Habakuk, that's a pretty massive overreaction to a single pop up at start up (even from multitasking bar, the app has been asleep and is starting up again) of a game. A pop up that promotes one of the developers own games. One that IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER impacts or impedes gameplay because its gone by the time the cloud sync finishes at start up and does not appear again while one is playing or in the menu or loading a map or at any other time. A pop up at start up in a game that is now free to play, in the true meaning of those words, not the freemium meaning. For one of the developers own games even, not something random like a lot of other games. That's not what I'd call "cheapo marketing". It is after all a free to play game now in which it is more than possible to complete with no iap, it may take a bit of grinding but that's not the same as the paywalls with content behind them that exist in many other games. And before you go waving the early adopter stick, the early adopters got screwed over IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER. In fact Gameloft handled it substantially better than most other developers (AVP Evolution springs to mind right now as an example of the opposite) by giving those early adopters an iap that equals what they paid for the game in the first place and offers a substantial benefit in relation to race earnings, along with two other items that would probably cost iap or a high amount of grinding to acquire. About as fair and balanced a transition as I've ever seen on the App Store in the last five years. It's also worth noting that while it's totally up to each individual as to how they rate anything in the App Store, threatening a developer as you did in your first edit, referencing blog posts and other IPA's, isn't really productive or going to help influence them in any way. And even in saying all that, the game was originally the absolutely minuscule amount of 99 cent anyway and even in the transition the gameplay itself remains completely and utterly UNCHANGED. All other developers should actually take a page out of Gamelofts new, improved and extremely fair way of doing things.
And? As I said it only appears at start up or waking from multitasking bar (which equals start up as the game is stopped at the stage that it pops up anyway). Once. Tap the X in the top right corner of it and its gone for the remaining duration of your game play during that particular session. It doesn't appear after that while you're in the menu browsing or before, during or after races. Not what I'd call a particularly big deal or torturing customers or early adopters. One tap of an X, once, really shouldn't be a problem in a game that's now free to play and which still rewarded early adopters with a free iap item that equalled the initial purchase of the game. And two more items on top of that. An ad that can be dismissed in a mere second (while a cloud save is being done by the game if one looks at the load circle beside the currency when loading) by tapping once and doesn't impede any further while playing. Its a tad over reactionary to be bothered by it at all even. Its funny how people are focusing on one little thing when the conversion to free actually changed nothing else in the gameplay or the reward system which would be more the norm in this kind of thing. And even the iap item they gave for free offers a massive advantage in earnings to early adopters if one uses it right. I for one am thankful they changed nothing else and if the cost of that is to tap an X once, briefly, when I start it up, I wish all free to play conversions of payed games would do the same thing rather than unbalance the game in another direction.
Relax RIP73. I'm just thankful to see ads in a game I paid for. I mean people usually pay to remove ads for a free app and it's the opposite here but so what? Gameloft is the best gaming company in the world and I'll accept their decision no matter what they do.
I have never claimed that. But F2P (Free To Play) has a negative connotation like almost all the marketing crap (IAP, DLC…) since three or four years. Because Free To Play = Pay To Win! Yes. Congratulations. It’s for the first time of all Asphalt games (since A4) that I give only three stars instead of constantly five. You made it. Please don’t forget those new for-a-certain-time consumable power-ups since the recent update: Double Credits for 24 hours, Nitro Starter for two hours and Tuning Kit for eight hours. I know those are not ads exactly but we’re calling them ads because we don’t need them and we have to tap them away. Those are even more annoying than the latest fullscreen ad at game start because I have to tap them away before EACH RACE! Everybody in our local multiplayer crew has to tap them away before each race. We never use them. That’s too much altogether. Our beloved Asphalt 8 became an ads and tap away galore. Consider an IAP option where we can get rid of those ads or ads-like power-ups. I know such "power-ups to tap away" (that "sponsors" thingy) were also present in Asphalt 7: Heat (but they weren’t present in local multiplayer mode so they didn’t get into our way). And they were one of the reasons why A7 never got even a review by touchArcade editors as far as I remember. I didn’t rant about those Double Credits, Nitro Starter… cheating-ups some days ago (when the update came out) because for our local multiplayer races there is a new mechanics inside so that we need less taps to start a new multiplayer race. That compensated somehow the new "tap away ads/power-ups". But with the most recent "ad when loading the game, from start up or multitasking" it's simply too much. What’s next? Timers? Even more ads? I’ve lost almost all trust in Gameloft. We are playing Asphalt 7 right now. The local multiplayer races are better in A7. The combats are longer and more intense. In A8 you can easily knock out somebody with perfect nitro. And then you probably never see him/her again in the race. But we love the races where we overtake each other ten times or more in two laps. That didn’t happen until now in A8.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Sarcasm+is+the+lowest+form+of+wit http://www.smh.com.au/news/big-questions/why-is-sarcasm-the-lowest-form-of-wit/2005/08/18/1123958169522.html
It's actually free now, hence the ads. I haven't played for a while, but do I gather that there maybe something waiting for me as I bought the game on release? Also I really don't understand why anyone can get annoyed at this game now being free. It was only 69p to start with. Many games at 69p are littered with ads, IAPs, and all that jazz. From all accounts there is one as when you start the game, for another Gameloft game. To be honest I think that's fair even on a 69p game. So if anyone is actually annoyed that they paid 69p and now it's free, get over yourself - what else would you have spent the money on? A can of coke? packet of crisps? (Btw check out how much Angry Birds advertises itself in game, and no one seems to bother about that)
I think this whole paid to freemium thing is a trick in the mobile gaming industry. I think what's going to happen is, people will demand outright and will get them... But mobile games will eventually cost $30/40. Right now they're cheap... But hiking them to my prediction price suddenly will seem wrong. So this is why we're getting freemium crap f2p etc... All this will turn around, and we will pay full price just like consoles in the future.
The market is too huge and competitive for this to happen. I mean even if you as a gamer miss out on one AAA game because it's so expensive, there are thousands of other 99c/$6.99 games that we can buy instead of that $30 ridiculously-priced game. No big deal to miss out on one game. It would take some sort of collusion between the big companies that make the best games to increase their price together for it to happen. The only other way I can see that happening is if Nintendo start porting some of their flagship games over to iOS like Pokemon, but that's laughable to even think about.
Three words: Not Gonna Happen Some of the biggest grossing apps on the store are F2P. The reason, you can keep making micro payments and end up spending more than £30 to get that car/house/donut/whatever. Companies will not switch to a pay one price mechanic, when they can have people paying over and over and over again. Plus until developers bring current top quality games to iOS, without hampering them (for example no free roaming in Lego games) the. They are not going to be able to charge console prices. (Yes I know iOS hardware isn't at that standard yet, but you get my point)
I think we agree, now can we play? Yes, I think we all get it. We hate IAP. I certainly do and gamelofts IAP prices are outrageous coupled with a game that is practically impossible without at least some IAPs. 5 stars game, but gave Ithem -3 stars for the slimy IAP moves. It sucks and life sucks. Now can we get back to actual fun game? Which is about the only reason to put up with all the bs of IAP (and life's). SPEAKING OF WHICH can anyone help me with the single last race I cannot get all stars in: Season 8 Iceland Gate drift. Good God! I have tried everything and cannot get close to 1st place. Any help (via reply or especially msg) would be much appreciated!
The single most important thing here is to not even miss a single gate, because the more gates you hit in a row, the more points you seem to get per gate. So a slower, easier to control car may be the answer. (The Lamborghini Veneno is good for drifting events, in my opinion.) EDIT: Oh, and don't forget to use your nitro between sets of gates.
Touch controls are broken for me. Today was my first time playing since the update. Annnnd touch controls on my iPad3 are worthless now. The steering wheel doesn't consistently read my swipes anymore. The wheel will slip and auto center in mid drift. The game is practically unplayable at this point. I haven't tested gyro controls yet, however. Anyone else experience this after the F2P update?
Well, except for my rank 1501 Veneno, which got me 55,700 points, as mentioned earlier. I guess the best advice is: Find out what works for you.
