Game Ranter Banter: Price Drops, Max Payne 3 Difficulty And Diablo 3 Bugs

A new Star Wars game is on the way. What could it be? The Force Unleashed 3? Battlefront 3? Republic Commando 2? We’re shaking with anticipation just trying to imagine what it could be. But until the reveal next week, why not read the Game Ranter Banter in the meantime?

This week, five Game Ranters share their personal opinions on Diablo 3’s launch issues, Max Payne 3’s difficulty, Capcom’s mistakes with Street Fighter x Tekken, the long-awaited XCOM shooter and console price drops.

Let’s begin!

Call a Waambulance: ‘Max Payne 3’ is too hard! (By Kyle Matthews)

Max Payne 3 has reached a pretty solid level of success, proving Rockstar Games a worthy developer to carry on the franchise. And while being in control of Max has always been a white knuckle, hard-as-nails thrill ride, it seems only now has it been criticised for its difficulty. What gives?

The Max Payne series has always been difficult, and that’s just the way it is. I have memories of countless reloads and attempting to strategize my use of bullet time in order to waste a room full of baddies – that’s how the game works. And now, Max Payne 3 is a lot more fluid in that regard, given its clever lack of loading screens.

For anyone having trouble with the latest instalment, all I can say is good luck and keep trying. But for anyone giving the game a bad rap because they can’t past the tried and true “practice makes perfect” method: thank goodness you clearly weren’t around for Castlevania and Mega Man X.

How To Devalue Your Company’s Status: By Capcom (By CJ Smillie)

In an attempt to fix a few glitches on Street Fighter X Tekken, Capcom somehow put an even bigger glitch into the game, to the point where you can’t even play it. If you throw Rolento’s knife at a projectile, then the entire game freezes up, and there’s no way to fix it besides shutting the game off.

First of all, how can someone make a mistake this big? Patching console games is nothing new - it’s been a frequent thing since the start of this console generation. How can Capcom not make absolutely sure that their new patch wouldn’t hurt the game in some way? Secondly, how could they let themselves make a mistake like this after all of the complaints sent their way from fans? Between cancelling Megaman Legends 3, sketchy on-disc DLC for a number of their games, letting important developers like Keiji Inafune go, and now this, you have to wonder if Capcom isn’t purposely trying to fail.

It’s mind-boggling how a big-name company like Capcom can suddenly appear to be run by fools, and yet act like nothing is wrong at all. It’s actually very worrying, because it raises questions about just where the company is going to go from here. Bottom line, Capcom needs to wake up and listen to people, or they could wind up in serious financial trouble.

XCOM: Harnessing a New Generation (By John Jacques)

Any gamers who have been following the production of 2K Marin’s ‘XCOM’ game will have been sent on a rollercoaster of expectations as an October release date was announced and, shortly after that, revoked, with a new date stretching as far back as 2014 on the table. While many will be put-off by such a delay, you have to realize this isn’t just a regular game - this is the potential revitalization of a beloved franchise, and 2K Marin evidently want to do it right.

The XCOM franchise has never been able to properly follow-up the original UFO: Enemy Unknown, a turn-based strategy game for DOS published in 1994. As an avid fan of the franchise, it’s never a question of if I’ll return to the original game for a speed playthrough, but when. Whilst the new game may completely ruin the canonical accuracy of the timeline for XCOM veterans, they should at least be given the time to polish the title and try for success. At the bottom line, the more people who play (and, importantly, enjoy) the new game, the more attention might shine on the classics - and if both turn out to be excellent titles, what’s not to lose?

Take all the time you want, 2K Marin.

Diablo 3: Delayed, Delayed, Delayed…For What? (By Andrew Dyce)

It’s official: I have finally had enough with triple-A developers and publishers making fans wait for a game that launches broken. Before my comments are misconstrued as fanboy rage, let me be clear: I was never a Diablo fan, nor was I a loyal Elder Scroll-ian. But after seeing Skyrim and Diablo 3 release to much fanfare - so much so that reviewers and customers seemed to overlook serious issues - only to reveal their unfinished nature shortly after, I can’t help but realize how rarely I see this phenomenon from smaller studios, and brand new IP.

There are obvious exceptions, but the fact that Blizzard took ten years to craft the experience of Diablo 3 and delivered a game that was more glitchy and flawed - not to mention incomplete - as indie projects made in half the time is, in my opinion, not okay. But hey, the name on the box paid off! Diablo 3 sales embarrassed those of its competition, just as Skyrim did, and Gran Turismo 5 before it. More and more it seems that the name on the box is what the developers need to worry about, not the game on the disc itself.

But at the end of the day, I’m comforted by one thing: a brief look online results in hundreds of independently-developed games, built in the spare time of dedicated individuals. As for the behemoth Blizzard? It took them over a decade just to come up with Diablo 3.

Can We Beat the System? (By Tyler Schirado)

What’s the point of buying a video game system right away? If history proves anything, it’s that game companies are so afraid of consumers that they’re willing to drop the price of their systems if sales do poorly. So when the Wii U comes out this holiday season, what would happen if no one bought it? Sure systems drop in price if they’ve been out for awhile and the demand has weakened — the Wii and PS3 might do it, and Xbox 360 recently has again — but we’ve seen what happens when hardware doesn’t sell initially after launch.

The best evidence points fingers at Nintendo’s own 3DS. Sales were horrible after its release, but as soon as the handheld device price dropped sales soared over 260 percent. If Nintendo is this fickle when it comes to poor sales, what’s stopping gamers from not buying the Wii U when it first comes out and wait until the company price drops the system?

It’s allegedly going to cost over $300, which isn’t too horrible for a new system, but it’s been rumored to be only as technically strong as current generation consoles are now. So if current generation consoles are dipping as low as $99-$199, why bother buying a Wii U that will be over $300? Some may even believe that the Wii U might Dreamcast itself into oblivion. Will you be purchasing a Wii U when it first comes out? 

Conclusion

That’s all for this week’s Game Ranter Banter.

As always, let us know what you think of this week’s news in the comments, or on Twitter @GameRant and Facebook.com/GameRant and if you have specific topics you’d like any of the team to cover, don’t hesitate to ask!