You have unlocked 2 new pieces of gallary art!!

[Molloy]

Is anybody else sick to ****ing death with unlockable content? There was a time 10 years ago when it was sort of new and interesting. But it's just been getting worse and worse.

Ridge Racer and Wipeout had a sensible level of unlockables. A corrupted save file wouldn't mean 50+ hours of content lost. You could probably reunlock the whole thing in an hour with sufficient practice.

Now we have the likes of GT4 where it's all down to perseverance. It's just a matter of clocking incredible hours of playtime.

I bought Powerdrome last week for ?10. It wasn't much to pay so I was hoping for a nice disposable piece of entertainment. No such luck. Every couple of minutes the gameplay stops, declares I've unlocked a new course, gallery art, new character (complete with banal backstory) and makes me wait 20 seconds while it autosaves.

[Spatial]

Yes. Yes I am.

Its a novelty thats been taken to far by some games designers who can't wait to shoe horn extra stuff in.

Rewards for completing games on different modes isn't too bad, but when they start unlocking stuff every time you complete a level it gets a bit daft.

That and multiple / extended endings (for getting 100% completion or collection) really gets my goat - metaphorically speaking of course

[Jebus]

I'll agree with you on this, when I was a kid the gameplay was enough to make me play again. Playing Sonic the Hedgehog to completion didn't give you anything for the next playthrough, but we used to complete it twice a day, it was just such amazing fun. Mario the same.

I'm sick to ****ing death of ****ty games trying to increase their longevity by giving you a new ****ing costume to play the game with again, yeah like that'll make the gameplay experience so different. Oooh look those Zombies will run away cos I'm in a police uniform now.

But that said it's another example of them taking the piss out of us gamers.

[Dezm0nd]

Mortal Kombat Deception is ****ing toss for that, it gives you X amounts of Koffins to guess with and an abysmal single player "adventure" for you to unlock the serious characters. Just a list of things to unlock using the points you've gotten is fine, like V Joe!

[l_p_4_7]

*coughs* burnout 3 *coughs*

[Jebus]

Mortal Kombat Deception is ****ing toss for that, it gives you X amounts of Koffins to guess with and an abysmal single player "adventure" for you to unlock the serious characters. Just a list of things to unlock using the points you've gotten is fine, like V Joe!

Oh the Mortal Kombat thing was worse than having **** rubbed in your face all day long. It wouldn't have been so bad but the "adventure" game was terrible as well. On the subject of that game, 1 fatality? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

Even the really good games suffer from it slightly...

[Molloy]

I haven't played Burnout 3 yet but Burnout 2 was definately a bad culprit. I was playing Outrun 2: Special Tours at the arcade just now and it makes you realise how phenominally bloated and bland racers are getting.

As Jebus says back in the 16-bit days it was either fun or not. And that determined how long it lasted. You could finish the thing every week for a year. Now every title is trying to build in this RPG style advancement thing to make you feel like you've accomplished something.

I think if the prices would come down to something more reasonable like music or movie DVD prices we'd see an end to this ridiculous content over quality issue we've got at the moment. If consumers and developers would stop thinking about how long something needs to last rather than judging the product by its own merits we'd be a hell of alot better off.

[Ish]

That and multiple / extended endings (for getting 100% completion or collection) really gets my goat - metaphorically speaking of course

The 100% thing bugs the hell out of me. I don't have time, actually thinking about it nor the will, to play completed games again (if I did it would be at the expense of playing something new) so god forbid I forget to scan something or miss a bad guy.

Drives me nuts. Its like being penalised for not being able to devote your entire life to the game. Grrrr.

[phresh]

Yeah, this ****s me off big time. ANy game nowadays you get an unlockable just from starting a new bloody save. The last game I actually remember enjoying getting unloackables on was Goldeneye. Not only were they genuinly challenging in some places and led to a lot of competition between me and my mates, a lot of them also added something to the game to give it a little bit of variation, or just longetivity.

[edandersen]

The Art Gallery in Soul Calibur is PHAT though. Don't knock that.

Best unlockable ever though is Green Hill Zone in Sonic Adventure 2. 250 hours went into my save file to get all those ****ing emblems and it was well worth it!

[babs]

I like unlockables, it gives you something to aim for, and in short games when you aren't score/time attacking it's nice to get a reward and something to come back for. In fact I'd go so far as to say unlocking stuff in games is one of my favourite things . It depends how you look at it, in limited games anything extra is just a bonus, and in Bemani games unlocking tracks is half the fun in the first few weeks of owning them for me.

[JU!]

I am a bit sick of unlockables does make you want to play more. I have unlocked that much on Soul Calibur 2 but still have some stuff missing. This is annoying and more annoying still i don't know what the stuff is or how to get it else i would play and get it I always back up on at least one memory card it would be suicidal not to.

[Ady]

I don't have a problem with it at all. It's by no means a necessity, but something for the player who wants to get the most out of their game. There's something to be said about slowly unlocking a game.

Then, on the other hand, people moan that games are too short. Sometimes, it's like gamers just want to have their cake and eat it.

[Akujiki]

yeah, how I dig the fact that street fighter (33s) can be enjoyed entirely without memory card, which is lacking at my working place.

[IcePak]

I don't dislike the idea of unlockables, but I think a lot of developers go way overboard when it comes to extras, and I dislike that. New costumes are pretty worthless, because it adds nothing to the game. IF the unlockables add to the game experience, then I don't mind them. If they are just there for the sake of having something to unlock in the game, then what's the point.

Even artwork is a pretty dire unlockable. I do personally like to see the artwork and concept sketches from the developers, but why make it something you have to earn to view - make it something available from the start of the game, like Street Fighter Alpha 2 did.