User blog:ShinnyShin/The Problems with the Fall Out Boy Update

My fellow players.

Welcome to my first blog for 2018. It’s been a long time coming, a lot of racers have been asking me to release one of my signature TPW (The Problems With…) blogs and I’ve been SO busy with stuff ... and things.

Today I’m gonna drop some (hopefully informed) wisdom on you regarding the recent Fall Out Boy Update, aka the Lunar New Year Update, aka Update 25. This has been touted by some of the fan-base as one of the (slightly) better Updates to be released in recent times, as compared to the last three consecutive releases.

One can relate to those views, but one must also point out where it has gone wrong, as well as what could have been done better. It seems only fair, so let’s get to it!

Starting with the cons, by tradition …







 😠  WE MADE MULTIPLAYER 1000% BETTER! 

Some of the veteran players out there will remember the immortal words uttered by that Gameloft rep when the Asphalt YouTube channel revealed the MP League for the first time. This was over a year ago. Fast-forward to the early months of 2018, how much has the MP League changed? For the uninitiated, this out check this out for a little bit of background. To summarize, Gameloft has somehow managed to improve the multiplayer experience as well as make it worse over the last year or so.

The good old days of the World Series were some of the most memorable for veterans of the fan-base, offering easy, fast and on-demand gameplay with no heavy penalties for losing. Granted, the rewards back then were not so varied, only really offering a choice of Credits, Nitro Starters or Tuning Kits. The MP League Update introduced more types of rewards like Tokens, decals, Random Boxes and Double Credits to name a few.

Plus the idea of structuring multiplayer by tiers to get the best rewards and show off your League badge was a pretty neat (although poorly executed) concept. Then they decided to cap your progress by adding the Season Tickets, meaning you can only play so many times to win rewards, the rest of the time spent in MP is just cruising around and potentially losing your Rating.



On top of all that, add the ever-increasing gameplay issues like lag, late starts and the rampant hacking pandemic. More to the point, multiplayer has devolved into these issues right here :

- Do you own this car (e.g. Vulcan, R8 SE, SLK SE, SIN R1, etc)? If you do, then great, proceed to the Champion/Elite League

<p class="MsoNormal">- You don't own them? Too bad. Enjoy your losing streak

<p class="MsoNormal">- Aww, you worked so hard to MP-tune that long-awaited ride of yours? Let's introduce a car that makes all of that hard work utterly worthless, hope that's cool!

<p class="MsoNormal">- So you're actually doing well with the cars we forced you to use? Let's shut you down and make you bleed Tokens to keep your spot

<p class="MsoNormal">- The game's getting laggy from all the extra content we've put out over improving the quality of the gameplay? Not our problem, get a new device!

<p class="MsoNormal">- Hackers? Yeah they're cool. In fact, *cough* they help our business model *cough*. Legit players like you, we can't be having that! (OOPS, DID WE SAY THAT OUT LOUD?!)

<p class="MsoNormal">And now, add the twist of introducing a highly OP car that dominates almost every opponent in the upper D-Class to lower S-Class no matter what rank it’s at. An OP car that’s insanely easy to get, whether by Auto-passing with Tokens or playing the R&D straight with skills. An OP car that spans such huge brackets that it’s not even funny. Or maybe it is.

<p class="MsoNormal">I admit, I laughed at how crazy this all is. This has not been seen since the days of the Shelby Cobra and most recently the Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG Special Edition/BMW M2 Special Edition (both for an extremely short while).

<p class="MsoNormal">If I wanna gamble, I’d just go to Vegas, at least their casinos are more honest with their practices …

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="_3gl1 _5zz4" data-offset-key="2md2h-2-0" size="28" style="background-image: url("https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/fed/1/28/1f620.png"); background-size: 28px 28px; height: 28px; width: 28px;">😠  THE NEW RIDES 

<p class="MsoNormal">So far, the new cars have the odd privilege of being featured in the pros as well as the cons of the Fall Out Boy Update. I was going to wait until all the vehicles have been released, but the first two new additions have garnered so much controversy that I couldn’t pass this up. Besides, the Update would already be over once all the new rides were out.

<p class="MsoNormal">This part right here concerns one car, a car whose appearance has changed the face of MP races forever. A car that’s shaken things up BIG time. This car is none other than the infamous Audi R8 e-tron Special Edition. After barely scraping a win against the laggy Munich Final AI, I took the suped-up version of the D-Class starter car for a spin. It was worth winning because:

<p class="MsoNormal">- It looks awesome

<p class="MsoNormal">- Everyone else's got one

<p class="MsoNormal">- This was supposedly one of the easiest R&Ds ever

<p class="MsoNormal">- Its power is MAXIMUM

<p class="MsoNormal">I also thought, get it because since it’s so powerful, you’ll need one just to compete against other opponents in MP eventually, and if the R&D’s gone without a win, it will probably be a year or so until the R8 SE can be won again (unless it goes on sale, of course).

<p class="MsoNormal">Second place honors, to a lesser extent, goes to the newly-unleashed BMW M2 Special Edition. This car is guilty of the same crimes committed by the Audi R8 e-tron Special Edition, but not as much, if that makes sense. This is purely because its reign was surprisingly short-lived. It still puts up a good fight if tuned properly and with the right level of skills, but it’s almost unanimous as to which of the new cars performs better all around.

<p class="MsoNormal">Like the R8 SE, it was only available for a limited time and again like the R8 SE, it dominated a wide bracket range but not as badly as the R8 SE. Like a game of ‘King of the Castle’, the M2 SE got to the top only to get unceremoniously kicked off by the R8 SE. BUT, it was still worth winning because:

<p class="MsoNormal">- It looks slick

<p class="MsoNormal">- Everyone else's got one

<p class="MsoNormal">- The World Tour wasn't extremely difficult - thankfully, coming off the back of its cousin with the insanely hard R&D just a few days before

<p class="MsoNormal">- Its power was MAXIMUM (until the R8 SE showed up)

<p class="MsoNormal">Also again like the R8 SE, there are no promises on whether it will make a comeback. So winning it’s not a complete loss, but the timing could have been better. One king per update is manageable. Two is just too much, especially if they span the entirety of A through D-Class.

<p class="MsoNormal">We’ve already had an Update where we got cars that turned out to be useless after they were baited out to the fan-base. Now THIS. Well done on the complete 180, Gameloft. In fact, the R8 SE has even made collecting Licenses a more or less pointless exercise. You could still go ahead with this, but the payoff won’t be as great as it used to be. Your newly-earned Cobra will more often than not be nothing more than a target for R8 SEs of varying ranks, almost all of which will be a very real threat.

<p class="MsoNormal">As a result, MP races are filled with nothing but hordes of R8 SEs.

<p class="MsoNormal">If you want to use anything other than the countless R8 SEs you’ll encounter, then make sure it’s one of your BEST cars that will stand at least half a chance of winning. Seriously, I kid you not. Most MP-tuned cars might prove too risky to use as more and more players get their hands on the Lunar New Year prize. And that’s likely not gonna happen, since anyone who’s racing to win will be racing the smart way as well – with an easy-to-use OP weapon of choice.

<p class="MsoNormal">Meaning each and every race will be a gamble, and will eat up a lot of your Season Tickets.

<p class="MsoNormal">The unreleased vehicles could be better, or worse. No-one knows yet.

<p class="MsoNormal">A moment of silence for the not-so-absolute reign of the BMW M2 SE please …

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="_3gl1 _5zz4" data-offset-key="2md2h-2-0" size="28" style="background-image: url("https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/fed/1/28/1f620.png"); background-size: 28px 28px; height: 28px; width: 28px;">😠  WELCOME TO GLITCH CENTRAL, MAY WE TAKE YOUR ORDER PLEASE?

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<p class="MsoNormal">One of the most egregious things about each successive Update is what appears to be a total lack of concern or indeed, action regarding the numerous bugs and glitches that plague the game. Sure, using resources to add more content is one thing. It keeps the game interesting and there’s always more to offer. But is it too much to divert some of those resources to checking the quality of the additional content that’s released?

<p class="MsoNormal">Asphalt 8 used to run smooth, like a hot knife slicing through butter. But with each Update following the Area 51 release, the performance has been steadily sacrificed in favor of more content like new cars, tracks and gameplay features. For a game that relies heavily on the social multiplayer aspect, this does the developer no justice.

<p class="MsoNormal">Numerous gremlins are at work here across multiple devices and here’s what they’re getting up to:

<p class="MsoNormal">- Varying degrees of lag, ranging from somewhat mild to OH GOD THE GAME IS UNPLAYABLE

<p class="MsoNormal">- Because of the above, some of the new tracks like Patagonia, Rio and Munich are no-go areas in MP for a lot of players

<p class="MsoNormal">- Delayed race starts, where you start at least 10 seconds after everyone else and have NO CHANCE to catch up

<p class="MsoNormal">- Delayed race finishes, where you drop several places because the race ends like 10 seconds after you cross the Finish Line

<p class="MsoNormal">- Texture pop-in on both scenery and vehicles. Sometimes you can crash into objects that haven't even loaded yet

<p class="MsoNormal">- Invisible Knockdowns and increased teleporting/glitch exploits in MP races

<p class="MsoNormal">- The Tuning button still causes the game to crash (reported by Android users)

<p class="MsoNormal">- So you beat the Yamaha FZ-10's EDD? Well guess what? NO BIKE FOR YOU

<p class="MsoNormal">Asphalt 8 was named one of the best games of 2013 for delivering such a seamless console-quality experience for mobile devices. Flawless gameplay was one of the main selling points of the game, and it’s kinda sad to see how it’s declined in quality as much as it’s improved in other aspects. In fact, the matter has become so severe that a petition is now being drafted as of writing, in the hopes that these issues will be brought to their attention.

<p class="MsoNormal">The least that Gameloft could do is try and fix some of the bugs to restore a little bit of playability. OR at least optimize certain assets to help it run smoothly. iOS users got perks with increased frame rates some time ago if memory serves correctly, while Android and Windows players have been left in the dust.

<p class="MsoNormal">I mean, even if you don’t stand a chance at winning, you at least want to be able to PLAY the game, right?

<p class="MsoNormal">An Update for the petition will be available as soon as possible.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="_3gl1 _5zz4" data-offset-key="2md2h-2-0" size="28" style="background-image: url("https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/fed/1/28/1f620.png"); background-size: 28px 28px; height: 28px; width: 28px;">😠   '<span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">IT’S JUST TAKE, TAKE, TAKE WITH YOU, ISN’T IT? '

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This piece here talks about another feature that was removed. It comes to attention because it was crucial in many ways to a lot of broke players. The Daily Tasks now no longer gives out Tokens. For those new players just joining us, it used to be possible to get 20 Tokens a day from completing the 3 objectives in the Daily Task slot. Now it offers non-Token prizes instead, and a lot of them can be found in Super Racer Kit Boxes and Random Boxes.

This used to be an excellent way to save up Tokens alongside getting them in TLEs, MPEs, other Events and watching ads. Now a huge source of that Token income has been taken away, leaving many players to find other ways to save for those multi-thousand Tokens cars.

<p class="MsoNormal">Another thing is the Quests (for Android players). Now if I recall correctly, this feature went away recently, and it was a great option for players to squeeze a few extra rewards aside from the mainstream ways. Unlike the Daily Tasks which still remains but offers different prizes, the Quests are gone completely.

<p class="MsoNormal">Really making us scrape to get ahead, aren’t you, Gameloft?

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="_3gl1 _5zz4" data-offset-key="2md2h-2-0" size="28" style="background-image: url("https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/fed/1/28/1f620.png"); background-size: 28px 28px; height: 28px; width: 28px;">😠  ANDROID & WINDOWS PLAYERS, LEFT OUT IN THE COLD

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<p class="MsoNormal">This is for the forgotten Asphalt players who use Android and Windows. Gameloft has made no bones about how everything is super shiny and runs smooth for IOS users. Especially upon the release of the Munich Update which targeted IOS 11 players.

<p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, Android and Windows players are being left by the wayside with choppy frame rates, low-resolution graphics, missing textures, glitches, unplayable maps and countless other issues. Word has it that the game may not be properly optimized for Android users.

<p class="MsoNormal">It can be confirmed that Android users do have the longest lobby waiting times, game loading times and longest syncing times compared to their Windows counterparts, and to varying degrees, their IOS counterparts.

<p class="MsoNormal">Unless Gameloft plan to roll out the same level of care that two-thirds of its fans are missing out on, the future looks uncertain.

<p class="MsoNormal">Some players even reported being locked out of certain graphics settings like High or Very High at the release of the Fall Out Boy Update. Now this may have been done intentionally by Gameloft in favor of performance, but it still doesn’t address the problem of the extreme lag that players suffer.

<p class="MsoNormal">One step forward and two steps back …

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<p class="MsoNormal">Now for the middle of the road stuff…

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<span class="_3gl1 _5zz4" data-offset-key="2md2h-3-0" size="28" style="background-image: url("https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/f4e/1/28/1f610.png"); background-size: 28px 28px; height: 28px; width: 28px;">😐    '<span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">IF IT AIN’T BROKE, THEN BREAK IT. WITH A BASEBALL BAT. THEN SET IT ON FIRE '

<p class="MsoNormal">Special mention (?!) goes to Gameloft’s recent trend of essentially giving away some of the game’s most powerful cars through recent events (like the Hommage) and recent frequent fire-sales (here’s looking at you, Vulcan) therefore further ruining (or improving?!) the game’s balance.

<p class="MsoNormal">Are the BMW M2 SE and the R8 SE two of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, here to show us what’s to come? It goes without saying that the game is being neglected in more ways than one, such as not fixing the bugs, releasing more and more unbalanced cars and forever stomping on the efforts of free-playing (and paying!) players who invest so much in hard-to-get-cars and have them rendered useless within weeks or months.

<p class="MsoNormal">Anyone with even a passing knowledge of business models could work out that this isn’t exactly the best one out there. Killing off one part of your franchise in favor of another is BAD. Especially for those who are too far invested to start afresh, especially by force. If their idea is to drive people away from Asphalt 8 by making it more unbalanced (and claiming to make it 1000% BETTER!), then I worry for the future of Asphalt as a whole.

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<p class="MsoNormal">On the other hand, we’ve been seeing a lot of rare and expensive old favorites going on sale for Credits. These cars usually cost hundreds or even thousands of Tokens and would be unaffordable to huge numbers of the player-base. In the most unlikely move yet, Gameloft has offered up cars like the McLaren P1™ GTR, Kepler Motion, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34), Honda NSX 2005 and quite a few others for Credits!! Hell, even the DEVEL 16 PROTOTYPE was a Credits car for a weekend (but for 5 million, which is no walk in the park, mind you).

<p class="MsoNormal">To add, these were snap offers out of the blue, so unless you played every day or had constant updates for the game, you’d be quite likely to miss out. It was a great time to obtain some of the most elusive cars, scot-free, and add them to your Garage.

<p class="MsoNormal">This definitely does make up for all the lackluster Season prizes (here’s looking at you, Sbarro Alcador) and the repeated Mazda 6/AC 378 GT Z combos. Remember to keep an eye on your entire Garage for future fire sales. Not just the % button, but the WHOLE THING. Such offers are not normally highlighted, so it takes an eagle eye to spot them!

<p class="MsoNormal">''That’s it. I’m gonna create my own mobile arcade racing game With blackjack. And hookers.''

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="_3gl1 _5zz4" data-offset-key="2md2h-3-0" size="28" style="background-image: url("https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/f4e/1/28/1f610.png"); background-size: 28px 28px; height: 28px; width: 28px;">😐  ASPHALT ON TOUR

<p class="MsoNormal">The World Tour, a new feature added in this Update. Whether or not one is a fan of the sponsor band, Fall Out Boy, is neither here nor there.

<p class="MsoNormal">Some say they’ve never followed them, some say they’ve been converted into new fans, and others say they just enjoyed the story aspect of the World Tour.

<p class="MsoNormal">Regardless of your standing on the band and the music genre, it can be almost objectively agreed (or disagreed) that the World Tour mode was a fun addition to the game, as well as a rewarding one.

<p class="MsoNormal">The World Tour had elements of an R&D but without the need to play every 3 hours (losing much sleep in the process), an EDD but without the high gambling pressure and huge losses, and a Championship in the sense that one can still play even after winning the car.

<p class="MsoNormal">The storyline itself has no real impact on the gameplay, but gives the game more character while still focusing on the racing. After all, some of us come to play Asphalt 8 to form our own adventures, not necessarily have stories imposed on us like the Need for Speed games, so take from that what you will.

<p class="MsoNormal">I, for one, enjoyed the World Tour despite not being a huge fan of Fall Out Boy. It does beg the question, will we be seeing more World Tours in future? And which famous name(s) are going to be attached to them?

<p class="MsoNormal">Your mileage and musical tastes may vary.

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<p class="MsoNormal">And here’s where they did it right …

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="_3gl1 _5zz4" data-offset-key="2md2h-0-0" size="28" style="background-image: url("https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/f30/1/28/1f601.png"); background-size: 28px 28px; height: 28px; width: 28px;">😁   THE NEW RIDES … WAIT, WHAT?

<p class="MsoNormal">Based on the first two we’ve seen, Gameloft’s continued the trend of introducing a base car that’s got somewhat limited uses, and eventually releasing a suped-up version of said base car. Veteran players can attest to seeing many examples of this, such as :

- that Polish car and its beefed up cousin

- that Dutch car and its spoiler-heavy cousin

- that Italian car and its improved-but-crippled version

- that other Italian car and its only-slightly-better-version

- that German car, its big brother and their scary father

- that other German car and its menacing big brother

- that other other German car and its Colgate toothpaste-inspired version

<p class="MsoNormal">Thankfully, this isn’t a be-all end-all trend. There are some newer rides yet to be unleashed upon the masses and they are totally different-looking, and some are from non-mainstream manufacturers!

<p class="MsoNormal">It’s a little early to sum up the entire release of vehicles, but we’ll throw a bone to the unreleased ones. They look promising, and their Events might be fun.

<p class="MsoNormal">Now whether or not they’ll be useful for much at all, that remains to be seen.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="_3gl1 _5zz4" data-offset-key="2md2h-0-0" size="28" style="background-image: url("https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/f30/1/28/1f601.png"); background-size: 28px 28px; height: 28px; width: 28px;">😁   EXCLUSIVE DEALS

<p class="MsoNormal">Yet another great and useful addition included with this Update, the Exclusive Deals window has been extended from 4 slots to 8. This increases the player’s chances of obtaining Rare and Legendary Blueprints much more often, and with a 50/50 chance of getting said Blueprints for either Tokens or Credits.

<p class="MsoNormal">This sure beats waiting for several months just to get a lucky drop from a Random Box or Super Racer Kit Box in a lot of cases. Be warned, however, that not every Great or Recommended Deal is in fact, a great or recommended deal. You might get scenarios where some Blueprints are available for both Credits AND Tokens, so the logical step is to get them for Credits.

<p class="MsoNormal">If they show up for Token prices, wait until the offer refreshes, and always have a handy sum of 300.000 Credits or more in case the more elusive ones show up. Because they will, and more often than not, will be for that ONE car you’ve been trying to complete for months.

<p class="MsoNormal">So heads up!

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<p class="MsoNormal">And now for some other things.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="_3gl1 _5zz4" data-offset-key="2md2h-3-0" size="28" style="background-image: url("https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/f15/1/28/1f914.png"); background-size: 28px 28px; height: 28px; width: 28px;">🤔 HOW CAN THEY FIX THIS?

<p class="MsoNormal">Where to begin, where to begin? There are a LOT of problems that could be addressed and I have already stressed them enough in my previous blog. The rest will be featured in the upcoming petition soon.

<p class="MsoNormal">But one thing remains true above all else: Gameloft and Vivendi, '''LISTEN TO YOUR FANS. PLEASE. WE IMPLORE YOU. '''

<p class="MsoNormal">Not only that, but engage the fan-base, actively take on board and act on our suggestions to help keep your awesome game alive for years to come.

<p class="MsoNormal">On a practical note, they could start by:

<p class="MsoNormal">- FIXING THE LAG ISSUES

<p class="MsoNormal">- Optimize the gameplay experience so that it plays as well as it used to in the early days, AND at least as smoothly as for iOS X and above users

<p class="MsoNormal">- FIXING THE LAG ISSUES

<p class="MsoNormal">- Less emphasis on the gambling side of MP races. Gambling is unhealthy if done excessively and can lead to money troubles for a lot of players

<p class="MsoNormal">- FIXING THE LAG ISSUES

<p class="MsoNormal">- Make rare cars worth something other than just looks and bragging rights, instead of having us win them only to let them collect dust in the Garage

<p class="MsoNormal">- FIXING THE TUNING BUTTON

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<p class="MsoNormal">And on a somewhat impractical note, keep on introducing more and more OP cars that will completely replace every other car players have worked so hard for. In other words, break MP more to the point that everything goes full circle and ends up being balanced again. But no, seriously, don’t do this, this is sarcasm by the way.

<p class="MsoNormal">It's amazing how the release of Asphalt 9: Legends recently caused shockwaves across the fan-base. Is this a sign that Asphalt 8: Airborne’s gonna be dropped? Who knows! One might be inclined to consider this possibility, but if the game is not in the throes of sweet death, then where is it?

<p class="MsoNormal">If anything, this will prove whether or not Gameloft actually has an ounce of care and respect to its fans who give their time and hard-earned money to this game.

Do share what you've seen in your experiences with this new Update, maybe some things I've missed in this blog, shout it out!

- ShinnyShin



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