Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was launched on March 25. At launch, the sport suffered from quite a few server points and issues with lag. Ultimately, numerous that was fastened. Nevertheless, 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, however it additionally highlights that uh…Wonderlands (and different video games) must 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 sequence, my fiancée and I’ve a blast taking part in the video games collectively. Positive, the writing is typically cringe-inducing and the storylines don’t at all times land. However there aren’t many massive, 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 are able to play casually collectively. So Borderlands—and now its newest spin-off, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands—is one thing we each get pleasure from and get enthusiastic about. (And in the event you truly play the video games, you’ll see that there’s extra to them than “lol MEMEZ.”)
When it was introduced that Wonderlands would characteristic crossplay, we each obtained excited. I might play on my PC and she or he might play on my Xbox Collection X in my workplace. It was a good looking dream, a easy and simple answer. Co-op with our personal screens that didn’t necessitate occasion chat or a lounge TV.
Learn Extra: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Gamers Pissed Over ‘Brief’ DLC
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. Ultimately, Gearbox’s rejiggering obtained issues to some extent the place we might play collectively however each time we did, one participant would lag continually, making the sport practically unplayable for them. Trying on-line, it turned 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 kinds of on-line annoyances.
Lastly, I took issues into my very own fingers, shopping for an Xbox Collection S at our native Goal final week. Contemplating that these consoles have turn into fairly straightforward to seize and sport a cheaper price level, this ended up being a viable answer to our issues. And now, we’ve been taking part in 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 simply exit and purchase a brand new console. This isn’t me offering gamers with a tip of “Damaged crossplay? Purchase a brand new console!” Slightly, it’s a story of how, at the same time as crossplay turns into an anticipated and normal characteristic, it’s nonetheless removed from excellent or straightforward to get working, even in new, fashionable video games.
I additionally suppose that as video games proceed to rely increasingly more on the web and connections to servers, it’s turning into more durable and more durable 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 an appropriate norm. If our future is on-line and interconnected with different platforms and consoles, nice. However hopefully, devs and publishers will likely be prepared to spend the cash, time, and sources crucial to verify these items truly works. In any other case, the longer term goes to be much more annoying and irritating for lots of people.
