Gaming Gripes (Keep It Civil)

[Ernest Lemmingway]

Got a gripe about a specific game, company, or the industry as a whole? Post it here! Just remember: no inflammatory comments or attacking others. I'd rather not see this thread shut down because people couldn't control their emotions.

 

The last months of 2018 and the first two of 2019 have seen several issues with major game producers and publishers and serious issues just keep cropping up. Including some that directly affect players beyond ripping them off.

 

If you've been following Anthem, you know it's had a rough launch that's been compounded by a staggered release date based on what "edition" people bought, the fact that it lacks any major single-player content, and bugs, bugs, bugs! Well there's an issue that's cropped up that could hurt EA/BioWare far more than just a dull game: PS4 players are getting hard crashes when they play the game. A hard crash means the console shuts down completely and improperly, which can and does damage hardware and firmware, sometimes irreparably. This is getting major coverage on YouTube and Reddit and the only solution seems to be "STOP PLAYING THE GAME UNTIL BIOWARE FIXES IT!" The kicker? Crashes on PS4 were already an issue before the latest patch but they weren't hard crashes. If anything, things have gotten worse since the patch supposedly "fixed" anything.

 

As if to rub salt in the wound, Sony was also initially offering refunds to people who bought Anthem, no questions asked, before this news broke. Now people are being denied refunds and customer support is not being supportive at all. There is also no word--official or otherwise--from BioWare/EA about this.

 

I'm not an Anthem player myself. I have all of two titles for my PS4 since I lost interest in consoles shortly after buying mine three years ago. But an issue this severe strikes a chord with me. A patch that makes thing worse I would actually expect from the likes of EA and its subsidiaries slaves. Especially when the studio is being told to make something outside their normal area of expertise. But one that directly damages hardware? That's a new low even for EA.

[sila]

I have gotten very tired of the triple A market myself. Very few high profile games come out that I am excited for, and the few I do have interest in tend to have problems tied to them that kill it for me (Metro Exodus for example, I was looking forward to before the whole epic games fiasco).

 

Everything ends up being a variation or copy of the same few things. Ubisoft in particular likes to release basically the same game over and over. The AC games and Far Cry games all have so many things in common that they might as well be the same games with different skins. Or at least they used to, around the time far cry 4 was new. I did not play odyssey or far cry 5.

 

It just gets old, even if a game has 0 problems at all (which is quite rare these days it seems) it probably just recycles the same old content and mechanics as all the other Triple A games. There is no passion or creativity left,  most companies just go for the safer option that is more likely to print money.

 

Probably the only triple A game that has come out in the last couple years that I was not only excited for, but still excited about after playing through it was the RE2 remake. 

 

I am looking forward to Cyberpunk 2077, here's hoping it comes out and is a great game.

[FauxFurry]

Everyone who said that Koei-Tecmo was just pretending to capitulate to the pseudo-progressive moral scolds just so that they would have an excuse to monetize all of the racier content were completely vindicated as of the Release of Dead or Alive 6. If one wants all of the skimpy costumes and bonus characters with more outrageous anatomical features, they have to shell out around $100 extra USD for it minimum through their Season Pass. 

Too bad that the people who predicted this couldn't make enough money betting on that outcome to afford the Season Pass as no one was willing to give good odds for betting on something that was so inevitable. One might as well bet on the sunrise.

 

Companies founded in Japan aren't above this kind of chicanery when they have an international audience to sell overpriced tat to.

[SpyVsPie]

How grateful do you guys think Bethesda is to have Anthem taking a bit of the heat away from FO76 for a little bit? 

[Darkpig]

This is just a recent gripe. The tendency for games to include a leveling system is getting really tiring to me. Potatoes to bananas. I get that there is a feeling of progression to it but it feels like nothing is gained, and nothing is learned really. Can't people just get more creative with the whole leveling system instead of "go there" "kill monsters" and "catch fish"? How about stuff like "gain the trust of a local faction", "skin a beast to make armor with it", "skin a human and make armor with it", "Steal weapons from your enemies Mega Man style, pray to a local shrine to get divine assistance", or I guess a better way of saying it is make your legacy with your own hands rather than through numbers to show that you've progressed.

 

I get that videogames are a series of 1s & 0s but where is the explanation for this weird leveling mechanic? Writers really need to get on that.

[FauxFurry]

13 minutes ago, Darkpig said:

This is just a recent gripe. The tendency for games to include a leveling system is getting really tiring to me. Potatoes to bananas. I get that there is a feeling of progression to it but it feels like nothing is gained, and nothing is learned really. Can't people just get more creative with the whole leveling system instead of "go there" "kill monsters" and "catch fish"? How about stuff like "gain the trust of a local faction", "skin a beast to make armor with it", "skin a human and make armor with it", "Steal weapons from your enemies Mega Man style, pray to a local shrine to get divine assistance", or I guess a better way of saying it is make your legacy with your own hands rather than through numbers to show that you've progressed.

 

I get that videogames are a series of 1s & 0s but where is the explanation for this weird leveling mechanic? Writers really need to get on that.

Level Scaling is even more baffling than the inclusion of level progression in non-RPGs as it makes the leveling even more pointless. All it does it increase the size of the meaningless numbers being thrown around with no actual benefit to the gameplay whatsoever.

[yukitokuroya]

Microtransactions, battle royales, etc. I just want Battle Royales to DIE.

[Darkpig]

18 minutes ago, FauxFurry said:

Level Scaling is even more baffling than the inclusion of level progression in non-RPGs as it makes the leveling even more pointless. All it does it increase the size of the meaningless numbers being thrown around with no actual benefit to the gameplay whatsoever.

True that. It was just thrown there to reduce the whole boredom factor from overleveling the opponents but that kind of defeats the purpose. Computers have gone a long way since Pac-Man. What else were they supposed to do? Improve visual quality??

[Ernest Lemmingway]

There's a fix--of sorts--for the Anthem issue on PS4. I don't go near Reddit so I have to rely on Yongyea on YouTube to relay the info. And I have to agree with him and the Redditor that posted the fix: It's safer not to play Anthem on console until EA fixes it (yeah, sure they will).

 

Consoles may not be getting truly bricked, but this is still just too much even for EA. If the BioWare that exists now was the same one that made such classics like Baldur's Gate, KotOR, ME, and DA:O, I'd be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Instead it's the same thing that's happened with Indian Motorcycles: the name alone is all that's left. I no longer care if BioWare lives or dies now since I don't recognize them anymore.

 

EDIT: ? EA is actually asking its customers to help them figure out why Anthem keeps crashing on PS4 because even they don't know why it's happening. That's some real Bethesda-level ineptitude.

[Ernest Lemmingway]

Well, looks like I won't be buying Outer Worlds after all. It's become an Epic exclusive.  ...Actually, I'm not that upset about it, if I'm being honest with myself. We've received no word if it will support mods or not and I'm expecting it won't.

[sila]

16 minutes ago, Ernest Lemmingway said:

Well, looks like I won't be buying Outer Worlds after all. It's become an Epic exclusive.  ...Actually, I'm not that upset about it, if I'm being honest with myself. We've received no word if it will support mods or not and I'm expecting it won't.

I am currently a little worried that Phantom Brigade might end up going to epic games too... The devs for that game have been commenting a lot on the steam forums answering questions and the like... However they have not responded a single time to folks asking if it will be an epic exclusive.

 

To be honest, I am getting  tired of games I wanted to play being delayed for a year, but I have plenty of other games to catch up on so I am ok for now.

[27X]

On 3/4/2019 at 8:05 PM, FauxFurry said:

they have to shell out around $100 extra USD for it minimum through their Season Pass. 

Might wanna revise that cause KT has been gouging customers for literal decades. Literally nothing new.

[Ernest Lemmingway]

2 hours ago, sila said:

I am currently a little worried that Phantom Brigade might end up going to epic games too... The devs for that game have been commenting a lot on the steam forums answering questions and the like... However they have not responded a single time to folks asking if it will be an epic exclusive.

 

To be honest, I am getting  tired of games I wanted to play being delayed for a year, but I have plenty of other games to catch up on so I am ok for now.

There's also been talk of Steam rescinding user reviews, just to rub salt in our wounds. What's really irritating is that it's likely not bad user reviews that are convincing producers to switch but the 12% cut of all sales vs. Steam's 30% cut. Valve cuts user reviews and producers keep switching, they'll have shot themselves in the foot for nothing. They could try lowering the percentage they're asking but Valve, like everyone in the gaming industry these days, isn't that smart.

[SimpleSpectre]

7 hours ago, Ernest Lemmingway said:

There's also been talk of Steam rescinding user reviews, just to rub salt in our wounds. What's really irritating is that it's likely not bad user reviews that are convincing producers to switch but the 12% cut of all sales vs. Steam's 30% cut. Valve cuts user reviews and producers keep switching, they'll have shot themselves in the foot for nothing. They could try lowering the percentage they're asking but Valve, like everyone in the gaming industry these days, isn't that smart.

They could certainly try the approach of lowering what they charge at the very least. They have a much larger userbase than epic, even at a reduction in how much they garner from developers would go a long way as an incentive to devs to come back and sell on a much larger platform. The review bombing/brigading I think scares a number of publishers away from steam though, But it seems to be one of the only direct outlets to voice some sort of displeasure in practice or execution regarding the game to where devs and publishers have it in their face.

 

Valve needs to do something or they will start to hemorrhage eventually and by that point there likely won't be any course of action to correct the problem. Still I absolutely despise the act of locking these games behind a launcher. Seems there's a new company trying to cash in on hosting all of their games independently and exclusively every other day.

[sila]

7 hours ago, Ernest Lemmingway said:

There's also been talk of Steam rescinding user reviews, just to rub salt in our wounds. What's really irritating is that it's likely not bad user reviews that are convincing producers to switch but the 12% cut of all sales vs. Steam's 30% cut. Valve cuts user reviews and producers keep switching, they'll have shot themselves in the foot for nothing. They could try lowering the percentage they're asking but Valve, like everyone in the gaming industry these days, isn't that smart.

A lot of those exclusives are happening because Epic is bribing them to the tune of several million dollars. That is why Pheonix Point and Outer worlds switched. They want all that extra Epic money, and then in a year they can "release" it on steam at full price and make money off the people that hate Epic too. It is a win-win for them.

 

Edit: As for Phantom Brigade, it is NOT looking good for that game. The developers, Brace Yourself Games, have already declared that their other upcoming title will be epic games exclusive. And they are still not answering about that for Phantom Brigade.

[Ernest Lemmingway]

7 hours ago, sila said:

A lot of those exclusives are happening because Epic is bribing them to the tune of several million dollars. That is why Pheonix Point and Outer worlds switched. They want all that extra Epic money, and then in a year they can "release" it on steam at full price and make money off the people that hate Epic too. It is a win-win for them.

I've already heard about PP. But if they're shelling out up front for other games, they're taking an even bigger gamble than I thought. Not every game will necessarily break even, much less turn a profit, for Epic given what they paid the studios for a year-long exclusivity. No matter what, that's an initial loss that has to be made up for.

 

They can try selling year-old games for full price on Steam. But at least one person won't be falling for that.

 

The launcher thing, @Wachtergeist, I'm kind of neutral on. I don't like Epic because they're anti-consumer, they fail to properly protect user payment data, and they mine user data from Steam. I know about Tencent owning 40% but even I'm not falling for that "they share data with the Chinese government" line. Not without some hard proof. ...Say, wouldn't Trump's trade tariffs apply to Epic given Tencent's partial ownership? No, probably not...

[Miss AshleyJ]

My Xbox just downloaded the most recent console patch for Minecraft and I do not like the graphical changes at all. 

 

(Though at least I can finally have a shield... don’t know why that took so long...)

[Resdayn]

AAA gaming aside of few expection is pretty shit nowadays, I lost my interest there.

 

Epic game store buying out publishers is pissing me off, and their store is well rather shit, also lack of security.

 

Otherwise I want more rpg games, actual ones we getting them, but not enough.

[Ernest Lemmingway]

Some good news, I guess. It was confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077 will NOT be an Epic exclusive...but that was sort of a given since CDPR owns GOG. There's even rumors that it will be out in July this year. I'm still ambivalent about it. On the one hand it's by CDPR who has consistently delivered excellent single-player games. OTOH they've broken their promise for mod capability in their games in the past and I'm not optimistic they'll deliver this time. The world of CP just screams for LL's touch yet that can't happen if the game won't support it or the tools to do such never get released.

[sila]

5 hours ago, Ernest Lemmingway said:

I've already heard about PP. But if they're shelling out up front for other games, they're taking an even bigger gamble than I thought. Not every game will necessarily break even, much less turn a profit, for Epic given what they paid the studios for a year-long exclusivity. No matter what, that's an initial loss that has to be made up for.

 

They can try selling year-old games for full price on Steam. But at least one person won't be falling for that.

 

The launcher thing, @Wachtergeist, I'm kind of neutral on. I don't like Epic because they're anti-consumer, they fail to properly protect user payment data, and they mine user data from Steam. I know about Tencent owning 40% but even I'm not falling for that "they share data with the Chinese government" line. Not without some hard proof. ...Say, wouldn't Trump's trade tariffs apply to Epic given Tencent's partial ownership? No, probably not...

Not all of them are getting the up front bribe money, mostly the bigger titles.

 

The devs behind Pheonix Point claimed that they received a big enough bribe that they could afford to refund all of the backers and still have money left over.

 

So basically the folks backing the idea are nothing more than an interest free loan at that point... I would have been *pissed* if I had backed it, considering their own faq clearly said it would be on GoG and Steam.

[FauxFurry]

6 hours ago, KamenRiderzero1 said:

My Xbox just downloaded the most recent console patch for Minecraft and I do not like the graphical changes at all. 

 

(Though at least I can finally have a shield... don’t know why that took so long...)

Notch was never one to hide behind shields of any kind so maybe it never occurred to him back when he owned the IP?

Still, that doesn't explain why Microsoft didn't add them in sooner.

[Miss AshleyJ]

PC version has had them for ages.

[sila]

Slight update on the Phantom Brigade thing, the developer posting on the steam forum actually did respond to the questions. Unfortunately he did not offer a definitive answer, instead giving a response worded carefully so that it would not be incorrect if it were to change down the line.

"In regards to release timings, or platforms, all we've stated thus far is our intent to bring the game to PC and Steam with a TBD release date. I don't think we've made any promises about these things, as they're not even fully decided yet."

From his responses, it seems like Brace Yourself is indeed considering moving to an epic exclusive for Phantom Brigade (or may already have and not announced it yet). He was asking about why exactly people dislike Epic and was offering opinions from the developer's side of things.

 

Even though he did not give a real answer, I truly respect that he responded to it at all and was willing to listen to some of the gripes people have with Epic.

 

If anyone is interested in that discussion: https://steamcommunity.com/app/553540/discussions/0/1836811737993888129/

[Ernest Lemmingway]

Going over the videos about Epic, and the statements the CEO has made, it seems like they've got a vendetta against Steam. They're taking every opportunity to stick to Steam and taking potshots against them at every opportunity. I freely admit that Steam needs to get its shit together because they've been top dog for too long. But there seems to be more to this story than just taking on their biggest competition. Some personal grudge against Steam by one or more execs would actually explain why they're willing to pay studios not just for exclusivity but to not distribute through Steam even if they release on other platforms, though. But will it work? Especially when players already don't like them for their anti-consumer practices, their repeated failures to protect customer data, and their ongoing statements that could alienate customers ("Players will not determine who wins the platform war, studios will")?

[NickNozownik]

Most new games are boring. All I see is just some shooty bang bang kill the badmen nonsense and a lot of "deck building open world pixel crafting" indie crap. I don't care about Bethesda, Steam or this Epic Games bullshit. I just want a good video game.

 

It's so fucking BORING.