So… I’ve been playing for a few days now. After coming from my PC account where I got used to rolling with impunity in ‘Conda bristling with laz0rs: having to start again from scratch has been, well, rather humbling. Turns out, I got the aforementioned and well endowed ‘Conda comparatively easily. You see, I didn’t have one insurance claim getting there. Within the first 24 hours of playing on PS4 I had 2 insurance claims and that doesn’t include several losses of my free sidey. And then there was that time I boosted into the side of station whilst attempting to lower my landing gear. Lols were had by all.
You see, I was a beta backer on PC. This, with hindsight, made things pretty easy. There were lots of bugs, exploits and game imbalance in those days that I took full advantage of to amass credits fairly quickly. I stopped playing about 18 months ago when I had to give up my man cave (and gaming pc) to make room for a nursery. Wifey bought me a PS4 to cheer me up, but I always missed PC gaming and the company of adults (I always used to say “consoles are toys for children”) and the PC master race sense of superiority.
Fast forward to Monday this week…and my how things have changed. I played through the original beta and I played when the game first launched amongst cries of the game being “unfinished” and “rushed” to beat Star Citizen to market. And much of that criticism was not without merit. I was a particularly vocal critic back in those days about the direction the game was heading (to the point where I was given a couple of all-expenses-paid holidays to Banstick Island!) and I’m glad to see I’ve been proven wrong. I’m enjoying the challenge of not being able to make money the same way I did on PC.
The game is so unbelievably polished and detailed. The game’s mechanics seem carefully balanced yet constantly changing and unpredictable. The NPC AI is actually intelligent. You need to pay attention to who you pick a fight with because combat is a lot harder. Interaction with the various characters gives the game depth and meaning that it was missing when I was playing on PC. There’s new ways pathways to earn money and new things to explore. It feels like I’m playing a sequel and not the same game I was playing 18 months ago.
I think the thing that impresses me the most is how FD have added so much detail and complexity to the game without making it hard to pick up and play. Just do the basic training missions and off you go. Things like solo play (which I was vehemently opposed to when it was first proposed) create a game that allows you to learn at your own pace without the fear of having your stuff ganked. Yet it doesn’t ruin the open play experience. There are so many examples where the developers have set out to have the best of both worlds without compromise and found to way to achieve it. It really does justice to the original game and the new ground it broke.
It is great to see that FD have constantly added content to the game and that it is constantly evolving. It is amazing that they’ve done this for so long without a subscription based model. God only knows how they’ve made that work. I’ve got a VR headset and played a few of the available titles, none of which I feel really do justice to the technology (Eve Valkyrie was such a disappointment!). ED + PSVR would be mind-blowing (hint, hint!). I truly hope they can make it happen.
You see, I was a beta backer on PC. This, with hindsight, made things pretty easy. There were lots of bugs, exploits and game imbalance in those days that I took full advantage of to amass credits fairly quickly. I stopped playing about 18 months ago when I had to give up my man cave (and gaming pc) to make room for a nursery. Wifey bought me a PS4 to cheer me up, but I always missed PC gaming and the company of adults (I always used to say “consoles are toys for children”) and the PC master race sense of superiority.
Fast forward to Monday this week…and my how things have changed. I played through the original beta and I played when the game first launched amongst cries of the game being “unfinished” and “rushed” to beat Star Citizen to market. And much of that criticism was not without merit. I was a particularly vocal critic back in those days about the direction the game was heading (to the point where I was given a couple of all-expenses-paid holidays to Banstick Island!) and I’m glad to see I’ve been proven wrong. I’m enjoying the challenge of not being able to make money the same way I did on PC.
The game is so unbelievably polished and detailed. The game’s mechanics seem carefully balanced yet constantly changing and unpredictable. The NPC AI is actually intelligent. You need to pay attention to who you pick a fight with because combat is a lot harder. Interaction with the various characters gives the game depth and meaning that it was missing when I was playing on PC. There’s new ways pathways to earn money and new things to explore. It feels like I’m playing a sequel and not the same game I was playing 18 months ago.
I think the thing that impresses me the most is how FD have added so much detail and complexity to the game without making it hard to pick up and play. Just do the basic training missions and off you go. Things like solo play (which I was vehemently opposed to when it was first proposed) create a game that allows you to learn at your own pace without the fear of having your stuff ganked. Yet it doesn’t ruin the open play experience. There are so many examples where the developers have set out to have the best of both worlds without compromise and found to way to achieve it. It really does justice to the original game and the new ground it broke.
It is great to see that FD have constantly added content to the game and that it is constantly evolving. It is amazing that they’ve done this for so long without a subscription based model. God only knows how they’ve made that work. I’ve got a VR headset and played a few of the available titles, none of which I feel really do justice to the technology (Eve Valkyrie was such a disappointment!). ED + PSVR would be mind-blowing (hint, hint!). I truly hope they can make it happen.