Topic: Team Microtransactions (MTX) PS3 Library Deliberation Thread

Updated the rankings in the first post.

Mayhem Left Field Productions
An interesting car action game with neat, comic book-inspired art design and modes inspired by destruction derbies (set in arenas, obviously) and banger racing (never heard of this before, but apparently it's a thing in the UK?). Additionally, there's a career mode, online and local co-op, and the game actually has 3D support (not hugely common among PS3 games, I've noticed). The visual design is great, and the gameplay is fun enough for what it is, but a common complaint is that the gameplay doesn't really evolve or deepen as you play through the game. Also, the career mode is apparently fairly short. So it's a fun but somewhat disposable experience.

Verdict: Unimportant

Medal of Honor: Airborne EA Los Angeles
A very cool-looking FPS that eschews linear, cinematic sequences (ala CoD: Modern Warfare) for large maps filled with self-contained objectives that can be tackled in a non-linear manner. This design approach helps with replayability in terms of the single-player campaign. At the beginning of a mission, you could parachute to pretty much any place on the map, further feeding into the non-linear design philosophy/ You're given briefings at the beginning of missions that help you to understand your broader goals. It featured at-the-time innovative features such as being able to hold onto your grenade for a few seconds to control when it explodes after you throw it as well as featuring a system where you're able to upgrade your weapons the more you use them. It also has an interesting and forgiving system that doesn't force you to restart a mission entirely upon death. Instead, you parachute back into the field and continue on with your mission. This makes the game a good deal more accessible than it might have otherwise been for less skilled players. While this game didn't become the defining model for FP shooters going forward, it appears to have ahead-of-its-time in terms of its mature design philosophy and holds up fairly well as a solo experience today. Multiplayer was apparently solid but not as influential as what the Call of Duty games would go on to do.

Verdict: Important

That should make this week's list complete.

@Ralizah and that is a wrap!

Sorry I haven't been much help at all this week team 😅

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Don't worry. To be honest, even though not a lot of the team had played any of the games, it was an easy week. The list contained a lot stand out games that were easy to place. It was just then a quick research on others to see where they place (plus we had two sports franchises which helpes as the fan base did all the work for us!)

Foxy has more than pulled her weight so far. Especially that one week when most of the team was AWOL.

sorry guys, i did manage to put my scores in earlier in the week, but thurs/fri was exceptionally busy at the office to have time look at the rest that nobody played. the list looks ok to me. i think certain sports games can be important/influential, regardless if they are annual or not, because sometimes they introduce new features, or overhaul the game into a different direction. i've no specific knowledge of the 2K MLB games (US sports don't interest me) though, but the fact it critically and commercially got left behind by Sony's MLB:The Show series probably says more than enough.

I know it was locked in, it you guys have got to reconsider Mercs 2.
Mercs 2 is one of the worst sequels ever made. It did everything worse. The way the aiming, driving, and whatnot was worse. It added awful quick-time events when you hijacked a vehicle and trying to take over tank requires to figure out a new button mashing method it’s so hard. The dialogue went from witty to bland and uninteresting. When I played the final mission, it ended with a quick time event scene, obscured by a helicopter because the game glitches. It’s a hard pointless.

@Jaz007 @leucocyte seems to be the only one of us who played Merc 2. I personally never even played the 1st

Great work getting those results in. Bravo.

@ZeD @Jaz007 - i haven't played the original mercenaries either, and i rented mercenaries 2. my memory of it is not that great, but i do remember it wasn't particularly polished, quite a few bugs, terrible AI, ropey graphics and i did consider rating it as unimportant. but it did give you an open-world freedom (one of the first on PS3 that i can remember and you could do it all in co-op as well) to go around and destroy everything or set the world ablaze, jack helipcopters, etc. which did offer some fun, before its mission design got a bit repetitive. reviews seem to hover around 6-8, so i err'd on the more optimistic side and gave it an 'existing' rating, even if its ambition was marred by its execution.

@leucocyte @Jaz007 , so are we happy with the current position or we moving down by one?

@leucocyte @ZeD I’d prefer at least nor important, especially because the first was so so much better, but it’s not my call to make so if you guys don’t want to move it down I’ll accept that.

@Jaz007
Ok, as you have played the original and have something to compare it too, I will take your thoughts into account and drop it down as @leucocyte already gave some good points on it as a stand alone game.
Thanks peeps!

@ZeD

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14uRdE72JtbW4N3dPmgzaf...

New Phase version of the sheet is live. I just re-purposed the one we've been using. Once we get the names, you can fill out the user scores page. We can explain the basic rule set we've been using at that point to the other teams, yeah?

Also, I changed it slightly. Unsorted games are in the "Unsorted" column to make the "Existing" section easier to keep clean. Otherwise, it's the same as always.

@Ralizah good work. I'm looking forward to this!

@Ralizah sounds like a plan.
This list isn't too bad as there are a lot of franchises here so we just need to work out the order of those.

@ZeD I've played all but one need for speed games. Most Wanted by Criterion is on another level and is one of the best games from last gen.

I've played a number of the 2k basketball games intermittently. Strangely the best one for me was 2k5 the gen before - it was amazing for a gamer and not necessarily basketball fans due to a mode they have long since ripped out. It was a single player rpg mode. Anyway I can probably rate the earlier games in that franchise.

I will take the nascar games if you want. A series I haven't played but will look into over the next week.

@themcnoisy ill update the spreadsheet tomorrow morning with all the names on.
Even if we start this week, it will make it easier next week.

Basically on our spreadsheet we have a score tab. Place 1 to 5 next to the game in ypur name column. The average of all scores puts that game in the preliminary category.
Once scores are in, ant without are the obscure ones that need researching

@ZeD sweet. Will get on it tonight.