Randomly Mine: August 28th, 2018

Hey Disney…

You’re stupid.

Was there are reason for that “point?”

Not really.

Video Game TV

One of the games I really enjoyed my time with this year was The Crew 2. In my time with the beta, I felt like it was nothing other than a textbook sequel, not afraid to change its style and tone for the better while adding more cars, disciplines, and variety to its open-world gameplay.

It seemed like the sort of game to hold me over until the release of Forza Horizon 4 in the Fall.

So why didn’t I buy it?

For the same reasons I don’t go through a TV season just to wait nine-months like everyone else.

Time is limited, and in my world, time is money.

So to spend $80 CAD on a video-game that’s not going to be in its prime until three updates later doesn’t strike me as a wise investment. 

The first of its many updates is going to be released in September, and I can’t help but be reminded of when I see a trailer for “Season 2” of a show I’ve heard good things about.

“That’s cool, I’ll wait and see how it turns out.”

And I’m not the only one.

This seemed to be the common sentiment I saw in comments for The Division 2.

Ubisoft has earned the reputation recently of maintaining games and possibly, even giving them a bigger audience than ever before years after their release. But now, that’s becoming the expectation.

And the thing about expectations is, they’re made to be broken.

Linear vs Railroad

Playing King Kong for this latest video reminded me the value of sandbox systems in linear games.

What Yahtzee calls Spunk Gargle Wee Wee relied on fixing the players every step. Go into the wrong building, try to deviate from the intended pathway, shoot at enemies before you’re supposed to be? Fail. Fail. And fail.

Obviously, this sort of thing is done because whoever’s in charge of the project isn’t thinking about replay value, depth, or immediacy, and to a point they have a reason. Most games don’t get finished by the general population let alone multiple times. So to a company, it’s more important to make something short that a dog could complete rather than making what’s completed, a journey itself.

But what I think’s been lost is that games like King Kong already accomplished all of that while making its campaign more engaging. Even though its gameplay doesn’t have the depth to generate multiple playthroughs without having already exhausted the possibilities, its first playthrough is more interesting than most recent games.

To witness an event on screen setup to probably happen is still more interesting than a completely scripted event that was definitely going to happen with no relation to your actions as a player.

If a magic trick only needs to work once, then light mini-sandbox systems do just that. Overly linear campaigns are a trick that expose how they’re done on the first attempt.

Qoom

While DOOM 2016’s single-player is regarded by some as one of the best shooters in recent memory, its multiplayer is written off as a tacked-on modernization that failed to live up to the rest of DOOM’s quality.

And it’s kind of true.

Developed by Certain Affinity – Halo 2 Anniversary – their attempt wasn’t poor, just underwhelming. Lacking any real innovation or superior design compared to other games. It lacked the polish of ID Software’s campaign, despite some stunning visuals and diverse weapon-set.

But as with so many gaming experiences in this modern age, rather than just abandon it entirely, ID Software took over the Multiplayer component and over the course started to make changes. 

Rebalancing weapons, adding game-modes, releasing its Season Pass content for free, and best of all, including bots in certain game modes, a real rarity today.

As a result, the multiplayer that now features in DOOM is a fully evolved version of a component that I always enjoyed. Me and a buddy would grab our drinks, throw on DOOM multiplayer and laugh as we coordinated to take down Demon’s as quickly as possible, use-up power weapons, and dance our butts off with the sexiest motion captured emotes that embarrass every other game on the market.

It’s this devotion and dedication that makes me hopeful for DOOM Eternal’s competitive multiplayer.

Though had ID and Bethesda not be trying to sell Quake Champions as an Esport – I don’t think it’s going to happen on a large scale – I still think they could’ve had a dual package release. Have it so that DOOM stands as the single-player component, and Quake stands in for the Multiplayer, as that is generally what both are renowned for.

That and I just want to Railgun somebody on IDTech6.