Any gamers around here?

[Shiranu]

While I'm glad Cyberpunk is finally in an acceptable state, I don't appreciate this recent trend, where publishers release a game in an unacceptably broken state, and then eventually fix it. I understand games will launch with bugs, especially open world games, where a lot of things can randomly go wrong. But a game should be released in a state where, if they would be unable to patch it, people would still be happy with what they created.

The worst part about it is just how garbage programmers and artists are treated to even get it out that fast; I know CDPR were particularly criticized for that with CP, with employees spending weeks at the studio without going home because they were doing like 12+ hour shifts.

These producers don't give a shit about their customers, their employees... they just want to crank out the next $$$ machine regardless of if it's shit because people will preorder it anyways. And imagine what that must be like... you spend months, years, barely seeing your family, unhealthy from hours upon hours at your desk, depressed due to the pressures placed on you from your job and having no social life, that seeps into your programming and making you less motivated... and you have to put out a game like Anthem or CP2077 that people forget about in a month because it's such a buggy mess or just straight garbage that the publishers probably never even played 10 minutes on.

That has to be soul crushing, and partly why I have really limited my buying of Triple-A games in the last few years (that, and the fact they just tend to suck). These 3A studios are actually legitimately immoral corporate entities, even in comparison to many other corporations.

[Blackleaf]

The worst part about it is just how garbage programmers and artists are treated to even get it out that fast; I know CDPR were particularly criticized for that with CP, with employees spending weeks at the studio without going home because they were doing like 12+ hour shifts.

These producers don't give a shit about their customers, their employees... they just want to crank out the next $$$ machine regardless of if it's shit because people will preorder it anyways. And imagine what that must be like... you spend months, years, barely seeing your family, unhealthy from hours upon hours at your desk, depressed due to the pressures placed on you from your job and having no social life, that seeps into your programming and making you less motivated... and you have to put out a game like Anthem or CP2077 that people forget about in a month because it's such a buggy mess or just straight garbage that the publishers probably never even played 10 minutes on.

That has to be soul crushing, and partly why I have really limited my buying of Triple-A games in the last few years (that, and the fact they just tend to suck). These 3A studios are actually legitimately immoral corporate entities, even in comparison to many other corporations.

It doesn't even make sense from the point-of-view of productivity. I understand corporate machines want to squeeze as much work out of their employees as possible, but it turns out you get a lot more productivity if your employees are allowed to rest. Forcing them, or even just passively allowing them, to work 12+ hour shifts is counterproductive. One good thing about Nintendo is their workplace culture. They do not engage in crunch time. In fact, when they heard employees were crunching when developing Metroid Prime (a third-party title), Nintendo got involved and put a stop to it. Look at their games. I can't think of a single first-party Nintendo game that launched a buggy mess. Some might not have been great in concept, but Nintendo quality has been consistently high for as long as I can remember, and part of that is because their employees are resting, and by extension, are much more productive while working.

[Hydra009]

That's the main reason why I try to steer clear of AAA and especially pre-order AAA.  Even if the trailer looks amazing.

The last game I bought in early access was Endless Space 2.  I knew it was in an unfinished state, I was just so curious to see it, wanted to support the devs, and there was a slight discount at the time.  I had a blast in beta, but man oh man, was it buggy.  It literally blue-screened my comp a few times before they optimized it to use resources a little more gingerly.

They took their time and released a solid product at official launch, while giving beta players a sneak peak in a rough, unfinished state.  That's how things should be.

[the_antithesis]

Everybody is a beta tester!

[Hydra009]

A couple times now, I've wanted to buy DLC for some of my games to spice them up a bit.  But I look at the reviews and they're mixed and then I have to read them to try to decipher what's up with this DLC.

Turns out it starts an event which will eat you for breakfast if triggered early enough, and it triggers randomly.  So it's basically Russian roulette DLC.  And it sometimes bugs out the existing content and makes the game less playable lol.

[the_antithesis]

So I tried the remastered version of Bioshock again and I am totally pissed at it. The aiming is so fucking off. I swear to god. In the original, I can headshot sploicers in the medical pavilion, but here, I just miss them Ever. Fucking. Time. I miss them with lightning, goddammit. It's cheap. And slightly buggy. The ragdolls were always a little floaty, but it looks worse in HD.

So, I'm giving up again and will probably stick to the original version from now on. If I wanted to be frustrated and ineffective, I'd just live my life.

[Blackleaf]

That's the main reason why I try to steer clear of AAA and especially pre-order AAA.  Even if the trailer looks amazing.

The last game I bought in early access was Endless Space 2.  I knew it was in an unfinished state, I was just so curious to see it, wanted to support the devs, and there was a slight discount at the time.  I had a blast in beta, but man oh man, was it buggy.  It literally blue-screened my comp a few times before they optimized it to use resources a little more gingerly.

They took their time and released a solid product at official launch, while giving beta players a sneak peak in a rough, unfinished state.  That's how things should be.

The more amazing a game looks, the more skeptical I've learned to be of its actual value. The number of times a trailer would show these amazing graphics, just to massively tone them down, or promise features that would never make it into the actual game, is too damn high. They've become masters of suckering people into buying games that don't actually exist.

[Mike Cl]

The more amazing a game looks, the more skeptical I've learned to be of its actual value. The number of times a trailer would show these amazing graphics, just to massively tone them down, or promise features that would never make it into the actual game, is too damn high. They've become masters of suckering people into buying games that don't actually exist.

That is one of the reasons I don't buy a game pre-release or even on the day of its release.  I like to wait at least a month and read the reviews prior to purchase.  And if I can force myself to wait, I will buy it when it comes up for sale for the first time. 

[drunkenshoe]

This is probably the funniest one I saw.

https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/t20tx8/my_input_is_invaluable_of_course_but_this_is_all/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[Shiranu]

15 hours into Elden Ring now, and my god I am enjoying this game. I've always "enjoyed" Soulsbourne games, but not to the point I play them more than like 2-3 hours before going back to something else. The world is just so beautiful and interesting to explore, and the combat is as crisp as ever.

[Mike Cl]

15 hours into Elden Ring now, and my god I am enjoying this game. I've always "enjoyed" Soulsbourne games, but not to the point I play them more than like 2-3 hours before going back to something else. The world is just so beautiful and interesting to explore, and the combat is as crisp as ever.

You are a brave man!  It looks like a game I'd love.  But I'm giving it my usual treatment.  Wait for about a month and see what shakes out.  Then maybe wait for a sale or jump on it then if it looks like a game I can get my teeth into.  So, 15 hrs and no bugs?  That is indeed, good news.  Keep us posted if you run across bugs.

[Shiranu]

You are a brave man!  It looks like a game I'd love.  But I'm giving it my usual treatment.  Wait for about a month and see what shakes out.  Then maybe wait for a sale or jump on it then if it looks like a game I can get my teeth into.  So, 15 hrs and no bugs?  That is indeed, good news.  Keep us posted if you run across bugs.

Only bug so far has been a little frame-rate drops (maybe from 60 to like 25) for a half second or so, but I don't think it's ever happened during combat. That could also be my computer, she's a beast... but she is also about 7 years old now.

Fromsoft games tend to be really well done when they come out, at least all the one's I've played, and they were letting reviewers give their opinion of the game like 2 weeks early and get full copies as well, which means they were really confident they had a good product. That's what convinced me to gamble on it to be honest.

[Hydra009]

Regrettably, I've had to uninstall World of Tanks and World of Warships  (Belarusian/Russian companies)

On the plus side, I've reinstalled the best RTS ever, Red Alert 2.  And let's just say that I'm getting very good at chronoshifting War Miners into the ocean.  Especially when they're like 2 seconds away from dropping off their cargo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsTYo58R5UU

[Shiranu]

Good to see Valve putting something out, feels like it's been a hot minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py65lULJ8w0

[Shiranu]

35 hours into Elden, haven't been playing it as consistently since I've gotten stuck and need to git gud, but still really enjoying the game and few problems. Regretfully just farmed a bunch of faith to use a weapon I ended up not liking how it feels to use, but such is life. Using a holy spear now and it's much better, but I legit think I just really like my holy flail that does half the damage, 1/5th of the reach and looks a bit pathetic... it just fits me.