Upcoming PixelJunk Eden patch gives the gift of time

by Jem Alexander { Dec 13th 2008 at 8:10PM }

For the second time Q-Games is on a mission to make their own games easier. They did it with PixelJunk Monsters, by adding difficulty settings and increasing the strength of some towers. This time it's PixelJunk Eden's turn to receive the patch treatment, which will make substantial changes to the game's difficulty.

The official site states that the patch will add a "new continue system" for when you run out of time and a new control system. You'll also have "lots more time to spare" as you make use of the "smoother multi-play camera." This patch is due to arrive on the 19th of December in Japan and Europe, with an American release "coming soon."

We're all for improving accessibility, but we get the feeling that these new features might make things a little too easy. The smoother multiplayer camera is definitely a welcome improvement, though. Hopefully now Q-Games has gone back and "fixed" both of their most recent games we'll start hearing more about new PixelJunk title soon. That'd be nice.

[Thanks betahoven]

Tags: patch, pixeljunk-eden, q-games

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jamie @ Dec 13th 2008 10:15PM

The only thing it lacked imo. Sometimes when I needed to strees out this annoyed me.

TK @ Dec 13th 2008 8:28PM

Finally, I can finish playing that game.

sean @ Dec 13th 2008 8:46PM

yeah i stopped playing because it wasnt very fun after a while. will try it again once this new patch hits

Packfan @ Dec 13th 2008 8:53PM

Maybe the 100k pollen trophy will be DO-ABLE after this patch... I got to 80k after 1 1/2 hours. LAME!

Devin @ Dec 14th 2008 2:41PM

I got 100k. You need 3 players to achieve this quicker and easier. Hope this helps. Took us 30-45 minutes.

PR0FT3A de V1DA @ Dec 13th 2008 8:54PM

The only reason i bought the game was for Trophies... it turned out to be a great game, but it was also very frustrating and lost its fun. Maybe i'll play it to the end this time

exetermako @ Dec 13th 2008 8:56PM

I was waiting for this. The game's time feature just takes away all of the relaxation and fun in the last four or five levels, making it an annoying chore. As soon as this patch is out, I'm playing this until I get 100% on it.

KarlW @ Dec 13th 2008 9:07PM

Let's hope SCEE don't screw us over again. I'm still waiting for my Echochrome patch and Street Fighter.

Nathan @ Dec 13th 2008 9:38PM

Did you not read the article?

"This patch is due to arrive on the 19th of December in Japan and Europe, with an American release "coming soon.""

It's coming to Europe (SCEE) first!

David @ Dec 13th 2008 9:10PM

great! The time limit on levels took the fun out of the game in my opinion. The game is about exploration and immersing yourself in the beautiful world but when your character is not jumping when you want it to making you miss a time capsule by an inch and then losing the level for the 10th time because of the time limit the game becomes frustrating and not fun.

I really wanted to like this game. I bought it day one, but I found myself getting more angry than happy while playing it...I play games to have fun not to get angry so I stopped playing.

Let it be clear than I'm not saying that games need to be easy for them to be fun. I loved Pixeljunk Monsters when it came out...never thought of adjusting the difficulty. It was a challenging game but an enjoyable one. It was a game you could master if you were diligent. Eden was just frustrating for the reasons that I stated above. This patch should fix those problems.

oldmanpip @ Dec 13th 2008 9:27PM

I finished the game 100% - it was actually really fun because it was challenging. I found the trophies do-able, some of them were unbearable - but you feel such a sense of accomplishment when you finish them.

I kind of feel like it would be dumbing it down a bit to make it easier, but if people are struggling that's their call. I liked the fact that casual gamers could play the earlier levels, but to get everything out of it you needed to be a hardcore gamer :\

Vincent @ Dec 13th 2008 11:00PM

Agree 100% with you. I haven't completed the game totally because I play with a friend, and we have both been very busy for the last 3 months. We loved the challenge, he will be sad when he hears about this patch ._. I hope the modifications are OPTIONAL at least

j.howlett @ Dec 13th 2008 9:36PM

i like the continue idea. it's more pick up and play than start a garden, fall at the last second and start all over or quit.

Kyle @ Dec 13th 2008 9:44PM

I have a horrible temper when it comes to semi-repetitive tasks in games, so chances are this will really get me to pick up the game and play again. There was literally nothing more frustrating than wandering my way to the top of a level only to miss something and fall causing myself to run out of time.

This way, people who are really patient and skilled at the game can show off while still allowing those of us who are pissed enough to throw their controller after one or two fails to enjoy the game.

To those equating hardcore gaming to the completion of the game - give me a break. It has much less to do with skill and much more to do with having the ability to repeat menial tasks over and over without giving up. Honestly, it has much more to do with drive. If you're really that focused on getting the trophies, you'll get them eventually, but for those of us that the goal of getting the trophies does not outweigh the amount of pissed-off repeated gameplay, we're going to stop after the first or second failure (which is exactly what I did).

Eden is an incredible game. It's very artsy, beautiful, the music and sound is great. Unfortunately the simple gameplay is both a great merit and a downfall. I found that there was not enough change in the game for me to justify racing the clock to unlock everything 100%.

Luke @ Dec 13th 2008 9:48PM

I played the co-op for this for the first time just the other day, and I can completely understand the need for a fix on the camera. Whenever someone would fall, it would follow that person instead of the people higher up, frustrating us enough to quit after about a half hour of play. The LBP camera does this sort of thing, too.

linebeginstoblur @ Dec 13th 2008 9:50PM

I'm glad. Let's hope they think about this kind of stuff before releasing Dungeons (or whatever 1-4 is called, or 2-1, or whatever). PixelJunk games are known for being innovative... and freaking difficult.

Also, I guess with how much Monsters and Eden were in the gaming press, I can see why they'd patch those.... but I guess they'll leave Racers behind, right? No rumble, no trophies, no difficulty improvements? I'm not trying to complain, but I'm just saying I'd bet they'd rather leave Racers behind than spend the extra time to put all PixelJunk games on an equal playing field. =/

Jonathan @ Dec 14th 2008 6:19AM

Why the fuck do developers keep making their games easier and easier? This is ridiculous. If some people can beat the game, then that's all the validation that developers need to see that the game is at the right difficulty. Not everyone should be able to beat a game. If you suck at a game, you suck at a game, and developers should leave it at that. If there is no difficulty to a game, what's the point?

This pisses me off so much that people feel that they're entitled to get any trophy and that if they can't, it's the game/developer's fault for making the game too hard and not their fault for sucking at the game.

The only time a game should ever be made easier is when the game is literally impossible to play and even the developers have trouble beating it.

Kodros @ Dec 14th 2008 1:51PM

"entitled to get any trophy and that if they can't, it's the game/developer's fault for making the game too hard and not their fault for sucking at the game."

I agree. There really wasn't anything wrong with the game. There was some frustration but since when were games not suppose to cause frustration?

On a side note, some of those WipeoutHD trophies need to be easier lol.

NoogyBurger @ Dec 25th 2008 12:14PM

Dam, you gotta chill.
The correct way to please everyone is to put a simple difficulty setting in the game!
Of course this crap is going to happen when you have no choices.
Not everyone can be a cool jock gamer like you.
Why can't they be nice to a variety of gamers who spent their hard earned money and would like to see the whole game.

Spider-Prime @ Dec 13th 2008 10:44PM

The real question is, WTF does the 2.05 patch do for PixelJunk Monsters?!

Shadowrep @ Dec 13th 2008 10:57PM

The official news is that the patch was released simply to fix some scoring bugs that were discovered after the release of the Trophy patch, that’s all, so you can get back to collecting those trophies and improving those high scores!

cegmp @ Dec 13th 2008 10:47PM

What about an Asian release date? Or is it the same date with Japan?

CHICHO13_420 @ Dec 13th 2008 11:16PM

with an american release soon. Bullshat looks like america gets the shaft yet again.

Darkage @ Dec 14th 2008 6:23AM

I hope that is sarcasm.

CHICHO13_420 @ Dec 14th 2008 2:01PM

Stay on the topic pendejo

Emyrs @ Dec 13th 2008 11:17PM

all i can say is thank god..
this game rocked the relaxation until that effing clock got in the way!!

time to revisit eden!

Adam @ Dec 13th 2008 11:27PM

Thank god. Hopefully now playing any level from 5 onward won't become a chore, and a stressful, NON-relaxing experience. I bought Eden thinking it would be a simple yet challenging, relaxing game - as it was touted to be by PixelJunk themselves - yet it turned out to be the exact opposite.

The folks at Q-games should learn from this: if you have to go back and patch your last 2 games for difficulty, you're doing it wrong.

I will most certainly wait for the "we fixed our mistakes" patch before buying another PixelJunk game.

Jonathan @ Dec 14th 2008 3:38AM

They didn't make a mistake. They're just making it easier because a bunch of people who suck at the game were whining that it was too hard.

While the timer was annoying, removing the timer completely will make the game incredibly easy to beat. They should have just made the timer go by more slowly.

Shawn @ Dec 14th 2008 12:44AM

Maybe I'll finally start playing this again.

SignOfZodiac @ Dec 14th 2008 1:09AM

It needs online play for people that don't have time to invite people over to complete that 3p trophy.. also a better way to turn the custom soundtrack on/off..

Kspraydad @ Dec 14th 2008 1:07AM

Their next 'new' announced game is PJM for PSP btw.

IHateBioshock @ Dec 14th 2008 2:41AM

"To those equating hardcore gaming to the completion of the game - give me a break. It has much less to do with skill and much more to do with having the ability to repeat menial tasks over and over without giving up. Honestly, it has much more to do with drive. If you're really that focused on getting the trophies, you'll get them eventually, but for those of us that the goal of getting the trophies does not outweigh the amount of pissed-off repeated gameplay, we're going to stop after the first or second failure (which is exactly what I did)."

Well said Kyle!

Devil240Z @ Dec 14th 2008 6:28AM

this seems good to me. I gave up cause it was too difficult for what I wanted the game to be. which was a sort of zone out and relax game not an intense spiderman sim. I hope you can still get the trophies.

Mikeburnfire @ Dec 14th 2008 7:26AM

Cool. I can understand how most people would want an easier difficulty setting. The game required a lot of effort and luck, and the trophies are only bronze.

With this new patch, I can finally grab my last few trophies, and play this game with a friend without worrying about her holding me back.

KinjiroSSD @ Dec 14th 2008 10:53AM

This is a great game and definitely beatable but I feel that the time limit in the last 4 gardens altered the vision for the game. Instead of a relaxing experience, it becomes a frustrating experience, running out of time after one fatal mistake.

Organic_Shadow @ Dec 14th 2008 1:54PM

"too easy"? either you haven't played PJE or you're a worms ninja rope master with years of training. PJE isn't BRUTAL, but it's not easy either.

hopefully the continue system will work in such a way that your trophy objectives don't reset upon continuing. the 18926598689173 pollen trophy is the stuff of nightmares.

Jonathan @ Dec 14th 2008 3:44PM

I don't know why people keep complaining about that trophy, it's incredibly easy. You go to Stage 3, break open that prowler that is made up of six prowlers and then you keep getting at least 5x combos so not only do you get a ton of pollen but you get bonus time crystals. I got this trophy on my first try in like 45 minutes to an hour.

Ashitaka @ Dec 19th 2008 10:45AM

Rofl, why the hell would they patch the game? And why 90% of posts here are from whiners?

Regarding difficulty, all games should look up to Eden. You probably would like every trophy to be just like Burnout's. Accelerate - trophy. Break - trophy. Do a 0,001% spin - trophy.