What the hell is wrong with PC games these days

[Hitmen]

I just bought my first PC game in quite a while, and the experience was absolutely atrocious. The game I bought was Bulletstorm, it looked pretty cool and I wanted to shoot things in a game that wasn't call of duty rehash #47. I bought the game through Steam which I thought meant it would use steam for all of its online stuff. Apparently Microsoft has been attempting to smear its xbox live feces all over PC games these days too, but I basically just wanted to play the single player game for now so I didn't really care or want to deal with it. When you start the game it tells you that you need to sign in to play online, and I told it to go away because I didn't want to play online. Apparently whoever writes their messages is retarded because it won't let you play at all unless you sign in, and just kicks you back to the log in screen. Now I have to create an account for yet another stupid service, but whatever, I paid for the game and want to play it. Now I have an account and want to sign in, but no! I can't sign in because games for windows live is not up to date. It downloads the update and tells me to restart the game. You can't restart the fucking game because you can't even get to the main menu without being logged in. There is no natural or obvious way to close the game, alt+f4 didn't even work, so I used the task manager to kill the process. After the game was closed the games for windows live update stuff popped up, and I say it can update, and now it is installing some more stupid shit on my computer. Really, you don't need to install a system service so I can sign in to your third party piece of garbage online service so I can play a fucking single player game.

I haven't even played the game yet because I was so angry I had to find somewhere to complain about it. I've basically been held hostage by WoW for about 6 years so I didn't realize how much everything has turned to absolute shit in the mean time. I keep hearing about ridiculous DRM breaking stuff, is this shit really so common in PC games these days? It is completely unfathomable to me that a developer would release a product in this state. What would someone who doesn't know shit about computers do when it tries to update and they can't get out of the game?

[deadly7]

I haven't even played the game yet because I was so angry I had to find somewhere to complain about it. I've basically been held hostage by WoW for about 6 years so I didn't realize how much everything has turned to absolute shit in the mean time. I keep hearing about ridiculous DRM breaking stuff, is this shit really so common in PC games these days? It is completely unfathomable to me that a developer would release a product in this state. What would someone who doesn't know shit about computers do when it tries to update and they can't get out of the game?

Yes, all games are like this. They call tech support, complain, get $50 off their next purchase, and keep the company's pockets filled.

This is why I don't buy or play most video games anymore.

[iago]

Like.

I was so angry I had to find somewhere to complain about it.

TO THE INTERNET!

[Furious]

Like.

I was so angry I had to find somewhere to complain about it.

TO THE INTERNET!

Owned by iago.

[Sidoh]

Yeah, that's really frustrating.  I think at least part of the problem is many current PC games were created as an afterthought.  The console game did well, so they ported it to PC.  Alternatively, they developed it in parallel with a console game.

I think this screws with things significantly.  Game studios that have nothing to do with console games seem to create PC games of much higher quality.  Take Blizzard, for example.  High quality shit.  Not to say it doesn't have its problems, but it has a very "refined" feel to it that console-to-PC ports lack entirely (think: Bioshock, Mass Effect, etc.)

In short, I agree.  I hate shit like Steam and Live.  I want to punch the asshole who thought it'd be a good idea.

[Joe]

You know, when he described "I need to create an account with your service to play the game offline", I thought SC2. But at least it doesn't depend on Micro$oft stuff.

[Sidoh]

You know, when he described "I need to create an account with your service to play the game offline", I thought SC2. But at least it doesn't depend on Micro$oft stuff.

That occurred to me, but I think it's excusable since Blizzard probably did it right (or at least "more right" than EA/MS...)

[iago]

Games suck these days. Too many stupid bits. Until they get their retardedness under control, I'm going to stick with old/indy/opensource games.

[Chavo]

I've had an equal amount of frustration with indy companies, especially when they work with Steam.  Still, I prefer the internet-connection-and-account requirements to rootkits on my PC .

[Hitmen]

In short, I agree.  I hate shit like Steam and Live.  I want to punch the asshole who thought it'd be a good idea.

Steam is minimally intrusive compared to live, and at least offers a decent service as a convenient way to buy games. Also Joe, RealID sucks, and is stupid, and should probably die in some kind of fire. I'm pretty sure I made a thread complaining about that too!

Games suck these days. Too many stupid bits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCud8H7z7vU&feature=player_detailpage#t=33s

[Sidoh]

I'll admit that it's been a while since I last used steam... Crysis, I think?  I pretty much gave up on it after that experience, though.

[AntiVirus]

Wait... there are games outside of WoW? :O

[Furious]

Wait... there are games outside of WoW? :O

I haven't touched WoW in weeks.  This expansion was a big let down

[Blaze]

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=30650

This game will probably be cool, plus it's got the best game theme song ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-y0MdPXslo

[rabbit]

EVE!

Lot's of fun, but it's hard.

[dark_drake]

I agree. I really feel like the DRM implemented in commercial releases hurts legitimate customers. I can remember the fiasco with Assassin's Creed 2. Basically, you had to be online the entire time while you were playing a single player game. If you lost your connection, you'd be kicked back to a checkpoint. They then patched this so you would start in the exact spot your connection was lost. Either way, it was completely retarded. There is *NO* reason I should have to be online to play a single player game. I'll accept online activation, but not the constant connection or even the requirement I be online to start the game up after activation.

The DRM is punishing legitimate consumers by badgering them any time they want to just play the game. I don't always have an internet connection, but that's not a good reason I shouldn't be able to play the games I purchased. Furthermore, piracy is an issue on xbox (albeit it, not as big of one), yet there is no such requirement for me to connect to the internet for me to play my xbox games. The PC shouldn't require significant differences. A cd key to prevent the same license from being used at the same time online, and that's good.

EVE!

Lot's of fun, but it's hard.

What's the time commitment on this?

[rabbit]

It depends on what you want to do.  If you enjoy mining, you'll make no profits but you can basically do it with no effort.

PvE can be fun.  You'll make decent money and it's relatively safe, and you can put in as much or as little time as you want.

PvP is by far the most fun.  You'll lose money until you're good, at which point you'll make lots of money.  Maybe 3 hours a couple nights a week is plenty (though I play more).

Regardless, as a new character you'll have to log on at least once a day, just for a couple minutes, to update your skill queue.  Later on you won't need to do that, as some of the higher end skills take over a month realtime to train, so you can basically just set them and go on vacation.

[dark_drake]

It depends on what you want to do.  If you enjoy mining, you'll make no profits but you can basically do it with no effort.

PvE can be fun.  You'll make decent money and it's relatively safe, and you can put in as much or as little time as you want.

PvP is by far the most fun.  You'll lose money until you're good, at which point you'll make lots of money.  Maybe 3 hours a couple nights a week is plenty (though I play more).

Regardless, as a new character you'll have to log on at least once a day, just for a couple minutes, to update your skill queue.  Later on you won't need to do that, as some of the higher end skills take over a month realtime to train, so you can basically just set them and go on vacation.

Interesting. EVE has interested me since I quit SWG in 2005. Can you describe the gameplay? Can you compare it to WoW or any MMO you may have played before?

[AntiVirus]

Wait... there are games outside of WoW? :O

I haven't touched WoW in weeks.  This expansion was a big let down

Yeah, I stopped playing for awhile.  However, since I lead a guild with friends I came back.  I am not enjoying what they did to healing.  I'm glad it isn't the Wotlk model, but this one is probably less fun. Oh well, leveling my hunter and very much enjoying it.

[rabbit]

It depends on what you want to do.  If you enjoy mining, you'll make no profits but you can basically do it with no effort.

PvE can be fun.  You'll make decent money and it's relatively safe, and you can put in as much or as little time as you want.

PvP is by far the most fun.  You'll lose money until you're good, at which point you'll make lots of money.  Maybe 3 hours a couple nights a week is plenty (though I play more).

Regardless, as a new character you'll have to log on at least once a day, just for a couple minutes, to update your skill queue.  Later on you won't need to do that, as some of the higher end skills take over a month realtime to train, so you can basically just set them and go on vacation.

Interesting. EVE has interested me since I quit SWG in 2005. Can you describe the gameplay? Can you compare it to WoW or any MMO you may have played before?

hmm

What I've been doing with my corp ("guild" if you're that king of person) recently has basically amounted to the following:

Kill everything

There's a lot I was going to talk about but then there was a big battle so I stopped and now it's late so I'll explain tomorrow.

[Mythix]

To be fair though, Bulletstorm was hideous. It was gears of war minus an actual cover system, so even if you had been able to sneak past Steam upon playing, you would have walked into a headshot right as it loaded.

[nslay]

I want to play that game where I do laundry, only it's virtual laundry so somehow it's fun (making fun of that cooking game)!

[iago]

Desert Bus!!!

[Mythix]

Desert Bus!!!

We dont talk about that, that never existed, nor did it work on the sega cd...


He knows too much.

[deadly7]

An even bigger problem than games that have various DRM features is the newfound lack of community in virtually any video game. Back in the days of SC, aka 10-15 years ago, I don't remember there being people so preoccupied with building uber teams. Everyone just wanted to have a good time. Now every game keeps statistics, and if you don't meet $ARBITRARY_CUTOFF because you don't spend all day gaming, you find yourself booted into the lobby countless times. Or if you do manage to get into a game it's an hour of "OMG NOOB NOOB NOOB NOOB NOOB OMG GOD YOU FUCKIGN SUCK" ad infinitum. As a casual gamer, fuck that. I play maybe an hour or two a week. I want to have fun, not worry if I am ubar leet ten year old videogamer. Have more important things to worry about.

[iago]

So, my friend brought his PS3 over so we can play Bionic Commando Rearmed 2. But, it turns out the game won't start until it has an Internet connection, even though it's an offline 2-player game, so we had to spend a bunch of extra time getting the networks set up before we can play a damn offline game!

Lame++