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| Duck and cover! Its a 3-hit controversy time! |
Hide the children and elders, or your elderly children (I don't know, just being safe here), it's time for another rendition of ugly controversy around the web. This time, mostly smaller stuff I'm opinionated on, but there's a fairly big one everyone else is circulating with. Let's get that over with first...
Gamestop's circle of life:
In the biggest news of this article, we've had the revelation of a long-existing scam within the business of gamestop. Now I'm not one to often suggest the death of gamestop, and in fact I have even started to write articles on their defense against the hyperbolic whining of the vocal minority among the internet. Typically the hatred is steeped in "oh no, I went there this one time and they asked me to pre-order something!" or "They asked me to sign up for a program!". You know, such inhumanities as communicating with customers and making the same business and program offers nearly every other store does. Oh, and some will tell you their used game sales are the devil, because choices be damned. However, this isn't some wimp crying because he had to have social contact with the cashier, this is actually a real and true scumbag move, and looking back... I think I might even dare say I see how gamestop will die.
So they have a circle of life program in place. This essentially ranks employees based on how they sell to or work with gamers. They get bonus points or a better value to their name if they sell you on one of gamestop's exclusive revenue methods: Pro Rewards, insurance policies, net pre-orders, or of course... used-games. Hardware counts in this as well. It's such a heavy part of their work model, that employees see it as essentially a life-support they need to keep up with and struggle on. Don't make enough, and people get cuts. Its closer to the idea of a salesman selling property or a car, than it is a guy selling you a normal product. They want to see the good numbers from you. This leads to them... making arrangements in their local stores. New games go missing, new hardware also missing, and oh yeah, we still got to ask you about our additional programs and if enough people say no at one time, it could mean the guy is fired. This has even applied in an example given, that sometimes a new game will hit a publisher sale and yet go "missing", while used ones stay back for a hiked price. Yes, you read that right, you're being lied into paying more for used... which for the record, you should be smarter than that to refuse.
So... my thoughts are quite obvious. I've lost quite a bit of respect for the store, and feel compelled to stop going there. Feel is the key word, truth be told I'll still go, and I'll still continue my habits of buying new whenever I can and staying informed on sales and whatnot. I'm not the type of person to let myself get ripped off by that. However my further thoughts is that... it kind of opened my eyes to the idea gamestop really is dying. I already don't typically shop there for new games anymore, as Amazon has a 20% discount. Best Buy is also even beating that awesome deal, paying less and winning in-store points for using their system. Then there's talk of Bestbuy and Wal-mart sometimes giving you better trade deals, beating gamestop at the source of their used game system they cherish so much. Between all this, the only two smart things going for gamestop is their involvement directly in the industry, and their plentiful shelves. Then again, even that sometimes fails them. If I were to run out and buy Worms WMD, I would look toward wal-mart, because everywhere else I know doesn't have 'em. Might as well just order it through Amazon. OH! There's that other name again. Gamestop, your slipping, and if they can't get their heads together and realize doing their job as a retailer is more important than their used vs new sales numbers, they will one day fall as people stop going to them for any kind of business related to newer releases.
Tekken 7 is too much
In addition to fighters still costing a bit much IMO for what they are, they've found a new way to irritate me and send me away: size. I've said it twice before, using COD as an example. However that was a massive shooter. That was a game that has a full campaign, arcade mode, secrets on top of secrets, an over-stuffed multiplayer system, a horde mode, all with a ton of different values and mechanics. Here we have a fighter game. Two people beat each other up. There's plenty of characters, tiny scenes, and stages, but each and every one of those contribute to a small part of the game. So... somehow it winds up being bigger than a lot of freakin' open world games, and about matching Black Ops 3's size at 42gb. No it's not as insane as Infinite Warfare's 90gb, but it's insane for what it is. At this rate, you have to be die-hard into arcade fighters to grab this game. For me, I'd regularly wait a price drop, and get some fun. However... I think this made me realize Tekken Tag 2 for the Wii U is good enough, because it doesn't eat up a giant chunk of my console just to keep for some casual enjoyment. Compress your games developers! In cases like Infinite Warfare, and Tekken, it's the difference between a sale.
Battlefront 2, the lackluster strikes back
So funnily enough, Dice has shown they learned nothing with the way a new Battlefront game was discussed. While sounding somewhat welcoming in how they name off changes, they are far away from specifics, and practically denounce one of the few vital improvements of their existing game. Out of all their added support, Skirmish was the most exciting. It introduced actual bots, but on further inspection, it's extremely limited down to two modes. The only actual traditional bot mode, is walker assault. The other is dog fighting. They couldn't even be bothered to support their deathmatch mode. Meanwhile, they're talking ambitiously about their next game. They'll have a campaign (something modern Dice hasn't done so well at), and "characters" from multiple time-lines. What the heck does "characters" mean as an emphasis!? Does this mean I'll be able to actually play Battlefront like normal, choosing all sorts of cool and historic starwars battles, and able to take on the droids in the jedi temple, before moving on to stomping on the rebels in hoth? Probably not, because "characters" aren't armies and options. "Characters" are anything from cameos to token hero members added to the roster. I mean that's certainly progress. If I can see Darth Vader in the campaign and play some flashback where he's anakin skywalker, that'd be a neat idea. If Darth Maul is a random silly options for a rebel & empire hoth battle, that'd be fun. Still, it's not Battlefront. Stopping bot support at a mode with on-rail AT-ATs isn't Battlefront. Staying silent on Galactic Conquest isn't Battlefront. Being restricted to one time era is not Battlefront.
Battlefront was a total all-out fan service war game for star wars, inspired by Battlefield back when shooters were backwards with depth being in the core mechanics rather than the surrounding fluff. It took place across tons of planets, let you choose different eras and battle it out, hid little secrets away and nice easter eggs like Darth Vader's breathing in the tree cave on Dagobah. The only restrictions were the lack of a level-select on campaign, and the fact that not every level was playable by both factions (but most were, including some that made no sense like the death star). The real Battlefront 2 had space and land battles. They had hunting mini-games where you battled as the wild life or gungans, and then of course Galactic Conquest which was an elaborate long-term strategy mode where you slowly captured the entire galaxy while building up an army and sets of advantages and sabotages. That started back in 2004, on a system that couldn't even process enough unique NPC skins to not do duplicates all over the place. Now we're in 2017, and you tell me you can't even be bothered to support a bot deathmatch mode on a game that already lacks nearly every single other damn thing.
There's a difference between reinterpretation, and just being lazy. You want to scrap classes for a loadout system? You know what, fine, try that. I'll take it. You want on-rail AT-ATs? Sounds lame, but I get their thought process. Hero battle? Cool, nice idea there that expands upon a very limited design in SW:BF2. Now where's the rest of the game? Where's the bots, the space battles (in STAR wars), essentially all the modes that were around before, the campaign, and the entire freakin' time line that actually had the cool CGI battles people loved in an otherwise controversial prequel series? It's all gone. They couldn't even be bothered to give it the proper balance, and match care as they do their main series Battlefield. That is lazy. The modern Battlefront is the poster child of the cynical quip that graphics are prioritized over gameplay. For all the flashy looks, amazing sound and laser gun aesthetics, it's an empty husk of a game people once cherished from over a decade ago. ...and just when you think they might improve, the truth shows back around, as they come out telling you they forgot their skirmish bot mode patch existed and won't be supporting it further than the tiny baby inch they gave. I'd love to congratulate them on putting it in to begin with, but then again that's the thing... they didn't. It was a late after-thought they barely shoved in long after the game lost a lot of it's market value, when it should have been better and more from the very starting shot. Now they sit there telling us to get hyped for the next one. Well, they'll have to actually match a game from 2004 first. Until then, my reaction to the idea of buying their modern interpretation of the series is a clear...
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