Episodic games reuse all or most of the content from the previous release

Half-Life 2:ep2 looks to have a lot of different and new assets from the last, but I get where you are going. I would say that Episodic as a definition would be closer to "smaller chunks of a continous game made to allow earlier release for a lower price point with money from early episodes helping fund the game for a more immediate return of investment."

Seasonal and episodic as a view of games like EA sport's line are pretty close. I wouldn't really consider UT2k# to be episodic, although it recycles playmodes and map designs (although not the maps themselves which are remade for each iteration, except from 2k3->2k4).

He just mentions that marketing is a problem because the low wholesale price of episodic games doesn't entice retailers to market them.

He also says that most people won't want to wait 6 months between 6 hour episodes. I'll agree with him that it's a little long for episodes that are a little short. I don't agree with him that gamers are unwilling to wait for any amount of time between episodes and won't go back to play the next episodes, but that's difference of opinion I guess.

What the hell game are you talking about? Surely not UT2004 because not only is it not that similar to the original UT, it has substantially more content (including its official bonus packs) than UT2003. It is not just a few maps that were added, and onslaught and assault modes are major additions especially onslaught mode which adds driveable and flyable vehicles to the game.

Assault was in original UT. I wouldn't consider it new, although the maps are new, obviously. It's exclusion from ut2k3 is why i never got into 2k3.

Yes, UT2k4 has substantially more content than 2k3, and no, i don't include the bonus packs (although it's one thing Epic does right). It still is more of UT2k3 + extra game modes + extra maps with some graphics touchups. Unless I'm remembering wrong. I don't own 2k3. I do own 2k4.

NO! What Episodic content does is reuse the same god damn content NOT just reuse concepts. Hell most games from various developers in the same genre reuse concepts. That doesn't make the games "episodic content."

It reuses the engine and tries to come out with more smaller games than if they did full on sequels, which require substantial time and investment due to the fast-changing graphics in the genre.

Seasonal and episodic are just two different ways to describe the same thing. What's the difference to a game that is shorter and sells for a lower price with episodes coming out every 6 months and a full game that has 12 hours of content with a sequel coming out that features new levels with the same characters a year later?

In the end, Rein bitches about episodic failing because of "lack of marketing". Ok.

Here's an example: It's to the point now that in the newer online FPSes, only official maps get played. Each new revision has the old maps plus a few new ones and a new game mode. You play one until the next one then you switch over. How is that not episodic? It's a product that has been developed and uses similar concepts in it's next iteration in order to save time and money. That's exactly what the new "episodic content" format is trying to do. Whether you think it is worth it, don't like it, or don't like the amount you get for it doesn't change the fact that it's pretty much the same fucking thing. Mark Rein even admitted that.


Whatever though. We can argue semantics all day. And no, it's not "exactly" the same (although UT2k4 was not the leap that UT2k3 was over UT, and was probably as close to episodic as it's going to get).


This comment was edited on Jul 12, 23:05.

Riley said that I'm an imbecile. OH NO

Look, Rein is complaining that episodic content will be "inevitably be using a lot of recycled content, walking through the same environments and shooting the same enemies with the same weapons.”

And what is UT2k#? It's the same game with better graphics than the last one and one more game mode. Pot. Kettle.

And UT2k3/UT2k4/UT2k7 isn't episodic and anyone who thinks so is an imbecile? That's funny, because Mark Rein thinks it is.

Rein acknowledged that the game industry already has an episodic model through game sequels, such as Madden, Zelda and Final Fantasy. He said these work because they are full-price and backed by marketing.

edit: I'll probably buy ut2k7 so don't accuse me of being a valve fanboy.
This comment was edited on Jul 12, 22:15.

Funny that a company who's main product is UT2k3/UT2k4/UT2k7 is knocking episodic content...

Auto Assault by a long shot. DDO isn't blowing doors off the genre, but it's got a pretty decent userbase.


And for what it's worth, Auto Assault isn't failing because it's niche. It's failing because it's crap.
This comment was edited on Jul 12, 10:19.

This sucks.

Incremental?

I'll have to give this a whirl. Hopefully it'll fix a lot of what 1.3 introduced.


edit: patchnotes


================================================================================
Battlefield 2™: V1.4
ReadMe File
June 30, 2006
================================================================================
================================================================================
Patch v1.4
================================================================================
GAMEPLAY TWEAKS
- The vehicle drop has been modified to help prevent exploits such as blocking enemy vehicles, destroying vehicles and commander assets, or as an alternative to artillery.
- C4 tossing distance has been reduced.
- A prone->crouch delay has been added.

BUG FIXES

- Fixed the Linux server hangs when trying to load a Special Forces Co-Op map.
- Another attempt at fixing the Red/Blue nametag bug.
- Fixed the missing server info on the map briefing screen.
- Fixed the server browser issues with updating info.
- Fixed the filter by maps size option in the server browser.
- Fixed a low reproducibility crash bug related to the vehicle drop.
- Fixed a crash in Co-op after a player is revived without a kit.
- Fixed a server crash on Linux 32 when trying to rotate maps in Coop Mode.
- Fixed the occasionnal red distance marker appearing on the ground.
- Fixed the bug that caused the player's arms to become invisible when switching weapons.
- Co-Op bot console commands now function on local servers.
- Fixed the excessive damage taken by the Muscle Car.
- Adjusted the minimum number of players to start the round on ranked servers.
- Re-enabled unlocks on unranked servers.
- Commander options are no longer available whilst commander is dead.
- Fixed bug where a spawn point is shown as selected when it is not if player has spawned in during the preview round.
- Co-Op (Local Server) - Fixed the issue where no other players may join the server if the server host is kicked and banned.
- Ranked Servers now force unlocks.
- Added support for multiple gamemodes in single maplist for mods


This comment was edited on Jul 5, 18:00.

I've seen videos of BF2142, and even though I bought BF2 and am annoyed by it's bugginess, I was thinking that I may pick up BF2142 anyway.

Fuck that noise. Take your less bugs and shove them up your ass. You think it's ok that BF2 is still a mess?

Guess I'll see you all in Quake Wars.

For what it's worth, the update addresses one issue (a soft lock) and applies no balance tweaks.

Pot to kettle...

Please name some other sources that use this story.

Powwow Highway, for one.

I took an American Indian Studies course as an elective which was "Native Americans in Film" and it was a reoccurring theme.

I dunno, FPSes are pretty generic in general. It's a sad fact, true. However, I think I'll enjoy Prey more than Quake 4.

I don't think it'll blow the doors off the gaming world, though. That and if that 6 hour thing turns out to be true, I may wait for a sale.

Did Scott Miller just say that they're going to make a sequel in that press release?

I won't say that it's a generic FPS, but I will say that the whole "I want off the reservation but oh my girlfriend is proud of her heritage and through this whole process I'll become aware of my heritage too" story is pretty cliche.

Oh grahamslam, your argument is generic.

the engine was quite nice capable of some pretty nice visuals

They've done a pretty good job on taking a game that looked pretty good and making it look like dog shit. They took out the dynamic lighting from blasters and lighsabers and put in really shitty, really huge particle effects that just look plain bad.

It doesn't even get dark anymore, because they changed that, since a certain popular game doesn't have dark nights. It's sad. Fighting in the night with your blaster bolts illuminating the terrain and the enemies was really awesome looking...

The best one is the one that says "PCs don't do anything fun" and portrays them as making black and white pie charts. Nevermind that the game support for macs is pretty much nonexistant, except for FPSes that get ported 6 months after their release and blizzard titles.

Is it worth noting that everything LA puts out is half finished and feature incomplete?

Who knows what the subscriber count is. MMOChart says it's 190k subscribers, but i really really doubt it. Last time I logged in (before my brother turned his station pass off), there was hardly no one on anywhere on the Eclipse server.

If I had to make a numbers guess, I'd be suprised if the population was above 50 or 60 thousand.

edit: I wouldn't be suprised if SOE regards every station pass user as a SWG player, regardless of whether or not they have it or play it, simply because they could play it if they had it. Knowing how they've bullshitted the numbers before ("80% of the players playing now are from pre-NGE", which doesn't mean that 80% of the pop was still there, but that 80% of players were before the NGE, which is a very bad number), it wouldn't suprise me in the least.
This comment was edited on Jun 8, 21:31.

Have they fixed the Weapon Overload 3 bug yet? I liked the space side but it had so many bugs and the devs never put any attention into that side of the game.

They finally fixed this a publish or two back. They also nerfed down the JSF (eta actis 2), the bellabub and the other ROTW ships that were massively overpowered.

Scrap this game and redo it in the Clone Wars Era, and I'm good to go

If by clone wars era, you mean Knights of the Old Republic era, than I'm sold.

Hey, Bioware is making a MMO and no one knows what it is yet. Keep your fingers crossed?

Apparently the solo option doesn't work for waterworks and a few others.

The Waterworks, Irestone Inlet and the Kobold Assault dungeons will remain areas that require a team to conquer. The Solo difficulty setting will not be available in these areas.

However there's still a lot of other quests there and I imagine they're adding more in module 2 in july.