Betas, Free Games, Offers, etc

[Brian]

Jon linked this in chat, and it looks like an interesting offer:

http://www.gog.com/pick_5_pay_10

[Iron Dragoon]

Do *you* like Kung Fu?!

Do *you* want to save damsels?

Do *you* want a Wushu MMO that keeps your character logged in and subject to side jobs and kidnapping?!

Beta key with $10 pre-order:
http://www.ageofwushu.com

My bro pre-ordered it. After I check it out, I'll give more info.

[Brian]

keeps your character logged in and subject to side jobs and kidnapping?!

$%@^ no!

Who the hell wants a, "You weren't playing your character 24/7, and are thusly penalized for the time you spent outside of our gameworld!" mechanic?

[Iron Dragoon]

It's not a penalty function. You character basically becomes an NPC. Your 'jobs' give you money, items, and/or experience for doing those jobs. The kidnapping is a PVP/story function. 'Evil' PCs can get missions to kidnap people and then sell them. When you log back in, you get a short story instance where you fight your way out.

You don't actually lose anything or get penalized in any way. It's supposed to be a story/character life continuation sort of thing.

keeps your character logged in and subject to side jobs and kidnapping?!

$%@^ no!

Who the hell wants a, "You weren't playing your character 24/7, and are thusly penalized for the time you spent outside of our gameworld!" mechanic?

[Brian]

Planetside 2 is out now.  It's free-to-play with a micro-transaction model to support it.  The theory of the game is a work of art:

Squad-based combat in a futuristic setting where your army/faction battles for supremacy against other armies to control nodes and resources.  The game gives you vehicles, a variety of weapons....  In short, it sounds like it would be a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, the people in charge of the game weren't actually cool with the idea of people having fun.  So what they did, is they let people who had played from beta keep the unlocks they had earned, jacked the prices way up, and then set up a pricing scheme where you're enticed to pay cash -- for a monthly account (even though the game is free to play) to get an EXP bonus.  That makes a nice disparity between those who have all the nice little unlocked perks for their various classes already, establishing the beta community as the upper echelon before the game even starts.

You'd think that's bad, but then, they also decided that the game should have friendly fire enabled at all times.  Evidently there's a precedent, as the first game also had friendly fire, and the community learned to embrace it (read: all the non-hardcores found better games to play).  The friendly fire thing is really, really terrible, and at present (and the only chance I'm willing to give this game) makes it totally unplayable.

Everyone looks pretty much the same, but there are tiny, subtle indicators that let you be _sure_ you're looking at a player of the wrong faction.  You might even be able to spot one or two in the amount of time it takes the other player to shoot you!  But probably not.  Another thing the game isn't big on is 'survivability'.  At least from launch, without any beta hand-ups or dropping cash on it, you can be killed from full health to dead in under two seconds by enemy fire.  (Faster if they hit you with tanks/bombs, but we're just talking about handheld weapons, here.)

If someone can die from incoming small arms fire faster than you can switch weapons, then your game isn't actually 'tactical' at all -- it's purely 'weight of numbers'.  There's no skill involved in those matchups.  While you can jump and act as skilled as you want, 99 times out of 100 your side wins because there are more of you.  There's a good chance you won't see or be anywhere near the action when the game tells you 'good job; your side won something!'

I first played the game, and got really upset with it -- because I spent too much time looking at the 'you will respawn in 10+ seconds' screen.  In fact, I would bet solid money I spent more time looking at that screen than actually playing the game.  More than 50% of my deaths were to friendly fire (it tells you), or were just my level one self being murdered by random passers-by.  Oh, a level 15 guy killed me.  And a level 9.  And a level 12 -- on my own side.

After trying to get some form of enjoyment out of the game, frustrated that it wasn't my speed, and they chose to destroy a cool concept with some terrible, terrible ideas (ie., damage that high + respawn timer = bad decision.  Friendly fire = bad decision.  Give 'grandfathered' players a marked advantage over anyone joining now = bad decision.), I quit it.

And then was browbeaten and had my opinions 'corrected' and ultimately was coerced into playing it again.

"It's about the team experience!  You have to play with friends!"

So I did that for a few hours.

And with friends....

It's the exact same @#$%ing experience, only with occasional very, very long stretches of standing around with absolutely nothing to do because no one is in sight and we're defen-- *two shots from an assault rifle later, back to respawn and by the way we lost that base*.   My impression is that you will basically go through around 4 hours of just crappy experience -- running around looking for action, dying, being one-shot by snipers ($%#@ you, whoever thought, 'Let's design a class that is only powerful when it has the element of surprise; let's also give them mechanics and tools to ensure they always have it' was going to be great in games.  I'm looking at _you_ rogues, snipers, and any other class that exists only to gank), or otherwise just wasting your time ... for around 10 minutes of getting lucky and managing to destroy a bunch of people who are doing their 4 hours of being a mook, waiting for their own 10 minutes of glory.

Really ... in that light, I'm pretty sure I did nothing the entire time I played except be a mook for someone else's story.  This game is EVE as an FPS.  Are you willing to spend 4 hours of staring at respawn timers and being gunned down because you weren't lucky, or your spawn point was flooded with enemy soldiers before you finished loading, just for 10 minutes of not dying?  If so, this game may be for you.

It's a frustrating, unrewarding, just _bad_ experience, and thanks to being forced to spend extra time with it, I really, really hate it.  Which is a pity, because I like the idea.  But I don't think _anyone_ likes having nothing to do but _lose_ ... and that's the only option the game actually presented me with.

But hey.  At least we know for certain.

[Grahf]

Wow, that sounds pretty awful. I can somewhat understand why the devs might think that letting the betas keep their goodies would be a good idea in some cases, but this really doesn't seem like one of them. Even if that weren't the case though, what you've described just sounds like an unbalanced, poor playing mess.

Anyways, to sort of keep this on topic, there's a new Humble Bundle out. This one is from THQ. It consists of Darksiders, Red Faction: Armageddon, Metro 2033, Company of Heroes and its expansions, and paying above the curve gets you Saints Row the Third.

[Brian]

I had a really bad experience with it.  Others might not.  In my view, vs. games are inherently zero-sum because winning is fun and losing is not; someone has to have a bad day.  But that's just me.

Back on topic ... anyone want a Saints Row the Third steam key?

[JonBob]

So, I also tried Planetside 2, so I'll give my thoughts on that. I've played other FPS games (CS [1.6,S,GO], L4D[2], TF2) and other games with capture objectives (GW2, UT2K4), so I have some experiences to compare it to.

The biggest obstacle to getting into the game is figuring out the interface and the controls. I died numerous times within the first 10 minutes of being in the game. Sadly, a number of those were being telefrag'd by spawned vehicles. As for the combat itself, it felt a big CoD/CS-like, where you're actually fairly fragile. Once I figured out the general movement and gun characteristics, I was able to go out and get shot from a helicopter in the sky and die. Then I found someone and shot them, but they were a teammate. Then I killed an enemy!

I hooked up with a friend, and that was its own set of challenges. The map and warping system is not overly clear and I struggled to figure out where the squad was. I eventually got that. After that, things really improved. I was able to more easily determine when someone was an ally or not (minimal vs zero indicators), I got some kills, and I was able to go around and actually participate in point capture.

Friendly fire wasn't an issue when I was playing, so I didn't really get shot in the back by allies; I probably shot more than got shot :(  Engagement-to-death window was pretty small, but about the same as a lot of other games. Respawn timers were a momentum killer, but it also helped you to figure out where you are and where you're going next.

So, to get the best beginner experience out of it, you'll probably want to find the zerg as soon as possible and join that. Others provide vehicles and directions so you always know where to go, and with other allies around, there are more targets for the enemy, so you can stand a chance. Also, it allows you more room for mistakes. You and an ally shooting a single guy, you'll probably win, even if you're almost dead by the end.

[Grahf]

Assuming that you have Steam and are a Windows user, there's an offer floating around that may be of some interest.

THQ is giving away free Metro 2033 keys to anyone who likes the Facebook page. It's probably to drum up interest in the sequel, and for THQ itself. If you're interested in picking up the game you can go to http://www.freemetrogame.com/ to get a copy. They have said something about limited numbers, but how limited is unknown. Also, offer only valid until the 16th, or until codes run out, whichever comes first.

[Iron Dragoon]

I seem to have a gift copy of Civ V on Steam, if anyone is interested in it. Hit me up via PM or over in #sr chat.

Edit: Claimed already!

[Merc]

Not sure how much interest there is, but Origin is having a sale on a bunch of games.

Mentioning this one since I recall that Dracos was looking to pick up Kingdom of Amalur cheap at some point, and they have it for $10. Mass Effect 3 is not part of the sale, though.

[Dracos]

I...do still want it.  Huh, thanks.

[Kt3]

Oh, right, Path of Exile just started their open beta... yesterday?  Two days ago?

I've played maybe 5 hours of it (which is about as long as a number of modern $60 games) and I really enjoyed it.

As for what Path of Exile is?  It's basically Diablo 2, with the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X, and Materia Junctioning from Final Fantasy 7.

Oh, and no gold and no auction house.  Give it a try!  The devs are very active and friendly, and seem very committed to improving their game.

http://www.pathofexile.com/

[Grahf]

I'm downloading Path of Exile now. People seem to be enjoying it, so I figure I might as well give it a shot. If enough people hop in then I guess there's clan potential.

[Dracos]

Right.

We had a thread or shite.

http://penny-arcade.com/static/rainslick-giveaway