What other games are we all playing?

Shepard is dead. Time to get over it and move on which is what MEA did and most fans can't stand it.

Exactly this, people expected ME4 but it wasn't and they can't get over it.
When you look at Andromeda as a new space story and don't compare it to ME 1, 2, and 3 then you've got a pretty good game imho.
I wouldn't mind a new ME game at all.
 
Personally as a huge fan of original ME trilogy and that including ME3 I would prefer if they just let it go. And not only because I absolutely did not enjoy Andromeda (don't care about bugs as those potentially can be fixed) as the game was just a massive letdown.
You cant in my opinion compete with what original game has done as far as building massive following and passion in community. Also my trust in BW under the EA boot completely vanished at this point.

Completely agree here VA. Andromeda could have been great...clearly underdeveloped, under staffed, under prioritised, underPANTS.

BW in general has displayed all these traits recently.
 
Hi. Devil's advocate here.
Putting the fact that MEA was quite enjoyable for me (I always try to see the best in games and overlook the flaws - it's a conscious choice that makes for a happier gaming), I'd never say "Don't even try"
Personally, MEA was the best (worst) example of a rushed and many times re-written flawed concept from the start that relied on an engine not suited for it. Those mistakes were on both BW's and EA's side.
But lately we've had a great example of EA trying something different - Jedi Fallen Order. If they're going to give BW the same level of creative freedom they gave Respawn and won't force them into Frostbite and stupid deadlines, then I say go for it.
I would LOVE to have another ME. With characters old or new, Reaper era, Andromeda era, or even something different like First Contact War, doesn't matter. I would play it and I would love it.
I could see myself play First Contact war scenario. I kinda had it with galactic holocausts for now. Bigger isn't always better.
 
I know this sounds weird, but for the last week I've been playing ED VR instead of playing ED. In other words, ED in VR feels like a very different game than ED on a flat screen - a much more enjoyable, immersive, "I'm flying a freaking space ship!" game.

I still very much enjoy other 2D games, and I'm glad not everything is in VR - some games would not translate very well, and I do need to take breaks from having that heavy ski mask strapped to my head.
 
I know this sounds weird, but for the last week I've been playing ED VR instead of playing ED. In other words, ED in VR feels like a very different game than ED on a flat screen - a much more enjoyable, immersive, "I'm flying a freaking space ship!" game.

I still very much enjoy other 2D games, and I'm glad not everything is in VR - some games would not translate very well, and I do need to take breaks from having that heavy ski mask strapped to my head.
VR is important for Elite. I see it on myself.
On a flat screen, we tend to gamify the session - i.e. "What am I going to do to earn credits/gather materials/see something interesting.
In VR one tends to simply enjoy the act of flying the spaceship itself without having to do anything or simply doing whatever. That is where Elite is at its strongest, imo.
Funny thing is that I usually end up with the similar amount of credits or materials (or experiences) as if I were focusing on them, but I have much better feeling about the session.

I honestly can't say if I would be still playing Elite if I didn't have VR.
 
In my experience, having clocked a few hundred hours on E: D in VR, it's great provided you're not actually doing stuff.

VR in E: D is its own game... and the other stuff that surrounds it isn't really that important when you get the headset on. You just gawk at the stations, your ship, other ships, planets, etc. It's truly glorious at times.

But for me at least, on a DK2 and now a CV1, the text is still too hard to read comfortably... so, grinding missions, or resource collection, or trading, or whatever... is better in 2D for long periods IMO.
 
In my experience, having clocked a few hundred hours on E: D in VR, it's great provided you're not actually doing stuff.

VR in E: D is its own game... and the other stuff that surrounds it isn't really that important when you get the headset on. You just gawk at the stations, your ship, other ships, planets, etc. It's truly glorious at times.

But for me at least, on a DK2 and now a CV1, the text is still too hard to read comfortably... so, grinding missions, or resource collection, or trading, or whatever... is better in 2D for long periods IMO.

I got a Rift S yesterday. Fired Up Elite for the first time in a couple of years. Flying the ship is ace in VR, everything looks massive. With the Rift S I had no problems reading text. I remember that being an issue when I tried someones DK2 a while back. What I did have a problem with was remembering how to play :D

Navigating the galaxy map seems awkward in VR, dunno if I just haven't got the hang of it yet. also I have some stuff bound to keyboard rather than HOTAS, so finding my keyboard was an issue :D

I did start to feel a bit dizzy after an hour or so, especially after rolling the ship.
 
I got a Rift S yesterday. Fired Up Elite for the first time in a couple of years. Flying the ship is ace in VR, everything looks massive. With the Rift S I had no problems reading text. I remember that being an issue when I tried someones DK2 a while back. What I did have a problem with was remembering how to play :D

Congrats on the Rift S - I've not tried that yet - naturally I saw the Black Friday sale and was tempted, but no money. I just have to "make do" with the CV1, which tbh hasn't been used in over 6 months.

Navigating the galaxy map seems awkward in VR, dunno if I just haven't got the hang of it yet. also I have some stuff bound to keyboard rather than HOTAS, so finding my keyboard was an issue :D

I did start to feel a bit dizzy after an hour or so, especially after rolling the ship.

Yep, the galaxy map controls need a fair bit of tweaking in VR. Depending on what you use (Hotas, gamepad, keyboard, etc) I found the default mappings for 2D (which relied on the mouse) practically unusable in VR. So it's really just about having a different mapping for VR, and training your brain to use it.

It can be done though, and once you get the hang of it, it's second nature like everything else.
 
Navigating the galaxy map seems awkward in VR, dunno if I just haven't got the hang of it yet. also I have some stuff bound to keyboard rather than HOTAS, so finding my keyboard was an issue :D
This is why I still use my PS4 controller despite owning a flight stick, as I find it's the best all-around input device for all the facets of ED - not just flying, but navigating menus, using the maps and FSS, and driving the SRV.

I do see adding voice control at some point, as I rely on the keyboard for certain mappings that won't fit on the DS4.
 
I'm playing No Man's Sky. The Fury by Martech (yes, really!) I've just about given up with Star Wars Battlefront II after the latest update made the Hero spam so much worse. I'm contemplating buying "Carrier Command, the Gaea Missions" and awaiting "Doom Eternal" with the keenest anticipation.
 
I'm playing No Man's Sky. The Fury by Martech (yes, really!) I've just about given up with Star Wars Battlefront II after the latest update made the Hero spam so much worse. I'm contemplating buying "Carrier Command, the Gaea Missions" and awaiting "Doom Eternal" with the keenest anticipation.
Bohemia's Carrier Command ?
I got it when released, played it for a short time and haven't been back in since. It's very good graphics wise I thought, but just didn't get into it at all. I bought it mainly just to keep supporting the studio, I am an Arma nutcase.. ;)
 
Bohemia's Carrier Command ?
I got it when released, played it for a short time and haven't been back in since. It's very good graphics wise I thought, but just didn't get into it at all. I bought it mainly just to keep backing the studio, I am an Arma nutcase.. ;)

That's the one. I loved the original. I think they flunked the reboot - god knows why it needed spurious FPS and cut-scenes added. It literally just needed to be the original game with better graphics and maybe a few extra weapons to cope with the more "Geographic" islands. They spent a lot of time guilding a lilly to death.
 
That's the one. I loved the original. I think they flunked the reboot - god knows why it needed spurious FPS and cut-scenes added. It literally just needed to be the original game with better graphics and maybe a few extra weapons to cope with the more "Geographic" islands. They spent a lot of time guilding a lilly to death.
There is a 'Mission Editor' in there as well iirc.. ?
I'll probably give it a run out at some stage, had forgotten it till you mentioned it. :)
 
Exactly this, people expected ME4 but it wasn't and they can't get over it.
When you look at Andromeda as a new space story and don't compare it to ME 1, 2, and 3 then you've got a pretty good game imho.

I dont agree at all. I was perfectly fine with the concept of a new ME without the old characters, but the story and especially the dialogue was so completely asinine I had to force myself to finish the game. They were so clearly so rushed internal consistency was never much of an objective to the point of it being intentionally funny. Like how some alien asks me to explain what 'money' is (really? This old cliche?) while meanwhile one of his buddies is yelling at me from his store ten feet away about how my money is as good as theirs.

When the game started, we invaded a new galaxy, ran into some aliens who we immediately executed because they felt threatened by us I had high hopes: surely we would get an interesting perspective with us being the scary invading aliens for a change! Nope. The entire thing was just shrugged of as 'just look at them, they are evil, kill 'em its all good!'.

EA has been pretty open about the horror-show that was ME:A's development, and I can sympathize with that. Not every ambitious project succeeds, and sometimes you fail so badly the final outcome isn't even decent enough for a 'regular game'. Fine. I'm also all for a new ME game. ME:A was a dud, it happens, lets learn from the mistakes and try again. But please don't give EA the impression we're actually cool with the result of their self-admitted failure, or they wont even try next time.

And as for what I am playing:
Source: https://i.imgur.com/xOH1qtP.png


Also added Wasteland 2: Directors Cut for free from GOG. :)
 
EA has been pretty open about the horror-show that was ME:A's development, and I can sympathize with that. Not every ambitious project succeeds, and sometimes you fail so badly the final outcome isn't even decent enough for a 'regular game'. Fine. I'm also all for a new ME game. ME:A was a dud, it happens, lets learn from the mistakes and try again. But please don't give EA the impression we're actually cool with the result of their self-admitted failure, or they wont even try next time.

I think the way they dropped ME:A was appalling. Other games have poor launches, where they are released half-baked or with poor design choices. Real software companies don't throw their customers under a bus when that happens - they continue to work, and fix the issues - whether they be big or small.

X-Rebirth is a good example of this. Utter trainwreck of a game, they got almost everything wrong at launch, but Egosoft spent 2+ years working on it & trying to make it better, whilst simultaneously planning another game in the franchise that did it right (X4). That has some issues too, but they're working on them, and it's almost mature now. See the pattern?
 
I think the way they dropped ME:A was appalling. Other games have poor launches, where they are released half-baked or with poor design choices. Real software companies don't throw their customers under a bus when that happens - they continue to work, and fix the issues - whether they be big or small.

X-Rebirth is a good example of this. Utter trainwreck of a game, they got almost everything wrong at launch, but Egosoft spent 2+ years working on it & trying to make it better, whilst simultaneously planning another game in the franchise that did it right (X4). That has some issues too, but they're working on them, and it's almost mature now. See the pattern?

Sure (and I agree with you about X:R, it truly became a fine game as long as you didnt treat it as an X3 successor), but there is a difference: EgoSoft is a small studio, that has only one IP, where they have a reputation of releasing steaming hot garbage that they slowly shape into a great game over years. ES had no choice but to fix X:R; it was either that or the end of their studio. EA has piles upon piles of IPs, and their choices are made by accountants and boards of directors. In this case it simply made sense to cut their losses and move on. They have been screwing over their customers for two decades now, and there never is any real push-back. They are arguably the most despised company in the industry but their reputation doesn't hurt them much, if at all. Don't forget they invested a LOT in ME:A, and gave the studio massive amounts of freedom. I don't like how it ended up, and would have preferred if EA would have invested even more to make it more fun to me, but in the end they are a company and they have to make decisions that make sense from a financial point of view. In cases like this I feel I, as a customer, should either accept it (and decide whether to do further business with them or not) or start my own game studio.
 
I think the way they dropped ME:A was appalling. Other games have poor launches, where they are released half-baked or with poor design choices. Real software companies don't throw their customers under a bus when that happens - they continue to work, and fix the issues - whether they be big or small.
They are doing exactly this with Anthem, btw.
They keep it alive and prepare for massive re-work.
 
Sure (and I agree with you about X:R, it truly became a fine game as long as you didnt treat it as an X3 successor), but there is a difference: EgoSoft is a small studio, that has only one IP, where they have a reputation of releasing steaming hot garbage that they slowly shape into a great game over years. ES had no choice but to fix X:R; it was either that or the end of their studio. EA has piles upon piles of IPs, and their choices are made by accountants and boards of directors. In this case it simply made sense to cut their losses and move on. They have been screwing over their customers for two decades now, and there never is any real push-back. They are arguably the most despised company in the industry but their reputation doesn't hurt them much, if at all. Don't forget they invested a LOT in ME:A, and gave the studio massive amounts of freedom. I don't like how it ended up, and would have preferred if EA would have invested even more to make it more fun to me, but in the end they are a company and they have to make decisions that make sense from a financial point of view. In cases like this I feel I, as a customer, should either accept it (and decide whether to do further business with them or not) or start my own game studio.

Ultimately, these decisions will come back and bite them in the posterior. They should take lessons from Sierra. It was the last EA game I bought, and I had to think hard about it too. But... it was Mass Effect so what else could I do? I'm not sure I'll make that mistake again... certainly haven't since.

You're right, they have a lot of IPs, and if you are only looking at bottom line, then there's really no need for them to ever produce any original content at all. They'll keep on making FIFA and Madden, and people will still buy them. :confused:

Interestingly, Egosoft left their publisher shortly after the release of X: R and went independent. It would be great if the likes of Bioware would do the same. They were a great games company... once.
 
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