Helldivers 2 is Broken and Great - Inside Gamescast

[@ProfChocMilk]

Despite server capacity issues and bugs, this game is amazing and I can’t stop coming back

[@DopeZeppelin]

2024 looking good so far

[@monsieurgabe_]

Well, you are sent to kill the bugs! For democracy!!!

[@Gigawood]

@@MelanismSeisI see what you did there. Well played! 🫡

[@johnsepulvedacruz6428]

They fixed it 2 days ago. I'm playing all day and taking breaks long breaks at any hours.

[@SL4PSH0CK]

wait no, he mean technical aspec- oh 😂@@MelanismSeis

[@modelocitizen2288]

If I read this correctly, the servers now have an idle timer. If the server detects a user is idle at the title screen (whatever that means) for 15 minutes it will disconnect the session.

[@insidegames]

That's right! We recorded this podcast before they implemented that. -B

[@sirscratchalot05]

It doesn’t matter where you’re afk at. It still boots you.

[@Anon_Omis]

Post weekend report, I never had a single issue getting into the game and I picked it up on Thursday.

[@hoopla5502]

I was idle for a few min , and a lady came on the intercom in my ship and reminded me that all hell divers must take a urine test every week, like she knew what I was doing 😂😂

[@AtomicEscape]

I’m 😊

[@coreyvaughn-patterson2668]

The greatest thing is that they have been absolutely on this. Like 8-9 patches in two weeks, and they just got their cap up to 700k from 450k with the afk timer in effect. We will see how this weekend goes.

[@SpaceGhostPurps]

Bro I haven’t seen these guys in years! Bring back so many memories. Thank you Helldivers 2 for bringing a spark in gaming I’ve been missing for more than 5 years

[@altair4849]

Luckily afk kicks are a thing now and server caps have been raised to 700k just recently. Did not have any issues logging on at all tday. It's running smoothly now

[@Accountshare-q1i]

Made a huge difference the AFK limit. If only they had this from the beginning. Right now is Friday afternoon In Europe. And game went from being in top 2/3 in steam charts to like 8th with less than 200k current players.

[@Momgetoftheroof]

Bruce with the 200 IQ play telling people to wait on buying the game so he doesn’t have any more queue problems

[@T0asty-]

That thumbnail is what made me buy the game. Something about the trailer just freeze framing that guys face in the background is hysterical.

[@Spectacular_Insanity]

That’s exactly how the cinematic goes. It’s like a Starship Troopers propaganda parody.

[@brotherjorge3]

@@Spectacular_InsanityI honestly have only seen Starship Trooper memes for this game and thought that it was an official tie-in lol

[@Imsosappy]

The amount of friends I have who complain about not having money but seem to always have the new flavor of the week game is mind boggling.

[@Imsosappy]

@@chr463 Totally agree, but going into debt for anything other than a need isn’t the best idea. And they all have Game Pass so they have plenty of games they haven’t played

[@R3GARnator]

r/patientgamers bros getting deals like those Fanatical bundles where you get three great games for a grand total of $6. While most gamers spending $60 each month.

[@DaftGlassAlice]

credit card debt is real

[@rthj6446]

Sounds like good life priorities

[@hoopla5502]

​@@DaftGlassAlicewho is going into credit card debt for any game let alone one that cost 39.99

[@DaftGlassAlice]

Note: AFK kicker is now in place the key problem was everyone on PS5 holding the game in sleep mode was not logging out anyone. you will get kicked after 15min . that has made the Server log ins WAYYY better. There are still some technical bugs that happen. odd server desync , visual bugs, and loading screen lockups that require a restart.

[@DarthP00P00]

Busted jank aside, this is the most fun I've had in a long time. 60hrs in now and I'm still going strong.

[@rthj6446]

What busted jank are you talking about?

[@DarthP00P00]

@@rthj6446 disconnects, crashes, bugs, glitches... When it works its super fun but usually there's something annoying every drop. It's getting better though.

[@hoopla5502]

​@@rthj6446there was a lot of crashing issues, server issues, a ton of audio issues involving discord and other audio software, there are tons of issues. But the game is fun so they mostly get brushed of as .most of them have been handled or just weren't game breaking to begin with

[@SL4PSH0CK]

aint jank, but it felt like any previous AA co-op horde shooter titles 1st day release on PC 😅

[@DarthP00P00]

@@SL4PSH0CK its much better now, but I'm dying for a balance pass for the weapons. Some are too good and some are so bad.

[@kannon0216]

I love you two. I never Sub to people. I got two small kids and it just isn't in the financial cards right now. But I watch you guys so much and value what you say so I subbed this month. Thanks for the great content, Bruce and Lawrence. You guys are wonderful. PS. The same day you uploaded this video, they put the AFK timer out and I didn't hit a single queue yesterday. First time since launch day.

[@aspizak]

Ps5 has the same issues with logins. There's AFK kick now. The ps5 "quick play" via dashboard actully works for me.

[@N3ur0m4nc3r]

@37:22 a copy of hell divers and palworld ~40$ is a fraction of a single night out for food and drinks with friends...spread across even a few evenings the cost-benfit is pretty clear when financial times get tough.

[@SM-sj4dq]

Yeah fuck going out except the few raves here and there

[@BillNyeTheBountyGuy]

All sins can be forgiven in the Court of Gaming if you just make a good game.

[@Macintosh1001]

Saluting while sipping on some Liber-tea 🍵o7

[@insidegames]

🫡

[@scott.chappell]

Man had no idea you guys had a channel, been out of the FH/RT loop for a while but rediscovered you with the recent closure. So cool, watched you guys religiously from the inside gaming days, subscribed to funhaus day one, think technically before the official announcement since reddit sleuths discovered the creation of a bunch of funhaus named social media @s. Just been making my way through your backlog and it’s so nice hearing the two of you again, legit watching funhaus was baked into my routine just before bed (live in aus and uploads would drop late at night). So many great series, the whole jowood bit, that crazy jetpack dude trom Chrome I think, scrobbles. Good memories that had me laughing hard enough to have me in pain. Glad to see you both still going!

[@bnerd__]

35:24 Lawrence is right on the money. My whole friend group has been looking for "the game" for a while now and helldiver's 2 hit at that perfect time

[@RNLee]

It helps that games like Palworld and Helldivers aren't trending towards the $70 asking price. I think that's playing more of a factor than just gamers wanting to game. Gamers appreciate good games at a good value. Suicide Squad for example has been shat on because of the exact opposite.

[@ianmacleod5151]

spot on about pricing, I'm in Canada and a "standard" AAA game is $90. Helldivers 2 is such an easier game to take a chance on at that price point

[@KingSulley]

I love this game, sadly since Launch theres been a bug Arrowhead acknowledged where many players cant progress past easy & medium difficulty. Now that server issues seem to be behind us, I hope they find a fix.

[@olliealous604]

This game had three significant traits that caught consumer attention: Community progression, advertising marketed as propaganda/space patriotism (multiplied by borderline roleplaying TIK TOK accounts), and the extremely agreeable $40 price point. On top of that - amazing attention to detail by the developers that immerse the player into the world. What a great game. A breath of fresh air in today's current game market.

[@Butters95]

PS5 I've had little to no hassles finding a game. Sometimes it won't allow me to join certain games, but the quick quickplay option finds a game within a minute

[@cfitz9823]

Exhaust the voice lines with the crewmembers on your super destroyer. There’s some darkly funny satire of america peppered throughout the voice lines. “If you work hard enough you might one day get to be considered a citizen and maybe your kids could afford a small pet like a goldfish or a hamster.”

[@MarcusA20]

The game is truly a perfect tornado of simple, great fun. I'm in the camp where I hope they release it on Xbox down the road so that more players can join. I also hope that with this explosion of players (and revenue) that they change whatever roadmap they had for additional content and invest more! I want this studio to flex their muscles and add more mission varieties, guns, planets, stratagems, you name it! The possibilities really are endless for a game like this and I'm excited to be along for the journey.

[@jervey123]

people at the suicide squad game reddit is frothing in the mouth, OD-ing from too much copium at how helldivers is being received while their game probably won't last more than 3 months

[@HowAboutYouDont]

It would be interesting to see game developers operate like how some movie studios more than a decade ago followed that found footage trend to have low budget movies so they could make a ton of money, but maybe have this with games, modestly sized games with modest budgets, maybe a bit naive but maybe they’d be able to take more risks

[@moshdragon]

They also have currently a hard PC crash with their anti-cheat that effects me, but i also luckily managed to get around it by running it as administrator via the executable

[@BGTenders]

If they go back to AA! HOLY! It could be like PS2 era and allow more freedom!

[@justinjacobs1501]

The idle timer and server wizardry that now lets them put 700000 people on servers built for 250000 have done wonders to alleviate wait times. Been playing nonstop the last two games and have not once been stuck in a queue

[@deadhead4077]

Love that this podcast touches more of the business side of gaming. So curious if y'all prefer this to EDF or not or are they 2 different things and don't want to compare?

[@JollyGiant19]

They’re two different things in my eyes EDF is more Godzilla and Helldivers is more Starship Troopers just in theming and the gameplay is wildly different despite fighting similar enemies at times

[@NeonCyberSamurai]

People are spending money cus they are over the bs of work work work and bing stressed out. Maybe videogames are the new cold one after work

[@ADIAPHAGOS]

I have always went back and forth with Dragon's Dogma being co-op, every time I play I am always wondering why it isn't co-op but then there's also that charm of the player made pawns, it really is a special game.

[@The_Claymores]

its naïve to think Sony didn't provide serious oversight during development. The internet has been collectively yelling and screaming about Playstation's live-service focus. They knew it'd be endlessly complained about if the live-service elements were greedy.

[@MrKnaives]

No one could have seen this as breakout success. Not the devs and not Sony. It's similar to games like pubg, minecraft, fortnite, and palworld people. Just resonate with it.

[@TwistedIrish1]

Surprised you never brought up the comparison to starship troopers lol

[@revolioclockbergjr.6780]

I’ve had no server issues since I got the game last week, but this has to be one of the buggiest games I’ve ever played. My release cyber punk experience was leagues better and I wish I was joking. It was t as noticeable in easier difficulties, but in helldivers any small bug just kills you. I’ve had a bug where the game host can’t have a primary, getting stuck in place, so so many falling through or getting stuck in shit, stratagems just not working, getting killed randomly (not by rockets or gunfire will just randomly explode). It’s a god damn shame because when it works it’s some of the most fun I’ve had in years. But I’m gonna wait until they fix some bugs

[@purplegrapiest]

It's a small company, how could they have anticipated that this would become so viral. They did a great job making the game, and got so fortunate it blew up the way it did. Just be patient, go play another game while you wait, you can't tell me when you logged into helldivers for the first time you weren't playing a game just before starting it, or the day before go play that a bit longer before you start playing.

[@fullcody1]

As of now i havent been in a wait que for a few days. Some online related ui has been fluctuating between working and not. Other than that no issues. I think ive had 3 crashes total in 60hrs of play

[@davidtran9232]

This seems like a casualty of digital distribution. Maybe they should have had a digital cap set for how many players they know their servers can handle and once sales hit that cap they could just say they're sold out at the moment then scale up their servers accordingly then release another 100k digital codes or however many more they project they can handle. Just a thought, but I love the show. Keep up the great work.

[@JollyGiant19]

I’d assume they didn’t because they (unfortunately but completely understandably) assumed their player cap was reasonable. Helldivers 1 had a peak player count of 6,744 so Helldivers 2 original peak capacity of 240,000 was super reasonable until the game sold like hotcakes. The game is now at a peak of 457,649. They never could have reasonably known.

[@cardecito8203]

With the newest patch, the devs fixed the AFK players and since then I haven't had a queue wait at all. This game is becoming one of my favorite games ever, and the devs are so dope too.

[@tyhartl5184]

UPDATE!!! most of all those que things are fixed :)

[@saketron]

The thirst for new and interesting games is at an all time high for friends and myself. We are desperate for something different.

[@MartyLarty-m8o]

Looks like they have it fixed haven't have any issues since last patch and afk kicks

[@SL4PSH0CK]

io ve never thoughts of a hub-like openworld and extraction element would blend well in a co-op horde shooter, which brought a whole new levels of gameplay replayability on top of the AI Director. i mean the genre has been linear all along, until HD2 came that lets you tackle task in your own volition so its finite authentic experience each gameplay loop. the game also being a liveservice game doesn't felt like it with how generous and accessible the SC is, and the character progression felt like im casually grinding WWZ and DRG

[@zaidabraham7310]

I'm not as forgiving. Helldivers 2 needs an offline mode. Back in the day, a game like this would have offline LAN and local multiplayer split-screen options. My main concern is: what happens in a few years when/if Helldivers servers go offline? This experience would just disappear into the void. We have already seen this happen with a bunch of other failed live-service games

[@BlackOni]

Great cast! Helldivers 2 is surprisingly fun, and once they get these server issues out of the way, they can focus on making more content for it. It doesn't need much. More weapons, maybe another faction or two? And new enemies sprinkled in every now and then, like half a year or so. It really doesn't need to be anything more than great fun with friends in a goofy and deadly environment. More cosmetics to unlock in the battle pass as well maybe?

[@KnowThatIDontKnowYou]

To put the price into perspective, Helldivers 2 base price is equal to the base price of AAA games converted to my country’s currency prior to the inflation. It’s what makes Helldivers 2 and palworlds pricepoint more managable compared to the 70$ price of AAA games.

[@Evasius]

I can get into missions now however super credits are being wiped after the latest update.

[@Marbeary]

Like what Palworld devs said "America loves gun so we made this game with guns and missiles". People outside the US knows what the US gaming consumers love and they just make that because US developers/studios don't know there customers anymore.

[@GeoffreyJennings]

35:30 Without any other data to support it, my theory is that it really comes down to believing in something. Palworld and Helldivers 2 were almost immediately placed in the "counter-culture" in the sense they're indie/AA darlings that can be used as a middle finger to the AAA/big publishers. The IDEA that people could be making a difference by playing these games is enough to make the purchase. In short, gamer spite is some strong shit. There's some rants that could be made about how working class people are so devoid of power (purchasing power, labor, political power, environmental value), that buying a videogame is all they can do, but that 's way out there lol

[@adbee6247]

After the new patch this review need to be done again lol afk kick active everyone can now login without wait

[@SkaterJay789]

As someone who works in IT infrastructure it makes complete sense the decisions they made. It wasn’t anticipated. It happens.

[@JollyGiant19]

Yeah, there was no way. First game had a peak of 6,700 and this one is up to 450,000. They backend architecture was probably the chokehold on all of this more so than a simple add more servers issue.

[@jehhhGames]

What helps me measure my annoyance with this game is that at peak on steam it had like 50k top players for the first one. There is no chance they could have planned for the insane boom this badass game is.

[@brentlee082]

Bungie sees the success of Helldivers 2 and takes a look at their own extraction shooter Marathon and tears up their battlepass and microtransaction plans.

[@kriscerosaurus]

I finally had time to dive in (heh) this morning after work, and within a couple missions I was like: "Oh. Oh, no. It's hooked me."

[@FabianWinkler]

After the success of Helldivers 2, I would like to see Alienation 2 as 3rd person game, like Helldivers.

[@diijjon]

The coverage I've been waiting for.

[@zacharylancon1126]

If the biggest problem is that the devs didnt anticipate the success of the game i thik it fair to say thats not really a problem especially when they are on the ball to fix the issues caused by it and the ceo is actively discouraging people from buying the game until the problems fixed

[@Prophet_36]

we need a new tea brand. LIBER-TEA

[@overwatchplays281]

i dont know how but everytime i boot up the game im never in a queue

[@TiffTumbles]

THE CHOSEN ONE

[@RJolms]

Love you guys. Thanks for keeping games news exciting :)

[@doodlemoe]

37:00 Impulse/pleasure purchases have increased as a coping mechanism also. High stress world.

[@DaftGlassAlice]

the devs play as GMs like a D&D match and can alter and play with everyone games on a macro and micro level tweaking loot, spawns, gear, enemy encounters optional objectives so on to spice up the game play.

[@Wrangler1000]

It's fixed now. I left to poop only to come back and find out I was AFK kicked.

[@22caught]

Classic fun, I can’t get enough of it! Even clips of the game with moments I didn’t even know could happen make me want to play the game even more.

[@R3GARnator]

The Ringelmann Effect helps explain why Helldivers 2 was so much more successful than its AAA competitors: Too many chefs in the kitchen.

[@Armored-Cat]

My only problem with this game, since they fixed the server issues on ps5, is that my super credits keep disappearing every time I log out. I've lost hundreds and counting. It keeps happening, other than that loving the game

[@cardecito8203]

All these AAA studios are king Neptune pumping out all these shitty krabby patties and then the indie studios (Larian, Arrowhead) are SpongeBob with his perfect patty.

[@tr1bes]

Arrowhead on HD1 make 3-4 years of DLC. HD1 was there since end of ps3 to ps5.

[@dangerousninjax9475]

I managed to play the game thru a friend on his ps5 and it's amazing and has everything going for it. A new game without a toxic community that somehow is great and isn't 70 dollars and is not desperately trying to stuff its hand in your pocket.

[@stretch493]

Arrowhead has been refreshingly open about their struggles.....i tried the 1st helldivers once and never went back, but this game has me hooked, warts and all

[@5hrsbefore1998]

afk timer was patched in today :) server capacity has also been increased, and matchmaking works for the first time ever! they’re getting there

[@ramrod3922]

In other words...NOBODY is playing suicide squad right now.

[@TiffTumbles]

the cost of going out to spend time with friends has gone up so drastically, that instead of doing that, we spend less money and play a game together.

[@joe961]

The comment about killing bugs and screaming nearly killed me 😂😂😂

[@RoyleVegeta]

The one game to find them all, the one game unite them, the one game to bring them all and in democracy bind them.

[@jacksontodd7248]

i can say absolutely without a doubt that playstation also has this problem, I have played the game twice due to server issues and if sucks cause i can’t just leave the tv on since others in the house use it 🙄 also my friends and i are never available at the same time to all be able to play together.

[@Tipper2020]

Great discussion guys as always. I do have a great time playing Helldivers 2 when I can and thanks again Bruce for gifting me with a copy on your Twitch stream, I appreciate it! I do disagree with your stance that there is no one to point a finger at for the issues that are happening. I think when you purchase a game whether it cost one dollar or a hundred dollars. at the very least you should be able to play it which is currently not possible for a lot of people. I respect and appreciate the Arrowhead developers for their communication and updates but part of best practices for software development is that your application is scalable which Helldivers is currently not. If it was scalable the solution would be to spin up some cloud-based servers from a provider like AWS or Azure to handle the unexpected high user base. Personally, I feel that the blame really lies with Sony Publishing for not ensuring that the games they sell are playable regardless. While Arrowhead is a small developer so expectations can be lower, Sony is a huge company that should support and make sure that the studios developing for them are following best practices and only sell products that are usable.

[@cheesyman2319]

I'm in Australia and suicide squad is $115 whereas helldivers is $60 so easy decision for me.

[@MrPackman45]

I have had no connection issues other than trying to matchmake from the galactic battlefront table. I can never join

[@dmcg7949]

I honestly think the measured response comes from the fact that this is a $40 game and not a $70 game. $40 with Issues and micro transactions is a far cry from $70 with issues and micro transactions.

[@MrKailanb]

It's a super fun game we'll priced and makes the always online aspect actually part of the game 👍

[@codename_d3vl863]

My only issue with the game is lack of friends, idk how quick play works, I tried it once and I waited for 5 minutes, and stopped cuz I was feeling tired. Other than that the game is pretty darn good. I played a few missions solo, they are pretty hectic by myself, i hit level 3 for democracy. And I’m happy that my pc can run it at a stable 60fps. I was worried my computer would not be able to run it.

[@JollyGiant19]

Quick play is super busted right now. Back at the start it would get you in a game in about 10-20 seconds.

[@codename_d3vl863]

@@JollyGiant19 oh really? Dang okay well I’m okay with waiting.

[@Gigawood]

After well over a decade of watching shit like this happening at game launches…it’s a lot easier to be patient and understanding, especially when the game is GOOD.

[@samuelbird7151]

Don't know why but this game has got me more pumped for space marine 2

[@Aeoss1]

At best, this is exactly as stated in news. An under estimated amount of positive response to the new game and it's combo'd release on pc. At worse this is a psy-op to simulate a mental concept that the game is doing so well that they tell consumers to "not buy consoles n pc hardware" just to play hell divers because of they would more than likely get into a que line. Giving you perception to the idea that there's abunch of poeple waiting for something "big" and now we either have to choose to get in line to play it or go get hardware good enough to get in the line. I feel like this is someone squeezing the pipe to limit access much like "simulated console shortages". But in this aspect it increases attention to the game and hardware to play it in without directly feeding into scalpers. Also... The 40$ price tag as icing. I hope this type of price model is reflected in future titles that have in-game markets. Less of these $70 entry fees to 20$ skin markets would be nice, especially in these current national financial conditions we may be in. Leaving us with more cash for more premium rides/items while not being drained at the entry gate. Now make it to where %50 of my market purchases go towards a stock share from the company so when I move on I can sell off the shares and recoup the money I invested when they don't transfer my skins and items to the next game. Comedy

[@drewflinn8233]

Using supercredits i found in game, i bought a helmet for 75 cents.

[@ShadyPaperclips]

Bungie did look into this game according to some reports, they don't just look at the monetization but also the content delivery plan/live service model the game is going to have But yeah it's surprising a game like that came out the way it did and Bungie didn't try to Destinify it 😅

[@Pixx2266]

114 hours here. The stars aligned and I tested positive for [unspecified virus of unknown origin] last monday so I pretty much had nothing else to do but play lol. Love the game, higher difficulties make me scream but this game is so fucking good.

[@youtubeaccountlol4942]

I never play games like this. I really only play racing games and I would replay Cabellas Big Game Hunter before getting another online shooter. Im NEVER listening to my friends saying "bro just try overwatch/cod/bf2042/R6"... etc . .. BUT HELLDIVERS2? god did that 'draft notice' hit differently. Anything for democracy

[@Yetithehuman]

Lawrence, your hair is spectacular my friend. Drop the product!

[@Ricktron3k]

Thankfully they already released a patch to kick AFK players after 15 mins earlier today! Game is still super full at peak times though; Amazing for the devs and probably at the same time, a nightmare to deal with.

[@sin8800]

Does this game have single player?

[@Sergiblacklist]

Alot of AAA ganes haven't in the last few years earned that $70. They haven't earned or even respect our time. Palworld & Helldivers has

[@snakeplissken3613]

I’m pretty sure you usually only make 10 super credits per mission not 100… also, I think they have sold 3-5 million copies I read somewhere… I know they sold at least 1 million so far

[@DroosterH]

I've made 40-50 on a full exploration of a map. I've stockpiled 1500 credits so far just from playing a couple of hours a day.

[@JACGhost1982]

I am experiencing a game breaking bug where I can’t. It advance past the easy difficulty setting. And yes I know I have to complete all operations within a highlighted zone to advance. Easy operations only have 1 mission. No matter how many I finish I can not advance past easy. Game breaking since I am stuck fighting low level mobs while progression. Has slowed to a crawl.

[@HarderTime89]

I've never had to quit out of a game to reload back in and do it again like this game. Sucks cause it's great. Almost every fucking game now.

[@TheStrandrew]

Bought it 2 days ago and havent been able to play even 1 minute if it. Contacted Sony and they refuse to refund the game

[@FellaGuy2]

I wanna play this game so bad

[@dwrdwlsn5]

Game is nuts. Good ways and bad ways. Trolls, griefers, idiots and noobs tend to ruin things in any online games. That said? I have never been so mad and so laughing hysterically at the same time in any video game that I have played. FUN!!!!!!!! That said? People have valid grievances with games that you buy and cannot play. I went through that with Jedi Survivor on Steam. The difference between the two is that Helldivers CAN be played, sometimes and Jedi Survivor just crashed to desktop at title screen.

[@ScooterMcgavunTV]

The ceos communication has definitely made the server situation feel better. 🤔 but i still want to play and can never get in! 🤣😭

[@boccci]

If you have someone else online already, launching the game from an invite they send you consistently skips the queue

[@ScooterMcgavunTV]

@LoganChristianson yeah ive experienced the same thing bruce has... it doesnt work 🥲

[@JollyGiant19]

@@LoganChristiansonIt worked for me. Joining regularly would give me the servers are full and I’d have to wait. Joining a player who’s already in got me in right away. This happened twice in the same day several hours apart.