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In-App purchases have really destroyed the App Store, huh?
- Thread starter Skel1ingt0n
- Start date
im getting flashbacks from the '80's here.
Rodney McKay
Member
While Trials is loaded with currencies and payment options, it doesn't actually require that you spend any kind of money to retry tracks. You can retry a track as many times as you want without spending any currency or fuel (just hit the redo button). It's every time you ENTER a level that requires you to spend "fuel."
Thankfully there's a work around for getting more fuel without waiting or paying by setting your clock forward a few hours. And you get more fuel over time, but tracks also start to take more fuel, so it's not a huge help.
The game would actually still be amazing if that was all there was bad about it, but unfortunately there's a terrible (mostly) luck based resource gathering requirement for upgrading your bikes and making progress in the game. Late game missions require you to replay the same level over and over. I got quite a lot of enjoyment out of the game, but not as much if it had just been a "premium" app.
And for as much Plants vs. Zombies 2 irritated me at launch, it's actually turned into an incredibly solid free to play game, maybe one of the best ones I've played. It has gotten regular free content updates and you can play the whole thing for free without any timers or required currencies.
There are extra plants and upgrades as IAPs, a currency for special powers (which can be earned in game and totally ignored), and they added a crappy gem-based Zen Garden, but all that stuff doesn't get in the way of the main game which is pretty great outside of some difficulty balance issues (not as good as PvZ1 was in terms of balance).
While I agree with the OP that IAPs are pretty annoying overall and definitely make me hesitate before buying or even trying games, I'm still finding plenty of worthwhile stuff to play. I got an iPad Mini about 6 months ago and have mainly used it for gaming and been quite happy with it. I haven't even bought a lot of the games I REALLY want to play because I'm waiting for sales (like the Square Enix games in particular).
BoboBrazil
Member
I feel dirty. I made my first in game purchase ever tonight because the game turned the difficulty to level 10 in level 3 and it was pretty much impossible to continue without paying.
There are still a ton of decent games on there, but finding them is harder than ever. You almost need others to curate the store for you, I'd recommend the monthly iOS thread.
It was a success. If I remember correctly they recouped their dev costs in the first week.
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
This makes me so happy for the team!! Any plans for a follow-up game of some sort?
KyanMehwulfe
Member
I think in part because RMT here is still somewhat taboo for competitive games and misleading/manipulative in mobile games, where as in Asia it's a lot more embraced. I'm not sure about Korea but it's pretty blatant and normal in a lot of Chinese games. The amount of money that I know some of the second-generation rich princelings put into games is just insane. Talking salary sized amounts. And it's common and normal enough that while a lot of folks still think it's massive in scope, no one reacts to it as being crazy or unheard of. Almost every guy I went to uni with (or I worked with after; I worked with Chinese uni students for 2 years as a part-time job outside of finance) put money into mobas and quite a lot of the girls spent money on mobile games usually puzzle or puzzle/RPG/sim hybrids, and that's basically all they play RMT RPG/puzzle comes from China, or LOL... The only western game they even know is CS usually. Whether it's TW, HK, or mainland China everyone even non-gaming girls know CS and "fire the whole" lol
Rodney McKay
Member
I've been dying to play a good town/city/whatever builder on my iPad for ages, but haven't found a good one without annoying timers, currencies, or IAPs.
I tried out Godus for about 30 minutes and it started out great, but as soon as buildings started taking 10 minutes or longer to build I immediately lost interest. That game could have been a great Populous/God game without that stuff.
Hawaii Jeff
Member
Yeah this is my feeling too.
I used to buy and play games on the iPhone, but now almost everything is F2P garbage that isn't even worth the "free" download.
Yeah, would not surprise me one bit. I think what it has in it's favour over the console situation is the global pervasiveness of the market. Sadly. A crash would probably do some good.
Probably the best advice for somebody interested in gaming on their iPhone/iPad. You need others to help weed out the crap and recommend properly good games. I'm sure there's other communities out there that could help similarly.
civilstrife
Member
Apple's own curated genre pages are pretty decent.
unapersson
Member
Yes, I've felt the same for a while now, but like the 80's crash it might not be a global one. I can see it happening in the west. It's like the new gold rush.
It's why I'm glad they do the 'top selling' category now. It's not perfect and they're not all classics, but at least the likes of Threes, Hitman, Alone, wayward souls, Football Manager, The Room, Dragon Quest. You get some big name games, some good indies, and a fair amount of shit, but it's better than it was