Q&A: Oct 14th, 2020

DaCody Asks
What are some your favorite "actually dead" multiplayer games? Bonus question- How would you make them live again?

Lots of games that I didn't get the chance to put as many hours into them as I would've liked too. Dirty Bomb, Lawbreakers, and Hawken come to mind. I loved Homefront's MP back in the day, such an excellent fast-paced blend of the two military shooter titans at the time.

At least I got a little bit of the Hawken vibe in Star Wars Squadrons, despite the vehicles being opposite in location, they were similar in function. Games where you control a machine that can take a decent amount of damage have such an interesting dynamic that twitch shooters can't replicate. The dynamic of starting a firefight, and igniting the tension that person you've shot can still turn things around.

Lawbreakers & Dirty Bomb however are quite unique. High-speed, high-stakes, high skill-ceiling gameplay but with an emphasis on teamplay, abilities, and cooperation.

As for making them live however, the difficult part of that is two of them were free to play, essentially already lowering the barrier for entry, and still struggling to find its feet. Lawbreakers definitely could've prevented early wounds with a free to play model, but at the same time, the game's reputation was tarnished so drastically via PR, that might've not done as much as people suggest.

Oh, I completely forgot about Cloud Pirates.

Shame on me, I made a video partly about it.

A much bigger shame however is how many of these types of games don't get a chance to be resurrected at all, not even by the people who love them the most.

The Great Leveler Asks
What game or franchise is the most over rated in your eyes and why?

Destiny. Diablo. Borderlands.

Put any loot-based game on a board and throw a dart.

I just can't personally muster up any excitement for games where the majority of time is spent hoping you get something you want. I understand the core-gameplay is meant to be the bridge from exciting item to exciting item, the problem for me, is both are often anti-climatic, and I much prefer core gameplay to have unique context.

I much prefer a Half Life to a Far Cry, a Titanfall 2 to a Warfarme, etc.

Even in Multiplayer, lots of my favorite games often facilitate context. Halo 2 in Big Team Battle is radically different than Hardcore 4v4s. Siege's claustrophobic quick kill atmosphere is unique from Deathmatch havens of other Military Games.

I just can't play a game based around looting for the amount their fans seem too. Even something like Mass Effect 3, didn't keep me hooked because of the drops, it was the universe. It was finally being able to see this world Bioware created ages ago, be taken to new extremes in ways a campaign could simply never achieve. Like a defected Cerberus officer with whips smacking biotics alongside a Krogan Vanguard, helping the unpossessed Collector mow down waves of Geth, assisted by a Geth.

Playing games because you want something to engage while also conversating, I get, but for that I go to TF2, Halo, or Call of Duty, not games that require so much more time to maximize the fun out of.