MR ExPresident
ZionTCD
Legacy Rising
64
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Posted - 2013.01.31 20:03:00 -
[1] - Quote
I'll start this post off by stating that I absolutely love the Battlefield games. Loved BFBC2 and still play BF3, although not as much due to playing Dust and a crappy schedule. That being said there are so many factors that go into this decision on whether Dust is a good game or not that it is almost pointless to argue it. I think a lot of it seriously boils down to people taking the time to recognize key differences, display constructive criticism where appropriate, and be aware of the state of each game. One of the biggest factors we are facing here is a larger community base on the battlelog website, which statistically will be dominated by younger kids, and as such we will see a lack of understanding, or time spent evaluating everything that we know about the games and comparing them.
With all that being said does the blame fall on CCP, the player, or the community? I honestly believe, in my humble opinion, that it falls on The Player -> CCP -> Community. I say this because CCP has a goal, and they know what it is. They know whether or not they will ever be able to pull off the polish that a game like BF3 has, or whether that is out of their reach. I do not however expect them to admit that openly because what company would? I think as BETA testers however we can use the game that we have, presenting it as fact, that CCP has a different goal in mind than say DICE does with BF3. I say this in the same way that I would by stating that Zipper had a different goal in mind with MAG then DICE did with BFBC2 and Zipper provided that as reasoning behind why MAG would never look as good as Battlefield, while expressing they offered deeper gameplay.
I think the individual player holds the most responsibility in not being ADD with their decision making process and the over abundance of FPS games we have and that they need to evaluate each game on its own merits. CCP on the other hand has not expressed that goal as of yet to my knowledge, but its apparent by the total number of players said to be in each match, the map sizes, and the level of character developement that it won't be as polished as Battlefield is, there just aren't enough system resources to do it, not on a console anyway. Do I think we have seen the final level of polish? Absolutely not and I think CCP will still surprise us with some eye candy, but I have no dreams of it being Battlefield.
As a community we need to accept our responsibility of providing constructive criticism in a way that helps CCP better reach their goals, our expectations, and to also be helpful in teaching new players that this game is very different from a typical FPS. Lets remember key issues:
1. DICE has NUMEROUS titles and experience working with consoles under their belt, let alone the PS3 architecture which is notorious for not being an easy developement platform.
2. CCP is working on their first console title, their first FPS, which is on that difficult to program platform. Go big or go home seems to fit here.
3. BF3 on consoles supports a max of 24 players in matches. Dust 514 is already above this. MAG was far above this and had very acceptable graphics, albeit not the "standard" of today's FPS games.
4. Graphics are not everything. Remember gameplay.
5. Do not forget that the behind the gameplay "play" , as in meta-game of Eve/Dust politics, is also a huge draw to this gaming and its universe. It will only attract certain types of people.
6. We are still in a BETA and because of that we must assume that there are more builds coming, more updates coming, and until then no real judgement can be made. Anyone who was in the BF3 BETA probably recalls how absolutely terrible that was. Being a Battlefield fan I nearly canceled my pre-order and wrote DICE a scathing email but thankfully they fixed the vast majority of those problems and I believe CCP will here as well.
7. Be honest with our expectations with whats available.
8. Have fun. Because if your not, then whats the point.
At any rate I think that Dust 514 has really good potential. It is definately not as smooth as it should be, reviving people or attempting to pisses me off, my character feels "stiff" when I navigate the terrain, the terrain is bleak and boring, and the sound isn't as involving as Battlefield 3. But its new and its in BETA. I'll reserve judgement until CCP says "this is it".
Now, concerning these graphics, lets party like its 1999 :) |