Video Games

[qwksndmonster]

I think the cover is okay, but EA has really lost all creativity with these covers. They're all horribly simple with the same exact filters on each game. Really simple. Something anybody with basic photoshop skills could do.

2007 called to tell you that they already know.

[LTS]

I think the fact that I will download this game and the only time I will see the cover is when I launch the game... I'm not too concerned about it.

 

How many people are buying the game for the cover?  Given that the answer is probably close to 0 it makes little sense to spend a lot of money on it.

 

It's clear they got the message from NHL 15 however.  They are taking the missing online pieces to the front this year.

 

Play Together. Win Together.  and then put two people on the cover who do just that.  That's pretty smart.

[GoPre]

I think the fact that I will download this game and the only time I will see the cover is when I launch the game... I'm not too concerned about it.

 

How many people are buying the game for the cover?  Given that the answer is probably close to 0 it makes little sense to spend a lot of money on it.

 

It's clear they got the message from NHL 15 however.  They are taking the missing online pieces to the front this year.

 

Play Together. Win Together.  and then put two people on the cover who do just that.  That's pretty smart.

 

You just had to take all the fun out of it. ha ha

 

I'm really curious to see how many sabrespace members that play video games prefer to download games instead of buying a hard copy at a store. 

[LTS]

Now that I can download games I try to do that.  I hate having to put the disc in the drive.

 

If a game is on sale somewhere I would pay for the disc.  

 

Arguments against downloading? Licensing.  People still love the hands on feel.  Of course given the online nature of so many games these days it doesn't matter if you can put the disc in the drive if the servers that you need to connect to are no longer there.

So, perhaps I'd buy something that was a single player game with some level of long-term replay value.  But for the most part, I'd rather not have the clutter.

[GoPre]

Now that I can download games I try to do that.  I hate having to put the disc in the drive.

 

If a game is on sale somewhere I would pay for the disc.  

 

Arguments against downloading? Licensing.  People still love the hands on feel.  Of course given the online nature of so many games these days it doesn't matter if you can put the disc in the drive if the servers that you need to connect to are no longer there.

So, perhaps I'd buy something that was a single player game with some level of long-term replay value.  But for the most part, I'd rather not have the clutter.

 

That's mainly what I do. Really the only games I play online are NHL and some shooter like Call of Duty. I prefer adventure games where I'm not dependent on others to have a good time. 

[TrueBlueGED]

So, Arkham Knight is such a clusterbleep on PC that the publisher has suspended sales indefinitely until the developer can fix it. I don't think I've ever seen this happen before.

[GoPre]

So, Arkham Knight is such a clusterbleep on PC that the publisher has suspended sales indefinitely until the developer can fix it. I don't think I've ever seen this happen before.

 

Just saw the suspension of sales a few minutes ago. JujuFish mentioned the problems the PC version had been having. W/ problems this big the developer had to know the PC version was not ready to be released. People getting a refund since sales have been suspended for the PC version? Any news on how Arkham Knight is working on the PS4? 

[Trettioåtta]

Just saw the suspension of sales a few minutes ago. JujuFish mentioned the problems the PC version had been having. W/ problems this big the developer had to know the PC version was not ready to be released. People getting a refund since sales have been suspended for the PC version? Any news on how Arkham Knight is working on the PS4? 

 

None of the reviews I have watched/read (which were conducted on PS4) mentioned anything significant 

[GoPre]

None of the reviews I have watched/read (which were conducted on PS4) mentioned anything significant 

 

Very happy to hear that.  :thumbsup:

 

I still need to beat Bloodborne. Prefer to finish games before I buy a new one. Arkham Knight is on my must purchase list. 

[qwksndmonster]

THIS IS WHY NEW CONSOLES DIDN'T NEED TO HAPPEN.  Developers don't know how to write games efficiently for the new machines yet, so they sink all their resources into figuring it out and things that should be simple like a working PC port are difficult.

 

(not that bad PC ports weren't a problem when the 360 and PS3 were the consoles)

 

-----

Ok. I'm okay, and the consoles did need to get updated.  New hardware, yadda yadda.  I JUST HATE THE WAY VIDEO GAME COMPANIES DO EVERYTHING AHHHHHHHH WHY ISN'T THERE BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY!!! IT'S ABOUT THE GAMES YOU DORKBAGS! THE GAMES!!! NOBODY GIVES A WHAT THEY PLAY IT ONNNNNNN

 

----

I'm ok, really.

[LTS]

You really couldn't be further from the truth.  People totally care what they play it on.  I think the lines between consoles and PCs will get more blurred over the next 2-3 years but up until now there has been a world of difference between the two.

 

The question is not the ability of developers to write efficiently.  That comes in perhaps making games take full advantage of hardware.  But the attention to detail and the desire to accept mediocrity in their work is a huge issue.  Sadly, this is not just a problem within the video games industry.

 

I'm not trying to go on some super diatribe here but the ability to be detail oriented, have pride in one's work, and generally do a quality job has gone steadily downhill across all aspects of society over the past 10 years.  The number of missed grammatical and typographical errors in news reporting, the type of work I get handed daily by people where I work, and the constant stream of simple problems that are accepted (not missed, just accepted) that permeate society today is amazing.  We've built a society that lowers standards and expectations rather than trying to work harder.  These are the byproducts.  We have people distracted with more information than they can humanly handle and these are the byproducts.

 

I fear the trend will get much much worse over the next 5-10 years.

 

There's no way any game as bad as Arkham Knight on the PC gets released without someone saying.. ship it.. I know it sucks, but ship it.

 

It's like the NHL15 development staff and the people in charge of making that game. They absolutely blew it. So much so that I would have fired every person who was responsible for the leadership of decision making on that game.  As a product manager I look at these things so much more closely than I ever did in the past.  I see it from people all the time in my line of work.  There are requirements and people try and do a shoddy job and figure it will get accepted due to timelines.  It's not easy to say no because there are always people from above asking why you can't meet deadlines and reminding you how much money is on the line.  Sometimes you feel pressured to just say yes and let something substandard get released and hope you can patch over it later before anyone notices.

[qwksndmonster]

I don't believe the problem is a societal lowering of standards.  I believe the problem has to do with games, which are an artistic work, being treated by their developers as moneymaking assets and nothing more.  Companies like Valve that don't outsource their work to huge coding and 3D art farms (and don't rush their games, and artistic decisions aren't influenced by a huge corporation) tend to produce the kind of games that I'm interested in.  Devs long for the yearly franchises like CoD and Madden instead of developing intriguing original works.

 

The attempt to bill the Xbone and the PS4 as one stop entertainment computers instead of ensuring their ability to play the most games possible is another manifestation of the ugly way this artistic medium is mired in the muck.

(I said developer a lot when I probably should've been saying publisher.  Valve is a special case because they are their own publishers, hence the great games and the... Hey has Valve released a game in the past 4 years or so?)

More on point:  This PC port mess up is almost definitely a result of a publisher giving a developer hard deadlines, and not understanding the extra amount of work it would take to port the game.

[TrueBlueGED]

I think the increased complexity of game design and programming compounds the problems discussed above. Financial interests put increased time pressure on developers, but more developers are needed because of the complexity, which feeds into the time-drive financial goals becoming more important to pay larger development teams, and so on. All leads to more room for error, both random (due to complexity) and systematic (due to time constraints), and an increasing focus on the primary money-driver (the consoles) at the expense of things like competent PC ports.

[qwksndmonster]

Blue's post brings me to another gripe!  Better hardware in consoles means that publishers will want games with better graphics.  For how good graphics already are, trying to make them better makes the games exponentially harder to develop.  Every 3D model has to be that much more detailed, code will be more convoluted.

 

I know good graphics are important to a lot of people, but in the games industry way too much focus is on technical graphics, and very little is on the actual visual style of the games.  Wind Waker came out in 2002, and I think it looks better than most new games that come out today.  I wish there was a world where developers could make more better games on 2007 game engines.  Unfortunately the need for "graphics" trumps the need of a good art style.

 

Example:  I love the open world fallout games. (Fallout 3 and New Vegas)  But their photo-realistic art style looks horrible, and frequently takes me out of the game when I'm tryna roleplay (I can't not think of IKP's post about shrader in the lies thread).

 

Basically I think the Games industry needs to hire more art style leads.  And more story writers/editors.

Edited June 26, 2015 by qwksndmonster

[GoPre]

Blue's post brings me to another gripe!  Better hardware in consoles means that publishers will want games with better graphics.  For how good graphics already are, trying to make them better makes the games exponentially harder to develop.  Every 3D model has to be that much more detailed, code will be more convoluted.

 

I know good graphics are important to a lot of people, but in the games industry way too much focus is on technical graphics, and very little is on the actual visual style of the games.  Wind Waker came out in 2002, and I think it looks better than most new games that come out today.  I wish there was a world where developers could make more better games on 2007 game engines.  Unfortunately the need for "graphics" trumps the need of a good art style.

 

Example:  I love the open world fallout games. (Fallout 3 and New Vegas)  But their photo-realistic art style looks horrible, and frequently takes me out of the game when I'm tryna roleplay (I can't not think of IKP's post about shrader in the lies thread).

 

Basically I think the Games industry needs to hire more art style leads.  And more story writers/editors.

 

Gameplay/story surpasses graphics. Too bad a large part of the gaming industry either does not understand that or is under the belief graphics will sell more games. And if the latter is the case, that means the general gaming community prefers graphics over gameplay. 

 

*Wind Waker was a kick arss game.  

Edited June 27, 2015 by Thanes16

[Randall Flagg]

So do we get a roster update with eichel and oreilly for NHL 15 or no?

[GoPre]

So do we get a roster update with eichel and oreilly for NHL 15 or no?

 

Hope I'm wrong on this, but I think the last roster update is post trade deadline. Would love to have Eichel, O'Reilly and Lehner on the Sabres. And of course all other players in the NHL being on the teams they are now on. However, Eichel was never in the game. Hasn't signed a contract yet, so if there were to be an update he won't be a part of it. McDavid is in NHL 15, but that's because he played in the CHL. Eichel was in the NCAA. This prevented him from being in NHL 15. 

[Kristian]

Still, for those of you who didn't play the XB1 or PS4 version of NHL15 - While that game misses some features from the current gen series, the gameplay itself was still a massive improvement, and was most enjoyable and even pretty "realistic", once you got the sliders right.

 

I will however conceede, that those missing features hurt the longevity of the game. Normally I'd still be playing now, but I haven't touched it for several months now.

 

Heavily into Project Cars atm, lol.

[GoPre]

Still, for those of you who didn't play the XB1 or PS4 version of NHL15 - While that game misses some features from the current gen series, the gameplay itself was still a massive improvement, and was most enjoyable and even pretty "realistic", once you got the sliders right.

 

I will however conceede, that those missing features hurt the longevity of the game. Normally I'd still be playing now, but I haven't touched it for several months now.

 

Heavily into Project Cars atm, lol.

 

What sliders do you use? I've been playing NHL for years, but have never messed around w/ the sliders. Simply put it on all star and simulation. Would like a more life like type of game. Maybe the sliders you use could provide that. Would appreciate it very much! 

[shrader]

Sitting here watching the Dark Knight Rises really makes me want to get a PS4 for Arkham Knight. I don't know how I'm going to hold off.

[Bob Malooga]

Hope I'm wrong on this, but I think the last roster update is post trade deadline. Would love to have Eichel, O'Reilly and Lehner on the Sabres. And of course all other players in the NHL being on the teams they are now on. However, Eichel was never in the game. Hasn't signed a contract yet, so if there were to be an update he won't be a part of it. McDavid is in NHL 15, but that's because he played in the CHL. Eichel was in the NCAA. This prevented him from being in NHL 15.

There will be no roster update. I had to do it all myself. Lol. (Based Eichel's ratings off McDavid's.)

 

Thing that sucked this year was you couldn't control the Amerks, so all the prospects kind of go to waste, you can't develop them.

 

But, they are putting it back into the game for next year, thankfully. It's the only reason I really buy it. Same with Madden and NBA...only 3 games I buy every year. Lol.

 

(It's amazing how much better the Sabres are with ROR and Kane. Even McGinn and Legwand are decent though. Lehner is a beast. Eichel is only a 74 to start off, like McDavid.)

[GoPre]

There will be no roster update. I had to do it all myself. Lol. (Based Eichel's ratings off McDavid's.)

 

Thing that sucked this year was you couldn't control the Amerks, so all the prospects kind of go to waste, you can't develop them.

 

But, they are putting it back into the game for next year, thankfully. It's the only reason I really buy it. Same with Madden and NBA...only 3 games I buy every year. Lol.

 

(It's amazing how much better the Sabres are with ROR and Kane. Even McGinn and Legwand are decent though. Lehner is a beast. Eichel is only a 74 to start off, like McDavid.)

 

:lol: I do the same thing every summer. Kind of fun actually. Brings back the days when there were no roster updates and online gameplay. Would spend hours fixing rosters for every team. Haven't purchased Madden in a while. W/ the Bills going in an entirely new direction and Madden being on the PS4 for more than one year, may have to pick that up. Miss NCAA Football... :(

 

And yes, NHL 16 is a must buy this year. W/ modes/features returning + who knows what else for the PS4 and Xbox One, can't pass it up. 

 

Before the draft/trades went down, I had McDavid on the team. Only because Eichel wasn't in the game. Also traded Grigorenko + a late 1st for O'Reilly w/ all the 'what if' going on. Rather close to what actually went down.  Now it's no longer fantasy. It's for real!  

 

After making the trade for O'Reilly, placed him first line RW, McDavid first line C and Kane first line LW. 

 

Have quite a few changes to make! 

 

 

Do you only play sport games? If so, give Bloodborne, The Last of Us or Shadow of Mordor a try to get a taste of what the gaming world has to offer.

 

:doh: First two mentioned are PS4 only. Forgot about that. What system do you have? 

Edited June 28, 2015 by Thanes16

[TrueBlueGED]

Sitting here watching the Dark Knight Rises really makes me want to get a PS4 for Arkham Knight. I don't know how I'm going to hold off.

Inform your wife exactly how much money you plan on spending for a single game? That's all I got.

[Kristian]

What sliders do you use? I've been playing NHL for years, but have never messed around w/ the sliders. Simply put it on all star and simulation. Would like a more life like type of game. Maybe the sliders you use could provide that. Would appreciate it very much! 

Let me have a look once I start it up again, will post them here.

 

Something very important to remember, is that EA's sliders have a mind of their own sometimes, and make absolutely no sense.

 

For instance, this year, you have the pass reception ease slider. Well, pass reception ease... If I want the puck to be difficult to handle, and don't want players to be able to execute a perfect one-timer on every pass. I turn this down, right? The lower the slider, the lower the reception ease, right?

 

Wrong.

 

If you read the explanation on the slider it says "How difficult it is for players to receive and control a pass", or something to that effect. Meaning, if you turn this thing down, you end up with players who'll never have a hard pass bounce off the blade of their stick. In short, the exact opposite of what you really want. There's at least one or two more of these contradictory sliders, but I forget which they are. Need to see the menu again.

 

Once you find those sliders however, it opens up a completely new game. I had my game going like the closest thing to real hockey I ever saw in an EA game, but like I said - The lack of features, kind of took something away in terms of longevity.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Kristian

[GoPre]

Let me have a look once I start it up again, will post them here.

 

Something very important to remember, is that EA's sliders have a mind of their own sometimes, and make absolutely no sense.

 

For instance, this year, you have the pass reception ease slider. Well, pass reception ease... If I want the puck to be difficult to handle, and don't want players to be able to execute a perfect one-timer on every pass. I turn this down, right? The lower the slider, the lower the reception ease, right?

 

Wrong.

 

If you read the explanation on the slider it says "How difficult it is for players to receive and control a pass", or something to that effect. Meaning, if you turn this thing down, you end up with players who'll never have a hard pass bounce off the blade of their stick. In short, the exact opposite of what you really want. There's at least one or two more of these contradictory sliders, but I forget which they are. Need to see the menu again.

 

Once you find those sliders however, it opens up a completely new game. I had my game going like the closest thing to real hockey I ever saw in an EA game, but like I said - The lack of features, kind of took something away in terms of longevity.

 

Appreciate that very much!