Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

[jawafour]

Jim Sterling is a massive twat on certain things and his viewers will lap this up. I pity anyone who takes his opinions on board as he's just a mouthpiece for gamebro's despite trying to not do, which compounds things...

Or, as an alternative take, he calls out the increasingly numerous ways in which large publishers try and extract more money from videogame players.

[Photek]

Jim Sterling is a massive twat on certain things and his viewers will lap this up. I pity anyone who takes his opinions on board as he's just a mouthpiece for gamebro's despite trying to not do, which compounds things...

Or, as an alternative take, he calls out the increasingly numerous ways in which large publishers try and extract more money from videogame players.

I'm firmly of the opinion that optional extra's such as skins and progessing faster in a single player game form micro transactions is fine once they are not pushed hard within the game itself, I believe that's not the case here so Sterling is shouting about nothing. He's had a point in the past but this is grasping at straws, he bangs on about the store that's accessed from the game without mentioning that you never ever have to open it.

[jawafour]

...He's had a point in the past but this is grasping at straws, he bangs on about the store that's accessed from the game without mentioning that you never ever have to open it.

Sterling does go over-the-top and I don't *always* agree with him... but I'd rather see this than the unquestioning acceptance peddled out by much of the games media.

[Photek]

He calls the game gooseberry fool and digusting and hopes Ubisoft goes out of business. Utterly ridiculous.

I just realized that the same things are in Origins, I've played that for about 40hrs plus and didn't even notice them, more evidence Jim Sterling is pleb.

[Gemini73]

As I said above Jim does overreact, but to deny he has any kind of point is to bury ones head in the sand and ignore the fact that through microtransactions a pay to win mechanic is finding its way into full price AAA titles more and more and Origins and Odyssey are no exception.

[Peter Crisp]

Yep, I took note of the stores existence but that was the extent of my interaction with it other than to get the freebies from points you get for playing ubisoft games but those have been about since I bought Settlers 7 on PC about a decade ago.

[OrangeRKN]

The important point is that right or wrong, his videos are still unwatchable

[Hexx]

What's the hud etc like in this?
Bad eyes so don't like tiny displays

[jawafour]

Sterling does go over the top sometimes... and, yes, he has done with his vid on this game. But I stand by the fact that he does so purely because so few games media outlets even mention additional payments in games; they are so wary of publishers taking advertising away that they don't want to nip at the hand that feeds them.

Just to be clear, I don't have the opinion that this is a bad game - once the price lowers, I would like to get it! - but I think the world is a better place for having Sterling shouting about stuff. He isn't gonna suit all tastes but he does challenge the relatively meek status quo of most gaming news outlets.

[Photek]

I just think he chose the wrong game to vent his Ire, as Brer said, the store is more or less hidden away. He's trying to paint the game as, as bad as Shadow of War (at it's launch) and it's nowhere near that. It's like he seen mention of the store front on a loading screen and focused on that and that alone, it's detrimental to his opinions on games that are genuinely awful and riddled with MT's.

[imbusydoctorwho]

Most of if not all the reviews didn't mention anything about micro transactions, they really have no place in single player games (heck in full retail games all together).
But this isn't the first time Micro transactions have been in AC games, yeah Unity Black Flag had but single player only Syndicate and Origins did.

[Preezy]

Of course Sterling goes over the top, he's a youtube personality. No one would watch his videos if he was a regular person talking to the camera. Sensationalism sells.

[Hexx]

No one helps Hexx

(Hexx can therefore resist buying the game! Well done chums!)

[Preezy]

No one helps Hexx

(Hexx can therefore resist buying the game! Well done chums!)

From a quick glance at some gameplay videos, the HUD looks very spartan (geddit? spartan!) with not much going on. Should be fine for you.

[Hexx]

No one helps Hexx

(Hexx can therefore resist buying the game! Well done chums!)

From a quick glance at some gameplay videos, the HUD looks very spartan (geddit? spartan!) with not much going on. Should be fine for you.

I've seen those but I'm never sure what format etc it is.
Hence asking for "real" experience.

Every game should have have UI size option in settings (Small/Medium/Big/Hexx). Anything else is just a hate crime.

[Preezy]

No one helps Hexx

(Hexx can therefore resist buying the game! Well done chums!)

From a quick glance at some gameplay videos, the HUD looks very spartan (geddit? spartan!) with not much going on. Should be fine for you.

I've seen those but I'm never sure what format etc it is.
Hence asking for "real" experience.

Well excuuuuuse me, princess.

[Hexx]

No one helps Hexx

(Hexx can therefore resist buying the game! Well done chums!)

From a quick glance at some gameplay videos, the HUD looks very spartan (geddit? spartan!) with not much going on. Should be fine for you.

I've seen those but I'm never sure what format etc it is.
Hence asking for "real" experience.

Well excuuuuuse me, princess.

Sorry! Thank you for trying! You can have Bonus Point!

[OrangeRKN]

Every game should have have UI size option in settings (Small/Medium/Big/Hexx). Anything else is just a hate crime.

I don't see the problem

[rinks]

The text isn't scalable (as far as I can tell), and some of it is on the small side. Subtitles, however, can be resized. From regular to small.

[Parksey]

As Preezy said, of course Sterling has to display some sort of persona or present his opinions in a rather explosive manner. His entire livelihood is based upon drumming up interest in his videos and being a voice on certain matters. That's what people go to his videos for. They also go because they know he bears down hard on games with any micro-transaction. For example, even if a game has only cosmetic micro-transaction, they are automatically disqualified from his end-of-year awards.

So I'm not sure why people are suddenly incredulous that he's saying this about Odyssey. I imagine it's because. They are suddenly irked that he's doing it towards a game they like. His approach is neither surprising or particularly outrageous.

For me, it doesn't matter if the store is unobtrusive or you aren't pushed and prodded into buying the game. Likewise, there seems to be a bit of a mindset that w don't mind these things as long as they aren't affecting us, or with the notion that, "we're enjoying the game, so these things are fine by me".

Firstly, how do you know something like the XP tweaking isn't affecting you? It's very likely you're only playing the game on "default" so you have no real indication as to what the game plays like under the boosted settings. Those that have, have said that it isn't a case of making the grind faster, it also makes the grind better. They say the game progress seems much smoother with the boost on.

Secondly, since when has "something doesn't affect me, therefore it's fine" been a great excuse for anything?

Thirdly, Unisoft don't need this microtransactions. They aren't supporting the game's development, they aren't funded some niche product and the game would exist, and make a big profit, either way. They are merely trying to monetise and eke out every single penny for every facet of the game. It might not effect you now, but the practice is spreading to other parts. We already see bits of games carved up and sold off as extra. We see preorder bonuses and about ten different editions at launch. With Odyssey, even how early you get to play the game was monetised.

We are buying a £50 product anyway. We shouldn't be paying more still to make our progress through the game smoother (remember, not necessarily faster, but better from a gameplay perspective). We shouldn't be paying them more to get the game a few days early.

No doubt people will say, "well, if people are happy to do that, then that's their choice". But it isn't always a choice is it. You haven't really "picked" a slower XP grind. You've been lumbered with it and offered an upgrade for cash.

Like I said before, publications who have tried the XP boost seem to suggest that it's not a "choice" between normal and fast. It's being out on "slow" by default and offered to speed things up. It's not player choice if the publisher is withholding something, or even if the publisher is giving you two unfair choices.

And even though the XP boost might seem cosmetic, it's not. It's informing every little action you do in game. How do you know their wasn't publisher pressure just to taper the XP off slightly. How do you know artificial level gates weren't bumped up a little. Because you know that's what's going to increasingly happen behind the scenes if other publisher get a whiff of all those extra rivers they could be making.

For me, the fact that Odyssey is a good game, doesn't change all that. Is it less palatable if the game was somehow naff? These are choices likely made by the development team abyway, so whether the game is good or not is irrelevant.