Brand Loyalty - The Bear and Badger

Vela

True. Sometimes you just have to take a chance though, and for example, Q Games is one that I discovered by chance a few years back. Pixeljunk Monsters for $5 with a demo to get first was a fantastic entry point. I knew nothing about their ethos, not that Dylan Cuthbert worked there, and yet here I am 5 years later with them as one of my go-to developers because they are consistently entertaining.

It is, by definition, impossible to have loyalty to an unknown quantity. That puts new IP, new studios and new concepts at a disadvantage. But at the same time it precludes unrealistic expectations and presents an opportunity unfettered by baggage from poor decisions past. There are, for instance, some people who would never touch a Nintendo game, or a Bethesda game, or a Rockstar game. But there are people who bought games by Q Games, or Monolith Soft, or 2D Boy or Red Lynx based on very little information or knowledge of their calibre, and look where they are now.

Escape

I bought Uncharted 2 off the bat of its summertime MP beta. I'd only played a demo of the original and I really didn't like the jerkiness of its engine or its crummy pad-balancing bits.

Most of our forumbods downloaded the beta, so I followed on hoping for a week's diversion. By the second night I was singing its praises, and it became one of my top three this gen. I love new series.

Vela

Yep. Uncharted 2 was a very fun game, though there were elements of it I did not enjoy as much as in the first game. Story wise, set piece wise and gunplay wise it was a step up. Hand to hand comba I felt was more interesting in the original, and also the end scene was perfect matinee movie climax.

UC2 had that memorable village level where you had a complete change of pace.

UC3 had some questionable combat mechanics (AI approaches dragging you out of lined up sniper shots, then as soon as you finished the fisticuffs a sniper round hit you), and the linear one-way-only platforming wore thin for me.

To me, one key thing is knowing where to stop. I loved Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, but I don't want a third for instance.

davyK

Treasure have a good rep with me. I have heard of a few mis-steps they have made but even those titles have something that makes them worth at least a look.

It's hard to see where Nintendo will go after Galaxy - but then it isn't often I've been ever able to see where they intended to go in the past - surely there can't be any more ideas left that will fit into the Galaxy theme?. I like the fact that they have created parallel series in 2D and 3D.

Mod74

Diluted Dante wrote:

I have never had an issue with the online for the PS3. I don't get peoples beef with it.

No voice chat, no in game overlaid Friend list, no overlaid invite/join options seem beef worthy.

monkey

Although the 360 has been better than the PS3 in quite a few ways, the system updates were the main problem for me. I only get quite narrow pockets of time to play a game in. There were too many times where the odd free hour was whittled down to half an hour as I'd have to sit through a round of system and game updates. The 360 just doesn't have that. I've never had to wait more than about 5 minutes to play a game on that thing.

hunk

GameGear
SNES
Playstation
Dreamcast
Xbox
PC

So, I'm a promiscuous bastard if there ever was one.
Will probably stick to pc for now altho' a console is quite a bit easier to use regarding navigation on a big screen.
Mouse and keyboard on a couch just don't cut it.

Sasukekun

A few back and forwards as consoles were sold to make way for new consoles, then again for consoles I originally owned.

Amstrad,
NES,
SNES,
Playstation,
N64,
Playstation (again),
Playstation 2,
GameCube,
Playstation 2 (again),
Playstation 3.

Have also lived in the same house as, and as a result played on:
Saturn
Dreamcast
Wii
WiiU

Outlaw

I'm not loyal to a particular brand. I do generally like Nintendo's handheld offerings, and have pretty much always bought whatever version they're peddling at the time.

The games are more of the draw to me; and there don't need to be millions of games to make it worth my while. Quality of quantity. The handful of DS games I own are so amazingly good I don't need to be buying a new one every week - the quality of the ones I have keeps me happy enough.

I have preordered both Xbox One and PS4, but will (bar a bloody lottery win) only be buying one on launch, so it will likely come down to which one markets itself the best in terms of new games. I'm not going to buy a console that's just going to keep shovelling the same old shit at me.

Yossarian

So you'll be getting neither, then.

/jadedgamer

Diluted Dante

Mod74 wrote:

Diluted Dante wrote:

I have never had an issue with the online for the PS3. I don't get peoples beef with it.

No voice chat, no in game overlaid Friend list, no overlaid invite/join options seem beef worthy.

Going back a bit to this one here, but there is voice chat. I presume you mean that there is no bundled mic, but that's nothing to do with PSN itself. Now no cross game chat and you'd have something of a point.

Mod74

I meant no game independent/party chat yes.

Diluted Dante

That's fair enough then. On the second one, I'm sure that you can access the friends list by hitting the PS button mid game much like you can with the guide button. Or did you mean something else there?

Diluted Dante

It killed basically anyone talking. But even before that you could have a one on one chat.

Edit - one of the COD's did that very thing.

Mod74

I forget what my point was now, but I'm pretty sure pressing the PS button didn't always produce a friend list. So if people beefed while it didn't then that would have been beef worthy.

Even now, what does it show you, a list of people online? What interaction options are there?

Diluted Dante

I'll go double check, but I'm pretty sure it's the same options available on the main menu.

Diluted Dante

Yep, same options on both.

g.man

Party Chat is worse than AIDS.

fo sho

g.man

Scotswahey

My loyalty to Sony is based entirely on a history of top quality machinery by them. My dads 1970s Sony seperates hi-fi is still chugging away like a champion. The sony CD player he bought in the 80's still plays scartched disks a lot of other players I own cant. The walkmans I've owned have all been solid and my MP3 walkman is an amazing sounding, user friendly simple piece of kit.

When i comes to Playstation the love goes on and on. I like the machines and I love the games Sony make even more. I know that what Sony produce is right up my street.

Solid machines.

RedDave2

I dont know if it would be considered Brand loyalty as such but I really wanted to buy into the new windows 8 system (I know, not strictly a console thing...) but fact is its been a waste of their and my time. For various reasons, windows 8 has been a let down but I did try to get along with it. In a way its similar to why I see myself sticking with android over apple for the next few smart phones - I like the link up of Google, gmail etc. and the more workable nature of android over apples system. I can see the flaws of android v iphone but I also prefer the benefits.

Point is that sometimes its not Brand Loyalty that makes me buy a console, it can also be the promise it sells, and the difference between the competitors. At the moment Sony are selling a very interesting eco-system but I'll be honest, I was very curious to see how MS would deliver a mainly digital based console. For all their mistakes, there was some interesting ideas in there and even with the price difference it made me consider a xbox one. Similarly, while I am know fan of nintendo anymore (not a dislike, just not really into them) I really like the IDEA of the seperate controller for wii-u. I dont think they've quite nailed it but I see lots of potential for it (not in terms of game ideas, but rather playing the same game or even different versions of a game on it)

Sasukekun

I guess the whole point in the whole Win8 thing is the unification of the OS over phone, tablet and PC.
That's all I can see in it really.

[Deleted User]

@scots
Old school CD players from the 80s and early 90s tend to he better anyway as they were premium devices built with good parts.

That said I agree with you about Sony products.
The only Sony product to fail on me (I dodged ylod) was a small, early Sony trinitron tv. My parents had it before I was born and it died when I was about 18. To put it's age into context, it features in a skaghead's flat in Trainspotting!

The only reason we/I moved away from Sony TVs is that their prices stayed too high. While it is great that a TV survives 10+ years it doesnt matter so much now tech changes in less than 5.
Especially as my Mum works for John Lewis so it is a 5 year TV guarantee, 12% discount fest.

Samsung and Toshiba TVs are proving to be impressive.

Sehnheisser headphones are the best on price vs quality.

Yossarian

Liveinadive wrote:

A small, early Sony trinitron tv. My parents had it before I was born and it died when I was about 18. To put it's age into context, it features in a skaghead's flat in Trainspotting!

That cream and black number that had the clicky channel buttons that had a green circle that appeared in them when you pressed them that was wheeled out during the start of the cold turkey scene?

[Deleted User]

Yup iirc

Yossarian

I had that one too. It was a trooper, lasted years.

[Deleted User]

I think the same TV may be in The Take.

I played through the 8-16-64 bit eras on that thing.

[Deleted User]

I got a new similar sized one after it broke which is still going strong now.

LazyGunn

i did the unthinkable today and ditched nvidia for amd

Mod74

Scotswahey wrote:

My loyalty to Sony is based entirely on a history of top quality machinery by them... Solid machines.

Shame the software running on them is so shite. They fixed those DVRs yet?

Yossarian

Their UI team does want shooting, to be fair.

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