Epic Games Store (now with free games!!)

[Deef]

Again this post is somewhat off-topic, but I have to follow up my previous PS4 Subnautica comments to remark on how buggy and unpolished the PS4 version is.

I'm talking a large creature swimming 10m above the ocean, a school of fish floating in the air, two fish swimming around inside my base (which contains no water), a completely random small fire that has appeared on the ocean surface, plus you can always open a locker the wrong way to get a mess of mistaken animation. They're the innocent random ones.

Then you have the the aforementioned missing auto-save and only one save slot. You also have terrain that frequently loads slower than your machines travel (and some that never loads at all), to the point of occasionally travelling through the ground without noticing. The GUI design meanwhile is poor (read - irritating) for selecting, poorer for viewing, and a little buggy when reading. The permanent, fixed-position tooltips are probably my greatest annoyance; you can never just glance at your inventory. Oh and that opening lockers issue I mentioned; that can very nearly soft-lock your no-autosave game.

Framerate issues are worse than I first thought too; things do get a bit cranky in some places yet there's nothing you can see that should cause a PS4 to raise a sweat. It appears to be less an issue of graphical grunt and more a problem of whatever other processes are going on frequently blocking everything else. The delays find their way into the GUI as well, causing brief unresponsiveness when you open your PDA sometimes.

Then for polish you have some animation looking downright amateur, some often-used, often-close-up textures being severely low-res, no toggle-to-run because PC controls are just fine on a controller, and sometimes when a cloud covers the sun you are in total can't-even-see-the-ground darkness for about 10 seconds. Which is totally weird.

Oh and the on-land draw distance is abysmal; it truly is. In fact it uses some off-white clouds where land should be, and it's so noticeable that we gamed the system and swam to land we couldn't see. What's worse, I think hiding land behind draw distance was an intentional part of the game's exploration.

The core game still seems decent though. I'm definitely at a point however of wondering how much exploration the game has left in it, without relying on narrative to move it along. Similar thing with its survival/sandbox side; the game is less sandbox than it is story with a sandbox angle. One is a vehicle for the other, just it's the opposite way around to what I was expecting.

But as I said, still seems decent, still enjoying it, despite the growing number of technical issues on the PS4. Glad I picked up the PC version when it was free.

[lestat]

Lots of epic games store news out of GDC.

First Epic has partnered with humble bundle store to sell keys.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/367297/epic- ... ded-to-hum" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently they extended their exclusive deal with Ubisoft, so expect to see future ubisoft games only appearing on Epic games store.

During its GDC 2019 Unreal keynote this morning, Epic announced that it has partnered with 2K's Private Division label to distribute The Outer Worlds and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey on the Epic Games Store. PC Gamer has learned that The Outer Worlds will also release on the Microsoft Store, but will not appear on other stores on PC for at least a year—that includes Steam.

Publishers seem to be happy with sales on the Epic store so far, considering some of the forum backlash, these are good numbers for Epic.

[flipswitch]

So Steam has some competition now it seems.

[Peppermint Lounge]

They just secured The Sinking City as another year-or-so timed exlcusive. Developer is Frogwares who've done all the Sherlock Holmes games. Been keeping an eye on it. It was due this March but delayed now until June. I hope it's good. Get a load of the trailer.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Add to that The Outer Worlds, Control, Afterparty and Industries of Titan.

https://www.pcgamer.com/au/amp/the-oute ... not-steam/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ambrose Burnside]

Valve must have pissed a lot of developers off, or Epic are throwing some serious money around.

Rumours GOG is in trouble because of all this

I hope this forces Valve to pull their finger out and give us Half-Life 3. I'm an optimist

[lestat]

GOG was never able to capture big AAA games because of their DRM free stance. But I guess with the way Epic is throwing money around at indie devs too, that's hurting GOG.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Bethesda has done a backflip, and all their upcoming games (plus Fallout 76 for anyone who cares) are coming to Steam as well as the Bethesda launcher.

In other news, I'm deleting the Bethesda launcher as I only had it in anticipation of Rage 2 and Doom Eternal

[flipswitch]

Welp. Epic just bought Bethesda, games are now exclusive to epic store.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Eh? I see no news of this. In related news Bethesda are giving away Morrowind to celebrate 25 years of Elder Scrolls. I have fond memories of playing Morrowind on my original Xbox connected to my beefy 5.1 home theatre at the time. The weather effects and sub-woofer enhanced thunder was as good as it could possibly get I thought.

[Ambrose Burnside]

So Borderlands 3 is the latest Epic Store exclusive

Also, the HD versions of the original, 2 and the Pre-Sequel are out now. It looks like the original is an all-new game in Steam, similar to the Special Edition version of Skyrim, or the Remastered version of Bioshock (it should appear ready to download alongside the original in your Steam library as Borderlands GOTY Enhanced Edition) whereas it appears the update for Borderlands 2 is just a patch for the existing game. I prefer the patch approach personally. Makes things less messy.

I guess I can now delete the original game and just have the Enhanced Edition?

And I'm assuming they've handled the Pre-Sequel the same as 2 but I don't own it so can't confirm.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Actually, scrap that, the 'Ultra HD Texture Pack' is a separate (free) DLC download for both Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel, which is not automatically downloaded:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/9411 ... ture_Pack/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/9411 ... ture_Pack/

Also prefer this approach to an entirely new game appearing. First world problems and all that I guess.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Have we all been getting our free games though? It's grown into a pretty handy backlog.

[pilonv1]

Yes but I'll never have time to play them. I think I own three copies of Oxenfree and Thimbleweed Park and I've not started any of them

[lestat]

Have we all been getting our free games though? It's grown into a pretty handy backlog.

That's the plan though, create a big enough library so people feel invested in the platform. Why on earth do you think steam had all those crazy sales in the early days.

[Ambrose Burnside]

I've had the Epic launcher since forever. Or at least since they released Shadow Complex for free about 4 or 5 years ago

I had high hopes for the Unreal Tournament reboot too but then Fortnite came and changed everything

In short, yes, I've claimed all the freebies

[Peppermint Lounge]

That's the plan though, create a big enough library so people feel invested in the platform. Why on earth do you think steam had all those crazy sales in the early days.

Not so much invested as buttered up. I don't play Fortnite so the free games were enough for me to install the client and enter my info. That's the biggest hurdle cleared. Now I'm clicks away from whim-buying one of their juicy exclusives should the urge to play now prove irresistible.

[lestat]

I'm the same as Ambrose, I had the installer when they first launched, I got shadow complex for free and was eagerly waiting for unreal tournament.

I played a little bit of fortnite, so I already had paypal setup and my brother as a friend. The free games are nice and I will collect them, why not. I tend to buy my games from key sites a lot though for new releases, but yes if a game I really want is there I will buy it.

Considering Fortnite is still a huge success, I think Epic will be able to money hat exclusives for a long while yet.

[Ambrose Burnside]

The need for another launcher doesn't bother me, at this stage I have about 10 of the damn things, it's the exclusivity that bugs me.

I have Witcher games on Steam, on GOG and the original is an old-school retail copy that doesn't rely on a launcher. I was able to buy the cheapest version of each game because Witcher games are available everywhere. Removing this ability pisses me off and makes it more like console-style walled gardens where the digital version is ridiculously expensive. It'll lead to increased prices

[Peppermint Lounge]

Rocket League will be available on Epic Store following Epic having just acquired Psyonix. The enormous userbase will remain on Steam fully supported for now however Epic's wording to date suggests you'll no longer be able to buy the game there after it appears on Epic Store. It's one thing to nab/buy exclusives prior to launch. Securing exclusivity of an online game that's been popular on Steam for years sure won't calm the Store Wars hysterics.

https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-is-acquiri ... r-psyonix/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[lestat]

Wow Epic really are going for the jugular, crazy move.

So looks like the game will be just delisted for purchase on steam, but people that own it will still get updates/support. They do this already with games that get pulled due to licensing issues. I just wonder how it will work for those steam players who want new dlc content, unless they still release and support dlc for existing customers. I assume that's what they'll do.

[t0mby]

Rocket League will be available on Epic Store following Epic having just acquired Psyonix. The enormous userbase will remain on Steam fully supported for now however Epic's wording to date suggests you'll no longer be able to buy the game there after it appears on Epic Store. It's one thing to nab/buy exclusives prior to launch. Securing exclusivity of an online game that's been popular on Steam for years sure won't calm the Store Wars hysterics.

https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-is-acquiri ... r-psyonix/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Securing exclusivity and acquiring a developer are two different things though. Much like how Disney acquired Star Wars and Marvel then slowly those franchises movies have been removed from Netflix to make way for Disney's own service.

[Ambrose Burnside]

You can still legally acquire Star Wars and Marvel via other means (like physical media) without having to subscribe to Disney+ though.

If the Steam version is abandoned and only the Epic version is maintained, then it's a dick move. Otherwise, meh.

[t0mby]

But you can still buy it on PC, just through a different interface. I don't see the problem.

[lestat]

The problem is right now epic store lacks a lot of features, I was looking at their roadmap and they're committing over the next 6 months to add a lot of missing like cloud saves/user reviews etc to the store.

My brother has been playing world war Z, recons it's pretty fun like an updated version of L4D, might be my first epic store purchase.