Whatever happened to?

[DazzaDazza 29]

Whatever happened to buying a game installing it and it just works, nothing ells.

Now it seems that every game I buy has 3 or 4 patches you have to download before playing, not to mention every game company has its own client as well witch you have to install. I think it’s out of control; I just want to play my game,

Now I am buying games that don’t even work properly, I got a copy of FarCry 3 the other day and I still can’t play it, and it’s something as imported as the game saving properly. I think with the speed of most internet now days the, dev teams are getting lazy, knowing that they can release a patch later to fix it, instead to fixing it before the release the game

Anyway let’s hope Maxis can release a game that works

[Wiecher 192]

Maxis releasing a game that works?

Good luck with that.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

They aren't getting lazy. "Golden cage" is the trend these days. Don't buy anywhere, buy from their platform. No hardcopies, no physical distribution, no profit sharing with ships and dealers. Be fenced in and feel well. It works. People are buying.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Honestly, there is some convenience and goodness to the model. It's very easy to sit down and just type your information into a computer form and start playing your game almost instantly. No need to go outside! No fighting traffic or asking mom and dad for a ride! Alright! So I can understand some of that appeal.

Patches seem like they have been a part of gaming for a long time. Ten years ago even our beloved SC4 was released and later patched, just like Civ III before that and others I am sure. Heck, SC4 still has major issues and could probably use another major patch. So, this I think isn't a new problem. A problem for sure, but definitely not a new one.

I do sympathize with you, and I don't play much at all anymore (and nothing new). I don't care much for automatic online downloading and having a Steam account or any of that nonsense, but it's entirely possible I am merely a dinosaur and the world has passed me by. Heh, I pine for the days of side-scrolling action and cartridges that occasionally needed the dust blown out of them. Ah, the good ol' days!

[Nesral Sredna 62]

In the good old days, games was either loaded from an audio cassette (wich ment you could finnish your lunchmeal before game was ready) or they where burnt into memorychips on cartridges (but these was expensive). Either way, if a game was buggy in a way the game could not be completed (it happened), you where into some though luck.

So what happened to buying a game, installing it and it just works? It never where...

[Wiecher 192]

I don't think the problem is the downloading part, but the involvement of the game distributor after you bought it, like the oppressive Origin thing of EA.

I bought SC4 on Steam after my disk broke, no problem because after you bought it, you can just play it, you don't even need internet to connect to Steam.

With these new developments, the big companies force you to obey to their rules about how and what you can play, and that's bad. Big Brother is watching you.

[Glenni 1,447]

Back in the days of cartridge games, the boss would chop off your head if you released a buggy game. =V

[GMT 389]

which inevitably leads to a thread I opened a while ago, concerning the DLC overkill.

But it's just too easy with the fast internets we got today.

Back in the days, when games couldn't be that easily patched, devs really took care to only release a working game as a release was much more expensive with creating physical copies and shipping and the likes, because every darn patch would mean to distribute more physical copies.

That's why patches were - mostly - limited to expansion packs, which again were expensive as distributed physically, thus making them actually worth the purchase as you got your game fixed and a fair amount of addon content.

Today it's a matter of a few minutes and a couple bucks to get a content update, mostly nothing but a gimmick you wouldn't even buy on 2nd thought; but a welcome cashcow for devs because - what I supsect some devs to do - they could not just make money out of every piece of crap but also release unfinished games and make even more money DLC-ing them to the intended content.

BUT I must also speak in favor of the devs as todays games are much much more complex in terms of both coding and visuals than they were back in the days of slow/inexistent internet; a complexity that gives great games on the one hand but also a much higher risk of code gibberish that leads to bugs. In that case, the internet is a blessing.

There's a wrong bracket set in line 120.234 that causes a something to do anything that it souldn't on a rare instance because after 10.000 hrs of testing none of the testers actually tried that, this screwing up your save file? god you gotta be thankfull for the internet...

like everthing, there' 2 sides of the medal, it just depends on which side you look the most

[2four 21]

For the OP.

I just bought, downloaded and installed a game for my mac called "Legend of Grimrock".

If you like the dungeon crawl genre then this game is for you. If you loved "Dungeon Master", then this game is for you.

I don't need to be online to play, I don't need to have a dvd or cd inserted to play. It is a 'solo' game, no social gaming crap.

Just load it up and the damn things works fine!

There is custom DLC available if you go through Steam, but you don't have to if you don't want to. Isn't that nice? Choice for the gamer.

old skool. :-)

[DazzaDazza 29]

This is all very true, downloading games from sites like steam is not the problem, I download from there all the time, I find it a good source for cheap games and open me up to games I wouldn’t see normally

but I just think games getting released is worse condition and with more bug now days, I do remember playing SC4 for about 2 years before even thinking about a patch, yah it crashed sometimes but it was still playable.

GMT

BUT I must also speak in favor of the devs as todays games are much much more complex in terms of both coding and visuals than they were back in the days of slow/inexistent internet; a complexity that gives great games on the one hand but also a much higher risk of code gibberish that leads to bugs. In that case, the internet is a blessing.

There's a wrong bracket set in line 120.234 that causes a something to do anything that it souldn't on a rare instance because after 10.000 hrs of testing none of the testers actually tried that, this screwing up your save file? god you gotta be thankfull for the internet...

I don’t think that’s a very good excuse at all. If i wont to be fair ubisoft will probably fix it problem and I will go on my merry way. And it’s probably not the Dev teams Fault but management and it probably happens because of budgets and the need to relaces the game . But we as consumers we should expect the best.

[ph3arless 0]

Good old days: 1996 Daggerfall had 12 patches inside a month

2001 Anarchy Online's release was worse than the beta many gamers downloaded.

It's hit and miss. Publisher's pressure. There may not be a good old days but i'm just happy I play PC games and not PS3 like my son out in the other room that loads and waits a normal 30 minutes with most of his games.

[GMT 389]

I don’t think that’s a very good excuse at all. If i wont to be fair ubisoft will probably fix it problem and I will go on my merry way. And it’s probably not the Dev teams Fault but management and it probably happens because of budgets and the need to relaces the game . But we as consumers we should expect the best.

not necessarily an excuse, but definitely a point worth mentioning. especially with games that give you a lot of freedom, like most open world games do. you can't test everything. there will always be users that do stuff no tester thought of doing, thus 100% debugging remains a miracle, so you'll inevitably run into the situation that you have to start fixing thing after the release, no matter how many years the dev team has creating a game.

like I said, the more complex the game gets, the higher the risk of wrong codes screwing something up. and even if the codes themselves were right you'll find a user does something that makes these codes act weird.

but you're right, that doesn't excuse poor games in the first place.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Oh come on, there aren't that many clients. Steam is the biggest and than there is Origin and GOG. And any installation is optional in the case of GOG. As for the patches? So? It fixes bugs and make the game run better, if that means I have to wait a little longer during the installation process, I dont care. Rather that than a game that doesn't run.

Also, digital distribution is a far better alternative for a lot of companies for trying to avoid second hand sale and pirating. Tying a game to one account is a far more deft solution than those excessive DRM thingies. Yeah it sucks, you can't buy second hand anymore. Meh, forces me to spend my money wisely or wait a little longer.

[DazzaDazza 29]

Yah I guss you have have a point LexusInfernus

I love paying full price for thing that don't work properly.

I don't care about miner patches but when you buy games that just don't work property it annoys me.