Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (June 21st, 2019)

[Harkofthewaa]

@TheOcelot From what I've heard it lasts for one hour, which ticks down when you're on the track. It definitely doesn't tick down in the lobby or else I would have only gotten a couple races in today. With how long the game makes you wait you might as well plan on having 2-3 hour sessions if you want to take full advantage of Wumpa Time. 

Now for a couple ideas for fun: 1. This one is obvious, but have the ability to race in cups online, with a good pot of Nitro and Trophies (like maybe 500 N and 75 T) for the winner, scaling down accordingly. 2. A mode that brings back some of the mechanics from CNK, which I will dub "Nitro-Fueled Mode". This mode would bring back the CNK exclusive items and shield behavior, and separating the 8 drivers into four teams and bringing back the boost mode from CNK (where a meter charges up when you and your teammate stick together, once full you can activate it to unleash a barrage of items in quick succession). 3. Offline Wumpa Time. In order to incentive playing online it wouldn't be as effective (say, a 3X boost for only half an hour), but come on. Give something to the people who can't afford a monthly online sub fee (and before you say it, if one can't afford to play online then they certainly can't afford MTX either).

[The Tenth Doctor]

I think Caddicarus is upset over CTR now.

 

[Jango]

Really liked Caddy's video, can't agree enough, we basically share the same opinion. Better / more honest video overhall IMO too.

[Meta77]

I Don't see them stopping, from how some of you say acti is known for doing this? . If anything the esas new rules mean its here to stay. But the latest tos many probably clicked through tells you that you acknowledge this as I'm sure some missed it

As for kids buying things have your card company block transactions from sony until they call you to confirm. It's how I stop myself incase I try to buy something in borderbreak.

 

Still wondering how much they will price couns , I'm not familiar with Activisions mtxs as I usually don't get their games these days

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

It pretty much goes without saying that Activision will sooner see this series down in flames due to their bad habits, before they listen to any of the feedback and actually give it a viable solution.

Here's how things usually go and probably will go for Crash as a result. Tons of good will has already been burnt and unless Activision does the unthinkable and actually change there ways, there's going to be massive backlash against the franchise for abusing people's good will towards it. Quite liable to affect sales, considering how CoD's sales have been waning compared to how high a seller it used to be.

And when/if Activision notice such a backlash and potential lack in sales from boycotts, protests and whatnot, are they going to actually address the problems or likely can the series despite it selling decently like they did with the War For Cybertron series (which still sold decently but not as much, thanks to their own doing mind you, just like this scenario)? Guess which outcome is more likely given Acti's history. :U

On 8/2/2019 at 10:24 AM, Jango said:

Unless this exclusive kart costs more than the one from last GP (Le Chaux, which was 4500), this bundle should've actually be: 8000 (4500 kart set, 750 paintjob, 250 decal, 2500 skin). Perhaps the fact that it's the only hovercraft besides Oxide's, they raised the price? 

 

On 8/2/2019 at 12:54 PM, Son-icka said:

This is a skin AND kart with a paint/decal. I’d agree that the nature of the anti-g feature is what makes it super expensive as it’s an elusive superficial feature like Oxides ride. Still overpriced though.

The fact that that it doesn't even come with wheels, let alone equippable "hover" wheels, and yet costs more makes it all the more inane. Make no mistake. This is a price hike and a bad sign if Activision continue on this path, which they likely will.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

16 hours ago, The Tenth Doctor said:

I think Caddicarus is upset over CTR now.

 

It's a great video, even if I personally really disagree with Caddy's original review, especially with the original pit stop, and the terrible online. Both were issues long before this point, and they're only now getting more spotlight because of the Microtransactions revealing Activision's intentions with these bad mechanics.

That said, I do have to agree that Caddy was pretty naive to begin with, and even now, I still think he's being somewhat naive. I don't know if he's just not had much experience with Activision, or whatever, but they aren't gonna remove the microtransactions. They're a greedy company playing the long-term game, making lies to the fanbase, doing shady shit by waiting til the game was released so they could release the microtransactions, helpfully slipping the feature under reviews and even the ESRB and other regulatory boards, and more. 

I don't really care one way or the other if Activision backtracks now (Which they won't) because the damage has already been done. The game has already been badly balanced around tedious grinds to give incentive to buy Wumpa coins, and unless they overhauled that completely to fix it to a more reasonable rate, especially offline, then it's just going to be putting a bandage over a shattered piece of glass. This game's basically infected with microtransactions now, right straight down to it's core mechanics, and that just isn't a simple fix.

[Soniman]

Frankly I just feel sorry for the fans who were waiting so long for thus remake of one of their childhood games only to have it be poisoned by these awful practices

Activision isn't stupid. They knew damn well doing this would be despised by gamers and did it anyway because money. Why try and kill and IP you already buried into the ground years prior after its finding it's footing again??? 

[Sonicka]

So, it’s up.

Looks like I was bang on with the pricing (apart from activision bumping it up to £9.99 here in ‘ole Blighty).

But that still means you’re spending £16.98 for something like the BTTF pack.

Lets think about this for a minute. £16.98 nets you:

- A Hovering Kart

- A Special Skin

- 2 Decals

 

Lets put this in further perspective. Mario Kart 8 on WiiU had a season pass. This was £11.00, this got you:

- 16 Tracks

- 3 Characters

- 3 Skins

- 8 Alternate Colours for Yoshi

- 8 Alternate Colours for Shy guy

- 8 New karts

- A new 200CC mode

 

And this is the absolute worst. I know MTX are designed this way, and I know we don’t have to purchase these and it’s optional... but even half the price isn’t worth it. I mean, £2.15 for a skin? That basically means characters are worth about £1.50, and Karts for £4.29?? Whaaat?

No. This is awful. This is wrong. 

I’m thankful I don’t have to use this to get what I want. And I hope Wumpa Time is kept up because that’s the only decent thing going at the moment (apart from forcing me to take out a PSN season pass). 

I have to end on a positive though, because I will never let this upset my overall feelings about the game, and why should I? CTR as a game is a goddamn joy to play with excellent value for money (MTX withstanding). Clearly the devs poured so much love, craft and soul into bringing this to life, and it’s the small attention to details that still gets me. 

It’s just a shame about the publishers shoddy business practises around it. 

[Jango]

Gotta admit, now that I'm actually seeing it on the PS Store, it feels really depressing... Goddamnit.

[Sonictrainer]

...where did the Weekend Bonus go...?

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 hour ago, Sonictrainer said:

...where did the Weekend Bonus go...?

Ah, it's missing for you too I see.

[Jango]

1 hour ago, Sonictrainer said:

...where did the Weekend Bonus go...?

They simply changed the day it starts and ends with the latest update, though you knew that already (people asked the same question last week). The weekend bonus starts on Friday and ends on Monday instead of Thursday and Sunday as it was.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

4 minutes ago, Jango said:

They changed the day it starts and ends with the latest update. Weekend bonus starts on Friday and ends on Monday instead of Thursday and Sunday as it was.

Depending on where one lives, it's already Friday. 

Beenox have been quite unclear with the new delay in wumpa time hours.

[Meta77]

So i logged on and won a quick online race. Got 2nd in one race and 1st on oxide station. Then I looked at the MTX and rolled in the floor laughing. The pricing is horrible. From what I saw its around $4 for a single kart and 10 for around 2 special karts. I was like oof. Hopefully they dont see much traction.

[Sonictrainer]

11 minutes ago, Jango said:

They simply changed the day it starts and ends with the latest update, though you knew that already (people asked the same question last week). The weekend bonus starts on Friday and ends on Monday instead of Thursday and Sunday as it was.

Oh, ok.

In my Time Zone, everything updates at 8PM (it was still Thursday in the Eastern Side of the US when it updates), so I guess I have to wait until tomorrow.

...although, I could have sworn I didn't have issues with this last week...then again, this Grand Prix started later than the first one...

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

3 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

Oh, ok.

In my Time Zone, everything updates at 8PM (it's still Thursday here in the Eastern Side of the US), so I guess I have to wait until tomorrow.

...although, I could have sworn I didn't have issues with this last week...then again, this Grand Prix started later than the first one...

You'd be remembering right then. And you're far from the only person suffering this issue.

Let me put into perspective how off clutch this whole thing is in disarray. 

The game itself, is literally currently showcasing the banner that states that it's officially time for the 2x weekend bonus, but people, including you and myself aren't getting that weekend bonus despite it explicitly being stated as available.

Methinks Beenox screwed the pooch again within one of their updates.

[Red Hot Jack]

I don't… think that microtransactions ruin the game, not for me at least because I won't spend any more real money on the game, but they sure are annoying and ugly to see.

[Sonicka]

5 hours ago, Tangled Jack said:

I don't… think that microtransactions ruin the game, not for me at least because I won't spend any more real money on the game, but they sure are annoying and ugly to see.

To be honest. Micro-transactions don’t ruin the experience of playing the game at all or the game itself. But I don’t think that was ever the issue - and if people are using that as a reason, then I don’t understand why. 

I think if CTR was directly forcing you to pay for items with no other way of obtaining them I’d have more to say on the matter (as then it should just be a straight up season pass). But currently this is an optional rout (and an expensive one at that).

Anyway, I’ve already had my fingers burnt from this discussion before. But long story short it’s just a scummy business practise that targets particular members of the public and those in certain age brackets to encourage spending. 

Pay to win or play to win. It’s your choice at the end of the day. I’m in the latter bracket myself, and whilst I disagree with MTX being in the game it personally has no negative effect with my experience playing this title. 

[Jango]

Nailed a bunch of Pro and Themed challenges yesterday now that I've reached gold tier. Pretty easy challenges overhall. Just gotta do the "back into the race" and it's done. Will have to focus on weekly to finish that gauge. It could be more balanced tho', I mean, silver tier is 17K points, while gold is 42K, holy shit... Even doing 750 points with 50% bonus doesn't tickle the gauge that much...

[Harkofthewaa]

At this point I've done most of the challenges available at the moment (I don't really have any friends online to race with so I've been missing out on those, and I still need to buy the over priced Probulot for another challenge) and am sitting pretty at 36000 nitro. Considering how much time is left, I think I'm at a pretty comfortable point to where I can just coast and I'll still end up way over the mark. Even with the last GP I wound up with 50000+ nitro even though I only started halfway through the month. Point is, if you put a bit of time into it, getting to gold tier isn't that hard (I'm probably gonna be eating my words next month when Activision triples the amount of nitro needed or something stupid like that). I've got all the CNK characters now and have a decent selection of tires and skins to choose from. probably gonna end up taking the Oxide trials on one at a time over time, and in order to go for the platinum skin I need to do adventure mode again because for no reason my 100% save rolled back to 0%. 

[Jango]

Yeah, I'm glad that they at least made reaching silver tier easy as pie, giving the chance to everyone to win the GP exclusive character, as Caddy noted.

Things start to get grindy when you reach gold tier, that's why I've left the Pro and Themed challenges (which gives way more points) intact untill I reached gold and got at least one full set of bonus itens to add the extra 50%. Things are moving smoothly.

@Harkofthewaa we can play if you're on PS4

[Harkofthewaa]

Yeah, I waited till I could get to a 50% boost (through Wooden Doll N.Trance) before doing even the weekly challenges. And I'm on Xbox One, btw. Also, I'm not getting the weekend bonus either. 

This game in a nutshell.

[TheOcelot]

Not getting the weekend bonus which normally starts on a Friday evening (in the UK). That sucks.

Edit: The Weekend bonus has now started.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

18 hours ago, TheOcelot said:

Not getting the weekend bonus which normally starts on a Friday evening (in the UK). That sucks.

Edit: The Weekend bonus has now started.

Unfortunately, anyone who tried doing online matches during the wumpa time when it was supposed to have the weekend bonus, lost out on any of the time other than what they had left.

This is not good, if priorities if the developers are this eschewed.

[Sonicka]

On 8/9/2019 at 5:40 PM, TheOcelot said:

Not getting the weekend bonus which normally starts on a Friday evening (in the UK). That sucks.

Edit: The Weekend bonus has now started.

Interesting... I herald from the UK and have always found it started at 1am on a Friday Morning (which is when the timer ticks over on the shop). 

So, did player lose Wumpa time when it should have been active then?