Useless gaming news & chatter

[MisterNoisy]

Forza Horizon 3 demo came out yesterday for Xbox One. Pretty nicely done demo as it gives you a taste of few different event and race types, then dumps you into and online session where you can repeat any of the events in online mode. It looks great as always. I'm excited this one's a "play anywhere" title so if you buy digital for X1 or PC you can play on both and progress is synced. No demo for PC yet.

Played a few hours of the full version today on console, and it's still great fun - you have a bit more tutorial type stuff before they drop you into free roam this time around and progression is handled a bit differently.  Will try out the play anywhere stuff tomorrow and see how it plays on the new GPU.

[CaptainNapkin]

Played a few hours of the full version today on console, and it's still great fun - you have a bit more tutorial type stuff before they drop you into free roam this time around and progression is handled a bit differently.  Will try out the play anywhere stuff tomorrow and see how it plays on the new GPU.

Cool. I'll likely pick this up soon, it's a series I enjoy every iteration. My problem right now is that I picked up the new Destiny DLC in a moment of weakness, having barely scratched the surface of the last DLC and not put a lot of time in since the original. There's just so much to do that I haven't messed with before. Also had to scratch the recurring MMO itch and this satisfies it well enough. I'll get my 30 bucks worth then move on to Horizon 3.

[Druzil]

My plan was to get a character to max level before Rise of Iron so I could pick it up and play it.   I plateaued about level 30 though and haven't played in a few weeks. There was just so much content having never played it and then having access to all the expansions at once.  I've only even done like half the strikes that are available at this point and I'm way over the content level.  I've heard Taken King was great and that's about the point I made it up to so I'll probably try to get back into it.   There's so many games coming out this month it will be hard though.   Especially if DQ Builders sucks me in like I think it could.

I'm pretty excited about the play anywhere stuff.  I'll probably pickup Recore once they patch it a few times, maybe Gears 4 as well.   I hope they go back and make a Sunset Overdrive version at some point so I can play that.  The real dream though is if they roll the 360 library into it eventually, I would love to throw away my 360 and just have it all on PC.

[CaptainNapkin]

I've only got 1 level 40, doing the new stuff with him. Also deleted my lowest level so I could restart and go through all the content fresh with the new Nolanbot. I'm a filthy casual and very content plinking around with whatever I feel like at the moment. New gear comes so easy anyway and I just never did have that "need the bestest stuff" gene. I still just love the gunplay in Destiny and it's really what keeps me coming back.

Recore is on my long list as well for when it hits the $20 mark or so.

[Jimbo]

I enjoyed BF4 a lot, a fuckton more than 3 (which was just horrible). Bad Company 2 was also really solid. Everything since BF4 has just been awful though, especially Hardline. BF1 is "as good" as BF4 in that it's basically still just BF4 only with WWI skins. It's just not a WWI shooter because it feels nothing like WW1 should feel.

I was so freaking mad at DICE and that I was always the one that had a horrible time with Battlefield 4 at launch and when the netcode went to hell. I finally gave it another chance last week and have been enjoying it again. Ugh...I'm not wanting to try BF1, the burn from last time, I bought the whole thing, and couldn't play it, and they way they seemed to be flabberghasted that it all went to hell. I mean they had a great engine going in BF3. It did 64 large vehicle battles. But the game might have been going more tactical and thinking shooter, but if the code was crap, it was going to kill the gaming. I quit in frustration. I'm glad it is better. I still see random crap, like people running and jumping occasionally...still makes me want to freaking go nuts.
The fun of fresh out of the gate playing BF1 on day 1 would be pretty fun though and I'm sure I'll crash any plane I get into or have to try and fly.

[Merusk]

To dissuade you, apparently you have to spend north of $120 to get all of the BF1 content/ features at launch. I don't do BF games so I don't know if this is totally true or how gimped a $60 experience would be.

[Sky]

I still see random crap, like people running and jumping occasionally...still makes me want to freaking go nuts.

The last nail in the BF coffin for me was the rampant dolphin diving in BF2. What the hell is wrong with people?

Since I'm wise enough to know I'll never figure that out, I mostly stick to games that don't require other people for enjoyment. At least online. Tabletop you can still call someone out for being a fucking tard.

[patience]

Amazon after years of posturing has finally divulged why the hired so many game devs.

It looks like  the head hunting for ArenaNet devs and the the WoW Creative designer is all about creating a new PVP open world MMO.

Their decision to get fighting game devs is to develop a multiclass Rocket League game.

I wonder who they picked up for their 3rd project which is a base building RTS third person shooter hybrid.

All of this was revealed at TwitchCon.


https://games.amazon.com/games
Overview of each game. Only Breakway is in a roughly playable enough state.


Commentary of their preview of Breakaway at Twitchcon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFjp5h3bACU

[HaemishM]

It looks like  the head hunting for ArenaNet devs and the the WoW Creative designer is all about creating a new PVP open world MMO.

 

EDIT: Oh holy shit, the Amazon dink is actually talking about this "Stream+" thing which lets you earn points you can WAGER by watching Twitch streams of the game. THE FUCK?

Gambling. It's not just for criminal orgs.

[Sky]

That's pretty impressive that you can make a huge gaming announcement and not have a single point of interest for me at all.

I often wonder how I even classify as a gamer anymore (never mind the games I play almost every night, that doesn't count anymore, apparently).

[Merusk]

It looks like  the head hunting for ArenaNet devs and the the WoW Creative designer is all about creating a new PVP open world MMO.

 

EDIT: Oh holy shit, the Amazon dink is actually talking about this "Stream+" thing which lets you earn points you can WAGER by watching Twitch streams of the game. THE FUCK?

Gambling. It's not just for criminal orgs.

All the big guys will head this way. The currency proxies let them say it's not real gambling so not subject to gaming laws. The truly awful ones will take a rake cut and black market credits to make money top of the front end of selling them.

In this case the sale of credits is via another proxy, eyeballs to advertisers.

[Cyrrex]

And kids LOVE THAT SHIT, which makes it doubly terrible.

[Kail]

Didn't we JUST go through this with that whole stupid CSGO gambling site scam thing?  I guess Twitch was pretty central in all that and I never heard them take an official position on it, so maybe they just don't care.

[schild]

Errrrr

They dont care because they are Amazon.

[Rasix]

This seems like a giant bucket of bad ideas.

[Strazos]

What good are those points though, and how are they monetized?

This sort of "gambling" is such a waste of time - who cares?

[Draegan]

Win Amazon credits to buy stuff on Amazon?

[patience]

Yeah it turns out that Amazon is partnering with Twitch. Amazon Prime now also includes the Twitch bundle.

This certainly makes subscription based MMOs viable again but I'm leery of other companies getting into this act especially Microsoft. Their ideas for subscriptions with MS Office have been terrible.

[schild]

Amazon owns Twitch. Of course they're fucking partnering.

Edit: To wit: https://twitch.amazon.com/prime

[Draegan]

Buy prime and have an MMO sub? Sure.

I'm also intrigued about a sandbox pvp MMO in colonial america. Just based on the setting. It's an MMO so it'll be shitty and poorly thought out.

Seems like they are making a Smite like game too.

But the most interesting thing is that they are designing games that are not only fun to play but fun to watch. Has that been done before from a design perspective?

[schild]

I want to see how they divvy up each subscription to Prime. Like, surely $100 a year can't pay for this many things.

Or maybe the USPS and UPS are so in Amazons pocket that their shipping is practically free.

I want a literal pie chart.

[Draegan]

I looked up shipping for 70 lbs of dumbbells and it was free. So I'm sure all shipping costs are arbitrary.

[Sky]

FYI, Mafia 3 preload is up. Hooked up my GMG key, 40.5GB.

[Sky]

I want to see how they divvy up each subscription to Prime. Like, surely $100 a year can't pay for this many things.

It's got to be heading for a split. Would be interesting to see how many people stick to the 2 day shipping and not the digital services. My thought is that they're trying to keep people hooked on the 'free' digital services to the point where they'll miss it after the split and pony up.

I do like having the 'free' service, and use both the video and music services quite regularly. But I doubt I'd pay for them if they weren't included.

[patience]

Amazon owns Twitch. Of course they're fucking partnering.

Edit: To wit: https://twitch.amazon.com/prime

Completely forgot about that .

But the most interesting thing is that they are designing games that are not only fun to play but fun to watch. Has that been done before from a design perspective?

Any game that was made to emulate Goat Simulator was designed with this in mind. But those are from small indie teams. All but 1 of the Bigger studios haven't taken the approach Amazon seems to be following in the steps of these indie devs. Their ideas of making games appealing to an audience is more along the lines of following Blizzard's direction in making a less confusing UI for spectators at tournaments.

None of them really though about making the spectators participants to such a large degree except for the team that did "1 vs 100" which probably predates all gaming experiences like Twitch Plays Pokemon and Goat Simulator.

[Yegolev]

I already have Prime so I'm trying to detect a downside before I attach this shit to my account.

[Nebu]

I already have Prime so I'm trying to detect a downside before I attach this shit to my account.

Let me know if you find anything.  I am in the same situation.

[ezrast]

I did it a couple days ago. There is a button to unlink your accounts, and Jeff Bezos hasn't inserted any subliminal mind control patterns into my video feeds yet. All hail Jeff Bezos.

I'm not using the key for the Smite skin if someone wants it.

[Rendakor]

I'll take it if it's still available.

[ezrast]

Sent.

[Yegolev]

All Hail Jeff Bezos.

I haven't detected any downsides nor upsides.  I am unsurprisingly not streaming at the moment and I still don't know how to work Twitch, really.

[Kail]

Their ideas of making games appealing to an audience is more along the lines of following Blizzard's direction in making a less confusing UI for spectators at tournaments.

I know that I've been banging this drum for a while, but un-kludging the UI is basically step one out of, like, a million.  It's always kind of perplexed me that Blizzard spends thousands or millions trying to push these games as E-SPORTS but nobody ever thought to stick their head in the meeting room during development and say "hey, maybe we should design the GAME so that it's easy to watch?  Instead of trying to tack it all on afterwards?  Yeah?"

I guess we'll see if that works for Amazon, maybe.

[Trippy]

They are in complete control of the BS gambling mechanics that allow the sites to run in the first place. They are the primary offender and enabler.

That's not really true.

The Valve machanics are lame and designed to prey upon people in the same way that some microtransaction games are, but this issue of third party skin trading websites that traded those skins via offering betting markets on the outcome of pro and semi-pro games, completely unregulated, and then went further to allow straight up roulette gambling of skins on their dodgy as fuck websites? That's the illegal and morally bankrupt shit.

Not shutting any of that stuff down, which was in their power, years ago is where Valve really did the wrong thing.

Valve may not be the direct offender but they are the enabler and have been ordered to cut that shit out:

Game Maker Valve Ordered to End Support of Black-Market Gambling

[MisterNoisy]

So it looks like the PC version of Mafia III may be locked to 30FPS.  Why this is so is anyone's guess, but they saved me $60 by doing it.  

[Sky]

So it looks like the PC version of Mafia III may be locked to 30FPS.  Why this is so is anyone's guess, but they saved me $60 by doing it.  

You seriously think that won't be patched pretty quickly?

Those comments are pretty funny though, so thanks for a few minutes of chuckling at Internet retards.