Current State of skate.
I hate when people write stuff like this but I just want to share my thoughts.
I actually have no problem with the "soulless corporate vibe" people keep talking about. I have no problem with the graphics, with the store, the challenges, the "AI voice" (which is clearly not actually AI, it's just AI in the lore, no problems here) I actually love the game, been really enjoying the challenges and hopping on with the boys.
What I don't love is the unplayable state the game is in most of the time. There is a number of bugs that have been present since Early Access Season 1 launched that have fully kept me out of the game for a full week, and to be honest I'm SHOCKED they haven't been resolved yet.
- Cannot see player position on map (no fast travel to friends)
- Co-op Challenges often glitch and require all players to force-restart the game (host has no hud, can't pause, other players are stuck "waiting for players")
- Co-op Challenges often do not actually give the co-op reward, thus defeating the purpose of doing challenges in co-op to begin with
- Black screen on boot, requiring a game restart
It wasn't perfect before Early Access Season 1 either, there was a number of (admittedly visual-only) bugs that seemed to happen to at least one party member every time we played, and if it only happened to one and they rebooted, it would happen to another within 15 minutes:
- Stunt marker always visible when airborne
- Return to Session Marker text stuck on screen
- Odd lighting haze (green or purple) on all things
- Crazy mesh glitch where skin was stretched across the screen
Since the Insiders playtest was opened to everyone who registered, I played at least 6 times a week. I started having an issue with my CPU cooler where my CPU was frequently hitting 100 C hotspots and throttling terribly, and yet I would still play for short periods because I was having so much fun with the game. I've since resolved the issue with a new cooler, but my point is that nothing was pulling me away from the game. But when my friends needs to reboot 3-4 times to get it to work, only for the challenge to glitch and us all needing to force-restart the game, or for us to spend 10 minutes on a tense challenge only to realize we didn't get the co-op reward (and to spend another 15 minutes saying "maybe it'll work if I do it again!!") This kind of frustration makes it very hard to have any fun with the game. Somehow, this game isn't even released, and it's already becoming a very toxic experience.
So yes, Full Circle, please continue to innovate and iterate and bring new experiences to the game. But please make sure it's working for everyone before you do that. EA, be understanding if dates for Season 2 and beyond need to be pushed back.. extend the Halloween and 5 ply festivals, because players are not able to get in and enjoy the game in the manner they were promised. I have faith we can recover from this (after all, it is Early Access) but there needs to be a very serious and mature approach to resolving issues and compensating affected players. I also really want to see more active monitoring, responding, and consolidation of the Technical Issues forum. You could easily have a full-time person just combining duplicate tickets and responding with status updates as the issues are addressed. I've seen some effort on this front but it's just not enough for a game of this scope.
