I don't really get the appeal behind early access games. Why pay money for a game that you know is in a beta or sometimes alpha state, unfinished obviously, with no sign of when the final version of the game will actually be sold and with no promise of what the final game will even be like upon completion? Developers even say in their description that game mechanics can change drastically between now and the final version! It's the sheer number of them being sold on Steam, an official and trusted platform for selling games that gets me too. I've seen footage of games currently on there and for a skiing game it is literally basic environment assets and a physics engine. And they're wanting at least $20 from you for it? No thanks. Come back to me when it's done. You know, when it's finished? With bugs ironed out and it has features and stuff?
Of course it's understandable why the devs are doing this, they get funding PLUS playtesters who actually pay YOU. And Steam just wants to cash in on it, I guess, I'm sure they've made a killing with Dayz alone. But yeah, the whole thing seems rather out of control with a ton of games appearing in the Steam ads etc and you don't find out they're in alpha until after you've hoppled on to the game page. There were a few titles I was excited about and then I found out I could become a tester for an unfinished game if I paid them the full price of the product (or more). Yay.
It just doesn't feel like it belongs to Steam store, you know? Maybe they could make a different kind of SECTION or area (Greenlight-style) for these titles.
And you can see why they would do it after the success of Day Z and the monstrous popularity of Minecraft. I do agree with you that Steam needs to filter it better on their side. I mean, I just don't think I will ever really be ok with paying that kind of money for an unfinished game with no end date in sight of when the final version would be released. I mean look at the developer's comments on Rust, a pretty popular game on Steam, right now:
“We are in very early development. Some things work, some things don't. We haven't totally decided where the game is headed - so things will change. Things will change a lot. We might even make changes that you think are wrong. But we have a plan. It's in our interest to make the game awesome - so please trust us.”
My first instinct is to close the tab and march on!
And to kick Dungeon Keeper while it's down,
it's come out that the rating system on Android filters out 1-4 star ratings. Hence the reason why it's around a 4.5 on Google Play Store at the minute. The decription even says that the more 5 star ratings there are will lead the way to free updates. Fuck EA.
A couple more interesting news items I heard lately, most interesting of all being that
Amazon have bought Double Helix (Killer Instinct). Seems like they're getting into game creation now? Could Steam have a geniuine upcoming competitor to deal with?
I thought this was pretty shocking, Mamoru Samuragochi, the composer behind the first Resident Evil and Onimusha games, was exposed as a fraud.
He had hired someone else to write his music for nearly two decades, calling himself the sole composer all the while. He lost all his hearing at 35 but was still 'composing' music, taking all the credit and being heralded as "Japan's Beethoven". Things get more messed up, as it was soon revealed later that a part time music teacher had written the songs instead, receiving payment over the years
and the teacher now claims that Mamoru may be faking his hearing loss as well It gets darker still.
Niigaki said he was paid $77,000 over two decades during which he composed more than 20 pieces of music. "I told him a few times that we should stop doing this, but he never gave in," Niigaki said. "Also he said he would commit suicide if I stop composing for him."
They revealed a new Sonic game called Sonic Boom, exclusive for WiiU and 3DS. But this time it's not made by Sonic team. This time it's in the hands of Big Red Button entertainment, a studio founded by old Naughty Dog (Jak, Uncharted) developers. Cool, sounds interesting. Except....I'm really not digging the new character designs
Did Knuckles just amp up on steroids!?
Everyone else looks fine in this concept art, but look at the trailer, where you see in game footage and this realistic art style approach they're going for and it just looks so bad.
See for yourself in this Skrillex filled trailer.
Topic: The Gaming Postwhoring Thread (Read 1161874 times)