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| [Oct 18, 2005, 12:03 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
The promised first patch for F.E.A.R. is now available, updating Monolith's
first-person shooter to version 1.01. The update addresses some bugs and
optimizes performance in the game, which should be appearing in stores today.
The patch is available on
3D Gamers,
Filecloud,
FileFront,
FilePlanet (registration required), Gameguru
Mania, Gamer's Hell,
GameSpot,
VGPro, and
Worthplaying.
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| 67. |
Re: No subject |
Oct 19, 2005, 05:04 |
Jarek Forhanon |
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If there are any critical bugs, the game would never have passed QA.
Um, are you talking about FEAR specifically or games in general? Because many games have been released with critical bugs. Vampire: Bloodlines, KotoR2, Boiling Point, etc. A game passing QA is fairly worthless in the gaming industry.
Pirates are selfish thieves.
A moralistic claim that has numerous holes. There are a number of justifiable reasons to pirate:
1) Many game demos offer a poor sample of the full game. The FEAR demo, for example, felt underwhelming because the level was an amalgamation of other levels in the game and therefore lacked flow and rhythm. Similarly, the demo to Deus Ex: Invisible War gave a poor taste of the full game, as the level was also thrown together from various parts of the hub and the mission choice was lackluster. Most developers even warn players that their demos do not represent the quality of the final game. If I had judged games based on their demos alone, I would have never even considered buying the full versions.
2) Many games (almost all RPGs and most obscure titles) do not have any demos at all. How can any logical person buy a game without trying it first? Assuming that a game will be good because it is from your favorite developer or is a sequel to your favorite game is simply ignorant. For example, I used to love Shiny. I played through and purchased MDK, Wild 9, Messiah and Sacrifice. If I had placed blind faith in Shiny, I would have also purchased Enter the Matrix, which was crappy and obviously rushed. This leads into reason number 3...
3) Many games are shipped in an incomplete state. KotoR2, Boiling Point and Vampire: Bloodlines (none of which had demos) were all shipped prematurely and were blatantly unfinished. The "quality assurance" of the software industry is an utter joke and if you blindly purchase games that are unfinished, the industry has no reason to raise its standards.
4) Game reviews are completely unreliable. There was a time when I bought games purely based on reviews and as a result, I ended up wasting money on games that I did not enjoy. "Fun" is highly subjective. Personally, I hate most of Blizzard's games. However, had I purchased the games because of their sparkling reviews, I'd have wasted money on games that I hate. The only way to effectively judge a game is to play it yourself.
5) Return policy (or lack thereof). If I buy a game and end up disliking it, can I return it and get a full refund? No. I'm stuck with it. Even if I claim it is defective, I'll just get the same game back as a replacement. Buying games without playing them first is a good way to waste $40-50. One can argue that this return policy is a result of piracy and that may hold some water. However, even if piracy (and cracking) were to magically disappear, it is unlikely that retailers would become more lenient in accepting returns. Why change a policy that gives them sure-fire profits?
6) Backups. With increasingly overzealous protection schemes, such as Starforce and Securom 7, it is becoming almost impossible to back up your own games. Why would you need to back up your own games, you ask? Loss of the disc and damage of the disc caused by external forces (dogs, water, disc drives that spin the disc too fast causing it to shatter, etc). Store return policies last 15-30 days at the most, so if you lose or damage your disc after that period, you are screwed. Piracy enables the professional crackers to make backups for you when it is impossible to do so yourself.
I use piracy to make informed purchases. I play every game thoroughly and then decide whether or not it is worthy of my money. For this reason, the vast majority of games that I buy are ones that I have already beaten.
If you can find anything illogical about the reasons mentioned above, feel free to continue your conveniently short-sighted belittlement of pirates. Otherwise, you may want to reconsider your own purchasing habits.
This comment was edited on Oct 19, 05:51. |
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