The difference is insane but what now? [ Edited ]

[stukapooka]

https://www.reddit.com/r/PvZGardenWarfare/comments/us21k8/bfn_was_released_on_steam_in_2019_gw2_was/

Bfn sits at 75% positive of 243 users recently and 73% positive of 6,652 all time since 2019

Gw2 however sits at 87% of 1,988 players since may 16, 2022.

I gotta admit I didn't even know gw2 was on steam till a friend let me know and i'm glad to see it but i really wonder what this means going forward for the series? Are we gonna get gw1 as well or are we gonna get hit with a suprise switch port of 2 or something? I really wish popcap would actually let us know what's going on.

Apparently the main problem with gw2 steam isn't enough servers so will we get news on that? I hope this gets many new people into the series and introduces more content to the modding scene.

I really wish I just knew what will happen in the future of this series because I want to see it succeed especially since these forums are really dead at the moment since nothings going on.

[Iron_Guard8]

@stukapooka It got on Steam recently and I posted about it a bit in the other PvZ games forum here. I haven't gotten it on Steam yet, but have been thinking about it since I have more friends on Steam and I could then leave a positive review as it's probably my favorite game of all time, and at 52, I've played a lot of video games!

Zack Scott has been making videos of it again and the videos are doing really well. People love the GW games, and especially 2 judging by the reactions I've seen, and lots of comments on his videos like; 'such nostalgia!', 'my favorite series is back!', and 'please make more GW2 videos, Zack!'. That says a lot since there's no new content to show off which is how many Youtubers score views and interest. His 3 new videos since the weekend are at 80k views, 47k views, and just under 17k views, that's how much the community loves GW2.

The fact that the PC version, which is the least populated normally, has such a huge surge of players proves that not only would better support for GW2 be a great thing to have, but there is interest for the game and GW3 (if done well), could be another big success for them, even with how many have soured on BfN. 

GW2 isn't perfect, it could use some balance passes, bug squishing, and better netcode to improve hit registration, but the fact that it's this beloved with those obvious flaws, proves how good and fun it is despite its problems. Maybe they put it on Steam (and it was/is on sale) just to test the waters for a new game, and the fact that it's not only 87% positively reviewed, but that it's being flooded with new and likely returning players, has to prove what we've been saying for years; these games are great and deserve better support and/or a true sequel!

[stukapooka]

@Iron_Guard8 I already got it on origin so i'll probably be having some server issues when I'm not crashing my game with mods.

The gw youtubers will definetly be raking in some content at the moment and for any that were console only hopefully this introduces them to the modding scene and even introduces new ones to the series.

If anything it proves that the support for the series is there just untapped and horribly unused. If anything this makes me wonder of the difference on console since gw2 after six years in less than a week buried bfn on steam and has much more positive reviews despite having zero marketing is fascinating to me. Hopefully gw1 can shine as well on the platform.

Even if we never got major content ever again simple bug fixes or changes to monthly rotations would go a long way in maintaining player interest and support for the game. A gw3 would have to do a lot to surpass gw2 at this point.

[Iron_Guard8]

@stukapooka I can only speak for me, but GW3 mostly needs to take what we love in GW and GW2 (and some of the nicer features from BfN, like the overheat indicator on the HUD), fix the issues (balance, netcode, bug squashing), and just give us more stuff and I'd love it.

Imagine having all the GW and GW2 maps with any needed balancing and room for mechs and other big characters while adding in some new ones, expand the backyard battleground, give us more summonables, more variants, maybe some new characters and/or BfN characters being made along GW/GW2 lines (get rid of the swarm characters though), the return of the free roam zones but with more stuff to do, more community events, better town portal events, and of course, tighter netcode, strong anti-cheat, and some bug/balance fixes, and it'd be even better than GW2. A tall order to be sure, but even with how much I love GW2, there is room for improvement, and the community is hungry for more.

Edit: I got Origin back in 2014 when GW launched and have kept it on my PC ever since then mostly for the PvZ shooters. I may get it on Steam, which will need to use Origin anyway, just to increase my visibility to Steam friends, to show support for the game, and to leave a review on Steam to give it more positive reviews. It would totally fit too as the main reason I don't play TF2 much anymore, is because of GW2 in the first place!

[TheSprinter85]

Garden Warfare 2 coming to Steam was very random, although a welcoming addition as players have wanted it to be on Steam for a really long time. I find it quite interesting that a number of small changes have been happening with the shooters, such as the Steam release and the GeForce update. I do not want to really hint at anything right now, but I do hope that these small, although relatively frequent, changes with the shooters possibly mean something. Rux was fixed and small updates have come out for the shooters, although they did not add any content that I was ever aware of. 

As we are on the topic here, I do want to mention that I would still really like to see a Garden Warfare 3 in the future. The release on Steam means that there will be an influx of new players on the PC platform of Garden Warfare 2. I can state for sure that there are still new players on the console platforms of the shooters as well, and I have returned to playing Garden Warfare 2 much more often now (and it has been very enjoyable). Having a Garden Warfare 3 play out like the older shooters, with some new and returning features, would be great and the game would likely perform well, because the shooters already has a large player base.

The shooters are still great games, even with some content discontinued and some achievements unobtainable. I still think these issues should be addressed and sorted, although despite these and some bugs present in the shooters, the shooters are still great games and will continue to be. The shooters still have a great amount of potential, so we should not be done yet. This leads me to speak about Plants vs Zombies 3: the beta came out a while ago and I tried it. I actually really enjoyed and thought the game was quite great so far, however the same cannot be said for everyone else. I believe that most of the community was not really happy with the beta. If it does not perform very well, that could be bad news for the shooters, however if the full release does do well, that would be good incentive to come back to the shooters as well (these are my opinions anyway).

[stukapooka]

@TheSprinter85 We can only see if a gw3 will one day truly happen.

I think the greatest challenge to pvz 3 is pvz2 imo because you have to justify it existing as a sequel over its predecessors, especially with all the content they added to 2 over the years (imo something I also think really plagued bfn as looking back there isnt really much that changed on a technical level like gamemodes and how they played out even with the over watch style characters and features th at are worse than even gw1 like ops). I enjoyed the little I could play of the alpha but it did feel off at times (couldnt get the beta) and i hope popcap can truly step up because the fanbase and the series as a whole really needs a win right now.

[TheSprinter85]

@stukapooka That is so true. The franchise as a whole has been suffering lately, due to cancellation of updates to the shooters, heroes and Plants vs Zombies 3 getting plenty of negative reviews so far (although I generally still see positives from those reviews). I hope that Plants vs Zombies 3 can be pulled back, so that by the time the full release comes, the community will be satisfied with the changes (and hopefully that game will get updates as well).

I wish Plants vs Zombies 3 luck on its success, as that would be great accomplishment for the whole franchise right now.

[stukapooka]

@TheSprinter85 I generally see positive reviews for heroes but almost everyone agrees that it got yeeted into the void right when it was on the verge of greatness (the empty hero slots and shafting of BC and HG for example).

I feel pvz3 will be a breaking point of the series or atleast the epilogue of it after bfn's failure. I'll try and judge it on its own merits first but i'm also not gonna toss any aspect of pvz1/2 that was superior out the window for it when it realeases (can we please have minigames again popcap!).

[Iron_Guard8]

I don't get why Heroes basically dropped off the end of the radar as it is a fun game that really is a nice combo of the PvZ IP and games like Magic: The Gathering. I haven't played since they basically abandoned it, but it's a genuinely fun game.

I like PvZ2, but miss the minigames from the original PvZ, and the microtransactions and serious cheater issue in the arena drove me away. In some ways it is better than the original, but I overall find the original a better experience.

I will definitely give PvZ3 a look when it launches. I hope it's good and isn't egregious in its monetary system. The fact that they took the feedback of the first version we had exposure to and made changes is a good sign, but time will tell.

PvZ is such a popular IP that I don't know they don't do a better job on the games than they are currently doing. Just seeing how amazing GW2 is doing on Steam right now with no real advertising speaks volumes. Just assigning a small team to the game to give us better town hall events, community challenges, and banning cheaters would go a long, long way to getting some good will, and if they also did some extra balancing and fixing some bugs, it would be amazing. 

I'd love to know why so many games here, not just PvZ titles, but other EA games as well, are just suddenly left on their own. If a game is doing well and is popular, why cut it off and leave it in maintenance mode? the old saying of you have to spend money to make money truly applies here. Again, I can't speak for everyone, but had they not made BfN or even a GW3, but just kept supporting GW2 with new maps (and bringing back more GW maps, although adjust them so we can play all characters on them), balancing, bug squishing, new variants, and so on, the game would be in a great state today. 

[stukapooka]

@Iron_Guard8 Becaues you can't enforce new microtransactions on an old game.

EA is really bad at this as seen with battlefront 2 as the game made a massive turnaround and was on the verge of greatness upon getting public backing and then they shot it in the face even when the devs themselves said they wanted and were willing to do more with the game. Even battlefield 5 started to pick up with the pacific and is even more succesful than 2042 at the moment but they commited financial suicide with the marketing and political stunts before it released.

Pvz 2 is a mixed area for me. I love the new plants and worlds but the difficulty and microtransactions of pvz1 get tedious fast in the later worlds, not too mention that it hasn't really had an ending even after all these years.

I really wonder where the series would be if they didn't do bf n and just kept updating gw2.