Looking forward to Jason's final word on it - I've been playing it for review and have enjoyed much of the changes - but the most sour part of my experience pre-release was the fact that I could not get into an online match, ranked or casual - not even a battle lounge at all. Constantly sitting at the "connecting to opponent" prompt was a major bummer - but I'm going to get a bit more time in this evening online and hopefully be able to get some matches in, update my score and review.
Jason is spot on - it's gorgeous, all the visuals and tweaks are great, and I like the V-Skill/Gauge/Meter/Reversal/Trigger stuff quite a bit, and it's still a technically solid example of a great, if not the best fighting game out there. If it weren't for the online issues, the fact that the shop wasn't open at all to get a look at costs, and my Fighter ID and all currency was reset four different times in the days before the launch it just put a seriously bad taste in my mouth.
Glad Austin brought up "does anyone do it better" - Valve is a solid mention too from what I've heard even though they're fairly secretive. I wonder about companies like CD Projekt Red and those that have high regard from "doing their games right" and how the dollars to hours match up for time worked as well as environment. Great listen - keep this stuff up for sure.
Awesome read and a great topic. I hope this does turn into a series, I'd like to see not just the horror stories and what has been done wrong but some of the "folks doing it right" examples too. I love games, and have played with getting into the industry since I love not just games but the backbone of software design, but the financial instability and relative feeling that it's still the wild west were anything goes and people get treated like shit on the daily is just too prohibitive and makes me wonder about those already in there and how it goes.
@jadegl: welp, now I feel awful. That doesn't sound fun at all. Sorry to hear that Jade, the images in my head are always more of a "oh dear I do believe I've caught the vapors" cut to a soft fall you never really see the end of. I'll count my blessings that I haven't fainted full on like that.
Man it's really too bad - like most I loved the games of old, have fond memories of THPS2 being the only game I had on a vacation snow-in while in Wyoming during spring break in high school - and now this.
Made me sad to hear on the bombcast that the discussion was around it maybe even being poorly done on purpose, or gimped in some way by the pub/studios as a big middle finger to someone else - too bad it is a numbered release too. Oh well, this is a great example of why I thank Jeff and the fellas for suffering through this stuff so I don't have to.
Joe_McCallister's comments