Everyone is a Critic...

[Red Storm]

It's a bit like professional sports, in that you may be willing to pay to see and be entertained by the best in the world, but you would not be willing to pay to go see amateurs of that same sport.

I personally have my bar set pretty high. I make more than enough money to afford a nice gaming rig and pay for many games a year, but I only ever buy a few at most, because I know those games are actual, good games and because of that they will last me a long time. Publishers don't want this though, they just want the game to be "good enough" to make you go and buy the next iteration. They look to cut every possible corner they can to maximize profit while decreasing costs. Remember full sized boxes loaded with full page color manuals and guide books? No one should be surprised the cost cutting knife eventually found its way over to the actual games themselves.

Console ports are almost always a step back for PC gamers, so it's no wonder why they get disappointed. "They don't make 'em like they used to." isn't an idiom for fun, it's an observation. Game designers used to actually care about their games (along with wanting to make a living), nowadays that passion has been thrown overboard to make room for even more short-sighted money making ideas. Unfortunately there's nothing we can really do about it, there are enough people out there that will pay for anything, and the publishers know this.

 

[gorcorps]

There's certainly nothing wrong with being critical based on your own preferences. If you didn't like Homefront then it was a bad game (for you) to purchase.

The funny bit is when you extrapolate that to make general assumptions about everybody else - I don't like MW2, therefore MW2 is a bad game, therefore the company is a sellout for making a bad game that millions like instead of a good game that I would like.

this

There's a huge difference between "wow I really don't like this game" and "this game SUCKS everybody haha and the people who like it are dumb lulz CRYSIS 1 4EVAH!!!" I can't stand this thinking. There's a ton of RPGs I can't stand, but that doesn't mean they suck. Just means I don't like them. Same thing with a lot of strategy games too. Civilization just isn't my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it sucks.

 

[sigurros81]

this

There's a huge difference between "wow I really don't like this game" and "this game SUCKS everybody haha and the people who like it are dumb lulz CRYSIS 1 4EVAH!!!" I can't stand this thinking. There's a ton of RPGs I can't stand, but that doesn't mean they suck. Just means I don't like them. Same thing with a lot of strategy games too. Civilization just isn't my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it sucks.

I agree. Everyone have their opinions, but certain people have this false sense of righteousness that their opinion is the end all and be all. And you get to see plenty of that thanks to the buffer of the internet, allowing scrubs to sound all high and mighty behind their computer screen, thinking it's the cool thing to do to be going against the majority.

All I'm asking for is a little bit of objectivity and respect for people who disagree with you when voicing your opinions. It cracks me up how much crap people spew on these forums, using Crysis 2 as an example: Everyone's flaming that Crysis 1 looks so much better than Crysis 2, but in reality, try firing up Crysis 1/warhead, and you'll see the obvious low res textures and low poly tree trunks everywhere. People are just basing all these 'facts' on memory.

 

[CountZero]

Have you guys seen Serious Sam HD? If they gave games like Half-Life the same "face-lift" I'm sure people would pay to play it...

Again, in my mind, sure games could be better, almost every game could be better, but I don't let the imperfections keep me from enjoying the rest of the game...

You miss the point of being critical. Your imperfections are someone else's game breaking problems. If that imperfections is game breaking to you then it ceases to be fun no matter what that imperfection is. I don't think you see many people that would say there are no fun games because all of them are imperfect, what you see are people that believe the imperfections for some games are game breaking.

 

[Anomaly1964]

I agree. Everyone have their opinions, but certain people have this false sense of righteousness that their opinion is the end all and be all. And you get to see plenty of that thanks to the buffer of the internet, allowing scrubs to sound all high and mighty behind their computer screen, thinking it's the cool thing to do to be going against the majority.

All I'm asking for is a little bit of objectivity and respect for people who disagree with you when voicing your opinions. It cracks me up how much crap people spew on these forums, using Crysis 2 as an example: Everyone's flaming that Crysis 1 looks so much better than Crysis 2, but in reality, try firing up Crysis 1/warhead, and you'll see the obvious low res textures and low poly tree trunks everywhere. People are just basing all these 'facts' on memory.

Bingo...

 

[zerocool84]

Have you actually played it? Because I have, and even in DX9 it surpasses the original in terms of graphics. And even if it is a console port it's still a hell-of-a-lot better on PC.

Most people played the demo so we have some say in how it is. If the demo wasn't representative of the final game's graphics or gameplay then that's Crytek's fault for releasing a half-assed demo as their way to entice people to buy the game. Gameplay is basically ripped from Call of Duty, all that's changed is the suit. Sorry but we've already had 3+ years of the same CoD gameplay, I don't want to play yet another game that plays just like it. Graphics are not good either which hurts it even more. If you like the game then more power to you but when gameplay is basically ripped from another game and graphics are worse than it's 3yr+ predecessor, then something is wrong.

 

[sigurros81]

Most people played the demo so we have some say in how it is. If the demo wasn't representative of the final game's graphics or gameplay then that's Crytek's fault for releasing a half-assed demo as their way to entice people to buy the game. Gameplay is basically ripped from Call of Duty, all that's changed is the suit. Sorry but we've already had 3+ years of the same CoD gameplay, I don't want to play yet another game that plays just like it. Graphics are not good either which hurts it even more. If you like the game then more power to you but when gameplay is basically ripped from another game and graphics are worse than it's 3yr+ predecessor, then something is wrong.

I agree, they totally ripped off this whole 'first-person' thing from Doom. Replace aliens with demons from hell, and you just have Doom with suit powers and 3D models as oppose to sprites.

 

[popgunjustin]

I hardly ever post on here, but this debate is getting really old. I don't think that it's a question of are the games any good, it's a question of what is being done to innovate in the PC market and move technology and gameplay forward. People are tired of seeing the same poorly optimized game over and over. Games that are being created with the standards of console gaming in mind. Console ports have existed since the beginning of console gaming, I still remember picking up Panzer Dragoon on the PC because I couldn't afford a Sega Saturn. The thing is that in those times there were still plenty of PC developers who were pushing the platform forward.

Right now PC gaming is being held back by the limitations of consoles and greedy publishers with no imaginations. That didn't used to be the case. There aren't many companies trying to really push hardware or new ideas, and I think that is why people are so disappointed with Crysis 2, Dragon Age 2, etc. The inclusion of DX11 may help, but to most it is an afterthought. It makes it obvious that the game wasn't developed with PC gamers in mind to start with.

As for statements about selling 50 million vs 10 million, who cares? I want big business out of my gaming. Developers shouldn't be making games because they want to make millions, they should be making games because they care about gaming. If developers are so concerned about making money then they shouldn't have gotten into gaming to start with.

Besides if a game is good enough it will make plenty of money, regardless of publisher or marketing campaigns. How many copies has Minecraft sold, through word of mouth?

This is why I will continue to support independent games, music, and movies. That is the real future of the industry.

 

[greenhawk]

The funny bit is when you extrapolate that to make general assumptions about everybody else - I don't like MW2, therefore MW2 is a bad game, therefore the company is a sellout for making a bad game that millions like instead of a good game that I would like.

I can extrapolate well enough to say a game is bad.

Take Far Cry 2 as a example. I did not like it and by your definistion, I am crap.

But then I can say "compaired to FarCry 1" / what was expected, ect. I can find many other people that also agree that when you summerise the game, it was crap.

Going from a bad game to a sell out company is a strech. You have to atleast mention why. If the reason for a poor game is because of design decisions, then you could say they aimed for that sort of game. If that is not a definition of a sell out (ie: we make PC games.......... that work on consoles).

In the end though, making millions from a game is only needed if they were silly enough to spend that much making the game. A lot of good games get better returns on money spent as they are good/popular to the masses and do not need 100,000 worth of advertising before release day. Minecraft comes to mind as an example.

 

[greenhawk]

were it YOUR company, would you produce a product that would sell 50 million copies or a product that would sell 10 million copies?

I would go for the 50 million copies if it was my business, BUT, I would also have the integrity to be upfront about what the game is up front as well.

Letting a third party spill the beans about what was being omitted for the release is just not good ethics.

 

[greenhawk]

HOW do we get PC games BACK to the level we as enthusiasts want them?

Step 1 - do not buy games that are crap

step 2 - buy multiple copies of games you like

step 3 - do not pirate

step 4 - start a grass roots campain that expresses PC games != console (or casual) gamers in what they want.

 

[greenhawk]

I've seen pics where the title screen says press start

while fixed in a patch, I found another post that is nearly as bad in that area.

It was a screen shot of setting up brightness in the game. The comment as the bottom was "if you can still not see the image, adjust your TV's brightness". or to that effect anyway.

It comes across as nearly being as bad as a cheap language translation to English from who knows what.

 

[bentheman939]

Civilization just isn't my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it sucks.

Yes it does... Civ5 sucks.