So I just tried out some of the free weekend. My first problem is with the free weekend structure itself -- I probably won't be able to play the game again after tonight and it's already ass-o-clock where I am. Free weekends I'm interested in always seem to occur at really inopportune weekends for me. It's why I prefer Origin's system of a time limit that starts and runs whenever you actually have time. I only had maybe three hours to try Siege and couldn't even get all the way through the tutorial.
Anyway, I'm trying to see if I can solve the problem of my not caring about any modern PvP games at all except the occasional Street Fighter match. I've started to think I might prefer games with a somewhat slower pace, lower player counts, and objective-based gameplay which is leading me to try tactical games (I'd play Neotokyo more if it wasn't just about dead all the time). For some reason round-based gameplay appeals to me too. Overwatch seems like it would appeal to me on paper but after a couple free trials I felt no desire to go back to it.
Siege seems to be a game I could possibly end up liking but again I didn't have enough time to really figure that out. The basic structure seems to appeal to me more than COD or Battlefield -- it feels like there's a thought process involved beyond just running around and getting kills, but Siege might still have a bit too much of an upgrade thing going on (that's another thing I don't like -- XP-based gear upgrades that aren't purely cosmetic). It seems to be very light compared to the aforementioned popular MP shooters though. I probably just didn't get enough time to get comfortable with all the different tools the game gives you. The maps also feel very... Ubisoft? I don't know how to describe that. I'll give this the "see if I want to come back to it after a little while" test and think about the Starter Edition.
I think I'm going to have another attempt at CS:GO next week. I might prefer that game's per-match escalation system. Looking back I seem to have always preferred MP games that seem simpler up-front without the immediate burden of classes and upgrades. CS:GO obviously has an astronomical skill ceiling but looking from the outside the game seems to have a certain efficiency about its basic design. Maybe that's why I still play fighters -- they're sort of an ultimate distillation of MP mechanics, just 1v1 without anything going on beyond the two characters and their moves, all the meta springing from those initially simple aspects.
My biggest problem is that all my favorite MP games are dead: Neotokyo, Metal Gear Online on PS2 and PS3, Spies vs Mercs, etc. I feel like if I had Xbox Live back then I could have gotten into the earlier Halo games. Is MGSV MGO any good?
