Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was launched on March 25. At launch, the sport suffered from quite a few server points and issues with lag. Finally, numerous that was fastened. Nonetheless, 38 days later, crossplay throughout sure platforms remains to be a large number. And so, uninterested in ready for the crossplay woes to be resolved, I lastly simply purchased a second Xbox console so my fiancée and I might play collectively. This solved our drawback, nevertheless it additionally highlights that uh…Wonderlands (and different video games) have to finally work as marketed after launch.
Whereas I do know some, together with of us right here at Kotaku, don’t just like the Borderlands collection, my fiancée and I’ve a blast enjoying the video games collectively. Certain, the writing is typically cringe-inducing and the storylines don’t all the time land. However there aren’t many huge, open-world looter-shooters with easy drop-in, drop-out co-op that aren’t additionally tied into some live-service mannequin and that we will play casually collectively. So Borderlands—and now its newest spin-off, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands—is one thing we each take pleasure in and get enthusiastic about. (And in the event you really play the video games, you’ll see that there’s extra to them than “lol MEMEZ.”)
When it was introduced that Wonderlands would function crossplay, we each acquired excited. I might play on my PC and he or she might play on my Xbox Collection X in my workplace. It was a good looking dream, a easy and simple resolution. Co-op with our personal screens that didn’t necessitate social gathering chat or a lounge TV.
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However sadly, crossplay has been a large number since Wonderlands launched. For the primary week or two, we couldn’t play collectively in any respect as Gearbox’s Shift servers appeared to fail continually. We additionally had issues sending and receiving invitations. Finally, Gearbox’s rejiggering acquired issues to some extent the place we might play collectively however at any time when we did, one participant would lag continually, making the sport almost unplayable for them. Trying on-line, it grew to become clear that not everybody has had the identical points, however many gamers attempting crossplay between Xbox and PC have been (and nonetheless are) affected by all types of on-line annoyances.
Lastly, I took issues into my very own palms, shopping for an Xbox Collection S at our native Goal final week. Contemplating that these consoles have change into fairly simple to seize and sport a lower cost level, this ended up being a viable resolution to our issues. And now, we’ve been enjoying hours and hours of Wonderlands with no issues in any respect.
But, I do know lots of people on the market don’t have the area or the cash to only exit and purchase a brand new console. This isn’t me offering gamers with a tip of “Damaged crossplay? Purchase a brand new console!” Fairly, it’s a story of how, at the same time as crossplay turns into an anticipated and commonplace function, it’s nonetheless removed from good or simple to get working, even in new, trendy video games.
I additionally assume that as video games proceed to rely increasingly on the web and connections to servers, it’s changing into tougher and tougher to disregard how horrible most on-line recreation launches are. Weeks or months of gamers ready and hoping issues get fastened to allow them to lastly play the sport they already purchased isn’t a suitable norm. If our future is on-line and interconnected with different platforms and consoles, nice. However hopefully, devs and publishers will probably be keen to spend the cash, time, and sources crucial to ensure these things really works. In any other case, the long run goes to be much more annoying and irritating for lots of people.
