Viewing entries tagged
multiplayer
I've said it before and I'll probably say it again, but the older I get, the less interested I am in multiplayer games. The very idea of sharing my time with a bunch of abusive teenagers screaming slurs at me through bad headset microphones doesn't seem like much of a good time. Since the introduction of voice chat in multiplayer games, you couldn't even pay me to take part in the absolute shit show that is contemporary online multiplayer gaming.
I haven't been feeling myself lately, as I've come down with a bad case of 'enjoying multiplayer' in many games. Honestly, I'm a little worried, as I haven't really enjoyed any multiplayer gaming since I played games like Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, and Quake III over dial-up internet. For some reason, over the last few years there have been a number of multiplayer games that managed to squeeze their way into my day.
Couch co-op games have never really been a big thing in my gaming life, simply because I'm very rarely in the position where I have someone to share the couch (and the game) with in the first place. Although I tried my best when I was younger, always attempting to get my friends playing NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat as much as I could, but to no avail. In fact, the most I've ever played any couch co-op with anyone else has been with the golf game: Tiger Wood's PGA Tour 11. I mean, anything is more fun with friends, so I eventually learned to take what I could get and play whatever those around me were interested in.
Hype is a dangerous thing, and it's the main reason I was never looking forward to Death Stranding in any way at all. I'm completely sick of hearing about Kojima and how he's the golden god of game design. It seems like everyone on the internet has been creaming themselves over the potential of his latest game baby, which is enough to turn me off entirely - and for the most part, it did.
It's very rare that I get to spend any amount of time with a game that focuses primarily on couch multiplayer. You might already know that I don't spend a lot of time playing multiplayer games in general, let alone local multiplayer. So I'm pretty stoked to be able to talk about Starwhal at all, let alone actually having played it.
I think I might be able to pinpoint the moment when I lost all interest in online multiplayer. Well, maybe not the exact moment, but it would be whenever voice chat became the norm. Back when I played Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and Quake III religiously, voice chat was the exception and text chat was the rule. Turns out hearing strangers yelling into their low-quality microphone didn't add much to the online gaming experience.
I'm not a fan of deck-building games at the best of times. I never got into Magic The Gathering, or Pokémon, or any other form of Collectible Card Games, or Trading Card Games at any point in my life. The closest I ever got was collecting basketball cards in primary school, because literally everyone collected basketball cards at my primary school.
What could make an open world racing game featuring multiple disciplines and a pretty big map even better? If you answered: boats, planes, hovercraft, and motorbikes; then have I got news for you. Not only is The Crew 2 packed with more content than its predecessor, but there's more variety than ever before!
I have to admit that I was apprehensive about trying out what is commonly considered to be the worst entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise. This is the game that was so poorly received, Ubisoft had to eventually rethink its release schedule and get itself together. I knew going in that this might be the game that finally ends my enjoyment of the series.
I've been debating whether or not I had anything useful to say about a game that's now been surpassed by its sequel, and ultimately relegated to a terminal wind-down period. It won't be long before we see the Destiny servers shut down in favour of Destiny 2, or even a third by the time it all rolls around. Despite there being an active community of players stuck on the first Destiny, it's no secret that the title is on its way out.
In a time before broadband internet and the proliferation of online video streaming, the only way to see footage of games before they released was to find a web site hosting a file, then wait weeks for it to download over a dial-up connection. This is how it was when Unreal Tournament 2003 was due to be released, and I dutifully sourced a keynote speech from Cliff Bleszinski where he talked about and showed off the latest tech to feature in the game. I think it was only about a forty-five minute video, but seeing those rag-doll effects and new weapon models for the first time really blew my tiny little mind.
As much as I often cringe at multiplayer focused games, there's something about MMOs that I find fascinating. The first time I entered a persistent online world was with Ultima Online: Third Dawn, way back when it was amazing that something so complex could work over dial-up internet. Now with PCs packing more power and the average internet connection offering reliable pings, the options have grown to accommodate a new range of genres to enter the MMO space.
These days it's rare for any AAA game to come with a demo or trial version to play around with before deciding if you want to throw down the full price of purchase. For Honor is no different, but it offered up an 'open beta' a few days before the game launched, which served as a good demo for me, as I discovered why I won't be buying it.
