+carlos rodriguez Regardless you can appreciate what they do. It's one those jobs where you don't really hear much about, until things go wrong (like being an audio technician for a show, no one notices them until there's actually a problem.) You can take that shit for granted, until shit starts pouring out of your toilet.
+There was once a guy with a name that went across the page. His name was Anyjupiter you gotta admit that would make a great WAB. complaining about all the problems, then ending with "wait a minute! I can fix this one!"
Great video Mack! :) I can't argue with any of your points. Talking of points, the so called "Points of Interest" are one of the things I have greatest issue with at the moment in Horizons. I love landing on the planets (when I can find one that has decent geological features - which can be a challenge in itself). I love driving the SRV. But I really do have massive problems with the whole point of interest discoveries. 9 times out of 10 - I will search the planet in the vehicle or in the ship, and it will always be a ship wreck I find. Not the massive crashed full sized ships that Frontier showed us during there promotional live-streams for the game but instead these little tiny bits of debris scattered around. Now these wrecks can sometimes can just a few minutes to locate, but other times they can take upwards of 15 minutes to finally find! No problem though right? Because the reward should be worth it... ...well that's true if you are in need of clothes or are desperate for a cup of tea. You see, these wrecks almost always have tea or clothes as cargo. If your lucky, you might come across one or two containers of gold. All in all though, a worthless discovery. Just a few thousands credits worth. You can easily earn more than this with a new save, in the starter ship and just 15 minutes of time. As much as I love the game, and I really do like it...this is a massive problem for me. It makes putting up with the crazy gameplay design choices very questionable. And so now, I am almost at the point where I don't bother searching for interesting things on planets. Because they are never interesting. Maybe I will end up ignoring them in the same way I ignore Powerplay, Missions, Wings and many of the other things. But - you know what? The real bottom line for me, is that despite all of this, Elite still has something very special that makes me come back to it again and again. It's hard to argue against just how good the ships fly and handle. It's hard to argue against the size of the galaxy and all the amazing sights that are out there (if you are willing to spend the hours to go searching). And now it's hard to argue that some of those planets have some absolutely fantastic locations (again you need to spend the time to find them). Personally I believe that Frontier have some of the best game-world designers in the industry. For those looking for a game where they can travel the galaxy and explore the depths of space, searching out planets, nebula and black holes. Or if you want to land on the top of a 35km high mountain or base jump to the bottom of a 20km cliff, or fly through a mist filled canyon against an alien sky with a giant star on the horizon. Or for the feel of flying a space ship straight out of a sci-fi move...for any of this nothing else on the market comes close. But as for gameplay design, well I really don't know what to say about that sometimes...
Hey ObsidianAnt, as a subscriber to your channel I get exactly where you are coming from. I feel exactly the same way. I LOVE Elite, because I love the stars and exploration. Not because of its gamplay though, which is close to non-existent. This game NEEDS all the things Mack pointed out: Thargoids, Massive space battles, a peristent/progressing storyline (or similar) etc. Only then will this game become a great videogame and not just a great experience only for people who love the stars...
+ObsidianAnt I'm always finding 8-12 gold, I've found maybe 5 tea, a little RNG i think. I didnt watch the live steams hoping for horizons to be a surprise, but you mentioned huge ship wrecks, no I've found at most a wrecked SRV
+ObsidianAnt Right on point, as usual. Elite is a uniquely fun and entertaining game well worth the money and time. About the price tag Mack mentioned, I don't see it as a cash grab. Developers from Frontier gave us a beautiful game and they keep filling it with content and I'm glad I can pitch in with 30-40-50€ to support them.
+ObsidianAnt You should make a video on the more questionable gameplay design decisions. It would be nice to have some of those issues highlighted as I doubt anyone wants gamey mechanics just because, plus you seem to have a voice as well as good reasoning to do it well. There needs to be a good mix of plausibility and fun. As an example, one thing hate is the mechanic of non persistence of signals, neither plausible or fun. Between a star and all its planets there must be millions if not billions of ships, wreckages, cargo and other strewn right across the system. Just one of many things which could be reworked.
Due to a flood of requests I will be revisiting Elite Dangerous to review the updated game in January as this review is about Horizons and my last Elite review was back in 2014, so please no more messages to review Elite :p
***** Maybe a sleeping pill to you. I find plenty to do. Maybe you aren't looking hard enough. Strike that. You obviously don't care for the game so you don't even look for things to do. As for Eve Online, Both Eve Online and Elite Dangerous are online games. You can *not* play without a connection. And I admit, Eve Online has more content. For 2.5 to 3 times the price, it should. What do you expect for a nickel? 50 cents? All I know is I love the game and am having a blast. If you're not, then I suggest you don't purchase any more expansions. I won't be offended and I don't think anyone else, least of all Frontier Developments, will be offended. The last thing they need is unsatisfied customers.
Graal Otonami True, although I didn't know you could get to other systems with the standard FTL in EVE. I thought you had to hyperjump or whatever their inter-system transit is called. Of course I haven't played Eve very much and when I did it was back when there was no subscription required. I just couldn't seem to get my head around it and lost interest. No manual docking, no direct control of the craft during combat. Wasn't my cup of tea.
Kelly Rayburn I may be wrong, I've only got the word of a friend to rely on for a lot of things in EVE. My reasons for not playing it are the same as yours. I prefer to be in the cockpit rather than managing the ship's metasystems.
I went on reddit and complained about how I had to essentially rebuy the entire game to get this expansion. Got absolutely shat on by fanboys of course. Sent Frontier customer services a message about it, according to them the reason us old players - WHO SUPPORTED THE GAME THE LONGEST - have to pay more because of the extra time we've played compared to people just joining. Fuck. Off.
+TiltedScales i'll assume you are talking about having to buy horizons for 30 quid. I don't get why you are bitching honestly, you've had the game for a year, surely it's a good thing that new players arn't held back behind expansions, getting more players in is a good thing, is it not? you've had year, these new players won't affect you at all, at least not at the star. If you like the game, play it, if you don't then don't bother but i just really don't understand why everyone is bitching about the price of it.
***** Because the expansion sucks, and I'm rebuying the game. If we were comparing these two as separate games, for equal prices, EVERY SINGLE TIME I'd choose the vanilla Elite Dangerous because it's got more content and capability than the New Horizons. And the fact that new players can buy Horizons AND get the base game too, without having to buy both, is a massive hit in the balls for the existing community.
TiltedScales just remember that it's not an expansion in the normal sense, it's the next set of updates I'm not seeing that getting newer players in without too much of a cost is bad? they still have to pay £40 for horizons, after the sale vanilla will be back up to £20, yeh they save so much money but doing that. totally agree. If you play ED at all I think you are insane for not wanting them to try and get as many people in as possible, I'm happy with my purchase and happy that with some new additions coming in horizons more of my friends will join me for some of it. I do get that people can just not be happy with what horizons has and will bring but for me it's all stuff i wanted to be in the game.
+gingerbeargames Your happy to pay 30 quid for a moon buggy simulator? Man they saw you coming a mile away. And don't give me this bullshit about paying for future updates, this game is not a kick starter anymore. I already payed full price for this game which turns out, gets very boring very quickly... Now they want me to rebuy the game with a fucking moon buggy simulator in it. fuck no
Mack, I just wanna say I love your content man. I think this is the first time I've ever commented on a UA-cam video and I just thought I'd take the time to tell you that you're fucking great. I can't believe you aren't bigger than you are with your hilarious videos and real talk reviews. Although I don't always agree with your opinions (most of the time honestly I do) I love the fact that you always tell it like it is, no matter the shit you get from it. And I know you're not the type of person that needs me to say this to you but I'll say it anyways; no matter what people say about you keep up the good work!
+OperationDx1 I didn't expect he'll said bad and saying ever.....And I literally followed him saying ever ever eva eva evaa evaaaa evaaaa ding ding ding lol
To be fair. In Star Citizen you only have to pay $50 to get the full game and you wont have to spent a cent after that. All the Ships and add-ons will be buy-able with in-game money.
+Solar Core Mhm, the $45 dollar mark which you can get for both the Single Player campaign and the MMO aspect will now be split. So those who didn't purchase the early access will have to pay for the games separately. (soon).
+PHeMoX E+ I like E:D but Frontiers pricing and business model is so greedy they may as well rename Frontier to "E.A 2" Don't get me wrong I love Elite Dangerous but this new business plan is greedy
GraVeu Yeah, I totally agree. I definitely fear the whole Horizons expansion won't be worth the asking price, because frankly the core game wasn't either. Yes, it's good and I like *most* of what is there (I still don't think the Frame-shift drive stuff actually works predictable enough for it to be a 'fun feature'; it is very poor game design right there).
+GraVeu its not greedy if you compare to Eve Online or War of Warcraft. Those games force you to pay a monthly subscription which over the same amount of time would force you to pay several times what Horizon's full season will cost.
+Feral Reason half your playlists are bullshit with titles like "cancer of socialism/feminism/Islam/multiculturalism" or "global warming hoax." Just get the fuck off the internet and sit in your corner like the bratty child you are.
+Feral Reason I can feel every historian in the world laughing at you for believing that Jesus wasnt at least a historical person. Lets see here... Roman documentation of his trial by Pilate, Hebrew sources speaking of him and his conversions of their people, and lets not forget the groundbreaking archaeological discoveries of recent decades. Often overlooked is also the evidence which comes from the existence of the religion itself which is based on archbishops/patriarchs whom trace their succession back to those who followed Jesus. Also am I the only one who remembers the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Communist China? All three were/are staunchly anti-religion and look what they did. And to say collectivism is evil you would have to have a foundation for what evil is, under religion this is possible, but without it then evil is only subjective.
***** What's ironic is that you're so about anarchism and are so anti-collectivism, yet you use the internet and interact with the youtube community, meaning you are part of a collective. You call collectivism the "root of all evil" when you yourself are part of a collective and also have no proof to back yourself up. Sure, collectives have done many bad things, but they have also done many good things. That is human nature.
This review is so emotional, it is like watching a man have all his dreams crushed from 30 years ago, and needing things to happen to get them back on track. Great review, subbed, also hilarious!
Having played E.D. since its release (and even back in '84), I bought this update and regretted it within 1 hour of play. The planets and moons consist of barren, procedurally-generated surfaces. Ok, Earth-style planets are promised later, but there's not much to do other than bump and bash around, shooting the odd rock in the hope of finding something useful. I encountered many graphical glitches. During my first run in the SRV, the vehicle model intersected with the terrain mesh and became stuck, unable to move forwards or backwards. You cannot recall your ship until you are a sufficient distance from a settlement. The problem with this is you can't always get far enough away to do it, as some terrains wall you in (some even look like walls, with straight cliff-like surfaces, miles long). I ended up driving around like a lunatic, trying to find a way out. I attempted to send my ship to a docking pad and drive to that, but since settlements are often huge, complex and dimly lit, you can't tell where the hell you're meant to go (the radar is no use). Adding to the frustration, the SRV fuel runs out rapidly. In the end, I decided to just self-destruct. In all, NOT a good first experience. Also, rendering the surface terrain is highly GPU intensive and even if the base game runs smoothly, you could be looking at a graphics card upgrade to run this at an acceptable framerate. E.D. seems to be in a constant state of 'promises much, delivers little', and this expansion does nothing to change that. I do NOT recommend it. The developers appear to be focused more on technical achievement than improving depth and gameplay. If the rest of the season does not contain something more substantial, I for one will be ditching the game.
+bart cbem Already banned two, you can tell when you have hit the nail on the head because they don't come back with any valid points, they just call me names and swear at me haha. There is not bigger Elite fan than me, I will be playing it most of the holidays but I am big enough to admit when my favourite game is being fucked over by greed and Ed atm is in a sorry state.
+Worth A Buy Actually Mack, I bought both Elite Dangerous, then Horizons. I love them but I can't agree with you more. The only defence about the stupid bobble heads and paint jobs is it's a pretty ambitious and I assume costly project. Elite is not really a game for 'gamers', but it appeals very highly to folk who are fascinated by space mostly. But you raise so many good points....I'm a fan boy of Elite but I agree with this WAB entirely.
+bart cbem it won't be free, it'll be in (probably) the next season, as will landing on atmospheric planets. That said, supposedly there will be wildlife and cities on said planets. This shit costs monumental amounts of money to create, so thinking it could be free is a tad naive.
+Worth A Buy I'm so fucking happy that you called them out on this. I can't believe the sorry state of pricing surrounding game products. Every developer is realizing the utter compliance and lack of dignity their customers possess and taking full advantage now. ED had such potential, but when I played it back when they first released Power Play, I predicted their scheme of money grabbing plot, because it became obvious to any smart observer that their development model was not sustainable. They missed deadlines on content releases; they slowed down their ambitions; they could not release a new patch without a major game breaking bug (which takes forever to fix); and they could not properly handle community feedback (especially regarding MP issues). The only way to sustain their continued development was to do a grab on the die hard loyalists in the name of an expansion. What a fucking waste of a promising game!
Harsh but honest down to earth opinion. I kind of agree with your points. But unlike other mmos that also charge for expansions, there is no monthly subscription fee. The co-op you mentioned is there with Wings. I find no problems being dropped out right along with my wing mate who was just interdicted. Imo the game is great, but like your ideas, it could be better. But most of that is still to come
RAYGUNNOOB 1 so true. Especially when you take into account the UA-camrs who have millions of subs but are about as funny as being kicked in the balls ( cough cough Pewdiepie). Mack destroys them when it comes to quality of videos and humour.
One of my friends said "But Gwailin, you can land on planets now! It must have been a lot of effort.". Well, Space Engineers Patched it in for free, No Mans Sky is gonna have it in the main game anyway, STAR CITIZEN HAS IT IN THE MAIN GAME AND THERE IS FUCK ALL TO DO IN ED: HORIZONS ANYWAY SO IT. SHOULD. BE. FREE.
Their greed is backfiring badly. They could make more money and make more people happy if they cut the price. This game has so much potential. Don't let this turn into a destiny!
I fucking agree with everything, bought elite dangerous 50 €, the price is now 20 and something. Adn the fucking expansion is 50 € ???? Pricier than the original game ??? Thats bad man, bad.
I bought Elite Dangerous the day it came out and was completely amazed by how it looked/sounded/played, it was fantastic. After a few hours of playing I realized that there wasn't a whole lot there. As you said, it's a fucking great platform for a game to be built on, but that's it. The game was so shallow that I thought for sure they would add a whole lot more stuff to it, but then Horizons was announced. A season pass for the price of a full game, with barely any content being added. Those things should have been added to the base game FOR FREE! What the fuck! I'll just wait for the game to maybe be completed in 10+ years and then I'll buy the final 'bundle'.
+hotcrossedbun Thats rubbish, x-mas is just the lazy way of saying christmas. We don't take the religious aspect of christmas as seriously as some countries, but still have nativity plays and christmas lights.
Talk about a case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde here in your review. True words through out. You've saved me from the temptations of buying Horizons for the time being. It really does make one shake their head and sigh with how this game has changed so little in the past year.
The price is high, because FD need more money for future updates, they end kickstarter campaign with only 1,5 milion pounds and people still expect AAA game.
+oxis77gas The price should be 20 euros/ 15 pounds. Listen, I understand they need money, but fucking over costumers is NOT the way to go. Heck, they could even make another kickstarter, and I'm pretty sure lots of people would donate. But 50 euros for a DLC (Or if you are new, It's the game + DLC) is just ridiculious
+oxis77gas Funny, cause Horizon sales are failing. Maybe they should have spent their money on making ED better, instead of spending them on a failed expansion.
***** I know, but nobody forced you to buy, Elite was never mean to be mainstream game, it's special for those who are dedicated to space genre and first Elite.You can still buy this addon later with lower price and more content.
Addressing your complaints (other than payment), Thargoids are coming this year. It is hidden from public sight, so you'd not have heard of it. The Thargoids are part of a larger arc, as we, players, have to go exploring the galaxy looking for their remains. Right now, there are stations shutting down because of the Alien Artefacts we are uncovering. The Artefacts themselves chitter morse, and relay a wireframe view of your ship when properly decoded. But not everyone likes this, so it is hidden in the shadows. Regarding walking on ships, it is coming. All ships have their interiors mapped out already, but Frontier still lacks the tech to do walking around in their Cobra Game Engine. It is planned for next season. Regarding player-owned starbases, there are plans to implement that on a latter date, but nothing very official, sorry. And finally, by the end of 2016, you'l be able to land on Earth-Like worlds, maybe Earth itself, with cities and vegetation and wildlife, on a 1 to 1 scale. So Matt. CALM THE FUCK UP AND JUST WAIT, GODDAMMIT. P.S.: Love you man, your videos are great :3
+GabrielG.A.B. Fonseca "Thargoids... are coming this year...walking on ships... next season...player-owned starbases.. nothing official" Then why the fudge popsickles are they charging $60? Why? People have been loyal and waiting for Elite Dangerous and now you just charge the loyal customers even more. Thats horrible. thats worse than bad. Whoever is in charge of marketing/pricing has to have their asses kicked into mars.
No, I totally agree with you guys on that. The pricing model is inherently broken! I bought the Mercenary Edition of the game, before all the launch buzz. And what do I get? An overpriced expansion that doesn't even work on my platform! It sucks! But that's how it is, I guess.. :/
+ᙅᒪᗢᗩḰ - Well, not entirely true. The space side of Thargoids will be there for all to play. All players share the same persistent universe. A planet/station under Thargoid control will be under Thargoid control for all. So, at the very least it will be like a new faction appearing with new ships and all the other factions will (probably) have a common enemy.
I think the price is fine for a year's worth of expansion on an MMO. Far cheaper than any any any any ANY ANY ANY ANY A N Y other MMO (even cheaper than those 'free to play' MMOs where you end up forking out more to have the 'full' game) I've ever played and far far more fun. 40 quid, for a year?! Come on. Hardly a sell out.
But OH BY THE WAY, you have to buy a season pass for Elite Dangerous: Horizons (Which is another £24.99) EVEN if you already have both the original Elite Dangerous, AND Elite Dangerous: Horizons, So a LOYAL customer if they actually want the updates to the game they paid for will have spent £30.00 for Elite Dangerous, another £30.00 for Elite Dangerous: Horizons, and then ANOTHER £24.99 for the Season Pass to an Expansion for a game... £84.99 for Elite Dangerous....
+ProjectRealityBf2 I absolutely loved that :D I think it was mostly because Mako had really nice handling in my opinion. But I don't quite like the SRV in E:D Horizons.
I would buy your DLC Mack! Would be great! Even in No Man Sky they can build a base on a planet. That would be so cool, build Ur own settlement in the middle of nowhere
Ettick Madison Strange to reply to my comment on a review of a game to say I can't make my mind up. Can't see why you are watching this if you are so decisive yourself. Each to their own I guess, have a good Christmas.
You tend to fall on a tangent , but I agree with you I cannot buy this at the moment knowing that the people are saying this is not a finished product and I would not recommend others to buy this play an old game like elite 1984 until this developer announces that the product is totally finished because the strategy they are using makes each expansion ,is not actually an expansion but a separate game on a completely separate server.
Last year I was thinking about buying E.D., I've played the first one on my Acorn Electron II but wasn't sure if this one was worth my money. I searched you tube for "E.D. worth a buy"and came across your channel. After watching your review on E.D. and a lot of your reviews I subscribed and got myself a copy of the game. I love the game but horizons is just nothing, It seems to me like the took the game and slashed it in to little parts that that are getting released one little part at the time for 40 bucks a piece. Take a look at what frontier has in mind for the next four years, it's D.L.C. gone mental. Want to walk around in your ship ? Wait till next year and give me 40 bucks !! Want a friend in your ship? Just wait two more years and give me another 40 bucks. In four years the game will be finished and a regular player will have paid around 200 bucks for the game,WTF??
The function to jump in on your friend that has been interdicted has been there for a long time bud, use nav lock on the wingman as he says he is being interdicted, or has been for that part, and then you get pulled out of frameshift drive as long as you are close to the place he is. if you aren't you'll get a blue (if you have the original coloured HUD) "wake signal" in your navigation screen also indicating the wingman's name. The perk system with the collection of materials to get increased jump range, damage and such is way unbalanced as mentioned, but stating that right now would be a bit early as it'll probably be fixed sooner or later, I hope.
So, as a potential new player, should I just wait a few months for more content to be added then pay the 60 bucks for ED and all of the extra content? Right now it just doesn't seem like a good deal until they add everything.
+OckhamAsylum It's true that the the pricing sucks, but if you don't look at it, it's a pretty good game. I have about 300+ Hours on it and i play it on and off. It's so much fun with friends. It's also the only game i can just put away and after a week or so i come back to it. i really enjoy it. And it's a bit true that it's Euro truck simulator, and the good thing about it is that you can do other stuff while playing.
You should probably wait for every patch/update/DLC to come out and then buy it. I made a huge mistake and wasted (not really "wasted", because I enjoy the game) $50 for an unfinished game. And now I have to pay 50$ to land on barren planets. And another 50$ next year for the FPS update. And then 50$ to land on planets with atmospheres. I hope David pulls his head out of his ass and makes the updates free. That's highly unlikely, though.
+OckhamAsylum I've been telling everyone that asks, unless you have friends who play with Horizons and will be a third wheel while they land on planets, there's really no compelling reason to buy it right now. E:D is $15, and you get a $15 discount if you buy Horizons later. Better to spend less, see if you really like the game, and wait to see what happens with Horizons. And I say this as a person who bought in to the Horizons beta. There simply isn't $45 worth of extra content right now, and you're not missing out on anything by waiting. That said, I think E:D for all its faults is a steal at $15. You'll get your money's worth.
The game has an amazing framework, but the game is just not there. Elite is going the old eve online way : create new features all the time, but never really complete them or give them some kind of relevance. For months the most lucrative thing to do was to find an area with npcs extracting ore. They would be attacked by npc pirates which you then could shoot down. The best way to do it was essentially to let the npc police do most of the work and steal the kill from them. That's how bad it was. And the whole game is like that basically. The immersion and sound is awesome though.
I really like Elite Dangerous because there is an entire galaxy to explore and it looks amazing, but I really want a few contents from EVE.. For example: -Scanning for whole destroyed stations, mysterious objects or relicts and loot them -More Modules, maybe combat drones or cloaking device,.... -Building your own base where you can store your ships and items -Exploration like in EVE and much more Btw: sry for my english, and merry Christmas everyone :)
Thargoids are comng, Mack. It's just a matter of time. I bought Horizons and for the price, I am really underwhelmed. I know there will be more features to come throughout the year but the initial state is pretty shallow. All of the things you listed will be coming though, in time. But it then begs the question; how much more will that cost us as consumers?
It's very shallow, people unfortunately have to sort of imagine, role play etc. As for cost...I think I read somewhere they've a ten year plan of expansions. Probably costly. That other space game though, I mean they're up to $100m or more and still not released it. Perspective/context is a wonderful thing ;)
Mack, I remember back when Frontier Elite II had the ability to request Market prices from the jump point. As soon as you drop into the system you could radio a station and get prices.
What you described with regards to co-op, walking around ships, player housing, etc, is the direction SC is heading in (thank god)...whenever it's finally done. E:D as it stands is way too anaemic for what Frontier is asking us to pay for, and it ironically makes SC's delays look like a good idea. I agree that the base for an amazing Elite game is here, but as of writing, there is not enough to keep people engaged
Mac to solve ur CooP woes, in the comms panel, in options you can enable nav beacon, this allows wing members to lock on your wake if to far away when you drop or get pulled out of supercruise. Makes it pretty damn easy
I think he knows this but means the system is fairly unreliable and the drop in marker can be difficult to find and get to for your wing when one of you gets pulled out. It needs refining I guess. They do improve things but very slowly.
+Lance Baker It's crap m8, it could be so much better, just finished a session with my m8 doing rare goods runs and it's so bloody badly done the wing flying/interdiction. Why not have a simple system where we can both just plot a route, the guy with the lowest jump range has lead and everytime he jumps I jump with him and when he is interdicted I drop with him. Instead we have all the blocks with wake signals, it could be a lot better.
I'm with you on this one. I think one way to put it is this feels like the original release of Elite Dangerous a year ago, but the magic just isn't there this time. When it first released, we were all hopeful and excited. A year later and we are in the same spot. The game is a mile wide, a mile deep, and empty. POI is where this initial release falls flat. The concept is great, the execution is terrible. Out in deep space there are 4 unique types of POIs. Shipwreck, SRV wreck, wrecked probe, and ship/srv wreck with Data point. One or two variations of the shipwreck and SRV wreck. They are all boring as hell. Loot and Crafting could be the update that saves Horizons. The issue is that structure for a great game is there, but it needs to be fleshed out. Loot and Crafting adds a new feature, but generally it enhances things you already do. You can craft better or different weapons to give you an edge in combat, better frameshift drive to reach distance stars, and so on.
Loved this review. I love your energy! Insta-subbed. Will watch more (and like and comment, because I know how important that is for UA-camrs) when I get home from christmas eve dinner. EDIT: I have also shared it with all my friends who are considering ED this Holiday. Thanks, friend! Perfect 5 / 7.
+Sterling Youngman LOL, well in 3 years it has come a long way already. End of next year single player Squadron 42. Year after, full persistent universe. 2 more years, tops. 5 years total for a game of that size which has more content than any other AAA title, sounds fine to me. Other big titles behind closed doors have taken 4-7 years to get it done from start to finish. The only people who have issues with it tend to be ignorant trolls who don't bother reading into the facts. They (CIG) are a open developer, the progress is easy to find if people look in the first place. Oh, $35 now gets you everything. Procedural planets already come with that price right now, lol.
+manneymann lol, it sounds silly, yes, paying for just a single player campaign and paying again for an online aspect of it. But thinking about it a little in terms of fidelity, it is a little justified. Think...Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online. Or any other comparison.
afaik skyrim and teso are completely different games. but i have not played teso yet. still facepalming hard because bothering about modern expansion packs in beta state and talking about "2 games in 1". let us think about black ops 3. is it 3in1 or 4in1? singleplayer campaign, coop campaign, multiplayer and zombie mode? what would you do if CoD would sell these modes as "stand alone products" with different names? screaming your lungs out laughing before facepalming near death because of suffocation? still one game to everyone with more brain cells than fingers and who is not overhyped from a title. or is the gameplay that different? it is not a question that i am waiting to play SC too, but over all it is hyped pretty hard, so i'm being cautious.
I do like Mac. I think I disagree with him about as much as I agree with him, but he is honest! In this vid I'm kinda 50/50 with him. I disagree that Frontier are being greedy, in fact I think their sales tactics for Horizons will end up costing them money. It is not greed, it's risk mitigation. Frontier have always had a developer/publisher relationship. ED is their first self published title and they want the consumer to act as the publisher by giving them the money before they develop the game. The problem is Frontier want the consumer to pay $45 now for less content, whereas the consumer will want to pay $20 in 12 months and get all the content. Frontier would have been better off waiting until Horizons is 100% complete in December 2016 and release it then as a $45 upgrade. They would get more money. We are consumers, not publishers. Although I am a fanboy and would happily buy Horizons for $100 :D
Just a note on the Sky comment, when you first joined you would have gotten the same discounts (anyone who says otherwise is bullshitting, it's standard) and Sky has to be one of the only companies that actually does reward loyalty, you just have to ring them and mention the prices / competitors; ask for the retentions team and mention virgin, you can get a discount on your TV, Phone and Broadband. Sorry if this is unrelated but i still get triggered by people saying "new customers get X and I get nothing" and I don't even work for them anymore.
I'm an Elite fan boy and I agree with pretty much everything you said, not only is there f**k all to do on the planets (once the shiny shiny has worn off) they pretty much nerfed or f**k*d everything that was good in Elite, like the long range smuggling / trading etc, I bought the Beta for Horizons and realised it was a pile of shite after landing on a planet twice.don't get me wrong the game mechanics are brilliant, but the gameplay and content is non existent and there is absolutely no point landing on the planets at all imo. I still love the game but you can see just by reading all the forums if they don't pull their finger out people like me and many many many others are going to bugger off elsewhere
Well, I bought Horizons and I can almost refer fully to your review Mack. It could be so much more... The Planet landings and SRV driving is realy cool but pointless ant it hurts a bit, because it could be so much more... Like housing, as you said. Now we have millions of planets, so there would be more than enough space to build player bases and fortifications on them, which would even be a bit cooler than a space station in my opignion (because there are just 3-4 types of space stations in this game and they get boring pretty fast :/ ) . Also there are little thing missing like name your bloody ship for gods sake! I freakin' bought the Alphabet bobbleheads to somehow display the name I gave my lovely python, because there's no other way! Also there is no option to found bigger and permanent wings or clans or other social structures in this game, which really is a shame and would make this game so much better. The whole universe is also kinda liveless, there are so many small things missing o fill it with life. The content is already made by fans, it would be so easy, like a ingame radio ord advertisement films for the different ships (there is a youtuber out there who makes them and they are awesome) but something like these into your stations and hangars instead of these still images of advertisement or some news show, which is broadcasted directly to your ships like the conclusion of community goals etc. Maybe a good job for the community manager Ed ;P. Oh boy, that was some ranting and I could even go on much longer; but the core is: I really like this game, but it hurts, because it could be so much more with just little improvements (and bigger ones too, but many of them are planned to be added in season 3+ (walking around ships and stuff i think) ). I will play until it bores me the fuck out or until Star Citizen releases where i can walk around the freaking ships, which will probably be finished at the same time elite gets to this point... in 4 years or so :P Merry Chrismas Mack and everyone!
+Mors Magne Because I don't trust developers with my money, I want to see what I get for my money and this horrible expansion is a great example of garbage content for high price.
+Worth A Buy Yup I understand not wanna buy the expansion pass because you don't know what it's gonna contain, and it's crazy expensive. Hell, I feel like we barely know what horizons is going to contain. I just wanted all the future Elite, so I preordered elite (€40) and later bought the expansion pass (€162.50), so that's €202.50 xD I felt for me Elite was a must own, especially because of the VR support. And maybe they need the money to afford the development? After that I felt like I also had to pledge for a lil Star Citizen ship, and did : p
+Worth A Buy I don't agree with you: The main thing that's been achieved is realistic, randomly generated surfaces of barren planets with items of interest on them. This might appear to be mundane, but it's actually at the technological cutting edge. In 1 or 2 year's time, the developers will build on this - it will be temperate planetary surfaces, like planet Earth. The rate of progress seems slow, but the pace of cutting edge research/science is slow - it's the nature of the beast. For example, in a few months there will be a massive leap forward in terms of the availability of Oculus Rift. However, we'll probably have to wait a few years until we see another significant improvement.
***** I agree. However, the mission options for traders has got worse in Horizons. There is a greater variety of missions, but the new options are too time consuming for the credits and they have displaced most of the previous better options.
The funny thing is. If they continue the model of giving you the full game + expansions cheaper than the expansions, while additionally don't delivering much content with the expansions, then the logical step for the player is actually always to wait for the next expansion before buying anything. Never buying is the logical choice until they tell you there won't be any more content for this game ever again.
This was like watching a testimony of someone on Jerry Springer. Screwed up show about people airing their dirty laundry. A show for people who want to enjoy other people's desperate situations. Even if their mistakes are hugely idiotic. Pathetic. Really to me, watching Mack blast Horizons is just... sad. How is this entertaining? Hearing another fellow gamer talk about a good modern 2014/2015 game going down the toilet cause of crap planning. Where'd the visionaries in gaming go? Do they not know what could've made this better????? Too tragic. I was planning on getting Elite, but Mack... thank you. Sadly.
£3 per month, considering, that they don't have any money to continue developing - I do get the pricing. The new players pay for the new game, while the old ones just continue with the subscription. The choice is - either the game shuts down, or we pay those £3 monthly fee. They probably could go with more options, though. Like setting up an actual monthly plan for those, who wants to fund the further development that way, etc.
There is a progressive story of Thargoids - alien artefacts are appearing. There is an ongoing community event to investigate them. The story is progressing every few weeks.
Anecdotal: David Braben once gathered all his staff around and said "We need to make something more like Angry Birds!" That's making a tonne of money!" Looks like he's on the way, eh?
Hands down, the best review of any game I have ever seen! you convinced me to buy elite Dangerous and I loved it....for a while. Then it got to be a grind. Everything you said about co-operative play was spot on. WTF David! Get the whiteboard and marker and make something happen. I can't get my friends to play because we can't play together effectively. Where is the in-game community? Where are the damn aliens?
I could seriously hear the sadness and dissapointment in your voice there...i feel the same, merry Christmas Mack, hopefully we CMDR's will get some love soon as well.
There's definitely enough content in the Horizons right now to warrant a price tag of, let's say, 10-15€(unfortunately they're asking a lot more than that). I really regret buying it myself, even though I did get the loyalty discount for already owning ED. The things I like about ED are the nice flight model and the ship progression, but the money grind is just horrible and drives you slowly insane.
I like Elite: Dangerous , I play it when I feel like a space dog fighting, but for an $80 CAD price tag I am going to wait till the 12 months have passed too see if its worth that bloody much.
+Nexuzz77 of course you can do that. just stick with the core game. You'll still get further updates and bug fixes for the core game without having horizons too.
I'm 44 years old and I played the original Elite on the Spectrum 128k!!!!!!!!!! ding fucking ding My mate would be on the keyboard and I would be flying using the ole' Kempston Joystick T fucking em I loved that game so much. But when I saw that this game was being released I said 'yeah!!' followed by a big NOOOOO! Because of the very same reasons you mention in this excellent review/WAB. I have a degree in computer games programming so - apart from my extensive game-playing experience - I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about. I have not purchased this game because I had a feeling that Braben had somehow sold out. Mack. Keep doing what you do. You are THE best PC games reviewer at present. I love your vids mate. |Merry fooooooookin xmas and all that shite
While I agree with some of the things that you discussed, I must disagree with somethings. Like the Nav-Lock feature. My group continuously deals with interdictions since we are a part of a powerplay group. Every one of us keeps our wing beacon on, interdiction happens, we engage Nav-Lock on said player, and drop as soon as it's complete. It's actually quite simple. And as for some of the other things, a lot of the stuff is coming and has been stated. They already discussed that we will be getting the ability to walk around our ships, land on M class planets, first person shooting, big game hunting, passenger missions, etc. And I'm not sure if the Thargoids are coming as of yet, but we are potentially facing an invasion of some sorts. Pay attention to what's going on with GalNet. Players have been discovering Unidentified Artifacts in space. These alien looking devices scan ships, transmit their design in a stylized morse code, and for whatever reason, they all point towards the Merope system, even after being relocated. You can find these UA's in "shell" around the Merope system that extends 130-150Ly around it. They can be collected (but cause module damage) and sold at stations with a black market. Enough of them get sold to a station and the station will start to experience malfunctions until all starport services are shut down. The thing about it though, is this isn't narrative driven, it's player driven. A player group called The Cannon has been researching them. And it has become a game between them and the developers. Where Braben keeps dropping "clues" into the game and it's up to the players to figure it out. And that's the beauty of Elite: Dangerous, there are tons of stories and things going on across the galaxy, but just like in real life, unless you pay attention to the news and other media outlets (GalNet, Frontier Forums, Reddit), you'll have no idea on whats going on out there.
I really wish game designers and developers would listen and ask their players, what would you all like to see in the game. I love Elite Dangerous and it is one of the few games that I play year round. Elite has introduced me to a community of like minded individuals, who love SciFi just as much as I do. With that being said, some of the things being implemented in the game, I am not sure why they are there. In example, Power Play, I have heard from so many people how little interest or desire they have in Power Play. I want to know, who asked for it and why is it there? In place of Power Play I would have rather had all that effort used to create that whole game idea, to instead go towards giving players more planets to be able to land on in the Horizons expansion, or I would even just take more ships to add to the roster. If not something that complex, maybe then they could have given us character creation, or the feature to walk around the ship. I love the idea of every year expanding the game, but to me the term of Horizons, I was under the impression for the duration of this expansion we would see more game mechanics for more planet side play. Rocky, ice, moon like planets is all we get, and in addition we are getting character creation, which I could care less about, because we can't walk around and see other players anyway. Crafting, I could care less about as it seems we are being forced to endure the boring missions implemented in the game to even touch the surface of crafting. The only thing that seems worth-while is the fighters and possibly multicrew. I would have rather wanted access to more worlds later in the year to land on and visit and it doesn't have to be Earth-Like as I understand those types of planets are very hard to develop, but at least some type of atmospheric planet to be able to go into and see. All of what they are adding should have already been in game or honestly could be never implemented and I wouldn't care one bit about. Elite Dangerous is headed in the complete wrong direction, this game could easily beat Star Citizen on day one of it's release, so easily, but it is as if they don't want to be a Space Sim to be contended with. (Sorry for the rant)
I have watched this one many times over the years. The rant is funny as ****. Mack, please do a free game friday on the original elite. Would love to hear you talk about playing the game.
i know many of you are really dissapointed. But it was from the beginning clear that frontier will charge for future expansions. Thats why i have buyed the Premium Beta package for 120€, which includes lifetime expansions for free. If you are disapointed for paying 40€ for the expansion, i am also because i calculated 60€ for each expansion.
When you originally bought the game one had to look at ED as star citizen, no one should have assumed that it would have been done. The content would be released over the coming years that would really add some meat to the bones. So if you bought the game originally and not the expansion you were investing into the games future. Or you could have waited until an expo like this comes out and invest then. I feel like this is the game you buy and just play for a bit at a time. You let it sit there and then every month you come back to something new. But at least the devs know how to make money, the only real way to stop this from happening is for the collective community to stop investing. But that is a huge goal.
FULL COOP YES!!!!!!!!!! so much of what is pointed at i'm happy to know that i'm not alone. still havent bought horizons, lost confidence with their outfit due to the poorass coop experience. so many little loopholes to navigate through.. infact, this whole game is a complex navigational process, when most of this i'd be happy to have automated. and like you said re trading prices, i'd prefer not to have to tab out and use a 3rd party website to plan my trading rout.......... kinda messes with my immersion o.O and the uncanny valley yaaaaawns
26 September, 2017: The Thargoids return (apparently, that's still six days away). That's no base building or going back into your ship and playing with slaves, but it's at least one of the things you wanted, right?
Me and my girlfriend have just gotten into this (I mean the core game, but also horizons) and it's overall very good. I do find myself peeking over to NMS post Atlas update and wishing the ED universe was more vivid and colourful, although I'm sure in reality space is kinda dull at times. But the scale and detail and flight mechanics are great. I feel like they've built a solid space engine in ED. My hope now is that they build on that solid core and start to populate the galaxy with more interesting sights. The planets are largely empty and dull. There are no huge cities or settlements. No crashed freighters. No...life really. Just ships cruising around a big empty galaxy. I've read tantalising rumours about ship interiors and stations you can go in and I dunno how likely that is to happen but given that my PC is too shit to run NMS and I don't have a PS, I'm gonna remain hopeful.
Walking, FPS and EVA is going to be in the third season and we might get a taste of it at the end of season 2, and building small stations and owning them will be coming too.
And this is why i'll wait for the PS4 to release with next years atmospheric landings (I have the $31 version on my Xbone, and i'll play that until then) edit: Oh, I'm a kickstarter but can't be bother to play by my computer anymore. The comfy couch is where it's at!
They aren't going to be able to add too much to Horizons because they have to spend most of their time working on something to sell the next expansion. Price you pay by having a selling dreams loop.
I will be releasing a three part video looking back over the whole of 2015, it will include my top games of the year as well as the worst and I will mention my own GOTY award. Expect the videos to be dropped over the Holiday period. With regard to this video, I will be revisiting Elite Dangerous Horizons when the rest of the content is available to actually play!
I don't mind the price and I don't mind that it actually takes a long time to build. But there's no transparency, I can't know that they're using all the resources they're getting from us to build the missing parts, we don't know which are actually going to be built, eventually and we knw a list of things that are coming out this season, but it's nothing specific... co-op not ok? +1 for that, it's not my thing but it would impact all our games (players interdictions don't occur because of piracy, for PP is also important) multiplayer ships? -1 not with all the other missing things. But it would be cool. economy? +1 for fixing that, prices and all targoids? -1 not with all the other things missing, it can wait... crafting? I'd love to have it but -1 for what we got so far. I wanted to know if it would be a viable option for my exploration trips, so I landed on all types of planets available at the moment and started gathering materials. After 8h I still can't FSD boost and haven't found 1 of the ingredients for AFM refueling. It really really sucks. Exploration is in the exact same situation as before and people who want to fight, they won't spend 8h to find the materials they will us in just 30min of skirmish. IT"S BAAAADD...
In Australia the regular price is 85 AUD and 64 AUD on the current sale. I'm pretty sure i'll give it a miss for 6 months or more until it gets a patch or two and a bit more content and pick it up when it's on another sale.
I seriously work in the sewers lol. Thanks for looking out for me Mack.
+Judge Lazar Thank you for the gift of using being able to use the toilet whenever I please, for free. YOU DA REAL MVP
+Windoges its not for free. u know taxes?
+Judge Lazar I don't work in the sewers but I've spent many days in full waterproof work gear wearing a respirator. It's not easy. Respect
+Judge Lazar I'm sending a brown treat your way, good sir. Don't say I never gave you anything!
+carlos rodriguez Regardless you can appreciate what they do. It's one those jobs where you don't really hear much about, until things go wrong (like being an audio technician for a show, no one notices them until there's actually a problem.) You can take that shit for granted, until shit starts pouring out of your toilet.
Mack, tells it like it is. Always appreciate that. If Mack was part of the head of a gaming development place I would SO buy the game.
what if mack gives his own game a thumbs down??
+Char Aznable He is never right or wrong, he just gives opinions that people can agree with or not.
+There was once a guy with a name that went across the page. His name was Anyjupiter you gotta admit that would make a great WAB. complaining about all the problems, then ending with "wait a minute! I can fix this one!"
+JDK Productions my god.... :O
+jerseyjacket100 If Mack would be lead designer of a game it would become Star Citizen 2.0: Expensive af, WAAAY too ambitious and never released...
Great video Mack! :)
I can't argue with any of your points. Talking of points, the so called "Points of Interest" are one of the things I have greatest issue with at the moment in Horizons. I love landing on the planets (when I can find one that has decent geological features - which can be a challenge in itself). I love driving the SRV. But I really do have massive problems with the whole point of interest discoveries. 9 times out of 10 - I will search the planet in the vehicle or in the ship, and it will always be a ship wreck I find. Not the massive crashed full sized ships that Frontier showed us during there promotional live-streams for the game but instead these little tiny bits of debris scattered around. Now these wrecks can sometimes can just a few minutes to locate, but other times they can take upwards of 15 minutes to finally find!
No problem though right? Because the reward should be worth it...
...well that's true if you are in need of clothes or are desperate for a cup of tea. You see, these wrecks almost always have tea or clothes as cargo. If your lucky, you might come across one or two containers of gold.
All in all though, a worthless discovery. Just a few thousands credits worth. You can easily earn more than this with a new save, in the starter ship and just 15 minutes of time.
As much as I love the game, and I really do like it...this is a massive problem for me. It makes putting up with the crazy gameplay design choices very questionable. And so now, I am almost at the point where I don't bother searching for interesting things on planets. Because they are never interesting. Maybe I will end up ignoring them in the same way I ignore Powerplay, Missions, Wings and many of the other things.
But - you know what? The real bottom line for me, is that despite all of this, Elite still has something very special that makes me come back to it again and again. It's hard to argue against just how good the ships fly and handle. It's hard to argue against the size of the galaxy and all the amazing sights that are out there (if you are willing to spend the hours to go searching). And now it's hard to argue that some of those planets have some absolutely fantastic locations (again you need to spend the time to find them).
Personally I believe that Frontier have some of the best game-world designers in the industry. For those looking for a game where they can travel the galaxy and explore the depths of space, searching out planets, nebula and black holes. Or if you want to land on the top of a 35km high mountain or base jump to the bottom of a 20km cliff, or fly through a mist filled canyon against an alien sky with a giant star on the horizon. Or for the feel of flying a space ship straight out of a sci-fi move...for any of this nothing else on the market comes close.
But as for gameplay design, well I really don't know what to say about that sometimes...
Love your video's want!
Hey ObsidianAnt, as a subscriber to your channel I get exactly where you are coming from. I feel exactly the same way.
I LOVE Elite, because I love the stars and exploration. Not because of its gamplay though, which is close to non-existent. This game NEEDS all the things Mack pointed out: Thargoids, Massive space battles, a peristent/progressing storyline (or similar) etc.
Only then will this game become a great videogame and not just a great experience only for people who love the stars...
+ObsidianAnt I'm always finding 8-12 gold, I've found maybe 5 tea, a little RNG i think. I didnt watch the live steams hoping for horizons to be a surprise, but you mentioned huge ship wrecks, no I've found at most a wrecked SRV
+ObsidianAnt Right on point, as usual. Elite is a uniquely fun and entertaining game well worth the money and time. About the price tag Mack mentioned, I don't see it as a cash grab. Developers from Frontier gave us a beautiful game and they keep filling it with content and I'm glad I can pitch in with 30-40-50€ to support them.
+ObsidianAnt You should make a video on the more questionable gameplay design decisions. It would be nice to have some of those issues highlighted as I doubt anyone wants gamey mechanics just because, plus you seem to have a voice as well as good reasoning to do it well. There needs to be a good mix of plausibility and fun. As an example, one thing hate is the mechanic of non persistence of signals, neither plausible or fun. Between a star and all its planets there must be millions if not billions of ships, wreckages, cargo and other strewn right across the system. Just one of many things which could be reworked.
Due to a flood of requests I will be revisiting Elite Dangerous to review the updated game in January as this review is about Horizons and my last Elite review was back in 2014, so please no more messages to review Elite :p
Just want to point out that in Elite Frontiers and Elite First Encounters, humans committed Thargoid genocide.
***** Maybe a sleeping pill to you. I find plenty to do. Maybe you aren't looking hard enough. Strike that. You obviously don't care for the game so you don't even look for things to do.
As for Eve Online, Both Eve Online and Elite Dangerous are online games. You can *not* play without a connection. And I admit, Eve Online has more content. For 2.5 to 3 times the price, it should. What do you expect for a nickel? 50 cents?
All I know is I love the game and am having a blast. If you're not, then I suggest you don't purchase any more expansions. I won't be offended and I don't think anyone else, least of all Frontier Developments, will be offended. The last thing they need is unsatisfied customers.
+Graal Otonami But they ARE out there. Mark my words and fly safe, Commander.
Graal Otonami True, although I didn't know you could get to other systems with the standard FTL in EVE. I thought you had to hyperjump or whatever their inter-system transit is called. Of course I haven't played Eve very much and when I did it was back when there was no subscription required. I just couldn't seem to get my head around it and lost interest. No manual docking, no direct control of the craft during combat. Wasn't my cup of tea.
Kelly Rayburn I may be wrong, I've only got the word of a friend to rely on for a lot of things in EVE.
My reasons for not playing it are the same as yours. I prefer to be in the cockpit rather than managing the ship's metasystems.
Why can't I go and play with the slaves David!?...
All valid concerns.
Your best review so far. Thanks
+GlobusDiablo No offline mode? ;)
:D
Indeed. :)
Still, I might see you out there, Avi.
+Sci-Fi Hooligan I think so. :)
;) Happy Crimbo Globus
Whenever i feel down i come back to this gem of a review and have a hearty laugh. Thanks, Mack!
I went on reddit and complained about how I had to essentially rebuy the entire game to get this expansion. Got absolutely shat on by fanboys of course.
Sent Frontier customer services a message about it, according to them the reason us old players - WHO SUPPORTED THE GAME THE LONGEST - have to pay more because of the extra time we've played compared to people just joining.
Fuck. Off.
Fucking ridiculous. Typical CS logic.
+TiltedScales i'll assume you are talking about having to buy horizons for 30 quid.
I don't get why you are bitching honestly, you've had the game for a year, surely it's a good thing that new players arn't held back behind expansions, getting more players in is a good thing, is it not?
you've had year, these new players won't affect you at all, at least not at the star. If you like the game, play it, if you don't then don't bother but i just really don't understand why everyone is bitching about the price of it.
***** Because the expansion sucks, and I'm rebuying the game. If we were comparing these two as separate games, for equal prices, EVERY SINGLE TIME I'd choose the vanilla Elite Dangerous because it's got more content and capability than the New Horizons.
And the fact that new players can buy Horizons AND get the base game too, without having to buy both, is a massive hit in the balls for the existing community.
TiltedScales just remember that it's not an expansion in the normal sense, it's the next set of updates
I'm not seeing that getting newer players in without too much of a cost is bad? they still have to pay £40 for horizons, after the sale vanilla will be back up to £20, yeh they save so much money but doing that. totally agree.
If you play ED at all I think you are insane for not wanting them to try and get as many people in as possible, I'm happy with my purchase and happy that with some new additions coming in horizons more of my friends will join me for some of it.
I do get that people can just not be happy with what horizons has and will bring but for me it's all stuff i wanted to be in the game.
+gingerbeargames Your happy to pay 30 quid for a moon buggy simulator? Man they saw you coming a mile away. And don't give me this bullshit about paying for future updates, this game is not a kick starter anymore. I already payed full price for this game which turns out, gets very boring very quickly... Now they want me to rebuy the game with a fucking moon buggy simulator in it.
fuck no
Mack, I just wanna say I love your content man. I think this is the first time I've ever commented on a UA-cam video and I just thought I'd take the time to tell you that you're fucking great. I can't believe you aren't bigger than you are with your hilarious videos and real talk reviews. Although I don't always agree with your opinions (most of the time honestly I do) I love the fact that you always tell it like it is, no matter the shit you get from it. And I know you're not the type of person that needs me to say this to you but I'll say it anyways; no matter what people say about you keep up the good work!
+Landon Norman Thanks landon, have a great Christmas
+Landon Norman 76k subscribers is pretty good honestly.
Freaking on point. (Ring. Riiing. RingRingRingRing) Mack is the best.
+OperationDx1 Hey Dx didn't know u watched Mack as well :)
Yeah Elite just does not have what I want from it, he is correct.
+Denazon Mack is great. Yeah. About the same thing I was saying in my video.
+OperationDx1 I didn't expect he'll said bad and saying ever.....And I literally followed him saying ever ever eva eva evaa evaaaa evaaaa ding ding ding lol
To be fair. In Star Citizen you only have to pay $50 to get the full game and you wont have to spent a cent after that.
All the Ships and add-ons will be buy-able with in-game money.
+Andy Clifft Could have sworn they offered that deal wayyyy before they had 100 million.
+Doan08 45 actually. That includes early access to everything, but I think they are raising the price after new years.
+Solar Core Mhm, the $45 dollar mark which you can get for both the Single Player campaign and the MMO aspect will now be split. So those who didn't purchase the early access will have to pay for the games separately. (soon).
Speaking of Chris Roberts, have a laugh with us all and review Star Citizen.
"Why can't I play with my slaves David?"😂
lets read the words the words the words of the developer
+Armand R Especially true for this game, as they are blatantly lying about what is there....
+PHeMoX E+ I like E:D but Frontiers pricing and business model is so greedy they may as well rename Frontier to "E.A 2"
Don't get me wrong I love Elite Dangerous but this new business plan is greedy
GraVeu Yeah, I totally agree. I definitely fear the whole Horizons expansion won't be worth the asking price, because frankly the core game wasn't either. Yes, it's good and I like *most* of what is there (I still don't think the Frame-shift drive stuff actually works predictable enough for it to be a 'fun feature'; it is very poor game design right there).
PHeMoX
I agree completely!
+GraVeu its not greedy if you compare to Eve Online or War of Warcraft. Those games force you to pay a monthly subscription which over the same amount of time would force you to pay several times what Horizon's full season will cost.
Hello Mack, hope you and your family have a merry Christmas.
+Feral Reason Dude, that has literally nothing to do with anything. That just came out of nowhere.
+Feral Reason half your playlists are bullshit with titles like "cancer of socialism/feminism/Islam/multiculturalism" or "global warming hoax." Just get the fuck off the internet and sit in your corner like the bratty child you are.
+Feral Reason So?What is your Point?
+Feral Reason
I can feel every historian in the world laughing at you for believing that Jesus wasnt at least a historical person.
Lets see here... Roman documentation of his trial by Pilate, Hebrew sources speaking of him and his conversions of their people, and lets not forget the groundbreaking archaeological discoveries of recent decades. Often overlooked is also the evidence which comes from the existence of the religion itself which is based on archbishops/patriarchs whom trace their succession back to those who followed Jesus.
Also am I the only one who remembers the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Communist China? All three were/are staunchly anti-religion and look what they did. And to say collectivism is evil you would have to have a foundation for what evil is, under religion this is possible, but without it then evil is only subjective.
*****
What's ironic is that you're so about anarchism and are so anti-collectivism, yet you use the internet and interact with the youtube community, meaning you are part of a collective. You call collectivism the "root of all evil" when you yourself are part of a collective and also have no proof to back yourself up. Sure, collectives have done many bad things, but they have also done many good things. That is human nature.
This rant nails it so hard, I think it went through and through.
Could you imagine if David actually watched this? lmao
This review is so emotional, it is like watching a man have all his dreams crushed from 30 years ago, and needing things to happen to get them back on track. Great review, subbed, also hilarious!
Having played E.D. since its release (and even back in '84), I bought this update and regretted it within 1 hour of play.
The planets and moons consist of barren, procedurally-generated surfaces. Ok, Earth-style planets are promised later, but there's not much to do other than bump and bash around, shooting the odd rock in the hope of finding something useful.
I encountered many graphical glitches. During my first run in the SRV, the vehicle model intersected with the terrain mesh and became stuck, unable to move forwards or backwards.
You cannot recall your ship until you are a sufficient distance from a settlement. The problem with this is you can't always get far enough away to do it, as some terrains wall you in (some even look like walls, with straight cliff-like surfaces, miles long). I ended up driving around like a lunatic, trying to find a way out. I attempted to send my ship to a docking pad and drive to that, but since settlements are often huge, complex and dimly lit, you can't tell where the hell you're meant to go (the radar is no use). Adding to the frustration, the SRV fuel runs out rapidly. In the end, I decided to just self-destruct. In all, NOT a good first experience.
Also, rendering the surface terrain is highly GPU intensive and even if the base game runs smoothly, you could be looking at a graphics card upgrade to run this at an acceptable framerate.
E.D. seems to be in a constant state of 'promises much, delivers little', and this expansion does nothing to change that. I do NOT recommend it. The developers appear to be focused more on technical achievement than improving depth and gameplay. If the rest of the season does not contain something more substantial, I for one will be ditching the game.
Merry Xmas Mack! I hope you have your strongest flame suit on because Elite fanboys will tear you to shreds for this mate!
+bart cbem Already banned two, you can tell when you have hit the nail on the head because they don't come back with any valid points, they just call me names and swear at me haha. There is not bigger Elite fan than me, I will be playing it most of the holidays but I am big enough to admit when my favourite game is being fucked over by greed and Ed atm is in a sorry state.
+bart cbem btw - walking around is planned and I think the FD said it will be free. At least I hope it will be.
+Worth A Buy Actually Mack, I bought both Elite Dangerous, then Horizons. I love them but I can't agree with you more. The only defence about the stupid bobble heads and paint jobs is it's a pretty ambitious and I assume costly project. Elite is not really a game for 'gamers', but it appeals very highly to folk who are fascinated by space mostly. But you raise so many good points....I'm a fan boy of Elite but I agree with this WAB entirely.
+bart cbem it won't be free, it'll be in (probably) the next season, as will landing on atmospheric planets. That said, supposedly there will be wildlife and cities on said planets. This shit costs monumental amounts of money to create, so thinking it could be free is a tad naive.
+Worth A Buy
I'm so fucking happy that you called them out on this. I can't believe the sorry state of pricing surrounding game products. Every developer is realizing the utter compliance and lack of dignity their customers possess and taking full advantage now.
ED had such potential, but when I played it back when they first released Power Play, I predicted their scheme of money grabbing plot, because it became obvious to any smart observer that their development model was not sustainable. They missed deadlines on content releases; they slowed down their ambitions; they could not release a new patch without a major game breaking bug (which takes forever to fix); and they could not properly handle community feedback (especially regarding MP issues). The only way to sustain their continued development was to do a grab on the die hard loyalists in the name of an expansion. What a fucking waste of a promising game!
Harsh but honest down to earth opinion. I kind of agree with your points. But unlike other mmos that also charge for expansions, there is no monthly subscription fee. The co-op you mentioned is there with Wings. I find no problems being dropped out right along with my wing mate who was just interdicted. Imo the game is great, but like your ideas, it could be better. But most of that is still to come
Getting close to 100,000 subs now Mack.
He needs 24,000 more to 100,000 and he deserves way more!
RAYGUNNOOB 1 so true. Especially when you take into account the UA-camrs who have millions of subs but are about as funny as being kicked in the balls ( cough cough Pewdiepie). Mack destroys them when it comes to quality of videos and humour.
Joe Bell he's no doubt the best youtube reviewer and I'm shocked he dosen't have more subscribers
RAYGUNNOOB 1 ikr? Hopefully he gets the amount he deserves.
Joe Bell hopefully a big channel watches him and shouts him out or something that will drastically increase his numbers
"It's like Sky TV."
You get it. You get it all.
One of my friends said "But Gwailin, you can land on planets now! It must have been a lot of effort.". Well, Space Engineers Patched it in for free, No Mans Sky is gonna have it in the main game anyway, STAR CITIZEN HAS IT IN THE MAIN GAME AND THERE IS FUCK ALL TO DO IN ED: HORIZONS ANYWAY SO IT. SHOULD. BE. FREE.
Their greed is backfiring badly. They could make more money and make more people happy if they cut the price. This game has so much potential. Don't let this turn into a destiny!
How many people have opted out of horizons due to the price? I bet a shit load. They're actually losing money due to their price point
I fucking agree with everything, bought elite dangerous 50 €, the price is now 20 and something. Adn the fucking expansion is 50 € ???? Pricier than the original game ???
Thats bad man, bad.
I bought Elite Dangerous the day it came out and was completely amazed by how it looked/sounded/played, it was fantastic. After a few hours of playing I realized that there wasn't a whole lot there. As you said, it's a fucking great platform for a game to be built on, but that's it. The game was so shallow that I thought for sure they would add a whole lot more stuff to it, but then Horizons was announced. A season pass for the price of a full game, with barely any content being added. Those things should have been added to the base game FOR FREE! What the fuck! I'll just wait for the game to maybe be completed in 10+ years and then I'll buy the final 'bundle'.
Merry Christmas everyone! ^.^
***** i thought Santa Claus visited everyone? .-. Even the jews..
+PlanetaryRogue im not religious, so dont peddle your christmas here.....
+PlanetaryRogue he never gave me free presents!! but our lord and savior gaben gave us the holy steam sales!
+hotcrossedbun Thats rubbish, x-mas is just the lazy way of saying christmas.
We don't take the religious aspect of christmas as seriously as some countries, but still have nativity plays and christmas lights.
+hotcrossedbun ... X-mas is just short for christmas. Ofc we have christmas here...
Talk about a case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde here in your review. True words through out. You've saved me from the temptations of buying Horizons for the time being. It really does make one shake their head and sigh with how this game has changed so little in the past year.
Does your hand hurt from hitting that bell all the time?
The price is high, because FD need more money for future updates, they end kickstarter campaign with only 1,5 milion pounds and people still expect AAA game.
+oxis77gas The price should be 20 euros/ 15 pounds. Listen, I understand they need money, but fucking over costumers is NOT the way to go. Heck, they could even make another kickstarter, and I'm pretty sure lots of people would donate. But 50 euros for a DLC (Or if you are new, It's the game + DLC) is just ridiculious
+oxis77gas Someone who gets it, finally.
+oxis77gas
Funny, cause Horizon sales are failing. Maybe they should have spent their money on making ED better, instead of spending them on a failed expansion.
***** I know, but nobody forced you to buy, Elite was never mean to be mainstream game, it's special for those who are dedicated to space genre and first Elite.You can still buy this addon later with lower price and more content.
Elaniago The expansion is part of making ED better, with that money they will have resources to complete other goals from kickstarter campaign.
"On us david" "on us have a merry christmas" lol best reviewer period!
"Give us a million pound and will add a swivel fucking chair to your space ship"
That line almost killed me
Addressing your complaints (other than payment), Thargoids are coming this year. It is hidden from public sight, so you'd not have heard of it. The Thargoids are part of a larger arc, as we, players, have to go exploring the galaxy looking for their remains. Right now, there are stations shutting down because of the Alien Artefacts we are uncovering. The Artefacts themselves chitter morse, and relay a wireframe view of your ship when properly decoded. But not everyone likes this, so it is hidden in the shadows.
Regarding walking on ships, it is coming. All ships have their interiors mapped out already, but Frontier still lacks the tech to do walking around in their Cobra Game Engine. It is planned for next season.
Regarding player-owned starbases, there are plans to implement that on a latter date, but nothing very official, sorry.
And finally, by the end of 2016, you'l be able to land on Earth-Like worlds, maybe Earth itself, with cities and vegetation and wildlife, on a 1 to 1 scale.
So Matt.
CALM THE FUCK UP AND JUST WAIT, GODDAMMIT.
P.S.: Love you man, your videos are great :3
+GabrielG.A.B. Fonseca Bullcrap marketing is stopping me from doing anything else with this game.
+GabrielG.A.B. Fonseca "Thargoids... are coming this year...walking on ships... next season...player-owned starbases.. nothing official" Then why the fudge popsickles are they charging $60? Why? People have been loyal and waiting for Elite Dangerous and now you just charge the loyal customers even more. Thats horrible. thats worse than bad. Whoever is in charge of marketing/pricing has to have their asses kicked into mars.
No, I totally agree with you guys on that. The pricing model is inherently broken! I bought the Mercenary Edition of the game, before all the launch buzz. And what do I get? An overpriced expansion that doesn't even work on my platform! It sucks! But that's how it is, I guess.. :/
+ᙅᒪᗢᗩḰ - Well, not entirely true. The space side of Thargoids will be there for all to play. All players share the same persistent universe. A planet/station under Thargoid control will be under Thargoid control for all. So, at the very least it will be like a new faction appearing with new ships and all the other factions will (probably) have a common enemy.
It took me about 20 minutes to experience all the new content of Horizons. Fucking gutted.
I think the price is fine for a year's worth of expansion on an MMO. Far cheaper than any any any any ANY ANY ANY ANY A N Y other MMO (even cheaper than those 'free to play' MMOs where you end up forking out more to have the 'full' game) I've ever played and far far more fun. 40 quid, for a year?! Come on. Hardly a sell out.
the difference is that the content this expansion adds is NOWHERE NEAR that of a proper MMO.
It isn't only access to the content of this expansion, it's access to all expansions over this 'Season', multicrew, crafting etc
+Shaun Gibson What about next year? What about 2018? Do we have to pay $50 for every season pass?
So I'll have to pay over $200 for updates.
But OH BY THE WAY, you have to buy a season pass for Elite Dangerous: Horizons (Which is another £24.99) EVEN if you already have both the original Elite Dangerous, AND Elite Dangerous: Horizons, So a LOYAL customer if they actually want the updates to the game they paid for will have spent £30.00 for Elite Dangerous, another £30.00 for Elite Dangerous: Horizons, and then ANOTHER £24.99 for the Season Pass to an Expansion for a game... £84.99 for Elite Dangerous....
when you landed on the planet and you were driving around it looked so fucking boring... anyways thanks for the entertaining review
+ProjectRealityBf2 Exactly !!!
+ProjectRealityBf2 I absolutely loved that :D I think it was mostly because Mako had really nice handling in my opinion. But I don't quite like the SRV in E:D Horizons.
I would buy your DLC Mack! Would be great! Even in No Man Sky they can build a base on a planet. That would be so cool, build Ur own settlement in the middle of nowhere
Saved me a few squid as usual, thanks mack! Back to the shit shoveling then I guess.
Ettick Madison Strange to reply to my comment on a review of a game to say I can't make my mind up. Can't see why you are watching this if you are so decisive yourself. Each to their own I guess, have a good Christmas.
+Ettick Madison Way to jump to conclusions there buddy.
You tend to fall on a tangent , but I agree with you I cannot buy this at the moment knowing that the people are saying this is not a finished product and I would not recommend others to buy this play an old game like elite 1984 until this developer announces that the product is totally finished because the strategy they are using makes each expansion ,is not actually an expansion but a separate game on a completely separate server.
I would love to play with my space slaves, you hit it right on the mark Mack.
"Cargo space with lots and lots of GRUGS and SLAVES erm...space, WHY CAN I NOT GO PLAY WITH THE SLAVES, DAVID?"Wonderful..
Last year I was thinking about buying E.D., I've played the first one on my Acorn Electron II but wasn't sure if this one was worth my money. I searched you tube for "E.D. worth a buy"and came across your channel. After watching your review on E.D. and a lot of your reviews I subscribed and got myself a copy of the game.
I love the game but horizons is just nothing, It seems to me like the took the game and slashed it in to little parts that that are getting released one little part at the time for 40 bucks a piece.
Take a look at what frontier has in mind for the next four years, it's D.L.C. gone mental. Want to walk around in your ship ? Wait till next year and give me 40 bucks !! Want a friend in your ship? Just wait two more years and give me another 40 bucks. In four years the game will be finished and a regular player will have paid around 200 bucks for the game,WTF??
The function to jump in on your friend that has been interdicted has been there for a long time bud, use nav lock on the wingman as he says he is being interdicted, or has been for that part, and then you get pulled out of frameshift drive as long as you are close to the place he is. if you aren't you'll get a blue (if you have the original coloured HUD) "wake signal" in your navigation screen also indicating the wingman's name.
The perk system with the collection of materials to get increased jump range, damage and such is way unbalanced as mentioned, but stating that right now would be a bit early as it'll probably be fixed sooner or later, I hope.
So, as a potential new player, should I just wait a few months for more content to be added then pay the 60 bucks for ED and all of the extra content? Right now it just doesn't seem like a good deal until they add everything.
+OckhamAsylum It's true that the the pricing sucks, but if you don't look at it, it's a pretty good game. I have about 300+ Hours on it and i play it on and off. It's so much fun with friends. It's also the only game i can just put away and after a week or so i come back to it. i really enjoy it. And it's a bit true that it's Euro truck simulator, and the good thing about it is that you can do other stuff while playing.
garbarrage With the base game on sale right now, maybe this is a good idea. Thank you all.
You should probably wait for every patch/update/DLC to come out and then buy it. I made a huge mistake and wasted (not really "wasted", because I enjoy the game) $50 for an unfinished game. And now I have to pay 50$ to land on barren planets. And another 50$ next year for the FPS update. And then 50$ to land on planets with atmospheres.
I hope David pulls his head out of his ass and makes the updates free. That's highly unlikely, though.
+OckhamAsylum I've been telling everyone that asks, unless you have friends who play with Horizons and will be a third wheel while they land on planets, there's really no compelling reason to buy it right now. E:D is $15, and you get a $15 discount if you buy Horizons later. Better to spend less, see if you really like the game, and wait to see what happens with Horizons. And I say this as a person who bought in to the Horizons beta. There simply isn't $45 worth of extra content right now, and you're not missing out on anything by waiting. That said, I think E:D for all its faults is a steal at $15. You'll get your money's worth.
The game has an amazing framework, but the game is just not there.
Elite is going the old eve online way : create new features all the time, but never really complete them or give them some kind of relevance. For months the most lucrative thing to do was to find an area with npcs extracting ore. They would be attacked by npc pirates which you then could shoot down. The best way to do it was essentially to let the npc police do most of the work and steal the kill from them.
That's how bad it was.
And the whole game is like that basically.
The immersion and sound is awesome though.
I really like Elite Dangerous because there is an entire galaxy to explore and it looks amazing, but I really want a few contents from EVE..
For example:
-Scanning for whole destroyed stations, mysterious objects or relicts and loot them
-More Modules, maybe combat drones or cloaking device,....
-Building your own base where you can store your ships and items
-Exploration like in EVE
and much more
Btw: sry for my english, and merry Christmas everyone :)
Thargoids are comng, Mack. It's just a matter of time. I bought Horizons and for the price, I am really underwhelmed. I know there will be more features to come throughout the year but the initial state is pretty shallow. All of the things you listed will be coming though, in time. But it then begs the question; how much more will that cost us as consumers?
It's very shallow, people unfortunately have to sort of imagine, role play etc. As for cost...I think I read somewhere they've a ten year plan of expansions. Probably costly. That other space game though, I mean they're up to $100m or more and still not released it. Perspective/context is a wonderful thing ;)
Mack, I remember back when Frontier Elite II had the ability to request Market prices from the jump point. As soon as you drop into the system you could radio a station and get prices.
By the way you make me laugh so I subscribed... Nice work fella
What you described with regards to co-op, walking around ships, player housing, etc, is the direction SC is heading in (thank god)...whenever it's finally done. E:D as it stands is way too anaemic for what Frontier is asking us to pay for, and it ironically makes SC's delays look like a good idea. I agree that the base for an amazing Elite game is here, but as of writing, there is not enough to keep people engaged
Casually browsing reviews of ED, two minutes into watching this video - laughing my nuts off !
I purchased it from frontier just to do a chargeback. E:D Horizons is DOA. Spend your cash on SC starter pack and don't look back.
Thank you mack! seriously you are the saviour of gaming.
Mac to solve ur CooP woes, in the comms panel, in options you can enable nav beacon, this allows wing members to lock on your wake if to far away when you drop or get pulled out of supercruise. Makes it pretty damn easy
I think he knows this but means the system is fairly unreliable and the drop in marker can be difficult to find and get to for your wing when one of you gets pulled out. It needs refining I guess. They do improve things but very slowly.
+Lance Baker It's crap m8, it could be so much better, just finished a session with my m8 doing rare goods runs and it's so bloody badly done the wing flying/interdiction. Why not have a simple system where we can both just plot a route, the guy with the lowest jump range has lead and everytime he jumps I jump with him and when he is interdicted I drop with him. Instead we have all the blocks with wake signals, it could be a lot better.
He seriously ripped off the bobbleheads from Warframe? Come on xD
I'm with you on this one. I think one way to put it is this feels like the original release of Elite Dangerous a year ago, but the magic just isn't there this time. When it first released, we were all hopeful and excited. A year later and we are in the same spot. The game is a mile wide, a mile deep, and empty.
POI is where this initial release falls flat. The concept is great, the execution is terrible. Out in deep space there are 4 unique types of POIs. Shipwreck, SRV wreck, wrecked probe, and ship/srv wreck with Data point. One or two variations of the shipwreck and SRV wreck. They are all boring as hell.
Loot and Crafting could be the update that saves Horizons. The issue is that structure for a great game is there, but it needs to be fleshed out. Loot and Crafting adds a new feature, but generally it enhances things you already do. You can craft better or different weapons to give you an edge in combat, better frameshift drive to reach distance stars, and so on.
Loved this review. I love your energy! Insta-subbed. Will watch more (and like and comment, because I know how important that is for UA-camrs) when I get home from christmas eve dinner. EDIT: I have also shared it with all my friends who are considering ED this Holiday. Thanks, friend! Perfect 5 / 7.
"i had to get that off my chest, even tho we're 10 minutes in"
this had me in stitches
Good review, but I'll wait the millennium for Star Citizen
+Sterling Youngman LOL, well in 3 years it has come a long way already. End of next year single player Squadron 42. Year after, full persistent universe.
2 more years, tops.
5 years total for a game of that size which has more content than any other AAA title, sounds fine to me. Other big titles behind closed doors have taken 4-7 years to get it done from start to finish.
The only people who have issues with it tend to be ignorant trolls who don't bother reading into the facts. They (CIG) are a open developer, the progress is easy to find if people look in the first place.
Oh, $35 now gets you everything.
Procedural planets already come with that price right now, lol.
+The Angry Pacifist 2 games? do you mean story and online?
*uberfacepalm*
+manneymann lol, it sounds silly, yes, paying for just a single player campaign and paying again for an online aspect of it. But thinking about it a little in terms of fidelity, it is a little justified. Think...Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online. Or any other comparison.
afaik skyrim and teso are completely different games. but i have not played teso yet.
still facepalming hard because bothering about modern expansion packs in beta state and talking about "2 games in 1".
let us think about black ops 3. is it 3in1 or 4in1? singleplayer campaign, coop campaign, multiplayer and zombie mode? what would you do if CoD would sell these modes as "stand alone products" with different names? screaming your lungs out laughing before facepalming near death because of suffocation? still one game to everyone with more brain cells than fingers and who is not overhyped from a title. or is the gameplay that different? it is not a question that i am waiting to play SC too, but over all it is hyped pretty hard, so i'm being cautious.
I do like Mac. I think I disagree with him about as much as I agree with him, but he is honest!
In this vid I'm kinda 50/50 with him. I disagree that Frontier are being greedy, in fact I think their sales tactics for Horizons will end up costing them money. It is not greed, it's risk mitigation. Frontier have always had a developer/publisher relationship. ED is their first self published title and they want the consumer to act as the publisher by giving them the money before they develop the game.
The problem is Frontier want the consumer to pay $45 now for less content, whereas the consumer will want to pay $20 in 12 months and get all the content. Frontier would have been better off waiting until Horizons is 100% complete in December 2016 and release it then as a $45 upgrade. They would get more money.
We are consumers, not publishers.
Although I am a fanboy and would happily buy Horizons for $100 :D
Fucking amazing
Just a note on the Sky comment, when you first joined you would have gotten the same discounts (anyone who says otherwise is bullshitting, it's standard) and Sky has to be one of the only companies that actually does reward loyalty, you just have to ring them and mention the prices / competitors; ask for the retentions team and mention virgin, you can get a discount on your TV, Phone and Broadband. Sorry if this is unrelated but i still get triggered by people saying "new customers get X and I get nothing" and I don't even work for them anymore.
Haha , fucking love this review! Soo awesome Mack! :D
I'm an Elite fan boy and I agree with pretty much everything you said, not only is there f**k all to do on the planets (once the shiny shiny has worn off) they pretty much nerfed or f**k*d everything that was good in Elite, like the long range smuggling / trading etc, I bought the Beta for Horizons and realised it was a pile of shite after landing on a planet twice.don't get me wrong the game mechanics are brilliant, but the gameplay and content is non existent and there is absolutely no point landing on the planets at all imo. I still love the game but you can see just by reading all the forums if they don't pull their finger out people like me and many many many others are going to bugger off elsewhere
Well, I bought Horizons and I can almost refer fully to your review Mack. It could be so much more... The Planet landings and SRV driving is realy cool but pointless ant it hurts a bit, because it could be so much more... Like housing, as you said. Now we have millions of planets, so there would be more than enough space to build player bases and fortifications on them, which would even be a bit cooler than a space station in my opignion (because there are just 3-4 types of space stations in this game and they get boring pretty fast :/ ) . Also there are little thing missing like name your bloody ship for gods sake! I freakin' bought the Alphabet bobbleheads to somehow display the name I gave my lovely python, because there's no other way! Also there is no option to found bigger and permanent wings or clans or other social structures in this game, which really is a shame and would make this game so much better.
The whole universe is also kinda liveless, there are so many small things missing o fill it with life. The content is already made by fans, it would be so easy, like a ingame radio ord advertisement films for the different ships (there is a youtuber out there who makes them and they are awesome) but something like these into your stations and hangars instead of these still images of advertisement or some news show, which is broadcasted directly to your ships like the conclusion of community goals etc. Maybe a good job for the community manager Ed ;P.
Oh boy, that was some ranting and I could even go on much longer; but the core is: I really like this game, but it hurts, because it could be so much more with just little improvements (and bigger ones too, but many of them are planned to be added in season 3+ (walking around ships and stuff i think) ). I will play until it bores me the fuck out or until Star Citizen releases where i can walk around the freaking ships, which will probably be finished at the same time elite gets to this point... in 4 years or so :P
Merry Chrismas Mack and everyone!
+Keberus Great Post
"I didn't kill all of them... they should have been breeding... where the fuck are the fargons David ????"
I bought the lifetime pass when it was available. I considered it very good value for money. I don't understand why Mac didn't buy it.
+Mors Magne Because I don't trust developers with my money, I want to see what I get for my money and this horrible expansion is a great example of garbage content for high price.
+Worth A Buy Yup I understand not wanna buy the expansion pass because you don't know what it's gonna contain, and it's crazy expensive. Hell, I feel like we barely know what horizons is going to contain. I just wanted all the future Elite, so I preordered elite (€40) and later bought the expansion pass (€162.50), so that's €202.50 xD
I felt for me Elite was a must own, especially because of the VR support. And maybe they need the money to afford the development?
After that I felt like I also had to pledge for a lil Star Citizen ship, and did : p
+Worth A Buy PS I'm not sure what is the difference between co op and the wings functionality?
+Worth A Buy
I don't agree with you: The main thing that's been achieved is realistic, randomly generated surfaces of barren planets with items of interest on them. This might appear to be mundane, but it's actually at the technological cutting edge.
In 1 or 2 year's time, the developers will build on this - it will be temperate planetary surfaces, like planet Earth.
The rate of progress seems slow, but the pace of cutting edge research/science is slow - it's the nature of the beast.
For example, in a few months there will be a massive leap forward in terms of the availability of Oculus Rift. However, we'll probably have to wait a few years until we see another significant improvement.
***** I agree. However, the mission options for traders has got worse in Horizons. There is a greater variety of missions, but the new options are too time consuming for the credits and they have displaced most of the previous better options.
The funny thing is. If they continue the model of giving you the full game + expansions cheaper than the expansions, while additionally don't delivering much content with the expansions, then the logical step for the player is actually always to wait for the next expansion before buying anything. Never buying is the logical choice until they tell you there won't be any more content for this game ever again.
This was like watching a testimony of someone on Jerry Springer. Screwed up show about people airing their dirty laundry. A show for people who want to enjoy other people's desperate situations. Even if their mistakes are hugely idiotic. Pathetic. Really to me, watching Mack blast Horizons is just... sad.
How is this entertaining? Hearing another fellow gamer talk about a good modern 2014/2015 game going down the toilet cause of crap planning. Where'd the visionaries in gaming go? Do they not know what could've made this better????? Too tragic. I was planning on getting Elite, but Mack... thank you. Sadly.
£3 per month, considering, that they don't have any money to continue developing - I do get the pricing. The new players pay for the new game, while the old ones just continue with the subscription.
The choice is - either the game shuts down, or we pay those £3 monthly fee.
They probably could go with more options, though. Like setting up an actual monthly plan for those, who wants to fund the further development that way, etc.
I stopped listening to your rant after 4 minutes. Is there an actual review anywhere after that?
yes there is now fuck off.
I think you need to work on your people skills.
There is a progressive story of Thargoids - alien artefacts are appearing. There is an ongoing community event to investigate them. The story is progressing every few weeks.
Anecdotal: David Braben once gathered all his staff around and said "We need to make something more like Angry Birds!" That's making a tonne of money!" Looks like he's on the way, eh?
The expansions should never be more than £10 unless the content is equal or more than the original content
Hands down, the best review of any game I have ever seen! you convinced me to buy elite Dangerous and I loved it....for a while. Then it got to be a grind. Everything you said about co-operative play was spot on. WTF David! Get the whiteboard and marker and make something happen. I can't get my friends to play because we can't play together effectively. Where is the in-game community? Where are the damn aliens?
I could seriously hear the sadness and dissapointment in your voice there...i feel the same, merry Christmas Mack, hopefully we CMDR's will get some love soon as well.
There's definitely enough content in the Horizons right now to warrant a price tag of, let's say, 10-15€(unfortunately they're asking a lot more than that). I really regret buying it myself, even though I did get the loyalty discount for already owning ED. The things I like about ED are the nice flight model and the ship progression, but the money grind is just horrible and drives you slowly insane.
I like Elite: Dangerous , I play it when I feel like a space dog fighting, but for an $80 CAD price tag I am going to wait till the 12 months have passed too see if its worth that bloody much.
+Nexuzz77 of course you can do that. just stick with the core game. You'll still get further updates and bug fixes for the core game without having horizons too.
But you forgot to mention that proceduraly generated realistically sized moons that you can go ti is pretty amazing.
sounds like what Mac wants is being made by Chris Roberts
I'm 44 years old and I played the original Elite on the Spectrum 128k!!!!!!!!!! ding fucking ding
My mate would be on the keyboard and I would be flying using the ole' Kempston Joystick T fucking em
I loved that game so much. But when I saw that this game was being released I said 'yeah!!' followed by a big NOOOOO! Because of the very same reasons you mention in this excellent review/WAB.
I have a degree in computer games programming so - apart from my extensive game-playing experience - I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about.
I have not purchased this game because I had a feeling that Braben had somehow sold out.
Mack. Keep doing what you do. You are THE best PC games reviewer at present. I love your vids mate. |Merry fooooooookin xmas and all that shite
That's and incredible amount of emotion spent over such small things. Astonishing really
"Why can't I go and play with the slaves David??" - Mack Christmas 2015 Context of the year.
I wonder if david ever saw this. Its on sale for 8 dollars right now. And supposedly much has been fixed... Finally cheap enough for a "worth a buy"
While I agree with some of the things that you discussed, I must disagree with somethings. Like the Nav-Lock feature. My group continuously deals with interdictions since we are a part of a powerplay group. Every one of us keeps our wing beacon on, interdiction happens, we engage Nav-Lock on said player, and drop as soon as it's complete. It's actually quite simple.
And as for some of the other things, a lot of the stuff is coming and has been stated. They already discussed that we will be getting the ability to walk around our ships, land on M class planets, first person shooting, big game hunting, passenger missions, etc.
And I'm not sure if the Thargoids are coming as of yet, but we are potentially facing an invasion of some sorts. Pay attention to what's going on with GalNet. Players have been discovering Unidentified Artifacts in space. These alien looking devices scan ships, transmit their design in a stylized morse code, and for whatever reason, they all point towards the Merope system, even after being relocated. You can find these UA's in "shell" around the Merope system that extends 130-150Ly around it. They can be collected (but cause module damage) and sold at stations with a black market. Enough of them get sold to a station and the station will start to experience malfunctions until all starport services are shut down.
The thing about it though, is this isn't narrative driven, it's player driven. A player group called The Cannon has been researching them. And it has become a game between them and the developers. Where Braben keeps dropping "clues" into the game and it's up to the players to figure it out.
And that's the beauty of Elite: Dangerous, there are tons of stories and things going on across the galaxy, but just like in real life, unless you pay attention to the news and other media outlets (GalNet, Frontier Forums, Reddit), you'll have no idea on whats going on out there.
As soon as you can walk around space stations and walk around your own ship this will be a gr8 game :p
Thank you so much, Mack! The pricing is moronic, and they've wildly censored the dissent.
I really wish game designers and developers would listen and ask their players, what would you all like to see in the game. I love Elite Dangerous and it is one of the few games that I play year round. Elite has introduced me to a community of like minded individuals, who love SciFi just as much as I do. With that being said, some of the things being implemented in the game, I am not sure why they are there. In example, Power Play, I have heard from so many people how little interest or desire they have in Power Play. I want to know, who asked for it and why is it there? In place of Power Play I would have rather had all that effort used to create that whole game idea, to instead go towards giving players more planets to be able to land on in the Horizons expansion, or I would even just take more ships to add to the roster. If not something that complex, maybe then they could have given us character creation, or the feature to walk around the ship. I love the idea of every year expanding the game, but to me the term of Horizons, I was under the impression for the duration of this expansion we would see more game mechanics for more planet side play. Rocky, ice, moon like planets is all we get, and in addition we are getting character creation, which I could care less about, because we can't walk around and see other players anyway. Crafting, I could care less about as it seems we are being forced to endure the boring missions implemented in the game to even touch the surface of crafting. The only thing that seems worth-while is the fighters and possibly multicrew. I would have rather wanted access to more worlds later in the year to land on and visit and it doesn't have to be Earth-Like as I understand those types of planets are very hard to develop, but at least some type of atmospheric planet to be able to go into and see. All of what they are adding should have already been in game or honestly could be never implemented and I wouldn't care one bit about. Elite Dangerous is headed in the complete wrong direction, this game could easily beat Star Citizen on day one of it's release, so easily, but it is as if they don't want to be a Space Sim to be contended with. (Sorry for the rant)
I have watched this one many times over the years. The rant is funny as ****. Mack, please do a free game friday on the original elite. Would love to hear you talk about playing the game.
i know many of you are really dissapointed. But it was from the beginning clear that frontier will charge for future expansions. Thats why i have buyed the Premium Beta package for 120€, which includes lifetime expansions for free.
If you are disapointed for paying 40€ for the expansion, i am also because i calculated 60€ for each expansion.
When you originally bought the game one had to look at ED as star citizen, no one should have assumed that it would have been done. The content would be released over the coming years that would really add some meat to the bones. So if you bought the game originally and not the expansion you were investing into the games future. Or you could have waited until an expo like this comes out and invest then. I feel like this is the game you buy and just play for a bit at a time. You let it sit there and then every month you come back to something new. But at least the devs know how to make money, the only real way to stop this from happening is for the collective community to stop investing. But that is a huge goal.
FULL COOP YES!!!!!!!!!! so much of what is pointed at i'm happy to know that i'm not alone. still havent bought horizons, lost confidence with their outfit due to the poorass coop experience. so many little loopholes to navigate through.. infact, this whole game is a complex navigational process, when most of this i'd be happy to have automated. and like you said re trading prices, i'd prefer not to have to tab out and use a 3rd party website to plan my trading rout.......... kinda messes with my immersion o.O and the uncanny valley yaaaaawns
26 September, 2017: The Thargoids return (apparently, that's still six days away). That's no base building or going back into your ship and playing with slaves, but it's at least one of the things you wanted, right?
Me and my girlfriend have just gotten into this (I mean the core game, but also horizons) and it's overall very good. I do find myself peeking over to NMS post Atlas update and wishing the ED universe was more vivid and colourful, although I'm sure in reality space is kinda dull at times. But the scale and detail and flight mechanics are great. I feel like they've built a solid space engine in ED. My hope now is that they build on that solid core and start to populate the galaxy with more interesting sights. The planets are largely empty and dull. There are no huge cities or settlements. No crashed freighters. No...life really. Just ships cruising around a big empty galaxy.
I've read tantalising rumours about ship interiors and stations you can go in and I dunno how likely that is to happen but given that my PC is too shit to run NMS and I don't have a PS, I'm gonna remain hopeful.
Walking, FPS and EVA is going to be in the third season and we might get a taste of it at the end of season 2, and building small stations and owning them will be coming too.
And this is why i'll wait for the PS4 to release with next years atmospheric landings (I have the $31 version on my Xbone, and i'll play that until then)
edit: Oh, I'm a kickstarter but can't be bother to play by my computer anymore. The comfy couch is where it's at!
They aren't going to be able to add too much to Horizons because they have to spend most of their time working on something to sell the next expansion. Price you pay by having a selling dreams loop.
I will be releasing a three part video looking back over the whole of 2015, it will include my top games of the year as well as the worst and I will mention my own GOTY award. Expect the videos to be dropped over the Holiday period.
With regard to this video, I will be revisiting Elite Dangerous Horizons when the rest of the content is available to actually play!
I don't mind the price and I don't mind that it actually takes a long time to build. But there's no transparency, I can't know that they're using all the resources they're getting from us to build the missing parts, we don't know which are actually going to be built, eventually and we knw a list of things that are coming out this season, but it's nothing specific...
co-op not ok? +1 for that, it's not my thing but it would impact all our games (players interdictions don't occur because of piracy, for PP is also important)
multiplayer ships? -1 not with all the other missing things. But it would be cool.
economy? +1 for fixing that, prices and all
targoids? -1 not with all the other things missing, it can wait...
crafting? I'd love to have it but -1 for what we got so far. I wanted to know if it would be a viable option for my exploration trips, so I landed on all types of planets available at the moment and started gathering materials. After 8h I still can't FSD boost and haven't found 1 of the ingredients for AFM refueling. It really really sucks. Exploration is in the exact same situation as before and people who want to fight, they won't spend 8h to find the materials they will us in just 30min of skirmish. IT"S BAAAADD...
In Australia the regular price is 85 AUD and 64 AUD on the current sale. I'm pretty sure i'll give it a miss for 6 months or more until it gets a patch or two and a bit more content and pick it up when it's on another sale.