I am glad Tango Gameworks found a new home. As for Xbox, I am no longer buying any new games for it and I am boycotting Microsoft for a myriad of reasons.
Jedi Survivor…god this game performs so bad. 5800X3D and a 4090 and those stutters. The game isn’t even that graphically impressive so I don’t know wtf is going on behind the scenes, probably some old code that constantly checks for micro transactions.
Been playing through Tunic this last week and I don't think I've had a game leave me this conflicted in a while. I picked Tunic up on all the recommendations of it being classic Zelda with elements from Dark Souls and that's definitely what I got, for most of the game at least. I also enjoyed the puzzle elements with the manual, trying to decipher what it was telling me based on the images and the odd English word. If there's one thing the game does well it's capturing that feeling of playing a game as a kid and not really knowing what's possible. I had quite a few "Ah-ha!" moments where the game hinted at something just enough to let me figure it out on my own. But then you get to the end-game, the game takes away all your upgrades, and makes you go through a gauntlet of enemies to get them back. I get what they were going for here, but playing through it was just a slog. In theory, I like the idea of being powerless again and having to treat every enemy with caution, but in practice this segment just dragged on for too long,
Another mechanic that overstays it's welcome is the "Holy Cross" mechanic. It's neat the first time you use it and figuring out how to use it on all the sealed doors and golden statues I had seen was fun. But the issue is this is where the game completely changes genres on you, at least if you want to see the true ending. The Zelda/Dark Souls elements are now completely secondary to deciphering the manual and completing the Holy Cross puzzles. Enemies are just obstacles between you and where you have to go to solve the next puzzle, culminating in the Golden Path puzzle, which the true ending is gated behind.
I did enjoy everything up until that point, but once it became about this meta-puzzle and flipping through the manual to solve it I just lost interest. Yeah, I was stuck with the "Bad Ending", but the amount of effort the game wanted me to put in for a cut-scene just didn't seem worth it.
I think as long as these extra packs don’t replace work done by the devs on staff, it’s fine. Here are some things to consider:
While it’s not specifically gig work, many studios already hire contractors to work on games while in development, just to terminate the contracts after launch. This also isn’t unique to the games industry, as companies in many other industries regularly hire contractors for a specific project or duration.
If these content creator and modder packs stopped being sold, they won’t automatically equate to content being produced by the studio instead. The staff may be working on other DLC or expansions, after-launch support, or moved to another project.
The studio may decide to stop officially developing for a game, but community-made packs could be a way for them to add additional content.
I used to play Warframe, and the studio, DE, would regularly add skins that were designed and voted on by the community. The studio still produced their own cosmetics, so it was cool to have additional skins and also support designers in the community. Ultimately, I think we should look at these on a case-by-case basis, as we’ll probably see some studios doing it “right”, while others may lean a little too heavily on modder work.
Look at your nuanced take. I forgot those existed recently lol. I definitely agree that taking it company by company or DLC by DLC makes the most sense. I think I’m partially feeling a little burned by the fact these DLCs seem to have had more care and consideration put into them than some of the official stuff which is just often sooo buggy. Modders have come in and made some unplayable games absolutely magical, and I just worry they are being taken advantage of and us as consumers just don’t know, but it might just be me so used to negative gaming news it’s hard to take things positively anymore lol. I think the warframe model you described seems pretty good seeing as it was cosmetics and there was community involvement, so glad to see it’s been done well in other places too. Thank you for your response!
I played Dauntless hardcore in the beta. My team and I really enjoy it and it was going to great but it went to Epic we never gave it another thought. A real pity because the combat was fun. IDK how it evolved but the chainblade started out really enjoyable.
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