It's really hard for me to see the Saudi crown family acquiring anything as a positive thing :/.
In a more positive light, games like Sakuna and Falconeer doing well really makes me hopeful!
On Elite : I've put it on hold. I just can't take the grind even when I'm pretty much at its end. The gameplay is just a tedious collection of un-enjoyable, disconnected minigames with no depth whatsoever. Travel feels like it happens in a different space from the rest of the game due to its bullshit instancing MP and FSD/"jump" design. Despite its 128-bit positioning, I feel completely disconnected from the world and even my ship as a result. What little of it I see is made samey by the meh cockpits and the flight model is just a chore without any joy whatsoever. There's just so little content to enjoy in general.
I'm tired of running after arbitrary carrots that don't really matter to me when I get them and that game's obsession with making progress bars fill up has thoroughly fed me up. What difference is it going to make that I get a corvette? It's going to be more of the same. That game never delivers on the promise of awe and freedom and joy of spaceflight because space is empty, planets are poorly-detailed and every station in the game is based on a variation of a handful of models.
I think that game really, really misses the point and joy of spaceflight with its corner-speed flight mechanic neutering any hope of proper physics or enjoyment. Thruster capabilities are driven by arbitrary rules rather than physics, so it never feels like flying. I wish it had been more I-war 2 or House of the Dying Sun than this. It's not even more balanced in any way in MP because people still joust and circle each other and all the usual pitfalls while chugging down shield cells, because contrary to popular belief FD hasn't found a good formula. They juiced it up a lot with good sound design and there's a lot to be said for how they convey the mechanics of it, from the UI to the main thruster VFX, but the core of it, in my experience and opinion, is rotten.
Also, the idea that this flight model is good from a visual aesthetic standpoint falls on its face quickly when people fly FA off, which, surprise, enables them to move in ways that are more space-like and feel completely un-intuitive given that ships still have a very clear back/front design. Also has the problem of mav thruster VFX not being visible from afar, meaning no visual source/language to explain the ship's motions. Finally, Frontier has released an AMA recently during which they stonewalled their community so shamefully that... Yeah. I have zero confidence or faith in them to fix anything about any of those fundamental problems. So for now, I'm done. I tried, I really did. About 80 hours clocked in, I think that was a fair shake.
Anyway, I'm going back to looking for a good space game to scratch my pewpew itch. SW:Squadrons seems to have poorly-implemented M&KB controls so that one is out. I guess Falconeer is going to have to tide me over! That game can get so zany it's unreal.
You guys also make me wonder about WL3. I gave up on WL2 because of a stuttering bug, but should I try to finish it again? Does the third game depend on knowledge from events unfolding in the second?
www.eurogamer.net
