Ok, Elite Dangerous, compelling single player content, there isn’t even compelling multiplayer content. ED is a good stepping stone of a genre.
I’ve pretty much given up on Elite
bought it in Beta and now it’s been half a year since the release and there’s still almost nothing interesting to do. And these MMO elements… It’s hard to be excited about being able to influence things a fraction of a percent every week.Frontier has huge server eating money and pretty much nothing coming in. We should be asking for an in game counter which would allow people to see how many real players are on the servers at any given time. Elite needed another year before being released if they wanted people to stay on board (see what I did there) however they didn't wait, Frontier knew if they waited that long they would have never been able to compete with yes, Star Citizen.
Because humans are emergent gameplay. Seriously, games like Elite NEED online interaction. There’s only so much AI can give before it becomes boring and repetitive. This isn’t the 1980s anymore folks. This is the age of the internet. All those pixel fighters in Star Raiders or Starmaster were great in 1983 but now… now we have humans and interaction and dynamic star-systems.
The worst decision ED ever made was allow the game to have a solo mode. Forcing everyone into open would be the best thing to happen to the game. It’d fill the galaxy with interesting people.
To make it even worse, Frontier has no clue what they are doing. Instead of pushing it to be a compelling multiplayer or single player game, they are going add more procedurally generated nothing. Who is excited that they are going to double the already essentially infinite and empty play space by adding planets?
I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a disaster. X:Rebirth, now that’s a disaster.
ED is still the best game out there for recreating the experience of climbing into a space fighter cockpit, like the old days of Wing Commander and X-Wing. The graphics are just ok, the sound design is cool, however I personally find the game slightly more entertaining to simply turn off the in game volume and play some Pink Floyd in the background. The flight models and combat, well, I have gripes so I won’t talk about that, however for those buying extremely expensive Hotas setups for a stepping stone game, well, hopefully they've purchased them with the scope of future games within simulator genres.
Elite’s MMO side is very underdeveloped. To work as an MMO you’d need something close to aspects of EVE, which lets you do so much more, as of now, as I stated, the game is a wasteland of procedural generated pretty much everything. Unfortunately this game has been a let down since day one both for myself and so many other fans of the original, the game could easily be designed and made by any 1st or 2nd student finishing university within the games development side of computer science. There are games I frequented on those laborious hrs between lectures on my iPad which are better than this release.
I'm sorry....but truly a bastion of innovation in game design.
Player trading still is not anywhere to be seen. Player made bounties are all but an urban myth. Missions other than fetch quests ? Does anyone know what I mean when I say 'Remember Iron Man ?'. Passenger missions ? I do believe they may patch passenger missions eventually, however, going from what I've seen so far, it will highly likely to be yet more fetch quests, basically I mean treating passengers simply as cargo.
To add even more disappointment both for myself and so many others, Frontier has no idea what they are doing, I do believe they initially, and still do in aspects have ideas and visions, however so many of these are realistically never going to materialise if you look at the situation realistically. I know some of you guys are going to say the same old thing you read on many forums, however, I'm going to say it because it's true, Star Citizen is only a year or so away, please don't say I shouldn't compare, for those who don't understand or for the die hard fans, I'm not! And yes, I know Star Citizen is far from complete, I don't claim it is, however I simply see Elite Dangerous and a small bonus for what's happening now in this genre, so yes, enjoy for the time being, but we all know it's true that Elite will simply join other games that over promised and under delivered and therefore being left in the software graveyard. I'm simply stating a fact that pc gamers want to have fun with a game whilst being stimulated by awesome gameplay, graphics etc etc. I did on my student loan help Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous develop and therefore I play both beta programs (see what I did there) please understand when I say Star Citizen is going to be an amazing addition to this genre, it's so immersive, more than I've ever experienced from any 'space' game. For the graphic heads, it's outstanding, not merely spherical objects with a texture a young chap for 1st year university could produce from within 3D Studio Max, be realistic here guys.
Powerplay and a few patches previously...? Basically a bunch of fixes and more grinding but now with a twist, you are punished if don’t play enough with reputation decay algorithm.
BRAVO BRABEN!
The only good thing coming with this Powerplay patch (I refuse to call it expansion) is that even the most biased fans are realising that:
a) Many beta features are now set as final features.
b) We are half way to the paid DCL's and the game is not even near of what was promised.
c) Many features which were promised after release are now completely forgotten.
And there’s nothing as fun as seeing a bunch of fanboys in love with something and deceived and enraged about it, myself included, however I've moved on now and I can look and laugh about it having come to conclusion Elite was and is an overpriced stepping stone both for you and I and FD.
To be bluntly honest, Elite Dangerous was and still is, plain and simple, a fraud to backers.
Oh, I forgot to mention about Oculus Rift users, pretty immersive right guys, but still, it's merely a stepping stone for what's to come in this and other genres.
