Episodic Gaming - The Bear and Badger

mk64

If you have read this months Edge or been keeping tabs on Halo 4 then you will be aware that 343 studios plans to release a "season" of episodes which will be 20 minute campaigns with a long cut scene at the end. They will give 5 free to any who buy the game and if it is a sucess they will continue with further seasons. Knowing the Halo faithful I'm sure everyone will do this.

343 openly said they spoke to big tv industry people who were experieneced in episode programs.

It's likely this will go well.. If it does then it stands to reason other developers will follow suit.

How do you feel about this in general? Could you see yourself as a gamer or consumer adopting to this kind of dlc? (keep the halo specific chat to the halo thread pls)

Facewon

Yes. This may be too micro for me. But the idea in general I like. I think I'd prefer 2-3 hour installments every month or two.

g.man

Fucking rotten idea.

Facewon

I should stipulate that I'd prefer it as an xbla kinda thing. And/or the disc at the start being cheaper. As it stands I think a lot of people will wait for the EPS to be bundled.

I_R

I've usually had my fill by the time I finish the campaign on the disc, I think GTAIV might be the only campaign DLC I've ever bought. I doubt I'm that unusual. You've also got people with crappy internet and people still using a 20GB HDD or less.Â

That's a tough market if you're gearing up to do full blown and regular DLC, Halo is probably big enough to get away with it, but there's probably only a handful of other titles that can do it.

Mod74

When's Half Life 2 ep3 out again?

Olimite

When Valve say so.

Mod74

They're just putting DOTA out first. And Counter Strike. Right.

Get their eye in, don't want to rush it.

MattyJ

Depends on the game really. I like having Walking Dead as episodes as I think it works well and fits in with the game. I just wish they would release them on time! Also, the cost has to be right, I don't want to fork out more than it would cost on a disc just because it's spread out over 6 months and they think we won't notice.

Olimite

Mod74 wrote:

They're just putting DOTA out first. And Counter Strike. Right. Get their eye in, don't want to rush it.

I'm not overly fussed. I'm sure it'll be awesome whenever it comes out.

I do like The Walking Dead model though, cheap and affordable bit-sized chunks. Not completed episode one yet, so not sure how long it lasts in total. I'm imagining about four hours in total.

MattyJ

Something like 2-4 hours I think, depending on how quickly you do things.

Olimite

Spoiler:

How long do I have left?

MattyJ

Olimite wrote:

Spoiler:

Well I'm up to the Pharmacy
How long do I have left?

1 hour + I reckon.

regmcfly

G, you most definitely are getting grumpy in your old age! WE DON'T LIKE CHANGE!

LazyGunn

Mod74 wrote:

When's Half Life 2 ep3 out again?

Never, which is a sound point

Episodic gaming has a place I think but currently there's just too much waiting involved between episodes, and I don't know how you're meant to really get into such a game that's only 20 minutes long, followed by crappy endless cutscene.

regmcfly

Got a sense of that with Walking Dead - I'd pretty much forgotten most of the decisions I'd made by the time ep 2 came round.

Elmlea

Yeah, the Walking Dead would work better if they made the whole thing, allowed people to buy a season pass, then released it on a monthly/fortnightly cycle.

LazyGunn

I suppose eventually the success of these kind of games will become somewhat predictable and allow more investment into the front end of the series initially so all or most of the series will be already made at the release of the first episode. At the moment it's probably too cost and time intensive to do such a thing

Verecocha

The Spartan Ops team will deliver 5 new missions a week, at 20 mins each for a total of 10 weeks during season one, which is free with either version of the game.

I think it's a great addition, often you keep games just for a blast on the MP, otherwise they collect dust after the SP is done. Halo is a little different as most players will go through several times and perhaps more with a team. Spartan Ops and similar episodic ideas would mean keeping it not just for a lump of two hour DLC down the line but for a reason to jump on every Friday with your mates to go through this weeks cut scene and missions.

I'd like to see more of this built into the games that you'd like more from but have perhaps exhausted the SP.

I_R

Elmlea wrote:

Yeah, the Walking Dead would work better if they made the whole thing, allowed people to buy a season pass, then released it on a monthly/fortnightly cycle.

That would undermine the point of the whole thing though. It's supposed to be a funding model that lets the developer take less of a risk by starting small and using the cash from early episodes fund later ones.

Elmlea

I_R wrote:

Elmlea wrote:

Yeah, the Walking Dead would work better if they made the whole thing, allowed people to buy a season pass, then released it on a monthly/fortnightly cycle.

That would undermine the point of the whole thing though. It's supposed to be a funding model that lets the developer take less of a risk by starting small and using the cash from early episodes fund later ones.

Ah, fair enough then. Although, did anyone ever think that a Walking Dead game would struggle?

RedDave2

20 minutes is very short though. I would find that too disposable to be worth looking forward to.Â

It could be interesting all the same. At least with a brand like Halo you know that the arc will be complete. I'm waiting for all the Walking Dead episodes to be out before I jump on. That may not be what the creators intended but I'd hate to be up to episode 4 only to find that "oops - no more, sorry"

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