Wolfenstein: The New Order. Thread One.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 9:22 pm

I usually hate the first hour of first person shooters. This is because they are teaching me controls I will never use again, and because they show four splash screens before letting me play and because they don't have save anywhere.

Usually I can find some fun after I tweak the game a bit.

So I got Wolfenstein: The New Order due to Pinback's recommendation. This is Thread One, where I hate it. And I do hate it, it's terrible.

.... So far.

I expect that it WILL get better, and I will start Thread Two for that. But for now, let me specifically call out:

1) There are FIVE fucking splash screens. Bethesda, the studio, id, and two I can't remember.

2) No quicksaving. Pinback probably mentioned it. It does not have the decency to save after asking you to do stupid shit it will never ask you to do again.

3) I took a screenshot but it didn't save it, but the thing wants you to press W, Left Shift and Left Control at the same time to do a "sprint slide." If you are going to use those three controls at once, it means you need to press Left Control at the right moment with your pinky.

That is an actual thing they asked adults to do.

It's a mess, gang. An awkward piece of shit. However, I got the same feelings of rage when I was playing Far Cry 3 and at least New Order isn't causing my computer to power cycle.

I guess what it comes down to is that computer games are changing and the new guard making them are all dumb assholes. How can it take 15-20 seconds to load a new level when there are check points? It's comical. This is probably the last FPS I'll ever try in my life. There simply isn't anything new going on with them and the controls and save systems are unusable.

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 11:29 pm

Have you played Metro Last Light?

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 7:53 am

ICJ, in your youth could you have predicted that by the time you hit 40 you'd be a whiny-ass bitch unable to enjoy anything good?

Lettuphant · Post by **Lettuphant** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 2:50 pm

ICJ, you save-scummed so much in your youth that you became dependant. Consider this your intervention.

Years have passed. A decade + of creating and learning about the craft of making interactive experiences. We have learned well.

These days, if I was making an FPS in which someone could hit a button to instantly save, I could only do it if that was a game design element. My main character would be a time-traveller, or a dimension hopper, something like that. Regardless of the story, you would have a finite bar of energy, depleted each time.

If I was a game designer I would not want you hitting F6 every second to remove my constructed sense of risk-reward and pacing. I wouldn't want the players ruining any sense of dramatic tension or sense of consequence by making a personal Vita-Chamber wherever they wanted.

You talk about FPS' and action games in your grumps about a lack of quick-save. Those are precisely the games that should never have allowed them in the first place. Think how Super Meat Boy would be spoiled if you could quick-save after each jump.

It's time to let go.

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:38 pm

Ink ribbons, anyone?

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 5:41 pm

pinback wrote:ICJ, in your youth could you have predicted that by the time you hit 40 you'd be a whiny-ass bitch unable to enjoy anything good?

Not really, no.

Thread Two is coming soon!

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 5:43 pm

Lettuphant wrote:These days, if I was making an FPS in which someone could hit a button to instantly save, I could only do it if that was a game design element. My main character would be a time-traveller, or a dimension hopper, something like that. Regardless of the story, you would have a finite bar of energy, depleted each time.

That's the problem. A lot of people see saving as a gameplay element, but what it really is, is protecting against the power going out. (Or wanting to do something else, or having to go to bed.) I don't see it as a gameplay element at all.

Those two schools are incompatible.

If I was a game designer I would not want you hitting F6 every second to remove my constructed sense of risk-reward and pacing. I wouldn't want the players ruining any sense of dramatic tension or sense of consequence by making a personal Vita-Chamber wherever they wanted.

All the while, as a player, I don't want to have to re-do a scene because the dog took a liquid poo on the carpet and I either sit at the game while the girlfriend yells at me, or I get up and deal with it.

Think how Super Meat Boy would be spoiled if you could quick-save after each jump.

You could save after each level in Lode Runner and that game was none the worse for it.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 5:54 pm

I like the save system they did with Splinter Cell reloaded on the PS3. You CAN save at any time but it takes a couple of menus to get there so you have to be serious about wanting to really save.

I find that the older I get the more impatient I am to "just finish this damn thing!" It's more of a chore than any kind of immersion. Having to do a difficult part over more then twice really makes me lose interest quickly.

THE
CRUSTY OLD
AARDVARK

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 7:11 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: All the while, as a player, I don't want to have to re-do a scene because the dog took a liquid poo on the carpet and I either sit at the game while the girlfriend yells at me, or I get up and deal with it.

UMMM you can just hit "esc" and it'll pause the game. DOYYYyyy.

Think how Super Meat Boy would be spoiled if you could quick-save after each jump.
You could save after each level in Lode Runner and that game was none the worse for it.

Did you really just try to compare SMB jumps to entire Lode Runner levels? This is... I don't... You can't...

Shut up.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 7:33 pm

Well, the whole, "Saving after each Mario jump" is the kind of tactic that people who abuse quicksaves and therefore want them banned trot out. The truth is, nobody wants THAT kind of saving. If you have the sort of game where it's an action or arcade game, then saving after each board or level is fine.

I know you're on my side, Pinner, so don't pretend otherwise.