MW3

[pk1yen]

then seeing the amount of DLC that is required to get the 'full experience' including 4000 points (£30) for the Elite membership I decided that they can fuck off and I'll rent it for a single player run through.

I can see more and more people getting pissed off with this sort of thing very soon. Gamers, as a group, can be quite OCD about things (games are the only thing I get a bit obsessive about really), and stopping people being able to just buy the 'complete' package of something is going to annoy quite a few people.

I'm wary about all the Batman 'exclusive pre-order' DLC doing the rounds at the moment, but I'm presuming that'll all be collected at some point (it had better be).

Online DLC is an entirely different thing, and completely unacceptable as far as I'm concerned - as soon as I see the ability to buy extra weapons, or extra points (there seems to be a 'double EXP' offer for MW3 at the moment) in an advert ... all my urge to play just seems to dissipate. What's the fucking point in playing, ranking up, getting better scopes, and better weapons, if someone can just buy one and get an automatic advantage? At least with unlocks they're a reward for your ability.

There was a similar one with Deus Ex as well, I think - some DLC came with mine (which I haven't installed yet) which gave you extra weapons, or something like that ... but, I thought - that's just going to fuck with the carefully-planned and structured game, isn't it? If any care and attention has gone into a game, it should be perfectly balanced in terms of gameplay, weapons, etc  -- ... so, adding extra DLC weapons is surely going to fuck that up? Also, I was already playing on the hardest difficulty, and I was finding it about the right level of challenge, so I didn't want to fuck with it with souped-up weapons which might make things a lot easier.

It would be like having a DLC rocket-launcher in Zelda. What would be the point? It would just fuck with the carefully worked-out mechanics of the game.

I absolutely love Nintendo for their integrity in not doing any of this shit. If only they had a more constant stream of must-have games!

Anyway, in the course of ten minutes, my enthusiasm for MW3 has dropped dramatically, and I am now orgasmically excited for new Zelda.

[Neil]

I think there are two issues, although they both basically can be boiled down to greed.  As you'd expect from businesses.

The first thing is that the companies want to constantly milk gamers for 'micro-payments' by offering up map packs and the like.  In some ways, this extends the life of a game, and with BF3 I'll be glad of new maps, although annoyed at having to pay for them these days.

The second thing is that the games industry shat themselves with rage over the thought they were missing out on money due to the pre-owned markets.  So now you have a lot of content being locked off.  This is being combined with the massive expansion in 'collectors edition' packs to milk gamers yet again.  I bought Bad Company 2 a month or two ago, pre-owned, to tide me over until BF3 was released, then had to fork out 800 MS points just to get the full complement of maps.  I wasn't going to bother, but enjoyed it so much that I thought I might as well, even though I now regret the impulse purchase as I can't afford it.

So, yeah, gamers are just getting milked left right and center now.  They do tend to appeal to the obsessive types naturally, I guess, which is why the combination of hype + golden guns etc to get the 'full' experience can be so alluring.  It's all a giant pisser. 

Oh, and now we have the Season Pass, too, where you're expected to fork over almost as much as the game itself costs, just to get the DLC paid in total (or in part) upfront.  Fuck off.  I didn't bother with GoW3 or Mortal Kombat, as I guessed, correctly, that I'd probably have moved on.

[glitch]

when games start allowing players much better equipment to give them a big advantage over people who haven't paid for the premium content, it becomes unenjoyable.

Unless I've missed some memo, Microsoft will never allow this.

Played about an hour earlier. It's weird that after a days worth of BF3, it feels very different. After a year of Blops I thought I'd be able to drop right in it but it doesn't seem that way.

Quick impression:
BF3 handles servers way better. Mainly because they actually use dedicated servers instead of P2P. Dropped out of my very first game due to connection issues.
It's very, very fast. Like Timesplitters but with reskinned weapons.
The only maps I've played on seem tiny, even compared to Blops/MW2, which makes it feel even faster.
I like the choice between killstreaks - stackable (for support) or nonstackable (for offense).
I wish they'd kept the "marketplace" and contracts from Black Ops, they helped encourage people to switch from their default min/max classes. Oh and Tomahawks. But I guess I'll just learn how to use the Throwing Knives instead.

I keep hitting BF3 buttons to mark targets or duck/go prone and end up dying. Boo. This was a problem I had when playing Brink, so I'm going to have to find a decent config I can share across games.

[uglybob1986]

Are people doing raids or something on those MW3 reviews? A suspicious amount of those reviews are 0/10 ... and a lot of the others are 10/10.

Yup... http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/881091-users-sabotage-modern-warfare-3-metacritic-score

This appears to be just the latest in a series of 'bombing' campaigns aimed at Metacritic, where users get together to write purposefully low-scoring reviews because of imagined slights by the game publisher or developer.

[pk1yen]

So, yeah, gamers are just getting milked left right and center now.  They do tend to appeal to the obsessive types naturally, I guess, which is why the combination of hype + golden guns etc to get the 'full' experience can be so alluring.  It's all a giant pisser. 

Oh, and now we have the Season Pass, too, where you're expected to fork over almost as much as the game itself costs, just to get the DLC paid in total (or in part) upfront.  Fuck off.  I didn't bother with GoW3 or Mortal Kombat, as I guessed, correctly, that I'd probably have moved on.

I think we're probably at a horrible capitalist turning point for games.
As gaming becomes more 'mainstream' (urgh, hate that word, but it'll do), and with the further rise of more 'blockbuster' games like MW3, which overtook films ages ago, companies are going to get more greedy when it comes to both second-hand sales, and online play.

They've started to bring in the 'online passes' (is it EA?), which recoup the losses from second-hand sales. And now we're starting to see tonnes of DLC which isn't so much extra content, as content which should have been in the fucking game to start with.
Extra maps I can understand, that's fine. It elongates the life of an online game where users would naturally trail off.
But for story-based games, I still get a bit uneasy with the way things are going. DLC companions in Mass Effect 2 were a bit infuriating.

It'll probably culminate with digital-only sales (maybe in the next-gen consoles where big hard-drives won't be an optional extra), with set prices, and no second-hand sales whatsoever. And they'll have the market cornered.

And then people will get pissed off, and stop buying them, I reckon.

I've spent three years using my Xbox waaaaay more than my Wii (barring offline multiplayer) -- but I think Nintendo might start to lure me back, with their integrity not to just fuck over their customers at every opportunity.

[glitch]

Ok so after playing it with my usual Live mates, I've got to say that the spawns seem completely fucked, different but a lot worse than Blops. I've spawned a few times directly in front of someone about to walk round the corner, looking the opposite direction, with 2 or 3 other teammates. It's ridiculous and just feeds kills to people.

[Steve Lampkins]

And then people will get pissed off, and stop buying them, I reckon.

Or at least say they will.

[Josef K]

Surely the most off-putting thing about the Call of Duty franchise at the moment is the prospect of paying £40 for what is essentially a map pack?
Yeah the games are pretty fun, but is it worth the price for stale gameplay on an incredibly dated engine?

It can't be that challenging for the devs to make another iteration and then they're charging more than most games cost on release.

[glitch]

I'd say the gameplay isn't at all stale. The new modes they've introduced are a lot of fun and so far, unavailable in other games. Your point about the map pack angle still stands though.

[Junglist]

Kill Confirmed is a wonderful addition.

[VegaLA]

I was surprised on my Birthday only yesterday with this gift. Started on the Campaign in normal mode and the memories of MW2 came flooding back. Including the memory that it only took me three sittings to complete the game (compare that to Dead Island which has taken me 300 sessions and i'm finally seeing the end in sight at 78%) as I hurtled through to the Protect the President on the Airplane stage.

Still, looking forwards to some Special Ops gaming with any of you Whores so CALL ME.

[glitch]

I've yet to try Special Ops, so if you see me on (and I'm not in multiplayer, as I'm usually playing that with mates) send me an invite :)

[Junglist]

Hit me up hombres:

Tag - Dark Junglist

(I know, what a spiffing name, huh)

[glitch]

Adding my GT: desensitised. That might change very shortly though.

Has anyone been using Elite? Finally managed to get a clan put together, now we just have to wait for the events to become active.