With the speed at which news comes out in the gaming industry we sometimes miss important or news worthy things. Some of these things we want to talk about in a way that is both easy for you guys and allows us to get all the facts together as some of these stories develop quickly. Sometimes we also just cover topics that we find interesting and want to discuss.
Sledgehamer Games wants to impress PC Gamers
PC Gamer article written by Wes Fenlon talks about his trip to Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software to see Call of Duty: WWII. The part of his visit that stuck out to me is what was allegedly said by Raven CTO Dwight Luescher “”We’re really trying to focus on the PC, and more importantly focus on the PC community, and deliver a title that really matches their expectations for what Call of Duty is and should be, and make sure that we respond to what they want as a player. I think this year there’s a renewed energy around the PC, throughout this entire title, both at Sledgehammer and Raven. We really believe this is the year where the PC is going to excel. This is the year that we’re going to give it our best shot to win the hearts and minds of the PC community.”” They seem to want to win over the hearts of the PC community with this new game. My thoughts on that are bellow.
Wiggin’s thoughts on the subject : After spending 7 hours in the PC Open beta over this weekend and reaching rank 23 I feel like I have enough experience to comment on if I think that Sledgehammer have put forth the necessary effort to win over the PC community. I’ll be blunt here and say no they haven’t. The biggest thing lacking from the PC version of Call of Duty: WWII is there are no dedicated servers. This is a huge oversight to me because it’s a requirement to have a competent and functional first person shooter in 2017. There is really no excuse not to have dedicated servers for this game, it’s not like they don’t have the budget to implement dedicated servers. The lack of them is extremely evident when you try to enjoy the game as players will lag or you will be killed from a guy you thought you killed. It baffles my mind that with a game they are attempting to revive the PC community with you would leave out such a huge requirement out.
I’d also like to this time to air a couple of other grievances I have with Call of Duty: WWII that negativity affect my impressions of the game. The original Call of Duty games were games that I held very close to me, they sparked my interest in History that grew into an appreciation that exists to this day. That’s why I guess this game hurts me the most in terms of its historical inaccuracies. This game I thought would be a return to form, an update and improvement to original Call of Duty games I fell in love with so many years ago. Instead it spits in the face of history, both in terms of game play and historical weapon accuracy. One of the ones that really bothered me in the Beta was the Bren gun having a drum magazine.
Bren gun with a Pan magazine that I can’t even find evidence existed.
For comparison here is a video of an actual Bren gun with a drum mag that holds 100 rounds. Why this wasn’t used in place of what is shown above is confusing to say the least.
From my research the drum magazine was used in an anti-aircraft roll and not something carried around the front lines of battle. It was not something you could hip fire with accuracy or usefulness.
Then there is the optical sights that from a quick search wasn’t really developed into something functional until after the end of the war. So not only are they messing with things that weren’t used as they were during the war, they are adding things into the game that weren’t even developed during the war. Don’t get me started on the lack of recoil on almost every single gun thus killing people takes almost no skill and the use of silencers on SMG weapons. As a person that takes his history quite seriously to see these types of errors it seems to paint quite a different picture then some of the development diaries about wanting to stay true to history.
Perhaps this Dev Diary is specific only to single player, if that’s the case then what are they thinking not incorporating that into the multiplayer. These issues affect game play and while I’d say the majority of players don’t care about these inconsistencies and errors they highlight an overall design mentality that doesn’t really make me excited as a PC gamer. If nothing else it just reinforces the idea that they are only going through the motions in attempt to cash in on the old school Call of Duty players like myself that are hoping one day to see a World War II game with the same passion seen in the original games. This is far from it.
Forza 7 has loot boxes
ARS Technica posted an article illuminating the inclusion of loot boxes that Turn 10 has named “prize crates” according to the article. Now while these loot boxes aren’t that surprising as it seems that is the way the industry is going with attempting to double dip on their full price games, that’s not the note worthy bit. The note worthy bit is that these loot boxes can unlock mods and these mods can actually affect the races themselves. As stated by ASR Technica ” Apply a “night race” mod to your car before a race, for example, and you’ll turn your next race from day to night—and earn 30 percent more CR on that race. An “instability” mod turns off one of the game’s “driver assist” perks in exchange for a 30-percent CR boost. Some mods don’t count unless you complete an objective, like pulling off two “perfect turns” in a race. Other mods simply grant a flat CR reward boost in your next race without additional requirements.” This seems a little bit over the “norm” for loot boxes. Previously you could change these types of settings, day or night races, whenever you wanted. You won’t be rewarded for doing so now unless you have the right mod. Quite an interesting twist on the loot boxes and something I’m sure many fans won’t be a fan of.
Wiggin’s thoughts on the subject : This is an interesting idea, forcing people to get random items in order to get more points for racing in the dark or turning off specific assists. As a person that prefers a more realistic racing experience where the challenge is part of the experience. Creating a dynamic where you get extra points for racing in the dark seems quit silly. The experience of racing in the dark should be its own reward. You should not need to have a special item in order to get more points for a specific type of racing in order to earn bonus points. This type of thing really makes me wonder if this game is about the racing experience or showing off how many cars you can collect. I’m starting to think it’s more of the second point. Quite a shame because the game looks beautiful but clearly doesn’t seem to focused on the racing and seems much more concerned about how they can artificially pad out game time and get more money out of their player base long term.
