenses (I brown-bag and make my own coffee), and instead make larger purchases that are planned.  Both my wife and I work really hard, make a decent amount, and can provide more for our kids than our parents were able.  We’re both also quite aware of that fact – and try as hard as we can to avoid the sense of entitlement.

That preamble aside, it should give an idea where my financial mindset lays.  Now to the interesting bits.  Thrtee main scenarios, and they relate a lot to the current state of affairs.

Scenario 1

A government agency is running a service that serves its citizens.  It’s time to replace a key part of their technology, and there are 2 main options.  They are functionally similar, and meet the same security requirements.  One product is offered domestically, and costs $10m, and employs 20 people.  The other product is offered overseas and costs $5m.  Not buying the domestic product means that the business is going to have to cut its staff.

  • Should the domestic product win, even though it’s twice the price?  These are tax dollars paying for it.
  • Should the domestic product win, even if it isn’t as fully featured as the international version?
  • Should price always win out?
  • Should the impact to domestic staff be factored?

 

Scenario 2

A large multi-national business, headquartered in your country, is accused of fraud in another country.  This crime is only punishable in your country, as that other one allows it.  All evidence points that this was orchestrated by the CxO group.  The laws in your country state that massive financial penalties should be applied, which effectively means that the business would have to declare bankruptcy.  Thousands of people would lose their jobs.

  • Do you apply the letter of the law and close down the company?
  • If so, who should take care of the thousands of people who lost their job through no fault of their own?
  • Do you only charge the CxO group? If so, who now runs the company?
  • Does the company come under government agency control for a period of time (e.g. probation) until they right themselves?

 

Scenario 3

Your town has a busy main drag, with plenty of local shops offering all sort of items.  A large box store opens up just outside of town, offering all the selection of those shops, but at a larger discount.  The prices are lower due to both larger scale of inventory, and by underpaying their staff.  If the box store is the only one in town, and pay is low, the box store will eventually close.

  • Do you continue to support local business even though it costs more?
  • Do you find a balance between local and box store?
  • Do you go full box store, knowing that the local businesses will have to close?

Summary

The answers to these differ a lot depending on where you live.  Not even country, even neighborhoods have differing opinions.  Where I live, the downtown is much more financially liberal, while the outlying areas tend to be fiscally conservative.

The important thing here is that there are no easy answers.  With an interconnected society, all the pieces connect to others.  One person’s actions can impact thousands of others, and the ripple effects can last for years.  I’m not saying that there are bad choices, just that sometimes there are choices made in ignorance.  If we understand the factors, and we make a choice from that, then there’s a reason for it.  Even the scenarios above are hyper simplified.  Wal-Mart’s dependency on China’s products has a created a massive trade imbalance, and hundreds of thousands of people in China depend on it.

Gaming

Now what the heck does this have to do with a blog that’s mostly about gaming?  Well, there are 3 large companies in NA that compete for our dollars.  There are half dozen in China that are competing as well (though often through shells/links and focused on mobile).  Gaming was niche 20 years ago, not even close to being true today.  There is more money to be made (revenue) in games than in movies & music combined – it simply dominates.

Some may remember it being acceptable to not buy a band’s music, or go and see a particular movie for X reasons.  There were dozens of media items that were pushing a message, and people buying it expected it.  There have been film boycotts for ages.

But gaming, we make a loud fuss on r/gaming then still spend the money.  We want attention without consequences.

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Iconic

When we decide to reward behavior we don’t like, we promote that behavior.  Large companies are only ever interested in the bottom line.  They will do whatever they need to do in order to get that last penny from the pockets.  Then we feign surprise when they do it again.

If the model work for you, then perfect.  Everyone has different drivers, and levels of acceptability.  For example, Anthem (today’s state) is a good deal at $20, but not for $60.  But if you do make a choice, be ready to follow through on it.  Otherwise, any change you’re trying to push through will never happen.

Masses Have Opinions

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By the time this post goes live, I’d expect the actual value to change – but Anthem is sitting in the low 60s right now.

Some blogs have their thoughts as well.

I did play the beta.  I found it interesting mechanically and wondering if there was an actual game present.  It was not a demo, regardless of how it was sold.  Demos are smooth.  What those two weekends presented was a game with significant bugs.  The day 1 (how is it day 1 when it’s been out for 7 days?) patch addresses a ton of those issues, but somehow managed to create others.

I have a noted dislike for early access games.  It is a very rare game that actually delivers on that promise (Slay the Spire, Grim Dawn come to mind), while others stay in garbage mode for years.  I really dislike that when we’re talking about global publishers with massive pockets.

The short of it is that Anthem just isn’t finished.  It’s an idea that’s still being incubated, and EA wants your money to help fund that effort.  How you feel about that is entirely up to you.  It’s a market trend, entirely supported by revenue.  BlackOps4 is an example of simple greed, selling a full box price, then gradually selling every possible F2P MTX possible.  I wouldn’t so much put Anthem in the MTX spot… but man does this look fishy.

Is the game fun?  When it worked for me it certainly was.  Despite it’s best efforts to put in loading screens everywhere, to slow down the fun parts with a non-interactive movie, to have more technical issues than I could possibly list.   All of that still doesn’t change the fact that combat is simply fun.

And I think that’s where things get interesting.  Destiny 1 was a really bad launch, Destiny 2 had a rough go as well.  Division 1 was garbage until nearly a year after launch.  Warframe today looks nothing like when it launched.  In the “shared world shooters at launch”, Anthem is well above the pack.  The problem is that Anthem is not competing against those games from back then – it’s competing against their current versions. Just like every themepark MMORPG fought against the current version of WoW.

While I’d certainly recommend that people not buy the game at this time, if you really need to, then the $20 monthly fee (at least for PC) is probably your best bet.  Following other games that release in this state, with this score… we’re going to see a sale within the month.  Getting this for $30, yeah, that could work.  Getting this at $60, better off waiting a couple months for the game to find its footing.  There’s a pile of potential here, here’s hoping BioWare can deliver on it before EA starts cutting away.

Anthem from the Outside

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Anthem early release (PC only, $5 for 10 hours, $20 for unlimited per month) was last Friday, so that gives us 4 solid days (Monday was a holiday for a lot of people in NA).  Where are we?

Day 1 patch notes for starters.  Or maybe the patch highlights, since sprinting in Tarsis isn’t listed.  Some pretty important things there – in particular the items under “high level fixes” that deal with simply accessing the game.

I know in the demo my load times were absurd – 2 to 3 minutes in some spots.  Not to mention the sheer amount of loading screens.  Seems the case now too, with the general recommendation to move to SSD.  Which, you know, cool for desktops that have them.  Less so for laptops.  Not sure how that would impact console players, so I guess we’ll see how that works out after Day 1.

There are various youtubers providing their “reviews” or “impressions” of an online game that’s technically still in beta.  Plenty of blog posts.  Gaming sites have early impressions as well.  I don’t quite understand how people can comment on “end game variety” by this point, but I guess they need the clicks.  If you’re curious about the game, I’d avoid browsing Reddit – that’s for sure.

Fair to assume that those playing the game right now are the same people who were more than looking forward to the game.  Passionate I would say.  Not the streamers, I mean the players.  The next wave coming, those in the “it looks interesting” camp, that will be the real test.

Related to this are the (insanely?) dedicated players who are already at level 30 and in full legendary/masterwork gear.  Quite a few used the a “loot cave” for easy farming, and it would seem that Strongholds (dungeons) are giving great rewards just from the chests (without killing the boss).  I know the latter example existed in the 2 demos, since bosses don’t visibly drop loot and account for ~30% of the total dungeon duration.  Curious as to how all this fits into BW’s player models for content consumption.  I mean they certainly expected a portion of players to go for gold, but where do they need to find the balance?

In some previous posts on the demo, I had a couple things that I thought needed addressing.  Sure, a lot of QoL things, in particular flight/swimming controls, load screens, and the UI.  It would seem a lot of those items are being looked at on the 22nd.

I’m sure I will have a few thoughts on Monday after having a decent sit down.  For now it will be just taking in the scenery.  Fingers crossed.

Games as a Service – People Power

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With the recent release (and success) of Apex Legends, there’s a firm footing for “games as a service” as a monetary model.  In particular where that model is not based on buying vertical power (e.g. FIFA) but instead meant on selling horizontal flavor (e.g. cosmetics).  I should add that this model only applies if you’re dramatically exceeding expectations. If you still manage to break the previous year’s profits, yet below expectations, expect people to get fired.

I would say this is the flavor of the month, but it’s really hard to argue the sheer market penetration these games are now seeing.  UO was a “huge success”, followed by EQ, then completely dwarfed by WoW.  We went nearly 10 years trying to find a WoW killer (which, as expected, ended up being WoW itself).  Fortnite makes more money in a day than WoW makes in a month (purely on subs – the game services are a whole other bag).

But similar to MMORPGs, today’s games are all competing for the same eyeballs.   And there’s only so much time in a day to be spent, and people follow the shiny.  Fortnite is on season 7 – after 1 year.  WoW in contrast is entering season 2 since the launch of BfA in August.  If there isn’t new content, new material, then sales go away and people get saturated with what’s present, moving to the next thing.

From all that I can see, Apex Legends isn’t bringing new gamers to the table, simply pulling folks from Fortnite/PUBG, and the curious few wondering what all the hubbub is about.  What this means is that it’s pulling money from a limited pool.  This is a problem if a company is directly competing against itself – but these 3 games are from different groups.  Mind you, it will take a month or two for them all to get a similar ping system.

Which brings me to Anthem.  While in terms of direct competition it’s closely linked to Warframe, Destiny 2, and Division 2.  (Quick side bar – the demo for Division 2 is getting nothing but positive press.  It would appear they learned a ton of lessons and are applying them.  Too bad Bungie didn’t do that with Destiny 2.)  If we look at “games as a service” competition then Anthem is competing with the big ones (in relative size):

  • Fortnite
  • PUBG
  • BLOPS4
  • Apex Legends
  • Rainbow 6 Siege
  • Overwatch
  • Destiny 2
  • Warframe
  • For Honor
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Monster Hunter World

Many of which have little to no barrier of entry.  Warframe and MHW are quite insane in terms of what they give for “free”.  Twitch streams are not the only metrics, but damn.

Again, this isn’t to say that Anthem won’t have success, but tempered with reality here.  It’s not like there are 6m people sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting to play only this game.  And if they do manage to get 6m eyeballs on this in the first quarter, what kind of insane release schedule is needed to keep those eyeballs?  We’re in perfect storm territory here.

And then what happens for the “next big thing”?  You have to believe that all the big companies are licking their lips looking at the insane income from this model.  But this isn’t luck, this is a huge level of effort.  There were dozens of MOBAs, only 3 left.  There are Battle Royale modes everywhere, but only 3 that really count today.  WoW’s only true competition has been FF14 – and it needed a complete rebuild to do so.

It’s really something to watch all this develop, and in such a small timeframe.  Practically impossible to keep up with the news, let alone the developers trying to play guessing game on what will or will not work.  I don’t see how this is sustainable in a glut of online games.

Fingers crossed that BioWare has the magic sauce.

Dark Clouds at Acti-Blizz

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If rumors are true, then today/tomorrow will see some significant cuts at Activision-Blizzard.

The consumer in me is happy that the company is taking a hit.  That is market capitalism at work, where the consumer demand determines the health of a large company.

The human in me is upset that people are going to lose their jobs through no fault of their own.  In larger companies, the cuts are rarely in the correct places (decision makers) and instead point to the lowest level possible.  Well, perhaps a bit less in this case, since both CFOs were fired.  Bobby Kotick is still going to get his $30m+ this year, rather than taking a pay cut.  There are some good people who are going to lose their job, and I hope that they land on their feet quickly.

The gamer in me is mixed.  On one hand, this doesn’t mean that Acti-Blizz is going to actually start making games with gamers in mind – in fact I would argue the opposite.  The whole Destiny 2 roadmap since launch is textbook “how not to make a sequel”.  BfA isn’t doing too hot either – but at least you can buy a literal flying pig.

We’ve lost the battle on MTX.  Outrage for horse armor has been replaced with joy on the Carleton dance.  Most people are ok with cosmetics in the store, it’s simply the price point that is debate point.  I do not believe we’ve lost the battle on lootboxes, rather that this battle is just getting started.  Specifically on the lootboxes that are pure RNG on rewards.  With both Fortnite, PUBG, and now Apex Legends hitting like a meteor in the market, it will be very interesting to see what games currently in the dev pipe end up delivering.

Maybe this will be a wake up call to the industry in general that they need to find a different path.  That the sheer glut of gaming options means people can spend their time/money on quality rather than quantity.  Counting on the horde of locusts to buy a reskin of last year’s game… pretty sure that model is going the way of the dodo.

Best of luck to those impacted by the layoffs.

 

 

Content Expectations

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The more bits I get from the Anthem devs, the more I am both fascinated and curious.  I don’t think my expectations for a AAA game are high for 2019, but maybe I’m in the wrong.  For a multiplayer launch, I would expect:

  • Social tools
  • Player customization (non-power related)
  • Solid mechanics (with numerical balance over time)
  • A dual path for progress
    • Learning the game/story/mechanics (e.g. leveling)
    • Repeatable and engaging content (e.g. end game)
  • Build / role diversity
  • Game stability

I realize that this is quite generic, and that there are multiple ways to achieve this.

Social

Destiny has an alliance mechanic, which provides some weekly benefits.  Off your friend’s list, the top 5 provide give a score that gives extra coins at the end of the week.  Those with no friends, there’s a catch-all bucket for the randoms you play with.  That’s neat and actually better than most other games.

There are no guilds at launch, which seems like a really odd choice.

The social hub should be there, which is good.  The game really feels empty, in particular Freeplay mode where the world can fit 100+ javelins and you’re only ever 4 at max.

There’s matchmaking for everything, so that’s a serious plus.  Not being able to see other people’s loadouts beforehand is going to make the top-end content a pain to manage, pretty much forcing pre-made groups.  Will be interesting.

Customization

Javelin-wise, Anthem has this nailed.  The outlines of Javelins make them recognizable, but the attachments, colors, textures, vinyls – all of it really does add a sense of individuals.

There are no gun customizations that I can see.  Maybe the legendary drops will look a bit different.

Mechanics

I think flight works really well, adding a 3d portion to most combat.  I am extremely hopeful that the devs never add another swimming section to the game.

I think the gunplay is average at best.  It is very loose, and makes weak-spot based combat ineffective.  I also can’t seem to find a realistic difference between all the gun types.  Pick the rifle with the largest magazine.  (‘Cept the heavy weapons for colossus).

The abilities are really quite awesome.  Primers and triggers make for some interesting combos.  I like that there’s a requirement to work together, and that some targets must be flanked.

Bosses have interesting mechanics, though there’s a tad more focus on bullet sponge than deserves to be present.

I like that combat is built for offense, since there are very few defensive options present.  There’s no cover, shields are barely enough to get outta dodge, and you need to actively pay attention to succeed.

Leveling

Not sure how this will work.  From what was presented, the core storyline has more potential than delivery.  There’s just something off about Tarsis, and the way the people move/talk.

Missions do not appear to be repeatable, which seems a terrible waste of resources.  Warframe really did an amazing job on this front.

End Game

From what I understand, there are only 3 strongholds (dungeons) at launch.  We saw one in the demo (Tyrant), and that one takes about 30 minutes to clear.  What was there was enjoyable, but certainly not enough to keep attention for more than a week.

There are weekly/daily quests through contracts.  Haven’t seen how that works, so no comments.

Freeplay has random events.  The spawn rate in the demo was very low, and it looked like we could access 25% of the map.  I don’t understand how that will work at release.  3x the map and the same amount of players?

There are also game generated events, like shaper storms.  Demo spawned a large titan, which was neat to see but a bullet sponge.  Curious.

BioWare has stated plenty of times they have big plans for end game.  There’s a general lack of detail on this.  I haven’t seen any content release plans after launch, so maybe I’m just in the dark on this.

Build Diversity

In the demo, there was a lot of this.  Each javelin plays much differently than another.  Abilities make a huge difference in playstyles.  It’s a lot of fun to experiment.  There are QoL things here to provide more info on builds and options (to avoid having to reference a wiki), but that’s more than manageable.

Again on guns.  There’s not much here – they feel more like stat sticks.  That’s mid-game though, so perhaps end game has a reason to pick a 4-burst rifle vs a high ammo version.

Stability

I am not getting my hopes up for this.  Great that those issues came to light before launch.  Bad that those issues were so pervasive before launch, from a publisher (EA) that makes a living on on-line games with the Frostbyte engine.  Feels a bit like the ice cream machine always being broken at McDonalds.

There are some rather significant PC optimizations required for people to play this game.  I’ve generally been able to play any game at high or ultra, without much issue. For this, I’m running 95% CPU and peaking over 90s in temperature.

 

For now, it’s mostly conjecture until launch.  There’s a lot in the game now, a lot more than should be coming by launch, and ??? after launch.  I’m sure that next week we’ll get a view at the service roadmap, if not the week following.  It’ll be hard to get people who are on the fence to commit if what’s there now is all there is for the next few months.

Given EA’s recent report on a bad quarter, and pointing to Apex & Anthem as the next thing, it’s important to note that Anthem’s business model is nearly entirely built on box sales.  And EA wants to sell 6m of those.  Dollars to donuts, Anthem doesn’t hit that number.  Horizon: Zero Dawn sold 7m total.  God of War was 5m in a month.  Combined with Origin Access essentially giving you the game for $20 for a month’s access…the math here just isn’t going to work.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine game, but it is far from blockbuster.  This entire paragraph was an unpleasant typing experience.

Anthem – Post Weekend

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A few additional thoughts since the the previous post mid-weekend.  The same general thinking applies, but perhaps a few more bits and bops.

Technically I did see the Shaper Storm on Sunday in-game.  Sadly, the game server crashed 3 times before I could do something about it.

Optimization

This is the Frostbite engine, which EA has mandated all games use.   Not quite getting why they haven’t figured how to optimize it though.

My CPU runs in the high 90%, GPU is similar, and temps are crazy.  Only thing that has any effect is enabling vsync.  Detail has no impact.

The load times on PC are just too long.  Considering that there are no environmental effects (aside from water), I’m not quite getting what is actually going on here.  I have my fingers crossed that this is better at launch – in particular when you end a mission and do not have to go back to Tarsis in order to see 2 load screens for the mission map.

The controls are meant for consoles.  The menus are a clear example.  Flight/swim are actually manageable with a controller.  When you pick up items, the screen displays a D-pad icon.  I can live with most of that.  ‘Cept the flight/swim controls.  Feels a bit like Blizz and “do you guys not have controllers?!”  I’m guessing XBOX/PS4 players are going to have the best experience for some time.

Server stability was a serious issue this weekend.  Saturday/Sunday, I was never able to complete a single mission due to server crashes. The forums seem to have a similar issue.  A game cannot find a successful launch with this type of issue (or the infinite load, which seems fixed now).

On the flipside, the game is ridiculously good looking.  I’m looking forward to more enemy types, but the ones there now are impressively detailed.  Near everything is extremely fluid, and combat is predicated on always be moving.  That part works exceptionally well – arguably better than WarFrame due to the open areas and focus on vertical.

Numbers

I do expect some tweaking to a lot of numbers before launch.  This weekend had a bit too much bullet sponge for my tastes.  I realize that is a terribly hard thing to balance.  Even with max level gear (19 power), it was only a marginal improvement in damage.  Maybe this was a bug fix from the VIP weekend, or an actual purposed tweak.

The flipside is that combos dominate the damage department.  To the point where it makes more sense to take self-combo skills (e.g. frost and fire) even if they are not terribly practical or numerically sound on their own.  It will be a challenge for BioWare to manage the meta at top levels if this combo bonus sticks as is.  Let’s put it another way, I find that group clearing goes significantly faster if I stick next to another player and solely place an ice build, as everyone and their mom seems to combo off ice.  Instead of playing like a mage, I end up playing an enchanter.

Betas (and make no mistake this is a beta, not a demo) are a really poor way to judge metas.  I mentioned that exact point in a previous build.  Quite curious as to how that ends up a few weeks after launch.

Time

I really do think there’s a lot of potential here, and I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt at launch.  It is miles beyond recent online dumpster fires (*cough* F076 *cough*), but clearly there are some bits that need work.  If server stability can be sorted out (and I am sure BioWare hasn’t slept since last weekend), then there’s more than enough here to keep people busy until level 30.

What happens after that…I don’t think any game has actually ever figured that out near to launch.  Destiny took multiple expansions, Warframe took a few years, Divison was nearly 2 years.  I’m not holding my breath.  Get me to max level, and then we’ll take another look.

Anthem – Quick Thoughts 2

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The good news is that the infinite load screen seems gone.

The so-so news is that there are so, so many bug fixes that it sometimes feels like a different difficulty.

The bad news continues to be that all rewards being predicated on getting to the mission complete screen.  In theory, that makes people spend more time playing rather than inventory management.  In practice, I have experienced quite a few server crashes that meant 30-45 minutes were just wasted.  Not crash as in I can jump back into the mission.  Crash as in the mission server (or whatever it is) crashes and I get sent back to Tarsis.

Also, this game makes my laptop hit 99% CPU, and 95+ degrees.  It is much more demanding than I had imagined.

Bug Fixes

Seeing as how I completed all the quest content last weekend, all I have now is exploration and the stronghold/dungeon/strike.  I’ve pretty much memorized all the spawn triggers/points by now, so it’s more about optimizing the execution.  In practical terms, when to use my ultimate.

I will assume this is bug fix territory, since AI behavior has tweaked a bit.  They tend to work in groups now, more than solo.  They are also harder to stun, and take more damage before dropping.  The final spider boss is also more challenging, as it now seems to spawn more spiders than before.  End result, I find myself dying more this weekend than last.

Still some kinks to work out, as I find myself getting hit by bullet fire while behind walls, flying controls are greatly improved, swimming still feels like a drunk tank, and some chargeable skills do not work consistently (e.g. they do while hovering, but not while on the ground).

Storm

I won’t say I have a huge amount of time in the game, but let’s say that I am surprised anytime I see anything other than a Colossus or Storm in my group.  Rangers are there when low level, and I have seen a total of 2 Interceptors since last week.  Storm is my bag of fun.

I’ve been trying more loadouts to see what works for my playstyle.  There’s a large attack and a quick one, and each can come in one of 3 elements – ice, fire, and lightning.  Ice slows/freezes enemies, fire does some AE and DoT, lightning just seems to be pure damage.  I honestly expected lightning to have more effect on shields.  Even in 18 power (blue) skills, it takes every cooldown I have to take down someone with shields.

There are also variants in the attacks.  Like one is a giant fire explosion, and another is a fire element that skips through enemies.  You’re provided a numerical representation of what the skill does in terms of damage, recharge and so one.  But until you actually see it, you really don’t know if it works for you or not.

I am really liking the chargeable fireball attack as a quick attack.  The large attack, I’ve yet to find one I really do like, though it’s hard to argue with something with big numbers (lightning explosion seems the one).

Not being able to add more options to my gear (due to level restrictions) is less fun.  I’ve found quick a few upgrades to elemental damage that would certainly complement the playstyle.  Stacking 5 or so elemental boosts would make a huge difference.

Progress

I have two distinct thoughts on this matter.

First – this weekend’s build should have been there last weekend.  There are a lot of things from the previous build that appeared 90%+ of the time, and that was the build meant to appease the people who have forked a lot of money over.  It’s really great that the wholly open demo works, but there are still some optimizations/fixes that are missing (swimming is absolute garbage).

Second – The content presented here is at most ~4 hours worth.  Since you’re dropped into the middle of things, there are many systems that are simply not clearly explained.  Why would you explore?  How do you get recipes?  How does experience work?  What makes the ultimate skill get stronger/recharge faster?  What do the stats actually mean?  And when the demo content “ends”, it should present some sort of message to the fact since I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out if I could do more than kill a spider.

Clearly the weekend isn’t over, and the “cool event” of Sunday hasn’t come to pass.  I know there are more things to discover here, and I am certainly motivated to see them come.  That’s a good thing.  I will certainly wait until release to put more thoughts to this, but right now it seems fair to say that there’s a market for this game.  Maybe not as big as some hope (this will not steal Fortnite players), but a decent sized one at least.

 

Demo Weekend 2

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I won’t be talking about Epic “stealing” Metro.  Or Steam saying it’s unfair.  Or the review bombs that clearly show why Steam reviews are a cesspool.  Or the entire irony of the situation.

I won’t talk about WoW’s recent patch that still doesn’t have Zandalari or Kul Tiran unlocked.  Or that the Horde/Alliance buff bonus caused Limit to faction change in order to take advantage.

I won’t even talk about the dumpster fire of Fallout 76 re-introducing old bugs with a recent patch.

Maybe I’ll talk about Facebook admitting to committing a crime when they harvested data from teenagers who “consented”?  Nah.

Glorious Friday is here.  Time to do things outside of the office, and take advantage of the small break in this polar vortex.  Keep shopping for some gaming laptops (kinda set on a GE73 or a GS73).

Oh, and maybe play some more of that Anthem demo.

Expectations

I have such a ridiculous distaste for EA’s business practices, yet a fondness for BioWare that this is causing a weird internal debate.  Ethically, I cannot pre-order any game, least of all from EA.  In terms of lockboxes and general RMT, EA’s model hit peak insanity with Battlefront 2.  And people still pre-ordered it.

Yet here I am contemplating an EA game.  It’s said that there are no lockboxes.  That there’s no paid DLC (which seems a bit odd… but ok).  It will likely have new javelins at cost (I guess like Rainbow6).  And there are customizations out the wazoo (at some pretty crazy price points).  We’re not talking $3 horse armor anymore.

I do like what I see so far.  When the game actually loads, the moment-to-moment stuff works, and works well.  There’s much more class diversity in terms of skills and weapon choices that’s more in line with Warframe than Destiny – a model I really liked.

The gaps that remain include:

  • the integration of story / player choice
  • the diversity of activities / creatures (Warframe’s model here is really hard to beat)
  • the diversity of sytem-wide events (e.g. Shaper Storms), though apparently that will happen on Sunday afternoon
  • the scalability of playing with people of different levels, and at different points in their quest line
  • the long-tail portion of the game at max level

All but the first one have significant impacts on the long term viability of the game.  The group interactions, multitude of events, and continual progress of the grind for loot drive engagement.  Quite curious to see how that plays out.

For now, it looks like a fun purchase.  And that’s the point, right?

Demo Impressions

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It’s a solid experience.

As with all games, there are some good bits, and less good bits.  For the most part, the good bits make the rest sort of not matter as much.

It’s a BioWare game, and Tarsis is the “story hub”.  The demo only gives you 3 quests, but as a sign of the rest I think it will be a fun run through.   Of the coop shooters I have played, it’s better than nearly all the others in that regard…sci-fi but not so weird it’s hard to follow (Warframe can be tough on that one).

The art, music, design are all top notch.  I think it caused my GPU to melt, as the PC shut down a few times.  Rarely are you unable to see where to go, or what’s going on, which is honestly a tough bag in any 3D game.  It’s a demo, so customization options are limited, but it’s pretty clear there will be a lot of options.  I do like that there are so many dye options, easy to get creative and lose time there.  It’s also good that each Javelin has their own outline, so that they are easily recognizable regardless of their armor sets.

Mechanics are decent.  There are some overall number issues, spawn rates, that sort of stuff that can be balanced without too much trouble.  Enemies aren’t just meat shields, they each have their own preferred tactics, weak spots, and strategies.  Shielded enemies need to be flanked.  Head shots matter.  The giant spider has weak points on the back.  You need to always be moving, dodging, or evading attacks (even as a tank).   The scar enemies attack in groups, and sometimes it feels cheap to be attacked by half a dozen enemies, who all eat through your shields in 2 seconds.   In particular in open areas.

Where things go a bit off the rails are on the environments.  I am used to cover based mechanics, or maybe that you can use the environment to avoid damage.  Large objects, that generally applies.  Smaller objects, like walls, that doesn’t seem to work.  One battle has you take on 3 fire giants who have massive fire AE.  Walls did nothing to stop that from hitting.  All too often I can’t hit an enemy but they can hit me.  The giant mech battle is a really good example of this too.

Flight mechanics I can’t get used to.  In a straight line, sure that works fine.  Anytime you need to actually move, or gosh forbid you’re underwater, it feels like you’re driving a rear wheel drive in the snow.  The amount of oversteer is insane.  It is a major distraction and I am really hoping there’s just something wrong with my control setup.  I’m still tweaking the sensitivity settings…

Javelin diversity works well enough.  I think there’s something wrong with the colossus though, as it seems entirely built for support.  Maybe it’s just the limitations of the demo, but having pure support in a shooter (with no real healing, or faster rez) doesn’t seem to jive so much.  That and that the defensive toolkit really doesn’t work when you’re getting attacked from multiple directions, and bosses still chew through them.  Will be interesting to see that class grow.  Ranger is fun, if your standard meat soldier.  Storm is the glass canon, but really the canon part could use some tweaking.  Their ultimate is insane, I’ll give it that.  Due to the elemental effects (fire, ice, or electric) it makes for some really interesting builds.  Interceptor, I don’t have much experience with, and I rarely saw any in the groups.

Weapon diversity is pretty much what you’d expect in a demo.  Rifles, snipers, shotguns, grenade launchers.  Some minor diversity within, short burst, full auto, that sort of stuff.  You cant upgrade weapons, and they don’t have a unique appearance… but maybe they do later on.  I will say that comparing weapons isn’t all that practical in the numbers game.  It’s nice that you have playstyle choice.

The game feels like it has a persistent memory leak.  I’ve crashed numerous times, hit an infinite load screen nearly every single mission, creatures suddenly pop in or out.  It’s just weird, and I fully expect that to be addressed at launch.

Honestly, a demo is a crappy way to look at the meta.  I won’t dig on that.  The moment to moment stuff, that really works well.  It’s clear there are some balance changes that will be applied for launch, since this is a 2 month old build.  But the tiny moments are fun.  It’s great to take on a giant mass of enemies, and barely scrap by.  It’s fun to take on a boss in a giant room, full of waves of enemies.  It’s fun to use abilities as a group, see some interesting combos come from it.

Pleasantly surprised by the end.