Episode 2 is upon us and this week we’re taking a look at Psyonix’s smash hit car-to-ball game Rocket League.
Rocket League is currently shaping up to be one of my favourite multiplayer games of the year, despite some stiff competition, so it’s no surprise that when Joel and I gave it a spin we were more than a little enthusiastic about it. Here’s how enthusiastic:
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As usual, a big thanks to Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance for all the hardwork putting this together!
To contact the author of this goal post, email: greggb@tap-repeatedly.com
People have been gushing about Rocket League, and it looks like it’d be great fun with a group. You guys did touch on an important point though, about how the fun curve would probably go down proportionally as players improved.
There’s entertainment magic in being incompetent together. I have a group of five or six who do weekends from time to time, and some of the most hilarious moments came from our efforts to pummel each other with chairs in some pro-wrestling game none of us had played. The laughter became painful, but as we began to learn what each of the buttons did, it lost its madcap entertainment value and we had to move on.
Looking forward to the next episode, which seems to be a great way to start fistfights with friends. Maybe that’s what the title should be! Fistfights with Friends.
Gah, I totally forgot to respond to you!
I’ve put a good 40+ hours into this since Joel and I played and while it’s certainly still lots of fun, it’s a different beast now. Luke’s my fellow car-to-ball player in 2v2 these days and as we’ve both improved and slowly risen through the ranks (there’s a ranked mode) the stakes have got higher and higher. And with higher stakes means greater pressure to perform well. If you miss a critical opportunity, save or shot then it can be gutting. That said, if you nail those moments then it’s incredible. So higher highs and oh so lower lows then!
When you’re co-operating skill discrepancies don’t matter too much up to a point but in head-to-head it would be downright painful for the rookie on the receiving end! In those circumstances it absolutely pays to be mutually incompetent/competent. Alas, that’s the trouble with any PvP game that revolves around skill…
The last season of Side by Side featured quite a lot of me vs Joel, with, if I remember rightly, only one co-op game (Tomb of Rooms), but this series there’s a better mix so expect Fistfights with Friends as well as Side by Side! No Fisting with Friends though. Don’t make that typo.
There’s a whole theory-of-fun thing in what you say, because the point is that there are different types of enjoyment: from being “good” at something, from being “new” at something, etc. It’s intriguing because they don’t seem to mix that well. Or at least there are discrete separations between them.
2+ player local co-op is one of the most underserved areas of gaming. It’s asking for a lot to support local and remote, two and more — just because there’s such a difference between two and any more than two — but then you look at games like this and see so much opportunity for so much enjoyment.
If you’ve put forty hours into a game, into any game, that’s significant right there. How many AAA games can we say gave us 40+ hours?
I can’t wait to see what “fisting with friends” (two instances now) does to our Google ad thingy.
So I just read the comments and had to type “fisting with friends” into Google. It did not lead to here but God I hope my wife does not check the Internet browsing history.
Rocket league has been great fun. I agree the highs have got higher and vice versa. Few games have made me want to smash my pc quite as much as this one. When you make stupid mistakes or lose several on the run its hard not to turn your back and walk away.
That’s something I just cannot do as Gregg is my playing partner and there are few things more fun in life than hearing him going nuts on the other end of Skype.
I have also had some great moments playing solo so it can hold its own in that respect also.
Two things.
First: Luke, you have some serious balls to type “fisting with friends” into Google because… there are things you just can’t unsee, man.
Second: between Gregg and Armand and Skype, you and I are the normal ones. Think about that.