MY BRAIN HAD A THINK ABOUT A GAM3

I think "games as a Service" is a terrible unsustainable concept. I like games I can start and finish. I'm an adult, i already have the real world to suck up my time, I dont need a game to do the same thing.

For every one success story I'm sure there are far more failures. The overwatch business model is only sustainable if a game gets sustained numbers; that's impractical for most games. Games like evolve had millions poured into them on the premise pepper will never strip passing them, but people do. It's a boom or bust blockbuster stylised business model designed to get shareholders salivating first, and making something worth spending your life on second.

Edit: not to mention the incredibly unethical gambling shite in a load of them

I think the ps4 pad is quality, and I don't have a problem with its battery life at all personally.

Muss wrote:

I think "games as a Service" is a terrible unsustainable concept. I like games I can start and finish. I'm an adult, i already have the real world to suck up my time, I dont need a game to do the same thing.

This sums it up entirely for me. I found myself getting dangerously deep into some mobile games earlier in the year and I had to tear myself away from them as I felt so unfulfilled after playing them compared to a game with a tangible finishing point.

You all know I prefer story driven games but I know how popular some of these service games are that could stop people getting a PS5 or Scarlett if they can't play Fortnite.

I can definitely see a good chunk of those games making the jump to the new consoles though it might not be something you see right away as why leave a guaranteed user base behind? The R6 Siege devs did mention a good while back they are in it for the long haul and want 100 operators added to their game over a ten year period - I do agree with Muss and Jay for the most part though and there will come a time when something is added to Siege that makes me stop playing or I just find another MP game I enjoy playing way more. (They already pushed their luck a fair bit with some of the things in year 3)

I don't dislike Games providing a service- look at the constant free updates to Splatoon and ARMS - but it requires a level of generosity and fair play on the developers' side which is far from guaranteed.

The_Jaster wrote:

(They already pushed their luck a fair bit with some of the things in year 3)

You're not kidding anyone, Jas. You'll always go back to siege

I don't think it's unreasonable to have one or two games of that ilk constantly on your playlist. But I personally couldn't manage more than that. There's only so much time to give.

Thats the thing, really: the target audience arent people who are super into games and want to play all the best stuff. Most real functional people buy one or two games a year which they really like and play them maybe once a week.

I do think that's slightly changed over the years based on people I know but few are still buy FIFA, Red Dead etc and not a lot else that those having a ongoing element be it FUT or whatever Red Dead Online will be, keeps them coming back once a week along with buying FUT packs that makes the service model work.

That for next gen, the people buying day one or even first few years aren't the audience of service games as a whole even if the biggest game at the moment is one.

Your post started like you were gonna disagree with me but then you kinda said the same thing as me . . ?

Just agreeing and thinking the lack of Fortnite, Minecraft etc on PS5 or Scarlett for awhile won't make a difference as not the audience who'll spend £500 on a console then the ones the happily play a few games year and invest in them.

Also they might both be backwards compatible (I think Scarlett will be) and Jas brought up splitting the audience but maybe cross-gen multiplayer can be a thing if Rainbow Six was on PS5.

Was just curious what you guys thought as you're not all a fan of remasters etc but is that different for a game like Minecraft, is it just on everything.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Thats the thing, really: the target audience arent people who are super into games and want to play all the best stuff. Most real functional people buy one or two games a year which they really like and play them maybe once a week.

And there's nout wrong with that, I just fear that as things tend to be in nontendo that it's unsustainable for increasing numbers of games to try and copy the 'service' system

Yeah for every Fornite there will be a LawBreakers, why I sort see how MS is sort of doing it with there games along with Game Pass makes a lot more sense.

As you sub to Game Pass, you download Sea of Thieves are new content drops for the game and you're paying for the sub of Game Pass then game content. That I think if a game is a flop it's less risky but does make me think that if MS buy IO which is rumored that Hitman 3 would be episodic again and you'd have one a month on Game Pass.

Hmmmmm... having jumped from FIFA 16 to FIFA 19, I think I'd be far less excited had I seen incremental changes to the game in 3 month periods, if it was "service-y".

Having said that, I'm going to digress from this and get on my right-on left-wing high-horse. Briefly, EA made an attempt to be progressive with FIFA 16 and say "hey, look, we've finally got female football players". Yes, a massive step forward, but: (a) 12 teams does not a tournament make, no matter if you give that tournament its own large button on the screen. (b) some things were half-arsed - I don't thnk England would deliberately pick 6 players out of a squad of 23 that could only play as strikers. However, at least they went with the dignity of face-scanning, to make the players look like themselves. On to FIFA 19 - with all the gradual content additions over the last three years (I'm genuinely excited to play season of the German 3rd Division), has the women's game improved? Well, the England players can actually play in more than one position now (and it's mostly how the current team have set up for e.g. the last European champs). However, there are still only 12 teams. There should never be a situation where the 3rd-placed team in a group goes through to a knockout stage (*cough* Portugal in Euro 2016 *cough*). Also, no player who has been added to the game since FIFA 16 looks remotely like their actual selves. Basically, what I'm saying is, they might as well not have bothered.

I guess they could have gone down the Yakuza route   !

At times, a one-buttocked botch job can seem more offensive than not trying at all. Sounds like this is one of those times.

Same with FM, I'd to see the WLS on it as I would start a game with Man City and see if I can do well with them and see where that would take me.

It would be better to have official teams but I'm sure there's a mod for various women's leagues in fm.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I don't dislike Games providing a service- look at the constant free updates to Splatoon and ARMS - but it requires a level of generosity and fair play on the developers' side which is far from guaranteed.

Yeah, the two examples you gave are total outliers because there's no sign of these free updates existing to entice players to buy lootboxes or whatever - they're there to keep people playing the game. I suppose a downside to that is that if you're a huge fan of those games, that business model is only sustainable for so long - case in point with Splatoon 2 dropping its final update next month - but the upside is huge with the goodwill and trust that's gained from the fans.

You know what FIFA, PES, FM et al should do? Next years games should be 100% female. That would be brilliant, hilarious and give them a full roster going forward.

Drunkalilly wrote:

You know what FIFA, PES, FM et al should do? Next years games should be 100% female. That would be brilliant, hilarious and give them a full roster going forward.

I approve of this idea.



That should have been a .gif

I've been playing a lot of games on various things after Xmas and just got some thoughts on them which is easier to put in one place then multiple

SMASH Ultimate, seems good from what I have played which isn't much beyond three classic runs, local 1v1 and starting World of Light.

Starlink, seems good for £20 and Fox is well integrated along with how the clip is set up for Joy-Cons, I wouldn't be shocked to learn it was always going to be a Switch game but was ported to PS4ONE much like Rayman.

Into the Breach, bought for £5 something on the eShop, now I can see the appeal but I'm just hopeless at it, I must git gud.

Diablo III, I bought the Goblin amiibo on Boxing Day and saw Jay got it plus some peeps at work that I finally started it and I've enjoyed what I've played so far.

PS1 Classic, the actual console is lovely then you turn it on, now I don't mind the UI as I get why it looks like that but something is certainly off about it. Which may be due to it being 720p on a 4K screen from what I can gather.

I started with the first game Battle Arena Toshinden which is utter pants, that instead of going to the next game I went to MGS which is a bit awkward with a d-pad but guess what a brilliant game is still brilliant even on the naff thing. Just means I can only see MGS, FFVII and Tekken 3 really be worth playing, still, I've got more use out of it then my SNES Mini

PSVR, I got another one with half of my Christmas money. On the first day, I just messed around with experiences such The Last Guardian one which is better than the actual game, watched WWE in it which is an odd thing as you're basically on the ring apron or move around to things such as Shane O'Mac jumping off something which you can then look up at him.

Then yesterday I started Moss which is such a whimsical delight and has me very excited to play Astro Bot if that's better.

Next lot of things I play or talk about be it Super Paper Mario, Tetris Effect or whatever more than likely will go in the relevant thread or even last game.

masofdas wrote:

Diablo III, I bought the Goblin amiibo on Boxing Day and saw Jay got it plus some peeps at work that I finally started it and I've enjoyed what I've played so far.

I've not fired this up yet, but I'll be hitting you up soon enough to get some games of this arranged along with any other forumites that might be kicking about for some dungeon crawling action. More on that in its designated thread, I'd imagine.

A British YouTuber called hbomberguy did/is doing a stream of himself 101%-ing DK64 for trans charity Mermaids.  It featured John Romero, Grant Kirkhope, Jim Sterling, and the youngest member of the US House of Representatives (who is also Latino and female).  It's raised $230k when I last checked.

So the year's started off okay.

Yeah, I saw that getting some attention on Twitter. Good stuff to all involved.

I might have asked this before but I've brought up twice recently once being with Res Evil 2 and then in Meet the Admin Team as in have your gaming changed over the years?

I would gather the likes of Drunka this might be playing more portable games with his travels in Japan.

For myself, I've talked about how things like Res Evil 2 on PS1, I would have played over and over unlocking all the costumes, tofu scenario and I would just play that in-till I saved up my pocket money for a new game, same with Halo I brought up in meet the admin I would have finished on every difficulty and in CO-OP to get both emblems.

Where now with more funds available and more games coming out that take Res Evil 2 I'm just I want to play the story of this cool game but that's enough for me.