Hot Heart

"We land, #$*% the females, and leave before anyone changes their mind."

Figured out why Commander Shepard will be visiting Mars.

...and Cadillacs?

Well, to be honest, even if it's a pure combat game it would be nice to have the option to skip a bit you did not like (if they don't provide the option to adjust the difficulty, as the case may be). If people abuse it, that's up to them. Maybe they'll waste their money, maybe they'll come back to the game again and again to try and improve. If the mechanics are good enough, that's the real draw. As for Batman: Arkham City, it is not purely a combat game. Or simply look at the scenario I described above. And, no, this isn't about listing every single game ever that we think it could work in. They are just examples to get people thinking about ways to implement it or ways it might be beneficial.

Interesting point, Dex, but I would think that people being able to skip your combat would serve as a greater impetus to improve it. We all know games manage to screw up bits of their games, so it would be nice if we could just ignore them if we so wish. Like Dara O'Briain and his Gears of Doors, he could get past that and enjoy the rest of the game. Developers pay attention to what people are saying elsewhere, I'm sure they'd pay attention to people complaining that they just had to skip a section for some particular reason. That is, if they didn't already have metrics set up to pay attention to this kind of gaming behaviour. No one's saying that cutscenes and dialogue should be unskippable so developers will work to improve them. Developers are always looking to improve technique/design/whatever. This just goes a step towards removing some hassle certain players may have with a bit of a game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG3aHvPG6H8

Yes, I think the combat is great. Doesn't mean I would begrudge anyone who wanted to skip a fight or two. They'd be missing out but what do I care? I get to enjoy the game how I see fit and the developer already has a couple of sales regardless. BioShock being easy would remove the tension. Can't you infinitely respawn from vita chambers and wear enemies down until you win? Unless of course you turn that off in the options... It just feels like it's bordering on telling people that unless they play Halo on heroic, they just aren't getting the full/proper experience (maybe another interesting subject for discussion). Besides, Ethan's repeated the fact that we're talking about the possibility for games that have a bigger draw than the combat. All the other points I'm not going to reiterate. There are a multitude of games for which this can be considered or implemented.

Even enjoyed? Lost Odyssey was great!

Same!

Ah, that's reassuring. Thanks.

That is dreadful. How can you not have stock for stuff that was pre-ordered? I thought that was the whole idea. They'd better not screw up with Mass Effect 3... Can't help but think of Seinfeld.

Many games are so multi-faceted that in certain cases the combat is not all-consuming. Is Skyrim not a good example of this? If you're including something like Batman: Arkham City as an example, I don't see anything wrong in allowing someone to skip a combat or stealth section. I'm sure not everyone wants to skip every single bit. They might struggle with a particular boss fight, or they may have gotten halfway through and found it too difficult (assuming there's no adjustable difficulty partway through). It covers all sorts of different scenarios. The combat in The Witcher bored me, I would've preferred to have skipped it. Looking at screenshots of Skyrim is not the same as being able to walk around. I know I'm against comparisons but it's akin to looking at photos of holiday destinations or landmarks and deciding you don't get anything extra by visiting them. I quite enjoyed exploring all the Duke Nukem 3D maps (people made looooads of them) when I was a kid (hey, it was a big deal back then), and all that involved was turning the monsters off. It was a nice option. Yes, it won't work for every single genre or game but I feel it's definitely something worth exploring. Especially when it probably requires less effort than adding a multiplayer mode that barely anyone plays (can of worms: opened?) And whole 'not be a game' thing. It's such a fast-evolving medium, it can be difficult to define what constitutes a 'game'. EDIT: And a nice little article on the subject http://nightmaremode.net/2012/02/why-some-game-developers-shouldnt-like-games-16687/

I'm going to ignore comparisons to other media because that is completely redundant. Games are about interactivity on a level that other media aren't. As much as you can say 'go find something else that is more like what you want', not all games are the same and you can't change people's desire for a particular IP. People were disappointed there were no good Batman games because they wanted to play as Batman and experience that world. They weren't going to accept some other game where you can sneak around and punch people just because that's kind of what Batman does. People want to wander round Skyrim and see things, not look at screenshots or play a visual novel. Personally, I'm not like that but I wouldn't hold it against people who were. And this whole niche market thing. You're not sacrificing one part of your market to appease another: you're including more choice for more people. Even if it means the most minimal of effort and can confuse a narrative, a developer can always say something along the lines of 'We do not recommend you do this blah blah...' or they can just have a little text box you can go read if you want a quick summary of events you may have missed during combat. Also, I think there may be some stigma involved with having to play things on easy compared to just not having to do them at all. Save yourself some private loss of dignity or embarrassment maybe. And, finally, when did Bethesda dedicate time to making sure things work?

Sort of, but it still requires a bit more time and effort. And I was only talking about some sort of 'instantly kill all enemies' button for games like Skyrim because they don't have action 'sequences' that can be skipped as such.

Not this again! Yes, Shadow Broker is great. Possibly the only essential one but maybe Arrival is too and Overlord has an interesting bit at the end and there are funny bits in Kasumi's blah blah...

I guess it depends what DLC you're after but I figure you can get ME2 really cheap and buy all the mission DLC (forget extra weapons and costumes) for an alright price. Not that all the DLC is great anyway.

This was going to be part of some massive thing I was planning for PXOD on the idea of 'options'. As in, the more: the better. Sorry if this is a bit disjointed... I think Nintendo's super-guide thing is a good compromise but I reckon combat should be skippable. I mean, it's an option, you don't have to do it. While people who would like to skip stuff can do so. Sure, they may miss stuff but that's their choice. Same as if you skip through whole cutscenes or conversations. It's the same as completing a game on easy. You probably didn't get the full experience of a game's mechanics, but that was your choice. You can always go back and play again if you want. People should have decent control over 'optimising' their own game experience. It has no impact on you, personally. I doubt it's that people want to skip all combat either. In some cases maybe they just need to get to a savepoint (itself a problem that should not be present in this day and age) or are struggling with a particular section. I know I was offered the choice to skip an action sequence in L.A. Noire but I refused, despite failing 5-6 times. I did, however, turn auto-aim back on because that sequence was nigh on impossible without it. Yes, I fiddled with another option, temporarily. I probably wouldn't have felt any different if I had skipped it but I'm too damn stubborn sometimes. I'm sure a lot of people just enjoy wandering around Skyrim or Oblivion but find the combat lacking (I know I do). That's not to say the combat is bad but if they don't enjoy it, why can't there be an insta-win button? They may have robbed themselves of some form of 'accomplishment' but they still get to explore the sites as well as partaking in discussion with friends. They get to experience this game without missing out completely. And I don't think I even need to go into the benefit to disabled gamers. I can't think why you would not want to try and include more options in your game, allowing you to reach a bigger audience/market. Especially something that probably requires very little extra effort.

Ah, that's probably what happened. All I noticed was one party member disappearing and then suddenly being replaced by someone else. Sneaky.

Damn, that was evil. I had my quick search set to bronze while trying out a Sentinel and somehow my second game was a silver challenge one. My first ever. I thought things were a bit tough but I only twigged what was going on late into the game when two freakin' Phantoms appeared. At the end there were 3 Atlases (Atlasi?!) gunning for the LZ. THREE! I was definitely not ready for that, and I don't think I'm very good at playing Sentinel, but I think I only died 4 times (I thought that was pretty good for a newbie level 6 dude). So, yeah, finished the game thanks to some amazing work by a couple of high level Infiltrators. One was a Salarian with some sort of ability to one-shot any human enemy (presumably only with a headshot), that looked a bit like Carnage. Shame the game and Origin aren't up to speed for sending messages or whatever, at the moment.

Even just something like your Gamerfeed was pretty good, I thought.

Hmm, interesting. I was referring to my Krogan, so I've got my shotgun, with a Mattock as a back-up (rarely need to us the scope anyway). Might have to try the Carnifex. Loved that gun in ME2, and I'm guessing it might be a bit lighter. My main concern was the ammo capacity. How does that compare?

Or during his time as Archangel. "SWEAR TO ME!" I unlocked a Revenant a while back but was not happy with it at all. It was heavy and didn't really offer much of an advantage over the Avenger I already had (which I think was only an Avenger II). Now the Mattock, that's a hell of a gun. Takes down Assault Troopers with great ease, and very handy for shooting Guardians right through their little slit. Hmm, that sounded a bit dirty...

Sure, it's an ad for pre-order stuff but I thought it was funny.