9 replies to this topic

[The Average Joe]

As many of you know, I have been into gaming since Atari Pong. I have written reviews for gaming magazines, I have been to industry functions (E3), I have self-taught myself how to build gaming oriented pc's, and, probably most importantly, I am a gamer.

I find it incredibly annoying that every single development company insists on registering with THEIR particular portal service to play the game I have purchased. Want to play Assassin's Creed? You have to log into the Uplay portal (which sucks!). Want to play web based game Defiance? You have to log into the Glyph portal. Like Skyrim or Half-Life? That requires a Steam portal. Like World of Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo ? Those three titans of gaming require a battle.net account. All of these portals require a registration which includes an email, personal identification, and in some cases credit card info.

 

Of course, XBOX users get the Live! service to be their one source shop.

 

I recently upgraded my video card (R9 270), and as part of the deal, I was given two "free" games of my choice from a very limited selection. These required registration at the card manufacturers site...   One of the games I chose was Dirt3. I figured it would work the new card a bit (close to 60 fps with options cranked up at 1600x900). Little did I know that to actually PLAY the game, I would first have to download it through Steam. Then I would have to register with Live! if I wanted to be able to have any saved games (Oh, you evil bastards at Microsoft). I was gonna say screw it, then figured, wth, and started the process of creating a Live! account. Little did I know, to create a Live! account, I needed a Microsoft account. WTF? I was done. Screw them, screw the game. Enough is enough.

 

Dang pc developers keep pushing me to the darkside of console gaming. Must...resist...

 

Although I use a throw away email address, I find this trend not only obtrusive, greedy and annoying, but a real impediment to gaming enjoyment. When you just want to sit down and play a game, and the freaking portal is doing something screwy, or is down for whatever reason, you are reminded that your game is not yours to play as you like. You are at the mercy of the often incompetent corporate overlords much more interested in short term profits than a stable platform. Blizzard is the exception as they have EXCELLENT customer service and I have never had a problem with battle.net

 

That's it. Just wanted to vent.  Perhaps when I'm in a better mood I'll offer some thoughts on the "free-to-play" trend in many games (World of Tanks, Defiance, etc). They have some limitations, but aren't all bad.

 

I just found this old review when going through some digital housekeeping. Ouch. I was a bit...harsh. Then again, they used to pay me for this...lol! This appeared in (the now defunct) Computer Gaming World

 

Suggested Rating: 1 star

Pros: Will probably create a few job openings at Red Storm.

Cons: Just about everything else.

 

Price: $49.95

Publisher: Ubi Soft

Developer: Red Storm Entertainment

www.redstorm.com

ESRB (or RSAC) Rating: Teen 13+ (Animated violence)

 

Review: Freedom: First Resistance

ACTION

Notes to Art Dept. may need to lighten some of the captures

 

Resist This

 

Consider me a “Freedom” fighter

 

by Joe “Biter” Bailey

For whoever is keeping score, consider one karmic debt repaid. Somewhere down the line, I did somebody wrong. It may have been an editor last week, or a concubine in another life, but I owed somebody big-time. Why else would I have had to endure the seemingly endless hours playing this game? Maybe if I can save any of you from suffering that same fate, I’ll acquire enough good karma to get to review Duke Nukem Forever when it’s finally released sometime in my next life.

 

Normally, I prefer to mention the positive things about a game before pointing out its weaknesses. That is a challenge with Freedom: First Resistance, but there were a few minor plusses; the way different motion capture was used for each character was a nice touch, the voice acting for the main character Angel was usually good, the score was ok and the game didn’t cause any crashes.

 

Actually, now that I think of it, a few more things could be considered shrewd design moves. Eliminating all the annoying configuration choices could be considered positive. After all, who needs more than two graphics options and one screen resolution? One size fits all doesn’t it? And of course, making the mouse hypersensitive and leaving out any mouse sensitivity control was sheer genius. Why would anyone in their right might ever want to stop playing FFR when they know that to do so would require them to reset their mouse defaults? Not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that your monitor is working properly after hearing it reset resolutions no less than six times before the game starts. You just can’t put a price tag on piece of mind!

 

And now the bad news…

 

Unfortunately, even a White House press secretary couldn’t spin some of the games negatives into positives. Of these, two absolutely ruin the game. The pacing is awful. It will leave you distracted, disinterested and longing for bed. Note to developers: wandering corridors looking for some elusive foozle doesn’t make for memorable gaming. And path-finding AI that couldn’t fall from a plane and hit the ground makes all that wandering oh so much more enjoyable. When your compatriots aren’t getting stuck in walls, they are getting killed by wandering into kill zones. Leaving them behind is not an option, as they are occasionally needed to perform tasks specific to their talents. You know, really tough tasks like prying open a box, or climbing a two-foot high ledge.

 

Visual design caters to vast, empty, cubist inspired levels that somehow still manage to tank the frame rate of a 733 Mhz GeForce based machine. And there are enough crates and corridors to make even veteran gamers retreat to a corner, assume the fetal position, and mutter repeatedly like Dustin Hoffman in ‘Rain Man.’ Oh wait, that’s four things. Actually, only mentioning four things was an oversight on my part, as I forgot about the anemic sound effects, Tomb Raider-like clipping, and voice acting that is often more caricature than character. Oh, and as homage to level design 101, there actually was a sewer level. Have they no shame?!?

 

At least the plot is original. You play the part of a freedom fighter trying to liberate the Earth from an alien invasion. Along the way, there are keys to find, doors to open and dialog trees to explore. You’ve never seen anything like it! No, really! If you notice a certain odor right now, don’t blame the dog. What you smell is sarcasm.

 

Playing this game is like getting a cavity filled. It’s relatively painless, but you will find yourself squirming in your chair wishing it would end. Then again, 50 dollars is a small price to pay for erasing karmic debt.

[supermom]

well, you need a microsoft account for a lot gaming now. what makes it miserable is that changing the password, the username, or the family rules is a pain in the hiney with that account.

[Steve Heard]

My first thought was, "What?"

 

Second was, 'first world problems'

 

[The Average Joe]

"Can't fast forward through the commercials cause it's live tv!" Hahaha. Too true. But then again, I live in the first world.

 

Small potatoes in the big picture, but imagine if every time you wanted to watch your favorite tv program, you had to log in to ABC's or TNT's or whomevers portal to watch. I'm sure you would find that annoying. Or, say you like shopping at target, but you can only use a target card linked to your account to pay for things. Or, say you want to fill up your gas tank out of town and you pull into a Chevron, but you only have an Arco card and they require you to register with Chevron to get your gas. Seems radically unnecessary doesn't it? Oh sure, I suppose there are benefits FOR THE COMPANY, but from a consumer standpoint, it sucks.

[Steve Heard]

"Can't fast forward through the commercials cause it's live tv!" Hahaha. Too true. But then again, I live in the first world.

 

Small potatoes in the big picture, but imagine if every time you wanted to watch your favorite tv program, you had to log in to ABC's or TNT's or whomevers portal to watch. I'm sure you would find that annoying. Or, say you like shopping at target, but you can only use a target card linked to your account to pay for things. Or, say you want to fill up your gas tank out of town and you pull into a Chevron, but you only have an Arco card and they require you to register with Chevron to get your gas. Seems radically unnecessary doesn't it? Oh sure, I suppose there are benefits FOR THE COMPANY, but from a consumer standpoint, it sucks.

 

I get it. Just couldn't pass up the opportunity.

 

BTW, I used to do corporate travel for EA, Sega, Maxis, Crystal Dynamics, Accolade, Rocket Science, 3DO and others in gaming biz. I went to CES in Vegas and Chicago, and E3 in LA and Atlanta.

 

Those industries spent quite a bit on their parties and celebrity endorsements and appearances.

 

I saw a lot of failed games, and wondered if it was all a big waste and a fad. I remember talking to an company exec who told me it was like being a record company. You put out records and hope they sell, and a lot of them don't, but if you get a hit, millions will buy it. 

 

Crystal Dynamics was doing okay, not great, but they got their big hit with Tomb Raider. They sold over 4 million units, and I think they were probably $30 back then, so that's $120 million. 

[supermom]

well microsoft card cheapest is 25 a pop. every time you want an upgrade you use at least 14.95...

They make millions off of multiple people households (especially if you have a teen)

[The Average Joe]

The gaming industry makes FAR more money than the movie industry annually. At one point, Blizzard had nearly 10 million monthly subscribers to WOW at a minimum of 13.00 each. Pretty amazing since the product is pretty much in a maintenance (and some expansions) mode and first launched in 2004. That is ONE product. Blizzaed has sold more than 37 million copies of their top three franchises as well at around 50.00 a pop. That is one company worth billions. There are dozens of other franchises that have sold more than 50 million copies. Zow! That is some serious coin!

 

I think the record analogy is pretty close, although I tend to think gamers are a lot more demanding of product than music consumers these days (see our other discussion about music these days).

[olivia]

Guess I'm glad to never have gotten into gaming.....

[TruthSeeker]

Are there any good games that will run well on a PC? 

[The Average Joe]

That's a loaded question. There are plenty of fabulous games that run well on a pc....provided you have the hardware.  Some games are processor heavy, some are video card stressors, but most can scale their graphics options to fit your system. I wouldn't try running anything current with a motherboard video chip though. A dedicated card is pretty much required for anything other than flash games or old titles.

I have an "old" 2 core intel processor running at 3ghz, and I just put in a pretty decent video card. It ill run pretty much anything (although not always max eye candy). The card was around 170 bucks, which is a screaming deal for the performance it has. I could have gotten a very decent performing card that didn't require a power supply hook up for around 140.00.

 

As for games, it all depends on what you like. Real time strategy games (think Rise of Nations) tend to be pretty easy on hardware. First person shooters (think Call of Duty) are generally the hardest on hardware.

 

Computer games have more foibles than console games as they have to deal with an infinite number of variables in systems. However, they tend to have a little more depth, and if you have the power, better graphics. You need to go to Fry's or have a fat bandwidth with computer games as most game companies are going to direct download over retail boxes. Sam's has no computer games, and I couldn't find any at Best Buy (and when I asked for pc games, the clerk looked like I had asked her to solve the quadratic equation...no clue). I tend to like hybrid RPG's like Skyrim, Borderlands, Mass Effect or the Dragon's Age series with occasional RTS thrown in. There are a few good space sims coming out. Elite: Dangerous looks amazing, but is not for the casual player. A very deep economy, political structure, and universe make this crowd funded game one to watch for (currently in Beta).

 

As with the supermarket, there is something for everyone!