@BrolyB593: It's a new product that you can pay money for & people want to hear about it. That warrants a review in most people's eyes.
GS has picked up the practice of waiting a few days to evaluate server conditions etc. for multiplayer games but I think they've had enough time to see how well this game runs. I don't believe that the argument of future patches is valid because that could be said about any game these days. If the developers have decided it's complete enough to charge money then it's complete enough to criticise.
All that said, it looks like 7 is pretty generous. There's so little skill or strategy involved, it barely qualifies as a game.
@silversix_: I agree, there's not enough game in this game for me.
I can understand that it's popular & I won't bag other people for liking it but it looks like the amount of skill involved barely classifies it as a game. It's one of those things that just turns me off the more popular it gets... like pop music. Yuck, pop music.
I enjoyed Pokemon Red back when I was 13 but at least that had gameplay. Reducing combat to an automated dice roll based on stats is the same nonsense that is in so many mobile games these days. Fine for filthy casuals but no real skill or strategy can compete with simply spending hours (or dollars) mindlessly tapping a screen, the antithesis of what any "real gamer" would consider a worthwhile game.
I have to agree with pretty much all of this. As a consumer & now primarily a PC gamer, I'm not a fan of exclusives at all but I do understand that when a company funds a games development, they have a certain right to limit it to their system. Overzealous DRM & limiting games to certain stores is a poor method of limiting competition though. Most people are OK with Steam DRM because Valve have recognised that the best way to compete is to out-service the pirates & out-service the other stores. The UWP platform (or the old GFWL) unequivocally makes games worse whereas Steam offers things gamers want.
Minus one point for mentioning his engine was used in Arkham Asylum though. That game had problems.
I remember the controversy over this when it actually happened in 2014. It was weird because they actually had a really good game but the PR firm handling it (Plaid Social Labs) apparently didn't have faith that simply giving it to reviewers & Let's Players would be enough.
To the people who are complaining about paid-for reviews, that's not the case. There were paid promotions where they literally weren't allowed to say a single negative thing about the game - if you confused that for a review then you're exactly as stupid as that PR firm thinks you are. If you go back & read Kevin Van Ord's 8/10 review, you'll notice he mentions the unstable framerate & that he had a lack of investment in the plot, among other things. These would have been clearly in breach of the contract that some did take.
Anyway, I'm glad Warner Bros are facing some consequences for their actions, even if it is almost two years late. Hopefully it will serve as an example to any over publishers trying to censor opinions until after a game has released.
I like to give people the benefit of the doubt when they give you a survey. Microsoft doesn't have the greatest history of following through when they say they're going to focus on PC gaming but one can always hope.
Their survey may not be asking all the right questions though. There was nothing about DRM or the UWP platform for a start. Secondly, after answering a question, saying I built my own PC out of components I bought myself, there was a whole question about features I would look for buying "a new PC". Anyone who knows how to build & upgrade a PC themselves would never go back to buying a pre-built box. Thirdly, it asked questions about CPU & GPU based on how many MHz it spins at - that's not exactly the best measure of performance.
I thought the question asking if you know what eSports is was kinda funny but I guess they're trying to gauge interest from a broad audience. All of the questions were stated so that people with extremely basic understanding of computers could give some kind of answer but it might have been nice to have an extra level of info that PC nerds could provide if they wanted to.
@scarred_fox: RDR was a great game but it's crazy how a few years make even the best of games feel old & janky. Hopefully they'll do an HD remake & bring it to PC in the process.
The game introduced some concepts like hunting that have been taken on and perhaps even improved by games like Assassin's Creed & Far Cry but at the time they were brand new & pretty awesome. Mechanics aside, the whole game takes you on a journey that you won't get anywhere else.
Personally I'm happy to let those memories live in nostalgia & I don't think I'll play it again but it deserves to be brought to gamers who missed out.
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