Deep Silver Clarifies "More Accessible" Metro Comment

[Matthi205]

I'd like to comment on a few of the statements:
1) Mac and Linux port. While I don't think that a Mac port of Metro is sensible (most Macs will simply melt when confronted with 2033),

1) You don`t know your facts* and you think wrong**... try again.

1a) Last Light native port for OS X will be released September 10, next month.

*based on real-world data
**falsified by real-world data

However, Deep Silver will seek to make the world of Metro more accessible to a broader audience - through a commitment to ever higher product quality; through greater strategic investment in the brand; and, in the immediate term, through the release of dedicated Mac and Linux versions of Metro: Last Light. This is just the first stage of a broader initiative to bring Metro to a wider audience, without compromising the product's strengths.

If that's what you were trying to tell me. If not, I don't have any clue what you were trying to say.

Ummm... Mac computers are mostly laptops. Laptops with the worst cooling possible, and nearly exclusively with Intel HD Graphics. They also don't turn off when confronted with high temperatures (try Prime95-ing your laptop's CPU, while monitoring the temperature. It'll go over the TJMax in no time). Apple's desktop computers will also have similar problems, but I'm confident that Mac Pro users will be able to play this game. Shame only that most Mac Pro users aren't using the machine to game... and a shame, too that it costs around twice as much as its components (HD5770=HD6770, by the way).

 

[Silverbane7]

its simple.
wnt to appeal to more players?
do a (original) devil may cry.
if your player dies 10 times in a row, in a short timeframe, it unlocks 'causal difficulty level'
this is the easymode that players who cant cope with higher difficulties, can access.

but they HAVE to die the neccisary amount of times to be allowed to access it.

(meaning that those good enough at the game may never even SEE the unlock, and those that are cannon fodder can have access after they feel bad at the game enough)

 

[Matthi205]

its simple.
wnt to appeal to more players?
do a (original) devil may cry.
if your player dies 10 times in a row, in a short timeframe, it unlocks 'causal difficulty level'
this is the easymode that players who cant cope with higher difficulties, can access.

but they HAVE to die the neccisary amount of times to be allowed to access it.

(meaning that those good enough at the game may never even SEE the unlock, and those that are cannon fodder can have access after they feel bad at the game enough)

That isn't a good solution to the "frustrated player problem". It will just make people frustrated at the game's difficulty way too early into it. Plus, this is not applicable to any Metro game. Starting players out in Hardcore Ranger Mode and then putting them down step by step is just not a good solution.

If you really want to do it well, let people tweak things like how intelligent the AI is, how well they're equipped et cetera (all possible... just normal options variables you have to put in).

I, for example, can cope with a very intelligent, and normally-equipped AI (that is - equipment around my own level). There may be other players who can only cope well with a dumb, but well-equipped AI. Or people that want the ultimate challenge, trying to cope with an incredibly intelligent and very much well-equipped AI. There may also be people who are not very good at the game, but enjoy it anyway, who might want to make enemies weaker over all, so that they're level.

 

[Something Amyss]

Random game company "We are going to take something you like and help more people like it."

Random gamer "No, it's mine and I don't want other people to like it."

Of course, as this pretty much means taking the things you like about it and stripping them to appeal to a crowd that probably won't respond as well (usually the Call of Duty crowd, who doesn't buy most of the games because...They have Call of Duty), that statement's invalid. But it is a nice strawman.

 

[DrOswald]

More accessible is not actually a bad thing. The bad thing is what many companies mean by more accessible, which is dumbing it down and making it more generic. Changing a thing to make it more familiar is not making it more accessible, despite what game publishers will tell you.

Lets take an example: Metroid.

The original Metroid was a very good game, but it was not accessible. In many terms it was a mess, especially in terms of the learning curve. The game dumped you in the deep end of the pool and said "deal with it."

Super Metroid, on the other hand, it a very accessible game. It helps the player along in some respects, introducing a learning curve and a tutorial level that are both so well executed that they actually enhance the game significantly. The core is still intact, Super Metroid was not dumbed down, it was enhanced. Super Metroid is Metroid done right.

This is the type of accessibility that I originally took this to mean because I can't imagine anyone trying to turn the Metro franchise into a generic shooter. But it certainly could do with being more accessible.

 

[Goliath100]

The single thing I'd actually like them to copy from somewhere else is the gunplay. And I mean just make it feel like it felt in Bad Company 2. Every shot feels like a shot, and not as if you used some kind of peashooter.

What mechanical improvements are you suggesting? Or is it an change in Sound Design you are after?

 

[Matthi205]

The single thing I'd actually like them to copy from somewhere else is the gunplay. And I mean just make it feel like it felt in Bad Company 2. Every shot feels like a shot, and not as if you used some kind of peashooter.

What mechanical improvements are you suggesting? Or is it an change in Sound Design you are after?

Changes to recoil patterns, sound design, and animations when firing any single one of the guns. As it stands (and as far as I can tell), the recoil in Metro is the gun just going up, without horizontal recoil, which I find slightly weird.
Sound design, of course. If I fire, I want to hear the shell fall on the ground with a slight "ding" or "clonk" if it's plastic. Also, the guns should feel louder than they are. As it stands, their sound is very much muffled (this is very much valid for the AK).
The animations are pretty important in creating a feel, too. When the character just stands there, firing his gun, how his hands move is pretty important (not so much on lower FOV settings, but much more on the high settings I play on).
All of these, along with the hit reaction, combine into the "feel" of a gun in a video game. If a gun feels like it shoots peas and seemingly does no damage, the player will hesitate to use it, even if it might be doing tons of damage. If it doesn't feel right, it's going to end up not being used. Especially with the things the 4A Engine can do, I think this will be easier to implement than in most other engines.

 

[Silverbane7]

no, i meant, since most games start you at normal difficulty.
are you saying metro last light starts you at the hardest? (havent tried that game yet but i have metro 2033)

usualy, the players considered 'casual level' are players that find normal difficulty hard, so start at the easy difficulty.
(ie, those that probably also pick 'casual' not normal or hardmode in saints row 3/4)

most games have normal difficulty, and whenever a dev wants to open them up, they lower normal down to easy and make easy become 1 handed play (as it were) it seems.

the reason i sugested the 10 deaths in 10 mins, hidden unlockable easymode system was simply that.
hidden from the good players, findable by those that die a lot on normal/easy difficulty.
and i didnt mean specificaly for the next metro game, but that any game a developer wants to widen the audience for, generaly speaking.
that way you at least have to *try* the normal or easy mode befor you unlock the casual grade mode system.

*edit: okay, i dont mind captcha but..captcha thats trying to sell me stuff by making itself an advert? come on....i prefer the old cynical and sarcastic captcha back please XD