RPE83

@get2sammyb
I felt there was a tonal issue between the writing and the game play at times in the first Tomb Raider reboot but could that equally be attributed to the studio paying a writer to write a subtle, nuanced character and plot then butcher it to make a game.

What if TR was going to be more like TLOU until execs told them to pump up action/bring more classic TR vibe in?

The fact that Rihanna has left as a choice might indicate more she is unhappy at her name being put out against a final product that doesn't mirror her work more than it does with her writing being poor, otherwise i assume she'd have been canned.

@themcnoisy
To be fair, COD and Fifa are the non gamers games. There are a large group of people who play FIFA, or COD then occasionally take a break to play GTA every several years, before returning to FIFA. Or COD. they buy one, two, or three of the above titles and nothing else. ever.

Then there are people who play games, and occasionally they'll play one of the above every so many years. Possibly.

@Theamazing1 YES

I honestly thought IX was mediocre having played them all bar XV. I honestly am puzzled why so many people like it. I remember liking Vivi, Freya and Beatrix and the stetting , but that's about it, I've forgotten the story. What am I missing?

@get2sammyb
Unless you work for Babestation, or Razzle.

@themcnoisy
The sports games do because people don't want a new narrative so much, they want the latest socks and to see the stitching on the balls.

The problem with Activision and Ubi Soft etc trying to churn the same game out every year for a cash grab is the narratives need to feel somewhat fresh and well written, and the mechanics/components/maps need to feel different.

It's why Fifa will still be #1 in 10 years time, but COD will be possibly be next to Guitar Hero at the glue factory, sadly people don't care about playing the same game every year because Football doesn't change much.

@themcnoisy
They have become ubiqitous. Even when Fifa was inferior to PES, It was the game your gran would get for you for Christmas because she knew you liked games and football, and look, there's that footballer on the front of the box that she vaguely recognises.

EA just clean up annually with Madden in the US and Fifa World Wide.

Couldn't they have just kept hands on sword hilt, eyes widen then reaction shot? JP version was very striking visually and i get why they changed if for western "sensibilities" but if you have, or want to make changes there are more subtle ways, surely than a giant mega spell.

@Bliquid
Bro Villiers annoyed me so much, I think that's the main reason i stopped playing. That plus the jpop soundtrack. Then the nonsensical story.

I did like Lightning though as a protagonist.

@CloudNine
Yeah, seconded on that. I am more likely to wait for the GOTY / discount / bug fixes on this and other big games now, because so often jumping straight in to big titles is a bigger disappointment. I am not surprised first week sales are down across the board, I feel that it's a natural pushback at the "drink in the hype and pre-order for a beta build to please our shareholders!" mentality that's seemns so prevalent at the moment.

@Majic12 Witcher 3 had far better writing but that is as you'd expect when you are playing a defined character against a mute blank canvas. I have them as equal: Skyrim for its depth of feeling of exploration and sense of agency against Witcher for its characters and story. Both were a treat musically and graphically.

@Neolit
Agreed, look at young uns having kittens and foaming at the mouth about Tomb Raider because they had to wait for the final product, fully patched with all DLC, then they moan when they pre-order a game and get burned "because it isn't finished".

@andreoni79
Would there be micro seconds of input lag on wireless? That's not very l33t.

@get2sammyb
Yes, I didn't like the story pacing of City, it had a great idea but a large section felt like padding and stalling (The Penguin and Freeze chase the macguffin bit) .

@themcnoisy
I believe Zelda was deemed sexist. I think the sexism of contiually conforming to gender expected roles of playing the heroic boy saving the girl in distress. "In these modern enigtened times, why can't we play as the Princess coming down from the castle and rescuing the boy from the fairies who have him hostage in a idylilic life by the Deku Tree?"

Or something like that.

@MaccaMUFC
Ok, I appreciate that.

I can say hand on heart most of the demo units in stores are taken up by kids just wasting time, I did it myself when I was a kid.

Once as an adult I played a Xbox360 demo booth as I wanted to see how the next gen played, but that was as simple as picking up the pad.

VR is different with the set up time, and supervision required; If this stops time wasters to allow people seriously considering buying the equipment a chance to "try before you you" , I'd pay the £5 to help me make a £500 purchasing decision everytime, equivalent to about the price of a pint and a bag of crisps at the 'Spoons.

@MaccaMUFC @Kage_88
I am sure PETA take issue with the notion of horses being in public houses, but where is "the line" for what are the acceptable subjects for humour and what are not?

If it's just "someone somewhere could be offended" then you may as well advocate banning all humour and have done with it.

@Flaming_Kaiser
Yep, my case was that it's still technically two new design variations of the same thing if you are being pedantic. Which I was

@viciousarcanum
Yep, appreciate that part, but on a wider argument look at sports like Golf, Cycling, you will see people dropping hundreds and thousands of pounds on "top gear" for a slight improvement, but they will still get beat by someone pretty good with borrowed worn out clubs from their step dad's shed, or an cheapo bike from halfords.

Fancy gadgets and top equipment only augment skill you have in most cases, they aren't a magic path to excellence. If you have the disposable income to spend on toys and gadgets to get a slight boon over the rest of the mediocre herd, so what?

DLC "pay to win" is just awful awful game design though, but if the goal is to make money , maybe it's sadly just too good business sense because people pay it every year like Fifa Ultimate Team.

@viciousarcanum
Sony has a PS4, PS4slim, PS4Pro , PS4VR. Will PSVR titles have different performance options on Pro to Regular, for example?
My point was that Sony say they want a single unified audience but are already providing a "mix and match" range for all budgets and tastes in the "PS4 experience" on hardware alone, I don't see how letting some people drop extra money on a fancy pad, if they really think it will make a difference to their skill level, or they just like the feel of it, is anything different to what they are doing with hardware where you can now pay extra cash to join the PS4Pro "Master Race" for fancier graphics than mere "Slim Peasants".

I don't know whether "better pads for deeper pockets" is right or wrong, I don't really have an opinion on it either way truthfully, but for me it's no different to the "better visuals for deeper pockets" they are already planning with the Pro if you take the statement "single unified audience" , I can't see how it's any different under that statement.

It's also not much different to people buying expensive joysticks to play fighting games back in the day or steering wheels for driving games to me, it was something for enthusiasts.

Regards.

"we want to keep PlayStation 4 as a single unified audience [...] we need to be quite careful to the enhancements we add to the controller."
The VR and Pro "add ons" don't really gel with that "single unified audience" statement, surely a improved controller is less divisive than a better/worse version of a game? It's no different to playing VR games with Move sicks over a pad.

@wiiware
"I'll pirate it when it releases late, out of protest!"
Then they wonder why Rockstar doesn't care too much about making a PC version.

Mind you, people having kittens for getting a complete version of Tomb Raider for cheaper a bit later were equally as funny among the console peasantry.

@get2sammyb Perhaps a subtitle could clear up all the confusion?
Red Dead 3 : Read Dead Redemption 2 - The Prequel

@ShogunRok
"Not to mention the fact that Lincoln Clay can somehow activate detective mode and see enemies through walls. Vietnam gave him some pretty special powers."

You don't know man, you weren't there.

This is nothing; Acclaim would have left life like mannequins bodies floating in the Thames with a copy of the game in their jacket. Or put out a hit of the persons choice to the first 5 people to legally change their name to Mafia III.

@xMEADx
Perhaps it will be like Mass Effect, where you can easily import only a physical representation of a long term character into the new engine rather than have to create them from scratch again, thus saving hours for people with OCD.

@Galvatron
I gather the story was shaping up to be quite good before the Activision Execs hacked it to pieces and demanded the most vanilla of all vanilla to appeal to everyone. The Grimoire hints at stuff a lot.

@Napples
I haven't done a raid, I want to and I feel like I'm missing out a bit, but I have no issue with "getting a gang together yourself" . It seems like Bungie aid you with their app to make sure you get the right mix of people for you.

A good example of when "people are gonna be people" is the sword quest where you have to kill the boss and a specific guardian within 30 seconds of each other. My friend and I battled through the strike on our own and at the end were joined by a randomer.

We put our swords out to show which colour we needed, we jumped down and he killed the guardian we needed straight away.
We asked him to join voice chat, they declined or couldn't.
We sent him a PSN message saying "we need fire, please leave that gaurdian alone", they ignored us and killed him again.
We sent another message, he killed him again.
Each time we just started just sitting down in the pit once the guardian was dead to end the round and re-play from final stage.
We did that 3 times.
Eventually they just started shooting us then rage quit.
This took over 30 mins of time in total, then the next person joined and so it began again.

Can only imagine that on a raid, I think i'd want to cry.

@get2sammyb
I remember seeing something around Fifa 11 in Poundland the other week.
Brand New.

Was hyped for the game, played it for several hours. Realised there wasn't too much of a "game" there, underneath the cool programming, but loved the art direction and music. "Mile wide, inch deep" was true.

The first planet and launching into space was the best part of the game actually, the wonder and survival aspects of repairing your ship.

as @Grawlog said;
Either way, I got almost 50 hours of playtime out of what is in my opinion a 6/10 game. It was overpriced, should have been $29.99, but I squeezed my value out of it. It feels very much like an Early Access title, complete with lack of content and tons of bugs.

Though, with this, Fallout 4's season pass, and various other examples I think I have become firmly entrenched in the "PSN sale/game of the year edition" for my purchases now, especially for one player titles.

@Grawlog @kyleforrester87
I see it the same as cycling and golf clubs, unless you are near "the very top of a mountain", the small advantages that hundreds of pounds of cash can get you on equipment are nothing compared to the physical and mental boosts you can make yourself for free (knowing the maps and weapons inside out in a FPS, technique and losing your OWN weight in cycling) .

Unless I am that good at a FPS, I am on the stage at Las Vegas or being twitched and I NEED the best gear possible, as the margains are so small, practise and learning the game more will improve my performance a whole lot more than a slightly better frame rate.

@rjejr
I imagine they use the same power sockets as the UK and most people who can afford a PS can speak English, so why localise the packaging for the amouont of sales?

@hadlee73
Better to be the small thing that slips under the radar, and gets a groundswell of support until it ends up on someone's radar and then gets decried as "typical hipster indie BS" by the masses, so I mean, actually, yeah, nobody is happy unless they are complaining or decrying.

@themcnoisy
The problem is, Metal Gear earned a legion of fans based on it's gameplay , characters AND story.

When you have the same loveable characters and the best gameplay of the series, but you leave the final installment story clearly unfinished, people are going to feel a little down and wonder what "could have been", especially with the Lord of the Flies video. Not about hating, it's about a damp squib finalé to a game that spent hours building to greatness only to just kinda tail off and die.

@Scollurio
I think Clinton's integretiy is, um, "questionable" at best, but Trump is a disaster waiting to happen, with no policies other than "Trust Me, I'm Trump, and I'm gonna make America great again" .

Slim pickings indeed, and I thought we had it rough this year politically here in the UK.

@ShogunRok
Maybe I've just become so desensitised to Bethesda's shenanigans, it was the best of a bad bunch, which is why I don't really recall it being that bad.

@get2sammyb
I had the same with "Gravity Rush", I thought it was cool, and the idea was great, just the colour palette was dull and I was bored constantly even after playing on a bit further to see if my interest piqued as I got into it more.

It didn't and with only so much free time to spend, I just stopped playing and moved on.

I see why people liked it though, and respected the things that were good (The Witness and Ico fell into this same category for me) , but sadly, just not for me.

@kyleforrester87
Hey, I love the game as a whole, it's just my cup of tea, but being objective, the space combat isn't the best, the the planet combat isn't the best, the target assist for my ship seems to intermittantly appear/unappear meaning I've had to over beef up my cannons to compensate for it so if the assist just doesn't appear, it won't take many shots to bring a pirate down with almost blindfire. There is the constant crashing, immersion breaking mega take offs that cannon you into space (i thought this might be a low gravity thing and in my RPG mind, it is being spun as such now with mental gymnastics ).

The love of the art, music and the compulsion to explore overcomes the average gameplay parts and mechanics to be honest. That's why I'd agree with a 7/10 review, however, It's just the game I've been longing to play, and I love it, warts and all.

@PorllM
Agreed; I seem to recall the PS3 version of Oblivion crashing worse then the 360, the PS3 version of Fallout 3 being "worse", Skyrim was an mess, but New Vegas was the exception.

Sadly Bethesda have eroded a lot of my good will towards them on Playstation platforms over the years, we've always got the poopy end of the stick, so what would have been genuine excitement (as it was for New Vegas) has been downgraded to a "Oh, that might be ok".

Though surely the title would be "New New Orleans" or "Newer Orleans" unless the game is set in France?

@Neolit
Yeah, It's a really cool Science/ tech demo / Proof of Concept with an average game tacked on almost.

Reminds me of the first Assassin's Creed game, being underwhelming, but the sequel knocking it out the park; here's hoping!

I like the survival aspect and annoying resource management, it's how I imagine frontier exploration to be; a struggle. I was looking for the 'Explorer' vibe and I've got it.

Agree with the official review put up, though I do love the game. It's pretty much exactly why I imagined, a chance to "boldly go" and fly around the stars, seeing exactly what is there, mundane or not. I've even got excited about weather and temperature cycles!

@get2sammyb
I think most "art" is divisive. Even if the game disappoints, glad it's been made

@Bliquid
That, or I hope a trippy light tunnel that leads to a sequence where you view an older version of yourself for 10 seconds before becoming that person until you die and become a star child.

@sketchturner
I don't, not after the Colonial Marines debacle.

Yes, I can relate to that ; I have OCD so this game is perfect/evil for me. I am currently trying to get the best "Wolf" look for my hunter, by pointless grinding for things to discard to get legendary marks to ascend a year 1 exotic.

And there's no reason to spend these hours other than a sense of completing a set (see also exotic swords)

@WanderingBullet @kyleforrester87
I've really enjoyed the whole story straight through on comms (perhaps it helps jumping in at TTK for £25) with friends and co-operating to clock missions perhaps a little above your level.

I agree with Kyle, there is some cognitive dissonence in the fact you have spent 1000 hours on something, yet you find it horrible. The RNG is annoying at times, but equally people win the lottery on their first ticket.

If there was "set" rewards, such as First raid is the helmet , second raid is the boots, etc, it would be predictable and i think people would play less. Equally, I can't play CoD or Battlefield when I've jumped in late on the games life cycle, because everyone has levelled up the "top" gear in linear fashion and then been merciless in wiping the floor with me and my spud gun.

A bit of randomness keeps things "interesting", rather than linear for me, though perhaps not for you; they never told me what was in a pack of football stickers, yet I wanted to still collect them despite having 5 Vinny Samways and no Paul Gascoignes.

I see it as, your level of skill buys you buy packs of fancier football stickers in destiny. I'd love to do each of the raids just once, but I don't have 5 friends to play with, so I doubt I'll get the rare stocks.

@WanderingBullet
Fair enough but your economics only make sense if people who were being "ripped off" kept playing the game and kept needing and wanting to spend money on something they weren't enjoying. If you played Vanilla for 20 odd hours and never bought a bungie game again, that's one thing.

If you've paid your $40 every 6 months for something that you keep playing that's another, I have to assume at a $120 investment are still enjoying it or have had their enjoyment . I guess some people also have sat out since vanilla and came in on the TTK legendary edition.

@starman292
What is "money's worth" though? Some gamers expect 500 hours of almost orgasmic mind blowing, non repetitive play for £40

A squash court round by me is £8 for 40 minutes.
A movie ticket is £12 for 100 minutes.
A milkshake and burger and Frankie at Benny's came to over £15 for a lunch hour.
A Star Wars graphic novel I read in a single one hour sitting cost me £12.

If I paid £40 for Destiny and played it for around 20 hours, that's cheap by any measure considering the cost of making it.

Even 10 hours play for £40 is still cheap entertainment if you ask me.