Gaming irks

[dataDave]

No it’s not. Just get a MiSTer.

[Deuteros]

Sure, thankfully there's a couple of greyer options. Otherwise, corporate greed and Disney-driven copyright laws would deprive us of a lot of things...

[speedlolita]

Cave Story is freeware.

[Deuteros]

I know, I've played it to completion but I'd like to check out the additions that were made to it with Cave Story+ (even though I've heard the stories surrounding Nicalis and Tyrone Rodriguez).

[eastyy]

The crossover thing that is happening In games is getting a bit mental, saw a Call of duty ad where for some reason (probably money) they have a Starlight skin from The Boys introduced

[eastyy]

Used to be play a demo to encourage preordering or getting at launch and now it's preorder so u can get the demo lol

[Wools]

The vanishing of Demos is a real pain point for me.

I totally get why they’re gone as they cost money to make and the Publisher thinks of it as lost sales. But I used to adore monthly demo discs which eventually became downloadable demos, as they gave you a real taste of the game and as a kid with not much spare cash knocking about, they were entertainment in lieu of the main game.

The market is different now with free to play options and digital games are now (In sales anyway!) as cheap as physical games were in sales. But the ability to try something out, and realise it’s not for you but also, you may try something out of boredom, love it and then purchase the game itself, is a boon for the consumer and a lifeline for smaller games.

[dataDave]

Nintendo still throw out demos more often than not. There's a demo for Pikmin 4. They've not completely vanished. We have a stingy friend who's son only plays demos, free-to-play, and sometimes games he borrows.

I think the problem is that modern Western game development continues right up to the last moment with launch day patches and ****. Why would you want to publicly display your genuinely unfinished game? Back in the era of the 90s demo disc the games were usually fully complete and just awaiting their translation or pre-launch marketing push (of which the demo was a component of).

[eastyy]

The whole Mortal Kombat 1 Preorder Beta thing was what got me thinking about it.....I still think this whole beta thing is a bit of a sham and to me they are just demos

[fishbowlhead]

The whole Mortal Kombat 1 Preorder Beta thing was what got me thinking about it.....I still think this whole beta thing is a bit of a sham and to me they are just demos

MK can go die in a rubbish bin, who buys this crap still anyway? Looks crap, plays crap and is unbelievably predatory with MT’s riddled through the game.


My other gaming irk, day one edition, F off devs, just make your game, if its crap it will get left on the shelf anyway, patches later on or multi player maps wont fix it.

[speedlolita]

While I agree with your sentiment, MK is the best selling fighting game.

[fishbowlhead]

Nintendo still throw out demos more often than not. There's a demo for Pikmin 4. They've not completely vanished. We have a stingy friend who's son only plays demos, free-to-play, and sometimes games he borrows.

I think the problem is that modern Western game development continues right up to the last moment with launch day patches and ****. Why would you want to publicly display your genuinely unfinished game? Back in the era of the 90s demo disc the games were usually fully complete and just awaiting their translation or pre-launch marketing push (of which the demo was a component of).

Western game development has hit an all time low really, games are just shoved out the door in a fundamentally broken or unsustainable state, because they know adverts will sell it anyway. Some games aren’t even on the disk, it’s disgusting.

At least with Nintendo they still have (some) principles, you buy a cart, it’s working out the box in a finished state, no questions asked, no fear of that being blank cart or requiring a 100gig download.

[gunrock]

Well, to be fair, they still get patched - Zelda TOTK and BOTW are good examples. But yes, fundamentally they are working and complete games. Without the patches the game is there and works.

[Asura]

The vanishing of Demos is a real pain point for me.

There's another reason. It's because on Steam (in particular, though other stores have policies too) you can, no-questions asked, get a refund on any game you buy, provided you've played it less than 2 hours and have owned it less than 24hrs.

So if you want to "try" a game, you can buy it, try it, and refund it, if it doesn't run so well on your PC or you just don't like it.

[Wools]

There's another reason. It's because on Steam (in particular, though other stores have policies too) you can, no-questions asked, get a refund on any game you buy, provided you've played it less than 2 hours and have owned it less than 24hrs.

So if you want to "try" a game, you can buy it, try it, and refund it, if it doesn't run so well on your PC or you just don't like it.

True and I didn't think of that. My only argument back is that the user has to buy it with cash in the first place and as a developer myself, I do get an eye twitch that the public can ask for a refund on a game. Maybe in this era of broken software it's acceptable, but also the system can be abused. It's cool it's available if you want it, though.

I still look back to me being a kid and the £4.99 I saved up for each month to buy PC Gamer and Official PlayStation Magazine here in the UK, and then have a host of non-curated games to play through was a lifeline of fun for me. Reaching a highpoint during the 360 era, where mostly all games had a demo and could be downloaded, was just brilliant.

Although I mostly agree with the Nintendo sentiment, where they don't release broken games on day 1, some of you may have forgot that Nintendo have the grand sum of 1 console to release for. A lot of Western developers don't just release a game on their own hand made (Sorry, Chinese mass manufactured) console with their own hardware and software teams in-house. When you have multiple consoles and PC's to develop for, bugs will creep out or will be deemed to be fixed later. And let's not forgot the few Japanese developers who do go multi platform and don't always have stellar releases either. I wonder why?

I'm not a bitter, jaded QA Manger with several decades worth of Western games, apps and software under their belt, oh no.