Posts
6
Joined
8/11/2020
Location
Simpsonville, SC
US
I started mx gaming with Motocross Madness on a shitty old PC. It was absolute bliss. The tracks, the sound effects... UH!! The best.
Game play got both better and worse over time but when Alive hit, I was like, ok they finally nailed the physics. This is incredibly fun again. And then the next title (don't even know what it was) just completely took a hard left and so did I. Basically just not playing anymore.
My beef with Rainbow and company are that they seem to want to be everything to everyone. And from a biz perspective I get that but from a gaming perspective it's a complete swing and a miss.
Why not multiple titles?? "Motocross Simulator", "Supercross Simulator", "ATV Sim" etc...
And for the 10 year olds in the group "MX vs ATV - Go Completely Nuts With Every Machine and Track Known to Man".
With so much packed into one title, it's impossible to come away with a great experience in each segment.
For me, just give me a motocross game that is completely dedicated to the motocross experience from a dirt bike perspective. The races, the tracks, the sound effects, the AI, the tuning, the controls etc..
Give that same experience to the ATV and UTV guys. In their own title. Sold separately. And give the kids their golf cart canyon jumping with explosives, guns and wild, completely random AI.
(IMO) Trying to be everything to everyone was the wrong strategy to sell games. You could have sold more if you'd come out with a library of focused titles versus a jumbled together mash-up of off-roading.
Game play got both better and worse over time but when Alive hit, I was like, ok they finally nailed the physics. This is incredibly fun again. And then the next title (don't even know what it was) just completely took a hard left and so did I. Basically just not playing anymore.
My beef with Rainbow and company are that they seem to want to be everything to everyone. And from a biz perspective I get that but from a gaming perspective it's a complete swing and a miss.
Why not multiple titles?? "Motocross Simulator", "Supercross Simulator", "ATV Sim" etc...
And for the 10 year olds in the group "MX vs ATV - Go Completely Nuts With Every Machine and Track Known to Man".
With so much packed into one title, it's impossible to come away with a great experience in each segment.
For me, just give me a motocross game that is completely dedicated to the motocross experience from a dirt bike perspective. The races, the tracks, the sound effects, the AI, the tuning, the controls etc..
Give that same experience to the ATV and UTV guys. In their own title. Sold separately. And give the kids their golf cart canyon jumping with explosives, guns and wild, completely random AI.
(IMO) Trying to be everything to everyone was the wrong strategy to sell games. You could have sold more if you'd come out with a library of focused titles versus a jumbled together mash-up of off-roading.
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In my defense I don't have any idea how large or resourceful Rainbow is. Perhaps the proof is in the games that they release. Meaning, in order to get the best return, they're forced to lump it all together. I know that resources needed to focus on specific segments of a community is a big ask when getting a game to market with any success is pretty much a crap shoot.
However, if there wasn't a strong community supporting the titles that (have been) released these dev studios would have moved on long ago.
Getting the best return by releasing one title versus 3 is 100% the reason they do it
I'd be curious to see if this idea would have merit:
Could the studio release a "shell game" with the ability to download your desired game play/niche? I'm completely guessing, but I would assume that the majority of overhead and risk comes in the form of producing physical units versus DLC content.
However if the majority of cost comes in the form of man-hours, there may be no hope for my idea unless a much bigger fish comes along and decides to pour money and additional people into the franchise which I would also assume is highly unlikely.
From a dev perspective I'm talking about one giant if/else statement that could ship with a default value. Basically the game as it is. But "if" the player decided to download a different game package, the default game would be essentially overwritten with the niche game package.
Lots of assumptions here but a guy can wish.
They just slap on a goony looking shitty feeling rider and call it a day. Licenses and tracks aside, the physics are shit. Some have their good attributes but overall every game Since what, mx unleashed or mx vs atv unleashed? has been very very shit.
Those games don't require PC's with very high specs to run either. MX Simulator can run on a potato (unless you are doing the pro erode racing, but a lot of the people there have more dedicated hardware already), and Reflex is also pretty lightweight. So if you have a relatively new desktop/laptop from the last 2-5 years you should give them a go. I think the only other game that's as 'dedicated' as MX Simulator is MX Bikes. That game seemed to rise in popularity in the last couple of years.
Pit Row
The tracks are fucking awesome. They are far beyond anything I've played in any of the MXGP games or MESX games. The physics are kinda strange and I feel like you're able to turn a lot faster than you should be able to, but honestly, it's not as bad as I expected. I still prefer the feel of MESX, but this is a solid game when you have the outdoor tracks because they are great.
Also, it sucks that the actual manufacturers bikes are DLC instead of being included in the base game.
I don't care for the gonzo AI and a few other too small to mention quirks of the game but I played it last night for nearly two hours and came away really satisfied. And as mentioned previously, I only race outdoor motocross series. It's just my thing. And the game provides that experience well.
With your feedback about the PC version and community, I think it's time I get back to PC. In the Motocross Madness days I was a big contributor to the community with track designs and I truly loved it. Console gaming feels very consumer-only and I'm not as big a fan.
WHat I really don't get is how Milestone can make a game as incredibly realistic and challenging as the MotoGP series and not be able to do the same with MXGP and MESX. They're not terrible games, but they aren't close to the perfection that is the MotoGP games.
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