While Monday morning quarterbacking is fun It’s worth keeping in mind success in gaming in general and online gaming in particular is the very much the exception rather than the rule and that success and failure are often unpredictable especially for original games or sequels to niche games.
Unfortunate for the developers, but the frequently hated (online anyway) but healthy (in terms of number of people playing it) Overwatch has left a lot of bodies behind it.
The keep the powers of characters you previously selected angle was kinda interesting but very poorly explained (it certainly wasn’t part of the promotion).
As one might guess, I was a huge Overwatch fan its first few years (in excess of a thousand hours) but bots and throwers in increasingly large percentages of matches eventually soured me on OW in particular and competitive gaming in general. IMHO competitive online is at its best when teams are balanced in terms of numbers and skill. It’s insane neither Concord beta allowed for anyone or anything to fill spaces created by dropouts. A guy drops out in the character selection because he doesn’t get his pick or doesn’t like somebody else’s pick or what have you, then unless there is a severe skill imbalance then the match is screwed for everyone.
I played Concord a couple hours in its first beta but only one in its second (which added a fun new control mode but didn’t fix its core dropout issue and which mostly importantly was a ghost town) and decided not to bother to buy it. There was more positive buzz about Marvel Rivals and even Overwatch due to a new character debuting during the Concord beta.
I was okay with the unmemorable, hero shooter standard characters but I don’t get why the developers were so high on them that they thought the characters and their cutscenes would be a big draw and two short demo weekends right before launch rather than a lengthy beta which would have allowed time to implement feedback prior to launch a good idea.
I hope everyone involved lands on their feet, learns from their mistakes made and finds success in the future.
Right now I’m at level one hundred in H2 and have a little under 300 hours in (mostly playing with randoms). I’ve been a Helldivers fan since the original and have remained a fan.
Not every post launch tweak or bug or what have you has thrilled me but there have been lots of fun enemies released post launch (factory walkers and impalers are things of beauty) and useful weapons (even with the fire nerf the new fire shotgun aka the cookout is a beast and I’d say the only complete joke of a weapon is the knife) added.
For my money a big part of the fun of Helldivers has always been the high level of challenge. I like it best when my team completes the objectives, picks up all the samples and successfully extracts but those successes are only fun because of the tough enemies we overcame.
Shrugs It appears a lot of H2’s initial success was driven by the power fantasy crowd so I don’t blame the developer for chasing them. If the game stops being a challenge to a solid team on the highest difficulty levels (unlikely but possible) I’ll simply move on.
Comments 3
Re: PS5, PC Flop Concord Never Returning, Studio Closed Down
While Monday morning quarterbacking is fun It’s worth keeping in mind success in gaming in general and online gaming in particular is the very much the exception rather than the rule and that success and failure are often unpredictable especially for original games or sequels to niche games.
Re: PS5, PC Flop Concord Never Returning, Studio Closed Down
Unfortunate for the developers, but the frequently hated (online anyway) but healthy (in terms of number of people playing it) Overwatch has left a lot of bodies behind it.
The keep the powers of characters you previously selected angle was kinda interesting but very poorly explained (it certainly wasn’t part of the promotion).
As one might guess, I was a huge Overwatch fan its first few years (in excess of a thousand hours) but bots and throwers in increasingly large percentages of matches eventually soured me on OW in particular and competitive gaming in general. IMHO competitive online is at its best when teams are balanced in terms of numbers and skill. It’s insane neither Concord beta allowed for anyone or anything to fill spaces created by dropouts. A guy drops out in the character selection because he doesn’t get his pick or doesn’t like somebody else’s pick or what have you, then unless there is a severe skill imbalance then the match is screwed for everyone.
I played Concord a couple hours in its first beta but only one in its second (which added a fun new control mode but didn’t fix its core dropout issue and which mostly importantly was a ghost town) and decided not to bother to buy it. There was more positive buzz about Marvel Rivals and even Overwatch due to a new character debuting during the Concord beta.
I was okay with the unmemorable, hero shooter standard characters but I don’t get why the developers were so high on them that they thought the characters and their cutscenes would be a big draw and two short demo weekends right before launch rather than a lengthy beta which would have allowed time to implement feedback prior to launch a good idea.
I hope everyone involved lands on their feet, learns from their mistakes made and finds success in the future.
Re: Arrowhead Offers Peek at Helldivers 2 Patch Meant to Satisfy the Masses
Right now I’m at level one hundred in H2 and have a little under 300 hours in (mostly playing with randoms). I’ve been a Helldivers fan since the original and have remained a fan.
Not every post launch tweak or bug or what have you has thrilled me but there have been lots of fun enemies released post launch (factory walkers and impalers are things of beauty) and useful weapons (even with the fire nerf the new fire shotgun aka the cookout is a beast and I’d say the only complete joke of a weapon is the knife) added.
For my money a big part of the fun of Helldivers has always been the high level of challenge. I like it best when my team completes the objectives, picks up all the samples and successfully extracts but those successes are only fun because of the tough enemies we overcame.
Shrugs It appears a lot of H2’s initial success was driven by the power fantasy crowd so I don’t blame the developer for chasing them. If the game stops being a challenge to a solid team on the highest difficulty levels (unlikely but possible) I’ll simply move on.