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A Paladin Without A Crusade Thread...

Started by KingIsaacLinksr, July 20, 2012, 11:38:34 PM

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KingIsaacLinksr

This isn't so much a review but rather my thoughts on Steam Greenlight's latest batch of games approved. Its an...experimental Musing series I've been doing. Not sure if I'm going to keep doing it or not but I enjoy it right now so that's all that matters for me ;).

http://kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/kings-musing-about-steam-greenlights-third-batch-of-greenlit-games/

Enjoy!
A Paladin Without A Crusade Blog... www.kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com
My Review of Treks In Sci-Fi Podcast: http://wp.me/pQq2J-zs
Let's Play: Videogames YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/kingisaaclinksr

KingIsaacLinksr

I'm back with another review on the multi-platform game: Waking Mars. An exploration adventure 2D game for Desktop and mobile devices. Check it out:

http://kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/kings-videogame-review-waking-mars/

Enjoy!
A Paladin Without A Crusade Blog... www.kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com
My Review of Treks In Sci-Fi Podcast: http://wp.me/pQq2J-zs
Let's Play: Videogames YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/kingisaaclinksr

KingIsaacLinksr

I wrote up my Top most Disappointing and Dishonorable games of 2012 post down there. The Top 10 Games of 2012 is coming tomorrow which I'll post here when it is up.

http://kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/kings-top-disappointing-and-dishonorable-games-of-2012/

Enjoy! Would like to hear what people thought :).
A Paladin Without A Crusade Blog... www.kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com
My Review of Treks In Sci-Fi Podcast: http://wp.me/pQq2J-zs
Let's Play: Videogames YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/kingisaaclinksr

Jobydrone

I have to ask, Tim, how many of the games you listed as your biggest diappointments of the year did you actually play?

Based on what you wrote about Mass Effect 3, it seems you only watched the ending on You Tube.  There's alot more to ME3 than just the ending.  There's 20-30 hours of content that comes before that, including the best combat engine and AI of the entire series, as well as a brand new, very fun co-op multiplayer mode that still has people addicted almost a year later.

It's fine to be convinced of something based on other people's opinions, but I don't understand how you can state that the game is your biggest diappointment of the year if you haven't even tried it. 
"I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal."  -Groucho Marx

X

Wow, I couldn't disagree with you more on any level. The extra character in ME 3 did absolutely nothing wrong. It did not change the game in any way. You were not required to buy it, but if you did, you got some additional information. Information that had nothing at all to do with the current story and more to the backstory.

Every one of your issues seems to be wrapped in the fact that game companies want to make money.

ME3 was a complete game without the addition of the additional character. Adding the character created added value and the story of that character is the reason that I paid for it.

The ending of ME3 was great, but you only get that if you actually played the game and understood the core of the character. Just like in life, there isn't always a happy ending, but if your ending can save the universe, how is that bad?

I personally don't see how you can review something that you have not invested time into or has yet to come out.

I have friends that are on ME3 almost every time I see them and that says something about the quality of the game.

No offense, but if you are going to review something, the rules of journalism strongly suggest that you experience it, or otherwise it's just libel.

Bryancd

#20
Quote from: X on December 20, 2012, 09:12:03 AM
Every one of your issues seems to be wrapped in the fact that game companies want to make money.
Quote

It's his cause celebre.

KingIsaacLinksr

#21
*sighs*. First off, this is a list, it is not a review of the game. It is not remotely a review, it is my opinion of which games I considered the worst games of 2012 as far as politics of the company go, how bad the development of the game was and whether I considered their business practices fair or not.

As far as Mass Effect 3 goes, it had day one DLC which I saw as nothing but a greedy move to capitalize on players. The DLC had important story information. As such, EA clearly cut the character from the game to make extra money, making you buy the Collector's Edition. I'd like to point out that they did NOT do this in Mass Effect 2 so I don't see why they had to do it in Mass Effect 3. They also forced everyone to download Origin software (even if you had originally started out the series of games on Steam or other services) which is a very shady piece of software that scans your entire computer without your permission. I was not going to be forced to download a piece of software to play a game that I didn't want scanning my computer. I also watched the entire story of the game on YouTube, not just the ending and I have a fairly good idea of what the combat is like. Its an improvement, yes, but it felt like a lot of it was slugging it out on tanked up guys that got old as the game progressed.

The ending was pretty much universally panned by gamers and critics of Mass Effect 3. It was so bad that Bioware went back and fixed the ending in order to address complaints via a free DLC. A company does not do that if it was a "good ending". Otherwise, its seen as a loss of faith in their writers.

I have no problems with companies making money. It is how they make money that I sometimes take great issue with. Cutting out pieces of your game while it is in development to sell as DAY ONE DLC sets an incredibly bad precedent for the future of gaming if we simply tolerate it is as "fact". What if Bioware had cut out half of the game's character lineup and sold them for $20 each on the First Day and the main game for $60? Would you still be fine with that? I sure wouldn't be. But I have little doubt that is what EA tried to test here and we happily accepted it. Except for people like myself.

As far as journalism is concerned, well, I have a set of morals to follow. I cannot simply ignore my morals even for the blog. So I gather my opinions from a variety of trusted sources. Its the best I can do. But as I said above, this is not a review of Mass Effect 3. I never pretend that it is. It is simply my opinion on which games I considered the worst of the year. And yes, Mass Effect 3 is most definitely my least liked game of 2012. I do not simply ignore how a company operates because I want to play the game. That is not who I am.
A Paladin Without A Crusade Blog... www.kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com
My Review of Treks In Sci-Fi Podcast: http://wp.me/pQq2J-zs
Let's Play: Videogames YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/kingisaaclinksr

KingIsaacLinksr

Also, none of that post is "Libel". I straight up said that I have not personally played these games except for two of them. It is also an opinion piece on an opinion blog.

"A libel is a malicious, false statement in written media, a broadcast, or otherwise published words."

Which is nothing that was written in this blog post.
A Paladin Without A Crusade Blog... www.kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com
My Review of Treks In Sci-Fi Podcast: http://wp.me/pQq2J-zs
Let's Play: Videogames YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/kingisaaclinksr

X

You say universally panned, but I see more of a vocal minority. As for them fixing the ending, if you had played it, You'll see that it ends pretty much the same except you get someone to voice over and tell you what has happened since some people didn't seem to get that. It's your opinion, but I don't see how you can form a valid opinion on something based on the opinions of others, trusted or not.

It's like deciding turkey pizza is your all time favorite food because people you trust say it's great and you have yet to try it.

KingIsaacLinksr

#24
Quote from: X on December 20, 2012, 09:52:27 AM
You say universally panned, but I see more of a vocal minority. As for them fixing the ending, if you had played it, You'll see that it ends pretty much the same except you get someone to voice over and tell you what has happened since some people didn't seem to get that. It's your opinion, but I don't see how you can form a valid opinion on something based on the opinions of others, trusted or not.

It's like deciding turkey pizza is your all time favorite food because people you trust say it's great and you have yet to try it.

Big companies don't listen to vocal minorities often. Certainly not EA and Bioware at any rate so I think the amount of people that were complaining about the ending is a lot more than you think. And yeah, the ending is generally the same which I don't deny. And I still think its a bad ending personally, not because of Sheppard's fate but because they basically ignore a lot of the decisions and choices you make throughout the game. What was the point of gathering all of those people and forces from the beginning of the game to the end if they have no visible impact on the ending of the game?

Also, food has no application to any of this. I do not let people decide for me what I think is good to eat or not. I've stated in the past that gaming is my battleground and I expect companies to treat their customers fairly. EA and Bioware spectacularly failed at that just like Ubisoft did a while back with their overly punishing DRM systems. And guess what? Ubisoft is backing down on their DRM because they found out they were losing sales due to less people buying their DRM-filled games. So its entirely possible for companies to treat their customers better and that is what I am simply expecting. It's not difficult.

Keep in mind, all EA had to do for me was avoid selling day-one DLC and avoid forcing Origin down my throat. All I am asking is that customers be allowed to choose how they want to buy the game and be treated fairly for it. Sure, I would have griped about the ending, no doubt about it, but EA could have avoided a lot of my wrath on this had they not restricted customer choice and cut up the game for later DLC.
A Paladin Without A Crusade Blog... www.kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com
My Review of Treks In Sci-Fi Podcast: http://wp.me/pQq2J-zs
Let's Play: Videogames YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/kingisaaclinksr

QuadShot

Tim, perhaps to save time in your next "2012....whatever" review, you should just write the following:
"Hi, everything that attempts to make money is greedy and screwing over people. Period."

Dude, I know that I pan things from time to time, but really? HOW can your form an educated opinion if you've NOT EXPERIENCED THE THING?! Truly...X is right. And as for your defense against libel...uh, nope. You're incorrect. YOU CAN be sued. QUITE a bit of what you said about ME3 alone can be defined as libel..."...Especially if it has questionable hard-drive scanning software within it..." "...other shady practices..." "...it also showed that EA probably forced them to cut corners in order to end the development..." "Between the company politics and a publisher seemingly bent on greed" just to call out a few. Remember, libel, as defined by you above, "A libel is a malicious, false statement in written media, a broadcast, or otherwise published words." published in the digital blogging world is defined as a post that at least ONE other person has read! ONLY ONE. By making this post you had several of us read your blog...so, yeah, it constitutes as a published word. Yep. YOU can be held libel...so yep, YOU should hold yourself accoutable to journalistic standards if you're going to post to the WORLD any opinion that has ANY negative spin at all.


QuadShot

But Tim...they didn't FORCE you to buy that add-on! GET THAT THROUGH YOUR HEAD! YOU decided to buy it. YOU YOU YOU!!!

Bryancd

I just enjoy the colorful language like "battlefield" and "wrath" used when discusiing one persons opinion...about a game.

KingIsaacLinksr

This is not a review of Mass Effect 3 how many times do I need to say this.

And I chose not to buy the game because of the Day One DLC. I chose not to buy the game because they didn't give people the choice to buy the game from where they wanted.

These are the games that I considered the most dishonorable games because they were either poorly developed or it had a developer pulling very anti-consumer behavior. I said all of this in the very first paragraph of that blog post. That right there should have clued you guys in that this is not a list of the most terrible games of 2012. I can certainly go back to that blog post and clarify my position because everyone seems to have missed the point.
A Paladin Without A Crusade Blog... www.kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com
My Review of Treks In Sci-Fi Podcast: http://wp.me/pQq2J-zs
Let's Play: Videogames YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/kingisaaclinksr

Bryancd

Just out of curiousity, because I really don't care much about any of this, but why should you be able to buy a product from where you want? What does that even mean?