How do you feel about pre-ordering games?

[MassHavoc]

I've never seen a collector's edition that gives extra DLC. Every one I've seen has the same extra game content as a regular pre-order, but you usually get a steel book and some kind of statue or something. A few are starting to throw in season passes, but the DLC that comes with the collector's editions is always the same for the games I've seen.

What I meant was that the collectors edition has all that fancy stuff but some of them do also have some DLC with them, I believe most recently was GTA5. Special guns or something for only the collectors edition. This to me isn't as egregious as Evolve, but it's still one of those things where it's bullshit to make all this content have people pay full price for games, then parse out the content.

 

[ijustposthere]

What is Evolve doing? Honestly, I have no interest in that game whatsoever.

 

[remydat]

How would you feel if you pre-ordered a game like Evolve and they release about $60 of DLC along with the game you already paid $60 months ago. I don't believe all the DLC comes with the pre-orders, but I think a few may.

To me it goes along with the collectors edition shit where they give you extra DLC for buying it and spending $30-50 more.

I don't care about DLC unless you are telling me it is critical for the game. Again, if I buy a game and it's got 40-60 hours of good game play (ie it takes about 40-60 hours to beat the story mode) then did I not get what I paid for?

I guess my point is if you would have been satisfied with the game if it never announced any DLC then I see no reason to begrudge any company for offering you optional content. If you are telling me that without the additional content there is a huge hole in the game then that's another story.

 

[BigTom]

Sitting here bored and stumbled across this forum. I preorder when its a game I know im going to get and like regardless of what others say. So I may as well preorder and get whatever bonuses come with it.

On the topic of the ME3 ending. I still dont understand how anyone can defend and support the ending. The entire trilogy was about player choices shaping the story. We were told our actions would play a large role over the course of the trilogy and the ending. Out of the 100+ hours put into the 3 games and probably hundreds of little decisions made across the trilogy nothing mattered in the end. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Absolutely nothing you did before influenced the ending at all. It was a huge crock of shit. Instead the slate gets wiped clean, some random star kid pops up for the first time in the trilogy, and you get to choose what color explosion you get for the ending. Stupid as hell.

And the Javik day 1 on disk dlc was bullshit too. They knew anyone invested in the series was going to want that character for the lore he brought to the story. They talked about these mysterious protheans practically from the very beginning of ME1 but the only way you get to meet the last surviving one is to pay an extra $10 for some dlc. **** you greedy ass corporation. That should have been planned to be in ME3 from the start. Not as some last second dlc like they claim.

What makes all this worse is the new generation of kids who grew up with the xbox 360 and dlc think this is how its all supposed to be. They like paying full price for partial games then paying more money for the rest of the game experience. They think its perfectly fine that games are released buggy as hell and sometimes nearly unplayable. No other industry gets away with ripping of their customers more than the current game industry.

/endrant

 

[ijustposthere]

It's like making you pay for an online code to play a game online to get back at the used gaming industry. I think EA led the charge on that IIRC.

 

[remydat]

Bioware never promised that all those little choices would affect the ending. They said your choices would matter and they did as they mattered to many of the character resolutions prior to the end.

1. First off, if anyone died during the final mission in ME2, they obviously don't appear in ME3.
2. Grunt dies in ME3 if you didn't secure his loyalty in ME2.
3. Jondum Bau dies if you never recruited Kasumi Goto in ME2.
4. Miranda dies if you never warned her about Kai Leng, if you didn't secure her loyalty in ME2, or if you didn't give her the resources she needed when asked.
5. If you saved Maelon's data on the cure then Eve survives the cure. If not, she dies.
6. If Wrex is alive then Mordin dies during either because he dies curing the Krogan or you have to kill him if he refuses to sabotage the cure
7. If Wrex is dead and Wreav is in command, you can convince Mordin to sabotage the cure due to Wreav being a warmonger.
8. If you sabotage the cure and Wrex is alive, you have to kill him because he finds out and attacks you in a rage.
9. If you don't help Grissom Academy within 4 missions of getting the request, Jack can't be saved and ends up as a Phantom when you raid Cerebus.
10. There are several decisions that need to be made in order to be able to save both the Geth and Quarians in ME3. Without those decisions and accumulating enough points, one or the other dies.

Those are just off the top of my head. Probably another 10-15 more if I really thought about it. Point being there were plenty of decisions that affected the game. Just because those decisions resulted in things happening before the ending doesn't mean player choices didn't shape the story. After 3 games and over 1000 hours, I was more emotionally invested in the character resolutions than the ending. The biggest decision for me in the whole game was the question of the Geth and Quarians as I had a few playthroughs where I couldn't save both. Shit I almost teared up when I had to kill Legion and dude asks Tali, "Does this unit have a soul," before dying or worse when Tali commits suicide if you side with the Geth.

You also got different scenes at the end depending on various decisions and as well as your war readiness which also depended on decisions made earlier. Finally, Javik adds like 2 hours to the overall story if that. To say it is a partial game without him is ridiculous. So sure it was a cash grab by Bioware but no one forced you to buy it. I know people that just youtubed that shit.

 

[botfly10]

Last 57.6250
Change Increased by 0.0750
Bid 57.62
Bid Tick Indicator -
Ask 57.63
Day High 57.81
Day Low 57.14
Volume 3,351,851.00
52 Week Hi 57.90
52 Week Low 26.64

Their stock price had a 52 Week low fo 26.64 and a high of 57.90. It's currently at 57.6250. So their stock price has more than doubled within the last year. Do you think they magically changed business practices because all I have heard in this thread is that they continue to do the same things they have always done.

They did change business practices after 2013 and it did not require magic. Why the shit do you think their stock had the room to double?

Anyway, **** this. Not trying to be in the zone.

 

[ijustposthere]

They did change business practices after 2013 and it did not require magic. Why the shit do you think their stock had the room to double?

Anyway, **** this. Not trying to be in the zone.

They were being constantly smashed and were ranked as worst developer/publisher for quite a few years before finally getting some praise in 2014. Still, it takes more than one year to win back the hearts of fans when they went so far downhill for so long.

 

[BlackHawkPaul]

I pre-order 1 game/year.
That's about all that holds my interest. The one game I was really excited about was Bioshock 2 (the big box set). It came with a bunch of goodies including the Bioshock soundtrack on vinyl.

 

[remydat]

They did change business practices after 2013 and it did not require magic. Why the shit do you think their stock had the room to double?

Anyway, **** this. Not trying to be in the zone.

Really, what do you think changed then? The new Madden they released still had the same problems as previous versions. You also already said that you thought Battlefield 4 was buggy and I already admitted that Dragon Age Inquisition had some bugs as well. All of those games were released after their stock price started to climb.

Like do you honestly think EA has stopped the practices that people were complaining about because that is the first I have heard that claim in this thread?

 

[Ares]

hey remy just so you know, after everything you said.... I now love the ending of Mass Effect..... I just love it now.

Thought you should know that.

 

[MassHavoc]

What is Evolve doing? Honestly, I have no interest in that game whatsoever.

I had interest in it before it basically turned into a free to play app that you had to pay $60 up front for. I heard a lot of good things about it and the concept I love. Haven't played it though and refuse to support it and their shit **** business model.

 

[MassHavoc]

I don't care about DLC unless you are telling me it is critical for the game. Again, if I buy a game and it's got 40-60 hours of good game play (ie it takes about 40-60 hours to beat the story mode) then did I not get what I paid for?

I guess my point is if you would have been satisfied with the game if it never announced any DLC then I see no reason to begrudge any company for offering you optional content. If you are telling me that without the additional content there is a huge hole in the game then that's another story.

Then how about a game that just snuck out like the new order which is clocking in at under 10 hours and most of it is cut scenes, if they dropped a bunch of DLC on you next month you'd be ok with that? I don't hate DLC. I just think it needs to stand on it's own and not be used to polish up a turd. I think it needs to be more of an expansion pack than additional contend you get nickel and dimed with. No one wins with special guns and different outfits. Let the community create that shit. I actually was surprised by the expansion of Reaper of souls DLC as I hear people talking about it just added another chapter. I figured it wouldn't be much and at $40 bucks or whatever I held off. When I finally found the whole PS4 Ultimate edition for 32 I went for it and was pleasantly surprised by not just the amount of content added to the main game but all the other stuff that came with it. That's what I want in a DLC.

 

[MassHavoc]

It's like making you pay for an online code to play a game online to get back at the used gaming industry. I think EA led the charge on that IIRC.

Yeah, the season pass stuff, they were a big proponent of it but have since killed it off. BF3 and BF4 and the Madden games and such, they wanted to capitalize on folks who bought the game then traded it in and people were picking them up cheap and they'd charge 10 additional dollars to activate them. It was so hated they stopped doing it but I am sure someone still does. With the emergence of the Digital only games (which i hate by the way but still find myself buying) it's become less and less of a priority and the PR isn't worth the hassle I would assume.

 

[MassHavoc]

I pre-order 1 game/year.
That's about all that holds my interest. The one game I was really excited about was Bioshock 2 (the big box set). It came with a bunch of goodies including the Bioshock soundtrack on vinyl.

I love the entire Bioshock series, was one of the few series that didn't disappoint from start to finish and the story of 3 is beyond words. I didn't realize they threw vinyl around in the box sets... nice.

I assume the one game you pre-order every year is NHL? I don't remember you talking about it much, or even what system you are on.

 

[Ares]

I love the entire Bioshock series, was one of the few series that didn't disappoint from start to finish and the story of 3 is beyond words. I didn't realize they threw vinyl around in the box sets... nice.

I assume the one game you pre-order every year is NHL? I don't remember you talking about it much, or even what system you are on.

Were you referring to Bioshock Infinite? The one where you go up in the sky city thing?

That game was like a 9.9/10 for me.... was fun gameplay that had variety but not too much variety.... and the story was interesting and deep and kept you guessing.

 

[BlackHawkPaul]

I love the entire Bioshock series, was one of the few series that didn't disappoint from start to finish and the story of 3 is beyond words. I didn't realize they threw vinyl around in the box sets... nice.

I assume the one game you pre-order every year is NHL? I don't remember you talking about it much, or even what system you are on.

I honestly haven't played an NHL game religiously since NHL '04 for my XBOX. I folded Florida and created the Indianapolis Racers. That was the last time I really got balls deep into a sports game. My wife bought me '09, and I just never got used to the gameplay. So I stopped.
I just find most sports games boring as hell.
Downloaded a NHL '15 demo for my PS4, and did some drills in it. It's decent, but whatever.

 

[remydat]

hey remy just so you know, after everything you said.... I now love the ending of Mass Effect..... I just love it now.

Thought you should know that.

Thanks for sharing.

Then how about a game that just snuck out like the new order which is clocking in at under 10 hours and most of it is cut scenes, if they dropped a bunch of DLC on you next month you'd be ok with that? I don't hate DLC. I just think it needs to stand on it's own and not be used to polish up a turd. I think it needs to be more of an expansion pack than additional contend you get nickel and dimed with. No one wins with special guns and different outfits. Let the community create that shit. I actually was surprised by the expansion of Reaper of souls DLC as I hear people talking about it just added another chapter. I figured it wouldn't be much and at $40 bucks or whatever I held off. When I finally found the whole PS4 Ultimate edition for 32 I went for it and was pleasantly surprised by not just the amount of content added to the main game but all the other stuff that came with it. That's what I want in a DLC.

I don't play games that short so I have never had that experience but yeah if someone is charging you $60 for 10 hours then that's not worth it at all. Moving through the game at a reasonable pace, I expect to take at least 30-40 hours or so. My first playthrough on Dragon Age Inquisition Nightmare difficulty for example took 160 hours or so and on normal/hard difficulty, it took about 50 to 60 hours. So from my perspective, any DLC stuff is just gravy as I got more than enough gameplay for my $60 without any DLC.

 

[MassHavoc]

Were you referring to Bioshock Infinite? The one where you go up in the sky city thing?

That game was like a 9.9/10 for me.... was fun gameplay that had variety but not too much variety.... and the story was interesting and deep and kept you guessing.

yeah, sorry, I call Infinite 3. even thought it's technically not, but is... but isn't.. The story was better than the gameplay for me. And the gameplay was a nice change of pace from the previous ones even though it was rooted in them still.

 

[MassHavoc]

I honestly haven't played an NHL game religiously since NHL '04 for my XBOX. I folded Florida and created the Indianapolis Racers. That was the last time I really got balls deep into a sports game. My wife bought me '09, and I just never got used to the gameplay. So I stopped.
I just find most sports games boring as hell.
Downloaded a NHL '15 demo for my PS4, and did some drills in it. It's decent, but whatever.

Didn't know you were on PS4 now... hit me up sometime if you want