ARC Raiders previews pretty well, perhaps because its design conservatism makes it so instantly familiar. There’s absolutely nothing here to challenge what came before, but sometimes, that’s okay. Overall, the ARC Raiders loop seems pretty well tuned to satisfy: make it to the surface to loot and kill, bring your goods and experience back underground to improve your abilities, head back up stronger to find stronger gear, and repeat.
The new normal for what?
For AAA games. Make a barely serviceable game with the least possible effort so that it can serve as a wrapper for micro transactions.
Live service, sure, since that’s the entire point of live service, but we’re spoiled for choice of fantastic games across different scopes and scales that don’t have any microtransactions at all.
Only if you’re a pirate.
Always feels good pirating a game and then receiving all the content for free while suckers are proud to pay.
If you think the only way to find fantastic games without microtransactions is to pirate, then you’re missing tons of great games.
We probably have different tastes and standards for our entertainment.
Just about every game released in at least the past 10 years that interests me has some form of microtransactions or DLC.
I think you’re having trouble finding the good stuff in the first place then. We’re flooded with more great games than ever. And microtransactions are one thing, but something like a DLC expansion isn’t pressuring you to buy it if you like the base game. Even still, if you had a problem with the existence of any DLC for a game whatsoever, there’s still tons to play.
Oh, if you’re going to ignore the problem that is DLC then we’re just going to have to agree to disagree.
I wait until games are finished before pirating them. There are plenty of good games these days now, but almost all of them have microtransactions and/or DLC.
I’m not particularly interested in most indie titles, which is where a lot of the disconnect comes between me and the average PC gamer.
Is DLC a problem if a game had been “finished” for years and then they go back and make one for an old game? It’s been known to happen. I don’t see it as a problem, because it’s arbitrary. In many ways, a DLC can be reactionary for what a game needs after they’ve had time to observe the completed thing. It also depends on your definition of indie, since there’s as wide of a range in production value among games called “indie” as there is among “AAA”. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II probably cost one tenth what the next Grand Theft Auto cost to make, and a game like Indika or Clair Obscur could fool plenty of people into thinking they were made by enormous teams.
But like I said, even if I filtered for games without any sort of DLC, there’s still tons to play.