After nearly 500 hours of gameplay... I'm going about this game like a lunatic

The thing is he ends the review with 'and that is why I cant recommend the game to anyone', which is fairly absurd. It is one thing to say "after 500hrs I wont play further because of [x], but quite another to say it isn't recommended to anyone".

That's a fair point, perhaps he'd have been better off saying 'I can't recommend it to anybody who wants more than 500 hours gameplay, not all of which they will find entertaining'.
 
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The thing is he ends the review with 'and that is why I cant recommend the game to anyone', which is fairly absurd. It is one thing to say "after 500hrs I wont play further because of [x], but quite another to say it isn't recommended to anyone".

Exactly. While the review author lined up a bunch of details of his playtime, his summary imo sidesteps or is still ignorant about important design and limitation aspects of ED he should have recognized . One is, the scope of ED is a hard compromise between a massive astronomical hard-sim scope of our theoretical galaxy vs. what can be put into a game. It's not like other games with a space background but comparatively tiny scopes. It's more of an open simworld like FSX where procedural or handcrafted elements attempt to populate the locations as well as complex addons like pmdg quality systems simulated planes that take 3 to 5+ years each to develop. Space is theoretically that empty and lonely yet many can't seem to recognize the facts of it because they can't get past the fantasy of past media and other games with a space background that give the illusion that there is always something going on in any space setting or star system. Kirk and crew took days to reach another starbase or federation world. A Hutton trip was nothing to them in their daily duty schedules. They just didn't show their routine travel time assumed when the shows went to commercial breaks.

And then to just fault the designers for not making it holodeck filled enough or call the engineering mechanic basically a chore and annoying to have to make a few jumps and resource collecting. Really, what other game company could do better. They would still limit the game to a relative few star systems, not a true astronomical scaled sim, with astral bodies that are just part of the background and don't have modeled orbits or even a modeled galactic starbox. Overall, I think these type of reviews just don't get it that ED is still at the frontline of this kind of simworld pioneering with today's gamedev tech and resources. Frontier don't have the resources of a billions dollar defense company or a government or national project to have tens of thousands of staff filling up thousands of systems with scripted content for a sim fidelity entertainment project.
 
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Though the review is well-written, I'm having serious issues reconciling the following:

I played for 500 hours.
I'm going to keep checking back in on it.
I cannot recommend this game to anyone.

I'll give it another try:

I played for 500 hours.
I'm going to keep checking back in on it.
I cannot recommend this game to anyone.

Still failing, because these statements simply do not belong in the same review, no matter how well-worded and even-toned it might be.

Riôt

That sums it up perfectly. Confused and conflicting statements. I'm not even saying he's wrong about some of his points but just the time spent on the game and then not recommending it.

I have seen worse ED rants on this forum though and funnily enough 500 hours seems to be a preferred time for ranters to play.

I do agree with someone's statement here that you can't learn this game quickly and post an accurate review in a short time of space but 500 hours? Seriously? And the "grind" cliche... I guess he hasn't realised that actual reality is a grind and pretty much all games involve repetition.

Having said that... ED has a lot of growing to do. It will be outgunned increasingly bv that other big space sim. For the moment ED has VR as a big selling point. It's a space sim I play for a while, leave and then come back to. It's nice to know that when I do come back to it there will be new content. In other words it's a stable long term development.

As for the guy's complaint about not meeting any real people... that would happen IF you just do your own random thing. I've spent a few years playing ED on and off and only ran into other semi-real players recently... I ran into them because I changed how I was playing... I started going to places recommended by youtube ED players as well as looking at community goals. Was quite a shock when I came upon another ship and realised it wasn't NPC.
 
The issue is not as much about whether anyone agree with any points the 'reviewer' gave (and I have seen FAR worse reviews on stea, this one was actually well-written) but the notion you can 'thumb down' a $50 entertainment product after 500hrs. Its like buying the Lord of the Rings trilogy, only to complain that after watching them for 500 hours its gotten boring, certain things start to not make sense etc. It is not so much that that is wrong, but that the expectations modern gamers sometimes have is almost comically out of whack.

Fair point but it rankled when the OP went straight to psychological issues based on a short review by someone he'd never met. Not even sure what the point of this thread is other than to mock someone for having a different opinion. Also, IMO 500 hours isn't all that much for ED, it's newb level really 😁
 
Frankly, when I spend more than nothing (I'm a major cheapskate) on some form of entertainment, I'm looking to get thousands of hours of out of it and it may well take me hundreds of hours to come to an informed opinion.
 
Not nice of you to take a comment from someone else to insult here on the forum without him being able to defend himself. And to even say "psychiatric health issues", wow, just because you don't agree with him. He gave pros and cons, that's why he played 500 hours, the rest there is no reason to comment and insult. I'm surprised you aren't banned yet.
 
Fair point but it rankled when the OP went straight to psychological issues based on a short review by someone he'd never met. Not even sure what the point of this thread is other than to mock someone for having a different opinion. Also, IMO 500 hours isn't all that much for ED, it's newb level really 

Yes, he's a lunatic. 500 hours on a game then a grumpy conclusion not recommending it. An absolute bloody lunatic. He would only have a valid case for that reaction IF the game had gone downhill significantly. ED hasn't done that... it's improving slowly.

Not nice of you to take a comment from someone else to insult here on the forum without him being able to defend himself. And to even say "psychiatric health issues", wow, just because you don't agree with him. He gave pros and cons, that's why he played 500 hours, the rest there is no reason to comment and insult. I'm surprised you aren't banned yet.

I wanted to respond to him on his steam review. Comments are disabled.

I hope he comes here and reads this.

I'm surprised you weren't banned years ago flappy.
 
As I mentioned... I have seen far worse ED rants on this forum in the past and 500 hours seems to a common number with said ranters. I have a theory that those players put so much time in that they burn-out emotionally.
 
Iv put in 8800hrs, being playing since release.

Wouldn't say I was burnt out , although Iv not put too much time in over the past 3-4 months. I'm waiting for Q4 to hit now, then I'll get going again.

Been playing the Beta since it's launch & I'm happy that the new FSS method won't slow me down,when in the black.

Looking forward to another DWE trip to Beagle Point!
 
I think the point some of you miss... regardless of whether his review is "balanced"... after 500 hours he is recommending people don't buy the game. I would say 500 hours in one game must have had something good that kept him coming back.

I have my share of criticisms of the game, but overall I love it (mostly for the VR, it has to be said). But let’s be honest, it’s an absolute time-sink in a way that few games are. I’ve been a very casual gamer most of my adult life - I look at the hours clocked in the other games in my steam library and they’re between 20-50 hrs each. Elite Dangerous: 1700 hrs! The first 500 flew by. And it's not that Elite is necessarily a better game. It takes ages to achieve fairly modest goals, and this was even more true in the past (engineering etc). I can quite understand how someone could sink 500 hours into the game and ultimately come out of it feeling disappointed. I know it's a "sandbox", and personally I approach it as a work in progress, but still.
 
Iv put in 8800hrs, being playing since release.

Wouldn't say I was burnt out , although Iv not put too much time in over the past 3-4 months. I'm waiting for Q4 to hit now, then I'll get going again.

Been playing the Beta since it's launch & I'm happy that the new FSS method won't slow me down,when in the black.

Looking forward to another DWE trip to Beagle Point!

Astonishing number of hours! A friend of mine put in over a thousand hours on ARK Survival. I don't think I've hit that much on any game. I will be playing ED for a long time to come though.
 
I have my share of criticisms of the game, but overall I love it (mostly for the VR, it has to be said). But let’s be honest, it’s an absolute time-sink in a way that few games are. I’ve been a very casual gamer most of my adult life - I look at the hours clocked in the other games in my steam library and they’re between 20-50 hrs each. Elite Dangerous: 1700 hrs! The first 500 flew by. And it's not that Elite is necessarily a better game. It takes ages to achieve fairly modest goals, and this was even more true in the past (engineering etc). I can quite understand how someone could sink 500 hours into the game and ultimately come out of it feeling disappointed. I know it's a "sandbox", and personally I approach it as a work in progress, but still.

That's a very balanced perspective. What's your preferred thing to do? Some like to explore... fly alone or squadron?

Just out of interest are you a certified psychiatrist or just some random bellend who likes to feel superior?

The latter...

I'm way over that and I wouldn't recommend this game either.

I think someone has issues here and it isn't the reviewer.

Maybe I'm jealous I didn't reach anywhere near 500 hours yet?

Nop... I still can't get my head around spending 500 hours on a game then not recommending it to others. Especially a game that's on the up rather than in decline in terms of development. So... you and matey reviewer are both insane.
 
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I only have 1,711 hours on record. Haven't played in 18 months. :D

Hardly ever on these forums, as one could probably conclude. Still waiting for ability to walk in own ships. Or NPC Multicrew.

I've spent 1700 hours, I could probably say I enjoyed 300 hours of it. The rest was a little dreadful. I suppose about 1000 hours was spent on Distant Worlds expedition which I enjoyed because I fancy space, but to most of the people out there most likely not.

But no, the game isn't £20 for me, I spent about £1000 on CPU, GPU and VR just for this game, and had to play it because I already spent a dreadful amount of money for this.

So I agree with the original review. I wouldn't recommend it. If all you needed to pay for it was £20 then maybe OK if you want to try it but I wouldn't recommend it. If you have to upgrade your system then I'd advise one to look elsewhere.
 
I have my share of criticisms of the game, but overall I love it (mostly for the VR, it has to be said). But let’s be honest, it’s an absolute time-sink in a way that few games are. I’ve been a very casual gamer most of my adult life - I look at the hours clocked in the other games in my steam library and they’re between 20-50 hrs each. Elite Dangerous: 1700 hrs! The first 500 flew by. And it's not that Elite is necessarily a better game. It takes ages to achieve fairly modest goals, and this was even more true in the past (engineering etc). I can quite understand how someone could sink 500 hours into the game and ultimately come out of it feeling disappointed. I know it's a "sandbox", and personally I approach it as a work in progress, but still.

Rookie! 2800 hours in Starbound since it came out. 819 hours into Fallout: New Vegas with almost all of that on a single playthrough. I like games that have some real longevity; can't see the point in spending up to 80 bux on something that doesn't last out two weeks of gaming and/or has no replay value, unless it's something masterful like Alien: Isolation.

Elite is the ultimate avoidance of main storyline gaming; I never have to worry about finally having to do the main quest because I burned off all the side content; Elite is all side content in that context.
 
Im not sure i would recommend my life to anyone, though i have spent 62 years playing it.

Sure there were some fantastic details, but much of it was just grind and getting from one thing to the next, hoping that just around the corner something would be different or more exciting.
Elite is just too much like real life, enough fantastic highs to keep you playing, hoping for more of the same, while putting up with the tedium of day to day existence.

Its too bad that Franz Kafka isnt alive to play elite, i know that he at least would love the engineers.
 
I only have 1,711 hours on record. Haven't played in 18 months. :D

Hardly ever on these forums, as one could probably conclude. Still waiting for ability to walk in own ships. Or NPC Multicrew.

I've spent 1700 hours, I could probably say I enjoyed 300 hours of it. The rest was a little dreadful. I suppose about 1000 hours was spent on Distant Worlds expedition which I enjoyed because I fancy space, but to most of the people out there most likely not.

But no, the game isn't £20 for me, I spent about £1000 on CPU, GPU and VR just for this game, and had to play it because I already spent a dreadful amount of money for this.

So I agree with the original review. I wouldn't recommend it. If all you needed to pay for it was £20 then maybe OK if you want to try it but I wouldn't recommend it. If you have to upgrade your system then I'd advise one to look elsewhere.

I know from my previous time on this forum (used to be frequently two years ago) that many were looking forward to the launch of Vive but had no idea how much it was gonna cost. But quite a few stated they'd happily spend 1200 to 1400 if that turned-out to be the Vive's launch price. I love VR, have owned various headsets since 2006. I actually couldn't go back to 2d gaming. Even before the DK2 era I was using 3d glasses for various games. So you spent a whole lot of money to play ED... Was it wasted? 300 hours isn't bad for the enjoyable part considering the game is years away from being finished. I played the original Elite on my brother's BBC micro when I went to visit him back in the 80's by the way. If you have no real use for a high-end VR equipped PC outside of vR then I guess you might be inclined to feel you'd put a lot of money into it. I use my VR for anything game related and various flight sims. Building a VR PC around one game though is a much bigger commitment so I guess I can understand to some extent why you feel that way. But 300 hours of orgasmic fun isn't bad. I have games I've purchased and not even downloaded/played. Other games I've played a little and never gone back to. I spent money on Vive pre-order but I'm a broad spectrum VR user. Also want to create with it.

Regarding ability to walk around using legs... ED isn't big on cinematics thus far. When you compare it to that other space game. I think we're beginning to see the advantage of being totally focused (multiple teams spread across various countries) all to engineer one giant space game versus the more modest development we see at frontier... split across multiple game developments at any one time. I sat and watched live play of the latest SC a few nights ago and was once again blown-away at the beauty of the moons and planets both from orbit and down on the surface... surface with atmosphere, vegetation, vast cities etc. Still up to this point I haven't invested in that game at all and I won't until VR comes back to it. So that's one big lead ED has at this point.
 
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Im not sure i would recommend my life to anyone, though i have spent 62 years playing it.

Sure there were some fantastic details, but much of it was just grind and getting from one thing to the next, hoping that just around the corner something would be different or more exciting.
Elite is just too much like real life, enough fantastic highs to keep you playing, hoping for more of the same, while putting up with the tedium of day to day existence.

Its too bad that Franz Kafka isnt alive to play elite, i know that he at least would love the engineers.

He'd probably like Bad Mojo better, where the protagonist turns into a cucaracha.
 
That's a very balanced perspective. What's your preferred thing to do? Some like to explore... fly alone or squadron?

Yeah, mostly exploration. I'm a committed loner. I also really enjoy kitting out and engineering ships for specific tasks, trying different configurations etc - I'd even like more of it, it's just the material hunt that drives me nuts. :)
 
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