2013 The Year Of Bad Games?

[Chbaakal]

I fully agree with Gregahit on this one. BL2 is a fun game, not to be taken seriously. If you don't like the game, don't play it just to make a review that points out all the things you do not like about it, and leave it at that. By his gameplay in the review, he either really sucks at it (if it is him playing it), or he didn't bother to show a real interest in playing (as if to avoid sinking down to a 'juvenile' level).

 

The only things I found to be lacking in the gameplay are a third-person view, the models for Maya and Gaige (LL and modding ruined me here; need better bodies for both, with clothing 'skins' instead of just colour), and the occasional loss of loot in a landscape design.

 

All in all, this 'juvenile' loves the hell out of BL and BL2. And you don't want to hear what I think of most other games, because I have considerably narrowed down the list of genres I like over 25 years of PC gaming. Saves money, time, and effort in what is left of my diminishing lifespan to enjoy playing whatever I want to, not what others say I should, or shouldn't play.

 

Year of bad games? Not at all. Year of choices for games I would play? Same as every year.

 

 

 

[TheoryoftheDead]

I know every year we have some bad games, but frankly I'm amazed by the amount of crap we have gotten in the past few weeks. Normally some of the bad games actually had some redeemable qualities, but were in executed poorly in the process.

 

But this year, I can at least point 4 games that are practically broken. The first one is actually a major disappointment imo, Aliens: Colonial Marines had some potential, sadly Gearbox pretty much screwed Sega. Then we have Omerta: City of Gangsters, Ride To Hell: Retribution and today's craptastic Dark.

 

These games aren't just bad, they are practically unplayable and it's honestly amazing that we get games so broken at the end of the road, when developers are supposed to understand how the system works.

 

Well, suppose that really rather depends on which games you choose to look at. Personally, there's been quite a number of titles that I've enjoyed this year. Fallen Enchantress - Legendary heroes, Shadowrun returns, and Metro - Last Light, just to mention a few. There's also Wasteland 2 that'll (hopefully) be released around the end of the year, and Dark souls 2 being released at the beginning of next year. So I can't really complain.

 

@Storm55 He already points out straight away that before he even played the game, he disliked it. He was determined that the game was bad, so the whole review is pointless. He did not even try to be objective - he pretty much went out of his way to find things that he hated with the game and make it look bad, a lot of the subjects that he brings up being a question of opinion as well.

As for the "theft" of artstyle, I really don't get the crime. The artstyles has a lot of similarities, that much is certain - and sad as it might be - it is no crime to use another person's style as a base for your own. In fact it is quite common. The only reason he'd even bring this up, is to score points with those that are unfamilliar with the "art and design" market. Without knowing the full discussion between gearbox and these two "unlawfully used artists", this could just be a question of money-grab for all I know, which is not completely unheard of either.

He might as well just done a 3 second video where he said "This game is bad".

That would've given just as much information as his 13 minute "review" of the game.

[LordJerle]

I fully agree with Gregahit on this one. BL2 is a fun game, not to be taken seriously. If you don't like the game, don't play it just to make a review that points out all the things you do not like about it, and leave it at that. By his gameplay in the review, he either really sucks at it (if it is him playing it), or he didn't bother to show a real interest in playing (as if to avoid sinking down to a 'juvenile' level).

 

The only things I found to be lacking in the gameplay are a third-person view, the models for Maya and Gaige (LL and modding ruined me here; need better bodies for both, with clothing 'skins' instead of just colour), and the occasional loss of loot in a landscape design.

 

All in all, this 'juvenile' loves the hell out of BL and BL2. And you don't want to hear what I think of most other games, because I have considerably narrowed down the list of genres I like over 25 years of PC gaming. Saves money, time, and effort in what is left of my diminishing lifespan to enjoy playing whatever I want to, not what others say I should, or shouldn't play.

 

Year of bad games? Not at all. Year of choices for games I would play? Same as every year.

 

Tiny Tina makes the entire game worth playing.

[demongoat]

 

It's only a matter of time before the console and PC merges. It might not happen this coming gen, but it'll happen...

 

Microsoft was trying to make Xbox One more of a pc than a gaming console. They were trying to adopt the Steam model, so yes, it most certainly is happening.

 

whats wrong with the steam model? i would think gamers would want it since it allows for sales of games, people love steam.

thing is there is no incentive for anyone when gamers scream over it and then go sell the game to gamestop.

 

the goal of microsoft isn't to turn the xbox one into a pc, it's to turn it into a media center, they have been trying to do that for years now.

they like a lot of companies, for instance apple, want computers to be like appliances ,a device to meet a need or want and then  be discarded when it wears out.

 

microsoft makes no effort to deny they want you to make the console into your media hub, their whole media blitz is about that!  it's why games were more of a side thing at e3, because they want people to watch dvd/blu-ray on it, dvr things on it, control their cable through it.  games are there to be the medium for the other things not the focus.

 

why do you think they are trying to turn it into a pc?  have you read much of the stuff their PR guys are selling?

[Guest ThatOne]

Has any of you played Divinity Dragon Commander?

 

If you did, you probably know what's in this post; I've had the chance yesterday, at a friend's house. I'm... Quite shocked by the fact someone thought it was a good idea to release the game at this state, mostly because it's clunky and clumsy and full of bugs. And the dialog options are unsatisfying. And the dragon is over-powered in the extreme. And... Well, read on if you want to.

 

Once again, this review is based on my limited experience with the game (five hours), which amounts to one playthrough of the campaign on the hardest difficulty. I'll try to be as objective as I can, but I hope you realize that my negative experience and, as a direct result, opinion of this game colors this review in a pretty major way.

Be warned that there are spoilers in this review.

 

I'll start with the game's biggest flaw: the real-time strategy combat.

The problem with it is that it's almost none-existent. You create a blob of units - usually the ones that counter your enemies' or the ones that you have the most useful upgrades with -  and the computer does the same, then you unleash your dragon and instantly win; the Eye of the Patriarch(?) kills everything in it's area of effect, and the pillar of fire is even worse. And with a passive, you leach 30% of all of that back, becoming immortal for the duration of the pillar of fire's effect or regaining all of your life points instantly with the Eye.

No thought required. No other outcome possible. I've won fights that told me I had a 0% to win (although admittedly my "luck" rating was abysmal).

 

The controls in dragon form are an issue. Because you are in first person, you need to use hotkeys to select your buildings and you can't accurately select your units. That makes everything frustrating with small armies, and it becomes even worse when you have 100+ units on the field.

 

Luck is my next complaint. Luck is a passive bonus to your chance to win a fight by auto-resolving. Because combat is so boring, you'll want to auto-resolve as much as you possibly can, so luck is the most important stat in the game.

Except that you can only get luck if you side with the undead, apart from a few rare cases with the elves. If you are like me, and you hate religious fanatics who believe it's fair that a man who didn't say a prayer before dinner will lose his foot, your luck will drop to ridicules levels.

 

So, from there, I'll get to my next point: the game has a set mindset of what is right and what is wrong, and it imposes itself on you and affects your decisions. Even in matters that seemingly don't matter to one councilor or another, they'll have some excuse or - one time - toss a bloody coin. And their approval of you will change if you don't do as the coin says as much as if you, say, side with them on their most important matter.

 

All this, coupled with the very limited responses you have for various dialogs, makes the game feel very very flawed. For example, if one of my generals commands me to do something, and I'm her superior, I should be able to tell her I will do what she wants while also telling her I don't care much for her tone. Or on the other hand I should be able to deny her demand without being overly petty.

 

Next up is the gold and research system. At the end of the first map, you'll probably have long had all the possible researches and have the maximum amount of additional researches and gold. By the end of the second map, you'll have everything. The third map is pretty much a formality and no more.

Something should've been done to slowly introduce new researches and units to the player in a more gradual way. Perhaps unlocking one tier of units per map. As it is, you'll be overpowered on every single map, because your dragon always offsets the balance in an extremely major way.

 

I might as well write something about the newspaper; it's a fun little parody, at first, until about two hours in (at most) you realize it has the same things in it every turn you don't make a decision (political or related to your queen or generals). Basically, every other turn it throws in some generic head-lines at you.

And they are always misquoting, lying, mocking or whatever. Even if you make the political decision to limit sensational press, it doesn't change in the slightest.

 

The ending: considering this game is about choice, the fact that there's only one ending was more than a little unsatisfying. Same with the original endings of ME3, you get one generic cut-scene and a tiny bit of dialog depending on your choices (much like the red-green-blue decision of ME3). That's it.

I'm not sure what I was expecting. Perhaps the ability to become a dictator, or to be murdered by revolutionaries if I sided with the demon, or... Something. The creators should look at Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen to understand how to make multiple well made endings.

 

All in all, it's an interesting concept, but poorly executed. There are also numerous glitches and bugs; I've had my game freeze multiple times, and the AI ran into invisible walls or ran in circles for no apparent reason. The loading times were not an issue in this game.

The AI is also very exploitable in it's base, which is never a good thing.

 

All in all, it's a 3/10 from me. It's garbage, and should be branded as such.

If they fixed the bugs, got rid of the awkward first person dragon mode - it would've been a 5/10. It's not so much to ask for, really, but in it's current state the controls make it not worth buying, and the bugs make you regret you bought it even after you get partially used to the controls.

 

If they also restricted the dragon a bit more, rebalanced all the dragon skills and limit the number of each type of skill the player can use (or make stat increases non-stacking), changed the research and gold system because it's extremely exploitable, ensured the player never gets useless cards (ones which unlock something he already researched) and limited the number of cards available at any one time - or removed the card system altogether. Increased the number of battle maps...

Then, maybe, it would be a game that deserves as high as an 8/10. Add more dialog options, consequences, endings, the ability to not get married if you don't want to, change some of the political decisions to be more realistic, etc, the game can perhaps be worthy of even a 9/10.

 

But that's a different game entirely. This game, Divinity Dragon Commander, is garbage.

 

Thank you for your time,

-TO

[D_ManXX2]

I'll let you know if it's a bad year for games, we will know it is one if X Rebirth sucks

 

Actually i have not bought many games but this was really on my need to get list.

Knowing Egosoft they do not disappoint much most of what they release or cooperation between game developers and modders combined.

 

So far what they should looked really well especially finally be able to walk around in 1st person