Your thoughts/questions on Sea of Thieves

[Guest_aotf]

@Richard, LOL Here comes the damage control...
You're now going to criticise stories and context in a video game? lol
Did you ever play games like the witcher 3, Horizon or Zelda Botw?
Even the side quests have WAY more meaning and background story than everything about this game.
The quests in SoT is just got there get a chest and sell it. That's it. You don't know whose chest it is, who are the skeletons protecting it, what's so special about it. Even in Ubisoft's generic side quests there is little side story. Here there is nothing. We don't anything about the few NPC we meet, well except for the fact that they are trying to sell us stuff...

Even the most basic mario games has story and context as to why you do stuff. Here you're calling this flaw a "huge plus"?? Laughable... There is a limit to damage control and overhyping something.

This is suppose to be a social experience. It's to be expected that I can play with the people in my house or my neighbourhood without needing to use multiple TV/screens, console/PC, XBL accounts, copies of the game. It's really strange to see people defending this. You don't want it fine, but this is a feature that could have really helped the game and get more active players...

"Travelling from point a to point b is what makes the game."
Yes, we know the game depends a lot on "friends" goofing/fooling around on the ship. But how is this different from spending time on GTA? Well, in GTA there are a LOT more things to do, and it has a MUCH bigger base...
Sorry but defending the loot and navigating is really easy. I've hardly come across any players. What exactly is "plan a course of action"? You make it sound like rocket science or something. Mark an point on the map, follow the wind and get to that point. It's not difficult. It actually is boring in fact. I mean once you played the few tunes and had some grog there is nothing much to do on the ship...

"The character creation is alot more complex than other games."
This is hilarious. I guess you haven't played a lot of games. You are limited right from the start as you are given a limited of randomly generated characters. They could have then given the option to update the character (no 2 pirates would still not look the same). But no, you just can't change it after that. Oh but don't worry, the game is based on cosmetic items. You'll be able to either 1) grind to be able to get the look you want or 2) spend money to get the look you want.
Nice to see a free2play econmics here. Oh wait the game is not free, it actually hs a full AAA price. lol

The "you are free to do what you want" reminds me of what NMS was all about. Can you actually tell me what "pirate legend" is? The "do what you want" is a weak excuse for the devs who didn't want to add any real goals. From what I can see, devs are mostly hyping cosmetic and looking "cool" right now. The problem is that this isn't like minecraft. You cannot build stuff. This has quests. You got to get chest, skulls or animals from one place to another so you can win gold. Why are you doing that? What is the real goal? Games like Minecraft and GTA has a HUGE base, they have LOADS of mods, you can create and do a lot of stuff. SoT? It looks almost empty when we compare. The NPC on the island don't speech and just want to sell stuff. The skeletons just attack you like idiots. Rest of the world is lifeless...
Did you see the achievements? Mindless grinding coming up...

"There's no repetitive playing the same quests over and over again like other games (destiny) in the chance you might get a loot drop that gives you 1 light level more."
Are you kidding? I did the same quest quite a few times: 1) take a map, 2) go to the island, 3) look at where it is on the map of the island, 4) dig it up, 5) kill some dumb skeletons, 6) return to and outpost and sell it.
This game is repetitive, and i think it's crazy to even deny that.

Like I said, somewhere. There is no such thing as the best multiplayer game... But it's interesting how most of the guys saying stuff like this happen to be die hard MS/XB fans...
How about you talk about your progression in the game in 1-2 months? lol

Oh, and no. Ewww I agree I wouldn't suggest people to buy SoT. But don't rent games yuck. I hope people don't start renting games. I want people to buy games and reward game makers. I want gaming to be about quality as devs try to make good games to sell. I don't want the future of gaming about quantity where amount of content matter. Where devs just rushes loads of content...
I want to own my games I don't want MS to tell me what I get to play or not...

 

[Richard Loveridge]

Firstly as I've ready said the game isn't your tastes. No one is saying there is anything wrong with story games. But its nice that a developer is choosing to cater for the crowd of gamers who don't want that.

Or are you saying that all developers should have story driven games neglecting the community who like games without that but focus on player experiences? That doesn't seem fair. And cones across as ignorant.

Lots of gamers including myself put over 100 hours into a limited beta. I think we all know how we feel about it. I have put more hours into the beta than I did the dreadful FF15 which cost me £50.

Also its a very good thing you can buy your games still. Alongside Game Pass. You can still buy movies alongside Netflix, but that hasn't stopped Netflix overtaking HBO, Sky, Virgin etc abd is now worth $118 billion. Against all the naysayers like you are doing now with games.

 

[Richard Loveridge]

BTW Zelda botw is terrible. Ocarina Of time destroys it. Has lost everything Zelda is. Boring dungeons, and terrible mechanics. Puzzles are way to easy now.

 

[Guest_aotf]

LOL your damage control is hilarious.

The real funny part is that you're coming here and saying that something missing like not having a story is actually a strong point. lol

No one said it should be a strory based game. But having back ground story to the quest is what is being talked about. This is something that adds to the experience not something that makes it worse, so when you talk about people not wanting a feature, it sounds like damage controlling bs.
This is like someone saying he prefers games without sound...

If you come across people who are not company "fans" who prefer their quest to be mindless work rather than having a background story about the history of the chest and the skeletons defending it, do let me know... lol

I'm talking about actual flaws to the game and not just personal preference. I'm sure people (most of whom happen to be "fans" of a certain company) will love doing the same kind of quests again and again. Collecting 1000s of banana crates or chickens or skeleton captain skulls to get gold and buy cosmetic stuff to dress up your characters but most of the points made are about absent features and what the game actually is...

I'm glad you loved it (even though I wasn't surprise at all that you would...), but that doesn't mean that what I said is wrong.
It doesn't have a story, quests looks like ubisoft-like randomly generated side quests with no background story, quest are all similar, a game based on social play that doesn't have splitscreen, game is based on cosmetic item, fullprice game which uses free2play economic system like microtransactions, no real customization at the start, no real dialogues or voice acting, no real goal....

This is just what the game is and it needs to be said. People got to know what they're getting into. And that without using subjective stuff like "best multiplayer", "so much fun", "This is phenomenal", "Absolutely brilliant" that you guys seem to use...
Let's let people know what this game is about...

You want to talk about Zelda botw? It got a 97 metacritic score. It had so many game of the year award. Can we wait and see SoT's score? And see how many game of the year award will SoT get? lol

Oh and it's absolutely hilarious how you guys want to compare gamepass with netflix. It's not really the same.
Game pass is limited to what? 30m XB1 owners? It's a service that let's player rent moslty old arcade games. Many gamers already played or own the games that are being offered. As many of the games were on GWG or are BC.
How many games can be finished every month? 2-3 max?

Now about netflix, how many movies, series can be finished in a month? Potentially a lot more. Netflix is open to a MUCH larger market. We are talking about hundreds of millions.

The point of the renting service is I rather want devs looking to make quality games so people buy them, rather than devs making quantity to make a service looks good. Quality over quantity. But ofc you have the right to prefer and support "whatever MS is doing" policy...
Me? Since I don't actually worship companies, I get trash any companies. It's gaming first...

Anyway like I said, I would love to see your progression in this game in 1-2 months. If you spent 100 hours in the few days the beta was on then surely you would have got all achievements within 1 or 2 months... It would be great to see...
But of course you usually tend to run away whenever I ask for a proof to backup your claims...

 

[Richard Loveridge]

If you cant grasp the concept that you and your friends doing the quests IS the story then I can understand why you think its a problem. Clearly that sort of game design isn't your cup of tea. The whole point is we make our own stories. That is the story. What ever we make it.

And yes its just like Netflix. Netflix has all shows which are old. The only new and current shows it has are its own Netflix Originals. Everything else it has has already been available elsewhere long before it hits Netflix. The point is people stay Subscribed to Netflix because it has slowly over the years built up its Original content. Which you can't find elsewhere.

Game pass is exactly like Netflix was 10 years ago. In its infancy. People said 10 years ago Netflix was lame, it would amount to nothing. Now look at it. Cable companies just can't compete with it. And its even making its own movies bypassing cinema all together.

Game Pass has started life on the Xbox console. And will undoubtedly make its way to PC as well. It's ahead of the field because no other game company is offering all future titles launching day and date on the service and the ability to download the title so latency is not an issue.

I know you don't want it to succeed like many didn't want Netflix to succeed. But its the future whether you like it or not. And it will grow very very fast with titles like Fable 4, Gears 5, Halo 6 etc etc all releasing on their at launch. I predict by Xmas 2019 it has 30+ million subscribers on PC and console. Quote me on that if you wish. It will become a big selling point over e next 24 months.

IMO if Sony don't follow suit fast it will be PS down fall.

 

[Richard Loveridge]

Also reviews and awards mean nothing. Look at the movie industry. Critic reviews and audience reviews don't match at all. Then theirs the Oscars and Baftas that are a joke. Many Zelda fans hate the new Zelda. The critics in our industry are generally a joke

 

[Guest_aotf]

Oh please, and we got to take a company fan's opinion over professional gaming journalists?

Unlike company fans, these people don't judge a game based on which company is making it. They are mostly using standards and the work that went into it.
If a major gaming journalist gave it a great review then it means something.

"If you cant grasp the concept that you and your friends doing the quests IS the story then I can understand why you think its a problem."
I know what you mean and I already said they are depending on friends goofing around with each other and playing pretend pirates.
This is like instead of giving a kid a board game with rules and stuff to do, you're giving an empty cardboard box and tell him "here use your imagination and play pretend pirate. Have fun". The problem with this is that a company is asking the same price as a full board game for this empty cardboard box. With all the stuff that's missing this should have been MUCH cheaper, and when they using free2play economics, I'll add that this should be free.


And YES. ofc I want renting service to fail. or at least I don't want that to replace the current system where we own and play games we actually want.
And it's not because you and your beloved MS thinks this is the future of gaming, that it's going to be true. If we believed MS and company "fans" like you, kinect, DRM, always online 24 hours check would be the future of gaming. If we believed what MS wanted PC gamers would be playing to play online.
It's funny how you mention MS's future game. "Fable 4, Gears 5, Halo 6 etc etc". I guess the etc is Forza 8, FH 4, Gears 6,7,8,9,10,.. Halo 7, 8...

I think your 30m is far fetched. But what's funny is that since MS hardly communicate actual numbers (Gold members, game pass members, sales number) we'll probably never know.
Not communicating is probably due to poor numbers. You want to try to compare this to Netflix but like I said it's not the same 1) market, 2) media. And ofc the market size is tiny compared to people wh watch movies/series.

You want to ignore these points all you want it doesn't make them invalid.
At the end of the day it's neither you nor MS that'll decide what's gaming is going to be like. It's the people buying and playing games.
You really think people will go crazy and pay 10 bucks a month just to pay few console exclus here and there? Looks at console sales...
If anything games many people won't buy the games that cost 60 bucks but will just rent it 1-2 months...

 

[Richard Loveridge]

The only numbers that MS don't release are sales numbers. Because they mean absolutely nothing to Shareholders. Microsoft release numbers of Gold Subscribers every year. And release Xbox Revenue, which I hate to say is important. They also release concurrent players on games and individual playerbases per game. With Game Sharing for this whole generation and now Game Pass what good is sales numbers? They do not tell the story correctly at all. Unlike the competition where they don't have any of these factors added in at all. Because they don't give these options.

This whole generation all of my friends and I buy half the games each. Because we all link in pairs. We don't care whether we own it or not. We are all going to buy even less games now due to game pass. And we only need 1 game pass subscription between 2 people because it also works via game sharing.

Lots of people have lost faith in reviewers. Time and time again there has been massive proof over the years many are bought out by companies for good review scores. And the industry is not subjective at all.

The awards are farcical and i actually don't know anyone personally who actually reads a single game review. It only matters to the niche internet console wars. Reviewers always have an agenda. They are human. Whether it be political, company loyalty or money.

For example i fully expect GOW 4 to get rave reviews even though every other comment on Youtube is how unhappy fans are that they have pushed aside what the game was for an over the shoulder Ryse Son Of Rome style.

BOTW took everything that was Zelda and threw it away. In no way is BOTW the best Zelda ever. No chance. I have finished every single Zelda since the very first. Even the Gameboy game A Link To The Past. One of the major staples in the Zelda series is the lengthy as well as complex dungeons. These are showcases for each game’s level design, as well as how they intersect with the various abilities you unlock. BOTW has none of this. In fact BOTW is a survival game first and foremost. Neglecting everything fans of Zelda love. Even the staple chest music is completely gone. That has been there for the fans since 1980s. Even the Survival elements are literally like early Steam survival games from years ago.

I understand in the media Nintendo can do no wrong. But there are endless forum articles on Reset Era or Game FAQs of fans that detest BOTW. It's an absolute discredit to the series. Literally the same thing happened with Final Fantasy. FF10 sold over 10 million copies. It was completely turn based. Then FF12 comes out throwing away what we love and they wonder why its sales dropped after that?

The media and the audience do not match up.

 

[Guest_aotf]

LOL When will you stop lying???

"Microsoft release numbers of Gold Subscribers every year."
Please provide link to that in the last 3-4 years. And for your information Monthly active user is not the same as gold subscribers.

Please provide links to all your claims. Can you provide the concurrent players for Forza as of now? Can you provide individual playerbases for Halo wars 2?

"With Game Sharing for this whole generation and now Game Pass what good is sales numbers? They do not tell the story correctly at all. Unlike the competition where they don't have any of these factors added in at all. Because they don't give these options."
What? What are you talking about. Equivalent systems exists. smh
If the gamepass is so successful why aren't sharing the numbers? Wouldn't that information important to shareholders or are they too bad to show off?

You bring a lot of you personal experience, talk a lot of "Lots of people".
You know I'd rather trust an average score of a number of professional gamers than the opinion by a company fan such as yourself.
At the end of the day these people write an entire article and justify their score and the metacritic score is an average score of 60-80 scores. Even if few gives unsually high or low scores at the end it just averages out.
Like I said, just show us your progression on SoT in 1-2 months.

"I have finished every single Zelda since the very first. Even the Gameboy game A Link To The Past."
LOL! Knowing how often you lie, I doubt this is even true. The very fact that your refereing to Link to the past as "the gameboy game" shows were you're coming from. If you played all games wouldn't you be refereing it on the platform it actually originally came one?
Who is really saying botw was the best zelda of all time? Personally I don't think it was. All I can do here is give m personal opinion. I played around 100 hours of that game and I had a much better time than the 10 hours I spent on SoT.

Once again, we'll let gaming journalists give their opinion and we'll see how well this sells and we'll compare it to what Zelda botw did.