Some interesting thoughts here
One of the YouTube channels I watch has a series called 'Death of a Game' and he recently made such a video on Overwatch: I watched it and it contains no profanity or other unacceptable lang...
Forum Discussion
@Screion haven't seen you in a while! Glad for your input!
I recall your posts about GW2 and have to agree; it's not perfect but it was fun to play even with its issues, whereas BfN is only ok at best, and feels unfinished in so many ways. The anti-cheat is one of BfN's best features as you say too, can't stand hackers in MP matches as they ruin it and turn new players off, but that's not enough to make up for BfN's deficiencies.
A GW3 that addressed the problems GW2 has while keeping the good bits that made it so enjoyable despite its issues would have been brilliant, and I'd love to see that someday.
I can't stress enough that the main reason why i stopped playing GW2 was the cheating and the exploits. It was already enough work to deal with incompetent camping team members that never do any objective, and then having to deal with people shooting you through the floor or playing as dumb Dino Mech in TT was just too much. And that was all after the occasional one-hit cheat user.
With BfN its a different story. The gameplay isn't fun. And i say that while i really did enjoy all the story stuff. Those quests were great. The atmosphere was just right. But at some point i want to see that i improve and come to a greater understanding of the flow of the game. Which just didn't happen. Because most of the time the game does not allow me to.
My favorite characters in GW have always been the All-Star, Cactus, Engineer and Chomper. And out of those only the Chomper is kind of the same, but still drastically changed. With this Spikeweed projectile and goop spray that doesn't stop anything. The 420 IQ Engineer with his bouncey projectiles that just camps with his turret around corners and shoots projectiles at walls all day. The All-Star without an arc and hit-scan projectiles where you can't even tell from where he is shooting at and absolute no tactical use. With an Imp Punt that does nothing but bounce and a tackle that can only hit one target. I am disgusted. Not to forget that awful shield that makes your eyes bleed and difficult to aim.
I still got plenty of old clips from GW and GW2. So i uploaded this here just to demonstrate what i mean when i say All-Star
The rattling sound combined with the motor when he shoots, the projectile speed, arc and character movement. The Imp Punt you have control over and others have to respect. And not to forget the nice addition of the explosive shield.
And don't even get me started on the cactus without nuts. That delayed shooting... which also misses most of the time because that shot looks like a coconut but the hit is small and the turn is slow...
With GW EA has a great franchise that really deserves to exist outside of the other average cash cows. And Popcap is a great developer that really mananged to engage with the community and listened. It doesn't have to copy others. Its personality was very well established with the OG GW. For me these hilarious occasional skirmishes of the Chomper lurking while the determined Engineer approaches the teleporter are some of my absolute favorite moments in multiplayer games i have ever had. It was a secondary objective on the side. Protecting a single moving objective in BfN is nothing like it. And even that was more enjoyable in the final segments of GW and GW2.
@Screion Cheating is still an issue in the GW games unfortunately, so I've mostly stuck to bot matches lately.
We've had several threads on some of these issues you mention in BfN as well; like how Engineers are too effective while camping and spamming their bouncy projectiles, how sprint tackle is messy, and so on.
BfN's questing was fun indeed, and I loved some of those quests like escorting Washy and learning to play the harmonica.
Cart pushing in BfN was nowhere near as fun as it could be at the final objectives for maps like Cactus Canyon, and then add in final points like the one at Loggy Acres where the defending team practically has to camp the objective, and it just ruins the fun of what should be a great time. I miss teleporters too, I've recently posted about them as well.
All of this is why a lot of people were unhappy with BfN. It just wasn't as fun as GW and GW2, even with those games' own issues (like balance), and why the older games are still going strong today.
